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As Republicans roll into Tampa this week alongside Tropical Storm Isaac, one topic sure to be discussed by Democratic opponents and news commentators is the ongoing controversy over presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's refusal to release more tax returns.
However, the one year of tax returns the Romney camp has released (with one more year promised to come) show a number of sophisticated wealth transfer and estate planning strategies employed by the former governor of Massachusetts that have led to an estimated $100 million fortune now held outside of the estate.
Bloomberg reports that Romney and his wife, Ann, created trusts as early as 1995, when Romney was CEO of Bain Capital LLC. They packed one for their children with investments that stood to appreciate and set up another for charity that provides a tax deduction and income, according to the news service. The candidate's individual retirement account is valued at as much as $87.4 million.
"It's beneficial for your kids and grandkids to push the money downstream," David Scott Sloan, chairman of the national private wealth services estate planning practice at the law firm Holland & Knight in Boston, told Bloomberg. "The Romneys appear to be doing things that are similar to what other high-net-worth families do."
"The Romneys have transferred assets into the family trust and invested them, amassing a substantial and diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds and alternative investments such as private-equity and hedge funds that generate income," Bloomberg says. "In 2010 alone, the trust realized more than $7 million in long-term capital gains, about $1.5 million in ordinary dividends and $741,407 in U.S. government interest, according to the trust's tax return."
As the news service notes, the November election will not only be important for the country and Romney's political ambitions, but also for his wallet.
"[He] would pay higher taxes under the estate-tax proposals of President Barack Obama and would pay less under Romney's plan. Obama has proposed increasing the estate tax from current levels and curtailing wealth-transfer strategies. The Republican presidential candidate wants to eliminate the estate tax, which currently applies a top rate of 35% and a $10.24 million exemption on a married couple's combined assets."
A repeal of the levy may save the Romneys about $70 million in federal estate taxes after they both die, assuming the couple's combined taxable estate was $200 million after deductions for items such as administrative expenses and charitable contributions, Bloomberg concludes. Compared with today's rates, Obama's proposal may cost the Romneys an additional $20 million.


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THE SQL Server Blog Spot on the Web
For many organizations, data is the lifeblood that keeps them in business. If the data becomes imperiled, the very existence of the organization is threatened. The folks entrusted with managing the data are often the most critical to the long term success of the organization. Think about it. Great developers are creative, inventive, solve business problems, and generate new revenue. BUT if the data gets bollixed up, the organization suffers unnecessary expenses, loss of business, loss of confidence, and the risk of failure. Successfully managing the organization's data over time is one of the most critical, and often, underappreciated, operations that just MUST work as expected. There is little room for error -or learning by mistake.
During the past few weeks, I have been in several conversations with hiring managers about how to find 'highly' qualifed candidates for open SQL DBA or SQL Developer positions. These were managers that have, in their opinion, been wasting their time with interviews. In every case, they came with the same question: "How do I cut through the crap and ensure that I'm attracting and interviewing 'real' qualified candidates?"
As we explored the issue, variations of the following were woven in and out of the conversation.
I usually offer that the current market is highly skewed against the employer -the demand for expert help with SQL Server is so high that highly qualified candidates can be very selective. Many positions are filled through networking and are never publically advertised. Additionally, the highly qualified candidate is most likely employed, very well compensated, and just not actively looking for a new opportunity. At least not at the compensation packages a lot of organizations can afford to offer.
So what's a hiring manager to do?
First, engage a SQL Server consultant to conduct a thorough job and task analysis, and research local salary ranges. You should know the bare minimum experience and knowledge that you can accept. It is a very rare organization that needs someone highly experienced with every SQL Server technology. And even in the organizations that do, there are often multiple folks, each with a specialty niche. And stop with the 'kitchen sink' requirements list -it only serves to deter candidates that just may be a good match for your needs.
Once that is complete, you can address the question of what are the primary qualifications to look for in a candidate?
Obviously, the candidate must sync with the base qualifications and experience that was identified (see above.)But most importantly, you need to know if this candidate gives you have a solid platform to build upon. You want to explore the candidate's investment in self and career.Questions to ask:Is the candidate invested in self-directed learning activities?Does the candidate participate in the local user group opportunities in order to learn from others?Do the candidate participate in other technology community learning events, such as: Code Camps, SQLSaturdays, professional conferences?What was the last class or conference the candidate paid out of pocket to attend?Does the candidate freely share knowledge with others? How?Is this candidate someone that can, and does, ask for help?Can this candidate be transparent about his/her mistakes? Is there a track record?
Obviously, the candidate must sync with the base qualifications and experience that was identified (see above.)
But most importantly, you need to know if this candidate gives you have a solid platform to build upon. You want to explore the candidate's investment in self and career.
Questions to ask:
Be cautious about where you advertise your positions. Some places tend to attract the 'least' qualified candidates and may sully your organization's aspirations by association.
Your local Technology User Groups are a great place to find folks that are committed to investing their time to enhance their skills and career. Consider sponsoring or Networking with appropriate User Groups.
If you choose to work with one or more recruiters, or staff augmentation firms, approach your selection with the same zeal and jaundiced eye as you apply toward a potential candidate. Be sure that they know that if they waste your time with unqualified candidates, you will stop accepting their submissions. You are the customer, and the submitted candidate is the product. Just like with anything else, if you don't see the products you want, tell the vendor, or shop elsewhere.
Be very clear on what you want, communicate that very clearly, and you will be more likely to find it. Take that first step, analyze your requirements, research the market, and get a better understanding about who you really need to hire, and what you may 'have' to afford. And consider how your organization's flexibility can be used to help a candidate grow into the position.
You may not be able to afford the person you want, but that doesn't mean you can't get there. Like a successful vintner, you need to have great 'root stock', provide a fertile environment, tend the vines, reap the fruits, and nurture until you can sip the sweet wine of success.
Arnie, thanks for the very practical advice on hiring.
my opinions on this:
the fact is most organizations could benefit from the full suite of SQL Server features (with the exception of some special items) whether they currently use it or not. So listing requirements is a moot point unless this is one of several positions. The full suite of SQL Server features is too broad for any one person to be expert at all (or even good?) Many organizations may not have justification for more than one position.
On the matter of a highly qualified person/skill set?
Presumably such a person could handle difficult technical situations (of course the situation could be difficult for other reasons) and would want to be compensated for such skills.
Most organizations should not have difficult technical problems routinely, so why would they be willing to pay the high skill rate on a fulltime basis?
And finally, a highly skill person should be able to make a difficult situation more manageable, i.e., manageable by a moderately skilled person?
So there is a bit of a conundrum

subset: commoncrawl


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The use of genetically modified (GM) crops in Europe is being hampered by a "dysfunctional approval process" imposed by the European Union, says a U.K. government-sponsored report released today. As a result, only a handful of GM crops may be approved in the near future, according to the Council for Science and Technology, which advises the U.K. prime minister on science policy.
While stating that the unanimous scientific consensus is that GM crops are safe, the report, whose authors include prominent plant biologists and biotechnologists, criticizes the European Union for regulation that has fettered progress of the technology and risk assessments that have been "influenced by political considerations that do not have a scientific basis."
The council is jointly chaired by Mark Walport, the government's chief scientific adviser, who was an author on the report. "We're asking for the regulation to be fit for purpose," Walport says. Co-author Jim Dunwell, a plant biotechnologist at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, adds: "There has been an accumulation of regulation in a nonscientific way."
Anyone seeking to release a GM organism in Europe has to get approval from Brussels. Applications are assessed largely by the European Food Safety Authority. As yet, only one variety, Bt maize, is grown and its crops are concentrated in Spain. None are grown in the United Kingdom. A vote in February to approve another variety of GM maize saw opposition from most nations, including France, Italy, and Austria. There was support, however, from Spain, Finland, Sweden, Estonia, and the United Kingdom.
This is not the first time that British GM researchers have complained about E.U. red tape hampering their work. A purple tomato rich in an antioxidant pigment, recently developed at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, U.K., for instance, has had to be grown in Canada for future research and to attract commercial interest.
Instead of the current regulatory system, in which new plant varieties are assessed according to the process used to produce them, the authors suggest that a product-based approach could be adopted, similar to the procedure already used in Canada. This would put the trait above the process so a plant variety produced using GM technology would be treated in the same way as an identical variety produced via conventional plant breeding.
"What really matters is the regulation of the trait rather than the method," says Jonathan Jones of the Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich, one of the authors of the report. "The regulation of the technology is not proportionate. … It's time to remove the red flags."
The report calls for Europe to take a step back by delegating final approval of commercial crop cultivation to individual nations. One route, it suggests, might be for the United Kingdom to create an authority that would be the GM equivalent to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, which vets medicines for use in the United Kingdom. The European Union, meanwhile, could keep an advisory role on risk and safety.
The U.K. government already takes a positive line on GM crops. In January, the environment secretary, Owen Paterson, told a farming conference in Oxford that Europe risks becoming "the museum of world farming" if it continues to reject GM crops.
In a letter to the prime minister which accompanies the report, the authors state: "The longer the E.U. continues to oppose GM whilst the rest of the world adopts it, the greater the risk that E.U. agriculture will become uncompetitive, especially as more GM crops and traits are commercialized successfully elsewhere."
Dunwell also notes that African farmers successfully growing GM bananas and cassavas for themselves and for export are placed in a commercial quandary by the European Union's anti-GM stance. "Allow independent E.U. states to go their own way," he says.
The last major U.K. report on GM crops, produced by Britain's Royal Society in 2009, backed the technology. In particular, it outlined the urgent need to increase food production globally and the importance of science in meeting that demand. Public opposition, however, continues and anti-GM pressure groups continue to attack research. In 2012, a GM wheat trial at Rothamsted Research in Harpenden, U.K., was vandalized by a protestor.
John Pickett, who has worked on the wheat trials at Rothamsted Research and is a co-author of the report, says: "The best way to address these concerns is actually to carry out the experiments and assess the potential of newly developed plants to offer solutions to specific agricultural problems."
To this end, the report offers one final suggestion: "A new programme of independent research to field test 'public good' GM crops." Named PubGM, it would assess traits produced by both private and public scientists for potential commercialization. But, adds Jones, "I don't know exactly how it will work."


