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A Gruesome Past, An Explosive Future
A Gruesome Past, An Explosive Future
Special Report: On The Ground With Charlie Company
Story By JESSE HAMILTON Photos By TOM BROWN The Hartford Courant
June 18 2006
FALLUJAH, Iraq -- Ibraheem Sanad Mujbile is everywhere.
The kindly looking man with white hair is always in the background at city meetings, always carrying his little briefcase. On one side of it, "press" is written in yellow tape. On the other it's "sahafee," the same thing in Arabic script.
He attends the meetings to report for Al Bishara, a city newspaper. He wants to help Fallujah understand itself. He describes a war within people here, many believing in the necessity of the foreigners and resenting them, too. Through a translator, he says of his readers, "They need to know what's going on, exactly."
He is the free press, Fallujah's journalist.
If there's hope for the future of Fallujah - and Iraq - outside of grisly self-destruction, the Plainville-based Marines in Charlie Company have placed their bets on a trifecta: The Iraqi Army. The Iraqi police. And the kids who don't yet have venom in their eyes.
Fallujah is the one city where U.S. forces have tried everything. Hands on. Hands off. Aggression. Pacification. Release to a former Iraqi general's control. And, finally, full invasion.
It was that climactic measure in November 2004 - a massive, house-to-house battle to clear every insurgent from the streets of Fallujah - that sets this city apart. This was the scene of the heaviest urban fighting, the only place in Iraq where the U.S. pressed war's reset button and started again from zero.
When the U.S. military says Fallujah has improved since the bad days of 2003, it is right. It was the worst city in Iraq then. Now, it might claim third place.
Fallujah may never have become known outside vast Al Anbar province if not for the events at its bridge. It doesn't look like much, just a single lane slung low over the Euphrates River. But two years ago the bridge's green beams became a worldwide symbol that things were going badly in Iraq. Photos showed portions of charred American bodies hanging from those beams, an Iraqi crowd beneath them, celebrating brutality.
They were the remains of four security contractors from a company called Blackwater, and downtown Fallujah had just consumed them. The violence sent a tremor through America and inspired the sieges that would, by November, empty Fallujah of people and reduce swaths of the city to gravel.
Ibraheem says there is progress in Fallujah. He also says of the U.S. forces, "Any person, he doesn't like to be occupied by someone else." But he has hope that the occupiers will succeed. So he writes down every one of their promises.
The area where the Blackwater men were killed is now the responsibility of Charlie Company. At the start of a routine morning patrol, the company commander, Maj. Vaughn Ward, stops at an Iraqi Army post to pick up some of their soldiers. He likes to run combined patrols, getting the Iraqis to operate like Marines.
He was looking for 10 Iraqis, but he leaves the post with six. The Iraqis' equipment is a little mismatched, their helmets beat up. But their soldiering is getting better. Ward likes the way they've been meshing with his guys, finally staying put in a firefight and not letting loose with wild gunfire.
As the patrol reaches the market area next to what Marines call the Blackwater Bridge, shops are just opening.
The Iraqi soldiers exchange words with people on the street. A few are friendly. Most are cold. As Lt. Col. Chris Landro said once while driving over the bridge, "We sometimes get looks that tell you: If your charred body was here, we'd hang you from the bridge, too."
If there's anybody less popular than Marines in Fallujah, it's these soldiers, outsiders from the south of Iraq, and - to raise tensions further - mostly Shia Muslims in this town of Sunnis. But the Marines hope the soldiers and Iraqi police will soon inherit Fallujah.
"It's bad now, but hopefully it'll be good," Iraqi Cpl. Saad Oteeb says through a translator. He says he and his fellow soldiers almost have the ability to take over, but still need help: better technology, better weapons and more men.
Other Iraqi soldiers live at the checkpoint just west over the Blackwater Bridge. They live next door to a Charlie Company post and, if the Marines pulled out, probably couldn't stand on their own. They seem dedicated, but they have few supplies. Drinking water often comes from the Marines. And there is word that some of their pay isn't making it to them.
The soldiers can't mix with the rest of the Iraqi population, so they pass the time with each other and their Marine neighbors. The Iraqi soldiers swim in the Euphrates and have been known to toss grenades into the water and scoop out the stunned fish. They smoke hookah pipes and watch music videos. They generally show up for work on time. And, sometimes, they are killed.
Another Iraqi soldier, Malik Abid, a staff sergeant with a unit in the southeast industrial part of town, says he's been working 18 months in the city. "There are so many terrorists," he says. But it was worse before. The Iraqis should be able to take over soon, he says, if more soldiers arrive.
The U.S. military recruited hundreds of potential soldiers from the Fallujah area - Sunnis who might be more welcome in the region - and sent them for training. But when it was announced they wouldn't all be working in Fallujah, most of them dropped their gear and left.
Ibraheem: U.S. forces need to be here until Iraqis can stand up for themselves, he says, though his paper has been criticized as a mouthpiece for the Americans. He attributes much of the trouble to foreign fighters hiring local stooges. He says there are hundreds of Syrians in the province, thousands of Iranians. Most of the residents of Fallujah, he says, "don't like these people to be in their country."
A senior leader of the Iraqi police department sits behind his desk in the new U.S.-built headquarters and, through an interpreter, speaks confidently. "I think after three months, we can take over everything here," he says. Though he needs about twice as many officers as he has now, the department is already able to take control of Fallujah. No problem.
Then he pauses and says he'd prefer not to have his name published, or his picture. He fears the terrorists.
His men, too, often wear masks in public.
The Marines take it as a good sign that the Iraqi police have been getting attacked more frequently. It's good, they say, because it means they might not be collaborating with the insurgents as much.
A chief concern of the Marines when working with the Iraqi police, whom they call IPs, is that these local men, almost all Sunnis like the rest of Fallujah, play both sides.
Before dawn, the police had a shootout right outside their headquarters. Long bursts of machine-gun fire chattered through the night.
"Some bad guys attacked our patrols," police Maj. Omar Ghalb Ibrahim says hours later through an interpreter. "Our patrols answered. We found two terrorists." They had a rocket-propelled grenade and a homemade bomb.
Marine Capt. Mark Jamouneau, who leads the U.S. team that lives and works with the police, says these were only the second and third insurgents he's seen the police capture. He is disappointed that the police had to hand them over to Marines rather than process the case on their own. Until they can do that, he knows, the system isn't working fully.
Jamouneau says the officers seem to be responding better to such attacks, but they are still susceptible to threats by the insurgency - "people that they know."
"There are IPs that are aware of the insurgency and probably turn a blind eye toward it," he says. But there are also good cops here, trying their best.
Still, Jamouneau suspects many signed on for one of the only reliable paychecks in town. "These guys are survivors," he says.
But will they survive the days after the Marines eventually pull out? The captain thinks it depends on whether they can really work with the Iraqi Army. Because if those two groups turn on each other, it's over. Under the Marines, they live under an uneasy truce. After the Marines, "It can go either way in my mind."
Ibraheem: "The regular people, they accept that the situation is bad in their city." If the Marines left today, the city would fall again to the insurgents, he says - the kind of opinion that has drawn calls from some to shut down his paper. He says the good people here have followed the rules and no longer have weapons.
The Marines stop their convoy in a narrow street, turret machine-gunners looking for attacks. The Marines are out with the Iraqi soldiers today. They go to one of the trucks in the convoy and swing its doors open. Inside are dozens of plastic bags - each calculated to make a kid's day.
They wave the first nervous children over and hand out the bags, filled with toys and candy and, yes, anti-insurgent leaflets. The first children take them cautiously, as if the bags may be filled with snakes. But it takes only moments for more to come, bold and demanding.
The Marines aren't doing this for the fun of the small-body rampage that soon begins, with cries of "mister! mister!" They're working this demographic with Beanie Baby propaganda.
And they've got the Iraqis handing out much of the treasure. The Marines want the neighborhoods to see the Iraqi soldiers' benevolence.
A few parents drag their children back from the horde, leading them away with stern rebukes. Staff Sgt. Joey Davis watches one father take his son away, and Davis chases them down, thrusting a bag into the child's hands.
It's not all toys and candy. One beaming child holds a large bottle of mouthwash. Others have baby powder, toothpaste, cotton swabs, ramen noodles. They tussle with each other for anything, splashing through the pools of sewage in the street.
The Marines move on quickly, never staying long enough for the insurgent network to get word out on where they are.
Making the children smile is a serious business for the Marines. They believe that the children like them, and if that's true, that this will be the generation that could change things. But they are very young. Once they reach their teen years, most of the youths are no longer so receptive to this bond based on bribery.
The Marines hand out a bilingual activity book for children. It includes safety tips "from Iraqi soldier Ali Saleem." He informs them: "Traffic signs and the [Iraqi security forces] are all on your street for your protection." The book also reminds the children an ancient civilization here was the first to write down a system of laws - though failing to point out the result, that Babylon may have been on more stable legal footing than today's Fallujah.
