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I've learned so much from Bravo's Real Housewives franchise—about debt and foreclosure; about the erratic parenting of narcissists and the terrible things that happen to children when they have no privacy; and about hidden addictions. I've also marveled at how much someone can put up with in a marriage until she's on a reality show that illuminates—and, I imagine, prods her into thinking—that perhaps there is another way. (The divorce rate across the seven editions of the shows is incredibly high.)
The most practical gift Real Housewives has given me, however, is the ability to sniff out a lie. I had never been good at that in my life. But we viewers watch the ladies lying constantly—to their husbands and to their children, but mostly to each other. And then in a confessional interview directly addressing the audience, they will say, "I lied to so-and-so because [insert insane reason here]." The sounds of their voices, the words they use, the tiny movements in their mostly immobilized faces, paired with the immediate knowledge of and explanation for the lie—well, not to brag, but I now have some skills.
All throughout the first season of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, which premiered in October 2010, the dead-eyed con artist Russell Armstrong, who committed suicide in mid-August, seemed like a liar to me. So did his wife, cast member Taylor Armstrong. And as the second season played out, during which we saw a highly edited version of the dissolution of their marriage and the events that presumably led to his decision to kill himself, she still does. (The season finale was last Monday; tonight, Bravo will air the first of three cast-reunion episodes, which are usually really crazy.)
How riveting it was to watch, even as Bravo and the show's producers had to work quickly—Russell's suicide was three weeks before the season premiere—to sanitize a major plot of the season: Taylor's failed attempts to work out her relationship with her husband (she filed for divorce in July). Critics I respect wanted Bravo to axe the entire season before it even aired, and others were repulsed throughout its run. I've felt the opposite; to me, scripted television has never done anything this enthralling.
For the first eight episodes of the season, we did not see Russell at all. Instead, the specter of his suicide hovered as Taylor fell apart in front of the other cast members. She was too thin, which was constantly, angrily remarked upon by the ladies. And on a trip to Colorado with the group, she was bowled over by an altitude sickness/alcohol combo that rendered her literally babbling. Reduced to primordial matter, Taylor was self-pitying ("I was the girl that, if you were going to bet on someone, I would never bet on me"); semi-confessional (she obliquely said she wouldn't end her marriage out of fear for her daughter's safety); and, finally, bitchy (she decided someone stole her makeup bag, which, of course, no one had).
When The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills finally did begin showing Russell, during an extremely uncomfortable dinner he and Taylor had with Kyle Richards and her husband, Mauricio, hoo boy. At dinner parties, in his and Taylor's filmed couples' therapy, and even at their daughter's birthday party, Russell acted like a seething, litigious, man on the verge.
It's been an unprecedented character study, and truly great television.
I am, I realize, writing ill of the dead as well as the widowed. I don't feel bad about it. Russell was a serial wife abuser and a thieving "venture capitalist"; Taylor, it appears, may have been in on his grifter activities and, in September peddled her first post-Russell's suicide interview to Entertainment Tonight, as well as photos of her beaten face, for a reported $125,000. Before all of this came out, and their lives were ruined, these striver fabulists had signed themselves and their then 4-year-old daughter up for a reality show. What were they thinking?
At the beginning of the much-scrutinized season premiere in September, Bravo hastily assembled a group session in which the cast, minus Taylor, discussed Russell's suicide. No one said anything meaningful except for the almost-always-right Lisa Vanderpump, who never could stand Russell and has generally thought of Taylor as a manipulative sneak. Lisa, being a confident person, wasn't about to pretend otherwise, even in those circumstances. The whole segment was bizarre and awkward, and mercifully short.
But what it did do was solidify that the now-concluded season of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is the closest TV can get to a Memento-like narrative, beginning with the end. It's always a fractured experience to watch a season of Real Housewives, since the gossip press follows the casts' foibles so closely—TMZ and Us are nearly required ancillary materials for the audience. We see Teresa Giudice from New Jersey spending thousands of dollars on her kid's hideous birthday party, knowing she will declare bankruptcy; Camille Grammer from Beverly Hills lords her marriage to kazillionaire Kelsey over everyone, but we know he cheated on her and she's getting dumped soon enough. The thrill of foreknowledge was part of the pleasure of MTV's The Hills, too, but that show was so faked that it was hard not to feel like a sucker for caring.
A few months ago, Taylor appeared on a local Los Angeles morning show known for its happy talk. The co-hosts grilled her lightly about why she had ever agreed to be on Real Housewives, clearly wanting her to turn on Bravo and blame the show for Russell's suicide. But Taylor wouldn't budge, and instead said that had she not participated, Russell might have murdered her and their daughter, and then killed himself.
"I have my daughter here today," she said. "And by the grace of God, and perhaps reality TV, I'm sitting here and so is she."
Mind-blowing. Has it really come to this unsettling moment, culturally, in terms of our relationship to fame and cameras? It's hard to know what's true when it's Taylor talking, after all.
But just hearing her say that and watching this story unfold, I feel like I felt when reading Michael Cunningham's The Hours or watching Todd Haynes's movie Safe: excited.


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17 Tips For Quickly Paying Down Student Loans, From Someone Who Paid Off $74,000 In 2 Years
Stringer / Getty Images
When Matthew Burr finished his master's degree in 2011, he figured he owed about $50,000.
But he was in for a surprise. "The number was almost $15,000 more than I'd previously estimated," he remembers.
Between the $65,000 from 18 months working on a master's degree in Human Resources and Industrial Relations from the University of Illinois School of Labor and Employment Relations, and about $9,000 remaining from his undergraduate debt, he was nearly $74,000 in the red.
"I wasn't going to be one of those statistics where the loan balloons to $150,000 with interest," Burr recalls. "Right out of grad school, I got a job as a human resources manager at a paper mill with a starting salary of about $80,000, plus a sign on bonus and relocation. I didn't even wait the six-month grace period to start paying off my loans."
In 2012, he managed to repay more than $42,000. The next year he paid off nearly $27,000, and finally, this year, he paid back the remaining $5,000.
In two years, 31-year-old Burr was completely free of student loan debt. "I paid a grand total of $4,913.69 in interest in 23 months, saving thousands of dollars over the next 25 years," he says.
How did he do it? Below, Burr shares 17 tips that helped him pay off his student loans.
1. Don't ignore the debt. "Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it will magically be repaid for you," cautions Burr.
2. Read the fine print and know the repayment guidelines. "I read through my grad school loans after the fact and owed nearly $15,000 more than I expected," he recalls. "You need to know when your payments are due, how much the minimum payment is, and how much you plan to pay each month before you sign."
3. Be prepared to sacrifice in order to meet your goals. Burr recommends setting a timeline of how much you'll pay, and then doing whatever you must to stick to it. "I own a TV that's 15 years old," he says. "I don't have an XBox or Playstation, BluRay DVDs, or VIP cable. I don't have the $200 a month cell phone plan. I didn't go without by any means, but I set my goal and knew I needed to make the sacrifice for a few years."
4. Keep your contact information current. "The first thing I did when I graduated was go online and change my address from student housing to my new home on my credit cards, banking, and student loans," he says. "Most things will probably be emailed to you, but you don't want to miss something in the mail when your college email is turned off."
5. Make more than minimum payments every chance you get. "I was paying almost four times the minimum payment because it was important to me to achieve the goal that I set," remembers Burr. "I looked at the student loan site every day and watched the interest accrue, and the more I knocked the base down, the less I would pay in interest."
Matthew Burr 6. Start paying immediately.
If you can, don't wait for the six-month grace period to end to make payments, advises Burr. "As soon as I got my first check, I made a payment. You'll pay less interest if you start making payments in a hurry, and it gets you into a routine. If you're disciplined up front, you'll be far ahead of everybody else."
7. Pay more than once per month if possible. "The more often you pay, the more you'll be able to knock your interest down," Burr explains. "I tried to keep it at zero as much as I could." And while it's advisable to check with your lender to make sure you aren't tripped up by any limits on payment frequency, Burr says that even though he sometimes paid six or seven times a month, he never ran into any limits.
8. Live well below your means. "When I got out of grad school, I basically doubled my salary. I'd never had that kind of income before, but I put the extra towards my loans," he says. "Debt is stress, and when you don't have it, it's one less thing you have to worry about."
9. Set a strict cash budget. "Know where you're spending all of your money," advises Burr. "I limited myself to $40 a week cash, which was a pretty strict budget." And for that matter, he says, ask for help setting up your budget if you've never done it before. "I came out of school with a business degree so I was familiar with budgets, but I know many people aren't," says Burr. He points out that there are templates on Excel and Quickbooks, not to mention apps like LearnVest, Mint, or Toshl.
10. Don't carry balances on credit cards. "The interest on credit cards will get you, too," says Burr. "You need all your money to spend on student loans, so you shouldn't be spending on credit card interest."
11. Don't buy a new car if you don't need one. "Waiting two or three years to purchase a new car will allow you to make additional payments on student loans," Burr says. "I bought my car in late 2007 and paid it off before I even went to grad school."
12. Look for cheaper places to live while you are paying down debt. "Cost of living is an expense to consider," says Burr, who lives outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. "I didn't take a job in New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles. Should you?"
13. Learn to negotiate. "This could mean salaries, sign on bonuses, relocation, or lower interest rates," Burr says. "I negotiated my salary and sign on bonus and bumped them up a couple thousand dollars, then was able to put my bonus and relocation straight to my loans."
14. Track your payments closely. Burr, who found that watching his declining balance was enough motivation to keep up his payments, recommends using a third-party site to manage payments (like Tuition.io), or getting familiar with your lender's website.
15. Take advantage of discounts. There are potential discounts for repayment, automatic monthly deductions, and loan consolidation. "Simply signing up for automatic deductions — saying they could take the money straight from my bank account once a month — got me a discount of 0.25%," Burr remembers.
16. Pay off the highest-interest-rate loans first. "You're paying the most on those loans, so you'll want to get those paid off," he says. "That goes for anything, like credit cards or car loans."
17. Set achievable milestones, and reward yourself as you reach them. "I had six loans, so I would focus on paying the one with the highest interest down first and know it was finished," Burr says. While he admits that he didn't really reward himself — "seeing the balance at zero was enough reward for me" — it's a good idea to celebrate the milestone to keep your motivation high.
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These Canvas Painting By Numbers kits will help you reduce stress, boost your self-confidence, and most importantly, enjoy your free time. The art of painting by numbers is an entertaining hobby, in which you can also learn and be creative. Even if you don't have any previous drawing experience, you can still create a beautiful Colorful African Landscape Wall Art. Simply paint over the numbered areas using the corresponding colors. Whether you work on it alone or with a loved one, you're sure to have many hours of fun creating and admiring your creation.
The kits include beautifully detailed outlines of the designs, with each color indicated by Number. Our kits are extremely vibrant and more brilliant. They help to make an exquisite portrayal of the Colorful African Landscape which is very sparkling and sure to grab your entire visitor's attention once displayed. You will get High-quality painting brushes, safe acrylic paints set, easy-to-follow instructions, and pre-printed textured art canvas. A perfect gift for parents, lovers, friends, children on birthdays, weddings, parties, Christmas, etc.


