text:
Are Comcast's campaign funding tactics a sign of things to come in local races where community broadband is involved?
Outgoing Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn championed a public-private partnership between the city, the University of Washington and Gigabit Squared earlier this year that will bring cheaper high-speed Internet service to 12 neighborhoods in 2014. But with incoming mayor — and current state senator — Ed Murray's campaign being financed in part by cable giant Comcast, time will tell if that project retains the support of Seattle's political leaders.
While Murray has publicly countered criticism that he's Comcast's puppet, he has otherwise remained silent on broadband issues. Yet the donations to his campaign beg the question whether Comcast's contributions were an isolated occurrence, or part of a larger strategy to influence local elections when there is support for lower-priced competition in the future?
Like big oil, telecommunications companies have a history of lobbying and donating to the campaigns of state and federal lawmakers. But diving headfirst into local political races with fistfuls of cash could be the next wave of attacks on communities wanting to create their own broadband networks or support smaller high-speed connectivity providers.
Christopher Mitchell, director of the Telecommunications as Commons Initiative with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a national expert on community broadband issues, thinks it's clearly a strategic move by big cable to drill deeper into local politics. He believes the Seattle mayoral election was the start of a larger trend, primarily because cable companies are becoming more powerful through consolidation.
For example, Bloomberg reported that Charter Communications and Comcast are considering a joint offer to buy Time Warner Cable. Combining companies in this manner will undoubtedly provide more resources that could be used to influence decision-makers at all levels of government.
"I think that's going to be the driver," Mitchell said regarding big cable acquisitions. "I think we are going to see more [campaign funding] attempts, but at the same time, I've got to think they are going to be trickier about it. Because they really don't want a Washington Post story about how they are trying to influence an election."
Mitchell refers to an Oct. 31 story that analyzed the various political contributions Comcast made to Murray's campaign in Seattle. According to the report, the Broadband Communications Association of Washington PAC — which received 94 percent of its 2013 contributions from Comcast — donated $5,000 to the group People for Ed Murray. Comcast also sent $5,000 to the PAC called Civic Alliance for a Sound Economy, a group that donated $54,500 to People for Ed Murray.
Comcast issued a statement to The Post denying that its donations had anything to do with Mayor McGinn's activities. It was silent on which activities the company was referring to. Murray declared his support for Gigabit Squared following The Washington Post article.
Emails sent to representatives of both McGinn and Murray for further comment on the issue were not immediately returned. Matt Weinland, a spokesman for Gigabit Squared, said no one in the company was available this week to speak to Government Technology about the topic.
Mitchell added that because of the media attention that Comcast's involvement in the Seattle mayoral race has received, Murray will have to be much more publicly supportive and ambitious about the Gigabit Squared partnership than he may have intended.
"Any time he does anything that appears to be good for Comcast and then bad for consumers, I think people are going to bring up that Washington Post story," Mitchell said. "So to some extent … he's going to have a different kind of pressure on him than he would have had, just because of how public it was that he got so much money from Comcast."
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text:
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has granted permission for Caroline Monet, the pregnant girlfriend of a French paratrooper killed by Mohamed Merah, to marry her boyfriend posthumously, authority that the president can wield in certain cases of especial poignancy.
According to the Agence France-Presse, which describes Monet, either through some overzealous adverbing or a translation snafu as "heavily pregnant," her boyfriend, Abel Chennouf, was one of two paratroopers gunned down in the garrison town Montauban during Merah's killing spree in southwestern France. Monet, who attended her boyfriend's military funeral in a wheelchair, becomes the third woman to receive the president's authorization for posthumous marriage, after the girlfriends of two policemen killed while on duty in Marseille and Lyon received similar authorizations.
Pregnant girlfriend to posthumously marry French gunman's victim [AFP]

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The City of Portland is pleased to announce that Portland City Hall now accepts passport applications on behalf of the U.S. Department of State. U.S. citizens planning international travel may apply for their passports Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM in Room 208 of City Hall at 389 Congress Street. The City also offers passport photo service. Appointments are encouraged, but not required. Please call 207-874-8685 to make an appointment.
For application forms, information on documentation required, fees, and a wealth of other passport and international travel information, visit the only official website for passport information at travel.state.gov.
For more information on City fees verse State Department fees, and what forms of payment are accepted at City Hall, please visit: www.www.shijiazhuangn.tw/passportservices.


text:
"I have a Dreamcast!"
"This article is about a company called sega."
[email protected] (pronounced dead (or "Say-guh")), portmaneau of Racial Segregation and Games, was part of Segata Sanshiro's master plan for the enslavement of adolescents. He hated how children would go and spend their time outside playing sports or games (interbreeding as a result of this) instead of locked away in a dark room playing video games. He decided to start a company that would promote video gaming, while he would punish those who squandered their time frolicking in the sun and fresh air (by sterilizing them).
After Segata Sanshiro retired to the mountains, only to come out and punish children for not playing video games, he left the day-to-day management of Sega to a board consisting of R. Kelly, Bugs Bunny, America Junior, and your mom. There is a rumor that Oprah, Your sister, and Lesbian teenagers own the majority of stock, which has notable feminist influences in recent Sonic games, such as "Sonic Respects Women Whilst Collecting Rings". William Jefferson Clinton is routinely seen in a vulgar sonic the hedgehog costume "prancing about" (quote unreferenced) in the Sega boardroom. It is because of such shenanigans that furry art exists on the internet today.
Sammy was the son of Segata Sanshiro (as seen in the biopic of his life The Pursuit of Sega Saturnness), he had plans to take over his father's company and rule the international market of paper bags. He was later foiled in 1998 when he discovered neither he, nor his company were able to produce paper bags and he had been leading the company to ruins.
He would soon start on a product worthy of release, which he dubbed the "Dreammachine", released in Europe as the Probotronic due to censoring. All humans were replaced with robotic puppies, named AIBO and all gunfire was replaced with spray cheese from a can. Sammy later managed to physically merge with the company and took over part of China, which he called "Taiwan" after his great-great grandfather and inspiration.
(Side Note:) Gamers have considered Sammy a hero. This is commemorated on the 31st of November by one man who can't read a calander.
In 1991, Sonic the Hedgehog, started his mission on Earth. Through the prophet Yuji Naka, he was able to take Sega and do as he wished. If anyone said otherwise they were smited by God, comprende? Sonic created the Holy Sega Genesis and released his story onto the consle. Sega became the top holy consle and Nintendo was doomed. However, after Sonic's untimely death at the hands of Marv Albert, Bugs Bunny took over and ballsed up. Sega lost its holy status forever. Warning, over exposure may cause the result of the following equation: sega x viewing= ass, sega x viewing -ass=0 (nes) sega -ass/ viewing -nes = 0, sega- ass= 0, -sega= -ass, sega = ass
Sega are renowned for many a console that has changed the course of history. These consoles include-
- M4st3r N00b-pwning Syst3m
- Genesis
- Exodus
- Leviticus
- Deuteronomy
- Saturn Sega (Known By Your mom as Sega Saturn)
- Paul's letter to the Thessalonians
- Mega Drive
- Game Gear (known in Russia as the GEAR GAME YOU!)
- Dreamblast (Known by n00bs as "Dreamcast")
- Nintendo Wii (it's all really a facade - Nintendo was bought out by Sega in 2005, after the dismal failure of the Gamecube).
- Atari Jaguar (Sega have revoked all knowledge in the funding of this console)
- Sega Pluto - discontinued when it was deemed to no longer be a console.
According to Video Game Variety weekly magazine available only at your closest Sega retailer it clearly states "Sega has the largest range of a variety of games available for everyone. There is no repetitive titles compared to Nintendo's favor of Mario with a stammering 5 games. We find that the system is very popular with the characters of Pikachu and Donkey Kong which are sold separately on eBay with bids starting at $50trillion USD as gorillas aren't allowed as pets and the costs are to cover all legal costs and because Australia will not allow a new species of anything without going through quarantine. Sales have increased dramatically with the Playstation 3 being in favor and minus 50 billions purchases of any sega product. We are on the lead of something new."
Sonic Rush is most renowned of their games, but that is because it was secretly made by Shigeru Miyamoto, and everything that Shigeru Miyamoto touches is inherently the best thing ever. Luckily, it was released into the human world. The games plot deals with Sonic attempting to teach people the ways of the Cult of Sonic, but he is foiled by Dr. Eggman and Eggman's bastard son, Eggman Nega. Luckily for Sonic, he is helped out by his new co-star/furry sex symbol Blaze the Cat, who is good enough to be Sonic's sex slave because she is blazing hot, get it?
It is rumored that Sega, to date, has continued manufacturing new generations of video game systems. Sega is rumored to have gone so far as to have third party developers subsidized by the millions with Sega's play money to develop $200 million dollar blockbusters for the 512-bit Saturncast Dreamtard Extreme Portable. When asked by IGN as to why none of this development had made it to market, Hiato Morimatsuki said "What? Profit? Market? Promote? Balderdash! Hogwash!" and so on.
See also[edit]
|iMac - iPod - iPhone - iPad
|PlayStation - PlayStation 2 - PlayStation 3 - PlayStation 4 - PlayStation Portable
|Windows - Xbox - Xbox 359 - Xbox 360 - Imaginabox 360 - Xbox 720
|NES - Nintendon't - Super Nintendo - Nintendo 64/69 - GameHypercube - Weeeeeeeeee - Gameboy (Micro) - Nintendo DSi
|Texas Instruments
|Playboy - Puu - YBox
|SG1000 - Sega Master System - Mega Drive/Genesis - Segay Micro CD - Sega Saturn - Dreamcast - SegaDS
|Atari - Atari 1300 - Atari2600 - Atari5200 - Atari7800 - Atari Jaguar - Atari10400
|Odyssey - PlayStation 360 - WiiStation 360 - George Foreman Grill
|YBox - ZX81
|IBM SuperCenter


