text:
Tokyo, July 15, 2004 --- Honda Motor Co., Ltd. today announced the direction and some initiatives for the new mid-term plan that will begin with the start of the next fiscal year, April 1,
Directions for the new mid-term plan:
For the new mid-term, Honda will pursue the "creation of new joys" and further highlight Honda's originality. "Creation of new joys" means to continuously provide products and services that are ahead of the times and beyond customers' expectations. In order to achieve these objectives, Honda will focus on the following four core points of Honda's uniqueness during the new mid-term.
- 1)R&D: strengthen the ability to create new and unique technologies and products, which is the origin of Honda's uniqueness.
- 2)Manufacturing: create dynamic manufacturing operations where high quality is achieved in every manufacturing process.
- 3)Sales: strengthen sales and service to achieve stable sales and lifetime customer satisfaction.
- 4)Mother function of Honda Japan: strengthen the capability of Honda in Japan to create new technologies that support the growth of global operations.
Honda will focus on technology, quality and motivation of Honda associates in order to strengthen the core points of Honda's uniqueness and build a stronger Honda brand.
Motorcycle Business:
- Develop new manufacturing technologies to achieve even lower cost for Honda's affordable motorcycles that account for the majority of current worldwide annual sales of nearly 10 million units.
- Enhance the mother function of the Kumamoto factory in ATV production such as the development of new manufacturing technologies and support for overseas operations.
Automobile Business:
- Position Honda's innovative SH-AWD (Super Handling All-Wheel Drive System) as one of the advanced technologies that enhances "fun-to-drive" characteristics and continue to advance this technology to expand its use to more models.
--- Automobile: Japan
- Increase focus from the customers' viewpoint to achieve the highest possible level of lifetime customer satisfaction.
- Strengthen Honda's minivan product lineup and continuously have a full model change or new model introduction each year in this category.
- Establish a system to provide better overall service to our customers by promoting personnel training and developing IT-based systems.
- Retain current total of 8.7 million Honda customers while adding more new customers.
--- Automobile: North America
- Continue introduction of new products in the light truck category, including an all-new Odyssey (fall 2004), Honda SUT (spring 2005), and Acura brand SUV.
- Strengthen Honda's competitive advantage in the passenger car category with an all-new Acura RL (fall 2004) and a new entry-level Honda model (2006.)
- Continue to introduce vehicles with high fuel efficiency such as the Accord Hybrid (fall 2004) and all-new Odyssey equipped with Variable Cylinder Management (VCM) system.
- Increase the flexibility of Honda's overall production capacity in North America to better meet market demand.
--- Automobile: Europe
- Expand and strengthen Honda's lineup of diesel-powered vehicles by adding CR-V (early 2005), FR-V (known as Edix in Japan) and the next generation Civic.
- Strengthen diesel engine production by increasing capacity of molding and machining at the Honda Engineering Tochigi Center and by transferring the assembly process to the Suzuka and Saitama plants (fall 2004). Achieve daily production of 300 units by spring 2005. Begin diesel engine assembly at Honda's UK engine plant by the end of 2005.
--- Automobile: China
- In addition to Guangzhou Honda's annual production capacity of 240,000 units, capacity of Dongfeng Honda (Wuhan) will be expanded to 120,000 units over the next three years.
- Guangzhou Honda will begin production of the Fit 5-door in fall 2004. Expansion of Dongfeng Honda's (Wuhan) product lineup is being considered.
- Establish Honda Engineering China Co., Ltd., a local subsidiary of Honda Engineering Co., Ltd in August, 2004 (tentative) to strengthen support for local production plants as they expand capacity, add new models and procure production equipment.
- Improve the quality of Honda's dealer network by adding sales of pre-owned vehicles to some dealer operations by the end of 2004.
--- Automobile: Asia/Oceania
- Expand the product lineup such as the Jazz, with local production shifting into high gear.
- Establish a training center in Thailand (August 2004) to develop staff for both sales and production areas in order to build a solid foundation to achieve high customer satisfaction.
Power Product Business
- Further increase competitiveness by employing a new global production supply network – commercial use GS series engines are produced in Thailand and China while home use GC series engines are produced in the U.S. and Europe.
- Further strengthen Honda's competitive advantage in the area of the environment with Honda's cogeneration system as well as marine engines and general purpose engines which exceed environmental standards. The development of even cleaner engines will be continued.
