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Here it is. The newest pattern in the shop.
The Women's Buttoned Up Beanie may look complicated but it is actually a very easy and fast project. Using basic stitches, this one piece beanie will be one of your favorite go to projects. The beanie is made with some of my yarn subscription yarn — Imperial Yarn in natural, so check below because I'm giving away a hank of this awesome yarn.
You can get it for 50% off this week only.
Promo Code
Use promo code: button50 during checkout to receive the discount.*
Buy Now!
*offer good until Sunday, October 26th, 2014 midnight Pacific time.
Win Some Yarn To Make The Beanie
Win this hank of Imperial Erin Yarn in Quail. It is a 100% wool and has a huge 225 yards, plenty enough to make the Buttoned Up Beanie.
How To Win
Leave a comment on this post below with your favorite fiber content in your yarn. Wool, alpaca, good old fashion acrylic, whatever you like best let us know below. ** Entries accepted until Friday, October 31st, 2014 midnight Pacific time. The winner will be chosen and announced on Nov. 1ST. One entry per person, duplicate entries will be deleted. US residents only please.

subset: commoncrawl


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ecology, study of the relationships of organisms to their physical environment and to one another. The study of an individual organism or a single species is termed autecology; the study of groups of organisms is called synecology.
Sections in this article:
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Environmental Studies


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Glass entryways and dividers invest compositional ideas with straightforward style. Advanced planning glass fittings from Janson Enterprises underline the amicable beneficial interaction of usefulness and structure. Different scope of equipment choices permits the rich acknowledgement of for all intents and purposes any possible toughened glass development. We are one of the leading ventures in providing glass door fittings in Aurangabad.
We are one of the leading glass door fittings manufacturers in Aurangabad and we make sure to provide our customers with the best services possible in Aurangabad. We have specially designed a user-friendly website for you to operate things in the easiest way. We also make sure to provide you with n-number of options to choose from.
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The Nation Marks Memorial Day
It's Memorial Day again. It's also the time we should cast our minds back to the history. the great physical and mental tolls war takes on both soldiers and civilians has been a recurrent theme, as has the senselessness of most armed struggle. From the aftermath of the Civil War, to the absurd brutality of the Great War, to the anti-fascist fight in Spain in the late 1930s, to the unprecedented carnage of World War II, to the divisive tragedy in Vietnam, to the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the costs of America's military ventures paid by the men and women who carry them out were always decried.
To mark this Memorial Day, we've assembled a small collection of archival articles and images of war and its victims.
|PowerPoint: The Nation Marks Memorial Day
|Video: The Nation Marks Memorial Day
|Download PowerPoint Presentation
|Watch on Youtube


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"Once it was desert, now it is Chinese granary". It is not only the base for Chinese grain production, but also it has various resources, among which the mineral water resource of five lotus ponds is the gift to this "black land" by god.
The five lotus ponds locates in the chilled blackland, without any industrialized pollution. This land experienced 30 years' mineralization. There is granite fissure water 1000 meters under the ground, this water is rich in metasilicic acid, strontium, lithium, zinc, selenium, monoiodide and free carbon dioxide. And all these 7 minerals can match the bio-element needed by human beings. The world's most famous two cold springs: Alpine cold water and Caucasus cold water, with 4 minerals and 3 minerals respectively. The mineral water of five lotus ponds has been widely used in the history, from medical application to healthy drinking and healthy washing. It has been proved that the water is good for patient and can extend the life of human beings. Once upon the CCTV program "Explore and Discover" had reported the miracle of cold water in five lotus ponds, and dubbed as the "magical water".
Good mountain, good water and good quality. The good resource of the mineral water makes the development with BDH group connected. BDH group at present is Chinese largest modern agriculture corporation, and it is named as "Pioneer of Chinese modern agriculture", ranks 79th of "China's top 500",and the group has the famous Chinese brands like BDH, WDS, JiuSan etc.
Thanks to the good resource given by the nature, thanks to the capital, management, marketing, brand and R&D from BDH, the BDH Royal Spring Co. Ltd is established successfully, and becomes the first local large state-owned company, dealing with mineral water business. And it is the only company who produces kinds of series of natural mineral water at the same time. The sub-brand "BDH, Royal Spring" water has pure tastes, good quality, and becomes fond by customers.
National water, a kind of water that has its own meaning, the water can soft your heart. National water, the water with its own connotation, the water can nourish all people. From the water resource to filling production, from packaging to selling, the national water enjoys the "national standard". Especially in the aspect of equipment selection, the national water is always pursuing the perfect characteristics. After the elaborated survey and research of foreign brands and Chinese brands of the manufacturer of packaging machineries, at last BDH gave this opportunity (the glass bottle mineral water filling line) to Newamstar.
As the premium mineral water, "BDH, national water" proposed the high requirement to Newamstar from packaging material to filling precision, from the stability of machine to the convenience of the machine operation. To be the leading liquid packaging machinery supplier, Newamstar insists the operation principle – "Development driven by innovation, Market achieved by quality". From the initial negotiation regarding the project to the final acceptance, from the design of single machine to the whole line efficiency, all aspects have met customer's requirement and won satisfaction from customer. The whole line adopts the programmed auto control, with the rational design, stable running and precise measuring.
Benefiting everything. When the production line printed with the Newamstar logo in the BDH production base is put into operation, which not only meant Newamstar has fulfilled our mission, completed another customer's expectations, but also marked a new flag powerfully in the vast market of the three provinces in the northest of China, which provided stong support for broadening business in both of the five lotus ponds and Changbai Mountain production base in the future.
Production site, filling machines operate efficiently, crystal and clear spring water converging with happiness, which drops into every stylish glass bottles, out of the mountains and entering a broader market, allowing more people to enjoy the magical medicine springs, appreciating the grace of nature, feeling of gratitude of the country water.
Thousands of miles away, we stare at the products that customers sent to us. This feeling is a responsibility for the customer, this feeling is customers' joy of sharing with us. It is so much domestic and international customer support that Newamstar can continue to move forward and reach a higher level.
From Jiusan edible oil production line to the BDH national water production equipment, cooperation between the Newamstar and BDH Group's increased rapidly. For the group to improve product quality, expanding market share, broadening the product range of radiation, reduce production costs, enrich product variety and so on, which laid a solid foundation.
Try our best to cooperate with BDH, build a pure "water ecology", so the beautiful country water can enter the thousands of households.Drinking water healthily and scientifically will be rational choice of universal life. Newamstar, to strive and to be happy!
About Newamstar Packaging Machinery Co., Ltd.
China high-end liquid(beverage) packaging machinery R&D and manufacturing base, is committed to build smart factories with turnkey solutions for liquid(beverage) companies.
Since its founding, Newamstar, under the concept of "Driving development through innovation and winning the market with quality", has been providing global customers in the five fields of beverages, dairy , liquors, condiments and daily chemicals with complete sets of intelligent equipment and comprehensive solutions for water treatment, pre-distribution, blowing, filling, secondary packaging, handling robots, intelligent stereo warehouses, etc., realizing the dream of "Made in China, Made for World". From the support of formulation process, the three-dimensional design of product bottle to the overall engineering layout of users' factory, from the R&D and design of core equipment, the installation and commissioning of engineering project, to the multi-dimensional training of operators, it has served Coke, Danone, Nestle, Otsuka, Wahaha, Dali, C'estbon, Ganten, Nongfu Spring, COFCO, Haday, Luhua, Hengshun, Nice and other famous brands at home and abroad. It has more than 2200 production lines in more than 80 countries and regions around the world.
Product Solutions
- Dairy Packaging
- Alcohol Packaging
- Beverage Packaging
- Condiment Packaging
- Daily Chemicals Packaging
- Production-and-Storage-Integrated Smart Factory
Adhering to the corporate mission of "Helping customers build an ideal factory," Newamstar builds a service that "Surpasses customer expectations and exceeds industry standards" with quick response, professional technology, and considerate service attitude, and creates value for customers wholeheartedly.
With high-quality equipment, perfect service, and strong turn-key service capabilities, Newamstar helps customers achieve a high-efficiency operation of equipment and technical innovation and upgrade to join hands with customers for a win-win situation.


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DPJ's Wire series delivers news and information straight from the source without translation.
The Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) are offering free tickets to kids 12 and under with the purchase of a full-price adult ticket. The offer is valid for games May 25-26 for any section in the ballpark, excluding the All-You-Can-Eat section.
Every D-backs game offers tons of fun for kids, including the Sandlot, an area dedicated just for kids. The Sandlot is open for every D-backs home game and includes age-specific playground areas, Futures Field and a batting cage. D-backs Baseball Academy coaches offer free clinics at Futures Field in the Sandlot one hour before first pitch and at the end of the fourth inning. In addition, kids can sign up to be a part of the free Kids Club program in the Sandlot to earn prizes for every game they attend.
On Sundays, kids take over the game with several promotions including delivering the lineup card, taking the field with D- backs players, serving as the Chevy "Play Ball" kid and can run the bases after the game. Kids are also encouraged to arrive early on the last Sunday home game each month to catch the Sunday Sluggers Show, presented by Delta Dental, at Baxter's Den in the Sandlot starting at 11:45 a.m. and features an appearance by a D-backs player.
The D-backs also offer Value Item pricing on six food items ranging from $1.50-$4 at various concession locations making every game affordable for families, including seven merchandise items available in the Team Shop priced below $10.
The D- backs continue to provide the most affordable fun for families and for the seventh consecutive year, the team has the lowest Fan Cost Index for a family of four, named by Team Marketing Report in April. In addition, the team's official game program, D- backs Insider, is also distributed free to all fans in the ballpark during each homestand and offers a section just for kids.
Adult tickets for the weekend games start at just $12 and are available at the Chase Field Box Office, by calling 602.514.8400 or online at dbacks.com/kids.
Featured photo by Jordan Megenhardt courtesy of Arizona Diamondbacks.