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Since some people were having so much trouble with the coding to get images online, I've added a NEW way to upload images that is much, much simpler.
How it works:
1. When starting new thread or posting reply you will see text that says "Add image to post" linked below the text area on the left (just above the Spell Check button).
2. Click that link, and a popup will appear where you should select image and add description to that image (description is optional):
3. You click "upload it" link, image is uploaded and bbcode is automatically inserted in post.
4. You click "submit" to submit post and thumbnail of image appears in post. There's nothing else to do!


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A legal advocacy group says police forces across the province need to review how their dogs are being used, citing data it says suggest too often the canines are used as tool to "teach the kids a lesson."
Pivot Legal Society's allegations come as New Westminster police investigate a complaint filed against Prince George RCMP by the mother of a 12-year-old girl bitten in an arrest by a police dog last month. Data from the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner — which reviews municipal police force conduct — shows 11 youths under the age of 16, including another 12-year-old Vancouverite last December, have been bitten by police dogs in the past two years. Data for RCMP dog bites from around the province were unavailable.
"Anecdotally, we've heard a lot of stories about youths being bitten and [under] the circumstances it's hard not to feel that sometimes the dogs are being used to ... sort of 'scare them straight,'" said Pivot lawyer Doug King. "It's very likely the police knew they were dealing with youth and in a situation where you're tracking a youth, or trying to find a youth, it just doesn't make sense in those circumstances to be using a dog."
New Westminster police are conducting an independent external investigation into the Prince George incident while also investigating Surrey RCMP for a January arrest where a 16-year-old was bitten in the face by a police dog, King said.
Police dogs are trained to bite suspects when commanded to do so by their handler, to protect their handler or members of the public and to protect themselves when threatened or injured by another person said Sgt. Rob Vermeulen, spokesman for the B.C. RCMP.
"Expecting police to know the age of fleeing suspects shows a lack of understanding of policing, as does any belief that young people can't be dangerous or pose a threat," Vermeulen said.
Deputy Police Complaint Commissioner Rollie Woods said municipal police are allowed to use force, including a dog, when someone committing an arrestable crime is trying to escape.
"From what I've observed the police are more careful when dealing with young people," Woods said. Any review into a department's use of police dogs would have to be ordered by an individual police board, he said.
Pivot made a formal complaint to Vancouver police last year asking for a review of the department's "bite and hold" policy where a police dog, when released to chase a suspect, will bite until its handler calls it off. In January the Vancouver Police Board dismissed the complaint after Chief Jim Chu told its members that the policy, which he said allows the handler to decide when force will be used, is how over 70 per cent of American police dogs are trained.
When contacted, the VPD spokesman Const. Lindsey Houghton reiterated the department's support for the current strategy. The VPD said in a report prepared in response to the Pivot complaint police dogs attended 1023 calls in 2010, and dogs were involved in 140 apprehensions. Of those, 35 to 40 suspects had minor injuries and 85 suspects needed medical attention.
Sgt. Paul Eisenzimmer of the Delta police said each time his officers set a dog on somebody they have to be able to justify the use of that force.
David McAllister, a criminology professor at Simon Fraser University who has bred and trained German shepherd dogs — the breed most commonly used for police work — said there has been debate among North American police for over a decade whether barking at a suspect instead of biting is a more effective way for canine units to help arrest someone.
The bite and hold model may be more reliable than the alternative "bark and hold" method for law enforcement because "it's almost like you're firing a gun once you release the dog," he said.
However, police in Los Angeles switched to the bark model in the early '90s and saw a tenfold reduction in the number of dog bites and a decrease in the number of lawsuits, McAllister said.
"When you've got one that's eight inches away from your face that's barking at you — it's fairly intimidating," he said.
King said that for the past two years New Westminster and Delta police, which share a canine unit, have practised more restraint and recorded three bites and only one injury.
Sgt. Paul Eisenzimmer of the Delta police said bite and hold and bark and hold are "archaic" terms. His officers try to use minimal force and each time they set a dog on somebody they have to be able to justify the use of force.
A review into when police deploy the canine units is justified said McAllister, who said one of his German shepherds once bit his face. "I know what that feels like, it's not a fun experience. They're big, they're strong, they're quite intimidating."
Police dogs shouldn't be deployed in a situation where police are called to a school break-in and teens are thought to be present, McAllister offered as an example.
"It's definitely a cause for concern any time we're seeing young people getting bitten by dogs," he said. "They can do a lot of damage and those scars can be with them perhaps for the rest of their life.
"You have to wonder if people really deserve the bite they're getting."


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Low Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons margarine
1 cup brown sugar
Blend together.
Add and blend:
1 egg
½ cup apple sauce
1 teaspoon vanilla
Add and blend:
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
Add and blend:
1 ½ cups white flour
Mix in:
2 cups rolled oats
6 ounces chocolate chips
Drop onto cookie sheets and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. If you bake two sheets at the same time, switch top and bottom racks after 5 minutes. Great warm, fresh and right out of the freezer. You can double the recipe, no problem.
Cooking Instructions:
The entire recipe plus instructions are listed above.
Other Tips/Notes:
These are cookies you don't have to feel guilty about eating for breakfast. They are packed with apple sauce and oats, with relatively little oil or margarine. I use the unsweetened apple sauce and the non-trans fat Earth Balance margarine and no one is the wiser. I make 2 batches at a time and my family and friends know they can always find one waiting for them in the freezer. 🙂
submitted by:
Cassi Alter


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Some weeks you have a lot of time to be a panda-person. And some weeks, you don't.
Though I didn't have as much time to take my ferocious little blue-haired pandaren rogue around the Eastern Kingdoms as I had hoped, still, I made some progress. I killed things and completed quests and uncovered areas of the map, and overall, as I reached and passed level 20, finally began to settle into a comfortable MMO groove.
It was assassination that did it for me, really. I originally tried the Combat specialisation, thinking it would be akin to the swashbuckler I played many moons ago in another MMO. And it was! I got a boost to AOE damage. Then I remembered that I didn't enjoy playing that swashbuckler much at all, and I went and found a trainer I could respec with. Assassination suits my temperament much better, and as I began to sneak through canyons and caves, leaping from the shadows to fell my targets, combat started to gain a meaty feel that I could really get into.
Being genuinely new to the game at this late stage has its advantages. While other players have had to unlearn tactics and ideas, and had to adapt to new geography and lore, from my perspective everything just… is. And while even I can see some of the seams that joint the eras of the world together, from my low-and-leveling perspective everything so far is either the Wandering Isle, and therefore known to be brand-new, or it's not.
But being a newbie has disadvantages, too. The lack of connections and accumulated time and goods is starting to become a problem. I realise, just from looking around me while in-game, that eight years in currency flows like water, and despite money sinks of all kinds no doubt high-level players aren't hurting for cash. But at level 20, I found myself standing in Stormwind, mentally jingling my painfully empty purse in one hand. Thanks to playing the collector's edition of Mists of Pandaria, I had both a battle pet and a mount waiting for me in the mail. But all my questing and levelling so far had left me with only enough gold to train either pet battling or riding.
I picked riding. My panda's tail is cute and all but I'm sick and tired of watching it run around zones at a snail's pace. It's a big world, and travelling it on foot gets tiring, even with occasional purse-draining trips by gryphon.


