text:
Convenience store operator Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. has launched a private-label cigarette in the United States to offset the impact of lower margins foisted on it by the makers of Marlboro.
The Quebec-based company said it has had trouble keeping its Crown brand on store shelves since it was introduced about five weeks ago.
"We're very, very excited with the market share we have taken so far over such a short period," chief executive officer Alain Bouchard said Tuesday during a conference call.
"It has exceeded our year target after five weeks so it's very, very exciting."
The chain beat analyst forecasts for the third quarter as its net earnings soared nearly 25 per cent to $86.8-million (U.S.).
The company said it earned 48 cents per diluted share for the period ended Jan. 29. That compared with 37 cents a year earlier, or $69.6-million.
Couche-Tard's shares hit a new all-time high before closing at $31.91 (Canadian) each, up 49 cents, in Tuesday trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The profit increase in the quarter was due to acquisitions, high merchandise sales and lower financial expenses, partly offset by higher depreciation and amortization costs and acquisition expenses.
Couche-Tard was expected to earn on average 46 cents per share on $6.1-billion of revenue in the third quarter of its fiscal year, according to analyst estimates compiled by Thomson Reuters.
Same-store merchandise sales increased by 3.4 per cent in the United States and by 3.1 per cent in Canada. But the U.S. sales were up 6.7 per cent if excluding tobacco products.
Phillip Morris instituted a policy that forced retailers to reduce markups in order to lower consumer prices.
It wasn't immediately clear how Couche-Tard's Crown brand cigarettes differ in price and margins from the popular name brands.
"We have a shortage of inventory after a couple of weeks after launch so we are very happy," Mr. Bouchard told analysts.
He said Couche-Tard benefited from its focus on increasing store traffic through promotions and an improved fresh-food offering.
Total revenue increased to $6.6-billion from $5.5-billion a year earlier.
"Looking at the results of the last few quarters, I believe we can say that we are on the right path considering stores newly acquired, [and]programs we are currently testing and implementing."
Same-store motor fuel volume increased by 1.1 per cent in the U.S. as total volume grew 14 per cent. Canadian fuel volume was up 4.6 per cent but same-store volume decreased three per cent.
Motor fuel gross margins increased 13 per cent to 14.84 cents per gallon (3.79 litres) in the United States. Margins fell in Canada by 8.3 per cent to 5.19 (Canadian) cents per litre.
Mr. Bouchard said Couche-Tard continues to look at acquisition opportunities in North America and Europe, although prices being asked in the U.S. are higher than it is prepared to pay.
Canada's largest convenience store chain is the second-largest in North America. Its network is comprised of more than 5,800 stores, of which 4,225 include motor fuel dispensing in 42 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and all Canadian provinces.
The company employs more than 53,000 people in the two countries.
During the quarter, it signed a new agreement for a total of 20 company-operated stores. Since the beginning of the fiscal year, it has acquired 227 company-operated stores, 243 stores operated by independent operators and 80 motor fuel supply agreements.
Couche-Tard continues to fight efforts to unionize its stores. Earlier this month it put a location in St-Liboire up for sale after workers obtained union accreditation.


text:
Home > Continuing Legal Education > Audio/Video Products > Nuts and Bolts of Residential Real Estate
Product Code 2175
Presented on April 6, 2011 - 1.0 CLE Credit: Skills
CD: $30 BAEC Members, $40 Non-Members
Shipping: $5.00
Presented by Barbara Strzemski-Haase and the Real Property Law Committee, Nuts and Bolts of Residential Real Estate walks a practitioner through a residential real estate closing from the initial contract through closing and post closing requirements. The seminar addresses representing both a buyer and seller and addresses what is required in representing each.
Make Selection to Order Online:
Please indicate shipping or pick up

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The "Bulgarian Paradox" – Economic Growth Which Gives Rise to No Optimism
This paper challenges the formulation of the paradox "there is growth, but it gives rise to no optimism". The thesis that economic growth stirs up no optimism, because it does not lead to raising the level and quality of life of low-income groups of the population is defended. Its macroeconomic indicators are interpreted not only from the standpoint of the average Bulgarian, but also in terms of the income distribution in decile groups. In an attempt to answer that question, there have been formulated 6 hypotheses, the fifth of which is "the dynamics of social inequality and the loss of social status during the years of transition". It is the most reliable, but is poorly justified and has been ignored in the discussions. This article gives some of the viewpoints on those issues.
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.
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Volume (Year): (2004)
Issue (Month): 7 ()
Pages: 96-117
|Contact details of provider:
| Postal: 3, Aksakov Str., 1040, Sofia
Phone: (+359 2) 810 40 18
Fax: (+359 2) 988 21 08
Web page: http://www.iki.bas.bg
More information through EDIRC
No references listed on IDEAS
You can help add them by filling out this form.
This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.
When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bas:econth:y:2004:i:7:p:96-117. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Diana Dimitrova)
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.
If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.


text:
When I owned a tea shop, I always used to rate this place as the second-best in town.
The range of teas is good to very good, the in-store information reasonable, though has some grammar issues, and the surroundings a little different, with the communal teatables that all T-bars have.
So far that describes all T-bars.
The central market does have some unique features – it bravely exists in the midst of a ton of coffee shops, for one.
When I compare the two T-bars I frequent the most, I must say that the staff at this one seem to have a little less passion for and knowledge of tea that the Adelaide Rundle Mall one.
However, on the flip side, it's well run and the staff here are really friendly. And given that I will typically turn up once a week or so, have 4 or 5 consecutive meetings, swap tables four or five time and drink 5-6 teas, I must admit, I'm probably hard for staff to keep track of.
I've rated it 4/5 but if the star system had fractions, I'd probably go 4.3 . All in all, my favourite place.
T bar Central Market Edit
|Tea Room
|Loose-leaf, Chai, Iced
|Snacks, Sandwiches
|Tastings, Afternoon tea, Free wi-fi
|Good For
|Dates, Groups, Meetings
Have more info about this place? Add It
- 44 Gouger Street
- Adelaide, SA
- http://www.tbar.com.au


text:
A soft, flavorful flat bread, cooked on the stove top or grill
8 six-inch flatbreads
2 1/4 teaspoons (1 package) dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup whole wheat flour, sieved before measuring to remove coarse flakes of bran
2 cups bread flour, plus additional as needed
1. Sprinkle yeast over warm water in a medium mixing bowl. Add oil, sugar, and yogurt and mix with a wooden spoon until well combined. Add salt, sieved whole wheat flour, and bread flour, and mix until flour is incorporated. Turn dough out of mixing bowl onto a very lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, 12 to 15 minutes, adding just enough flour until dough is not sticky but very soft. Allow dough to rise in warm place until doubled, 30 to 45 minutes.
2. On a lightly floured work surface, cut dough into eight equal portions. Shape each portion into a ball and let rest for 10 minutes. Roll each ball into a 4-inch circle and let rest for 10 minutes before rolling into a 6-inch circle.
3. Five to ten minutes before cooking flatbreads, heat a large, heavy skillet (preferably cast iron) over medium-high heat until hot. Working one at a time, lift dough circles and gently stretch about one inch larger and place in skillet. Cook until small bubbles appear on surface of dough, about 30 seconds. Flip bread and cook until bottom is speckled and deep golden brown in spots, about 2 minutes. Flip bread again; cook until bottom is speckled and deep golden brown in spots, 1 to 2 minutes longer.
4. Wrap breads to a clean kitchen towel and serve warm. Or wrap tightly in foil and store at room temperature up to 2 days; reheat in 300-degree oven until warm, about 15 minutes.
This recipe was submitted to me from a reader, Audrey W. The recipe text is completely hers; the photos are property of TammysRecipes.com.
Audrey's notes:
This recipe is originally from Cook's Illustrated--one of my favorite cooking magazines. They go for the best-of-the-best, so their recipes can tend to be a bit more involved and time-consuming. I love reading about their testing, though, and what worked and what didn't and why. And their recipes are really good. :)
Variation: Baked Puffed Flatbread
Follow steps 1 and 2 of Flatbread recipe to make and shape dough. About 30 minutes prior to cooking, heat a pizza stone on the lowest oven rack to 500 degrees. Bake dough rounds on preheated stone until bread is puffed and golden brown on bottom, 5 to 6 minutes. Transfer breads to clean kitchen towel and serve warm or at room temperature.
More recipe notes from Audrey:
Make sure you let the pieces of dough rest after forming them into balls and again after rolling them into 4-inch circles; otherwise, they will shrink back and not hold their shape. Only one flatbread will fit in a skillet, so speed up the cooking process by using two skillets.
Alternatively, you can give the breads an appealing smoky essence by brushing them lightly with oil and cooking them on the grill, over medium fire, following the same cooking times and techniques.
This is a pretty soft dough, so don't be tempted to add too much flour. I have grilled them, as I mentioned above. I like the "outdoors" feeling of that, (my bread could cook right along with my meat!) and it kept my kitchen from heating up in the summer. In the baked variation, they are supposed to puff up and have a pocket like a pita, but I have never tried this.
Making the dough in a food processor:
In the workbowl of a food processor fitted with the stainless steel blade, sprinkle yeast over warm water. Add oil, sugar, and yogurt and pulse to mix, about four 1-second bursts. Add salt, sieved whole wheat flour, and brea flour; process until smooth, about 15 seconds, scraping down sides of bowl as necessary. Process dough (adding more flour as necessary until dough just pulls completely away from sides of bowl) until soft and satiny, about 30 seconds. Allow dough to rise in a warm place until doubled, 30 to 45 minutes.
Note from Tammy: I made this dough in my bread machine on the dough cycle. You can refer to your machine's instruction manual; for mine, I just added all ingredients starting with the wet ingredients, then the dry ingredients, and ending with the yeast on top.
40 minutes + rising time
5 minutes
Delicious, easy, and fun! My children helped me make these and we had a blast! Perfect with an afternoon snack of hummus dip, and then we re-warmed the leftover flatbreads to serve with soup for dinner!
I made mine with 100% whole wheat flour, adding some additional gluten flour and other natural dough conditioners (see our article about natural dough conditioners for the how's and why's!). If you follow the directions for using bread flour and sifting the wheat flour, you wouldn't need the additional dough conditioners though. :)
This recipe is similar to my recipe for pita pockets! However, it is a little more savoury and has the grill/stove top instructions, and when prepared with those methods the bread stay flat instead of puffing like the baked pita pockets! :)
My rating: 10/10


