text:
Twitter: Huge mobile use makes us ideal for real-time marketing
At Advertising Week, Twitter President of Revenue Adam Bain says that between 1 percent and 3 percent of people click on or retweet promoted tweets.
Sixty percent of Twitter users access the microblogging platform on mobile devices, and there are more than 400 million tweets per day, Twitter said today. And promoted tweets have an engagement rate of between 1 percent and 3 percent.
Just a couple of hours after Twitter unveiled a new feature for big brands that will allow them to embed surveys in tweets, at a session called "Building a real-time brand" At Advertising Week in New York, Twitter President of Revenue Adam Bain and sales marketing chief Shane Steele shared statistics and anecdotes demonstrating that the service is an ideal place for brands to achieve better and more efficient advertising and marketing results than on just about any other platform.
Bain illustrated Twitter's explosive growth over the last few years by explaining that it took three years, two months, and one day to reach a billion tweets. Now, he added, there are a billion tweets sent every two-and-a-half days. And brands are taking advantage of that.
Since launching its tools for marketing a little over two years ago, starting with Twitter's "workhorse" marketing product, promoted tweets, "we know there's [been] incredible engagement," Bain said. "There's not only incredible engagement, but it leads to even better outcomes."
Steele told a story about NASCAR driver Brad Keselowski, who picked up more than 100,000 followers by tweeting a photo of an accident and fire during this year's Daytona 500 race.
What was particularly interesting from a brand perspective, Steele added, was that Tide -- a sponsor of the race -- quickly retweeted Keselowski's photo and offered up a caption contest. And within a few days, they ran a TV campaign based on the event.
Steele said that more than half of all Twitter users now follow more than six brands, and part of the reason is that companies are giving out not only freebies or discounts via the service but also access to exclusive content.
For example, Steele said, the men's apparel brand Bonobos recently launched a "Twixlusive" campaign aimed at selling a new line of pants. The idea was a 24-hour sale available only on Twitter, boosted with a series of promoted tweets on the day of the sale. But what was notable, Steele said, was that Bonobos would unlock the special offer only after the promoted tweets had been retweeted 49 times. The result was a 1,200 percent return on investment, and a customer acquisition rate 13 times more cost-effective than Bonobos' other marketing channels.
Steele then pointed to another noteworthy Twitter-only campaign, this time by American Express, the AmEx sync program. The idea here was to allow brands to promote special offers on Twitter that would be made available exclusively to users tweeting specific hashtags. By tying their AmEx cards to Twitter, users would then be eligible for the offers if they sent a tweet with the hashtag. So, for example, if they tweeted "#AmExWholeFoods," they would get an automatic 20 percent discount on their next purchase at Whole Foods when they used their AmEx card.
Other fun branding examples that Steele presented included an unplanned back-and-forth between Oreo Cookies and AMC Theaters that generated an instant 1,800 retweets. It started when Oreo tweeted that people should bring the famous cookies to the movies, and AMC's Twitter account, riffing on the idea that people shouldn't bring outside food into the movies, quickly responded, "Not cool, cookie."
Oreo then tweeted back, "Fair enough, AMC, don't hate the player, hate the game," and AMC sent back one final riposte, "Game on."
The interaction got so much attention, and so many people were following the exchange, that AMC's head of social media wrote a blog post concluding that what had enabled him to do this, Steele recalled, "was his power to react in real time.... An ability to see an opportunity and respond. It's a really powerful opportunity to build their brand in real time."


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Rafael Nadal
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Rafael Nadal (born June 3, 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player, currently ranked No. 1 in the world.
- If you are playing bad you are going to lose here, on clay, on ice, or on the beach.
- To be honest, I haven't felt at my best since this tournament began. I didn't feel good with the court or the balls. But those are excuses. You have to accept when you don't play well and somebody else does.
- After losing to James Blake at the US Open [2]
- I just wanted to see how the shorts felt again.
- After changing his famous "piratas" trousers for a more traditional look at the Madrid Masters [3]
- It's impossible to explain what I felt in that moment, just very, very happy to win this title. For me, it is a dream to play in this tournament. But to win, I never imagined something like this.
- After beating five time champion Roger Federer in the 2008 Men's Wimbledon Final
- Did you see the speed of the ball or not?
- When asked by a reporter why he spent so much time well behind the baseline against Fernando Verdasco in the Australian Open semifinals 2009 [4]
- In your career you have a lot of good moments and bad ones. The important thing is to have enough motivation to keep working all the days with humility and trying to be a better player than before. I am going to try to continue doing this." [5]
- One month and a half ago, I didn't know if I was going to be able to be back on the tour playing tennis again. And today, I am here in front of all of you having this trophy with me and you really don't know how much I fought to be here. I can't thank you enough for all the support that I received since I arrived here.
- After winning his record-breaking 21th major title at the 2022 Australian Open when he was uncertain about his future due to his injury [6]
About Nadal[edit]
- I'm Rafa's number one fan.
- Roger Federer[7]
- He's a fantastic player and he's going to be around so much longer so I'm happy with every one I get before he takes them all
- Roger Federer[8]
- I felt like what I saw was the old classic Rafa on clay hardly losing sets and matches. That's what we got from him. That's why it's going to be incredibly hard to beat him here at Wimbledon.
- Roger Federer[9]
- Everybody likes to say that Roger Federer is the Greatest Player of all time because its so nice to watch him play...but you have got to throw in Nadal's Mind as well...and That's the GREATEST OF ALL TIME!!!
- Mats Wilander in a video about Nadal's comeback in the year 2010 in which he won three consecutive grand slams.
- "He has never broken a racket in anger. It would be showing a lack of respect to people who actually have to buy the equipment to play the sport."
- Uncle Toni Nadal on nephew Rafael.[10]
- "He is like a beast, an animal, on the court. He's very strong and he's very well prepared."
- Guillermo Coria after losing to Rafael Nadal in Monte Carlo. [11]
- "Almagro … is a guy that's won like 11, 12, clay court titles, won them all on clay. The guy's very, very good clay-court player.I don't think he's ever played better than he played - and he still can't win a set. Like how discouraging it is to play Nadal on this surface.Ah, God, I have seen him a thousand times. I just watch this guy and it's hard to even know where to begin to pick one thing.The way he's improved his game, like his serve, the parts of his game where he can move forward, his volley, the defensive ability he's got to track down balls and just make you play extra shots.And the way he sort of slides into balls and puts away a shot - shots that seem like impossible when I was playing - it was unheard of."
- John McEnroe talking about Rafa before the 2012 Roland Garros Men's singles final between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal [12]

subset: commoncrawl


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NY State Health Commissioner Visits NewYork-Presbyterian/Hudson Valley Hospital
Commissioner commends Hospital for breastfeeding support
Apr 8, 2011
Cortlandt Manor, NY
Dozens of infants and their mothers greeted newly-appointed NYS Health Commissioner Dr. Nirav Shah when he visited NewYork-Presbyterian/Hudson Valley Hospital today to commend the hospital for its breastfeeding support programs that help in the fight against childhood obesity.
The visit is one of only six stops that the newly appointed Commissioner made during a state-wide tour this week as part of Public Health Week. Dr. Shah was appointed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in January and is the first Indian-American health commissioner in the state's history. Also attending the press conference were Westchester Acting Health Commissioner Cheryl Archbald, Putnam County Health Commissioner Sherlita Amler and Dutchess County Health Commissioner Michael Caldwell, as well as, more than two dozen mothers and their babies.
Dr. Shah presented the Hospital with an Award of Excellence and spoke of the importance of breastfeeding to an infant's health and its role in preventing childhood obesity and chronic diseases later in life. "Despite evidence that shows the significant benefits of breastfeeding for both a mother and child, only 43 percent of infants in New York are exclusively breastfed during the first few days of life," Commissioner Shah said. "The State Department of Health (DOH) is working closely with hospitals and health care providers to increase breastfeeding rates so that babies start life healthy and will grow up strong. Hudson Valley Central Hospital has implemented a successful program to boost breastfeeding in the early days of a newborn's life, and as we recognize their accomplishment, we are looking to improve breastfeeding rates across the state."
NewYork-Presbyterian/Hudson Valley Hospital's President John C. Federspiel attributed the Hospital's success at supporting mothers in breastfeeding to its obstetricians, midwives and Maternity Department nursing staff, in particular to its Certified Lactation Consultant Linda LeMon.
"Nothing is more important than getting children off to the right nutritional start, and that begins with breastfeeding," said Federspiel."We are encouraged that through our partnership with New York State and our extraordinary staff we have been able to increase the number of mothers who choose breastfeeding. We are honored by Dr. Shah's visit here today, and pleased that we have been chosen to serve as an example of excellence."
NewYork-Presbyterian/Hudson Valley Hospital is one of 12 hospitals in the state which participated in a quality improvement study with the NYS Health Department and the National Initiative of Children's Healthcare Quality to test new practices that would support new mothers and increase the number who breastfeed their babies. The Hospital was chosen because of its success in getting new mothers to breastfeed. NewYork-Presbyterian/Hudson Valley Hospital in January had an exclusive breastfeeding rate of 90 percent, meaning that 90 percent of mothers who gave birth there chose breastfeeding as the only way to nourish their babies. It is one of the highest exclusive breastfeeding rates in the state and significantly above the national average.
Alice Mann, a Montrose psychologist who gave birth to her third child at HVHC on March 16, said that despite having to have a C-section to deliver her daughter Stella, she was amazed at the support she received at the Hospital, and how much of a difference it made in getting her on the right track breastfeeding.
"Birth, even by C-section, is much more than a medical event," she said at the press conference. "We are extremely grateful to the hospital staff for giving us the best possible medical and personal care that a mother delivering by C-section could ask for," she said. "So I ask that each of us in this room do what is in our power to make this level of care available to the many mothers in the state of New York, who need it, and whose babies would greatly benefit from it."
The NYS Health Department and other public health agencies promote breastfeeding because it helps prevent disease in young children and chronic diseases later in life. Babies who are breast fed have stronger immune systems and fewer ailments such as diarrhea, respiratory and ear infections, and allergic skin disorders. Studies also show that breast-fed babies are also less likely to develop asthma and obesity.
HVHC is also the only Hospital and Birthing Center in Westchester and Putnam counties to be recognized for breastfeeding support by the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners. The Hospital has a breastfeeding support group that meets on the first and third Wednesdays of each month and offers prenatal education classes, private consultations, telephone triage and a new class on what to expect for grandmothers.
For more information on the programs at NewYork-Presbyterian/Hudson Valley Hospital call 914-734-3896 or visit the Maternity Center section.


