text:
WASHINGTON - A nearly two-month lull in US drone strikes in Pakistan has helped embolden Al Qaeda and several Pakistani militant factions to regroup, increase attacks against Pakistani security forces, and threaten intensified strikes against allied forces in Afghanistan, US and Pakistani officials say.
The insurgents are increasingly taking advantage of tensions raised by a US airstrike in November that killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers in border outposts, severely straining relations between the two nations.
The CIA, hoping to avoid making matters worse while Pakistan completes a wide-ranging review of its security relationship with the United States, has not conducted a drone strike since mid-November.
Diplomats and intelligence analysts say the pause in CIA missile strikes - the longest in Pakistan in more than three years - is offering for now greater freedom of movement to an insurgency that had been splintered by infighting and battered by US drone attacks in recent months.
Several feuding factions said last week that they were patching up their differences, at least temporarily, to improve their image after a series of kidnappings and, by some accounts, to focus on fighting Americans in Afghanistan.
Other militant groups continue attacking Pakistani forces. Last week, Taliban insurgents killed 15 security soldiers who had been kidnapped in retaliation for the death of a militant commander.
The spike in violence in the tribal areas - up nearly 10 percent in 2011 from the previous year, according to a new independent report - comes amid reports of negotiations between Pakistan's government and some local Taliban factions, although the military denies that such talks are taking place.
A logistics operative with the Haqqani terrorist group, which uses sanctuaries in Pakistan to carry out attacks on allied troops in Afghanistan, said militants could still hear drones flying surveillance missions, day and night. "There are still drones, but there is no fear anymore,'' he said in a ephone interview.
Overall, drone strikes in Pakistan dropped to 64 last year, compared with 117 strikes in 2010, according to The Long War Journal, a website that monitors the attacks. Analysts attribute the decrease to a dwindling number of senior Al Qaeda leaders and a pause in strikes last year after the arrest in January of Raymond Davis, a CIA security contractor who killed two Pakistanis; the Navy SEAL raid in May that killed Osama bin Laden; and the US airstrike Nov. 26.
Pakistan ordered drone operations at its Shamsi air base closed after that airstrike, but CIA drones flying from bases in Afghanistan continue to fly surveillance missions in tribal areas. The drones would be cleared to fire on a senior militant leader if there were credible intelligence and minimal risk to civilians, US officials said. But for now, Predator and Reaper drones are holding their fire, the longest pause in Pakistan since July 2008.
"It makes sense that a lull in US operations, coupled with ineffective Pakistani efforts, might lead the terrorists to become complacent and try to regroup,'' one US official said. "We know that Al Qaeda's leaders were constantly taking the US counterterrorism operations into account, spending considerable time planning their movements and protecting their communications to try to stay alive.''
A Defense Department official put it more bluntly: "They're clearly taking advantage of this period. They're not stupid.''
Several administration officials said yesterday that any lull in drone strikes did not signal a weakening of the country's counterterrorism efforts, suggesting that strikes could resume soon. "Without commenting on specific counterterrorism operations, Al Qaeda is severely weakened, having suffered major losses in recent years,'' said George Little of the Defense Department.
Analysts say the hiatus coincides with and probably has accelerated a flurry of insurgent activity and new strategies.
In the past week, leaflets distributed in North Waziristan said the Afghan Taliban and Al Qaeda had urged Pakistani militant groups to set aside their differences and focus on striking US-led allied forces in Afghanistan.


text: Who would you say is more Mesomorphic? I would go with Arnold personally, people say Arnold was Ecto/Meso, but did you see this guy at 15 and how wide he was up top. Ronnie could probably gain more muscle, but in terms of body structure Arnold is king for me.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The Alcoa World Alumina & Chemicals joint venture has reported its best refining margins since the first half of 2008 due to high demand and the shift in the alumina pricing system.
Alcoa yesterday reported earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation margins of $US77 a tonne from alumina refining business in the March quarter, up from $US41 a tonne in the prior quarter.
During the quarter the average received price rose to $US348 a tonne, but that remained below the $US392 a tonne index price in the same period. The spot price of alumina is now $US407 a tonne.
AWAC is pricing 20 per cent of its contracts based on an index system similar to the one used for iron ore, with the remaining 80 per cent still linked to the aluminium price.
Alcoa chief executive Klaus Kleinfeld reiterated AWAC was not signing any new contracts based on the old system, which means by 2016 all of its alumina sales will be based on the index price.
During the March quarter, the index price of alumina rose 15 per cent, compared with an 8 per cent rise in the aluminium price.
Alumina received $US80 million of fully franked dividends – its sole source of income – from AWAC in the quarter. Macquarie Equities analyst Lee Bowers estimated a net profit of about $US45 million.
At an investor briefing, Mr Kleinfeld said Alcoa's forecast for global aluminium market growth in 2011 was steady at 12 per cent.
The Australian Financial Review


text:
Chiodos lyrics
All's Well That Ends Well lyrics
- Prelude lyrics
- All Nereids Beware lyrics
- One Day Women Will All Become Monsters lyrics
- Expired In Goreville lyrics
- Baby, You Wouldn't Last A Minute On The Creek lyrics
- The Words 'best Friend' Become Redefined lyrics
- Interlude Pt. 1 lyrics
- There's No Penguins In Alaska lyrics
- Interlude Pt. 2 lyrics
- We're Gonna Have Us A Champagne Jam lyrics
- No Hardcore Dancing In The Living Room lyrics
- Who's Sandie Jenkins lyrics
- To Trixie And Reptile, Thanks For Everything lyrics
Back to Chiodos lyrics


text:
Joseph Dispenza
Seeking happiness and fulfillment is a good thing. But what we may be seeking, ultimately, is the Truth at the center of ourselves.
Remember the story of the Holy Grail: The Grail was said to be the cup of the Last Supper and at the Crucifixion to have received blood flowing from Christ's side. It was taken to Britain by Joseph of Arimathea, where it lay hidden for centuries.
The search for the vessel became the principal quest of the knights of King Arthur. It was believed to be kept in a mysterious castle surrounded by a wasteland and guarded by a custodian called the Fisher King, who suffered from a wound that would not heal. His recovery and the renewal of the blighted lands depended upon the successful completion of the quest.
Many knights went out to seek the Grail. Most of the legends trace the journey of Sir Percival, who, because of his personal purity and dedication to self-knowledge, was considered the perfect candidate for finding the Grail. The story is that he spent years in the search, through several countries, and finally sat down exhausted under a tree. He looked up, and there was the Grail, caught in the branches of the tree.
The story of the search for the Grail is about the eternal yearning we have to know more about ourselves. We appear to be hard-wired for self-discovery. We go out and try to find everything we can about ourselves — who we are, where we came from, why we are here, where we are going. In the end, we come back to ourselves, where the solutions to our personal puzzles reside.
Percival was looking for the Grail — the answer to all life's questions, the ultimate healing, and the key to happiness. He found it in the most unexpected place: right where he was. The search for happiness always ends when we realize that we already have happiness in the moment, if we will only recognize it.
Seeking Yourself
At this time of the year, when many people are setting out on travels of adventure in the outside world, you may want to go on a search for your own Grail of self-knowledge. With so many new tools of self-discovery open to us in this Information Age, there are many ways to find out more about ourselves. If you have a few minutes, click here to take an online test based on an ancient tool for self-discovery, the Enneagram.
Sir Percival is the archetype of the Seeker. He is looking for wisdom, love, true, and beauty. The shadow-side of the Seeker is the attachment to his continual seeking; seeking without finding becomes a kind of end in itself — like being on a perpetual spiritual treadmill.
Knowing when to stop the search and enjoy the moment is one of the greatest of spiritual lessons. When Percival finds the Holy Grail, the object of his endless wanderings, it is there where he began his journey.
The essayist Agnes Repplier says, 'It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere.' Always, the Kingdom of Heaven is right here, waiting for us to look up and look in, and discover It.
Journal Starters and Discussion Questions
The Search: Your Spiritual History
In looking at your personal spiritual history, you may see that your beliefs have changed dramatically over your lifetime. In addition, you may have found spiritual practices that are much more satisfying to you than those you grew up with. The purpose of this topic is for you to think about your own spiritual history, tracing its course and evolution, and where you are now.
Write your History
Write your spiritual history, starting from your earliest beliefs and up to the present. Describe the questions you have had about God and spirituality, life experiences that influenced what you believe, and people who have affected your beliefs. How do you fill your spiritual needs? What gives you solace, ecstasy or hope?
Learn More About the Holy Grail and the Seeker
The Quest of the Holy Grail (Penguin Classics) The images and metaphor and poetry — and just overall radiance — the book gives is out of proportion to the effort required to get through it. It reads easy and comes across as delightful through each page.
More Books
From Carolyn Myss: Sacred Contracts
Seeker (Wanderer, Vagabond, Nomad)
This archetype refers to one who searches on a path that may begin with earthly curiosity but has at its core the search for God and/or enlightenment. Unlike the Mystic, which has the Divine as its sole focus, the Seeker is in search of wisdom and truth wherever it is to be found. The shadow side of the archetype is the "lost soul," someone on an aimless journey without direction, ungrounded, disconnected from goals and others. The shadow emerges when seekers become infatuated with the trappings of a certain practice or guru — what Chögyam Trungpa so aptly called "spiritual materialism" — but never actually change their underlying egocentricity.
Tyrone Power in The Razor's Edge; Brad Pitt in Seven Years in Tibet; Peter Weller and Judy Davis in The New Age (shadow); Ellen Burstyn in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore; Henry Fonda in The Grapes of Wrath.
A Doll's House (Nora) by Henik Ibsen
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse; Lost Horizon by James Hilton.
Bound for Glory by Woody Guthrie; My Experiments with Truth by Mahatma Gandhi; Be Here Now by Ram Dass; Longing for Darkness by China Galland.


text:
This week is Chocolate Week (14th-20th October), when people across the UK celebrate everything to do with the sugary indulgence. Chocolate remains a household favourite in the UK today, with the average Brit eating approximately 8kg per year, and only five per cent of the population admitting to not enjoying the sweet treat within the past six months.
To the west of the country, the Sierra de Perijá, a stretch of both mountains and plains, traces the conflictive border zone between Colombia and Venezuela. The region's inhabitants are, today, a mixture of indigenous groups, cattle farmers, both rich and humble, and the inevitable generational pool of all three.