The book is titled, "Al Anbar's Rising Generation." Subtitle: "You are the future of Iraq."
Ibraheem: "Now, most people wonder about the power and water." So he writes his stories for the newspaper, which takes U.S. funding. He writes about the reconstruction and the city council, "what they are going to do for the city."
The meeting starts late, as most of the meetings in this U.S.-operated town hall do, because of the Iraqi officials' loose relationship with time. The agenda is handed out. It's an amazing document, a list of what could be a decade's worth of projects for any small American city's committees, commissions and boards. Here, it's just the ongoing work for the Fallujah Reconstruction Committee.
There is an Army Corps of Engineers officer at the table next to officers from a Marine civil affairs unit, the ones who live here in the building, across the lot from Charlie Company. Ibraheem Sanad Mujbile is there, smiling, taking notes. But most of those at the table are Iraqi engineers, here to update the Americans on their progress.
The first project on today's list is a pontoon bridge. The chief city engineer, Khaled Al-Jumily, reminds the Americans about the contractor who took payment of $144,000 and vanished. "This person, he broke his promise and didn't show up," Al-Jumily says. The military officers tell the engineer the contractor may face jail if he can be found.
There are other troubles, Al-Jumily says. "A lot of contractors are making excuses to delay their jobs."
And the most serious: The hospital needs a generator. Power failures are killing premature babies in their nonfunctioning incubators. The national ministry of health isn't helping.
"This problem is very urgent for our hospital," Al-Jumily says.
A civil affairs officer responds, "The bigger problem is not your generator. Your bigger problem is your relationship with the ministry."
The engineer answers that the new minister is Shia. Al-Jumily doesn't believe he will want to help Sunnis.
"We have no support from any ministry in Baghdad," he says. "I ask every day. Why? Why?"
The basic situation for the city is this: Though the water system is in decent shape, there isn't always fuel to run the generators that operate the pumps. So when Fallujah residents turn the faucet on, sometimes nothing comes out. The electricity situation is much worse. Construction of power stations and underground lines has started from scratch, because the existing system is crumbling. Sewers are still a distant dream.
Maj. Angel Ortiz, with the Army Corps of Engineers, says his pot of money - only one of several dedicated to Fallujah - holds $67.2 million for projects. They've finished only $2.8 million worth. About 90 percent of the projects are behind schedule for reasons of security, contractor delays or poor management.
Several schools are being built at $1 million each, but the contractor has stopped work because he's owed more than $600,000. It's supposed to come from Iraqi's federal government, so there's little Ortiz can do.
And, of course, Fallujah is a dangerous place to work. Al-Jumily says he tries to convince the people of the city that certain projects should be spared from sabotage, that they are good for everybody.
"Sometimes we're successful in this," he says. "Sometimes we're not successful."
Ibraheem: The bad people in Fallujah have kept their weapons.
The goal of today's Marine operation is to sweep the neighborhoods along the street they call Henry, where improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, have been chewing up convoys lately. The Marines are out for hours. On the southern end, 2nd Platoon finds some parts from mines and some canisters of plastic explosive. It's bomb-making material for the kind of IED that mangled an armored Humvee the other day, badly injuring the four Marines inside.
On the northern end of the sweep, 1st Platoon finds something else. "Sir, you gotta see this," platoon commander Capt. Jason Pandak says to Maj. Ward. Ward walks into the house they'd been searching. In the back, out a rear door, there is a boy with some kind of mental disorder. The boy is locked behind rusted metal bars in an enclosure with a dirt floor. His eyes are twitching back and forth, dancing to a high-speed rhythm. He screeches at his father, who stands nearby, smiling.
"Kid in a cage," says one Marine to another outside, as if he can't believe what he's saying.
"That was a kid?" the other asks.
Ward looks for a while and walks back out. "There's nothing we can do," he tells his Marines.
There are so many things they can't control in Fallujah. Even the limited jobs they've been assigned are demanding enough - keeping the city open to military travel, teaching the Iraqi security forces and fighting insurgents. Controlling the insurgency without losing control of the city, is how Ward puts it.
But what does control look like here? Is it control when you can count on daily attacks? When non-Iraqis can't walk outside without arms and armor? When no matter how many suspected insurgents are rounded up and weapons caches seized, they still manage to hit Charlie Company with mortars once a week, each time more accurate and damaging?
Ward is a smart officer, as earnest as the rest of the Marines from Charlie Company in his drive to accomplish the mission. It doesn't matter that in his heart he doesn't believe democracy can be forced. It doesn't matter that he thinks Iraq and Fallujah will have to decide their own fates independent of U.S. efforts. He volunteered for the job he's been given, even if he doesn't know how it will turn out.
As one of his platoon leaders, Capt. Sean Miller, put it: "I'll read a book about this in 20 years, so I can understand it."
Ibraheem Sanad Mujbile, a 65-year-old native of Fallujah, was found Tuesday in a vacant lot 10 yards from the road, not far from his newspaper office. He had been shot four times, his blood still oozing, his body twitching. It was 1st Platoon that spotted him lying there. He had been fatally shot only a couple of minutes before. Twice in the back, twice in the head. When the Iraqi police arrived to start their investigation, the people nearby, the crowds in the shops and on the street, said they didn't see anything.
Reporter Jesse Hamilton and photographer Tom Brown are scheduled to leave Fallujah today and return to Connecticut.
Healthy Suspicion
On The Ground With Charlie Company: Dispatch
By JESSE HAMILTON
Courant Staff Writer
June 17 2006
FALLUJAH, Iraq -- Nobody comes up this driveway. It's clearly marked, in Arabic and English. But there he is, a man walking steadily toward the defensive post on Charlie Company's driveway.
There's an acronym for what comes next: EOF. Escalation of force.
The Marine at the post yells for the man to stop, in Arabic. The man seems to hear, and he stops for a moment. But then he starts walking again, coming closer than the Marine can allow, in a place just a few dozen yards from where a vest bomber killed eight police recruits not much more than a month ago.
So the Marine has to move to the next step, a step drilled into his head with numbing regularity. He raises his weapon and threatens.
The man keeps coming toward the barrel of the rifle, only 15 yards away. So the Marine is pushed toward the next step.
The warning fire hits the pavement in front of the man. A round skips up and creases his leg. He's wounded, no longer a threat, so the last step won't be necessary.
The man turns out to be an Iraqi police officer, out of uniform. He's taken to the surgical hospital at Camp Fallujah, where he's treated and sent home.
He's fine. But he should have known better.
Capt. Mark Jamouneau, a Marine who runs a team that works with the Iraqi police, said the response from a police commander was an unsympathetic: "Good; shoot him."
The Marines have been at their base in the center of Fallujah for a while now, and the police, whose headquarters is next- door, should know what areas are off limits - unless they are testing the Marines, which is certainly on the minds of Charlie Company leaders who already suspect there are Iraqi police working with the insurgents.
In Fallujah, suspicion can be healthy. Especially when, the very next day, another Iraqi police officer comes walking up the same driveway.
Reporter Jesse Hamilton and photographer Tom Brown are embedded with Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 25th Marines, in Fallujah.
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Commerce City, Colo. - Before the team even arrived at Dick's Sporting Goods Park Friday morning, coach Oscar Pareja had already decided that captain Pablo Mastroeni would not be making the trip to the east coast to face the New York Red Bulls on Sunday (2 pm MT, ESPN).
"It will be a test for all of us to strengthen ourselves to face adversities," Pareja said as the team departed for the airport. "The season is long and there will be moments where we won't be able to count on important players."
Mastroeni did not train this week after experiencing headaches and symptoms related to a hit he took to the head in the season opener on March 10.
MORE: Pareja cautious, supportive of Mastroeni as head symptoms return
Despite the loss of Mastroeni and midfielder partner Jeff Larentowizc, who is serving a one-game suspension, other team veterans are confident with who ever takes the field.
"It's always difficult," said midfielder Brian Mullan. "Jeff and Pablo have been staples of this team for a while now. But now we have to look to the other players to step in and show why they are here."
The final 14 minutes of last Sunday's 2-1 win in Philadelphia was the first time that neither Mastroeni nor Larentowicz were on the field for a Rapids regular season since Larentowicz joined the team prior to the start of the 2010 season.
"Pablo and Jeff are a very big part of this team, and they leaves a big holes to fill," he said. "But we have some fantastic midfielders and some good leaders on this team that can step right in and make a difference. It is tough, but we have a deep enough squad and have a good game plan going into New York."
Midfielders Wells Thompson and Ross LaBauex could be starting options as both players came on to close out last week's game, with LaBauex entering for Mastroeni.
The Rapids are also optimistic that another option is Martin Rivero, who traveled with the team to New York. However, he has yet to be cleared to play as the U.S. Soccer Federation awaits to hear from FIFA regarding Rivero's international registration transfer from Argentina.

