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Las Chivas tie in Mexican youth soccer league
Lake Placid's Las Chivas team, competing in the ages under 13 division of the Arcadia Mexican Youth Soccer League, tied a team from Arcadia, 2-2, in a game played there Saturday, Nov. 16. Scoring for Lake Placid came from Julio Cesar Castillo and Diego Orduna. Castillo's goal came early in the contest as he took a feed from Miguel Alvarez and blasted the ball into the net. Orduna tallied on an assist by Castillo.
The Las Chivas coaching staff praised the overall play of captain Alejandro Villagomez as well as Leandro Luna and Omar Resendiz.
The Las Chivas team is firmly planted in first place in its age division of the league, undefeated with a couple of ties. In fact, Las Chivas is undefeated for the past two years in Arcadia Mexican League play.
Diego Orduna is the leading scorer in the league with 13 goals. Teammate Miguel Alvarez occupies second place in league scoring.
The finals of this year's competition will take place on Sunday, Dec. 8.
Los Dragones win one, lose one in soccer
Los Dragones, Lake Placid's entry in the Arcadia Mexican Youth Soccer League for youngsters under 10 years old, bombarded Arcadia's Los Cachorros team, 13-0, in a game played there Saturday, Nov. 9. Adrian Mojica and Javier Santana each scored five goals for Los Dragones with Joaquin Barajas adding three more. Goalie Etiel Palacios recorded yet another shutout in front of the net. On Saturday, Nov. 16, Los Dragones lost a heartbreaker to their archrivals in the league, the Cruz Azul squad, 1-0.
Coach Cecilia Mojica's team will play a doubleheader next Saturday, taking on both Mexico and Los Cachorros as regular-season play draws to a close.
Brazil blanks Arcadia
Team Brazil, Lake Placid's ages 8 and under team, blanked a squad known only as "Arcadia" in Mexican Youth Soccer League action Saturday, Nov. 16, in Arcadia.
Brazil rode the crest of a pair of goals scored by Zuleima Barajas, another by Jenna Gutierez and a fourth by Alan Torres. Coach Jennifer Gutierrez reports that both of the goals scored by Barajas came on corner kicks which found their way into the net without assists. Jenna Gutierrez's goal was aided by a pass from Jazmin Velazquez and Jenna Gutierrez set up Alan Torres for his score late in the game.
Brazil's goalie, Jessica Martinez, presided over a shutout at the net, deftly turning away a number of scoring opportunities by the Arcadia team.
Strong defensive play came from Yoana Vazquez, Natalie Veloso Resendiz and Jaquelyn Vazquez.
Teams play to scoreless tie
In one of those grand defensive battles for which the game of soccer is noted, Lake Placid's Portugal team and a 13 and under squad from Arcadia played to a scoreless tie in Arcadia Mexican Youth soccer Saturday, Nov. 16.
"Our goalie, Miguel Ramirez, was clearly our player of the game," said Coach Jennifer Gutierrez. "They shot and shot at our goal and never got one past Miguel, he was all over the place," the coach said.
Strong defensive efforts also came from Jose Ramirez and Erin Gutierrez.
Portugal and Brazil have the week of Thanksgiving off. The final games of the season take place Saturday and Sunday Dec. 7 and 8.


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Johnsonville has introduced its new Sausage & Gravy Stuffed Biscuits for grab-n-go foodservice venues. These hand-held sandwiches are perfect for breakfast and snacking, creating more menu opportunity for convenience stores. Sausage & Gravy Stuffed Biscuits are well suited to provide early and late afternoon sales boosts because they fit into peak snack times. With nearly two-thirds of consumers saying they get their snacks at c-stores, Johnsonville has placed emphasis on developing this snack to match up well with the demands of these consumers. The new hand-held biscuits have a flaky buttermilk crust with Johnsonville sausage and just the right amount of gravy stuffed inside for that traditional feel-good combination. Individually packaged, Johnsonville's biscuits are ready to heat from the refrigerator, taking only 50 seconds in the microwave. The biscuit maintains its tender texture for up to four-hours in the warmer. They are frozen for storage convenience, and available four-pounds to a case.
For More Information From Johnsonville Sausage
(800) 837-5391

subset: commoncrawl


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Sonia, Rahul decision makers; PM a facade: Modi
Narendra Modi hit out at Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi over the claims made in a book by the Prime Minister's former aide, saying the mother and son would have to pay the "price" for running the UPA government from behind the scene.india Updated: Apr 19, 2014 14:24 IST
Narendra Modi on Saturday hit out at Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi over the claims made in a book by the Prime Minister's former aide, saying the mother and son would have to pay the "price" for running the UPA government from behind the scene.
"The book 'The Accidental Prime Minister' by Sanjaya Baru has brought to fore what we (BJP) have been saying for so long - that mother and son were the primary decision makers and Manmohan Singh was just a facade," he told a poll rally at Kakoijan in Baongaigaon district.
"It is clear (in the book) who was the actual prime minister. What Manmohan Singh says does not matter. Both mother and son have to pay a price for this," he said.
Continuing his tirade against the Congress, the BJP prime minister hopeful said "...Today, I cam across a very entertaining piece of news. The PMO has said that the Prime Minister had delivered over 1100 speeches during the ten years of his rule. This is just to prove that he is not 'Maun (silent) Mohan Singh.
The statement was made by the prime minister's Communications Adviser Pankaj Pachauri Friday to counter the damaging claims made by Baru, the former media adviser to Singh.
Modi said it would have been more appropriate if the PMO had issued a statement on what the Prime Minister had done for the poor and the common man, he said.
"Have the PMO's office ever announced what they have done for the Koch Rajbongshis or the tribals and adivasis of Assam? No they have not because they do not give you any importance or are concerned about you. They only remember you when elections come. Now it is your turn to forget them," he told the gathering.
He hit out at the Congress top leadership, saying it has become a "habit" with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to "spread lies" across the country. Rahul, he charged, was spreading lies by saying that small-scale industries are closing down in Gujarat.
Virtually throwing a challenge at the Congress vice-president, he said "Today both of us are in Assam, so let's face each other. Forget about Gujarat. What has your three-time Congress chief minister done to reopen the closed Ashok Paper Mills in the state? Has he taken any steps to provide employment opportunities for the youth?"
"The Congress has been cheating you. When they need your votes, the mother and the son comes to the fore but stay behind the curtains when running the government," he charged.


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This is the first view of the cemetery when you reach the hilltop. Looking south across a rusty fence. The first fieldstone is in view here in the center as a dark stand up object, but is not our focus here.
Very difficult to see the stones in this dark environment especially because they are scattered around.
As you go into the cemetery this brushy view continues to show.
And still looking across the fence a bit toward the southwest looking for memorial stones.
This view looks back north from inside the cemetery. The marked memorials are off to our left and are clustered together. This cemetery area is quite large with many unmarked graves. There could be hundreds buried here. That cannot be determined without a detail comprehensive survey and cleaning.
Photos and information by Wayne Austin, 17 Apr 2008.
Census Records | Vital Records | Family Trees & Communities | Immigration Records | Military Records Directories & Member Lists | Family & Local Histories | Newspapers & Periodicals | Court, Land & Probate | Finding Aids


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- Where can I find more help for this product, working with vector/GML format products?
Read the user guide for vector/GML format of this product.
- Where can I find support for the Raster format of VectorMap Local?
Please see the Raster format user guide.
OS VectorMap Local is a backdrop map that can be displayed at scales of 1:3 000 to 1:20 000. It is available in both raster and vector formats.
Video support
Find out more about how OS VectorMap can work for you and be styled and tailored to your organisation's requirements.
View more videos on our YouTube channel


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American Heritage Billiards Athos Dartboard And Cabinet
- Name: Athos Dartboard And Cabinet
- Collection: Athos
- Vendor: American Heritage Billiards
- Comment: Price may vary based on option(s) selected.
- Dimensions: 25"L x 5"D x 25"H
- Materials: Solid Asian hardwood and veneers
- Origin: Made in China
- Recommended Care: Dust with a dry, soft cloth periodically as needed.
- Warranty: 1 yr from all factory defects


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'Soon it's going to start raining - and it isn't going to stop'
EUGENE, Ore. - A windy blast of rain washed over Western Oregon on Thursday morning, prompting the first flooding calls of fall in Eugene.
"I'm trying to keep the leaves off the flood basins here so we can drain the water out of the streets and keep from getting splashed," said Wyatt Sebright with the maintenance team.
Of course, to paraphrase former Gov. Ted Kulongoski: This is Oregon. It rains here.
"Pretty typical fall weather," Laughton Elliot-Deangelis said over at the University of Oregon. "It's beautiful if you're wearing the right gear. It's awful if you're not."
It pays to be prepared.
"Rain boots, hiking boots - waterproof is key," Elliot-Deangelis. "A good friend of mine in Seattle always used to say, enjoy the weather now, because someday soon it's going to start raining- and it isn't going to stop."


