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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: 02/10/2013 by Dhoopy (1 review written)
Last time we went there was at least a 45 minute wait even for a starter. That being said it was a very busy time of the month and the kids were off from school. Food as always was one of the best in the area, so we still go regularly with friends and family. Thanks… Read Full Review
Written on: 28/09/2012 by steb91blei (4 reviews written)
The restaurant is nice, but nothing much. Last time I waited too much for my meal and I do not like that… Read Full Review
Written on: 17/09/2012 by steee1amoa (5 reviews written)
This is very nice, romantic place. From time to time my wife and I go there to enjoy each other company… Read Full Review
Written on: 30/08/2012 by dan04b7kea (5 reviews written)
The place is nice for two people to have a lovely dinner at. To me it is a couple restaurant, though it can be enjoyed by a group,also… Read Full Review
Written on: 19/06/2012 by kiesowluwu (1 review written)
Really grat italian food, amazing… Read Full Review
Written on: 11/06/2012 by johx7na9pa (2 reviews written)
Really taste food, really enjoyed it. The overall experience was really nice… Read Full Review
Written on: 04/05/2010
I really love italian food and you can be sure that you will get there the best italian food in maidstone. Fresh and tasty meals , friendly and fast service . I trully recommend this restaurant… Read Full Review
Written on: 12/02/2009
Azzurro, Maidstone, has some good points mainly the food is good and it is generally speedy service. There are not enough tables to seat the people that come to the bussiness and this creates problems and there is also a strange atmosphere which could be solved by more lighting and music… Read Full Review
Written on: 15/09/2008 by Shade2 (1 review written)
At Azzurro, Maidstone I have experienced consistently good food, and a speedy, friendly service.
The prices are very reasonable too.
It's always a pleasure to eat here, as a first choice for Italian food in Maidstone due to the excellent food… Read Full Review
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Should Cakes with Cream Cheese Frosting Be Refrigerated?
Q: My brother and his fiancée really want a carrot cake for their wedding cake, but I'm concerned that the cream cheese frosting will be a food poisoning risk. How long can a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting stay unrefridgerated before it becomes a health hazard?
Sent by Liz
Editor: Readers, what do you say about this one?
Next question?
Related: Expert Advice: How to Wrap, Store, and Keep Cake Fresh
(Image: Carrot Cake/Emma Christensen)

subset: commoncrawl


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PELHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — Brittany Rosser could not believe it. Dewey Green, her classmate from Pelham High School, charged with murder in Georgia. The only violence I can remember from him, is when some kids smacked him in the face with a two by four and he just came back at them," she said. "He was trying to defend one of his friends."
Wednesday morning, Douglasville Police Chief Chris Womack said Green struck a woman with his car multiple times, killing her. "As she falls in the road way, he then backs up and goes in reverse over her and then pulls forward and runs over her again," said Chief Womack.
"I don't understand why…It's not something we're going to understand." – Brittany Rosser, classmate at Pelham High School
Green loved skating in his younger years, which often led him to Faith Skate Supply. Owner Peter Karvonen said he's known Green since he was around twelve years old, and saw his as recently as this past Saturday. "It was national 'Go Skateboarding Day' on the 21st. He and his crew of friends were down here," said Karvonen. The owner noticed something different about Green while he was in the shop. "He was acting out of character, a little loopy."
Before his Facebook page was taken down, friends of Dewey Green were posting support and asking questions, including Rosser. "I don't understand why," said Rosser."It's not something we're going to understand."
Green has a court date Friday morning according to Chief Womack.
Copyright 2014 WIAT 42 News


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Juliana Romano is a painter and an avid reader. A Los Angeles native, Juliana got her MFA in Painting from UCLA in 2008. She currently lives in New York and teaches drawing at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. In addition to painting and teaching, she recently finished writing a Young Adult novel of her own. You can visit her on the web at julianaromano.com.
Love Sick: On Lauren Oliver
IN THE OPENING CHAPTER of Lauren Oliver's Delirium, 17-year-old Lena Haloway takes a mandatory state evaluation designed to determine ...


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Don't miss your chance to see Napalm Death in Minneapolis! Check out the schedule below for the concert date of your choice, then buy your Napalm Death Minneapolis tickets before they sell out!
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If you were searching to see if Napalm Death is coming to Minneapolis, then you're in luck! For their latest tour, Napalm Death will indeed hold a concert in Minneapolis. Have an awesome concert experience when you go to see Napalm Death in Minneapolis. Get your Napalm Death tickets Minneapolis and join fellow fans for a concert to remember!


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Alzheimer Symptoms Reversed With Stem Cells
A new stem cell treatment reverses Alzheimer-like memory impairment in mice, according to researchers at the University of South Florida and James A. Haley Hospital. Based on the promising findings, the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation is funding a pilot clinical trial on humans.
The researchers studied 52 elderly mice with symptoms mimicking Alzheimer's disease and confirmed through a series of tests that the treated mice demonstrated clearly improved memory, performing as well on behavioral tests as their non-Alzheimer's counterparts.


