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Nordic Breed Information and Help
Alaskan Malamute Breed Information
Table of Contents
* Description* History
* Characteristics and Temperament
* Care and Training
* Special Medical Problems
* Frequently Asked Questions
* References
+ Books
+ Periodicals
+ Online Resources
+ Breed Rescue Organizations
+ Breed Clubs
+ Breeders
The Alaskan Malamute is a large and powerful sled dog. They can weigh over 100 lbs and stand up to 30 inches high at the shoulder, though 25 inches high is regarded as the preferred height for freighting. They are an impressive looking dog, quite beautiful and dignified. AKC Official Alaskan Malamute Standard; The Standard is the physical "blueprint" of the breed. It describes the physical appearance and other desired qualities of the breed otherwise known as phenotype. Some characteristics, such as size, coat quality, and movement, are based on the original (or current) function for the dog. Other characteristics are more cosmetic such as eye color; but taken together they set this breed apart from all others. The Standard describes an ideal representative of the breed. No individual dog is perfect, but the Standard provides an ideal for the breeder to strive towards. Because of copyright concerns over the collection of all the Standards at any single site storing all the faq's, AKC Standards are not typically included in the Breed faq's. The reader is referred to the publications at the end of this document or to the National Breed Club for a copy of the Standard.
Alaskan Malamutes originated with a group of native Inuit's known as the Mahlemiut. The dogs of that time were very large freighting dogs capable of pulling heavy weight in extreme conditions. The Mahlemiut people mainly inhabited the upper part of the Anvik river in Alaska, but were spread over a wide region. The Malamute was used to haul food back to the villages. It was used as a heavy freighting dog, able to pull a tremendous amount of weight over long distances at a steady pace. The gold rush of 1896 created a high demand for these dogs. Today, there are essentially two different "kinds" of Alaskan Malamutes. One line is referred to as the M'Loot and the other is the Kotzebue. One difference between these two lines is the size of the dog. M'Loot Malamutes are larger than the Kotzebue's. In addition, true Kotzebue's have only wolf-gray coats, whereas M'Loot's come in a variety of colors, including wolf-gray, black and white, sable and white, seal, blue, and white. Kotzebue's also tend to be less aggressive than the M'loot, however they can be more hyper. The Kotzebue line is essentially due to Arthur Walden, and Milton and Eva Seeley. In fact, it was Milton and Eva that got the Kotzebue line recognized and registered by the AKC in 1935. Paul Voelker developed the M'Loot line. Paul did not register his dogs, but he sold them to people who eventually did. Amongst breeders, there is some argument as to which is the "correct" Malamute. In spite of this, Alaskan Malamutes are credited as one of the few breeds that is very close to its original form and function.
Characteristics and Temperament
Coat and Grooming
The Alaskan Malamute is a double coated breed. This coat consists of a woolly undercoat and longer guard hairs. Twice a year, Malamutes "blow" their undercoats, that is, they shed their undercoats completely. It is a very intense shedding period that can last up to three weeks from start to finish. The good news is that this only happens twice a year. The remainder of the time, Malamutes are relatively shed free (unlike smooth coated breeds). The bad news is that the shedding period can be rather messy. The hair comes out in large and small clumps. Lots of vacuuming and brushing are in order. It should be noted that some owners that live in very warm climes, ones that lack "seasonal changes," report some shedding year round in the breed.The Alaskan Malamute is a very clean and relatively odor free dog. It tends to clean itself like a cat. Even when a Malamute becomes covered in mud, it will clean itself. Therefore, bathing needs are minimal. Some owners only bathe their dogs once a year or less. Other than during coat-blowing season, the Malamute needs very little grooming. No trimming or shaving of hair is required or recommended. Occasional brushing to remove dead hair and keep the coat fresh and shiny is required. Their nails should be checked and clipped periodically.
Alaskan Malamutes are a very people friendly breed and demand a lot of attention. They are often described as "big teddy bears" because of their love of attention. They are a very pack-oriented breed and therefore do best when included in the family rather than shut outside away from the rest of the "pack." Since they are pack oriented, Malamutes are generally not "one-man" dogs. They are an extremely intelligent breed that can be very stubborn and easily bored. They are not typically recommended to a first-time dog owner as mistakes are easy to make and sometimes hard to correct unless you really know what you are doing. They can be a challenge to train, due to their stubbornness. It is said that to teach a Malamute to do something once or twice is very easy, because they are quite intelligent and quickly learn new tasks. To get them to repeatedly do something over and over again is much more challenging, due to their stubbornness and the fact that they become easily bored. This trait is quite common in all of the northern breeds. The sheer size of the Malamute can become an obstacle to novice dog owners. Many Malamutes end up in the pound and even destroyed because an owner fell in love with the cute puppy but could not control the large, stubborn, powerful adult. Owing to their strong pack nature, Malamutes can be more aggressive towards other dogs than other breeds. Because of this, great care should be taken on the part of the owner to socialize their Malamute puppy as much as possible with other dogs.Due to the character of the Malamute, they should never be actively trained to be protective, vicious, or aggressive. Their very nature makes them lousy watch dogs. It is against their instincts to make them into watch or guard type dogs. It has been tried in the past with disastrous results. They are a visual deterrent only, as the uninitiated may be hesitant to approach property or family in the company of such a large, impressive looking animal. However, Malamutes are as likely to greet a potential thief as warmly as a trusted family member. This is part of what makes a Malamute a Malamute.
Barking, Talking, and Howling
Alaskan Malamutes are rather quiet dogs. They generally do not bark at all. They do tend to "talk," however. The best way to describe the talking is to recall Chewbacca, the Wookie in the movie "Star Wars." It is sort of a soft "woo woo woo" sound. Malamutes can howl the roof right off of your house however. Owners of multiple Malamutes have noticed that when their dogs howl, they will all stop simultaneously. Again, this behavior is due to the fact that they are a very pack-oriented breed.
Care and Training
Note: Those living in Australia should read the note that follows these comments carefully.When you collect your puppy, your breeder should tell you what the puppy's diet has been to date, as well as recommendation as to the best food and feeding frequency in the future, both for while the dog is still a puppy as well as when the dog is an adult. You should try and follow the puppy's diet at the time you collect him from the breeder as best you can, until the puppy is settled in to its new environment. Then you can gradually change the diet to suit your preferences. Remember that sudden changes in diet can severely disrupt the puppy's digestive system and cause gastric distress.Some people prefer to free-feed their dogs, while others prefer scheduled feeding times. Certainly while the dog is still a puppy, he should be fed three times a day or free-fed. Malamutes are not fully mature until 18 months of age. The diet should be tailored to the dogs level of activity and eating habits. Some Malamute owners have found it impossible to free feed their dogs, due to the fact that some Malamutes will eat all food presented them immediately. This can lead to a variety of health problems, including obesity and bloat.As for the type and "brand" of dog food, basically any reputable dog food manufacturer provides a dog food that is sufficient to keep a dog healthy. However, the premium brands of dog food have the advantage that one can feed the dog less and still get very good nourishment. In addition, stool size and amount is generally less with the premium dog foods. Keep in mind that feeding dogs is partly art, and partly science. The dog food manufactures have done the science part. The rest is up to you. Some people feed their dogs a mix of canned and dry food twice a day. Others feed only dry and allow free feeding, and so on. Be sure and pick a frequency of feeding, brand, and type of food to suit your dogs needs. For working Malamutes, something equivalent to a Science Diet Performance is in order. For Malamutes that go for walks and hikes, a Maintenance formula is usually best. Consult your breeder and veterinarian for advice.One other thing worth mentioning here is how long to feed puppy food. Some research indicates that feeding puppy food for too long can increase the incidence of hip dysplasia in dogs that are susceptible to it. Some breeders start feeding adult food very soon. Even though the Malamute is not fully mature until 18 months, most people gradually switch to adult dog food at the 8-10 month time frame. Again, this is something to discuss with your breeder and veterinarian. Special note for those living in Australian Australia the use of commercial "wet" dog foods as the sole primary source of food have been found to be linked with hot spots and gastric distress (including very loose bowel movements) in many dogs of this breed. Occasional use is recommended. Likewise, kangaroo meat is not recommended. Many breeders make their own dog food and supplement it with a variety of vitamins and minerals to ensure a balanced diet. If you live in Australia, it is recommended that you consult with your breeder and veterinarian regarding this issue and monitor the dogs condition closely with whatever diet is chosen.
Alaskan Malamutes are happiest when they can share in family activities. The best arrangement is one in which the dog can come in and out of the house of its own free-will, through a dog door. If a dog door is not possible, then training the dog to go to an outside door to be let out is also very easy to do. Outside, the dog should have a large, fenced yard. The fence should be strong and at least 6 feet tall. It is also a good idea to bury wire in the ground to discourage digging out. Malamutes are notorious diggers. It is usually best to set up a sand box somewhere in a shaded part of the yard and encourage digging there, if possible. Malamutes should not be allowed to roam around the neighborhood. If one chooses to kennel a Malamute, the kennel should be chain link, with a concrete run, and should be 8 ft wide and 15 to 20 ft long. It should be at least 6 ft high with chain link across the top of the kennel. It should be in a shaded location and have an insulated dog house with a door for shelter from the elements. Because the Malamute is an arctic dog, it can remain outside in very cold weather. However, it should be provided with shelter from the elements in the form of a good sturdy house. The house should have a flat roof, as Malamutes love to lay on top of their houses and observe the world. A good insulated house with nice straw bedding is perfect for Malamutes that spend most of their time outside. Heating the dog house is usually not necessary.
