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|Addresses are included for each park to facilitate players obtaining Internet maps and directions from their hotels.
PRINCE WILLIAM STADIUM COMPLEX - 7 County Complex Court, Woodbridge, VA
|Parks Map
|From I-95: (DC or Richmond)
|Take Exit 158B (Prince William Parkway towards Manassas). Continue on PW Parkway for about 5 miles. Take a Right onto County Complex Court.
|From Route 123: (Fairfax)
|Take Route 123 South toward Occoquan. Make a Right onto Old Bridge Road. Follow Old Bridge for approx. 5 miles. Old Bridge Road becomes Prince William Parkway. Take a Right on County Complex Court.
|From I-66: (Centerville)
|Take Route 28 South towards Manassas for 6 miles. Take a Left onto Liberia Ave. for 1.5 miles. Take another Left onto the Prince William Parkway (East). Continue straight on PW Parkway for 7.61 miles. Take a Left onto County Complex Court.
|From I-66 & Rte. 234 (Manassas)
|Take Route 234, Sudley Road south to a left at Lomond Drive. Continue on Lomond Drive which becomes Liberia Avenue to the Prince William Parkway. Take a left on the Parkway and continue for 7.61 miles and take a left onto County Complex Court.
ANDREW LEITCH PARK - 5301 Dale Boulevard, Dale City, VA
|Parks Map
|From the Prince William Stadium Complex
|Exit the County Complex Court to the Prince William Parkway then right towards Manassas. Take the PW Parkway for ½ mile to a left on Hoadly Road at the light. Take Hoadly Road 2.1 miles to a left on Dale Boulevard at the light. Follow Dale Blvd. For 1.77 miles to the park on the right. The field is behind a waterpark called Waterworks.
FAIRMONT PARK - 9801 Fairmont Avenue, Manassas, VA
|Parks Map
|From I-66 & Rte. 234 (North side of Manassas)
|Take Route 234 Business to Portsmouth Road (about 1.2 miles south of Route 66) at a Denny's Restaurant. Take Portsmouth Road 1.2 miles to its terminus at Fairmont Drive. The park and fields are across the street in view.
|From Rte. 28 and Liberia Avenue (East side of Manassas)
|Take Liberia Avenue north. Liberia Avenue becomes Lomond Drive. Turn left at Fairmont Avenue and the four-field complex is on your left.
BEN LOMOND PARK - 7500 Ben Lomond Drive, Manassas, VA
|Parks Map
|From I-66 & Rte. 234 (North side of Manassas)
|Take Route 234 Business, Sudley Road about one mile to a left on Sudley Manor Drive (at a Taco Bell Restaurant and K-Mart). At 2 miles at the terminus of Sudley Manor Drive take a left on Ben Lomond Drive into the park (follow signs to Splashdown Waterpark). Field 1 is to the left with the soccer fields and Field 3 is behind the waterpark.
|From the Prince William Parkway and Liberia Avenue
|Take Liberia Avenue north which becomes Lomond Drive. Turn right at the light on Damascus Avenue then quickly bear to the left onto Strasburg Street. Strasburg ends at Sudley Manor Drive. Take a right onto Sudley Manor Drive and follow above directions.
JENNIE DEAN PARK - 9601 Prince William Street, Manassas, VA
|Parks Map
|From the Prince William Parkway & Liberia Avenue
|Take Fairview Avenue west which becomes Richmond Avenue then Wellington Road. Continue on Wellington Road to the park on the left at Jennie Dean School (Total distance 4.1 miles). The park entrance is just south of the school entrance and the two adult softball fields are behind the school.
|From I-66 & Rte. 234 (North side of Manassas)
|Take Route 234, Sudley Road south to a right on Godwin Drive. Take Godwin
Drive for 0.90 miles to a left on Wellington Road. Stay on Wellington Road for 1.16 miles until you come to Jennie Dean Elementary School on your right. The park entrance is just past the school entrance.
BRADDOCK PARK - 13451 Braddock Road, Clifton, VA
|Parks Map Additional Info, Driving Directions and Map
|From I-66 - At Exit 53
|Take Route 28 West approximately one mile to a left on New Braddock Road. Take New Braddock Road about two miles to park entrance on the right.
|From Manassas
|Take Centerville Road, Route 28 East for approximately 5 miles to a right on New Braddock Road. Follow New Braddock Road about two miles to park entrance on the right.
VALLEY VIEW PARK - 11930 Valley View Drive, Nokesville, VA 20181
|Parks Map Additional Info, Driving Directions and Map
|From Manassas
|Take Route 28 south 1.08 miles from the City Limits; turn left on Bristow Road (Route 619) for 1.45 miles; then turn right on Valley View Drive, the park is 1.31 miles on the right just past the Bristow Manor Golf Course.


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Syrian Arab Army Gains Considerable Ground in Damascus
About The Author
Ziad Fadel
Attorney for 35 years and Supreme Court Certified Interpreter for Arabic/English Diploma with Honors from Ann Arbor Pioneer High School in 1968; B.A. University of Michigan in Ann Arbor 1968-1972; M.A. University of Michigan Dept. of Near Eastern Studies 1972-1974; Ph.D. Cand. Univ. of Michigan 1972-1977; Then went to law school. Credits: Harvard University for classes in Islamic Philosophy; Fellowships from University of Pennsylvania 1976; 2 from Univ. of Michigan. Read English, Arabic, German, French, Farsi, some Hebrew. Studied Ancient Greek and Latin before grad school. Michigan Supreme Court Certified Interpreter/Translator for Arabic and English

subset: commoncrawl


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Mariah Carey may not be as stick thin as some of the women in Hollywood, but don't confuse curvy for pregnant.
Despite the rumors, the singer's rep told Access Hollywood she is "not pregnant."
While Mimi may not be gearing up to be a mom right now, she credited her husband, "America's Got Talent" host Nick Cannon, with helping her get toward a place where having children is a possibility.
"I'd want to be in a position to handle that as well as possible," the star told USA Today last fall of the possibility of having children, adding she was also open to the idea of adopting.
It was marrying Nick in 2008 after a whirlwind romance that helped change her priorities.
"I wasted my time with stuff that wasn't really real, in my personal life," Mariah said. "I was always more focused on my career. But now I have this support system."
In the meantime, the couple plans to walk down the aisle for a third time, this time on April 30.
"We get married every year! That's our thing," Nick previously told Us Weekly. "So it's going to be our third wedding this year. That's what we'll be doing on the actual [anniversary]. We'll do something — a party or event, just to celebrate."
Related Content from AccessHollywood.com:
VIEW THE PHOTOS: From 'Drumline' To 'America's Got Talent': Hot Shots Of Nick Cannon
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Mariah Carey: From 'Dreamlover' To 'Heartbreaker'
MORE ACCESS ON THESE TOPICS: Mariah Carey - Music - TV One - Couples - Nick Cannon


