text:
Here's our best guess at predicting Thursday's Week 2 matchup between the Green Bay Packers and the Carolina Panthers.
The entire roster is included. Those bold and italicized are predicted to be inactive...
Quarterbacks: Aaron Rodgers, Matt Flynn
Running backs: Ryan Grant, James Starks, John Kuhn, Alex Green
Wide receivers: Greg Jennings, Donald Driver, Jordy Nelson, James Jones, Randall Cobb
Tight ends: Jermichael Finley, Andrew Quarless, Tom Crabtree, Ryan Taylor, D.J. Williams
Offensive line: Chad Clifton, T.J. Lang, Scott Wells, Josh Sitton, Bryan Bulaga, Marshall Newhouse, Evan Dietrich-Smith, Derek Sherrod
Defensive line: B.J. Raji, Ryan Pickett, Mike Neal, Jarius Wynn, C.J. Wilson, Howard Green
Outside linebackers: Clay Matthews, Erik Walden, Frank Zombo, Brad Jones, Jamari Lattimore, Vic So'oto
Inside linebackers: A.J. Hawk, Desmond Bishop, D.J. Smith, Robert Francois
Cornerbacks: Charles Woodson, Tramon Williams, Sam Shields, Jarrett Bush, Pat Lee, Davon House
Safeties: Nick Collins, Morgan Burnett, Charlie Peprah, M.D. Jennings
Specialists: Mason Crosby, Tim Masthay, Brett Goode
- Mike Neal, Frank Zombo and Vic So'oto have already been ruled out of Sunday's game.
- The Packers will err on the side of caution with cornerback Tramon Williams who is listed as "questionable."
- They'll do the same with running back Alex Green who's also questionable, though it's worth noting that with Green on the sidelines, that would leave the Packers with little depth at the position.
- With Williams out, it's predicted that Davon House will be active. He would make his NFL debut after being inactive in Week 1 against the Saints.
- The guess here is that the Packers will go with Ryan Taylor ahead of D.J. Williams at tight end. Taylor is the better special teams player.
- Derrek Sherrod was inactive last week. It's no surprise he'll be inactive again.
- Like Like
- -3 points


text:
Spin Casting Machine Operator
Run machines that spin liquid pewter and plastic into molds to cool.
Lays out, fits, and assembles castings and metal parts to make and repair stamping dies, analyzing specifications according to knowledge of shop mathematics, die construction, and properties of sheet metal under pressure: Studies blueprints of die and product, die models, templates, and prototype parts and visualizes shape, mechanical structure, and operation of die. Computes dimensions, plans machining, layout, and assembly operations. Measures, marks, and scribes metal stock for machining by other workers. Operates drill press to drill and tap holes in parts for assembly. Lifts machined parts manually or with hoist, and positions them for assembly on worktable or surface plate. Smooths flat and contoured surfaces and fits parts to each other, using handtools, such as abrasive stones, files, and power grinder. Verifies dimensions, alignments, and clearances, using dial indicators, gauge blocks, thickness gauges, and micrometers. Dowels and bolts parts together, using handtools, such as hammers and wrenches. Works to tolerances as close as 0.0005 inch. May fit and assemble cam-operated mechanisms for lateral movement of part of die. May connect wiring and hydraulic lines to install electric and hydraulic components. May dismantle die and repair or replace parts. May make multistation progressive dies and be designated Progressive-Die Maker.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
"For every sale you miss because you're too enthusiastic, you will miss a hundred because you're not enthusiastic enough."
Related quotes
" Some .. see things that are ... and ask why ? I Dream things that never were ... and ask Why Not ! "
"I am an enthusiast, but not a crank in the sense that I have some pet theories as to the proper construction of a flying machine. I wish to avail myself of all that is already known and then, if possible, add my mite to help on the future worker who will attain final success."
"The traveler, however virginal and enthusiastic, does not enjoy an unbroken ecstasy. He has periods of gloom, periods when he asks himself the object of all these exertions, and puts the question whether or not he is really experiencing pleasure. At such times he suspects that he is not seeing the right things, that the characteristic, the right aspects of these strange scenes are escaping him. He looks forward dully to the days of his holiday yet to pass, and wonders how he will dispose of them. He is disgusted because his money is not more, his command of the language so slight, and his capacity for enjoyment so limited."
"If any whimsical notions are put into you by some enthusiastic counsel, the Court is not to take notice of their crochets"
"Annie was not wildly enthusiastic -- I'll put it that way, ... She's come around. She's enthusiastic about it now."


text: GHC's (maybe Haskell98's?) Complex type is defined with a RealFloat constraint on type type itself, rather than on some of the instances and functions: data (RealFloat a) => Complex a = !a :+ !a I think the practice of constraint in type definitions is generally discouraged, and I'm wondering if there are reasons other than history for having the constraint here. Is removing it on the table for Haskell'? I just got bit by what I think is a typical problem. I added a VectorSpace instance for 'Complex a' and discovered that my 'a' must be in RealFloat, even though I use only zero, addition, subtraction, and scaling. I suspect this gripe has been raised before ... Thanks, - Conal -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.haskell.org/pipermail/haskell-cafe/attachments/20080520/e8efce5a/attachment.htm


text:
Fic: Of Weasels and Wolverines (Logan and a furry bandit)
Expand Messages
Rated PG for language
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Marvel characters, however
Danielle aka Panther is my creation
Archiving: Feel free but please let me know where
Summary: Logan has a run in with a thief
Author's Note: If you have never seen a ferret or don't know much
about their playful ways, they are kleptomaniacs. Don't leave
anything around that they can take and hide.
Danielle had settled in to her new surroundings at the school and it
was time to ask the Professor if she could bring her little ferret
friend to come live with her. Her horse was away for training and
being boarded, so there was no need to make room for him just yet.
Of course, Charles saw no problem in allowing her to keep the little
critter in her room provided she kept him under control.
The resident kids took delight in the furry little animal.
The afternoon brought some excitement around the school. Felix was
running up and down the halls entertaining the kids with his crazy
ferret antics - bouncing around like a nut and making his little
ferret noises that had all the kids giggling. Danielle kept her door
open while the kids babysat and played with him. In the meantime,
she was setting up his cage. Afterwards, she called for his return.
What she failed to realize was that Felix had ventured into Logan's
room, sneaking in when Logan returned, and unknown to Logan, had
confiscated one of his cigars that he left on his coffee table. The
kids said nothing but giggled as the little animal carried his heist
back to Danielle's room and stashing it under her couch. When he
came out from under the couch, she put him into his cage and he ate
his dinner. In the meantime, Logan was angrily looking around his
room for that last cigar.
"I know I put the damned thing here," Logan pondered while scratching
his head.
Logan opened his door again and peered at the children. They all
softly giggled at him and Logan cast an evil glare that sent them
scattering back into their rooms.
The next day, Felix was allowed the run of the hallway again. And
again, he slipped into Logan's room when he opened the door. Logan
had gone in for a shower after working in the yard. This time, Felix
highjacked one of Logan's socks, and when Logan opened the door to
leave his room, the little bandit snuck out carrying the sock down
the hall and placing it under Danielle's couch with the stolen cigar.
When Logan returned to his room to collect his laundry, he realized
there was a missing article.
"Hum. What the hell is goin' on?" Logan wondered.
He glanced around puzzled as to where the missing sock might have
gone. Again, he looked outside and saw nothing. He sniffed the air
and could not pick up the scent of anyone he would recognize.
The evening was another venture and this time the furry masked bandit
stole several of Logan's things. Logan had left his door open. He
was in his room making a repair to his bathroom sink with Scott's
assistance, but Scott kept running out to grab stuff. To solve the
problem of constantly opening and closing his room door, he suggested
Scott just leave it ajar. This left Felix with easy access to his
The ferret dragged each confiscated item down the hall one at a time
and placing them under Danielle's couch. First, it was a small
screwdriver from the toolbox. Felix was able to snatch it while
Logan was busy under the sink. Next, he grabbed a bottle cap from a
beer. And his last trip resulted in the stealing of another cigar
in fact, Logan's last one and one he was seriously looking forward to
enjoying after the repair was completed.
Felix was tired of running around and brought something with him to
Logan's room, where he curled up under Logan's couch and fell to
Logan finished his repair and figured he would relax with his cigar
and get some fresh air outside before going to bed.
"Damn kids. Musta snuck in here and stole my cigar. Why do they
have to keep playin' tricks on me?" he cursed. Scott snickered at
the thought of how the kids loved to play with Logan.
Angry and not in the mood to go ask Charles for another lot of
cigars, Logan went to bed.
In the meantime, Danielle was franticly looking for her little furry
friend. She ventured up and down the hallway asking the kids if they
had him or had seen him recently.
A short time later, Logan woke up and turned on the light. In his
bed beside him was an article of clothing and certainly not his.
He lifted it up to realize it was a lacy black bra.
"What the hell! Christ! Where did this come from?" he pondered. He
took a sniff and it had Danielle's sweet vanilla perfume all over
"Hum. Maybe I'll bring this back later," he said slyly to himself.
He snuggled back into bed and within a short time began to dose off
again. He woke up again as something brushed against his nose making
him want to sneeze. Logan turned on the light and there was Felix
curled up in a tight ball on Logan's chest. Felix had shifted around
and his fuzzy tail tickled Logan's nose. He lifted the weasel from
his slumber and looked at the collar he wore Danielle's name was on
the tiny tag. With a huff, Logan snatched up the black bra and
walked down to Danielle's room. He knocked on the door and was
invited in. Logan opened her door and looked inside to see Danielle
down on her hands and knees with her couch pushed off to the side.
In front of her on the floor were all of Logan's stolen items.
"I think I have two things that belong to you," Logan stated.
"Felix!" she said with excitement as Logan held the ferret out to her.
She quickly took him and hugged the little critter.
"I think I need to return a few things to you," she said pointing out
the stash of items on the floor.
"Hum. I have something else of yours, too," Logan said. Hanging off
of his finger was her black bra. Danielle blushed and swiped the bra
away from him. A devilish smile crept across Logan's face.
"I would put a leash on that little beast if I were you," Logan said
before claiming his stolen goods and returning to his room.
Your message has been successfully submitted and would be delivered to recipients shortly.


