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25 August 2009|
Tropicana Field,
Tampa, FL
April 25 2009
For the southern states, fun and sun is pretty much an every day thing. When it came time for Hot Import Nights (HIN) to roll into South Florida, residents did not hesitate to come out in full force. Traditionally, HIN made multiple stops in the Sunshine State, but for this year Tampa would be the only one. The strong HIN fan base responded by putting together a great show with thousands of energetic attendees. The HIN crew of course obliged with non-stop entertainment, hot ladies, free give-a-ways and naturally hundreds of show cars.
An HIN, wouldn't be an HIN without row upon row of sick hardware. Everything imaginable on four wheels was in attendance and with Hot Import Night's new program, some two-wheel action as well. In terms of car clubs, Team Emotion always comes strong with hard-hitting projects. Representing Team Emotion were Byung Choi and Wesley Banasan, who wowed the crowds with their RSX-S and 350Z, respectively. Choi has done some extensive work on his Acura, including a full J's Racing bodykit and a wild right-hand drive conversion. He then upped the ante by doing a complete color change and ghosting all of the wiring in the engine bay for a super clean look.
Also repp'ing Team Emotion was Wesley Banasan's teal 350Z. We first saw this car at Performance World in Toronto, ON and were very impressed by its appearance and laundry list of high-end JDM parts. The striking Do-Luck widebody kit sets this car apart from almost every other Z out there. The Massive Project Mu brakes and gold Volk wheels with perfect fitment are a very nice touch. Inside, the car features Bride seats and matching floor mats with a color-matched 6-point cage and full audio system.
Many PAS partners, advertisers and affiliates were out in force too. Installer Institute showed up with some hot models and demonstrations of their killer audio and multimedia installs done at the school. Modified Car Trader came correct with smoking models, a built EVO VIII and some free give-a-ways like a nylon bag that read "Turbo Cars Rule" to rep their website www.modifiedcartrader.com. Then Metra Electronics showed up with a huge display from their nearby Holly Hill, FL headquarters. Along with hot new products and literature, several of their experts were on hand to answer questions and demonstrate the audio cars on display.
Not to be outdone, our very-own PAS Magazine booth rolled out the red carpet for our valued readers and those signing up or renewing their subscriptions. Our special HIN promotion price was in effect, alongside our freshly redone Scion demo car, loads of models and free goods, which caused a near riot! Another highlight of each HIN is the PAS Magazine Model Search that draws in thousands of young hotties seeking stardom. The next top import model is out there somewhere, so log on to www.pasmag.com to check these babes out and show your support for the ones you like.
As the only stop in Florida this year, HIN Tampa did not disappoint. The Hot Import Nights formula of live entertainment, stunning models and show cars is set quite high and they show no signs of slowing down.


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I got a lot of feedback on my post from a couple days ago about making an Arcade Push Button Light Switch. Mostly that this task could be easily accomplished with a single DPDT 110VAC relay. While this true, the original post was really about using what I had on hand at the moment to remake something I saw online.
Never the less, while I was at Grainger this morning picking up supplies for another project I also grabbed a DPDT relay, part no. LY2-AC110/120, to make another version of the arcade button light switch. This is how I would make the switch if I was going to be purchasing parts for it.
Here is a schematic. This sort of design has been around for ages. I guess people used to use relays for all kinds of control applications and called it Relay Logic.
* Update *
A few people have asked for more pictures of what wires go where. Unfortunately, I do not have any photographs that would be useful. I did draw the picture below, though and I know of at least one person that built this switch based on it. If you are unfamiliar with working with 120v household wiring be sure to ask someone who is in the know for some help. Getting a shock from 120vac is unpleasant.
Below is a picture of the microswitches in the arcade pushbuttons. As you can see they are more than capable of switching the voltage and current required for this design.
So, wire it all up, apply some hot glue and drink some coffee.
And then take an action video. I am switching my frequency counter in this video. It is kind of handy anyway as the power switch for the counter is on the back of the unit. I don't always use my frequency counter, but when I do, it's a pain to turn it on. Well, not anymore.

subset: commoncrawl


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Grey cardigans are a bit of an obsession for me, and with reason. The colour looks great with neutrals or brights and it makes the perfect unobtrusive cover-up.
Rokit khaki jumper
Yesterday's Love the Look outfit featured a slouchy green cardigan which acted as the showpiece for a palette of neutrals.
A.P.C stripe jumper from Start
Stripes are a bit overexposed in menswear generally but A.P.C's knit jumper still feels fresh.
The classic nautical style looks less gimmicky in grey and oatmeal and the stripes are just the right width.
Terry Hall signs Fred Perry limited edition jumper
As if I needed a reminder about missing The Specials secret gig at Bestival by being asleep in a tent, Modculture's Dave has given me the heads up on a great competition he is running from today.
Beauty & Youth x Lacoste and Jessica Simpson… kind of
Does the world need anymore cardigans? No but the world doesn't need another drunk blond hick, but we have Jessica Simpson and I love her. These cardigans and Jessica Simpson do have a few things in common: we don't need them, there's nothing really special about them, we have loads of them but we kinda like them.
Missoni button-neck knit
Autumn has arrived and with it comes all those lovely warm autumnal colours like aubergine, pumpkin and burgundy. Missoni's knit jumper combines all of these with a buttercup yellow, a navy and a grey to stop it looking too fusty.
Retro tank top from French Connection
There is something reassuringly old-fashioned about this French Connection tank top (£45), it reminds me of my old Chemistry teacher Mr Strom who would wear zip-up cardies like they were going out of fashion. Which they were.
Rykiel Homme kiss jumper
With the V-neck takeover that happened last winter, this year looks to see a comeback for the good ol' crew neck and one of the best is this Rykiel Homme jumper.
Adam Kimmel polo neck
Polo necks are still too Alan Partridge for me; as much as I love our man from Norwich the thought of actually wearing one fills me with dread.
Embrace your inner lumberjack at Oi Polloi
It's a good day for a plaid lover like myself, with trend reports claiming that the American working man is ready to have his time in the fashion lime light the new A/W 08 range from Levi's has dropped at Oi Polloi.
French Connection's vivid blue cashmere jumper
Click image to enlarge
My new favourite colour is a rich dark blue that falls somewhere between cobalt and navy. Not as obvious as a bright Yves Klein blue but not as trad as straight navy, the colour looks great with the remainders of a tan.
Folk Drawstring Cardigan/Corset
With tights and make up all seemingly now accepted male staples, why not corsets? That's what Folk have sneaked into the mainstream with this drawstring cardigan. Initially I thought the most interesting part of this cardigan was the contrasting squares on the neckline creating a lapel-like effect. A look closer revealed something much more interesting, are corsets in for men?
La Rentrée: Time for French Connection's Airspeed Cardigan
August is traditionally the month when France shuts down, goes on holiday and people start thinking about 'La Rentrée'. You could call it the French New Year as the whole country gets gripped by 'Rentrée' fever, not just schoolchildren but grown adults too.
Fred Perry x Tomoki Sukezanne
As the old saying goes, 'another day, another Fred Perry collaboration'. This time with Tomoki Sukezane. It does make a mockery of the whole 'Fred Perry is for fans of style not fashion' stance though, as the company are clearly using collaborations as a means to follow trends.
WISHLIST: Stephen Jones 'Cactus' Beanie
Stephen Jones, the milliner extraordinaire and all-round fashion hero, has just released his collection for Spring/Summer 2008 and it is the 'Cactus Hat' from this 'Desert Rose' JonesBoy collection that takes place as the 19th thing on our WISHLIST.
Alexander McQueen paisley jumper
Like deck shoes paisley is one of those things I always hated as a child but looking at this Alexander McQueen embroidered jumper I'm starting to come round.
Flight of the Conchord's Bret McKenzie and his retro jumpers
Watching Flight of the Conchords the other night I was struck by just how many comedy retro jumpers Bret McKenzie wears. From '80s sweatshirts with Arctic wolves and pine trees to snowflake pattern woolly nan jumpers the Kiwi comedian has got his bases covered.
French Connection marl Tivity knit
The marl effect of this fine gauge khaki jumper is nice way of adding some subtle texture to an outfit.
J Lindeberg merino cardigan
A perfect grey v-neck cardigan is something to be cherished, I never take off my Uniqlo men's one but this one from J Lindeberg is pretty special.
Yoko Devereaux SupermarketHQ sale
Sometimes a bargain is too good to pass on, regardless of what season the clothing's designed for. This Yoko Devereaux double breasted cardigan is currently going for $32, which is 75% off the retail price. Other bargains are this trench coat for $49 and this Queen print shirt for $17.


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Cambridge airport to launch new services to Dublin and Amsterdam – with complimentary snack and drink service too
CityJet announced today that it will be adding two more routes to its network this year, with flights launching from Cambridge International Airport to Dublin and Amsterdam.
Operated by a Fokker 50 aircraft, with a capacity of 50, flights will start on May 12 and will be bookable from today.
The route to Dublin will operate twice-daily during the week, and daily at weekends, priced from just £51 one way and £98 return.
The Amsterdam route will also operate twice-daily, during the week, and daily at weekends, priced from £68 one way and £147 return. All fares include 23kgs of hold luggage and complimentary snack and drink service.
Christine Ourmières, CityJet's chief executive said: "We decided to launch new routes from Cambridge as we saw a unique opportunity for success, particularly with our strong presence in both Dublin and London already.
"We know that the market has the demand on the route and we know that we can provide vital access to these communities. Cambridge fits our model of service and regional airports as well, serving those communities for both business and leisure."
Steve Jones, Managing Director at Cambridge International Airport, welcomed CityJet's confirmation of the new services.
He said: "We're delighted to be working with such a dynamic and established international airline to welcome these important route openings to thriving European capitals – Amsterdam and Dublin."


