text:
JSF 2.0, JPA, GlassFish and MySQL (0 messages)
The Java Pet Catalog is one the few applications that illustrates the many features available in enterprise Java applications. In this post, Carol McDonald takes a closer look at the newest features in JSF 2.0 in the context of this popular application. Read Carol McDonald's post 'JSF 2.0, JPA, GlassFish and MySQL': http://weblogs.java.net/blog/caroljmcdonald/archive/2009/07/jsf_20_jpa_glas.html
- Posted by: Daniel Rubio
- Posted on: July 28 2009 02:42 EDT


text:
Just when you thought this blog was dead and buried, Matt Swartz comes riding to the rescue. At FanGraphs, he has a new five-part series on everyone's favorite stat, SIERA. Because last time around, as Swartz trumpets, he and his partner in
stupidity crime, Eric Seidman, "didn't totally appreciate why it worked." And the name "skill interactive" was completely misleading, too. It's not like you two devoted more than 10,000 words and its own five-part introductory series on Baseball Prospectus about it last winter. This time, though, Swartz has totally got this.
He isn't shying away, though. He answers the questions SIERA-atics (like myself) have often asked, like, "Why aren't there more terms in this equation?" To which he says, in Part Two, "Excellent question. I've added (BB/PA)^2, (SO/PA)*(BB/PA), a run-environment variable, and percentage of innings as a SP! And all only because they improve my RMSE!" Swartz even managed to flip the sign on one of the preexisting terms with no explanation why.
I don't know anything about FanGraphs' business, but bringing on Matt Swartz and letting him revamp SIERA has to be a waste of money. A one-percent improvement over xFIP would be valuable to a team, I imagine, but to the average fan, it's worth zero. Maybe less than zero when it's impossible to explain in English the rationale for the stat. (Though we'll have to wait until Part Four to see the comparison between the two, I wouldn't bet the improvement is close to one percent. And there's always a good chance that the comparisons aren't done correctly anyway.) So they're paying Swartz to blather on about something pointless at best and wasting Dave Appelman's time in having to add it to their database. The rich grandpa lives on.
Somewhat surprising to me is that the FanGraphs commenters are being uncharacteristically kind to Swartz and his Frankenstein stat. Baseball Prospectus commenters, less so.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Signup or login to explore the great things available near you
Enter your email address and we'll send you a link to reset your password.
Luxury Barber Hair Cutting Cape
You have 120 character left.
Generate Coupon
Generate New Coupon ?
Exchange to Buy
Choose a option
Create your Hair Sold online classifieds account to connect directly with the buyers and sellers near you.


