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(Catholic Mass at 7:30 am)
Sermon from the National Prayer Service 2013
Fr. Frank's sermon from the 2020 Event
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
On the day of the 2020 March for Life, we want to invite you and your family, organization, and Church to an exciting interdenominational prayer service, the National Memorial for the Preborn and their Mothers and Fathers. It will be held at Constitution Hall in Washington, DC, 1776 D St., NW (18th and D St) on the morning of Friday, January 24, 2020.
We will start with Mass, for those who wish, at 7:30am. (Doors will open at 7:00.)
Then, the interdenominational service will take place from 8:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. Admission is free, no tickets are required, and large groups are welcome. Go to the Constitution Hall website for directions and parking information. The page will also provide information on Metro and a nearby parking garage that will be open in time to accommodate attendees.
The prayer service is sponsored by The National Pro-Life Religious Council, Priests for Life, Faith and Liberty DC and Gospel of Life Ministries.
With representatives from numerous Christian denominations and pro-life groups, this will be the premier prayer event marking the tragic commemoration of Roe vs. Wade. We will gather in repentance and grief, but also in hope-filled, joyful determination and unity to bring an end to abortion once and for all!
We want to fill Constitution Hall with thousands of believers, and show the nation, and the media that will cover the event, that pro-life people are not going away, no matter how long the battle or how powerful the enemy! The prayers and message of this service will certainly convey that, and you won't want to miss out on the inspiration.
Please take a look at the links on this site to learn more about this event. You'll be able to see photos and videos from past events.
We look forward to seeing you on January 24, 2020 for an unforgettable time of worship and resolution!
The Organizing Committee of the National Memorial
for the Preborn and their Mothers and Fathers


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Animal Rescue League deals with rush of unwanted pets
For 11-year-old Xavier Morgan, the best present is one that purrs.
"It's my birthday, and I want to maybe get a cat," Xavier said.
The Animal Rescue League of Iowa is looking for help as it deals with an influx of animals. Tom Colvin at the ARL said the facility is at capacity.
"We have in excess of 1,200 animals in our care," Colvin said. "So that should put it in perspective."
The number of animals is exacerbated by two recent hoarding cases.
"One was 42 cats, the other was 52 cats, all coming from just two households," Colvin said.
Colvin said the organization is asking that people wait a period of time before they drop off unwanted cats or dogs. He said people can help by taking advantage of the organization's low adoption fees.
"Let's think about adoption," Colvin said. "Let's think about commitment for a lifetime. Let's keep our pets under supervision so they're not roaming free. Let's do those things so this won't be a problem."

subset: commoncrawl


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Donald Trump would have fired Rihanna...if the singer hadn't already quit.
Instead, we have another famous feud on our hands.
Rihanna was hired to perform at a South Florida fundraiser hosted by Trump, but canceled at the last minute claiming she was ill.
But through the marvels of modern medicine (and an international audience), Rihanna healed up within 24 hours, just in time to take the stage Sunday at halftime of the NBA All-Star Game in Los Angeles.
"I thought that (Rihanna bailing) was insulting to everyone," Trump told the Palm Beach Post. "But for Rihanna to go to the (NBA) All-Star game and perform after she told us she was sick, that is just a lack of respect."
Trump, who could be (NOT!) president some day, is no stranger to picking fights with big names.
Rihanna can count herself among the fortunate to draw the Donald's fire, along with Rosie O'Donnell, Martha Stewart and Miss America.
Trump reportedly paid Rihanna $500,000 for a performance at a fundraiser for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute on Saturday. But the popular songstress came down with a bout of NBA fever, or a bout of bronchitis (depending on whose diagnosis you listen to) and couldn't fly to South Florida.
Jennifer Hudson took the Trump gig on short notice and reportedly rocked the house. She also gave Trump more ammunition to fire away at Rihanna.
"Nothing was missed. Jennifer's a beautiful girl. She came on her day off even though she performs almost every night," Trump said of his super sub. "She is an unbelievable talent, and her voice is better."


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USO - REMEMBERING-for veterans of the home front in WW II
Do check this fine site. I try to remember and thank the guys 'n' gals that saved the world from fascism, but the homefront too. Studs Turkle called it "the good war".
A westbound troop train has just pulled in at Crestline, Ohio, on the Pennsylvania Railroad in the Spring of 1943. Troops have flocked off the train and make a dash for the free canteen service while locomotives are changed. This canteen served over 1,200,000 troops from 1942 to 1946, all with donated food and manned by a full staff of volunteers. Founder Marie Moran holds the door open and welcomes the troops. -- An original oil painting by Scott D. Trostel 16 x 20 oil "Noon at Crestline." This painting is for sale.
Scott D. Trostel
One of the most compelling books of humanitarianism ever!
Stories of many of the canteens and the
volunteers struggles to meet every soldier.
One of the most outstanding volunteer efforts in history were the track side canteens for servicemen and women at the railroad stations around the United States during World War II. Ccitizens at over 125 cities around the United States operated track side free canteens for the soldiers, sailors, marines and aviators in WWII. They provided dedicated service to millions of troops passing through on trains.
Volunteers greeted soldiers on every train with friendly smiles, welcoming words, and baskets filled with food and other treats during the brief moments their train paused at the railroad station. Service men and women could get sandwiches, pies, cookies, cakes, coffee, milk, magazines, newspapers, writing paper and sundry items, all free, and all donated by residents in their respective communities and immediate region.
America's railroads were suddenly placed under crushing volumes of war time traffic as this nation mobilized. With the turn of Spring 1942, thousands of regular passenger trains were filled with active duty service men and service women, many heading home on furlough. Hundreds of troop trains were moving entire Divisions from post to post or toward ports for embarkation to North Africa, England and the Pacific as the allies began to defeat the Germans and Japanese.
In those coaches were green troops, soda jerks and farm boys, teachers and dentists, students and lawyers, service station attendants, iron workers and store clerks who in the prime of their lives were going to war. Many had no idea where they would be going and it shown on their faces. Most had never been this far from home. These were the men and women destined to stand in harm's way.
Many were homesick, perhaps tired and maybe a little scared. At designated railroad stops, the soldiers only had time to stretch their legs, some were on trains for as long as five to seven days.
Many troops procured a short furlough before moving to a port of embarkation. They made every effort, sometimes extraordinary efforts to make the solemn journey home. In many instances their funds did not stretch much beyond purchase of a train ticket home. The need to get home was so important that they would go without food while on the train in order to make that all-important final trip home to see the folks, a favorite girl or young wife and family before leaving for foreign shores. Soldiers on furlough were not being fed by the government and did not have a travel voucher to cover personal travel expenses.
Food from the dining car was expensive and railroads were being squeezed with food rationing to serve only two on-train meals daily. Meals ranged from $1 to $1.50, prices that were excessively high for the GI who earned just $21 a month. Soldiers on furlough sometimes traveled four or five days, existing on water, and perhaps a few cookies offered by a kind stranger. The boys going home on furlough or traveling at their own expense more often than not were downright hungry.
Troop trains also became a common sight, but those trains only made a terminal stop long enough to make a crew and locomotive change. They had kitchen cars designed and built specifically to feed the on-board troops and at first restricted soldiers from getting off. The War Department had imposed a regulation that trackside donations of food not be permitted. It was quickly relaxed.
As America mobilized the United Service Organizations, USO, was formed in partial response to the need for providing Canteen services for the troops. This was 1940, preceded the United States entry into World War II. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt solicited six private organizations-the YMCA, YWCA, National Catholic Community Service, the National Jewish Welfare Board, the Traveler's Aid Association and the Salvation Army. Their task was to find some way to meet on-leave recreation needs for the members of the Armed Forces.
The six organizations formed a joint entity and the USO, was incorporated in February 1941. One place they set up recreation and food facilities was in the railroad stations of larger towns. For troops on layover between trains, such locations were satisfactory. USO CANTEEN LIST
For many trains the stop was so brief it did not give troops a chance to get off or sometimes they simply did not stop. It created a difficult situation. What the USO did not see was the imperative need to keep thousands of soldiers fed while on the trains.
At Towns like Reno, Nevada; North Platte, Nebraska; Bellefontaine, Ohio; Lima, Ohio; Troy, Ohio; Clinton, Iowa and Connellsville, Pennsylvania, local groups recognized a greater need to provide a little food, a few moments of comfort and distraction at track side.
Many were small towns but major railroad terminals where train crews were changed, locomotives serviced and freight trains were yarded. The hub in these towns was the busy passenger station, usually close to the center of town. Railroads were the major industry in town. There were also towns like Troy, Ohio that had no major rail facilities but were water stops where the trains only paused long enough to take on locomotive water. It was enough time to warrant some kind of canteen service for the benefit of the troops.
As the war deepened hometown people were routinely visiting the local train station to watch as the troops passed by. In those spectators were a few people who were moved in powerful ways to do something compassionate for the boys. They wanted to give them some brief relaxation, a distraction, a few moments of home with something to eat and drink.
Driven by a duty of service, at different towns the idea was conceived to do more for every soldier they could possibly touch. They might have seven to fifteen minutes to give the soldiers something; magazines, newspapers, cookies, candy bars, drinks and even sandwiches, a gentle smile, a word of encouragement, and most importantly, powerful assurance the people back home were behind them. There was no local USO, so they would have to do it themselves.
From December 1941, until September 1970, a most amazing phenomenon quietly occurred at railroad stations in many towns around the United States.
It was a grass roots effort that brought hundreds of local residents and their offering of comfort and kindness for each trainload of soldiers. Those kind hearted souls promoted peace and inspired others to also extend kindness to those many young men and women, most being total strangers.
Their duty of service and gladness helped all the soldiers they served to freshen into smiles as fears and anxiety were dissolved. This was the unselfish love of those patriots.
Their task was made a little easier by a brief and simple touch of gratitude that was offered at the stations and on the platforms of these stations.
Click here to view photos, and stories of the canteens and to view letters and purchase canteen books
Click here to read selected letters from soldiers to the canteen volunteers. These are powerful voices of appreciation - don't miss them!
Troop Train Wreck at Piqua, Ohio Click Here
Photos on this page are from the Lima, Ohio canteen and courtesy of the Allen County (Ohio) Historical Society, used with permission. All rights reserved.
Cam-Tech Publishing
Phone: (937)368-2489