subset: commoncrawl


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GREENSBORO � Croatan sophomore Sammy Jo Layko was fine until she got ready to throw the discus Friday at the NCHSAA 2-A track and field championships.
GREENSBORO � Croatan sophomore Sammy Jo Layko was fine until she got ready to throw the discus Friday at the NCHSAA 2-A track and field championships.
�I was very calm until right before I stepped in the circle and then it kind of went away right before I threw,� she said. �So there was maybe a slight edge, kind of feeling like, �Oh, gosh, am I going to pull it off this time?�
�But after that I did what I know how to do.�
She certainly did, throwing a personal best of 122 feet, 1 inch to win the discus by a landslide. The second-place distance was 113-9.
�It feels good,� said Layko, who was fourth in the discus as a freshman a year ago in the state championships with a 99-10 throw. �It was nice. I got a PR.�
Not only was the discus a personal record for Layko, but so was her throw in the shot put. But her 35-9 toss left her in sixth place. North Surry�s Alex Cooke won the shot at 39-10.
�I�ve never been majorly dominant in shot,� Layko said in a telephone interview. �I just recently started getting better at it. But everybody stepped up. I think maybe one girl didn�t throw her best today and she got second. Oh, darn. Everybody stepped up.�
As Layko certainly did in the discus in earning the only gold medal by area athletes at the state championships at N.C. A&T State University.
�Each of my throws would have gotten first,� she said.
Even with that, however, Layko said she didn�t get ahead of herself and feel she had the discus in the bag until the last throw by the last competitor.
�I never try and judge them because a lot of times you�ll have a bad throw,� she said. �It�s what happened to me at regionals. I threw a 98 at regionals and then I threw a 117. So there�s a range of what you can pull out with discus. So I try not to be too cocky or overestimating them because I know there�s just so many things that happen you never really know.�
So as she and her mother headed back home later Friday, how was Layko planning to celebrate her gold medal?
�We�re going to visit my brother in Chapel Hill really quick and then we�re going to go shopping. So I guess that could be considered a celebration,� she said, adding she had no specific items in mind during her shopping excursion. �If I can find some sports equipment, that would be great. � I�m always on the look out for more sports equipment.�
While Layko was the only first-place finisher among area athletes, several did earn silver medals, including Northside senior James Rowland. For the second straight year, Rowland was second in both the discus (149-7) and shot (53-2) � by just an inch. Carrboro�s Scott Peretin won the shot at 53-3.
Both Layko and Rowland are coached by Rowland�s dad, Mike, who is a Northside assistant as well as the head coach of The Pride and Track Field program based in Jacksonville.
Swansboro�s Lindsey Bren was second in the pole vault at 10 feet.
Two relay teams also finished second.
Richlands� boys were second in the 4 x 800-meter relay at 8:13.19. On that team were Aaron Rand, Darius Futrell, Jonathan Thomas and Reid Rivers.
Also, Swansboro�s girls were second in the 4x4 � by less than a second, coming in with a school-record 4:05.57 to Carrboro�s winning time of 4:05.12. Making up the Pirates� relay team were Ashton Champion, Alex Blue, Toni McTaggart and Tylor Ring.
Swansboro�s girls wound up fifth as a team with 31 points. Carrboro claimed its third straight team title with 77 points.
Swansboro�s boys wound up 10th with 24 points. Cedar Ridge won its second straight crown with 63 points.
Area athletes who finished in the top 8 to earn points for their team at Friday�s 2-A state track championships in Greensboro.
Area team scores: 10. Swansboro 24 points; 15. (tie) Northside 16; 32. (tie) Richlands 8; 43. (tie) Croatan 2 (Cedar Ridge won with 63 points)
INDIVIDUALS: Shot put: 2. Rowland (N) 53-2; Discus: 2. Rowland (N) 149-7; 7. Ryan (C) 135-8; Pole vault: 3. (tie) Karl (S) & Scott (S) 12-6; 400 meters: 3. Thompkins (S) 49.53; 300 hurdles: 6. Karl (S) 41.16; 800 meters: 5. Dick (S) 2:02.23; 3,200 relay: 2. Richlands (Rand, Futrell, Thomas, Rivers) 8:13.19.
Area team scores: 5. Swansboro 31 points; 10. (tie) Croatan 22 (Carrboro won with 77 points)
INDIVIDUALS: Shot put: 6. Layko (C) 35-9; 8. Munoz (S) 35-0; Discus: 1. Lakyo (C) 122-1; Triple jump: 6. Blue (S) 34-9; Pole vault: 2. Bren (S) 10-0; 7. Jones (S) 8-0; 100 hurdles: 6. Champion (S) 16.8; 800 meters: 8. Horton (S) 2:33.79; 3,200 meters: 5. Pugh (C) 12:00.95; 800 relay: 8. Swansboro (McTaggart, Blue, Taylor, Johnson) 1:48.5; 1,600 relay: 2. Swansboro (Champion, Blue, McTaggart, Ring) 4:05.57; 3,200 relay: 4. Croatan (Pugh, Alexander, Stegall, Parkhurst) 10:16.54; 5. Swansboro (Horton, Ring, Taylor, Grass) 10:19.