text:
Even if you don't know much about geography, a distracted glance at a globe or a world map will show you just how much land Russia controls. The most densely populated regions of the country are west of the Ural Mountains, but there are still plenty of people to the east. The eastern population is vital to the economic future of Russia due to their work in mapping out and developing the country's vast natural resources. What they often lack, though, is electricity.
The terrain (and often the weather) east of the Urals isn't conducive to long stretches of electrical wire to bridge east and west. In many cases, the government may also be unwilling to bring to bear the resources required to power a specific area of the country, particularly for temporary settlements. Russia's solution to this problem is to build a number of floating nuclear power plants that can provide electricity where needed.
Baltiysky Zavod Shipbuilding plans to use KLT-40 naval propulsion reactors constructed on floating platforms that can be towed over water and parked to provide electricity. Nuclear power at sea is hardly a new idea, as it has been used to provide energy for ships for decades. This project is basically just a scaled up version of what is seen in Russia as a proven technology.
As might be expected, many environmentalists aren't precisely thrilled with the plan. Russia is adamant that the floating plants have been engineered to be nearly invulnerable to tsunamis or collisions with other ships. The plan was meant to go into effect over two years ago, but budget considerations forced it onto the back burner until now.
In addition to providing 70 MW of electricity, each 21,500 ton platform can also be modified to purify salt water to produce 240,000 cubic meters of fresh water per day. If the stations prove to be a success, a number of other countries, including China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Algeria, Namibia, Cape Verde and Argentina, have shown interest in purchasing similar platforms.
Below you'll find a video about the stations.
Source: RT


text:
School Description
Founded in 1970, Santa Reparata International School of Art (SRISA) is a non-profit higher education institution and a leading international art and design school in Florence, Italy. SRISA provides accredited programs of study including: Semester/Year, Summer, and Internships. Non-credit Short-Term Courses, and Post-Graduate Studies are also offered.
To provide students an explorative educational environment complete with opportunities for artistic, academic, and personal growth within the influence of an international setting.
Florence continues to be a top study abroad destination, with tremendous educational resources and access to world-renowned art, culture and customs. With its 40-year history, Santa Reparata has become a part of the cultural fabric of Florence, with strong ties to the artistic community. Although students partake in a myriad of options outside the classroom, the SRISA campus and annexes offer modern and well-equipped facilities for students' educational and personal enrichment.
Photography • Book Arts • Printmaking • Drawing • Painting • New Media
Fashion & Textile • Jewelry • Graphic Art • Interior Design
Ancient Roman History • Art History • Literature • Food as Culture • Psychology • Cinema • Italian Language • Writing • Business • Politics, Social Science


text:
Dubai - User privacy is the priority of social networking site Facebook, which has come under fire from users for its privacy settings, the company's director of market development said on Sunday in Dubai.
"Privacy, I would say, is the number one most important thing for our company, and we're always listening to feedback," Randi Zuckerberg, sister of Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, said on the first day of the Gitex information and communication technology exhibition.
"We've recently rolled out (many) new updates and controls to privacy. Now, every single time you post something, you can control who sees that," she said.
"We're always trying to listen to feedback and giving people more and more controls."
While Facebook has become the world's most popular social network with more than 500 million users, it has also been criticised for complex privacy controls and for requiring users to opt out of features that allow access to their information without an opt-in function.
Such complaints led the site to modify its privacy controls.
Facebook's origins have been the subject of two recent books and a hit movie, The Social Network.
If people are that worried about their privacy, they must leave FaceBook.
FaceBook is a great site and I have met many wonderful people through it.
Yes, but facebook has suggested I be friends with someone who I had no other connection to, other than gmail/gtalk correspondence. And then I set my wife up so she could not be seen by anyone other than her friends, then they changed their privacy settings and wham everyone can see her.I do not consider that respect for privacy.


text:
Is it time to wonder if the Bucks are even playing poorly anymore? Bad is a relative term. Compared to last season, Milwaukee is certainly playing bad. But what if these sub-40% shooting games are just as good as these players can play together?
We know that individually, a lot of these players have some specific talents and can do some things on a basketball court. Collectively though, they don't appear capable of much. Perhaps they are playing as well as they can. It's a terrifying thought, but one that's difficult not to entertain at this point. Teams shouldn't take this long to come together. Strong defensive teams don't just fold up to the Detroit Pistons and roll over for a 103-89 loss. This loss to the Pistons was a code-red moment if there wasn't already one.
With Chris Douglas-Roberts hopefully returning to the lineup Saturday night, a shakeup appears in order in the coming days. Can John Salmons really continue to trot out there and appear so over-matched and helpless? New lineups must be experimented with and Bogut's health must be prayed for.
Because as is, Milwaukee simply doesn't have a prayer right now.
It was cool that Brandon Jennings was able to effectively penetrate and get to the rim against the Pistons, but not as cool that he finished just 6-14 at the rim. That's not going to cut it. That is last year's Jennings, not this year's. His problems Friday night weren't all that different than the rest of the team's struggles: Milwaukee shot just 19-39 at the rim. Despite taking 13 more shots at the rim than the Pistons, they made just two more shots at the rim. And that's been an issue for these Bucks, just like it was last year. Despite all the added muscle and size this off-season, Milwaukee is second to last in the league in field goal percentage at the rim at just 56.7%.
- Jennings was by far the best Buck on Friday, but even he couldn't hit a three. He finished without a make in three attempts and the Bucks as a team hit just two of their 14 3-point shots. If Milwaukee were able to keep defenses honest and space the floor a little more with the 3-point shot, things could look a lot different right now, but it doesn't look like that will be happening until Carlos Delfino returns. Former 3-point shooters Jennings and Ersan Ilyasova 32.9% and 26.7% respectively. Those aren't the kind of numbers that will have defenders closing out hard.
- I wasn't real stoked about Keyon Dooling's strong performance against the Cavs, primarily because I didn't assume it meant anything in the long run. There's beginning to be a large enough body of work here now that we can take the majority of games over one or two good ones as who these players are going to be in this system, this season, with this team. Dooling returned to form against the Pistons, hitting one of his seven shots and missing all four of his 3-point attempts.
- Ilyasova managed to post a double-double, scoring 14 points and grabbing 11 rebounds, while blocking two shots and getting two steals, all while finishing the night with a -16. That partly illustrates why a single game plus/minus isn't a great stat, but it also illustrates how the Bucks played defensively against one of the worst offenses in the league. But look who is talking.
Everything finally came crashing down on the other end. One of the toughest things in the NBA is playing good defense while struggling on offense. It takes an enormous amount of commitment, discipline and mental toughness, all traits the Bucks had been showing before arriving in Detroit. Without Andrew Bogut and still unable to make a shot, the defense finally caved in.
- Detroit shot 56.2% from the field, thanks in large part to a number of easy dunks. Jason Maxiell was a benefactor early, helping Detroit bust out to a 29-18 first quarter lead by dunking the ball thunderously twice, setting the tone for the evening.
- A sign of Detroit's offensive prowess on Friday was 13 of their 17 made shots at the rim coming on assists. They found players by the hoop or hit cutters going to the basket over and over. Milwaukee was often slow to react and without Bogut, had no one to clean up the mess. On the other hand, the Bucks assisted on just seven of 19 makes at the rim. This is nothing new, as the Bucks rarely ever assist teammates in scoring.
- If nothing else, at least Larry Sanders has tossed up a couple strong games in these last two efforts. The rookie showed a little rebounding prowess again, grabbing 10 boards in 31 minutes, though three of them came on the same offensive possession. He blocked two shots and grabbed a steal, using his length and speed in positive ways once again. He still isn't always boxing out and he's certainly got his rough spots, but the effort is there and some positive results have come.
Final Thoughts
This is officially ugly. Lats in the division, blown away by the once lowly Pistons and still unable to conquer the 40% shooting barrier. Last season, a lack of talent seemed an obvious problem when the Bucks were struggling on offense. Once those players were shipped out and some new ones were shipped in, everything would take care of itself. But what is the obvious problem now? That they "just can't make shots?" There are no easy solutions right now, and that's what has everyone worried. Problems don't just fix themselves. There are no answers on the horizon for the Bucks, just a very difficult stretch of games that is now looking significantly more challenging than it did at the start of the year.
Jeremy Schmidt writes the Milwaukee Bucks blog Bucksketball.com. Follow him on Twitter. Become a an on Facebook (to the right).


text:
Reports: Sale of Fort Smith Whirlpool Plant Dead
by Lance Turner
Posted 11/29/2012 07:40 am
Updated 5 years ago
A deal in the works for Canada-based Infinity Asset Solutions Inc. to buy the sprawling former Whirlpool plant in Fort Smith is dead, according to multiple reports.
Want the Full Article?
Get Unlimited Archive Access for $19.95 per Year
Readers must pay to access stories older than 15 days.Purchase Now
Already have archive access? Login to view this article.