text:
by Alyssa Oursler | August 6, 2013 11:55 am
Just last week, a new Nielson study showed that more young viewers tune into[1] Facebook (FB[2]) during prime time than they do the four major networks.
To me, this pointed to a decline in prime time's importance; users no longer gather around to watch their favorite shows at the same time every week. Instead, they often consume when they want and where they want via streaming services, and are more-than-likely multitasking[3] as they do it.
Now, though, a Nielson study shows that Twitter could actually be pulling viewers back to more traditional TV viewing — just with an additional screen. Recent research analyzed a total of 221 television episodes, and the results showed that a television show's ratings and its Twitter buzz are correlated, according to Reuters[4].
Whether this data is a matter of Twitter buzz tempting folks to turn on the TV, or a matter of popular shows naturally being more talked about, is a bit harder to tell. I suspect it's a little bit of both — a snowball effect, if you will. The study did say, though, that 29% of the episodes indeed showed that tweets caused significant changes in the TV rating.
Either way, this demonstrates the main perk of watching a show when it first airs: You can be part of the conversation, live-tweeting plot twists and getting witty social media commentary from faraway friends and celebs alike.
And while Facebook is "seeking to break the long-held dominance of television over advertising budgets," as Bloomberg reporter Edmund Lee put it last week[5], Twitter is hoping to complement it.
As Reuters writer Gerry Shih wrote in response to the new study: Twitter has "long sought to convince large brand marketers that it is a potent, real-time ad-delivery platform that complements and augments the live television-viewing experience."
Of course, if social media's real-time conversations are drawing users back to the television anyways, one could argue that advertisers don't need to reinvent the wheel and target them from the so-called second screen.
That would be a whole lot of lost opportunity, though, considering over half of tablet and smartphone owners use social media while watching TV. At least that's what Twitter wants advertisers to think, especially if it decides to follow through with rumors of a coming IPO[6].
As of this writing, Alyssa Oursler did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2013/08/twitter-tv-ratings/
Short URL: http://invstplc.com/1nwpssM
Copyright ©2017 InvestorPlace Media, LLC. All rights reserved. 700 Indian Springs Drive, Lancaster, PA 17601.


text:
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 9 (UPI) -- Writer-director Kevin Smith is to begin shooting his walrus-themed horror movie "Tusk" in Charlotte, N.C., next month, Demarest Films announced.
Principal photography on the film, starring Justin Long and Michael Parks, is to begin Nov. 4.
Smith will direct his own script, which evolved from an episode of his long-running podcast with Scott Mosier.
"Tusk" is about a podcaster who "sets out to interview an eccentric, reclusive old seafarer, only to find himself a plaything in the gruesome plot of a deranged killer," a synopsis said.
Smith has previously indicated the podcaster in the movie will be held captive and forced to wear a walrus suit.
"Demarest is a director-driven company, and Kevin has always been at the top of our list of filmmakers with whom we want to work," Demarest Chief Executive Officer Sam Englebardt said in a statement.
Demarest Chairman William D. Johnson said, "We are hugely excited to see what results when Kevin applies his brilliant, twisted mind to classic horror film-making."
"I can't thank the good folks at Demarest enough for wading into weird waters with us," said Smith.
Smith's films include "Clerks," "Chasing Amy," "Dogma," "Jersey Girl," "Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back" and "Red State."


text:
So who's out?
Printable View
So who's out?
Is she on the jury?
That was amazing! I absolutely love that someone wrote "Corrine!" with the exclamation mark at the end.
I liked how surprised those beautiful, cocky young folks were...and I'm including you Malcom! Another notch in Cochran's belt! They better watch out for that little, sunburned, gross food eating nerd!
I can't stand Malcolm, Eddie and Reynolds.
CochranGod <3
I can't wait to watch this thing.
Dawn is a smart player. Good thing she noticed something was fishy with Corrine's new alliance and relayed that info to Andrea.
After watching next week's preview, I hope Dawn won't buy whatever Malcom has to say.
I think Malcolm's days are numbered. You notice they keep showing little outtakes where he is talking just a wee bit too confident? Also, what he said tonight about Cochran's win that it was good he got it now while he was still around to get one or something like that. My short-term memory is . . . Attachment 28915 . . . what were we talking about?


text:
Fedora 11 install on Vista Dual Boot fails to load back Vista
I was pretty confident when I did this. But at the end was perplexed and ended up googling and now into forums as my last resort. :(
I had Windows Vista installed on my Dell XPS 1330 laptop and installed Fedora 11 through USB-Net install method. Install went fine, grub loaded fine but then, when I chose Others to boot Windows I got -
Googling for this suggested me to try the Windows Install CD to REPAIR MY WINDOWS INSTALL. But the problem was, when I chose the option to Reapair the OS, it listed no windows install.
But I am able to access my windows directories through Fedora. But not able to boot through window (obvious because I do not have the BOOTMGR).
Any help on this is appreciated. I can provide more inouts as and when asked.
Which partition did you make primary? Windows is very jealous so if you try to make it a secondary partition, you can fry it.
I am sure, I did not make Windows to become secondary. It was left to be primary and I installed Fedora on the freespace unallocated space I shrunk from the original drive which had windows installed on it.
give us the output of(as root)
fdisk -l
Oops !! I do not have my laptop with me right now. :( If you could suggest me what needs to be checked, I can check for them once I go back home. :(
in your menu.lst you can find an entry for windows..it should probably look like
title Windows Vista (loader)
edit:menu.lst means grub.conf
Perfect, so from what I understand, I should first do a fdisk -l and find which partition has the windows partition.
Then put in the corresponding partition in the hd0,X where X replaces the partition number. Will try this tonight and let you know.
if windows is installed in /dev/sdan (n an integer).. then you should use (hd0,n-1) not (hd0,n)..hope u got it..
Now I got it, its even more clear .... :)
Thanks a lot dude .. will try and let you know ... If this works I will be saving 4 horus from reinstalling my laptop and another 2 hours for the crap to install updates and all :(
Fingers Crossed !!!
good luck.. :)
As a general question, before installing I had Ubuntu 9.04. I could use the Windows Boot Manager instead of GRUB to boot into Ubuntu. So even uninstalling it was not all a problem too.
But looks like, there is not option to stop GRUB from overwirting the Windows Boot Manager when I install Fedora. I mean, we need to have this flexibility to choose our boot loader betwrrn - GRUB and Windows Boot Manager.
Because, I was aware of this problem and was very cautious when I did the install but still ran into this problem. :(
Windows does not give you this option.
There is an option to choose the partition to load the GRUB, and I did choose the partition whre I had installed Fedora, KEEPING IN MIND I SHOULD NOT REMOVE WINDOWS BOOT MANAGER... But boom, I got shot.
Infact I tRied my install twice, first time, I said DO NOT INSTALL ANY BOOT LOADER, because I guessed then windows Boot Manager would have the Control. Then I ended up not being to reboot either Vista or Fedora .....
From what it looks like, once you install Fedora 11 (atleast), your WINDOWS BOOT MANAGER IS WIPPED OFF !!! :(
Fedora (and several other distributions) tell you where grub will be placed. By default, the Fedora installer selects grub to be placed in the MBR of your first hard drive. You can instead change it to be the MBR of another hard drive or the first few blocks of a partition.
I guess I had this thread opened too long. Your post didn't appear until after I sent mine. My bad.
What ever, I could not see the option to load the GRUB in a place apart from the Windows Boot Manager. Or better said, GRUB Overwrote WBM even though I chose to install GRUB on the first segment of the partition where I installed Fedora.
When I could do this with Ubuntu, I even tried in Fedora. But did not work.
|All times are GMT -5. The time now is 05:08 AM.


text:
Delete Views
You can delete (drop) views in SQL Server 2017 by using SQL Server Management Studio or Transact-SQL
In This Topic
Before you begin:
To delete a view from a database, using:
Before You Begin
Limitations and Restrictions
When you drop a view, the definition of the view and other information about the view is deleted from the system catalog. All permissions for the view are also deleted.
Any view on a table that is dropped by using
DROP TABLEmust be dropped explicitly by using
Requires ALTER permission on SCHEMA or CONTROL permission on OBJECT.
Using SQL Server Management Studio
To delete a view from a database
In Object Explorer, expand the database that contains the view you want to delete, and then expand the Views folder.
Right-click the view you want to delete and click Delete.
In the Delete Object dialog box, click OK.
Click Show Dependencies in the Delete Object dialog box to open the view_nameDependencies dialog box. This will show all of the objects that depend on the view and all of the objects on which the view depends.
Using Transact-SQL
To delete a view from a database
In Object Explorer, connect to an instance of Database Engine.
On the Standard bar, click New Query.
Copy and paste the following example into the query window and click Execute. The example deletes the specified view only if the view already exists.
USE AdventureWorks2012 ; GO IF OBJECT_ID ('HumanResources.EmployeeHireDate', 'V') IS NOT NULL DROP VIEW HumanResources.EmployeeHireDate; GO
For more information, see DROP VIEW (Transact-SQL).