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This translation was taken from the JPS Tanakh.
II Samuel 6:1 – 7:17
Chapter 6
1 David again assembled all the picked men of Israel, thirty thousand strong. 2 Then David and all the troops that were with him set out from Baalim of Judah to bring up from there the Ark of God to which the Name was attached, the name Lord of Hosts Enthroned on the Cherubim.
3 They loaded the Ark of God onto a new cart and conveyed it from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill; and Abinadab's sons, Uzza and Ahio, guided the new cart. 4 They conveyed it from Abinadab's house on the hill, [Uzzah walking] alongside the Ark of God and Ahio walking in front of the Ark. 5 Meanwhile, David and all the House of Israel danced before the Lord to [the sound of] all kinds of cypress wood [instruments], with lyres, harps, timbrels, sistrums, and cymbals.
6 But when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out for the Ark of God and grasped it, for the oxen had stumbled. 7 The Lord was incensed at Uzzah. And God struck him down on the spot for his indiscretion, and he died there beside the Ark of God. 8David was distressed because the Lord had inflicted a breach upon Uzzah; and that place was named Perez-uzzah, as it is still called.
9 David was afraid of the Lord that day; he said, "How can I let the Ark of the Lord come to me?" 10 So David would not bring the Ark of the Lord to his place in the City of David; instead, David diverted it to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. 11 The Ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months, and the Lord blessed Obed-edom and his whole household.
12 It was reported to King David: "The Lord has blessed Obed-edom's house and all that belongs to him because of the Ark of God." Thereupon David went and brought up the Ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the City of David, amid rejoicing. 13 When the bearers of the Ark of the Lord had moved forward six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling. 14 David whirled with all his might before the Lord; David was girt with a linen ephod. 15 Thus David and all the House of Israel brought up the Ark of the Lord with shouts and with blasts of the horn.
16 As the Ark of the Lord entered the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the Lord; and she despised him for it.
17 They brought in the Ark of the Lord and set it up in its place inside the tent which David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and offerings of well-being before the Lord. 18 When David finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and the offerings of well-being, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of Hosts. 19 And he distributed among all the people — the entire multitude of Israel, man and woman alike — to each a loaf of bread, a cake made in a pan, and a raisin cake. Then all the people left for their homes.
Sepharadim end here
20 David went home to greet his household. And Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, "Didn't the king of Israel do himself honor today — exposing himself today in the sight of the slavegirls of his subjects, as one of the riffraff might expose himself!"21 David answered Michal, "It was before the Lord who chose me instead of your father and all his family and appointed me ruler over the Lord's people Israel! I will dance before the Lord 22 and dishonor myself even more, and be low in my own esteem; but among the slavegirls that you speak of I will be honored." 23 So to her dying day Michal daughter of Saul had no children.
Chapter 7
1 When the king was settled in his palace and the Lord had granted him safety from all the enemies around him, 2 the king said to the prophet Nathan: "Here I am dwelling in a house of cedar, while the Ark of the Lord abides in a tent!" 3 Nathan said to the king, "Go and do whatever you have in mind, for the Lord is with you."
4 But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan: 5 "Go and say to My servant David: Thus said the Lord: Are you the one to build a house for Me to dwell in? 6 From the day that I brought the people of Israel out of Egypt to this day I have not dwelt in a house, but have moved about in Tent and Tabernacle. 7 As I moved about wherever the Israelites went, did I ever reproach any of the tribal leaders whom I appointed to care for My people Israel: Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?
8 "Further, say thus to My servant David: Thus said the Lord of Hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the flock, to be ruler of My people Israel, 9 and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut down all your enemies before you. Moreover, I will give you great renown like that of the greatest men on earth. 10 I will establish a home for My people Israel and will plant them firm, so that they shall dwell secure and shall tremble no more. Evil men shall not oppress them any more as in the past, 11 ever since I appointed chieftains over My people Israel. I will give you safety from all your enemies.
"The Lord declares to you that He, the Lord, will establish a house for you. 12 When your days are done and you lie with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own issue, and I will establish his kingship. 13 He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish his royal throne forever. 14 I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to Me. When he does wrong, I will chastise him with the rod of men and the affliction of mortals; 15 but I will never withdraw My favor from him as I withdrew it from Saul, whom I removed to make room for you. 16 Your house and your kingship shall ever be secure before you; your throne shall be established forever."
17 Nathan spoke to David in accordance with all these words and all this prophecy.
Taken from Tanakh, The Holy Scriptures, (Philadelphia, Jerusalem: Jewish Publication Society) 1985.
Used by permission of The Jewish Publication Society. Copyright © 1962, 1992
Third Edition by the Jewish Publication Society.
No part of this text can be reproduced or forwarded without written permission.
Please visit the JPS website for more fine books of Jewish literature and tradition.


text:
PRETORIA, South Africa — Oscar Pistorius was granted bail Friday, paving the way for him to be freed from custody pending his trial in the Valentine's Day shooting death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
Pistorius' family members and supporters shouted "Yes!" when Chief Magistrate Desmond Nair made his decision after a near two-hour explanation of his ruling.
Nair set the bail at 1 million rand ($113,000), with $11,300 in cash and proof that the rest is available. The magistrate said Pistorius must hand over his passports and turn in any other guns that he owns. Pistorius also cannot leave the district of Pretoria without the permission of his probation officer, Nair said.
The double-amputee Olympian's next court appearance was set for June 4.
The magistrate also ruled that he could not return to his home, where the killing of Steenkamp took place.
Nair made the ruling after four days of arguments from prosecution and defense in Pistorius' bail hearing.
Nair said Pistorius' affidavit, in which he gave his version of the events of the shooting on morning of Feb. 14 in a sworn statement, had helped his application for bail in Pretoria Magistrate's Court.
"That reaching out in the affidavit, the way that he did, placing it before the court," Nair said. "I come to the conclusion that the accused has made a case to be released on bail."
Pistorius shot and killed Steenkamp in the predawn hours of Feb. 14. The athlete says he shot his girlfriend accidentally believing she was an intruder in his house. Prosecutors say he intended to kill Steenkamp and charged him with premeditated murder, saying the shooting followed a loud argument between the two.


text: Just wish to say thanks for allowing me to become a new member and also wish to extend my cheery hello to all! Oh, by the way: if there are any East European physicists of the female kind out there who use string theory for seduction, please feel free to drop me a line! Nothing like being lightly bonded by string theory!!