text:
Need help for working process
the different accounts by Montezuma and Cortes. How do they differ?
Which account is more believable? Which is more accurate? What
impressions do these different accounts foster among the people who read
them? How did these accounts influence Native American behavior toward
Europeans? Europeans' behavior toward Native Americans?
Brown University
1271 Tutors
California Institute of Technology
2131 Tutors
Carnegie Mellon University
982 Tutors
Columbia University
1256 Tutors
Dartmouth University
2113 Tutors
Emory University
2279 Tutors
Harvard University
599 Tutors
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2319 Tutors
New York University
1645 Tutors
Notre Dam University
1911 Tutors
Oklahoma University
2122 Tutors
Pennsylvania State University
932 Tutors
Princeton University
1211 Tutors
Stanford University
983 Tutors
University of California
1282 Tutors
Oxford University
123 Tutors
Yale University
2325 Tutors


text: Johannesburg - Global IT solutions and services company Dimension Data Holdings [JSE: DDT] announced Thursday that it has acquired mvision, a UK video conference integrator, network and managed video services provider, for an undisclosed sum.The acquisition is in line with Dimension Data's goal to accelerate time to market in managed video, and increase penetration in the hosted UC solutions and new-generation video space. The combined team of skilled and experienced employees of mvision and Dimension Data lays down the foundation for the Group to globalise its Managed Video Services.Mvision supplies, installs, maintains and manages video conference and TelePresence endpoints - and where required - also connects the endpoints to their dedicated managed video network.Dimension Data's Converged Communications business, through a combination of its extensive experience, proven methodologies and assessment services, helps clients communicate and collaborate across multiple channels to improve productivity, enhance customer service, and achieve competitive advantage.Ton van Horssen, MD of Dimension Data in the UK said: "The acquisition bolsters Dimension Data's ability to deliver a full suite of Visual Communications solutions and complements our existing Converged Communications proposition in the UK. The synergies between Dimension Data and mvision are excellent. "Both companies are services-led but believe in selling a full complement of professional services, managed services and technology. Our service offerings are complementary and well aligned, and the two cultures are highly compatible. In addition, there is little overlap in our client bases, so the opportunity for growth by leveraging both companies' client bases is significant," he explained and added that in time, mvision will be integrated into Dimension Data.mvision MD Terry Dwyer commented that being part of a global, financially strong organisation with a track record of over 27 years bodes well for its clients, as they will be able to leverage the strengths of Dimension Data's global partner relationships and broader solution sets, and Dimension Data's clients will be able to access mvision's wide range of Managed Video Solutions. Dimension Data noted that a December 2009 Gartner Report stated that "by 2015, over 200 million workers globally will run corporate-supplied videoconferencing from their desktops. By 2012, 40% of enterprises will adopt a blend of cloud- and premises-based approaches to meet their UC needs," and "by 2015, large companies will cut the number of vendors they use to deploy UC solutions by 60%, but they will still need at least three vendors for a full UC solution."


text:
The Voleurz family's roots run deep through all genres of lifestyle. Started as an idea between 3 friends in university the family has grown to all corners of the globe. Continuing the tradition we are proud to announce the launch of our Voleurz Family project. Working together with Artists, DJs, MCs, and Musicians Voleurz will bring creation of all levels to people around the world.
The newest addition to our family is Captain Safety of the So Gnar Art Collective.
With his mind on the future and looming memories of an era past, Captain Safety's creations are materialized visions conjured from his mid west heritage in Minneapolis, MN. Immersed in a culture enriched by artists, musicians, and forward thinking peers, Captain Safety honed his craft of mixed media artistry. Armed with wheat paste, stencils, and spray paint (among other things) Captain Safety brings a street art approach to his progressive graphic design styles.
Years after his relocation to Denver, Captain Safety continues to hone his craft. Joining the ranks of the So-Gnar art collective, Captain Safety has helped produce numerous graphically focused product collaborations with lifestyle brands around the world, including product development and logo design. Look to the streets for signs of his presence, bringing art to the masses in the shadows of the night.
On May 20th Voleurz will be welcoming Whygee and Captain Safety to the Family at Larimer Lounge in Denver, CO. Whygee and Captain Safety have invited their friends brikAbrak, Go Motion. Flashilights, King FOE and 1984 to help them celebrate and PBR will be in the house kicking down $2 cans all night long! NO COVER!


text:
Left-wing and Muslim activists urged Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in a noisy protest to keep his promise of charting a foreign policy independent of America by staying away from Donald Trump who after he is sworn in as president on Friday.
The more than 200 protesters burned a U.S. flag near the U.S. Embassy in Manila and called for an end to the presence of American troops in the country. They held up signs, including one that read "Donald Trump don't mess with the Philippines."
The protesters said they find Trump more alarming than Barack Obama because of his offensive remarks against immigrants and Muslims.
"Obama sugar-coated imperialism but Trump has shown an in-your-face kind of imperialism," said protest leader Renato Reyes of the left-wing Bayan group, adding Duterte "should stick to his independent foreign policy."
Duterte blasted Obama for criticizing his deadly crackdown against illegal drugs but congratulated Trump in a phone call. He sent his national security adviser and press secretary to attend Trump's inauguration.
Troops prevented the activists from getting close to the U.S. Embassy's main gate.
In London, NBC News reported, protesters from the Bridges Not Walls group unfurled a banner on the city's iconic Tower Bridge reading: "Act now! Build bridges not walls," a reference to Trump's promise to build a wall on the Mexican border.
In Nigeria, a separatist group said 11 people were killed by Nigerian security forces during a demonstration in support of Trump's inauguration. Police denied there were any deaths.
Neither of the competing accounts could be independently verified.


text:
Samia Khan
Samia leads partnership development at MediaStorm, an award-winning digital storytelling company based in Brooklyn, NY. In this role, she has led the development of storytelling initiatives for dozens of partners, these projects have included interactive websites, feature documentaries, shorts, and animations. She is dedicated to using the power of collective action and storytelling to build a more just world and in this vein, develops outreach and impact strategies for relevant stories. Samia is a co-producer of MediaStorm's first feature-length original film, Fight Hate with Love. Some of the recent partnerships she has led and stories she has co-produced include The Trials of Spring, The Long Night, and MediaStorm's first ever partnership with CNN and Soledad O'Brien, The War Comes Home.
Prior to coming to joining MediaStorm, Samia spent a decade working on human rights and development issues in Kenya, Pakistan, and the United States; with organizations like the UNDP, UNCDF, the World Bank, and Ashoka. She is a proud member of New York City's only woman of color improv group, Xxcalibur.
Samia holds a Master's in Public Administration from New York University and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Chicago. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, her son, and her dog - one of MediaStorm's office pets.
Michael Tabon has "three strikes against him", he's black, he's young, and he's poor. He's spent 16 years in jail and a lifetime looking for dignity. Jail changed him and made him question this assumed destiny. And so was born his cause "Fight Hate with Love".
The Long Night, a feature film by Tim Matsui and MediaStorm, gives voice and meaning to the crisis of minors who are forced and coerced into the American sex trade.
At one time forests dominated Earth's landmass. Today, less than half of forests remain. Deforestation is a real issue affecting not only our environment, but our survival as a species.
As the U.S. prepares for the final drawdown of soldiers from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, Soledad O'Brien and MediaStorm take an intimate look at two veterans as they struggle with the transition from war to home.
This is a pair of stories about incredible resilience. One family navigates the unknowns of dementia while another builds a life from zero after fleeing religious persecution.
Syed was the black sheep. When he told his family he wanted to convert to a minority sect of Islam, they put a warrant out for his murder. He survived the horrific attempt at his life, but that is only the beginning of his story.


text:
Forgot your password? Enter the email address you signed up with and we will send you a link to create a new password.
Your password reset has been submitted to the address provided.
Standard character mark
Consulting in the field of graphic arts design, namely, design of clothing, home décor accessories and furniture, crafts, textiles and new products; information services, namely, providing a web site featuring photographic, audio, video and prose presentations featuring design and décor
Business in Los Angeles, CA


text:
SUNDERLAND are ready to hand Gustavo Poyet a new contract to stay at the Stadium of Light amid fresh talk of him leaving Wearside this summer.
Just weeks after being touted as a potential replacement for Sam Allardyce at West Ham United, Poyet is among the names believed to be under consideration to be approached at Southampton.
The Saints have started their search for a new manager after accepting the resignation of Mauricio Pochettino, who signed a five-year deal to become Tottenham boss last night.
Loading article content
Southampton are looking for a successor with similar ideas of how to develop the St Mary's club to Pochettino and Poyet spoke at length last season of his admiration for the way they play.
Southampton chairman Ralph Krueger said: "We will be looking for a manager who shares our values, our principles and our philosophy; a manager who can continue to grow the first team and build on our strong foundation – a foundation led by and ambitious vision and plan that continues to build on our world-class academy and our amazing 129-year heritage."
Former Cardiff manager Malky Mackay, Turkey's Murat Yakin, ex-Swansea boss Michael Laudrup as well as Steve McClaren are all among the favourites for the Southampton post.
But Poyet's situation and success at Sunderland has made him a strong candidate to be targeted by the Saints. With just one year remaining on the contract he signed in October, the former Brighton boss has been a name linked with many of the jobs that have cropped up, including one at his former club Real Zaragoza.
Sunderland do not want to lose him, although he made no secret of his desire to have a greater say on transfer dealings after confirmation in March that Lee Congerton had been appointed as the club's sporting director.
Poyet's links to the south, having previously managed at Brighton and spent more than a decade in London, have led to regular links to possible job vacancies in that area and Southampton is the latest.
The successful way he led Sunderland to Premier League safety has also been noted across the country, while he guided the team to the Capital One Cup final at Wembley.
He has big ambitions and Sunderland are keen to tie the South American down to a longer term deal, having realised the job he done in reviving a dressing room in such disarray following the six-month Paolo Di Canio reign.
Sunderland will be keen to head in to the summer with a clear plan and having Poyet's future secure can only assist that as they look to agree terms with a number of players.
Contract offers have already been tabled for Jack Colback and Seb Larsson, who are set to become free agents on July 1.
Congerton is pressing ahead with potential deals for new players, with Poyet understood to have had a say on those which have led to interest in goalkeeper Julian Speroni and Costel Pantilimon.
The Sunderland transfer decision makers could yet have to decide on bids for players already at the club. River Plate are understood to be keen to take Ignacio Scocco back to Argentina, although the forward would like to prove himself on the Premier League stage after a poor start.


