text:
Kam W. Leong, James B. Duke Professor
Professor Leong's research interest focuses on biomaterials design, particularly on synthesis of nanoparticles for DNA-based therapeutics, and nanostructured biomaterials for regenerative medicine
Biomaterials Design:
- design of self-assembled fibers for tissue engineering
- microfluidics-mediated synthesis of multifunctional nanoparticles for drug and gene delivery
- synthesis of novel quantum dots for biomedical applications
Controlled Drug and Gene Delivery:
- oral gene delivery for hemophilia A and B
- non-viral gene delivery to the GI tract
- oral delivery of antigen genes for vaccination
Tissue Engineering:
- study of response of stem cells to nanotopographical cues
- expansion of hematopoietic stem cells
- nerve guidance channels with drug and gene delivery functions
- microencapsulation of stem cells and genetically-engineered cells
- development of bioartificial nucleus pulposus device
- study of interaction of stem cells with synthetic nanostructured biomaterials
Office Location: | 1395 CIEMAS |
Email Address: | |
Web Page: | http://www.leonglab.pratt.duke.edu/ |
- Education:
- PhD, University of Pennsylvania, 1987
- Postdoc, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 1985
- BS, University of California, 1977
- Postdoc, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 1985
- Research Interests:
Leong's research interest focuses on biomaterials design, particularly on synthesis of nanoparticles for DNA-based therapeutics, and nanostructured biomaterials for regenerative medicine.
- Specialties:
Biological Materials
Drug Delivery
Tissue Repair, Tissue Engineering
- Awards, Honors, and Distinctions
National Academy of Engineering
Stansell Family Distinguished Research Award, 2010
3M Pharmaceuticals Recognition Award, Controlled Release Society, 1996
Award for Recognition of Pioneering Contribution in Polymer chemistry and Bioomedical Engineering, Chinese-American Chemical Society, 1995
Capsugel Award on Innovative Aspects of Controlled Release Research, Controlled Release Society, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001
Cygnus Recognition Award, Controlled Release Society, 1997
Excellence in Guidance of Graduate Student Research, Controlled Release Society
Jorge Heller Manuscript Award, Journal of Controlled Release, 2007
Proctor & Gamble Recognition Award, Controlled Release Society, 1993
Young Investigator Research Achievement Award, Controlled Release Society, July, 1994
- Representative Publications
(More Publications)
- Ho, Y. P. and Leong, K. W., Quantum dot-based theranostics, Nanoscale, vol. 2 no. 1 (2010), pp. 60-68 [PDF] [abs].
- Yim, E. K. F. and Darling, E. M. and Kulangara, K. and Guilak, F. and Leong, K. W., Nanotopography-induced changes in focal adhesions, cytoskeletal organization, and mechanical properties of human mesenchymal stem cells, Biomaterials, vol. 31 no. 6 (2010), pp. 1299-1306 [PDF] [abs].
- Chen, S. and Jones, J. A. and Xu, Y. and Low, H. Y. and Anderson, J. M. and Leong, K. W., Characterization of topographical effects on macrophage behavior in a foreign body response model, Biomaterials, vol. 31 no. 13 (2010), pp. 3479-91 [PDF] [abs].
- Chen, H. H. and Ho, Y. P. and Jiang, X. and Mao, H. Q. and Wang, T. H. and Leong, K. W., Simultaneous non-invasive analysis of DNA condensation and stability by two-step QD-FRET, Nano Today, vol. 4 no. 2 (2009), pp. 125-134 [PDF] [abs].
- Oney, S. and Lam, R. T. S. and Bompiani, K. M. and Blake, C. M. and Quick, G. and Heidel, J. D. and Liu, J. Y. C. and Mack, B. C. and Davis, M. E. and Leong, K. W. and Sullenger, B. A., Development of universal antidotes to control aptamer activity, Nature Medicine, vol. 15 no. 10 (2009), pp. 1224-1228 [PDF] [abs].


text:
ARDEE, Ireland, July 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Warner Chilcott plc (Nasdaq: WCRX)
today announced that it will issue its second quarter 2010
financial results prior to the market opening on Friday, August 6, 2010.
In addition to issuing a press release, the Company will host a
conference call for all interested parties on Friday, August 6, 2010 at 8:00 AM (Eastern Time) to review the
results. To participate in the call, please dial (877) 354-4056 in
the United States and Canada or (678) 809-1043
Investors and other interested parties may also access the
conference call via a simultaneous audio webcast by visiting http://ir.wcrx.com and clicking on
Events & Presentations.
A replay of the conference call will be available for two weeks
following the call and can be accessed by dialing (800) 642-1687
within the United States and Canada or (706) 645-9291
internationally. The passcode for the replay is 90072579.
The Company
Warner Chilcott is a leading
specialty pharmaceutical company currently focused on the
gastroenterology, women's healthcare, dermatology and urology
segments of the North American and Western European pharmaceuticals
markets. The Company is a fully integrated company with
internal res

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Considering Farage's own win against Nick Clegg in the televised debates earlier this year, it seems we've come to a lamentable situation in this country, where politicians can lose a battle of wits with anyone who has taken the time to do a little research.
That being said, if anyone were to ask who you would prefer to have running the country, it's unlikely that either profession would figure in the top two.
The interviewer confirmed the findings of many social media bloggers over the past few days, starting with reference to two more UKIP members who had shown their true homophobic and hypocritical colours.
He quoted former UKIP council candidate John Lyndon Sullivan, who tweeted: "I rather often wonder, if we shot one poofter, whether the next 99 would decide on balance that they weren't after all. We might then conclude that it's not a matter of genetics but rather more a matter of education."
And UKIP's small business spokesman has employed seven illegal immigrants in the last year, said Mr O'Brien.
Farage employed the usual UKIP tactic, which is to demand that the questioner find out "what's going on in the other parties". O'Brien put him straight by pointing out that the other parties weren't the issue at hand.
Later in the interview, he added: "The reason it doesn't possess the same urgency as the UKIP conversation does is – (a) – the question of quantity; there is simply not the avalanche of bigotry emerging from other parties that emerges from yours, and – (b) – … the opinion polls do not report significant swathes of the country who are fearful that your party represents deeply divisive and racist ideas."
He was saying it is possible that UKIP is influencing people into adopting those anti-immigrant and racist ideas themselves – and this theory has been borne out by some of the pro-UKIP comments on the Vox Political Facebook page (but you have to catch them quickly, before the perpetrators realise they've erred and remove them).
Regarding JL Sullivan, Farage said he wasn't a councillor but a council candidate, then contradicted himself by saying he had not heard of that gentleman's name. If that were true, how would Farage know whether he was a councillor or a candidate?
Farage's assertion that he would face a disciplinary charge on whether he had brought the party into disrepute was punctured by the revelation that his tweet was made in February.
On the illegal immigrants, Farage's defence was holed by the revelation that his small business spokesman resigned as a company director three days after the immigration raid.
A conversation about Farage's discomfort, sitting in a train carriage in which nobody else spoke English, was surreal. When I was a student I had the unique pleasure of sharing a carriage with a crowd of French schoolchildren. That was uncomfortable too, but I didn't attach any unreasonable baggage to it – it wasn't an indication that French kids were overrunning Britain and it didn't show that the French were all loud and overexcitable. It was one train carriage and Farage should have more of a sense of proportion.
O'Brien put his finger on the nerve and pressed hard: "The point you're making is that schools in the East End are filled with children who cannot speak English. .. That's not true… Children who are typified as speaking English as a second language would include your own daughters… Perhaps [if we checked] we would realise that most bilingual children in this country are children like yours?"
He continued, highlighting accusations of bigotry and hypocrisy: "What the caller asked you was why so many people think you're racist… and… you talk about children who can't speak English as a first language without mentioning it includes your own children."
There was an implication that Farage, who has banned former members of the BNP from joining UKIP in an effort to protect the party from adverse publicity, has himself associated with the far-right organisation; and a question over the far-right parties with which UKIP sits in the European Parliament. Farage said UKIP would not sit with people who didn't have a reasonable point of view but O'Brien flagged up a member of the group who had said the ideas of Anders Breivik, the Norwegian mass murderer, Islamophobe, Anti-Semite and anti-feminist, were "in defence of Western civilisation".
Farage's paper-thin defence was that the European political discourse was very different to the UK, (again) an admission that his party had encountered problems with "one or two members", and a reference to problems in other parties (the Conservatives, on this occasion)
O'Brien leapt on this: "Your defence so far is that you're no different from any other political party and yet your unique selling point … is that you are different." In addition, he pointed out that Farage refers to "members of the political class and their friends in the media", while writing columns for the Independent and Express newspapers every week and appearing on the BBC's Question Time more often than anyone apart from David Dimbleby.
Farage should count himself lucky he was not also asked about his connections with American right-wingers, including Ron Paul (Godfather of the Tea Party) and James Beeland Rogers Jr who, together with George Soros, engineered the British economic crash of 1992.
Farage tried to defend his way of equating Romanians with criminality by saying that Roma people in other countries have been forced into a situation where crime is their only option – and then was forced into a corner when O'Brien mentioned UKIP's fearmongering poster, that claims millions of potential immigrants are after the jobs of British people. Wasn't he demonising foreigners by saying they will take all the jobs and push crime up?
"I'm not demonising anyone," said Farage, then contradicted himself: "I'm demonising a political class that has allowed us to have an open door that allowed things like this to happen."
"So when I say Romanian and you start talking about people traffickers, why don't you say people are perfectly entitled to feel uncomfortable about living next door to people traffickers, wherever they're from?" asked Mr O'Brien. "Why do you say 'Romanians'?"
Get ready for another contradiction: "I didn't say Romanians; I was asked… if a group of Romanian men moved in next door to you, would you be concerned, and if you lived in London I think you would be."
It was while Farage was being questioned on his expenses that Patrick O'Flynn, UKIP's director of communications and former Daily Express political commentator, stepped in (claiming that O'Brien was over-running, 19 minutes into a 20-minute interview). Mr O'Brien's response: "Is this a friend in the media or a member of the political class?"
Homophobia, racism, hypocrisy, and an incitement for others to display the same characteristics.
Does this country really need that kind of alternative to mainstream politics?
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text: Visited by more than 11 million car shoppers each month, Cars.com is the leading destination for online car shoppers, offering credible and easy-to-understand information from consumers and experts to help buyers formulate opinions on what to buy, where to buy and how much to pay for a car. With comprehensive pricing information, dealer reviews, side-by-side comparison tools, photo galleries, videos, unbiased editorial content and a large selection of new- and used-car inventory, Cars.com puts car buyers in control of their shopping process with the information they need to make confident buying decisions. Launched in June 1998, Cars.com is a division of Classified Ventures, LLC™. Other Cars.com properties include NewCars.com® and PickupTrucks.com™. Classified Ventures, LLC, is owned by five leading media companies: Belo Corp., Gannett Co. Inc., The McClatchy Co., Tribune Co. and Graham Holdings Co.