text:
Knowing When to Stop
How to gamble if you must—the mathematics of optimal stopping
Every decision is risky business. Selecting the best time to stop and act is crucial. When Microsoft prepares to introduce Word 2020, it must decide when to quit debugging and launch the product. When a hurricane veers toward Florida, the governor must call when it's time to stop watching and start evacuating. Bad timing can be ruinous. Napoleon learned that the hard way after invading Russia. We face smaller-consequence stopping decisions all the time, when hunting for a better parking space, responding to a job offer or scheduling retirement.
The basic framework of all these problems is the same: A decision maker observes a process evolving in time that involves some randomness. Based only on what is known, he or she must make a decision on how to maximize reward or minimize cost. In some cases, little is known about what's coming. In other cases, information is abundant. In either scenario, no one predicts the future with full certainty. Fortunately, the powers of probability sometimes improve the odds of making a good choice.
While much of mathematics has roots that reach back millennia to Euclid and even earlier thinkers, the history of probability is far shorter. And its lineage is, well, a lot less refined. Girolamo Cardano's famed 1564 manuscript De Ludo Aleae, one of the earliest writings on probability and not published until a century after he wrote it, primarily analyzed dice games. Although Galileo and other 17th-century scientists contributed to this enterprise, many credit the mathematical foundations of probability to an exchange of letters in 1654 between two famous French mathematicians, Blaise Pascal and Pierre de Fermat. They too were concerned with odds and dice throws—for example, whether it is wise to bet even money that a pair of sixes will occur in 24 rolls of two fair dice. Some insisted it was, but the true probability of a double six in 24 rolls is about 49.1 percent.
That correspondence inspired significant advances by Abraham de Moivre, Christiaan Huygens, Siméon Poisson, Jacob Bernoulli, Pierre-Simon Laplace and Karl Friedrich Gauss into the 19th century. Still, for a long time there was no formal definition of probability precise enough for use in mathematics or robust enough to handle increasing evidence of random phenomena in science. Not until 1933, nearly four centuries after Cardano, did the Russian mathematician Andrey Kolmogorov put probability theory on a formal axiomatic basis, using the emerging field we now call measure theory.
The history of optimal-stopping problems, a subfield of probability theory, also begins with gambling. One of the earliest discoveries is credited to the eminent English mathematician Arthur Cayley of the University of Cambridge. In 1875, he found an optimal stopping strategy for purchasing lottery tickets. The wider practical applications became apparent gradually. During World War II, Abraham Wald and other mathematicians developed the field of statistical sequential analysis to aid military and industrial decision makers faced with strategic gambles involving massive amounts of men and material. Shortly after the war, Richard Bellman, an applied mathematician, invented dynamic programming to obtain optimal strategies for many other stopping problems. In the 1970s, the theory of optimal stopping emerged as a major tool in finance when Fischer Black and Myron Scholes discovered a pioneering formula for valuing stock options. That transformed the world's financial markets and won Scholes and colleague Robert Merton the 1997 Nobel Prize in Economics. (Black had died by then.)
The Black-Scholes formula is still the key to modern option pricing, and the optimal-stopping tools underlying it remain a vigorous area of research in academia and industry. But even elementary tools in the theory of optimal stopping offer powerful, practical and sometimes surprising solutions.
The Marriage Problem
Suppose you decide to marry, and to select your life partner you will interview at most 100 candidate spouses. The interviews are arranged in random order, and you have no information about candidates you haven't yet spoken to. After each interview you must either marry that person or forever lose the chance to do so. If you have not married after interviewing candidate 99, you must marry candidate 100. Your objective, of course, is to marry the absolute best candidate of the lot. But how?
This problem has a long and rich history in the mathematics literature, where it is known variously as the marriage, secretary, dowry or best-choice problem. Certainly you can select the very best spouse with probability at least 1/100, simply by marrying the first person. But can you do better? In fact, there is a simple rule that will guarantee you will marry the absolute best more than one-third of the time. And the rule can be transferred to other scenarios.
As an enlisted man in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam era, John Elton, now a Georgia Institute of Technology mathematician, transformed the marriage problem into a barracks moneymaking scheme. Elton asked his fellow airmen to write down 100 different numbers, positive or negative, as large or small as they wished, on 100 slips of paper, turn them face down on a table and mix them up. He would bet them he could turn the slips of paper over one at a time and stop with the highest number. He convinced them it was "obvious" that the chance of him winning was very small, so he asked ten dollars if he won and paid them one dollar if he lost. There was no shortage of bettors. Even though my friend lost nearly two-thirds of the games, he won more than one-third of them. And with the 10-1 odds, he raked in a bundle. How?
First, note that there is a very simple strategy for winning more than one-fourth of the time, which would already put him ahead. Call an observed number a "record" if it is the highest number seen so far. Suppose you turn over half the numbers—or interview the first 50 marriage candidates—and never stop, no matter how high the number. After that you stop with the first record you see. If the second-highest number in the 100 cards happens to be in the first 50 you look at, and the highest in the second half—which happens 1 in 4 times—then you win. That strategy is good, but there is an even better one. Observe only 37 cards (or potential partners) without stopping and then stop with the next record. John Gilbert and Frederick Mosteller of Harvard University proved that this strategy is best and guarantees stopping with the best number about 37 percent of the time. In fact, observingN/e ? 0.37 of the candidates, where N is the total number of candidates and e is the base of the natural logarithms , e = 2.71828…, guarantees winning with probability more than1/e > 0.36, no matter how many cards or candidates there are. (Note that the "observe half the numbers" strategy clearly wins with probability at least ?, also independent of the number of cards.)
Sometimes the goal is to stop with one of the best k of N candidates. That is, you win if you stop with any one of the highest k numbers. In the Olympics or in horse racing, for example, the objective often is the k = 3 case—to win a medal or to show—rather than the all-or-nothing k = 1 goal of a gold medal or a win, which is much riskier. The optimal strategy for stopping with one of the best k is similar to stopping with the best. First, you should observe a fixed number of candidates without ever stopping, thereby obtaining a baseline to work with. Then for another certain fixed length of time, stop if you see a record. Since it is the best seen so far, it is somewhat likely to be one of the best k. If no record appears during that stretch, then continue to the next stage where you stop with one of the highest two numbers for a fixed period of time, and so on. For k = 2, this method guarantees a better than 57 percent chance of stopping with one of the two best even if there are a million cards. For small N , the probability is quite high. Figure 3 illustrates the optimal strategy for N = 7 and k = 2, which guarantees a win two-thirds of the time.
N = 2 Surprise
Now, suppose you must decide when to stop and choose between only two slips of paper or two cards. You turn one over, observe a number there and then must judge whether it is larger than the hidden number on the second. The surprising claim, originating with David Blackwell of the University of California, Berkeley, is that you can win at this game more than half the time. Obviously you can win exactly half the time by always stopping with the first number, or always stopping with the second, without even peeking. But to win more than half the time, you must find a way to use information from the first number to decide whether or not to stop. (Readers take comfort: When mathematicians first heard this claim, many of us found it implausible.)
Here is one stopping rule that guarantees winning more than half the time. First, generate a random number R according to a standard Gaussian (bell-shaped) curve by using a computer or other device. Then turn over one of the slips of paper and observe its number. If R is larger than the observed number, continue and turn over the second card. If R is smaller, quit with the number observed on the first card. How can such a simple-minded strategy guarantee a win more than half the time?
If R is smaller than each of the two written numbers, then you win exactly half the time (p / 2 of the unknown probability p in Figure 4); if it is larger than both, you again win half that time ( q / 2 of q, also in Figure 4). But if R falls between the two written numbers, which it must do with strictly positive probability (since the two numbers are different and the Gaussian distribution assigns positive probability to every interval) then you win allthe time. This gives you the edge you need, since p / 2 + q / 2 + 1–p–q is greater than ?,because 1 - p - q is greater than zero. For example, if the two hidden numbers are 1 and π, this Gaussian method yields a value for p about .8413 and q about .0008, so the probability that it will select the larger number is more than 57 percent.
Of course if the number writer knows this Gaussian strategy, he can make your winnings as close to ? as he wants by writing numbers that are very close.
If the number writer is not completely free to pick any number, but instead is required to choose an integer in the range {1,2,…,100}, say, then he cannot make your probability of winning arbitrarily close to ?. In this case it also seems obvious that the number-writer would never write a 1, since if you turn over a 1, you will always win by not stopping. But if he never writes a 1, he then would never write a 2 either since he never wrote a 1, and so on ad absurdum . Interested readers are invited to discover for themselves the optimal strategy in this case, and the amount more than ? one can guarantee to win on the average.
Backward Induction
At the opposite end from having no information about future values is having full information—that is, complete information about the probabilities and the exact values of all potential future observations. In the spirit of Cardano, Fermat and Pascal's discoveries about probability with dice centuries ago, let's consider a game of rolling a standard, fair, six-sided die at most five times. You may stop whenever you want and receive as a reward the number of Krugerrands corresponding to the number of dots shown on the die at the time you stop. (At the time of this writing, one Krugerrand is worth $853.87.) Unlike the no-information marriage problems, here everything is known. The values at each roll will be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6, and the probability of each number on each roll is one-sixth. The objective is to find the stopping rule that will maximize the number of Krugerrands you can expect to win on average.
If you always stop with the first roll, for example, the winnable amount is simply the expected value of a random variable that takes the values 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 with probability 1/6 each. That is, one-sixth of the time you will win 1, one-sixth of the time you will win 2, and so on, which yields the expected value 1(1/6) + 2(1/6) + 3(1/6) + 4(1/6) + 5(1/6) + 6(1/6) = 7/2. Thus if you always quit on the first roll, you expect to win 3.5 Krugerrands on the average. But clearly it is not optimal to stop on the first roll if it is a 1, and it is always optimal to stop with a 6, so already you know part of the optimal stopping rule. Should you stop with a 5 on the first roll? One powerful general technique for solving this type of problem is the method of backward induction.
Clearly it is optimal to stop on the first roll if the value seen on the first roll is greater than the amount expected if you do not stop—that is, if you continue to roll after rejecting the first roll. That would put you in a new game where you are only allowed four rolls, the expected value of which is also unknown at the outset. The optimal strategy in a four-roll problem, in turn, is to stop at the first roll if that value is greater than the amount you expect to win if you continue in a three-roll problem, and so on. Working down, you arrive at one strategy that you do know. In a one-roll problem there is only one strategy, namely to stop, and the expected reward is the expected value of one roll of a fair die, which we saw is 3.5. That information now yields the optimal strategy in a two-roll problem—stop on the first roll if the value is more than you expect to win if you continue, that is, more than 3.5. So now we know the optimal strategy for a two-roll problem—stop at the first roll if it is a 4, 5, or 6, and otherwise continue—and that allows us to calculate the expected reward of the strategy.
In a two-roll problem, you win 4, 5, or 6 on the very first roll, with probability 1/6 each, and stop. Otherwise (the half the time that the first roll was a 1, 2 or 3) you continue, in which case you expect to win 3.5 on the average. Thus the expected reward for the two-roll problem is 4(1/6) + 5(1/6) + 6(1/6) + (1/2)(3.5) = 4.25. This now gives you the optimal strategy for a three-roll problem—namely, stop if the first roll is a 5 or 6 (that is, more than 4.25), otherwise continue and stop only if the second roll is a 4, 5, or 6, and otherwise proceed with the final third roll. Knowing this expected reward for three rolls in turn yields the optimal strategy for a four-roll problem, and so forth. Working backwards, this yields the optimal strategy in the original five-roll problem: Stop on the first roll only if it is a 5 or 6, stop on the second roll if it is a 5 or 6, on the third roll if it is a 5 or 6, the fourth roll if it is a 4, 5 or 6, and otherwise continue to the last roll. This strategy guarantees that you will win about 5.12 Krugerrands on average, and no other strategy is better. (So, in a six-roll game you should stop with the initial roll only if it is a 6.)
The method of backward induction is very versatile, and works equally well if the process values are not independent (as they were assumed to be in repeated rolls of the die), or if the objective is to minimize some expected value such as cost. Suppose that a company must purchase its weekly energy supplies on the previous Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday and the likelihood of future prices can be estimated based on past statistics. For example, if on Monday the decision maker has the opportunity to purchase energy for the following week at a cost of 100, she may know from past experience that there is a 50-50 chance that Tuesday's price will be 110, and otherwise it will be 90. Furthermore she knows that if it is 110 on Tuesday, then it will be 115 on Wednesday with probability 1/3, and otherwise will be 100; and that if it is 90 on Tuesday, it is equally likely to be 100 or 85 on Wednesday. Using backward induction, the optimal rule on Tuesday is seen to be not to buy if the price is 110, since 110 is larger than the expected price (1/3)(115) + (2/3)(100) = 105 if she delays buying until Wednesday. Similarly, if the price Tuesday is 90, it is optimal to buy. Working backwards to Monday, since 100 is larger than the expected cost if she continues—namely, (1/2)(105) + (1/2)(90) = 97.5—it is optimal not to buy on Monday. Putting these together yields her optimal stopping strategy.
In the full-information case, with the objective of stopping with one of the largest kvalues, the best possible probabilities of winning were unknown for general finite sequences of independent random variables. Using both backward and forward induction, and a class of distributions called "Bernoulli pyramids," where each new variable is either the best or the worst seen thus far (for example, the first random variable is either +1 or -1 with certain probabilities, the second variable is +2 or -2, and so forth), Douglas Kennedy of the University of Cambridge and I discovered those optimal probabilities. We proved that for every finite sequence of independent random variables, there is always a stop rule that stops with the highest value with probability at least 1/ e , and a stop rule that stops with one of the two highest values with probability at least
which is the best you can do. (The probabilities for stopping with one of the k values highest have similar formulas).
Computers were not useful for solving that problem. In fact, all of the problems described in this article were solved using traditional mathematicians' tools—working example after example with paper and pencil; settling the case for two, three and then four unknowns; looking for patterns; waiting for the necessary Aha! insights; and then searching for formal proofs for each step. Computers are very helpful for after-the-fact applications of many results, such as backward induction. But in theoretical probability, computers often do not significantly aid the discovery process. To better understand this, reconsider the two-card problem described above. How would one program a computer to imagine such a strategy existed, let alone to search the universe of ideas to find it?
Partial Information
The case of partial information is the most difficult. Usually one does not know how many applicants there will be for a job, nor the exact probabilities of future stock values. In these situations, one method of solution is to use tools from the theory of zero-sum, two-person games, where the stopping problem can be thought of as a decision maker playing against an opponent (often called Nature or God) who may assign the values and probabilities in any way she chooses.
Ulrich Krengel of the University of G?ttingen and I used this technique to discover the optimal strategy in the so-called marriage problem where only a bound on the number of applicants is known. As a concrete example, consider the problem where the objective is to select the highest number from a hat containing at least one, and at most five, numbered cards (if you do not stop and there are no cards left, you lose.) We proved that the optimal strategy in this case is to stop with the first card with probability 26/75 (which you may do using a random number generator or other method). If you do not stop with the first card, then you should continue to the second card, if there is one. If the second card's number is higher than the first card's number, stop with probability 26/49. Otherwise, continue, stopping with the first record thereafter (or when you run out of cards or are forced to choose the number on the fifth card). This guarantees a probability of 26/75 of stopping with the highest number, no matter how many cards Nature deposited in the hat.
There is no better strategy. We found the exact formulas and strategies for all possible bounds on the maximum number of cards and the winning probabilities are surprisingly high. For example, even if you only know that there are somewhere between 1 and 100 cards in the hat, it is still possible to win about 20 percent of the time. Exactly the same method can be employed to obtain optimal stopping rules in many real-life problems such as a situation where an employer wants to hire the very best salesperson available, and knows the maximum number of candidates available for the position, but does not know how many have already accepted other jobs.
In another type of stopping problem involving partial information, the observer knows the length of the sequence exactly (say, for example, the number of cards), but has only partial information about the random values on the cards. Instead of having no information at all, or knowing all the possible values and probabilities, he might know only the average value and standard deviation of each variable. In the case where variables are independent, Frans Boshuizen of the Free University of Amsterdam and I were able to use game theory and mass-shifting "balayage" (sweeping probability mass away from its center in both directions) arguments to determine the optimal stop rules, but those techniques fail for most other partial-information stopping problems.
Unsolved Problems
Although many stopping problems have been solved, there are still tantalizingly simple unsolved problems, even ones involving full information. My favorite is this: Toss a fair coin repeatedly and stop whenever you want, receiving as a reward the average number of heads accrued at the time you stop. If your first toss is a head, and you stop, your reward is 1 Krugerrand. Since you can never have more than 100 percent heads, it is clearly optimal to stop in that case. If the first toss is a tail, on the other hand, it is clearly best not to stop, since your reward would be zero. Suppose the first toss is a tail and the second a head. You may quit then and receive half a Krugerrand, or continue to toss. A moment's reflection shows that it is never optimal to stop with half a Krugerrand or less, since the law of large numbers says that the average number of heads will converge over time to 50 percent, and in doing so will oscillate above and below 50 percent repeatedly. Stopping with 50 percent or less is simply not greedy enough.
With a little more difficulty it can be shown that stopping with the third toss if you saw tail-head-head is optimal, and that stopping the very first time you observe more heads than tails is optimal for a while. But stopping the first time you have one more head than tails is not optimal forever. After a certain critical time you should only stop when you have two more heads than tails, and after a second critical time, stop only when you are three heads ahead, and so forth. The proof of this fact, which relies on the law of the iterated logarithm, is not easy, and the complete list of critical times is still not known. Backward induction will not work for this problem since there is no a priori end to the sequence and, hence, no future time to calculate backwards from. Even though Wolfgang Stadje of the University of Osnabrük has advanced this problem very recently, and despite the gains of a century of development of mathematical probability, the exact optimal rule for all sequences of heads and tails is unknown.
Still, the general field of optimal stopping, especially with its applications to financial markets, continues to develop at a rapid pace. In fact, some experts feel that the pace has been too quick and that computer models of option and derivative pricing (basic optimal-stopping problems) are the roots of the current economic crisis. But it is not the theory that is at fault. Like Steven Shreve of Carnegie Mellon University, I blame the decision makers' blind trust in computer model predictions. In fact, new ideas and discoveries in optimal stopping, including better estimates of the risk that mathematical models are wrong, are exactly what we need?not only for guidance on when to stop the bailouts, for example, but also for help with multiple other monumental problems, including when to stop using fossil fuels or stockpiling nuclear weapons.
- Boshuizen, F., and T. Hill. 1992. Moment-based minimax stopping functions for sequences of random variables. Stochastic Processes and Applications 43:303-316.
- Bruss, F. T. 2000. Sum the odds to one and stop. Annals of Probability 28:1384-1391.
- Chow, Y., H. Robbins and D. Siegmund. 1991. Great Expectations: The Theory of Optimal Stopping . Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications.
- Cover, T. 1987. Pick the largest number, in Open Problems in Communication and Computation , eds. Cover, T., and B. Gopinath. New York: Springer-Verlag, p. 152.
- Dubins, L., and L. Savage. 1976. Inequalities for Stochastic Processes: How to Gamble If You Must. New York: Dover Publications.
- Ferguson, T. 1989. Who solved the secretary problem? Statistical Science 4:282-296.
- Freeman, P. R. 1983. The secretary problem and its extensions: A review.International Statistical Review 51:189-208.
- Hill, T., and U. Krengel. 1992. Minimax-optimal stop rules and distributions in marriage problems. Annals of Probability 19:342-353.
- Hill, T., and D. Kennedy. 1992. Sharp inequalities for optimal stopping with rewards based on ranks. Annals of Applied Probability 2:503-517.
- Jacka, S., et al . 2007. Optimal stopping with applications. Stochastics 79: 1-4.
- Peskir, G., and Albert Shiryaev. 2006. Optimal Stopping and Free Boundary Problems . Boston: Birkh?user.
- Samet, D., I. Samet and D. Schmeidler. 2004. One observation behind two-envelope problems. American Mathematical Monthly 111:347-351.
- Shreve, S. 2008. Don't blame the quants. Forbes.com. http://www.forbes.com/2008/10/07/securities-quants-models-oped-cx_ss_1008shreve.html
- Stadje, W. 2008. The maximum average gain in a sequence of Bernoulli trials.American Mathematical Monthly 115:902-910.


