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Thank you Newt Scamander! Oh, and thank you J.K. Rowling, too. And while we're doling out gratuities, we should mention Eddie Redmayne.
That's because the actor graced the MTV Movie Awards with his presence to give us a little "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" treat. Redmayne plays the aforementioned leading role of Scamander in the movie, which is a prequel of sorts to the Harry Potter series, so it was only natural that he be on hand to introduce the first legitimate sneak peek since last year's teaser trailer.
To kick things off, the show turned the set into 1920's New York City, the setting for "Fantastic Beasts." Men in tuxedos and top hats pranced around with briefcases before the fantastic Eddie appeared in a cloud of smoke.
U.S. & World
Stories that affect your life across the U.S. and around the world.
"Myself and the rest of the cast had such an astounding time getting to leap back into the world of J.K. Rowling's imagination," Redmayne began. "And I'm properly excited to share with you tonight just a wee glimpse of what's in store this November."
The clip began with images of a riff on that now-infamous Harry Potter music and flashes of Redmayne's Scamander tinkering in his lab in the Big Apple. "You're an interesting man, Mr. Scamander," whispered the narrator. "Just like your suitcase, there's much more to you than meets the eye. Kicked out of Hogwarts for endangering human life with a beast, yet one of your teachers argued strongly against your expulsion."
We see Scamander leaving England and boarding a steam ship, as the narrator asks "Now what makes Albus Dumbledore so fond of you, Mr. Scamander?"
Check out the full trailer above.
PHOTOS: The celebs arrive to the MTV Movie Awards


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Instructions on how to harden and secure an Arch Linux system.
- 1 Concepts
- 2 Physical security
- 3 Partitions
- 4 Filesystem permissions
- 5 Disk encryption
- 6 User setup
- 7 Restricting su
- 8 No root login at the console
- 9 Lockout user after three failed login attempts
- 10 Use sudo for system commands
- 11 Password hashes
- 12 Access control
- 13 Firewall
- 14 TCP/IP stack hardening
- 15 Kernel hardening
- 16 Authenticating Updates
- 17 Resources
- It is possible to tighten the security so much as to make your system unusable. The trick is to secure it without overdoing it.
- There are many other things that can be done to heighten the security, but the biggest threat is, and will always be, the user himself. When you think security, you have to think layers. When one layer is breached, another should stop the attack. But you can never make the system 100% secure unless you unplug the machine from all networks, lock it in a safe and never use it!
- Be a little paranoid. It helps. And be suspicious. If anything sounds too good to be true, it probably is!
- Principle of least privilege
Physical security
Physical access to a computer is basically root access, but you can stop an attacker from having access without removing your hard drive (also see #Disk encryption) or resetting your BIOS settings (both of which involve opening the computer).
Locking down BIOS
Adding a password to the BIOS prevents someone from booting into removable media, which is basically the same as having root access to your computer. You should make sure your drive is first in the boot order (and disable the other drives from being bootable if you can.
Bootloader password
It's highly important to protect your bootloader. There's a magic kernel parameter called init=/bin/sh. This makes any user/login restrictions totally useless.
Good (strong) passwords can be obtained with ease, through the use of the apg package, or Automated Password Generator.
Best way is to set password on changing boot parameters. Add the following to /boot/grub/grub.cfg (assume login is "master" and password "retsam"):
set superusers="master" password master retsam
Don't forget to set 600 permissions on grub.cfg!
Disable CTRL-ALT-DEL
To ensure that no one just walks up to your computer and presses CTRL-ALT-DEL to restart your machine, you can disable the capture of CTRL-ALT-DEL in the file /etc/inittab. I could see this being used in a production environment, where the operator needs to use the keyboard but the computer itself is locked away.
Open the file /etc/inittab and find the line
ca::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -t3 -r now
comment out the line by inserting a leading #. This change will not take effect until you restart or issue the command
# /sbin/init -q
Of course if someone has physical access to your machine he could just press the power button to shutdown the machine!
Automatic logout on VCs (and SSH)
If you are using bash or zsh, you can set TMOUT, so you will never forget open shell on VC (where xscreensaver is not protecting you).
here is example script, that can be placed to eg.: /etc/profile.d/shell-timeout.sh
TMOUT="$(( 60*10 ))"; [ -z "$DISPLAY" ] && export TMOUT; case $( /usr/bin/tty ) in /dev/tty[0-9]*) export TMOUT;; esac
if you really want EVERY bash/zsh prompt (even within X) to timeout, than you can use just:
export TMOUT="$(( 60*10 ))";
Note that this will not work if there's some command running in the bash (eg.: some ssh session or other shell without TMOUT support). But if you are using VC mostly for restarting frozen GDM/Xorg as root, then this is very usefull.
Any directories writable by a regular user should be mounted separately from / to avoid hardlink vulnerabilities and Denial of Service attacks (quotas do not stop a user from causing a DoS if there are world-writable directories).
Absolute minimum partition layout for a secure system:
- /
- /var: /var/spool/mail, /var/lock and /var/tmp are world writable, also, logging can be used by an attacker to fill the partition
- /tmp: world writable
- /home: writable by regular users
Mount options
Following the principle of least privilege, partitions should be mounted with the most restrictive mount options possible (without losing functionality).
Relevant mount options
- nodev: Do not interpret character or block special devices on the file system.
- nosuid: Do not allow set-user-identifier or set-group-identifier bits to take effect.
- noexec: Do not allow direct execution of any binaries on the mounted filesystem.
Potential usage
|yes, if you do not code or use wine
|maybe, breaks compiling packages and various other things
Filesystem permissions
The default filesystem permissions allow read access to almost everything and changing the permissions can hide valuable information from an attacker who gains access to a non-root account such as the http or nobody users.
For example:
# chmod 700 /boot /etc/{iptables,arptables}
Disk encryption
You should know that encryption is the only way for protecting your data against people that have physical access to your computer. But once you mount an encrypted volume you have to be sure that you are the only person having physical or root access to the machine (nothing in the system is safe against root).
User setup
After installation make a normal user for daily use. Don't use the root user for daily use! Pick a secure password. I trust you know not to use a dictionary word or something like your dog's name. A password should be at least eight characters long. Contain a mix of upper and lower case letters. It should include at least one number and/or one special character.
If you, like me, have a good memory for passwords then you can use a program like pwgen to create a bunch of passwords and print them on the screen. Then just pick one to use. Alternately you can make a password using the first characters from every word in a sentence. Take for instance "the girl is walking down the rainy street" could be translated to "t6!WdtR5". This approach could make it easier to remember a password.
Restricting su
See su#Security for details.
No root login at the console
Changing the configuration to disallow root to login from the console makes it harder for an intruder to gain access to the system. The intruder would have to guess both a user-name that exists on the system and that users password. When root is allowed to log in via the console, an intruder only need to guess a password. Blocking root login at the console is done by changing the file /etc/securetty and commenting out the tty lines. All you have to do is change
Repeat for any tty you wish to block. To check the effect of this change, start by commenting out only one line. Then goto that particular console and try to login as root. You will be greeted by the message "Login incorrect". Now that we're sure it works, go back and comment out the rest of the tty lines.
Lockout user after three failed login attempts
To further heighten the security it is possible to lockout a user after a specified number of failed login attempts. The user account can either be locked until the root user unlocks it, or automatically be unlocked after a set time. To lockout a user for ten minutes after three failed login attempts you have to change the file /etc/pam.d/login. Find the line that reads
#auth required pam_tally.so deny=2 unlock_time=600 onerr=succeed file=/var/log/faillog
and remove the leading #. Then find the line that reads
auth required pam_tally.so onerr=succeed file=/var/log/faillog
and insert a leading # on the line. If you don't do this, then every failed login attempt will be counted twice. That's all there is to it. If you feel adventures, make three failed login attempts. Then you can see for yourself what happens. To unlock a user manually use the following command as root
[root@localhost] pam_tally --user --reset
If you want to permanently lockout a user after 3 failed login attempts, then just remove the unlock_time part of the line. Then the user can not login until root unlocks the account.
Use sudo for system commands
To make a user run some system commands as root it is advisable to use sudo to give that user the needed authority. It wouldn't be good to hand out the root password to just anyone. Even if you are the only user on the system, using sudo is a good idea to keep from using a root console too much. Sometimes you just forget to logout again!
Setting up sudo is quite easy. Just use the visudo command to bring up the configuration file in the editor. The file already includes some examples you can use. I will show you one command that I always add to my sudoers file. I want to be able to mount samba shares from my server on my workstation with a regular user, so I add the following using visudo
%users ALL=/sbin/mount.cifs,/sbin/umount.cifs
This allows all users who are members of the group users to run the commands /sbin/mount.cifs and /sbin/umount.cifs from any machine(ALL). If you're not comfortable with using the vi style editor, you can use the following to use nano instead.
[root@localhost] EDITOR=nano visudo
The above is not correct security wise. See following paragraph for explanation.
By default, visudo doesn't follow EDITOR envvar. Also it's regarded as severe security risk since everything can be used as EDITOR (hello, rootkits!). However, sudo from the core repository is compiled with --with-env-editor and honors the use of the VISUAL and EDITOR variables.
The best practice is to add the following line to /etc/sudoers (remember to put full path to your favourite editor):
Defaults editor=/usr/bin/nano
Don't forget to use only visudo for this!
Please be careful not to enable the line that gives the user power over all commands! Only few commands should be made available to run as root via sudo.
Password hashes
Consider switching from MD5 hashes to SHA password hashes to make it near impossible for someone to reverse the hashes into your plaintext passwords.
Access control
- AppArmor (pathname)
- SELinux (labels)
- Tomoyo (pathname)
- grsecurity
- See Simple stateful firewall for a guide on setting up an netfilter (iptables) firewall.
- See Firewalls for other ways of setting up netfilter.
- See iptables for general info.
TCP/IP stack hardening
Kernel hardening
Authenticating Updates
See pacman-key.
- Securing and Hardening Red Hat Linux Production Systems
- Hardening the linux desktop
- Hardening the linux server
- Securing and Optimizing Linux
- UNIX and Linux Security Checklist v3.0

subset: commoncrawl


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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Police have recovered hundreds of pieces of jewelry and other items that are not matching up with their records of items reported stolen in a recent rash of break-ins.
Anyone who has had their home broken into prior to March 22 is being asked to identify their possessions at an open house on Saturday, June 8, from 10 to 2 at the Police Department on Allen Street.
Police say the items either haven't been reported stolen or were stolen from homes outside of city. The investigation is being done by state, Cheshire, Lanesborough and Pittsfield police. Some of the recovered property has already be linked to break-ins in those communities and in
RICHMOND, Mass. — A 28-year-old man was struck and killed by a train in Richmond late Tuesday afternoon. The man's name had not yet been released pending notification of kin.
According to an eyewitness, it appeared that the man jumped in front of the moving train.
State police detectives assigned to the district attorney's office, in charge of the investigation, say the CSX freight train struck the man about 4 p.m. in the vicinity of Town Beach Road. Dr. Benjamin Glick, a local state medical examiner, pronounced the man dead at the scene.
State police investigators were assisted at the scene by state troopers from the Lee barracks,
Police Logs
Pittsfield Police
North Adams
Crimewatch Links
North Adams CrimeWatch
Stamford/Clarksburg CrimeWatch
Pittsfield CrimeWatch