Aviation Business
- Establish Honda Aero, Inc. in the U.S. to oversee Honda's aviation engine business. (July 2004)
- Establish the Wako Nishi R&D Center to consolidate and strengthen aviation engine development. (July 2004)
Future Technology Development
- HRI (Honda Research Institute) in Japan, the U.S. and Europe will hire engineers from a variety of industries and universities, and collaborate with outside organizations such as universities and venture companies to pursue development of new technologies in new areas such as new materials, intellectual systems and plant genomics.
- Honda's invention of Macro Stabilization Control Technology received the 2004 Invention Award from the Minster of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. This invention was achieved through the research for bipedal walking robots. Honda will apply this technology in the future to develop posture control technologies for motorcycles, automobile and other vehicles.
Motor Sports
- Honda is now in the final stages of renewing its contract in Formula One racing with British American Racing beyond next year. Honda will strengthen its team with a long-term view to win the series championship.


text:
Normal anatomy
The anus is a sphincter at the end of the rectum through which passes stool during defecation. The anal sphincter is a critical mechanism for control of fecal continence.
Anal fissures are tears in the skin overlying the anal sphincter, usually due to increased tone of the anal sphincter muscles, and a failure of these muscle to relax. Anal fissures cause pain during defecation and bleeding from the anus.
Most anal fissures can be treated successfully with conservative measures, which include stool softeners and warm soaks. The goal is to relax the anal sphincter, which allows the fissure to heal. If these methods are ineffective, surgery is necessary. This is called an internal sphincterotomy, a procedure in which the anal sphincter is partially cut, thus allowing it to relax and permitting the fissure to heal.
Sphincterotomy, when properly performed, is very effective in healing anal fissures.
Version Info
- Last reviewed on 5/24/2016
- Mary C. Mancini, MD, PhD, Department of Surgery, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center-Shreveport, Shreveport, LA. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Isla Ogilvie, PhD, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
A winning entry in CrackBerry's What Would You Do for a BlackBerry 10 Phone? Contest!
* Download the BlackBerry Sonata here (25.8MB) *
With all of the BlackBerry 10 launch event buzz and the BlackBerry Z10 Review content hitting CrackBerry the last couple of days, we took a short break from posting more winners from our What Would You Do for a BlackBerry 10 Phone? Contest. But we're back with our next winning entry, from Daniel Richmond.
Daniel's idea was to write an original piano piece in the classical sonata form, using the traditional BlackBerry ringtone. To say we were intrigued by Daniel's idea was an understatement, so we picked him as a winner and boy did he follow through. You can listen to the BlackBerry Sonata in E-Minor above, and keep reading for more details on the inspiration as well as the sheet music.
In Daniel's words:
The piece is in sonata form from the early classical era, and still shows tendencies of the Baroque era that preceded it, almost as if written for a harpsichord instead of piano. The two halves of the BlackBerry ringtone make up the starting notes of the primary and secondary themes of the piece (in e and in G). I hope you enjoy it! It was fun to make such a piece on such a time crunch.
What would I do for a BlackBerry 10 phone? I'd make a piano piece in classical sonata form!
Great job Daniel! You deserve the free BB10 phone you have coming your way. You have mad skills!
And this is why I love contests like this on CrackBerry - it shows the amazing diversity and talent of our readership and BlackBerry owners. When we pick the winning ideas for What Would You You? contests, we pick a range of ideas - a couple crazy ideas, a couple hard work and effort ideas, some talent-related ideas, a couple sexy ideas, some arts and crafts ideas, etc. We mix it up - from tattoos to bikini photoshoots to musical sonatas and everything in between! We realize not everybody will love every idea that gets picked (especially those who submitted ideas that didn't get picked), but that's the nature of these types of contests - can never please everyone. Don't over think it - just enjoy the posts. And remember, on CrackBerry another contest is never too far away. In fact, we have another contest going right now where you can enter to win a free BlackBerry Z10!
And we still have six more entries to come. We're actually picking 11 winners since the BlackBerry bikini photoshoot was more of a bonus round on the eve of the BB10 launch day to keep everybody entertained (it seems to have entertained a lot of you too - over 90,000 views on youtube which is a record for a What Would You Do contest entry - even more than some of our entries from the Storm contest we did years ago!).
Enjoy the Sonata and stay tuned for our next winning entry!


text:
They're baaaaack!! Hello, to the pretty… the pretty awesome!