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09 Dec You love cats? You are here. So what is this page?
My name is Algis and I am the owner of cats.com – I purchased this with idea of creating amazing website for cat lovers and everything related. Wish I had more time for this though! 😉
There is expected to be more then 600,000,000 cats worldwide. With 74,000,000+ in United States.
Cats are the favorite pet in the world! And there is many things related to cats that can be done on the internet.
To name a few: pictures of cats(everyone loves them, they are one of the most popular things in the world), buying and selling cats, cats supplies and vitamins, grooming, cat food(huge industry) and many many more.
There is around 15,000 people who just type-in www.cats.com in their browser every month. On top of that – more then 1,000,000 people search for "cats" in google each month.
So why do I tell you this. This is possibly your best life changing opportunity. As it is now possible to acquire this domain name and create a massive website and service from it.
Instant brand name right here. You don't need to tell people about your company name. Hello, this is cats.com – is more then enough to provide credibility to your clients.
If you are serious and have appropriate amount of funding/cash – please get in touch and we can see if you are the lucky one to develop this internet gem.
You can email me a(at)zloj.com
Please keep in mind I already have many offers in $500,000 usd range and below that.
Good luck!


text: On Fri, Oct 1, 2010 at 9:38 AM, Robert Kern <email@example.com> wrote: > On Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 15:30, Geoffrey Irving <email@example.com> wrote: >> Hello, >> >> I'm not sure where the correct place to ask questions about Mayavi, so >> feel free to redirect me elsewhere. > > https://mail.enthought.com/mailman/listinfo/enthought-dev > >> I have a triangle mesh with a bunch of data on each face. The only >> color-relevant argument to triangular_mesh I know about is scalars, >> which is one value per vertex. Is there a way to set color per >> triangle, ideally with control over rgb separately so I can visualize >> three different fields at once? > > Pretty difficult, unfortunately. The only way I have found is to > assign UV texture coordinates to the vertices and slap on a texture. > Assigning the UV coordinates is usually not easy. Is this a limitation in VTK, TVTK, or the Mayavi python code? The VTK documentation seems to imply it supports cell data on polygon meshes (though I don't know how one would set them): http://www.vtk.org/doc/release/5.6/html/a01445.html "Point and cell attribute values (e.g., scalars, vectors, etc.) also are represented" I'm happy to hack TVTK or Mayavi (in order of happiness) to support cell data if VTK supports it. Geoffrey


text:
The purpose of this course is to teach the very basics of music composition and production in Ableton Live. The focus will be on electronic music, however most of the concepts taught can be applied to any type of music.
Ableton Live. The standard version will suffice, but you will probably want to upgrade to Suite at some point if you become serious about music production.
A MIDI keyboard is highly recommended, but not necessarily /absolutely/ vital. PM me for recommendations, as I would recommend different keyboards to different people.
Patience. Music production has a very steep learning curve, but it can be incredibly rewarding. Be prepared for moments of frustration, but try not to get too discouraged. There's a great community of passionate music producers ready to help out.
This course will take place on reddit.com/r/abletonclass. There will be monthly (or possibly bi-monthly) lessons that consist of a screencast and a downloadable Live session. The screencasts will teach you concepts that are designed to be applied to the Live sessions you'll download.
You will be asked to post that Live session you modified at a later date in a homework discussion thread. I will do my best to listen to each one and give critique.
The class will start as soon as I can get screencasting software and the first lecture prepared. Stay tuned as it shouldn't take too long.
This class is totally free, but donations are greatly appreciated. (Donation link: http://goo.gl/Fq4qY)
I am also offering one-on-one lessons via Skype (or in-person if you're in the Philadelphia area) for $10 per hour.
Music Industry major at Drexel University
Producer of three years, musician of seven years, computer geek of life.


text:
Forecast for Brazil's Business Travel Spend in 2014
- Published by Ozgur Tore
Annual spending on business travel in Brazil has tripled since 2000, according to the results of the latest GBTA BTI™ Outlook – Brazil report.
The report, sponsored by Visa Inc., includes the GBTA BTI™; an index of business travel spending that distills market performance over a period of time.
Despite two quarters of weaker economic growth in 2013, GBTA projects total spending on business travel will grow 12.5 percent in 2014 to $37 billion USD, and another 5.9 percent in 2015. The upcoming presidential elections could positively impact these numbers as well.
Brazil's business travel industry moved up one spot in the rankings from last year to become the 8th largest business travel market in the world. If Brazil can get economic growth back on track, GBTA expects it to continue to climb the ranks of the top business travel markets in the world, likely surpassing South Korea and France during the next 10 years.
Domestic business travel spending growth in Brazil has slowed significantly off its aggressive pace earlier in the decade, mostly due to the slowdown in the once-charging domestic economy. GBTA expects domestic business travel spending will strengthen a bit in 2014, however, as firms and policymakers continue to take strides to boost productivity and competitiveness. GBTA expects 12.3 percent growth in 2014 before it moderates to 5.4 percent in 2015.
Growth in international outbound (IOB) business travel was hit hard in recent years mostly due to the external environment, but the worst appears to be in the past as a recovery in the Euro Area, Brazil's largest trading partner, is underway. GBTA expects IOB spending will advance 13.1 percent in 2014 followed by another 8.1 percent in 2015 hitting $7.2 billion USD.
World Cup Impact on Business Travel
Travel managers who already have arrangements in place for travel during the World Cup are in a good position. Those looking to make arrangements during that timeframe should act quickly as it's possible they could face higher prices and limited availability as the event nears.


text:
About the series
The U-T interviewed seven San Diegans who were directly affected by the 9/11 attacks or their aftermath. These reports, in the subjects' own words, were told to U-T reporters, who edited the conversations for clarity and brevity.
To read other Sept. 11 coverage, go to uniontrib.com/9-11
Lt. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser and his Marines and sailors were docked in Australia on Sept. 11, 2001. They had left San Diego expecting a routine six-month deployment in the Pacific Ocean and northern Arabian Sea. But the infantry Marines ended up flying from the ship into landlocked Afghanistan on what may be the longest amphibious raid in Marine Corps history, joining special operations forces in the Taliban heartland of Kandahar Province.
Under the command of Task Force 58 and then-Brig. Gen. James Mattis, the Camp Pendleton Marines were the first conventional U.S. troops to invade Afghanistan.
Waldhauser is a three-star general now in charge of the force headquartered at Camp Pendleton and Marine Corps Forces Central Command. Back then he was a colonel commanding the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
Here, in his words, Waldhauser recounts the mission that kicked off a decade of combat for the Marine Corps.
It was around midnight or so, and we were in port in Darwin, Australia. Somebody came down and said, "Hey, turn your TV on, you need to see this."
We recalled all the Marines and sailors to the ship as soon as we could. After we had gotten everybody onboard there was a pounding on my door. A Marine who had certainly enjoyed his liberty was standing there, slurring his speech and wobbling. He said "Sir, we need to go down to the armory and draw our weapons right now!"
I instructed that Marine to go to bed and get some rest. When I closed the door I chuckled to myself. That spirit, that mindset is what we're probably going to need in the months ahead.
The next day we got under way. Our first tasking after a quick stop in East Timor really set the tone — plan for a noncombatant evacuation of Pakistan. Well, Islamabad from Karachi is about 650 nautical miles. That was our introduction to the tyranny of distance out there and the challenges we were going to face.
They didn't want to start the bombing campaign until there was a divert field somewhere. Those negotiations were going on at a very high level. It was a very touchy subject, but we introduced Marine forces to secure an air field around 250 miles into Pakistan.
I got a call one night in my stateroom, and it's the commanding general. He said, "I see you're flying 46s up into Pakistan and I know that's right at the edge of their envelope. How are you doing that?"
I said, "We get the ship as close as we can to the beach in Karachi. We strip off all the weight on the helicopter that we possibly can. Then we put the nozzle into the gas tank and fill up every square inch. We throw a handful of Marines on there and when they get up into Pakistan, the needle's on E."
The bombing started with a volley of cruise missiles from the sea. That night early in October, the Marines and sailors came up to watch. It's kind of like the Fourth of July, all heading into Afghanistan. It erupted into a big round of applause on the flight deck.
Everyone kept telling us this will be your generation's World War II, your time to contribute. That really rung home with the young Marines and sailors, and everybody really. They knew they were at the tip of the spear.
Eventually, we flew 400 miles into Afghanistan. Being able to get in there quickly and knock down the door, that whole mindset impacts everything we do in the Marine Corps.
We seized an air field south of Kandahar city, in the middle of absolutely nowhere in the desert. Rhino was a dirt airstrip never designed to take the traffic that we had. So early on there were all kinds of challenges, not the least of which was food and water, which we had to ration initially.
The whole point was to rapidly get in there, build up some combat power, then take on any forces trying to escape to the south and west.
Every landing and takeoff was an accident waiting to happen. It was very dangerous with the talcum-powderlike sand. Eventually we did lose a C-130 plane that crashed into the mountains in Pakistan. Then we had a CH-53 helicopter that lost an engine in Afghanistan.
In the early days, those pilots were a key to whatever we did, because they brought in all the sustainment, all the combat power, and they were doing it at night in some very difficult conditions with not the latest technology.
The Marines out on the perimeter of Rhino were living in a foxhole in the open ground. The command post slept on the floor in the buildings. Conditions were very, very spartan.
At first there wasn't a minute of rest because you had fires and crashes and resupply. Somewhere in there, Johnny Walker, the American Taliban, came down as a detainee. There was a lot going on.
The decision was still being made about whether we were going to go to Tora Bora. They flew in all this cold weather gear and we were handing it out. We talked to Gen. Tommy Franks and said we are ready to do this. But word came that we were not going.
A lot has happened since then. The force probably has as much combat experience than it has ever had in the history of the Marine Corps. The strain on the families, the stress on the force — there is no doubt about it. But the same dedication is there, the initiative, the ingenuity. That's heartening.
The Marines are still out there everyday in Afghanistan, doing what needs to be done.Copyright © 2017, The San Diego Union-Tribune