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The toughest divisions to make a living in the NFL these days are not the NFC or AFC East. This popular notion has gone the way of the efficient offense in Washington and Buffalo. It's disappeared.
To find the most competitive climate in pro football, look to the north. The AFC North probably is the best sector in the league, followed closely by the NFC North.
Does that mean the Vikings will face the Steelers in the Super Bowl? Or the Packers will take on the Bengals? Hardly.
U.S. & World
But for weekly excitement and excellence, the old Black and Blue Divisions are golden.
Consider how the Steelers (5-2) built on their championship not by diving even deeper into their time-tested philosophy of winning with the running game and big-time defense. No, these Steelers can pass with anyone, which has been especially significant because their running game has stagnated.
What's more electrifying in the NFL than Ben Roethlisberger creating big plays that seem to come straight from the sandlot, not the playbook? He did it on the decisive touchdown in the Super Bowl, and he's kept right on doing it, altering the style of his team along the way.
"I think some of it comes from that being what the Steelers always did in the past. I always say you have to keep up with the times," Roethlisberger said. "That's kind of evolving into a passing offense league-wide. People talk about the Steelers and the run game because we want to be physical. When you want to be physical, people assume that's the run game. But that can mean a lot of different things.
"I guess you can go all the way back to the '70s and we were a grind-it-out team. We're not that '70s team. We're our own identity and that includes a lot of no-huddle stuff. It's been good."
And consider what the Ravens have become, ranking seventh on offense and only 13th on defense. Sure, Ray Lewis and Ed Reed still are in Baltimore and still are difference makers. But the Ravens are defined just as much by what quarterback Joe Flacco and the three-pronged running attack does.
"Defense wins championships, but you need the offense to score points. To be saying we're an offensive team doesn't fit us," running back Ray Rice said. "When they talk about this Ravens team, they're going to say, 'That team is a physical, good football team.' That's what we aspire to be."
Lest we forget, the Bengals' stunning run of down-to-the-wire games has marked them not only as a far more resilient bunch than we can remember representing Cincinnati, but also as a contender. The Bengals of the past would have floundered after that fluky last-second loss to Denver in the opener. This team has flourished.
"Bringing together a group of guys that understand what a team is all about makes it enjoyable," coach Marvin Lewis said. "Every time we enter this building, we leave better than we are. And if we keep doing that, then things will be good."
The rise of the AFC North has overshadowed the collapse of the AFC East through eight weeks. At 5-2, the Patriots are about where everyone expected, even if they were anything but dominant until the last two games. Then again those routs, by a combined 84-7, came against Tennessee and Tampa Bay, both winless when they were crushed by New England.
What has happened to the rest of the division? Remember, Miami won the AFC East a year ago, going 11-5 and unveiling the wildcat, which has spread like, well, wildfire through the league. The Dolphins are 3-4, with two of those victories over the Jets, and if they lose at Foxborough on Sunday, the division race pretty much becomes a Patriots jog to the playoffs.
For all the bluster coming out of Jets camp, they have had breakdowns in every facet of football, negating a 3-0 start. While the Jets are a thousand times more entertaining under Rex Ryan than the dour Eric Mangini, they're still headed for a .500 season that would be worse than their record under Mangini in 2008.
Buffalo? That Terrell Owens-Lee Evans combo has a total of 46 catches and four TDs. Not much improvement or excitement there.
Over in the NFC, the North has one dominant squad and two wild-card contenders. It also has an elan somewhat lacking in the other divisions.
Even some Cheeseheads would now have to admit watching that graybeard guy at quarterback for the Vikings is enthralling — especially after what Brett Favre has done to the Packers twice already. No game had more intriguing elements than Favre's return to Lambeau Field, and he certainly delivered.
The Vikings as a whole are delivering, too, thanks to a superb pass rush led by Jared Allen, and the best running back in football, Adrian Peterson. But that doesn't make Green Bay or Chicago an also-ran.
Consider that the Packers have lost only to Minnesota (6-1) and Cincinnati (5-2). The Bears have fallen to Green Bay, Atlanta and Cincinnati, all winners. In Aaron Rodgers and Jay Cutler, they have QBs as capable as Favre. They trail behind mainly because each has a major weakness on the offensive line that plays directly into Minnesota's hands.
While the NFC East has three teams all capable of making the postseason, those teams' dominance has gone missing.
New York started 5-0, then was routed by New Orleans and Philadelphia and outmuscled by Arizona. The Giants' secondary is a sieve and teams are bulking up to thwart the pass rush that has become their only real line of defense.
Philadelphia and Dallas are an enigmatic 5-2. When at full strength, which has been very rare through seven games, the Eagles are dynamic on offense, efficient on defense. Then they throw in the biggest stinker of the year by any favorite, losing at Oakland.
The Cowboys are on a three-game roll and they're finally pressuring quarterbacks. But the pass defense is mediocre and they have just nine takeaways; winless Tampa Bay has 11.
So, for now, let's shift the spotlight from East to North.


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COVID–19 is impacting us all.
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Last week, our conservation staff traveled to upstate New York to engage students in local wetland restoration projects. Two schools, Chenango Forks High School and Ridge Road Elementary School, participated in a modified version of our Wetland Nursery program.
For the students who live in the northern end of the watershed, it can be difficult to understand the connection between their community and the Chesapeake Bay. But after learning about and caring for different kinds of wetland plants, the students began to see how wetlands in their area can help clean-up waterways throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
A total of 95 students from Chenango Forks High School and Chenango Forks Elementary School planted 1,500 freshwater wetland plants in a swamp on their school's property. Additionally, the students removed four trash bags of invasive plants to make room for the native species.
Thirty-two students from Ridge Road Elementary School planted 1,500 freshwater wetland plants in a vernal pond at Tanglewood Nature Center. Afterwards, they took a tour of the Nature Center and the beautiful property around it.
The Wetland Nursery Program aims to create a lasting connection between students and the Chesapeake Bay. By raising wetland plants and helping to restore a local wetland, students become invested in the health of the ecosystem and feel a closer connection to their watershed.
The students' hard work did not go unnoticed; check out the local news channel's coverage of the planting event.
A special thank you to our partners on this project: Elmira Corning Community Foundation, the Upper Susquehanna Coalition and Tanglewood Nature Center!


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All Over MAN Print Mid Length Swim Short
Style Notes
Have shorts on hand for those hotter days
Shake up your bottoms in a pair of bold shorts from boohooMAN. Show your preppy side in primary colour chino shorts (perfect for pairing with a check shirt), or do distressed daywear in denim shorts and a basic tee. Jogger shorts are your year-round loungewear saviour for styling with a hoodie on those lazy days.
Details & Care100% Polyester. All Over MAN Print Mid Length Swim Short. Model is 6'1" and Wears UK Size M.
Delivery info
Delivery option Delivery times Delivery cost Republic of Ireland Standard Delivery Up to 5 working days €6.99 per order Republic of Ireland Next Day Delivery Up to 3 working days €8.99 per order Republic of Ireland; Standard Parcel Collection Up to 5 working days €6.99 per order Republic of Ireland; Next Day Parcel Collection Up to 3 working days €8.99 per order
Click here for further information.
Returns info
We hope you are satisfied with all of your purchases but if you ever need to return an item, you can do so within 14 days from the date you received your parcel.
Please note, we cannot offer refunds on pierced jewellery or on swimwear if the hygiene seal is not in place or has been broken.
Click here to view our full Returns Policy.


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Posted on: 2010-04-11 14:36:23
I love cartoons so much.
Posted on: 2010-03-27 17:32:55
Great cartoon!!
Posted on: 2010-02-20 23:20:02
Please hang loose, the audio isn't working on "Spooky Swabs" at the moment, but I'm working to correct that. Check back in a little bit, and it should be corrected. Thanks!! --J.T.


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Fly Jefferson Airplane documents an eight-year period of one of the greatest bands to emerge from San Francisco. Their story is told though brand new interviews with band members and their manager, complete vintage performances of their biggest hits, and through rare and never before seen photos from photographer Jim Marshall.
Complete Perfromances of:
It's No Secret from Bell Telephone Hour
Somebody to Love from The Monterey Pop Festival
High Flying Bird from The Monterey Pop Festival
White Rabbit from The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
Martha from Perry Como Special
Crown of Creation from The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
Lather from The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
House At Pooneil Corners The Jefferson Airplane Rooftop Performance
Ballad of You & Me & Pooneil from The Night At The Family Dog
We Can Be Together Promo Film
Plastic Fantastic Lover from Go Ride The Music
Volunteers from Go Ride The Music
Embryonic Journey from The Rock N Roll Hall Of Frame Induction Ceremony
Bonus Features
Bonus Interview Footage
Photo Gallery


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ANADIAG Group is one of the leading CROs (Contract Research Organization) in Europe and provides a wide range of services for the registration of synthetic or natural, existing or new, Plant Protection Products.
Our group has a European structure with a worldwide business profile. With more than 25 years experience in the agricultural business market, 50 field trial stations all over Europe and in-house regulatory experts and laboratories, ANADIAG Group is the most reliable choice to lead your registration projects to success!


