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Charles F. Leeka, 65, Laketon, died June 1 at 6:10 a.m. at Peabody Healthcare Center, North Manchester. He was born Aug. 29, 1948 to William and Mary (Rhoades) Leeka, in Wabash.
Charles served in the U.S. Army from 1968-1972. He was employed with Laketon Refinery from 1972-1994, and worked at McDonalds from 1994-2001. He then worked with North Manchester Foundry (Manchester Metals) from 2001-2004. He married Markeeta Flemming on July 21, 1984; she survives.
He is also survived by four sons, Paul Leeka, Laketon, John (Danielle) Leeka, Warsaw, Brian (Angie) Leeka, Fort Wayne, and Aron Ball, Laketon; a sister, Betty Jane Fish, Huntington; 10 grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents, two brothers and two sisters.
Funeral services will be held at McKee Mortuary on Saturday, June 7 at 1 p.m. with Pastor J.P. Freeman officiating. Visitation will be held one hour prior to the service.
Preferred memorials are to Wabash County Cancer Society, PO Box 144, North Manchester.


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NORFOLK, Va.
A drearily familiar dialectic is on display here: Government is behaving badly in order to silence protests of other bad behavior. It is violating the Constitution's First Amendment, stifling speech about its violation of the Fifth Amendment, as it was properly construed until 2005.
Founded in 1934, Central Radio maintains communication, sonar and camera equipment on vessels at Norfolk Naval Station. The business is located in a building designed for its needs near the waterfront. Company Vice President Kelly Dickinson says, "We can drive five minutes and be on board a ship."
But Old Dominion University is nearby and covetous. It wants the land on which Central Radio sits, and through ODU's Real Estate Foundation is well along toward seizing it by inciting the city government to wield the power of eminent domain.
Condemnation proceedings against Central Radio have moved to the compensation phase. Dickinson says the compensation will be insufficient to enable the business to construct a comparable building, let alone buy land for it.
ODU, whose plans for the neighborhood remain interestingly vague and may include a shopping center, is exploiting the judicial evisceration of the Fifth Amendment's takings clause, the history of which is this:
The Constitution's authors, who did not scatter adjectives carelessly, said property may be taken for "public" uses, meaning things -- roads, bridges, buildings, etc. -- directly owned by government and used by the general public.
In 1954, however, in a case arising from what was then complacently called "urban renewal," the Supreme Court expanded the category of "public use" to include the "public purpose" of curing "blight," a concept of enormous elasticity when wielded by rapacious city governments.
In 2005, in the Kelo case from New London, Conn., the court radically attenuated the "public use" restriction on takings. The court held, 5-4, that a city government can seize an unblighted neighborhood for the supposed "public" purpose of turning it over to a private business that, being wealthier than the previous owners, would be a richer source of tax revenues for the taking government.
In this appalling decision, the majority serenely said governments could be restrained by public opinion aroused against abuses of eminent domain. Now, however, Norfolk's government is suppressing Central Radio's speech protesting what the city is doing.
In their desperation, the company's executives hung from their building, facing busy Hampton Boulevard, a 375-square-foot banner proclaiming:
In the banner's lower right-hand corner is a circle with a red slash through the words "Eminent Domain Abuse."
Today that circle is all that is visible. The city, acting on a complaint by ODU's Real Estate Foundation -- the entity trying to seize the company's property -- says the size of the full sign violates Norfolk's sign code. Norfolk's behavior is unconstitutional because:
The city's sign code, which is of rabbinical complexity, has been capriciously enforced -- some banners on city and private buildings violate the code's size restrictions. The code is more permissive regarding signs with particular content (e.g., government messages or religious symbols), which violates First Amendment jurisprudence prohibiting content discrimination. The sign code is suddenly being more evenhandedly enforced but only because, a city official has admitted, since Central Radio began protesting, "people are watching."
Furthermore, any content-based restriction of speech must pass judicial "strict scrutiny" by establishing that it is necessary to achieve a compelling governmental interest, but the government's only interest in restricting Central Radio's speech is to make it easier for the government to throw its weight around.
We have seen this before. A few years ago, a St. Louis man whose property was being seized under Kelo's permission for government theft adorned his building with a sign similar in size and message to that of Central Radio's. The city government tried to silence him with sign restrictions as flawed and capriciously enforced as Norfolk's are.
An alderwoman explained with ruinous candor: "If this sign is allowed to remain, then anyone with property along any thoroughfare can paint signs ... to influence passers-by and with no control by any city agency." Uncontrolled speech? Gracious.
The St. Louis man trounced the city in his sign dispute, helped by the Institute for Justice, a little platoon of libertarian litigators who roam the country putting leashes on misbehaving governments. Because IJ is representing Central Radio's First Amendment rights, Norfolk may have to content itself with traducing only one rather than two provisions of the Bill of Rights.
Email: email@example.com
Sign code used as weapon
NORFOLK, Va.

subset: commoncrawl


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DESIGN OF ADAPTIVE AUTOMATED ROBOTIC TASK PRESENTATION SYSTEM FOR STROKE REHABILITATION by Younggeun Choi ________________________________________________________________________ A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (COMPUTER SCIENCE) August 2010 Copyright 2010 Younggeun Choi
Object Description
|Design of adaptive automated robotic task presentation system for stroke rehabilitation
|Choi, Younggeun
|Author email
|email@example.com; email@example.com
|Doctor of Philosophy
|Document type
|Degree program
|Computer Science
|Viterbi School of Engineering
|Date defended/completed
|Date submitted
|Restricted until
|Date published
|Advisor (committee chair)
|Schweighofer, Nicolas
|Advisor (committee member)
Schaal, Stefan
Gordon, James
|Robotic technology has the potential to deliver therapy activities for rehabilitation of arm and hand function after stroke more efficiently and effectively than conventional rehabilitation, as it can objectively dose the prescribed intensive amount of therapy in automated design with less cost and effort, and can provide highly reliable measurement of patients" progress. The primary goal of this dissertation is to develop a robotic rehabilitation system that fulfills current guidelines for the stroke rehabilitation: motor training focus on realistic tasks that require reaching and manipulation and engage patients post stroke intensively, actively, and adaptively.; Firstly, we presented a novel robotic task-practice system, i.e., adaptive and automatic presentation of tasks (ADAPT), which was designed according to the guidelines. A modular and reconfigurable robot with the configuration of a 3 degree-of-freedom (DOF) wrist mounted on a 1-DOF linear actuator simulates the dynamics of functional tasks and presents the functional tasks to patients post stroke. A novel tool-changing system enables ADAPT to automatically switch between the tools corresponding to the functional tasks. The control architecture of ADAPT is composed of three main components: a high-level task scheduler, a functional task model, and a low-level admittance controller. The high-level task scheduler adaptively selects the task to practice and sets the task difficulty based on the previous performance of the patients. The functional task model generates desired trajectories based on learned models of task dynamics. Tasks dynamics are modeled with receptive field weighted regression (RFWR), such that the feel of the task tools is accurately modeled, and the task difficulty can be easily adjusted. The low-level admittance controller, which is also learned with RFWR, implements the selected task trajectory for robot–patient interaction.; Secondly, we introduced new adaptive schedules for the high level adaptive task scheduler of ADAPT in an attempt to maximize the relearning of multiple functional tasks and balancing learning among tasks in a limited training time. Although random scheduling of several tasks has been shown to enhance learning more than blocked scheduling does, the advantages of random scheduling may be limited because it does not take into account the nominal difficulty of each task, the difference in difficulty between tasks, and the skill level of the learner in that type of schedule. We proposed two new algorithms for adaptively determining the nominal difficulty and the number of trials for each task on the basis of both current and delayed performance of the learner (N = 48). We tested the adaptive algorithms in a 2 × 2 factorial design, and they show that the algorithms outperform random scheduling when performance is measured on a delayed retention test.; Finally, we investigated the feasibility of ADAPT to patients post stroke by evaluating safety, system utility, fidelity of simulated tasks and patient acceptance. Five patients with chronic stroke participated in approximately one hour training session with an adaptive difficulty schedule. Additional pre and post test sessions lasted approximately 10 minutes each, and questionnaire were administered after all the sessions. All participants completed the presented sessions, functional measurements, and questionnaires without any adverse event or report from the participants. ADAPT provided adaptive training tailored to patients" performance by modulating task difficulty in the training session. The results from this study validate the feasibility of ADAPT for rehabilitation of arm and hand function after stroke, and provide justification for continued investigation of clinical efficacy
|haptics; machine learning; motor learning; rehabilitation; robotics; stroke
|Part of collection
|University of Southern California dissertations and theses
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|University of Southern California
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|Los Angeles, California
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|University of Southern California. Libraries
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|University of Southern California
|Choi, Younggeun
|Repository name
|Libraries, University of Southern California
|Repository address
|Los Angeles, California
|Repository email
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|Page 1
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|University of Southern California
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|DESIGN OF ADAPTIVE AUTOMATED ROBOTIC TASK PRESENTATION SYSTEM FOR STROKE REHABILITATION by Younggeun Choi ________________________________________________________________________ A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (COMPUTER SCIENCE) August 2010 Copyright 2010 Younggeun Choi


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Items where Author is "Campbell-Barr, Verity"
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Ray, Kathryn, Hoggart, Lesley, Taylor, Rebecca, Vegeris, Sandra and Campbell-Barr, Verity (2009) Rewarding responsibility? Long-term unemployed men and the welfare-to-work agenda. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 27 (6). pp. 975-990. ISSN 0263-774X (Print), 1472-3425 (Online) (doi:https://doi.org/10.1068/c0852)