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It has to be vomit. Nothing else could explain that wet, meaty stench wafting from the back seat. Pulling the car to a stop, I look back at my dazed seven-month-old golden retriever, Dublin, then down at what is indeed a small but pungent pile of partially digested kibble that a 90-minute car trip has sent rocketing up from her motion-sensitive stomach and onto the car's upholstery.
To make matters worse, the egg-shaped "Tamagotchi" toy in my pocket lets out a familiar "beep-bop-beep" to announce that that "Mametchi," the smiling bearlike character on the screen of the handheld device, has taken a digital dump on its virtual carpet. At this point, I don't even want to check on my FooPet and my iPuppy because I know they both need virtual walks, virtual baths and virtual vet appointments. It seems that between my very real pet and the three computerized ones I recently "adopted," my job as dookie-cleaner-in-chief has multiplied exactly threefold.
Scrubbing up Dublin's puke takes several paper towels, some all-purpose cleaner and a dab of elbow grease. Mametchi's steamer requires nothing more than the touch of a button. As I finish, however, my now perky real dog decides I've done an exemplary job and manically licks my face in what I can only imagine is gratitude. Mametchi doesn't lick my face. Instead it declares: "Bleep bleep!" Translation: "All this pooping has now made me hungry."
Pressing Mametchi's food button and giving Dublin a pat on the head, I climb back into the driver's seat and continue pondering the question I've set out to answer: Which is better—a living, breathing, puking, licking pet or a beeping, battery-powered, wirelessly enhanced virtual pet? The answer, I think, will take some advice from smarter folks than me.
The world of virtual pets today is a multibillion dollar industry with millions of users in scores of countries. The pets are generated by software and hardware-based programs that empower users to create their perfect pet, care for it as much as they want and neglect it whenever it becomes inconvenient. A virtual pet doesn't chew up your socks or eat your homework. It doesn't cost a fortune in vet bills when it swallows a bottle of antacids and, in most cases, it will never die.
Not everyone, however, thinks that owning a digital pet is pleasurable or even healthy. And in one case, a top scientist who has studied the subject extensively says virtual pets pose a real threat to society.
So where did it all start? By most accounts it was in 1986, with a little game for the Macintosh called Puppy Love.
"We thought Puppy Love would be an educational game that could be a model for teaching [computer] programming," says Tom Snyder, the creator of Puppy Love, a mind-bogglingly simply game that features a Stephen Hawking&–esque narrative voice and involves trying to teach a grayscale puppy tricks using keystrokes. "What we got instead was really just a delightful game that kids and parents could play together. I have a lot of doubts about games for kids these days. I think to do a simulation of something that doesn't need to be simulated and to market it as something with moral value is wrong. It's entertainment, pure and simple."
The virtual pet games of today are exponentially more sophisticated than in Snyder's day. The Tamagotchi I have (usually referred to as just a "Tama") has removable cartridges that can load new characters and programs. It also has an online community called TamaTown where users can log on, introduce their Tamas to other Tamas, play games and talk with fans from around the world.
The iPuppy application for my iPhone brings up an adorable husky puppy that scampers about, barking and playing in a 3-D world that goes wherever I do. And my FooPet account features countless breeds of realistic dogs, each capable of tracking how happy it is through the amount of online attention I give it. In addition there are intricate games like Render Ranch that use breeding and genetics as a basis for play, allowing users to create entire farms using complex breeding schemes and business-based approaches.
Fred Bairn, a computer programmer in Snowflake, Ariz., and the creator of Render Ranch, disagrees with Snyder that virtual pet games can't be educational. He says his game is exactly that.
"We have normal everyday people on the site as well as real ranchers and breeders," he says. "We try to provide an educational game. Something that's fun, but something they can learn skills that they can use in real life."
Besides the subscription fees that some sites charge people to adopt virtual creatures, users also spend millions of dollars on virtual goods to pamper their pets. The virtual-goods industry not only includes virtual pet products, but also "gifts" on Facebook like "Pink Cadillacs" and accessories for World of Warcraft&–style role-playing games like Celestial Steed. All told, the virtual-goods industry brought in just over $1 billion in the United States in 2009 and $7 billion in Asia according to market research firms Inside Network and Inside Virtual Goods; and fake pet products, no doubt, made up a large portion of that total.
Danny Nguyen, a 22-year-old student, says he spends about $10 to $20 per month on things like "morph potions" and "magic robes" for his bunny character for the site Neopets, one of the most popular virtual pet sites around, boasting some 25 million users. He doesn't view the money spent as any kind of waste. In fact, he says that if he had more income he'd spend even more.
"It's not like you don't get something for your money," he says. "It's like buying action figures or something else that I don't really need but really want."
Others like Kim May, a 51-year-old former dog breeder from Munson, Penn., says she tries to avoid spending real money on her Render Ranch farm and her Horse Island and PonyIsland virtual horses, but that she'll spend up to $50 per month in a pinch.
"I don't usually mind spending the money," she says over the sound of real birds chirping in the background. "For me, it's pleasurable to come home and take care of animals that you can turn off and go to bed when you're done with."
In each of the three virtual pets I've created, I've been able to avoid paying a single dime, though the creatures' standing among its digital peers has certainly suffered as a consequence. Compare this to the $600 I paid for my real golden retriever puppy (a steal by most standards), the $50 per month in top-of-the-line dog food she eats, the $100 for spaying, vaccinating and implanting an ID microchip in her skin and the $50 per month or so spent on treats, toys and accessories like fluffy beds. The cost advantage clearly lies with the digital dog.
"Dogs are expensive," my mother warned me before I purchased Dublin. "You sure you don't just want a fish or something?"
Sherry Turkle is a professor of the social studies of science and technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the author of the forthcoming book Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. She's spent the better part of her career studying the relationships formed when people interact with virtual creatures, computer programs and robots.
Turkle says that while virtual pets like Tamagotchis and Neopets can be a harmless distraction when used in moderation, they have the potential to replace the much more valuable relationships people form with real animals and real people.
"The hook that virtual pets have is that they ask for care," she tells me. "If something asks for care, we're programmed biologically to care for it. When we care for it, we experience it like we've contributed to its consciousness. We are even willing to feel that it cares for us back. There's an expectation of reciprocity that's very deep in our consciousness. [Virtual pets] are socializing us to think that the inanimate is something that is appropriate to attach to, and it raises the question of what kind of relationships we should have with inanimate things."
Turkle goes on to assure that she's "not an alarmist" and that a child who plays with a virtual pet is not necessarily doomed to a life of social ineptitude. She also says, however, that the changes brought on by a society increasingly connected to virtual realities have already taken hold, and that the only way to remedy it is to develop stronger relationships with real living things.
"A real pet has a biology, it knows pain, it attaches to its young, it knows if it's warm or cold, it has a life cycle," Turkle continues. "With a real pet, a child learns responsibility; a child learns to care for another creature. With robots and virtual pets, you turn it off and it's gone. One of my most fascinating findings is that you can make a robot or a virtual pet that's made to measure. For example, you can keep your Aibo [Japanese robot dog] always a puppy. It doesn't have to grow up.
"So what about this notion that we can create companionship that's made to measure? That's not preparing us for life. In a certain sense, the fact that your pet has idiosyncrasies—that it's weird in its own ways, the fact that it gets sick, that you have to take care of it—all these things prepare us for life in the real world, for life with people. A virtual pet does not."
When it comes to idiosyncrasies, my dog Dublin is all stocked up. She pees a little when other dogs scare her, her entire rear end wriggles when she's happy, and she kicks both legs uncontrollably when I scratch her belly. My Tama, iPuppy and FooPet all do cute things too, like retrieve virtual tennis balls and beg for food. But while I admittedly haven't explored the complete programming capabilities of each of my fake pets, I have to doubt that any of their traits, no matter how cute, are unique.
Dublin may puke on the back seat and, since summer started, attract a seemingly incurable amount of fleas. But in a lineup full of a hundred other adorable golden retrievers, I like to think I could find her in an instant. And I know she could find me.


text:
Last results
Show more matches
777score.com is a website where you will find all online results of the matches which Mihail/Yushchenko took part in. It contains the whole performance history of Mihail/Yushchenko, the player's full biography, results of the latest matches and the schedule of the next ones. 777score.com offers the current rating, partial and final match results, brackets and detailed point-for-point match statistics.
You can follow players' statistics, forecasts and match results on 777score.com. Follow Mihail/Yushchenko results on 777score.com and be aware of the news of world tennis.