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Foods, Nutrition, and Wellness Studies, General
Colleges › College Majors › Foods, Nutrition, and Wellness Studies, General
About the Foods, Nutrition, and Wellness Studies Major
With the increasing rate of obesity in the United States, it is becoming more and more important to learn about nutrition and wellness. Understanding what's in our food, how food affects our bodies, and how to live a healthy lifestyle are just a few of the topics nutrition and wellness majors explore. Students in this major take courses in physiology, chemistry, and biology to gain further knowledge about the human body. To improve understanding and gain professional work experience, students are encouraged to volunteer or intern at hospitals, schools, clinics, or a similar location.
Graduates can find work with school health centers, hospitals, health clinics, and public health departments. Careers in the nutrition and wellness field involve discussing nutrition and health issues with patients, assessing patients' health and dietary needs, developing meal plans, evaluating patient progress, presenting to groups about nutrition and wellness, discussing ways to prevent specific diseases and illnesses, and keeping up with the latest research.
111 Schools with Foods, Nutrition, and Wellness Studies, General Major
Utah State University IN Logan, UT
Virginia Tech IN Blacksburg, VA
Washington State University IN Pullman, WA
Wayne State University IN Detroit, MI
Western Illinois University IN Macomb, IL


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Has been a week already? I didn't think it was, but alright. I'll take it down, lol
I can't wait for Peter Molynuex's "The Gaming Industry 2" it's goiong to be make the original look like pong!
Have you guys played star craft ghost? That game sure is fun
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In 2012, the quantity of material collected by the HMT project has grown rapidly. To cope with this, we have been developing an automated system to identify the relations among all citable objects in the HMT data archive (texts, images, artifacts like manuscript pages, to name a few). In mathematical terms, these relations form a graph.
In the HMT graph, all nodes are identified by URN values (CTS URNs for texts, or CITE URNs for other kinds of objects). This simple, consistent reference format made it easy for us to develop a network service for working with the HMT graph: supply the service with a URN value, and the service finds all links to that URN.
This is an important development for the long-term development of our digital multitext, and will certainly be the subject of future blog posts. For today, I simply want to announce a test site with end-user applications built on the graph service.
Like our other services for retrieving HMT data, the graph service replies with a simple XML format; as in our other service implementations, we can include XSLT stylesheets to format these graph descriptions as web pages for human readers.
We have written three sets of stylesheets that turn the graph data into three quite distinct applications:
- a facsimile browser, for reading diplomatic edition of texts alongside documentary images
- a multitext reader, for reading multiple versions of a single text
- a graph navigator, for exploring links in the HMT project graph
You'll find test versions of all three of these apps at our new HMT Apps test page: http://beta.hpcc.uh.edu/tomcat/hmtapps/
If you're curious about how the graph service works, try viewing the XML source of one of the application's web pages. If you just want to try out an app, feel free. Expect that the test versions on this site will evolve rapidly over the next several months. We'll post announcements on this blog when we install more static release versions elsewhere.


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What are you thankful for?
The Nevada Appeal is asking what you are thankful for this Thanksgiving. Send us your story of 150 words or fewer about what you are thankful for. Include your name, phone number, age (optional) and where you live. Submissions must be received by noon Wednesday. Send stories to firstname.lastname@example.com with the subject line "Thankful."


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803-581-2602, 803-377-1813
2740 Dawson Drive PO Box 580, Chester, SC, 29706
Chester County Detention Center offender search: Booking Date, Arrest Date, Warrant No, Booking #, Degree Level, Mugshots, Incarceration Date, Booking Time, Aliases, Bookings, Release Date, Arrests, Bond, Who's in jail, Jail Roster.
Chester County Detention Center is in Chester, South Carolina. The jail serves all of Chester County. The mission of the facility is to house inmates in a safe environment for everyone involved, staff and inmates.
On any given day the jail houses around 98 inmates. This inmate includes both male and female, along with those who are awaiting trial, in trial, and those who have been sentenced.
|Facility Name:
|Chester County Detention Center
|Facility Type:
|County Jail
|2740 Dawson Drive PO Box 580, Chester, SC, 29706
|803-581-2602, 803-377-1813
|Facility Type:
|Postal Code:
|South Carolina
|Chester County
|Official Website:
To locate the roster for Chester County Detention Center is easy now. The inmate's dockets can be found online.
You can search for their first and last name, booking number, subject number, housing facility, and if they are currently in custody.
When you search for an inmate, you will find their personal identifying information, along with their charges. However, the database does not show their mugshots to the public.
|2740 Dawson Drive, Chester, South Carolina, 29706
Inmates can receive mail from their family and friends their mailing address is as follows:
Inmate Name, ID Number
Chester County Detention Center
2740 Dawson Drive PO Box 580, Chester, SC, 29706
All mail should contain a sender's return address. Mail will be checked before it officially arrives to the inmate. If mail does not pass inspection, the mail will either be returned to sender, or it will be discarded.
Sending money to an inmate in Chester County Detention Center is simple. You can send money a few different ways.
Sending money online is going to be the easiest way. However, the only downside is that these services do charge a fee. The fee will depend on the service you decide to use and how much money you decide to send.
You can send money to an inmate in the Chester County Detention Center using the following services:
If you are not near the computer, you can also call the above services to make a deposit into an inmate's account in Chester County Detention Center using the following telephone numbers. Keep in mind even doing a deposit over the phone will incur a fee.
The phone service that Chester County Detention Center uses it Global Tel Link also referred to as GTL for short. You will need to fund the account, so the inmate can call home. You can fund the account by either heading down to the kiosk, over the phone, on the internet, or by mail.
Inmates in Chester County Detention Center can receive visitors. Visitors can pick up an updated visitation schedule in the jail lobby.
Inmates can have 2 adult visitors visit at the same time. Visitors are not permitted to take anything with them to the visitation area. All personal items must be either left in your care, or with people who are not going back to the visitation area.
Visitors must follow a strict dress code. No tank tops, no revealing clothing, no miniskirts, no swimwear, no pajamas. Please keep the dress code to business casual.
All visitors must keep their attitudes in check. If you come in and under the influence of alcohol or drugs, you will be denied visitation rights.
Visitors under the age of 17, must be accompanied by their legal guardian. If any children start behaving in a negative way, visitation will be cut short, and you will be asked to leave.
|7:30 AM to 9:00 PM
|7:30 AM to 9:00 PM
|7:30 AM to 9:00 PM
|7:30 AM to 9:00 PM
|7:30 AM to 9:00 PM
|7:30 Am to 2:30 PM
|7:30 Am to 2:30 PM
The visiting starts in first in, first out type of fashion. No new visitors will be allowed in 45 minutes before the end of the visit day. 45 minutes before the end of the visit day officers start escorting those who were first in out of the visitor room.
Inmates in Chester County Detention Center are permitted to have a limit of 3 25-minute visits in a calendar week. However, if the Watch Commander approves, inmates may be permitted to have more visits in a calendar week.
Refer the map below to find the driving directions
|Correctional Facility Name
|Fort Lawn City Jail, South Carolina 12.75 miles
|City Jail
|Chester County
|Catawba Pre-Release Center, South Carolina 16.27 miles
|State Prison
|York County
|Rock Hill Jail, South Carolina 17.82 miles
|City Jail
|York County
|York County Detention Center, South Carolina 20.22 miles
|County Jail
|York County
|York County Prison Camp, South Carolina 20.73 miles
|County Jail
|York County
|Fairfield County Detention Center, South Carolina 21.66 miles
|County Jail
|Fairfield County
|Tega Cay City Jail, South Carolina 24.93 miles
|City Jail
|York County
|Fort Mill City Jail, South Carolina 25.06 miles
|City Jail
|York County
|Union County Jail, South Carolina 26.69 miles
|County Jail
|Union County
|Union County Detention Center Work Camp, South Carolina 26.69 miles
|County Jail
|Union County


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Did you know: Last night was amazing?
One stellar goal, three points and a clean sheet – got that. Here are a few more reasons why you should remember last night's 1-0 win against the Philadelphia Union:
- Jason Hernandez (12,238) surpassed Wade Barrett (12,218) for No. 5 on the club's all-time minutes played
- Chris Wondolowski tied club Hall of Famer Troy Dayak for No. 9 on San Jose's all-time appearance list with his 129th
- #Marchto200: San Jose is one win away from No. 200 in club history
- Jon Busch recorded his 72nd career clean sheet, one away from Matt Reis for No. 5 on the all-time MLS list
- Most importantly, San Jose's 16 corner kicks set a new club record (previous: 15 vs. LA on Aug. 26, 2000 and vs. Chivas USA on May 13, 2012)


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When Man of Steel hits theatres next summer, it looks like we'll get yet another origin story for Superman.
But as an earlier teaser hinted at, director Zack Snyder's take on Krypton's favourite son appears to be going the same route as Christopher Nolan's just-completed Batman trilogy – heavy on the brooding, dark on the cinematography, stylish on the action.
The trailer for Man of Steel will play before The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, when it opens on Dec. 14. But before its big screen debut, fans online get the first taste.
The redo doesn't look like a complete overhaul, but it appears there will be conflict between Clark Kent and his dad after the youngster saves his classmate's life.
"What was I supposed to do? Just let him die?" Clark asks.
"Maybe," his dad, played by Kevin Costner, replies.
The bearded Henry Cavill stars as Superman (not to worry, he's clean cut by the time he dons the cape). Costner and Diane Lane play his adopted parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent; Russell Crowe plays Superman's real father, Jor-El; Michael Shannon is the villainous General Zod and Amy Adams stars as Lois Lane. We also get glimpses of Laurence Fishburne (Perry White) and Christopher Meloni.
In the trailer we see plenty of flying action from Supes, then some brooding and then some buildings blow up. Snyder has already stated that the film will tie into a planned Justice League team-up in 2015.
By the end, Superman is in handcuffs and in a voice over (presumably addressing Lois Lane) he says, "My father believed that if the world found out who I really was, they would reject me. He was convinced that the world wasn't ready. What do you think?"
Watch the trailer and let us know what you think in the comments.
Man of Steel will be released June 14, 2013.
tap here to see other videos from our team.