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In the late 1800s, the repair shops for Norfolk and Western's steam locomotives were based in Crewe, Virginia. In the mid 20th Century, railroads abandoned steam (and their repair shops) and turned to diesel-electric locomotives. One of the legacies left behind from Crewe's former glory as a railroad town is a delightful train museum and a few kit homes, from Sears (Chicago) and Aladdin (Bay City, MI).
In late Spring 2011, I traveled through Crewe on my way home from Lynchburg, and found these delightful kit homes.
Enjoy the photos, and as always – please share the link with your real friends and your virtual friends, too! 🙂
To read another amazing blog about Crewe, click here.
The Lynnhaven is one of my favorite Sears Homes, because it's both stylish and practical, and it was one of Sears best selling models. This house was offered from the late 1920s to the end, when Sears offered their last catalog in 1940.
Railroad towns and kit homes go together naturally, just like carrots and peas. These kit homes would arrive in a boxcar, in 12,000 pieces. Each kit came with a 75-page instruction book and a promise that a man of average abilities could have the house assembled and ready for occupancy in a mere 90 days. In fact, most people needed a little more time than that.
Sears offered about 370 designs of their kit homes, and during their 32 years in the kit home business, Sears sold about 70,000 houses.
Aladdin was a larger company, selling more than 75,000 homes, and they were in business from 1906-1981.
My favorite find in Crewe was the Sears Lucerne. This is the only Lucerne that I have seen in my many travels, and the one in Crewe is just a spot-on match to the original catalog image! And look at the price! This darling little house could be yours for $867.
The little train museum in Crewe is a delight, and well worth your time. It's staffed by devoted volunteers and it's a lovely way to spend some time. As a hard-core train buff, I loved the hands-on displays and being able to soak in the happy ambiance of the old Norfolk and Western steam engine (pictured above).
To learn more about Sears Homes, click here.
To buy one of Rose's splendiferous books, click here.
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Back in mid-February, we all pretty much knew Luis Castillo and Oliver Perez were going to be released. Which, come mid-March, led some of us to wonder what the heck was taking so long — and to start concocting the usual woe-is-me Mets fan scenarios. The Wilpons won't allow Sandy to eat those contracts. Slappy will hang around forever because Murphy and Emaus and Turner and Hernandez look so bad. Ollie will do just decently enough to make the roster, ensuring that he will suck harder than the mutant bastard child of Doug Sisk and Rich Rodriguez, while Jason Isringhausen signs on with the Yankees and pairs with Feliciano to be deadly setup men. We are dooooooomed.
Eh, whatever.
Maybe I'm just still starry-eyed that my team is no longer run by executives who made it rain with ridiculous option years, but I think Sandy & Co. knew exactly what they were doing, and handled the departure of Castillo and Perez capably and professionally. They had at least three constituencies to satisfy, and they managed to do right by all of them.
Fans. We were the easiest. We wanted Luis and Ollie gone, and as long as that got done before we started panicking en masse that maybe it wouldn't get done, we were going to wind up satisfied. Everything before that point was noise, and not to be worried about. Heck, it gave us something to do: Fan anxiety helps pass the time when there's nothing else to talk about except dead-arm periods and St. Patrick's Day hats.
Ownership. The new regime communicated clearly to the first 637,240 people who asked that they were allowed to ditch bad contracts, and a certain firmness of tone to the answers strongly suggested that bad contracts would indeed be ditched. All the same, general managers in that position have a decidedly unenviable task when talking to ownership. "You know those truckloads of money you let my predecessor give to crappy players, making 100% of the media and 90% of the fans say that you're dumb as a rock? I want to release those guys so everybody talks about how dumb you are all over again, and you'll have to keep paying those crappy players to play for somebody else for basically nothing, and it's possible they might have decent years and beat us and then everybody will say you're even dumber." Would you like to deliver that message? Me neither. The Alderson regime waited long enough so that the media didn't instantly demand to know why Omar hadn't been allowed to turf the Terrible Two, gave the Wilpons sufficiently long looks at Luis and Ollie to make it clear that they deserved what they were getting, and waited long enough for credible alternatives to suggest themselves. (It would be easier if some second baseman was tearing it up, but things aren't always easy.)
Players. You think it's easy being an incumbent Mets second baseman and knowing Brad Emaus is in camp at the urging of an Alderson lieutenant — Brad Emaus who has never done anything to make people at Citi Field boo him? Even if you aren't an incumbent second baseman, you think it's easy knowing you're a product of the tainted old regime, and the new men in charge never saw you hit that walk-off or work extra in the cage or drill to improve your footwork? The new bosses gave Luis and Ollie every chance — something Luis may not have wanted to admit, but Perez did. They didn't cut them loose for vengeful political reasons (though if I were Sandy, I would have bit my lip about Luis and fan reaction), they actually used them in spring training instead of half-heartedly running them out there alongside guys wearing pinned-on numbers, and they even did what they could to minimize the humiliation of being pink-slipped. Mets present and future will have taken note.
Yes, the Mets seem to have finally grasped the principle of sunk costs, and stopped wasting two roster spots. For which the cheers have been well-deserved. But they've also walked through a minefield and gotten to the other side unscathed. That deserves cheers too.


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Marge Champion, a legendary dancer for the stage and screen, who also was the model for Disney's Snow White and the and the Seven Dwarfs, died on October 21. She was 101 years old.
Champion worked on Broadway both as a choreographer and actor. She made her Broadway acting debut in 1943's What's Up and went on to perform in Dark of the Moon (1945), Beggar's Holiday (1946), 3 for Tonight (1955), and the 2001 revival of Follies. Champion served as a choreographer for Lend an Ear (1948), Make a Wish (1951), and Stepping Out (1987). She was a special assistant for the original production of Hello, Dolly!, which was directed and choreographed by her husband Gower Champion.
The couple, who married in 1947 and divorced in 1973 prior to Gower's death in 1980, worked together on multiple movies for MGM Studios. Most notably, the couple appeared in the 1951 remake of Show Boat. Marge Champion's other film credits include Mr. Music, Lovely to Look At, I Won't Dance and Everything I Have Is Yours. She won an Emmy Award in 1975 for choreographing the television movie Queen of the Stardust Ballroom.
Not only did Champion serve as the real-life model for Disney's Snow White, but she also was the inspiration behind the Blue Fairy in Pinocchio and the tutu-wearing hippo ballerinas in the "Dance of the Hours" number in Fantasia.
Champion received the Disney Legend Award in 2007 and was inducted into the National Museum of Dance's Hall of Fame in 2009. She was honored with lifetime achievement recognition at the Fred and Adele Astaire Awards in 2013. She also served on the Tony Awards nominating committee.
Here's a look at Champion with husband Gower in the moview version of Show Boat.


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Is this the end of Spotify Free?
Send and use your invites now - its days are numbered
The launch of two new Spotify services - Unlimited and Open - means two things. One, you don't need to spend a tenner to get rid of the ads; and two, Spotify Free's days are numbered.
It's clear that Spotify Open, which delivers 20 hours of ad-funded music per month, is going to replace Spotify Free.
If you're already a Free user then things won't change in the foreseeable future, and you can still offer invitations to others; however, we wouldn't be surprised if the ability to invite people to Spotify Free disappears fairly quickly.
Check out Spotify's exact words: people are "still able to sign up… by obtaining one of the many millions of invites currently available." The key word there is "currently".
A refreshing admission
On the face of it the inevitable demise of Spotify Free is a bad thing, but we think it's actually quite refreshing. Spotify is basically saying "look, we can't afford to run unlimited streaming for everyone for free, so here's your choice: 25 albums a month for nowt, or as much as you want, ad-free, for a fiver."
The problem for Spotify is that the music business doesn't care whether you're a paying customer or not; it just wants to be paid for the music Spotify streams. In an ideal world the odd advert would cover the cost of the relevant licenses, but this isn't an ideal world. There simply isn't enough advertising cash to go around.
That means Spotify had a stark choice. If it carried on as normal, it would have to find ways to make more money from free customers. That means more ads, more invasive ads, and more attempts to mine personal data from profit.
It's what you might call the Facebook model, and while it works for Facebook - so far, anyway - there's no guarantee it'd work for Spotify. This way is better. The free service isn't too limited, and the ad-free version is now half the price it was previously (Premium remains, but you only need to pay the extra fiver for that if you want offline access or the mobile service).
Where Spotify got it wrong was in having a free service that was just too good, and a paid-for service that was just a little bit too pricey. It's addressed both of those issues, and the result should be an increase in the subscription numbers.
It's a smart move - but it might also be too little, too late. If the rumour mill is correct, a streaming, subscription-based version of iTunes may be launching in just a few weeks time.
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Writer, broadcaster, musician and kitchen gadget obsessive Carrie Marshall (Twitter) has been writing about tech since 1998, contributing sage advice and odd opinions to all kinds of magazines and websites as well as writing more than a dozen books. Her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, is on sale now. She is the singer in Glaswegian rock band HAVR.


