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The Flight of the Angel 2003
San Marco Square
Sunday, February 23, 2003, 12 noon
by Produzioni Teatrali Veneziane
directed by Alessandro Bressanello
with Compagnia dei Folli, Consorzio Europeo Rievocazioni Storiche, Serenissimo Tribunal dell'Inquisition, International Association for the Venice Carnival, Associazione Amici del Carnevale di Venezia.
Carnival 2001 marked a comeback of the XVIIIth century carnival traditions, with the restaging of the Flight of the Angel just like at the times of the Serenissima Republic. Since 2001 the flight from the San Marco belltower — a key event of the Carnival — has been performed, again, by a human being instead of a stuffed dove, under the direction of Alessandro Bressanello and with the participation of the Compagnia dei Folli.
The first person to lend his name-nationality to this event was a Turkish man (the flight was initially called the Flight of the Turk) who walked on a rope all the way to the bellfry of the Campanile of San Marco on the last Thursday before Lent. He then walked back down to the loggia of the Doge's palace. Years later a winged man performed the stunt thanks to a system of rings that would move him up and down as if he were flying. It became the Flight of the Angel. Venetian chronicles of the time narrate many daredevil performances of acrobats who risked their lives in the stunt, many of them were artisans. One of the most famous ones was Santo di Ca' Lezze, who, in 1680, managed to climb up the tower and enter the bellfry on a horse with the help of some ropes. In 1681 the same man climbed the tower on a boat, pretending he was rowing.
In recent years the flight was performed by a mechanical bird, until 2001 when the flight of the dove became once again a real show with a real angel that flies down from the top of the Campanile to the loggia of the Doge Palace pouring balloons and confetti on the onlooking crowd and pretending to offer a scepter to the Doge. Katiuscia Triberti, of renowned Triberti Acrobatic Circus, performed in that edition. In 2002 famous Italian actress Antonella Elia performed the act together with many other actors, artists and musicians who welcomed her at the end of her descent. The Consorzio Europeo per Rievocazioni Storiche recreated the set of the old Carnival celebrations in San Marco Square. In 2003 the angel will be played by Venetian fence champion Frida Scarpa (http://www.fridascarpa.it).


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Finance and Budget Handbook
The Finance and Budget Handbook summarizes the finance and budget related discussions and agreements reached in sessions of the HLCM, its predecessor CCAQ (Consultative Committee on Administrative Questions) and the Finance and Budget Network. It explains the chronological changes made in the different substantive areas, and sets out the rationale for such changes. Chapters are organized by subject and include specific references to documents which provide additional detail.

subset: commoncrawl


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Physcial Sciences Division
Research Highlights
April 2008
SPLAT Makes its Mark in Flying Research Laboratory
After a flight-ready makeover, one of the world's most sophisticated instruments is helping researchers uncover the secrets of the atmosphere
On an aircraft over Alaska during a 2008 field research campaign, PNNL's Dr. Alla Zelenyuk, operates SPLAT II, the Single Particle Laser Ablation Time-of-Flight mass spectrometer. In flight, this unique instrument measures the characteristics of tiny aerosol particles in the atmosphere that contribute to climate change. Enlarged View
KVEW TV News Broadcast, June 20, 2008, featuring SPLAT and Alla Zelenjuk.
"The captain has turned off the seatbelt sign, and you are free to explore the mysteries of the universe." Science fiction? Not for the 80-person team of U.S. and Canadian scientists flying over the North Slope of Alaska in an intensive month-long field study in April. The group's mission: to measure, with great precision and detail, key elements of the atmosphere to help reveal how the Earth's climate is changing. The Arctic region is an ideal study location because it displays dramatic evidence of global changes such as melting sea ice.
Scientists from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are participating in the leadership and instrument teams for the field campaign, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program with contributions by the Atmospheric Science Program, Environment Canada, and the National Research Council of Canada.
To obtain direct measurements, researchers packed more than 40 specialized instruments into a Canadian National Research Council Convair 580 aircraft. One instrument, fondly nicknamed SPLAT II, is generating considerable excitement in its maiden voyage.
SPLAT II is a second-generation Single Particle Laser Ablation Time-of-Flight mass spectrometer. At 900 pounds and roughly the size of a small compact car, it's by far the largest instrument on the plane. This unique, ultra-sensitive, high-precision instrument allows users to measure the fundamental chemical and physical properties of individual particles at the nano- and micro-scales. It's the first-ever field-deployable instrument that provides, in real time, the size, density, shape, fractal dimension, and composition of individual particles down to 50 nanometers in diameter, or 160,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. In fact, SPLAT II is the most precise and sensitive instrument of its kind in the world.
PNNL's Dr. Alla Zelenyuk designed, constructed, and has operated SPLAT II since 2006 at the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a DOE national scientific user facility located at PNNL, to investigate climate, air pollution, human health, bioterrorism, and nanotechnologies. DOE's Basic Energy Science Program and EMSL funded the instrument's initial development.
To get SPLAT II flight-ready, Dr. Zelenyuk spent six months redesigning it. With funding from DOE's Atmospheric Science Program, PNNL scientists, engineers, and machinists reduced the instrument's weight, footprint, and power consumption and gave it a new shock-absorbing frame, while maintaining its high-performing capabilities.
In the Alaskan field campaign, researchers are using SPLAT and other instruments to directly measure the amounts and properties of tiny particles in the air, called aerosols. In the Arctic, ice crystals can deposit on aerosol particles to form ice clouds. This relationship between aerosol particles and clouds plays a major role in the amount of precipitation and heat that reach the Earth's surface. Scientists simulate Arctic cloud processes using computer models, but many mysteries remain about how aerosols and clouds really behave. By obtaining more real-life measurements, scientists can fine-tune the models to more accurately predict climate change and its impacts.
During flights, tiny particles that are invisible to the eye get sucked into SPLAT's inlet, where they are analyzed for size, composition, and other characteristics. The instrument can detect and measure up to 100 particles per second, for a total of more than 1 million particles during the month-long mission.
This meticulous work is yielding discoveries at unprecedented levels of detail. Early results show that certain kinds of airborne dust and metal particles have a tendency to attract ice crystals around them, forming clouds. Scientists also are seeing particles from worldwide biomass burning and other chemicals and organic materials.
SPLAT gets no rest. After returning to EMSL at the end of the campaign, it will travel again—to the University of California Irvine to study aerosols and to the University of Wisconsin for research on vehicle emissions. In the meantime, PNNL researchers will be uncovering new insights about climate change from data captured in the Alaskan skies.
Acknowledgments: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory staff involved in the field campaign include Dr. Dan Cziczo, Dr. Connor Flynn, Dr. Steve Ghan, John Hubbe, Dr. Alex Laskin, Lynne Roeder, Debbie Ronfeld, Dr. Beat Schmid, Jason Tomlinson, and Dr. Alla Zelenyuk.


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How to Save Energy this Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is this week and before you know it, you'll be busy preparing that big Thanksgiving meal and your family and friends will be coming over. However, don't let energy zombies be one of your guests. Energy zombies are lurking everywhere in your home, from your cell phone chargers to your computer monitors and even your oven. Zombie electronics are those household appliances and devices that mindlessly use energy and eat away at your energy bill, even when you think they are turned off.
When it comes to cooking a feast like Thanksgiving, electricity bills can suffer. The average weight per turkey is 16 pounds. It is recommended to cook a thawed, stuffed turkey of that size for at least 4-4.5 hours in an electric oven set at 350 degrees. An electric oven set at 350 degrees for an hour uses 2 kWh of electricity. Therefore, you could be consuming roughly 8 kWh of electricity just to cook your turkey, without including side dishes.
Read More in Energy Digital's November Issue
With all of the other additional expenses that the holidays ensue, your monthly electricity bill shouldn't be one of them. Help combat energy zombies in your home that gobble up unnecessary energy consumption while still relishing in all of the food and fun during the holidays. Direct Energy offers the following tips for carving down your kWh usage this Thanksgiving:
During the hustle and bustle of the day, don't forget to turn off the oven when you're done cooking and don't leave it on longer than it has to be. Use a timer to remind you that you're cooking.
Cook with a snug-fitting lid on your pans. This helps to retain the heat, which means you can cook at a lower temperature and for a shorter period of time.
Use the microwave in place of the oven, when possible. Microwaves use less than half the power of a regular oven.
Open your oven door only when necessary. Each time the oven door is open, 25 to 50 degrees of heat is lost, causing your oven to work harder to regain that lost heat and thus, delaying the cooking process of your turkey.
Consider using the dishwasher instead of hand-washing dishes because it uses less water.
Wash only full loads in the dishwasher and use the air-drying setting if you have it. It reduces the energy use by 7 percent.
If you have the oven on all day while food is also cooking on the stove, you can probably turn the heat down in the home a bit. The heat from your oven, not to mention dinner guests, should keep your home warmer than usual, and your furnace won't have to work as hard.
Use an ice chest or cooler for drinks if you're hosting a large group. This cuts down on wasting electricity when the refrigerator door is opened and closed frequently.
To use your cook-top range as efficiently as possible, choose pots and pans that are relatively the same size as the burner you're cooking on. This is the best way to effectively heat up food without wasting energy.
For more energy saving tips and to see our very own energy zombies, Chunk and Rita Shambles, in action, visit www.youtube.com/thedirectenergy. Direct Energy also has non-Zombie energy experts available for interview if you would like to help them fight the energy zombie apocalypse. Watch the videos and good luck out there.


