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Transcript: Radio National Breakfast with Fran Kelly
09 March 2015
Topics: MH370, Budget cuts to legal aid and community aid.
Fran Kelly: This weekend marked the first anniversary of really the most baffling mystery in commercial aviation history: the disappearance of flight MH370 with 239 people on board. Australia is leading the international search team for the missing Boeing jetliner, which is believed to be somewhere within a 60,000 square-kilometre priority zone in the Southern Indian Ocean, 1600 kilometres off WA coast—the WA coast. Overnight an interim report by Malaysian aviation authorities has offered basically no fresh clues into what's caused the plane to dramatically veer off course during a routine flight between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing. Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss is helping coordinate the search for MH370. Warren Truss, welcome back to Breakfast.
Warren Truss: Good morning.
Fran Kelly: Minister, 12 months on, nothing has been found, not a single piece of wreckage has been found. Are you surprised by that?
Warren Truss: Well I guess I'm disappointed, but there are plausible reasons why that is the case. Firstly, the initial search of the first ten days or so was not in the right area; when information became available that we needed to look in a vastly different part of the ocean, by that time any wreckage that might have been floating on the surface, it would have sunk to the bottom of the sea. And so it's an area where there's limited currents, and for that reason, at that depth, it's unlikely that any kind of debris will come to the surface. It's also possible of course that the aircraft is largely intact, and that would have meant that the weight of the objects would have moved them to the bottom of the sea very quickly. But we don't know all those sorts of things, and unless we find the aircraft I suppose some of those things will be a permanent mystery.
Fran Kelly: And I guess it's still- really, we can't be certain we're hunting in the right place, searching in the right place.
Warren Truss: Well we're certainly using the best scientists, the best information, there's been an international panel that's gone over the evidence time and time again. Everything supports the area that we're searching in. But the total area that's been identified by that group is over a million square kilometres. We've narrowed it down to the most prospective 60,000 to begin the search. The northern part of that initially defined area we've tended now to discount, and we're concentrating on the southern area, but nonetheless there's still a large area, potentially, where the airline could have come to grief in the water on the basis of the information that we have.
Fran Kelly: So where it is one question. Why it might be there is the other. There are very many theories, but we got this report from the Malaysian Department of Civil Aviation on the weekend, basically found no indications of anything wrong; no evidence of behavioural change in the pilots and the crew; no problems with the plane's airworthiness at all; the weather conditions were good; still no clue as to what happened.
Warren Truss: Well, this particular report is an obligation under the international convention that if nothing has been found within- or no solutions have been found within a year, there must be a statement made of the known facts. So, what's in this report are just the known facts, no speculation, and obviously people have their theories about what might have happened, and we can really only confirm those once we've got some- particularly the recovery of the black box recorders. That kind of information would make a real difference in being able to rule out many of the quite extraordinary ideas and theories that are around. But nonetheless, something very unusual has happened on this aircraft, and it is important for the future of the aviation community and the confidence of people who fly that we do everything we can to know what happened to so we that can endeavour to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Fran Kelly: There are so many, many theories. I was in Malaysia recently and everyone, every taxi driver I had, they wanted to talk about it and they had theories. Most of them seemed to think it was a suicide pact by one of the pilots, that that's the most likely thing. We were speaking to a fellow on the program on Friday who's written a book suggesting this was Russia's revenge for US sanctions against Ukraine, that they'd somehow got this plane and rerouted it to Kazakhstan. There's all these theories around, this report says they haven't seen anything on the CCTV recordings and everything else they've checked to give any qualifying support to any of them. You've looked- you've been looking at this, you have to as part of what you're doing, do you think there's likely any other thing gone on here besides a mechanical error in this plane?
Warren Truss: Well it's hard to explain many of the things that happened on the basis of mechanical error. It's hard to understand how transponders could have been turned off; it's hard to understand why there would have been a dramatic change of course direction if we're just relying on some kind of mechanical fault; if there was some kind of mechanical fault only then also it's surprising that pilots and others did not report that to the air traffic controllers. After all, the aircraft flew for another seven hours after it dramatically changed course. So it is very easy to discount most of those kinds of theories. It's hard to believe there wasn't some kind of human intervention that led to the aircraft changing course. But all of those are just theories until we actually have the flight box recorder; the data information that's there would be critical in helping to ascertain what happened and maybe even why it happened.
Fran Kelly: In terms of human intervention, just to stay with that for one moment longer, as I say, pilot suicide is a very popular theory on the ground in Malaysia and beyond, I'm not sure if that's what you're referring to. But I do note that this report has looked into the backgrounds and behavioural changes, or none, they've found, of the pilots and the crew, but not of the passengers on board. Do you think that work needs to be done?
Warren Truss: Well, when I say human intervention, there were a lot of people on the aircraft, that is for certain. And while the finger is often pointed at the pilot or the co-pilot or those who are in command of the aircraft, there are of course others on the aircraft. But they would have been less able to have intervened. But all of this is simply speculation. That's why the search is so important and that's why we're committed to continuing the search. We're—only a little under half of the designated priority area has so far been searched. We've found nothing, but we hope every morning that this will be the day when the equipment that's in operation in that area actually finds the aircraft and we can have some kind of closure for the people on boar… for the families of the people on board.
Fran Kelly: It's 17 to eight on Breakfast. Our guest is Warren Truss, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development and the Minister basically in charge of this coordinated search for MH370. Minister, there was some disturbing news in this report which was released over the weekend, which is that the battery of the underwater locator beacon had been due to expire more than a year before MH370 took to the skies and disappeared. Is that like… I mean, that's bad safety procedures in the first instance, but is that likely to have hampered the search for the plane and what does that mean about all that information we had about the pings, the locator pings. Does that make that null and void?
Warren Truss: Well I think that information we now know to have been coming from other sources and was not coming from the aircraft. After all, that was at a time when the search was hundreds of kilometres away from where we're actually searching now. So, I think it can be reasonably discounted that those pings at no stage came from the aircraft.
Fran Kelly: And what do you—what was your response to the news that this battery in the locator beacon—the underwater locator be… was due to expire more than a year before the plane took off?
Warren Truss: Well, certainly, it should have been replaced. That's a routine part of maintenance. But it doesn't mean that the battery was flat and not operational and we're still optimistic that there'll be useful material on the black box recorders if we're able to discover them.
Fran Kelly: Is that what that is? Is that battery linked to the black box recorders?
Warren Truss: Well my understanding, from the report, is that it was linked. And should therefore have been—should most certainly have been replaced. But from all the information we have, the black box recorders were operational and so while the battery should have been replaced, it may—must still have had some life in it.
Fran Kelly: Minister, the Australian Government allocated another $90 million for the search in last year's Budget. The Prime Minister told Parliament on Thursday that he couldn't promise the search effort would, quote, go on at this intensity forever. Does the Government—is the Government planning to scale down funding for the search?
Warren Truss: Well, we're only halfway through this element of the search and we have sufficient funds to complete what we've committed to—in other words, searching the whole 60,000 square kilometres. That's been assisted by the fact that the Malaysian Government has matched the funding that we've put in place and some other countries continue to provide information and assistance to the search on their own account. But we'll have to make a decision about whether to extend the contracts for the existing vessels that are searching in the area. We have the best vessels, we've got the best equipment in the world employed in this search and so if it's to continue, we certainly want to make sure that we're able to maintain the contracts with those vessels. So it's likely that officials and ministers will meet over the next few weeks and make a decision about whether to continue the search. Whilst the chosen area was the most prospective and the place where we felt the likelihood was greatest of finding the aircraft, there are other areas within that defined area that are in fact identified as places where the aircraft could have come down and so a wider search is certainly an option.
Fran Kelly: And just finally Minister, a little later in the program we're going to be joined by the Victorian Attorney-General, Martin Pakula. The State and Territories Attorneys-General have sent a letter to George Brandis, the Federal Attorney-General, protesting at the budget cuts to legal aid and community aid. These cuts are going to be felt very hard in regional and rural Australia, especially for those working in the area of family violence. They're warning of catastrophic impact. Are you talking to George Brandis about reversing these cutbacks? Are you worried about the impact that this [indistinct]…
Warren Truss: Well I'm advised that no community legal centre has had any cuts to date…
Fran Kelly: From June 30.
Warren Truss: …to their frontline service. Well what the states are talking about was a decision that was announced in 2013, that we wouldn't fund legal centres directly, but we would instead pay the money through the states. I would have thought the states would be pleased about that, because it's something that they've always been demanding that we should do as a Commonwealth. So I'm confident that priority legal services for people in need will continue to be funded.
Fran Kelly: Warren Truss, thank you very much for joining us on Breakfast.
Warren Truss: You're welcome.
Fran Kelly: Warren Truss is the Deputy Prime Minister.


