text:
Alan Rigerman pokes his head out the door of his little gray house in Northwest Miami-Dade and emits a crackle of excited greetings. He is dressed, as always, in a black T-shirt and Sportif khaki shorts; his hair is pasted to the side of his head with a heavy dose of hair spray.
When he steps inside, a black-and-white housecat named Oreo begins vying for attention — to no avail.
The darkened living room is neat but well-worn; signs of Rigerman can be found on every surface. A long bookshelf packed with antique scientific texts occupies one wall; a terrarium containing a pair of Gila monsters rests just behind his head. Eighteenth-century floral prints accompany a painting of a bare-chested brunette that his neighbor almost threw away. The top of his large wooden dining table is scarred with millions of tiny loops: the result of 40-plus years of incessant letter writing.
big cats
At age 64, Rigerman occupies a room like a small tornado: fussing and vacillating with all the vim of a supercharged Zero Mostel. He enjoyed a 35-year career as a Miami-Dade County schoolteacher. The job was his life. In 1975 he married a former student; it lasted seven years. "It was a wonderful marriage," he says. "And a terrific divorce." He retired in 2003.
In a way, Rigerman offers everything that democracy is supposed to want in its citizens: hyperinvolvement, flawless attendance, and a kind of needling obsession with all things civic. He writes letters to the editor of every publication, small and large (including New Times), from Homestead to Fort Lauderdale. He opines about handicapped parking and his prostate, animal rights activists and his boa constrictors.
Lately someone has been hurtling jars of excrement through his front window. Three in all. Each has coincided with the appearance of a letter-to-the-editor. The last missile was housed in a cup from a nearby restaurant. "So I know it's local," Rigerman says with hardly a trace of indignation. Whoever it was also threw a dead cat.
He prays for a "federal enema" to come down on the crooked Miami-Dade County Commission, and is titillated by the thought that iguanas have been granted the same kind of amnesty as Cuban immigrants. In November 2005 he ran an admittedly futile campaign against county Commissioner Natasha Seijas, just to "get [his] issues out there." One of them is the private ownership of big cats.
Unholy yowls emanate from the rear of the house. On the way through his tidy kitchen, Rigerman picks up a package of raw chicken drumsticks. Oreo follows for a bit and then skedaddles as her master enters a concrete room where he stores feeder mice, cleaning supplies, and a pair of cougars. Half of the 20-by-30-foot space is walled off into two chainlink cells. A corridor runs between the enclosures, separating mother and son. If they were placed in the same cage, they would likely kill one another.
Rigerman begins pushing the drumsticks (six dollars' worth) through spaces in the fencing. The cougars take them up in their mouths and make quick work of them with a single loud snap.
Chantell, lying on a large wooden shelf, regards Rigerman with a pair of beautiful, soft bronze eyes. Chaos, her son, paces furiously. His heavy shoulder muscles shift menacingly under his blond hide as he leaps from his shelf to the floor and back. Rigerman, feeling brave, places an air horn in his pocket "in case of emergency" and steps into the cage. He grabs a loose section of wire caging, which he holds up as a kind of shield.
He did not always need the extra protection, he says, but he now suffers from terrible spinal pain. He can't tussle with his cats these days without some measure of caution. He pushes open the door as Chaos thrusts his giant head toward the opening, butting Rigerman in the shins.
The cat dives between his legs and begins pawing his ankles; though Chaos was declawed as a cub, he has visibly powerful jabs. "He's a youngster," Rigerman says, trying to steady himself. "He hasn't learned his manners yet." He shuffles away from Chaos, who darts behind him and leaps up on his owner's back, placing both front paws on his shoulders. Rigerman jerks upright, in agony.
"No!" he barks, his voice echoing like an explosion off the walls. "Bad! Bad! Get back!" He bops Chaos on the head; the cat slinks away. "Does he actually know it's bad? I don't know, but he stops."
The moment passes like an eternity. For Rigerman, whose arms bear several bite marks and long scratches, this counts as a pleasant encounter. "Look how good he's being," he says as the cat ecstatically runs his fur through Rigerman's fingers.
Rigerman does not pretend to totally understand the animal and freely admits there is a chance it would maul him if he let it. It would not be a bad way to die, he muses.
Animal rights activists, alarmist neighbors, and the squeeze of increasingly tighter legislation have pushed Miami's cat people from the city to the suburbs to the farthest edges of town.
Over the past two decades, after a trio of child maulings (all associated with a single cat owner), the laws regulating the ownership of big cats got tougher. Beginning in 2000, Floridians applying to own lions, tigers, and leopards ("Class I" cats — the ones that roar) were required to own five acres surrounded by a bad-ass eight-foot fence. Owners of cougars, panthers, and clouded leopards ("Class II," or purring cats) were required to have two and a half acres — and a bad-ass fence.
Owners who bought their cats before the state involved itself in exotic pet ownership were grandfathered in. But the move marked the beginning of the end for the town's cat keepers. "The limitation on acreage will preclude such animals from being kept in small residential neighborhoods where zoning and public safety conflicts are problematic," Col. Julie Jones, director of the law enforcement arm of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, wrote in a 2002 memo.
This past July, partly in response to growing hysteria about giant pythons in the Everglades, the state legislature voted to require all owners of "animals of concern" — including venomous snakes, bears, and cats — to obtain two million dollars' worth of liability insurance or a $10,000 bond. Despite the fact that they had nothing to do with the python problem, venomous snake owners have already shelled out. Owners of big cats will have to pony up the dough come January 1.
In 2004, Humane USA, an animal rights-oriented political action committee, posted on its Website a list of the names and addresses of all Floridians licensed "to display dangerous cats." Only 31 names are listed in Miami. One — Rigerman — is listed in Hialeah. There are four in Homestead.
A half-dozen or so have moved away, lost their cats, or no longer keep them. Some are businesses or nonprofit "sanctuaries." Two work in zoos and don't own cats as pets. Some names are redundant — owners and their businesses, husbands and wives. Those who remain comprise a handful of working stiffs (plumbers, schoolteachers, prison guards) and wealthy eccentrics.
The new legislation will likely ensure that the ownership of big cats will be limited to businesses, the wealthy, and the feckless — those who tend to buy the animals on a whim, only to discover they can't take care of them. The Alan Rigermans of South Florida — thrifty and obsessed, the kind of people willing to own a pet that costs between $7 and $40 per day to feed, who are willing to forgo vacations and shell out thousands of dollars to exotic veterinarians — are becoming a thing of the past.
Elaine Berman acquired a black leopard in the late Eighties. The cat lived 24 years, in her Kendall townhouse, and died this summer. Berman maintains her license, but doubts, at age 73, she'll purchase another. Ultimately she thinks the limitations on cat ownership are a good thing. "They can live a long time," she cautions.
Organizations like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have long battled the ownership of big cats. "There's not an accredited zoo in the country that gives [big cats] the space they need," says PETA's captive exotic animals specialist, Lisa Watheny, "much less a private owner." She suggests that the tighter regulations will mean a certain end for big-cat exhibitors.
"They're a dying breed," says Lt. Pat Reynolds of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission.
Dressed in a stained white undershirt and hiking boots, a beefy 20-year-old named Anthony Zitnick (a.k.a. AJ) walks through Rigerman's front door and crashes in a heavy chair. One of several young men Rigerman allows to handle his cats, Zitnick navigates the house with the sour familiarity of a teenage son. His bleach-blond hair hangs down over his neck, and a thin mustache curls over his upper lip. Scars run up the outside of his forearms, vestiges of fisticuffs from his days at American High School, near Medley.
"A lot of people thought it was suicidal," Zitnick says, rolling his eyes dramatically. "That's how smart people at my high school were — that I had to dig through muscle and bone to reach veins on the other side."
He grew up around the block from Rigerman. About two years ago, following Hurricane Wilma, Zitnick began helping him clean up his house. Chaos was born a year later, and Zitnick started coming by to help rear the cub. Rigerman sometimes pays him eight dollars an hour, and seems happy for the company.
Zitnick rolls his eyes as Rigerman explains all of this; the young man seems impatient to get Chaos out. "He's a good guy," Zitnick mutters as Rigerman walks into the next room. "He just talks a lot."
Once in the cage room, Rigerman suggests they take out Chantell. Zitnick rolls his eyes again. "When was the last time you did that?" he asks.
Rigerman gives no answer. "There's no question that the best place for all these animals is in the wild," he says as Zitnick climbs into Chaos's cage, armed with only a collar and a thick chain leash. "But man is such that he has been keeping these kinds of animals since the Christians were fed to the lions."
Zitnick's approach to the cat involves a lot of chokeholds and half nelsons. He stealthily subdues the rambunctious cougar. "This is where a few years of high school wrestling pay off," says Zitnick, who is studying massage therapy in Pompano Beach. He straps the thick nylon collar around Chaos's neck and leads the tremendous cat backward, out the door of the holding pen.
The two men cut an odd figure as they drag the 200-pound carnivore across Rigerman's sloping yard, past grazing tortoises, toward the calm canal water. Boats and back-yard playgrounds line the banks. Sometimes the cat charges forward; Zitnick baits him with a dried coconut.
Rigerman takes the thick chain from Zitnick and wades into the water with his feline. "This is what it's all about," he says, grinning. The cat paddles clumsily around him, climbs onto his shoulders, and dunks him.
Zitnick helps Chaos back onto land and begins lathering his fur with Johnson's baby shampoo while Rigerman bobs in the water, raving about the harmless inevitability of invasive species.
Zitnick guesses he'd someday like to own a cat — a tiger or a cougar. "They're not ... they're fun to ...," Zitnick pauses to think as he rubs suds along Chaos's tail. "It's not an everyday house pet.... I kinda do things out of the ordinary."
Eventually they tie Chaos to a stone anchor near the property line. The cat looks happy, at last, basking under a stubby palm tree, batting at the low-hanging fronds.
"You boys have a cat down there?" asks Rigerman's neighbor Shelly Girling from inside her house. A pleasant-looking woman with quaffed red hair and a bright floral-print dress wanders to the edge of her yard.
Rigerman stumbles out of the water and encourages Girling to let her Dachshunds out. She decides against it, but leans over her fence and asks how the baby is. Chaos tosses mouthfuls of sod into the air and pounces on the gray coconut, sinking a massive canine into it, almost as an answer.
The scene takes on a Norman Rockwell quality. Fluffy white clouds slide across a deep blue Sunday sky, and Chaos begins to look more and more like a lovable fixture of the Rigerman household. Until it's time to return him to his cage.
The cat does not want to go.
Zitnick uses all of his might to drag Chaos back, foot by foot, into his enclosure. At the door of the cage, Chaos leaps up onto Zitnick's shoulders and opens his mouth, running his canines along the length of his arm like a puppy tongue. Zitnick reaches out both hands and seizes the cougar by the throat, lifting it off the ground. He steps a few feet into the cage and hurls it to the ground. It hits the concrete floor with a resounding thud and bounds back up just as Zitnick shuts the gate.
Rigerman, seemingly unable to resist, heads into Chantell's cage. He barks and coos until she allows him to scratch her behind the ears. "See," he says. "She's not going to hurt me. If she were going to hurt me, I would yell, scream, and punch the shit out of her in the face."
By dazzling the owner of a service station with a few exotic pets, Rigerman convinced the man to install a second horn in the trunk of his aging Toyota Corolla, free of charge.
Plodding slowly along the Dolphin Expressway on a recent hot weekday afternoon, his vehicle is almost as loud as he is. A baby alligator head sits on the dashboard amid a pile of plastic corn snakes. Rigerman employs the gator's lacquered jaws as a caddy for a trio of spare eyeglasses.
"I wear the same thing every day," Rigerman explains between bursts of his horns. "So I like to change my glasses as often as possible."
Rigerman has decided to pay a visit to Ann, a longtime friend and cat expert, who asked that her last name not be printed for fear of animal rights "loonies." Her small green townhouse in Westchester is among the oldest in Miami, she would later explain, and consists of a kitchen, a living room, and two bedrooms: one for her, one for her cats.
Rigerman arrives unexpectedly and slowly works his way past the black steel door and into the apartment. Ann has spent about the past 20 years perfecting her house as a dual habitat — a cat-proof people pen. Orange short-pile carpet lines the floor, and a long, pillow-plotted couch juts out from the middle of the living room. All electronics, books, and cords are neatly tucked away — nothing extraneous or chewable is lying about. Occupying one corner of the living room is a large leopard-print bar surrounded by framed photographs of various cats: leopards, servals, and caracals.
The back patio had been converted into a sort of outdoor play area, enclosed on four sides by a black chainlink fence. Beyond the fence, a small canal separates Ann from a row of other houses. Occasionally they enjoy a full view of Ann's three cats — though they rarely go outside.
"In wintertime they might go out and walk around for five minutes," she says. "But if I close the door, they'll all three press their heads against the glass, looking at me like I'm the worst person in the world."
Rigerman sits down at the bar to await the arrival of the cats. He booms about Ann's feline expertise.
Ann fusses. "They won't come out because of his loud voice," she says. "I told you to cut out the cologne and hair spray."
"Do you have any idea how that makes me feel?" Rigerman asks sadly. "It makes me feel terrible."
(Rigerman promises to quiet down and spends the next hour on the phone trying to renew his subscription to an exotic animal catalogue.)
Ann rushes to the kitchen for a piece of turkey breast. She steps into her hallway, meat in hand, and implores her kitties to at least come say hello.
"You don't want to at least say hello?"
"Oh, don't hit me! You don't want to come? You want to be nasty?"
Ann wears house slippers and a bright caftan. Her hair forms a perfect silver dome; bangs fall like a sheet of ice over her forehead. She smiles warmly and gestures in large sweeps of her head and arms. She walks with a slight limp — a symptom, she says, of never wanting to come into this world in the first place. The doctors had to yank her in with forceps, resulting in a small loss of motor control on her right side.
Ann had always wanted an exotic cat. She just never knew it was possible to own one. She grew up in Los Angeles and studied theoretical math at a small Christian college in Washington. Dancing was prohibited on campus. She left just before graduating and decamped to Manhattan, where her father lived.
She moved into an eighth-floor apartment and lived with a roommate and three German shepherds. One day, while walking the dogs, she came upon a Long Island man walking what looked like a small leopard. Before long, she found herself taking the cat, an ocelot, on the weekends while its owner partied at his house in the Hamptons.
"The ocelot just sat out on our terrace with no cage or anything," she recalls. "He used to play with the dogs and have a wonderful time."
One rainy summer, while visiting friends in Miami, she got bored and went for a job interview. She lied and said she planned to move here. Soon enough, she did. She found herself working 60 hours a week designing computer software for a variety of airlines. She remembers enjoying it. For a thrill she began sitting a Coconut Grove couple's margay. "I really wanted that cat to like me," she recalls. But every time Ann walked into the house, the cat would march to the middle of their white carpet and relieve itself in protest of her arrival.
One day, while the system was down at work, she noticed in the Miami Herald an advertisement for baby cougars and other exotics. She dialed the number.
To her surprise, she discovered she would need a license for a big cat. To obtain a license, she would need 1000 hours of "husbandry" training in a 12-month period.
So she spent weekends volunteering at a veterinary clinic in Fort Lauderdale. "The only thing I learned was how to clean large litter boxes and open cans of [zoo-grade] cat food," she says.
Finally, as she entered her late forties, Ann acquired an African serval named Pandora. She would take the cat for a six-month trial, she decided.
Pandora refused to be touched — a quirk she communicated by biting.
"She slept on top of me," Ann recalls, exasperated. "But if I woke up, I couldn't touch her." In order to put the cat in its cage, Ann had to devise all manner of clever trapping and baiting techniques, involving everything from stuffed animals to canvas harnesses. The 30-pound feline would wake up in the middle of the night and drink its entire bottle of water just to pee on her.
Ann was hooked.
She equipped her spare room with high shelves, huge litter boxes, and a serval-size ladder. From then on she continued to take care of cats: raising exotic kittens, finding owners for unwanted cats, and, of course, tending to her own flock (four, at its peak).
Ann installed a Murphy bed in the cats' room so she could sleep surrounded by the animals (a practice that ended about two years ago, when a serval named Tango taught the others how to leap onto her in the middle of the night).
Ann's cats have all been servals or caracals (or combinations of the two). The animals look something like a cross between a cheetah and a housecat. In the wild their long legs help them search for prey by leaping over the high savanna grass. They have been known to jump more than 10 feet into the air to catch birds midflight. In Ann's house, they have developed a taste for ground turkey, air conditioning, and television.
Ann has several brothers and sisters, but she considers her cats her family.
"I've called them my friends," she says. "I've called them my kids. But it's really not the same as a normal domestic [cat] or a dog. The top of their list is certainly not pleasing you."
In 1992 Ann became ill. She couldn't go to work for two months, she says. She was constantly exhausted and found herself unable to cope. After undergoing a battery of tests, she was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome. She recalls losing her short-term memory and running a low-grade fever for three years. Things are slightly better now, she says, but not by much. "If I didn't have my cats," she says, "I'd be gone. They need someone to love them and feed them."
Rigerman rises and heads for the cat room. He meows loudly, and Ann's cats stare down at him from their high perches, hissing and baring their teeth.
"I remember once I was here and the licking started," he says, staring fearlessly at the canines of Ann's oldest cat, a pure caracal named Kira. "The licking turned to biting." The cat sank its teeth into Rigerman's arm. He sat calmly and waited for it to retract them. "Ann was mortified. But I told her: 'Ann what are you upset about?'"
Rigerman putters deep into the Redland, passing tree farms, fruit stands, and barren you-pick fields. The sun hangs low on the horizon as he inches his way, both horns blaring, down Krome Avenue. The rural byway gleams with the sinking yellow sun; everything is made beautiful in that light. Rigerman counts roadside memorial markers aloud and wonders why he and Ann never became an item.
He is happy to be back in this part of town, the place where his interest in owning cats was sparked. When he began teaching, he made a bond with a couple named Frank and Ellen Weed, who lived in a trailer out in the Glades. The two bred hundreds of cougars in what's now Everglades National Park. Ultimately they were shut down and kicked out after being cited ad nauseam by federal wildlife inspectors eyeing their land, but not before Rigerman had brought class after class out to see the Weeds and their cats.
He recalls a visiting troop of Boy Scouts one day needling an aging Frank Weed with questions. "Mr. Weed," said one boy in an obnoxious voice, "why do you have all these animals?" Rigerman loved Weed's response. "Because I want to and I can," the old man told him.
Whatever Rigerman owned, he brought to school. He was Mr. Rigerman, the oddball ecology teacher who disdained homework and reveled in field trips. "I love teaching," he says. "It's fun. Where else can I get that kind of an audience?"
After giving it up, he began substitute teaching. That was cut short in 2003, following a melodramatic flareup in a photography class. Several students accused him of disappearing into the darkroom in the middle of class and returning to conduct the remainder of the session in his underwear. They alleged that he terrorized them with a sack full of snakes and lizards, and made lewd and lascivious comments: mocking a girl about the length of her skirt, suggesting he had slept with their teacher, and telling one student she was "fucking beautiful" for her age.
He thinks the accusations were drummed up by a group of pernicious girls. The animals were harmless. He says his "underwear" was, in fact, a pair of shorts.
Rigerman battled the charges, and in August 2005 he was reinstated to an eligible list of substitute teachers. "You are prohibited from bringing any animals to any school site at any time," wrote Maria Teresa Rojas, assistant superintendent.
Rigerman heads west on SW 168th Street. A detour takes him over some nasty dirt roads before delivering him to a five-acre gated compound. The fence is impressive, rising high into the air with a cantilevered incline.
These are where his animals will go when he dies, Rigerman guesses.
Beyond the fence, flocks of emus graze on a large meadow. A massive bison idles up to a parked swamp buggy and begins scratching itself against the chassis.
Set back from the mass of wildlife is a large gray house.
Rigerman slowly rolls up a dirt road and settles at a sort of shed piled with the makings of a great Tom Waits song. Tractors and huge circus cages sit amid a clutter of engine parts beneath a wooden overhang adorned with cow skulls. A trio of mean pythons captured from the swamps sit idly in cages.
A broad-shouldered man with red skin and a trim black beard appears out of the distance. A thick, slobbery guard dog trots along at his side. The figure smiles and nods at Rigerman. This is his land, and his name is Frank Pajon.
Pajon came to the States from Cuba at the age of one. At age eight, he began working in his father's gas stations in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and sometimes got pulled out of school to work the pump during the cold winters. During his formative years, Pajon dreamed of living on a kind of jungle ranch, surrounded by every animal under the sun.
In 1973, at age 13, he moved to Miami. He wanted to be a veterinarian, he says, but joined the Marine Corps instead. After his discharge, he worked as an auto mechanic at Gables Lincoln-Mercury, which happened to be next door to a business owned by an animal importer and drug kingpin named Mario Tabraue.
Pajon had already taken care of a serval at that point, but Tabraue was into big animals. He hung out at Tabraue's business as often as possible and developed an eye for tigers and cougars. To Pajon, Tabraue was an animal guru — someone who loved and knew a lot about exotics. Pajon would not comment about Tabraue's legal trouble, but according to a Miami Herald article, he was busted in 1987 on racketeering charges (which included dismembering and burning the body of a federal informant). It was around that time when Pajon decided to get his license to own cats.
(Tabraue served 12 years of a 100-year sentence and has since resumed his import business on a compound in the Redland. He declined, through intermediaries, to be interviewed for this story.)
Pajon began keeping and breeding cougars. About five years ago he bought the adjoining lot and cleared the land. He put up eight-foot posts and wired them with electric fencing — all for the sake of lions and tigers. A year later he got his Class I license and purchased a pair of six-month-old tigers.
Pajon provides a brief tour of his menagerie as chickens skitter about his feet. Beyond a sliding gate, a mishmash of red deer, turkeys, peacocks, cows, geese, toy ponies, llamas, and a donkey roam the meadow Pajon cleared. Many peck at a pile of Cuban bread loaves put out that evening.
The place looks like a strange slice of Xanadu, a sort of rough-cut exotic dreamscape dotted with the occasional palm tree. Though Pajon's place is located in Miami-Dade, it seems a planet away from the chintzy boardwalks, seedy ghettos, and cookie-cutter suburbs that define Miami in movies.
Pajon has made himself a paradise, or at least he's working on it.
He wanders over to a female lion named Nala. "That's Alan spelled backwards," Rigerman chimes in from over Pajon's shoulder.
"It's also the name from the Lion King," Pajon replies.
Rigerman purchased the baby lion last summer — he maintains a Class I license, but only for infants — and turned it over to Pajon after three months.
The cat's fur is matted; it looks exhausted. Pajon recently dropped close to $1000 treating the lion for toxoplasmosis, a parasite typically found in domestic cat poop. Nala is slow, Pajon says, from the medicine.
Stray cats have been traipsing on his property and might have contaminated the lion's food. At the advice of county police, Pajon and his rifle keep a lookout for roving feral packs of the town's unwanted pets.
Next Pajon crosses to Sinbad, a 600-pound Siberian male tiger. He's being held in a temporary cage, cobbled together out of a section of white tile flooring and chainlink fence. The Siberian (the largest cat in the world) lumbers toward the fence as Pajon nears, stroking itself against the metal weave as if the links were the fingers of a benevolent giant.
Pajon walks deeper into his property, past a wolf in a circular enclosure to a huge oblong cage where his most precious creature is kept: Umba, a 400-pound female Bengal tiger. She leaps out of a plastic hot tub liner, shooting gallons of water playfully toward Pajon. The cat eats roughly 15 pounds of fresh meat a day and seems to melt before her master.
"I try to sit with her for at least a half an hour a day," he says, gazing at the deep orange lines that slither and slide over her massive sides.
He has never trained her to perform, he says. "If you train them to perform, you can't touch them," he says. "You have to use the whip." Though he has spent as much time with Umba as possible and accustomed her to walking on a leash, Pajon attributes her pleasant nature to the luck of the draw.
He ducks through the outer door and into her cage without hesitation. While he shovels out some unwanted bones and droppings, Pajon turns his back to Umba.
"I trust her completely," he says, taking her head in his hands and placing a heavy chain leash around her neck. He walks her like a big dog, muttering "leave it" out of the side of his mouth as she eyes a passing chicken or a cage full of yapping Dachshunds. Pajon proudly leads his tiger up onto the bed of his pickup truck and back down. He wraps his arms around her neck and squeezes — a tremendous, sphincter-puckering hug.
Pajon makes a living as a corrections officer, often working double shifts in the Miami-Dade jail system. He might begin at 4:30 a.m. and end at 9:00 p.m. On a good day, however, he will get home at noon and spend quality time with his animals.
He has brought the tigers on Sábado Gigante and to photo shoots in an effort to offset the cost of the upkeep. He and Rigerman plotted a recent event at Club Space, to exhibit the tigers in cages outside to net a windfall of $5000, but the deal was broken when animal rights activists got hold of the flyers, lobbied city officials, and hounded the club owners. Rigerman offered to show up with his porcupine and a few snakes, free of charge. But the club turned him down.
As Pajon leads Umba back into her cage, he regards the grounds with a squint. "If it was up to me," he says, "I'd get a baby elephant. Boy, if I hit the Lotto...."
The sunset is casting strange light onto the animals in Pajon's back yard. His helpers have all headed home by now. Rigerman wheels out the front gate. Before darkness settles, Pajon will release a trailer full of guard dogs to roam the property.
If you like this story, consider signing up for our email newsletters.
You have successfully signed up for your selected newsletter(s) - please keep an eye on your mailbox, we're movin' in!
Rigerman is happy to know Pajon is around. At his age, Rigerman says, he couldn't buy anything new without knowing he had a place they could go. "And that's Frank," he says.
Meanwhile Rigerman is looking to purchase a baby serval. "I want it as a house cat," he says. "I'll neuter it, declaw it, and let it roam the house."
What about Oreo?
"They'll get along," he says.


