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One of my teenage daughter's favorite bands in the Black Veil Brides and I took her up to Worcester, MA to the Palladium for their show about a week and a half ago, billed as The Church Of The Wild Ones Tour. We had the tickets since November as they were a birthday gift for turning 14 so she was pretty excited. I, on the other hand, was not at all. Don't get me wrong, I always love going to live shows but this wasn't one of my bands so I was there to support my kid. I do have the band's first two albums on my iPod but I've never given them much attention save for a couple of songs so I didn't really know what to expect. What I didn't expect was the extremely long line we had to wait in to get into the venue! It stretched down the side of the building for the better of three blocks and turned right another block getting close to the major concert hall, the DCU Center. I've been to my fair shre of shows at The Palladium and I'd never seen a crowd like this, it was almost old school like when I was 14 back in 1984 so I knew that there would be some serious energy in there. The crowd was mostly young kids, ages 12 to 20, a ton of parents with them (like me!), and some older metalheads sprinkled throughout. Once we got in, it was off to the merchandise booth to hook my daughter up and the t-shirts were flying off the tables. The place was jam packed for the openers and the kids were getting rowdy…..the lights went down for Silent Season and the place went mental!
Silent Season setlist:
I have no idea what Silent Season played but I do know they were on for a good half hour or so and played 5 or 6 songs. We were in line at the merch booth when the band came on so I was a little busy buying shirts for my daughter to pay attention but, when we were done, I got to catch some of their set. They are a local Massachusetts band and they play a heavy brand of current modern Metal, I liked them enough to check the merch tables for a CD but the band had nothing out. I like picking up CDs from opening acts I've never heard of so I decided to check the band's website when I got home. They put on a solid performance so I suggest checking them out at….. http://www.silentseasonmusic.com/ or http://www.reverbnation.com/silentseason
William Control setlist:
Again, I have no idea. I've never heard of William Control before and, from what my daughter told me, the band was like a Goth and Dance hybrid. I knew it was going to be interesting when I heard '80s hits from Billy Ocean playing over the P.A. system as the crew tore down Silent Season's gear and set up William Control's…..extremely odd to hear 'Caribbean Queen' at a Metal show! Once the band started playing, the crowd down front went wild. When I mean band, I mean 2 guys (the singer and bass player) playing to a backing track of music and samples. The overall music sounded Goth, dance, electronica and 80s synth pop, almost like a cross between Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Depeche Mode and the Pet Shop Boys mixed modern metal. It was very '80s New Wave but called Dark Wave by the younger crowd. I'll give the band credit, they had the crowd going and the house was still packed. They played about 6 or 7 songs which all sounded similar, kind of like a bastardised '80s soundtrack to a Jon Hughes film. Aside from the dance moves and mic twirling the singer did, there wasn't much to the performance but it was interesting, definitely a different take on Metal that I hadn't heard before! You can check out William Control at http://williamcontrol.com/
Black Veil Brides setlist:
Exordium (intro)
I Am Bulletproof
New Religion
Wretched And Divine
All Your Hate
God Bless You
Children Surrender
Rebel Yell (Billy Idol cover)
Love Isn't Always Fair
Shadows Die
Nobody's Hero
Youth And Whiskey
Rebel Love Song
Resurrect the Sun
Perfect Weapon
Knives And Pens
The Legacy
Fallen Angels
In The End
So the lights go down and the banner goes up for Black Veil Brides and the crowd goes completely insane…..my daughter is screaming and holding back tears and I'm just in awe of what's happening. Is this how it was back in the day when I started going to shows? Was I crying at the KISS reunion show in Boston in 1996? I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree! From the opening music of the 'Exordium' intro into the opening song 'I Am Bulletproof', the 2000+ in attendance were jumping up and down, screaming and singing…..there was so much energy I couldn't believe it.
Before I get into the setlist, let me describe the stage setup and show. The palladium is small so this wasn't an all out production show but the band had a small drum riser flanked by eight rotating lights on stage that really added to the show. A bit of fog and decent lighting from the above rig, there were no fireworks or screens so basically it was the lights and the band's own merits to carry the performance. For a young band, it's better to stand on your performance, that way you can win over some new fans and keep the respect of your current fanbase. I'm sure if BVB makes it to larger arenas, they will enhance their show. now because this is a general admission arena, I was glad to see the band had a stage length riser up front that the band could stand on so everyone could see them, this way the floor gets what the raised floor and balcony got. There was also a simple Black Veil Brides banner that went the length of the back drum riser, a simple backdrop and the band had their costumes on that reminded of Motley Crue circa 1984.
On to the show…..
The band was completely energetic and held the crowd in the palm of their hand. It did remind me of the Crue in '84 or Guns 'N Roses in 1987, they had that kind of command at the throngs of teenagers screaming every word. Thank god for Setlist.fm or I wouldn't have known most of the songs. The crowd did and they sang every single word, at one point I tried to interrupt my daughter's emotional screaming to ask what song it was and she abruptly ignored me! I'll be honest, I didn't expect much from the band but they play so well and so tight that I became a fan by the end of the show. For a bunch of guys in their early 20s, they played like seasoned veterans, absolutely great musicianship, that's what won me over. I did know a few songs from my sporadic listens to their first two records ('Knives And Pens', 'Fallen Angels' and 'Youth And Whiskey') and I also new a couple new tunes from the new album, Wretched And Divine: The Story of The Wild Ones ('I Am Bulletproof' and 'Resurrect The Sun') so they were all highlights. I was surprised to hear the band do a cover of 'Rebel Yell' by Billy Idol but they did a really good job staying true to the original while beefing it up just a bit to the modern Metal standards. After the band left the stage, the crowd continued to go nuts and BVB came out to play a two song encore: 'Fallen Angels' and 'In the End'. The venue exploded for 'Fallen Angels', which I assume is there signature hit, and it was the song of the night for me and there was a quick guest vocal from the singer of William Control (who I just figured out is named William Control).
All in all, a solid concert. All the bands played really well, it's good to see a new generation of bands grabbing the Metal torch and giving the fans some high energy music. I'll be checking out Silent Season's CD and I'll be giving the Black Veil Brides a little more time…..not sure about William Control, not my thing but they were a good alternative for an opener. It's always good to open up to something new and I've got my daughter to thank for my discovery of two new bands.
You can check out the Black Veil Brides at http://www.blackveilbrides.net or http://www.officialbvb.com


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IFTTT (pronounced pronounced like gift without the g) is a service that lets you connect different services using simple recipes in the form of If/Then statements — if this thing happens, do that thing. You set these up by using shared recipes or creating your own through the IFFT site's beautifully simple interface, no code required. There's a good, simple overview of the process on the About IFFFT page.
The site is built around Channels, most of which are various websites that provide access to their system through an API (Application Programming Interface, a way for computer systems to interact without users going through the interface. Some of the popular channels include Flickr, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google Calendar and Dropbox, while others are basic actions on your system like the date and time, sending texts, making phone calls and accessing iOS photos.
Each service has a set of triggers and/or actions that can be connected in different ways. For example, you can set up a recipe so that every time you upload a public picture to your library's Flickr account, a copy of the original photo is saved to the library's Dropbox account. (This could be handy if several different people upload to the Flickr account and you want to make sure you have backup copies of all the images.) You can do the same thing with other sites like Facebook or Instagram, and in addition to DropBox IFTTT supports Google Drive or other similar services. Most recipes can be set up on the website, but to access some some triggers, you'll need to add the IFFT app to your mobile device. For example, I set up the IFFT app on my iPad to copy every new screenshot I make on the iPad to a special folder on in Dopbox so I can easily access them while working with PowerPoint on my laptop.
There are eighty different channels, most of which have multiple triggers and actions, so there are lots of different combinations to try. Right now the ESPN Winter Olympics is a channel, and you can set up all kinds of recipes, including one that posts a Tweet when a particular country wins a gold medal, and one that automatically updates a Google spreadsheet for a country's medals.
As a librarian, my favorite recipe is one that sends me an e-mail message every time a title is added to one of the New York Times Bestsellers lists. I could just as easily set this up to send me a text, send the news out on Twitter, or add the book's information to a spreadsheet.
This screencast shows how simple it is to set this up:
Using IFTTT makes me wish we could interact this easily with with our library system! NOBLE uses the Evergreen open source library system, which also uses triggers and actions to handle a lot of tasks, but they are certainly not as simple to set up, monitor and manage as the recipes on IFTTT. I wish we had a web-based interface similar to IFFT with triggers and actions for both staff and patrons. Staff could set up all sorts of alerts and have the system automatically create and add to spreadsheets. Instead of "When the U.S. wins a medal ad the information to a spreadsheet called Winter Olympics U.S. Medals" I want to be able to say "When my library has a copy with the location Biographies that is 60 days overdue, add it to a spreadsheet called Biography Replacements." Or perhaps it could go ahead and create a purchase order for approval. Library users could set up all sorts of things "When a new book with a subject that contains "Origami" is added to my library's collection, send me an e-mail message, place a hold for me, and add it to my bookbag called Japanese Arts."

