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The end goal of each Internet marketing campaign is to generate sales and revenues. Getting there, however, takes a while, and will require a solid strategy that's suited to your resources and goals. Here are some factors that you need to consider before you choose an Internet marketing strategy.
1. Your Audience
Your audience is one of the most important factors to consider when you are planning an online advertising campaign. Your product has to target a need within the consumer market. By understanding your audience, you will be able to determine how to reach them properly.
Some of the things you should find out include the sites that your target audience visits, the buying trends of the audience, as well as the financial ability or influence of the people you want to sell to.
For example, many young people tend to hang out on various social media platforms. If you want to sell products like clothes to the youth, you should consider using popular social media platforms to do so. Selling them stuff via official news sites online might not be the most effective way to go about it.
2. Your Advertising Budget
How much money your business can afford to spend on marketing will also determine your online marketing strategy. Some advertising strategies might initially cost a significant amount of money, while others do not cost a single cent.
If money is a problem, you do not need to worry. By creating content on your business blog or using email as a tool for marketing, you can advertise your brand products free of charge.
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3. Your Preferred Business Model
The kind of business model you have set up for your traditional marketing efforts will also determine the strategies that you use for marketing online.
For example, if your business model of choice is the lead-based model, your strategy should include the use of contact forms. These forms will come in handy when you want to send emails for marketing purposes.
Do ensure that you select a business model that will yield the best results for your business after your marketing campaigns have run. Consider combining multiple business models if necessary.
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Your online business environment will also be instrumental in helping you select the best marketing strategy. Whatever you do, you must ensure that your business brand stands out amidst the competition. It is imperative that you select an Internet marketing strategy that will make your products unique.
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By doing your research early on and considering all the main factors, you will be able to select the most suitable Internet marketing strategy. This will in turn make your marketing campaigns easier to carry out. In addition, prior research will yield better results as far as sales and revenue generation is concerned.


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If the buildup doesn't disappoint, you can expect plenty of news out of the U.S. House Oversight Committee hearing on May 8, 2013.
The panel will review how President Barack Obama's administration -- including then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- handled the Sept. 11, 2012 bombing at the U.S. consulate in Benghzai, Libya.
The attack killed four Americans -- and set off administration critics such as U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.
A few days before the hearing, it was disclosed that a top U.S. diplomat had said "everyone" at the consulate thought "from the beginning" that the attack was an act of terror.
And even before that, Johnson had reminded citizens at least twice of what Clinton told him about the attack during a Senate committee hearing in January 2013.
"Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night and decided they'd go kill some Americans," Clinton said. "What difference – at this point, what difference does it make?"
So that was the punch-line quote. But what was the context?
With Benghazi back in the news and renewed attention being paid to Clinton's comment, we thought this would be a good time for In Context, an occasional feature that gives context to statements that get widespread notice.
Based on a C-SPAN video of their six-minute exchange, here is a transcript of what Johnson and Clinton said during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Jan. 23, 2013:
Johnson: Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Madam Secretary. I'd like to join my colleagues in thanking you for your service sincerely, and also appreciate the fact that you're here testifying and glad that you're looking in good health.
Clinton: Thank you.
Johnson: Were you fully aware in real time -- and again, I realize how big your job is and everything is erupting in the Middle East at this time -- were you fully aware of these 20 incidents that were reported in the ARB[State Department Accountability Review Board] in real time?
Clinton: I was aware of the ones that were brought to my attention. They were part of our ongoing discussion about the deteriorating threat environment in eastern Libya. We certainly were very conscious of them. I was assured by our security professionals that repairs were under way, additional security upgrades had taken place.
Johnson: Thank you. Did you see personally the cable on -- I believe it was August 12th -- specifically asking for, basically, reinforcements for the security detail that was going to be evacuating or leaving in August? Did you see that personally?
Clinton: No, sir.
Johnson: OK. When you read the ARB, it strikes me as how certain the people were that the attacks started at 9:40 Benghazi time. When was the first time you spoke to -- or have you ever spoken to -- the returnees, the evacuees? Did you personally speak to those folks?
Clinton: I've spoken to one of them, but I waited until after the ARB had done its investigation because I did not want there to be anybody raising any issue that I had spoken to anyone before the ARB conducted its investigation.
Johnson: How many people were evacuated from Libya?
Clinton: Well, the numbers are a little bit hard to pin down because of our other friends --
Johnson: Approximately?
Clinton: Approximately, 25 to 30.
Johnson: Did anybody in the State Department talk to those folks very shortly afterwards?
Clinton: There was discussion going on afterwards, but once the investigation started, the FBI spoke to them before we spoke to them, and so other than our people in Tripoli -- which, I think you're talking about Washington, right?
Johnson: The point I'm making is, a very simple phone call to these individuals, I think, would've ascertained immediately that there was no protest prior to this. This attack started at 9:40 p.m. Benghazi time and it was an assault. I appreciate the fact that you called it an assault. But I'm going back to then-Ambassador [Susan] Rice five days later going on the Sunday shows and, what I would say, is purposefully misleading the American public. Why wasn't that known? And again, I appreciate the fact that the transparency of this hearing, but why weren't we transparent to that point in time?
Clinton: Well, first of all, Senator, I would say that once the assault happened, and once we got our people rescued and out, our most immediate concern was, number one, taking care of their injuries. As I said, I still have a DS [Diplomatic Security] agent at Walter Reed seriously injured -- getting them into Frankfurt, Ramstein to get taken care of, the FBI going over immediately to start talking to them. We did not think it was appropriate for us to talk to them before the FBI conducted their interviews. And we did not -- I think this is accurate, sir -- I certainly did not know of any reports that contradicted the IC [Intelligence Community] talking points at the time that Ambassador Rice went on the TV shows. And you know I just want to say that people have accused Ambassador Rice and the administration of misleading Americans. I can say trying to be in the middle of this and understanding what was going on, nothing could be further from the truth. Was information developing? Was the situation fluid? Would we reach conclusions later that weren't reached initially? And I appreciate the --
Johnson: But, Madame Secretary, do you disagree with me that a simple phone call to those evacuees to determine what happened wouldn't have ascertained immediately that there was no protest? That was a piece of information that could have been easily, easily obtained?
Clinton: But, Senator, again—
Johnson: Within hours, if not days?
Clinton: Senator, you know, when you're in these positions, the last thing you want to do is interfere with any other process going on, number one—
Johnson: I realize that's a good excuse.
Clinton: Well, no, it's the fact. Number two, I would recommend highly you read both what the ARB said about it and the classified ARB because, even today, there are questions being raised. Now, we have no doubt they were terrorists, they were militants, they attacked us, they killed our people. But what was going on and why they were doing what they were doing is still unknown --
Johnson: No, again, we were misled that there were supposedly protests and that something sprang out of that -- an assault sprang out of that -- and that was easily ascertained that that was not the fact, and the American people could have known that within days and they didn't know that.
Clinton: With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided that they'd they go kill some Americans? What difference at this point does it make? It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, Senator. Now, honestly, I will do my best to answer your questions about this, but the fact is that people were trying in real time to get to the best information. The IC has a process, I understand, going with the other committees to explain how these talking points came out. But you know, to be clear, it is, from my perspective, less important today looking backwards as to why these militants decided they did it than to find them and bring them to justice, and then maybe we'll figure out what was going on in the meantime.
Johnson: OK. Thank you, Madame Secretary.
Our Sources
National Journal, "What to expect at Wednesday's Benghazi hearing," May 6, 2013
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, news release, May 1, 2013
WTMJ-AM, Charlie Sykes interview of U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, May 5, 2013
C-SPAN, video excerpt of Senate committee hearing, Jan. 23, 2013