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Gilday necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 114 diseños de 14 diseñadores freelance.
We are a commercial property management company for banking institutions. In this capacity we manage the upkeep of the facilities and perform repairs and major renovations.
Our technicians drive white service vans to the banks each day. We want to have a logo to put on our vans, stationery and uniforms.
Because we are dealing almost exclusively with banks, we are looking for a professional/upscale logo.
Gilday Enterprises, Inc.
We favor the use of buildings as a back drop. A couple of designs we really like can be seen in a few other 99designs contests.
Design #18 in Dumouchel Investments looked great. We liked the style of the buildings and the way the buildings are lit. We also really liked the "swoosh" at the base of the building and the way they placed "DIG" across the base of the buildings
Design #77 for Advanced Construction has a similar effect of tall buildings being lit.
We are not limited to buildings - those designs struck us as being professional and upscale
- Item 1... We like the colors green, gold, navy/black.
- We also like the use of metallics, foils, etc.
- The name we want in the logo is Gilday. We do not have to have Enterprises, Inc. in the logo.
- We are Irish therefore we would like the letters GEI to be fashined/formed into a clover and somehow placed into the design. See URL http://media-convert.com/convert/?x…6-cfwkmuet a skectch that depicts the letters GEI in a clover form. You have to click on the download link in the center of the page.
- We will use this logo on vans, uniforms, stationary, and business cards so a scalable format is required.
- Item 1... We don't want a "gimmicky" look.
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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Monday, September 26
We Understand. Bill Haas Won the FedEx Cup
BILL HAAS BOGEYED THE 18TH on Sunday and watched as Hunter Mahan made a scrappy par on the final hole to force a winner-take-all sudden-death playoff. That is, the man who prevailed in the fading light at East Lake would go home with both the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup, a $11.44 million jackpot.
A two-time winner on the PGA Tour, the talented Haas has had trouble finishing tournaments. His playoff record going into Sunday's showdown with Mahan was 0-2. After getting to 10 under for the tournament and 4 under on his round with birdies at 13 and 15, Haas wobbled home with bogeys on two of the last three holes. He was nervous, and admitted it to NBC's Jimmy Roberts. Who could blame him?
Then Haas did his best impression of Tiger Woods (when Tiger Woods was still Tiger Woods). He made two of the best up-and-downs you'll ever see—on back-to-back playoff holes.
The lake shot beside the 17th green has been well chronicled. I figured Haas would get the ball up on the green 10 or 15 feet by the hole and have to sink a par-saver. Obviously, he did much much better than that.
But forget the lake shot for a second because there's no lake shot without the all-world par at the long par-3 18th, where Haas fouled off another 4-iron down the right-field line. The above video shows what happened next—a delicate pitch and a sublime putt that rolled slowly on a left-to-right arc and fell into the heart of the cup. That putt was exquisite.
Then came the lake-hole magic and another gutty up and down from 50 feet on the playoff's second visit to the 18th. Somehow Haas had won despite some swings he'd like to have back. To his credit, Mahan hung in there and dropped a few clutch putts to give himself a chance.
It was great stuff.
The fact that Haas apparently didn't know he'd won the FedEx Cup until the trophy presentation made it even better. Yep.
"I saw Tim Finchem," Haas told reporters. "I said, 'I didn't know I had won this [FedEx Cup trophy],' and he was like, 'Congratulations, you won both.' That's what he said, both are for you."
Can you imagine hearing "you won both"—and not having to wake up?
−The Armchair Golfer
2 comments:
Well played Bill.
From the inception of the golf season this Bill Hass has been playing really well.
- brianpenn said...
Very well done by Haas but something is still wrong with the format if the tournament winner doesn't know he's won the FedEx Cup as soon as the last putt drops. This combo thing still doesn't work for me. Do a winner take all for the final tournament and FedEx Cup and make that clear.
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2 Chronicles 28
First Impression: What We Learn from King Ahaz's Sealby Robert Deutsch
It is time to give Biblical Archaeology Review readers a look at the first seal impression of a Hebrew king ever found. Biblical Archaeology Review editor Hershel Shanks knew of its existence before I showed it at the Annual Meeting in New Orleans in November 1996, so before the meeting he announced a contest to guess the name of the king After the public lecture at the Annual Meeting, he disclosed the name of the king and announced the winner of the contest, a woman from Switzerland. Now, having published the seal impression in Hebrew, it is appropriate that its first English publication be in Biblical Archaeology Review.
Ahaz's seal from the Shlomo Moussaieff Collection, London
The king whose seal is impressed in this well-preserved piece of reddish-brown clay is King Ahaz of Judah, who ruled from 732 to 716 BCE. Alas, he was not a good king: He "did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord his God, as his ancestor David had done" (2 Kings 16:2; 2 Chronicles 28:1). He worshipped idols and followed pagan practices. "He even made his son pass through fire, according to the abominable practices of the nations" (2 Kings 16:3).
This lump of clay, called a bulla, was used to seal a papyrus document. We know this because the back of the bulla still bears the imprint of the texture of the papyrus. Also on the back of the bulla, we can see the impression of the double string with which the document was tied.
On the left edge of the front of the bulla is a fingerprint that may well be that of King Ahaz himself! Around the edge of the seal impression is a groove about a millimeter thick. This indicates that the seal with which it was impressed was set in a metal bezel, either in a signet ring or in a pendant.
We do not know where the bulla came from -- nor how it was found. It is presently in the collection of Shlomo Moussaieff of London, whose pieces have been featured several times in this magazine. Anything that comes from the antiquities market naturally raises questions of authenticity. Happily, there can be no doubt in this case.
The seal contains not only the name of the king, but the name of his father, King Yehotam. In addition, Ahaz is specifically identified as "king of Judah." The Hebrew inscription, which is set on three lines, reads as follows: "l'hz*y/hwtm*mlk*/yhdh", which translates, "Belonging to Ahaz (son of) Yehotam, King of Judah."
Note that dots, or word dividers, separate the words. (The slashes merely indicate line breaks.) The engraver had no hesitation in continuing a word (Yehotam) from one line to the next, a common custom even though they had no hyphens in those days.
Although there are word dividers, the usual register dividers (incised lines that separate the lines of text, as in the example shown on p.56) are absent from this seal. The letters are small (the seal itself is only 2/5 of an inch wide), but they are of very high quality. A triple framing line is engraved around the edge of the oval seal.
Does it seem plain for a king? Perhaps so. The seal is aniconic, that is, without any illustration or decoration whatsoever. The back of the seal may well have been engraved with some symbol or royal emblem, but we only have the impression of the front. More than half a century ago, a seal belonging to a high official of Ahaz's court was published. This seal contains, in addition to the man's name and his identification as a "servant of Ahaz," an engraving of a sun disk with ram's horns, three Osiris crowns and uraei (sacred asps) hanging from the ram's horns. We might expect a king's seal to be equally ornate. But if any royal symbols appeared on Aliaz's seal, they were on the back.
The name Ahaz is an interesting one. It appears in the annals of the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III (744-727 BCE), who boasts that he received tribute from Ahaz. Here it is spelled Ia-u'-ha-zi or Yeho-ahaz (in cuneiform). This longer form of Ahaz's name indicates that the form used on the seal has dropped the theophoric, or divine, element. Such divine elements often appear at the beginning or end of ancient names. Many divine names -- Qos, Baal, Milcom -- are incorporated into personal names in this way, as is, of course, the name of the Hebrew God Yahweh (YHWH). The form of Yahweh incorporated into names in the northern kingdom of Israel differed from that used in the southern kingdom of Judah. In the north Yo (YW) was generally used at the beginning of a name and -yo (YW) or -yah (YH) at the end of a name. In Judah it was Yeho (YHW) at the beginning of a name (as in the cuneiform example mentioned above) and -yahu (YHW) at the end.
Several kings of Israel and Judah bear the name Ahaz combined with a theophoric element. From Judah we have not only the owner of this seal but also Ahaz-yahu (also called Yeho-ahaz), son of Yeho-ram and the sixth king of Judah, who reigned only one year in 84l B.C.E., and Yeho-ahaz, son of Yoshi- yahu and the seventeenth king of Judah, who reigned only three months in 609 B.C.E. Ahaz means seize, so the full name means "seized of Yahweh." A name composed of a compressed sentence like this is called a hypocoristicon.
You will now recognize the theophoric element in the name of Ahaz's father as given in Ahaz's seal: Yehotam. The name appears 19 times in the Bible, but it is spelled Yo-tam in each case, with the theophoric element used in the northern kingdom of Israel (YW).
Somehow it got misspelled in the Bible. The correct spelling of the theophoric element is Yeho- (YHW). So we now know from this seal how Ahaz's father's name should be spelled.
The word for "son of" (BN, or ben) is missing from before the name of Ahaz's father. But this is not unusual on seals. We know from the form of the inscription on innumerable seals that Yeho-tam (placed after Ahaz's name) is the name of Ahaz's father -- and this is confirmed in the Bible. The word "son" was probably omitted simply for lack of space.
Spelling comes up in another context in this seal. "Judah" is spelled defectively, to use the scholarly term. This doesn't mean that it is spelled incorrectly. The Hebrew alphabet is essentially composed of consonants only. But at this time a few consonants were beginning to be used as vowels. These are called matres lectionis, "mothers of writing." When they are used, the spelling (or orthography) is said to be plene, or full. Without the discretionary vowel, the spelling is said to be defective. Here the word "Judah" is spelled YHDH instead of the usual YHWDH. Judah appears in the Bible more than 800 times, but it is always spelled YHWDH. Now we know it could be spelled YHDH, without the letter waw, a mater lectionis. Interestingly, after the Babylonian destruction of the Temple in 586 BCE, Judah was spelled in several ways: YHWDH, YHDH (as on our bulla) or YHD. Now we know a variant spelling was also used as early as the 8th century BCE.
This modest lump of clay thus has much to teach us -- in addition to providing the thrill that comes from such a direct connection to an ancient king of Judah.
Source: http://www.archaeological-center.com/en/monographs/m1


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Zvex - Box of Rock [traced]
Posted: 27 Jun 2007, 15:41
tracing pedals since 2007
I don´t think so, somebody wrote me this:I wonder if he paid any royalties to Ed Guidry and his designer friends for DIRECTLY copying there tone control and output filter design
The rest is private talk....I found it funny that Zach Vex copied the 'back end' of the BSIAB component-for-component. Is this really correct?
If so, I don't resent it, I posted the schematic, after all. I'm actually kind of flattered that he used it.
and anotheranalogguru wrote:Here are some guts:
Nice!madbean wrote:I've got a verified pcb layout of the dirt side of the schematic (I didn't put the boost in) if anyone is interested and it's kosher. I've built it but not boxed it so it's verified.
Maybe that'll be the next design - just keep adding SHOs!I know it is more ££'s, etc, but a Super Duper 2 in 1 (or a SHO) in front of the Box of Rock is a wonderful thing. The BoR responds wonderfully to it, and really does give you full on gain that is controllable from your volume.


