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Pakistani cleric ends rally after government deal
ISLAMABAD Pakistani officials struck a deal late Thursday with a fiery Muslim cleric to end four days of anti-government protests by thousands of his supporters that largely paralyzed the capital and put intense pressure on the government.
The demonstration came at a time when the government is facing challenges on several fronts, including from the country's top court. The Supreme Court ordered the arrest of the prime minister earlier in the week in connection with a corruption case, but the government's anti-corruption chief refused to act on Thursday, citing a lack of evidence.
Tahir-ul-Qadri, the 61-year-old cleric who led the protests in Islamabad, galvanized many Pakistanis with his message alleging that the nation's politicians are corrupt thieves who care more about lining their pockets than dealing with the country's pressing problems, such as electricity shortages, high unemployment and deadly attacks by Islamic militants. He demanded electoral reform to prevent corrupt politicians from standing for elections.
But his demand that the government be dissolved and replaced by a military-backed caretaker administration raised concerns that he was being used by the nation's powerful army to try to delay parliamentary elections expected this spring. Qadri has denied any connection to the army, which has a history of toppling civilian governments in military coups and has done little to hide its disdain for the country's politicians.
Qadri returned late last year from Canada and became a significant political force almost overnight, leveraging support from a large cadre of religious followers in Pakistan and abroad. Tens of thousands of people responded to his call to hold a protest in Islamabad and camped out in the main avenue running through the city, huddling beneath blankets at night to ward off the cold.
But Qadri was left politically isolated Wednesday when a large group of opposition parties collectively announced that they would not support the protest and opposed any movement that threatened democracy. Their response and suggestions by the country's interior minister that the government would use force to disperse the protesters might have factored into the cleric's decision to strike a deal, which appeared to fall short of his demands. The protesters also were being drenched by heavy rain.
The government agreed to meet with Qadri after he announced that Thursday would be the last day of the protest while warning that he would let the protesters decide how to respond if the government failed to meet his demands by the afternoon.
The agreement was reached after hours of negotiation inside a bulletproof container the religious leader was using at the demonstration site. The bizarre scene was broadcast on TV as cameras filmed the group's meeting through the container's window. Thousands of protesters danced and cheered when Qadri announced that he and the government had hammered out a deal and they could now end their protest.
"God has granted you victory, and this is a day of victory for Pakistan," Qadri told the crowd, as they energetically waved green and white Pakistani flags.
The government agreed to dissolve the National Assembly before its term ends on March 16, leaving time to make sure politicians are eligible to stand for elections under the constitution, according to a copy of the agreement. The government also agreed that the caretaker administration, which normally precedes elections, would be chosen in consultation with Qadri's party, but there was no mention of a role for the military or the judiciary as the cleric demanded.
The cleric also demanded the dissolution of the body that oversees elections in Pakistan, claiming it was biased because it was appointed by political leaders. The government agreed to discuss the composition of the Election Commission but made no promises about changing its membership.


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I just had a bike stolen. So now I am faced with a dilemma on the insurance check:
Do I:
Get a 2011 Tarmac and have one really nice carbon bike (with Apex)
Buy an 08-09 Alum Soloist (with Ultegra) and use the money I save to build my Allez back up (with 105), thereby having two nice aluminum bikes to ride?
There doesnt seem to be a wrong answer here...

subset: commoncrawl


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Is there a tutorial available to show:
1. How to configure php to use soap to connect to zimbra database?
2. Code examples of this being done?
I just want to use php to search zimbra contacts.
I've found a number of php soap examples in this forum, but it's a bit confusing as I don't understand how php soap is actually implemented.
Thanks for any assistance!


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Non 12-Step Treatment Therapies
Prominence Treatment Center is a drug addiction and rehabilitation program that follows the Non 12-Step Rehab philosophy.
The Non 12-Step Rehab program philosophy is predicated around the idea that everyone has different needs when it comes to addiction recovery. A pre-determined recovery program doesn't work for everyone, which is why we believe everyone deserves personalized care.
Non 12-Step Treatment Programs Offered:
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
- Dual Diagnosis
- Positive Approach Therapy
- Fitness & Nutritional Counseling
- Yoga Program
- Music Therapy
- Art Therapy
- Family Program
- Holistic Health Care
- Pain Management
Our Non 12-step treatment facility offers residents flexible rehab programs, customized for you upon arrival. You'll find that we offer a variety of different therapeutic programs that allows us to encompass a wide range of individuals. We're sure to create the perfect addiction recovery program just for you.


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Note for TV and radio: The University of Pennsylvania has a satellite uplink facility with live-shot capability near campus and an on-campus ISDN line.
Dr. Benjamin Horton
Assistant Professor, Earth and Environmental Science
University of Pennsylvania
- Dr. Horton, currently awaiting official word on evacuation procedures, is in Corolla, N.C., where he spoke to the Army Corps of Engineers and is collecting data on the last hurricane to hit this region, Isabel in 2003.
- Dr. Horton is an environmental scientist who studies sea-level rise around the world, most recently in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. He published in the journal Geology that sea levels along the coast had risen at a rate three times higher in the 20th century than during the last 500 years.
- Nationally recognized expert on climate change, sea-level change and human impacts and hazards
- Director, Sea Level Research Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania


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Gisele Bundchen wants breastfeeding lawGisele Bundchen thinks a law should be made to make new mothers breastfeed for at least six months.
The 30-year-old supermodel - who gave birth to son Benjamin, her first child with husband Tom Brady, in December 2009 - thinks it is wrong for mothers to give formula to their newborns.
She said in an interview with Harper's Bazaar magazine: "Some people think they don't have to breastfeed and I think, 'Are you going to give chemical food to your child when they are so little?' I think there should be a worldwide law that mothers should breast-feed their babies for six months."
The Brazilian-born beauty also admitted that "breastfeeding really helped me keep my figure".
Gisele also revealed she prepared "mentally and physically" by doing yoga before her home birth.
She said: "It prepared me mentally and physically. It's called 'labor', not 'holiday' for a reason and I knew that. You want to go into the most intense physical experience of your life unprepared? That doesn't make sense to me. I wasn't expecting someone else to get the baby out of me."
Gisele - who delivered Benjamin in the bathtub at her and Tom's Beacon Hill penthouse, in Boston - doesn't think she is special for opting for a home birth, she just thought it was normal.
She said: "Not for one second did it cross my mind that I was not going to have my baby at home. I'm not the first person to give birth naturally. Billions of other women have come before me and have done this - so why can't I do it?"
Have an question? Get it answered by AskMen's guyQ.


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Reichenbach Falls Showtimes and Tickets
Read Movie Reviews about Reichenbach Falls Write a Movie Review for Reichenbach Falls
Release Date: Unknown
Genre: Drama, Suspense/Thriller
Rating: NR
Duration: 1hr 15min
Wry and obsessive DI Buchan is a cop on the edge; suave and self-assured Jack Harvey is a best-selling crime novelist with the world at his feet. As Buchan probes a 100-year-old cold case, his investigation takes him on a journey into the Scottish capital's literary past that will cause him to question his very existence and set him on a collision course with his onetime friend.
Cast and Crew
- Starring
Laura Fraser, Alastair Mackenzie, John Sessions, Alec Newman, Nina Sosanya
- Directed by John McKay
- Produced by Gaynor Holmes
- Written by James Mavor, Ian Rankin
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text: I recently installed vnc on an hp j200 running hp-ux 10.20. On startup it seems to be looking for a mssing library, libc.2 Anyone encountered this one? Thanks, Scott spectrum# vncserver You will require a password to access your desktops. /usr/lib/dld.sl: Can't open shared library: /usr/lib/libc.2 /usr/lib/dld.sl: No such file or directory cat: Cannot open //.vnc/passwd: No such file or directory New 'X' desktop is spectrum:1 Starting applications specified in //.vnc/xstartup Log file is //.vnc/spectrum:1.log --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send a message with the line: unsubscribe vnc-list to majordomo "at" uk.research.att.com See also: http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/intouch.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------


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Posted by Zach Lowe on Jun 6, 2010 159 comments
You all know the odds—that teams that go up 2-0 in best-of-seven series have gone on to win nearly 90 percent of the time. That only 14 teams in league history have ever rallied from a 2-0 deficit in any round. The Celtics are already facing the 47-0 Phil Jackson thing; lose tonight, and you'll be reading about a pile of bad historical stats before midnight.
A win tonight, and this is a whole different series.
Consider this your Game 2 open thread, and this game promises to provide a lot of fodder for a nice open thread. We could see a bundle of adjustments in how Boston guards Kobe; how the C's respond to the Gasol/Kobe high screen/roll; and how Doc divvies up the minute and match-ups among his four-man front line.
Tell us what you're seeing—what's working, what doesn't appear to be working, how Rondo looks, etc.
Let's hope we all sleep well tonight.