text:
April 24, 2014
Sydnee Hernandez shows intense concentration to return the ball in a doubles loss to Eastmont Tuesday afternoon. Hernandez and Mattie Meyers lost the match 6-1, 6-1.
Stories this photo appears in:
No. 3 doubles pairs lone winners for SHS
It was the lowest ranked members of Sunnyside's tennis squads that managed to pull out wins this past Tuesday against visiting Eastmont, while the higher ranked players all fell.
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text:
June 23, 2006
Birck nano exhibit provides learning opportunity for students, adultsWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. Fresh from a stop at the Children's Museum of Oak Ridge in Tennessee, a Purdue University-created nanotechnology exhibit is now on display at the Birck Nanotechnology Center's atrium in Discovery Park.
The exhibit, titled "Nanotechnology: The Science of Making Things Smaller," was constructed by a team of Purdue students and faculty as part of the Engineering Projects in Community Service, or EPICS.
The display, which is free and open to school tour groups and the public, will remain at the Birck Center, located at 1205 W. State St., through the summer months. Exhibit tours will be offered from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. For group scheduling information, contact Deborah Starewich at (765) 494-3509, email@example.com.
Purdue physics professor Ronald Reifenberger said a popular stop is the LEGO scanning probe microscope, which "sees" by probing objects with a small, sharp tip.
"Our LEGO scanning probe microscope is a working model that reproduces the various functions of a research-level instrument," he said. "By slowly touching a LEGO surface with a tip, a three-dimensional image can be generated and displayed on a computer."
Reifenberger said the LEGO scanning probe microscope is an ideal educational tool for this subject, effectively demonstrating how real lab instruments provide a window into the nano world.
"Scientists are devising techniques to build nano devices piece by piece in ways that are very similar to the construction of complex LEGO landscapes," he said.
Michael Melloch, a Purdue professor of electrical and computer engineering who assisted Reifenberger on the exhibit, said animations are used to highlight the principles of nanotechnology in a way that youngsters can learn and understand.
"The animations provide a clever and novel approach to explaining some of the basic ideas driving nanotechnology to elementary and middle school kids," Melloch said.
Posters also line the walls of the Birck atrium, providing detailed information for those with a greater interest in the world of nano, which is a prefix meaning one-billionth. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter, or only about three atoms wide.
Exhibit sponsors are the NASA Institute of Nanoelectronics and Computation, the Network for Computational Nanotechnology and the Birck Nanotechnology Center, all at Purdue.
Before returning to the Purdue campus, the display spent several months during 2005 at the Children's Museum of Oak Ridge located near the Oak Ridge National Laboratories.
The 187,000-square-foot Birck Center, which opened last October, involves Purdue faculty, researchers, staff and graduate students from 27 schools and departments. Birck opened its $10 million cleanroom, the Scifres Nanofabrication Laboratory, to researchers on June 12.
The Birck Nanotechnology Center is a cornerstone for Discovery Park, Purdue's $300 million hub for interdisciplinary research and home to 10 established research centers focusing on endeavors ranging from biosciences and manufacturing to oncological sciences and health-care engineering.
Michael Melloch, (765) 494-3528, email@example.com
Note to Journalists: For a schedule of student groups that will be touring the nano exhibit at the Birck Nanotechnology Center during June and July, contact Phillip Fiorini, Purdue News Service, at (765) 496-3133, email@example.com.
Amani Brown of Indianapolis, from left, Ariel Magallon of Highland, Ind., and Jennifer Pugh of Montgomery, Ala., play with a pin-scanner toy at the "Nanotechnology: The Science of Making Things Smaller" exhibit in Purdue's Birck Nanotechnology Center. The toy is used to demonstrate how a surface measuring 3-D scanning probe microscope works. The three girls were a part of group from the Minority Engineering Camp that toured the exhibit on Wednesday (June 22). The hands-on exhibit, which will remain on display through the summer at the Discovery Park facility, was constructed by a team of Purdue students and faculty as part of Engineering Projects in Community Service, or EPICS. (Purdue News Service photo/David Umberger)
A publication-quality photo is available at http://news.uns.purdue.edu/uns/images/+2006/birck-nanoexhibit.jpg
To the News Service home page