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Crossover STEEL
$145.00 – $149.00
Crossover measures 10″ from end to end with 7″ to the closest hole and 8 3/4″ inches from the farthest hole. Crossover is a unisex watch measuring 40mm (1.57″) in diameter and 7.6mm (0.30″) high. It is made stainless steel and comes with a 20mm (3/4″) black leather or stainless mess band. Choose your option!See the Working Model Watch the Video
Crossover STEEL
Contemporary and elegant Crossover STEEL 2014
Crossover STEEL is contemporary, yet elegant and has hands that appear to be precariously balanced rotate around the dial. Crossover STEEL is a modern watch with tapered black, gray and red hands. The second hand is red, the minute hand is white and the hour hand is black. Follow the pointed ends for the time!
Modeled after the game of "pick up stix", Crossover STEEL has thin hands that are slightly askew to the center giving this timepiece elegant stature. You will be staring at time all day but assuredly not wasting it.
Crossover STEEL is a unisex watch measuring 40mm (1.57″) in diameter and 7.6mm (0.30″) high. It is made of a brushed stainless steel with hidden lugs that connect the band seamlessly. Available with a 20mm black leather band. Also, be sure to check out Crossover BLACK and our new Crossover BRASS. While Crossover BLACK has black, gray and yellow hands; Crossover STEEL and BRASS comes with black, gray and red hands!
|1 lbs
|Band Size
|Band Material
|Band Color
About Denis Guidone
Denis Guidone, as student of architecture, design and visual communication studied urban planning and architecture in Milan, Italy and Oporto, Portugal. His project process was born under the concept of subtraction, an ideology that follows the unification of opposites through a constant approach on the edge of architecture and visual communication, and at the same time mediated by an expressive intensity that addresses work on the basis of subtraction. Fascinated by the passing of time, Guidone carries out this intense didactic work for several universities and design schools, in Italy and abroad. His many awards and honorable mentions include: Ida international design award in Los Angeles, IDOT Best Italian Design Product, and The Bruno Munari international award.
February 2018 Denis Guidone has been appointed Ambassador of Italian Design and Culture from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Farnesina and "la Triennale di Milano".Show products
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Today the Leadville Race Series opened registration to the 2012 Camp of Champions! The Camp of Champions will feature Six-time LT 100 Champion Dave Wiens, Two-time LT100 Champion Bryson Perry and the 2007 Ladies Champion Gretchen Reeves. Camp participants will ride, dine, and socialize with three of Leadville's finest champions in addition to a host of experienced Leadville Trail 100 Buckle wearing guides.
The camp will be July 5-8, 2012 and all of the Leadville 100 course will be ridden. There are 50 spots available that include race entry and the cost is $2,000. There are an additional 25 spots available for $1,000 without race entry. You must call to register. Get all the information on the Leadville Race Series site.
I'm a bit surprised that they opened camp registration today since the race entry lottery winners won't be notified until later this week. I have my fingers crossed that I'll get picked in the lottery again. After DNFing that last 3 years, I'm even more motivated now to get back and get my 6th finish.
Carmichael Training Systems also opened registration for their training camps today that include race entry. The CTS camp spots though are given out through a lottery. The deadline for the CTS camp lottery is February 29, 2012 so those that entered the Leadville 100 lottery can wait until they get notified whether they're in or not.
CTS will have 3 camps that are 2 days each and cost $1500 including race entry. It's $1225 for those that get an entry through the lottery and those spots will be first come first serve instead of by lottery. If money isn't a factor, you can get top notch coaching and a private camp for $12,424 (elevation at the summit of the Columbine Climb).
Get all the details on the CTS camps here.
Related Links
Tags: Colorado, Dave Wiens, endurance racing, Leadville 100, mountain biking


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Program puts Eastern Technical High School students ahead of curve
Early auto experience gives students driving edge
The jobless numbers appear to be holding steady for the nation's 16- to 19-year-olds.
Their unemployment rate is a just over 24 percent, but more high schools are doing their part to make sure students learn the skills they need to land jobs for the summer.
There's a summer job waiting for two Eastern Technical High School students in a field they know a lot about -- automotive.
"I like how we are learning about modern vehicles because they are changing just about every year and we do we keep up as much as we can with all of the technology and stuff," automotive student Anthony Critcher said.
"We do a lot of math and science we do a lot of equations and stuff to find out the placement of engines and things like that. We do a lot of physics and a lot of chemistry," automotive student Brik Wisniewski said.
Based on the results of recent competition, Eastern's Automotive Technology Program is the best in the state. Students are challenged to learn now what they'll need to know later when it's time to go job hunting.
Already, a number of Eastern students work after school, on weekends and over the summer with at a local car dealership.
"They work with a master technician. They don't sweep the floor. They learn real practical things. Ford pays them to do that. When they graduate, they go to college for two years, they get an AA degree and they're guaranteed a job at Ford Motor Company," automotive teacher Eldridge Watts said.
The job could pay as much as $62,000 a year and that may help explain why the program has become so popular at school and with potential employers.
"These kids are coming into an environment. It's an extremely difficult job to do. People that have 15 and 20 years experience are struggling with some of the new stuff. These children learn this right from the get-go. They're being taught by a school that's all about the kids," said Bill Crumley with Al Packer Ford.
The school is determined to make sure students are in a position to find work.


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ohmygosh! It's STILL snowing in Portland. Wherever you are we hope you're warm, healthy and don't have one eye bulging out a la Ren & Stimpy due to the tremendous stress of neverending winter. Don't worry, The BIG THAW is coming soon!
Today we get to ogle the work of Dunja von Stoddard aka DOONYAYA which is a just plain awesome name. The Doonyaya shop offers pot holders, sachets, cat toys, journals, postcards and beyond. Let's take a little peek:
Cat toys! Sometimes it's a GOOD thing that a product gets tested on animals and these are one of those things. Apparently the felines go wild for these guys. I personally go wild for the fact that they're not those creepy, hairy mice that my cats seem to bat around for a bit, ignore, and then they emerge months later from the sofa covered in fur and food. Doonyaya's catnip toys do double duty as colorful accents while making your kitty go nutso for cat herbs. Fun!
Now might be a good time to mention that Dunja's business tithe (10% of her profits) go to organizations that save and protect animals. So on top of all the niceness listed above you're also doing your little part towards contributing to the health and happiness of other critters.
In the paper department, Doonyaya peddles journals and postcards. The latest work is inspired by Victorian culture and 60-80s pop culture. Pictures are worth a thousand words:
So, basically once you're done filling your shopping cart with all of the above you'll probably like to see her potholders and sachets, complete with silk screened birds. Fresh clothes and fashionable casseroles, here I come!
So there you have it, folks. I had an opportunity to ask Dunja about how she heard about The BIG THAW and she had these lovely things to say about Maine artists and the Etsy Maine Team:
"I heard about The Big Thaw from joining the Maine Team through etsy. I am so impressed with how many artists and crafters there are in our State, and the team has been a great way to see what my fellow Mainiacs are doing. Having moved from New York, I've found Maine to be incredibly inspiring and supportive of artists. I am living the dream here, making things every day out of my garage-turned-studio, and getting encouragement and feedback from my small but mighty crafting community. I am excited about the Big Thaw because I always get inspired by what other artists are creating."
Us, too, Dunja! And no lack of inspiration come Saturday, April 16th 10am-4pm at Mayo Street Arts Center at 10 Mayo St. for The BIG THAW!


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Previously mentioned resources will be simply listed with a link to the previous post for more description. The other fantastic tools will have a more lengthy commentary. And check back tomorrow to read how a homeschooling mami has taught her daughter to read.
Reading Programs, Curricula, & Activities (Go here to read more information about each one.)
• Monarca Language - This is a subscription-based online program for 3 & 4 year olds. They even include phonetics instruction, in addition to letter recognition. I was impressed to read that 85% of the participating children finish the program reading and writing efficiently.
• Actividades del Primer Grado - 100 activities for First Graders (Kindergarteners?), linking school to the home. This is an AWESOME resource!!! If you don't look at anything else, look at this site.
Blogs and Articles
• En la escuela de Mabel - Possibly one of the best educational blogs in Spanish. Written by Mabel Gutiérrez with many fascinating articles on primary and elementary education. The link will take you to a page that lists all her articles dedicated to lectura y escritura, but take the time to explore her site. From the blog: "Un blog dedicado al intercambio de experiencias e innovaciones educativas de Educación Inicial y Primaria que permita fortalecer las debilidades en el aula de clase."
• "Cuándo los niños deben comenzar el aprendizaje de la lectura" Guía Infantil
• "Reading in First Grade: How reading relates to ELLs" by Colorín Colorado. Available in English and Spanish.
• "Etapas de desarrollo de la lectura" PBS in Spanish and English.
• AMPA Colegio Público Alhambra - This is a great site with stories for children who are learning or who have recently learned to read. Spanish only.
• Cosicosas - An online poetry magazine for children. Their objectives are to inject poetry into the field of infant and juvenile literature, to create a space where writers of children's poetry can be inspired and exchange ideas, and to develop unity among Spanish-speaking countries. The site was created and is published by children's writer, Carmen Gil Martínez. Spanish only.
• Guía Infantil has a lot of resources, too, including a section of poetry, fables, and more.
• For chapter books in Spanish, here's what I recommend.
• ISSUU - I am so very grateful to Lori Langer de Ramirez from Mis Cositas for sharing this site! ISSUU is a self-publishing site where many Spanish writers and illustrators have added their work. Here are a few of my favorites: La Gallina Cocorina, La luz de tu corazón, and Versos que el viento arrastra.