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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Bob McNamara, an All-American football player for Minnesota in the 1950s and later a major fundraiser for the university, has died. He was 82.
The university announced McNamara's death on Monday. The school says McNamara died after a long illness on Sunday night.
McNamara played for the Gophers from 1951-54. He was an All-American halfback and the team MVP in 1954. He played professionally for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in Canada and the Denver Broncos in the AFL.
After his playing career was over, McNamara was one of the school's leading fundraisers. He played a big role in raising money for the new outdoor football stadium.
McNamara is survived by his wife, Annette, and three children.
(© Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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text:
Food on a stick is great. Food on a stick on a grill is BETTER! Check out these delicious new skewer recipes, and fire up the grill...
1/4th of recipe (1 skewer): 165 calories, 1.5g total fat (0.5g sat fat), 207mg sodium, 9.5g carbs, 2g fiber, 4g sugars, 27g protein Green Plan SmartPoints® value 2* Blue Plan (Freestyle™) SmartPoints® value 0* Purple Plan SmartPoints® value 0* These fajita-style chicken and veggies are SO good! Serve 'em with our Holy Moly Guacamole, and get ready for a grilly-good fiesta...
Ingredients: 1 lb. raw boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch cubes 1 tbsp. fajita seasoning mix 1 red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch strips 1 green bell pepper, cut into 1-inch strips 1 medium onion, cut into 1-inch chunks 1 lime, cut into 4 wedges Directions: If using wooden skewers, soak them in water for 20 minutes to prevent burning. (You'll need four.) Season chicken with fajita seasoning. Alternately thread chicken and veggies onto four skewers, tightly packing the pieces together. Bring a grill sprayed with nonstick spray to medium-high heat. Grill kebabs for 5 minutes with the grill cover down. Flip kebabs. With the grill cover down, grill for 6 - 8 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. Serve with lime wedges, and squeeze over kebabs before eating! MAKES 4 SERVINGS
1/6th of recipe (1 skewer): 152 calories, 5g total fat (1.5g sat fat), 431mg sodium, 17g carbs, 2g fiber, 9g sugars, 10.5g protein Green Plan SmartPoints® value 3* Blue Plan (Freestyle™) SmartPoints® value 3* Purple Plan SmartPoints® value 3* This sweet and savory combo is almost TOO delicious. Don't say we didn't warn you... Ingredients: Glaze 1/4 cup low-sugar apricot preserves 1 tbsp. reduced-sodium/lite soy sauce Kebabs 2 cups butternut squash cut into 1-inch cubes (see HG Tip!) 2 cups apples cut into 1-inch chunks 12 oz. (about 4 links) fully cooked chicken sausage with 8g fat or less per 3-oz. serving (like the kind by Applegate Organics), sliced into 1-inch coins
Directions: If using wooden skewers, soak them in water for 20 minutes to prevent burning. (You'll need six.) To make the glaze, in a small bowl, combine preserves with soy sauce. Stir until uniform. Place squash and apples in a large microwave-safe bowl with 1 tbsp. water. Cover and microwave for 2 minutes. Stir, and microwave for 2 more minutes, or until squash has slightly softened. Alternately thread squash, apples, and sausage coins onto six skewers, tightly packing pieces together. Spray a grill with nonstick spray and bring to medium-low heat. Brush all sides of the kebabs with the glaze. Grill for 6 minutes with the grill cover down. Flip kebabs. With the grill cover down, grill for 6 - 8 minutes, or until squash has softened. Enjoy! MAKES 6 SERVINGS
HG Tip! Look for pre-cubed squash in the produce section. And click here to read up on how to cube it yourself!
HG Alternative! Cook your kebabs on a grill pan, and adjust cook times as needed. If the pan doesn't have a lid, just loosely cover it with a skillet lid.
We've got lots of HG-rific recipes to grill! Click here for Naked Buffalo Chicken Kebabs, Teriyaki Tofu Kebabs, and more! The Hungry Grilled Pineapple with So-Good Cinnamon-Vanilla Yogurt Dip is NOT to be missed...
Grilling and socializing go hand in hand. You know what's VERY social? Clicking "Send to a Friend"... Do it now!
And a very happy National Peach Month to you! Yup, August is the time to enjoy those juicy stone fruits. While you're at the grill, throw on some peach halves for this two-ingredient recipe!
SmartPoints® value not what you expected? Click here for more info on how the values are calculated, plus more FAQs about PointsPlus® and SmartPoints® values on our website.


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December 2020 January February 2021 Calendar Notes –
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Defining the Present and Future State of ITBy Peter High
The New Normal: Proceed with Caution
If you believe what many economists are now saying, we have emerged from a prolonged economic malaise and the United States is poised for growth. Good news surely, but IT leaders have suffered right along with other executives in the corporate suite during these bad old days. The recent downturn cost a lot of talented IT leaders their jobs.It seems, then, to be an appropriate time to ask: "What can IT leaders do today to prepare for the next downturn?"
Having worked with a great number of CIOs on the principles of World Class IT (introduced in my book, World Class IT: Why Businesses Succeed When IT Triumphs), I have learned that the most successful executives focus their organization's efforts to ensure that they plan for the proverbial "rainy day," while simultaneously encouraging innovation. There are four main areas on which these leading executives typically focus:
- defining the present and future state;
- strengthening governance;
- motivating employees; and
- investing in the future.
Defining the Present and Future State of IT
It is critically important to develop and maintain a skills inventory of the people in your department. First and foremost, this requires defining taxonomy relative to those skills. Then, it's essential to have all employees document the skills they currently possess. This skills inventory should be refreshed whenever there is a new hire, and through each evaluation cycle, providing an "as is" picture of the skills of your staff.
Develop a workforce plan reflecting the skills the IT department will need in the future based on where the company is headed, business and IT strategy, and so forth. This is the "to be" state of the staff's skills. The gulf between the "as is" picture and the "to be" state should then be evaluated; this will drive your training, recruiting and vendor-engagement strategies.
Meaningful evaluations must be conducted to identify your best employees. "As a leader, the worst thing you can do is treat unequal people equally," says Michael Capone, corporate vice president and CIO of Automatic Data Processing (ADP). "Remind your best people of the value they bring to the organization. This is the way to motivate them to do extraordinary things during difficult times."
Likewise, it is critically important to have an "as is" and "to be" understanding of the IT infrastructure that is in place; both scenarios should be represented in your infrastructure road map. By plotting software, hardware, applications, networks and such into a road map--and maintaining that road map--you will have a clear picture of which components of your infrastructure are on the verge of being implemented, which are being maintained and added to, and which should be retired.
The CIO and other IT leaders must make it part of their jobs to engage in regular, formal and informal communications with their business-side colleagues. This is important in order to get a preview of strategy before it is fully formed and to engender trust with business colleagues. It will also enable you to suggest ideas to the business.
Weaving IT into the fabric of the strategic plans of the business is critical. IT leaders must push business leaders to articulate their plans in a uniform manner. This way, IT can easily digest those plans and use them as valuable inputs to the aforementioned workforce plan and infrastructure road map. It is especially important that IT leaders make themselves strategically relevant when times are good.
"If you were not relevant in the business strategy before a downturn," Capone says, "you are not going to become relevant during times of crisis."
Once the business articulates its plans, IT should contemplate what those plans collectively indicate in terms of IT imperatives. Sample questions to consider: What are the business intelligence needs of our company's various divisions now? What will our needs be in 12 months? In 24 months? How do these needs impact the IT investments we need to make today in order to support that long-term vision?
Strengthen Governance
Economic downturns and financial duress tend to lead enterprises and industries to toughen up their governance practices. All too often, we see these tightened controls relax again once dollars start to flow and budgets for IT projects increase. It's smart, though, to retain rigorous governance practices in good times. This way, when the next downward cycle hits, your IT organization will already have its practices fine-tuned, and it will not have to scramble to create processes applicable to distressed times.
David Smoley, senior vice president and CIO of Flextronics International, says one key to his team's success has been imitating the "lean" practices of his business partners. "In getting closer with our business colleagues, we have adopted their practices, which have translated into better governance practices," he says. Although Flextronics, a provider of vertically integrated advanced design and electronics manufacturing services to original equipment manufacturers, recently announced record earnings, Smoley is in the midst of a global optimization campaign to continue to ensure that IT is operating as efficiently as possible.
This begins with having a solid prioritization process. By standardizing around criteria, it is possible to generate a true one to "n" list of projects across business units. The following criteria are of greatest importance to consider in building your prioritization process:
- strategic fit;
- return on investment;
- project interdependency; and
- project risk.
You'll also want to bolster portfolio-management practices. This includes having the right people in place, perhaps in a program-management office, and the right processes in place to ensure that data is entered in a timely fashion. It also includes investing in tools that will provide a window into the health of the portfolio, and allow for quick action to course- correct when necessary.
Duane Anderson is CIO at Marquette Group, an advertising agency that delivers qualified, local customers to national brands by designing integrated media strategies, and USMotivation, which focuses on incentive strategies, group travel and creative communications.
Says Anderson: "We evaluated our IT portfolio and found we were focused on too many smaller projects that didn't always align with our strategic goals and move the company, or our customers, forward.
"With senior leadership buy-in, we focused on a smaller number of high-impact projects and included these as part of our annual strategic planning function to ensure the most senior-level focus. This has allowed us to really move the dial on strategic efforts, such as growing our revenues non-linearly with costs and greatly increasing our customer-facing IT efforts."
Likewise, project management and execution must be contemplated. This requires having a robust development life cycle in place with stage gates at which projects can be continually evaluated. Although there may be different "flavors" of the life cycle to accommodate projects of different sizes (in terms of budget and timing), some principles should be common across all development efforts.
For example, ensuring that projects are developed on-time, on-budget and on-scope is essential. These three metrics should be your baseline to determine the efficacy of the project-management and execution practices.
As part of your good governance efforts, you'll want to focus on developing robust vendor-management practices. If you don't already have solid project- and portfolio-management practices in place, it is almost impossible to manage vendors to assure the highest level of value.
Flextronics' Smoley asserts that improved vendor-management practices have been a major factor in his team's success: "We rely on our vendors to a great extent, and we have developed practices to ensure that we get the most out of them, while also treating them like true partners rather than like vendors." Rather than having the company's sourcing department take over this process, Smoley's team is involved in RFPs, contracting, onboarding and managing external partners to ensure that the relationship is always managed with value in mind.
Motivate Your Best Employees
In the process of defining your organization's present and future state (see #1, above), you and your leadership team will have identified your best employees. It is especially important during downturns to motivate these employees. It is precisely during times of strife when the best employees are most needed--not only to ensure that work is accomplished efficiently and effectively, but also to motivate their fellow employees. This process begins at the top.
You'll need to focus on compensation and recognition to motivate such employees. Compensation might be difficult to maximize during a downturn, of course, as budgetary constraints can necessitate that employees forgo bonuses or salary increases. That's why a comprehensive recognition program is needed.
Good work should be identified and celebrated, and it is important that such celebration happen in a manner that makes employees comfortable and, therefore, motivated. (You may be surprised how often the manner in which an employee is recognized -- pulling a shy employee up in front of hundreds of people, for instance -- might turn what is intended to be a special moment into an unpleasant one.)
You'll also want to focus on a range of retention activities. These can include providing mentoring and career-planning forums; offering training so employees feel that they are improving their skills; and assigning the best employees to do the most interesting work.
Tough times require strong cross-IT communications to deal with potential angst among employees. Uncertainty can breed discontent, and you'll want to counter this with a solid, regular flow of information, including the creation of forums through which anxious employees can ask questions.
ADP's Capone, who has the IT departments of many different business lines reporting through to him, speaks of the need to create consistent communications across the company: "We have used a variety of media in order to get our message out across IT, whether it is through Enterprise 2.0 tools like blogs, or old-fashioned but effective Town Halls. The key is to communicate often and consistently."
Invest in the Future
When your enterprise finds itself deep in the midst of major cost-cutting, it's easy to forget about innovation. This is a mistake. In good times and bad, IT must have a solid process through which new ideas can germinate.Innovation is the number-one topic that arises in my numerous conversations with IT leaders. The problem is, after spending a long time in cost-cutting and survival modes, many IT organizations have lost their innovation "muscles," so to speak.
In rebuilding a culture of innovation, you need to assure your staff that, should they spend time on innovative ideas that ultimately fail, this will not reflect poorly on them. Attempts at innovation, by definition, will sometimes lead to failure, and it is important that you view these as opportunities to learn.
Too often, innovation is viewed as an expensive and daunting undertaking. It's seen as something your product-development people do to create products and services that consumers crave. But innovation is essential throughout an organization in order to encourage growth. Capone advises CIOs to "zealously tie projects to business value, and focus on ideas that are competitive differentiators."
If you want to remove roadblocks to innovation in your organization, keep these three key factors in mind:
- Innovation can be small in nature.
- Innovation can be internally as well as externally focused.
- Innovation can be related to processes as well as products and services.
So, how do you generate ideas? By fostering an environment in which all team members are encouraged to contribute ideas. In addition, you'll want to create a repository for new ideas that also houses the vestigial analysis of potential costs, benefits and business drivers behind each idea.
Implementing these four business practices will keep your organization ahead of the competition during bad economic times and position your enterprise to excel as the economy recovers.
Peter High is president of Metis Strategy, a boutique IT-strategy consultancy based in Washington, DC. A contributor to CIO Insight, Peter is also the author of World Class IT: Why Businesses Succeed When IT Triumphs, and the moderator of the podcast, The Forum on World Class IT. He can be reached at email@example.com.