subset: commoncrawl


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Robotically assisted prostate brachytherapy with transrectal ultrasound guidance–Phantom experiments.
Brachytherapy. 5, 14–26. Fichtinger2006.pdf (806.94 KB)
(2006). Robotically Assisted Prostate Biopsy And Therapy With Intra-Operative CT Guidance.
Journal of Academic Radiology. 9 no 1, 60-74. Fichtinger2002.pdf (5.78 MB)
(2002). Robotically Assisted Needle Placement for Prostate Brachytherapy.
Journal of Medical Physics. 33, 2264-2264. Kennedy2006.pdf (4.07 MB)
(2006). A robotic system for [sup 18]F-FMISO PET-guided intratumoral pO[sub 2] measurements.
Medical Physics. 36, 5301-5309. Chang2009.pdf (717.56 KB)
(2009). Robotic System for MRI-guided Prostate Biopsy: Feasibility of Teleoperated Needle Insertion and ex vivo Phantom Study.
International Journal of Computer Aided Radiology and Surgery (IJCARS). Seifabadi2011a.pdf (830.16 KB)
(2011). Robotic Strain Imaging for Monitoring Thermal Ablation of Liver Tumors.
Proceedings in Lecture Notes in Computer Science. 3217, 81-88. Boctor2004b.pdf (1.19 MB)
(2004). Robotic needle positioner for ultrasound-guided prostate brachytherapy.
Brachytherapy. 7, 176 - 176. Song2008a.pdf (45.96 KB)
(2008). Robotic needle guide for prostate brachytherapy: Clinical testing of feasibility and performance.
Brachytherapy. 10, 57 - 63. Song2011.pdf (820.98 KB)
(2011). Robotic assistant for transperineal prostate interventions in 3T closed MRI.
Medical image computing and computer-assisted intervention (MICCAI). 10, 425–433. Fischer2007b.pdf (1.22 MB)
(2007). Robotic assistance for ultrasound-guided prostate brachytherapy.
Medical Image Analysis. 12, 535. Fichtinger2008b.pdf (1.12 MB)
(2008). Robotic assistance for ultrasound guided prostate brachytherapy.
Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention (MICCAI). 4791, 119–127. Fichtinger2007c.pdf (3.85 MB)
(2007). Robot-assisted needle placement in open-MRI: system architecture, integration and validation.
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(2006). Robot-assisted needle placement in open MRI: system architecture, integration and validation.
Journal of Computer Aided Surgery. 12, 15–24. DiMaio2007a.pdf (372.98 KB)
(2007). Registration Between Ultrasound and Fluoroscopy or CT in Prostate Brachytherapy.
Medical Physics. 37, 2749-2760. Fallavollita2010c.pdf (612.48 KB)
(2010). Registered ultrasound and fluoroscopy for intraoperative dynamic dosimetry in prostate brachytherapy.
Brachytherapy. 7, 102 - 102. Song2008.pdf (42.17 KB)
(2008). REDMAPS: Reduced-Dimensionality Matching for Prostate Brachytherapy Seed Reconstruction.
IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging. 30, 38-51. Lee2011.pdf (860.39 KB)
(2011). Real‐time electromagnetic navigation for breast‐conserving surgery using NaviKnife technology: A matched case‐control study.
The Breast Journal. 26, 399-405.
(2020). Real-time tissue tracking with B-mode ultrasound using speckle and visual servoing.
Tenth International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention (MICCAI). 10, 1–8. Krupa2007.pdf (5.31 MB)
(2007). Real-time quality control of tracked ultrasound.
Medical image computing and computer-assisted intervention (MICCAI). 8, 621–630. Boctor2005.pdf (693.27 KB)
(2005). Real-time Motion Stabilization with B-Mode Ultrasound Using Image Speckle Information and Visual Servoing.
International Journal of Robotics Research. 28, 1334-1354. Krupa2009b.pdf (2.35 MB)
(2009). Real-time automatic tumor segmentation for ultrasound-guided breast-conserving surgery navigation.
International Journal of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery.
(In Press). Real-time 6 DOF Tissue Tracking with B-Mode Ultrasound Using Speckle and Visual Servoing.
Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention (MICCAI) Proceedings in Lecture Notes in Computer Science. 4792, 1-8. Krupa2007a_0.pdf (5.31 MB)
(2007). Quantification of edematic effects in prostate brachytherapy interventions.
Medical image computing and computer-assisted intervention (MICCAI). 11, 493–500. Hefny2008.pdf (408.83 KB)
(2008). Prostate implant reconstruction with discrete tomography.
Medical image computing and computer-assisted intervention (MICCAI). 10, 734–742. Liu2007.pdf (615.02 KB)
(2007). Prostate implant reconstruction from C-arm images with motion-compensated tomosynthesis.
Medical Physics. 38, 5290 – 5302. Dehghan_etal_MedPhys2011.pdf (1.72 MB)