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This question is really a two part question.
Is it ethical to treat save one patient at the inevitable loss of another, even if treating both both patients greatly reduces the chance of either patient surviving?
This is a tough question. You really have only two ways to go about it. You can be idealistic, or pragmatic. If there is only a 3 percent chance of survival per patient if they are both treated, that gives us a 6 percent chance that either one will survive. There is a possibility that both will survive but it is extremely small. An idealist would say both patients should be given an equal opportunity to survive. This would be fair. A pragmatist would typically choose which patient to save, since this guarantees the treatment won't be wasted. Which leads us to the second question ...
Who to save?
I would say there isn't enough information here to make a good decision. As someone who has done 6 months in jail, it goes without saying I'm not here to pass judgements on someone simply because the State or Federal government has seen it fit to incarcerate them.
Was the convict imprisoned for a violent crime? How has he behaved in prison? Was he even guilty of the crime he was convicted of committing?
You say the 90 year old is wise. Has he already written books to share the wealth of knowledge he's gained? Is he suffering from severe dementia and unable to communicate?
to the first question would be that it is ok to choose one patient over another. I would like to think of myself as an idealist, and if the treatment reduced the chance of survival to 50, or even 30 percent a patient I would certainly want to do the fair thing and give both patients equal treatment. What I could not do is sit back with the likelihood that both patients will die.
-- Thu Sep 08, 2011 3:07 pm --
Also, if a doctor approached me and gave me a choice between
A) Sharing a treatment with another patient that will give us each a 3% chance of survival
B) Flipping a coin with another patient and having a 50% chance at guaranteed survival, it would be a no-brainer. I think if both patients were presented with this choice they would choose the coin toss, as it not only gives them a real shot at survival but guarantees that SOMEONE will survive.
As for who should be saved ...
IF the con is not a rapist or a murderer I would lean toward saving him. 90 is well past the life-expectancy these days and our old man will likely die soon anyway. Hopefully our con won't go back to prison.


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Inside Michigan Supreme Court: Decisions on 4 ballot issues
Court to decide if casino proposal, collective bargaining, 2/3 tax proposal, bridge proposal make Michigan's November ballot
LANSING, Mich. – Local 4's Rod Meloni is inside the Michigan Supreme Court as the court hears oral arguments on the casino proposal, collective bargaining proposal, 2/3 tax proposal and bridge proposal. Normally, each would be considered one at a time but ballots need to be printed shortly and time is of the essence.
Supreme Court Blog 8-30-12
2 p.m.
The Michigan Supreme Court opened its unique hearing today promptly at 2pm. Six of seven justices are on the bench. Justice Marilyn Kelly is on a vacation away from Michigan and could not make today's proceedings. She is expected to read transcripts or information from the court and then rule based on what she reads. Making this day unique is that the Court has agreed to hear four similar cases back to back. The Court knows it must act quickly because the decisions in these cases are going to impact the printing of ballots for the November election in Michigan.
First up is the Protect Our Jobs v. the State Board of Canvassers. This provision would place in the Michigan Constitution language that would give collective bargaining rights to all Michigan Citizens. This is the polar opposite of the so-called "right to work" legislation that has passed in other neighboring states. It is backed by Michigan's unions. The Governor and the Attorney General have filed briefs asking the Supreme Court not to allow the ballot proposal proceed because the proposal makes so many changes in other Michigan laws it would be destructive. The backers of the proposal obviously disagree.
In the first arguments, Citizens Protecting the Constitution sent attorney Gary Gordon before the justices, The Governor and the Attorney General sent State Solicitor John Bursch to make their arguments. The justices are questioning how the Constitution is altered or "abrogated" by the ballot question. So far, the justices appear inclined to allow the question. Protect our Jobs counsel Andred Nickelhoff is up next.
2:31 p.m.
Chief Justice Robert P. Young Jr. says the questions being asked of the state, why its position of "altering" or "abrogating" the question makes dramatic changes. Andrew Nickelhoff, the Protect our Jobs attorney says the question only changes… by adding a new paragraph to… the state constitution. It does not alter or render inoperative [abrogate] the state's constitution. Justice Stephen Markman disagreed with Nickelhoff saying the proposal changes the scope of collective bargaining in the constitution. Justice Robert Young very emphatically just forced Nickelhoff to admit that the proposed amendment changes the legislature's power as it pertains to collective bargaining. Young says if this amendment is allowed it will require "slick lawyering" in the future with changing the Constitution.
2:45 p.m.
Citizens Protecting The Constitution wanted rebuttal time and asked the judges how it is possible to "cut and paste" creates a "shadow constition" that would do significant harm. AT that the Justices moved on.
2:55 p.m. : Next case:
Alliance for Prosperity v. the board of state canvassers. The case is about whether the petition that would require 2/3 vote of the Legislature to raise taxes. Alliance attorney is Matthew Davis. He told the judges the reason we are here is the Legislature has failed to demarcate exactly what the legislature's power here is. He says this petition does not alter the Constitution and there is no requirement to explain to voters the impact of the changes. The justices are continually asking whether the proposals merely change the constitution without significant impact on the Constitution or whether it alters or abrogates. If it doesn't alter or abrogate the, the argument by the attorney for Defend Michigan Democracy John Pirich says it should be allowed.
3:22 p.m.
This is been a very long, drawn out questioning process with extremely precise and miniscule legal details are being argued. Attorney Matthew Davis This court said "the Headlee amendment grew out of a tax revolt of voters." The Legislature can do everything under our proposal it does now but would have to adjust to the super majority required. Justice Young once again wants to know the overall impact of the proposal, the effect. Does it render ineffective the State Constitution? Almost any change of the Constitution will have impact.
3:39 p.m.
Next case, Citizens for more Michigan Jobs v Secretary of State. Attorney Graham Crabtree is lamenting the fact this unusual proceeding is being called Ballot-palooza in that he says it is too flippant a description for very important hearings. Once again the issue the justices continue pounding home is whether this ballot proposal either alters or abrogates the state constitution. This is a very thin yet important point since the state law regarding changing the constitution requires notice to voters in the petition process that this particular ballot proposal will impact other parts of the constitution. In other words, the justices are trying to figure out with each proposal whether there was sufficient notice to voters the impact of the change. The claim by the Governor and the Secretary of state along with others that these proposals do not meet that standard and therefore should not be allowed on the ballot, no matter how many signatures have been turned in. One of these proposals, the protect our jobs petition turned in nearly seven hundred thousand signatures. Justice Young is asking Crabtree why, if his petition did not meet the standard it should be given any more credence than if they did not turn in enough signatures. Needless to day this is tough going for the attorneys!
4:04 p.m.
To get a better idea of what is going on here is the Supreme Courts' order to attorneys presenting today. They asked "At oral argument the parties shall include among the issues addressed whether the republication requirement of Const 1963, art 12, § 2 and MCL 168.482(3), requiring that petitions set forth any other existing provisions of the constitution that would be altered or abrogated by the proposed amendment, has been satisfied." In effect the judges are paying close attention to what the Governor and Attorney General are asking about. The question is whether those who signed the petitions knew specifically what impact the new ballot proposal will have on the existing constitution. Currently Protect Michigan Constitution Attorney Peter Ellsworth is telling the justices the Citizens for More Michigan Jobs [the casino addition ballot proposal] does not meet the standard. But, the justices aren't siding with him either. The court keeps asking for the attorneys to define for it "altered" and "abrogated" to help it decide whether the ballot proposals can stand. These are challenging lines of thought for attorneys, much less those of us who merely watch the legal system.
4:36 p.m.
The last group to appear is The People Should Decide v., Board of State Canvassers. This is Matty Moroun's group trying to prevent the construction of a private bridge in the state of Michigan without the vote of the people. The Attorney for the group Gerald Fisher did what he could to simplify his case. He said the ballot question neither alters nor abrogates the constitution. The Taxpayers Against Monopolies attorney Michael Hodge is now arguing that is not the case at all. He believes the language use in fact does alter or abrogate. This should be winding up soon.
Copyright 2012 by ClickOnDetroit.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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By adding one extra step to the standard three-strand braiding process, you can produce a dense, sturdy interwoven rug that's reversible to boot!
The supplies you'll need for this braided rug project are probably already on hand, too: needle, thread, thimble, scissors, a large crochet hook (about size K), and some tightly woven, medium-weight cloth (such as worn sheets, tablecloths, curtains, and clothing) that won't ravel excessively.
For a 2' X 3' oval rug, cut 300 strips of fabric at least 1" X 24." If you tear the material, the resulting ravelings will make for an unsightly floor covering. Although the cutting process is tedious, remember that the pieces don't all have to be exactly the same size. Just measure the first one so you'll know what to aim for, and "eyeball" the rest. Just be sure your errors produce wider, rather than narrower, strips. (Variations in length are actually advantageous, since the basted-on extensions won't all appear in the same place and cause lumps in your braided masterwork.)
How It Works
To begin the rug, line up the ends of three cloth strips on top of each other, make two diagonal cuts through all three layers—so that they come to a point—then baste them together at the tip.
Next, separate the strips, crush them slightly, and make a loose 12" braid. Whenever your "weaving" process takes you to the end of a strip, add on another by trimming the ends diagonally, overlapping them about 1/4", and basting them together.
When a 12" section is finished, turn the braid around so that the working end is away from you (make sure to hold the "loose ends" in place to keep 'em from unraveling). Look carefully at what you've done. Notice that— on each side of the midline—there's a series of what I call "loops." During the first round, you'll be working with the loops on the left. Then you'll turn the corner and use each loop on the right .
To begin this part of the operation, insert the crochet hook down and all the way through the first loop on the left, then bend the loose ends of the strips around to the left—to form a corner—and begin to braid toward you. However, the first strip that comes from underneath the others is pulled—with the crochet hook—completely through the first loop and is crossed over to the left as you begin to braid again. The very next strip that comes under is pulled up through the second loop.
Keep It Up!
Continue in this manner, pulling a strip (always the one coming from underneath) up through each successive loop, until you reach the last one on that side. This final loop should be passed through by a second strip to provide extra fabric for a flat corner. (The other three "corner" loops should each have two strips pulled up through them as they're "rounded.")
Turn the braid around again, make the second corner, and continue to work, pulling one strip up through each remaining loop on the other side of the original 12" braid. Then repeat the cornering procedure: Use the last loop twice, turn the work, and use the first loop twice. That should bring you to the end of the first round and will be the last time it's necessary to pull two strands through a single loop.
Once the initial "circle" is completed, you'll work with the outside braid loops of the previous round. Continue to braid and pull one strip up through each loop until all the strips are used. Then—to finish off your work of art—pull all three strips through a loop, sew them in place securely, and cut them flush with the rug. The end won't be noticeable if the braiding is terminated just before you turn a corner.
And one other thing: The secret to a rug that never puckers in the center is loose, even braiding. Therefore, make sure you loosen the previous "knot" after each pull-through. And remember, it's especially important that you work loosely around the corners.
While it may take you a little time to get into the "rhythm" of this rug making method, your pretty—and durable—end products should last for years!