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Take complete control over the entire SSL/TLS lifecycle with complete automation and visibility. Review and approve certificate requests within just minutes. Whether you're ordering, issuing or deploying, Symantec CWS allows you act quickly and decisively while cutting down on time, money and man hours.
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Many large enterprise clients with intranets and non-public facing devices prefer to create their own private CA to manage self-signed certificates. Symantec CWS lets you instantly issue, manage and track all self-signed certificates. Choose between importing your own private roots or using Symantec's. Best of all, you can manage all your certificates – both public and self-signed – through one convenient interface.
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"A very fine little car despite its resemblance to a cheese slicer."
— Dan Neil
We've got some kind of perverse fascination with Chevrolet's Cobalt SS. If we examined our feelings too liberally, to which every good blue-state fooker is obliged by law, we'd unearth that ever-creeping desire. You know, the one in which GM creates yet another unappealing shitbox at the bottom of its line, and tags it with one of those muscle-car symbols dredged from grandpa's hope chest, thereby giving us another production cycle's worth of punchlines. But we're not going in for self-examination on this one. That's because everything we've read about the littlest SS, having yet to get GM to trust us with a test drive of our own, points to a worthy machine of fine fettle. Now, the LA Times's Dan Neil, whom we'd trust with the lives of our unborn children, issues a favorable report on Chevy's new, factory-tuned version of the Cobalt coupe, the SS-SC. Now we must drive this car, if only to plug up that last, unexamined crevasse of doubt.
If Red Bull Were Blue [The Los Angeles Times (sub req.)]


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MINTREX® Celebrates 10 Years in the Global Trace Minerals Market
Novus's Commitment to Quality and Scientific Excellence is the Key to its Success and Longevity
Saint Louis, Missouri (June 20, 2014) —Novus International is proud to observe the 10th year of its highly-effective chelated trace mineral product, MINTREX®. Novus's leadership position in the trace minerals market has been propelled by nutritionists' and producers' trust in the MINTREX molecule for the past decade. The MINTREX molecule truly embodies Novus's commitment to delivering and supporting innovative products, through science, that support animal health and performance.
"Novus is rooted in scientific excellence and our confidence in the power of science led us to MINTREX," notes Chris Knight, Senior Vice President, Research & Product Development. "We knew that MINTREX was unlike any mineral product that had come before. Its unique combination of our methionine source, ALIMET® feed supplement, with an essential trace mineral in a two-to-one chelated molecule makes this Novus-borne mineral more resistant to antagonists in the diet. This allows it to be more efficiently absorbed once it's delivered to the small intestine, making it highly bioavailable to the animal."
MINTREX is the cornerstone of the Novus line of organic trace minerals. To meet the needs of each individual operation, MINTREX Zn, MINTREX Cu, MINTREX Mn, as well as premium blends are available around the world.
"For the past decade we have focused on delivering premium minerals solutions that address our customers' unique production challenges," stated Gavin Bowman, Mineral Product Manager. "MINTREX is the mark by which other products are measured when it comes to chelation. Providing quality mineral solutions to our customers is of the utmost importance. This starts with selecting high quality raw materials. We use a stringent screening process to select our suppliers as well as strictly examine every single batch of raw materials and the finished product to ensure there aren't any undesirable contaminants present. The result is a mineral product that consistently meets Novus quality standards."
The same quality commitment used to procure the best raw materials extends through the entire MINTREX production process. Strictly controlled processes, automated systems and Novus's state of the art production facility assure consistent production parameters for each batch manufactured. These systems are developed by qualified Novus chemists and audited by Novus quality assurance personnel to maintain a safe manufacturing environment operated to best in class quality standards.
"Sustainability is a priority for Novus and is always top-of-mind in everything we do," explains Bowman. "MINTREX is exceptional in its ability to optimize nutrition and enhance animal health and performance as well as its ability to positively impact the environment.MINTREX is absorbed and used by the animal to a much greater degree than other trace mineral supplements. This maintains production efficiency with lower mineral inclusions, resulting in fewer minerals excreted."
MINTREX is such a novel product that it received its own official ingredient definition by the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO). The product also received the Frost & Sullivan 2012 North American Animal Feed Ingredients Product Differentiation Excellence Award. To learn more about MINTREX as well as Novus's other minerals solutions, visit the company's corporate web site atwww.novusint.com.
About Novus International, Inc.
Novus International, Inc. is headquartered in metropolitan St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A. and serves customers in nearly 100 countries around the world. A global leader in developing animal health and nutrition solutions, Novus's products include ALIMET® and MHA®feed supplements, ACTIVATE® nutritional feed acid, ACIDOMIX® preservative premixture, CIBENZA® feed additive, MINTREX® chelated trace mineral, SANTOQUIN® feed preservative, MERA™Met aquaculture feed additive, AGRADO® feed antioxidant and many other specialty ingredients. Stratum Nutrition, a division of Novus Nutrition Brands, LLC, focuses on human nutrition through specialty and functional ingredients for manufacturers of foods, beverages and dietary supplements (www.stratumnutrition.com).
Novus is privately owned by Mitsui & Co. (U.S.A.), Inc. and Nippon Soda Co., Ltd. For more information visit www.novusint.com. ©2014 Novus International, Inc. All rights reserved.


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Quick! Go to i-Tunes and buy the Audio Book of the Month! They have the complete "Narnia" series--all seven books--for only $9.95!!! This is a smokin' deal! Think of the hours (over 75) of road trip entertainment! Plus, it features the voice of Jean Luc Picard! What more could you ask for???
As Doug told his family in an e-mail, "This announcement is my Christmas gift to you all! It's like I just gave you each $60."! You're welcome!
Merry Christmas!!!
(<----Do NOT buy it from Amazon. Sorry Amazon.)
P.S. While you're there, get the Single of the Week--a new song by Duran Duran!!!


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James Franco's standing as the hardest working man in show business is well earned, as the man is perpetually working on about four or five things at once, while also working on one degree or another. The latest addition to his to-do list is said to be an adaptation of a Cormac McCarthy novel.
Franco is in West Virginia with Tim Blake Nelson shooting McCarthy's darkest novel, "Child of God," reported ShowBiz 411. The book tells the story of an ex-con who retreats to the woods, were he sets up a home-base from which he launches a killing spree to feed his rampant necro- and pedophilia.
What's unclear is whether this is a fully-financed film that's actually going somewhere, or one of the actor-writer-director's larks. The man well be spending his free time and personal money shooting test footage or just goofing around--who knows?
U.S. & World
Franco had previously planned to shoot a Scott Rudin-produced adaptation of McCarthy's "Blood Meridian," about a teen runaway who spends time with a gang of scalp hunters who murder Indians, but that project fell apart some time ago. "Child of God" would be a mighty fine consolation prize.
McCarthy's become a hot property since the Coen Brothers' adaptation of "No Country for Old Men." It was recently learned that he wrote his first original screenplay, "The Counselor," about a lawyer who tries to make a little extra money on the side with a drug deal that goes predictably wrong.


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It seems that The Eagles were on to something when they sang that "there ain't no way to hide your lyin' eyes", because researchers are working on eye-tracking technology which will detect dishonesty better than a traditional polygraph test.
This promising-sounding technology is being researched by some folks at the University of Utah:
The researchers determined that lying requires more work than telling the truth, so they look for indications that the subject is working hard. For example, a person who is being dishonest may have dilated pupils and take longer to read and answer the questions.
Of course, it'll be a little while before this eye-tracking lie-detection system is perfected, so don't start worrying about someone scanning your eyes for fibs during a conversation just yet. [Physorg via Dvice via Neatorama]
Photo by orangeacid


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How my daughter is turning three tomorrow, I have no idea. It seems like just yesterday she was a newborn. In this short period of time, she's blossomed into a very sweet, sassy, smart, funny, stubborn, silly little girl. She holds her own with her big brother and surprises me every day with something new she's learned, be it a song, a ballerina dance she's made up or counting higher than the day before. She "reads" her brother books, feeds the dog water from a spoon and tells me she loves me often, and says thank you when I tell her I love her. She's my little shadow, wanting to be around only me if I'm in the vicinity and loves to hold my hand "because it fits", even in the house.
When Fussypants was turning three, I was pregnant with Little Miss and I was so ready for him to be self-sufficient. I didn't miss him needing me to help him go potty, get a snack or put on his shoes. I was on bed rest, but still working, I was ill and exhausted and ready for him to grow up. But knowing that she's my last baby, makes having her grow up more difficult. I guess I have a bit of the baby blues. I look at my son, about to graduate Kindergarten and my daughter, about to turn 3 and I can't help but think of them as babies and wonder where the time went. But we are done, our family is what it is, so don't get any ideas.
But back to my baby girl turning three. I know that if she had been a boy, I would have been happy and our family would have been perfect but I'm not going to lie. I love having a daughter. Every woman should have one, it's such a humbling experience. She can bring me to my knees in a way Fussypants just doesn't. But he can make me laugh (especially if I am angry) in a way she never has. He is so easy-peasy compared to her. Maybe it's his personality or maybe with boys what you see is what you get, but we've never argued over what underwear he's wearing that day and Little Miss and I have had daily meltdown spats over the choice of Disney character on her chonies and she's not yet three. And don't get me started about trying to brush her hair. We never had terrible twos with him, but the terrible twos started with her when she was 1.5. 90% of the time, she's sweet and funny but when that 10% hits…watch out. My mom calls it "going dark". Her whole face changes, clouding over and she stops talking. She'll screech like a baby pterodactyl, which is unpleasant, and where we could easily use the redirection method with her brother, she's focused on whatever it is she isn't getting and pouts. I'm really hoping that she's outgrown it and that we won't have a year of the terrible threes.
For her birthday, she wanted a bounce house and Cinderella. So we accommodated. A friend of mine from college warned not to peak on the parties at such a young age, but having Cinderella come to the house was amazing. Little Miss was so excited, it was just the most heart-warming thing to watch. She is still talking about her visit, days later. She actually slept in her Princess dress the night of her party. My hunky fireman husband, who had worked three in a row and was exhausted, even stopped at the Disney store on his way home to buy her a Cinderella crown (so swoon-worthy, he's such a good daddy) and she wore it all day long.
On her actual birthday, my mom and I are taking her to Disneyland and she has an appointment at the Bibbiddy Bobbiddy Boutique to get a Cinderella up do by a Godmother-in-training. Over the top? Maybe. But I have a daughter and can do girlie things like that if I want to.
So happy 3rd birthday to my baby big girl. I love you so much, you and your brother fill my heart with sunshine, and I hope you have a wonderful day.