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Wednesday, October 28, 2009
IRO Phoenix
Iro Cycle, which assembles single-speeds and fixed gears from its shop in Middleburg, Pennsylvania, has come out with the Phoenix, a relaxed geometry steel frame that is available as a three speed for $650 plus extras as they build it up for you. The frame includes mounts for two bottle cages and rack and fender mounts. It accepts 700 x 38cc tires, or 32c with fenders.
Here's hoping that IRO will restore its build-a-bike application on its website so customers can play around with the design before placing an order.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Another Point of View
Many of the latest city bikes (and bikes we have focused on here) feature internal gear hubs and chainguards or chaincases. This makes it easy to hop on and ride no matter what you're wearing. However, the blogger at Planetary Gears (a Minneapolis bike shop owner) offers his view that these types of bikes are not necessarily the best option for the practical cyclist. Check it out.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Jenny and Willy Schwinn
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It's remarkable how olive oil has walked in the same footprint as wine in recently capturing the public's fancy for flavor. No longer content to use the plain tasting traditional olive oil their ancestors used, like wine, it's what's new and different.Olive oil boutiques are sprouting up in shopping districts with tasting events booking fast. A new genre of marketing terms has the U.S. Department of Agriculture scrambling for standards.
Extra virgin, light with lemon, unfiltered, cold-pressed — the variety of olive oil on the shelves is confusing at best, and has never been defined, until now. Now, scientific standards for "virgin" and extra-virgin" will be enforced later this year, leveling the playing field for small producers and retailers.
Why the rush to olive oil? For wineries, it's simple. This is a ready cash crop that they can sell almost as soon as they can pick their olives, crush them and bottle them, while their wine ages in barrels for a year or much more before being sold.
Nutritionists keep telling us what those in Mediterranean countries have known for centuries; olive oil is the backbone of a rustic, farm-to-table diet that will keep your weight down and put years on to your life. Sprinkled in salads, added to pastas, a dip for home-made bread, this tasty and nutritious liquid gold, is medicinal, magical and dependable. It can last at least a year on the shelf and will not go rancid.
Up in Temecula, Villa Calabro Winery and Olive Oil Company in Old Town Temecula with Mike Calabro, a wine and olive oil maker, does olive oil tasting with extra virgin olive oil and flavor-infused accents such as garlic, scallion, rosemary, basil and oregano. It is one of only two locations in Southern California that make their own olive oil. Call for hours at (951) 695-4525.
Baker and Olive is a more urban operation in Encinitas, and now in Carmel Valley. They specialize in freshly pressed extra virgin olive oil and nicely aged balsamic vinegars. Fresh homemade breads are also sold. For more on Baker and Olive, call (760) 944-7840.
At harvest, olive picking is by hand with a wide net at the base of the tree to catch them. Baskets (in Italy they're called cassettas) should make about 3 liters of olive oil. Extra virgin olive oil is considered the finest and means there has been no chemical treatment to enhance and refine the product. It also has nearly no acidity , thus a vastly superior taste.
Villa Capri 2 presents Chateau Montelena Wines
A rare and historic occasion is coming to San Diego on July 26 when Villa Capri 2 brings Napa Valley's Chateau Montelena in for a five-course dinner and wine tasting, starting at 6 p.m. This follows a historic wine event recently with the Italian favorite, Allegrini from Valpolicella.
The restaurant enriches its wine dinner events with a passion for a sweeping variety of great tastes. On the Allegrini night, diners feasted on calamari, salmon, ravioli, New Zealand lamb chops and special homemade dessert. The best Allegrini of the evening was the Amarone blend, 2007, the "Palazzo Della Torre." Chateau Montelena is sure to please and sell out. It is priced at $75 per person. Call in an RSVP at (858) 538-5884.
Wine Bytes
Northern Italian wines are tasted from 4o to 8:30 p.m. June 29 at Bacchus Wine Market in the Gaslamp, downtown San Diego. Cost is $20 for seven tastes from Barolo, Amarone and elsewhere. Call (619) 236-0005 for details.
Falkner Winery in Temecula is celebrating their 12th anniversary June 30 and July 1. Lots of Jazz music, winery tours, hourly raffles and big discounts on wines and lunches in the Pinnacle Restaurant. More info at (951) 676-8231, ext. 1.
Carruth Cellars in Solana Beach is having a bottling party from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. June 30 and July 1. They are bottling 2,900 wines. Cost to participate is $30. and includes a bottle of the new wine and live entertainment. Call (858) 847-9463 for details.
The new Marina Kitchen in the Marriott San Diego Marina is presenting Social Media Day on June 30. Enthusiasts are urged to mix, mingle and network. Time will be 5 to 9 p.m. Food and wine sampling highlighted. First 100 get a goodie bag with free items. To RSVP this free event, visit socialmediadaysandiego.com.
Flemings La Jolla wants you to celebrate your favorite wines with complimentary corkage, now thru Aug. 31. Limit two bottles per visit. Fleming's First Friday features Paso Robles wines from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. July 6. Cost is $25 per person. For more information, call (858) 535-0078.


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You have a couple curl types but it appears looser on the back sides and tighter in some areas and even straight in other areas.
You might want to first decide the style you want to wear it in and go from there.
I would recommend trying a full curly top and low tapered around the edges.
Have your barber taper your low sides and don't cut any on top.
To style the top just dampen it with your wet hands and then "scrub and mash" in your gel or conditioner just on the ends of each hair. Add more product and water (just to the ends) so it can clump and curl up.
The reason you don't want to add product to the hair close to the scalp is because you will want to have a fuller curl style that doesn't look too thin or matted down. But definitely use lots of product on the ends of your hair all over.
If you are going to grow your hair long, real long, then learn about natural care products but if you just want good looking hair then use products that help you achieve the look instead of being too concerned with healthy hair for growing out.
Just a guy with long curly hair


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Avalon Organics, Moisture Plus Lotion, Broad Spectrum SPF 15, Lavender Luminosity , 7 oz (198 g) (Discontinued Item)
- You earn loyalty credit for every order you place at iHerb!
- Loyalty credit is equal to 5% of the value of your order after discounts and credits applied, excluding shipping charges.
- Your loyalty credit will be applied towards your next order as soon as your current order has shipped.
- Your loyalty credits are valid for up to 90 days from the date of your last purchase.
Avalon Organics, Moisture Plus Lotion, Broad Spectrum SPF 15, Lavender Luminosity , 7 oz (198 g) (Discontinued Item)
Shipping Weight:?0.65 lbsSwitch to Metric units
- Product Code: AVA-35320
- UPC Code: 654749353202
- Package Quantity: 7 oz (198 g)
1.7 x 2.1 x 7 in, 0.55 lbsSwitch to Metric units
- New More Sustainable
- Hypo-Allergenic
- Lotion Protects from UV-Induced Dullness for Renewed Radiance
- NSF Certified Organic Ingredients
- Contains 70% Organic Content
Safe, Effective, Certified, Natural Skincare Without Synthetic Fragrances, Phthalates, Harsh Sulfates or Parabens
Uses - Helps prevent sunburn • If used as directed with other sun protection measures (see Directions), decreases the risk of skin cancer and early skin aging caused by sun exposure.
Suggested Use
Apply liberally after cleansing and toning and 15 minutes before sun exposure. Skin Protection Measures: Spending time in the sun increases your risk of skin cancer and early skin aging. To decrease risk, regularly use a sunscreen with Broad Spectrum SPF 15 or higher and other protective measures including: limit time in the sun, especially form 10 am to 2 pm and wear long-sleeved shirts, pants, hats and sunglasses.
Other Ingredients
|Drug Facts
|Active Ingredient
|Titanium Dioxide 2.0%
|Zinc Oxide 7.5%
Inactive Ingredient Aloe barbadensis leaf juice (¹), aqua (water), helianthus annuus (sunflower) seed oil (¹), simmondsia chinensis (jojoba) seed oil (¹), glyceryl stearate, cetyl alcohol, glycerin, polyglycerol-10 laurate, cetearyl olivate, magnesium aluminum silicate, sorbitan olivate, borage officinalis seed oil (¹), citrus aurantifolia (lime) oil, citrus limon (lemon) peel oil, lavandula angustifolia (lavender) oil, linum usitatissimum (lineseed) seed oil (¹), rosa canina (rose hip) fruit oil (¹), arnica montaa flower extract (¹), calendula officinalis flower extract (¹), camellia sinensis leaf extract (¹), chamomilla recutita (matricaria) flower extract (¹), curcuma longa (turmeric) root extract (¹), laminaria digitata (kelp) extract (¹), lavandula angustifolia (lavender) flower extract (¹), saccharomyces/xylinum/black tea ferment (¹, ²), ascorbic acid, tocopherol acetate, alcohol (¹), benzyl alcohol, potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate, citral coumarin, geraniol, limonene, linalool
(¹)Certified Organic Ingredient (²) From Kombucha Product is preserved with Sodium Benzoate
Hypo-Allergenic for Sensitive Skin.
No Parabens, Harsh Preservatives, Synthetic Colors or Fragrances, Phthalates, Sodium Lauryl or Laureth Sulfate.
100% Vegetarian Ingredients.
Certified by QAI to NSF/ANSI 305, the American National Standard for personal care products containing organic ingredients
No Animal Testing
For external use only. Do not use on damaged or broken skin. When using this product keep out of eyes. Rinse with water to remove. Stop use and ask a doctor if skin rash occurs. Keep out of reach of children. If swallowed, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Center right away.
Great product
Verified Purchase
Great product
Makes my skin feel soft, and smells great. I wouldn't be without it.
Was this review helpful to you?
Reformulated - Left my face white
Posted by iHerb Customer on Aug 22, 2014 | Verified Purchase
I've been using Avalon products for years due to sensitive skin and loved the original products. All of the products have since been reformulated and the lavender sunscreen is now horrible. The previous formula was very moisturizing and when applied left a natural skin appearance. I applied the reformulated version and my face was left looking unnaturally white. The new formula also left a burning sensation on my skin that I thought might subside as the day progressed, but never did. I will now have to find a different sunscreen after being a loyal customer of Avalon Organics for years... so very disappointing.
Formula Changed
Posted by iHerb Customer on Mar 26, 2014 | Verified Purchase
I re-ordered this product through I-herb several months ago, and only just began using the newer bottle in the past few weeks. I'm disappointed because it seems that they changed the formula to be more SUNSCREEN based. While I DO use this product for the purposes of an everyday sunscreen, now when i put this on, I get the "white-face" of the thicker and heavier zinc oxide additives in the lotion. What bothers me, is that I can SMELL the zinc oxide and Titanium Dioxide all day long on my face, similar to heavier, dedicated sunblocks. What I used to love about this face lotion, is how well it hydrated my dry skin, and gave me all day moisturization, with a light amount of sunblock. The pleasant smell lavender smell was the added bonus. Now it behaves and SMELLS just like my 30spf Neutrogena sunblock, or even worse the Blue Lizard sunblock i use when boating! This product used to have a very pleasant smell, and more moisturizing qualities, now the new formula has moved to more broad spectrum UVA/UVB based ingredients, and what I previously loved about it (fragrance/moisturization) is gone. Sadly, I won't be buying this again, and I would have used this product for MANY years.
Posted by iHerb Customer on Sep 25, 2013 | Verified Purchase
a little bit feel arcoholic
Posted by iHerb Customer on Mar 19, 2013 | Verified Purchase
When I first tried this product I was wondering if I bought the wrong thing. I was looking for the Lavender line's moisturizer. I read the info from this page and it says for face and neck so I assumed it was a moisturizer with sun block. This was WAY greasy, I opened the bottle and took out the pump and I see greenish oil all along it, even after shaking it up. Im not concerned with the color as certain oils are green, like grape seed, but the consistancy is just gross and oily! I've used it a few times, and I had to use translucent powder after ward to stop the "shiny" glow. I've never had to use powder before for this reason. I'd love to keep using this product as I love all the other Lavender products but I cant get behind this. It also causes my cheeks to sting after I put it on, it only lasts a min or so but I can only imagine how much it could hurt someone with very sensitive or dry skin that's cracked! It makes no sense, the night cream is thick and isn't greasy or oily and sinks in immediately. All I can think is that the sunscreen portion of this makes it icky!
Posted by iHerb Customer on Dec 24, 2012 | Verified Purchase