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Iran's long time No. 1 GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami is seeded sixteen in the Indonesia Open Chess Championship (IOCC) 2012 but the thirty second ranked Asian chessplayer (according to the FiDE website) does not believe that means anything in such a strong tournament.
Currently this football fanatic is in 29th position but the target of the 10-time Iran National Champion is simply to improve his ranking through a good performance at IOCC 2012.
Q: How are did you get to play in this tournament?
A: This is the second edition of the tournament. Of course it is increasingly popular because it is now the second time. My thanks and congratulations to the sponsors and organisers for doing this tournament as it raises the prestige of its national players and that is good for the promotion of chess in Indonesia.
Q: What do you like about a tournament like this?
A: I am very comfortable here and hope I will be invited back next year.
Q: Iran currently has an excellent chess development program. What is its secret? And how is the situation with chess in Iran today?
A: In the last 10 years chess has greatly increased in popularity in Iran. Many families now encourage their children to learn and play chess. Furthermore many top level tournaments have been held in Iran and as a result of all this many talented players have emerged. The future for chess in Iran is very bright. And chess has also become a family game.
Q: Why did you choose chess?
A: At first I played football. I was the captain of the football team of Teheran, the capital of Iran. I played as a striker. After a few years of football I wanted to do something different. So everything changed when I was introduced to chess. I tried it, liked it, chess was very attractive and in the end I fell in love with it.
At that time I was just eight years old when I started to play chess. Now I am already 29 years old and to be truthful, soon will become 30 years old. So I have played chess for 21 years and yet have never been bored. I like chess because it is broad and deep and so not everything can be worked out. All chessplayers have to study. And again and again. Chess is unlimited. Chess can be played for a long time.
Q: You are considered to be one of Asia's elite chessplayers. What is your thought on this?
A: To be honest I still do not use my time well. I am not one of those professional chessplayers who dedicates his life to achieve a certain goal. Instead I find that eight years ago I was better than I am today. In the last eight years I have been busy. I studied and worked and my development was affected. I did not give 100 percent to chess. However two months ago I have started to once again give my full concentration to chess. I expect to soon see improvement again.
Q: What were you so busy with that distracted you from your chess focus?
A: I ran a few schools and was also busy managing a few small businesses. Until my time for chess was just 30 percent. Now I intend to give 80 percent to chess.
Q: Who is your favourite chessplayer?
A: Looking at the history of chess, I really like Anatoly Karpov, Gary Kasparov, Bobby Fischer and Viswanathan Anand, Actually I respect all the greats as they are all very talented. But I cannot mention them all as there are just too many.
Q: You do other sport?
A; I play football once a week or at least once a month. But that is sometimes difficult if I am out of the country playing in tournaments. Usually of course I play football with my friends.
Q: You have a favourite football club?
A: Barcelona. I no longer am able to follow the Iran National Football League because of lack of time. Now I just watch Barcelona play.
Q: Who is your favourite football player?
A: Lionel Messi
Q: How do you find Indonesia?
A: I like Indonesia. Before I have been to Jakarta. Last year I played in the Asian Cities which was held here too.


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Sound waves levitate and move objects
Contact-free manipulation could help to protect samples from contamination.
Water droplets, coffee granules, fragments of polystyrene and even a toothpick are among the items that have been flying around in a Swiss laboratory lately — all of them kept in the air by sound waves. The device that achieves this acoustic levitation is the first to be capable of handling several objects simultaneously. It is described today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Typically, levitation techniques make use of electromagnetism; magnetic forces have even been used to levitate frogs. It has long been known that sound waves could counter gravity, too, but so far the method has lacked practical application because it could do little more than keep an object in place.
To also move and manipulate levitating objects, Dimos Poulikakos, a mechanical engineer at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, and his colleagues built sound-making platforms using piezoelectric crystals, which shrink or stretch depending on the voltage applied to them. Each platform is the size of a pinky nail.
The platforms emit sound waves which move upward until they reach surface lying above, where they bounce back. When the downward-moving reflected waves overlap with the upward-moving source waves, the two 'cancel out' in the middle, at so-called node points. Objects placed there remain stuck in place because of the pressure of sound waves coming from both directions.
By adjusting the position of the nodes, the researchers can tow the objects between platforms. The platforms can be arranged in different ways to adapt to various experiments. In one demonstration involving a T-shaped array of platforms, the researchers joined two droplets introduced at separate locations then deposited the combined droplet at a third location.
Hands-free reactions
The system could be used to combine chemical reactants without the contamination that can result from contact with the surface of a container. Sound waves are already used in the pharmaceutical industry to obtain accurate results during drug screening. Yet Poulikakos's method is the first to offer the possibility of precisely controlling several items simultaneously.
Poulikakos suggests that the system could be used to safely try out hazardous chemical reactions. "We had fun demonstrating the idea by colliding a lump of sodium with some water, which is obviously an aggressive reaction," he says.
Peter Christianen, a physicist who works on electromagnetic levitation at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, says that he's impressed with the invention. "I really like it; this is a very versatile platform — almost anything you want to manipulate, you can."
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I understand you went to Exeter Academy. Tell me about your time there.
Vis-a-vis writing, Exeter was the place I got interested in writing. Not sure that would've happened at my local public high school. Exeter alum writers were really promoted and we always had a troop of them coming through: Gore Vidal, George Plimpton, John Irving. We had a James Agee year, where we all read Agee's work. It's a place where writing and writers were revered. I'd always been an avid reader, but it was there that I started to focus on writing.
Was there a breakout moment for you, when you first felt that you'd written something that you'd like to put out there?
After college I was living in New York and wrote furiously, a huge novel that I knew was a failure. I hoped that the book would work, but to be honest I think I knew it would never work, even as I was finishing it. I knew it was deeply flawed. Just not good enough. When I went to graduate school shortly thereafter I remember writing the first chapter of my first published novel, Native Speaker, for a workshop. After I wrote it, even before anyone said anything, I did feel that I'd tapped into something essential, something I'd been mulling over for a long time without knowing I'd been mulling over. I didn't know if it was really good or not, but I did know it was real. Does that make sense?
I could just sort of viscerally feel that there was something real going on there. Not "real" in the realistic sense, but something emotionally real.
Most Anglophone readers know little or nothing about Korean fiction. Can you recommend a Korean novel, and is there anything unique and distinctive about Korean literature that you could pinpoint?
To be honest I'm not that much of a reader of Korean fiction since so little is translated. The one that made a huge splash in recent years, by Kyung-sook Shin Please Look After Mom won the 2012 Man Asian Literary Prize]. That's a really interesting book. To me, I read it as a sparely-written, but deeply, emotionally powerful. And it translates pretty well because of its style.
You teach creative writing at Princeton. Tell us about your approach to teaching the craft of writing. Do you have a favorite assignment to give your students?
My basic approach is to force the students to do very, very, very close reading of our texts, the short stories that I assign, and even their peer work. I don't like to use writing assignments, exercises. I think too often people get comfortable writing in that vein, but you can't go on to write a novel comprised of short writing exercises. They can initiate ideas and catalyze a certain form, but the trick is not to begin, but to sustain. You really need a great understanding and feel of how your particular form of storytelling works. I consider my workshop a close reading class. If we can really break down, say, the beginning of a short story, and sometimes spend the entire class just talking about the first two paragraphs … I think it really helps students get inside authorial choices. Not to figure out what was intended, but to go through all the possibilities. And the knowledge and experience of those possibilities might later help them in a moment of their own stories.
There have been quite a few popular post-apocalyptic or dystopian novels in recent years by prominent literary novelists. What drew you to the subject and why do you think the general public is so keen on the subject of late?
I think dystopian novels are really about present anxiety, aren't they? The environment, genetic engineering, economic inequality that tackling head-on might not be as delightful and interesting for the writer. But with a slightly different form, circumstance, context it can bring out new language and ideas about the issues. And we're not necessarily writing about issues, but the emotional sensibility that underpins our worrying about those issues. And also people just enjoy entering new worlds, from the perspective of writers and readers. I know I did. Rather than tackling a realistic setting inside a suburban house, a domestic drama—obviously you have to put something fresh into that for anyone to want to read it. When you change the context radically, to fast-forward a few hundred years, it changes the assumption of how we think about a place, so the human expression and human action change.
Describe your morning routine on a day that you'd be writing.
I wake quite early, about 6:30. Make breakfast for the children. Have my coffee. Very important. Just one cup. I have my own breakfast, send the kids off to school. Perhaps change into my daily writer's clothes … A pair of comfortable writing pants. I have a lot of different writing pants. I don't like to wear constrictive … if I can use that word. They could be pajama bottoms, sweats, fleece kind of things. They range.
But no writing in blue jeans.
No, no writing in blue jeans. No writing in suits. In the summer maybe I'll just write in shorts. And then I sit down at my desk around 7:30 or so, and I'll write until lunch. I'll rest a bit after that, or exercise for an hour. Then back to work for another few hours, 'til 3 or 3:30.
Is there anything distinctive about your writing space or routine, besides non-constrictive writing trousers?
Pretty typical. I write on a computer. On breaks I'll make myself green tea. I don't want something too caffeinated. I guess I don't believe in chemical enhancement of my writing. Just slight, but nothing crazy.
If you could bring back to life one deceased person, who would it be and why?
It would absolutely be my mother. My mother died in 1991, when I was 25 years old. During that time I was working on that first failed novel I told you about. So she died knowing I was trying to be a writer but never got to see me actually succeeding at it. And she was worried about it. And for my own sake, I'd just love to see her again, because she died relatively young. But I think she would love to see that I continued in my writing career.
Tell us a funny story related to a book tour or book event.
At the end of a book tour you're so exhausted, and because you're talking about yourself you get disgusted with yourself. I was so tired, and one night I was eating late at a Korean restaurant. You know the Korean-style barbecue that you wrap in lettuce leaves to eat?
Sure, that's good stuff.
You wrap barbecue beef and pork in lettuce and eat it that way. Literally, one night I bit into my own finger. I was so tired and out of it that I didn't at first realize I'd done so. And I think I actually consumed a small amount of my finger, which I later thought was, metaphorically, just right for where I was psychically!
What would you like carved onto your tombstone?
Maybe "I always sought beauty."
Tell us something about yourself that is largely unknown and perhaps surprising.
Most things are unknown about me … I do love playing golf.
Are you any good?
I'm pretty good at it. Most people think golfers are round republicans, but I found that some writers really enjoy golf. It's such an intricate, complicated, difficult game, and it's never the same thing twice. I think that appeals to those who write.