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Apple released a seven-page report chronicling the data requests by personal accounts and devices, with the United States having 30 times more personal account requests than any other country.
The report also showed that by device, the United States was only about 50-100 percent higher than other countries. For many, the main point of the report is explaining Apple's "philosophy on customer privacy," according to AllThingsD, which includes a dig at Facebook and Google for "amassing personal information" on its customers. From the report:
We have no interest in amassing personal information about our customers. We protect personal conversations by providing end-to-end encryption over iMessage and FaceTime. We do not store location data, Maps searches, or Siri requests in any identifiable form.
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
While there is some interest in Apple's report, Google has also released semi-annual reports on government requests for several years now. Other tech companies have also released reports in hopes of fostering transparency, too.
At the time of this report, the U.S. government does not allow Apple to disclose, except in broad ranges, the number of national security orders, the number of accounts affected by the orders, or whether content, such as emails, was disclosed. We strongly oppose this gag order, and Apple has made the case for relief from these restrictions in meetings and discussions with the White House, the U.S. Attorney General, congressional leaders, and the courts.


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Why North Texas Bees Are Dying
More hobbyists than ever are keeping 'the little livestock' in North Texas. The only problem: the insects are disappearing.
Brandon Pollard expounds on the sex life of the honeybee while moving his fingers over a glass-paned observation hive. The queen will mate with 10 to 20 drones on her mating flight, says the former Olympic soccer player and onetime left fullback for the Dallas Burn. On weekends, the bearded beekeeper dresses in a bee costume with spring-loaded antennae bobbing above his head and uses the hive to sell honey at the Dallas Farmers Market.
"She'll have enough sperm to last the rest of her life," he says. "They die when they mate with her. Their member gets torn from their body. The life of a boy bee is tough."
"The bubba pool," says his wife, Susan.
Founders of the Texas Honeybee Guild, the Pollards are relentless champions for what appears to be a rapidly diminishing resource. Until a few months ago, they referred to themselves as urban bee wranglers, rescuing urban hives from fatal doses of exterminator poison and placing them all over Dallas in community gardens, parks, and businesses—such as atop the roofs of the Fairmont hotel and chef Marc Cassel's Park restaurant.
"Now we say we're beevangelists because you always have to be re-creating yourselves," Susan says. "We're everywhere. We are a fairy troop, the ruby slipper troop. We move. We waggle dance. We teach." The Pollards manage some 100 hives producing 7,000 pounds of honey annually. They label the jars by ZIP code to indicate the Dallas neighborhood from whence the honey came—the "eat local" movement's version of micro-loaning. Currently they produce honey in more than 20 of Dallas County's 43 ZIP codes, selling it in markets and restaurants such as Bolsa in Oak Cliff.
But all is not well with their honeybees. After years of relatively stable colonies, the Pollards suffered losses of 30 percent this past winter. Hence their beevangelism takes on intensified urgency. Honeybees, Susan reminds, pollinate crops representing more than a third of the nation's food supply. "Bees are an indicator species, the canary in the coal mine. They're telling us it's not all lovely."
The Pollards' recent losses track almost exactly with declines experienced by beekeepers nationwide. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, managed bee colony losses hit 33.8 percent for the 2009 to 2010 season—the third straight year of colony declines that have averaged 33 percent. Though the beekeepers in the latest USDA survey peg losses to a variety of causes—from starvation and harsh weather to poor queens—the culprit that's generated intense media focus is Colony Collapse Disorder: the unexplained disappearance of millions of bees from their hives. The phenomenon, which has stumped researchers worldwide, even cropped up at the Dallas International Film Festival last April when the documentary Colony made its Dallas debut.
Colony Collapse Disorder has been blamed for snuffing out bee populations across the globe, though it has been most profoundly felt in Europe and North America. "They don't know what the actual critter or cause is," says Paul Jackson, chief apiary inspector at Texas A&M University. "There's no rhyme or reason to it. It can strike neighboring beekeepers. One will have it, another won't. That's what makes it so hard." Jackson believes a combination of pesticides, viruses, and parasites is likely to blame.
"Twenty-five years ago, it was relatively easy to raise bees," says John Talbert, founder of Sabine Creek Honey, who went from hobbyist to commercial producer after retiring from defense contractor Raytheon in Garland a decade ago. "We're seeing fewer and fewer commercial beekeepers out there. You struggle to keep your bees alive, and then prices vary up and down on honey."
On a blistering afternoon in June, Talbert and his partner, Blake Shook, remove frames from hive boxes and slip them into a honey extractor. The machine lowers the frames into oscillating heated blades that cleave wax caps from the honeycombs before they're placed into a large centrifuge, which spins the honey loose from the combs.
Outside Talbert's steel honey building near Royce City, wasps buzz around a rusting tractor and a pair of decrepit 1961 Nash Metropolitans. Together Talbert and Shook produce more than 100,000 pounds of honey annually, though this year revenue from crop pollination will trump that from honey sales. "We'll pick up beehives and move them four places in one year, sometimes across the country," says Shook, president of the Collin County Hobby Beekeepers Association. "That puts a lot of stress on the bees." Shook suspects the pollination demands of commercial agriculture—with hives often shuttled long distances between crop fields—may drive colony collapse, weakening bees and leaving them susceptible to viruses and parasites. "It's a lot more difficult than it used to be," he says.
Shook is an oddity among beekeepers. According to Bee Culture, a trade magazine, the industry is suffering a collapse of its own. Just 8 percent of beekeepers are under the age of 40, while 66 percent are between the ages of 40 and 60. Shook is 20. He started raising bees at age 13 after winning a Collin County Hobby Beekeepers Association scholarship that provided him with a textbook, hive-building materials, and tutoring. He founded Desert Creek Honey while still in high school.
The irony is that while bee and commercial beekeeper populations are retreating, hobbyist interest is exploding. Shook says CCHBA membership has surged 90 percent over the last decade. Why the sudden interest in beekeeping?
"It's green," Talbert says. "The honeybee is one of the most fascinating organisms out there, not only as a single unit organism, but as a colony. A colony of bees has the same population density as if you had nine adult people in a bedroom. And they don't kill each other."
Also driving the explosion is an intensified interest in raw, locally produced honey among chefs and consumers, many of whom believe it curbs allergy symptoms. "It's stronger than I've ever seen it," says Todd Youngblood, president of the Texas Beekeepers Association. Over the last few years, the Texas Beekeepers have been leveraging that hobbyist enthusiasm to push for expanded honeybee research. The group devoted more than $10,000 to an effort to map the honeybee genome, completed in late 2003 at the Human Genome Sequencing Center at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, just as Colony Collapse Disorder began rattling the industry. Researchers hope the honeybee sequence will shed light on mysteries surrounding human immunity, allergic reactions, antibiotic resistance, and mental health, while solving the riddle of Colony Collapse.
The Texas Beekeepers also spearheaded a drive to raise $600,000 for a honeybee laboratory at Texas A&M University. The 6,500-square-foot honeybee research and education facility opened last February on the university's Riverside campus.
The growing interest in bees warms the hearts of the Pollards, who eke out a living preaching the honeybee gospel. "We want to get into the culture," Susan says. "It's like a sourdough starter. We want to get into the culture, and we want the culture to know that these guys are fantastic. We're not afraid of them. We're fascinated. They're wondrous. They're the best little livestock in Texas." Write to [email protected] .