Training Alaskan Malamutes can be a challenge. With this breed, it is important to start young. Establish rules of the house early, and make sure that the puppy knows that you are in charge. For example, if you do not want the dog on the bed as an adult, do not allow it as a puppy. The rule of thumb is that if you train a dog to do something, expect him to do it. Therefore, if the puppy learns that certain things are allowed, it will be difficult to train them not to do them as adults. Things that are cute as puppies may not be all that cute when the dog weighs 80 lbs or more. Since the dog is pack-oriented, it important to establish yourself as the head of the pack, or alpha, very early. Once you do this, the dog will respect you and training will be much easier. It is best to enroll in a puppy training class (or puppy kindergarten training as they are commonly known) soon after your dog is home and has all of its vaccinations. This training is good for the dog and for you as the owner, as it will help you understand your new puppy and establish you as alpha very early in the puppy's life, which is extremely important with this breed. Once you have completed the puppy class, and have been working with the dog for a few months, a basic obedience class is in order. Obedience training this breed can be very interesting and extremely challenging. Many owners will complain that their dogs act perfectly in class, but will not obey at home. This breed is intelligent enough to differentiate situations very well, and will apply different rules of behavior for different situations. You must stay on top of the dog and maintain control, which is easier to do while the dog is of manageable size than with a stubborn adult that has been allowed to get away with undesirable behaviors for a long time.It is very important to remember that Alaskan Malamutes are a working breed. They need something to do. Putting them in the backyard and tossing them a bone and expecting them to be happy us a very bad idea. They need a lot of exercise and interaction to be happy. The exercise can come in the form of mushing, which is of course best, or can easily be in the form of frequent walks, hikes, and playing. The dog makes a wonderful hiking companion, and with a dog pack, can carry food and water.
Special Medical Problems
Snow Nose or Bad Pigmentation?Snow Nose is described as a pink/reddish marking on the black nose. It
is commonly experienced amongst the northern breeds. Snow Nose can
disappear over the warmer months and reappear over the winter months.
There is nothing wrong with snow nose. Bad pigmentation occasionally
occurs within specimens of the breed. The pigmentation area generally
occurs around the face and is best described as being pinkish skin and
it can, in some cases, detract from the dogs appearance. The main
problem with this pigmentation is the threat of sun cancer occurring
to the area as the pink skin is more at risk of sunburn. It is
advisable to cover the affected area with sun screen regularly to
protect the dog from this threat of cancer. It is possible to correct
pigmentation problems with tattooing and there is a relatively new
procedure where a vegetable dye is injected into the area and spread
to cover the pigmentation.Hot spots look like raw grazed skin. They can also take the form of
loose coat that does not appear to be attached to the skin. There is a
link between hot spots and incorrect diet. Alaskan Malamutes cannot
handle rich and spicy food. Bloat is a condition that affects all large, deep chested breeds. It
is a potentially life-threatening condition which usually affects dogs
in the prime of life. Basically, the dog's stomach will swell from
gas, fluid, or both (this is acute gastric dilation). Once distended,
the stomach may twist abruptly on its long axis. If it does twist, but
the twist is less than 180 degrees, it is called a torsion. If greater
than 180 degrees, it is called a volvulus. Therefore, the term bloat
can refer to any of these three conditions (acute gastric distortion,
torsion, or volvulus). Acute gastric dilation is not serious, and may
clear up itself in a few minutes. Torsion or volvulus are life
threatening and immediate veterinary attention is required. The chance
for recurrence is around fifteen percent. The cause of bloat is
Eye Problems; Progressive retinal atrophy (PRA) and central progressive retinal
atrophy (CPRA) have appeared in a number of breeds, including
Malamutes. Hemeralopia, or "day blindness", has also occurred in
Malamutes. All of these problems are genetically caused. Careful
screening of potential breeding pairs has helped reduce the incidence
of these problem in the breed.Hip Dysplasia; This is another genetic disorder that affects Malamutes. Simply put,
hip dysplasia is a deformation in the hip joint. That is, the head of
the femur does not sit solidly in the acetabulum. The joint lacks
tightness, and the condition results in a painful and often
debilitating life for the dog. Hip dysplasia is considered to be a
moderately inheritable condition. Breeders will usually have breeding
pairs OFA (Orthopedic Foundation for Animals) certified prior to
breeding. OFA certification can be given only after a dog is over 24
months old. Chrondrodysplasia (CHD)This is a genetic disorder in the M'Loot Malamute line. It is also
known as dwarfism, although this term is not very descriptive or even
entirely correct.The condition results in delayed endochondral bone formation. In 1970,
the Alaskan Malamute Club of America officially recognized CHD and
began efforts to combat the disease. By the end of that year, it was
proven that the gene for CHD was an autosome recessive (through
repetitive matings of CHD dogs) and mathematical models one which
pedigrees could be tested were established. A Malamute with less than a 6.25% CHD probability factor is considered
to be breedable. 6.25% corresponds to one carrier as a
great-great-great grandfather . Obviously this is not foolproof, but
the chances of a dog not carrying CHD are improved considerably the
lower the number. CHD probability is computed through the average of
the two parents. There are various ways to test for CHD including blood tests and
x-rays. This recessive gene seems to affect blood as well, producing a
type of anemia. X-rays are generally made between the ages of 3 to 12 weeks, if one is
overly concerned about CHD detection. Most Malamute breeders are
satisfied with the CHD rating and no outward signs.
Is a Malamute part wolf? No. The Alaskan Malamute is a domesticated pure bred dog, and has been for many centuries. They are often mistaken for wolves, and they are often used in movies to depict wolves, but they are most certainly not wolves or part wolf.
(My personal opinion is they DO have an extremely genetically thick wolf background, but it has been domesticated out of them for the most part. - Wolfdogg.org)How do they handle the summer heat? Like any dog, to cope with summer heat the Alaskan Malamute needs a constant supply of water to drink and shade from the sun. If the dog is allowed inside then it will find it's own cool room (probably on the kitchen or bathroom floor if it is tiled or linoleum floored). Some dogs like having ice added to their water to help keep it cool. Some also enjoy a children's wading pool filled with water in the summer time. The Malamute sheds a lot of coat directly before summer, as soon as the whether starts to warm up, which also allows them to keep cool. Heavy exercise should be avoided in excessive heat. Curtail exercise times to be early morning or just after sunset. Once the dog is acclimated to his environment, he is usually fine. Malamutes are remarkably adaptable animals. However, one should never try and push a dog beyond his capability to cope with the heat. To do so can be disastrous. One must keep in mind the type of climate the dog is acclimated for and not look for signs of heat stress. Do not ever lock any dog in a car in direct sunlight, or in the shade for a great deal of time, even with the windows down a little for ventilation the heat generated by the dog is still enough to cause heat stress in summer.
What are they like with children? Due to their gentle temperament the Alaskan Malamute is generally a very good family dog. They seem to enjoy the company of children, though common sense must be used when mixing any dog with young children. They are a very powerful dog and children should not be left in total control of the dog. Alaskan Malamutes are generally patient by nature and will tolerate young children fawning over them, but this should be strictly supervised for the sake of the dog as well as the child. With these caveats in mind, since Malamutes love attention, well behaved children get along wonderfully with well mannered and socialized Malamutes. What are they like inside a house, being so big? Alaskan Malamutes, aside from the occasional invasion of masses of fur when they are shedding coat, are excellent house dogs. They are extremely clean dogs and surprisingly quiet. They are very sure-footed and in no way clumsy around furniture. They will often pick out a favorite sleeping spot and stay there for hours. Favorite spots seem to be tiled and linoleum floors in warm weather, soft pillows or beds at other times.
How much do they eat? Most Malamutes love food, however they eat surprisingly little for their size. The actual amount of food will vary depending on the metabolism and activity level of the dog, and the type of food that is given. A working adult will eat approximately 4 cups of high density food per day. Other dogs will generally eat less. Puppies require smaller, more frequent meals. How much exercise do they need, and what kind? You should not strenuously exercise a puppy under 6 months of age. Their muscular-skeleto system is not developed enough yet. Their play is enough to keep them healthy. You should play with your puppy and work on some of the basic obedience commands with him, in a playful way. Once the dog is 6 months old, a kindergarten puppy training class or a basic obedience class is a very good idea. It will start you both out on the right foot. You can then more easily start taking the dog for walks in your area on a leash. By the time the dog is full grown, at around 18 months, he will be ready for much longer walks, an hour per day or more. The obedience training will make the walks much more enjoyable. Alaskan Malamutes also enjoy jogging, but this should not be attempted until the dog is 18 months old or older. Hiking, with a dog back-pack is great fun. One can also bike with a dog, with a nifty device known as a "Springer." Finally, sledding is an excellent form of exercise, and is what the dog was bred for. The sled dog part of the FAQ for rec.pets.dogs covers these things in more detail.
Do they pull sleds very fast? The Malamute is a very strong dog, but not as fast as some of the other northern breeds. Malamutes are not as fast as, say Siberians, and because of this are not typically used in sprint sled racing or a race like the Iditarod (although they sometimes are). Endurance and strength are the Malamute staples, and they are frequently used for exploratory trips across the North Pole or Antarctica (most recently, in the Trans-Antarctic expedition) and in weight pull competitions.
How strong are they? The Malamute is a very strong dog. They were originally freighting dogs and as such, are able to pull tremendous amounts of weight. Just from looking at the Malamute, and the size of his bones and his stature, it is easy to see that they are indeed very strong animals. For this reason, many people use them in weight pulling competitions, where they will pull thousands of pounds.
Do they shed a lot?_Malamutes blow their undercoats twice per year. They do not typically shed year round like many dog breeds. When they do blow their coat, they loose lots of hair (several grocery sacks full per week).
(Male mals tend to blow their coats over a quick period, and females tend to have a longer shedding period. Zinc is very good to help keep fur coats from prematurely shedding, or shedding longer or more than necessary. A tablet, or a half of a tablet a day for a few days, or a few times a week is ok during shedding and will not hurt them. But be careful not to overdose. If you decide to put them on a regular supplement of zinc, ask your vet for the proper dosage amounts - Wolfdogg.org)Do they like to fight other dogs? No. Malamutes are very pack oriented dogs. As such, they communicate with other dogs in a variety of ways. An ill mannered, aggressive dog is not a good team dog and therefore not a good sled dog. However, poorly socialized and trained Malamutes can be aggressive towards other dogs. For this reason, it is very important for a Malamute owner to train the dog carefully and make sure to properly socialize it with other dogs.
I've heard Malamutes are dumb. Is this true?_ No! Alaskan Malamutes are extremely intelligent working dogs. People often mistake the fact that they can be difficult to train as a sign of stupidity. Malamutes are very clever and easily bored. The key to training them is to keep them interested and to challenge their intelligence. A Malamute probably knows what you want him to do, he just may not want to do it!
Just how cold can an Alaskan Malamute live in? Alaskan Malamutes can work and live in extremely cold conditions, approaching 70 degrees below zero.