text:
Still fear-mongering over DADT, North says repeal could reinstate draft
Written by Sean Easter
Did retired Lt. Col. Oliver North really just say that a repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell could mean a return to the draft? Yes, in an appearance today on Fox News' Happening Now, North said DADT repeal could mean a loss of 30 percent of military personnel, and that an all-volunteer force could not survive such a loss. From the December 1 edition of Happening Now:
JENNA LEE (anchor): Viewers have a lot of questions about our resources though as a military, and this is follow-up from Ken Delap. He wants to know if there is ever a scenario you can imagine where we would have to reinstate the draft?
NORTH: Well, yeah, I can because of what they're about to do in terms of the Congress passing this revocation of section 654 of Title 10. What you're liable to have happen, is a consequence of-- and by the way that is known in the jargon as "don't ask, don't tell". What you're likely to have is a whole lot fewer voluntary enlistments that we rely on right now for an all-volunteer force.
LEE: And Colonel North, you really think that would happen? Because Briana had a great question from Phoenix, Arizona. She says, "Is having homosexual men and women in the military really a detriment to the establishment of the military?" Sounds like you're saying yes?
NORTH: It is. There's no doubt. In all of my trips overseas, Briana and Jenna, and everyone else out there, in now almost two years of covering this war for Fox News on the ground with U.S. units, I have never - there's very few always and nevers in life -- I have never talked to a staff noncommissioned officer or a mid-grade officer with combat experience who believes this is a good thing to do. And if we're relying on the fact that 30 percent have already expressed their concern about this, don't leave the military and get replaced, then we've got a problem because you can't live with an all-volunteer force that loses 30 percent of the best-educated, trained, led, militarily equipped and combat-experienced force the world ever has known. It could be very, very dangerous in the long-term.
Why, that seems like a mighty strong assertion. If only we had hard data on the subject. If only a recent comprehensive survey of U.S. service members had asked how a repeal of DADT would affect their decisions to stay in the force.
What's that you say? The Pentagon recently asked over 115,000 service members in a survey about DADT?
12.6 percent of those surveyed said they would leave sooner than they had planned, 11.1 percent said they would think about leaving sooner. That adds up to 22.7 percent, assuming every respondent who said they would leave early actually did, and that every respondent who said they would consider leaving early decided to do so.
To approach 30 percent, one would have to assume that the 10.5 percent of respondents who said that they did not know how repeal would affect their career decisions would up and decide that the post-repeal military just wasn't for them. Given that absurd, baseless assumption, we arrive at a total of 33.2 percent. One would also have to disregard the estimated thousands of gay and lesbian military personnel who would be retained each year if not for DADT, and to assume that any uptick in recruitment of gay personnel was non-existent or negligible.
However, such an exodus is extremely unlikely, given similar surveys taken in foreign countries before those nations allowed open service. 45 percent of Canadian troops said they would refuse to work with gay personnel, and two-thirds of British troops said they would leave the military if the gay ban were repealed. Despite those indications, retention was not harmed.
So, to recap, repeal would cost the U.S. military 30 percent of its personnel only in a preposterous fictional world where every single service member who answered that they would leave sooner did not reconsider and actually left, where every single service member who answered that they would think about leaving sooner decided to leave early and did so, and where every single service member who couldn't say how repeal would affect their decision.
In that world, North's anecdotal evidence and persistent fear mongering might hold water. That anecdotal evidence is itself suspect: in "almost two years of covering this war for Fox News on the ground with US units," has North really never spoken to any U.S. military personnel with positive things to say about gay troops in the British or Canadian forces in Afghanistan?
But in real world where people consider data and history, North's numbers just don't add up.


text:
Northwestern Tobacco Free Campus
We, the students, faculty and staff of Northwestern University, care about our health and the health of those around us. Therefore, we support a tobacco-free policy for our campus that would do the following:
1. Prohibit tobacco use on all college property, including residence halls.
2. Prohibit the free distribution of tobacco products on campus, including affiliated fraternities and sororities.
3. Promote tobacco treatment services and products through university health services.
Tobacco use remains the number one preventable cause of death and disability in the U.S., in Illinois and in Chicago/Evanston. Tobacco kill more than AIDS, crack, heroin, cocaine, alcohol, car accidents, fire, murder and suicide combined. The 2010 Surgeon General's report concludes there is no safe level of exposure to tobacco smoke. In addition, the American Cancer Health Association Guidelines now advocate for a campus-wide tobacco-free environment. There are currently 766 college campuses across the United States that are 100% tobacco free. Northwestern, being a top American university, should implement a tobacco-free campus policy. In doing so, Northwestern would show the value it places on the health of their students, faculty and staff.
A tobacco-free campus would also provide a financial benefit to the University, as decreased productivity and health care expenditures from tobacco related illness can be very costly. In Illinois, each year smoking causes more than 16,600 deaths, has health care costs of nearly $4.8 billion and $7.9 billion in smoking caused productivity losses. While the retail price of a pack of cigarettes in Illinois is on average $6.07, the combined medical costs and productivity losses attributable to each pack of cigarettes sold approximately add up to $21.99 per pack of cigarettes.
In Illinois, 21% of adults are smokers. Almost 70% of smokers want to quit, and more than half have tried to quit. One of the most successful ways to help smokers quit is working in a tobacco-free environment. Dell Computer in Austin, Texas is a successful example where a tobacco-free workplace has helped to reduce the tobacco use rates of its employees. Dell had a 13% smoking rate among its employees prior to implementing a tobacco-free campus. After its implementation, and combined with offering of cessation services, this rate fell to 3%.
Tobacco-free policies can have a positive impact in reducing adverse impacts from tobacco use. According to recent research, the following benefits have been attributed to the implementation of tobacco-free policies:
- Decreased smoking initiation among young adults
- Decreased progression in established smokers
- Increased probability of young adults smoking cessation
- Promotes a tobacco-free norm which can influence adult smoking behavior
- Leads to less smoking among adults in the workplace
- Employees who work in workplaces with smoke or tobacco-free policies are almost twice as likely to stop using tobacco as those who work where tobacco is allowed


text:
It seems, as one becomes older,
That the past has another pattern, and ceases to be a mere sequence --
Or even development: the latter a partial fallacy
Encouraged by superficial notions of evolution,
Which becomes, in the popular mind, a means of disowning the past.
The moments of happiness -- not the sense of well-being,
Fruition, fulfilment, security or affection,
Or even a very good dinner, but the sudden illumination --
We had the experience but missed the meaning,
And approach to the meaning restores the experience
In a different form, beyond any meaning
We can assign to happiness. I have said before
That the past experience revived in the meaning
Is not the experience of one life only
But of many generations -- not forgetting
Something that is probably quite ineffable:
The backward look behind the assurance
Of recorded history, the backward half-look
Over the shoulder, towards the primitive terror.
Now, we come to discover that the moments of agony
(Whether, or not, due to misunderstanding,
Having hoped for the wrong things or dreaded the wrong things,
Is not in question) are likewise permanent
With such permanence as time has. We appreciate this better
In the agony of others, nearly experienced,
Involving ourselves, than in our own.
For our own past is covered by the currents of action,
But the torment of others remains an experience
Unqualified, unworn by subsequent attrition.
People change, and smile: but the agony abides.
Time the destroyer is time the preserver...
Sunrise, Gloucester, Massachusetts, 1 January 2011: photo by Brian O'Connor, 2011


text:
If you have unemancipated children of the marriage under the age of twenty one (see the definition on page 7), please see the Annual Income Worksheet (Form UD-8(1) Instructions and the Child Support Worksheet (Form UD-8(3)) Instructions before you prepare the summons, so you can give the Defendant notice of the amount of child support demanded.
1. SUMMONS WITH NOTICE (Form UD-1):
This form is used when commencing an action for divorce without a Verified Complaint. The Notice of Automatic Orders, Notice of Guideline Maintenance if the divorce was commenced on or after 1/25/16, and Child Support Standards Chart if applicable must, and the Notice Concerning Continuation of Health Care Coverage should, be served with the Summons with Notice. Note: if your action was commenced before January 25, 2016 , the Maintenance Guidelines Law will not apply.
Field 1: Put the index number in the space provided.
Field 2: Print the county in which you are bringing this action.
Field 3: Print the date the summons was filed.
Field 4: The same as field 2.
Field 5: Print the Plaintiff's name.
Field 6: You must state the basis of venue, that is, why this case may be heard in the county you select. You have several options: Plaintiff's residence (Plaintiff lives in the county), Defendant's residence (Defendant lives in the county), or CPLR §509 (any other county so long as the Defendant does not object and the court accepts the case). If you choose a county where neither party resides, you must write in CPLR §509. The court must accept the case if it is brought in the county where either the Plaintiff or the Defendant resides. If you choose CPLR §509 and the other side does not challenge the basis for venue, then the action may go forward in that county, but you should be aware that the court may reject your case based on specific venue rules in the county where you are filing.
Field 7: Provide where either the Plaintiff or the Defendant resides depending on which party's residence was chosen as the basis of venue. For example, if the Plaintiff's residence is listed as the basis for venue, place the Plaintiff's address in this space. If Defendant's residence is chosen, list the Defendant's address in this space. If CPLR §509 is chosen, list the Plaintiff's address in this space.
Field 8: Print Defendant's name.
Field 9: Check the appropriate box.
Field 10: Print the date you prepared the summons.
Field 11: Check the appropriate box.
Field 12: List your attorney's address and telephone number. If you do not have an attorney, list your name, address and telephone number.
Field 13: Fill in the appropriate subdivision number and the grounds for divorce as indicated at the bottom of the form (see pages 3-5 in this booklet). Check with your local clerk's office if you need additional information on where to learn about the grounds for divorce.
Field 14: "Ancillary" or Other Relief: If you are asking for other relief in addition to your request for a divorce, this other relief must be listed in this section as "ancillary relief." Examples include but are not limited to custody, visitation, child support, equitable distribution of specific property from the marriage, maintenance, counsel and/or experts fees, orders of protection, pension benefits, use of a former last name, and exclusive occupancy of the marital residence. If there are unemancipated children of the marriage (see the definition on page 7), child support must be listed in this section. You should also list any presently existing court orders (including the docket /case/index number) that you wish to be continued. (Note: when minor children of the marriage reside in New York State, custody must be determined). You should also list any stipulations or agreements that you have made in writing with the Defendant that you wish to become a part of the judgment. If you are waiving the distribution of marital property or if marital property is being distributed pursuant to an agreement/stipulation, check the appropriate box. If you are not seeking maintenance as described in the Notice of Guideline Maintenance other than what was already agreed to in a written agreement/stipulation, or if you seek maintenance as described in the Notice of Guideline Maintenance, check the appropriate box. If you would be the party with greater income, you should leave both boxes blank.
Note: do not check these boxes if your action was commenced before January 25, 2016 because the Maintenance Guidelines Law will not apply. If your action was commenced before that date, and if you seek maintenance, instead include your request on the Lines for "Ancillary" or Other Relief at Field 14 together with your reasons. The court will decide your request in its discretion after considering certain factors. If you are not requesting "Ancillary" or Other Relief, check the appropriate box.
Important Note: If you do not ask for a type of "Ancillary" or Other Relief in this section, you may be giving up your rights to things you may be entitled to.