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Contact details
Avenida del Golf. Urb. Costa Teguise, s/n.
35509 Arrecife, Lanzarote (Canary Islands)
Tel.:+34 928590512
- Autonomous region: Canary Islands
- Province/Island: Lanzarote
Tel.: +34 951600016
Golf Costa Teguise is an 18-hole course located at the foot of a volcano, in Lanzarote. It has stunning views out over the Atlantic Ocean. It was designed by Briton, John Harris, and is a gentle yet highly varied course, running between volcanic rock, cacti and palm trees, so that you can enjoy the natural landscape in all its beauty. The course has numerous dog legs, ideal for attractive, enjoyable play. In addition to its privileged situation, the course also enjoys a wonderful climate, warm all year round.
General Information
Opened in: 1980
Designer: John Harris
Setting: Coast
Number of holes: 18
Information on services
Bar, Bunker, Cafe, Call & Play card accepted, Cart rental , Changing room, Club hire, Drinks available on course, Driving range, Electric trolley , Hand trolley, Individual and group classes , Pitching green, Putting green, Restaurant, Shop, Showers, Toilets on course


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Exhibitions that run during the Auckland Arts Festival should have some special factor that lifts them above the run of the mill.
The interactive work by Jin Jiangbo at Starkwhite has this quality. He is the dean of New Media at Shanghai University, and the work combines imagery and sounds from traditional Chinese and Japanese art forms.
Basically, the work is delicate brush and ink landscape painting re-worked as a computer-driven projection that occupies the full length of a large wall in the gallery.
It is a journey through a landscape - mountains, rivers, trees and bridges by the sea, so boats can be included. It draws comparisons with the famous 15m-long landscape scroll done by the Zen monk Sesshu in the 15th century using the same techniques.
What this modern work adds to the traditional style of rapid brushstrokes is movement. Not only does the work scroll across the screen, but the artist appears as a silhouetted figure raising the forms as if by enchantment.
At times a dragon undulates across the screen, and peacocks and other birds dart across it.
The effect of a journey is signalled in the early stages by the inclusion of a monk setting out on a mule. There is also a change of seasons, with rain and snow at times. It is a lovely, delicate thing, fascinating in its scope and detail.
The special factor is that it is interactive and the spectator can change the forms.
If you come between the projectors and the landscape you appear as a dark silhouette, just like the dancing artist in the scroll but much larger. Even better is to move behind the projector, then you appear as a phantom shape and alter the nature of the landscape, so anybody passing becomes a participant in the landscape and can modify the journey. The interaction brings an ancient art form right into the present.
A similar combination of ancient technique and modern technology is seen in the work by collective Liu Dao (island6) in their show The Garden Beneath the Streetlights at the Bath Street Gallery. Each of the nine works is the result of a combination of skills under the overall direction of Thomas Charveriat.
A typical collaborative work is Carry Careen, where the background is a sheet of beautiful mottled paper. In the lower part, a paper-cut in black is collaged on to the surface. This is an outline of the skyline of Shanghai.
Above the city and shining through the paper background is an LED display of a woman on a swing. As she swings back and forth, she reaches down trying to reach a tall tower. Image, materials and technique make an enigmatic work of great charm.
Sometimes the spectator is actively involved, as in the amusing How Much is that Doggy in the Mirror?, a big circular mirror in an opulent frame.
When the viewer approaches the mirror, a dog lying on its side suddenly appears. A little bit closer and the dog sits up and looks directly at the spectator.
The most delightful of these inventive works is the simplest of all.
It is called The Red Chamber, and features a lovely collaged vase of painted paper. Two butterflies flit about the vase, then they are lost inside it. After a moment or two they emerge and continue their dance.
This work uses the technological addition of colour and movement in a way that supports the framed and painterly permanence of the image. Another work like Tweeters on the Line, colourful birds on power lines, is cliched by comparison.
The quality this exhibition contributes to the festival is charm.
Much more piquant is the work by Francis Upritchard at the Ivan Anthony Gallery.
The major pieces are three of her extraordinary figures, which are much more effective indoors than their counterparts on pedestals at the corner of Wellesley and Symonds Sts.
This is partly because the colour matches the mysterious strangeness of the figures.
In Winter Dance, a vivid blue robe emphasises the forward movement of the figure, which appears beautiful and dangerous.
This figure wears motley, the jester's costume, here seen as makeup - half the face dark, the other half bright; one pale arm, one dark; one pale foot, one dark. It adds a sinister feeling. Curiously, a more colourful patchwork on the feet and face of the cross-legged figure called Music Lover somehow adds to the meditative quality.
The most striking figure of all is a tall, strange, priestly woman with eyes partly closed, clad in a russet red robe, with her naked body painted the colours of the jester.
Her hands and feet are wonderfully articulated with a great sense of the bone beneath the skin. It is full of character but truly strange. These figures are accompanied by long narrow collages, which also manipulate subtle combinations.
At the galleries
What: Rules of Nature, by Jin Jiangbo
Where and when: Starkwhite, 510 K' Rd, to April 4
TJ says: A Chinese landscape painting scrolls across a screen, with additions of animated figures, the artist at work and the capacity to interact with viewers.
What: The Garden Beneath the Streetlights, by Liu Dao (island6) collective
Where and when: Bath Street Gallery, 43 Bath St, Parnell, to March 30
TJ says: Framed works that combine aspects of painting, collage, photography and display technology to add movement and surprise to elegant images.
What: Three Figures, by Francis Upritchard
Where and when: Ivan Anthony Gallery, 312 K Rd, to March 30
TJ says: Three superbly modelled and coloured figures, bizarre, solemn but with great presence, supplemented by a series of collages of individuality and force.
For more gallery listings, see nzherald.co.nz/arts.


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what is the best way to store yeast to make it last
I've been reading up on this. I bought yeast from costco on 8/13/11 and over the weekend had to throw it out because it lost all of its muster/strength after my dough failed to rise on several bakes. There was like over half left. I kept in a tupperware on the bottom shelf in my frig. And everytime I open it up condensation would enter the yeast, lessening it's strength. I've read where some people just keep it in a baggie in the freezer and just take out what you need for your bakes.
What does everyone here do in storing their yeast to preserve it to last more than one year. It's cheap enough to buy once a year, but still would like to know how everyone stores it.
thanks for your help. Howard


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COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - Hundreds of Gamecock fans stood on the Horseshoe on Monday to wish Marcus Lattimore a Happy Birthday in the wake of his knee injury.
Speakers included student body president Kenny Tracy, university president Harris Pastides, Steve Spurrier, members of the Gamecock football team and others.
Spurrier took the stage and talked about Lattimore's impact on his life and the team.
"I've been fortunate as a head coach for 23 years in college, I've coached some really outstanding guys -- just super guys who do everything you ask on and off the field -- and Marcus is right up there at the top. I sort of put he and Danny Wuerffel as the two guys I don't know if they ever do anything wrong or not. Somewhere, they've got to do wrong, but I've never seen these guys do anything but what's right, and Marcus is such an inspiration to all of us," said Spurrier.
Spurrier also had plenty to say about Lattimore's future with the team.
"We're going to get Marcus for four or five years instead of three," said Spurrier.
But perhaps the biggest statement of all comes from a discussion the coach had with Lattimore and a message the running back had for the crowd.
"Tell them I'll be back," said Spurrier.
Lattimore was forced out of the Tennessee game on Saturday after a very serious knee injury.
Andrea Christiansen and Vaughan Evans were there. They were among the thousands who watched through tears as players from both sides spilled on to the field and took a knee for a player who'd already sacrificed one of his own.
"He always refers to the team as we never me," said Evans. "He's very humble. I've always admired that about him."
At Garnet and Black Traditions, Christiansen and Evans took time to sign a get well card. Phillip Graham works there.
"Once they're filled up we'll give them to Mrs. Spurrier and she'll deliver them to Marcus and his family just to let him know the community cares about him," said Graham.
Graham says #21 jerseys have been hot items among fans who want to wear their support for a running back who carries much more than just a football.
"They don't recognize this kid as just a football player, they see him as a very humble person who does the right thing because it's the right thing to do, and does all the right things on and off the field. You just don't see that nowadays," said Graham.
The running back's injury has also clearly affected the governor's office as Gov. Nikki Haley declared Oct. 29 to be "Marcus Lattimore Day".
"Michael and I ask every South Carolinian to join our family as we lift up in prayer Marcus Lattimore and his mother Yolanda Smith during this challenging time," said Haley in a statement. "He has been more than just a Carolina football player – he is a great role model for our state."
Copyright 2012 WIS. All rights reserved.


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Civil War Monthly Featured Document return to document overview
No 16 Battle field near
Gettysburg Pa
Dear Parents
I again take up my pen after
of a week. On the march I had the pleasure
of seeing Capt Edwin Humphry but we was march-
ing by where his regt was bivouacd so I had but
a few minutes to speak to him, he looks as well
as can be expectd after a hard tramp. The enemy
are beyond the town, and the report is that they
are entrenching there. We have taken thousands of pris-
oners and made such havoc in their ranks, and
I think Jeff davis will think he has made a great
mistake in sending his army up this way. The prison-
ers said on the 3d of July which was a the hardest day
of the fight that Lee said he would break our
lines before he slept that night or he would
kill ten thousand men. Yesterday was the 4th of July
and I never thought I should see such a sight
as I did on that day, as this is our victory if a
victory is decided, we hold the ground, and yes-
terday I was all over the ground and saw the
dead rebels by hundreds laying just as they fell
among the rocks and trees, from the effect
of the murderous fire from the Union troops
behind the breastworks, which were built in
the woods, it was an awful sight and I
men as they lay it would sicken them of rebbelion
owing to the extreme heat they have turned
as black as niggers and their heads are swelled
up to twice their natural size. The 14th Brooklyn
was in the 1st day and lost 125 only 9 men are
left in my old Company H – they lay on the
3d hill from here in the same line of breast-
works that we are and I was over to see them
yesterday. We are now ordered to pack up – 10 O'clk
It rained all day yesterday and last night I laid
on the wet ground no tent and nothing but a
thin rubber blanket, and have not had a change
of shirt for over 4 weeks. The reason that my
last letter was not signed, was that before
I had finished it got damp in my Haversack
and stuck. I have not time to finish this
as the letters are being called for, it is queer
I do not hear from you this is the
first time I have had a chance to
write as I have been in battle and am
now writing this on the field on my
knee – hoping to hear from you soon
I remain your affctly