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It doesn't matter if you have the greatest product or service on the planet. Or even the universe. You could have the cure to AIDS, or the solution to world hunger or poverty. But just because you have it, does not mean that people automatically know that you have it.
You have to get your name out there, you have to get your product or service out there. There are several different ways you can do this. But gone are the days where you can just post a in the local newspaper and get the word out to the entire town. A more creative measure is needed in today's world.
This means that you're going to have to get a website and a Facebook page. Domain names are extremely inexpensive today. Only 9.99 for a.com domain name.
When people are searching for a product or a solution, and they come across just a phone number listed on a directory with no website. It is a complete turnoff for potential customers.
The websites are also extremely easy to design now a days, especially if you choose a WordPress blog, then you have thousands of themes available at your disposal. Most of these are drag and drop to design.
The next great thing is a Facebook page. It is completely free and you immediately have access to 100s of millions of people. There are also tons of free apps that you can use to customize your page and bring more value to your customers.
You have to analyze your business. The best way to do this is to learn from other businesses mistakes.
Here are the top 6 reasons businesses fail:
- Not Learning Enough About The Market
- Not A Detailed Business Plan
- Too Little Or Poor Financing
- Bad Location, Bad Internet Usage, Bad Marketing
- Not Shifting With The Market
- Expanding Too Quickly Beyond Your Capability
So you need to take a quick look at your business. Hopefully you learned about the first three before you started your business. But we covered the last 2 in the 4th step already.
But one thing you need to realize that the customers are in control of what they demand. Just because something worked before, doesn't mean its always going to work. Take the case of newspaper ads. That may have worked in the past, but if that is your main source of marketing today, you're going to fail.


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HONOLULU, HI -- The National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA) made the case for administrators to invest in campus recreational sports at the Campus of the Future: A Meeting of the Minds, a conference held in early July in Honolulu. The Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers, the National Association of College and University Business Officers, and the Society for College and University Planning presented the first-of-its-kind joint conference.
NIRSA Executive Director Dr. Kent Blumenthal; Dr. Lloyd Hisaka, University of Hawaii at Manoa; and Kathleen Hatch, Washington State University, presented the NIRSA exhibit, "Collegiate Recreational Sports Programs & Facilities – The Veritable Campus Atlas Supporting Higher Education," at the poster session. The exhibit urged administrators to continue investing in quality and professionally administered campus recreational sports programs and facilities. It stressed that improved recruitment and retention, and enhanced student satisfaction and success are part of the return on investment for higher education communities that actively support and sustain these student-centered campus operations.
For more information on the conference go to http://www.campusofthefuture.org/.


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When it comes to natural stone care, one of the most important
things you can do to minimize and simplify your stone maintenance
is to make sure that you select the right stone and finish
for your intended application. If an improperly selected natural
stone is installed, you may be unhappy in the future with the extra
care, repair, and maintenance involved.
Stone care is a little knowledge and a lot of common sense.
Do's & Dont's in Natural Stone Care - the minimum you need
to know.
Sealing natural stone is a way to protect your stone from
staining and to make your day to day cleaning easier. What kind of
sealer should you use?
Natural Stone is a durable material but sometimes stone repairs
are necessary. This doesn't happen to everyone, but it does happen.
Here is what you should know:


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: Dilucidar :Posted: June 25, 2016 Filed under: Kindness, Meditation, Mindfulness, Yoga | Tags: Cambridge, compassion, Equanimity, gratitude, kindness, love, Mindfulness, Omaha, passion, yoga 10 Comments
Equanimity is the hallmark of spirituality. It is neither chasing nor avoiding but just being in the middle-
Equanimity, surrender, bliss when our heart(s) are graced with them? Is a pure gift. When we surrender to our soul and acknowledge that, we can't do it, this, anymore. When we pause to feel the stream of life carrying us, taking us where we need to go, even though we have no idea where that might be? Some pretty cool "things" happen.
Weekend Meditation:
Equanimity (to me), is the willingness to meet life as it is, to stop fighting against myself or trying to change what is, right now. Feet up, surrender, and enjoy the weekend my friends 🙂
Magic Theater – Entrance Not For : Everybody :Posted: June 18, 2016 Filed under: Kindness, Meditation, Mindfulness, Yoga | Tags: :), biking, Bliss, Cambridge, Cars R Coffins, cycling, kindness, love, Mindfulness, Omaha, passion, smile, yoga 13 Comments
Some of us think holding on makes us strong but sometimes it is letting go-
Late last year I found myself working and "living" in our fair city, Cambridge, UK. Having fallen back in love with cycling after trying to kill myself running, instinctively I brought a few bikes with me. Riding in Cambridge is not the horror show many would lead you to believe. The streets, bridleways and footpaths this spring and summer have been refreshingly pleasant. I wake early, and not long after that, I'm out finding a pedaling flow before the sun comes up – Bliss! My almost daily rides have truly been wonderful, that is until last Sunday morning.
As I approached a blind corner near the top of Chapel Hill, which runs into a lovely, peaceful wooded path. There was a woman walking ahead of me, and my presence startled her.
"You need to be riding back on Chapel Hill road with the other cyclist," she told me hastily.
"Good morning ma'am?" I replied, as my unquestionable 'Murican accent wafted in the still air.
"Why don't you cyclist follow the rules like everyone else" she replied.
I dismounted slightly ahead of her, and as softly spoken as the world awakening around us … "My name is Jeremy, and I'm out here for the same reasons you are – Peace, kindness, finding equanimity in this mad world. Plus, my bike is filthy dirty … The road weenies don't like it when I spray them with mud."
Kate smiled and laughed at my "Cars R Coffins" jersey. I on the other hand, melted, as Kate let down her startled guard. We walked for a short while, then parted ways further down the dirt path that was unfolding in front of us … I had broken into her peaceful temple, and for that I was deeply sorry.
Weekend Meditation:
Cambridge, the United Kingdom, Europe and little 'ole Omaha, Nebraska are desperately trying to "fix" cycling related things. My solution to our (yes our) epidemic of hostility and intolerance involves a fundamental change in the prevailing attitude(s) of each one of us. Kindness, gratitude, honesty and a smile are free 🙂
Here and : Now :Posted: April 23, 2016 Filed under: Kindness, Meditation, Mindfulness, Yoga | Tags: Cambridge, Camyoga, compassion, kindness, love, Mindfulness, Omaha Power Yoga, yoga 6 Comments
Toutes les opinions ne se valent pas, et il ne faut pas confondre l'éloquence d'une parole avec la justesse d'une pensée-
I used to describe my yoga "practice" as something to do when it was too cold or wet outside to go for a bike ride, better yet – Cleaning the garage. My practice this afternoon, in this moment … Is much different.
Some years ago at 8th Avenue Yoga in Omaha, I was kindly invited to attend a yoga for "beginners" workshop by a close and dear friend. This was a profound step for me personally. The instructor was kind, a caring bully you could say. I feared I wouldn't measure up to Jeff's standards and the rest of the class for that matter. I was dead nervous unrolling out my mat for the first time, as the fresh rubber smell wafted in the studio air, my heart pounding with anticipation of what was soon to come.
I tucked myself away in a back corner, near a set of blinds that were gently drawn back to let the morning sunlight pour in. Worrying about how my fellow classmates would see me as they walked into the warmly lit studio, I thought about how I should appear like I belonged, to seek their approval. My mind, fixed on me, and I was deeply shaken as we were asked to step to the top of our mats.
Before the workshop, I was exploring an increasing number of possible paths to seeking what I thought was perfection: Researching "mindfulness" … Self-confidence books, self-esteem courses, self-acceptance whatever, forgiveness from others, inner peace mantras and yoga "body" classes online. At each turn along this path, it was consistently suggested to me that I was living my life in the wrong way. I needed to do this, in order to became that.
Daily Meditation:
Fondly remembering my first class, I recall not being open to the idea that I was "okay" and that only I know what is best for me. I learned, slowly, over the years that it's perfectly fine to have flaws, that it's okay to be different, and it's absolutely essential to smile (I still struggle with this).
What I failed to realize after gathering my sweaty self from the mat after that first class was that, you are okay, and you have what it takes to be the person you are meant to become.
Sweet : Solitude :Posted: April 16, 2016 Filed under: Kindness, Meditation, Mindfulness, Yoga | Tags: Cambridge, Camyoga, compassion, Equanimity, gratitude, kindness, Lonliness, love, passion, Solitude, UK, yoga 7 Comments
My imagination functions much better when I don't have to speak to people-
The moment I finally surrendered my heart and mind to being alone, solitude became so, so sweet.
Equanimity, allowing the world to unfold before your very eyes. Steady, kind, compassionate thoughts. Your mind not grasping, reaching, or recoiling from the unpleasant words sitting just behind your pursed lips and brow. When this happens? The sweet pulse of the universe, resonates deeply.
Weekend Mediation:
Cultivating self-compassion softens the loneliness that often makes finding equanimity unbearable. I often have to remind myself that the pain of loneliness, ebbs and flows. Sure, my loneliness is burning deep right now. Although if I'm patient?!? This loneliness too shale pass, and the sweetness of equanimity will soon take its place.
: Hell of the North :Posted: April 11, 2016 Filed under: Kindness, Meditation, Mindfulness, Yoga | Tags: cycling, Hell Of the north, kindness, london, Mindfulness, Onyx Hubs, paris roubaix, Rapha, Traitor Cycles, Twin Six 2 Comments
Oh, what a day… what a lovely day-
*gravé (noun)
(an area of) farm track/road/footpath/bridleway etc. which consists of potholes, loose paving, stones, rubble, and mud.
: Mindful(less) :Posted: April 9, 2016 Filed under: Kindness, Meditation, Mindfulness, Yoga | Tags: Cambridge, Camyoga, compassion, happiness, kindness, life, love, Mindfulness, natural, passion 20 Comments
The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper-
From an early age, I was led to believe that I needed to become a "better" and "improved" version of myself, even if at first I didn't exactly understand why. When I was young lad, I found myself inured with the basic belief that the main underlying issue to all my problems was – Me. I'm what's wrong in the world. These thoughts have stayed with me my entire life, even now, writing to you with an open heart and mind. I have traveled the world far and wide; taken to heart many self-help books, sought out the best doctors and healers, consulted spiritual folks whose motives were unclear at the time. Everything and anything else you can imagine, all in an effort to make myself just good enough.
Many of you reading tenderly this early Spring morning, may be thinking that mindfulness, spirituality and self-help are one in the same – the latest trend to follow or a conversation starter at your local yoga studio. I don't believe they are. Using myself as a relatively small sample size, I believe they are fundamentally different. Our society is currently in the process of turning mindfulness into an endless stream of self-help profits – Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction seminars and many other method(s) for correcting our life long ailments. What these programs do, is to misrepresent the awakening that discovering our own spirit offers.
Mindfulness is not about "fixing" anything even remotely spiritual or becoming spiritually better off than anyone else. There is no price tag attached to mindfulness. For myself, mindfulness is freedom. Freedom from the belief of my unworthiness in our mad world … Mindfulness is about acceptance. Mindfulness, when I find myself at the edge of tears after a bad day, is about meeting (again) who we really are, and allowing ourselves to experience this amazing world, in this raw, unsettling moment.
My deepest apologies for being absent Dear Readers. May all your hearts be filled with warmth and happiness this weekend – Take care!
: Homesick :Posted: February 28, 2016 Filed under: Kindness, Meditation, Mindfulness, Yoga | Tags: Cambridge, cycling, Homesick, nebraska, Omaha 11 Comments
His boredom was like a nostalgia for the whole world. He was homesick for everywhere but here-
When I close my eyes, and dream of being back home in Omaha? Sometimes, when everything is just right, Cambridge can look a lot like Nebraska! Minus Tower Bridge and the thousand-year old churches of course …