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Jodo Kast 2749
Active Hunter
You can just use this jpeg and insert it into a document and scale to size. It's designed to be printed out on 11"x17" paper but you can always divide the jpeg into two "cheeks" and just tape the two printed pcs later.
It's a simple butt plate template to be sure - but grab it anyway!
p.s. It will marry up with the large cod pcs I've sold or you can simply add or remove width to the ends to match any cod.

subset: commoncrawl


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Neel Kashkari, the underdog in California's race for governor, launched a fusillade of attacks on Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday night in their first and probably only debate.
The two candidates, who had never met before the event at Sacramento's Senator Hotel, sparred over a wide range of issues, including high-speed rail, the economy, immigration and California's public schools.
At times, they shouted over one another to get the last word.
Brown, 76, portrayed himself as an experienced veteran who came to the Capitol four years ago ready to roll up his sleeves to reduce the state's $27 billion deficit -- which he noted is now a surplus.
But Kashkari, a 41-year-old asset manager from Laguna Beach and former U.S. Treasury Department official, painted the Democratic governor as an out-of-touch career politician while describing himself as a "middle-class kid" who is seeking the state's highest office to help restore California's middle class.
The part of the debate that centered on the state of California's public schools was the most contentious.
When asked why he's appealing the recent Vergara v. California court ruling that found the quality of California's public schools so poor that it violates some students' constitutional rights, Brown blamed the schools' woes on insufficient funding and problems communicating with students just learning to speak English.
Kashkari, however, accused Brown of putting the interests of the California Teachers Association ahead of struggling students.
"You had a choice between fighting for the civil rights of poor kids and fighting for the union bosses who funded your campaigns," Kashkari said. "You sided with the union bosses. You should be ashamed of yourself, governor."
Brown and his supporters point out that during his first term he led efforts to overhaul California's school funding formula, eliminating many restrictions on the way districts use their state aid and promising greater spending on poorer students.
Midway through the debate, Brown zeroed in on a criticism of Kashkari that he repeated several times -- Kashkari's experience working for Goldman Sachs and as a government official who helped run the unpopular Troubled Asset Relief Program, known as TARP.
Kashkari defended TARP's work, saying the program had made money for the government. But Brown railed against him for the generous bonuses given to the CEOs of bailed-out banks.
During the debate, Brown revealed his plans to sign a contentious bill that will make California the first state to ban single-use plastic grocery bags.
That led Kashkari to accuse Brown and Democrats in the Legislature of focusing too narrowly on minor issues like the bag ban, instead of finding ways to put people back to work.
"The time for incrementalism has long since passed, governor," Kashkari said. "We actually need bold reforms to rebuild the middle class. Plastic bags isn't going to do it."
But Brown pointed out that more than 1 million new jobs were created during the first three years of his third term.
Water issues and California's bullet train also took center stage.
Brown is the train's main champion, but Kashkari pledged: "I'm going to cancel the high-speed rail train and invest in water in a big way."
He added that Gov. Pat Brown, the governor's father, "understood how important water is. Water and schools must come first."
Kashkari, who was 16 points behind Brown in a Field Poll released Thursday, is running his campaign on a shoestring budget. He had proposed 10 head-to-head events. But Brown, who had $22 million in the bank for the campaign at the end of June, said at the end of the debate that he thought one was enough.
"I think we've exposed the differences," Brown said. "This is a format they'll play over and over again."
Two veteran political analysts said they thought Kashkari won the debate.
"His answers were crisper and more direct," said Jack Pitney, a political science and government professor at Claremont McKenna College. "And he stayed on focus. He kept bringing the debate around to the topics he wanted to talk about, which were jobs and education."
Bill Whalen, a research fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution, said "the governor was not knocked down," but agreed that Kashkari did better in terms of style and points.
"He was more coherent than the governor," Whalen said. "More times than not, the governor went off into Jerry Brown mode where he was not answering the questions."
But Martinez resident Kamla Fitzell, 76, a registered Democat, said she thought Brown won because he was able to defend his record.
She said she was surprised that Kashkari was so aggressive: "He was attacking Jerry Brown personally, making sure we know Jerry Brown comes from a rich background -- which is true. But he did that so many times that it kind of made me think, 'Don't be so petty.'"
But Gary Stewart, 51, a registered Republican from Livermore, said he thought Kashkari's debate strategy was effective.
"Gov. Brown has always been a rich liberal," Stewart said. "He grew up in a family and always had things handed to him -- whereas Kashkari is a middle-class kid who grew up understanding how the world works."
(c)2014 the San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.)


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Eyes - nearsightedness
Published on Vision.
In fact, some people call the nearsightedness myopia. The nearsightedness occurs when a person cannot see well at a distance and sees well at short distances. To see well at short distance is what is important for the person. One needs close distance not to fail, to be able to see coming dangers distinctly. This condition normally starts during adolescence (teenage) or even earlier.
Nearsighted people see the world more than they listen to it. Essential things in life come to them through eyesight. Nearsighted people cannot see well at a distance because they can only be available for what comes close to them. The ocular globe therefore gets distorted.
The person who turns nearsighted will suffer from this condition because he feels that, in the past, he was little attentive, little vigilant. He was slapped but failed to see the hand coming close. The slapping was far too close coming when he realised what was happening. Too late!
This is a person who turned a corner and was struck by an unexpected danger, very close and full of movement (here, nearsightedness was caused by a dynamic action). Some children become nearsighted when they are around six years of age, when they learn how to read. This is not because they strain their eyes. It is mostly related to the behaviour shown by the people who taught them how to read, which they find dangerous.
Basically, the six-year-old nearsighted child is afraid of people around him.
The nearsighted person brings things close to himself. "Danger is getting close to me!"
The crystalline of nearsighted people is always under strain. The nearsighted person is constantly strained about something. He must be under a dynamic situation. This is not something spontaneous. He is always ready for something dynamic.
He is afraid of everything. When feeling confident, he may take his glasses off.
The nearsighted person needs to be reassured. He can see what is close very well, but he hates what comes from afar and does not want to pay any attention to it, for the time being.
Thus, nearsightedness denotes major subjectivity and lack of self-knowledge. What is it that I do not want to see?
Basically, the nearsighted person does not want to see himself, he does not want to see inwards. The more the person fails to see who he really is, the bigger the problem will be.
Young people, normally, only see immediate things, and they lack farsightedness and an overview of things. Nearsightedness starts at an early age. The person refuses to see himself as a whole. He then becomes vulnerable, short-tempered or defensive, not wishing to be surprised by anything that might surprise him. Nearsightedness forces the youth to look closer to his own involvement. One of his parents, for example.
The fact that a nearsighted person needs to wear glasses from an early age means he gets used to them, thinking he can see everything very well. This is not true, however, just an illusion. Contact lenses are even worse, because they become invisible. Lenses and glasses put down the call from the body.
Nearsightedness may also have been programmed (in a non-conscious way) by the parents. Even when it starts at around six or seven years of age. The earlier it manifests itself, the more related it is to the parents' programme (See Family and Babies).
The nearsighted person is an intellectual. He needs a lot of information because he is always on guard.
His neck muscles are always very stiff. The nape (back of the neck) is where the muscles that control eyesight are located. The nape is the yang part of the neck. nearsighted people have a very yang behaviour to make up for their intense fear. And they do not know how to relax.
The nearsighted person has too much past in his life. He lives in fear. The nearsighted person is afraid (he has been caught before. This must not happen again) and, for this reason, he is said to have too much past in his life.
The farsighted person is the opposite, he lives in constant apprehension, anxiously (I may be caught) and, for this reason, he is said to have too much future in his life. He is always on guard so that he is able to know where danger comes from. He is anxious. He does not even want to allow himself to be caught. As for the nearsighted person, he has already been caught. For him, danger is immediate. The present is dangerous. He is very much afraid of the near future.
Nearsightedness surgery is successful and eradicates the effects of nearsightedness. However, if the person does not sort out the tensions in his conscience, Nearsightedness will come back very quickly. In my experience, many people have managed to cure Nearsightedness. These are mostly young people. Getting rid of farsightedness is much more complex.
Also see eyes for other symptoms in the eyes