text:
Health Advisory
New Jersey Freshwater Fishing
Eating Fish And Crabs Caught In New Jersey Waters
Fishing provides enjoyable and relaxing recreation. Fish are an excellent source of protein and other nutrients and play a role in maintaining a healthy, well-balanced diet. Many anglers enjoy cooking and eating their own catch. However, elevated levels of potentially harmful chemical contaminants such as dioxin, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), pesticides and mercury have been found in certain fish and crabs in some New Jersey waters. Fish consumption advisories have been adopted to guide citizens on safe consumption practices.
To reduce exposure to harmful chemical contaminants when preparing and eating the fish species taken from the identified waters, it is essential to follow the guidelines provided. The DEP encourages you to consult the Fish Smart-Eat Smart Fish Advisory Guide or www.FishSmartEatSmartNJ.org when making decisions about eating recreationally caught fish and crabs.
The current list of fish consumption advisories consists of statewide, regional and water body-specific warnings for a variety of fish species and fish consumers. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the Department of Health and Senior Services have prepared new "how to" electronic pamphlets on cleaning and cooking your catch to reduce your exposure to these harmful chemicals. These e-pamphlets are downloadable in multiple languages.
For a complete list of state and federal marine fish consumption advisories visit: www.FishSmartEatSmartNJ.org
The fish consumption advisories and Fish Smart-Eat Smart website are updated periodically and are available online or from the Office of Science at (609) 984-6070 and through the Division of Health and Senior Services at (609) 826-4935.
Check online for fish consumption advisories on the local water body in which you fish! Go to www.FishSmartEatSmartNJ.org