text:
Britain risks running out of energy generating capacity in the winter of 2015-16, according to the energy regulator Ofgem.
Its report predicted that the amount of spare capacity could fall from 14% now to only 4% in three years.
Ofgem said this would leave Britain relying more on imported gas, which would make price rises more likely.
The government said that its forthcoming Energy Bill would ensure that there was secure supply.
Ofgem blames the risk on coal-fired power stations being closed sooner than expected and EU environmental legislation.
The warnings come in Ofgem's first annual Electricity Capacity Assessment.
It comes three years after Ofgem's Project Discovery report, which warned that electricity shortages could lead to steep rises in energy bills.
It is now saying the highest risk of shortages would be sooner than expected because coal-fired power stations would be closing sooner than it had predicted in 2009.
'Unprecedented challenges'
The regulator said more investment was needed in building fresh generating capacity.
"The unprecedented challenges in facing Britain's energy industry… to attract the investment to deliver secure, sustainable and affordable energy supplies for consumers, still remain," said Ofgem chief executive Alistair Buchanan.
"Ofgem is working with government on its plans to reform the electricity market to tackle these issues."
Energy Secretary Ed Davey said the government would respond to the report before the end of the year.
"Security of electricity supply is of critical importance to the health of the economy and the smooth functioning of our daily lives," he said.
"That is why the government is reforming the electricity market to deliver secure, clean and affordable electricity."
Energy UK, which represents the energy industry, said Ofgem was right to highlight the challenges it faces in the coming years.
"We must secure over £150bn of investment in the UK to replace aging power stations and infrastructure, keep the lights on and meet our carbon targets," said its chief executive Angela Knight.
"All while making sure that energy bills are affordable for the millions of homes and businesses that rely on the power supplied by our members."
Price worries
The trade union Prospect, whose members include 21,000 professionals working in nuclear decommissioning and energy supply, called for government action to avert power shortages.
"This report highlights how imperative it is for the government to act now and introduce electricity market reform that ensures the programme of new nuclear build and other vital energy infrastructure projects, such as carbon capture and storage, are attractive enough to secure the long-term investment they require," said Prospect general secretary designate Mike Clancy.
Audrey Gallacher, director of energy at Consumer Focus expressed concern about the dangers of rising prices.
"While there is enough generation capacity to mean that widespread power-cuts are still unlikely, narrower margins mean the risks of outages are higher and scarcity of energy could also feed into possible price rises in future," he said.
"Consumers need protection from price spikes as well as power cuts."
Source: BBC 5 October 2012 Last updated at 13:34


text:
Triple celestial event to take place in UK skies tonight
The events will all coincide, a rare occurrence, tonight, Friday February 10.
Seeing the triple celestial event will depend on local cloud cover.
Snow moon
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdFebruary's full moon is named the Snow moon, because in the US this is traditionally the snowiest time of year.
Penumbral lunar eclipse
This year's Snow moon will coincide with a penumbral lunar eclipse, so that it is almost completely submerged in shade as the Earth comes between the sun and the moon.
A penumbral eclipse is when the moon crosses a peripheral region of the Earth's shadow. Usually a faint shadow will form on the moon's surface, and the moon will appear less bright. However February's penumbral eclipse is unusual, because most of the moon's face will cross the Earth's shadow, making it appear much darker.
The best time to view the event will be mid-eclipse at 12.45am, though the eclipse will begin at 10.34pm on Friday and end at 2.53am on Saturday morning.
New Year comet
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdThe New Year comet has been visible around the world since December, but on Friday it will make its closest approach to Earth, reaching 7.4 million miles from Earth. This will be its closest approach to Earth since 2011, and we won't see it again until 2022. Look out for the comet from midnight on Friday - though you will probably need binoculars or a telescope to view it.


text:
This article is more than 1 year old
VMware vSphere gets more gadgets
Freebie console for freebie hypervisor
Server virtualization juggernaut VMware kicks off its VMworld fest in San Francisco today by rounding out its vCenter management tools for the new vSphere 4.0 stack, which wraps around the new ESX Server 4.0 hypervisor.
The company is also launching a free Web-based, hosted management tool that will allow companies that use VMware's freebie ESXi hypervisor to deploy and manage virtual machines atop this freebie code rather than have to pay for vCenter management tools.
Two years ago, when VMware launched the embedded version of its bare-metal ESX Server hypervisor, dubbed ESX Server 3i, this announcement was all about gutting the management console out of the hypverisor so the code could fit on a flash memory stick. This let server partners like Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and IBM sell a hypervisor for maybe $200, like they would a tiny disk drive.
However, this was when Microsoft was still planning to charge for its Hyper-V hypervisor for Windows and when XenSource and then Citrix Systems continued to charge for their XenEnterprise commercial variant of the open source Xen hypervisor. But when Microsoft changed its mind back and forth a few times and eventually decided to give Hyper-V away - and the entry-level XenServer was also given away for free - the new top brass at VMware (after the founders Diane Greene and Mendel Rosenblum were forced out of the company by owner EMC) under former Microsoftie Paul Maritz decided they had to compete on price and give away the ESXi hypervisor for free too.
The only problem with free, of course, is that it is often only worth a little bit more than what you pay for it - and sometimes less.
In the case of ESXi, the code was free, but you have to pay a couple hundred bucks per instance if you want tech support and software patches. And more importantly, VMware didn't offer the sophisticated management tools embodied in vCenter and the Virtual Infrastructure 3 and now the vSphere 4.0 stacks. If anything, the kinds of people who are using freebie tools need more help when it comes to managing the software than those who are paying for the heavy-duty code.
To that end, VMware is launching a service called VMware Go, which is used explicitly to manage the embedded hypervisors ESX Server 3i, ESXi 3.5, and now ESXi 4.0. The Web-based tool is not something you can download, but rather a service you log into that then runs around your network, sniffing out ESXi instances if you have them. It also lets you deploy new ESXi instances and monitor them.
The VMware Go service was created by VMware to chase small and medium businesses - you know, the cheapskates who are not going to pay a lot for that hypervisor - but it's actually being hosted by Shavlik Technologies, a VMware partner that sells online patch and configuration management tools.
According to Melinda Wilken, senior director of marketing at VMware, about three-quarters of the companies that download the freebie ESXi hypervisor are SMBs, which not only have tight budgets but which tend to have IT generalists and not a lot of expertise in one specific facet of technology. Having attracted such shops to VMware virtualization products, the company can ill afford to have them be frustrated by a lack of management tools and start thinking about using XenServer or Hyper-V instead. Hence, the VMware Go service, which blunts the attack from these two - not to mention the attack that will ratchet up from Red Hat later this year with its Enterprise Virtualization hypervisor and tools and the attack that Oracle is preparing with a converged Xen-Virtual Iron product.
VMware Go is in beta today. You can sign up for it here. VMware's announcement says that Go will be available as a free service beginning in 2010, but Wilken said that the product would be generally available in the fourth quarter of this year. Go figure.
The paying customers at VMware using its vCenter management tool also get some new goodies today, including two features called CapacityIQ and ConfigControl.
When vSphere 4.0 was announced back in April, not all of its management bits were ready for shipping a month later when the product went on sale. In July, vCenter was updated with a performance monitoring and service-level reporting capability for applications running inside of VMs, called AppSpeed.
Another feature, called vCenter Chargeback, keeps track of who is using VM resources by individual, department, division, or company and allows for IT managers to start doing chargeback to those using resources. Also in July, VMware merged its Lab Manager VM jukeboxing software with its Stage Manager VM lifecycle management tool for development and test environments and chopped the price on the combined project, which is now called vCenter Lab Manager 4.
The vCenter CapacityIQ and ConfigControl features are only being previewed now. CapacityIQ, which will be available in the fourth quarter, is an automatic rightsizing tool for VMs that helps system administrators get over their bad habits of overprovisioning virtual server capacity, just as they rightfully had to do when they were sizing physical servers and storage arrays. CapacityIQ watches the VMs that administrators set up and sees how they use processor, memory, storage, and I/O capacity as their workloads are running.
After it does this for a while, it recommends skinnier VM configurations where appropriate. The tool can also look at trend data and forecast when certain machines or VMs will run out of gas, and it can do "what if" analysis to predict what will happen on a network of servers if raw server capacity is plugged in and made available to the VMs through the Distributed Resource Manager (DRS) offered by VMware, which does load balancing of VMs across the network. CapacityIQ could also predict the effect of adding a new set of applications to the virtual infrastructure as things shuffle and reshuffle based on policies set in DRS.
The ConfigControl feature of vCenter, which will ship sometime in the first half of 2010, is being demoed this week at VMworld, is used to keep track of setup of all the elements in the virtual infrastructure under control of ESX Server, including all of the dependencies between the various physical and virtual infrastructure. To build this tool, VMware has OEMed a dynamic discovery program from Hewlett-Packard, and then has added assessment tools to figure out if the virtual infrastructure is in compliance with security and configuration policies set by the IT department. Basically, it is a virtual boss looking over the shoulder of system admins.
Pricing for vCenter CapacityIQ and ConfigControl will be announced when they are generally available. ®


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Some of you may have heard that Charlie Walker, a former manager of the Saints, passed away yesterday. He managed the club during a time when finances and trophies were lean. He was responsible for brining Paul McGrath to Pat's.
Charlie was a larger the life character and a gentleman. RIP.