text: Vendeur: bone-identity (1.542) 98.8%, Lieu où se trouve: Wigan, Lancashire, Lieu de livraison: Worldwide, Numéro de l'objet: 252442770741 Type: Rhinestone/Diamante Collar, Features: Bell, Material: Faux Leather, Brand: Prince and Princess, Les Détails: Luxor Cat Collar This gorgeous cat collar is a beautiful collar for your pampered cat. Last one left in silver. They feature a row of 7 sparkling crystals. They have an elastic safety joint to ensure your cat is safe and also a tinkering bell as recommended by the RSPB. They are fully adjustable with 5 buckle holes and has a D ring to attach charms or tags. The buckle is encrusted in diamantes too to add an extra bling. SIZE: To fit neck 20 to 28 cm (8-11") Width 1 cm Material: High quality imitation-leather When measuring your pet for the collar size, ensure that you can get 2 fingers underneath the collar so it is not too tight around your pet. If your pet is on the top end of the measurement they may be better with the next size up. We will exchange or refund any items as long as it is in an unused condition with any of the packaging/labels attached (You can try them on your dog or cat first though). Any questions please ask. Please see our other dog and cat products. Please note we cannot be held responsible for your dog getting lots of attention for looking like a pampered pooch in their new togs.


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Also available on CD / Digital
Side A1. Down With The Moon2. We´d Rather Be Some Criminals3. Blazing Bright4. Hail Hail5. See No Evil6. Old LordSide B1. Brother Gold Miner2. The Sound Of Thunder3. An Old Wives´ Tale4. The Wizard5. The Ghostwalk #2
Pretty Lightning was formed in 2007 by two childhood friends Christian Berghoff and Sebastian Haas, who grew up together in a small town in Southwest Germany, before relocating to Saarbruecken, a slightly bigger small town. In essence a raw psychedelic-blues duo that on the surface could be seen as kindred spirits to the likes of Wooden Shjips or Moon Duo, Pretty Lightning also appear to mirror a freak-folk sensibility found in the likes of Sunburned Hand of the Man and their Stateside compatriots. But they also reflect their closer geographic roots - echoing the communal, ritualistic krautrock of Amon Duul II or perhaps the primitivism of Swedens International Harvester (both Berghoff and Haas are also part of the Saarlouis-based Datashock collective).
But if such comparisons serve to place the band in some kind of loose context, they should not undermine such a heartfelt outcome, nor steer the listener away from the bands melodic leanings - There Are Witches in the Woods delivers hooks and harmonies on a grand scale. Recorded in Autumn 2010, the album is the result of the band shutting itself away in a cavernous room to capture the breadth of their sonic vision. Formed around a crux of drums, vocals and a variety of guitars, the arrangements are bolstered by shruti-drones, organ loops and theremins, giving a sense of space and scope to eleven sweet, succinct chapters, and the album as a whole.
mailing list contact where to buy?
Hosted by Woima


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WASHINGTON — When Barack Obama decided last week to throw off the constraints on campaign spending that go with the acceptance of public financing, he was rightly criticized for rigging the system in his own favor.
That was a predictable response. For the better part of four decades, the press and public interest groups have focused on campaign spending as the most serious distorting force in our elections.
Meantime, they have paid much less attention to what may well be a larger problem: the way that district lines are drawn to create safe havens for one party or the other, in effect denying voters any choice of representation.
It is not a new problem. The original gerrymander was a creation of 18th century Massachusetts, and politicians have been using ever more sophisticated tools to rig the game ever since. With computer technology, their ability to design districts that meet the legal requirement for equal population, while guaranteeing their fellow partisans easy passage into office, has never been greater.
In 2002 and 2006, about nine out of 10 congressional districts were won by more than 10 percentage points — a clear sign that the game had been rigged in advance, when the lines were drawn.
As a number of scholars have pointed out, the scarcity of real competition in nearly all districts has many consequences — all bad. It makes legislators less responsive to public opinion, since they are in effect safe from challenge in November. It shifts the competition from the general election to the primary, where candidates of more extreme views can hope to attract support from passionately ideological voters and exploit the low turnouts typical of those primaries.
Gerrymandered districts tend to send highly partisan representatives to the House or the legislature, contributing to gridlock in government.
These are familiar complaints in academic and journalistic circles. And this week, another count was added to the indictment, with a report from the Democratic Leadership Conference titled "Gerrymandering the Vote."
It makes the point that these rigged districts have the effect of suppressing the vote.
The numbers are startling. In both 2002 and 2006, voter turnout in districts where the winner received at least 80 percent of the votes struggled to reach 125,000. Turnout in the districts where the margin was 20 percent or less exceeded 200,000.
The study compiled by the DLC's Marc Dunkelman found big variations among the states in the competitiveness of their House districts. The average margin in Massachusetts in 2006 was almost 75 percent. Next door in New Hampshire, it was under 5 percent.
Dunkelman calculated the potential turnout increase for individual states, if their district lines were redrawn to emphasize competitiveness. The gains ranged as high as 59 percent for Louisiana and 49 percent for New York.
Dunkelman estimates that competitive districts might attract 3-million more voters in California and almost 2-million more in New York. Overall, 11-million more Americans might show up at the polls.
How to change the lines? Iowa and Washington have instituted nonpartisan or bipartisan redistricting systems and have been rewarded with much more competitive House races. So it can be done.
But the politicians are unlikely to do it on their own. Only if the voters demand reform is there a chance it will come.
© Washington Post Writers Group


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It only takes a minute to get started. Fill out our uncomplicated sign up form and login to the site.
This step is voluntary but will seriously enhance your chances of getting interest from other over 50s members on the site. Write a little about yourself, your hobbies and atach your nicest photo of yourself.
Utilise our website's state-of-the-art search to find over 50s members who fulfill your requirements. Or just leaf through listings and find daters that pique your interest.
Discovered someone who tickles your fancy? Send a message to them or just a wink and see if anything develops. With a little luck you'll be on your way to true love.
It's really quick


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Our History
D&M Excavating, Inc. began in 1976. Our company has seen significant milestones over the years, including the recent transition of management to its second generation.
Through the years, D&M has been recognized as a leading contractor in both the public and private sectors. A key to our success here at D&M is the ability to provide our customers with a complete site development package including mass grading and underground utilities. By staying ahead of technology and continually educating our employees, we provide the safest and most cost effective site solution for any project. We have subcontractor relationships with reputable companies so that our customers are provided with a full service.


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giant KotzfleckItem #: 17500
£4.85incl. VAT, plus shipping
Delivery until 26.09. possible**
Fitting for this:
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giant Kotzfleck
A classic among joke articlesOur huge Kotzfleck is ideal to cause nasty horror at your fellow man.Want to annoy your colleagues, shock partygoers or revenge on someone? With the disgusting Kunstkotze you will achieve this goal very well and have especially a lot of fun!
The artificial Kotzfleck plastic has a considerable size (diameter ca.45-50 cm) and is topped with real leftovers look even nastier.Thus its uses and the ick factor be increased, the corresponding reactions of your friends are you sure! More fun stuff classics such as the popular Dungbombs or Whoopee Cushion Novelty Item we also provide for you in the range!
1 x Giant Kotzfleck
- Color: Yellow-green
- Size: Ø ca.45-50 cm
- Material: plastic


