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The drought of 2012 in the Midwest was a continuation of a weather anomaly that began in 2010. The historical indicator of El Niño and La Niña is the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI). The index is based on the 90-day standardized deviation of atmospheric pressure between Tahiti and Darwin, Australia. The standardized difference reached 0.8 on July 22, 2010, signifying the beginning of a La Niña event (Figure 1).
By Oct. 23, 2010, the event was clearly the second strongest event in the 100+ years of record keeping. The young but potent La Niña resulted in an abrupt change in weather on a planetary basis that included record flooding in Montana, North Dakota and adjacent Canada, and enormous amounts of water to drain into the Missouri river during 2011. The event ended a several-year drought in the northwest United States and ended (with drought) a six-year continuous string of above trend U.S. corn yields (figure 2).
Drought in 2011 was much like the drought in the mid-1950s: developing in the south-central United States with rain becoming scant in the Corn Belt after early July. Midwest crops depleted the subsoil moisture to the extent of rooting depth, and over winter precipitation did not bring full recharge to western Corn Belt soils. Rooting conditions in 2012 were near ideal and observed corn and soybean roots to depths greater than 8 ft. were reported in numerous locations. Deep rooting provided sufficient water to enable a greater than anticipated crop yield in numerous Corn Belt locations, but resulted in about 8 ft. of moisture depleted soil and a resultant requirement of 16+ in. of moisture needed to replenish subsoil moisture. It is not likely that subsoil moisture will be fully replenished by the beginning of the 2013 planting season.
Moisture deficit in the subsoil increases the risk of crop yields being below trend and prevents the recovery of river, pond and well water to normal levels.
Measurements of soil moisture are made at 1-ft. intervals to 5 ft. at several locations. Figure 3 is a map of the "normal April 15" soil moisture. Observations of the moisture at selected locations were made in the fall of 2011 and 2012. The fall observations are useful in that November water is retained throughout the winter and is indicative (to the extent they are short of normal) of the moisture deficit yet to be corrected.
Historically, severely deficit precipitation years of the magnitude of 2012 do not recover to normal annual precipitation in a single year (Figure 3). Accordingly, an additional year of significant moisture stress is considered to be not unlikely and a fourth consecutive year of below trend U.S. corn yield a distinct possibility. The probabilities will become more definitive in the early weeks of 2013 as the likely phase of the El Niño/La Niña for the growing season becomes manifest.
Elwynn Taylor is an extension climatologist and professor of agronomy. He can be reached at (515) 294-9985 or 3-mail email@example.com. Observations of subsoil moisture were provided by Joel DeJong, Paul Kassel, Jim Fawcett and Greg Brenneman, extension agricultural specialists.


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By Deb Stanley, Examiner.com
Keystone and Arapahoe Basin are great places to ski and the mountains and gulches in between the two ski areas are filled with great hiking trails. Chihuahua Gulch, about six miles from Keystone, features mountain peaks, streams, wildflowers and a beautiful lake.
The hike starts on Peru Creek Road (directions below). If you have a high-clearance, 4-wheel drive, you can drive the first two miles up Chihuahua Gulch Road, but we decided to hike it. The road is rocky, but wide. A short distance from the trailhead, you'll come to a scree field that we decided must have been deposited by a glacier because there are just so many boulders piled up.
The road takes a major dip at a stream crossing, but just go upstream a short distance to find a bridge to help you cross. From here, it's just a short hike into a large, wide-open gulch/meadow surrounded by mountain peaks. The road is fairly flat as it winds through the gulch, crossing a stream several times. There are no more bridges along the way, so you'll either be rock hopping through the water or getting your feet wet depending on how much rain and snow there's been.
After 2.1 miles, the Jeep road ends at a sign that says "Chihuahua Trail" and "no motor vehicles." There are a couple parking space for those who drive here, but there are not many. Look around, somewhere in this area is a trail that branches off to the backside of the 14er Grays Peak.
From here, the trail turns rocky and steep. There's about 1,000 feet of elevation gain in the next 1.4 miles to the lake. Take your time. When you need a break, turn in a circle and enjoy the views in every direction.
About a half mile from the Chihuahua Gulch split, the trail levels off again above tree line. The trail winds through the tundra here, below the rocky cliffs around Chihuahua Lake. You may even see cascades of water coming down the cliffs from the lake above. The trail goes past the lake to a rocky scree field. Carefully scramble up the very loose rocks to the lake's cirque above.
At the top of the saddle, you'll be awed by the peaks that surround the lake, but you won't see the water right away. You have to hike a short distance for a view of Chihuahua Lake on a shelf below the peaks.
This is a beautiful place. You may have to explore around the rocks, down to the shoreline and maybe up the cliffs a bit to find a good place to take a picture of this lake. Come early enough to avoid the afternoon storms and still spend some time at this scenic spot.
Details: From the trailhead at Peru Creek Road and Chihuahua Gulch, it's about 6.8 miles round-trip to the lake with 1,800 feet of elevation gain. The lake sits at about 12,300 feet.
Directions: From Keystone, drive west on U.S. 6 to Montezuma Road. (With all the growth at Keystone, this road is at the western edge of the resort.) Take Montezuma Road 4.5 miles to Peru Creek Road and turn right. There's a huge parking area with a sign that says "This is Peru Creek." Peru Creek Road is rough, but most cars can make it. Drive Peru Creek Road 2.1 miles to the Chihuahua Gulch turnoff and find a parking space off the road.
Don't miss any of my hiking reports. Follow me, HikingDebbie on Twitter or DenverHikingExaminer on Facebook.