subset: commoncrawl


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Antonomy necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 111 diseños de 24 diseñadores freelance.
Allied Healthcare Solutions
I am a recent college grad and an aspiring entrepeneur. I am very friendly, very outgoing, love technology, and I have a keen business sense. I use technology (specifically Apple products) wherever possible to make my life easier. I'd like my logo to embody my youth, bold personality, and love of technology. Although I want to showcase these attributes I still want my logo to appear professional and serious regarding my services.
My target audience is physicians (both established and upstarts) and healthcare businesses (home health, nursing, etc.). This target audience will range from well tenured doctors (60+ years old) to emerging healthcare professionals (24+ years old).
Because I am not targeting any specific socioeconomic group, I would like my logo to appeal to clients of all ages, backgrounds, & origins.
I would like particular focus to be placed on the "A" in "Allied Healthcare Solutions". I would like to use this "A" by itself as a logo when space does not permit the use of the full company name. Clients should be able to recognize my company by this "A" itself, as well as by the company name in its entirety.
I'd just like to stress the importance of creating a "progressive yet professional" look. That being said colors chosen should not be overly bright or childish.
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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Nicolas Cage won't be going "Green" on the big screen after all.
Cage has dropped out of Sony Pictures' "The Green Hornet," according to The Hollywood Reporter.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Fan Candy: Superheroes, Sci-Fi & Beyond!
Cage had been in line to play the villain in the film, opposite Seth Rogen, who plays the title character.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the split came when Cage and the studio were unable to come to terms on a deal.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: There's Something About Cameron Diaz!
While early filming began last week in Los Angeles, none of Cage's scenes had been shot yet.
The news comes two weeks after Sony announced the movie's release had been pushed back from July 2010 to December 2010, a rep for the studio confirmed to Access Hollywood at the time
It's not the first shakeup to sting the film. Stephen Chow – previously set to both direct and play the role of sidekick Kato – exited the film. Jay Chou stepped into play the role, while Michael Gondry is now on board to direct the project.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Hollywood Hijinks With Funnyman Seth Rogen
Cameron Diaz will play the female lead opposite Rogen's superhero character.
Related Content from AccessHollywood.com:
PLAY IT NOW: Comic-Con 2009: Seth Rogen Unveils 'Green Hornet's' Black Beauty
PLAY IT NOW: Seth Rogen Talks 'Green Hornet' & 'Monsters Vs. Aliens'
MORE ACCESS ON THESE TOPICS: Green Hornet - Nicolas Cage - Seth Rogen - Movies - Cameron Diaz


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by Marie-Agnes Heine
WHO Communications Officer
Port-au-Prince — A program aimed at preventing acute malnutrition is helping vulnerable Haitian earthquake survivors, like new mom Jessica, protect their health in the wake of the 12 January earthquake.
"We are living on the street, but I hope this will pass," said Jessica, who was eight months pregnant when her family home in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, was destroyed in the disaster. "I am grateful for the biscuits and for the food. This will help us to get over the next days."
Jessica, 21, gave birth to her daughter, Maryjean, 17 days after the quake. She is among 16,000 women living in more than 300 temporary settlements being targeted by a program to distribute food supplements, including three-week rations of high-energy biscuits, to prevent malnutrition. The program aims to reach a further 53,000 children aged 6 months to 5 years.
The program is being run on behalf of the Haitian Ministry of Public Health by the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO), the World Food Program, the U.N. Population Fund and UNICEF.
The threat of increased acute malnutrition is a major concern for all involved in the humanitarian response.
Before the disaster, nutrition indicators were already poor in Haiti. For example, chronic malnutrition in children under 5 was estimated at 32 percent, while acute malnutrition (GAM) was at 4.5 percent. The prevalence of low birth weight was estimated at 25 percent, which is a strong indication of poor maternal nutritional status. Some 60 percent of children aged 6 to 59 months suffered from anemia, as did 46 percent of women aged 15 to 49.
Under the nutrition scheme, pregnant and lactating mothers and children aged 3 to 5 years receive three weeks' rations of high-energy biscuits, while infants aged 6 to 35 months are provided with supplementary Plumpy, a highly nutritious peanut-based paste enriched with micronutrients.
The program also aims to identify children suffering from severe malnutrition, who are referred to nutrition therapy centers.
Sixty-six students have been recruited to visit the different temporary settlements to identify women and children eligible for the program and to carry out the distributions. Working in pairs, the students contact local committees about the program and its objectives and inform and register the recipients.
One such team found Jessica and referred her to an outpatient health center, where she hopes she can learn how to start breastfeeding Maryjean. The food supplements nourish her hope for improvement of her situation in the near future.
"It is good that we have some food now. I want my daughter to be safe, and I very much hope that the government and the relief agencies will also help us move out of here before the rains start," said Jessica.
Flash Appeal project: As part of the overall response to the health crisis, PAHO/WHO is working to prevent, screen for and treat acute malnutrition within a planned US$20.7 million project [pg1]to reactivate basic health care servicesin Haiti. This will include training staff to manage cases of acute malnutrition.


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Court Temporarily Blocks School District From Suspending Student For Refusing To Wear Student ID/Tracking Device
from the maybe-someone-should-ask-the-administration-to-wear-one-during-the-work-day deptA few months back, Tim Geigner covered the story of a Texas school district's efforts to track its students' whereabouts using student ID cards with embedded RFID chips. The district attempted to paint this "students-as-livestock/prisoners" effort as being there for the safety of students and staff. But underneath all the "safety" talk was a large pile of money that the school district hoped to pocket. The so-called "Student Locator" project Texas' Northside Independent School District was implementing put school officials within handout distance of nearly $1.7 million in state government funds.
Although many students and parents have expressed their displeasure with the new program, it wasn't until a student at John Jay High School's Science and Engineering Academy opted out that any punishment had been handed out in connection with the RFID cards. Andrea Hernandez has refused to wear the ID card, citing religious and privacy reasons. In response, the school district has suspended her indefinitely, moving her to another high school in the same district that has not yet implemented the Smart ID policy.
Despite all the talk about "safety," the school district was more than happy to undercut the entire stated purpose of the Smart ID in order to keep Hernandez and her family from speaking out against the program.
The school offered a special lanyard with the RFID tag removed, in the hopes to put a damper on the whole situation. The student's father refused the deal, however, because it came with strings attached.Apparently, the ID cards are so essential that the school district is willing to suspend a student for not wearing one, but not essential enough that the ID card needs to be fully functioning. Any stated concerns about "safety" are completely laughable if the district is willing to let students wander the school grounds untracked, sporting only plastic badges.
"He told me in a meeting that if my daughter would proudly wear her student ID card around her neck so everyone could see, he would be able to quietly remove her chip from her student ID card," Steve Hernandez told WND. "He went on to say as part of the accommodation my daughter and I would have to agree to stop criticizing the program and publicly support … it. I told him that was unacceptable because it would imply an endorsement of the district's policy and my daughter and I should not have to give up our constitutional rights to speak out against a program that we feel is wrong."
It's pathetic that this attempt was even made. The school district's main concerns seem to be a) having students appear to support the program, b) using the RFID cards to provide proof of attendance in exchange for funding and c) shutting down criticism.
Unfortunately for the school, the attempted suspension is now on hold.
The Hernandez family decided to take action against the school with the help of the Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties and human rights group which immediately took the view that the school district is looking for more public funding, which it can only receive if there is proof of positive student attendance rates. Rutherford attorneys filed a petition for the aforementioned TRO, as well as immediate injunctive and declaratory relief alleging that the school's actions violate Hernandez's rights under Texas' Religious Freedom Act, the First Amendment, and the Fourteenth Amendment.The Rutherford Institute's filing (PDF) states that the district currently has no policy or procedure in place that deals directly with the RFID badges, much less one stating that students can be suspended for failing to wear the new IDs. It also points out that requiring Hernandez to wear a nonfunctioning ID as a "show of support" for the Student Locator Project violates her First Amendment rights by compelling her to convey a message she does not agree with. The filing also claims that the school district's ID program clearly violates both her Fourteenth Amendment rights as well as Texas Freedom of Religion Act. According to Hernandez, many other students have refused to wear the ID cards, but none of them have been punished to the extent that she is, prompting claims of religious persecution.
"The court's willingness to grant a temporary restraining order is a good first step, but there is still a long way to go—not just in this case, but dealing with the mindset, in general, that everyone needs to be monitored and controlled," John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute, said in a statement. While the TRO has been granted, a hearing on the preliminary injunction will take place next week.
All in all, this doesn't look good for the school district, which has pushed through an intrusive student surveillance program in order to secure additional government funding. The "safety" of the student body is just the sales pitch. Any supposed "concern" for student safety went out the window, along with the legitimacy of the program, the moment the district offered to remove the tracking chip. The audacity of the district's actions is breathtaking -- both the implementation of such a controversial program, and its response to this student's refusal to participate.
The only other situation in which human beings might need to be constantly surveilled at an individual level is at a maximum security prison. But if you're willing to treat minors looking for an education like dangerous convicted criminals, there's no telling what your next "bright idea" might be. Here's hoping this early effort leads to the entire program being scrapped before it can do any more damage.


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For years I have had sinus infection problems with lots of gooey green mucus drainage. I have had two sinus surgeries and I haven't had a bad sinus infection since the last surgery about 4 years ago.
I still have alot of drainage from my sinuses draining into my throat, mostley clear to milkey and very sticky I am always clearing my throat and making weird noises trying to get the mucus up. It isn't so bad during the day, maybe because I'm upright and the mucus can drain? It is very annoying to me and others. I feel embarassed but until I can clear the mucus I can't seem to stop clearing my throat. It is really bad at night. I usually go to sleep ok but I wake up around 2:30 AM almost every night and feel the mucus hanging from my sinuses into my throat. I try to ignore it but it is too annoying. It usually takes 1-1.5 hours to clear so I can try and go back to sleep. By then I am very nervous and having anxiety problems and pinched nerves in my back from caughing. The problem is so bad and has been on going for lots of years that it seems to be controling my life. If I'm not clearing my throat, I'm wondering when I will have to and it's getting to the point I don't want to go to bed because I know I will wake up in a couple of hours and be back at it.
My ENT tells me there isn't anything he can do. He tells me to take a mucus thinner but they don't seem to work very well. Sometimes they even make the problem worse. The stickey mucus is deep in my throat and doesn't caugh up very easy.
I have been seeing a Chiroprator that specializes in applied kinesology for 3 years or so. He has treated me for yeast infection/candida, imune system disorders and digestive track problems. He seems positive that we are making progress. I am better than I was several years ago because of no sinus infections, however I am very uncomfortable and tired of this problem. I don't know where to go from here. I have also been through several alergy tests for polins, metals, food etc.
Looking for help!
Recognize the risks associated with Crohn's disease.
Did you know that one in six US adults has high cholesterol?


text: In October 2009, a striking portrait of a young woman in Renaissance dress made world news headlines. Originally sold two years before for around $20,000, the portrait is now thought to be an undiscovered Leonardo da Vinci masterwork worth more than $100 million. How did cutting-edge imaging analysis help tie the portrait to Leonardo? NOVA meets a new breed of experts who are approaching cold case art mysteries as if they were crime scenes, determined to discover who "committed the art," and follows art sleuths as they deploy new techniques to combat the multi-billion dollar criminal market in stolen and fraudulent art.