text:
A shared need for Common Core
For the past seven years at least, Tennessee has made education its top priority. And for the most part, the state is starting to see returns on that effort. But how will the state's government, business and school leaders, not to mention parents and students, know months and years from now how well that progress is doing?
That's what Common Core State Standards are all about, and that's why the State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) and others are speaking up to fend off an ill-informed backlash against Common Core, which has been adopted in 44 states.
SCORE, led by former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, has released its 2013-14 report on Tennessee education, focusing on K-12. And a big change for K-12 is coming with Common Core, which will be accompanied by the new Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career test. PARCC is considered by educators to be an improvement on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program exam. If things go as planned, PARCC will begin to be used next fall.
Gov. Bill Haslam sees Common Core as important enough to endorse it in his State of the State address. He explained that Common Core is not a curriculum, but a set of benchmarks for local districts to use as they determine their curriculum; also, that Tennessee educators "have been involved in the creation of the standards from the start."
Critics, including some Tennessee legislators, have ominously suggested Common Core is a federal conspiracy, even an attempt to brainwash Tennessee schoolchildren for some unnamed end. There is absolutely no basis for their allegations.
Participating states know that without such a standard, it will be very difficult to know whether their educational system is lagging, holding steady or moving forward. There will be 50 islands that do not speak the same language when it comes to schools. Yet, these 50 islands are expected to band together when it comes time to compete with nations whose students perform far better in math, language and other skills that prepare them for jobs and global leadership.
SCORE understands this, and is urging lawmakers not to block Common Core, as one bill recommends, or to delay it and the PARCC test. We've seen how Common Core critics have tried to inject fear into what has been a long, thoroughly thought-out process to adopt Common Core.
Frist reminds us that our state needs to maintain "a sense of urgency" about improving education. Without it, the state would not have brought out the very reforms that the same lawmakers have readily embraced. And the state certainly would not have made such dramatic gains as it recorded last year in the National Assessment of Education Progress.
As the General Assembly works through its and the governor's educational agendas, it would be a big mistake, perhaps a multiyear setback, if Common Core is sidetracked. We have fought to get our schools this far. If we fall back, other states will happily take our place.


text:
(CNN) -- Sonia Sotomayor could be the first Latina to serve on the Supreme Court. And as we learn more about her, the more questions centered on her ethnic background abound. Was she chosen partly because of her Hispanic origins? Does she consider race in her rulings? Are we focusing too much on her ethnicity and not enough on her judicial history?
Omekongo Dibinga hopes Sotomayor will be judged by her record rather than her ethnicity.
Sotomayor is, to say the least, a provocative pick on President Obama's part. Here are four of the questions commentators are asking -- and your answers.
What role did ethnicity play in Sotomayor's nomination?
Did Obama choose Sotomayor partly because she's a Latina? Katy Brown thinks so.
"It's just another gimmick," said Brown, a college student from Charleston, West Virginia. "Just another opportunity to make something out of nothing: the first Hispanic [on the court]. ... Race is being played once again. So my question is, did he actually look at her background; did he pick her because of the right reasons? Or did he just want to make another statement in America and base his decision on race?"
But some say that even if ethnicity did factor into Obama's decision, that's OK. Frank Forrester, a lifelong Republican who switched parties to vote for Obama, says diversity is a valuable attribute for the court to have. He thinks Obama showed "good judgment" with his pick.
"[The choice] was not just purely based on race or gender, but I think it probably did play into it," he said. "She brings a different perspective than a bunch of old white guys, and I think that's a relevant thing. You know, I'm a white guy, but I think to have a different perspective, to understand the perspectives of different kinds of people, is relevant."
Others agree, saying Sotomayor is simply a reflection of the modern United States.
"As a woman and Hispanic, she brings a necessary flavor to the court that reflects what America is," said Egberto Willies of Kingwood, Texas.
"She is the new face of America," added Jimmy Deol of Toronto, Canada. "She's a woman, she's of Hispanic descent, and with her moderate liberal views, she reflects the ... diversity and mainstream views of today's America."
And Melissa Fazli thinks Obama just got lucky that someone with Sotomayor's qualifications happened to be both female and Hispanic.
"Obama has squelched all those women lobbyists and all those [Hispanic] lobbyists. You got kind of a two-for-one, didn't you?" she said. "You got a woman of Puerto Rican descent. That's huge. Obama got lucky with that one, because I would not want to see one angry because the other got chosen.
"I think Obama has made a great decision," she added.
What role will ethnicity play in her confirmation?
"I think it's important that we're making sure she is being judged on her record and not the other 'R' word: her race," said Omekongo Dibinga of Washington.
Dibinga is concerned that senators -- who must confirm Sotomayor before she can take the seat -- and the public will assume that Sotomayor's ethnic background will unfairly influence her decisions.
"Let's not make her the immigration Supreme Court justice; let's not make her the next woman Supreme Court justice," he said. "If we really want to talk about how she interprets the law even-handedly, then we should make sure that we are processing her nomination even-handedly."
Robert Stewart has a different perspective. He thinks Senate Republicans will hesitate to criticize Sotomayor for fear of being accused of racism or sexism, and he called Obama's pick of Sotomayor "brilliant," partially because of the ethnicity and gender factors.
"Anyone who brings up either sex or race will set themselves up for being labeled sexist or racist, tarnishing their reputation," he wrote. "While sex/race/religion should not make a difference, we would be ignorant to not understand how this can be used by both sides, and with the Republicans in the minority in the Senate, this will certainly be brought up to discredit their opposition to Sotomayor.
"While it is often repeated and emphasized that her nomination is not based on sex/race, everyone knows that this is a card that will be played," he added.
Does Sotomayor consider race or ethnicity in her judicial decisions? Should she?
"Why, every time an [ethnic minority] comes into an office or a situation of making decisions for our country, do we get concerned about will they show favoritism?" Richard Gaskin asked. Political pundits and iReporters alike are highly divided on the validity of his question.
Sotomayor's critics argue that she has unfairly considered race when making judicial decisions. Many cite the now-famous case of 19 Connecticut firefighters who claimed that they were denied promotions despite high scores on exams because not enough minority candidates scored well. Sotomayor voted to dismiss their appeal.
And others, like Republicans Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh, have called her an outright racist. They cite one line from a speech Sotomayor gave to a Hispanic group in 2001:
"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life," she said in the speech, explaining how she thinks life experiences can influence judicial rulings.
Forrester says the remark is being taken completely out of context and calls these criticisms "blatant quote-mining." He heard the quotation on television multiple times and was shocked by it. He wanted more information on what Sotomayor meant by it, so he read the text of the entire speech online. Now, he says, people would have a different opinion of Sotomayor if they heard the quotation in the context of the rest of the speech, especially, for example, this line:
"We are a nation that takes pride in our ethnic diversity, recognizing its importance in shaping our society and in adding richness to its existence." Read the full text of the speech at NYTimes.com
Adriana Maxwell thinks it's good that Sotomayor will add diversity to the court, but she's also confident that Sotomayor will consider only the facts and the Constitution in her decisions. The Marietta, Georgia, resident says she's read some of Sotomayor's opinions and concluded that she rules cases justly, no matter who the parties are.
"She applies the law fairly, whether it's the little guy or the big guy. It doesn't matter," Maxwell said. "What does the Constitution say, and is this being applied accurately to this case? And that's it."
But Joseph Condon of Richmond, Virginia, feels that Sotomayor "will not be wearing a blindfold when [she] makes rulings." He is concerned that she would put her own beliefs and feelings above the Constitution and that perhaps her cultural background could unfairly influence her decisions. Condon had some strong words to describe his worries.
"If Sotomayor is confirmed, her personal experiences, liberal beliefs, and loyalty to blood and culture will be the basis for forming her judicial rulings, and not the United States Constitution," he wrote.
Are we focusing too much on her ethnic background rather than her judicial history and qualifications?
Sotomayor's personal story is a compelling one. She is of Puerto Rican descent and was born in the Bronx, New York. She spent much of her childhood in a housing project, where her mother worked six days a week to provide for her and her brother after her father died when Sotomayor was just 9 years old. It is inspiring that someone from this humble background could now sit on the highest court in the nation.
Sotomayor's legal credentials are also impressive. She graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University and attended law school at Yale University, where she was editor of the Yale Law Journal. She served as a U.S. District Court judge after an appointment by President George H. W. Bush in the 1990s, and was then appointed by President Clinton to the U.S. Court of Appeals.
So, as provocative as her personal and cultural background is, are we allowing it to overshadow her judicial history and qualifications?
Forrester thinks so, and he blames it mostly on the media, which he says is "beating [the ethnicity issue] like a dead horse."
"The media has taken Judge Sotomayor's quote completely out of context," he said, referring to the above quote from Sotomayor's 2001 speech that some commentators have charged shows ethnic favoritism. "To run a single quote over and over and over out of context is a slap in the face of all Americans' intelligence.
"What upsets me the most is that there are millions of people out there watching, and they're not going to go read the whole story," he added. "They're just going to believe it. So then you're going to have a bunch of people stirring up stuff."
And Gaskin -- who said that every time a minority comes into a position of power, the public unfairly worries about whether he or she will show racial favoritism -- thinks the conversation the country is having about Sotomayor's ethnicity is the wrong one to be having.
"We can now have everyone getting equal chances, and I think that's what this should be all about," he said. "No matter what ethnicity you are, now we all have a chance to have equal rights. ... I hope [Sotomayor's nomination] inspires people who come from situations of poverty or less hope to now have hope and change their lives."