text:
|Publication number
|Publication type
|Application number
|Publication date
|Jul 1, 2008
|Filing date
|Aug 24, 2006
|Priority date
|Feb 18, 2000
|Fee status
|Also published as
|Publication number
|Fernando Carlos Pereira, Amitabh Kumar Singhal
|Original Assignee
|At&T Corp.
|Export Citation
|BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan
|Patent Citations (2), Non-Patent Citations (2), Referenced by (1), Classifications (9), Legal Events (4)
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/740,284, filed Dec. 19, 2000 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,113,910, which claims priority from provisional U.S. Application No. 60/183,397 filed Feb. 18, 2000.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to methods and systems for document expansion. More specifically, the invention, relates to methods and systems for performing document expansion for speech retrieval.
2. Description of the Related Art
Increasing amounts of spoken communications are stored in digital form for archival purposes (e.g., broadcasts), or as a byproduct of modern communications technology (e.g., voice mail). Multimedia documents and databases are also becoming increasingly popular, e.g., on the World-Wide-Web (www). There has thus been an interest in developing tools for searching spoken information that complement existing methods for searching textual information.
With advances in automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology, it is now possible to automatically transcribe speech with reasonable accuracy. Once the contents of a speech database or the audio portions of a multimedia database are transcribed using a speech recognition system, traditional information retrieval techniques can be used to search the database. However, inaccuracies in automatic transcriptions pose several new problems for information retrieval (IR) technology in speech retrieval. For poor automatic transcriptions, retrieval effectiveness is much worse than effectiveness for human transcriptions. Due to various factors, including background non-speech sounds (noise, music), poor recording conditions, and disfluent or non-native speech, it is often not possible to get good automatic transcriptions even with the best ASR systems.
Even though IR techniques have been successfully used in retrieving corrupted text generated by optical character recognition (OCR) systems, the kinds of errors in automatic speech transcriptions are very different from those in OCR transcriptions. Since OCR systems usually operate with single characters, errors in character recognition usually produce illegal words which do not affect the retrieval process substantially. In contrast, current high-performance, large-vocabulary speech recognizers rely on word-pronunciation dictionaries and whole outputs consists only of legitimate words drawn from the dictionary. Recognition errors are then deletions, insertions or substitutions of legitimate words, and are therefore not easily discarded.
One of the main problems in performing word- and phrase-based speech retrieval with current methods arises due to poor index term assignments for automatic speech transcriptions. From its early days, the field of IR has wrestled with the question of which index terms should be assigned to a given document. Defining the concepts which a document is about,—"aboutness" in subject indexing—has been visited several times over the history of IR. Experimentation has shown that automatically-derived, uncontrolled index terms are competitive with carefully crafted manual index terms. Most modern IR systems use automatically derived words and phrases as index terms for documents. However, any indexing system, including word- and phrase-based automatic indexing, is imperfect and may thus fail to index the relevant documents under the query terms even though the documents are about those terms. This has often been called the "vocabulary mismatch" problem. This problem is made worse by speech recognition errors, since the automatic transcription of a document may not contain all the terms that were actually spoken, or may contain terms that were not spoken.
A secondary problem in index term assignment is deciding, for an index term assigned to a given document, the "degree" to which that document is about that term. Modern IR systems use sophisticated term-weighting methods to define the degree of aboutness of documents for different terms. When documents are corrupted, as is the case in speech retrieval, term-weighting schemes assign misleading weights to terms. This might also cause some loss in retrieval effectiveness.
Many devices and methods have been proposed over the years to attack the vocabulary mismatch problem, most notably the use of Thesaurii to enhance the set of index terms assigned to documents or to queries. However, obtaining a reliable Thesaurus for any subject area is quite expensive. Attempts have been made to harness word-to-word associations for automatic Thesaurus construction, but these attempts have been disappointing. More recently, however, it has been shown that enhancing queries with terms related to the entire concept of the query (often referred to as "query expansion"), and not just with words related to individual query words, reduces the problem of vocabulary mismatch considerably and consistently yields large improvements in retrieval effectiveness, especially for short queries.
Correspondingly, document expansion can be used to enhance the index term assignment for documents. Many studies have utilized enhanced document representations using bibliographic citations and references. Research on the use of spreading activation models in IR also aims at crediting documents based on activation of related documents. However, both these techniques need some human supervision (in the form of human generated citations, or the semantic net used) to be made operational.
Document clustering, which doesn't require any human supervision, can also be interpreted as a form of document expansion. When similar documents are clustered and a cluster representative is used in the search process, the cluster representative usually contains terms from all the documents in the cluster, in effect allowing a match between a document and a query (via the cluster representative) even when individual query terms might be missing from the document but are present in other documents in the cluster. Extensive studies on document clustering have given mixed results at best. Work on Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) also produces similarly mixed results. LSI allows a match between queries and documents that might not share any terms in word-space, but do share some concepts in the LSI.
An alternative to word-based approaches is to recognize sub-word units (for instance, phonemes) and to use sequences of these sub-word units as index terms. However, it is unclear if the results from this approach are competitive with word-based approaches now that very-large vocabulary recognition systems are available. It is also possible to simultaneously use as index terms words from the best word transcription and phonetic n-grams from phoneme lattices.
There thus exists a long-felt, but unresolved need in the art for document expansion for speech retrieval systems. The methods and systems to perform this task should be versatile and efficient, performing speech retrieval in short periods of time. These results have not heretofore been achieved in the cut.
The aforementioned problems are solved, and long-felt needs are met, by methods of document expansion for speech retrieval documents by a recognizer provided in accordance with the present invention. The methods comprise accessing a database of vectors of automatic transcriptions of documents and truncating the vectors by removing all terms in the vectors that are not recognized by the recognizer, thereby creating truncated vectors. It is then preferable to change weights of terms in the truncated vectors to weights associated with the vectors before the vectors were truncated to form the truncated vectors, thereby creating truncated, weighted vectors and adding to the truncated, weighted vectors any terms which were not recognized by the recognizer.
The inventive methods enhance index representation for speech documents independently of the nature of the indexing units. The only precondition is that the speech documents to be searched must be transcribed and indexed in advance of query processing, rather than being transcribed and scanned at query-time. It is also possible to expand the speech documents prior to query processing
Document expansion for speech retrieval in accordance with the invention yields significant improvements in retrieval effectiveness from speech. When speech recognition is of reasonable quality, retrieval effectiveness from automatic transcriptions with the inventive methods is quite comparable with retrieval effectiveness from human transcriptions. The inventive techniques are particularly useful when only poor automatic transcriptions are available. Document expansion in accordance with the present invention is very effective in this situation. Losses in retrieval effectiveness are reduced considerably; from 15 to 27% to about 7 to 13%.
The present invention provides methods for retrievement enhanced document representations from erroneous texts such as automatic speech transcriptions. With erroneous transcriptions, it is not clear whether the document is truly about the terms returned by the recognizer. However, documents can be found that are topically related to the spoken document in a textual sense, and words whose presence in speech is supported by topically related documents can be reinforced. In accordance with the invention, the importance of the words whose presence in the speech document is not supported by related documents can be reduced. In addition to this reweighing of recognized terms, transcription of some new terms from the related documents can be added, representing in-topic terms that could have been spoken but the recognizer failed to recognize. Re-weighing and addition of related terms, in accordance with the invention is especially effective when the expansion corpus is closely related to the spoken documents, for example in the case of a spoken corpus of news broadcasts and an expansion corpus of newspaper news articles of the same time period. These results have not heretofore been achieved in the art.
The invention will be best understood by those skilled in the art by reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the invention in conjunction with the drawings which are first described briefly below.
In the drawings wherein like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout the several views thereof:
Referring now to
The method starts at step 10, and at step 20 it is preferable to access a database of vectors of automatic transcriptions of documents. At step 30, the vectors are truncated to remove terms from the documents which are not recognized by a recognizer, for example an individual posing a query to the system to retrieve documents about a specific subject. This produces a set of truncated vectors. At step 40, the truncated vectors are weighted with weights that are associated with the vectors before they were truncated. Truncation and weighting of the vectors in accordance with the invention will be discussed in more detail below.
Terms are then added to the weighted, truncated vectors at step 50 which were not recognized by the recognizer before the vectors were truncated. At step 60, it is then determined whether other vectors of transcribed documents exist which should be truncated. If so, then the method returns to step 20, and if not then the method goes to step 70 wherein the retrieval effectiveness for untruncated vectors is compared to the retrieval effectiveness for truncated, weighted vectors. The method then stops at step 80.
In a preferred embodiment, a speech collection corpus for the inventive methods comprises approximately 100 hours of radio/TV broadcast news recordings. Twenty-three sentence-length queries are manually segmented into 2,866 stories. Twenty-three sentence-length queries are supplied with this collection, along with their corresponding relevance judgements. These queries have anywhere between one to sixty relevant documents in the collection.
A non-interpolated average precision was used to evaluate retrieval effectiveness. However, average precision is quite volatile for queries that have very few relevant documents. For example, consider a query which has just one relevant document. If one system ranks the relevant document at rank 1 and another at rank 3, then for this query the average precision for the first system is 1.0 whereas it is just 0.33 for the second system. Such large differences for a few such queries can overshadow the overall average precision. To avoid this volatility, it is desired to remove queries that have fewer than five relevant documents in the test collection, and to perform the evaluation using the remaining queries.
To study the impact of document expansion on a wide variety of speech recognitions of varying accuracy, nine different sets of transcriptions were used. The inventive methods enhance the index representation for speech documents independently of the nature of the indexing units. The only precondition is that the speech documents to be searched must be transcribed and indexed, and possibly expanded, in advance of query processing, rather than being transcribed and scanned at query-time.
The weighting methods described by Singhal et al., AT&T at TREC-7, Proceedings of the Seventh Text Retrieval Conference (TREC 7) (1999), the teachings of which are incorporated herein by reference, and the term "weighted queries", were employed. These queries incorporate the "idf-factor" as described by Singhal et al. which is collection-dependent. It is preferable to hold the queries constant across various representations of documents. Therefore, the same idf for query terms is used across different sets of transcriptions. This idf-factor is the true idf of the term derived from the collection of human transcriptions of the speech data.
Long queries which are rich with content words yield better retrieval. Many techniques that are effective for short queries (like automatic query expansion) are not as effective for long queries. Therefore, it is useful to evaluate document expansion with one set of short queries, and another set of long queries. However, the queries provided by NIST for this collection are all sentence length, and are relatively short (average 7.1 terms per query). A content-rich long version of these queries was generated via pseudo-feedback on human transcriptions. Pseudo-feedback has been used in the past and has been quite successful over the last few years. Ten new words were added to each query, increasing the average query length to 17.1 terms per query.
From an IR system's perspective, a recognizer makes three kinds of mistakes for a document. 1): Deletions: No occurrence of a term occurring in the speech is recognized. 2): Weight Difference: A term in the spoken document is recognized, but with the wrong frequency, or the transcription length is incorrect. And 3) Insertions: A term not in the speech appears in the automatic transcription.
In a preferred embodiment, weighted documents were used. Due to a double-log normalized tf-factor as described by Singhal et al. used in the document weighting scheme, the effect of weight difference on retrieval effectiveness is minimal. To study the incremental loss due to word deletions, weight difference, and insertions, dnb-weighted document vectors as described by Singhal et al. for human transcriptions are taken, and the following steps performed:
First, remove from the document vectors for human transcriptions all terms that are not recognized by the recognizer. Comparing retrieval from these truncated vectors to that from the full vectors measures the effect of deletions on retrieval effectiveness.
Second, change the weights of the terms in the truncated vectors generated in the previous step to the weights they achieve in the indexed versions of the automatic transcriptions. Retrievals on these vectors measure the additional loss in retriveal effectiveness caused by incorrect weights being assigned to terms.
Finally, add all insertions to vectors generated in the previous step. This yields the final retrieval effectiveness using automatic transcriptions, and also measures the incremental loss due to insertions.
The graphs in
First, long queries are better than short queries. The average precision for human transcriptions is 0.5369 for long queries, whereas it is 0.4277 for short queries. This improvement in the quality of the queries is reflected in retrieval from all automatic transcriptions. For example, retrieval from DERASRU-S2 has an average precision of 0.3348 for short queries; this number rises to 0.4544 for long queries.