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Eureka! Physicists celebrate evidence of particle
Scientists at the world's biggest atom smasher hailed the discovery of "the missing cornerstone of physics" Wednesday, cheering the apparent end of a decades-long quest for a new subatomic particle called the Higgs boson, or "God particle," which could help explain why all matter has mass and crack open a new realm of subatomic science.
First proposed as a theory in the 1960s, the maddeningly elusive Higgs had been hunted by at least two generations of physicists who believed it would help shape our understanding of how the universe began and how its most elemental pieces fit together.
As the highly technical findings were announced by two independent teams involving more than 5,000 researchers, the usually sedate corridors of the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, erupted in frequent applause and standing ovations. Physicists who spent their careers in pursuit of the particle shed tears.
The new particle appears to share many of the same qualities as the one predicted by Scottish physicist Peter Higgs and others and is perhaps the biggest accomplishment at CERN since its founding in 1954 outside Geneva along the Swiss-French border.
Rolf Heuer, director of CERN, said the newly discovered particle is a boson, but he stopped just shy of claiming outright that it is the Higgs boson itself — an extremely fine distinction.
"As a layman, I think we did it," he told the elated crowd. "We have a discovery. We have observed a new particle that is consistent with a Higgs boson."
The Higgs, which until now had been purely theoretical, is regarded as key to understanding why matter has mass, which combines with gravity to give all objects weight.
The idea is much like gravity and Isaac Newton's early theories. Gravity was there all the time before Newton explained it. The Higgs boson was believed to be there, too. And now that scientists have actually seen something much like it, they can put that knowledge to further use.
The center's atom smasher, the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider, sends protons whizzing around a circular 27-kilometer (17-mile) underground tunnel at nearly the speed of light to create high-energy collisions. The aftermath of those impacts can offer clues about dark matter, antimatter and the creation of the universe, which many theorize occurred in a massive explosion known as the Big Bang.
Most of the particles that result from the collisions exist for only the smallest fractions of a second. But finding a Higgs-like boson was one of the biggest challenges in physics: Out of some 500 trillion collisions, just several dozen produced "events" with significant data, said Joe Incandela of the University of California at Santa Barbara, leader of the team known as CMS, with 2,100 scientists.
Each of the teams confirmed Wednesday that they had "observed" a new subatomic particle — a boson. Heuer said the discovery was "most probably a Higgs boson, but we have to find out what kind of Higgs boson it is." He referred to the discovery as a missing cornerstone of science.
As the leaders of the two teams presented their evidence, applause punctuated their talks.
"Thanks, nature!" joked Fabiola Gianotti, the Italian physicist who heads the team called ATLAS, with 3,000 scientists, drawing laughter from the crowd.
Later, she told reporters that the standard model of physics is still incomplete because "the dream is to find an ultimate theory that explains everything. We are far from that."
Incandela said it was too soon to say definitively whether the particle was exactly the same as envisioned by Higgs and others, who proposed the existence of an energy field where all particles interact with a key particle, the Higgs boson.
Higgs, who was invited to be in the audience, said Wednesday's discovery appears to be close to what he predicted.
"It is an incredible thing that it has happened in my lifetime," he said, calling the discovery a huge achievement for the proton-smashing collider.
Outside CERN, the announcement seemed to ricochet around the world with some of the speed and energy of the particle itself.
In an interview with the BBC, the world's most famous physicist, Stephen Hawking, said Higgs deserved the Nobel Prize. Hawking said he had placed a wager with another scientist that the Higgs boson would never be found.
"It seems I have just lost $100," he said.
Marc Sher, a professor of physics at William & Mary College, said most observers concluded in December that the Higgs boson would soon be discovered, but he was "still somewhat stunned by the results."
The phrase "God particle" was coined by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon Lederman, but it's used mostly by laymen as an easier way of explaining the theory.
Wednesday's celebration was mainly for researchers who explore the deepest, most esoteric levels of particle science. But the particle-hunting effort has paid off in other ways for non-scientists, including contributing to the development of the World Wide Web.
CERN scientists used the early Web to exchange information, and the vast computing power needed to crunch all of the data produced by the atom smasher also boosted development of cloud computing, which is now making its way into mainstream services.
Advances in solar energy, medical imaging and proton therapy used in the fight against cancer have also resulted from the work of particle physicists at CERN and elsewhere.
The last undiscovered piece of the standard model of physics could be a variant of the Higgs that was predicted or something else that entirely changes the way scientists think about how matter is formed, Incandela said.
"This boson is a very profound thing we have found," he said. "We're reaching into the fabric of the universe in a way we never have done before. We've kind of completed one particle's story. ... Now we're way out on the edge of exploration."
The discovery is so fundamental to the laws of nature, Incandela said, that it could spawn a new era of technology and development in the same way that Newton's laws of gravity led to basic equations of mechanics that made the industrial revolution possible.
"This is so far out on a limb, I have no idea where it will be applied," he added. "We're talking about something we have no idea what the implications are and may not be directly applied for centuries."
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Sealaska Scholarship Gives Confidence Boost to Shareholder Recipient
Wednesday, June 22, 2022
Latest News
1099 Tax Forms are available now on MySealaska!
Pinned - Posted 1/17/2024Sealaska shareholders are now able to view and download their IRS Form 1099-DIV for 2023. Printed 1099 tax forms will be mailed on or before Jan. 26.
Notice of 2024 Annual Meeting of Shareholders
Posted 2/15/2024
The 2024 Sealaska Annual Meeting of Shareholders will be held Saturday, June 29 in Sitka at Harrigan Centennial Hall, located at 330 Harbor Dr., Sitka, AK 99835. Sealaska will share a live webcast of the annual meeting through the MySealaska.com shareholder portal for those unable to attend in person. Here is some key information, including important deadlines, for shareholders: Shareholder resolutions: Under Sealaska bylaws and election procedures, resolutions properly subject to a vote of shar...
Virtual policy update connects shareholders with policy and advocacy priorities
Posted 2/7/2024
Sealaska's Nax̱too.aat/Wayi Wah/Hágwsdaa (Let's Go!) policy committee hosted a virtual shareholder update on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2024 for an audience of over 170 shareholders. The event was focused on Sealaska's policy priorities for the 2024 year and offered shareholders an opportunity to learn more about ongoing initiatives, supportive advocacy and how they can get involved on an individual level. Sealaska director 'Wáahlaal Gíidáak, who serves as the committee chair, was joined by fellow commit...
Sealaska rings in 2024 with first board meeting of the year
Posted 2/5/2024
The Sealaska board of directors met in a board meeting held on Friday, Jan. 26 to review yearly priorities, receive updates from the management team and approve donation requests. Executive Chair Joe Nelson opened the meeting with recognition of long-term shareholder employee Thea Brown, who will be retiring in early March after 40 years of service. Nelson also detailed internal efforts to elevate Sealaska's organizational efficiencies and strengthen both internal and external partnerships. Du...
Sealaska is now accepting applications for 2024-2025 language grants
Posted 2/1/2024
Sealaska is now accepting applications for 2024-2025 language grants, which support efforts to preserve Sm'algyax, X̱aad Kíl and Lingít. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until all funds are allocated. Learn more and apply at investment in languages is made possible by a $10 million endowment, established by the Board of Directors in 2019 and aimed at urgent action with emphasis on advanced speakers. Last year...