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Forum Post: Crystal Zevon, Searching For Occupy
Posted 7 years ago on Oct. 7, 2013, 11:45 p.m. EST by shoozTroll
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Yes. That Crystal Zevon.
"I can still recall my sense of 'shock and awe' when, at home on a break from 4 months of 'occupying' a tent, two General Assemblies (GAs) a day and multiple protests each week, I watched on live stream as the police charged through the Washington, D.C. encampment at Freedom Plaza. They tore down our tents, took apart the kitchen and issued threats to the Occupiers still standing their ground. From home, I did the only thing I could do and responded to tweets that the Occupiers were hungry and put out a call to send them pizza. When all was said and done, a few symbolic tents remained, but the Occupy movement was (according to mainstream media) declared 'dead'.
I sat at home for months, depressed, deflated… yet unwilling to be defeated. In July, 2012, I was in Paonia, Colorado to scatter my parents ashes, when a local guy named Sid and I decided to protest the younger Koch brother, Bill's, WWII tank that was to lead the July 4th parade. Brandishing a homemade sign that read "Are You Trying to Buy the Planet or Just Take It" with "Democracy Can't Be Bought" on the reverse side, Sid stopped the tank and parade, and I filmed it on my phone. I uploaded it to YouTube, and to our surprise, it became the lead story on the Rachel Maddow show the next night.
Fueled by that incident, an idea began to germinate. Perhaps the mainstream had declared Occupy dead, but I knew of Occupy groups who were still meeting, still protesting and making a difference. I realized that if we continued to film and report everything we could, some of it would inevitably get picked up by the mainstream… and, better yet, we might find the way to creating our own mainstream.
So, I bought a camera, took a week-long course in film production, packed my Prius and, on January 13, 2013, I took off with my Japanese Chin, Wilma (my constant dog-companion since her rescue while I was still living at Freedom Plaza) to search for occupy. I truly did not know what I would find, and must admit to a gnawing fear that I was going to return home to report that Occupy was, in fact, dead. As it turned out, that was most definitely not what I discovered."


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Batch drilling brings efficiencies, cost savings in Weld County
June 4, 2014
Henry Ford was on to something 100 years ago when he ramped up his operations with the assembly line.
It was Dec. 1, 1913, and workers, who had been trained in one of 84 separate steps to build the Model T, lined up for the first time to mass produce Ford's invention in way that would reduce production time tenfold.
What used to take workers 12 hours to build would soon only take two and a half hours.
The move revolutionized the industry, born out of the need to drive down costs, while driving up efficiency — the backbone of the automobile business we know today. A year later, Ford introduced the moving assembly line, which sped times up even more.
Not unlike this precocious thinker, those in the oil and gas industry have continued to seek improvement, using the assembly line concept to shave days — and millions of dollars — off of the drilling process.
Batch drilling — which morphs multi-pad drilling into the assembly line concept — has been around for years in older fields, especially offshore drilling. It's relatively new in the Wattenberg Field.
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After some early positive results, some smaller companies in the field are adapting the method to their operations, shaving days off the drilling process, and subsequently saving them millions of dollars.
Anadarko Petroleum and Noble Energy have been using a version of batch drilling in the Wattenberg for a couple of years. Smaller companies are now buying into the idea — albeit with a slightly different recipe — to bring its crude and gas bubbling to the surface.
Batch drilling will not change the industry, officials say. But it does bring small efficiencies that add up over time.
"I remember when directional drilling was huge," said Ed Pilcher, drilling superintendent for Integrated Petroleum Technologies of Golden, which is running the drilling operations for Tekton Energy, Bayswater Exploration and Production, Synergy Resources and Mineral Resources Inc. "It was very expensive and time consuming, and people didn't do it because it was so expensive. Now, we're still directional drilling but we have much better technology.
"Most of the innovations I've seen are small efficiencies that are garnered here and there," Pilcher said.
The method, when coupled with other efficiencies, such as increasing frac stages and longer lateral lengths, continues to drive down overall costs of drilling in the Wattenberg, while pushing up returns on investment.
"Because horizontal drilling has become pretty new to the DJ in recent years, the evolution of all that combined adds to efficiencies, so it continues to evolve and the tools developed in all those areas, continues to make this a better process," said Steve Struna, president of Baywsater Exploration.
Simply, batch drilling allows companies to assembly line their wells. The drilling rig is placed on rails, or skids, and can move side to side, with drilling pipe still attached. The concept usually works like this:
Drill the surface on one well, then slide to the next, then the next and the next, all using the same drilling mud, instead of changing out to the next formula for the middle section.
Then the rig moves backward back over the wells, and drills the middle portion of each well. Then it reverses back, to drill the laterals one at a time.
Skating the rig back and forth — done by a hydraulics system rather than pulling it with a truck — has eliminated several steps and created a ton of efficiencies, operators say. Simply eliminating the build-up and take down of a rig, as it's moved to each wellhead, represents an enormous savings, officials said.
And it works best with multiple wells, at least three at a minimum.
"If you bring a rig like that in for just one or two wells, batch drilling won't save you enough," he said.
There's also something to be said for keeping rig crews — which can experience high turnover at any given time — on one step at a time, a allowing them to retain what they learn.
"When the rig hands are doing the same thing over and over, they're not switching operations from one day to the next," Pilcher explained. "They do the surface on five wells so all the equipment is lined up. They know what they're doing next, then you start the intermediate section. You don't have to retrain for that. … The crews are more used to doing the same operation every day."
The risk is that the upfront costs are much higher than most have ever seen. Most operators, Pilcher said, are used to spending less than $100,000 to bring a rig in to start drilling. The batch drilling rig takes five days to set up and is much more expensive.
"Rigs capable of batch drilling are bigger, they have more equipment and require at least one crane to rig up," Pilcher said.
But the method eliminates the move time of rigging up and tearing down after each well is drilled.
"When you look at it, if you have a five-well pad, and it takes five days to rig up, but you're staying on the pad, if you spread the move time over all five wells, you've taken one day off per well," Pilcher said of not having to tear down and rig up at each wellhead.
"Some of the smaller operators would say, 'Five days to rig up? I used to drill a well in five days.' We're saying yes, it takes five days to rig up, and you drill all five wells before you move again."
The planning piece is a large factor. With this method being most useful on multi-well pads, it takes extra planning because all the wells need to be permitted. In the "old days," Pilcher said, they'd permit a well, drill it, complete, and go back to the permitting process to start the next well.
"It's getting harder and harder to permit wells and it takes longer," Pilcher said. "Companies have to start planning six to eight months ahead" if multiple wells are involved.
But, invariably, the sticker shock of batch drilling is the biggest hurdle, Pilcher said, sometimes so much that operators will not abandon the methods that got them where they are today.
"When we brought the Frontier Rig 8 in (for Tekton), the initial move in and rig up was $500,000," Pilcher said. "Some of these little operators here in the DJ have never paid more than $80,000 in their lives. You tell them you'll bring a rig in and it will only be a half million dollars to rig it in, you better have the paddles ready."
Pilcher brought the idea of batch drilling last fall to Jerry Sommer, CEO of Tekton Energy.
"When he came to us and said he was going to do a horizontal project, we told him, this is the way we'd like to do it, and it's going to save you a lot of money," Pilcher said.
"He said, 'How many times have you done it?'
Pilcher answered: " 'Zero, and by the way, it'll cost a ton of money to get the rig in here. And oh, by the way, we're sure it'll work.'
"For some reason, we were able to talk him in to it," Pilcher said. "Not only did it work as well as we thought, it worked better. … We saved more money per well than we thought."
A normal approach to drilling would be to do one well at a time, or some modified version, all with built-in contingencies, such as adding extra time or money to handle problems that have a tendency to come up in the process.
Sommer, whose small, three-year-old startup is now on its 26th horizontal well in the Windsor area, said he was more surprised with the lack of problems on his drilling sites under batch drilling.
"In a normal well, you're drilling surface casing, and there are certain steps, mud and technology and tools to drill that part. Then you stop, and wait and wait and wait, then you change mud and people, technology bits, then you drill intermediate casing and wait and wait and wait for the cement. Then you change people, and mud again," Sommer said.
Sometimes, the problems that can arise in that process end up doubling the cost of a well, he said.
"We've not had one of those," Sommer said. "This process has a lot to do with it, because everyone on the rig, the real workers who are doing this stuff, they can focus on one task and do it again and again. … It's not that we're genius. This rig encourages efficiencies."
Sommer said he expected to shave a couple of days off each well to save maybe a quarter of a million per well.
"That may not sound like a lot, but we've got 90 wells permitted in just Windsor and hundreds of wells on acreage outside of Windsor," Sommer said. "If you could save a quarter of a million on 400 wells over time, it's a lot of money. But I think it was a surprise that we got that on the first pad."
Normal drilling takes 13 to 14 days, Sommer said.
"So when you can get a well drilled in nine to 10 days, that's really good performance. We used to take twice that long to drill the vertical ones 20 to 30 years ago," Sommer said.
Most companies in the Wattenberg build in costs of $4.2 million to $4.5 million per well from drilling to completion. But early on, Tekton was already saving money.
"Our first seven wells averaged just over $3.7 million each," Sommer said.
Officials at Bayswater Exploration, have been looking into the sites of Tekton and Mineral Resources to decide their next move, and they had also participated in batch drilling with Anadarko and Noble. The move was a pretty simple decision, officials said.
"It seems to make a lot of sense, efficiency wise, to pursue that process," said Don Barbula, senior vice president of operations for Bayswater.
Added Struna, "It is promising from a cost and efficiency standpoint, and from a surface footprint standpoint. Batch drilling, and keeping the wellheads close together minimizes our surface footprint, and the long-term impact of our operations on the local" areas.
The 10-year-old company had just started its first batch drilling project in mid-April, was not even five days in, and had already decided its efforts were on the money.
"We're pretty impressed at least with the early indications of how it is proceeding. Time will tell, but we're off to a great start," Barbula said.
Bayswater has about 30,000 acres in the Wattenberg on which to drill, with plans to finish 20 wells this year, followed by 60 next year, with a second rig.
Struna said he expects the drilling method will take a couple of days off the drilling process on its first drilling project, saving his company on the order of $300,000.
"The batch drilling is the way we're going to drill going forward," Struna said.
The majors do their own thing when it comes to drilling, but smaller operations usually have some leeway to try something new.
"There are certainly other people who will see it, and generally the smaller the company, the more open they are to change," Sommer said. "All he had to do was call me. That was as complicated as his sales pitch had to be. There's no committed, no entrenched people saying that for 20 years, we've done it this way. It was just Ed talking to me and off we went."
Word gets out, as with any proven method in a field of several players. There's a finite number of batch-drilling capable rigs, but existing rigs can and have been converted, Pilcher said.
"More and more, contractors will start putting rail or walking systems under their rigs and make them more batch drilling friendly because there is a demand," Pilcher said. "If there's a bigger demand, the contractors will see that."