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In order to study the effectiveness or cost effectiveness of treatments for recurrent cancer, you first have to discover the patients in medical databases who have recurrent cancer. Generally studies do this with billing or treatment codes -- certain codes should identify who does and does not have recurrent cancer. A recent study published in the journal Medical Care shows that the commonly used data determinants of recurrent cancer may be misidentifying patients and potentially leading researchers astray.
"For example, a study might look in a database for all patients who had chemotherapy and then another round of chemotherapy more than six months after the first, imagining that a second round defines recurrent disease. Or a study might look in a database for all patients with a newly discovered secondary tumor, imagining that all patients with a secondary tumor have recurrent disease. Our study shows that both methods are leave substantial room for improvement," says Debra Ritzwoller, PhD, health economist at the Kaiser Permanente Colorado Institute for Health Research and investigator at the University of Colorado Cancer Center.
The study used two unique datasets derived from HMO/Cancer Research Network and CanCORS/Medicare to check if the widely used algorithms in fact discovered the patients with recurrent disease that the algorithms were designed to detect. They did not. For example, a newly diagnosed secondary cancer may not mark a recurrence but may instead be a new cancer entirely; a second, later round of chemotherapy may be needed for continuing control of the de novo cancer, and not to treat recurrence.
"Basically, these algorithms don't work for all cancer sites in many datasets commonly used for cancer research," says Ritzwoller.
For example, to discover recurrent prostate cancer, no combination of billing codes used in this large data set pointed with sensitivity and specificity to patients whom notes in the data showed had recurrent disease. The highest success of the widely used algorithms was predicting patients with recurrent lung, colorectal and breast cancer, with success rates only between 75 and 85 percent.
"We need to know who in these data sets has recurrent disease. Then we can do things like look at which treatments lead to which outcomes," Ritzwoller says. Matching patients to outcomes can help to decide who gets what treatment, and can help optimize costs in health care systems.
In a forthcoming paper, Ritzwoller and colleagues will suggest algorithms to replace these that have now proved inadequate.
Story Source:
Materials provided by University of Colorado Denver. Original written by Garth Sundem. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
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text:
Weiwo Technology – China
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text:
My alternative-history story about love and low-tech body switching through hypnosis has just been released in audio at PodCastle. Terrific reading by Tatiana Grey!
PodCastle 475: The Dauphin's Metaphysics
This has been my best-received story so far, recommended by Locus Online, translated into Chinese and Hungarian for leading SF magazines in those languages, and assigned as required reading in at least two philosophy classes in the US.
The setting is Beijing circa 1700, post-European invasion and collapse, resulting in a mashup of European and Chinese institutions. Dauphin Jisun Fei takes a metaphysics class with the the Academy's star woman professor and conceives a plan for radical life extension.
Story originally published in Unlikely Story, fall 2015.


text:
(Artistic license taken with shoe color.)
On my second day in Jakarta, an exhilarating, traffic-choked terror of a city, I'm walking through the Garden District of Grand Indonesia Shopping Town. Grand Indonesia Shopping Town claims to be one of the largest upscale shopping centers in Southeast Asia, and it's here, with a view from half a dozen stories up down to the luxury car parked outside a showroom on the ground floor, that a frightening, familiar, visceral impulse nearly gets the best of me. As I've learned from talking to friends and near-strangers, it's an impulse shared by many people, and, though the consequences of ever following through on it would suggest otherwise, not a suicidal one. I have to grip the railing that separates me from the shaft of empty space running from the top of the building to the bottom—the shaft that provides a view between floors, a vertical column boring through what would otherwise be a flat, dangerless circuit of shopping opportunities—because some part of me wants, more than it wants any other thing, to fling itself over the edge.
I remember a friend in New Zealand, goaded into conversation about this impulse, saying that it may "fall" into the same family of impulses as the one that drives us, as toddlers, to touch a hot stove. Driven by a basic instinct for discovery and, ironically, survival—a need to methodically taste-test the environment in which we are to go on living. But as an adult I only occasionally have to restrain myself from bringing my hand down on a hot grill. I often cling to a wall in the fear that I might actually, if I let my guard down, follow through on the impulse to fling. It's as though the overriding, rational mental jury that keeps me from known harm remains undecided on the subject of sheer drops.
Some shopper, some shopping Muslim woman in a stylish hijab at Grand Indonesia Shopping Town, must see me pulling myself away from the railing carefully—carefully but forcefully, as though I am one man physically restraining another. She must wonder. Unless she understands.
Even on the second floor of the courtyard at my guesthouse in Menteng, the Jakarta neighborhood where Barack Obama spent part of his childhood (a statue of Barack as a boy stands outside of State Elementary School 01 Menteng, moved there after its original installment in Menteng Park incited protests), I gingerly bounce my fingertips against the stone wall to combat the impulse as I walk to my room.
A month ago, in Auckland, I nearly broke down on a visit to the observation deck of the Sky Tower, 610 feet above street level. The edge of the observation deck, up against a wrap-around window providing panoramic views, also features panels of glass flooring one-and-a-half inches thick. I more or less lurched over these, fearful not that I would fall through—clearly, there was no risk of that—but that the unruly, violent, psychotic and child-like impulse would finally wear me down, and I would hurl my body against the protective glass, just to see what happened.
Not that street level in Jakarta lacks for potentially perilous excitement. In a place where the mere city proper's population tops ten million, it really is an adventure just crossing the street. Locals step into ceaseless traffic with one hand held out in a "stop" gesture, presumably hoping for the best as they ford each new roaring river of transport. After losing almost an entire day to cab rides in order to visit Kota, the derelict remains of sixteenth-century Dutch walled compound Batavia, I mostly stick to Menteng, striking out on foot. Because I want to flaunt a handsome new pair of navy leather Fred Perry shoes picked up in Sydney, I give myself painful blisters exploring the neighborhood. I make frequent stops at Indonesian coffee shops filled with cigarette smoke and chattering, stylish young people, and at the many local 7-Elevens that seem to be, with their European-style outdoor café seating, hugely popular social destinations. My heels throb with pain, lacerated by the offending shoes, but I'm charmed by life on the ground, where I can eat nasi goreng and never even think about throwing myself over a ledge.
This oddly innocent, feverishly suppressed impulse returns later, though, and with maximum intensity, at SKYE Bar, a fifty-sixth floor rooftop venue offering views of the Jakarta skyline. The bar also offers an all-too-imaginable fatal drop, which appears to me to be kept from patrons by only an admittedly discouraging band of decorative plant-life. I don't dare investigate the truth of this statement more closely, but my old friend and city contact, Dan, concurs that there is probably no significant railing, then hands me a beer.
"Has anyone ever fallen off of it, do you think?" I ask.
"Probably not," says Dan's co-worker. "It's only been open for three months."
Another of Dan's co-workers wonders out loud whether anyone has ever thrown a beer bottle over the edge.
"Can you imagine, if you threw a bottle off this building, what would happen if it hit a car in the street below?" I ask. "God. It would be like a meteor."
Conversation moves on to the recent meteor event in Russia, but I'm only half-listening, the other half of me grappling with the terrible impulse to take a running jump from SKYE Bar. The immediate possibility, visible from where we stand, of a fifty-six story free fall, pulls at my body with a magnetism so nearly irresistible that my legs begin to tremble. Before too long we gravitate away from the edge, back towards the bar, where I'm certain more than a few beads of the sweat under my arms have nothing to do with the humidity here on the island of Java.
The day before I leave for Phnom Penh, I fail to muster the taxi-taking fortitude to visit Taman Mini, a theme park east of Jakarta full of pavilions encapsulating Indonesian life, including examples of the building styles and architecture of this country's many and diverse provinces. Instead, I take a taxi to and from the post office, an errand that takes a few hours. Friends and acquaintances in Jakarta tell me that giving up on one's ambitions for the day after running a single errand is not uncommon. (Though I don't stay in town long enough to do it the right way, which requires purchasing entire pirated seasons of TV shows on DVD in exasperation and retreating to ones apartment, defeated by the city.) I go to the post office to send some gifts back to America by sea mail, and to get rid of the handsome, offending Fred Perry shoes that so cut up and blistered my heels.
A lithe, quick-moving young Indonesian man who may or may not work for the post office scares up a ragged cardboard box to use for packing. I sit and watch as, cigarette hanging between his lips, he stuffs in my fabrics and trinkets and the offending shoes, then uses a length of black plastic thread tied to a spear-like piece of metal to encase the parcel, with zigzagging stitches, in a layer of protective tarp. Soon the things I want to get rid of are safely hemmed in, the stitching as quaintly and monstrously uneven as on an old rag doll. The young man, still smoking, scribbles something on a scrap of cardboard, then hands it to me.
I understand this to mean the package will arrive in two to three units of time, though I don't know what bulan means. Months, probably. It could be years. Lifetimes. I don't really care. More than the gifts, I want the shoes gone. Blisters aside, that's one less pair of shoes in which I could, in a moment of incomprehensible, raging curiosity, take a running leap from a Southeast Asian skyscraper, or topple to my demise from the food court at Grand Indonesia.
I nod my assent, and he hauls the thing away.
Evan James is a graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop. His work has appeared in the New York Times, The Sun, and elsewhere. He is writing a novel. He is also on Twitter.
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We made a couple of fun Christmas Dinners and wanted to share them with you!
The first one is this Reindeer, Snowman, and Christmas Tree dinner. It's so easy! The reindeer is a burger with large pretzels for the antlers, tomato for the nose, and edible eyes. The tree is string green beans, tomato for the garland, and a yellow pepper for the star (you could use pineapple). The snowman is mashed potatoes, a carrot for the nose, and raisins for the mouth and eyes. My boys loved this and it's so simple to make!
This is our Christmas Tree Quesadilla! We just used 2 spinach tortillas, cheese, and peppers for the ornaments and star. We cut the tortillas with kitchen scissors to make the tree. Sprinkle with cheese and fry it up or melt in the microwave. The trunk is black beans. You could use fruit to decorate as well!


