text:
Skip to Main Content
Doing Business
How Do I...
Departments H-Z
Parks & Recreation
Fun Runs
No Sun Fun Run
No Sun Fun Run
Saturday, 2021 Date TBD
5K & 1 Mile
Nathan Chapman Trail
Race starts at 10 a.m
2020 Race Results
Overall race
Race results by
Join the Fun
Rain, hail, sleet or snow, the No Sun Fun Run will take place no matter what weather our South Sound winter provides. The run is non-competitive and welcomes all ages and abilities on the
Nathan Chapman Memorial Trail
Come dressed warm and bring your enthusiasm for one of the first 5K's of the year. Remember, there's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes.
Course Information
One Mile Course
Not quite ready for a 5K? We've got a 1 mile course for you too! Starting at
Heritage Recreation Center
, the course will run two times around the outside of the ball fields and will finish inside the sports complex between fields 1 and 4.
One Mile Fun Run Course
5K Course
The beautifully forested 5K course on the Nathan Chapman Memorial Trail is very flat and stroller friendly. Starting at Heritage Recreation Center, the course runs around the baseball fields then heads south and takes a large counter-clockwise loop around South Hill Park and forested wetlands. The course then progresses back toward Heritage Recreation Center lower soccer fields, north along 94th Avenue, then west through the lower parking lot (next to Zeiger Elementary) and ends in between fields 2 and 3 inside the sports complex.
5K Fun Run Course
Registration Information
Pierce County Parks and Recreation would like to thank the following sponsors:
Check In & Registration
Arrow Left
Arrow Right
Slideshow Left Arrow
Slideshow Right Arrow


text:
The Obama administration will have to build and operate online health insurance markets for more than 30 states, something few expected when the federal health law was approved in 2010.
With Friday's deadline just hours away, only 17 states and the District of Columbia have proposed running their own insurance markets, also known as exchanges, a key vehicle under the law to expand health coverage to an estimated 23 million people over next 4 years.
"Most analysts did not anticipate that the federal government would end up playing such a big role in the operation of exchanges nationwide," said Caroline Pearson, a director at the Washington, D.C., consulting firm Avalere Health.
When President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, the option to have the federal government run the state markets was seen as a backstop. Administration officials have repeatedly said they hoped most states would run the markets themselves, because they know their insurance markets best.
Most experts thought only states with small populations such as Delaware or Montana would seek federal help. Instead, most will rely on the federal government -- including two of the most populous states, Texas and Florida, which together account for nearly 20 percent of nation's uninsured. By law, the state exchanges must be approved by the federal government by Jan. 1, begin enrollment next October, and have coverage take effect Jan. 1, 2014. Administration officials said they would announce the list of states that had submitted proposals later today.
They stressed that Americans can be assured the markets will be available in every state next year for people to compare and buy coverage. This week, six states -- Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Oregon and Washington -- were given "conditional" approval for their exchanges.
For consumers, the new exchanges will operate similarly to online travel Internet sites Expedia and Orbitz in helping people compare benefits and prices. But the exchanges will also have broad powers to determine which plans are available and the types of benefits offered. They will also determine who is eligible for federal subsidies as well as Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program for the poor.
Most Republican-led states have opted against running an exchange, although Idaho and Nevada this week said they would seek approval. Most did little work to prepare to build exchanges over the past 2 years as they first sought to overturn the health law in the courts and then delayed implementation activities hoping President Obama would lose re-election. Neither occurred.
States that don't run their own exchange have two options: a federal exchange that needs little state participation or a federal partnership exchange, in which states help by performing certain duties such as providing customer service. States have until Feb. 15 to say whether they intend to seek a federal partnership exchange. Four have done so already, said Gary Cohen, director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight at the Department of Health and Human Services.
"I don't envy ... [federal regulators] for the job that they have," Dennis Smith, the top health official in Wisconsin told a congressional committee Thursday. Wisconsin won't pursue a state exchange.
"At the end of the day, you're trying to connect a buyer to a seller. And the fundamental things required to do that are not yet in place," he said.
But Ceci Connolly, managing director at consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, said the work for the administration is the same whether one state or 50 states opt for a federal exchange. The challenge will be in coordinating that federal exchange with various state Medicaid programs and creating a seamless experience for consumers, who are likely to move back and forth between Medicaid and private insurance, she said
"It is going to be a sprint for government officials and the industry to be ready by next fall," Connolly said.
States planning for state exchanges, according to Avalere:
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- District of Columbia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Kentucky
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Nevada
- New Mexico
- New York
- Oregon
- Rhode Island
- Vermont
- Washington
This article, which first appeared Dec. 14, 2012, was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan health policy research and communication organization not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Explore the APIs.
The PSD2-services are grouped into API Products making it easy for the developer to find the correct set of APIs for your application.
By selecting one of the API Products from the list below, you get access to API documentation which gives all necessary details for application development.
When you are ready to test the application in the sandbox, please refer to the Getting Started page for details of api access.
List of available API Products


text:
Cinematic Magic: Using Film in Class
Movies can make your class come alive
By Melinda Barlow
Some days, teaching is thrilling: ideas abound and everyone talks. Others seem lackluster by comparison. Conversation wanes and attention wanders. How to spark interest and energize the room?
Try a clip from a movie, or even a complete film.
The effect can be electrifying. Look around during a screening and you will see everything from nods of recognition to traces of agitation, and hear gasps of fear or delight. Reactions to films are often involuntary, and verbal responses are just as visceral.
Films can overwhelm the emotions and influence perspective. Music, editing, and the hallucinatory quality of the darkened theater in which a dreamlike world unwinds before our eyes, these are the ingredients of a vicarious pleasure inflected by personal and cultural differences.
Narrative filmmaking encourages our tendency to identify, the need to perceive ourselves in what we see on screen. When it is successful, we laugh and cry, exclaim and recoil.
Of all the attitudes associated with film viewing, the assumption that narrative films should be "realistic" is by far the most challenging and pedagogically useful. "I really identified with that character" is a common refrain following a screening, as is its negative counterpart, "I hated him/her." Each catalyzes conversation.
Choosing and using a film clip
Choosing the right clip is a challenge. Pick a short, captivating scene and show it as an opener, when class energy is high, or use it to revitalize conversation later on. A clip provides a concrete focal point for discussion and encourages interaction, especially when framed with a thought-provoking question or a pertinent quotation drawn from an assigned reading. If your subject is contemporary American history, try a clip from The Graduate (1967). If you want to talk about racial relations, show a film by Spike Lee. A reference to Inception is guaranteed to get students going.
Clips utilized for traditional illustrative purposes usually work well. All the President's Men (1976) dramatizes the discovery of the Watergate break-in, and An Inconvenient Truth (2006) sheds light on global warming. But imaginative programming can be even more successful. A colleague in humanities screens an episode of The Twilight Zone ("Living Doll," 1962) to introduce his students to the psychoanalytic concept of projection. Used creatively, film clips always stir things up!
Film is an exceptionally good conversation starter because most people have strong opinions about what they have seen. Tell a friend about a favorite film and your impassioned recommendation may turn into a heated debate. Ask how they understand an open-ended film and you may wonder if you watched the same thing. What one person finds emotionally manipulative is for someone else genuinely moving. What strikes some as authentic is for others implausible. And any praise of documentary objectivity is likely to be met with criticism of bias.
What if emotions get out of hand?
Arguments are tidy, emotions unruly. When you show a film, a wide range of feelings may come your way: anger, enthusiasm, sorrow, frustration, ambivalence, empathy, desire. If students dislike what you screen (and they may), invite debate. In fact, examples of documentary bias and clips from bewildering or provocative narrative films are great choices precisely because they spawn vehement disagreement. A little controversy is a good thing.
Lessons from Rear Window
No film has taught me more about how to guide students from emotions to ideas—and make segues to assigned readings—than Rear Window (1954), which Alfred Hitchcock described as his most "purely cinematic" work.
The premise is simple, the parallel clear: Confined by a broken leg to a wheelchair, L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries (Jimmy Stewart) peers into his neighbors' apartments, while we watch him through the "window" of the screen. His reactions to various scenarios of desire reflect his ambivalence about Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly), and hers reveal mixed feelings about him. Their surreptitious interest in a possible murder mirrors our deepening involvement in their activities as detectives.
This symmetrical investment is set up in a dinner scene. After Jeff toasts "Miss Lonelyhearts," who pours a drink for an imaginary date, he and Lisa debate the prospects for "Miss Torso." Jeff calls her a "queen bee with her pick of the drones;" Lisa contends "she is doing a woman's hardest job, juggling wolves."
"Men and women usually identify with their own gender," a student said in response to this scene. "But Jeff also identifies with Miss Lonelyhearts," added another, "and we feel it because we see him in close up." Both were right. Identification here is differentiated by gender, but when Jeff raises his glass, his own loneliness is apparent.
By inter-cutting close-ups of Jeff with increasingly tighter shots of the people he finds intriguing, the film aligns us with his illicit point of view—one Lisa exposes when she is attacked. "Jeff feels helpless when he sees her in danger, and we feel helpless when Lars Thorvald (Raymond Burr) attacks him," another student ventured, "but thankfully Thorvald can't climb through the screen!" All true.
Then the clincher: "We have more power than he does, because he can't see us. I like that feeling. It beats identifying with Miss Lonelyhearts." Pause. "I'd like to be in love." With this remark, the room fell silent. "Maybe that's TMI (too much information), but that's how the film made me feel."
What a vulnerable thing to say, what a risk to take! It paid off; we were with him. I responded with a passage by Hitchcock scholar Robin Wood: "We tend to select from a film and stress, quite unconsciously, those aspects that are most relevant to us, to our own problems and our own attitude to life, and ignore or minimize the rest."
"That's what I was doing," my student said, "that guy got it right."
A revelation to him and a teaching moment for me. This, I learned, is what teaching with film could be: A humane integration of intellect and emotion that makes the classroom a place of compassion, especially when someone says "I really identified with that character."
Melinda Barlow is Associate Professor of Film Studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where she received the Boulder Faculty Assembly Excellence in Teaching Award and two other teaching awards. This article is excerpted from her piece in the NEA's Higher Education Advocate, April, 2010.
Illustrations by Alan King
Using Movies in Class
Movies or film clips can be a great way to capture students' interest, foster discussion, and liven up a lesson. Do you use movies in class? Which ones? Share your ideas with your colleagues.