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Prostate Support (Vegan) (80 Capsules)
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Save Money & Buy a 30 Eco Pack Key Features Potential anti-androgen and anti-inflammatory properties Multi mineral Phyto nutrient Beta sitosterol which is found naturally in a plant called sterol Research has indicated a number of natural ingredients that are beneficial to the prostate gland Description Vegan supplements, Vegan vitamins and Vegan Minerals. We are at the cutting edge of supplying you with the very best supplemen...
Save Money & Buy a 30 Eco Pack
Key Features
- Potential anti-androgen and anti-inflammatory properties
- Multi mineral Phyto nutrient
- Beta sitosterol which is found naturally in a plant called sterol
- Research has indicated a number of natural ingredients that are beneficial to the prostate gland
Vegan supplements, Vegan vitamins and Vegan Minerals. We are at the cutting edge of supplying you with the very best supplements & vitamins money can buy. Our Vegan vitamins are Guaranteed to contain No chemicals and only contain those ingredients that make our supplements work. No bulkers, No fillers and No other chemicals to stabilise the formulations. All our vegan supplements are sold without the chemicals that the majority of our competitors use to bulk out there supplements. Our safe vegan vitamins are sold with the full spectrum of nutrients which offer you a step above the rest.
Potential anti-androgen and anti-inflammatory properties suggested for the benefits of pumpkin seed to the prostate in a report published in Reviews in Urology. Lycopene - A beneficial role for lycopene has been suggested in patients diagnosed with benign prostate hyperplasia. A pilot study for BPH showed those taking lycopene showed no further enlargement of the prostate.
Prostate support has a combination of nutrients, including Selenium and Lycopene, which may aid in the maintenance of a healthy prostate. Prostate symptoms frequently cause discomfort among men particularly those over 50.Note: It is important to seek medical confirmation for your symptoms. Differential diagnosis for Prostatitis, an inflammation of the prostate, and cancer of the prostate gland should be carried out by a medically qualified practitioner.
Prostate Support comprises:
Stinging nettle root (UrticaDioica) - Further studies have shown that there are a variety of well known compounds present including betasitosterol, quercetin and rutin. Inhibitory and anti-proliferative activity of UrticaDioica has been recorded in research for human prostate tissue. Beta sitosterol which is found naturally in a plant called sterol.
After conducting prostate-specific research, it shows a number of possible health benefits. Pumpkin Seed which has potential anti-inflammatory and anti-androgen properties. They are beneficial for the blood, cholesterol and digestion. Lycopene which reports suggest have played a beneficial role to those people who have been diagnosed with benign prostate hyperplasia
A pilot study for BPH showed those taking lycopene showed no further enlargement of the prostate, whilst those in the placebo group demonstrated a continuing enlargement. Zinc - is an essential mineral.
Zinc deficiency affects about two billion people in the developing world and is associated with many diseases. Reports have suggested that zinc may help in regulating both cell growth and apoptosis.
Body by Nature Whole-food supplements are made fromminerals that have been hydroponically-grown into a cruciferous vegetable (brassica) that is a member of the same family as broccoli The brassica base also contains additional nutrients and acts as a food base to aid absorption of and metabolism of the nutrients.
Our Promise to You
Whether you are buying our supplements for Religious reasons, Ethnical reasons, Animal welfare reasons or you just want the very best supplements you can find for your money, here at Body By Nature we sell all our formulations in a Vegan format. Vegan Vitamins, Vegan supplements and Vegan minerals, are sold in a 'whole food' or 'food state'. Your body recognises this and therefore each and every Vitamin and mineral will nourish and maintain areas of your body which needs it the most.
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This link below allows you to purchase the same high quality vegan supplements without the need to throw the bottle away when you have finished taking the course. Our eco pip packs save you money, allow you to recycle all our packaging and keeps the waste to a minimum all the time you can be enjoying the very best natural ingredients money can buy.
|Active Nutrient
|Beta sitostrol 95%
|No NRV
|Pumpkin seed extract 10:1
|No NRV
|Urtica doice extract 4:1
|No NRV
|No NRV
|Contained in a wholefood base
Capsule shell (hydroxypropylmethylcellulose); beta sitosterol, pumpkin seed extract, urtica dioica (stinging nettle root) extract, brassica juncea providing a wholefood mineral base; lycopene; zinc citrate.
Suggested intake
1–2 capsules daily with food, or take as directed by a practitioner. Do not exceed the recommended daily intake. This product should not be used as a substitute for a varied diet. *RDA = Recommended Daily Allowance
Suitable for
Vegetarians, vegans and for people with Candida and yeast sensitivities
Non-GM and free from
Wheat; yeast, starch, gluten; lactose; added sugars, colourings, flavourings and preservatives.
Keep cool, dry and out of direct sunlight. Keep out of reach of children. If seal is broken on purchase do not use.


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Mojo to prowl, growl and preach the blues
MOJO Webb has been described as Australia's most authentic blues artist and he is on his way to the Royal Mail Hotel in Goodna on Saturday afternoon.
Redbank-based blues musician and promoter Cath Butler said Mojo would rock the pub with a performance that epitomises what the genre is all about.
"Mojo really feels it when he gets up on stage," she said.
"He prowls, he growls, he hollers and points the finger. He really preaches the blues like you would expect it to be done.
He prowls, he growls, he hollers and points the finger. He really preaches the blues like you would expect it to be done.
"He is the most authentic blues artist we have in this country and so exciting to watch.
"He is an incredible live performer but he is quite shy when you talk to him. I always say to him, 'Do you have switch that you flick when you go on stage?'
"His whole personality changes and he takes on this whole other being when he steps on stage."
Mojo alternates between playing gigs solo and with his Mojo Webb Band where Cooje Timms (drums) and JB Lewis (bass and guitar) make up a dynamic trio.
He will be playing solo on Saturday but Butler said that will in no way lessen his impact.
"Mojo is a real wizard on the blues guitar," she said.
"He is a multi-instrumentalist.
"The first CD he brought out was called The Burden and he went away to an old farm house for about three months where he recorded it himself and played every single instrument himself on the CD. He is just a huge talent.
"He is one of my favourite blues performers in this country and I can't for the life of me understand why he isn't a massive star."
Mojo's national reputation as an outstanding blues musician has now gone global
"Last year he represented Queensland in the International Blues Challenge which is held in Memphis every year," Butler said.
"Hundreds of blues bands come from all over the world to compete and he was a semi-finalist in that.
"His latest CD called The Cat was also selected in the top 25 CDs of the year by the American Blues Foundation."
His latest CD called The Cat was also selected in the top 25 CDs of the year by the American Blues Foundation.
Webb will play from noon until 3pm on Saturday and will be followed by the Mason Rack Band.
The band will play at the Byron Bay Blues Festival this year and is headed up by Mason Rack.