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Rabbis, farmers, foodies, academics and activists – plus 110 attendees across the denominational spectrum – participated in the second annual food conference hosted by Shoresh Jewish Environmental Programs and University of Toronto's centre for Jewish studies in an afternoon of panel discussions.
From a lesson in backyard chicken farming to a "benching from the heart" workshop, the 11 talks were dynamic and diverse.
Aaron Gross, CEO of Farm Forward, an animal welfare non-profit group, and Jonathan Abrahams, executive chef and director of operations at The Healthy Butcher, which specializes in certified organic meats, looked at the question of reconciling kashrut with contemporary ethics related to animal slaughter.
Gross spoke of what he called "big kosher's complicity" with the injustices of factory farming, referring to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' (PETA) 2004 exposure of animal cruelty at AgriProcessors – the former Iowa-based, glatt kosher slaughterhouse giant.
Reports that about 20 per cent of cattle were conscious during tracheal and esophagus extraction did not stop the Orthodox Union from saying it was still kosher, Gross said.
He criticized the controversial hoist and shackle slaughtering method –prominent in kosher abattoirs in South America – which often sell to the United States and Israel.
Out of concern about fulfilling the halachic stipulation that an animal must be conscious at the time it is first cut, kosher slaughterers refrain from stunning it – leading to what Gross called a violation of the Torah's tz'ar ba'alei chayim, which forbids the unnecessary infliction of pain on all living things.
Kosher slaughtering needn't be problematic in and of itself, he assured, but, in adopting inhumane methods of mainstream commercial farming, kashrut has become part of the problem.
"If we [as Jews] let kosher continue to participate in the factory system, what does that say about us?"
Though raised in a strictly kosher environment, Abrahams spoke of having steered away from kashrut, both personally and professionally, as his career as a chef evolved. His decision is a result of what he's seen as a troubling treatment of farm animals raised for both kosher and conventional purposes.
"Is it kosher – as God intended – to pump an animal full of hormones?" he asked.
Abrahams added that the cost of kosher killing of certified organic animals is not in proportion to the number of interested people in Toronto necessary to make it affordable.
Gross said creating the "eco-kosher" market could be achieved using alternative purchasing co-operatives and a commitment to potentially paying more for meat.
Several people in the crowd – a cross-section of secular and more traditional Jews – expressed frustration at the panellists' failure to provide a clearer roadmap.
But Gross ended on a hopeful note. "There's something possible here. We need to create a model that works in one place – it doesn't have to be perfect… we just need to create that first one."
In another talk, on "Tikkun Olam: Reconstructing a Broken Food System," panellists focused on applying the concept of tikkun olam (repairing the world) to a food system struggling to meet the challenge of global hunger.
Moderator Charles Levkoe, a PhD candidate at University of Toronto who researches the Canadian food movement, said that to change things, we must view hunger as a social construct, spurred by commercial farming, faulty distribution methods and producer-consumer alienation.
"We have enough food… Instead of thinking about how to feed the world, we need to create systems where people can feed themselves," he said.
Ida McLaughlin, national executive director at Mazon Canada, which allocates funds to Canadian food banks, soup kitchens, shelters and school breakfast programs, outlined Mazon's funding criteria.
More and more often, they look for agencies that support fresh produce, practise cultural sensitivity and treat food recipients with respect.
Michael Friedman, manager of agency relations at the North York Harvest Food Bank, said his organization is increasingly looking toward a model that prioritizes community-oriented, member-led programs.
By organizing community garden projects and educational trips to grocery stores, they are nurturing grassroots involvement "beyond just handing out a hamper," he said.
People in the audience asked about concrete ways they could contribute.
McLaughlin emphasized the importance of finding a place to volunteer that best suits one's interests and expertise.
Daniel Hoffman, social worker, organic farmer and head of eco-social enterprise The Cutting Veg, stressed the power of individual action, such as bringing healthy food to work and shopping at farmer's markets. The Cutting Veg runs four Jewish community-shared agriculture programs in the GTA.
"Don't look at us as the leaders. You be the leaders," he said.
Cara Gold, a new Toronto resident and previous volunteer on organic farms, said, "There's a lot more passion in Toronto than I expected for these issues.
"Innately within the practice of social justice there is a deep Jewish connection. This conference is bringing that back into the forefront of our minds – it's easy to forget. Today can help us re-make that connection."


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A key challenge for successful climate change adaptation is the development of institutions that can respond more effectively to an uncertain climate future. Because water is the main medium through which we are likely to experience climate change, institutions that play a role in water resources management have a particular need to become more adaptive in their operations and interactions. WWF-US has just published Shifting Course: Adaptation for Water Management Institutions, a report that identifies a set of principles for climate-adaptive institutions. The report includes five case studies from around the world that highlight different institutional responses to climate change and related challenges.
Read the report.
Glauco Kimura de Freitas, WWF-Brazil
United States
Maria Placht, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Jamie Pittock, Australian National University
Ryan Bartlett, Nicholas Institute at Duke University
Stefano Barchiesi, IUCN
with John Owino, Katharine Cross,
D. Mark Smith
WWF-US, along with the project's Steering Committee, is now planning an exciting second phase of this work that will develop a tool for operational guidance to help water management institutions to promote more climate-adaptive approaches in their operations.
This tool will be piloted with institutional partners around the world, including water management-related organizations at different scales, both in the public and private sectors.
If you are interested in learning more, please Contact us.
The project's Steering Committee is drawn from a number of WWF offices and other leading institutions interested in collaborating around issues of institutional adaptation. They are actively helping to shape the next phase of our work.
Thank you ! We have received your message and will respond shortly.
Return Home, or view other sections from the menu at the top.


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Antitrust Case Filings
Antitrust Case Filings
To filter the list of cases, select desired options from the left navigation pane.
View the list of NAICS and SIC industry codes used by the Division. To view all industry codes, visit Census.gov.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6
|Case Open Date
|Incident Date
|Case Type
|Federal Court
|Industry Code
|U.S. v. Allied Waste Industries, Inc. and Browning-Ferris Industries, Inc.
|May 30, 2006
|Civil Non-Merger
|Specialized Freight (except Used Goods) Trucking, Local
|U.S. v. American Bar Association
|April 5, 2006
|Civil Non-Merger
|Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools
|U.S. v. Cal Dive International, Inc.,et al.
|December 12, 2006
|Civil Non-Merger
|Support Activities for Oil and Gas Operations
|U.S. v. Charleston Area Medical Center, Inc.
|February 6, 2006
|Civil Non-Merger
|West Virginia, Southern District
|General Medical and Surgical Hospitals
|U.S. v. Greater Portland Convention Association, et al.
|March 15, 2006
|Civil Non-Merger
|Oregon, District of
|Casino Hotels, Hotels (except Casino Hotels) and Motels
|U.S. v. QUALCOMM Inc. and Flarion Technologies, Inc.
|April 13, 2006
|Civil Non-Merger
|District of Columbia, District of
|Lessors of Nonfinancial Intangible Assets (except Copyrighted Works), Radio and Television Broadcasting and Wireless Communications Equipment Manufacturing