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A Library for the World's Children
Little Helen, or, A day in the life of a naughty girl
Read with ICDL Reader
Read with PDF
Language: English
Type: Fiction
Abstract: Tells the story of a naughty girl named Helen.
Publisher: S. Babcock
Published: [n.d.]
Published in: United States
Contributed by: Boston Public Library
This book is in the public domain
Note: While we have determined that we have rights to redistribute this book on this website, we are not authorizing you or anyone else to further redistribute this book. These books are for your personal use only.


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Remember, O Lord, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you are good, O Lord. —Psalm 25:6-7
When God saw me trudging toward His throne with my head bowed in shame, I suddenly realized that He, like the prodigal's father, was moved with affection and tenderness for me. The awesome truth came streaking across my soul, bursting in to light up my heart with this truth! I had been struggling to please God so that He would like me, when all along my heavenly Father had loved me as my dad loved me—only far more!
Father, no one, not even my earthly father, has ever loved me the way You love me. Like a child I want to crawl up into Your arms and feel You lifting me away from the bondages of my sinful life. You're my Abba, my Dad, my heavenly Father.
His arms were outstretched, reaching for
me, longing to catch me up in
His loving embrace.


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This article is more than 1 year old
Amazon cloud sinks, smothers Web 2.0 darlings
Haven't Reddit!
Whole swathes of Web 2.0 disappeared to the dark side of the cloud today, as an outage at one of Amazon's EC2 data centres torpedoed the likes of Quora and Reddit.
The service's status site showed that things started going haywire just over five hours ago, when techies began "investigating latency and error rates with EBS volumes and connectivity issues reaching EC2 instances in the US-EAST-1 region". This began to snowball, just as Europe got to work and the US East -1 region began to wake up and smell the coffee.
By 3.20am PDT it was claiming that error rates were recovering, but as of 6.59am PDT the message was: "There has been a moderate increase in error rates for CreateVolume. This may impact the launch of new EBS-backed EC2 instances in multiple availability zones in the US-EAST-1 region."
This left Quora's website meekly stating: "We're currently having an unexpected outage, and are working to get the site back up as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience."
Hootsuite appeared to be silenced completely.
Reddit appeared to be taking submissions, though attempts to use its search service returned the following message: "Amazon is currently experiencing a degradation. We are still waiting on them to get to our volumes. Sorry."
Of course, the cloud is all about virtualising and balancing workloads, ensuring redundancy and making sure problems in one place don't bring the whole network down. So it will be fascinating to hear Amazon explain how problems at one of its data centres has completely floored a number of its big name customers. ®


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Jimmie E. Howard
Next to the word "Marine" in the dictionary, there should be a notation... "See Jimmie Howard". Perhaps no other words in the English language better describe what it means to be a member of the Corps than the name of the man who led the most decorated unit in American military history in the most improbable battle of modern warfare.
Born and raised in Burlington, Iowa; in 1950 Jimmie Howard enlisted in the Marine Corps at the age of 21. He proved his mettle in Korea earning the Silver Star and two Purple Hearts. Seventeen years later the 37-year-old father of six found himself returning to a war zone, this time in the jungles of Vietnam.
Chu Lai, Republic of Vietnam, June 13, 1966
It was the early days of the United States' involvement in the war in Vietnam. There had been battles and already 21 Americans had earned Medals of Honor. But nothing could have prepared the veteran Platoon Sergeant in Company C, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division for the nights to come. Everyone knew the enemy controlled the areas west of the base camp at Chu Lai, and recent intelligence reports indicated large troop movements and buildups beyond the relative safety of the Marine outpost. It was time to strike back and prove to the enemy that they were on "Marine Corps Turf".
The sun was falling behind the western horizon as the helicopters moved quickly to the top of Hill 488, then flew back to the base camp leaving behind Staff Sergeant Jimmie Howard and his fifteen Marines. Two Navy Corpsmen completed the small unit delegated the mission of watching for enemy troop movements in the valley below and calling in artillery and airstrikes on them. For two days Howard and his men did their jobs well. The North Vietnamese control of the area was disrupted by the effectiveness of the American firepower.
It didn't take the enemy long to figure out that there had to be someone in the area watching them, directing fire upon their every move. By the third day Howard's Battalion Commander A. J. Sullivan began to sense the danger the small recon patrol faced and offered to pull them out. S/Sgt Howard believed he could hold out one more day and requested permission to remain on the hill. By the time word reached Chu Lai that a full NVA battalion of 200-250 well-trained soldiers was moving on Hill 488, it was too late to pull Howard and his men out. Somehow they would have to survive the night. It was June 15, 1966.
Everyone in the patrol knew it was coming. S/Sgt Howard placed all of his Marines in strategic positions around the summit of the almost barren hilltop, with orders to pull back into a tight perimeter the moment the enemy struck. That moment came at 10 P.M. that night, only 12 feet from one of the Marine defenders. As the enemy swarmed the hill amid gunfire, grenades, mortars, and support from .50-caliber machine guns, Howard's men pulled back into a tight circle only 20 yards in diameter.
Back-to-back they began to defend their small perimeter, counting on each other to work as a team to do the impossible. S/Sgt Howard moved among his men, encouraging them, directing their fire, shoring up the weaknesses in the perimeter. For most of his Marines, it was the first major test of combat. Huddled in the darkness amid the crash of grenades and mortars, the sky filled with tracer rounds, and outnumbered more than 10 to 1; the leadership and inspiration of S/Sgt Howard were all that sustained them.
Then quiet engulfed the hill as the enemy pulled back, their fanatical human wave assault initially repulsed. S/Sgt Howard looked around him. Every one of his young Marines and both Corpsmen had been wounded in the initial attack. Several were dead. Worse, he knew that the enemy would return in force again at any moment. Grabbing the radio Howard told Colonel Sullivan back at Chu Lai, "You have to get us out of here." But no rescue force could reach Howard's men that night...the Marines would have to hold out until dawn.
Then from down the hill, the enemy began to taunt the few survivors on Hill 488 shouting into the darkness, "Marines, You die in an hour."
One of Howard's Marines asked, "Can we yell back at them?"
With nothing to lose Howard told his brave young men, "Sure, yell anything you like." They did, and soon their taunts back to the enemy were met with gunfire. The enemy was preparing to swarm the hill once again. Then the beleaguered Marines caught the enemy off guard as they joined voices in a "horse laugh". Later S/Sgt Howard said, "They were shooting at us and when we started laughing... they stopped. There was complete silence. I think it had a chilling effect on them. They must have known we were terribly outnumbered, but here we were laughing at them."
"Throw Rocks!"
S/Sgt Howard knew the quiet wouldn't last long, however. He surveyed what remained of his Marines and found that ammunition was running low. The grenades were gone, expended to push back the first wave of the assault. So Marine Corps Staff Sergeant Jimmie Howard issued one of the most unusual combat orders in recent history....."Throw Rocks!!"
As incredible as the order sounded, it worked. When the enemy soldiers began to push their way through the sparse brush and knee-high grass to probe the perimeter, Howard's men threw rocks at them. Mistaking the rocks for grenades the enemy soldiers would move quickly into the open, allowing the defenders clear shots that made every round of remaining ammunition count.
For five hours the enemy alternated between small probes and full-scale assault on the surviving Marines. S/Sgt Howard continued to encourage his battered platoon, direct their fire, and calling in aerial support. At times the fighting was hand-to-hand, the enemy so close that Howard directed aerial staffing runs within 30 feet of his position. From Chu Lai, Colonel Sullivan listened to Howard's calm, precise voice across the radio. Then, shortly after 3 a.m., the radio went dead. At Chu Lai there was dread...the assumption was that Howard was dead...his brave platoon wiped out.
Shot in the back, S/Sgt Howard wasn't dead but he couldn't move his legs. As the enemy continued to assault his perimeter the wounded leader did his best to encourage his Marines. He kept reminding them that if they could just hold out until daylight, more Marines would come and pull them out of there.
Rescue Mission
As daylight dawned a helicopter approached the hill. The Marines were still taking fire, the battle wasn't yet over. The chopper was shot down and the pilot killed. At dawn, a Marine company began the trek to relieve the remnants of Howard's platoon. Two more Marines were killed and it wasn't until noon that they finally reached Howard's perimeter on Hill 488. Five of the defenders on Hill 488 were dead. A sixth died en route to the base camp at Chu Lai. When finally the rescue effort reached S/Sgt Howard and his men, among the 12 survivors there remained only eight rounds of ammunition.
Medal of Honor Recognition
Gunnery Sergeant Jimmie E. Howard stood proudly at attention next to his wife and six children. The story of his heroic stand at Hill 488 was read and then-President Lyndon B. Johnson placed the Medal of Honor around the neck of an incredible leader and true American hero. With tears in his eyes, the grizzled Marine then stepped to the microphone to give the credit to his 15 brave Marines and 2 Navy Corpsmen.
And they were there, all eleven survivors of that unbelievable night of horror and courage at Hill 488. After speaking briefly, S/Sgt Howard took the President by the hand and led him to the edge of the stage where he introduced him to each and every one of the men he had led that night, and to whom he felt the Medal of Honor belonged more than it did to himself.
Seventeen young men, 15 Marines, and 2 Navy Corpsmen. Jimmie Howard had always called them his "Indians". He had every reason to be proud of them, they had survived, demonstrating courage and resolve which was unprecedented. They may have been, in fact, the most decorated unit in military history. To Jimmie Howard and his 17 "Indians" were awarded:
- 1 Medal of Honor
- 4 Navy Crosses
- 13 Silver Stars
- 18 Purple Hearts
On November 12, 1993, Jimmie Howard passed away at his home in San Diego. He is buried at the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery near the Marine Corps Recruiting Depot where years before he served as a Marine Drill Instructor.
About the Author
Jim Fausone is a partner with Legal Help For Veterans, PLLC, with over twenty years of experience helping veterans apply for service-connected disability benefits and starting their claims, appealing VA decisions, and filing claims for an increased disability rating so veterans can receive a higher level of benefits.
If you were denied service connection or benefits for any service-connected disease, our firm can help. We can also put you and your family in touch with other critical resources to ensure you receive the treatment you deserve.
Give us a call at (800) 693-4800 or visit us online at www.LegalHelpForVeterans.com.
This electronic book is available for free download and printing from www.homeofheroes.com. You may print and distribute in quantity for all non-profit, and educational purposes.
Copyright © 2018 by Legal Help for Veterans, PLLC


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I'm running Lion and trying to restore a Snow Leopard system archived in a DMG file.
The restore destination is an external Firewire disk (160GB) and the original system was installed in a 250GB disk. The compressed DMG has 90GB, and uncompressed it takes 120GB.
Disk utility tells me that there's not enough space to restore. In the post Copying Time Machine backup, there are mentions to Carbon Copy Cloner and rsync
command. Would any of these help me? Or is there some Disk Utility option I'm missing?