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In Jason Mott's haunting and unforgettable debut novel, The Returned, an impossible miracle is occurring all across the globe. Read how it all begins in this short story, The First.
It's been just over a year since Edmund Blithe died, and just over a month since his fiancee, Emily, stopped wearing her engagement ring. Emily has finally begun to move on… Until Edmund mysteriously and inexplicably returns, sending the world - and Emily - into a tailspin.
Edmund is only just the beginning. Around the world, people's loved ones are returning from beyond, seeking only to reenter the lives they left behind. As the world dives deep into uncertainty, Emily and Edmund are determined to find their way back to one another…even if it means risking everything.
The reappearances continue in The Sparrow, and look for The Returned from Harlequin MIRA, a moving tale of a family given a second chance at life and a world where nothing - not even death - is certain.
©2013 Jason Mott (P)2013 Audible Inc.
Melodramatic, swarmy, silly, not well written. Half way decent concept, just needs a good writer to do justice to it.
"Under the Spell"
Whatever sort of magic Jason Mott weaves, he has completely captivated me in the 34 short minutes of this prequel. As one who is easily disappointed by this genre, I am actually looking forward to August 27 and the release of The Returned.
The prequel promises much while not giving away anything - a difficult trick to pull off! During this brief introduction to Edmund and his "situation," which is apparently not limited just to him, the narrator immediately brings to life the author's portrayal of the characters' personalities.
Both writer and performer have left me spellbound and anxious for the story to continue. Well done
"Free Book - Short Story - Great Concept!!"
STORY - This is the first of three prequels to a book called "The Returned," which just came out last month. Each prequel is apparently the story of a different person's unexpected return from the dead, a phenomenon which is starting to occur all over the world (but this book is the first occurrence). What a great marketing concept -- release a few prequels of different occurrences to get people salivating, then hit the market with the story that ties them all together and explains everything. Brilliant!
I don't know if I'm going to buy "The Returned," as the reviews are not too great, but this prequel was very enjoyable. I actually got chills...a young woman finds that her dead fiance is alive again. OMG!
PERFORMANCE - Good enough, nothing special.
OVERALL - It's free, it's short, it's good. What are you waiting for? (It makes a nice little break when you're listening to a long book).
"The jury is still out"
This short story preview shows that there is an interesting premise and potentially good book coming in The Returned. But I detected some weaknesses in the writing and narrating of The First that has me hesitating to order the next installment, and both have to do with Emily's mother. The bad southern accent in near-falsetto is distracting to listen to, and her POV telling her distraught daughter not to be so excited about about her beloved Edmund returning to life (don't worry, he'll call you when he can) is joltingly out of sync with the fear and awe the should accompany the cosmically mysterious event. Although the summary of The Returned suggests a completely different cast of characters (so perhaps I'd never hear Emily's mom again), I still wonder about the author's ability to develop characters whose actions appear consistent with the strange circumstances.
Short stories and novels are very different writing forms, and perhaps author Mott is better at the second than the first. But I think I will await some reviews of The Returned before deciding if it is a stronger effort than the short preview.
"I see dead people!"
Suddenly her fiancé who died over a year ago shows up for work. Seemingly healthy, with no memory of his death or how he got there, the mystery is not just how but why? And it's happening all over the world!
It's free and I'm thankful, but I'm just not curious about how or why.
It seems well written and certainly well read.
"Very Interesting."
The story is interesting, but I hope it dosen't end up like the 4400 did. It is hard not to see the tparallel in some instances, although they didn't appear out of a lake. Still the return of dead people is interesting. to see how the story will progress.
"Entertaining and new storyline"
That it is a fresh and unique sTory line not your cookie cutter book
I downloaded the three available prequels off of audible to see if the story interested me prior to purchasing the entire book. I'm fairly certain this is the first prequel. the book was interesting and had a unique story line about people coming back from the dead a year after they had passed away which naturally would shock your loved ones. the story leaves you guessing on quite a few fronts which typically happens in a short story since you're not getting the full and complete story. I will continue on to read the other two prequels
"Liked it"
I liked it. It was well written and the narrator was believable. I immediately made sure I had the other short stories/prequels downloaded and now I am even spending a credit on the first actual book. I think it's a very interesting concept.
"A s0-so shortie prequil"
Maybe worth the couple of bucks it cost, this 40 minute prequel is fairly blah. I purchased all 3 prequels after I'd heard the story and frankly, it is a waste of money by them. Listen to them first if you plan on listening to The Returned.
"Not bad"
What a clever idea. I don't know this author, I think he's fairly new. So he offers 3 free prequels to his first book! What can you lose? And to top it off the narrator is very good and the story may be OK. I' listen to the other two freebies and then decide if I want to buy the real book.
"Interesting story, couldn't get on with narrator"
This story is interesting enough that I would have been tempted to buy the book. I love the idea of having short stories leading up to the novel. My problem is that I simply can not get on with the narrator. I have returned another book by a favorite author (R.A. Salvatore) for the same reason. Instead of my usual problem with narrators, which is that they are too monotone and robotic, Victor Bevine reads the words almost poetically and can do a range of voices, which is brilliant. However, he is very emotional, which can work to create a sense of pace but when it's all the time it becomes jarring. There seemed to be more emphasis on what the story sounded like, than on telling the story itself. This left me feeling that there was an emotional disconnect between him and the actual story, as though he had only one way of reading, regardless of what was happening in the reading material.
My advice would be to try this as it is free and can give you a great idea of what author and narrator are like. I will personally be looking out for Jason Mott in the future.
"Great start to the prequels"
This was really touching and enjoyable, just the mere thought of putting yourself in Emily's position and having a loved one return who had passed would be amazing! This book was very well thought out, looking forward to continuing the story😀
"Probably the least entertaining of the sequals"
Out of all the prequels to the original book The Returned, this is probably the weakest but it is nice to delve back into the world and it is a nice starting point.
I am looking forward to continuing the story. X
It was gripping and interesting with the love story running through the centre of the story.
"Human emotions"
Life after Death... Is there life after the death of a loved one? Those who experience it doubt that. But what happens when the dead loved one turns up 'alive'?
"A good start"
I wouldn't listen to this short story on its own again but if I was going to listen to 'The Returned' again, I would listen to the three prequel short stories (of which this is the first) again, too.
My favourite character was probably Edmund Blythe because he seemed like a really nice guy coping as well as could be expected in completely unprecedented circumstances.
I thought the narrator's voice really suited the story and I'd definitely listen to audiobooks narrated by Bevine in the future. The only reason I didn't give him 5 stars was because I felt he should have left a slightly longer gap between scene changes. The complete lack of a pause between scene changes was a little confusing at times.
'This movie is based on a 30 minute short story so expect more unnecessary padding than the Hobbit movies!'
This doesn't work as a stand-alone short story in its own right, but it works really well as a teaser for the novel. I can't imagine anybody reading this story and not wanting to read the novel to find out what the bigger picture is.
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Integrating the virtual and the physical
The Last Inch to IoT
Return to Global SATO Site
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SATO introduces ECONANO® labels - The world's first CO2 reducing label
What are ECONANO® Labels?
The ECONANO® series are labels that use nano vesicle capsule (NVC) technology to add a CO2 absorbent to the label's adhesive. This enables users to reduce CO2 emissions at the point of incineration by approximately 20%.
ECONANO® was developed by SATO Group in collaboration with Professor Masahiko Abe at the Department of Science and Engineering, Tokyo University of Science, and the University's venture company, Acteiive Corporation.
ECONANO® Labels - CO2 Absorption System at Incineration
ECONANO® labels can reduce the amount of CO2 released at the point of incineration by over 20% in comparison to normal labels.
CO2 Reduction Effect
If you were to replace 1 million 50mm x 85mm standard labels used over the course of one year with ECONANO® labels, the CO2 released at incineration would be reduced by 224kg. This is equivalent to the amount of CO2 released during the manufacture, treatment and incineration of 4,814 plastic bags.
Cut CO2 emissions by 50% with ECONANO-NONSEPA labels!
SATO's NONSEPA® are linerless labels. Without liners, less material needs to be disposed of or incinerated meaning both CO2 emissions and disposal costs can be reduced. By using ECONANO-NONSEPA labels, NONSEPA® labels containing the ECONANO® CO2 absorbent in their adhesive, it is possible to reduce CO2 emissions by approximately 50%.
Notes on calculation:
Calculation Range: Data from disposal stage of standard label, NONSEPA® label, ECONANO-NONSEPA label.
Incineration is the assumed method of waste disposal.
CO2 reduction at incineration of ECONANO® Label, ECONANO-NONSEPA Label: 20% (TG/DTA Analysis)
Plastic bag CO2 emissions: Data shows the amount of CO2 released during manufacture, treatment and incineration (assumes 1 x plastic bag contains 10g of HDPE)
Waste Incineration: The Investigative Commission for the Determination Method of Global Warming Gases Generation, Global Warming Control Division, Global Environment Bureau, Japanese Ministry of the Environment (Aug. 2002)
CO2 Reduction Rate: CO2 Absorbent Materials Manufacturer (TG/DTA Analysis)
Plastic Bag Conversion: Investigative Report on Inventory Data in Resin Treatment, Plastic Waste Management Institute (Jan. 2000)
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Semicon's hot products: AMAT, EV, KLA, Norcimbus, Rudolph, sp3
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SAN FRANCISCO -- At the Semicon West trade show here, fab tool vendors rolled out a plethora of products. Here's some of the hot product introductions at the show:
*Applied Materials Inc. rolled out its Applied SmartMove system, a comprehensive wafer management solution for non-automated 200- and 300-mm fabs. The SmartMove system brings efficiency to these fabs, seamlessly integrating with customers' existing MES software to wirelessly track and direct the movement of wafer lots.
The SmartMove system integrates Applied's Activity Manager workflow automation software with LotTrack technology from Intellion AG, a radio frequency and ultrasound-based wafer carrier tracking system.With the SmartMove system, users can boost factory output by up to 10 percent, and typically realize a return on their investment in less than 9 months.
*EV Group unveiled its next-generation, UV-nanoimprint lithography (UV-NIL) step and repeat system--the EVG770 Gen II NIL Stepper. Some of the key new features the EVG770 include vacuum imprinting on a spun-on polymer layer, which eliminates defect issues caused by trapped air bubbles--ultimately resulting in pattern fidelity.
It also boasts a high-precision alignment system with accuracy within +/-500-nm. A <35-nm overlay alignment accuracy has already been demonstrated on a test set-up system.
*KLA-Tencor Corp. announced two new wafer inspection systems and a new electron-beam review system to address defect issues at the 3X-nm / 2X-nm nodes. The 2830 Series brightfield wafer inspection platform uses a high-power plasma light source to illuminate defect types whose size or location made them impossible to detect repeatably before now.
The Puma 9500 Series darkfield wafer inspection platform introduces new optics and image acquisition technology that give it twice the resolution at twice the speed of its predecessor. The eDR-5210 e-beam review and classification system features second-generation electromagnetic-field immersion technology.
*Norcimbus FCIV Inc., a supplier of particle-free UHP process gas systems and automation, introduced its NBlend variable flow gas mixing system to the global semiconductor and solar manufacturing markets. The NBlend system allows manufacturers to transition away from using specialty gas cylinders and achieve significant cost savings by blending their own specialty gasses in-house, implementing a facility's existing bulk gas supply infrastructure.
*Rudolph Technologies Inc. announced today the availability of its new S3000S Metrology System for in-line process control of advanced diffusion and fab-wide thin film applications. The optical design of the S3000S System enables simultaneous measurement with multi-wavelength, multi-angle Focus Beam Ellipsometry (FBE) and deep ultraviolet reflectometry (DUVR)--reducing measurement time and significantly increasing throughput over previous generations.
*SAFC Hitech is continuing its focus on next generation high-k for gate applications. The company has also made progress in developing germanium antimony telluride (GST) precursors for use in high volume phase change memory (PCM) applications.
*Another vendor, sp3 Diamond Technologies Inc., a supplier of diamond film products, equipment and services, said that its chemical vapor deposition (CVD) deposition capability has been expanded to provide diamond coatings ranging from smooth nanocrystalline with a surface roughness of less than 10 nm to controlled microcrystalline films with a surface roughness greater than 10 um.
Additionally, sp3's Model 650 CVD diamond hot filament reactors, which are used to apply the coatings, are available for companies interested in manufacturing diamond coated products in-house.


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That is so funny. Actually my ex daughter law cat thought at first was a girl turned out to be a boy.LOL
They are all swapped out and ready to go to the post office tomorrow. All packaged up and ready to sail your way.
Thanks for swapping and I had tons of fun with you all. Till the next Swap .Will be starting another one real soon. This one Disney will be a loud. THANK YOU !!!
Thanks for waiting. Never did received kubby343434 charms. I am so sorry kubby but if they ever arrive I have some here I will swap with you. Even if I have to cut a few blocks for you.i feel terrible for you that they didn't arrive here.