text:
SANDY, Utah – Real Salt Lake's internationals had a successful Tuesday night, with forward Alvaro Saborio playing 90 minutes and registering an assist in Costa Rica's 2-0 World Cup qualifying win over Jamaica and captain Kyle Beckerman, defender Tony Beltran and goalkeeper Nick Rimando making the bench for the U.S.'s scoreless WCQ draw at Mexico.
Saborio assisted on Costa Rica's first goal, bringing down a set piece and playing a deflected pass to Michael Umaña, who smashed a shot past Jamaica goalie Donovan Ricketts. Saborio nearly had a goal of his own in the 77th minute, putting a Joel Campbell square ball wide from inside the box.
Beckerman, Beltran and Rimando all made the bench for the U.S.'s scoreless World Cup qualifier against Mexico at Estadio Azteca. The result gave the U.S. just its second ever World Cup qualifying point at Mexico.
Costa Rica and the U.S. now both have four points through three CONCACAF Hexagonal games. Los Ticos are in second-place in the group, ahead of the third-place U.S. on goal difference. Click here for full CONCACAF Hexagonal standings
Beckerman, Beltran, Rimando and Saborio will all travel back to Salt Lake City on Wednesday. The quartet will be available for RSL's home match against Seattle Sounders FC on Saturday.


text:
DFAT unable to confirm reports Australian killed in Syria
CONSULAR officials in Cairo are investigating the possible death of an Australian man killed in Syria, believed to be from Melbourne.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has been unable to confirm reports from Syria that the man was killed.
But a departmental spokeswoman told ABC the man was believed to be Melbourne-based Turkish-Australian Yusuf Toprakkaya.
A video posted online by a group with links to Syrian rebels shows the man mixing explosives, and riding in a convoy with rebels.
The video identified the man as "Abu al-Walid - The Australian".


text:
Job Seekers, Welcome to Western University of Health Sciences College of Veterinary Medicine
The job you tried to view is no longer active.
See similar jobs below or perform a new job search.
See similar jobs below or perform a new job search.
Sort By
3,389 'associate OR veterinarian OR STATECODE:"NY"' Jobs
Scarsdale, New York
Central Animal Hospital
1 Month Ago
Westhampton Beach, New York
Westhampton Beach Animal Hospital
1 Month Ago
babylon, New York
1 Month Ago
Flushing, New York
The Pet Doctor
2 Months Ago
Brooklyn, New York
Bensonhurst Veterinary Care
2 Weeks Ago
New York, New York
Heart of Chelsea Veterinary Group
2 Months Ago
Granville, New York
Granville Veterinary Service Large Animal
2 Months Ago
Ontario, New York
County Line Animal Hospital
4 Weeks Ago
Powered By


text:
Advanced Search
advanced search
Bulletin nº:
4 contents match your search.
Bulletin nº Vol 68 (1) - 2019
Publish Date: 23 April 2019
WMO appointed Pavel Kabat as its first chief scientist and research director in autumn 2018. He will guide the overall strategic direction of the WMO science, and its underlying research...
Bulletin nº Vol 64 (2) - 2015
Publish Date: 10 December 2015
Geneva, mid-autumn 2015 – The motto of the city of Paris – Fluctuat nec mergitur (Tossed about by swelling waves, she does not sink) is perfectly suited for upcoming events...
Bulletin nº Vol 64 (1) - 2015
Publish Date: 2 March 2015
WMO ranked 2014 as the hottest year on record. In 2015, the United Nations Member States will adopt three major agreements that relate to the environment. The first, in March, is in the area of disaster risk reduction. The second, in September, will promote sustainable development. The third, in December, aims to limit average global temperature increases and the resultant climate change.
Bulletin nº Vol 63 (2) - 2014
Publish Date: 3 November 2014
An introduction to the content and articles found within Volume 63 (2) of the Bulletin, published in November 2014.


text:
To use Microsoft Outlook Web access, browser settings must allow scripts to run. For information about how to allow scripts, consult the Help for your browser. If your browser does not support scripts, you can download
Microsoft Internet Explorer
for access to Outlook Web Access.
Security (
show explanation
hide explanation
This is a public or shared computer
Select this option if you use Outlook Web Access on a public computer. Be sure to log off when you have finished using Outlook Web Access and close all windows to end your session.
This is a private computer
Select this option if you are the only person who uses this computer. Your server will allow a longer period of inactivity before logging you off.
Warning: By selecting this option, you confirm that this computer complies with your organization's security policy.
Use Outlook Web Access Light
The Light client provides fewer features and is sometimes faster. Use the Light client if you are on a slow connection or using a computer with unusually strict browser security settings. If you are using a browser other than Internet Explorer 6 or later, you can only use the Light client.
User name:
SafeNet Microsoft Exchange Plugin
© 2017 SafeNet Inc. All rights reserved.


text:
Tribute in Lights
This is a nice shot of the buildings this year. And with the weather so nice, it's probably getting quite a few looks this weekend. Anyone know if the Marine Unit or Air One can get full panoramic shots of the skyline with this?
Labels: events, officer down


text:
Maine Man took the boys out ice fishing this week and captured some great pictures along the way. They even caught some fish!
Jeb had no problems keeping up with the boys
The boys did most of the work drilling the holes and tending their traps so MM had a lot of time to reflect upon how far they've come. I think in many aspects he was very pleased. However, he did mention it wouldn't be long before he would no longer be needed. Bittersweet for him I'd dare say.
With a few pounds of fish needing cooking I recalled my FAVORITE go-to chowder recipe from a post back in 2009. I triple the batch every time I make it and usually use shrimp and scallops along with fish. Here is the link directly to the fish chowder recipe.
The simplicity of the recipe is what I love the most. A few staple ingredients and…. Viola!
I also love that it is a favorite with everyone in the family.
Happy Cooking!