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- From: Fabien Gandon <email@example.com>
- Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2013 16:23:12 +0100 (CET)
- To: Fabien Gandon <firstname.lastname@example.com>
10th ESWC 2013 - Semantics and Big Data May 26-30, 2013, Montpellier, France. http://2013.eswc-conferences.org/ ==== *Call for Posters and Demos* ==== *Call for Posters* The poster track of the ESWC2013 will provide an opportunity for presenting late-breaking results, ongoing research projects, and speculative or innovative work in progress. Posters are intended to provide authors and participants with the ability to connect with each other and to engage in discussions about the work. We invite submissions relevant to the area of the Semantic Web and which address, but are not limited to, the topics of the Research Track. Technical posters, reports on semantic systems, descriptions of completed work, and work in progress are equally welcome. Papers submitted to the research track will NOT automatically be considered for the poster track. A separate poster submission must be made. For example, a poster can be used to present work that was insufficiently mature for the research track. Authors must submit a 2-page paper (PDF, Springer LNCS style) with a short abstract for evaluation. The paper must clearly demonstrate relevance to the Semantic Web and the topics of interest of ESWC 2013. Decisions about acceptance will be based on relevance to the Semantic Web, originality, potential significance, topicality and clarity. Papers that exceed the given page length or do not follow the LNCS guidelines will be rejected without a review. http://2013.eswc-conferences.org/important-dates/call-posters *Call for Demos* The demonstrations track of the ESWC2013 complements the overall program of the conference with demonstrations of real-world, proven-and-tested advances of semantic technologies. In addition to papers and posters presenting latest theoretical achievements, the ESWC2013 is seeking demonstrations of novel applications of semantics in various sectors, including: eGovernment, eEnvironment, eMobility and smart cities, eHealth, Life Sciences, Sensor networks, Media and entertainment, Telecommunications, Cultural heritage, Financial services, Energy and utilities, Manufacturing, Digital libraries, Cloud applications, Personal Information Management, etc. The demonstrations track is an opportunity for researchers and practitioners to present their innovative prototypes, practical developments, on-going projects, lessons learned and late-breaking results, relevant for the topics of interest of the main conference and the research and poster tracks. Submissions to the demonstrations track should make clear what will be demonstrated. A video of the demo should be provided if a link to the demonstrator is not available. Submission should also specify: * What is the research background and application context of the demonstration * What is the key technology used, and how does the demonstrated system, application or infrastructure relate to pre-existing work * What exactly will be demonstrated? What exactly will a visitor of the demonstration learn? Submissions to the demonstrations track must be in form of a textual description of the demonstration to be given at the conference (which may include screenshots and a link or a video to the demo). The submissions must be at most 5 pages long (Springer LNCS style) and submitted as PDF. Decisions about acceptance will be based on relevance to the Semantic Web area, originality, potential significance, topicality and clarity. Papers that exceed the given page length or do not follow the LNCS guidelines will be rejected without a review. http://2013.eswc-conferences.org/important-dates/call-demos *Important Dates* Submission Deadline: March 7, 2013 Notification of Acceptance: April 8, 2013 Camera-Ready Paper: April 15, 2013 -- fabien, inria, @fabien_gandon, http://fabien.info
Received on Monday, 25 February 2013 15:23:45 UTC


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Patola Sarees
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By David Lightman and William Douglas, McClatchy Newspapers –
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Democrats staked out unmistakably liberal positions on some of the nation's most volatile social issues Tuesday, notably abortion and gay marriage, planting the party as firmly on the political left as Republicans are on the political right.
The differences are vividly reflected in the two parties' platforms. For years, platforms strived to be lofty and gentle, brushing aside any hint of extremes while couching controversial positions in language carefully crafted not to offend swing voters.
Not anymore. The Democratic platform lights a fire from the start, fans the flames and urges votes to pick sides.
"This election is not simply a choice between two candidates or two political parties," it says, "but between two fundamentally different paths for our country and our families." Republicans at least agree on that much.
The firefight reflects two significant trends: Both parties see 2012 as a "turnout election," where getting out the faithful could mean the difference, and both parties' ideological wings are now firmly in control.
"The platform is most important to Democratic Party activists more, and feminists," said John Green, a senior fellow with the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. "For the Democratic activists, these issues are a plus. If you look at the Democratic Party voter, there are some constituencies that care about these issues, particularly women."
So, too, with Republicans, whose strong opposition to abortion and gay marriage is a surefire base-motivator.
Neither stance is particularly new or surprising, but some of the details and tough language are. Since the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which permitted abortion in most cases, the Democratic Party has supported the ruling.
In 1980, as conservatives gained control of the Republican Party, its platform was quick and pointed: "While we recognize differing views on this question among Americans in general — and in our own party — we affirm our support of a constitutional amendment to restore protection of the right to life for unborn children."
Democrats also kept the language soft. In 1996, the party wrote in its platform: "We respect the individual conscience of each American on this difficult issue, and we welcome all our members to participate at every level of the party."
The party's goal, it wrote, is "to make abortion less necessary and more rare, not more difficult and more dangerous."
This year, such niceties are all but gone. You're either with us or you're against us, they seem to say.
"The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to make decisions regarding her pregnancy, including a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay. We oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right," the 2012 platform says.
The word "rare" is not used. There are no exceptions to allow any limits on the right to abortion, such as laws requiring parental notification or a ban on the late-term procedure called "partial-birth" abortion.
The 2012 platform takes aim at Republicans: "Abortion is an intensely personal decision between a woman, her family, her doctor and her clergy; there is no place for politicians or government to get in the way."
The Republican view on abortion takes three paragraphs. The platform endorses a human life amendment to the Constitution, and makes no references to exclusions. Republican nominee Mitt Romney says abortion could be permitted in cases involving rape, incest or a threat to the woman's life.
Both parties see political gain.
Democrats angle to strengthen President Barack Obama's already-big lead among women. Republicans counter that women care most about economics, not abortion — but they aren't shy about promoting their view as a way of firing up their base.
Gay marriage also has bitterly divided the two parties. Democratic platforms have supported gay rights since 1980, though in 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act into law, which defines marriage as the union of a man and woman. Obama personally opposed gay marriage, as well, until recently.
This year's platform rejects that notion.
"We support marriage equality and support the movement to secure equal treatment under law for same-sex couples. We also support the freedom of churches and religious entities to decide how to administer marriage as a religious sacrament without government interference," it says.
Republicans differ: "We believe that marriage, the union of one man and one woman, must be upheld as the national standard, a goal to stand for, encourage and promote through laws governing marriage."


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Tresorit is an easy-to-use, secure file synchronizing application that is designed to store, sync and share confidential from the cloud. Simply add any folder to a Tresor (or vault) then place a file into it and Tresorit will automatically sync with every computer and device that is connected to the same account.
As encryption is performed prior to the data being uploaded to the cloud, users are not required to trust the cloud provider or the communication links. Decryption is only possible with permission from the owner, and Encrypted contents can be shared without re-encryption.
Tresorit is for everybody who wants to keep confidential files securely and share them privately.
As Encryption is performed before content gets uploaded to the cloud Tresorit doesn't leave any data unprotected. Tresorit also uses AES-256 to encrypt data on devices, which, at the moment anyway, cannot be hacked by current technology.
Overall, Tresorit is not just another cloud storage provider like Dropbox, SpiderOak, Google Drive, or Box. Tresorit seems to value security and privacy highly, whilst not sacrificing on design or usability. The design of the Tresorit application is clean and modern and the interface is crisp and easy to navigate. It provides excellent cloud security and offers you different packages to suit your specific needs.
For more inforamtion you can see Cloudwards.