text:
Starfleet's Guardian Cruiseris a Tier6 starship that was designed to be a very versatile starship capable of accomplishing nearly any classification of mission. It also features a hybrid Lieutenant Intel/Engineering seat.
The Guardian Cruiser comes equipped with a Particle Conversion Matrix. When activated, your shields will become significantly more dureable, allowing them to absorb more damage for a short time. During this time, any incoming energy weapon fire has a high chance of boosting your own energy weapon damage.
This console can only be equipped on the Guardian Cruiser and the Fleet Guardian Cruiser, but can be put into any of the console slots. You may only equip one of these consoles.
After acheiving level 5 in your Guardian Cruiser, you will unlock the Desperate Repairs starship trait. While this trait is slotted, each time your starship is critically hit you receive a Desperation Counter. Immediately upon receiving a third Desperation Counter you will receive a large hull and shield heal and will be unable to gain Desperation Counters for a while.
- Required Rank: Vice Admiral
- Hull Strength: 45712 at 50 and 53000 at 60
- Shield Modifier: 1
- Crew: 1100
- Weapons: 4 Fore, 4 Aft
- Device Slots: 4
- Bridge Officer Stations: 1 Lieutenant Commander Tactical, 1 Lieutenant Intel/Engineering, 1 Commander Engineering, 1 Lieutenant Commander Science, 1 Ensign Universal
- Console Modifications: 3 Tactical, 4 Engineering, 3 Science
- Base Turn Rate: 6.5 degrees per second
- Impulse Modifier: 0.15
- +5 to all power levels
- Particle Conversion Matrix Universal Console
Starship Ability Package
- Absorptive Plating
- Rapid Repairs
- Enhanced Plating
- Armored Hull
- Desperate Repairs (Starship Trait)
Cruiser Command Array
- Command – Strategic Maneuvering
- Command – Shield Frequency Modulation
- Command – Weapon System Efficiency
- Command – Attract Fire


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|Thread Tools
My 3-year-old has been high needs since birth, needing so much of our attention. Now we have a less high needs 6 mo baby, (both boys) but the older one still seems to need every second of our attention. I've been trying to be sensitive and not create rivalry/animosity, so instead I feel pretty overwhelmed trying to be with both of them every second. He doesn't seem to get, "go play." He just waits for me. THe younger one, while not high-needs, has breastfeeding issues, as did the first, so I'm already overwhelmed by rarely being able to put him down. Any suggestions?
unfortunately 3 year olds are not ready for 'go play'. esp. a HNs one.
if you can afford it perhaps a ps would be a great break for the two of you. if that is a possibility. if you are not already doing that.
if he is willing to go to a preschool everyday for a couple of hours or more - might be a great break for you.
of getting a mother's helper. you know a highschool or even middle school girl who comes over to play. or even just a neighbor kid from next door with ur oldest.
but being the mother of a HNs child myself i can tell you unfortunately sometimes there is no answer.
however you can try many things coz you cant predict when something just clicks.
I think one of the issues right now is that my dad was here for the Easter weekend, so he got used to having someone play with him all the time. I'm also trying to cut out tv, because we've been watching way too much lately, so he's used to being entertained. It can be overwhelming.
I'm pretty sure we have publicly funded preschools here, but I don't want to send him to school. We're planning on homeschooling. We're also out in the country, so there aren't too many kids around, and we don't have spare money to spend on someone to play with him. I'm fine with playing with him some of the time, I just can't do it all the time. As his brother gets older, I'm sure they'll play together, it's just so hard right now, and I feel so bad for not playing with him. The baby needs to be nursed like a newborn to gain weight properly, and will not nap on his own, just like my first, so naps are kind of down time for the two of us.
My husband's home during the day, but in the evenings, it's just me, and I have to get dinner going and do the bedtime routine, but there's some time before dinner when he just wants attention.
We don't do TV and I have a high needs LO, so I can completely understand the dilemma. What about finding a craft that he can complete by himself (maybe allow him to glue a variety of items like fabric leftovers, buttons, etc.) or a "messy" activity such as "painting" the shower walls with shaving cream? Sometimes it is easier to have a small (or big...lol) mess to clean up afterward to get that 15 or 20 minutes needed. I don't have 2, but I am a single, working, schooling mom and sometimes other things just have to be done. At that age, I started insisting on completing an activity before assisting as he was requesting. "I am sorry, but Mommy really needs to do XYZ. I can help you in 5 minutes (or 10 or whatever)." Sometimes he balked, sometimes he accepted, but eventually he realized that if he could be patient and allow me to complete my activity, I would follow through and do what I said. I think being firm and consistent helped us the most.
Another thing I just thought of is to put him in the position to "help"...sometimes it could be productive like helping to sort the silverware, or non-productive, like helping to "sweep" the floor (in my experience, this just means that he makes a bigger mess...lol)... Other things could be helping you to pick out the baby's clothes for the day or asking which diaper you should put on him next, making him feel involved with the day-to-day activities surrounding his sibling, rather than being in competition. "Before I help you with that, can you help me decide what the best diaper to put on the baby would be?" rather than, "I can't help you right now because I have to change the baby's diaper".
Thanks for the suggestions about things to do. We do some of them, but often he just wants to be right with me, and I just need some space. I try so hard to meet his needs while meeting my own. One of the issues is the napping thing. Since the baby naps on me, I sit and relax, usually watching tv, which is counterproductive maybe, but it's so hard to get DS1 to be quiet and not ask questions the whole time, when I'm just trying to let the little guy sleep. He tries to be quiet, but he just doesn't quite get it, I feel bad, but the baby wakes up fairly often, then he's cranky because he's tired.
Thanks for the suggestions about how to phrase things, as well. The big one is the nap. I've asked him to help me be quiet for the baby, but it doesn't always help. He can't stop himself from talking! LOL It's just so hard to still meet his needs and still meet the baby's needs and mine.
What do you do if you've said you can help in such-and-such an amount of time, but he keeps asking? My guy just keeps asking, most of the time.
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text:
WOOSTER -- After four years, College of Wooster quarterback Richard Barnes stands as the school-record holder in single-season passing yards (2,243), second in both career passing yards (6,126) and total offense (7,288) as well as third in career touchdown passes (42).
With another year of eligibility left, though, Barnes decided there was still plenty left that he hadn't accomplished.
While Wooster coach Frank Colaprete's recruiting class won't be finalized for another month, the coach has already lured in his biggest catch of the spring. Barnes decided last month he would use his final year of eligibility to remain under center for the Fighting Scots. The signalcaller has started 32 games over four years, but missed the final seven contests of his sophomore season due to a leg injury, leading to his option to return this fall. Under first-year coach Colaprete and offensive coordinator Ian Mitchell, Barnes was a centerpiece of the program's turnaround as the Scots went from 2-8 to 7-3. The dual-threat quarterback will return for one more year with the hopes of leading the Scots to their first North Coast Athletic Conference title since 2004.
"Who gets the chance to play college football -- let alone start?" he said. "I don't care what division it is. With this coaching staff and this group of guys, I can't imagine leaving knowing that I have something left on the table."
Barnes made his decision last month, dropping one class this semester so he could take his final one in the fall, and admits it wasn't an easy choice. Because Wooster is a Div. III school, he will have to pay a portion of a semester's tuition to return next fall. The senior philosophy major, who turned in his Independent Study last Monday and will still participate in commencement festivities in May, now needs just one class to officially graduate after this semester and will serve as a teaching assistant for a "Philosophy of Sport" seminar in the fall to earn his final credit.
Barnes acknowledges many have questioned why he would return for a completely elective semester, especially after recovering from a shoulder injury at the end of last season. In the end, though, he made the decision after getting approval from his parents.
"I've had a lot of people try and talk me out of playing," he said. "'Why would you go through all this again?' This isn't a Div. I school where everything is paid for if you get hurt. I've listed all the cons that would talk me out of playing, but this is an opportunity of a lifetime. My mom and dad said they were all for it and wanted me to be happy.
"What if I could've taken that fifth year and done something extraordinary, but didn't take it?" he added. "I don't know if I could live with that."
After flourishing in his first year in Mitchell's hurry-up system, an extraordinary final season certainly seems possible. In addition to setting Wooster's single-season record for passing yards and tossing 16 touchdowns, Barnes rushed for 612 yards and nine scores. Perhaps most importantly, he threw just five interceptions all year after committing 26 in his previous 22 games. The 6-foot, 200-pound dual threat is a natural fit for the Scots' spread attack, but had to learn on the fly for most of his senior year. Colaprete expects him to continue his development in his second season working with Mitchell.
"The sky's the limit," Colaprete said. "You saw the progression and it didn't decrease."
Before the 2013 season, Barnes was on the verge of losing his starting job and switching positions, but then won it back after an outstanding preseason. When he approached Colaprete after the season about returning, he asked if he would be the unquestioned starter. In all four years, despite his experience, Barnes had never been named the starter from Day 1 of the preseason. Colaprete said this time he would, with a caveat. Barnes will be the clear No. 1 on the depth chart this fall, provided he puts in the necessary work in the spring and offseason.
"Our philosophy's not going to change -- the best players play," Colaprete said. "He's proven he's the man through his actions on and off the field, but he can't be complacent."
Barnes has demonstrated work ethic certainly isn't a problem. The senior suffered a torn labrum during the team's 24-14 victory over Kenyon in Week 9, then played through the injury and led the Scots to a stunning 28-27 comeback win over Ohio Wesleyan as they scored three touchdowns in the final 11 minutes. He underwent surgery after the season and has been assured by Dr. Michael Knapic, trainer Nate Huston and the Wooster Orthopedic training staff he should be 100 percent by the time preseason practice starts in August. After this fall, Barnes will almost assuredly go out as the program's most prolific passer. He's just 43 yards behind Richard Judd ('99) for the most total offense in school history and 1,024 yards from Judd's mark in passing yards. He's also 17 scores away from Judd's touchdown-pass record. Right now, though, there's really only one mark that matters to Barnes -- capturing just the second NCAC title in program history.
"The ring makes everything beside the point," he said. "I'd be lying if I said there aren't things I'm chasing after. It's great to have your name all over the records books, but it's about reaching heights that haven't been seen since 2004. We want the drought to be over."
After starting Colaprete's turnaround project, ultimately Barnes couldn't stand not being around to finish it.
Andrew Vogel can be reached at 330-287-1624 or email@example.com. Follow him on Twitter at @andvogel.