subset: commoncrawl


text:
jps necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 74 diseños de 24 diseñadores freelance.
Doig Consulting
This consulting group will offer services aimed at two targeted audiences: 1) Professionals, institutions, agencies, groups, corporations, etc that are in need of consulting services related to all aspects of addiction and recovery management; and 2) individuals and families in need of specific, directed interventions to assist one they love. An addiction intervention is a life saving mission whereby loving family members and concerned friends or employers are educated about addictions and led by a trained addiction interventionist for the purpose of helping the sick loved one with an opportunity to recovery. The consulting group will be available for contract hire by either of these groups and is not limited in the geographic range in which they operate.
Professionals and institutions working within the addiction/recovery sphere that need consultative help with operations, programming, and staffing in addition to individuals in need of targeted, individualized recovery assistance and/or intervention.
The logo needs to appeal to two distinct audiences (see targeted audiences in the overview section above). Given these two target audiences, the logo should embrace or convey the following:
• Beginning & Ending or coming full circle – due to the nature of addiction, i.e. it starts at some point and (hopefully) comes full circle allowing the addict to recover or pull out of the addictive behaviors
• Movement – addiction is not a static state. The process, especially after one starts down the road to recovery, is dynamic and that fluid flow needs to be conveyed.
• Helping people – the project is about helping others, either an addict directly via an intervention or professionals and institutions via specific consulting services
• A feeling of help, caring, softness
• A spiritual or metaphysical feeling
• Colors and fonts should be conservative given the sensitive nature of the work
Other Points of Consideration:
- Designs should be able to be utilized on a variety of media - web, print, business cards, invoices shirts, etc so the following formats preferred .ai, .eps, .jpg/.png/.gif, and .tiff
- Designs that will have full copyright transferred to us - however we are happy for you to display the logo in your portfolio.
- Designs will be in color most of the time, but still need to work in black and white with no gradients, i.e. if faxing an invoice or proposal.
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


text:
Different types of degrees
University-level (higher education) programmes are Level 4 and upwards.
Qualifications are accredited and awarded either by universities (foundation/honours degrees) or by Edexcel (HNC/HND).
We run the following types of programme across our group of colleges:
- foundation degree
- honours degree
Here is a short glossary explaining the different types of higher education/university-level programmes. It will help you to choose an appropriate programme for your studies.
HNC Level 4
The Higher National Certificate (HNC) is a two-year course which teaches skills for specific jobs/careers, and can be put towards a full honours degree.
HND Level 5
The Higher National Diploma (HND) is a two-year course which teaches skills for specific jobs/careers, and can be put towards a full honours degree.
Foundation degree Level 5
A foundation degree (Fd) is academic study with a work-based element, equivalent to the first two years of an honours degree. Students can do an additional (third) year of study and convert it to an honours degree. Foundation degrees are awarded in the arts and humanities (FdA) and the natural sciences (FdSc)
Honours degree Level 6
Our honours degree (BA Hons) programmes (one-year full time or two-year part-time) enable students who have already achieved a foundation degree to top-up to a full honours degree.
PGCE Level 6 and Level 7
The PGCE is a qualification for teaching in the post-compulsory education sector. The Professional Graduate Certificate in Education is Level 6. The Post Graduate Certificate in Education is Level 7. Candidates can progress through from Level 6 to Level 7.