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There's a lot of interesting stuff in the article, but one part stood out to me because it really touches upon the very core of Microsoft's problems right now.
For Microsoft to have any success with Windows Phone, that's key. Shum and his colleagues realize that to win over smartphone customers, they can't simply produce an operating system that's merely a better version of what rivals are already making.
"We have a very clear point of view," Shum said. "We're very clear about that."
It's easy to conclude that because of the (so far) failure of Windows Phone's and Windows 8's Metro to make any significant dent in the market, Metro as a whole, and thus, digital design, is not what consumers want. In less obtuse words, that Metro is the reason why Windows Phone and Windows 8 aren't successful.
This reasoning has never held up to scrutiny very well. Quantity does not equate quality - if it were, Windows would be the best desktop operating system by a huge margin, and Mac OS X, Linux, and other systems are all piles of junk. Following this broken line of reasoning, those horrible Transformer films are better instances of cinematography than, say, Philadelphia (two random examples). You could go on for bloody hours with examples like this.
The supposed relationship between quantity and quality is often abused when arguing the merits of one computing platform over the other. This has gone through a bit of a resurgence these past few years when talking about application stores for mobile platforms, with Apple, Google, Microsoft, BlackBerry, and their respective supporters, touting the amount of applications in their store as some sort of measure of quality - even though for each and every one of those stores, 99.5% of the applications within it are crap, at best, or spam, at worst.
I'd love it if companies released figures about this, but I'd guess that about 80% of applications in the App Store and Play Store aren't downloaded more than a few hundred times. Considering the installed base of both platforms, that's pathetic. You could remove all of this superfluous stuff from the stores, and nobody would care. In fact, Google removed 60000 applications from the Play Store in February; I doubt anyone cared.
While it is possible that consumers really don't like Metro and that thus, it is a contributing factor to Microsoft's lack of success, there's no way to confirm there's a causal relationship between the two. This is where the second point raised by Shum in the quote above comes into play.
Shum states that in order for Windows Phone to succeed, it can't just create a slightly better version of what the competition has to offer. Here, I think, is where Windows Phone's problems lie (and to a lesser extent, Windows 8's problems in mobile as well). As much as I personally like Windows Phone and prefer it over iOS and Android, I'm clear-minded enough to see that it simply isn't significantly better than the competition. There's nothing you can do on Windows Phone that you can't do on iOS or Android; in fact, I would say that there's a lot Windows Phone cannot do that especially Android can.
Even if you simply compare the base features iOS, Android, and Windows Phone have, there's nothing Windows Phone really does better. I personally think the interface is a bit more pleasant for the way I use my smartphone, but it's not like moving back to iOS or Android (or even Symbian Belle) leaves me craving for my preferred platform.
Sure, Windows Phone is distinctly different from its competitors in how it looks, but just as quantity does not equate to quality, nor does being different. Microsoft's advertising for Windows Phone and Windows 8 focuses heavily on this particular aspect - being different - but if users don't see any benefits they won't care about it at all.
In order for Microsoft to convince users to switch to Windows Phone, the company has to offer significant advantages over the competition, and so far, they have simply failed to do so. I have no idea what Microsoft needs to do in order to overcome this problem, but it looks like what they've been doing so far has not made much of a difference. While carriers may play a role in the US and other restricted smartphone markets, many of us Europeans are free to choose whatever we want - so no, I don't think carriers are the solution to Microsoft's problems either.
BlackBerry is in the same boat as Microsoft, and Ubuntu, Mozilla, and Jolla are all in danger of joining them. These newcomers to the market need to take a long and hard look at what Microsoft has been doing wrong with Windows Phone, and hopefully, learn from it. I don't want the current horror scenario of an 80-20 split between Android and iOS respectively to be maintained for much longer.


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Jesse Heikkila, 7, is battling Stage 4 neuroblastoma and was due to return home from the hospital Thursday but problems developed with his breathing machine.
Friends, family, well-wishers and yellow balloons lined North Main Street on Thursday afternoon in hopes of welcoming home 7-year-old Jesse Heikkila when he returned from the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
But hopes were dashed when problems developed with Jesse's breathing machine and he was not discharged.
Brockton natives William and Ann Gilbert waited patiently for their grandson, who was expected to arrive with a state police escort.
With tears in her eyes, Ann Gilbert said, "He's coming home on hospice."
She said her grandson was all packed and ready to go before his discharge was cancelled.
"Jesse's going to be heartbroken ... pray," she said.
"He just wants to go home. He's always in pain," said Jesse's uncle Peter Gilbert, who was waiting with Jesse's tiny pet dog Chico, a Chihuahua pup who was a Christmas present.
The family was hoping to try one more cure to treat Jesse's Stage 4 neuroblastoma.
But Gilbert said, "Right now he's not eligible for any other treatment. He's not well enough."
As word spread that Jesse's homecoming would be delayed, his cousin Adam Heikkila, a Navy chief petty officer on leave from the USS Tennessee, said of the family, "They just want him to come home."
Richard and Heather Swank braved the frigid temperatures, darting in and out of the library to warm up. The couple has never met Jesse, but they have been following his progress on Facebook and said in unison, "We're here to welcome him home."
Jesse's mother said she is not sure when she will bring her son home.
"He had a major setback with his oxygen requirements just prior to our planned discharge. We hope he improves tonight," wrote Suzanne Heikkila in an email to The Enterprise.


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I signed up for the Secret Santa event over on Pixelation. Secret Santa, in case you're unfamiliar, is a sort of gift-swapping event where everyone signs up, and then all the participants are PM'd with the person they're giving their gift to so they can plan accordingly.
In this case, your goal as a participant is to sprite something for your giftee, based on what they posted as their interests in the Secret Santa thread.
My giftee (Kren) said he likes mechatronics, and having looked up what it is I couldn't think of much that's truly related.
So, I started a mockup of a game based around the concept of a butt-baby between DoDonPachi and the Metal Slug series.
Anywho, this is the progress thread, for feedback. Post as you see fit. I'll be updating every now and then to show progress and get critique from those of you who give it.


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The Henry Lee Willis Center, a social service agency that lost its state funding last month, will close all its programs and lay off 158 full- and part-time employees by Feb. 6.
Carlton A. Watson, the Willis Center�s executive director, said in an emailed statement Thursday morning that the center is working with the state �to ensure our clients are provided with quality, uninterrupted care during this time of transition.�
Mr. Watson�s statement continued: �As individual contracts come to an end and specific programs are eliminated, the Willis Center will be conducting layoffs of employees through Feb. 6, at which time the center�s program operations will cease. Some staff will be retained on a temporary basis to assist with transition planning, and we anticipate others will be assumed by similar organizations in the service area.�
According to a notice of layoffs that the Willis Center made with the state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, the Willis Center will lay off 38 case managers, 32 direct care staff, nine program directors, seven directors of various programs, and positions such as residential counselors (six), clinicians (six) and therapeutic mentors (seven).
�Absent some extraordinary circumstance � all employees will be laid off no later than that date� of Feb. 6, said the filing, which was signed by Mr. Watson on Dec. 20, 2012. �This closing is intended to be permanent, not temporary.�
The layoffs may also shut down about 20 offices and residential programs throughout Worcester County, including the administration offices at 119 Forest St. and 44 Front St., both in Worcester.
A spokesman for the state Executive Office of Health and Human Services, Alec Loftus, said the state is working closely with the Willis Center to develop transition plans for all of the clients of the Willis Center. The state is working to ensure that all clients continue to receive services from other agencies.
According to the layoff notice, facilities and offices that are potentially closing in Worcester are: Family Care Worcester on Front Street; Families & Communities Together on May Street; Shepherd�s Place I and II on Paine Street and Ives Street; Channing House on Catharine Street; Footsteps on Woodland Street; Linda Fay Griffin House on Northampton Street; Next Step on Queen Street; Tides/Vision House on Wyman Street; Casa La Vida on Providence Street; the Neighborhood Serv-Food Pantry on Tacoma Street; and the Neighborhood Serv-Plumley on Laurel Street.
Also potentially closing down will be the Willis House in Hudson; Hope House in Leicester; an office on Parker Street in Gardner; and Family Care Northeast, in Methuen.
The Willis Center, which has been a nonprofit in the city since 1991, operates social services programs in Worcester and surrounding towns, including substance recovery services, child and adolescent services, neighborhood services, developmental services and homeless family services, according to the organization�s website. It also offered counseling and residential treatment to people with HIV and AIDS, according to documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service.
The nonprofit has a $12.6 million annual budget, of which $11.6 million came from four state agencies: the Department of Public Health, the Department of Child and Family Services, the Department of Developmental Services and the Department of Housing and Community Development.
Between January and June 2012, the organization eliminated a $285,000 deficit, and was running a surplus, Mr. Watson said in a previous statement concerning the Willis Center�s finances. Last month, the Willis Center reduced its full- and part-time staff by 24 positions, from 185 to 161.
The center had announced in December that it would continue operating for 60 days, hoping that its finances would improve and it would stay open for business.
The state has not laid out the reasons behind the shutoff of state funds. Mr. Loftus previously said the state contracts were canceled �based on serious concerns with financial management and client care issues.�
The Willis Center had been financially troubled for some time, having had to close several programs and lay off dozens of employees five years ago. In January 2011, the nonprofit struggled to meet its payroll for its 185 full- and part-time employees.