"The Devil uses the truth to betray mankind because he is expected to lie…"
Oh, how I've missed these boys and their angst and their anger. I was curious about so many random things—what song they'd use in the "road so far," what the opening title thingy would look/sound like, how they were going to get out this one…
"This has been a really stressful day."
You're not kidding, Chuck. Like so many of you, I was watching the clock today, balancing a fever-flushed three-year-old with the demands of contractor deadlines on minimal sleep. I was, in a word, touchy. But as the day edged closer to night and the hubs returned from work, I started to breathe a bit easier. Our guys were back tonight.
Going into this season, I carried with me many questions. Questions like… where is God? Will Dean have to become an angel to defeat Lucifer? What about his PTSD—will that reappear? What's going to happen with Sam's blood addiction? This kick-ass season opener answered some and posed many others. We are in for a helluva ride this year, folks. And I am in a comfortable state of gleeful curiosity to see if and how questions are answered as we continue our walk with our heroes into these dark, deep woods.
Okay, but first, I have to say… Vampire Diaries… really? Our show is so completely out of place in this channel of off-the-shelf TV Shows with pretty faces, empty problems, woe-filled voice-overs, and The Fray. I gave the last 30 mins a chance and the only thing good I saw was Ian Somerholder's smirk. I'll be tuning in at 7:58pm from now on.
We open with Thunderstruck and I could not wipe the grin off my face. NovembersGuest and lsketch42 both rec'd a vid that recapped Season 4 quite amazingly. This could have been hers, if she had chosen AC/DC. Happily, we pick up right where we left off, the brothers gripping each other's coats, standing together, then running for the door, only to have it slammed shut in their faces.
Lucifer's angel voice is deafening and the guys are driven to their knees, hands over their ears, and then… it's Yosemite Sam. On TV. Talking to a cartoon devil. What the hell? They're on… a plane, totally baffled, listening as the pilot is saying that they just passed over Hillchester on their way to Ellicott City. Total aside, I was wracking my brain to figure out why "Ellicott City" meant something until I remembered I used it in a fanfic. Which… doesn't really bode well for me later in the episode, but we'll get to that.
After a frightening exclamation of "Holy Crap!" from the pilot (and seriously, if you were on a plane and the pilot said that over the intercom, would you not just die right there?!), we cut to the opening title page. Blood in the water. Whispered voices. A heartbeat.
Somehow… the plane lands and the guys are in the Impala. I got this too-rushed feeling, like they were trying to pack things in tightly to give us as much information as possible but were leaving us with more questions. Mostly consisting of, 'how the hell…' I would have liked a reaction from Dean for having been on a friggin' plane.
Sam tries to apologize, to address the Gigantic Elephant in the backseat, but Dean cuts him off with a, "It's okay… we just have to keep our heads down, get through this." Oh, so you're going to play it that way, huh? This oughta be interesting… Dean declares they have to find Cas, so they head to Chuck's place.
Which is utterly destroyed.
They're surveying the damage, trying to make sense of it, when Chuck whacks Sam across the head with a… chair leg? Seeing that it's Sam, he sputters with relief, "You're okay!"
"Well… my head hurts," Sam says.
"You went like full-on Vader!" I love this guy. He's just so… you wanna hug him! "Your body temp was 150, heart rate 200, eyes were black…" These visions are very detailed.
Dean reacts to that last, though. "Your eyes went black?"
Sam glances back, a quick flash of apology and guilt swimming across his face. "I didn't know."
Dean has puzzled me so far. I couldn't really get a read on him. His face is so stony, so set with determination that his jaw muscle is coiled. And he doesn't really let us get a good look at his eyes. That alone was amping up the angst factor. I didn't know how I was supposed to feel, if that makes sense.
Chuck reveals that the archangels 'smote the crap' out of Cas… that he exploded like a water balloon of Chunky Soup. Um, eww. Dean curses, calling Cas a stupid bastard for trying to help them. Even though he was an angel. Even though he knew exactly what he was doing. Even though he'd been party to this whole thing happening in the first place—whether or not he knew it. Dean still felt guilty that Cas was dead.
Then… Zach and two angel flunkies show up. Swell. Now the fun can begin. I swear that guy plays arrogant like it's going out of style. Dean shifts slightly and puts himself between Sam, Chuck, and the angels. I loved how they shot several of these Dean-in-front-of-Sam shots. Dean was so in-focus he looked bright. And he stood in this shoulders-squared stance that exuded protection. Sam, however, was blurred-out, almost smaller. And he almost appeared to be ducking around his big-brother's shoulders to see what was going on.