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Graphic Standards Guide
We are pleased to introduce Northern Oklahoma College's new logo and graphic standards guide. They reflect our comprehensive exploration of ways in which we can build consistent visual impressions of NOC and expand our reputation for providing quality education to our growing audiences. This system promotes clear and consistent use of these standards across our sites, branding Northern Oklahoma College as an institution, although in three separate locations, that works together to carry out a common mission. The standards cover use of the logo, signature colors, type fonts and other matters that strengthen NOC's visual identity. This document represents our initial guidelines for using the new identity system. Please check the NOC website often to confirm that you are using the most recent version. We look forward to seeing the new Northern logo and graphic standards system in use across our locations in Tonkawa, Enid and Stillwater. We acknowledge and appreciate your participation. Click here to view Northern Oklahoma College's Graphic Standards Guide.
Email Signatures:
As a part of our visual brand, use the style shown here for all employee email signatures. The logo (symbol and wordmark) is the minimum size allowable (the red box at five-eighths inches wide) and the type is as follows:
Email Signature DownloadGateway Signature Download
Athletic Signature Download
(Click the link above to open up a Word document with the approved email signature format, then highlight and copy and paste into your email signature creator box.)
Click Here to Watch an HTML Email Signature Tutorial for Outlook
Approved Logos & Taglines:
Approved Footers:These images have been approved to be used temporarily as addition(s) to your email footers or taglines. Click on the images(s), and then right-click to save to your desktop.


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Complete Story
Time Warner Cable puts pressure back on telcos
By: Sarah Reedy, Telephony Online
Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC) is holding its own against growing telco competition in the first quarter, adding 36,000 basic video customers and 121,000 digital video subscribers. Despite a 32% decline in profit, Bernstein Research senior analyst Craig Moffett called the first quarter "stellar" for the second largest cableco, due in large part to its success in video.
"Amidst the deepest recession in two generations, swirling anxieties about video 'cord-cutting,' and in the face of the telcos' best-ever video quarter, TWC added 36,000 basic video subscribers in its first quarter ever as a standalone cable company," Moffett wrote in a research note. "Consensus expectations had called for a loss of 77,000. That will be taken as an enormously encouraging, and reassuring, sign."
Telco competition has expanded to a significant part of TWC's footprint, but the growth slowed in the first quarter, according Chief Operating Officer Landel Hobbs. Verizon added 299,000 new FiOS TV subscribers in the first quarter, bringing its total to 2.2 million, while AT&T added 284,000 U-Verse subs. Verizon may have squeezed by AT&T in video net adds, but – like last quarter – TWC still sees AT&T as the bigger threat. AT&T and Verizon are now in 22% of its footprint, 15% and 7%, respectively. AT&T has passed twice as many as TWC's homes as Verizon, Hobbs said.
The digital transition, although delayed until June, was also a boon to TWC's video growth. The DTV accounted for as many as 80,000 of TWC's net new subs in the first quarter. TWC offered free basic video service for those customers who also took on its DSL service, and Hobbs said that as many as a third of the subs agreed to either a double- or triple-play package. The company expects a similar impact in June when the final DTV transition occurs.
"We've become an independent company in challenging times, but times like this reinforce that cable is a great business," said Chief Executive Officer Glenn Britt on today's earnings call, adding that the company grew its revenues by 5% in the quarter even with local advertising revenues declining 26% year-over-year.
TWC was rumored to be mulling an acquisition of Internet video content site Joost.com to ward off competition from online video sources, but Britt would not comment on the speculation. He did, however, reiterate that the company's immediate focus is on remaining as an independent company and using its free cash flow to pay down its debt from its spin off.
"Clearly, if you go long enough in the future and all the same content sold for subscription were to become available free, consumers would migrate to the free," Britt said. "That is pretty straight forward as a concept. We are seeing a little of that, but emphasis on 'little.' The impact is not measurable. The conversations we are having are about what's going to happen down the road – way down the road."
Source: http://telephonyonline.com/video/news/time-warner-cable-first-quarter-0429/?smte=wl


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The following protocol describes how to perform fluo-4-based measurements of cytosolic calcium changes in neural stem cells in response to neurotransmitter applications.
Required Materials
Tools and Equipment
Required Materials
- Neural stem cells, cultured on poly-D-lysine coated 96-well plate or other culture vessel
- Hanks' Balanced Salt Solution (HBSS) (Cat. no. 14025-134)
- Fluo-4, AM (Cat. no. F14201)
- Pluronic® F-127 (Cat. no. P-3000MP)
- DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide) (Sigma, Cat. no. D2650)
- Neurotransmitters or ligands (e.g., acetylcholine, glutamate)
Tools and Equipment
- Inverted microscope (e.g., Nikon T2000)
- Illumination system (e.g., Sutter Instruments Lambda DG-4)
- Digital camera (e.g., Hamamatsu ORCA-ER)
Fluo-4 AM Loading Solution
Fluo-4 AM loading solution consists of 3 μM fluo-4 AM (reconstituted in DMSO) and 0.1% Pluronic® F-127 in Hanks' Balanced Salt Solution (HBSS). Use the fluo-4 AM loading solution as soon as possible after preparation to avoid decomposition with subsequent loss of cell loading capacity.
Loading NSCs with Fluo-4 AM Loading Solution
Data Acquisition
Data Analysis
Fluo-4 AM loading solution consists of 3 μM fluo-4 AM (reconstituted in DMSO) and 0.1% Pluronic® F-127 in Hanks' Balanced Salt Solution (HBSS). Use the fluo-4 AM loading solution as soon as possible after preparation to avoid decomposition with subsequent loss of cell loading capacity.
- To reconstitute fluo-4 AM, add 44 μL of DMSO to one vial of fluo-4 AM (50 μg) and vortex thoroughly. You may store the fluo-4 AM reconstituted in DMSO protected from light, frozen, and desiccated for up to one week.
- Add 9 μL of Pluronic® F-127 to the reconstituted fluo-4 AM and vortex thoroughly. Note: Because fluo-4 AM is relatively insoluble in aqueous solutions, addition of the low-toxicity dispersing agent Pluronic® F-127 facilitates cell loading. However, Pluronic® F‑127 may decrease the stability of AM esters, so it should only be added to working stocks (i.e., the loading solution).
- Add 50 μL of the ~860 μM fluo-4 AM/ Pluronic® F‑127 solution to 14.3 mL of HBSS.
Loading NSCs with Fluo-4 AM Loading Solution
- Wash the NSCs with 100 μL of Hanks' Balanced Salt Solution (HBSS).
- Load the NSCs with 100 μL of fluo-4 AM loading solution per well of a 96-well plate. You may adjust the volume as appropriate to other culture vessels.
- Incubate the NSCs in the dark at room temperature for ~60 minutes.
- Wash the fluo-4-loaded NSCs with 100 μL of HBSS and maintain at room temperature in the dark until data acquisition
Data Acquisition
- Place the 96-well plate containing the fluo-4-loaded NSCs in an inverted microscope (e.g., Nikon T2000) for visual inspection and fluorescent imaging.
- To acquire and analyze data, define regions of interest around a random series of cells using your software of choice (e.g., MetaFluor, MDS Analytical Technologies). Note: The NSCs should display a typical neuronal morphology with dendritic and axonal processes clearly recognizable by cellular polarity and proportionate size.
- Identify 50–100 neurons for data acquisition and analysis in each well examined.
- Excite the NSCs with 488-nm light (e.g., Lambda DG-4 light source) and collect images from 520-nm emitted light with a CCD or digital camera (e.g., ORCA-ER).
- Challenge the cells in one well with a neurotransmitter or other ligand. For example, add 20 μL of 3 mM acetylcholine to achieve a final concentration of 500 μM acetylcholine in the well.
- Collect the data using the appropriate software (e.g., MetaFluor, MDS Analytical Technologies).
- Repeat the procedure for each neurotransmitter or ligand of interest in separate wells. Use the following final concentrations for each well: 500 μM glutamate, 500 μM dopamine (add 500 μM ascorbic acid with dopamine to prevent dopamine oxidation), 500 μM γ-aminobutyric acid, and 500 μM ATP.
Data Analysis
- Integrate the acquired fluo-4 520-nm emission signal for each region of interest, normalize to the first ten data points (F/F0) and then plot against time.
- Set the response criteria. For example, a NSC might be considered responsive to a given neurotransmitter or ligand if the resulting normalized signal rises more than 10% within 60 seconds following neurotransmitter addition compared to the baseline signal. The number of NSCs that exhibit clear changes in intracellular Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i) depends on the neurotransmitter and differentiation state of the NSCs.
LT155 17-Mar-2011


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Step-by-step drawing guide of Virgo Shaka
- From: Saint Seiya anime;
- Steps: 19.
All the original artworks/photos that were used as references to create the drawing tutorials belong to their respective owners. If you have found your work here without credit, please leave a comment below and it will be fixed immediately. Thank you for your amazing art.


text:
The shadowy hacker and malware hosting network that only recently fled Russia to set up operations in China has now pulled the plug there and vanished yet again, researchers said late Friday.
The latest disappearing act of the Russian Business Network (RBN) has left researchers scratching their heads. "Where have they gone, that's the question," said an analyst at VeriSign's iDefense Labs unit who wanted to remain anonymous, leery of retribution from the gang. "What's really interesting is how fast they shut everything down."
IDefense had tracked RBN's migration earlier in the week from servers based in Russia to ones running in China. On Tuesday, RBN's Russian servers went dark as the group relinquished control of its assigned IP addresses, effectively severing its connection to the Internet. By Wednesday, however, RBN had relocated to China and Taiwan after obtaining at least seven net blocks of Chinese IP addresses, said iDefense. According to the security intelligence firm, as of Wednesday, RBN controlled 5,120 IP addresses assigned to Chinese service providers; known RBN clients were even seen using those addresses that day.
But with its China move putting media and security community spotlights on the organization, RBN suddenly went offline on Thursday, said the analyst. "They severed connections to six of the seven net blocks on November 8," the analyst said.
The analyst speculated that while RBN's operators might dismiss the unflattering stories as attacks meant to discredit Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, the attention was definitely unwelcome. "If their clients are afraid to use them," said the analyst, "it becomes a real issue of finances for RBN."
Security professionals have long alleged that RBN's clients are almost exclusively spammers, hackers, identity thieves, money mule operators, child pornographers and other criminals who have used its network to host malicious Web sites packed with malware or as the launching pad for spam campaigns and denial-of-service attacks. "These people don't like attention," said the analyst.
RBN has tried to deflect that attention before. In mid-October, the group spoke with a Western news organization for the first time when it told Wired that it was a legitimate business and that it was considering suing The Spamhaus Project, a well-known antispam organization, for blacklisting its IP addresses. Two days later, CNews Russia ran a story within the country that claimed the RBN allegations were fabrications meant to smear Putin.