subset: commoncrawl


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Now showing items 1-1 of 1
Extending the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to explain online game playing among Malaysian undergraduate students
(Elsevier, 2016-07-30)
As the world moves into the web 2.0 era, everyone can connect virtually, and online game playing has become a trend. Online games are played over computer networks, usually over the Internet. Online games entail a number ...


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This clip demonstrates recent work to develop compliant controllers for our lab's snake robots. These controllers allow the robot to automatically adapt its shape to changes in its environment. Until now most of our motions, including pole climbing, have been remote-controlled.
In this video the robot autonomously climbs a 4″ pole, transitions to a 2″ pole, and then to an arm, demonstrating that the controller is able to adapt to different diameters of objects without exerting too much force for to be uncomfortable in human contact.
[via Emergent Futures]


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Department of Justice
For Immediate Release
Tallahassee Man Sentenced As Armed Career Criminal
TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA – United States Attorney Pamela C. Marsh announced today that Michael Townsend Anthony, 40, of Tallahassee, has been sentenced to 188 months in federal prison today for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Because Anthony had previously been convicted of three or more crimes of violence committed on separate occasions, he faced a minimum fifteen year term of imprisonment.
Anthony was stopped by officers of the Tallahassee Police Department on August 13, 2013, because his vehicle's windows were illegally tinted. A police canine alerted to the odors of controlled substances in the car, leading to the discovery of crack cocaine, oxycodone, and drug packaging. The car also held a loaded 9 millimeter pistol and two loaded 12-gauge shotguns. Mr. Arnold's passenger, Issac Williams, 39, was recently sentenced to state prison for a probation violation arising from the same incident.
Anthony pled guilty after his motion to suppress was denied.
In imposing sentence, United States District Judge Robert L. Hinkle determined that Anthony possessed the firearms in connection with drug distribution offenses. Judge Hinkle also imposed a five-year term of supervision to be served upon release from custody and a $100 special monetary assessment.
At sentencing, the government noted that Anthony had eighteen prior felony convictions and that he had only been out of custody for limited periods since 1991. Anthony was last released from the Florida Department of Corrections in June 2012, thirteen months before the new arrest.
U.S. Attorney Marsh praised the joint efforts of the Tallahassee Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael T. Simpson prosecuted this case.
# # #


text:
I accidentally pressed the 'l' key while my cursor was in the Browse Window. I got the following message:
"You have pressed the shortcut key "l".
This shortcut key checks the browse window link checkbox."
I looked everywhere in the online help and could find nothing about this. Grateful if anyone could explain this feature/option, and where I might find this checkbox. Also, is this something that I would even want to have checked? Thanks.