"Keep your distance, Asshat." You tell 'em Dean.
Zach taunts Dean, telling him that he had a chance to stop his brother and he couldn't and it was "Apocalypse Now." We all should've laid bets as to how long it would be until someone in this episode used that phrase. Zach basically just expects Dean to come with them. Says that Lucifer is circling, looking for a vessel—since he's an angel and all, those are the rules—and when he finds it, it was going to be Four Horsemen time.
Dean's having none of it. Zach notices Dean's hand is bleeding and Dean yanks a pocket-door closed, revealing an anti-angel sigil, presses his bloody hand on the symbol and it's bye-bye Zach.
"Something I learned from my friend Cas…" Aww, Dean.
Chuck sums up the whole situation with an eloquent, "This sucks ass." Yep, he be a writer. Hee.
The guys are staying in yet another No-Tell Motel, this one complete with a twosome attempting a hook-up on the El-Train-like stairs leading down to the entrance. Sam walks into their room where Dean is reloading his .45 and tosses his brother a hex bag that will keep angels and demons both away. A trick he picked up from Ruby.
This reminds Dean that it's been awhile since his brother's last fix, so he asks Sam how he is. Sam says he's fine. Whoever put them on that plane apparently cleaned him up. And here? I kinda thought they pulled a bit of a storytelling cop-out. Sure, later, we get a bit more about who planted them on the plane (and still… a plane?? Where is Kripke going with that?) and therefore 'cured' Sam, but… if they never touch on the blood addiction again, I'll be a little disappointed.
Supernatural methadone or not. Like Dean's PTSD, they had us with the blood addiction. They had us by the throats with that. And we are/were worried and scared for this character. It's not enough to say, huh, guess I was cured. How 'bout that? I just hope they bring it up again, use it somehow again. That's all I'm saying.
Sam tries once more to apologize and Dean once more shuts him down, and this time, I felt the chill. And the desperate attempt to make it all okay. Sam's "there's nothing I can do or say to make this right" was his attempt at a request for absolution. Just forgive me, Dean, because I can't forgive myself. But Dean's bark of, "Why do you keep bringing it up, then?!" exposed so much more than he meant for it to.
He's wounded. Deeply. And he has no idea what to do with that. Because he started this, even if Sam was the one to finish it. And he hasn't been able to come to terms with that let alone with the fact that he failed to save his brother—not from Death, but from himself—and that Sam turned his back. Sam didn't listen. Sam didn't trust him. And now the Devil was out there. What do you do with all of that when your brother is standing there, alive, apparently healed, staring at you, begging for forgiveness with halted attempts at apology and limpid eyes?
If you're Dean, then… you don't think about it. Not yet, anyway. You square your shoulders, point out that together, you've made a mess, you clean it up. And you treat it like any other hunt. Only this time? You have to find the devil. Nice.
I may be struck by lightening for saying this, but… I think the devil may break my heart. The 'vessel' that he apparently chose had such a tragic story that it made me cry. Wife, baby boy murdered in their beds. Haunted by the sight of his wife in his bed, by blood covering him, by a crying baby on a monitor (that gutted me, seriously), by a crib overflowing with blood.
The writers did an amazing job with setting up this vessel as a sympathetic figure. Even before Lucifer visited him I was afraid for him. How do you live with that kind of tragedy? How do you go on? I'll come back to him.
Okay, so because Chuck is being watched by the Ultimate Big Brother, he reaches out through IM and finds his Number One Fan… who just so happens to be a Wincest Fanfic writer. Okay. We get it, writers. You think fanfic writers are to be made fun of. And that they all write slash. Can we get over that already? Do we have to have the giddy writer who "just knew" they were really real the next time we see Chuck? I'd really like it if this was the last reference to fanfic—especially in that 'vein.' Because, c'mon!
Becky is the reason I don't know if I should say anything in the writing class I'm starting next week about learning to tell stories through the fanfic genre. *sigh* But, I digress. When she finds the guys, her total squee at actually touching Sam Winchester was humorous. As was her exclamation that Dean wasn't how she pictured. Definitely a SamGirl, that one. She shares Chuck's cryptic message that the sword was in a castle on a hill made of 42 dogs.
Heh. Oh, Chuck.