text:
Orioles rally late but can't catch rival Rays
Wieters homers in ninth to bring Baltimore within three in losing effort
BALTIMORE -- As much respect as the Orioles have for Rays ace and reigning American League Cy Young winner David Price, manager Buck Showalter spent the past two days explaining that the tougher test was actually Tampa Bay right-hander Alex Cobb.
Unfortunately for Showalter, Cobb proved him right, holding Baltimore to just three hits in a dominant six-inning outing that presented the latest challenge for an erratic Orioles lineup. On Tuesday, fresh off stranding a season-high 15 runners, the O's fell deeper into their funk with a 7-4 loss to the division-rival Rays that dropped them farther behind in the postseason picture.
As the playoff races heat up with the final month of the regular season looming, the third-place Orioles are scuffling in nearly every facet of the game. Tuesday's defeat -- which also featured a short start from Miguel Gonzalez and four runs allowed by the bullpen -- is the sixth in eight games and puts Baltimore 5 1/2 games behind AL Wild Card-leading Tampa Bay.
"We just need things to go our own way," said manager Buck Showalter, whose club has lost seven of its last eight against Tampa Bay. "We need to make our own breaks."
The Orioles, who stunned the baseball world last season in clinching their first postseason berth -- and winning season -- in 15 years, are 67-58 through 125 games. Last year they were 68-57 at that point and the sense in the clubhouse, despite being eerily quiet following Tuesday's loss, continues to be one of optimism.
"It's not the position we would prefer to find ourselves in after the first two games of the series, that's for sure, but there's still plenty of baseball left for us to make up some ground," said left fielder Nate McLouth, whose nine-pitch strikeout to end the seventh inning was one of several key at-bats, as Baltimore scored just one run after loading the bases with no outs.
"In the sense [that these are divisional games], they definitely are [more magnified], but I think if you look at it like that, it kind of puts more pressure on you, even though they are extremely important games. If you come out tomorrow and say, 'We've got to win tonight's game to make up for last night's game,' I don't think that's the right way to look at it either."
So how will Showalter's club avoid panicking?
"That's a mental toughness thing," Showalter said. "I know a lot of people look at it from afar, but I don't worry about that. We look at it like, we've won two out of four, and tomorrow's the start of something good. You'd be surprised how quickly this season can slow down, and things can turn quickly. So you've got to be prepared to take advantage of that, and we have the people to do it.
"At some point some of the frustration they feel will start getting played out on the field, toward the opposition."
Cobb served only to frustrate them further. After yielding an unearned run in the second inning, Cobb went on to retire 11 of 12, needing just 61 pitches to get through five and cruising until Matt Wieters' leadoff walk in the seventh. J.J. Hardy followed Wieters with a single to center and Ryan Flaherty worked a walk to load the bases, spelling the end of Cobb's night and bringing in Alex Torres
"[Rays manager] Joe [Maddon] just told me when I came in, 'Forget about the runners,'" said Torres, who got second baseman Brian Roberts to bounce into a run-scoring double play on his second pitch. "'Focus on the guy you're going to face right now.' That's what I did. I just focused on Roberts, tried to get a ground-ball double play. ... That's a big opportunity right there."
Roberts' double play, although it pulled Baltimore within a run, left just a runner on first, and Torres followed up with a strikeout of McLouth.
"They brought in that lefty with that really good changeup to come in and do exactly what he did," McLouth said. "And that's why they're such a tough team, because they can make life pretty tough on you."
It was a tough night for the Orioles' pitching staff, starting with Gonzalez, who battled all evening and issued four walks over 5 2/3 innings. The righty was charged with three runs, two earned, on eight hits in the 112-pitch outing.
"That was a tough one," said Gonzalez, who wasn't hit particularly hard but struggled with location. "The first inning was great, and then I just had to battle the other innings. It's tough to pitch against a team that is playing good. They got three infield hits and a couple of broken-bat base hits. That's a tough one to swallow."
Lefty T.J. McFarland, who retired the first five Rays he faced, allowed a two-run double to Matt Joyce in the ninth before making way for struggling closer Jim Johnson. Johnson, who has not converted his past three save opportunities, gave up a two-run single to Wil Myers to allow the Rays to push the lead to five runs.
The Orioles tried to rally in the ninth, with the red-hot Wieters hitting a two-run homer off Rays reliever Wesley Wright. Hardy then worked a walk, prompting Maddon to bring in closer Fernando Rodney, who retired the next three batters to record his 29th save.
"It's good [it's up to five games], because they're good," Maddon said of his club's Wild Card lead over Baltimore. "The Orioles are a really good ballclub, and they're still not going to go away."


text:
Equinix Enables Secure, Compliant and Transformative Access to Network, Cloud and IT Service Providers
Equinix is the leading strategic data center platform for government solutions, hosting the largest network of facilities, clouds and service providers.
Connect and protect data and workloads in direct support of U.S. government initiatives, standards and compliance requirements.
Search Certifications and Standards
Flexible Solutions Designed for Government
- Distributing applications to users
- Data analytics on demand
- Disaster Recovery and COOP
- Bring the cloud to the data
- Multi-cloud flexibility
- Internet of Things
Key Benefits
Standards and Compliance
Comply with the rigorous standards and compliance needs of government: FISMA High • NIST 800/53 • SOC 1 Type II • SOC 2 Type II • ISO 27001 • HIPAA • PCI DSS
Proven, industry-leading uptime record for mission-critical applications
5-Layer Security
Consistent physical, human and electronic security measures at every facility
Cloud Computing
Bypass the public Internet with secure, direct connections to the most diverse ecosystem of cloud and technology providers
Improve Performance, Reduce TCO
Reduce latency and provisioning; migrating CAPEX to lower-cost OPEX
Government Network Carriers
Secure, direct connections to 1,800+ network carriers, including GSA Networx and WITS providers
Culpeper and Miami Facilities Extend Equinix Government Interconnection Platform
Recently acquired, Miami, FL and Culpeper, VA facilities extend the existing footprint of government-grade facilities. With over $17 billion invested, Equinix is committed to providing incremental capacity for government in existing and emerging geographies around the world.
Interconnection is Critical to IT Modernization and Digital Transformation in Government
See how direct interconnection gives U.S. Government agencies the ability to benefit from the same high performance architectures transforming industries around the globe.


text:
The Root: Emptying The Piggy Bank For A Flying Pig
Michael Steele is the former chairman of the Republican National Committee and served as lieutenant governor of Maryland from 2003 to 2007.
Summertime, and the living won't be easy. From electricity to groceries to clothing, the cost of everything you need, and of most things you want, has increased. But there are few places where Americans have felt the sting of higher prices more profoundly than at the gas pump. And you don't have to own a car to feel it; just get on a plane, take the train — heck, catch a cab.
As we begin to pack up the family car for that long-awaited summer vacation at Grandma's house, a gallon of gasoline averages $3.80, $1.07 more than this time last year. Maybe you can just email Grandma a photo of the kids instead.
Or better yet, maybe President Barack Obama could address workers at a research facility funded by a $528.7 million stimulus-act grant to develop a new alternative mode of energy-efficient transportation: airborne porcine units (also known as "flying pigs"). Although the facility won't have produced a commercially viable prototype, Obama could go on to express confidence that, with additional government investment (aka "spending"), the needed technology breakthroughs would be achieved. I can hear him now: "When pigs fly, my energy policies will be vindicated, and the taxpayer dollars we have committed to this effort will greatly lessen our dependence on foreign oil."
Fantasy? Of course, but then again, taxpayers are on the hook for a $528.7 million loan to a company seeking to make plug-in electric cars that the Obama administration announced with great fanfare in 2009. The result? That company recently breathlessly announced that it plans to sell a car for the bargain price of $96,850 that charges in "as little as six hours" and has — wait for it — a 50-mile rangebefore a backup gasoline engine kicks in.
If all goes well (and it hasn't so far), the company says, it hopes to sell, eventually, 15,000 vehicles per year worldwide. That is less than 1/100th of 1 percent of the vehicles now on America's roads. For this we spent more than $500 million?
President Obama also flew into Kansas City, Mo., to tout Smith Electric Vehicles, a firm that received Recovery Act funds to build all-electric, zero-emissions commercial trucks as "the promise of a brighter future." The reality, though, is that nearly the same percentage of Americans will commute to work today on flying pigs as will pull out of their driveways in fully electric vehicles — a real taxpayer-subsidized panacea that the president claims will solve our energy problems.
Hope is not a strategy, and wishful thinking is not a policy. And yet when it comes to energy, the president is literally tilting at some pretty expensive windmills.
The Real Energy Challenge for America
In a fall 2007 article for the Journal of International Security Affairs, I noted that in the era of global terror, security of the oil supply had trumped pricing of that supply in the energy calculus. For decades, U.S. energy policy was based on creating a military defense umbrella around the Arabian Peninsula in order to guarantee the steady supply of crude oil from exporters like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Iran and Iraq.
And while the warning signs of the problems inherent in this arrangement were plentiful — the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s, the Iranian hostage crisis, the Beirut embassy bombing, the decade-long Iran-Iraq War, and war between the U.S. and Iraq — it took an event like Sept. 11 to focus the public's attention on our dysfunctional relationship with the region.
In his 2006 State of the Union address, President George W. Bush declared that America is " addicted to oil" and outlined a goal of reducing our dependence on oil imports from the Middle East by 25 percent by 2020 through a combination of conservation and fuel diversification. President Bush also noted that part of his "Advanced Energy Initiative" would include increased funding for "research in better batteries for hybrid and electric cars, and in pollution-free cars that run on hydrogen."
The reality, however, is that "investment" in such programs is still very expensive and speculative, and in order for our economy to continue to grow, America will continue to rely on oil imports to fuel our economic growth for decades to come. It is prudent, then, for U.S. policymakers to put greater emphasis on diversifying our current set of energy suppliers while seeking a more cost-effective and U.S.-centric energy policy.
The pinch at the pump is a national wakeup call that we are not in control of our energy sources; we don't even have an energy policy that leads us to energy independence and efficiency. Instead we find ourselves held captive by the oil politics of Venezuela, China's ravenous oil consumption, instability in the Middle East and aggressive oil speculation on Wall Street.
After three decades of both Republican and Democrat Congresses and presidents, we are still no further along in creating true energy independence through a commonsense, comprehensive energy policy.
Investing in What Works
The president continues to insist that if we throw tens of billions of taxpayer dollars (ideally spent in key swing states) at faddish energy initiatives, those massive sums, combined with the magic elixir of "hope" (which, in this context, may be more accurately characterized as wishful thinking), will overcome basic principles of both science and economics. His policies, Obama tells us, will transform technological toads into princes, and bring down the prohibitive costs of investment and research into alternative fuel sources to affordable levels (or, at least, mask those costs and shift them to taxpayers through massive subsidies).
The sole determinant of what should be included among our nation's energy policies is whether something works — not whether it is popular among the self-congratulatory environmental scolds of Manhattan's Upper West Side. We absolutely should promote conservation and energy efficiency, but those efforts will be successful only if they acknowledge technological and economic realities.
Standard filament lightbulbs and gasoline-powered internal combustion engines are proven, affordable technologies that should be further refined to become more efficient, not treated as crimes against humanity. Even incremental improvements in the energy consumption of these items will confer far greater benefits than the energy alternatives that have provided the backdrop for so many presidential photo ops, and have consumed so many billions of taxpayer dollars.
Also, if we are serious about reducing our dependence on foreign oil — a doubtful premise with this administration — we must do more to develop our domestic energy resources. And yes, that means, dare I say it, "Drill, baby, drill!" to increase offshore oil development. But I am not the only one to say it. President Obama recently acknowledged in a national radio address the need to increase domestic oil production in order to reduce high gas prices.
Well, he didn't actually use those words, but he did order the interior secretary to begin annual lease sales for drilling in Alaska's Natural Petroleum Reserve. It's a start.
As much as the president has pretended otherwise, the laws of supply and demand cannot be repealed. It took $4 gas to convince him that current supplies are inadequate and will only get worse as the energy consumption of other rapidly industrializing countries continues to grow.
Our nation finds itself ever more vulnerable to global instability, Mother Nature and economic uncertainties because we remain beholden to old strategies, failed solutions and tenuous alliances. We can no longer afford them.
Nor can we afford to borrow and spend precious taxpayer dollars ($42 billion in stimulus funding) on so-called energy initiatives, each more delusional than the next. With such an extravagant outlay of pork on such unworkable schemes, I just want to know: How many miles will I be able to fly my new pig before it's time to fill 'er up again?
Copyright 2020 The Root. To see more, visit .