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I got to say, I love anything wireless. Flat screen HDTV were meant to be wireless. I hope this is as bad ass as it sounds. Also a $599 Blu-ray Home Theater in a Box. That is a wondering price point to put Philips in the game. Most of the new blu-ray stand alone players coming out are near $300 alone. Now this type of price point will really help to start attracting people. Lets cross our fingers that blu-ray media will fall in price also and we'd have a win.
Are blu-ray players for you? Would a BD HTiB get you motivated to make it you? Take our poll.
New York — Philips plans fourth-quarter shipment of its first wireless-HD transmitter/receiver system and late-June shipments of its first Blu-ray-equipped home theater in a box (HTiB) system, which will retail for a suggested $599.
The HTiB is from P&F, the Atlanta-based Funai Electric subsidiary that markets Philips-branded TVs and HTiBs in the U.S. under a licensing agreement with Philips. The wireless HDMI device is from Stamford, Conn.-based Philips Consumer Lifestyle (PCC), which markets MP3 players, iPod-docking speaker systems, digital media adapters, DECT cordless phones, remotes and other accessories.
read more on tvs.consumerelectronicsnet.com
source: Twice
via: tvs.consumerelectronicsnet.com


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Actually, for a bike review it wasn't all that zany--apart from this:
Are they talking about a bicycle or someone who's applying for a position with the Secret Service? How exactly does a bicycle lack confidence? I suppose it can be less than confidence-inspiring, but then again, as Desmond Tutu or Ronald Reagan or somebody like that once said, "If you're a wuss you're a wuss," and no amount of bicycle is going to change that.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Jernel is now tempering its anti-bike blather with what it thinks is subtlety, and instead of getting some crazy old bat to ramble on about totalitarianism and "begriming," they're now implying we should all shut up because at least we don't have it as bad as Bangkok:
Also, shamans are messengers--but not the trendy kind who model Outlier clothing:
"Shamans are messengers. We unite the human and the spirit worlds."
Though sometimes the spirit world is uncommunicative, which is when they use computers:
Of course, everybody has a job on the ShamanCycle, and the most coveted one is opening and closing the tail feather:
Meanwhile, the hardest job is crafting lines like this:
"The shaman cycle is a monument to the reality of the imagination and the medicine power of big art."
It's also the final "loogie" on the grave of the Native American culture, which has been officially reduced to three food co-op members tickling each other with feathers in a Park Slope backyard:
This is the ceremony you're supposed to perform when you're refinancing your brownstone:
As for the concept behind the ShamanCycle, well:
"The idea for the ShamanCycle came to me in a dream:"
Having a dream about something doesn't mean you should do it in real life. Actually, it usually means the opposite. You know that dream where you show up for jury duty naked? Well, you're not actually supposed to do it, nor should you launch a Kickstarter to build a gigantic 12 person jury box bakfiets--even if a "beautiful eagle" tells you to:
"A beautiful eagle came to me with an axle in her claws and said, 'Phoebe? Build a bicycle for your people.'"
By "your people" I assume she means the people of Park Slope, a noble tribe called 'The Subaru' who are as powerful in numbers as they are of wallet.
"'I will shield them from the sun with my wings, and my flashing eyes will search the land for where my eagle medicine health is needed.'"
Oh, also, you gotta ride it naked:
Looks like somebody needs a Grundle Towel.


