text:
1: The Wall << Back
It was like something out of a storybookimpossible, unreal. The
Great Northern Wall rose up out of the pock-marked ground, nearly
blotting out the sun. Devona placed her palm on the withered stone. It
felt solid, unmovable, reassuring.
her hammer onto her shoulder, the warrior climbed the stairs leading to
the crenellated defenses of the Wall. Until this morning, the massive
structure that separated the remnants of Ascalon from the Charr
infested territory to the north had been something she had only seen
from a distance. Now she would get her first look at the devastation on
the other side, the ruins and the tectonic shifting caused during the
Reaching the top, the warrior walked to the edge and peered over.
Huge rock slabs littered the ground, looking like giant bits of
shattered crockery, lying broken and discarded across the jagged
landscape. The trees and grasses were blackburnt and dead. The ground
rose from the base of the wall, becoming a small hill as it got further
into enemy territory, blocking a longer view. At the top of the hill,
backlit by the orange, scorched sky, Devona could just make out the
outline of the ruins of Surmia, one of the first cities to fall during
the invasion.
Devona looked out at a world of upheaval, the ruins of a fallen
kingdom, now desperately holding onto its last, best hope for survival.
The sound of a man clearing his throat brought her attention back to the Wall.
"Captain Calhaan." Devona straightened up and turned to face the officer.
Calhaan nodded "First time on the Wall?"
"Yes, sir."
"What do you think?" He gestured out toward Charr territory.
Devona shook her head. "I'm in awe, sir."
The captain nodded.
"But I guess I expected" Devona thought for a moment "worse," she
said finally. She glanced out at the ruined ground. "I just wish I
could see more."
Captain Calhaan rocked back and forth on his heels. Grasping his
hands behind his back and sticking his chest out, he became suddenly
very formal.
"Well, Recruit," he said, looking her straight in the eyes. "You're going to get your chance.
"Gather a team," replied Calhaan. "You'll be going out within the hour."
<< Back


text: I am feeling very overwhelmed with how to choose restaurants in my limited 1 day in Tokyo.....for lunch we will probably be in ginza or near imperial palace open to any suggestions. I don't like touristy places though and for my one dinner I would like to do sushi....we are very big on amazing sushi but are on a budget this time around so I would like a moderately priced sushi restaurant we are staying in Shinjuku but are willing to travel for dinner. Any help would be great!

subset: commoncrawl


text:
2008 Ford Mustang MirrorReview Fitment Notes to Ensure Proper Fit
› Change Part / Category
› Change Vehicle
Related Parts
Change Category
Change Brand
Action Crash Mirror - Left - Driver Side; Premium
Click to Enlarge (9 Reviews)
5 Stars
Action Crash FO1320243
Loading Reviews...
Part Number: 28813-04004350
Notes: DRIVER SIDE POWER DOOR MIRROR;
Position: Left - Driver Side
Quality: Premium - High quality new replacement part.
Condition: New
Shipping Options:
Action Crash Mirror - Right - Passenger Side; Premium
Click to Enlarge (9 Reviews)
4.8 Stars
Action Crash FO1321243
Loading Reviews...
Part Number: 28813-04004515
Notes: PASSENGER SIDE POWER DOOR MIRROR;
Position: Right - Passenger Side
Quality: Premium - High quality new replacement part.
Condition: New
Shipping Options:
Mirror Reviews - 2008 Ford Mustang
Action Crash | FO1321243
Part arrived in a very timely manner. Packing was very lacking, in none present. Mirror in a paper/cloth bag in a box twice it's size. Mirror was correct one and was able to change it out in 15 min.
January 20th, 2016 | Posted by replacement mirror.
Action Crash | FO1320243
Great mirror. Exactly like the original one. Fits perfectly. Got it whithin few days after order.
October 24th, 2015 | Posted by Alex
Action Crash | FO1320243
replaced mirror in 30 minutes taking my time. good fit good looks electic mirror works great
April 14th, 2015 | Posted by great fit


text:
Get a free shipping quote.
Cookie is an adorable 12 hand tall Bay Shetland/Hackney Cross PONY Mare who is experienced with kids of all ages. She is very well mannered from the ground and makes an excellent lead line pony your little ones could start on and eventually ride by themselves. She has been ridden without being led but would require a child with some riding experience since she has only been ridden without being led a few times. She is quite enough to clip with clippers, picks up all four feet, easy to lead/saddle/mount, will follow an adult with a child on her back with or without a lead rope, easy to catch/load/haul, 100% sound with no past or present health or soundness issues, current coggins papers and up to date on wormings/vaccinations.... (read more)
Shipping available at buyers expense! Call or email for shipping quote! FREE delivery within 30 miles of DeKalb TX!!!!
I locate, buy, trade and sell a variety of Horses, Ponies, and Miniatures specializing in those that are Kid/Beginner SAFE and capable of making all of you or your little ones Horse Related Dreams Come True! I SELL HORSES "NOT" STORIES!!! I always have several to choose from. Call me anytime at 903-717-1823. Be sure and leave me a message with a number where you can be reached so I can call you back if I don't answer....... (read more)
Avoid Scams and Fraud - Potential areas of fraud: wire transfer, moneygrams, money orders, cashier checks, shipping, escrow, "transaction protection", "guarantee". Check out the Buyer Safety section for more info.
Bakersfield, CA


text:
What to expect if traveling this Thanksgiving
PHOENIX (KSAZ) - The Thanksgiving Travel Rush is already under-way at Sky Harbor Airport. Travelers are getting an early start on flights home.
In addition to the extra passengers, airport construction is slowing passengers down, with security concerns at the top of many travelers minds.
So if you're traveling for Thanksgiving, expect long lines at security checkpoints and if you're picking up someone or dropping them off.
FOX 10's Danielle Miller reports.


text:
Course is designed as a basic introduction to the research methods and analyses associated with various types of survey research. Identification of populations and sampling frames, execution of non-probability and probability sampling techniques, item construction, questionnaire design and implementation of various types of surveys are presented. Use of relevant survey analysis software (e.g., SPSS, NVivo, etc.) For the analysis of sample descriptive statistics in survey research is presented. Students will apply the skills presented through the development of a proposal and an instrument that can be employed in a workable survey.
Credits: 3.0


text:
This product is no longer available.
You can try these similar gifts instead.
Personalized Sterling Silver Round Hoop Earrings
Imagine her delight when she opens her gift and finds these stunning earrings. Finely made of sterling silver, the earrings feature a drop charm that can be personalized with her initial, monogram or name.


text:
Washington lawmakers have pulled a contentious provision from a gun-control bill posted on the state's legislative tracking website, after calling a section that gave law enforcement authority to enter homes and check for proper weapons storage a "mistake."
The Seattle Times reports that Seattle trial lawyer Lance Palmer first raised doubts about Senate Bill 5737 to the newspaper, complaining: "They always say, we'll never go house to house to take your guns away. But then you see this, and you have to wonder."
Mr. Palmer was referring to a now-scrapped section of the text that gave the local sheriff the right to conduct home searches for proper storage guns once each year. The text of the bill — prior to its scrapping — read, as reported by The Seattle Times: "In order to continue to possess an assault weapon that was legally possessed on the effective date of this section, the person possessing shall … safely and securely store the assault weapon. The sheriff of the county may, no more than once per year, conduct an inspection to ensure compliance with this subsection."
SEE ALSO: N.Y. bill would force gun owners to buy at least $1M in insurance
Violators — those who wouldn't let the sheriff inside to inspect — could get up to a year in jail, The Seattle Times reported. Even Mr. Palmer, a self-described liberal, found the provision distasteful.
"I'm a liberal Democrat," he said, in The Seattle Times report. "But now I understand why my right-wing opponents worry about having to fight a government takeover. It's exactly this sort of thing that drives people into the arms of the NRA."
Democrat bill sponsors, facing widespread outcry, told The Seattle Times they didn't fully vet the eight-page bill before introducing it last week and that the home-inspection allowance was a simple oversight.
"I made a mistake," Sen. Adam Kline said, according to The Seattle Times. "I frankly should have vetted this more closely."
And main bill sponsor, Sen. Ed Murray, said: "I have to admit that shouldn't be in there," according to The Seattle Times.
The original version of the bill containing the disputed language is no longer available on the state's website. The Seattle Times, however, maintains a copy for view on its site.
Copyright © 2017 The Washington Times, LLC.