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This Tech Tip reprinted with permission by java.sun.com
You cannot have two methods in the same class with signatures that only differ by return type. Until the J2SE 5.0 release, it was also true that a class could not override the return type of the methods it inherits from a superclass. In this tip you will learn about a new feature in J2SE 5.0 that allows covariant return types. What this means is that a method in a subclass may return an object whose type is a subclass of the type returned by the method with the same signature in the superclass. This feature removes the need for excessive type checking and casting.
Let's start with the following class, ConfusedClass. The class tries to declare two methods with the same signature. One of the methods returns a JTextField, and the other returns a JPasswordField.
import javax.swing.JTextField; import javax.swing.JPasswordField; public class ConfusedClass { public JTextField getTextField(){ return new JTextField(); } public JPasswordField getTextField(){ return new JPasswordField(); } }
If you try to compile ConfusedClass, you get the following compile error:
ConfusedClass.java:10: getTextField() is already defined in ConfusedClass public JPasswordField getTextField(){ ^ 1 error
Looking at this situation from the perspective of a class calling getTextField(), you can see the reason for the compile time error. How would you indicate which of the two methods you are targeting? Consider, for example, this snippet:
ConfusedClass cc = new ConfusedClass(); JTextField field = cc.getTextField();
Because a JPasswordField extends JTextField, either version of the method could correctly be called.
Next, create two classes, each of which having a different version of the getTextField() methods. The two methods differ by implementation and return type. Start with the following base:
import javax.swing.JTextField; public class ConfusedSuperClass { public JTextField getTextField(){ System.out.println("Called in " + this.getClass()); return new JTextField(); } }
Compile ConfusedSuperClass. You'll see that it compiles without error. Now create a derived class, one that extends ConfusedSuperClass. The derived class attempts to return an instance of JPasswordField instead of the JTextField returned by the getTextField() method in ConfusedSuperClass.
import javax.swing.JPasswordField; public class ConfusedSubClass extends ConfusedSuperClass { public JPasswordField getTextField(){ System.out.println("Called in " + this.getClass()); return new JPasswordField(); } }
If you use a version of the JDK prior to J2SE 5.0, ConfusedSubClass will not compile. You will see an error like this.
ConfusedSubClass.java:5: getTextField() in ConfusedSubClass cannot override getTextField() in ConfusedSuperClass; attempting to use incompatible return type found : javax.swing.JPasswordField required: javax.swing.JTextField public JPasswordField getTextField(){ ^ 1 error
The error reported is that you are attempting to use an incompatible return type. In fact, the JPasswordField you are attempting to return is a subtype of JTextField. This same code compiles correctly under J2SE 5.0. You are now allowed to override the return type of a method with a subtype of the original type. In the current example, the getTextField() method in ConfusedSuperClass returns an instance of type JTextField. The getTextField() method in the ConfusedSubClass returns an instance of type JPasswordField.
You can exercise these two classes with the following NotConfusedClient class. This class creates an instance of type ConfusedSuperClass and of type ConfusedSubClass. It then calls getTextField() on each instance, and displays the type corresponding to the object returned by the method.
import javax.swing.JTextField; public class NotConfusedClient { static JTextField jTextField; public static void main(String[] args) { System.out.println("===== Super Class ====="); jTextField = new ConfusedSuperClass().getTextField(); System.out.println("Got back an instance of " + jTextField.getClass()); System.out.println("===== Sub Class ====="); jTextField = new ConfusedSubClass().getTextField(); System.out.println("Got back an instance of " + jTextField.getClass()); } }
Compile and run NotConfusedClient. When you run it, you should see the following output:
===== Super Class ===== Called in class ConfusedSuperClass Got back an instance of class javax.swing.JTextField ===== Sub Class ===== Called in class ConfusedSubClass Got back an instance of class javax.swing.JPasswordField
In fact, you will get the same output if you change the return type of getTextField() to JTextField in ConfusedSubClass. The payoff comes when you use the object that is returned by the call to getTextField(). Before J2SE 5.0, you needed to downcast to take advantage of methods that are present in the derived class but not in the base class. As you've seen, in J2SE 5.0 ConfusedSubClass compiles with a different return type specified for getTextField() than is present in the superclass. You can now use your covariant return type to call a method that is only available in the subtype. First, recast the supertype like this:
public class SuperClass { public SuperClass getAnObject(){ return this; } }
Add the exclusive method to the corresponding subclass, and change the return type of the getAnObject() method:
public class SubClass extends SuperClass { public SubClass getAnObject(){ return this; } public void exclusiveMethod(){ System.out.println("Exclusive in Subclass."); } public static void main(String[] args) { System.out.println("===== Call Exclusive method ====="); new SubClass().getAnObject().exclusiveMethod(); } }
Compile SuperClass and SubClass, then run SubClass. You should see the following output:
===== Call Exclusive method ===== Exclusive in Subclass.
The main() method creates an instance of the subclass. It then calls getAnObject(). It follows this with a call to exclusiveMethod() on the returned object of type SubClass. If the return type of getAnObject() was SuperClass in SubClass.java, the code would not have compiled.
Copyright (c) 2004-2005 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.


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Grisham sequel to 'A Time to Kill' to be published
NEW YORK (AP) -- The defense attorney in John Grisham's first novel, "A Time to Kill," is returning to the courtroom.
Grisham's new book, "Sycamore Row," will be published Oct. 22, the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group announced Wednesday. Like "A Time to Kill," it will feature Jake Brigance as a lawyer in a small Mississippi town. Knopf Doubleday promises a trademark Grisham tale of "intrigue, suspense and plot twists."
"A Time to Kill" was published in 1989 and sold modestly. But after "The Firm" and other thrillers made Grisham a brand name, his first book was reissued and became a best-seller. "A Time to Kill," in which Brigance successfully defends a man accused of murder, was later been adapted into both a movie and a stage production.


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The Japanese government is trying to get foreign bloggers to do PR for it by inviting them to earthquake- and tsunami-hit areas to write compassionately about the progress being made in reconstructing the ravaged north-east of the country.
The Foreign Ministry thought up the idea in a bid to revive the disaster-hit nation's ailing tourist industry, which has been understandably affected by the events of last March, according to the Mainichi Daily News.
Perhaps more optimistically, it also wants the bloggers to let their readers know that the tsunami- and quake-affected areas around Sendai are still appealing holiday destinations.
The report reveals that the foreign bloggers have been arriving thick and fast, with a total of 10 invited to the Land of the Rising Sun.
Spanish blogger Roger Ortuno Flamerich reportedly came to Japan in December, followed by Chicago food blogger Louisa Liu Chu and Khaled Hamza, editor-in-chief of the official website of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
Whether a dash of kindly blogging can help boost the nation's flagging tourist industry remains to be seen though. Probably more effective was a plan hatched by the Japan Tourism Agency at the tail-end of last year to fly a whopping 10,000 foreigners to the country (and back) to do similar.
Sadly the "Fly to Japan!" project was vetoed by the government, at least for the time being.
The country needs to encourage gaijin visitors back to its shores, however a strong Japanese yen is making matters even more difficult.
American tourists alone spend in the region of $5bn a year and some figures estimate that tourist numbers fell by half in the three months following the disasters. ®