text:
Whether or not Germany, as some recent news articles have suggested, has been disinclined to acknowledge its leadership role in Europe's prolonged economic crisis, it is no great secret that the country has been Europe's backbone over the past years.
Naturally, this has been and still is a huge burden to take on, one that would be best shared with at least one other country. But even though Europe is slowly hobbling forward now, Germany continues to play a pivotal role in the continent's healing process particularly given the weakening state of the French economy. And though recent economic forecasts have highlighted some wear and tear on the German economy (the International Monetary Fund revised its GDP growth forecast for the Germany economy this year from 0.6% to 0.3%), experts incuding Anatoli Annenkov, senior European economist for Europe at Societe Generale in London, are nevertheless positive on Germany's resilience thus far and its ability to continue carrying the load.
"We have taken a generally positive view on the German economy, although we had expected a fairly stronger rebound in Q1 this year," Annenkov said. "Although private consumption has been driving growth, Germany did experience negative headwinds from the recession in the rest of Europe and several uncertain factors that happened over spring, like the Cyprus bailout, and these, combined with unusually cold weather, did have effects on Q1, but should lead to a rebound in Q2."
Overall, of course, second half growth for Germany will be low at a forecasted 0.3%, but this "fits into the general image of Europe," Annenkov said, where economic recovery is happening slowly. But Germany continues to have more resistance than other countries in Europe, he said, not least because its exports are more diversified than those of other countries. "So if the US is recovering, as we do expect, then Germany's export sector should improve in the second half," he said.
In fact, Germany's greatest strengths have much to do with its highly competitive export sector, Annenkov believes, which generates healthy external surpluses, and a well-balanced fiscal framework that has resulted in sound public finances. In addition, Germany avoided building up excessive private sector debt and reformed its labor market in the last decade and this has given the economy a strong foundation.
"The challenges will be to maintain these comparative advantages, especially in light of a rapidly aging society – something that will require ongoing reform efforts," Annenkov said.
Germany's aging society is one of the greatest challenges to the economy today, according to Holger Sandte, chief European analyst at Nordea in Copenhagen. Over the next decade, "Germany will lose five or six million people of working age, and this is going to be a huge problem," he said.
Immigration from Southern and Western Europe will help: Last year, more than 350,000 immigrants relocated to Germany, among them young people from Spain, Italy and Portugal where unemployment is still staggering, and German companies are also actively recruiting skilled workers from these countries, Sandte said. But immigration is also a highly contentious issue, particularly in tight economic times, so as much as Germany may need outsiders to help rejuvenate its population, the social debate that includes changing views on immigration is a broad and extended one that won't happen overnight.
On a more immediate note, energy prices are also a challenge for German economy. "After the Fukushima nuclear disaster, [Chancellor Angela] Merkel decided that Germany should exit nuclear energy after 10 years, and although Germans agree as citizens, their energy bills are clearly much higher, and that has an impact on the purchasing power, which in turn impacts the private consumption and how it drives the economy," Sandte said.
Still, despite the broader Eurozone recession (and clearly, Germany would be better off its European neighbors were in better shape, since the economy is dependent on demand from other countries within Europe to fuel its exports), Germany remains the strongest economy in Europe and is likely to remain so. While the recent floods in Germany are likely to be costly to the insurance sector, they could also lead to some fiscal stimulus for reconstruction, which Germany has room for – something, according to Annenkov, that would mitigate the impact of the broader Eurozone crisis and the recession on economic growth.


text:
Bad News: Only members can view discounts.
Good News: It is FREE to join!
Become a AWE365 member for FREE
If you are already a AWE365 Club member please login here:
Like most websites, AWE365.com uses cookies. Our cookies do not record personal data and cannot be used to identify you personally. They're here to make the site work better and allow us to analyse how it's being used. You can delete these cookies if you wish, but some aspects of the site may not work as well without cookies.
Find out more about how AWE365 uses Cookies. We also recommend you read our Terms and Conditions; and Privacy Policy.


text:
Business to Business Website
Please contact the office after you have registered in order for us to release access to your account.
Babies gift set comprising of 4 pairs of luxury baby socks in a beautiful presentation pack. Pack size is 6pcs.
Click the button below to add the 37007 to your wish list.
Page built in 0.1379s with 15 queries. Memory usage peaked at 2.00 MB


text:
Ivan Herman reports, "This has been in the works for a while, but it is done now: the latest (3.4.0 version) of the python RDFLib library has just been released, and it includes and RDFa 1.1, microdata, and turtle-in-HTML parser. In other words, the user can add structured data to an HTML file, and that will be parsed into RDF and added to an RDFLib Graph structure. This is a significant step, and thanks to Gunnar Aastrand Grimnes, who helped me adding those parsers into the main distribution."
He goes on, "I have written a blog last summer on some of the technical details of those parsers; although there has been updates since then, essentially following the minor changes that the RDFa Working has defined for RDFa, as well as changes/updates on the microdata->RDF algorithm, the general approach described in that blog remains valid, and it is not necessary to repeat it here. For further details on these different formats, some of the useful links are: (1) For RDFa, there is a new version of an RDFa 1.1 Primer in preparation. It is probably worth keeping an eye on the editor's draft of the primer. The primer has the links to the official recommendations if one wants to look up the gory details. Alternatively, look at the RDFa community page! (2) For microdata, the official specification is of course available; the conversion to RDF is the subject of a separate W3C Note. (3) For turtle-in-HTML, you can look at the latest version of the Turtle spec."
Image: Courtesy Flickr/ Beercha


text:
Rome Canalfest set for Aug. 2-4
Rome >> Now in its 11th year, the Rome Rotary Canalfest '13 is three fun-filled days on the historic Erie Canal, a family-oriented event with non-stop music and entertainment.
Featured will be the popular ski show, Anything But a Boat regatta, fishing derby, flower show, photography contest, quilt show, live bands and a biathlon event. There's something for everyone, from exciting rides for the kids to a duck race and a 50-50 for the adults, all capped off by a spectacular nightly fireworks display.
The Canalfest is seeking vendors, craftspeople and organizations for its 11th annual festival, Aug. 2-4 at the Bellamy Harbor Park on Mill Street. The deadline for booth reservations is July 15.
While the festival is not seeking any new food vendors at this time, it is looking for people interested in selling goods, crafts or services, according to Karen Roth, vendor coordinator. In addition to vendors, booth space is also available for clubs interested in promoting their organization and for not-for-profit groups.
The vendor fee for a 10x10 space is $75, and the same space is free for not-for-profits. All interested booth occupants are encouraged to sign up for all three days of the festival to ensure prime spaces, says Roth. Festival hours are from 5-10 p.m. Friday, Aug. 2, from noon to 10 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 3, and from noon to 10 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 4.
All vendors and crafters must be set up between noon and 4 p.m. Friday and have their vehicles off the grounds by 4 p.m. Friday. Vendors and organizations are required to provide their own tent, table and chairs, lights and a 50-foot extension cord if requiring electricity.
Started in 2003 by the Rome Rotary Club, the festival not only provides a summer weekend of activities for the whole family but raises money for many community projects the Rotary sponsors throughout the year, including the Rome Rotary Scholarship program, the Rotary RFA JROTC Scholarship program and the Rotary Children's Christmas Party, which provides more than 100 local children with coats, boots, presents and more.
Those interested in applying for booth space for this popular event can visit the Canalfest website -- romerotaryny.org/canal -- and click on entry forms to register. Vendors with questions should contact Karen Roth at 315-235-8119 or firstname.lastname@example.com.
Once a booth application has been received, booth occupants will be mailed a receipt, followed by a Canalfest packet with a parking pass, map of the park and other pertinent information.