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Self-declared Mad Scientist and Instructables user [Trevor Nestor] recently built a pulse laser pistol and decided to share his build process, so that you too can build a ray gun at home. The gun is made up of mostly scavenged components, save for the Neodymium:YAG laser head, which he purchased on eBay for about $100. He does say however, that you can score an SSY-1 laser from an old rangefinder, providing you hang out near a stockpile of decommissioned Abrams tanks.
[Trevor] walks you through the process of recycling old disposable cameras to get enough components for a capacitor bank, as well as how the charging circuit should be constructed. He also discusses how the laser head needs to be wired, before showing off the finished laser pistol in a cheeky video, embedded below.
While the gun lacks the finish of this laser pistol we showed you, it's no less potent when shooting through plastics, wood, and thin metals. It's a great starting point if you are looking to build a laser of your own, leaving room for improvements, such as a faster charging circuit.
Continue reading "How To Build Your Own Pulsed Laser Pistol"


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ATLANTA, GA, August 12, 2020 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Allen Buckley, a fiscal conservative independent candidate in the special election race for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Kelly Loeffler, says incumbent Kelly Loeffler is a senator serving only white social conservatives, and she is not a good fit for Georgia.
The United States faces an incredible number of challenges, including a national debt that is leading the nation to a financial catastrophe, exorbitant health care costs, the coronavirus and racial unrest. Regarding racial unrest, Senator Loeffler has completely rejected the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. By doing so, she completely rejects the interests of a large segment of Georgia's population.
Allen Buckley is a fiscal conservative whose campaign emphasizes solutions to the nation's problems, including the national debt, exorbitant health care costs and racial unrest. His campaign website includes a page dedicated to racial unrest. In it, he recommends means of making matters better. Please go to: https://www.buckleyforsenate.org/protests-george-floyd-and-ahmaud-arbery/
Buckley said: "It's clear that Senator Loeffler's campaign and her views are dedicated to serving white social conservatives, while completely rejecting all aspects of BLM. There are legitimate aspects to BLM, and they need to be addressed. What happened to George Floyd should not have happened. The local system failed with respect to the Ahmaud Arberry matter. These are things that can and should be fixed.While protesting is part of the fabric of the U.S., looting and property destruction are unlawful, and should be stopped by the police. We need a U.S. senator who will serve all Georgians. Ms. Loeffler has shown an interest in two things: (1) serving white social conservatives; and (2) doing whatever Donald Trump wants. She is not what Georgia needs."
Mr. Buckley's "Save Tomorrow" campaign is about living for today and tomorrow, instead of living for today to the detriment of tomorrow. The focus is on doing things to make tomorrow as good as or even better than today, by acting now to address the nation's financial challenges and confronting global warming in a practical way. Mr. Buckley is an attorney/CPA. He can be reached for comment at (404) 610-1936. Mr. Buckley's campaign website is www.buckleyforsenate.org.
# # #


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Christmas Stories: A Christmas Carol Collector's Edition
Everyone deserves a second chance – even the stingiest of them all.
Your Uncle Scrooge asks for your help, but some friendly Christmas ghosts have other plans for him… and you. Undo the bad turns in his life as your uncle's alter egos work either with – or against – you to change the man's fate once and for all.
This is a special Collector's Edition release full of exclusive extras you won't find in the standard version. As a bonus, Collector's Edition purchases count toward three stamps on your Monthly Game Club Punch Card!
The Collector's Edition includes:


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The Dirt on Potting Soil
by Craig Idlebrook
Copyright 2006
Last year, I tried container gardening after grabbing the first bags of potting soil I found at the local big box store. If the bags had been any more generic looking, they would have said "ACME." The packaging had almost no information about the content or source of the soil, but, I figured, dirt is dirt.
Within a week, my potted plants held water about as well as a brick. The soil pulled from the sides of the containers and formed tight, water-shedding balls. Only my hardiest seedlings survived.
Clearly, not all potting soils are created equal.
It's What's Inside That Counts
In a way, good potting soil tries to mimic nature. Healthy earth relies on critters, rocks and roots for aeration; but when put in a pot, the same soil quickly becomes a dense mass that water and oxygen can't permeate.
"Soil alone is heavy and poorly aerated. It tends to become waterlogged and sticky when wet," writes Eric Sideman, director of technical services for MOFGA, in his soil mix fact sheet.
Good potting soil tries to replicate nature by providing plant nutrients and materials that allow for drainage and aeration–but good potting soil, especially organically-approved, can be hard to come by.
Bruce Hoskins, assistant scientist and soil testing coordinator at the University of Maine, says of potting soil, let the buyer beware. "There's some pretty questionable stuff that we've seen sold as potting soil."
Lois Stack, ornamental horticulture specialist with University of Maine Cooperative Extension, says that just because something is labeled "potting soil" doesn't mean it'll work in a pot. "It's really hard to define what is in that container," Stack observes. "The word 'soil' has a very broad definition."
Sideman suggests that an ideal mix should be dense enough to hold seedlings and water, but porous enough to shed excess water. It must be free of weed seeds and plant pathogens.
Peat and humus normally provide sponge-like water retention and drainage in organically-approved mixes, while sand provides plant support and drainage. The heat-expanded minerals perlite and vermiculite commonly provide pore space, improving drainage while minimizing the weight of the soil
Good potting soil must have plant nutrients, but getting enough nutrients into an organically-approved potting soil is not easy. In conventional potting soil, synthetic fertilizer can provide most of the food a plant will need for a while, but organic growers must rely on compost, which often doesn't provide enough nutrients to last long in a pot. One way to overcome the shortage, Hoskins says, is to add fresh compost when transplanting to a larger container. Watering with manure tea or compost tea can also help.
Two Recipes for Success
Making successful compost-based potting soil is both art and science. While some hard and fast rules apply, soil recipes often differ from grower to grower.
Dennis King of King Hill Farm in Penobscot makes most of the potting soil for his vegetable seedlings rather than buying packaged, organically-approved soil, because, "It's a whole lot cheaper." He says good compost is the key to healthy potting soil, and heat is the key to good compost. Compost must get hot enough to kill pathogens and weed seeds, but not hot enough to kill beneficial organisms. One batch of improperly heated compost can impact a farmer for a long time. "One year of seeds, seven years of weeds," he recites.
King keeps his compost at 140-150 degrees F. for at least two weeks in a self-propelled compost-turner that he shares with a neighbor. He then mixes his potting soil in a cement mixer using a recipe from Sideman: 5 gallons of compost, 5 gallons of peat, 2 ½ gallons of sand, a gallon of perlite, and a cup each of greensand, bone meal and lime.
His mix works better than material he used to buy. Store-bought soil caused problems with damping-off, a disease that weakens stems of young seedlings and usually kills them. "With good compost-based potting soil, I've forgotten all about damping-off," says King.
Claudette Nadeau and her husband, Michael Beaudry, make at least 50% of the potting soil they need to grow seedlings at their Roots-n-Shoots Farm in Montville. The main ingredient for their compost is manure from the farm's five sheep and four goats. "The manure from our girls is purely organic," says Nadeau. "They are fed 'Nature's Best' organic grain and fed organic hay in the winter, [they get] no antibiotics, and are out to pasture and woods in the spring, summer and fall."
Like King, Nadeau makes sure her compost reaches over 130 degrees for 10 days, turning the pile three times during that period, to destroy pathogens. Her recipe is 21 quarts compost, 6 quarts perlite, 15 quarts peat moss, and 1/2 cup each of lime, rock phosphate and greensand.
To Buy or To Mix
When deciding whether to make or buy soil, consider labor, time, access to dry storage and the cost of materials and mixing equipment. Stack notes that making your own isn't always cheaper. Homemade mixes "often are not dependably consistent," writes Sideman, but finding organically approved potting soil that is effective and affordable can be just as tricky.
Prepackaged potting soil is a relatively new concept. Hoskins says that until 30 years ago, most greenhouse growers simply sifted field soil for potting soil.
The organic soil market is even younger. Hoskins says the first wave of organically-approved soils often had problems. Some relied too heavily on compost and drained poorly; others had insufficient nutrients. Stack adds that until recently, turnover in the compost-soil market was high. "Every time they came and went, a grower would have to get used to a new mix."
While the market has stabilized, Hoskins says knowledge about organically approved mixes still lags far behind that of conventional soil. "We're all still learning about organic media."
It's All in the Nose
Nadeau uses soil made by the Vermont Compost Company (VCC) for the rest of her soil mix needs. She says its light texture is good for plant roots.
Being one of the more established and consistent organic soils on the market, VCC has attracted a following among Maine farmers.
Karl Hammer, VCC founder and owner, says the key to making good compost is to recognize problems that arise before the composting process is finished. "It comes down to telling yourself the truth."
As VCC compost ages, it changes daily, so employees constantly adjust conditions to create a good product. Hammer adds that a compost maker's chief ally is his or her nose. "Each of the compounds that could give you trouble has an odor signature."
Each day, VCC employees sniff each batch of compost. If they detect a problem, they adjust the mixture or the conditions. Hammer smells finished batches as well, because, he says, compost making is too important not to get right. "The cost of potting soil failure to a grower is…hard to exaggerate."
In the '70s, Hammer lived in the same Vermont town as organic pioneer Eliot Coleman, and the two experimented with soil blocks, a Dutch technique of packing soil so that it stands on its own. They needed a peat-free mix for this technique, so Hammer began to make his own. Neighbors soon came knocking for his mix.
After running his own manure removal business in New York, Hammer founded VCC in 1992 and sold his first soil two years later. His compost typically takes a year to age.
Much of VCC's compost comes from manure generated by large Vermont dairy farms, which must follow VCC guidelines on bedding and manure management. The company also receives 12 tons of food waste a week from the town of Montpelier, but Hammer says the company's secret weapon is its own flock of chickens. "Chicken manure is the Holy Grail of compost making."
Chickens defecate and urinate at the same time and often mix their waste into their bedding immediately. This keeps nitrogen from escaping from the manure and maintains a good pH, creating excellent compost material. Hammer says eggs are an added bonus. [Chicken manure must be used in moderation, however, because of its nitrogen and salt content.]
Ultimately, Hammer believes composting can be boiled down to a science only so far. The rest is accepting and working with nature's variables—and demand for that work is big. "There's a hell of a lot of new demand and not a lot of excellent product," concludes Hammer.
About the author: Craig Idlebrook is an Ellsworth-based freelance writer whose daughter has cut her first tooth. He often wears earplugs. He can be reached at [email protected].
MOFGA Fact Sheet # 9. Soilless Mixes for Vegetable Seedling Production, by Eric Sideman, Ph.D.
Catalogs from Johnny's Selected Seeds and Fedco Seeds offer soil mixes that are approved for organic production. The MOF&G editor has been pleased with NP Mix TM from Living Acres in New Sharon, Maine. If you have a favorite commercial mix that is approved for organic production, or your own favorite soil mix recipe that you'd like to share, please send it to [email protected].