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Consider this installment of Best Bird of the Weekend the one-handed edition. That describes my typing style after last week's shoulder surgery. So let me get straight to the point: my best bird of the weekend was an odd silhouette in the trees that binoculars revealed to be an American Robin (have they been gone so long I've forgotten their forms?) Corey's sighting was no less prosaic, a Cooper's Hawk that has settled into his neighborhood for the winter, terrorizing the pigeons and starlings.
What was your best bird of the weekend? Tell us in the comments section about the rarest, loveliest, or most fascinating bird you observed. If you've blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment.
12 Dollarbirds all trying to get dry in the tops of the trees after a torrential downpour. Only ever seen 2 in an area before-they are here from asia to breed. 44mm rain in about 30 minutes!! Chance of a cyclone this week-bring in the rarities and keep the wind to a minimum!
Crested Quetzal at Refugio Paz de las Aves. I hope you have quick recovery from surgery. All the best!
Went on a "wild goose chase" this weekend with my father and two other birders from the Cincinnati area. We managed to find, other than the omnipresent Canada Geese, Greater White-Fronted, Cackling, and my lifer, 2 Ross' Geese.
Prosaic indeed … the one morning I had a few hours to spare in a tiny preserve in Atlanta, and I picked up a Carolina Chickadee while still on the hotel property. But it's a lifer for me!
@Corey: I definitely heard, but didn't get to see, some Brown-headed Nuthatches. They were all around me but invisible. So I'm glad you got a good look at one in N.C.!
@Nate: Can you help me out with an ID? As I was wrapping up, I spotted a green bird—I mean really green, top and bottom. About the size of a warbler/sparrow, with two white wingbars, swooping at the edge of the woods from trees to bushes back to trees. I'm thinking some kind of vireo, or maybe a Pine Warbler——would any of those be common in the South in the late fall?
@Meredith- Your mystery bird is almost certainly a Pine Warbler. They're common year-round across the south, but seem to be more evident in the winter months as our resident birds are augmented by migrants from further north. That and their green-gold appearance really makes them stand out when you get a look at them.
Funny you mention vireos, Pines are definitely Vireo-ish warblers, heavy billed and more deliberate in their movements, especially compared to the rest of their frantic family.
Brants! So many Brants! Despite the wind and rain we did make it to Jamaica Bay NWR. Weather was no impediment because the storm was keeping the birds inland (as in the parking lot 🙂 ). Aside from these lifers, I saw a large flock of Ruddy Ducks. I usually only see them in 1's and 2's in Maryland. Also a possible Marsh Hawk but I would not swear an oath to it. We could only stay a short time, I'll definitely be going back next time I am in town!
@Nate——thanks for the help! It was hard to tell b/c most of the images of the Pine Warblers I've found look more gold than green. Wow, 1.5 hours and two lifers (and both still on the hotel's borders). Woo-hoo!!
@MK——Ruddy Ducks rawk. 🙂
Meredith, have a look at Ruby-crowned Kinglet.
My best bird of the weekend was a stake-out Yellow-breasted Chat in coastal BC–first time I'd ever seen one on the same day as a Northern Hawk Owl (and a Northern Saw-whet to boot).
Get feeling better quick, Mike!
My best bird of the weekend was a toss up between Black-breasted Wood-Quail seen feeding on a trail in the Santa Elena Reserve or Chiriqui Quail-Dove seen along the main road up to the Monteverde Reserve.
@Meredith- Rick's right (and Wright). RC Kinglet didn't occur to me, but that's definitely one to consider as well.
@Rick: Thanks for the tip. Hmm, now I don't know. The bird I saw did look more green than gold, and vivid green at that, but I didn't see the reddish crown. I do think it was more the Pine Warbler's size and shape too. Oh well, off the list then, I guess.
My best bird of the weekend, by far, was an awesome Bohemian Waxwing in northern NH that posed for photos, my best yet of this bird. See 13 photos on blog post,
Best bird came close to being the alpine Banded Dottrel I saw up on the Tongariro crossing, but the great views of a Long-tailed Cuckoo (or Koel) at the end were the best really. I've been trying to see this bird well for 4 years.
Worst bird of weekend: The Sharp-shinned Hawk haunting my yard. I woke up to the Sharpy sitting in the tree overlooking my feeders, and it wasn't till 3pm that the neighborhood birds decided to take a chance and come visit. Except for my courageous Carolina Wren. He not only pranced around the yard eating to his heart's content, he sang!
@Meredith- Pine Warblers can be really variable, and run the gamut from the glowing gold adult males to dingy green-brown first year birds so I wouldn't completely rule it out.
That said, the behavior is probably your best clue. If it was flitty and spastic it was probably a Kinglet. If it was heavier and deliberate, and stayed in one place for longer than a second at a time, you'd have a Pine Warbler.
@Nate: Thanks for your patience and willingness to school me! I did get really good looks at it out in the open, perched here and there for a minute or two at a time. Plus it was longer and slimmer, and not the puffball shape I usually associate with kinglets. So I'll go with "probable Pine Warbler" and hope I get to confirm it again someday.
© 2013 10,000 Birds. All words, images, and opinions are the property of their respective authors unless stated otherwise.


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IT is constantly changing with regard to skills, infrastructure, and service delivery. So much so that IT skills gained two years ago may well be obsolete today. That means the skills college students learn in their freshman and sophomore years can easily be irrelevant by graduation.
Keeping up can be a challenge. There are way too many mission-critical projects needing completion. Only people with the right knowledge, experience, and skills will be moving up instead of moving on.
To help you stay ahead of the game, this slideshow features 10 IT skills that are on the brink of extinction, according to Global Knowledge.
Making a list like this is often a great challenge as it is usually a moving target. For example, there are more lines of COBOL programming written than any other language. Someone will have to maintain all that as long as there are any systems still running with those programs. At the same time, the chance of finding a job with that as a major skill requirement is becoming very slim. That suggests that people wanting to build a career in IT should consider more recent programming languages like HTML5.
In any case, if you are relying on one of the skills nearing extinction as your key strength, it is time to look at supplementing your skill set. Respondents to Global Knowledge's 2014 IT Skills and Salary Survey identified these growth areas for 2014:
Related Topics : A Big Market for Big Data Jobs, Midmarket CIO, IT Management Automation, SharePoint, Technology Markets
The gig economy is clearly disrupting the tech industry, both in positive and negative ways. ... More >>
Is fake news a security issue? Some say yes, as it can be used as a social engineering tool to spread disinformation and conceivably to get unsuspecting users to click on malicious links. ... More >>
Executives at several top tech firms outline the skills they need now and in the near future, including IaaS and IoT security expertise. Other skills listed may surprise you. ... More >>