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Lab:Campbell M Lab
From ung.igem.org
Welcome to the Campbell lab at Davidson College.
We have focused on the design, construction and testing of bacterial computers using E. coli as our chassis.
We participated in iGEM for several years in a row:
- iGEM 2005 Environmental Sensor and Digital Display BEST TEAM NAME, BEST INTERFACE LOGIC, BEST DEBUGGERS
- iGEM 2006 Burnt Pancake problem in collaboration with MWSU FOUR AWARDS Paper of the Year Published in 2008.
- iGEM 2007 Hamiltonian Path problem GODL MEDAL Paper of the Year Published in 2009. You can read more from this team on our OpenWetWare wiki.
- iGEM 2008 XOR gate and encryption GOLD MEDAL
- iGEM 2009 SAT problem GOLD MEDAL
- iGEM 2010 knapsack problem GOLD MEDAL


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In what is a promising sign for the health of Orlando's tourism industry though maybe not so great a thing for tourists planning trips hotel rates at Walt Disney World continue to trend up.
A survey of prices last weekend at the giant resort's company hotels found prices were up from a year ago in every category of room.
"Prices are higher year-over-year and we think, combined with fewer promotions, will be a big contributor to Walt Disney Co.'s parks results in fiscal 2012," analysts for UBS Investment Research, which conducted the survey, wrote in a note to investors.
Out of eight hotels categorized as "deluxe," all eight had rooms available over the weekend, compared with seven on the same weekend last year. But the 12-week average of room prices was up 6 percent from 2011.
Availability was the same as a year ago in Disney's moderately priced hotels, but rates were up 4 percent. There was slightly more availability this year in "value"-priced hotels, where rates were up 5 percent.
Have you noticed any increase in the prices you paid last year?


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Back to Hawaii News index
Posted: Monday, March 10th, 2014 11:41 AM HST
Vulcan tennis team has rough weekend
By 67AM KPUA News
It was a rough weekend on O`ahu for the University of Hawai`i at Hilo Tennis Teams.
The lone bright spot came on Sunday when the Vulcan women scored a decisive 7-2 victory over Pac West Conference rival Chaminade. The men were not so fortunate, as they faced Division I Sacred Hearts, who topped the Vulcans 6-3.
On Saturday, the Vulcans took on Hawai`i Pacific with the Sea Warriors sweeping all nine matches in both mens and womens action.


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SCOTUS GETS ONE RIGHT: upholds Michigan's ban on affirmative action in college admissions
The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld Michigan's ban on using race as a factor in college admissions.
The justices said in a 6-2 ruling that Michigan voters had the right to change their state constitution in 2006 to prohibit public colleges and universities from taking account of race in admissions decisions. The justices said that a lower federal court was wrong to set aside the change as discriminatory.
Justice Anthony Kennedy said voters chose to eliminate racial preferences, presumably because such a system could give rise to race-based resentment.
Kennedy said nothing in the Constitution or the court's prior cases gives judges the authority to undermine the election results.
"This case is not about how the debate about racial preferences should be resolved. It is about who may resolve it," Kennedy said.
In dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the decision tramples on the rights of minorities, even though the amendment was adopted democratically. "But without checks, democratically approved legislation can oppress minority groups," said Sotomayor, who read her dissent aloud in the courtroom Tuesday. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg sided with Sotomayor in dissent.
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At 58 pages, Sotomayor's dissent was longer than the combined length of the four opinions in support of the outcome.
Justice Elena Kagan did not take part in the case, presumably because she worked on it at an earlier stage while serving in the Justice Department.
In 2003, the Supreme Court upheld the consideration of race among many factors in college admissions in a case from Michigan.
Three years later, affirmative action opponents persuaded Michigan voters to change the state constitution to outlaw any consideration of race.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the issue was not affirmative action, but the way in which its opponents went about trying to bar it.
In its 8-7 decision, the appeals court said the provision ran afoul of the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment because it presents an extraordinary burden to affirmative action supporters who would have to mount their own long, expensive campaign to repeal the constitutional provision.
Similar voter-approved initiatives banning affirmative action in education are in place in California and Washington state. A few other states have adopted laws or issued executive orders to bar race-conscious admissions policies.
Black and Latino enrollment at the University of Michigan has dropped since the ban took effect. At California's top public universities, African-Americans are a smaller share of incoming freshmen, while Latino enrollment is up slightly, but far below the state's growth in the percentage of Latino high school graduates.
The case was the court's second involving affirmative action in as many years. In June, the justices ordered lower courts to take another look at the University of Texas admissions plan in a ruling that could make it harder for public colleges to justify any use of race in admissions.
The case is Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, 12-682.
(my emphasis)
What's interesting here is not that SCOTUS came to the right decision (or that Breyer went along with the majority): that's merely surprising. Instead, what may be important here is how this decision provides some indication as to how SCOTUS might rule on things like California's proposition 8, once proponents of that democratically passed amendment to the state's Constitution overcomes the hurdle of "standing" that SCOTUS used to dodge the issue in a 2013 ruling.
To listen to the majority — Kennedy notes that "nothing in the Constitution or the court's prior cases gives judges the authority to undermine the election results" in Michigan — is to listen to a Court that is clearly at an ideological crossroads, particular insofar as it in essence denied States like Arizona the rights to pass laws to combat illegal immigration under the pretense that the Executive has "discretion" on whether to follow such laws, just as they have discretion when it comes to enforcing already existing federal law like our current immigration statutes and DOMA.
The real takeaway here, though, comes from the dissent, written by Sotomayor, the Wise Latina, who complains that "without checks, democratically approved legislation can oppress minority groups" — an argument evidently rejected in this case by the majority.
Which means that, though the leftists will try to fight Prop 8 and likeminded state constitutional amendments securing the traditional definition of marriage on equal protection grounds under the 14th Amendment (which had nothing whatever to do with marriage or homosexuals, and so has no jurisdiction over questions raised on their behalf, from an originalist perspective), the Court here has, at least in this case, rejected that argument: affirmative action is not, despite Sotomayor's overheated rhetoric, a constitutionally protected "civil right," and therefore voters of each state are allowed to make the determination as to whether or not they find what is in essence a long-enforced, activist-led social experiment enshrined in Bakke, an effective or even viable law.
If the decision on Proposition 8 comes down to the same question — is same sex marriage a "civil right," or can states determine the meaning of marriage, based on long-standing traditional understandings of the legal arrangement and definition of the term? — we have seen in this particular instance the majority suggest that what is not a civil right, and same sex marriage is not, but is instead a semantic intrusion on a long-standing institution (a civil rights battle over same-sex civil unions may well go the other way, and arguably should), is, therefore, a matter of state jurisdiction.
Now, don't get me wrong: I think the Court will be swayed by the faulty and dishonest "civil rights" argument, or at least pretend to be, and deny states (and by that, we are talking about the majority of we, the people) the right to make our own determinations. States that refuse to abide such a decision will then be held as civil rights violators by the Justice Department and will be subject to all sort of legal molestation.
But what will be evident, should all this come to pass, is that we are living not under a stable or even coherent rule of law, but rather one driven by political expediency, the whims of 9 philosopher kings and queens, and special interest groups.
Which is judicial oligarchy, nothing less — and as such, is an affront to a representative constitutional republic built specifically around federalism.
Of course, I'm no lawyer, so take this all with a grain of salt. Just one guy's opinion. And it's just one guy who doesn't happen to do designer cupcakes. So there's that.


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See the world in a whole new way with our mini binoculars! Sold individually, our plastic binoculars come in green, yellow or blue and are perfect for your little explorers. Award them as prizes at your child's garden, bug or animal party and see what they discover! Ages 3 and up.
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Wilmington, NC April 2, 2013: The 9th Annual Rims On The River Vintage Car, Hot Rod & Motorcycle Show, will be held in Downtown Wilmington, NC, Friday 4/19/13 through Sunday 4/21/13.
This event hosts a variety of vehicles from the greater Wilmington area, as well as from surrounding states. All events during this weekend are free to attendees.
Vehicle participants can obtain entry application from our website. Below is a itinerary for the weekend full of events. Highlights of this years festival is the free concert at Riverfront Park featuring The Detroit Cobras, The Phantom Playboys, The Madd Hatters, and Andrew Kane and The Alibis. Also featured to this year's show is Sunday's "Local's Only Day". This free to participants car show is being held on Dock St., between 2nd & Water St., and S. Front St, between Dock and Orange St.. Sponsored by The Barbary Coast, Duck & Dive, and The Reel Cafe, trophies will be awarded from each of these sponsors, as well as prizes and gifts to the general public.
This year's show is being sponsored in conjunction with Encore Magazine, The Bone, The Penguin, WECT, FOX26, The Star News, Carolina Coast Harley Davidson, MobileTech, The Front Street Brewery, Coca-Cola, Sailor Jerry's Spiced Rum, Live Wire Powdercoating, and Behind Bars Apparel. For more information visit www.CoolWilmington.com.
Schedule of Events
Friday April 19th
Rims On The River Welcome to the Weekend parties start Friday evening at all of our various venues. Please check the Band link for all the participating venues specials and entertainment.
Saturday April 20th
The main car show is on Saturday April 20th. Registration begins at 9:00AM, with the show opening to public display starting at 11:00AM. In case of rain the event will be postponed until the following day. To enter the event, proceed into Downtown Wilmington on Market St., where you will be directed by volunteers to pre-registration or the day of the show registration areas. For vehicles desiring to be parked together you must arrive together the morning of the event.
Award presentation will be at 4:00PM at Baily Theater Park, located at 14 N. Front St. Several categories will be awarded for cars and for motorcycles.
Car show ends at 5:00PM, please be sure to move your vehicles into a legal parking space, if you are going to continue to remain in the downtown area. The streets will open at 6:00PM to public vehicular traffic.
This year's Free Concert is on Saturday April 20th following the car show, show starts at 5:30PM and is located at Riverfront Park on Water St., between Market and Princess St. This year's headliner is The Detroit Cobras. Vocalist Rachael Nagy's sultry voice, backed by the band's Rock, R & B, and Country influences are sure to please everyone's musical taste. Also playing will be Wilmington's Kings of Rockabilly, The Phantom Playboys, local ska stars, The Madd Hatters, and Andrew Kane & The Alibis. This is a must see show! Food and beverages will be available during the show. This is an all ages show.
FREE After Concert Party – The Maulers Car & Motorcycle Club and Cafe Fear TurboJugend will be hosting a FREE party following The Detroit Cobras concert at The Soapbox 255 N. Front St. This show will feature Richmond, VA., The Apocalypse Dudes. A.D. plays a classic mix of all Turbonegro's hits with such angst, you'll think you're seeing the real kings of Rock! Also featured will be a much talked about reunion of "No Labels Fit". It's been several years since they have claimed the stage, but will be sure to show the audience why they were such a heralded band of Wilmington's music scene. Doors open at 9:30PM, with show beginning at 10:30PM. Plus, there's more after parties going on at our various venue sponsors, please check the band link for more information on specials and entertainment.
Sunday April 21st
Locals Only Day – Locals Only Day is on Sunday April 21st, starting at Noon and going until 5:00PM. This event is being sponsored by Barbary Coast, Duck & Dive, and The Reel Cafe. This event is a FREE vehicle entry event, with "Best Of" trophies being given by the three sponsors. This event is located on S. Front, between Dock and Orange St. Entrance to the event is located at S. Front and Dock St. Each venue will have special giveaways, entertainment and guaranteed FUN!!!! This is going to be a perfect way to close out an awesome weekend!