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Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
View all calendars is the default. Choose Select a calendar to view a specific calendar. Subscribe to calendar notifications by clicking on the Notify Me button and you will automatically be alerted of the latest events in our community.
Special holiday hours for City parks and facilities will be posted in the News & Announcements section of the website homepage the week prior to the holiday.
The Malibu Municipal Code prohibits construction of any kind on City holidays (M.M.C. 8.24.050(G)), except on the Friday after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and New Years Eve.


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- Dynamic and fixed Navbar
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Release Version 1.0


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Chill out and tone your tummy with this stress-reducing yoga ab workout from celebrity yoga and Pilates instructor and trainer Kristin McGee. The moves in this 10-minute ab workout routine strengthen each and every muscle in your core while also stretching those muscles in your neck, shoulders and back that tend to get super-tight when life gets crazy. Plus, the deliberate movement within each pose requires you to focus, which is a great way to quiet a frazzled mind. Do the ab workout one time through three times a week or whenever you feel stressed out.
RELATED: 3 Best Ab Exercises of All Time
Cat/Cow: Warms up your core while providing an ab workout for the deep abs, side abs, and back.
How-to: Begin on all fours with hands under your shoulders and knees under your hips; inhale. Exhale and round your back toward the ceiling, scooping your belly while feeling a lift from your ab muscles and tucking your head and tailbone as if trying to bring them together underneath you (A).Inhale, lifting your head and butt and allowing your belly to drop toward the floor as your back arches (let your lower back support you). Look up as you pull your shoulder blades together (B). That's one rep; do 10 to 12 reps.
Knee to Nose: Tones lower abs, deep abs, back and hips.
How-to: Remain on all fours and arch your back. Inhale as you use your lower abs to pull your right knee toward your nose. Exhale, extending the leg straight back and lifting your head forward. Do 8 to 10 reps, then switch legs and repeat.
Bird Dog: Ab workout for all ab muscles, plus the waist, back and hips.
How-to: From all fours, reach your right arm forward at ear level and extend your left leg straight back at hip height. Imagine that you are balancing a cup of water on your lower back and another on your upper back between your shoulder blades. Brace your core and hold for 30-60 seconds (don't forget to breathe). Without spilling your imaginary water, return your arm and leg to the floor, then repeat on the opposite side. That's one rep; do 3 to 5 reps.
Modified Boat: Tones deep abs, side abs, waist, inner thighs and pelvic floor.
How-to: Sit tall with knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Without rounding your lower back, lean back slightly and lift your legs in the air, keeping your knees bent. Imagine that your shins are a tabletop set with fine china, so they must be kept parallel to the floor. Reach your arms forward, palms turned inward. Pull your belly button toward your spine and lift out of your lower back, pressing your shoulders down away from your ears as you hold for 30 to 60 seconds. Relax, then repeat for a total of 3 to 5 reps. (Too easy? Make it more challenging by straightening your legs—don't worry about the china.)
Forearm Plank: Tones center, deep and side ab muscles, back, waist, hips, legs, butt, arms, shoulders.
How-to: Lie on your belly with legs straight, elbows under your shoulders and bent to 90 degrees, forearms on the floor. Tighten your abs, press your hands into the floor and tuck your toes; lift your hips so your body hovers 10 to 12 inches above the floor. Your body should form a straight line from head to heels. Tighten an imaginary seat belt around your waist as you continue to draw your low belly in; hold 45 to 60 seconds. Relax, lowering back down, then repeat for a total of 3 to 5 reps.
Connect with Kristin at www.kristinmcgee.com, on Facebook at KristinMcGeeFitness, on Twitter at @thebendigirl and on YouTube at kristinmcgee


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The monolithic One World Trade Center towers above Manhattan's skyline and is currently the tallest building in New York City, ousting the Empire State Building's short-lived spot at the top by 83 feet.
When the final pieces of the so-called Freedom Tower are installed in New York, it will replace Chicago's Willis Tower and stake its claim as the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere at a symbolic 1,776 feet.
Thanks to bad weather, the installation of the pieces that would have made the new skyscraper taller than Willis Tower was delayed, giving the former "Sears Tower" another day in sun.
But for some Chicagoans, there are no hard feelings about losing this distinction.
"People want closure, people want to see this happen, so I don't know that there is any grumbling," said Dan Safarik, Editor at the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, an international arbiter based in Chicago. Safarik said he lost friends on Sept. 11.
Tallest U.S. Buildings
Under Construction |
Completed |
Source: CTBUH
U.S. & World
The Council won't call it the tallest until One World Trade is completed, Safarik says, which means it has to have electricity, water, a building skin and certified as occupiable. From there, members of the Council and stakeholders will submit documents to CTBUH and "as-builts" -- final blueprints that show how the building was built as opposed to how it was designed -- to help determine the structure's status.
The Council, whose measurement standards have been around for over 40 years, uses three different methods to determine the height of a structure: from the entrance to the architectural top, to the highest occupied floor or to the highest tip.
The architectural top measurement is the most commonly used, according to Safarik, and if the Council accepts the new spire as the architectural top, it will be the tallest building in the western hemisphere and third tallest in the world.
So far, here is how One World Trade Center stacks up:
Also Known As: 1WTC, Freedom Tower
Price Tag: $3.8 billion
Location: Adjacent to the World Trade Center Memorial, several blocks east of the Hudson River in the heart of the Financial District
Building Office Area: 3 Million Rental Square Feet
Height: 1,368 to the roof, 1,776 feet after the 408-foot-tall spire is completed
Total Floors: 109
Office Floors: 71 (20-90)
Antenna: A 408-foot mast that includes communications and maintenance equipment.
Sustainability: The building will use 30 percent less water than what is permitted by city codes for this type of building. Rain water that falls on the building site will be reclaimed for landscape irrigation
Elevators: One World Trade will boast the five fastest elevators in the Western Hemisphere, which will reach a top speed of 2,000 feet per minute. A trip to the top of the building will take less than four minutes.
Features: Restaurants, observation deck, 55,000 feet of retail space, connections to 13 subway lines and PATH communter trains to New Jersey.