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There is something for everyone at The Word on the Street, a celebration of reading and writing that returns next weekend to Library square, home of the Vancouver Public Library's Central Branch.
"For families, this is a really great event," said Val Mason, general manager of The Word on the Street. "They can really focus in on literacy-related activities, but there's also enough to entertain adults."
There is a lot going on at the festival and it is a fun, accessible event filled with great reading and writing, Mason said.
All events at The Word on The Street are free, including author readings where visitors can meet authors, listen to them read from their books and even ask questions about their work.
New Westminster author Annabel Lyon will read from her new novel The Sweet Girl about Greek philosopher Aristotle and the life of his daughter. Her first novel The Golden Mean won the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and was nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Governor General's Award and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize in 2009. The Sweet Girl is longlisted for this year's Giller Prize.
B.C. author WP Kinsella, whose novel Shoeless Joe was made into the movie Field of Dreams, will be reading from his new novel Butterfly Winter, a magical story about two twins who played baseball in the womb.
They will be joined by authors Yasuko Thanh, Billie Livingston, Arthur Black, George Bowering, Brian Calvert & Chris Cannon (the Canada Party), Sun book reviewer and author Anakana Schofield, Kevin Chong, new VPL writer-in-residence Meredith Quartermain and many more.
There will be activities for children, including workshops, storytelling and music.
Comic book lovers will find alternative comic book artists and illustrated zine producers in the market area, as well as panels and workshops in Word Under The Street.
Mason said the Unwritten Word program is new this year. It will include four visual exhibits about the ways stories are communicated without written words, including one called Reliquum — a large selection of photographs that have inspired writers and other people.
She said Word on the Street is including unwritten forms of storytelling so that people with different levels of literacy or from different cultures or who speak different languages can still understand the stories.
"It's a long-standing tradition that we really want to explore," she said.
Mason hopes to expand the Unwritten Word program next year to include cultural dances that tell stories from around the world.
Mason said she's particularly looking forward to the Vancouver Squeezebox Circle, a literary-accordion-slam event presented Sunday on the main stage that is a tribute to the accordion. Also appearing on the main stage will be The Carnival Band, The Ukesters, drumming by The Upbeats, Vancouver Hug Day with Ricepaper Magazine.
While The Word on the Street is primarily a weekend festival, there will be some earlier events.
Peter Zuckerman and Amanda Padoan will read from their book Buried in the Sky: The Extraordinary Story of the Sherpa Climbers on K2's Deadliest Day, at Banyen Books & Sound on Friday night.
Marcus Youssef and James Long will perform a dramatic presentation of Youssef's work including Winners and Losers and How Has My Love Affected You? at Historic Joy Kogawa House on Friday night,
On Saturday, at the Carnegie Centre, there will be an environment-themed poetry workshop with Christine Leclerc, a session on "how to do your best live reading" with Hal Wake, artistic director at the Vancouver Writers Fest, and a chapbook-making workshop. Chapbooks are small booklets without a separate cover.
For more details and specific times and locations, visit: www.thewordonthestreet.ca/vancouver. Most events are at Library Square, 350 W. Georgia St.
Sun Books email@example.com


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... because the editorial we reached five years old. Let's have cake .. pass the Caramel Crunch. That's right, chocolate addicts, none of your brown goo. I am of the tiny minority who regard chocolate as a repellent, mind-altering substance. For once, it's not about you. Not to my credit or anything; we all have addictions. Take whipped cream, for example.
|Red hair in Red Shoes
At this stage, many of my colleagues reflect on their growth and goals. I'd rather not because I still don't know if I'm writing for them or for a nebulous family posterity or just for obsessive moi. The blog is a hodge podge—something like my mind—of all three. Cruising the Suez Canal and riding camels apparently induces severe writer's block so I'm thankful we are over that hump for the time being. I'm also grateful for my readers who stick around.
Despite often living in the eighteenth century, I do prefer looking forward than reviewing the recent past where one can only
sing always look on the bright side of life. It's
just as well my family history books are not being bought up by the
carload because all you cousins are contacting me now. If I
weren't answering 9,000 emails I could be organizing all that new
information. Luckily the incoming contains plenty of fodder for my
favourite pastime of analysis and problem-solving.
By some minor miracle my board-certified status was renewed yet again; for the next five years it's a solid island in a turbulent shipwrecked world. Uh no; why that image? An oasis of sanity in my desert. pphhtttt ... you get it.
Like all well-rounded family historians, I have a life outside genealogical circles and don't always eat at my computer admiring other people's blogs. I strictly regulate my time on Facebrick (learning new slang, but actually using it has been problematic) and Google+ (more mature discussions, we say) but it's always a case where time expands alarmingly. I've been known to speak in person to my offspring and made a visit to my hometown this past summer.
I have a garden; a tiny urban garden where I valiantly battle for soil rights with a stupid unreasonable tree that some misguided landscaper plopped in years ago. My volunteerism lurches between a couple of secretary positions and regular deposits to the clothing bank. My political activism went into a coma in 1978 but revives periodically, mainly in defence of my performing artists home against berserk fire department officials and similar outrageous conspiracies for which the resident creative souls require patient exposition.
Furthermore, to prove I have a life, every few weeks I panic to see if my scattered friends remember me so we can talk of books, movies, climate change, health-related crap, that fabulous Jane Fonda, and celebrity chefs. I spatchcock posts into my other blog for occasional relief from all this tension.
If I weren't answering 9,000 emails some of this would make sense and I could spend more time writing.
© Brenda Dougall Merriman, 2012


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A printable wall art travel quote: "The temptation to go to the airport, buy a one-way ticket, leave the country and live on my own has never been so real."
NB! This is a digital product only. No physical product is shipped.
This travel quote is funny, unique and 100% relatable. Get a new look for your home or office, or gift this to a traveller in your life. And it's unbelievably easy to set up. Just download it, print it, frame it and voilà. Best part? There are no shipping fees and no waiting time. Print it where you want, when you want and how many times you want.
Who doesn't need some #travelinspo in their lives? We know we do. And we think you do too.
After your purchase you will receive an email with download links for your digital purchases. The file is in .zip format and includes 4 high resolution JPEG files and an instruction sheet:
A 3x4 ratio file for printing: 15 x 20 cm / 18 x 24 cm / 30 x 40 cm / 6" x 8" / 9" x 12" / 12" x 16" / 18" x 24"
A 4x5 ratio file for printing: 20 x 25 cm / 40 x 50 cm / 4" x 5" / 8" x 10" / 16" x 20"
A 2x3 ratio file for printing: 10 x 15 cm / 20 x 30 cm / 40 x 60 cm / 60 x 90 cm / 4" x 6" / 6" x 9" / 8" x 12" / 10" x 15" / 12" x 18" / 16" x 24" / 20" x 30" / 24" x 36"
An international A series paper ratio file for printing: A1 / A2 / A3 / A4 / A5 / A6 / 50 x 70 cm / 20" x 28"
Print this at your home, at your local print shop or use an online printing service. Each file is high-resolution (300 dpi), which will get you the nicest clean prints. For best results, print on a matte and coated paper at least 120 gsm / 82 lb.
Due to the fact that this is a digital printable file, refunds nor exchanges are not possible. We are always here to answer any questions you might have and will do our very best to solve any issues so that you are 100% happy with your purchase!
NB! This a digital download. No physical product will be shipped. The frame is not included. Colours may vary slightly due to different colour monitors. This purchase is for personal use only. The artwork is copyright of ©Bold Tuesday.