text: On Wed, 2 June 2004 20:37:20 +0100, email@example.com wrote:> On Wed, Jun 02, 2004 at 08:58:32PM +0200, Jörn Engel wrote:> > Note the "in the most general case" part. You can get things right if> > you make some assumptions and those assumptions are actually valid.> > In my case the assumptions are:> > 1. all relevant function pointers are stuffed into some struct and> > Wrong. They are often passed as arguments to generic helpers, without> being ever put into any structures.Ok. Would it be ok to use the following then?b1. Function pointer are passed as arguments to functions andb2. those pointer are called directly from the function, they are passed to.Either that or the previous two rules, renamed to a1 and a2.(Note that I care more about sane rules than what any random code insome dark corner happens to do right now.)Jörn-- A surrounded army must be given a way out.-- Sun Tzu-To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" inthe body of a message to firstname.lastname@example.com majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.htmlPlease read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/


text:
With an epic through-hike of the Appalachian Trail planned for next summer, my girlfriend Shalimar and I set out on our first backpacking trip together. Growing up I have been on backpacking trips, but for Shalimar this was all new to her. We loaded up our packs and headed north to Ocala National Forest for a 2 day, 1 night hike from Clearwater Lake Recreation Area to Alexander Springs Recreation Area.
We started the hike early in the morning as my grandfather dropped us off at the trailhead and took our picture. The morning was just cool enough to require the use of a lightweight jacket; actually it was perfect hiking weather. We started down the trail that wandered its way up and down the sandy hills of Ocala. The trail was mostly compact sand, but in places there was loose "sugar sand" as we call it due to its grain size. This area of Florida is actually quite hilly and has some of the higher elevations in the state. The hills of Ocala were created millions of years ago as the limestone bedrock eroded then uplifted, creating peaks as high as 312 feet (that is high for Florida!). During the last ice age, Florida was connected to what is now the southwestern region of the United States, which explains the cactus and other desert-looking plant life we encountered.
A few hours later and five miles down the trail we slumped on the side of the trail to take a break along a small creek. We were surrounded by brilliant shades green – new leaves of Hickory, Maple, Cypress and Red Bay – while our ears were filled with the sounds of the birds, insects, and the wind brushing across the leaves. I could make out the call of mocking birds and cardinals; then in the distance came the call of the large Pileated Woodpecker. As he flew closer, the woods filled with its call, giving us the feeling we were in the middle of a humid Jurassic Forest with the possibility of a dinosaur around the next bend of the trail.
Lucky for us the only blood-thirsty animals around were mosquitoes – oh, and the ever active Florida Black Bear. Every road crossing had signs warning about bear activity in the area, but these signs never provided any pointers to avoid an unwanted visit. The longer we sat there absorbing our surroundings we started to notice more – a mouse squeaking in the bushes, the fragrant smell of spring blooms in the breeze, and then Shalimar noticed it first… TICKS! They were everywhere! We quickly threw on our packs and continued northward toward Alexander Springs, adding "ticks" to the list of blood thirsty killers surrounding us.
Toward the end of the day we ran into two thru-hikers on the Florida Trail who had started a few months earlier down at Big Cypress National Park on the northern border of the Everglades National Park. The first guy was older – probably in his late 50's / early 60's and was resting inside his tent, probably to stay away from the millions of ticks that seemed to multiply the farther north we traveled. The second guy was a younger – in his late 20's – from North Carolina. We crashed alongside the trail looking exhausted, back and shoulders sore and feet blistered.
At this point Shalimar and I decided we're going to get ourselves "real" packs since we were using old external frame packs that my brothers and I used for Boy Scouts. I was never a fan of these packs and Shalimar was already planning how she was going to throw down the pack she borrowed from my dad and give him a piece of her mind on his choice of such a heavy, uncomfortable backpack. We loaded up our packs one more time then went down the trail a little farther and found the spur trail to Alexander Springs to fill up on water for dinner, then returned to the trail to set up camp and eat.
Our dinner consisted of freeze-dried food that asked for too much water and turned into more of a soupy slop than actual food, but it was warm and had flavor so it was somewhat enjoyable. With over 10 miles under our feet today we decided to call it an early night. I dreamed of ticks and bears all night long. In the middle of the night we woke to coyotes yelping and howling in the distance. As we lay there in silence listening, Shalimar thought they sounded like they wanted to play; I on the other hand was wondering how fast I could get out of my sleeping bag and what I should arm myself with in the case of an attack. All through the night we woke up hearing the same things – a mouse squeaking from the general location of our bear bag, the occasional breeze, and a few times eerie silence which invokes the feeling that someone or something is lurking outside.
After a rather uncomfortable night we packed up our gear and headed back to Alexander Springs to wait for a ride back to our car. While we waited for the rangers to finish their meeting we took a nap along the spring and enjoyed a wonderful spring day in Florida. The temperature was in the low 80s and sunny, all around enjoyable. The spring water was nice and cold and felt good on my sore feet, but was just little to cold for me to submerge my grubby body.
With a ride back to our car we were back to civilization after an adventure in the woods. We were glad to be inside, away from the millions of ticks with running water and all the food we could eat. After we cleaned up and had dinner with my grandparents, Shalimar admitted she had fun, but we both decided to invest in new backpacks, hiking shoes, and to adopt lightweight backpacking techniques for our next adventure to make it a little more enjoyable.


text:
|Bengali Name :
|Bohera (বহেড়া), Bahera (বহেড়া), Baheda (বহেড়া).
|Common Name :
|Bahera, Belliric Myrobalan, Beach Almond.
|Botanical Name :
|Terminalia bellirica
|Synonym :
|Myrobalanus bellirica
|Family :
Today I am going to write about a medicinal plant that is very popular in this Indian subcontinent since the ancient time. Locally the plant is known as Bohera or Boheda (বহেড়া). Binomial name of the plant is Terminalia bellirica and it belongs to the plant family Combretaceae. This plant is native to our Indian region but having few other common names such as Beach almond, Belliric Myrobalan, etc.
Though this plant is abundantly seen at our neighboring countries, but not frequently seen in our country Bangladesh (বাংলাদেশ) these days. It is a tall growing plant that can reach up to 20 meter in height. The shape of the leaf are elliptic and having a long petiole. The veins of the leaf are alternately arranged. Young leafs are coffee/reddish in color.
Flowers are not that much attractive from Bohera (বহেড়া) plant. Small flowers borne around a long spike that arises from the axil of the leaf. The flowers are greenish-yellowish in color and the center of the flower is maroon (or dark pink) in color. Flowers are having 10-12 prominent long stamens which are much noticeable rather then the flowers. It produces almond like fruits having a hard shell around.
Bohera (বহেড়া) is highly revered in Indian herbal medicine since the ancient time. The Bohera (বহেড়া) fruit is one of fruit from the Triphala (ত্রিফলা) [means three fruits] that is mentioned in Ayurveda. Few of the medicinal uses are against stomach disorders (diarrhea, dysentery, etc), stomach worms, sooth the cough, etc. Some people believe that taking a deep breath under this tree (regularly) can make a person healthy and cure from several diseases (I don't have any reference right now!).
Photos of this article were taken from Bangladesh as mentioned below:
1) April, May 2015: Ramna park, Dhaka (রমনা পার্ক, ঢাকা).
This article has written by Lonely Traveler,
for the blog http://icwow.blogspot.com/


text:
Microsoft offers solution to Xbox One error: 'There was a problem with the update'
So you just bought your Xbox One, you unpacked it and set it up, you perform the mandatory day one system update and... you're greeted with the message: "There was a problem with the update."
Don't worry, this seems to be pretty common issue for new Xbox One owners, and Microsoft has provided a guide to help troubleshoot the issue. And no, it doesn't involve taking your new console to a friend's house to update.
"This message can appear before, during, or after a system update has started. In general, this type of error is a network or caching issue," Microsoft says. So how do you fix it? Simply follow the steps below, provided by Microsoft.
Troubleshoot your network. Here's how:
- Select Check network connection. This test should verify that you have a working Internet connection from your Xbox One to your network device.
- Try to resolve any errors that appear. See the Xbox One Network Connection Error Solution to resolve any network connection errors.
If you can't resolve the errors, you may have other issues with your network that are causing your Xbox One to time out or fail the system update. These issues may include the following:
- Wireless interference
- High packet loss
- Latency.
- If any of these issues are causing a problem, try a wired connection if possible.
- If you see the It's all good screen after running the Check network connection test, the issue is not your network.
- Select Start update again.
- If you see the There was a problem with the update screen again, power cycle your console by pressing the Xbox button on the front of the console for 5 seconds. After the console has shut down, unplug the power cord and wait 30 seconds.
- Plug the console back in and turn it on using the Xbox button on the console. Power cycling will reset the network card and clear the cache.
- Select Start update again.
- If you see the There was a problem with the update screen again, please contact Xbox Support for further assistance.
Hopefully, you don't need to resort to Step 7, but it seems that this is a common problem. Microsoft's support forums are littered with posts of people claiming problems with the Xbox One update.


text:
Results of Tags "Dope (2015) Putlocker Movie"
Title: Dope (2015) Releasing: 19 June 2015 (USA) Generes: Comedy, Crime, Drama Director: Rick Famuyiwa Stars: Shameik Moore, Tony Revolori, Kiersey Clemons Description By IMDb: Life changes for Malcolm, a…
When becoming members of the site, you could use the full range of functions and enjoy the most exciting films.
Watch HD Movies Online For Free and Download the latest movies. For everybody, everywhere, everydevice, and everything ;)
We will send a new password to your email. Please fill your email to form below.


text:
Simply confirm your registered email address below and click "Reset Password." We will immediately email you a link back to the site where you can enter a new password for this account.
The older a man gets, the less he does this - what is it?Cry!Congratulations to Jay Goldenberg of Syosset for knowing the answer!
Copyright © 2017. All rights reserved.