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Lance Armstrong to France Monday to begin training for Tour de France
Submitted by admin on Sat, 05/22/2010 - 00:50
- French sports daily L'Equipe Saturday is reporting that Lance Armstrong will arrive in France Monday to begin preparing for the Tour de France (July 3-25). While Armstrong was not expected to compete in the Dauphiné Libéré (June 6-13), L'Equipe reports that a source tells them the Tour de Suisse (June 12-20) is also unlikely. Armstrong is expected to begin training in and around his European base at Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat near Nice.

subset: commoncrawl


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Go Green : With Gaelic Dreams
Floral & Imports, Hopkinsville Kentucky USA
Topics in this category
Claddagh & Knot Rings
All items on this page are quarenteed to be .925% pure sterling silver.Images are
shown aproximately actual size. Each is available in a variety of sizes. Most Womans rings are available in sizes 5-9 and mens rings are available in sizes 8-12. All rings are sold in even sizes.Those listed as Unisex ( U ) are suitable for both a man or woman.Those listed as (M) are men's sizes only
Knots in Celtic lore are symbols of eternal love or an eternal bond of friendship whereas, the Claddagh is a symbol of Love, Hope, & Charity and is considered a ring of betrothal.
In addition to the jewelry shown on these pages, Gaelic Dreams offers a great selection of instock fashion and costume jewelry in its retail location in Hopkinsville. Stop by today to see whats new.


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Lucy Monroe's blog today with an excerpt of On the First Night of Christmas.. Would love to know what reader's think and am doing a giveaway to one lucky commentator, so come on over and join me there.
In other news am under the cosh trying to meet December deadline for latest book.... Still in hand-to-hand combat with my sagging middle. Always the hardest part of the book I find. Especially if your hero and heroine refuse to cooperate! Grrr.


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Winds Requiem wrote:Fragile or not ill just be super careful when reading should i get one. I was unfortunate to not know about this amazing story and printing project until March of this year so I had no option besides reserves list. Patiently waiting for the reserve list is super hard because of how bad i need this treasure.
Also, OVER 1600 pages?!
Same story for me, I found this proyect some months ago and I missed the chance to be part of it, of course I'll be extremely careful if I have the chance to get a copy, for now, I gotta keep saving my money if we get some good news about the reserve list (fingers crossed)


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What would you do if you held infinite power in the palm of your hand? Order of the Seers poses this question within a story that fuses action, mystery, romance, and adventure in a science fiction novel that keeps you at the edge of your seat. Order of the Seers begins with the journey of Liam and Lilith Knight, a brother and sister who are hunted by The Guild, a ruthless world organization that seeks to capture and exploit Lilith s unique ability as a Seer to envision the future. Soon after they are forced to leave their home, Lilith and Liam discover that she is not alone. Other Seers like Lilith are routinely kidnapped and enslaved by the Guild for the purpose of consolidating wealth and power around the world. But from within the organization, Marcus Akida, a captured Seer with powerful visioning capabilities, quietly plots his daring escape with the help of a beautiful and tortured Seer named Alessandra. When the escaped Seers are drawn to the same remote commune in Iowa as Liam and Lilith, they each find a place where they can rebuild their lives and rediscover their passion for life and love. As the Guild s efforts to find them intensifies, the Seers ban together with outlaws from the commune to fight back against the organization that threatens their lives setting off a chain of events that will unleash the full power of the Seers and change everything we know about the true potential that lies dormant in each of us.
After successfully destroying the Guild's Purification Center in Chicago, The Lost Seers, led by Joel Akida and Lilli Knight, embark upon a world-wide mission to save their kind from the tyranny of the Guild and unveil their greatest weapon – The Restoration Project. Developed in secret, The Restoration Project has the potential to awaken the supernatural ability within every man, woman, and child on earth and bring down the very foundation of the Guild's power and authority.
But the Guild has other plans. Driven by the necessity for control, Crane Le Dieu creates The Red Order, a new league of clairvoyants whose sole purpose is to hunt down and annihilate the Lost Seers. Without the Guild's mind-controlling drugs, The Red Order is able to develop its gifts far beyond the capacity to see the future, honing their skills to become the ultimate threat against the Lost Seers. But the question remains – will the power of The Red Order be enough to defeat them?
The Red Order continues the epic battle for freedom which began in Order of the Seers, revealing the secret motives behind an organization that exists to exploit and a renegade movement that seeks to usher in the next phase in human evolution.
As the Seers mobilize to confront this new evil, the Guild tries desperately to uphold the crumbling world order on which it depends. When their attempts to manage the crisis fail, the members of the Guild are forced to place themselves at the mercy of an unlikely ally.
But the Guild isn't the only one interested in maintaining control.
An agreement made in secret threatens to destroy any hope of a peaceful alliance before it can be made and as the betrayals unfold, no one is safe against a power that will stop at nothing to get what it wants. To defeat this threat and ensure the survival of the human race, the Seers must push the boundaries of their abilities beyond any limits they have known and risk crossing the line between life and death.
How far would you go to protect what matters most?
I think that is a Trilogy incredible, in this books we can see some new... Cerece Rennie Murphy wrote about Seers; your life and the things that they have doing for survive.
This a run against time, when an organization that exploits the Seers for their own gain. It is only after the first Seers escape that they begin to truly discover the full extent and purpose of their power and when they do, they change the world, not because of the extent of their powers as much as the decision to use whatever power they have for good.
Because, as super humans, they have that choice how use theirs abilities. The future is nothing more than what we are determined to create.
When time they have for survive or not?
Fell in love with science fiction at the age of seven, watching "Empire Strikes Back" at the Uptown Theater in Washington, D.C., with her sister and mom. It's a love affair that has grown ever since. As an ardent fan of John Donne, Alice Walker, Kurt Vonnegut and Alexander Pope from an early age, Cerece began exploring her own creative writing through poetry. She earned her master's degrees in social work and international relations at Boston College and Johns Hopkins School for Advance International Studies, respectively, and built a rewarding 15-year career in program development, management and fundraising in the community and international development arenas – all while appreciating the stories of human connection told in science fiction through works like Octavia Butler's "Wild Seed," Frank Herbert's "Dune" and "The X-Files." In 2011, Cerece experienced her own supernatural event - a vision of her first science fiction story. Shortly after, she began developing and writing what would become the "Order of the Seers" trilogy. Cerece lives just outside of her hometown of Washington, D.C., with her husband, two children and the family dog, Yoda. For more information, follow Cerece athttp://www.cerecerenniemurphy.com


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A longtime friend of StyleBlueprint's, we are happy to feature the lovely Kayce Hughes today as our FACE of Nashville. As the owner of both Pears+Bears and Kayce Hughes (her women's line), Kayce oozes classic, effortless style. In Kayce's household, with her photographer husband Scott Hughes (who took all the photos here today) and seven children, energy and creativity are always on hand. We admire Kayce's dedication to her business, but also the boundaries she places to allow time for family, creativity, and self.
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Miami until we moved to Long Island when I was 10. I later went to boarding school in Connecticut and college in upstate NY. I moved to NYC as soon as I graduated and thought that I would live there forever.
Do you have a funny or interesting childhood memory you can share with our readers?
Many of our weekends were spent on a ranch in southern Florida where my parents enjoyed hunting. I have fond memories of swimming in the marshy pond, driving around the ranch in an army style Jeep with my Fisher Price lunchbox and Silo thermos, roasting marshmallows in the evenings and feeding them to the six-foot alligator that lived in the pond. It wasn't until later in life that I realized my parents let my sister and me swim in the same pond as the alligator, and our only concern was that we had our Keds on so we didn't touch the muddy bottom.
When and why did you move to Nashville?
In 1994, a job offer for my husband at EMI Music enticed us to leave NYC for Nashville. We moved here with our one-year-old son. Both Nashville and I have grown a lot in the last 18 years, and I can't imagine a more wonderful place to raise our children.
As the mother of 7 children, we marvel at how gracefully and seamlessly you are able to juggle the many balls you have in the air. How do you do it? And what wisdom can give you give young mothers, or any mothers, for that matter.
I think that the key is accepting that most of us can't happily juggle as much as we would like.
Contentedness comes with being honest about the things that matter most to you and your family and focusing on doing those things well. Priorities and needs are constantly changing and they are different for every person and family. For me, being creative, having my company, focusing on our family are my priorities. This means that my workout routine consists of throwing on my running shoes and going for a 20 minute run by my house and dinner often means picking up chicken pot pie from Whole Foods, even though cooking is one of my passions, and we never watch TV. Every day is a gift. I think that too often we try to figure out how to do more when we need to try to do less.
Greatest piece of advice you can give about an entrepreneurial start up in design?
I want to preface this by saying I didn't do it this way because I didn't know any better.
But if you are a creative person, make sure that you seek input from people who have different gifts than yours. Those people can be investors, counselors, employees, friends, etc. Enjoy the process of learning and learn from your mistakes.
What it the greatest challenge you face with your business, Pear and Bears?
It is always a challenge to decide the wisest next step. For example, there are so many exciting things that I want to do — like open up another store and design a jewelry line and a handbag line. I need to decide which I will do first.
Do you have any irrational fears?
I don't think so, but I do scream extremely loudly if I see a mouse. Does that count?
What books can be found on your bedside table?
Curious George and Nurture Shock.
Favorite thing to do on a Saturday night?
I love to get dressed up and go on a date with my husband to Caffé Nonna. We have had a standing reservation for the last 12 years and only call if we are not going. I know that our friends think that we are a bit boring, but we love not having to think about it and we have developed some very sweet friendships with the people who work there. Of course, I am crazy about the food.
Event most looking forward to attending this spring?
I love having a few friends over for dinner and want to do it more often this spring. I find that it is really important to make time for close friends. I am also very excited to attend my oldest son's graduation from boarding school in New Hampshire.
What is your "must-have" purchase for spring?
I am not a big shopper, but I will be grabbing a few new dresses from our spring line. I love how easy they are to wear every day with flats or dress up with fabulous wedges for an evening out.
Where is your favorite place to eat in Nashville?
Dose for breakfast (best cappuccino in town). Marche for lunch. Caffé Nonna for dinner.
Favorite vacation spot?
Anywhere with Scott and all of my children. Ideally with no Internet. (So far, the Bahamas have been my favorite.)
Do you have a playlist for a dinner party or a great workout that you can share with our readers?
With seven children, when I am running or driving I usually choose silence. I love anything from Third Day and Andrea Bocelli. When we have friends over for dinner I put in a mix of Etta James, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.
Name three things you can't live without (excluding friends, family and God):
1. Thrift store/estate sale shopping.
2. A warm fire when it is cold and being out in the sunshine when it is warm
3. Being creative by making something with my hands. (i.e. needlepoint, painting + drawing)
Thank you, Kayce!
Check out the Kayce Hughes collection HERE.
Check out Scott Hughes Photography HERE.
Find out details on our up-to-$6,000 orthodontic care giveaway from Dr. Robert Sims! click here.