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Here is a party I styled for my daughter's 6th birthday. Hope you enjoy!
Styling and Design by: Sweet Bambinos
Photography: Westray Corradine
Fondant Cupcake Toppers by: Vera Acquarone
Brigadeiros: Vera Acquarone
Cake Topper: Vera Acquarone for Sweet Bambinos
Sugar Cookies: The Baking Girl
Personalized Mini Candy Wrappers by: Sweet Bambinos
Skirt by: Kari Vernon
Fabric Garland by: Sweet Bambinos
Backdrop made with Silhouette Cameo


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World Town Planning Day conference names Eric Enos "Planner Who Has Made a Difference"University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
UH Manoa Department of Urban and Regional Planning
Eric Enos, Executive Director and co-founder of Kaʻala Farms, Inc. was named the "Planner Who Has Made a Difference" today at the annual World Town Planning Day sponsored by the UH Manoa Department of Urban and Regional Planning. The award recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to urban and regional planning and the quality of life in Hawaiʻi
Enos, a graduate of the Kamehameha Schools and the University of Hawaiʻi
at Manoa, has since the 1970s been a leading proponent of sustainability in Hawaiʻi. Kaʻala Farms is a thriving operation to which Native Hawaiians and others come to learn about the history of land and to engage in farming, conservation and Native Hawaiian customs and cultural practices. Enos has played a major role in Kaʻala Farms educational programs — including the development of a Hawaiian culture- and science-based immersion program, the cultivation of native plant gardens and nurseries, the art and science of kapa making, and the extension of Hawaiian studies programs into the community.
According to Karl Kim, Professor and Chair of Urban and Regional Planning, "Eric is always looking for innovative ways to foster the Hawaiian spirit in all of Hawaiʻi's inhabitants. He has spent a career building communities, working with young people, and producing the next generation of planners and people committed to the future of our islands. He has truly made a difference in Hawaiʻi."
Last year, the award was presented to Jim Bell, well-known professional planner with the firm of Belt Collins.
World Town Planning Day is celebrated in 30 countries on four continents each November 8 as a special day to recognize and promote the role of planning in creating livable communities. World Town Planning Day was founded in 1949 by the late Professor Carlos Maria della Paolera of the University of Buenos Aires to advance public and professional interest in planning, both locally and abroad. WTPD began to be observed in many countries more than 30 years ago.


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Rate Hammer necesitaba un nuevo diseño de impreso o envases y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 72 diseños de 26 diseñadores freelance.
I have written this book to educate people on how banks work and given them a step by step guide to help them get the best possible deal from their bank.
The title sounds scammy -but it is not. All the material comes from my personal experience working in the financial industry for the past 5 years.
In the book I reveal the biases Bankers and Brokers have and how it impacts their advice.
25-50 year olds. I know it is a big demographic. Each chapter starts with a story to illustrate a point and then I get into the specifics of what to do, or in some cases not to do.
The book is really for people who do not like to read. It is short, only 6500 words and I intentionally attemptted to keep the writing simple and to the point.
This is a book for people who do not like to read.
I need a cover for the book. The book will be sold as an E-book at first and eventually as a print book in September. Ideally the design should work well with the online format, but it would be nice if it translates well into a tradional cover.
Please look to the following book covers for inspiration:
4 hour work week - Tim Ferriss
I will teach you to be rich - Ramit Sethi
Crush it - Gary Vaynerchuk.
I promise to give prompt feedback as I am really excited to get this cover done so I can begin selling my book. -the book is already completed and I am waiting on the final draft from my editor.
My favorite colors are:
Blue, Purple and Silver. - If these can be impemented that would be great, but I am open to any design that
I look forward to seeing your designs.


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i transfer my mp3-folder (shared on the desktop) via "music foobar folder" to the iPad.
this works without problems. all songs are available.
but i noticed the following:
1) all tracks end with "name.mp3.mp3" - why 2x mp3 ??
2) the tracks on the iPad are wildly mixed up in the foobar folder - not sorted by filename - ??
3) manual sorting not possible
4) single-album is displayed correctly.
with multiple discs the tracks are arranged wrong. there is always only one CD1 (no CD2, CD3, ...)
so there are always two numbers for double-cds: 1.01, 1.01, 1.02, 1.02, ... - therefore wrong arrangement
i don't know where the information whether it is CD1 or CD2 is read. if the info is read from the tag "discnumber", then there is an error. my tag "discnumber" is always correct!
i already mentioned 4) in october under "filename is changed". but until today there has been no reaction. no other users have reported. if i am the only one with this problem, what am i doing wrong?
please help
thank you
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator


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Lot 10 Bingham Lane, New Braunfels
New Duplex Subdivision under construction. 11-foot ceilings in living room, 10-foot ceilings in master bedroom, stained concrete flooring, granite counter-tops, refrigerator, dishwasher, range, microwave, 42" upper kitchen cabinets, 10 X 20 covered patio, full sod and sprinkler systems, 10-year builder warranty. Excellent for 1031 tax free exchange. Rent ready at time of closing. Monthly rent of $1595 is recommended but not guaranteed. Pictures of inside are from a previous Model Home.
303/305 Eugene Pass is a one story property built in 2019, and is 2,744 square feet in size. Maldonado real estate in New Braunfels has lots to offer. Priced at $379,900, this property is ready for your enjoyment. Contact us if you would like to preview 303/305 Eugene Pass, New Braunfels, TX or any additional homes for sale in New Braunfels
Double Pane Windows, Covered Patio, Level, Patio Slab, Unimproved Water Front
The data relating to real estate on this web site comes in part from the Internet Data Exchange program of the MLS of the San Antonio Board of Realtors®, and is updated as of May 26th, 2020 at 2:51pm CDT (date/time).
IDX information is provided exclusively for consumers' personal, non-commercial use and may not be used for any purpose other than to identify prospective properties consumers may be interested in purchasing.
The information being provided by the Central Texas MLS is exclusively for consumers' personal, non-commercial use, and it may not be used for any purpose other than to identify prospective properties consumers may be interested in purchasing.
The data is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed accurate by the MLS.


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First Unofficial Full Size K-7 Samples, Firmware Version 0.35
See the latest samples posted by the "What Digital Camera" online:-
10 full size original samples are posted, plus a cropped one at ISO 1600. Various ISO speeds were used for those shots, from ISO 100 to 1600. As we can see from those 1600 shots that were made under a bright day with adequate exposure, the noise are well controlled (although the Dynamic Range can be more limited, as it should be).
The exposure accuracy seems to be good with the new Matrix metering system. All photos were shot with the Matrix mode with no exposure compensation. Quite some of the scenes are of high contrast and the image mode was set to high contrast too, but yet exposures were well taken so that most highlights and shadows are well preserved.
As for other image quality aspects, you'd better pixel peep and judge yourself!
The lenses used were the DA*50-135 and the DA 14.


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We help you to consult and hire the best Supreme Court & High Court Immigration lawyers in Gujarat. Use filters to narrow your search and find the best advocate in Gujarat, whether its a family dispute or divorce lawyer, property lawyer, employment or labor court lawyer, criminal lawyer, recovery or cheque bounce lawyer, taxation or corporate lawyer, or a lawyer expert in any other field of law.
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City: ahmedabad
Practicing Since: 02 YearsVIEW PROFILE
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The objective of immigration is to acquire citizenship or nationality of a particular country. Matters of immigration are complex in nature as it involves foreign international concerns. For any immigration related matters like a green card, visas etc. Use Lawtendo to hire best immigration law lawyers. Avail this legal service at our fixed charges.
Top-Rated Immigration Lawyers in gujarat:
The word immigration means moving from one place to other with intention of living there permanently, and it has existed for ages in our country....


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Southern California: it's too hot, too fake, and you commute everywhere you go. But it's all worth it for the cars, like this collection of surprisingly badass tuned 1970s Datsuns, happily shredding tires for the camera.
There's a 1970 Bluebird SSS with a stock-turbo SR20, a '72 510 with a 385-horsepower SR20, a tuned '71 5-speed 1200, a '74 710 with a race motor that was used as a Bob Bondurant driving school car back in the day, and my personal favorite, a 1974 610 with a bored-out Silvia motor, a Garrett turbo, and 290 horsepower.
Remind us to move down to SoCal one of these days.
(Hat tip to Mark, who is screaming like a Bieber fan right now!)