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Stephen Graham, Max Irons And Sam Claflin Join Pirates Of The Caribbean 4
British actor Stephen Graham, Sam Claflin, and Max Irons are in talks to join the cast of Rob Marshall's Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Graham has appeared in Public Enemies, This Is England, Gangs of New York, Band of Brothers and Snatch. Irons, the 24-year-old son of actors Jeremy Irons and Sinéad Cusack, has appeared in Dorian Gray and Being Julia. Claflin is currently working on British television series The Pillars of the Earth in Budapest. Graham will play the character of Scram, a character whom we have no more details about.
Graham, Irons and Claflin join Johnny Depp, who is reprising his role of Captain Jack Sparrow, Ian McShane who will play Edward Teach, better known as the legendary pirate Blackbeard, a notorious black-bearded pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of the American colonies during the early 1700s, and famously piloted the ship Queen Anne's Revenge, and Penelope Cruz, who will be playing Blackbeard's daughter, "Sparrow's foil and equal in many ways".
The fourth film will be based on Tim Powers' pirate novel On Stranger Tides which was optioned by Disney years ago. The novel tells the story of Blackbeard and the Fountain of Youth. Here's the plot of the novel:
Puppeteer John Chandagnac, bound for Jamaica to recover stolen money from his uncle, becomes Jack Shandy after pirates attack his ship and force him to join their crew. Shandy's struggle to accept his new life grounds the story for readers, even as Blackbeard and vodun magicians whisk everyone away to dreamlike lands where the Fountain of Youth itself awaits. The chaotic sea battles sing, though at times key events happen so quickly that they get lost in the shuffle as Jack tries to comprehend where he's going and what's at stake.
Terry Rossio and Ted Elliot wrote the screenplay.


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LONDON, England (CNN) -- The UK's Prince Harry has been serving on the frontline in Afghanistan and seen combat, but his deployment will be reviewed after the news was leaked by a U.S. Web site, the UK Ministry of Defense confirmed Thursday.
He was deployed 10 weeks ago and his fellow soldiers were sworn to secrecy.
"At the end of the day I like to sort of be a normal person, and for once I think this is about as normal as I'm ever going to get," the 23-year-old prince said in a recent interview.
Harry is third in line to the British throne and serves with the Blues and Royals.
The information had been kept secret for security reasons, said Gen. Richard Dannatt, the chief of Britain's General Staff. Because of the unique circumstances of the deployment.
CNN, as well as other news organizations, chose to honor an embargo requested by the military.
The prince is a member of a group called Joint Tactical Air Control, or JTAC. He holds the rank of cornet -- equivalent to a second lieutenant -- and serves as a forward air controller. Watch Prince Harry on the front lines in Afghanistan »
His duties include calling in airstrikes and air support when necessary, guaranteeing the accuracy of bombing on the ground and guarding against incidents of friendly fire.
"As far as I'm concerned, I'm out here as a normal JTAC on the ground and not as Prince Harry," he said.
Harry is the younger son of Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, and the late Princess Diana, who died in a Paris car crash in 1997.
The military confirmed his assignment after a U.S. Web site broke the news blackout -- and Dannatt expressed displeasure at the report. Watch how a top secret operation deployed Prince Harry »
"I am very disappointed that foreign Web sites have decided to run this story without consulting us," Dannatt said in a written statement. "It was my judgment that with an understanding with the media not to broadcast his whereabouts, the risk in (deploying him to Afghanistan) was manageable.
"Now that the story is in the public domain, the Chief of Defence Staff and I will take advice from the operational commanders about whether his deployment can continue."
Last year, the military ruled Harry could not be sent to Iraq because publicity about the deployment could put him and his unit at risk.
But Dannatt said the experience has demonstrated "that it is perfectly possible for Prince Harry to be employed just the same as other Army officers of his rank and experience."
"His conduct on operations in Afghanistan has been exemplary," the general said. "He has been fully involved in operations and has run the same risks as everyone else in his battle group. In common with all of his generation in the army today, he is a credit to the nation." Watch Prince Harry on the front lines »
Shortly after the news of the prince's deployment broke, several Islamist Web sites posted messages alerting their "brethren" in Afghanistan to be on the lookout for the royal soldier.
"O brothers of monotheism, if you find anyone with unusual security in his battalion, know that this could be the Prince Harry. We ask God that he gets caught on your hands," one such posting read.
Several members of the British royal family have seen combat over the past century. Harry's grandfather, Prince Phillip, served aboard warships in World War II; his great-grandfather -- King George VI -- took part in the World War I naval battle of Jutland; and Prince Andrew, Harry's uncle, flew Navy helicopters during Britain's 1982 war with Argentina over the Falkand Islands.
Harry's brother, Prince William, is also an army officer. But as second in line for the throne, he is specifically barred from combat.
The last sitting British monarch to lead troops in battle was George II, who defeated a French force at the Battle of Dettingen in 1743. E-mail to a friend
All About Prince Harry of Wales • Afghanistan


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GROHE's SmartControl system offers a luxurious and personalized shower experience. The choice of outlet, water flow and temperature are all controlled with GROHE's user-friendly push-and-turn technology.
Innovation and intuition are at the heart of this shower system, allowing for the user's settings to be saved for the next time the shower is in use. The SmartControl shower system can be fully customized with a choice of shower head and hand shower (each sold separately).


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And sipping some lovely Aussie bubbles of course.
Saturday Snapshot, is a wonderful weekly meme from at home with books
The oysters I can do without, but the plating of them is beautiful--and that harbor photo is stupendous. I wish I could visit it someday.
We have special memories of the bridge. My nan and pop honetmooned in Sydney back in 1932 and went to the grand opening ceremony and walked across the bridge.
75 years later, on the anniversary, my parents, myself, husband and 2 stepsons did the walk again with thousands of other people - very special.
Thanks for sharing your memories :-)
I'm not particularly fond of oysters but they do look lovely in the photo.
The harbor is beautiful! Someday I hope to tour Sydney. I did get a nice look at the airport when I changed planes on my way to Melbourne.
Terrific picture[s].
But especially the bridge [I'm not much of a seafood eater].
Wow, memories of the Olympic Games and all the fireworks that were shooting off like crazy from that bridge. I fell in love with Sydney during the 2000 Games.
-- Cheers!
Love the bridge shot, but unfortunately oysters don't like me very much. :(
Louise- What a GREAT SHOT of the bridge! Thanks for sharing (I have never been there.) I am an oyster lover too! That is a great plate shot. To sit with a plate of oysters and that view must have been heaven on earth :)
The meal looks delicious and the shot of the bridge looks like something one would see in a travel book of "must see sights." Lovely.
What a great shot! It must have been quite something to see in person.
That's a gorgeous shot of the bridge! And your dinner looks great - made me hungry right away and I just had breakfast!
Your photographs are so gorgeous you can even make oysters look appealing and I don't like shellfish. And the harbor is beautiful. It makes me wish we had the opportunity to travel to Australia.
What a gorgeous harbor...and the oyster dish looks so tempting!
Thanks for sharing...
Here's MY SATURDAY SNAPSHOT
That's a wonderful picture of the bridge. I visited Sydney 18 years ago (time flies) and remember the Opera House and the bridge as two of the highlights.
Dream vacation for my husband and I ... Australia and The Great Barrier Reef ... maybe when we hit Lotto! In the meantime, that's a killer shot of the harbor!
Wow! 80 years old! Your photo of the bridge is fantastic.
That is a gorgeous photo of the bridge! The food looks pretty too, even though I don't like oysters.
This is how I feel about the Golden Gate Bridge--I lived in San Francisco for four years, so I saw it MANY times...but some things just stay thrilling! Your bridge is beautiful. :)
This is how I feel about the Golden Gate Bridge--I lived in San Francisco for four years, so I saw it MANY times...but some things just stay thrilling! Your bridge is beautiful. :)
What a beautiful bridge, and beautiful cityscape!!
Me no likey oysters, but the plating of the food is gorgeous!
Here's My SS
The bridge and harbor shot are great.
Gorgeous bridge picture!


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For more information and to send a request, please fill out the form clicking on the button.
We will send you our best offer as soon as possible!
Please contact us for reservation of one or more additional services, pick them in the dedicated category below and complete the application form!