text:
Use the tools below to refine your search by only displaying reviews with a certain number of star ratings or to only show reviews from a certain time period. Eg click on '1 star' to just display the reviews we have which received a 1 star rating click or 'Within the last month' to display just reviews posted over the last month.
Written on: 06/03/2011
I cannot fault the boarding of the ship ,the food was very good in the main restaurant, waiters very friendly and helpful,also good service. our cabin boy was delightful. the trips were very well organised considering the problems in Eygpt. full marks to all the crew. The entertainment crew were excellent and worked very hard to make a great evening.
I'm sorry to say our cabin was very old fashioned and the towels were of a very poor quality, not a good colour. the pool area's could do with… Read Full Review
Written on: 07/08/2010 by patmc50 (3 reviews written)
The Celebration is a fantastic cruise ship with fantastic crew. Everything went off perfectly. Would thoughly recommend it to anyone, as I would Destiny and Spirit. Each of the ships has its own personality and I honestly would not like to choose my favourite between them. You are treated like a king and queen from the moment you arrive until the moment you depart. Keep up the good work! Off on the Thomson Dream in October 2011. Cannot wait! I know it has received some unfavourable… Read Full Review
Written on: 03/08/2010
Our first cruise! The cabin exceeded our expectations, lots of hanging space and plenty of drawers. Cabin was kept clean and tidied twice a day by very friendly staff, in fact the whole ship was impeccably clean. Food was wonderful, Mistral restaurant well worth the cover charge for our first night. Excellent entertainment, as good as any professional show. Lots of fun daytime and evening games and quizes.
It's a big ship but we never felt crowded. Plenty of sitting areas to relax with a book… Read Full Review
Written on: 08/07/2010
This was our second cruise on Thomson Celebration. The first, Colourful Coasts in December 2008, was superb and we wondered if a second cruise could match it. Well this one was, if anything, even better. I couldn't fault the staff, the food, the entertainment, the service, the general atmosphere on the boat. Even though there are approximately 1200 guests on board it never feels overcrowded and there is something to suit all tastes. Lively if you feel like it or quiet if you prefer, the choice… Read Full Review
Written on: 15/02/2010
This was our first cruise, it certainly won't be the last.
The only reason we didn't give five stars for value for money was the excursion prices, Cairo and the beach trip were far too expensive not worth the money, the Light and Sound show as such a disappointment. Saying that Petra was worth every penny awesome.
The staff were excellent, Thomson should be very proud of them, also a very clean ship in fact we couldn't fault the ship, just wonderful.
Archers addict… Read Full Review
Written on: 25/04/2009
Overall Thomson Celebration was an excellent cruise. Ship was spotlessly clean, crew very friendly. Apart from the uneven engine running which was not excessive the cruise was excellent. Seemed to be exaggerated when the ship was going slow. This was our 8th cruise and we would book the celebration again… Read Full Review
Written on: 06/04/2009
I have just returned from the Colourful Coast Cruise with my husband, daughter 21 and her boyfriend and son aged 15. This is not our first cruise and I must say we really do enjoy cruises. We did have a great time although the weather wasnt great had about 3 good days the rest were cloudy, We had a nice size cabin for 3 of us on deck 3 pleanty of wardrobe space and kept very clean by cabin staff.
The food was lovely, however I do feel we have had better,but the choice is great there is always… Read Full Review
Written on: 13/01/2009 by lesliehopper (1 review written)
colourfull coasts cruise, first week in january 2009 covering canary islands and morroco, we enjoyed the cruise excellent itinary apart from morroco - trip to marrakesh, 12 hours tour, 8 hours on a coach, 2 hours in a restaurant, 2 hours on walkabout, waste of money, apart from this we enjoyed our weeks holiday, celebration is an old ship and it would have been much more enjoyable for us if thomson laid the old lady to rest in a breakers yard and invested in a real cruise ship to match other… Read Full Review
Written on: 01/08/2010
I found this review not helpful because...it was totally negative. Celebration may be old but she is a proper ocean going liner not a floating shopping mall with climbing walls and all the other paraphanalia of "modern"cruise ships. Most importantly, the crew are superb and so friendly and obliging from A-Z ,food and service and entertainment are excellent. We are going on our 4th trip in August and really looking forward to seeing the old girl again.
<br/>Bob Anderson
Written on: 20/05/2008 by 79ad (1 review written)
Thomson celebration was the best cruise we did, it was extremely good. We went to our first ever cruise in May 2008. Norway. It was on Thomson celebration. Without a doubt it was a very good tour, every thing was excellent, specially the entertaintment team. We will definitly go with Thomson celebration again… Read Full Review
Written on: 23/07/2006 by azzer50 (1 review written)
The Thomson Celebration Fjordland cruise was our first cruise, and it certainly won't be our last. We went on excursions each day while in Norway, which were very professionally organised and friendly. The sights of Norway are breathtaking, and the Norwegians are very friendly and helpful. We even had a rendition of opera on one excursion by our Norwegian tour guide, which was excellent. I would recommend going on the excursions, but if you go to Mount Dalsnibbia, which is an excellent… Read Full Review
Written on: 13/10/2005 by roybren (1 review written)
This was the first 14 day Thomson cruise of the Celebration, so as expected there were problems to be sorted, but despite very hard work by the crew the cruise had to be terminated early in Lisbon, due to the vacuum toilets not working properly. Apart from this the 10 days we had were enyoyable, the entertainment was first class, and the food was very good. At Bilbao all the passengers had to be put into local hotels, even this was done well and we stayed in a 4 star hotel over night. We were… Read Full Review
Written on: 25/09/2005 by bethmol (1 review written)
This was the first time I have been on a Thomson Celebration cruise and I can't wait to go on another. I have never been anywhere where I have had excellent service, the whole ship was beautifully clean and the food was superb. To get all three in one holiday is a miracle. Well done Thomsons. Oh and Norway is fantistic, highly recommended… Read Full Review
" Danube cruise to Austria. " Read More
" A problem with effluent " Read More
" Fantastic fjord cruising " Read More
Written by cruiselady44
" Make sure you get what you asked for " Read More
" I cannot fault the boarding of the ship ,the food was very good in ... " Read More


text:
Another funky week when I weighed in this Saturday. I gained overall weight, but lost in my total fat loss, gained lean muscle mass, and gained TBW%. So all the numbers are good, just looks a little odd on the scale.
Obviously I'm not really going for lean muscle mass gain, but I did cycle, hike and walk a lot this last week so the muscles started building a bit.
I'm alright with it. I feel great, lost inches, and fat is melting away!
Progress Stats have been updated so you can see exactly what areas I lost this week.
Main goal to get to 124 lbs. Look, my cycle chick is almost to the half way mark – she's a little slow these days, but it's all about the journey.
1st Mini Goal I met in 58 days to lose 10% of my body weight. weight.
2nd Mini Goal I met this week on 4/6/13 to lose 20% of my starting body weight.
3rd Mini Goal is to be under 200 lbs. I met this goal on 4/20/13!!
4th Mini Goal is to be at my lowest weight in 18 years – 170 lbs.
Week 26 Weigh-In Results on Ideal Protein Diet
- Weight Loss for the week: +1.8 lbs
- Inches Lost for the week: -1.25 inches
- Total Weight Loss in 26 weeks: -63 lbs
- Total Inches Lost in 26 weeks: -66 inches
More interesting weight loss stats:
- Dropped from 52.9% body fat to 40.30%
- Fat mass dropped from 136 lbs of fat to 78.3 lbs of fat! INCREDIBLE!!!!
- My metabolic age is still 56 (I'm only 41 as of today) which is what I started at. Still scary!
- BMI has dropped from 45.6 to 34.4.
Let me know how you're doing on your healthy eating plan below in the comments.
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."
Get my weekly updates....it's FREE!
Never miss a post or recipe - Sign up today.