text:
The cigarette smugglers among us
Porous duty-free enforcement allows quick turnaround
Matt Potter 1:30 p.m., Nov. 17
When Judith Moore suggested that because my buddy Hank and I were eating mostly cheapo street food anyway, why not write about it, I thought, "Yes, but how many ways can you describe a burger? And what do I know about cooking?" She gave me a Mona Lisa smile. "You'll soon find out."
Heh-heh. Was she right. What she didn't say was how much I would learn along the way, about food, yes, but also about so much more. This is the best education a country boy could ask for, 'cause it's not about how much salt the chef put in the soup, but the life these guys create around their food.
Let's face it, eating is a kind of social cement, an antidote to loneliness. Because, basically, people have to eat. The eateries I go to, though, you don't have to put on airs and try to look respectable. And you don't have to fret about how much each bite is costing you
Like, one of the earliest places I lucked into was Ye Olde Plank Inn, down the coast in I.B. Everyone there seemed to be military, or retired military. The palapa-sheltered bar looked straight out of the south seas, with green glass floats, dangling puffer fish, and palm fronds. The owner, Alan Winkelman, retired Navy, started a Sunday brunch to absolutely die for. Back in 2001, for $5.95 you got a six- or eight-ounce steak, or six sausages, or a slab of ham, or a pork loin, plus, from one- to, uh, ten-egg omelets, home fries, and a pick-me-up drink from the bar, like a Bloody Mary. That was one hard place to leave. Chewing your steak in the sun, sipping your Bloody Mary, and hearing the waves just beyond the berm is hard to beat, at any price.
Lee's Cafe, at 738 5th Avenue downtown, is also one of those golden places — I'm a penny-pincher and love that they manage to stay cheap in among a surrounding army of pricy chichi eateries. Lee's sits next to the Bella Luna in the Gaslamp on 5th, and it has unbelievably low prices. "Uncle Lee" started cooking here 50-plus years ago. He must own his slice of the building, to be able to afford to keep prices so low. Last time I went, the beef stew (with potato, rice, veggies, salad, soup, bread) was $2.33. That wouldn't buy a single cawfee next door.
The other thing I love about doing "Tin Fork" is exploring life in eateries of other cultures. One of my favorite hangouts is the Trieu Chau Cambodian restaurant (4653 University Avenue). Kathy, who's Chinese-Cambodian, runs a tight ship, but she lets all the guys who come in each morning for a Cambodian coffee and pastry use the back room, so they can talk about the old days, before the Khmer Rouge nearly starved and beat them to death. I love to sit with those guys and talk. It's often about the things they miss most: the old home, with lots of family and animals, and fields, and a garden to grow vegetables.
I get half my ideas from yakking on buses. Or sleeping on buses. Like, the evening I fell asleep on the number 15 as it headed east up University. I woke to find this Somali guy and his robed sister sitting next to me. Pretty soon he was inviting me to get off the bus, at 50th, and come with him across the road. In the gloom, we spotted a clump of men, many leaning on elaborate walking sticks, some dressed in long white cotton galabiya robes and jackets with Muslim hats. They were talking and smoking outside a place called Afrique.
That's where I learned the Somali way to eat a meat and soup entrée — all together, and with the fingers (of the right hand, of course). At first, I couldn't believe it. The owner, Abdiaziz, showed me a plate of thin-cut steak with raw onions and shredded lettuce, then started tearing up two muufos — disc-shaped loaves of bread — then broke a banana into small pieces over the meat. Then — whoa! — he took a bowl of vegetable soup with tomato, carrot, and potatoes, and poured it over the whole plate. Then he picked up a bottle of olive oil and poured a thin stream over everything. "Now," he said. "You eat this with your right hand, and the steak with your knife and fork. One, then the other…" He left me with a pile of paper napkins.
The result was an incredibly sensuous meal, and all for around seven bucks. Got me wondering why we bother with clattery utensils. Afrique has since closed, but African Spice, open at 54th Street and El Cajon Boulevard, does the same food.
And "Tin Fork" level is where you often spot new food movements. Like, the Middle East's gastronomic takeover of the world. True! We may be trying to win their hearts and minds, but they're conquering our stomachs. Call it Operation Dessert Storm. Heh heh. But not just desserts. Go see the late-night lines outside Sultan Shawarma's (543 4th Avenue) for their kebabs and sandwiches. It hasn't been that long since the pizza places had the post-bar crowd to themselves.
One night, I spotted another kebab place (Kebab Shop, 630 9th Avenue), started by this guy Aaron about three years ago. The place was abuzz with a group of students holding a get-together after a study trip to Spain. "They came here to relive the 'Spanish' food they'd eaten the whole time they were there," Aaron told me. "Turkish-style doner kebabs. Kebabs are like soccer, popular everywhere in the world except the US. So I'm bringing it here."
You'd never know it from all the burgers I've downed, but I've always carried a banner for "green" food. So I got a real kick when a spiky little lady named Cristina opened a restaurant named Cilantro Live! in Chula Vista. It was the first raw-food place in the county, and she was unstoppable. "The secret is not to heat anything above 112 degrees," she told me. "Above that will kill the enzymes in any food, so you'll have to use up your own body's enzymes to digest it."


text:
[ Printer Friendly Version ] [ Report Abuse ]
Chapter 4 : Chapter 3 The Chase
|Rating: Mature
|Chapter Reviews: 1
Background: Font color:
The Chase
Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter characters JK Rowling does. But the fanfics I write are my ideas.
Harry was running trying to catch her, but she was too quick for him.
As she reached the elevator she pressed the up button but didn't go in.
Instead she pressed the 4th floor and took another elevator to the roof.
By the time Harry and the wizards got to the 4th floor it was empty.
"NO!" He yelled.
Once again Hermione escaped.
Remus and Sirius hurried over.
They had arrived in Russia 2 days ago.
"Harry, did we get her?" Sirius asked.
Harry shook his head, no.
"She got a jeweled chest and fled." He said softly.
Sirius slapped his hand to his forehead.
"Oh no!" he moaned.
"Sirius, what was in that chest?" Harry asked.
The elderly man shrugged.
"I don't really know but all I know is that it holds files of powerful spells." He said, darkly.
* * *
Hermione sat on a bed in a hotel not far form the Winter Palace.
She ate while she looked through the files.
It was the ultimate files of spells.
Then she stopped.
The spells that can kill Voldemort were now in her hands.
Wiping ketchup from her lips, Hermione began to memorize all the spells.
Then she heard a voice from the hall.
"Hermione, where are you?"
It was Harry.
She frowned and finished the rest of her porgies and got the files back in the chest.
Then taking a duffel bag she stuffed it inside along with her, laptop, clothes, books, and moneybag.
Then she slung it over her shoulders and opened her window and climbed out.
"Now to find Voldemort." She whispered as she walked along the ledge.
Then she climbed back into an apartment.
"Sorry." She said to a couple making out.
Then she opened the door and stepped out.
Harry was now at the end of the corridor when she cleared her throat.
"Very soon, Harry." Hermione called.
Quickly, Harry spun around and saw her looking at him, but then she turned and walked away.
He ran and found her waiting for him.
"I'm sorry, Harry." She said.
But he pressed his fingers to her lips.
Then him kissed her.
It turned into a passionate one.
Then she pushed him away.
"Stay away, harry. My mission." She snapped.
Then she ran and jumped through a window.
Harry looked after her.
"I love you." He whispered.
* * *
Hermione growled in frustration.
Harry was getting too close and she was nearly finished.
"Where are you, Voldemort?" she mumbled, chewing on her burger, and typing on her laptop.
Just then Voldmort's face appeared.
"Why hello, Dr Granger." He said smiling.
She scowled.
"Voldemort." She said.
His red eyes flashed.
"You would've been my top death eater you know." He said thoughtfully.
"I wouldn't have became a death eater even if it was the last thing on this planet! I wouldn't trade me freedom for a life of death and darkness." Hermione snarled.
"Freedom? What freedom will you have once you go to Azkaban?" Voldemort said laughing his cold icy laugh.
"Doctor, you'll find me in Iraq. And here."
A small mirror popped out.
It was very beautiful.
"You'll have to use that to locate The Hanging Gardens of Babylon." He smiles then vanished.
She looked at he mirror.
"This is it. Once I perform the spell that will destroy Voldemort I'll go freely to Azkaban." She promised.
Then she made a copy of the mirror and sent it to Harry.
Knock knock
"Who is it?" Harry asked.
"Special delivery to Mr Harry Potter!" said a woman's voice.
He opened the door.
There stood a woman holding a package.
"Sign here, please." She said holding out a form.
Harry took it and signed it, and then he handed back to her.
"Thank you." She said and she gave him the package and left.
Then closing the door Harry opened it.
Out fell a mirror with jewels on it and a video.
He picked up the video and popped it into the VCR and flipped on the TV.
Hermione's face appeared.
"Hello, Harry. I'm on my way to Iraq. My mission is almost complete. And now it's time to tell you why I stole those files," she said.
Harry gaped at her.
"My mission started about t years ago when we graduated form Hogwarts. There Professor Dumbledore told me about the files in the vault at the Ministry of Magic. He trained for 4 years while at Hogwarts at first I didn't know why then he told me. My mission will end in Iraq and so there I will find Voldemort and kill myself. Harry, in my 6th year he went to my parents' house and murdered them. But I know that the dementors will also be hunting for me too as well the Ministry and you, Harry Potter.
Harry, I love you so much. But then again you are a member of M.E.T.A.D.M, so you'll have to arrest me once you catch me. The mirror will locate me for you.
Harry, I'll miss you while I'm in Azkaban.
Good bye, Harry."
And she blew him a kiss, then the screen went blank.
"No, Hermione." He whispered.
Then clipping on his cape and cloak Sirius walked in.
"Harry, where are you going?" he asked.
Harry turned to him.
"I'm going to save Hermione." He replied putting his wand in its holster.
"WHAT!" He gasped.
"I'm going to save her." He said again.
Then he moved swiftly towards the door.
Sirius stopped him.
"Harry, you can't." he growled.
Harry turned to him again.
"I've got to, Sirius. She's going to find Voldemort on her own!" he begged.
Sirius shook his head.
"It's a trap! She's going to kill you, Harry!" Sirius snapped.
Harry frowned at him.
"Even if it is a trap. She won't kill me." He said.
Sirius frowned.
"Harry, how would you know?"
"Because I'm her friend. And I love her!" he shot.
Sirius went silent.
"All right, Harry. I support you. But if you die-"
"Then the dementors will perform the kiss on her." Harry finished for him.
Sirius smiled, wearily.
Then shaking his hand firmly, Harry left.
Previous Chapter Next Chapter
|Write a Review
The Beginning of the end: Chapter 3 The Chase
Other Similar Stories
A Change of ...
by Essra Jay...
What to believe?
by Black_kod...
LEGACIES: Th...
by The Dark ...


text:
We are pleased to present the first edition of The Time of Your Life - a supplement aimed at those of us no longer in the first flush of youth, and happy with that.
Inside you'll find a host of features aimed at a mature audience.
To view The Time of Your Life, simply click here


text:
A convicted triple murderer has been indicted in the slayings of five Southern California women in the 1980s and '90s.
Andrew Urdiales, who's currently on death row in Illinois, was indicted Monday by an Orange County grand jury.
The former Marine is accused of killing one woman in Orange County, two in Riverside County and one in San Diego County while he was stationed at Camp Pendleton and Twentynine Palms between 1984 and 1991.
Orange County prosecutors said he killed the fifth woman while on vacation in Palm Springs in 1995.
Prosecutors said Urdiales will be transported to California to face the charges after the evidentiary portion of his death penalty appeal concludes in Illinois.
Prosecutors in Southern California believe the former Marine corporal shot and killed 31-year-old Maryann Wells in downtown San Diego in 1988. Wells, a prostitute, was found murdered on Second Avenue.
Investigators said Urdiales also murdered three prostitutes in Riverside County between 1989 and 1995.
Robbin Brandley is the only victim who wasn't a prostitute. She was a 23-year-old student at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo who was stabbed to death in January 1986. She was supposed to attend UCSD later that year, her father said.
Andrew Urdiales, 45, will be extradited to California to face murder charges.
"Robbin was a very outgoing, gregarious girl who was interested in getting her degree in communications," Jack Reilley said.
Reilley is angry it took so long to bring Urdiales back to Southern California to face murder charges.
In 1997, when Urdiales allegedly confessed to the killings, he was already being prosecuted for murdering three prostitutes in Chicago. He was convicted for those murders and now, more than 20 years after the murder spree began, he was extradited to California to face murder charges here.
But Reilley, who's waited a long time for justice, isn't holding out too much hope.
"When he's here and I seen him in court, I will believe it," he said.