text:
- 1
€62.00 €31.00
- 1
By continuing to use our site you agree to us using cookies in accordance with our Cookie Policy. Accept & Close
Screw it, let's do it with ultimate style, bold attitude and confidence for days. It's time to make your own rules, babe. Shop the latest looks from our autumn TV ad right here.


text:
Finding right options for investments is plainly effortless with growing market of Real Estate in Merces Goa. Whether you want to buy, sell or rent, all kinds of deals are easy to find with growing bazaar of property in Merces Goa. Merces Goa Real Estate has become one of the choicest options for investors. Plentiful options to invest in Residential Real Estate and Commercial Real Estate are accessible at Merces Goa. Developed infrastructure and transportation facilities are boosting the rates of Properties in Merces Goa. Moreover, basic amenities like water and electricity supply have improved a lot in the city influencing the market of Merces Goa Properties. Apart from this, Merces Goa has several reputed educational institutes, healthcare centres, etc. making it an ideal place to own a property. Buying and Rental of Residential Property and Commercial Property have emerged as a favoured investment option in the city of Merces Goa.
3 BHK Individual Houses / Villas for Sale in Porvorim, North Goa, Goa


text:
Officially Licensed Las Vegas Raiders Snowmen Ornaments
Sets of three Las Vegas Raiders snowman ornaments dressed as festive fans. NFL officially licensed with official Raiders colors and team logos.
Measure 3-1/2" H
- Price:
- s&s◇
For true football fans, there is just no denying the power and potency of the Raider Nation! Now, you can demonstrate your pride this Christmas, and pay tribute to the "coolest fans" around with this Las Vegas Raiders ornaments collection. It's so easy to make your day a Las Vegas Raiders game day beginning with Issue One, D-Fence, Tailgatin' Time, and The #1 Fan. Soon your collection will continue with Issue Two and additional sets of three Las Vegas Raiders ornaments, each set a separate issue to follow.
Officially licensed by NFL Properties LLC and available only from The Bradford Exchange, each charming issue in your collection captures three loyal handcrafted snowmen dressed as Las Vegas Raiders fans gearing up for game day. Official Raiders colors of black and silver, plus team logos, mark each festive fellow, while intricate details bring team spirit to life. Strong demand is expected, and you won't want to miss out on your chance for the "coolest" Raiders fans to "hang around" your Christmas tree. Order now!
- Show you're a true member of the Raider Nation with this charming Las Vegas Raiders ornament collection, available only from The Bradford Exchange
- Officially licensed by NFL Properties LLC
- Each issue of 3 Christmas tree ornaments in your collection is exquisitely handcrafted in artist's resin and meticulously hand-painted to capture snowmen dressed as Raiders fans gearing up for game day
- Official Raiders colors of black and silver, plus team logos, mark each festive fellow, while amazing details such as football laces, fringe on scarves and wood-grain textures make it feel like every day is a Las Vegas Raiders game day
- Includes silvery hanging cords for easy display on your Christmas tree
- Accompanied by Certificates authenticating your ornaments are originals from The Bradford Exchange, one for each set
- Measure 3-1/2" H; 8.9 cm H
- Reserves the collectible Las Vegas Raiders Coolest Fans Ornament Collection from The Bradford Exchange in your name so you never risk an increase on the price of other collectibles in this collection
- Each issue will be shipped to you for your review, about one every month or two (pending availability), at the same low issue price and charged to the credit card on which your order was placed. No need to order each one separately
- You may cancel your collection at any time with no obligation
- "Issue One - D-Fence, Tailgatin' Time and The #1 Fan," will be followed by "Issue Two" and additional sets of 3 Las Vegas Raiders Christmas ornaments as they become available
©2011 The Bradford Exchange


text:
MIAMI (CNN) - The standoff between the United States and Russia over Ukraine is not preventing President Barack Obama from pursuing his domestic agenda – and his vacation.
The foreign policy crisis has occupied the bulk of Obama's attention this past week although he's also carved out time to press issues opposed by Republicans: his budget proposal, a hike in the minimum wage, and encouraging Latinos to sign up for Obamacare.
Follow @politicalticker
He continued the theme on Friday by visiting a school in Miami to encourage more teenagers to apply for college financial aid.
It's a balance Obama has attempted to strike throughout his presidency, from navigating the Arab Spring to sizing up the young new leader of North Korea – all while attempting to shore up a sluggish U.S. economy.
Obama also isn't letting the incursion of Russian troops into Ukraine's Crimean peninsula prevent him and his family from enjoying a weekend away from Washington, currently beset by cold temperatures and sloppy piles of melting snow.
While the White House signaled earlier in the week that a long-planned getaway in South Florida could be nixed due to overseas events, the commander-in-chief and his family will remain in Key Largo for the weekend.
All presidents are routinely criticized for taking time off even though the chief executive always travels with a full retinue of aides and secure communications equipment. This means he can work and the requirements of the job are never far away.
Tony Blinken, Obama's deputy national security adviser, was on the Florida trip.
"What the President will be doing this weekend in Florida is essentially what the President would be doing back at the White House. It's just that the weather will be a little warmer," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
The Obamas will stay at the Ocean Reef Club, a private compound that still enforces a dress code "designed to complement today's more casual lifestyles while still respecting the Club's longstanding traditions."
It boasts 36 holes of golf as well as spas and restaurants.
Earlier this year, Obama tacked a weekend of golf in California onto a meeting with the king of Jordan at the Sunnyland's estate near Palm Springs. And he golfed regularly on his annual Christmas vacation in Hawaii.
At his event Friday at a Miami magnet high school, Obama tried to persuade more students to complete the paperwork required to obtain federal financial aid for college.
The White House says the U.S. Department of Education will begin identifying individual students who haven't filled out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and use the information to try and convince them to apply.
"No striving, hardworking young American should ever be denied a college education just because they can't afford it," Obama said at Coral Reef Senior High School.
He also blasted Congress for what he said was intransigence in approving his education agenda.
"Congress needs to stop doing nothing," he said. "We need to do right by America's students and America's teachers."
It's all part of Obama's attempt to increase opportunities for middle class Americans, which has been the goal of his second-term domestic agenda. Part of the push has included pressing Congress to increase the federal minimum wage.
During remarks on Wednesday in Connecticut, Obama said that the global flashpoints that have sprung up during his tenure should serve as a reminder of the importance of fortifying the American middle class.
"There's been a lot of news about foreign affairs around the world over the last several days, but also for the last couple years," Obama said. "It doesn't matter whether it's in Central Europe or in the Middle East or Africa - individuals want a chance to make it if they try. And what makes us special is we already do that when we're at our best. But we've got some work to do to match up our ideals with the reality that's happening on the ground right now."
He made no mention of the Ukrainian crisis while in Florida.
I am sure the wingnuts will be upset again, since there is so much brush to clear in Crawford, and our president is going to Florida. Actually, if you omit elected republicans, Florida is a nice place to live.
Yes, go on vacation so you won't screw up anything else.
Here we go with the vacation nonsense again. Do the comparison to his predecessor.
and encourage Latinos to sign up for Obamacare
My fellow Latinos here at work love you Mr. President and they thank you.
You have made many of us that were previously politically apathetic want to stay involved and be a part of the political process in this country.
Continue to address yourself to all of the groups you are trying to encourage to sign up.
Indeed Mr. President I encourage you to campaign on your own if you have to on behalf of all Democrats running for the House and Senate this fall.
No one else has your reach and your mass appeal. Use it!
Charge up the base Mr. President!!
Latinos seguimos unidos con Obama.
He needs a vacation, how else would he find the time to spend millions we don't have and to dream up ways to screw the American people more than he has.
on one hand the repbs are jumping up and down about the 17 trillion dollar deficit, on the other hand they are urging obama to start world war III, by using school yard tactics of bullying.
What's-His-Name's Poll numbers are in the 30's, the country is looking like the 1930's and Nero is Fiddling. Now let's see what the Brains say.
I love the smell of right wing bias in the morning. What a completely misleading headline. Sometimes I wonder, whose news am I reading?
Good Ole red meat to start the weekend off with a bang.
Just focus on home-front, I don't care what Crimea,or Ukraine. Fix potholes, fix LaGuardia Airport, JFK etc. Make congress idiots pass Jobs-Bill. Good lucks.
PS: I would vote for third term too for this president.
Makes sense, jobless rate rises, the labor participation rate drops to a 35 year low and the corrupt president who said he woul not rest until the economy recovers is off on another taxpayer paid vacation. It has been less than a month since his last one. Way overdue. Not to mention that the world is blowing up due to his inept, incompetent foreign policy.
Gunny – Check out Rassmussen numbers today. You may be incorrect again.
Just focus on home-front, I don't care what Crimea,or Ukraine. Fix potholes, fix LaGuardia Airport, JFK etc. Make congress idiots pass Jobs-Bill. Good lucks.
PS: I would vote for third term too for this president.
Spot man i couldn't say it better.
Obama has no intention of doing anything about the Ukraine crisis.
When you elect a Show Horse instead of a Work Horse this is what you get. This is the best Advertisement to return all Social Spending to the States where it belongs. The Federal Government has no business in the Medical Business, no Business in the Welfare Business, in most cases no Business in collecting and Disbursing Money. If nothing else the 17.5 Trillion Dollar Federal Debt should tell you that.
@Rick McDaniel
Obama has no intention of doing anything about the Ukraine crisis.
He signed an executive order against Russia. What else can he do with this Congress you genius?