text:
Condition and completeness
5. Lifetime Guarantee
Unless otherwise stated, every Zippo windproof lighter in this catalog is packaged in the enviormentally friendly "one box", design to addres the growing concern over the depletion of our natural resource. Both the attractive gift box and the carboard insert are made from renewable materials and are 100% recyable. The patented "one box" is attractive, easy handle, and designed to display more of the lighter ever.
Zippo Varsity Club


text:
Read what others getting to know Jody are saying...
Enter my world by signing up & get access to my tribe!
When you sign up, the angels will sing and deliver your name and email to a private location where it won't be shared with anyone else but me. A request to confirm your email will be promptly delivered upon a golden digital pillow for you to accept.
After you've decided to bestow your digital hand in mine, you will be granted early access to things like: Pre-release versions of songs, VIP ticket offers to shows, and content that I don't generally share outside of the Jodster's Club.
- Jody


text:
Canada's world-record holding women's speedskating team pursuit trio was eliminated in the Olympic quarter-finals by the United States on Friday at the Richmond Olympic Oval in a shocking upset.
The belle of the ball four years ago has been almost a phantom at these Games, spiriting through mixed zones early, her medal prospects gone, the times far off her best.
The last Olympic race Clara Hughes will ever contend still promises to be memorable, as she captured one more medal for her crowded trophy case in Wednesday's 5,000 metres. Skating in the fifth pair, Hughes posted a time of 6:55.73, which secured her a bronze.
Sven Kramer of the Netherlands as been sensationally disqualified in the men's 10,000-metre final for straddling a pylon in a corner.


text:
2011 Cadillac DTS Luxury
Tuscan Bronze Chromaflair
City 15/Hwy 23 Estimated By E.P.A. - Actual Mileage May Vary
Dealership Information
World Auto
Sales Team!!!
2960 Satellite Blvd
Duluth, GA 30096
Prices subject to change without notice and do not include Title, License, Registration Fees, State or Local Taxes or Processing Fees, if any. Please contact the seller first for vehicle availability. Although every effort is made to present accurate and reliable information, the use of this information is voluntary, and should only be deemed reliable after an independent review of its accuracy, completeness, and timeliness. It is the sole responsibility of the customer to verify the existence of options, accessories and the vehicle condition before time of sale. Any and all differences must be addressed prior to the time of sale. No Expressed or implied warranties, including the availability or condition of the equipment listed, are made. EPA mileage may vary depending on driving conditions, driving habits, and vehicle maintenance.
- ABS Brakes
- Air Conditioned Seats
- Air Conditioning
- Alarm System
- Alloy Wheels
- AM/FM Radio
- Anti-Lock Brakes
- Automatic Headlights
- Automatic Load-Leveling
- Cargo Area Tiedowns
- Cargo Net
- CD Changer
- CD Player
- Child Safety Door Locks
- Chrome Wheels
- Cruise Control
- Daytime Running Lights
- Driver Airbag
- Driver Multi-Adjustable Power Seat
- Electrochromic Exterior Rearview Mirror
- Electrochromic Interior Rearview Mirror
- Electronic Brake Assistance
- Electronic Parking Aid
- Fog Lights
- Front Air Dam
- Front Cooled Seat
- Front Heated Seat
- Front Power Lumbar Support
- Front Power Memory Seat
- Front Side Airbag
- Heated Exterior Mirror
- Heated Seats
- Heated Steering Wheel
- High Intensity Discharge Headlights
- Interval Wipers
- Keyless Entry
- Leather Seat
- Leather Steering Wheel
- Manual Sunroof
- MP3 CD Player
- Passenger Airbag
- Passenger Multi-Adjustable Power Seat
- Power Adjustable Exterior Mirror
- Power Brakes
- Power Door Locks
- Power Locks
- Power Mirrors
- Power Seats
- Power Steering
- Power Sunroof
- Power Windows
- Rear Defroster
- Rear Window Defogger
- Remote Ignition
- Satellite Radio
- Second Row Heated Seat
- Separate Driver/Front Passenger Climate Controls
- Side Head Curtain Airbag
- Sun Roof
- Tachometer
- Telematics System
- Telescopic Steering Column
- Tilt Steering
- Tilt Steering Column
- Tire Pressure Monitor
- Traction Control
- Trip Computer
- Trunk Anti-Trap Device
- Vehicle Anti-Theft
- Vehicle Stability Control System
- Voice Activated Telephone


text:
Southern Black Racer, Racer
Juvenile southern black racers are blotched
Scientific name: Coluber constrictor priapus (DUNN & WOOD 1939)
* Currently accepted name
* scientific names used through time
- Coluber constrictor – LINNAEUS 1758
- Bascanion constrictor – BAIRD & GIRARD 1853
- Coryphodon constrictor – DUMÉRIL & BIBRON 1854
- Zamenis constrictor – BOULENGER 1893
- Coluber constrictor priapus – DUNN & WOOD 1939
Description: Average adult size is 20-56 inches (50-142 cm), record is 72 inches (182 cm). Adult color is black with white markings on the chin and throat. The belly is grayish to uniform black. The body is slender and the scales are smooth, and there are 17 dorsal scale rows at midbody. The pupil is round. Juvenile color is gray with distinct reddish-brown blotches fading into a solid-colored tail.
A. Top of the head
B. Underside of the head (chin and throat)
C. Front (face view) of the head
D. Side of the head
E. Smooth scales
Range: It is found throughout mainland Florida and the Florida Keys. Outside of Florida, it is found throughout the eastern United States from northeastern Texas north to Minnesota and east to Maine.
Habitat: Commonly found in pinelands, hardwood hammocks, prairies, sandhills, scrub, and cypress strands.
Comments: HARMLESS (Non-Venomous), though they will readily bite to defend themselves. Racers are one of the snakes most likely to be seen by Floridians. It inhabits both rural and urban habitats and is frequently seen in residential areas during the daytime. Like other racers, it is fast moving and can climb and swim well. When discovered, the racer will usually flee for shelter, relying on its speed and agility to avoid capture. However, when cornered, its only defense is to strike. Its bite is harmless, but its needle-sharp teeth can cause bleeding. When annoyed, it may rapidly vibrate its tail in the leaf litter, producing a buzzing sound.
The Racer does not make a good pet because it never gets over its nervous disposition.
Racers are opportunistic predators whose diet is as varied as their choice of habitat. It feeds on frogs, lizards, snakes, rodents, and birds and their eggs. In Florida, frogs, lizards and small snakes make up the majority of the Racer's diet. Despite its scientific name, Coluber constrictor, the Racer is not a true constrictor and overpowers its prey by simply grabbing it in its jaws and pressing it against the ground until it stops struggling.
Breeding occurs from March through June, and 6-20 eggs are laid from May through August. Newborns are 6-9 inches (15-22 cm) in length.
Comparison with other species: The Eastern Indigo Snake (Drymarchon couperi) has a much heavier body, sometimes reddish pigment on its chin and throat, and an undivided anal plate. The Eastern Coachwhip (Masticophis flagellum flagellum) is black anteriorly and light tan posteriorly on the body.