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Chapter 1
• Paul D arrives at Sethe's home. They have not seen each other for eighteen years.
• Sethe's daughter Denver is jealous because Paul D is taking Sethe's attention away from her.
• Sethe tells Paul D that she was pregnant with Denver and dripping milk from her breasts when she ran away from Sweet Home.
• Paul D begins to caress Sethe, but a ghost begins shaking the entire house. Paul D casts the ghost away.
Chapter 2
• Sethe and Paul D go upstairs to have sex. However, the sex is unsatisfying and they are both disappointed.
• Sethe's scars disgust Paul D. He thinks they are not like a tree because trees are inviting.
• Sethe is angry with Paul D for casting the ghost out of the house.
• Sethe and Paul D both think about their time at Sweet Home.
Chapter 3
• Denver sees a white dress with its arm around Sethe...
This section contains 1,952 words
(approx. 7 pages at 300 words per page)


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I just love the beauty and mystic of the Victorian Era. I was inspired to make these little Victorian Mourning Chokers a few weeks ago. Made with #10 crochet thread and a #7 hook and I even added fancy ribbon to a few.
Work In Progress
Ivory choker finished.
Close up of sage green choker.
All four completed
I love the edging on the skulls!
All chokers tie simply in a bow around the neck. I should have these babies up in my Etsy shop sometime in the next week for $15.00 each.


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Obviously I'll be needing an engine, so it's time to go get some learnin' on.
I spoke to William Wynne today and it turns out that Corvair College #17 is going to be held just north of Orlando a few weeks from now. http://www.flycorvair.com/hangar.html has the details about the event. Basically this is a big, two or four day Corvair Conversion workshop, fly-in, seminar, and party.


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Symantec has updated its Norton Ghost image backup program, and the new version reflects technology in Drive Image from PowerQuest, the former rival Symantec acquired last year.
Norton Ghost 9 is "built on Drive Image technology," according to L. D. Weller, a Symantec senior project manager. But it also offers incremental backups and an improved emergency boot disc, features that weren't in either product previously. Ghost 9 is in beta testing now, and final versions of the software will likely be ready in late August. The package will have an estimated street price of US$70.
New Features
Image backup, also known as drive imaging, or ghosting, is the most reliable way to back up your entire hard drive. It records an image of your partition or drive, sector by sector instead of file by file. After a major disaster like a hard drive crash, you can easily re-create an exact duplicate of the drive, including the boot sector and hidden files. After a lesser disaster, such as accidentally overwriting an important document, you can restore individual files.
Judging from Symantec's description, the new Ghost is very much like Drive Image 7, which was released last year. For instance, it can back up your drive from inside Windows. You'll still have to boot to a separate environment to restore the full drive (some miracles are still impossible), although you can restore individual files from within Windows.
Also like Drive Image 7, it works only with Windows 2000 and XP. But this time, it comes with an older version of Ghost that supports 16-bit versions of Windows (Drive Image 7 came with an earlier version of Drive Image).
Symantec promises the new Ghost is compatible in other ways. It can restore images from older versions of Ghost and Drive Image. It can also write images to and restore them from a number of media types, including CD, DVD, and local, network, and portable (USB and FireWire) drives.
But Ghost 9 also appears to come with some of Drive Image 7's flaws. Weller acknowledges that the new Ghost still requires Microsoft .Net, which can add a lot of code and complexity to your system. Still, it adds more features than the previous update, which was criticized as not being sufficiently user-friendly.
Sum of the Parts
Ghost 9's biggest improvement over Drive Image is probably incremental backup, which copies only what has changed since the last time. This should correct the biggest flaw in the very concept of image backups: You should back up daily, but it's a waste of time and media to copy your entire hard drive every day--these backups are done by sector, not file.
The other improvement that could prove extremely useful is the Symantec Recovery Disk. All image backup programs need an emergency boot disc, but judging from Symantec's claims, this one might beat all the others. In addition to restoring images, it can scan for viruses, check for disk errors, and generally repair an unbootable system. Such emergency disks are common for Windows 98 and Me, but ones that fully support NTFS are rare. Symantec plans to include this recovery disk in other Norton products, although Weller did not give details.
Now that Drive Image and Ghost have merged, their main competitor is True Image from Acronis. In several ways, True Image appears to be the real trendsetter; it offered imaging from within Windows before Drive Image, and incremental backup before this Ghost/Drive Image hybrid.
Symantec's Weller notes that PowerQuest's enterprise backup program, V2i Protector, has included incremental backup "for some time."


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Finding a home for lease in this market can be challenging. With multiple sites, tons of calls to make, multiple schedules to coordinate with, it can be a very daunting process. Having an agent that works in your best interest to streamline that process can change a difficult process into an easy decision. Colorado and Company's leasing brokers have the expertise, seasoned practice, knowledge of the leasing market, and network of homes to provide you with an easy transition into the Front Range.
How it Works:
Change to Colorado and Company's Inventory of High Quality Rentals Include:


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The gang at DICE know something about making multiplayer shooters. Having dominated the genre with the successful Battlefield franchise, they're currently hard at work on Bad Company 2, the sequel to their modern-setting game. Patrick Bach, senior producer of the project, gave us some insight today into how the team is hoping to make the new game the best in the series' history thanks to six key components -- sandbox gameplay, vehicle combat, squad based tactics, destructible environments, kit customization and achievements.
The sandbox appeal of the game relies on large landscapes but Patrick is quick to point out that size isn't the only factor that matters; lots of games can have big maps, but the challenge is to pack them with enough interesting detail to give players interesting places to play. There need to be houses and villages for the infantry, large open spaces for the vehicles and no golden routes that force players into predictable paths. Still, there do need to be balanced pressure points for the maps, particularly with modes that focus on controlling key areas.
The size of the maps also supports vehicle play. The game will include 15 vehicles that run the gamut from tanks to boats to helicopters to ATVs. 15 isn't just an arbitrary number, though; the team wants to make sure that each vehicle has a purpose and a unique tactical impact on the game. The Black Hawk helicopter, for instance, can transport up to four soldiers to distant parts of the battlefield, which makes it a crucial tool in your armory.
Squad elements have been substantially improved since the original Bad Company. Players can now spawn next to their four-person teams and use special push-to-speak controls to send commands to specific members of the fire team. There were also be unique achievements and rewards for team play. Best of all, the game has done away with the global spotting system, so now you'll have to spot each enemy individually and even get close enough to see whether or not they're a friendly or an enemy. The final two of the game's four total modes will also rely heavily on squads but DICE didn't reveal more details.
In terms of destruction, Bad Company 2 is miles beyond what we've already seen. The tactical advantages of cover are much less certain now as tanks, grenades and even rifle fire can tear through objects in the game world. The upside is that blowing up walls and buildings can help players create their own fire points and open up new lines of sight. The potential for this to completely change each battle is huge, and we're hoping it doesn't just all end up with players climbing over endless fields of rubble by the end.
Kit customization is another integral part of the experience. With four classes -- assault, recon, engineer and medic --, more than 40 weapons (including three classics for 1943 owners), 200 weapon customization options, 15 gadgets, and your choice of two of 13 different specializations, players can really equip themselves according to their own needs and not the expectations of the designers. So if you want to be a medic with an M1 Garand, a defibrillator, a stamina boost and a few extra clips, you can do it. Or you might be an engineer with mortar strikes and improved armor. Or a recon soldier with motion sensors and red dot scopes.
The new achievements are grouped into four broad categories. 50 ranks measure your overall score and progress through every stage of the game. 40 pins provide rewards for performance within an individual round, like getting a certain number of kills. 228 stars rank your performance with each individual weapon, so you can see where you and your opponents are strongest. Finally, 40 insignias reward the long term investment of players with recognition of things like the length of time played overall.
Fans of the game can try it out on the show floor or wait until the upcoming beta is launched, which was announced during our demo.