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• Cupid •
Pronunciation: kyu-pid • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: 1. (Cupid) The Roman god of love. 2. (cupid) A representation of Cupid as a naked cherubic boy usually having wings and holding a bow and arrow, used as a symbol of romantic love.
Notes: Cupid's bow for shooting arrows curves inward in the middle and usually outward at the ends. Cupid's arrows, however, are the delicious pangs of love, and St. Valentine's Day is the day to look out for the little cherub. To learn more about St. Valentine, click here.
In Play: Cupid is first and foremost an abstraction symbolizing romantic, not platonic, love: "Marjorie has been playing Cupid again, trying to fix Ben Gay up with a girlfriend." We do occasionally use this word to refer to the Roman child-god: "In love! You say you are in love! Cupid has been playing around with your psyche just as he played around with the real one in Roman mythology!" (For clarification, read on.)
Word History: Today's Good Word, like so many others, comes to us from Latin: Cupid was the Roman god of love (Eros in Greek mythology). The name is based on cupido "desire" from the verb cupere "to desire". The noun cupidity "greed, avarice" comes from the same source. Romance, of course, is a special case of strong desire. According to Roman mythology, Cupid was the son of Mercury, the messenger god with the wings on his ankles, and Venus, the goddess of love. Venus' daughter Psyche had such a radiant beauty that it rivaled that of Venus, so Romans were deserting Venus to worship her. This angered Venus, so she asked Cupid to cast a spell on Psyche that would make her fall in love with the most loathsome creature on Earth. Cupid, however, filled with desire for Psyche himself, had her spirited away to a magnificent palace where he visited her every night.
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Movie theaters may open at 50% capacity.
Show All Answers
Governor Greg Abbott has issued an executive order limiting certain businesses and services as part of the state's efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19.
The order includes the following:
Further Protocols:
All businesses should continue to follow the minimum standard health protocols from DSHS. For details and a full list of guidelines, openings, and relevant dates, visit http://open.texas.gov.
Reminders for those going out:
View the Governor's Executive Order.
Beginning May 1, Texans are allowed to leave home to provide or obtain essential services or reopened services (restaurants, retailers, theaters, malls); however, social gatherings and in-person contact with people who are not in the same household should still be minimized.
Yes. COVID-19 is still a threat to public health, and it is up to us as individuals to practice good hygiene to reduce risk. Keep a six foot distance between yourself and others, wash your hands frequently, avoid touching your face, stay home if you are feeling sick, and wear a cloth mask when out in public.
Guidelines for people over the age of 65 are posted on pages 6 and 7 in Texans Helping Texans: The Governor's Report to Open Texas. These guidelines include:
To determine your occupancy limit, please contact the San Marcos FD Prevention Division at (512) 805-2600 or firstname.lastname@example.com, and an Inspector will respond to your location and calculate your allowed occupancy.
Yes, individual businesses can require face coverings be worn by customers upon entry.
It is preferable to allocate 1 to 2 hours in the morning hours for at-risk customers. This allows them to access the facility early in the day before other customers have occupied the space.
Restaurants may remain open for dine-in service, but at a capacity not to exceed 50% of total listed indoor occupancy, beginning Monday, June 29, 2020.
All bars and similar establishments that receive more than 51% of their gross receipts from the sale of alcoholic beverages are required to close at 12:00 PM June 26, 2020. These businesses may remain open for delivery and take-out, including for alcoholic beverages, as authorized by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.
All businesses currently operating at 25% capacity can expand their occupancy to 50% with certain exceptions. Full details are listed at https://open.texas.gov/
Effective May 8, 2020, salons and barber shops may operate provided they can ensure at least 6 feet social distancing between operating work stations and service of one customer at a time per stylist. Because of the proximity between individuals in these facilities, stringent compliance with these protocols is strongly recommended: https://gov.texas.gov/uploads/files/organization/opentexas/OpenTexas-Checklist-Barber-Shops.pdf
Gyms and exercise facilities and classes may operate up to 50% of the total listed occupancy of the gym or exercise facility. Locker rooms and shower facilities must remain closed, but restrooms may be open. Employees and contractors of the gym or exercise facility are not counted towards the 25% occupancy limitation. Full safety checklist: https://gov.texas.gov/uploads/files/organization/opentexas/OpenTexas-Checklist-Gyms-Exercise-Facilities.pdf
Museums and libraries may open at 50% capacity.
Please contact the COVID-19 Business Hotline at (512) 393-5930.
All City facilities that are currently closed, including the public library, parks and playscapes, will remain closed at this time and opening will be evaluated in coordination with the results of the additional state testing.
River parks, greenspaces and nature trails are open to the public but caution is still advised. In addition, the Dog Park is now open. For a listing of open and closed parks and greenspaces, visit www.sanmarcostx.gov/covid19parksinfo
Consistent with the actions taken by many individuals across the state, consider wearing cloth face coverings (over the nose and mouth) when participating in the adult recreation sports event and practice. If available, individuals should consider wearing non-medical grade face masks. Spectators should avoid being in a group larger than 10 individuals. Within these groups, individuals should, to the extent possible, minimize in-person contact with others not in the individual's household. Minimizing in-person contact includes maintaining 6 feet of separation from individuals.
The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA or Act) requires certain employers to provide their employees with paid sick leave and expanded family and medical leave for specified reasons related to COVID-19. For more information, contact 1-866-487-9243.
Religious services may remain open and are advised to maintain minimum standard health protocols. This also applies to funeral services, burials, and memorials.
You can find a link to the Open Texas Report at the Open Texas webpage.
The Governor has issued an executive order stating outdoor gatherings of 100 or more people must be approved by local governments, with certain exceptions. In San Marcos, the special event permit process still applies, such as for large gatherings, concerts, festivals, etc. Contact the San Marcos Fire Marshal's office for more information.


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If you told me I'll be among the "top" bloggers when I started this little blog five years ago, I'll call you crazy. And if you are from the future (like Time Traveler's Wife) and told me there'll be this thing called Project Alpha and I'd be in season 2, I'd have laughed so hard I'd die instantly, much like Martin of Aragon.
The good thing about this version of reality we're in is that time machine is very much confined to science fiction, and truth itself is often stranger than stories the best script writer could conjure up.
So yah, together with my fellow porkgang member Cheesie and Shaolintiger, proper celebrity Azwan Ali, pretty boy Niki Cheong, yoga instructor Ninie Ahmad, and Joe Lee, yours truly is in Project Alpha season 2. *bow*
Life is ridiculous like that, and thus for the photo shoot of Project Alpha season 2, the make up artists gave me a ridiculous hairstyle that's been described as.. *ahem* "Korean pop star" look. Don't think I'll ever get used to it, I'll just keep my hair messy and free of combing as usual TQVM 😀
Jojo working the camera, and the Project Alpha season 2 casts + sponsors
Cheesie, ST (with Kim) and I had our session shot with Jojo and the crew at Lost World of Tambun earlier in the year (will blog about the trip soon). It was a fun and exciting experience, being in front of the camera with half a dozen crew working behind it isn't exactly the easiest thing to do.
But here we are, it is done, and Project Alpha season 2 is coming on the 19th April! Very soon now!
Last Wednesday the show is officially kicked off! We had a press conference and screening at Cineleisure with all the cast (except Cheesie who's in Japan) and sponsors. Gareth and I were pulled aside for an interview with Nanyang daily too, though the mat salleh can't exactly speak in Mandarin.
At the same time, the trailer is launched and will be on big screen before movies this whole month at Cineleisure too!
Check out projectalpha.com.my for more videos that are coming, and if you're on twitter, follow #ProjectAlpha hashtag too.
Life just got more exciting! 😀
Project Alpha season 2 is presented by Adidas Action 3 and supported by P1 as well as MAS.


