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Pyramid Scheme 2.0Unlike its namesake, this obstacle is all about teamwork. Scramble, climb, and push your way up a slippery incline with the help of your fellow Mudders.
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The Block Ness MonsterThe Block Ness Monster is as epic and tricky as Nessie herself. Mudders have to help one another push, pull, and roll their way through 60ft of slick, rotating barriers.
Pyramid SchemeUnlike its namesake, this obstacle is all about teamwork scramble, climb, and push your way up a slippery incline with the help of your fellow Mudders
Arctic Enema 2.0Our favorite icy plunge has been updated to include a high speed entry slide and center wall you must scale to escape the 10 tons of ice we jam into this frigid dumpster dive.
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Unforgettable Experiences
Wondering what it's like to run a Tough Mudder? Don't take our word for it—see what these Legionnaires are saying.


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subset: commoncrawl


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Community Plays Critical Role in Promoting Biodiversity, But Faces Increasing Threats
Kautokeino (Norway) / Nairobi, 26 March 2012 - Mongolia's reindeer herders and their forest homeland are facing unprecedented challenges from unregulated mining, logging, water pollution, climate change and some tourism practices, according to a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
The study outlines a number of strategies, including increasing reindeer herd sizes and closer monitoring of land use change, that can support both the herders' ancient culture and the sustainable development of their homeland: the taiga.
Also known as the boreal forests, the taiga is the world's largest biome, forming an almost continuous cover of coniferous forests in sub-arctic North America and Eurasia.
The UNEP report Changing Taiga: Challenges for Mongolia's Reindeer Herders, is based on field investigations and numerous interviews with members of Mongolia's rural Dukha community - of which only 200 or so members remain.
The report is the result of a direct request to UNEP from Mongolia's Ministry of Nature, Environment and Tourism to assess the situation of the country's reindeer herders and explore ways to guarantee their future livelihoods, as well as the sustainable management of the taiga ecosystem.
Of particular concern to the herders, finds the UNEP study, is the growth in unregulated, small-scale artisanal mining, which results in deforestation, forest fires, chemical contamination and poisoning of water sources. Reindeer herders have already abandoned some pastures in the western sections of their range because of damage caused by mining for gold, as well as green and white jade.
"The taiga - the Dukha homeland - is a hotspot for biodiversity and is rich in natural resources, but it is also one of the regions of Mongolia which could suffer the greatest impacts of climate change over the coming decades," said Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director.
In short, the challenges facing the herders spotlighted in this report are a microcosm of those facing communities large and small across the world - namely how to transition to a sustainable future that generates jobs and livelihoods without pushing past the limits of sustainability", added Mr. Steiner.
According to the study, the transformation of Mongolia to a market economy in the 1990s resulted in eight million livestock being added to Mongolia's pastures, significantly affecting traditional herding practices and the dynamics with the environment.
Erratic weather patterns are also taking their toll. Seven out of the ten most disastrous droughts and extreme winter events (known locally as 'dzuds') recorded since 1940 have occurred since 2000, resulting in widespread livestock deaths.
There are also concerns that current measures to conserve biodiversity within the region, such as the creation of national parks or protected areas, will limit access to pastures and adversely affect herder communities.
Current hunting laws are having a major impact on the food security of the Dukha, as hunting and trapping wild animals have been a traditional way of life for the community.
"As a culture tightly-coupled with the taiga environment, Dukha reindeer husbandry has played a significant role in shaping the environment and conserving the unique biodiversity surrounding them. It is important that any protected area regulations or community partnerships take full account of the Dukha's needs and rights to access to their traditional pasture grounds and migration routes," said Kathrine I. Johnsen, Chief Editor of the report.
Tourism offers both an opportunity and a threat to the Dukha. It provides much needed income and an alternative way to participate in the market economy. But herders have also altered reindeer migration routes to accommodate tourists,, forcing the animals to feed on pastures of poorer quality and thus limiting the ability of herders to increase their herd size.
"There is a need for an increased understanding and dialogue between herders, tourism operators, local government, and other stakeholders on land use and resources in reindeer herding areas in order to protect both the biodiversity and the Dukha culture", said Peter Prokosch, Managing Director of GRID-Arendal.
The main recommendations from the report include:
The report, which is part of the UNEP Nomadic Herders initiative, was officially launched during a special 'Ice Cinema' event held in Kautokeino, the heart of reindeer husbandry in northern Norway, as part of the World Indigenous Television Broadcasting Conference.
The report contains striking photographic portraits of the Dukha reindeer herders and their environment, as well as case studies of individual members of the community focusing on tourism, health and hunting issues.
The report was presented to HRH Prince Albert II of Monaco, who attended the conference in Norway.
Partners in the UNEP report included the International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry and the Taiga Nature Society.
Notes to Editors:
The full report, Changing Taiga: Challenges for Mongolia's Reindeer Herders, is available at: www.grida.no
Additional quotations from partners:
"The value of promoting the Dukha's way of life is clear. Taiga reindeer husbandry offers a viable and sustainable form of land use that has been practiced for centuries in a fragile and vulnerable ecosystem. However, there are limits to the herders' capacity to adapt, and these are now being reached," said Dr. Mikhail Pogodaev, Executive Chair of the Association of World Reindeer Herders.
"There is an urgent need to engage with the herders to record and promote their traditional knowledge, as well as to monitor biodiversity and the land use changes that are occurring in the taiga. Ongoing dialogue is also needed between herders, local governments, companies and others on land use and resources management," says Altangerel Enkhbat, Director at the Mongolian Ministry of Nature, Environment and Tourism.
About the Nomadic Herders Initiative
The report is part of the UNEP Nomadic Herders initiative (www.nomadicherders.org), which started in 2010 with funding from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The project partners are Mongolian Ministry of Nature, Environment and Tourism, Taiga Nature Society, UNEP/GRID-Arendal, The Association of World Reindeer Herders, International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry, University of the Arctic's EALÁT Institute for Circumpolar Reindeer Husbandry, All-Russian Research Institute for Nature Conservation, and Saint-Petersburg State University.
Jointly with herders, local partners and national authorities, the project partners are studying the impacts of land-use change and climate change on nomadic pastoralists, and further assessing the herders' adaptation options and opportunities. They are facilitating dialogue between various stakeholders, helping to build partnerships between reindeer herding communities, and supporting and strengthening local institutions. They are also increasing the capacity of nomadic herders to engage in the decision-making processes concerning land use and natural resource management.
About the World Indigenous Television Broadcasting Conference
The World Indigenous Television Broadcasters Network (WITBN) is a global alliance, which aims to unify television broadcasters worldwide to retain and grow our Indigenous languages and cultures. Every two years, WITBN holds the "World Indigenous Television Broadcasting Conference". The aim of the conference is to create opportunities for Indigenous broadcasters to exchange views and experiences; and to encourage interaction and communication among Indigenous media worldwide. The Conference will be hosted by NRK Sápmi 25-30 March in Kautokeino. Approximately 150 broadcasters have registered for the conference.
For more information, please contact:
Nick Nuttall, UNEP Spokesman and Acting Director of Communications,
Tel: +254 733 632755,
E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
Bryan Coll, UNEP Newsdesk (Nairobi) on
Tel: +254 20 7623088 or
Mobile: +254 731666214 ,
E-mail: email@example.com
Kathrine Ivsett Johnsen, Senior Expert, Indigenous and Community Issues, UNEP/GRID-Arendal,
mobile: +47 412 34 581, and
email: email@example.com
Source: http://unep.org/newscentre/Default.aspx?DocumentID=2676&ArticleID=9084&l=en