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Samsung officially launched its hotly anticipated Galaxy S4 Android phone in Australia over the weekend and we've spent almost a week with the device. It's not long enough for a comprehensive review just yet, but here's what we like and what we don't like about the Galaxy S4 so far.
What we like
The Galaxy S4's familiar look and feel will immediately resonate with Galaxy S III owners. The design changes are minimal but most of them are welcomed. Gone is the curved, back edges of the Galaxy S III, replaced by flatter edges and a smaller bezel. The sides of the Galaxy S4 also look much better than the Galaxy S III — they're flatter and squarer and do add a little touch of class to the overall look and feel. The Galaxy S4 is also thinner and lighter than the Galaxy S III despite a larger screen.
The aforementioned screen is a 5in, super AMOLED HD display with a resolution of 1920x1080. Like most new smartphone displays, it's bright, clear and displays superbly crisp text. The Galaxy S4's screen also has exceptional viewing angles and works well in direct sunlight, though we found the automatic brightness setting a little erratic.
Compared directly to the HTC One, the Galaxy S4's super AMOLED screen displays more vibrant colours, though some may consider them oversaturated. All in all, we are comparing apples and oranges here: the Galaxy S4's screen is excellent.
The camera on the Samsung Galaxy S4 is outstanding. In our experience, it's the best camera on an Android phone we've ever reviewed. The camera is naturally packed with new software features that can be overwhelming at first, but when used on the standard "auto mode" it produces excellent photos with outstanding levels of detail. You can see a sample of some images we've taken so far here.
Like the Galaxy S III, the Galaxy S4 has a microSD card slot for expanding the 16GB of built-in memory, and its battery is removable. Many of Samsung's competitors — namely the Apple iPhone 5 and the HTC One — have neither of these features. If you store large amounts of media on your phone and you like carrying a spare battery, the Galaxy S4 may be the best choice.
Perhaps the best feature of the Galaxy S4 is one of the least advertised. There's a small infrared port built into the top of the phone that allows the Galaxy S4 to act as a remote control for your TV and other home entertainment devices. Using the Samsung WatchON app to set up this function took less than a minute and the app also includes a free-to-air EPG that shows you what's on every digital TV channel in your area. You then effectively use the Galaxy S4 to see what's on TV, with the ability change to a particular channel using the remote, save favourite channels, as well as like or dislike particular programs.
What we don't like
Samsung has included a wealth of features on the Galaxy S4. Some, like multi-window, you'll end up using often. Others, like Air View, Air Gesture, Smart Stay and Smart Scroll are party tricks with an initial wow factor that grows thin very quickly. While we certainly aren't complaining about these extra features, they make learning to use the Galaxy S4 a longer process than previous models.
Take for instance the quick settings toggle dropdown in the notifications panel. There are no less than 20 toggles for these features and more. The basics, like turning on and off Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS are handy, but the others can be very overwhelming, especially for first time smartphone or Android users. The settings menu is also substantially larger, so much so that Samsung has now split the menu into four tabbed sections.
Two of the Galaxy S4's newest features are flawed. Air View allows you to hover over the screen with your finger to display extra information, such as previewing an email, a Flipboard story or a calendar entry. However, it only works on a minimal range of apps and we often ended up tapping the screen anyway, as the margin for hovering your finger is very close.
Similarly, Air Gesture allows you to swipe your hand over the screen without touching it to scroll up and down a web page or swipe through images in the gallery. We found it very sensitive, however, and it often swiped back when we moved our hand back to swipe forward again. It also only works with a selected range of Samsung apps. It's a shame that it doesn't work in Gmail and Google Chrome, for example.
We'll have a full review of the Samsung Galaxy S4 in the coming week. if you have any questions or queries about the device, drop us a line in the comments below!
Related content
• Galaxy S4 landing Down Under this week
• Samsung Galaxy S4: All Australian telco pricing plans
• Samsung Galaxy S4 preview
• Galaxy S4 set for Aussie lift off on April 23
• Where can you buy the Samsung Galaxy S4?
• Samsung Galaxy S4 coming to all Australian carriers
• Samsung Galaxy S4 vs. the rest: How does it stack up?
• Samsung confirms Snapdragon processor for Aussie Galaxy S4
• Samsung releasing over 10 Galaxy S4 accessories


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STOCKTON - Stockton Unified board member Sara Cazares, who made a strong recovery following a stroke and brain aneurysm 14 months ago, has been hospitalized since Wednesday after suffering a "complication" during a medical procedure, her husband said Sunday.
STOCKTON - Stockton Unified board member Sara Cazares, who made a strong recovery following a stroke and brain aneurysm 14 months ago, has been hospitalized since Wednesday after suffering a "complication" during a medical procedure, her husband said Sunday.
The 48-year-old Cazares is in "stable" condition at a hospital "in the region," said her husband, Larry Hernandez, who provided only limited details about the situation.
"Due to a complication during a relatively safe procedure Wednesday afternoon, it resulted in a medical emergency," said Hernandez, an instructional math coach for Stockton Unified. "The family is requesting that the public be patient and is requesting privacy at this time. We will release additional information when it's appropriate."
Hernandez said he waited three days before informing some of Cazares' close friends on Saturday. Cazares represents the northeast portion of Stockton Unified. Area 6 includes Chavez High and seven K-8 schools, among them Rio Calaveras, Harrison and Grunsky.
A Franklin High alum who graduated from Harvard University, Cazares unseated incumbent Bill Ross in 2010 and is planning to seek re-election next year.
"She will be absent from her elected duties for the meantime until she deems it appropriate to return," Hernandez said.
If Cazares cannot resume her duties, the board will have to appoint a replacement to complete her term, which expires in December 2014.
Cazares' medical problems began early in the morning on Feb. 3, 2012, when Hernandez found her sprawled on their bedroom floor. She first was rushed to Dameron Hospital, then to a Sacramento hospital, where she initially was on life support.
Diagnosed with a stroke and brain aneurysm, Cazares underwent surgery the same day. During the operation, called a craniectomy, a portion of Cazares' skull was removed to relieve swelling.
Doctors initially told Hernandez his wife, who was board president at the time, would require months of hospitalization followed by prolonged rehabilitation.
But within 10 days, her doctor was calling his patient's recovery "a home run" and Cazares was vowing that "grit and God" would enable her to resume her duties the following month. Thirty-two days after her hospitalization, Cazares fulfilled her vow, attending a 70-minute special board meeting March 3, 2012.
Hernandez said Sunday he is optimistic his wife of 23 years will make another quick recovery.
"The family encourages the community at large to send their positive prayers," he said.
Contact reporter Roger Phillips at (209) 546-8299 or firstname.lastname@example.com. Visit his blog at recordnet.com/phillipsblog.


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Much of Craig Kilborn's two-decade TV career has been defined by the acts that followed him.
Jon Stewart succeeded Kilborn on "The Daily Show" and made the program a pop-cultural touchstone that spawned a tag-team partner, "The Colbert Report," providing TV's most potent one-two punch of political satire.
In 2005, Craig Ferguson took the reigns of "The Late Late Show" from Kilborn and made his mark deviating from the traditional talk-show formula with a story-telling approach to monologues. Of course, Kilborn's initial big-time platform, ESPN's "SportsCenter," thrived before and after his 1990s stint.
Killborn, following a six-year absence from TV hosting duties, returned to the air Monday with "The Kilborn File," a comic half-hour news round-up on Fox that's more "Weekend Update" than "Daily Show." There also is an interview segment and a rapid-fire Bill Maher-like roundtable discussion called "The Power Panel."
The show got off to a solid, if unspectacular start Monday – the format is basically a hybrid of Kilborn's past gigs. He offered a couple funny lines – authorities' finding of insufficient evidence to pursue a masseuse's allegations against Al Gore spurred the comic to quip the former vice president "may have pulled off the rare double happy ending." Last week's marathon Wimbledon match was the "longest game on grass since Willie Nelson beat Snoop Doggy at Yahtzee," Kilborn noted.
He resurrected his "Five Questions" bit for guest Jeff Foxworthy, and stepped back as "Power Panel" members Martin Mull and Seth MacFarlane ably riffed. Sidekick Christine Lakin, though, was left without much to do.
Kilborn's alternately smart and smart-aleck approach to comedy doesn't always work for those of us who like our snark delivered with an edgy angst and occasional outrage (Stewart) or intelligent whimsy (Ferguson).
But in his return Monday, he managed to seem more confident than in the past while coming off as a little less smug – a mark, dare, we say it, of maturity.
That's a good sign for Kilborn, who has been somewhat impulsive about leaving good jobs in the past, giving other hosts a springboard to bigger fame. At least this time around, his name is in the title.
Whether or not "The Kilborn File" succeeds, Kilborn's challenge is to ultimately define himself by what he completes as much as by what he starts.
Hester is founding director of the award-winning, multi-media NY City News Service at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. He is the former City Editor of the , where he started as a reporter in 1992. Follow him on Twitter.New York Daily News