text:
Medical extrusions are meeting higher standards, becoming more responsive to customer demands, and providing increasingly sophisticated product. If material costs can be kept in line, there is no telling how far technological advancements will go.
Coextruded tubing, such as this DuoPex with an inside layer of nylon and an outside layer of polyurethane from Bunzl Extrusion, is becoming increasingly popular.
Demand for smaller tubing
Wall thickness issues
Braided catheters
Marking, bonding, fitting
Prices and planning
Resin advancements
DEHP-free materials
By Peter Cleaveland, West Coast Editor
Demand for more performance in less space, the rising cost of raw materials, and technological advancements are causing extruders to update processes and products. As a result, the world of medical extrusion is facing forces that are causing changes in multiple areas. Customers want tighter tolerances, they want smaller tubing, they want multilumen tubing, and they want more and fancier coextrusions. Raw material prices and availability are changing, too. Extruders are responding with improvements in both products and manufacturing processes. This article, based on interviews with experts in the field, will explore how these changes are affecting manufacturers and users.
Tighter Tolerances
The new FlexiSpiral line of crossheads and inline dies from Guill Tool improves concentricity or product roundness, reducing material usage.
"Typically customers were happy with a thousandth before," says Bill Conley, sales manager of Guill Tool. "More recently it was half a thousandth. Now they want to get tighter than that." How tight? "Two to three tenths on concentricity," says Jim Prue, technical director at Guill Tool. In terms of percentage of wall, says Conley, the old goal was 90 percent, but "we don't usually blink at 95 percent. I have customers that are running 99 to 99.5 on their walls."
Multilumen and MultilayerAs medical devices become more complex, extruders are being asked to produce tubing with multiple layers and multiple lumensanywhere up to eight lumens, some with wire inside, some with braids, some with different lining materialsand there seems to be no end in sight for the complexities that users demand. "I guess the sky's the limit there," says Conley. "If you look at sheet manufacturing, they go up to 10 layers." As a percentage of the business, says Badera, "roughly 50 percent of the requests we get now are multilumen, where maybe 25 percent of the requests a year ago were multilumen."
As wall thicknesses decrease, it becomes difficult to retain all the desired properties, and increasingly the answer is coextrusion. By combining two materials, it's possible for a thin-wall tube to maintain the feel of a thicker-wall tube.
There's also a growing demand for tubing with stiffness that varies with length, which makes tooling more complex. "You're basically oscillating the extruder," says Prue. "You're going from one durometer to the other and back. Within that one tube, they actually have two durometers, and it's changing in the length of the tube, so they can guide it up through the body with a harder durometer and have it go around areas in the body with the soft durometer."
Changing durometer with length is just the beginning, says Badera. "We do braided catheter work," he explains, "and they're looking to change the braid along with changing the hardness of the material over the braid. They're looking to change the braidthe hardness and the ID or the OD at the same time. It's not just as simple as saying I want a stiff shaft and a transitional area to a soft tip."
Outsourcing Secondary Operations
Closeup of an extrusion melt emerging from a crosshead from Upchurch Medical
"For example," says Mike Bailey, general manager of Upchurch Medical, "instead of just machining PEEK, we'll also get the raw material for markers and cut the markers, and incorporate markers. We'll laser mark as well. Another example: instead of just extruding tubing, we'll neck the tubing down; we'll form the tubing. Instead of just extruding one material, we'll extrude multiple materials and assemble these together to make more of an entire shaft or catheter assembly. We'll provide marking. We'll bond multiple parts, fitting tubing. So instead of just providing a single tube, we'll provide tubing that's been necked, bonded together, bonded to a fitting, labels on that tubing, markers on the tubing, forming of the tubing."
Coated MaterialsThe benefits of bioactive coatingsto add lubricity, to prevent blood clotting, or to resist the formation of biofilms, for exampleare becoming better known (see "An Evolution in Coatings" in the March issue of Medical Design Technology), and while extruding companies don't generally apply these coating to their products, they are aware of it and are helping customers. "We get more and more requests for that," says Bailey, "and we do provide courses and recommendations."
Sometimes customers ask for some fairly complicated things, continues Badera: "Can I get this coextruded with this on the outside and something else on the inside, and I want the something else to be filled with something that's going to make it lubricious or with something that's going to be an anticoagulant. Or vice versa, they want a material on the inside that gives them, say, the burst strength or the flexibility they want. And then the material on the outside, they want to know if there's some additive that can go in it, that could be an anticoagulant."
Increases in Raw Material Prices
This Vaupell Inc. employee molds bio-absorbable material in the company's ISO 14644-compliant Class 10,000 cleanroom.
Changes in price can make things difficult to plan. "Sometimes we get a month's notice and sometimes a week's notice," says Ramos. And, says one of the people we interviewed, distributors can make things difficult even without raising prices. Instead, they increase minimum order size. "We've run into some more distributors who've said no, we're not doing 50-lb bags or 100-lb orders or 300-lb drums. If you want to buy this material, you have to buy 1,300 lbs at a time. They can sell more material that costs them less because they're not putting anything extra into bagging and handling. The price stays the same, but I have to buy 1,300 lbs instead of 600 lbs, and then I sit on it for six months or a year."
Extruders and molders aren't the only ones feeling the pinch of increased raw material prices. Tooling manufacturers are seeing increases in both prices and lead times for their raw materialshigh-quality steel and other alloys. "When you're working with fluoropolymers, you have to have Inconels and Hastelloy materials; we've been quoted on some sizes one-year delivery. Needless to say, the customers aren't going to wait a year to get a tool," says Conley. Part of that can be ascribed to greater demand (Conley reports a 50 percent increase in demand over last year), but most of it is probably due to increased demand from overseas, especially China.
Changes in MaterialsWhile medical polymers tend to change slowly, there are some interesting things taking place. Bailey points out that resin manufacturers are beginning to embrace the medical device market more than before and are making available materials that they previously did not. In the polyetherketone family, he says, "there are resins that are actually championed by the resin manufacturers for use with short- and long-term implantables, USP Class VI, and providing FDA master files."
Also of note, Bailey adds, is an increasing demand for bio-absorbing materials, as well as some increase in the use of materials that promote bone regeneration, and proprietary compounds and mixtures for orthopedic applications that "promote bone growth and then will absorb as that growth occurs."
Phthalates and Other Plasticizers
Twin-sheet formed parts, such as this one from Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, incorporate integral welds for both hollow and solid part configurations.
For some manufacturers, of course, phthalates are not a concern because either they don't use PVC very much or their products are used more in medical offices than in surgical units. "A surgical unit," says Ramos, "has a different set of standards completely."
CHANGES TO MEDICAL MOLDINGMany of the factors affecting extruders are being felt by molders as well. Tolerances are getting tighter, materials are evolving, and customers are demanding more secondary operationsall of which require molders to keep their processes and their people up to date.
Demand for Tighter TolerancesMeeting tighter tolerances means having a repeatable process. "And in order to have a repeatable documented process, your press has to do the same thing from shot to shot," says Phil Cashen, business development manager at Vaupell Inc. "You have to have a capable press, and if the press isn't capable, you don't have a prayer of meeting the customer's expectations." For this reason, and to reach compliance with ISO 13485:2003 and ISO 14644, Vaupell has adopted scientific injection molding, with cavity pressure transducers, on electric presses.
Process ControlMany of the changes we've seen in injection molding technology have been in the area of control. "Over the last several years," says Mike Bailey, general manager of Upchurch Medical, "we've been able to incorporate additional process control in the molding process with pressure transducers and thermocouples, which are tied directly to mold cavities to obtain more precise feedback."
Modern computerized control has affected other types of molding as well, adds Ray Ramos, district sales manager of Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics. "Years ago we used to use all pin routers and hand routers and hand jigs and fixtures, but now it's all CNC, very accurate," he says. "All the drawings come on IGES files."
Better TrainingAdvancements in technology mean little without the people to use them, and these people must have up-to-date skills. "The days of having a press operator just run a press for 15 years and mold product is behind us," says Cashen. "The skill sets of the people on the production floor need to be improved as the technology of the product that we're molding becomes more challenging."
And employee training goes beyond just running the machines. Molders must understand the validation process, says Cashen, "to be able to conduct and manage and document validations, IQ/OQ/PQ. Protocols need to be established. It's another layer of documentation and process management that requires your staff to be trained and capable in all those areas."
Changes in MaterialsChanges in materials affect molders as much as they do extruders, with perhaps a few additions. Molders may be manufacturing housings for devices that contain electrical and electronic components, and thus fall under the European requirements RoHS and WEEE. These ban toxics such as cadmium, hexavalent chromium, lead, mercury, asbestos, and others, but they also ban or severely restrict the use of PVCs because they cannot be incinerated safely and because they may give off plasticizers-especially phthalates-when put into landfills. While it may be feasible in some cases to go to ABS or polycarbonate, says Ramos, things may not be all that simple. "With the RoHS standard, people are still figuring out what we have to do to comply," he says. "In that part, those inserts are not RoHS compliant. The plastic is, but the fasteners are not."
Secondary OperationsCashen reports that his company, like others, has seen increased demand for secondary operations including machining, painting, surface finishes, and even packaging. What customers want, says Ramos, is to "basically get a turnkey part." And if the molder won't do all the secondary operations, the customer will find someone else who will. Increasingly, he says, "we are not shipping to the company who's designed and ordered it; we're shipping to contract manufacturers" who add latches, screens, assemblies, other sheet metal parts."
For additional information on the technologies discussed in this article, see Medical Design Technology online at www.mdtmag.com or the following websites.


text:
As Baby Boomers Age, Fewer Families Have Children Under 18 at Home
Source: America's Families and Living Arrangements, Current Population Survey, U.S. Census
From Press Release:
With declining fertility rates and the aging of baby boomers, the percentage of families with their own child living at home decreased to 46 percent in 2008, from 52 percent in 1950, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The findings come from America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2008, a collection of 2008 Current Population Survey (CPS) statistics on family and nonfamily households, characteristics of single-parent families, living arrangements of children and data on married and unmarried couples. The CPS has been conducted annually since 1940.
"Decreases in the percentage of families with their own child under 18 at home reflect the aging of the population and changing fertility patterns," said Rose Kreider, family demographer at the U.S. Census Bureau. "In 2008, not only were baby boomers old enough that most of their children were 18 and over, but they were having fewer kids than their parents, as well."
In 1950, 52 percent of family households had their own child under 18. During the years when the baby boomers were young, this percentage increased, reaching 57 percent in the early 1960s. In 2008, however, when the baby boomers were about ages 44 to 62, and likely to be householders themselves, the percentage of families with a child had declined to 46 percent.


text:
Annual AIPAC Party Gathers in Washington Under Clouds of Uncertainty and Shadows of Hagel
After the Hagel conflagration and before the Obama visit, with no Israeli coalition and a new U.S. Administration, the policy part of the conference will be akin to groping in the dark.
Over 12,000 enthusiastic delegates descended on Washington on Sunday for what may very well be the greatest pro-Israeli show on earth – the annual Policy...
Want to enjoy 'Zen' reading - with no ads and just the article? Subscribe todaySubscribe now


text:
The PlayStation US Blog has announced that The Resistance Collection bundleware will be available in North America on the 5th December for $39.99 USD.
The bundle will include Resistance: Fall of Man, Resistance 2, Resistance 3, as well as the following downloadable content packs: Resistance 2 Aftermath Multiplayer Map Pack, Resistance 2 Skin Bundle, Resistance 2 Wraith Skin multiplayer weapon, Resistance 3 Brutality Pack and Resistance 3 Survival Pack.
News Story
The Resistance Collection gets 5th December release
21 November 2012 | By JAFalcon
- Source:
- PlayStation US Blog


text:
Friday, June 5, 2009 | 2:34 p.m.
Sun Topics
Nevada's unemployment insurance program has received a $25.7 million infusion from federal stimulus funds, the U.S. Department of Labor announced today.
The Labor Department has certified $25,645,804 to be released to Nevada. The state qualified for the funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act by allowing workers to use their more recent earnings to qualify for benefits.
U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis praised Nevada for changing its unemployment program to better meet "the needs of the 21st century workforce."
"Nevada now uses recent wages when determining eligibility for benefits, which enables unemployed workers who are relatively new entrants to the workforce to obtain the assistance they need and deserve," Solis said in a statement.
The Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation has options when it comes to using the funds. The money can be used to pay unemployment benefits, or, if the legislature approves it, it can be used to administer the unemployment insurance program or to deliver employment services.
The Recovery Act made $7 billion available in unemployment insurance incentive payments to states.