text:
|RSS Feed
North Adams Budget Slashed Again
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The mayor will present his "Plan B" budget to the City Council next week that includes nearly a half-million in cuts from the already passed fiscal 2012 budget.
That brings the fiscal 2012 budget to $35,074,495, down nearly $900,000 from last year's budget and $50,000 less than fiscal 2009.
"We know that the Prop 2 1/2 was defeated; by virtue of that, the voters challenged me, and us, to come back with a document that meets the needs of the city without an override," Mayor Richard Alcombright told the Finance Committee on Monday evening. "We've made significant progress but not without pain."
The committee will recommend a further fiscal 2012 reduction of $457,011 that includes $250,000 in cuts passed last week by the School Committee. That still leaves the city with a structural deficit of $423,739 that the mayor is hoping to close with an increase in anticipated state aid and by dipping into the city's depleted reserves.
The mayor had pushed for a Proposition 2 1/2 override of $1.2 million to balance the fiscal 2012 budget. Over the past three years, the city has lost $3.2 million in state aid and was carrying a structural deficit of more than $1 million heading into the fiscal year. The school department has cut some $4 million over past few years that included the closure of Conte Middle School.
But voters, already pinched by property tax hikes and sewer and water fees instituted last year, rejected the override last month, forcing city officials to find more cuts.
Still, property owners can expect an increase of up to 41 cents per $1,000 valuation as the city taxes to the full levy capacity. Alcombright said the increase comes to just under $60 more a year for a home valued at $150,000.
Included in the cuts is a reduction in seasonal workers for highway and parks and not filling one highway position; the transfer of $38,500 in police salaries to a Verizon 911 grant; a reduction of more than $20,000 in pensions approved by the Pension Board and based on recalculating the funding schedule; elimination of funds for the Historic, Human Services and Youth commissions; $5,000 from the tourism department and $10,000 from insurance.
That is on top of the 10.5 teaching positions and elimination of a curriculum director included in last week's school cuts.
Finance Committee members expressed concern over the cuts being made in the school system, with Chairman Michael Bloom questioning the loss of a kindergarten teacher and curriculum director.
"We cut 10.5 teachers, if you figure each teacher interacts with 20 kids, we have to do something differently with 200 children," said Superintendent James Montepare, who noted school choice funds are being used to cover underfunded salary and residential placement accounts. "But if you look at what we had to cut to get where we did, we had to cut bodies."
He said ideas had been floated about instituting fees for sports or for full-day kindergarten, for which parents are being charged anywhere from $1,000 to $4,000 a year in other communities. But the task of collecting the money, and the fact that the city's high poverty level would make most students eligible for discounted rates, made the cost savings questionable, Montepare said, at this point.
"We have substantial enough reserves now to get into our budget cycle," said Alcombright, who is hoping the proverbial "pennies from heaven" will appear from the $65 million more alloted this year to cities and towns by the state. "Let's say they level fund us ... that could be another $175,000, another $200,000 that could reduce this deficit ... I think we're in a good place with this budget."
The city's reserves, once in the millions, now total about $530,000 not counting free cash - the funds left in accounts from fiscal 2011. Those funds cannot be touched until the state certifies the accounts this fall. The city will also be closing out the $800,000 medical insurance trust fund, which could bring another $50,000 or so.
Alcombright said his contacts with the state Department of Revenue have been positive and encouraging.
"We are doing all the right things," he said. "In December of 2009, the council — and I was one of them — moved $1.8 million from reserves to lower the budget, to pay debt; last year, we used $1.2 million in reserves to pay debt. This year, we're going to use $423,000 in reserves and we may not have to if we get additional state aid. ... We've made tremendous progress."
|Tags: override, Finance Committee
McCann Assessment Down $38K For 2012
McCann School Committee Chairman Daniel J. Maloney Jr. and Superintendent James Brosnan, both at right, presented the district's spending plan to the Finance Committee last week.
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Northern Berkshire Regional Vocational District is assessing the city $890,353, a decrease of $37,867 over this year, for fiscal 2012. The total budget is $7.97, up .19 percent over this year.
The city's amount includes $91,000 for transportation and $42,169 toward the gymnasium renovation. The city had 176 students enrolled at McCann Technical School this year out of a total enrollment of 526.
The city has seen a decline in the number of students — 214 were enrolled in 2005 — because of the general ebb of the region's population and, more recently, from the eighth grade being moved to Drury High School.
The opportunity to pursue sports and stay with their friends has affected some students' decisions on whether to enter McCann in the ninth grade, Superintendent of School James Brosnan told the Finance Committee at its meeting last Tuesday, and the school is looking at more ways of reaching them. "Most of the other communities have pretty much stayed the same."
The school district has seen revenue losses in some areas, including from the end of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds, and has had to absorb some of those costs.
Most of the line items have been level-funded, although the school district has seen increases in contracted services in a number of departments. Over the past four years, membership dues, including for SkillsUSA, has increased significantly, from $2,290 in 2008 to an estimated $20,000 for next year.
Brosnon described the SkillUSA membershiop as "absolutely priceless." The Massachusetts group has 23,000 students, the largest in the nation, and offers competitions and professional development. "What it does for students, it's just a phenomenal association and our students do very, very well."
School Committee Chairman Daniel J. Maloney Jr. noted the school doesn't offer a lot of the extracurricular that others do. "Skills is our activity; we don't have band, we don't have a lot of clubs, so if you look at athletics that's what we have, and Skills."
The school switched from heating oil to gas at the beginning of fiscal 2010, and that has resulted in some savings. Professional salaries are down because of two retirements, and costs for the media center are down from the reduction of an instructional aide.
Employee benefits and insurance continue to rise, up more than $25,000 over this year and $100,000 over fiscal 2008. The school district splits the cost of health insurance 75/25 with staff and retirees.
The assessment is included in the city's $35.5 million budget being presented to the City Council on Tuesday night.
|Tags: McCann, Finance Committee
School Committee Approves $15.54M Budget
The City Council's Finance Committee, Alan Marden, left, Chairman Michael Bloom and David Bond attended the School Committee's public hearing on the school budget for fiscal 2012. School Committee members John Hockridge and Vice Chairwoman Heather Boulger are to the left.
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — In a joint meeting on Tuesday night, the School Committee approved and the Finance Committee recommended a fiscal 2012 school budget of $15.54 million that includes reductions in staffing but no program cuts.
"In order to get to that number we had to cut upwards to a $1 million all from this budget," said Superintendent James M. Montepare, despite contractual agreements such as heating and busing that usually increase. "In putting this budget together I don't believe we have compromised any of our existing programs ... [but] we are to the bone at this point in time."
Cuts through attrition and job elimination include a special education post and teaching support staff in the elementary grades that were no longer needed; a Spanish teacher shared by the elementary school that will be replaced in part by the introduction of a world cultures curriculum in the English language arts program; a Title 1 director and a technology director.
The two administrative positions are being replaced by divvying up some of their responsibilities and creating two lead posts with stipends. Montepare said some $120,000 in administrative staff was cut but a teacher was saved.
Also cut were a custodian position, three paraprofessionals and two teaching assistants. There were a total of 11 retirements, some which will be replaced by younger — and cheaper — teachers.
The teachers have restored $90,000 by returning a 1 percent raise for next year. Some $816,000 in banked school choice funds will be used in two $360,000 allocations over the next two years against the salary account. Montepare said it was easier to do that than shift the money to separate programs. What's left will be set toward special education needs.
"All in all I think we were able to keep our programs intact and we shuffled a lot of funding around to continue to support special education and classroom teachers," said Superintendent James Montepare. "I'm estimating we are probably about $340,000 or $350,000 above foundation."
School Committee member William G. Schrade Jr. said cutting to foundation level would decimate the school system.
Mayor Richard Alcombright, chairman of the School Committee, said the budget's proximity to the foundation level, the amount of education spending mandated by the state, complicates the scenario should the Proposition 2 1/2 vote fail in two weeks. "We're limited to what we can cut because we can't cut below minimum."
The administration has identified about $1 million in possible cuts from the school system, ranging from closing the Johnson Alternative Program to instituting fees for sports and extracurricular activities should the $1.2 million override fail.
With the Prop 2 1/2 vote two weeks away, Finance Committee member Alan Marden asked if any more cuts could be made now as a gesture similar to the City Council cutting its stipend.
"If we could send a small message tonight to help that vote go the right way, I think you ought to consider that," he said. "All I ask you is to try to find some few places to cut ... if you don't send that message I just worry about two weeks from now."
School Committee Vice Chairwoman Heather Boulger said she went "over this with a fine-tooth comb trying to find some place to cut ... the work of the principals, the administration and the [school] finance commitee to even come up with a budget that's $233,000 less than the current budget is amazing itself."
School Committee member William G. Schrade Jr. expressed concern that school budget has been taking the hit for years as it maintained almost level funding. "We're up maybe 1 percent – that doesn't even cover our fixed costs," he said. "[For the last] five years we've had an increase of 1 percent but we're losing 7 or 9 percent."
Montepare said some $4 million had been slashed over past four years. The Finance Committee voted to recommend the budget as it stood.
The mayor will present the school and city budgets at the next City Council meeting on June 14. The city is required to submit a balanced budget to the state by June 30. Should the override fail, Alcombright said "we'll have to go back to the drawing board."
|Tags: override, Finance Committee
North Adams School Budget Hearing Slated
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The School Committee will hold a public hearing on the fiscal 2012 school budget at 6 p.m. on Tuesday in the Conte Middle School conference room that will be attended by the Finance Committee.
Mayor Richard Alcombright plans to bring the school budget before the City Council at its next meeting on June 14. However, scheduling the Finance Commmittee to review the spending plan beforehand became problematic because of senior week activities (Drury graduates on Thursday) and other commitments, including another presentation on a proposed Proposition 2 1/2 override on Friday night.
The option to meet and review the budget during its presentation to the School Committee was considered after last week's Prop 2 1/2 session since it would allow both committees to meet at once. The School Committee will hold its regular meeting immediately following the public hearing.
Prior to the hearing, the Finance Committee will meet at 5 p.m. in the City Council chambers to review the Northern Berkshire Vocational Regional School District budget with Superintendent James Brosnan.
The school budget being presented on Tuesday is $15.6 million, the largest single item in the city's proposed $35.6 million spending plan.
The budget is also the largest target in "Plan B" should the $1.2 million Prop 2 1/2 override fail on June 21.
Superintendent James Montepare said the school budget has been trimmed by more than $4 million over the past few years and that the budget being presented is $147,000 below this year's.
The administration has identified more than a $1 million in possible program cuts and layoffs, and fees for certain extracurricular activities. School spending, however, cannot go below state-calculated foundation level of $15.4 million without endangering some $14 million in Chapter 70 funds.
At the second of six public hearings on the proposed override, Montepare said the city had been funding well above foundation for years ($3 million or more) but reductions in local aid had decreased its contribution to about a half-million above foundation.
Override Presentations:
All presentations begin at 7 p.m.
The override question, which would permanently raise the tax levy to meet current obligations, has divided the city going into the June 21 election. An outspoken group is calling for more reductions in spending to offset the $3.2 million decrease in state aid; others are advocating for the override, saying the city can't afford to cut its schools and services anymore.
A website, VoteYesForNorthAdams.com (created by Brian Miksic), is being promoted on Facebook and offers information on the current budget, the proposed cuts and Proposition 2 1/2. It also has a handy calculator: drop in your property assessment and it will total up the added cost of the override.
Opponents say the override estimates of about $20 a month more for the average home isn't factual because it doesn't take into account last year's 10 percent tax increase, the hike in the water fee and the implementation of a sewer tax. Homeowners have been hit by these increases over last six months in the quarterly bills.
The antagonism is getting heated enough that the mayor posted a message on his Facebook page asking people to leave the "NO on Prop 2 1/2" signs popping up around the city alone.
|Tags: override, Finance Committee
Morocco Retiring to Ease Budget Crunch
Finance Committee members Alan Marden, Chairman Michael Bloom and David Bond reviewed the fiscal 2012 budget with Mayor Richard Alcombright and department heads. Also in attendance were Councilors Marie Harpin, David Lamarre, Michael Boland, Lisa Blackmer and President Ronald Boucher.
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Public Safety Commissioner E. John Morocco will retire at the end of the fiscal year to "take pressure of the budget" it was announced at Wednesday's Finance Committee meeting.
The disclosure came during discussion of the Public Safety Department's budget in which the commissioner's salary was slashed to $21,000.
"He knows the plight we're in ... he will be retiring at the end of the fiscal year," said Mayor Richard Alcombright, who added that the commissioner had approached him about retiring within the last week or so. "I want to keep the commissioner on for at least six months to work on the transition, then he can offload the things he does to other people."
Public Safety Commissioner E. John Morocco will stay on for six months to help the department transition. He said it would be difficult for the fire and police directors to take over his duties.
The Department of Public Works union is also cognizant of the tough times, said Alcombright. "They voted as a body to forgo their fiscal 2012 raise."
Union members were slated to get 1 percent (they received a 1 percent retroactive raise for this year), which the mayor figured would be a savings of around $7,500.
"These are people who unfortunately do not make a lot of money," Alcombright said. "They do a lot for the city. It makes a difference if the average guy made $300 a year [with the raise]; if the 2 1/2 override passes, they're probably going to get hit with $250."
The mayor halted contract negotiations with some of the other unions; he said the teachers, who have settled, have indicated they may reconsider their contract as well.
The City Council submitted a home-rule petition to the Legislature last year to extend Morocco's tenure two years past his mandated retirement age. At the time, city officials were considering whether to dispense with a commissioner. Keeping Morocco on was to give them a two-year buffer to research the matter, although little progress has been made in that direction.
Alcombright said the Morocco's leaving did not indicate a change in the public safety structure and the commissioner's position would remain active until the city determined what to do. The mayor said he didn't think the savings of eliminating the position would be significant.
"You're going to go away from the commissioner but nobody knows what I do," said Morocco. "I've brought in $5 million in grants; someone has to maintain those."
The police and fire director jobs would have to change, he said. "Call them what you want, they still have a job to do so to say they're going to their job and do what I'd do managing grants and budgets and stuff ... ."
Morocco's partial departure reduces Public Safety's administrative budget by $63,000. The rest of the departments are for the most part level-funded and there are no increases for department heads with the expectation of the assessor, whose salary reflects the position's change from four days a week to five.
The mayor defended hiring a new tourism director, saying it would be a source of revenue.
The administrative officer position is funded for a half-year, with hopes it can be filled by next January. An assistant information systems director has been added at $50,000 but an assistant inspector of buildings will be left vacant as will two posts in the library — the assistant director and an office clerk.
The Finance Committee recommended slashing stipends from city boards, including the City Council, on Wednesday but voted 2-1 to keep the tourism director position after nearly a half-hour of discussion.
Committee member Alan Marden called for all volunteer boards to have their stipends slashed and the City Council to accept $1 each this year, a $27,000 cut, "just for one year to send a message."
Alcombright said some of the stipends may be required by state law. "They may be mandated but there's no reason they have to accept it," said Marden.
The mayor vigorously defended keeping the tourism director position and department, a cost of about $51,000 total, in the budget.
"I think this is a vital position for the city of North Adams," he said, comparing it to the Megan Wilden's work in Pittsfield's Cultural Office. "I think that this position has the ability to generate revenue, I think this position with the right person has the ability to generate grants, that it has the ability to reach out and in a sense be the face of the city.
"I really think this is a very, very important part of us moving forward."
Councilor David lamarre wondered if it would be better to wait a year to offer a higher salary and attract better candidates for the vacant post; Alcombright said the eight people to be interviewed, including "five who are spectacular," had been told the $34,000 salary and indicated it was acceptable.
Councilor Marie Harpin asked if the Develop North Adams and the Berkshire Chamber of Commerce, or staff at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art could coordinate city events. The mayor and Finance Committee members Chairman Michael Bloom and David Bond said it would be difficult and unlikely.
"If they were to bring in a half-million, the $34,000 would be money well-spent," said Bloom.
Bloom and Bond voted to recommend the position; Marden voted against, adding "this is the hardest vote for me."
A public hearing on the $15.6 million school budget will be held Tuesday, June 7, and presented to the Finance Committee the next day. The city budget will be presented at next week's City Council meeting.
The draft budget is below and can be found on the sidebar. The document was created horizontally but, unfortunately, appears vertically on Scribd. We will try to find a way to post it so it's easier to read.
North Adams Draft Budget FY2012
|Tags: budget, Finance Committee, tourism, public safety