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Four computational research projects led by University of Wyoming faculty members aimed at providing insights on key issues in Wyoming and the West have been selected to use the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center (NWSC) in Cheyenne over the next year.
The research projects were chosen and approved by a panel appointed by the Computer Information Science Laboratory at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The computational science research projects will use approximately 10.2 million core processor hours on the Cheyenne supercomputer.
"These allocations will support major research projects at UW that will enable scientists to better understand the behavior of atmospheric, biological, geological and hydrological systems that are related to important societal and, indeed, Wyoming-specific issues, such as: How can Wyoming's water be most effectively managed to meet municipal, agricultural, ecological, energy related and recreational needs? How do aerosols from forest fires, volcanic eruptions and air pollution affect cloud formation and precipitation? What is the most effective design for a wind turbine?" says Bryan Shader, UW's special assistant to the vice president of research and economic development, and a mathematics professor.
Shader also serves as co-chair of the Wyoming-NCAR Alliance Resource Allocations Panel (WRAP), a group that chooses which projects receive core-hour allocations on Yellowstone, the nickname for the Cheyenne supercomputer.
NWSC Veterans Plan Water Research
Two of the projects -- both focusing on water -- will be led by UW faculty members with previous experience using the supercomputer. They are:
--Craig Douglas, a UW School of Energy Resources (SER) professor of mathematics and director for the Institute for Scientific Computations, "CI-Water Petascale Computation of Model for the Upper Colorado River Basin." A comprehensive model of the upper Colorado River Basin -- at a resolution 100 times higher than currently available -- will be created. This model will better enable policy and management decisions regarding water in the basin.
This continues a project Douglas started last year with Fred Ogden, the Cline Distinguished Chair in UW's Department of Civil & Architectural Engineering, and Haub School of Environmental and Natural Resources.
Douglas's work is part of UW's research efforts with the CI-WATER project, which is funded with an EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement Program (RII) Track-2 cooperative agreement that focuses on the hydrology of the Colorado River Basin.
The CI-WATER project is a joint collaboration among UW, the University of Utah, Utah State University and Brigham Young University. Cooperators include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and NCAR. EPSCoR Track-2 cooperative agreements, distributed through the NSF, are designed to provide research funding to states, including Wyoming, that typically receive lesser amounts of NSF research and development funding.
Ogden and Norman Jones, a professor in the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department at Brigham Young University, are the project leaders.
The project is funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant under the award title, "Collaborative Research: CI-WATER, Cyberinfrastructure to Advance High Performance Water Resource Modeling."
--Po Chen, a UW SER associate professor of geology and geophysics, "Geophysical and Hydrological Integrated Modeling for Wyoming Water Resource Management." This research project is tied to the Wyoming EPSCoR $20 million Track-I water grant.
"Reliable surface-subsurface hydrologic modeling and forecasting require detailed knowledge of subsurface porous media," Chen says. "An important research objective of the Center for Near-Surface Imaging and Science (CeNSIS) is to develop the capability that combines different types of geophysical observations to image hydrologically relevant properties of the subsurface at a meter-scale resolution in 3-D and integrates such images into operational hydrological modeling and forecasting."
Anne Sylvester, a UW professor of molecular biology, serves as the principal investigator. Steve Holbrook, a UW professor of geology and geophysics, and Scott Miller, a UW associate professor of ecosystem science & management, serve as co-principal investigators on the Track-I water grant.
This project has been funded by the NSF Office of International and Integrative Activities under the title, "Water in a Changing West: The Wyoming Center for Environmental Hydrology and Geophysics."
Chen previously used the supercomputer to model seismic events to improve warning systems for earthquakes.
New Faces, Familiar Subjects
--Xiaohong Liu, a UW associate professor of atmospheric science and the Wyoming Excellence Chair in Climate Science, "Uncertainty Quantification of Aerosol Indirect Effects to Parameters in Cloud Macrophysics, Convection and Turbulence Parameterizations in NCAR CAM5/CESMI."
A new UW faculty member, Liu will study how aerosols -- created from soil, dust, volcanic ash and the burning of fossil fuels -- affect the atmosphere, and develop prediction models for the future.
"The presence of aerosols affects cloud formation which, in turn, can impact climate," Shader says. "Professor Liu and his collaborators are trying to understand that. They want to have more accurate models to model regional climate 10 years out."
This project is funded by NSF and the Department of Education under the title "Quantifying the Uncertainties of Aerosol Indirect Effects and Impacts on Decadal-Scale Climate Variability in NCAR CAM5 and CESM1."
--Jay Sitaraman, a UW assistant professor of mechanical engineering, "Computational Fluid Dynamic Simulations Using a Hybrid CPU/GPU Paradigm."
"Professor Sitaraman and his team are developing an entire suite of computational tools that will allow people to make engineering decisions on how to build (wind) turbines or helicopter rotors," Shader says.
Flow fields on wind turbines rank among the most challenging, which makes them computationally demanding to simulate, according to a portion of the project overview. Accurate representation of the flow field around a turbine or rotor is essential in assessing overall performance, especially for new designs.
Using a mix of graphic processing units (GPUs), such as those used in video games, and central processing units (CPUs), Sitaraman will be able to speed up his calculations ten-fold, Shader says.
"Any computations that can be performed faster, and with the same accuracy, allows one to simulate over a broader range of parameters or with higher resolution, or incorporate more physics into the model to increase utility of the model," Shader says.
Dominic Chandar, a UW post-doctoral research associate in mechanical engineering, and Dimitri Mavriplis, a UW professor of mechanical engineering, will serve as co-investigators on the project.
This project is funded by the Army Research Office, under the title, "Advanced Overset Grid Methods for Massively Parallel Rotary Wing Computations."
For these four projects, UW researchers have had access to Yellowstone since Aug. 1, Shader says.
"They will have a year to work on their research projects, with a possibility of renewal allocation," he adds.
NWSC is the result of a partnership among the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), the operating entity for NCAR; the University of Wyoming; the state of Wyoming; Cheyenne LEADS; the Wyoming Business Council; and Cheyenne Light, Fuel & Power. The NWSC is operated by NCAR under sponsorship of the NSF.
The NWSC contains one of the world's most powerful supercomputers (1.5 petaflops, which is equal to 1.5 quadrillion mathematical operations per second) dedicated to improving scientific understanding of climate change, severe weather, air quality and other vital atmospheric science and geoscience topics. The center also houses a premier data storage (11 petabytes) and archival facility that holds historical climate records and other information.
Craig Douglas, a UW SER professor of mathematics, will use the supercomputer to create
a comprehensive model of the upper Colorado River Basin. This model will better enable
policy and management decisions regarding water in the basin.


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Controlling Impala Resource Usage
Sometimes, balancing raw query performance against scalability requires limiting the amount of resources, such as memory or CPU, used by a single query or group of queries. Impala can use several mechanisms that help to smooth out the load during heavy concurrent usage, resulting in faster overall query times and sharing of resources across Impala queries, MapReduce jobs, and other kinds of workloads across a CDH cluster:
- The Impala admission control feature uses a fast, distributed mechanism to hold back queries that exceed limits on the number of concurrent queries or the amount of memory used. The queries are queued, and executed as other queries finish and resources become available. You can control the concurrency limits, and specify different limits for different groups of users to divide cluster resources according to the priorities of different classes of users. This feature is new in Impala 1.3. See Admission Control and Query Queuing for details.
You can restrict the amount of memory Impala reserves during query execution by specifying the -mem_limit option for the impalad daemon. See Modifying Impala Startup Options for details. This limit applies only to the memory that is directly consumed by queries; Impala reserves additional memory at startup, for example to hold cached metadata.
For production deployment, Cloudera recommends that you implement resource isolation using mechanisms such as cgroups, which you can configure using Cloudera Manager. For details, see Static Resource Pools in the Cloudera Manager documentation.