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Cubs to rotate Schierholtz, Hairston in right
Over the years, it was always fun to count the number of Cubs third basemen between Ron Santo and Aramis Ramirez.
That was how unstable the position was for the team between 1974 and 2003.
The Cubs have been going through something similar in right field since Sammy Sosa skipped out on the team at the end of the 2004 season and was traded before spring training began in 2005.
Since '05, the opening-day right fielders have been Jeromy Burnitz, Jacque Jones (2006-07), Kosuke Fukudome (2008-11) and David DeJesus (2012).
DeJesus shifts this year to center field, where he also saw significant time last year. In 2012 alone, these players also saw time in right field: Bryan LaHair, Dave Sappelt, Reed Johnson, Jeff Baker and Joe Mather.
The Cubs are hoping that in the not-too-distant future, Jorge Soler will provide stability, not to mention power, in right field for years to come.
Until Soler gets here, they'll try something different: two guys in right. No, not at the same time, but the Cubs look to have a true platoon with the left-handed hitting Nate Schierholtz and right-handed Scott Hairston, both of whom were signed this winter as free agents.
They look to be a perfect platoon pair.
Against right-handed pitching last year, Schierholtz put up a line of .287/.360/.466 for an OPS of .826.
Against lefties, Hairston went .286/.317/.550 for an OPS of .867.
Overall, Hairston had a line of .263/.299/.504 with 20 homers and 57 RBI for the Mets. As his on-base percentage suggests, he drew only 19 walks in 398 plate appearances.
Schierholtz went .257/.321/.407 with 6 homers and 21 RBI for the Phillies and Giants. Baseball Prospectus calls him a "placeholder for a rebuilding team." That sounds about right, as the Cubs eagerly await Soler's arrival.
As for Hairston, he has strong Chicago roots. His dad, Jerry Hairston, played for the White Sox while Jerry Hairston Jr. was with the Cubs in 2005-06. Grandfather Sam Hairston appeared in four games for the White Sox in 1951.
Scott Hairston will wear Sosa's old No. 21.
"I used to love coming to Wrigley Field and the history, especially in the late '90s when Sammy was doing his thing," he told reporters in Mesa, Ariz, at the start of spring training. "I sat in the bleachers a few times when he was hitting all his home runs. That was a good time to be in Chicago."
Hairston and Schierholtz figure to be serviceable for the Cubs until Soler arrives. The Cubs signed the now-21-year-old Soler, a native of Cuba, to a nine-year major-league contract last June.
In 34 games between Mesa (Rookie) and Class A Peoria last summer, he hit a combined 5 homers and drove in 25 in 34 games. Soler is likely to bypass Kane County, the Cubs' new Class A affiliate, so the Cubs can test him against tougher pitching at Class A Daytona this year.
Baseball America ranks Soler the Cubs' No. 3 prospect and writes that, "The ball explodes off Soler's bat, and his well above-average power can make any ballpark looks small … He has a feel for hitting, too, as he uses a game plan, recognizes pitches well and can make two-strike adjustments."
Whatever happens, the Cubs do not seem inclined to rush Soler, as he gets used to professional baseball and life in the United States.
"Guys like him, they haven't played that much baseball," manager Dale Sveum told reporters in Mesa. "They've done a lot of things, obviously, and we all know about the tools. But fast track? There's no reason to do that. He still has to play and learn so much and face better pitchers on a consistent basis, older pitchers who can do things. That experience factor comes in handy."
Bruce Miles ranks NL right fielders
1. Giancarlo Stanton, Marlins, 5.4 WAR
2. Jason Heyward, Braves, 5.5
3. Carlos Beltran, Cardinals, 3.6
4. Jay Bruce , Reds, 1.4
5. Andre Ethier, Dodgers, 3.5
8. Scott Hairston (1.5) and Nate Schierholtz (0.8), CUBS


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BACnet web-based remote features added to existing line of automation systems
Siemens' line of Apogee and Talon Building Automation Systems has been enhanced to include BACnet web-based remote system monitoring, commanding, alarm management, scheduling and trending functions – improving operator efficiency and convenience.
Siemens Industry, Inc. enhanced its line of Apogee and Talon Building Automation Systems to include BACnet web-based remote system monitoring, commanding, alarm management, scheduling and trending functions. The new BACnet enhancements also improve operator efficiency and convenience with browser-based internet system access and control functionality, according to Siemens.
New features include controller-based BACnet web pages for viewing, commanding and monitoring system information. Local and remote access to configure and edit the Web-based controller database has also been added, as well as cost saving BACnet MS/TP programmable controllers, remote I/O and a local controller user interface. The Web browser feature also mitigates the necessity for a dedicated PC based workstation through its simple-to-use interface. Any PC or laptop connected to the Internet can access the controller database and maintain system control remotely.
BACnet, the HVAC industry standard network protocol, delivers system-wide control and operations management through a single interface. The Apogee and Talon BACnet web-based systems are comprised of all BTL (BACnet Testing Laboratories) certified components, including a BAS workstation, a plug and play controller embedded web server and field level network architecture. Both systems are built on open-protocol platforms, and can seamlessly link BACnet, LonTalk, Modbus and other common open-protocol devices into a single, robust control system.
– Edited by Amanda McLeman, Consulting-Specifying Engineer, www.csemag.com
Do you have experience and expertise with the topics mentioned in this content? You should consider contributing to our CFE Media editorial team and getting the recognition you and your company deserve. Click here to start this process.