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San Diego Supercomputer Center, June 29 & 30, 1999
IEPM home page | Tutorial | PingER Help | PingER Tools | PingER Summary Reports| PingER Detail Reports
|First Workshop
|2nd Workshop
There were about 40 attendeess mainly from Research & Education sites and in particular Internet 2 sites. Most of the invitees run various Internet monitoring activities, or fund them.
Programs like NSF are all about demonstrated results, success helps future awards. Thus measurements is very important to the funding agencies. Interest comes from many quarters include: Congress has bipartisan support for NGI, there is the Presidents Information Technical Advisory Committee (PITAC), universities (constituents) expectations, network research community, there is a tension between populism and elitism (e.g. not enough money to support everybody, so fund the more successful universities), tension between putting money into infrastructure versus research.
The motivations for measurements include advancing the state of measurements themselves, and measurements as a tool for demonstrating return on investment (ROI), e.g. how much of a difference has plowing $100M into vBNS made.
For research he identified development of tools and information, problem avoidance & anticipation, identification of behaviors that norms, how to scale for growth, adaptive access.
For ROI demonstration how does it differ from the commodity Internet, what is being done, who is doing it, what is happening in endpoints, in LANs, in CANs (Campus Area Networks), in WANs across LANs, CANs, WANs.
Other issues include educating the people asking the questions, preserving anonymity, non-intrusiveness, responding to multiple constituencies, multi-provider dynamics, involvement of other disciplines (e.g. statisticians).
The review covered advanced network research, NGI testbeds, NGI applications, geographic reach, minority & small college, tech transfer ... Only the 1st 3 were in the original NGI goals.
They (PITAC) want (aka "are not satisfied with"):
What do we do, e.g.: start tabulating testing the 100 sites; set up a measurement mesh between NGI sites; build an acceptable traffic report; keep track of top speeds/apps; greater focus on the campus and end-systems. We need a response in the next 6 months, i.e. by end of year. It would doable to create, configure of the order of 20 AMPs (or ~ $1.5K each) or Surveyors (~$4.5K each, extra cost for GPS stuff) to place at NGI sites. Need to define sites, define mesh, populate the sites with machines. Still need to define the questions as to what the mesh should answer. Other things could be to include stats from OC3MONs, and also TCP analyses from Matt Mathis and provide information back to the users as to how they need to improve their apps/stacks etc. It would also be useful to show improvements in the Internet, such as PingER long term plots with additions for the NGI sites starting ASAP.
Just for background the PITAC has very few network experts and though the people on the sub-committee were smart none of them were network experts.
Need list of 100 (or more) sites with >= 100Mbps connectivity. This list could include the Point OF Contact (POC), Lat/long, test address, nets (DREN, Abilene, vBNS, ESnet etc.), speed of Internet connect, what monitoring they have (Surveyor, NIMI, AMP, Netperf ...) the short name of the site.
Shared information on a proposal from the Federal register from OMB " require Federal awarding agencies to ensure that all research results, including underlying research data, funded by the Federal Government are made available to the public through the procedures established under the Freedom of Information Act". This could give rise to problems with sanitizing data to ensure privacy (e.g. removing addresses from traces). "The amended Circular shall apply to all federally funded research, regardless of the level of funding or whether the award recipient is also using non-Federal funds". A discussion ensued: what if the unsantized data owned by someone else, e.g. MCI, XIWT but available to the federally funded research, who santize it and make their own copy. UCSD are taking up the issue at the president level, since they believe it undermines any scientific research. It is not just the measurement community, it is all research.
Goals are to support advanced applications: high bandwidth, low latency, low loss, multicast, QoS. How to answer the question "my application has a problem"; is it the end-host, the network.
I2 structure has end sites (universities) conected to gigapops which are connected to the backbone. Meaurements goals are for forward engineering, enable network research, feedback to applications (adaptive access), operational data (performance, flows, anomalies).
Measurement classifications: utilization (usually SNMP), active measurements, passive measurements, routing.
Want to know where loss occurs when it happens (or delay). Also want advanced services debugging for multicast, QoS (QBone designing measurement in), service level specification conformance.
Need consistent measurement of utilization, performance, traffic characterization that are made generally available in support of applications and the network themselves.
Large Scale Networking (LSN) JET is a coordination body for 6 major JET networks including Abilene, DREN, ESnet, NISN (NASA Integrated Services Network), NREN (NASA Research & Education Network), vBNS. This is tied to the NGI goal 2.1 for 100 sites at 100x speed (basically 100 Mbps). Goal 2.2 is to connect 10 sites at 1000x (i.e. Gbps).
Focus was on NGI inter-exchanges. West coast was NASA-Ames, midddle was STAR-Tap, E. Coast to be be College Park Md. There are 11 exchange points today.
NGI needs from performance & measurements. Need to tabulate the 100 sites, how does one choose the 100. NSF has connected 150, other agencies have connected sites. Need to test and verify sites exist. Then set up a measurement mesh between the sites. Want to verify that sites do have > 100 Mbps. PITAC requested an Internet traffic report for the layman even though most research folks feel it is bogus, so we need to come up with the same ease of use and understanding and yet is not bogus. Also want to better track top speeds/applications and a greater focus on the campus and end systems.
Important messages: window size is very important (e.g. default of coast to coast with typical default window size of 8KBytes only allows < 2 Mbps, 64KB window gives 11 Mbps coast to coast); latency matters (routes, may need to have better ways to choose a route with low latency vers); loss rate matters; MTU matters (need to use MTU discovery, need a path from every host to DMZ that does not reduce MTU to 1500 Bytes, i.e. preserve the MTU); disable slow interfaces; campus infrastructure matters
Software has to deal with more than 4 orders of magnitude of bandwidth (i.e. from 56 kbps thru Gbps). Most traffic on Internet is TCP and most of TCP is HTTP, and typical HTTP "session" is about 12 packets, which does not allow TCP to get through start-up.
Packet filtering problem increasing unpingable 20 Jul 98 28 Jun 99 10.3% to 14.7%, trace 4.6% to 12.1%. Ideas UDP ping, authenticated traces. People/crackers tunneling IP applications thru ICMP.
Define a campus DMZ measurement machine for making RTT and throughput measurements to. Also need a test suite, create an NGI traffic/status report. Concerning burstiness are 5 minute samples good enough. Would be nice to have a no-brainer that tells you what your network performance is like (e.g. like security scanner but for performance), relationship between utilization and packet loss (RED increases link utilization, but also increases packet loss, does individual flow performance go down); is there a wave phenomena in the Internet (i.e. periodicity in frequency space, analogous to reflections in an audio network).
Other issues/discussion topics:
site-to-site vs. end-to-end performance
They monitor the SNMP MIBS in switches, routers etc. The Cisco routers were found to be reporting incorrect counter values which means the data is only correct from the Fore switches. The RTT are now surpased by the NLANR AMP results. For performance tests firstname.lastname@example.com uses ttcp, mping and treno between Sun Ultras at all terminals and Dec alphas at SCCs (Super Computer Centers). The commercial internet is dominated by Web traffic, games also shows up in the top 3 protocols followed by NNTP. vBNS shows HTTP and FTP about equal. Port 514 shows up and is heavily used by USGS & NCAR for large data transfers of geographic data. vBNS is more bursty, fewer aggregated flows, much larger flows, larger packet sizes, higher percentage of UDP flows. They make a lot of data to the research community. All SNMP data is available, the normal flows data is available, packet & cell traces may be made available (but concern over sensitivity may require node identification filtering).
Relationships with NLANR (NCNE, DAST, MOAT), CAIDA.
They are looking at how to support QoS. Can't run WRED (Weighted Random Early Drop - Cisco code release problem). Looking at a proof of concept of putting in an OCxMON box in-line to intercept all packets, check the precedence and remap the traffic to VCs.
10 Cisco 12008 GSRs, OC48 coast to coast, OC12 links too, POS, Access OC12, OC3. Can't use OC12MON yet, an OC12POS coming, there is no netflow, OC48 counters never worked right, now fixed; there is lots & lots of data.Now getting utilization routing & external performance. They have NEMO (network monitor), Abilene weather map, RPG (router proxy gateway). They also use "what's up" and MRTG. NEMO monitors all the interfaces on all routers every 3 seconds. The data is stored in binary form and they are working on a standard export summary format. The weather map shows traffic between the Abilene backbone nodes, with colored arrows, can click link to come up with MRTG plot, if click on points then get all router links available. The plot is for data aggregated over 5 minutes. Also has animated replay. See http://www.abilene.iu.edu/
The router proxy gateway (RPG) allows you to execute Cisco commands, it checks the command to ensure it is OK, it rate limits, provides access to a limited number of Cisco commands (e.g. show IP *, show interface *,) limits output to 300 lines. See http://hydra.uits.iu.edu/~abilene/proxy/ for more information or contact Steve Wallace at firstname.lastname@example.com
This reported on Surveyor measurements. Internet complex, even providers don't understand how it works in great detail, applications are getting more demanding. Surveyor uses the IETF/IPPM framework in particular one way loss & delay.
Minimum of delay gives transmission/propoagation delay, variability gives queuing. They use measorements for problem determination, engineering (trends, lofas), monitor QoS, network research, feedback to advanced applications etc. They have a centralized database to store data, and web based reporting tools. Will move from BSDI to FreeBSD.
They are making active one way delay and loss, test packets are time-stamped with GPS time, back to back calibration: 95% of measurements +1 100us => 10 us soon. Measurements centrall managed. They also make concurrent routing measurements. Thye are QoS ready (via EF DS byte). Poisson scheduled, average rate of 2 / second. Use a random port number per session (sessions stops if lose GPS lock, or software problem or hardware problems) to stop routers treating them specially.
Modified traceroutes randomly scheduled every 10 minutes.
They use a flat file database (used to be Oracle), collect via ssh. Now have 55 machines with 1883 paths at Universities, tele-immersion Labs, National Labs, APAN, NZ, Canada.
They have daily summary reports, integration with route measurements, Java applet to dynamically graph almost ready, developing aynchronous notification of problems. Have added an indication of when routes were measured, have an animated display of the last month data day by day.
Observe that routing is asymmetric, even if symmetric queuing may be assymmetric, can detect level 2 changes (SONET failover or ATM routing). Have observed low delay with bad loss, high delay without loss. HPC connections provide low-latency low-loss.
Failover to commodity Internet shows how bad it can get. As universities obtain I2 connections measure fewer commodity paths.
Want to look more at correlation of the measurements and applications. They are concerned about the N**2 problem of full mesh measurements.
AMP is a commodity PC based on FreeBSD is used to actively monitor at all or most HPC sites, hope to deploy at every single campus, have 65 monitors so far. Site-to-site measurements between NSF funded HPC sites: to complement pop-to-pop measurements taken by HPNSPs. There is no GPS requirement which makes things simpler. The consistent machine at each sites simplifies things by removing unknowns specific to a particular machine. Measure RTT, loss, topology and throughput between about 65 sites with a full-mesh. NLANR provided hardware and administration. Monitor a few extra machines which are not monitors (e.g. OCxMONs). Have two analysis machines which each store the data for redundancy. Are willing to ship raw data to people who ask for. They sample once/minute. The throughput measurements (see http://moat.nlanr.net/QActmon/) are not made regularly rather on demand via a Web page. One can choose the mechanism (e.g. treno). They can schedule throughput tests on demand from users. Traceroutes are done every 10 minutes. They do nothing with BGP at the moment, they are interested in cross-correlation between BGP & traceroute. Have not done much work between ping loss, RTT and throughput. Tony thinks there will not be a strong correlation in general since there are so many things going on, it may depend on the observation period.
They are working on event detection: using process charts (a simple statistical method used in process management where one takes a window and report the percentiles in the window, then report when have n samples in a row outside the percentile) & heuristics; localization: path decomposition and IPMP (a measurement friendly protocol that is lightweight, can be implemented in the routers (but does not have to be, but if it is, it is as easy to implement in the router as just forwarding a packet so it is a good indicator of router performance, and does not cost extra so ISPs will not limit), and at end nodes). See http://moat.nlanr.net/AMP/IPMP/ for more details on IPMP.
They have surveyors at MC, CA, AK & HI. They see steps in performance due to load balancing on routes. They were looking at reachability to 300 HPCMP PIs with locations from business email addresses & Lat Long from phone number. Approximately 200 of 300 on DREN & 20 of the 100 were on vBNS. Phil has a map of where N. American exchange numbers are located. He pointed out the needs for IP address to ASN mapping (in Europe RIPE will revamp and concentrate on ASN origin authentication and it may be enforced), IP address to Lat/Long & country (RIPE database will give the country by prefix and by AS), ASN to name mapping (RIPE has a database which provides this), connect to a web site to tell you about your system, portable surveyors for use on campus to measure to the DMZ at times (the RIPE machine could be made portable, but has to be up for a couple of hours in order to get better than millisecond accuracy), a test machine at every campus DMZ
This is important for future funding of NGI programs. Their goal for the testbeds is to provide necessary bandwidth, low latency, QoS & security. They are having a problem learning how well the NGI testbeds are operating, they want a systematic measurement of bandwidth latency etc. to desktop. Would be helpful if agencies report daily averages and peak-minute measurements of these metrics for many links (e.g. http://www.internettraffic report.com/). In 1999 review max performance was ~ 10MBytes/sec for IP and 0.6MBps for TCP these are disappointing. They hope for substantial progress.
Hurst parameter is not an accurate indicator of queuing performance. They are looking at bps throughput for TCP, then used tcptrace from Shawn Osterman. An example of the reports is to show all flows with over 1Mbps for port 80 (FTP) and 80 (http). At UCLA they have a netperf client that can access netperf.ucla.edu to run a netperf to the client machine. Performance problems are usually caused by the on and off ramps to the backbones or by the clients.
They have built some bidirectional measurement hardware that is deployed at many sites. DAG is the generic name for a series of boards that they have built. They use an FPGA to get the time from pps and an ARM processor that can provide the GPS to the PC. The physical interfaces working are 25Mbps, E3, DS3, OC3, OC12, OC48 (2 mos), thinking about OC192. For the higher speeds there are difficulties in how to capture the information. They also support POS (Packet Over Sonet)and 10/100 Ethernet. They are looking at Gbps Ethernet. The FPGA now have up to 1M gate equivalents running at 100MHz with a downloaded image from the PC. They support Linux & FreeBSD drivers and they also support CORAL.
The GPS is accurate to +- 0.25us to UTC (1 sec pulses corrected for drift offline (oscillators drift by a few parts per million), will do online soon). They are looking at temperature compensated oscillators.
They have recorded many ATM traces and can do full cell capture of ATM (at OC12) but usually run out of diskspace so tend to get timestamp and CRC header for ATM, for IP get the timestamp, CRC and header for 56 bytes which gets most of the header.
For measurements they are looking at traffic statistics, can measure switch delays down to SONET frame jitter. Current sites are: Aukland, NZIX, vBNS/NLANR, U of Calgary, Monash. They do not run continuously, run for a five minutes twice a day (this is long enough for many flows).
What can go wrong: the OS has bugs which are version dependent, single/multi user etc. So need to validate the measurements, run dual configurations to check setup. The hardware solution removes the OS, so is likely to be more accurate. The more expensive hardware system can be used to calibrate other more lightweight systems.
VoIP measurements between US and NZ shows minimum delay of about 90 msec with good consistency to the US (e.g. < 120 msec. max). US to NZ much more varied 120 msec to 350 msec. Also show little difference in VoIP to non VoIp traffic. They are looking at how to gather long term trends for VoIP by detecting H.323 and other protocols (nb UDP uses non fixed ports). For TCP they want to extract individual sessions, estimate latency, queuing delays, server delays etc.
They would like to make the data available, but where to store it (NZ pays for transit of data across Pacific). They are working on validation and careful recording of OS etc., they are also concerned about security and hiding IP addresses.
More validation of traces is a big issue, need to ensure timestamps are in order, check that merged bidirectional data is properly merged.
For statistics they are using wavelet transforms in collaboration with a group in Melbourne, mixture of exponentials (can heavy tails look like self similarity), non parametric weighted models.
There will be a PAM (Performance Analysis and Measurements) - 2000 NZ conference at Waikato, April 3-4 just after the IETF in Adelaide Australia.
See http://caida.caida.org/Tools/CoralReef/
They have a Perl and C interface to their program libraries so can write initially in Perl then port to C later. They have tcpdump support so can read tcpdump files (instead of getting from OCxMON) into their tools (so can use instead of lib/pcap) and they support ATM (which lib/pcap) does not. They provide analysis examples, e.g. how to count bytes for protocols. They have continuous data collection for operational situations with a lot of examples for generating reports. They are working on security modules to filter things (e.g. start doing full trace when see some activity such as a portmapper request). Cleaning up the drivers so better integrated.