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Welcome to Motor City Auto Auctions
Dear Customer,
Welcome to the home of one of Essex County's premier auto auctions. Motor City Auto Auctions (Windsor) Inc. is a privately owned and operated business that strives to serve you, the customer. Whether you are selling or buying a vehicle, you have come to the right place.
By taking the time to navigate through our website you can find all the information you're looking for with the click of your mouse. Most notable, is our featured link called the "Run List". This link includes a detailed profile of vehicles being run through the auction in the upcoming week. In addition, Motor City Auction welcomes you to explore our web site features and join or mailing list to recieve upcoming news and events.
If you have any questions, please don't be afraid to stop by our on site location or simply contact us via web.


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Your tip may help catch fugitives, absconders and outlaws and could earn you a cash reward
See most wanted fugitives from federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. If you you have information about a fugitive, contact law enforcement immediately. Your anonymous tip could earn you a cash reward.
Total Wanted Fugitives
© 2015-2020 US Data Co Ltd


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CLEVELAND - LeBron James watched from the bench in street clothes as Norris Cole stripped Kyrie Irving of the ball with 2.2 seconds left to give the Miami Heat, resting most of their top players for the playoffs, a 96-95 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday night.
Cole finished with 16 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists. But it was his only steal on Cleveland's final possession that sealed it.
James was disappointed to not play in another homecoming game against his former team, but he appreciated coach Erik Spoelstra's desire to get the NBA champions as healthy and refreshed as possible heading into the post-season. Chris Bosh and Mario Chalmers joined James on the bench while Dwyane Wade, Shane Battier and Udonis Haslem stayed back in Miami with minor injuries.
Rashard Lewis scored 19 points and James Jones had 14 for the Heat Light.
Irving and Tristan Thompson scored 16 apiece for the Cavs, who have lost five straight, 15 of 17 and may soon relieve Byron Scott of his coaching duties.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Kevin Durant scored 29 points, Russell Westbrook had 21 before getting ejected in the final 3 minutes and the Oklahoma City Thunder clinched the top seed in the Western Conference playoffs by beating the Sacramento Kings.
Tyreke Evans, the Kings' second-leading scorer, did not return after grabbing at his troublesome left knee following a drive to the basket late in the first quarter.
Durant hit a 3-pointer and Westbrook set up Serge Ibaka for a two-handed slam during a string of 11 straight Thunder points midway through the third quarter that stretched the lead to 75-51.
Isaiah Thomas led the Kings with 16 points, Travis Outlaw scored 15 and Cole Aldrich had a double-double for the second straight game by tying his career best with 12 points and setting a career high with 13 rebounds.
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Ty Lawson scored 26 points, including a jumper in the lane with 9.3 seconds left, and the Denver Nuggets clinched home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs with a win over the Milwaukee Bucks.
Wilson Chandler added 21 points for the Nuggets, who can secure the No. 3 seed in the West with one more victory or two losses by the Los Angeles Clippers.
Milwaukee lost its season-high fifth game in a row despite Monta Ellis scoring 38 points, one shy of his season high.
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) — Greg Monroe had 27 points and 16 rebounds, and the Detroit Pistons made the most of their home finale by beating the Philadelphia 76ers.
For both teams, the game was overshadowed by uncertainty off the court. Doug Collins is on his way out as Philadelphia's coach, and Pistons owner Tom Gores remained noncommittal before the game on the status of team president Joe Dumars and coach Lawrence Frank.
A person familiar with the situation has told The Associated Press that Collins and the Sixers are trying to resolve their future relationship after the coach told them he would not return for a fourth season.
Dorell Wright had 22 points, eight rebounds and six assists for the 76ers.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Al Jefferson had 22 points and eight rebounds to help Utah keep its playoff hopes alive with a victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Mo Williams had 15 points and seven assists for the Jazz, who needed a win to avoid being eliminated in the Western Conference playoff race.
The Jazz need to win at Memphis on Wednesday and for the Los Angeles Lakers to lose at home against Houston that night to get into the playoffs. They own the tiebreaker after beating the Lakers two out of three times this season.
Derrick Williams had 18 points and six rebounds for the Timberwolves, who were missing centre Nikola Pekovic with a bruised left calf.
DALLAS (AP) — Keyon Dooling scored 13 points, including a go-ahead 3-pointer before consecutive baskets by Ed Davis, to help Memphis rally for the victory.
Jerryd Bayless had 19 points and the Grizzlies' bench accounted for 64 points — all 35 in the decisive fourth quarter. Dooling, who signed April 3 as a free agent, had only 12 points combined his first five games.
Memphis will start the playoffs on the road even though it can finish with one of the top four records in the Western Conference.
Clean-shaven Dirk Nowitzki had 26 points and Vince Carter 22 for the Mavs, who had finally reached .500 for the first time since Dec. 12 with a win at New Orleans on Sunday night. They had vowed not to shave until reaching .500 — though it lasted only one night.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Carlos Boozer scored 22 points, Luol Deng added 18 and the Chicago Bulls snapped a two-game losing streak with a victory over the Orlando Magic.
The win, which was the Bulls' fifth straight over the Magic, also keeps alive their hopes of catching of Atlanta for the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference. They conclude their regular-season schedule at home Wednesday against Washington. Chicago needs to win that game and for Atlanta to split or lose their final two.
Tobias Harris led Orlando with 20 points, followed by Nik Vucevic with 17 points and 14 rebounds.
The Magic finish just 12-29 at home, their fewest victories in Orlando since they were 11-30 during the 2003-04. Orlando wraps up its schedule Wednesday in Miami.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Gerald Henderson scored 27 points, Kemba Walker had 23 points and a career-high 13 assists and the Charlotte Bobcats defeated a New York Knicks team playing without Carmelo Anthony and a few others.
The victory was the second straight for the Bobcats, who pulled into a tie with Orlando for the worst record in the league.
The Knicks played only seven players, resting Anthony and others after wrapping up the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Tyson Chandler, J.R. Smith, Raymond Felton, Amar'e Stoudemire, Marcus Camby and Kenyon Martin also did not play.
Chris Copeland led the Knicks with 32 points, shooting 4 of 8 from 3-point range.
NEW YORK (AP) — Andray Blatche led a bevy of Brooklyn bench players with 20 points and 11 rebounds the Nets erased an early 17-point deficit to beat the Washington Wizards.
Kris Humphries, who was the team's original starting power forward at the beginning of the season before falling out of the rotation, added 20 points and nine boards for Brooklyn. Mirza Teletovic added 14 points and MarShon Brooks chipped in 12 for the Nets, who will host Detroit on Wednesday night before they open up at home in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Nets reserve rookie Toko Shengelia, who has played 67 minutes all season, saw 25 minutes and finished with 11 points and 13 rebounds.
John Wall led Washington, which lost its fifth straight, with 18 points and 12 assists.
PHOENIX (AP) — Luis Scola had 26 points and 15 rebounds, Goran Dragic added 21 points and 14 assists and Phoenix snapped a franchise-record seven-game home losing streak with a victory over the Houston Rockets in the Suns' final home game of the season.
Markieff Morris had 20 points and had career highs of six blocked shots and five steals for the Suns, who despite the victory finished with the second-worst home record in club history.
Carlos Delfino scored 22, including 6 of 9 3-pointers, and Jeremy Lin 20 for the Rockets, whose loss was a blow in their bid for the No. 6 playoff spot in the West.
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Stephen Curry made seven 3-pointers to finish with 35 points, leading the Golden State Warriors past the severely short-handed San Antonio Spurs.
Curry shot 7 of 13 from beyond the arc to move within one of Ray Allen's single-season record of 269 3-pointers set in 2005-06 with Seattle. Curry added eight rebounds and five assists to help the Warriors pull away late and move a game ahead of Houston for the Western Conference's sixth seed.
Gary Neal had 25 points and five assists and Patty Mills scored 23 points for the Spurs, who rested their key starters a night after losing 91-86 loss at the Los Angeles Lakers.