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Per the White House press pol report, Barack Obama is golfing, again.
It's the president's 23rd time playing this year and the 180th of his presidency.
Today he's golfing at Andrews Air Force Base with "longtime Obama friends Marty Nesbitt and Eric Whitaker, and White House Trip Director Marvin Nicholson.


text: On Thu, 4 Mar 2004, Susan Chacko wrote: > Has anyone successfully built the human genome db with mpiformatdb? Is > there some special gotcha because there are very few, very large > sequences (25 sequences in 3 Gb)? Haven't tried it until today, but I did run into the same problem. It turns out that this is a bug in the NCBI Toolkit: When mpiformatdb is asked to generate a 25 fragment database it in turn asks NCBI formatdb to generate a database where each fragment is no larger than 123MB in size. The first entry in human_genome is larger than 123MB (Chromosome 1 is > 200Mbp). Rather than placing this first sequence in the first fragment, a new fragment is immediately created, resulting in an empty .00 fragment. The fix for this bug is very simple. Change the line in readdb.c that says: if ((options->bases_in_volume && (fdbp->TotalLen + SequenceLen > options->bases_in_volume)) || to read if ((options->bases_in_volume && (fdbp->TotalLen + SequenceLen > options->bases_in_volume) && fdbp->TotalLen > 0 ) || In the Nov 14. Toolbox release this line of code was in the function FDBAddSequence2(). It looks like the latest source code has moved this code into a new function called FDBCreateNewVolume(). This bug ought to get fixed in the primary Toolkit codebase. Is that something you can take care of? On an unrelated note, I'll be putting e-value accuracy patches in our mpiBLAST CVS real soon. E-values for blastn have always been fairly accurate and the patches improve accuracy for blastp and translated searches. -Aaron


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Take a look below to get further information about Miami Airport Parking options:
The staff will pick up the keys of your car and you won't have to worry about anything. The parking connects directly with the Terminal North by walk and by sidewalk if do you want to go to the south and the central terminals.
Valet parking is located at departure level at:
- North Parking Lot, Level 2, across from North Terminal D
- South Parking Lot, Level 2, across from South Terminal H
Returning passengers will be provided with a telephone number that alerts valet parking attendants that your flight has arrived so that your vehicle will be ready as soon as you get there.
- Up to 3 hours (first day) - $18.00
- From 3 hours to 24 hours $30.00
- Each 24 hour hours or fraction thereafter - $30.00
- Maximum per day: $30
- Vehicles can parking a maximum of 20 days
For further information, please call +1 305 876 0118.
The South Garage - Flamingo serves the Terminal F and G (Central) and Terminal H and J (South). The North Garage - Dolphin, serves the Terminal D and E.
- Each 20 minute (or portion thereof) - $2.00
- Maximum Rate: After 2 hours 40 minutes
- Maximum rate/day: $17.00
All vehicles can be parked, maximum, 60 days with the exception of the places where is marked "no overnight parking".
Location: In the third level of the North (Dolphin) and the South (Flamingo), in the moving sidewalks. It is available for wheelchair accessible vehicles on the ground level, at the easternmost area of the North (Dolphin) garage.
Over-height vehicles should park in the parking lot located next to the East side of the North Dolphin Garage.
Cash, Credit Cards, Checks or American Express Travelers checks. Please, make sure that your method of payment is available in the US.
The link below will direct you to the various methods and prices for parking. Parking maps, rates, online booking and customer satisfaction ratings are provided.
Park, Sleep, and Fly! Leave your vehicle at a nearby hotel while you go on your trip.
Airports hotels with parking packages have become a favorite among seasoned travelers. Often less than the cost of airport parking alone, these packages offer convenient parking and hotel accommodation options when you leave or return from the airport. If you have en early morning depature, why not book an airport hotel that offers Park, Sleep and Fly packages, staying the night before you depart, rather than leaving home in the early hours of the morning?
A good night's sleep at a hotel located close to the airport can alleviate the fear of missing your flight due to heavy traffic, bad weather or airport security measures. Again, in many cases, the cost of the Park Sleep and Fly hotel packages with free airport parking is about the same as the airport parking alone.


text: A Day in The Life of A Wedding Photographer Growing up I never had a real hard set idea of what I wanted to grow up to be. Some kiddos when you ask know they for sure want to be a doctor, a policeman, or a vet, but me I never really knew. I knew I was creative and I loved rearranging the furniture in my room and 100 times a month. I knew spelling was not my strong suit, just ask my mom and best friend who text me on the regular about all the grammar mistakes on my blog. I also knew that I needed a job that… Keep Reading


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What is Sciatica?
Sciatica is the term for pain that radiates from the sciatic nerve.
Since the sciatic nerve is the largest nerve in the body, this pain usually begins in the low back and radiates down the buttock, down the back of the thigh and below the knee.
The pain can be isolated in various parts of the nerve path or the entire nerve may flare up. Sciatica treatment through chiropractic therapy is very effective in treating the cause of the pain.
What Causes Sciatic Nerve Pain?
Most commonly, sciatic nerve pain is caused by a bulging disc or herniated disc in the lumbar (low back) area of the spine.
Between each vertebra in the spine is a disc that serves as a cushion to minimize the impact of gravity on the spinal column as we bend and move.
Each disc is shaped like a jelly donut with a soft center. When this center ruptures (or moves outside the cushion) it's called a disc herniation. When a disc herniation puts pressure directly on the sciatic nerve, the result is the pain we call sciatica.
Other causes of sciatic nerve pain include injury to the low back area, infections, and the changes a woman's body undergoes during pregnancy. The weight of the baby causes the pelvis to tilt forward, putting pressure on the lower back and often irritating the sciatic nerve.
Effective Sciatica Treatment
Sciatica is diagnosed following a physical and neurological examination with a doctor. Chiropractors specialize in sciatica treatment. As experts in restoring proper function to the musculoskeletal system, they are trained to identify areas of your spine or joints that are misaligned.
Regardless of where the sciatic nerve becomes irritated, effective chiropractic treatment includes an exam and X-rays, in most cases, to determine the cause of the nerve irritation.
The goal of sciatica treatment is to uncover the true cause of the nerve irriation and remove it, restoring motion and eliminating pain. Chiropractic adjustments alleviate pressure on the nerve by restoring motion to the joints and bringing the bones and discs back into proper alignment.
The Olathe chiropractors at Fulk Chiropractic offer sciatica treatment and chiropractic therapy to patients in Olathe, Overland Park and the surrounding Kansas City community. Open 7 days a week, they treat thousands of patients each year. Call to schedule an appointment today 913-764-6237.
Related Articles:
Sciatica Treatment – Leg and Back Pain During Pregnancy
Why Chiropractic is So Effective in Treating Sciatica Pain
What You Need to Know About Sciatica Pain Relief in Pregnancy Right Now
5 Simple Stretches That Stop Sciatica Pain Fast