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As part of its plan to produce 75% of North American cars in North America, Volkswagen will be moving production of the 2014 Golf to Mexico.
Currently, the North American-spec Jetta and Beetle are manufactured in Pubela, Mexico. Earlier this week in a press release, Volkswagen announced the seventh-generation North American Golf will also move from Wolfsburg to Mexico.
It will begin its production run in the first part of 2014, and will go on sale shortly after in both North and South America.
VW also has a plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., where the Passat is manufactured separately from its German counterparts.


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Guy Trilby doesn't have many admirable qualities beyond the ability to spell floccinaucinihilipilification. The protagonist of "Bad Words" spews mean, racist and sexist barbs and uses his one impressive power for evil. The 40-year-old exploits loopholes in the guidelines for the Golden Quill national spelling bee so he can compete, all the while humiliating 10-year-olds by chipping away at their barely built self-confidence.
Lovable everyman Jason Bateman plays this despicable misanthrope, which might explain why, despite Guy's over-the-top flaws, he's still worth watching. And maybe there's some justification for his behavior. Guy explains in a voiceover at the start of the movie that this is all part of a revenge plot, and while "Bad Words" is no "The Count of Monte Cristo," Bateman's feature directorial debut is a crafty story with some unpredictable turns. Guy's mysterious motives are the engine that propels the movie forward through some truly twisted comedy.
Two characters soften the prickly scenario considerably. The first is Jenny (Kathryn Hahn), a reporter who's covering this bizarro spectacle. Guy refuses to answer her questions about why he would embarrass himself, much less make children cry.
Then there's Chaitanya Chopra (Rohan Chand), a 10-year-old who seems impervious to Guy's foulmouthed insults. The little guy wants to be friends with his middle-aged competition, and no amount of racial taunts directed his way can change his mind. Chaitanya has no chance of turning Guy into a cuddly teddy bear, but the kid does manage to become sort of a sidekick, an accessory to Guy's late-night carousing and heartless pranks on strangers. Guy feeds Chaitanya shots, takes him out for ice cream and, when the kid asserts that only some women have nipples, pays a woman named Marzipan to prove otherwise.
Learning really can be fun.
Chand is a talented actor who manages to be cute without seeming overbearingly precocious: He just plays it straight in an earnest, unsentimental way. When he explains that, yes, he has named his spelling binder Todd, and Todd might be his only friend, you might not feel sorry for him so much as marvel at his frankness.
Chaitanya gets most of the laugh lines, while Guy's humor falls along a spectrum with uncomfortable jokes on one end ("I hope no one sees me laughing at this," might come to mind) and moments that are too cruel to inspire a weak smile at the other. There are also scenarios that don't seem inspired so much as pointlessly vulgar, with a laundry list of grotesqueries from weird sexual fetishes to plastic bags of feces.
That being said, Bateman's directorial debut looks great, with smart use of slow motion and shots that are framed to amp up the comedy. Bateman, who's so often the put-upon straight man, really stretches himself here. His deadpan delivery works just as well in the role of a wicked antihero as it does when he plays Michael Bluth in "Arrested Development." And although his character might be a one-trick pony, Bateman's directing proves he's got skills to spare.
Two and a half stars. R. Contains crude and sexual content, language, children drinking alcohol and brief nudity. 88 minutes.
Ratings Guide: Four stars masterpiece, three stars very good, two stars OK, one star poor, no stars waste of time.