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NORMAN, Okla. — Ryan Spangler had 15 points and a career-high 17 rebounds to help No. 23 Oklahoma defeat No. 8 Oklahoma State 88-76 on Monday night.
NORMAN, Okla. — Ryan Spangler had 15 points and a career-high 17 rebounds to help No. 23 Oklahoma defeat No. 8 Oklahoma State 88-76 on Monday night.
Jordan Woodard scored 18 points and reserve Tyler Neal added a season-high 15 points for the Sooners (17-4, 6-2 Big 12), who won their fourth straight game and claimed their third win over a ranked conference opponent this season.
Marcus Smart had 22 points, Phil Forte scored 20 points and made all six of his 3-point tries and Markel Brown added 18 points for the Cowboys (16-4, 4-3).
OSU's Le'Bryan Nash, who scored a career-high 29 points against West Virginia on Saturday, fouled out with eight points in 17 minutes.
It was the first time both teams have entered a "Bedlam" rivalry game ranked since 2005. The rematch is Feb. 15 at Oklahoma State.
The Cowboys committed 29 fouls and were outscored 30-15 at the free throw line.
Oklahoma dominated early as Oklahoma State's Smart, Nash and Stevie Clark all committed two fouls in the first 12 minutes.
Forte gave the Cowboys some life with two deep 3-pointers in a run that trimmed Oklahoma's lead to 32-26. The Sooners extended it to 46-36 on a 3-pointer by Neal with 46 seconds left in the first half, and the Sooners led 46-38 at the break.
Neal, a senior who entered the game averaging 5.9 points, scored 10 in the first half. Smart played just 6 minutes in the first half and had six points on 2-for-4 shooting.
Woodard drained a long jumper as the shot clock expired to push Oklahoma's lead to 53-41, and he later hit a 3-pointer to bump OU's lead to 13. A 3 by Frank Booker increased the Sooners' lead to 16 points, then Nash committed his fourth foul with 14:17 remaining, and Clark fouled out with 12:18 to go.
A 3-pointer by Smart and a dunk by Brown cut OU's lead to 64-57.
Spangler scored on a putback, was fouled by Smart and made the free throw to put the Sooners up 75-62 with just over 6 minutes to play.
Oklahoma State cut Oklahoma's lead to six, but Woodard's 3-pointer with just under 3 minutes left bumped the Sooners' lead to 10.
Follow Cliff Brunt on Twitter: www.twitter.com/CliffBruntAP.


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You are here: Home ‹ Board index ‹ Welcome ‹ JCOs Playground
What are some of your pet peeves?
All games, quizzes, and other fun 'spam' (not advertisements) goes here!
People who make everything out to be grandiose to the point of irrationality. Like every thing revolves around them, and everything that happens even if it's uneventful must have something to do with some conspiracy involving them, even to the point where they lie incessantly to perpetuate the paranoia. Drives me NUTS!!!
People that say something disrespectful without even stopping to think that it might hurt someone's feelings.
"No time outs. Only DEATH!"
"I don't like to brag and I won't cuz I don't have to!"
It gets on my nerves when people say one thing but mean another. Unless it's on a sitcom, then it's kinda funny.
"No time outs. Only DEATH!"
"I don't like to brag and I won't cuz I don't have to!"
I hate cars who won't share the road with cyclists and when cyclists won't share the road with cars when they're not taking left turns.
Also, when cars hit someone on foot and don't stop. THAT'S A CRIME!
I hate that restless feeling that just won't stop. Oh, and splinters, I . . . I guess I should mention that.
"No time outs. Only DEATH!"
"I don't like to brag and I won't cuz I don't have to!"
I hate it when you floss your teeth and....
the dental floss gets stuck in between your teeth, then you have
to find some stronger dental floss to get
the (xx*$#) floss out of your teeth.
Absolutely irritating.
I keep wondering if it's really worth flossing.
then, you get so frustrated and irritated that....
you start to twist the floss around your finger,
you scrupulously wiggle the floss between the
not realizing your cutting the circulation off
of the finger that you've twisted the floss around
to give you more leverage to get to the
floss that still feels like it's there.
Double grrrrrrrrrrr
And then.....
you're still picking threads from the
floss out of your teeth,
yes, right now that is my most
irritating pet peave.
That's my peave and I'm sticking to it...
for now....
until the next one comes
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The innovative SuperBlade® features enhanced system computing density leveraged from years of rackmount server design experience. Applying an application-optimized engineering philosophy, each SuperBlade® module delivers true server functionality including up to two Six-Core Intel® Xeon® processors, optional InfiniBand mezzanine HCA, optional PCI Express expansion card, and support for up to 6 SATA or SAS2 hard drives. For more computational-intensive applications, the SuperBlade® also offers 4-way AMD Opteron™ blades.
All SuperBlade® servers have a minimum of a 3-year warranty and Thinkmate's total commitment to customer service for over 25 years.
DatacenterBlade® (SBI-7428R-C3/T3 series) is perfect for data center and HPC applications with performance & density optimized to achieve 2352 processing cores per 42U standard rack. This powerful SuperBlade® features 100-240VAC, ultra high-efficiency (94%+), N+1 redundant power supplies, along with industry-leading density, performance/watt and price/performance.
* Peak performance and power efficiency figures based on internal testing results.
Supporting up to 120 DP servers with 240 Intel® Xeon® E5-2600 v3 family processors per 42U rack, the TwinBlade achieves an unmatched 0.35U per DP node. With N+1 redundant, high efficiency (94%) 2500W/3000W power supplies, the TwinBlade is the Greenest, most energy-efficient blade server in the industry.
Networking options include up to two FDR (56Gbps) InfiniBand switches, up to two 1/10GbE or 10GbE switches, and/or a 1GbE pass-through module. They give the TwinBlade the bandwidth to support the most demanding applications. Onboard IPMI 2.0 with KVM over IP and remote Virtual Media over LAN enables ease of management and control.
* Peak performance and power efficiency figures based on internal testing results.


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Teen Schoolgirls Free Sites
The young teen schoolgirls of Innocent High School will do anything to get better grades in school and stay out of detention. You simply would not believe the lengths these schoolgirls will go to in their efforts to avoid punisment after school. Watch as these sexy students suck and fuck their teachers and principals until their tight teenage pussies quiver in orgasm. These young schoolgirls have the sweetest pussies and they'll give you a taste test for an A on their algebra tests. Check out the drop dead gorgeous barely legal teen student body at Innocent High School for yourself!
School is finally out for these young schoolgirls and Fresh Out Of High School is rounding up the hottest high school sluts they can find. These are the hottest and sexiest barely legal teens that this year's high school graduating class has to offer. These teens suck big throbbing cocks, get their tight pink pussies licked, and have their buttholes pounded until they gape. These barely legal teen schoolgirls get their tight teenage twats hammered hard until they scream in orgasm and they are more than eager to lick up all the steamy creamy cum they can get their tongues on!
Going to college is quite expensive and the teen hotties of Her Freshman Year are willing to do anything to make ends meet. These horny schoolgirls suck and fuck their professors, fellow students, and even the dean of the university to make sure they have enough money for books and tuition. The fun loving students of Her Freshman Year love to party and they're willing to do anything for a good time but they also have to maintain a passing grade at the same time, which of course entails even more sucking and fucking to stay in college and earn their degrees!
Have you ever wondered what young teen schoolgirls do after school? Well, you're about to find out as you step inside the classrooms of Honey School. Honey School features the hottest young teen schoolgirls doing very naughty things to their young sweet pussies, to their boyfriends' hard teen cocks, and also to their cute lesbian friends' pink virgin pussies. Get your hall pass and come explore the naughty world of teen schoolgirls at Honey School and get your graduate degree in pleasure from these sweet young teen girls after school!
|In compliance with United States Code, Title 18, Section 2257, all models, actors, actresses and other persons who appear in any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct appearing or otherwise contained on this page were over the age of eighteen years at the time of the creation of such depictions.


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Intrigued, I watched videos and read pages about Prosapia Genetics. The DNA tool is called GPS: Geographic Population Structure. Some people have tried the service.
The site promised to pinpoint an ancestral hometown using data files from a DNA testing company. I have already tested at 23andMe, so I uploaded my file to Prosapia for the result. The cost was $29.99. More expensive packages are available with a wider scope of possible populations. I figured that I am mostly of European ancestry and these groups are fairly well-covered, so I opted for the lowest-priced package with fewer (200) possible groups.
There is no security certificate for this site, so that will dissuade some (and rightfully so).
Within minutes, my ancestral hometown was ready. Well, the latitude and longitude coordinates were reported with a link to a labeled map on Google.
|Prosapia Genetics
|Google Maps
Hemmingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
According to Prosapia Genetics, my ancestral hometown is located on a farm in Hemmingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, to the southwest of Schwieberdingen.
I have not come across this town in my family history research. My research does not go back one thousand years on any ancestral line, so it is entirely possible that I do have ancestors from this particular area.
This leads to another problem/question: which ancestral line was from this area? Which part of my DNA determined my connection to this specific area of the world?
I think that this GPS tool is an amazing idea and demonstrates how far DNA testing for genealogy has come in just a few years, but also demonstrates that more information and techniques are needed to draw accurate conclusions.