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Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Hallowe'en CARDS Challenge
19 comments:
Oh my goodness Julie! This is the coolest card! I love the two shades of purple and the spooky scene!ReplyDelete
Absolutely stunning! Love it!ReplyDelete
Wow, is this ever GORGEOUS, Julie!ReplyDelete
ARE YOU SERIOUS??? This is one of the most inspired cards I have ever seen! It looks like a photo. I am so knocked out by this card--amazing! And thank you so much for sharing your whole process to make it.ReplyDelete
This is one fabulous card!!! Just love the deep rich colors! It is truly an amazing card! I could stare at it for hours! Thanks so much for sharing how you made this card! Take care!!:-))ReplyDelete
Oh my gosh this is stunning! This is one technique I've never tried because I'm totally intimidated by gorgeous cards like yours. Amazing!ReplyDelete
OMG! this is truly awesome, such gorgeous colours and neat stamping/inking :)ReplyDelete
Jenny x
Seriously, this is just amazing! I love it!ReplyDelete
Wow, this card is awesome!!!ReplyDelete
Had to pop by and tell you how much I LOVE this!! I must try it!ReplyDelete
LOVE THE CARD! Won't you PLEASE do a video and demonstrate??????ReplyDelete
- AnonymousOctober 20, 2011 at 7:23 PM
WOW, this is something special, and very dramatic. I love your choice of colours. I must give this a go. Love SheilaReplyDelete
- AnonymousFebruary 15, 2012 at 8:27 AM
AMAZING! SO UNIQUE, SO CREATIVE, SO INSPIRING!ReplyDelete
Love, love, love this card and would like to case it - hope that's OK. Your rich colours are just divine and thanks so much for sharing your technique too.ReplyDelete
- Cathy from IllinoisAugust 18, 2012 at 2:48 PM
This definitely a WOW card!! Great job! I'll have to try this out! Thanks loads for great ideas!ReplyDelete
- pam from illinoisSeptember 18, 2013 at 11:35 AM
I absolutely love this card...it is beautiful. Thank you for sharing your talent!ReplyDelete
Very nice work with colors and shadows. Love it!ReplyDelete
Love the card...that is gorgeous and just the right amount of creepy.ReplyDelete


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Image editing and compositing. Great for graphics design.
Check it out!
Video production and editing. Great for any video content creation.
Cinematic visual effects and motion graphics. Amazing for any motion graphics and visual effects such as logo intros, etc.
Photorealistic 3D images for branding, product shot and package design. Great for mockups.
Vector graphics and illustration. Amazing for logos and vector art.
Design and publish websites without writing a code. Great for website creation for graphic designers.
Audio recording, mixing and restoration. Great for cleaning up audios from videos, etc.
Page design and layout for print and digital publishing. Great for desktop publishing works such as magazine, books, etc.
Adobe Creative Cloud is my main tool for my web design and graphics work. If you're planning to or you are going to use more than one Adobe software, they have great plans for individuals, students, small to medium sized businesses, and even for enterprise. See their plans to get Adobe CC at a discounted price.
Check out current Adobe offers!
My portable workstation. This is where all the magic happens. I use the MacBook Pro 15inch Retina Display with Core i7 @ 2.7GHz, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD. It also has Radeon Pro 455 with 2GB and Intel HD Graphics 530 with 1.5GB as graphics cards. I used to be a PC only guy but once I got to work with MacBook Pro, it's never the same. I can finally say that PCs and MacBook Pros are made for different purposes and for different audience. My MacBook Pro is mainly used for web design and graphic design projects.
Read the review
Minix Adapter is a USB Type – C Thunderbolt adapter for the MacBook Pro. After inserting it on your MacBook Pro, you will be able to connect your power adapter, 1 x 4K HDMI cable for extended display, 2 x USB 3.0, 1 x extra USB Type – C, and SD/Micro SD card reader. Very handy! Allowing you to connect other accessories you may need such as portable hard drive, extend your display and more!
I use the Seagate Backup Plus Slim USB 3.0 portable external hard drive. As the capacity of the MacBook Pro is only limited to 512GB, you need to make sure you have enough storage space for all your design files and important files that you need for your work. This can also be your backup drive that you can carry anywhere.
One of the best headphones out there in terms of its features and sound quality. This headphones can be used as a wireless headphones through bluetooth and it can also be used as a wired headphones as it comes with a 3.5mm jack cable with microphone and 1 control button. The Motorola Pulse Escape+ is rated with IP54 water and dust resistant. The price is not bad at all considering all the features and great sound quality you get.
Great for multi-tasking by extending my display from MacBook Pro and when not being used for professional work, I use it for gaming. Check out the specs and latest price at the link.
I've always gamed on a laptop and when I had the chance to get a gaming PC, this is a brilliant choice! If not being used for gaming or professional work, I use it's powerful CPU and GPU for mining cryptocurrency. Check the specs and latest price at the link
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DownStreet Art on Ice will return for a third consecutive year, extending this summer and fall's art events into December with art openings, live music and more in downtown North Adams on Thursday, Dec. 1, beginning at 5 p.m., to be held in conjunction with the city-wide celebration, "Hometown Holidays."
This year's events – which are free and open to the public – will feature six exhibition openings, two performances, art deals, art on a stick wandering cart, as well as specials at downtown businesses.
Exhibition openings include those at MAYA IV by Jarvis Rockwell, 49 Main St.; "99¢ and up: Art Mall" at MCLA Gallery 51, 51 Main St.; Melanie Mowinski's installation at PIP Gallery, 53 Main St.; "Patterns and Pressure" at PRESS, 105 Main St.; and an MCLA student show in the window of 109 Main St.
99 Cents show at MCLA Gallery 51 in 2010
MCLA Gallery 51 Manager Ven Voisey said the event offers a wide variety of artistic holiday gifts for purchase. "Whether you're a conflicted idealist, a die-hard capitalist, something in-between, or none of the above, you've probably found yourself befuddled by shopping malls and big box stores, and people's behavior within them, during holiday shopping season. This upcoming exhibit is simultaneously an examination of that phenomenon, and a great chance support the local economy by adding artwork from a selection of MCLA Gallery 51 and DownStreet Art. The gallery will be chock-full of affordable, ready-to-be-sold-off-the wall art of a wide variety of mediums priced between 99 cents and $99."
MCLA Gallery 51 Merchandising 2010
MAYA IV, 49 Main St., will feature new and old works by North Adams artist Jarvis Rockwell. In addition to new works – including a new wall drawing – Rockwell has on exhibit his "MAYA IV sculpture and works he created in the 1960s and '70s.
MAYA IV – detail
The PIP Gallery will feature an installation by Melanie Mowinski, MCLA art professor. It consists of a series of hanging silk panels entitled, "Tree of Souls," that was originally created for and shown as part of the "Festival of Trees" at the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield.
"PRESS: Letterpress as a Public Art " will unveil the new exhibit, "Patterns and Pressure," featuring MCLA student projects printed at PRESS during the fall semester by students in Mowinski's "Intro to Design" and "Concrete Poetry" classes.
PRESS Gallery
At 109 Main St.,"Coming up NEXT! MCLA's Emerging Artists" is a preview of work created by some of the students who will graduate from MCLA this spring.
In addition, artist Mark Mulherrin and Kirsten Warming will return downtown with their "Artsicle" cart. Artists were asked to participate in the project creating their own "art on a stick," which will be given away during DownStreet Art on Ice. The cart will be then parked at MCLA Gallery 51 as part of the "99¢ and up: Art Mall" show.
DownStreet Art on Ice also will see the culmination of the Window Decorating Contest. All businesses are invited to participate in this holiday window decorating contest. Judging will take place on Dec. 1. Judges will include: North Adams Mayor Richard Alcombright, local artist Jarvis Rockwell, Michael Foster of the North Adams Transcript and Sean Taylor from Freight Yard Pub.
Michael Chapman's window installation, 2010
A City Councilor's Choice award and a People's Choice Award also will be awarded. The trolley will take judges and interested members of the public to all decorated sites throughout the city. For more information about the Window Decorating Contest, contact Veronica Bosley at firstname.lastname@example.com or 413-664-6180
Performances include those by the MCLA Allegrettos, the College's a cappella group that has performed throughout the county, as well as on public television. The students will perform traditional songs of the season at different venues throughout downtown the night.
And, the MCLA Jazz Band, under the guidance of local musician and teacher Jamie Choquette, will perform from 6-7 p.m., at 107 Main St. Starting at 8:30 p.m., Patrick Gray will perform on the stage at PUBLIC Restaurant, 34 Holden St.
In addition, a Children's Scavenger Hunt will be held throughout North Adams, Dec. 1-8, as part of the Hometown Holidays celebration. Clues will be available at Verizon Wireless, I Got Goodies and MCLA Gallery 51 starting Dec. 1, as part of the evening's events.
DownStreet Art is a project of MCLA's Berkshire Culture Resource Center, partnering with the City of North Adams, Develop North Adams, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. The program is made possible through leading sponsorship support provided by Orbit Visual Graphic Design, Excelsior Printing, Scarafoni Reality and Berkshire Bank. Additional support is provided by: Adams Co-Operative Bank, Brewhaha Café, Edward Jones Investments, The Porches Inn at MASS MoCA, Moulton's Spectacle Shop Inc., Persnickety Toys, Jarvis W. Rockwell and The Sushi House.
The initiative was designed to revitalize downtown North Adams by identifying the city as a cultural haven. The program serves not only to increase MCLA's visibility, but also to showcase what other local arts organizations have to offer. For more information about DownStreet Art and MCLA's Berkshire Cultural Resource Center, go to www.downstreetart.org and www.mcla.edu/bcrc .
For more information, call (413) 664-8718, or go to www.downstreetart.org .