text:
The price is only 1pcs price, if there are more than 1 style in the photo, and want all of them, just bid the
quantity you see in the photo
Note: If you would like buy in bulk, Extra quantity discount will be applied.
Size: 6.5-7 inch with 8CM alligator clip on the back.
color: You can buy the color listed or contact me for a customized order
pack: in Opp plastic bag
Shipping time:
Usually you can receive your order within 2 weeks.
customized order may take 3-4 weeks receive at your door.
|Clip Type
|Single Prong clip
|8CM long clip
6.5- 7 inch mixed color ostrich feather hair bows
- Product Code: OST
- Availability: In Stock
- Ex Tax: $4.99


text: Why do people put such a low price limit when jeans shopping? Don't give me the price nonsense either. If you spend £50 on jeans which develop holes after 3 months, then you'll need to replace them. Do this 3 or 4 times a year and you'll spend £150-200 on the same awful pair of jeans. So why not save that money up and get these Acne Jeans?


text:
The learner repeated this process for a total of 30 rounds (this number was chosen due to budgetary constraints). Since not all experiments passed quality control, 30 rounds accounted for 2697 experiments (~29%) of the total 96x96 experiment space, which covered 1670 experiments (~72%) in the underlying (unduplicated) 48x48 experiment space. During the process of data collection, there was no human intervention as to which experiments to perform, nor did we attempt any assessment of the performance of the learner. To complete the dataset, the 634 combinations of drug and clone (ignoring duplication) that had not been chosen by the learner were collected after the 30 rounds. We also collected images for all drugs for six clones outside the set of 48 that the learner knew about.
After data collection had been completed, we first asked whether the active learner accurately predicted phenotypes for unobserved experiments. We assessed the accuracy of the predictions of a model from a given round using data it had not yet seen: data from the 'completion' experiments as well as from experiments that were performed in subsequent rounds. Each prediction for an experiment consisted of a phenotype from the set of phenotypes observed so far, and was considered correct if a plurality of images from that experiment were closest (in the feature space) to an image from an observed experiment that had been assigned to the same phenotype. That is, for each of the images from an as yet unobserved experiment, the image was found that was closest to it out of all that the learner had already observed. The phenotype that this closest image had been assigned by the learner was given to the image from the unobserved experiment. The number of unobserved images assigned to each phenotype was then counted, and if more images were assigned to the predicted phenotype than any other individual phenotype, the prediction was considered correct (note that the phenotypes themselves may change from round to round). This definition parallels the nearest-neighbor methods used for clustering (see Materials and methods). Using this definition, the accuracy of the model learned after each round was retrospectively calculated ( Figure 2 , black line).
The performance of the active learner (black line) generally increased superlinearly as more data were acquired. Hypothetical models (dotted gray lines) with fixed generalization accuracy have …
We then asked whether the last actively learned model could make accurate predictions for the six clones the learner had not seen. Given just the images for the unperturbed (no-drug) condition for the six clones, we generated predictions for the remaining 47x6 experiments and assessed them using the same nearest neighbor plurality approach described above. As a baseline accuracy for these predictions, we can consider what predictions we could make without having learned a model. In this case, we have no way of knowing what phenotypes are possible (other than the unperturbed phenotypes), and must predict that no matter what drug is added the phenotype would remain unperturbed. For the six unseen clones, this would lead to an accuracy of 85%, i.e., 15% of the experiments showed a phenotype different from the unperturbed phenotype for that clone. The model from active learning did much better than this, giving an accuracy of 98% (only 5–6 out of 282 experiments were incorrectly predicted). As can be expected, the learner's predictions were also significantly better than expected for random guessing if we are given the set of possible phenotypes ( P <0.05, Multinomial test). This high accuracy at generalizing to new clones suggests that the final model had captured quite well the effects of the drugs on the localization of any target (at least for targets somewhat similar to the original set).
Skip to content
Visit us in Washington, DC and Chantilly, VA to explore hundreds of the world's most significant objects in aviation and space history.
Learn how aviation and spaceflight transformed the world.
The lunar module represents one of humanity's greatest achievements: landing people on another heavenly body.
Don't miss our fast-paced webcasts designed to engage students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathin 30 minutes.
Apollo 11 was a global event. What did that historic mission meanto you?Share your story and read what others have to say.
Our scientists are involved in current research focused on theMartian climate and geology. Find out what we're discovering.
Recognize your favorite air or space enthusiast. Add his or her name to the Museum's Wall of Honor.
If you're an observant visitor, you might have noticed that the American flag on the side of the Space Shuttle Discovery on display at our Steven F. Udvar Hazy Center appears to be backwards.
No, it's not a very large (literally and figuratively) NASA snafu. The "backwards" flag is actually part of the US Flag Code, which applies to spacecraft, aircraft, and even service members' uniform insignia.
According to United States Army regulations, "The full-color US flag cloth replica is worn so that the star field faces forward, or to the flag's own right." The flag must always be positioned to look like it is flying forward, so it's really all about perspective.
Portrait of the prime crew of the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission. From left to right they are: Commander, Neil A. Armstrong, Command Module Pilot, Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot, Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. On July 20th 1969 at 4:18 PM, EDT the Lunar Module "Eagle" landed in a region of the Moon called the Mare Tranquillitatis, also known as the Sea of Tranquillity. After securing his spacecraft, Armstrong radioed back to earth: "Houston, Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed". At 10:56 p.m. that same evening and witnessed by a worldwide television audience, Neil Armstrong stepped off the "Eagle's landing pad onto the lunar surface and said: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." He became the first human to set foot upon the Moon.
If you have the flag positioned on your left shoulder (as you can see on the Apollo astronaut's spacesuits), then the flag appears as it would flying in the breeze on a flag pole—with the star field facing forward as the wearer moves forward. On other military uniforms, you'll see what's called the "reverse side flag" on the right sleeve.
Netgear is not working with my Apple products
How do I connect the C7100V modem/router to the R6300 router? Is this even possible? Thanks
Hello, I have been running 6.9.4 since shortly after it was released back in May, but starting on June 22nd I beleive I have had 3 seperate hangs of the ReadyNas Pro 6. My Pro 2 is a...
I know the DoS attack scans are telling me I'm being protected. I'm wanting to know what these Odd IP address are from the DoS log and should I be Concerned? this is how the log reports them as...
RBR50 and RBS50 This morning I got up and immediately noticed the purple light flashing on my satilite. I checked my computer and had no network connection to orbi RBR50. After trying e...
bueno, ya que hay alguien que me puede ayudar, el enrutador es bueno lo que me pasa es que me vende una luz naranja en la entrada de rojo del enrutador como podeis ver en la foto y no hay como soluci...
Some ReadyNAS Replicate users and all ReadyNAS Nighthawk ReadyCLOUD users will be unable to access ReadyCLOUD/P2P services during a three-hour maintenance window starting tonight at 11:00 PM Pa...
Model R6300v2, stock firmware V126.96.36.199_10.0.87. OS:Win7/64 on my desktop. I'm trying to get telnet access to the router. I have tried the telnetenable, telnetenable2, and telne...
I have done considerable research and tried a number of suggested fixes, but have been unable to solve 2 issues. I have a ReadyNAS 212 with latest updates with 2 4TB disks set to raid 0 backing up to...
The other thing I noticed was that Spufford knows about the Australia paradox! OK, he doesn't call it by that name, but it's recognizably the same thing. I'd not before realized how applicable the Australia paradox is to storytelling. The real Australia really does exist, but places in stories are stage sets. Obvious, really, but I'd never thought of it that way before.
One other thing: Spufford says in his book that he's written lots of book reviews ("a couple hundred thousand words of literary journalism") but is only including a few of these because he "was never very good at declaring sufficient independence from the book at hand, and producing something that
wanted to say, in a form worth keeping." I don't care, I want to read them all, or at least a lot of them. Remember Orwell's 4-volume collected essays, letters, and journalism? Of course you do. I'd love to see a big fat book with small type, crammed with just about every review that Spufford's ever written. And it's not like I'm the world's biggest Spufford fan. I just like to read book reviews. Too bad that the market for books is declining (competition with free stuff online such as this blog!) so we're not going to see such a collection. I remember running into Alfred Kazin's son once and asking if they could put together a collection of his dad's unpublished
Jackson stretch dress Rebecca Minkoff YgW74zxAQ
, but he didn't seem at all interested in the idea.
P.S. I wrote this post around six months and it just happened to come up today, just coincidentally right after Dan's literature-related .
Pryor unhooks the deer's skull from the wall above his still-curled-up companion. Examines it. Not a good specimen –the back half of the lower jaw's missing, a gap that, with the open cranial cavity, makes room enough for Pryor's head.
He puts it on. – Will Eaves, Murmur
So as we roll into the last dying embers of the flaming glory that is (North American) Pride Month (Europe you've still got some fun ahead), I've doing my best to make both good and questionable decisions.
The good decision was to read an absolutely fabulous book by a British author named Will Eaves (on a run of
Eban sandals Green Isabel Marant ggWM76VZ
zip sneakers Black Yohji Yamamoto 8Gnd50
) who fairly recently released a book called Murmur. Murmur is an odd beast, I guess you could say it's a novel about Alan Turing but that would be moderately inaccurate and probably unfair.
Firstly, because even from one of my favourite authors, I am basically allergic to people writing about maths and mathematicians. It's always so stodgy and wooden, as if they are writing about a world they don't understand but also can't convincingly fake. (Pride month analogy: I mostly avoid straight people writing queer stories for the same reason.) And Turing is a particular disaster for cultural portrayals: he intersects with too many complicated things (world war 2, cryptography, computers, pre-1967 British homosexuality) for him to ever be anything but an avatar.
© 2018 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.