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Storm monitoring system inoperable since 2010
San Joaquin County officials differ about importance of missing data
A San Joaquin County creek and stream monitoring system, once hailed as a flood early-warning tool, has been allowed to become non-functional.
County public works officials said the network of 25 stream and rainfall gauges became inoperable in 2010 after a computer server failed.
"There was a conscious decision made to no longer maintain that system," said San Joaquin County Chief of Flood Engineering John McGuire. "It was for budgetary reasons."
The gauges sent continuous, real-time data from remote locations along waterways like Bear, Potter and Lone Tree Creeks, which have a history of flooding.
Officials said occasional flooding happens mostly in eastern San Joaquin County, which is largely agricultural and has minimal impacts.
McGuire said the county is "functioning effectively" without the network.
However, the director of San Joaquin Emergency Services said the missing data was important.
"It was highly valuable," Michael Cockrell said. "Rather than have to run out there you could call it up on your computer."
Cockrell said the missing data has created a blind spot for emergency planners.
He said they have no data on streams in large rural areas from Linden south to Escalon, as well as areas south of Tracy.
Cockrell said getting the network back is a definite need.
"We need and desire to have those sensors back on, but it's a budgeting issue," he said.
By comparison, Roseville has an online network of two dozen stream gauges providing continuous data on water levels and rainfall.
Sacramento County had 49 remote sensor units, which flood control engineers call essential.
"It's critical. It's the tool we use," said George Booth, a Sacramento County water engineer. "That and the weather forecast is all you have to go by."
McGuire said residents in San Joaquin County are not as vulnerable to flooding as other areas.
"We have 200-year protection for almost the entire Stockton metropolitan area," he said.
McGuire said the county is considering reestablishing part of the network, if the cost is not prohibitive.
He said despite a year of discussion on the issue, there are no cost estimates yet.


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Mark Vernon, the author of Wellbeing (Acumen), reviewing "Happiness at Work" (Rao) and "The Happiness Equation" (Powdthavee)
Happiness at Work: Be resilient, motivated, and successful – no matter what
Srikumar S Rao
McGraw-Hill £16.99
Happiness at Work offers 35 brisk reflections on what matters in life. It covers themes from coping with fear to cultivating friends and repeatedly returns to a central piece of advice: notice what's happening to you and, by noticing, become less attached.
It's a broadly Buddhist agenda, part of the phenomenon in which eastern religious ideas are incorporated into western secular contexts such as the workplace, with the aim of raising spiritual questions amid the humdrum concerns of our otherwise consumer-shaped lives. It's spiritual release without religious dogma.
The Happiness Equation: The surprising economics of our most valuable asset
Nick Powdthavee
Icon Books £14.99
The Happiness Equation is more serious and draws on the so-called 'science of happiness', which has reported a growing number of insights to do with human felicity: saying thank-you increases wellbeing; earning more money does not necessarily make you more happy; relationships are worth a small fortune (a good marriage, roughly ú200,000 a year, according to Powdthavee).
I can't help but feel that the new science is of most value to economists, and books like this one are really documents in which economists convince themselves that human beings are not wholly rational creatures after all.
In fact, happiness researchers might save themselves time by turning to the philosophical tradition on the subject. Powdthavee does this in part, citing Jeremy Bentham, the British philosopher who championed utilitarianism. Bentham went so far as to develop a 'felicific calculus'. It has been heavily criticised: how can you compare the pleasure of eating an apple to that of eating a pear, let alone the pleasure of good friendship to that of eating a bar of good chocolate? And Powdthavee is aware of the problems, though he believes modern psychology overcomes them.
Full reviews on http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/books/1023463/books-happiness-work-rao-happiness-equation-powdthavee/


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Kofi Sarkodie's Olympic dream is creeping closer and closer.
The Houston Dynamo right back has been a part of three U-23 camps under current head coach Caleb Porter, and has worked to put his best foot forward. That paid dividends Tuesday when he was listed on the preliminary roster that will play in the CONCACAF qualifying tournament starting March 22 against Cuba in Nashville, Tenn. The final roster for Olympic qualifying will be finalized March 20, the due date for all participating teams to submit their rosters to CONCACAF.
"It's a privilege and I'm extremely excited and looking forward to getting in camp and keep proving myself," Sarkodie told MLSsoccer.com. "It's [an] honor and it's a dream to be able to play in the Olympics. To have a chance to get close to that is hard to describe. It's a great feeling to be on that path."
Talking with the 20-year-old right back, the pride of being called quickly gave way to the task at hand: Booking passage to the Summer Olympics in London.
Sarkodie and the United States will face Cuba, Canada (Mar. 24) and El Salvador (Mar. 26) in the group stage and then need to win a semifinal match to book passage to the Summer Games. Sarkodie and his teammates are favored, along with rival Mexico, to be one of the two teams that advance out of the CONCACAF competition.
Qualification, however, is never guaranteed, even for the biggest of favorites. That's a lesson many in the squad learned first-hand when the US failed to qualify for the 2011 U-20 World Cup, losing to Guatemala in the regional semifinal.
To ensure better fortunes, Sarkodie expects the US to play the smothering, possession-based style he was part of when he played for Porter's national championship team at the University of Akron.
"We'll be looking to put on a dominant performance for 90 minutes where we're the team in control of the match," Sarkodie said. "The more we're on the ball the better chance we have to finish off matches.
"It's my job to buy into that team philosophy and make sure I'm winning the ball back. Offensively I can get in good spots and make sure I'm covering the ground … occupying defenders and finding ways to provide service when the opportunity presents."
It is clear that Sarkodie's focus is on the work needed to take care of business and ensure the US is playing in London come the summer. But it's tough not to look ahead to what could be waiting for him.
"Olympic soccer is always fun and to be in London, which is such a hotbed of world football, would be great," said Sarkodie's club coach Dominic Kinnear. "If everything goes well we could see Kofi in the Olympics. You always want your players to experience great things and that would be one of those."
Darrell Lovell covers the Houston Dynamo for MLSsoccer.com and can be reached for comment at firstname.lastname@example.com


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Hi Everyone!
Time for some more new cards from the DT!!
Katie - Both Sides of the Paper
Click here to buy Stars and Stripes Lara and USA sentiment
Click here to buy schoolbus and ticket sentiment set
Audrey – Peace, Love and Crafting
Audrey – Peace, Love and Crafting
Click here to buy Grillin George, barbecue dog, grillin acccessories and grillin and chillin papers
Click here to buy laid back Lucy, barbecue accessories set and ticket sentiments
Sandra - 365 Days of Cricut
Click here to buy our Square box cut file and Bongo the dog
As always all our stamps come in both JPEG and PNG format
It's a new Challenge over at Delightful Challenges too:) Check out the wonderful designs from the DT.
Lisa and Rachel have a fun challenge lined up with the theme of "Fathers Day" . This weeks challenge over at Delightful Challenges is sponsored by Cut N Paste Memories and you could win a wonderful prize
Have a fabulous crafty day and see you tomorrow for our FREEBIE FRIDAY


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THE SPORTS DOCTOR-Giving thanks: Three cheers for two good sports
So it's Thanksgiving again, the one day of the year set aside for gratitude and celebrating goodness. As much as Orlando, Florida's, Dr. Phillips High School needs to learn a thing or two about right and wrong– football players charged with the brutal beating of a freshman player should not be suiting up and taking the field– I will save the vitriol for another day (I'm coming for you, Dr. Phillips High School– don't think I'm not).
Hardnosed as I am, it's Thanksgiving, and I'm more than capable of expressing gratitude.
This year has seen two memorable examples of genuine goodness, humanity, and humility. I hope you've noticed them and applauded them, because Lord knows when we'll see their like again.
I don't care how many touchdowns Michael Vick has thrown this season or how many MVP votes he gets. He could ride the bench the rest of the season, and it wouldn't bother me. I am immensely grateful for Michael Vick nonetheless– not just because he has changed, but because his change demands more from us.
The man who came out of Leavenworth is very different from the man who went in, and that's what everyone wanted, isn't it? Vick has been punished, publicly shamed, and he learned from it, as is evidenced by his behavior as a football player. On the field, Vick is more mature and unselfish with an admirable work ethic, traits he is apparently sincere about incorporating into his personal life. Still, many people hold onto their hatred of Michael Vick, and that's just as shameful as the crimes Vick committed.
One needn't be religious to appreciate the parable of the prodigal son. When he returned home after years of heinous misdeeds, the last thing the son expected was forgiveness or mercy. But the father welcomed him home with compassion and rejoicing instead of beating and recriminations. Michael Vick has turned his debased and brutal life around; he was lost and now is found.
Shame on those who still hate him. Rejoice.
If you missed the Manny Pacquiao-Antonio Margarito fight a couple of weeks ago, you didn't just miss a great fight, but a rare display of true gentlemanliness and sportsmanship. Pacquiao dominated from the beginning, and after the sixth round it was obvious Margarito was really hurting. By the ninth round, a less tentative referee than Laurence Cole would have stopped the fight. By Cole's own admission to Boxing Fanhouse before the fight, his goal was not to have an impact on the fight. Unfortunately, Cole did what he set out to do. The fight went on as if he weren't there.
By the ninth round, Margarito's right eye was swollen shut by a massive hematoma, which was also cut and bleeding. A similar hematoma was developing under his left eye and the bridge of his nose was so swollen he was forced to breathe through his mouth. Not only couldn't he see Pacquiao's punches, Margarito couldn't see Pacquiao, his own gloves missing Pacquiao by inches. Though he continued to throw punches, he was throwing them blindly and was clearly unable to protect himself.
When Cole failed to act, Manny Pacquiao turned to him pleadingly more than once, imploring him to step in. By the twelfth round, realizing that neither Cole nor the fight doctor nor Margarito's trainer was going to stop the fight, Pacquiao took it upon himself to ensure Margarito's safety. He basically stopped fighting. Instead of exploiting Margarito's injuries, Pacquiao merely tapped Margarito with his gloves, avoiding Margarito's eyes and nose.
Now we know that Margarito's injuries were so extensive (he was hospitalized immediately after the fight with a crushed right orbital) that were it not for Manny Pacquiao's humanity, Margarito could have been permanently blinded or even worse.
Manny Pacquiao's compassion and sportsmanship are an example to us all, athlete and layman alike, and for that I am truly grateful.
Juanita Giles lives on a farm in Charlotte County with her husband, son and many dogs.