text:
Damian Thompson is smart, writes with a wit that often has me guffawing, and is lucky to have great people to work with at the Catholic Herald. But his raggety piece in the most recent issue of the paper, repeated on his blog, is a disgrace. While Thompson was once described as a "blood crazed ferret" this week's article reads more like the Monday Club on magic mushrooms.
At the outset – perhaps by mistake? – he gives the impression that the plight of 70 migrants drowning at sea, while nine ships passed by within sight, is just one of those things. He takes a mild swipe at the Italian Catholic bishops, while admitting that their statement did, in fact, strike the right tone. Bouncing on, he criticises the church's campaign for regularisation of immigrants, and Islam's "adversarial quality". Anyone who disagrees with him, he suggests, must be a modernist grounded in the liberalism of the 60s. For this friend of Catholic traditionalists, this is the ultimate put-down.
But Damian Thompson is plain wrong.
First, it is worth remembering that the philosophical base of most mainstream Catholicism emerges from the thought of St Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century. In turn Aquinas built much of his theology on insights gleaned from translations of Greek philosophy undertaken – and saved – by Muslim scholars. The roots of European culture have long been intertwined with Islam, and to positive effect. Dusting off crusaders' crosses will not do.
Second, in the Thomist tradition, nation states are never an end in themselves but always defined against a greater "common good", an eternal benchmark, as to what constitutes justice. This is why Pope John Paul II argued that a starving person who migrates in order to feed his family breaks no (moral) law.
Third, Thompson tries to argue that the political cause of migrants is marginal because it has not been backed by the left. In fact, politicians from across the spectrum – Baroness Shirley Williams, Mayor Boris Johnson, Cardinal Murphy O'Connor and moderate trade unions – have all been making the case for regularisation. Crucially, they advance that view while also noting the needs of European citizens legally allowed to be here but struggling in the midst of Gordon Brown's recession, and asylum seekers and refugees caught up in the managerial mess otherwise known as the Home Office and its associated quangos responsible for immigration. Thompson muddles them up, weakening his argument even further.
Lastly, Damian Thompson needs to move from Notting Hill to Bethnal Green to learn a bit more about Britain. Muslims in this country are a young, vibrant, diverse community with much to offer the nation. In parts of the country they face intense poverty and the harsh ignorance of the regions in which they have settled. In this regard they share a historical experience with the Irish before them. In the 19th century thousands crossed the Irish sea to find jobs, brought their religion with them, worked hard, and stayed. But the problem with Catholics of the same mind as Damian Thompson is that they didn't treat the Irish with any respect either. Buried in their publicly declared loyalty to "proper church teaching" was an ungodly discrimination grounded in petty localisms, economic class and social insecurity.
A genuinely orthodox Catholicism would build rich relationships with Muslims. Writers like Damian Thompson ought to be at the forefront of such efforts rather than peddling views which, in the long term, sow resentment rather than reason.


text:
Cisco Voice Over IP
642-436 (CVOICE) exam study guide is for Cisco CCVP certification. The study guide for 642-436 (CVOICE) exam consists of 370 questions and answers (Q & A) that guarantee your success in the first attempt in the real exam and cover the major actual test objectives.
To test the quality of our examsheets study guides and notes (Q and A) for actualtest, download and test our realexam free demos of study guides.
Available Options:
Study Guide (Q & A):PDF Downloadable
Copyright © 2017 ITCertKeys