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"This book will leave you illuminated. . . . If there exists a literary equivalent to the artist's play of light on a canvas, then Larry Watson has mastered it. . . . Every scene of Orchard is painted with deliberate, vivid strokes of radiance. . . . Watson's sparse words and controlled prose turn a remote town and four lonely characters into a remarkable tale."
—Baltimore Sun
"Clear-eyed, close-to-the-bone, inherently dramatic and endlessly implicative . . . Watson's insights into his characters not only bring them to life, but also shed light on the nature of art, love and marriage."
—Los Angeles Times Book Review
"An enthralling, thought-provoking read . . . This is a story that comes together at its own internal pace, and when whole understanding dawns, it is with clear power."
—The Denver Post
"[A] powerful tale . . . captivating and haunting, and very hard to put down."
—The Washington Post Book World


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|Working Group I: The Scientific Basis
|Other reports in this collection
8.9 Coupled Models - Dependence on Resolution
The importance of numerical aspects of climate models continues to be well recognised and new numerical techniques are beginning to be tested for use in climate simulation. However, there has been very little systematic investigation of the impact of improved numerics for climate simulation and many important questions remain unanswered. The degree of interaction between horizontal and vertical resolution in climate models and the interaction of physical parametrizations at differing resolutions has made it extremely difficult to make general statements about the convergence of model solutions and hence the optimum resolution that should be used. An important question regarding the adequacy of resolution is deciding whether the information produced at finer scales at higher resolution feeds back on the larger scales or do the finer scales simply add to local effects (Williamson, 1999). Insufficient systematic work has been done with coupled models to answer this question. As well as improving numerical accuracy in advection, improved horizontal resolution can also improve the representation of the lower boundary of a model (the mountains) and the land-sea mask; this may improve the regional climate of a model but little systematic work has been carried out to assess this aspect.8.9.1 Resolution in Atmospheric Models
A series of experiments that explores convergence characteristics has been conducted with the NCAR Community Climate Model (CCM) by Williamson (1999). In these experiments the grid and scale of the physical parametrizations was held fixed while the horizontal resolution of the dynamical core was increased. As the dynamical resolution was increased, but the parametrization resolution held fixed, the local Hadley circulation in the dual-resolution model simulations converged to a state close to that produced by a standard model at the fixed parametrization resolution. The mid-latitude transient aspects did not converge with increasing resolution when the scale of the physics was held fixed. Williamson (1999) concludes that the physical parametrizations used in climate models should explicitly take into account the scale of the grid on which it is applied. That does not seem to be common in parametrizations for global climate models today.
Pope et al. (1999) have also illustrated the positive impact of increased horizontal resolution on the climate of HADAM3. A number of systematic errors evident at low resolution are reduced as horizontal resolution is increased from 300 to 100 km. Improvements are considered to be mainly associated with better representation of storms. It is apparent that, for some models at least, neither the regional aspects of a climate simulation nor the processes that produce them converge over the range of horizontal resolutions commonly used (e.g., Déqué and Piedelievre, 1995; Stephenson and Royer, 1995; Williamson et al., 1995; Stephenson et al., 1998). As part of a European project (High Resolution Ten-Year Climate Simulations, HIRETYCS, 1998), it was found that increases in horizontal resolution did not produce systematic improvements in model simulations and any improvements found were of modest amplitude.
The need for consistency between horizontal and vertical resolution in atmospheric models was first outlined by Lindzen and Fox-Rabinovitz (1989) but little systematic study has been followed. Experiments with the NCAR CCM3 showed that increased vertical resolution (up to 26 levels) above the standard 18 levels typical of the modest vertical resolutions of climate models is beneficial to the simulations (Williamson et al., 1998). Pope et al. (2000) also considered the impact of increased (up to 30 levels) vertical resolution on simulations with HADAM3. In both cases a number of improvements were noted due mostly to the improved representation of the tropopause as the resolution was increased. However, Bossuet et al. (1998) reached a somewhat different conclusion when they increased the vertical resolution in the ARPEGE model; they concluded that increasing vertical resolution produced little impact on the simulated mean climate of their model. They also found that the physical parametrizations they employed were resolution independent. Increased vertical resolution in the upper troposphere and stratosphere has generally reduced model systematic errors in that region (Pawson et al., 2000).
Enhanced regional resolution within an AGCM is possible through the global variable-resolution stretched-grid approach that has been further developed since the SAR (e.g., Dèquè and Piedelievre, 1995; Fox-Rabinovitz et al., 1997); this is discussed in more detail in Chapter 10.8.9.2 Resolution in Ocean Models
A number of important oceanic processes are not resolved by the current generation of coupled models, e.g., boundary currents, mesoscale eddy fluxes, sill through flows. Two model studies show an explicit dependence of ocean heat transport on resolution, ranging between 4° and 0.1° (Fanning and Weaver, 1997a; Bryan and Smith, 1998). However, this dependence appears to be much weaker when more advanced sub-grid scale mixing parametrizations are used, at least at resolutions of 0.4° or less (Gent et al., 1999). As previously noted, a number of recent non-flux adjusted models produce acceptable large-scale heat transports. The need for ocean resolution finer than 1° is a matter of continuing scientific debate.
Some ocean models have been configured with increased horizontal resolution (usually specifically in the meridional direction) in the tropics in order to provide a better numerical framework to handle tropical ocean dynamics. Unfortunately at this time, there has been little systematic intercomparison of such model configurations.8.9.3 Summary
The lack of carefully designed systematic intercomparison experiments exploring impacts of resolution is restricting our ability to draw firm conclusions. However, while the horizontal resolution of 2.5° (T42) or better in the atmospheric component of many coupled models is probably adequate to resolve most important features, the typical vertical resolution of around 20 levels is probably too low, particularly in the atmospheric boundary layer and near the tropopause. The potential exists for spurious numerical dispersion, when combined with errors in parametrizations and incompletely modelled processes, to produce erroneous entropy sources. This suggests that further careful investigation of model numerics is required as part of a continuing overall programme of model improvement. The vertical resolution required in the ocean component is still a matter of judgement and tends to be governed by available computing resources. There is still considerable debate on the adequacy of the horizontal resolution in the ocean component of coupled models and it is suggested that some results (those that are reliant on meridional heat transport) from coupled models with coarse (>1°) resolution ocean components should be treated cautiously.
Other reports in this collection


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What's in your bag, Mavi Phoenix?
She started writing her own songs at age eleven. At 22, the rising star from Austria is rocking the international music scene with her fresh mix of hip-hop, R&B and electropop. Mavi's latest EP, Young Prophet, demonstrates her fine grasp of powerful rhythms. Lufthansa Magazin peeked inside her case at Cologne-Bonn Airport
The sound of Mavi Phoenix


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It's not often that the rumour-mill gets it spot on but in the case of the Motorola Xoom 2 it has. Or rather in the case of the Motorola Xoom 2s, as there's two of the blighters.
First up is the more obvious sequel to the original Xoom, the 10.1-inch Motorola Xoom 2; and then there's the 8.2-inch variant labelled the Motorola Xoom 2 Media Edition. No word on screen resolutions as of yet, but we're informed they are of the HD variety. Both displays are Corning Gorilla Glass.
Both devices are Android 3.2 for launch and both run via a 1.2GHz dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM. There's 16GB of onboard storage and both editions boast 5-megapixel cameras on the back with a digital zoom, auto focus, and LED flash, and a 1.3-megapixel ones up front.
The 10.1-incher has "splash-guard and special flattened edges for easier holding" and the Media Edition has "display optimisation for wide viewing angles that are perfect for video".
You'll get 10 hours of heavy web usage with the 10.1 (and a month's standby time) and 6 hours on its little bro'.
Size wise, the bigger Xoom 2 is 253.9 x 173.6 x 8.8 mm and weighs 599g, the little 'un is 139 x 216 x 8.99mm and weighs 386g.
And the rumours of a pre-Christmas release were also right - the Motorola Xoom 2 and the Xoom 2 Media Edition will land in UK shops in mid-November. No word on pricing as of yet, but we're told that the Carphone Warehouse, Best Buy, Dixons, PC World and Currys will be stocking the tabs.
You can register your interest through Motorola or the Carphone Warehouse now.
Update: The pricing for the Motorola Xoom 2's are as follows: Motorola Xoom 2 Media Edition - £329.99, Motorola Xoom 2 - £379.99.