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The tragedy of the Boston Marathon brought to light the unexpected vulnerabilities surrounding athletic events and facilities.
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The tragedy of the Boston Marathon brought to light the unexpected vulnerabilities surrounding athletic events and facilities.
The tragedy of the Boston Marathon brought to light the unexpected vulnerabilities surrounding athletic events and facilities. In the weeks and months after, everything from road races to NFL stadiums has been scrutinized in a new light. The next security threat will likely not come during a marathon - but where? A high school basketball game?
"You're aware of the 7.6 million high school athletic participants, but then you have half a billion spectators going through high school gates during a year," says Mike Blackburn, associate executive director of the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association. "Those numbers would surpass collegiate and pro attendance annually. You don't have the large one-site, one-time gathering, but collectively, those numbers are significant."'
Such numbers can create an opportunity for not only a planned and targeted security threat, but any number of other potential types of conflict. It could be gang-related violence erupting in a parking lot after a game, or even something as limited as a conflict between two players. "Any athletic venue is a potential source of security breach," says Blackburn. "A parent going out onto a baseball diamond to approach a coach or an official - you could have an incident and you need a plan for it."
Most states require high schools to have emergency procedures in place, but that planning doesn't always extend to afterschool events like athletics. It's that shortcoming that led to the creation of the Safe Sport Zone training program. "Safe Sport Zone offers a hands-on, face-to-face presentation based on a personal experience from an athletic administrator's perspective," says founder and president Jay Hammes, who recently retired from his post as lead athletic director for the Racine (Wis.) Unified School District. "It runs the gamut from dealing with spectator issues, gate entrance, facilities maintenance, evacuation procedures, and almost any emergency that a school official would encounter at an event."
Hammes partnered with the NIAAA to create Safe Sport Zone to provide afterschool event safety training. More recently, the groups have been working with the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security (NCS4) to discuss the issue of afterschool safety and security. The three groups, along with the National Federation of State High School Associations, the Department of Homeland Security and representatives from five Mississippi high schools, met in November 2012. "The summit indicated there are gaps related to emergency response preparedness, evacuation capabilities, and lack of education and training for those responsible for event operations," says NCS4 director Lou Marciani. "The overall consensus was the need to build stronger, more secure and resilient safety and security measures."
This summer, Hammes was a part of the NCS4 Conference's first high school program, as well as a task force aimed at evaluating the risks present at afterschool athletic events and what needs to be done to mitigate those risks. "The NCS4 Conference solidified what Safe Sport Zone has been advocating; schools should be practicing evacuations after football and basketball games," says Hammes. "The possibility - even though it has a low probability - of a conventional explosive entering a high school event is real."
That realization should be enough to put administrators on alert. But it's more than that. Tornados, fires, gang incidents, storming the court - it's all part of Safe Sport Zone training. "The most important learning is preparing school officials and first responders to implement interscholastic and afterschool emergency operations plans," says Marciani. "By having plans in place to keep spectators, athletes, officials and employees safe, schools play a key role in taking preventative and protective measures to stop an emergency from occurring or reduce the impact of an incident. "
At the center of any successful emergency plan is having a team that knows what to do. "We are advocating that schools select their management team and develop a master plan for their events," says Hammes. "No one can do this without a team."
The team can include anyone from announcers to hired security to volunteer parents working the concessions stand, all of whom need to be trained not only in how to react to a given situation, but how to communicate with the people around them, says Blackburn. "If it's a violent weapons situation in your gymnasium, your police and security personnel are going to be important, but I think one of the most important factors is properly training your announcer in working with the crowd."
"It's important to train personnel on moving the fans through the gate," says Hammes of the screening process used in the Racine USD and recommended by Safe Sport Zone.
"The other area to work on is dealing with the unsportsmanlike spectator," he adds, referencing several incidents highlighted in the training in which a confrontation between an adult and student quickly escalated into chaos. "There is a right and wrong way to deal with the unruly spectator that can diffuse the problem before it explodes."
Will the next high school sporting event you attend end with a terrorist situation or even a fight in the stands? Probably not. "The vast majority of high schools do have communities where the wholesomeness is still there," says Blackburn. "What we see on TV is the other side of it. It's real. There's no way to sugarcoat it. The incidents that they have had in many cases could happen to those softer targets."
Hammes hopes that the work being done by Safe Sport Zone, the NIAAA, NCS4 and other organizations will contribute to a cohesive model for afterschool athletics and events across the country, bolstering safety and reducing the threat of a targeted attack, but notes that no one organization or program can do it all. "I trained 32 schools and districts last year, but there are 18,684 high schools offering interscholastic sports in the country," he says. "We are all in this together and need to continue to move forward."
"Unfortunately, it's a cultural change and societal change, not necessarily for the better," adds Blackburn. "It's something to prepare for. More than anything, it's proper planning and safety to head those things off before people enter the venue. That's the key. But then when an incident does occur, having the personnel in place to deal with it. I don't know that you can plan for every unknown that is out there, but we're taking a step in the right direction."


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DALLAS, April 10, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --
The report Well Intervention Market by Service Types (Logging & Bottom Hole Survey, Tubing/Packer Failure & Repair, Stimulation, Artificial Lift & Others), Application Areas (Onshore & Offshore), and Geography-Global Trends & Forecast to 2018 defines and segments the global well intervention/work over services market with analysis and forecast of the global revenue. Well intervention/work over services market will grow from an estimated $9.97 billion in 2013 to $17.48 billion by 2018, with a CAGR of 11.9% from 2013 to 2018.
- 105 market data tables
- 31 figures
- 353 pages and an in-depth Table of Content on "Well Intervention Market"
Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report.
Well intervention/work over services market is mainly driven by growing demand for energy and aging of existing brown oil fields. Americas, due to its huge number of oil and gas wells and thriving investment in oil fields developments in deeper waters is the major growth engine for this market. U.S., as a country, is the largest end user for well intervention services and is expected to continue with the same trend.
The soaring energy demand is pressurizing the field operators to increase the production of hydrocarbons. As the existing oil and gas reserves are depleting, the need for well intervention market services is gaining its pace. On the other hand, the maturity of existing oil and gas wells also leads to greater extent of intervention/work over services. This trend makes the well intervention industry lucrative for both equipment manufacturers and service operators. On account of heavy demand for oil and continuous reduction in replacement of depleting hydrocarbon reservoirs, the well intervention services market will experience a tremendous increase in demand in the years to come.
The maturity of onshore oil reserves is now shifting the focus of operator companies towards deep water offshore areas. The mount in deep water and ultra deep-water activities for the oil hunt is now increasing the demand of heavy well intervention applications. The operators are interested in investing more and more in the offshore oilfields to meet the energy needs.
In the current offshore intervention services global market, the Light intervention activities are the key application areas on the basis of market size and are projected to grow with significant rate in the near future. On the other hand, the demand for medium and heavy interventions is also projected to increase, escalating the requirement for larger equipment and semi-submersible vessels for specific operations to carry out more complicated intervention activities.
The stimulation well intervention service is a highly growing market supplemented by maximum number of aging wells in order to increase the production levels. Well intervention service providers are continuously trying to integrate their existing technologies in order to provide a more cost effective solution to intervention operations, which in turn helps them to bag bulk service contracts. This market is a fragmented market with large number of industry players. Hence, merger and acquisition is one of the key strategy followed by leading industry players to increase their market penetration in various regions.
Leading Industry Players of this market include Aker Solutions ASA (Norway), Archer - The Well Company (Bermuda), Baker Hughes Inc. (U.S.), Schlumberger (U.S.), Halliburton Energy Services (U.S.), and Weatherford (Switzerland).
The report forecasts revenue of the global well intervention services market and its various submarkets with respect to five main regions such as -
Africa, and
Middle East
Offshore well intervention services are also analyzed based upon heavy, medium, and heavy type.
The report segments the global market by Services Type, Application Areas, and Geography. It also focuses on market share analysis, value chain, Porters five force analysis, and market metrics such as drivers, restraints, and opportunities. This report also presents the competitive landscape and company profiles. In addition, 20 key players in the market have also been profiled.
Buy a copy of this report http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Purchase/purchase_report1.asp?id=1099
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More on Sending Mail With Linux - Postfix Tweaks and Mailjet
In my last post I showed a particularly easy way to to set up an SMTP server so postfix could send mail from your Linux system. In this post I'm going to add a few tips that might help you get through some rough spots in the whole process.
Results From the Field
After writing a HOWTO page, there is no better test of its quality than to try it out with a group of students performing the task for the first time. That's just what I did with my SMTP configuration post - I created a homework problem that asked my students to set up outbound email on their personal Linux systems.
Their resulting glitches highlighted a few rough spots in the process, most of which can be handled pretty easily.
Debian Package Configuration
When you install postfix on Ubuntu, you will normally get kicked into a simple package configuration dialog after the package has been downloaded and installed. This final step performs some very basic setup on postfix, getting into a roughly functional state.
If this configuration doesn't run, postfix seems to be configured to only handle local mail - messages from one user to another. In some cases this may be just what you want, but normally it is not all that useful.
For unknown reasons, this configuration pass doesn't always kick off properly. I've seen it fail to run, and some students have as well. Fortunately, you can execute the same process by hand from the command line:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure postfix
Running through this, I take the default settings for everything except Root and postmaster mail recipient, which I change to student, the name of my account on this system. After this is complete, following the instructions from my previous post will give you a proper Internet email setup.
Using Mailjet instead of SendGrid
After some glitches getting accounts on SendGrid, I had a couple of students decide to use Mailjet as an STMP provider. Registering with Mailjet is easier, as it an automated process. However, using Mailjet as your SMTP provider comes with a couple of interesting twists.
First, instead of using your Mailjet account credentials to authenticate with their SMTP server, Mailjet gives you a set of strong credentials specifically for SMTP authentication. You have to copy these from your Account Info page. No problem there, as long as you RTFM.
Slightly more problematic is that Mailjet insists that the return address you use in your outbound emails must be an authenticated address. In other words, you have to be able to receive an email sent to that address and click on an authentication link.
When using postfix's default settings, email sent by my students was going out with a return address of student@ubuntu, and there is obviously no way to authenticate that address. So we have to rewrite that address to something usable.
After taking that additional requirement into account, my changes to /etc/postfix/main.cf for Mailjet are shown below. The file had a default relayhost entry, which is replaced, and the remaining lines are all new. The username and password have to be replaced with the ones from your Mailjet account page:
smtp_sasl_auth_enable = yes
smtp_sasl_password_maps = static:username:password
smtp_sasl_security_options = noanonymous
smtp_tls_security_level = may
relayhost = [in.mailjet.com]:587
The last line I added to the configuration tells postfix to look in a file called
for a list of substitutions to make to email addresses found in headers
being processed. I create a single line in this file:
student@ubuntu email@example.com
This entry in the map file changes the local student account to an authenticated email address. After making this change, emails sent from the student account will have their headers rewritten to give a sender identity of your personal email address, which means Mailjet will happily forward your messages to their final destination.
Once that's done, I restart postfix and send a test message:
sudo /etc/init.d/postfix restart
echo hello | mailx -s "test mail" myemailaddress
The headers on my received email show that things worked more or less as expected:
One nice thing about using the generic substitution file is that now you can accommodate different sender email addresses for every account on your system. Since you have to enter account info by hand, this doesn't scale to a large enterprise, but it works just fine for your personal system.
There's no doubt that the complexities of managing mail on a Linux system is still a bit daunting, but at least the process of simply getting outbound mail working is manageable. Give it a shot!