text:
(Archived document, may contain errors)
THE FEDERALIZATION OF IDEAS A NATIONAL ENERGY DEPARTMENT JNTRODUCTION f 5x 1 I I2 President ;C.arter has characterized our national energy situ ation-as the "moral equivalent of war." Naturally, he has proposed to win this "equivalent war" by creating an "organi zational equivalent of the Pentagon the National Energy Department.
Most Congressional debates have focused on federal tax and price mechanisms to conserve current energy supplies and regu late its use. Also included in the energy bill (H.R. 6804 S. 826 is the Administration's position about the innovation of new energy sources and new conservation technologies and methods of "things that are new innovation is the same as the Defense Department's. However, Congress has paid little at tention to la r ge-scale economic distortions which this approach will causes The proposed statutory approach to the introduction Whether we are truly in a situation which is the "moral equi valent of war makes no difference the innovation of new products, supplies, serv i ces, and processes cannot be central ly financed, managed, and controlled from Washington. The reasons for thisarefound in the important differences between energy and weapons markets. Energy innovations require the democratization of ideas rather than th e federalization of ideas.
NOTE reflecting the views of The Heritage Foundation or as an attempt to aid or hinder the passage of any bill before Congress Nothing written here is to be construed as necessarily 2 FTPI ACF DI FFFRFNCFS When the Defense Depart ment implements its innovation poli cies, it creates choices for the government's eventual in vestment and use. On the other hand, the choices that the Energy Department proposes to innovate will not be for the Department's investment and use but for nonf ederal purchase and use by city and state governments and private energy users and producers.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration"s (NASA marketplace is the same as the Defense Department's Both NASA and the Defense Department assess their ca pabilities to responsibly perform in the future and both will, from time to time, create a demand for the innovation of new weapons, space systems, products, and services.
They are organized not only to specify the "demand for inno vation," but also to se lect, manage, and finance ideas which become investment choices to meet their own demand. They do this by performing in-house technical activities and purchasing support ,services from nongovernmental sources, such as com panies, universities, and private nonprofit organizations What is eventually chosen, with Congressional approval, is pur chased and used by these agencies to perform their statutory missions. The Defense Department and NASA legitimately prac tice the federalization of ideas they motivate a nd select ideas and provide risk capital financing to create future in vestment choices Among other important duties, the new Energy Department is also proposing to specify "demand for the innovation" of new energy sources and conservation methods. And, i t is proposed that the Department take on the responsibility of motivating and selecting ideas and manage and finance the innovative process to ''supply this demand. Thus, there is to be close corres pondence between the Defense Department, NASA, and the n ew Energy Department when new products, processes, and services must be introduced because current supply is perceived as in adequate to meet future demand I 1 S 3 Nonfederal energy buyers and users must learn about new innovations along with developers.
I f not, they will be inferior buyers. The De fense Department and NASA technical personnel learn along with developers so that what they eventually invest in and operate is a conse quence of learning about possible choices from their beginnings. While ther e may be argu ments about how efficiently the Pentagon pro curement policy operates, there is little argument about its need to perceive the demand for innovation, to manage it, and to finance the process which supplies it Also, in most cases, the Departme n t of Defense and NASA re present the sole market for the products of innovation which they have sponsored Energy must be delivered within a local frame work of price, capability, and availability goals, in a context of local operating condi tions. Each lo c ality has a different frame work :from the next, and an innovation suitable for one locality is not necessarily suitable for another. Thus, the local demand for energy delivery may be common for several localities but the constraints placed on innovation m ay be uniquely different. Different alternatives must be explored to deliver a common capability The decision to use and control "seed" or "start up" risk capital which is required to start pro ving new ideas must be decentralized. If it is centralized, s mall firms and individuals will not be able to afford the cost to create and propose their ideas for.consideration, and a sizable share of the nation's inventive and innovative resources will remain untapped.
Small firms and individuals simply cannot-,gfr ford the cost of proposing new ideas andwaithg for decisions according to federal procure ment rules. These elaborate rules have been instituted to control the large costs of large companies. They total more than 4,000 pro curement-related statutes and 3, 0 00 pages of implementing regulations. -4 NOVAT I 'G ON RFQUIRFS ADAPTIVE LFARNIh Why should federal engineers and scientists learn about new energy innovations when they are not part of eventual using organizations? Transferring what they learn to state a n d local governments, or to private buyers is certainly less effective and efficient than directly engaging even tual buyers and users from the beginning. This practice of engaging buyers and users at the beginning of innovation works well for Defense and NASA and should work equally well for nonfederal buyers and users So, why statutorily install the'l'federalization of ideas" where what is learned must go through an additional costly step of transference?
The argument that the federalization of ideas shou ld apply to tFe- new Energy Department because it has worked well in achiev ing space leadership and deterrent weaponry is an irrati6iai argument cause transferring what has been learned causes excessive and unnecesary nonproductive costs. Also, coercive m easures may be applied to force the use of whatever the Department has created. Localities and other nonfederal and private buyers will have no choice but to invest in what the federal level comes up with, even if it does not match what is needed locally I n fact, national productivity will decrease'be- i I FMOCRATI'~ATION OF- IDFAS It is imperative that private or public organizations are able to make selections and to have control over risk capital ex- penditure to commence energy innovat%i Ef ;the ke &ec tli.o.n and con trol authority is vested in one centralized public group, a group which also has the "seed" capital to commence innova tion too :nany'.of the nation's future efiergy debsstons w'i.ll..-rest 6fi."theLwi-sdorn. of l$at group' s -arbitrary ch oices. 1-deas :cOm>.e%-i SLmply buriedIi, and fiever 'heard about.
Centralized public selection authority is a key feature in the "federalization of ideas" in stark contrast to the democratization of ideas" characterized by many private idea invento rs, selectors, and risk-takers, each in competition with others give to ,tfib-s selkcted byb' fhe'.centfalized 'authsr-ities may":be 5 One of the key issues behind the solution to the energy problem is whether control over the money is decentralized or ce n tralized. Decentralized or demaer.ati-zed. control'is needed because local energy demands are unique to the locality. Competition between several "idea sponsors" is needed to drive prices down in the delivery of a common capability. The needs and unique c o nditions of localities will not be met if the selection of ideas and control over risk capital is federalized. This will lead to the intro duction of a "common" supply to meet a "common" demand; and unique, local situations and conditions will be bypassed in the process.
Friederich Hayek, the 1975 Nobel Prize winner in economics had this to say about centralized or decentralized government functions While it has always been characteristic of those favoring an increase in governmental powers to support maxi mum concentration of those powers those mainly concerned with individual liberty have generally advocated decentralization.
There are strong reasons why action by local authorities generally offer the next-best solu tion when private initiative cannot be relied upon to provide certain services and where some sort of collective action is needed; for it has many advantages of private enterprise and fewer of the dangers of the coercive action of govern ment. Competition between local authorities or between l arger units within an area where there is freedom of movement provides that opportu nity for experimentation with alternative methods which will secure most of the advantages of free growth.
It is usually the authoritarian planner who, in the interest of u niformity, governmental effi ciency, and administrative convenience, supports the centralists' tendencies The Constitution of Liberty, F. A. Hayek pages 263-264 CHNOI OG I FS I ri II ARG$ AND SMAI I II Large-scale and expensive technologies are obviously m arketed by heavily capitalized companies which have large-scale capabilities. But, most innovations which have benefited 6 private consumers where we find the energy market have not come from current producers and do not involve large scale technologies. T o name a few: Xerox was not invented by an office equipment manufacturer; the transistor was not invented by a vacuum tube producer; the ballpoint pen was not invented by a pen producer; the hydromatic auto shift ing mechanism was not invented by Detroit car manufacturers There are many other examples. Each of these privately cre ated and financed ideas has pumped billions of dollars into our private enterprise economy.
Another example of this is electric motor energy conservation.
This invention, which i s now well into the innovation stage is of particular interest not only because an electric motor producer did not invent the approach but also because govern ment research and development had nothing to do with it. The engineer/inventor mortgaged his hom e and borrowei! money to finance his idea; he did not spend his resources trying to penetrate the federal bureaucracy.
The ability to create new and beneficial ideas is independent of corporate size. Large firms tend to improve what they are currently prod ucing. All firms, large or small, which are not producing for a particular market but wish to enter:.it tend to create ideas which deliver similar capability but with pro ducts made up of different, competitive technologies.
For example, Chester Carlson, the inventor of the xerography process, approached twenty office equipment manufacturers, and was turned down. He was finally financed by a nonprofit or ganization, the Battelle Memorial Institute. Mr. Carlson was not only able to invent, he was also able to reduce the idea to practical production. His inventive/innovative talents have inserted about $1 billion into our domestic economy. He has achieved corporate growth based on competitive merit.
This is not to be construed as an argument that "bigness is bad and "smallness is good." Large federal contractors:.have con tributed significantly to attaining national goals in the past and.will continue to do so in the future. Rather, these questions must be addressed Do our federal innovation pol icies foster equal economic opportunity to create and propose ideas to nonfederal and federal sponsors alike? Do they fos ter corporate growth based on competitive merit?
D 7 The answers to these questions are of critical importance to the health and vitality of our p rivate enterprise econ omy. If federal innovation policies give unequal economic treatment favoring corporate largeness, they may be identi fied with the growth of economic concentration and oligopoly.
This would head us dangerously close to the nationalization process such as has been occurring in Britain. The "means of production" will be transferred from private to public ownership where unequal economic opportunity exists.
Current federal innovation policy, procedure, and practice Ls largely an outcom e of the Defense Department's need for new weapons since World War 11. Understandably, private risk capital has shied away from what may be characterized as a monopolistic and highly uncertain marketplace. Three decades of federally sponsored innovation t o primarily meet the Defense Department's needs have led to domestic economic distortions.
These distortions continue to be promulgated by other civil agencies and are proposed to be continued by the new Energy Department.
The fe deral government is now the "risk-taker of last resort and finances more risk capital than all private industry corn bined innovation policies and their sponsorship of risk capital research and development funding has been on the rise. In con stant dollar s , civil agencies have shown real growth while De fense and NASA research and development funding has been in de cline. The 1967-1977 rise in civil research and development in constant 1967 dollars, has been 50 percent, from $3.2 to 4.8 billion, while Defe nse Department/NASA research and develop- ment funding has'dropped 40 percent, from 13.3 to $8.3 billion.
Individuals and small firms go to private capital markets to get seed" money in order to challenge established federal constrac tors. However, private ly-sponsored risk capital is in decline and small technical firms are finding private risk capital in creasingly more difficult to obtain. A Department of Commerce report shows that small, technical firms' public stock offerings deklgned'..from $1.16 bill ion in 1969 to $16 million in 1974 a 'reduction of more than 10 to 1 over five years when infla tion is taken into account. No small, technical-firm public offerings were made between March 1974 and August 19
75. The earliest risk capital expenditure seed" or "start-up" money is almost impossible to get through new offerings Civil agencies have adopted the Defense Department's 8 In contrast, during 1975, the federal government controlled and distributed 20.8 billion of taxpayer-supplied risk capital. Fifty -four percent of the money went to organiza tions which do not pay federal taxes, the not-for-profit organizations; the remainder went to profit organizations.
This means that most of the critical beginnings of innova tion, the selection of technologies to configure into new products is notp:e'rformed within a price competitive sup plier's marketplace FFnFRAl RISK CAPITA1 MECHANISMS Government uses two mechanisms in the distribution of risk capital indirect payments by federal contract price mark ups and d irect payments by research and development contracts grants, and agency budget allocations for in-house scientific and technical work.
Eight-five percent. of the federal equivalent to private "seed or "start-up" capital was indirectly paid to ninety-nine of the largest defense contractors out of 23,875 defense suppliers.
The amount the ninety-nine received was slightly less than 1 billion while the 23,776 remaining suppliers received only an estimated $100 million.
This "start-up" risk capital is indirectly distributed according to the amount of federal contracts a contractor has or expects in the next year the more federal contracts, the more "start up" risk capital allowed in federal contract price mark-ups.
Oliv.iously, it is beneficial to be i.g in fe deral &on 7 tracting because "start-up" capital 1s more readily obtained from the federal Treasury. The corollary, however, is that individuals and firms without federal contracts will not re ceive "start-up" capital indirectly from government and, very l ikely, not from private sources either.
Federal government also makes direct risk capital payments to support innovation after indirectly paid "start-up" capital hias been spent. These direct payments are l?ecei'vei3. mainly 5y large federal contractors to create, propose, and partially prove acceptable ideas plied research" expenditures in the scientific and technical community. In 1975, out of $5 billion directly spent 3.5 billion went to not-for-profit organizations, the remainder to profit companies a d istribution of over 2 to 1 favoring organizations not obligated to pay federal taxes or perform work competitively with a profit objective These direct payments are called 'lap- The net outcome 9 of three decades of the federalization of 1 ideas, as pract i ced by the Defense Department and NASA is that their federal innovation policies foster an unequal economic opportunity to participate in federally sponsored innovation markets. Hard-to-get seed capital is mainly dis tributed to the largest defense suppli ers. Follow-on-money for applied research is mainly distributed to not-for-profit organizations; privately supplied risk capital is increasing ly difficult to come by.
This has serious long-term ecnomic consequences. The essen tial economic role of individuals and 'small. firms. is to" chal lenge ec6nomTcally-Concentrated large firms and their' economy of-scale marketplace advantages.
Equal economic opportunity to create and propose ideas should be an essential feature of federal innovation policy and prac tice, but the opposite has been the case.
These problems have not gone unnoticed, and changes are being made. It will take time to reverse accumulated policies and practices and achieve an equal economic opportunity for all qualified firms, regardless of corporate or individual wealth to participate in Defense Department and NASA innovation markets. Civil agencies have inappropriately adopted Defense Department and NASA innovation policies and are doubly ineffi cient; first.because they have a completely different market place to supply, and second becau.se they contribut_e-to-the same economic distortions as db-.the Defense'Depa.ktment, and NASA Two for important considerations should have provided the framework the new Energy Department a recognition th a t the Defense Department/NASA in novation policies and practices have led to serious distortions to our domestic economy. These dis Department. tortions should not &e' adopted.--by'th'e new 1 a recognition that the Energy Department's demand for innovatio n should open choices for nonfederal buyers, not federal buyers, and that nonfederal buyers must learn along with developers before investment decisions are made. This means that the selection and financing of ideas must be spread wider, rather than concen t rated 10 These two considerations offer opportunities to the Administration to construct innovation policies which foster equal economic opportunity for qualified indivi duals and firms of any size to create and propose ideas to nonfederal buyers. Opportu nities for competition between localities and suppliers would yield price ad vantages of ultimate benefit to.energy consumers. The Administration so far has missed -5his important opportunity.
It is also missing the opportunity to allow local de velopers, financiers, and buyers to equally learn about new innovations before large-scale investments are made.
It is not in the nation's interest that the federalization of ideas be applied to civil markets. Where it is legiti mately applied, such as the Defense Department and NASA extremely important changes are still to be made.


text:
(Updated: 1:08 p.m. ET)
Crown Media Holdings, which runs the Hallmark Channels, reported higher earnings in the second quarter.
Net income rose 22% to $16.5 million, or 5 cents a share, from $13.5 million, or 4 cents a share.
Revenue rose 3% to $89.5 million. Ad revenue was up 3% to $68 million. Subscriber fee revenue increased 4% to $20.6 million. Programming costs were down 6%, the company said.
Demand was up for Hallmark Movie Channel, where upfront revenue rose 30%, Abbott said. The two channels sold between 45% and 50% of their ad inventory in the upfront.
The company also said the scatter ad market remains "robust." Scatter volume in the second quarter grew 39% from a year ago, despite slightly lower prices compared to a year ago. Those prices were still way up from the last upfront. Scatter prices were up 26% from upfront on Hallmark channel and up 20% on Hallmark Movie Channel.
Abbott said that in June, Hallmark Channel showed a slight decrease in distribution to 86.3 million subscribers. He said Hallmark was just one of 81 networks showing a decline according to Nielsen and chalked up the dip to a Nielsen issue "in terms of how they calibrated the subs."
During the call, several investors and analysts asked about the June SEC filing by Crown's largest shareholder, Hallmark Cards. Hallmark Cards, which owns about 90% of Crown, said its standstill agreement preventing it from buying more Crown stock expires at the end of the year and that it is evaluating its options. The options include buying the publicly held share and taking the company private.
Hallmark executives said they had no knowledge of Hallmark Cards' intentions beyond what was in the filing.


