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Dating back to 1968, there are 90 cases of yet-to-be identified bodies in the Orange County, Calif. coroner's office.
The latest was the corpse that fishermen discovered in the ocean a mile off the coast of Newport Beach last Christmas Eve. The man's body had been adrift for days, and the flesh had decomposed to such a state that there were no visual clues as to his age or race. Unfortunately there were no reports of missing bodies in the area, either.
Apart from the man's black Timex digital sports watch and size-11 Asics sneakers, there's nary a shred of data to go on…which doesn't help homicide investigators who're deeming it a suspicious death.
So this "John Doe" remains in morgue unclaimed and unidentified.
"This is a very rare investigation," Margie Sheehan, investigator for the Orange County Sheriff's Department's special victims detail, told the Orange County Register. "It's kind of an anomaly to find a person who has no way of identifying them."
An anomaly because identification is usually the easy part. It's what connects detectives to home addresses, family members, friends…and then suspects.
"When you have no place to start, you have no place to go," Sheehan told the Register.
For the man found floating in the Pacific, police tried the route of releasing photos of his watch and shoes on Jan. 2 to see if that would generate leads, but that was a dead end. Not a peep.
Fingerprints and DNA work only if the deceased had a criminal record of some sort.
Beyond that, investigators also have keyed off more obscure data, such as serial numbers on breast implants, pacemakers, and hip replacements — and even manicured nails to identify bodies, said Allison O'Neal, supervising deputy coroner.
Last year, investigators I.D.'d a woman via her key chain, O'Neal said, which was brought to a local business where employees recognized the woman. "They didn't know her last name off the bat, but they knew enough to help us," she told the Register.
Failing that, a 3D model of what the man's face would have looked like before decomposition set in is an option; the tool that has been used just once before – in Orange County in 1987.
There are also subtle clues within the body, anthropologist and senior deputy coroner Tiffany Williams told the Register: "We work with what we have, so there are a lot of traits you can hold from a skeleton."
Such as: Length and size of bones (which can indicate weight and height), markings on the jaw (which can help determine gender). When Williams reaches her conclusions, she relays them to Sheehan, who can create a 3D model of a face by removing the flesh from the skull and building a face with clay.
While it's impossible to construct an exact replica of a face, Sheehan told the Register that 3D models can jog the memories of friends or others familiar with the deceased.
"My goal isn't to make it perfect," Sheehan told the Register. "That's all I'm trying to do, make someone go: 'I think this may be my kid.'"
For many investigators, O'Neal said, it's hard to let go of the cases: "You really just take them in as your family," she told the Register.
"If we don't know who they are, we can't tell their family," she added, noting that each John or Jane Doe has a story that belies their nameless identities.
(H/T: Orange County Register)


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A CHANGE of league leadership, the second century of the season, and a hat-trick on the bowler's birthday produced the weekend's key talking points despite a truncated programme.
With the early pacesetters Barnard Castle one of the victims of the weather, Richmondshire moved from third to top place after giving a real battering to Thornaby, who were bowled out for a paltry 58.
Vice skipper, James Clarkson (3-27) and newly-arrived Brad Elsworth (2-18) led the collapse before Shani Dissanayake (4-10) took over the final demolition in a five-over spell. Even top scorer Jon Spillane couldn't stop the mauling as their overseas professional, Sri Lankan Indika de Saram, suffered from jet lag on his debut, faced three balls and was out without scoring.
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Richmond had their batting worries with eight wickets gone for 110, but a 50-run partnership between Mike Fleming (37 not out) and Alistair Raper (28) changed the game.
They finished on 160-9 with Omar Shahid (4-35) the main wicket taker.
The maximum points the Dalesmen took lifted them six clear of Darlington at the top with Barney, whose game at Marton was among three called off, dropping three further points behind.
The most dramatic individual performances came at Hartlepool where Great Ayton's Steve Pennock, unbeaten on 111, and Mike Croft, who grabbed a hat-trick on his birthday, celebrated.
Ayton hit 221-4 from the 50 overs with Pennock at the crease for just 94 balls for his century and despatching 16 boundaries, including eight sixes. He shared a 112 partnership with Matt Wilkinson which lasted a swashbuckling 56 minutes. Wilkinson made just 23 and was largely a spectator.
Pool went for the runs with Jack Wilkinson (42) and Kasun Bodhisha (25) looking good, but when they reached 148-3 the mercurial Croft produced his hat-trick.
They came in the last of his 15 overs - and the last of the match and also on his 24th birthday. Ayton also gained 16 points for the draw which lifted them up to fifth place in the league ratings, two points behind Pool who had started the day in the top two.
It's no fun just now for Stokesley who find themselves out on their own at the foot of the table following their fourth defeat in five games. They faced another batting collapse as Darlington bowled them out for 122 to win by 51 runs.
Quakers lost a wicket with the first ball of the day and a second with the score on eight, but Liam Coates (68) came to the rescue before Colin Biglin hit 25 from 20 deliveries (three fours and a six) to reach 173-6 in the reduced 44 overs.
Stokesley's Andrew Weighell played a captain's role with an attacking 26, including five boundaries, but only James Beaumont (31) looked comfortable against Darlington's formidable attack of Jon Barnes (3-34) Peter Armstrong (3-36), Martin Lower (2-17) and Doug Mulholland (2-30).
Middlesbrough, who scored 175-4 from a reduced 33 overs, took the majority of the points in a draw with Sedgefield.
James Lowe (84) and Paul Johnston (56) shared in a 104 run opening stand but Steve Naylor ( 41) led a fightback to reach 107-7 as Shahid Mahmood (3-15) and Lowe (3- 27) kept the promoted visitors in check.
In Division One, where only one game was possible, Redcar beat Whitby to move alongside Bishop Auckland as joint league leaders.

subset: commoncrawl


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Bullpen down to seven men with Rodriguez hitting DL
Bullpen down to seven men with Rodriguez hitting DL
Johnson said Rodriguez has been dealing with a lower back injury since Washington's four-game weekend series in Milwaukee, and he's been receiving treatment on it since the club returned home. Rodriguez, 1-3 with a 5.83 ERA in 35 appearances, has showed no signs of any injury. He most recently threw 38 pitches in 1 1/3 innings Tuesday against the Phillies.
"Henry's had some problems with his lower back," Johnson said. "I don't know if he exacerbated it from me throwing him 40 pitches and trying to get two innings out of him the other night, I don't know. But he has been getting some work on it.
"He's been getting treatment prior to that on his lower back. It seems like we get them in rashes around here. ... I think it was going around in Milwaukee. It seemed like everyone had a little something."
With Rodriguez down, the Nats' bullpen is back to seven players and their bench is a little deeper. Johnson said he feels comfortable with all seven of his relievers in any role, even setting up Tyler Clippard, but this could lead to more high-leverage opportunities for Drew Storen, who has been easing his way back in from right elbow surgery.
"A guy that closed 43 games last year, I have a lot of confidence in him late. He's ready for just about anything I want him to do," Johnson said. "I can kind of create matchups and stuff like that. That's the beauty of it: They're all used to going a lot."


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Children of the grave - Black Sabbath
El tema "Children of the grave" de Black Sabbath pertenece a su disco "Master of reality". La letra de la canción "Children of the grave" fue publicada el 21 de November de 2017.
Letra Children of the grave - Black Sabbath
And all the hate that's in their hearts
They're tired of being pushed around
And told just what to do
They'll fight the world until they've won
And love comes flowing through
Children of tomorrow live in the tears that fall today
[ De: https://www.dicelacancion.com/letra-children-of-the-grave-black-sabbath ]
Will the sun rise up tomorrow bringing peace in any way?
Must the world live in the shadow of atomic fear?
Can they win the fight for peace or will they disappear?
So you children of the world
Listen to what I say
If you want a better place to live in
Spread the words today
Show the world that love is still alive
You must be brave
Or you children of today are
Children of the Grave, Yeah!


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CI Cyclone & Conneaut Blue Streak
I'm considering making Coney Island one of the stops on my coaster trip in August. Could anyone tell me how smooth or rough the Cyclone is? I rode the Georgia Cyclone a few years ago, and it was too rough for me to enjoy.
It sounds like this summer may be our last chance to ride the Conneaut Lake Blue Streak. I'd be interested in knowing what your opinion of it is. In light of the problems the park has had, is it safe to ride it?
That was several years ago. I'm hearing it is quite a bit smoother now. Will have to take a ride up there and find out for myself.
The Conneaut Blue Streak is a great old coaster. I really enjoyed my rides on it.
Jersey Joe
From what I've heard, Cyclone is not the same ride anymore. GCI has been doing repair work since the 2011 off season. It's been smoothed out considerably. I should be getting to it some time this summer.
Conneaut Blue Streak should be considered a MUST this season as the future is very murky right now. Not only is it perfectly safe, it's very well-maintained. It even got new track work done this off season.
On top of that - it's a great ride!
Coaster to Park Ratio: 4.94 / Steel to Wooden Ratio: 2.56 / Wooden Coaster Percentage: 28%
Facebook: Search Park Connoisseur