End-to-end active user level test for EOS & CEOS. Need to know if network meeting requirements, redolve problems. plan, determine bottlenecks.
Test process runs script hourly runs traceroute (# hops & from changes get congestion analysis), throughput (runs for 30 secs to keep socket buffer full) and pings (100). They have a lot of collaboration sites on vBNS so interested in it. Showed plots of min/max/median throughput. Compared vBNSwith SprintLink. Show correlation of Loss RTT & thruput and they track when plotted hourly for several days.
After the talk I got together with Andy to look in detail at some of his data to see how it might be used to indicate the correlation between thruput, loss and RTT, and a formula for TCP bandwidth (BW < 1460/(RTT*sqrt(loss))). The agreement looks encouraging for data between GSFC and LANL.
There is a new link to STAR-Tap from APAN (AU, JP, KR, SG, US) and they are making measurements on this. The DOE has NGI applications with combustion, global climtae modeling, particle physics, teleimmersion, Xray crystallography, they are identtifying the application characteristics and instrument the network accordingly. A 3rd interest is Globus which needs middleware to enable advanced distributed computing, they use Netperf to make measurements.
Issues: OS + TCP/IP stack (FreeBSD, Linux, Solaris), NICs, tools (b/cprobe, bing, netperf, mping, tcpdump, ttcp), traffic generators (burst, CBR), traffic capture and playback, multicast, jitter, persistence (i.e. it needs to continue working without intervention).
Interchange for many international networks, the NGIX and several universities and research sites (e.g. FNAL). Will install an OC3MON, Surveyor and an AMP at STAR-TAP. Looking at having a second AMP mesh for International sites and then link at the STAR-TAP to the US mesh. Would like to see more Surveyors supported outside the US. Prefer third party measurements rather than self measurements.
Active one way delay, loss, routes, follow relevant RFCs, IPPM, similar to Surveyor, independent platform and inter-ISP traffic. Run FreeBSD, have GPS, get time to few us. Have 43 test boxes, 37 in Europe, 5 in US, 1 in Israel. 33 taking data. Get daily plots, access to data base with routing vectors. Working on delay & loss alarms, weather map. Routing vectors show paths from one host to another user can query, changes in routing can explian changes in delays. Working on delay & loss. Look at distributions to see multiple peaks. Constantly calculate percentiles and compare with previous values looking for a significant difference, then send alarm to sites running boxes. Concerned about false alarms, maybe let site set own thresholds.
They are also looking at long term trends. They will parametrize losses/delays following relevant RFCs. They will plot over time, look for effects, intended as a tool for planning start work in August.
They want to create a quality of the network page summary on 1 page, both short & long term, explain what is in table, be scientically defendable, define some acceptable use plocy, define metrics are needed. Need to discuss what people want to see in a report such as this.
Further analysis projects: delay vs packet sizes, bandwidth vs. throughput, more detailed study of packet losses, relation between delays and routing changes, N**2 problem & modeling paths maybe dynamically reduce the number of paths with as few assumptions on the network as possible.
Will continue to expand with more machines, sites will have to pay for boxes ($2.5K/box), want to improve the clocks, use for external networks only (basic support for "private" experiments), watch RIPE email list email@example.com for details (majordomo list).
Software system to facilitate widespread deployment of measurement platforms. To be scalable (> 1000 nodes) should be no problem. Dynamic so it can run any active measurement tool. Secure, encrypts messages (data & configuration), Self configuring, the nimid downloads configured information from a configuration POC. Support a wide range of policies, each nimid has its own ACL table.
They have 15 sites running for a long time (includes SLAC, CERN, FNAL, LBNL, NASA, PSC ...). Current measurements, traceroute, treno, mtrace and zing (one way measurements without a GPS clock). Platforms are NetBSD & FreeBSD, Linux is on the way.
To do they want to use public key serving, GPS hooks, else absolute time, tool uploading (beta) automatically when the tool is updated. Multicast for measurement coordination and disemminnating results.
I talked to Andrew afterwards, he said he is hoping in the next couple of months to provide some reports on the analysis of the data they have gathered so far. One of the collaborators on this project (Jamshid Mahdavi) has left PSC to join Novell. The main person still working on NIMI is Andrew with guidance from Vern Paxson.
This meeting was held on the third day (Thursday July 1, 1999) and was a smaller meeting (about 20 attendees). The attendance was not a subset of the previous 2 days, in particular there were new attendees for the 3rd day including luminaries such as Guy Almes, Matt Mathis, and Craig Labovitz. The objectives were to identify strategies & opportunities deriving from high performance environments. This includes new applications, new technologies & protocols. There was some overlap, but also a lot of new (typically more technical) information introduced.
NSF needs to report on results from the investment in NGI. The NGI implementation plan has 3 goals, research, testbeds and applications. Bill feels the network enables the NGI goals, and wants to cite the results from network measurement activities. The testbed goals has 2 sub-goals: 100 sites at 100 times speed, 10 at 1000 times speed. The first goal (2.1) is more in the NSF area (the latter is more DARPA). The 3rd goal (applications enabled by the network) requires input more from the applications folks than the network measurement folks. So wants to cite network measurement activities. One important thing is to be able to cite how scientists get better performance as a result of the measurements and research, e.g. the tuning etc. on protocols that improves performance to the desktop.
Since the agencies have to do this evaluation and reporting Bill wants to see: plans for use of results both near (next year) and long term. These should report on testbeds and how they are behaving and what results the people are getting. Longer term create a more sustainable measurement activity, and address things which cannot get into the short term. Secondly Bill wants to see something a bit less self serving to funding agencies, i.e. what should be the nature of the funding agencies to support activities in this area, what kind of dollar levels, how to tie to other activities.
A recent workshop on NGI suggested removing the testbeds as a goal since they enable the other things, i.e. testbeds are not a goal in themselves but rather are part of supporting an application.
One question raised was if the community goes to an NSP and sets up an SLA to provide the needs, then can use the commodity Internet and the R&E networks are no longer specialized out. However, this requires a a whole suite of meaurements and architecture etc. to support both to write the SLA and to check for conformance. However the problem is typically not with the individual NSPs but rather with interconnecting the clouds run by each NSP, and this is much easier to do with a limited community of the R&E community than for commercial Internet due to the competition between the cloud owners.
There is a close feedback loop between engineering and applications, applications motivate engineering and engineering enables applications. What makes it hard is the need for high bandwidth, low latency, wide area, bursty apps, multicast, QoS and need for meaurements, the introduction of new apps and new users, the exponential growth etc.
I2 has 150+ campus LANs about 35 GPops, OC-48 from QWEST, Cisco GSRs, connects at OC12 and OC3. Connections on order or in progress will double the number of connections. Most of current 14 Abilene backbone connections are multi-homed to vBNS & Abilene and currently prefer vBNS. Exchange points are NASA Ames, Chicago. Traffic on Abilene now is low and performance is good. In 3 or 4 months almost all GPops will have Abilene connections.
Current loads understate the need, there is a lot of pent up need, new paradigms will increase the load in unanticipated ways. Part of the problem is that all bugs in the infrastructure (BER, ATM switch problems, mis-tuning, poor stacks, router bugs) result in less than expected performance. Any one cause is easy to fix but hard to know where the problems are. The folklore that vBNS uses is less than expected implies that users don't need the bandwidth. This is not true, since the users need bandwidth but can't get it since they can't easily identify the problems that are causing the poor performance and by-pass these problems.
Javad Boroumand has a nice map of the interconnects between JET nets. Need to enumerate sites that have 100 Mbps connections then verify that can get that performance. Need large MTUs (> 1500 bytes Ethernet limit). With 64KB window size can only get 11Mbps coast to coast. They have concerns about the denial of ICMP and its impact. May need test machines identified at each site.
One suggestion from Matthis was that priming of caches etc. may require > 1 initial ping (in case the ping is lost). Another remark is that simply turning on ICMP limiting effects the code path in the routers and so affects the performance. Would be nice to get some measurements of the commodity Internet performance compared to that of the R&E networks.
They see the challenges as: making data more available; formulating questions that can realistically be answered, getting better answers and results; improving and tighter integration of analysis and visualization tools (e.g. fly though of parts of he Internet such as vBNS map with packets flowing etc.); aggregation of various data sets for comparisons; how do we make the most of the existing data (make available, provide reports).
Thinking of sending a short shockwave from say AMP machines into the network to see the effect on routers etc.
Other things that might be done with AMP. They want to deploy AMP machines back into the campuses; looking at portable AMP; regular thruput tests and if so how many (beware of network impact); triggered throughput meaurements or some other more detailed measure following the occurence of an event (but may make problem worse); reservations about the effort required to progress IPMP (need a serious expectation that it is worth proceeding with and that it would be adopted before putting the effort in).
On validation front is AMP OK, is it producing valid numbers, how precise is it, is kernel level timestamping necessary and how much does one care; is round trip enough, does one also need one way measurements or do the routes in the 2 directions identify things well enough.
One interest is how does recovery work from high load. It may be like a potential barrier (i.e with hysteresis). How do things work at high frequency, e.g. rapid onset of problems and slow recovery, how does one characterize this. Integration of active and passive data (e.g. traceroute with BGP).
Can "sniff" flows at source, destination or somewhere in the middle. If measure passively, at any one of 3 tap points, the loss, window & RTT then can check whether it is application or network limited. Knowing this can decide where to tackle the problem. Can also tell whether it is upstream or downstream limited. If look at destination or in middle then can see receiver mistune, whether it is a cpu or application bottelneck.
Percent duplicate data at receiver indicates how well TCP is coping, it rises monotonically towards the sender, differential rise is quality of any hop. Can even tell which of two ISPs is causing problem.
The measurement infrastructure required is sniffers at the right places. One problem might be privacy issues of passively monitoring data. Matt want to develop his tools to work with tcpdump, OC3MONs.
Another thought is to develop a TCP MIB that can be interrogated. One problem is what happens if the sender runs out of cpu capacity.
Traffic measurements at North Carolina State University. They have been measuring the NC-REN at various points. T
he major results were that the traffic is bursty & non-Poisson. In the late 80s they did some modeling with a Markov modulated Poisson process. Later modeled results from VISTANET with a session level on/off model, packet train models. They also measured NCIH looking at transfer of medical images. Major findings were that the data was extremely bursty, but well behaved (did not hurt network) for most of the tiem. There were some bursts of ATM cell losses associated with a time constant (time for source to dramatically alter behavior, e.g. rate of generation of cells) of 20 to 50 msec. They were using UDP.
Recent work deals with how where & when to make measurement, characterizarion (long-range dependency, stationary versus non-stationary), etc. The stochastic processes have been assumed to be stationary, but are they? They looked at the Bellcore data sets looking for tests for stationarity (Dickey-Fuller, Covarience stationarity), and the result was that there is a high confidence that it is non stationary. They have characterized mathematically the non stationary behavior. They get good agreement with number of arrivals in a time interval. The variability is captured in a precise manner, can use for synthetic generation. They have ongoing measurement activities with OCxMONs. He has good access to statisticians.
We could provide access to our data. They could come up with how to do statistical experiments to optimize results. He has no foot in the religious wars of whether the data is self-similar/multi fractal versus other theories. They are using home grown tools, SPlus and SAS. He will provide a pointer to more information for the proceedings.
Challenges: as the internet grows how does the core scale, how do core routing protocols work as Internet grows, what are the limitations on growth, how far can BGP go in terms of convergence, impact of new policy changes (e.g. moving from hot potato routing), what are the limitations, how does one deal with debugging, how do we provide the highly available, fault tolerant Internet service, what is the impact of dampening, policy filtering authentication.
Multi-homing does not provide near instantaneous fail-over, withdrawals travel slower than announcements, time for failure increases exponentially with the size of the mesh. They have been doing measurements. Injecting faults (into BGP) to see effect.
Growth of topological state, CIDR solves prefix entries (slowly growing) but not the growth in routes. This growth affects convergence. Cumulative frequency of failure versus number of days shows that within 30 days have lost 80% of the routes. The source of failures from a published case study (start at http://www.merit.edu/ipma/) is mainly (16%) due to maintenance (can't do an upgrade without killing peering sessions), power outages (16%), fiber cuts/circuit/carrier problem (15%), unknown 12%, hardware fail 9% ... Given a failure most (50%) are repaired in 30 minutes. The distribution is heavy tailed. Distance vector algorithms (BGP) require multiple passes for convergence, majority changes converge in 5 mins, some take much longer. Withdraws and route-fail over may induce iterations of BGP procesing during convergence. The rate of convergence grows exponentially with meshiness of network. Convergence for 50% of routes after injecting a fault takes about 100 secs and 5% take 3 minutes or more. Convergence of announcements is 90% done in 50 secs, while withdraws is about 120 secs. During convergence one gets packet loss.
Challenge is how to provide highly available Internet services. How does one do maintenance, e.g. hot swappable components, protocol aware swapping etc. Can we reduce the meshiness, e.g. reduce redundant links to help convergence, reduce peering, could providers make their nets less meshy.
See http://www.merit.edu/ipma/ They would like to deploy their tools (IRR & Route Tracker) on the commodity Internet, CAIRN, I2 ...
They are concerned with monitoring at the higher speeds, e.g. OC48MON, OC192MON etc.
If people have comments or position statements relevant to the working group then they should be sent in by email by Wednesday 7th July in order to appear in the proceedings.
Matt Zekauskas demonstrated the new Surveyor long term reports, see http://bsdi7.advanced.org/IPPMApplet/report/Report.html. It uses Jchart (see http://www.klgroup.com/ ). It supports zoom & pan, selection of time window to display, what metrics to show (min, 50%, 90%), scale factors etc.
Gtrace is a new Java tool being developed by email@example.com to provide a visual traceroute that displays on a map and also provides extra information on the nodes passed through. It does a 5 step search to find the location of each node looking in the DNS record, CAIDA databases and NDG, analyzing the name for .net nodes to uncover a city or airport code (he has configuration files for 12 nets now showing how the location information may be available) and then looking these up. In addition to the map output it provides tabular information telling how authoritative the location information is likely to be, the loss on the 3 traceroutes, the RTT. You can click on the node for whois information. He will add the route distance. It is written in Java using the swing graphic utilities. It will be released in October 1999.
A second tool demonstrated by email@example.com is called Geoplot and enables one to develop and display web maps displaying nodes with links between the nodes, apply color and thickness to the links, and make the links and nodes clickable. The nodes and links are described by a simple file which is accessed from an html file that provides the static configuration information. The idea is that the simple file would be constantly updated from a perl script, and he is also going to provide a Perl API to create the simple file. Apart from the Perl API this should be available by the 3rd week in July.
I met with Tony McGregor. He is very interested in us correlating the AMP data with PingER and Ping. He will make the AMP data available to us. To get started we can start pinging between several mutually monitored site-pairs (e.g. representative sites of interest to us such as FNAL, UMD, CMU, ColoState, Waikato ...) for a period. AMP makes measurements 1/minute and does not advertize the names of the sites, so he will provide the IP addresses. I will need to decide on the ping interval. The AMP can also, on demand, make thruput measurements, so we can make some checks on how and when thruput correlates with loss & RTT.
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WILTSHIRE track international Dave Bishop ended 2012 with a flourish as he raced to a superb victory in the Ribble Valley 10k road race, writes KEVIN FAHEY.
The Chippenham-based 1500m athlete opted for the long trip north to Clitheroe on Sunday rather than the local four-mile race in Clevedon on Boxing Day in order to find better competition.
The switch was made after Bishop learned that the 3000m event in the Bupa Great Edinburgh Cross International this Saturday had been cut from the programme so he decided that a workout over 10k, his first attempt at the distance on the road, was better suited to his plans.
"I felt the Ribble Valley race was the better of the two for me although when I was driving up in horrendous conditions I did wonder whether I had made the right decision," said Bishop.
"From my training I felt I was in shape to run a time in the low 29 minutes but on the day it was raining, hailing and there was a 25mph wind, so I have to be pleased to win in 30 minutes, two seconds."
"At one stage I felt myself drifting clear at the front so I put on the brakes because I didn't want the other guys to sit on me into the wind," he said.
"But when we got to the last 200 metres I just went for it.
"I am now looking at running a 3000m indoors in Cardiff in two weeks' time and I would be happy to open up with a sub eight minutes.''