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Julie Jonassen,PhD, with husband and IT specialist Richard Rabe, will launch a computerized medical learning management system in Liberia this summer.
A team of UMass Medical School faculty is headed to Liberia to help modernize the country's only medical school by installing a computer network that will vastly improve how aspiring doctors are trained. The computerized curriculum project is a new initiative in UMass Medical School's ongoing commitment to help rebuild Liberia's health care system.
"It's exciting to think about being in a place where you can do something transformational—that's what we're hoping to do," said Julie Jonassen, PhD. "Our goal is to build a complete, self-contained system in Liberia, where the power goes off every day and they don't have reliable access to the Internet."
Dr. Jonassen, professor of microbiology & physiological systems, and her husband, IT specialist Richard Rabe, will spend three weeks at the A. M. Dogliotti School of Medicine in Monrovia, where they will set up and test what they call a self-contained "curriculum delivery system in a box."
"A learning system is a repository of teaching materials—lectures, Powerpoint slides, quizzes—that students can interact with through an intranet in a local learning environment, without being connected to the Internet," explained Jonassen.
A longtime member of the Educational Policy Committee at UMMS, Jonassen has extensive experience in curriculum development. Initially interested in joining colleagues in Liberia to teach its medical students, she learned through the UMMS Office of Global Health that installing a computer lab is part of the overall agenda for efforts at the University of Liberia that are funded in large part by a $2.6 million award from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) through Higher Education for Development (HED). HED manages the educational partnership which includes Indiana University as well as UMMS and the University of Liberia.
"The potential for this system is being able to create all the elements for an online or blended curriculum. You could enroll your class, upload materials, deliver the exams and quizzes, manage the grades, manage the quizzes, upload lectures, videos, annotated voiceover Powerpoints," said Jonassen. "Part of creating sustainability is making sure that we don't just transfer the hardware, but that we transfer the knowledge about how to develop and maintain curriculum in an online, computer-based interactive environment.
That's where Rabe came in, bringing decades of IT experience to the project. He spent months learning about the operating system Ubuntu Linux and the educational software platform MOODLE, both free open-source products that he recommended for the Liberia project based on their accessibility and ease of use. Now with another firm, Rabe was most recently at St. Gobain Abrasives in Worcester, where he received enormous support for the UMMS project.
"We want to make it sustainable—something that Liberians can maintain, taking into account things like an unstable electrical environment and no air conditioning," Rabe noted. "We still have a few of those challenges to face when we're there."
While Rabe works to overcome infrastructure deficiencies, Jonassen is customizing the curricular components. "I've been thinking about health care and health issues in Africa versus in Worcester as I work with these materials," she said. For example, she is reframing the module on thyroid disease because in Africa it is predominantly caused by iodine deficiency, which is practically nonexistent in the United States.
The project is a personal as well as professional mission for Jonassen and Rabe. They have been inspired by their eldest daughter's enthusiasm for her career in global health, which has taken her to Africa several times. They also hope to extend their mission by forging connections between their home church in Belchertown and a congregation in Liberia.
Beyond its potential to transform medical teaching and learning in Liberia, the project also holds great promise for UMMS global health initiatives in other countries.
"Once we get this system working, we hope to take it to other countries," said Katherine Luzuriaga, MD, professor of medicine and pediatrics, vice provost for clinical and translational research, associate provost of global health and principal investigator of the USAID grant. "This is an exciting story of how a UMMS-community partnership has enabled us to do so much more than we could have done with the grant alone."
Related links on UMassMedNow:
Gilroy teaches anatomy in Liberia
UMMS faculty forge strong bonds with Liberia
Launching medical education studies in Liberia
Library projects lending order to chaos in Liberia
Medical School team rebuilding health care in Liberia


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John Gurdon
Our editors will review what you've submitted and determine whether to revise the article.
- In full:
- Sir John Bertrand Gurdon
- Awards And Honors:
- Nobel Prize (2012)
- Copley Medal (2003)
- Subjects Of Study:
- cloning
- nuclear transfer
John Gurdon, (born October 2, 1933, Dippenhall, Hampshire, England), British developmental biologist who was the first to demonstrate that egg cells are able to reprogram differentiated (mature) cell nuclei, reverting them to a pluripotent state, in which they regain the capacity to become any type of cell. Gurdon's work ultimately came to form the foundation for major advances in cloning and stem cell research, including the generation of Dolly—the first successfully cloned mammal—by British developmental biologist Sir Ian Wilmut and the discovery of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells by Japanese physician and researcher Shinya Yamanaka—an advance that revolutionized the field of regenerative medicine. For his discoveries, Gurdon was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, which he shared with Yamanaka.
Gurdon studied classics (ancient Greek and Roman language and literature) as a student at Eton College, a prestigious secondary school for boys near Windsor, England. He intended to continue his classics studies at Christ Church, Oxford, but was not accepted to the program. Instead, after being tutored in zoology, he gained acceptance to that department at Oxford, earning a B.S. in 1956. That year he began his graduate studies in the laboratory of embryologist Michail Fischberg and initiated a series of experiments on nuclear transfer (the introduction of the nucleus from a differentiated cell into an egg cell that had its own nucleus removed) in the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis). He proceeded to generate cloned tadpoles from differentiated Xenopus intestinal cell nuclei, demonstrating that egg cells could undifferentiate previously differentiated nuclei and that normal embryos could be produced with the technique. He published his seminal findings in 1958. However, because American scientists Robert Briggs and Thomas King previously had found that the transfer of nuclei from partially differentiated cells consistently resulted in the production of abnormal embryos in the frog Rana pipiens, Gurdon's results were greeted with skepticism.
After completing a Ph.D. in 1960, Gurdon received a yearlong postdoctoral fellowship to conduct research at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, where he investigated the genetics of bacteria-infecting viruses (bacteriophages). He then returned to Oxford, becoming a faculty member in the zoology department and continuing his work to characterize nuclear changes that take place during cell differentiation.
In 1971 Gurdon joined the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge, and in 1979 he became the head of the LMB's division of cell biology. While there he worked to identify the molecules in egg cells that were responsible for the nuclear reprogramming effect. Also during that time, other scientists began to confirm the results of Gurdon's early experiments with Xenopus, which effectively solidified his position as a leader in nuclear transfer. In 1983 he took a professorship in cell biology at the University of Cambridge. He later moved to the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research Campaign Institute (later the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute), a Cambridge-based institution that he cofounded in 1989 and that in 2004 was named for him. He directed the institute until 2001, after which he focused on research full-time.
Gurdon received numerous awards throughout his career—notably, in addition to the 2012 Nobel Prize, the 1985 Royal Medal of the Royal Society, the 2003 Copley Medal of the Royal Society, and the 2009 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award (shared with Yamanaka). He was made a fellow of the Royal Society in 1971 and a foreign associate of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 1980. He was knighted in 1995.