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Deals for November 27th - Free Nook with HP Laptop or Desktop Purchase!
Subject: General Tech | November 27, 2012 - 04:04 PM | PCPer Staff
Tagged: deals
Top deal
Buy an HP Laptop or Desktop, get Free NOOK Simple Touch @ HP
15.6" Toshiba Satellite C850D-BT3N11 AMD E1-1200 Laptop (customizable) for $279.99 with free shipping @ Toshiba (normally $510 – use coupon codeCMC850D).
14" Dell Inspiron 14z 3rd Gen Core i3 Ultrabook w/ 32GB SSD, Windows 8 for $549.99 with free shipping @ Dell (normally $640 – use coupon code744P1564GM6V16).
Dell XPS 8500 Core i7 "Ivy Bridge" Desktop w/ 24" UltraSharp LCD Monitor for $849.99 with free shipping @ Dell (normally $1,244 - use coupon code: X?7JZWGVK64?LS).
Dell Vostro 470 Core i5 "Ivy Bridge" Quad-core Desktop w/ Dual 21.5" LCD Monitors for $749.00 with free shipping @ Dell (normally $814.00 - use coupon code: X?TWNHV1G8VMCB).
Computer Components
23" Dell U2312HM UltraSharp 1080p IPS-panel LCD Monitor for $199.00 plus free shipping (normally $300 - use coupon code: X?TWNHV1G8VMCB).
21.5" Dell S2230MX Ultra-slim 1080p LCD Monitor for $109.99 with free shipping (normally $260 - use coupon code: L33BD4X1XJMRC1).
21.5" Dell U2212HM UltraSharp 1080p IPS-panel LCD Monitor with DisplayPort for $189.99 with free shipping (normally $260 - use coupon code: SWMV$C6T7Q9ZDR).
Klipsch Icon SB 1 Soundbar w/ 10" Wireless Subwoofer for $499.99 with free shipping (normally $600).
40"Toshiba 40E220U 1080p LCD HDTV for $377.46 with free shipping (normally $500).
Sony Elite Wireless PS3 Gaming Headset for $119.99 with Free Shipping (normally $140).
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text: Hi, Is there a good book on some of the more advanced or esoteric Haskell topics, like monads, and morphisms, category theory etc. Cheers, Mark No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.552 / Virus Database: 270.10.12/1910 - Release Date: 22/01/2009 6:28 PM -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.haskell.org/pipermail/haskell-cafe/attachments/20090124/0c629c07/attachment.htm


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Anti-Corruption Day 2011
Follow Anti-Corruption Day 2011 live on our blog.
"For too long, the demands of citizens for more accountable government have met promises for change, but too little action.
From this anti-corruption day on, we must judge commitments to good behaviour by the transparency and accountability with which leaders of government and business conduct their affairs."
Huguette Labelle, Chair of the Board, Transparency International
Read the full statement here.
Fighting corruption has been high on the agenda in 2011. People have taken to the streets to demand accountability from their leaders. Additional countries have adopted anti-corruption legislation. More people are coming forward to report corruption.
However, the cost of corruption to economies and societies remains high.
Corruption and Anti-corruption in figures
- One-fifth: estimated proportion of the income of poor Mexican families spent on petty bribes.Five per cent: amount of Malawi's economy the World Bank estimates is income derived from corruption.
- 15 per cent: proportion of respondents to a national household survey in Guatemala that reported that they paid a bribe when trying to (re)connect to the public water system.
- 30-40 per cent: countries which have a higher risk of civil war because of weak governance, control of corruption and rule of law, according to the World Bank.
- 73 per cent: proportion of countries on the 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index that score less than 5 out of ten.
- 15 years: longest prison sentence ever handed down in a U.S. foreign bribery case that involved the former president of a telecoms company in Florida.
- US $6 million: value of the 11 sports cars belonging to the leader of Equatorial Guinea confiscated in Paris in September, a result of Transparency International France's legal action on stolen assets.
- US $37 billion: Libyan assets frozen in the United States. More on stolen assets here.
- US $57.2 billion: amount Egypt lost to illicit financial activities and official government corruption from 2000 to 2008. Global Financial Integrity says Egypt is losing more than US $6 billion per year.
- $160 billion: amount of money lost by Greece in unrecorded payments through its balance transfers over the last decade, according to Global Financial Integrity. Tax arrangements cost between €300 and €15.000, TI Greece finds.
Anti-corruption milestones in 2011
14 January – Public anger following the suicide of bribery victim Mohamed Bouazizi causes Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to step down after 23 years in power
11 February - Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak is deposed by popular uprising which ends his 30-year hardline rule
25 February – China passes amendments to its corruption legislation that makes foreign corrupt practices illegal
13 April – Egypt's former president Hosni Mubarak is detained and his two sons are being held in prison as officials investigate allegations of corruption and abuse of power
12 May – India ratifies the UN Convention Against Corruption
25 May – Russia is asked to join the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention
5 April – Indian activist Ana Hazare begins an anti-corruption hunger strike to pressure the governments to fulfil anti-corruption commitments as envisaged in the Lok Pal Bill. Nation-wide protests erupt to support his cause.
1 July – UK Bribery Act comes into force
28 August – Ana Hazare ends another fast, after the Indian Government promised to work towards devising an effective anti-corruption law (Lokpal bill).
7 September – thousand of people join anti-corruption demonstrations in Brazil
Read about what Transparency International has done to fight corruption in 2011 here
Anti-corruption stories
Transparency International runs Advocacy and Legal Advice Centres in more than fifty countries so that people (names have been changed) pursuing accountability are not alone.
- These centres help Rwandans working in a commonly-owned mine whose local leader sides with the influential figure using a legal loophole to take it away from them.
- They assist small time entrepreneurs, like Kerem in Azerbaijan, who are subject to land and property corruption.
- They help people like, Leeroy, a migrant worker from Zimbabwe, who are forced to work for free, to launch a complaint against the recruitment company.
- They push authorities to address the complaints of Ghanaian students who are asked to buy better grades.
These are only some of the 100,000 cases that we have dealt with since 2004. In so many of these cases, we have seen, time and time again, that the ability to hold authorities to account makes the difference between justice and tragedy.
Corruption in the news
The Financial Times: Tyrants' Paris: the tour
CNN: Corruption blew the lid off North Africa
CNN business blog: World's most corrupt place to do business is…
The Guardian: Corruption in India: 'All your life you pay for things that should be free'
The Economist: Corrosive corruption
The Financial Times: Oil groups urged to show anti-corruption plans
Trustlaw: Arab Spring is "emphatic rejection of corruption" - UN official
La Presse: La «dynamite» de la corruption
The European: The Costs of Corruption
Mint: The corruption risk for governance and business
EU Observer: Oil and gas companies tarnish EU reputation
Fox News Latino: Alejandro Salas: Every Day is Anti-Corruption Day
Corruption and the Arab Spring
For any press enquiries please contact firstname.lastname@example.com


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Northside Baptist Church
Friday, November 24, 2017
Encounter God | Experience Growth | Exercise Your Faith
Greetings and welcome. This website helps identify briefly who we are and gives you a snapshot of our activities. Northside is a large family of caring, committed, and connected believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are a church on mission for the Lord with a compassionate heart for all people, a connected heart to one another, and a committed heart to proclaiming the Lord Jesus Christ to our world. We see a great future as the Lord continues to build His church and help us grow in His strength and grace. We welcome you with open arms and hearts to join us for worship, and if led by the Lord, to join us in membership to help us fulfill the Great Commission.


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A Call for Comparative Research: Consequences of a Rising Income Inequality for State Activities
The aim of this discussion paper is not only to activate a debate over the interrelation between rising income inequality and economic policy measures but also to initiate comparative research in several European countries and North America. It discusses the consequences of a rising income inequality and its implications for state activities and economic policy. Using a simple model it becomes evident that an increasing income inequality leads to higher government spending, as a share of Gross Domestic Product, though the state does not take over more responsibilities. It also leads to a higher tax share though rates of taxation are not increased. This forces economic politicians to act. If they want to prevent an increase of these shares in order not to fall behind in the international competition, they must accept a rising public debt and/or must move away from socially accepted value judgments about "social standards", the degree of redistribution by taxes and/or an "adequate" supply of public goods. This might result in disenchantment with politics.
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
|10 pages
|Date of creation:
|Apr 2011
|Contact details of provider:
| Postal: IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany
Phone: +49 228 3894 223
Fax: +49 228 3894 180
Web page: http://www.iza.org
|Order Information:
| Postal: IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany
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text:
© 2002-2017
Encyclopaedia Metallum
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Endstille bring us their seventh full-length album and the first released under the Season Of Mist banner. As always one can expect a brutal beating to the senses from this German black metal outfit. Infektion 1813 is the name of the album and this is its review.
Endstille have been around for over a decade now and play a type of black metal similar to the more brutal Swedish bands. Comparisons to Dark Funeral and Marduk have been made in the past and it isn't very surprising given the amount of brutality they display on their songs. Much like the mythical Panzer Division Marduk, Endstille's albums deal with war and its toll on humanity. They also have anti-religious themes of course but their main focus seems to be the theatre of operations.
From the moment you hit play you understand that these comparisons are true as "Anomie" starts beating you up like a torture session inflicted on a WWII spy caught behind enemy lines. The new vocalist, ex-Nagelfar, begins to spit forth his hateful screams and a subtle clean lead sticks around until the riffs commence to fly around like stray bullets. Much like most black metal, simple tremolo-picked chord progressions serve as massive riffs that create layers upon layers on the song, with the relentless blasting of the drums serving as a massive mortar bombardment. Half a second of peace is all you get before "Trenchgoat" comes in repeating the formula, smacking you down and upholding the infliction of bruises. The formula is simple and the band isn't afraid to repeat it over and over again, providing for a very aggressive album. There are some parts in this song reminiscent of the more melodic leads of Sacramentum, which is rather unusual given the amount of aggression present, but this provides for some good variations with the chorus riff being a good example.
Although these Germans seem happy enough to play Swedish black metal of the more brutal kind, I can't help to feel some similarities with a very famous Norwegian entity that goes by the name of 1349. In fact some of the drumming is a bit reminiscent of Frost's which is great because I happen to love Frost's drumming abilities and technique. There are some other similarities to 1349 but we'll come to that in a bit. The inclusion of clean vocals during some choruses also gives a bit more variation to an album that follows such a strict formula as this one. The songs have an ever present military feel throughout them, with an authentic sound of troops marching and tanks crushing the ripped apart bodies from all the shells that fell down on the battlefield.
"When Kathaaria Falls" is another evocative song of the frozen and barren fields of battle, brought by some melodic leads of the Swedish school. A really good song and a standout in the album as it's one of the songs here that juggles the aggression with the melody better. Another standout is the following crusher "Satanarchie" that repeats the interweaving of melody and aggression like the last song did. The chorus is hateful and unleashes a barrage of double bass that could turn your face into dust, followed by another melodic riff. Fans of the first Sacramentum album will definitely find something to enjoy here, as there are various moments where their typical start-stop riffs and melodies are heard.
Finally some peace and a bit of a slowdown on the album arrives with a sample announcing that "soon everything will be a flame". But as one would expect the peace is only temporary because the main section before the chorus is again very brutal. This is one of the least aggressive tracks, and if it weren't for the relentless drumming this could have been a melodic black song very easily. At the expense of repeating myself I'll say again that Endstille manage to meld together melody and aggression in a good way, and despite having a formulaic songwriting they are able to captivate your attention with their songs. The chorus of "World Aflame" is pretty catchy and the more melodic edge makes it my favourite track on the entire album.
Another beating remains before the final track that again takes some queues from 1349. Remember the "Hellfire" song with its lengthy structure and repeated chord progressions for over ten minutes? Well, pick that track and mix it with Bolt Thrower's "Through The Ages" from The IVth Crusade album where they keep repeating the names of all the wars until the end of the song. Now substitute the names of wars with names of tyrants, generals and mass murderers. The name "Völkerschlächter" is fitting as it roughly translates as "International Butcher", and so this song serves as an exposure to all the horrors that those characters have inflicted upon mankind for so long. As its Norwegian cousin this song becomes infectiously contagious and catchy as one can't let go of it, which shows how great it is given that it only has one riff.
The conclusion is simple, Endstille deliver once again. They prove that over a decade later they're still alive and kicking, and mind you kicking really hard! This is a good and solid album from a band that's not very innovative but always keeps their standards when it comes to songwriting. They aren't releasing the most original black metal album ever, but Infektion 1813 can surely provide for a good time and a brutal beating if that's what you're searching. Mind you that it also has some melodies flying around so this might be able to please more than its common share of followers. The album is also a grower and becomes more enticing with increased spins, so keep the tanks rolling and the bullets flying as Endstille are here to stay!
Originally written for and posted at Riff Magazine
The previous Endstille album, Verführer, left me with a favorable impression of the German band's evolution. Taut and refined, there was this uncanny knack for generating a sublime melody against the razor sheen of traditional chords redolent of the Norse and Swedish black metal pantheons. For Infektion 1813, they have continued this tradition, and while there are no songs with quite the same impact as, say, "Of Disorder", there is still quite a wealth of subtlety grafted against the snappy blast work and driving rhythms. Former rasper Iblis has since left the band, but they've brought forward a scene veteran in Zingultus, who many will know from German standards Graupel, Graven, and perhaps most importantly for fronting a few albums by the late, great Nagelfar.
I won't attest that his presence is greater or lesser than that of Iblis, but his vocals bear a more full bodied torment, and he has no problem fitting into the material. Speaking of which, I feel that Infektion 1813 is front loaded with some of its better pieces, the straightaway "Anomie" with its dense threads of torture, tiny pangs of melody infused into the blast; and "Trenchgoat" (ha ha ha), a testament to controlled savagery. Neither offers much variation in its structure, but then, this is not a band who pride themselves on such a strategy. No, they choose to beat you bleary with their centrifuge of snarling force and then allow your imagination to work upon the target rich environment of ambiance created through the sheer repetition and simplistic melody. When it works, as with 3-4 of the tracks here, it creates a hypnotic, lulling effect of abandon.
Endstille is not all monotony, of course, and they mix it up a little by incorporating gang shouts ("The Deepest Place on Earth") and narrative ("Endstille/Völkerschlächter"), not to mention some deeper, driving black grooves via Darkthrone ("Bloody H/The Hurt-Gene"). Lyrically, they seem to explore not only the usual suspects of Satanism and the occult, but also delve into the fascinating majesty and conflict of their country's history. I've always gotten the feeling that the band is smarter than they let on with such simple and predictable songwriting, and I admit I wouldn't mind hearing some more variation the next time out: Infektion 1813 has slightly more range than its predecessor, but I was never quite so mesmerized by the content. Still, they've not put out a bad album, and if you're deeply fused to the underlying ethos of the genre, spiked with just a little something extra, you may well be pleased with its controlled vitriol.