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The Astrophysicist, when he has time, will have something to say about his reading of the physics of the material Tom Whipple sums up.
This situation however seems to be changing following a lengthy interview with a fellow out in Berkeley, California by the name of Robert Godes of Brillouin Energy. He has been working in this field for the last ten years and says that he not only has a reliable heat-producing device, but also understands the physics behind it – which he calls the Quantum Fusion Hypothesis. He says that this theory of just how low-energy nuclear reactions work has allowed the development of a device which produces heat immediately and reliably. Most interestingly, Godes says he has shared his insights with scientists at the Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratories and SRI International, one of the leading US laboratories investigating the phenomenon. He says that both have verified that his theory does indeed work and that they can now produce heat from hydrogen every time they try.
Godes' hypothesis is interesting for those with even a smattering of physics in their background. First of all, he holds that the heat which is coming from infusing hydrogen into nickel or palladium is not coming from "cold fusion" in the classic sense of the term. It is not a deuterium fusing with deuterium reaction as takes place in the sun or H-bombs and which requires extremely high energies.
What seems to be happening in this new kind of fusion is that when hydrogen is "loaded" into nickel or palladium and subjected to the proper kind of an electromagnetic pulse, the hydrogen nucleus which is a positively charged proton acquires an electron which turns it into a low energy free neutron. Now a low energy free neutron is something very nice to have for it quickly combines with other protons to form deuterium, tritium and finally quadrium. The quadrium only lasts for an instant before undergoing a process called beta decay turning it into helium. This is where Einstein and E = MC2 comes in. The beta decay of quadrium results in a loss of mass which is turned into heat. If all this pans out as claimed, it could be one of the most important secrets of nature that has ever been discovered, for our energy problems are over.
Without the flow caliormetry, it is pretty hard to say whether there's anything under the smoke and mirrors – and who knows, there may be. At this particular juncture, as I personally understand it (not that my understanding is worth much), atomic mass remains constant when the conditions for changing protons to neutrons exists and decay energy is always smaller, but I'm certainly not the person to evaluate these results.
That said I'm inclined to skepticism – hang around energy issues long enough and you find lots of people saying they can contravene the laws of physics, or invent new ones. What makes this even worthy of consideration is that it comes from Tom Whipple, who is incredibly smart and knows energy issues really well. Still, Whipple seems to be going out of his way to overstate things, perhaps anticipating skepticism.
Eric's rather dry comment in his first reaction to Whipple's mention that it is "not yet a theory" was "Ummm…yes, you could say it is definitely not yet a theory." In fact, it isn't even in the ballpark of a theory – it is one person's hypothesis with data that has not been released, no peer reviewed papers on the subject whatsoever, in an application where he is attempting to find commercial funding. No, definitely not a scientific theory, or even in that ballpark. Which doesn't mean it won't become one someday.
I admit, though, I find myself thinking of Richard Feynman's comments on perpetual motion machines. This is not the same thing, of course, but it is a useful cautionary tale to remember:
Mr. Papp talked about how the motor worked, using vague and complicated phrases about radiation, atoms, different levels of energy, quanta, and this and that, all of which made no sense whatsoever, and would never work.
But the rest of what he said was important, for every fraud has to have the right characteristics: Mr. Papp explained that he had tried to sell his engine to the big automobile companies, but they wouldn't buy it because they were afraid it would put all the big oil companies out of business.
So there was obviously a conspiracy working against Mr. Papp's marvelous new engine. Then there was a reference to the magazine articles, and an announcement that in a few days the engine was going to be sent to the Stanford Research Laboratory for validation. This proved, of course, that the engine was real. There was also an invitation to prospective investors to get in on this great opportunity to make large amounts of money, because it was very powerful. And there was a certain danger!
There were quite a few wires running from the engine down to where Mr. Papp and the spectators were standing, into a set of instruments used for measurement; these included a variac, a variable transformer with a dial which could put out different voltages. The instruments were, in turn, connected by a cord to an electrical outlet in the side of the building. So it was pretty obvious where the power supply was.
The engine started to go around, and there was a bit of disappointment: the propeller of the fan went around quietly without the noise of an ordinary engine with powerful explosions in the cylinders, and everything- it looked very much like an electric motor.
Mr. Papp pulled the plug from the wall, and the fan propeller continued to turn. 'You see, this cord has nothing to do with the engine; it's only supplying power to the instruments,' he said. Well, that was easy. He's got a storage battery inside the engine. 'Do you mind if I hold the plug?' I asked? 'Not at all,' replied Mr. Papp, and he handed it to me.
It wasn't very long before he asked me to give me back the plug. 'I'd like to hold it a little longer,' I said, figuring that if I stalled around enough, the damn thing would stop.
Pretty soon Mr. Papp was frantic, so I (Richard Feynman) gave him back the plug and he plugged it back into the wall. A few moments later there was a big explosion:
I'm not claiming this is a scam at all, or that if it is, it is an intentional scam like the one above. What I would say is that there is a reason why most devices that seem unlikely are, and skepticism is the appropriate human response. We have yet to see a high-EROEI device that didn't come with significant unintended consequences – if this was one, it would be the VERY FIRST in human history.
While I'm going to wait for the astrophysicist to comment on the physics, I do think I might add something is with the hyperbolic bits of this essay, such as when Whipple says "our energy problems are over!" Because even if this were true, the above statement represents a non-sequitur in its most literal sense – something that does not follow from the previous statement. I don't blame Whipple for going there, but because so many people do, I think it is worth unpacking why this is not necessarily true.
So let us imagine that in fact, such a limitless source of energy does exist. Does it actually solve all our energy problems? Because this is a real and interesting and important question – and one many people believe to be the case. In fact, I would argue that the reason we need to talk about this is that the assumption that something being possible solves the problem is incredibly pervasive even among well educated people who ought to know better.
Last year I had the pleasure of spending an hour talking with (some might say grilling ;-)) my Congressman, Paul Tonko, about energy and fuel issues. At one point in our rather lively discussion, Tonko talked about ethanol and its returns. I argued that he was overstating the returns – and realized shortly that he was conflating cellulosic and algae ethanol with corn ethanol production – and speaking about AS THOUGH those latter two things were already real and widely available. When I called him on that, Tonko agreed that neither one of those were ready for prime time, but rejected the idea we should speak only about the technology as it stands now, because, of course, the fact that we know we can make ethanol on a very small scale from these things means it will inevitably become a near-term factor. In fact, it is nothing of the sort – neither one is fully ready for prime time or at all cost competetive, so when we speak about ethanol as an energy source RIGHT NOW we are talking almost entirely about food (Corn, mostly in the US) going to produce gas, and that's so far neither scalable or without consequences.
I mention this not to pick on Paul Tonko who I think is awfully smart and an extremely congressman, but to point out how universally we believe that technology IN AND OF ITSELF is right there to save us simply by existing. That is, because things exist, we tend to assume that economic, social and technological barriers will magically be overcome. And yet, that's not true – we've known, for example, how to use hydrogen as an energy storage mechanism for a very, very long time, and yet the once much-touted "hydrogen economy" has never become even remotely real, because of technical and economic issues. Technical feasibility, despite our desires and assumptions, does not translate into "make it so." We often assume it does, but that isn't factually correct, as I wrote in this essay:
One of the hardest concepts for many Americans to absorb is this – that technical feasibility rests on a complex bed of other feasibilities and never stands alone. Thus, simply observing that it is technically possible to, say, create zero impact cities or to run our cars on corn waste does not usefully tell us whether we are going to do so or not. This historical reality stands in stark contrast to the perceptions that many of us have, which is that technology operates as a kind of vending machine into which one puts quarters and gets inevitable results.
For example, it has been technically possible to eliminate most causes of death in childhood for the world's poor for thirty to forty years, and periodically the UN and other agencies explain how this might technically come about. But without other base elements of feasibility – a real commitment to saving impoverished children worldwide – it turns out that it is technically infeasible.
The same, of course, is true of addressing climate change and peak energy – it was wholly technically feasible for us to begin transitioning to a renewable energy economy in the 1970s, and had we done so, both issues would be vastly more manageable and comparatively minor concerns. It is still technically feasible, although enormously difficult, that we could drop industrial emissions dramatically or reduce our fossil fuel consumption. It is not, however, economically or politically feasible that we do so, as evidenced by the fact that we're not, despite emergent consequences.
We are in the habit of forgetting the basis of will, energy and money that technical capacities rest on – we assume that because an outcome is desirable, it is therefore likely. But low infant mortality is eminently desirable, something I suspect most of us can agree on – and there are no major technical barriers.
I'm willing to concede that if this does work as described, we are probably looking at an incredibly high EROEI. If it turns out as claimed that heat and water are the only outputs (and not any of those neutrons or beta radiation), that the casing materials are not consumed and it turns out to be fairly easy to build them, the research gets published, verified and duplicated rapidly and production gets started on multiple fronts, and we have time and resources to get the kinks out, find the funding, run the demo plants, see how the long term unintended consequences if any shake out, the retrofit our entire society, I can totally hang up my hat on peak oil and turn to writing about other stuff – I'm assuming I'll write cute stories about my kids and post pictures of cats like most folks on the web. And hey, that'll give me loads more time for my garden.
By any chance did you notice the chain of things that are necessary to getting from an article about a hypothesis on which we have no data to "hey, I'm going to put some shrimp on the quantum fusion-powered barbie tonight!" There were quite a few of them, weren't there? Now it is taken as a given in our larger culture that those are trivialities can be erased by something we call "innovation" and "market forces" – which we really translate as "our ability to make all this stuff happen." Unfortunately, when we look back at the history of technology, what we find is that innovation alone, market forces alone don't work all that well in many cases. Sometimes they do – the amazing cases are pretty easy to spot. But neither is it that difficult to spot examples of things that we could technically do, that would have been an awesomely great idea, but that didn't happen, despite ingenuity and resources.
Even if all of the ducks that need to be in a row to make this happen are there, we need to remember two other things. The first one is that solving our energy problems may not solve our other fundamental problems. I know Tom Whipple understands the distinction, but it would be an easy mistake for a reader to translate "energy problems" to mean "problems." For example, if climate is as sensitive as some scientists suggest, the time frame for development of this technology may not be sufficient to have it come online before we've crossed critical climate tipping points.
Now having all the energy we want and no limits on its use would certainly help us mitigate an extreme climate disaster, but there's really no evidence that it would be ENOUGH.
It would be great if, for example, we could run air-conditioners 24/7 without worrying for billions of people as the planet heat up, or afford to medivac in people with free electric emergency vehicles, but a planet eating up 1/5 or more of its economic resources annually in disaster mitigation is still going to be a planet in crisis. The same is true with our agricultural and other ecological crises – more energy can help in some measure. But it would be a huge mistake to believe that energy alone is sufficient. Add in a considerable time frame to get from 0-60, and it behooves us to be cautious even if we think this would work. Collapsed societies historically have a hard time bringing major new technologies on line – this resource would have to come into play at the right moment – and the last possible moment to do so get closer all the time.
In fact, most collapsed societies have collapsed WITH the means to avoid collapse within their technical grasp, as Jared Diamond so eloquently describes in _Collapse_ – most of them could have planted more trees, or not drawn down their resources so rapidly. They had all the tools in place to prevent a disaster – and didn't. One can easily make a compelling case that we too have needed no technologies that we did not have at any point in this process – had we started shifting to renewable energies earlier in the game, as was proposed in the 1970s, we too could avoid crisis. Technologies themselves are not saviors. This is hard to remember, but critical – technology is great, but it always has unintended consequences, and in the end, usually doesn't make or break societies.
It would be wise to remember this bit from the 30 year Update of The Limits to Growth:
"The most common criticisms of the original World3 model were that it underestimated the power of technology and that it did not represent adequately the adaptive resilience of the free market. It is true that we did not include in the original World3 model technological progress at rates that would automatically solve all problems associated with exponential growth in the human ecological footprint….[But] in several scenarios we test accelerated technological advance and possible future technical leaps beyond these 'normal' improvements. What if materials are almost entirely recycled? What if land yield doubles again and yet again? What if emissions are reduced at 4% per year over the coming century?
Even with such assumptions, the model world tends to overshoot its limits. Even with the most effective technologies and the greatest economic resilience that we believe is possible, if these are the only changes, the model tends to generate scenarios of collapse." (TLTG:TTYU p. 204-5)
Whether this discovery turns out to be true or false, the question of whether it or anything else can "save" us in the sense most people would like to be saved – let us go on as we have been – is dependent on a number of variables that go beyond "can we build it." At a minimum, it seems wise not to put too many eggs in any basket, for it is perfectly possible to imagine us with a solution at our fingertips that is still out of our functional reach.