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Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Beyond debate?
Is belief in global-warming science another example of the "madness of crowds"? That strange but powerful social phenomenon, first described by Charles Mackay in 1841, turns a widely shared prejudice into an irresistible "authority". Could it indeed represent the final triumph of irrationality? After all, how rational is it to pass laws banning one kind of light bulb (and insisting on their replacement by ones filled with poisonous mercury vapour) in order to "save electricity", while ploughing money into schemes to run cars on ... electricity? How rational is it to pay the Russians once for fossil fuels, and a second time for permission (via carbon credits) to burn them? And how rational is it to suppose that the effects of increased CO2 in the atmosphere take between 200 and 1,000 years to be felt, but that solutions can take effect almost instantaneously? Whether rational or not, global warming theory has become a political orthodoxy. So entrenched is it that those showing any resistance to it are described as "heretics" or even likened to "Holocaust deniers"...read more
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What To Do with that Tasteless Canteloupe 3
We were standing around the melon bin at last week's CSA pick-up, and I was explaining to my mom what I knew about picking out a good canteloupe.
- It should feel heavy for its size.
- Its blossom end should have some give. (Which end is the blossom end? One side will be where the fruit broke from the thick vine, and you'll be able to see the outline of where the vine was. The other end is where the fruit grew from the flower, and that's where you'll want to press to see if it's a little soft.)
- It should smell like you want it to taste – fruity and a little sweet.
So people started gathering around, looking at me and looking down at the melons in their hands. I kept repeating myself, and soon there was a small group of us standing around sniffing and hefting and poking and nodding and shrugging.
Though my 3-point list let me pretend to be a candidate for mayor of Melonville, as often as not, I end up with a tasteless melon from our CSA share. At the store, I ask for a taste of melons before I buy them, and if I can't have a taste and end up with a dud then I'll return it for a refund. But you can't do that at the farm, and that's why I've been working on ways to use those less-than-perfect ones. Here are a couple of my latest favorites.
Spicy Honeyed Canteloupe
Serves ~10 (adjust as necessary – we were having a dinner party and so wanted a big platter)
- 1 whole canteloupe, seeds removed, sliced
- 3 T. honey
- 1 t. hot pepper (I used Aleppo, which has a great texture and is mildly hot. You could sort of fake it with 1/2 t. sweet paprika and 1/2 t. hot pepper flakes)
- sprinkle of kosher salt
- Put melon on platter, drizzle honey over, then sprinkle pepper and salt.
- Serve either cold or at room temperature.
6-8 servings
- cubed flesh from one canteloupe, pureed in blender with 2-3 T. water
- 2 c. lemon juice
- 3/4 – 1 c. sugar, depending on whether the melon is at all sweet
- water as needed
- For a smooth lemonade, strain the canteloupe through a mesh strainer, add water as needed to get to 6 cups total liquid. If you don't mind some texture, you can skip the straining and just add water as necessary to get to 6 cups.
- Mix together canteloupe, lemon juice and 3/4 c. sugar. Stir well to dissolve sugar, then chill and serve.


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This application shows how to create section information for NSFetchedResultsController using dates.
A single table view controller displays events sorted by date and grouped into sections by year and month. The Event entity has three attributes:
* timeStamp (persistent NSDate object).
The time stamp represents the time the event occurred.
* title (persistent NSString object).
The title of each event as it will be displayed on a row in the table view (this is not to be confused with section title). When the default data is created in the application delegate, the title is initialized to a string representation of the date.
* sectionIdentifier (transient NSString object).
The sectionIdentifier is used to divide the events into sections in the table view. It is a string value representing the number ((year * 1000) + month). Using this value, events can be correctly ordered chronologically regardless of the actual name of the month. It is calculated and cached on demand in the custom accessor method.
The sorting is all done at fetch time by the fetched results controller. The section name transformations are UI level and have no effect on the order of data.
Main Classes
Application delegate that configures the Core Data stack.
A table view controller that presents events by section.
A managed object class to represent an event in time.
Copyright (C) 2009-2013 Apple Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2013 Apple Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Updated: 2013-08-22


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Litigation as Feud
Orlando Residence v. G.P Co., LLC is an exceptionally complex dispute, ongoing in various forms since the 1980s, which I've been fortunate enough to get to recode for my veil piercing project. This January, the case came up on appeal, again, before the Seventh Circuit. In an exceptionally clear opinion, Judge Posner took the parties to task and directed the trial court to move them toward some kind of peace. Too bad he had to lead off with this bit of rational actor claptrap:
"For 22 years these parties and their predecessors have been litigating, in numerous lawsuits in different courts, a dispute over a piece of property in Nashville. We were told at argument without contradiction that the parties have expended $3 million in legal fees, a figure that exceeds any reasonable estimate of the amount in controversy. Yet such behavior need not be irrational or a product of spite or even of bad legal advice. A rational litigant, having expended $X in unsuccessful efforts to prevail, yet having additional litigation options that he can pursue, will compare the cost of those options to the expected benefit, disregarding the $X he has spent already. That is a sunk cost–a cost he cannot recover by anything he does and therefore a cost that will not influence his behavior (if he is rational). Still, from an overall social standpoint, the money spent on this litigation–which we cannot quite end today, much as we would like to–is excessive. But our decision will bring the end within sight."
Er, yes. It could be that the parties are thinking about litigation as a series of real options. But if Posner had read the underlying dockets, I think he'd come to a different conclusion. I'd say something more like a mix of legal agency costs and unadulterated hatred. The point is generalizable. Vexatious commercial litigation is exceedingly rare – I've found in previous work that less than 1% of cases have more than 150 docket entries. And it strikes me (anecdotally) that the amount at stake is at best a noisy predictor of such messy fights.


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Behind the Dictionary
Lexicographers Talk About Language
Word Court: The Judge Is In
The next time a language usage brouhaha has you ready to scream, come to blows or file for divorce -- wait! Cool down and contact Barbara Wallraff. The author of The Atlantic's popular Word Court and Word Fugitives columns and a weekly syndicated columnist for King Features, Barbara has been sorting out thorny language questions -- and occasionally saving marriages -- for over a quarter century. She's also written three terrific books on the subject: Word Fugitives, Your Own Words and Word Court. We had a lively talk with Barbara about usage, the role of dictionaries and the hidden power of Google:
VT: Your columns really give you an ear to the linguistic ground.
Barbara: They sure do. The format of my columns is question and answer -- people send me queries that I respond to. I like to think that makes me the best-informed language columnist out there.
VT: Why?
Barbara: Because I find out about things that are turning into problems that would just never occur to me. Readers notice and send me letters about them and ask me to give my judgment. One recent example had to do with the use of "supposably" instead of "supposedly." You know as well as I do which one is preferred in just about every context, but if you look in dictionaries, this isn't covered as a controversy. Now, I happen to be a member of the Usage Panel for the American Heritage Dictionary, so I sent the editor, Joseph Pickett, an email saying, Hey Joe what's up with this?
If you Google "supposably," you will find people on the Internet asking whether it's a word, and other people answering it's a non-word or it's a very specialized word or it's a perfectly good word. It seems to me dictionary users would want to know about this, too. So why isn't it covered? Joe and I had a long exchange. I came away with a little clearer idea of just how tough it is to decide exactly what to put in the dictionary. He came away saying he was going to give "supposably" its own entry in the next edition.
VT: Sounds like there's more going on behind the scenes at a dictionary than we imagine.
Barbara: One of the points I made in my second book, Your Own Words, is that your average dictionary user thinks the dictionary is something very different from what the lexicographers who put it together think it is.
The front matter of the dictionary tells you all kinds of stuff about what the lexicographers think they're doing. But if you take it seriously and look through the dictionary -- look up thousands of things, as I did -- you'll find that they don't necessarily do what they say they're doing. I got into a shouting match about this at a Dictionary Society of North America convention a couple of years ago.
We tend to think of commercial dictionaries as a scholarly product, and the people who create them have been taught to do a particular thing they do very well. But a lot of what they do is not what most people wish they would.
VT: Can you give us an example of what you mean?
Barbara: Just think of a word that can be pronounced two different ways. For instance, "Caribbean" - pronounced "kar-uh-bee-uh n" or "kuh-rib-ee-uh n." People tend to think that the first pronunciation given is the more correct one. But if you look in the front matter, the dictionary will often say, Well, any pronunciation given is perfectly fine; neither pronunciation is better than the other. I feel like, Then just pick one and tell me that that's the way to say it. But lexicographers will explain that they don't feel comfortable making a value judgment like that.
Same thing applies where there are two different spellings. The dictionaries will say, If we give you both spellings separated by an "or" or by a comma, either spelling is fine, don't worry about it, they're equal. Well, people don't know that. They tend to think the first spelling is the better one. If a spelling comes after "also," they will tell you there's nothing wrong with it either, it's just less common. Well, you know, help me out here -- tell me how you expect me to spell it.
VT: People are looking for answers.
Barbara: Absolutely. And why shouldn't they be? If you get really fanatical about it, the way I am, and you check the spellings on Google or Google News, you'll sometimes find that the dictionaries are just wrong and out of date - it's an entry they haven't bothered to correct.
At the same time, what you have is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Take Merriam-Webster's Collegiate, the most popular dictionary in America, also known as "Web 11." If they put X spelling first and Y spelling second, most people who use the dictionary - and who don't read the front matter - will think, Oh, the X spelling is the one that I should use. So Web 11 is causing that spelling to become the more popular one.
VT: You mention checking Google or Google News. Can you explain that?
Barbara: Well there's a lot about that in my second book again, Your Own Words. The knock on this process is obviously that you don't necessarily want to choose a spelling based on "majority rules." But over time this is exactly what happens. Many of the changes in our language are a history of understandable mistakes being made. For example, take "restaurateur" spelled without the "n." One of these days, it's just going to turn into "restauranteur."
It's important, though, to pay attention to the difference between Google News and regular Google because everything that's in the Google News database comes from edited media. It may not be edited very well, but someone paid to copy edit has looked over practically everything in there. That is quite different from the wide world of the web full of people expressing themselves as freely as possible.
Once you start looking in Google News, you can get a sense of where language is going. Some years ago when I was editing a travel piece for the Atlantic, we had an argument about whether people knew what an "infinity pool" was. Do you know what an "infinity pool" is?
VT: I think so.
Barbara: If you type "infinity pool" into Google News, you can see whether it's used in mainstream publications or just the newsletter of the swimming pool industry association. You can see whether mainstream publications expect readers to know, or feel they have to explain, that an infinity pool is a pool with one edge over which water runs freely to give the impression of the pool extending into an ocean or other body of water beyond.
VT: What's the significance of this?
Barbara: Resources like Google News are similar to what lexicographers use when they figure out what words to put in dictionaries.
VT: It's kind of like a People's Corpus.
Barbara: Yes, exactly. You can figure out if a word is well established enough to use in your context. You don't need to wait until the next edition of the dictionary comes out. I do a lot of this kind of thing. But let me say that I do respect, and use, dictionaries.
VT: So dictionaries aren't exactly obsolete?
Barbara: I have four of them on my hard disk. I also have a subscription to the OED Online, and I use a few others online. I use dictionaries and other reference books a lot. But some of my favorite questions are ones where you think, I didn't know that was in play.
VT: An example?
Barbara: Not long ago I had a question about whether a "late model car" is a recent model car or whether it's a car of a model that is late, or deceased. I thought this was perfectly obvious: it's a recent car. But only one of my dictionaries, the New Oxford American, comes out clearly and says that. When I started tooling around on the Web for this, I used Google itself, "big" Google rather than Google News, because I wanted to know how car dealers and people in that world use the term.
On Google you find phrases like "classic, antique and other late model cars" that make it clear that some people who sell these things use "late model" the other way. Isn't that interesting -- that some of these insiders have come up with what in common parlance means "newish" to mean a particular kind of old? All I can say is, Guys, stop it. A word that can either mean "old" or "new" just isn't going to be useful to anybody.
VT: Fascinating.
Barbara: A question like that is what I mean when I say that I feel so well informed by being in touch with my readers. It never would have occurred to me that there was any question about "late model" if a reader hadn't asked me about it.