text:
Don't miss your chance to see Dana Carvey in Austin! Check out the schedule below for the concert date of your choice, then buy your Dana Carvey Austin tickets before they sell out!
Looking for Dana Carvey tickets in other cities? View all Dana Carvey tickets »
Sorry! We couldn't find any events for Dana Carvey in Austin.
If you were searching to see if Dana Carvey is coming to Austin, then you're in luck! For their latest tour, Dana Carvey will indeed hold a concert in Austin. Have an awesome concert experience when you go to see Dana Carvey in Austin. Get your Dana Carvey tickets Austin and join fellow fans for a concert to remember!


text:
Beaumont/Port Arthur
Italian at heart and rooted in a rich heritage, the Fiat 500 features a sleek, modern design. For 2017, Fiat simplifies its 500 lineup to three trim levels: Pop, Lounge and Abarth. Additionally, all trim levels are available as a 500 Cabrio.
Fiat design
During a not-so-happy hour at a Beaumont bar, a local man's truck was stolen from the parking lot while he was inside.
Police say, as is the case with many car thefts and other varying crime in the city, it could be drug-related since car thieves and other drug users are prone to trading vehicles for drugs, a practice so common it has become known in some circles as "a rock for a ride."
Already in the custody of the Jefferson County Jail for a slew of felony allegations after he and alleged co-conspirators Demarcus Brown, 26, and Fredrick Tyson, 21, were arrested in the midst of a crime spree that targeted Beaumont's West End earlier this year, 19-year-old Corbin Branch is facing additional felony charges after a grand jury handed up indictments this week alleging even more bad acts committed by the teenage criminal.
Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Sgt. Stephanie Davis reports a two-vehicle crash in Newton County Sept. 6 injured a Vidor man and a 10-year-old boy.
At approximately 10:50 p.m.
The first annual Smokin-n-Groves BBQ Cook-off, held on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 16-17, and the third annual Pecan Festival Classic Car Show on Saturday, Oct. 31, will have fun for folks of all ages while benefitting the Groves Senior Citizen Center.
Investigators with the Orange County Sheriff's Office are searching for the perpetrator or perpetrators of numerous vehicle burglaries that have been reported all over the county.
According to Orange County Deputy Martin Gaskin at the scene of an accident Monday morning, Feb. 11, around 9:30 a.m., a woman veered off the road in Rose City and crashed into a guardrail. The young woman at the scene said she lost control when her car hydroplaned on the westbound Interstate 10 access road near the Asher Turnaround. She said she was unhurt.
While we harbor no disrespect for the Wall Street Journal who called us "that scrappy little paper from Southeast Texas," we prefer to think of ourselves as simple seekers of the truth. We're of the opinion that headlines and sound bites never tell the whole story. Our readers demand all the facts, facets and flavors of every story or event. And, they expect to be informed, educated and stirred to action.
For this week's New York Times crossword puzzle, pick up a copy of this week's The Examiner on newsstands now.


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If ruling coup-prone Pakistan is perilous in the best of times, consider the current plight of Pervez Musharraf. The general who seized power exactly two years ago to domestic acclaim now sees his effigy burned in the streets. The self-appointed President who favored the Taliban has turned his back on a Muslim neighbor. The military ruler shunned by the West has cast his lot with Washington. After two years of mollycoddling religious extremists, he has vowed to move "swiftly and firmly" if they protest his new policies too violently. Now he must navigate a country with enough enriched uranium for 50...
Pakistan: The World's Toughest Job
Musharraf risks his life and his country by siding with the West against extremism. Can he survive?
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British psychologist, journalist, and television documentary producer and presenter Oliver James asserts that many business leaders exhibit three problematic – even pathological – behaviors styles: Psychopathy, Narcissism, Machiavellianism.
He labels these "triadic managers."
The stress wrought upon others by "triadic managers" has been satirized in comedies, and dramas, but each element of the triumvirate have been investigated by clinical researchers and social scientists.
The most extensively researched of the three personality trends is Psychopathy, given its relevance to law enforcement.
Psychopaths typically display:
- Callous manipulation, lying, and exploitation
- Grandiosity, entitlement, and shallowness
- Impulsiveness and thrill-seeking
- Little interpersonal empathy and remorse
Harvard's Ronald Schouten and former federal prosecutor with current criminal defense attorney James Silver estimate that 3 million Americans and perhaps one in 10 on Wall Street are psychopathic.
They add that as much as 15 percent of the general population or about 45 million Americans as "almost psychopathic" – and many are employed as senior executives.
Robert Hare of University of British Columbia and leading expert in psychopathy collaborated with industrial-organizational psychologist Paul Babiak reported that senior managers are four times more likely than the general population to display psychopathic tendencies.
They differentiated three types of psychopath, each operating in the workplace:
- "Manipulator"
- "Bully"
- "Puppetmaster"
Middlesex University's Clive Boddy extended examination of psychopaths in global business and financial contexts.
Sharing some characteristics of psychopathy, narcissism is characterized by:
- Grandiose sense of self-importance, superiority, entitlement
- Vanity and insatiable need for attention
- Exploitativeness
- Lack of empathy
Like psychopathy, three sub-types have been identified:
- Cluster A, "odd" disorders, including paranoid and schizoid disorders
- Cluster B, "dramatic" disorder, including antisocial and histrionic disorders
- Cluster C, "anxious", including dependent and obsessive-compulsive disorders
Affecting about one per cent of the population and up to 16 per cent of clinical groups, narcissists tend to prefer professions where they can control people and elicit adulation, like politics, finance, entertainment, medicine.
Belinda Board and Katarina Fritzon, then of the University of Surrey, confirmed this observation when they found that senior business managers were more likely than criminal psychiatric patients, to have narcissistic, histrionic, or obsessive-compulsive personality disorders.
Sam Vaknin provides and insider's view of narcissism, as a convicted felon incarcerated for securities fraud and diagnosed with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, who raises awareness of NPD and its management through his book and website.
The third element of "triadic managers", Machiavellianism, is characterized by:
- Detachment and coldness
- Manipulation
- Ruthless self-interest
- Calculating maneuvers to advance self-interest
Centuries after Machiavelli's classic book, Richard Christie and Florence Geis studied the Machiavellian personality and developed a personality assessment to identify these characteristics
After raising awareness of "triadic managers", Oliver James asserts that skillful maneuvering among political landmines laid by these leaders and colleagues.
Based on his 50 interviews with narcissists, psychopaths, "Machiavels", and others, he cites the importance of managing the "perception of performance" as well as actually providing results, because pay and advancement depend upon one's valuation by others.
In addition, he advocates that anyone operating in organizations develop greater acumen in recognizing potentially problematic psychopathic, narcissistic, and Machiavellian maneuvers, and carefully crafting counter-moves.
James acknowledges that some psychopathic, narcissistic, and Machiavellian behaviors lead to desired outcomes, and suggests that anyone working in an organization selectively adapt these strategies and apply them in moderation.
He summarizes political survival skills, including
- Astuteness in "reading" others, the organization, and oneself to accurately assess the situation
- Effectiveness in applying effective tactics toward the correct individuals at the right moment while appearing genuine
- Networking to maintain relationships and allies for use in moving to a new role
- Appearance of Sincerity, by strategically managing personal emotions and reactions.
-*How do you detect and manage colleagues who manifest characteristics of psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism?
Twitter: @kathrynwelds
Blog: – Kathryn Welds | Curated Research and Commentary
LinkedIn Open Group Psychology in Human Resources (Organisational Psychology)
Facebook Notes:
©Kathryn Welds


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We specialize in Arabians. Our resident stallion is Ebon Altair, a black 1989 egyptain bred beauty. He is a proven producer with an amazing personality that he passes on to his get. Several horses for sale. Pony parties available.
English Pleasure, Halter, Hunter, Jumping, Parade, Trail Riding, Western Pleasure, Pony, Party, Black, Arabian, Stallion, Mini.
If so, you can update this page by editing your company information.