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|The woolly leaves of lambs ears
Uses for Lamb's Ears
One upon a time, it had medicinal applications. In the literature, there is some mention of its use as a treatment for bee sting, but herbs like aloe vera are more effective for that type of first aid these days. It has antiseptic properties, too, and was used as a field dressing and a poultice during the 19th century. It made an effective bandage when clean fabric was unavailable. Today, a quick trip to the medicine cabinet will yield a wealth of Band-Aids and gauze (on a roll) for most of us, which leaves poor little lamb's ears out in the cold -- or does it?
A distant relative of the popular herb betony, lamb's ears can be effective in the landscape as a ground cover. Standard lamb's ears grows from 18 inches to 28 inches high, but cultivars like Silver Carpet are short creepers well suited to tree lawns and other areas that receive light foot traffic. This plant looks delicate, but it can take some punishment.
|An established stand of blooming lamb's ears
The photos here don't really give you a good idea of how charming this little plant can be. It's a lighter green than sage and looks almost white at twilight or when the shadows are lengthening across a bed of lamb's ears in the late afternoon. If you opt for a stand of common lamb's ears, happy plants will send up fuzzy, soft spikes decorated with delicate pinkish/purple flowers that look like gems nestled in a lavish layer of fluffy leaf buds. The leaves and spikes make a nice presentation when included in a vase of fresh cut flowers, too, and can be a pretty accompaniment to a bouquet of rosebuds or a generous bunch of lavender.
I've used lamb's ears to make wreaths in the past, too. When we first moved to the Midwest, we lived in a rental house with stingy, narrow flowerbeds overrun with lamb's ears. There wasn't a marigold, begonia, petunia or rose bush in sight, but lamb's ears were everywhere. It was an embarrassment of riches -- of a sort, anyway. Over the holidays, I prepared and dried wreaths made from them to give away as gifts. The wreaths turn out very full and nice, but weren't as well received as wreaths made with culinary herbs (what relatives and friends were accustomed to). I have though since that a very large wreath of lamb's ears for an entry or front door would look quite lovely.
Lamb's ears is also edible. Some intrepid souls eat it steamed, or use the young, fresh leaves in salads. I've never developed the habit, and the woolly leaves just don't seem to say, "I'm delicious. Grab a fork." I could be wrong, so if you have a great recipe using lamb's ears, please share.
If I've convinced you that lamb's ears deserves a spot in your garden this year, here's what you need to know to make it feel at home:
Growing Conditions for Lamb's Ears
A native to the Middle East, it's hardy in zones 4 through 8 and prefers dappled light in the afternoon in hot climates and medium-rich soil that drains well. Plant seedlings about 15 inches apart in spring and they'll be blooming by mid to late June.
|The flowering spike of woolly Lambs Ears
This little plant spreads quickly and fills in well. If you have a half-shady spot you don't want to fuss with -- say over by the shed or driveway -- lamb's ears will create visual appeal without requiring much effort on your part. The good news is that it isn't a high maintenance plant but looks like one. Once established, it is relatively self-sustaining . For the nicest looking bed or border, deadhead blooms to keep plants bushy and lush. Caution: Because it roots easily, it's a good idea to watch lamb's ears over the summer season. It isn't as invasive as mint, but will crowd out other, less robust plants if given the chance.
Propagate lamb's ears by seed or root division in spring. It self-seeds readily.
Growing Lambs Ears Indoors or on a Patio
Because of its unusual texture and color, lamb's ears makes a nice specimen plant on a deck or patio. Just make sure to provide it with a pot that drains well and give it partial shade on hot summer afternoons. It's also a good idea to deadhead flowers to keep plants from getting straggly.
You can maintain lamb's ears as a houseplant, but it will require quite a bit of light when kept indoors, so place it in southern facing window or supplement with grow lights. Eight hours of light a day should be enough. Avoid overwatering at all costs as root rot can be a problem. Let plants dry out between waterings.
Lamb's ears is also widely known as woolly betony.
Discover Life. " Stachys byzantina." Additional Photos
NC State University. "Ground Covers: Stachys byzantina."
University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. "Lamb's ear, woolly hedgenettle."
Photo1 - LambsEars1_Wiki.jpg By Frank Vincentz (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Stachys_byzantina_02_ies.jpg http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AStachys_byzantina_02_ies.jpg
Photo2 - LambsEars2_PublicDomain.jpg By Karelj (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Photo3 - LambsEars3_Wiki.jpg By Stan Shebs http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stachys_byzantina_flowers.jpg GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:GNU_Free_Documentation_License_1.2


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What is Globalization? In the 20th century the human race was confronted with such a natural phenomenon as globalization. Globalization can be defined as the process of concentration of power over all the mankind in one person or a small group. This process has been under way throughout the whole human history and is now near completion. Centuries ago Ancient Egyptian priests became aware that globalization can be controlled. They have worked out the overall principles and patterns of controlling society to achieve their own goals, and headed up this process. Let us take a look at how globalization process is being controlled now.
Views: 100


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I want to buy bees from a beekeeper nearby, I want to expand my apiary this year. This is how I planned it:
- Buy 3 frames // 2 with Brood, 1 with Honey and Pollen
- Place in 5 frame nuc (2 frames will be empty)
- Add virgin queens to every hive, If they don't lay within a week: Replace with bought laying queen
- Add protein patties every week or two
Will this work? Any suggestions/recommendations?
P.S. I'm in Sacramento / San Francisco, CA area. Pretty good weather here most of the time. Doesn't snow where I keep my bees.


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The stock market is the world's greatest casino. You buy stock and let it ride, hoping it gains in value and praying it doesn't prove worthless. Fortunes are made and lost. And the Facebook initial public offering is no different.
Facebook's IPO happened on Friday, with shares starting at $38, and since then there's been no meteoric rise in price. Now four days later, shares are now hovering around $32. The disappointment was so huge that now Wall Street is finger pointing and blaming each other for losses.
Underwriter Morgan Stanley bought shares to stabilize the price and protect its investment, wrote the New York Times. Morgan Stanley and Facebook also reportedly ignored advice on how to price the stock and chose the higher end at $38 a share which may have caused some of its current troubles.
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
Add to the mix that the Nasdaq was overwhelmed with initial trading and essentially slowed to a snail's pace for a half-hour -- that's an eternity in the stock market. "We were trading blind for 2 1/2 hours," Thomas Joyce of Knight Capital Group told CNBC.
All in all, it was a bad showing, not just by the stock but by its underwriters, pricing and Nasdaq. The backbiting doesn't help the situation.
So what is Facebook worth? There are guesses -- $20 if you believe Business insider -- but the Insider raised a more significant point. Stock prices rise on how much the company is expanding or succeeding, and we can tell you expanding is a lot easier than succeeding. If Facebook wants to improve its stock price it has to get to work gaining more users and cash.


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Eli, who offers a clever and consistent consumption-based accounting scheme.
- Consumption-based Carbon accounting: Does it have a future?
- Consumption-based accounting of CO2 emissions
Eli, who offers a clever and consistent consumption-based accounting scheme.
Guy Ottewell's website and weblog
Updates on my research and expository papers, discussion of open problems, and other maths-related topics. By Terence Tao
Pop Culture with a Different Perspective
The Dr. is in...
The unofficial guide to your Synology
Academic comment and analysis on Brexit, run from the UCL European Institute
Visualizing Complex Data
Organic Gardening tips
Serving Needham, Dover, and Precincts 1 and 2 of Medfield
Boston News, Sports, Weather, Traffic and Boston's Best
citizen botany for the phytocurious
Stories about protecting, restoring, and enjoying your Buzzards Bay
quick easy access high quality links and comment re climate change, encroaching fascism, pricking pretension and the obsession of thinking 'we are so modern' ...
Risk and Well-Being in a World of Changing Climate, Resources, Technology and Growth
"There Are No Solutions, Only Trade-Offs."
Environmental science of climate, carbon, and energy
Daily News about Energy and Climate Change
Lover of math. Bad at drawing.
A quarterly series dedicated to thought leadership on adaptation to climate change.
Lecture notes for CPSC 536N "Randomized Algorithms"
Research that Informs Business and Public Policy
Energy, Environment and Policy
likhipa inhlanzi emanzini
... for when you can't solve life's problems with statistics alone.
Exploring and venting about quantitative issues
Newscasts on Global Warming, Its Consequences & Solutions
A Welcoming Congregation & A Green Sanctuary
analytics and data science
Boston Area Sustainability Group
with Peter Sinclair
Engineering, Oceanography, and Innovation in Environmental Science
notes on data science, mathematical finance, algo trading and derivatives
Tips and tricks on programming, evolutionary algorithms, and doing research
Experiments & Experiences in R
Critical perspectives on technology, sustainability, and the future
Astronomy, space and space travel for the non scientist
Noah Deich's blog on all things Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR)


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CLEVELAND, OH—Thousands of Cleveland elementary school students have been chosen to participate in the initial fall start to the Physical Best program, designed to promote healthy, active lifestyles for all students – particularly those whose health may be at risk because of inactivity or poor diet.
The program is of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education for use by physical educators to provide a comprehensive fitness education and assessment program, including teacher training and resources. The goal is to move students from dependence to independence for their own fitness and health by promoting regular, enjoyable physical activity. The Americans Heart Association's Cleveland Metro chapter will kick off the program at 15 Cleveland area schools this fall as a result of a $50,000 grant from the Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation.
"And once we've demonstrated success with students at these schools, our next steps will be to expand the scope and reach of the program to positively affect additional students and their families," said Terri M. Jones, Cleveland Metro Executive Director, in a release.
Student participants will work to obtain and maintain a healthful level of aerobic fitness, muscular fitness, flexibility and body composition. After completing the program, test results will be compiled into a report for each participating school.
"Schools will analyze the report for the purpose of developing appropriate student program and activities within their own curriculum that support a healthy lifestyle," Jones said. "Physical Best incorporates national physical education, dance and health education standards – as well as the latest youth fitness research and practices – into its approach."


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Bad Gal RiRi caught making the walk of shame leaving A$AP Rocky's hotel wearing the same clothes from the night before...
From The Daily Mail
Most stars make an effort to recycle.
And Rihanna certainly seems keen to do her bit - by recycling her clothes.
The 25-year-old was spotted leaving the hotel of her rumoured boyfriend rapper A$AP Rocky in Chelsea, New York on Thursday morning, wearing the same pair of thigh-skimming denim hot pants she had worn the night before.


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And another from Friday's inbox…
eSchool News is proud to partner with SIIA yet again to promote the Vision K-20 Survey. For the sixth year, educators and administrators have the opportunity to take a short, online survey to evaluate their current use of technology and digital learning. Take this quick 15 minute survey to see how your classroom, school and district compare to your peers, and to the Vision established by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) and our partner education leaders. Participants will receive their progress report and a free copy of the 2013 Vision K20 survey report outlining the nation's digital learning progress, as well as a chance to win one of twenty $25 Amazon gift cards.
SIIA believes that every K-20 educational system and institution can – and should – have an instructional and enterprise framework that embraces technology and e-learning in order to:
• Personalize learning to increase student engagement and achievement
• Provide equity and access to new learning opportunities
• Document and track student performance
• Empower collaborative learning communities
• Maximize teaching and administrative effectiveness
• Build student proficiencies in 21st Century skills
The comprehensive Vision K-20 site also includes resources and evidence that support the goals set out by the Vision K-20 initiative. Feel free to learn, explore, and contribute to the Vision K-20 by sharing this valuable website.
Help SIIA monitor progress towards this vision by filling out the Vision K20 survey today!
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You are receiving this eMail newsletter at email@example.com as part of a free information service from eSchool News.