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Aravind Adiga's latest book 'Last Man in Tower' explores what it takes to turn ordinary respectable middle-class people into evil, devious, greedy beasts prepared to contemplate murder. It looks at how neighbours so emotionally and physically close that they live like extended family can become enemies. I would also say it offers wholly believable insights into the psychology of bullying and persecution – tracking how the perpetrators of abuse can convince themselves that they are in fact the victims despite their abusive behaviour. It's fascinating stuff; a sort of 'Lord of the Flies' for India in the 21st Century but with seemingly sensible, normal, respectable adults instead of schoolboys. It's the sort of book that has you thinking "That could never happen to me" at the beginning and gradually realising that this type of salami-slicing of morality could probably happen to almost anyone.
In an ageing and run-down six storey tower block not far from Mumbai airport, the residents receive a generous offer from a property developer called Mr Shah. Shah has a dream; he wants to buy the apartments of the residents in the two blocks of 'Vishram Society' – known as Tower A and Tower B – knock them down and build an ultra modern luxury apartment block. The area is up and coming, ripe for gentrification and he's confident that he can make a small fortune as well as creating his legacy – a landmark building that merges all his favourite design elements into one big, brash and and probably rather ugly luxury apartment block.
Shah needs the agreement and signature of every resident in each block and in return he offers them more than double the going rate for their property and as an extra sweetener there's a payment sufficient to cover the rent on a place for up to two months whilst they look for new homes. It sounds like an offer too good to refuse but if the money doesn't buy Shah what he wants, he's got plenty of other tactics to ensure he gets compliance.
As a commentary on big city life, Last Man in Tower is a fascinating look at the stresses and benefits of communal living in modern times. Traditionally the Indian family was – and in some places still is – an extended one with several generations living together in a shared home. Whilst that's relatively easy to achieve in the countryside, it's not so simple in the big cities like Mumbai where real estate prices are on a par with London or New York. Unlike some of the other major metropolises in India where the city can just keep expanding outwards, swallowing up fields and small villages as it grows, Mumbai sits on a finger of land surrounded by sea. The best bits are full, the new bits were reclaimed from the sea and expansion is severely restricted – yet people just keep moving to the city. In such places the old system of extended families has been replaced by groups of unrelated people of different religions, trades and backgrounds living together in apartment blocks, some of them – like the block in this story – run as residents' cooperatives. The national expectation and weary acceptance of living in one another's pockets and putting up with the annoyances of how other people go about their everyday life is part of the city dweller's challenge to maintain a general sense or peace and respectability. It's probably a similar challenge to finding a way to rub along with your annoying in-laws. You may not love them all but you have to find a way to not rip each others' heads off.
"In Last Man in Tower we watch with horror page by page as a society disintegrates and erupts."
The residents of Block B soon sign up. Block A people see Block B people as a younger, more flighty bunch and less of a community so they're not surprised to see them agreeing to Shah's proposal. Block B has an older, more settled demographic and not everyone is keen to sign. Christians Mr and Mrs Pinto are scared to leave because Mrs P is nearly blind and navigates the building by the holes in the wall and cracks in the stairs. They fear she won't survive somewhere else. The Pintos' friend, a retired Hindu schoolmaster known to all as 'Masterji', also doesn't want to leave. It's partly a case of solidarity with his friends and partly that he doesn't want to leave the home he shared with his late wife and their daughter who died much too young. But there's another aspect to his refusal to sign – a stubborn determination that the little man should have a right to say "No!" to big business, to refuse to give in to the highest bidder and to hell with what that means to his neighbours who all think it's just his tactic to hold out for more money.
Shah brings in his fixer, the so called 'Left Hand Man'. He's a shifty fellow called Shanmugham whose illicit actions and arrangements must never be traceable to his boss. Several of the reluctant sellers are 'bought off' with various sweeteners. Shan schmoozes some and bribes others whilst Shanmugham uses more direct and aggressive tactics to intimidate. As the deadline for signing the deal draws close only Masterji refuses to sign.
Soon his neighbours take against him, refusing to speak to him, posting abusive notices about him and even getting his son to denounce him. Previously they were proud to know him, referring to him having the manners of 'an English gentleman'. Their status was enhanced by association with such an honourable fellow. In a short time they're casting aspersions about his teaching and calling him a paedophile. A woman with a disabled son smears her boy's excrement on Masterji's door, complaining afterwards that "He made me do that. I can never forgive him". Her sin is his unforgiveable fault. His life is at risk as the neighbours – once respectable 'pucca' souls – come to see him as all that stands between them, their money and all the dreams that the money represents. How far will they go to destroy their old friend's reputation and how low will they stoop to get what they want?
As time passes the neighbours get more and more desperate. Things they would never have imagined doing to another human being seem like viable options for getting compliance. After their bullying tactics have no result they start to claim that Masterji is the bully, the one holding them all to ransom for his weird old man principles, and they are the victims. "Poor us" they think "prevented from having what we want by this manipulative old man". The anger and resentment of many are directed at one – they lie, they scheme, they consider increasingly extreme ways to get what they think they deserve. They enlist the help of others to do their dirty work but eventually have to take matters into their own hands. There's one particular eerie passage where someone goes round the block handing out cotton wool to the neighbours so they won't hear the screams of Masterji. Nobody can say they didn't know what was going on.
We watch as respectable folk peel off layer after layer of what looks like normal behaviour to reveal increasingly violent and selfish attitudes. It's all very sadly believable and whilst we might not see such extreme examples in our everyday life, I think most of us would be able to think of examples where we've seen the many gang up against the few, especially when they perceive their target to be somehow weaker than them. We also see one of the residents most eager to please the developer realise his mistake and recognise his descent into depravity.
It's hard not to have some sympathy for the residents who see Shah's offer as the answer to their prayers. Some can use the money to return to their home towns, others want to send it to their children settled in America, one wants to hire a nurse to help her look after her disabled child. All their motives are understandable. At times we will join them in thinking that Masterji should perhaps put the good of the many against the objection of the few (and eventually just one). Adiga paints the residents in shades of sympathy dripped with bitterness. We understand them but we don't like them. They are reduced – despite their problems – to caricatures of greed and envy. As readers – especially readers of Indian fiction – our expectation is that Shah should be the bad guy, the one who forces and manipulates but instead we soon realise that he need only wave the money, step back and wait for the greedy people to take things into their own hands. It's a chilling but utterly believable idea.
Aravind Adiga is probably best known for winning the Man Booker Prize a few years ago with his novel 'The White Tiger'. Whilst that was a fascinating book about the dark side of city life, its setting in the luxury high-rises of the high-tech Delhi suburb of Gurgaon, contrasting the life of the servant and the master didn't resonate with me the way the little people in the mouldy old apartment block in Mumbai did. I know both cities, I can picture the events but 'Last Man in Tower' is very much a Mumbai story. Perhaps it's because Last Man in Tower is not about inter-class rivalry and exploitation of the poor by the rich, it's somehow more shocking because it sets peers against one another. It pokes and prods until the respectable become the execrable. It's the third of Adiga's books that I've read and whilst I admired 'The White Tiger' I can't really say I loved it. His other book 'Between the Assassinations' (I don't say second as I think it was written around the same time as The White Tiger) is also excellent but I only really understood the point it was making when I reached the final page. In Last Man in Tower we watch with horror page by page as a society disintegrates and erupts. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
|Buy book online


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Countermine Support
The countermine challenge is daunting, as mines present a serious threat to our armed forces. Not only are they intended to cause
severe casualties, but mines also provide barriers, both physically and psychologically, to conducting operations. These devices have
become increasingly sophisticated, and enemy forces are sharing these technologies to target our soldiers. Consequently, U.S. forces are
working diligently to improve countermine measures.
Since 1998, BRTRC has provided exceptional, comprehensive support to the U.S. Army Project Manager for Close Combat Systems (PM CCS).
Our personnel provide technical and management support to mine, countermine, and demining programs within PM-CCS, as well as the
Night Vision and Electronics Sensors Directorate (NVESD) Countermine Division and the Joint Unexploded Ordnance Coordinating Office
(JUXOCO) at Fort Belvoir, VA. BRTRC provides these organizations with:
Utilizing advanced research and analysis, BRTRC works closely with the program management engineers of these countermine organizations
to prepare program documents for numerous systems, including the Ground Standoff Mine Detection System, Handheld Standoff Mine Detection
System, Airborne Standoff Minefield Detection System, Mongoose Minefield Land Clearance System, Intelligent Munitions System, Spider
Interim Munitions System, and Antipersonnel Obstacle Breaching System.
BRTRC provides timely budgetary analyses; integrated logistics support actions; alternatives analyses; acquisition program baselines;
earned value management (analyses of cost, schedule, and technical variances); market surveys; tracking commitments, obligations and
expenditures for all program elements; and a variety of other analytical and managerial efforts exclusive to PM CCS.
BRTRC maintains a central repository for task control of these programs. Much of this essential coordination is accomplished using a
management information system that was designed and implemented by BRTRC. In addition, our Technical Marketing Group prepares all of the
outreach and marketing publications, displays, and graphics for PM CCS.
In addition to supporting PM CCS's countermine efforts, BRTRC has also provided countermine science and technology efforts to the
U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, and the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center.