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Join Le-Vel during the month of December in raising funds for Toys for Tots. Help children in need get the toys they deserve this holiday season.
This December, Le-Vel will be making a donation of $5 for every limited edition Holiday DFT or Holiday DUO pack sold in YOUR team of Promoters and Customers.This donation will go to the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, Toys for Tots Program (ToysForTots.org).
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ST. LOUIS (AP) — U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is meeting with the parents of Michael Brown, the 18-year-old fatally shot by a police officer.
Holder was meeting with them Wednesday evening in the U.S. attorney's office in downtown St. Louis. He also planned to meet with Missouri's congressional delegation.
The attorney general flew to Missouri Wednesday morning and made several visits around the area, including to a community college and a restaurant in Ferguson near where Brown was shot on Aug. 9.
Holder has pledged experience federal officials will independently investigate whether there were any civil rights violations connected to Brown's death. Brown was black and the officer who shot him is white.


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At the age of 4 years, my father, Lionel Albert, emigrated from England to Australia. He travelled on board the "Perthshire" with his parents and 2 siblings in 1912. Dad's father, Samuel Albert Mayell, descended from a line of stone masons. He came to Australia specifically to work for Frank Williams in Ipswich. Frank Williams had a high... more...


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Kal made me this huge cake for my birthday. A total surprise and so tasty people were begging me for slices for days afterwards!! Love him
Piece of Cake Epoxy Stickers
Classic Stamped Frames Brushes and Stickers No. 01
Snowy Christmas Kit papers and brads
Birthday Hand Drawn Words Brushes and Stamps
Best Layered Template


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Ready, Set, Go!
Saturday marks the official start of the 46th annual Consortium Orientation Program aka 'OP'. A couple of months ago I was complaining (yes, I called myself out) about the companies that were attending and the lack of opportunities that I REALLY wanted to pursue. Gotta say, that while I still believe the overall list of … Continue reading


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RUTLAND — At 124 East County Road, there were few signs Tuesday that a homicide had taken place inside the red and white house on a corner lot.
The yellow crime scene tape that had marked the yard since Saturday was gone. There was no Rutland police cruiser parked nearby, no state troopers coming and going, no news trucks waiting for any new developments.
At midday, a postal truck pulled up and the man inside tucked some mail into the dented mailbox at the end of the driveway where David J. Alan had lived what neighbors characterized as a solitary life. A few newspapers sat, uncollected, in an adjacent post box, and a wheelbarrow stood in the back of the house.
Mr. Alan's body was found Saturday by police who had been summoned to his home to check on a missing person that morning.
There were no updates Tuesday from Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr.'s office as state police detectives assigned there continued to work on the case. On Monday, a detective visited the Holden home of Mr. Alan's older brother, Michael S. Dowjat, although it was unclear whether Mr. Dowjat was at home.
Holden police logs show an ambulance was called to the Dowjat residence about 10:30 p.m. Sunday and one person was taken to the UMass Memorial Medical Center — University Campus in Worcester.
A spokesman for the hospital confirmed that Mr. Dowjat had been a patient and he was released Tuesday. No information was available about why he had been hospitalized.
Mr. Alan, described as quiet and reclusive, had few friends, neighbors said. His father lived with him until his death in 1993. Mr. Alan and his brother, Mr. Dowjat, appear to have had a contentious relationship several years ago. Though the two have different last names, court papers identify them as brothers.
The men, along with their father, were involved in probate court actions in the late 1980s and early 1990s over a $10,000 bond that Mr. Dowjat believed should be shared with him after the death of his mother.
At one point, the elder Mr. Dowjat and Mr. Alan both sought restraining orders against Mr. Dowjat, though those appear to have expired after a year.
Police in Rutland were familiar with Mr. Alan, who, according to the police log, was a frequent caller in 2009, though the number of times he summoned police dropped off significantly from 2010 to 2014. His property was posted with signs reading "Keep Out" and "Private Property." Some of the calls he made were about attempted break-ins, though the log did not indicate any arrests in those instances.
Contact Kim Ring at email@example.com.