Second, loss of effectiveness is small for good transcriptions. Comparing the two solid lines—the horizontal one for human transcriptions and the other line for retrieval from various automatic transcriptions—the loss of effectiveness for reasonable automatic transcriptions is minimal. For both query sets, the effectiveness of retrieval from the best automatic transcription (CUHTK-S1) is almost the same as retrieval effectiveness for perfect text. The losses for other reasonable transcriptions (all but NIST-B2, DERASRU-S2, and DERASRU-S1) are all from 2 to 6%, which is minimal considering that these transcriptions have word error rates of up to 36%.
However, when recognition becomes noticeably poor, the retrieval effectiveness does fall about 22 to 27% for the short queries and about 15% for the long queries. This observation strongly advocates the use of long queries whenever possible. Use of long queries cuts the effectiveness difference between retrieval from human and automatic transcriptions.
For good transcriptions, the differences in retrieval effectiveness for human and automatic transcriptions are little to begin with, and break-up analysis for such small differences is not very meaningful. For the poor transcriptions, there is a noticeable loss in average precision due to word deletions (for both the short and the long queries).
Weight changes are less important. As was discussed above, the incremental loss due to poor term-weighting is relatively small. The main reason for this is the normalization of term frequencies done by the term weighting schemes used in modern IR systems, like the double-log normalized term frequency factor. A term that occurs tf times in a document is assigned a weight of 1+ln(1+ln(tf)) (ignoring document length effects). If a recognizer doesn't recognize the second occurrence of a word in a document, the loss in term weight is just 34% (its tf-weight becomes 1.0 instead of 1.5); whereas if a recognizer recognizes two out of three occurrences of a term, the loss in weight is just 12% (its tf-weight becomes 1.5 instead of 1.7).
Insertions matter for short queries. Further loss due to spurious words or insertions is quite noticeable for short queries, but it is relatively small for the long queries. Most of the loss for long queries is from deletions. This is evident in the bottom graph in
If an automatic recognition can be enhanced with words that could have been there but did not make it into the automatic transcription, then the resulting enhanced transcription should have fewer deletions, and losses due to deletions may be cut. From a speech recognition perspective, an acceptable way to bring new words into a document is through the use of alternative recognition hypotheses (for example by use of lattices or n-best transcriptions of a speech).
From an IR perspective, pseudo-feedback, which basically is nearest-neighbor based expansion, is a preferable way to bring related words into a text. In a preferred embodiment, document expansion using Rocchio's method is implemented and its effect on retrieval performance is studied. The main idea behind such document expansion is given a document, first find some documents that are related to the document at hand (its nearest neighbors), and then bring frequently occurring words from the related documents into this document. This process should be especially effective if the neighboring documents are from a text corpus that is closely related to the speech at hand.
To perform document expansion, select a collection of documents that will serve as the source of related documents. Preferably, the North American News corpus is used which is available from LDC (LDC Catalog Number: LDC95T21, see www.1dc.upenn.edu) as the source of related documents. The main motivation behind using this collection are: 1) it is similar in nature to the speech collection at hand (both primarily contain American news), and 2) it contains print news from the same time period as the test data.
Therefore, it is expected that reported speech in the collection also appears in this corpus. Since the test data is dated from June 1997 to January 1998, news is used dated from May 1997 to February 1998 (one month before and after) from the North American news corpus. The shorthand "NA News" is used throughout for this subset of the corpus.
Second, find documents related to a speech document. This is preferably accomplished by running the automatic transcription of the speech document as a query (raw-tf-x idf weighted) on the NA News corpus and retrieving the ten most similar documents used in this process. The automatic recognition of documents is weighted (instead of using, say, a logarithmic or a double-log tf-factor) when used as a query because it has been observed that the nearest neighbors found using raw tf x idf weighted documents yield the best expansion results. Third, the speech transcriptions are then modified using Rocchio's formula:
where {right arrow over (D)}old is the initial document vector. {right arrow over (D)}i is the vector for the i-th related document, and {right arrow over (D)} new the modified document vector. All documents are dnb weighted. Optionally new words are added to the document. For term selection, the Rocchio weights for new words are multiplied by their idf, the terms are selected, and the idf is stripped from a selected term's final weight. Furthermore, to ensure that this document expansion process does not change the effective length of the document vectors, which would change the results changed due to document length normalization effects, the total weight for all terms in the new vector is forced to be the same as the total weight of all terms in the initial document vector. Rocchio's formula is described in J. J. Rocchio, "Relevance Feedback in Information Retrieval", The SMART Retrieval System, Gerard Salton, editor, pages 313-323, Prentice Hall, Inc. (1971), the teachings of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Various parameters are involved in the document expansion process. In a preferred embodiment, ten nearest neighbors for a document are used. Various values for a were evaluated and the best picked. Once again, different values for the degree of document expansion may be evaluated. A typical parameter tuning run is detailed in
Both the query sets (short and long) were run on the modified and the original documents and the average precision was measured. The results for the short queries are shown in
Many interesting facts can be observed from
First, it is observed that document expansion dramatically improves the average precision for short queries for all transcriptions. It is expected that document expansion will improve average precision for automatic transcriptions, but the 23% improvement for perfect text (the average precision jumps from 0.4277 to 0.5265) is quite unexpected. Previous studies have shown modest gains when spreading activation was used with five nearest neighbors of a document. Whether this effect will hold when applied to large text collections is still unclear.
The bottom graph in
In summary, document expansion is more useful for automatic speech transcripts than it is for human transcriptions. Automatic recognitions that are relatively poor need the most help during retrieval. Document expansion helps exactly these transcriptions, and quite noticeably even with word error rates as high as 65%, the retrieval effectiveness drops just 12-13% post document expansion. This drop would have been 22-27% without expansion.
Studying similar graphs for the long queries in
More interestingly, when documents are poor in content, like the automatic transcripts with many errors, document expansion is still beneficial despite the richness of the queries. Even with long queries, a marked improvement in retrieval effectiveness from poor transcription is achieved. The average precision improves about 12 to 13% for the three transcriptions with high word error rates (as opposed to just 3 to 5% for perfect text or the better transcriptions), and the gap is reduced to about 8% instead of the original 16%. Once again document expansion helps where help is needed the most, that is, for poor automatic transcriptions.
Document expansion has two effects on a document vector. First, Rocchio's method reweights the terms that already exist in the document. Second, it brings new words in the document.
The horizontal lines in
More specifically, all terms that appear equally often in a document get equal weights before reweighting, but the presence of some of these terms is supported by the nearest neighbors of the document, whereas the presence of other terms is not supported. After reweighting, this results in a higher weight for terms whose presence in the document is supported by nearest neighbors and vice-versa. For example, if a document is about automatic speech recognition, and the words "Markov" and "spectrum" both occur just once in it, the nearest neighbors for this document might support the presence of the word "Markov" more strongly than they would support the presence of "spectrum", yielding a higher weight for the word "Markov" in the reweighted document as compared to the weight of "spectrum". Put another way, there are some "signal" words in a document and there are some "noise" words. Document reweighting based on nearest neighbors emphasizes the signal words and it de-emphasizes the noise words yielding a better overall term weight assignment for the document.
Adding new terms to the documents adds another 6% for the short queries yielding a final average precision of 0.5265 (a 23% improvement over 0.4277). Adding new terms to documents has the same effect as using long queries. When queries are indeed long, no improvement due to adding new terms to documents is achieved. Adding new terms to documents actually results in a small loss when queries are long (see horizontal lines in bottom graph of
The effects of reweighting the existing terms is similar for all automatic speech transcriptions, i.e., a large improvement is achieved in retrieval effectiveness when certain words, which the document is truly about, receive higher weights. Adding new terms to the automatic transcriptions is more useful than it is for human transcriptions. Overall, adding new terms does not hurt for speech transcriptions, and is marginally to noticeably useful. This result is important since it shows that addition of new terms helps automatic transcripts (it helps noticeably when the transcripts are poor), even though it might hurt the perfect transcriptions (as it does for the long queries).
The above results show that when a text corpus is used which is reasonably close to the speech corpus in content type, then document expansion is truly beneficial for speech retrieval. To study the effect of document expansion when it is performed from a corpus that does not closely relate to the speech at hand, a large corpus of about 5.2 Giga-bytes containing 1,634,976 documents from various sources (news and non-news) was examined. The news material in this corpus is from the years 1987-1994 and has little overlap with the news topics covered in the speech corpus (which is dated from June 1997 to January 1998).
The document expansion from this corpus is not as beneficial as it is from the closely related NA News corpus. For example, when documents were expanded from NA News, the average precision for retrieval from perfect text using short queries jumped 23% from 0.4277 to 0.5265; but when documents are expanded from the new corpus, this increase is just 12% (from 0.4277 to 0.4828). Document expansion actually hurts retrieval effectiveness for long queries; about 7% in average precision as opposed to a 3.5% gain for NA News.
More importantly, the performance gap between the human and the ASR transcripts is not reduced as significantly as it was when documents were expanded from NA News. For example, for the short queries and NIST-B2 transcripts, the gap now reduces from 23% to just 20% (whereas it reduced to 12% for NA News). This situation is worse for long queries for which this gap doesn't change much for most of the transcripts. Document expansion is still useful for all transcripts when queries are short, though not as much; whereas it has almost no effect when queries are long.
Further analysis shows that most of the effect of document expansion is due to reweighting of the existing terms. For the long queries, bringing in new terms doesn't help much (it either helps or hurts about 1%). However, for the short queries, it still does help (about 2 to 7% depending upon the transcripts), though much less than expansion from NA News. Changing the parameter values for document expansion changes the results greatly. Overall, it appears that the effectiveness for document expansion for better retrieval is largely dependent upon having a text collection for document expansion that is closely related to the speech at hand.
Yet another possible source for document expansion is the speech corpus itself. In this scenario, the nearest neighbors of a speech document will be other speech documents. This would completely eliminate the need for an external text collection for performing document expansion. Document expansion from this corpus itself is not very effective. The main problem is the small size of this corpus.
Thus, document expansion from a text collection closely related to the speech at hand yields substantial benefits for speech retrieval, reducing the performance gap between retrieval from perfect text and from automatic speech transcriptions. Retrieval from reasonable speech transcriptions is competitive with retrieval from perfect text. Document expansion helps where help is needed most, namely, for poor automatic transcriptions. On the other hand, expansion from unrelated corpora is not nearly as beneficial.
Moreover, retrieval using long queries is more robust against speech recognition errors. Term insertion by a speech recognizer is not a significant problem if the queries have enough context (long queries). Furthermore, when using modern term weighting schemes the losses incurred due to improper values for terms that were actually spoken and were also recognized are minimal.
While there have been shown and described and pointed out certain novel features of the present invention as applied to preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the methods and apparatus described herein, and in their operation, may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. It is expressly intended that all combinations of those elements and/or method steps which perform substantially the same function in substantially the same way to achieve the same results are within the scope of the invention. Substitutions of method steps and elements from one described embodiment to another are also fully intended and contemplated. It is the intention, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the claims appended hereto.
|Cited Patent
|Filing date
|Publication date
|Jun 5, 1995
|Sep 24, 1996
|Hutson; William H.
|Method and system for real-time information analysis of textual material
|Jan 2, 1997
|Sep 7, 1999
|At&T Corp
|Retrieval system and method
|Choi et al. "An Overview of the AT&T Spoken Document Retrieval" Feb. 1998, Proceedings of the Broadcast News Transcription and Understanding Workshop, pp. 182-190.
|Singhal et al. "AT&T at TREC-7" in Proceedings of the Seventh Text REtrieval Conference, pp. 239-252, Jul. 1999.
|Citing Patent
|Filing date
|Publication date
|Jan 14, 2008
|Jul 20, 2010
|At&T Intellectual Property Ii, L.P.
|Document expansion in speech retrieval
|U.S. Classification
|International Classification
|Cooperative Classification
|European Classification
|Dec 29, 2011
|Fee payment
Year of fee payment: 4
|Dec 29, 2015
|Fee payment
Year of fee payment: 8
|Apr 26, 2016
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text:
Pink slush
- Recipe created by FabFood on Jul 23, 2007
- Permalink: http://sheknows.com/recipes/pink-slush
- View more recipes by FabFood.
- Prep: –
- Cook Time: –
- Total: –
- Serving: –
- 12 ounces frozen orange juice concentrate
- 1 packet sugar-free pink lemonade drink powder
- 46 ounces pineapple juice
- 46 ounces apricot nectar
- 36 ounces (3 12-ounces cans) sugar-free lemon lime soft drink
- Combine first four ingredients in a large plastic container, and freeze at least 12 hours. One hour before serving, remove from the freezer. Use a heavy, long handled metal spoon to break up slush for serving. Scoop 6 ounces slush into a short glass and pour in 2 ounces soft drink. Garnish the glass with a melon ball on a swizzle stick.
- Diabetic Exchanges: 2 Fruit
Filed Under:
Cold Drinks, Punch, RV, Make Ahead, Kid Friendly, Low Fat, Easter, Cinco de Mayo, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Fourth of July, Diabetic, Freezer Friendly