text:
Samuel L. Jackson's New Siri Commercial Is Intense
Apple recently released a couple of commercials for the iPhone 4S and its Siri feature. Why? We have no idea. The pair of spots feature Samuel L. Jackson and everyone's favorite Queen of Quirk Zooey Deschanel, though they never appear together. That's unfortunate because you can't find two diametrically opposed personalities. That needs to be a movie ASAP. Wouldn't mind a sequel to Black Snake Moan or some derivative thereof. Zooey in dirty and tattered. No-brainer.
Follow Slacktory on their Official Site | Twitter | Facebook
And in case you were all downtrodden for getting trolled, here's the real one.
And here's Zooey Deschanel's version:


text:
TOKYO - Hopes are high in Japan Inc. for the new prime minister. Stocks are recovering. The central bank is set to supercharge an already loose monetary policy. The soaring yen, a big minus for exporters, is reversing course.
The bullish mood in the air is all about "Abenomics" — a reference, as dubbed by experts and market players, to Shinzo Abe, the shoo-in comeback prime minister when Parliament votes next week.
But experts are already wondering how long that celebration is going to last.
"This is just the honeymoon," said Masaaki Kanno, chief economist at J.P. Morgan in Tokyo.
Abe has made reviving the economy a priority, and is pushing for a 2 per cent inflation "target," double the central bank's "goal" now.
That's designed to fight a problem that was until recently relatively unique in the world — deflation, or continually dropping prices, which deadens economic activity. The Japanese economy has been stuck in deflation for two decades.
The Bank of Japan, ending a two-day policy board meeting Thursday, further loosened its super-easy monetary policy, pumping more money into the financial system by expanding its asset purchase program by about 10 trillion yen ($119 billion) for a total of 101 trillion yen ($1.2 billion).
The bank has now eased monetary policy five times this year. Japan's benchmark interest rates are already at zero.
The central bank also paid respect to Abe. It said it will consider pricing goals and report back at the next meeting in January.
Abe's pro-business, conservative Liberal Democratic Party was voted back into power in a landslide in Sunday's elections.
Before a change of power in 2009, the party ruled virtually without interruption for a half-century, engineering Japan's stellar growth into the world's third-largest economy.
Besides generous promises to boost public-works spending — by as much as 10 trillion yen ($119 billion), according to party officials — Abe is pressuring the central bank to work more closely with the government.
Such pressures are a departure from the past. But they are also growing in other parts of the world, including in the U.S. and parts of Europe.
What remains unclear is exactly how the 2 per cent inflation target will be achieved. A weakening yen, though favourable for Japanese businesses, is likely not enough to get a lagging economy back on course.
In the long run, Japan needs widespread economic reforms, opening up of markets and freeing up of tight protective regulations, to get new life back into the economy, analysts say.
Job growth in recent years has been limited, often in low-pay part-time sectors. Hopelessness among the young generation is intensified by the prospect of having to foot the bill for one of the world's most rapidly aging societies.
"Getting out of deflation can't be done by monetary easing alone. It's not a fix-it-all. It's not a magic wand," said Katsuyuki Hasegawa, chief market economic at Mizuho Research Institute. "You need a whole package of measures."
A new business mentality is also needed, one that nurtures young entrepreneurs like Reina Otsuka, 32, who runs her own online business called "eco+waza" selling Japanese ecological products, like cast-iron rice cookers and charcoal deodorizers, for the global market.
The government hasn't been much help to Otsuka's efforts in the past, but she had hopes for Abe, at 58, a young leader by Japanese standards, and prime minister in 2006-2007.
"It is nice that he is still young. I hope he can show leadership," she said, expressing hopes the government will let the private sector alone and get on with business.
So far, Abenomics is on a roll.
The benchmark Nikkei soared earlier this week, although it lost some of the gains Thursday. The dollar has recovered to mid-84 yen levels from below 80 yen levels in recent months.
Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda welcomed Abe's pledge to work with the Bank of Japan, and expressed hopes the yen would keep sinking.
Still, Abenomics is not without risks.
So much of its best scenario relies on the confidence people have in Japan's ability to sustain ballooning public debt, estimated at more than 200 per cent of its economy, or gross domestic product. That debt will rise if Abe executes his plan for more spending.
Government bonds have remained stable so far. But if that confidence is lost, bonds could lose their perceived safety and that would endanger the country's ability to borrow, Kanno warned.
Setting an inflation target is a tricky idea, Kanno said. If a C student has been failing at trying to get a B, is targeting an A going to make a difference?
And the idea that people will go shopping, expecting prices to go up later, is just ridiculous, he said. People will jump to start consuming — only when they see prices shooting up.
"It takes a long time to get out of deflation," Kanno said. "One needs to proceed with caution."
Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at www.twitter.com/yurikageyama


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- (1) 4.0 Ton Rheem 14 SEER RA14 Classic® Series Air Conditioner (RA1448AJ1NA)
- (1) 4.0 Ton Rheem RH1P Standard Efficiency Air Handler (RH1P4821STANJA)
FilesRA14 Specs RH1P Specs
4.0 Ton Rheem 14 SEER RA14 Classic® Series Air Conditioner - Model #RH1P4821STANJA
- New composite base pan – dampens sound, captures louver panels, eliminates corrosion and reduces number of fasteners needed
- Powder coat paint system – for a long lasting professional finish
- Scroll compressor – uses 70% fewer moving parts for higher efficiency and increased reliability
- Modern cabinet aesthetics – increased curb appeal with visually appealing design
- Curved louver panels – provide ultimate coil protection, enhance cabinet strength, and increased cabinet rigidity
- Optimized fan orifice – optimizes airflow and reduces unit sound
- Rust resistant screws – confirmed through 1500-hour salt spray testing
- PlusOne™ Expanded Valve Space – 3"-4"-5" service valve space – provides a minimum working area of 27-square inches for easier access
- PlusOne™ Triple Service Access – 15" wide, industry leading corner service access – makes repairs easier and faster. The two fastener removable corner allows optimal access to internal unit components. Individual louver panels come out once fastener is removed, for faster coil cleaning and easier cabinet reassembly
- Diagnostic service window with two-fastener opening – provides access to the high and low pressure.
- External gauge port access – allows easy connection of "low-loss" gauge ports
- Single-row condenser coil – makes unit lighter and allows thorough coil cleaning to maintain "out of the box" performance
- 35% fewer cabinet fasteners and fastener-free base – allow for faster access to internal components and hassle-free panel removal
- Service trays – hold fasteners or caps during service calls
- QR code – provides technical information on demand for faster service calls
- Fan motor harness with extra long wires allows unit top to be removed without disconnecting fan wire.
4.0 Ton Rheem RH1P Standard Efficiency Air Handler - Model #RA1448AJ1NA
- RH1T/RH2T feature a Constant Torque motor (ECM) which provides enhanced SEER performance with most Rheem outdoor units.
- Versatile 4-way convertible design for upflow, downflow, horizontal left and horizontal right applications.
- Factory-installed indoor coil.
- Sturdy cabinet construction with 1.0 inch [25.4 mm] of foil faced insulation for excellent sound and insulating characteristics.
- Field-installed auxiliary electric heater kits provide exact heat for indoor comfort. Kits include circuit breakers which meet U.L. and cUL requirements for service disconnect.
- 11/2 ton [5.3 kW] through 5 ton [17.6 kW] models are between 421/2 to 551/2 inches [1080 to 1410 mm] tall and 22 inches [559 mm] deep.
- All models meet or exceed 330 to 400 CFM [156 to 189 L/s] per ton at .3 inches [.7 kPa] of external static pressure.
- Enhanced airflow up to .7" external static pressure.
- Evaporator is constructed of aluminum fins bonded to internally grooved aluminum tubing.
Product Specification
- 10 years
It is the customer's responsibility to register the product(s) with the manufacturer for warranty.
Recommended Products
36" x 36" x 3" Condenser Pad$50.00
SpeedLight Jr. 14" 24V UV Lamp$189.00
Aprilaire Humidifier$310.00