Bobby shows up—and it looked like he drove the Impala. Did I miss something there? Weren't the guys driving the Impala after the random plane ride? How did Bobby get it? Anyway, he is happy to see the boys in one piece, opens his books, and shows them Michael, who Dean says looks like Cate Blanchett. *laugh!* I love this guy.
They decide that they have to basically split up and search for clues when Sam just can't… he can't do it anymore. He has to have some relief from the guilt. He has to. He kinda stops, looking like he ran into a wall, and Bobby prompts him with a, "Kid, you okay?"
Dean tries to stop Sam one last time—not wanting to go into it, not wanting Bobby to know, not wanting to offer Sam that out, I'm not sure. But it doesn't work. Sam tells Bobby the truth and Bobby stands up, stepping right up to Sam, and lets him have it with both barrels. He tells him this isn't the kind of thing that gets forgiven. That if by some miracle they make it through this, he wants Sam to lose his number.
Sam utterly broke my heart. His face holds a destroyed expression. He took it, every word. His body kind rocked back with the physical impact of those words. His eyes flood with tears, but they don't fall. He works his mouth to keep in the pain that you see written on his face. He swallows hard and nods, saying finally with a shaking voice that there's a church nearby, he'll go look up lore there. Bobby's all, "you do that."
And Dean? Dean just stands there. He watches Sam confess, watches Bobby rip into him, watches Sam leave. He stands so still that he doesn't look like he's breathing. My knee-jerk response was, say something, man—make Bobby stop! But then… I thought about it. Bobby had every right to be angry. He fought just as hard as Dean to keep Sam in that panic room. He bled for Sam—because of Sam—and he was betrayed by him. By a kid that he repeatedly dropped everything for, time and time again. By a kid that he kept reaching out to, offering help. That kid slapped him away with the butt of a shotgun and turned his back on every offer of help.
Sometimes when you're angry, when you're hurt to the core, words are said that you don't really mean, and would take back when you're calm, but they're said anyway. Now, I know, demon, possession, all that. But even if it had been Bobby, he had the right to be angry.
And maybe Dean needed Bobby to be angry with Sam. He needed someone else to lash out at his brother because he wanted to, but he couldn't. Not again. Not anymore. They'd been there, done that. And now anger didn't have the same bite or justification for Dean. Now there was just hurt and the sting of betrayal and sadness for something he can't get back. And he needed to watch Sam get 'hit' by someone else he loves just to affirm that he couldn't do it himself.
Dean and Bobby regroup at the table o'books and Bobby starts musing about how John was right—that Dean would have to save Sam or kill him. And that it was on them that they didn't do a good enough job saving him. Bobby's talk about John triggers something in Dean's impressive filing cabinet memory and he heads to his bag to dig out a Ziploc of business cards, pulling one from the deck. Castle Storage at 42 Rover Hill.
Okay, here? I had warning bells going off big time—but not about DemonBobby. I should have seen that coming, but it totally took me by surprise. My red flag was the storage unit. It felt too easy. I didn't right away think that Chuck's vision was "planted," but I did detect some definite hinkiness afoot. However, that was blown to bits with DemonBobby beating the ever-lovin' crap out of Dean. No blood, but plenty of blows.
As Dean is being picked up out of a pile of motel room wall by DemonBobby, the door opens, and in walks Meg with a Vin Diesel look-alike demon boy-toy. In her Meg-like way, she taunts Dean, finding Ruby's knife, and talks and talks and talks… then kisses Dean—tongue and all.
"What's that, peanut butter?" HA!
She says that Dean's "surrogate Daddy" was awake in there and she wanted him to know what it was like to slice Dean up. We didn't have time for the impact of what that might mean to Dean—it happened too fast—but for the second time in his life, Dean was held against his will, beaten, and nearly killed by the visage of someone that either was his father, or had stepped into that role. That's gotta mess with his head a bit.
Bobby, however, hears Dean's pleas and as Dean's struggling against the hold of the demon, Bobby manages to shake free of the demon's hold long enough to stab himself. Vin Diesel goes after Dean and Sam busts in, seeing the chaos and recognizes Meg right away—perhaps because they were rather intimately connected at one point. The fight is vicious and quick and Dean pulls the knife from Bobby's body and kills Vin Diesel and Meg—in true Meg fashion—bails leaving her meat-suit on the floor of the motel no doubt to be used again.
See, Meg may have been annoying, but she did tell us one useful piece of information: demons were flocking to be the one to kill Dean. Because now that Lucifer was back, it was "heaven or hell" on earth. They were practically giddy. This year is not going to be easy for our boy or his brother.