text:
MADISON, Wis., July 3 (UPI) -- The family of a Wisconsin college coed missing for 10 days said after talking to police Tuesday they were more hopeful she will be found alive.
Kelly Nolan, a 22-year-old University of Wisconsin-Whitewater student, hasn't been seen since June 22 when she left some friends during a night out at Madison's bars. A sister talked to her by phone a few hours later but it's not known what they talked about, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
"We don't have any evidence of foul play," said Joel DeSpain, a Madison police spokesman.
The 5-foot-6, 125-pound woman has brown eyes and hair, and was last seen wearing a green, sleeveless scooped-neck shirt and blue jeans, police said.
Nolan's mother, Mary Jane Nolan, said police shared with her that made her more optimistic, WISC-TV reported.
"I won't share (the information) at this time based on the advice it could put a slow down on the investigation or turn it to another direction," Mary Jane Nolan said.
A reward fund was being set up to encourage people to come forward if they have any information.


text:
An early adopter to the web, Shira brings old-school journalistic chops to covering the world of new media. She's already got an extensive and impressive resume of work for Court TV, NBC, and dozens of websites, and was recently nominated for a Streamy Award for best Vlogger (that is, videoblogger).
Her current gig is a show for CBSnews.com called "On the Scene with Shira Lazar," in which she covers the latest in social trends and pop culture. A natural interviewer, Shira has a gift for making people—especially the "geeks" of the tech world—feel comfortable.
Chosen as this week's Actor2Watch, Shira will be featured in a series or articles, fun facts and social media tweets through this week for subscribers of Girl2Watch.com.
ACTOR2WATCH: You started as an actress, didn't you?
SHIRA LAZAR: Wikipedia says I'm an actress, but I'm not an actress necessarily. I used to act when I was younger.
I was a theater nerd growing up. I literally prayed to God every day that I would be an actress. Then I started going on auditions. I hated the way they judged me.
I got into behind-the-scenes staff and production. I found that middle way where that performance side of me could be expressed in broadcasting and hosting.
A2W:What kind of training did you get?
SL: I went to Emerson College in Boston and studied communications and production. I wanted to produce magazines and talk shows, then I also started creating shows that I was hosting. Emerson is very much a training school. Instead of going out to keggers and frat parties, we were creating TV shows.
I also have a vocal coach I go to. When I started out, my voice was really high and I would run out of breath sometimes. I started going to a vocal awareness coach and it was all about being able to control it, and your presence in certain situations.
So when people say things like, "Oh, your voice is really cool," I always attribute it to that help.
A2W: What the worst or most humiliating thing you've had to do on the job?
SL: I did one hosting job recently where it was sponsored and I was having to ask Oscar Award nominees to vacuum sand off a carpet after I interviewed them, every single one.
It was awkward and the worst brand integration ever—to the point where the audience ended up thinking I was a vacuum lady hired by the company to sell the product. It was embarrassing. People felt bad for me. Now you go online and there's all these pictures of celebrities holding this vacuum.
A2W: Do you use Facebook and Twitter to advance your career?
SL: I definitely do. I couldn't live without them. A lot of how I built my career was online. On Facebook, I have my fan page. I post a lot of my pictures, links to my stories. I'll crowdsource ideas and questions.
So if I have a story coming up, I'll use Facebook and Twitter to ask the people following me what they think. It creates a conversation.
A2W: Is there anything you wish someone had told you when you first started out?
SL: Love what you do. Be passionate because that authenticity goes a long way and people see that. Work on your craft and keep on challenging yourself and being curious. That's what will continue to allow you to move to different levels and move further in your career because if you don't have that, then it's like you can strategize as much as you want, but it doesn't really matter.
I definitely think as I was starting out, I was always doing what I thought people wanted me to do. And the more I found my voice, the more I realized people accepted me.
Because the more you believe in what you're doing, the more people understand what you are. And it's not a sell. It's an offer.