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SELA, DAVID - University Of California | |
Price, Neil | |
MILLS, DAVID - University Of California |
Submitted to: Book Chapter
Publication Type: Book / Chapter Publication Acceptance Date: 12/20/2010 Publication Date: 12/20/2010 Citation: Sela, D.A., Price, N.P., Mills, D.A. 2010. Metabolism of Bifidobacteria. In: Mayo, B., van Sinderen, D., editors. Bifidobacteria, Genomics and Molecular Aspects. Caiser Academic Press. p. 45-70. Interpretive Summary: Technical Abstract: The genus Bifidobacterium possesses a unique fructose-6-phosphate phosphoketolase pathway employed to ferment carbohydrates. Much metabolic research on bifidobacteria has focused on oligosaccharide metabolism as these carbohydrate polymers are available in their otherwise nutrient-limited habitats. Interestingly, infant-associated bifidobacterial phylotypes appear to have evolved the ability to ferment milk oligosaccharides whereas adult-associated species utilize plant oligosaccharides, consistent with what they encounter in their respective environments. As breast-fed infants often harbor bifidobacteria dominated gut consortia, there have been numerous applications to mimic the bifidogenic properties of milk oligosaccharides. These are broadly classified as plant-derived fructo-oligosaccharides or dairy-derived galacto-oligosaccharides that are differentially metabolized and distinct from milk oligosaccharide catabolism. In the following chapter we review bifidobacterial carbohydrate metabolism as well as several other topics including nitrogen and iron metabolism. |


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Some residents of Monhegan aren't ready to trade their cherished natural sanctuary for cheaper electricity.
Residents and visitors to the island have submitted their concerns to the Maine Public Utilities Commission, which is considering the merits of a pilot wind-power project called Maine Aqua Ventus. The project could lead to a 50-turbine wind farm in the Gulf of Maine that could produce enough power for 6,000 homes and slash the cost of electricity on Monhegan, which is 16 miles off the mainland.
The proposed test site is about 2.9 miles off the southern shore of the 4.5-square-mile island, a haven for artists and bird-watchers where about 45 people, including eight lobstermen, live year-round.
Businesses and elected officials back the project because of its economic benefits and the potential for Maine to become a global leader in offshore wind-power development. But the scale of the project and its momentum have some island residents concerned.
In the fall, they formed a task force to act as a liaison between islanders and Maine Aqua Ventus, proposed by Maine Prime Technologies, which represents the University of Maine and two private partners, Maine-based Cianbro Corp. and Emera Inc. of Nova Scotia.
Kathie Lannicelli, a 21-year resident of the island, is on the 10-member task force. She said Friday that the panel was formed to make sure residents' voices are heard. About half of the residents have concerns but are cautiously optimistic about the proposal, Lannicelli said, while the rest are outright opposed.
"There's a kind of panic that this is something that's unstoppable," she said.
Supporters hope the project will secure a $46 million federal grant that could make Maine a leader in offshore wind power. They say islanders would get electricity for about 30 cents per kilowatt hour, less than half their current rate of 70 cents – the highest in the country – for 20 years.
But Winnie Murdock, a 36-year resident of the island, said people there don't care about the cheaper electricity, and they're not philosophically opposed to wind energy.
"We all want to do our part to stop global warming and get off fossil fuels," she said. "We just think that if wind turbines have to be 10 miles off the coast (of Maine), why don't they have to be 10 miles off the coast of Monhegan?"
Residents told the PUC in written comments that they worry about noise and the visual impact of two turbines and towers that would be more than 300 feet tall and float on 30-foot-tall platforms, as well as the effects on birds and marine life.
Murdock also worries about her family's livelihood. Her husband and son are among the eight lobstermen who fish in the Monhegan Conservation Area, a 30-square-mile zone that includes the island and neighboring Manana Island. The Aqua Ventus project would be located in the conservation area, which the Legislature reserved for Monhegan's licensed lobstermen in 1997. The proposed test site is about 2.5 square miles.
Not all Monhegan lobstermen fish in that area, Murdock said, but her family worries that those who do will crowd together to avoid the platforms and their moorings.
Some residents who expressed support to the PUC tempered it with caution.
"That isn't to say we don't have concerns," wrote Matt Weber, a 19-year resident and lobsterman, "however, we feel that wind power is a positive solution to the issues around fossil fuels."
Weber posed questions about noise and potential compensation for lobstermen, who he wrote "will certainly lose a significant chunk of our bottom."
Jake Ward, UMaine's vice president for innovation and economic development, said Friday that project developers are taking the concerns seriously and communicating with residents. But he said some of the complaints are based on wrong information or a misunderstanding of the project.
For example, Ward said, some people believe the test site could become the location of a full-scale project. He said that is unlikely because a large commercial project would probably be in federal waters, farther from the island.
Nonetheless, some residents said the proposed project is much bigger than they anticipated when the waters off Monhegan were designated as a test site in 2009. Lannicelli said islanders were either supportive or indifferent then because they were told it would be a smaller-scale project that wouldn't generate electricity.
Ward acknowledged that a smaller, prototype turbine that's now anchored in Castine Harbor was originally destined for the Monhegan site. That unit, launched in June, is 65 feet tall.
Development delays forced researchers to change the location for the prototype from Monhegan to Castine, Ward said.
He said visual and sound modeling is under way for the larger turbines proposed for Monhegan as part of the competition for a federal grant.
"We want a project that is compatible with Monhegan while also trying to address whether these turbines can become part of grid-scale wind energy in the Gulf of Maine," Ward said. "It really is something that, hopefully, at least the year-round folks see an opportunity and a value from."
Advocates of the project say it would create as many as 341 jobs and trigger at least $120 million in investment, with half of it going to Maine-based companies.
Momentum grew for Maine Aqua Ventus after a competing project by the Norwegian company Statoil was scuttled amid political wrangling over an omnibus energy bill passed by the Legislature this year. Statoil had PUC approval for a project off Boothbay Harbor but withdrew after Gov. Paul LePage insisted that the UMaine proposal get a second chance to bid for the test project.
Lawmakers acceded to the governor's demand to avoid a veto of the broader energy bill.
The LePage administration commented briefly on Maine Aqua Ventus to the PUC last week. Patrick Woodcock, the governor's energy director, said in written comments that the proposal would likely increase electricity rates but put Maine in a strong position to get major research investments from the federal government.
Timothy Schneider, LePage's appointee to the Public Advocate's Office, took no position on the project, but he was critical of the federal Ocean Energy Act, the project's impact on ratepayers and a plan to provide some free electricity from the turbines to Monhegan.
Schneider wrote that free electricity could be read as an "implicit acknowledgment" that the "presence of offshore wind turbines imposes a hardship on residents of Monhegan that must be offset." He said it could also set a precedent for future projects.
The proposal being considered by the PUC would add a small charge for 20 years to Central Maine Power Co. bills. An average residential customer would pay an additional 73 cents a month at the start, $8.70 in the first year.
Lannicelli, the island task force member, said Friday that most residents fear that they are powerless to stop the project. She said recent outreach efforts by Maine Aqua Ventus have only heightened concerns about the politics of the project.
"I think when you're small, you have a realistic perception of how powerless you can be in a situation like this," she said.
Lannicelli said islanders want to support wind power, but they worry about how it would affect an island that has become a spiritual and environmental haven for artists, tourists, bird watchers and residents.
"You wonder if you want to live in a world that's more balanced for your children and your grandchildren if you're going to have to give up something that's precious to you," she said.
Steve Mistler can be contacted at 791-6345 or at:
Twitter: @stevemistler
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Nasal Rinse and its Benefits
Saline irrigation is a safe, inexpensive and effective method for treating chronic nasal and sinus symptoms, according to a new study.
Researchers at the University of Michigan Health System also concluded that saline irrigation — the flushing of nasal passages with a salt water mixture — is more effective than commonly used saline sprays at providing short-term relief of chronic nasal symptoms.
The study included 121 adults with chronic nasal and sinus symptoms. Sixty were treated for eight weeks with saline irrigation, and 61 were treated with saline spray. The patients in the saline irrigation group showed greater improvement at two, four and eight weeks. After completion of the study, 61 percent of patients in the spray group reported having symptoms "often or always," compared with 40 percent of patients in the irrigation group. "The irrigation group achieved a clinically significant improvement in quality of life in terms of severity of their symptoms, whereas the spray group did not. Strikingly, (the irrigation group) also experienced 50 percent lower odds of frequent nasal symptoms compared with the spray group," lead author Dr. Melissa A. Pynnonen, clinical assistant professor in the department of otolaryngology, said in a prepared statement.
The study, published in the current issue of the journal Archives of Otolaryngology — Head & Neck Surgery, received funding from NeilMed Pharmaceuticals, which makes a saline sinus rinse. Tens of millions of Americans suffer from chronic nasal and sinus conditions. Treatments include antibiotics, antihistamines and anti-inflammatory drugs. The findings of this study suggest that doctors should recommend saline
irrigation more often for patients with chronic sinus and nasal conditions, Pynnonen and her colleagues said.
Additional Research
Improvement in Quality of Life
Barriers to HSNI Use
Strategies to Overcome Barriers to HSNI Use