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Health Bot Overview
What is the Microsoft Health Bot Service?
The Health Bot Service is a SaaS solution that empowers Microsoft partners to build and deploy compliant, AI-powered health agents, allowing them to offer their users intelligent, personalized access to health-related information and interactions through a natural conversation experience. The Health Bot Service is ideal for partners such as healthcare providers, pharmaceutical companies, telemedicine providers, and health insurers. Using the service, these partners can embed a "health bot instance" in their systems to empower their patients, nurses, doctors, and other representatives to interact with medical information systems, allowing the partner to improve processes, services, and outcomes, and reduce costs. Users interact with the chat bot via text or voice in a self-service manner. The Health Bot Service implements natural language understanding (NLP) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to understand the users' intent and provide accurate information. For example, the Health Bot Service can help users with symptom checking. The service contains a built-in comprehensive medical database, including triage protocols. The partner's health bot instance can also be easily extended to include the partner's own scenarios and integrate with many other IT systems and data sources
Why use the Microsoft Health Bot Service?
There's an enormous opportunity to use intelligent health bot instances to make healthcare more efficient. Microsoft is on a mission to democratize AI, and doing this well means tailoring to the needs of specific industries. Today, for example, it's particularly difficult for our healthcare partners to build health bot instances that address the stringent compliance and regulatory requirements of their industry, and to integrate complex medical terms with natural language processing tools. The Microsoft Health Bot Service makes this simple by providing an extensible and easy to use management portal that partners can use to build health bot instances with an array of healthcare-specific configuration options, out-of-the-box triage and symptom checker content, as well as easy integration with our Language Understanding Intelligent Service (LUIS) and other cognitive services.
Our partners are using the Microsoft Health Bot Service to build health bot instances that address a wide range of healthcare-specific use cases. For example, insurers are using our service to build health bot instances that give their customers an easy way to look up the status of a claim and ask questions about benefits and services. Meanwhile, providers have built health bot instances that triage patient issues with a symptom checker, help patients find appropriate care, and look up nearby doctors.
Out-of-the-box AI and world knowledge capabilities
While each health bot instance is highly customizable and extensible, the Health Bot Service is built with a wide range of out-of-the-box features. The Health Bot Service leverages information from respected healthcare industry data sources to generate accurate and relevant responses. The Health Bot Service enables meaningful conversations for patients with an interactive symptom checker and uses medical content databases to answer health questions. Conversational intelligence supports layperson natural language conversations to flow and adapt dynamically as each health bot instance learns from previous interactions. The service intelligence is powered by Microsoft Cognitive Services and credible world knowledge.
Configurable and extensible
The Health Bot Service provides endless flexibility of use to Microsoft partners:
Unique scenarios can be authored by partners for their health bot instances to extend the baseline scenarios and support their own flows.
The health bot instance's behavior can be configured to match the partner's use cases, processes, and scenarios.
The health bot instance can easily be connected to partners' information systems---for example, systems that manage EMR, health information, and customer information.
The health bot instance can be easily integrated into other systems such as web sites, chat channels, and digital personal assistants.
Security and privacy
The information handled by each instance of the Health Bot Service is privacy protected to HIPAA standards and secured to the highest standards for privacy and security by Microsoft. Built on top of the industry-leading Microsoft Azure technology, the Azure architecture powers the Health Bot Service's ability to scale with resilience, while maintaining the highest standards of privacy and security.
Easy to manage
Each health bot instance is easily managed and monitored by Microsoft partners via the Health Bot Service's management portal and management API. The management portal provides the ability to define the health bot instance's behavior in fine detail and to monitor usage with built-in reports. Management API allows the partner to embed the health bot instance and to securely exchange data and information.
Common scenarios
The Health Bot Service contains built-in scenarios. Additional scenarios may be authored through the Scenario Editor.
The built-in scenarios include the following:
Triage/symptom checker, powered by built-in medical protocols: The end user describes a symptom to the health bot instance and the bot helps the user to understand it and suggests how to react; for example, "I have a headache."
General information about conditions, symptoms, causes, complications, and more: Loaded with medical content, the health bot instance can provide information about medical conditions, symptoms, causes, and complications; for example, "information about diabetes," "what are the causes of malaria," "tell me about the complications of arthritis."
Find doctor type: The health bot instance can recommend the appropriate type of doctor to treat an illness; for example, "What type of doctor treats diabetes?"
Examples of scenarios that are typically built by our customers as extensions using the scenario authoring elements include the following:
Health plan inquiries: Your health bot instance can be customized to access information about health plan details, such as pricing and benefits.
Finding providers: Your health bot instance can allow customers to search for doctors by specialty, in-network status, and other specifications.
Scheduling appointments: Your health bot instance can be designed to allow your customers to schedule appointments easily and securely.
The Health Bot Service is a SaaS service built on top of Microsoft Azure. This multi-tenant service provides unique health bot instances for Microsoft partners. The management portal gives each partner detailed control over configuration and extensibility. Authored scenarios are unique to the partner's health bot instance. The health bot instance can be embedded within the partner's digital experience.
Health Bot uses Bot Framework under the hood as a messaging and routing platform to deliver messages to and from the end user. The conversational intelligence and medical knowledge is provided by the Health Bot service in two ways:
- Integrated third-party content - Microsoft partners with trusted content providers to deliver extensive and credible sources of medical knowledge.
- Custom conversational scenarios developed with our visual designer tool to accommodate his most complex and intricate needs. The author can call backend resources using secure and standard authorization and authentication methods. For example he can invoke the HL7 protocol to access patient records.
Partners can integrate the open source Web-Chat client into their native or web applications.
Trust and Compliance
The Health Bot service is HIPAA-ready and has also the following list of certification (alphabetic order):
- AFM and DNB (Netherlands)
- AMF and ACPR (France)
- APRA(Australia)
- Argentina PDPA
- CSA STAR Attestation
- CSA STAR Certification
- CSA STAR Self-Assessment
- Canadian Privacy Laws
- EU Model Clauses
- European Banking Authority
- FCA and PRA (UK)
- FINMA (Switzerland)
- FSA (Denmark)
- GDPR Compliant
- Germany C5
- GxP (FDA 21 CFR Part 11)
- Japan My Number Act
- KNF(Poland)
- MAS and ABS (Singapore)
- NBB and FSMA (Belgium)
- NEN 7510:2011 (Netherlands)
- NHS IG Toolkit (UK)
- Netherlands BIR 2012
- OSFI(Canada)
- RBI and IRDAI (India)
- SOC 1 Type 2
- SOC 2 Type 2
- Spain DPA
- TruSight
The Health Bot service is built on top of Azure. Learn more about Azure compliance offerings.
Microsoft is committed to security, privacy and compliance. Learn more at the Microsoft Trust Center.


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by Sarah Forst
Who among us has not identified a fluid on the driveway or garage floor by color, smell, or even taste? (Don't drink the Kool-ant...) At any rate, you know you're a true gearhead when the intoxicating scent of a fluid can conjure up memories of changing transmission fluid or bleeding brakes. The only way to consider yourself an expert is if you have a few stock ingredients in your garage pantry. And not just the ones required for maintenance or to keep your engine running, but the ones that you need to clean up after yourself too. Find out what Project Garage uses.
So enter Project Guest Garage brought to you by a Canuck friend of mine. Let's start with the details- 30' x 35' main building garage space (1050 square feet for you math geniuses), 672 square feet 2nd floor storage (6'2" ceiling), 13' cantilevered car port, and room for six cars nose to tail though it'll house four for now.
By Sarah Forst
Unless you're the latest Powerball winner, you probably don't have an enclosed trailer or race crew to make engine swaps and clutch jobs a breeze at a track day. But a janky toolset from a garage sale also won't cut it. Whether it's your first time on the track or you've been hotlapping for years, a practical list of the basics will keep you from squandering your piggy bank watching everyone else have fun. Let's take Project Garage to the track!
Project Garage IX: More Garage Tools
Equip your garage with all the tools that will help you perform a number of jobs. Project Garage gets fitted with specialty tools from soldering irons to pulley pullers to oil filter wrenches that will make completing many jobs a breeze and get you back on the road more quickly.
Project Garage is faced with its biggest job yet- swapping in everything from one car to another. Is it up to the task? Can it stay organized and will it ever be as clean again???
Project Garage, Part VII: Garage Tools
A good garage space is useless without an effective collection of tools. From sockets to ratchets, screwdrivers to wrenches, check out what keeps Project Garage stocked with everything it needs for all kinds of car projects.
Air tools are not just about busting nuts. Pneumatic tools are more efficient than electric tools- they can exert more force using less energy and complete jobs more quickly.
Project Garage Part IV: Air Compressors
Many times I've struggled with stubborn bolts, cursing car manufacturers wth a number of expletives in languages I didn't know I could speak. Stripped, rusted, or fused, these bolts can make any breaker bar retire early and hit happy hour. Unfortunately if I ever wanted to mod any of my cars, my only other option was blowing off some steam… well, hot air really. My air compressor is not only convenient, but necessary.
Project Garage, Part IV: Getting Organized
Finding time to work on your car projects is much easier if your garage is organized and efficient. Let's see how to find space for everything we need.
Project Garage, Part 3: New Flooring
Last installment's bright lighting only illuminated how horrible the concrete floors were starting to look. From oil changes and swapping brake rotors to cam installs and shock inserts, Project Garage was getting more business than a Pep Boys Fast and Furious sale.
MotoIQ Proudly Presents Our Sponsors:


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Shadi Al Hroub-The Graphic Design in Media Conception Graphic Design Breakthrough
At Design Interviews
Interview with SHADI AL HROUB : Frank Scott: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?. SHADI AL HROUB : Generally, I always make an effort to keep my research up to date and try to always improve my vision for design and more important how the use design to solve problems. I do this by either engaging in working with my peers or entering competitions for which I have won numerous certificate and awards. .Frank Scott: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?. SHADI AL HROUB : The reason for this is because from a young age I have always had a very high interest in advertising and graphics design everything that is around us has been designed and this has always fascinated me. .Frank Scott: What are your future plans for this award winning design?. SHADI AL HROUB : Looking for the next challenge in design world .Frank Scott: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?. SHADI AL HROUB : two years .Frank Scott: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?. SHADI AL HROUB : This is the path I have chosen for myself to become the best in an area that I find immensely enjoyable. .Frank Scott: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?. SHADI AL HROUB : Right now it used in international universities as book reference for design students .Frank Scott: What made you design this particular type of work?. SHADI AL HROUB : My career has led me to specialize increasingly in the graphic design major at an international level. I have experience in teaching students the necessary skills to become masters in many graphics methods, which is necessary to equip the students for the outside world and their future work environment through effective design and writing skills combined with a clear understanding of the market context. .Frank Scott: Where there any other designs and/or designers that helped the influence the design of your work?. SHADI AL HROUB : myself .Frank Scott: Who is the target customer for his design?. SHADI AL HROUB : Designers and Students .Frank Scott: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?. SHADI AL HROUB : It provides explicit, the detailed look at design structure as process that is used to communicate with the audiences with different cultures through design methods includes the meaning of graphic design as a role, Design processes as techniques, Branding design as market context, Packaging design with prepared templates and contains works from highly imaginative creative's, which are used to indicate the principles of design. .Frank Scott: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?. SHADI AL HROUB : Your mind is your first enemy, if you challenge it, you can challenge others. .Frank Scott: Is your design influenced by data or analytical research in any way? What kind of research did you conduct for making this design?. SHADI AL HROUB : Huge resources from A to Z through design books and magazines. .Frank Scott: Any other things you would like to cover that have not been covered in these questions?. SHADI AL HROUB : available on Google plus Amazon shops .
Shadi Al Hroub-The Graphic Design in Media Conception Graphic Design Breakthrough Images:
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PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) -- The Florida Panhandle is bracing for big waves generated by Tropical Storm Ernesto's crossing of the far southern Gulf of Mexico.
Authorities say the waves create strong rip currents when they hit shore.
Pensacola Beach senior lifeguard Andrew Edwards says that swimmers should be cautious. Ten rescues were made Thursday on Pensacola Beach.
State meteorologist Amy Godsey says the ocean swells generated by Ernesto will affect the northern Gulf coast through the rest of the week.
Ernesto came ashore Thursday near Coatzacoalcos, a major oil port in Mexico's southern Gulf region. The storm weakened as it moved inland and was expected to dissipate Friday.
Ernesto made its first landfall as a Category 1 hurricane late Tuesday in the Yucatan Peninsula.