text:
The issue of immigration topped the agenda in Denmark in 2001. The country's impeccable record as a bastion of democracy, human rights, and egalitarianism was tarnished by a barrage of international criticism that cited racial intolerance and maltreatment of asylum seekers amid an atmosphere of growing xenophobia at home. Government plans, though later scrapped after much furor, to confine asylum seekers on remote islands while their applications were being processed, coupled with the revelation that many would-be immigrants were being housed in container homes (albeit well-appointed), further dented Denmark's reputation abroad. In addition, fewer than 5% of Denmark's population were foreigners, and most of that figure represented citizens from European Union (EU) states or the U.S.; there were only about 165,000 Muslims in the country.
The prevailing trepidation among many Danes about their country's becoming a multiethnic society and fears that their culture or "Danishness" were threatened helped anti-immigration groups gain a foothold, notably the xenophobic Danish People's Party (DF) led by Pia Kjaersgaard. The DF—campaigning on a direct anti-Muslim, antiforeigner platform—made solid progress in opinion polls and forced other parties, including the ruling Social Democrats and the main opposition Liberals, to adopt tougher stances on immigration. Taxes and dwindling welfare services were the other main themes of a short and bitter campaign, which ended as predicted with a landslide victory for the Liberal Party of Anders Fogh Rasmussen. The Liberals, with the support of the Conservatives and centrist and rightist groups, won 98 seats in Folketing (parliament); the Social Democrats and the centre-left bloc garnered 77 seats, down from the 89 held in the previous parliament. On November 27 Anders Fogh Rasmussen announced that he would head a Liberal-Conservative minority-rightist coalition government, which called for a major tightening of immigration laws, cuts in overseas development aid, an income-tax freeze, improvements in hospital services and social welfare, tougher law-and-order provisions, and a reduction by half of Denmark's $70 billion gross public debt by 2002.
On the economic front, Denmark's historic "no" vote in 2000 to participation in the European Economic and Monetary Union did not have the predicted damaging effect—unemployment hit its lowest level in 25 years; inflation was moderate; the krone currency remained firm; and foreign trade and current account surpluses stayed buoyant. A draft budget for 2002 showed a surplus in state finances for the sixth consecutive year amid forecasts that Denmark would not be as hard hit by the world economic downturn as some of its neighbours.
Following the September terrorist attacks in the U.S., the Danish government pledged to take action to abolish Denmark's exemptions from joint defense and legal cooperation within the EU, citing the need for closer international efforts to fight terrorism.
Relations between Denmark and the Faroe Islands remained strained following the postponement in the spring of a planned local referendum on the issue of independence. Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen had threatened to cut off Copenhagen's annual $120 million grant to the islands, about one-third of Faroese public expenditure. Undeterred by this development and the inconclusive results from the first test drillings for oil off the islands, the Faroese home-rule government announced plans to phase out Danish aid and influence gradually, starting in 2002.
|Quick Facts
|43,096 sq km (16,639 sq mi)
|(2001 est.): 5,358,000
|Chief of state:
|Queen Margrethe II
|Head of government:
|Prime Ministers Poul Nyrup Rasmussen and, from November 27, Anders Fogh Rasmussen


text:
PAISLEY, Scotland -- Rob Meakin, like many Winnipeggers, dreams about seeing Team Canada's Jennifer Jones in the final of the world women's curling championship. Only his dream doesn't end quite the same way as everyone else's.
You see, in his vision the Canadians will be losing to a team from the United States, of all places.
Now before you go thinking Meakin, a former Canadian and world champion, is a turncoat, an explanation is in order.
The 40-year-old, who played second for Kerry Burtnyk for many years, is here in Scotland working at his new job as assistant athlete development director and assistant national coach for USA Curling.
That means Meakin, who has been on the job for a few months, has a new allegiance at this year's world championship.
"I've got some ties to the Canadian team, so it would be great to see them in the final, but I'd like to see the U.S. win," Meakin said yesterday at the Lagoon Leisure Centre.
"A couple of the Canadian players were in Brandon at the worlds (when Meakin was there with Burtnyk) and (Team Canada lead) Cathy Gauthier is the godmother to my daughter. I would love that situation, though. I think that would be a great final."
He might love that situation, but the Canadians would sure find it strange to see an old buddy cheering for the other team.
"It's all wrong, it's all wrong," Gauthier joked.
Meakin, who is the assistant to Canadian curling great Ed Lukowich with USA Curling, is working closely here with Cassie Johnson's U.S. foursome, which hails from Bemidji, Minn.
The team, with four players under the age of 25, has already earned the right to represent the U.S. at the 2006 Winter Olympics, and Meakin is enjoying working with such a young, enthusiastic group.
"It's different, but I like being part of growing the sport in the United States," he said. "The bigger the game gets there, the better for everybody involved in the game.
"Cassie Johnson has a great young team, and the future looks really good for them. They are mature beyond their years. From what I've seen, they can compete with anybody, and they have proven it. They were world junior champions."
Meakin, 40, works part-time for USA Curling while holding down a full-time gig at electronic component distributor Chip-Tech Ltd., in Winnipeg. His employer not only supports his side venture, but has actually become a sponsor for the men's and women's U.S. national teams.
His position has him on the road more than usual, which isn't ideal for his wife Nadine and his two children, but his family is understanding, especially considering he gave up playing the game to be with them.
That's right, a few years ago Meakin walked away from competitive curling, even though he played on one of the country's finest teams.
"I know I made the right decision," he said. "I did lose my passion to play with the commitment that's needed. You need that fire to go out there and play every weekend, and it was time for me to take a step back and spend more time with my family."
Well, he never stepped back completely, first developing a high-performance program for the Wildewood Club and now taking on this new venture.
"I'm definitely excited about this, and you get the same sort of feeling as when you are playing," said Meakin, who could end up working at the Olympics next year. "I don't think you ever lose the will to want to win. I've got a different role now and that's to help the team in any way I can to make them champions."


text:
Into the Wild meets Helter Skelter in this riveting true story of a modern-day homesteading family in the deepest reaches of the Alaskan wilderness - and of the chilling secrets of its maniacal, spellbinding patriarch.
When Papa Pilgrim appeared in the Alaska frontier outpost of McCarthy with his wife and fifteen children in tow, his new neighbors had little idea of the trouble to come. The Pilgrim Family presented themselves as a shining example of the homespun Christian ideal, with their proud piety and beautiful old-timey music, but their true story ran dark and deep. Within weeks, Papa had bulldozed a road through the mountains to the new family home at an abandoned copper mine, sparking a tense confrontation with the National Park Service and forcing his ghost town neighbors to take sides in an ever-more volatile battle over where a citizen's rights end and the government's power begins.
In Pilgrim's Wilderness, veteran Alaska journalist Tom Kizzia unfolds the remarkable, at times harrowing, story of a charismatic spinner of American myths who was not what he seemed, the townspeople caught in his thrall, and the family he brought to the brink of ruin. As Kizzia discovered, Papa Pilgrim was in fact the son of a rich Texas family with ties to Hoover's FBI and strange, oblique connections to the Kennedy assassination and the movie stars of Easy Rider. And as his fight with the government in Alaska grew more intense, the turmoil in his brood made it increasingly difficult to tell whether his children were messianic followers or hostages in desperate need of rescue. In this powerful piece of Americana, written with uncommon grace and high drama, Kizzia uses his unparalleled access to capture an era-defining clash between environmentalists and pioneers ignited by a mesmerizing sociopath who held a town and a family captive.
©2013 Tom Kizzia (P)2013 Random House Audio
"A journalist's gripping account of a modern fundamentalist Christian pioneer family and the dark secrets that held it together.... Provocative and disturbing." (Kirkus Reviews)
"Strong work of reportage.... [Papa Pilgrim's] intriguing past crumbles in comparison to his excruciating cruelty and to the inspiring grace and strength of his children." (Booklist)
"The riveting story of a megalomaniacal sociopath who left a trail of woe from Texas to the Great White North, Pilgrim's Wilderness lends credence to the maxim that the unadulterated truth, when conveyed with sufficient skill, is not only more illuminating than fiction, but also more entertaining. Tom Kizzia has written an uncommonly insightful book about post-frontier Alaska, an ambitious literary work disguised as a page-turner, very much in the tradition of Edward Hoagland's Notes From the Century Before and John McPhee's Coming into the Country." (Jon Krakauer, author of Into the Wild and Under the Banner of Heaven)
"bewildering wilderness family"
Yes, It is quite a long story, historical and entertaining at the same time.
The amount of control one man can have over " his" family
Again, the length of a book. If it is too long, having a narrator keeps my mind from wandering,
Bewilderment and anger against Pilgrim
Good listen. I learnt a lot about the Alaskan wilderness and its "foreign" inhabitants.
"Not the story I thought"
I overall score this book a 2, not because of the writing, as it was we written but because I thought it was a book about an Alaska wilderness homesteading story. The book is actually about a horrific family abuse story. A nod to the author for his dedication to this families tale. It needed to be told.
"Crazy book about a crazy family"
Very good listen. An intriguing story artfully told. If you like learning about the odd balls at the edge of society you'll certainly enjoy this book.
"Can't beat real life......"
Unbelievable, Recent,Sad. I can't believe this happened so recently. It started out all about land rights and curved quickly to much more.
That it is so true, that things are rarely what they appear to be.
I loved the connection to Governor Connolly, Jack Nicholson, Lee Harvey Oswald, etc. It was pure fascination.
No. I needed breaks to absorb all I had read.
This was like watching a train wreck. Heartbreaking.
"Like the TV series!"
Compliment to Edge of Alaska history channel series. Fills in many missing facts and completes some story lines that are left open. Very good reader too!
"Abuse in the Wilderness"
Hard to accept this story happened so recently. An abusive father with a terrified family under his thumb, yet outwardly everyone seems happy. This man was truly a sociopath and the devil himself.
"Audible20 Review Sweepstakes Entry"
"shocking true story
gripping story! well narrated. will long remember this story! truth is always better than fiction.
"Good story, enjoyed it"
Sad story, hopeful ending. Prayers for the family. Enjoyed it very much. Kind of heard to follow.
Pilgrim's Progress references were great.
Thank you
"Good listen"
Interesting true story- also enjoyed the back drop of Alaska- definitely worth the time. People are never sure how to confront crazy.
"Psycho Incorporated"
This story is harrowing. Could not stop listening. Human cruelty knows no limits. Buy it.
Report Inappropriate Content
If you find this review inappropriate and think it should be removed from our site, let us know. This report will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action.