text:
Finding Jerusalem's Lost Souls
Schneur Simha, the former deputy director general of the Education Ministry, was in the City of David outside the Old City of Jerusalem last July when he realized he was close to a long lost relative . While drinking coffee with members of the Elad organization, which operates the site, he related that his grandfather, after whom he had been named, was buried on the Mount of Olives opposite where they were sitting but that he had never seen his grave since the area was lost after the War of Independence.
Simha was not aware that Elad was in the midst of a vast project to map the graves on the mountain.
The group finished drinking coffee and went across to the slopes of the mount to search for the grave. The only clues they had were notes from the book of graves held by the Parnases, a family of Jerusalem undertakers. The book records the burials on the Mount of Olives over the past three centuries.
"The VIP section - to the right of Eliahu Shama, and below Yitzhak Alsheikh," a passage in the book read, referring to Simha's grave.
The group began searching for the graves of those mentioned on the page, in the section of the cemetery that had been almost completely destroyed during the time that the Jordanians ruled East Jerusalem.
First they found a tombstone with Eliahu Shama's name and then that of Alsheikh, and finally, just as the twilight was fading, one of the Elad people turned over a fragment of a tombstone at the edge of the section, and on it was inscribed "Senior Simha."
"It is impossible to describe the excitement when you discover a tombstone on which your name is engraved," said the grandson.
The Elad members say that immediately after that, a number of yeshiva students were found who helped to form the minyan (quorum) that was required for the first Kaddish to be recited over Simha's grandfather's grave in 60 years.
Finding the grave was made possible thanks to an innovative project mapping and restoring the cemetery on the Mount of Olives undertaken by the association. So far they have located 20,000 graves.
According to estimates, there are some 120,000 Jews buried in the giant cemetery. The oldest graves date back to the First Temple era but new graves are added every week.
The cemetery has become an almost inaccessible labyrinth of tombstones, gravestone shards and gravesites. There are several reasons for this.
First, the topography of the mountain makes it impossible to dig a straight grid as in other cemeteries. In addition, during the time of the Jordanian government, from 1948 to 1967, some of the graves were destroyed to make way for a gas station and to widen the road leading to Jericho; they are currently being restored but it will take years for the piles of gravestones to be sorted out and returned to their original locations.
During the years of Jordanian rule, many families - like the Simha family - lost touch with the site and the grave. The association is being assisted by two historical documents that documented the gravesites. The first is "Helkat Mehokek", written in 1900 by Asher Leib Brisk. He punctiliously documented all the inscriptions and locations of the tombstones in the cemetery in that year. With the aid of his book, the grave was found, for example, of the famous 17th century Rabbi Haim Abulafia.
The second document is the Parnas family's book of notes, but one needs a flair for detective work in order to decipher what is written there.
This, for example, is how the burial place of Rivka Bucahri, who died in 1939, is described: "Opposite Pirha Sasson, from the northern side ... on the left, to the feet of Eliyahu Kurditoff."
The project began by steam-cleaning almost all of the tombstones to make the epitaphs more legible. After, investigators armed with detailed aerial maps were sent there to document every grave in detail.
Every grave was given a catalog number, which was put onto software that processed the information into a Geographic Information System database. Thus, by combining footwork with high tech, the graves were mapped one by one.
As far as is known, no similar project has ever been undertaken in any other cemetery in the world. The project began two years ago and has so far cost NIS 4.5 million; the technical side is being handled by the Teldor company.
When the graves are located, the information is fed into a Web site (www.mountofolives.co.il) which provides data not only about the grave's location but also the possibility of setting up a virtual memorial to the person buried there.
Shilo Eldar, the leader of the project, calls it "the Facebook of the dead." The site also provides various relevant services such as email messages to remind people about the yahrzeit [death anniversary], possibilities of restoring the tombstone, and even finding additional men to participate in a minyan.
The site also provides a detailed map and explanation of the route to the grave.
Want to enjoy 'Zen' reading - with no ads and just the article? Subscribe todaySubscribe now


text:
Get Paid for Your Opinions - Online Surveys
You cannot get paid if they cannot e-mail you or mail you a check.
American Consumer Opinion · They invite you to fill out surveys online. Once finished with the survey, you will receive cash, a check, a gift, and/or an entry in a drawing (values typically range from $4.00 to $25.00 per completed survey). Even if you are not selected for a survey, your name will be entered in a monthly drawing.
Ipsos i-Say Panel · One of the ten largest research firms in the world. Give feedback about their client's products and services and tell them how they can make them better. They also want to know your ideas on current events and social issues. Cash prizes. (USA only)
Clear Voice Surveys · Pays you for each survey you participate in.
Nielsen Digital Voice // NetRatings · Nielsen family members have been influential in determining the popularity of television programs for over 50 years. Here's your opportunity to participate in Nielsen's panel for the Internet. (USA only)
Nielsen Home Scan / Nation Consumer Panel · Earn valuable gift points, which are redeemable for electronics, household items, jewelry, toys and more.
SurveySavvy.com · The online division of Luth Research, a leader in market research for nearly 25 years.
NFO World Group · Over 50 year old company, who invented consumer panels back in the 1940's. You will be automatically entered in the "Your Opinions Count Sweepstakes" upon joining.
Survey Panel Group · Surveys earn cash, coupons or prizes.
Lightspeed Research · Take online surveys and earn points that can be redeemed for cash and prizes. Join today to earn an entry into the $5,000 Sweepstakes.
NPD Online Research Team · Your opinions will be heard by decision makers worldwide. And, you'll have a chance to WIN CASH - starting with the chance to win $1,000 for registering to join.
TheNetPanel · Just for signing up, you enter to win prizes. Then get rewarded for your opinions.
Mindfield Online · Earn cash and prizes for each completed survey.
Opinion Outpost · Been around since January 2005 and has been paying members since the very first month.
OpinionSquare · Earn cash and prizes for each completed survey.
Survey Head · Join today and get $5 instantly in your account. Survey Head provides you with real market research studies and you will get paid for your participation. Survey Head believes that your time and opinions are worth getting paid for.
Resolution Research Panel · The compensation for participating in research studies vary with the length of involvement and difficulty of the tasks.
Greenfield · Paying people to fill out their surveys online.
Memolink · Complete surveys, answer trivia, signup for free trials and in return, you earn points toward gift certificates at places such as The Home Depot, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Best Buy and more.
e-poll · Take cute online polls and get points. Then redeem your points for stuff. Not cash, but some useful stuff and the surveys are fun.
Harris Poll On Line · You earn reward points, HIpoints(SM), which can be redeemed for merchandise or gift certificates.
Choozz · What do you think about Moviez, Muzic, Gamez? Share your opinions and you could win a ton of great stuff.
Vindale Research · Looking for qualified survey panelists to evaluate products and services, take simple online surveys, and enjoy compensation for their efforts.
Survey Club · Free membership. They will help you find out about simple and fun online surveys.
GoZing · Survey you about movies, sports and products. (Most countries.)
eVox · Canada social research panel. For every survey you complete, you are entered into a quarterly sweepstakes of $5,000 cash.
Fulcrum Analytics and FGI Research · Online surveys range between $5-$10 or will be a Prize Drawing.
JoinSurveys.com · A survey portal offering consumers access to the top surveys offered.
Epinions.com · Write and rate brutally honest and unbiased opinions. Read buying guides, professional reviews and web resources. Read pros and cons about the products you buy. Earn cash for your opinions.
i.think inc · Each time you qualify and complete a survey, you'll be paid. In addition, they have regular drawings for cash prizes (usually around $100).
Precision Research · Participate in Chicago area research studies.
Surveyspot.com · Express your opinions and beliefs while earning cash prizes and rewards.
SupermarketGuru · Has a Consumer Taste Panel. Asks your opinions on different supermarket items each month. Ten people get a t-shirt each month and one gets a big prize once per quarter.
Playtex In-home Testing Program · You'll receive Playtex products such as Banana Boat, Woolite Rug Cleaner, and Baby Magic, to test in your home, in exchange for your opinion about the product. Unfortunately, at this point, they're only interested in the opinions of females who reside in select states.
Foodquiz · Where your opinions can help shape the food products you'll see tomorrow. By participating, you'll also be eligible to win cash prizes.
BuzzBack · Just a 5 minute survey about a product you use, a web site you've visited, or a reaction to a new idea. Your completed responses earn you $5.
Drug Voice · Takes your voice to health care leaders who are ready to listen. You will be entered into a drawing to win cash and prizes each time you complete a survey. Specific prizes will be offered for each survey (for example, $100 or a digital camera).
Consumerviews · Provided by Solomon Wolff Associates, Inc. Typically, participants will receive a check for $5.00 or perhaps coupons worth $5 or more on the client's products. In some situations, participants may receive larger payments. Solomon Wolff Associates is a full service marketing research and marketing support firm providing data gathering and analysis in addition to related marketing support services.
Clickin · Focused dialogue, market research and opinion polls. Incentives include phone cards, gift certificates, cash, and drawings.
Esearch · The Internet Consumer Research Company. Register for cash prize drawings.
Mar's Research · Your time will always be rewarded with products or cash.
Grace Market Research (GMR) · They do TV viewing studies. Register for TV Pilot Tests and surveys and cable tests about television shows. They do not say that they pay.
PTS - Product Testing Services · With product beta testing, there is always an incentive for you. Usually, you get to keep the product. In the case of testing products with little actual value, additional incentives are usually offered.
eyecloud Consulting · Payment for participating in online surveys can be either in the form of a sweepstakes or a set amount which ranges between $1 - $10.
Zoomerang.com · Lets you create and take surveys. Get points for each survey you take.
User Works, Inc. · Participate in usability tests, focus groups, and R & D studies.(Washington DC area)
employeesurveys.com · Brief e-mail surveys, usually about work related topics. Each time you participate in a survey, your name will be entered into a drawing. We have no experience with this company yet. Feedback wanted.
The Business Research Lab · Various surveys and online mystery shops. We have no experience with this company yet. Feedback wanted.
Stop! Webmasters! Think before you copy, snag my material, design, format and intellectual property! I have a registered copyright, have an Intellectual Property attorney on retainer, and mean to protect my work. Also think of the Code of Ethics you should be adhering to, and whether or not you would want someone to snag your work. All Content is protected by copyright pursuant to U.S., international conventions, and other copyright laws as a collective work and/or compilation, and Volition.com LLC owns a copyright in the selection, coordination, arrangement and enhancement of such Content.