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Kinston police caught and arrested two men Monday evening after they allegedly broke into a woman�s home.
Kinston police caught and arrested two men Monday evening after they allegedly broke into a woman�s home.
The homeowner contacted police and reported hearing �someone in her home,� according to a Kinston Department of Public Safety news release issued Tuesday.
Police responded shortly after 7 p.m. to the 2200 block of Stallings Drive and entered the residence.
One male suspect jumped out of a second-story window and ran away; police caught the man, 33-year-old Nakia Audrell Becton of Roanoke Rapids, a short distance away on Riley Road.
Officers found a second man, 27-year-old Jneaka Jaroyce Sutton of Kinston, hiding in a closet as they searched the house. Sutton was taken into custody �without incident.�
Becton was held in the Lenoir County jail on $80,000 bond. He is charged with first-degree burglary, felony larceny and possession of stolen goods.
Sutton was held in the county jail on $50,000 bond. He is charged with first-degree burglary.
Police did not identify the homeowner in the news release.
David Andersoncan be reached at 252-559-1077 or firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow him on Twitter at DavidFreePress.


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Home - Brands - Competition Engineering
Competition Engineering 3-Way Adjustable Front Drag Shock
Shock, Drag, Monotube, 11.00 in Compressed / 16.50 in Extended, 1.63 in OD, 3 Way Adjustable, Steel, Gray Paint, Front, Each
Limited Supply: only 2 remaining
Availability: Same Day Shipping!
Shipping: Ships from Michigan.
Was: $58.99
Sale: $58.40
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Competition Engineering's 3-Way Adjustable Drag Shocks are designed to allow the racer to dial-in the race car to meet changing track conditions. Shock valving plays a very important role in the way your car will perform both during initial launch and throughout the quarter mile. The principle behind our shock absorber design is to allow the front end of the race car to rise rapidly upon initial launch, creating greater weight transfer and better traction to the rear tires. As the car travels down the track, the front end will gradually descend to its ride height without unloading the rear tires which is a major cause of wheel spin. Our rear shocks work in conjunction with our front shocks making the transition from initial launch to top end charge as smooth as possible. When using Competition Engineering's Rear Drag Shocks with a leaf spring suspension, you will see a greater amount of chassis separation than before. This means that your suspension is working to plant the rear tires to give you the utmost in traction. For cars with rear coil springs and factory four link, you will notice increased squat in the rear suspension which will apply more weight to the rear tires increasing their traction. Competition Engineering's Front Drag Shocks are adjustable in three ratios: 90/10, 80/20 and 60/40. These ratios reflect the percentage of force required to extend and compress the shock absorber. You can quickly change the valve setting by simply compressing the shock fully and rotating the shaft until the indexing notch mates with the desired setting on the body. It's as simple as twist and click. Our Rear Drag Shocks are also adjustable in three ratios: 30/70, 40/60 and 50/50. These ratios also represent the percentage of force required to compress and extend the shock unit. Only this time the first number is compression and the second extension. These shocks also adjust by compressing them fully and rotating to the desired setting on the body. Applications:
1967-62 Chevrolet w/ Multileaf Rear Springs Extended Length: 16.50 Collapsed Length: 11.00
NOTE: These shocks are designed for DRAG RACE use only! Not for street use. Spec Sheet Tech Tip
To fine tune the amount of weight transfer to the rear suspension for lower ET's, use Competition Engineering 3-Way Adjustable Shocks together with our Rear Drag Race Springs.
Rotate Competition Engineering's Adjustable Drag Shocks' shaft several revolutions with a wrench to free up the internal components before installing the shock in the car for the first time. This will make subsequent tuning adjustments easier.
When mounting rear shocks on a drag race vehicle you want them to be 90 degrees from the axle centerline. On street cars, you can tilt the top of the shocks inboard 5 -10 degrees for better handling.
Before weighing your vehicle, make sure that it is race ready - driver on board, full load of fuel, and the correct amount of ballast added.
Pit Stop USAoffers Competition Engineering 3-Way Adjustable Front Drag Shock at low everyday prices. Be sure to check out all of our products from Competition Engineering including Competition Engineering 3-Way Adjustable Drag Shocks at low everyday prices.
These products may contain a chemical known to the state of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm
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The perfect FIT for any need
Need to protect a crimped terminal mechanically or environmentally? Color code wires for easy circuit identification? Make fast, reliable repairs to nicked or worn insulation? Whether your concerns are mechanical strain relief, environmental sealing, or organizing wires, Alpha Wire's FIT® heat-shrink tubing is ideal for solving many challenges in electrical and electronic wiring.
FIT kits are great resources for R&D labs, engineering development, and maintenance departments.
Our FIT heat-shrink tubing offers a reliable way to protect and seal terminations or add additional mechanical ruggedness.
Xtra-Guard® Performance Cable
Alpha Wire's Xtra-Guard® cable brings performance and reliability to the biggest challenges in the toughest environments. No matter what extremes your application faces, you'll find an Xtra-Guard cable that excels in meeting your requirements.
Heat Guns
Alpha heat guns are the perfect complement to our tubing, making it easy to apply FIT tubing quickly and efficiently.