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"Sunny" Seong-hyon Lee, M.T.S. '02, forwarded this personal account of survivors coping with the aftermath of the traumatic earthquake in China, and asked the editors to share it with our readers.
Hope amid destruction in Chengdu
When Monday's 7.8-magnitude quake struck the apartment of 23-year-old Zhang Na, she and her husband did exactly what everyone else did. They rushed out of their home without a moment's thought of saving a single possession. It was a desperate move to save their lives. But it wasn't only two lives that were saved. There was a third.
The day after her escape, Zhang gave a birth to a girl. "I haven't decided her name yet," she says, lying in a bed at a makeshift hospital for new mothers and their babies.
The hospital is little more than a tent, erected right in the corner of one of the provincial capital's busiest intersections. "Many new mothers here want to call their babies 'earthquake surprise.' I might as well do the same," she adds.
The Chinese have a habit of informally naming a child in association with some peculiar event that concurs when the child is born. This sobriquet is gradually replaced by the child's formal name as the child grows older.
"Yesterday was very difficult because of rain. Water leaked into the tent. It was so dank," she says, pointing out the gaps between the loosely connected sections of the tent. "Today is better," she adds with a slight smile.
She is one of some 20 new mothers densely packed side-by-side in the makeshift hospital. There's no separate care room for newborns. They share the same bed with their moms.
This has been Zhang's new residence since she left her apartment Monday. Yesterday, she was briefly transferred to a hospital ward for the delivery of her child. But as soon as her child was born, she had to leave because other women were waiting to deliver. Yet she doesn't complain. "After all, everyone has to live with less in a circumstance like this," she says.
Motioning to a woman lying next to her, she adds, "She just gave a birth today." The woman lightly nods her head, but doesn't say a word. "She is in great pain," Zhang explains. Then a nurse noticing this stranger asks who I am. Before I can answer, Zhang volunteers: "He's my 'friend'." That's how we have become friends.
My friend hasn't had anything to eat since Monday. "You are not supposed to eat food before and right after delivery," she says. It hurts when she speaks. "But I want to talk with somebody because when I lie down here all day long, I am alone, constantly reminded of my pain. That's even worse."
Her husband isn't here. After staying up three nights in a row, taking care of her and their newborn daughter, he is completely exhausted. He has slipped out for a nap.
Zhang Na sees herself as one of the lucky ones. And she's right. There were more than 1,000 people dead in this city. As the full horror of China's worst earthquake in three decades began to emerge, the government on Saturday said 28,881 people were confirmed dead and nearly 10,600 remained buried in collapsed buildings in central China's Sichuan Province. The quake was China's deadliest since 1976, when 240,000 people were killed in the city of Tangshan, north of Beijing.
People like Zhang are staying in the makeshift hospital because the city's real hospitals are running out of beds as injured people from the disaster-stricken areas rush in. Residents in this city themselves don't want to stay in their homes either, fearing that aftershocks could bring down their walls. Instead, they sleep outside.
And there have been aftershocks. Depending on who is counting, their number ranges between 1,000 to 5,000. The United States Geological Survey officially has counted 42, many of them 5.0 in magnitude or higher.
Fear possesses people. Rumors abound, giving the government an added headache. One rumor says that the dam in Dujiangyan ― about midway between Chengdu and the epicenter at Wenchuan ― is contaminated with chemicals that are flowing downstream to where people get their drinking water. The rumor was strong enough that most supermarkets in Chengdu ran out of bottled water Wednesday. There was even a scuffle in a store near the primary school attached to Chengdu Teachers' College. A man who bought up all the bottled water in the store was confronted by a woman who demanded that he leave some for her.
One reason why the Chinese government has proactively provided candid disaster information and allowed media access to the site is to prevent unfounded rumors from wreaking even more havoc, a taxi driver, Mr. Liu, explains. "Besides, this is such a big disaster that people will find out about it sooner or later. If you suppress information, rumors will be rampant," he says. "Besides, given the massive financial loss here, the government will need to turn to the public to raise money," he says.
Overall, Mr. Liu gives the government high marks for its disaster response. "Premier Wen Jiabao rushed to the disaster-stricken sites early on to oversee rescue efforts. That was a good move," he says. "The radio is also doing a good job of providing information 24 hours a day. Yesterday, I was listening to FM 91.4 and the radio announcer kept talking for more than four hours straight in the evening. I am sure she didn't have dinner. It was touching."
By the time the taxi arrives at Xinhua Park, a voice on the radio says: "Dear comrades, please don't panic. Please don't listen to groundless rumors. Trust what the government says."
The park, crowded with people, has become a virtual "safe" camp for people who don't want to sleep in their homes, fearing more earthquakes. The park is full of tents set up by people who plan to stay the night. "I sleep outside because I am scared," says a man with the last name Li while gulping down his rice soup. His wife, next to him, sorts out water bottles and snacks in an overstuffed plastic bag. It will be their third night at the park.
The situation is no different at the Sichuan Provincial Gymnasium on the other side of the park. But unlike Xinhua Park, the authorities there do not allow people to stay inside the building, fearing mass death if it were to collapse. So people put up tents along the sidewalks that lead to the entrance. Some lucky ones have found free housing underneath the stairways. "My son wants to go back home, saying it gets cold at night. But I am not ready yet. We'll stay the night here," says a woman under the stairways whose face I can't make out because of the dark.
It was getting close to 9 p.m. I had promised Zhang that I would visit her again, and bring her some food. On the way back in the taxi, the radio voice said: "Citizens, where do you plan to sleep tonight? In your house? Inside your car? Or, out in the field? People in this city definitely have all of these options."
When I get back to the makeshift hospital, my friend isn't there. In fact, the whole hospital has disappeared. It wasn't an earthquake that swallowed it up. The site where the tents used to be is very clean. Apparently, someone cleaned the site. I had to assume that they have relocated to a new place. I hope my friend and her daughter "earthquake surprise" have found better accommodations for the night.
Sunny Lee, M.T.S. '02, a native of Seoul, has lived in China for the last six years, working for the United Nations and as a journalist and writer. He traveled from Beijing to Chengdu to report on the aftermath of the earthquake. He can be reached at [email protected]


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Welcome to London! Some people who rent rooms on Airbnb are extremely gracious hosts. Others? Not so much.
This is the debut of Startup Radar, a new weekly column focusing on the hottest and most innovative private tech companies.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Airbnb is one of the more buzzed about startups of the moment. It's got all the ingredients: a massive round of funding; an investment from Ashton Kutcher, exponential growth and a decent revenue model. But is it worth the hype?
The idea: people rent out their private spaces at an affordable rate. Those spaces could range from an extra bedroom to an extra property, yacht, loft -- you name it.
Choose a location, select your vacation days, and the next thing you know, you're browsing through apartments with terraces overlooking Istanbul, and homes for rent just steps away from the Acropolis. There's even a furnished plane tucked in the trees of an exotic island up for grabs.
I'll admit, the website is pretty addicting, but you never know what the actual experience will be. Are these pictures legit? Could one of the listings turn out to be a scam?
Sure, a castle in Italy looks phenomenal, but what if I show up and there's a man with a butcher knife greeting me? I'd hate to be the inspiration for an Airbnb-themed Law and Order.
During my most recent vacation, I put those worries aside and decided to go the Airbnb route. In theory, it seems like the perfect way to experience a new destination like a local without breaking the bank.
After browsing through a number of affordable flats in the center of London and Berlin, I booked two Airbnb rooms. One overnight flight to London and a struggle with customs to explain my living arrangements later, I was off to my first Airbnb destination.
It couldn't have gone smoother. When I arrived, a handwritten welcome note awaited me along with maps of the tube and a guide to London. Also on that welcoming table were tiny boxes of cereal, Snickers bars, and Kit Kats. The apartment appeared exactly how it was presented in the pictures.
"Cups, dishes, Pimms --anything you want to use, go ahead," my host offered.
For less money than it would cost to stay in a hostel, I was being catered to in a charming flat that was steps away from Portobello road, one of London's most famous streets. This was definitely an Airbnb success story.
My experience in Berlin was a bit different.
As I waited outside the apartment buzzing the doorbell, a tall man on a bicycle rode up.
"Do you live here or something?" he said.
Before I could determine whether he was joking, he whisked my bags up the stairs into the loft. It was accurately presented in its online photos except for one fact: a small flood in the kitchen.
It wasn't a completely smooth transition. While I was attempting to connect to spotty wireless, my friend was receiving a ten minute lecture from the host on how to remove hair from the bathtub drain.
When we arrived home at midnight, our host was in the kitchen washing dishes. The flood had subsided. We tried to sneak past him, but he rushed over and insisted we visit the roof of the building.
As we walked up the dark flights of stairs, our host dropped to the floor and gave us a play by play on how he obtained the roof key. After opening the door, he sprinted to the edge of the roof and reveled about the view. Several long pauses and dramatic sighs later, we were led back down the stairs back to the flat.
"I was pretty sure one of us wasn't coming down," my friend mumbled.
Despite a bit of odd behavior, our host was extremely helpful when it came to information about the city and transportation. The loft itself was beautiful.
Airbnb has gained traction for cracking a market that's relatively flawed. Traveling is expensive, and it's tough to find a middle ground. I'd rather not stay in a hostel in London, but a hotel in the area I stayed in would have been at least double what I paid for the room on Airbnb.
My London host, who's been renting a room in his flat on Airbnb since December, says he's built a social network of people around the world. "You come with bags, leave with friends," he said.
For those who don't want to "leave with friends," there's the option of renting an apartment or home sans host.
Of course, my Law and Order fears haven't completely subsided. Just last week, an Airbnb horror story surfaced from a woman whose home had been ransacked by her Airbnb visitors.
After the incident, Airbnb immediately announced plans to double customer support and bulk up security measures. It was a blow for the startup darling, but not a fatal one.
Airbnb properties are now in 186 countries around the world, and there are already a host of clones. And as we learned with Groupon, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Also similar to Groupon, Airbnb appeals to people beyond the tech world.
That market includes me. Despite our relatively strange Berlin host, I would definitely book again.