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Ravell Call, Deseret Morning News
OK, is there anywhere in this world, where the snow flies, where it's possible to set tracks on the slopes of 11 ski resorts in a single day?
Last week, I set out with four comrades on skis to prove that, yes, it can be done right here in Utah.
We rode one tram, two gondolas, one six-person high-speed, three high-speed quads, one triple and four double chairlifts to make 12 runs at 11 areas, ski 19,226 vertical feet and discuss plans to ski 12 . . . or maybe all 13.
It went like this: Sundance, Deer Valley, Park City Mountain Resort, The Canyons, Solitude, Brighton, Snowbird, Alta, Snowbasin, Nordic Valley and Powder Mountain . . . number of miles traveled was 220.
The only Utah resorts not skied were Beaver Mountain, east of Logan, and Brian Head, east of Cedar City.
The day started with the reflective view of a sunrise on Mount Timpanogos seen from Ray's lift at Sundance at 7:56 a.m. and ended with a mountaintop view of a huge orange sun sandwiched between illuminated red clouds from the 8,600-foot Sundown Ridge at Powder Mountain at 5:37 p.m.
The amount of time needed to drive, ride the lifts (and never the shortest lifts), ski down, load and unload equipment and drive to all 11 was nine hours, 41 minutes.
It was intended from the beginning to be more of an adventure than a ski day, just to see if it could be done. One run planned at each resort, top to bottom, eat on the run, brief breaks were possible, and more driving time than slope time.
What we found was that it is possible, here in Utah, to ski 10 truly world-class ski areas and one area, Nordic Valley, with all the down-home charm of a county fair, in a day.
Now that it has been done, the question is: Is there anywhere else in the world where skiers can engage that many different resorts of such quality during daylight hours?
Looking back, the time line could have been even shorter. The group of five skiers I was joined by Lee Benson, columnist, and Ravell Call, photographer for the Deseret Morning News; Nathan Rafferty, director of communications for Ski Utah; Mike Grass, my son and a former staffer of Ski Utah left Snowbird an hour ahead of the timetable, took two runs at Snowbasin instead of one, and stopped on occasion to look at the views, a bald eagle, a young moose on a Deer Valley run and a flock of forest grouse that flew within a few feet of our party atop Powder Mountain.
Consensus among the group is that with a few less turns and less lollygagging around, all 11 could have been skied in regular operational daylight hours roughly 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., which is Nordic Valley's day-pass closing time. As it turned out, the only resort we skied on a nighttime pass was the last Powder Mountain.
The seed for this adventure was planted when I read a story in the Denver Post over Thanksgiving by a fellow ski writer who skied eight resorts in roughly 10 hours, hitting two before lifts opened.
Accessibility and, of course, snow, have long been among Utah's greatest attractions for skiers and snowboarders.
There are six areas offered on the one-day Ski Utah Interconnect. From downtown Salt Lake City there are seven resorts within roughly 30 minutes and four more within less than an hour.
I suggested several possible options, including the Interconnect plus one The Canyons to Rafferty and eight with the Interconnect, plus Sundance and The Canyons. The Interconnect starts at Deer Valley and includes Park City Mountain Resort, Solitude, Brighton, Alta and Snowbird.
He suggested the 11 resorts and plotted a projected time line.
"It was," he said without hesitation, "very doable."


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Viral Video: Baby Slays (Stuffed) DragonJoslyn Gray
First, there was Iron Baby. Now, there is Dragon Baby.
Canadian filmmaker Patrick Boivin has made a follow-up to his hugely popular 2010 Iron Baby video, which starred his infant daughter in a parody of Iron Man. Now, he's made a video starring Iron Baby's little brother in a parody of Kill Bill.
"I started by drawing comic books 15 years ago," Mr. Boivin writes on his YouTube page, "and quickly discovered that it was faster to tell a story with video." It's also a great way to get a story out to huge numbers of people: the Dragon Baby video has been watched more than 7 million times since it was uploaded four days ago.
This video is nothing short of magical. Check it out, below.
Read more from Joslyn at Babble Pets and at her blog, stark. raving. mad. mommy. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter.
Recent posts:
Whee! Darth Vader Rides the Teacups at Disneyland
Bloggers, Foundations Work Together to Help Special Needs Families Affected by Hurricane Sandy
Halloween Backlash: 2012 Was the Year Parents Got Sick of Over-Priced, Overly-Revealing Costumes
New Zealand Airline's Hobbit' Video: The Most Geektastic Safety Video Ever


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The Real Presents "Osunlade, Kenny Bobien, & Carlos Mena Boat Party Cruise"
The Real
Saturday, September 20, 2014 at 8:00 PM - Sunday, September 21, 2014 at 12:00 AM (EDT)
Event Details
Welcome to our inaugural boat cruise. We had been wanting to do something monumental and as far as boatrides go we knew it needed to be special/different. So we think we have come up with a winning formula that will bring you out to our event. The name Osunlade creates all types of excitement and musically he always delivers. So we went out and got him to agree to bless us with one of his incredible sets for a night on the water. He rarely plays in the NYC metropolitan area because of his very hectic international schedule. So we are genuinely blessed to have Brother O! Also, we felt we needed to add a live singing element and again we had to go after one of the best. In this case we got Kenny Bobien. Without question Mr. Bobien is the most prolific singer in terms of releases and soulful house anthems the last 15 years so we are honored to have him perform. Finally, we have the one and only Carlos Mena of "Bembe" playing the opening music to set off the cruise.
We are are covering all bases in terms of quality sound and entertainment. We want this event to be one that everyone will say...WOW! There will be surprises for everyone."
Remember, Circle Line Cruise don't allow patrons to bring beverages or food on board. Violators will be escorted off the boat or placed in holding until we dock. There will be security.
Please come early. There are absolutely NO REFUNDS. Be LATE and you will be A$% OUT...!
We are offering Early Bird tickets @ $40 online until August 17th. Get them at this price while you can!
When & Where
Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises
Pier 83 W 42nd St
New York,
Saturday, September 20, 2014 at 8:00 PM - Sunday, September 21, 2014 at 12:00 AM (EDT)
Add to my calendar
The Real
Welcome to "The Real". Established in the Summer of 2012 with an intention to showcase the full scope and depth of the soulful dance music genre. Its events (outdoor and indoor) feature music from DJs Kervyn Mark, DJ Erv, their special guest DJs snd singing performers that most don't give light to and needs to get heard. Hit songs are great but exposing new music and other tunes that flies under the radar because (NO COMMENT)...to a willing audience is rewarding. Also, Many have expressed that they yearn for something refreshing and we to use this vehicle as the chance to do so!!!