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Chief Justice Speech - March 25, 2008
Good afternoon. I want to begin by thanking the President pro Tem of the Senate, Don Perata, and Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez for their invitation to speak with you today. This annual event—my 13th State of the Judiciary Address—combined with visits to many legislators by members of the Bench Bar Coalition, provides the courts with a unique opportunity to share with our sister branches of government information about how we are using the resources you afford us and how, together, we can best serve the administration of justice and the people of our state. I am pleased to be joined not only by members of the Bench Bar Coalition, but also by my colleagues on the California Supreme Court—with the exception of Justice Kennard, who regrets that a medical problem prevents her attendance—as well as members of the Judicial Council and its advisory committees and task forces, state and local judicial and bar leaders, and the executive leadership of the Administrative Office of the Courts.
We in the judicial branch are keenly aware that this is a difficult year for you and the Governor. The fiscal challenges facing California are set against a backdrop of troubling financial developments on the national level. These often seem magnified in our large, complex, and diverse state—and complicate your task of achieving a budget that reasonably meets the public's needs.
I am not here to request funding for sweeping new initiatives. I am here today to tell you that the judicial system understands its obligation to contribute to the solution. Accordingly, we have carefully examined the judiciary's budget to determine how we can assume our share of the burden in an equitable manner and will be discussing that information with you in budget hearings in the coming weeks. In speaking with you today, I will be stressing those needs that are essential to the very integrity of the justice system and the vital interests of Californians, and explaining the impact on the state's people and institutions of any failure to provide the courts with the resources essential to allow them to function effectively.
California's judicial system is said to have the largest law-trained judiciary in the world, far surpassing the federal system. That is not surprising when one considers that 95% of the legal proceedings in the United States are filed in state courts, and California is the leader in filings by virtue of its size and the diversity of its institutions that have made us one of the largest economies in the world.
Statistics from the National Center for State Courts, however, indicate that California is at the bottom of the lists of comparable states in the number of judges it provides in proportion to the state's population. We also for that reason are near or at the bottom of the list when it comes to the time it takes to bring every type of case, including criminal, to final judgment. I will return to the impact of these circumstances in a few moments, but I mention them now to place the situation of California's judicial system in a national perspective.
There is another comparison of California's judiciary I want to mention—with some pride. In a recent article in the New York Times, legal reporter Adam Liptak reported on a study showing that over the past several decades, the decisions rendered by California's Supreme Court have been followed by other state high courts in the nation far more than the decisions of any other state high court. This finding reflects the leadership role of our court—and our state's entire judiciary—in the development of the law of our nation. Credit goes not only to my colleagues on the California Supreme Court, past and present, but also to the highly qualified jurists who serve at every level of our court system and fully develop cases and issues that come to us for review. California's judicial branch, I suggest, provides excellent value for the approximately 2.5 percent of the state budget it is allocated.
Beyond its careful attention to the substance of the law, the judicial branch for more than a decade has engaged in self-examination intended to make us more responsive to the needs of the California public we serve, and more effective and accountable in using the resources made available to us. With your help, we have transformed our court system into an increasingly fair and effective branch of government better able to serve the public. And because of the structural reforms we have undertaken at our own initiative, our branch is in a better position to cope with the present fiscal crisis than it otherwise would be. Nevertheless, given the proposed reductions, it will remain difficult to perform our core function of providing accessible justice to all Californians.
The last major piece of the structural transformation of our judicial branch, following the transition from county to state funding and the unification of the state's 220 trial courts into a single level of 58 courts, one in each county, is the transfer of court facilities from the counties to state ownership under judicial branch management. The Trial Court Facilities Act of 2002 began the transfer process, but it immediately encountered delay because so many courthouses were in worse shape than anticipated and could not be transferred without the expenditure of substantial sums by the counties.
In 2006, an agreement was reached among the counties, the courts, and the state. Enabling legislation provided that counties could transfer facilities, and the state would accept them, with the understanding that the counties would retain liability for any damages caused by the condition of the buildings—for 35 years or until the buildings were replaced, refurbished, or no longer used for court purposes.
This new measure jump-started the process, and of the 451 courthouse facilities, approximately 120 were transferred by the end of the last fiscal year. The authorizing statute, however, had a sunset date. During the closing hours of last year's legislative session, a bipartisan proposal to extend this deadline was unexpectedly sidetracked. As we were promised by legislative leadership, the necessary urgency bill, AB 1491 authored by Dave Jones, Chair of the Assembly Judiciary Committee—building on the efforts of Senator Ellen Corbett last year—is before you. The judicial branch and the counties are poised to move on the transfers once this measure is adopted.
The focus then shifts to how to rehabilitate and replace those court facilities that, because of earthquake, fire safety, and security deficiencies, pose substantial dangers not only to those who work in them, but also to persons who appear as witnesses, parties, or jurors, or enter these structures to pay traffic tickets or obtain documents or various services. Senator Perata is carrying legislation, SB 1407, authorizing a revenue bond that would help us meet many of the most urgent needs. We are exploring using performance based infrastructure processes—involving public/private partnerships—to the greatest extent possible for new construction, which should allow us to maximize the state's contribution.
Many courthouses also have major security problems. The lack of adequate resources is a contributing cause to the dangerous incidents that occur all too frequently in courthouses across the state.
For example, last year in Los Angeles, two separate attempted escapes resulted in one deputy sheriff being pepper-sprayed by a prisoner, and another deputy being repeatedly struck in the face and cut by a jail-made razor shank. An attack by a prisoner who had to be escorted in a public elevator in the Monterey courthouse put both a deputy and the public in danger. These and similar incidents might have been avoided if resources had allowed for a second deputy to accompany the prisoner.
A partial list of the items collected from individuals entering the courthouse on one day last fall in one of our smaller courts, the Superior Court of Kings County—gives a sense of the daily danger: thirteen knives, two sets of handcuffs, three handcuff keys, a stun gun, and two cans of mace.
Disputes that lead to court proceedings can be volatile. Criminal cases sometimes involve gang rivalries and angry victims and families, bent on retaliation. But family law matters in civil courts often are the most dangerous. When I arrived at the main Los Angeles courthouse a few years ago to meet with court leaders, I observed personnel mopping up blood in a hallway after a physician involved in a marital dissolution proceeding had fatally shot his wife. Years earlier, when I was a trial judge, an elderly juror serving in a case over which I was presiding was stabbed to death during a brief recess while using the public restroom across the hall from the courtroom.
Security costs have been the fastest growing and the most expensive component of the trial court budget, comprising almost $500 million of our budget. We have worked closely with the Sheriffs of our state to set proper and consistent security standards statewide to bring some predictability to the cost of these services. Expected funding from the Legislature to accomplish these goals also failed to materialize at the end of last year's session, and we remain without the allocation of funds needed to implement this program.
Innocent bystanders are at risk if we cannot secure our courthouses—as are the employees who work there and the understaffed law enforcement officers who serve in unsafe conditions. I strongly urge you to support the security standards and funding needed to reduce those risks.
Meanwhile, those who come to the courts increasingly arrive without legal representation. Access to justice has been a primary goal of the Judicial Council. The Council, which as Chief Justice I chair, is the constitutionally created entity charged with overseeing and setting policy for the statewide administration of justice. The Administrative Office of the Courts, ably headed by our Administrative Director of the Courts, Bill Vickrey, and his Chief Deputy, Ron Overholt, serves as the Council's staff arm.
Seeking ways to improve access to the courts, the Judicial Council has created a Task Force on Self-Represented Litigants, and has worked with local courts, the State Bar's broadly constituted Commission on Access to Justice, and with Bar, legal services, and local community organizations to offer a broad range of services to assist self-represented litigants.
Along with many others, I repeatedly have encouraged lawyers across the state to provide pro bono services, and we have been heartened by the response. This year when, for the first time, lawyers were provided with the opportunity to contribute to legal aid services at the same time they pay their bar membership dues, almost one million dollars was collected.
People must have meaningful access to the courts, or the phrase "justice for all" becomes no more than an empty promise. That requires making necessary tools available, including court information in several languages, user-friendly forms, guidance on how to file and respond to pleadings, and at least limited assistance from legal counsel and interpreters when needed. The judicial branch has expanded its efforts to improve the availability of interpreters without additional funding from the Legislature, and will continue to attempt to augment those services even under the constraints of the present budget situation.
The courts also have actively participated in improving services to families and children in the foster care system. These children are among the most vulnerable members of our society. Timing here is critical. During the brief period of a child's development and learning, delay in providing services or a proper placement too often amounts to a denial of those vital needs to the developing child.
In 2005, the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care issued a national report recommending that courts become more involved in tracking and analyzing foster care caseloads, and urging more funding for child welfare services. Our Administrative Director of the Courts served on that commission. Two years ago, I appointed a Blue Ribbon Commission on Children in Foster Care, chaired by my colleague Justice Carlos Moreno, and including Senator Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Members Karen Bass and Bill Maze as members.
Ten days ago, our commission issued draft recommendations and solicited public comment before preparing its final report to the Judicial Council, which is expected in June of this year. Those recommendations are expected to respond to the urgent needs of California's nearly 80,000 children in foster care, who include a disproportionate number who may drop out of school, end up homeless or unemployed, or become involved with the mental health or criminal justice systems. I anticipate that the Judicial Council will be bringing recommendations to you later this year, and we look forward to working with you to improve the treatment of foster children in California. Similar progress is taking place in providing more protection in domestic violence cases and more safeguards for those individuals in conservatorships.
The steps we have taken to improve access, procedures, and services for the public we serve will, however, be meaningless if we lack the judges needed to implement them. Three years ago, the Judicial Council came to you with a request to meet the urgent need for more judicial positions. A study by the National Center for State Courts recommended the addition of more than 350 judges to meet current needs after years of no increase in judgeships. We focused on the 150 highest priority positions, and asked that they be created in groups of 50 over the next three years. You responded, creating 100 new judgeships in the last two legislative sessions.
It is vital that the last complement of 50 judgeships be authorized this year. Senator Ellen Corbett is carrying this bill, SB 1150, and I urge you to support it. Although funding for many of the newly created judgeships was delayed by one year during the special budget session earlier this year, I hope you will carefully consider providing, as soon as it is feasible, the funding needed for an adequate number of judgeships.
Many of the new judicial positions are designated for areas of the state that have seen an enormous growth in population over the last few decades without a corresponding increase in the bench. This is especially true for the Inland Empire and the Central Valley.
For example, the case backlog is so acute that recently, for two years in a row, Riverside's court was forced to close down all of its civil courtrooms for months at a time to handle criminal cases, which have priority under the Constitution. At the request of court leadership and the Bar, I created a special task force of experienced judges from all over the state to go to Riverside County to help reduce its staggering backlog. Progress has been made, and discussions of possible changes in practices by both the courts and their justice system partners are producing important results. Nevertheless, a substantial backlog of cases remains. By the way, we sent this task force to Riverside using our existing budget resources with the flexibility you have allowed us, without seeking any additional allocation from the Legislature.
Court delays have real, human consequences. In one Riverside criminal case, an individual who had spent five years in jail was found not guilty when his case, which had resulted in a hung jury at an earlier trial, finally was retried. In a civil case in that county, the surviving husband and very young children of a mother who stayed at home to care for the children and who was killed in an automobile accident, ended up in homeless shelters during the years they spent waiting for a trial date to be scheduled. No judge was available to hear their case. Once a trial date was set, the case was settled within two weeks.
Cases involving young children or the elderly have statutory priority in our court system. Yet such priorities are thwarted by criminal case backlogs. Elderly people have written to the courts after their cases repeatedly have been put over, stating that they fear they will die before their cases are resolved. I mentioned earlier in my remarks how poorly California's case clearance rates measure against those of other states. This circumstance reflects a fundamental tenet of court administration: that the setting of a trial date often is the key to reaching settlement and resolution—and that nothing happens until then. And a case cannot be set for trial without there being a judge available to try the case.
The failure to provide sufficient resources and personnel for the court system risks depriving California of an effective public civil justice system. The absence of an operational civil justice system will affect every aspect of California life: business and financial institutions, dissolutions of marriage, probate distributions, child custody and support, civil rights, governmental functions—all will have no place to go. The legislation you enact into law may not be subject to judicial enforcement if that occurs. I believe we all agree that a functioning court system is not a luxury—it is an essential component of state government.
There are severe limits to how much we can reduce the services that we are required to provide. For example, providing legal counsel to criminal defendants is not simply a program that can be eliminated as part of budget reductions—it is a constitutional responsibility, and one that would be enforced by federal courts at state expense if we ignore it. Cutting back on the processing of vehicle offenses would make no sense—such matters are a source of revenue to state and local government. Reducing services in dependency matters is not an option—such action would jeopardize federal funding.
These circumstances also illustrate the need not to limit the use of the resources that are provided to the judicial branch, but instead to authorize the judicial branch to apply them in the most effective manner. We, in turn, will continue to remain accountable for how we have used the funds you allocate to our branch.
Flexibility is especially important in developing much needed technology. My colleague, Justice Ming Chin, chairs the Judicial Council's Technology Committee. At a recent meeting of the Council with the leaders of the Departments of Corrections, Social Services, Child Support, Department of Justice, and the California Highway Patrol, we discussed the urgent common need for a system that allows us to share updated information. Without that, domestic violence restraining orders, warrants, and dispositions among other important records, too often are not circulated promptly to law enforcement. We are working to create a consistent case management system that makes information more transparent to the public, more accessible to other parts of government, and more effectively shared among the courts.
Having spoken about the need for flexibility in managing our resources, I want to turn for a moment to a proposal that is intended to help the California Supreme Court do just that. Each year, our seven-justice court reviews more than 9,000 petitions for review and original relief and typically issues opinions in 110 to 115 cases. The nine-justice United States Supreme Court has issued about 70 opinions each of the past few terms. Only appeals from judgments of death come directly to the California Supreme Court. Twenty to twenty-five of the opinions issued by our court each year are in these very lengthy and time-consuming capital cases. We also dispose of another 30 or so related habeas corpus petitions in death penalty cases each year, involving the preparation of lengthy internal memoranda addressing the multiple issues presented.
The court has improved and expanded the selection of counsel and shortened the time for filing briefs in our court. Our efforts have met with some success—at present, we have approximately 80 fully briefed appeals from judgments of death pending in our court, and another 100 fully briefed capital habeas corpus matters. The records in these cases are routinely 10,000 pages long, and sometimes several times that length, and involve numerous issues. Considerable staff and judicial time must be expended on each case.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court proposed a constitutional amendment, endorsed by all the justices of the court and backed by the administrative presiding justices of the Courts of Appeal, that would allow the Supreme Court to transfer certain fully-briefed cases to the intermediate appellate court for argument and preparation of an opinion. After the Court of Appeal's decision, the Supreme Court would carefully review all cases, and proceed with oral argument and a written opinion if there is an important question of law or a conflict between Courts of Appeal on a matter of law, or if the Supreme Court finds that the lower court may have committed an error in reaching its decision.
This proposal does not concern the merits of the death penalty; it is strictly about process. The proposal arose out of a grave concern that the death penalty caseload in the California Supreme Court is consuming too large a portion of the resources needed by the court to perform its basic constitutional role of deciding significant issues of law in civil and noncapital criminal cases in order to provide guidance to the lower courts, government, business, and individuals.
To effectively handle these difficult matters, adequate resources must be allocated to every part of the justice system—prosecution, defense, and the Courts of Appeal. In view of the budget situation, I have asked that our proposal not be advanced at this time. I shall, however, at a more propitious time, seek your consideration of this constitutional amendment, and in the meantime we are interested in hearing the Legislature's ideas about how to best address the difficult issues of delay and workload presented by the Supreme Court's backlog of death penalty cases.
Before I close, I want to mention one additional subject. As many of you know, it has become increasingly difficult to attract well qualified candidates from diverse backgrounds to the bench from both private and public practice, because the judicial retirement system in effect for judges appointed since 1994 is grossly inadequate. This urgent situation should be corrected if we are to ensure the continued excellence of our judicial system, and I ask that you deal with this problem in the near future.
California's court system has a nationwide reputation for excellence and innovation in providing service to the public, for the high quality of its bench, and for the creativity and innovation of judges and court administrators and court staff who are dedicated to enhancing the administration of justice. In my view, an impartial judiciary—and its corollary, adherence to the rule of law—are the cornerstones of our democracy. Support for our judicial branch is essential to our democratic form of government in good times and in bad.
We in the judiciary look forward to working with our coequal branches of government to further enhance the administration of justice in our state. Thank you again for the opportunity to address you. And now I invite you to join me, my colleagues from the courts, the Judicial Council, the Administrative Office of the Courts, and the Bar, at a reception to be held in the Capitol Rotunda. I hope to see you there, and to have further opportunities to speak with you in the months and years ahead.


