text:
GLOBAL AFFAIR: French tabloid sensation Zahia Dehar might use very little fabric for her lascivious lingerie, but she did not skimp on the decor of her couture show on Wednesday. Ponds with water lilies, little wooden bridges, cherry blossoms and golden fields of barley conjured an idyllic backdrop for her lineup of scanty little dirndls. The finale spectacle involved Dehar herself on a gigantic horse-drawn carriage, on which the designer appeared petting a baby lamb.
The come-hither couture is just the start. Dehar's one-year-old brand is preparing to launch its first ready-to-wear line this fall. "It's been very well received by buyers. Our plan is to have a corner in a premium department store in every major city," asserted Tugdual Denis, the operations and sales director of Zahia, which is backed by Hong Kong-based equity fund First Mark.
With lingerie sets retailing at about $200, Denis said Zahia would compete with the likes of Agent Provocateur and Chantal Thomass.
Terry Richardson shot the current couture and the new rtw campaign. Why the rtw? "Because that's where the money is," said Denis. "Down the line, we want to branch out and diversify into swimwear, hosiery, potentially also cosmetics — we are talking to major licensors with a lot of interest in the brand. What we want to build is a lifestyle brand within the next few years."


text:
Living in a time when failed banks, corporate bailouts, and increased unemployment is the daily norm in the States, many of us are struggling with the question of whether or not to invest in the U.S. market. Green America, a nonprofit organization known for its promotion of green and fair trade business principles, wrote in their Real Green newsletter last fall about how investing to be green (and saving green) is a reality. We all know investing our hard-earned cash comes with many risks, especially for those of you like myself who are currently enrolled in undergraduate programs footing hefty tuition bills. Green America's staff writer, Tracy Fernandez Rysavy, shows us how we can invest responsibly in our communities no matter how high or low our risk tolerance is.
Determining your risk tolerance is the first step in pursuing new investments. Everybody's risk tolerance is different based on age, industry, and savings. Rysavy suggests speaking with a financial advisor to determine your "investment comfort zone". For those who would rather take less of a risk, market-linked CDs are a great alternative to directly investing in the stock market. Financial advisor, Ed Winslow, who is the founder of Protect Money Investments, says that market-linked CDs are hard to find at community investing banks. However, your financial advisor can direct you towards banks known for their social and environmental activism. On the other hand, Michelle Weber of Edwards Jones believes in investing directly into the stock market. A social investing financial advisor, Weber states that despite the ups and downs the economy experiences, overall progress is being made. Thus, the opportunity for moneymaking in the stock market is still a reality.
Once you have determined the kind of investment best for you, make an effort to specifically invest in federally insured socially responsible investing (SRI) accounts. Rysavy suggests heading over to Community Invest, an organization who directs investors to community investing institutions. These institutions work on boosting the economies of low-income communities. To assist you with navigating the SRI world, head over to Green Pages where SRI advisors and mutual funds are listed, so you can find causes you and progressive companies and firms mutually support. Many financial advisers, like Brian Laverty of High Impact Investments, forecasts that companies who are enacting greener policies are moving forward in their respective markets compared to companies who are behind socially and environmentally. When it comes to long-term finances, Laverty expects green businesses to come out on top. Therefore, it is smart to invest in companies who support our communities and environment.
But what about college students, many of whom spearhead progressive initiatives through demonstration, writing, and fundraising, but do not have the financial means themselves to take a risk in SRI? Being a student who has accumulated probably too many student loans and attends a private university in Washington, D.C., investing is not exactly on my to-do list. However, I was able to make a low-risk investment in a local business in Lima, Peru through a non-profit organization called Kiva. Kiva extends small loans to prospective business owners across the globe. The beauty of Kiva is you can choose whom you are loaning to. I loaned $25 in November of 2009 to Marisol, a married mother of 2, who sells baked goods out of her husband's hardware store. I chose Marisol because, at the time, I was preparing to jet off to Cusco, Peru to work at a community center over my holiday break. I thought it would be another fantastic way to show my support for the country. I was paid back in monthly installments of $5 through April 2010 and was repaid 100% of my investment. Best of all, the current repayment rate to lenders is 98.79%. Even though you do not net a gain or profit from this investment, the satisfaction of furthering future small business owners with their business ventures truly gives you that warm fuzzy feeling. The best is when Kiva sends a message to you about the progress of those you loaned to.
In all, you do not have to work on Wall Street to know how to invest wisely. Neither do you have to have deep pockets to make a smart, sound investment. Better yet, there are numerous opportunities for you to invest in specific companies and firms who share your wish for improved communities and a cleaner environment. Spend your money wisely and happy investing!
-Derek Rogers

subset: commoncrawl


text:
On October 13, 2012 at approximately 11:30 p.m., an adult female was sexually assaulted after leaving a restaurant/bar in the area of Colorado Boulevard and Holly Street. The victim was walking alone when she was approached from behind by the suspect and forcibly taken to Legge Alley, where the assault occurred. The suspect fled the alley on foot. He is described as a male Hispanic, 30's-40's, 5'8, medium build, and wearing dark clothing.
Police Detectives responded to the scene and the investigation is on-going.
Police are asking that anyone who saw someone or something suspicious in the area that evening to contact Detective Schuyler Sandeen at firstname.lastname@example.com or (626) 744-7099, or Pasadena Police Department Dispatch at (626) 744-4241. If you any have information, you may report it anonymously through Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS (8477) or http://lacrimestoppers.org.


text:
Australian cyclist Stuart O'Grady could be stripped of his Olympic medals after admitting to using performance-enhancing drugs at the 1998 Tour de France.
O'Grady, who retired this week, told a newspaper on Wednesday that he had used the banned blood-booster erythropoietin (EPO) before the notorious 1998 Tour.
The admission came after a French Senate inquiry named him among riders with "suspicious" test results in a damning report into the 1998 race.
A successful Olympic track cyclist, O'Grady won a madison gold at the 2004 Athens Games, following a team pursuit silver at the 1992 Barcelona Games and a pair of bronzes at Atlanta in 1996.
"It's sad," Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) spokesman Mike Tancred told reporters on Thursday.
"He won't be remembered as a fantastic competitor that we all thought he was. Instead he'll be remembered as an athlete who succumbed to the temptation of drugs in sport just to get an edge on his fellow riders.
"In regard to his medals, it's a matter for the international federation, so the UCI (International Cycling Union) will consider the medals and they will then make some recommendation to the IOC (International Olympic Commission)
The AOC had already called on O'Grady to step down from its Athletes' Commission, a 10-member advisory body comprised of respected athletes.
"Members of our London Olympic team … are entitled to be angry knowing they had supported an athlete who had cheated," AOC president John Coates said in a statement.
O'Grady, one of Australia's most celebrated cyclists, could also stand to lose his three national citations, which include an Order of Australia Medal awarded in 2005.
The French Senate inquiry found the the top three finishers at the 1998 tour – Italian Marco Pantani, Germany's Jan Ullrich and American Bobby Julich – were among 18 riders who had tested positive for EPO.
O'Grady was among 12 riders whose tests were said to be "suspicious" and the 39-year-old did not waste time confirming he had used EPO to the Adelaide Advertiser, insisting he had acted alone in sourcing it.
He announced his retirement on Tuesday after helping his GreenEdge team to a time trial victory in this year's Tour, his 17th appearance tying George Hincapie's record.
He had been expected to race on in 2014, however, and push for a record 18th Tour.
GreenEdge was rocked by doping revelations last year involving sports director and former cyclist Matt White, who was implicated in the United States Anti-Doping Agency's dossier on disgraced drug cheat Lance Armstrong.
The Australian team sacked White after he admitted to doping with Armstrong's U.S. Postal team, but reinstated him earlier this year after he completed a six-month ban.
GreenEdge said it supported O'Grady "as a person and an advocate for a clean sport".
"Like the majority of the riders in his generation, he was also exposed to the issues and wrongdoings of the sport and made some wrong choices in that environment," GreenEdge general manager Shayne Bannan said in a statement on the team's website (www.greenedgecycling.com).
Cycling Australia also declined to condemn O'Grady, blaming the era and the European "environment".
"The late 1990's was clearly a dark period in cycling's international history," the governing body said in a statement.
Coates, though, said the "everybody else was doing it" line was no defence for cheating.
"This was a shameful period for the sport of cycling which has been well documented, that is no excuse for the decision taken by Stuart O'Grady," he added.
(Writing by Ian Ransom; Editing by Nick Mulvenney)


text:
Cyclist Christian Vande Velde of Lemont is among the 11 former Lance Armstrong teammates who admitted to doping during testimony under oath in the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency investigation of Armstrong.
Vande Velde said in an affidavit he had doped from 1999 through 2005, regularly using testosterone and the blood booster erythropoietin (EPO), both banned substances. He also said he had received injections of human growth hormone (hGH), another banned substance, and of a banned corticosteroid.
He received a ban of six months, retroactive to Sept. 1. The ban was reduced from a minimum of two years because he cooperated with the investigation.
The 11 names were revealed Wednesday, as USADA provided details about how it reached the conclusion that has stripped Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles and banned him for life from events governed by the World Anti-Doping Code.
"I am deeply sorry for the decisions I made in the past," Vande Velde said in a statement released by his current team, Slipstream Sports.
Two of its other riders, Tom Danielson and David Zabriskie, also confessed to doping in the team's statement.
Vande Velde, 36, rode with Armstrong's U.S. Postal team during all of his first Tour victory in 1999. He started the 2001 Tour for the Postal team but withdrew after crashing into a post during the seventh stage.
"As a young pro rider I competed drug free, not winning but holding my own and achieving decent results," Vande Velde said in the statement. " Then, one day, I was presented with a choice that to me, at the time, seemed like the only way to continue to follow my dream at the highest level of the sport. I gave in and crossed the line, a decision that I deeply regret.
"I was wrong to think I didn't have a choice – the fact is that I did, and I chose wrong. I won races before doping and after doping. Ironically, I never won while doping, I was more or less just treading water. This does not make it ok. I saw the line and I crossed it, myself."
In its Wednesday statement, USADA said, "It took tremendous courage for the riders on the USPS Team and others to come forward and speak truthfully. It is not easy to admit your mistakes and accept your punishment."
Vande Velde left US Postal after the 2003 season. He went on to complete the Tour de France seven more times, taking fourth place in 2008 and eighth in 2009.
He testified to first-hand knowledge of widespread doping by several USPS riders and suspicions Armstrong was one of them. Like Armstrong and most of the others, Vande Velde never had a confirmed positive test.
Vande Velde said he had stopped doping well before joining Slipstream in 2008, when the team entered the pro ranks with a guiding principle of trying to assure clean competition. Through a Slipstream spokesperson, Vande Velde said he had stopped doping in 2006.
"I know that forgiveness is a lot to ask for," he said.
(For the affidavit of Vande Velde's testimony to USADA and the USADA documentation of its case against Armstrong, go to "Related Items.")
In the affidavit, Vande Velde said he first knowingly violated anti-doping rules by taking testosterone at the 1999 Tour de France and began taking EPO (erythropoietin) at the end of 2000, under a doping program devised by Italian doctor Michele Ferrari. Ferrari worked with Armstrong for several years.
Vande Velde testified Ferrari also showed him how to use testosterone patches.
He described a meeting with Armstrong and Ferrari after the 2002 Tour de France in which Armstrong "told me if I wanted to continue to ride for the Postal Service team I would have to use what Dr. Ferrari had been telling me to use."
Two of the other teammates who testified in the Armstrong probe, George Hincapie and Michael Barry, both admitted past doping but said they had been clean beginning with the 2006 season.
Vande Velde's penalties also included disqualification of all his results from June 2004, through April, 2006, and an agreement not to accept a spot on the 2012 Olympic team.
Cyclist Christian Vande Velde of Lemont is among the 11 former Lance Armstrong teammates who admitted to doping during testimony under oath in the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency investigation of Armstrong.