text:
Search results
(1 - 2 of 2)
- Title
- Southern Ocean Iron Enrichment Experiment,
- Description
- The availability of iron is known to exert a controlling influence on biological productivity in surface waters over large areas of the ocean and may have been an important factor in the variation of the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide over glacial cycles. The effect of iron in the Southern Ocean is particularly important because of its large area and abundant nitrate, yet iron-enhanced growth of phytoplankton may be differentially expressed between waters with high silicic acid in the south and low silicic acid in the north, where diatom growth may be limited by both silicic acid and iron. Two mesoscale experiments, designed to investigate the effects of iron enrichment in regions with high and low concentrations of silicic acid, were performed in the Southern Ocean. These experiments demonstrate iron's pivotal role in controlling carbon uptake and regulating atmospheric partial pressure of carbon dioxide., Cited By (since 1996):316, Oceanography, CODEN: SCIEA, ,
- Author
- Coale, Johnson, Chavez, Buesseler, Barber, Brzezinski, Cochlan, Millero, Falkowski, Bauer, Wanninkhof, Kudela, Altabet, Hales, Takahashi, Landry, Bidigare, Wang, Chase, Strutton, Friederich, Gorbunov, Lance, Hilting, Hiscock, Demarest, Hiscock, Sullivan, Tanner, Gordon, Hunter, Elrod, Fitzwater, Jones, Tozzi, Koblizek, Roberts, Herndon, Brewster, Ladizinsky, Smith, Cooper, Timothy, Brown, Selph, Sheridan, Twining, Johnson
- Date
- Title
- Testing the iron hypothesis in ecosystems of the equatorial Pacific Ocean,
- Description
- The idea that iron might limit phytoplankton growth in large regions of the ocean has been tested by enriching an area of 64 km 2 in the open equatorial Pacific Ocean with iron. This resulted in a doubling of plant biomass, a threefold increase in chlorophyll and a fourfold increase in plant production. Similar increases were found in a chlorophyll-rich plume down-stream of the Galapagos Islands, which was naturaly enriched in iron. These findings indicate that iron limitation can control rates of phytoplankton productivity and biomass in the ocean., Cited By (since 1996):749, Oceanography, CODEN: NATUA, ,
- Author
- Martin, Coale, Johnson, Fitzwater, Gordon, Tanner, Hunter, Elrod, Nowicki, Coley, Barber, Lindley, Watson, Van Scoy, Law, Liddicoat, Ling, Stanton, Stockel, Collins, Anderson, Bidigare, Ondrusek, Latasa, Millero, Lee, Yao, Zhang, Friederich, Sakamoto, Chavez, Buck, Kolber, Greene, Falkowski, Chisholm, Hoge, Swift, Yungel, Turner, Nightingale, Hatton, Liss, Tindale
- Date


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In Touch with Student Services is published by the Office of the Vice President for Student Services at California State University, Long Beach. The mission of In Touch is to educate and inform donors and alumni, community partners, current and retired Student Services employees, student leaders and other campus community members about the range of the division's services and support that make a difference in the lives of CSULB students.
The staff of In Touch thank the following individuals for their assistance with this issue: Stacie Bauerle, Justine Bellock, Crystal Blaylock, Susan Brown, Matt Cabrera, Michael Carbuto, Brad Compliment, Maggie Elias, Michael Gardner, Berta Hanson, Marie Hill, Michael Johnston, Jeff Klaus, Brian Lawver, David Nelson, Manuel Pérez, Nop Ratanasiripong, Jan Reyes, Caitlin Roberts, Victoria Sanchez, Diane Taylor, John Trapper, Kristine West, Julie Wilson and Howard Wray. Some photos obtained from iStock International, Inc. and University Publications.
In addition to meeting fully its obligations of nondiscrimination under federal and state law, CSULB is committed to creating a community in which a diverse population can live, learn and work in an atmosphere of tolerance, civility and respect for the rights and sensibilities of each individual, without regard to economic status, ethnic background, veteran status, political views, sexual orientation or other personal characteristics or beliefs.
An Equal Opportunity Employer


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2009-10 Lecture Series
Henryk Grynberg
Date: Friday, March 26, 2010
Time: 4:00 p.m.
Location: 251 FH
Title: "Reality surpassing imagination: why I write documentary prose"
Henryk Grynberg is an award-winning writer, poet, playwright, and essayist. He has written more than twenty books exploring the fate of the Polish Jews in the Holocaust and the trauma after. His return to Poland was the subject of the 1996 PBS Frontline program, "Shtetl." He is a frequent lecturer in Poland. Grynberg's writing makes abundant use of biographical and autobiographical material, as well as archival research. His documentary prose straddles the boundaries of history and literature. Henryk Grynberg's writing records the fates of people saved from oblivion by the writer in the conviction that doing so is both the duty of literature towards the victims of the Holocaust and a confirmation of the sanctity of human life itself. Three of his major works are available in English: Children of Zion (Northwestern University Press, 1998) The Jewish War and Victory (Northwestern University Press, 2001), and Drohobycz, Drohobycz (Penguin, 2002).
Barnes and Noble book sellers will be selling the speakers books immediately after the lecture. The author will also be available to sign books.
Brian Porter-Szücs
Date: Friday, January 15, 2010
Time: 4:00 p.m.
Location: 251 FH
Title: "Catholicism and the Ideology of Homogeneity in Polish History"
Brian Porter-Szücs is Associate Professor of History at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, where he specializes in the history of Poland and modern Roman Catholicism. He is the author of When Nationalism Began to Hate: Imagining Modern Politics in 19th Century Poland (Oxford University Press,2000) and For God and Fatherland: Catholicism, Modernity, and Poland (Oxford University Press, 2009). He teaches Eastern Europe to 1900; Eastern Europe in the 20th Century; Survey of East Central Europe; Europe in the Era of Total War; Many Polands: A History of Multiculturalism in Northeastern Europe.
John J. Bukowczyk
Date: Friday, December 4, 2009
Time: 4:00 p.m
Location: 251 French Hall
Title: "Europe's Other Heart of Darkness: Imperialism Before Empire"
From the history of Polish immigration to the United States, Professor Bukowczyk will discuss the themes of race and empire as they involve of Poland and the lands and peoples of the European periphery.
John J. Bukowczyk is Professor of History at Wayne State University and specialist in Polish immigration and ethnic history. He has published And My Children Did Not Know Me:A History of the Polish Americans (recently re-issued as A History of the Polish Americans) and Polish Americans and Their History:Community, Culture, and Politics (editor). Professor Bukowczyk has won the American Historical Association's William Gilbert Award for the Best Article on Teaching History and the Gold Cross of Merit from the Republic of Poland for scholarly and civic contributions. Professor Bukowczyk edits the Ohio University Press Polish and Polish-American Studies Series and The Journal of American Ethnic History.
Keely Stauter-Halsted
Date: Friday, October 16th, 2009
Time: 4:00 p.m.
Location: 251 French Hall
Title: "Polish-Jewish Relations: A Thousand Year Conversation"
Jews first arrived on Polish territory before the medieval state was consolidated. They have remained central to the country's self-identity ever since. This lecture exams the parallel history of Jews and Polish Christians over a millennium of interaction and accommodation. It focuses on key turning points that are best understood through an examination of interactions between the two cultures. The lecture pays particular attention to developments in Krakow and in Galicia (southern Poland), where the Wyatt Exploration group will travel. It finishes with an extended analysis of the post-World War II resurgence of Jewish communities in Poland and a discussion of the future of Jewish life there.
Keely Stauter-Halsted is Associate Professor History at Michigan State University and Associate Chair of the Department of History. She has written Nation in the Village: Genesis of National Identity in Austrian Poland, 1848-1914. Her specialties include: 19th century Galicia/Austrian Poland, Jewish minorities, and Habsburg imperial commemoration. She is also a member of the Core Faculty of MSU's Center for Gender in Global Context. Professor Stauter-Halsted's current research focuses on prostitution in nineteenth and early twentieth-century Poland.


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Question #
A phone is considered a good phone if all of the following conditions are satisfied:-
The manufacturer must be one of Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Sony or HTC.
The model name of the phone must be a single word. For example, "Razr", "Omnia" or "N8" will count, but "C6 01", "EVO 3D" or "Xperia Arc S" won't.
It must have either 'Android' or 'Windows' as its operating system.
If the CPU is of type "ARMv11" then the cpu speed must be atleast 1024 MHz.
If the CPU speed is less then 1024 MHz, then it must have a GPU and "Android" os only.
There should be atleast 30 carriers selling this phone and "Vodafone" must be one of them.
Write a method:
boolean isGoodPhone(String model, String manufacturer, String os, int CPUSpeed, String CPUType, boolean hasGPU, String[] carriers)
model Name of the phone model.
manufacturer Name of the phone manufacturer.
os Name of the operating system.
CPUSpeed CPU speed in MHz.
CPUType Type of the CPU.
hasGPU Whether or not the phone has Graphics Processing Unit (GPU).
carriers a string array representing list of carriers who sell this phone.
If any one can develop the source code of this logic i'll be greatful to that one...please help me out..!!
Thank you in advance!