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If you're in the Knoxville area and you're looking for something to do this weekend, stop by Marble Springs State Historic Site for Statehood Days. They'll have living history demonstrations, food, and tours of the historic buildings. Here's the schedule.
Tag Archives: Knoxville
Statehood Days this weekend at Marble Springs
Ladies and gentlemen, meet the resident cats of Marble Springs State Historic Site
This hard-working trio is on duty 24/7 at the home of Tennessee's first governor.
…and John Sevier.
Follow them on Twitter, or stop by the site and pay 'em a visit.
Filed under Museums and Historic Sites, Tennessee History
Belle Boyd visited Knoxville
It turns out the famous Confederate spy had relatives living at Blount Mansion during the war. Pretty neat!
Filed under Appalachian History, Civil War, Tennessee History
Two items of note from here in Tennessee
Eight Tennessee sites have joined the National Register of Historic Places, including Crockett Tavern in Morristown, just down the road from my hometown. Davy Crockett's family moved to the site when the famous frontiersman was still a boy. The present structure is a replica built in the 1950s, during the Crockett craze whipped up by the Disney series.
I'm ashamed to say that I haven't been there yet, but I'm going this year, as soon as they re-open for the spring. It's not that uncommon for history buffs to spend years driving all over the country to visit sites and let the ones in their own backyards fall through the cracks, but the fact that I've gone this long without crossing Crockett Tavern off my bucket list is downright scandalous.
Also, the East Tennessee Historical Society is hosting a Brown Bag Lecture on Jan. 16 at noon about an interesting archaeological site in downtown Knoxville: the home of Peter Kern, a remarkable guy who turned a run of bad luck into a fortune in the food business. Kern was a German immigrant who settled in Georgia and signed up to fight for the Confederacy. Wounded in Virginia, he went back home to recover. While returning to the front by train, he ended up in Knoxville just as the city fell into Union hands. Stuck in town for the duration of the war, he made the most of his situation and established a bakery and ice cream parlor. Kern's bread business was quite a success (you can still buy baked goods with the Kern's label here in East Tennessee) and he stayed in Knoxville, running successfully for mayor in 1890.
So on behalf of my fellow East Tennesseans to whichever Yankee soldier managed to knock Kern out of the action—thanks for all the awesome sandwiches.
Fort Sanders sesquicentennial for Black Friday
In 1863 Nov. 29 fell on a Sunday instead of a Friday, but it was a pretty black day nonetheless, at least for the hapless Rebel soldiers who launched a disastrous assault against Fort Sanders at Knoxville. Those twenty bloody minutes ended Longstreet's effort to re-take the city for the Confederacy, following its occupation by Burnside that September.
The attack on Ft. Sanders was neither a particularly big battle as far as Civil War engagements went nor as consequential as what was going on down in Chattanooga. But it's a pretty big deal for history buffs here in my neck of the woods, so here's another anniversary link-fest for you.
- Knoxville's own historical columnist Jack Neely on the assault
- The Knoxville News-Sentinel's sesquicentennial coverage of the war in East Tennessee
- If you haven't seen the McClung Museum's exhibit on Ft. Sanders, you should definitely check it out. They have fossils, too! (By the way, that new Edmontosaurus is now called "Monty.")
- The East Tennessee Historical Society has some nifty Civil War displays of their own, and they're commemorating the Ft. Sanders anniversary with a free admission day.
- Need to read up on the contest for control of Knoxville? I recommend The Knoxville Campaign by Earl Hess, Lincolnites and Rebels by Robert Tracy McKenzie, and Divided Loyalties by Digby Gordon Seymour. For additional background, try Noel Fisher's War at Every Door and W. Todd Groce's Mountain Rebels.
- Last year we paid a virtual visit to the site of the battle. The fort is long gone, but there are still a few landmarks from the Knoxville Campaign around. Click here to book a guided tour, or stop by Longstreet's headquarters and the Mabry-Hazen House.
- Watch the battle reenacted at a replicated Ft. Sanders, constructed for a documentary produced in conjunction with the McClung Museum's exhibit.
And finally, here's a depiction of the attack by Lloyd Branson, the same Tennessee artist who did the painting of the Sycamore Shoals muster at the top of this blog:
Filed under Appalachian History, Civil War, Tennessee History
"Equal parts P.T. Barnum and Huey P. Long"
The East Tennessee History Center has launched a new exhibit on early Knoxville television in conjunction with the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound. One of the artifacts on display is the original backdrop from Cas Walker's TV show. Doing the history of Knoxville TV without Cas Walker—self-made grocery magnate, broadcaster, populist, politician, and one-man Knoxville institution, referred to by one writer as "equal parts P.T. Barnum and Huey P. Long"—would be like doing the Jacksonian era without Old Hickory.
Born in Sevier County in 1902, Orton Caswell Walker spent his early years working jobs at mills and coal mines in North Carolina and Kentucky before opening his first Knoxville grocery store in 1924 with $850 he had managed to save. In a few decades, he turned this initial investment into a multi-million-dollar chain of establishments in three states.
Walker owed his success to a knack for self-promotion. No advertising gimmick was too outrageous, whether it involved dropping coupons from airplanes, tossing chickens off the roof of his store, or burying a volunteer stuntman alive. His image as an unpolished, uncultivated hick who enjoyed a good raccoon hunt served him well with working-class customers.
Walker leveraged his popularity into a role in local politics, winning a seat on the Knoxville City Council in 1941 and a short term (ending in a recall election) as the city's mayor in 1946. In office and in his self-published newspaper he railed against higher taxes, the consolidation of Knoxville's city and county governments, flouridation of the municipal water supply, and the local elites who considered him a backwards embarrassment. Reveling in his persona as a rough-and-tumble champion of the little guy, he denounced his opponents in what he called the "silk-stocking crowd." A demagogue he may have been, but he endeared himself to the same working-class voters who had patronized his grocery stores.
The highlight of Walker's political career came in 1956, when a dispute with J.S. Cooper during a city council meeting erupted into a full-fledged fistfight. I consider this the most delightful moment in Knoxville's political history since the Sevier-Jackson showdown of 1803, and thankfully a newspaper photographer was on hand to preserve it for the ages. The image appeared in Life magazine, putting Knoxville's contentious local politics in the national consciousness.
The centerpiece of Walker's promotional efforts was his self-hosted TV program, the Cas Walker Farm and Home Hour, which ran for three decades and offered him a platform to plug his stores, showcase regional musicians, and pontificate. From a purely historical standpoint, the show is most notable for giving a young Dolly Parton one of her first breaks in the entertainment business. But for sheer entertainment value, none of the musical acts could top Cas himself, holding forth in his own rambling and occasionally profane style.
Here's Cas discussing the subject of store security (mildly NSFW language):
And in this clip, he shares some advice on professionalism with his musical guests:
You can enjoy more of his televised antics here; his political career is discussed in detail in Dr. William Bruce Wheeler's history of Knoxville.
Filed under Appalachian History, Tennessee History
Spend an evening at John Sevier's
Marble Springs State Historic Site in Knoxville, TN is getting ready for its first annual fundraiser. We're calling it a "Sevier Soirée."
It's on Saturday, Nov. 23 starting at 6:30 P.M. For $50 you can enjoy hors d'oeuvres prepared on an open hearth, dinner, wine, live music, nighttime tours of the historic buildings, and a silent auction. If you've been to Marble Springs before, this is a wonderful opportunity to enjoy the site in a fashion you've never experienced. And if you haven't been, this is the perfect chance to do it in style.
For more information, visit the Marble Springs website or call (865) 573-5508.
Filed under Museums and Historic Sites, Tennessee History


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|Oracle FAQ
|Your Portal to the Oracle Knowledge Grid
Home -> Community -> Usenet -> comp.databases.theory -> Re: Simple SQL?
On Mon, 21 May 2001 16:01:08 -0600, David Olsen <dolsen_at_b202.usu.edu>
>For me, advanced (or basic) techniques applied to poor table design don't mean
>as much and I beat that into my students.
J. Received on Mon May 21 2001 - 17:38:56 CDT
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Our Best Budget Living Tips, Tricks and Ideas of the Year
Best of 2013
Everyone loves saving a buck or two (or ten) when they can, so we've gathered this list of the year's best tips, tricks and resources to help keep your budget on track. Here's to a healthy and wealthy 2014!
1. How To Create a Gallery Wall on a Budget
2. Dorm Style: Two L.A. Looks on a Budget
3. 5 Budget Kitchen Upgrades You Can Make This Weekend
4. Shopping Guide: Double Sinks for Every Bathroom (and Every Budget)
5. Budgeting for a Room: Splurge or Spread the Wealth?
6. Instant Wall Decor on a Budget: Gift Wrap Perfect for Framing
7. Budget DIY: Tips for Stretching Your Project Dollars
8. Renter's Solutions: Temporary Cork Floors on a Tiny Budget
9. Budget Basics: 5 Comforters Under $100
10. 10 Best Task Chairs for Nearly Any Budget
11. How to Make Your Home Safer on a Budget
12. 6 Ways To Tighten Your Tech Budget, But Still Stay Connected & Entertained
13. The Budget Buyer's Tech Source Guide
14. Alternatives to the Nest: 4 Budget Programmable Thermostats
15. More Bang for Your Buck: Top-Rated Small Appliances for Under $50
16. How To Stick To A Budget in Your Nursery or Kids Room
17. Best Baby Cribs for Any Budget: From Cheap to Moderate to Splurge
18. Best Budget Finds: 20 Crib Sheets Under $20
19. Best Baby Bouncers for Any Budget: Form Cheap to Moderate to Splurge
20. Sylvia's Bright & Sunny Budget Nursery
Welcome to Apartment Therapy's Best of 2013 roundup! From December 21 through January 1 we are rounding up our favorite (and your favorite) posts from the past year.
(Image credits: Chris Beecroft; Nancy Mitchell; Hus & Hem; Pottery Barn; Marcia Prentice; Paper Source; Stephen and Jessica's Artfully Arranged Home and Studio; Joelle Alcaidinho; Lydia Brotherton; As linked above; Shutterstock; Shutterstock; Amazon; YanLev/Shutterstock; Ashley Poskin; Shutterstock; Melissa Wehrman)


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Waves Hit Southern California: The Science of a TsunamiHeather Turgeon
As we're all consumed with news of Japan's massive 8.9 earthquake and resulting tsunami, I'm here on the coast of Southern California watching the water and anticipating what meteorologists say will be the resulting tides hitting our shores at 8:32 a.m.
Needless to say, I panicked this morning when I heard the news and darted to the window. It looks like just another calm, warm and sunny morning here. But as we speak, the ripple effects of Japan's earthquake are headed my way.
Here's what scientists are saying about the effect on the shores of of the west coast. And a breakdown of what exactly causes a tsunami of this size in the first place:
The waves have already hit Hawaii and thankfully are less powerful than expected (only a foot higher than usual). That means that on California shores here, it will less powerful still. The waves hit San Francisco short after 8 a.m. and shortly after, southern california coast saw the waves.
Why do some earthquakes cause a tsunami? Geologists explain that the powerful tsunami waves results when an earthquake breaks the crust of the earth in such a way that one side lifts up, acting like a huge paddle transferring energy to the water around it — the exact movement of that paddle is what affects which direction the waves travel. In this case, the pacific plate went underneath the Japan Trench and thrust the sea floor away from Japan and towards the West coast.
Image: flickr


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James Wertz: Boynton Beach man faces animal cruelty charge for punching, choking rabbit, police say
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - Boynton Beach Police officers arrested a man on animal cruelty charges after they say he punched and choked his girlfriend's pet rabbit during an argument on June 27th.
According to the arrest report, James Wertz had gotten into a "disagreement over women's rights" with his girlfriend.
Police state that Wertz's girlfriend wanted to end the argument so she went into her bedroom to get away from him.
A short time later, the girlfriend heard high-pitch screaming coming from the living room and went out of the bedroom to find Wertz squeezing and punching her pet rabbit, according to police.
The woman told police Wertz was striking the animal so hard that blood was coming from the rabbit's facial area.
Police say when Wertz's girlfriend began calling 911, he became enraged and threw her across the living room.
Wertz then left the couple's home and the girlfriend was able to call 911. Officers searched the area and eventually located and arrested Wertz. He faces one count of animal cruelty and one count of domestic battery.
Police say the animal has serious injuries but is expected to survive.