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Federal grand jury looks into Duke Energy coal ash spill
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, March 18, 2014
RALEIGH — A federal grand jury planned to convene Tuesday as part of a widening criminal investigation triggered by the massive Duke Energy coal ash spill that coated 70 miles of the Dan River with toxic sludge.
The session at the federal courthouse in Raleigh comes as environmental groups amp up pressure on regulators and lawmakers to force Duke to clean up the leaky, unlined ash pits polluting North Carolina's waterways. Prosecutors have issued at least 23 grand jury subpoenas to Duke executives and state officials.
Thomas Walker, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, declined to comment, citing the secrecy of grand jury proceedings.
The subpoenas seek records from Duke, the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the state Utilities Commission. They include reams of documents, including emails, memos and reports, related to the Feb. 2 spill into the Dan River and the state's oversight of the company's nearly three dozen other coal ash dumps spread out at 14 power plants.
Those called to testify include Tom Reeder, the state's water quality director.
The first batch of subpoenas was issued Feb. 10, the day after an Associated Press story raised questions about whether North Carolina regulators had helped shield Duke from a coalition of environmental groups that wanted to sue under the U.S. Clean Water Act to force the company to clean up its coal ash pollution.
Their efforts were stymied by the state environmental agency, which used its authority under the federal act to intervene. The state quickly proposed what environmentalists derided as a "sweetheart deal" where the $50 billion Charlotte-based company would have paid just $99,111 to settle violations over toxic groundwater leeching from two of its plants with no requirement that it stop the pollution.
That proposed settlement was put on hold indefinitely after last month's spill.
Jamie Kritzer, a spokesman for the state environmental department, declined to comment beyond saying the agency is cooperating with the federal probe.
Environmentalists had long complained about the level of coordination between Duke and North Carolina's regulators and lawmakers.
Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, worked for Duke for more than 28 years before retiring to campaign for the state's highest elected post.
Following the spill, McCrory and state environmental secretary John Skvarla asked Duke for details about company plans to clean up the coal ash dumps.
Duke President Lynn Good responded last week. She said it would take the company at least two years to clean up the Eden dump, which spilled the ash into the Dan River. She said the company will move its remaining ash away from the river to either a lined landfill or a "lined structural fill solution."
Good said the company will be responsible for cleaning up after the disaster, though it is not clear how the miles of contaminated river bottom might be restored or how long that might take. Public health officials have advised people to avoid contact with the water in the Dan and not to eat the fish.
She said the company will also move ash dumps in the Asheville and Charlotte area, and is looking at options for the Sutton pits near Wilmington.
Good said the company will continue to work on long-range plans for 11 other sites where the company has leaky unlined ash pits.
Skvarla called the plan inadequate, saying he wanted more answers from Duke.
He said regulators plan to modify permits at Charlotte and Asheville area ash pits to stop pollution from seeping into public waterways. Skvarla said regulators want to stop all unauthorized discharges from those leaky ash dumps, and possibly move the waste.
But Southern Environmental Law Center senior attorney Frank Holleman said the state is dragging its feet. He said the agency had the power to force Duke to clean up the sites.
Meanwhile, more North Carolina lawmakers are calling on Duke to take action.
State Senate Leader Phil Berger, a Rockingham County Republican who lives near the spill site, said he wants the General Assembly's Environmental Review Commission to look into the issue to make sure that it "never happens again."
"As a resident of Eden, I have personally experienced the impact and understand the gravity of the recent coal ash spill," he said.
He noted that Senate Rules Chairman Tom Apodaca announced last month he is drafting a bill to require Duke to clean up the other coal ash ponds.
The co-chair of the commission that would consider the legislation, Republican Rep. Mike Hager of Rutherfordton, is a retired Duke Energy engineer who ran the five coal-fired generators at the company's Cliffside Steam Station.
In another development, North Carolina regulators say they are investigating whether Duke Energy broke the law when workers pumped contaminated water from a coal ash dump near the Cape Fear River.