text:
Contacted by the Daily News, the lead attorney representing J.C. Romero in his lawsuit against the manufacturer and distributors of 6-OXO Extreme said the Phillies lefthander felt he had been "duped" by the various parties.
"He was led to believe the supplement he was taking was not a banned substance, and that's really the basis of the complaint," South Jersey-based Jeffrey Craig said.
"Major League Baseball is not a party here. He was duped by the drug manufacturer who mislabeled the product and the retail store that sold the product."
Romero has steadfastly insisted that the positive drug test that has sidelined him for 50 games was the result of a tainted supplement. Today, he has taken his battle to the courtroom, filing a lawsuit in the Superior Court of New Jersey against Ergopharm Inc. and Proviant Technologies, which manufactured the supplement 6-OXO, and the companies that own and operate the Vitamin Shoppe and GNC.
GNC spokeswoman Laura Brophy said the company doesn't comment on pending lawsuits. Messages for representatives of the other defendants have not been returned.
Romero tested positive on Aug. 26, 2008, for androstenedione, a banned substance under Major League Baseball's steroid testing program.
The lawsuit, filed today, does not seek specific monetary damages. Romero's 50-game suspension will cost him roughly $1.4 million in salary.
The lawsuit claims the following damages have been incurred, the amounts of which will be proven at trial:
1) The loss of past income and earning capacity
2) The loss of income and earning capacity which Romero can reasonanbly be expected to have enjoyed in the future.
3) Past and future pain, suffering and humliation.
4) Loss of enjoyments of life, past and future.
Romero is alleging negligence, breach of implied warranties, strict product liability, intentional misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation, violation of the New Jersey consumer fraud act, punitive damages against all defendants
"Testing positive and being suspended from baseball was one of the most painful experiences in nmy life and robbed me of the joy of winning the World Series and damaged my reputation in the process," Romero said in a statement. "I purchased an over-the-counter supplement that I was told and believed would not cause me to test positive. These events have hurt me deeply and placed a cloud over my career, accomplishments and family. It is my hope that I can finally start to put this event behind me and protect the interests of others who rely on manufacturers and retailers to be honest about their products. I look forward to rejoining the Phillies and my teammates at the end of my suspension."
Messages left with the defendants have not been returned at this point. More information as we get it.
Daily News Staff Writer Dave Davies contributed to this report.


text:
We hope LSU fans do not take it as an insult that hardly anyone considers their title legitimate; every season has to crown one champion, however the champion is crowned, and LSU is fortunate enough to be that team. More power to them; they deserve it, we supposed. But let's skip the charade.
It is only fitting that the most exciting and bizarre college football season in a decade would with ... a pedestrian game between two traditional powerhouses. You can't tell us Missouri vs. West Virginia wouldn't have been more fun.
But yes, congratulations to LSU, particularly to those still recovering from Britney Spears. You are the "champion," of "college football." We guess. Somebody has to be.
Oh, and please: No more Ohio State in a national title game. Ever.


text:
328 Serial Link Functions
From ROBOTC API Guide
(Redirected from ARDUINO Functions Serial Link)
ARDUINO → Functions and Variables → 328 Serial Link
The 328P-Based Arduino has 1 serial ports. This serial port is typically reserved for use for downloading programs and using the ROBOTC debugger. Users can change the serial port to have control over the RX and TX lines, but doing so will render the ROBOTC debugger useless. Users may also experience an issue when trying to download new code after running a program that modifies the Serial Port for non-system use - We are currently working on this issue, but the temporary work around is to download the ROBOTC firmware again to restore normal functionality.
|short getChar(const TUARTs nPort)
|(short) Function will retrieve the next character from the buffer that was sent to port 'nPort'.
|void sendChar(const TUARTs nPort, short nChar)
|(void) Function will send the next character to port 'nPort'.
|void setBaudRate(const TUARTs nPort, TBaudRate nBaudRate)
|(void) Function will set the Baud Rate for port 'nPort'.
Acceptable Baud Rates: 1200, 2400, 4800, 9600, 19200, 38400, 57600, 115200, 200000, 230400 and 250000.
|void configureSerialPort(const TUARTs nPort, TSerialPortMode nMode)
|(void) This function will manually configure the serial port for a specific mode (system, user, Xbee, VEX LCD, etc). You can also set this same functionality using the "Motors and Sensor Setup" window.
|bool bXmitComplete(const TUARTs nPort)
|(bool) Function will return if the transmit (Xmit) buffer is empty.


text:
Cub Scout Pack 200 is a family oriented Pack whose scouts come from various schools surrounding Warminster and Warwick. Our pack is chartered by Neshaminy Warwick Presbyterian Church. We are a member of the Lenape district of the Bucks County Council, BSA.
We currently hold Pack meetings every third Monday of the month (Sept-June) in the auditorium at Neshaminy Warwick Presbyterian Church, 1401 Meetinghouse Rd Warminster, PA. If you wish to join, please stop by and talk with our Cubmaster, Committee Chairperson or one of our Den leaders. Or contact Bob Trucksess, 267-872-3586.
Activities The Boys Can Look Forward To:
For The Community:
For the Boys:
Minor League Baseball Games
And There's Always Family Camping!


text:
The UFC returns to action next Saturday after a week off, and the stakes will be high in the welterweight division.
"UFC 158: St-Pierre vs. Diaz" takes place at Bell Centre in Montreal. It's the UFC's second trip to Montreal in four months, and once again hometown favorite and welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre (23-2 MMA, 17-2 UFC) headlines, this time in a fight against former Strikeforce champ Nick Diaz (26-8 MMA, 7-5 UFC) that has quickly escalated into high-level grudge territory.
Diaz returns from a yearlong suspension after testing positive for marijuana metabolites following his UFC 143 loss to Carlos Condit in an interim welterweight title fight while St-Pierre still was on the shelf rehabbing from knee surgery. Earlier this week on a conference call with media members, the two went at it in one of the most memorable media calls in UFC history. St-Pierre makes a quick turnaround after beating Condit in November at UFC 154.
The card also features two pivotal welterweight fights as Condit (28-6 MMA, 5-2 UFC) meets Johny Hendricks (14-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) in the co-main event, and Jake Ellenberger (28-6 MMA, 7-2 UFC) takes on former Strikeforce champ Nate Marquardt (32-11-2 MMA, 1-1 SF).
Check out the UFC's extended video preview for next Saturday's event above.
The UFC 158 card includes:
MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)
- Champ Georges St-Pierre vs. Nick Diaz – for welterweight title
- Carlos Condit vs. Johny Hendricks
- Jake Ellenberger vs. Nate Marquardt
- Chris Camozzi vs. Nick Ring
- Colin Fletcher vs. Mike Ricci
PRELIMINARY CARD (FX, 8 p.m. ET)
- Patrick Cote vs. Bobby Voelker
- Antonio Carvalho vs. Darren Elkins
- Jordan Mein vs. Dan Miller
- Daron Cruickshank vs. John Makdessi
PRELIMINARY CARD (Facebook, 6:35 p.m. ET)
- Quinn Mulhern vs. Rick Story
- TJ Dillashaw vs. Issei Tamura
- Reuben Duran vs. George Roop
For more on UFC 158, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.