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Speedball 2: Evolution iPad / iPhone hands-onBack
Speedball 2: Evolution - iPhone / iPod touch
Xbox One Slim set for E3 2016, more powerful Xbox upgrade coming 2017
Skylanders Battlecast: Hearthstone for half-pints
OnePlus Loop VR headset is completely free but out of stock (update)
E3 2016: All the launches, games and consoles to expect
- Xbox One Slim set for E3 2016, more powerful Xbox upgrade coming 2017
- Skylanders Battlecast: Hearthstone for half-pints
- E3 2016: All the launches, games and consoles to expect
- Doom review: Redefining the remake
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The global problem of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) demands the continuous attention of the public health community beyond the annual focus of the European Antibiotic Awareness Day (marked annually on 18 November). EPHA is committed to raising awareness of AMR-related concerns, including the reduction of antibiotics use, to ensure that people living in Europe can continue to benefit from life-saving antibiotics. Moreover, it is important to promote policy coherence, as well as effective, coordinated and transparent communication about Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR).
As a long-standing supporter of the annual European Antibiotic Awareness Day (EAAD) organised by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and taking place simultaneously in Brussels and in the Member States, it goes without saying that EPHA endorses all the key EAAD messages pertaining to prudent use of antibiotics and hygiene. However, the EAAD does not take place in a vacuum, and it is important to maintain the discussion over AMR throughout the year.
In light of this, the present article will be updated throughout 2014 in line with ongoing developments of relevance to AMR.
Recent developments
WHO Global Action Plan on AMR
Faced with growing global concern over microbial resistance to antibiotic treatments, the annual World Health Assembly adopted a resolution in May for the WHO to establish a global action plan on AMR. It calls for multisectoral collaboration between the WHO, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Organization for Animal Health in the developing the action plan.
Moreover, the resolution contains a list of actions for WHO member states, including, inter alia:
Low-to middle-income countries underlined the need to take their particular condition into account, and that new medicines developed should be accessible.
A summary of the declaration issued by the Antibiotic Resistance Coalition, a civil society coalition including Health Action International and the Save our Antibiotics Alliance, was also presented at the WHA.
Transatlantic Taskforce progress report
In May, the European Commission and the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a progress report on the Transatlantic Taskforce on AMR (TATFAR), which was created following the 2009 EU-US Presidential Summit. The report renews their commitment to pursue specific goals in their joint battle against AMR. Notable outcomes of TATFAR activities for the reporting period include:
TATFAR aims to improve collaboration in three key areas:1) appropriate therapeutic use of antimicrobial drugs in medical and veterinary communities, 2) prevention of healthcare and community-associated drug-resistant infections, and 3) strategies for improving the pipeline of new antimicrobial drugs.
Although significant progress in reducing specific types of infections has been made, the global problem continues to grow. Therefore, TATFAR's original mandate has recently been extended to at least 2015. It originally identified and adopted 17 recommendations for collaboration to achieve best results in the prevention and control of AMR.
On 7 April, an event at the International Auditorium in Brussels entitled 'Ensuring Health & Sustainability in Europe: Doctors and Veterinarians emphasize prevention is better than cure', organised by the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe (FVE) in collaboration with the Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME) and supported by the Greek Presidency brought together the medical and veterinary community to highlight the importance of following a 'One Health' approach. The event had a particular emphasis on zoonotic diseases and the presentations and agenda are available on the FVE website.
Joint Report EFSA & ECDC
The most recent Joint Summary Report by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the ECDC released on 25 March 2014 (analysing 2012 data) states that bacteria most frequently causing food-borne infections, such as salmonella and campylobacter, show significant resistance to common antimicrobials. AMR in humans, animals and food remains commonly detected, which is a big concern. However, combined resistance (co-resistance) to critically important antimicrobials is low. Treatment options for serious infections with zoonotic bacteria are available in most cases.
Moreover, an event organised in the European Parliament on 1 April by the Interest Group on Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) - hosted by MEPs Aloiz Peterle (EPP, Slovenia) and Sirpa Pietikainen (EPP, Finland) - served to highlight the potential contributions CAM can make to reduce the overuse of antibiotics in both humans and animals. The session offered a forum for speakers from the CAM professional community and researchers to present findings regarding the development of novel antimicrobial therapies that are not susceptible to developing microbial resistance.
This event also included a presentation by Herta Adam, Deputy Head of Unit, Health Threats, DG SANCO on the state of play of the European Commission's Action Plan to combat AMR (activities in the human sector), as well as presentations on the use of herbal medicines and homeopathy and an overview of the integrative approach taken in anthroposophic hospitals in Germany and Switzerland, where traditional medicine and CAM co-exist. More information is available here.
AMR: What is it?
As described in the EPHA Briefing on AMR, antimicrobials (including antibiotics) are substances used to kill micro-organisms or to stop them from growing and multiplying. They are commonly used in human and veterinary medicine to treat a wide variety of infectious diseases.
AMR refers to the ability of micro-organisms to withstand antimicrobial treatments, for example due to the overuse or misuse of antibiotics. This is creating and spreading micro-organisms which are resistant to them, rendering treatment ineffective and posing a serious risk to public health. As noted on the EFSA website, a well known example of a bacterium that has acquired resistance to multiple antibiotics is Meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
If bacteria become clinically resistant to several antimicrobials (multidrug-resistant), treating the infections they cause can become more difficult or even impossible. In addition, the development of AMR in zoonotic bacteria (present in animals and food) can also compromise the effective treatment of human infections if AMR is transmitted via the food chain.
Find out more:


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What is the correct name for the following Java class:
DVDPlayer or
What is the correct name for the following Java class:
closed as not constructive by casperOne Dec 16 '11 at 18:03
As it currently stands, this question is not a good fit for our Q&A format. We expect answers to be supported by facts, references, or expertise, but this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. If you feel that this question can be improved and possibly reopened, visit the help center for guidance.If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.
Since it looks like the answer is that there is no single standard for this in Java, I'd like to note that the .Net Framework Design Guidelines do specify this.
Now before slamming me for being off topic, please remember that the class naming guidelines for Java and the .Net Framework are quite similar, which makes the .Net guidelines useful as a persuasive reference.
General Rules
Both guidelines recommend only using acronyms when the acronym is widely known and well understood. DVD or XML are excellent examples of this, as while you will recognize them immediately, it would take a bit longer to recognize the expanded version.
The .Net Framework Guidelines recommend not to use abbreviations (as opposed to Acronyms), except that two common abbreviations 'ID' and 'OK' may be used in identifiers. When using an abbreviation, mixed case
In Java this convention is followed only some of the time. Take a look at how mixed the spellings
Short Acronyms
The .Net Framework Guidelines say that two letter acronyms like 'IO', should have the same case for both letters. So for PascalCase identifiers (like a class name) you would get
This definitely seems to be the prevailing convention in Java as well.
Long Acronyms
The .Net Framework guidelines recommend that acronyms three letters or longer use mixed case for PascalCase and camelCase identifiers, except for the first word of a camelCase identifier. Thus for a class name you might have
This convention is not always followed in Java. Four character acronyms do seem to usually use mixed case, but even the JCL is not consistent about three letter acronyms. Most of them seem to be all uppercase, like 'URL', 'XML', 'SQL', and 'DOM', but there are some exceptions like 'Jar'.
For Java:
For 4+ letter acronyms, use mixed case. The standard library does this, and it just makes good sense.
For 3 letter acronyms, you can use all uppercase like the JCL, or you can use mixed case like the .Net Framework does. Either way, be consistent.
For 2 letter acronyms, use all uppercase.
For 2 letter abbreviations, Java does not really have a standard, but I suggest using mixed cased, unless consistancy with other names indicates would make all upercase look better.
There is no "correct" answer. Just a set of practices and conventions that better play with your other tools.
Therefore I prefer
I've seen both of them used in the wild, and Sun seems to go for the
I like to define individual instances of classes in the following fashion:
Therefore, if I used
Effective Java seems to prefer DvdPlayer.
Some examples from the JavaSE classes, apache commons and spring:
So - it doesn't really matter.
From sun java docs:
You more often than not see
As others have indicated, its a style thing that differs across projects. Google projects such as Guava and GWT prefer the
(The page is about GWT, but the same code styles are used across Google's projects).
There is no "correct", only preferences here.
Sun is consistent in the way they name classes containing "URL" and "HTML", but I see HTTP using both all caps and camel case in the javadocs.
Personally, I'd prefer DvdPlayer.