text:
This week my customer had a requirement to have all new work items created to have an ID greater than 40,000. They have another system that stores tickets and they don't want any conflict.
There have been a number of ways to achieve this through a database change, but it is not supported by Microsoft. This means that if you make the change and mess it up you are on your own.
In order to provide a supported way of doing this you need to use the API, and that is an interesting problem. We are going to have to use the API to create a specific number of work items, but we don't really want those work items hanging around.
We could:
But there should be a neater way and to that end, lets connect to a Team Project that we can use to create the work items in.
Dim projectPicker As New TeamProjectPicker(TeamProjectPickerMode.SingleProject, False)
If Not projectPicker.SelectedTeamProjectCollection Is Nothing Then
_Store = projectPicker.SelectedTeamProjectCollection.GetService(Of WorkItemStore)()
_ProjectInfo = projectPicker.SelectedProjects(0)
End If
We can use the TeamProjectPicker class that the product team kindly provided to show the built in dialog to select a Team Project Collection and a a Team Project.
Figure: Getting the user to select a Team Project could not be easyer
This dialog has some different modes depending on what you are trying to achieve. You can set it to select either a Team Project Collection, one Team Project or many Team Projects.
Public Enum TeamProjectPickerMode
' Fields
MultiProject = 2
NoProject = 0
SingleProject = 1
End Enum
Now that we have access to a WorkItemStore and know what Team Project to use to create the work items, we can start creating work items.
Dim wi As WorkItem = project.WorkItemTypes(0).NewWorkItem
wi.Title = String.Format("Seedgen {0} : Created by Hinshlabs TFS Work Item Seed Generator", i)
wi.Description = String.Format("As a TFS Admin I want to have all new work items start at a number {0} larger than the current number", _WorkItemCount)
This may fail as all I am doing is picking the first work item type that is available. A better solution would be to select the first work item type in the "Requirement" category, or to give the user a list to select whatever he wants. This is just a throw away, one time bit if code, so as long as it works…
Just in case any of these work items are left at the end I have added a default Title and Description.
Once we have created this work item, we need to immediately delete it. Now, this is something that can't be done using the UI, but can be done in code.
Dim WioError As IEnumerable(Of WorkItemOperationError)
Dim ids As Integer() = {Convert.ToInt32(wi.Id)}
WioError = _Store.DestroyWorkItems(ids)
A tiny bit of code that solves a big problem. In versions before TFS 2010 this could only be done using the Power Tool, but the product team have seen the light and added it into the core product. Remember that Deleting a Work Item CAN'T be undone and once it is gone, it is gone.
I have wrapped all of this into a ViewModel that can be used in an MVVM WPF application.
Imports Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client
Imports Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Client
Imports Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Server
Imports GalaSoft.MvvmLight.Command
Imports GalaSoft.MvvmLight.Threading
Imports System.Windows.Threading
Imports System.Threading
''' <summary>
''' Seeding View Model using the MVVM Light framework
''' </summary>
''' <remarks></remarks>
Public Class WorkItemSeedViewModel
Inherits GalaSoft.MvvmLight.ViewModelBase
Private _SelectServerCommand As RelayCommand
Private _SeedWorkItemIdCommand As RelayCommand
Private _Store As WorkItemStore
Private _ProjectInfo As ProjectInfo
Private _WorkItemCount As Integer = 0
Private _IsProcessing As Boolean = False
Private _LastWorkItemId As Integer = 0
Private _CurrentlyProcessingItem As Integer = 0
Public ReadOnly Property SelectTeamProjectCommand As RelayCommand
Return _SelectServerCommand
End Get
End Property
Public ReadOnly Property SeedWorkItemIdCommand As RelayCommand
Return _SeedWorkItemIdCommand
End Get
End Property
Public Property IsProcessing As Boolean
Return _IsProcessing
End Get
Set(ByVal value As Boolean)
If Not value.Equals(_IsProcessing) Then
Dim oldValue As Integer = _IsProcessing
_IsProcessing = value
MyBase.RaisePropertyChanged(Of Boolean)("IsProcessing", oldValue, value, True)
End If
End Set
End Property
Public Property WorkItemCount As Integer
Return _WorkItemCount
End Get
Set(ByVal value As Integer)
If Not value.Equals(_WorkItemCount) Then
Dim oldValue As Integer = _WorkItemCount
_WorkItemCount = value
MyBase.RaisePropertyChanged(Of Integer)("WorkItemCount", oldValue, value, True)
End If
End Set
End Property
Public Property LastWorkItemId As Integer
Return _LastWorkItemId
End Get
Set(ByVal value As Integer)
If Not value.Equals(_LastWorkItemId) Then
Dim oldValue As Integer = _LastWorkItemId
_LastWorkItemId = value
MyBase.RaisePropertyChanged(Of Integer)("LastWorkItemId", oldValue, value, True)
End If
End Set
End Property
Public Property CurrentlyProcessingItem As Integer
Return _CurrentlyProcessingItem
End Get
Set(ByVal value As Integer)
If Not value.Equals(_CurrentlyProcessingItem) Then
Dim oldValue As Integer = _CurrentlyProcessingItem
_CurrentlyProcessingItem = value
MyBase.RaisePropertyChanged(Of Integer)("CurrentlyProcessingItem", oldValue, value, True)
End If
End Set
End Property
Public Sub New()
' Create and wire up the Commands that I will be using
_SelectServerCommand = New GalaSoft.MvvmLight.Command.RelayCommand(AddressOf OnSelectServerCommandExecute)
_SeedWorkItemIdCommand = New GalaSoft.MvvmLight.Command.RelayCommand(AddressOf OnSeedWorkItemIdCommandExecute, Function() Not _ProjectInfo Is Nothing And Not IsProcessing)
End Sub
''' <summary>
''' Calls the TFS 2010 API Dialog for selecting a Single Team Project and saves the WorkItemStore and ProjectInfo instances
''' </summary>
''' <remarks>Called by the Command object</remarks>
Private Sub OnSelectServerCommandExecute()
Dim projectPicker As New TeamProjectPicker(TeamProjectPickerMode.SingleProject, False)
If Not projectPicker.SelectedTeamProjectCollection Is Nothing Then
_Store = projectPicker.SelectedTeamProjectCollection.GetService(Of WorkItemStore)()
_ProjectInfo = projectPicker.SelectedProjects(0)
End If
End Sub
''' <summary>
''' Starts the Work Item generating method on a thread
''' </summary>
''' <remarks></remarks>
Private Sub OnSeedWorkItemIdCommandExecute()
Dim thread As New System.Threading.Thread(New ParameterizedThreadStart(Sub() ProcessWorkItems(_WorkItemCount)))
End Sub
''' <summary>
''' Generates and then deletes each work item for the count specified by the value of Count
''' </summary>
''' <param name="count"></param>
''' <remarks></remarks>
Private Sub ProcessWorkItems(ByVal count As Integer)
' These calls martial the action code back onto the UI thread
DispatcherHelper.CheckBeginInvokeOnUI(New Action(Sub() IsProcessing = True))
Dim project As Project = _Store.Projects(_ProjectInfo.Name)
For i As Integer = 0 To count - 1
DispatcherHelper.CheckBeginInvokeOnUI(New Action(Sub() CurrentlyProcessingItem = i))
Dim wi As WorkItem = project.WorkItemTypes(0).NewWorkItem
wi.Title = String.Format("Seedgen {0} : Created by Hinshlabs TFS Work Item Seed Generator", i)
wi.Description = String.Format("As a TFS Admin I want to have all new work items start at a number {0} larger than the current number", _WorkItemCount)
DispatcherHelper.CheckBeginInvokeOnUI(New Action(Sub() LastWorkItemId = wi.Id))
Dim WioError As IEnumerable(Of WorkItemOperationError)
Dim ids As Integer() = {Convert.ToInt32(wi.Id)}
WioError = _Store.DestroyWorkItems(ids)
If WioError.Count > 0 Then
' Currently eats and failures to delete. Not good, but easy to fix
'MessageBox.Show(String.Format("Failed to delete Work Item {0}", wi.Id))
Exit For
DispatcherHelper.CheckBeginInvokeOnUI(New Action(Sub() WorkItemCount = WorkItemCount - 1))
End If
DispatcherHelper.CheckBeginInvokeOnUI(New Action(Sub() IsProcessing = False))
End Sub
End Class
I have tried to comment at least some of this, but again this is proof-of-concept code with no warranty and could do with lots of improving.
This is a supported method of incrementing the Work Item ID to any number you like. It will take a while to get to 40,000 but I have added a "Time taken" calculation and it looks like you can increment the top ID by around 600 every minute.
Figure: As you can see, I am an artist
I have been running this with a local TFS running on my Windows 7 laptop with SQL Express so actual times may not be as advertised.
How stable is this? Well, to be honest, not very. I threw this together quickly, but with all my debugging, killing and general mashing it only left 1 erroneous work item that will need to be deleted manually.
Figure: One lonely work item that did not get destroyed
To delete this errant work item you can:
You can get your work item ID from 0 to 40000 in around 40 minutes with this app which solves the immediate problem.
This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)
About the Author: Martin has worked with many customers in government, finance, manufacturing, health and technology to help them improve their processes and deliver more. He provides management and technical consulting that intends to expose processes and practices to gain transparency, uncover impediments to value delivery and reduce cycle-time as part of an organisations path to agility. Martin is a Professional Scrum Trainer as well as a Visual Studio ALM MVP and Visual Studio ALM Ranger. He writes regularly on http://nakedalm.com/blog, and speaks often on Scrum, good practices and Visual Studio ALM.
You can get in touch with Martin through naked ALM.


text:
by Portfolio Grader | July 23, 2012 1:00 pm
For the week, Tobacco, Diversified Utilities, Leisure Goods, Water Utilities, and Electric Utilities are the top sectors on the Portfolio Grader[1] database.
Tobacco is thriving this week with 88% of stocks in the sector (7 out of 8) currently rating a "buy." With overall grades of A, Altria (NYSE:MO[2]), Universal Corp. (NYSE:UVV[3]), and Philip Morris International (NYSE:PM[4]) are buoying the sector. The best performer in this sector is Altria, which saw its price rise 36.2% in the last 12 months. This outpaces the S&P 500, which has increased just 1.3% from one year ago.
With 87% of the sector's stocks (20 out of 23) rating a "buy," the Diversified Utilities sector is one of the strongest. Among Diversified Utilities stocks, CH Energy (NYSE:CHG[5]) and Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE[6]) are leading the way with grades of A. Wisconsin Energy (NYSE:WEC[7]) also has a top grade of B. Sempra Energy is the best performer in this sector, with a 35.8% increase in the last 12 months.
The Leisure Goods sector is near the top of the Portfolio Grader database this week, with 86% of its stocks (6 out of 7) currently rating a "buy." Out of the Leisure Goods stocks, Smith & Wesson (NASDAQ:SWHC[8]), Sturm Ruger (NYSE:RGR[9]), and LeapFrog (NYSE:LF[10]) are out front with A's. LeapFrog is the top stock in its sector, with a 156% increase from 12 months ago.
Water Utilities stands out with 80% of the sector's stocks (4 out of 5) rating a "buy." With grades of A, American States Water (NYSE:AWR[11]), American Water Works (NYSE:AWK[12]) are buoying the sector. Aqua America (NYSE:WTR[13]) also has a solid B. Showing the most overall growth in its sector in the last 12 months, Aqua America is the top stock, with a 19.8% increase.
The Electric Utilities sector's track record is proving one of the best with 74% of its stocks (28 out of 38) rating a "buy." Among Electric Utilities stocks, NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE[14]), FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE[15]), and Hawaiian Electric Industries (NYSE:HE[16]) top the list with A's. Over the last 12 months, NextEra Energy is the best performer in this sector, with a 22.5% increase.
Louis Navellier's proprietary Portfolio Grader[1] stock ranking system assesses roughly 5,000 companies every week based on a number of fundamental and quantitative measures. Stocks are given a letter grade based on their results — with A being "strong buy," and F being "strong sell." Explore the tool here[17].
Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2012/07/5-best-sectors-to-watch-this-week-swhc-rgr-lf/
Short URL: http://invstplc.com/1fw1B88
Copyright ©2017 InvestorPlace Media, LLC. All rights reserved. 700 Indian Springs Drive, Lancaster, PA 17601.