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Hopefully, by March the soil is starting to warm up and you can plant your potatoes! How about making leek and potato soup once they're grown?
A smooth, creamy vegetable soup that's full of flavour. Make it into a yummy meal with some crusty baked bread and butter.
Recipe serves 4.
Heat the oil in a large pan and add the onions, potatoes, and leeks. Cook for 3-4 minutes.
Add the vegetable stock, salt, and pepper. Simmer until the vegetables are soft and tender.
Mix in a blender until you have a smooth mixture.
Reheat in a clean pan, stir in the cream or crème fraîche, and heat through.
Serve with some nice crusty bread.
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text:
'Would It Kill You To Stop Doing That?' Rethinks Rude
This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. We've all seen too many incidents of bad manners: the guy who showered half the bus with an uncovered sneeze; the lady who cut into the movie line. But these days, good manners can be harder to define.
While we all like a sense of order, even the word etiquette sounds like something on the continuum between elitist and prissy. So in a new book writer Henry Alford tries to uncover the purpose and principles of manner and how our world might look if people could be just a little bit more thoughtful.
Tell us about a time you had a manners problem, someone else's or your own. Give us a call, 800-989-8255. Email firstname.lastname@example.com. You can also join the conversation on our website. That's at npr.org. Click on TALK OF THE NATION.
Later in the program, the responsibilities of a ship's captain. But first Henry Alford joins us from our bureau in New York. His latest book is "Would It Kill You To Stop Doing That? A Modern Guide to Manners." And Henry, I have to begin by apologizing, it's Alford, correct?
HENRY ALFORD: You can go either way, Neal.
ALFORD: I'm not going to chastise you.
CONAN: Thanks very much for that. I have to ask, though, at one point in the book you show Judith Martin, Ms. Manners herself, how to steal a taxicab.
ALFORD: Can you believe it?
CONAN: Is this manners?
ALFORD: Well, no, it's a joke obviously. I did actually do that, but I thought it would be quite hilarious to, yes, show our leading icon of decorum how to do something quite awful. And she understood. She nodded her head. I don't know if we're going to see Ms. Manners out there stealing cabs left and right, but she knows how to do it now.
CONAN: The fine art has been explained to her.
ALFORD: Indeed.
CONAN: Short-stopping, I think it's called, in another context. As you went through his book, clearly you went through some history of manners going back to, well, many, many years ago when we were all members of the same tribe and this sort of social lubricant at that point invented. But everybody had the same, pretty much the same context.
ALFORD: Exactly, yeah, and as we have needed to interact more with strangers, we've needed to develop etiquette because the story of etiquette really is the story of how to deal with strangers. You know, it's no surprise that there was a huge efflorescence in the publication of etiquette manuals and in the reading of them during the first two decades of the 19th century, a time when people were moving into cities in droves.
CONAN: And I was curious about your discovery of a set of rules drawn up when the first public buses went into service.
ALFORD: Right, yeah, it's that - that's when people really needed etiquette for the first time, was to sit on these forms of public transportation, because you were placed in close proximity with total strangers.
CONAN: And given that problem, we have to figure out how to get along, politely, with them, indeed maybe give them a moment of grace in their lives.
ALFORD: I think so. You know, to me, life is a public bathroom, and we are all perpetually inheriting the toilet seat.
CONAN: You - after you suggest indeed that if we are the only person in a public toilet, it's a one-staller, it is our responsibility, even if we have not used it, to go ahead and wipe the seat.
ALFORD: Right. I mean, you are only in there to mess with your hair again, but everyone's going to think that the state of the toilet seat is your doing. So you might as well give it a little wipe.
CONAN: And as you ask yourself in the book, wait a minute, I just $24.95 on a book that tells me I have to grow up to be a bathroom attendant?
ALFORD: It is one of the many valuable tips that this book offers you.
CONAN: There are so many more. One of the most interesting stories to me, you open the book with a visit to Japan, which you describe I think as the Fort Knox of manners, and there is a time when you ask someone in a hotel, I believe, about the address of a restaurant.
ALFORD: Oh, this gentleman, actually it was a gentleman who worked in a shoe store. He said wait one minute please. He went into the back room, got an umbrella as it was raining. He let me get under the umbrella. He walked two blocks north, we took a left, we walked another two blocks north, took a right, went down the subway, down a set of stairs into the subway, took a left, opened a door, and then he pointed and said that is your restaurant, sir.
This guy owed me nothing. He just took it upon himself to do the - to show me the restaurant. I was amazed. I was gob-smacked.
CONAN: And if this does not - this sounds positively un-American, to tell you the truth.
ALFORD: Yes, right.
ALFORD: Exactly.
CONAN: And you live in a city that is, well, famous for any number of things, but its grace and charm for strangers is not among them.
ALFORD: No, New York City is a place where it is thought not impolite to ask a total stranger how many square feet is your home and how much do you pay, or did you pay, for it.
CONAN: Yeah, the rent question is a huge question and indeed virtual strangers are perfectly happy to ask each other what they pay.
ALFORD: It's - and that's appalling. I mean, that's - it's tantamount to saying how much money do you earn a year. Then the cab-stealing, as we mentioned, that too is really quite weird. So yes, there's a chapter in the book where I become a tour guide, and I realize that if I'm really going to teach these foreigners who come into New York City how to coexist with New Yorkers, I've got to teach them bad New York City manners.
So I teach this one German woman how to steal a cab, and I say, you know, you've got to go at least one block upstream so that you're - so that people won't see you. And she said: Oh, it is a game of dirty poker you play.
CONAN: I have to tell you, I lived for many years in the city of New York and then moved to London, not exactly the Fort Knox of manners but not all that far away, maybe in the same state, and from my habits on the subway in New York, where as you're preparing to exit the door, you sort of brace your shoulder against the person next to you so that they don't knock you over on the way out, I would do that in the London Tube and find that I was knocking people over.
ALFORD: Oh yeah, don't - yeah, Brits, they don't want to get too physically close to you. Yeah, and if you do, they're totally unprepared for it.
CONAN: We want to hear the questions that you've had when you've encountered questions of manners, your own or someone else's. Give us a call, 800-989-8255. Email us, firstname.lastname@example.com. Our guest is Henry Alford, who is the author, humorist and sometime NPR commentator for ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. His latest book is "Would It Kill You To Stop Doing That?" We'll start with Gaylan(ph), Gaylan with us from Duluth.
GAYLAN: Hi, I actually recently took a trip to Nashville with my fiancee and our twins, and I noticed a big difference in manners between Minnesota and Nashville, which does not reflect well on my home state, unfortunately.
CONAN: And the difference could be, well, capsulated in which story?
GAYLAN: In Minnesota we get a lot of questions from strangers about fertility treatments and how was the birth, and similar very personal questions. And we were in Nashville for a week, we didn't get a single personal question. It was all how old are the beautiful babies, and what are their names, and are they two boys or two girls.
ALFORD: Well, yeah, that is - it's a very American trait to reveal your innermost feelings to total strangers. And, you know, to do that is to suggest that those innermost feelings don't mean a whole lot to you. So I can see how Gaylan was taken aback or can be taken aback by that.
An interesting thing, too, about Southern manners, and this is something I learned from Judith Martin, was that a lot of the things that we think of as being quintessentially Southern manners, things like the expression y'all come, or using aunt or uncle for non-relations or using a first name with an honorific like Mr. Neal or Mr. Henry - that a lot of that stuff came from household slaves. That plantation owners very often would give the care of their children over to the household slaves, who had been high-ranking members of their tribes in Africa and who had a lot of deference and who passed on these really lovely habits onto the plantation owners' kids.
CONAN: Gaylan, did you have fertility treatments?
ALFORD: More importantly...
CONAN: This is just lively curiosity, it's not being rude. Gaylan, thanks very much for the phone call, appreciate it.
GAYLAN: Thank you.
CONAN: Here's an email from Connie(ph) in Augusta, Georgia: I could write 10 pages on the egregious habits of public cell phone users, but by far the rudest thing I've encountered is people continuing their cell phone conversations while checking out at the grocery store or completing some transaction that involves a human being.
It's demeaning to the cashier or clerk, it's utterly insensitive to keep prattling on oblivious to one's surroundings.
ALFORD: Yeah, absolutely, and the thing about a cell phone call, I think what really grates there is you're only hearing half the conversation. So being the nosey neighbor that we all are, you're forced to imagine the other end of that conversation, and that's very distracting.
I'm also - I go to a lot of movies, and so the people who are texting during movies, that's very, very rude, I think. And, you know, it's just very distracting to see people lit up by this kind of spectral, crotch-based incandescence.
CONAN: Does it drive you crazy if you're in line to check in at a motel or to pay at a store, and the clerk says wait just a second and answers the phone? I'm there in person. The person on the phone is calling. Can't you put them on hold?
ALFORD: Yeah, right, that's definitely a no-no, and that's a tricky part about the - you know, the ease of the Internet is that now that we can bank and live our lives and do all these things instantaneously online, we have much higher expectations about our offline, person-to-person interactions. We're much more impatient.
You know, suddenly dealing with an actual breathing human being feels very hand-crank, and we in turn become very hand-cranky.
CONAN: Being treated thusly. Henry Alford is our guest. His new book is "Would It Kill You To Stop Doing That?" He's also handling your etiquette conundrums. If you've got one, give us a call, 800-989-8255. Or you can zap us an email, firstname.lastname@example.com. We'll have more in just a minute. Stay with us. I'm Neal Conan. It's the TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.
CONAN: This is TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. I'm Neal Conan. For his new book "Would It Kill You To Stop Doing That?," Henry Alford visited Japan, where he writes etiquette has been burnished to a high art. Yet two teachers in Tokyo who ran him through Japanese manners gauntlet, teaching him how to point, palm, not finger; how to do business, wear a dark suit and bring a wrapped gift; and how to eat noodles in public, the Japanese slurp audibly, but if Westerners do not, they'll be excused.
You can read more about the lessons he learned in Japan in an excerpt at our website. Go to npr.org. Click on TALK OF THE NATION. If you've got a modern etiquette problem you need solved, tell us about it, Henry's here to help, 800-989-8255. Email email@example.com. You can also join the conversation on our website. That's at npr.org. Click on TALK OF THE NATION.
And let's go next to Joanne(ph), Joanne with us from San Antonio.
JOANNE: Hi.
CONAN: Go ahead, please.
JOANNE: My thing is fundamentally when someone has the audacity, or they take away your power when they call you hon in a business environment. They'll tell you: Well, have a seat a moment, hon, not ma'am, not Mrs. So-and-so, but hon.
CONAN: And you take that as an affront?
JOANNE: Yes, I think it's very - it's demeaning, and it's meant to be demeaning. If I used to use it, and I did, it was meant because they were lesser than I was. So yeah, you know, but I have three grandsons, and I want them to do the right thing. It's difficult to get them to hold the door open for people coming out, and not a single person will say thank you, or, you know, that's just...
You know, I've got to tell you, my fear has got to be that once all of us, you know, baby boomers that everybody doesn't really like, once we pass away, we move on, what's going to happen because everybody's going to forget?
CONAN: Henry Alford, it's possible the people are just from Baltimore.
ALFORD: It is. It is very possible. Well, Joanne, I feel your pain on the hon front. I was, until this year, very youthful-looking, and so I am someone who has been doll-faced all his life. I think what you have to do there is just grin and bear it. But if the person does it repeatedly or frequently, then I think what I would be tempted to do is to launch into what I call retaliatory manners, and that is to say I would hon a hon, I would doll-face a doll-face.
If you throw it back in their faces, what it does, it just forces them to realize oh, well, I don't really love it when people call me that name.
JOANNE: Yeah, yeah, but I'm wondering, because of the economy not being as thriving as it once was, how many of these corporations - and I'm talking about your everyday Wendy's, McDonald's, just your run-of-the-mill things that we use all the time, if it wouldn't serve their service better if they were taught these little particular etiquette things. You know: Smile at your customer; thank them for buying; thank them for - you know, but everybody assumes this power stance, here's your order and that's it, you know?