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Devin McCourty
|2005: Redshirted. 2006: (13/0) 38 tackles, 1.5 TFL, .5 sack, 2 INT, 3 PBU, 1 FR. 2007: (13/13) 63 tackles, 1.5 TFL, .5 sack, 2 INT, 7 PBU, 2 FR, 1 FF, 3 BK; 2 PR, 56 yards. 2008: (13/13) 57 tackles, 1.5 TFL, 1 INT, 7 PBU, 1 FR, 1 BK; 1 PR, 25 yards. 2009: (13/13) 80 tackles, 7.5 TFL, 1 INT, 10 PBU, 1 FF, 3 BK; 2 PR, 21 yards; 14 KR, 356 yards (25.4 avg.), 1 TD. First team All-Big East.
|Possesses average height with a thinly built frame. Top-end speed is a step below elite.
|Durability is not a concern. Missed most of St. Petersburg Bowl this past season after suffering an eye injury during the first quarter, however, has not missed a start during his final three seasons (39 consecutive).
|Extremely hard worker on and off the field. Brings added value in multiple facets of the special teams department and has blocked seven punts throughout career.
Cornerback Specific Traits
|A quick-twitch, smooth athlete. Displays loose hips and shows an easy change of direction. Can turn and run with receivers when lined up in press coverage.
|Closing Burst
|Shows a good short-area-burst and closes well when ball is in front of him. Technique needs refined and can be too quick flipping hips out of backpedal. Displays extra gear to recover once initially beaten.
|Ball Skills
|Overall ball skills are above-average. Tracks the ball well and is aggressive attacking it. Shows ability to separate receiver and ball without drawing pass interference flag. Limited size and can be pushed around by bigger and more physical receivers in jump ball situations.
|Instincts/Mental Toughness
|Seasoned and savvy. Understands routes concepts and get into proper position in zone coverage. Flashes anticipation in man-coverage but needs to show more consistency in this area. Plays bigger than size suggests. Displays good short-term memory to move on once beaten.
|Run Support
|Willing and active in run support. Sound overall tackler. Does not have a lot of ammunition in holster but not afraid to throw weight around when filling on the perimeter. Does a good job of anticipating and is effective going down low to knock bigger ball carriers off feet. Uses hands well to disengage from blocks by can be controlled by bigger receivers on occasion


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HBO sent out an early announcement on Friday to explain that the network will be putting together home entertainment releases for three of its programs. One release should be epic, another should be fun for fans, and the third will probably be bittersweet. HBO will release Girls: The Complete Second Season, Enlightened: The Complete Second Season, and Boardwalk Empire: The Complete Third Season in August. Ill leave you to figure out which sets gets which adjective.
If you're disappointed by the news that Enlightened has been cancelled, you were probably one of the 500,000 or so viewers who tuned in for the HBO dramedy's second season finale. Even on premium cable, half a million total viewers is a low number. Too low, in fact, which is why it's not entirely surprising that HBO has decided not to move forward with Laura Dern's series.
In case you haven't heard, there's this little football game being played on Sunday called the Superbowl, and since it's pretty much the most televised event of the year, that means there is usually a coinciding change to regular scheduled programming. Not all the networks are going to fill the slot with reruns, however, and HBO as worked out a a few different ways that will allow viewers not to miss a single beat with Girls or Enlightened.
Theres a lot of good that can be said of HBOs Enlightened. Filled with a ton of awkwardly played comedic performances and plenty of gut-wrenchingly awful individuals, the series is not for the faint-hearted, but Mike White, Laura Dern and their team of talented writers have created a world that is clever, bold, and impactful, one that will stick with audiences for days after an episode has been watched.
HBO's series Enlightened is set to return for its second season, beginning early next year. The premium cable channel released a new trailer for Season 2, which gives us a look at what Laura Dern's Amy Jellicoe has planned at work. Based on the trailer, it involves hacking and some awkward moments.
Fans have known HBO has had plans for new episodes of Girls and Enlightened in the works for a while. However, the wait is never fun, and its great to put some concrete dates on the schedule for both shows second season premieres. Season 2 of Enlightened and Season 2 of Girls will both begin airing on Sunday, January 13.
The set will hit the market on January 8 and will be available on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital download. Special features look pretty stark at the moment, and will only include four audio commentaries and Inside the Episode summaries. However, I have my fingers crossed HBO might add some stuff to the set over the next few months. If you are planning to purchase, Enlightened: The Complete First Season, the Blu-ray will run for $49.99 and DVD copies will cost fans $39.98
After a great first season, HBO's Enlightened found itself renewed for a second and, in turn, has started expanding the cast. Just yesterday, the series that already boasts a fine ensemble lead by the Golden Globe winning Laura Dern, added former SNL regular Molly Shannon in a recurring role as an assistant at Abaddon Industries and potential adversary (or ally) for Dern's Amy. And today, Mike White's series added another second season character with Dermot Mulroney signing on for a recurring role.
Mike White must really like Molly Shannon. The duo has worked together on two projects already, and now he has written a role for her on the HBO series Enlightened, starring Laura Dern. Its not just that the role was written for her either that makes me think hes a fan - the role is as a love interest for Whites character Tyler. Yes, Id say he likes her quite a bit.
Unfortunately, HBO likes to break some good news with some bad news. If you have been avid watchers of HBOs Bored To Death with Jason Schwartzman, Hung with Thomas Jane, or How To Make It In America, the time has come to bid those programs farewell. HBO has officially cancelled both Bored To Death and Hung after three seasons, and How To Make It In America after two.
Enlightened looks really great. Just flat out good television, which should not come as a surprise since it's not television, it's HBO. However, on the Operation Kino podcast this week, there was a discussion (2:00 minute mark) about the 'quality control' with the network and what was in store for their future. All fears should be assuaged when you think of both their returning and new line-up, especially now with a look at Enlightened starring Laura Dern.
This new promotional spot for HBO showcases all that I have been talking about. You can see, as they run through their list of summer programs, that any network would, and should, be envious of and aspire to match the consistent quality that comes out of Home Box Office Entertainment. This summer line-up is insane.
Luke Wilson is set to take on his first regular TV job as hes been cast to play opposite Laura Dern in HBOs upcoming comedy pilot, Enlightened. It was also announced that Diane Ladd was also cast in the pilot.
TV Stories 1 to 13 of 13


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Why don't they start calling motogp n moto2 as spanish gp? Lets just be upfront about it, eh Dorna?


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The journey for "The Sessions" is nearly over, but it has been one helluva ride. Premiering in January 2012 at the Sundance Film Festival, the film by writer/director Ben Lewin left Park City with considerable buzz, which Fox Searchlight continued to build over the course of the year, culm...Read More »
Though "The Sessions" didn't turn out to be the awards contender many predicted -- Helen Hunt's nod for Best Supporting Actress notwithstanding -- when it premiered last year at Sundance, it still impressed a hell of a lot of people and now its director has already set-up his...Read More »
Sundance likes nothing more than an overnight success. Countless directors have, over the thirty-odd years of the festival, gone from total unknowns to the hot new thing, and they're usually some fresh-faced whippersapper, relatively speaking. This year's festival had one of those, in "Beasts of the...Read More »
John Hawkes has emerged as one of the finest chameleon-like character actors of our time, in films like 'Winter's Bone', 'Martha Marcy May Marlene', and 'Higher Ground.' With his performance in 'The Sessions' he reaches a new plateau, transforming himself into the wry, self-deprecating journalist Ma...Read More »
The 48th Chicago International Film Festival (CIFF) will pay tribute to Joan Allen, Viola Davis, and Helen Hunt for their noteworthy accomplishments and contributions to the arts by presenting them with the Silver Hugo.Read More »
After the debut of a hearty and warm trailer for Ben Lewin's "The Sessions," we now have a new clip from the Sundance sensation, which stars John Hawkes as real-life figure Mark O'Brien, a man afflicted by polio who was confined to an iron lung for the most of his life, who embarks on a journey to l...Read More »
Park City has been birth place of several award-season runs in recent years with "Precious" in 2009, "Winter's Bone" in 2010 or "Martha Marcy May Marlene" last year all coming into the Oscar conversaton a year after their premieres. This year, the water was a little murkier with no definitive pictur...Read More »