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By Jeff Joines (Associate Professor In Textile Engineering at NCSU)
This is a three part series on Six Sigma, Lean Sigma, and Simulation. The first blog will explain the Six Sigma methodology and the bridge to simulation analysis and modeling while the second and third parts will describe the uses of simulation in each of the Six Sigma phases and Lean Sigma (i.e., Lean Manufacturing) respectively.
"Systems rarely perform exactly as predicted" was the starting line for the blog Predicting Process Variability and is the driving force behind most improvement projects. As stated, variability is inherent in all processes whether these processes are concerned with manufacturing a product within a plant, producing product via an entire supply chain complex or providing a service in the retail, banking, entertainment or hospital environment. If one could predict or eliminate the variability of a process or product, then there would be no waste (or Muda in the Lean World which will discussed in a third part) associated with a process, no overtime to finish an order, no lost sales owing to having the wrong inventory or lengthy lead-times, no deaths owing to errors in health care, shorter lead times, etc. which ultimately leads to reduced costs. For any organization (manufacturing or service), reducing costs, lead-times, etc. is or should be a priority in order to compete in the global world. Reducing, controlling and/or eliminating the variability in a process is key in minimizing costs.
Six Sigma is a business philosophy focusing on continuous improvement to reduce and eliminate variability. In a service or manufacturing environment, a Six Sigma (6?) process would be virtually defect free (i.e., only allowing 3.4 defects out of a million operations of a process). However, most companies operate at four sigma which allows 6,000 defects per million. Six Sigma began in the 1980s when Motorola set out to reduce the number of defects in its own products. Motorola identified ways to cut waste, improve quality, reduce production time and costs, and focus on how the products were designed and made. Six Sigma grew from this proactive initiative of using exact measurements to anticipate problem areas. In 1988, Motorola was selected as the first large manufacturing company to win the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. As a result, Motorola's methodologies were launched and soon their suppliers were encouraged to adopt the 6? practices. Today, companies who use the Six Sigma methodology achieve significant cost reductions.
Six Sigma evolved from other quality initiatives, such as ISO, Total Quantity Management (TQM) and Baldrige, to become a quality standardization process based on hard data and not hunches or gut feelings, hence the mathematical term, Six Sigma. Six Sigma utilizes a host of traditional statistical tools but encompasses them within a process improvement framework. These tools include affinity diagrams, cause & effects, failure modes and effective analysis (FMEA), Poka Yoke (mistake proofing), survey analysis (voice of customer), design of experiments (DOE), capability analysis, measurement system analysis, statistical process control charts and plans, etc.
There are two basic Six Sigma processes (i.e., DMAIC and DMADV) and they both utilize data intensive solution approaches and eliminate the use of your gut or intuition in making decisions and improvements. The Six Sigma method based on the DMAIC process and is utilized when the product or process already exists but it is not meeting the specifications or performing adequately is described as follows.
Define, identify, prioritize, and select the right projects. Once selected to define the project goals and deliverables.
Measure the key product characteristics and process parameters to create a base line.
Analyze and identify the key process determinants or root causes of the variability.
Improve and optimize performance by eliminating defects.
Control the current gains and future process performances.
If the process or product does not exist and needs to be developed, the Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) process (DMADV) has to be employed. Processes or products designed with the DMADV process typically reach market sooner; have less rework; decreased costs, etc. Even though, the DMADV is similar to DMAIC method and start with the same three steps, they are quite different as defined below.
Define, identify, prioritize, and select the right projects. Once selected to define the project goals and deliverables.
Measure and determine customer needs and specifications through voice of the customer.
Analyze and identify the process options necessary to meet the customer needs.
Design a detailed process or product to meet the customer needs.
Verify the design performance and ability to meet the customer needs where the customer maybe internal or external to the organization.
Both processes use continuous improvement from one stage back to the beginning. For example, if during the analyze phase you determine a key input is not being measured, new metrics have to be defined or new projects can be defined once the control phase is reached.
Now that we have defined six sigma, you may be wondering what is the bridge to computer simulation and modeling. Simulation modeling and analysis is just another tool in the Six Sigma toolbox. Many of the statistical tools (e.g., DOE) try to describe the dependent variables (Y's) in terms of the independent variables (X's) in order to improve it. Also, most of the statistical tools are parametric methods (i.e., they rely on the data being normally distributed or utilize our friend the central limit theorem to make the data appear normally distributed). Many of the traditional tools might produce sub-optimal results or cannot be used at all. For example, if one is designing a new process or product, the system does not exist so determining current capability or future performance cannot be done. The complexity and uncertainty of certain processes cannot be determined or analyzed using traditional methods. Simulation modeling and analysis makes none of these assumptions and can yield a more realistic range of results especially where the independent variables (X's) can be described as a distribution of values. In Six Sigma and Simulation: Part 2, a more detailed look at how simulation is used in the two six sigma processes (DMAIC and DMADV) will be discussed.


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Now showing items 1-1 of 1
Improvement of Durable Press Finish Process on Cotton Fabric with 1,2,3,4-Butantetracarboxylic Acid and Chitosan
(Rajamangala University of Technology Phra Nakhon, 2009-03-01)
The aim of this research was to improve the durable press finish process on cotton fabric with non-formaldehyde finishing agents. The mercerization of cotton fabric was carried out by 30 Be' NoOH at 20 C before finishing. ...


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Somehow, I've missed the cool things in this thread. That seems to be happening a lot lately. Anyway, love Gottwood mix. Downloading it now. I think I could listen to an 8-hour mix of this.
Thank you for posting this!I'm a big fan of Gigi the artist and the person, very excited to hear this.Also, I recently picked up Stellar Nurseries during the Hypnos sale. It was the first record of yours that I had heard and was really impressed with the engineering and the composition. Some of the most textured, powerful and controlled low-frequency I've ever heard.
Great album.


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|About Us
About Us
About Us
The Expertscape Inc. principals are:
John Sotos, MD performed all of his medical training at Johns Hopkins, specializing in transplantation cardiology. He also has a master's degree in computer science from Stanford and undergraduate degrees from Dartmouth. Formerly Chief Medical Engineer at Healtheon/WebMD, Chief Medical Officer at Intel Health & Life Sciences, and adjunct professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina, he is a career flight surgeon in the Air National Guard and the author of four books. (More)
Brendan McAdams is a 30-year marketing and sales specialist focused on healthcare, with experience at United Healthcare, Healtheon/WebMD, Healthrageous, Emdeon, Glooko, and the Kiinetics consultancy. He also has extensive experience in enterprise software sales, with Informix and Veritas.
Our email address is:


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Feed the Future fellows from Africa to share indigenous knowledge perspectives
Feed the Future fellows from Africa to share indigenous knowledge perspectives
Ten women scientists from five African countries will share their perspectives on indigenous knowledge at a presentation on April 24, in the University Libraries.
"Bringing indigenous knowledge of the people of rural Africa into the academy: a presentation" will be held from noon to 1:30 p.m. in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library. The presenters are visiting Penn State after being selected to take part in the USDA–Borlaug Global Food Security program funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development to expand the pool of food security professionals in Africa.
Each Borlaug Feed the Future Fellow was assigned a Penn State faculty mentor who is conducting research related to her field of interest. Soon after their arrival at Penn State, the women viewed a tape of a recent indigenous knowledge seminar on medicinal mushrooms in Ethiopia to observe how local knowledge of indigenous plants can stimulate a very exciting academic research project. This experience led to the scheduling of this presentation. The aim of the presentation is for the scientists to share an aspect of indigenous knowledge that they would like to investigate further when they return home.
The Feed the Future Fellows are Serkalem Alemayehu and Alganesh Gemechu from Ethiopia; Amma Amponsah and Ruth Pobee from Ghana; Rugie Wonyene and Patricia Gant from Liberia; Eucharia Onwurafor, Mercy Elom and Alice Ajani from Nigeria and Rosemirta Birungi from Uganda.
This event is part of a series of seminars cosponsored by the Interinstitutional Consortium for Indigenous Knowledge (ICIK) and the Penn State Social Sciences Library. It is free and open to the public and can be viewed live online at http://live.libraries.psu.edu/Mediasite/Play/82e0ceb5eefa486fb913efb43c7....
For questions about the physical access provided, contact Helen Sheehy, firstname.lastname@example.com/814-863-1347, in advance of your participation.


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Former Caleb Foundation secretary and board of reference member David McConaghie has been found guilty of voyeurism.
He was also an ex Elim Pentecostal pastor who was retraining in the Free Presbyterian Church. A staunch YEC, he had been on the board of reference of Creation Outreach Ministries, if I remember correctly. He's also an ex DUP advisor.


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After Cooper: Industry City Distillery
POSTED ON: January 4, 2013
It may not surprise you to learn that two recent Cooper graduates, Rich Watts ('08) and Dave Kyrejko ('07) belong to a small Brooklyn-based group that has designed and built its own premium vodka distillery from scratch. The idea falls well within the skill set and fantasy of many a Cooper graduate. Nor might you be surprised to learn that, being from Cooper Union, they have done the work so well that they were just recently selected for Forbes' "30 under 30" list of upcoming entrepreneurs. But would it surprise you to learn that both Watts and Kyrejko graduated from the School of Art?
"The bulk of my work at Cooper was graphic design with some electronic sculpture-making," Rich Watts says. Dave Kyrejko focused on photography and print-making. In 2010 Kyrejko started a group called The City Foundry as, "a collection of vetted people to collaborate with on projects," he says. Its website defines its very Cooper-like mission as "improving small-scale manufacturing processes through the blending of science and art." Conceived as a platform for multiple business ventures, the group of five bearded young guys coalesced around establishing Industry City Distillery, where everything would be narrowly focused on making the best vodka they possibly could. "The distillery became the way to make the Foundry work," Kyrejko says.
Located in a vast warehouse-turned-industrial space in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, The City Foundry has sweeping views of the New York Harbor. The distillery equipment only takes up about a third of the 6000-square-foot floor space. The rest of the space contains a laboratory, a kitchen, a print shop where Watts designs and prints all the labels and a full machine shop. Much of the equipment for the distillery was custom-built in-house. "Nothing exists to do specifically what we want to do at the scale we want to do it," Dave Kyrejko says. "We have equipment designed specifically for the final product and that makes the product better. You can buy pre-built stills but you will not get the same quality product that way." Besides, says Watts, the cost would have been prohibitive, like the $1.25 million quote they got for a laboratory-grade fractional reflux still they needed. So instead, they built it themselves. "It's only material costs for us," Watts says.
You will most likely find Dave Kyrejko, whose interest in creating carbon dioxide for aquatic ecosystems led to the distillery idea, in the reactor room. That's the temperature-controlled room they built off the floor along one edge of the space. Here, where even the lights are custom-made, he watches over tens of thousands of BB-sized yeast beads working in a process that Kyrejko says is unique to ICD. Instead of mixing loose yeast into a grain or potato mash as the fermentation system, Kyrejko first mixes the yeast with an alginate to encapsulate them in a kind of molecular net. They float inside interconnected glass tubes, arranged vertically, feasting on a liquid beet-sugar that they turn into a low-alcohol "wash." The yeast beads are a major improvement on the mash system because, says Kyrejko, "The beads last much longer, up to a month and half. There is no downtime either. There is no cleaning cycle. We can be continuously fermenting."
The wash then moves to the custom-built separating still, modeled by ICD on an industrial-sized still but scaled down to approximately the space of a household boiler. The alcohol gets flashed off the wash and then transferred to the fractional reflux still -- again, built in-house -- where the different alcohols and flavor compounds are separated and sorted by boiling point in order to blend a consistent flavor. About five still runs blended together with water go into one bottling run.
It's the blending of the results where art meets science. "The goal is to meet a certain flavor profile," Watts says. The first three batches, of which the second and third were sold commercially at local stores and bars, focused on eliminating the negatives. "We want to remove the burn on the throat and the unpleasant smells like isopropyl compounds that often accompany vodka," Watts says. ICD are satisfied they have accomplished this and so now with the third batch they are soliciting consumer's feedback. Based on this they hope to lock up the flavor profile with batch number four. Their goal is to move from small batches numbering in the hundreds of 375ML bottles up to 4000 750ML bottles a month by the end of the Spring.
Both Dave Kyrejko and Rich Watts agree that Cooper Union set the stage for their polymath skill sets. "Having the flexibility at the art school to pursue everything that interested me was important," Watts says. So maybe it is not so surprising that, when asked what occupation he will put down for his 2012 tax form, Dave Kyrejko thinks a bit and says, "engineer." "ICD represents a dramatic departure from typical beverage-industry distillation processes," Kyrejko says. "We started on the ground floor by asking ourselves, 'what makes vodka taste good?' and we set out to challenge ourselves. We wanted to make a delicately balanced vodka without charcoal filtering, using only distillation. And we wanted to use technology to make the process cheaper and more effective. And we have."