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This Week's Guest is YOU — The Ocean Doctor LIVE! Broadcast
December 20, 2010: It's the premiere of "The Ocean Doctor LIVE!" where YOU are the guest! We get a surprise visit from one of our past guests and talk oceans, coast-to-coast. Also: If I were a Great White, I wouldn't eat you.
The Ocean Doctor airs weekly on WebTalkRadio.net. Want to listen on your iPod, iPhone or mp3 player? Download the mp3 file or subscribe on iTunes and don't miss a single episode. See the complete list of episodes.
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Fans of Kentucky basketball now know the rumors were true: This year's National Championship team will soon be missing five underclassmen.
On Tuesday, in a press conference at the Joe Craft Center men's basketball practice gym, Marquis Teague, Terrence Jones, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Anthony Davis and Doron Lamb all announced their early departure from college for the NBA draft.
Davis, winner of national freshman of the year, defensive player of the year and the Naismith Award, is projected as the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. Fellow teammate and freshman, Kidd-Gilchrist is expected to go second.
While the fabulous five await their fate in Newark, N.J. on June 28, Coach John Calipari will be busy rebuilding his team down in Lexington. With his five NBA prospects gone, along with senior Darius Miller, Calipari must replace 93.3 percent of the scoring and 94 percent of the rebounding from this season's championship team.
But, that shouldn't be too much concern for any fan bleeding blue. After all, Kentucky was just fine after John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins made the leap to the NBA. And, next season UK is again slated for another standout freshman class with Archie Goodwin, Alex Poythress and Willie Cauley. Add NC State transfer Ryan Harrow and No.1 ESPNU 100 recruit Nerlens Noel to the mix, and Kentucky may just claim a ninth title by 2013.
Before the Cats get too comfortable, though, Indiana and Louisville will be clawing at their feet. Ranked No. 1 and 2 respectively in a very early preseason poll by ESPN, Indiana and Louisville will return with much of the same talent, plus a few key freshmen and college transfers.
It's sure to be one huge battle in the Bluegrass this coming basketball season. But whether the Cards, Cats or Hoosiers come out on top, there's no doubt Kentuckiana will again claim its stake as a hot bed for college basketball.


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G-Unit artist Kidd Kidd drops off a new single titled "I'm A G (Bury Me A G)." This will appear on his forthcoming Street Fame mixtape set to drop soon.
Kidd Kidd – I'm A G (Bury Me A G)
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Probably not, but DJ Whoo Kid has never before G-Unit material he plans to soon release. On his Twitter account, the legendary mixtape DJ…
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G-Unit rapper Kidd Kidd releases his new mixtape Rappers Worst Nightmare 2. The project contains 11 records with features from Currensy, CJay Da Truth,…
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Going in over ASAP Ferg and Future's instrumental Kidd Kidd provides us with some new bars on his "New Level" remix.
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G-Unit's own Kidd Kidd drops off a visual for his Fuk Da Fame track "The Game".
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G-Unit member and 2015 XXL Freshman cover star Kidd Kidd returns with a new visual for his track "Mr. Rogers."
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"Morgenlandfahrt" a mix of Dub, Reggae, Bossa, Jazz, Electronics, Trip Hop and Break Beats woven with a Balkan twist. Numerous co-operations with both Viennese and international musicians from the Balkan and Klezmer scenes have enriched many of the tracks on the album, namely performers like 5'nizza, Fanfare Ciocarlia, Amsterdam Klezmer band, Harry Stojka, Östblocket, MC Killo Killo, Orient Expressions and many more.
Ulf Lindemann aka [dunkelbunt]: "When DJing I am travelling around the world together with my audience carried on by the music. Timelessly we are dancing through Countries and Continents getting drunk with the infinite beauty of the music. I consider myself an intermediary searching for soulful music and its magic to share it with other people."


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|Algerian director Merzak Allouache will be on hand to discuss his award-winning film The Repentant.
Filmmakers and scholars from around the world will converge at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Nov. 1-3, 2012 to discuss the role filmmaking plays in the international struggle for civil and human rights. The Fifth Annual Foreign Language Film Conference is sponsored by the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures and is free and open to the public.
This year's event is an homage to the 49th anniversary of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham. On Sept. 15, 1963, four black girls were killed before church by a bomb planted by the Ku Klux Klan. The event had a ripple effect around the world, inspiring countless books, songs, articles and films. In that same spirit, UAB organizers put out a call for papers to find out how people worldwide tell the stories of their own fights for civil and human rights using film.
The response was overwhelming.
More than 60 scholars, filmmakers, students and professors from Russia, Italy, Canada, France and other countries will join the dialogue during the November event with hopes of educating the public about how film can inspire change.
"Our intention is to bring about awareness for the civil rights movements of the world," says Serge Bokobza, Ph.D., chair of the foreign languages department and conference director.
More than 60 scholars, filmmakers, students and professors from Russia, Italy, Canada, France and other countries will join the dialogue during the November event with hopes of educating the public about how film can inspire change.
Sessions will include "Faith, Strife & Exodus: Religion and Film," "Riots and Rights Through Time and Space," and "From Horror to Queer: Contemporary Self Image in Film."
Three major directors will be on hand to screen their films and answer questions. Sarah Maldoror of France, who is one of the first black female directors, will show Aime Cesaire, a look into the life of the writer who founded the "negritude" movement. Merzak Allouache, from Algeria, will screen his award-winning The Repentant — the tale of an Islamist terrorist who seeks to return to society — which was shown at the Cannes Festival in 2012 and will have its American premiere at the conference. Italian Stefano Savona, who has helmed a number of award-winning films, will show his most recent, Tahir: Liberation Square. This day-by-day account of the Egyptian revolution of 2011 has won honors at film festivals from New York to Dubai.
Screening times:
- Aime Cesaire – Nov. 1, 4:30-6:30 p.m., DoubleTree Hotel, Heritage II, located at 808 20th St. South
- The Repentant – Nov. 2, 7-9 p.m., UAB Hill University Center, room 105, located at 1401 University Blvd.
- Tahrir: Liberation Square – Nov. 3, 4:30-6:30 p.m., DoubleTree Hotel, Heritage II, located at 808 20th St. South
"I am excited to be able to explore film on a global scale," says Nicholas Price, a 22-year-old senior from Pelham. He and several other undergraduate students have worked with Bokobza to coordinate the event.
"There is so much to foreign cinema that we in the United States, let alone in Birmingham, don't see very often."
Price, who is a double major in international studies and linguistics and film studies, hopes those attending the conference will gain an awareness of the many struggles for civil rights around the globe.
"I think for people to walk away having gleaned a greater understanding of foreign histories and cultures is exciting and promising," he says.


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The Houston Dynamo's tough week continued as a 61st minute goal from Arabe Unido's José Gonzalez proved enough to send the MLS club crashing out of the CONACACAF Champions League.
Needing a draw or win to move on to move on, Houston fielded a lineup with nine changes from their last match in MLS play. With the game lacking for chances, the home team was the first team to make substitutions and push the game forward, and it paid off almosty immediately. Four minutes after making two attack-minded changes, the Panamanians struck thanks to some poor defending and a fortunate bounce.
Gonzalez took his chance when he found enough space to test Dynamo 'keeper Tyler Deric, who made a superb reaction stop but couldn't hold onto the blast. As the ball popped up, Gonzalez tried again with a looping header that Deric managed to get a hand on, but could not keep out of the net.
The home side started to milk the clock after the goal, taking every opportunity to waste precious seconds. In the end, the goal plus the time-wasting was a successful equation for Unido, as the win sees the Panamanian club through to the quarterfinals for the second time in their history.
Both clubs struggled to get going early in the game, but it was Houston that came alive first. Omar Cummings got three bites at the apple in the span of five minutes, but was unable to capitalize on any of the chances. The best of those came in the 26th minute when Cam Weaver flicked a ball with his head to put the speedy Cummings in, but his shot from an angle found the side-netting. He put his other two chances well over goal, including one from close range.
Unido were not without chances, but never seriously threatened despite some nervy moments from a Dynamo backline that took some time to get together. Looking for something, Árabe forward Orlando Rodriguez tried his luck from outside the box but Deric was in position to scoop it up.
Seven minutes after Gonzalez picked up the opener, Enrico Small, a second half substitute for the hosts, found himself alone rushing into the box but put his shot well over the goal.
Houston did push late, inserting forwards Will Bruin, Giles Barnes and midfielder Warren Creavalle, shifting to a three-man defense. The changes did not yield a product and Unido was able to put some time-wasting to good use and see out the win.
Houston will return to MLS play on Sunday for a do-or-die regular season finale against D.C. United where that will determine their playoff fate.
Árabe Unido (3-1-0; 9 points) vs. Houston Dynamo (2-1-1; 7 points)
CONCACF Champions League group stage - Game 4 of 4
October 24, 2013 – Estadio Agustín Sánchez, La Chorrera, Panama
Scoring Summary:
Árabe Unido: Jose Gonzalez (unassisted) 61
Houston Dynamo: Tyler Deric; Kofi Sarkodie (Giles Barnes 74), Bobby Boswell, Eric Brunner, Mike Chabala; Jason Johnson (Warren Creavalle 76), Servando Carrasco, Alexander López, Andrew Driver; Omar Cummings (Will Bruin 70), Cam Weaver
Unused substitutes: Tally Hall, Anthony Arena, Calen Carr, Corey Ashe
Árabe Unido: Miguel Lloyd; Angel Patrick, Rigoberto Nino, Fidel Caesar, Luis Fraiz; Harold Cummings, Abdiel Macea (Enrico Small 56), Roderick Paul, Jose Gonzalez; Orlando Rodriguez (Abdiel Arroyo 59), Humberto Ward (Alejandro Velez 78)
Unused substitutes: Alexander Andreve, Felix Gondola, Joseph Cox, Reynaldo Anderson
Misconduct Summary:
Árabe Unido: Orlando Rodriguez (caution) 18
Árabe Unido: Roderick Paul (caution) 18
Árabe Unido: Abdiel Macea (caution) 18
Houston: Kofi Sarkodie (caution) 64
Houston: Will Bruin (caution) 71
Houston: Giles Barnes (caution) 85
Árabe Unido: Jose Gonzalez (caution) 90+4
Referee: Courtney Campbell