text:
Bunkie Premier
tax and shipping not included
With double glass walls and an iconic outline, the Bunkie Premier is a small prefab studio that offers an inviting light filled space to create your ideal personal sanctuary.
- 106 sq ft
- A "no permits needed" design
- Double glass walls
- Recessed LED lighting
- Easy to assemble
- Made with precision-cut components
- Made in Canada
- Does not come with bathroom or kitchen
* Built-in furniture, bed and fireplace as seen in photos are optional. Other built-in furniture configurations available. Call Close to Home for pricing: 1-206-295-0727
Product Details
Interior: 106 sq ft
Dimensions: 12'6" W x 8'6" D x 11'6" H
Footprint: 106 sq ft
Warranties: 1 year Bunkie structural warranty, 25 year roof and exterior walls, 10 year glass wall, 20 year uPVC window frame
2 glass walls – one with 1 door and 2 awning windows, the other with 1 tilt window
Create a space efficient environment with optional built-in Bunkie furniture seen in photos. Please contact Close to Home for more information.
Prewired recessed LED ceiling lights
Electrical wall conduits
The Premier comes on site as a series of 15 preassembled components that are bolted together – then finished with the addition of glass and cladding.
- 3-4 unskilled people: 3 days
- Main tools needed: ratchet, hammer and cordless drill
The Premier will need a foundation. Here are 3 options depending on the property:
- A concrete pad 12' x 8' x 8" deep – 4" submerged in the ground, 4" out of the ground
- Sonotubes with pressure treated, wooden cross members
- Grade Beams (either concrete curbs or pressure treated 4 x 4's on beds of tamped limestone screening)
- The Premier comes flat-packed via truck
Structure: Canadian fir and spruce structural plywood
Interior walls and floor: Maple-faced, formaldehyde-free Purebond plywood and veneer core decorative paneling
Glass wall framing: uPVC
Roof and exterior walls: standing seam steel cladding with impermeable waterproof drainage membrane
Insulation: Roxul batt insulation
Insulation R factors: Walls – R24, Ceiling – R24, Base – R24


text:
For 1974, it seemed to Car and Track host Bud Lindemann even American Motors was proud of their product, proclaiming "This is the Matador". According to this vintage road test, while the Matador's new styling was well received, the rest of the car still needed some serious improvement.
While American Motors was solely responsible for the styling of the Matador, they used a few parts from Ford Chrysler and Chevrolet while putting the car together. As Lindemann points out the Matador X featured a GM steering column, Ford carburetor and Chrysler Torque-flite transmission. The Matador X was powered by AMC's top of the line 401 V8, which was capable of propelling the car to a very respectable 16.75 1/4 mile.
According to Bud Lindemann "the best thing AMC had going for it on the pylon course was the padded steering wheel" calling the car's body lean "excessive". It wasn't much better when it came time to stop the big Matador, producing some great video footage of the big car making "wild high speed emergency stops."
The Car and Track complaints about the Matador X didn't stop there though. In Lindemann's words the Matador was "thirsty", averaging a dismal 11.3 MPG while Car and Track had the car. This road test ends with the host wondering why "in an era of shortages, of which fuel heads the list, that so much emphasis was placed on styling and so little on economy".


text:
Our Values
Trustworthiness is one of the most important ethical values and brings together qualities such as honesty, integrity, reliability and loyalty. Earned trust allows the community to feel secure and assures them we will meet our obligations. Our ability to function as an organization rises and falls upon this value and it must be jealously guarded to ensure our continued success. The esteem the community holds for the Spokane County Sheriff's Office is based squarely on each member's honesty, integrity, reliability and loyalty.
Our commitment to achieving our mission for the people of Spokane County can only be secured through a responsible, reliable and affirmative effort. Responsibility incorporates qualities such as accountability, self-restraint, and the pursuit of excellence. We must accept the responsibilities for our actions as well as inactions while on-duty or off-duty, when those actions bring disrepute on the image of the Spokane County Sheriff's Office and fellow members. We shall uphold and follow through on promises and commitments so we can be relied upon.
This organization revolves around the respect to our duty, mission and the community. Respect in the Sheriff's Office is demonstrated through the courteous treatment we offer each other in the conduct of our daily business. We strive to treat others with courtesy and respect at all times; not because of whom they are but because of who we are. We will maintain our professionalism by not allowing another's behavior to dictate our response. Our duties will be carried out in a respectful and professional manner regardless of the actions of others.
We shall seek to be fair in adhering to a balanced standard of impartiality, equality, openness and due process without relevance to our feelings or inclinations. We will seek out relevant information and conflicting perspectives before making important judgments and decisions. Our decisions must be made without favoritism or prejudice and we shall not take advantage of weakness or ignorance in others.
We must empathize with the problems of people whom we work with and contact on a daily basis. Sometimes we must make decisions that may cause people both emotional and physical pain. In doing so, one should be consciously aware to cause no more discomfort than is reasonable and necessary to perform one's duties. A person who is caring will feel an obligation to be trustworthy, responsible, respectful, fair, and promote good citizenship.
The Spokane County Sheriff's Office exists for the service it provides to the community. We consider it our duty to deliver friendly, beneficial service, which promotes our mission. Members are encouraged to provide community service outside of their normal work environment thorough civic groups, athletics, churches and other forms of volunteerism.


text:
LOS ANGELES — A fourth-grade teacher who worked nearly 40 years in the Los Angeles Unified School District has been arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing 20 students, a year after another veteran teacher accused of molesting nearly two dozen pupils brought national attention to the district and the problem of classroom sex abuse.
After a 10-month investigation, eight felony counts of continual sexual abuse and seven counts of lewd acts upon a child were filed Wednesday against Robert Pimentel of Newport Beach for abuse that allegedly took place at George De La Torre Jr. Elementary in the Wilmington area, officer Christopher No said.
In addition to the 15 felonies, misdemeanor charges are expected for the remaining incidents, No said. Pimentel's bail has been set at $12 million. An arraignment date has not been set.
Police and school officials said Pimentel, 57, is also suspected of the sexual abuse of one adult, but they did not say what role, if any, that person had at the school.


text:
If an employee walked into work one day clutching his shiny new iPhone, iPad, Android or other mobile smartphone or tablet, wanting to use it for official corporate business, would you say yes?
Consumer Device Use is Growing, but IT and Security Can't Keep Up
BYOT: Hype or a Hiring Dealbreaker?
Plenty of IT managers are hearing that question these days, aware that it gives rise to security and management concerns. Should the employee-owned smartphone or tablet be managed or secured exactly as a corporate-issued mobile device might be? Can the employee and business data be separated somehow? Or should the whole "bring your own device" (BYOD) phenomenon be rejected as too much of a security risk and management ordeal?
Former White House cybersecurity adviser Richard Clarke, now partner at the firm Good Harbor Consulting, says employee-owned devices used for work may well "represent the newest and largest vulnerability in corporate America now."
Employees are insisting they have these devices, and CIOs are giving in. But "the corporation has a responsibility to its shareholders to ensure that everything that is allowed there is secured," Clarke says. That means ensuring that any app running on that device is secure, he says. Anything less is unacceptable.
NETWORK WORLD'S HOTTEST TECH ARGUMENTS: Read the rest here
BACKGROUND: Smartphones, tablets create huge corporate security challenge
The U.S. government itself is not rushing into the BYOD craze, according to Deborah Gallagher, acting director of the identity management division at the General Services Administration (GSA). She fielded questions on this at the recent Biometrics Consortium Conference.
Concerns about employee-owned devices include, "How do we make sure the device is the one we want on the network, and the person is who they say they are, and it's secure?" said Gallagher. "We're not sure yet."
GSA is thinking about the BYOD question but wants to achieve the same levels of security required for government-issued computers. "We don't want to throw out what we've done already," she said, alluding to the enormous public-key certificate management infrastructure the government has fostered over the years. The government might consider using digital certificates on the new variety of smartphones.
Chad Plemons, vice president of IT at Knoxville, Tenn.-based Edfinancial Services, involved in student loans, says BYOD is not an option at all because contractual obligations with the Federal Student Aid division of the U.S. Department of Education require Edfinancial to use only company-owned devices.
But in the private sector, many companies are moving forward with BYOD.
Jon Martin, vice president of IT at Digirad, a maker of cameras used for medical purposes, said his firm is allowing employee-owned iPhones and iPads.
"What we've done is move from the company owning the device to the individual owning the device," Martin says, noting there's a formal procedure for that with a subsidy to the employee. He said it saves the company money and the employees are pleased with the situation.
There are limits, though.
"We're only trying to support email," he says. "And the users can't contact us for advice. We say, check with your provider," such as the wireless services provider, when the devices don't work well. However, there's a dual-management arrangement where Digirad's cloud provider for Microsoft Exchange services, CenterBeam, with its CenterBeam 365+ service, does manage the email connectivity for the employee-owned device used at work.
VeriSign Chief Security Officer Danny McPherson says his company allows employee-owned devices for use at work under some conditions, noting it's been somewhat of a "struggle" to evolve a policy.
"It's a subjective consideration based on the group the individual is in," McPherson says. He says certain security software has to be run on employee-owned devices, as it might be on corporate-issued devices. Even then, "personal devices used for work are not given ubiquitous access."
"Management of employee-owned devices is tricky because it is much more difficult to maintain standardization on these devices and to install software and agents designed to lock them down," says Steve Brasen, managing research director, systems management, at consultancy Enterprise Management Associates.
Tablets vs. laptops vs. smartphones
Companies can introduce policies for BYOD, and the employee must be willing to conform to them, he says. But he says he thinks the BYOD approach may not be effective "in organizations and employee roles in which mobile-device use is essential to business success."
A possible second BYOD option, Brasen points out, involves making use of endpoint virtualization to logically separate the user and work environment, with only the work environment managed by the business, and employees can switch between the two environments as required.
The high-tech industry is coming up with strategies, software and services for what some call the 'dual-persona' mobile device but much of this is still in the early stage.
BACKGROUND: Verizon, VMware plan dual-persona phone
"The smartphone is almost as powerful as the PC," says Andy Hayter, anti-malcode manager at ICSA Labs."The business should set policy as they would for the PC, with controls such as anti-virus or VPN."
But companies shouldn't necessary give the thumb's up to every single mobile device the employee walks in with, he says.
"There's a tide of new devices coming in and they need to put the brakes on it up front," Hayter says. Companies should think of choosing specific mobile devices as a corporate standard, stipulate certain uses for them in business, and test what's been approved thoroughly.
Read more about wide area network in Network World's Wide Area Network section.
This story, "Corporate-Owned Vs. Employee-Owned Mobile Devices" was originally published by Network World.
Next read this:
- Top 9 challenges IT leaders will face in 2020
- Top 5 strategic priorities for CIOs in 2020
- 7 'crackpot' technologies that might transform IT
- 8 technologies that will disrupt business in 2020
- 7 questions CIOs should ask before taking a new job
- 7 ways to position IT for success in 2020
- The 9 new rules of IT leadership
- 20 ways to kill your IT career (without knowing it)
- IT manager's survival guide: 11 ways to thrive in the years ahead
- CIO resumes: 6 best practices and 4 strong examples
- 4 KPIs IT should ditch (and what to measure instead)