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Mom who beat cancer while pregnant dies day after giving birth to twins
FOX NEWS - A California mother who beat cancer while pregnant with twins died tragically Friday, just a day after giving birth. Now, family and friends of 30-year-old Jamie Snider are raising funds to help care for her surviving four children, and are remembering her bright smile and loving nature.
Snider had beaten cancer once before but lost an ovary in the process, ABC 7 reported. She was shocked to learn she was pregnant with twins, but then doctors discovered an aggressive form of cervical cancer had returned. She underwent chemotherapy and radiation at Stanford Medical Center, and shared on Facebook that she was undergoing a radical hysterectomy after a planned C-section delivery.
"Tomorrow will be a great day," Snider posted on her Facebook page, according to the report. "God has been by my side the whole time. All your prayers and love have kept me going as well. Wish me luck. I'm having a C-section at 7 and then a radical hysterectomy right after. I'll be fine. Thank you, God, for keeping me positive through all the hard times."
But, a day after the surgeries, Snider suffered congestive heart failure and died.


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If you're a student wanting to attend ESUG, have you considered being a student volunteer? Student volunteers help keep the conference running smoothly; in return, they have free accommodations, while still having most of the time to enjoy the conference.
Apply soon: there are a limited number of student volunteer positions available. Student volunteers will be notified by the end of May.
When are accomodations covered? Accomodations are covered from Sunday, August 24th to Thursday, August 28th, inclusive. Students will be hosted at Stayokay
Which costs are not covered? Travel costs and accomodations during Camp Smalltalk (August 23th and 24th, preceeding the conference) (unless it's necessary; contact us).
To sign up: Contact firstname.lastname@example.com with the following information: First name, last name, university, an email address where you can always be reached, your university, and optionally, any special information you think is important/relevant. Your mail should be tagged as follow: [ESUG 2008 Student]
Questions about student volunteering also go to firstname.lastname@example.com and SHOULD BE TAGGED [ESUG 2008 Student]
Past duties have involved handling registration as people arrive at the conference, staffing coffee machines, collecting presentation slides for ESUG right after the presentation is given, being present at an information desk to answer questions, and generally being helpful. Student volunteering makes the conference better, take a fairly small amount of time and doesn't significantly interfere with enjoying and learning from the conference.
Here is the list of selected students


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Do you enjoy SCRABBLE® or other word games?
Do you want to become a better SCRABBLE® player?
Do you want to make new friends? Looking for something fun to do?
If you answered YES to any of the above questions, visit the Mississauga SCRABBLE® Club! Whether you\'re a complete beginner or an avid online player, you\'ll have no problem finding an opponent at your level. If you are not close to Mississauga, Canada, visit scrabbleplayers.org to learn more about the fun competitive SCRABBLE® scene and find a club near you. Use the squares at the top of the page to navigate through our website.
Tweets by @SCRABBLEcanada


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Andrian Nikolayev
Andrian Nikolayev is a cosmonaut who was born on September 5, 1929, in the Chuvash Autonomous Republic.
Nikolayev became a cosmonaut in 1960. He has spent over 204 hours in space on two spaceflights.
Nikolayev made his first spaceflight in 1962, aboard Vostok 3. He set an endurance record at the time, spending 4 days in space. In 1970, Nikolayev flew aboard Soyuz 9.


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Shogakukan-Shuesha Productions formed
VIZ MEDIA PARENT COMPANY SHUEISHA INVESTS IN JAPANESE PUBLISHER SHOGAKUKAN'S LICENSING
AND MERCHANDISING SUBSIDIARY TO FORM NEW PARTNERSHIP – SHOGAKUKAN-SHUEISHA PRODUCTIONS CO., LTD.  Â
New Entity Will Help Streamline Operations And Increase Flexibility To License Titles For Global Manga And Anime Markets
San Francisco, CA, June 19, 2008 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced that one of its parent companies, Japanese publisher Shueisha, Inc., has made an investment in Shogakukan Production Company Ltd., the licensing and merchandising subsidiary of Japanese publisher Shogakukan, Inc., another of VIZ Media's parent companies.  ShoPro will be renamed Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions Co., Ltd.
Representatives from both Shueisha and Shogakukan stated in a recent press conference in Japan that the strategic move was made to give more flexibility in developing titles for the overseas marketplace, including the burgeoning graphic novel/manga market in North America and Europe, and to streamline internal operations. Masao Yagi has been named President of the new Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions Co., Ltd.
Since it was established in 1967, ShoPro has handled a variety of popular properties related to Shogakukan manga and animated properties, such as Pokémon, Doraemon, INUYASHA, HAMTARO, DETECTIVE CONAN, and MEGAMAN, as well as other third-party licenses for the Japanese market. As a result of Shueisha's investment, Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions will now handle properties related to manga from both Shogakukan and Shueisha.
"The formation of Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions by two of our key parent companies will undoubtedly speed the licensing process of future properties for domestic release,†says Hidemi Fukuhara, CEO, VIZ Media. "Our close relationship with both Shueisha and Shogakukan has played a key role in the success of VIZ Media and allows us to continually offer some of the best and most unique manga titles from Japan. We look forward to working with Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions to prepare new properties for release in North America as well as for other emerging markets in Europe and Oceania.â€
VIZ Media was established in 1986 with seed money from Shogakukan under the name VIZ Communications. Shueisha became an investor in VIZ in 2002, and was a key collaborator on the development of SHONEN JUMP magazine, which is the leading monthly manga anthology in North America. When VIZ and Shogakukan's ShoPro Entertainment merged in 2005, the new company was named VIZ Media.
About VIZ Media, LLC
Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), is one of the most comprehensive and innovative companies in the field of manga (graphic novel) publishing, animation and entertainment licensing of Japanese content. Owned by three of Japan's largest creators and licensors of manga and animation, Shueisha Inc., Shogakukan Inc., and Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions, Co., Ltd., VIZ Media is a leader in the publishing and distribution of Japanese manga for English speaking audiences in North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and South Africa and is a global ex-Asia licensor of Japanese manga and animation. The company offers an integrated product line including magazines such as SHONEN JUMP and SHOJO BEAT, graphic novels, and DVDs, and develops, markets, licenses, and distributes animated entertainment for audiences and consumers of all ages. Contact VIZ Media at 295 Bay Street, San Francisco, CA 94133; Phone (415) 546-7073; Fax (415) 546-7086; and web site at www.VIZ.com.