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Feature: What to Expect From The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD
It's like, you wait ages for a new Legend of Zelda release and then two come along at the same time right? Sure, we got to have a little play in Link's realm last year thanks to Nintendo Land, but what we've really been waiting for is a proper adventure on the Wii U – though the first one we're getting may be a bit familiar.
At Nintendo Direct, it was revealed there would be a brand new entry in The Legend of Zelda franchise on the Wii U console, but in the meantime the company was already busy on a revised version of Wind Waker, which first appeared on GameCube back in 2002. Of course, one of the most exciting things about this is that we'll be able to revisit one of the best adventure games to hit that console in shiny high definition, but it seems Nintendo is doing much more than just giving it a visual makeover.
There are a range of features that expand on what came before, including the same Off TV Play that made New Super Mario Bros. U such a joy to those who don't like their gaming interrupted. As well as this, there are plans for integration with the Miiverse and fans of other action games that have made it to Wii U will probably also be glad to hear about the plans to "tune up" the game for use with the console.
Hopefully, little will be done to mess with the original story of Wind Waker though, as it was pretty much perfect as it was. For those unfamiliar with it, the narrative takes place long after the events of Ocarina of Time in an ocean named the Great Sea. As it turns out, there's an ancient tale involving an evil guy named Ganon that casts a shadow over the islands of this sea, one of which is home to Link, his sister and his grandmother. Obviously, this dark history rears its ugly head again, challenging the gamer to set off on an epic adventure. As it's a Zelda title, there's the usual blend of strategy games mixed in to get you thinking as you busy yourself swashbuckling your way through a series of levels.
Only time will tell if Nintendo get the balance right in terms of upgrading Wind Waker and retaining what made it so special in the first place, but the earliest signs certainly look promising.
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What a spectacle as Trowbridge Lions help to amass 24,000 pairs (From This Is Wiltshire)
What a spectacle as Trowbridge Lions help to amass 24,000 pairs
12:00pm Sunday 4th May 2014 in
Eight Lions Clubs met at Gillingham Town Hall for the annual pooling of spectacles collected across the district. This year 24,282 pairs of glasses were amassed of which Trowbridge residents donated over 4,200 pairs.
The spectacles will now be sent to France where an organisation called Medico France sorts, washes and grades them before sending them to Third World countries. Medico France is run by French Lions Clubs.
Lions have a long history of helping people who are blind or partially sighted. They were responsible for the development of the white stick, after a Lions Club member in 1930, watched as a blind man attempted to cross the street with a black cane which was barely visible to motorists.
The annual Spectrek is part of the Lions' promise to the late Helen Keller to help the blind and partially sighted around the world but nothing would be possible without the generosity of Trowbridge residents – thank you.
Comments are closed on this article.


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UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution that would appreciably tighten weapons and financial sanctions against North Korea. Some analysts dismiss anything that passes through the United Nations as useless while others say sanctions won't work and only intense diplomacy has a chance.
Yet the U.S.-drafted measure is tougher than most against any one country, and has the approval of China and Russia. Without China, the main ally and trading partner of North Korea, no pressure on Pyongyang is possible, regardless of what the West does. But enforcement is key and diplomats are not certain how much punitive action Beijing will undertake.
"There is no guarantee, obviously, but it is important for the international community to speak with one voice. It is important for there to be consequences, and this sanctions regime...will bite and bite in a meaningful way," Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said earlier.
Zhang Yesui. China's U.N. Ambassador told the 15-member Security Council that the council's action demonstrated the world's "firm opposition" to North Korea's nuclear ambitions. "We strongly urge the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea), stop any moves that may further worsen the situation and return to the six-party talks." Those stalled negotiations include the United States, China, Russia, Japan and North and South Korea.
But Zhang cautioned that "under no circumstances should there be use or threat of the use of force." and then told reporters: "We are firmly opposed to the nuclear test."
North Korea is expected to respond, first verbally and possibly by detonating its third underground nuclear test in defiance of the resolution, according to some Russian media reports. It did not exercise its right to speak in the Security Council.
Russia, itself, considers North Korea a threat. "Having sanctions and things like that is not our choice but a certain political message must be sent and some measures must be taken because we are facing a very real situation of proliferation risks." Russia's U.N. ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, told reporters earlier in the week.
China, too, is none too eager to see his neighbor armed with nuclear weapons. (Beijing delivers fuel and food to North Korea and an estimated 80 percent of its consumer goods are made in China.) At the same time it does not want to see the regime collapse, American troops on its border and a flood of refugees, now forcibly repatriated.
Agreement on the text (see below) was first reached by the five veto-bearing Security Council members of the 15 nation body -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France. Japan and South Korea were part of the negotiations. While the text is not as tough as the United States and Japan wanted, it was an American feat to get Beijing and Moscow to sign on in the first place.
The preamble of the resolution makes clear that key international players want North Korea to end weeks of nuclear and ballistic missile tests, resume political talks with six nations It deplores Pyongyang's withdrawal from the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (the main world agreement to regulate atomic arms). And it expresses its "gravest" concern that nuclear and missile activities, particularly the May 25 underground atomic test, were constituted "a clear threat to international peace and security."
The heart of the resolution includes expanded sanctions on all weapons, except for the import of small arms (at the insistence of China which sells them to North Korea) along with a series of financial bans. But some of the provisions use the words "calls upon" which designates a political commitment compared to "decides" or "demands" which requires mandatory compliance by all 192 member states.
The resolution "calls" on states to inspect suspicious sea, air and land cargo that may contain any weapons of mass destruction materials. If North Korea or another flagship nation refuses, the measure then "decides" that countries should deny them fuel and other supplies and direct them to a port and inspect the cargo there. If the country in question still refuses, the Security Council would meet on the issue.
Cargo inspections were authorized by the council after North Korea's first nuclear test in 2006. But the new resolution spells out the stop and search methods in detail.
On financial sanctions, the resolution urges and "calls upon" all states and financial institutions to "not to enter into new commitments for grants, financial assistance, or concessional loans" except for humanitarian purposes. On this issue the United States and its allies can pressure nations and institutions into compliance. And it again bans all trade in materials related to weapons of mass destruction. The document also promises to add to the list of three blacklisted North Korean companies that deal with unconventional weapons.
Enforcement a problem
Enforcement was a problem of resolution 1718, adopted in October 2006 in response to the first underground nuclear test by North Korea. Many of the provisions were dropped after Pyongyang temporarily rejoined the six-party talks. After the Security Council moved towards enforcement, North Korea responded with its second nuclear test.
When the North first took provocative actions by firing a missile, most analysts believed it was trying to get the attention of the Obama administration, with an underground nuclear test timed for the May 25 Memorial Day holiday. The harsh sentencing of two American journalists who were doing research on refugees on the Korean-Chinese border fits into that theory.
But now no one is certain. The escalation came as North Korea's ailing leader Kim Jong Il was making plans to transfer power to his youngest son, Jong Un, and apparently does not want to broadcast any weakness. Instead he appears to be making a dramatic pitch at joining the nuclear weapons club. Some believe the Obama administration should send a high-level delegation -- not to offer incentives -- but to find out what is going on while other administration officials say nothing would be gained and real negotiations are dead.
Following is the final text of Friday's resolution, no. 1874.. Voting in favor were Austria, Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, Croatia, Japan, Libya, Mexico, Turkey, Uganda, Vietnam and the five permanent members: United States, China, Russia, Britain and France.


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A pizza delivery man was shocked during an attempted robbery late Monday in Daytona Beach.
Kevin Kelly was attempting to deliver two pizzas to an address on North Halifax Avenue just before 9 p.m. when a hungry robber used a stun gun to shock the 47-year-old delivery man, police said.
The suspect attacked Kelly while he was distracted and using a small flashlight to review the receipt for the pizzas.
Investigators tracked the suspect to a nearby river using a police dog, but couldn't locate him.
Police later tracked down 19-year-old Christopher Collins at his apartment on Seabreeze Boulevard.
Investigators found out the phone number used to order the pizzas during the attempted robbery was also used in the past to deliver food to an address on Seabreeze Boulevard, where Collins lived with his two brothers.
While cops were outside Collins' apartment door, they heard someone say, "I tried to get the pizza but he wouldn't give it up."
Police knocked on the door and confronted Collins, who admitted to the robbery, reports show.
Collins said he "was hungry and just trying to rob the pizza guy of the pizza."
Officers searched the apartment and found the cell phone used to make the order and the stun gun used to shock Kelly.
Collins is charged with attempted robbery with a weapon and was booked into the Volusia County Jail.