text:
Up-and-coming e-sports site onGamers is staring down the barrel of a 50 percent drop in its traffic after being banned for a minimum of a year due to the actions of one of its editors. Senior editor (and onGamers' first employee) Rod "Slasher" Breslau had been privately messaging various redditors, asking them to submit certain posts to various subreddits. A month later, reddit admins responded by banning all onGamers content for at least a year.
This was not the first time onGamers has fallen foul of reddit's rules. The site was banned in April due to the high number of self-submissions, where onGamers writers submitted their own content to reddit. Self-submissions are permitted on Reddit, but risk being labeled as spam if they are not offset by an even greater number of other contributions; the April ban occurred because the various onGamers writers were submitting their own content almost exclusively.
That ban was lifted after onGamers staff, including Breslau, made personal appeals to reddit's admins and promised to behave better. It appeared that they were doing so, with third parties submitting links to the onGamers site.
However, it was then revealed that Breslau had been petitioning popular redditors to submit onGamers content on his behalf. In early June, Breslau approached guardcrushspecial, a prolific poster in the implausibly named /r/Kappa (a subreddit that has somehow become an important part of the fighting game community), to ask him to post a link to an onGamers story.
guardcrushspecial, having something of a trollish reputation (even calling himself "literally wors[e] than Hitler"), did so by submitting a link to a screenshot of Breslau's message.
A month later, Breslau's reddit account was banned, as were any and all submissions of onGamers content. Breslau was subsequently fired from onGamers, writing an apology in which he takes full responsibility for this attempt to game reddit.
The first ban, in April, had many in the reddit community divided. Although they appreciate that continued self-submissions may constitute spam, at least some subreddits, such as /r/Dota2, felt that the OnGamers content was likely to be posted anyway, and so having it self-submitted by story authors was essentially harmless; it simply saved someone else from having to do the work.
The rules are known, however, and onGamers was not the first site to be penalized in this way; in 2012, sites, including The Atlantic, were temporarily banned due to a high number of self-submissions.
The reaction to the second banning, and Breslau's attempts to get others to submit on his behalf, was more consistent, with many redditors incredulous that someone who'd only just avoided a long-term ban would continue to subvert the rules in this way.
The ban looks likely to have severe repercussions for onGamers. Kim Rom, CBS Interactive's vice president of e-sports, told Daily Dot that about half of onGamers' traffic came from reddit, and that losing so much traffic has "seriously endangered the livelihood" of onGamers' staff. onGamers and CBSi are now struggling to figure out what to do next. The site's presence on Facebook and Twitter is small, and the gap left by reddit will be hard to fill.


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06 February, 2013 | (01 hr)
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Much has been covered in the literature of what target companies should do to prepare for an acquisition. On this Governance Watch, our panel will discuss what acquirer companies should think about with respect to governance, accounting, and diligence, using the recent HP/Autonomy case as a starting point for discussion. Our panel will cover issues such as:
- The governance aspects of acquisition due diligence
- Disclosure and accounting issues, including:
- Disclosure of internal investigations
- Disclosures on government investigations
- Goodwill valuation
- Auditor role
Litigation exposure
Audience: Corporate Directors, General Counsel, Chief Financial Officers, Audit Officers, M&A Counsel, Corporate Secretaries, Chief Governance Officers, Corporate Governance Managers, and Board Advisors
Nicolas Grabar
Practice focuses on international capital markets and securities regulation and on the representation of large reporting companies. Mr. Grabar plays a primary role in the firm's work for clients including leading Mexican...Full Bio
Matthew Salerno
Matthew P. Salerno is a partner based in the New York office of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP.
Mr. Salerno's practice focuses on corporate and financial transactions, particularly public and private mergers and acquisitions, private equity investments, and contests for co...Full Bio
David Wells
David Wells is a Partner in the New York Transaction Support practices supporting corporate and private equity clients on acquisitions and divestitures.
David has more than 20 years of transaction experience in a variety of industries including process outsourcing, business services, cons...Full Bio
Agnes Fedyk
Agnes a principal in the New York office of the Ernst & Young LLP's Transaction Advisory Services (TAS) group focusing on Valuation & Business Modeling. Her responsibilities include managing the valuation of business enterprises, intangible assets and equity and debt inte...Full Bio
Marcel Bucsescu
Marcel Bucsescu is a Co-Program Director of The Conference Board Chief Legal Officers Council. Bucsescu has also served Executive Director of the Ira M. Millstein Center for Global Markets and Corporate Ownership at Columbia Law School and led strategic initiatives for the Office of the CEO at LR...Full Bio