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Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Butterfinger Eyeballs
1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
3 tablespoons butter, softened
3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
2 Butterfinger candy bars, finely chopped (about 4 ounces total)
3 cups white chocolate chips
2 tablespoons trans-fat free shortening (I use Spectrum Organic)
Reese's pieces candy and red decorating gel to embellish the peanut butter balls
In a large mixing bowl, combine peanut butter and butter until thoroughly combined. Add confectioners' sugar and mix until combined - it will be a bit dry at first, but it will come together. Stir in chopped Butterfingers. Shape the dough into 1" round balls and place on parchment lined baking sheets. Place in the freezer to chill for at least 1 hour.
Place white chocolate and shortening in a small heat-proof bowl - set over a small pot of simmering water and stir often. Remove the pot and bowl from the heat when the chocolate is almost smooth, then gently keep stirring until the chocolate finishes melting.
Working with just a few peanut butter balls at a time, place a toothpick in the center of each ball and dip into the melted chocolate - shake off excess and place back on a parchment lined baking sheet. Gently press 1 Reese's pieces candy on top to create a pupil. Repeat procedure with remaining peanut butter balls. Place in the refrigerator and chill until set. Use the red decorating gel to create the bloodshot markings.
Makes about 50 balls.
Just found the recipe? Click here to see where we talked about it!
5 comments:
So clever and creative!ReplyDelete
I made these last night, and they are so cute! I weighed my powdered sugar (120 grams per cup = 360) and the mixture did seem a bit dry. Next time I'll try 2 1/2 cups (300 grams) of it and I might add a dash of salt.ReplyDelete
LLT - Thanks!ReplyDelete
Jennifer - I'm sure I used the same weight, but it wasn't dry for us. What type of peanut butter did you use?
Joe, it was walmart's brand of creamy peanut butter. I think it might be a little less creamy than other (name-brand) kinds of peanut butter, so that could be the issue.ReplyDelete
Oh, and while the mixture seemed a bit dry, once we coated them and refrigerated them overnight they tasted just fine!
Jennifer - Hmm, that might have caused it. I've never used that brand though, so I don't know! Glad they still tasted good!ReplyDelete


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In the legal gunfight at the SSD corral initiated by Wild Bill Watkins - then top gunslinger at Seagate - STC has emerged victorious, with Seagate abjectly running away.
Seagate sued STEC for patent infringement of its own solid state drive technology in April last year. The alleged infractions even included the 3.5-inch form factor. How Watkins must have enjoyed that, having achieved a sue-em-into-the-ground defeat of Cornice, a maker of micro-hard drives.*
Now Seagate has abruptly walked away from the suit, "following extensive discovery and evaluation of STEC's intellectual property and technology," without another shot being fired. Laugh? I could have cried. How on earth could Seagate even enter into such a frivolous suit? It's obvious that no effective legal due diligence was done beforehand and that the Watkins-led Seagate was simply shooting from the hip without thinking. Wild Bill Watkins indeed.
With Stephen Luczo heading Seagate, the lawyers have looked and said, ahem, there is no case to pursue. These STEC boys are clean. So the claim has been dropped, no technology has been licensed and no money has been exchanged between Seagate and STEC. The STEC SEC filing (Word warning) includes this telling sentence: "Seagate hereby unconditionally releases and forever discharges STEC from liability for all claims asserted by Seagate against STEC in the Action." That says it all.
STEC CEO and chairman, Manouch Moshayedi, said: "With Seagate having dropped its case against us, we believe the uniqueness of SSD design relative to traditional HDD technologies has been established...we view the dismissal as a vindication of our technology."
We can't say STEC has actually humbled Seagate, as the ridicule and derision Seagate has earned from this is entirely self-inflicted. Nevertheless, STEC stood firm and did not buckle as Seagate's lawyers bayed at their gates. Some of Napa Valley's finest vintages may have been cracked open at STEC HQ when Seagate's retreat was announced. Many will drink to that.
* It turns out Seagate has not been paid its claimed $10m costs in fighting the Cornice lawsuit and is suing its legal insurer for $6m. More here. ®
Sponsored: Webcast: Discover and secure all of your attack surface


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With his three shots against San Jose last Sunday (April 13), forward Dominic Oduro now has 99 shots as a member of the Crew. Oduro has made seven shots in the young 2014 season and his career-best 92 shots in 2013 helped boost him to a career-high 13 goals.
Three players are quickly approaching the milestone of 50 games played for the Crew. Bernardo Anor has only one more game left until he hits the 50-game mark, which he could earn against DC United on Saturday. Tony Tchani has 48 games under his belt as a member of the Crew and will look to complete his 50th game for the Crew as early as next weekend against New York Red Bulls (April 26). Federico Higuain currently has 47 Crew games played and would be looking for his 50th Columbus Crew match potentially against Sporting Kansas City on May 4.
Crew defender Michael Parkhurst hit a career milestone of 120 games played in MLS last Sunday. Parkhurst has played five games for the Crew in 2014 and totaled 115 games from 2005-08 with the New England Revolution before departing Europe for five years.
The five finalists for the 2014 induction into the Crew Circle of Honor are set to be made on Saturday following the conclusion of stage one voting on Saturday at noon. A complete list of candidates and criteria for entry is available at TheCrew.com.


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ACC M5: 12.17.13 EditionPosted by Matt Patton on December 17th, 2013
- Testudo Times: Here's a great film review of Roddy Peters in his recent game against Boston College. The in-depth look certainly supports my hypothesis that Peters has loads of potential on the offensive end. The play I found most interesting was the one where he picked apart the Eagles' defense. It's also rather alarming how easily the Eagles were picked apart by a freshman point guard, but that's a post for another time. While he's still not a shooter, Peters' ability to get in the lane and find the open man is one that's tough to teach. When he and Jake Layman develop more chemistry over time, they will be nearly impossible to stop.
- Syracuse Post-Standard: One big advantage Syracuse has over most opponents is on its front line, but you wouldn't necessarily notice it from the stat sheet. Jim Boeheim wants to change that perception, though, by forcing the ball inside more. And he's right if you look at Rakeem Christmas and DaJuan Coleman's numbers. The duo are hitting 72 and 68 percent of their field goals, respectively. Both are mostly scoring in the paint (through dunks and layups), but even if those numbers drop with increased possessions, that's still a great pair of offensive options for the Orange.
- Boston Herald: Dennis Clifford received yet another setback in his potential return, which may end up forcing him to redshirt. He was originally scheduled to be back in action by now, but a source told Tom Layman that Steve Donahue is hoping to have Clifford back when conference play resumes the first week of January. Clifford has been dealing with nagging knee injuries since coming to Chestnut Hill, most recently trying to reduce the pain from arthritis in both knees. If he comes back the Eagles will be a much better team, as his shot-blocking will help to shore up the team's interior defense. But at this point (and with this record), Donahue may be thinking about redshirting Clifford anyway and giving him the whole season to get back to 100 percent.
- Cardiac Hill: Stephen Gertz asks if Pittsburgh is better off without Steven Adams in the lineup. I'll go ahead and posit no. Adams was the team's most efficient rebounder (though Talib Zanna has stepped up significantly in defensive rebounding in his absence), most efficient shooter (albeit from close range), and an elite shot-blocker (an area Pittsburgh could decidedly use improvement). Also based on the success Adams has had in the NBA, I think he's a much better basketball player this year than he was last season.
- WTVD: This story is head-scratching, but Will Graves — who was allegedly kicked off the 2011 North Carolina team for drugs — was recently cited for marijuana possession after consenting to let police search the house he rented from Roy Williams to finish his degree. First things first, major props to Williams for following through with Graves (who also worked part time for the Tar Heels as a video coordinator) and helping him finish his degree. But it's not a good look for Graves.


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U.S. Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Mark A. Treadway Jr. has graduated from the U.S. Navy's Nuclear Power School at Naval Nuclear Power Training Command in Goose Creek, S.C.
Nuclear Power School is a rigorous six-month course that trains officer and enlisted students in the science and engineering fundamental to the design, operation, and maintenance of naval nuclear propulsion plants.
Graduates next undergo additional instruction at a prototype training unit before serving as a surface warfare officer aboard a nuclear-powered surface ship or as an electronics technician aboard a nuclear-powered submarine.
Treadway is the son of Amy and Mark Treadway of Streetsboro.
He is a 2011 graduate of Streetsboro High School.