text:
Nazareth graduate Kate Micucci will head to San Franciso in July to shoot the independent film "Unleashed" in which she stars as a woman whose pets turn into men who want to date her.
"I am super excited about this!" Micucci posted on her Facebook page Thursday.
Micucci will star with Steve Howey and Justin Chatwin, both of the Showtime series "Shameless" who play the men whoa re transformed from Ajax the cat and Summit the dog.
The director is Finn Taylor who made his directorial debut with the 1997 film "Dream with the Fishes," which premiered at Sundance.
Micucci is best known for her comedy duo "Garfunkel and Oates" with Riki Lindhome. The pair also...


text:
Featured News - Current News - Archived News - News Categories
The Town of Grand Island Department of Parks and Recreation reports that Ed Ball Park playground at the corner of Love and Stony Point Roads is now up and ready for use.
The department also reports that work to come includes addition of a funnel ball game, bike rack and pathway, with hopes of installation of a larger shelter.
"The large play equipment was a donation from an Island family," reports Linda Tufillaro, director of the Department of Parks and Recreation. "This was a great community project. A large 'Thank you' goes out to all."
Tufillaro noted that post holes were donated by Bills Post Hole Driller, volunteer community helpers, led by Ray Gress, assisted in patrol, set up and cleanup, and installation; and tree beds by the Town Parks Department, and the boulders were delivered and placed by the Town Highway Department.


text:
A man traveling on a motorcycle on Route 611 sustained multiple injuries after colliding with a deer in Coolbaugh Township Sunday.
Matthew Rampola, of Tobyhanna, was traveling north when the deer moved into his path just before 10 p.m. Rampola was thrown from the motorcycle after losing control and sliding along the roadway for several hundred feet. He sustained injuries to his head and torso.
An ambulance transported Rampola to Geisinger-Community Medical Center in Scranton.


text:
On eve of marathon, festivities and tight security
BOSTON (AP) — In many ways, it felt like any other pre-marathon Sunday in Boston.
Families celebrated Easter, diners enjoyed the spring weather at sidewalk cafes, and runners — easily identified by their trim builds and colorful jackets — picked up last-minute supplies for what will be the second-largest field in the race's history.
But even as runners focused on the exhilaration of crossing the finish line, the festive atmosphere was inevitably tinged with sorrow, as runners, family members and spectators recalled the double bombings at last year's race that killed three people and injured 260.
Marathon runners were blessed at an emotional church service that celebrated Easter and remembered the victims, while heightened security measures, including bag checks, were in place at marathon events.
"It's different, coming back," said Gisele Goldstein, 55, of Germantown, Tennessee, who planned to run her 12th Boston Marathon this year. "It's not just me —there's a sadness."
Her friend Nanette Farris, 46, of Memphis, added that people were surprised she wanted to return for her second Boston Marathon. The doubters were all non-runners, however, the runners she knew felt differently.
"If you're a runner, you want to show them —no one's going to take that away from us," Farris said. "Once this occurred, everyone wanted to qualify for Boston."
Still, there have been tense moments — such as when an alarm went off on Friday, during the Runners' Expo at the Hynes Convention Center. People were spooked, Goldstein said, even though it turned out to have been a test.
Ricardo Corral, 53, of New York, who planned to race in the hand-cycle division of the wheelchair race on Monday— his eighth marathon— said he was reassured by the heightened security.
"We are not nervous," he said. "We know the police will be here to protect people."
Corral added that it was especially important to him and his teammates to return this year, to support Boston and each other. "As the signs say, 'Boston Strong,'" he said. "That's why we come back."
That determination was echoed by many runners, including Scott Johnson, 54, of Atlanta. He is the executive director of the Scott Rigsby Foundation, a nonprofit that supports people who have lost limbs. The organization has raised money for last year's bombing victims, and this year Johnson was planning to run with Team MR8, a team formed in honor of Martin Richard, the 8-year-old Dorchester boy who was killed in the 2013 bombing.
"There's a sense of resiliency," Johnson said. "It's sadness, but it's also a kind of fortitude. Two people created the violence, but millions counter it with love and support. I like those odds!"
Ben Rancourt, 64, of Ste-Germaine, Quebec, was planning to run his eighth Boston Marathon on Monday along with his three younger brothers.
"We're going to buy beer for the after party!" he said. "We'll see, tomorrow, with the fans on both sides of the road_it will feel very great!"


text:
[an error occurred while processing this directive] [an error occurred while processing this directive] [an error occurred while processing this directive] [an error occurred while processing this directive] [an error occurred while processing this directive] [an error occurred while processing this directive] [an error occurred while processing this directive]
WASHINGTON - The dramatic advance of Libyan rebels over the forces of longtime strongman Moammar Gadhafi offers vindication, at least for now, for President Barack Obama's decision to refrain from using U.S. troops on Libyan soil and to let NATO take the lead.
But the chaotic scene on the streets of Tripoli on Tuesday illustrated the uncertain path to stability and the hazards that still face the White House.
How Libya moves away from the current turmoil will present the next challenge for Obama and could determine how the public views not only his foreign policy but, in some measure, the U.S. economy, as well.
Underscoring the volatility, Gadhafi's whereabouts remained a mystery, fighting between rebels and Gadhafi loyalists continued, and oil prices remained in flux.
Still, the news for Obama could not have been much better. Libyan streets were euphoric, rebels overran Gadhafi's main military compound and hope grew that, over time, the price of oil, a contributor to dangerous economic lethargy, would dip.
"The Libyan intervention demonstrates what the international community can achieve when we stand together as one," Obama said at his vacation retreat in Martha's Vineyard, Mass.
The president was careful to emphasize that uncertainty remained and that Gadhafi's regime could still pose a threat.
Obama telephoned French President Nicolas Sarkozy to talk about the situation in Libya, among other things. They agreed to continue to work with allies and partners to protect Libyans and to support a peaceful transition to democracy. The State Department also said it wants to give the Libyan opposition $1 billion to $1.5 billion in frozen Gadhafi regime assets. The U.S. froze about $37 billion in regime holdings in the U.S., but most are in real estate or other property assets.
Back in March, Obama gambled that the way to confront a potential civilian catastrophe in Libya was to build a coalition of NATO and Arab countries to use airpower ostensibly to protect Libyan citizens from a Gadhafi crackdown. But his intent was clear all along: Gadhafi had to go.
The disintegration of Gadhafi's regime follows the death of Osama bin Laden at the hands of U.S. special-operations troops, a major achievement for the Obama administration and one that solidified the president's standing with the public on his handling of terrorism.
But Gadhafi's removal has additional implications. A stabilized Libya would mean the country's oil production could go back online, potentially reducing the cost of oil, which spiked globally in February as the flow of oil from Libya dried to a trickle.
Time and again, the president has cited the uprisings in the Arab world and the increased cost of oil as "headwinds" that have imperiled the economic recovery.
Libya has the largest oil reserves in Africa. Before the uprising, it was the world's 12th-largest exporter, delivering more than 1.5 million barrels per day, mostly to European markets.
It will take several months even under a stabilized Libya before its oil fields are producing enough crude to start exporting again. But any extra shipments could lower the price of gasoline, which has already come down more than 40 cents a gallon from its peak in May.
The news of the rebels' success was affecting Brent crude, which is used to price many international oil varieties, dropping 92 cents, to $107.70 per barrel, in London on Monday. It rose back up to $109.44 Tuesday as the strength of the dollar weakened against the euro and other currencies.
"If oil prices continue to head south, that's a real plus for the economy," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics. "We can take all the pluses we can get at this point."
So could Obama. Although the president's overall approval with the public is above 40 percent in most polls, the number that approve of his handling of the economy dropped to a new low of 26 percent in a Gallup Poll last week. By contrast, 53 percent approved of his handling of terrorism.
Still, the rebels' entry into Tripoli overshadowed two lingering questions: What's next, and could a more aggressive U.S. involvement have knocked Gadhafi from power much sooner?
In a statement issued late Sunday, Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said they regretted that "this success was so long in coming due to the failure of the United States to employ the full weight of our airpower."
"Ultimately, our intervention in Libya will be judged a success or failure based not on the collapse of the Gadhafi regime but on the political order that emerges in its place," the two senators said.
View subscription options


text: Today H&M and David Beckham announced they are teaming up to produce a new Bodywear range. The line is expected to be released on February 14, 2011 in 1,800 stores spread across 40 countries. This deal apparently marks the beginning of a new long-term partnership between one of the worlds largest fashion retailers and one of the world's most recognizable sporting icons. We can't wait to see the results.


text:
So I found this out a while ago but didn't want to say anything until the magazine came out.
Oblivion is about to come out for Xbox 360 in Japan next week, and Famitsu's review crew had a chance to review the game (the fully localized Japanese version). They awarded the game scores of 10, 9, 10, and 9, for a total score of 38 and it earned their Platinum Medal. If you're not familiar with Famitsu, they have a reputation for being pretty harsh, so we're pretty excited they liked it, particularly since it is very, very different than your standard Japanese RPG.
My buddy Tetsu over at Spike (the folks helping us publish Oblivion in Japan) told me that across every platform they review games on, only 44 titles have gotten a score of 38 or better since September 1986. And, as you might expect, roughly half of those 44 are from Final Fantasy, Zelda, and Dragon Quest. So that's nice company to be included in and we're quite happy.