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- 34 total posts
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Recent comments from SherriBerri
CURIOUS -- How did everyone do over the long weekend? I did gain 2lbs, didn't excercise and constipated. Hoping tomorrow I can get back into my schedule. READ COMMENT
Hi Nancy, I have had the same problem when I either eat to fast or to much. It could also be gas/burps not being able to dispell itself. Remember not to eat and drink at the same time and no drinking 30 minutes before your meal and 30... READ COMMENT
Protein shakes. I drink Premiere Protein ready made in the carton. It has 30 grams of protein and i'm all for that. I still drink 2 or 3 a day because I work nights and sleep in the daytime, I don't get enough food protein so those... READ COMMENT
Hi everyone. How is everyone. Glad alot of you are getting closer to your surgery date. Mine was July 8th and down 30lbs. I don't get on much because I work nightshift and the worse thing to do is sit behind a computer screen and fall... READ COMMENT
Sorry mmtp I was reading the wrong name. Do we ever get immune to food smells. Right out my back alley is the best tasting mexican restaurant that has the best smells. It gets me every time. LoL READ COMMENT


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Want to give a friend a gift certificate? Click here for the Gift Certificate page.
1943 San Francisco. The city is still edgy. Rumors of a Japanese invasion continue to circulate. 30 miles north of the city at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, men and women toil 24/7 building our best defense weapons.
A lonely sailor on liberty walks down Sutter Street looking for booze and women. What Navy submariner Nick Devin finds is a Nazi spy ring after sonar and radar tech secrets, and big trouble. Torn between his service to America and the demands of the Nazi spies, Nick seeks the FBI's help to break up the spy ring.
Agent Barry Keys, a tough FBI veteran, uses Devin to get to the bad guys. Keys is also determined to rip the heart out of the Nazi threat and to end its quest for America's latest tech secrets. Together Nick and Keys plan to take the spy ring down. What they get is far more than they bargained for.
Want to buy the book? Click here for the paperback version. I hope you enjoy the story.
Ride along with Van Taylor as he solves a 70-year old murder. His journey takes him through the early days of auto racing in the US and into Nazi intrigues in the 1930's.
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Jack Novac, Indy 500 winner and very successful auto racer, decides to expand his career to Europe. He and his crew chief set speed records all over Europe, and stumble into Nazi intrigue. Follow Jack on his dangerous journey toward the ride of his life.
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Novac's Run follows Jack Novac as he pursues his dream of racing for Mercedes, meets sports journalist Maddy Rosen, and is pulled into Nazi intrigue. He and Maddy race across Europe trying to escape a brutal death.
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1934 England. Count Reginald Bobrowski, dazed and bloody, sits down heavily. The speed record beast he was driving steams and groans, broken on the beach after the drive chain snapped, nearly decapitating him.
After he returns home he decides, on a lark, to take his wife and friends to see the Sahara. When they return, Mr. S, a secret government man, orders him back to Algeria to spy on a German expedition allegedly searching for oil.
He and his friend, Clive Parry-Jones, buy a Citroën Kégresse and set off to the Sahara. Their journey is plagued with murder and deceit. Do Reggie and Clive have the skills to get the job done? Find out in this tale of their desert adventure.
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Aussie Bakers (Or Anyone Else In The Know) I Need Your Help.
Decorating By vgcea Updated 22 Dec 2012 , 9:23am by vgcea
I'm thinking of making the sour cream and white chocolate ganache in this recipe which uses :
Sour Cream and White Chocolate Ganache
200g white chocolate
88g sour cream
There's no information about refrigeration though. Does this ganache work like standard ganache that can be kept at room temp? I really would like to mix this ganache into SMBC. Anyone tried this?
I want the tang which is why I'm going for sour cream rather than heavy cream. If there's a different recipe that works better, please share. Thanks!!
AYep, works like normal ganache and tastes amazing. The texture is a little different, but it behaves the same way when you're using it. I just use mr regular ganache recipe though. For white, three parts chocolate, one part cream or sour cream. I also do mine the Michelle Rea way in the microwave (see YouTube), its so nice and easy.
Thanks Zespri. Just made this, it tastes great.
I blend my ganaches into my SMBC and IMBC with no problems too.
Thanks Evoir. Yep tried that with the leftover. I think I prefer to blend in ganache than straight chocolate, less chances for my chocolate seizing--that happened to me once, had to pass the BC off as intentionally having chunks of chocolate hehehee. Folks were just glad to have free cake and didn't care.
That is why I started doing it too. You can make quite a firm ganache, and it won't create hard lumps when blended into the MBC :-)
I love the way you can turn a negative into a selling feature! Well done!