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This article is more than 1 year old
Warner Music pulls plug on YouTube deal
Claims living in material world, is material girl
YouTube began removing videos with music from Warner Music Group's stable of artists this weekend after royalty renegotiations between the two companies broke down.
WMG, the first music label to climb into bed with YouTube and lend the video publishing site an air of legitimacy, is now the first to roll out. The two companies first inked a deal in September 2006, where Warner would get a share of revenue from ads running alongside its content in return for allowing its music to be used within user-created videos.
But lately, Warner felt the money hasn't been worth it. Best estimates put WMG at receiving a fraction of a penny per video viewed.
"We are working actively to find a resolution with YouTube that would enable the return of our artists' content to the site," Warner said in a statement. "Until then, we simply cannot accept terms that fail to appropriately and fairly compensate recording artists, songwriters, labels and publishers for the value they provide."
Artists in the WMG library include Madonna, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Eric Clapton, The Eagles, Kid Rock, and Metallica.
YouTube has also signed similar deals with Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, and EMI Group. Universal and Sony are both presently renegotiating their licensing deals, although there's no indication they plan to hold out for more money as well.
The YouTube blog was first to announce talks with WMG had reached an impasse. The company apparently felt it necessary to break the news like a parent explaining a divorce to an eight year old, stating music licensing is "very complicated" and sometimes even "successful partners" must "part ways."
Don't worry. It's not you. It's us.
YouTube warned take-down notices were being sent for videos that include WMG content. It recommended affected users switch to the pre-approved music library of Audioswap for a new soundtrack.
"We understand this might be frustrating for some of you, and we're sorry about that. Our ultimate goal is to treat everyone fairly: to respect the rights of musicians, songwriters, and their biggest fans, so that everyone can continue enjoying original content on YouTube," YouTube said. ®


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This was published 9 years ago
How amateur peacemaker Stephen Davis rescued kidnapped girls from Boko Haram
Earlier this month, Australian counter terrorism officials conducted separate interviews with Stephen Davis and his wife. They wanted to know what Dr Davis had been doing in Nigeria for the past four months.
Dr Davis, a self-described "amateur peacemaker" from Perth, had embarked on a solo mission to rescue some of the more than 200 schoolgirls captured by Boko Haram militants in April.
"I was very confident when I left because I had spoken with some of the commanders and organised the release and handover of some of the girls," he said. "Otherwise I wouldn't have gone."
If the Australian investigators asked Dr Davis to name his occupation, he may have struggled.
The 63-year-old, who has a doctorate in political geography, was a mining consultant to global resources company WMC and to petroleum giant Shell.
It was at Shell in the mid 2000s that he began peace negotiations with rebels in the Niger Delta. He then served as an advisor to two Nigerian presidents, developing links with terror cells as he negotiated on behalf of the government.
A devout Christian, he moved to Britain to work as a canon in the Ministry of Reconciliation at Coventry Cathedral, alongside future Archbishop of Canterbury John Welby.
But when Dr Davis heard of the schoolgirl kidnapping in the village of Chibok, he decided to act.
He began remote negotiations with elements of Boko Haram. In Nigeria, he then travelled with a former Boko Haram guide in a beat-up car across the country's north, setting up a hand-over of girls that would contribute to a peace deal with the government.
But each of the three attempted transfers were thwarted by powerful political forces looking to undermine the ruling party, Dr Davis said in a telephone interview.
"They were sabotaged each one of them in the end but we had commanders willing to do it."
The only success in his mission came after he received a phone call from a man who had been kidnapped by Boko Haram. They began orchestrating an escape for a small number of girls, with four eventually managing to cross from a camp on the Cameroon side of the border to a safe place in Nigeria.
"They're pretty heroic these young girls, pretty amazing," he said. "What they went through is staggering."
The changing face of Nigerian terrorism
Dr Davis said Boko Haram had become more hardline since a peace deal with the government collapsed last year
He accused members of Nigeria's political opposition of sponsoring the more extreme elements of the group in order to weaken the ruling party.
"Some of the guys are uncontrolled in that they are just beheading people before they even know who the person is," he said.
"Or they go into a village and they'll disembowel a pregnant woman and take the live foetus for a ritual."
Dr Davis said the situation in Nigeria was deteriorating faster than at any time in the past 12 years.
"When Boko Haram links up with ISIL - and there is interaction between the two - and with [terrorist group] al-Shabbab, that triangle is going to be the new home of terrorism like the world has not seen," he said.
"The guys before - there was no kidnapping, no rape. They wouldn't kidnap women or children, because that was contrary to the Koran. Now these guys will do anything, they are a totally different breed."
Dr Davis stressed the importance of negotiating with terrorists, no matter their crimes.
"You've got to find common ground, you simply have to," he said.
"There is so much ground you can shift, if you've got time, and you can sit down again and again and again."
But he doubted another deal involving the release of kidnapped girls could be negotiated at the moment, "because things have tightened up so much".
"If it leaked out that they were willing to negotiate the releases of the girls or to talk of a peace deal, then other commanders would execute them," he said.


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MSNBC yesterday reported a huge increase in their overall ratings, a 20% increase, in 2012, no doubt due to the 2012 Presidential campaign, but also due to a another major factor – Black viewership. The network announced an incredible increase in their already large number of Black viewers – a whopping 60.5% increase during the past year.
That's compared to CNN, whose Black audience increased last year by 23.7%, while Fox News' Black audience decreased by the same amount.
No doubt MSNBC's more progressive leaning approach to the news and their wide array of black hosts and pundits such as Toure, Melissa Harris-Perry, Tamron Hall, Joy-Ann Reid (pictured above and who I predict is headed for her own MSNBC show soon) Karen Finney, Michael Steele, Al Sharpton, Eugene Robinson, Jonathan Capehart, Goldie Taylor and if I've forgotten anyone, I'm sorry, have played a large part in the increase in black viewers.
When recently asked about this remarkable development, MSNBC president Phil Griffith said: "I think we made a commitment, we decided, that in order for this channel to succeed, that we had to reflect the country. This meant that we had to be part of the country in ways that the other channels weren't."
He further continued, saying that:
"We have a diverse on-air group of people, because that matters, and people want to know that we reflect their world. And it's not just a single show – it's across the board. You look at the guests every hour and we make sure that we have women, African Americans, everything, and I think to spend a day watching MSNBC is to see America as we have seen it."
Finally, he added that:
"It wasn't like we said 'Oh, we have to have a diverse person on here and there,'" he said. "We made a decision. We made a commitment in ideas, issues and everything – the audience followed, and that goes back to four or five years ago. As we grew, we recognized that it was the right thing to do. It's giving a voice to people in these kinds of programs who don't always get a voice. Our look is as diverse as any on mainstream TV. I'm incredibly proud of it. It's not like we decided 'We're going to increase our African American viewership by 60%,' but I'm thrilled that it happened, and it says a lot about what we've been doing over the last few years."


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The Elgin Fire Prevention Bureau enforces two codes within the City of Elgin and areas that contract fire services from the city.
Our additions, insertions, deletions, and amendments are available at the City's Code Directory.
Fire Code Inspection Personnel
Fire Code Inspectors assist with a number of other Bureau responsibilities that include fire sprinkler system acceptance testing, fire alarm system acceptance testing, fire occupancy testing, fire company re-inspections, complaint follow-ups, underground tank removal, hydrant flow tests, and hood / duct extinguishment system testing. Fire Code Inspectors are responsible for target hazard areas include day care facilities, hospitals, nursing homes, churches, spray painting operations, high-rise buildings, hotels, private schools, and large industrial facilities.


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About the Course
Whether purpose-sunk as an artificial reef for scuba divers, or lost as the result of an accident, wrecks are fascinating windows to the past. Ships, airplanes and even cars are fascinating to explore and usually teem with aquatic life. Each wreck dive offers a chance for discovery, potentially unlocking a mystery or spying something others have missed. The PADI Wreck Diver Specialty course is popular because it offers rewarding adventures while observing responsible wreck diving practices.
If you're at least 15 years old and have earned a PADI Adventure Diver certification or higher, you can enroll in the Wreck Diver Specialty course.
Take This Course If You Want to
Learn How to
How to Become a Wreck Diver
PADI eLearning®
Complete the independent study part of your course whenever, wherever it's convenient for you. Learn about different types of wrecks and common wreck diving hazards.
Work at your own pace, online or offline, using a computer or mobile device. Connect with your instructor for inwater training, or whenever you have a question.
- eLearning time commitment: 2-4 hours
With Your Instructor
- Prerequisites: PADI Adventure Diver (or qualifying certification)
- Total time commitment: 2-3 days (dives must be completed over a minimum of two days)
- Minimum age: 15 years or older
How to Gift PADI eLearning Courses
You can now purchase PADI eLearning® and share it with the scuba diving gift recipient of your choice – it's super easy. Share the fun in 3 simple steps:
More Info
Want to share the experience or give the gift of endless adventure? You can now purchase PADI eLearning® and share it with a recipient of your choice! Whether you are purchasing the course as a gift or need to assign the it to family members – it's super easy.
- Once you purchase your eLearning course, you can log-in to your PADI account to access the course.
- From your Dashboard go to Student Details and Manage Your Courses.
- You can then decide to Start the eLearning yourself or 'Share the course'.
- To share the course, simply click on 'Share the Course' and enter the email address of the recipient you wish to share the course with.
- The recipient will receive an email to create or log-in to their PADI Account to start the course.
Scuba diving requires a minimum level of health and fitness. Chronic health conditions, certain medications and/or recent surgery may require you to get written approval from a physician before diving.
Avoid disappointment, download and review the Diver Medical form to ensure you won't need a physician's approval to dive before enrolling in a scuba course. Instructors, divemasters and dive shop staff are not physicians and should not be asked for medical advice; only medical professionals can give medical clearance to dive.
If you (or your physician) have questions about medical fitness to dive, contact the experts at Divers Alert Network (DAN).
Minimum age: 15
Course prerequisites: PADI Adventure Diver (or similar from another training organization)
You can complete this course locally or while travelling.
Choose a dive shop close to home to:
- Support your local diving community
- Meet dive buddies in your local area
- Learn about your local ecosystem
Choose a dive shop away from home if you:
- Plan to travel to a dive destination on holiday
- Like to meet new people when travelling
- Have the time to complete your course while on vacation
This course requires both knowledge development and inwater training for certification. When you purchase PADI eLearning from our website, the cost covers the knowledge development portion only.
There is an additional cost to complete your certification with a PADI Instructor. The cost is set by your independent PADI Professional and may be influenced by class size, environment, equipment, boat fees, etc. Contact a PADI Dive Center or Resort for more information and pricing.
In addition to scuba gear required for the environment, during this course you may use:
- Dive lights
- Slate and underwater compass for mapping and navigation
- Line and reel (for practicing wreck penetration)
Other equipment appropriate for wreck diving in your area (ask your instructor).
PADI eLearning: 2-4 hours
Entire course: 2-3 days (dives must be completed over a minimum of two days)
PADI's online courses are designed to work on the browsers listed below. For the best experience, make sure your browser is up-to-date.
If you plan to be somewhere without internet access, use the PADI Training app to download course content and study offline. Content can be downloaded in small sections with a total file size of approximately 185 MB. When you get back online, upload your progress so you can resume your training right where you left off.
The PADI Training app is available for Android™ and Apple® iOS devices. For the ideal experience, devices should be no more than three models old and running with the most current OS (operating system).
The first dive of the PADI Wreck Diver Specialty course may count toward your Advanced Open Water Diver certification – ask your instructor about earning credit.
An Enriched Air Nitrox certification can help you spend more time diving inside wrecks and the Peak Performance Buoyancy course can help you avoid ruining the visibility and making unnecessary wreck contact. Each PADI Specialty you complete gets you one step closer to becoming an elite Master Scuba Diver™.