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Carl Icahn Now Owns about $2.5 Billion Worth of Apple Shares
Carl Icahn, the billionaire activist investor who spent most of the year trying but ultimately failing to get control of Dell, said in a regulatory filing that he has boosted his holdings of Apple.
In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Icahn's company, Icahn Enterprises, disclosed an Apple stake worth nearly $1.9 billion as of Sept. 30.
But in a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, released to shareholders last month, Icahn disclosed that his stake has grown to 4.7 million shares, which, as of yesterday's closing price, would be worth $2.5 billion.
That's not a large enough stake to make Icahn one of Apple's Top 10 institutional shareholders, but if Icahn Enterprises were a mutual fund, it would rank seventh. (For the record, Apple's largest single shareholder is mutual-fund giant Vanguard Group, which, as of Sept. 30, owned about 44 million shares, or about five percent of the shares outstanding, worth about $23.2 billion.)
Icahn has been bugging Cook to boost Apple's share buyback to $150 billion, arguing that doing so is a "no brainer." The pair had dinner together on Sept. 30 to discuss the idea.
Apple has opted instead to stand pat on its $60 billion buyback plan — one since endorsed by investor Warren Buffett — and said that, including dividend payments, it is on track to return about $100 billion to shareholders.
Its buyback program is the largest ever announced. During the last five quarters, Apple has bought back shares and paid dividends worth a combined $36 billion. Of that, $2.8 billion in dividends and $5 billion worth of buybacks occurred last quarter.
Icahn reiterated his position on the buyback in the letter, which you can read in full, below: "Our criticism relates to one thing only: the size and timeframe of Apple's buyback program. It is obvious to us that it should be much bigger and immediate."
His point is that Apple is undervalued. Once you back out its cash position — now $147 billion — it trades at a valuation of only nine times forward earnings, versus a ratio of 14 times forward earnings for the rest of the companies listed in the Standard & Poor's 500.
Icahn argues that the buyback he proposes — which would be financed with a combination of cash on hand and debt — would have the long-term effect of boosting Apple's share price to as high as $1,250 a share. But the moment won't last, he argues, because Apple's share price may not stay this low for long. "The timing for a larger buyback is still ripe, but the opportunity will not last forever."
Here's the letter:
October 24, 2013
by Carl Icahn
Carl C. Icahn
Icahn Enterprises
767 5th Avenue, Suite 4700
New York, NY 10153
October 23, 2013
Tim Cook
Apple Inc.
1 Infinite Loop
Cupertino, CA 95014
Dear Tim:
It was a pleasure meeting you for dinner at the end of September. When we met, my affiliates and I owned 3,875,063 shares of Apple. As of this morning, we owned 4,730,739 shares of Apple, an increase of 22% in position size, reflecting our belief the market continues to dramatically undervalue the company, even when taking into account the recent market appreciation, which in turn makes our proposal unchanged with respect to a $150 Billion buyback. We were pleased to hear at our dinner that you appreciated our input and that you would speak to us again in three weeks to continue the dialogue. In anticipation of doing so soon, we aim to reiterate in this letter the point of view already expressed to you directly with the hope of effectively summarizing it for the company's board of directors and our fellow shareholders.
From our perspective, Apple is the world's greatest consumer product innovator and has one of the strongest and most respected brand names in history. We consider Apple to be our most compelling investment. I first informed my followers on Twitter on August 13, 2013 of my "large position." I also expressed to you my opinion that "a larger buyback should be done now." At that time, we owned 3,448,663 shares and the stock price was $467. Since then we have purchased an incremental 1,282,076 shares (bringing the total value of my position to $2.5 Billion) and we currently intend to buy more.
We want to be very clear that we could not be more supportive of you, the existing management team, the culture at Apple and the innovative spirit it engenders. The criticism we have as shareholders has nothing to do with your management leadership or operational strategy. Our criticism relates to one thing only: the size and timeframe of Apple's buyback program. It is obvious to us that it should be much bigger and immediate.
When we met, you agreed with us that the shares are undervalued. In our view, irrational undervaluation as dramatic as this is often a short term anomaly. The timing for a larger buyback is still ripe, but the opportunity will not last forever. While the board's actions to date ($60 billion share repurchase over three years) may seem like a large buyback, it is simply not large enough given that Apple currently holds $147 billion of cash on its balance sheet, and that it will generate $51 billion of EBIT next year (Wall Street consensus forecast).
The S&P 500 trades at roughly 14x forward earnings. After backing off net cash, Apple trades at just 9x (not factoring into account that the company has a significantly lower cash tax rate than the rate Wall Street analysts use). This discount (cash adjusted) becomes even more compelling given our confidence that Apple will grow earnings per share at a rate well in excess of the S&P 500 for the foreseeable future. With such an enormous valuation gap and such a massive amount of cash on the balance sheet, we find it difficult to imagine why the board would not move more aggressively to buy back stock by immediately announcing a $150 Billion tender offer (financed with debt or a mix of debt and cash on the balance sheet).
While this would certainly be unprecedented because of its size, it is actually appropriate and manageable relative to the size and financial strength of your company. Apple generates more than enough cash flow to service this amount of debt and has $147 billion of cash in the bank. As we proposed at our dinner, if the company decided to borrow the full $150 billion at a 3% interest rate to commence a tender at $525 per share, the result would be an immediate 33% boost to earnings per share, translating into a 33% increase in the value of the shares, which significantly assumes no multiple expansion. Longer term (in three years) if you execute this buyback as proposed, we expect the share price to appreciate to $1,250, assuming the market rewards EBIT growth of 7.5% per year with a more normal market multiple of 11x EBIT.
It is our belief that a company's board has a responsibility to recognize opportunities to increase shareholder value, which includes allocating capital to execute large and well-timed buybacks. Apple's Board of Directors does not currently include an individual with a track record as an investment professional. In my opinion, any further delay in executing the buyback we hereby propose will reflect this lack of expertise on the board. My firm's success and my expertise as an investor would be difficult for anyone to argue. Per my investment thesis, commencing this buyback immediately would ultimately result in further stock appreciation of 140% for the shareholders who choose not to sell into the proposed tender offer. Furthermore, to invalidate any possible criticism that I would not stand by this thesis in terms of its long term benefit to shareholders, I hereby agree to withhold my shares from the proposed $150 Billion tender offer. There is nothing short term about my intentions here.
Carl Icahn
Chairman, Icahn Enterprises (IEP)


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We offer a range of room types to suit all your requirements, including spacious executive rooms, interconnecting family rooms, majestic Presidential rooms, and our popular Thomas & Friends themed rooms.
All rooms include luxurious large beds, LCD flat screen televisions, complimentary Wi-Fi, air conditioning, hairdryers and en-suite bathrooms, as well as Full English and continental breakfasts.
Depending on how many guests are in your party, we can organise more spacious rooms for families who may require additional beds, cots or interconnecting rooms.
The Hotel also has its own car park, where you'll enjoy free parking throughout your stay.


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This is a fun little activity to do with kids (or if you just like to color yourself)! Start by taking a photo, or letting your little one take a photo. It can be of anything, a person, a place, or a thing. A few suggestions are photos of favorite toys or of family members.
Open up the photo in Photoshop or other photo editing software. The following steps are for Photoshop users, but similar steps can be taken in other programs.
Convert your photo to black and white.
Adjust your levels and contrast settings to make your image pop a bit more than usual. This will help when you add your filter on. Next, go up to the filter menu, and choose artisitc, and poster edges. For the example below, I adjusted the edge thickness to 4, edge intensity to 2, and posterization to 5. Play with the settings until you get your desired effect, or you can go with my suggested settings. (Tip- If you plan on making a lot of these, you can create an action so that each time you open up a photo you want to turn into a coloring page, you just run it through the action and it will automatically complete all of the steps for you.)
Once your filter is on, adjust your levels again until you bump the contrast of the image up so that there's primarily white, black outlines, and a small amount of grey shading on the darker areas of the image.
From here, you can cut out the background if needed (for an individual object, or copy and paste multiple objects onto one page if desired). You may also wish to clean up any edges with the eraser tool, and do a bit of dodging and burning. These are optional steps and may or may not be needed depending on your image.
Now you're ready resize (to whatever size you want to print it as), print, and color!
A few additional tips- The best images to use for this are images with a lot of light colors or tones in it. It's much easier to take a light color all the way to white then it is if you have one with lots of dark colors. Pre-visualize how your original image will translate into a coloring book page. Objects tend to work better then landscapes.
To turn this activity into a more educational experience, add text to the bottom of your coloring pages before printing with the name of the objects. For example, if you're trying to teach a child the name of their toys, and are taking images of those for your coloring pages, label each one under the object- "horse", "ball", "doll", etc.