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(Reuters) – Regardless of who wins next weekend's parliamentary election, Italy's long economic decline is likely to continue because the next government won't be strong enough to pursue the tough reforms needed to make its economy competitive again.
Bankers, diplomats and industrialists in Rome and Milan despair at how Italians are shifting allegiances ahead of the February 24-25 vote to favor anti-establishment upstarts and show disgust with the established parties.
That makes it more likely that no bloc will have the political strength to tackle Italy's deep-rooted economic crisis, which has made it Europe's most sluggish large economy for the past two decades.
Final opinion polls predict that the vote will deliver a working majority in both houses for a centre-left coalition governing in alliance with technocrat former prime minister Mario Monti. Political risk consultancy Eurasia assigns this scenario a 50-60 percent probability.
But Italy's election for both chambers of parliament has the potential to tip the euro zone back into instability if the outcome does not produce that result.
The colorful cast of candidates includes disgraced media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi, one of the world's richest men, the bespectacled academic Monti, anti-establishment comedian Beppe Grillo who campaigns from a camper van, and Nichi Vendola, a former communist poet who is the governor of Puglia.
Investors have so far taken a relaxed view, relying on polls produced until the legal deadline for surveys of Feb 10.
One of the best indicators that they are not worried: Italian benchmark 10-year bond yields, which topped six percent during the country's worst political moments in 2011, are now trading around 4.4 percent, almost a full percentage point lower than those of Spain.
Italian stocks have performed broadly in line with the wider European market since January, despite the election and a wave of scandals which has engulfed several leading Italian groups.
But observers in Italy are increasingly nervous that the rosy election scenario favored by investors may not work out.
A jaded electorate, angry about political corruption, economic mismanagement and a national crisis that has impoverished a once-wealthy member of the G7 club of rich nations, could produce a surprise.
Pier Luigi Bersani, the standard-bearer for the centre-left, is a worthy but lackluster former minister whose party has been linked to a banking scandal in the mediaeval Tuscan town of Siena. Support for his party now seems to be fading.
Opponents have latched on to the fact that the ailing bank, Monte dei Paschi, was run by a foundation dominated by political appointees from the centre-left and accused Bersani's party of presiding over a debacle that will cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of euros.
Monti, dubbed "Rigor Montis" by one opponent for his austerity policies which critics say hurt growth, is stuck in fourth place and slipping. Detractors say he comes across poorly on the hustings and has been hurt because he formed an election alliance with two discredited centrist politicians who are emblematic of the traditional politics which Monti disavows.
The big gainer in the final days before the election, according to private surveys quoted by experts, is stand-up comedian Beppe Grillo and his anti-establishment 5-Star Movement. Grillo has been on a "tsunami tour" of Italy in a camper van, filling piazzas with his ringing denunciations of the country's political class. He campaigns mainly on the Internet, where his widely read blog features a list of Italy's parliamentarians convicted of a crime (it features 24 names).
"The big question is: what happens to Grillo?" said one senior banker in Milan, speaking on condition of anonymity. "He won't win but he could stop Bersani and Monti from getting enough seats to form an effective government."
Under the electoral law in force for this poll, which almost all Italians agree is in need of reform, voters cast ballots for a party list. The coalition with the most votes is awarded top-up seats in the lower house to give it a 55 percent majority. But in the Senate, the top-up premium applies by region.
Pollsters say the race is too close to call in a few battleground regions but there is a good chance the centre-left will fall short of a majority in the Senate, which has equal law-making powers to the lower house.
A substantial vote for Grillo's movement – and some experts suggest he could top 20 percent – could mean the new parliament is filled with new, inexperienced, anti-establishment deputies who may refuse to do deals with other politicians and block legislation. Bersani and Monti could find themselves without a workable majority in the Senate even in alliance – a scenario which Eurasia believe has a 20-30 percent probability.
"It's hard to see Grillo's movement as a source of stability," said one diplomat, speaking off the record. "There is no chance they would be part of a coalition."
Ironically Grillo himself will not be entering parliament regardless of how well his movement does. The shaggy-haired 63-year-old was convicted of manslaughter after three passengers died when a jeep he was driving crashed in 1981, making him ineligible for election under his own party's rules barring convicted criminals from parliament.
"Grillo's agenda is just silly," said one leading Italian columnist, speaking anonymously because his publication did not allow him to be quoted in other media before the vote.
"It's a fuck off policy. He wants to leave Europe, set up people's tribunals, halve public employees. It's the most visible symptom of Italy's political crisis."
The 5-Star Movement is not the only anti-establishment force threatening to make Italy ungovernable. The federalist Northern League, which favors greater autonomy for northern Italy, is polling around five percent nationally. Its leader Roberto Maroni told Reuters last week he would use his seats in parliament in alliance with the centre-right to block a centre-left coalition and prevent it from governing.
The League is particularly important in the Senate as its home region of Lombardy, where the party polls about 15 percent, returns by far the most senators – 49 out of a chamber of 319.