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G4251, New April 1994
Cotton is a slow-growing plant, and only a limited selection of herbicides can be used for cotton weed control. These two factors sometimes make weed control difficult.
Cotton is a semi-tropical, perennial plant. Although it is grown as an annual crop, cotton's growth habit is more like trees than corn or soybeans. Its growth is especially slow in the northern Cotton Belt, where it is often planted early into cool soils. Early in the season, cotton often seems to "just sit there." Unfortunately, cool weather does not stop the growth of most weeds.
Because herbicides are expensive to develop, most are developed for large-acreage crops, such as corn and soybeans. Compared to these crops, cotton acreage is small, which reduces incentive to develop new herbicides for cotton. This limits the available herbicides. Those that are available often have narrow selectivity (safety) margins relative to crop tolerance.
At this time there are no selective, over-the-top, broadleaf herbicides available for cotton. Post-emergence broadleaf control is accomplished with herbicides that can injure cotton but that are applied in a directed spray that misses most of the cotton plant. Because of the availability and good performance of post-emergence grass herbicides, weed control programs should emphasize controlling broadleaf weeds. A selective broadleaf herbicide (Staple), a Buctril (bromoxynil) tolerant cotton variety and a Roundup (glyphosate) tolerant cotton variety may be available soon as over-the-top, broadleaf control options.
As with all crops, the weeds most difficult to control in cotton are the ones most closely related to the crop. Velvetleaf (often called wild cotton), spurred anoda and prickly sida (teaweed) often escape cotton herbicides. Botanists group these weeds and cotton in the Mallow or Malvaceae family.
This publication provides an overview of standard weed control practices and an explanation of the concepts of cotton weed control. Most weed control practices are eventually customized for individual farms and fields. This publication is intended to serve as a starting point for new cotton growers.
Cotton requires intensive herbicide applications, intensive cultivation and hand hoeing. Because weed control is difficult, cotton should not be planted into extremely weedy fields.
A solid program of pre-plant incorporated and pre-emergence herbicides, followed by post-emergence directed herbicides, is needed for successful cotton weed control. Scouting for weeds the season before can help you plan a weed control program for optimal performance and minimal cost.
Consult Table 1 to compare herbicides for their control of particular weeds..Weed control guides do not substitute for herbicide labels. Always read the label before applying a pesticide. Labels change regularly.
Table 1Weed response to cotton herbicides. Use this table as a guide for comparing the relative effectiveness of herbicides on individual weeds. Herbicides may perform better or worse than indicated due to extreme weather conditions and other variables. If you are obtaining satisfactory results under your growing conditions, changing products as a result of information in this table is not necessarily recommended.
The herbicide fluometuron (Cotoran or Meturon) is essential to a cotton weed control program. Fluometuron in cotton is much like atrazine in corn:
Fluometuron also supplies some suppression of velvetleaf, spurred anoda and prickly sida. Like most soil-applied herbicides, the fluometuron rate depends upon soil texture. Cotton has fair tolerance to fluometuron, but injury can occur if rates are excessive or if the soil texture is coarse. Injury can be a problem in mixed soils with sandy areas.
It is important to remember that if pre-emergence broadleaf control is inadequate and weeds grow as tall as or taller than the cotton, post-directed herbicide applications will be ineffective. A small amount of fluometuron injury may be preferable to poor weed control. Most cotton growers apply fluometuron pre-emergence, after planting, in a band over the row. Banding reduces herbicide costs but requires early cultivation to control weeds in the row middles.
A pre-plant-incorporated grass/small-seeded broadleaf herbicide is also essential for the weed pressure in most fields. These products include trifluralin (Treflan, Trilin, Tri-4, Trifluralin) and Prowl. Prowl or Dual (metolachlor) may be used pre-emergence for no-till cotton; however, Dual occasionally injures cotton.
If velvetleaf, spurred anoda or prickly sida is present in the field, the herbicides norflurazon (Zorial) or clomazone (Command) should be used in addition to fluometuron. Zorial is most effective in a split application where half is applied pre-plant incorporated and half is applied pre-emergence (typically banded behind the planter). Command by itself can kill cotton. If Command is to be used, either Disyston or Thimet insecticides must be used in-furrow at planting. These insecticides act as an antidote to "safen" cotton and minimize the risk of Command injury. Command may be applied either PPI or PRE. Low Command rates (4 to 8 ounces of product per acre) may be used for velvetleaf control.
Command should be used with caution since it is extremely active on several vegetable, horticultural and ornamental plants and tends to vaporize and drift from the soil. Because of this problem, incorporation is required in Illinois and the northeastern United States. Consult the Command label for application restrictions. Lower rates and incorporation can be used to reduce the drift problem while still providing excellent velvetleaf control.
With Command or Zorial, it is sometimes possible to forgo a dinitroanaline-grass/small-seeded broadleaf herbicide. However, pigweed often escapes such programs. Test strips should be used on a field-by-field basis to determine if the grass/small-seeded broadleaf herbicide can be eliminated.
The insecticides Disyston and Thimet (which safen cotton to Command) can interact with the herbicides fluometuron (Cotoran, Meturon), diuron (Karmex, Direx) and linuron (Lorox, Linex) to injure cotton. This injury is usually slight with fluometuron, but is usually severe with diuron and linuron.
With favorable environmental conditions, the soil-applied herbicide program will give cotton a two- to four-week head start on weeds, after which the herbicides break down and weeds begin to emerge. Post-emergence directed herbicide applications are made to control the emerging weeds. "Post-directed" sprayers are often mounted on cultivators so that the grower bands the herbicide on the drill and cultivates the row middles at the same time. If post-directed sprays are not applied in a timely manner, weeds can quickly grow too tall and the cotton-to-weed height differential will be lost. Plan to apply directed sprays approximately two weeks after planting, but scout for weeds before spraying.
BewareAn untimely rain can interfere with your spray plans and allow weeds to grow too tall to be controlled!
Cotton typically is treated with post-emergence directed herbicides at a 3- to 8-inch height and at an 8- to 14-inch height. Sometimes a third "lay-by" application is applied when the row middles are lapping and no further cultivation will be possible.
Most directed treatments act as contact herbicides, although many provide residual control. Cotton leaves that are sprayed will be killed. If cotton terminals are sprayed, delayed maturity and yield loss can occur.
The most important factor for post-emergence directed treatments is the adjustment of the sprayer. Figure 1 shows a diagram and photo of typical directed sprayers. The adjustment must balance good weed coverage (for good weed control) with minimal cotton coverage (for minimal crop injury). Off-center spray tips are often used and tips are aimed so that the spray is higher in the row middle but relatively low on the cotton plant. Aiming the spray tip backwards and down (rather than straight down) also reduces the exposure to cotton.
Figure 1Typical post-emergence directed sprayers with shoes to control height of spray.
Good coverage is important for adequate weed control, but lower pressures (approximately 30 psi) should be used to keep spray mist from blowing into the foliage and causing excessive injury. Taller cotton is more tolerant of directed sprays — the terminal is higher and farther away from the spray and lower leaves are less important. Any variability in cotton height across a field should be considered. Short cotton can be severely injured by a sprayer adjusted for taller cotton.
With cotton 8 inches and taller, directed sprays can be applied as high as 2 to 3 inches up the cotton stalk. When cotton is 3 to 6 inches tall, it is best to keep the spray off of the foliage. However, if weeds are almost as tall as the cotton, a "Sloppy Directed" application may be made. With "Sloppy Directed" applications, herbicides are applied higher and cover more of the cotton plant. MSMA, DSMA and fluometuron are usually used because they cause less injury to cotton, but crop injury will still be significant. "Sloppy Directed" applications should be reserved for cases where the need for weed control will outweigh herbicide damage to the crop. Again, it is important to keep sprays off of cotton terminals.
Most post-directed applications include the herbicide MSMA or DSMA mixed with a "broadleaf" herbicide. MSMA and DSMA provide good grass control and suppress nutsedge and broadleaves. MSMA and DSMA are particularly good for cocklebur control, although MSMA- and DSMA-resistant cocklebur are occasionally found in the Cotton Belt. MSMA and DSMA can be carefully directed under cotton at least 3 inches tall. Most, but not all, formulations contain surfactants, which improve the activity of MSMA/DSMA and of tank-mix herbicides. Consult herbicide labels to determine if a surfactant or crop oil is needed.
Directed broadleaf herbicides include Bladex, Cobra, Cotoran/Meturon, Goal and Karmex/Direx Lorox/Linex. They also provide some grass control. These herbicides all require a weed-crop height differential and all cause injury if applied to cotton foliage or terminals. Cotoran/Meturon may be directed to cotton 3 inches or taller. Bladex, Cobra and Goal require that cotton be at least 6 inches tall, and Karmex/Direx and Lorox/Linex require a minimum cotton height of 8 inches.
Some growers use fewer directed applications than others. Scouting and a well-planned weed control program can optimize the use of directed sprays.
The importance of good pre-emergence weed control, followed by post-emergence directed applications, cannot be overemphasized. However, unusual weather conditions (lack of activating rainfall or excessive rainfall) can cause failures in pre-emergence broadleaf weed control and can eliminate the crop-to-weed height differential. Cotton has slight tolerance to foliar applications of fluometuron (Cotoran, meturon) and MSMA/DSMA. These materials are occasionally applied over the top of young cotton as a salvage treatment to create a crop-to-weed height differential for directed sprays.
Fluometuron (at 1/2 pound ai per acre) occasionally provides good salvage weed control and no crop injury when applied over the top of cotyledon-stage cotton. However, this treatment occasionally kills cotyledon- and larger-stage cotton and does not always provide good weed control.
MSMA and DSMA are also used regularly for salvage. Cotton is temporarily injured and discolored, although it often recovers from over-the-top applications. MSMA and DSMA provide little control of velvetleaf.
Although salvage treatments are routinely used by some growers, they have the potential to reduce cotton stands and yields. It is up to the individual grower to decide if the weed control will make the crop injury worthwhile. The future availability of Staple and Buctril-tolerant and Roundup-tolerant cultivars will be a welcome addition for over-the-top, broadleaf weed control.
If grass weeds escape a weed control program, the post-emergence, selective grass herbicides can be used in cotton just as they are used in soybeans. These include Assure, Fusilade, Poast and Select. These herbicides provide good grass control without injuring cotton. Bermudagrass can be a problem in cotton because it is tolerant of MSMA and DSMA; however, it can be managed with the selective grass herbicides.
Phenoxy herbicidesCotton is extremely sensitive to phenoxy (2,4-D, Butyrac) herbicides. Avoid planting cotton near corn, sorghum or rice that will be treated with 2,4-D or near soybeans that will be treated with 2,4-DB. Spray equipment that has applied phenoxy herbicides should be thoroughly flushed, soaked overnight with a 1 percent solution of household ammonia (1 gallon of ammonia in 100 gallons of water) and flushed again before spraying cotton.
It is important to note the following information: In Arkansas, where cotton acreage is significantly higher than corn acreage, it is illegal to apply 2,4-D within one-fourth mile of a cotton field with ground equipment and illegal to make an aerial application within four miles. This law is not in place in Missouri because corn acreage is many times higher than cotton acreage.
Although a few growers successfully use 2,4-D as a burndown in no-tillage cotton, this practice is not labeled because of the risk of crop injury. Even though 2,4-D is a post-emergence herbicide, it has approximately three weeks of residual soil activity.
Rope-wickingRoundup may be applied through a wick-bar to control large escaped weeds. It is important that the wick bar drips little and that weeds be at least 6 inches taller than the cotton. If Roundup contacts cotton, there may be few visible symptoms, but fruiting is severely disrupted and inhibited.
Perennial vinesWoody, perennial weeds and vines are often present in parts of cotton fields. Common species include trumpetcreeper and redvine. These weeds grow slowly and generally have little effect on cotton. At this time the best herbicide option is application of Roundup as a part of the defoliation, harvest preparation program. The herbicides 2,4-D and Banvel are not registered for use the winter before cotton is to be planted. Perennials are worse in reduced tillage situations. Spot treatment is recommended in most cases because these weeds usually occur in patches.
Cotton stand failureBecause of the short, cool growing season and poor early planting conditions that frequently occur in the northern Cotton Belt, cotton stands often fail, after which it is too late for cotton to be replanted. If pre-emergence herbicides have been banded, soybeans can often be planted into the untreated zones that previously were the cotton row middles. Soybeans are very tolerant of Command and Treflan, moderately tolerant of Zorial (Zorial is approved for use in soybeans) but are not tolerant of Bladex, Cotoran or Karmex/Direx. Planting soybeans between bands of injurious herbicides leaves little room for error and must be done at the grower's risk.
Reduced tillageMany growers successfully grow cotton in stale seedbed, reduced tillage or absolute no-tillage situations. Because cotton weed control is difficult, reduced tillage cotton should be grown with caution. If no pre-plant tillage is to be conducted, complete burndown is required. There are virtually no options to clean up escapes from burndown treatments.
Growers who are familiar with the weed pressure on their farm and have carefully developed practices to manage their weeds can obtain excellent burndown with relatively little herbicide. However, the personnel from the University of Tennessee No-Till Station in Milan, Tenn., normally recommend two burndown applications, since there is no shortage of fields with severe weed pressure. Roundup should be applied at 1 quart per acre two weeks before planting, and Gramoxone should be applied at 1 quart per acre (plus surfactant) at planting.
A grower familiar with reduced tillage in other crops can quickly develop a successful no-till cotton program for his or her farm. Growers unfamiliar with cotton or no-till should begin with a small area and should not commit to large acreages until they have developed a successful program for their farm.
Absolute no-till can be more difficult, since cultivation is an integral part of conventional cotton. This makes reduced tillage alternatives such as ridge till, stale seedbed and no-till cultivators popular.
Order publications online at http://extension.missouri.edu/explore/shop/ or call toll-free 800-292-0969.


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Custom Made Orange Slice Chairs
Apr 27, 2012 2:38:49 PM
While furniture for the home or office must be comfortable and practical, it can also be whimsical and playful. Chairs do not always have to have the same visual vocabulary, and nobody demonstrates that better than French modern classic furniture designer Pierre Paulin. Paulin's "Orange Slice" chair is playful, light, astonishingly simple and even graceful in design –a stark contrast to most accent chairs that come across as heavy and boxy. Set on a sturdy yet slender polished stainless steel tube frame, the Orange Slice chair is composed of two identically curved, elliptically-shaped halves, one forming the seat and one forming the back rest. Each half is composed of high density foam and upholstered in any number of colors. When viewed from the side, the Orange Slice chair almost looks like a tulip opening up from the center with the cushions as its petals and the steel tube frame standing in for a stem. Each cushion is shaped in a way that resembles an orange slice, giving the chair its rather unusual name.
Paulin has a strong background in sculpture, having studied stone carving and clay modeling in Paris before turning to furniture design in 1958. Paulin's sculptural vocabulary is fully evident in the Orange Slice chair, which turns out to be more of a sculpture that is suitable for sitting in than a simple, functional chair. Paulin's influence on modern classic furniture design continued to grow and develop with the designs of several different chairs and sofas during the second half of the 20th century and into the 21st, including such innovations as the "Tongue" chair, a low-lying, gently curving lounge chair designed in 1966 and the "Pumpkin" sofa, a solid, three-seat sofa made of one continuous block of fabric and padding, shaped somewhat like a pumpkin, designed in 2007.
EZ Mod Furniture is proud to feature reproductions of Paulin's modern classic furniture designs, especially the Orange Slice chair. The simplicity and playfulness of the Orange Slice chair is sure to bring a splash of fun to any home or office. EZ Mod feature's this unique chair in either red, yellow or green fabric, as well as off-white or gray microfiber to suit any color scheme. And where other modern classic furniture stores sell Paulin's iconic chair for nearly $600, EZ Mod features the orange slice chair at just $299. If you're looking for something interesting to liven up your home or office furniture, come to EZ Mod today.
Emily G
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text: Toronto FC lucky to beat lowly Impact - The London Free Press May 28, 200812:00AM PDT Previous Next MONTREAL -- Toronto FC head coach John Carver said earlier this week that he considered last night's Canada Cup match against the Montreal Impact a 10 out of 10, in terms of importance to his side. But it was the lower-ranked Impact that played as if the match -- the first ever between the two sides -- was of crucial importance. The Impact, of the inferior United Soccer Leagues, gave Toronto FC, of Major League Soccer, everything they could handle and more at the brand new Stade Saputo in suburban Montreal in front of 12,083 shivering fans. In the end, playing with a man advantage from early in the second half, Toronto FC prevailed, 1-0, on a beautiful header by Puerto Rican national team defender Marco Velez from a free kick by Laurent Robert in the 72nd minute. But they were fortunate for the result. The Impact is 2-4-1 in USL First Division play and has not scored a goal in its last three games. If the Impact had any finish to their game, they would have led early and often last night. They forced the action for most of the game, but time and again came up empty. The visiting side started controlling the pace of the match in the late stages as the Impact ran out of steam. The Canada Cup is a three-team round robin tournament, featuring Toronto FC against the Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps of the USL, with the winner representing Canada at the CONCACAF Champions League event later this season. Carver was forced to make three substitutions to his starting lineup from last Saturday's game in Washington. Midfielders Amada Guevara (Honduras) and Maurice Edu (United States) are fulfilling national team obligations while defender Tyrone Marshall is still out with a sore hamstring. Jeff Cunningham started in place of Guevara, while Kevin Harmse was in for Edu and Olivier Tebily for Marshall. Previous Next