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BERLIN – Throughout the course of each year, hundreds of criminals are arrested and prosecuted in the resort area for a wide variety of offenses ranging from the gravely serious to the downright silly and 2007 was certainly no different.
Crime is rarely funny and often tragic, but there are those occasions when perpetrators' actions are just so ridiculous they make for perfect "Cops and Courts" section fodder and lively water cooler talk throughout the area. The following is a quick look at some of the highlights from 2007:
Bogus Bin Laden
In January, a West Virginia man who earlier told Ocean City Police he was Osama Bin Laden and that he had numerous weapons was arrested after leading resort cops on a high-speed chase through town.
The OCPD first encountered Tena Bergeno, 26, of Charleston, West Va., on Jan. 5 when he claimed to be the terrorist and warned them he had a stash of weapons. He was evaluated at the hospital and later released. Two days later, resort police observed Bergeno again and when they attempted to question him, he took off in a car and led police on a high-speed chase through the downtown area, colliding with several cars along the way.
When the police finally stopped Bergeno, the suspect threatened them with a blender pitcher as the officers approached him. He was eventually taken into custody and charged.
Cash, Charge or Pot?
A Bel Air man found out in May cash, not marijuana, is the currency of choice in Ocean City after attempting to purchase items from a resort convenience store with a bag of dope.
Michael Autry, 27, of Bel Air in May walked into the 7-Eleven on 94th Street and grabbed a bag of chips and three bottles of Gatorade. When the clerk rang Autry up, he fumbled around in his pocket and was only able to produce a $1 bill.
The clerk told him that wouldn't cover it and Autry went back to his pockets again, this time producing a baggie of marijuana. The now frustrated Autry reached into the baggie and about half of its contents on the counter.
Autry was later arrested and charged with possession of marijuana and misdemeanor theft.
Naked Rodeo On Assateague
Two Ocean City men were arrested on disorderly conduct charges and other offenses in August after attempting to ride wild ponies and tackle sika deer on Assateague Island.
On Aug. 18, Maryland Natural Resources Police (NRP) responded to a campsite in Assateague State Park for a report of two highly intoxicated men, later identified as Thomas A. Chapman, 33, and Anthony J. Marchiano, 27, both of Ocean City. Witnesses also observed Chapman running nude around the campsite.
When NRP officers made contact with Chapman, he continued to yell profanities until he was placed under arrest. Chapman was charged with disorderly conduct and attempting to feed, touch, tease, frighten or intentionally disturb wildlife in a state park.
Drug Bust At Barrack
In March, a Seaford, Del. man, who went to the Maryland State Police Berlin Barrack to retrieve thousands of dollars seized during a drug bust, was arrested on marijuana and ecstasy possession charges and forfeited even more money.
Ernest Evans, 18, of Seaford, went to the barrack hoping to get back $8,000 seized during an earlier drug bust, but he only got himself in more trouble. The duty officer smelled marijuana on Evans' person and a later search of his vehicle revealed the strong odor of burnt marijuana.
A search of Evans' vehicle turned up over 12 grams of marijuana and a search of his person turned up 1.14 grams of ecstasy. Evans was also forced to surrender $8,190 in addition to the $8,000 he was hoping to retrieve in the first place. Evans was arrested on possession of marijuana and ecstasy charges.
Arrested Twice In 24 Hours
An Ocean Pines woman was arrested by Berlin Police twice in less than 24 hours in practically the same place for roughly the same charges in August.
On Sunday, Aug. 19, Berlin Police on routine patrol noticed an occupied vehicle in a Flower Street parking lot. After speaking to the driver, officers learned his girlfriend, later identified as Lisa Sofronski, 40, of Ocean Pines, had entered one of the apartments to purchase crack cocaine.
She was arrested on that Sunday and released after posting a $2,500 bond. Around 2:47 p.m. the next day, Aug. 20, Sofronski was seen again on Flower Street. A consent search of her person revealed a glass pipe.
Wrong Moon Gets 30 Days
An Elkton woman got a big surprise in August when she appeared in court representing her sister for what she thought was a routine traffic violation and found she was standing trial for driving while intoxicated.
In May, resort police arrested a woman who turned out to be Belva Moon on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. However, Belva Moon at the time gave her sister's name, Elsie Moon, to police. When Belva Moon returned home to Elkton, she told her sister she had used her name when she got a traffic ticket and the sister did not think any more of it until she received a summons to appear in court in August.
When Elsie Moon appeared in District Court, the arresting officer immediately recognized she was not the woman he arrested for DWI back in May. Elsie Moon began crying hysterically when she learned the mistaken charges she was facing were as serious as DWI. The real Belva Moon at first refused to return to Ocean City to clear her sister's name but was eventually taken into custody and charged and sentenced to 30 days in jail.
Street Fire Leads To Charges
Maryland Natural Resources Police responding to a fire in the middle of the street near Carey Rd. in northern Worcester County made four arrests on drug and alcohol charges in September.
Maryland Natural Resources Police on routine patrol noticed a large fire in the middle of the roadway at Nelson and Swamp Roads. About 15 people consuming alcoholic beverages were gathered around three parked vehicles blocking the roadway near the fire in the street.
Further investigation at the scene recovered suspected marijuana and a large amount of alcohol. NRP officers then arrested a Delaware man and three juveniles from Delaware and charged them with possession of marijuana and possession of alcohol by a person under 21.
Different Clothes, Mask
An Ocean City man was arrested in February when he re-entered a store he had shoplifted beer from an hour earlier wearing different clothes and a mask covering his face.
On Feb. 23, Norman Henry Smith, 46, of Ocean City, entered the 7-Eleven on N. Division Street to buy a cup of coffee when the store clerk observed him concealing a 32-ounce bottle of Budweiser in his coat. When confronted about the hidden beer, Smith fled the store.
About an hour later, Smith returned to the same store wearing different clothing, a hat and a mask concealing the bottom half of his face. The clerk recognized Smith as the man who had stolen the beer an hour earlier, although Smith now appeared intoxicated. Smith entered the store and, unprovoked, threw the empty beer bottle he had stolen earlier at the clerk behind the counter, just missing him.
Smith continued to scream at the clerk and attempted to come behind the counter to prevent the employee from calling the police causing the two to get into a scuffle. However, the scuffle ended when the clerk pulled out a steel bar and hit Smith with it several times.
Smith then fled the store again, but OCPD officers reviewing surveillance tapes of the incidents recognized the suspect and later arrested him.
Diners Run Out On
Bill, Into Another Car
After only paying for a portion of their bill at an Ocean City restaurant, a couple who dined and dashed in May found their night to be a costly one as they fled the establishment, ran a red light and plowed straight into another vehicle before fleeing the scene of that accident.
On May 4, a couple later identified as Karen Lynn Price of West Chantilly, Va. and John Canova of Elkridge, Md. failed to pay a large portion of their bill at a mid-town Ocean City restaurant, and when they tried to flee the scene with restaurant employees chasing after them, they ran a red light and crashed into a Mercedes driving southbound on Coastal Highway.
The pair then fled the scene of the accident, but were both apprehended about an hour later and arrested on numerous charges ranging from theft to leaving the scene of an accident. To compound their troubles, a search of their vehicle turned up a small quantity of marijuana and possession charges were tacked on. At the end of the day, they were in a world of trouble over around $60 they failed to pay on their restaurant bill.
Boardwalk Minstrel Busted
In August, a Connecticut man was arrested for leaving a small child unattended just hours after he was observed strolling the Boardwalk playing a guitar and singing with another man.
OCPD officer were dispatched to a downtown motel around 3 a.m. one night in late August to check on the welfare of a small child, who could be heard hysterically crying and yelling for his father from one of the rooms. The child told police he was on vacation with his father, Alexandre Rybalko, 48, of Stamford, Conn., and that his father had left him alone several hours earlier. While police were interviewing the child, Rybalko arrived on the scene. The officers realized he was the same man they had seen on the Boardwalk around midnight playing a guitar and singing with another man. The officers also realized they had not seen the child with him three hours earlier, which gave them a timeline of just how long the boy had been left alone. Based on the known timeline of the events, Rybalko was arrested and charged with leaving a child under age 8 unattended.


text: Home - Search - Browse - Alphabetic Index: 0- 1- 2- 3- 4- 5- 6- 7- 8- 9 A- B- C- D- E- F- G- H- I- J- K- L- M- N- O- P- Q- R- S- T- U- V- W- X- Y- Z More Details for 2001-12-05 Endeavour lifted off this afternoon on the final space shuttle mission of 2001, and, after a flawless climb to orbit, it is now on its way to deliver a fresh crew to the International Space Station and return home a crew that has spent four months in space. The station was about 250 statute miles above the central Indian Ocean as Endeavour rocketed away from Launch Pad 39-B at the Kennedy Space Center, FL, on time at 4:19 p.m. CST. Endeavour will close in on the station for the next two days and dock with the complex on Friday to begin a week-long stay. Endeavour is commanded by Dom Gorie with Mark Kelly serving as pilot. Mission Specialists are Linda Godwin and Dan Tani. Also aboard Endeavour are station Expedition Four crew members Commander Yuri Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Carl Walz and Dan Bursch, who are beginning more than five months in orbit. Endeavour will bring home the Expedition Three station crew, Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, who have been aboard the station since mid-August. In addition to the new crew, Endeavour is carrying more than three tons of food, supplies and equipment in the Raffaello logistics module to the orbiting outpost. Endeavour's crew will spend the next few hours unpacking equipment, setting up computers and conducting the first of periodic engine firings that will occur over the next two days to refine the shuttle's approach to the station. The shuttle crew will begin a sleep period at 11:19 p.m. CST and will be awakened at 7:19 a.m. CST Thursday. On Thursday, Endeavour's crew will check out the shuttle's equipment and systems that will be needed for Friday's final approach and docking to the International Space Station. Docking is planned for just after 2 p.m. CST Friday. On Saturday, the Raffaello module will be lifted from the shuttle payload bay using Endeavour's robotic arm and attached to a station berthing port to be unloaded. Godwin and Tani are planned to conduct a four-hour space walk on Monday to install insulation around two solar array rotation mechanisms. Raffaello will be returned to the shuttle payload bay later in the mission and brought back to Earth. In addition to a new station crew and supplies, Endeavour is carrying a host of scientific investigations, including experiments from space agencies, schools and universities across the United States, Europe and South America as well as a small satellite that has involved more than 25,000 students in 26 countries. Home - Search - Browse - Alphabetic Index: 0- 1- 2- 3- 4- 5- 6- 7- 8- 9 A- B- C- D- E- F- G- H- I- J- K- L- M- N- O- P- Q- R- S- T- U- V- W- X- Y- Z © 1997-2017 Mark Wade - Contact © / Conditions for Use |


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If you're selling stuff on eBay, it can be hard to know how much it's worth. Redditor outfoxthefox notes that you can actually search eBay's completed listings, so you know how much similar items sold for.
To do this, just search for a similar item on eBay and scroll down to "Show Only". Check the "Completed Listings" box, and you'll see all completed auctions for that search. Items with green prices sold at that price, while items with red prices didn't end up selling. That should give you a good idea of how much to post your item for.
Of course, you can also check out previously mentioned WorthMonkey to see how much your item is worth, but every site is different, so this technique can help give you a more eBay-specific idea of what's selling.
LPT: To see the fair market value for an item you want to purchase | Reddit