text:
I try to teach my boys to be safe drivers. Not that they are driving yet. The other day, I was driving through an intersection when a car drove through the red light. Fortunately, I was alert and able to slam on my brakes and avoid smashing right into the driver's side of the other car. A woman was obliviously talking on her cell phone and ran right through the light. I wasn't speeding but I could have easily killed her by smashing into the driver's side of her compact car. I was going to conduct a citizen's arrest but figured I might get pepper spray in the face. So I let her go...
Now I drive around with my camera taking pictures of other drivers distracted while driving to gather evidence...
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Posted by Ka`iana at 6:43 PM
0 comments:
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
Last-Minute Discounts on New York Cooking Classes
Every week we spotlight a dozen cooking classes sold through our partner CourseHorse to take in the weeks ahead. Some of the most popular classes CourseHorse offers sell out way in advance, but cooking schools like the Institute of Culinary Education and the Brooklyn Kitchen are now offering deals on last-minute-availability seats exclusively through us. Want a sweet deal on a cooking class? Here are seven classes with discounted seats.
Want To...
- Learn cooking basics at a culinary boot camp. $405 (normally $450). The Center for Kosher Culinary Arts, Every Tuesday (5 sessions), Starting October 8th, 7:00 to 10:00 p.m.
- Make authentic Israeli home-cooked meals. $76 (normally $95). JCC Culinary Arts, Thursday, October 10th, 7:00 to 9:30 p.m.
- Healthy eats: learn to detox. $76 (normally $95). JCC Culinary Arts, Sunday, October 13th, 12:00 to 2:30 p.m.
- Master six basic cooking techniques. $90 (normally $100). Home Cooking New York, Wednesday, October 16th, 7:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
- Cook fish. $90 (normally $100). Home Cooking New York, Wednesday, October 17th, 7:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
- Try easy tailgating recipes. $58.50 (normally $65). Taste Buds Kitchen, Friday, October 18th, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
- Mix hot boozy drinks for cold weather. $31.50 (normally $45). Pioneer Works, Saturday, November 16th, 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Seats expected to sell out quickly. See more on CourseHorse.
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


text:
Journal Of A Psychoanalysis
This intimate account of a successful analysis illustrates the innovative approach of the analyst, Paul Diel. The anonymous author of the journal was a forty-year-old man beset by anxiety and obsessed with his failures, resentments, fantasies, and disappointments. He was drawn to Diel's method of psychotherapy because of its focus on distorted motivations as the root of emotional disturbance. Diel saw neurosis as arising from the individual's transformation of every feeling into morbid resentment, imaginary humiliations and victories, feelings of superiority and inferiority, shame at others' opinions, excessive self-justification and self-blame, emotional complaints, and vindictive criticism. Diel's patient unravels the tangle of these negative states in his diary as he recounts his life, faces his inner conflicts, and reflects on his therapy sessions. Through the process of honest and courageous self-examination, he succeeds in discovering the guiding principles that lead him to a more balanced life and happier relationships. Paul Diel's Introduction and Epilogue shed further light on this therapeutic process.
- Additional information
Additional Information
|0.0 kg


text:
Wildbook blends structured wildlife research with artificial intelligence, citizen science, and computer vision to speed population analysis and develop new insights to help fight extinction. Here is our vision in one minute.
Or if you have a bit more time, check out this video about our work with NVIDIA:
2020-01-01 Wild Me is happy to announce that we have received funding from the Gordan and Betty Moore foundation to advance our mission. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation fosters path-breaking scientific discovery, environmental conservation, patient care improvements and preservation of the special character of the Bay Area. Visit Moore.org and follow @MooreFound.
With this Wild Me will be able to continue to push forward the Wildbook software and make it available to more users and useful for more species.
2019-08-08 We're about to finish Wildbook 7.0! We're excited about the improvements and will provide a summary list here shortly. Currently we're running it in production on whaleshark.org and iot.wildbook.org with giraffespotter.org soon to follow. If you're building Wildbook, the 7.x branch has the latest for this release:
According to a July 2017 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a "sixth mass extinction" is underway, a trend signalled by widespread vertebrate losses that "will have negative cascading consequences on ecosystem functioning and services vital to sustaining civilization." This meta-study is based on multiple, independent analyses and represents a growing awareness in the wildlife research community that more rapid assessment, response, and review are needed to understand and counter this decline.
Unfortunately, wildlife research efforts are frequently underfunded and small scale. The collection and management of wildlife data remains a largely ad hoc and academic exercise focused on moving small data sets (often in Excel and Access) into local, custom population studies for "one-off" analyses without long-term data curation or collaboration across borders and regions. Arriving at a critical mass of data for population analysis can take years (especially for rare or endangered species). Long required observation periods and manual data processing (e.g., matching photos "by eye") can create multi-year lags between study initialization and scientific results, as well as create conclusions too coarse or slow for effective and optimizable conservation action. This limits the scope, scale, repeatability, continuity, and ROI of the studies as they face the limits of their home-grown tools and IT capabilities.
Wildlife researchers lack a common yet customizable platform for collaboration and often don't have the technical experience or budget to take advantage of advanced computing tools (e.g., computer vision, artificial intelligence). These tools allows projects to obtain, curate, and analyze "Big Data", such as the potential of citizen scientists to collect and contribute large volumes of wildlife data through tourism and volunteerism.
Wildbook ® is an open source software framework to support collaborative mark-recapture, molecular ecology, and social ecology studies, especially where citizen science and artificial intelligence can help scale up projects. It is developed by the non-profit Wild Me (PI Jason Holmberg) and research partners at the University of Illinois-Chicago (PI Tanya Berger-Wolf), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (PI Charles V. Stewart), and Princeton University (PI Daniel Rubenstein).
Wildbook provides a technical foundation (database, APIs, computer vision, etc.) for wildlife research projects that are:
The biological and statistical communities already support a number of excellent tools, such as Program MARK,GenAlEx, and SOCPROG for use in analyzing wildlife data. Wildbook is a complementary software application that:
Images have become the most abundant, available and cheap source of data. The explosive growth in the use of digital cameras, together with rapid innovations in storage technology and automatic image analysis software, makes this vision possible particularly for large animals with distinctive striped, spotted, wrinkled or notched markings, such as elephants, giraffes and zebras. This large number of collected images must be analyzed automatically to produce a database that records who the animals are, where they are, and when they were photographed. Combining this with geographic, environmental, behavioral and climate data would enable the determination of what the animals are doing, and why they are doing it.
Wildbook evolved out of multi-disciplinary, collaborative research conducted under National Science Foundation support (see ibeis.org). Wildbook employees computer vision and A.I. components to detect features in submitted images and detect and then identify individual animals. Wildbook brings massive-scale computer vision to wildlife research for the first time.
Wildbook integrates the data management software of Wild Me with the computer vision and A.I. research of RPI. Wildbook includes a two-part, multi-species computer vision pipeline to find and identify individual animals in photos collected under real-world conditions, especially with citizen science contribution.
Our detection pipeline is a cascade of deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) that applies a fully-connected classifier on extracted features. Three separate networks produce: (1) whole-scene classifications looking for specific species of animals in the photograph, (2) object annotation bounding box localizations, and (3) the viewpoint, quality, and final species classifications for the candidate bounding boxes.
In Wildbook, A.I.-powered detection finds and labels wildlife in photos.
The second major computer vision step is identification, which assigns a name label to each annotation from detection. To do this, SIFT descriptors are first extracted and then compared at keypoint locations. Scores from the query that match the same individual are accumulated to produce a single potential score for each animal. The animals in the database are then ranked by their accumulated scores. A post-processing step spatially verifies the descriptor matches and then re-scores and re-ranks the database individuals.
Example correct identifications. The upper left annotation in each frame is the annotation to be identified. The other frames are the other annotations for the same animal. The bottom left annotation is the primary matching frame. The colored line segments show connections between corresponding features of the same animal.
The results of computer vision are returned to Wildbook's data management software, which supports rapid curation, export, and analysis. Data can be rapidly viewed in tables, maps, charts, calendars, and as thumbnails. Data can also be searched, filtered, and used in R, Mark, ArcGIS, Google Earth, and other applications.
Wildbook is used in public and private installations.
Wildbook software is open source through the GNU GPL v.2 license. You are free build and host it yourself if you have experience maintaining web applications. Wild Me can facilitate hosting and custom solutions based on service contracts, or direct you to an available online platform we maintain as part of our non profit mission. Wildbook Downloads
If you choose to download and build Wildbook yourself please refer to the installation instructions in the User Guide referenced below.
Wildbook has an R package available at: https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/RWildbook/index.html
The following support options can help you use Wildbook.
Need help?
Please contact us on our community forums. This is a brand new addition to our support system and monitored regularly by our engineering staff. If you have setup questions, features requests, bugs or other feedback please post here first and join us in growing the community. Wildbook Community Forum
Need to contact us directly?
Wild Me (wildme.org) engineering staff also provide direct support for Wildbook. You can contact us at: email@example.com
We provide direct support during regular office hours on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Wildbook® is always free and open source. We are a community of IT professionals and wildlife researchers maintaining and improving a 21st century platform. However, sometimes you may need extra help on a deadline. Our non-profit Wild Me offers professional hosting and customization to fit your project's requirements. This helps us fund our non-profit projects. Contact us if you need help!
Wildbook is a long-term, multi-disciplinary, multi-institution project combining skilled people in computer science, data science, ecology, and software engineering..
Professor Tanya Berger-Wolf provides computer science, data science, and overall project leadership to Wildbook.
Jason Holmberg is the Director of Engineering for Wildbook. Jon Van Oast, Drew Blount, and Colin Kingen are the primary software developers. Jason Parham is our machine learning specialist. Together we bring a wealth of professional software engineering experience to Wildbook.
Professor Charles Stewart and his students provide artificial intelligence and computer vision research and technology to Wildbook.
Professor Dan Rubenstein provides ecology and biology guidance to Wildbook as well as field testing Kenya.
Dr. Jonathan Crall is one of the original developers of Wildbook's computer vision components under the IBEIS project and specializes in individual animal identification challenges in computer vision.
Dr. Scott Baker of Oregon State University designed the DNA-related components within the software and remains an active adviser on the project.
Ongoing support for Wildbook is funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Microsoft's A.I. for Earth Program, Pineapple Fund, collaborative co-investment by users, and donations to Wild Me.
Past development work for Wildbook has been supported by:
You can help move Wildbook forward by making a donation! Your donation is tax deductible in the United States.
Can you donate BitCoin or Ethereum?
BitCoin wallet ID: 15KCE1xCGjhcDojjEpMhUA8L6JMdiNGTHy
Ethereum wallet ID: 0x5d41f2e86FeCD1205717B099a8546c5cF6F97e57
The following publications have resulted or been supported by Wildbook-related work:
The following publications have influenced our design and development of Wildbook:
Wildbook is a registered trademark of Wild Me.
Wildbook is distributed under the GPL v2 open source license.