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Woody: Bottom-Feeders Need To Chow Down
Larry Woody | Senior Writer
Going into this 6th edition of the Chase for the Championship I thought this 12-car field was the strongest in history, top to bottom.
I thought we'd see tight, tense battles and exciting position-shuffling week after week.
I thought the stage was set for one of the most wide-open, dramatic title fights in NASCAR history.
Looks like I thought wrong.
We're three races into the 10-race Chase and I'm still waiting for the fireworks.
If some of the bottom-feeders don't make a major move at California Sunday, the Chase could be a three- or four-car contest before the halfway point.
Mark Martin and Jimmie Johnson are 1-2 in the standing and turning in near-flawless performances. Unless both stumble badly – not likely — they're going to be long gone and out of sight.
Juan Pablo Montoya in third and Tony Stewart in fourth, are aggressive drivers with good team support. Stewart has a burst of momentum with his win at Kansas and he and Montoya are still very much in it. But after that …?
With the possible exception of 7th-place Jeff Gordon I don't see much of a challenge coming from the rest of the pack. Gordon is just 103 points out of the lead, but it's not the points but the positions he has to overcome. Gordon has to run well while hoping that all six drivers ahead of him flop in the next seven races. That's not likely to happen. Martin and Johnson aren't floppers.
It's been stunning to see how totally non-competitive half the Chasers have been. It's almost as though they are happy and content just to have made the playoffs, and once in they lifted.
That's not the case, of course – I know that drivers like Ryan Newman, Carl Edwards, Kasey Kahne and Brian Vickers are driving their hearts out. But they aren't going anywhere. It seems they saved their worst for last.
When the playoffs start its time to step it up, and so far over half the Chasers haven't been able to do it. That's why, just three races in, they're on the brink of elimination.
At the start of the Chase a TV pundit predicted there would be "seven, eight, maybe more" of the Chaser racers go into the season finale at Homestead with a shot at the championship. I agreed.
Now it appears NASCAR will be lucky if there are three or four legitimate contenders.
Likewise, I thought that drivers who failed to make the Chase would feel the heat. I figured missing the playoffs would light a fire under them. But again, we haven't seen it. The non-Chasers seem to be just showing up and punching a time clock, anxious to get the season over with.
Their passiveness is puzzling. You'd think they would be oozing motivation, trying to end a dismal season on a high note.
It's not over yet; there are still seven races left in which the non-Chasers can save face and the back-of-the-pack Chase racers can get it in gear and make a move.
But the clock is ticking, and for a lot of teams it seems somebody forgot to set the alarm.3 Comments


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Higher value means county levy will drop
Tax asking up only .6%.
LEXINGTON—Because property values increased more than 5% from last year, Dawson County officials will be able to raise the county's tax asking slightly and still drop the levy.
Commissioners will consider the 2009-10 budget following a public hearing at their Sept. 15 meeting.
The numbers are not final, said finance committee members Bill Stewart of Lexington and Dean Kugler of Gothenburg. Still, preliminary figures give a solid indication of where the budget is going.
As it stands now, the total county budget is at $22.1 million.
"It's hard to believe we need $22 million to run this county," Kugler said during Tuesday's regular bimonthly county board meeting.
But not all of those dollars are likely to be spent.
Kugler explained that the county has applied for several grants and has been told to expect some federal stimulus dollars for various types of projects.
If those revenues are not included in the budget, they cannot be spent if awarded, Kugler said.
"We're not going to get all of the money we've asked for, that's for sure," Kugler said, "but we have to put it in the budget anyway."
That possible income makes it look as though the county's spending is going up, Stewart said, when in reality it has stayed relatively stable.
The tax asking will only increase $40,000, a minimal amount in the grand scheme of things.
"I think that's a key element here," Stewart said. "We're not asking for much more this year."
Some significant changes were made to the budget, said county clerk Karla Zlatkovsky, but only in position of numbers.
For instance, money for the dispatch center previously filtered through the general fund will now have a separate line in the budget for better record keeping.
At the same time, DARE and county relief will be moved from their own appropriation lines into the general fund.
"It just kind of cleans things up," Zlatkovsky said.
The only area where the county expects to spend significantly more is in the road department.
Kugler said an increase of $1.2 million in the roads budget leaves room for federal funding for a couple of projects should money be awarded as well as planning for overdue highway overlays.
During their Tuesday meeting, commissioners approved levy allocations for the 14 political subdivision in the county including hospital districts, fire districts and cemetery districts.
This year, the Railroad Transportation Safety District was also included in the list. Taxes were collected for the RTSD last year but the budget item was handled differently.
Commissioners also approved an additional 1% increase to the budget base, a formality the board votes on every year as a precaution against emergency spending.
In other business, the county board:
tabled a youth detention services contract with Scottsbluff County as well as a three-year contract with Maximus. County attorney Liz Waterman said the detention services contract had not been completed and she still had questions about the Maximus contract.
Maximus is a company which compiles an allocation plan for offices that administer federal programs and are entitled to reimbursement such as child support collection.
accepted inventories from county departments.
heard a presentation for insurance services from Larry Pelan of the Nebraska Intergovernmental Risk Management Association (NIRMA) which offers pool insurance programs to cover such areas as law enforcement liability, employee dishonesty and crime, workers compensation and loss prevention. Commissioners will consider a quote for the insurance services at a future meeting.
Latest Headlines
- Gothenburg native releases first novel
- We all need help from a friend
- Monsanto hosts 6th annual Safety Day program
- Brady places champ and runner-up at State FCCLA
- Swedes continue conference domination
- Dancing With The Stars changes venues
- Middle-of-the-Pack Finishes For Swede Boys and Girls
- Girls Show Support for Teacher's Cancer Fight