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Date & Time
Dec 1, 2016 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
The USRBC's next meeting with the U.S. Department of State is scheduled for
Thursday, December 1, from 11am-12:30pm
. These monthly meetings provide an excellent opportunity for members to receive an up-to-date briefing by the State Department's Russia specialists on the geopolitical bilateral agenda in an intimate setting, while ensuring that key government officials stay current on relevant bilateral commercial matters. To that end, it is very important that USRBC members arrive prepared to present background on your firm's business in Russia, your organization's current agenda, and pressing concerns regarding U.S.-Russian commercial affairs.
Important Notes on Scheduling:
These meetings are limited to five companies per meeting (one representative per organization) to facilitate a meaningful discussion. Participation in the meetings is granted on a first-come, first-served basis. The USRBC undertakes considerable effort to equitably rotate member participation in these meetings throughout the year to ensure that we are drawing broadly across the USRBC membership.
Regarding Registration:
Please note that we fill each slot based on the order in which we receive your registration. Please provide the date of the meeting you would like to attend along with your full name, title, affiliation and cell phone number to Suzanne Hicks (
or 202.739.9180) to indicate your interest in attending a meeting.
Confirmation of Your Participation:
Once you are confirmed for a meeting, you will receive a reply email from Suzanne Hicks (
) informing you of the meeting details. Please note that your registration is NOT confirmed until you receive an email with the meeting details.
Please note that we consider these meetings to be a special benefit of USRBC membership, and we are especially grateful to our government colleagues for dedicating their time to meet with us. We respectfully request that members that RSVP to attend these meetings honor those commitments.


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Fun nights with family await you upon this 18" Aurosi Grey & White Wooden Lacquer Backgammon. Its size makes it look like a small briefcase, but upon opening, this set reveals its fun insides. With everything you need for a game included, where even the case becomes your board, it's a self-contained party in one beautiful package.
AHAlife is committed to help you live a conscious and inspired life.
Many of the items you discover here are exclusive to AHAlife, which is what makes our community of designers and artisans so special.
If you find one of our products anywhere else for less than it's being sold on our site, we will match it.
Our dedicated Support Team is here to help. Reach out any time at:


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Individuals who've perfect credit is suddenly denied a loan and understand that this is because someone has been using their individuality and racking up two sums of debt in their name. Getting this straightened out once it's occurred may be a nightmare as you go through many months of appeals and disputes. Frequently it's extremely difficult to get everything off your relationship once the harm is done. This is where the job of id theft protection comes in. This kind of service takes a proactive as opposed to a reactive approach to id theft. The way this works is that if there's any transaction which can have an impact on your credit account or score the business will intercept this transaction before more info allowing it to occur.
You must then follow some kind of procedure to verify that you're okay with that the transaction being added to your account and being carried out. In this way everything on your account which is originated by you is on a white list of items which are accepted. Everything else is automatically on that the blacklist and for that reason anyone who has your identity, social security number, etc. Will be able to use your credit as you'll not accept these transactions.


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Serving all of South Florida
Hulett Environmental Services is your local pest control expert! Our "Healthy Home" Pest Prevention program focuses on protecting your home, family and pets from pests and the threat they pose to your property and health. Just Call HULETT now at 866-611-2847! or fill out the form below!


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Solar-Tectic LLC gets exclusive license for manufacturing single c-Si thin-films on ordinary glass
Global Solar Technology
January 27, 2012
Solar-Tectic LLC has been granted a world-wide exclusive license for a method of manufacturing single crystal silicon (cSi) thin-films on ordinary glass over a large area, thus allowing for the commercialization of single crystal silicon thin-film solar cells for the first time.
The invention came out of a Dartmouth Sponsored Research Agreement with Solar-Tectic, initially inspired by a related technology disclosed by the late Dr. Praveen Chaudhari, renowned materials scientist and winner of the National Medal of Technology.
Dartmouth researchers at Thayer School of Engineering invented this break-through technology, which allows single-crystal thin-films (composed of Si, Ge, GaAs, CdTe, CIGS, etc) to be monolithically fabricated on large-area amorphous substrates such as ordinary glass and at a cost that is orders of magnitude lower than the price of manufacturing crystalline silicon solar cells (or c-Si).


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THAT MAN wrote:I'm not returning to the discussion forum as I'm enjoying the relief of not having my every utterance pounced upon and my character publicly savaged by 'Stalker' Blake! )
Do you really need to continue this on this part of the forum? I know I am drawing attention to this, when perhaps I shouldn't - it is really becoming very tiresome and smacks of desperation. I thought this was strand was about Jerry Wexler - not your ego.


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More than 1.1 million people have jobs in Europe's renewable energy sector, according to new figures released from EurObserv'ER, a renewable energy tracking project supported by the European Commission.
The numbers, which don't even account for the massive boom in renewables development in 2011, show a 25% increase in employment between 2009 and 2010, bringing documented jobs in the renewable energy sector throughout Europe to 1,144,000.
The boost in activity in 2010 represented about €127 billion ($166 Billion) in economic value, a 15% increase over 2009.
Unlike some reports documenting green jobs in the United States, these figures only include renewable fuels, heat and electricity. They do not include jobs in mass transportation, recycling, and green building design.
They show a very healthy diversity in Europe's renewable energy sector. According to the 2010 figures, the top three sectors for employment were biomass (273,000), solar PV (268,110), and wind (253,145). The next largest were biogas (52,810) and solar thermal (49,845). Behind those sectors were ground source heat pumps, waste-to-energy, small hydro, and geothermal.
The increase in jobs corresponded with an increase in consumption of renewable energy. In 2010, renewables accounted for 12.4% of final energy consumption in Europe — up from 11.5% in 2009 and 10.5% in 2008.
And last year saw even stronger growth, particularly in the renewable electricity sector, where 68% of new capacity in Europe came from wind and solar.
Meanwhile in the U.S., the wind industry faces an expiration of short-term tax credits that threatens up to 37,000 manufacturing, installation and maintenance jobs. Will American politicians work to create one million jobs in renewable energy for people like Nathan Crawford documented in the video below?
Or will we allow other regions create millions more while we look backward?