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ed2k: Doom.II.Hell.On.Earth-RAZOR.rar [6.96 Mb] [Stats]
The sequel to id Software's critically acclaimed Doom has invaded the PC with unbridled fury. Featuring improved 640x400 graphical resolution and more first-person shooting action, the objective of Doom II is quite simple: destroy, maim, shoot...and shoot some more. Although you begin with a military-issue pistol, you eventually have access to a small arsenal of weapons including shotguns, chain-guns, rocket launchers, plasma rifles and the aptly named BFG 9000.
Although supplied with proper weapons and a simple objective, destroying legions of butt-ugly freaks and demons will be an exercise in futility -- unless you're good enough. There are gun-toting humans-turned-zombies fighting for their new dark lord and savior, hellish imps and pig demons, invisible specters, flaming skulls known as Lost Souls and big balls of flying terror known as the Cacodemon. As you progress through each of the 30 levels, monsters get bigger, harder to kill and meaner: the Arch-Vile resurrects dead monsters, the Mancubus unleashes fireballs and the Spider Mastermind uses a flesh-ripping super chain-gun. Just when you think you've seen it all, there's a towering Cyberdemon -- he fires heat-seeking rockets -- to destroy.
Fortunately, there are a variety of special items and power-ups throughout each level including two types of defensive improvements: the Security and Combat armor. Whereas the Security Armor is a simple Kevlar vest, the Combat Armor is made of heavy-duty titanium. Although you may find one of these items, they eventually run out of use as you're constantly bombarded with enemy fire. You also come across radiation suits that protect your body from harmful toxins, rage-inducing berserk packs, back packs that increase the amount of ammunition your weapons can hold, computer maps and light amplification visors. Additionally, there is a variety of specialty items including health potions, medical packs, healing soul spheres, mega spheres (health and armor), invisibility artifacts and invulnerability. Needless to say, you'll need this stuff.
In addition to multiple difficulty settings and configurable graphics and controls, Doom II features online support. You can challenge opponents via modem, LAN or a supported IPX protocol to a brutal, no holds barred deathmatch competition.
ed2k: Doom.2.(Full.with.enhancements).Gowenna.rar [15.60 Mb] [Stats]
[ Add all 2 links to your ed2k client ]


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Here's what I wrote last week after watching the ugly end of the game between the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions:
The Lions would have won if Paris Lenon, former Packer and Andy man-crushee, would have fallen on a Tony Romo fumble with less than two minutes left. Instead, he wanted to be the hero, so he scooped it up and then dropped it, when a Cowboy lineman fell on it. Dallas scored the game-winning touchdown. I have an eerie feeling that play could be the difference between the NFC Championship at Lambeau Field or at that "pretty" Dallas Stadium.
As you surely know by now, Dallas lost to Philadelphia yesterday, 10-6. And while I am pleased to see further confirmation that the Cowboys are not a good 12-2 team (in addition to their loss to Detroit, they should have lost to Buffalo), it's difficult to think that the Packers could have had homefield advantage throughout the playoffs with two more wins and an unspectacular play by Paris Lenon.There is still a chance, however. Dallas plays Washington in Washington the last game of the season. Even with Jason Campbell out and no Sean Taylor, the Redskins have played reasonably well. (In fact, the original "eerie feeling" post played up a potential Cowboys loss to Washington and mentioned Philly in passing.) If the Redskins can beat the Vikings next week, they would be 8-7 heading into the Dallas game, a mark that would give them a decent shot at the playoffs. (They would have a head-to-head tiebreaker over the Vikings — giving the Vikings a win against Chicago tonight — but New Orleans has a better conference record.)Of course the Packers still have to beat the Bears (in Chicago) and Lions (at home) before this becomes an issue. But…
Tags: Dallas Cowboys, football, Green Bay Packers, NFC Championship, NFL, playoffs


text: Bryan Kienlen of the Bouncing Souls Talks About Touring and Tattooing By Rose Riot The Bouncing Souls are one of the staple bands in American punk rock. These four New Jersey boys have managed to travel the globe, playing shows with some of the world's premier punk rock bands. But the band remains true to their punk rock roots as they still do a portion of their U.S. tours in their iconic white van. I had conversation with Bryan Kienlen, the bassist about his work with the band and a little but about his tattoo experience… [caption id="attachment_3571" align="alignnone" width="200" caption="All photos are by Rose Riot"][/caption] RR: The Bouncing Souls have been together for about 23 years, how long had you been together before you felt like you had made it? BK: I think when we got signed to Epitaph is when we felt like it got real. I think we've been able to make it so long because we have this desire to constantly make music, to outdo ourselves. RR: You have played some amazing tours and places, do you have a favorite? BK: I don't really have a favorite anything but I would have to say Japan is very special and for sure one of the most memorable. RR: What is it about Japan that you love so much and in light of their recent disaster, have you done anything to contribute to the cause? BK: There is something about Japan that feels truly different from everywhere I've visited. There seems to be an air of respect and pride there, I mean honestly, they make Americans look bad. People treat one another (and visitors) with a higher level of dignity and respect. There is a noticeable pride they take in their work, at least that has been my impression the handful of visits I've had there. The hell they have been through with the earthquake and the tsunami and the resultant nuclear problem is heartbreaking. We donated a song for a compilation that is downloadable on iTunes. The profits go to Japan's relief. [Editor's Note: If anyone has the link to this compilation record please leave a comment below with the link.] RR: You have toured with legendary people through the years, who are some of your heroes that you have had a chance to play with? BK: Man, it started really early on when we were still a little crappy band. We played with The Ramones, we've opened for Rollins and Fugazi, we toured with 7 Seconds. I played with Jello Biafra once, that was awesome. I've had a bunch of totally great moments. RR: You are about to play North By Northeast (NXNE) in Toronto, is this your first NXNE? BK: Yes, it is. It's pretty cool. RR: There are some great bands playing this year, who are you looking forward to seeing there? BK: To be honest, I've been so busy, I haven't had a chance to look at the line-up. RR: Devo is playing, they are one of my favorite bands to see live. BK: Devo is playing? That's awesome! That's my answer then, I'm looking forward to seeing Devo. RR: On Bouncing Souls tours, you do different albums in their entirety on different nights, for your NXNE show will you do this or will it be a mix? BK: It will be a mix, we will wing it and probably come up with a set list that day. RR: You have played many Warped Tours, would you ever play Warped again? BK: Yeah, I think we will but who knows. You gotta play every Warped Tour like it's your last! RR: How do you feel about playing to so many kids at Warped versus adults at clubs? BK: The answer is simple actually. I get lots of energy back from an enthusiastic crowd no matter how young or old they may be. Playing in a variety of venues is something the Bouncing Souls have always enjoyed. We are kind of an anomaly in that way, we are just as comfortable and happy playing to a huge crowd as we are playing in a basement and everything in-between. If the love is there, everyone wins. RR: You have an additional member of your band, the legendary White Castle, your van. How is the White Castle doing? BK: She is doing great! She is truly a trooper, on her second engine after about 300,000 miles. RR: How often do you guys still tour around in the White Castle? BK: The White Castle is still home away from home, we have lots of miles planned for her this year. RR: God-forbid but when it's time to put her to rest what will you do with her? Maybe a museum? BK: It's funny you mentioned that because the going idea is actually to turn her into a museum for a far off day down the road. We've even spoken to the curator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame about it. RR: You design the album covers and the merch for the band? BK: Yes, that is correct. I'm the artist in the band so naturally I've been doing it the whole time all the way back to the very first t-shirt. Maybe it's partly because I'm a control freak, ha-ha. I try to color my world as it should be! RR: Are you a self-taught artist? BK: I've been an artist my whole life. After high school, I took some courses at the local county college but that was the same time we started the band and I decided to focus more on the band and not on school. RR: Speaking of school, I read that you had a teacher that fronted the money for your first ever show. That's pretty cool, do you still talk to her? BK: Yeah, she's a sweet lady and a friend of the family now. RR: How do you feel when people associate your band with the term, college band? BK: We grew up in a small town in New Jersey then we moved to New Brunswick, New Jersey. New Brunswick is a college town. We were there because we believed it was a music town. There were a lot of college kids that were "willing victims" to listen to us but that is really our only association with college music. RR: How did you get into tattooing? BK: In high school I started hand poking myself and the rest of the band. In 1989 when the band moved to New Brunswick, I sent away for a Spaulding and Rogers starter kit out of the back of a magazine… It never came! I got ripped off! My friend Ugly Bill and I built a tattoo machine and that's really when it started. Somewhere around then, the band got busier and busier and my focus became the music and tattooing took a back seat. RR: Would you rather be a famous tattooer or a musician if you had the choice? BK: To be honest, I like having both in my life. Who gets to be so lucky to have two great outlets? I get to tattoo every day then on the weekends hop on a plane and play festivals. Nothing ever gets mundane or boring. RR: If you could play bass with anyone in history who would it be? BK: Wow, that's a good question, maybe Tom waits or Johnny Cash. Bryan tattoos at Immortal Ink in Flemington, NJ and for more information on the Bouncing Souls tour dates visit thier website: www.bouncingsouls.com (Rose Riot is a photographer in Atlanta and contributing blogger for Tattoo Artist Magazine)


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Special Events
Dec 1, 8, 15, and 22 – Inside A Christmas Carol | 1:00pm before the matinee performances.
Join us for an insider's look into A Christmas Carol: an exclusive backstage tour! You'll visit The Allen Theatre, production rooms, and more, to get behind the scenes access to ACT's beloved annual holiday tradition. Tickets for Seattle's seasonal favorite, A Christmas Carol can be purchased here. Please arrive at least 10 minutes early to check in at the Poncho Lobby on floor 3. Late arrivals will not be admitted. There will be stairs and uneven surfaces on this tour, so please wear comfortable, close-toed shoes.
NOTE: No one under the age of five will be permitted.
Dec. 6 – ASL Interpreted Performance | 7:30PM
Throughout the run of A Christmas Carol, we will be holding a food drive for Northwest Harvest. Please bring in any canned or non-perishable items and place in bins located in the Scandiuzzi Lobby.
Event details
Thursday, December 20, 2018 6:00PM
Allen Theatre
We're Sorry!
Tickets are no longer available online for this event. Please contact our box office to get up-to-the-minute ticket availability information.