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MIAMI BEACH, Fla. - Several months after a dangerous ATV accident involving a bachelorette party and Miami Beach police officers, those involved described the chaotic scene that sent two people to the hospital.
While visiting Miami from Pennsylvania last July, bride-to-be Adalee Sharee Martin was partying with her friends at the Clevelander on Ocean Drive.
Photos: Miami Beach police ATV crash scene
Audio: Sgt. Vicente San Roman | Adalee Sharee Martin | Camille Campbell
Audio: Hayden Rock | Ashley Nicole Thompson
"Two police officers came in, one of my friends thought that it would be cute if we had a picture taken with the police officers since it was my bachelorette weekend," she said.
Her friend, Jamie Aldinger said she thought the two now former officers — Derick Kulian and Rolando Gutierrez — were strippers because, she said one of them groped her and was dancing with a beer bottle in hand.
"Two guys that looked like officers came up and were just kind of dancing around us… we thought they were strippers," Aldinger said. "To me that only made sense. I mean I've met a lot of police officers and none of them act like that."
Then Aldinger said Kulian offered to give Martin a ride on the beach on his police department-issued ATV. She said he told her people pay a lot of money for rides on the beach.
Crime scene photos recently released document what happened after that.
"I didn't hear anything, I didn't see anything, I just felt like we hit something and I flew off of the ATV," Martin said.
What they hit were two people sitting on the beach, waiting for the sun to rise.
"Covered in sand, her hair a tangled mess, bawling, holding her back, just completely hysterical," said one of Martin's girlfriends. "Then I see a lady, like lying on the ground moaning, and I see another man and it was just trying to take in this overwhelming chaotic scene."
Both officers, who were on duty at the time of the accident, were fired, along with their supervisor.
Copyright 2012 by Post Newsweek. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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On Campus
Stay Cozy in your Kitchen this Winter
If your list of wintertime essentials includes butter, sugar, and vanilla extract, then our collection of cookbooks might be your new favorite section of the Library! Spend your next snow day warming up the kitchen by whipping up a batch of delicious cookies, cupcakes, or brownies with one of our many baking-focused cookbooks.
Vintage food photographs are half the fun of Betty Crocker's Cooky Book (TX772 .C76 2002), which includes retro recipes from the 1880s to the 1960s—perfect for your next theme party. Food blog fans can flip through books from Smitten Kitchen (TX714 .P443 2012), Pioneer Woman (TX715.2 .S69 D793 2012 & TX715 .D7785 2009), and Joy the Baker (TX771 .W477 2012). Cake Pops Holidays (TX771 .B336 2012) lets you recreate the irresistibly cute cake-pop creations of Bakerella for Instagram-ready sweets!
The celebrity-obsessed can find cookbooks from Gwyneth Paltrow (TX715 .P184 2011) and Jessica Alba (RA776.9 .A43 2013)—or try out the Banana ba-ba-ba Bread recipe from Cookin' with Coolio (TX714 .C672 2009). You can even test out Oprah's favorite brownies, featured in Baked: New Frontiers in Baking (TX765 .L67 2008).
And who needs to wait in line at Georgetown Cupcakes, when you can make your own from their cookbooks, Cupcake Diaries (TX771 .K35 2011) and Sweet Celebrations (TX771 .B467 2012)? Our collection also includes cookbooks from other local favorites like CakeLove (TX769 .B838 2012 & TX771 .B8785 2008) and Sticky Fingers (TX837 .P5134 2012).
Special diets are covered too, with selections like Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef (RM237.86 .A338 2010) and Paleo Cooking from Elana's Pantry (RM237.86 .A48 2013).
Happy Baking!


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The CIU Campus: "a pleasing and colorful view"
Columbia International University is a winner in the 2012 Columbia Choice Awards recognizing landscaping and beautification.
The awards are presented by Columbia Green and the city of Columbia's Tree & Appearance Commission. Columbia Green is a non-profit organization promoting beautification of the Columbia area through landscaping, gardening, horticulture, education and conservation.
CIU was recognized in the "Site Beautification Management" category which "recognizes property that has, over time and in all seasons, demonstrated a commitment to excellence in maintenance, landscape design, consistency of visual appeal and enhancement of (Columbia's) surroundings."
The judges noted that the CIU landscaping is "planned to present a pleasing and colorful view no matter what the season. Using a wide variety of plant material adds to the attractiveness of the borders. The lawns are well manicured and add to the serenity of the campus."
CIU Grounds Superintendent Norm Stewart says winning the award means a lot to the CIU grounds crew.
"We go to a lot of effort to make this school a beautiful and safe place to study and work, but ultimately it is for the Lord that we do this," Stewart said. "We enjoy what we do."


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Nassau County police arrested an Island Park man on Tuesday after he allegedly shot a man outside an Austin Boulevard restaurant and fled the scene.
According to detectives, the incident occurred on Jan. 12 at 7:30 p.m., when 47-year-old Angel Martinez approached a 36-year-old Long Beach man at the Costa Del Sol Restaurant and Bar, located at 4547 Austin Blvd.
According to police, Martinez had asked the man to step outside to speak with him. Once outside, police said Martinez shot the victim in the abdomen and fled the scene.
Police said that the wounded victim, whose name was not released, had walked home after the shooting before a friend called the Long Beach Police Department at 12:30 a.m. on Jan. 13. According to police, the male caller said that his friend had been shot and that he was at his residence in Long Beach.
Police officers were dispatched to the victim's home, where he told police that he had been shot at a restaurant and bar in Island Park earlier that night, and had walked home. Police did not immediately provide details about the nature of the confrontation between two men.
The Long Beach Fire Department took the victim to South Nassau Communities Hospital, where he is listed in stable condition with a non-life threatening injury. Detectives from the Nassau County Police Department's Fourth Precinct investigated the incident.
On Tuesday, Fourth Squad detectives, along with the Nassau County Bureau of Special Operations, responded to a home on Merritt Avenue in Wyandanch, where Martinez was placed under arrest without incident.
Martinez was charged with first-degree assault, first-degree criminal use of a firearm and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. Police said that Martinez also had an open Town of Hempstead warrant for disorderly conduct. He was arraigned on Wednesday at First District Court in Hempstead.


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Engraved Crystal Awards - Say it in Crystal
Crystal is undoubtedly the perfect medium with which to immortalize an achievement. A more ambiguous matter is finding the particular crystal award that is just right for you! Take a look through our gorgeous golf tournament awards, globe awards, star awards, and diamond awards to name just a few, and you may very well be facing a couple hard choices! Insider tip: Trust your gut feeling.
Blue Ocean Italian Lead Crystal Vase$690.00
As low as: $670.00
Diamond Net Italian Lead Crystal Vase - Large$616.00
As low as: $596.00
Empire Bounty Italian Lead Crystal Trophy Cup$639.00
As low as: $619.00
Lofty Italian Lead Crystal Vase - Large$639.00
As low as: $619.00
Regal Florence Italian Lead Crystal Trophy Cup$616.00
As low as: $596.00
Royal Golf Italian Lead Crystal Bowl with Walnut Base- Large$679.00
As low as: $659.00