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We know that you love a peacock themed wedding! Especially with a bold color palette of teal, aqua, lavender, and gold. This inspirational wedding shoot is bold and beautiful! There are for sure some steal worthy ideas in here for you from Alden Blair Events & Tyra Bleek Photography.
They used traditional elements in the stationery pattern as well as other items: formal invitations, individual menu cards, champagne favors, and dramatic centerpieces set the tone for a formal event. In order to add a touch of modern elegance they mixed in ghost chairs, stemware, chargers, and cigar favors which for sure adds that contemporary touch.
Photography: Tyra Bleek Photography Event Coordinator: Alden Blair Events Flowers: Blooms of Hope Locations: Brookline, MA and Gondola Di Venezia - Boston, MA Rentals: Rentals Unlimited


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The International Monetary Fund yesterday issued a forecast that was even bleaker than its April outlook, Reuters reports.
The IMF, in its regular assessment of global economic prospects, said that bigger threats to growth had emerged since its previous report in April, citing the euro zone debt crisis and signs of overheating in emerging market economies.
The global lender forecast that U.S. gross domestic product would grow an anemic 2.5 percent this year and 2.7 percent in 2012. In its forecast just two months ago, it had expected 2.8 percent and 2.9 percent growth, respectively.
The outlook elsewhere was mixed. The IMF said it was slightly more optimistic about the euro area's growth prospects this year, but a lack of political leadership in dealing with that crisis and the budget showdown in the United States could create major financial volatility in coming months.
The director of the IMF's monetary and capital markets department called it "playing with fire" to postpone important, budget-related decisions, and the Reuters article specifically mentions the upcoming fight over whether to raise the debt ceiling. Without doubt, that fight is important — it desperately needs to net spending cuts and caps (and will only be a game of "chicken" if politicians on both sides of the aisle refuse to see that) — but it's hard not to connect the IMF's most recent warning to a certain preventable, lamentable "dereliction of duty."
It has now been 779 days since Democrats have passed a budget — even though the law requires them to do just that. What if they had passed a budget that changed the debt trajectory of our country by April 15? What if they had passed a budget last year? Would the IMF have needed to issue so unnerving a prophecy? Would the debt limit debate loom with such heavy significance? A sound budget could have mitigated concerns, introduced greater certainty into the marketplace, prompted businesses to create jobs … The current situation, replete with unwelcome words from the IMF, could have been completely avoided.
Now, CQ reports, the latest iteration of Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad's (D-ND) secret budget is on the table. But Conrad seems unlikely to move definitively before Vice President Joe Biden's deficit reduction talks yield a plan — because, Conrad says, "it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to go to markup before we see what they do, because they may very well need a budget resolution to enact what they want to do." But a secret budget is barely better than no budget at all. After all, secrecy does little to assuage uncertainty.
Thanks to Democrats' delays and the Biden talks' debt-ceiling-debate target, the budget discussion will be rolled into the debt limit debate — and the IMF will continue to warn against "playing with fire." But it didn't have to be this way.


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I've been in a bit of a funk lately that I really can't explain. Perhaps the heat is getting to me?
I spent the entire day Monday wondering what the heck to make for dinner and wondering why the heck nothing sounded good. Maybe because I just returned from a long weekend in Jacksonville putting down copious amounts of seaweed salad, brisket and brie tacos, and grilled shrimp? I mean, what else compares? More on the Jax trip later.
It took until about 4pm that something finally sounded edible, and go figure, it was only one of the weirdest combinations ever. I didn't dare mention it to Ben until 5 minutes per serving. (Times like these, I'm thankful he doesn't ask what's for dinner and just assumes it will be something good. The other 90% of time I want to pull his hair out for not caring. Good thing he doesn't have any, that sexy bald guy of mine.)
During my little walks back and forth between the bench press and cable row station, I began to think about squash. And chickpeas. And these Sweet Potato Tahini Burgers I had pinned a while back, vowing to make. (You all know how that goes. But this time I was really gonna do it. Except that I can't follow a recipe to save my life and I had to make it over with chickpeas and squash and a slew of seasonings the original recipe didn't call for. But I'm sure it's really good as written too!)
And then I decided there needed to be grapes involved. And avocado. See, I told you it was weird. And this stuff, I have no idea where it came from but thankfully I didn't question it and just went with what my hungry gut asked for.
Only just know, as I started typing, I realized something. Maybe I hadn't really left Jackonsville yet. Not in spirit, anyway. Because down in Jax I insisted that Dawn and I make that Warm Butternut and Chickpea Salad that I was still craving since the last time I made it, for Ben's birthday dinner. And those brisket tacos? I *just* remembered they had a grape salsa too. And you better believe there was tons of avocado alongside all that grilled shrimp I speak of.
Crazy how that stuff works, right? And crazy how good this was. Seriously.
Butternut Squash & Chickpea Patties with Grape-Avocado Salsa
Savory squash-based patties with the flavors of falafel, tucked into pita with sweet, crisp grapes and creamy avocado.
Butternut Chickpea Patties
3 cups peeled, diced butternut squash (about 15oz)
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
1 15oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed, or 1 3/4 cups cooked chickpeas, divided
2 tablespoons tahini
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon honey (use agave or maple syrup for a vegan option)
2 teaspoons cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
6 tablespoons chickpea flour
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup loosely-packed cilantro
Avocado-Grape Salsa
2 cups seedless red gapes, halved
1 avocado, diced
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1/2 cup loosely-packed cilantro, chopped
2 tablespoons lime juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
For serving (optional)
pita or wraps of choice*
baby spinach or other greens*All ingredients used for the patties and salsa are gluten-free. The pita bread shown in the pictures is not. Please take care to choose a type of bread appropriate for your dietary needs.
Preheat ovent o 425ºF. Arrange squash and garlic on a nonstick, rimmed baking sheet. Mist with olive oil cooking spray. Roast for 25 minutes, turning once or twice, until tender.
Meanwhile, combine all salsa ingredients in a medium bowl. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Transfer the cooked squash and garlic to a food processor. Add half of the chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, honey, cumin, salt, cinnamon and allspice. Process until nearly smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides if needed. Add chickpea flour and blend again. Add remaining chickpeas, onions and cilantro. Pulse to combine, leaving the mixture a bit chunky.
Heat a skillet over medium heat and mist with olive oil cooking spray. Using a 2oz scoop or large spoon, spoon the batter onto the skillet. Flatten slightly using moist hands or a wet rubber spatula (wetting the spatula will prevent the batter from sticking to it.) Cook for 4-5 minutes per side, until browned and cooked through. Transfer to a warm oven while cooking the remaining patties. You should get about 16.
When ready to serve, cut the pita in half and fill each half with baby spinach, 2 patties, and some of the salsa. Or, wrap the fillings in a large soft wrap or simply serve the patties atop your favorite greens.
Nutrition Facts:
Amount Per Serving (includes 4 patties and 1/4 of salsa; does not include optional bread or greens)
Calories 367.6
Total Fat 12.8 g
Saturated Fat 1.7 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 2.8 g
Monounsaturated Fat 5.9 g
Cholesterol 0.0 mg
Sodium 564.7 mg
Potassium 844.1 mg
Total Carbohydrate 61.1 g
Dietary Fiber 15.4 g
Sugars 15.9 g
Protein 11.9 gCara Lyons, www.carascravings.com. Inspired by Sweet Potato Tahini Burgers and Warm Butternut Squash and Chickpea Salad.
Click here to print.


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Better safe than sorry? Some residents Norfolk, Va., are probably saying that to justify their confusion after a mix-up of canine proportions.
Local police received a call on Tuesday morning about a lion cub that was walking down Colley Avenue in downtown Norfolk. Police then referred the information to Virginia Zoo to verify that Mramba, their male lion, and Zola, their lioness, were safely in their habitats. A zoo spokesman confirmed that they were safe and sound.
(PHOTOS: The 15 Cutest Endangered Animals in the World)
But the lion was, in fact, Charles the Monarch, a popular local Labradoodle with fur shaved to look like Big Blue, the mascot for nearby Old Dominion University. Charles often attends tailgates at Old Dominion football games. According to The Virginian-Pilot, Charles is known to hang out with his owner, Daniel Painter, at his business, Daniel's Lawn & Garden Center on Colley Avenue. According to Painter, Charles the Monarch likes to dine at University Pizza and has around 1,200 likes on his Facebook page. As of Wednesday afternoon, that number rose to over 4,000.
Painter was hardly surprised by the flap, telling WVEC news station that this is not the first time this has happened. "I tell people he's a Lab-a-lion, and half the people believe that."


text: [ronobvious] purchased a Ralink based USB WiFi adapter for use with Aircrack-ng. It worked well so he decided to add an external antenna connector. The connector from Linx Technologies that he chose is really what makes this installation clean. It's a card-edge design so you just slip it over the end and solder the pin and ground leg. He's got a link to Tobias Hain's similar mod and Tobias has a link to a another antenna project as well.