Should Grillo's movement and the Northern League win enough seats to deprive a centre-left coalition with Monti of an overall majority, the most likely outcome is a "grand coalition" of left and right, experts say.
Such a result would unsettle investors because it would be likely to bring centre-right leader former premier Berlusconi, 76, back into government in a key role and Monti would be unlikely to join it.
Berlusconi's own party has boosted its standing in polls over the past month, helped by the former premier's veteran campaigning skill and his dominance of the country's private TV channels. But nobody apart from his own supporters believes he is likely to win this time.
Pope Benedict's unexpected resignation this month has pushed the parliamentary election off the front pages in Italy, giving Berlusconi less print space and TV air time to press his populist message. The main beneficiary appears to be Grillo, whose strategy of ignoring mainstream media and campaigning on the Internet has been unaffected by the news from the Vatican.
Investors above all want a government which will tackle the reasons for Italy's lackluster performance. Italy has hardly grown since the birth of the euro in 1999 and its economy has slumped faster since the 2007 financial crisis than any other in Europe except Greece. Last year, Italy contracted by 2.2 percent, according to official statistics.
Businessmen complain of three main obstacles: stifling bureaucracy, labor laws which offer workers so much protection that they encourage slack performance, and a dysfunctional court system which makes it hard to enforce contracts and collect debts. All are deep-rooted problems and none is likely to be tackled effectively by a weak and divided government.
"Nobody in Italy is ready to make the reforms our country needs right now," said the chief executive of a major Italian company, speaking off the record.
"I am deeply convinced that without a major change in labor flexibility, we will not be able to increase productivity. My personal experience is that Italian labor is fantastic. But if you take a very good worker and tell him his job is completely safe, you will turn him into a slacker."
Italy's byzantine court system – where cases can languish for years – and its legendary bureaucracy are major obstacles to foreign investment and competitiveness, business people and diplomats say. "Foreign companies are surprised by how hard it is to get things done here which we all thought had been agreed in Brussels 20 years ago," said one senior European diplomat.
Monti's technocratic government won plaudits from business for reforming Italy's pension system but its efforts to reform labor laws did not enjoy similar success. Monti's government lasted 13 months until Berlusconi's bloc triggered its collapse by withdrawing support. Some observers in Italy don't believe that the next parliament's make-up will be nearly as conducive to reform as the outgoing one.
"I want to be optimistic but my best guess is that they will keep to this muddle-through scenario in the next parliament with lackluster results for the economy," said a second senior diplomat. "This country needs a new generation of political leaders."
Key among the concerns of diplomats and business people is the disparate nature of the centre-left coalition leading in polls.
Bersani's election alliance is made up of four main parties, stretching from the former communist Vendola through the Christian left to socialists and centrists. If it is unable to govern alone, as most polls predict, it will need the support of Monti's bloc – itself made up of three parties.
Bankers fear that a government made up of seven different groups of widely varying political hues is highly unlikely to agree on the tough, radical reform measures the country needs.
"If we have a government made up of Bersani, Monti and Vendola, they will argue all the time," said the chief executive. "Bersani and Vendola's capacity for reform is almost zero." Comparing the present Italian centre-left candidate to the former German chancellor whose successful labor reforms belied his socialist roots, he added: "Bersani is no Schroeder".
Bersani's economic spokesman Stefano Fassina insists that the centre-left fully understands the urgency of Italy's economic plight and is committed to deliver on measures to stop the rot. But he puts the emphasis on making the public sector more efficient and persuading Berlin to tone down budget austerity at a European level rather than pursuing labor reform in Italy. Fassina insists that public commitments by Bersani and Vendola on an agreed program will minimize disagreements but he does admit to concern about how a centre-left administration could work with Grillo's unpredictable forces.
"It's impossible to have any discussions with Grillo as a party," he said. "We hope that in parliament some of his MPs will be pragmatic enough to agree on reasonable measures."
With so much uncertainty about the election and the chances fading of it returning a strong, stable reformist government, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that Italy's slow, steady economic decline will continue regardless of the result.
"We've seen a steady economic decline in Italy over the past 20 years and it's very hard to see any outcome from this election which will reverse that. The reforms which would really get the country going again are out of reach," concluded the European diplomat.
(Editing by Peter Millership and Giles Elgood)
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text: Join us every 4th Saturday of the month for this regularly scheduled Bird Walk! Travelling by foot, this bird tour is perfect for the beginning birder! Your guide will go over basic bird identification techniques, proper binocular use, and apply them in the field. Experience several of our varied habitats on your walk to see a variety of bird species. This walk is family-friendly and suitable for all ages. Bring: water bottle, closed-toe shoes, bug spray, hat, sunscreen, binoculars and favorite field guide if you have them.Sat, 02/24/2018 - 08:00 Birding Register Here