The boys haul Bobby to the ER and ignore the nurse's command to wait there, taking off to the storage unit because the demons know where the sword is and they have to get there first.
At the storage unit we are treated to one of the sexiest scenes in any TV Show since… well, since Season 4. The guys stand at the trunk, looking subtly to either side, open it up and reach in for their weapons. With precise motion, faces set and stoic, they each grab a gun, pocket it. Then Sam picks up a pump action shotgun, cocks it, and Dean grabs a pistol and twirls it around his index finger, palming it expertly before slamming the trunk closed.
**Gaelic must pause for a moment**
That was wonderful.
Moving on. They move into the unit, covering each other (like they always have—even if later we hear Dean say that something's lost, there is one thing that will anchor them: their life-long partnership… and perhaps that hold will give them enough time to heal), see bodies of dead demons strewn about on top of the Devil's Trap, and then see Zach and his flunkies standing further inside.
"Thank God," Dean deadpans. "The angels are here."
This is another of those Dean in front, Sam behind shots that I liked. It visually set up the old guardian persona and made me wonder… if all these demons are gunning for Dean, will Sam now be the guardian, and if so, will we see that stance reversed at some point?
And here, another of my questions is addressed… if not completely answered. Turns out that Dean is Michael's sword. Zach stresses that they did lose it for a bit, until now. So, I'm wondering… does that mean that they didn't know Dean was Michael's sword until that moment? Or they knew and Dean had to come to them 'willingly'? Not sure. Anyway, Zach continues his arrogant seduction of Dean by insulting him—which of course always works—saying that he's just a human and a sub-par one at that. Dean realizes that Michael needs Dean's permission to inhabit his body and is basically like, "eat me." He's unwilling to spend life as an 'angel condom.' (Did I mention I love this guy?)
So, in retaliation for Dean's stubbornness, Zach breaks Sam's leg. BAM! Just like that. Dean says no. Zach threatens Bobby—says he'll never walk again. Dean says no. Zach gives Dean Stage IV stomach cancer. Dean doubles over in pain, coughing up blood, still says no. Zach removes Sam's lungs and Dean is basically like, just kill us. Zach says he hasn't even started. The boys are in dire straits. They are losing. They are in pain. They are… totally saved by Cas.
I whooped. Quietly, of course. But when Cas stepped in I tossed my pillow in the air with a yawp! Cas takes out the flunkies, and confronts Zach who is all "bu-bu-bu how…" Cas was 'saved' by a power greater than the angels—the same power that pulled the guys from the convent and put them on a plane (a plane?!?). Zach thinks it's impossible—he was the one that said God has left the building.
"Put these boys back together and go. I won't ask twice."
The boys are staggered by the sight of Cas, and after Cas carves Nokian (?) sigils of protection into their ribcage, he vanishes in a whisper of wings. And I grinned. For two reasons. One—the ribs. Very significant in Biblical stories as Adam's was used to make Eve. And two, because God intervened. And that's not how He does things. God just doesn't intervene—he gave us free will for a reason. He allows us to choose. Even if some believe He already knew the outcome of our choice, we still have that freedom. And I think that the angels took that gift for granted.
Because we're allowed to choose, and not everyone down here has been making the best choices, they took that as God leaving the building. But I think this is a big, fat guess again. God intervened. That's huge. Not really sure what it's going to mean in the overall arch this year, but… it's huge.
And, we're back to Nick. Lucifer shows up as his wife, then says that he's not really Nick's wife, he's an angel. Named Lucifer.
Nick, in an endearing burst of wry humor is like, "Naturally. Ah, could you do me a favor there, Satan, and remind me to not drink before I go to bed?"
This scene was very powerful—probably the most powerful of the whole show, second only to the ending. Lucifer says that we have the wrong idea about him—that he doesn't lie. He tells Nick that his great sin was that he loved God too much and for that God betrayed him.
To quote an infuriating line from Star Wars, what he said was true, "from a certain point of view." And that's just it, isn't it? That's how the Devil gets us. Every time. By telling us the truth with just enough inflection here, just enough pressure there to pose it as coming from our need, our point of view, our truth. Because he did love God—what he didn't love were humans. And he felt betrayed that God loved us more. More than him. More than the angels. And because of that, he was banished.
Because of that, a separation from God and from love and peace and happiness was created. Because of that, there is Hell.