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Employee Benefits: Pleasing the people
Paul Bartlett explains how to enhance work–life balance through your employee benefits programme, augmenting its value to both employees and the business.
The sentiment,"You can't please all of the people all of the time" may be true, but unless you can find ways to please most of the people most of the time, your benefits programme is unlikely to be delivering best value for your employees or your organisation.
Of course, in a perfect world (from an HR perspective, at least), all your employees are roughly the same age, with the same priorities and interests. They are all paid the same salary, and want the same benefits. In this utopia design, you can start or set up a completely new programme from scratch whenever you like.
Back to reality and the chances are you already have a scheme in place, whether inherited or created by you. Your employees come from different backgrounds, have diverse roles and responsibilities, and have widely varying practical, emotional and financial priorities.
The recession has made a huge impact on how employees view their benefits packages. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development's last Employee Outlook Survey (July 2011) showed that more than 40 per cent of employees had their pay frozen this year, and more than five times as many people (36 per cent) reported worsening standards of living than those whose standards had improved (just seven per cent). No surprise then that 24 per cent of the 2,000-plus respondents plan to have moved to a new employer for better pay and benefits by this time next year.
So as the real cost of living increases, most of us are looking for ways to save money and derive best value from everything we do. This is a key opportunity for us all, as employers, to increase satisfaction and drive engagement with our people by promoting and enhancing their benefits packages. It starts by treating our employees like customers.
The target audience
If you're managing customer relationships, it's usual to know who you're marketing to, why and what the crucial points of connection are. While the practicalities may be different, the principles of "getting it right" for employees still apply at every stage of their time with you. Therefore, feedback and research play a crucial role in keeping your benefits programme up to date and relevant.
Employee surveys are an excellent way of collecting information and opinion, but how meaningful the results are will inevitably depend on your organisation's average response rate, and on where those responses come from. If all your office-based people respond, but none of your manufacturing teams, then the overall view can hardly be considered representative of the whole. Segmenting surveys is one approach to dealing with this; another is to supplement research by sourcing information from elsewhere. For example, benefits can be a topic for discussion at team meetings and individual reviews; an item for employee forums and committee agendas; and a thread on intranet discussion boards.
However you choose to canvas opinion and feedback, it's worth investing time in identifying and understanding the benefits needs and preferences of individuals and groups at different points in their "life cycle" within your organisation: from job application through to retirement. Every possible life and career change in between – studying for additional qualifications, setting up home, becoming a parent, being promoted – can impact on benefits choices and the way you communicate them; and should be treated as an opportunity to re-engage the employee in your programme. As well as providing a clear picture for communication purposes, by mapping available benefits against employee life cycles across your organisation, you may be able identify areas or populations where there are gaps or duplication.
Promote a programme
So how do you communicate your benefits programme? Organisations usually invest time and budget in promoting the initial launch of a scheme, and in briefing new employees on what's available when they join. However, what happens after that? The brochure gets buried or the website is forgotten and little changes after those first months, apart from the occasional broadcast bulletin.
We know that employees tend to "switch off" at generic messages. We also know that people do not always understand or place enough value on their entire reward and benefits package, or appreciate what the company does for them. Communicating with different areas and populations of the business can be a challenge – particularly for global or very diverse organisations. There is also a risk in some cases that responsibility for personal communication with individuals about benefits falls somewhere between HR and line management, which means that although the operational questions get answered, there is no real structure or opportunity created for discussion and dialogue with the employee on an ongoing basis.
It's certainly becoming more usual for organisations to publish annual total reward statements for individual employees, online or in print. Everyone receives a document of some kind that illustrates the type and value of benefits they have received, usually at a certain point in the year, such as at the end of the financial calendar. Yet this information is historic, and offers no insight into either the current situation, or what potential advantages the employee could be missing out on.
An effective way of ensuring your benefits programme is well received and used is to ensure each individual gets up-to-date, relevant details and is offered appropriate choices, based on their stage in the employee life cycle. By using this intelligence to send personalised, relevant and timely communications to your employees, you can proactively provide all the information needed to take advantage of the options available. For example, someone could have worked for you for several years and never given a second thought to childcare, and may even have forgotten that you offer tax-efficient savings through your voucher scheme. Once they've become a parent, their life and needs will have changed dramatically, and a personalised proactive communication from you as their employer will be very welcome. "I didn't even need to ask" is potentially a powerful endorsement of your reputation as an employer.
To support key information, using relevant case studies and testimonials from current employees is an excellent way to illustrate the advantages of each benefit you offer. Ideally, you should also be able to offer live modelling tools that can calculate and demonstrate the possible impact and advantages for each person, based on the choices they make. Being able to "play" with the options available can greatly enhance the employee's sense of understanding and ownership of their benefits package. By enabling them to visualise what different adjustments to their package may create, they can make informed choices. For example, how much their tax may reduce if they opt into a childcare voucher programme; or how cancelling an option they are not using would be a sensible move.
Genuinely flexible benefits
Are your employees missing out or locked in? From experience, we know that timing can be more important than the offers themselves: flexible benefits schemes cannot really be considered truly flexible unless individuals can opt in (or out) to suit their changing needs at any time of year. No-one wants to wait up to 11 months for something they see their colleagues being able to enjoy – yet it happens all the time.
Exchange if not sacrifice
Salary sacrifice programmes have always been popular, and continue to be a tax-efficient way to deliver valuable benefits (while saving you National Insurance contributions). As well as the usual options, such as childcare, healthcare and dentistry, it's worth looking at additional ideas that will boost an individual's buying power, perhaps by reducing energy costs, or providing access to courses and education that will help them develop key skills.
When sacrifice isn't possible, salary exchange could be the answer. True, it may not offer the same tax advantages, but through salary exchange you can leverage purchasing power to help employees pay for high-ticket items. When properly targeted, they can also help you reach and engage with new and different segments of your employee population.
Earlier this year, we set up a programme for our employees to be able to buy computers, software, technological products and accessories from one of our partner suppliers using salary exchange. This enables them to budget payments over time without incurring interest penalties, and on some items they can obtain a discount they would not have been able to get otherwise.
Take-up has been staggering. More than 20 per cent of employees have already made purchases using the scheme, doubling the anticipated five per cent to 10 per cent.
The secret to successful salary exchange schemes like this is to base them around essential (or almost essential) lifestyle purchases, such as key technology. The idea is to make these items accessible to everyone through an attractive salary payment programme that means individuals won't incur interest costs, yet don't have to have the entire cash sum available up front. They may also benefit from a supplier discount, too.
This leads me finally to discounted voucher schemes, which are almost an essential offering for every benefits portfolio these days. We're all keen to see reductions in our shopping bills, and discounted vouchers make it easy to budget and save money in a wide range of retail and leisure outlets. These schemes can enable your employees to obtain store vouchers below face value, or shop with certain suppliers and get exclusive deals. This can mean anything from cheaper holidays to reduced grocery bills, which can make a significant difference to household finances. Prepaid reloadable debit cards can be a useful tool for stretching the personal budget further too – not only are they an excellent reward mechanism, they can also be topped up by the holder each month and then used to earn cash back on purchases with partner retailers.
All of this would, of course, be an administrative nightmare without the right systems to make it all happen. More organisations are now recognising the wisdom of investing in the right technology to support their benefits programmes and employee engagement strategies. Making what you already have work better can represent better value than simply piling on more benefits into an under-subscribed programme; and by enhancing the employee experience and demonstrating your commitment as an employer, you'll be achieving what you originally set out to do in the first place.


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Cannes, Ken Loach surprise in competition with "Route Irish"
Coming to 19 titles in competition at the Festival di Cannes. Just yesterday came the announcement that the British director Ken Loach return for the tenth time at Cannes with a film about the war in Iraq.
"Route Irish", starring Mark Womack, Andrew Lowe and Trevor Williams, follows the adventures of two friends employed as security guards in Iraq who risk their lives in a city devastated by violence. "We saw this film on Sunday, and once they have been given assurances that it would be finished in time, we decided to include it in the competition," he told Agence France Presse direction festivals. "Route Irish" will be presented Thursday, the day of "fair game" and the American Doug Liman of "La Nostra Vita" by Daniele Luchetti. The director of "Land and Freedom" thus reaches his compatriot Mike Leigh in a competition that brings together names like the Iranian Abbas Kiarostami, russian N ikita Mikhalkov, the Mexican Alejandro Inarritu ConzalesThe Franco-Algerian director Rachid Bouchareb.
Winner of the Palme d'Or in 2006 for "The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Loach was present at Cannes last year with a critically acclaimed comedy" Cercando Eric "where the footballer Eric Cantona plays himself. Loach has also won the Jury Prize twice, in 1993 with "Raining Stones" (Raining Stones) and three years earlier with "Hidden Agenda" (Hidden Agenda).
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The Chicago Bears (6-1) and Tennessee Titans (3-5) meet Sunday afternoon at LP Field (1:00 p.m. ET, FOX). Here is point spread information and trends analysis from The Linemakers on Sporting News. For updated lines, visit our live odds page.
Weather: Mostly cloudy, high near 62, with a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms.
Line: Bears -3.5, Total: 43
Line movement: The Bears opened -3.5 and were bet up to 4, but Titans money pushed it back down to 3.5. The total opened at 44 and has been bet down to 34.
Recent meetings:
11/09/2008: Tennessee 21-14 (Titans -3) at Chicago
Series trends – StatFox Six Pack:
TENNESSEE is 39-18 ATS in non-conference games since 1992.
TENNESSEE is 2-10 ATS after gaining 6.0 or more yards/play in their previous game over the last three seasons.
TENNESSEE is 20-7 OVER at home after allowing three points or less in the first half last game since 1992.
CHICAGO is 21-6 UNDER vs. terrible teams -- those outscored by 10+ points/game on the season since 1992.
CHICAGO is 33-13 UNDER away after gaining 150 or less passing yards in last game since 1992.
CHICAGO is 26-10 UNDER away after two or more consecutive losses against the spread since 1992.
Check out the Platinum Sheet for more valuable angles.
Bears outlook: Chicago is aiming for its first six-game win streak in six years. The Bears have returned six INTs for scores, most in NFL history by any team through seven games. S Major Wright has three INTs and a forced fumble in the past five games. Chicago gives up 14.3 points per game, second-fewest in the league. QB Jay Cutler has been dynamite in the fourth quarter (132.0 passer rating); last week against Carolina he went 12-for-14 for 106 yards and a TD in the final period. WR Brandon Marshall has caught 34 passes over the last four games for 461 yards and three scores.
Bears' key injuries:
— WR Alshon Jeffery (hand) out
Titans outlook: Tennessee has won 10 of its last 12 home games vs. the NFC. The Titans are 2-1 the last three games thanks to the resurgence of Chris Johnson, who's run for 385 yards and two TDs in that span. QB Matt Hasselbeck has thrown three TDs and one INT over that stretch, but WR Kenny Britt is clamoring for more downfield throws, and TE Jared Cook wants a trade. Tennessee ranks 31st in points allowed (32.1) and 30th in total defense (421.2).
Titans' key injuries:
— G Leroy Harris (undisclosed) questionable
— QB Jake Locker (shoulder) doubtful
— T Michael Roos (appendix) out
— LB Zac Diles (ankle) out
— LB Patrick Bailey (ribs) questionable
— CB Tommie Campbell (ankle) questionable
What The Linemakers are saying: The Titans scare us in this spot at home getting points, but we're not confident enough in them to back them here. We also don't feel too good about the Bears after watching Jay Cutler get beat up last week in a near loss to the Panthers. The Bears have won five straight games, but have been very sluggish in their past two.
Platinum Sheet: Visit StatFox.com for more NFL picks, trends and analysis


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UK Law
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