text:
Have you mastered the Basics and are looking for something new and fun? We have a variety of classes and dog sports that fit the bill!
BEYOND THE BASICS/Canine Good Citizen Prep: 5-week course for graduates of The Basics
This class continues our work from The Basics by playing games and doing exercises that incorporate distractions, proofing, and chaining behaviors. We will also practice the skills needed for passing the AKC's Canine Good Citizen test . CGC evaluations are taken the last week of class (last class is extended; price included in the class fee).
Prerequisite: The Basics or prior instructor approval (private evaluation at a charge may be required). Student should be familiar with using a clicker or other marker (verbal ok).
This class is limited to 5 dogs in Ballard, 7 in GT. INSTRUCTOR: Danette Johnston, CPDT-KA, Certified CGC Evaluator
CANINE GOOD CITIZEN: CGC Testing
Your dog can take the AKC's Canine Good Citizen Test at Dog's Day Out. Testing fee is $25.
Pre-registration is required. For more info on the CGC test go to www.akc.org . We also offer a full CGC prep class, Beyond The Basics (see above). Danette Johnston, CPDT-KA, Certified CGC Evaluator
TRICKS!: Levels 1 & 2. 4-week class for dogs who have completed THE BASICS (or have prior instructor approval). Student should be familiar with using a clicker or other marker (verbal ok).
This is a fun, relaxed class where DISobedience is encouraged! We want your dog to think and try new things.
In Level 1 you will learn foundation skills to teach tricks using the techniques of luring (bow, spin, crawl) nose, paw and body targeting (play piano, push a ball, ride a skateboard), retrieving (get a tissue/beer/keys) and action (jump through a hoop, over a broom, roll over).
Level 2 students will continue to use their foundation skills (luring, targeting, retrieving, action) to work on more complex tricks by combining and chaining skills. You will have the freedom to pick specific tricks you would like to teach your dog and have instructor help to get you there!
We will also discuss and demo games to play with your dog such as fetch, tug and using a flirt pole. Danette Johnston, CPDT-KA
If Tricks class participants choose, they can take the AKC TRICK DOG TITLE testing on the last day of Tricks class. The testing fee is $25 (additional AKC fees apply). You do not need to be part of the Tricks class to be tested but need to reserve a testing space to: firstname.lastname@example.com
AGILITY FOR FUN: 4 week course
This is a FUN one! Learn to use agility equipment like weave poles, A-frame, see-saw, jumps and more! Dogs must have taken basic obedience classes to attend. Experienced Agility dogs also welcome.
This class is outdoors; dress for it! Seasonal.
AGILITY DROP-IN: For intermediate and experienced
Prerequisite – Agility at Dog's Day Out or Instructor approval. Preregistration directly through instructor: email@example.com
K9 SPORTS & FUN!: 3 hour seminar, introduction to K9 sports
Do you want to have more fun with your dog but don't know what sport is for you? Maybe you think your dog could excel in ALL dog sports but just don't know how to get started? Here, you get to test drive them all! In this 3 hour seminar you will be introduced to 3 different K9 sports: Agility, K9 Nosework and Tricks.
For this class, dogs must be non-reactive and friendly to both dogs and humans. Working dog spaces are limited, audit spaces available too.
INSTRUCTORS: Erica Wells, CNWI and Danette Johnston, CPDT-KA
K9 Nosework: Please visit our K9 Nosework page for classes, course outline, and instructor information.
How much do classes cost? Please see our rates and services page for class, daycare and seminar costs.
When are classes offered? Please check our Ballard dog training schedule or West Seattle dog training schedule for current listings and locations.
How do I sign up? Click listing on the right side of this page for specialty classes offered this season.
See the SCHEDULE for a listing of all classes/location offered this season.


text:
Tampa Commercial Real Estate
December 10, 2015
Our local experts are ready to serve you. Visit our website >>> Commercial Real Estate . . . . . . Farmington, Grand AK Rock, Huachuca/Sierra Vancouver, WI Mont HI Laredo, Kalamazoo, Colorado NY Lake, Dickinson, Albuquerque, Miami CO Plattsburgh, Three OK Bozeman, , OK Eau KS Long PA FL Binghamton, Beach, Madison, Medley,Colorado, NM NB … More Tampa Commercial Real Estate


text:
Visitors to OnTheSnow.com have chosen Mammoth Mountain, Calif., as the Favorite Overall resort in the Far West Region. OnTheSnow.com is the most visited winter sports Web portal in the world, generating 1.6 million unique visitors per month during the winter season.
Here's a sampling of what OnTheSnow.com visitors wrote about Mammoth Mountain: "There is terrain for every ability and skiers, snowboarders, telemarkers can all peacefully co-habitate here"; "Mammoth Mountain has everything you want (awesome open bowls, cornices, chutes, nice steeps, glades-tree riding, nice cruisers, groomers and bumps)."; "All in all, an amazing place to ski or ride; beautiful scenery, amazing snow, and great variety of terrain. One of the best resorts in the world! " Click here to read the reviews.
OnTheSnow's Visitors Choice Awards are chosen solely by visitors to OnTheSnow.com. Awards are based on ratings in five categories: Best Overall Resort, Best Downhill Terrain, Most Family Friendly, Best Terrain Park and Best Nightlife, and for combined totals of visitors going to individual resort pages on the site.
The ski resort with the top average score (scale of 1 to 5) in each category, and a minimum number of entries, receives the award. Visitors then ranked them in five categories: Overall Favorite, Best Nightlife, Most Family-Friendly, Best Downhill Terrain, and Best Terrain Park.
"User-generated content is one of the most powerful and effective ways Web visitors have to communicate with each other," said Mountain News Corp. President and Publisher Rob Brown of OnTheSnow.com. "Skiers and snowboarders are relying on the word of their peers when they make resort choices."
Brown points out these rankings should not be used as comparisons of one resort to another, since all visitors to OnTheSnow.com have not visited every resort, and expectations of the ski experience vary greatly in regions throughout North America. "But, they do provide an accurate reflection of our visitors' experiences and their passion for particular resorts."
OnTheSnow.com is the Web's most visited snow skiing site with a Nielsen-audited 1.6 million unique monthly visitors. The site offers the ski reports, ski resort reviews, web cams and skiing deals for virtually every ski resort in the world. Please click for the complete list of the 2009 OnTheSnow Visitors Choice Awards. There are 13 International Editions of OnTheSnow in seven languages.


text:
This was published 7 years ago
Telstra in the big league with its $100m NRL deal
TELSTRA has sealed a mobile broadcasting rights and sponsorship deal with the National Rugby League worth about $100 million
The deal signals its continuing strategy of expanding its media assets as it loses its old copper network.
The five-year deal will give Telstra the right to stream eight games a week, plus special events such as state of origin, the finals series and Test matches over the internet and to tablets and mobiles. But the News Ltd-owned Fox Sports still has the right to broadcast five games a week to tablets and internet-enabled television under an early agreement signed with the league, a spokesman confirmed.
''Australians have embraced smartphones and tablet devices, and this partnership provides for us to make the app and its live coverage available to all NRL fans where and when they want it," Telstra's chief executive David Thodey said at a press conference in Sydney.
Telstra will make NRL content available to fans on any mobile network, but will charge non-Telstra customers an extra fee. Telstra declined to comment on the monetary value of the deal. But the Australian Rugby League Commission's chairman, John Grant, indicated that the new five-year deal with Telstra would be worth more than $100 million and ''double'' the value of the previous deal.
The new deal with the NRL follows Telstra's $153 million agreement last year with the Australian Football League to stream matches live over the internet from 2012 to 2016. Telstra's move underscores its strategy of becoming more than just a telecommunications infrastructure provider.
Industry analysts say companies such as Telstra and Optus are re-orienting their services provision towards more media-centric platform.
''They are moving up the supply chain, not just to be the means by which this information is delivered but also the provider of this information,'' said Craig Schulman, a senior industry analyst from IBISWorld. Telstra consolidated its media assets into a single division in 2012 to increase focus on content delivery business.
With NBN Co taking control of the nation's fixed communications network, Telstra is focusing on mobile communications.
In this space it competes against Optus, owned by Singapore Telecommunications, and Vodafone Hutchison Australia.
The NRL deal will give Telstra the naming rights to the premiership and Sunday football as well as a host of other marketing rights.
In August the NRL signed a $1.025 billion, five-year deal with Channel Nine and Fox Sports.