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Consider a random vector $\mathbf{Z}$ of length $N$ whose elements are i.i.d. and zero-mean. We construct two new scalar random variable $X$ and $Y$ from $\mathbf{Z}$ as follows:
$X = \langle\mathbf{a}, \mathbf{Z}\rangle = \mathbf{a}^T\mathbf{Z}$ and $Y = \langle\mathbf{b}, \mathbf{Z}\rangle = \mathbf{b}^T\mathbf{Z}$ where $\langle,\rangle$ indicates the inner product, and $\mathbf{a}$ and $\mathbf{b}$ are deterministic and orthogonal vectors, i.e., $\langle\mathbf{a},\mathbf{b}\rangle=0$.
One can easily show $X$ and $Y$ are uncorrelated, my question is we can generally show that $X$ and $Y$ are also independent!!!
I mean that for the case that $\mathbf{Z}$ follows jointly Gaussian distribution, $X$ and $Y$ are independent but what about other distributions!!!
Best, Farzad


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Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the central bank may decide to hold bonds on its $3.1 trillion balance sheet to maturity as part of a review of its strategy for an exit from record monetary easing.
Bernanke told lawmakers in Washington today that he expects to revisit "sometime soon" an exit plan that policy makers outlined in June 2011.
Under that plan, the Fed would cease reinvesting some or all principal payments from its securities, revise its interest- rate outlook, raise the federal funds rate and then start selling housing debt to eliminate it from the central bank's portfolio in three to five years.
"The one thing we could do differently" is "hold some of the securities a little longer," Bernanke said in response to questions from members of the House Financial Services Committee. "We could even let them just run off."
Bernanke is the third policy maker in the last week to voice support for altering the central bank's exit strategy to delay or eliminate asset sales. Governor Jerome Powell said Feb. 22 that the Fed could refrain from sales to avoid causing market disruptions and having the Fed take losses on the securities as interest rates rise.
San Francisco Fed President John Williams told reporters after a Feb. 21 speech in New York that, given the increase in the Fed's balance sheet, the period of time over which it's appropriate to sell assets "probably has lengthened." Telling markets the Fed plans to hold assets for longer would strengthen monetary stimulus and be "beneficial to the economy," he said.
How Long
Bernanke echoed that view today. "One issue is how long to hold the securities and whether to use that as a substitute, an alternative to asset purchases," he said. "That's something worth discussing."
The Fed is purchasing $85 billion of Treasury and mortgage- backed securities a month in an effort to spur the economy and reduce a jobless rate that stood at 7.9 percent in January.
Bernanke said today the central bank's easing policies are helping to improve demand for homes and cars by lowering long- term interest rates.
The Fed chairman said the "basic outline" of the exit strategy policy makers agreed upon he's "pretty confident" would "still be in force."
If the Fed doesn't sell any securities, "it doesn't mean that our balance sheet is going to be large for many years," he said. "It just would be maybe an extra year. That's all it would take to get back down to a more normal size."
Agency Debt
The Fed's record $3.1 trillion balance sheet includes $1.74 trillion of Treasuries, $1.03 trillion of mortgage-backed securities and $74.6 billion of Federal agency debt, as of Feb. 20. In 2007, prior to the financial crisis, the total balance sheet was less than $900 billion.
In other remarks today, Bernanke said recent increases in some interest rates may signal the economy is gaining vigor.
"The fact that interest rates have gone up a bit is actually indicative of a stronger economy," he said.
The world's largest economy has shown signs that it will resume growth after gross domestic product unexpectedly shrank 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter. Reports today showed that orders for U.S. durable goods excluding transportation gear jumped in January by the most in a year and contracts to buy previously owned homes climbed more than forecast.
Getting Traction
"We are getting some traction in the housing market, in automobiles and other durable goods" and to "some extent in investment" and commercial real estate, Bernanke said.
U.S. stocks rose, sending the Standard & Poor's 500 Index higher for a second day, amid economic optimism after the better-than-estimated housing and durable goods data. The S&P 500 climbed 1.3 percent to 1,516.16 at 2:31 p.m. today.
Fed policies also helped to lift the index to a five-year high on Feb. 19, giving support to consumer spending. Bernanke said yesterday in testimony that U.S. share prices don't appear to be overvalued.
Some interest rates have risen in recent months. The rate on a fixed 30-year mortgage climbed to 3.56 percent in the week ended Feb. 21 from a low of 3.31 percent on Nov. 22, according to data from Freddie Mac.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was 1.8 percent at about 2:31 p.m. in New York, up from a record low of 1.379 percent on July 25.


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Slowly but steady! Michigan unemployment rate falls below 10%! We are contributing and are now hiring!!
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We are Shy Enterprises and "OUR SUCCESS IS YOUR SUCCESS!"
Take control of your career today!
-Larry Shy President of Shy Enterprises
Shy Enterprises promotes positivity, citizenship and success.
Shy Enterprises, Inc. is a home cleaning equipment and accessory factory distributor for the Kirby Company, which in turn is owned by the Scott Fetzer Company. Shy Enterprises, Inc. was founded in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1996 by Larry Shy. We are 1 of 64 franchised offices in the Renaissance Division, which are located in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
Every year we make several contributions to various establishments such as public service, academia, and religious establishments. Our company supports and donates yearly to the Pittsfield Township Police Department as a big thank you to the officers who protect and serve our citizens. We have supported and contributed to Eastern Michigan Delta Zeta Sorority in the past to help fund educational activities. We currently make financial contributions to North Ridge Church, in Plymouth Michigan and the Ann Arbor Chabad House to support the furthering of Jewish education for University of Michigan Students. We are also sponsoring a contestant for the Miss Michigan Pageant 2012. We are also big on Animal Rights! We donate to local animal shelters, such as, Second Chance Dobes, The Westland, and Ann Arbor Humane Society as well as other animal shelters. We support and donate to the Local, State and Federal Republican Races, foundations and causes.
We encourage and hope to inspire our employees and affiliates to also contribute to these causes and others they feel connected to because giving it back is a positive gesture that promotes positive change in the world.


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by Clark Groome
The week just passed was a mixed bag theatrically. The three productions I saw included one more highly regarded by others than I felt it deserved, an overdone but still enjoyable production of a delightful old musical and a stunning production of a new play that deals with what I do and what I cover: writing. Here's what I encountered:
"Good People"
David Lindsay-Abaire's "Good People" was very well received when it opened on Broadway a couple of years ago. After seeing it at the Walnut Street Theatre, where it plays through April 28, I can't figure out why.
Margie (Julie Czarnecki) is fired from her job in a Dollar Store in South Boston, a/k/a "Southie." A couple of her girlfriends suggest that she go see her old boyfriend Mike (Dan Olmstead) to find out if he needs any help in his medical office.
Mike has left his roots behind, and the interaction between the two old friends is both funny and combative. Margie makes no pretense about who she is and, by contrast, lets Mike know that can take the boy out of Southie, but you can't take Southie out of the boy. Margie, desperate, has a mentally challenged adult daughter who needs constant care. Without a job they might end up on the street.
There are some hard-to-believe twists and turns. None of the characters seems real. There are only a few moments when the play and its characters do come alive. Czarnecki and Olmstead do good work, as does Danielle Herbert as Mike's wife Kate. The rest of the company is more caricature than character.
Robert Klingelhoefer's sets are a mixed lot. In South Boston they look slapdash, but when Margie goes to Mike's Chestnut Hill (the other one) home, the set is stunning. One of the production's biggest weaknesses is that no one in it sounds like someone who grew up in Southie, a huge deficit for a play in which that neighborhood plays such a major role.
For tickets call 215-574-3550 or 800-982-2787 or visit walnutstreettheatre.org
"Pirates of Penzance"
W.S.Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan's great "The Pirates of Penzance" might seem an odd choice for the Bristol Riverside Theatre to include in its current season. It is, after all, an operetta more suited to the opera house than the theater.
Like several other G&S operettas, "Pirates" has made quite successful theatrical appearances, none more so than the stunning 1980 Broadway production that starred Kevin Kline, Linda Ronstadt, Rex Smith, Estelle Parsons and George Rose. That production ran more than two years.
The Bristol "Pirates," which plays through April 28, borrows from that production and adds a few twists of its own. The most that can be said about the Keith Baker-helmed production is that the music is still glorious, even though the orchestra was generally tentative throughout. Vocally, on the other hand, it is quite good.
The production itself always seems to be trying too hard. By its very nature, "Pirates" is clever and funny. The performers should simply relax. The story about the young pirate Frederick and his romance with Mabel is so delightful that overdoing the staging and the costumes actually detracts from the show's great humor.
Bristol's leads are a mixed lot. Patrick Dunn is just right as young Frederick. Maria Failla's Mabel, while not as comely as others I've seen, has a lovely voice. Nick Cordero's Pirate King, April Woodall's Ruth and Larry Cahn's Major-General Stanley, the very model of a modern major general, are all fine when they're not chewing the scenery.
For tickets, call 215-785-0100 or visit brtstage.org
Writing is hard work. It can also be scary, inspired and very personal. Writers expose their ideas and feelings for all to see. These core elements of Theresa Rebeck's edgy and insightful "Seminar" are true for all writers, but especially relevant for fiction writers.
"Seminar," which is receiving a riveting production through April 14 at the Philadelphia Theatre Company, pits a literary superstar with four young writers who have paid $5,000 each to have him critique their work. Each of the four is talented but fragile. During the 90-minute one act, the seemingly abusive teacher does help his students improve and gain confidence.
Scott Schwartz has directed the PTC production with just the right combination of bravado and subtlety. By the end of the play, we really know and care about these writers. The cast – Rufus Collins as Leonard (the teacher), and Matt Harrington, Teresa Avia Lim, Geneviève Perrier and Luigi Sottile as his students – is an outstanding ensemble.
For tickets call 215-985-0420 or visit philadelphiatheatrecompany.org


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ReCOVERy Room: Blue Kingdom by Max Brand
January 23, 2012 1 Comment
You know how it's generally frowned upon to touch, drool, attack, or otherwise mess with great works of art? Well I almost felt like I was breaking this universal law by messing with Max Brand's cover copy. I mean, the man is a legend. His books may not be framed in a museum (that I know of), but they're most definitely works of art.
I hope Mr. Brand will forgive me, but this week's ReCOVERy Room is a fill-in-the-blank fun house from the back cover of his 1929 Blue Kingdom. Originally titled "The Strength of the Hills" and published in a six part serial by Street & Smith's Western Story Magazine, this classic was resurrected and renamed in 1957. The hero, Carrick Dunmore, is…well, kind of silly. Of all the Western heroes out there, I think he would appreciate the silliness of this week's ReCOVERy Room the most.
Carrick, this one is for you.