text:
The first trailer has arrived online for family threequel, Night At The Museum: Secret Of The Tomb, in which Ben Stiller returns for another round of magical mayhem.
The new film transposes the action to London, as Stiller's character heads to the British Museum to unlock further secrets regarding the mysterious tablet that brings the exhibits of the Smithsonian to life.
Cue marauding dinosaurs, rogue cavemen and Downton Abbey's dashing Dan Stevens as a sword-swinging Sir Lancelot.
Cast : Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan, Ricky Gervais, Dan Stevens, Rebel Wilson, Ben Kingsley
Release Date : In Theaters December 19th, 2014


text:
Assad joins Instagram
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad got an Instagram account this week under the name SyrianPresidency, posting 76 photos and with around 30,000 followers so far. But the photos of him and his wife Asma out among the people don't give the impression a civil war is currently ongoing in the country. Only on Thursday did the account post photos of Assad visiting "soldiers in charge of protecting civilians in Darayya."
The reaction has been an outpouring of criticism. On Wednesday State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf called the move "despicable" and "nothing more than a PR stunt."
"It's repulsive that the Assad regime would use this to gloss over the brutality and suffering it's causing," Harf said, adding that people should ignore the images which are "not indicative of the horrific situation on the ground that [Assad] is causing for his own people."
"To see what's really happening right now in Syria, to see the horrific atrocities in Homs and elsewhere, we would encourage people to take a look at unfiltered photos of what's actually happening on the ground," she said.
Instagram and Twitter users also erupted, with many tweeting out gruesome photos of the violence in Syria.
The reality in #Syria that Assad's Instagram won't show: http://t.co/wlalsIrsab pic.twitter.com/Jqm8Nic8Ci
— Hayes Brown (@HayesBrown) August 1, 2013


text:
Dancer and choreographer Sophie Stotsky knew one thing by the age of five: grandma was cool. Sophie's grandma, a dancer of Anna Sokolow (one of the first early modern dance choreographers ...The Full Story
Hundreds of years of sociology have established etiquette. Every society varies slightly from the next but each has a very defined set of rules on how to behave and what's proper ...The Full Story
Hundreds of years of sociology have established etiquette. Every society varies slightly from the next but each has a very defined set of rules on how to behave and what's proper ...The Full Story
I am going to go out on a limb by stating this: Everyone, every man, every woman, should attend one camping festival before his or her death. Everyone. The first real festival ...The Full Story
I was walking down the street and there was a homeless woman who caught my eye. Well, I suppose it wasn't she that caught my eye, but rather her belongings strewn ...The Full Story
Silence. We've heard it's golden. But what does that actually mean? In our current age of endless distraction and busy urban sprawl, silence has turned into a more precious commodity ...The Full Story
GOOD magazine started eight years ago with a simple name, and a simple goal of doing good. When Ben Goldhirsh launched GOOD in 2006, it was a small magazine with enormous ambitions ...The Full Story
New technological advancements often come with the stipulation that these advances will save us time. The wheel would carry us from point A to point B faster, and give us back the ...The Full Story
I used to be an English teacher in Japan. Many of my students wanted to improve their English speaking abilities, so I would tell them to set goals. Often times I would ...The Full Story
It's all chocolate all the time for Todd Masonis, co-founder of the bean-to-bar chocolate factory, Dandelion Chocolate. However, Todd hasn't always been so one-track-minded. He graduated from Stanford University and ...The Full Story
The Idealist
FIVE SCOOP: Bright Funds is Improving the Experience of Charitable Giving.
A great business idea is one that comes along at ...The Full Story
The Idealist
PRO PORTRAIT: Cleveland Motley is the maker of goods…Motley Goods.
Cleveland Motley has a background in sculpture and mechanical engineering, ...The Full Story
The Idealist
Up Close and Personal Artwork For Your Home.
Personalization is all the rage. Our Apple products all look ...The Full Story
The Idealist
FRESH FRIDAYS: For the Whiskey Drinker
We've been a tad bit obsessed with whiskey lately, in ...The Full Story
The Idealist
Avert Your Imagination: Alan Friedman's Backyard Solar Photography.
Some of my favorite days are when I can look ...The Full Story
The Idealist
This Message Will Self-Destruct…Snapchat's Vanishing Photos.
When I was young, I loved watching reruns of "Mission: ...The Full Story
The Idealist
The Five Scoop: Get Smitten.
If you love ice cream, or at least think you ...The Full Story


text:
Due to budget constraints the facility has been constructed in phases. The initial phase was the construction of the main covered arena. In 2006, the outdoor arena and stall area was added. The parking lot and landscaping beds were completed in 2007. The facility will continue to grow and progress with availability of funds and the demands of the customers.
First Phase
Second Phase
2007 Completed Facility


text:
Art must truly be subjective if you consider the latest project of a pop culture inspired sculptor. According to the Huffington Post, Daniel Edwards has created renderings of what he believes Kim Kardashian's and Kate Middleton's babies will look like using ultrasound images leaked from the women's prenatal appointments. No more information is offered as to how these very private pictures were obtained, but this just feels wrong. And while the result is kind of cute, this overall project just seems odd.
"Baby Kimye and The Royal Heir" is the name of this creation, which features two cherubic infants posing together. Middleton's baby wears an oversize crown and sucks his thumb. Kardashian's tot has the iconic letter "K" etched into his hair. Both babies are sporting angel wings.
If this take on this year's two most highly anticipated babies plays to your art sensibility, you're in luck. The piece will be on display in Los Angeles starting June 5th as part of an exhibit called "L.A. Fertility." Kim Kardashian's pregnancy will also be immortalized with a nude rendering of her expectant form. Supposedly you can touch the reality star's swollen belly for luck while at the exhibit.
As for Edwards, this is not his first stab at sculpting celebrities. He previously produced a piece that pays homage to Suri Cruise potty training. Good thing the art world has that sculpture to boast about.
That being said, the Los Angeles exhibit will likely draw plenty of visitors. It seems the fascination with the pregnancies of Kardashian and Middleton knows no bounds.
Do you think Edwards has gone too far? Would you see the exhibit if you lived in the L.A. area?
Photo credit: WENN.com


text:
Friday, June 22, 2007
Aquaman is Better than You!
Um, Arthur, just because you can boss around a bunch of pea-brained fish and can convert water to oxygen, that doesn't make you any less susceptable to death than the rest of us. Let's not get too carried away with ourselves, shall we? I mean, you get right down to it, you are the King of Where Every Complex Organism's Poop Ends Up, so let's just calm ourselves down.
2 comments:
- Sleestak said...
Ew. people drink that water.
- June 22, 2007 at 9:02:00 PM CDT
- Adam Barnett said...
We are kinda having a Petticoat Junction moment there, aren't we?
- June 25, 2007 at 1:10:00 PM CDT
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text:
W. Millington (Auth.)Index Terms:
"Connections" [Notes on the origins of the Underwood, Notts., Guisers' play]
Haggs Farm Preservation Society Newsletter, Jun.1993, No.12, pp.11-12
Notes seeking to explain the source of the Guisers' plays from Underwood, Notts., and references by D.H.Lawrence. These notes give the Oxford Dictionary definition of "guiser", plus a summary of ideas on the origins of mummers' plays, evidently taken from A.Helm (1981).
Locations: Underwood, Notts. (SK4750) Years: Publ. 1993 Subjects: Guisers; Helm,A. (1981); Lawrence,D.H. (1907); Play Archives: Ref.: TD00552


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LOS ANGELES (CBS) — A British coroner says singer Amy Winehouse died as the unintended consequence of drinking too much alcohol.
Coroner Suzanne Greenaway gave a verdict of death by misadventure, saying Winehouse died of accidental alcohol poisoning.
The singer, who fought drug and alcohol problems for years, was found dead at her London home in July.
An autopsy was inconclusive, but found no trace of illegal drugs in her system.
Winehouse was reportedly more than five times over the legal drunk-driving limit, which is the same in the United Kingdom is as it is in the United States, when she died.


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What Is Your Favorite Candy Bar ?
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Replies (1-10):
Mine is either Almond Joy Or Mounds,my son loves Peanut Butter Cups & My daughter is a Hershy Bar fan.
I love plain old Hershey's milk chocolate. Haven't had one in 5 months though....they don't sell Hershey's here. :-(
by Queen25Princes on Jan. 31, 2013 at 2:07 AM
2 moms liked this
Hershey milk chocolate bar
If a Snickers, KitKat, and Reese's were fighting, I wouldn't care who wins....I'd be happy either way.
Posted on CafeMom Mobile
It would have to be a kit kat, but I rarely get them as DH thinks that " what's mine is his" includes chocolate ;-/
Milky Way Midnight Dark or Milky Way Simply Caramel.
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text:
(Adds details on revenues, store openings)
MEXICO CITY, April 24 (Reuters) - Mexico's No. 2 supermarket chain Organizacion Soriana on Friday said its first-quarter profit fell 1.76 percent as price cutting and spending on promotions offset a pickup in sales.
The company reported a profit of 781 million pesos ($51 million), compared with 795 million pesos in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly revenue rose 4.6 percent to 24.924 billion pesos, helped by a 3 percent pickup in same-store sales and the opening of 17 new stores in the last year.
The supermarket chain said it spent more on promotions to bring customers into its stores and its profit margin contracted 100 basis points from the year-earlier quarter to 21.2 percent.
Soriana in January announced it would acquire 160 stores from Mexico's fourth-largest supermarket chain, Comercial Mexicana, and it announced an asset-sale plan and capital raise to finance the purchase.
$1 = 15.2610 pesos at end March Reporting by Elinor Comlay; editing by Gunna Dickson