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God is taking a country down – Pakistan!
Salmaan Taseer, governor of the Punjab province of Pakistan was shot dead by one of his guards Mumtaz Qadri. Reason? Mr Taseer was a moderate Muslim and he was a vocal opponent of a blasphemy law under which people (often minority) disrespecting the-one-who-can-not-be-named-drawn-pictured-caricatured-AND-disrespected were sentenced to death.
The killer Mumtaz Qadri is actually heralded as a national hero! In Twitterspace he is referred to as "Ghazi" – a brave warrior! Sure showering bullets on an unarmed man whom you are supposed to guard is a stupendous act of valour and bravery! Somebody creates a Facebook "fan" page for him and 2000 people like him and praise him before the page is removed. He is showered with roses by lawyers – yes lawyers – when he is presented in the court! National hero. Yeah that's right!!!
People educated enough to be users of Facebook and Twitter and be lawyers are actually supporting a religious fanatic. That's a dangerous sign for a society!
In the name of God, the most hateful, the most wasteful and the stupidest fantasy of Humans!


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|Sat Nov 3, 2012
|Thu Nov 8, 2012
Kisakallio Sports Institute
|Lauri Ikavalko
The teams competing at this year's event are Czech Republic , Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Switzerland and Turkey.
Follow the RESULTS from the event here: http://www.curling.fi/en/competitions/leagues/8690
LIVE webcasting is here: www.curling.fi/en/competitions/curling-channel
Find out which athletes will be representing each team by downloading the Team Line-ups below.
More information about the event is here: www.kisakallio.fi/valmennus/turnaukset_tapahtumat/wwhcq_2012.html
See also: World Wheelchair Curling Qualification 2011