text:
Iowa is a mid-western American state that was first settled in the early 1700 by the French. The territory eventually became part of the new United States in 1846, as the 29th state in the union.
Even though Iowa has a long history of registering births, and has a record collection that dates back to the 1880s, you can only request a copy of such a record if you are an immediate relative. That means the person on the record must be yourself or your child, parent, grandchild, grandparent, spouse or sibling. You will have to prove this relationship with your application, detailed below.
Unfortunately, there is currently no date limit for these privacy restrictions so even very old Iowa birth records will require an immediate relationship.
You can either make your request at the registrar's office in the county where the birth took place, or at the main state office. They do offer counter service if you want to drop off the application rather than mail it in. There is at least a 2-day waiting period even if you drop it off in person. If you are making your request of an Iowa birth record for genealogical purposes, you can wait up to 2 months as your application has a low priority over those with legal issues pending. Mailed applications will take about a month, again with a longer wait for genealogy requests.
Whether you choose to drop off or mail, the address is the same: Iowa Department of Public Health, Bureau of Health Statistics, Lucas State Office Building Floor #1, 321 E 12th Street, Des Moines Iowa, 50319-0075 USA. If you are dropping it off, you should sign the forms in front of the officer there. For mail-in requests, your application must be signed in front of a notary public and clearly notarized.
The applications forms for an Iowa birth record can be downloaded from the IDPH website (http://www.idph.state.ia.us/apl/common/pdf/vital_records/birth_application.pdf). All of the current information is on the forms, including what fee are required. Be sure to read the forms to make sure you are conforming to up-to-date application requirements.
Right now, the fee is $15 USD, which can be paid with either a check or money order that has been made out to the Iowa Department of Public Health. Also with your application forms, you will need to provide a clear photocopy of your own identification and any other documentation required to prove your relationship to the person of record.
As mentioned, you can also make your request at each county office which would possibly give you additional access to any records older than July 1880. County records are unlikely to go beyond the 1870s though. The relationship restrictions would still apply though. Some of these offices may require you pay the search fees in cash.
The specific information included on an Iowa birth record will vary by county and the time the record was created. Earlier records will have less information than more modern ones.
To request Iowa birth certificates by mail do the following:
Step 1.
Download the Iowa Birth Certificate form and complete it.
Step 2.
You will need to have your signature on the form notarized, and you will also need to include a copy of your current photo ID.
Step 3.
Return all of the appropriate paperwork to the Bureau of Health Statistics. You will also need to include a check or money order for $15 to cover the search fee.
If you have more questions regarding accessing Iowa birth records, you can contact the Department of Public Health below:
Iowa Department of Public Health
Bureau of Health Statistics
Lucas State Office Building, 1st Floor
Des Moines, Iowa 50319-0075
(515) 281-4944
Requesting Iowa Birth Records
Iowa birth records are an important form of identification. If you need a copy of your record, then you will need to contact the Iowa Department of Public Health.
Different Ordering Methods
There are multiple ways that you can process a request for Iowa birth records. Calling the Department of Public Health will allow you to hear a recording with information on each method. Requests can be processed by phone, online, by mail, and in person.
Who Cannot Access Records
Iowa birth records are considered confidential, which means that they are not available to the general public. In order to request a record, you must be the person listed, a parent, grandparent, child, sibling, or legal representative. Proof of your identity will be required.


text: well im got to say hi to all fellow wii's out there i just got my wii last weekend 12:15 am wallmart 6 left of 11 units . they were all gone by 1 am. been playing wii sports an man my arm is sore. its deffently a new way to play well alittel about me i love video games its a sickness, with 24 system to date. im into old cars mostly Oldsmobiles. checkout www.hurstolds.com i have the 1984 version.3500 made. and old and new scooters vespa lambretta genuine blur 150 etc. if you got a 360 there im also teamhurst and on ps3 im hurst1984 and on wii im teamhurst .. good gaming


text:
Mark is the CEO of WhereScape.
In his 30 year career, Mark has held sales and marketing management positions at Intel, Sequent Computer Systems, RadiSys, and Applied Microsystems.
He holds an MBA from the University of Oregon, a Masters Degree in Computer Science from the University of Southern California, a BS in Industrial Engineering, and graduated from Buckley School of Public Speaking.
Mark has been a member of the Board since March 2014.


text:
Chrysler is making a bespoke Chrysler 300 bearing the stylings of designer John Varvatos. The GQ "Designer of the Year" and Detroit native who has appeared in "Imported from Detroit" Chrysler ads helped create a version of the car that is meant to evoke the tough industrial backbone of the Motor City.
New 2013 Chrysler 300C John Varvatos Luxury Edition features has Dark Mocha or Black ultra-premium Poltrona Frau "Foligno" leather and hand-sanded matte, with platinum chrome exterior detail. The company says the car is styled after the black with Titanium-finished John Varvatos' cologne bottle. The grille blades of the car are meant to mimic Detroit foundries that fed the auto boom.
The John Varvatos logo is embossed on the leather seats. The limited-production 2013 Chrysler 300C John Varvatos Limited Edition arrives to Chrysler showrooms in the first-quarter of 2013.


text:
Cha for Tea in Long Beach, California
Tom S. rated this place and said
Great atmosphere and great menu items. Tea bar has a wide variety of drinks, both traditional and modern. Also a nice selection of bulk loose leaf. Only complain is it's fairly cramped, but it's a popular place for college students even until midnight.
- 5720 E 7th St
- Long Beach, California
- (562) 668-5100
- http://www.chafortea.com


text:
ARM unveils 64-bit architecture
41 comments
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--ARM Holdings has announced that its next-gen ARMv8 architecture will include the firms first 64-bit instruction set, pushing ARM-based processors into new segments of the consumer and enterprise markets.
Speaking at ARM TechCon 2011 in Santa Clara, Calif., ARM Chief Technology Officer Mike Muller said the new v8 architecture would consist of two main execution states: AArch64 and AArch32, with the former introducing a new A64 for 64-bit processing instruction set, while the latter would continue to support ARMs existing instruction set.
ARM V8 fully supports 32 bit ARMv7a software, said Muller, adding that the architecture had been designed to maximize the benefits across both 32-bit and 64-bit application areas."
This, he said, would bring the advantages of energy-efficient 64-bit computing to new applications such as high-end servers and computing, as well as offering backwards compatibility and migration for existing software through a consistent architecture."
A 64 bit OS can easily and efficiently support existing 32 bit software, he explained.
Taking a dig at rival Intel Corp., Muller said that though the world had been done very well by Moores Law, theres nowhere else to go. Muller said while more cores was certainly a good trend, ARM believed the future would be found in having lots of power efficient cores rather than some more power inefficient cores. Muller maintained that overall, the problems came down to the system level, not the cores.
ARM partners like Nvidia Corp. have already announced plans to target the server space, but before the announcement of 64-bit ARM architecture, that vision didnt translate into much of a competitive reality, as server buyers were not likely to invest in machines that couldnt handle the software they were running.
Despite the significance of the announcement, however, Muller warned that building a new architecture was not a quick thing and would take a few years, but was important in terms of scaling for ARMs future. It takes time to build ecosystems and were fully aware of that, he said.
Indeed, the first processors based on ARMv8 will only be announced sometime in 2012, with actual server prototypes running on the new architecture expected in 2014.
ARM was going to need to go 64-bit in the next 4-5 years for cell phones and tablets anyway, explained analyst David Kanter of Real World Technologies. The interesting part is that ARM partners such as Calxeda and Nvidia are clearly planning to target the server space, heading for a direction collision course with AMD, IBM, Intel and Oracle, he said.
The question, said Kanter, was not whether ARM's 64-bit extensions would be perfectly functional, but whether ARM partners could deliver competitive products with the performance, power efficiency and reliability that customers require.
Obviously Nvidia's strategy is going to be targeting HPC with GPUs, but that has never proven to be a market which can economically sustain a chip design company, much to SGI's detriment, Kanter noted.
Another disadvantage, Kanter pointed out, was that most of ARM's partners were fabless and had less expertise when it came to custom design, unlike incumbents AMD, IBM, Intel and Oracle.
They also have much less experience with the overall system and platform aspects, including the validation and testing required, he said, explaining that for a product like a GPU with a lifespan of about a year-- there wasnt typically as much emphasis on correctness because bugs could be worked around. In a server, there is very little tolerance for such things, he said.
In his keynote address, Muller also spoke about the increased need for more heterogeneous computing, system partitioning, and solving the problems of energy efficiency in devices as systems became increasingly complex and memory intensive.
Today, everything is an energy constrained system, he said adding, the solutions are all about building heterogeneous solutions.