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April 20, 2013
Sandy and Mary Anne Macnab will lead the Northwest Cherry Festival Parade, starting at 10 a.m., as its grand marshals.
Stories this photo appears in:
Professor and Mary Anne helm parade
Grand marshals lead parade Yes, the Professor and Mary Anne will be making an appearance at the Northwest Cherry Festival this year — Mary Anne Macnab, that is, and her husband, OSU Sherman County Extension Agent Sandy Macnab, who is a full professor with Oregon State University.
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TI Brings Bluetooth Smart to Automobiles for Smartphone and Wire-Replacement Applications
Dallas, TX – Texas Instruments (TI) [NASDAQ: TXN] has announced the SimpleLink Bluetooth low energy CC2541-Q1, a highly-integrated wireless microcontroller (MCU) that delivers low power, low cost, and simplified automotive connectivity to emerging smartphone-controlled and wire-replacement applications. The CC2541-Q1 leverages the success of TI's broad-market Bluetooth Smart solution (SimpleLink CC2541) and automotive connectivity offerings for combo Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GNSS (WiLink™ 8Q) and dual-mode Bluetooth (BL6450Q).
The SimpleLink CC2541-Q1 is based on TI's market leading CC2541 which is deployed today in a wide variety of applications spanning consumer, industrial, medical and home applications worldwide. The CC2541-Q1 is a complete solution with TI's BLE-Stack™ software and sample applications including over-the-air download support for in-field updates. Features include:
- Integrated wireless MCU.
- Royalty-free TI protocol stack, profile software, and sample applications.
- Development kits, technical documents, and worldwide support.
- Controller, host, and application with integrated Flash on one 6 x 6 mm device.
- Supports analog and digital peripherals.
- Flash-based firmware updated in the field and persistent data stored on-chip.
- Planned support for Bluetooth 4.1 as well as proprietary modes at 250Kbps, 500Kbps, 1Mbps, and 2Mbps.
- Ultra-low power Bluetooth low energy operation.
- Less than 1 microamp (µA) of sleep current with RTC and RAM retention.
- 95 dB link budget.
- Coexistence with other 2.4 GHz devices.
- -40° to 105°C temperature rating.
For more information visit ti.com.


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Death Toll In China Shoe Workshop Fire Rises To Six
From Xinhua:
Six people were confirmed dead and six others injured in a shoe workshop fire in south China's Guangdong Province early Friday, the local government said on Saturday.
The fire broke out at 3:00 a.m.in the shoe workshop in Huangbu Town, Huidong County when 13 workers were sleeping in the four-story building. The blaze was put out at 5:46 a.m.. The blaze spread over 200 square meters of floor space.
Initial investigation showed that the building was used as workshop, dormitory and staff canteen at the same time, violating safety rules. Local workplace safety department had asked the workshop boss to move the workers out of the building in April.


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Galdrath wrote:
...if my options are:
A) buy a digital volume for $9 and have unlimited viewing ONLY on my computer and ONLY when I have internet connection and ONLY for as long as the website stays in business,
B) buy a physical volume for $9 that I can read any time, any place, for as long as it survives natural disasters and normal aging/wear and tear
then you can bet that I'm going to pick B every single time.
Not only that, but I can get new volumes of manga from Rightstuf, with a membership discount, for like $7...which is even cheaper than JManga.
Garylisk wrote:
I want this.
But with better selection. And readable on a Kindle/Nook/Whatever eReader you have.
I have seriously been waiting to buy an ereader because I am waiting to see how manga gets implemented. So far, Amazon has some titles but they are a sad selection. Would be great if someone sold DRM-Free PDF format manga, but that's probably an impossible dream.
So yeah, I am eyeing the Kindle DX since it's bigger, but I recently looked at some scanned manga pages on a Nook Color, and it's not too shabby, honestly. Despite the smaller screen size, it worked and was quite readable.
So yeah, JManga, I dunno... they seem to have a big selection of manga that's not even in English. That's another problem if you want to sell to people who primarily speak English.
Hey, people said that Martin Luther King's dream was impossible too. It's wrong to think that industries are un-malleable iron monuments that can't be changed by consumer desires at all.
I have a 5" eReader, but I was just thinking of getting a 9.7" reader when DRM-free digital comics and manga starts gaining traction. I found this nifty eReader chart, which lists them all by size, including the 9"+ ones at the bottom:
I'm actually thinking of the Onyx Boox M91S. It's a variant of the Boox M90 which removes the WiFi, shaving ~$50 of the cost, retailing at 329, compared to the 379 of the Kindle DX or Boox M90. I don't need WiFi at all, so it seems like a great deal to me. I wouldn't want a Kindle anyway, I'm too turned off by their DRM-scheme and monopolistic practices.
Edit: Also, the Kindle DX doesn't support JPG or PNG, which makes it incompatible with lots of scanned manga. And heck, I just think white/light-grey eReaders look better than black ones...
I wouldn't recommend getting a Nook Color. It's an LCD screen, not eInk. The main point of eReaders is that they have eInk which reduces the eyestrain that long reading on a computer would cause. eInk is just like looking at paper; there's no backlit light hurting your eyes. For me at least, this is a huge issue; I stare at computer screens 100% of the time at work and 80% of the time off work, I need to rest my eyes when reading books. With the Nook Color, since it's an LCD screen, you might as well just read the books on your computer, or a notebook computer or something.
There are color eInk screens too, but they're pretty new in coming to the market.
Alright America and Canada! Support J Manga so Europe can get a piece of J Manga!
I love manga just as much as the next person but if i'm gonna pay to read manga i damn well better have the actual book in my hands after doing it.
Release it for my country
Make an iPhone app for it
Offer an monthly subscribtion for unlimited manga.
Then I will buy it
Being lazy
I'd love to signup, but unfortunately your servers seem to be down. Maybe later.
Not sure if this is on the site or not , cause i can't find it , but what does the 10 dollar subscription fee give you ? Do you get full access to all the manga on the site? Or is it limited like only so many chapters or books a month, etc ,etc
If anyone knows it would be greatly apperciated cause i can't find anythign on the site relating to it
Also does anyone else think there should be a download option so you can download and view it offline, Maybe not a option to legally print it but just to download and view it offline if you agree not to print it ( For content you buy, not the subscription stuff)
toonpenguin wrote:
If anyone knows it would be greatly apperciated cause i can't find anythign on the site relating to it
The "subscription" seems to allot you 1000 points, which you can use to purchase chapters or volumes. In addition, you can purchase more points.
I haven't given this a try yet, so I'm not sure if this is exactly how the site works.
t/ @ishikusui || PSN: ishikusui / XBL: TakenIdiot
I signed up and got my 1500 points, but not much is available yet to purchase (not that I could find). Probably not much until the official release date. Happy to see Mirai Nikki will be there, but no sign of Deadman Wonderland makes me sad. Some other interesting titles as well. I'm willing to give it a try, as I prefer not to download scans myself. :)
It would be a neat option if we could link our accounts on Crunchyroll and JManga for subscription fees or something, might make things simpler.
Blad3101 wrote:
I signed up and got my 1500 points, but not much is available yet to purchase (not that I could find). Probably not much until the official release date. Happy to see Mirai Nikki will be there, but no sign of Deadman Wonderland makes me sad. Some other interesting titles as well. I'm willing to give it a try, as I prefer not to download scans myself. :)
It would be a neat option if we could link our accounts on Crunchyroll and JManga for subscription fees or something, might make things simpler.
You should suggest that to them on their fb page.
For those that read online ( a lot of you) for free, this website is actually very good. You get to read Mangas leggally. I don't like the paying system currently, but if they change it to crunchyroll system - i will consider buying it. The image are really good quality and it's a lot faster then reading online on some website where you have to wait a long time for a page to load or when the pages are not in order
東方神起 Supporter - Always Keep The Faith
I'll add my voice to those who are saying that the cost structure is completely whacked.
A CR sub costs $60/yr and I get unlimited views (and am following about 10 simuls atm). The JManga sub costs $120/yr, and I only get to "buy" (which is a complete misnomer) about 13 volumes? Even when a physical volume is about 1/3 the cost of a DVD, and probably a lot of that in printing costs?
And the idea that I'm not "buying" but rather getting a perpetual license is VERY worrisome for a new service like this. If it goes belly up, bye-bye content.
No thanks, I'll stick with anime only.
What would I be willing to pay? $2-3/month for unlimited viewing, but where there was no pretense that I actually owned anything, so if I cancel, I don't retain rights to read.
This doesn't seem like a steal. A little too pricey methinks.
"It doesn't matter, but the kiss with feelings had a taste of fried chicken"LOL
Good thing i read the description.. or else I never would known where to start ^__^
I like to eat.
I was SO Hoping we'd see some of the old Tokyopop and Go!Manga titles that got dropped on here. Things like Kindaichi's Case files, for example. Or lets go with older series like Bride of Deimos or series that were never picked up over here at all, such as the first series for Loki before Loki Ragnorak. Petshop of Horrors:Tokyo even. Saiyuki? If that happened? I'd totally pay the price because I want to finish/read these series so badly! But ones I can get off of Justmanga for 8.50 or sometimes even 5.55 (If it's in their club) brand new? I love manga and I WANT to support the industry, but how can I possibly agree to spending more that I can only access in a limited fashion when there's book versions completely accessible?
Netcomics let's you 'rent' a chapter for 48 hours at .20 a chapter. yes, it's only available online and yes you only have it on rental, but they also keep a bookshelf to remind you what you've read, release as they're translated, and I don't mind paying a small amount to rent titles that I can't get elsewhere and read a chapter of it. They also release the books in print, if you decide you do want to own it. To me, that's the best of both worlds. They keep track of your money for a long time so you can just put 10 bucks on when you have it and spend it as new chapters come up. It lets me support the industry, read things scanlators aren't grabbing, and doesn't drain my bank account. I was REALLY hoping Jmanga would be more like this sort of structure, and I'll be watching to see if they become more reasonable. I want it to work... it just has to work on a more reasonable level. Having something on your computer should never cost as much as having something in print. I buy episodes of telvision series on Amazon's viewer as well, and ebooks. If they charge me as much as the book, or DVD, I won't pay it. I buy the DVD instead... or I just decide to skip owning it. I'm not encouraging pirating stuff at all, but there's a lot of temptations out there and the economy in America sucks right now. If companies want to combat this, they have to consider the consumer and let us try to be honest without gouging us for it.
What else can I say that already hasn't? It's pretty safe to say, based on the feedback, they know there is no way for them to survive with the current business model. The question is, did they seriously expect positive feedback?
I cross my fingers they wisen up. The only time I see there current model to almost be worthwhile is for titles which will never see the light of day here. Even then it's still a stretch just to view them legally.