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Monday is Chinese New Year, and it marks the beginning of the year of the dragon, which only comes around every 12 years.
In Chinese culture, it is considered good fortune to be born during the year of the dragon, and so many mothers are trying to get pregnant.
Expectant mother Cho Ling Chezem of Grand Rapids, Mich. was surprised to learn she was pregnant, and she wasn't sure she was ready to be a mom.
"Then, people and family mentioned it will be, baby will be born in dragon year and I was thinking not bad, actually it's good," said Chezem.
Chezem was even more excited when she learned her baby would be a boy.
"People prefer a boy in China, to carry on the family name," Chezem said.
Yi Ling Cummings of Grand Rapids, Mich. is expecting a baby girl and is thrilled that her daughter will be born in the year of the dragon.
"We believe dragon is very magic, they bring good luck to people," Cummings said.
In Hong Kong, expectant mothers are fighting to find an empty bed in maternity wards.
Many expectant mothers travel from mainland China to Hong Kong to give birth every year, according to the Tapei Times. Giving birth in Hong Kong gives the child education rights and offers a loop hole around China's one child policy.
Mainland mothers accounted for 38,043 out of 80,131 births in Hong Kong last year, according to the Tapei Times, and a baby boom is expected in 2012 because it's the year of the dragon.
ABC News affiliate WZZM contributed to this report.


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NetWellness is a global, community service providing quality, unbiased health information from our partner university faculty. NetWellness is commercial-free and does not accept advertising.
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Inherited Disorders and Birth Defects
Translocation of chromosomes 1 & 4
We have had 4 misscarriages, the last of which was through ivf. The longest pregnancy duration was 9.5 weeks. I (husband) have been diagnosed as having chromosome translocation of 1 & 4 chromosomes. To which point (%-wise) are these miscarriages attributed to this fact? My wife`s womb is of heavy adenomyosis nature. How can one treat or bypass the problem of chromosome translocation in order to elliminate this factor in case it is responsible of the misscarriages? Thank you very much.
A translocation occurs when two pieces of chromosomes break off and switch places with each other. If all the chromosomal material is present, just rearranged (such as the translocation that has been diagnosed in you - a rearrangement between chromosomes 1 and 4) - this person is called a balanced translocation carrier and should have no health problems since all the chromosomal material needed is present and functioning properly.
However, when a person with a balanced chromosomal rearrangement forms eggs or sperm, some of the chromosomal material can be lost or duplicated so that the developing embryo has too much or not enough genetic material. This is what leads to an unbalanced translocation and usually a miscarriage.
In theory, there is a 25% chance that the gametes (eggs or sperm) that the mom or dad produces - will have a normal chromosome complement, a 25% chance that the egg or sperm will have the balanced translocation and a 50% chance that the egg or sperm would produce an unbalanced chromosome complement. In your case, the unbalanced complement would be between chromosome # 1 and chromosome # 4. In all of these cases that produce an unbalanced complement - there is a very high probability (greater than 99%) that the pregnancy will miscarry. However, depending on where the switch between the chromosomes happened, there could be a small chance that a pregnancy with an unbalanced translocation would continue. In this case, the baby would most likely have multiple birth defects.
If a parent has a balanced translocation, while they are at risk to miscarry somewhat more frequently than people who do not have a chromosomal translocation, they can have healthy pregnancies. However, the chance or percent of having a miscarriage if someone has a translocation can vary a great deal and depends on the specific type of rearrangement involved. There is nothing you can do to change the translocation as it is in all the cells in your body. However, there is a procedure called Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) that uses IVF technologies to fertilize an egg with a sperm that does not have the translocation.
You ask excellent questions. If you haven't already done so, I would highly recommend that you sit down with a genetic counselor or geneticist and talk about these risk figures specifically in regard to your chromosome rearrangement. They can also discuss PGD with you as well. The National Society of Genetic Counselors resource link can help you locate a genetics center near you.
Anne Matthews, RN, PhD
Associate Professor of Genetics
School of Medicine
Case Western Reserve University


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Using Actual Betting Percentages to Analyze Sportsbook Behavior: The Canadian and Arena Football Leagues
Sportsbook behavior is tested for the Canadian and Arena Football Leagues using real sportsbook betting percentages from on-line sportsbooks. The balanced book hypothesis of the traditional sportsbook models does not appear to hold for these leagues, as favorites and overs attract more than 50 percent of the betting dollars. Although there is some slight evidence toward shading the line in these directions, there is also no overwhelming evidence supporting the Levitt (2004) hypothesis, as sportsbooks do not appear to be actively pricing to maximize profits. In general, the results seem more consistent with the sportsbook pricing as a forecast, content with earning their commission on losing bets as simple strategies win about 50 percent of the time.
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Volume (Year): 41 (2010)
Issue (Month): 1 ()
Pages: 35-44
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References listed on IDEAS
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- Sauer, Raymond D, et al, 1988. "Hold Your Bets: Another Look at the Efficiency of the Gambling Market for National Football League Games: Comment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(1), pages 206-213, February.
- Richard Borghesi & Rodney Paul & Andrew Weinbach, 2009. "Market frictions and overpriced favourites: evidence from arena football," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(9), pages 903-906.
- Rodney J. Paul & Andrew P. Weinbach, 2007. "Does Sportsbook.com Set Pointspreads to Maximize Profits? Tests of the Levitt Model of Sportsbook Behavior," Journal of Prediction Markets, University of Buckingham Press, vol. 1(3), pages 209-218, December.
- Rodney J. Paul & Andrew P. Weinbach, 2008. "Price Setting in the NBA Gambling Market: Tests of the Levitt Model of Sportsbook Behavior," International Journal of Sport Finance, Fitness Information Technology, vol. 3(3), pages 137-145, August.
- Rodney J. Paul & Andrew P. Weinbach, 2002. "Market Efficiency and a Profitable Betting Rule," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 3(3), pages 256-263, August.
- Gray, Philip K & Gray, Stephen F, 1997. " Testing Market Efficiency: Evidence from the NFL Sports Betting Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(4), pages 1725-1737, September.
- Lyn D. Pankoff, 1968. "Market Efficiency and Football Betting," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 41, pages 203-203.
- Zuber, Richard A & Gandar, John M & Bowers, Benny D, 1985. "Beating the Spread: Testing the Efficiency of the Gambling Market for National Football League Games," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(4), pages 800-806, August.
- Golec, Joseph & Tamarkin, Maurry, 1991. "The degree of inefficiency in the football betting market : Statistical tests," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 311-323, December.
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The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag (Paperback)
Not On Our Shelves—Ships in 1-5 Days
North Korea is today one of the last bastions of hard-line Communism. Its leaders have kept a tight grasp on their one-party regime, quashing any nascent opposition movements and sending all suspected dissidents to its brutal concentration camps for "re-education." Kang Chol-hwan is the first survivor of one of these camps to escape and tell his story to the world, documenting the extreme conditions in these gulags and providing a personal insight into life in North Korea. Part horror story, part historical document, part memoir, part political tract, this record of one man's suffering gives eyewitness proof to an ongoing sorrowful chapter of modern history. New edition with a new preface by the author.
About the Author
Kang Chol-hwan lives and works in Seoul, where he is a staff writer for Chosun Ilbo, a daily newspaper in South Korea. Pierre Rigoulot is a journalist, historian, and human rights activist living in Paris, France. He is the author of numerous books on the history of political repression and contributed the North Korean chapter to the best-selling The Black Book of Communism (Harvard University Press).


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The Beatles. 'N Sync. Busted. Many a boy band has been broken up before its time by a member it was deciding to try his hand at a solo career—and who could blame them? Going solo bumps your share of the record sales, adulation and groupies from 20% to 100%, and this simple math hangs like a specter over even the happiest of boy bands.
One Direction has generally been media-trained well enough to keep these rumors of solo ambitions under control—look at the way they shut down Barbara Walters when she asked about the possibility. Now, though, the 1D lads have got even more reason to avoid dreaming of going at it alone: The band's new three-album deal with Sony heavily penalizes all five members if one of them releases a solo album in the next three years.
According to The Sun, the financial deal has been put in place to ensure that the "Kiss You" band stay together for at least another three years.
The contract is said to outline that if one or more of the lads decides to leave during that time period, each member will receive less money than originally thought.
A source explained to the newspaper: "It's a really clever contract that the boys have signed up to. It means they have a real incentive to tough it out and stick together.
This makes sense on the face of it. Five years of One Direction (six if you count the X Factor run) seems plenty, and tracks roughly with the peaks of both 'N Sync and Backstreet Boys. By 2016, the market will be good and ready for a Harry Styles or Liam Payne solo career, to pick two names completely randomly.
Plus, you know what they say: The band with a contractual incentive to stay together, stays together.