text: Hike, backpack, camp, and surf with Nature Walk Kauai. Clean, well made specialty tents make all inclusive trips enjoyable and keep you traveling light! Stay in our grand tents or book an ultimate challenge backpacking tour with Nature Walk Kauai. We also have surfing lessons for our ocean enthusiasts with up to date surfing boards made specifically for beginner and intermediate surfers.


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Stan is very laid-back and likes to lay around and watch everyone play. He isn't aggressive and can tolerate just about anything. He is good with kids, dogs and cats. He is in the process of being potty- and crate-trained and will make a great addition to any home
BREED/DESCRIPTION: Labrador retriever/terrier mix
SEX: Male
NEUTERED/SPAYED: Yes, neutered; shots current
AGE: Puppy
SIZE/WEIGHT: Medium
ORGANIZATION: Multiple Breed Rescue
CONTACT: firstname.lastname@example.com
WEBSITE: www.mbrohio.com
For more pets seeking homes, check out the Critter Chronicles column every Sunday in The Chronicle-Telegram. If you work or volunteer for a nonprofit pet adoption agency and would like to see your pets included in Critter Chronicles, please email firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Survey results from Wired suggest that carriers and slow networks are hampering the iPhone 3G when it comes to downloading. It may all be out of Apple's control, but that won't stop customers from being upset.h
Read More
The fact that NL has such fast speeds just makes it more frustrating that I can't put a T-Mobile SIM card in my 3G iPhone during my multi-week stay in Amsterdam! Damn!
I've been suffering withdrawal symptoms from unlimited data, and know that all that wonderful internet is just right there, faster then ever, but outrageously priced is pretty infuriating.
At what point in time does this become breach of contract for AT&T?
Seriously. Where is that limit placed? At what point in time does their "best effort" still become unacceptable?
The update changed the noise/power floor of 3G and hysteresis of switching between EDGE and 3G in an attempt to stay off 3G if the signal wasn't strong enough to maintain a quality call and to reduce the over switching between EDGE/GSM and 3G in such situations.
So you have less access to 3G in areas with weak/noisy 3G signals but you shouldn't have dropped calls as much, etc. since you would be on EDGE which almost always has better coverage in the US (and other countries) currently.
At least that is what a little birdie told me...
Fixed that for ya... really of the 5 iPhone 3G I know of around the office (I have the iPhone "EDGE" still) folks are not having issues with connectivity, things are stable, and yeah some applications are crashing. We have developer access for the iPhone and the crashing apps appear to mostly have defects in themselves based on the crash logs we are pulling off the phones.
The universal annoyance we do have is slow application install, downloads go fast but the install phase can be rather slow for no obvious reason.
"While this test, like the Wired survey, is hardly scientific, both suggest there is something going on outside Apple's control. Not that it matters when it comes to people suing Apple."
It's not outside of Apple's control since they force a substandard carrier on you. The only reason I don't own an iPhone is because AT&T sucks and I don't want to deal with the hassels of owning an unlocked one.
I really don't know why so many people were ranting at Apple for poor 3G coverage as this has always been the domain of the network provider. I guess these people just blame the first name that pops into their heads rather than using their brains to think about it first.
It's just easier to sue Apple and "win" your class-action case, since past history shows they quite regularly elect to settle, rather than waste time and energy fighting these relatively trivial cases.
AT&T, by contrast, has more money to blow on a legal battle, and is probably far less concerned about "damage to their reputation" than Apple is (especially on a first attempt at doing 3g cellular, with the only cellphone device they sell!).
All of that aside though? Yeah, AT&T sucks! Where I work, my iPhone can barely ever use the "Visual Voicemail" feature, because the signal is usually too weak for it to download a message to the phone for playback. But we've got other employees here with basic AT&T flip phones, and they constantly lose signal around here too. (My boss actually claims a vastly improved signal with his 3g iPhone over the Treo 650 he used to carry around.)
If I get out on the highway and drive about 1 mile away from my work though, I suddenly get 4 bars of signal and no data xfer issues. So it's clearly a gap in good coverage, where they need to install a new cell tower.
Hell, I could have told you that. ATT sucks big time. I barely get a signal at work and it drops to no service. Which is stupid since if I just stand up and walk outside my office door I get full signal. I was never a fan of Sprint but at least their service worked when I was in the office. If it wasn't for the iphone I would never have gone with ATT.
I got Edge service here just fine
I have problems getting any service (voice or data) at times here.
Notice that the former is at the intersection of a gravel and dirt road in farming country in KS and the latter is in the middle of a major metro area.
The different companies need to stop sharing towers and cities need to stop limiting tower placement. This is the main problem.
As much as I like my iPhone and the 3G speeds in Germany, I would still rate health care, prostitution and marijuana cafes a little higher. Unfortunately visiting these cafes has become difficult for a "conventional" smoker, since new EU laws want you to smoke marijuana only while in there.
I switched from T-Mobile to get the iphone. I've heard that TM has the worst coverage of the major carriers in the US, but I've really been disappointed with AT&T coverage. And I live in NYC, not exactly the boonies. TM seemed to work fine inside the buildings where I work and where I live, but AT&T seems to only work by the windows. And 3G only when outdoors. This is probably completely normal, and perhaps it also has something to do with the phones I was using, but I'm still surprised how bad AT&T is compared to TM. I had gotten used to the idea that walking around every time I got a call to find a good signal was a thing of the past. Guess not.
I feel for you guys who have at&t nothing worse than a slow/non existent network!!! I have Rogers here in canada and I will say they have done a great job of integrating the 3g network into our area as I maybe loose one bar at any given time.
If there's one thing I've learned from the internets: Canadians love Rogers.
How does service for the Sprint Instinct compare? --Ben
I live in Chicago. I've concluded that it's basically a crapshoot to get a usable AT&T signal inside most buildings. I think close to half of my calls are dropped--no matter where I am. I'm getting used to my calls ending prematurely with that double beep sound.
Those AT&T commercials are making me bitter. Missed calls and voicemails are exactly what I've been getting with AT&T. I never had that problem with Verizon.
Apple should figure out some way to get out of their deal with AT&T and make a CDMA based iPhone that runs on the Verizon network. I can't see how Apple can expect to get business customers on such an unreliable network. It's a deal breaker when half your calls get dropped.
What makes my American friends even more jealous is that the Netherlands also came out on top with pricing. I pay €25 a month including unlimited data, and a bunch of SMS and minutes and €87 for the phone (this is T-Mobile's corporate rate, but it is not hard to get).
It's easily explained though: Until recently we had 5 independent operators here. Competition works great.
AT&T has a ton of cellular competition in the states. Verizon, Alltel, Sprint, T-Mobile, etc. all compete with AT&T nationally, with regional players as well.
The market just isn't working here.
^ JonTD, the market works fine. It's exclusivity agreements that screw the consumer. It's the same reason there are no NFL 2Kx releases anymore.
As a VerizonWireless customer with a 3G laptop card, I must say I'm impressed with their service. It's not perfect but my experience has been that it gets better every year. I have very few problems.
Strange that AT&T has such coverage issues, while they have very nice 850 MHz spectrum. In Europe, we're at 2100 MHz which means the carriers need many more towers than for 2G, which largely aren't there so 3G coverage has holes in it. But with 850 that should be much less of an issue.
Or maybe they haven't rolled out 3G on 850 MHz yet because they need the frequencies for 2G GSM...
It also looks like it took a month or so for 3G performance to deteriorate, maybe there are simply too many iPhones pulling down data at the same time in places like San Francisco and New York? (Although with good coverage users shouldn't get in each other's way nearly as much as with EDGE.)
Anyway, be happy that you can fall back on EDGE. When I'm walking around in the narrow streets in the center of town (suburb/university town just outside Madrid) I only have GPRS, which loads Google maps in 30 - 60 seconds...
I'm in the UK and I'm fairly certain the 3G issues are mostly the fault of the networks. O2's network will limit a 3G connection to 7 minutes when it's congested or if the cell site starts to take on a heaver load of connections.
After 7 minutes the connection drops, you don't reconnect straight away due to being placed back in a queue and awaiting an allocated slot, this probably explains, to a degree, some disconnections and issues reconnecting.
@flyingember: Interesting choice of locations, I used to work in Riverside about a mile from NKC.
I've done the Wichita run a lot, and in general I have to admit that EDGE signals are reasonable all the way along I-35, even in very rural Kansas and Iowa, all the way up to Des Moines as well as down to Wichita. Someday when I've got a reason (and with gas prices these days, almost a sponsorship. ), I'd be interested in seeing what coverage is like along I-70.
I have exactly the same experience whenever I visit the NYC area. Lots of dropped calls, and horrible data service even when my phone reports a 3G connection with 4 or 5 bars. I used to have Verizon and the service there was great.
However, I live in the Chicago area like you, and my experience is exactly the opposite here. With Verizon, I was lucky to get service at all if I was downstairs in my house in the suburbs, I had to go upstairs to get decent reception. Downtown was slightly better, but not much.
AT&T has been a huge improvement for me, and the 3G coverage is not perfect, but it is good enough for general use. I take the train every day and my data connection will remain stable over transition from 3G to EDGE and back. Voice calls don't get dropped over this transition either.
I was thinking about getting an iPhone, but all these reports of people having problems with dropped calls (not to mention all the other problems) are not helping it's case when I just don't see these problems here with the phone I've had on AT&T for 2+ years.
Any reports about 3G coverage in Minneapolis/St. Paul? My FUD-meter is skyrocketing... I want an iPhone real bad, but maybe I'll have to keep waiting.
I have the original iPhone and my town only has Edge, yet right after installing the latest 2.0.2 software, I've had all sorts of problems with data. Mail coming slow. Web not working. iPhone requiring periodic resets or power downs to get data working again. At first I thought it was the software, but now I'm beginning to wonder if it's AT&T.
Over 40 Macs, 3 vintage Apple IIs, 5 iPods, 2 original iPhones, and a Newton
Pure Speculation of everything Apple http://web.mac.com/doublel
This. Apple refuses to have carriers compete, and as a result you get bad service.
The local news stations here in Chicago have performed tests in the past where Verizon usually comes up near the top and AT&T (formerly Cingular) near the bottom.
My iPhone 3G will frequently go from five bars to one while I'm sitting on my couch. I'm going to NY this weekend, so I'll see how the iPhone works out there. I had no issues with my Verizon phone the last time I was out there (all over Manhattan and New Jersey).
On a somewhat unrelated topic, all my music has disappeared from my iPhone and all my third party apps have stopped working for the _third_ time. I had to resort to random deauthorization and reauthorization and syncing to fix it the last two times. I haven't been having any luck this time around... Apple really needs to fix this.