text:
PDF Printer - Share your docs within seconds
Über PDF Printer - Share your docs within seconds
PDF Printer is the ultimate converter to Adobe PDF. Open and read any office document. Convert popular content e.g. Photos, Notes, Web Pages to the Portable Document Format. Create and share PDF documents on the fly.
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text:
While this current season of The Bachelor has been drama free and going according to script for the most part, that changed last week when one of the contestants, Madison Garton, decided to quit the show.
In a new interview with PEOPLE, Madison, 25, a model from Brooklyn who is now infamous for her fake fangs, explains the reason she decided to walk out on Brad.
So was Emily Maynard's emotional story the real reason she quit? "It was definitely the Emily thing that set it off," states Madison. "When she came clean, it pulled on my heartstrings. I felt like I was competing for something I wasn't necessarily sure I needed. You feel less deserving. They all have these stories and heartache and they need this love."
As for why she didn't want to fight for Brad, Madison explains "fighting other girls for a guy has never been my style." She adds, "Had I stepped out of the limo and knew he was going to be my husband, I would have been in a stronger fight for him. But at the end of the day, did I see myself being his Texas housewife? Not sure. Could we have worked? Maybe. Probably not. He said he'd have a hard time bringing me home to his grandmother."
And what's with the fangs? "I have always been into the darker side of things and love the mystery and sexiness of vampires. I became friends with the leader of the underground vampire world. He had a fangsmith so I had a pair made," she explains.
In other news, reports came out recently that revealed the criminal past of Brad Womack. According to a RadarOnline report, Brad, 38, was first arrested back in 1993 for carrying a forged driver's license. Other past arrests include public intoxication and being found guilty of passing a bad check.
In a statement given to PEOPLE magazine, Brad admits his criminal past. "I'm sure I wouldn't be the first to admit that I had a couple of missteps when I was a teenager – some 20 odd years ago. Some of the claims have been blown out of proportion but I took responsibility for my actions and took immediate measures to remedy the situation," says Brad.
A new episode of The Bachelor airs tonight on ABC at 8/7c. A mugshot of Brad, updated in 2009, is below. The mugshot is reportedly recent because the state of Texas monitors its criminal convictions.
Click The Continue Reading Button To See The Mugshot –