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Fifteen Brazilian beach volleyball players receive government backing
Rio de Janeiro, October 3, 2013 – Fifteen Brazilian beach volleyball players will receive state financial investment, according to the Sports Ministry.
The measure, which is in association with the Brazilian Confederation of Volleyball (CBV) is part of the Brazil 2016 Medals Program, which aims to maintain the good performances of the Brazilian athletes in the modality.
Friday's announcement took place on the head office of CBV, in Rio de Janeiro, with sports minister Aldo Rebelo, CBV president Walter Pitombo Larangeiras, secretary of sports and leisure of the Rio de Janeiro state Manuel Gonçalves Filho, and the receiving athletes: Emanuel, Ricardo, Alison, Álvaro Filho, Pedro Solberg, Bruno Schmidt, Evandro, Talita, Taiana, Maria Clara, Carol, Lili, Maria Elisa, Ágatha and Bárbara Seixas.
The sportsmen were also presented a training plan to receive the benefit.
The ministry will designate resources to the purchase of equipment and sports material, team structure and assistance in scientific process, as athletes exams. All the athletes received the certificates by the hands of the minister Rebelo.
"The main idea is valorize the sport and spread it even more in Brazil.," the minister said. "The benefit is the recognition to these players who make us so proud and highlight the beach volleyball. And this benefit doesn't represent just something material, but it has the function of establish a bond between the athletes and their public responsibility. They represent a whole country."
Rebelo stressed that Brazil will host the three most important sports events in the world within the next three years, including the FIFA World Cup, the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games. According to the minister, all the expectations that surround the events and the repercussion they will generate explain the great importance of sports investments.
"This initiative of the Federal government, stimulating the Brazilian sports to prepare for the 2016 Olympics Games, is crucial," said CBV president, Walter Pitombo. "On behalf of the CBV, all I can do is thank the ministry for the incentive given to our sport. By the end of 2012, we implemented the concept of Brazil National Team in the beach volleyball. Ever since, our athletes share the same training pattern and the same objective, which is to get on the podium more and more. And the results are already happening – nine gold medals, eight silver medals and eight bronze medals in the FIVB World Tour."
Olympic champion Emanuel Rego, who has a great representativeness in the sports world, spoke for the athletes. Besides being a top player for a long time, he is currently the president of the Athletes Comission in the Brazilian Oympic Comitee (COB) and a delegate of the country in the Athletes Comission in the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
"First of all, I would like to thank the initiative of bringing this project to the beach volleyball until 2016," Emanuel said. "It is a relatively new sport, with a few more than 20 years, but has always brought Olympic medals to Brazil – a total of 11, being two of gold, six silvers and three bronzes. Not only athletes, but all the involved with volleyball are responsible for make this project winner and keep our sport in this excellence level."
The Brazil 2016 Medals Plan
The plan was created by the Federal government in September 2012, and has the objective of putting the country among the top 10 countries in the Olympic Games and the top five in the Paralympic Games. The investment will reach R $1 billion until 2016 and cover 21 olympic modalities and 15 paralympic modalities.
The benefit granted Friday is a complement to existing investments and the values are between R$ 5,000 and R$ 15,000. The number of covered athletes can change, once several criteria must be met. Some of them are to be placed in the top 20 players in the world ranking and to show evidence of career improvement compatible with the expectations of medal in Rio 2016.
"It is another partnership of CBV with the Sports Ministry for the development of beach volleyball.," said Rodrigo Ribeiro, Volleyball National Team manager of CBV. "There are no doubts that this will add to the organization of the National Team model which is being built and already shows excellent results, besides winning medals in 2016. It will be valid specially for the acquire of new equipment, letting us work in the best technical conditions."
The benefit takes part in a series of investments of the Federal Government for the development of Brazilian volleyball. Presently, there are five covenants – three focused on volleyball indoor and two oriented for beach volleyball – between the Sports Ministry and the CBV, totaling R$ 24.6 million in three years.
By the end of the current year, the modality esteem to receive R$ 3.5 million related to the Agnelo-Piva Law, through the Brazilian Olympic Comitee (COB). In 2012, the CBV raised around R$ 9.575 million through projects approved by the Sports Incentive Law.


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Ex-news: Overview standards of the CEN & 50000 series
In every newsletter you will find an actual overview of standards relating to explosion safety. In this issue we publish the CEN series and the 50000 series.
CEN series;
Standards in this category are published by CEN / TC 305, and/or published in the OJ of the 94/9/EC Directive. Standards which are not part of this category, but are part of a series (like 1010) are also included.
50000 series;
This series of standards consists partly of standards for paint-spraying equipment and partly of gas detection equipment. The remaining part is a collection of different standards for mining equipment (Group I), transportable ventilated rooms and electrostatics.
Actual overview standard 50000
We cannot accept any claims relating to these documents. If errors are detected, please notify us.


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Growers' Collection
Our ambition to create a range of wines from sites other than our home vineyard was born of multiple desires.
When friends with extraordinary vineyards offered to make available small amounts of Pinot Noir, we loved the idea of exploring the voice of one of our home varieties from other terroirs. The Eaton Family Vineyard in Marlborough, the Calvert Vineyard on Felton Road in Bannockburn – these are remarkable sites, meticulously managed by admired colleagues; it is a privilege to be trusted with such fruit.
Then too, the opportunity to play with a greater range of varieties and styles, and especially those that seem unfairly neglected or demodés, was temptation and impetus: Semillon in a textural, full-bodied, white Graves style, Riesling in the vibrant Germanic mode, delicate Pinot Blanc, and from Hawke's Bay in the 2007 vintage, Cabernet Franc and old-vine Gewurztraminer; such wines can be fascinating and delicious, and joyous and pliable at table. They also represent for us both a mechanism to protect against the uprooting of venerable but vulnerable plots, and a philosophical blow against the creeping homogeneity of wine.
Again, we felt motivated to see recognition given to New Zealand's grapegrowers, who have played so critical a role in the ascension and the growing acclaim of their country's wine, but who so rarely receive due credit. How fun, and how just, we thought, to give these craftspeople a chance to show off their site and their skill.
The basic arrangement is simple: we lease a chosen area of a grower's vineyard, at a value set by the average income yielded by that area, if contracted to another buyer. We then, at our own cost, introduce a long list of operations geared to ensuring superior grape quality: shorter pruning, bud rubbing, shoot thinning and positioning, leaf plucking, fruit thinning, hand harvesting, and sorting or multiple passes at harvest if necessary. All work is done by hand. The extra canopy management also reduces disease, allowing a sharp reduction in the normal spray programme. In the end, our fruit usually comes off at 40-60% of the yield realised by other buyers, with significantly better maturity.
This attention is then carried to the winery, where the grapes, must and wine benefit from the same mindful heed: a strict minimum of additions – little or no sulphur, natural settling, no enzymes; fermentation exclusively with yeasts cultured from each source vineyard, natural malos; no finings, filtration only when necessary. Our wines often ferment for many months, and malos usually require at least a year to complete. Movements of the wine – pressing, topping, racking – are timed to propitious stages of the lunar calendar. Because we know and trust our fruit, we are confident allowing our wines largely to make themselves.
Needless to say, spending considerably more to produce a smaller crop, and permitting wines to follow their own internal calendars and logic, is no recipe for cash-flow felicity: but what excites us is making remarkable, memorable wine, and discovering what a great site and grower can achieve, if both are encouraged to ultimate quality.


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Now that this year has come to a close, I thought I'd do a quick wrap up of the top projects on Gluesticks for 2011. And since it is the year 2011, here are the top Eleven. I went by comments and page views to put these in order. So for my new followers (welcome!) here are some of the projects you may have missed.
And a very Happy New Year to Everyone!
9. Teddy Sleds


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If you have ancestors from New York (formerly New Netherland), you may wish to consider joining the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. Members have access to the complete set of the NYG&B Record. That's 140 years of articles and primary sources for New York families!
There is other unique data online for members. For example Book One of the 1855 New YOrk State Census for Ward 17 of New York City is online and indexed in the E-Library. The rest will be added as completed.


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A Fond Farewell!
Thank you for your support of our humble festival for all these years. When we first contemplated the Seattle Cheese Festival back in 2003, we hoped to expose cheese makers in the Northwest to lots of people curious about artisan cheese. Little did we know that our first year (2004) would be such an amazing success. Indeed, over 35,000 people flocked to the Pike Place Market that year – and each year after – to taste not only Northwest cheeses but cheeses from all over the world. Cheese makers were getting exposed, for sure! And it is without question, the stars of the Festival were the cheese makers. Our little idea – the Seattle Cheese Festival – was a hit thanks to all of you. Over the last couple of years, however, the Festival has become kind of like Yogi Berra's quote "Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded." Attendance by cheese makers and distributors has fallen off sharply. We take this a good sign – they had the exposure and cheese has become part of the culinary nomenclature of Seattle.
So it is with a bit of sadness and a touch of pride that we drop the curtain on the Seattle Cheese Festival. It has been an amazing ride and a true labor of love for all of here at DeLaurenti Food & Wine. We thank the cheese fans, cheese makers, distributors, sponsors and the Pike Place Market for all your support over the years.
Please eat more cheese and we'll see you around the Market!
Enjoy a photo slideshow of highlights from the 2009 event.