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December 28. 2013 10:32PM
State House faced many battles in 2013
By GARRY RAYNO
State House Bureau
In making NH laws, not everything is a hot-button issue
CONCORD - The 2013 Legislature was finally able to approve a medical marijuana program after years of trying, but unable to reverse many of the controversial initiatives of its immediate predecessor.
With the defeat of many Tea Party Republicans, the newly empowered Democratic majority sought to reverse education tax credits for private schools, the stand-your-ground law, abortion restrictions and the photo ID law, only to have the Republican-controlled Senate block the repeals.
However, the House and Senate exhibited a bipartisan spirit in overwhelmingly approving a $10.7 billion two-year operating budget that began to restore much of the higher education funding and programs the previous Legislature had eliminated.
The Senate and House came to loggerheads on how additional money should be raised for highways, higher education, social service programs and economic development.
No casino
Before the budget passed in June, the House killed a Senate-approved bill, which had Gov. Maggie Hassan's support, to establish a casino in the state's southern tier, while the Senate killed a House-approved plan to raise the gas tax 12 cents over three years. The gas tax increase would have paid for the final phase of Interstate 93 expansion between Salem and Manchester, among other road and bridge projects.
And the issue of whether New Hampshire should expand its Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act dragged through the summer and into the fall before the Senate killed the House-passed bill to add about 49,000 to the state-federal health insurance plan for the poor, elderly and disabled.
Supporters said the state's most vulnerable residents would receive needed health services and the state's medical providers would receive $2.4 billion over the next seven years. But opponents said the state could not sustain the costs over time and private insurance needed to take over the risks instead of the state.
The 2014 Legislature will revisit those three issues beginning Jan. 8.
Medical marijuana
Along with the budget, lawmakers came together to pass a law to allow a medical marijuana program to be implemented in New Hampshire. Gov. Hassan signaled support early on, but she agreed with law enforcement officials who opposed a provision that would have allowed patients to grow their own marijuana plants, and the provision was removed.
The Senate, however, killed a bill that would have legalized the possession of a small amount of marijuana.
A law stemming from House Bill 482 delineates parameters for eradicating bed bug infestations and the responsibilities of landlords and tenants to solve a problem.
Proponents said the new law allows infestations to be dealt with rapidly, before the pests can quickly multiply, while fairly distributing the cost and responsibilities for solving the problem.
With much fanfare and little debate, the Senate and House - with the backing of Hassan - doubled the research-and-development tax credit from $1 million to $2 million annually and made it permanent. A year earlier, the credit was a victim of maneuvering between the House and the Senate.
After months of investigations last year, lawmakers passed several laws revamping the state Liquor Commission. Under the changes, the agency will have a single commissioner and a deputy commissioner, and the Executive Council's approval will be needed for contracts of more than $10,000.
Attempts to restrict the commission's ability to transfer funds within the agency failed.
Lawmakers wanted to change the way public insurance risk pools were handled, but after finding little agreement, they eventually settled on forming a study committee to consider the Local Government Center's organization and its retention of millions of dollars in reserve funds to cover medical claims. The committee's recommendations will be acted on during the 2014 session.
Auto dealers' rights
Auto dealers won a convincing victory over manufacturers in the 2013 session. The auto dealers' bill of rights changes business practices between manufacturers and their dealers, giving local auto and construction and farm equipment dealers more flexibility to run their franchises. All other states have similar laws.
Supporters say the law will level the playing field for the dealers, who testified they are often held hostage to the manufacturers' demands. Opponents say the law overturns existing business contracts and, rather than leveling the playing field, tilts it significantly in favor of the dealers. They also say it will drive up costs for consumers.
Equipment manufacturers sued over the new law in September, asserting it is unconstitutional. The suit is pending.
If you buy a new car, however, you can now legally drive it 70 mph on a section of Interstate 93 from Plymouth to parts north. Attempts to raise the speed limit statewide and on I-89 were not successful, but lawmakers will revisit the issue during the 2014 session.
Older and taller children will have to be in child restraint seats in autos. Beginning Jan. 1, children must be in car seats until they are 7 years old or 57 inches tall.
Currently, children have to be in car seats until they reach age 6 or are 55 inches tall.
The new law moves the state closer to federal guidelines and does not jeopardize the state's share of federal highway money.
Lawmakers also provided more protection for children in child care facilities by requiring background checks for all employees who work with the children.
No lead sinkers
Fishermen will no longer be able to use lead sinkers and jigs beginning June 1, 2016. Conservationists and environmentalists pushed for the law, saying lead sinkers and jigs are the leading cause of adult loon deaths in the state and the law would finish the work that began more than a decade ago when the state was the first to prohibit small lead tackle.
Sportsmen and tackle shops opposed the change and urged lawmakers to wait until a commission of stakeholders completed its work, but the House and Senate approved the prohibition by large margins.
Landowners who allow the public to use their property for hunting, fishing, hiking and other recreational activities are afforded greater legal protection under a law approved this year.
The law protects people who own, lease or manage land open for public use from lawsuits by someone injured on their property. The law does not exempt a landowner's liability for a malicious act or if the owner charges a fee for use of the property.
The law was prompted by a lawsuit filed by a Manchester resident injured when he fell from a tree stand in 2009. He sued the Epsom landowner, but later dropped the lawsuit.
Lawmakers did decide former Gov. John G. Winant should have a memorial, just not on State House grounds.
And finally, with the urging of students from the Derry Village School, lawmakers made the humble white potato the state's official vegetable. firstname.lastname@example.com


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From my experience with the suckit backdoor by sd/devik/etc :
The sk backdoor which is not really a virus/worm because its not spreading by itself
but it is still spreading very fastly on poorly secured linux systems (redhats.. suses.. etc) (thanks to mass hacking scripts)
The typical schem is : mainly intrusion via php/whatever injection,
good old ptrace exploit and to end sk rootkit + reboot.. after this the guy might be cleaning the http logs and so on.
Very hard to detect because no use of system.map, directly in memory from kmem,
hides directories, files, pids, sockets, and is not compiled on the victim server directly,
only the binary is used. Mostly from my experience with "online" checking : tools such as rkhunter,
chkrootkit were not efficient. Later i found out that kern_check from la-samhna.de could detect sk,
by reading System.map and checking if the memory system calls were at the same addresses as the one shown by
System.map - in fact itcould (maybe its already done) be easy to trick via changing the system.map file i guess
(or whatever other method).
The only true way i have got to detect it is mainly to boot the server with a rescue cd or whatever
boot disk and find for hidden files, which makes appears mostly the good old .pwdhack from suckit
and a few other files. find / -name ".*" -print is approx the best here, or checking the /sbin directory
for multiple "init" because sk used to replace old init by itself (to survive reboot). Now i guess newer versions
might be more sophisticated, such as putting themselfs into /etc/rc.d files to survive reboot (?) .
by the way sk is pretty stable, unlike for instance gmon (been talking about it a few days ago).
it can be running for a long time if you dont detect any hacking attempts/suspicious things on the server.
At the time, a good experience online with sk 1.1 i used to see the hacker on the fly playing with his shell via ettercap
that was reading the "hidden sockets" - i never got the chance again to do so, very hard to catch a hacker on the fly and
its pretty sensitive to do.
Also i noticed that mainly people using sk on hacked servers wont remove logs of the sk sniffer giving tracks of
their boxes and logins/passwords hacking/spam tools download. I could for instance track back this guy from Chicago,
(running some hosting company) checking up his home server, taking a fast look to his "email-VISAxxx.txt lists" , also
to his paypal.tgz , amazon.tgz and other washington mutual, ebayspams which are mostly html designs for scam websites.
(so much for the hacker psychology...)
Anyways - ive been seeing sks versions 1.1 / 1.3a and lately 1.3b on thoses hacked boxes - do yourself have seen any more sophisticated versions of sk (not speaking of adore/stealth of course.)?
by the way lately ive been online stringing kmem to check for sk tracks (strings /proc/kmem > kmem-strings), then reading kmem-strings for tracks of the string "./sk" for instance or whatever, but this method would be only efficient to detect the sk, not to remove it.. and well when a sk is on a server, luck is that many other things are there as well... better to backup the data and to reinstall the server.. (well any rooted servers mainly need this.)
see ya


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China Contraction
Weak China manufacturing data is cooling off a red hot petroleum complex. Winter storms and rising geopolitical risk has driven the trade yet more cracks in the emerging market may temper the markets gains. The HSBC Purchasing Manager's Index fell to deep into contraction hitting a 48.3, which was a seven-month low. This comes a day after the Fed seemed to argue about the right time to raise rates but paid little attention to the impact that reverberation that the taper was having on other markets like China.
In the meantime, a shaky cease fire in Ukraine is still increasing risk. Russia is already threatening to raise prices on natural gas which could lead to a shutoff in the future. The Ukraine of course owns the pipelines that bring Russian gas to the EU and the threat in the region is increasing the possibility that the EU will have to look for alternatives just in case.
Maybe Saudi Arabia will try to fill the gap. Bloomberg News is reporting that Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest crude exporter, probably needs to boost shipments this year to keep pace with record government spending, according to a former adviser to the nation's finance ministry. The country needs to at least match the 7.54 million barrels a day it shipped last year and will probably need to sell more, John Sfakianakis, chief investment strategist at Riyadh-based MASIC, an investment company, said by phone today.
He previously worked as chief economist for two Saudi Arabian banks and worked in the ministry of finance as a full-time adviser between 2011 and 2013. Extra shipments could be negative for oil prices because of expanding supplies elsewhere. Iran, Iraq and Libya, among countries with the world's biggest reserves, will pump more crude this year, according to the most accurate forecasters surveyed by Bloomberg in December. Saudi Arabia is known as a swing producer as it alters supply depending on demand." Saudi Arabia's spending has been higher than the government anticipated every year since at least 2008, according to state-owned National Commercial Bank. Its expenditure last year was 925 billion riyals ($246.7 billion), compared with 820 billion riyals that it intended, NCB data show.
Crude oil prices will decline to about $100 a barrel for Arab Light this year from $106.4 in 2013, NCB estimates. The grade makes up about half the nation's exports and the slide in price will reduce oil revenue to $283 billion, the lowest since 2010, the bank predicts. Saudi Arabia plans to spend everything it earns this year, the Ministry of Finance said in December. Revenue is expected to be 855 billion riyals this year, it said. The Kingdom exported crude at about $104 last year and prices may drop to $100 in 2014, Riyadh-based Jadwa Investment Co. said on Dec. 24. The country will need a break-even oil price at $85 this year, Jadwa said.
Natural Gas is soaring as weather forecasts seem to throw a monkey wrench in the predictions of bearish market players forcing them to blow out of short positions. It looks very likely that if this forecast holds up we will most likely end the storage season below 1 trillion cubic feet. It also means that it is possible that we may not reach full storage going into next winter. As the heating degree days continue to pile up and strong non heat related demand continues the bulls now own this market. Pollyanna predictions of fuel switching and ramping up production seem to be falling apart. Even hopes that production will soar this summer to respond to the market could be overly optimistic as infrastructure may not be in place to produce the record amounts of supply that will be needed. The switching back to coal that many are predicting probably won't happen as many are predicting! Don't make the same mistake of underestimating this market that many have already made.
And of course unfairness in the way Natural gas options are margined becomes apparent. The assault on the small investor continues as the exchange raises margins on fully paid bull call speeds. This gives a huge advantage to larger traders and option sellers. If you buy an out of the money bull call spread and pay for it its ok. But if the futures start to go your way the exchanges forces you to add money despite the fact that the futures spread may not expire for years. Then they settle the spread in some cases at the same price to trigger a call.
On the one hand they are saying with the settlement that the spread has no chance to make money but we are raising the margin just the same. You can't have it both ways. This may force traders to adjust positions based on implied risk that does not exist. This unfairness in the margining process must be abandoned... This is hurting liquidity in the options and is forcing the client to put more money at risk in this challenging environment that they should have to.