text:
In many ways, Playstation 3 first-person shooter Resistance was a return to their roots for the studio behind Ratchet and Clank and Spyro the Dragon.
First-person shooters were what got founder Ted Price into the business of making games.
The first game Insomniac Games made was shooter Disruptor for the Playstation.
"We were working with Universal Interactive Studios," he said. "What we did was our own grassroots marketing when it came out. We had a poster and a T-shirt. They said 'Think Fast, Shoot Fast, Kick arse.'
Price started up his company to make shooters because that was the sort of game he loved to play.
"I want to make something like Doom and I had no problem plagiarizing Doom," he said.
When the chance to make a shooter for the Playstation 3 came along from Sony, who knew they needed a hardcore game for the launch of their new console, Price jumped at it.
"It was fun to go bak to that excitement" he said. "Breaking out of that Ratchet mindset."
But breaking free of the series, after five games and seven years, was harder than expected, Price said.
"The first iterations looked nothing like Resistance," he said. "They were a little cartoony, it was half between mature and half teen."
Still the basic premise was there, a game set on an alternative 1950's Earth dealing with an alien invasion. That was the anchor.
Resistance finally came together and found its own passionate following. Now working on the third game in the series, Price says the company is learning to listen to those gamers.
Resistance 3 brings with it a lot of the things that fans of the original title thought was missing from Resistance 2, he said.
"I know when we released Resistance 2 we changed up a lot of stuff that fans weren't happy with," he said. "We've brought back a lot of that in a game that's far superior.
"Our goal has been to make a game where it feels really good to shoot Chimera."
While Insomniac has always been very open to using the latest console technology in their games, Price still won't talk about the possibility of Move controls in Resistance 3.
I talk him through my own experiences playing Killzone 3. In many ways, playing with the Move felt like a better experience to me, I tell him.
He seems genuinely interested.
"Move is a great technology," he says, "But I'm not going to say anything about" it's possible use in Resistance 3.
While Insomniac isn't working on the upcoming Resistance game for Sony's NGP portable, Price says that they're "always available" to xxx who is making the game.
"Our expertise is on the traditional consoles," he says. "I personally think it's important to take what you're good at and do the best possible job."
The goal is to keep these portable Resistance titles, like Resistance Retribution before it, separate but connected.
"Fans who play the NGP version will feel like it's part of the Resistance franchise," he said.
As Insomniac makes the leap from essentially single-platform development to games made for two consoles, there are some things to keep in mind, Price says.
"We know about the technological challenges," he said. "The Playstation 3 versus any other platform, the PS3 is on Blu-Ray. Any other platform has half of the storage space, so we need to be careful about how we're laying it out."
Price says the studio is very excited about supporting Sony fans, but they're also looking forward to taking their name to an entirely new audience.
"The Xbox 360 community is thriving," he said. "I understand the (negative) reaction some PS3 gamers have had completely. When you're a fan of a franchise or developer or platform change can be scary.
The bigger concern that gamers seem to have about the leap to multiplatform, Price said, was that Insomniac may not be prepared for it.
"The worry most people had was that because we were going multiplatform with a franchise we wouldn't deliver the same level of polish with that game," he said.
Price says that the team has always been cross-platform gamers and that has really helped.
Very little is known about the game Insomniac will make for the Xbox 360 and PS3 other than that it is part of a new universe and that Electronic Arts will be publishing it.
Price only tells me that the coming game will be something different for the studio a chance for them to branch out.
"What is great about being an independent developer is that we make the calls on what we create," he said. " We aren't a racing studio, shooter studio, platform studio. We just make the games we like.
"We've never been afraid of branching out."


text:
Published: June 15, 2012
Corinne Hughes has studied art and literature at the Evergreen State College in Washington. She has spent a semester in Irkutsk for language immersion and then another semester in St. Petersburg to engage more in cultural studies. In the fall of 2013, she will continue developing her research methods, focusing on the strife between politics and art in Hungary. Thereafter, she will study Russian language abroad in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan prior to graduation. Her long-term goal is to promote international communication and collaboration between artists in the United States, Russia, and Eurasia.
Program attended: Challenge Grants
View all posts by: Corinne Hughes


text:
Johannesburg - Phuti Mahanyele, the CEO of Shanduka, the Cyril Ramaphosa-run investment company, which last month bought a significant minority stake in MTN Nigeria, is in a romantic relationship with Sifiso Dabengwa the president and CEO of MTN.
MTN is the 78.8% controlling shareholder of the West African business.
The couple share a home in the ultra-high net worth Johannesburg enclave of Sandhurst. The nature of their personal relationship is relevant in the context of a growing list of potential conflicts of interest and governance questions emerging from Shanduka's acquisition, from third parties, of a significant minority stake in the Nigerian subsidiary.
MTN has actively sought to distance itself from the
transaction as it says it was not involved in either the sale or purchase of
the shares.
However, Ramaphosa's influence over both boards and now the revelation
of the personal relationship between the respective CEOs, do raise serious
additional questions about governance around the transaction.
MTN declined to comment on the personal relationship between the CEOs but did not deny its existence.
Former trade unionist Ramaphosa, now Africa's 36th richest resident according to Forbes magazine and recently touted as a political front-runner for the post of deputy president at the ANC's Mangaung conference, is executive chairman of Shanduka and is listed by MTN as its independent non-executive chairman.
Shanduka, which owns 0.45% of MTN Group [JSE:MTN], announced
late last month that it had made a $335m investment in MTN Nigeria.
was CEO of the Nigerian business from 2004 to 2006 and would thus have an
intimate working knowledge of the operations and investment potential.
MTN disclosed in October that subscriber numbers across its Africa and Middle East network were within a hair's breadth of 183m. Its single largest market is Nigeria, which has more than a quarter of all group subscribers – nearly twice the number it has in South Africa.
Shanduka has not disclosed the size of its MTN Nigeria
holding but the percentage stake is believed to be in high single digits.
The subsidiary has other minority investors, including local Nigerians and domestic financial institutions, but shares are also traded OTC (over the counter).
Shanduka's nearly R3bn investment, through its Mauritian subsidiary, is the company's biggest outside SA to date. Shanduka itself is 25% owned by the China Investment Corporation, which last year paid $226m for a quarter of the company valuing it around $1bn.
Mahanyele told Summit Television that the deal was like any
other routine transaction in that Shanduka had been approached by Standard
Chartered and another adviser in Nigeria on behalf of third parties.
MTN says due process was followed in terms of the shareholders agreement of MTN Nigeria in which the third party shares were first offered to other local Nigerian minority shareholders in terms of a pre-emptive rights offer. When they declined, and in accordance with the process, the shares were offered to and declined by MTN International, a wholly-owned subsidiary of MTN Group.
"MTN group chairman, Cyril Ramaphosa, was not party to the discussions relating to the waiver of MTN International's pre-emptive rights and recused himself from the vote on the relevant MTN group board resolution. The Group thus rejects speculative commentary which suggested that there may have been a conflict of interest in the transaction," said Paul Norman, MTN group chief HR and corporate affairs officer.
The personal relationship between Mahanyele and Dabengwa brings a new layer of complexity to the way in which the deal was consummated and raises issues on future governance.
"The transaction is just one element of this question, the
big issue is how the conflict will be managed into the future," says Ansie
Romhalo, CEO of the Institute of Directors.
MTN said in a written response to how governance around the transaction would be managed in the light of the personal relationship between the CEOs: "MTN Group manages conflict of interest in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act No71 of 2008. Where directors have a personal financial interest in relation to matters that are under the consideration by the Board, the nature of such interest is disclosed and the relevant member/s are recused from the section of the meeting where such matters are discussed."
*Bruce Whitfield is a senior financial journalist at Finweek magazine. Follow him on Twitter @brucebusiness.