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Hi everyone. January seems to have brought record new members and I'm just one of the many - but from the UK, so don't know how many new people there are from this side of the pond this month?
I'm into organic gardening, wildlife (in the garden and out), 'old' and species roses, mainly shrubs/trees because I let the perennials get overgrown and lose them. But have daylilies, clematis, geraniums, lamiums, alpines, herbs......wow, when I think about it the list goes on & on. Particularly like scented and aromatic plants. Now I'd better get out there and do some of the real thing instead of just talking about it!!
Look forward to 'talking' to lots of you soon.
One of the many!!
Hi everyone. January seems to have brought record new members and I'm just one of the many - but from the UK, so don't know how many new people there are from this side of the pond this month?
Welcome Philomel..You will love it here...Just jump right in and make yourself at home...We do have some from your neck of the woods....Join in the "Chats" here on line on Tuesdays, our time 7PM to 10PM or Thursdays 7AM to 10Am our time....you will see the count down on the right-hand side of your page.when you come to visit...see the smiling faces....come on along and join....this is a friendly bunch....Again...welcome to Dave's garden...
Another mitten(michigan)person here welcoming you to davesgarden. Glad you found us-now join us! =]
Welcome to Dave's Garden Philomel'Glad ya found us and enjoy' From the Sunflower State, Sis'
Hi Philomel - yes, we do have people from across the pond!! I used to be over there, now I'm here permanently!! Originally from Cambridge, now in Virginia. Just built a house and have a brand new garden to boot, so this site has been a life saver!! So much to learn and enjoying doing it!! The going is tougher here because of the clay soil but I'm getting advice from lots of great people!! You live in a beautiful part of England. I have some distant relatives in your neck of the woods and spent some holiday time there when I was a kid!!
Hello Philomel,
You've found the best gardening
site on the planet. :-)
Welcome from yet another Michigander!
Thanks to all of you for such a wonderful welcome. What a friendly place this is!
Interested to hear of your move Louisa. My brother and his family have lived in cambridge for many years. He's a keen organic allotment gardener married to an Italian - so producing a fascinating crop of mainly mediterranean vegs. (Very tasty!)
I'm on clay like you and an organic gardener, so it's piles of compost - 3 heaps usually on the go.
Look forward to speaking to you all as time goes on
Welcome to the garden from Kentucky. I know you will find yourself right at home here.
Welcome, Philomel! You will find many members from "your side of the big pond" here. Hopefully they'll soon come introduce themselves :)
Welcome, philomel! We love people from the other side of the pond!
Thanks everyone.i'm really enjoying myself already, you're all so friendly and helpful. And I did dip my toe in the chat tuesday night. have to practise to stand any chance of keeping up ROTFL!
Philomel - I am behind 2 little ponds and a mountain area =)
Tervetuloa - Wellcome
Greetings from the buffering zone
Thanks Evert. Unfortunately i have no ponds (and i'm dotty about water too), but am hoping to get one into the garden during the coming year - soooo good for all the wildlife!!
No mountains either, you lucky thing. Spent my early years near mountains and streams and MISS them.
Buffering zone??????????
phil I think it's great that you have become a part of this garden already. I love it when people dive in and become involved - seems like we've got to know you already :-).
Thanks Louisa. I've been welcomed so well by everyone, it's easy to feel part of "the family".
It's down to Mark that i'm here, so i have a lot to thank him for.
It's great to share events and experiences. There's just so much of interest going on - and so much to learn as well, lol!!
Now i'd better get off to see how the valentine scrabble's coming along!
lolol!! Not long ago we had a similar competition to see how many words we could make from one longer word. Baa came first and then me with over 100 words. Can't remember the numbers exactly - but it was fun!! Now come the summer we won't have so much time to spend on such trivia - we shall be too busy in the garden, until it gets too hot to do so. Always have to work around the weather here!!
Can't envisage ever having the 'too hot' scenario, But then you know that as well as I!!
Yes, the busy season's getting under way. My garden's been neglected for a while, so am hacking my way through brambles and nettles before i can get down to the serious job of sowing and planting. Though my seeds have now arrived and will be able to start some of them in the house. - Dreaming of a green/alpine house, but then i have for years, and want to be put in a pond first and.........
You have nothing to worry about and your dreams will materialize as for me........well, if you saw my land you would know what I'm up against. I think I have photos of the new house and I'll post them on landscape sometime!!
Thanks Louisa. Really enjoyed the ones you told me about on your early threads. Your garden in Cambs was just beautiful and i bet your current one is taking shape fast!!
Philomel it is always nice to welcome another friend here, so I know that you will feel right at home here.
philomel, Finland has been kind of buffering zone - read some history book, but not any russian ones, they have wrong information what they have made up.
Yes, wondered if that's what you meant, Evert. just wasn't sure if it was that or something to do with sheltered microclimate for plants, LOL!! :o)
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Last Updated on 3 Aug. 2016, Company: Citrix Systems
Citrix NetScaler is an application delivery and load balancing solution. It delivers application availability, application and database server offload, acceleration and advanced application-layer attack protection - all in a single device, with a unified policy.
Deployed directly in front of web and database servers, NetScaler combines high-speed load balancing and content switching, data compression, content caching, SSL acceleration, application flow visibility and an application firewall on a single, integrated platform.


text:
Artist description:
I think this is a more finished looking version of my previous drawing. After I submitted the last one to the gallery I looked at it a little closer and didn't like what I seen so I tried to polish it up a bit. Sorry for deleting comments & rates
Canvas Draw Created Apr 16, 2011 640 x 460px Unless noted Copyright 2011 KUTEDYMPLES.
We encourage you to submit a comment and let the artist know what you think of this drawing. Please log in or join to post a comment.
Post a comment
very cool looking rose 5/5
wow ! wonderful rose !
very berry pretty +5
Awesoem rose draw
Beautiful draw.
I agree with Magdelina :) fav's
"This is the true masterpiece"...I love it ,love it ,love it:)
so honestly this is the most vivid flower i have seen it looks like burning it's beyond beautiful! 5/5 + fav
Very good =D, Perfect. ^^


text:
Watch Big Love, Starter Pack
The HBO series, Big Love, explores the lives of the Henricksons, a polygamist family. Set in Salt Lake City, Utah, watch Bill, the protagonist and patriarch, juggle his wives, kids and thriving businesses through turmoil caused by his father-in-law and self-anointed prophet, Roman Grant.
The Big Love, Starter Pack is an opportunity to meet the Henricksons through the first five episodes of the series without committing to the entire five seasons. Witness Bill turn to pharmaceuticals for help in the bedroom, the clan deal with their new neighbors and Bill have an affair with his first wife, Barbara.
Watch Full Episodes of Big Love, Starter Pack
Big Love, Starter Pack Full Episode Guide
- Episode 5 - Affair
Bill and Barb's behavior arouses Nicki's suspicions. Meanwhile, Bill and Don get dirt on Roman after placing an anonymous call to Attorney General's 'Polygamy Czar'; a Home Plus employee comes forward with an unsettling accusation; Margene embraces the friendship of her neighbor Pam, raising concerns for the other wives; Nicki makes a happy announcement.
- Episode 4 - Eclipse
Bill seeks 'clarity' after having some unsettling dreams. Later, on a hunting trip with Ben, he gets the answer for which he's been searching. Barb gets a long-term teaching job, putting added pressure on Nicki and Margene at home. Nicki fends off her creditors; Joey pays Bill a visit with some revealing news about Roman; Heather rescues Sarah from a bad party.
- Episode 3 - Home Invasion
Despite being admonished by Bill for her spendthrift ways, Nicki tries to throw an extravagant birthday party at a hotel for her 5-year-old son Wayne. Meanwhile, Bill installs a 'perimeter of defense' around his home; Barb tries to keep the family's secret hidden from the neighbors; Margene stands up for herself; and Home Plus gets an unwanted visitor.
- Episode 2 - Viagra Blue
Nicki gets sidetracked after scolding Bill for disrespecting Barb on her 'day,' though Barb eventually gets payback. Worried about Roman's threats, Bill looks into installing a security system at his home(s); Franklin's hospital convalescence ends with a visit from Roman; Sarah forges a new friendship; and Bill compensates for rising demands at home.
- Episode 1 - Pilot
In the series premiere, polygamist Bill Henrickson tries to satisfy the emotional, romantic and financial needs of his three wives and seven children in suburban Salt Lake City. As if that isn't enough, he's launching his second 'Home Plus' hardware superstore and trying to deal with a powerful cult leader as well as his parents, brother and in-laws.


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Trap unconcerned by loss
Ireland boss Giovanni Trapattoni insists a 3-2 defeat to Russia is not a massive blow to their Euro 2012 hopes.
Last Updated: 09/10/10 10:59am
Republic of Ireland boss Giovanni Trapattoni insists that their 3-2 defeat at home to Russia is not a massive blow to their Euro 2012 hopes.
Slovakia's surprise loss to Armenia earlier on Friday left the Republic as the
only side in Group B still with a 100 per cent record and knowing victory over Russia would put them in pole position to reach their first major finals in a decade.
But Ireland could not maintain their perfect start as Russia clinched victory at the Aviva Stadium.
Alexander Kerzhakov, Alan Dzagoev and Roman Shirokov had given the visitors a three-goal advantage.
Robbie Keane and Shane Long pulled it back to 3-2 in the closing stages, but they could not find an equaliser.
"At the moment we have three teams the same and we start again the qualification. It is important now we think about our quality and our possibilities," said Trapattoni.
"Russia lost against Slovakia, now Slovakia have lost against Armenia. The qualification is not easy and there's a long way to go. I'm sure we have the same chance.
"It was important psychologically not to lose our mental strength and we finished strongly."