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Reach a Global Audience
Cu peste 132 de milioane de utilizatori activi lunar în 249 de țări, Steam îți oferă acces la o comunitate mondială de jucători, aflată într-o continuă dezvoltare.
We've researched and seamlessly integrated the top ways players spend money in different countries around the world.
Localized currencies make purchases easier for customers. We have built-in support to help you configure prices correctly for each region.
With over 400 distributed servers worldwide and 1TB fiber backbone, Steam can quickly get your game to players anywhere in the world.
The Steam client has been optimized to support 28 core languages, making it easier and more enjoyable for global users to purchase games on Steam.
Submitting your game to Steam is easy. Fill out some digital paperwork, pay a small per-app fee, and you're ready to upload!


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AL Player of the Month: Davy Jones-St. Louis Browns
AL Picher of the Month: Joe McGinnity-New York Highlanders
AL Rookie of the Month: Doc Gessler-Washington Senators
NL Player of the Month: Honus Wagner-Pittsburgh Pirates
NL Pitcher of the Month: Bill Phillips-Cincinnati Reds
NL Rookie of the Month: Lew Drill-Cincinnati Reds
September Awards:
AL Player of the Month: John McGraw-New York Highlanders
AL Pitcher of the Month: Joe McGinnity-New York Highlanders
AL Rookie of the Month: Jack Morrissey-Boston Americans
NL Player of the Month: Sam Crawford-Cincinnati Reds
NL Pitcher of the Month: Happy Townsend-Philadelphia Phillies
NL Rookie of the Month: Jake Stahl-Cincinnati Reds
The AL pennant came down to the wire with the Philadelphia Athletics edging out both the Boston Americans & New York Highlanders by 1 game. The NL pennant was a runaway with the Pittsburgh Pirates beating the 2nd place St. Louis Cardinals by 26 games. In the 1902 World Series, the Pittsburgh Pirates swept the Philadelphia Athletics 4 games to zero.
1902 AL/NL Award Winners:
AL MVP: Mike "Turkey Mike" Donlin-New York Highlanders: .333, 2 HR, 82 RBI, 183 Hits, 33 SB
AL Cy Young: Kid Nichols-Philadelphia Athletics: 20-15, 1.71 ERA, 145 K's
AL ROY: Jimmy Sebring-Chicago White Sox: .284, 1 HR, 39 RBI, 124 Hits, 29 SB
NL MVP: Honus "The Flying Dutchman" Wagner-Pittsburgh Pirates: .316, 5 HR, 71 RBI, 179 Hits, 36 SB
NL Cy Young: Rube Waddell-Pittsburgh Pirates: 25-8, 1.86 ERA, 271 K's
NL ROY: Harry Bemis-New York Giants: .276, 1 HR, 57 RBI, 135 Hits, 8 SB
Player Spotlights:
Nuke LaLoosh-St. Louis Cardinals: 15-12, 1.67 ERA, 116 K's


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Amazon to trial delivery drones in UK skies
Under the "Prime Air" banner, Amazon wants to eventually use drone aircraft to deliver small packages to customers' homes in less than 30 minutes.
The new partnership with the Government and Civil Aviation Authority will see Amazon given permission to bypass some of the strict rules on drone flights in order to explore three key areas of the technology: beyond line-of-sight operations, testing sensors to ensure the drones can avoid obstacles and flights with one operator controls multiple automated drones at once.
Announcing the arrangement, Paul Misener, Amazon's vice president of global innovation policy and communications, said: "The UK is a leader in enabling drone innovation – we've been investing in Prime Air research and development here for quite some time.
"This announcement strengthens our partnership with the UK and brings Amazon closer to our goal of using drones to safely deliver parcels in 30 minutes to customers in the UK and elsewhere around the world."
Amazon says the testing programme will help it and the Government understand how drones can be used safely and reliably in the logistics industry. It will also help identify what operating rules and safety regulations will be needed if delivery drones are to become a common sight in our skies.
"Using small drones for the delivery of parcels will improve customer experience, create new jobs in a rapidly growing industry, and pioneer new sustainable delivery methods to meet future demand," said Misener. "The UK is charting a path forward for drone technology that will benefit consumers, industry and society."
The latest version of Amazon's drones have a range of 10 miles and can fly horizontally to the delivery address before performing a vertical landing and depositing the package. They can carry parcels weighing up to 5lbs and reach speeds of 50mph.


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When the Harvard University student, then a senior, turned in his take-home final exam for "Introduction to Congress" last spring, he thought he had done nothing wrong.
Yes, he had shared notes with friends in the course. But the instructions on the exam said students should consider it "completely open book, open note, open Internet, etc." The professor had encouraged students to collaborate in their other course work. So even though the exam also included the admonition that "students may not discuss the exam with others — this includes resident tutors, writing centers, etc.," the student said he figured it would be safe to swap a few ideas.
Besides, he knew something about tests. He had worked as a teaching assistant himself, helping another Harvard professor administer exams.
"My understanding was that you shouldn't sit down and take a test with someone else, or take someone else's test and present it as your own," he said. "But I wrote my own answers on the final."
In May, he graduated cum laude, settled into a job, and thought no more about "Intro to Congress" until early August, when the e-mail from Harvard's Administrative Board came. He read as far as "may have an impact on your degree" before he got angry, then worried: What was he going to tell his new boss?
Dozens of Harvard students are in similar positions after Thursday's announcement that about 125 of them — almost half of the 279-student "Intro to Congress" roster — are suspected of cheating on the course's final exam. In May, a teaching fellow noticed suspicious similarities among many of the test answers and notified the professor.
Some students admit to sharing ideas and source material during the time they were allotted to finish the exam. But all of those interviewed by the Globe — who requested anonymity because they feared the consequences of going public while their cases are pending — said the ground rules for both the test and the class at large were so unclear that they did not realize they were cheating.
That may partly answer the question on the minds of many at Harvard since Thursday: How could this have happened?
Some, such as the prominent education professor Howard Gardner, believe the episode is a sign of "the regular thinning of ethical muscles in our country."
"If for 20 years you've been studying young people, this isn't surprising," he added. "In many ways they're lovable and inspiring, but they cut corners the way you would jaywalk. . . . This is a textbook example of people doing what they think they can get away with rather than what they should be doing."
Other faculty members said they believe take-home exams entail too much temptation. On blogs and in interviews Friday, Harvard professors raised a cry: bring back the in-class final.
Still others said it might be time for Harvard to break with nearly 376 years of tradition and institute an honor code. Such policies are surprisingly rare at elite schools.
The idea gained momentum at Harvard two years ago, when a new academic integrity committee started considering ways to combat plagiarism, a phenomenon made too easy by the Internet and all too common by a generation that has grown up with shifting norms about the meaning of authorship.
But many at Harvard may resist an honor code, which was roundly rejected by a 1985 college committee. Some note that there are conflicting data on whether the codes work.
"I do think more understanding [of academic ethics] would be helpful," said Michael Mitzenmacher, a Harvard computer science professor who has served on the college's Administrative Board, the body that oversees disciplinary issues. "But I don't think a stated honor code necessarily would be."
Before Harvard administrators can make any long-term decisions following the cheating scandal, they will have to decide what to do with the 125 or so students scheduled to appear before the Administrative Board in the next few weeks. Penalties could range from mild admonitions to yearlong suspensions.
The deliberations will not be easy, given the apparent complexities of the scandal.
Matthew Platt, the professor in question, did not respond to several requests for comment.
But one accused student said all the "et ceteras" in the exam instructions may have left people confused: "It was blurry, it was murky."
Only half-joking, he added: "If I posted my exam answers on the Internet and you found them, could you then use my exam as a source?"
The student admitted to working with several friends, "bringing ideas that I got from one student to another" and sharing course study guides passed down from previous years. "There are probably people who were quoting from the same study guide and don't even know it," he said.
Under the "open note" rule, he wondered, wouldn't that sort of sharing, with some word changes to avoid flat-out plagiarism, have been acceptable?
The course syllabus does not disallow it or indeed say anything about collaboration, though Harvard encourages professors to state their policies explicitly on syllabi.
Some Harvard professors said on Friday that students should have expected a final exam to carry higher standards than other assignments. "You don't have to get to Harvard to understand that," Gardner said.
Yet the accused students said the final was no different than the other three scored assignments in the course. All were take-home exams accounting for 25 percent each of students' ultimate letter grades. All carried the same instructions, complete with "et ceteras" — and collaboration was common on all of them, according to the students who spoke to the Globe.
Harvard does not appear to be investigating the earlier three exams.
Some students said Intro to Congress needed to be revamped. Many skipped class frequently last semester, said one student, sending others to pick up copies of the lecture slides, a move the professor did not seem to mind. "On the first day," said the student, "he acknowledged that it was one of the easiest classes at Harvard."
Undergraduates' reviews of the course, available on the Internet, are largely scathing. Many complain the course appears to have gotten harder, if not more educationally valuable, in the last year.
"I felt that many of the exam questions were designed to trick you rather than test your understanding of the material," reads one review.
Another is even more blunt: "Definitely not 'the easiest class at Harvard' anymore."
Mary Carmichael can be reached at mary.carmichael@