text:
Leading European managed hosting service provider dramatically reduces infrastructure and costs for its customers, while increasing virtualized database performance capabilities by deploying Fusion ioMemory PCIe solutions.
The Challenge
Host Europe Group has over one million customers. Its subsidiary, Host Europe GmbH, is a leading provider of managed hosting services, with over 200,000 customers and 700 managed hosting customers in two data centers. One of its customers hosts a browser-based MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game) at Host Europe's data center.
This customer maintains multiple virtualized databases, each with different I/O requirements. The customer had been scaling performance by continually adding servers, but the system's performance capabilities were reaching its limit. On top of this, the management burden and costs to maintain the growing server farm were beginning to strain its business model.
Thomas Ebbers, Host Europe's Head of Product Management, told us, "To maximize this customer's infrastructure investment and flexibility, we virtualized the databases. However, the different I/O profiles resulted in unpredictable workloads that could not be consistently and affordably handled with traditional storage."
When the customer asked Host Europe GmbH about ways to consolidate, the hosting provider was confident it could find an innovative solution that was cost- efficient, while ensuring its end-users best-in-class performance.
Thomas Ebbers,
Head of Product Management, Host Europe
The Solution
After attending a workshop and live demo, Host Europe GmbH was confident a SanDisk's Fusion ioMemoryTM products were the right solution for its customer's problems.
Host Europe moved its customer's database to the Fusion ioMemory solution and found it completely resolved the performance problems.
"The Fusion ioMemory ioDrive® cards provided consistently high performance for the workloads of massively parallel-managed virtual machines. We don't have to worry anymore about load spikes that might cause servers to crash or interrupt application service," Thomas said. "This is a solution that will help all of Host Europe's customers. It enhances the capabilities of virtualization, allowing us to guarantee high service levels to all applications, under any load."
Thomas told us the SanDisk-powered system supports two to five times the workload of the previous system and added, "The ioDrive cards deliver the performance we need for I/O-intensive VMs."
The Challenge
Improved ROI with Support for More Virtualized Applications and Databases
Thomas noted that in addition to improving database performance, the ioDrive cards allowed them to use hardware much more efficiently to significantly cut infrastructure, operating costs, and the need for future scale-out.
"The ioDrive cards clearly have the best price/performance ratio," Thomas said. "We would have needed to scale out our 60-server hosting platform with an additional 162, 15k hard disks just to meet our existing performance needs. The ioDrive cards allowed us to combine the application and databases onto the same servers, cutting our server footprint to just 24 servers, while giving us plenty of headroom for future workload needs."
By reducing the hardware Host Europe needed to guarantee best-in-class service, SanDisk enabled them to maintain attractive pricing while improving bottom line.
Additionally, Thomas noted that offering this performance saves its customers valuable engineering resources: "The ioDrive cards offer such exceptional performance that our customers no longer need to optimize applications to perform well on hard disks, which adds to the value Host Europe provides them."
Expert Support
As if eliminating performance problems at a lower cost wasn't enough, the SanDisk staff made implementing the system easy.
"From our early discussions, it was clear that the SanDisk team understood our business demands. They provided us with expertise and a system that was very helpful for some customers we consulted for," said Thomas. "After closing the deal, SanDisk remained actively engaged with us, and we had a system ready to move into production in just a few minutes. We made the right decision in partnering with SanDisk."
12 database servers
48 application servers
Consolidated database and application servers
Implementing the Fusion ioMemory solution gave Host Europe GmbH the following benefits:
Needless to say, Thomas is thrilled. "SanDisk's technology and staff helped us complete a critical strategic project. We will be turning to SanDisk whenever I/O is a problem."
About Host Europe GmbH
Host Europe Group has over 1,000,000 customers. Its subsidiary, Host Europe GmbH is a leading provider of managed hosting services, with over 200,000 customers and 700 managed hosting customers in two data centers. It is Europe's second largest virtualization solution provider with over 25,000 virtual machines in service and has provided solutions for over 200,000 customers. It was the winner of the "Nachhaltigkeitspreis" of the "Ethikbank" in 2008 and the eco e.V. Internet Awards in 2005, 2007 and 2009 for hosting and data center operation. Host Europe GmbH was founded in 1997 and is based in Cologne, Germany. Host Europe GmbH operates as a subsidiary of Host Europe Group.
Of u nu een Fortune 500 bedrijf bent of een starter met 5 werknemers, SanDisk heeft oplossingen die u zullen helpen het optimale uit uw infrastructuur te halen.
Of u nu een paar eerste vragen wilt stellen of er aan toe bent om een SanDisk-oplossing te bespreken die speciaal aansluit bij de behoeften van uw organisatie, het SanDisk-verkoopteam is er om u te ondersteunen.
Wij beantwoorden uw vragen graag. Vult u dus het onderstaande formulier in, zodat we aan de slag kunnen.
Hartelijk dank. Wij hebben uw verzoek ontvangen


text:
By Ben Hayward
In 2009, Mauricio Pochettino proved Espanyol's saviour. In the deepest of trouble at the bottom of the table, the Catalan club opted to take a chance on their former defender, announcing the Argentine - on the same week Barack Obama was sworn in as president of the United States over in Washington - with the sole goal of saving the side from relegation.
And yes, he could. Now Southampton will hope for something similar.
|Damian Didonato | Goal.com Argentina
"Mauricio Pochettino was an intelligent and disciplined defender. Those same qualities that took him to the Argentina national team at World Cup 2002 led him to become a high-level manager and although his coaching career is still in its primary years, he has the honour of being picked as the best coach in La Liga in 2011.
"His work with Espanyol earned the respect of all in Spanish football and while he shares the same devotion to his work as his tutor Marcelo Bielsa, there are clear differences between him and the Athletic Bilbao coach.
"He's arrived in the Premier League after Jose Mourinho's advice and he will be the second Argentine manager in England after Osvaldo Ardiles. At Southampton, Pochettino will have the tough task of avoiding relegation but he will be well aware of that and ready for the challenge."
Pochettino spent two separate spells at Espanyol as a player and is described by some supporters as the finest footballer in their recent history. As coach, his start was equally excellent and the second season promised much more as the side's swanky stadium at Cornella was unveiled in the summer with a 3-0 win over Liverpool.
The Argentine had made defender Dani Jarque captain days earlier and he had led out the team that August afternoon, only to tragically pass away at a training camp in Italy following a cardiac arrest just days later. They were trying times for the club, but 'Poche' proved a suitable spokesman and a loyal leader as he steered the side through an emotional campaign.
They ended in 11th but would enjoy an even more successful season in 2010-11, finishing in eighth. After that, however, Pochettino lost striker Dani Osvaldo and forward Jose Callejon in the summer. Suitable replacements were never signed as the Catalan club cut costs and Espanyol ended the campaign in 14th - albeit still comfortably clear of the relegation zone.
It was during that time that Pochettino was linked as a possible replacement for Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid. Despite difficulties at the Barcelona-based club and offers from Sampdoria and Valencia in his time in Catalunya, the Argentine committed to Espanyol. "My children sleep in Espanyol pyjamas," he told reporters.
Now, three months after his time at Espanyol was ended my mutual agreement following a run of poor results, he has revealed that Mourinho played a part in his move to the Premier League.
|Southampton are 11/1 to beat Everton 1-0 with bet365
But the most important thing of all for Pochettino is a solid defence. A fine centre-back himself with 20 caps for his country, he can pass on valuable knowledge to his back four at Southampton and will look to build from the back.
Charismatic and preaching positivity, 'Poche' endeared himself to fans and the press in Spain with his side's exciting brand of football, but there were also problems with several players, namely Raul Tamudo, Carlos Kameni and Javi Marquez, with all three eventually moving on after falling out with their coach.
Such conflicts could cause concern, but Pochettino is used to working on a shoestring and at the lower end of the table, which should stand him in good stead for his new role. The Argentine must learn the language to get his message across in England and providing he can do that, now has the opportunity to build on his reputation as one the game's most exciting young coaches. Southampton may be the ideal place.


text:
San Diego subcultures
Moonies, Asian refugees, boxing aspirants, craftsmen, Chabad Jews, future ballet dancers
Various Authors 8:30 a.m., Oct. 20
Visitation weekends are an anxiety experience for Baldwin, punctuated by sheer bliss. Baldwin is in his 50s and lives in Mission Hills. His little boy is 32 years old. Since 2003 he has registered bipolar into the red, now reading schizophrenia after having metered past schiz-affect some two years ago. Danny Baldwin lives in Oceanside, a block from where his mom works at a corporate job for a lawn-furniture manufacturer. Driving west on 78 on this Friday evening, all Baldwin can think about is his first stint in rehab after Danny's diagnosis and Baldwin's subsequent public intoxication charge at some chain restaurant in Mission Valley he does not recall.
The therapist, a black man named Figg, asked the group of men, "How many come from a divorced couple?" Three out of five raised their hands. Baldwin's parents had stayed together, though the young Baldwin had often prayed for a divorce, even a death (he confessed this 40 years later to a priest he never saw in a North Park confessional), so he sat back. He watched Figg lift a sheet of blank typing paper and say, "This is what divorce does to a kid," and ripped the sheet pretty cleanly in half. One guy, about 40, wept into his hands, and the whole session was about him after that. Baldwin now remembers how he had laughed, maybe aloud, and muttered glibly to himself, "It ain't me, babe."
Now, eight years later, as he pulls up to Dan's building, the image of his son as two half sheets of paper seems ridiculous. Father and son will talk about moving in together again over this weekend, make some sensible choices; Danny sounded fine, in that stable phase between manic and emotionless. It is his birthday.
The light in North County is different, he thinks as the sun sets toward Japan — more watery, if that makes any sense. Baldwin thinks of amniotic fluid for some reason, and this is accompanied by a phrase he hasn't thought of in decades: meconium staining. It was why Dan was turned away at Lennox Hill Hospital on another Friday night three decades ago and sent downtown to Beth Israel, where they had the right machine or something. The phrase meant that his son had shit in the womb. Baldwin grins, shakes his head.
"Hi, Dad. Do you have to smoke?" Dan's not smiling, but he seldom does. His eyes seem darker than the hazel Baldwin remembers. It's on the birth certificate.
"No, not right now. I won't if you say the word." His son, every bit of 300 pounds, had dyed his hair blue a month ago. It appears a kind of cocktail-lounge-pianist henna now, and something in the young man's voice alarms Baldwin. "Is your mom coming? Because I brought some steaks."
"Any minute. I'm starving. There's nothing here." Baldwin hears this constantly and goes to the refrigerator. It is empty except for bottled Arrowhead and two-liter Mountain Dew and Pepsi. His son has again thrown out everything: mustard, fruit, and butter, all kinds of stuff, to present a picture of hardship. He would later claim they were expired. Baldwin says nothing.
"Dad, there might be a girl coming over. I'm kind of embarrassed."
"What? Really?" This could be bad. Danny hadn't been in the company of a woman his own age since shortly before he was beaten by her former boyfriend stalker, launching his son's mind across the parking lot of Pizz–Orama in Vista.
"She's a porn star." His son points to the computer screen: MySpace, where Cherry X. Flaymz and her crow's feet grin at Baldwin from cyberspace.
"Dan, man. This is a goof, man. She's in L.A. and she's a pro. She's not coming, buddy. No. Look, let's..."
"Dreams don't come true. Not with you, Dad. Right? You're a failure, so dreams don't come true." He's fuming, strangling fistfuls of nothing. A knock at the door. "Come in."
"Hi, Dan. Hi, Bob. I've got some groceries." Anne immediately senses it's going south. "What's up?"
"I have a girl coming over, and Dad is ruining it."
Baldwin explains briefly. His son simmers.
"Your dad is..."
"He's always right. You hate him and he's still right!"
"Nobody hates anybody. Calm down."
Danny propels himself several feet toward his mother. Baldwin steps between them, faces his son — "Whoa, whoa!" — who reaches past him, grabbing his mother's necklace.
"That's Grandma's. Stop it! You're hurting me!"
"You're making Dad mad."
"I'm not mad. Look at me, I'm crying. What's wrong? Stop this. Don't hurt her."
His right arm is around Danny's shoulders in a hug, and his left arm grips his son's wrists. He is trying to pull them away from Anne's fingers, which are at her throat, clutching the broken necklace. He says, "You don't want to do this. Please."
"This family is going down. See?" He commends his full weight to his parents. Everyone is sinking to the linoleum. "Dad can't support me. You can but you won't. You have thousands and thousands of dollars and you won't! You see? This family is going down and you won't stop it!"
Baldwin fights tears. His ex-wife no longer bothers. When her former husband frees their son's wrist from her sweater and fingers, she lunges backward, reaching with her left hand toward her son's shoulder for balance. Danny lies between them as they try to extricate themselves from this brutal, comic posture. A man and woman, the man in his late 50s, the woman in her early 60s, are poised over the large bulk of their prostrate son on the floor and vainly trying to stroke, lift, pat, cradle, extend hands, and at the same time free themselves.
Anne manages her way to her feet. Baldwin waves her toward the door. "Go, go. Call them. Do it." Danny gets to his feet and bounds after her, but Baldwin stops him at the head of the stairs beyond the front door. Other doors are closing, slamming, or slowly creaking shut in the summer night with the whimper of whipped dogs.