text:
YOU MUST READ AND AGREE BEFORE POSTING or USING THE FORUMS
The following agreement (Agreement) contains the complete terms and conditions that will apply between you (Member) and 3plains (Ultimate Pheasant Hunting), a Minnesota corporation having a business office and address at 1160 Vierling Dr. E STE 309, Shakopee MN 55379 when you register for the forum board. This Agreement shall become effective on the date (the Effective Date) that you register as a member.
This is a FREE service and private community and we expect a fun, friendly and positive posting patterns in this community. We do not want a complaint or argumentative oriented culture. You remain solely responsible for the content of your messages, and you agree to indemnify and hold harmless Ultimate Pheasant Hunting, Vbulletin (the makers of the bulletin board software), and their agents with respect to any claim based upon transmission or use of your post(s).
1. Signatures & External Links
A. Signature Links. Signatures that have external links are NOT ALLOWED unless you are a paying Sponsor. Only 1 forum member per sponsorship is allowed to carry an external link. If you would like to carry a signature link, please contact Ultimate Pheasant Hunting for advertising information at the following link: http://www.ultimatepheasanthunting.com/contact/
B. Signature Content. No political, religious or distasteful content. Moderators have the right to remove the signature content and will notify members of the change in a respectful manner.
2. Businesses, Commercial, Promotional Posting
A. Unauthorized posts. No unauthorized commercial or promotional posts unless you are a paying sponsor. If your post tells you to go somewhere to get a product/service or gives contact info, it's commercial.
B. Attacks. No attacks on businesses. We can't always tell what is true and who is just grinding an ax. Therefore no negative comments on business are allowed.
C. Resources. No unauthorized resources or sharing of domain names. Spamming promoters have forced this.
D. Business Information. No unauthorized phone numbers or e-mail addresses may be posted. Spam promoters have forced this as well.
E. Please note that advertisements, promoting, giving contact info, referring to another website or linking to another website/product/service without permission, chain letters, pyramid schemes, and solicitations are not allowed on this forum.
Note: if you are a business, and would like to advertise with us, please contact us http://www.ultimatepheasanthunting.com/contact/
3. Content & Members
A. Member Attacks. No Personal attacks on other members.
B. Positive Posting Nature. Keep your posts positive and helpful when responding to others.
C. Problem posts. We reserve the right to edit or delete posts that tend to cause problems.
D. Thread Steering. If your post contributes towards steering a thread off topic or in a negative direction you may be put on hold until you agree to correct that behavior.
E. Hateful material. You agree, through your use of this service, that you will not use this forum to post any material which is knowingly false and/or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, potentially inflammatory, sarcastic, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy or otherwise violation of any law. You agree to keep race out of your posts, it has no place in these forums.
F. Arguments. If you had a post that tends to cause arguments it may be deleted.
G. Competing Websites. If you had a post referring to a competing website it will be deleted.
H. Referrals. If you had a post referring folks to call or e-mail you and we could assume you may be sending folks to a competing website or trying to go around forum policy it will be deleted or edited.
I. Usernames. If you have multiple usernames and use them for ANY deceptive practice your posts will be deleted. Member usernames that have defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, potentially inflammatory, sarcastic, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, will be deleted and/or banned.
J. Deleting Posts. ANY post may be deleted at any time. We do not want to have a censored forum, but we must keep the forum integrity intact.
K. No Politics. Debating politics on the board is not welcome. Debating viewpoints is a losing battle and a waste of time. We will delete posts we find that start getting political for the sake of saving the forum board and members.
4. Banning
A. We do not normally ban Members. We do understand that some members will not read these rules and we will give those folks a chance to do so. If you make a statement indicating you may be banned or censored for your post then you very likely will be banned permanently as you indicate by your post that you are purposely violating forum policy.
B. Any item violated in this policy may result in a member being banned or a temporary ban hold until you read and agree to follow the forum guidelines here. If you've followed the website since the beginning, you'll know that we've removed very few members permanently. Please do not discuss or mention members no longer posting. Anyone permanently banned from this site is persona non-grata.
5. Complaints
A. Complaints. DO NOT use the forums for complaints, issues or problems that can or should be resolved with the manufacturers customer service department or for service complaints.
6. Moderators & Sponsors
A. A sarcastic, inaccurate or propaganda post towards a sponsor or advertisement may be deleted.
B. Integrity. Moderators are meant to protect the integrity of the forum.
C. Inaccuracies. Even Administrators, Moderators or Sponsors can be inaccurate or mis-word things.
D. Moderators Nature. We have a policy for Moderators to be impartial.
E. Rulings. Any questions or rulings for/on/about Moderators will be addressed with the website Administrator (Ryan Trask - aka Webguy), who is the owner of Ultimate Pheasant Hunting.
F. Website Administrator. Webguy is the highest authority in the forum board. If you have an issue, please direct towards a moderator. If they need to push up an issue, they will send the issue to Webguy.
G. Signatures. Moderators can carry 1 external link in their signature.
Note: If you have a interest in being a moderator, you may apply here: http://www.ultimatepheasanthunting.com/contact/
7. Accurate Information
A. Validity. Considering the real-time nature of this forum, it is impossible for us to review messages or confirm the validity of information posted. Never consider ANY information posted as accurate information to base safety or any decisions on.
B. Accurate Content. Never consider ANY information posted as accurate information to base decisions on. That is the reason we do not allow posts that are negative toward any person or business.
C. Negative Content. There are all kinds of motivations to post a negative post that is not accurate and can cause harm and benefit the poster in some way.
8. Ownership
A. Content. Ultimate Pheasant Hunting owns all the content posted by forum members. Content includes forum text and photos on the forum board.
B. Identities. We reserve the right to reveal your identity (or whatever information we know about you) in the event of a complaint or legal action arising from any message posted by you.
C. Website Administrator. Webguy is the highest authority in the forum board. If you have an issue, please direct towards a moderator. If they need to push up an issue, they will send the issue to Webguy.
D. Ownership. Ultimate Pheasant Hunting is owned and run solely by 3plains LLC (www.3plains.com).
9. Contacting Us
A. If you have an issue with the way the Ultimate Pheasant Hunting forum is run, use the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of almost every page. Constructive criticism is welcomed using the "Contact Us".
10. Miscellaneous
A. Limitation of Liability - ULTIMATE PHEASANT HUNTING MAKES NO WARRANTIES OR REPRESENTATIONS OF ANY NATURE WHATSOEVER REGARDING THE PRODUCTS OR SERVICES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. ULTIMATE PHEASANT HUNTING SHALL HAVE NO LIABILITY WHATSOEVER REGARDING ANY CLAIM OR PATENT OR COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT. ULTIMATE PHEASANT HUNTING SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES OF ANY NATURE ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THIS AGREEMENT OR THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF ANY PRODUCT OR SERVICE PROVIDED HEREUNDER. IN NO EVENT SHALL ULTIMATE PHEASANT HUNTING BE LIABLE FOR SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR FOR ANY INDIRECT DAMAGES SUCH AS, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, EXEMPLARY OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES OR LOST PROFITS, EVEN IF ULTIMATE PHEASANT HUNTING HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. No action arising out of any claimed breach of this Agreement or transaction under this Agreement may be brought more than one year after the date software, hardware or professional services are delivered to Member.
B. Indemnification - Member agrees to indemnify Ultimate Pheasant Hunting and its suppliers, employees, and officers for all damages, claims or losses suffered by Ultimate Pheasant Hunting as a result of possible claims by third parties relating to the use of the information and products and services provided by Ultimate Pheasant Hunting.
C. Linked Sites - Some linked sites are not under the control of Ultimate Pheasant Hunting.
D. Revisions - Ultimate Pheasant Hunting may at any time revise these Terms and Conditions by updating this posting. You are bound by any such revisions and should therefore periodically visit this page to review the current Terms and Conditions to which you are bound.
E. Governing Law - The parties agree that this contract will be governed by Minnesota law and any legal proceeding regarding this contract will be brought exclusively in a court of competent jurisdiction in Minnesota.