text:
Obama supporters in overdrive to get early votes
Barack Obama volunteer Marilynn Wadden rang more than a dozen doorbells in her first hour canvassing a tidy neighborhood here before stopping to take stock of her progress. Only a handful of voters were home, and, of them, only one agreed to have a ballot mailed to him so he can vote early. Two people said they supported the president but preferred to vote on Election Day. And another said he would back Mitt Romney.
"I wouldn't do this for pay. It'd be too discouraging," Wadden, a 70-year-old retired principal, said. She added that she works to re-elect the president "because in my heart I know how important this is."
If the race is close here and elsewhere, the outcome may come down to how well Obama volunteers like Wadden do their jobs - compelling everyone they can to go to the polls, especially those who are leaning Obama's way, but not a sure thing.
National and state polls taken before the first debate show Obama with a comfortable lead over Romney among Americans who are registered to vote. But the surveys also show Obama is locked in a tight race with the Republican among likely voters, a disparity that underscores the importance that turnout efforts will play in determining who wins the White House.
The latest Associated Press-GfK poll, for instance, found Obama with a commanding lead, favored by 52 percent of Americans to just 37 percent for Romney. Yet among those most likely to vote, the race was statistically tied, with Obama supported by 47 percent of likely voters and Romney by 46 percent. In Florida, a recent Washington Post poll showed the president ahead by 9 percentage points among all registered voters but up by just 4 percentage points among likely voters.
Such gaps suggest that the president has a significant opportunity - if not the need - to expand his vote if his enormous volunteer corps can persuade registered voters who are leaning toward him but don't always make it to the polls to turn out en masse on Election Day. It also suggests that Republican-led efforts to enact state laws restricting early voting periods and requiring voters to produce IDs - critics contend that disenfranchises minorities who tend to vote Democratic - could be important in denying Obama a second term.
Enter Obama's get-out-the-vote operation.
"Everything could come down to just a few votes," says Joan Tozier, a 62-year-old retired teacher who spends weekends in Obama's Sioux City office and every day making calls to neighbors from home. "I'm cautiously optimistic."
Four years ago, the Democrat's campaign identified new voters, registered them to vote, and then got them to polls on Election Day or during early voting periods. The effort was credited with helping put states that traditionally went to Republicans into the Democratic column, and helping Obama win the White House. Since then, Democrats acknowledge that enthusiasm has waned some among those foot soldiers.
Still, even Republicans acknowledge that Obama has an advantage on the ground in most if not all of the most hotly contested battleground states. In Iowa alone, Obama has 67 offices to Romney's 13.
Romney campaign political director Rich Beeson insists that the Republican nominee's ground-game efforts in Iowa and elsewhere are keeping up with Obama's.
"We have an equal number of contacts on the ground," Beeson said, adding that observers should "take into account the quality of the contacts, the number of contacts, not just the staff and offices."
Republican officials say they have more than four times as many phone calls to Iowa voters at this point than they had in 2008, and knocked on 16 times more doors in Iowa than at this point in 2008. Even before Wednesday's debate, they claimed more than 1 million voter contacts - by mail, phone and doorbell - so far this year in Iowa.
Romney's newfound momentum after his strong debate performance also helps him nationally. Republican officials say they have seen floods of new visitors to offices, with the RNC-Romney headquarters in Orlando, Fla., giving out twice as many yard signs as any other day and volunteers waiting outside to get in to make phone calls. In Nevada, new faces were waiting to volunteer when aides unlocked the doors at 8 a.m. And staff in Virginia made a push for supporters to recruit new volunteers to capitalize on the new buzz.
Republican officials say they will make contact with 5 million voters this week alone - the largest one-week total this year so far. A large share of that will come from the 2 million phone calls they plan on Saturday. Many of those calls will come from volunteers in Washington and Maryland who deploy for up-for-grab states Ohio, Virginia and North Carolina.
Republicans expect that their tallies at the end of the weekend will show volunteers have knocked on 6 million doors this year and spoken to more than 35 million voters.
Obama backers refuse to cede ground in their quest to turn out every voter they can.
Not registered to vote? Obama's team can help. Registered but not sure about plans on Election Day? Obama's campaign can mail you a ballot. Forget to return the ballot? Obama's volunteers offer a reminder. Need a ride to the polls? Obama's volunteers can drive.
Obama's volunteers appear to be having impact. Democrats report an almost 4-to-1 advantage among voters asking for ballots by mail in Iowa.
The vigor among the ranks appears to grow as Election Day nears.
"It's our time to go out and lace up our sneakers, put on our walking shoes," Norma Comstock, 71, a leader in the campaign's Sioux City office, said recently as she gave her fellow volunteers a pep talk. "This isn't a sure thing. We've got to fight every day between now and Nov. 6 so President Obama can keep fighting for us."
The other volunteers nodded and applauded.
Later, Comstock confided that she was worried about the president's re-election prospects, saying: "I'm really nervous. I was not last time."
Not that nerves are keeping volunteers from working hard; just the opposite, in fact. They're leaving nothing to chance, even going so far as to search for Democratic voters in this conservative swath.
Heidi Guggisberg-Coners, a Council Bluffs resident who is running as a Democrat for the Iowa House, has knocked on 7,000 doors in her district since June partly because of worries about Obama's turnout. "He will win some voters here, sure," she said. "But I wouldn't want this to be his firewall."
Volunteers also aren't resting on the notion that Obama will win; they brush aside polls that show Obama building a lead over Romney in this state.
"I don't think anything is a foregone conclusion," says Jill Slaughter, a nurse who spends her weekends knocking on doors for Obama and another night or two a week making calls. "You work until you can't do anything more."


text:
I'm always happy to get more holidays.
We had a Respect For The Aged day on the 21st, substitute 22nd off, and 23rd the Autumn Equinox holiday. Five days off! Having Thursdays off I got an extra day too.
In Shibuya there was some festivities going on so with camera in hand I took a few snaps.
I tried a Gibson Les Paul Goddess tonight.
It's the lightest Gibson I'd ever tried. What I liked about it was the transparent pickups and a nice ebony fingerboard. What I didn't like were the single volume and tone control.
Looks like Gibson marketed this to appeal to women for it's light weight. It sounded really nice. It was reserved until the end of the night and I almost bought it had the person not came to collect. Lucky for my wallet.
Because of the usual exorbitant airfares around holiday time I decided to stay in Tokyo, which usually meant a lot of sleeping in. For something different, on the Sunday we had lunch at Paul.
I had the usual Quiche Lorraine with a side of chips.She had this crepe and egg.
What I really love are the "refill" bread baskets. We usually go two or three of these. Great value all around. That's why we keep coming back.
Sunday's also cheap icecream day. Today there also happened to be cheap 198 yen Haagan Daaz at Gourmet City. By the time I got there most of what I could grab was Green Tea which is not so bad. It's quickly becoming a favourite. I'll miss this flavour when I go back home.
I also felt like getting some alcohol, so I got some new Kirin "Cola Shock". It's a coke and 5% vodka mix. It tastes only of cola. The slight light-headedness gave away the alcohol content.
On the Wednesday 23rd, we went to Higashi Shinagawa along the waterfront. It's always nice walking along the water but there weren't many people around, and that took away a bit of the atmosphere of the place.
I was hoping for better weather to do Mt Fuji. That and the fewer buses making their way there, make going there this year less likely. Not happy about that at all.
Saturday, 19 September 2009
Silver Week
I'm always happy to get more holidays.
Posted by Jimmy In Japan at 11:59 pm


text:
Modesto schools special ed bicycles stolen
Janitor discovered theft early Monday
A thief has stolen nearly all of the special three-wheel bicycles used by students with disabilities at a Modesto school.
The Modesto Bee reports a janitor discovered the theft early Monday at Sherwood Elementary School.
Eleven of the 13 bicycles were taken, including nine worth about $400 each and two designed for severely handicapped students and valued at as much as $2,500.
"I don't understand who would think they needed the bikes more than these kids," said principal Carrie Albert. "I'm disappointed."
The Sylvan School District purchased five of the bicycles but special day class teacher Darlene Pierson and her husband bought the rest since she began teaching the class 17 years ago.
"These kids use the bikes a lot. The lessons the students learn on these bikes helps them be a part of the community," Pierson told KCRA 3.


text:
|For the best free Humor letter check out the Dear Webby Humor Letter
|Privacy Policy
AngelWinks Heavenly
Post Card Shoppe
~ Waterfall Angel ~
If you'd like to share this card with a friend or loved one...
please just fill out the information below
will take you back to AngelWinks
Heavenly Post Card Shoppe.
I'd be honored if you'd sign my AngelWinks GuestBook ((Thanks!))
I want to thank My Postcards Network for giving
me the opportunity to have this post card shop! .... Angel


text:
Google Glass Not for Sale Until 2014
Google Glass won't be available for purchase until 2014, according to a new report.
Although Google began seeding early versions of Glass to developers in April, it kept the release date of the real product vague. Initial reports claimed Glass could be ready for the public as early as the end of 2013.
See also: 5 iPhone Apps That Run Google Talk
Now, it looks like that date has either been pushed back — or perhaps it was never real to begin with. Citing correspondence with a Google spokesperson, Computerworld states the "new" ship date for Glass will come in 2014.
This is actually more of a re-affirmation of the release date already cited by Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Chairman Eric Schmidt on separate occasions.
For Glass fans, this means there will be no connected headgear under any Christmas trees this holiday season, as others claimed. It also means competitors like the Recon Jet and Telepathy will have chances to hit the market first — not to mention current players such as Vuzix.
However, it also means Google will have a few extra months to perfect the Glass user experience. We've been using Glass here at Mashable since May, and although it shows much promise, there is still room for improvement. For example, it doesn't have a lock screen, and the wireless connection can be very unreliable with certain phones.
One thing that likely will not change substantially is the form factor. Sources at Google told Mashable at the company's I/O developer conference in May that the current design for the head-mounted display/computer is most likely final, but that alternative frames — some perhaps designed by Warby Parker — may be an option.
Do you think a 2014 release date will make much difference in Glass' success? Share your thoughts in the comments.
BONUS: What It's Like to Browse the Web on Google Glass
Google Glass Web Browser
Image: Mashable, Nina Frazier


text:
LAX shooting: Some TSA agents should be armed, union says
The president of the union representing more than 45,000 Transportation Security Administration agents urged Congress and the agency on Monday to create a new class of officers that would be armed with weapons.
J. David Cox Sr., president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 45,000 Transportation Security Administration agents, said that the "sad truth is that our TSA officers are subject to daily verbal assaults and far too frequent physical attacks while performing their security duties."
"At this time, we feel a larger and more consistent armed presence in screening areas would be a positive step in improving security for both TSOs and the flying public," Cox said in a statement. "The development of a new class of TSA officers with law enforcement status would be a logical approach to accomplishing this goal."
The statement comes in the aftermath of Friday's shooting at LAX that left one TSA agent killed and two others injured. The suspect in the shooting, 23-year-old Paul Ciancia, was targeting federal security officers, authorities said.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters Monday that the investigation into the shooting will also look at security at LAX -- and other airports.
"The function of TSA is to ensure that people can board planes safely and take flights safely," Holder said. "The responsibility for protecting airport security is not a TSA function, but something I think we need to certainly examine."
At a news conference over the weekend, TSA Administrator John Pistole said his agency's review will include the question of whether its agents should be armed (they are not presently). "We will look at what our policies and procedures are and what provides the best possible security," he said.
The idea of arming TSA agents has been raised before, according to aviation security consultant Stewart Verdery, a former Department of Homeland Security official who was involved with the creation of the airport screening agency.
"It's always been raised as an issue," Verdery said. "We know that there are people that don't like the government, and TSA is a whipping boy for people angry about the overreach of the government. And we also know that terrorists are fascinated with aviation. It puts them on the front lines."
He said the decision not to arm airport security agents was made because protecting the airport is not their primary mission.
"You want to spend your time training TSA officers to look for dangerous weapons and dangerous people," he said. "Arming tens of thousands of agents who are largely dealing with average travelers is not necessary."
He noted that arming the agents would come at a high cost. The average annual cost of a TSA agent is less than half the cost of an armed law enforcement officer, he said.
LAX shooting: Condition of wounded teacher upgraded to 'good'
Family of LAX shooting suspect 'shocked and numbed' by rampage
LAX shooting: Gunman's rifle may have been ready to fire in his bag
Twitter: @katemather | @katelinthicum
The stories shaping California
Get up to speed with our Essential California newsletter, sent six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.