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The theory behind slow lines: As our own science video contest is over, we'll forward you to a video from Bill Hammack, a University of Illinois professor who's also known as the engineer guy. In this great video that covers everything from network engineering to human psychology, he explains why some other line is always moving faster, and how to pick a store where that's not the case.
You look like you got your liver from your father: Most of the traits we inherit get passed on in the form of the sequence of bases in our DNA. But some of that DNA undergoes chemical modifications that can also be inherited (a process called imprinting). And lately, we've been finding more and more cases where this can do something unexpected: allow the inheritance of an environmental influence. In this latest case, male mice were raised on a low-protein diet. That influenced the imprinting of the genes that they passed on to their offspring, which ultimately got translated into changes in the expression of those genes. The end result was that the livers of the next generation showed elevated levels of genes involved in lipid metabolism. So, you are what you eat, but might also be a little bit of what your dad ate, too.
Knowledge doesn't eliminate power: Everybody's well aware of the power of the placebo effect, but it's usually studied incidentally, as part of a larger study of a drug that everyone hopes will actually work. After all, how do you control for a placebo—tell people it's a sugar pill? Apparently, that might not even work. Researchers gave up on the idea of a double-blind trial, and just told some people that they were getting a placebo, and that "placebo pills made of an inert substance, like sugar pills, that have been shown in clinical studies to produce significant improvement in IBS symptoms through mind-body self-healing processes." They still felt better.
A couple of footnotes, though. The trial was very small, and the authors didn't have any measure of the actual progression of the disease, just that those suffering it reported feeling better. Which is definitely valuable, but doesn't mean any sort of "self-healing process" was at work here.
The evolution of stereotypes: It's a bit of a cliché that, no matter how progressive the parents, their young children have a habit of adopting stereotypical gender roles, with girls playing with dolls while boys latch on to guns. Now comes a report that chimps might have gender-specific toys, too. Toys of a sort, at least; we'd probably just call them a tree branch. But, in at least one study population, young chimps carry them around for no apparent reason, and exhibit behavior that resembles caring for them. And, most oddly, the behavior is much more common in females, and goes away once they start having offspring (though they might still use sticks as tools). The next step would be to see whether this sort of behavior shows up in other populations of chimps, which would suggest it could be an inherited behavior instead of something specific to the local chimp culture.
Maybe staying hydrated during a marathon isn't the best idea: Take any endurance event, and you're likely to see the participants throwing down energy drinks on their way to the finish line. But, based on a study of marathon runners, it might be best lay off the sports drinks, at least if you want a good finish. Researchers tracked the before and after body weights of over 600 runners in a marathon, and found an inverse relationship between the amount of weight lost and the finish times. The more weight that went, the earlier the finish. They suspect the extra fluid is slowing people down.
You shouldn't trust anyone over the age of 30, but they'll probably remember you: Most of our mental abilities start declining almost as soon as we reach adulthood, but researchers have now identified an exception: learning new faces. Over 60,000 participants were used to track the change in the ability to learn new faces, and the researchers found that it peaked just after age 30. This is a different trajectory from many of the skills that might be thought to be part of facial recognition, such as visual acuity. As someone who is past 30 and terrible with faces, it's disappointing to know that it's only going to get worse from here on out.


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Ethambutol eliminates certain bacteria that cause tuberculosis (TB). It is used with other medicines to treat tuberculosis and to prevent you from giving the infection to others.
This medication is sometimes prescribed for other uses; ask your doctor or pharmacist for more information.
Ethambutol comes as a tablet to take by mouth. It usually is taken once a day in the morning. Follow the directions on your prescription label carefully, and ask your doctor or pharmacist to explain any part you do not understand. Take ethambutol exactly as directed. Do not take more or less of it or take it more often than prescribed by your doctor.
Before taking ethambutol,
Ethambutol may cause upset stomach. Take ethambutol with food.
Take the missed dose as soon as you remember it. However, if it is almost time for the next dose, skip the missed dose and continue your regular dosing schedule. Do not take a double dose to make up for a missed one.
Ethambutol may cause side effects. Tell your doctor if any of these symptoms are severe or do not go away:
If you experience any of the following symptoms, call your doctor immediately:
If you experience a serious side effect, you or your doctor may send a report to the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting program online [at Web Site] or by phone [1-800-332-1088].
Keep this medication in the container it came in, tightly closed, and out of reach of children. Store it at room temperature and away from excess heat and moisture (not in the bathroom). Throw away any medication that is outdated or no longer needed. Talk to your pharmacist about the proper disposal of your medication.
In case of overdose, call your local poison control center at 1-800-222-1222. If the victim has collapsed or is not breathing, call local emergency services at 911.
Keep all appointments with your doctor and the laboratory. Your doctor will want to check your response to ethambutol. Blood, kidney, and liver tests may be done also. While you are taking ethambutol, your doctor will want to examine your eyes at least every 3-6 months.
Do not let anyone else take your medication. Ask your pharmacist any questions you have about refilling your prescription.
It is important for you to keep a written list of all of the prescription and nonprescription (over-the-counter) medicines you are taking, as well as any products such as vitamins, minerals, or other dietary supplements. You should bring this list with you each time you visit a doctor or if you are admitted to a hospital. It is also important information to carry with you in case of emergencies.
Please be aware that this information is provided to supplement the care provided by your physician. It is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. CALL YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER IMMEDIATELY IF YOU THINK YOU MAY HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider prior to starting any new treatment or with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
Copyright © 2007 EBSCO Publishing All rights reserved.


text: Hello all, I'm a trekker: even though I was little, watched the first episode of TOS when it first aired (my dad is a big sci fi fan) and have watched all incarnations ever since. I also watched the space program a lot. I was influenced by an episode of TOS where Uhura was under her console working on electronics. Hence, my dream was to work in the space program, on electronics. I was lucky enough to achieve this; I was a electrical systems technician at the Kennedy Space Center. I worked in the payload bay of the shuttle. I just finished a degree in Biology and am about to embark on my second dream career, to teach biology in high school.


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IMDB http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0435705/
Directed by
Lee Tamahori
Writing credits
Gary Goldman, Jonathan Hensleigh and Paul Bernbaum, on Philip K. Dick novel story "The Golden Man"
Nicolas Cage ... Cris Johnson - 'Frank Cadillac'
Julianne Moore ... Agent Callie Ferris
Jessica Biel ... Elizabeth 'Liz' Cooper
Thomas Kretschmann ... Mr. Smith
Tory Kittles ... Agent Cavanaugh
José Zúñiga ... Security Chief Roybal
Jim Beaver ... JTTF Director Eric Wisdom
Plot summary
Las Vegas showroom magician Cris Johnson has a secret which torments him: he can see a few minutes into the future. Sick of the examinations he underwent as a child and the interest of the government and medical establishment in his power, he lies low under an assumed name in Vegas, performing cheap tricks and living off small-time gambling "winnings." But when a terrorist group threatens to detonate a nuclear device in Los Angeles, government agent Callie Ferris must use all her wiles to capture Cris and convince him to help her stop the cataclysm.
AVI File Details ripped by HOHO
ed2k: Next.2007.R5.XviD.iNT.CD1-HOHO.avi [700.47 Mb] [Stats]
ed2k: Next.2007.R5.XviD.iNT.CD2-HOHO.avi [699.56 Mb] [Stats]
English subtitles by dester
[ Add all 2 links to your ed2k client ]


text:
Adult care worker
Providing frontline care for vulnerable adults to within their own homes, day care centres, residential and nursing homes and other healthcare settings.
Summary of this apprenticeship standard
- Level
2 (equivalent to GCSEs at grades A* to C)
- Typical length
- 12 months
- Current funding band
Up to £3,000 per apprentice.
More information about funding
- Entry requirements
Set by employer.
Candidates must undertake a recognised enhanced disclosure and barring service check.
- What apprentices will learn
- adult care practices, principles and standards - including care planning, duty of care, professional boundaries and individual dignity and respect
- supporting individual physical and mental well-being to help people live as independently as possible - including individual control and choice and person centred care
- safeguarding - including addressing personal rights and safety, dealing with abuse, comments and complaints and whistleblowing
- communication skills - including active listening, showing empathy and verbal, non-verbal and written communication
- health and safety practices and standards within a care environment - including dealing with accidents, fire safety, hazardous substances and infection control
- Qualifications
- level 2 diploma in health and social care (adults) for England (QCF)
- the Care Certificate
Before taking their end-point assessment apprentices must:
- achieve level 1 English and maths (equivalent to GCSEs at grades D to G)
- take the test for level 2 English and maths (equivalent to GCSEs at grades A* to C)
- Professional registration
None specified.
- End-Point Assessment
View a list of end-point assessment organisations for this standard
- More Information
The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education has more detailed information about this apprenticeship.