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Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro
Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa rising 19,340 ft (5,895m). The largest free-standing mountain in the world. Also one of the seven Summits, the seventh highest points on each continent in the world. If you are reasonably physically fit, you can Climb Mount Kilimanjaro to reach the summit (Uhuru Peak 5,895m) and look out over Africa.
There is no special equipment or expertise needed to "Climb Mount Kilimanjaro" because the routes have been chosen to allow a slow gradual hike " non technical " , with the full support of "Predators Safari Club" professional guide for Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. We recommend a 6 to 8 day hike (depend on the route chosen) Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro up to the Summit, which includes one day of acclimatization between 10,000 and 15,000 ft. There are several routes to choose from and they vary by steepness and popularity. The Marangu route which is the easiest route and the most frequented trail on Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. The Machame route, Shira route, Rongai route and Western Breach route are more scenic and physically demanding. All the routes provide a spectacular view as you hike through a variety of habitats, cloud and rain forest, moor land with huge lobelia plants, the alpine desert and the magnificent glacier walls.
Essentials: Waterproof rucksack and daypack, sleeping bag (at least 3 seasons), Insulation pad boots and light walking shoes, balaclava and woollen hat or scarf, snow goggles / sun glasses, gaiters gloves, sweaters / jumpers, pants and jackets (waterproof)Water bottle, anorak / raincoat, several pairs of socks, first aid kit and insect repellent, sun protection cream and lip salve, personal toiletry requirements, Flash light with spare batteries, whistle and some plastic bags, walking stick / ski-pole.
We highly recommend after Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, an adventure not to be missed to explore the Tanzanian wilderness safari and Zanzibar beach holiday. Contact our safari consultant who will help you to design your Tanzania safari and Zanzibar beach to fit with your trekking holiday.
popular and easy route to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.
7 Days Marangu Route Trekking -
Daily Departure.
Price from US$1280.00 per person.
CLIMBING MOUNT KILIMANJARRO MACHAME ROUTE REF PSCMC7 (Camping)
Scenic and most beautiful route to summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.
8 Days
Machame Route Trekking -
Daily Departure.
Price from US$$1380.00 per person.
CLIMBING MOUNT KILIMANJARO RONGAI ROUTE REF PSC07 (Camping)
Rarely used less touristik route compare to other routes spectacular
view of Masai plain.
8 Days Rongai Route Trekking -
Daily Departure.
Price from US$1580.00 per person.


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Klesko likely to return -- and move on
End of the road for Klesko in San Diego?
SAN DIEGO -- Ryan Klesko wants to play another season if he's healthy, but he figures it won't be with the Padres and he knows it won't happen if he has recurring problems with a pinched nerve in his neck, which troubled him late last season. "I'm not going through that again," Klesko told MLB.com this weekend before the Padres hit the road for their final six-game trip prior to the All-Star break. "As long as it's not causing any damage in my neck for me to play another year, I'd like to try. But if there is any damage and it starts coming back and hampers my swing, then I'm done. I'm not going to have neck surgery to try and play another year." As far as playing for another team, Klesko, who is currently on the disabled list after surgery to repair the A/C joint in his left shoulder, was pretty definitive.
"I definitely think there's a chance of that," he said. "I could go somewhere else once I show I'm healthy and some team comes after me. I'd like to play in a more hitter-friendly park. Go to a place to accommodate more of my talents. I can understand why the Padres wouldn't want to spend that much money to have me play here again." The Padres concur. A high-ranking team official told MLB.com this weekend that it was "most unlikely" the ballclub would exercise a $7 million option to bring Klesko back next season. Instead, the Padres will buy him out for $500,000 and Klesko would become a free agent. Part of the reason for this amicable divorce is the spacious PETCO Park right field, which has been anathema to the lefty-swinging Klesko, who has hit only 17 of his 272 career homers since the ballpark opened prior to the 2004 season. The other is that the Padres have young players like rookie first baseman Adrian Gonzalez stacking up at the positions Klesko can play. "Who knows? [Klesko] could come back in August and September and Adrian could go down," said Kevin Towers, the Padres general manager. "He could hit 10 or 15 homers and be the savior. That's why I never like to say never. But the likelihood is doubtful that we'd pick up the option." Before that event transpires, the Padres may try to deal Klesko. The 35-year-old Klesko said he would consider waiving a no-trade provision in his current contract and move to another contender later in the season if he finds that his playing time is severely limited in San Diego. Klesko, as a 10-year veteran who's played the last five years with the same club, has the right of refusal on all trades. Klesko said he would certainly study that option. "It's up to me," Klesko said. "I'm the one with the no-trade clause. Most likely I wouldn't accept anything unless it was to the right kind of place. I mean, I may if my playing time is going to be cut short. I'm not really concerned about that. When I'm back in the lineup, when I'm healthy, hopefully there'll be a spot for me in the lineup. Not necessarily every day, but however they feel. If not, then I might waive my rights and go somewhere else." According to all parties, Klesko won't be ready for even a Minor League rehab assignment until Aug. 1, a day after the non-waiver trade deadline. But Towers said that the waiver process wouldn't be an impediment to moving Klesko before the Sept. 1 playoff-eligibility deadline. From Aug. 1 until the end of the regular season, any player has to clear waivers before he's traded. Klesko -- with about $2 million remaining on the $8 million portion of his 2006 contract at that point -- should have no problem clearing that hurdle, Towers said. "I'll get him through waivers," Towers said about the 13-year veteran. "If he goes out on rehab and proves himself healthy, I think some contending clubs will show interest because of what he's done in the past. Even if it's at DH to have a left-handed power hitter. He's not really an older player. And it's not a lot of money to take on for a couple of months, especially since there won't be a lot of power bats available at that time." Klesko has never had an established defensive position in his seven seasons playing for the Padres, shuttling between right field, left field and first base. He was earmarked for first base this season, but was placed on the disabled list with a sore left (throwing) shoulder on April 1 and underwent surgery to repair the A/C joint in that shoulder on April 10. Since then, Gonzalez, 23, has earned the first base job and there's no room in the outfield for Klesko, who won't be asked to play there anyway because of the stress it would place on his shoulder, Towers said. "That's the way [Klesko] should be thinking right now," Towers said. "Adrian has preformed very well. He's certainly a guy that we're going to let play. He deserves the right to play. He's young. He's a guy we hope is going to be here for a long, long time. So we'd probably go to Ryno and tell him that we'd like to trade him off a rehab assignment. Here are the clubs that are interested. Let him make that decision." The Padres obtained Klesko from Atlanta on Dec. 22, 1999, in a six-player trade that sent Wally Joyner and Reggie Sanders to the Braves. The Padres subsequently have twice extended his contract. The original three-year, $18.75 extension through 2004 was extended again by two years through 2006 for another guaranteed $16.5 million. Since then, Klesko has been beset by back, neck and shoulder ailments. He had season-ending surgery to repair the A/C joint in his right shoulder in September 2003. Last year, the pinched nerve in his neck left him with little power. Klesko reiterated that any recurrence of the nerve problem would end his career. He had to take several cortisone shots in his neck last season to deal with that pain as well as a couple of more shots in the shoulder this spring before opting for surgery. "I've had a very blessed career," he said. "I've played in three World Series. I've got a world championship ring. I've played in the All-Star Game. I've played in Southern California. We went to the playoffs last year. I'm very content with what's happened and what I've done."
Barry M. Bloom is a national reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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About the Department
The Department of Psychology, in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of South Carolina, is located in Barnwell College, just off the historic horseshoe. The University of South Carolina is the state's flagship institution and is a comprehensive research university. The main campus, located in Columbia, with seven regional campuses located throughout the state, has 24,000 undergraduate students and 8,100 students in graduate and professional programs.
The Department of Psychology offers two undergraduate degrees, a Bachelor of Arts (BA) and a Bachelor of Science (BS). Both provide training in the theories and practices of psychology, combined with a liberal arts background. Currently, there are approximately 1,000 undergraduate psychology majors, about 13.5% of all of the College's undergraduate majors. The Undergraduate Student Services Office is staffed by an undergraduate coordinator and peer counselors to advise, assist and provide timely information to its majors.
The graduate psychology programs offer both the Master of Arts and the Doctor of Philosophy degree in experimental psychology, clinical-community psychology and school psychology. In addition to the three graduate degree programs, the Department of Psychology has developed several research themes. One long-standing research theme is Child and Family Psychology, an area focusing on social, emotional, behavioral and health functioning of children and adolescents, with research on development, etiology, prevention, and treatment in community, family, and school contexts. A second major research theme centers around Cognitive Neuroscience. Core researchers in this area use the latest brain science technologies to explore the neural basis of human cognition, utilizing facilities that include several EEG systems, eye tracking systems, electrical and transcranial magnetic stimulation methods, and MRI/fMRI scans. In addition to these two large thematic research areas, there are several areas that partially overlap with the two major themes. The department continues cutting edge research in Behavioral Neuroscience, as researchers investigate animal models of human disorders and conditions including effects of AIDS, drug and alcohol use, and obesity on brain and behavior. The area of Children in Schools includes assessment, academic interventions, and mental health practices. Other research foci in the Department include Community and Multicultural Psychology, Quantitative Methodology in Psychology and Health Issues and Disparities.
Located in Columbia, the state capital with a metropolitan population of nearly 800,000, the University and its community provide numerous social and cultural benefits which enhance the overall quality of life. These include numerous theaters offering live productions; SEC sports; minor league baseball; ice hockey; one of the nation's top zoos and botanical gardens; many museums; award winning Richland County library; Fort Jackson and its on-base school district, one of the Army's largest training facilities and a site used for research and assessment training of students; and affordable off-campus housing and services.