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- Research article
- Open Access
- Open Peer Review
Application of concentrated deep sea water inhibits the development of atopic dermatitis-like skin lesions in NC/Nga mice
© Bak et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012
- Received: 6 January 2012
- Accepted: 5 July 2012
- Published: 26 July 2012
Mineral water from deep-sea bedrock, formed over thousands of years, is rich in minerals such as Ca, Mg, Na, K, Fe and others. Our present study was to investigate the preventive effects of natural deep-sea water on developing atopic dermatitis (AD).
We elicited AD by application of DNCB (2,4-dinitro-chlorobezene) in Nc/Nga mouse dorsal skin. Deep Sea water (DSW) was filtered and concentrated by a nanofiltration process and reverse osmosis. We applied concentrated DSW (CDSW) to lesions five times per week for six weeks, followed by evaluation. 1% pimecrolimus ointment was used as positive control. The severity of skin lesions was assessed macroscopically and histologically. Levels of inflammatory mediators and cytokines in the serum were detected by Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and the levels of CD4+ and CD8+ spleen lymphocytes were determined by flow cytometry analysis.
DNCB-treated mice showed atopic dermatitis-like skin lesions. Treatment of mice with CDSW reduced the severity of symptoms in the skin lesions, including edema, erythema, dryness, itching, and transepidermal water loss (TEWL). Histological analyses demonstrated that epidermal thickness and infiltration of inflammatory cells were decreased after CDSW treatment. Given these interesting observations, we further evaluated the effect of CDSW on immune responses in this AD model. Treatment AD mice with CDSW inhibited up-regulation of IgE, histamine, and pro-inflammatory cytokines in the serum. Also, the CD4+/CD8+ ratio in spleen lymphocyte was down-regulated after treatment with CDSW. Finally, cytokines, especially IL-4 and IL-10 which are important for Th2 cell development, were reduced.
Our data suggests that topical application of CDSW could be useful in preventing the development of atopic dermatitis.
- Atopic Dermatitis
- Pimecrolimus
- Dorsal Skin
- Spleen Lymphocyte
- Epidermal Thickness
The levels of elements in pre-DSW and CDSW
Pre DSW (mg/L)
CDSW (mg/L)
Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease with symptoms of dryness and itchiness, in which relapse is common[4, 5]. The prevalence of AD has increased 2–3 fold during the past three decades in industrialized societies[5–9]. In the past a few years, it was reported that pathogenesis of AD was related to a complex interrelation of immunological, psychological, environmental and genetic factors[10]. AD skin lesions are characterized by the presence of infiltrated inflammatory cells such as eosinophils, monocytes, macrophages, mast cells or T lymphocytes[11–14]. Several studies have been performed to investigate cytokines, and reports show that the generation of AD is elicited by a pathological defect, such as cytokines from T-helper (Th) cells[15].
Th cells can be divided into two distinct groups in accordance with their cytokines; Th1 Th2 lymphocytes. In AD patients' blood, IL-4 and IL-5 concentration from Th2 cells was increased and IL-4, IL-5 and IL-13 mRNA expression was significantly up-regulated in atopic skin lesions[16, 17]. However, recent studies reported that Th1 response also plays an important role in AD disease[12]. In almost all chronic AD patients, up-regulation of the expression IFN-γ mRNA was also observed in atopic skin lesions, whereas only a few chronic AD patients had increases in the expression of IL-4 mRNA[18, 19]. Therefore, both Th1 and Th2 response contribute to the initiation and maintenance of AD.
Treatment for AD has been studied using such drugs based on steroids, anti-histaminic agents, and immunosuppressants[20]. However, there are many side effects and limited therapeutic effects with long-term use[21]. Recently, it was reported that the application of minerals has a therapeutic effect on the skin diseases[22–25]. Other studies reported that drinking mineral water or exposure to mineral water at the spa affects the immune system[1, 26]. The effect of deep-sea water (DSW) on atopic dermatitis is poorly understood. Therefore, we wanted to demonstrate whether application of DSW to atopic skin lesions has any beneficial effects for preventing atopic dermatitis in a mouse model for AD[27].
Chemicals and reagents
Natural deep-sea water (DSW) and concentrated DSW (CDSW) were supplied by Jin Hae Resource Development Inc. (Inchon, South Korea). The elemental composition of DSW and CDSW were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The mouse IgE ELISA assay kit was from Koma Biotech (Seoul, Korea), the mouse Th1/Th2 ELISA assay kit was from eBioscience (San Diego, USA), and the IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α ELISA assay kits were from R&D Systems (Minneapolis, MN, USA). The CD4 (GK1.5) Alexa Fluor 488 and CD8 (2.43) PE antibodies were from Santa Cruz Biotechnology (USA). Elidel (Novartis) is a 1% pimecrolimus topical solution and is an immunomodulating agent used for treating eczema[28]. All other reagents were from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO, USA).
Desalted and concentrated DSW
Deep-sea water (DSW) was selectively filtered for sodium chloride by nanofiltration and reverse osmosis. Desalinization was performed by pre-processing with Hytrex Cartridge Filter (Hytrex, USA), nano-filtration by SU-610 membrane (Toray, Japan), and reverse osmosis by SU-810 membrane (Toray, Japan), respectively (Additional file1: Figure S1). Concentrated DSW (CDSW) was nano-filtered with SU-610 and evaporated (Additional file2: Figure S2). The elemental composition of DSW (Patent Number: KR 10–0663084) and CDSW (Patent Number: KR 10–0670474) are shown in Table1, and were confirmed by Korea Testing & Research Institute (KTR).
Six-week old male NC/Nga mice were from SLC Inc. (Shizuoka, Japan). All experimental protocols were reviewed and approved by the Animal Care Committee at Semyung University (IACUC, protocol number: SMECAE 10-10-01). The mice were house in a conventional laboratory conditions with filtered air and consistent ambient temperature (24 ± 2°C), humidity (55 ± 10%) and light (12 h light/dark cycle). The mice were fed a non-purified pellet diet and tap water ad libitum. Mice were divided into five groups (n = 10 per group) as follows: A, normal control; B, negative control (DNCB); C, positive control (DNCB + 1% pimecrolimus); D, 2% CDSW treatment (DNCB + 2% CDSW); and E, 10% CDSW treatment (DNCB + 10% CDSW).
DNCB-induced dermatitis
The experimental schedule for the preparation of AD-like skin lesions in NC/Nga mice is summarized in Additional file3: Figure S3. The hair of dorsal skin of mice was shaved under Zoletil 50 (50 mg/kg) and xylazine (10 mg/kg) anaesthesia with a hair clipper 1 day before initial sensitization. On day 0, these mice were sensitized by applying 200 μL of a solution containing 1% DNCB in an acetone and olive oil mixture (3:1) to cause AD-like skin lesions. After initial challenge, 0.4% DNCB solution was repeatedly applied to the same area of the skin for 12 times at 3 day intervals. 200 μL of test samples (DW, 2% CDSW, 10% CDSW, 1% pimecrolimus) were applied to the dorsal skin every day (p.m. 2:00 ~ 3:00).
The clinical skin severity
The clinical skin severity was evaluated once per week (a.m. 10:00 ~ 11:00) by the following scoring procedure; 0 (none), 1 (mild), 2 (moderate), 3 (severe) for each of the five indications and symptoms including itching, erythema, edema, excoriation/erosion, and scaling/dryness[28]. Itch was assessed by their behavior in 1 hour, and scaling/dryness by content of moisture in the epidermis using Corneometer CM825 (Courage and Khazaka Electronic Co., Germany). Erythema, edema, and excoriation/erosion were evaluated macroscopically.
Measurement of transepidermal water loss on the dorsal skin
The hair on the dorsal skin of each mouse was shaved using an hair clipper under Zoletil 50 (50 mg/kg) and xylazine (10 mg/kg) anesthesia and TEWL was measured using a Tewameter TM300 (Courage and Khazaka Electronic Co., Germany) at 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 weeks. The values were recorded when stabilized approximately 10 s after the probe had been placed on the skin.
Histological analysis
Skin tissue was isolated from each group of mice and fixed with 10% 50 mM PFA in phosphate buffer (pH 7.0) for 24 hours at 4°C. Eight micrometer-thick sections of dorsal skin were stained with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and observed by optical microscopy (Evos Xl, USA). The sections were examined for the presence and degree of incrustation, thickness of the epidermis, epidermal necrosis, bleeding, hyperkeratosis and inflammation. Epidermal thickness was measured by Micron (EVOS, v2.0) a digital imaging software.
Measurement of blood parameters
On the sixth week, the mice were sacrificed, blood was collected from the heart, and the spleen was dissected. The total IgE and histamine levels in the serum were measured by ELISA. Levels of inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α)and Th cell development cytokines (IL-2, IL-4, IL-10 and IFN-γ) in the serum also were determined by ELISA. ELISA was performed according to the manufacturer's instruction and quantitation was done with SPECTRAMAX190 (Molecular Devices, USA).
Preparation of spleen lymphocytes
To analyze spleen lymphocytes, the spleens were cut into pieces with a scissors in cold phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and homogenized with a glass homogenizer. Homogenized spleen was passed through strainer (BD, USA). Spleen lymphocytes were isolated with Histopaque-1077 Hybri-Max (Sigma, USA) and centrifuged at 400 g for twenty minutes. Lymphocytes were washed three times with PBS. 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS)/phosphate-buffer saline (PBS) was added to the spleen lymphocytes suspended at 1 × 106 cells/ml with 5ml of either CD4-Alexa Fluor 488 or CD8-PE monoclonal antibodies, and incubated at 4°C for thirty minutes. The lymphocytes were rinsed five times with PBS containing 10% FBS and centrifuged at 1,200 rpm for five minutes. The stained lymphocytes were fixed by 2% paraformaldehyde and counted by FACSCalibur™ flow cytometry (BD Bioscience, USA). Each analysis, including the control samples, was based on at least 1 x 104 events exclusive of dead cells, and gating on the basis of forward angle light scatter eliminated residual erythrocytes[29].
Statistical analysis
Results are presented as mean ± standard deviation (SD). Data were analysed by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Tukey's test or Student's t-test (P < 0.05).
Effect of CDSW on atopic skin lesions
Recovery of skin tissue in atopic lesions by treatment of CDSW
Effect of CDSW on DNCB induced allergic response
The levels of T cells from spleen
Normal control
3.45 ± 0.332 a
1.62 ± 0.185
2.13 ± 0.153 a′
8.65 ± 0.455 b
1.78 ± 0.267
4.96 ± 0.685 b′
DNCB + 1% pimecrolimus
3.87 ± 0.619 a
1.66 ± 0.273
2.41 ± 0.533 a′
8.15 ± 0.585 b
1.76 ± 0.216
4.70 ± 0.627 b′
4.25 ± 0.420 a
1.67 ± 0.213
2.58 ± 0.404 a′
Atopic dermatitis is one of the many diseases induced by environmental elements as an antigen and the incidences of AD have sharply increased recently[5–9]. AD is a common chronic inflammatory skin disease, although fundamental etiology and therapy is still poorly understood[6–9]. Treatment with steroid-based drugs has been used for treating AD, but has encountered some problems[21].
It is well known that Dead Sea water has beneficial effects for treating skin diseases, including AD[32]. Recent studies reported that Dead Sea water has been used to treat psoriasis and atopic dry skin[32]. Dead Sea water is rich in some minerals compared to ocean water. Minerals, are essential nutrients for human, can trigger alterations on gene expression by initiating signaling events upstream of gene transactivation. Until the present, there are few studies for minerals and AD in human, however, the studies of mice reported that Staphylococcus aureus was increased on the skin of zinc-deficient mice before the development of AD-like eruptions, leading the authors to postulate that zinc may have an important role in the induction of dermatitis[33]. The deficiency of magnesium also induced AD-like skin lesions[34]. Because DSW also has enough minerals as well as Dead Sea water, in the present study, we demonstrate whether DSW also has an effect on amelioration of AD-like skin.
Before application of DSW to DNCB-elicited lesions, we screened the elemental composition of DSW and their concentrations (Table1). There were some potential problems because DSW had high sodium concentration and salt-stress may induce inflammation[32]. Therefore, we examined CDSW, which was made by concentrating and desalinating DSW, and dilutions of CDSW were used. Although the concentration of the other elements in CDSW increased, the salt concentration was reduced (Table1). Accordingly, we examined whether CDSW has an effect on AD induced by DNCB treatment in mice.
Although some symptoms of AD remained slightly, we have shown that repeated application of 10% CDSW improved the clinical severity score in DNCB-treated mice compared with a negative control. We scored five symptoms in skin lesions including itching, erythema, edema, excoriation/erosion and scaling/dryness to evaluate clinical skin severity. Among the treated animals, the 10% CDSW group had some edema, erosion and erythema, and did not differ dramatically from the 2% CDSW group. However, the itching was largely reduced by treatment with 10% CDSW. We also measured we measured TEWL and the moisture content in the epidermis and found that the 10% CDSW group had significantly improved skin barrier function and epidermis moisture. In addition, as demonstrated by histologic analysis, the 10% CDSW treatment reduced the infiltration of inflammatory cells, such as leukocytes and mast cells. These findings suggest that CDSW may restore skin barrier function.
Human AD disease is characterized by increased levels of Immunoglobulin E (IgE) in the blood[35]. IgE plays an important role in allergic responses and is especially associated with type-1 hypersensitivity. IgE is secreted from B cells by external antigens such as pollen and house dust mites[10, 35]. Recent studies have reported that AD severity is related to an increase in total serum IgE levels[36, 37]. Indeed, in our study, the clinical skin severity of DNCB-induced dermatitis was increased in accordance with up-regulation of total IgE levels in the serum. Mast cells are one class of inflammatory cells and the activation and degranulation of mast cells is tightly regulated by IgE. Total IgE affects mast cells and induces degranulation and triggers secretion of histamine and other inflammatory mediators[10, 35, 38]. Among the released inflammatory mediators, histamine is one of the most potent mediators[38]. In AD skin lesions, mast cells infiltrate the dermis and elicit inflammation by releasing histamine and other mediators. Infiltration of inflammatory cells in the dermis, induced by DNCB, was inhibited by 10% CDSW (Figure4) and significantly reduced total IgE and histamine levels in the serum. These results indicate that CDSW lowers serum histamine and IgE levels in DNCB induced murine AD model.
It was believed that inflammatory cytokines contribute to inflammation in skin lesions in AD[15]. T-helper cells (CD4+), a type of white blood cell, play an important role in the immune system and have two subfamilies with distinct regulatory and influencing functions, based on their cytokines: Th1 lymphocyte and Th2 lymphocyte[39]. Th1 lymphocytes produce IFN-γ and IL-2, while Th2 lymphocytes produce IL-4 and IL-10. Excessive release of these cytokines is an important part of inflammation in AD. Among these, it was reported that Th2 cytokines regulate IgE synthesis. Treatment of DNCB promoted Th2 cell responses, such as IL-4 and IL-10 production. Overexpressed IL-4 promotes the development of AD[40]. In our experiments, production of IL-4 and IL-10 was reduced by 10% CDSW treatment, which led to reduced serum IgE levels. Treatment with 10% CDSW did not have any significant effect on Th1 responses. Taken together, our data show that application of CDSW has a beneficial effect for treating AD-like symptoms.
In conclusion, our data show that application of CDSW to AD-like lesions significantly down-regulates Th2 cytokines, serum IgE levels and clinical severity scores. These observations lead us to conclude that topical application of CDSW to skin lesions alleviates at least some symptoms of atopic dermatitis. Also, it is possible that topical application of CDSW may prove to be an effective approach for preventing other allergic skin diseases.
This work was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Knowledge Economy of the Republic of Korea (RIC-07-06-01).
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Pre-publication history
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