text: What superlatives could one use that have not been used relating to THE NEW AUDI RS4? In amongst the line of cars it blends, the Black Beauty of the bunch. You walk up to it as if you have not noticed it, with the hope that the door is left unlocked result .you have the keys. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/groovy.gif You open the door and inhale that new car smell. Slide over the Recaro race styled seat bolster, to be ensconced with a firm supporting seat. For one moment you place the key in the ignition and try to turn it to allow the 420ps waken from their slumber. Wrong dont turn the key .use the start button that is near your left knee on the handbrake consul. Now you are greeted with a muted chorus of the V8 beneath the bonnet ..how refined it all is. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devil.gifAdjust the seat all manual except for the bolsters to grip your thighs, this could be quite sensuous, the other aids the lumber support, wind the knurled knob on the side to alter the rake of the seat (not used to all that mechanical stuff). Now adjust the mirrors and put on the seat belt and .. Depress the clutch, slide it into first gear (wow! that is like sliding silk along a piece of glass) check that it is in gear the whole process of selecting gears is a joy to behold this is a masterpiece, positive short shift just what the doctor ordered. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gifBring the clutch up slowly and feed the power ever so gently (we dont want any MOMENTS!) and off we go. This car is now just bubbling along, 1st gear, 2nd gear, 3rd gear and we are in traffic, a pure joy that does not even give e clue of its true potential. Up into 4th and it will still effortlessly glide at 30mph without any problem at all. Is this really an RS4? Out of traffic and now the open road beckons .no way ..50mph and on a lane with the mums to school to collect the kids syndrome. Now we find some dual carriage way. So from 6th gear ..you slide it effortlessly into 4th gear and us some of the 420ps. ONLY some its a brand new car and it propels you like a missile up to 70mph without even a sharp intake of breath. What will it be like when it is fully run in? You slow down allowing Billy No Mates to slip away from you (he thinks hes left you for dead) you slide your left hand .to THE BUTTON . yes the one with an S on it press and then you see the S illuminate on the DIS in front of you. Now does S stand for stratosphere mode? YES! YES! YES it does! The exhaust note changes in an instant your thighs are gently massaged as the seat becomes alive and holds you more firmly...................the steering becomes even more alive ..the throttle response is truly enhanced and one gram on effort on the accelerator and youve caught Billy No Mates and now he is just a blur in the rear view mirror and we are only doing 70mph This is THE CAR. All I want is ..! Need I say any more? Thank you Audi perfection is something that we all want and only few achieve .AUDI YOU HAVE DONE IT! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bravo.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bravo.gif Oh by the way did i say that i have just test drove a RS4? ps Did I say I liked it lots and lots and lots? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beerchug.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beerchug.gif


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[JURIST] Sudan suspended the work of 52 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in Darfur [JURIST news archive] Thursday after allegations that they were not complying with regulations. The Sudanese government said the organizations would be able to resume work after talks with the government's Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC). United Nations Under-Secretary-General John Holmes [official profile], scheduled to visit Darfur this week, said a political resolution is needed to eliminate the need for massive humanitarian support in the region.
International NGOs make up a large part of the humanitarian effort in Sudan, the largest in the world. Over 200,000 people have died in Darfur since civil war broke out in 2003. According to a March 6 report [text] by the US Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor [official website], the HAC hindered NGO humanitarian efforts in 2006 by requiring NGOs to only hire new staff through a five-person panel and with HAC officials present. In addition, the report said that the government harassed humanitarian workers and detained them "on various arbitrary rules and requirements without prior notification." Holmes is working to convince the Sudanese government to allow humanitarian organizations to work uninhibited. Reuters has more.


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Game developer Trendy Entertainment has announced that the sequel to Dungeon Defender First Wave is launching exclusively on the Sony-Ericsson Xperia Play. The sequel, entitled Dungeon Defender Second Wave, will have 30 hours of new game play, as well as all the levels of the original game. In addition, there's a new player vs. player online game mode which users can enjoy either over WiFi or 3G. That means that gamers from all over the world can challenge each other no matter where they are. Sounds like a lot of fun.
"Dungeon Defenders is THE game that pushes Android graphics to its limits – it's truly a full console game available on mobile," said Agapitus Lye, President of Trendy Entertainment. "That is why we have chosen to launch it exclusively on the ultimate gaming smartphone – we can't wait for gamers to get their hands on it on Xperia™ PLAY!"
Originally conceived for console gaming platforms like the Sony Playstation, Dungeon Defenders was moved to the mobile platform when Android caught fire around the world. But according to developers, it's the Xperia Play's gaming controls that places Second Wave into its element. With a 1 Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and Adreno GPU, and Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) OS running out of the box, the Xperia Play really unlocked the potential of the game. And Sony-Ericsson couldn't be happier, calling Dungeon Defenders the ideal ambassador for the Xperia Play platform.
In addition to it's Snapdragon processor and Ardeno graphics package, the Xperia Play has a 4″ capacitive multi-touch, 854 x 480 pixel FWVGA, a complete set of Playstation controls, and a 5MP rear facing camera which takes VGA video, a bummer but it is a gaming platform. There's also a forward facing camera for video chat and all the usual connection points. Still, users are primarily going to use the Play for gaming, where it really shines. Check out Slash Gear's review by Chris Davies here.
Dungeon Defenders: Second Wave launches exclusively on the Xperia™ PLAY
Gamers can finally play Dungeon Defenders as it was originally intended—with controls!
Gainesville, FL – 8 April 2011 –
On April 1st, Trendy Entertainment and Sony Ericsson released Dungeon Defenders: Second Wave, the player versus player, multiplayer sequel to the hit, number one Android game Dungeon Defenders: First Wave! Originally planned only for consoles, now it's playable for the first time as it was originally meant to be played—with controls on Sony Ericsson's new Xperia™ PLAY smartphone.
Xperia™ PLAY, which launches this month around the world, is the must-have smart phone on the fully-featured Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) platform. It is also the world's first PlayStation certified smartphone, offering unrivalled gaming capability with dedicated gaming controls and ultra-fast graphics based on the optimized Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and Adreno GPU.
Dungeon Defenders: Second Wave includes all of the content of First Wave, along with an entirely new player versus player multiplayer mode. Offering over 30 hours of gameplay, persistent characters, a pet system and multiple multiplayer modes, Dungeon Defenders: Second Wave is the largest and most-fully featured game available on the Android Market to date! Furthermore, all of Dungeon Defenders' multiplayer modes can be enjoyed over WiFi or 3G.
"Dungeon Defenders is THE game that pushes Android graphics to its limits – it's truly a full console game available on mobile," said Agapitus Lye, President of Trendy Entertainment. "That is why we have chosen to launch it exclusively on the ultimate gaming smartphone – we can't wait for gamers to get their hands on it on Xperia™ PLAY!"
"Serious gamers will love the deep and immersive gameplay of Dungeon Defenders Second Wave, which is a brilliant ambassador for the capabilities of Xperia™ PLAY," said Steve Walker, Sony Ericsson's Head of Marketing. "We're thrilled to offer this amazing game exclusively on Xperia™ PLAY."
Things reviewers have said about Dungeon Defenders: First Wave:
"Excellent, Unreal-powered graphics; colorful & fun mix of action, RPG, & tower defense genres; excellent cooperative multiplayer (4/4)"
– Slide To Play, Perfect Score
"A whole lot of World of Warcraft aesthetics, plus stats. Lots of stats. Loot. Leveling. Money. Mana. Getting the picture? I kinda love Dungeon Defenders."
-Kotaku, 12 Best Mobile Games Of 2010
" It's sorta like an Action-RPG and sorta like a Tower Defense game but really, it's just all fun." -Gizmodo, Android App of the Week
More Info: www.DungeonDefenders.com www.Facebook.com/DungeonDefenders www.twitter.com/TrendyEnt


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Grandma's Marathon Friday Night Entertainment Goes Country with Ashley Monroe and Love and Theft [PHOTOS]
Grandma's Marathon offered a fresh, new lineup of entertainment both nights of the 2014 festivities. Hitting the stage Friday night to kick off the weekend's entertainment was singer and songwriter Ashley Monroe, followed by hit-makers Love and Theft.
"Hippie Anne" of the Pistol Annies, Ashley Monroe opened the night offering a variety of songs from what she described as her "various personas". These "personas" include her own solo work, songs from the Pistol Annies, and pieces she has written for other artists. Ashley performed her latest singles "Like a Rose", "You Got Me" and "Weed Instead of Roses" as well as older work like "Satisfied". She added to the mix with a few Pistol Annies songs, and showcased hits she has written like "The Truth" (recorded by Jason Aldean) and "Heart Like Mine" (recorded by fellow Pistol Annie, Miranda Lambert).
Love and Theft took the stage with a rousing intro, opening with a medley of "She Gets Me" and Eminem's "Lose Yourself". The group performed a wide variety of their new songs like "Night That You'll Never Forget", "If You Ever Get Lonely", and "Runnin' Out of Air", and their early hits like "Angel Eyes" and their debut single "Runaway". As if the high-energy show filled with a blend their hits and cover songs wasn't enough to get the crowd amped up, Stephen Barker Liles spent some time working the crowd, taking selfies with fans on their cell phones through the show.