text: The air demand analysis program uses state-of-the-art data loggers and precision sensors to create a detailed air usage profile for each specific facility. The program monitors and charts air flow, power consumption, system pressures and air quality during normal operating hours over a period of 10 days. Available for systems large and small, this tool creates a complete picture of air requirements including the relationship between peak and base load compressors and each compressor's duty cycle.


text:
Melvin remembers Orioles honoree Robinson
Melvin remembers Orioles honoree Robinson
Robinson simply glanced at Melvin before asking, "Hey, did you want to talk to me?"
Melvin gathered his courage and told Robinson he should be in the lineup.
Robinson pulled out a new lineup card and said, "You are in the lineup."
That's just one of many memories Melvin has of Robinson, who was honored by the Orioles in a pregame ceremony that included the unveiling of a life-size statue of the Hall of Famer. Melvin moved up his pregame meeting with the media by 20 minutes and was prepared to miss batting practice so he could attend the ceremony.
"He means a lot to me," Melvin said. "He made me grow up as a player in this game. He challenged me, and at times he had me challenge him, which was a tough thing to do for someone who has so much respect for him and the history of the game."
Also attending the ceremony were fellow Orioles Hall of Famers Jim Palmer and Earl Weaver, in addition to Hank Aaron.
Melvin said that Robinson's hard-nosed style was not for everyone, but it made players better if they took his advice.
"He was pretty hard," he said. "A lot of guys had a difficult time with him, because he forced you to be a gamer. He has just a great baseball acumen."
Saturday also marked the anniversary of Robinson's first career home run -- a two-run shot off Chicago's Paul Minner in 1956.


text:
Dispute Resolution Center of Thurston County Dispute Resolution Center of Thurston County
Here's a sample of our volunteer opportunities:VIEW AS
Mission Statement
We value empowering people to resolve their disputes by providing conflict resolution services and training community members in these skills.
We act locally by helping to lay the foundation for a peaceful and civil community, one mediation at a time.
The Dispute Resolution Center of Thurston County (DRC) is a community based non-profit agency, established in 1991. We offer affordable conflict resolution and training services to all citizens and businesses in Thurston and Mason Counties. Our services include information and problem solving over the phone. We offer confidential mediation services for families, businesses, consumers, landlords, tenants, workplaces, and neighborhoods. We also offer extensive training services and a practicum for becoming a Certified Mediator.
This information
Might be out of date
Do you work for this organization?
Request administrator status and update its information!


text:
My Nonprofit Reviews
143 profile views
1 reviews
Review for Walk On Foundation Inc., Milton, PA, USA
I love the fact that this group works hard to provide for people in the community. They go above and beyond, putting those who need help first. Amaziing! Even when times are tough for them, they are always putting someone elses needs first.
More Feedback
Will you volunteer or donate to this organization?
How much of an impact do you think this organization has?
A lot
When was your last experience with this nonprofit?
Role: General Member of the Public


text:
Saturday I rode the Harpeth River Ride, 100 mile event put on by the Harpeth Bicycle Club and Nissan. The ride started in Franklin, TN which is just south of Nashville. It was a really hot day, with temps way up in the 90's and the course was surprisingly tough. At the 62 mile option cut off I considered cutting my century short, but I talked myself into sticking with my original plan of ridding 100 miles.
This picture is from the start of the ride as we lined up. Three of the Radio Shack team members lead out the ride (Nissan is a co-sponsor of the team). To the left in the picture you can see the long line of 1,500 riders ready to go, and the expo tent area. The venue at Nissan was really great, with an expo area, registration, lunch and lots of parking in the parking garage, which was nice today because it was in the shade on this hot day.
The 100 mile course was surprisingly hilly, over 8,000 feet of climbing, thats more than the 3-State, 3-mountain course. Of the 100 miles, over 50 miles was going up hill, thats amazing to me, I guess I didnt realize that the Nashville area is so hilly.
After riding in the extreme heat for 6 hours and 47 minutes on a tough course it was wonderful to see the tall silver Nissan building on the horizon, a sweet sight! Great job putting the event together, and thanks to the crew at Harpeth Bicycles and the super Jamis Bicycle display at the expo area.


text:
Oesophageal candidiasis
A variant of the term esophageal candidiasis, which is Candida infection of the moist cutaneous areas of the oesophagus.
The most commonly involved species is the Candida albicans. Since the species is an opportunistic pathogen, the infection is often observed in patients whose immune system is compromised (e.g. HIV patients).
Note: Although some references consider candidosis as the more correct technical name for this condition other references use the term candidiasis synonymously with candidosis.
Please contribute to this project, if you have more information about this term feel free to edit this page.