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"If the Winter Games hadn't come to Sochi, we wouldn't have seen or felt its paradox: a supposed Olympic truce with extraordinary underlying tensions over human rights abuses, punitive anti-gay laws and a political firestorm in Ukraine."
So says Washington Post writer Sally Jenkins, who goes on to say the paradox was "captured perfectly by Billie Jean King, the former tennis champion and gay activist who was to headline the U.S. delegation at the closing ceremonies."
King said, "Sometimes it's good to go to places where things aren't good., Sometimes you can help change by going to places where it's difficult."
"Where things aren't good?" Makes me wonder when the last time Billie Jean stepped foot in her native country, the U.S. The clear implication is that America is so vastly morally superior to Russia where there are "human rights abuses."
Sure won't find those here in the U.S., unless, of course, you count the largest prison population in the world as a human rights abuse, where a young black man is serving a life sentence for having in his possession a bag containing the residue of crack cocaine.
Or over a million kids hungry, or thousands dying from lack of health care, or a record number of banks stealing homes in a process called foreclosure, often by fraudulent means (you won't find a banker in prison).
Or workers toiling for $8 an hour while their owners make more in a day than they do in a year, resulting in the largest gap of income inequality in the world, where your own government spies on your every move and a whopping 80 percent of Americans live in poverty or near-poverty, it's a crime in many cities to be homeless, torture, and our political leaders pass laws denying Americans aid so they can eat.
Arizona tried to make it illegal for gays to eat in restaurants and back home in Indiana, gays can't get married.
As for "political firestorms," perhaps if Billie Jean is so keen on "going to places where it's difficult" so she can help make change, she could take another all-expenses paid trip to Iraq, or Afghanistan, to name just a couple countries the U.S. has laid waste to, with no end in sight.
Or she could visit some families whose loved ones have been executed by U.S. killer drones, loved ones committing no crime and charged with no crime.
Or she could visit some of the sweat shops bought and paid for by the U.S. and see the kids toiling for practically nothing in conditions that lead to suicide. Then she could pay a visit to the mansions the CEOs of these companies live in.
Or visit a country that treats drug addiction as a social problem, not as a crime, and see drug usage decline.
Here, many drugs are illegal, so the rich who run things can have a ready supply of customers to stock their for-profit prisons. Naturally, in a country with values like these, the threat of thinking for yourself is so great that in Louisiana the governor is abolishing all state aid to libraries.
Is it a surprise to anyone that America has the highest rate of child abuse of any industrialized country? Abusers are often given little or no prison time while their victims are made to suffer. Consider the guy who got four years in Indiana in 2004 for sexual molestation, and three more in 2007, and in 2012 in Colorado he was arrested again. But in March he's free to murder three people and rape a young girl.
As for Sally Jenkins, I suggest she stop on her way back to Washington and visit a home in West Virginia, any one of the 300,000 people victims of a chemical spill that has left them without clean water, and settle in and quench her thirst with a glass of water. And then with the hours she has left on this earth, write a glowing tribute to the entrepreneur spirit of the billionaire Koch brothers whose company Freedom Industries (as in freedom to do what I please with no fear of punishment) is responsible for the poison in the water, and with a massive propaganda campaign, responsible for poison in our brains. For these crimes our government pays these model citizens subsidies to the tune of $88 million a year.


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microwave popcorn
Tag archives for microwave popcorn
A recently published study demonstrates (again) the serious risk to workers' health when exposed to common food-flavoring agents. The risk has been known for more than a decade. It's just another example of our ineffective systems for protecting workers, consumers and the environment from chemical hazards.


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In 1986, the year before I was born, Hannes Leopoldseder wrote Ten Indications of an Emerging Computer Culture; in this text she highlighted ways in which computers were about to change society.
They now have.
My work tends to be participatory or preformative and to encourage this I engage with minimal aesthetics as I feel that the minimal can provide an easily accessible framework for the interactions I have discussed.


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* Debian WWW CVS <firstname.lastname@example.com> [2002-10-10 01:47]: > Modified files: > english/devel/debian-med/talks: index.wml > > Log message: > Fixed HTML and rearranged the dates to English (US?) style If you fix html that way please rather move the closing </p> to the correct place (before the next opening block tag) than to remove it completely, that way you don't work against the efforts getting the pages in the xhtml direction. Thanks, Alfie -- Not that I have anything much against redundancy. But I said that already. -- Larry Wall in <firstname.lastname@example.com>
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The Robeys tested their new-crop corn silage prior to putting it into silage bags. "We always test for nutrient value," Robey says, but this year it was even more important. The Robeys will continue to keep a close eye on it as they feed it to their cows. There are certain potential problems that can occur with drought-stressed corn during ensiling.
Once you understand the physiology of corn plants and how drought affects them, you will see why these precautions are in order.
Physiology 101
Perhaps the best analogy is that of a clogged drain. The corn plant continues to produce sugars through photosynthesis, but without a fully developed ear on the plant for those sugars to go and form starch, they back up into the stalk.
A few things have to happen for this to occur. First, the drought has to occur during or after pollination — and be severe enough to result in aborted kernels or poor kernel fill. And, the plant attained its growth prior to pollination and is now operating as a fully developed photosynthetic machine.
As long as the leaves are green, and photosynthesis occurs, the plant will produce photosynthate in the form of sugars and organic acids, points out Joe Lauer, corn agronomist at the University of Wisconsin.
Normally, these sugars would move down the stalk to the ear. But, in the absence of an ear or viable kernels, they translocate down the stalk and sequester themselves in the stover material instead. (See illustration on page 21.)
A different situation occurs if the drought occurs prior to pollination. The plant may not grow as large, but still end up with a viable ear, depending on the success of pollination. In that case, the sugars move to the kernels and form starch, as they normally would.
Implications for feeding
"Yield is dramatically affected by drought, but quality isn't necessarily affected by drought because of increased concentrations of sugars and organic acids in the stalk." Lauer says.
Think of it as re-partitioning: More of the energy gets stored in the stover rather than in the grain.
With normal corn silage, starch from grain contributes about 65 percent to 70 percent of the energy value, says Randy Shaver, dairy nutritionist at the
But that assumes that things went well in the bunker silo or silage bag after the drought-damaged corn was stored.
There is some question whether silage from drought-damaged corn is automatically more susceptible to spoilage during ensiling than normal corn. Just having extra sugars in the stalk won't necessarily result in more spoilage, points out Richard Muck, agricultural engineer with the U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center in
Keep an eye on the silage as it comes out of a bunker silo or silage bag.
Sugar in Drought-Stressed Corn
The tassel on this plant isn't fully developed, which means the drought may have occurred prior to pollination. Drought stress before pollination affects cell elongation and growth, so the undeveloped tassel is a tipoff. Short plants are another sign of early drought-stress. The lack of a fully developed ear is a sign that the drought persisted past pollination. Without kernels, the sugars produced through photosynthesis move down the stalk and sequester themselves in the stover rather than the ear.


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Flow Cytometry Lab
The Flow Cytometry Laboratory (Flow Lab) provides cell sorting and analysis services for in-house and external investigators. The Flow Lab staff operates the sorters and assists investigators using the analyzers. The staff also provides consultation regarding cytometry experimental design, sample preparation and data analysis. In addition, the staff welcomes the opportunity for external research project contracts.
The Flow Lab is equipped with FACSAria, FACSVantage SE, LSR II and FACSCalibur cytometers. It is directed by cell analysis specialist Dr. Xiaoping Wu. Prior to joining the Blood Center, Dr. Wu had postdoctoral training in Immunology at the Center for Immunology in the University California, Irvine.
The Flow Lab has been actively involved in ongoing and previous research projects at the Blood Center addressing blood thrombosis, transfusion complications, hematopoietic cell gene therapy, megakaryocytopoiesis, platelet generation, autoimmunity and therapeutic immune modulation for inhibitory antibodies against factor VIII.
The Lab is located in Room 1136 in the Research Institute of the BloodworksNW at 1551 Eastlake Ave E, Seattle, WA 98102.
Reserved service can be canceled no later than 3 hours in advance of the scheduled time. If not canceled, half of the fee for the reserved time will be charged.


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Think this recent round of conference realignment in college football has been crazy?
You ain't seen nothin' yet.
At least that's the opinion of San Diego State football coach Rocky Long.
"I think there's a lot of things still to be determined. I don't think the shifting conferences is over yet," Long said Thursday at his weekly press conference. "I think it's just beginning. I think there's going to be some huge shifts over the next four or five years, and I think there's going to end up being four to five super-conferences that will play a tournament that will determine who the national champion is."
In that respect, regardless of the changes that have wracked the Big East over the last two years, Long sees the Aztecs' 2013 move to their new league as a good thing.
"I think there's going to be a merger of several conferences into those super-conferences, and I think you have to be in one of the traditional conferences to have a chance to be included in one of these super-conferences," Long said. "And the Big East is a traditional conference."
Just without some of its traditional powers.
After losing West Virginia to the Big 12, and Pitt and Syracuse to the ACC, the Big East lost Rutgers last week and Louisville this week to the forces of conference realignment.
It replaced those two teams with the addition of Tulane and East Carolina, which will join the league from Conference USA in 2014. As a result, the new Big East will feature at least six C-USA refugees in the years to come.
But Long downplayed any notion that the new league will simply be a reconstituted version of C-USA.
"I don't compare it to Conference USA at all," Long said. "I believe it's going to be a truly national conference. We'll have six to eight teams on the west of the Mississippi River, and six to eight teams on the east of the Mississippi River.
"I think it's going to be the ultimate national conference. I believe it's going to be a good deal."
Quarterback Adam Dingwell can think of at least one reason why it'd be fun to play in the Big East – the native Texan would relish the idea of playing games in his home state, against fellow Big East-West members Houston and SMU.
"That'll be exciting. My parents will get to go to that," Dingwell said. "We're excited to go to the Big East and play some new teams. It should be fun for us."
Scrimmage for the youngsters
The Aztecs are back in spring practice mode from now till the Dec. 20 Poinsettia Bowl.
For the first time all season, the scout team players got to scrimmage on Wednesday. The results were …. Interesting.
"I liked the enthusiasm and effort yesterday. Did I like what I saw from the younger guys? No," Long said. "It looked like they've been scout team players all year long. It looked like they'd never played full-speed in a football game before."
Still, that's to be expected.
"That's what's so important about being in a bowl game for the development of the program," Long said, adding that the scout teamers will scrimmage at least four more times over the next few weeks.
"The way they'll play the fourth or fifth time we scrimmage will be dramatically different than yesterday," Long said.