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Article content
Bridesmaids star Melissa McCarthy decided to create her own red carpet gowns after several high-profile designers refused to make her a dress for the Oscars.
The actress, who was an Oscar nominee in 2011 for her role in the wedding comedy, admits she often struggled to find designers willing to dress her for Hollywood's biggest night.
In an interview with Redbook magazine, she says, "When I go shopping, most of the time I'm disappointed. Two Oscars ago, I couldn't find anybody to do a dress for me. I asked five or six designers - very high-level ones who make lots of dresses for people - and they all said no."
The rejection prompted McCarthy, who studied a textiles course at Southern Illinois University, to create her own plus-size line of clothing with couturier Daniella Pearl, the co-designer of her 2011 Emmys dress.
tap here to see other videos from our team.


text: I started drawing at age 5. I had a No. 2 pencil and a pad of ordinary writing paper. I'd draw the Japanese Elms in our front yard, my dad's car out front and the corn field across the street. Grass, sidewalk and street etc. The piano keys inside...My parents saw fit to keep their shy son out of Kindergarten, so I never did learn to socialize. Started 1st grade at St. Lawrence Catholic School at age 5 (just missed the cut-off date, but they let me in so I was always the youngest in class).6th grade I was caught creating entire cities with 3-point perspective (including tiny windows and doors in the buildings) during math class. My punishment: I had to stand at the blackboard and teach the class 2-point perspective. The nun was impressed. The only subjects I got A's in grade-school were in Art and Penmanship.At Central Catholic High School. There was no Art class there, believe it or not. So I transferred to the public school to end my senior year. At our CC 40th class reunion in 2006, among other things I learned was that in 2nd grade we were assigned during Christmas to draw a candle. Maria Lucas (Moore) told me that everyone brought in a "'stick-object' and you brought in a Rembrandt with a flame, dripping wax and a golden holder." I remember it. Enlisted in the Marine Corps May, 1967. First tour in Vietnam (1967 – 68, 1st Reconnaissance Bn., 1st Marine Div.) Back to Vietnam in Nov., 1969 I got my orders to 1st M.P. Bn., 1st Marine Div. Out of the Corps in 1971 I started at Purdue. I learned nothing in the Art dept. In 1979, Linda had a good-paying job and agreed to let me study my Art seriously. I'd taken off school for two years from 1975 – 77, working as a draftsman for the county surveyor. In 1976 I'd bought a dis-articulated human skeleton from the local medical supply company and books on Artistic Anatomy, filling sketch books and papers with drawings of the bones and skull, learning the Latin terms (not entirely unfamiliar after 4 semesters Latin in high-school) etc. Had a plaster cast "flayed figure" for study of the origin and insertion of the muscles. And great models in my wife and daughters, and myself. I harp on the study of anatomy to all the artists I meet online. See my two pages The Study of Art at: http://tracyfineart.com/artstudy/index.html. They won't get the structure for a portrait or figure by drawing from life. I think I anger some. Same with perspective and at least the simple mathematical Golden Mean


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so harry broke sofia really badly by doing such things...
Just Your Personal Maid590769
- by Lancee Hilvano
- Rating:
- Published: 13 Aug 2016
- Updated: 17 Jan 2017
- Status: In Progress
Sofia was only in highschool but needed some extra cash. To keep her and her and her brother alive. Sofia and her brother lost their parents at a yound age. Sofia was only 14 and her brother was only 8. Her aunts and uncles did help her out. But when she turned 18, they kicked her and her brother out cause they said she wasn't young anymore and that she dan take care of her and her brother. Sofia looked for a job an eventually came across a job. A job with a boss that was a big-headed, famou and a complete arrogant jerk. His name was Harry Styles and he was a member of One Direction. The band took a break so that each member could finish their studies even for just highschool. Since Harry was new again for school, he needed a maid to help him. A personal maid. That's where Mark helped Sofia get the job. While doing her job, she found him arrogant an rude, which sofia hated to death. But, the longer she kept her job, they more they felt like she was doing something else than a job.
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Coolest bridge ever? Trampoline across the Seine
We could cross the river Seine on a regular ol' stone bridge. Or, we could dream up the most whimsical -- and consequently difficult -- way of crossing Paris' main artery, transforming the commute into something extraordinary.
Design firm Atelier Zündel Cristea opted for the latter. They conceptualized a bridge for the river Seine made up of humungous floating trampolines.
As the design firm puts it, the bridge is "dedicated to the joyful release from gravity."
Imagine: three donut-shaped PVC structures filled with 3,700 cubic meters of air. In the center of each of these giant life preservers is a trampoline measuring 30 meters in diameter.
Also on CNN: Insider guide: Best of Paris
These floating bouncy platforms are twisted to form arches and attached together with cord to form a bridge connecting the banks of the river Seine.
Stairs at either end allow access to the trampoline bridge, with a slide option for people who need to descend in a rush.
The design came third in an Archtriumph competition for ideas for new crossings on the river Seine. The Seine already has 37 bridges.
This bridge sounds like the best idea ever, right? But dvice.com points out:
"This is a terrible, terrible idea ... it'll never happen, because people would sue the berets off of anyone who put it up for the injuries that would ensue, but, wow, I want this to be real."
Coming in first place for the competition is the "Water At-traction" design by bureau faceB. It is a bridge made of steel cables that wobbles when people walk on it, to give pedestrians a sense of the movement of water on the river Seine.
Trampolines sound more fun.
Also on CNN: 24 of the world's most amazing bridges