text:
CELTICS: Boston takes down Golden State, Paul Pierce drops 26 points
BOSTON >> Paul Pierce had 26 points, Jeff Green scored 14 of his 18 in the second half and the Boston Celtics overcame foul trouble and some erratic free throw shooting in a 94-86 victory over the Golden State Warriors on Friday night.
Golden State guard Stephen Curry, coming off a 54-point performance Wednesday in a loss at New York, was held to 25 on 6-of-22 shooting.
Kevin Garnett pulled down 13 rebounds as the Celtics improved to 3-3 since the All-Star break despite playing much of the second half without their starting backcourt. Point guard Avery Bradley went to the bench early in the third quarter with his fifth foul and Courtney Lee picked up his fourth late in the third.
But the Celtics managed to pull ahead slowly in the fourth, taking a 13-point lead that was too much for the road-weary Warriors to overcome.
Curry didn't come close to the jaw-dropping shooting performance that led to his career high for scoring Wednesday night. He was 18 of 28 from the field against the Knicks, including 11 for 13 on 3-pointers, but struggled Friday from everywhere other than the foul line.
Curry went only 3 of 11 on 3s. He made all 10 of his foul shots, but only two came in the second half as the Celtics let him continue to miss shots rather than send him to the line again.
David Lee had 10 points and 19 rebounds in his return from a one-game suspension for the Warriors, who outrebounded the Celtics 54-44. Harrison Barnes scored 16 and Klay Thompson added 15 for Golden State, which fell to 1-3 on a five-game road trip that concludes Saturday in Philadelphia.
Golden State was able to keep it close most of the way by capitalizing on many Boston mistakes, including 9-of-16 free throw shooting in the first half.
Bradley picked up his third foul with 1:05 left in the second quarter, then two more in the first 3:59 of the third period. He fouled Curry for his fifth personal with 8:01 to go in the third and was quickly called back to the bench before Curry made both his free throws to put Golden State up 54-53.
Boston committed seven turnovers in the period, but finished it off on a 9-2 run and led 69-62 entering the final quarter. The Celtics scored nine straight before Carl Landry's putback ended a scoring drought that lasted nearly 4 minutes. The Warriors went without a point from Landry's jumper that tied the score at 60 with 3:55 left in the third until Landry put back an offensive rebound with 3 seconds left.
Curry's shooting woes continued in the fourth. He missed everything on a 3-point attempt, and the Celtics stretched the lead with six straight points. Boston fans had barely started taunting Curry with an "air-ball!" chant before Jordan Crawford hit a fadeaway jumper to put the Celtics up 75-66.
NOTES: The Celtics have won eight straight at home. ... The Warriors have lost eight of their last 10 in Boston. ... Landry scored 11 points and five Golden State players finished in double figures. ... Pierce and Green were the only Celtics players to score more than eight points. ... Curry's eight points from the foul line were just one fewer than the Celtics had altogether. ... Pierce scored 18 in the first half, but the Celtics' reserves combined for only eight points.


text:
Casteen has living wage sit-in students arrested
On Saturday evening, the four-day-old living wage sit-in at Madison Hall came to an abrupt end.
"We thought the administration wanted to engage in substantive, good faith, dialog about this issue," demonstration organizer Abby Bellows told reporters. "So we came back to the table with a lot of really constructive compromises. And instead of making a movement on wage changes, the university decided to arrest students."
According to reports, UVA President John Casteen had met personally with the students earlier that day to discuss some proposals about increasing UVA's minimum wage, but later that evening he had apparently had enough.
At about 7pm, police moved in swiftly and physically removed the 17 students, who had been denied food during the four-day ordeal, and took them in handcuffs to the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail
In a statement released Sunday, Casteen said that "it was important to bring this sit-in to a conclusion so that others might get back to work on Monday morning. The university takes no pleasure in having to arrest its own students, but it was time for the disruption to come to an end."
The 17 students are expected to be released Monday morning.
3 comments
UVA Prez Casteen employs a rather shallow excuse for breaking off negotiations and resorting to arrests of the Living Wage students (see uvalivingwage.net).
The sit-in took place in the large reception area, a place that is ordinarily quite empty.
As someone who had to work in that building on one of the days of the sit-in, I was not encumbered at all by the Living Wage students. More disruptive were Casteen's staff who couldn't seem to relax at the sight of 17 peaceful students studying in the Madison Hall waiting area. Pres. Casteen set a policy for Madison Hall that prohibited anyone of us who had "permission" to be in the building from speaking to the students or to get anywhere near them, under threat of arrest. Casteen's excuse for sending the students to jail seems rather scurrilous as the students sitting-in at Madison Hall weren't blocking any aisles or otherwise encumbering the work flow of the building. Casteen's response to these students was to cut off their food as well as their communications with the outside world. He even went so far as to cut off their wireless internet access, thereby inventing a whole new way for university leaders to suppress free speech.
Guy Lopez
Grad Student - Arts and Sciences
Don't you have books to read or exams to study for? I see that since the AFL-CIO is failing on its own accord, it's recruiting campus leftists who feel that they haven't truly lived the college experience without a sit-in and singing a chorus of Kumbayah to carry the mantle for it in right-to-work states. Frankly, these workers ought to thank John Casteen morning noon and night that he's paying them far more than the market or their skills would otherwise dictate.
I say raise the working wage to $15.00 an hour now. We won't have to go thru the 2008 and 2010 demonstrations. :)
And to offset the cost, raise the tuition of the protesting students.


text:
Documentation | Support | Style Gallery | Twitter
Marked is a previewer for Markdown files. Use it with your favorite text editor and it updates every time you save. With robust features for previewing, reviewing and exporting beautiful documents, you can work in plain text while reveling in rich formatting. See what's new, and check out the Video Tutorials!
Marked picks up your changes every time you save in any editor.
It will even scroll to your most recent edit automatically, keeping your attention on your writing, not your preview.
Just open the same file in Marked and your favorite editor, and Marked will start rendering previews as you write.
You can write in plain text, and Marked will automatically create beautiful documents (including HTML, PDF and Word) for you in a wide range of styles. You can even make your own!
Marked works with any processor (not just Markdown) and supports, well, everything.
Fountain, CriticMarkup, MathJax, Scrivener, MarsEdit, VoodooPad, syntax highlighting… See a full list of features in the help section.
Documentation | Support | Style Gallery |Legal | Privacy | Twitter