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Those responsible for the death of a giraffe whose head struck a South African highway overpass while it was being transported in a truck will likely be prosecuted under animal protection laws, an official said Friday.
The accident on a highway between Pretoria and Johannesburg on Thursday was very unsettling because it could easily have been avoided, said Rick Allan, an animal welfare officer.
"It's just so unnecessary," said Allan, head of the Pretoria area branch of Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The group's members were able to respond quickly to the giraffe accident because they were already out on the highway attending to a separate case of cattle stranded because of a truck breakdown, he said.
Prior to the giraffe accident, startled motorists took photographs of the truck, which was carrying two giraffes whose long necks were visible above the sides of the vehicle. The surviving giraffe was taken to a wildlife clinic.
Pabi Moloi, a radio and television presenter, told South African news channel eNCA that she was in a car on the highway and saw the giraffes just before the accident.
"The impact of the giraffe's head on the bridge was so loud that my cousin, who was driving me, asked if someone had been shot," Moloi said. "I saw the giraffe hit its head very hard on the concrete under the bridge and kind of be propelled forward."
Then, Moloi said in the eNCA interview, she saw "the giraffe's head descend into the truck that it was in."
The other giraffe appeared to escape injury by millimeters because it was slightly shorter than the animal that was hit, Moloi said.
The truck earlier broke down for hours on the side of the road, according to South African media.
Animal welfare officers have interviewed witnesses and obtained documents from nature conservation officials who had issued permits for the transport of the giraffes, said Allan, the animal welfare officer. The investigation includes determining where the giraffes were being transported from, as well as their destination, according to Allan.
"We've got all the evidence," he said. All that remains, he said, is "to prove our case."


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Laws, Regulations and Annotations
Business Taxes Law Guide – Revision 2024
Motor Vehicle Fuel Tax Law
Revenue and Taxation Code
Division 2. Other Taxes
Part 2. Motor Vehicle Fuel Tax Law
Chapter 5. Determinations and Payments.1
Article 3. Determination If No Return Made
Section 7676
7676. Extension of statutory period by agreement. If, before the expiration of the time prescribed in Section 7675 for the mailing of a notice of deficiency determination, the taxpayer has consented in writing to the mailing of the notice after that time, the notice may be mailed at any time prior to the expiration of the period agreed upon. The period so agreed upon may be extended by subsequent agreements in writing made before the expiration of the period previously agreed upon.
1Added by Stats. 2000, Ch. 1053 (AB 2114), operative January 1, 2002.


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Shown here with her children (often her models) from a 1928 issue of the Post, Ellen B.T. Pyle did over 40 covers during the 1920s and 30s, from rosy-cheeked toddlers to sprightly flappers. We take great pleasure in showing her most memorable covers.
"Germantown, Philadelphia, was my birthplace, and my dream of life was to be able, someday, to be an artist," wrote Ellen Pyle in the April 7, 1928, issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Become an artist she did.
The August 6, 1927, cover is one of the sweetest, showing a rosy-cheeked toddler holding a seashell to her ear, enchanted with the sound. Pyle catches that enchanting childhood wonderment again for the February 22, 1930, cover showing grandma and youngster listening to the radio. Oh, we can't help it—look at that face!
"The absorbing task of raising four children put artwork in the background for a time. There has been a great deal of discussion as to whether a woman can keep on with her work and be a competent mother," wrote Pyle. We wonder if she would be surprised that this issue remains tricky more than 80 years later! Using her own children, their friends, and neighbors as models, she captured youngsters doing ordinary kid things: tackling a hornets' nest in the backyard, cuddling an irresistible lapful of baby chicks, enjoying a snack while doggie beggars look on.
We were delighted when, in 2007, we reran the 1934 cover of girls selling flowers ("5 cents a 'Bunsh,' " the sign read) and received a letter from a reader who let us know what memories it brought back. "The older girl is my mother, and the younger is my aunt," wrote Sara Chatzidakis. It helped that the girls' neighbor was Ellen Pyle.
Pyle also had a fondness for illustrating young women in action. "The girl I am most interested in painting is the unaffected natural American type, the girl that likes to coast and skate in winter, who often goes without her hat, and who gets a thrill out of tramping over country roads in the fall," she noted. The pretty archery aficionado of the October 8, 1927, cover and hockey player of the January 22, 1927, cover are prime examples. No knitting needles for these gals.
Of course, Pyle also depicted grown-ups doing ordinary things: Grandma and grandson waiting at the bus stop on a chilly day with their groceries and the spiffy couple dressed up for a fancy evening only to discover a flat tire … in the rain. But we promised you flappers. Also "going without their hats" are the fetching young ladies with the bobbed hair and headbands of the Roaring Twenties: January 21, 1922, and February 4, 1922.
The artist lived to see two of her children attend art school and achieve success in their own right. She noted, "I criticized their work, and they often pose for me, and at times it seems as if everyone in the house was either painting or being painted."
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