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Requirements: for all Android versions
Overview: SlideIT is the best keyboard for Android devices.
The innovative Android keyboard for quick and easy writing.
SlideIT keyboard is an excellent tool for entering text, replacing your touchscreen keyboard. SlideIT keyboard enables users to dramatically improve writing speed with practically no learning curve.
Instead of entering text by tapping on the keyboard letters, SlideIT keyboard eases texting by sliding a finger along the keyboard letters, while the words "magically" appear on the screen.
SlideIT keyboard version 5 includes many new fieatures and fixes.
++ NEW!! SlideIT 5 now supports Korean! ++
Many keyboard skins for SlideIT are available for download from the Android Market.
SlideIT keyboard fully supports all Android versions from 2.0 (Eclair) and up, including tablets and Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean).
With over 5,000,000 downloads, SlideIT keyboard has been an Android bestseller and selected as an editor's choice by Google.
Among SlideIT's great features:
- Smart predictions and disambiguation
- Over 45 language packs and layouts
- More than 60 skins
- Speech-to-text
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- Import contacts from your phone
SlideIT's many great features make it the ultimate time-saving keyboard for Android devices. Writing e-mail, SMS messaging or just chating with your friends on a small touchscreen is now easy and fun!
The best keyboard on the Android Market!
What's in this version:
* User Interface:
- Full 2D resizing and moving capability
- Scrollable keyboard banner
* Easier symbol and number entry:
- Number suggestion
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* FastAction capability
- Insert text
- Open apps
- Editing commands
* Easier Input:
- Simple input of internet domains
- Easy spacing
- Delete whole words
- Fast case switching
* Better SlideIT
- Word revival
- Many more options to customize SlideIT and bugs fixed.
This app has no advertisements
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Milk supply contract is Code of Best Practice compliant - Arla
The Code, which was drawn up in September 2012 by the National Farmers Union (NFU), NFU Scotland and Dairy UK, is designed to give dairy farmers assurances that their contracts are not putting them at a disadvantage in the marketplace.
Arla's new contract – Arla Direct – features a standard litre price of 30.02 pence per litre (ppl), a bonus for larger producers, liquid and compositional variations, seasonality options, and a 12 notice period.
"Since its launch in September, there has been plenty of debate around the Code and Arla is fulfilling its commitments by introducing what we believe is the first compliant milk supply contract. Initial relation from farmers has been extremely positive," said Arla's head of milk and member services, Ash Amirahmadi.
"In addition, we are also working to ensure that all of our farmer contracts are fully compliant with the Code."


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Dynamics of Stock Market Correlations
Kenett, Dror Y.; Shapira, Yoash; Madi, Asaf; Bransburg-Zabary, Sharron; Gur-Gershgoren, Gitit; Ben-Jacob, Eshel
Year: 2010 Volume: 4 Issue: 3 Pages: 330-340
Abstract: We present a novel approach to the study the dynamics of stock market correlations. This is achieved through an innovative visualization tool that allows an investigation of the structure and dynamics of the market, through the study of correlations. This is based on the Stock Market Holography (SMH) method recently introduced. This qualitative measure is complemented by the use of the eigenvalue entropy measure, to quantify how the information in the market changes in time. Using this innovative approach, we analyzed data from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), for daily trading data for the time period of 2000–2009. This paper covers these new concepts for the study of financial markets in terms of structure and information as reflected by the changes in correlations over time.
JEL classification: C60, C63, C65
Keywords: Correlation, Stock Market Holography, eigenvalue entropy, sliding window
RePEc: http://ideas.repec.org/a/fau/aucocz/au2010_330.html
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Special Annual Awards
THE COMPREHENSIVE E-MAIL conversion at Texas A&M involved 80,000 maiboxes and more than 22 million messages in the mailstore, yet the migration required only 12 hours of downtime.
When a campus is forced to replace an outmoded e-mail system from the ground up, technologists and administrators opt for a full-featured, multi-faceted collaboration system instead-- and more than just communication takes off.
With the 2007 fall semester drawing to a close and the campus community winding down for the holidays, campus IT leaders at Texas A&M University were gearing up for a major overhaul of their campus communications systems. The problem they were facing had a familiar ring-- one echoed on many other campuses across the country: "Our legacy e-mail system is stuck in the early 2000s!" Of course, students, faculty, and staff were growing increasingly tech-savvy and had been exposed to full-featured consumer e-mail and collaboration services, so expectations were running high on campus. The migration to a new solution had to be smooth and timely, and the new system had to offer much more than basic e-mail.
As Michael W. Bolton, associate director for systems, explains, the Texas A&M IT team, headed by Senior Information Technology Manager Cheryl Cato, moved quickly to replace the universitys old Sendmail system in a compressed time frame and with relatively few problems. The conversion was extensive, including all 80,000 mailboxes and more than 22 million messages in the mailstore. "We had to change years of support procedures and processes," says Bolton, "from provisioning new accounts for customers, to deleting accounts for people who left the university. Everything had to change."
By full production cutover on February 2, 2008-- a mere three weeks from initial installation and testing-- the entire university e-mail customer base had been moved to the Zimbra Collaboration Suite platform. There had been only 12 hours of downtime. The new e-mail and collaboration platform was integrated with hardware, software, and storage platforms from IBM, Novell, and NetApp, without incident.
But the real excitement came with the knowledge that the entire university communications infrastructure had been upgraded to provide constituents a true collaboration system, one that not only would bring the campus up-to-date, but also would provide tools to respond to future constituent expectations. IT leaders knew they were fostering a culture of engagement throughout the campus, with better storage, mobile options, and a thorough collaboration experience. Calendaring was turned on from day one, immediately offering the whole campus an entirely new communications hub.
The intensive conversion to the new platform was successful and timely, but the Texas A&M IT team isnt stopping there. "Zimlets" that create an interface for third-party programs to be hooked into the collaboration suite allow more applications to work inside the suite. Business units on campus will be encouraged to develop solutions tailored to their departments. The IT department already has received dozens of requests for new collaboration Zimlets incorporating Flickr, Twitter, Amazon, RSS feeds, the iCal standard for campus events, and more. Many paper-driven processes already have been replaced with e-mail, offering a huge cost savings, and the university will leverage other paperless processes. Technologists currently are working on a secure IM system for researchers and for other document-sharing applications-- services that university administrators and educators hope will increase collaboration further. The team also is expecting improvements on the back end. The university's NetApp storage solution ultimately will leverage the migration of e-mail from high-performance disk to possibly slower, higher-capacity storage. Customers will receive even larger storage quotas while the university realizes cost savings.
Says Bolton, "When we completed the conversion and the servers were back online, the first message we received was a big thank-you note from a student. When we implemented the service, we never anticipated how popular it would be; customers who never used the server are now asking for accounts." His advice to other IT organizations considering extensive technology upgrades? "Dont be afraid to step into such a big change; just remember that keeping people informed is key."
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Bell Let's Talk is a wide-reaching, multi-year program designed to break the silence around mental illness and support mental health all across Canada.
BCE Inc. is Canada's largest communications company, providing a comprehensive and innovative suite of broadband communications and content services to consumer, residential business and government customers in Canada.
Powered by industry-leading investments in advanced networks and media content, Bell communications services are offered under the Bell Canada and Bell Aliant brands. These include fibre-based IPTV and high-speed Internet services, 4G LTE wireless, home phone and business network and communications services, including data hosting and cloud computing.
Bell Media is Canada's premier multimedia company with leading assets in television, radio, out of home and digital media, including CTV, Canada's #1 television network, and the country's most-watched specialty channels.
To accelerate Bell's broadband content strategy, BCE is a significant investor in Canada's leading sport and entertainment institutions, the Montreal Canadiens and Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. The Source is one of Canada's largest consumer electronics retailers with over 650 locations nationwide, offering Bell TV, Internet and Mobility products and home entertainment, home office and sound products.
The Bell Let's Talk mental health initiative promotes Canadian mental health with national awareness and anti-stigma campaigns like Bell Let's Talk Day and significant Bell funding of community care and access, research, and workplace initiatives.
Bell Aliant is a cell phone store located in Halifax, NS, Canada.


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Mackie today announced the Mackie Control Pro control surface series, the next generation of the Mackie Control Universal line of controllers.
Comprising Mackie Control Universal Pro, Mackie Control Extender Pro and Mackie Control C4 Pro, the series provides the most complete feature set and software compatibility of any control surfaces available today. Mackie Control Pro series controllers are designed to seamlessly work together to deliver ultimate hands-on control of mix and plug-in parameters, thereby making the user's music production software complete.
"Mackie Control Pro controllers allow users to get the most out of Logic, Pro Tools and other major audio production software by giving them control they simply can't get from a mouse or generic controller. Our new series once again sets the standard for precision, expandability and ease of use," said James Woodburn, Mackie Recording Brand Manager.
Sporting a new streamlined appearance, the Mackie Control Universal Pro control surface boasts the ability to connect directly to a Mac or PC via USB, and support for connections of up to three additional pieces of external MIDI gear. Like the Mackie Control Universal, the MCU Pro features nine motorized, touch-sensitive Penny + Giles faders, eight V-Pots and more than 50 master buttons, as well as a sophisticated communication protocol that enables ultra-precise control, makes setup easy and gives real-time visual feedback via the huge backlit LCD and eight LED rings.
The Mackie Control Extender Pro control surface extension shares the new appearance of the MCU Pro, and allows for easy expansion of the master module. Users can add eight precision Penny + Giles faders and V-Pot channels at a time — up to 24 faders and V-Pot channels total — by way of MIDI ports supplied by the MCU Pro.
The Mackie Control C4 Pro plug-in and virtual instrument controller offers hands-on control of up to 32 simultaneous parameters as well as extensive visual feedback via four backlit LCD "scribble strips." Like the Extender Pro, the C4 Pro has been designed to seamlessly connect to the MCU Pro, but can also operate in standalone mode. The unique communication protocol employed by the C4 Pro allows for plug and play setup, and enables users to view parameter names and values in real time. When the C4 Pro is combined with Mackie's free C4 Commander Pro software, users can also take control of MIDI hardware such as synthesizers, effects and amp modeling processors, all without leaving the mixing sweet spot.
The new Mackie Control Pro series will be available February 2007 and will have a U.S. manufacturer's suggested retail price of $1549.99, $899.99 and $1299.99 for the Mackie Control Universal Pro, the Extender Pro and C4 Pro, respectively.