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It may have taken almost two decades, but Tun Thura Thet's investment in one of Asia's poorest countries is finally paying off.
"I've been waiting here for 17 years to have this moment," he said, sitting at his office in Yangon, Myanmar. "After 10 or 12 years, we almost gave up."
Tun Thura Thet is CEO of Myanmar Information Technology (MIT), one of the few software companies that managed to survive under the country's military rule. But after years of facing a stagnant business environment, Myanmar's tech industry is starting to tap into opportunities brought on by the nation's move toward democracy.
MIT, founded in 1997, is a maker of enterprise software and expects to ride high on the reforms ushered in by the country's new civilian government. Last week, the company gained global attention when it became Microsoft's major supplier for its software products in the nation. Making the deal possible was the decision by the U.S. to lift trade sanctions on the country, Tun Thura Thet said.
The company is also helping local banks pave the way for modern financial services, including establishing Myanmar's first ATMs. "Just last month we launched mobile banking for one of the banks," he said. "This is one of the things we are very excited about. In Myanmar, we can always be the first to do these things. In other countries, you don't have this chance."
It marks a major contrast from over a decade ago, when Tun Thura Thet was unsure his company would succeed under the country's military rule. Home to 60 million people, Myanmar represents one of the last untapped markets in Asia and its tech industry has struggled to grow. Even now, Internet penetration in the country is only at 1 percent and electricity can be scarce. Most people cannot afford to buy mobile phones, let alone purchase a PC.
"The tech market here has been small," said Tun Thura Thet, whose company employs 300 people but is considered large by local standards. Only about 10 local software firms operate in the country, he estimated.
MIT was able to thrive by selling enterprise software to Myanmar banks. But following the country's banking crisis in 2003, the company resorted to going abroad, and expanded to Singapore in 2005 as an offshoring provider. The country's past censorship of the Internet was another obstacle that threatened to derail his business. So in 2001, MIT and several other tech firms banded together to form a government-approved technology park in Yangon, with better access to the Internet.
The company was lucky to survive under such conditions, he said. Tun Thura Thet remembers the frustration.
"Why am I here? I'm wasting my time," he recalled thinking. "I'm wasting everything, my youth, my innovation, my opportunities, everything. But again, what brought me back is the people. If you're a leader you have to work hard until there's a transformation."
Others in Myanmar's tech industry are also reaping the benefits of that same transformation. Thaung Su Nyein is managing director of Information Matrix, an IT and media company also based in Yangon. Like Tun Thura Tet, he also made a decade-old bet on Myanmar's tech industry stretching back to 1999 when he decided to leave New York and return to his home country.
"I wanted to be the next Yahoo! in Myanmar," he remembered. "I wanted to be that pioneer."
But his business plan quickly collided with Myanmar's attempts to control the Internet. After arriving, Thaung Su Nyein learned that local authorities had detained several people for starting email services in the country. The government had also made it illegal to offer any kind of private Internet service.
"Politics was really bad at that time. Basically you were providing this outside gateway out of the government's hands," he said. "This was really dangerous in the eyes of the government. But for the IT business guys, they didn't even think about that."
It forced Thaung Su Nyein to scale back his business plan, and instead try to start an "offline cyber cafe." At the cafe, PCs would be loaded with pre-downloaded Web content imported on CDs shipped from Singapore. But authorities were quick to intervene, and shutdown his business.
"The leadership didn't like the word 'Internet'," he recalled. But despite his business plan's failure, Thaung Su Nyein found success in print media, and began releasing a publication covering technology. His company now publishes several weekly journals, in addition to operating online portals, and running a web development business.
Since Myanmar's new government took power in 2011, a sea of change has occurred in the country, he said. The government has ended the strict online censorship, and wants Internet and telecommunications to play a major role in developing Myanmar, Thaung Su Nyein added.
In addition, the government reforms are expected to open up Myanmar's mobile Internet market, potentially bringing a flood of online users to Thaung Su Nyein's publications. By 2016, Myanmar wants mobile penetration in the nation to reach between 75 and 80 percent.
"We could get tens of thousands of reader on our mobile apps," Thaung Su Nyein said. "That's something we are looking forward to."


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Greg Wind
The Wind Communications Agency
401-885-WIND email@example.com
Tuesday, 18 January 2011
New Capabilities Designed for Manufacturers' Requirements for Fast and Cost-Effective, Engineering-Driven Product Development Concord, MA, January 18, 2011: SpaceClaim, the leader in 3D Direct Modeling solutions for rapid concept design and geometry manipulation, today announced product enhancements designed for large manufacturing organizations who want to move to upfront concept modeling to save time and money, and continue to drive innovation. SpaceClaim 2011 – the Company's seventh release of its software – builds on features that enable engineers to leverage 3D for concept modeling, bid modeling, and model preparation.
New in 2011 are enhancements to surface modeling, large assembly performance, model preparation for CAE and manufacturing, and enterprise integration. These capabilities align SpaceClaim with manufacturers' business imperatives such as removing waste from product development, tightening product development costs, and using simulation more pervasively in engineering. These enhancements are driven by SpaceClaim customers who realize that CAD products designed for detailed design and manufacturing documentation do not adequately serve many engineers.
"SpaceClaim has experienced a very robust 2010, signing new large enterprise customers as well as international partners such as TRUMPF," said Chris Randles, SpaceClaim President and CEO. "By elevating concept and bid modeling, advancing CAE workflow, and enabling all engineers to communicate in 3D, we're helping our customers converge on key decisions early in the process. SpaceClaim creates a 3D specification that drives detailed design, so engineers can release to CAD when all critical gaps are removed and product success is assured. Engineers worldwide have the right tool with SpaceClaim, unencumbered by the complexity of traditional CAD software. Whether it is designing an electric bike for Volkswagen or creating electronic components for one of the world's largest suppliers, SpaceClaim offers the flexibility for engineers to succeed."
New capabilities in SpaceClaim 2011 range from increasingly accessible surfacing, assembly, and model preparation enhancements to strengthened sheet metal and CAD interoperability features. Highlights include:
Numerous improvements in documentation and customization capabilities make it easier for large customers to deploy SpaceClaim to engineering teams worldwide. See the What's New page for further details on the enhancements and new features in SpaceClaim 2011.
© Copyright 2013 SpaceClaim Corporation.
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CEO Challenge Reflections: How Socio-Economic Change Is Shaping Business Sustainability in China
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November 2011
China's 12th Five-Year Plan clearly underscores China's stated commitment to a more sustainable and quality-driven growth path. CEOs in China, unlike their counterparts in other global regions, rank sustainability as one of their top business challenges. But how will this challenge be met? What will the impact of this commitment be for the Chinese business environment?
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|2010-07-31, 08:13
|Link #42
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2008
New PV on utube's nitro+ channel
Like sky clad observer better :|
|2010-08-08, 21:49
|Link #44
◕ ‿‿ ◕
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Neo-Venezia, Planet Aqua (Mars)
If a Japanese game is going to lose money, chances are it will not get localized. We all can see how "well" quality shoujo manga did in the US. I think what we need is smarter and better informed fans/consumers.
As long as releasing VNs in US is "subsidized" by sales from elsewhere, we will never get anywhere. As for now... I may import the game when my wallet permits me to.
|2010-08-12, 16:00
|Link #45
They should have released this on the 21st, not the 26th...
I'm gonna get this game. I still don't have a JP X360 (going to get one because I finally want to play Senko no Ronde DUO), so I was really looking forward to this (and Mahou Tsukai no Yoru).
Now guys... Port 428 over to PC and I'm really happy. It's so much easier to play through VNs when you can hook the text.
|2010-08-14, 22:19
|Link #46
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2009
What's worse is that, the eroge industry in Japan isn't at all interested in expanding to Western shores any time soon. In fact they feel the contrary. They fear that it might spread and they're doing everything to contain it to Japan only.
|2010-09-02, 22:56
|Link #48
◕ ‿‿ ◕
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Neo-Venezia, Planet Aqua (Mars)
I ordered the game, and is now a couple of hours into the game (Chapter 2). I really enjoyed it - the story is a mix of hard sci-fi, a healthy amount of funny geek/otaku parodies, art style is unique yet looks good. Anyway, for darn sure when the animated version is released, it will be pain of butt to the translator :P
It does has an annoying copyright check system. It is impossible for now to run on 2 computers the same time legitimately. However, that copyright system is due to expire by Feb 2011.
|2010-09-07, 13:48
|Link #49
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2008
Age: 31
Finished all the routes and the true ending just now, the whole game took me around 50 hours. Definitely not going to regret spending my weekend on this.
I've only played a few AVGs, tried this one because of its genre and popularity since I always like sci-fi and time-traveling stuff. The script and pace wasn't flawless, especially the specific routes of some of the heroines, but the last 3 chapters had some of the best scenario I've seen and they were executed brilliantly. Everything becomes clear and all the loose ends were tied, very satisfied after completing the true end. I think I've read a comment on the net somewhere that "the story is so good I want to erase all my memory about it and play again". Indeed!! I think I'll actually go and play it once again before the anime comes out. The official guidebook looks really tempting too....
Speaking of anime adaptation, the story's pieced together with so many worlds and timelines in order to be complete, I don't even know if 24 episodes are enough...
Anyway it doesn't matter how this turns out all I wanna see is a moving Kurisu.
|2010-09-19, 23:34
|Link #51
◕ ‿‿ ◕
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Neo-Venezia, Planet Aqua (Mars)
What amazed me the most so far is the detail put into the script to make... the weird stuff and paradoxes stand out. Without spoiling, like subtle details in honorifics in describing teenage boys and girls, and how Akihabara itself changes when ... weird stuff happens. Of course there are flaws as well, I did not like the references to certain real world businesses and agencies. Spoiler:
Spoiler for Parody:
From what I can tell so far, the plot reminds me Frankenstein and The Lathe of Heaven. I think some Sci-Fi novel fans with good otaku knowledge will enjoy the most of the game.
|2010-09-20, 00:33
|Link #53
◕ ‿‿ ◕
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Neo-Venezia, Planet Aqua (Mars)
So far the story of the game version of Steins;Gate is amazing. There are Sci-Fi novels with comparable plot lines, but I have not seen any JP game done this way. The challenge now is to turn the game to some other medium; a novel, quite easy, in fact it has already been done; an anime... that will not be easy, I think.
|2010-11-12, 06:09
|Link #56
Junior Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Kind of sad to stumble upon this so late and still see no translation. The OP seemed willing, yet nobody really wanted it? Personally, I'd love for a translation of the script. This seems like one of the more unique VN's out there, would love to fully understand every tidbit.
|2011-02-03, 08:49
|Link #58
Join Date: May 2008
Location: California
Age: 31
Wow I just got through chapter 5 and what a freaking turning point!
I already knew that
Now I've got too much adrenaline flowing and I can't even go to sleep anymore -___-
It'll only get more epic from here on I assume, yeh?
|2011-02-07, 21:19
|Link #59
Join Date: May 2008
Location: California
Age: 31
Cleared the true end a few hours ago. Definitely worth playing.
I don't think I've ever had a game make me think so much. All these different world lines and time leaps... My mind kept wandering, looking for plot holes at every opportunity. My brain hurts so I can finally give that a rest xD
I'm sort of worried about the anime remake. I think it's going to take a godly director and lots of episodes to pull this off properly... Maybe I'm being too pessimistic :P
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Keri Russell — Celeb Crush
When we first met her, way back in the '90s, Keri Russell was the star of the TV drama 'Felicity,' in which she played a naive young student who followed her high school crush to college.
We've had the pleasure of watching the gorgeous actress mature over the past several years and take on interesting new roles, like the sunny but burdened lead in the indie film 'Waitress,' the resolute secret agent in 'Mission: Impossible 3,' and the object of Ed Norton's affections on the underrated comedy 'Leaves of Grass.'
Now comes a new challenge for Russell: She's returning to TV as a Soviet KGB sleeper agent living in Cold War America in the new FX action drama 'The Americans.' We're looking forward to seeing Russell reclaim the spotlight on TV as an ass-kicking, double-dealing spy.
Check out Keri Russell in 'The Americans,' which premieres on FX January 30. Until then, enjoy the following photos.