text:
Air Traffic Chief
Tags: Managing Games / Strategy Games / Flying Games / Airplane Games / Drawing Games / Scoreboard Games
Publisher: FreeOnlineGames.com
Video Walkthrough
Organize the busy skies and guide the planes and helicopters to a safe landing in Air Traffic Chief. Keep your cool and don't let the numbers overwhelm you and most of all, do not crash. If you like to land a plane just draw a route for him and wait till it lands using your mouse. Do this for all the planes and helicopters. You have three runways so it`s pretty hard to land many airplanes. Be focused and try to see every planes trajectory to avoid crashing.
Use your mouse to drag flight paths for the aircraft to land on the runway and drag helicopters to the helipad.
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text:
Social media is not going away. And if you are a small business you wouldn't want it to.
Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube… the list is huge (and possibly overwhelming) but the potential for growing your business, expanding your customer base and making more money is just as vast.
Some small businesses are now using social media to grow profits. Others are struggling to navigate the jungle and are making mistakes along the way.
In this post I'm going to talk a little bit about what you need to be doing if you want to get in on the action.
I'll answer all the questions you'll need to know including:
- What is social media?
- What social media sites should your small business be using?
- How do you get started on the most important sites?
- How do you use social media to grow profits?
- What strategies and tools will help you grow faster?
- What have the best social media users been doing? (Case studies)
- What are the dangers of social media?
Let's jump right in! You've got over 3,500 words to get through.
The basics of social media for small businesses
Let's start with a real basic tour of the wonderful and complicated world of social media.
What is social media?
Social media is any website or mobile phone function that allows you to share content and ideas with other people. Just think of it as a variety of methods for getting in touch with like minded people from all over the world.
What are the main social media sites?
The main (this is by no means a complete list) social media sites that you want to know about and possibly be active on include:
- Your blog
Let me be really frank about this. Your blog is still your most important social media site. Some "experts" might disagree with this but it is your blog that forms the basis of all your other social media activities. More about this later.
- Facebook – 845 million users
Facebook is not just personal profiles for sharing photos of your dinner with your uninterested friends. It is actually a hugely important way to get thousands of people interacting with your business online and offline. People can use GPS to "check in" at your business, share your Page with their friends and much more.
- Twitter – 300 million users
If Facebook is for contacting friends, Twitter is for following people you wish you knew. It is a wonderful way to stay up to date with real-time news straight from the fingers of news reporters, celebrities, corporations and regular people. It is also extremely good for contacting other people in your industry.
- Linkedin – 135 million users
This one is pretty much like an online resume. Not so important for small businesses unless you are scouting for some other work. It is, however, a huge force for people looking to network with others in a professional sense. Lawyers meeting lawyers, for example.
- Youtube – 3 billion views per day
Yep, Youtube is social media. Its all about videos and providing quality content to people who are trying to learn more about what you do.
A great way to create viral buzz or increase customer loyalty.
- Google+ – 62 million users
This is Google's reply to fears that Facebook is taking over. Its all about integrating your online social media life with your search engine. You can add people to your circle of friends and then your search results change based on what those people recommend. You can now also have a business page.
- All the rest
And then there are all the hundreds of others like Foursquare (location based check ins), Pinterest (collages and images), Flickr (photos), etc.
Now the good news is that you do not need to be active on all of these. In fact, some social media platforms work really poorly for certain industries.
A recent photo that has been circulating on, ironically, the social media sites explaining how they all work. Bit of a laugh but also pretty helpful. If anyone knows the original source please let me know.
Update: Thanks to Jennifer for finding the original source at Three Ships Media.
So which ones should I use?
This is a tricky question and totally depends on your business. Let's start by saying that everyone should have a Facebook Page and a website with a blog regardless of what you do. That is the basis for all social media activity. Once you become somewhat experienced at blogging and using Facebook you can decide what other social media platforms you want to use.
What are the main benefits of social media?
The main benefit is that you can now contact thousands of people that you never could before. You can also have your customers do your marketing for you as Facebook fans and Twitter followers share their experiences with you and your business. Social media lets you reveal more of your business and what you can offer the people who are listening. This is also how you can get customer testimonials for your blog.
Where do I start for my business' social media activities?
As I said before, you don't have to be on all of these platforms. Thank heavens. Social media is my job and I still don't use everything that is out there.
Here are a few steps you can follow if you want to get started in a simple and affordable way.
1. Make sure you have website and a blog
Your website and blog is your most important online asset. Period.
All your social media activities should in some way be about growing your blog and website and email database and you can only do that with amazing content.
If you don't have a blog I have written a pretty comprehensive guide to setting one up. Just follow the steps and see how you go.
As with most things online, if you find it too hard you can just hire someone to do it for you. I'm more than happy to get you on the right track in that respect.
2. Set up a Facebook Page
Every business should have a Facebook Page as far as I am concerned. And as they are quite simple to set up and run you can practice on Facebook before expanding out to other social media sites.
Here are the steps you can follow:
- Research the best Facebook Pages
I think the best thing you can do in the beginning is research some of the best Facebook Pages out there. These are individuals and companies who are getting it right. Some of them include Pat Flynn, Problogger, Neil Patel, Porsche, Battlefield, etc.
Have a look at those guys and take note of not just how they look, but how they interact with their customers.
- Set up a Page
You need to get a Facebook Page, not a profile. If you have a profile you need to change as Facebook regularly takes these down.
- Add your information
Make sure you add a really detailed set of information like your business address, services, opening hours and what it is that you do. Make it as comprehensive as possible.
- Add some photos
Click the "Photo" link up the top and then "Create an album" and go ahead and add some photos of your shopfront. Then create another album for your various product lines. People can now share these with their friends. Make sure you give them all meaningful captions.
- Add a profile photo
You'll need a profile photo. This is the little photo on the left hand side. It needs to include your logo as well as a high definition image that really conveys what it is that you do. It should be at least 180 pixels wide.
- Invite your friends
If you are already active on Facebook as a personal user it is a good idea to invite all your friends and get them to spread the word. This can give you a really important initial boost.
- Start interacting
Now you can begin interacting with current and potential customers. You can share photos, ideas, tips – anything that will compliment your brand and make people loyal to yourself. Not sure what to do? Check out down below.
Once you have mucked around with Facebook for a while you will start to develop enough confidence to move in to other areas.
3. Decide where else you need to be
The next step is to decide after a couple of months what other social media sites work for a small business like yours. Sign up for a few test accounts on Twitter, Google+ and Youtube and see what the "vibe" is like for your niche. If something looks promising then give it a go.
So, what do I do on social media? What's the point?
Photo credit: _bianconero
One of the biggest questions my clients ask me is simply what the heck do I do on these social media sites?
Let's take a look.
1. Increase loyalty by showing the real you
People become loyal to other people, not brands. If you run a pizza shop you can spend time on Twitter talking about your passion for pizzas and your history with the pizza making art. You can talk about your quest for finding the right ingredients and interact with other people who have similar passions.
Social media is a fantastic way to break down the barriers of facelessness. By showing your potential customers the people behind the business you are giving yourself a chance to be different from all the other competition. They will become loyal to you.
Showing people the real you means:
- Using your own voice
Don't try and come up with some corporate character. Just talk as if you were talking to your mates at lunch or a long term client in your store.
- Being honest
Honesty is really important as people can sense whether you are stretching things. Remember, it is about connections.
The more chances you give people to see the real you the more loyal they will become.
2. Get badly needed feedback
Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook provide you with a really good way of getting feedback. Its almost like its an online survey. Want to know how people felt about their dining experience in your cafe? Go on Facebook and ask them.
This takes some bravery because you have to be prepared for negative feedback. But negative feedback is so important because it helps you improve your services. And that leads me to the next one.
Case Study:
I once sent a Tweet out complaining about my mobile phone service. Within an hour they had rung me up and given me a new phone for free to apologize as well as switching me to a better reception provider. This would never happen before social media because companies weren't afraid of our networking influence. Now they are.
3. Answer and address complaints quickly
Big companies like QANTAS, Vodafone, Australia Post, etc. are now all using Twitter to handle complaints. Part of this is damage control, part of it is an improvement on customer relations. What do I mean by this?
Well, the thing you have to realize is that social media is here to stay. If you do something bad to a client they are going to talk about it on Twitter. So you can either ignore it and let the reputation grow or you can jump on and help people move on. Give them freebies, apologize sincerely and invite them back.
It is very important to be seen to be addressing complaints on social media sites.
4. Create amazing incentives
One of the best ways small businesses can use social media is by offering incentives to get people in the door.
Let me tell you an example of how it works. Let's say you are a pizza joint and you want to get more people in the door. What you can do is put up a sign in your shop telling people that if they check in on Facebook they will get 5% off their bill.
The result?
For a few dollars you have just got a review to several hundred people. All of that customer's friends will see that they are at your pizza joint and the chances are they will add a comment like "great pizza". The next time those friends are thinking about pizza they might just remember that little reference.
Incentives can be really simple or they can be complex and more rewarding. But don't be afraid of giving away free stuff to people because it will come back to you in droves.
I'm going to be doing a whole post on incentives for social media marketing so make sure you are subscribed to the blog so you don't miss it.
5. Capitalize on and boost your word of mouth marketing
The previous point ties in very closely with this one – social media can help you massively grow your word of mouth marketing.
In its most basic form, if you don't have a website or Facebook page or Twitter account then how are the millions of people on those platforms going to make reference to you? They can't.
If you do nothing else at all, at least have a website and a Facebook page set up so people can point to something when they are talking about you to their friends.
6. Share photos to increase location and product awareness
If you have a business with a physical location then uploading a gallery of photos on Facebook can be an excellent way to introduce people to your location.
If you have a physical product you can do the same – upload photos and show people what they are getting or how it is made.
As you are probably realizing, social media for small business is all about making meaningful connections with people. By sharing photos you are breaking down "web barriers" and reminding people that you are around and your product is really really good.
7. Grow your mailing list
Internet marketers say that a mailing list of 10,000 subscribers is worth at least $100,000 a year to your business. With that in mind, you need to use social media to start capturing as many loyal and engaged email subscribers as possible. Here are some reasons why:
- You can promote new products
Imagine selling a widget to a young lady for $50. You get her email address and then the next time you have a widget sale you email her and all the other widget lovers. You instantly boosted your sales for free.
- You can promote events
Got an event or a lunch coming up? Email your list.
- You can get help
Need help from your loyal customers promoting a new product or perhaps a new store location? Just ask.
If you can direct your social media activities so that you capture email subscribers you will be setting your business up for a lot of success in the future.
8. Hold contests to increase your following
Facebook contests are really big nowadays. It basically consists of giving away some really cool prize in order to attract more Facebook followers and get the word out about your business.
You have to be careful though as some contests are against the terms of service and can get your page banned. Research is important.
When holding a contest you should make sure that you have a really nice prize (worth at least hundreds of dollars) and an entry method that is exciting and simple.
Case Study:
Here is an example of a Facebook location-based contest run by Coca Cola in Israel. As the video shows, the outcome was pretty amazing.
Of course, your campaigns don't have to be this epic. But it does give you some ideas. For example, you might want to give anyone who checks in to your cafe a free coffee. That word will start to spread.
9. Study, study, study
There are so many clever people out there doing incredible things with social media. It is important to study them.
If you are a small business is can be tempting to think that you are all alone trying to learn yet another skill. So make it easy on yourself. Don't try to reinvent the wheel. Go out and study some of the businesses that are getting things really right.
I've included some resources here in this post but one of the simplest things you can do is go to Google.com and type in "social media campaign [your niche]". For example, a hotel might write "social media campaign hotel" and research the different results that come up.
Some of my favorite social media for small business posts from around the web are:
- 10 Tips for Building a Strong Online Community Around Your Start Up – Mashable
- Twitter Comedy: How to be Funny in 140 Characters – Mashable
- 5 Fitness Brands Kicking Butt on Social Media – Mashable
- The Highest Converting Facebook Page I've Ever Seen – ViperChill
- Why I Switched to Aweber for My Blog's Email List and Why You Should Too – Blog Tyrant
- 21 Ways to Create Compelling Content When You Don't Have a Clue – Copyblogger
- How to Create a Facebook Landing Page – Smart Passive Income
- The Trap of Social Media Noise – Seth Godin
- Why Research is Key and How to Create a Research Station for Your Social Media Strategy – Danny Brown
- 10 Ways to Get More Traffic, Attention and Higher Rankings Through Social Sharing – Neil Patel
It is important to study this stuff but it is also important not to get distracted. You are trying to grow your business remember, not your social media accounts.
The dangers of social media for small businesses
I don't want to scare you but there are a few dangers that small businesses need to be aware of when getting involved in the social media labyrinth.
1. People are critical of bad products
Well, lets be honest. People are always critical of bad products its just that now they can talk about them on Twitter.
If you provide a bad service or product you can be you will be flamed (chastised) on Twitter. Be ready for it.
The thing to realize here is that those people are already talking about you. It is therefore extremely important to get on and start talking to them, helping them and addressing their concerns.
2. Bad timing and poor planing can be deadly
A few months ago QANTAS, Australia's national airline, grounded all its flights around the world due to ongoing industrial action. It left thousands of people stranded across the globe and a media storm unlike I have ever seen in Australia lasted for weeks.
Many people were angry at the CEO's decision to ground the fleet, while others thought he had no other option and did the right thing.
Shortly after this massive event (and a lot of negative PR) QANTAS launched a Twitter campaign with the hashtag #QantasLuxury saying:
"To enter tell us 'What is your dream luxury inflight experience? (Be creative!) Answer must include #QantasLuxury."
Bad idea.
A few of the resulting Tweets from QANTAS' Twitter competition.
Now, in case you don't know, a Twitter hashtag is something you use when you want everyone involved to be reading the same thing. For example, you'll often see hashtags about sporting events like the Super Bowl because the promoters want to get people talking in the same place.
And thanks to a website called Storify we can see a record of all thee nasty, mean and hilarious replies that QANTAS got as entries into this competition.
This is an extreme example of what can happen with bad timing and a poorly thought out campaign. This Twitter competition might have worked wonders if goodwill towards the company was not at such a temporary low (QANTAS is normally a much-loved Australian brand).
3. You can break the law
A lot of people forget that you can still break the law on the internet. And this can lead to you and your staff ending up in serious hot water.
Let's take defamation as an example. If you go on Twitter and say something untrue about someone which results in their reputation being damaged you can be sued in court under libel laws.
Similarly, if you make untrue claims about your product you can come under fire for false advertising. This can lead to crippling fines.
Its important that you keep everything truthful and clean when on social media sites just like you would on a print or TV advert.
Social Media Tip:
You can avoid a lot of these problems by coming up with a social media policy for your business. Outline what can be talked about, which of your staff can talk on behalf of the business, whether personal social media accounts are allowed, who has access to passwords, etc. It might seem strict but it can save a lot of future dramas.
4. Privacy is an issue
Privacy concerns really need to be thought about before signing up to all of these sites and putting your name, age, location, etc. on the public record. Some people are paranoid about this stuff, others don't seem to care. Have a think about how much you want people to know and set the boundaries early.
This is just the tip of the social media iceberg. But don't fret, you don't need to know everything at once. Start with a website, blog and Facebook Page and go from there.
To all my regular readers: What other tips would you give to a small business looking to get involved with social media? Have you learned any lessons doing social media for your own business? Please leave one of your usual amazing comments.
Photo credit: CarbonNYC