text:
Congratulations! We are interested in hearing about your latest achievement (accomplishment, honor, award, etc). The success of our graduates, students, faculty, and staff is a great source of pride for Antioch University Midwest and we want to help you share your accomplishments.
We will do our best to promote your news in the most appropriate way possible. We use social media, news articles on our website and in Common Thread, alumni profiles, and in some instances a press release.
Please fill out the following sections and we will contact you if we have any questions or need additional information.


text:
California's economy is recovering from its worst recession since the Great Depression — no doubt about that.
But its recovery is very slow, very geographically and socioeconomically uneven, and exacerbates the decline of a once-vibrant middle class and the evolution of a distinctly two-tiered society.
Sure, there is plenty of opportunity for those with the educations, creativity or technical skills that the post-industrial economy rewards handsomely and their success spawns demands for low-skill, low-pay service workers.
But what about the middle class? What about aerospace craftsmen, automobile assemblers, petrochemical plant operators, movie industry technicians and myriad other well-paying occupations that accompanied California's rise as a major economic power in the 20th century?
Those jobs have vanished by the millions and continue to disappear, leaving behind a state marked by high poverty rates and pockets of sybaritic excess.
Two recent examples illustrate the trend.
Tesla Motors, which makes battery-powered luxury cars, has benefited greatly from California's subsidies, a virtual mandate to build electric cars, and pollution credits it sells to other companies.
But when it came to locating a $2 billion plant with thousands of jobs to build lithium-ion batteries for itself and other automakers, the California-based company bypassed California. It's chosen four other Western states, including arch rival Texas, as finalists.
Tesla isn't saying why it shuns California, but efforts by Gov. Jerry Brown's business development office, GO-Biz, clearly fell short.
It's another example of high-technology companies keeping management and research operations in California, but looking elsewhere to locate plants that build their devices. Intel, for instance, has publicly declared that it would build no more plants in California.
The second example comes from FilmLA, the organization that encourages film and television production in the industry birthplace.
It issued a report this month that California had fallen to fourth behind Louisiana, Canada and Britain in production activity.
The report noted that 15 years ago, California had 64 percent of the production activity on the top 25 live-action films, but it was just 8 percent in 2013.
Once again, while film's elites live in California, blue-collar jobs go elsewhere — except, ironically, those in pornography, still centered in Southern California.
Other examples of economic bifurcation abound, leaving ever-fewer generators of middle-class employment — and uncertain ones at that, such as a volatile construction industry or government.
Whatever the cause — taxes, regulatory density, high utility costs, workforce training deficiencies — it's an unhealthy trend that politicians ignore at our peril.
Dan Walters covers state politics for The Sacramento Bee.
Dan WaltersIntelJerry BrownOpinionTesla
Find out more at www.sfexaminer.com/join/