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How to Use Valslide
3 Ways to Glide Into Those Skinny Jeans
Grab your gliders and slide your way into those skinny jeans — literally! Using the Valslide, you can work your legs and core in a fun, effective way. The idea is rather simple: placing your hands or feet on two smooth pads, you can slide around in any direction — the key being control. It's a great tool if you prefer using your body weight rather than free weights or if you like to exercise from home. Here are three basic moves you can do anywhere using a pair of gliders. Ready, set, go! Mountain Climbers
Similar to running in place, this moves quickly helps you break a sweat while toning your legs. Here's how:
- With the gliders under your feet, start in a basic, straight-arm plank position.
- Then, as if you were actually running, draw one foot into you, followed by your other foot. Quickly continue running or "climbing" in place for one minute.
- Complete three sets.
Side Lunge
This exercise is similar to your average side lunge, but the challenge is heightened when done on a slippery surface. Engaging your core and practicing control will help to improve your balance, too! Here's how:
- Stand with your feet a few inches apart, with your right foot on the glider. Make a fist with one hand, and cup your other hand over it. Keep your hands in front of your chest throughout the exercise to help you stay balanced.
- Put weight into your left leg, and as you slowly bend your left knee and squat down, slide your right foot out to the side. Then, as you slowly straighten your leg, slide the right foot back in. Most of your weight remains in the leg that's not moving.
- Complete three sets of 10 reps on each side. To change up this exercise, you can also slide your foot diagonally behind you.
Combing a plank with a hip lift, this move will target your core without having to do a single crunch. Here's how:
- With your feet on the gliders, start in Downward Dog.
- Similar to if you were on a slide board, extend (or slide) your legs out into a plank position.
- Keeping the focus on your core, use your abs to pull your way back into a pike.
- Complete three sets of 20.
Photo courtesy Valslide


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(NOT a mailing address)
Bella Vista Memorial Garden Cemetery
34 Buckstone Drive,
Bella Vista, Ar 72715
If you are using GPS to locate the cemetery the point of reference you want to use is the Bella Vista
Family Church Of the Nazarene, 760 W. Lancashire Blvd. Bella Vista, AR 72715
Driving directions:
From Highway 71, North or South bound
Take Exit 98 West to Buckstone Drive. From the intersection of Highway 71 and Buckstone Drive it is approximately 4.75 miles. Turn right and
follow the road into the cemetery.
From Highway 72, Hiwasse
Turn off Highway 72, right onto Highway 279 North. As you travel on Highway279 please note that it is also called Forrest Hills Boulevard. From the
turn at Highway 72 it's approximately 3.6 miles to Buckstone Drive. You'll turn right onto Buckstone Drive. There's a sign on the right for Bella Vista Memorial Garden
Cemetery. It's one mile to the cemetery after you turn onto Buckstone Drive. The cemetery will be on the left at the top of the hill.


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DETROIT -Detroit's Historic Fort Wayne will be the site of the first-year music festival Oakaloosa on Saturday, July 27, 2013. The festival will feature national headlining acts, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and Girl Talk, as well as spotlight and celebrate some of Detroit's newest and brightest musical stars.
A music festival with a purpose, Oakaloosa is the region's first fully philanthropic music festival. A percentage of every dollar raised will be put towards the restoration of Historic Fort Wayne in order to help return the Fort to its previous glory and preserve it for future generations to admire and enjoy.
Oakaloosa is organized and supported by Detroit Sports Zone, Inc., a non-profit group committed to exposing people of all ages to sports, cultural arts, mentoring, life-skill development and character building activities. Additional proceeds from the festival will be used to support the youth sports and mentoring programs provided through Detroit Sports Zone, Inc.
"We're utilizing a unique and historic Detroit space, Fort Wayne, to bring together different genres of music to show Detroit something they've never seen before," said Adam Bleznak, Program Director for the Oakaloosa Music Festival. "For us, this festival is all about boosting the city, having a good time and giving back."
With two stages, Oakaloosa will present DJ mash-up artist Girl Talk and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's 20th anniversary reunion tour. The reunion tour is the first time all five original members of the Grammy-winning rap group have performed together since the '90s. Other featured artists include homegrown talent, such as Jessica Hernandez and the Deltas, Trick Trick, Robert James, Royce Da 5'9", Dj A.M.F., Kaleido, Ro Spit, Hir-O, Freddy Todd and Paulina Jayne. Additional artists will be announced closer to the festival.
Festival passes are $45 each and are currently available through Oakaloosa.com. From 12 p.m. to midnight, Oakaloosa attendees will enjoy non-stop music from this historic location. The stages will be set up near the barracks and the Detroit River, with the open field available to festivalgoers.
"We are excited that the Oakaloosa Music Festival will be hosted at one of our hidden gems," said Alicia C. Minter, Director of Detroit Recreation Department. "Not only will this event showcase national and local artists but a percentage of the proceeds will directly support improvements for Historic Fort Wayne that will preserve the facility now and for the future."
For more information and to stay up to date with all Oakaloosa announcements, visit Oakaloosa.com or follow "Oakaloosa" on Facebook and Twitter.
Detroit Sports Zone Inc. was founded in 2011, based on the vision of former Harlem Globetrotter Ernest "Wag" Wagner. Detroit Sports Zone is committed to exposing youths and adults to sports, cultural arts, mentoring, life-skill development and character building activities. Detroit Sports Zone Inc. is a Michigan 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and is a pending IRS/ 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.


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I am sorry but I find this thread quite annoying! It seem way off topic and not related to Ferrari! I don't wish to see pictures of Posche, Mercedes and BMW cars on this Ferrari Web Site! I find this thread very irrelevant and VERY irritating.
I request that this thread be closed for not being Ferrari Related!
Forza Ferrari!!!!


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A Calendar of Events letting you know what, where and when is happening throughout the Chopin Year:
- Events: concerts, exhibitions, shows and many others
- Reports
- Interviews
- Kordegarda CHOPIN 2010
Shown on Polish Television's TVP1 channel, Chopin2010.pl is a fresh and attractive guide to the events of the Chopin Year. Watch the programme to discover the most interesting projects, meet top artists, learn about the upcoming events and experience the works of the composer himself.
Join us for the special edition of the show on Saturday, 27th February at 1.40 p.m.
Watch the show's archive episodes at www.chopin2010.tvp.pl.


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MOLYKOTE® L-1146FM Synthetic Extreme Temp Gear Oil
MOLYKOTE® Gearbox and Chain Oils help prevent wear and process interruptions in power transmission systems and components. Compared to conventional oils, they also offer greater resistance to oxidation and stable performance at high temperatures and under high loads. MOLYKOTE® Gearbox and Oils maximize fill intervals and maintain viscosity characteristics at wide temperature ranges.
Key Properties
An ISO 460 grade PAO gear oil that contains a rust, oxidation, anti-wear, and corrosion inhibited additive package. Also H1 certified through NSF for incidental food contact.
Industrial applications requiring wider range of operation, increased resistance to oxidation and high load carrying capacity than conventional oils.
Features & Benefits
• Lower overall maintenance costs
• Wider temperature range
• Longer oil-drain intervals
• Reduced lubricant consumption
• Extended equipment lifetime
• Reduced energy consumption
• Long life reduces lubricant usage, maintenance cost
Product Details
|Product Type:
|Polyalphaolefin (PAO)
|Base Oil Viscosity:
|ISO Grade:
|Viscosity Index:
|Clear to Golden Yellow
Technical Resources
Talk to a Product Expert
The MOLYKOTE® team at ChemPoint acts as a fully-integrated extension of DuPont and is always available for product selection, technical support, order placement and fulfillment.PHONE: 425.378.8694
Request A Sample Get A Quote Ask A Question
ChemPoint has chemists and engineers with experience and market expertise to help you find the right solution. We are ready to work with you to understand your environment and help define your lubrication requirements.


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The Heacham is the big brother of the Hemsby. Again, all are handcrafted to the highest standards of workmanship.
Featuring a high quality solar light, you can make your garden stand out from the crowd with this unique piece.
Material: Seasoned treated pine
Height: 130cm (4' 3")
Width at Base: 46cm (1' 6")
"Unique By Design"®
All of our garden lighthouses are UK copyright design
Delivery Cost: £69.00*
* - UK Mainland Only


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Great short filmPosted on
I discovered it on Copenhagen Cycle Chic. Images like these are what sell cycling. Except for the large crowd shot, someone could make a similar video to sell cycling in Milwaukee, shooting on some trails, alleys, bike friendly neighborhoods. EXPO bicycle city from martin de thurah on Vimeo.