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Up to [cvs.NetBSD.org] / src / sys / netinet
Request diff between arbitrary revisions
Default branch: MAIN
Current tag: eeh-paddr_t
Revision 1.41 / (download) - annotate - [select for diffs], Fri Apr 3 07:49:16 1998 UTC (20 years, 5 months ago) by thorpej
Branch: MAIN
CVS Tags: kenh-if-detach-base, eeh-paddr_t-base, eeh-paddr_t, chs-ubc-base, chs-ubc
Branch point for: kenh-if-detach
Changes since 1.40: +2 -1 lines
Diff to previous 1.40 (colored)
Fix a bug which would cause a panic in soreceive() if multiple raw receivers ask for ancillary data. Noted by Francis Dupont <firstname.lastname@example.com> on tech-net.
This form allows you to request diff's between any two revisions of a file. You may select a symbolic revision name using the selection box or you may type in a numeric name using the type-in text box.


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Katy's look of love
Katy Perry was backstage at John Mayer's show in West Palm Beach, Florida last night watching him perform. She had on her look of love.
Katy's riding a professional high right now. Be honest, did you ever think, back in 2008 when I Kissed A Girl came out that Katy Perry would follow that up with TWO more mega albums? If Roar is any indication, Prism is going to be huge. My point is that she's a bigger deal than her boyfriend. Right now he doesn't mind because he's not exactly complaining about how her influence might be bringing exposure to his work. Will he ever mind? I mean, this is John Mayer.


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BOSTON (AP) — The Boston Red Sox will be celebrating their World Series championship with President Barack Obama next week.
The White House announced Tuesday the president has invited the team for a ceremony on April 1. The Red Sox open their season against the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards on March 31.
The Red Sox defeated the St. Louis Cardinals in six games last fall. It was their first championship win at home in 95 years. Their 2004 and 2007 titles were won on the road.
Last fall's victory came six months after the Boston Marathon bombings and at the end of a season in which the team hadn't been considered a favorite for a title.
RecommendedSlayed 'Em: Here's Grassley Killing Democratic Hopes For An FBI Investigation Into Kavanaugh
Matt Vespa
Obama said then the Red Sox win was "therapeutic medicine for the whole city" and an "amazing" ending.


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Move something, keeping up with the Joneses and sailing the post-rock sea
Talib Kweli
Indulge your wildly eclectic taste in music—hip-hop, bluesy rock and roll, country, post-rock, prog and post-metal art-rock—with a smidgen of assistance from this week's Music to Your Ears. Check out related A/V below. Sister • Talib Kweli • Zoology Crew • Sat Feb 23 • 10 pm • $35 • 21+ • sisterthebar.com


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There is a close connection, or nexus G, between energy and water:
It takes a significant amount of water to create energy. Water is used to cool steam electric power plants – fueled by coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear power – and is required to generate hydropower. Water is also used in great quantities during fuel extraction, refining and production.
It takes a significant amount of energy to extract, move and treat water for drinking and irrigation G. It is used in the collection, treatment and disposal of wastewater. Energy is also consumed when water is used by households and industry, especially through heating and cooling.
A shortage of water can inhibit energy production since power plants in the United States withdraw 143 billion gallons of fresh water every day, more than the amount withdrawn for irrigation and three times as much as is used for public water supplies. A shortage of water readily available to a power plant can also result in more energy being used to pump water from faraway sources or from deeper wells.
Water is essential to the United States' ability to grow food and produce electricity. Current agricultural policy relies on a plentiful supply of water for irrigation and a plentiful supply of the fossil fuels used for fertilizer-intensive crops and the machinery used to raise them. Changes in global precipitation patterns due to climate change threaten the balance of water available for agriculture. At the same times fossil fuels are becoming a less viable source of energy, due to depletion, cost, and environmental damage.
Water and energy policy, planning and management must be integrated to encourage conservation, motivate innovation and ensure sustainable use of water and energy. End users, such as businesses and households, also have an important role to play. By reducing the amount of water they consume, end users conserve not just water but energy, too. This in turn can save money on utility bills.


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I was so happy you saved his life I did the crazy happy dance.
Malvern, PA
At Hope Veterinary Specialists, we provide 24-hour emergency and critical care 7 days a week, along with a variety of board certified specialists to help your pet with all of his or her healthcare needs. From anesthesiology to cardiology, dermatology to internal medicine, neurology to radiology, and surgery to oncology, we have the skilled doctors and experienced nurses you need to put your mind at ease—and your pets in the best possible hands.
If you are unsure whether your pet has an emergency, please do not hesitate to call and speak to a member of our team.
You know your pet better than anyone, and if you believe he or she is sick, hurt, or in distress, you could be right. Types of emergency situations include the following; should your pet exhibit or experience any of these, he or she should be seen right away:
- Animal attacks
- Bleeding
- Collapse episodes
- Difficulty breathing
- Difficulty urinating
- Hit-by-car incidents
- Ingestion of medications, poisons, or objects
- Seizure
- Severe diarrhea
- Unresponsiveness
- Vomiting
Whether you come to Hope VS on your own or whether you have been referred to us by your primary veterinarian, we will work in conjunction with your primary veterinarian to provide your pet the best possible care. Through phone consultations and periodic updates, we will gain a better overall view and more thorough health history of your pet. Your veterinarian will receive daily emails and faxes with information such as when your pet arrived, tests we ran, and results we found. When your pet is discharged, your veterinarian will be made of aware of this too; along with receiving a complete written report. Depending on your pet's requirements and individual healthcare needs, you may be asked to follow-up with your primary veterinarian or our hospital.
If you do decide to come in to the ER at Hope VS, if at all possible, please give us a call first; this way, we will be ready and waiting for you. While the triage process will remain the same, should your situation be critical, we will be even more ready to jump into action—supplies will be out, equipment will be ready, doctors will be standing by.
When you call, please have the following information ready: name of your pet, age, spay/neuter status, breed, problem, duration of problem, and how long until you arrive.
While we hope you never need us, if you do, we're here, 24 hours a day/7 days a week: 40 Three Tun Road, Malvern (19355). And, you can reach us at any hour of any day at 610.296.2099.