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The current plight of Boeing and the airlines that fly the 787 aircraft highlights not only the safety risks, but also the commercial risks of lithium battery-powered products and devices.
Lithium batteries are marvelous inventions — they are lightweight, relatively inexpensive and can pack a lot of power with a shelf life far superior to other types of battery technology. These days, rechargeable lithium ion batteries, and primary non-rechargeable lithium batteries are everywhere. And unfortunately, they are also considered "Dangerous Goods" (or "HazMat," a term used in the U.S.).
It should be obvious to any company executive (and especially a corporate risk manager) who picks up a newspaper that lithium batteries are all over the news. Suspected lithium battery related incidents — like the 787 grounding, a couple of suspected cargo aircraft fires, the recent explosion and injury from an exploding "electronic cigarette" to the numerous fires started by lithium powered consumer products — should give any CEO or corporate risk officer something to think about.
Not only is there a risk from civil litigation, but also huge potential for government law enforcement actions against a company — perhaps yours — that does not fully understand the incredibly complex rules for shipping lithium batteries by common carrier or airline.
Last year a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) enforcement action against a plastics manufacturer resulted in a $75,000 proposed penalty for a plastic connector they built to house a simple lithium coin-cell (this was designed to provide backup power to a fuel emissions monitoring system for a commercial truck diesel engine). Their customer shipped them the cells and asked them to include one inside each device. Each of these coin-cells was installed in the connector and each connector was individually boxed. Nothing was damaged and there was no incident — except that the box was not properly marked. The material safety data sheets (MSDS) that included information about the lithium cell was misleading, in that it said these small (certified) cells, containing 0.27 grams of lithium were "not restricted" by any mode of transport.
That was not true — this mistake is made all the time and it's a common misconception that "small" lithium batteries are not restricted. Nothing could be further from the truth. Even the International Air Transport Association (IATA) chose to remove the word "not restricted" from any references regarding lithium batteries.
After a yearlong legal battle, the plastics company discovered that there are a lot of people who don't understand the lithium battery shipping regulations. There are more than 37 different possible ways to ship these batteries and cells depending on the power of the battery/cell, whether it's shipped alone, packed with equipment or actually contained in a piece of equipment, and there are different rules for each mode of transport (air, highway, ocean).
So what is a manufacturer or distributor supposed to do to ensure compliance and properly ship these lithium batteries and the devices they power? There are a few key points that need to be considered:
- With few exceptions, all lithium cells must be tested according to strict UN standards which provide specific criteria. These tests are designed (among other things) to simulate real world conditions, including conditions normally incident to transportation.
- Many companies purchase tested cells — i.e. lithium ion cells from suppliers in China — and then construct a battery out of these approved cells. These batteries or subsequent battery packs must then be tested again.
- The penalties for failing to properly package or properly offer for transport a lithium battery can carry fines of up to $55,000 dollars per package per day. This is for accidental violation of the rules where there is no intent to "wilfully" violate the requirements. "Wilful" violations can involve criminal prosecution and penaltites — especially if there is death, injury or property damage that is a result of this intentional disregard of the regulations.
- Many SDS are just plain wrong when it comes to lithium battery shipping information. Any SDS over 3 years old should be suspect as the rules have been in constant flux over the last 8 years or so. Any SDS/MSDS that references the term "excepted by Special Provision A45" is horribly out of date.
- Could you ever see your company in a position where your customers might have to return a lithium battery or lithium battery powered device to you as part of your returns or reverse logistics process? Be careful! In order to ship some of these batteries, your customer (if they are a business), may have to train and certify their employees before they can legally offer a shipment of these products to a commercial carrier (i.e. an LTL trucker or freight company), and they have to comply with the shipping regulations.
- Beware of helpful employees or colleagues bearing mis-information about lithium battery shipping. The most prevalent piece of bad advice goes something like this: "Oh, don't worry, it's an 'excepted' lithium battery because it's under 100 Wh or 2 grams — it's not restricted." That piece of bad information is pervasive and even many of the carriers don't understand the nuances of the rules. Your response should be: there is never a circumstance (ever) where a lithium battery is non-restricted. Period.
- The operative question to ask is: Which regulations do apply under our circumstances and to what extent does it restrict my ability to ship our product with the least hassle, least cost, and the highest level of safety.
If your company transports, ships, or causes to be shipped — any lithium battery powered product, you need to have a set of policies and procedures in place that will minimize your liability. These steps will help you achieve your goal of safe and legally compliant lithium battery shipping:
- Only allow trained personnel to handle and ship these products.
- Create a procedures manual that includes instructions on how to ship your products.
- If you ship lithium batteries by air, be sure to revisit your shipping procedures as there were SUBSTANTIAL changes in 2013 for shipping "excepted" batteries and cells.
- Have a knowledgeable resource available to assist your company. One free source of information is the US Department of Transportation. They have a HazMat help line at 1-800- 467-4922 ext 1.
- If you don't want to rely only on the government regulator for free you can contact a private consulting and penalty mitigation company such as our company, Transportation Development Group LLC (www.dgtraining.com).
The most important piece of advice is to not accept the status quo. Just because you've never had a visit from a DOT inspector or FAA agent (if you're shipping by air) doesn't mean everything is in compliance. Be proactive and have a trained person audit your shipping operations and policies. Hopefully this will prevent any enforcement actions, or at the very least show a proactive stance with regard to lithium battery compliance. Be sure to have documentation to back it up as this will help reduce the amount of penalty against you should an investigation be launched.
James E. Powell is president and founder of Transportation Development Group LLC (TDG) a dangerous goods (hazardous materials) training company and consultancy based in Seattle, Wash. TDG specializes in hazardous materials shipping training by air, ocean and highway. TDG is a global leader in IATA, IMDG, and DOT dangerous goods online training. Over the last 20 years, TDG has trained thousands of people.
For more information, visit www.dgtraining.com or email Josey Dentzer, Lithium Battery Product Manager, Transportation Development Group LLC, [email protected].


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The KAS has been collating information from the graveyards of Kent for over 100 years.
The MI records available here come from a variety of sources many of which were transcribed and indexed from notebooks in KHLC and the KAS Library etc by Frank & Zena Bamping, Margaret Broomfield, Christine Pantrey, Pat Tritton and Dawn Weeks, assisted by other members of the K.A.S. Many were available as a result of the transcriptions collected by Leland L Duncan, Bax and Rice and others from the 1760's to the 2015. Other MI records have been provided by members and other enthusiasts. .
(This website can only possibly contain a fraction of the information once available in the churchyards of all ages throughout Kent. )


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Friday, July 31, 2009
The One Page Dungeon Contest PDFs
You can get them here:
The Codex is a compilation of the winning entries, runner ups and honorable mentions. It features a color cover by the awesome Mark Allen, the winner of the Color category in the Erol Otus/Fight On/Otherworld Miniatures art contest. It also has commentary from myself and ChattyDM and blog posts that trace the genesis of the OPD and give some tips on it's usage.
The Compendium simply contains all of the contest entries - it's a whopping 28MB of one page dungeon awesomeness. You asked for all the entries, and now you have them. There's years of dungeon delving in that collection.
Why did we name it the "Hobbyist" version? Well, that's because in September, we'll have a "Professional" version that has been professionally laid out, has additional content and has the artwork provided by Avatar Art (one of our sponsors) for the top 3 winners. We didn't want to wait until then to release the Codex (we did promise end of July...) so we're providing it now.
So there you have it! Enjoy!
Voting for the ENnies is from Jul 24th to Aug 1st. Please vote for Swords & Wizardry for Best Free Product - vote Truly Free!
19 comments:
- Christopher B said...
Awesome!! Can't wait to see the "Professional" version. :D
- July 31, 2009 at 9:09 AM
- Hakdov said...
This is made of pure win. Best thing I've seen in a long time.
- July 31, 2009 at 9:18 AM
- Rick Krebs said...
An excellent addition to the hobby.
- July 31, 2009 at 12:08 PM
- Michael S/Chgowiz said...
Thank you!
Rick, that is high praise and I'm very grateful for all the participation from everyone. - July 31, 2009 at 12:12 PM
- Chris said...
That's my weekend reading sorted then. :)
Thanks and congratulations to all involved in the OPD contest (participants, sponsors and judgers alike) - July 31, 2009 at 2:27 PM
- jcosmon said...
How great is this! Thanks so much for making all of these available.
This is really incredible. - July 31, 2009 at 5:14 PM
- Kiltedyaksman said...
What a great collaboration. Judges and participants should be proud of this accomplishment. I plan on using this in my own game.
Great work. - July 31, 2009 at 6:37 PM
- Dave Tackett said...
I have been anxiously waiting for this. Outstanding.
- July 31, 2009 at 9:39 PM
- Gabriel said...
Thumbs up to all who made the OPDC possible!
- August 1, 2009 at 4:25 AM
- Adam Thornton said...
The mongo compendium has a few minor issues (like, ahem, at least one author's name mistranscribed in the table of contents (or index or whatever you call that sidebar thing in Apple Preview)) and a page that is blank or appears so on Apple's Preview and Safari (between Tomb of Song and Temple of Corruption), but this is way, way cool despite these (very minor) glitches.
I am amazed--AMAZED--at how few of the entries appear phoned in! I had noticed this already with the ones that had been published on authors' web pages, but I figured there was a certain amount of self-selection going on there, where only the people who had put a lot of effort into their entries posted them. Almost every one of the entries here, though, feels like something that someone really put significant work into.
I contrast this with the annual Interactive Fiction competition, which I follow pretty closely. It usually attracts somewhere between 30 and 60 entries, but of those, probably between 3 and 10 in any given year were clearly haphazard at-the-last-minute-slap-something-together things. So you did wonderfully in attracting contestants who took the work seriously.
Adam - August 1, 2009 at 11:11 AM
- Akrasia said...
This is a really great resource. Thanks!
- August 2, 2009 at 2:00 PM
- matt said...
This thing is really cool, I am just sad I did not have a chance to compete and get my piece of junk put in here as well. Maybe next year!
Good work to everyone who contributed to this project, this is some awesome stuff. - August 3, 2009 at 3:16 AM
- Michael S/Chgowiz said...
@Adam - I agree, I was really thrilled to see the effort. I wonder if that has anything to do with this being the first - I wonder if it became a regular thing, it would seem "ordinary"?
Maybe we'll do this every 5 years? :) - August 3, 2009 at 7:37 AM
Will the "Professional" version be available in print?
- August 25, 2009 at 8:46 PM
- Michael S/Chgowiz said...
@Anon - It's going to be a full color item - we could offer it through lulu, but I think it would be extremely expensive.
- August 25, 2009 at 8:57 PM
via Lulu's Book Cost Calculator
Paper: Standard
Book Type: Paperback
Color: Color
Size: U.S. Letter (8.5" x 11")
Binding: Coil Bound
Number of Pages: 44
Quantity: 1
Manufacturing cost: $15.80
I'm sure that final particulars may vary, but I'd gladly pay $20 or so for a print copy. Coil Bound is ideal, providing the ability to lay the book flat with any given One Page Dungeon displayed in all its glory. - August 25, 2009 at 11:05 PM
- Michael S/Chgowiz said...
@Anon - well, learn something new everyday - I didn't know you could do that! Thanks for the info, we'll definitely consider it.
Personally, I go back to 3 hole ring binders, but that's just how I grew up. I always end up smashing/breaking/separating those darn coil binders. :-/ - August 26, 2009 at 6:43 AM
- Unknown said...
This is still an awesome resource for ideas. Just out of idle curiosity, has the "Professional" version been abandoned?
- January 21, 2010 at 7:32 PM
- Michael S/Chgowiz said...
@awmyhr - We are going to try and get it done by April, but it's been hard trying to pull together some elements. But thanks - and give a look at Alex Schroeder's 2010 OPD contest too.
- January 21, 2010 at 7:40 PM