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Jeremy Goode-Xmatrix Quadrus Labyrinth Puzzle
At Design Interviews
Interview with Jeremy Goode : Frank Scott: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?. Jeremy Goode : To design an interesting 'curious' object. .Frank Scott: What are your future plans for this award winning design?. Jeremy Goode : To get more distributors in more countries and to expand the range. .Frank Scott: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?. Jeremy Goode : I designed the concept in 1999 and it sat in a box until I managed to get it manufactured. .Frank Scott: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?. Jeremy Goode : Produced solely by Xmatrix. .Frank Scott: What made you design this particular type of work?. Jeremy Goode : An interest in puzzles, graphic and packaging design. .Frank Scott: Who is the target customer for his design?. Jeremy Goode : Women buying for men. Young male. .Frank Scott: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?. Jeremy Goode : Most puzzles look like cheap toys. .Frank Scott: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?. Jeremy Goode : The playful Xmatrix brand name creates its own intrigue. This unique and magical ambigram logo is itself a puzzle. It has been developed to fit onto the product and the packaging so that it always reads correctly and plays on the idea of turning the puzzle 'upside-down'. X -marks the spot, the point of buried treasure, or unknown factor, MATRIX -womb, cavity in which something is formed or developed, or an array of elements set out in rows and columns. .Frank Scott: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?. Jeremy Goode : Hand designed and hand made mock-ups. .Frank Scott: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?. Jeremy Goode : Worked with 3D tool makers. .Frank Scott: What is the role of technology in this particular design?. Jeremy Goode : Designing the tooling. Designing the logo and packaging. .Frank Scott: How did you decide to submit your design to an international design competition?. Jeremy Goode : I wanted the product to be appreciated from a design perspective. .Frank Scott: What did you learn or how did you improve yourself during the designing of this work?. Jeremy Goode : Learned about the complex process of injection mould making. .
Jeremy Goode-Xmatrix Quadrus Labyrinth Puzzle Images:
End of the article, click here to go back to previous page, or alternatively go back to Creativity Days Design Blog homepage.


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Apps are taking over the world, and why not? The best apps provide a clean, direct interface that gives us immediate access to the latest news, info and business data. And now, in their fourth year, the Tabby Awards are introducing a new category specifically for the best business smartphone apps — the Mobby Awards/Business. The 2015 nominees include 34 Android and iOS apps for work and productivity in 12 categories. The winners will be announced later this fall.
This year's categories for the Mobby Awards/Business include collaboration, communications, enterprise solutions, productivity, small business tools, presentations and vertical marketing. In this slideshow, we've featured the top business and professional apps identified as the 2015 Mobby Awards/Business nominees.
Related Topics : In Their Own Words: The Four Dark Horses for the Third Major Mobile OS Speak, HTC, Mobile Search, 3G, Location-Based Services
Wearables are revolutionizing the workplace, with innovations that create a safer work environment or enhance the way professionals are able to go about their job. ... More >>
Here are the top 10 strategic technology trends that will impact most organizations in 2017. Strategic technology trends are defined as those with substantial disruptive potential or those reaching the tipping point over the next five years. ... More >>
Digital innovation is by far the biggest influencer, changing the way we do just about everything, from shopping to communication to running a business. ... More >>


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Telltale sign you've ignored your dog's coat for too long
June 26, 2019
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June 25, 2019
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HEALTHY PETS DISCLAIMER: This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace the advice of your own veterinarian or doctor. Dr. Karen Becker cannot answer specific questions about your pet's medical issues or make medical recommendations for your pet without first establishing a veterinarian-client-patient relationship. Your pet's medical protocol should be given by your holistic veterinarian.
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August 17, 2017 - Issue 1709
August 17, 2017
They're very clean and easy to care for, yet they're often ignored when people consider adopting a pet. And that's too bad, because these incredibly soft creatures are affectionate and playful and more intelligent than they may look.
With his bright orange bill and webbed feet, a little puffin is friendly and curious.
Dogs who spend their first weeks of life in a puppy mill or come from a small-scale irresponsible breeder may have life-long problems as a result. New research suggests widespread behavioral problems may result when puppies aren't given the right start to their life.
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We are a medium-large non-profit company, with around 1000 staff and volunteers, and have been using MS Exchange (currently 2003) for our mail system for years.
I recently attended a Google conference where they were positing that "Cloud computing is the way of the future", and encouraging us to switch from doing our own email with Exchange, to using GMail and Google Apps for everything.
Additionally, one of our departments has been pushing from inside to do this transition within their own department, if not throughout the entire organization.
I can definitely see some benefits - such as:
- Archive space - we never seem to have the space our users want, and of course, the more we get, the more we have to back up
- OS Agnostic - Exchange is definitely built for windows, and with mac and linux users on the rise, these users increasingly demand better tools / support. Google offers this.
- Better archiving - potential of e-discovery, that doesn't exist in a practical way with our current setup.
- Switching would relieve us of a fair bit of server administration, give more options to our end users, and free up the server resources we are now using for Exchange.
- Our IT department wants to be perceived as providing up-to-date solutions to technical problems, and this change would definitely provide such an image.
- Google's infrastructure is obviously much more robust than ours, and they employ some of the world's best security and network experts.
However, there are also some serious drawbacks:
- We would be essentially outsourcing one of our mission-critical systems to a 3rd party
- The switch would inevitably involve Google Apps and perhaps more as well. That means we would have a-lot more at the mercy of a single (potentially weak) password. (is there a way to make this more secure using a password plus physical key of some sort??)
- Our data would not remain under our roof - or even in our country (Canada). This obviously has plusses on the Disaster Recovery side, but I think there are potential negatives on the legal side.
- I can't imagine that somebody as large as Google would be as responsive as we would want with regard to non-critical issues such as tracing missing emails, etc. (not sure how much access we would have to basic mail logs - for instance)
Can anyone help me evaluate this decision?
- What issues am I overlooking?
- What experiences have you had with this transition (or the opposite - gmail to Exchange)
- Can you add to the points I have already outlined?