text:
Listing decision underscores climate-change threats to Arctic ecosystems
By Summit Voice
FRISCO — Recognizing that the best available science suggests a significant loss of Arctic sea ice in the next few decades, federal biologists last week finalized Endangered Species Act protection for two species of ice-dependent seals.
NOAA will list as threatened the Beringia and Okhotsk populations of bearded seals, and the Arctic, Okhotsk, and Baltic subspecies of ringed seals. The Ladoga subspecies of ringed seals will be listed as endangered. The species that exist in U.S. waters (Arctic ringed seals and the Beringia population of bearded seals) are already protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
"Our scientists undertook an extensive review of the best scientific and commercial data. They concluded that a significant decrease in sea ice is probable later this century and that these changes will likely cause these seal populations to decline," said Jon Kurland, protected resources director for NOAA Fisheries' Alaska region. "We look forward to working with the State of Alaska, our Alaska Native co-management partners, and the public as we work toward designating critical habitat for these seals."
Ringed seals and bearded seals, found in the waters off Alaska, are the first species since polar bears to be protected primarily because of climate change threats. Federal officials said the listing won't result in any immediate restrictions on human activities, including the subsistence harvest of ice seals by Alaska Natives, a practice that is central to the traditional culture and nutrition in many Alaskan Native coastal communities. But federal agencies that permit or fund projects that may affect a listed species must consult with NOAA Fisheries to ensure the existence of the species is not jeopardized.
"Arctic animals face a clear danger of extinction from climate change," said Shaye Wolf, Center for Biological Diversity science director."The Endangered Species Act offers strong protections for these seals, but we can't save the Arctic ecosystem without confronting the broader climate crisis. The Obama administration has to take decisive action, right now, against greenhouse gas pollution to preserve a world filled with ice seals, walruses and polar bears."
The Center for Biological Diversity helped spur the listing with a petition filed in 2008. The National Marine Fisheries Service was under a court-ordered deadline to make a listing decision.
Ringed seals give birth and nurse their pups in snow caves built on sea ice. Global warming is reducing the amount of snowpack on the ice, causing snow caves to collapse and leaving pups vulnerable to death from freezing temperatures and predators. Bearded seals, named for their distinctively thick whiskers, give birth and nurse their pups on pack ice over shallow waters where their bottom-dwelling food is abundant. The rapid loss of pack ice jeopardizes their ability to raise their young and find food.
Both ringed seals and bearded seals rely on sea ice for extended periods during molting, and bearded seals live on sea ice during critical months for breeding, whelping, and nursing. Sea ice is projected to shrink both in extent and duration, with bearded seals finding inadequate ice even if they move north.
This summer Arctic sea-ice extent hit a new record low, falling to half its average size. At that pace summer sea ice across the Arctic is likely to disappear entirely in the next 10 to 20 years, while the seals' winter sea-ice habitat in the Bering Sea off Alaska is projected to decline at least 40 percent by 2050.
The listing decision provides Endangered Species Act protections to all populations of the ringed seal and the Pacific subspecies of the bearded seal, which inhabits Alaska and parts of Russia and Canada. The Act will provide a safety net for these seals that includes habitat protections, recovery planning and, most importantly, a prohibition on federal actions that could jeopardize the seals. Listing of the seals will not affect subsistence harvest by Alaska natives, which is exempted from the law's provisions.
The federal government has acknowledged that other Arctic species are imperiled by global warming, including polar bears, listed as threatened in 2008, and Pacific walruses, made candidates for listing under the Act in 2011.
The listings become effective 60 days from the date of publication in the Federal Register. NOAA Fisheries will now begin seeking 60 days of public comment to inform any future critical habitat proposals for Arctic ringed seals and the Beringia DPS of bearded seals. The listing determinations, related Federal Register documents, status review reports, and other background information are available on the NOAA Fisheries Alaska region website. Additional photos and materials are on the NOAA Fisheries website.


text:
Three current or former Pleasantville school board members are among more than 100 public officials and employees or their family members statewide who have been accused of fraudulently getting free or reduced-fee school meals for their children.
The report, released Wednesday by the state Office of the Comptroller, reviewed applications for the National School Lunch Program in a random sampling of 15 districts with high percentages of students in the program. Those districts included Pleasantville, Egg Harbor Township and Millville.
No public employees were found to have submitted fraudulent information in Egg Harbor Township. In Millville, four people who held public jobs, but not in the school district, are alleged to have filed inaccurate forms.
The state report does not list any names but has turned the information over to the Division of Criminal Justice for review and possible criminal charges.
The Press of Atlantic City has confirmed the names of two of the Pleasantville school board members. They are current member Ethel Seymore, who is up for re-election this year, and former member Johnny McClennan, who lost his seat in the 2012 election but has filed to run for the board again in November.
Seymore called the allegations a mistake, saying she misunderstood what was required. Contacted by phone, she declined to elaborate, saying she was advised not to discuss the situation.
McClellan, also contacted by phone, said he did not fill out the application form.
"I told them I didn't do it," he said, referring to the state investigators. He also declined to comment further. The application must include information for all members of a household.
The Press was unable to confirm the third Pleasantville board member alleged to have filed a false report. That person is no longer serving on the board.
Pete McAleer, spokesman for the comptroller's office, declined to release names, but confirmed that only one of the three Pleasantville school board members is currently on the board. He said all three had served at least sometime during the three-year audit review period covering the 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12 school years.
Pleasantville school board President Darleen Bey-Blocker said she was not told who the three people are, but that she got calls all day Wednesday because the report says that one board member works for the county, and so does she.
"But it's not me," she said, noting that at least two other board members who served during the three-year time period under review also work for the county. She said she was disappointed, but not entirely surprised by the allegations.
Pleasantville has a state monitor, and Department of Education spokesman Richard Vespucci said if the law-enforcement review results in criminal indictments, the department is prepared to take action based on the findings.
The report has renewed debate over whether the state should continue to use the percentage of students getting free lunch as the basis for state aid allocations. An audit in 2011 had suggested the state find a new aid formula, since there was a high rate of rejections among audited applications for the program.
Federal law requires that districts audit just 3 percent of their applications each year. State Comptroller Matthew Boxer said they were concerned that public employees could use their knowledge of the program to improperly obtain benefits.
"Dozens of public employees appear to have lied about their income in order to take advantage of a school program designed to help families in need," Boxer said in a statement issues with the report.
The report found that of the 3 percent of applications reviewed by the districts in 2090-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12, Egg Harbor Township reduced or rejected 73 percent, Pleasantville reduced or rejected 48 percent, and Millville reduced or rejected 39 percent. Applications are automatically rejected if applicants do not provide the additional financial information requested, and that is the reason for many rejections.
The report also faulted the state Department of Agriculture, which manages the NSLP, for failing to forward to districts a 2012 memo from the U.S. Department of Agriculture authorizing them to use payroll information to identify questionable applications by district employees. Forty of the 109 cases were school district employees.
The report cites two of the Pleasantville cases, but not by name.
In one, it says the school board member underreported her household income on her NSLP application by an average of about $59,000 for two of the three years OSC reviewed. She told investigators that she did not include her own income on the applications because she herself was not the person receiving the free student lunch. She also said her income "is none of (the school district's) damn business." The OSC also referred the board member to the state Division of Taxation as a result of her failure to file state income tax returns for multiple years.
A second Pleasantville school board member, who is a county employee, underreported her income by about $67,000 each of the three years reviewed, according to the report. She said she did not look at pay stubs when she filled out the report and that she did not know her husband's income and reported only what he told her. She also did not report income of adult children living with her, saying they did not contribute to the household.
Total underreported income in the 109 cases the OSC has referred for prosecution totaled $13.9 million over the three-year period reviewed. If charged and convicted under the federal law, they could be fined as much as $25,000 and imprisoned for as long as five years.
The OSC began its investigation of the free lunch program after the Elizabeth Board of Education president and others affiliated with the Elizabeth School District were arrested for filing fraudulent free-lunch applications.
Contact Diane D'Amico:


text:
Don't miss a story. Like us on Facebook. Like Dallas News' Facebook Page
TeamSupport, a provider of customer support software for technology companies, has raised $1.25 million in funding to support its marketing and sales efforts and hire new executives.
The funding, announced this week, was led by investors in Dallas, New York, Atlanta and Toronto.
Founded in 2009, the Dallas-based company provides customer service software to business-to-business technology companies. TeamSupport's customers include AT&T, Comcast, the NBA and Wal-Mart.
"The past four quarters have been a period of amazing growth for TeamSupport and we've added a significant number of new customers to our already impressive roster," TeamSupport CEO Robert C. Johnson said in a statement. "This round of financing will help us continue this aggressive growth trajectory by further expanding our operations."


text:
I am a girl, but I'm not as Scary as the name says, or little!
I have added much to my folder since I started, which makes me very happy, and have more watchers then before.
Thank You So Much Watchers!
I appreciate all the Positive comments, and Positive Critique.
Current Residence: My Parent's House
Favourite genre of music: Rock, J-Rock, and Dance
Operating System: Apple MacBook
Favourite cartoon character: Hotstreak and Kisame Hoshigaki
Personal Quote: Sexuality, Peircings, Drugs, and Alcohal. Things that can take one by surprise.