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Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967), Solitude, [1918] 1944-63; watercolor and charcoal on paper, 42 x 60 inches, Burchfield Penney Art Center, Gift of Charles Rand Penney, 1994
In His Own Words reviewed in today's Buffalo News
Friday, January 11, 2013
Burchfield Penney exhibition explores the self-motivated Charles Burchfield: Exhibit explores the self-motivation of Charles Burchfield by Colin Dabkowski in today's Buffalo News Gusto
Read more at http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20130110%2FGUSTO%2F130119908%2F1031
All artists need motivation.
Some get it from their social circumstances, some from their teachers and mentors. Others cobble it together from the books, paintings and concerts of their youth and young adulthood. Charles Burchfield, the master watercolorist whose work we are lucky to see on a regular basis in the Burchfield Penney Art Center, certainly drew inspiration from all of these places.
But his deepest motivation– what compelled him to put paintbrush to paper – seemed to come above all from within himself. That almost genetic urge, which predates and supersedes all the outward influences that appear in Burchfield's paintings, shines through in Tullis Johnson's superb exhibition "Charles E. Burchfield: In His Own Words," which runs in the Burchfield Penney through March 17.
It would be impossible to concretely illustrate the strong inner drive that sits at the heart of Burchfield's unique style and his successful creation of a new and fantastical approach to painting. But Johnson, through his smart selection of excerpts from Burchfield's extensive journals, his extraordinarily critical notes of self-motivation and other ephemera, provides new insights into the artist's singular and borderline obsessive desire to create art.
The show begins with a series of personal mantras scribbled in cursive in his notebooks. They sometimes read like fully formed poems: "Give yourself up entirely to nature," one reads, "let nature woo you – / go out with no preconceived ideas / Be alone with God." Others are more whimsical and harder to pin down, such as one that simply reads, "Oh gee, oh gosh, oh my, oh my, oh my!" Burchfield, Johnson said, would often tack these notes up in his studio to serve as little bits of visual encouragement while he was painting.
We also see examples of some of his whimsical designs for camouflage he produced while enlisted in the Army during World War I, accompanied by letters that paint a grim picture of his spirit during his brief stint at Camp Jackson in South Carolina.
One of the more remarkable documents in a show littered with them is a letter Burchfield wrote toward the end of his service in 1918. The letter, typed in numbered paragraphs and straightforward prose, firmly requested he be released from service to pursue several pending art exhibitions at galleries in New York, Chicago and elsewhere.
It would be hard to imagine an army sergeant today requesting to be discharged, essentially, because of a need to do watercolors. But this was how deep and all-possessing Burchfield's dedication to his art was. And it would never abate thereafter.
The exhibition then takes us on a Burchfield-narrated tour through his development as a painter, with wonderful examples of rural scenes including "Late Afternoon Twilight" and "Grain Elevators," both from the early '20s. After that, we see the emergence of the jaw-dropping, otherworldly approach he would take in an effort to compress the sensory wonders of nature into two dimensions.
One of the most arresting pieces of writing in the show is one of Burchfield's little post-it notes meant to remind him what he was supposed to be doing. I can imagine him glancing up at it in his studio from time to time as he dipped his brush into the paint.
"There is a reality beyond pictorial reality," he wrote. "The reality of work, life – experience. What a noon whistle means to a worker who has a hard life."


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Microsoft made its new member of the Surface family, Surface Windows 8 Pro, available for sale starting February 9, 2013. The Surface Pro, as I would like to call it, is being sold via Microsoft's online store, their few retail stores and Best Buy and Staples retail stores.
Within hours, news started rolling in of the 128GB model going "out of stock". The 64GB was available in most places, but the higher-end model was showing no stock at most of the retailers.
What does it mean? Unfortunately, besides the simple math of demand being more than the supply, nothing. The supply was not enough to keep up with the demand, which for a robust manufacturing organization means a supply chain disaster. How can a company botch supply on launch day? It is the one day the company gets to be in the press more than any other day, at least from that product's standpoint, and they are unable to fulfil demand.
However, despite their keyboards and mice, as well as their Xbox and now Surface RT, I don't consider Microsoft a "robust manufacturing company". Also, the Surface Pro is not a run-of-the-mill product, or an iteration of an existing product. It has a complex screen and specialized materials. There very well could be issues in larger scale manufacturing of those components. In fact, after promising that the Surface Pro would be released about 90 days after the Surface RT, Microsoft ended up releasing the former about 2 weeks later. That hints at a possible issue (or a set of issues) they may have faced during the manufacturing.
There were also anecdotes from individuals going to or calling retail stores in their area and finding out that the stock at these stores was in many cases in single digits. While those are still anecdotes, it is worthwhile to remember that the stock is ordered by the store, and not by Microsoft. Regardless, the customer experience ended up being bad because they could not buy the product they wanted to.
However, not all is lost as long as Microsoft can ramp up quickly. If they replenish stocks quick enough and take advantage of the momentum they have unexpectedly received, it may end up working in their favour. These enthusiastic customers will show off their shiny new toy to their friends and family and perhaps create a few more customers out of them.
Here is where Microsoft will have to learn what Apple has mastered — pre-production capital expenses to fulfil the demand expected at launch, accurately predicting launch day demand, and most importantly, making sure more markets are served at launch and soon after, than the previous launches.
In some ways, this situation is better than the opposite situation, which is Microsoft and its retail partners stock a ton of units and no one wants to buy them. At least at this point it does seem like there is unmet demand for the product. It is for Microsoft to ramp up and ensure that their next Surface family member has even better launch day balance between supply and demand.


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GraphicConverter is a useful image manipulation application for Mac OS X and Classic. GC can import and export a wide range of image file formats, can batch process and is AppleScript scriptable. You can also scan images since it supports TWAIN and Photoshop Plug-Ins. This also makes it an alternative to Photoshop e.g. for the use of Kevin Kratzke's LensFix and PanoTools Plug-Ins for Mac OS X.
A full feature list of the current version of GraphicConverter is available on Lemkesoft.com.