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When many folks acquire a furry little kitten or a playful puppy, they fail to realize that a pet is a lifetime commitment.
When many folks acquire a furry little kitten or a playful puppy, they fail to realize that a pet is a lifetime commitment.
Sadly, for some owners who live on tight budget, routine pet care is no longer a priority. Grooming appointments are farther apart, quality pet food has been replaced by less expensive brands, and some companion animals don't receive necessary medication and routine checkups because these items are considered to be luxuries that some owners can ill afford without going into credit card debt.
According to some companion animal experts, many pet owners can't pay for or are not prepared to care for senior felines and canines, that like their human counterparts, suffer from a variety of ailments — some more serious than others — as they live out their golden years. Older pets can suffer from arthritis, diminished sight and hearing, decreased organ function, diabetes, dementia and other medical issues that shouldn't go untreated.
Noted radio personality, animal expert and author Darlene Arden urges pet owners to become proactive about the animal's health when the pet is young and to develop a solid working relationship with their veterinarian to ensure that the cat or dog receives quality medical care throughout its life.
Arden, whose books include "The Complete Cat's Meow" and "Rover, Ger Off Her Leg," compares senior pets to elderly humans who require regular medical and dental care.
"You don't want to throw away a wonderful companion," Arden begins, adding that because of economic circumstances, some pet owners have been forced to relinquish their treasured creatures to shelters or abandon the animals on the street with the hope that someone would give the critters a loving home.
The author, like many animal advocates, emphasizes that it's unfair to expect another party to assume the financial burden of caring for a pet with medical issues, not to mention the emotional stress that the pet experiences when the poor creature is uprooted from familiar surroundings.
Stress, she notes, can exacerbate many illnesses and put the animal's physical health in peril.
"Elderly pets require regular veterinary visits every six months," Arden continues, noting that when a cat or dog receives regular checkups that includes blood work and x-rays, the animal's veterinarian can observe significant changes, prescribe appropriate medications and develop a treatment plan.
Arden says that routine care is "an excellent investment in the pet's future."
If problems go undetected and worsen, an owner can end up spending a lot more than the cost of a checkup to restore the pet's health.
The popular writer offers several tips for monitoring an elderly pet's health and vitality between veterinary appointments.
Hearing, for example, can be checked by gently tapping on the floor. If the pet reacts, the chances are that the animal's isn't experiencing any auditory problems. Arden emphasizes that because advances in veterinary medicine and nutrition have made possible for companion animals to live longer, it's likely that some of these pets — especially dogs — may develop some form of cognitive dementia.
She urges owners of older animals to leave water bowls in various locations around the house for easier accessibility, and not to move furniture as it causes confusion for a pet that suffers from dementia or is losing its sight.
Night-lights, Arden reveals, allow a senior pet, especially one with diminished sight, to navigate better in the dark.
Signs that an animal is suffering from cognitive dementia include failure to recognize its loved ones and familiar surroundings.
"They look lost, like a confused person with dementia," Arden tells, adding that veterinarians can prescribe medication for dogs suffering from impaired brain function.
The author recommends that owners of elderly felines "get a little creative" and create a litter box that accommodates the cat's physical condition. Since many older cats can no longer climb, Arden suggests taking a large cardboard box and making two entrances lower to the ground that will allow the animal "to just step into the box."
For older smaller dogs and cats that are allowed to rest in a favorite chair or on the sofa, the popular writer suggests building a staircase with pillows to the animals won't have to jump.
Arden emphasizes that its' crucial for every pet — no matter how old it is — to be fed the best food its owner can afford. She tells owners consult with the animal's veterinarian, ask plenty of questions, and be frank when discussing cost and what's best for the cat or dog.
Cats, for example, should be offered a water fountain, and a diet of both wet and dry foods. Arden says important for all animals to have access to water to keep hydrated kidneys flushed.
"Just treasure every single moment you have with your pet," Arden concludes. "Each day is special. Treasure that love."


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By springtime, Bill Iyall figures the Cowlitz Tribe in Washington state will have 152 acres of new land in place and can make plans to break ground for its new casino in 2015.
Iyall, the tribal chairman, is confident that a plan to have the federal government hold the land in trust for the tribe will survive legal challenges, thanks to strong backing from the Obama administration. He says that's how it should be.
"We are a ward of the federal government, and we're their trustee, and they're supposed to take care of us," Iyall said.
Casino opponents, though, fear President Barack Obama and his team are going too far to take care of the 566 federally recognized tribes and to promote their gambling interests.
Last month, the Obama administration defended a Michigan tribe before the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that the tribe had sovereignty similar to a foreign country and that the state should not be allowed to shut down its off-reservation casino.
And now Obama wants Congress to change a law that prevents tribes that were recognized by the federal government after 1934 from getting new trust land, which could pave the way for more casinos.
The issue is particularly big along the West Coast, causing divisions from Washington state to California.
The Golden State is at the epicenter of the U.S. tribal gaming industry, which includes more than 420 gaming establishments run by 240 tribes in 28 states. They pull in annual revenues of $27 billion a year, according to the National Indian Gaming Commission, the federal body charged with regulating the casinos.
With 70 tribal casinos in California alone, "you reach a point where . . . enough is enough," California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein told the Senate Indian Affairs Committee in November.
"My concern is that California tribes – some of them – are no longer content with casinos on Indian lands," she said, providing examples of nine tribes trying to open off-reservation casinos in California, Wisconsin, Arizona, Michigan, Oregon and Washington state.
Feinstein, who declined to be interviewed for this story, told the Senate panel that all of the casinos in her state have opened in just the past 15 years. And she said that the size of the tribal gaming industry in California is now twice as big as any other state and is approaching the scale of Nevada's $10 billion-a-year gambling operations.
Feinstein is irked that the Department of Interior approved a plan by a Butte County tribe to build a casino 50 miles away, near Sacramento, even though it was rejected by local voters. And with more than 100 federally recognized tribes in the state, she wants Congress to put a stop to "reservation shopping" proposals aimed at getting casinos near population centers.
In an interview, Kevin Washburn, who heads the Bureau of Indian Affairs, said that democracy is working well in California, noting that voters approved tribal gaming in 1998. He said that casinos have helped tribes economically and that he knows of no studies indicating how many casinos are optimal.
Others say the issue of how many casinos the state should have is a case of supply and demand.
"That ought to be determined by consumers," said California Republican Rep. Tom McClintock. "As long as they're complying with local laws, using their own money and not forcing anybody to do or buy anything against their will, I've got no objections."
Washburn said gaming is the exception in the drive to get more land into the hands of tribes, even though the issue gets much public attention. Of the nearly 1,500 land acquisitions approved since 2009, he said, fewer than 20 have been for gaming projects, while the majority have been for agriculture, infrastructure, schools, police stations and health care facilities.
Washburn described the administration's philosophy when he testified before the Senate panel on Nov. 20.
"What we are doing here is trying to ensure that tribes have home lands, so tribes can thrive as well," he said. ". . . A lot of acres, millions of acres, were taken from tribes, so their American dream is a little more cloudy than it is for the rest of America."
Defending the right of tribes to expand, Washburn said that cities or counties aren't quizzed hard when they want to move into unincorporated areas. "If you ask a county why it is going to do that, it is going to say because it wants to take care of its community," he said.
Two Supreme Court cases are driving much of the current debate.
Later this year, the court will decide whether the state of Michigan has the legal authority to shut down an off-reservation casino run by the Bay Mills Indian Community.
"A tribe should not have greater immunity than foreign nations," John Bursch, Michigan's solicitor general, told the high court Dec. 2. "There's no dispute that if France opened an illegal business in Michigan, casino or otherwise, it would have no blanket immunity."
The second case, a 2009 ruling known as the Carcieri decision, angered tribes by putting the brakes on land acquisitions for tribes that were not recognized by the federal government by 1934. Tribes complained that the ruling created two sets of tribes and has slowed economic development.
Aided by Washburn, Washington Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell, chairwoman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, wants Congress to pass a so-called "Carcieri fix," which would essentially override the 2009 decision.
Cantwell said the ruling caused a "chilling effect" for tribes wanting to put more land into trust. She said that tribes lost 90 million acres of land from 1887 to 1933 as a result of forced assimilation and that Congress responded with the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 to give land back to tribes.
And of the 10 million acres that has been put into trust for tribes since then, she said, less than 1 percent has been used for gaming.
Gambling opponents say that reversing the ruling would open the floodgates for more casinos.
"If you do that, it's really a national expansion of gambling," said Cheryl Schmit, director of Stand Up For California, a statewide organization fighting against more casinos. She said the Obama administration is "acting clearly as an advocate for the tribes to expand all of their services and entitlements."
In November, California voters will decide the fate of the proposed $250 million North Fork tribal casino in Madera County, in the Central Valley and the Sierra Nevada mountains north of Fresno County. Opponents organized to get the off-reservation casino qualified for a referendum on the ballot after it was approved by California legislators earlier this year.
Schmit said lawsuits are in progress to stop the casino. And she predicted that if it's allowed to open, it will be quickly followed by another 30 casinos in California.
Dennis Ehling, a Los Angeles attorney with the firm Blank Rome who advises gaming clients, said more tribes are trying to open casinos near population centers after the Obama administration in 2011 rescinded a Bush-era "commutable distance" standard, which banned off-reservation casinos if they were not within easy driving distance of reservations.
But he warned that tribes could face a backlash, noting that the House of Representatives already took a rare vote in September to try to block an off-reservation casino in Arizona that had been approved by the Obama administration. And he said the Supreme Court could easily frustrate tribes by putting limits on sovereign immunity, saying it doesn't extend to economic activity.
"When they extend into these off-reservation places, they have to enter into the political realm again to get what they want," Ehling said. "And there's always winners and losers when you do that."
After fighting to get land for decades, Iyall hopes to be a winner by March, after the court cases have run their course. He's eager to get going, with plans to build not only a casino, but a hotel, retail shops, restaurants and housing on the land near La Center, Wash., in Clark County.
He's happy that the president's team has helped.
"The Obama administration is there to follow the rules as they're set out," Iyall said. "And the rules are defined to help tribes because tribes are a trust ward."
He said the issue of putting land into trust would be moot if tribes had kept their land in the first place, noting that the now landless Cowlitz tribe lost thousands of acres to white settlers, with no compensation.
"I mean, if we had those resources today, we probably wouldn't be talking about this issue, that's for sure," Iyall said.