text:
Current Newswire:
Slashdot: Tales From The BazaarDec 21, 1999, 19:10 (0 Talkback[s])
(Other stories by Robin Miller)
WEBINAR: On-Demand
No-Size-Fits-All! An Application-Down Approach for Your Cloud Transformation REGISTER >
"Last week, The Bazaar, an Open Source meeting and exhibition, was held for the first time in New York City. It was not a well-attended event, with fewer than 3000 registered visitors, and the view from the show's main floor was downright dismal because most of the people there spent most of their time in tutorial sessions, not cruising the (sparse) display booths. But it was still an event many found valuable. Here are some "show tales" from Slashdot readers who were there."
Related Stories:
0 Talkback[s] (click to add your comment)


text:
I have a cape that I skinned out only a few hours after it was killed, I then froze it, then thawed, then turned and and rough fleshed it. I then salted it and let it dry rock hard. After 2 weeks I re hydrated in a mix of ultra soft and blood eater. Here is the formula I used 1/2oz ultra soft,1/2oz blood eater to every gallon of water. I left in solution for 12 hrs and it was 90 percent re hydrated but when I checked the cape I noticed it was starting to slip. So I went ahead and put in the saftee acid pickle even though it wasn't completely re hydrated. My Question is what did I do wrong, and will the pickle save it?
Return to Tanning Category Menu
A rehydration doesn't take place in a submersion, but rather in the sweating. YOu also need to get away from all those exotic things in your soak. All you need is warm (NOT HOT) water with a hand full of salt and maybe a surfactant or sorts. The Ultra Soft does that, but the blood out contains alkali which is the product used to make hair off tanning. Stop worrying about blood in the hair. It will wash out any time. Leave it in the solution no more than one or two hours at the MOST. Hang it up till it stops dripping and then put it in a plastic bag and refrigerate it overnight. THAT'S what rehydration is all about.
Good one for the record folks when the search button for rehydration is used.
This was a raw hide and not a tanned hide. I have to leave hides in my bath for 24 hours before their totally rehydrated but I don't have slippage.
Now back to your problems. Personally you made the mistake of skinning it and then freezing it. For me that's always a bad idea for bacteria is what causes slippage. Now I don't know what your working on but next time if you have to freeze due to time you need to lay the skin out flat and let it cool down and begin to freeze, from there it will be folded and then placed into a bag to freeze. By rolling it up the skin on the inside took a much longer time to freeze, during this time bacteria does grow and will cause slippage.
Now I don't use blood out at all in any of my baths. All you need is the Ultra-Soft and water. If your hide is slipping in the bath then at some time pior to you placing it in there it already got bacteria growth and started to cause slippage.
The pickle will kill the bacteria but the damage is done and what will slip will slip. There is no real answer to this but go ahead and finish it and see what becomes of this. It's a learning process that we all go through.
The Blood Eater had to spike the pH to dangerous levels during that 12 hours. And I still wouldn't leave my hide in it that long. The salt water and the cool refrigerator will work for you.
And this is ANOTHER prime reason I don't use nor believe in salt drying a hide rock hard. It's just a dumb practice we've carried on from the Mountain Man of the 1800's. Once the salt has stopped making a hide drip water, allowing the hide to harden is totally unnecessary for home tanning. Glen Conley posted a great link to a chemist who stated all the reasons why a couple years back. And I know, it's MY OPINION and I know what opinions are worth.


text:
This one is hilarious. It epitomizes the term: Obama Derangement Syndrome…
Time's Zeke Miller tweetered this adorbs little photo from June as part of a year-end skim of the White House Flickr stream. Photographer Pete Souza's note:
"The President called me over to pose for a photo with a young boy who had fallen asleep during the Father's Day ice cream social in the State Dining Room of the White House."
So it's not hard to imagine how this pic might hit the world of rightwing media.
Twitchy: "SNAP! Obama caught shaming small child forced to attend White House propaganda event"
Gateway Pundit: "Typical: Obama inserts himself into other people's Fathers' Day celebration"
Daily Caller: "Was cute sleepy child another Obama plant?"
American Thinker: "Sleepy Child Just Another Obama Plant — the evidence from photos"
Breitbart: "Sleepy Boy Reported To Be Another Plant"
Glenn Beck's The Blaze: "No, there is no evidence that the sleeping boy was a plant. Buy Gold!"
WND: "Did 'gay' Obama fondle sleeping child?"
Peggy Noonan: "America. Sleeping. Where Is The Greatness? America."
Drudge: "SIREN! Obama plays 'Knockout Game' on defenseless child"
Townhall/Katie Pavlich: "Pro-abort Obama With Child He Couldn't Kill In the Womb"
Sarah Palin: "Obama's America pointing sleep dad ice cream Obama precious child precious memories Alaska America Todd Gakk babies Willy Barstow foot American Exceptionalism Crhissmaks"
Erick Erickson: "Reagan never pointed at children" (1985 photo of Reagan pointing at child posted at Media Matters within 5 minutes)
Ben Shapiro: "Obama points finger, offers no market-based solutions to problems of black America."
George Will: "The sleepy child and the tragedy of single black parents"
Fox & Friends: "Some people think Barack Obama is going to send this small boy to a reeducation camp! Are they right?"
Related articles
- Americuba? (bokertov.typepad.com)
- Ted Cruz 'taking steps' to renounce Canadian citizenship (rawstory.com)
- The Impossibility of the Peaceful Road to Left Power: The Coup + Death Squad Roadblock (robertlindsay.wordpress.com)
- Ted Cruz 'taking steps' to renounce Canadian citizenship (theguardian.com)
- Finally, the media revolt against another empty Obama vow (grumpyelder.com)


text:
Monday, August 17th, 2009
Comparison Review: Toss Across by Mattel and Ideal Toy Company
A Thinga-passerby made a keen observation yesterday on a 2-year-old product review. The specific product isn't important.
"I'm hoping to find these this late date of August 2009. it seems like 9 out of 10 times lately my favorite things, and most good things, have changed for the not-so-better and are also more expensive, or simply discontinued version(s)."
That is a reason I like garage sales. I often find products that are from 2 to 10-years-old, often discontinued or changed in such a way that the newer product is inferior.
Take, for example, Toss Across. The toy was first produced by the Ideal Toy Company in 1969. Today it is made by Mattel. Guess which one sucks.
Toss Across is a game of Tic-Tac-Toe played by throwing small bean bags at a game board suspended a few inches from the ground. A successful throw rotates a triangular panel between three possible faces: X, O and a neutral face. It's a great way for you to play Tic-Tac-Toe with a preschooler and not be bored out of your mind.
The Ideal and Mattel versions different in three significant ways:
1) Mattel's unit is 14″x17″ and made from a soft plastic. Ideal's larger model is 18.5″x22″ and made of a hard plastic that has a certain rigid toughness to it.
2) Mattel's unit has the X and O symbols applied as stickers. At garage sales these stickers are often seen peeling off. It's a game destined for early retirement in a landfill.
Ideal's unit has the X and O applied with some sort of spray-on paint coating over raised etching in the surface. We bought a 1969 model at a garage sale this weekend for $1. The red and blue pigments are thin in spots — from decades of bean bags scraping across their surface — but otherwise the whole thing is in great shape and should last another 20 years before someone needs to repaint the surface.
(I tested the paint for lead and turned up nothing. Home test kits are limited in their abilities, but legitimate.)
3) The game play dynamics are completely different. Mattel embraces random chaos. Ideal rewards skill.
The Ideal version rotates the X/O panels in a sequential manner. If your opponent has flipped up an X, you'll need two successful throws to reverse things — once to return to the neutral face and again to flip up the O.
The Mattel version rotates the X/O panels freely either way with one toss moving a panel several revolutions, sort of like a slot machine — no telling what will come up.
Worse, one toss on Mattel's board often rotates two panels at the same time because the panels are separated by nothing — the bean bag slides between the panels and flips both of them.
On the Ideal unit, the panels are farther apart and separated by a frame. A toss landing between two panels hits the frame and the panels don't flip at all. You need a precise throw to flip a panel.
Which is better?
You could argue Mattel's random approach is more fun for kids because nearly every hit results in movement. But that translates to long games because a win is hard to achieve. Or, you have short games with hollow victories because you win by your opponent's own random movements as often as your own.
I argue that for a 3-, 4- or 5-year-old learning Tic-Tac-Toe, the Ideal version is better. Have a preschooler stand directly over the game board and drop the bean bags, as someone described at FeelingRetro.com. If Tic-Tac-Toe rules are too advanced for your kid, toss the bean bags until anyone gets 3-in-a-row of either symbol.
It's great fun, now found only through eBay and your neighborhood garage sale.
Can you think of other games or toys made worse by changes in design or manufacturing?
This weekend I also picked up an old Uno deck made before the language cards (draw two, draw four, skip and reverse) were changed to symbols. I prefer my 5-year-old to recognize word formations if not read them. Mattel says Uno is for 7-year-olds. Huh? Since when do 7-year-olds not read?


text:
The Diamond of Jeru
To eliminate the boredom in their marriage, the Lacklans go to Borneo in search of a diamond. Once there, they are set up with tour guide Mike Kardec. However, when Keith suspects his wife, Helen, and Mike of being a bit too friendly, he switches to another guide who shows him a huge diamond. After they leave, Mike suspects they're being set up and follows. He soon discovers that the guides work for Jeru, a native headhunting chieftain in possession of a huge diamond. Now Mike must save them from certain peril and recover the diamond.
The Diamond of Jeru is one of the more enjoyable made for TV films that I've seen, helped immensely by the presence of Zane as the film's hero. The film certainly borrows from other films in the adventure genre, like Raiders of the Lost Ark, but it does manage to remain interesting throughout. The film does slow down a bit after the flashy introduction, but quickly picks up again once Mike begins his search in the jungle for the Lacklans.