text:
The at-risk concept lies at the heart of developmental and clinical psychology and is a fundamental concept in understanding developmental pathology. Children are called developmentally 'at-risk' when biopsychological characteristics, or social factors, or both, suggest that they will, with high probability, develop into maladapted unsuccessful adolescents or adults. Examples of such outcomes include school failure, persistent unemployment, delinquency, aggression, risky behaviors, alcoholism, drug abuse, eating disorders, psychosomatic disorders, and psychopathology.
Early research endeavors aimed at detecting signs of deviant development, or of deviant conditions for development, as early as possible in order to be able to suggest preventive, or compensatory interventions. More recent research and theorizing has elaborated the at-risk concept and extended risk models to include related concepts, such as 'vulnerability', and complementary concepts, such as 'protective factors' and 'resilience.'
Empirical approaches
Risk evidence is based on retrospective analyses and, ideally, on prospective follow-up or longitudinal research. Retrospectively, most children with school problems, and most maladapted adolescents or adults, have indeed disproportionately unfortunate childhoods, often correlated with early health problems. Longitudinal and follow-up studies have also confirmed that early health risks (preterm birth, prenatal teratogenic influences, perinatal problems), as well as early social or family problems (e.g., poverty, low educational level of the parents, family discord), significantly and substantially predicted later personality and behavioral problems. However, under equivalently adverse circumstances, some children developed into well-adapted, healthy, and successful adults. They appeared to be 'resilient,' or 'invulnerable,' or 'resourceful.'
Results from most empirical studies apply only at a group level. In other words, they are useful for identifying variables in early childhood that are significantly associated with later poor outcomes, but not every individual with them has such outcomes. The term 'at-risk' simply implies an increased probability of poor outcome, not a certain outcome for each individual. More recent research endeavors, therefore, include the analyses of individual pathways, and the search for those factors that enable a person to withstand the odds, or to recover from deviation.
The at-risk concept, vulnerability, and resources
In psychological research, the term 'at-risk' has mainly been used to characterize persons with limited personal, health, social, or cultural resources. Under optimal and supportive conditions, they would have a fair chance of developing inconspicuously, but they would fail to cope with additional stress associated, for instance, with developmental transitions (e.g., puberty), or with highly probable critical events (e.g., school change, change of peer network), or with hazards of life (e.g., parental divorce, loss of family member, major school failure, major sociopolitical changes). In this regard, children who are born preterm, or those with chronic illnesses, are considered as developmentally at-risk, or at least as 'vulnerable.' Similarly, physically healthy children who come from poor and from unfavorable homes may lack the necessary social and emotional support to cope with additional stressful situations. Some early personality characteristics (e.g., difficult temperament, shyness) and sub-optimal emotional relationships (e.g., insecure attachments) may also function as limited resources in challenging situations.
Finally, periods of developmental transition, such as that from sensorimotor intelligence to representational thought, or puberty, may disclose latent vulnerabilities and emotional instabilities. Children at developmental risk may lack the necessary variability and flexibility of responses (or resiliency), or they have insufficient access to social resources, to cope successfully with these new challenges (O'Connor & Rutter, 1996).
Table 1. Delineation of what is involved in the 'at-risk' concept.
Biological risks, social risks Established risks versus at-risk
Biological, social, and cultural resources
Personal level Mechanisms
Inadequate coping
Inadequate parenting
Lack of curiosity and exploration
Risky behavior Negative transactions
Resilience Coping
Positive parenting Stress training Curiosity and exploration Consideration Positive transactions
Maladaptation Psychopathology
Psychologically healthy person
Developmental risk and sensitive periods
The notion of'critical' or 'sensitive' periods implies a very specific susceptibility to external influences. With regard to noxious (i.e., teratogenic) influences on the developing organism, the early embryonic period is considered to be particularly perilous for organ malformations, whereas during the fetal period and early infancy, in times of rapid brain growth, the formation of neural connections can be disrupted or distorted by teratogenic influences (e.g., maternal drug exposure).
The notion of sensitive periods has also been used with regard to experiences during developmentally specific 'time-windows'. In the case of 'experience-expectant processes,' specific kinds of experiences are necessary in order to fine-tune and complete a particular function (e.g., stereoscopic vision), or to orient the child's attention to certain aspects of the world (e.g., the visual or the acoustical world, specific aspects of the mother tongue). In a broader sense, infancy and toddler-hood constitute a sensitive period for the development of language, communication, and socioemotional attachment. If developmentally appropriate experiences are missed, or distorted, or extremely delayed, as might occur with blind or deaf infants or in cases of massive neglect, later acquisition of these competencies will at best be more arduous, but the result may also be deviant. Also, the kinds of experiences that the infant encounters lay the grounds for usually long-lasting individual differences, as shown, for instance, in the cases of language development and attachment formation.
The term 'sensitive period' has also been used for a child's cognitive and motivational 'readiness' to learn cultural standards and techniques with age-appropriate ease. There has been a never-ending debate over whether there are general or specific optimal time-windows for specific cultural learning experiences (e.g., toilet training, learning to read and to write, mathematics, school entry generally), and whether 'precocious' or 'delayed' learning constitute 'special opportunities' or 'risks.' Initially, researchers and politicians had hoped that compensatory preschool intervention would inoculate socially disadvantaged children against early school failure. Although generally a relative success story, these very ambitious aims of early interventionists were not met.
At-risk versus established risk
Occasionally, special populations of children with well-diagnosed physical or mental disorders (e.g., Down's syndrome) have been called 'at-risk.' Strictly speaking, the at-risk concept can be only meaningfully applied to these sub-groups with established risks when referring to secondary handicaps (see Table 1). Secondary handicaps are, for instance, particularly poor learning strategies, poor social strategies, or an inadequate self-esteem, or other kinds of problem behaviors that are likely to result from inappropriate parenting. Intuitive parenting seems to be developed fairly well in parents with 'normal' children. With physically or behaviorally deviant children, it is often more difficult to establish the optimal fit between the child's developmental needs and parental behavior. Parents often tend to be either overprotective, or insensitive to the weak behavioral signs of their infant. An attitude of learned helplessness may ensue in the child that inhibits active learning and exploration, both of which are important prerequisites for healthy psychological development.
Risk factors and protective factors
Risk factors are influences on the young child and the developing person that are likely to alter that individual's personal resources. Specific kinds of risks and outcomes have proven to be only loosely related (Rutter, 2002). It is more likely that the accumulation of different kinds of risks increases the probability of some kind of negative outcome, generally speaking. Two classes of risk factors are roughly distinguished in developmental research: biological risk factors (e.g., preterm birth, perinatal complications) and social risk factors (e.g., low parental education, poverty, parental discord, parental mental illness, maternal depression). Scores constructed from cumulated biological risks are supposed to indicate an increased probability of psychobiological vulnerability, and scores from cumulated, chronic or acute, social risks a heightened probability of psychosocial stress.
Risk models differ as to whether they combine both risk sources additively or multiplicatively. An additive model implies that maladaptation or psychopathology increase linearly with the number of biological and social risk factors, and a multiplicative model that the effect of social risk factors is relatively higher for children with biological risks, and the effect of biological risks is greater for children living in adverse social circumstances. It appears that the additive models hold well for children born slightly preterm. For children of epileptic mothers, the multiplicative model seems to be more adequate. In the case of control children from similar social backgrounds, however, only the quality of the family environment (e.g., as measured by the HOME inventory) during early childhood seems to affect their cognitive abilities during adolescence. For children of epileptic mothers, especially those exposed in utero to antiepileptic drugs taken by their mothers, the quality of the family environment during the school years and in early adolescence adds to variations in outcome measures. It seems that children of epileptic mothers are both more sensitive, and sensitive over a longer period of development, to adverse social influences, but also to positive social influences (Titze et al.,2001).
As a complement to the study of risk factors, research into potential protective factors has come into focus. In many instances, they are simply the positive counterparts of risk factors, as applies to poor or good parenting. Also, cultural factors can act as protective factors (and probably also as risk factors). Infants with a 'difficult temperament' seem to develop inconspicuously in a cultural environment that is accepting for those variations, as was observed in Latin-American families in New York. Variable-centered approaches concerned with what kinds of risk predict which outcomes tend now to yield to more person-centered approaches, with a focus on what kinds of risk affect which sub-group of children.
From risk factors to risk mechanisms
Recent research has focused on patterns of development, or trajectories, of children at high or low risk, and on potential mechanisms that, along the trajectories, translate biological and social risk factors into psychological dysfunctioning (Rutter, 2002). Early biological risks (e.g., preterm birth) can change the infant's appearance or temperament in such a way that the caregivers respond less adequately (e.g., less sensitively, or with overprotection), thus creating a sub-optimal rearing climate. Biological risks can generally reduce a child's physical and psychological resources, constrain his or her information-processing capacities, or de-stabilize the child's self-regulation abilities (Lengua, 2002).
Supportive environments may partially compensate for the child's reduced resources, but quite often a less supportive, or a disadvantaged, environment provokes situational coping strategies (e.g., aggressive or shy behavior) that, in the long run, may lead to problem behavior. Children at biological risk or in threatening environments tend to show fewer developmentally beneficial cognitive and social behaviors, such as curiosity and exploration. Instead, they tend either to avoid challenging situations or to overreact with disruptive emotions, both kinds of coping that will restrain their developmental potential even further (Rauh, 1989).
Children are considered at-risk when they encounter hazardous life circumstances or events that clearly exceed normal resources (e.g., warfare, natural or social disasters). Those who, against all predictions, do not succumb to these adversities are considered to have special resiliencies (i.e., a pre- or acquired disposition enabling them to withstand major hazards and to return to a normal life course). It is a kind of self-righting potential, and also refers to a child's ability to draw effectively on all available personal and social resources.
Successful coping with everyday challenges appears to be a kind of 'stress training' or 'steeling,' and may help to build up a repertoire of personal resources (Rutter, 2002). Coping with risky situations can, to some degree, be learned and can serve as preparations for future difficult situations. The term 'at-risk' could consequently also be applied to those children who, in spite of a sufficient health status, and in spite of general abilities and social conditions within the normal range, do not develop an adequate repertoire of personal or social resources to cope with stressful or risk-carrying situations. These would be the children who as adolescents, without any obvious risk factors, succumb to drug abuse or are seduced to partake in risky behaviors.
Risk-provoking behaviors
Particularly during adolescence, but also in childhood, some individuals engage in risky behaviors in that they actively provoke risky situations. Most of these youths seem to lack a proper sensitivity to dangers and threats. Their self-concept is disproportionately positive, their social perception appears to be inadequate, and their role-taking underdeveloped. While some of these characteristics are reminiscent of adolescent egocen-trism, others refer to inadequate emotion regulation (e.g., a reduced ability to attend, an inability to learn systematically, difficulties in controlling impulses), or to a need for sensation. These young people seem to literally select, and attract, or even produce, adverse events and hazardous experiences.
Debatable issues
There has been a debate about whether the same mechanisms account for behavioral variations within the normal range, as well as for psychopathology (Rutter, 2002). In a similar vein, there has also been debate about whether the same kinds of processes account for the development of competence or dysfunction, or whether different ones should be considered for children with either heightened or reduced susceptibility to specific risk influences. Moreover, the concepts of resiliency and vulnerability as general personality traits seem to yield to ideas of domain-specific, or even age-specific characteristics.
The at-risk concept combines research on biological and psychological development with that on socialization, as well as models of developmental psychology and differential psychology, with those of developmental psychopathology. Research based on this concept provides ideas for the prevention of adverse developmental outcomes and for early intervention, with its focus not only on the individual, but also on the social and cultural context in which the child develops.
The different aspects of 'at-risk' that have been detailed here have given rise to quite diverse and sometimes divergent research traditions that, in the future, will need to communicate with each other. To date, most developmental risk research has been limited too narrowly to the nuclear family, and to the periods of early childhood and of adolescence. Future research needs to take a broader perspective in developmental time and in social space, and, at the same time, needs to study in more detail the transformations of risk experiences into concrete transactions and coping behaviors at the personal level. This implies a more dynamical view of the developing person in his or her immediate environment.
Furthermore, very little is known about the impact of cultural differences, and of social and cultural changes on kinds of risk and protective factors, and on related changes in risk outcomes. Epidemiological studies with longitudinal and time-sequential designs that would take these cultural factors into account are still extremely rare. Even if we might know what have been risk influences in the past with effects in the present time, we are still broadly ignorant of the future impact that contemporary risk factors may have on children when they become adolescents and adults.
Finally, there are studies suggesting that some risk effects (e.g., maltreatment, holocaust) may extend even into the next generation. This appears to be plausible for extreme personal experiences. Life circumstances have changed markedly in the past decades. Children survive who would never have done so before, such as extremely preterm children and those with chronic illnesses. Many children are protected today from adverse circumstances that were regular events in previous generations (e.g., certain types of illnesses, family member losses). New life patterns and new challenges in children's lives have appeared. We do not know, for example, whether growing up in single-parent households, although usually coped with well by most children, may affect these children's behavior as parents, or whether experiences with street violence will extend into the next generation.