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Nikon 2195 - 85mm f/1.4G Classic Portrait Nikkor Lens (77mm)
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The 2013 USA Cycling Cyclo-cross National Championships are set to roll out at Badger Prairie State Park in Madison, WI., from Jan. 9-13. The nation's pre-eminent cyclo-cross racers will toe the line in races for riders ages 10-and-up.
The highlight of the event will be Sunday, Jan. 13, when the elite riders contest their national championship race, which will be streamed live on YouTube. The elite women's race is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. CT and the elite men's contest begins at 2:15 p.m., capping the entire event. The winners of the two elite races, U23 men's and juniors men's 17-18 race would each receive an automatic nomination to the American contingent contesting the 2013 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Louisville on Feb. 1-3.
The elite men's contest is packed with a very deep field of powerful riders aiming to steal Jeremy Powers' (Easthampton, MA/Team Rapha-Focus) crown as national champion. Leading that charge is two-time USA Cycling Cyclo-cross national champion, Ryan Trebon (Bend, OR/Cannondale-Clement). Trebon will be seeking revenge after finishing second by 17 seconds to Powers in last year's race. Also hoping to dethrone Powers are Timothy Johnson (Middleton, MA/Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com), Jonathan Page (Northfield, NH/Planet Bike), Jeremy Durrin (Amherst, MA/JAM Fund-NCC-Vittoria-Tenet Racing) and local rider Matt Shriver (Madison, WI/Trek Cyclocross Collective).
The elite women's field features all of the heavy hitters, including eight-time defending national champion, Katie Compton (Colorado Springs, CO/Trek Cyclocross Collective). Compton, who tops the UCI's Cyclo-cross World Cup standings, has produced a stellar season thus far. She won four UCI World Cup races and appears to be in position to win her ninth consecutive USA Cycling Cyclo-cross National Championship.
Lined up to challenge Compton is an all-star lineup of American talent, including the winner of the U23 race at the 2012 USA Cycling National Championships, Kaitlin Antonneau (Racine, WI/Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com). Also poised to attempt to dethrone Compton is the bronze medalist in the women's mountain bike race at the 2012 Olympic Games, Georgia Gould (Fort Collins, CO/LUNA Pro Team). Other viable contenders are the riders vying for the top spot of the USA Cycling Professional Cyclo-Cross Calendar (Pro CX) women's standings, Crystal Anthony (Beverly, MA/Cannondale Cyclocrossworld), Arley Kemmerer (Saylorsburg, PA/C3-Athletes Serving Athletes) and Laura van Gilder (Cresco, PA/Mellow Mushroom). Anthony is in third place with 592 points, 106 points ahead of Kemmerer and 147 points ahead of van Gilder, who sit in fourth and fifth, respectively. Meredith Miller (Boulder, CO/California Giant Berry Farms-Specialized), who is battling back from an early-season injury has been producing strong results lately.
Saturday's racing also promises to come down to the wire, featuring stacked U23 and juniors men's 17-18 fields. Vying to dethrone Zach McDonald (Bainbridge Island, WA/Team Rapha-Focus) as the U23 national champion are several riders, including Zane Godby (Louisville, CO/Clif Bar Development Cross Team), Richard Cypress Gorry (Brevard, NC/Whole Athlete-Specialized), Cody Kaiser (El Dorado Hills, CA/California Giant Berry Farms-Specialized) and Kerry Werner (Banner Elk, NC/BMC U23 Development MTB Team).
Similar to the elite women's race, the field is taking aim at a heavy favorite in the juniors men 17-18 race. Logan Owen (Bremerton, WA/Redline), who has collected seven consecutive national titles at different juniors levels – including the juniors men 17-18 in 2012 – is enjoying an extremely successful European campaign. Owen is currently sitting in second place in the UCI's Cyclo-cross World Cup Juniors Men's standings, trailing Mathieu Van Der Poel (NED) by 75 points. Owen has placed in the top five of each of four world cup races thus far, including a pair of podium finishes. Among the contenders to steal Owen's title are Stephen Bassett (Knoxville, TN/Bob's Red Mill CX), Maxx Chance (Boulder, CO/Clif Bar Development Cross Team), Nathaniel Morse (Cohasset, MA/Hot Tubes Development Cycling Team, Inc.), Taylor Squillaci (Albuquerque, NM/Get Out! New Mexico) and Curtis White (Delanson, NY/Hot Tubes Development Cycling Team, Inc.). White has also enjoyed success on the international level, and is tied for 16th in the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup Juniors Men's rankings with one race remaining.
The four collegiate races, slated for Sunday morning, also have a lot at stake. The two Division I races promise to be hotly contested between defending champion Marian University and perennial rivals Fort Lewis College, University of Colorado-Boulder and Lindenwood University, which continues to grow seemingly at each national championship. Riders from Rutgers University and Lees-McRae College should also be watched carefully. After two of the four events comprising the collegiate year-long omnium, Marian holds an 11-point lead on the University of Colorado-Boulder in the 2012-13 collegiate omnium Division I standings. Fort Lewis College is in third place, only five points out of second.
The competition in the two Division II contests should be just as exciting to watch. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology will attempt to match their victory at the USA Cycling Collegiate Track National Championships, while facing stiff competition from last year's champion, Mars Hill College. Colorado Mesa University will assuredly make a strong showing, though, and could be a major player, as well. At the midpoint of the 2012-13 collegiate omnium Division II standings, Colorado Mesa University holds a narrow 12-point cushion on Mars Hill College. MIT is in third place, only 14 points out of second place.
Course Description
One lap of the course spans almost two miles and features a run up, sand pit and barriers. The start line sits at 978 feet above sea level and the course climbs as high as 1,067 feet above sea level as it winds through Badger Prairie State Park.
Race Schedule
The event begins Wednesday, Jan. 9, at 9:30 a.m., with a non-championship women's race. An hour later, men 10-29 will compete in a non-championship race. At 11:30 a.m., the men 30-39 ride in a non-championship race before the fourth and final non-championship race featuring men 40-and-up begins at 1 p.m. The first national championship race begins at 2 p.m. when the women's singlespeed national champion will be decided. The first day's final race, the men's singlespeed, is set to begin at 3 p.m.
The second day of racing features masters men 50-and-up and women 40-and-up beginning at 9:30 a.m.
Friday's slate features three masters categories (men 45-49 and women 30-34, 35-39) and juniors men 10-16 and women 10-18.
Saturday's action features the first two UCI categories as the juniors men 17-18 and U23 men take center stage. The penultimate day of competition also includes masters men 30-44 and collegiate women riding for Stars-and-Stripes jerseys.
Sunday marks the final day of racing beginning at 9:30 a.m. The Division II men begin the day, followed by the DI men an hour later. The elite races, slated to be streamed live on Youtube.com, complete the event beginning at 1 p.m. The elite and U23 women will race together beginning at 1 p.m. before the elite men cap the event at 2:15 p.m.
In addition to the racing, there will be a Bicicle Shanty competition on the grounds. The shanties will be judged in three separate categories: Best Overall, Most Bicycle-Themed and Most Wisconsin.
Live Streaming of Elite Races
Sunday's elite races will be streamed live on USA Cycling's YouTube channel beginning at 1 p.m. and 2:15 p.m. CST.
For complete details on this event, including a complete schedule, results, course map and a photo gallery, please visit the event web site. If you can't make it out for the event, follow all of the action throughout the week of racing on Twitter using the hashtag #CXNats.


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Laramie City Council Approves Animal Ordinance Overhaul
Putting your dog on a leash and licensing your cat will now be required as revisions to Laramie Municipal Code Title 6, dealing with "Animals", which were approved in a 7-to-1 vote on third and final reading Tuesday night at the regular meeting of the Laramie City Council. Councilor Joe Vitale voted against the changes to the ordinance, Councilor Klaus Hanson was absent.
The issue of licensing cats was discussed at length during the meeting with an amendment being proposed by Councilor Erik Molvar to delete the requirement that cats be licensed, but include a requirement they either be chipped or wear tags for identification. Councilor Joe Shumway expressed his belief that requiring licenses was a mandate on citizens which made it difficult for him to support the animal ordinance.
Rene Sollars spoke on behalf on Animal Control about the difficulty of returning cats to owners when they end up in the Laramie Animal Shelter, claiming that licensing cats is their "ticket home." Sollars stated that in 2010 while there were only 462 cats in the shelter compared to 756 dogs, the cats stayed an average of 22 days compared to an average 5 day stay for dogs. That means the night totals for cats was 10,164 nights compared to 3,780 dog nights. The amendment to delete the requirement that cats be licensed failed in a 1-to-7 vote.
During the debate the issue of the importance of designating dog parks was also discussed at length. One public commenter said that the animal ordinance was about give and take. Dog owners were giving up voice control of their dogs and he claimed it is the city's responsibility to give dog parks back. Several council members then affirmed their commitment to designating the recommendations for dog parks that they receive from the parks, tree and recreation advisory board.
Throughout the debate, Councilor Vitale expressed his dislike of the terms for when an animal would be considered "at large" and how vicious dogs would be handled by the city. He specifically called out the definition of which deals with animals when they are on their owners property and when they are in a parked vehicle. He was the only council member to vote against passing the animal ordinance.