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10 Celebrities Who Look Just Like '90s Nicktoon Charactersby Michelle McGahan | PopCrush
We admit it: We're totally nostalgic for the '90s, especially Saturday morning cartoons. Was there anything better than kicking your feet up with a bowl of Reese's Puffs on your lap and a remote in your hand, ready to dig into whatever adventure Tommy Pickles and the rest of the 'Rugrats' babies had dreamed up that day? Well, our rose-tinted view of our favorite decade also got us thinking: Which of our fave celebs resemble '90s Nicktoons? As we dug a little deeper, it turns out there are quite a few of them.
Ready for some serious LOLs and a trip down memory lane? See which celebs have '90s Nicktoon doppelgängers by checking out our photo gallery below — we guarantee you'll love it.
Plus: Check Out Celebs Who Look Just Like Disney Characters


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Many electronics projects involve the device transitioning from one state to another. On a high level, it could be that your project is initially in a state where it awaits input, and once it receives it, it goes to another state where it performs a series of actions, eventually returning back to the initial state. On a lower level, many communications protocols are often simple or increasingly complex state machines. In many cases, an elegantly implemented state machine can simplify your code and make it easier to manage.
There are several methods to implement state machines programmatically starting from simple if-conditions to state variables and switch structures. In this tutorial I'll cover a slightly more advanced method of using callbacks or "function pointers" as they are implemented in C. This has some performance benefits, makes up for some clean code, and you'll learn a bit on the way!
State Machines with Conditionals
First, to introduce the idea of a state machine, lets take a simple example: Blinking LEDs. Imagine you want the LED to turn on for a second, and then turn off. We could do it with a simple 2-state machine:
enum states { LED_ON, LED_OFF }; enum states state = LED_OFF; while(1) { if(state == LED_OFF) { led_on(); state = LED_ON; } else { led_off(); state = LED_OFF; } sleep(1); // sleep for a second }
If you can understand the code above, you have pretty much grasped the fundamentals of state machines. We have some processing specific to given state, and when we want to go to another state, we use a variable (in this example it's called
state) to do that. And by the way, if you haven't encountered
enum before, you should check out Enumerated type in Wikipedia. It's a very handful tool to add to your C coding arsenal.
Continue reading Tutorial: State Machines with C Callbacks


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Please enter your location to display the co-ops near you.
The network for Britain's thousands of co-operative businesses, Co-operatives UK works to promote, develop and unite member-owned business worth £38.2 billion to the British economy.
We bring co-operatives together to campaign on vital issues, raise awareness of co-operative businesses and help create a level playing field for the start-up and growth of co-operatives.
As the UK's network for co-operatives, we help new-starts get off the ground, provide specialist advice for growing businesses and lead major programmes to develop the UK co-operative sector.
As the network for the UK's co-operative businesses, we organise flagship national events and facilitate networks and workshops to enable co-operatives to connect, learn and do business with one another.
As the network for Britain's thousands of co-operative businesses, we provide our members with access to advice, training, networking and events.
Please enter your location to display the co-ops near you.
The data in this directory is based on the latest information available to us, if you notice any errors or updates please let us know by emailing [email protected].


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Welcome to Texas Fire Academy
Registration is open for the Spring courses:
Attention Registrants and Students:
As you know, many places are taking precautionary action due to the COVID-19 virus. We at Texas Fire Academy, want to make sure we keep registrants, students, and employees safe, as well. As of 03/17/2020 we are NOT accepting walk-in registration due to precautions our Fire Chief has put in place for COVID-19.
Apologies for any inconvenience, and thank you for your understanding.
Texas Fire Academy provides online and hands on fire service training that is second to none and has received praise by the Texas Commission on Fire Protection for excellent state test averages. Over the years we have trained many students from all over the country. TFA also provides advanced adult on-line educational services tailored to the fire service. By combining state of the art distance learning paradigms with the latest in fire fighting evolutions, TFA provides the ultimate in a fire service educational experience.
Fire Fighter Academy
Texas Fire Academy is offering a basic fire fighter academy consisting of on-line course work and hands-on skills days. The on-line course work allows students to meet in a virtual learning environment created by their instructor. In each section of the course, students can expect to interact with instructors via chat rooms, discussion forums, email, and through other interactive media.
During this academy, students can expect to work on-line 16-20 hours a week at their leisure. Then every two weeks cadets will report for a weekend hands on training shift. Cadets will bunk in a working fire station and spend their time developing their team building skills, forming study groups and performing fire fighter training evolutions*. This valuable experience combines the traditional team approach of on site course work with the advanced on-line environment. By combining the two methods, TFA produces top quality graduates ready to face the challenges of the fire profession.
|EMS Academy
|Texas Fire Academy also offers Emergency Medical Technician Courses. The EMT-Basic course is a 17 week lecture based class that meets twice weekly in the evening. Students will have the opportunity to experience clinical field training in an Emergency Room and on a working Ambulance. Clinical rotations will be conducted outside of class time in 8-12 hour shifts. All clinical rotations are completed before the final exam. After completion of the course, students will be eligible to take the National Registry Exam. This course meets the TDSHS curriculum requirements.
|Advanced Courses
|The advanced Fire courses offered by Texas Fire Academy are: Driver Operator Pumper, Fire Instructor I and II, and Fire Officer I and II. These classes are completed in a convenient online environment. The student will only need to come to the academy for the final exam and skills evaluation on the last day in most cases. After completion of any of these classes, the student will be eligible to take the TCFP exam for certification. These courses meet the NFPA and TCFP curriculum requirements.
*Cadets will not be allowed to respond to emergency incidents while attending skills days at the South Hays Fire Station.


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Not many octogenarians remain active enough to host a talkshow, but not many octogenarians have Stan Lee's resume.
Lee's a name that needs no identifiers. Along with Jack Kirby, he co-created an unreal number of iconic superheroes for Marvel Comics: X-Men, The Fantastic Four, Thor, the Hulk, superspy Nick Fury, and currently in-vogue villain Loki. (Editor's note: by no means is that list complete). Lee served as a head editor at Marvel and became the brand's primary ambassador over the years. He was one of the first individuals pushing comics to movie studios. Without Lee, it's safe to say The Avengers wouldn't be smashing box office records. It wouldn't even exist.
His legacy is what makes this most recent project interesting—going on 90-years-old, Stan Lee still does regular work. His latest project, Cocktails with Stan, is a weekly Web series in which Mr. Marvel (along with cohost Jenna Busch) interviews notable names from the world of pop culture. The series premiered two weeks ago with Jane Espenson (writer for Battlestar Galactica, Buffy, and more) and Colin Ferguson (star of Eureka) joined Lee last week. New episodes appear each Friday.
The fanboy inside sees this as an awesome addition to an already crowded landscape. There are a lot of outlets for an interview-based talkshow (daytime and late night TV, Web series, podcasts, radio shows, etc.) but not many can claim a host with Lee's oeuvre. This new project may be a reflection of his hope to remain engaged with the creative world, to give a boost to professionals he admires, or to simply talk with individuals he finds fascinating (the ideal purpose of a talk show, right?). His consistent Stan Rants offer him the platform to wax poetic on topics he chooses—as does seemingly any interview he agrees to—but this entity is Lee stepping back to do the work, not take the spotlight.
The cynic inside? Well, Lee's complicated history has been well documented and The Avengers brought about an opportunity to revisit it. His relationship with Jack Kirby renewed a discussion about content creators versus those who receive the ultimate credit within the industry (see Grantland, Comics Alliance, Slate, etc.). If the number of people questioning Lee's motives and abilities grow louder, Cocktails with Stan could represent a response. Continuing to work proves his genuine ability and starting new projects draws attention away from past happenings. Win-win.
Fans will never know everything about what went down between Lee, Kirby, and Marvel just as we'll never know why exactly Lee continues to embark on new projects. Maybe it doesn't matter. Marvel will continue to use hero-likenesses associated with the duo while legal or political battles happen in the background. And Lee will keep finding new outlets. And as long Cocktails with Stan remains entertaining—based so far on the small sample size, it's a weekly watch—perhaps intentions are less relevant than product.


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Backus Hospital nearly doubles goal of revenues over expenses
Norwich - Despite a difficult year for many hospitals nationwide, The William W. Backus Hospital achieved a 9.22 percent operating margin of revenues over expenses in fiscal 2013 by curtailing costs and reducing waste.
"Fiscal 2013 was a brutal year in our industry, but in the midst of a challenging and tumultuous health care landscape, we remain strong," Anthony Joyce, chairman of the hospital's board of directors, said at the annual meeting Wednesday.
This annual meeting was the first in the hospital's 120-year history to be open to the press, and also the first since its affiliation with Hartford HealthCare in August. Continuing its long-standing pattern of financial health, Backus generated a $25.4 million operating margin that was almost twice the amount it set for its goal at the beginning of the fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30.
Total revenues of $275.2 million were about $8 million less than the previous year, but the operating margin remained strong by "bending the cost curve and making some difficult and sometimes painful" decisions to cut expenses, Joyce said. Among these, the hospital last week announced layoffs of 10 senior and mid-level management positions and elimination of more than a dozen other jobs through vacancies and retirements.
Elliot Joseph, president of Hartford HealthCare, said challenges facing hospitals include the "dramatic reduction" in government payments for health care, declining demand and increasing cost-consciousness by patients.
"Consumers will increasingly look for value in health care," he said, noting that doctors are now being asked by patients regularly how much a particular test or procedure will cost, a question they rarely heard until recently.
Statewide, he said, patient volume fell about 3.5 percent in the past year. At Backus, inpatient admissions fell from 10,974 in 2012 to 10,573 in 2013, while inpatient and same-day surgeries also declined. Emergency Department visits, however, increased by almost 10,000 patients, to 78,842 in 2013.
As part of Hartford HealthCare, Backus is one of five acute care hospitals and several affiliated organizations that will work together to control costs and improve quality, Joseph said, to ensure that the Hartford, central and eastern Connecticut regions have a "sustainable, local, affordable health care system."
"Health care is too expensive," Joseph said. "But there is enough money in the health care system to do this right" through redistribution of resources.
While the hospital received several awards in 2013 for various quality measures, David Whitehead, president and chief executive officer of Backus, said the most significant achievement was a new routine of 15-minute "daily safety huddles" each morning. Patient care and administration leaders gather to discuss what happened in the last 24 hours and how to respond to ensure that the hospital continues to provide exceptional care, Whitehead said.
"It's the best thing we've ever done," he said. "It allows us to make rapid cycle changes. It's been a whole cultural change." The hospital also embarked on a "Safety Starts with Me" program for staff to reduce errors and improve patient safety.
In the coming year, the hospital is planning to create a center for preventive medicine and begin a "Backus Delivers" campaign that would include sending health coaches out into the community to work with patients one on one.
"We're moving from sick care to health care, from volume to value," Whitehead said. "It's the only bottom line that matters."
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Nevada gaming regulators unanimously approve a license for Mohegan Sun Casino at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas
Groton registrars of voters issue public service announcement
Groton registrars issued a PSA for people who do not have a Connecticut driver's license and are using the state's online voter registration system.
New London police close investigation into pepper spray in officer's car
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Boat Accident NYC
Photo: AP2013
Victims of the Seastreak Wall Street ferry accident are aided by rescue personnel, Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013 in New York. The ferry, rear, from New Jersey made a hard landing at the dock as it pulled up to lower Manhattan during Wednesday morning rush hour, injuring as many as 50 people, at least one critically, officials said. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)