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10. Cut Copy - Free Your Mind
listen: We Are Explorers
9. Charli XCX - True Romance
She played at Schubas this year, a venue she will never play again. This girl does Lady Gaga so much better than Lady Gaga ever did, she paved the way for Lorde to be dark, young, and poppy, and is kinda insanely hot. Her hit of 2013 was disguised as an Icona Pop song, but everything on True Romance is just as compelling, with even more emotion and dynamic songwriting.
listen: What I Like
8. Classixx - Hanging Gardens
Chill out and dance. Does that make sense? It will when you listen to Hanging Gardens. Instead of relying on those ridiculous time cutting build-ups that every ridiculous DJ does, these two guys structured their electronic music like a well-paced Fleetwood Mac single. It's easily my 'summer album' of the year. But, it still sounds pretty chill late into the year too.
listen: Supernature
7. Blood Orange - Cupid Deluxe
listen: Chamakay
6. Mark Mcguire - Along the Way
listen: In Search of the Miraculous
5. Toro y Moi - Anything in Return
listen: So Many Details
4. Run the Jewels - self-titled
listen: Get It
3. Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City
listen: Step
2. Phoenix - Bankrupt!
listen: Chloroform
1. Haim - Days Are Gone
Surprised? Yeah, me too. But after turning on Days Are Gone for the hundredth time in less than a month I started to think, "oh, I guess I really like this album." I listened to my heart, and my heart told me that this is the one. It really shouldn't be a surprise either. This is the best pop album I've heard in years. And honestly, I don't care that they're all girls, a family, or whatever. That's fine and all, but what I really care about is the guitar solo during the bridge of "Falling," the quiet vulnerability of "Honey & I," and the Shania Twain meets Amy Grant audacity of "The Wire." Haim found the sweet spot in 2013. For the past few years we've seen artists like Grimes, Destroyer, and Bon Iver take ironic swipes at pop music with a tongue-in-cheek fondness for their subject matter. Haim did grow out of that same soil, but without the irony. This is pure, sincerely emotive pop-rock. The electric guitars are not winking. This is music to love. And, I do.
"Always keep your heart locked tight."
listen: The Wire


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by Brandy Betz | February 21, 2012 5:34 pm
Computer manufacturer Acer reported fourth-quarter earnings last week that marked a return to profitability. The Taiwan-based company fell from second to fourth place in the market last year, and restructuring efforts are underway to bridge losses. The road ahead is paved with rebranding efforts, an increased focus on Ultrabooks, and new product offerings aimed at keeping up with the competition.
Acer's reported a fourth-quarter net income of $2.5 million ($75 million New Taiwan Dollars), down from $131.8 million the previous year. It was an improvement over the previous two quarters of losses but fell well below Bloomberg analyst estimates of $6 million.
Acer faced difficult challenges over the past year, and the company is still trying to adjust to them. The company's former president and chief executive officer, Gianfranco Lanci, left over internal disputes and later moved over to PC maker Lenovo (PINK:LNVGY[1]), prompting Acer to file a lawsuit alleging non-compete violations. The fall flooding in Thailand created a hard drive shortage, driving up production costs while limiting supply. And continued economic strife in Europe, a market that accounts for one-third of Acer's revenue, helped slash sales nearly in half in the fourth quarter.
A robust and updated offering of products could've helped offset these blows. Acer acknowledges that it failed to react to market changes and claims it has learned from that mistake. Oliver Ahrens, president of European operations, told the Financial Times: "Our strategy is now adjusted to the new circumstances. We have changed the way we trace market growth and keep track of our inventory."
Acer is fighting back against European losses with a new marketing initiative that includes a budget doubled over that of previous campaigns. The company is shifting focus from its netbooks to Ultrabooks, lightweight laptops meant to compete with products such as Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL[2]) MacBook Air. The company's first Ultrabook, the Aspire S3, launched last September. Acer presented the Aspire S5, billed as the world's thinnest Ultrabook, at the International Consumer Electronics Show last month.
In addition, the company will present a new smartphone offering at the Mobile World Congress taking place next week in Spain. The Acer CloudMobile phone has already won an International Forum design award and surprisingly positive press despite a lack of specification details. The phone will run the updated Android 4.0 operating system and is set for a third-quarter launch.
The relative success of Acer's attempt to climb back up the market will depend on its ability to keep up with direct competitors like Lenovo while also keeping an eye on industry game changers such as Apple and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG[3]). The company knows where it went wrong and is making adjustments. Its performance this year could indicate whether its current strategy was implemented too late.
Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2012/02/acer-returns-to-profit-pushes-revised-strategy-lnvgy-aapl-goog/
Short URL: http://invstplc.com/1fpYluZ
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Borgo's a cool enough Internet character as long as everyone agrees with him 100%. But Paulie's right, almost every thread he posted in had something to do with his anger at the advertisers/loss of post count. It was getting a bit tedious, and frankly, Paulie did nothing wrong but throw a bit of sarcasm back at him. That he's now band is more of a reflection on how he can't handle his Internet personality.
And it's good to see W.F. Churchill back to his rustling ways. Slow day at the office?
I have gone through the posts and looked at it your way and his and I simply chalk it up to "actually, I dont know" just one of those things. But Paulie..I see no emotional issues with Mr. Borgo nor was that called for.
That said..today is a sad day for JI and as many posters have commented, stuff like this has made JI a different place than the plave I knew a few years ago.
EDIT: I just saw where he called him a ****** and a *****TWIT. I didnt see that originally. perhaps he went a little overboard.
Last edited by southparkcpa; 06-03-2013 at 05:59 PM.
Borgo makes the hampur his kangaroo court instead of manning up to speak with SOOTH. In other words, he's using the social capital he's created to get YOU to do his dirty work.
I like Borgo; he is a Man of Letters...with an asterik.
I have to admit I thought Paulie's response was funny. I immediately thought of the "smart" ads RahRah and sg3 must get.
Hate to see Borgo go. I hope cooler heads prevail and his vacation is brief.
Advertising is why Justin Beiber is more popular than the Beatles and why all the shows on TV suck balls.
The world will be a much better place once the sh*t stops. It will also be better once American get over their fear of breasts and continue to allow fat hairy men to walk around a beach topless, but are aghast when a girl with a beautiful rack does the same thing.
And nobody here has EVER clicked on an ad here.
Real people, keyboards, and feelings.
Many of us do have emotional/mental issues. True.
Still it is uncalled for to state such of one of our own, certainly for a mod to do so.
Borgo had 25,000 post stripped away with no recourse and no honest explanation from Sean. I don't blame him for being upset. I also do not condone his attack on BR, one should always take the high road.
I feel I am suddenly falling into the trap of thinking.
Most wars were fought over women, now websites. Ass makes the world go round.
Every one of us here has issues....emotional, physical, spiritual, Rexual, Sanchezual, etc. We just don't point them out about each other. Well, except southside's....because he's just all sorts of ****ed up!
Hoping the best for Borgo. My hunger strike continues in his honor (I'm talking about Asian food only). As for 32, I'm just hoping he didn't take that vacation to Oklahoma we discussed last week.
Last edited by Timmy®; 06-03-2013 at 06:48 PM.
For phuck's sake, Sooth erroneously, drunkenly deleted my thread about me having cancer! A few ball-busting posts were exchanged and then everyone moved on. There were no hurt e-feelings, no angry words, nothing like that. Truth be told, I thought at first that it may have been purposely deleted because Sooth found it inappropriate for the site! And now we're all supposed to be up in arms over some questionable pictures of women and posting stats being deleted!?!? Sorry, not buying in.


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For the first time in PGA of America history, it is believed that there are four PGA members who are age 100 and over.
Records in the PGA Membership department indicate that Errie Ball, a member of the PGA Golf Professional Hall of Fame who lives in the South Florida Section, is the oldest living PGA member. Mr. Ball was elected to PGA membership in June 1931, and is the last surviving member of the inaugural Masters field of 1934. He will turn 103 on Nov. 14.
Mr. Ball is joined in this exclusive club of PGA centenarians by:
Gus Andreone of the North Florida Section, who turns 102 on Sept. 30. Elected to PGA membership in 1939, Mr. Andreone has been a PGA member for 74 years.
William A. Ferriel of the South Florida Section, who is 101 (Mr. Ferriel's 102nd birthday is in late February). Elected to PGA membership in 1952, Mr. Ferriel has been a PGA member for 61 years.
Edward J. Rack of the Tri-State Section, who turned 100 on June 12, was elected to PGA membership in 1959. Mr. Rack has been a PGA member for 54 years.