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Lavender Care TX Carpet & Air Duct Cleaning
Lavender Care provides professional Air Duct and Dryer Vent Cleaning to homeowners and commercial pr
Lavender care provides environmental friendly cleaning and restoration services for your carpet, upholstery, flooring, water damage, dryer vents, air ducts, and much more. Our friendly and skilled technicians can provide same-day service for your commercial or residential property.
Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County in the U.S. state of Texas with portions extending into Collin, Denton, Kaufman and Rockwall counties. With a 2020 census population of 1,304,379, it is the ninth most-populous city in the U.S. and the third-largest in Texas after Houston and San Antonio. Located in the North Texas region, the city of Dallas is the main core of the largest metropolitan area in the southern United States and the largest inland metropolitan area in the U.S. that lacks any navigable link to the sea.The cities of Dallas and nearby Fort Worth were initially developed due to the construction of major railroad lines through the area allowing access to cotton, cattle and later oil in North and East Texas. The construction of the Interstate Highway System reinforced Dallas's prominence as a transportation hub, with four major interstate highways converging in the city and a fifth interstate loop around it.
Baylor-Meadows, Belmont Park, Bluffview, Bonton, Bryan Place, Caruth Terrace, Casa Linda, Casa View, Cedars, Dolphin Heights, Eastwood, Eastwood Hills, El Tivoli Place, Elkins Forrest, Elmwood


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Jul 06, 2011 | |
Nanotechnology detector for deadly anthrax |
(Nanowerk News) An automatic and portable detector that takes just fifteen minutes to analyze a sample suspected of contamination with anthrax is being developed by US researchers. The technology amplifies any anthrax DNA present in the sample and can reveal the presence of just 40 microscopic cells of the deadly bacteria Bacillus anthracis. | |
B. anthracis, commonly known as anthrax, is a potentially lethal microbe that might be used intentionally to infect victims through contamination of food and water supplies, aerosolized particles, or even dried powders, such as those used in bioterrorist attacks in the USA. Detection is crucial to preventing widespread fatalities in the event of an anthrax attack. However, the complexity of the microbe's biology have so far made it difficult to build a portable system that can be employed quickly in the field. That said, there are several systems available that use PCR to amplify a particular component of the genetic material present in anthrax and then to flag this amplified signal. These systems are fast and sensitive but do not integrate sample preparation and so are not as convenient as a single detector unit would be. | |
Writing in the International Journal of Biomedical Nanoscience and Nanotechnology ("PCR-based detection of Bacillus anthracis using an integrated microfluidic platform") this month, Nathaniel Cady of the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) of the University at Albany and colleagues there and at Cornell University, New York, explain how they have constructed nanofabricated fluidic cartridges that can be used to carry out detection of anthrax. The device is a so-called "lab-on-a-chips" device, or more properly a 3D microfluidic network that contains nanofabricated pillar structures. | |
The device has fluidic inputs for adding sample and reagents, removing waste, for carrying out DNA purification, and critically an integrated chamber for amplifying only the target DNA in the sample using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) system. The chip also contains a wave guide for the fluorescence-based identification of the amplified DNA and thus the target microbe. Importantly, the system works without manual intervention other than loading a droplet of sample into the detector. | |
"The average time required for DNA purification during these experiments was approximately 15 min, and when combined with real-time PCR analysis, this resulted in an average time to detection of 60 min," the team says. The system can detect as few as 40 B. anthracis cells. "Due to its small size and low power requirements, this system can be further developed as a truly portable, hand-held device," the researchers conclude. |
Source: Inderscience Publishers |


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· In 2008 Kissimmee was 1 of 16 cities across the country to receive the "All American City" award.
· Kissimmee gives back! Kissimmee is home to Give Kids the World a 70 acre non-profit resort that creates magical memories for children with life-threatening illnesses by providing accommodations, meals, tickets and more to the areas theme parks and attractions.
· It is reported that there are there are now 20,000 to 25,000 vacation homes, villas and rental properties in Central Florida, mostly located near the theme parks.
· Central Florida attracts more visitors than any other amusement/theme park destination in the U.S.
· Kissimmee has some of the very best bass fishing lakes in Central Florida attracting anglers from around the world.
· The region sees an estimated 52 million tourists a year. And out of the estimated 52 million tourists, over 2 million are international visitors, with the majority of foreign tourists coming from the United Kingdom.
· If you were to wash and dry one load of laundry every day for 52 years, you'd clean as much as the folks at Walt Disney World Laundry do in a single day. The cast members there launder an average of 285,000 pounds each day. In addition, between 30,000 and 32,000 garments are dry-cleaned daily.
· Mickey Mouse himself has more than 290 different sets of duds, ranging from a scuba suit to a tuxedo. Minnie Mouse's wardrobe contains more than 200 outfits, including everything from a cheerleader ensemble to evening gowns.
· Covering 40 square miles, Walt Disney World Resort is about the size of San Francisco or two Manhattan islands. Of the more than 25,000 acres, less than 35 percent has been developed with a quarter designated as a wilderness preserve.
· More than 75 million Cokes are consumed each year at Walt Disney World Resort along with 13 million bottles of water. Guests also gobble 10 million hamburgers, 6 million hot dogs, 9 million pounds of French fries and more than 300,000 pounds of popcorn.
· When laid end to end, there are enough of the famous "Mouse Ear" hats sold each year to stretch 175 miles or cover the head of every man, woman and child in Orange County, Fla. There are also enough Disney character T-shirts sold to put Mickey Mouse's smiling face on the chest of every resident of Montana.
· Walt Disney World Lost and Found is one busy place. Every day an average of 210 pairs of sunglasses are turned in and, since 1971, an estimated 1.65 million pairs of glasses have found their way into the "lost" bin. On an annual basis, Lost and Found cast members collect more than 6,000 cell phones, 3,500 digital cameras, 18,000 hats and 7,500 autograph books.
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Brushing and flossing regularly can keep teeth and gums clean and healthy, but a scientist at OMRF thinks dental hygiene could be the key to avoiding autoimmune diseases.
OMRF researcher Umesh Deshmukh, Ph.D., isn't a dentist, but he is an expert on the bacteria that reside in mouths and could be an environmental cause of autoimmune diseases including lupus, Sjögren's syndrome and rheumatoid arthritis.
Autoimmune diseases are disorders in which the body's immune system becomes confused or unbalanced and turns against the body instead of protecting it. They have a genetic component—a combination of mutations in the DNA that "prime the pump" for disease—but require an environmental trigger.
"The environmental causes of autoimmune diseases are still a mystery, but we think there may be a connection to our mouths," he said.
Not only could a combination of genetic testing and microbiology be used to diagnose, and thus treat, patients earlier, Deshmukh said the research might help people to avoid setting off the diseases in the first place.
"Ideally, we don't want people to get sick at all," he said. "And the more we learn, the more it seems brushing our teeth and flossing every day might help put off triggering lupus or Sjögren's syndrome indefinitely."
Deshmukh said it will take years of research before these preventative screenings make their way to doctors' offices, but for now, his advice is the same.
"Brush your teeth and floss regularly," he said. "If nothing else, at least you'll have a healthy mouth."