text:
For the past few months, we've been exploring the winter specials offered by local restaurants. One of the best deals we've found so far is at the new Hot L Bar and Grille in Provincetown.
For the past few months, we've been exploring the winter specials offered by local restaurants. One of the best deals we've found so far is at the new Hot L Bar and Grille in Provincetown.
The Hot L is currently offering a $10 winter dinner special Sunday through Thursday that is a very sweet deal. Sunday is barbecue chicken, Monday is meatloaf, Tuesday is fried chicken, Wednesday is pulled pork and Thursday, which is the night we went, is baked cod. Fridays, the restaurant offers an all-you-can-eat haddock fish fry for $13 and Saturdays, there is prime rib for $20.
The restaurant and bar opened in July in the old Michael Shay's building on Bradford Street. The dining room was given a major facelift with whitewashed barnboard walls and trim, and other walls painted in warm colors and hung with local art.
We chose to dine in a booth with a view of the glass-fronted woodstove, set on whitewashed brick, and soon we were snacking on some delicious cornbread-fried hush puppies with cranberry butter. It was a delightful version of the usual bread basket. Inexpensive entrees make ordering appetizers more tempting. The Hot L has some really yummy salad choices, mostly billed for two.
My husband wasn't in the mood for salad, so I started with the side version of the house salad ($6). Even the side version was ample, with a plate overflowing with very fresh mixed baby greens, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, thinly sliced red onions, carrot shavings, fresh parmesan and oversized croutons. The slightly sweet roasted shallot vinaigrette was perfect.
My husband began with the mussels appetizer from the nightly specials ($9), which consisted of an oversized bowl of plump mussels cooked in a rich and garlicky buttery wine sauce. A large slice of nicely toasted and seasoned bread made for good dipping in the broth. We were off to a terrific start.
Our entrees had some quirks, but did not disappoint. The fried chicken ($17 on the regular menu, but just $10 on Tuesday nights), was abundant. It consisted of a leg, thigh and very large breast, all soaked in buttermilk and coated with a thick herb-infused crust. It came with a large side of homemade mashed potatoes that were a bit under-seasoned. In our opinion, they could have used more butter and cream.
The side of chicken gravy was similarly under-seasoned, but a nice addition to the plate. Neither one detracted from the meal in a big way because the side of cranberry cole slaw was simply awesome. The sweetened dried cranberries were a perfect pick-me-up to the fresh-tasting cabbage salad.
The $10 cod special (usually $18) was a full-sized meal, neatly lined up in three eye-pleasing rows. The cod was panko-encrusted and baked with a drizzle of citrus beurre blanc on top. The crumbs were toasted to a perfect brown, but the fish was a bit overcooked. The beurre blanc was a nice addition, but more would have been better. A heartier serving of beurre blanc on top of the fish would have made those crispy crumbs soggy, but a nice bed of it on the plate underneath the fish would have added more flavor without ruining the crumbs.
The cod dish was accompanied by basmati rice and a mix of zucchini and summer squash. The aromatic rice had a drizzle of butter and salt and pepper that was a lovely touch. The squash medley was nicely seasoned and was saut�ed with finely diced bits of red and yellow pepper.
We left with the impression that chef Mel Scarberry obviously cares deeply about food. His menu is creative and the little touches like extra seasoning on the rice and vegetables, and cranberries in the cole slaw, show that even the details are important to him.
Our server, Dan, was prompt and also very knowledgeable about the restaurant and the menu, which we really appreciated. It was a dining experience we will remember and will definitely want to experience again.


text:
By submitting your information, you agree that databasejournal.com may send you databasejournal offers via email, phone and text message, as well as email offers about other products and services that databasejournal believes may be of interest to you. databasejournal will process your information in accordance with the Quinstreet Privacy Policy.
Posted Apr 29, 2005
By DatabaseJournal.com Staff
Early Bird registration (April 19 - July 22) can save up to $400.
Oracle OpenWorld offers a variety of conference packages.
Choose between a full conference pass, the exhibition visitor/keynote pass, or the JD Edwards World Package.
The article continues at
Database News Archives
Your name/nickname
Your email
(Maximum characters: 1200). You have characters left.


text:
NetWellness is a global, community service providing quality, unbiased health information from our partners. NetWellness is commercial-free and does not accept advertising.
Monday, December 5, 2016
Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable illness and death in the United States. It causes many different cancers as well as chronic lung diseases, such as emphysema and bronchitis, and heart disease.
Meet Our Experts
Suzanne J Smith, PhD
Research and Your Health:
Get Help With ...
Related Topics and Conditions


text:
Hey all! DarlingDaniChan here! I'm your new Manga Brand Manager and as my FIRST ACT OF DUTY, I bring you an entire slew of new manga titles this week!
First up, from Kodansha, Kouji Seo's Fuuka! You may recognize his name from A Town Where You Live!
New meetings always come suddenly! The protagonist, Yuu Haruna, moves into a new town where he meets a somewhat strange girl who doesn't have a cell phone. The girl, Fuuka, seems to have a strange allure that draws people to her, very much like a summer breeze. Looks like Yuu has been caught up in one wild love story!
Fuuka will be available TODAY, 4/15 at 4:00pm PST, simul-published with full catalog.
Territories: Worldwide except Japan, Algeria, Lebanon, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Morocco, and Switzerland.
The next piece of awesome news we have is that the simul-pubs for Investor Z by Norifusa Mita start TODAY!
Mita Norifusa, whose ""Dragon Zakura"" started a revolution in Japan's world of entrance exams, now brings you another school-drama manga about stock investments!
Zaizen Takashi passes his entrance exams at the top of the heap, and starts his first year in junior high school at Dojuku Gakuen, a 130-year old super-advanced institute of higher education. The day after the entrance ceremony, ""the secret"" of the school is revealed to him, which concerns the existence of an ""investment club,"" consisting only of the top student from each of the 6 grades.
Its club members have a mission. They must invest from a capital of 300-billion yen and yield a profit of 8%, which is their annual goal. This is why Dojuku Gakuen, boasting the highest standards of education in all of Japan, is tuition free.
"The most exciting game in the world. The ultimate game of ultimate thrill… In other words, money… Investments!" Here begins the story of the genius Zaizen, who bets the entirety of his youth on money. Learn, Zaizen... and make a bundle!!
Investor Z is available WORLDWIDE with simul-pubs starting TODAY, 4/16 at 4:00pm PST, along with the full catalog available for you!
That's all for today, folks. Keep an eye out for more announcements coming your way this week!
Alright, everyone! Final announcement for this week comes to you in the form of a one-shot by Moyoco Anno, Insufficient Direction!
When Moyoco Anno, the widely successful creator of women's manga,
married Hideaki Anno, creator of Evangelion and a director known to be
the very model of anotaku, she held one important doubt:
"Am I really ready to be an otaku's wife?"
Taking up that challenge, Moyoco Anno launched herself into the deep
and beautiful world of married life.
This comic essay, an account of the private lives of two of Japan's
most high-profile creators, is raw, unfiltered, and unforgettably
Insufficient Direction is available WORLDWIDE TODAY, 4/17 at 4:00pm PST.
This hilarious one-shot was published by Cork and is also available in print from Vertical.
Thanks so much for tuning in guys! Stay tuned for more manga announcements in the near future! ~ <3
Oh snap! Nice pick up CR
Great choice . I love Seo Kouji sensei work
Hey folks whats new? Im good oh and happy Holidays to all :D
But will we get the entire collection or just the newer once as they're released?
TheOmegaForce70941 wrote:
But will we get the entire collection or just the newer once as they're released?
Full catalog!
Guest Pass Litter Moderator
TheOmegaForce70941 wrote:
But will we get the entire collection or just the newer once as they're released?
Fuuka will be available TODAY, 4/15 at 4:00pm PST, simul-published with full catalog.
(emphasis mine)
I'm assuming that means they'll have it all up, to date, today. (Guess we'll find out in a few hours!)
Awesome I was actually wishing this would happen yesterday hahaha.
Let's get off track and wander far.
Sweet! Now if Yumekui Merry/Dream Eater Merry by Yoshitaka Ushiki makes it to CrunchyManga too, I'll be one happy, crunchy camper (terrible pun I know)!
Come on traditional boys sports manga.
SoTaku is love
27CansOfTuna wrote:
Come on traditional boys sports manga.
Animanga hunter extraordinaire
I did not realize he had something else. Looking it up on MAL - same setting as Suzuka? It is a sequel of it... So, obviously I must follow... Thanks.
I saw on here for like 2 minutes they changed the title to add "Fairy Tail Catalog" I guess we will be seeing some Back catalog on here finally?
stark700 wrote:
27CansOfTuna wrote:
Come on traditional boys sports manga.
Theres no sports manga on the service, kodansha manga magazines have a large variety.
SoTaku is love
Content Overlord
lugiamania wrote:
Feia20032 wrote:
I saw on here for like 2 minutes they changed the title to add "Fairy Tail Catalog" I guess we will be seeing some Back catalog on here finally?
Sorry, that was a reference to the anime catalog!
Thats what I meant XD Sorry haha. I guess I didnt specify