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Vice's Shane Smith and CollegeHumor's Ricky Van Veen Are Kings of All Media
Build a brand and an audience, and you can do whatever you want.
That's the takeaway from a wild interview with Shane Smith, founder and CEO of Vice Media, and Ricky Van Veen, co-founder of CollegeHumor, which closed out D: Dive Into Media tonight.
Both are about to release big projects through traditional channels. Smith has a crazy travel show for HBO coming out next month, and Van Veen is finalizing plans to release a movie called "Coffee Town" that's "an updated 'Office Space' for the generation that sits in coffee shops all day and freelances."
"It's very highbrow," Van Veen said, completely facetiously, after a NSFW video clip of three guys sitting around cracking jokes about homophobia.
Both Smith and Van Veen were early to Web video creation — circa 2006 — and have jumped from one medium to another.
"Once you have an audience, you can go anywhere," as Smith put it, in between anecdotes about a "helmet-headed flesh-eating parasite in my bowels" and his aspirations of earning an "Amadeus wig." (It's impossible to capture this performance in words. Watch the video.)
"I make all my money online," Smith said. "If I can license on TV at pure margin, why wouldn't I? Quite frankly, if HBO is going to pay me to market my brand, why would I say no?"
What online video can do is help create brands, according to Van Veen. "We think of the Internet as the core IP generator," he said.
But how do you get to the point where people pay you to do whatever you want? It's not that easy.
Van Veen said he explored the idea of a digital distribution studio, a la Louis C.K., but decided it wasn't viable.
"What you realize, after you explore it deep enough, is that anybody that has the pull to get their audience to pay money for something can fund it themselves and can market it themselves, because they probably have the social media presence," Van Veen said. "And so I didn't see the room for a studio."
As for making money online, Smith has found success with YouTube, where Vice is producing 12 channels, up from five last year. He also said that embedding advertising and sponsors into content authentically works. "The only way to circumnavigate the bullshit filters is no bullshit," is how he put it.
Meanwhile, Van Veen espoused using sponsors to pay for cool stunts. "The stuff that's done that has the most success is awesome things that would not have happened if the brand had not been here."
Both men raved about their jobs. IAC bought CollegeHumor in 2006, but Van Veen's still sticking because he likes the support for creative freedom. Smith reeled off a list of media moguls who have tried to buy Vice, but said he has no interest in losing control. "We're throwing off more money than I can spend anyway," he said.


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Bills foreign, Swiss Francs
Before I die I need my money in a Swiss Bank
I can see right through these haters: fish tanks
Plus they frowning at my watch like my wrist stinks
Bills foreign, Swiss Francs
Before I die, stack my money in a Swiss Bank
I can see right through these haters: fish tanks
Plus they frowning at my watch
When I was young, I had a dream of being President
Went to Harvard - the best money I ever spent
Graduated young - now they're saying I'm a mogul
People ask me what my address is I tell them: Global
New headquarters: down Wall Street
Went from being broke in Harlem, now we all eat
Twin Benz trucks - call that double parked
Plus every record I make is a f*ckin' work of art
I'm gettin' more money since I went independent
And they never seen me coming - had my windows tinted
The crown prince: pride of my community
And when I fly I want diplomatic immunity
My passport is stamped out - I need some pages
When I die they gon' act out my life on movie stages
Got a hired gun - motto is "Protect the Chief"
Keep these haters from scheming on this Patek Philippe
The campaign is global - the dollar ain't what it used to be
Switch a franc for a dollar, you get like 1.3
It's too many haters, it's only one of me
And they mad cause I'm everything they wanna be
30,000 feet - I'm outta reach
Lifestyle is extravagant, word to Robin Leach
On the road, homie, I ain't seen my bed in weeks
What I need a bed for? Money never sleeps!
So I don't either, I need it cash
Security got a pistol it's underneath the dash
And he ain't scared to use it. I don't need to worry
You ain't got my deposit, homie, you need to hurry!
Call Shiv, he got my schedule it's full of dates
My life is like a recurring birthday, it's full of cake
One spot at the top that mean it's you or me
Supermodel ex's? yeah, I got 'bout 2 or 3
I can't hear a word you're sayin' now (4x)
Cuz if you ain't talkin' bout that money
I can't hear a word you're sayin' now
Said if you ain't talkin' bout that money
I can't hear a word you're sayin' now
Excellent song