text:
DWTS11 Finalists: What If…?
Ok, first things first: I don't think this is the final 3 that any of us predicted at the beginning of this season. Jennifer? Maybe, but there were concerns about her health. Most of us had never heard of Kyle and predicted an early exit for him; and we certainly didn't expect Bristol to last to the midpoint of the season – let alone to the finale. It definitely leaves us with some interesting speculations and concerns – the main one being "What if Bristol wins?" Well, perhaps in an attempt to assuage some of the panic, Heidi and I decided to examine the 3 possible outcomes of the finale: Jennifer winning, Kyle winning, and Bristol winning. Just how exactly will it impact the celebs? The pros? The viewers? Even the show itself? Read on…
What if…Bristol wins?
Courtney: Ok, obviously this seems to be everyone's biggest worry right now – and I think we all generally agree that this would be a very, very, VERY bad outcome for the show. Literally – this is the Doomsday Scenario for me. If Bristol wins, the show's credibility is basically shot to hell, as if it wasn't headed there already with her far-longer-than-neccessary presence this season. People are already claiming the show is "rigged" (doubt it, but some people cannot be persuaded); I think a mirror ball trophy in her hands despite a marginal performance this season would read as confirmation for a lot of people. From those who believe the show is not "rigged", there would be outrage about how the voting process can screw over great dancers and protect bad ones – some might be proactive and actually try to reach out to the producers and the network for voting reform (how political :-P), others would probably stop watching altogether out of disgust. And ratings would plummet – they might manage to eek out another season just riding on the coattails of controversy from this season, but I don't know that another season would be the ratings juggernaut that this one was. As for the pros – I could see a few of them quitting, most likely Maks (who, understandably, seems the angriest of all about Bristol, and is being mysterious about his future on the show), maybe Tony & Louis (who seem to get their feathers ruffled more easily about ballroom politics, and already feel they've been "wronged" by the show in the past), and perhaps even Mark or Derek – we've been saying for awhile that they may already have one foot out the door, and their final season would be sooner rather than later – maybe this would be the last little "shove" they needed to leave the show for good. As for future celebs – I definitely think it would deter some potential candidates from signing on. Who would want to participate in a show that is known to be unfair? And who would want to suffer the humiliation of putting your all into the show, only to get the boot in favor of a pseudo-celebrity that is not nearly as talented as they are? Listen up, people: do you like DWTS? Then don't let this happen. Get out and vote for either Jennifer or Kyle as if your life depended on it. Now while I don't see Bristol actually winning (just too much talent from the other two to overcome, as well as some very angry, very proactive fans), it's important that everyone does their part to ensure that she doesn't even come close to winning…because this could be one very, very big nail in the coffin of DWTS. Plus I just don't want to hear about it or the Palins any more than I have to in the media, jeezass…
Heidi:I had a conversation with my mother today that was very illuminating. She is a very casual watcher of the show, at best, but she watches it when she can because I watch it and she's a mom. She really likes the show, it's just that she likes The Closer even better, which I think might be on at the same time. But she and my sisters were really loving Kurt Warner. And she has been watching the show this season because of him, as opposed to watching it every other week or so. Well, she ain't watching it anymore. This is totally anecdotal evidence of course, but she was pretty pissed off. She kept saying she got disgusted when that "one girl" got voted off. I was trying to figure out what "one girl" she was talking about and she was saying how she just can't watch it, she gets to mad and disgusted that Bristol is still there and "that girl" is gone. I'm like, "what the hell girl are you talking about"?? She says, the one dancing with the big athlete. I'm like, Oh ANNA?? She's like, "yeah, that's her." I'm like okay, Anna is a pro, not the celeb, but that's the couple she liked by god and she thought that Bristol wasn't nearly as good as those two. Whatever, ma. 🙂 But my point is, my mother, the casual watcher – who I have not talked to about DWTS in several weeks – is fed up enough with the show and it being "fixed" that she's turned the channel. My mother lives a few hundred miles away from me, so she's not being influenced by me – but she's pissed off. I'm thinking old Conrad perhaps wasn't expecting this scenario when he put a politicians daughter on the show. Like it or not, it puts a different connotation on the competition that just isn't good. Maybe it's not rational. Maybe it shouldn't. But there's a little saying that goes: "Perception is reality". If a large percentage of the audience thinks it's political and that they're giving Bristol a pass – well then that's all that really matters. How people – viewers – perceive a situation and how they react to it is very important. Who cares if that's not what you intended – this is how it's working out. We are far from the only blog that is wondering if they will be able to get good celebs after this, or if we'll be stuck with the likes of Christine O'Donnell. We're not the only blog that wonders if great ratings right now translate into basement ratings in the long run because people have had enough. It's very easy to sit back and say, "Oh people are always saying they won't watch the show anymore, they never quit." But what you're missing in that little scenario is that every audience has a point where they say "Screw it". How do you know this isn't the proverbial straw??? As for the pros?? Well, I think they need to worry far more about the men than they do the women. Maks, Tony and Louis?? All three have been VERY vocal in the last year or so about the failings of the show. All three have other stuff going on too. Heck, Louis just testified on Capitol Hill the other day – these guys are stars in their own right. They might not leave right now, because the show still benefits them, but how much more time they have will depend on just how well the producers cast the next season. Derek and Mark?? Well, nothing seems to really ruffle Derek these days other than paparazzi – and even they are getting the occasional smile from him. But Derek's most recent interview indicates pretty strongly that he's got something else cooking. We'll have to wait and see if that takes him away from DWTS. Mark? I put Mark in the same league with Maks, Tony and Louis. I think he'll stick for a bit because he's starting at the very bottom for his music career. He needs DWTS probably more than any of them. There is one "Pro" to Bristol still being there, though – this, and everything around it, will certainly come back and bite Sarah at some point in the not to distant future. 🙂
What if…Jennifer wins?
Courtney: I'm sure there are those that are going to point fingers at me and scream "BIASED!" (here's a preemptive "Ummm, DUH, and I don't really care, because this is a blog"), but I think of the 3 that are left, Jennifer is the one that deserves the trophy the most. I've seen her work hard, improve, overcome obstacles, and truly enjoy herself this season. She has technique, she has performance, and she has character – she is the full package for me. I have enjoyed all but one of her performances (the paso doble, but I'm looking forward to seeing her redeem herself on that one). That said – this outcome would not be without backlash, either. There is the camp that always whines "But Derek ALWAYS gets a good partner! NO FAIR!" that will likely try to claim the show is somehow rigged in his favor. Big whoop. There were so many outraged fans commenting here after last season that claimed they would never watch the show again because Nicole's win was "unfair" – and I have to chuckle when I think of how many of those same fans are still actively watching and commenting this season 😉 And ratings are still fantastic…clearly enough people are not pissed off enough with Derek's success to boycott the show. My other concern (and Heidi knows more about this and can either dispute this or support it) is that another win, just like Bristol winning, may be enough for Derek to say "You know what? I'm done." Whether it's going out on top or getting out before things get REALLY bad, Derek's days on the show are likely numbered…he's a successful, in-demand guy, and I can't blame him for wanting more from life than DWTS. As for Jennifer – it could possibly generate into some more TV & film opportunities, although I'm not sure that's necessarily what she wants right now. She seems pretty happy with being a wife and mommy, and just taking the occasional small role (anyone else catch her on House?) here and there. But who knows – it could generate into something bigger, and she could jump right on it. She looks fabulous and I'd sure as hell like to see her do more! Overall, I don't think much would change on the show – I don't see any big uproar if Jen wins. If anything, I think America, the pros, and TPTB would breathe a sigh of relief that someone other than Bristol won.
Heidi:Yeah, I think everyone other than the Mark and Cheryl fans would be breathing a sigh of relief. 🙂 Those two groups will not be happy if Derek is the first to reach Mirrorball number three. And well, the Maks fans are always unhappy about Derek. 🙂 I see it as validation. 🙂 Who really cares what some fan groups on the net say, anyway? They don't actually represent the general viewer, but the fringes. Hey, I'm fringy. 🙂 Really, there isn't much to say about this scenario – everybody wins (except those fan groups I mentioned). The really funny thing is that out of all the people involved, Derek and Jennifer seem the most relaxed about the outcome. You had Brandy desperately wanting to WIN, you have Bristol and Mark on the defensive (to the point of nervous breakdown in Mark's case, I think 🙂 ), you have Kyle having fun and wanting to win…then there's Jennifer and Derek. I get the feeling from them that they would love to win, but they actually seem to have pretty good perspective about the whole thing. That's just my feeling from watching all of them. Actually, Kyle and Lacey seem pretty cool too. I wonder if they have bought into Bristol as a foregone conclusion and are just going to relax and have fun. Really, they both could knock it out of the park for that reason.
What if…Kyle wins?
Courtney: The more I think about this one, the more I could possibly see it happening – just based on the fact that there are a lot of Maks fans that seem intent on somehow "avenging" Brandy, and somehow that agenda involves sticking it to both Bristol AND Jennifer…go figure. Plus, Maks & Brandy have publicly thrown their support behind Kyle – I think a more PC move would have been to encourage their fans to VOTE, PERIOD, and to vote for who they think was the MOST DESERVING…a very subtle way of implying that certain couples *cough*Bristol&Mark*cough* don't deserve to be there. But for those on Team BranDMC that aren't too pissed off to tune in and vote, it could be good news for Kyle – an extra boost to maybe put him over Jennifer, who maybe didn't get quite as many votes because people assumed she was safe based on scores. Overall, I think the reaction would be something like "Hmmm…well, didn't see that coming, but COOL! Someone other than Bristol won! GO KYLE!" There may be a bit of an uproar from those who thought Jen deserved to win, but again – I think at this point everyone (except the Tea Party) is just going to be thrilled as long as Bristol doesn't win. Lacey might get a little big for her britches (ugh), but I think Kyle would just laugh, say "Yay!" and ask for some pizza 😉 I could definitely see this kid having a bright future…tv shows, movies, talk shows, whatever! After thinking this one through…I almost wonder if this would be the most PC outcome of this season. Seems like it would eliminate the Derek backlash, the Bristol backlash, and wouldn't disrupt the dynamic of the show too much. Do I think it's what SHOULD happen? Of course not. But I think it would be hard for anyone to truly be pissed off if this lovable little imp won 🙂
Heidi: Hell, even *I* wouldn't be pissed off if he won. Of course I want Jennifer to win, but I would take Kyle easily – I think you are absolutely correct, that anyone other than Bristol at this point would be a positive outcome. I think many of the Brandy fans are a lot of talk, but like most fan groups they are only a small part of a much larger whole. I doubt there is a lot of power voting coming from that quadrant – I know I wouldn't if I was them. As for Lacey – yeah, ugh – she is an odd one. She was left out last season and she was nearly left out this season – you would think that that would be a bit of a wakeup call to be a bit more humble. Girl ain't all that if she starts to go the Jonathan route – only signed on when there ain't no one else (poor Jonathan – sob). Why she doesn't grasp this is beyond me – lack of self awareness? Beats me. But Kyle is generally a cute little guy – even if he has been annoying me that last two weeks or so. As for the "Derek backlash" – girl, ain't nothing stopping that, regardless of the outcome. Boyfriend is threatening. 🙂 He's only won twice in 7 season and yet to the fans of other pros he's the root of all evil – even though he isn't the only one with two trophies. It's quite validating, actually – the talent and charisma is surely there if he's perceived as such a threat by those groups to the point that they revise history such that it is unrecognizable. You can forget that -that isn't going to change. 🙂 Hell, I got ten bucks that says, if Mark wins, people STILL complain about Derek's partner if he's on next season. Mark could be paired with Kristi Yamaguchi junior after winning three MBTs and Derek with an unknown model and still it would be "They like Derek best!!" whine, whine, whine. Why??? Because people are SILLY. You wanna take that bet?? 🙂