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All About Eyes Serum De-Puffing Eye Massage
This instantly cooling rollerball helps massage away bags, refreshes and hydrates puffy eyes on contact. Brightens eye area immediately and over time. Combats dark circles, too. With caffeine, potent antioxidants and soothing botanicals. Oil-free, non-irritating. Ophthalmologist Tested.
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I'm glad I retired five months ago.
Think of it: I was spared writing about the presidential election, an event so vacuous it made reality TV seem interesting. If there was any serious discussion of an important national issue - global warming, our obesity epidemic, transportation policy, the morality of drone attacks on civilian populations, the environmental consequences of fracking, existential implications of the designated hitter - I missed it.
Instead, we got a campaign of misrepresentations, exaggerations, and outright lies. The Republicans were by far the worst offenders but President Barack Obama didn't cover himself in glory either.
I was happy with the result of the presidential election but I didn't regret not covering it. And I was entirely content to go on not writing about things. (If I could make a living at that, life would be perfect.)
But then Newtown happened. A misanthropic young man who never seemed particularly violent killed his mother and then broke into an elementary school and massacred little kids, teachers and the principal.
And the very air changed. The holiday season suddenly turned somber. You looked at the small children around you differently, as fragile, precious gifts to be cherished and, above all, protected.
Obama struck that note in his moving speech at the memorial service. Speaking for us all, he said: "We can't tolerate this anymore. These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change."
Nice words but somehow, not enough. Not nearly enough.
That's when I figured I should write a column about it. During my 50-year career, every time some demented soul would take a semi-automatic gun and clean out a post office, a school, or a picnic, I'd get up on my soap box let loose with a withering diatribe about guns, the National Rifle Association, and weak-kneed politicians. Did it about 75 times, give or take.
And in every case the main effect was a spike in gun sales.
Still, I thought I'd give it one more shot � er, chance.
Obama's speech was fine as far as it went but it didn't go very far. Neither have any of the other responses I've heard.
California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said she was going to introduce a bill to ban the sale and importation of assault weapons. Great, but the bill wouldn't apply to weapons already out there and in defining illegal weapons it listed more than 900 exceptions.
Nine hundred!
The thing missing from the debate so far is anger - anger that we live in a society where something like the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre can happen and our main concern is not offending the NRA's sensibilities.
That's obscene. Here, then, is my "madder-than-Hell-and-I'm-not-going-to-take-it-anymore" program for ending gun violence in America:
Repeal the Second Amendment, the part about guns anyway. It's badly written, confusing and more trouble than it's worth. It offers an absolute right to gun ownership, but it puts it in the context of the need for a "well regulated militia." We don't make our militia bring their own guns to battles. And surely the Founders couldn't have envisioned weapons like those used in the Newtown shooting when they guaranteed gun rights. Owning a gun should be a privilege, not a right.
Declare the NRA a terrorist organization and make membership illegal. Hey! We did it to the Communist Party and the NRA has led to the deaths of more of us than American Commies ever did. (I would also raze the organization's headquarters, clear the rubble, and salt the earth, but that's optional.) Make ownership of unlicensed assault rifles a felony. If some people refused to give up their guns, that "prying the guns from their cold, dead hands" thing works for me.
Then I would tie Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, our esteemed Republican leaders, to the back of a Chevy pickup and drag them around a parking lot until they saw the light on gun control.
And if that didn't work, I'd adopt radical measures. None of that is going to happen, of course. But I'll bet gun sales will rise.
Donald Kaul lives in Ann Arbor, Mich. This is his first column since late July, the month he had a heart attack and decided to take a break.


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I saw a note this week from CNet about a system built to crack passwords (also on ArsTechnica). It reminded me of the story of the guy that cracked Googles DKIM key at 512bits. Not insignificant, until you get to the point of renting that power from AWS for tens of dollars.
Here's a great comic on the subject of passwords: Password Strength. It's got some good advice, but there's more to it than just having a good strong password. You need to manage your passwords, as in you need to have lots of them.
Doubt that? Here's a good piece from Troy Hunt.
You need a password manager. Whether you use 1Password, KeePass, or PasswordSafe (my choice), choose one and set the defaults to something long. I've been using 12characers, but I've moved to 16 for my passwords. All of these work cross platform, and you can sync your files between devices.
One more thing: you need to rotate passwords. Not just on your password manager, but on your various sites. If someone gets a copy of your password manager file, then it's just a matter of time before they can crack it. Within months, they could have all the passwords in your file if they were determined.
Lots of passwords I'm not overly worried about, but some I am. Banks, mail, a few of my profiles, these are important to me, and so I rotate the password periodically on them, using new passwords from my manager.
Security is hard, and passwords aren't going away anytime soon. Tell your friends, family, and make sure they all consider using some type of password manager and improving their security.


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Please note that adult content and activities are not allowed in myhornycamsluts Friends & Romance
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I am a very tender young woman, I like to laugh, I love to dance, I love to take care of me, give me affection, I am good at talking, but if you want my naughty side you can have it, I am small but dangerous, I love you guys.
I am a fun girl, I love to smile, have fun, go out to dance, read, exercise and go out to travel, meet people from all over the world, I like you to be very conscious and to be nice to me.
oral sex, erotic dances, submissive, striptease, sexy lingerie, role plays.
It turns me on that they speak dirty to me, the spankings, the good oral sex, many caresses, the kisses on the neck.I love a good spanking, that I squeeze the waist, maybe bites.
I am discouraged by a person who is in a hurry, who does not talk to me enough, who ends soon, who does not know how to kiss,Just think of them, I need love dear ones.
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Brick Pass by Alex Pandrea and The Blue Crown - DVD
The road to card mastery involves the pass, PERIOD. Develop a SHOCKINGLY good one with the best in the world.
This all new item comes in a slick premium DVD case with a description of the pass included on the inside cover taken from "The Expert at the Card Table". Original images included!
The Brick Pass
Alex Pandrea's refined interpretation of the classic pass, one of the most highly regarded utility moves in the world of close-up magic. Alex spends over 30 minutes teaching the subtleties and nuances that will make your pass silent, invisible, and flawless. Filmed in high-definition, you'll learn every detail of technique, finger placement, and hand motion to bring your pass to the next level.
The Turnover Pass
Imagine having your spectator freely name any card they see in a face-up spread. All they see you do is square the deck and turn it face down, but you've actually controlled their selection to the top! This is totally innocent, invisible, and deceptive!
In the Turn Over Pass, Alex goes step-by-step to teach you the nuances and subtleties that make this one of the most useful and deceptive passes in all of magic.
Running Time Approximately: 55min


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KABUL, Afghanistan - Five Taliban suicide bombers killed two Afghan soldiers and wounded several others on Monday when they attacked an army base in eastern Afghanistan.
In a separate incident, NATO said a soldier serving with the international military coalition was killed by a bomb in southern Afghanistan. The NATO announcement provided no other details on the incident or the nationality of the soldier killed.
Most of the troops serving in the country's south are from the United States. The death brings the number of foreign troops killed this month to nine, including seven from the United States and one from Poland. A total of 112 have been killed this year, including 85 Americans.
In the attack on the Afghan soldiers, Kapisa province spokesman Qais Qadri said the insurgents, all wearing explosive vests, died at the Afghan base in Tagab district.
Qadri said one of the five insurgents rammed a car bomb into the base's main gate while the other four stormed the compound after the bomb went off. Another group of about a dozen militants also opened fire at the base from a distance, he added, and 10 were wounded before they managed to flee.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack in an email to media.
Insurgents have increased the number of attacks recently after the NATO-led international military coalition handed over security for the country to Afghan security forces.
Foreign troops have been leaving Afghanistan, with all combat forces scheduled to be gone at the end of 2014.


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Welcome to the Jefferson Davis Parish Clerk of Court website. We hope that you find our website helpful in providing you with the information you need.
Jefferson Davis Parish was one of the last parishes incorporated in the state of Louisiana. Originally a part of Calcasieu Parish, Jefferson Davis Parish was created by the legislature in 1912 and began its existence on January 1, 1913. The first parish courthouse was completed in 1916. That building was demolished and the current courthouse building was completed in 1967. The parish was a part of the 14th Judicial District until 1952 when the 31st Judicial District was created encompassing Jefferson Davis and Allen Parishes. In 1968, the 31st Judicial District was divided and Allen Parish was formed as the 32nd Judicial District leaving Jefferson Davis Parish as the sole parish in the 31st Judicial District.
The Clerk of Court is the parish recorder, chief election official and custodian of many public records of the parish. Our office records conveyances and mortgages, issues marriage licenses, birth certificates and passports, and receives and files all civil, criminal and probate records. Many of these original documents and records are kept permanently in our office. Our office is self-sufficient and operates from the fees collected for services provided and not from taxes.As part of our commitment to providing exceptional service to the public we serve, we welcome your feedback and comments as we continue to work to improve this site. We are here to serve you. Please contact us if you have any questions or problems with this service.