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16 oz crimini mushrooms, diced
1 1/2 cups Guinness
3/4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 3/4 cup milk
1 Russet potato, peeled, diced
1/2 cup super fine flour (like Wondra)
1/8 cup dried shiitake mushrooms, chopped
2 carrots, cut into coins
2 stalks celery, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, diced
1 shallot, minced
3 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup coarsely chopped Italian parsley
1/2 teaspoon savory
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
1 tablespoon golden syrup
1 bay leaf
1 egg, beaten
freshly ground black pepper
puff pastry (if using defrosted frozen, you will only need one sheet)
Preheat oven to 350. Re-hydrate the mushrooms in hot water. Drain, dice and set aside. Melt the butter in a large skillet with high sides, a large saucepan or a stove top and oven safe 2 quart casserole. Add the onion, garlic, shallot, celery, carrots, fresh mushrooms, and potatoes. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent. Stir in the flour and cook for one to two minutes. Add the milk, Guinness, golden syrup, bay leaf, and stock. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the liquid reduces and thickens a bit, about 10-15 minutes. Fish out the bay leaf. Add the re-hydrated dried mushrooms, herbs and spices. Stir to evenly distribute all ingredients. Cook for 2 minutes. Divide into 6 10 oz ramekins or pour into a 2 quart casserole dish. Leaving about 1/4 to 1/2 inch headspace. Top with a layer of puff pastry. Pierce with a knife. Brush with egg. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbly.


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Disney has come under much scrutiny lately over how it fits into modern society. Time to share some home truths about this controversial topic.
TaleTime "Italian Drug Mule"
18, alone and in a foreign country. Now, security have some rather interesting questions for us.
Short Story "The Bitch with the Corner Office"
We all know her. The woman who has everything we imagined we would have by this point. The woman who looks effortlessly gorgeous. But Sarah hates her. Warning of strong language used throughout and may therefore be considered inappropriate for readers of a young age.
TanyaTale Presents "2017 Q&A"
A Q&A giving away top secret information on the happenings of TanyaTale in 2017 and much, much more!
Short Story "Death Ruins"
A new and very different piece which has been created and developed in a creative writing workshop. Open to suggestions!
TaleTime "The Cold War"
Everybody makes mistakes everybody has those days... arguments are a part of growing up, to check out my biggest milestone argument to date check out this post.
TanyaTale Presents "A letter to THE author"
It is odd how one individual, one stranger, can have such a huge impact on your life without even knowing it. So here is a letter to say thank you Jane Green!
TaleTime "Italian Dine and Ditch"
Who would have thought that such a quaint and beautiful Italian bistro could be the home to so much antagonising?
Short Stories "Train Spotters" and "A Lost Needle"
A few VERY short stories from 2012 with a few strange outlooks on the world. Take a trip inside the mind of a 13 year old!


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by Lou Mancinelli
By tracing the evolution of the former Morgan Tract at Willow Grove and Stenton Avenues from a Civil War hospital in the 1860s to high-rise condominiums and a commercial shopping center in the 1960s, one can discover an interesting slice of Chestnut Hill history and a lesson on politics behind closed doors.
History is the only monument to those times past, whose buildings have all disappeared. The site that was once a Civil War hospital, is the site that 100 years later came to strengthen and mobilize the Chestnut Hill Community Association (CHCA).
Before the arrival of Market Square and Chestnut Hill Village, this tract of land was the site of one of the nation's largest Civil War hospitals.
Planned by architect John McArthur Jr., who also designed City Hall, Mower General Hospital extended from what is now the Wyndmoor train station to Stenton Avenue and from Mermaid Lane to Willow Grove avenues. During its two-year existence from 1861 to 1863, its staff served 20,000 patients transported from Civil War battlefields.
The hospital on 37 acres was shaped like a wagon wheel. In the middle was the administration building, chapel, post office, barbershop, band's quarters, dining hall, operating room, conservatory, engine room and various similar departments. Fifty 2,400-foot-long corridors surrounded the center building like spokes around a hub.
After the war the hospital was torn down, and the property evolved into an 85-acre estate. First acquired on June 1, 1865, by Charles Heebner, the first president of the Chestnut Hill Water Works Company, and later purchased around 1900 by Randal Morgan, vice president of the oil-rich United Gas Improvement Company, the tract would – 55 years later – spark a rebirth and strengthening of the somewhat dormant CHCA.
"I remember my impression was that coming from the residential streets we were suddenly in the middle of a farm," said Meredith Sonderskov, volunteer archivist at the Chestnut Hill Historical Society. Sonderskov recalled being in her family's car one afternoon in 1943 when her father dropped off her younger sister at a birthday party for Morgan's granddaughter, Patsy Morgan.
After thriving for 70 years as a flourishing estate lined with walkways stitched through gardens, sculptures and fruit orchards, and complete with its own farm, animals and the workers to service the land, by the 1950s the tract had become an overgrown tangle of weeds surrounding a Colonial revival mansion.
Following World War II, the estate began to decline. Randal Morgan had died in 1926, and in the 1950s executors of his estate gave Temple University officials an option to purchase the land. Temple planned to move its campus to Chestnut Hill – a move that Philadelphia Mayor Joe Clark felt would destroy North Philadelphia, according to Lloyd Wells.
Wells was a founding father of modern Chestnut Hill, responsible for revitalizing its commercial district and developing local quasi-governmental bodies. He helped to found or reorganize the CHCA, the Chestnut Hill Parking Association, the Chestnut Hill Realty Trust, the Local and the Chestnut Hill Community Association.
In a 1989 interview conducted by the Environmental Research Group, Wells' comments illuminate the role of civics in local government and provide a look at an insider's hand in the game of political poker.
According to Wells, Temple President Robert Johnson told Clark that the university was tied down in North Philadelphia and could not get parking space or new buildings. Clark assured Johnson he would get Temple federal funding and eminent domain.
When Temple cancelled its plans for Chestnut Hill, according to Wells, Meyer Blum, a developer on Temple's board of directors, asked the board for rights of first refusal, meaning he would legally have the first option to purchase the land.
Ultimately, it was Blum's plan for 3,000 residential units and 150,000 square feet of commercial space that became the tail that wagged the dog, as Wells put it, transforming the CHCA. The group was changed from an organization that provided assistance to Girl Scout Troops and landscaping at the Water Tower into a quasi-governmental group.
Wells tells it this way:
"One day [Joe Straus] is coming out on the local train after a day's work. He opens the Evening Bulletin and there in a big double-spread advertisement is 'Meyer Blum Proposes Development of Morgan Tract.' Joe immediately adds two and two and sees that 3,000 is essentially doubling [three people a unit equals 9,000 new residents] the 10,000 population of Chestnut Hill overnight. One-hundred- fifty-thousand square feet of commercial space would be more square footage than the shopping area we already had."
Straus soon created the East Chestnut Hill Neighbors (ECHN) in 1955, but shortly after its founding it was assimilated into the CHCA.
"I said this is going to be a political problem," Wells said in his interview. "We've got to get the biggest representation representing the community. What we've got to do is not work with the [ECHN] but to work with the [CHCA]. Just for the name."
And so it went. The association fought to oppose or at least limit the development. After several years, Blum gave up, and the land was sold to an out-of-town firm, Summit Construction Corp.
"We controlled City Hall," said Wells later in the interview. "We had the Mayor, the Councilman and a great deal of representatives in City Hall at that time. Frankly, we said, 'if you don't listen to us, Summit, we're going to destroy you in City Hall. You haven't a chance in the world.' It was a pure bluff hand. Playing poker, we bluffed him. We said, 'you don't have a chance of getting this thing through unless you cooperate. He said, 'OK. I'll cooperate.'"
The resulting compromise was 1,250 units and about 50,000 square feet of commercial space tucked into the back corner, instead of at the corner of Willow Grove and Stenton Avenues as the developer wanted.
"We got legally binding covenants wherein the community of Chestnut Hill was the beneficiary interest," Wells said. "That was the Morgan Tract. That started the Community Association. That was the main impetus."
In 1961, construction began on Chestnut Hill Village, according to Bartlett. Construction on the high rise began the following year. The supermarket was erected in 1967. It was originally a Food Fair, then a Pantry Pride, A&P, Superfresh, and, finally, Pathmark. In 1971, work began on the portion of Market Square north of the post office, which was built about a year later.
When the Chestnut Grove condominium development was introduced in 1973 it reignited neighborhood controversy.
A June 6, 1974, Local article presented the details. Developer David P. Casani wanted to build 54 units (which he was legally allowed to do by right) behind the Morgan House, which was eventually razed to make room for the townhomes. Community Association representatives opposed Casani's variance for an additional 10 homes.
If Casani built 54 units, he would pay the CHCA $40,000. If they let him build 64 units, (Casani claimed he would lose money if he only built 54 units), he would pay the CHCA a $75,000 cash settlement. Intermingled amidst the power politics was a lawsuit that was eventually settled.
"There's a need for housing here," the article quoted then Chestnut Hill Parking Foundation president Robert Glendinning (who was also Chestnut Grove's selling agent) as saying. "Only five or six houses are on the market, and three or four are more than $100,000. Young people are also needed."
"I'm very disturbed the board is considering taking money to replace trees and open space," said Morris Lloyd, CHCA board member in that 1974 article.
In the end affordable housing won out, and in 1975 construction began. Sixty-four units were built. The CHCA received its $75,000.
The history of the Morgan Tract provides an interesting commentary on the relationship between land and people – powerful and otherwise. And the Market Square development offers a glimpse of the inner-workings of politics: the give and take, the bluff and compromise, and the way a community can rise to a challenge.
Many thanks to the Chestnut Hill Historical Society for their help with the research and revision of this article. For more information visit www.chhist.org or call 215-247-0417.