text:
Colorado Sees Skier Visits Recede for 2011/12 SeasonPosted: June 14, 2012 Filed under: Colorado, Skiing / Snow Boarding | Tags: Adventure travel, Colorado, Resort, Rocky Mountain, Ski, Ski Resort, ski season, Snow, United States Leave a comment
Colorado Sees Skier Visits Recede for 2011/12 Season
Bright Spots in Colorado Ski Country USA amid Lackluster Winter
Boulder, Colo. – June 6, 2012 – Colorado Ski Country USA (CSCUSA) announced today at its 49th Annual Meeting, that its 22 member resorts hosted an estimated 6.16 million skier visits during the 2011-12 ski season. This represents a decrease of 11.4 percent, or approximately 790,000 skier visits, compared to last season, which was the fourth best season on record. Compared to the five year average, CSCUSA member resort skier visits are down 11.9 percent. The overall snow related decline interrupted the recovery resorts had been building since 2008/09.
In an indication of the extreme weather impacting Colorado resorts this season, Colorado's western slope experienced its third driest and seventh warmest winter in records going back to 1895. Precipitation on the Western Slope this winter was 43 percent below average, and down every month of the winter. In Colorado overall, March 2012 was the driest in more than 100 years, and we experienced the second warmest March on record. President and CEO of Colorado Ski Country USA Melanie Mills noted, "Fortunately, seasons such as the one just ended have proved to be historically rare and the ski industry has exhibited a remarkable ability to bounce back after poor snow years in the past."
Mills continued, "Much of the ski industry in the US was confronted with weather challenges last year, but several of our resorts bucked the national trend and showed signs of resilience during what was clearly an uninspiring winter."
The diversity of ski resorts in Colorado saw some areas post increases and even records in visitation. Colorado Ski Country resorts also saw strength in both domestic and international destination visitors which helped soften the economic impacts to resort operators and resort communities of the overall decline in visitation.
Colorado is favorably positioned for rare dry spells given that resorts are at higher elevations where the air is dryer and colder, therefore allowing the snow to maintain consistency. Aided by colder temperatures favorable for snowmaking, resort snowmakers and slope groomers were able to maintain a quality snow surface throughout most of the season.
Momentum going into the season was strong after seeing an uptick in visitation last year, and economic conditions generally improved during the season. Abundant amounts of snow came in the fall, allowing some resorts to open earlier than planned, but the uncharacteristic precipitation deficit brought that momentum to a standstill. Snow came in the middle of the season and several resorts broke single day snowfall totals, but perception of an underperforming winter was already set in skiers' minds. "We've had dry years in the past, and we'll have dry years again," Mills explained. "Not every year can be a record breaking year, and with nary a snowflake in what is normally our snowiest month in Colorado, season visitation numbers are disappointing, but not unexpected."
CSCUSA resorts upheld their dedication to providing guests with a quality product and superior service which sets Colorado apart from other ski destinations, and keeps the state's appeal as the premiere place for winter travelers. "Our resorts have so much to offer visitors that in some cases the world class skiing is just one of a menu of activities. And for many people, the season was more about being outside and spending time with friends and family taking in the beautiful outdoors and wonderful amenities of our resorts."
With certain assumptions in place, statewide skier visits for Colorado are estimated at 11,010,584 million. This estimation shows Colorado being down 9.8 percent, or approximately 1,195,000 visits, compared to last season. On a national level, skier visits overall are down 15.7 percent with the Rocky Mountainregion seeing a decrease of 7.2 percent.
Skier visits are the metric used to track participation in skiing and snowboarding. A skier visit represents a person participating in the sport of skiing or snowboarding for any part of one day at a mountain resort.
These numbers are preliminary results and subject to final adjustments by CSCUSA members. The decision to release individual numbers is up to each individual resort.


text:
Free U.S. Shipping for all orders over $49 – Standard/Express Delivery
Your order will be shipped to you by Moosejaw.
Origin: U.S.
1-6 working days*
View Moosejaw full shipping policy.
Period: You will be able to return your item to our partner within 30 days.
Cost: Free (bring your product(s) to a Moosejaw shop) / Supported by client (mail the product(s))
View Moosejaw full returns policy.


text:
altius wrote:More that any other events the pole vault and hammer throw are coach driven sports. So the key is the competence and passion of the vault coach at the college in question . and are they going to be there throughout the athletes career. On the evidence this is not as common as it ought to be. I also have to say that taking a quick look around college ranking lists and results does not fill me with any great confidence in the overall quality of vault coaches at the college level. Given the facilities, time for training and the vast range of competition opportunities at most if not all colleges I believe many are not doing the job. Challenging - but having spent considerable time working in a less than favourable environment, like most coaches in OZ, I believe standards in US colleges should be much higher.
I do realise that the vault is the poor relation in many programs and often assigned to anyone willing to take it on, but coaching this event is not rocket science - how many college coaches are real students of the event and of how best to teach and coach it. Not as many as there should be. I trust this will get a vigorous response -if only to show there is indeed some passion out there.
There are over 1000 collegiate track and field programs in the US. Too few give adequate time and energy to the vault. So, from an overall situation point of view I could not agree more with Altius.
However, I would like to say that I believe there are MORE good coaches in the US than what people generally count. Many of the BEST coaches in the US work in situations where they are making chicken salad out of chicken s!@# with average athletes and less than optimal facilities.


text:
How to Make It
PREHEAT oven to 350ºF. Microwave chocolate and butter in large microwavable bowl on HIGH 2 min. or until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Stir in sugar. Blend in eggs and vanilla. Add flour; mix well. Spread into greased 12-inch pizza pan.
BAKE 25 to 30 min. or until toothpick inserted in center comes out with fudgy crumbs. DO NOT OVERBAKE. Cool in pan on wire rack.
ADD milk to dry pudding mix. Beat with wire whisk 2 min. or until well blended; spread over brownie, leaving a 1-inch border around edge. Sprinkle with crushed cookies to resemble dirt. Cut into 16 wedges to serve. Decorate with Easy Marshmallow Snails as desired. (Note: Nutrition information is for undecorated cake.)
Nutrition Information
Calories: 320
Total fat: 15 g
Saturated fat: 8 g
Cholesterol: 65 mg
Sodium: 250 mg
Carbohydrate: 45 g
Dietary fiber: 2 g
Sugars: 32 g
Protein: 4 g
Vitamin A: 8% DV
Vitamin C: 0% DV
Calcium: 4% DV
Iron: 10% DV


text:
'Cowboy' tax scheme firms 'to disclose client lists'
- Published
The government is promising to force "cowboy" financial firms to disclose the names of people using "aggressive" tax avoidance schemes.
Treasury minister David Gauke said such products were "repugnant" and unfairly penalised ordinary taxpayers.
The proposal is part of a government consultation on curbing avoidance.
Later, Mr Gauke said householders who paid tradesmen in cash were morally wrong as they were "facilitating the hidden economy".
Tuesday's Daily Telegraph quotes Mr Gauke as saying: "Getting a discount with your plumber by paying cash in hand is something that is a big cost to the Revenue and means others have to pay more in tax.
"I think it is morally wrong. It is illegal for the plumber but it is pretty implicit in those circumstances that there is a reason why there is a discount for cash. That is a large part of the hidden economy."
Mr Gauke told Mondays BBC's Newsnight programme: "When a tradesman says 'here's a 10%, a 20% discount on your bill if you pay me cash in hand' that is... as a big a problem in terms of loss to the Exchequer as tax avoidance.
"Revenue is not being paid as it should be paid... If people do that, they have to do so with the recognition that it means taxes will be higher for the rest."
Last month Prime Minister David Cameron condemned the use by comedian Jimmy Carr of a Jersey-based scheme as "morally wrong".
That was one of a number of high-profile cases of people using financial loopholes to legally avoid large tax bills.
The Treasury estimates that 14% of all unpaid tax income is due to aggressive avoidance schemes, which are not illegal but are deemed unfairly to deprive the government of income.
The proposals include:
- Measures to make finance companies disclose details of wealthy clients who take advantage of such schemes
- Firms having to disclose how all their tax avoidance schemes work, not just the ones for which they are being criticised
- Publishing warnings about tax avoidance schemes that are effectively being mis-sold, to make it easier for taxpayers to identify when they are on the receiving end of a hard sell by a disreputable promoter
They comes alongside plans to legislate to curb tax avoidance through a general anti-avoidance rule.
Companies could face fines of more than £1m if they flout the new rules.
Mr Gauke acknowledged that tax avoidance - which is legal, unlike tax evasion - was difficult to define, adding that there was "always a barrier to be put up between unfairness and clarity".
He defined "aggressive" schemes as those which are "contrived" to defy the will of Parliament by depriving the government of expected revenues. He promised to "strengthen our description" of what constitutes tax avoidance to make schemes easier to control.
In a speech to the Policy Exchange think tank, Mr Gauke said HM Revenue and Customs already had an "excellent compliance record", adding: "We are building on the work we have already done to make life difficult for those who artificially and aggressively reduce their tax bill.
"These schemes damage our ability to fund public services and provide support to those who need it. They harm businesses by distorting competition. They damage public confidence.
"And they undermine the actions of the vast majority of taxpayers, who pay more in tax as a consequence of others enjoying a free ride."
He promised to deal with "cowboy advisers", who devise and sell schemes to divert money away from the Exchequer.
Mr Gauke told the BBC News Channel: "This is a message to people who might be tempted by an unfair tax avoidance scheme: if something looks too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true.
"It's unfair because other taxpayers are having to pay more as a consequence... We want to nip it in the bud and ensure that people don't get engaged in aggressive tax avoidance schemes."
Mr Carr last month confirmed making a "terrible error of judgement" after it emerged he used a complex scheme to reduce his tax bill.


text:
With this thread title, we should be able to head straight to Sochi.
Quote from: pinnah on February 04, 2014, 09:58:46 PMWith this thread title, we should be able to head straight to Sochi. From the reports I'm hearing, you wouldn't want to. One reporter said there's a sign next to the toilet saying do not put TP in the bowl, but instead put it in the basket next to the toilet bowl.
Glad to see the NFL will be on CBS the first half of the season on Thursday night. They just picked up another viewer. Half the season anyway.
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304680904579366712107461956?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304680904579366712107461956.html"Dmitry Kozak, the deputy prime minister responsible for the Olympic preparations, reflected the view held among many Russian officials that some Western visitors are deliberately trying to sabotage Sochi's big debut out of bias against Russia. "We have surveillance video from the hotels that shows people turn on the shower, direct the nozzle at the wall and then leave the room for the whole day," he said. An aide then pulled a reporter away before Mr. Kozak could be questioned further on surveillance in hotel rooms. "