ALFORD: Yeah, it's true. Some companies are instituting etiquette classes, and I think that is a good thing. Yeah, it's really something that the manager needs to be looking out for. I think it comes from the managerial level. It's interesting that you bring this problem up because my book was born in a grocery store in New York City where a gal behind the register dropped my apple on the ground and then put it in my bag without saying anything.
And I said: Oh, I'm sorry. And she said nothing. And then I said: No, I'm sorry, I didn't mean for you to drop my apple like that, at which point she stared off into the mid-distance as if receiving instructions from outer space.
So I think that yeah, customers, yeah, that we feel really slighted and put in our place when people treat us that way.
JOANNE: But, you know, more than anything else, to me it's not that - and I don't mean this like in a derogatory form at all, see, so I'm not trying to correct you, but even on that first-line managerial thing, some of those people got there because they were high-productive people bringing in some hard cash to where the upper levels would be oh, he makes money.
CONAN: I don't think that quite applies to the manager of the McDonald's.
JOANNE: OK, all right, so then the manager of McDonald's, and (technical difficulty), you know, he's 19. He doesn't know any better. He has no history. You know, I mean, back in the day, we were taught simple things. I mean, don't even think about talking...
CONAN: Maybe there's an etiquette course at Hamburger U. Joanne...
JOANNE: Exactly, that's sad, so sad.
CONAN: Thanks very much.
JOANNE: Thank you very much, you guys. Let's solve these problems.
CONAN: Jack(ph) sent us an email: I was raised in Vienna with old-school manners pounded into my thick American head by my Austrian relatives. As I grew up and applied those same manners in a workplace - holding doors for ladies and helping with coats and such - I received a visit from my manager at the time that I was in violation of company and social work rules, would I please act appropriately American? Go figure.
ALFORD: Hey got chastised for being too polite, wow, that's so rare. That almost never happens.
CONAN: Let's go next to Eli(ph), Eli with us from Hot Springs in Arkansas.
ELI: Hi, yes. I actually - I'm Southern by birth, born in Birmingham, Alabama, but I actually grew up in Tokyo, Japan. My parents were actually missionaries there. And it's an interesting juxtaposition about how I thought deferment was a thing.
I think it's where - it's like a juxtaposition between Southern and Japanese etiquette, and where you always will politely, oh, defer, and the patience of Japan as far as, like, being able to wait in line or things like that, it's amazing how it wins you friends and whatnot like that.
ALFORD: Absolutely. Patience is - I mean, the cliche patience is a virtue is based in something really powerful, which is that, you know, this idea that whenever we interact with strangers, you have to hold a part of yourself in abeyance. You have to suspend part of yourself, and that's what the Japanese and some Southern-Americans are so great at is holding back the kind of rapacious, grabby part of their personality.
CONAN: At which point I have to...
ELI: I would just add, though, to that, though: I have garnered, you know, friends and acquaintances planet-wide just by doing that in my travels, just by, you know, politely deferring to them, you know, or whatever. And then they end up striking up a conversation while we continue to both wait in line and things like that. And yeah, just politely let someone go first, it's amazing how - what a little gesture like that will do in terms of, you know, easing it for everybody, you know.
CONAN: Eli, thanks very much for the call and for the advice. Though Henry Alford, I have to say yes, you're praising Japan, then explain the banana incident.
ALFORD: Simply that I went into a grocery store to buy some bananas, and the bunch that they had had about 12 bananas on it. So I broke off four of them and presented them to the guy at the cash register, and a look of horror came over his face.
And we had this whole, long, pantomime of what was going to happen and no, finally, no, he was not going to sell me those bananas. And because he didn't speak any English, I don't know what happened to those bananas, but I was led to believe that they were to be cleansed in a ritual at dawn.
CONAN: Let's go next to Amar(ph), Amar with us from Bentonville, Arkansas.
AMAR: Yes, hey. Great - huge fan of the show.
CONAN: Thank you.
AMAR: And, well, I've - my parents were originally from the former Yugoslavia, and my parents are extremely direct people, and one thing that I've found - and I've definitely shed that - but one thing I've found that is when my attention is preoccupied - for example I was attempting to leave a tip for a waitress at the front of the store, we check out at the front, and the waitress who rang me up, I was leaving her a tip, and as I'm writing a tip, she asked me would you like a receipt.
And when I'm preoccupied, I'm extremely rude, and I literally go uh-uh, and my girlfriend was extremely embarrassed. And we get in the car, and she just grills me for about 10 minutes on the way home saying that I was extremely rude, and I'm extremely embarrassing to her when I'm preoccupied. And I think it's just a really interesting cultural difference between how my parents behave and how I've attempted to shed that behavior here in the U.S.
CONAN: Or you can just move to New York, Amar.
ALFORD: Exactly, we applaud that kind of behavior in New York.
ALFORD: The scientific term for that, Amar, is inattentional blindness. That's what it's called when you're sort monomaniacally involved in one activity at the expense of incoming data. So you were inattentionally blind.
AMAR: And it's interesting because I'm an extremely courteous individual. My parents are extremely courteous people. The culture is extremely courteous. But for some reason, when I am preoccupied, it is unbelievable. I just become notoriously rude.
CONAN: Well, thanks very much for your very polite call, Amar.
AMAR: Thank you.
CONAN: Bye.
ALFORD: And I think that's a great call because I think it's really important that we cop to our own bad manners. Part of the book is this idea that so many of our manners are based in ignorance. I have a chapter where I ask people of various professions what rude questions are you asked. And they're almost always based in ignorance, like people who ask doctors how long have you been practicing; or students who ask teachers, once they've missed a class, did I miss anything last week, you know, as if to suggest that some weeks we just stare at the doorknob for two hours; people ask lawyers, are you billing me for this call?
And, yeah, I, myself have been guilty of bad manners. I'm someone who, until last year, I would ask someone with a heavy foreign accent, where are you from, because I love to travel and hear about exotic lands. And, you know, if that person lives in the United States, it's very possible that that's a rude question, where are you from, because that's someone who probably wants to be perceived primarily as American.
CONAN: Where are you from originally, might that...
ALFORD: Where are you from originally - yeah. But even better, I think, is, you know, let them volunteer that information themselves. And, again, I think that, yeah, we need to - if we're going to change manners, which I hope we will do, we've got to each cop to our own bad - to our own misdeeds. And I think that's part of why this book has gotten such nice attention from book groups is because it can lead to a conversation, not only about what are your pet peeves, but also what are some of the things that you yourself do unintentionally that cause - that bring distress to other people.
CONAN: Here's a tweet from @MSUgrad(ph): A coworker brings me emails and other printouts I send to the community printer - seemingly nice - but I think she reads them.
ALFORD: Kill the messenger. I think she reads the tweets. Uh-huh. Right. Well, why isn't our writer getting the tweets herself?
CONAN: Can't tell you that, but...
ALFORD: Can't tell you - yeah. Hmm.
CONAN: "Would It Kill You to Stop Doing That?" is the name of the book, "A Modern Guide to Manners." Our guest his Henry Alford. You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION, coming to you from NPR News. Heidi(ph) is on the line from Grand Rapids.
HEIDI: Hi there. Yes. I have a friend who is the mother of a biracial child. And very often in public, she's asked, well, you know, is your son adopted? And, wow, I take it anyway is that that person really - what they really want to know is whether or not she's married to a black guy.
ALFORD: Yeah, I have a friend, too, who I write about in the book who's black and has a white godchild. And when she goes to parks, she is sometimes asked, how much do they pay you an hour?
CONAN: Mm-hmm.
HEIDI: Oh.
ALFORD: It's just so presumptuous for people to do that. So, yeah, I think you, you know, it's the much worst case scenario of my asking where are you from. Or another variant is, you know, walking up to the person in a department store and saying, you know, where is the women's department, assuming that that person works there when they might just be milling about. So I think we all need to be a lot more careful about making these presumptions. And, you know, a question about, you know, a - this question about the biracial child, I just think it's really not something you should be asking a stranger.
HEIDI: Yeah. And, you know, I always suggest to her, I mean, I would just go ahead and say to that person, would you really want to know whether I'm married to a black guy? Is that your, I mean, is that what you really want to know?
ALFORD: Yeah. Exactly.
HEIDI: She just really has the nerve to do it, but I...
ALFORD: That's the perfect...
HEIDI: ...take that kid and walk around with that kid one day and sit at a little play place and strike up a conversation, and that way I can just throw it back at them.
ALFORD: Exactly. It's the same when someone asks you, you know, how did your spouse die. You just say, why do you ask? And that, it just sends the question right back to them and they're going to be forced to confront the inherent rudeness of it.
CONAN: Heidi, thanks very much.
HEIDI: Thanks.
CONAN: Email from David in Sioux Falls, South Dakota: Does your guest have any suggestions for driving manners in this road rage age? I suspect his answer will be mass transit.
ALFORD: It's true. Move to a large city. Get on the bus. Well, yeah, the people who are changing lanes without any directional signal, that seems like it's just such a constant now. It almost seems like - it seems unusual when someone does use his passing blinker. So, yeah, that's a biggie. What about you, Neal? What - you probably spend more time in a car than I do.
CONAN: Actually, I don't drive, so I'm always on mass transit. There's a lot of rules about that too.
CONAN: I'm always on the bus, which was my example of the person who sneezes on a bus without covering up, which is incredibly rude, not to mention, you know, a risk to public health.
ALFORD: Yeah. Absolutely. Well, that's one thing we can say for the cars is it's a nice place to sneeze.
CONAN: It's - it is. As you've gotten reactions to this, do you fear that for the rest of your life you're going to be answering etiquette questions?
ALFORD: Well, that I don't think would be a bad thing. I do - I worry about my friends. It's a little bit like, you know, going over to your friend, the caterer's - or having your friend, the caterer, come over for dinner, that suddenly all my friends are frantic around me and about - you know, the thank you notes are coming to me so fast.
CONAN: I bet they do. Have I folded the napkins in an inoffensive way?
ALFORD: Exactly.
CONAN: Well, it will be an interesting existence. You may talk to Miss Manners about that too.
ALFORD: I did. Yeah, a little bit. And - well, she's been at it so long that it's a given. But, no. You know, the phrase that I love for manners is Samuel Johnson's, which is fictitious benevolence, that there is this element of playacting when we need to have good manners.
CONAN: New Yorkers aren't rude. They're just honest.
ALFORD: Exactly.
CONAN: Well, Henry Alford, thank you very much for your time. Good luck with the book.
ALFORD: Thank you so much, Neal.
CONAN: It's called "Would It Kill You to Stop Doing That?: A Modern Guide to Manners." When we come back, we'll talk about the role of ships' captains. Captain Francesco Schettino is charged with causing a shipwreck off the coast of Italy and abandoning his post while there were still passengers aboard his vessel. He made us wonder what exactly is expected of ships' captains. That's next. It's the TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.
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text:
Amputee Facebook users beware, your photo may end up somewhere you'd rather not see it.
As Charlotte Fielder, who was born without a hand, found out, some pornographic websites are trolling the Social Network for photos of amputees to use on their sites.
The photos aren't necessarily lewd, but for amputee fetishists, it's all they need.
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
The 47-year-old UK woman, joined Facebook in 2008 to help people like herself, cope with the disability, says All Facebook, but she soon discovered a photo of herself turned up on a porn site.
Many fetishists will often try to friend the people they find on these sites, and while she is aware what's going on, some younger amputees could be targeted and may not realize what is happening.
Fielder told the BBC:
"I'm a 47-year-old woman but younger girls aren't aware. These men are out there, they lie and pretend to be limb deficient to make friends with people. Teenagers with limb deficiencies have enough issues. It'd be like growing up with the biggest spot in the world on your nose. When I was young I'd always keep my stump in my pocket."
Facebook responded by stating its current policy says someone should only add the people they know as friends to their account. The company also contends that everyone has adjustable privacy settings which can prevent the copying of images.