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This article is more than 1 year old
Anonymous crashes Formula One site over Bahrain protests
Nervy petrolheads face three days of protests
Hackers claiming to be from Anonymous have taken down the official Formula One website as protests grow over this weekend's controversial Grand Prix in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
"The F1 Grand Prix in Bahrain should be strongly opposed. The Al Khalifa regime stands to profit heavily off the race and has promised to use live ammunition against protestors in preparation," the group said in a statement.
"They have already begun issuing collective punishment to entire villages for protests and have promised further retribution 'to keep order' for the F1 events in Bahrain. The Formula 1 racing authority was well-aware of the Human Rights situation in Bahrain and still chose to contribute to the regime's oppression of civilians and will be punished."
The statement also called for the release of Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, a prominent local human rights activist who was arrested at his home in April 2011 and sentenced to life in prison two months later on charges of aiding terrorist organizations. Amnesty International has declared him a 'prisoner of conscience' and he is now in the 70th day of a hunger strike.
So far the race looks like it will be going ahead anyway, although some members of the Force India team have left the country following an incident earlier in the week where they were caught in a riot and tear gassed. The country's Crown Prince said to cancel the race now would "empower extremists," Reuters reports.
Bahrain was the first Middle Eastern state to hold a Formula One race in 2004 and the ruling family has a significant stake in the McLaren racing team. The 2011 race was cancelled after protests erupted across the country.
The protests began on Valentine's Day last year, as part of the wave of uprisings across the Arab world. While uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya were successful (with some help from NATO in the last case,) the Bahraini uprising, which saw over 100,000 people take to the streets, was quickly crushed when the royal family asked the Saudi Arabian army to intervene. The US Navy 5th Fleet, which is based in Bahrain, did not take part.
After the initial uprising the former Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner John Yates, who resigned after being heavily criticized for his conduct of an investigation into the News of The World hacking scandal, was hired by the Bahraini royal family to investigate human rights abuses that may or may not have taken place.
Yates reportedly wrote to FIA president Jean Todt earlier this month, telling him that the protests were not as serious as the media was reporting and said he felt safer in Bahrain than he did in some parts of London.
"These are criminal acts being perpetrated against an unarmed police force who, in the face of such attacks, are acting with remarkable restraint," he wrote. "They are not representative of the vast majority of delightful, law-abiding citizens that represent the real Bahrain that I see every day." ®


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SANAA, Yemen – Suspected Al Qaeda suicide bombers disguised in military uniforms stormed into an army base in southern Yemen on Friday, killing 14 soldiers and wounding more than 20, Yemeni officials said.
The dawn assault on the coastal base in Abyan province involved four suicide bombers in an army pick-up truck laden with explosives and a gunbattle with soldiers who were caught sleeping.
The attack highlights the increasingly brazen tactics used by militants in this impoverished Arab Peninsula country and the many challenges Yemen's new leadership faces as it struggles, with U.S. help, to route militants and bring security to the nation.
Washington considers Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as the Yemeni branch of the network is known, to be the group's most dangerous offshoot, and holds it responsible for several failed attacks on U.S. territory.
The Abyan attack came a day after suspected U.S. drone strikes killed at least seven Al Qaeda-linked militants in the same area in the south. It also followed a recent visit to Abyan by Yemen's Defense Minister Gen. Mohammed Nasser Ahmed, which was meant to showcase the military's strength in a province where the group last year controlled entire cities and towns.
In June, Yemeni troops backed by U.S. airpower and advisers drove Al Qaeda militants out of southern cities and into mountain refuges. Earlier, the militants had seized large swaths of territory in Abyan during a security vacuum left by last year's uprising against the country's longtime authoritarian leader, Ali Abdullah Saleh. They also seized thousands of firearms, as well as tanks and armored vehicles in raids on arms depots and barracks.
Military officials said Friday's attack started when four bombers, dressed in military uniforms, drove the pickup to the base and opened fire on its guards, killing two.
Three of the attackers then jumped out of the pickup and started shooting at soldiers who had rushed out, awakened by the gunfire, the officials said. The fourth bomber rammed the explosives-laden vehicle into a group of soldiers and blew it up. The other three attackers were killed as their suicide vests detonated during the shootout with the soldiers.
The officials said the attackers apparently wanted to assassinate the base commander but never got close to his quarters. The head of the military police on the base was among those killed in the attack, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations.
Yemeni security officials, meanwhile, said they believe militants have a hit list of officials on the new government that came to power earlier this year. They expressed fears that Al Qaeda has also infiltrated military ranks and has informants who report on military movements. The security officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Saleh, Yemen's former president, was toppled in the country's uprising -- the fourth longtime Arab ruler to fall as a result of the Arab Spring. But constant friction between Saleh's remaining supporters and those of his former deputy who is now president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, have added to the volatile mix.
Since Hadi's government offensive drove Al Qaeda from southern towns and cities, militants have sought refuge in mountain areas and have retaliated with assassinations of top security officials. They have also staged deadly suicide bombings targeting the military and civilian militias working alongside the army.
One of the worst attacks against the Yemeni army took place on May 21, when a suicide bomber -- who turned out to be a son of a colonel -- blew himself up in the middle of a military rehearsal in the capital, Sanaa, killing around 100 soldiers.
A month later, an Al Qaeda suicide bomber detonated his explosives among a crowd of Yemeni police cadets, killing at least 10.
In March, Al Qaeda militants launched a surprise pre-dawn attack on a southern base while troops slept, killing 185 troops and capturing 73. The fighters sprayed tents where soldiers had been sleeping with gunfire. They dumped their bodies in the desert, some beheaded, and paraded dozens of captured soldiers through a nearby town.


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I feel pretty bad about yesterday's post about the iPad 3 being the one to make a song and dance about. I'm sure the iPad 3 will be great when it comes out, but for right now, the iPad 2 is a great upgrade. This is not a ho-hum update, as our anonymous Apple staffer suggested.
It's a rockstar from Mars update. It runs on tigerblood.
The slimmed-down weight and bulk make a big difference. It's much easier to hold and handle. It's pretty astonishing that Apple managed to cram in so more, yet made the case so incredibly thin. That is rockstar engineering.
The cameras should have been in there all along, of course, but the addition now makes the iPad much closer to feature-complete.
But the real magic of the device is the integration of hardware and software. Look at the piano in Garageband. You tickle the virtual keys softly and it plays softly. But hammer on them and you sound like Little Richard. The iPad 2's screen is touch-sensitive, thanks to the built-in accelerometer, which tells the iPad how hard you are touching the screen. Watch the video of it in action here. It really is pretty astonishing!
Without that integration of hardware and software, other tablets are just fancy digital picture frames, as Wired's Brian Chen noted on Twitter.
The iPad 2 is pure Apple: it proves that Apple is its own most ruthless competitor. Overnight, 15 million first-generation iPads were rendered obsolete.
Apple's competitors are dead in the water. Steve Jobs is a master of hyperbole, but this time he's right. There's no doubt about it: 2011 is the year of the iPad 2.


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Community Garden
Garden News
Welcome to the Southside Place Community Garden, located next to City Hall in Southside Place, Texas. The mission of this garden is to create a beautiful, shared, public space for growing organic fruits and vegetables to provide healthy organic foods to residents of Southside Place and nearby neighbors and to help meet the nutritional needs of the hungry in the greater Houston area by donating oursurplus production to local food pantries and food banks. Planting and harvesting is done by members following a master plan for plant selection, fertilization, and crop rotation. The garden is used to facilitate educational programs at local schools, providing an ideal setting to cover topics such as the food supply, nutrition, botany, insects, sustainability and others, as well as teaching life skills such as responsibility, and accountability. The garden is also be a gathering place for our neighbors, whether for intimate family picnics or large social events, to foster relationships among members of our community.
The garden organization, an affiliate member of Urban Harvest, began February 24, 2013 in a public meeting. We voted to have a communal garden, possibly with some allotted plots for rent by individuals at a later date. The City of Southside Place awarded us the use of one city-owned lot for at least for five years. In 2016, the City also agreed to allow us to use a second lot, on which we currently envision planting trees and having walkways, but adding no permanent structures. We became an official 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation effective October 7, 2013 so that your charitable contributions are tax-deductible. Since then, we have installed plumbing, built the first eight raised beds and planted and harvested organically grown crops every season. The front and side habitat gardens attract beneficial insects and have qualified as a certified butterfly habitat. We built a tool shed, sponsored by Texas Citizens Bank. We also erected a pergola, sponsored by Lovett Homes, which is now the focal point for gathering neighbors together. We write a monthly column, "What's growing on in the garden," which serves as our public newsletter published in Southside Living Magazine. We have had several lively fundraising parties and have generated a lot of interest and camaraderie in our community.
Next up:
- Working meetings in the garden first and third Saturday of each month at 9:00 am (in the summer, 2:30 pm in the winter); second and fourth Wednesday of each month at 8:00 am
- Design pathways and fruit tree plantings on the second lot
- Construct a bulletin board for communicating operational activities.
- Construct one or more garden gates
- Furnish the interior of the shed
- Build additional beds, possibly sold as allotment to individual families, as needed
Membership is free and no gardening experience is necessary. Open to non-Sousthside Place residents, as well. Just email to join. Also you may join our facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/476972015691263/ Anyone is welcome to come visit the garden at any time and see what's growing.
Get involved…it's a grassroots effort!
For more information, please go to our website at http://southsideplacecommunitygarden.org/