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By Mike Wall
Life may well lurk beneath the Martian surface today, but it'll be tough to detect without sending humans to the Red Planet, some experts say.
It could be a long time before robots are able to drill deep into the Martian underground, explore caves and investigate other potentially life-supporting habitats on the Red Planet. So if humanity wants to satisfy its curiosity about potential life on Mars anytime soon, it should work to get boots in the red dirt, advocates say.
"We might be lucky and confirm life with robots over the next one to two decades, but it's probably going to take people to do, literally, the heavy labor to be able to do it," said Chris Carberry, co-founder and executive director of Explore Mars, a nonprofit organization dedicated to human exploration of the Red Planet. [The Search for Life on Mars (A Photo Timeline)]
Subsurface sanctuaries?
Most scientists think the frigid, dry and radiation-bombed Martian surface is unlikely to host life as we know it today. But conditions could be much more benign in underground environments such as caves or lava tubes, providing potential refuges for microbes.
"The subsurface is going to be radically different from the surface," astrobiologist and cave scientist Penny Boston, a professor at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, told Space.com late last year. "Every indication we have from caves of all different kinds all over this planet (Earth) shows that it doesn't take much separation vertically for a radically different environment."
Indeed, the Martian subsurface is known to harbor water ice, and several recent studies suggest that pockets of liquid water may exist beneath the red dirt as well. Here on Earth, life thrives pretty much anywhere liquid water is found, so the possibility of current Martian aquifers excites astrobiologists.
Adding to the intrigue, Carberry said, is the fact that several different ground-based and space-based instruments have detected small amounts of methane in Mars' air. The gas could be an indicator of Red Planet life, some researchers say, since 90 percent of Earth's methane is biologically derived.
Further, scientists think methane disappears rapidly from the Martian atmosphere, meaning any of the stuff swirling there today was likely produced in the recent past.
"There is a strong, growing body of evidence that there could be subsurface life on Mars," Carberry told Space.com. "However, we may not be able to confirm that unless we send people."
Exploring the Martian underground
Carberry lauded the work of Red Planet robots such as the car-size Curiosity rover, whose mission team recently determined that Mars could have supported microbial life billions of years ago.
But he said the search for extant Martian life is really a job for human explorers, at least for the near future. Current robots just aren't capable of drilling several meters beneath the Red Planet's surface, for example, or rappelling down into a lava tube by themselves.
"There are so many different things, so many complicated processes, that a human could do as long as they had a backup, a partner, to help them," Carberry said, "but robots can't — or if they can, it's going to take them an awful long time."
Steve Squyres of Cornell University, principal investigator for NASA's highly accomplished Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers, has acknowledged the slow pace of robotic explorers.
"The unfortunate truth is that most things our rovers can do in a perfect sol (Martian day), a human explorer on the scene could do in less than a minute," Squyres wrote in his 2005 book "Roving Mars: Spirit, Opportunity, and the Exploration of the Red Planet."
Protecting potential Mars life
Sending people to search for Martian life would raise some ethical concerns, however.
Every astronaut who lands on the Red Planet will bring with him or her a swarming mass of 100 trillion microbes — the diverse "microbiome" that has evolved with humans for eons and provides a number of services, from aiding food digestion to keeping pathogenic bacteria at bay.
Some of these microbes would invariably jump ship on Mars, potentially swamping or destroying the organisms their human hosts were sent to detect.
"When you send humans to the next planet, you will always contaminate that planet, because you cannot sterilize a human like you can sterilize (NASA's 1970s-era) Viking spacecraft," Bas Lansdorp, co-founder and chief executive officer of the Netherlands-based nonprofit Mars One, said during a news conference Monday.
Mars One aims to land four humans on the Red Planet in 2023 to jump-start a permanent colony there. The organization does not plan on aggressively seeking out Mars life; rather, it will try to put its settlement in a spot that minimizes the risks to potential indigenous organisms, Lansdorp said. [Mars One's Red Planet Colony Project (Gallery)]
Scientists and space agencies around the world are well aware of the planetary protection issue. In 2008, the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) drew up a set of guidelines that seeks to safeguard Earth from "back contamination" from Mars, and to protect potential Red Planet life from an interplanetary invasion as well.
The COSPAR guidelines — which NASA and the European Space Agency, among others, are committed to follow — advise steering clear of gullies, possible geothermal sites and other "special regions" on Mars where Earth life might be able to get a foothold.
Such restrictions could make a manned life hunt difficult, since these places are also the most likely to harbor Red Planet life.
Carberry said future manned missions should take strict precautions to minimize their impact on the Red Planet and any potential indigenous lifeforms. But he doesn't think planetary protection concerns should keep humanity away from the Red Planet entirely.
"That's not a good reason not to go," Carberry said. "If we used that rationale for not going to Mars, we pretty much could eliminate all human exploration anywhere from now on."
Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
- Ancient Mars Could Have Supported Life (Photos)
- 5 Bold Claims of Alien Life
- Mars Could Have Supported Life, NASA Finds | Video
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Voisin C25 Cimier |
Article | Image gallery (8) | 50012 | Specifications |
Page 1 of 2 Next >> Particularly hard hit by the financial crisis of the early 1930s were luxury manufacturers like Voisin; many of the company's loyal customers simply could no longer afford to indulge. As unconventional as the cars he produced, Gabriel Voisin's solution to the quickly dwindling sales was at best counter-intuitive. Instead of switching to simpler models and broaden the potential customer base, he stepped up and developed some of his most advanced models yet. Dubbed the C25 Aérodyne, the first of this new three-model range was previewed at the 1934 Paris Auto Salon Using a modified version of the earlier C24 chassis as a basis, this prototype mainly served as the preview of Voisin's new design direction, while a brand new radial engine was developed. For the first time in many years Gabriel Voisin had been solely responsible for the lines, following the split with designer/artist Andre 'Noël-Noël' Telmont. Although some of the familiar Voisin cues were retained the aptly named Aérodyne design was considerably smoother and more aerodynamic. Especially the nose of the new four-door saloon, with the struts supporting the lightweight fenders, was still vintage Voisin. It is the 'fastback' rear that set the Aérodyne apart from the previous designs. This sported a completely integrated trunk, which allowed for the car's most striking feature; the sliding roof. Powered by two vacuum pumps fitted in the trunk, the ingenious system allowed the entire roof to slide back. To maintain rearward visibility the roof was equipped with several 'portholes' that lined up with the rear window. Voisin had planned to equip the production version of the C25 with a brand new 7-cylinder radial engine but tests early in 1935 yielded disappointing results, so he was forced to revert back to the tried and tested sleeve-valve engine. Built under a Knight patent, Voisin's latest version was a straight six with a displacement of just under three litres. Equipped with two Zenith carburettors the very quiet unit produced around 90 bhp. It was mated to a two-speed electromechanical gearbox with overdrive on both gears, effectively giving the car four forward gears. Page 1 of 2 Next >> |
Article | Image gallery (8) | 50012 | Specifications |
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If the second-tier lenders are to rise again then we need that to happen in a highly controlled environment.
The collapse of Mainzeal has people worrying about who will construct the residential and commercial buildings required for the rebuild of Christchurch and the expansion of Auckland.
The political scrap between central and local government has people worrying where we will put the buildings.
They are both big issues but there is another that may be an even greater cause for concern. Who will fund all the development?
There is money to be made for those in the property sector but the development business requires complex financing that is robust enough to cope with long time-frames, delays and all the other risks involved.
There used to be a whole sector of second tier lenders who took on that risk. We used to call them finance companies. They had an appetite for the kind of investment risk that banks won't take. As I'm sure we can all agree they were a fantastic bunch of community spirited organisations.
Okay, seriously, this isn't a love letter to the finance companies. I don't think my email inbox could quite handle the response.
But it is a great shame that there weren't more responsible people at the controls of the finance companies and that there wasn't a better regulatory system in place to monitor them. That's not just because the resulting collapse of the sector cost so many investors so much - although that is the greater of the shames - it is also because they did, in theory, perform a valuable function in the economy.
Unfortunately in the real world people got greedy, there was - as the courts have found - criminal behaviour. Even where laws weren't broken there was a culture that failed to adequately disclose the risk to the investing public. There was a financial advice culture which drew in investors who shouldn't have been there in the first place.
It was a national disaster.
So no one will weep for the finance companies but it does leave us with a difficult dilemma as we look at how we would like to see our cities developed over the next decade.
Who would fund the likes of Auckland's David Henderson who built the impressive Hilton/Cruise Ship terminal building on Auckland's waterfront - or the next generation of Hendersons? Yes, Henderson is now bankrupt - a reminder of just how risky the development business is.
Often these property developers are larger than life and inevitably they have a high appetite for risk. But without those risk takers many of the grand projects in the grand cities of the world would not get built.
One obvious place for raising capital and for trading the risk and rewards involved in the property sector is the sharemarket.
Those with a long memory will recall that property investment companies were big on the local sharemarket up until October 1987. Anyone remember Chase Corp and Equiticorp?
There is a long tradition in this country of drawing the public into property and related finance investments with horrendous results for those who get caught when the cycle inevitably turns.
As a nation we are certainly learning about this the hard way. There are more than a few investors out there who lost big on the stock market in 1987 and then having lost their trust in equities turned to the high interest of debentures, only to lose big again.
The last thing we need as we head into another upswing of the property cycle is some new and innovative way for New Zealanders to lose their money on property investments.
There are some long-standing and successful property trusts listed on the NZX but by and large the stock exchange and the broking community became very cautious about second tier financiers and property development after the 1987 crash.
That's one of the reasons that the private finance company sector grew so strongly through the 1990s and 2000s. With the benefit of hindsight, casting them out into the unregulated wilderness was not the best solution to the problem.
The NZX is now a far better regulated and more sophisticated institution than it once was. If the second tier lenders are to rise again then we need that to happen in a highly controlled environment.
As councils and the Government look to encourage the right kind of development for our cities they should look to work with the NZX and the property sector.
It may offer a path for New Zealanders to take some ownership and control of the process.
We need there to be high standards of disclosure around the risk involved for investors. We need public meetings where shareholders can stand up in front of the media and query moves to invest in Fijian holiday resorts or the nature of related party lending and all those other things that went on behind closed doors.
It is no secret that we need New Zealanders to look beyond property as the investment class of choice if we want a more productive economy.
But it is also true that property is an investment class that generates great returns as long as the risk is properly managed.
And if the money is invested well it can also produce great properties - safe, elegant buildings that we want to work and live in, buildings that make us proud of our cities.
That is the goal. It seems we are at a crucial point in the cycle with regard to both Christchurch and Auckland. We need to get all the processes around property development right before we embark on building this bold new future.
The way we fund these things is not as visible as the way we zone them or the kind of architecture we choose but is a fundamental building block. At the heart of it all - as it always is - is the money.