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CALGARY — Michelle Lang phoned her fiance the morning of her first patrol with a Canadian reconstruction team in Afghanistan.
It was nighttime in Calgary. Lang, a Calgary Herald reporter on secondment to Canwest News Service, had been in Kandahar province for nearly three weeks on her first stint covering the war between NATO and the Taliban.
She and Michael Louie talked about how fast the time apart had passed. In a little more than three weeks, she'd be home.
"Prior to her leaving she asked me what I wanted to read, and I said I wanted to read about the good stuff that they're doing over there," Louie recalls.
"She died trying to get those types of stories."
Lang, 34, is the first Canadian reporter killed in Afghanistan. Travelling in a light-armoured vehicle, she and four Canadian soldiers — three of them reservists — were killed Wednesday by a homemade bomb on what was considered a safe stretch of dirt road on the outskirts of Kandahar City.
For reporters, being asked to cover the war in Afghanistan is a testament to the calibre of their journalism, as it's one of the most dangerous reporting assignments in the world.
Lang was one of the Canada's best.
It was one of those headlines that instantly grabs a reader, but the first line of the story was the hook that reeled in people.
"Vomit serves up virus at buffet," read the front page of The Prince George Free Press, a bi-weekly newspaper in the northern B.C. city.
The story's author was Michelle Lang, then 24 and barely a year into her first newspaper job.
Lang toiled over the article, interviewing a public official three times to make sure she had the facts right.
A regional environmental health officer told her 13 people had became ill with Norwalk virus after eating at a local restaurant where a customer had vomited on the buffet table.
In a meeting with her editor and the head of the paper, Lang fought for the story and to have the restaurant named.
Publisher Lorne Doerkson remembers weighing the potential legal risks of printing the story and being sued, but Lang's passion persuaded him to do so.
As a result of publicity from the article, the restaurant closed. The paper was slapped with a $1-million-plus lawsuit, but eventually won a protracted court battle.
In the end, the case yielded a precedent-setting legal decision reinforcing the media's obligation and right to bring important information to the public.
"To see someone like Michelle stand up and defend a story ... it's pretty uplifting," says Doerkson, a veteran newspaperman.
Journalism, for Lang, was a calling rather than a career choice.
"She was born to it," says Shane Mills, who gave Lang her first break in the business in 1998.
The Vancouver resident was in her third year of studying English at Simon Fraser University when she was hired as a summer intern at the Prince George Free Press.
From an early age, Art and Sandra Lang instilled in their daughter a love of reading. Their home was filled with books, magazines and newspapers, says her aunt, Catherine Lang.
"Her parents also travelled extensively, so Michelle's world view was expansive and deep from an early age," she adds.
Despite no formal journalism training, colleagues recall Lang quickly picked up the craft.
When her summer internship ended, Mills and others at the paper begged Lang to stay on full time. She did and was named outstanding junior reporter of 1999 for Cariboo Press, a B.C.-based community newspaper chain.
She also earned the attention of a daily paper, the Moose Jaw Times-Herald in Saskatchewan.
At first, Times-Herald managing editor Lesley Sheppard was skeptical Lang was as good as she professed. The young reporter wouldn't stop calling Sheppard after applying for a job at the small daily paper.
She soon proved her worth after joining the 12-person newsroom in April 2000.
"You never had to tell her what to do. You never had to push her," Sheppard says. "We knew from the beginning she wasn't going to stay there long."
Lang took on the police and courts beat. Sheppard says the police liked and trusted her so much, they'd phone her at home when crime news broke.
The Regina Leader-Post soon noticed Lang, hiring her seven months later to cover agriculture — Saskatchewan's most important industry.
Lang was the first to admit she knew little about farming. She was a quick study, though.
Bruce Johnstone, business editor at the Leader-Post, says she embodied all the qualities that make a great journalist: dedication, tenacity and enthusiasm.
During her two years in Regina, she broke several important stories, including one chronicling how an agricultural company was illegally shipping and selling what it purported to be seed grain.
"It was a fairly major breach of the law and she broke the story and did a very good job of explaining a complicated situation," Johnstone says.
"She took a beat which is not considered to be glamorous and ... made it a stepping stone for her to go on with bigger and better things."
Bigger and better led in 2002 to an oil city on the cusp of a major economic boom.
Lang left a permanent position in Regina for a temporary job at the Calgary Herald in the business section. It didn't take her long to secure a full-time job.
She eventually moved to the city section, tapped to fill the high-profile and challenging role of health reporting.
Lang rattled politicians and, when necessary, held their feet to the fire, giving a voice to ailing patients.
This past year, for instance, her reporting helped spur the province to extend prescription drug coverage to two expensive but necessary medicines, Avastin and Lucentis.
Mark Kastner, executive director of media relations for Alberta Health Services, says Lang's reporting often made medical officials reflect on their decisions.
"You always went into an interview with Michelle knowing you had to be on top of your game, because she would catch you if you didn't do your homework," he says.
Lang ventured beyond public institutions to talk directly to patients. Many were ordinary citizens with extraordinary stories.
"It's not an easy job when you've got grieving families and you have to deal with them," says Calgarian Wendy Baseotto, who spoke to Lang after Baseotto's teenage son, Jordan, died. The 18-year-old lost his life after waiting 12 hours at a local hospital for doctors to operate on his burst appendix.
Baseotto's husband, Bruno, says Lang wanted to get to the truth and make a difference. "I could feel and sense her passion for her work."
That passion earned Lang a prestigious National Newspaper Award in May, when she was recognized as the top beat reporter in the country.
Her award-winning articles included exposing a confidential government-commissioned audit that recommended the province turn several small rural hospitals into nursing homes or urgent care centres. It also features her investigation of Alberta's contentious efforts to recruit South African doctors.
Overseas, she carefully travelled from Cape Town to Johannesburg and, despite the potential danger of visiting a crime-ridden area, wanted to see first-hand the impact of the AIDS epidemic on African children, recalls Herald senior editor Chris Varcoe.
In 2006, Lang also spent months documenting the life of a 38-year-old woman with multiple sclerosis who was forced to live in a nursing home for seniors, because there was nowhere else for the patient to go.
For five months, Lang followed patient Tanya Beaton, documenting every aspect of her experience at the facility.
Afghanistan was the most difficult and dangerous foreign assignment of Lang's career.
Like the aspiring journalist who peppered a Prince George editor with questions during her internship job interview, she questioned countless people about how best to handle the dangers of reporting in the country.
She wanted to tell the best stories she could about Canada's single-most important foreign policy issue of the past decade.
Lang arrived at the NATO military base at Kandahar Airfield on Dec. 11. Reporting for Canwest, the country's largest newspaper chain, her editor Randy Newell says she immediately sought to get on the ground with Canadian troops, outside the protective walled and wired confines of the sprawling main base.
Within a day of arriving, she had secured her first trip "outside the wire" to spend several days with Canadian troops and a battalion of the Afghan National Army.
Chronicling a two-day, Afghan-led mission in a region southwest of Kandahar City, she wrote about how the Canadian Forces were helping Afghans bolster their military presence.
"She basically landed feet running," says Newell.
On base, Canadian Press reporter Colin Perkel worked in the same media tent as Lang. He says she was a thoughtful, curious journalist, but by no means reckless.
When an opportunity arose to accompany a de-mining patrol, Lang decided not to go.
"She thought it would be too risky for whatever story might come out of it," says Perkel, who's still in Kandahar.
Newell says Lang wanted to write about hospital care during her stint, drawing on her experience as a medical reporter. She also hoped to find an Afghan family willing to reflect on how their lives have changed since the U.S. ousted the Taliban following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
"Unfortunately, it was something she never got to do," he says.
During her 20 days in Kandahar, Lang interviewed everyone from soldiers to civilians, from senior military officials to federal politicians.
Federal cabinet minister Gary Lunn ate breakfast with Lang on Christmas morning, swapping stories about family and friends.
She told him why she volunteered to report from a war zone.
"She made it clear that she wanted to get out there and tell the personal stories about the people there," he says.
Canada's chief of defence staff, Gen. Walter Natynczyk, also met Lang in Afghanistan, touring the region as dignitaries offered Christmas wishes to the troops.
Neither the helicopter nor artillery rounds that went off at Masum Ghar seemed to shake Lang, Natynczyk says.
"She was calm," he notes. "She was very inquisitive. If she had a point, she became very focused on it and the successive questions came.
"But she was always professional."
In her last e-mail to Newell, Lang told him she was headed to Canada's provincial reconstruction team, based in Kandahar City. Lang planned to spend about a week with the group, which focuses on development in the city and rural villages.
"Hopefully this will produce some interesting stories on the civilian/reconstruction side, as well as some military ones," she wrote.
Spending time with the reconstruction team is an assignment many Canadian reporters in Afghanistan have done without injury or death.
"She was eager," says her fiance, who spoke to her the morning she died. "She thought that she would get some pretty good stuff out of it. She was excited about going."
Wearing a helmet and body armour, Lang was inside a light-armoured vehicle with several soldiers conducting a routine patrol on the outskirts of Kandahar City when they struck an improvised explosive device — the kind that has killed 83 of the 138 Canadian soldiers in the country.
In Wednesday's blast, four soldiers died: Pte. Garrett Chidley, 21, of Cambridge, Ont., and Langley B.C.; Cpl. Zachery McCormack, 21, and Sgt. George Miok, 28, both of Edmonton; and Sgt. Kirk Taylor, 28, of Yarmouth, N.S.
Four other Canadian soldiers were injured, as well as an Afghan interpreter and a civilian.
It was one of the deadliest attacks against Canadian troops since the mission began in 2002.
At a ramp ceremony Friday on the main military base, Lang was bestowed similar honours as the soldiers, a testament to the risks soldiers and journalists often share.
Her steel, flag-draped casket led the procession to a transport plane. Sunday, they will be repatriated in ceremony at Canadian Forces Base Trenton.
"She was a tremendous Canadian, tremendous professional journalist and a role model for all young people and young women striking out on a career that is very difficult," Natynczyk says.
"As I say for our soldiers, we will remember her."
Calgary Herald
With files from Sarah McGinnis and Deborah Tetley, Calgary Herald, Canwest News Service and The Canadian Press