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Two people were found dead inside a burned car early Saturday after Jackson County Sheriff's deputies responded to a report of a car crash.
The crash happened at Milton Thompson and Langsofrd roads, in the area southwest of Lake Lotawna. http://goo.gl/maps/Z4HUa
Initially, Jackson County got a call reporting a careless driver in the area of Missouri 7 and Liggett Road in south Blue Springs. As deputies approached the area, around 12:30 a.m., they got another call, this time about a vehicle fire at Milton Thompson and Langsford.
Firefighters from Prairie Township Fire Protection District quickly extinguished the fire in the vehicle, which was upside down off the roadway in the 10700 block of Milton Thompson.
Deputies found the remains of two people inside the vehicle.
Investigators were able to determine that the vehicle was southbound at a high rate of speed when the driver lost control. The vehicle ran off the east side of the road, hit a large rock and overturned.
The victims have not been identified.


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Linked by JoanneRodgers on Thu 15th May 2008 23:02 UTC
In a June 2003 Wired Magazine interview, Martha Stewart said, "Bill Gates' house, for example, is totally out of date now. He built it right before wireless happened. The big tunnels for all his wires - he doesn't need any of that stuff anymore." The article wasn't about networking, or even technology, but I was struck by that statement because it was echoed by several people when I was explaining that I was running many thousands of feet of cable in OSNews' "house of the future." "Is all that cable really necessary now that there's wireless everything?" people said. As much as I respect Martha Stewart's business and design acumen, neither she, nor those people who talked to me, know what they're talking about. When it comes to networking, there's no substitute for a wire, when a wire's available. -- This is the latest entry in our 2008 Article Contest.
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RE[4]: Powerline and the bus
by Tyr. on Sun 18th May 2008 01:07 UTC in reply to "RE[3]: Powerline and the bus"
Read, understand and stop being an ass, you're embarrassing the real professionals :


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What Small-Business Owners Want to Hear in State of the Union Speech
By Chairman Sam Graves
January 23, 2012
What do small-business owners want from the government? The short answer: Move out of the way.
Eight out of 10 small-business owners say they want the government to stay out of the way instead of providing a "helping hand," according to a recent U.S. Chamber of Commerce survey. Eighty-six percent said they would rather have more certainty than more assistance.
As President Barack Obama gives his third State of the Union address Tuesday night and presents his legislative agenda for the year, I hope he takes note that small-business owners around the country will be waiting to hear (hopefully) how Washington will step back and allow them to expand without more government interference.
This includes lowering taxes and simplifying the Tax Code. Small-business owners spend too much money and time filling out government forms just to pay their taxes. The more time and resources spent on tax compliance, the less an entrepreneur has to hire employees and grow. Four of the top 10 small-business problems are tax-related, according to a recent National Federation of Independent Business study. With the U.S. Tax Code now nearly 70,000 pages and roughly 3.8 million words, we need a Tax Code that is simple and fair, and that promotes economic growth.
It would be music to every small-business owner's ears to hear the president call on his agencies to roll back costly regulations. Small firms bear a regulatory cost of $10,585 per employee, 36 percent higher than the cost of regulatory compliance for large businesses. In fact, small-business owners say the cost of regulatory compliance is the most important problem they face today, according to a recent Gallup Poll.
"Agencies just don't get it," David Frulla, a partner at Kelley Drye and Warren, said at a recent House Small Business Committee hearing. "They really don't get and understand the impacts that their regulations have on small businesses, and so they just proceed; others have their mission; and they don't care."
Small-business owners also want to know if they must continue competing against the federal government for contract work. They have proven that they can do the work — and do it more cheaply and more quickly.
Any avenue to save taxpayer dollars, increase competition and spark growth is the route we should be taking. Small businesses are recognized as the engine of job creation in America — and allowing them every opportunity to compete fuels that engine.
Around the bend are 2,500 pages of the new health care law that is expected to be enacted this year — and small businesses want to know exactly what to expect. According to a recent survey, 74 percent of small-business owners say this tsunami of health care regulations makes it harder for them to hire more employees.
Brian Vaughn, president of Nearly Famous, emphasized this at a recent committee hearing, "Given the harm the new health care law is going to wreak on our business," Vaughn said, "as well as the uncertainty and the pain caused by other regulations, I fear that neither of these dreams [to expand] nor my plans to achieve them will be possible. … My worry is that everything I have worked for will be wiped out."
Small businesses that export would like to hear a commitment that the government won't stand in the way of opening new markets worldwide and will lower the tariffs for their products and services. This includes joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership, re-enacting trade promotion authority and strengthening the enforcement of illegal and unfair trade practices.
Along with opening new markets, we need to make the export process easier. This means coordinating federal and state agencies to clearly outline the process and regulations involved with exporting to a new market.
These are just a few of the things small-business owners would like to hear addressed in the State of the Union speech. They don't want to hear about more proposals, "shovel ready" projects or directives. They want to be set free — free to prosper without costly government interference.
As we have seen over and over, government does not create jobs or produce long-term economic growth. The private sector does. The faster Washington releases the reins, the faster we will see Americans back on the job and economic prosperity abound.
Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) is chairman of the House Small Business Committee.
Read the Article Online HERE


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Guava-BBQ Mahi Mahi with Shrimp Fried Rice
This is a mouth-watering combination of flavors. A tangy guava glaze covers the fish grilled to perfection. Shrimp-fried rice is a great accompaniment.
For the Barbecue sauce:
10 oz. guava jelly
2 tsp. mustard powder
4 tbsp. white vinegar
1 tsp. cumin
2 shallots, chopped
1⁄4 cup dry sherry
3 tbsp. tomato paste
2 tbsp. corn syrup
For fried rice:
1⁄4 cup vegetable oil
4 cups cold cooked rice
1 lb. rock shrimp, peeled
4 eggs, beaten
1⁄2 cup coconut, shredded
4 scallions, chopped
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
2 tbsp. soy sauce
Mint, for garnish
8-8 oz. mahi mahi fillets
1. For the barbecue sauce, combine sauce ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat and simmer for 21⁄2 hr., remove from heat and cool.
2. For rice, heat oil in a wok or large sauté pan until just smoking. Add rice and shrimp and sauté until hot, 3-5 min.
3. Reduce heat to medium, pour in beaten eggs, and stir so eggs coat rice grains. Add remaining ingredients and stir-fry 3 min. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Brush fish with sauce and place on grill. Grill until desired doneness, while continuing to brush with sauce. Serve with shrimp-fried rice on the side.


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November 2013 More than half of heroin-addicted patients treated with naltrexone via an implanted delivery device maintained abstinence throughout a 6-month clinical trial in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The implant device, which releases a steady dose of naltrexone continuously for 2 months, averted relapse to heroin use three times as effectively as daily oral doses of the medication.
October 2013
People with cannabis use disorder (CUD) are likely also to have social anxiety disorder (SAD), and comorbid SAD is associated with greater severity of cannabis-related problems. These findings highlight the importance of assessing CUD patients for SAD, as that disorder can be both a contributing cause and a consequence of CUD. Treating both disorders may be a key to helping patients recover from each.
August 2013 Regular cannabis use that starts in adolescence strips away IQ, a NIDA-supported study suggests. Participants who initiated weekly cannabis use before age 18 dropped IQ points in proportion to how long they persisted in using the drug. Persistent cannabis users' cognitive difficulties were evident to friends and family and measurable on a battery of tests.
May 2013 A new vaccine hindered the often-abused prescription opioids oxycodone and hydrocodone from entering the brain and suppressed one of the drugs' signature central nervous system effects. The findings warrant continued development of the vaccine as a potential aid in the treatment of oxycodone and hydrocodone abuse and dependence.
April 2013
Patients were more likely to take a rapid HIV test when substance abuse treatment programs offered the test onsite rather than referred for offsite testing. Patients were equally likely to accept and learn their HIV status whether the offer of onsite testing was accompanied by 30 minutes of risk reduction counseling or by 5 minutes of brief information on the testing procedure. Onsite testing accompanied by brief information was cost effective, taking into account the projected lifetime costs of treatment and the gains in health and longevity for detected cases.
April 2013 Marijuana-dependent outpatients who were treated with the medication gabapentin in a pilot clinical trial reduced their cannabis use more and reported fewer symptoms of drug withdrawal than patients who received a placebo.
February 2013
Nicotine sensitizes the mouse brain to the addictive effects of cocaine, according to recent NIDA-supported research. The results accord with the hypothesis that a person's initial use of an addictive substance physiologically sensitizes his or her brain to the rewarding and addictive effects of other substances. If the findings carry over to people, then preventing youths from smoking might reduce their vulnerability to cocaine abuse and addiction, and cocaine-dependent individuals might ease their path to recovery by quitting smoking.
February 2013 Despite the advances in treatment and prevention, roughly 50,000 new HIV infections still occur annually in the Nation. Research, in large part supported by NIDA, has produced a strategy to address this circumstance and break the epidemiological impasse: seek out HIV-infected individuals, particularly those in "hard-to-reach" groups that have minimal contact with the health care system; offer them HIV testing and treatment; and provide support to help them stay in treatment.
January 2013 Clinical trials of N-acetylcysteine to help people recovering from drug abuse avoid relapse have demonstrated only moderate efficacy. New NIDA-supported research shows that while a low dose of the medication activates receptors associated with lowered drug-seeking behavior, a higher dose appears to activate receptors associated with increased drug-seeking behavior. The result suggests that a medication or combination of medications that stimulate the receptor GluR2/3 and block mGluR5 may work better than N-acetylcysteine alone.
January 2013
Methadone treatment centers are not foci for serious criminal activity, according to a study that used crime reports and global positioning data to compare crime rates at various distances around methadone centers, hospitals, convenience stores, and residential neighborhoods.