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• mortgage •
Pronunciation: mor-gij • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: A pledge of property as security for the repayment of a loan.
Notes: Today we use this word most frequently to refer to property mortgages in which a property, usually a home, is used as security to borrow the money to pay for the property. The noun may be used as a verb with no attachments, as to mortgage a home. The person who mortgages property for a loan is a mortgager (or mortgagor); the person or institution extending the loan is the mortgagee. Look out for the the T in these words: you never hear it, but you must write it.
In Play: I don't think this is legal but I know people who contemplate it: "Rothschild took out a second mortgage on his house to pay off the first one." I don't think this is legal, either, but . . . : "Finkelstein would mortgage his kids for tickets to a Super Bowl game. Mine, I would trade."
Word History: Today's Good if 'deadly' word comes from Old French gage mort "pledge dead (dead pledge)" later mort gage. The construction is based on Late Latin mortuum vadium "dead pledge" and had become morgagium in British legal documents by the 14th century. The reason for the meaning is apparently that if full payment is made, the mortgage document is annulled, making it legally 'dead'. The Latin root for "dead", mort-, is common in words borrowed from Latin: mortify, mortuary, mortal. However, gage is quite interesting. It is an Old Germanic word wadjo- that was borrowed by Old French when French had no [w] and so was written guage [gwahjê], the U later dropping out. In English (a Germanic language) it ended up as wage, wager, and wed, as in wedding—all types of pledges. (Today's most popular Good Word was suggested almost simultaneously by Susan Lister and Sara Goldman, who ask that we mortgage nothing to enjoy it.)
P.S. - Register for the Daily Good Word E-Mail! - You can get our daily Good Word sent directly to you via e-mail in either HTML or Text format. Go to our Registration Page to sign up today!


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The complete guide to WiMAX
How WiMAX technology works and the kit you need to use it
The world at your fingertips.
That's the promise of WiMAX, a city-wide wireless technology that promises to make the internet available across wide swathes of a city or rural area.
Companies such as Sprint and Motorola in the US have been promising WiMAX for some time, and over the past few years it became a great wireless idea instead of a great wireless reality.
However, WiMAX is now ready to finally become a viable technology for laptop users. Here's what you need to know about WiMAX, including when it will be more viable and how it will work with your laptop.
What is it?
WiMAX is a broad term that means 'wide wireless access' across an entire city. It stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, although that's not too helpful.
There are two major versions of WiMAX: a fixed wireless system where a wireless signal is sent to a fixed modem, usually one that is installed at a company, as a way to provide high-speed internet access. The second version is mobile WiMAX, which connects to an adapter on your laptop and is lagging a little behind in terms of availability.
It's important to note that WiMAX was not originally intended to be a consumer technology, and started out as a technology that would work alongside Wi-Fi. Think of it as the power plant in your city – it's one way for a city to provide ubiquitous internet services for its citizens, but your laptop would still use Wi-Fi – a technology built into 98 per cent of laptops these days – for the so-called 'last mile' connection.
Service providers call this 'backhaul', in the sense that WiMAX provides the power required for thousands or even millions of people to access the internet without slowdowns and frustrations.
As more and more users connect, WiMAX provides a fat pipe that can handle the traffic in the same way that a powerful T1 or T3 line can handle a lot of traffic over a wired connection at a large company. Some companies in New York, for example, have been connected to private WiMAX networks for some time because it's a cheap way to provide a robust connection for many employees without installing expensive new wiring.
WiMAX has also become a popular technology in other countries, such as Pakistan, where laying fibre-optic cabling is much more difficult and expensive. This more commercial and industrial approach to WiMAX is not that interesting to laptop users – it's all behind the scenes, and there is no direct mobile connection. This version of WiMAX is called 'point-to-point' and it's been around for a few years.
Rolling out the technology
However, companies such as Sprint, Clearwire, Samsung, Motorola, Dell and Intel have a dramatically different vision of how WiMAX will work, one that is more consumer-focused, and this is the vision that is most interesting for mobile users.
In September 2008, Sprint introduced the first consumer implementation of WiMAX, which they call XOHM. The network, which is now running live in Baltimore, Maryland, is the first of its kind with a planned rollout to Chicago and Washington DC and other major cities over the next year or two.
It runs at speeds around 2–4Mbps – with an upload speed that's about half that fast – and stretches around Baltimore for about ten kilometres. Sprint calls it 'the hotspot that goes with you' and that's an accurate description because it runs at about the same speed as a Wi-Fi hotspot connection.
In reality, XOHM is a data-only cellular network that won't likely work with standard mobile phones anytime soon. It may eventually work with smartphones for data service, and Nokia is already planning devices that will support XOHM.
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Firmenich has named Bhavesh Shah, corporate vice president, chief purchasing officer to the company's direction générale. He is based in Singapore.
Shah, who joined the company in 2011, has transformed the scope and structure of the global purchasing organization to ensure stronger alliances with the business divisions and clients as well as with the group's suppliers, according to Firmenich.
"We are dedicated to delivering the greatest value to our clients from an innovation and creation standpoint as much as from a service and cost perspective," said Patrick Firmenich, the company's CEO. "As a member of the direction générale, Bhavesh will be instrumental in strengthening the group's risk management, operational efficiency and innovation efforts in order to build value for both the company and our clients," he added.
Prior to joining Firmenich, Shah spent 19 years with P&G where he held several key positions in operations, purchasing and executive management.


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Posted by on 09/17/09
Stevens Racing presented by The Cyclery (www.stevensracingcanada.com) is pleased to announce the continued support of its two title sponsors for the 2010 cycling season. Stevens Bikes (German bicycle manufacturer) and The Cyclery (Ottawa South bicycle store) will be returning as co-sponsors of the Canadian-based women's cycing team. In addition, support will also be provided to the team in 2010 by Shimano, Giro and Continental.
The team is also pleased to announce that the roster will expand for the 2010 cycling season. Interested women who anticipate holding a Senior 1/2 road license in 2010 are invited to submit an application to the team no later than September 25, 2009. In the application, riders should include details on their previous race results/experience, city/province of residence, expectation of sponsorship support, current UCI licence number, current occupation and an indication of the number of races the rider is prepared to commit to for the 2010 season.
The riders of Stevens Racing presented by The Cyclery amassed some impressive results in their 96 starts, completing the season with 50 podium finishes including 35 victories. Julia Bradley of Toronto recently competed at the Canadian Track National Championships held in Burnaby, BC and won bronze in each of the three races she entered. Other current notable results include a bronze medal in the individual Time Trial at the Quebec Provincial Championships by Sophie Matte and a first place finish by Tricia K. Spooner at the Ontario Mountain Bike Marathon Championships. As previously announced, another extraordinary result was Sue Schlatter taking the women's top spot at the infamous Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hill Climb event in August.
Throughout the season the team developed and demonstrated cohesive teamwork at several prominent races including the Calabogie Spring Classic and the Syracuse Race Weekend as well as competing at the Canadian National Championships among others major race events. The 2010 race schedule will see the team further develop team skills at events in Ontario, Quebec as well as a few appearances in north-eastern United States.
Stevens Bikes (www.stevensbikes.com), one of the leading bicycle manufacturers in Europe, continues to gain ground in the North American market, with its support of the team being one key step in ensuring greater visibility and exposure for the Stevens' lines of road, cross, leisure and mountain bikes.
The Cyclery (www.thecyclery.ca) is one of Ottawa's most well known cycling stores offering a wide range of cycling products, services and accessories. The Cyclery is located in Ottawa South.
Visit the team's website at www.stevensracingcanada.com for up-to-date results, race reports, photos and information. To submit a rider application for the 2010 season please contact:
Visitez le site web au www.stevensracingcanada.com pour des résultats, des rapports de course et des photos. Pour de plus amples informations ou pour soumettre une application à l'équipe pour la saison 2010, contactez:
Tricia K. Spooner
Stevens Racing p/b The Cyclery
Return to Cycling 4 Women homepage | Return to Canadian Cyclist homepage | Back to Top |