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What I Learned From My Very First SDCC Experience!
When you're a nerd, you're very passionate about the things you love. Whether it be comic books, movies, TV shows, games, or anything remotely classified as "geeky", us nerds can't wait to talk about it!
The best thing about being so passionate about a certain subject is getting the chance to meet and talk with others who are equally as passionate. That's why conventions are a thing! Comic Con is ! The biggest nerdy convention in the United States is without a doubt San Diego Comic Con.
SDCC is a yearly event that takes place in the beautiful city of San Diego, and it's definitely a big deal. People from all over the globe travel to SDCC to experience it's many offerings, such as panels, incredible cosplay, and collectibles!
I've always dreamt of going to SDCC, and this year, my dreams finally came true! I attended San Diego Comic Con for the first time this year, and I had an absolute blast walking around the convention center for four days!
Now that the convention is over, and I've gotten some much needed rest, I thought I'd share my experience with everyone who hasn't yet made the trip to SDCC. Here's my unofficial first-timer survivor's guide for the biggest convention ever!
How To Survive (And What To Expect With) San Diego Comic Con!
1. Always Stay Hydrated!
This one sounds obvious, but it's a lot easier to forget than you'd think. A lot goes on at SDCC. There's panels, events, and many other things that you're going to want to focus on, so much so that you may forget to drink some water every once and a while.
It's extremely important to stay hydrated during SDCC for a number of reasons. One reason is that it's in the middle of summer, so heat is expected, even in a by-the-coast city like San Diego.
Another reason you want to be drinking water all day is you're going to be walking EVERYWHERE! Not just in the convention center, but around it too. Some panels and events take place outside of the convention center, and even though you won't have to walk too far, it can still be tiring having to go on foot everywhere all day long. Especially since it can take several minutes just to get walk a couple of feet, since there's so many people traveling all at once. Which brings me to my next topic.
2. Expect Some Serious Overcrowding!
SDCC isn't just the biggest convention on paper, its hugeness can be seen in the amount of people that occupy its halls. This is actually an issue I and a lot of other people have with San Diego Comic Con, it's seriously overcrowded. This is mainly because the convention sells a lot of tickets, possibly even more than it needs to.
Now, there's nothing wrong with giving thousands of people a chance to attend the event, but it gets to a point where it makes hard for most of those people to enjoy everything the con has to offer. But since this is the hand we're dealt with, we might as well all play it accordingly.
There's going to be a lot of people around you, so be aware of your surroundings, and remember to keep moving. Never stop in the middle of traffic, unless you want to get trampled by thousands of people heading the same way as you! If you need to stop, just try and maneuver yourself to a place where you can get out of people's way and stop safely.
3. Lines Are Loooooong!
This one is pretty self-explanatory. You know those stories about how long the lines are, and how impossible it is to get into the big halls like Hall H or Ballroom 20? Well, those stories aren't exaggerated, it's really that difficult!
When I went to SDCC, I saw people camping out in the Hall H line on a Thursday night for panels that wouldn't be happening until Saturday! SATURDAY! While the Hall H line was massive, the other lines weren't exactly small either. Unless you're willing to camp out or wake up super early, expect a bit of a line for that panel you're trying to get into.
4. Don't Try To Do Everything!
Look, SDCC is full of amazing things, I know. From panels featuring your favorite actors and comic book writers, to movie screenings and more, there's a lot to do at San Diego Comic Con. That being said, don't try and do it all.
The SDCC schedule is so large, that you can literally drive yourself mad trying to figure out how to plan your day, but it is VERY IMPORTANT to plan it! Some panels happen at the same time, so hard as it is, you're going to have to decide which one you want to go to.
You'll also have to watch out for panels that happen pretty close to each other. Don't make the same mistake I did, and try to attend two panels at opposite sides of the convention with five minutes in-between them, it just will not work out for you!
The line tip above also relates to this tip. Always take into account how long a line is. Speaking from experience, don't spend your first time at SDCC waiting for a very slim chance to get into Hall H, when you can go check out another incredibly awesome panel in another room.
5. There's Something For Everyone!
Worried that SDCC might not cater to your specific geekdom? Don't worry, there's literally something for everyone! Love comics? There are comic books and comic-related panels everywhere! Enjoy sci-fi? SDCC has got you covered! How about ? Indulge in your anime love all you want! Are you a ? Hey, I won't judge you, and neither will SDCC!
Even if all you want to do is play Magic: The Gathering for the entire convention, SDCC has plenty of game rooms and events so you can do just that!
6. Shop On Sunday!
Here's a little tip I learned from other Comic Con attendees; save your shopping for Sunday! The Exhibitors Hall at SDCC is full of exclusive goodies for you to get your hands on, but you may want to hold off on that.
Sunday is the last day of the convention, and because of this, it's the day all the discounts, freebies, and sales come out. Exhibitors are there to sell, and if they've still got stuff to sell on Sunday, sometimes they'll sell it for a cheaper price. This isn't always the case, but it's worth waiting 'til Sunday to find out.
The only reason you wouldn't want to wait until Sunday is if there's a really awesome SDCC exclusive that may not be available by then. I'm still kicking myself for not getting that sweet, sweet Conan the Joker Funko doll the first chance I got!
So those are my tips on how to survive San Diego Comic Con, as well as what to expect from it! All in all, my first time at Comic Con wasn't bad, but I'm certain to have a much better experience next time around if I follow these tips, and so will you!
Thanks For Reading! What Are Some SDCC Tips You Have? And What's Your Favorite SDCC Memory?


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Imagine being able to check out of a grocery store simply by walking through the door. That possibility is coming closer to reality thanks to a makeover engineers have given to current electronic identification tags that may allow several of them to be read at once.
Two main types of commercial identification tags are currently in use. The ubiquitous bar code is simple and costs nearly nothing to make, but it must be scanned very closely, preventing more than one item from being read at a time. On the more complex side, radio-frequency identification (RF-ID) tags are like small microchips and come in two flavors: organic and silicon. The organic chips, commonly inserted under the skin of cats and dogs in lieu of identification collars, can be made cheaply but can only process low-frequency radio waves, giving them distance limitations. Silicon chips, often used to tag bulk shipments, work at much higher frequencies and thus can be read from afar, but they're expensive to produce.
To overcome the limitations of the organic chip, engineer Soren Steudel and colleagues at IMEC research center in Leuven, Belgium, made three main modifications: They used purer organic materials, arranged these materials into thinner layers, and reduced the heat generated by the chip's operation. The improvements allowed electronic charges to move faster through the material, the researchers report online 24 July in Nature Materials. This permitted the chip to work at higher frequencies, which can be read several meters away by electronic reader.
Bob Rotzoll, senior design engineer at Organic ID Inc. in Colorado Springs, Colorado, predicts that the chips could eventually be made for about a penny a piece. If so, this could provide an easy way for retailers to survey large inventories or for security personnel to monitor the movement of dangerous items. Designing affordable tags for eager commercial customers "has been discussed in various places, but this is a clear experimental demonstration" that it is possible, says Rotzoll.
Related site:
How barcodes work