text:
Fur Affinity
|This article may be out of date and in need of updating to include more recent information.
For specifics, check the edit history and talk page. Consult the Furry Book of Style for editing help.
|Fur Affinity
| Fur Affinity front page
| Owner: IMVU
https://www.furaffinity.net/ (SFW)
|Launch date
| 16 January–1 August 2005 (staff dispute & server issues)
10 December 2005–present
|Social media community
Fur Affinity, also known as FA, is the furry fandom's largest online community, focusing on the promotion of art, music and stories.
The site was created in 2005 by Alkora as an alternative to various art community sites such as SheezyArt, and deviantART distinguished by allowing artistic freedom of expression regardless of content rating. It is led by Dragoneer.
- Main article: History of Fur Affinity
Fur Affinity was launched on 16 January 2005 as an alternative to SheezyArt, with the forum going live on that date and the main site being transferred a few days later from FurPawz. Since then, it has suffered a few outages, most notably a month-long downtime over July 2008, but always managed to recover. In 2011, Fur Affinity announced a major revamp in connection to FA: United 4.[1]
Fur Affinity: United![edit]
- Main article: FA: United
In August 2007, Fur Affinity held its own furry convention, Fur Affinity: United! (or FA:U) in Newark, New Jersey. The convention was a success, drawing 310 attendees and 25 fursuiters in the parade, and was followed by another in 2008, drawing 381 attendees. In February 2009, Dragoneer announced FA: United 3 "Games United" for 28-30 May 2010.[2] No event was scheduled for 2009 due to the economic downturn. FA: United 7, in August 2014, drew 707 attendees.
Services and features[edit]
Fur Affinity's features for users include the ability to allow users to track new updates from particular artists; highlight favorites; and upload a wide variety of art (images, music and stories). The site attempts to promote community through its comments system and individual journals.
While works of all ratings are accepted (other than photographic nudes, images whose intent are to slander or discredit others, and minors in sexual situations[3]), art rated as mature or adult is not shown to visitors, or to users who have not specified it as a preference (which requires giving a date of birth indicating an age over 18). Keywords and tags can be added to works, though a feature that allowed blocking based on tags was disabled due to performance issues.
Fur Affinity's search engine was "temporarily disabled" in mid-2006 due to it taking up too many resources.[4] A faux search feature was implemented for April Fool's Day 2007, much to the chagrin of some users.[5] Search was reimplemented on 5 February 2009; it was initially labelled "That Thing You Want" and randomly included rickrolls.[6]
Privacy features were added in May 2012 with users being able to block guests from seeing their content with messages such as "[Username] has elected to make their content available to registered users only" and being able to hide their adult, mature+adult or all favorites from public view.[7]
The site's artwork is inaccessible in Russia, as d.facdn.net (which serves the images) is listed on Russia's Internet blacklist. The site itself works fine, and even shows thumbnails.[citation needed]
On 13 September 2015, to coincide with the conclusion of FAU 2015, Fur Affinity unveiled a Gallery folders system[8], which had been promised in one form or another since shortly after the site launched in 2006. Some users[who?] criticized the way folders were implemented,[citation needed] including disappearing artwork after its implementation (found normally in the scraps folder), and the poor to no documentation regarding them.
Project Ferrox[edit]
- Main article: Ferrox (software)
The FA development team was working on a new backend system called Ferrox which was to be used for the next major revision of Fur Affinity, and was to be made available as FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) for other sites to use. By late 2009, development of Ferrox had stalled, with the last change to the code being made on September 7, 2009. Days earlier, net-cat, who was acting as the lead Ferrox developer after Eevee had left, announced that the code was to be frozen, citing that "Nobody knows Python."[9]
Fender is the Fur Affinity mascot, created by artist K-9 based on a character concept by Preyfar. He is half fox and half ferret, a "ferrox". On April Fool's Day 2007, Fender was depicted in the site's banner as a female dragon. This dragon was made a separate character and an official mascot of the site in May 2007, and named Rednef, or "Fender" spelled backwards.
- Main article: History of Fur Affinity#Controversy
Being furry fandom's largest social art site for many years, Fur Affinity has been host to strenuous discussions on various topics, including the presence and later absence of cub pornography, staff appointments and departures, allegations of staff and user improprieties, and debate over what consists of suitable content for the site banner. Incidents of downtime and unauthorized access have also been discussed, both on Fur Affinity's forums and throughout the fandom.
Fur Affinity was previously owned by Ferrox Art LLC, a limited liability company founded 25 February 2008, registered in Lenhartsville, Pennsylvania.[10] On March 19, 2015, it was officially announced that Fur Affinity had been acquired by IMVU; the transaction had occurred in January 2015, but had not been publicly announced.[11]
Fur Affinity's staff as of February 2017 include:[12]
Two pseudonymous moderators, Quetzal and Gazelle, are also listed. A "System Account" is used to send anonymous notices.[13]
Past staff include Bazeel, Carenath, Cerbrus, Glaide, Grammatist, Hendikins, Jasu Fox,[14] Keio, Kryphosdrgn, Kyoujin, Luftwoofe, Nero Silent, Oddy, Odin36519, Photographurer, Renashe Tradewind,[15] QMelon, quoting_mungo,[16] Sheepdust, Silver R. Wolfe, SSJ3Mewtwo, Starrykitten, Summercat, Surgat, Trpdwarf, Tsawolf, Writerwren and Xaerun.[17][citation needed]
- In late 2010, the monthly hosting bill for Fur Affinity was just under $1,700 [18]. This includes a full equipment rack, bandwidth, and IP addresses. The monthly cost likely increased with the addition of extra bandwidth (Increasing the total to 350Mbit) in early 2012.[19]
- In less than a year since the site's re-launch, Fur Affinity gained over 45,000 users and over 300,000 submissions. [citation needed]
- Alexa has previously ranked Fur Affinity in the top 4,000 sites on the web in 1 November 2007, showing greater traffic than the VCL for most of the previous year. The trend continued through 2008 and 2009. Fur Affinity has ranked as high as 3,475 on individual days, and close to 2,000 in the USA. In October 2010, Fur Affinity's rank fell to 7681.
- Fur Affinity reached its 1,000,000th submission on 11 January 2008. It reached its 2,000,000th submission on 15 February 2009, and its 3,000,000th submission in November 2009.
- As of 20 March 2015, the site had 11,142,451 active submissions (15,995,066 total created), 1,195,253 active users (1,218,456 created), 324,226,064 favorites, and an average of 671 accounts, 8,000+ submissions, 42,462 comments and 10,452 page shouts were created per day.[20]
- Fur Affinity say they served ~38.8TB of data to over 2.1 million visitors in February 2016.[21]
Fur Affinity owns various server hardware, some of which has been re-purposed or retired over time. It is hosted at an InfoRelay[22] data center in Reston, Virginia, USA,[23] with access to 2Gbps of bandwidth leased as of November 2015.[24]
2014/15 upgrades[edit]
In September 2014, Fur Affinity bought additional hardware:[25][26]
- File server: Supermicro SuperServer 6017R-72HDP+ 1U with Intel Xeon E5-2603 v2 Quad-Core CPU (1.8GHz, 10MB cache), 128Gb 1600MHz DDR3 ECC RAM, 12 WD 4TB SATAIII drives (7200 RPM, 64 MB cache)
- Application servers (4): Asus RS300-E8-PS4 1U with Xeon E3-1240 v3 Quad-Core CPU (3.4GHz, 8MB cache), 32GB DDR ECC RAM, 2x128Gb SSDs
- Advertising server: Xeon 1270 v3 Quad-Core CPU (3.5 GHz, 8MB cache), 32GB DDR3 ECC RAM and 2xSSDs
In Spring 2015, additional hardware purchases were announced, in connection with the IMVU purchase.
Current hardware[edit]
|Hardware Notes
|First Used
|Cisco 7301 router
|Presumed in use
|Network Switch
|48-port Cisco Catalyst 3560. Replaced an older 24-port Cisco 3750, also called "Switchthulu"
|Presumed in use
|Neo Bahamut
|Database Backup
|Dual-core 2.0GHz Opteron 1212 with 2GB DDR2-667 RAM.[27] Storage consists of 4x 1TB hard drives in RAID5. Concern expressed by Dragoneer about its worth vs. power draw.
|In use
|a Sun Fire X4150 manufactured by Wikipedia:Sun Microsystems with twin quad-core 2.5Ghz Xeon 5420 processors and 64GB of RAM (as of March 2010).[28] Storage consists of 2x 74GB 15K RPM hard drives in RAID1 and 6x146GB 15K RPM hard drives in RAID10. The server was initially purposed as the "Application server" but eventually converted to run the Database. This server was bought with donations following the July 2009 outage. Although Novastorm was replaced by Finn/Jake in September 2013, it is apparently still active, though its use is not clear.[29]
|August 2009
|In use
| Virtualization Server
Ad server, Email server
|Dual quad-core 2.33Ghz Xeon 5345 with 32GB of RAM and 6x1TB[27] of storage. Figment was purchased with the intent of offering hosting[30] on it "sometime in April... or May, or maybe August" of 2010[31] and also served advertisements[32]. Server was named by Sciggles.[33]
|In use/"Spare Servers Pool"[34]
|Network Monitoring
|Twin dual-core 2.4Ghz Opteron 2216 system with 48GB of RAM. The server was named by FA donator Dax. This server is the only server in a group of four donated servers (The others being Shivan, Tonberry, and Lapse) that is known to have been put into service.
|November 30, 2010[35]
|In use
|Database Server
|A custom-built server in a Supermicro SuperServer SYS-6027R-WRF chassis with at least one Intel Xeon 6C E5 2620 processor, 64GB of RAM, and 6 15k HDD's in an unknown RAID. This server was built by donations received in February 2013.[36] See note below.
|December 16, 2013
|Still in use as of August 2016[37]
|Database Server
|A custom-built server in a Supermicro SuperServer SYS-6027R-WRF chassis with at least one Intel Xeon 6C E5 2620 processor, 64GB of RAM, and 6 15k HDD's in an unknown RAID. This server was built by donations received in February 2013.[38] See note below
| September 16, 2013 (as "Finn")
November 2014
|Possibly in use
|App Server
|16-core Xeon, "full SSD", 128GB DDR4 RAM.[39]
|July 29, 2015[40]
|Presumed in use
|Storage Server
|48TB disk drives[39][41]
- Finn and Jake are identical and were bought with the purpose of building a redundant database cluster. For unknown reasons, Finn was brought online first, with Jake supposedly following behind[42] later that week. In December 2013, an issue came up that put the site into "Read Only" for a week. FA then moved the database to Jake, which was apparently not put into service yet. However, in November 2014, Zidonuke said that Jake was sitting idle "for almost a year"[43], suggesting that when the database was moved, the names were swapped. As of November 2014, the idle database server was planned to be set as a slave for the purpose of handling notifications.
Retired / unused hardware[edit]
|Hardware Notes
|First Used
|Web Server
|The original FA server, is a dual 3.0Ghz Nocona Xeon system with 4GB of RAM. Storage consists of 2x 250GB hard drives. The server is still used to host Team Fortress 2 servers for the Furry Pound and Left 4 Dead servers for the Fur Affinity Steam Gamers group.
|Twin dual-core 2.0Ghz Opteron 2212 with 32GB DDR2-533 RAM
| August 31, 2010[44]
Hardware Failure.
Removed May 2015.[45]
|Twin dual-core 2.4Ghz Opteron 2216 system with 48GB of RAM. The server was named by FA donator TlaiLaxu.
|Twin dual-core 2.4Ghz Opteron 2216 system with 48GB of RAM. The server was named by FA donator YiffyHusky.
|Twin dual-core 2.4Ghz Opteron 2216 system with 48GB of RAM
|File/App Server
|A Dell Poweredge 2970 2U Server with 32GB RAM and twin AMD Opteron 2212 CPUs.[27] Storage consists of 6x 1TB hard drives - 4x in a RAID10 array, 1x RAID hotspare and 1x local backups. This server was bought with donations following the July 2009 outage.
|August 2009
| October 2011[46]
Replaced by IO.
Removed May 2015.[47]
|File/App Server
|An unspecified model which has dual Xeon E5435 CPUs[27], 16GB RAM, and 12 Terrabytes worth of hard drives in it. This server replaced Trogdor.
|October 2011
| December 25th, 2016[48]
Replaced by 48tb Storage Server, and replaced due to drive failures.[49]
Confirmed future features[edit]
|Official Mentions
|On-demand printing
| December 2005
November 2009
|Not Implemented
|Content filtering
|November 2006
|Not Implemented
|Proposed for Ferrox.
|New UI
| April 2007
May 2010
January 2011
|Released from beta on December 31, 2019.
|New "dark" theme
| May 2012
October 2012
|Part of new UI
|The new UI contains both "dark" and "light" themes, among others.
|"Character Information"
|October 2012
|In Progress
|A placeholder for a "Character Information" widget is present in the new dark theme.
|Opossums (pss.ms) URL shortener
|August 2010
|Not Implemented
|pss.ms is currently down.
|Web hosting
| November 2009
March 2010 [1]
|Not Implemented
|Supporter ribbons
|November 2010
|Not Implemented
|Note/inbox search
|September 2010
|Not Implemented
| Artist list and reviews
"Commission Ratings"
| June 2006
January 2011
|Not Implemented
|Improved commenting
|January 2011
|Not Implemented
- ↑ Fur Affinity Turns 6! - Dragoneer, Fur Affinity forum post (16 January 2011)
- ↑ FAU3 Announcement - Dragoneer, Fur Affinity journal (9 February 2009)
- ↑ Acceptable Upload Policy - Fur Affinity
- ↑ Admin mode on june 5th 2006 - Alkora, Fur Affinity forums (5 June 2006)
- ↑ Search is up! - Fur Affinity Forums (1 April 2007)
- ↑ SEARCH - Dragoneer, Fur Affinity journal (5 February 2009)
- ↑ Update Notices, Changelog & Banner journal posted to Fender's blog on May 24th, 2012. Retrieved 2012 November 25.
- ↑ http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/7036344/ 09/13/2015 - Folders & Gallery Management Updates] News item dated 13 September 2015. Retrieved 27 October 2015
- ↑ http://forums.furaffinity.net/threads/49368-Code-freeze-on-current-Ferrox-codebase?p=1174129&viewfull=1#post1174129
- ↑ Ferrox Art LLC (entity number 3791597) - Pennsylvania Corporations, PA Department of State. Accessed 20 November 2013.
- ↑ [http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6588324 "FA Joins the IMVU Family" - Fur Affinity. March 19, 2015.
- ↑ "Staff" - Fur Affinity. Retrieved March 9, 2018.
- ↑ "Fur Affinity System Account" - Fur Affinity]
- ↑ Stepping down as Administrator - Jasu Fox, Fur Affinity (23 October 2015)
- ↑ My experiences as a member of Fur Affinity staff, and my recent removal. - GoingToTheOcean, Reddit (16 August 2016)
- ↑ Resigning from FA staff - quoting_mungo's journal. Retrieved March 9, 2018.
- ↑ Five Fur Affinity staff resign, some citing leadership failures - Rakuen Growlithe, Flayrah (29 October 2011)
- ↑ http://twitpic.com/2g8t5x - TwitPic Posted on August 19, 2010 by Dragoneer
- ↑ https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3484539/
- ↑ "[https://twitter.com/Dragoneer/status/578970926575931394 For those interested, here's some spiffy FA statistics! http://pastebin.com/DjsSCcuh"] - Dragoneer, Twitter (20 March 2015)
- ↑ "In February, FA served up 1,777,662,272 files (over 38.8TB total bandwidth) to 2,173,564 total visitors." - Fur Affinity, Twitter (5 March 2016)
- ↑ "Our historical uptime has actually been fairly solid since we moved to InfoRelay. Prior to that... yeah. It was bad." - Fur Affinity, Twitter (20 October 2014)
- ↑ "The current servers are hosted in a professional colo facility in Reston, VA." - Fur Affinity, Twitter (7 June 2010)
- ↑ "Tonight's maintenance was to upgrade FA to a 2 gigabit network link." - Fur Affinity, Twitter (3 November 2015)
- ↑ Fur Affinity Parts Wishlist - Dragoneer (3 September 2014)
- ↑ Banner Update, Upcoming Beta & Ad Server Upgrade - Fender (17 September 2014)
- ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 27.3 http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/4383428/#cid:32107771
- ↑ Novastorm upgrade tweet - Dragoneer's twitter (23 March 2010)
- ↑ https://trello.com/c/CLruJ1b5/65-upgrade-packages-on-novastorm
- ↑ http://twitter.com/furaffinity/status/10203450025 - FA Twitter - March 8, 2010
- ↑ http://twitter.com/furaffinity/status/10942579229 - FA Twitter - March 23 2010
- ↑ http://twitter.com/furaffinity/status/10936829317 - FA Twitter
- ↑ http://twitter.com/furaffinity/status/10585322442 - FA Twitter
- ↑ https://trello.com/c/oy0HkfgT/6-repurpose-figment-in-spare-servers-pool
- ↑ @Furaffinity tweet
- ↑ http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/4389184
- ↑ Mainsite database maintenance on Aug 16, 2016 at 1PM UTC - Yak, Fur Affinity Forums (16 August 2016)
- ↑ http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/4389184
- ↑ 39.0 39.1 Filling Tiamat's old space will be Spike (16-core, full SSD, 128GB RAM) and Smaug (48TB storage server). - Fur Affinity, Twitter (10 May 2015)
- ↑ "Earlier today, we officially rolled the site over to our new app server, Smaug (a 16-core Xeon system running DDR4 and SSDs). Woosh!" - Fur Affinity, Twitter (29 July 2015)
- ↑ "Finn, Jake, Spike and Smaug" - Dragoneer, Twitter (6 September 2015)
- ↑ http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5058966/
- ↑ http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6265766#cid:43149324
- ↑ http://twitter.com/furaffinity/status/22617961790 - FA Twitter
- ↑ "Tiamat, one of FA's oldest servers (2007), is finally off to greener pastures." - Fur Affinity, Twitter (10 May 2015)
- ↑ http://forums.furaffinity.net/threads/108936-10-17-2011-File-read-only-mode
- ↑ "Turns out we are also saying a fond farewell to Trogdor. His days of FA burnination are over." - Fur Affinity, Twitter (10 May 2015)
- ↑ https://twitter.com/Dragoneer/status/813187858731331584 - Dragoneer, Twitter (Dec. 25 2016)
- ↑ https://twitter.com/Dragoneer/status/813281978900447236 - Dragoneer, Twitter (Dec. 26 2016)
- ↑ https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/9364332
See also[edit]
External links[edit]
- Furaffinity Status' Journal. Fur Affinity on LiveJournal
- Fur Affinity on Tumblr
- Fur Affinity on Twitter
- Fur Affinity on Facebook
- #furaffinity on FurNet IRC
- Fur Affinity Gamers on Steam
- #furaffinity statistics on irc.netsplit.de
History · FA: United · Ferrox
See also