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They asked review website Yelp to send it a weekly roundup of all reports mentioning words such as "sickness" and "vomiting".
The places users had eaten in the previous 12 to 36 hours were then examined, to look for trends where multiple people had become sick from the same restaurant.
The previous system for tracking food poisoning outbreaks was flawed – relying on doctors reports and calls to city authorities.
Only about 1% of those calls led to the discovery of a cluster of illnesses.
Health department worker Dr Sharon Balter said Yelp reviews were useful because officials could look at where an ill person had eaten over a longer 36-hour period.
She said: "Most people assume they got sick from the last place they ate, but that's not always the case."
During the short trial study, three outbreaks involving 16 people were discovered.
The tainted food identified was a house salad, shrimp and lobster cannelloni, and macaroni and cheese spring rolls.
At one of the restaurants, signs of mice and cockroaches were discovered.
The findings of the pilot project were published by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
The system could be expanded to Twitter and other social networks, said Dr Balter.


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The best reason I can give for why the technology sector is not in a bubble that's about to burst is that so many others in the financial media are saying it is.
While I admit that some tech and Internet companies have gotten a little pricey — OK, a lot pricey — the time to worry about bubbles is when no one is worried about bubbles.
Case in point, the collapse of the Internet bubble in 2000 was presaged by an onslaught of not-to-worry commentary about a "new era" where the number of eyes watching websites was a better valuation metric than actual earnings.
Similarly, few people saw the collapse of the housing bubble in 2007-09. None other than Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan scoffed at the idea of a housing bubble during the early 2000s, saying housing was different from stocks. Brother Greenspan will go to his grave regretting that cockeyed observation.
No fewer than 10 major media magazines and outlets have published articles in recent months carrying these kinds of headlines: "It's official: We are in a tech bubble"; "Are tech stocks about to crash?"; "Who's to blame for the tech bubble?" And so it goes.
Perhaps tech does reside in bubblicious land and will soon collapse, but if that is the case, it would be the most telegraphed bubble bursting in history. The market usually doesn't work that way. It's much too sneaky for that.
I'm not just being contrarian. This word "bubble" is being bandied about too much lately. The fact is real bubbles are rare events characterized by extreme valuations and outrageously optimistic investor sentiment — such as in late 1999 when my crazy Aunt Gladys almost threw a rod trying to buy shares in dotcom companies. We have none of that silliness now.
Investors knocked 22 percent off shares of Facebook Inc. in early March on just a whiff of concern about its future revenue growth. And this is a solid company with billions in revenue, solid profit growth and one smart chief executive. The company currently carries a forward price-to-earnings (p/e) ratio of 33, which may be on the high side, but calling that extreme is a stretch.
"Technology stocks don't deserve the bubble label," said Doug Ramsey, chief investment officer at The Leuthold Group, a Minneapolis money management firm. "All these media stories of a bubble, I just don't see it. I would be hard-pressed even to say technology is overvalued."
In fact, Ramsey's outlook for the technology sector is that it will be one of the bull market leaders in the future. That sanguine prognosis is based on what he calls the modest valuations for most tech companies.
Currently, the p/e ratio of the Standard & Poor's 500 technology index is about 25, compared with the extreme level of 80 hit during the tech craziness of 2000. Today's valuation is above where it was when this bull market began in 2009, but to call it a bubble is "reckless," Ramsey said.
Technology also has another powerful tailwind that is seldom mentioned by tech bears and bubble heads. For more than a decade, technology companies have been reluctant to spend on capital equipment — capex as it's called. And even more important, tech customers have been in a capex belt-tightening mode since the sector collapsed in 2001.
"This trend can't last forever," Ramsey said. "When spending by tech customers finally turns up, that should lead to some good profitability."
Capital spending has been in a downward spiral for years across almost all technology sectors, including computer hardware, storage, semiconductors and electronic manufacturing. The best way to quantify this is to look at capital expenditures in relation to depreciation levels.
In other words, companies typically replace their depreciated equipment to remain competitive and productive. Well, as it turns out, capital spending has remained below depreciation levels since 2001, according to Ramsey.
"This will change," he said. "This period of low capital spending has set the stage for a longer-term tech upswing."
Historically, when a bubble collapses, it takes six to eight years for that sector to fully recover and begin outperforming the broader market. Technology performance relative to the S&P 500 has been mediocre for more than a decade. So perhaps a protracted period of outperformance is on the horizon.
One final thought: The tech sector has had more short interest — a bet that stocks will fall — than any other sector. For a contrarian like me, that's a cocktail I would like to drink: bubble headlines and short interest on the rocks, please.


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BOSTON The Boston Celtics will turn to a familiar lineup tonight as they try to get their season on track.
Doc Rivers will have Brandon Bass back in the starting lineup tonight which provides the C's with the same first unit that made a late charge last season that eventually catapulted the Celtics to the Eastern Conference finals.
Bass will replace Jason Collins which means Kevin Garnett slides back to manning the center position. Paul Pierce remains at small forward while the backcourt will consist of Rajon Rondo and Avery Bradley.
"We want to stay as big as possible," said Rivers. "What we didn't like with Jason in the lineup now we're going to play him every night, is that when he and Kevin are off the floor we get small quickly. So this way we can keep a big on the floor at all times."
The move should also benefit Bass, who has struggled with his shot most of this season.
As a starter this season, Bass has shot 45.6 percent from the field compared to just 40 percent in games in which he came off the bench.
Rivers acknowledged that having the group that made a strong run towards the end of last season and into the playoffs was part of the decision.
And as far as it helping Bass get his shot back on track?
Yeah, that was a factor, too.
"You don't do it just for the group; you do it for the individual at times," Rivers said. "Brandon plays better when he's playing with Kevin, though everyone has for that matter. But clearly Brandon has and that's one of the reasons we're doing it."


text: Part of the Stuffed performance. (stuffedandunstrung.com) [ Bitterroot Performing Arts Includes Muppets for Adults By Steve Fullerton June 3, 2012 Music, singing and humor in the series. Read More Category: Local News Tags: 2012-2013 line-up, Bitterroot Performing Arts, Ravalli County, Stuffed & Unstrung, Vienna Teng Send to a friend! Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Pin it! Reddit This! Share on Tumblr!


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The lights are on
Disney's Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two is headed to PC in addition to Xbox 360, Wii, and PlayStation 3. The publisher confirmed to Game Informer this afternoon there will in fact be a PC/Mac hybrid version of the game.
No other details, such as relese date, were provided at this time.
Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two is set for release this fall.


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ROTEL RB-1090 380-Watt/Ch. Stereo Power Amplifier--NEW!
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Folks, before considering this auction, please note that we RESPECT THE PRIVACY of our customers----and soon, you may be one! When they bring in items for us to purchase, or when we go to their homes to pick up items, we do NOT pry into their personal lives or habits! We do not ask if they Drink, Smoke, Have Children, or Own Pets. And, as we are NOT 'technicians', or a 'repair shop', our ONLY concern is that the item is Working Perfectly. Period. If this is an issue for you, DON'T BID! We'll all be happier! And, of course, PLEASE remember that Payment, via Paypal ONLY, is due within 24 hours! This particular Brand New RB-1090 Power Amp is in Silver (obviously!), but be aware that we have yet another one, lightly used, in Black, in another listing today (Please see our OTHER ITEMS), along with a Matching, VERY Rare, Rotel Preamp! It's been our pleasure (and that of our customer's!) to have sold several of these before, and what an Audio 'Joy' this Refined 'Beast' is! This particular 1090 is one of the last, most recent 1090's to have been made by Rotel (Note the 'new style' WBT Binding Posts), and has NEVER seen the inside of a customer's home! It was a dealer 'overstock' item, and was returned to Rotel in its Original Box. And, now that Rotel has Upgraded their shipping cartons and packing materials, THIS will ship in a Brand New ... read more


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Didn't even notice you'd reviewed this, Weeping.
Album Rating: 4.0ya bettah recahnize
Feel like getting it. Gonna have a LOT of listening time tomorrow.
you got a day off from the restaurant?
Digging: Carpenter Brut - CARPENTERBRUTLIVE
Restaurant? You're being a little too nice.
ok FIELD
There it is :D
everyone whines about me being racist then they're disappointed when I'm not
screw you guys
Everyone's just on their period, guest. They don't know what to believe.
Album Rating: 4.0i believe in hella
Album Rating: 4.5HELLA HELLA HELLA
Album Rating: 4.5As expected, I love this.
Album Rating: 4.0balcaen would rate this a 2
Album Rating: 4.0album rox
it all sounds the same
Album Rating: 4.0eh not really after a few listens
Album Rating: 4.5Listen harder
Album Rating: 4.0this is hella awesome hurur
Album Rating: 4.0unjustified neg out of nowhere
now i'm gonna whine about it
Album Rating: 4.0miss ur awesomeness zach hill
Bands: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z