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Battlefield 3: End Game Flying Into Consoles Next Week
The Official Battlefield Blog has been updated with tips on how to complete all of the Assignments and earn every medal, ribbon, dog tog, and trophy/achievement in Battlefield 3: End Game.
The Blog runs down every single new piece of persistence in End Game, so Battlefield warriors can prep themselves mentally for the challenges ahead.
You've got your standard achievements and challenges that are tied to some of the basic additions in the expansion, like getting a Capture the Flag Ribbon by playing CTF just once. But then there are more difficult goals, like the SCAR-L Specialist Assignment, which tasks you with getting 100 kills with the SCAR-L and capturing the flag 3 times in CTF. Completion of this particular Assignment unlocks the Desert Strike and Digital Woodland Camo skins for the SCAR-L.
Our personal favorite unlockables are the dog tags, which let you customize your character and let other players know about your prowess on the battlefield. One interesting new dog tag is called "Pancakes" and can be unlocked if the player falls over 200 meters and dies. It's kind of funny because everyone else will be able to see the number of deaths you suffered from cratering into the earth.
But perhaps the most important piece of news on the Blog is the full release schedule for End Game, which is as follows:
- PS3 Premium members: March 5th, 2013
- X360 and PC Premium members: March 12th, 2013
- PS3 players: March 19th, 2013
- X360 and PC players: March 26th, 2013
So get ready for more vehicular mayhem and prepare your eyes for the sight of a bunch of dudes bailing from helicopters and jets to get the Pancakes dog tag! Let us know if you'll be doing the same!


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JUPITER, Fla. — Even with his name and age confirmed, Jenrry Mejia's hardball identity remains defined by a string of question marks. Starter or reliever? Legit prospect or dated heirloom? Someone the Mets can trust or someone they cannot?
JUPITER, Fla. — Even with his name and age confirmed, Jenrry Mejia's hardball identity remains defined by a string of question marks. Starter or reliever? Legit prospect or dated heirloom? Someone the Mets can trust or someone they cannot?
A few years ago, Mejia — not Matt Harvey, not Zack Wheeler — was the most prized piece on the farm. Now he's an arm of last resort, a fifth starter if Johan Santana is not healthy, if Jeremy Hefner stumbles, if, if, if "�
On Tuesday afternoon, he added another pin to this clothesline of doubt. Mejia pitched just one inning. He allowed five runs, four earned.
The mistakes he made Tuesday mirrored the mistakes he made when he was called up last September. Of the eight batters he faced Tuesday, six were given the benefit of a 1-0 count. It was reminiscent of his first start last autumn, when he threw first-pitch balls to 14 of the 19 hitters he saw in a 9-6 loss to the Brewers.
"I (felt) ready," Mejia said after leaving Tuesday's 7-5 loss to the Miami Marlins.
He did not look ready. It took just three pitches before the afternoon slid from his grasp.
Marlins outfielder Juan Pierre bunted a 1-1 pitch back toward the mound. Mejia fielded the ball cleanly, then he rifled it down the right-field line.
"That happens sometimes," Mejia said.
He gave up two singles and a walk before Casey Kotchman, a nine-year veteran who has never hit more than 14 home runs in a season, smacked a grand slam. Mejia fell behind 1-0. Then he threw a fastball.
"This is my first time," Mejia said. "The only thing that I have to work (on) is (throwing) strikes. Practice on throwing the first pitch for strikes."
Mejia pitched two games in the Dominican Republic while waiting for his visa, Collins said. Digging too deep into spring training numbers can be dangerous, but Collins sounded concerned that a pitcher who has been throwing could look this shaky.
"When you're trying to make a club, you've got to get ready to pitch," Collins said. "It's a little different when you're a 10-year veteran and you know how to get ready. It's another thing when you're trying to impress the manager. He threw fine. Just threw way too many balls in the middle of the plate."
Mejia is still young, just 23, but his early taste of the big leagues has not been pleasant. Mejia went 0-4 in 2010. He underwent surgery Tommy John surgery in 2011.
Last September, during his late-season cup of coffee, Mejia made five appearances. He went 1-2 with a 5.63 ERA.
Collins has committed to using Mejia as a starter this spring. He has mentioned Mejia as a rotation cushion if Santana or another starter is not ready for opening day. But it would be tough to slide him into that spot if he continues to struggle.
"I'm sure he's a little anxious to be out there," Collins said, "so we'll get him a side (session) and get him back out there next week."


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The Wigwam: Hot Deals Detail
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Each hotel's deposit, change of existing reservation, and cancellation policies vary. Please contact the individual hotel to confirm their specific policies.
Offer is subject to availability and blackout dates may apply. Offer is subject to change and excludes applicable taxes, fees, service charges, or surcharges, unless noted otherwise. Each hotel has specific terms and conditions that vary and might include length of stay requirements, day of week restrictions, deposit requirements, and blackout dates. Please check with the hotel at the time of booking to determine if any additional conditions apply.
Regarding National Trust for Historic Preservation Membership: Family membership to the National Trust for Historic Preservation is per household, non transferable, no cash value, and no refunds. Benefits are subject to availability and advance reservation. The National Trust for Historic Preservation discounts are available at participating hotels for new bookings made after the initial booking and membership are confirmed and processed. Bookings must be made on the Historic Hotels of America website. This promotion is limited to new members of The National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Call (800) 678-8946 to book today!


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RANDALL BEACH: Competitive lockpicker opens up to New Haven crowd
Schuyler Towne vividly remembers the first time he picked a lock.
"It was a yellow band padlock," he said with a sentimental satisfied smile. "I was 22. This was in 2006."
"When the plug rotated, it went 'zunk'! It was this great auditory moment."
"I picked another and another and then I started teaching other people."
Towne had come to New Haven's Institute Library on a recent evening as the latest guest of the library's entertaining "Amateur Hour" series. Several dozen people watched with great interest as he showed us his picking skills, all the while discussing his hobby with great enthusiasm.
Towne had been introduced to us as a competitive lockpicker and a pioneer of the American Locksport Movement.
This young man is a founding board member of the Open Organization of Lockpickers, U.S. Chapter. In 2007 he launched Non-Destructive Entry magazine.
That "non-destructive" part is important for the public to realize. Towne said he has never met a criminal in "the community" of lockpickers.
"I could give you anecdote after anecdote about people in the community who are approached to do bad things," he told us.
They won't do it. They use their powers for the forces of good, not evil.
Indeed, the writer Joshua Foer, who was interviewing Towne as he sat beside him at the library event, seemed a little worried when he asked: "You could break into my house?"
"Yeah, I could break into your house," Towne replied nonchalantly. "Unless you have extremely high-quality locks."
"I had to steal my own car once," he added. "I couldn't find my key and they were doing street cleaning."
Almost as soon as Towne sat down to begin his presentation, a lady in the audience walked up and handed him a U-Haul lock; she had lost the key and needed his help.
"I'll pick a little," he said, going to work. He had pulled out a case loaded with implements such as tweezers. "Some of these are of my own design," he announced. Others were by fellow members of "the community," including a character who goes by the name "Toolie McGee."
Towne can talk and pick at the same time, although it slows him down somewhat in his quest.
"Tension is very important when you're picking a lock," he told us. "The goal is aligning the pins by applying light pressure. If you apply heavy tension, you're just pushing past the imperfections of the pins."
Another picker once told Towne that the proper amount of tension is "the weight of three butterflies on the end of the wrench." Towne noted the tension must also be variable: more when needed, less when needed.
After picking for a few minutes, he muttered, "I'm not getting much feedback." But a moment later, he said softly, "Oh! Open!"
The crowd applauded as he returned the open lock to the grateful lady.
"What just happened there?" Foer asked.
"Tension!" Towne replied. "Tension is incredibly important. You have to apply consistent light pressure."
Towne has participated in international lockpicking competitions and he is in awe of some of the pickers he has encountered. "I went head-to-head with the world's greatest lockpicker, a German dentist, Dr. Manfred Bolker. He took me to school!"
Recalling how he was vanquished by the fabled dentist, Towne said, "His picking style is patient, observant and methodical."
While fielding questions from the audience, Towne was asked about depictions of lockpicking in movies. "It fascinates me how bad it is," he replied. It makes me want to vomit!"
Towne had to stop watching "Dexter," the Showtime TV series about a blood spatter pattern analyst who moonlights as a serial killer. "He makes me so angry! He's supposed to be this master lockpicker!"
You would think Towne could make a living from something about which he is so knowledgable and passionate. But he is a barista at a Barnes & Noble Cafe in Burlington, Vt., his hometown. "Making fancy coffee drinks for nice people is a pretty all right gig," he said.
At one time he developed his own line of tools but he ran into production problems.
In an email from his home, he said, "What I would love more than anything is not to pick for money or develop picks for money but to go to grad school and spent several years completely engrossed in the study of the social structures of security and the history of the technology of security."
Towne said this would be "a dream come true: to completely immerse myself in the anthropology of physical security."
Contact Randall Beach at email@example.com or 203-789-5766.