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SAN ANTONIO (AP) Manu Ginobili had 20 points and the San Antonio Spurs set a season high for points in a 126-100 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Saturday night.
DeJuan Blair added 19 points and Danny Green had 15 for San Antonio (8-2). Tony Parker and Tim Duncan each scored 14 points while playing 25 and 23 minutes, respectively.
Danilo Gallinari scored 15 and Kenneth Faried finished with 14 for Denver (4-6), which has lost three straight games for the second time this season.
The Spurs shot 54 percent from the field, including a 16-for-20 performance from 3-point range. San Antonio never trailed by less than 18 points in the second half.
With the outcome in little doubt, one of the few second-half highlights came when Tiago Splitter dunked over JaVale McGee with 7 minutes remaining. The dunk caused Duncan to leap out of his chair in celebration.
Duncan gave San Antonio its largest lead at 74-42 on a pair of free throws with 7:49 left in the third.
Stephen Jackson made his first start of the season for the Spurs, and Blair was in the starting lineup for the second time this season. They combined to score 12 straight points after Green opened the game with a dunk for a 14-9 lead.
Jackson finished with nine points. Blair also had eight rebounds and three assists.
Denver finished with 21 turnovers.
NOTES: Spurs F Kawhi Leonard, hampered by quadriceps tendinitis above his left knee, missed his first game of the season. He is expected to miss at least 10 days. ... Spurs G Gary Neal missed his second game after he cut his right index finger when he picked up his luggage. Neal sported a small bandage around the index finger. ... The Spurs wore their silver alternate jersey, which features their traditional Spur logo on the front. It's the first jersey in NBA history without any writing on the front of the jersey. ... Nuggets F Wilson Chandler (hip) missed his second straight game.


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Personally Yours Tours specialises in individual, tailor-made, private and personal tours of Brisbane and South-East Queensland. Come and see the real Brisbane where the locals live and play from the comfort of their luxury vehicle. They can accommodate from one to six persons and can tailor make the tour to suit your interests.
Their discreet unmarked vehicle assures your privacy and if required, the tour can start or finish at the airport or cruise ship. Personally Yours Tours has been operating since 1999 and has won numerous industry and business awards.
Larger groups including conference tours can be catered for on request. Each tour has the owners at the helm regardless of size so personal attention is assured. Four samples of the types of tours you can do are listed here. The options are only limited by your imagination. Transfers to and from Brisbane Airport and to the Gold and Sunshine Coasts are possible using their custom luggage trailer.
Personally Yours Tours prefer to give individual quote for each tour, prices listed here are indicative. You may be pleasantly surprised to find that the best is not always the most expensive.
While in Brisbane there is no better place on earth to experience the thrill of unpowered flight than the Fassifern Valley.
Personally Yours Tours in conjunction with the Boonah Gliding Club, is able to offer this amazing experience. Individuals or small groups can be equally catered for. The operation is seven days a week and is weather dependant. Various aircraft are available from vintage to modern fully aerobatic.
After enjoying the flight, head for the warm hospitality of a genuine Queensland country pub not far from the airfield - The 'Dugandan' - for lunch and maybe a cold beer with some of the locals.
Featuring historic homes and towns, Kooroomba winery and lavender farm and the quaint country town of Boonah.
Departing at the suggested time of 9am, arrive at Boonah in time for morning tea and then enjoy a short walk through this historic village
Bidding farewell to Boonah, you'll head for wine tasting and lunch at the exquisite 'Kooroomba' winery. After lunch you'll head through Kalbar, another country town, before the run back to Brisbane, arriving at approximately 5pm.
See the best of the Sunshine Coast in one day with your own private guide. With no fixed itinerary, you can decide on the departure time and also the length of time spent at any destination along the way.
Some highlights of the day include the Glasshouse Mountains, the Blackall Range including Maleny and Montville, and then Noosa Beach. Here, you'll have time for strolling down the famous Hastings Street and find a cafe for lunch. Take a walk in the national park and maybe spot a koala.
Finally, leave Noosa and follow the coastal road with spectacular ocean views and re-join the freeway at Mooloolaba for the run back to Brisbane.
Come and see why more than one million people have made Brisbane their home in the last 20 years. The once sleepy 'big country town' is now a thriving modern city with big city sophistication.
Commence with a tour of the history and heritage of the city and then pause for a short walk through Southbank Parklands. Then weave your way through the suburbs and climb to the highest point in Brisbane, Mt Coot-tha with stunning views across the city. Complete the tour by passing some of the best 'Queenslander' homes in the city. The tour takes about four hours.
Also available as full day tour.
Note: Information on listed products and services are provided by the operator and were correct at the time of publishing. Rates are indicative based on the minimum and maximum available prices of products and services. Please visit the operator's website for further information. All prices quoted are in Australian dollars (AUD).


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For the third consecutive season, a group of area high school tennis players has returned home with the Ohio Valley Cup championship.
For the third consecutive season, a group of area high school tennis players has returned home with the Ohio Valley Cup championship.
Team Columbus went 3-0 in the five-team tournament held June 15 and 16 at Erickson All-Sports Facility in Parkersburg, W.Va. Also competing in the event were teams from Cincinnati, Dayton and Charleston, W.Va., and the Mid-Ohio Valley Tennis Association, which was comprised of players from a total of 12 counties in southeastern Ohio and northern West Virginia.
Team Columbus beat Dayton 8-2 in the first round and MOVTA 10-0 in the second round before defeating Cincinnati 7-3 in the final.
The event uses a 10-match format, with two singles matches for both boys and girls, two doubles matches for both boys and girls and two mixed-doubles matches. Teams were permitted to have 10 players on their rosters, but Team Columbus had four boys and four girls.
"It was a lot of fun," said 2013 Upper Arlington graduate Nate Wallace, who was the only player on Team Columbus to compete in the event each of the last three years. "There was a lot of good tennis played and we were able to extend our streak to three years. We didn't play our best tennis as a team until the championship and still won. I think everyone stepped it up against Cincinnati."
The other boys on Team Columbus were UA senior Jeffrey Melvin, UA sophomore Eric Hunter and 2013 Watterson graduate Ryan Bibo. The four girls on the team were 2013 Hartley graduate Rachael Morales, 2013 Hilliard Bradley graduate Ashley Thai, UA junior Audrey Berger and UA sophomore Olivia Kompa.
Team Columbus was coached by Tyler Stephen, who coaches the boys and girls teams at Dublin Jerome, and Steve Metzmaier, who coaches the boys team at Worthington Kilbourne.
"We had a talented roster and the kids relished the opportunity to represent their cities and central Ohio," Stephen said. "They liked the co-ed format and we had an interesting mix of ages on our roster."
Wallace, who will continue his playing career at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind., and Melvin won the Division I state doubles title this spring, defeating Cincinnati Sycamore's Dylan Stern and Deepak Indrakanti 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 in the final.
"We had three guys from UA, but all eight people on the roster were familiar with one another through our clubs and (United States Tennis Association) competition," Wallace said. "For me, it was great having (Melvin and Hunter) on the team because we had a great season at UA and they deserved to be on this team."
Bibo, who will be playing at Denison University, lost in the first round of the Division II state tournament in singles.
"Bibo had a great career at Watterson but may have been a little underrated," Stephen said. "He played great in doubles with Eric against Cincinnati. Eric was one of the strongest freshmen in Ohio this season."
Morales won the Division II state title in singles last fall and will be playing for Marshall University in Huntington, W.Va.
"(The Ohio Valley Cup) was really fun," she said. "The USTA events are mostly individual events, but competing for a team and representing your school and your district in a team event is special. I wish there were more tournaments like this.
"The competition was better than regular-season high school matches and it was a team format. I wish it had lasted more than two days. We got to stay overnight and we all knew each other because several of us train together. It was exciting."
Thai, who will be playing for Bradley University in Peoria, Ill., was a three-time state qualifier. She and her cousin, 2013 graduate Lauren Thai, won the Division II state doubles title in 2010 and lost in a Division I state quarterfinal in doubles in 2011. Last fall, Ashley lost in a Division I state quarterfinal in singles.
Berger and 2013 graduate Elaine Cloern placed third in the Division I state tournament in doubles in 2011.