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Paul Beckett
By Krishna Pokharel and Paul Beckett
December 7, 2012
In the months following the demolition of the Babri Masjid on Dec.6, 1992, the government of India enacted a new law to acquire a large area of land in Ayodhya that included the site where the mosque stood.
After the mosque's demolition, Hindu activists had hastily built a makeshift temple to Ram Lalla, the statue of an infant Lord Ram that had been placed in the mosque in 1949. The new law set aside all the suits that claimed title to the site but allowed Hindu worship there to continue.
Simultaneously, through a process known as a presidential reference, the government put a question to the Supreme Court: Did a "Hindu temple or any Hindu religious structure" exists where the mosque had been built in 1528?
Muslim representatives challenged the legality of the new law and the presidential reference, saying that the government could not acquire a holy site. They also claimed no temple that was being used for worship was torn down to make the mosque, as Hindus contended. The Nirmohi Akhara, the sect of Sadhus in Ayodhya that was part of the title litigation, also challenged the government's acquisition of the land, which it claimed for itself.
A bench of five justices started deliberations in September 1993.
The solicitor general told the court that the government was committed to "the construction of a Ram temple and a mosque," but needed the Supreme Court to decide their location.
After a year, the court declined to answer the question in the presidential reference, saying it was "superfluous and unnecessary," even though it was a major bone of contention between the two sides.
The court, by a majority decision, upheld the law acquiring the land. But it said the government should hand over the small plot of about a quarter-acre, where the mosque and its two courtyards had stood, once the suits claiming title to the site were decided. The justices also reinstated those lawsuits, which had been transferred to the high court in Lucknow from Faizabad.
In its judgment, the Supreme Court couldn't resist a commentary on what happened on the day of the Babri Masjid's demolition. The Hindu community must, it said, "bear the cross on its chest for the misdeed of the miscreants reasonably suspected to belong to their religious fold."
In early 1995, the frontlines of the dispute shifted back to the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court. The suits claiming title to the site were bundled together to be part of the same case.
On the Muslim side, there was the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Board of Waqfs, which was responsible for maintaining Muslim holy sites, and six individual co-plaintiffs from Ayodhya and neighbouring areas.
On the Hindu side, there were three suits. One filed by Gopal Singh Visharad, an Ayodhya local, in 1950. Another, filed in 1959, by the Nirmohi Akhara, the sect of Sadhus dedicated to serving Ram. And another, filed in 1989 that added a new dimension to the proceedings. (A fourth suit, filed in 1950 by another Sadhu in Ayodhya had been withdrawn)
The 1989 suit, the most recent to be filed, was the work of Deoki Nandan Agarwal, a retired Hindu judge who lived in Allahabad, a city in Uttar Pradesh. where Ayodhya is located.
He worked late into the night for years on the filing and told his daughter, Minu, that he was typing up "the most important case in India," she said in an interview.
Justice Agarwal was frustrated by how slowly the litigation over the site was proceeding. He believed the evidence was clear that the site belonged to Ram, his daughter said.
In his suit, he made the lead plaintiff Bhagwan Sri Ram Virajman – Ram himself.
Indian law recognizes religious figures as "juristic persons." Justice Agarwal is named in the suit as a supplementary plaintiff, Ram's "next friend."
The defendants were all the other parties who had previously laid claim to the site, from the Nirmohi Akhara to the Waqf board.
Ram was "extremely unhappy" with the length of time the litigation was taking as well and with the deteriorating management of the site, Mr. Agarwal's suit said. It called for the plaintiffs to be given title to the entire premises since it was Ram's birthplace.
The recording of oral evidence started in the summer of 1996.
The Lucknow court is a collection of tall red-brick buildings, a blend of British and Mughal architecture. It has spacious arched corridors painted yellow and light blue that lead visitors around the roughly 30 court rooms in the complex.
In most, a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi, shown in contemplative pose, hangs on the wall behind the elevated bench where the judges sit.
In the courtroom hearing the Babri Masjid case, two court typists and two stenographers recorded witness statements. Three judges presided. The judges and the lawyers identified more than 80 issues for the court to decide, based on the claims made by the four parties—one Muslim and three Hindu.
The key issues were about the construction and nature of the disputed building and the land around it: Was it the birthplace of Ram, which Hindus claimed but Muslims disputed? And was the building that stood there a mosque as defined by Islamic law, as Muslims claimed but Hindus disputed?
The Muslims produced their witnesses first – a total of 33 in all. Experts in Islam testified that the Babri Masjid was a proper mosque even though the building had some unusual architectural touches like images on the pillars and no minarets.
Historians and archaeologists for the Muslim side testified that there was no historical or religious evidence to show that the disputed site was the birthplace of Lord Ram.
Eight of those expert witnesses were Hindus. They volunteered to testify, saying they wanted to stand for "facts" and defend secularism, according to the lawyers for the Muslim side.
Mohammad Hashim Ansari, the tailor who was living in Ayodhya when the legal dispute began in 1950, stood in the witness box in 1996, 46 years later.
A co-plaintiff in the Waqf board suit, he was then 75 years old, his hair gray and his face laced with wrinkles.
He started each day's testimony with an oath, "In the name of Allah," that he would speak only the truth.
Mr. Ansari's memory was occasionally hazy. When he testified that he had offered his first prayer at the Babri Masjid in 1938, one Hindu lawyer during cross-examination asked: "Which month of 1938?"
Mr. Ansari shot back, "Had I known that there would be this dispute on the Babri Masjid, I would have noted and remembered it," according to a copy of his testimony.
He remained firm on issues of faith. A Hindu lawyer read a verse from the Koran and asked him to define the word "kafir." Mr. Ansari said the term meant "people who don't consider God as one and don't follow the Book," according to his testimony.
When the lawyer asked him whether Hindus are "kafir" by this definition, he said: "Those who don't believe in the formless God are 'kafir.'"
On the Hindu side, Deoki Nandan Agarwal, the retired judge whose case made Ram a plaintiff, testified despite a heart problem. A special provision was made for recording his statement at his residence in Allahabad.
At the age of about 80, Mr. Agarwal spoke with gusto when describing the basis of his claim, according to lawyers on both sides. He testified both on behalf of Ram and himself, as Ram's "next friend" in the suit.
He said that according to Hinduism, an idol is not important for worshipping but many devotees worship a statue of their deity to gain access to the divine.
His claim hinged on his contention that the site was the "birthplace of Lord Ram" and that when the Babri Masjid was built, "Ram was its owner." He said Muslims who had offered prayers at the site in the past did so without the "permission of the owner of the land."
When the Muslims' lawyers asked the basis of his claim, Mr. Agarwal answered that it was the tradition of Hindu belief, which was at least 2,000 years old and was passed down through generations.
He died at his home before his cross-examination could be completed.
When Rajendra Singh, the son of Gopal Singh Visharad, took the stand, his father – who was the first to file a legal claim in the dispute — was dead. Rajendra Singh was a retired employee of a state bank, aged in his late-60s.
He acknowledged in an interview that he didn't know much about his father's suit. His statement is one of the shortest of the 54 witnesses on the Hindu side.
During cross-examination, Mr. Singh said he believed Ram's birth had taken place hundreds of thousands of years ago. "This I have heard from my ancestors and I have also read about it," he said.
Bhaskar Das, the head of the Nirmohi Akhara sect, the third Hindu plaintiff, took a different line from the other Hindus.
Contradicting their testimony, he claimed that "no incident took place in the disputed building" on the night of Dec. 22, 1949, the date the idol of Ram appeared in the Babri Masjid.
In an interview, Mr. Das maintained that nothing happened then. He added that the building had at no time been a mosque, either: "That place was always a temple owned by Nirmohi Akhara."
During the cross-examination by a lawyer for the Muslims, Mr. Das said his knowledge about Lord Ram's life was based on the "story" he had heard from Hindu sages.
The lawyer asked him whether that story had any description of a temple at Ram's birthplace. Mr. Das quoted a verse from a colloquial version of the Ramayan, the sacred text of Ram's life, written by a 16th-century poet, Tulsidas.
Citing a quote from Ram, Mr. Das chanted: "My birthplace is this beautiful city, to the north of it flows the sacred Saryu," the river by Ayodhya.
Just funding the case took a toll on the Nirmohi Akhara, said another senior Sadhu in the sect. The sect sold a plot of land near Ayodhya to buy a jeep to ferry witnesses to the court. "We lost a lot of money in litigation," the Sadhu said in an interview.
It took the court 11 years to hear all the witnesses.
To support their claims, lawyers for each side produced volumes of documentary evidence: more than 1,000 reference books in Sanskrit, Hindi, Urdu, Turkish, Persian and French; travellers' historic accounts; copies of the memoir of Babar, the Mughal ruler whose troops had constructed the mosque in 1528; and religious texts, including the Ramayan.
The Muslim plaintiffs also produced inspection reports, land records, and other documents dating back to the mid-19th century.
In all, the documents occupied 21 steel cupboards, measuring about seven feet by four feet each. Witness statements alone comprised 14,000 pages. The records were kept in a dedicated court room and were regularly treated with special insecticide powder to prevent bookworms. A staff of five looks after them, said a court official.
At the start of the trial, in 1996, a large crowd of Hindus and Muslims from Lucknow thronged the courtroom. Over time, the numbers fizzled to a handful.
In breaks, Zafaryab Jilani, the lead Muslim attorney, ordered tea and biscuits for all the lawyers, who sipped in the corridor outside the courtroom as they gossiped and sometimes cracked jokes.
Several lawyers involved in the case say they are either unpaid or paid meagrely by their clients. But they say they took the case because of their own religious beliefs and the importance of the issue to their communities.
The atmosphere inside the courtroom was sombre but occasionally leavened with humour. Once a judge told a lawyer, in Hindi, "Tum bahut kam aate ho," which means, "you are coming less frequently."
The lawyer mistook the phrase for what could sound, in Hindi, like, "you earn a lot."
"No your lordship, I don't earn much," he replied as the court erupted in laughter.
There were also moments of tension. One expert witness, a Hindu, visited the court to testify on behalf of the Muslims. A crowd of Hindus assaulted him and accused him of being a "traitor," according to lawyers and court staff present at the time.
Overall, starting from 1989, 18 judges hearing the case either retired or were transferred, according to the lawyers involved.
It wasn't just the judges who changed. Over time, the legal team representing the Nirmohi Akhara included three generations of the same family of lawyers.
Ranjeet Lal Verma, the lawyer for the Nirmohi Akhara today, was a law student at Allahabad University when the sect filed its case in 1959. His father was the sect's lawyer. After graduation, Mr. Verma joined the case. After his father's death in 1994, Mr. Verma's son, Tarun Jeet Verma, joined him.
With the Muslims claiming that the mosque had been constructed on vacant land and the Hindus claiming it was built after demolishing a temple, the judges decided "to have a scientific investigation at the disputed site."
The idea was to see if there was empirical evidence to settle the question of what lay beneath the ruined mosque – nothing, or a ruined Hindu temple.
In late 2002, the court called into service the country's top archaeological research agency, the Archaeological Survey of India. Headquartered in New Delhi, the ASI was formed by the British in 1861 and today is charged with excavating and preserving ancient monuments.
The ASI was reluctant to get involved. But after the court appointed a New Delhi-based geo-physical investigation company to do the survey work, the ASI agreed to supervise it.
The company surveyed the area using earth-sensing equipment with high-powered antennas that transmitted electromagnetic waves into the ground and recorded the variations in their travel speeds after hitting different objects. The returning waves were fed into a special computer that generated maps that could show "anomalies" – perhaps structures and artifacts – beneath the soil.
In its report to the court, the company said it found "a variety of anomalies ranging from 0.5 to 5.5 meters in depth that could be associated with ancient and contemporaneous structures such as pillars, foundation walls, slab flooring, extending over a large portion of the site."
To confirm, the site needed to be excavated, the survey report said.
The court asked the ASI to excavate about 10,000 square feet of the main disputed area, except under the makeshift temple containing the idol of Ram. The excavation should not disturb the worshipping of Ram Lalla—the infant god—and the visits of devotees, the court added.
The excavation team comprised of 14 senior ASI archaeologists, photographers and draftsman and 80 local labourers. It began in March 2003.
The court allowed the parties who were fighting in court to have observers present. The excavation team dug 90 trenches, most up to five meters deep.
They unearthed and recorded structures such as brick and stone pillar bases, masonry walls, and floors of lime. They found glazed tiles, human and animal figurines, inscribed copper coins, bone and iron objects, ear-studs and bangles of terracotta.
The ASI submitted a 272-page report with separate volumes of photos. The report's summary said the sum of the discoveries was "indicative of remains which are distinctive features found associated with the temples of north India."
The report also said that radio-carbon dating showed that people using "northern black polished ware" were the first people to "occupy the disputed site at Ayodhya."
The finding pushed evidence of habitation in the area to the middle of the 13th century B.C, about 3,300 years ago from today.
The archaeologists involved in the excavation declined comment, citing restrictions placed on them by the court.
In the court in Lucknow, the Hindu parties and their expert witnesses broadly welcomed the ASI report and said it vindicated their claims that a Hindu temple was torn down to build the mosque.
But the waqf board, Hashim Ansari and other Muslim plaintiffs objected. They called the report "one-sided" and produced eight expert witnesses, six of them Hindu.
They assailed the report for its alleged "omissions," such as the discovery of animal bones with cut marks found in different layers of the trenches that would be unlikely to come from a Hindu shrine.
The survey didn't conclusively settle the question it was designed to address.
By July 2010, the lawyers had completed their arguments. The court set a date — Sept. 30, 2010 – to deliver the first verdict in a case that had begun 60 years before.
In the days before the verdict, the national and state governments dispatched tens of thousands of security personnel to deal with any post-verdict violence. Just in Uttar Pradesh, about 190,000 police and paramilitary forces were deployed.
The situation was sensitive. Violence had accompanied the dispute in the past and India at the time was on display to the world: The Commonwealth Games, a major athletic event, was to begin in New Delhi a few days later.
The verdict was a test of whether India had moved beyond the old wounds and divisions that had split its two largest constituencies, Hindus and Muslims.
"I think that India has moved on. Young people have moved on," Palaniappan Chidambaram, then federal home minister, said at a press conference before the verdict. "Particularly people born after 1992 have a different world view."
Judgment day was a Thursday. News channels offered live coverage as lawyers at the court awaited the ruling. The national government blocked the sending of mass text messages to deter any organized agitation. In the southern state of Karnataka, the government closed schools and colleges for two days.
The streets of Ayodhya were empty of civilians, according to several residents.
In the courtroom in Lucknow, there were about 25 lawyers. News crews with television cameras camped outside the court complex as paramilitary troops patrolled.
The court ruled that the quarter-acre site of the mosque and its immediate surroundings should be divided into three parts—two for the Hindu side and one for Muslims. It was a majority decision, approved by the Muslim judge and one of the two Hindus.
The location of the mosque's central dome, where the idol of Ram Lalla sat, was given to Ram himself and his "next friend." That was originally Deoki Nandan Agarwal. Since his death in 2002, the position had been assumed by a representative of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the organization that had championed the construction of a Ram temple.
The site of the wooden platform in the mosque's outer courtyard where Ram had been worshipped for centuries was given to the Nirmohi Akhara.
The ruling also said that the entire area of the former mosque and its inner and outer courtyards should be divided in such a way that Muslims also get no less than one third.
The judges then read summaries of their opinions. On the question of what predated the Babri Masjid, the Muslim judge observed that the mosque "was constructed over the ruins of temples which were lying in utter ruins since a very long time before the construction of [the] mosque."
On the issue of whether the site was the birthplace of Ram, one of the Hindu judges observed: "It is held that the place of birth, as believed and worshipped by Hindus, is the area covered under the central dome of the three domed structure."
The other Hindu judge, who was retiring the next day, went deep into the terrain of faith and spirituality: "Spirit of divine ever remains present everywhere at all times for anyone to invoke at any shape or form in accordance with his own aspirations and it can be shapeless and formless also."
This judge, in a dissenting opinion, said the entire area belongs to Ram Lalla.
The judges' statements lasted about one hour. Then Tarun Jeet Verma, son of the main lawyer for the Nirmohi Akhara, emerged from the courtroom flashing a victory sign.
All four parties said the "trifurcation" of the site was not what they had sought from the court. They all appealed to the Supreme Court in New Delhi, which stayed the Lucknow high court's ruling and agreed to take the appeals.
Mohammad Hashim Ansari, the Ayodhya tailor, was surrounded by television cameras outside his home. He appealed to Muslims to remain calm even though he was not happy with the result.
Lal Krishna Advani, senior leader in the Bharatiya Janata Party, which championed the Ram temple cause, told the media that the verdict was "the judiciary's reconciliation formula." Still, he maintained, "The judgment has paved way for the construction of the temple."
On the nation's prime-time new shows that evening, several commentators criticized the judgment for being too heavily grounded in faith rather than in law, while some hailed it as politically astute because neither side was granted a clear win.
The nation remained calm. Its attention returned to the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.
Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2012/12/07/ayodhya-the-battle-for-indias-soul-chapter-five/
URL of Chapter One of the Series: http://www.newageislam.com/current-affairs/krishna-pokharel-and-paul-beckett/ayodhya,-the-battle-for-india's-soul--chapter-one/d/9534
URL of Chapter Two of the Series: http://www.newageislam.com/current-affairs/krishna-pokharel-and-paul-beckett/ayodhya,-the-battle-for-india's-soul--chapter-two/d/9553
URL of Chapter Three of the Series: http://www.newageislam.com/current-affairs/krishna-pokharel-and-paul-beckett/ayodhya,-the-battle-for-india's-soul--chapter-three/d/9567
URL of Chapter Four of the Series: http://www.newageislam.com/current-affairs/krishna-pokharel-and-paul-beckett/ayodhya,-the-battle-for-india's-soul--chapter-four/d/9574
URL: http://www.newageislam.com/current-affairs/krishna-pokharel-and-paul-beckett/ayodhya,-the-battle-for-india's-soul--chapter-five/d/9596