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Mylyn/SOC/2007/Improve Mylyn's New User Experience
This project is part of Google Summer of Code 2007
Student: Balazs Brinkus (email@example.com)
Blog: http://bbrinkus.blogspot.com
Mentor: Mik Kersten
The project's goal is to write a plug-in which presents for the new users Mylar from the basics to the every days use. And for the other users it will help too with the built-in help.
Primary goals
Manage new eux GSOC project and the Bugzilla query .
Don't open a dialog when Mylar starts for the first time (P1) (see bug 187880).
QAdd Welcome action for showing the UI legend (P1) (see bug 192807).
Associate plugins with task repositories and products (P2) (see bug 150278).
Create universal intro content (P2) (see bug 185836).
Add ability to attach images from clipboard (see bug 160572).
Integrate mechanism for reporting bugs (see bug 183606).
Add templates for common and recommended queries (see bug 183948).
Allow import/export and cloning of queries (see bug 189514).
Prompt users to create an account or set credentials if repository automatically added (see bug 175205).
Importing/promote/convert Eclipse todo tags/markers items to become tasks (see bug 136298).
Create new task list query from search results (P4) (see bug 172699).
Clean up default perspective settings (P4) (see bug 188191).


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Download Movies and TV Shows from Amazon Unboxby cryogenius (via)
Amazon Unbox is a video download store that has thousands of high quality TV shows, movies and more for you to purchase or rent. You can view these downloadable videos on your PC, your Portable Media Player, or your TiVo DVR.
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OFR19 Regolith Thickness of the Delaware Piedmont
This map shows the total thickness (regolith) of both the loose, transported material and the weathered rock that overlies crystalline rocks of the Delaware Piedmont. Transported material is generally thin and the weathered rock in place (saprolite) usually makes up the bulk of the regolith. Saprolite may vary gradationally from a weathered rock that has retained much of the characteristics of the parent rock to a product mineralogically and texturally different from its source rock.


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Legacy Funded Programs
What we've done with state legacy funding
Some of our programs are made possible with the support of the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. Funding from the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment is making it possible for the six public television stations of the Minnesota Public Television Association (MPTA) to make an impact across Minnesota.
View the MPTA Legacy Video Reel and learn more
WDSE • WRPT Legacy Productions
- Making It Up North
- The PlayList
- Almanac North Arts Extra
- Bea Ojakangas: Welcome to my Kitchen (Documentary)
- Bobby Aro: King of the Great Northwoods (Documentary)
- Glensheen and the Congdon Legacy (Documentary)
- Lost 50s (Documentary)
- Lost Duluth (Documentary)
- Lost Duluth II (Documentary)
- Lost Iron Range (Documentary)
- Paul Metsa - Bringing it Back Home (Documentary)
- Rare Finds (Documentary)
- Split Rock - The Superior Light (Documentary)
- Stage to Screen: Historic Theaters of the North (Documentary)
- Steamship America: A North Shore Legend (Documentary)
- This Town (Documentary)
- Live Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra Broadcasts
Watch highlights from our legacy funded programs:
Learn about legacy productions from other Minnesota stations:
- Lakeland Public Television, Bemidji/Brainerd
Common Ground
- Prairie Public Television, Fargo/Moorhead-Prairie
Prairie Mosaic
- KSMQ, Austin/Rochester
Off 90
- Pioneer Public Television, Appleton
- Twin Cities Public Television, Minneapolis/St. Paul
MN Original