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Panthers-Flyers Preview
(AP) -- - On the first day of training camp, the Philadelphia Flyers were already a mess.
By the end of the preseason, chairman Ed Snider had grave concerns about the team he founded.
"I thought our training camp, quite frankly, was one of the worst training camps I've ever seen," Snider said. "Nobody shined. Nobody looked good. I couldn't point to one thing that I thought was a positive.
"Unfortunately, my worries were realized."
After a winless start, the Flyers fired coach Peter Laviolette on Monday, three seasons after he led them to the Stanley Cup finals. Assistant Craig Berube, in his seventh season coaching within the organization, was promoted to replace Laviolette.
Berube is the 18th coach in franchise history and will make his debut when Philadelphia hosts the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night.
Despite a preseason vote of confidence from ownership, Laviolette just couldn't overcome a punchless offense, a pair of journeymen in goal and a patchwork defense to jolt the Flyers out of their funk and keep his job.
He dealt with rumors of his firing last season, a year in which the Flyers missed the playoffs after the lockout-shortened campaign. It was the only season in which he failed to make the postseason in Philadelphia.
General manager Paul Holmgren tried to mold a playoff roster in the offseason, signing forward Vincent Lecavalier, defenseman Mark Streit and goaltender Ray Emery. He also jettisoned overpriced and underperforming veterans, like goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov and forward Danny Briere.
Holmgren liked his transactions. He just didn't like how Laviolette was putting the pieces together.
"I think some of the additions that we made this summer were good additions," Holmgren said. "I think there was some excitement about our team going into training camp. Right from Day 1 of training camp, I was concerned.
"But it was more about how we played, and it was unacceptable. We don't look like a team at all."
After a 1-5-1 preseason, the Flyers lost their opener at home last week to Toronto, then lost games on consecutive days over the weekend to Montreal and Carolina. With captain Claude Giroux without a point, and forwards Sean Couturier and Brayden Schenn stagnant, they were outscored 9-3.
Enter Berube, who had 20 goals and 54 points over parts of seven seasons with the Flyers during a 17-year NHL career. He'll be joined by new assistants Ian Laperriere and former Ottawa coach John Paddock. Kevin McCarthy, a part of Laviolette's staff, was fired.
"Just because I've been in the organization a long time doesn't mean I'm going to do the same thing other coaches did," Berube said. "I have my own thoughts. I have my own way of how I want to coach."
Snider is banking on Berube to help turn the team around. Holmgren still has Snider's support even as move after move - starting with the unexpected dismantling of the young core of the 2010 finals team - has backfired.
"I think Paul did an excellent job over the summer with the three players he brought in," Snider said. "It remains to be seen if we were right or wrong."
The new era begins against a Florida team coming off a dismal 7-0 loss to St. Louis on Saturday. The Panthers (1-1-0) were outshot 34-19 after firing 39 shots on net in a 4-2 win over Dallas in Thursday's season opener.
"It was a man's game and we didn't rise to the occasion," coach Kevin Dineen said.
Tim Thomas, the former Boston goaltender named the Panthers' starter after taking a one-year sabbatical, looked sharp while making 25 saves in the opener. He allowed five goals before being pulled after the second period Saturday.
"That's a lesson," Thomas said. "That can happen in this league."
Thomas, who is uncertain to start this contest, is 14-2-1 with a 1.89 goals-against average in his last 17 versus the Flyers, including the postseason.
It's unclear if the Flyers, who have dropped three of the last four meetings with Florida, will start Emery or Steve Mason in net for this game.


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It does take me time to feel that what I'm thinking or doing is worthy of a blog post. I work on my art nearly every day and almost always post photos of my work on Flickr (where you can really zoom in and see the detail) and Facebook. So why blog too? My blog is followed by you (I mean you're here aren't you?) and you deserve an occasional update :-)
I still love my Mandala Beads...generally I work and work on a technique until I feel that I just can't go any further with it. It's right about then that your muse decides to show you something. Low and behold, I accidentally "crackled" some beads and the result is very cool. Guess there is more experimenting to be had...
My first "Mandala Beads and More" weekend workshop was back in January with some wonderful peeps right here in Albuquerque (Annie, Cynde and the gals). Tomorrow, I'm headed to Lenexa, Kansas to spend time with Kim, Donna and their group. I'm sure it will be fabulous!
Anyhow, this workshop in Kansas is coming at a great time. I've had a few health issues to deal with since the beginning of the year and things are beginning to get back to normal. Can't wait to get out of town and active in the community again.
If you'd like to learn my technique for creating "Mandala" crackle beads, drop me a line. I'd love to come to your city too.


text: loz 20 Posted October 18, 2011 Hey Guys, as you will have noticed we have gone through a pretty major update to the site! There are still a HEAP of things i need to change and test - so i am looking for all members to help us out! Please post any bugs you find or changes you want in this thread! (please no general disucssion!) Fixed: -Avatar size (fixed) -Avatar GIF Images (fixed - may need re-uploading by members) -"Edited By" Font Size (fixed) - Active topics added to main menu - Font Sizing issues - Intergrate Calendar To Do: mobile version needs alot of work Quotes & Some Styles not working properly in domains other than ns Intergrate Calendar - Front Page Menu Issues in chrome (can't seem to find the error, can people please tell me their exact version ? works fine in my chrome) facebook intergration needs implementation Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


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Obama Administration Takes Welcome Actions on Food Safety
Working Group Advances E. Coli, Salmonella Protections
WASHINGTON—The food safety working group created by President Barack Obama has directed the various government agencies involved in food safety to place new emphasis on preventing contamination—a move that the Center for Science in the Public Interest says bodes well for the reform legislation moving through Congress. And, says CSPI, it's an important sign that the current administration sees a more active role for government in ensuring the safety of food than previous ones.
For starters, the FDA announced that a long-awaited rule governing the safety of shell eggs has finally hatched.
"This is a good beginning for the Obama Administration when it comes to food safety," says CSPI food safety director Caroline Smith DeWaal. "But it faces many tests of how quickly the administration can fix a weakened federal food safety structure and reverse course on policies wrongly decided under the Bush Administration. Congress must pass the Food Safety Enhancement Act to give the FDA the statutory foundation needed as well as increased financial resources to restore Americans' confidence in the safety of our food supply."
The working group proposed a series of specific activities to reduce the risk of Salmonella and deadly E. coli in the food supply. The recommendations cover FDA- and USDA-regulated foods including eggs, chicken, turkey, beef, leafy greens, melons, and tomatoes. The working group was chaired by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
Under the proposal, the two agencies will provide guidance to increase traceability in the food supply in advance of legislation requiring it. The working group also proposed steps to increase the effectiveness of outbreak surveillance among federal, state and local agencies in addition to using web-based social media to notify consumers of food safety problems.
In a letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg last week, CSPI urged the agency to reinstate a zero-tolerance policy for the lethal Listeria monocytogenes bacteria, which can grow in refrigerated soft cheeses, smoked seafood, and lunch meats; to require the shellfish industry to treat all Gulf Coast oysters harvested during warmer months to kill the deadly Vibrio vulnificus bacteria; and to strengthen its advice to vulnerable consumers on eating fish with high levels of methylmercury.
CSPI had long urged the FDA to finalize the egg rule announced today. That rule will require on-farm controls and expanded microbial testing to eliminate Salmonella Enteriditis in shell eggs. A version of that rule languished for years since CSPI first petitioned the FDA in 1998 to issue such a regulation.
In June, the Food Safety Enhancement Act cleared a key hurdle in the House of Representatives when it was voted unanimously out of the Energy and Commerce Committee. The bill, spearheaded by Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Chairman Emeritus John Dingell (D-MI), requires food processors to identify potential hazards and develop written action plans to prevent contamination. It also requires the FDA to conduct more frequent inspections of food processors and importers, and gives the agency the authority to issue mandatory recalls of contaminated food.
"For far too long, FDA has not had the staff, funding, or even the legal authority to get the job done," said DeWaal. "Things have gotten so bad that even the food industry is clamoring for reform, which is not surprising as consumer confidence in the food industry has fallen to less than 20 percent. But most important, American consumers face a never-ending stream of food- safety failures that result in having to avoid tainted fruits, vegetables, peanut butter, even cookie dough. The time for modernizing our federal food safety system is long overdue."
Contact Jeff Cronin (jcronin[at]cspinet.org) or Ariana Stone (astone[at]cspinet.org).


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Hang Terrance Ho Sin
Classical Ballet / Choreographer
He comes from China. He learnt dancing in Hong Kong and in London, where he also gained first experiences on the stage only to conquer Europe in the 70s. He danced great roles from the 20. century repertoire, e.g. Petrushka, Pucinella or Kashchei in Stravinsky's Firebird.
In 1976 he was named the best dancer of the young generation for the role of Puck in Sperlis's Midsummer Night's Dream shown in Basel, Switzerland. He started creating his own ballets and choreographies very early. Each and every one of them surprised and delighted the audiences by using an innovative mixture of classical and modern elements.
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- Baltic Dance Theater