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The Golden Gophers women's hockey team is having a record-breaking season.
Goaltender Noora Raty has tied the record for most career NCAA wins. Raty grew up in Finland and moved to Minnesota to join the Gophers in 2009.
Raty spoke at the team's arena Wednesday about her final season with the Gophers and the pressures of the sport.
"Just feels good, it's something big always to break some NCAA history," Raty said. "I can't thank my teammates enough for being so awesome and I can't thank Coach (Brad) Frost enough for trusting me so much throughout these four years and giving me starts every weekend."
Frost says Raty's mental toughness has helped the women's hockey team achieve a winning streak of 34 games — an NCAA record.
"She's appropriately aggressive on the ice and makes some great saves, but she hates getting scored on, which is a great thing for a goalie," Frost said. "But mentally, she's very strong, which also is another facet of her game that speaks volumes to her."
Frost hopes to continue the team's winning streak when the Gophers face one of their biggest rivals, the University of Minnesota - Duluth Bulldogs. The game begins 6 p.m. Friday at the University of Minnesota's Ridder Arena in Minneapolis.
Q: To get yourself in the mindset for a game, how do you do that?
Noora Raty: I actually do a lot of visualizing and stuff, so try to play like different situations in my head, and just try to make saves in my head. I think that helps, helps a lot. And just do same things on a game day. Just daily routine and not do anything special on game days.
What kind of mental concentration for a goalie is required?
Noora Raty: That's a huge aspect of your game. I've seen so many goalies that have just tremendous skills but their mental side is not that good. So you definitely have to have both.
Is there anything from being a goalie that carries over to outside of the rink?
Noora Raty: I don't know, my friends always say, 'You're like one of the most normal goalies I've ever met.' I feel like all the players and other people think that goalies are some weirdos and really like special or different people, but I would say we're just normal human beings.
Well always, when people ask you what position you play and you say goalie, everyone's always like, 'Oh, cool.' I mean you're kind of like an individual athlete, but you still play for a team.
That's a lot of pressure on you, too.
Noora Raty: Oh yeah, that's probably the most pressure you can have. I mean you let in one or two easy goals and then everyone's going to point fingers, 'Oh, that loss was your fault.' So it's a lot of pressure but I actually enjoy having it."


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Ed Wilkinson: Veteran feedback: Honor Flight is a worthwhile trip
January 22, 2010
If you are a World War II veteran, or if you know of one, applications for the Honor Flight in May to Washington, D.C., are available in my office.
The flight is free, and the veterans I have talked to have said the trip is well worth it.
Also, if you would like to go as a caregiver, there is a fee, but it is nominal for the trip, food and lodging.
Donations can be made by organizations and individuals to defray the costs of the flight.
For more information, contact Bill Harding at firstname.lastname@example.com
Web sites to assist with educational pursuits
There is a Web site that a veteran can visit to order transcripts from military schools and have them forwarded to a college for credit.
Recommended Stories For You
The Web sites are navycollege.miltranscripts.com and navymarine.transcripts.com.
Census Bureau taking applications from vets
The Census Bureau is taking applications for people
to conduct the census this year.
Veterans interested can get a 5- or 10-point lead over civilians applying for the same job.
The telephone number to call is 1-866-861-2010 or visit http://www.2010censusjobs.gov.
Wages are paid plus mileage.
VFW, American Legion posts meeting schedules
Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4265 and American Legion Post 62 host monthly meetings Monday and Tuesday nights, respectively.
Remember, these organizations are here for you as veterans, and your participation will be beneficial for you and them.
The meeting nights are every third Monday and third Tuesday of the month.
For more information, call the VFW at 824-7145 and American Legion at 824-3625.
Historical veteran/national dates:
• Jan. 10, 1901 — Drilling derrick near Beaumont, Texas, produced an enormous gusher of crude oil signaling the advent of the American oil industry.
• Jan. 16, 1920 — Eighteenth Amendment to U.S. Constitution went into effect prohibiting the "manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes."
• Jan. 18, 1919 — Peace conference in Paris, France of world's most powerful people to negotiate an official end to World War I.
Craig Telehealth Clinic offers veteran services
The Craig Community Telehealth Clinic offers U.S. veterans state-of-the-art technology as well as onsite nursing support and remote practitioner availability. The goal is to provide an extensive array of health care services to veterans in a setting that is accessible and professional. To appropriately plan and coordinate your visit, access to the clinic is by appointment only. The clinic cannot handle emergency needs. Flu shot walk-ins still are ongoing for veterans currently enrolled in the VAMC Healthcare system. If you have any questions, call 824-6721.
Tele-psych services now are available for vets
Veterans now can get tele-pysch services at the Craig VA Telehealth clinic. All they need to do is call 970-263-2824 to set up a follow-up appointment for their mental health visit to be done there. If there are any questions, contact Jayne Scribner at VAMC Grand Junction via phone or e-mail her at firstname.lastname@example.com
For information on these programs and/or other veterans' benefits, call or stop in the Moffat County VSO office at 480 Barclay St., west of the Bank of Colorado parking lot. Call 970-824-3246 or use the fax 970-824-7108. Our e-mail address is firstname.lastname@example.com. The office is open from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays. Other times can be arranged by appointment only. Bring a copy of your separation papers (DD-214) for application for VA programs and for filing at our office.


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Splendid Poseur, by M. M. Marberry.
How Joaquin Miller, the "Byron of the Rockies," persuaded his generation that he was a poet (TIME, Nov. 2).
The Traitor and the Spy, by James Thomas Flexner. How Benedict Arnold wove treason and Major John Andre was caught in the web; an impressive double history, told with scholarship and edge (TIME, Oct. 19).
The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud, Volume I, by Ernest Jones. Young Dr.
Freud, fascinatingly analyzed by his leading British disciple (TIME, Oct. 19).
The Doctor and the Devils, by Dylan Thomas. An outstanding film script in spired by the notorious case of the 19th...


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Selling stampin Up on eBay. Have you?
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Kookie Creator
Join Date: May 2004
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 379
I have sold lots of stamps and craft items on ebay and have done pretty well. In most cases I start out low, knowing I'll never make my money back anyways, just intending to basically clear out the craft room on things I haven't used in years or crafts I no longer do. It surprises me when there are bidding wars going on for some items and the ending bid is more than double what I paid for it. lol. But that is a rare instance, don't ever count on it. I never do reserve, and I can't afford free shipping. In most cases shipping from here to back east is outrageous and since my items are so low, shipping would exceed the item cost and fees. I always offer combined shipping. I find that stamps can usually fit in a padded bubble wrap envelope so it goes by first class package rate and makes the buyer happier. As for boxes, I only use priority mail boxes (free boxes) so I can get pickup by USPS at my door. Due to my disability I can't get to the post office. I don't do international shipping because of the hassle involved with customs and shipping costs. But if you can do international shipping it may be worth it to you. There are buyers out there. I do check for closed or open listings for the same stamps to see what others are charging, but do keep in mind some of them are outrageous prices. Who is going to pay over $100 for one stamp? That amazes me. One suggestion, if you find you have a few stamps you just can't sell no matter what, try grouping them together as one lot. Set a low price on it and it just may sell. People like what they perceive to be a bargain. The main thing is, have fun with it. Get rid of stuff you don't use and then you'll have a few dollars to buy something new. lol.
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Fri 30th May 2008 8:00amDesade's Bude - Crooklets Surf Report
Crooklets - low tide Again some quality big waves but patchy, onshore and rips all over
View the Bude - Crooklets Surf Report and Forecast. Desade's Reports have received a total of 21376 views.
This report has received 551 views since 30/5/08.


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Hanjin, Senator, UASC and MOL announce new cooperation in Asia ' Mediterranean ' Middle East Trade
Hanjin Shipping Co., Ltd. (Hanjin), Senator Lines (Senator) and United Arab Shipping Co. S.A.G. (UASC) will upgrade their Europe ' Middle East ' Asia Service (EMA) covering Asia, including China, Middle East and the Mediterranean, jointly with Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. (MOL) in late summer of this year.
The new cooperation will start around the end of August, and will make it possible to upsize capacity and to line-up similar capacity type of vessels in the service. Providing weekly, fixed week-day port calls, the new EMA service will deploy eight vessels of approximately 3000 TEU capacity ' four vessels will be operated by Hanjin, two by MOL and two by UASC.
The new EMA service will have the following rotation: Shanghai, Yantian, Singapore, Genoa, Fos, Valencia, Gioia Tauro, Jeddah, Khor Fakkan, Singapore and back to Shanghai.


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Six months ago, Jared Aulin couldn't care less if he ever played hockey again.
"I'm done with it," the 25-year-old Calgarian told the Sun just five years after debuting with the Los Angeles Kings.
After a handful of frustrating seasons in the minors, punctuated by an ugly stick-swinging incident that prompted him to press charges against a beer league assailant, Aulin was convinced he'd played his last game.
However, after spearheading a three-game weekend sweep that has the University of Calgary Dinos ranked seventh in the nation, Aulin is not only playing again, he's dominating like few in Canadian Interuniversity Sports (CIS) history ever have.
So much so, that he's once again drawing plenty of interest from the NHL, where the former second-round draft pick may just be returning as early as next season.
Not only has player agent Don Meehan recently dropped a line to rekindle acquaintances, but Flames coaches Rich Preston and Wayne Fleming attended the Dinos game Friday, where Aulin worked more magic.
Forced to miss the team's first 10 games while sitting out a full calendar year from his last professional game, Aulin has helped turn around a team that started 1-5-4.
The Dinos are 14-2 in Aulin's 16 games thanks to his 14 goals and 20 assists, which has him second only to linemate Ryan Annesley in Canada West play.
"Without question he's the best player in Canada West -- it's not even challengable," said Dinos head coach Scott Atkinson, who found a loophole in CIS rules allowing Aulin to play this year.
"He can bring you to your feet because he rushes with speed, has great passes and, man, is he slick. He's elevated the whole team. You should see him at practice. He's not just putting time in, he goes hard."
Despite the fact a handful of players have graduated from the CIS to the NHL during the last decade, the league is not generally scouted. However, Aulin's play has brought out plenty of bird dogs of late.
"I can't imagine a bad team not taking a flyer on him. What do they have to lose?" said Atkinson.
"If he doesn't get a chance, there's something wrong with the hockey world. He's sure shown his desire. I think he's probably done some maturing."
Canada's third-leading scorer at the 2002 world junior championships and drafted in the second round by the Colorado Avalanche, the former Kamloops Blazers star played 17 games with the Kings as a 19-year-old before being buried in the minors.
Frustrated by years of injuries, amongst other things, Aulin returned home and played in a summer league.
It was there Quinn Risdon allegedly slashed Aulin across the neck baseball-style, knocking him unconscious, just missing his carotid artery and prompting Aulin to contemplate retirement.
Risdon will appear in a Calgary court today to make a plea after being charged with assault with a deadly weapon.
Meanwhile, Aulin is the talk of the CIS, and will likely have a pro offer or two to mull over at season's end.
"I haven't paid attention to all that, but if someone is interested in giving me that opportunity, I'm going to listen," said the kinesiology buff.
"But if I did decide this is my last year to play because I want to stay in school, I can say I left the game happy instead of with a negative view. I'm having fun and playing a style I love to play as an offensive threat. I play with a smile on my face."
Thrilled to be living the life of a student who has met "a really nice girl," the man formerly linked to Paris Hilton is clearly content to settle down and stay in school if the right offer doesn't come along. He might even help coach.
"I'm just a guy who lost a passion for the game and wanted to pursue school," said Aulin, whose 15-7-4 Dinos open the playoffs at home Feb. 22.
"When you think about it, it gives kids an incentive to go to university and play and realize it's not the end of the world."
In fact, in his case, it could be the start of something big. Again.