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The California Educational Technology Professionals Association is a non-profit membership organization, comprised of Educational Technology Professionals (technologists) who support schools in California and outlying areas. Founded in 1960, the association has dedicated more than 50 years of service toward activities that aim to improve the public education system with a strong emphasis on Administrative Information Processing within the State of California. The organization fosters a spirit of innovation and professional development in its membership and strives to better the public education system with ongoing support to members and meet the technological needs of the Instructional Program.
CETPA membership is primarily composed of Information Technology (IT) Support Professionals and Administrative Officials who work in California public schools, which includes but is not limited to the following position titles: Chief Technology Officers, Directors of Technology, Network Managers, Network Engineers, Technicians, Superintendents, Chief Business Officials, Teachers, Administrators, and other instructional support professionals.
As a member, CETPA offers professional development, a mentor program and networking opportunities through a variety of events, regional groups, participation at the annual conference, publications, partnerships, a lively online community, and other resources. Our members pride themselves on keeping each other informed with best practices, learned lessons, and relevant resources.


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Vermont bill would hold nuke to shutdown promise
Permit expired last March
Vermont bill would hold nuke to shutdown promise
Permit expired last March
MONTPELIER, Vt. —
Vermont lawmakers are looking to firm up a promise made by the owner of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant that it would take extra steps to clean up the plant's Vernon site after it shuts down.
Entergy Corp. promised when it bought Vermont Yankee in 2002 that it would take steps beyond the minimum required by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission to restore the Vermont Yankee site to a green field after electricity is no longer being made there.
The move comes against the backdrop of what the state says are a series of broken promises by Entergy relating to Vermont Yankee.
Chief among those was a promise that it would shut Vermont Yankee down if it had not been able to obtain a new state permit by last March.


text:
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text:
March 24. 2014 9:47PM
Supreme Court hears Hobby Lobby's birth control coverage challenge today
By MARK HAYWARD
New Hampshire Union Leader
Hobby Lobby on South Willow Street in Manchester. (DAVID LANE/UNION LEADER)
MANCHESTER — Hobby Lobby, the Oklahoma-based arts-and-crafts chain with a location in Manchester, goes to the U.S. Supreme Court today to challenge the Obamacare mandate that employer health care coverage include prescription birth control. The case has become a key flashpoint in issues involving the Affordable Care Act and religious liberty.
The Manchester location of Hobby Lobby is one of more than 500 across the country. In the federal court case, Sebelius vs Hobby Lobby, the privately held corporation says its owners hold strict religious beliefs that prevent them from paying for birth control methods — specifically emergency contraception and IUD — which could result in the destruction of human life. The case has become a key flashpoint in issues involving the Affordable Care Act and religious liberty.
The ACLU and Planned Parenthood have filed briefs in the case.
According to the website hobbylobbycase.com, a host of organizations have filed in support of Hobby Lobby, including U.S. Catholic bishops, some Jewish organizations, the Mormon church, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, and some physician groups.
"The owners are essentially inserting themselves between a woman and her doctor," said Gilles Bissonnette, legal director for the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union.
Bissonnette said his organization supports the rights of the owners to practice their religious beliefs, but they should not be able to impose them on their employees.
"We face an ongoing fight over access to birth control in this country," said Jennifer Frizzell, senior policy director of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England. She and Bissonnette spoke during a telephone news conference Monday in anticipation of today's arguments. In a recorded video on hobbylobbycase.com, the founders of the company — David and Barbara Green — said they are not trying to take away anyone's birth control.
"It's not about whether women can take it or not; we're not trying to control that," said co-founder Barbara Green. "We're just trying to control our participation in it."
The video said full-time, entry-level workers earn a starting pay that exceeds the minimum wage by 90 percent. The Manchester location is the only Hobby Lobby in New Hampshire, according to the company website.


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|System: PS3*, Xbox 360, Wii U
|Dev: Koei
|Pub: Tecmo Koei
|Release: February 5, 2013
|Players: 1
|Screen Resolution: 480p-1080p
|Blood, Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
This one-dimensional feel has seeped into the character design as well. Though Ken's Rage 1 was nigh unplayable, its characters were certainly unique. Each one played differently, with a unique set of moves, right down to Raoh's ability to summon his horse. Ken's Rage 2 characters, on the other hand, are far more cookie cutter. You have fast characters, strong characters, and middle-of-the-road characters, but mostly all they do is attack. Any unique personality that the characters had in the gameplay mechanics has been removed for the sake of, well, better working gameplay mechanics. It's a good tradeoff, but it's still disappointing.
The mode selection is your fairly standard Dynasty Warriors fare. You can play through the Story mode or through "Dream" modes, little "what if" stories for the entire cast of characters. There are online modes for both competitive and cooperative play, but at time of writing there weren't even enough people on the servers to test these capabilities out. Likely, this will change as the game gets more popular, but don't expect to find huge amounts of online competition on day one.
Ken's Rage 2 isn't one of those games that you love to hate. It's not one of those games where the developers were so off the mark you summon up this hilarious burst of antipathy and rip it to shreds. No, it's a game that has all the markings of a development team that really tried to improve on its predecessor. In some ways they succeeded, addressing the flaws from Ken's Rage 1, but in other ways they still fell short.
Fist of the North Star fans will probably like this game just because there hasn't been a whole lot of love for the franchise in the gaming world recently, and Dynasty Warriors fans may like the game just as a short beat em' up fix. However, the general gaming populace likely won't fall in love with Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage 2. It might be worth a rent, but you aren't missing much by not adding this to your collection. In the end, Ken's Rage 2 is a game that I wanted to like far more than I actually did.
Angelo M. D'Argenio
Lead Contributor
Date: February 6, 2013
Game Features:


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Difference between revisions of "Subsonic"
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sudo -u subsonic ${JAVA} -Xmx${SUBSONIC_MAX_MEMORY}m \
sudo -u subsonic ${JAVA} -Xmx${SUBSONIC_MAX_MEMORY}m \
and restart subsonic daemon.
and restart subsonic daemon.
# rc.d start subsonic
# rc.d start subsonic
Revision as of 01:55, 5 February 2013
Subsonic is a music server that lets you store your music on one machine and play it from other machines, cell phones, via a web interface, or various other applications. It can be installed using the subsonicAUR package on AUR.
Additional config
Run subsonic daemon NOT as root
Stop the subsonic daemon if running:
# rc.d stop subsonic
Add a system user "subsonic" without home folder and add it to "audio" group if you want to use the "jukebox" feature:
# useradd --system --groups audio subsonic
Change folder owners as follow. Path may change; these are the default ones:
# chown -R subsonic:subsonic /tmp/subsonic # chown -R subsonic:subsonic /var/subsonic # chown -R root:root /var/subsonic/transcode # chown -R root:root /var/subsonic/jetty/*/webapp
Change this line in
${JAVA} -Xmx${SUBSONIC_MAX_MEMORY}m \
to this one:
sudo -u subsonic ${JAVA} -Xmx${SUBSONIC_MAX_MEMORY}m \
and restart the subsonic daemon.
# rc.d start subsonic
Install LAME and FFmpeg for Transcoding
Subsonic requires LAME to be installed to transcode songs in mp3 format to lower bit rates. Also requieres FFmpeg to transcode from other formats (as ogg, flac, wav or wma) to mp3 format or to stream video files. If not already installed, Install the lame and ffmpeg package, available in the official repositories.
Put a symlink to LAME in the transcode directory for subsonic.
# ln -s /usr/bin/lame /var/subsonic/transcode/lame
Put a symlink to FFmpeg in the transcode directory for subsonic.
# ln -s /usr/bin/ffmpeg /var/subsonic/transcode/ffmpeg
Restart subsonic daemon
# rc.d start subsonic
Systemd Setup
The subsonic installation includes a systemd service file. To install it:
# cp /var/subsonic/subsonic.service /usr/lib/systemd/system/subsonic.service
Then, run:
# sudo systemctl --system daemon-reload
And finally enable it:
# sudo systemctl enable subsonic.service
UTF-8 file names not added to the database
You must have at least one UTF-8 locale installed.
If you start subsonic using
/etc/rc.d/subsonic, and your /etc/rc.conf has
DAEMON_LOCALE="no", then the subsonic daemon will be started with the C locale, and Java will skip any folders with "international characters" (e.g. ßðþøæå etc.). Either set
DAEMON_LOCALE to
"yes" (but this will affect all rc.daemons), or add a line to the beginning of
/var/subsonic/subsonic.sh which sets
LANG to an installed UTF-8 locale, e.g.