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The story of 'Why Beer Matters'
You might expect a lengthy philosophical discussion from a volume titled "Why Beer Matters," but this story is actually about many things: an e-book penned by an expat beer writer living in Prague, the handcrafted book it inspired, and the resurrection of a Polish beer style.
Whenever Evan Rail took time off from his French and German literature studies at UC Davis back in the '90s, he did it at Sudwerk Privatbrauerei, the popular Davis brewpub also frequented by Rail's friends in the university's Master Brewers Program. So it was only natural that the beer-loving Rail eventually landed in Prague, the capital of the world's biggest drinking country, in 2000. What began as a yearlong trip has stretched to 13, and now that he has married and started a family, it's likely he won't be moving home any time soon.
The citizens of the Czech Republic drink more beer per capita than any other nation in the world. Czech beer is all-grain, even the biggest breweries make great-tasting beer, and it's cheaper than water -- and, Rail says, the Czech people seem to take their wonderful beer for granted.
Working as a journalist for The Prague Post, the city's only English-language newspaper, Rail began writing stories about Czech beer and brewing culture. His occasional beer stories quickly proved to be his most popular, and he began focusing on beer throughout Europe. He wrote about travel and beer for The New York Times, and, in 2008, published the "Good Beer Guide to Prague and the Czech Republic," the first guide to Czech beer and breweries in any language. Along the way he pondered the question of why beer matters.
The result was an old-fashioned essay in a newfangled format -- a Kindle edition available electronically -- titled "Why Beer Matters." In the essay, Rail explores the idea that "beer actually has a special relationship to the passing of time, and that beer is a more democratic beverage in the sense of it having very few high-profile validators. There's a good reason why there's no one like Robert Parker in the beer world."
In early 2012, "Why Beer Matters" came to the attention of beer lover David Johnston, who shared it with home-brewing friends. Johnston owns Sharp Teeth Press, an old-fashioned letterpress print shop that creates limited and first-edition books. Although the shop uses a computer-driven interface, it is focused on artisanal craftsmanship. It uses handmade bookbinding tools and more than 20 drawers of type to hand set each page.
When Johnston approached Rail about printing his essay, Rail knew exactly what was in store. His father, a poet, had owned his own letterpress. Rail loved the idea of taking a 21st-century digital-only work and producing its opposite in retro, limited-edition craftsman style.
Some 16 months later, Sharp Teeth had produced a limited edition 225-copy run of the 36-page book. The cover was made of hop sacks donated by Anchor Brewing, and the paper was handmade with help from the Shotwell Paper Mill in San Francisco's Mission District. Copies are $100 and can be purchased from Sharp Teeth. The Kindle version is $1.99 at Amazon.com.
But there's more to the story. Another friend Johnston shared the book with was home brewer Sam Gilbert, who co-founded San Francisco's BrewLab, a collective of home brewers. One of the threads in "Why Beer Matters" detailed an extinct type of beer last produced in Poland in 1993. Grodziskie (or Grätzer in German) was a Polish smoked-wheat beer. It used 100 percent wheat malt that was smoked over oak during the kilning process and brewed with at least one -- possibly two -- yeast strains, one powdery and the other highly flocculating.
Gilbert and BrewLab partner Matt Smith have been working to source the authentic ingredients necessary to recreate the beer, and have brewed a dozen test batches. Once they're confident with the recipe, they'll be working with brewer Brenden Dobel at Thirsty Bear, the San Francisco brewpub, to brew a commercial batch of Grodziskie. They hope to have the beer ready by late summer, in time for an official launch party for "Why Beer Matters."
Contact Jay R. Brooks at email@example.com. Read more by Brooks at IBAbuzz.com/bottomsup.


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