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Delighting customers does not build loyalty. Reducing customers' effort does.
These were the findings from a large customer service survey conducted by the Customer Contact Council (CCC), and featured in the July edition of the Harvard Business Review. The survey's aim was to get answers to three questions:
- How important is customer service to loyalty?
- Which customer service activities increase loyalty, and which don't?
- Can companies increase loyalty without raising their customer service operating costs?
After conducting structured interviews with customer service leaders and a study of more than 75,000 customers, the CCC uncovered three findings:
1. Exceeding expectations during service interactions has negligible impact on customer loyalty
Of the 75,000 customers surveyed, they were more interested in how well a company delivers on their most basic and/or vanilla promises rather than being dazzled and having their expectations exceeded. However, 89/100 customer service department heads had 'to exceed customer expectations' as their main strategy. This is not new. As I wrote back in June 2007, 'Exceeding customers' expectations?', living by exceeding customers' expectations doesn't add up and ends up costing us more in the long term.
2. Service organisations create loyal customers primarily by reducing customer effort
In other words, helping customers solve their problems quickly and easily – not by delighting them in service interactions. Given these findings, we need to reframe around making the customer experience easy.
5 ways to lower the effort and make it easy for customers:
- Don't just resolve the current issue but head off the next one
- Address the emotional side of customer interactions
- Minimise channel switching by boosting self serve channel stickiness – 57% of complaints came from customer trying to resolve issues online but couldn't
- Use feedback from unhappy customers to enhance issue resolution rate
- Empower the front line to deliver a low effort customer experience
3. Customer Effort Score (CES) tops the charts with the highest predictive power
In the customer service environment, Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) is a weak predictor of customer loyalty. Net Promoter Score (NPS) is slightly better.
By decreasing customer effort to purchase you can get increases in repurchase, increase spend and willingness to tell others about their experiences.
The survey asked customers to rate how much effort they personally put forward to handle their request. They were asked to rate on a scale of 1 (low effort to purchase) – 5 (high effort to purchase). 94% of participants reporting 'low effort' stated their intent to repurchase, 88% stated their intent to increase spend, and 1% stated their intention to speak negatively about the experience. Versus 81% reporting high effort stated their intent to spread negative feedback about the experience.
Outcome: CCC advises that we should move from increasing customer satisfaction to decreasing customer effort.
Remember everybody lives by selling something.
Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au


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Malaysian Operator to Buy 465 CNG Buses from Samsung
16 March 2007
Malaysian bus service operator Nadicorp Holdings Sdn Bhd will buy 465 compressed natural gas (CNG)-powered bus chassis from Samsung Corp for US$77 million.
Samsung is also arranging the loans: US$50 million from Korean banks and US$27 million from Malaysian banks.
Implementation will be staged, with 100 buses targeted for this year. Development of the CNG refueling infrastructure will proceed in parallel.
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Isaak seemed adamant about figuring out who killed Viktor and why. I noted his enthusiasm at the beginning of the episode, when George pointed out that Viktor was kind of a loose cannon and a problem. They seemed to disagree over just how big a deal Viktor's death was. Isaak was determined to defend and avenge him, though it wasn't entirely clear why. That all came together later on when we saw Isaak in Viktor's place. Isaak found a photo of himself and Viktor hidden behind another framed photo, and tearfully stared at it, speaking aloud about avenging his death. Either I'm reading that scene all wrong, or Viktor and Isaak were secret lovers. That makes this situation much more serious. Before, it seemed more like a power issue, with Isaak looking to find out who dared to mess with him, but when love is involved, things get really messy. Dexter may be in big trouble here.
Isaak knows Dexter is involved, but what's unclear to him is whether he did it with and/or on behalf of Miami Metro, or if he was on his own. They know Louis works for Miami Metro, and so does Dexter, so it's understandable that they might think this was some vigilante action taken by the police. That seems to be the only thing stalling them from taking action at this point. Plus they have the cops breathing down their necks over Mike Anderson's death, but Isaak and George found a way around that... maybe.
Isaak and George took advantage of their bartender Alex's soft-spot for his family by bribing/threatening him to shoot himself and claim vague admission to killing Mike Anderson in his suicide note. He used the same gun that was used to kill Anderson, and the connections between him and the dead girl were there. His death and note handed the cops packaged closure to the investigation and would probably allow the strip club to get through a shift or two without being raided.
Here's the weird thing though - Here's Isaak telling Alex he'll set his family up for life and all Alex has to do is shoot himself in the brain. Of course, he tacks on a threat that if he doesn't go along with the plan, they'll kill him anyway, so the guy doesn't have much choice. But you would've thought he'd at least try to get them to send the money first. He seemed so quick to take the gun and pull the trigger. A dark moment to be sure, but the set-up seemed a tad rushed.
Quinn is all set to close the book on the Anderson case now that they think the killer has confessed and administered his own justice, but I think that has more to do with his eagerness to continue his relationship with the stripper without the prying eyes and vocal judgment of his fellow detectives. Batista smells something off about Alex's suicide and vague apology-suicide note and wants to continue the investigation. So they have plans to return to the strip club for more questioning.
Hannah showed up for a quick scene. Her lawyer has advised her to cooperate with the police in helping them find the body's of her old boyfriend/captor's murder spree. She used the visit to the percent as an opportunity to say hi to Dexter, which is more evidence that these two sparked when he swabbed her cheek. She seems to have a bit of a nostalgic flair for her old crime days. There doesn't seem to be a lot of emotion in her when the subject of Wayne comes up, but her eyes did twinkle when she talked about the wild times they had. Maybe she sees something in Dexter that's telling her there are fun times that could be had with him too. Of course, Dexter's not so much about the fun when it comes to the business of murdering people. But we do know he's easily influenced, so who knows what kind of trouble she could bring into his life?
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President Barack Obama Monday nominated Army General Martin Dempsey to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Navy Admiral James Winnefeld to be Vice Chairman.
Dempsey, who is known as a thinker and a combat commander, has done tours in Saudi Arabia training the National Guard and in Baghdad at a time when the insurgency was gaining steam. He later led the effort to train the Iraqi military. More recently he served as Acting Commander of U.S. Central Command — the military position that oversees combat in both Afghanistan and Iraq.
In making his announcement - President Obama highlighted this experience.
"For the first time, the Chairman and Vice Chairman will have the experience of leading combat operations in the years since 9/11," Obama said.
Dempsey is currently chief of staff of the Army, a job he's held for less than two months. In 2003 and 2004, he led the 1st Armored Division in Baghdad during a very difficult time. Retired Army Colonel Mark Olinger was General Dempsey's assistant chief of logistics in Baghdad.
"Imagine a city whose entire government processes are just eliminated," Olinger says. "There's no local law enforcement. There's no government at any level to speak of, and the citizens can do what they want at will."
And the insurgency was gaining strength. Many Iraqi citizens were supporting it. Olinger says Dempsey understood the dynamics.
"He viewed it that we had to build trust and confidence with those Iraqis who were emerging to try to assume leadership roles and also with the Iraqi citizens in general," Olinger says.
Retired General Jack Keane says Dempsey's experience sends the right kind of signal to a military force that's fighting now and will continue to fight for some time to come.
"He was one of our most effective division commanders we had in Iraq during that entire time frame," he says. "If we're going to have a chairman of the joint chiefs of staff during a time when we have been at war in the longest time in the nation's history, we just must have a general officer who participated in that war."
But in Dempsey, the president gets much more than a battlefield tactician. Dempsey can sing — and he's not afraid to show it off in the name of boosting morale. There's a video on YouTube of him singing a Frank Sinatra song at Fort Monroe, Va.
The showman in him gets at something else about General Dempsey: he knows how to talk to his troops — he's a skilled communicator.
Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, the commander of U.S. Army Forces in Europe has known Dempsey for nearly two decades and says the general is just good with people whether they be kings and princes or regular folks. Hertling tells the story of when some of Dempsey's soldiers were headed home from Iraq, and he had to call them back to send them into battle. Dempsey sent Hertling to personally tell their families.
"When you're sending people home and then suddenly you're asked to stay a little longer and say, 'Not so fast.' When you're dealing with individual soldiers, that's a tough thing to turn around, and I think General Dempsey did that admirably in Iraq," Hertling says.
Here in Washington, if confirmed, Dempsey will have a different audience: the President and his national security team. And there will be plenty to discuss, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and new pressure to cut military spending in the coming years.


text: Are you a Chrome enthusiast? Or just a regular 'ol Chrome user looking for a place to ask for help and get some tips!? Well then, by golly, have we the place for you! But wait, there's more! I'm just playin'. Seriously though - if any of you would like to help a dedicated place to talk all things Chrome you're more than invited to go check it out. Took some debating to decide to post this, but Chrome loves Android, Android loves Chrome - so I think it's okay to extend a formal invite! Don't worry, we'll only have it linked/pimped here for a week or so. We don't want to seem spammy. And no, this isn't going to detract us from AF/Phandroid. This is our home. Our home base, if you will. There is no spot on the internet I love more than AF (Ok, MAYBE Tea Time!) But hey, a Chrome spot would be fun to have, don't ya think? It needs a little love and is still a work in progress, but let's see if we can't get that place jump started. Deal? Deal. Google Chrome Forum