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When I was obese, I daydreamed about being thin. I thought about all the ways my life would change.
I'd wear stylish clothes.
I'd never gain the weight back.
I'd rub it in the face of everyone that ever doubted me or treated my badly.
I'd never obsess over food ever again.
I'd be fighting off boys left and right.
I wouldn't be consumed with a number.
I'd be (even more) daring.
Everything would be right and perfect in my world. When I lost all the weight, that is when my life would truly begin.
Life begins..or does it?
I waited 35 years for my life to begin. I turned 35 two days after meeting my goal weight and, if I go by this list, I'm still waiting. Waiting for all of those things on an arbitrary list to manifest themselves. Because the truth is that for all the things in my life that have changed, nary an item has been checked off of that list.
I'd wear stylish clothes. I don't wear stylish clothes. I wear T-shirts, headbands and ponytails, yoga pants and sneakers most of the time.
I'd never gain the weight back. The truth is, I've gained some weight back. In fact, I did it almost immediately after hitting my goal. It's not much. I hover between 144-148 these days. I had nearly back-to-back vacations and some heavy stuff happening in my life. I wasn't comfortable with getting up to 148 but I'm not terribly torn up about it either. [I'm currently at 146.] This is all part of the learning process. It didn't end when I crossed into maintenance.
I'd rub it in the face of everyone that ever doubted me or treated my badly. I don't rub my successes in the face of everyone that did me wrong. Who wants to hang out with those jerks? Retribution is a nice fantasy — but grace and mercy should take precedence. Instead of revenge, I reflect on my struggle and know that they were just as flawed as me and have problems of their own. And they are probably still jerks anyway. So it wouldn't make a difference. 😉 (Still working on that grace and mercy stuff.)
I'd never obsess over food ever again. Totally still obsess over food. Sometimes its the excitement of earning an indulgence. More often than I'd like, its still the same old demons. Hoping to never again obsess over food was naive. If it were that easy to turn off, I never would have gotten to where I did.
I'd be fighting off boys left and right. I only fight one boy off these days and I am quite okay with that…and I don't fight very hard either.
I wouldn't be consumed with a number. I'm still consumed with numbers. Mileage, speed, average pace, the cost of new gear and the days left until the next race.
I'd be (even more) daring. I've had trouble defining what daring is to me. Things I held myself back from in the past are simply normal now. It's not daring to speak up for yourself, take care of yourself, or put yourself out into the world and seek joy. It isn't courageous or brave or lionhearted or bold. It's just what life should have always been. And it should be that way for everyone.
The journey's real lesson
There was a time I thought I was missing out on life because I was "fat." I had so many reasons to not do things. The truth is that life presents itself when you are actually living. My obesity didn't cripple me, I did that. I spent more time daydreaming than doing.
And maybe that's the lesson I'm really learning from this journey: Stop imagining the future and start creating it.
Maintenance is hard. It's harder than the losing. I struggle because I worry a lot. I'm no longer obese and instead of freeing myself from the dregs of worrying, instead being more "daring," I now worry about becoming obese again in spite of my continued efforts.In addition to the new worries, there is a loneliness in meeting your goal. The road behind me is littered with those that think I don't need them, the ones that lost their way and gave up. Up ahead of me, way in the distance, are the ones that met their goals and are off living life…and I can't quite seem to catch up.
There are no more milestones. No more surprises on the scale. And the "attagirls" fade into the distance as people perceive that final milestone as the end. It's like the end of a party. There's so much anticipation leading up to the event, the big day happens and there's confetti and balloons, and then everyone leaves. And all I'm left with is confetti ground into my carpet and wondering how taco dip got in the cat's ear.
It was fun and exciting — but what now?
Now, is when my life begins. Now is when I make a new list and actually cross things off. Now is when I start creating the future.
Kelly Jopson-Brown is a New Castle, DE mom. Read her blog, The Turnip Farmer, at www.TheTurnipFarmer.com or follow her on Twitter @mommabrown08.


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There are other assemblers with various interesting and outstanding features which may be of your interest as well.
They can be in various stages of development, and can be non-classic/high-level/whatever else. |
AS86 is a 80x86 assembler (16-bit and 32-bit) with integrated macro support. It has mostly Intel-syntax, though it differs slightly as for addressing modes. Some time ago it was used in a several projects, including the Linux kernel, but eventually most of those projects have moved to GAS or NASM. AFAIK, only ELKS continues to use it.
AS86 can be found at http://www.debath.co.uk/dev86/, in the bin86 package with linker (ld86), or as separate archive. Documentation is available as the man page and as.doc from the source package. When in doubt, the source code itself is often a good doc: though it is not very well commented, the programming style is straightforward. AS86 is part of a number of BSD and Linux distributions.
AS86 is primarily a 16 bit assembler. |
Using AS86 with BCC | ||
Here's the GNU Makefile entry for using BCC to transform .s asm into both a.out .o object and .l listing:
Remove the %.l, -A-l, and -A$*.l, if you don't want any listing. If you want something else than a.out, you can examine BCC docs about the other supported formats, and/or use the objcopy utility from the GNU binutils package. |
YASM is a complete rewrite of the NASM assembler under the "new" BSD License. It is designed from the ground up to allow for multiple syntaxes to be supported (eg, NASM, TASM, GAS, etc.) in addition to multiple output object formats including COFF, Win32 and Mach-O. Another primary module of the overall design is an optimizer module.
FASM (flat assembler) is a fast, efficient 80x86 assembler that runs in 'flat real mode'. Unlike many other 80x86 assemblers, FASM only requires the source code to include the information it really needs. It is written in itself and is very small and fast. It runs on DOS/Windows/Linux and can produce flat binary, DOS EXE, Win32 PE, COFF and Linux ELF output. See http://flatassembler.net.
osimpa is an assembler for Intel 80386 processors and subsequent, written entirely in the GNU Bash command interpreter shell. The predecessor of osimpa was shasm. osimpa is much cleaned up, can create useful Linux ELF executables, and has various HLL-like extensions and programmer convenience commands.
It is (of course) slower than other assemblers. It has its own syntax (and uses its own names for x86 opcodes) Fairly good documentation is included. Check it out: ftp://linux01.gwdg.de/pub/cLIeNUX/interim/ (Access is password controlled). You will probably not use it on regular basis, but at least it deserves your interest as an interesting idea.
Aasm is an advanced assembler designed to support several target architectures. It has been designed to be easily extended and, should be considered as a good alternative to monolithic assembler development for each new target CPUs and binary file formats.
Aasm should make assembly programming easier for developer, by providing a set of advanced features including symbol scopes, an expressions engine, big integer support, macro capability, numerous and accurate warning messages. Its dynamic modular architecture enables Aasm to extend its set of features with plug-ins by taking advantages of dynamic libraries.
The input module supports Intel syntax (like nasm, tasm, masm, etc.). The x86 assembler module supports all opcodes up to P6 including MMX, SSE and 3DNow! extensions. F-CPU and SPARC assembler modules are under development. Several output modules are available for ELF, COFF, IntelHex, and raw binary formats.
The Table Driven Assembler (TDASM) is a free portable cross assembler for any kind of assembly language. It should be possible to use it as a compiler to any target microprocessor using a table that defines the compilation process.
It is available from http://www.penguin.cz/~niki/tdasm/ but is seems it is no longer actively maintained.
HLA is a High Level Assembly language. It uses a high level language like syntax (similar to Pascal, C/C++, and other HLLs) for variable declarations, procedure declarations, and procedure calls. It uses a modified assembly language syntax for the standard machine instructions. It also provides several high level language style control structures (if, while, repeat..until, etc.) that help you write much more readable code.
HLA is free and comes with source, Linux and Win32 versions available. On Win32 you need MASM and a 32-bit version of MS-link on Win32, on Linux you need GAS, because HLA produces specified assembler code and uses that assembler for final assembling and linking.
TALC is another free MASM/Win32 based compiler (however it supports ELF output, does it?).
TAL stands for Typed Assembly Language. It extends traditional untyped assembly languages with typing annotations, memory management primitives, and a sound set of typing rules, to guarantee the memory safety, control flow safety,and type safety of TAL programs. Moreover, the typing constructs are expressive enough to encode most source language programming features including records and structures, arrays, higher-order and polymorphic functions, exceptions, abstract data types, subtyping, and modules. Just as importantly, TAL is flexible enough to admit many low-level compiler optimizations. Consequently, TAL is an ideal target platform for type-directed compilers that want to produce verifiably safe code for use in secure mobile code applications or extensible operating system kernels.
Free Pascal has an internal 32-bit assembler (based on NASM tables) and a switchable output that allows:
Binary (ELF and coff when crosscompiled .o) output
AS (aout,coff, elf32)
The MASM and TASM output are not as good debugged as the other two, but can be handy sometimes.
The assembler's look and feel are based on Turbo Pascal's internal BASM, and the IDE supports similar highlighting, and FPC can fully integrate with gcc (on C level, not C++).
Using a dummy RTL, one can even generate pure assembler programs.
Win32Forth is a free 32-bit ANS FORTH system that successfully runs under Win32s, Win95, Win/NT. It includes a free 32-bit assembler (either prefix or postfix syntax) integrated into the reflective FORTH language. Macro processing is done with the full power of the reflective language FORTH; however, the only supported input and output contexts is Win32For itself (no dumping of .obj file, but you could add that feature yourself, of course). Find it at ftp://ftp.forth.org/pub/Forth/Compilers/native/windows/Win32For/.
Terse is a programming tool that provides THE most compact assembler syntax for the x86 family! However, it is evil proprietary software. It is said that there was a project for a free clone somewhere, that was abandoned after worthless pretenses that the syntax would be owned by the original author. Thus, if you're looking for a nifty programming project related to assembly hacking, I invite you to develop a terse-syntax frontend to NASM, if you like that syntax.
As an interesting historic remark, on comp.compilers,
1999/07/11 19:36:51, the moderator wrote:
"There's no reason that assemblers have to have awful syntax. About
30 years ago I used Niklaus Wirth's PL360, which was basically a S/360
assembler with Algol syntax and a a little syntactic sugar like while
loops that turned into the obvious branches. It really was an
assembler, e.g., you had to write out your expressions with explicit
assignments of values to registers, but it was nice. Wirth used it to
write Algol W, a small fast Algol subset, which was a predecessor to
Pascal. As is so often the case, Algol W was a significant
improvement over many of its successors. -John"
You may find more about them, together with the basics of x86 assembly programming, in the Raymond Moon's x86 assembly FAQ.
Note that all DOS-based assemblers should work inside the Linux DOS Emulator, as well as other similar emulators, so that if you already own one, you can still use it inside a real OS. Recent DOS-based assemblers also support COFF and/or other object file formats that are supported by the GNU BFD library, so that you can use them together with your free 32-bit tools, perhaps using GNU objcopy (part of the binutils) as a conversion filter.