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PRZOOM - /newswire/ -
Istanbul, Turkey, 2012/09/27 - Mustafa Ari Joins Telenity to Lead Middle East and Africa (MEA) - Telenity.com.
Telenity, a leading provider of service delivery, location based services, social media, mobile marketing and messaging platforms and solutions, today announced the appointment of Mustafa Ari as its Vice President of Sales for Middle East and Africa (MEA) region. Ari will be responsible for business development, sales and partner management activities in the region.
Mustafa Aris appointment will drive ongoing growth for Telenity, as the company continues to expand its footprint, regional team and partnerships to enhance support for its customers in the MEA region. Mustafa Ari brings with him a wealth of sales management and telecommunications industry knowledge. He will lead the MEA sales team in strategic business development to identify and drive targeted areas of growth with direct customers, partnerships and distribution channels.
Telenity has a reputation for product innovation and clearly understands the evolving requirements of network operators and subscribers, said Mustafa Ari. With a focused approach on customer needs while continuously innovating next generation services, Telenity has achieved a steady market growth in MEA. I am really excited to be back at Telenity and I look forward to working with the team to further strengthen Telenitys market position in the region.
We are proud to announce the addition of Mustafa to the Telenity executive management team, said Ilhan Bagoren, CEO at Telenity. We are certain that his experience in the telecommunications market and already existing knowledge of our product portfolio will have an immediate impact for our customers and on our sales in the Middle East and Africa.
Mustafa Ari has close to 25 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. Before joining Telenity, Mustafa Ari was the Group Coordinator at Innova, a leading IT consultancy, application development, technical support and training services company in Turkey. Previously, Mustafa Ari held Engineering Director and Sales Director positions at Telenity. Ari started his professional working life in the public sector, at T.R. State Planning Organization as (SPO) DPT expert, and worked there for eight years. Mustafa Aris experience covers sales, business development, marketing, engineering, product and project management on Value Added Services, Service Delivery Platforms, Next Generation Networks, Telco OSS & BSS, Professional Services, Technology and Business Solutions, and Telco Payment Solutions. Mustafa Ari completed the Executive MBA Program of Management at the Marmara University in Istanbul, Turkey. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science Engineering from Hacettepe University in Ankara, Turkey.
Meet Telenity Executives at:
AfricaCom 2012, November 13-15, Stand B14, Cape Town, South Africa
About Telenity
Telenity (telenity.com) is a leading global provider of next generation innovative services and applications for communications networks. Telenity's market ready software products enable optimization and monetization of valuable network assets and services through location. Telenitys revenue generating solutions include reusable service delivery components (messaging gateway, 3rd party access gateway and location gateway) enabling rapid service creation and deployment, location-based solutions (subscriber acquisition, network optimization, social networking), mobile marketing platform, integrated advanced messaging applications (SMS, MMS, USSD, Messenger) and innovative value added services (location-based people finder, enterprise employee locator, personalized call management, mobile collect call, missed call notification, and voice/video mail). Headquartered in USA, Telenity's worldwide customer base includes network operators, service providers and application providers serving over 600 million subscribers. Telenity partners with global and regional network equipment providers, system integrators and computing platform manufacturers. Learn more about Telenity's Canvas® family of converged services solutions at the company website and download a copy of Telenity's online newsletter Telescope.
Telenity and Canvas are registered trademarks of Telenity.
Agency / Source: Telenity
Availability: All Regions (Including Int'l)
Traffic Booster: [/] Quick PRZOOM - Press & Newswire Visibility Checker
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Taxi and Private Hire Services
Mick's Taxis
Lake View Bungalow, Alford Rd, Thoresthorpe,
Alford, Lincolnshire, LN13 0HU
Mick's Taxis run by Mick Preston who has over 23 years experience in the industry. We are a family run firm that believes in giving a prompt personal service at all times. Operating within a 20-mile radius of Alford we cover Skegness, Mablethorpe and Louth. All our drivers are uniformed and vetted. We have a clean, modern fleet, giving the utmost comfort.
Arrival Taxis
45 Dovecote Estate, Rippinggale, Bourne,
Lincolnshire, PE10 0SY
Light courier work. All airports. National Travel tokens accepted. Linked to County Council register. Contract work welcome. Parcel delivery. Quotes given for long journeys.
24 Hour Taxis
33 Campbell St, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, DN21
A family run firm established for four years, employing nine people, running a fleet of four Mondeos & a 7 seater mini bus. Airports are our speciality, courtesy and reliability is our game, value for money is our name. ANY TIME! ANY PLACE! ANY WHERE!
Dixons Taxis
166 Eastgate, Louth, Lincolnshire, LN11 9AB
Family-run business. Established over 40 years. Day and night service. Local and long-distance service. Airports and seaports. Business travel. Contract work. Courier service. Radio-controlled cars with phones. Male and female drivers. Non smoking cars. All types of cars; Rover, Ford, Mercedes. Hearse and limousine available for all types of funeral work.
A To Z Taxis
164 Roman Bank, Skegness, Lincolnshire, PE25 1SF
All UK Airports Covered. Local & Long Distance. Clean & Tidy Vehicles. 4 Seater Cars to 8 Seater Bus. Account Customers Welcome. Prompt & Reliable.
Coastline Cabs - Skegness
250 Drummond Road, Skegness, Lincolnshire, PE25
Coastline Cabs provide a 24 Hour taxi service in Skegness and the surrounding areas. Up to 8 seat taxis available. Friendly, professional service. Modern, well maintained vehicles. Competitive rates. Any distance, including all airports. Call, email or visit our site for a quote or more information.
Woodside Taxis
Station Rd, Sleaford, Lincolnshire, NG34 7RG
Chauffeur Driven Car Hire. Executive Travel. Taxi Service - Private/Hackney. Peugeot 607, Mercedes, MPV's. Mini Bus, Airport Runs. Nationwide & Europe.
Phoenix Travel
Beech House, St. James Rd, Long Sutton,
Spalding, Lincolnshire, PE12 9AZ
We are an independent private hire taxi company based in Long Sutton, Lincolnshire, providing a personal, polite, professional taxi service. We offer a first class service ensuring reliability and comfort at every stage for any journey, large or small. We are willing and able to travel any distance and are familiar with the areas of Lincolnshire and surrounding counties and make regular visits to all the major airports. For large parties we have an MPV which carries up to 8 people and baggage.
Premier Cabs of Stamford
14 Bramble Grove, Stamford, Lincolnshire, PE9
All airports. 7 Seater Cars. Wheelchair Access. Open 365 Days a year. Local & Long Distance. Reliable Service.


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And you thought "Swan Lake" was only hot in Hollywood these days.
Call it fortuitous timing, but the folks at New York City Ballet have seen tickets for "Swan Lake" sell out faster than usual this season - they even added an extra show to accommodate demand. And move over, Natalie Portman: You may be favored for the Oscar in "Black Swan," but there's a real-life, flesh-and-blood ballerina generating heat as the swan queen.
Her name is Sara Mearns, and she's tall, blond, glamorous - movie-star beautiful, in fact. What's really special about her, though, is her spectacular stage presence, her long legs, and the gorgeous, expansive shapes she creates with her body, particularly the stunning arch in her back.
Some have hastened to call Mearns, 24, the best American ballerina performing today. That might be a little premature - and it would overlook dancers such as the enticing Tiler Peck and several young colleagues at NYCB, veteran Wendy Whelan and Gillian Murphy at American Ballet Theatre, an estimable swan queen herself.
But certainly one can say that to watch Mearns dance Odette/Odile in "Swan Lake" is to watch a star ascendant - not to mention an absolutely glorious pairing of a dancer with the right role.
For that, credit goes to Peter Martins, NYCB's ballet master-in-chief, who had the prescience to pluck Mearns from the corps in 2006 - she was 19 - and make her one of his swan queens that season in his version of "Swan Lake." It launched her career; she became a soloist months later and a principal dancer in 2008.
Mearns, it has been often noted, does not have the typical body of a ballerina, especially a Balanchine ballerina. Her shoulders and torso are broader, and she is not petite. Rather, she looks almost like an old-fashioned pinup girl.
In Sunday's matinee performance, she used all this to her advantage as the innocent Odette and the evil Odile. Her Odette - the better of her two swans, at least for now - was imposing from the moment she leaped onstage: long and lean, with a slow, elegant and luxurious way of moving through space. You could not mistake this swan for the others surrounding her, and that was how it should be. She was their queen, regal and commanding.
Mearns used her long arms beautifully to reflect her emotions - sadness, fear, nervousness, a sense of intermittent joy in discovering love for Siegfried. They fluttered like a swan's, but her birdlike movements did not, like those of some dancers, fall into the trap of caricature.
In the Black Swan section, where Odile and her father, the sorcerer Von Rotbart, trick the prince into thinking she is Odette, Mearns stepped up the glamour with a confident, alluring aura. She may not whip off the famous fouette turns with the same prowess as Murphy at ABT, for example, who is so technically adept that she adds multiple turns to the already impossibly challenging set of 32, earning whoops from an audience that is waiting for the moment.
But that is not Mearns' style. She stops when she is ready. But she also takes risks.
In other ballets, in fact, Mearns has been known to fall down, so committed is she to the fierce execution of each movement. She did so as Dewdrop recently in "The Nutcracker," and in a recent performance of Susan Strohman's "For the Love of Duke," new this season.
She did not fall in "Swan Lake" on Sunday, luckily. But if she had, somehow it seems she would have made it as natural a swanlike move as the flutter of a wing. And she would have had the audience eating out of her hand nonetheless.


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Chicagoland Chapter of Autism Speaks to Host AN EVENING WITH THE STARS Fundraiser, 3/2
On Sunday, March 2, the Chicagoland Chapter of Autism Speaks is proud to announce its 6th annual Oscar-themed fundraising event, An Evening with the Stars Red Carpet Spectacular, taking place at the InterContinental O'Hare Hotel in Rosemont, IL.
Since its inception, An Evening with the Stars has raised over $500,000 for autism research and awareness and will once again bring the glitz and glamour of Hollywood to the Windy City on Oscar night, featuring glamorous red carpet arrivals, pre-show interviews broadcast live on the big screen, and live and silent auctions with prizes ranging from dinner-theater packages to all-expense paid getaways.
An Evening with the Stars is the only Oscar-themed fundraiser in Chicagoland to benefit children and families struggling with autism. With the glamorous backdrop of the 86th Annual Academy Awards broadcast, all proceeds from this Hollywood themed fundraiser will benefit Autism Speaks, the world's leading autism science and advocacy organization, dedicated to funding research into the causes, prevention, treatments and a cure for autism; increasing awareness of autism spectrum disorders; and advocating for the needs of individuals with autism and their families.
Serving as Master of Ceremonies are WGN Radio Personality, Steve Cochran and Chicago Comedienne/WGN Radio Personality, Patti Vasquez. Vasquez, a long-time advocate for Autism Speaks has a personal connection to autism as her son is affected by the disorder. 190 North's Mark Nilsson returns this year to provide guests a fun and enthusiastic red carpet experience before joining Cochran and Vasquez as co-host inside the ballroom.
Musical entertainment will be provided by Chicago recording artist and long-time Autism Speaks supporter Andrew Salgado. Salgado recently released the song "Look at you Now" which is available for purchase on ITunes with portions of the proceeds to benefit Autism Speaks Chicagoland Chapter.
The evening will culminate with the viewing of the 86th Annual Academy Awards telecast on multiple giant screens inside the InterContinental Ballroom.
2014 Chairperson Dan Schlaack & Kerry Schlaack co-founded this event with long-time autism advocate Teri Steinberg in 2006, two years after their youngest son, Henry, was diagnosed with autism. When asked about the 2014 benefit, Dan commented, "I'm thrilled with the overwhelmingly positive response for this exciting evening benefiting those affected by autism and am touched by the tremendous support this fundraiser has received from the community, the media, an extremely dedicated committee, and some of Chicago's own stars who are joining us on the red carpet on Oscar night!" In June of 2013, Kerry Schlaack aligned her professional acumen and personal passion for autism advocacy and awareness by joining Autism Speaks as the Executive Director of the Chicagoland Chapter.
Chicago notables who have lent their name and celebrity as honorary committee members include Actor Joe Mantegna, SNL/Second City Alum, Tim Kazurinsky, TV/Movie actors Jim Belushi & George Wendt, former Chicago Bears MaRK Greene, Jim Thornton, and Glen Kozlowski, Radio personality Rick Kogan, and legendary musician Jim Peterik, who will also perform that night.
The 2014 An Evening with the Stars aims to raise $120,000. Tickets begin at $175 for individuals, $300 for couples and $1,500 to $10,000 for sponsorship tables of four to 10 people. Premier table purchases include an all-inclusive evening starting at 5:30 p.m. with the special pre-show VIP reception and premier seating at the benefit. For more information, please call 224-567-8573 or visit www.eveningwiththestars.org.