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Manning throws ill-advised pass in Broncos' loss
Usually more comfortable in the pocket, Peyton Manning scrambled to his right to avoid pressure.
And usually so accurate, the Denver Broncos quarterback threw a pass across his body - an ill-advised toss he's gotten away with a few times over his career.
This time, he wouldn't.
Late in the first overtime, Manning tried to thread the ball to Brandon Stokley, only to have the pass intercepted by Corey Graham. A few plays after switching sides to start the second extra period, Justin Tucker hit a 47-yard field goal to help the Baltimore Ravens rally for a 38-35 win in an AFC divisional game on a bitterly cold Saturday.
Like that, Manning was once again left out in the cold. He's now 0-4 in playoff games in which the temperature at kickoff is less than 40 degrees.
Manning even wore gloves on each hand to fight off the frigid conditions as temperatures that started out at 13 degrees dipped into single-digits. He heated up, too, only to cool off at the end.
''I wouldn't say I'm shocked,'' he said. ''That's not the right word. I'm disappointed.''
This loss may even sting a little more than any other for Manning. The Broncos were winning late in the game when Joe Flacco hit Jacoby Jones for a 70-yard TD with just 31 seconds left in regulation.
Soon after, the Ravens snapped the Broncos' 11-game winning streak and ended Manning's impressive comeback from four neck operations that kept him out all of last season.
''I accomplished a lot more this year than I thought I would have and I think the team exceeded expectations as well,'' Manning said.
To add insult, it was here, in this stadium, where Manning's predecessor, Tim Tebow, connected with Demaryius Thomas for a game-winning TD in overtime against Pittsburgh in the playoffs last season.
''I don't feel sorry for us,'' Broncos defensive tackle Kevin Vickerson said. ''We just didn't make the plays we've been making all year. We've just got to get the job done.''
After Tucker's kick, Manning began a slow walk to the other side of the field, where he worked his way into a circle of reporters that surrounded Baltimore linebacker Ray Lewis. Once inside, he gave Lewis a quick hug before trudging off the field.
Lewis will play another week, his retirement party on hold.
Manning, well, his season is done. He made a costly throw at a costly time. Just like former Minnesota QB Brett Favre, who threw a bad pass in the NFC championship game against New Orleans three years ago that was intercepted and ultimately resulted in a loss.
''He (Manning) is one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time and for us to come in here and confuse him the way we did, and make the plays we did?'' Lewis said. ''We gave up two big special teams touchdowns, but the bottom line is, but we kept fighting.''
The speedy Trindon Holliday had a big afternoon as he became the first player in the postseason to return both a kick and a punt for a touchdown.
And, still, it wasn't enough.
Manning finished 28 of 43 for 290 yards and three scores. But more memorable than those touchdowns will be his fumble and two picks.
Fumbles happen, especially when being sacked and trying to tuck the football back against his body. The play was reviewed and the ruling of fumble upheld. Not that Manning expected anything different.
''Probably a fumble,'' Manning said. ''I tried to kind of double-clutch and I lost the fumble. ... It was certainly a possession I'd like to have back.''
A familiar theme for Manning on this day.
And that first interception? That happens, too - it was tipped and Graham returned it for a 39-yard score.
The other interception, though, that's a throw he's made a handful of times over his 15-year career, especially with good friend Stokley the one running the route.
''Bad throw,'' explained Manning, who's thrown 32 postseason TD passes, which is tied for fourth all-time with Dan Marino. ''Probably the decision (wasn't) great, either. I thought I had an opening and I didn't get enough on it. I was trying to make a play and it's certainly a throw I'd like to have back.''
After all, one of Manning's most memorable completions in this comeback season was a TD toss at Carolina in November, where he rolled to his right, stopped and twisted, then threw across the field to Stokley.
NFL Films had Manning hooked up for sound that day. Coming off the field, he called that throw an example of ''Rule No. 1 that you never do.'' But, Manning told Stokley, sometimes you throw caution to the wind.
This time, it didn't work out.
Now, Manning has an entire offseason to think about breaking ''Rule No. 1.''
''It's a grind,'' Manning said. ''It does require a lot of work and a lot of energy. That's why it's disappointing, because of how much hard work and effort and time and extra meetings and extra workouts we put in to get to this point. That's part of it.
''You want it to go perfect and to win and keep going, but it's not the way it always works.''
Follow Pat Graham on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Pgraham34
Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP-NFL


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WASHINGTON — A Republican senator says she understands Senate leaders have reached an agreement to avoid a Treasury default and reopen the government after a 16-day partial shutdown.
Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire made her comments Wednesday as she walked into a meeting of Senate Republicans in leader Mitch McConnell's office.
Ayotte said the leaders would make a formal announcement.
The government would reopen through Jan. 15 and Treasury would be allowed to increase the nation's borrowing authority through Feb.
This is a developing story. Stick with News Talk Florida for immediate updates.


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Story Highlights• NEW: House committee to hold hearings on FBI spying violations• NEW: "I am the person accountable," FBI director says • NEW: White House expresses "serious concern" over issues raised • Rules on when and how FBI could access private information violated Adjust font size:
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The FBI is guilty of "serious misuse" of the power to secretly obtain private information under the Patriot Act, a government audit said Friday. The Justice Department's inspector general looked at the FBI's use of national security letters, in which agents demand personal and business information about individuals -- such as financial, phone, and Internet records -- without court orders. The audit found the letters were issued without proper authority, cited incorrect statutes or obtained information they weren't supposed to. As many as 22 percent of national security letters were not recorded, the audit said. "We concluded that many of the problems we identified constituted serious misuse of the FBI's national security letter authorities," Inspector General Glenn A. Fine said in the report. The audit said there were no indications that the FBI's use of the letters "constituted criminal misconduct." The audit sparked a new stage in the ongoing battle over the Patriot Act, which was put into place after the September 11 attacks. Critics have slammed some of its provisions for intruding on civil liberties. The American Civil Liberties Union called on Congress to "act immediately to repeal these dangerous Patriot Act provisions." The FBI has made as many as 56,000 requests a year for information using the letters since the Patriot Act was passed in October 2001, the audit found. A single letter can contain multiple information requests, and multiple letters may target one individual. The audit found that in 2004 and 2005, more than half of the targets of the national security letters were U.S. citizens. Letter used to track phone calls, FBI saysFBI Director Robert Mueller said Friday that 90 percent of the letters are used to access phone records in helping to track U.S. contacts with suspected terrorists overseas. Mueller took responsibility for the FBI's problems and said steps had been taken to eliminate them. "I am the person responsible, I am the person accountable, and I am committed to ensuring that we correct these deficiencies and live up to these responsibilities," he said. President Bush learned of the report about a week ago, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. Earlier this week, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Mueller briefed Bush on its key findings, as well as measures the Justice Department and the FBI were proposing in response, she said. Bush was "relieved to learn the inspector general found no instances of intentional misconduct," Perino said, but expressed "significant concern over the seriousness of the issues." The inspector general's review identified "26 possible intelligence violations" between 2003 and 2005, 19 of which the FBI reported to the president's Intelligence Oversight Board, the audit said. Of the 26, "22 were the result of FBI errors, while four were caused by mistakes made by recipients'' of the letters, it said. The audit also found problems with "exigent letters," which are supposed to be used only in emergencies when time may not permit the national security letter procedure to be followed. The audit found exigent letters were not used in emergencies and gave the agency access to telephone records it should not have had. Mueller said Friday the FBI stopped using exigent letters in May 2006 after the practice was revealed. He said they were used to obtain information the FBI was entitled to but should have gained in other ways. Use of letters grew after 9/11 attacksMost of the 200-page report focuses on the national security letters, the use of which it says has undergone a "dramatic increase" since the Patriot Act was put into law after the September 11, 2001, attacks. The letters existed before the attacks, but the Patriot Act allowed them to be used on a broader scale to seek more information. The American Civil Liberties Union called on Congress to "act immediately to repeal these dangerous Patriot Act provisions." Gonzales wrote Fine praising the report and saying he has asked the Justice Department's National Security Division and the Privacy and Civil Liberties Office to work with the FBI in making changes. "They will report to me regularly on their progress," Gonzales said. "In addition, I ask that you report to me in four months on the implementation of your recommendations." Mueller said the national security letters are indispensable in the the war on terror, citing the recent arrest on espionage charges of a former U.S. Navy sailor in Arizona as one instance where the letters were needed. The FBI director said no one has suffered harm from the errors made in use of the letters. On Capitol Hill, the audit brought calls for better oversight and possibly changes in the law. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, announced he will hold "briefings and hearings to understand the scope of these problems and to ensure corrective action has been taken." Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania, said the Patriot Act may have to be changed and the FBI's power curtailed because "they appear not to be able to know how to use it." "You cannot have people act as free agents on something where they are going to be delving into your privacy," Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, said. "We all want to stop terrorists. We all want to stop criminals. But the FBI work for us, the American people, not the other way around." CNN's Kelli Arena and Elaine Quijano contributed to this report.
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