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On April 20, 2010, an explosion tore apart the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, which was digging an exploratory well in the Macondo oil and gas prospect in the Gulf of Mexico. The explosion killed 11 workers, injured 17 more and led to the largest oil spill in U.S. history.
The January report from the president's National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling paints a troubling picture of the missteps, oversights and institutional flaws that led to the disaster–an overarching culture of lax safety measures in the oil and gas industry, and management and regulatory failures that led to cut corners and a lack of vigilance and preparedness.
"The immediate causes of the Macondo well blowout … reveal such systematic failures in risk management that they place in doubt the safety culture of the entire industry," the commission said in its report.
By the time the well was capped on July 15, it had released more than 200 million gallons of oil, or more than 4 million barrels, into the Gulf of Mexico–"a rich, productive marine ecosystem," the report says. The commission reports that 650 miles of Gulf coastal habitats have been "oiled."
Today, there are inklings that the industry and its regulators, armed with lessons from the Deepwater Horizon spill, are ready to move on. On Feb. 28, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) announced it had issued its first permit for deepwater drilling since the Deepwater Horizon disaster and a subsequent moratorium on deepwater drilling, which was lifted in October.
While news of the spill no longer dominates headlines, its effects remain. Its legal legacy and the regulatory effects it inspired will be lasting. And the long-term environmental, economic and health effects probably won't be understood for decades.
"The oil hasn't gone away. It's there killing and poisoning marine life, and we have no idea how much this is going to disrupt the ecosystem," says Rebecca Bratspies, a professor at the City University of New York School of Law. "BP's intensive use of dispersants drove oil from the surface and hid many effects of this … and we have no idea what it's going to do. This whole thing was a giant chemistry experiment."
Lengthy Litigation
The April 20 explosion also set off a protracted courtroom fight for the parties involved and a lengthy inquiry into what factors allowed the disaster to happen. On the civil litigation front, more than 300 federal lawsuits have been filed and consolidated into a multidistrict litigation before Judge Carl Barbier in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Plaintiffs in the private litigation seek compensation for harms and, in some cases, injunctive relief. They include survivors of the explosion, relatives of the deceased rig workers, environmentalists, landowners, commercial fishermen, resort and hotel operators, investors, and state and local governments. The federal government has also filed a civil suit, seeking penalties and damages for cleanup costs.
The scope of laws at play in these cases is broad and complex.
"No pun intended, but we're in uncharted territory here," says Richard Arsenault, whose Louisiana law firm Neblett, Beard & Arsenault is representing various claimants in spill-related litigation, including 900 coastal condo owners. "You've got a combination of general maritime law, the Oil Pollution Act, the Jones Act, seaworthiness claims, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, ERISA, securities, derivatives, RICO, environmental claims–all of those, many of which interact and overlap in complex ways. To further complicate the landscape, we're dealing with a variety of defendants facing different remedies and claims, and different rights in terms of how they can defend the claims."
In addition, complex contractual agreements exist among the defendants, which include BP, lessee of the rig; Transocean Ltd., owner of the rig; Cameron International, manufacturer of the faulty-blowout preventer; Halliburton, which laid the well's cement; and Anadarko Petroleum Co. and MOEX Offshore, part owners of the well.
The cases won't be easy to prove. Plaintiffs will have to show the harms they experienced were directly related to the spill–and tracing a particular harm to a particular polluter and pollutant is difficult, says William Buzbee, a law professor at Emory University and director of the school's Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program.
"If Exxon Valdez is any indication, the timeline will be long," he says, referring to the litigation that has been ongoing since 1989. "Historically, defendants in high-visibility litigation will make initial public statements about addressing harms and making people whole, but in reality they'll tenaciously defend themselves in litigation and try to weed out illegitimate claims. We'll likely see many years of litigation."
Potential claimants who cannot wait or don't wish to wait have the option of making a claim to a $20 billion spill relief fund that BP announced in June after meeting with President Obama.
"It's a rather unique dynamic where early on, a defendant puts up a substantial sum of money trying to aggressively resolve claims," Arsenault says. "It's a dynamic we don't see often in complex litigation, and I don't think we've ever seen something of this magnitude, where this amount of dollars has been put up to try to resolve claims in this way."
BP has said the fund will honor "legitimate claims" for damages made to the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF). The fund is being administered by Kenneth Feinberg, who himself has come under fire–some plaintiffs have criticized the claims process and accused him of bias because BP is paying his salary, while BP has complained that Feinberg overestimated damages owed to claimants.
"The same things were said about Feinberg as he was administering the 9/11 funds," says William Anaya, a partner in Arnstein & Lehr's environmental and litigation practices. "It's one of those thankless jobs where everybody can find criticism. The process seems only above board."
In February, the AP reported that nearly 490,000 claims had been filed, and the fund had paid $3.4 billion to 169,000 claimants, either in emergency payments for short-term losses or one-time checks–final payments in exchange for the right to sue BP. According to the AP, about 188,000 people have opted to take the final payment option. There have been reports that a group of plaintiff lawyers were encouraging their clients to accept payouts from the fund. Arsenault is among the lawyers who at press time were negotiating with the fund to fully resolve claims, with fund recipients releasing future claims.
"Our experience is if you have the appropriate documents, they've been paying properly and fairly," says Arsenault, whose clients have thus far received a variety of interim payments without giving any releases of future liability. A number of claimants, he says, are in a financial bind and need quick resolution to get back to business.
"The Ken Feinberg fund as an alternative to tort litigation is an interesting model," Buzbee says. "We're seeing a kind of real-life experiment going on as potential claimants and lawyers try to decide how best to proceed with likely certainty from the Feinberg-administered fund versus potential larger recoveries through litigation, which may be slower and more uncertain. There you see an actual legal change in motion that may change how future disasters are modeled."
Criminal Component
There's no question that the defendants in the civil litigation will also face criminal charges in connection to the explosion and spill, says David Uhlmann, director of the Environmental Law and Policy Program at University of Michigan Law School.
The Justice Department (DOJ) remains silent on its ongoing criminal investigation, but it could bring charges under a number of laws. The lead charges will likely be under the Clean Water Act, which makes it a crime to discharge oil into the exclusive economic zone of the U.S. in connection with drilling under the Outer Continental Lands Shelf Act without approval from the government. Uhlmann also expects charges under other laws, most likely the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Seaman's
Manslaughter Statute.
While charges seem inevitable, there's some question as to whether the DOJ will attempt to bring felony charges against BP and the other parties involved–the Clean Water Act is unique in that it provides both a misdemeanor negligence standard and a felony intentional standard.
"This seems to be the most egregious case we've known in our lifetimes," Anaya says. "Are they going to prosecute here, or is the Clean Water Act more or less toothless? Based on past prosecutions, it's impossible to prove a felony violation. But a misdemeanor would only result in a small fine and less than a year in jail. … If the government uncovers [proof that the defendants] knew for a long time it was really bad, you'll see a really remarkable
criminal prosecution."
Uhlmann says felony charges aren't inconceivable, but he agrees they would be difficult to prove. The government would have to show an intentional discharge.
"There is certainly a lot of reason to be critical of BP and the other companies involved, but I don't think there's any argument they intended to have this tragedy occur, so charging them with a felony would be a reach," he says.
Uhlmann expects the DOJ's investigation to reach similar conclusions to the Presidential Spill Commission–easily enough to justify criminal negligence charges.
"In prosecuting this case, the government will be sending a message to all of the companies involved in offshore drilling: that they share responsibility for ensuring safe drilling and the protection of the environment that sustains us all," Uhlmann says. "That responsibility was not met in the Gulf and has brought about the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history."
Regulatory Reforms
Although disastrous choices led to the Deepwater Horizon spill, the regulatory context in which those choices were made set the stage for such a disaster. Much of the regulatory blame has been directed at the former Minerals Management Service (MMS), the federal agency responsible for overseeing offshore drilling and production. About 60 agency inspectors are responsible for the country's 3,500 offshore rigs.
The Commission report points to lagging safety standards and the lack of federal regulations "covering some of the most critical decisions made on the Deepwater Horizon that affected the safety of the Macondo well." It cites, for example, the lack of requirements for cementing a well, testing the cement used and negative-pressure testing a well's integrity. The report questions the dominant role of the American Petroleum Institute (API)–the industry's lead lobbyist and public policy advocate–in developing safety standards for the oil and gas industry.
"The relationship between the American Petroleum Institute and the former MMS is an extremely troubling one. At least 100 API standards were adopted verbatim as the regulator's standards," says Bratspies, who co-wrote a white paper for the Center for Progressive Reform on regulatory failures leading to the blowout and spill.
Some of the effects of that influence are impossible to ignore in the face of Deepwater Horizon. For instance, Bratspies says, the API persuaded MMS not to take action on requiring acoustic triggers to remotely activate blowout preventers or ensuring that the shearing rams on blowout preventers would be effective on pipes that are growing increasingly thicker to withstand deep-sea conditions.
More broadly, API led the effort to kill a new, mandatory regulatory approach at MMS to replace largely voluntary safety practices. It also opposed revisions to the incident reporting rule to identify safety risks.
"API's job is to promote the interests of the petroleum industry, and the standards reflect the job they were paid to do," Bratspies says. "You don't even get the best practices that the industry is already using, because API is a consensus organization and you get what people can agree on–basically, the lowest common denominator."
In response to the Commission report, the API issued a statement that it was taking significant action to improve safety in offshore operations. It also cautioned against judging the industry from one incident.
In May 2010, as oil continued gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, the Department of the Interior Inspector General released a report on ethical lapses at MMS, including staffers accepting gifts from oil and gas production companies. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar called the report "further evidence of the cozy relationship between some elements of the MMS and the oil and gas industry."
The director of MMS resigned, and Salazar announced a restructuring of the agency, now named BOEMRE, to split its "conflicting missions" of energy development, enforcement and revenue collection–the MMS collected nearly $10 billion from the energy and mining industries in 2009.
"Separating the royalty/licensing from the oversight part is critical," says Bratspies, "but I'm reserving judgment. There are many of the same people, there's the same lack of resources. I hope their institutional culture is changing, but I haven't seen much to suggest it actually is. Real change is going to take both an infusion of new personnel and an infusion of money, and I'm not confident we'll get either given the political rhetoric right now."
The Commission report suggests that government oversight of oil industry operations needs supplementation by a self-policing safety organization similar to the nuclear power industry's non-profit Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO), designed to complement the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The INPO was launched after the meltdown at Three Mile Island prompted a transformation of the industry's safety culture.
In September 2010, BOEMRE adopted two new rules aimed at improving drilling safety, including one that makes mandatory a formerly voluntary program to identify, address and maintain safety hazards and environmental impacts–one of the rules API had fought against. New offshore projects will also require deeper environmental assessments to be submitted to BOEMRE as required under the National Environmental Policy Act–Deepwater Horizon and many other offshore rigs were exempted from the requirement through categorical exclusions.
"Because there wasn't a full environmental analysis of risk, there wasn't as much anticipation of risk or preparation to address risk," Buzbee says. "Future rigs will be required to undertake more substantive analysis. And at this point it's certainly going to be difficult for operators of offshore rigs to claim there were no risks or that they're easily handled."