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Prism Technologies is a modern and also dynamic organisation offering Java training to companies throughout India. We provide a unique blend of consultancy and also hands-on training providing you with the productive skills to improve your performance.
Prism is an corporate training firm present in Mumbai, Pune & also in Chennai Bangalore. We have provided corporate trainings across INDIA in other locations as well including Hyderabad, New Delhi, Noida,Gurgaon Kolkata & also in Chennai as well.
We will not train you to use redundant features that are part of some academic curriculum; instead we will show you how to unleash the power that lies behind this super-suite of software.
Our Java courses cover OOPS concepts to J2ee framework, EJB to Struts, Hibernate, Spring to J2me, RAD, Jquery etc.and whilst each session is tailored to your Our Clients needs.
Java Training Courses
Partial list of the courses we offer in Java-J2ee Training are as follows-Java SE6 Programming
JavaEE Web Services
Building Java EE Applications
Building Java EE Web Applications
Enterprise JavaBeans
Servlets and JavaServer Pages (JSPs)
Enterprise Java Applications with Spring and Hibernate
Javascript Introduction
JavaScript Developers Programme
J2EE Programming with Oracle WebLogic Server
J2ME Java ME Programming for Mobile Applications
Java Data Objects
Java Programming in Rational Application Developer
RAD v7.x for Experienced Java Developers
Struts Web Development Framework
JSF JavaServer Faces (JSF)
JMS 1.1 Programmer Reference
Fast Track to Spring 2.0
Apache Tomcat Administration
Java SOA Enterprise Architecture
JNDI 1.2 Programmer Reference
Java Graphics
Intro to JAVA & Object Orientation (for Mainframe Programmers)
Courses can be customized according to Our Clients needs.
For traning from other vendors like IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Sap etc browse our website further
Kindly contact us for more details.


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By Police1 Staff
We've put together a variety of gift ideas for the favorite police officer in your life. From toys to training, we've got you covered in this year's Police1 Holiday Gift Guide.
MONOPOLY: Law Enforcement Edition, $39.95: Got a beef with someone in your unit? Settle it old-school, with a grueling round of MONOPOLY. In this version, the classic game has been given a law enforcement twist. Instead of collecting real estate, players compete with their fellow cops to build and take command of all the precincts and headquarters on the board. And just like in the original game, players can wind up in jail, so watch your six boys and girls. [Emergency Services Play]
True Blue: Police Stories by Those Who Have Lived Them, by Sgt. Randy Sutton, $6.95: Sutton, a recently-retired detective with the Las Vegas Police Department, asked cops across the country to submit stories that show what the life of a cop is really like. This book is the result. New York Daily News said of the collection, "A simply great new book…funny, sad, and, at times, haunting, the essays capture mundane events, as well as tragic ones." Sounds like a good bet for the bookish cop in your department. [Amazon]
Highway Patrol Mouse, $49.95: Got a gear head on your team? Get 'em this: Chevy Camaro Series Car Mouse. Officers working a beat shouldn't be the only ones with the chance to flex some raw horsepower. Give the desk jockey in your squad a chance to zoom down the information superhighway (Get it? Highway — because it's a car!) in this replica pony car. [Roadmice]
Fox TDI Law Enforcement Knife, $38.95 - $56.99: There's a good chance this small, oddly-shaped knife is alien technology that was brought to earth in the center of a meteor. Wherever it came from (okay, not aliens: KA-BAR), this little blade is bad. Made of black powder coated stainless steel, with a textured Zytel handle, this "last option" knife comes with a hard plastic friction sheath that fits perfectly on your utility belt. [Amazon]
Ticket to Street Survival Seminar, $215 per officer, $75 for spouse: If you really want to take care of the cop in your life, get them a gift that will endure for a lifetime: knowledge. (We're pretty sure the alien knife will also last a lifetime.) Calibre Press offers Street Survival Seminars year round, with upcoming events in Atlanta, GA on January 25-26 and Atlantic City, NJ on February 9-10. According to their website, the seminar will help you gain insight into new less-lethal technologies, prepare yourself and your family for an off-duty crisis, overcome the "routine" nature of police work, and much more! [Calibre Press]
Survival Straps, $22-33: Whatever particular crisis you're dealing with — on or off duty — one thing officers can always use is a sturdy piece of rescue line. The surprisingly cool-looking Survival Strap Bracelet is actually a tight weave of up to 24' of 550# military spec paracord. Use it to lower your family off the roof or, in a pinch, tie your mattress to your car. [Survival Straps]
Do you have interesting gift ideas? Share them with your colleagues in the comments section below!


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This is one of my favorite winter-time sensory activities! Though it's great any time of year, colder temps outside make it easier to freeze all those ice blocks! Get your kiddos in on all the action by letting them mix the colors (I like to use washable liquid or powder watercolors), and letting them observe the change from liquid to solid…..and then back again! Pop the colored ice into your sensory table, kitchen sink, or even the bathtub, and get building! (Originally posted 12/18/09.)
Ice is a fun, inexpensive, and fascinating material to explore in your sensory table! I like to add color to the water before filling my ice molds, to add interest, and so that the colors begin to mix as the ice melts. Then I fill a variety of containers – ice-cube trays, of course, but also empty plastic food containers (Cool Whip, sour cream, yogurt, etc.), plastic cups, popsicle molds, muffin tins – anything to create an interesting shape. You can place these in your freezer, if you have the room, or if you're lucky enough to have absolutely frigid temperatures as we did here, just place them outside overnight.
Place the ice in your sensory bin with paintbrushes and water, and show the children that if they brush the ice with water and then press two together, the water freezes and holds the ice pieces together like glue! They can build castles and forts to their hearts' content! I also add a salt shaker so that they can observe what happens as salt is added to ice. Inevitably, they'll eventually want to chop at the ice (particularly if they're only partially frozen, with water in the middle, a fortuitous and fascinating accident), so if you want to protect your paintbrushes, provide something else, like craft sticks to use for chopping.
This activity provides experience with science concepts like freezing and melting. Talk about why the ice is slowly melting and discuss whether the ice would stay frozen or melt outside right now! It also provides a frigid sensory experience that paves the way for language development as you use synonyms for the word "cold", like "freezing", "frigid", "chilly", and "icy". Other words to describe the experience, such as "slippery", "smooth", "melting", "freezing", and "dissolve," easily come into play. (And, if your children are anything like my own boys, words like "destroy", "blast", and "invincible" will also likely come into play.)
See how much learning fun you can have with a little water and coloring? For a fun spin, you could also try the same activity outside on a snowy day!
For more wintry activities, click here!