text: On Foreign Entanglements, Rob speak with Commander Chris van Avery about the current tensions in the South China Sea. Why does America care what happens in Southeast Asia, anyway? Chris and Rob talk about how India and Japan have reacted to the developments, and Rob tries to figure out how the United States Navy matters for this scenario. Rob and Chris talk a bit about Air-Sea Battle (not the video game), and conclude by discussing the fate of the world's most advanced fighter jet, the F-35.Play entire video


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In the game Masters of Venice, what happen if after I have delivered a Guild Order, and upon drawing a new one, I still have enough goods to meet the newly drawn order?
According to the rules, I still take VP and adjust the prices of good as in my first order. However, do I count the second order as a new separate order (hence perhaps giving me more VP than the first order)?
And what does it meant by in the rules that "You do not get to deliver the order" in such cases?


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On Monday, December 17th, the US Treasury Department announced that China and Japan have increased their purchases of United States government securities despite concerns over the continuing negotiations about the fiscal cliff. Foreign holdings rose to $5.5 trillion in October, or about one-third of the country's $16 trillion national debt. The increased interest in owning US government debt by foreign governments is welcome as the government's monthly deficits continue growing at about $150 million every month.
Although China is often referred to as the primary financier of America's continuing profligacy, that country's total holdings, some $1.16 trillion, represents just a little over 7 percent of the US's national debt. Japan comes in at second place, owning $1.13 trillion, with Brazil holding $255 billion.
In contrast, two-thirds of the country's national debt is owed by individual American investors and by Social Security and civil service and military pension plans. The balance of $1.6 trillion is owned by the Federal Reserve.
How much longer can such profligacy with its resulting trillion-dollar annual deficits continue? Back in 1995, Harry Figgie wrote Bankruptcy 1995 and predicted the end would occur within five years:
The good news and the bad is that neither we nor any other nation can continue the sin of deficit spending indefinitely. The laws of economics eventually exact their punishment, and we are dangerously close to getting ours.
Just as interest compounds in a savings account, it compounds on our debt. The $4 trillion debt we owed in 1992 becomes $6.56 trillion in 1995 and $13 trillion by the year 2000 just from the accumulation of deficits and interest alone.
Only a fool would contend that this insanity doesn't have to end.
That was 13 years ago and yet that "day of reckoning" hasn't arrived. Part of the reason is those "laws of economics" that resulted when interest rates were forced down by the Federal Reserve following the bursting of the dot.com bubble and have remained historically low ever since. That brought the cost of borrowing to record lows as well. For instance, the percentage of taxes that were devoted to interest payments on the national debt in 1991 was nearly 20%, but by 2003, it had declined to just over 8 percent. When compared to the country's gross domestic product, interest was eating up just 1.4% of it. As Bill Sardi noted, "America was saved by cheap money."
But with interest rates at near zero, how much longer will investors, foreign and domestic, continue to put up with such low returns in the face of an ever-increasing risk of default? Following the debt ceiling crisis during the summer of 2011, the rating agency Standard and Poor's downgraded its rating on U.S. Government debt for the first time in history. And unless something positive comes out of the fiscal cliff negotiations, Fitch Ratings is likely to follow.
The Tax Policy Center, using rosy economic assumptions, projected that deficits would continue at least out to the year 2017, and would average $700 billion a year. As Sardi noted, "There is no substantiation for this scenario." And so something's got to give.
Indeed, if the average monthly deficits of $150 billion were simply extended in a straight line into the future, deficits over the next five years would add $9 trillion to the national debt, bringing the total to over $24 trillion by 2017.
There are several reasons why that "day of reckoning" may in fact be years away. For one thing, where else would China and Japan invest their surpluses? Name one country that boasts, at least on paper, a better credit rating than the US. With Germany and Japan in recession, and the Eurozone countries struggling to stay afloat, options for "safe" places to invest are limited.
Second, because at present the US dollar is the world's reserve currency, there continues to be a demand for them no matter what they might be worth. Since Saudi Arabia must deal in dollars when selling the West their oil, there is a floor under that demand. And the recent drop in the price of oil shows, for the moment at least, that Saudi Arabia is happy with the arrangement.
And then there's the Federal Reserve offering itself as the lender of last resort, announcing last week that it will continue to buy at least half of the government's deficit for the foreseeable future.
The "day of reckoning" may instead occur in baby steps as the value of the American dollar continues its slow decay in purchasing power.
Despite the cries of worthies like Figgie and Sardi that the end is near, it may not be. The cross-currents of forces demanding further deficit spending are increasingly being met by demands for fiscal sanity will likely put off that "day of reckoning" for a long time, perhaps years into the future. That may indeed be enough time for those demands for sanity to be heard by enough in Washington to begin the sensible rebuilding of the country's fiscal integrity, in which case the "day of reckoning" would happily never arrive.


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Been going through our canned ham, and barbecue pulled pork. Need to rotate, so we've been having some sammiches.
I made pancakes for supper using some of my first batch of dehydrated eggs. They worked out well.
Having an abundance of ramen noodles on hand .......................


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In the lead up to leavers, parents are the ones being targeted in an effort to reduce underage drinking.
A new Western Australian television campaign will be aired tonight aimed at parents while some liquor stores in leavers hotspots have a plan in place to stop young people getting others to buy drinks for them.
The advertisements explain to parents the effects of alcohol on the developing brain of their children and promote the message that no alcohol is the safest choice for those under 18 years old.
The campaign comes at the same time that research shows young people are drinking at increasingly risky levels.
Mental Health Minister Helen Morton launched the state-wide campaign on Tuesday along with the findings of the 2011 Australian School Students Alcohol and Drugs Survey.
"This latest campaign is about giving parents important facts and the latest research about their children and alcohol," Mrs Morton said.
"A child's brain develops until their early 20s and they need to be discouraged from starting to drink and drinking harmfully."
According to the government's figures, fewer young people are choosing to drink; however, those who are drinking are doing so at increasingly riskier levels.
Those drinking at risky levels had increased from 20.9 per cent in 1993 to 36.2 per cent in 2011.
BWS and Dan Murphy's liquor stores in leavers hot spots across the country, including some WA stores, will have security guards at their doors as part of extra measures being taken during the leavers period.
According to a statement from the company anyone accompanying an adult purchasing alcohol who looks under 25 will be required to present ID at the checkout to prove they are over 18 or neither party will be served.
BWS area manager for the region that covers much of the South West, Mark Wilson said extra measures would be put in place at stores in Halls Head, Busselton and Dunsborough for the leavers period.
He said stores often had teenagers coming in and pointing out the products they wanted their parents to buy them.
Mr Wilson said staff members refused to sell alcohol to these people.
He said staff would also be on the look out for groups of young people approaching people outside stores asking them to buy alcohol for them.
BWS and Dan Murphy's national liquor licensing manager Shane Tremble said the action plan had been created to curb underage drinking.
"The secondary supply of alcohol to minors is a significant issue for our stores, the authorities and the community," he said.
"We know that very few underage drinkers attempt to buy alcohol themselves, preferring to ask others to buy it for them, so it is important that we tackle this issue head-on.
This year's official leavers celebrations in Western Australia are planned for November 26 to 29.


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Research papersHigh Quality, Scalable and Parallel Community Detection for Large Real Graphs. Arnau Prat-Pérez, David Dominguez-Sal, Josep-Lluis Larriba-Pey: WWW (2014)
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The First University-Industry Meeting on Graph Databases (UIM-GDB) is an initiative to gather companies developing graph database management systems together with researchers from academia. The main objective is to join efforts to overcome some of the main obstacles in the … Continue reading
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