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YAUTEPEC, Mexico (AP) — Gunmen grabbed a taxi driver near his home in this bustling central Mexico farm town in December and demanded a $3,000 ransom. His family paid but his captors killed him anyway.
A 22-year-old student was taken, slain and dumped by a highway after his family failed to produce $30,000. Gunmen broke into an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, picked out a hardware store owner, kidnapped and killed him, too.
In December alone, at least seven people were kidnapped in this town of 100,000 people, according to a tally by community organizers. All but one was slain, several after a ransom was paid to kidnappers that officials describe as a fragment of a nationwide drug cartel looking for new sources of income after authorities arrested and killed many of its leaders.
Frightened and furious, residents launched a series of protests outside city hall demanding government action. The state's tough-talking new public security chief took control of the municipal police department last month and sent hundreds of state police to Yautepec, promising prompt arrests.
But in this proving ground in Mexico's fight against a nationwide surge in kidnappings, people are still staying home after dark, watching the streets for strange cars and feeling sick with dread whenever a loved one doesn't come home on time.
Residents say the reinforcements are welcome but they have no confidence that government institutions they claim are rotten with corruption can have any real long-term impact on a problem that has reached epidemic proportions in this sunbaked stretch of sugarcane and tomato fields dotted with the weekend homes of Mexico City's upper-middle class.
The mayor dismisses their complaints as politically inspired "psychosis." In the absence of genuine statistics, no one really knows.
"At this moment there are roadblocks but we don't see any investigation. There's no information. That's the reason for the people's sense of impotence, for their grief," said Israel Serna, a state lawmaker for the leftist Citizens' Movement party who participated in the marches on city hall. "The people don't see their leader, their mayor, their congressman, facing the problem, so people start to organize."
Even officials acknowledge that the kidnapping spike is a direct result of Mexico's crackdown on organized crime. As the country waged its U.S.-backed offensive over seven years, larger gangs were dismantled. Thousands of lower-ranking criminals diversified into kidnapping, targeting prosperous and working-class families in places like Yautepec as quick, easy sources of cash. Last year, as Mexico and the U.S. touted the arrests of capos and said organized-crime-related murders were down, reported kidnappings hit a 16-year high.
The official count was 1,695 but government polls show that less than 2 percent of kidnappings are reported to police. If accurate, the real number of abductions would exceed 100,000 a year.
Yautepec sits in the center of a relatively prosperous and heavily populated stretch of suburbanizing countryside that stretches east from Cuernavaca, the capital of Morelos, the second smallest of Mexico's 31 states and among the top five in kidnappings per capita, according to federal statistics. Cuernavaca is one of the historic bases of the Beltran-Leyva cartel, a once-powerful drug-trafficking organization splintered in recent years by killings and arrests of its commanders.
One cell of Beltran-Leyva gunmen began kidnapping members of the state's rising middle class — shopkeepers, schoolteachers and prosperous farmers living along 30 miles of federal highway that slices from Cuernavaca through Yautepec to the larger city of Cuautla, said Jesus Alberto Capella, a former Tijuana police chief named last month as secretary of public security in Morelos.
"The lieutenants, the orphans, dedicated themselves to this type of criminal activity," Capella said. "The crisis in Yautepec has to do with this criminal group carrying out kidnappings more crudely than we're used to, killing its victims, who don't have great financial resources."
Cappella and the Morelos state prosecutor say they are looking hard at local government complicity with the kidnappers.
"Criminal organizations couldn't succeed anywhere in the world, carrying out such serious crimes, if they aren't helped by corrupt police, corrupt prosecutors, corrupt judges, corrupt institutions," Cappella said. "The most important war is the war in the streets, against criminality. The harder war is the second one, inside our institutions."
Yautepec Mayor Agustin Alonso said he knows he is under suspicion.
"We're all under investigation, all of us, even me, and since I have nothing to hide, here I am," he said. "My life is an open book."
Alonso, a member of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, said he knows of only six kidnappings in the city since he become mayor a year ago and dismisses the protests as spawned by false reports of kidnappings spread by members of opposing political parties who want to push him out of office.
"The people's fear created a psychosis and now they're assuming that a lot of people have been kidnapped when that isn't the case," he said. "Now they're reporting 10 kidnappings in a week that never happened. What's the goal? Maybe it's political ... I see political figures in these marches who want to tell the people, 'Look, I'm the solution. Vote for me.'"
President Enrique Pena Nieto pledged during his 2012 campaign that he would swiftly and sharply reduce the crimes that most affect ordinary Mexicans — homicide, kidnapping and extortion.
Under pressure, his administration announced on Jan. 28 that it was launching a 10-point anti-abduction strategy to be led by a new national anti-kidnapping czar, who told reporters that kidnapping had become "a national emergency."
The administration promised better coordination between state, federal and local governments, retraining of ineffective anti-kidnapping police units, development of a national database of kidnapping reports and tighter control of prisons where inmates run kidnapping rings from behind bars.
"Kidnapping can't be a crime that's profitable and low-risk for criminals," said Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, the country's most powerful law enforcement official.
That's exactly what it has become in Morelos, a short drive south of Mexico City.
Among the demonstrators outside Alonso's office has been Maria Ruth Gonzalez Vidales, 55, who owns a small clothing shop in the center of town. Her husband is an auto mechanic.
In 2012, their son Cesar, a 33-year-old architect and engineer, was kidnapped as he drove through Cuernavaca to visit his family in Yautepec. The family got together $10,000 and left it in packets of $2,000 in a cereal box in Cuernavaca. Five days later their son was found dead in the trunk of his car, a few hundred feet from the office of the state prosecutor, where the family had just reported him kidnapped.
"They haven't caught anybody," she said. "It's as if the kidnappers are saying to themselves, 'Nothing is going to happen, we'll keep up our wave of violence, of kidnappings, and no one will do anything.'"
She says she has no fear of retaliation for participating in the marches on city hall.
"I feel as if I'm already dead," she said. "I'm not afraid of anyone seeing me. I want everyone to know. I'm going to keep going and one day these people will pay."
Michael Weissenstein on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mweissenstein


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Problem with Lattice + Track To
Animation tools, character animation, non linear animation
Moderators: jesterKing, stiv
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3 posts • Page 1 of 1
Problem with Lattice + Track To
I want do an eye: eyeball and eyelids are parented to lattice, deformation works good (fig.4), rotations of deformed parts also (fig.5), but problem starts when Track To constraint is added to eyeball (compare fig.4 and fig.6).
It seems that first of all it is deformed by lattice, then rotated.
Is it possible to do rotation first and then deformation?
I tried to add Null constraint before and after rotation, but without effect.
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Items where Division is "Service facilities > Center for Molecular Biology Heidelberg" and Year is 1986
|Go back a level
Group by: Creators | Item Type | No Grouping
Number of items: 3.
Haeuptle, Marie-Theres ; Dobberstein, Bernhard (1986) Intracellular targeting and sorting of newly synthesized proteins. [Book Section]
Lipp, Joachim ; Dobberstein, Bernhard (1986) Signal Recognition Particle-dependent Membrane Insertion of Mouse Invariant Chain: A Membrane-spanning Protein with a Cytoplasmically Exposed Amino Terminus. The Journal of Cell Biology, 102. pp. 2169-2175.
Lipp, Joachim ; Dobberstein, Bernhard (1986) The membrane-spanning segment of invariant chain (I gamma) contains a potentially cleavable signal sequence. Cell, 46. pp. 1103-1112.