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Focusing on dry bulk material processing and handling, the Gulf Coast Solids Handling & Processing Show comes to the Pasadena Convention Center in Pasadena, TX, April 3-4. The event, which is free but requires registration, is designed for those in the chemicals, petrochemicals, ethanol, fertilizer, grain, feed products, pet food, coffee, food, ceramics, cement, coal/coke, building materials, forest products, minerals, plastics, and pharmaceuticals industries. Its technical seminars feature experts who will discuss and demonstrate state of the art topics that complement many of the exhibits and provide insight into problem solving and industry trends. The seminars, which also are free, are conducted in a dual-track format each day. Information about registration is available by visiting http://www.gulfcoastsolids-show.com.
Among the exhibitors at the show are the following:
•Abresist Corp., Urbana, IN, has a new flexible and wear-resistant pipe system called Kalflex. It provides a way to connect structural components that move due to vibration or thermal expansion or as a result of intended movement. Designed to be simple and quick to install, the system can be integrated into existing pipe systems using normal flanging and coupling connections and works well in pneumatic conveying equipment. It can also be used as a replacement stock item for a number of different angle pieces. These piping components are particularly useful in retrofitting systems with odd or indeterminate angles or dimensions, especially in hard-to-reach places. Only approximate measurements are needed. More information is available at www.abresist.com.
• Cyclonaire, York, NE, has an automated C&C system that captures nuisance dust from silo filling operations and automatically sends it back to the source silo. Each unit mates an efficient pulse jet dust collector with a dense phase pneumatic conveyor and has onboard controls for automatic operation, which means there is no need to empty dust from the hopper. Because the entire installation is beside the silo at ground level, there is also no need to climb to the top of the silo. More information is available at www.cyclonaire.com.


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Odtopcar Android BMW 5 Series BMW 6 Series BMW GT CIC NBT Upgrade 10.25 Touch Screen 8+128 Wireless Apple CarPlay Android Auto FullScreen Mirror GPS Navi Maps
Free Shipping
Free standard shipping on orders over $99
Estimated to be delivered on 12/01/2022 - 15/10/2022.
Free Returns
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Covid-19 Shipping Delay Notice
IPS Touch Screen / 8 Core / 8+128G /Android 11/ Plug and Play /Save Original Functions/ GPS Navi / Google / 4G / WIFI /Bluetooth / FM/AM /SD USB / Music /HD Video / Voice Control / DSP / Mirrolink / Wireless Carplay / Android Auto / Split Screen / Steering Wheel Control / 360 Camera AHD CVBS Rear Camera/DVR
Od-1067 NBT iDrive 4.0
BMW GT/5-Series F07/F10/F11/F18---2012-2016
BMW 6-Series F06/F12/F13 -----------2013 – 2016
Od-1069 CIC iDrive 3.0
BMW GT/5-Series E60/E61------2008-2010
BMW GT/5-Series F07-----------2009-2012
BMW GT/5-Series F10 /F11-----2010-2012
BMW 6-Series E63/E64 ---------2008-2010
BMW 6-Series F06 - ------------2012-2013
BMW 6-Series F12/F13 ---------2010-2013
Operating system |
Android 11 |
MT8788 / Helio P60 CORE 8x(4xA73+4xA53) 2.0GHz |
Display |
1920*720 / 1280*720 IPS Touch Screen |
Capacity |
SD card |
One micro sd card slot |
USB port |
Two USB ports |
Network |
Wi-Fi |
Microphone |
Internal |
Amplifier |
Built-in 4*45W sound amplifier |
Available audio formats |
MP5, MP3, MP2, AAC, OGG, RA, WAV, FLAC, APE, etc. |
Available picture format |
JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP file |
Audio/Video Input |
Left/Right audio and video input(RCA port) |
Audio Output |
Front left, Front right, Rear left, Rear right and Subwoofer(RCA port) |
Video Output |
One video output(RCA port) |
Camera Input |
One camera input(RCA port) |
GPS receiver |
Built-in GPS module and external GPS antenna |
Product Features
1. Plug-and-play no need to code and save all functions of original car
2. 10.25" HD screen,1920*720, capacitive touch screen (hard to scratch)
3. Support multi-language all over the world
4. Two USB ports, one SD card slot (≤32GB); U disk (≤64GB)
5. Built-in GPS module with high sensitivity and accuracy
6. Support WiFi and SIM card connection (4G network)
7. Supportive video format: 1080P H264 MP4 AVI RMVB FLV MKV······
8. Supportive audio format: MP3 WMA FLAC APE AAC······
9. Support Mirrorlink: AirPlay(iPhone), Miracast(Android)
10. Support driving recorder: USB 2.0 or AV_IN (CVBS) mode
11. Reversing images (reversing trajectory and parking sensor) pop up automatically when reversing
12. Steering wheel control is available in android system
13. Convenient for back seat passenger to control android system with computer mouse
14. Built-in voice assistant function for safer journey
15. Special amplifier box for better sound quality (not compatible with optical copper amplifier models)
16. Support original car light amplifier (need to purchase USB audio converter)
17. Perfectly compatible with the original car navigation function
18. Built-in Bluetooth and support original radio bluetooth
19. Support original car reversing image and original car reversing radar function
20. Android sound transfer via USB or Bluetooth audio
Delivery & Service
1.The items need 3-7 working days for preparation after payment done and tracking info can be checked through platform after we sent package out.
2.Goods will be shipped from different countries based on your address cause we have warehouses in EU,US,Russia and China.Please leave message to our custom service if you have other requirements
3.Import duties are not included in the total price of the product, which is the buyer's responsibility but we are pleasure to help clearance.Please refer to your local regulation on import tariffs cause what we pay for are not included import tax,custom fee,surcharge of remote area or custom delay.
4.Buyers will be charged additional shipping fee of 40USD if the address belongs to a remote area(like island),which ensure our items can be delivered on time.
1.15-month warranty from the moment you receive the product and accessories come with 3-month warranty.
2.All our units are being tested several times before we ship and please find professional engineer for installation meanwhile we provide video guide if you have any problems about installation.
3.We have professional staffs for your installation and ensure your 100% satisfaction.Any questions just feel free to text us.
Return & Refund
1.For any reason you do not want keep the unit please contact our custom service for instructions on how to return the package for a full refund or replacement and returns must be in the original package and the export duties and delivery costs shall be paid by buyer if return the goods.


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LANOUGUÈRE, THOMAS DE, ensign in the Carignan-Salières regiment, seigneur of Sainte-Anne, acting governor of Montreal in 1674, lieutenant and later captain of Governor Frontenac's [see Buade] guards; b. 1644 at Mirande (Guyenne), son of Jean de Lanouguère, king's counsellor in a state fiscal subdivision, and of Jeanne de Samalins; d. 1678 at Quebec.
He signed himself Lanouguère, a name which became Lanaudière, Tarieu de Lanaudière, and Tarieu de La Pérade in the case of his descendants. He himself did not have the surname Tarieu. Coming from a noble French family of long standing, Thomas de Lanouguère arrived in Canada in September 1665 as an ensign in the company of Pierre de Saint-Ours* (Carignan-Salières regiment). A short time after its arrival, his company received orders to go and second Capt. Pierre de Saurel in the construction of a fort at the mouth of the Richelieu River. Like the majority of the officers and soldiers of the Carignan-Salières regiment, Lanouguère took part in the expedition led by the Marquis de Tracy [see Prouville] against the Iroquois tribes in 1666.
His father and mother both being dead, he decided at the time of the disbanding of the troops to remain in Canada. On 29 Sept. 1670, acting conjointly with Edmond de Suève, the lieutenant of his company, an unmarried man who considered him a son, Lanouguère purchased a tract of land along the Rivière Sainte-Anne; the tract had previously been granted to Michel Gamelain de La Fontaine and a few settlers had begun to clear it. These lands, located in what is now the parish of Sainte-Anne de la Pérade, were officially granted to them by Intendant Talon on 29 Oct. 1672. A soldier by preference and by career, M. de Lanouguère was only slightly interested in his seigneury. At first he left this responsibility to M. de Suève. Then he entrusted the task to his wife, Marguerite-Renée Denys, whom he had married at Quebec on 16 Oct. 1672 and who was the daughter of Pierre Denys* de La Ronde and of Catherine Leneuf de La Poterie.
In that same year, 1672, the Comte de Frontenac was appointed governor of New France. Lanouguère pleased him as an officer, and he kept him close. He appointed him lieutenant of his guards after their return from the Cataracoui expedition, where in the governor's opinion Lanouguère had conducted himself like a gallant soldier. In the spring of 1673, Lanouguère wanted to try his hand at the fur trade. But the commandant at Montreal, François-Marie Perrot, had been imprisoned, and Frontenac wanted to replace him with a man he could trust; he delegated his protégé, who was officially appointed 10 Feb. 1674. Frontenac, by an ordinance of 20 Oct. 1674, caused him to be given half of the withheld salary of Governor Perrot, and in his reports to the minister, Colbert, he never tired of praising this officer "who is very energetic and very zealous in the service." Anticipating that Perrot would return, Frontenac requested for Lanouguère the post of town-major of Montreal, and in the meantime appointed him captain of his guards at Quebec.
This appointment as captain of the guards did not, however, prevent Lanouguère from spending brief periods on his seigneury, which was barely 20 leagues from Quebec. Able to count on the governor's protection, he could look forward to a prosperous future. However, he died suddenly at Quebec in May 1678 and was buried in the little chapel of his seigneury.
His twenty-one-year-old widow settled down on his seigneury and lived there for 30 years among her copy-holders (censitaires), whom she assisted by her advice and her example. On 9 July 1708 she married Jacques-Alexis de Fleury* Deschambault, the widower of Marguerite de Chavigny, daughter of Eléonore de Grandmaison; he was the lieutenant-general of the royal jurisdiction of Montreal. Marguerite-Renée Denys died on 3 Feb. 1722 at Montreal.
Three children had been born of the Lanouguère-Denys marriage. One of them, Pierre-Thomas Tarieu de La Pérade, inherited the seigneury of Sainte-Anne and in 1706 married the celebrated Madeleine de Verchères [Jarret*].
[François Daniel], Histoire des grandes familles françaises du Canada ou aperçu sur le Chevalier Benoist et quelques contemporaines (Montréal, 1867). Raymond Douville, Premiers seigneurs et colons de Sainte-Anne de la Pérade (1667–1681) (Trois-Rivières, 1946). Faillon, Histoire de la colonie française, III, 482–500, et passim. P.-G. Roy, La famille Tarieu de Lanaudière (Lévis, 1922). Sulte, Mélanges historiques (Malchelosse), VIII.
Revisions based on:
Library and Arch. Can. (Ottawa), R11118-0-7. Bibliothèque et Arch. Nationales du Québec, Centre d'arch. de Québec, CE301-S1, 16 oct. 1672.
© 1966–2024 University of Toronto/Université Laval
Cite This Article
Raymond Douville, "LANOUGUÈRE, THOMAS DE," in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 1, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed February 21, 2024, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/lanouguere_thomas_de_1E.html.
The citation above shows the format for footnotes and endnotes according to the Chicago manual of style (16th edition). Information to be used in other citation formats:
Permalink: | http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/lanouguere_thomas_de_1E.html |
Author of Article: | Raymond Douville |
Title of Article: | LANOUGUÈRE, THOMAS DE |
Publication Name: | Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 1 |
Publisher: | University of Toronto/Université Laval |
Year of publication: | 1966 |
Year of revision: | 2017 |
Access Date: | February 21, 2024 |