text:
Sarah Palin told an audience of Hong Kong bankers that government regulation helped cause the financial meltdown and tax cuts and less interference are the solution to the economic mess.
In her first paid public speech outside of North America, the former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate said Washington is the problem, not the solution.
"We got into this mess because of government interference in the first place," Palin said Wednesday at a conference sponsored by investment firm CLSA Asia Pacific Markets. "We're not interested in government fixes, we're interested in freedom."
U.S. & World
Palin also stressed the importance of the global fight against terrorism and of enlisting the help of China, which "rightfully makes a lot of people nervous."
Palin didn't refer to President Obama by name, but "utopian sounding" campaign promises have not materialized. She blamed the financial crisis on the Federal Reserve's low interest rate policy of previous years. Tax cuts and elimination of the capital gains and estate tax would allow the world to "watch the U.S. economy roar back to life," Palin said.
Get more: The Wall Street Journal


text:
Melissa Smith and Tommy Stokesberry have announced their engagement.
Melissa is the daughter of Paul and Glenda (Glendening) Smith of Montpelier, Ohio. She is a 2004 graduate of North Central High School and earned an associate's degree in program administration from Northwest State Community College. She is employed as a patient coordinator at Leadership Square Eye Care in Oklahoma City, Okla.
Tommy is the son of Jack and the late Carol Jones of Noble, Okla. He is a 2004 graduate of Noble High School and is employed as a new construction plumber and pipe fitter apprentice. He is currently attending an apprenticeship program to become a journeyman for the union.
The couple is planning an outdoor wedding at the home of the bride's parents on Sept. 10, 2011.


text:
The dust has barely settled in Geneva, but the motoring world is already descending on New York.
The 2013 New York Motor Show kicks off this week and in typical American style, it's going to be BIG.
Over 1000 cars will be on display, with some of the world's biggest manufacturers unveiling new, ground breaking designs.
As you'd except, much of it is American, but European heavyweights Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar and Range Rover will also have a big presence.
But rather than wait until the show begins, we thought we'd give you a sneak peak with this – our comprehensive New York Motor Show preview.


text:
LM 79 Testing for LED Street Light, lm 79 test report, lm-79 test procedure, lm 79 testing labs in India
LM 79 Testing for LED Street Light, lm 79 test report, lm-79 test procedure, lm 79 testing labs in India
Searches related to LM 79 Test for LED Street Light, lm 79 standard, lm 79 test report, lm-79 test procedure, lm 79 testing labs in India, lm79 standards, LM 79 Test Laboratory – LED/SSL Luminaires, Solutions for LM-79, Contact for full luminaire testing solution, LED Street Light has got LM79 report, 30W Led Street Light LM79 Test Report
LM-79 Testing for LED Street Lights
ITC India NABL Accredited Electrical Safety Testing Laboratory provides LM-79 Testing for LED Street Light (45W & 60W) includes accreditation for Solid State Lighting Luminaires, Total Flux Measurements (Luminous Efficacy) & Solid State Lighting Luminaires, Luminous Intensity Measurements.
The Testing to be conducted is as follows(Testing as per standard):-
Test to be conducted under LM 79:
- Measurement of Total Luminous Flux & Luminous Efficacy
- Color Characteristics (Chromaticity Coordinates, Correlated Color Temperature & Color Rendering Index)
- Light Intensity Distribution Test
IES LM-79-08 Testing Parameters, LM-79 Testing Approved Method: Electrical and Photometric Measurements of Solid-state Lighting Product
LM-79 Test Photometric Results:
Colorimetric Parameters:
- Chromaticity coordinates: (Chroma x / Chroma y / Chroma u(u') / Chroma v / Chroma v')
- Correlated Color Temperature (CCT)
- Duv Value
- Color Ratio
- Peak Wavelength (nm)
- Half Bandwidth (nm)
- Dominant Wavelength (nm)
- Color Purity
- Color Rendering Index (CRI – Ra)
Photometric Parameters:
- Total Luminous Flux (Lumens)
- Luminous Efficacy (Lumens/Watt)
- Radiant Power (Watts)
Electrical Results:
- Input Power (Watts)
- Input Voltage (Volts )
- Input Current (Amps)
- Power Factor
- Input Frequency (Hz)
Additional Parameters:
- Stabilization Time (Light and Power) = 60 minutes
- Test Geometry Configuration = 4π
- Spectroradiometer = (Lisun LMS-9000A Plus)
- Ambient Temperature = 25.0°C
Click Here to See Video How to Do LM-79 Testing?
If you have any Query for LED Luminaires Testing, You can Feel free to Contact Us
If you are Interested You can Fill out the form below to receive a quote on the LM-79 Testing to get started:
Contact Now!
Puneet Sharma, M: 08196980555 E: [email protected]
Provide us more details about your requirement, Please fill out the form below:
To Get Best Quote kindly describe your requirement for ' LM 79 Testing for LED/SSL Luminaires'
20.593684 78.962880


text:
Christ Is Risen!
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
So what? We own this board, not you and no one else. We pay for it except when certain people who are very generous donate money to us (and believe me, out of the 1100 members, there are about 10 people who have ever donated us even one dollar). We can do what we want, when we want, pure and simple. We try to be fair, but if something is decided by us to be something we don't want on our board, we will take it off, period. Furthermore, on no other site that I know of would an administrator even tolerate a public challenge of his rights. Yet you will notice we left this thread up. There is no censorship in that no one was ever guaranteed free speech on our site.First of all, we don't have any obligations as we provide this website to you because we are nice people that take hours out of our week to do it. Second of all, you are pretty much right that Robert closed the thread because we didn't LIKE the content of the thread. Seeing people rag on other websites is not exactly the kind of thing we are wanting to be known for.Which would indicate you think we are trying to hoodwink you. Quite simply, Robert didn't like the thread, so he closed it. His decision.Anastasios
Frankly, lpap did not start the offensive thread but seems to have taken the brunt of administrative reactions. Even crusty, salty-languaged Aristokles was astounded at the crude responses his protests generated. My first thought: How does one report an Admin's post? Ans: One can't. I understand your leaving us, my new friend. I am sure we'll meet up elsewhere.
Page created in 0.125 seconds with 26 queries.


text:
MAGNUM RESEARCH INC BFR Revolvers
Magnum Research 5 Round 450 Marlin Revolver w/10" Barrel & Stainless Finish
Magnums BFR takes the hunting revolver to a new level. Not only does this meticulously crafted revolver give you big bore power for hunting whitetail or hog, it offers superior construction and finishing for a lifetime of use. Whether you use it as a primary hunting weapon, as a back up to a rifle or bow, or as a guide gun, the BFR is a single action revolver you can rely on for power and excitement.
SPECIFICATIONS:Mfg Item Num: BFR450M Category: FIREARMS - HANDGUNS Type :RevolverAction :Single Action OnlyCaliber :450 Marlin MagBarrel Length :10"Capacity :5 rdSafety :Transfer BarGrips :Hogue Rubber GripSights :Factory-Black Fixed Front; Ajustable rearWeight :4.36 lbsFinish :Stainless


text:
This weeks travels bring us to the largest city of Switzerland, Zurich. No it is not the capital; that honour goes to the city of Bern...
It has been a while I was in Zurich and to be honest I had kind of forgotten how nice the old part of the city is! Along the river Limmat which commences at the outfall of Lake Zurich, one finds several churches which just beg to be photographed!
Even though there was no actual snow in the city center, temperatures were flirting with the freezing point; very typical for this time of the year. The low overcast initially didn't look very promising neither but that all changed just before sunset when the clouds started breaking up! Exactly what I was hoping for...
The image below of the Fraumünster church along the Limmat river is a 7 shot HDR (High Dynamic Range) image.
Image details:
Fujifilm X-E1 with XF 18-55 Fujinon lens
ISO 200, 23mm (35mm full frame equivalent), f8, shutter speed between 1/20s and 1/1500s
RAW development in Lightroom 5.3
Photomatix 5 for HDR editing
Nik ColorEfex for contrast adjustment
While this was one of the first images I shot that afternoon, I continued well after sunset for some interesting night images. Zurich, now has its dedicated gallery on the Bjorn Moerman Photography site. Please make sure you check it out here.
Remember, "A camera is a save button for the minds eye" - Roger Kingston


text:
Teampedia:General disclaimer
Teampedia serves as a resource about team-building, including condensed information about companies that claim to offer products and services for team-building purposes. Teampedia does not endorse or guarantee the safety or quality of any activities, products or services described here. Teampedia does not intend to reprint all the information that is otherwise available, but instead to guide people to informed use of activities and direct contact with companies themselves. Teampedia attempts to be a resource that is as complete and as accurate as possible. However, there may be mistakes, both typographical and in content. Therefore, this text should be used only as a general guide and not as the ultimate source of information. Teampedia shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any misinformation and/or damage caused, or alleged to have been caused, directly or indirectly, by the information contained on Teampedia's website. It is recommended that you fully investigate any activity and any company before entering into business of any kind with it.


text:
Video Interview With Elizabeth Reaser About Breaking Dawn, Homework, Sundance Film Festival 2011-01-26 10:45:00
Video: Twilight's Elizabeth Reaser Talks Breaking Dawn, Vampire Kristen, and Homework Partying at Sundance!
Elizabeth Reaser took a break from shooting Breaking Dawn to head to Park City, UT, for the Sundance Film Festival this week. She was there to premiere her sweet movie Homework, which was quickly snapped up by Fox Searchlight. During our sit-down interview, Elizabeth talked about her talented young Homework cast and revealed few secrets from the Twilight set. She spoke about filming in Baton Rouge, Kristen Stewart's remarkable acting, and not quite being ready to say goodbye to the saga yet.