text:
Job Wanted: Business Administrator
I would like a job in administration area in Yucatán
Name Ma. Lucía del Sagrado Corazon Castillo Morales
Address Calle 25 Sodzil Norte, Mérida, Yucatán
Mail address firstname.lastname@example.com
Phone (Home) 941 9549
Mobile Phone 9999 940099
Academic Level Accountant Degree
Languages English, Spanish
Others Software: Office, Contpaq, SAP, Taxstream, Lead Tec
Human Resources Difficult Conversation, Management Skills, Personal Interviews
Labor Experience Import /Export Maquiladoras
Balmex, SA de CV Apparel Maquiladora 1990 – 1995
Accountant: Register all finances transactions, Tax calculation, Social Security, SAR and Infonavit control and calculation, review payroll, budget elaboration and control. International Trade create procedure to ensure correct application of Maquila Decree, Control of import goods inventories to ensure correct management of Annex 24, responsible to import/export activity. Salary $5,000.00
Manufacturera Lee de México, SA de CV en Yucatán, apparel maquiladora; VFJ-CSS de México, SA de CV y 20 de México, SA de CV in Monterrey, services maquiladoras. All three companies part of VF Corporation, LP located in Greensboro, Carolina del Norte. 1995 – 2010
Administrative Manager. Work in open of two sewing plants, cutting, laundry and finishing plants in Yucatán. My contribution was in open banks accounts, elaborate maquila programm, stablish payroll, accounting and inventories control systems, internal control procedures. Main responsabilities accounting, correct compliance of taxes law, Social Security, SAR and Infonavit, import / export activity, control company trailer fleet and logistic, elaborate and control budget, inventories control.
Last year additional to Admin. Activities I was in charge of Human Resource department, being responsible to ensure correct application of Human Resource policies , hire personnel, responsible of payroll, training programms, management of benefits, coordinate and organize all activities related with company people.
Salary $30,000.00
Gerardo Medina HR Mgr. Manufacturera Lee de México, SA de CV 988 912 6090
Paola Melendez 999 900 7075


text:
Paul Toscano
March 30, 2013
Rogers said that with Cyprus, politicians are saying that this is a special case and urging people not to worry, but that is exactly why investors should be concerned.
"What more do you need to know? Please, you better hurry, you better run for the hills. I'm doing it anyway," Rogers said. "I want to make sure that I don't get trapped. Think of all the poor souls that just thought they had a simple bank account. Now they find out that they are making a 'contribution' to the stability of Cyprus. The gall of these politicians."
"If you're going to listen to government, you're going to go bankrupt very quickly," he added.
This article was posted: Saturday, March 30, 2013 at 4:28 am


text:
FANTASY POOL HERO: Ales Hemsky
UNSUNG HERO: Sam Gagner
TOUGH GUY: Darcy Hordichuk
SLEEPER: Jeff Petry
ROOKIE TO WATCH: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
ON THE DECLINE: Andy Sutton
The Edmonton Oilers did not think things could get any worse after finishing last in the overall standings two seasons ago for the first time in franchise history.
They were wrong.
Last season, the club was actually unable to match its win total from 2009-10 and finished last in the overall league standings again.
However the addition of rookies Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle and Magnus Paajarvi gave the club and its fans hope that better days were ahead.
Hall, the first overall pick in the 2010 draft, was having a strong rookie campaign until an ankle injury brought it to a premature end. Eberle finished as the teams leading scorer.
Heading into the this season, the biggest question for the Oilers is whether this summers first overall pick, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, is ready to make the jump to the NHL out of junior.
Regardless, the Oilers continue to rebuild with a youth movement, bolstered by the return of a favourite native son.
Ryan Smyth is back for his second tenure with the Oilers after requesting a trade out of Los Angeles this summer.
The Oilers success will depend on how the youngsters continue to develop in their second year and how much gas the veterans have in the tank.
Hall, Eberle and Paajarvi are expected to get as much or even more ice time as sophomores than they did as rookies. The success of the club eventually will be determined by the type of NHLers the three become. Unfortunately for the Oilers, they may have to go through more growing pains this season.
However, the three wont be counted on to do it all on their own. Smyths return gives the club a proven leader and, if healthy, possibly another 20-goal scorer. Ales Hemsky heads into the season with two surgically repaired shoulders. The Oilers have long hoped the talented winger would develop into a legitimate star, however, injuries have held Hemsky back in the past couple of seasons. In an attempt to keep Hemsky and the rest of the young talent out of the medical room, the Oilers added some bulk up front in the form of Darcy Hordichuk and Ben Eager.
The success of the Oilers defence corps will depend on how Ryan Whitneys right foot holds up. The clubs top defenceman is recovering from foot surgery this off-season, having been injured last year when his skate caught a rut. When healthy, Whitney is expected to log well over 20 minutes a night on the Oilers blue line, but heading into camp he was still unable to play.
Without Whitney, the Oilers will expect Tom Gilbert to take on a bigger role, and count on more from Theo Peckham and Ladislav Smid. Veteran Andy Sutton was acquired to add size and experience. Yet with little depth beyond their top six, the Oilers could be in big trouble if injuries again take their toll.
Having come into camp healthy and with an impaired driving conviction behind him, Nikolai Khabibulin is hoping for a bounce-back season with the Oilers.
The club has yet to receive full value for the four-year, $15-million free agent contract they gave the veteran. Khabibulin played just 18 games with the Oilers before a back injury brought his first season to a premature end.
Last season with a impaired driving conviction lingering over him, Khabibulin had one of his worst years as a professional, winning just 10 games. Having served his time in an Arizona correctional facility over the summer, Khabibulin looks to regain the form that made him the teams undisputed starter. That position has come into doubt by the emergence of Devan Dubnyk, who looks poised to take over the role heading into his second full season.
General manager Steve Tambellini and coach Tom Renney still have rope to work with, having been forced to undergo a rebuilding program with the team bottoming out. The Oilers have promising young talent that will need to continue to develop in order to appease a fan base that is growing restless of missing the playoffs. The Oilers arent expected to make the playoffs this year, which takes some heat off the front office, but if theyre not playing meaningful games in March and early April, the temperature is sure to rise.
The Oilers have been battling with injuries the past number of seasons, which had contributed to their rapid decline after making it to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final in 2006. The Oilers havent made the playoffs since and wont again if they continue to lose a record number of man-games to injury. The key to a competitive season for the Oilers is to stay healthy.
They dont have the depth in the organization to overcome a handful of injuries, especially on the blue line, which could be the teams weakest link this year.


text:
Trouble Brews for Greece Despite Good News on Bond Sale
Six-Year Recession Seems to Be Over, but Return to Sustained Growth Far From Certain
Greece's successful return to the markets Thursday was a triumph of politics—and it is in politics where the risk to the country's recovery lies.
A good-news operation has been under way since the start of the year. Once the target of vocal criticism by euro-zone politicians and officials involved in the bailout process, Greece has been getting...


text:
Germany, Chinese banks in key agreement
Frankfurt, March 29, 2014
The central banks of Germany and China have signed an agreement to facilitate transactions in the Chinese currency in Frankfurt, the Bundesbank said, making Germany's financial capital the first hub for such payments in Europe.
The Bundesbank and the People's Bank of China signed a memorandum of understanding during Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to Germany yesterday, ahead of a similar agreement between China and Britain expected on Monday.
"This will make it much easier for the German real economy to clear and settle payments denominated in renminbi, marking a major step forward in intensifying Germany's economic relations with China," Bundesbank board member Carl-Ludwig Thiele said.
The agreement will make it easier for investors and companies in Europe and China to issue and own bonds, shares and funds and to pay bills or list companies in each other's regions.-Reuters


text:
On the Limitations of Government Borrowing: A Framework for Empirical Testing
This paper seeks to distinguish empirically between two views on the limitations of government borrowing. According to one view, nothing precludes the government from running a permanent budget deficit, paying interest due on the growing debt load simply by issuing new debt, An alternative perspective holds that creditors would be unwilling to purchase government debt unless the government made a credible commitment to balance its budget in present value terms. We show that distinguishing between these possibilities is mathematically equivalent to testing whether a continuing currency inflation might be fueled by speculation alone or is instead driven solely by economic fundamentals. Empirical tests which have been developed for this economic question lead us to conclude that postwar U.S. deficits are largely consistent with the proposition that the government budget must be balanced in present-value terms.
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
|Date of creation:
|Jun 1985
|Publication status:
|published as Hamilton, James D. and Marjorie Flavin,"On the Limitations of Governemnt Borrowing: A Framework for Empirical Testing,"American Economic Review, Vol. 76, No. 4, September 1986.
|Contact details of provider:
| Postal: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
Phone: 617-868-3900
Web page: http://www.nber.org
More information through EDIRC
References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- Burbidge, John B, 1983. "Government Debt in an Overlapping-Generations Model with Bequests and Gifts," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(1), pages 222-227, March.
- Aschauer, David Alan, 1985. "Fiscal Policy and Aggregate Demand," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(1), pages 117-127, March.
This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.
When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:1632. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ()
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.
If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.


text:
What do you think of the newly designed Volkswagen Beetle?Mon Apr 18, 2011
Do you support at-work naps for air traffic controllers?Fri Apr 15, 2011
New Orleans blaze kills 8 seeking shelter from coldTue Dec 28, 2010
- I think we'll see more tradegy of this sort in the future; given the direction of U.S. society. To be sure, huge sums of money have been spent to help persons in such fiscal straits depicted in the story; but who received it, where did it go? I hardly believe those in need received what was intend …
'Franken-ship' proposed from space shuttle scrapsWed Sep 29, 2010
Trio quits 'Deadliest Catch'Tue Sep 28, 2010
What do you think of the appliance version of Cash for Clunkers?Wed Sep 23, 2009
Is personal responsibility for one's health key to the success of health care reform?Fri Aug 7, 2009
Internet providers want to meter usageWed Apr 15, 2009
Should insurance giant AIG, which has received $170 billion in aid from the federal government, dole out tens of millions of dollars in bonuses to employees?Sat Mar 14, 2009
Wells Fargo cancels Las Vegas tripTue Feb 3, 2009