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Looking for some summer grilling options outside the standard hamburger or hot dog? If you enjoy eating meatless, grilling season can sometimes be a challenge.
Last summer, we went grill crazy, and cooked up all sorts of things sans meat, including salad (well, grilled romaine, really), bean burgers, and even paella! And while we did manage to find a nice bean burger recipe that held up well on the grill, one of our favorite recipes in terms of juicy, grilled satisfaction was actually — a grilled portabello.
Until very recently, my least favorite food in the world was the mushroom. However, portabellos did it for me – they were my gateway mushroom — into a world of intense appreciation for fungus.
If you've never tried a grilled mushroom (mushroom haters — please give this one a chance!), you'll be surprised at how juicy and savory they can be, and how well they carry the smoky, grilled flavor! This summer, we've developed a new take on the portabello sandwich with focaccia bread, tzatziki sauce with mint and dill from our garden, and a bit of feta and red onion. It turned out just as delicious as it sounds!
Give it a try, perhaps to celebrate a special man (dad!) in your life! Happy Father's Day!
On the Grill
Classic Bean Burger
Grilled Barbecue Onion and Smoked Gouda Quesadillas
Grilled Romaine
Simple Grilled Paella
Grilled Carrots with Lime and Cilantro
*We used honey serrano balsamic vinegar, a delicious offering from local oil and vinegar vendor Artisanos that we picked up at the farmer's market. It adds great flavor; however, you also can use regular balsamic vinegar.
- 4 portabello mushrooms
- 3 tablespoons aged balsamic vinegar
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- Kosher salt
- Pepper
- Focaccia bread (homemade or storebought)
- Tzatziki
- ½ red onion
- ⅓ cup feta cheese crumbles
- If desired, make the focaccia bread.
- Make the tzatziki.
- Heat a grill to medium-high heat. Place 4 portabello mushrooms in a dish or pan and rub balsamic vinegar and olive oil onto both sides of each with your fingers; use just enough of each to coat evenly (3 tablespoons of each for all 4 mushrooms). Let sit to marinate until the grill is ready.
- Grill the portabellas on a medium-high grill for 4-5 minutes on each side, until juicy.
- Slice the focaccia bread and thinly slice the red onion.
- To serve, place a mushroom on one half of the focaccia bread; top with tzatziki sauce, red onion slices, feta crumbles, and the other half of of the bread.


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Men's low top trainers from PS by Paul Smith with fine-grain leather uppers and textured rubber midsoles. The classic 'Miyata' trainers feature a rounded toe, seven eyelet lace up and branded leather tongue. Complete with pull on heel tab, tan leather lining and cushioned footbed. Spare laces included.
Upper: Leather. Sole: Rubber.


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Samsung SSD 840 Pro (256GB) Reviewby Anand Lal Shimpi on September 24, 2012 7:00 AM EST
- Posted in
- Storage
- SSDs
- Samsung
- Samsung SSD 840
Final Words
The performance and power characteristics of Samsung's SSD 840 Pro are as close to perfect as we've seen from any drive this generation. In all but a handful of benchmarks, the 840 Pro is the fastest consumer SSD we've ever tested. Even more important than its industry leading performance is the fact that the 840 Pro delivers great performance while remaining one of the lowest power SSDs to make it through our labs. Assuming the premature death of our review sample was a fluke and not indicative of a bigger issue, the 840 Pro could be the first drive in quite a while to offer the absolute best performance at power consumption levels that are notebook friendly. Update: Our replacement 840 Pro also died prematurely, I'd recommend holding off any purchases until we hear back from Samsung as to the cause of death. Update 2: It looks like this may have been a firmware issue. Retail drives should ship with fixed firmware.
The 830 proved quite reliable, so as long as Samsung can guarantee similar levels of compatibility and reliability out of the 840 Pro it looks to have a real winner on its hands.
The vanilla 840 is super interesting. We've never tested a 3bpc MLC drive in house, and although Samsung isn't promising huge cost savings initially - over time the move to 3bpc MLC will aggressively drive mainstream SSD prices down.
96 Comments
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Old_Fogie_Late_Bloomer - Monday, September 24, 2012 - linkI think I might move my Steam folder to my 64GB 830 (if it hasn't grown too large) and see if Portal II level load times improve. The write times take a hit due to the smaller number of NAND chips, but the read times should be mostly limited by SATA 3 bandwidth. I'll try to pop back in here with a report of any improvements that I see. Reply
Old_Fogie_Late_Bloomer - Tuesday, September 25, 2012 - linkLong story short, despite the fact that the 830 64GB beats out the 320 160GB in seven of eight CrystalDiskMark tests (88% in sequential reading, 95% in 512K random read, and so on, except for 4K random write with a queue depth of 32, where the Intel is 70% faster)...
...I honestly can't say it takes noticeably less time to either load games like Portal, Portal 2, or Quantum Conundrum, or to load levels/saves in those games. Portal 2 might start up a tiny bit faster on the new drive, but I certainly wouldn't swear to it. Reply
repoman27 - Monday, September 24, 2012 - linkThe article mentions that this drive uses the new Toggle 2.0 interface which operates at 400 Mbps, however individual packages are clearly capable of more than that if 8 packages can provide sequential speeds greater than 400 MB/s.
My understanding is that both ONFI 3.0 and Toggle 2.0 support data rates of 400 MT/s. It would seem that the maximum transfer size for ONFI is 8 bits, so they claim 400 MB/s for the interface. Is the 400 Mbps number for Toggle 2.0 a per die figure? Is it not also capable of 8 bits per transfer and thus 400 MB/s as well? Reply
Kristian Vättö - Monday, September 24, 2012 - link400Mbit/s is the speed of the Toggle-Mode 2.0 interface but the the interface is 8 bits wide, making the maximum throughput 400MB/s per interface. I know it's stupid that they say 400Mbps because it's just confusing Reply
MrMilli - Monday, September 24, 2012 - link"The basic architecture of the controller hasn't changed. Internally there are three ARM9 cores now running at 300MHz."
It's not using ARM9 cores any longer. It's now using Cortex R4 cores. I would say that's a big enough change to say that the basic architecture has changed. Reply
Kristian Vättö - Monday, September 24, 2012 - linkYou are correct. Samsung's reviewer's guide originally said ARM9 but yesterday's slides said ARM R4, hence the confusion here :-) Reply
Jocelyn - Monday, September 24, 2012 - linkThank You for the review Anand, but is there any chance you and Kristian could start controlling the variables that are not being tested in future SSD reviews? CPU power saving features (EIST/Turbo) being left on in some reviews, while off in others, definitely affects performance. Reply
jwcalla - Monday, September 24, 2012 - linkI have yet to see an SSD that gets better than 75% of the SATA theoretical max -- even SATA II drives. Can the interface really have 25% lost to inefficiencies? That seems like a lot of overhead. Reply
repoman27 - Monday, September 24, 2012 - linkSATA uses 8b/10b encoding, so 6Gb/s becomes 600MB/s. Then, just like any transfer protocol, there's additional protocol overhead. The AS-SSD sequential read speeds posted by this drive would demonstrate just better than 85% efficiency, which is not too shabby. Reply
Oxford Guy - Monday, September 24, 2012 - link"The first Samsung MLC SSDs were reliable, they just weren't worth the money when you had much better options from companies like Intel."
Intel stuck it to X25M G1 owners by refusing to provide a firmware update to support TRIM. If you're going to praise Intel and criticize Samsung so much in the opening of an article, that should have been noted. Reply


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Content Warfare Book - Trailer Video
Pre-order your copy of Content Warfare here: http://www.contentwarfarebook.com/ Content Warfare: How to find your audience, tell your story and win the battle for attention. Content Warfare is my work in defiance of mediocre content marketing. For too long I've watched outstanding offline companies step into the digital world and implement traditional interruption marketing with boring content and gimmicky sales funnel techniques. These techniques may have worked 1999, but this 2014. The digital world and the consumers in it have evolved. The online and offline worlds are converging. No longer can we be one thing in the physical world and another online. Connected Generation consumers want to know who the human is behind the corporate logo. Content, in the form of media such as blog posts, video, podcasts and images allow us to tell our story and connect with our customers in ways that were not possible fifteen years ago. We must be authentic, transparent and honest. Abstract concepts, but when harnessed with quality content creation, yield incredible results (as you'll see). Pre-order your copy of Content Warfare here: http://www.contentwarfarebook.com/


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PEMBROKESHIRE County Council has apologised after public toilets in Milford Haven were left locked for more than two months - despite the town council paying for them to be open.
The toilet block on the Rath in Milford Haven was one of many facilities in Pembrokeshire faced with closure as the county council looks to save money.
It was saved from permanent closure by Milford Haven Town Council, who agreed to set aside £3,500 from its budget to pay the county council to operate and maintain the facility, meaning the toilets would be open to the public between April and September.
At a meeting of the town council's public works and planning committee on Monday, June 9, Cllr Tony Eden said had passed the toilets several times, but they still appeared to be closed.
The Western Telegraph visited the Rath on Tuesday, and found the toilets were locked.
A spokesman for the county council said: "The public toilets on the Rath at Milford Haven have inadvertently been closed since April 1 as a result of an oversight on our part for which we apologise.
"We are pleased that the Town Council has brought this to our attention this week and are opening the conveniences as soon as possible.
At a meeting on Thursday, June 13, the deputy town clerk for Milford Haven told councillors that the county council would not be charging the town council for the months that the toilets were closed.


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Comfortable all-round pants with elastic waistbandand buttons for fastening.
• Stretch back panel on seat, thighs and lower legs.
• Full length 2-way zip from waist down.
• Pre shaped knees.
• Wind and water repellent.
• Fabric composition: 100% Polyester with W/R finish.
Stretch panels: 90% Polyester/10% Spandex.
Lining: 100% Polyester mesh.