text:
The Applebottom from The Drink Recipe
This punch from The Drink has the fresh sweetness of apple juice with the rich depth of the finest cider. And rum, of course, which doesn't hurt things at all.
Get more punch recipes from The Drink and other NYC bars here »
- Yield:Serves 10, plus extra allspice and honey syrup
- Active time: 10 minutes
- Total time:10 minutes
- For the allspice syrup:
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons whole allspice berries or 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- For the honey syrup:
- 8 ounces warm water
- 8 ounces honey
- For the punch:
- 10 ounces Appleton Estate Rum
- 5 ounces fresh lemon juice
- 5 ounces water
- 2 1/2 ounces boiled cider
- 2 1/2 ounces allspice simple syrup
- 2 1/2 ounces honey syrup
- 20 dashes Bar Keep Baked Apple bitters
If using whole allspice, grind in a spice or coffee grinder until powdery (about 20 seconds). In a small saucepan, combine water and sugar over medium-high heat. Stir until sugar dissolves and bring to a boil. Add allspice, and remove from heat. Let stand for 45 minutes. Strain.
Combine honey and warm water. Stir together thoroughly, or combine in a jar and shake until mixed.
For the punch, rum, lemon juice, water, boiled cider, allspice simple syrup, honey syrup, and apple bitters in a punch bowl. Serve over ice.
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


text:
Lindenwood University and Florissant Valley Community College have entered into a unique partnership to help students achieve a bachelor's degree with teacher certification in industrial technology--the only such bachelor's degree program in the St. Louis region.
Representatives from both schools signed an articulation agreement today that allows students to achieve an associate's degree in technology education and complete their bachelor's degree at Lindenwood, which will provide teacher certification in industrial technology education.
"Not only is this unique because of the public-private partnership, but this helps meet a tremendous community need," said Lindenwood President Dennis Spellmann. "There is a significant shortage of teachers in this area."
School superintendents from across the region already are praising the program.
"In recent years, teachers from this discipline have easily been the most difficult to recruit and retain," said Fort Zumwalt School District Superintendent Bernard J. DuBray. "It is the highest need teaching area in the Midwest."
Spellmann said he has been interested in such a program for some time, but it was cost prohibitive because industrial technology equipment is so expensive. He said this program allows students the use of the best equipment for training, and now gives them a chance to earn a bachelor's degree instead of an associate's.
For more information on the program, call Dr. Richard Boyle at 949-4477.


text:
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Join Buddy, Tiny, Shiny, Don and all of their friends and family in an upbeat, interactive and multimedia trip to the Mesozoic. Jim Henson's "Dinosaur Train: Live! Buddy's Big Adventure," on stage at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 25, in Penn State's Eisenhower Auditorium, travels back in time to an imagined age when dinosaurs roamed the earth and rode in trains.
The stage production is based on "Dinosaur Train," the Jim Henson Co.-produced PBS Kids program that embraces the fascination children have with both trains and dinosaurs.
Tickets for the Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State presentation are $19 for an adult, $9 for a University Park student and $19 for a person 18 and younger. Buy tickets online at http://cpa.psu.edu or by phone at 814-863-0255. Outside the local calling area, dial 800-ARTS-TIX. Tickets are also available at four State College locations: Eisenhower Auditorium (weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.), Penn State Downtown Theatre Center (weekdays 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.), HUB-Robeson Center Information Desk (weekdays 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.) and Bryce Jordan Center (weekdays 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.). A grant from the University Park Allocation Committee makes Penn State student prices possible.
Buddy is a young tyrannosaurus rex living happily in the Pteranodon family nest. But what makes Buddy a part of this family? And what will happen when he gets bigger and can't fit in the nest? Seeking answers to Buddy's questions, the Pteranodons hop aboard the Dinosaur Train and set off on an adventure to see King Cryolophosaurus. But the King turns out to be missing. Will Buddy and the gang find him? Will Buddy discover what makes him such an important part of the Pteranodon family? Take a ride on the Dinosaur Train and find out.
From giant King to teeny Tiny, "Buddy's Big Adventure" brings the TV program's characters to life in an original and musical story in which the audience is part of the action. The stage show features hybrid puppeteered costume characters, a live host, projected backgrounds and vistas, special effects and a full-sized replica of the Dinosaur Train.
Kids Connections, which is free for ticket holders and includes a craft-centered, child-friendly activity provided by WPSU, takes place in Eisenhower one hour before the show. Due to space and time restrictions, Kids Connections participation is limited. The "Dinosaur Train" TV series airs weekdays at 9:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on WPSU-TV Channel 3.
McQuaide Blasko Endowment sponsors the stage performance. MAJIC 99 is the media sponsor.
Find the Center for the Performing Arts on Facebook at http://facebook.com/pscpa.


text:
SHENANGO, Pa. -- Penn State Shenango recently announced the recipients of its annual full- and part-time teaching awards. Claudia Brown, instructor in human development and family studies and coordinator of the Human Development and Family Studies Program, received the 2014 Leonard R. Riforgiato Memorial Teaching Award, and Joan Humphrey, part-time instructor in kinesiology and nutrition, was awarded the 2014 Margaret Cunningham Foley Memorial Teaching Award.
The Leonard R. Riforgiato Memorial Teaching Award is a campus award bestowed on a full-time faculty member who has been chosen through a series of steps that include nominations and recommendations from students and the nominee's peers. Riforgiato, for whom the Shenango campus teaching award is named, was an associate professor in history and the first recipient of the Penn State Shenango Teaching Award. He taught at the Shenango campus for 26 years until he passed away in 1999.
Brown has been with Penn State Shenango for 18 years. Initially hired in 1996 as a part-time instructor to teach psychology and women's studies courses, Brown began teaching courses for the campus' Human Development and Family Studies Program (HDFS) soon after, and in 2000 she was hired as a full-time instructor for the HDFS Program.
During her tenure, Brown has been an active faculty member who serves on numerous student and faculty committees. She currently serves as co-advisor of the HDFS Club and is an active member of the Heart of Shenango Scholarship committee, for which she was chair for two years. She has served on the campus' Strategic Planning Committee, Development Committee, and Faculty Senate Student Affairs Committee, as well as several faculty search committees. She was also the campus representative of the Penn State Shenango Women's Commission and a member of the Diversity Committee, subsequently charged with the responsibility of coordinating the campus' climate survey for the University. In addition to her notable presence on campus committees, Brown supports and participates in many of the student and admission events throughout the year.
Brown has received several campus awards including the Riforgiato Teaching Award in 2005. In 2000, she received the Penn Stater of the Quarter Award, which recognizes and honors a member of the faculty, administration, staff, technical services or student body who made a significant contribution to the campus community and/or Commonwealth College, as it was then called. And in 1998, Brown was awarded the Adjunct Teacher of the Year Award (now known as the Margaret Cunningham Foley Memorial Teaching Award) in recognition of her outstanding presence as a part-time faculty member.
Brown received her bachelor of arts degree in English in 1976 from Penn State University Park where she was an English Honors student and graduated with high distinction. She continued her education at Youngstown State University, where she graduated in 1981 with a master of science degree in education, guidance and counseling.
According to her students, Brown "has a way of posing information and questions so that students and other want to learn." "This instructor cares very deeply about all of the students and this campus in general." "I believe this instructor gets as much out of the students learning as they do and gets excited for the students' milestones and successes, as well."
The Margaret Cunningham Foley Memorial Teaching Award recognizes outstanding part-time faculty at the Shenango campus. This award was established in 1998 in honor of Margaret Foley who was a part-time English instructor at the campus from 1967 to 1994. Foley passed away in 2000.
Humphrey has been a part-time instructor at the Shenango campus since 2001, teaching courses in nutrition, kinesiology and physical therapy. She is also an adjunct faculty member at Youngstown State University where she has taught in the public health degree program.
In addition to teaching, Humphrey also is employed in the clinical setting for the Humility of Mary Health Partners in Youngstown and Warren, Ohio, where she has held positions as a clinical resource coordinator in the emergency department and served in critical care and emergency areas. From 1986, Humphrey has held several positions at Sharon Regional Health System where she worked in emergency, critical care and education areas. She is a registered nurse licensee in the state of Ohio and Pennsylvania and is a BLS, ACLS and PALS instructor for the American Heart Association. Humphrey has also written numerous grants that were awarded on behalf of St. Patrick School in Hubbard, Ohio.
After graduating from Sharon Regional Health System School of Nursing in 1994 with a registered nursing degree, Humphrey attended Youngstown State University where she received a health education bachelor of science in applied science degree Magna Cum Laude. In 2004, she graduated from Youngstown State University's North East Ohio Universities with a master of public health degree. In 2013, she graduated from the University of Massachusetts with her doctor of nursing practice degree.
Humphrey's students had this to say about her: "I love doing more research on the topics discussed! This instructor's passion 'moves' me to be better and to help my family be healthier and happier." "I am honored to be a student of this instructor. I have learned a great deal in the class and feel good about myself as a whole." "The instructor has instilled in me confidence and a yearning to do my best and treat others with respect they deserve."
Brown and Humphrey will each be presented a plaque and a monetary award at this coming September's Penn State Shenango Advisory Board meeting.