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Municipal bonds have been making headlines lately, moving from the muni bond scandal in San Diego to the Securities and Exchange Commission's investigation into JPMorgan's bidding practices to Moody's announcement that it plans to rate the bonds on the same scale as corporate debt. Now the Supreme Court has joined the fray, finding that it is constitutional for states to offer a tax break on muni bonds issued within their borders.
Indeed, the interest on muni bonds, which are held by individuals and corporations, is taxed differently depending on the state in which the bond is issued. Some states do not tax the interest on public bonds issued within their borders; others do. Kentucky is a case in point: the interest on bonds issued by Kentucky and its political subdivisions is exempt from tax, whereas interest on municipal bonds of other states and their political subdivisions is taxable.
The Supreme Court recently decided whether this differential tax scheme offended the Constitution's Commerce Clause, and in reversing the lower court's decision from which an appeal was taken, ruled that it did not, in Department of Revenue of Kentucky v. Davis_US_ (2008). Here's why.
The "Dormant" Commerce Clause
The Supreme Court, with Justice David Souter writing for the majority, noted that the modern law of the so-called dormant Commerce Clause is driven by concern about "economic protectionism" — regulatory measures that are designed to benefit in-state economic interests by burdening out-of-state competitors. However, the framers' distrust of the "economic Balkanization" that such protectionism could engender was limited by their "Federalism" — an approach that favored a degree of local autonomy.
Under the resulting protocol, within which a balancing of these conflicting imperatives is sought, the Supreme Court is required to ask whether a law discriminates against interstate commerce. A discriminatory law is, virtually, per se invalid and will survive only if it advances a legitimate local purpose that cannot be served by reasonable, nondiscriminatory, alternatives.
Permissible Discrimination
Nevertheless, when a state or local government enters the market "as a participant," it is not subject to the restraints of the Commerce Clause. This exception reflects a basic distinction between states as market participants and states as market regulators.* Moreover, a government function is not susceptible to standard dormant Commerce Clause scrutiny, owing to its likely motivation by legitimate objectives distinct from economic protectionism. (See United Haulers Association, Inc. v. Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Management Authority_US_ (2007).)
That case noted that "…laws favoring local government may be directed toward any number of legitimate goals unrelated to protectionism…." This logic, Justice Souter concluded, applies with "even greater force" to laws that favor a state's municipal bonds, since the issuance of debt securities to pay for public projects "is a quintessentially public function."
Finally, in a case decided in the 19th century, Bonaparte v. Tax Court, 104 US 592 (1882), the high court had held that a foreign state is treated as a private entity with respect to bonds that have traveled outside of its borders. Accordingly, under United Haulers Association, supra,the taxing scheme employed by Kentucky and most other states is valid because it benefits a public issuer (Kentucky) while treating all "private issuers" (including foreign states) exactly the same.
Market Dislocation Avoided
In addition, the Supreme Court's decision was influenced by the untoward effect on the markets that a contrary holding — which would have found the differential taxing scheme invalid — would have wrought. The Court noted that the differential taxing scheme is critical to the operation of an identifiable segment of the municipal finance market as it currently functions — single state funds. This fact alone, the court concluded, demonstrates that the unanimous desire of the states (every state, even those without income taxes, had filed briefs with the court in support of the status quo) to preserve the "tax feature" is a far cry from the private protectionism that has driven the development of the dormant Commerce Clause.
As a result, and for myriad reasons, the Supreme Court ruled that Kentucky's scheme of taxing interest on municipal bonds issued by in-state interests, while different than the way it taxes out-of-state "paper," is permissible. To be sure, any discrimination resulting from this two-tiered tax system was more than counterbalanced by the fact that laws favoring local government are presumed to be directed to any number of legitimate goals unrelated to the evil (with which the Commerce Clause is concerned) of economic protectionism.
Contributor Robert Willens, founder and principal of Robert Willens LLC, writes a weekly tax column for CFO.com.
*Kentucky acts in dual roles: issuing bonds (in its role as a "market participant") and setting taxes (although if it were viewed, exclusively, as such a taxing authority its actions would seem to invite Commerce Clause scrutiny). Accordingly, the Supreme Court said, "… our cases on market participation joined with regulation…prescribe exceptional treatment for this direct governmental activity in commercial markets for the public's benefit…" The fact that the regulatory effort is tied to the public object of the foray into the market gives the regulation a "civic objective" different from the discrimination (which has been) held to be unlawful.


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Take a Good Look!
James 1:23-24
For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.
J. B. Phillips was a British scholar who paraphrased the New Testament. Because of his nationality, he occasionally threw new light on a passage through his use of the British explanation of terms.
One example is found in his interpretation of Romans 3:20. In England, what Americans call a ruler was known as a straightedge; when Phillips paraphrased the passage "For through the Law comes the knowledge of sin," he wrote, "Indeed it is the straightedge of the Law that shows us how crooked we are."
I can show you crooked . . . have you ever tried to hang striped wallpaper? You know very well that it's only when you come to a corner, a door, or a window that you suddenly realize how crooked the wallpaper is. Stay away from stripes—they will wreck your marriage!
The straightedge for unbelievers is the Law, for by it, Paul says in Romans, they are condemned. But the straightedge for believers is the Word of God.
In His Word, God reveals to us how we should live and what He desires of us in our homes, our churches, our schools; on the ball field and golf course; at work and play. The Bible is the ruler by which a Christian measures his life, and the rule by which we should live.
This is what God's Word does for us. It not only shows us when we're doing things all wrong, but it also encourages us in knowing how to make the corrections.
In light of this, James describes God's Word as a mirror. While a mirror can, with absolute precision, reveal the dirt on your face, it can't wash it off. It can show that you need to shave your stubble, comb your hair, or brush your teeth, but it can't shave, comb, or brush anything. You have to do that.
As foolish as it would be for a man to look in the mirror and then forget what he looked like, so it would be for you and me to look into God's Word and forget what it says. The truth is, our response to the Bible is a good indication of the condition of our heart. Are you looking at yourself in the mirror of God's Word? Are you praying that God will change you into His image?
Don't be discouraged. We are all works in progress . . . just keep changing. Being a doer of the Word is evidence of true conformity; behaving in the manner of true believers is evidence of growth in Christ. Look again . . . you can become the mirror-image of our Savior.
Prayer Point: Ask the Lord to help you respond immediately to whatever His Spirit has challenged you to be as you've read this page. What needs brushing up? What needs cleaning up? Don't walk away—don't wait another moment.
Extra Refreshment: Read several sections of Psalms 119 and notice how the Word of God impacts the way we think, feel, and respond.
Many ministries today expound on life and illustrate with Scripture;
we're committed to expounding on Scripture and illustrating with life!


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Ireland's complete conference and leisure destination.
Situated on 240 acres of majestic parkland Citywest Hotel, Conference & Event Centre is a truly unique property located just 20 minutes from both Dublin City and Dublin International Airport. Combining the old world charm of a country house hotel, with state-of-the-art conference and event facilities, Citywest Hotel is a world class conference and leisure destination and one of the finest hotels in Dublin.
With the recent opening of the Citywest Conference & Event Centre, with a arena capacity for over 4,100 visitors, this exciting Dublin property now offers over 1.2 million square feet of flexible and versatile conference and event space. From small corporate meetings to international conferences, the 34 flexible Dublin meeting rooms are ideally located. Citywest Hotel, Conference & Event Centre offers 774 rooms and is perfect for meetings, events, conferences and exhibitions catering from 2 to 6000 delegates.
There are a range of different dining experiences available in Citywest Hotel from Asian cuisine and Mediterranean flair to traditional Irish dishes at our Citywest restaurants. Our award winning chefs are on hand to ensure a memorable dining experience at one of the most popular Dublin Hotels.
Located on the grounds of the hotel the Christy O'Connor Jnr. designed Championship Golf Course offers challenging fairways for both the amateur and avid golfer alike.
Guests can also enjoy complimentary parking, free Wi-Fi access, complimentary access to the newly refurbished Leisure Centre with its fully equipped gymnasium, 20m Pool, and treatment rooms. With such an array of facilities why not make this Four Star Dublin hotel your choice on your next visit to the capital!
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