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Have Ford Questions? Ask a Mechanic for Answers ASAP
Still working on this problem...But I tried turning flashers on and off for more than 30 times. With the steering wheel in the upper most position-flashers work now. But turn signals do not. Could this be the multi-function switch?
Thanks for your input
Yes, if the switch flipping got the flashers to work, then chances are that the multifunction switch has failed. Here are the instructions. If the pictures do not load, I will send them right after. Thanks


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In this week's RadioTalk, Trevor Dann talks to USP Content's Simon Crosse, BBC 6 Music's Matt Everitt, and 5 live's Adrian Van Klaveren about why radio is a great place to work, setting up effective and interesting interviews, the value of "live" and the relationship between speech and music.
This week, our panellists have been listening to Radcliffe and Maconie on BBC Radio 2 (Matt), BBC Radio Berkshire match coverage (Adrian), and Howard Sterne, Gideon Coe and radio from Kazakhstan (Simon).
We're also joined by Rolf Brandrud from NRK to discuss RadioDays Europe, and RadioToday's Stuart Clarkson has a report from the IRN Awards.
Podcast produced by Heather Davies. Available on the Radio Academy site, on iTunes, or on SoundCloud:


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Courses in Statistical Methods
We run fee-paying courses. Anyone can enrol in these courses, subject to satisfying pre-requisites. Participants In our courses come from the University and from business, industry and government. The course fees depend on the length of the course and the situation of the participant.
We also provide both general and specialist courses for individual organisations. They can be run at the University or in-house. If you are interested in such a course, contact the Director, Professor Ian Gordon , or telephone 8344 6995.
Statistics for Basic Physician Training (FRACP)
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Statistics for ResearchWorkers using R
February 2018
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Statistics for Research Workers using SPSS
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Feedback on SCC courses
- The feedback from participants in our courses is consistently very favourable. Feedback
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I recently overheard a couple of part-time produce clerks lament the loss of summer volume and the annual cutback in labor hours that accompany the change of seasons.
While business journals point to a rise of a part-time economy, this has been a constant in the grocery industry, where the vast majority of clerks work less than 30 hours a week.
To our part-timers chatting as they stocked, I wanted to tell them if they aren't getting enough hours to make ends meet, here are a few way to improve their situation.
- Speak Up. Make it known that you are looking for additional hours. Many times the full-timers are looking for just the opposite — a chance of burning some vacation days. All they need is someone to cover. Let them know that someone is you. Try calling sister stores in your area as well. Every produce department has their share of people who are out on medical leave, or any of a dozen reasons, and those stores may be looking for experience to fill in.
- Be Available. Just walking out the door on a day off when the phone rings and it's the store looking to cover a sick call? This isn't the time to dream up excuses not to help (like this is the day you're rotating your tires or some other lame excuse). Go to work when called. Always. If a produce manager knows you can be counted on, your name will quickly rise to the top of the call list.
- Lombardi Time. Only working a four or six-hour shift? Come to work an hour early to see if you can be put to work sooner. Oftentimes on a weekend or ad-breaking Wednesday, a produce manager can justify putting you to work right away, which adds up at the end of a pay period. Also, always offer to stay past your scheduled shift, perhaps negotiate extra time to take care of some unusual task the produce manager yearns to have done, like scrubbing out a cooler or reorganizing the sign kit.
- Stay Late. Admit it. You don't have a Friday night date. Always offer to stick around to help get caught up, or suggest that you stay late to put away the late produce delivery. Many times this helps get the morning crew off to a great start, including the produce manager.
- Make Yourself Valuable. Cross-train, not only for other produce shifts but in other departments too. One enterprising part-timer I had used to close the produce department only to throw freight with the grocery night crew for a couple additional hours before going home. He never worked less than 40 hours a week.
Armand Lobato works for the Idaho Potato Commission. His 30 years of experience in the produce business span a range of foodservice and retail positions.
What's your take? Leave a comment and tell us your opinion.


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Metro replaces 290 friction rings on older train cars
In the wake of two incidents in which a piece of brake mechanism fell off train cars, WMATA says they've replaced nearly 300 friction rings on cars used throughout the Metro system.
Metro says that they inspected 464 rail cars from the 2000, 3000 and 4000-series and replaced 290 friction rings from brake systems that were showing wear.
Riders have become familiarized with the piece of equipment recently after the rings fell off trains and onto tracks twice in the past three weeks, causing evacuations of trains on the Blue and Orange Lines in the District on both occassions.
On Dec. 20, a friction ring fell off a Blue Line train near L'Enfant Plaza Station. Another train struck the piece of brake, causing a large portion of the area to close for hours; 300 people were also evacuated from a train that was stuck between L'Enfant Plaza and the Smithsonian Station.
After that incident, Metro inspected the brakes on its stock of 5000-series rail cars and found no new problems.
However, last Friday, another ring fell off a different train near the Stadium-Armory Station, causing passengers to be evacuated again.
No serious injuries were reported in either incident.


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Sounds legit, right? When clicked, the link brings the user (most likely to be an unsuspecting teenager, given the film's fanbase) to what appears to be an official Facebook page with a "play now" button that when clicked "likes" the link without the user's knowledge and then and spreads it on a the Facebook accounts of the user's friends.
Sophos also said in its blog post that a dialog box appears after a user has "liked" the link, asking for permission for a third-party application to access the victim's Facebook account to post messages and photos. Following this, the victim is asked to fill out a survey to "verify" their account. The scammer makes money off every survey completed.
A spokesperson for the ubiquitous social networking website released a statement that said: "We are currently tracking this scam and are working to shut down the spammy vectors + remediate any users who have been affected."
It's unclear at this stage how many unsuspecting users have been affected, however the page itself is still active at time of writing, which is a cause for concern.
Sophos lists its best security practices for Facebook here. The first part of the film itself is set to be released November 18, 2011.