text:
Do you ever wonder if Samsung gets tired of releasing devices? While most manufacturers have vowed to release fewer superfluous phone and tablets, ol' Sammy is still going strong, offering up new Galaxy devices almost weekly. Maybe some people like the choice. Or maybe not. Either way, I don't see any signs of them slowing any time soon.
With more devices, of course, also comes more source code. Today's batch of piping hot source is for the Galaxy Express on AT&T and the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 on T-Mobile. Hackers, modders, and tinkerers, this one's for you - hit the source links below to grab the download and do things with it.


text:
York: Mystery man of the Corps of Discovery
A friend called the other day to say I might want to take a look at a story in the Metro section of The Washington Post.
She knew that I had recently completed a children's novel on the topic of York, the black man who accompanied explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their historic cross-country trek.
The day before, I had read a news article on the subject in the Daily Progress. Both articles are about events scheduled to commemorate the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition. The Progress article detailed celebrations and events occurring in area schools, while the Post story was about the expedition's famous Indian guide: "Sacagawea Famed, Yet a Mystery."
My friend was concerned that the Post story may have scooped my novel in some way. She need not have worried. The Post story reveals what I discovered for myself during my research– Sacagawea is commemorated around the country by at least 23 statues, not to mention numerous lakes, schools, mountains, and rivers. She has her own golden coin, and two– count 'em, two– grave markers. Soon, no doubt, a Western Barbie will befriend her, and she'll become a doll.
But my novel isn't about Sacagawea. My novel answers the question posed by the last sentence in the Progress story, which is illustrated by a picture of an African-American child dressed as Sacagawea. An astute school administrator, noticing that all the children were playing with dolls of Lewis and Clark, asks: "What about York? Where is York?"
This is the question I've been asking myself for the past eight years, ever since I wrote and had produced locally a children's play called Sacajawea and York: The Hidden Heroes of Lewis and Clark. I found whole books written about Sacagawea, and twocount 'em, two– books written from the point of view of Lewis's dog that went along on the expedition. But very little about York.
When I began my research in 1994, the Internet was relatively new, and I wasn't online. Now, it's easier to find information about previously unknown members of the expedition. I discovered In Search of York, by Robert Betts, originally published in 1985 and reissued in 2000 by the University Press of Colorado.
I recently located a speech given at Montana State University in December 1998 by William and Mary Professor Philip Morgan. As a historian, Morgan agrees with Betts that the historical record is as divided about York as it is about Sacagawea's death. In one version of history, Clark did not grant York his freedom after they returned from the expedition. Another version claims that Clark did free York, but found that his former slave couldn't handle being free.
In some materials still being used in schools, misinformation is presented as history. One of the texts for children says President Thomas Jefferson freed York when the slave returned with the expedition. And his master, William Clark, is often referred to as "Captain Clark" despite the fact that– as Stephen Ambrose's Undaunted Courage makes clear– Clark was commissioned a lieutenant. (Although he was paid as a captain, he had not been officially commissioned at that rank.)
Why has York been ignored for so long? And is he still being ignored? Ambrose does not list Betts in his bibliography, so we can assumed that the late historian probably didn't consult it. Ambrose makes only 14 references to York, the same number he makes to Reubin Field, a woodsman and hunter Clark recruited for the expedition. Pierre Cruzatte, another of the expedition members, merits 22 references– one of his claims to fame was playing the violin.
York voted on the decision to cross the Columbia River, thereby becoming the first black man in America to cast a vote.
York also had a say about where to pitch a winter camp; he attended to the ailing Charles Floyd and to the pregnant Sacagawea; and he procured food for the expedition– including three elk, five buffalo, two geese, eight ducks, and a deer.
York was the source of endless fascination among the Indians– they called him the "black white man." Meriwether Lewis showed off York as a physical novelty in his successful effort to obtain the horses crucial to the expedition's crossing of the Rocky Mountains.
But when the pages of history turn, York is barely there. Unlike Sacagawea, there are no statues of York and no grave markers. Nobody knows where York is buried. Sacagawea is not a mystery. York is.
In my fictional story, a student at Meriwether Lewis Elementary School wants to write York into his rightful place in history. While I was penning that novel, The Boy Who Moved a Mountain, last spring, a documentary filmmaker riding the same zeitgeist wrote a history for children called Who Is York: A New Look at the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Ron Craig, an executive producer with Filmworks Northwest, said he wanted to set the record straight.
Craig has given three different presentations out west, including one May 22, at which a Portland, Oregon, street became the first named for the black explorer. Craig has been in town this week giving performances at area schools, and he will speak about York at Old Cabell Hall on January 16.
With this Charlottesville excursion, Craig will have traveled all over the country on behalf of York. In the last days of the Clinton administration, he was invited to the White House when President Bill Clinton awarded York and Sacagawea sergeant stripes and finally made William Clark's captain commission official.
Craig is filming a documentary about York because, as he says, "The story is just so empowering. An African-American boy asked me what York looked like," he continues, "and I walked him over to the mirror. 'Like you,' I said, and he gave a wide grin."
Mariflo Stevens is a Charlottesville writer whose stories have been published in a variety of journals, including the Virginia Quarterly Review. Her novel for children is currently being shopped by an agent in New York.


text:
The purse contained a hoard of silver Civil War coins currently going through the Treasure process. If the leather dries out, it will distort. Treatment is delayed while questions of ownership and ultimate destination for the hoard are resolved but we have pressed for a speedy decision!
This is just one of a group of bronze cauldrons, some with iron rims and handles, found at Chiseldon.
The results of the investigation will be published and the head may go on display. You can find out more about the head of Augustus on the British Museum website.
Further details on the handaxe can be found in collections online.
An extensive blog has been posted by the Portable Antiquities Scheme on the discovery of the Frome Hoard and it will form part of a video conferencing workshop for children.
You can read more about the Naukratis research projecton the British Museum research pages.
You can learn more about this object on Collections online.
For more details on the Lilleberge assemblage, visit these pages.
The Hallaton hoard has been acquired by Leicestershire Museums Service and Helen Sharp blogs about the treasure elsewhere on this site.
You can find more information on the buckle on the BM site.


text:
Acer, Asus, Toshiba, and Lenovo took part in the first wave of ultrabook laptops late last year, releasing impressive systems all less than 18 millimeters thick, and each with second-generation Intel Core i-series processors and solid-state storage, all required parts of Intel's ultrabook spec.
Some of the biggest names in mobile computing--HP and Dell--were not among the first movers in this new category (Ultrabook is actually a trademarked Intel marketing term). However, both of those PC giants now have 13-inch ultrabooks available, and they've taken leading positions in our ongoing ultrabook battle royale.
Of course, the real competition is still Apple's 13-inch MacBook Air--a laptop that has not been updated since summer 2011. We're not sure any of these ultrabooks have the Air beat yet, but both the HP Folio 13 and Dell XPS 13 are closer than anything we've seen before.
Before you buy, however, remember that with the one-two punch of Windows 8 and Intel's next-gen Ivy Bridge CPUs waiting in the wings (although probably not until the second half of the year), all the ultrabooks available right now are in a sense transitional products.
But in case you're looking for an ultrabook right now, we've rounded up the current lineup of product reviews (some other systems are in a same general family, but for one reason or another, don't have Intel's official stamp of approval to use the ultrabook name--look for them in a future roundup). Compare, contrast, and then let us know which superslim 13-inch laptop you think is the best.
HP Folio 13
The HP Folio 13 is the best of the bunch in terms of performance, price, and ergonomics, provided you can live with a less-than-razor-thin design. Read our initial hands-on impressions.
Dell XPS 13
Dell packs a 13-inch display into a very small footprint in the XPS 13 ultrabook, making it one of the few slim laptops that actually tops the MacBook Air in some areas. Read the full review.
Toshiba Portege Z835-P330
The Toshiba Portege Z835 is incredibly light and offers great bang for the buck in some areas--but it cuts a pretty serious corner by dropping the CPU to an Intel Core i3. Read the full review.
Lenovo IdeaPad U300s
The less expensive of two available configurations matches up with the low-end MacBook Air, with a 128GB SSD and Intel Core i5 CPU, but the Lenovo is about $100 less, at $1,195 versus $1,299. Read the full review.
Acer Aspire S3
Slim, lightweight, and powerful, it certainly looks and feels a good deal like the other ultrabooks. The difference is that Acer has decided to sell the Aspire S3 for $899, a steep discount from what you'd pay for a 13-inch MacBook Air. Read the full review.
Asus Zenbook UX31E
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then the MacBook Air should be positively blushing right around now; the Asus Zenbook doesn't shy away from an Apple-like design in the slightest. Read the full review.


text:
Tagalog Terms In Need of Bisaya Translation
List of Tagalog terms that begins with letter A-Z that needs Bisaya meaning and translation. Page 1 of 0 pages. You can help those people that are searching for information about these Tagalog word, phrases or terms by sharing your Bisaya knowledge in this website.
Tagalog terms that starts with letter A-Z
These are the list of tagalog searched terms that may not yield results like translation and meaning.
If you know something about any of the terms and want to share it to the world, just click the contribute icon beside the term. We appreciate every contribution you made to help others find the information they were seeking. The idea is about sharing.
Please do note that some of these terms might be inappropriate and erroneous so we also love giving us a hand getting rid of these erroneous entries by hitting the remove icon beside the term.
We wanna thank you again and again for doing this again and again. Mabuhay ka!
Let us help each other. Please be polite in asking for help and sharing thoughts. Sort the comments to "Reverse Chronological" to see the latest posts.


text:
Hello All!!! The staff is currently making the switch to another hosting provider so in the process your precious MO might go down for 24 hours or 48 hours at the most, but then we shall be up and running again bringing the HEAT like Dwyane Wade although he's not really bringing the HEAT right now but you get the damn point lol. So bare with us while we make this switch and then once it is back and running there might be a few tweeks we have to make here and there but all is well in MO land. Thanks!
Mediaoutrage Staff