text:
STOCKTON - A look at Lincoln Unified demographics reveals that roughly 60 percent of the school district's residents live east of Interstate 5.
STOCKTON - A look at Lincoln Unified demographics reveals that roughly 60 percent of the school district's residents live east of Interstate 5.
The most recent U.S. census data show that those 60 percent are more ethnically diverse and less affluent than the other 40 percent - residents of the Brookside and Lincoln Village West neighborhoods.
Yet, when it comes to representation on the five-member Lincoln Unified school board, Brookside and Lincoln Village West are pitching a shutout. But a discussion at tonight's school board meeting may prove to be the first stop toward more balanced representation on the board.
Lincoln Unified Superintendent Tom Uslan is scheduled tonight to broach the topic of dividing the 8,000-student district into geographic trustee areas. Currently, voters choose Lincoln's board members in district-wide elections.
"I can see both the pros and the cons (of trustee areas)," Uslan said this week. "The time is now for us to begin discussions."
Among San Joaquin County's five large unified school districts - Stockton, Lodi, Manteca, Tracy and Lincoln - only the latter two choose their boards in at-large elections. Tracy Unified spokeswoman Jessica Cardoza said her district is not considering adopting trustee areas at the moment.
"We haven't encountered any issues at this point, so it's not something we're discussing at this time," Cardoza said. "It's never been brought up by the board or the community."
But California school districts with at-large boards run a risk. When the state Legislature enacted the California Voting Rights Act in 2001, it made school districts and other government entities that use at-large election systems vulnerable to legal attack.
In recent years, lawsuits challenging at-large voting systems resulted in a $110,000 settlement paid out by Hanford Joint Union High School District and a $162,500 award paid out by Madera Unified.
Uslan said the adoption of trustee areas has been the subject of internal discussions at Lincoln Unified "for a number of years."
He said the district also has received prodding from the San Joaquin County Office of Education to establish trustee areas.
"It would lead to geographical balance in trustee representation," Uslan added. "What you would have would be trustee areas that would have approximately the same number of registered voters, as well as those areas having balance by race.
"It would make it easier from a financial perspective for a person to run for the board because they would only be running for a trustee area versus canvassing the entire district."
Uslan said a possible drawback to carving up the district would be that trustees might be overly focused on the interests of the schools they would represent at the expense of the district as a whole.
He said a unifying factor, though, would be that all the trustees would share equal interest in the success of Lincoln High, the district's only comprehensive high school.
Uslan is expected to release a map of proposed trustee areas at tonight's meeting. A vote on the matter, if it moves forward, probably is several months away.
Uslan said area voting, if enacted, would debut the next time Lincoln Unified seats are scheduled to be in play. In 2014, two-term board members Susan Lenz and Ted Bestolarides will be termed out, and Don Ruhstaller will complete his first term and be eligible to seek reelection.
Contact reporter Roger Phillips at (209) 546-8299 or firstname.lastname@example.com. Visit his blog at recordnet.com/phillipsblog.


text:
NEW ORLEANS — It's no surprise Drew Brees would rather be a competitor than an ambassador, but the city's patron Saint put on his best effort Wednesday to promote and help his adopted hometown as it prepares for Super Bowl XLVII.
"It's hard to imagine somebody else playing in our dome but us," he said. "But there is a great opportunity to showcase the city of New Orleans this week. It's been a long time since the Super Bowl has been here (2002), and New Orleans has been waiting for this opportunity."
Brees said he's still waiting for his first chance to speak to newly reinstated Saints coach Sean Payton. He said he texted Payton as he was traveling to Hawaii for last week's Pro Bowl and Payton was heading to Mobile, Ala., for the Senior Bowl.
"It's one of those relationships that, though we haven't been able to talk for the entire season, when we see each other it'll be like we haven't missed any time," Brees said.
Payton was suspended for the entire 2012 season for his failure to exert proper institutional control over a bounty program overseen by former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams from 2009-11. While NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell allowed Payton to return in time to evaluate players at the Senior Bowl, he didn't restore the Saints' second-round pick in April's draft.
Asked about the decision, Brees did his best to audible around it.
"It is what it is," he said. "We're all ready to move on to the 2013 season. Sean's back; all the pieces are in place. Now it's time to put ourselves in a position to make a run."
A prime order of business is to hire a new defensive coordinator. One of Payton's first acts after he was reinstated was to fire first-year defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo after a 7-9 season in which the Saints surrendered an NFL record 7,042 total yards.
Whomever he hires, Payton said he wants the Saints to switch from a 4-3 to a 3-4 base defense.
"I don't have all the information," Brees said of the firing. "I haven't talked to Sean or anyone about that. Obviously tough decisions need to be made. I wouldn't say I agree or disagree, but the fact of the matter is there is always turnover, and we as players always have to do our jobs. I'll be interested to see who we get and what scheme we'll be running. I think we all trust the man who's making (the decisions), and we'll move on with what we have."
The MVP of the Saints' win over the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV three years ago in Miami, Brees said he expects a competitive game Sunday between the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens. The 49ers beat the Saints 31-21 here Nov. 25.
"Both are great teams," Brees said. "Both of them have traveled a tough road to get here, going on road and win (in the playoffs). It's one of those rare occasions where both teams have dominant defenses and extremely explosive offenses, so it really could go either way. I wish it was us."
Brees appeared Wednesday at an event called "Financial Football" at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center with Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson and Louisiana State Treasurer John Kennedy to promote financial responsibility among teenagers. Brees and Wilson joined students from McMain and McDonogh 35 high schools to "coach" them through a video game in which their answers to financial questions allow the teams to gain or lose yardage.
Brees' Saints beat Wilson's Seahawks 7-0 on — what else? — a fourth-quarter touchdown pass.
Brees told the students how he got himself in financial trouble with an unpaid cell phone account from his playing days at Purdue that made it harder for him to buy a home when he started his NFL career in San Diego. Asked about his credit score now, Brees laughed and said, "It's improved quite a bit since college. It was in the low (600s), and now it's about (800). I can get a loan."
Not that a loan likely is necessary for the NFL's highest-paid player. His current contract averages out to about $20 million per season.
"We'll have to get him to loan the state money," Kennedy said.


text:
US military to launch Open Source Academy
- Details
Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center in Mississippi will offer open source training and Linux certification for military personnel and civilians in groundbreaking new program.
Open source software, which has become increasingly common throughout the US military from unmanned drones to desktops, has now been enlisted as a career option for military personnel. In September, Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center will open a Linux certification academy, marking the first time such a training program has been hosted on a military base.
The Mississippi installation, which is already a training hub for all branches of the military, hopes to ramp up to four to six classes, processing 50 to 75 military and civilian students per month.
The training academy will fall under the auspices of the Open Technology Center, a joint agency nonprofit research entity whose mission is to support national security objectives by facilitating the development and implementation of open source software technologies for public and private sector entities.
The academy is part of a broader effort to ramp up the IT skills of current military personnel as well as those transitioning out of the services, center director John Weathersby told InformationWeek in a phone call. Weathersby, who lives near Camp Shelby, has been a consultant on a variety of federal, military, and homeland security initiatives for nearly 15 years. "We've got to make sure people are trained, as the military is downsizing," he said, noting that the commercial sector has rapidly embraced open source, such as the Linux operating system.
The Open Technology Center's primary mission, Weathersby explained, is to research and develop open source software technologies that support national security objectives. This will not only aid defense and industry partners around the country, he added, but it will attract new jobs and opportunities to locate at Camp Shelby.


text:
Claudio Pizarro had given the underdogs the lead but Ezequiel Lavezzi's double and Rodrigo Palacio's strike ensured that Alejandro Sabella's men picked up three more points.
The win ensured Argentina will finish the South American qualifying group on top as they rose to 32 points, five clear of second-placed Colombia, who wrapped up a spot at next year's finals on Friday.Peru had entered the match in Buenos Aires knowing they could not qualify for Brazil 2014 and finished the game still on 14 points in seventh position.
The visitors started strongly, however, with Pizarro bursting onto a through-ball by Gianmarco Gambetta in the 21st minute and then finishing inside the far post of Sergio Romero's goal.
Peru's joy did not last long though as Lavezzi equalised two minutes later, tapping home from close range after Federico Fernandez's header from a corner was saved.
The Paris Saint-Germain striker put Argentina ahead in the 35th minute, after a flowing move down the right ended with Palacio cutting the ball back from the byline and Lavezzi had no trouble side-footing into the net.
Argentina almost had a third goal just before half-time as Sergio Aguero hit the back of the net only to be ruled out for offside.
Coach Alejandro Sabella and his Argentine players did not have to wait much longer to make it 3-1, however, with Aguero linking up with Marcos Rojo in the 47th minute and the latter crossed for Palacio to finish from close range.
Palacio hit the bar soon after with a delicate chip but the home side failed to add to their tally, while Peru were barely in the contest as they copped their fourth loss in five international matches.