But he didn't say all of that to Nick. He didn't have to. He'd hooked him by painting God as a betrayer. By asking a question we ask ourselves every day, all the time, when hope flees and tragedy strikes and your heart is ripped from your chest and you can't figure out why. He simply said that Nick's family didn't deserve to be killed as they were—his baby didn't deserve it—and God did nothing to stop it.
Because God doesn't intervene. Not like that. If we ask to be forgiven, sure. If we pray for protection, maybe. If we ask… perhaps. But not like that. Bad things happen to good people. It's the way of the world. But that's impossible to simply accept when you're the good person the bad thing has happened to.
Lucifer tells Nick with what sounds like sincere regret in his/her voice that he can't bring back Nick's family, but he can give Nick justice if Nick will be his vessel. And Nick, with a tear tracing a path down his face, says yes.
Back at the hospital, Bobby is yelling at the doctor and he damn well will walk again, you idjit. Which makes me wonder if Zach only fixed Sam and Dean… and left Bobby out of the equation when Cas showed up. They wonder now what and Bobby says that they just have to, "save as many as we can for as long as we can."
But then, my hero emerges. Stepping forward, the familiar swagger in his step, lips pursed in determination, Dean's like, "what if we win?" Angels, demons, the lot of them. They can take a long walk off a short pier. Get another planet for their war. This is ours. Humans. We do this ourselves.
Bobby's like, "How we gonna do that, genius?"
Dean's reply is so pure Dean it had me bouncing. "I have no idea. But I do have a GED and a give 'em hell attitude and I'll figure it out."
Dean may be "nine kinds of crazy" but he not only just dropped a little fanfic seed on us with the GED comment—take that Becky—but he is made of awesome. I'm ready to roll up my sleeves, grab me a gun, and get into the thick of it. Bobby stops Sam on the way out and tells him that those things he said was all the demon talking. He said he's never cutting Sam out. Ever. And Sam's sad little smile of gratitude chipped off another piece of my heart.
Sam's gonna kill me, I know it. He's gonna make me want to know why others in my life can't see the evil they're walking willing toward before it's too late. He's going to make me wonder if they'll be plucked from the explosion of their life and give a chance to find redemption and forgiveness. And he's going to make me want to give it to them if it ever happens.
As they're leaving the hospital, Sam suggests finding the Colt—which, yeah, where'd we last see that thing anyway?—and Dean says that everything he said in there was for Bobby's benefit. They don't stand a snowball's chance. Whatever, Dean. I believed him. I think he believed it. I think he still does. Otherwise, he would have just given in and let Michael take over. Sure he'll go down fighting like he said to Sam, but I also think he believes that maybe… just maybe they'll figure out a way to stop The End of Days. Even if it doesn't mean killing Lucifer. 'Cause… well, even if they did kill Lucifer, humanity would end. That's the prophecy. So… yeah.
Sam finally stops Dean, asking if he has something to say.
Dean's face in that moment reminded me of a shot from Wendigo… only with years and Hell drawing lines around his mouth and eyes that weren't there before. He was mostly in shadow, the planes of his face and his eyes cast into light. And that effect offered a kind of broken-hearted luminosity to his eyes that caught my breath.
"I tried, Sammy," he says, finally pulling out the 'Sammy' after almost a full episode. "But I can't keep pretending that everything is all right because it's not."
The thing is—no one asked him to. It was just the only way he could find to cope with the reality of his next words.
"You chose a demon over your own brother. I know you're sorry… but… you were the one I depended on the most and you let me down in ways that I can't even… I'm having a hard time forgiving and forgetting, y'know?"
And that's it, right there. Dean's foundation is gone. And the only thing he can do is keep moving, keep checking, try not to get slammed into the glass again, keep his feet under him. Doesn't mean that he's any less fiercely protective of Sam. Doesn't mean he loves him less. If anything, it shows just how much he does love his brother.
"I just don't think we can be what we were. I don't think I can trust you."
Sam's flinch with those words hurt. Dean stepping away so that the final shot showed them apart hurt.
But when trust is shattered so violently—so blatantly—it's not something that's easy to gather back. It takes a long time. And even when you finally do forgive, you don't forget. The person who broke your heart may one day be your friend again and you may once more share your life with them, but in the back of your mind is the shadow of doubt… what if.
It's just a factor of being human.
And really, Dean hasn't forgiven himself for the significant part he played in the onset of this downfall. There is a lot of stuff to deal with this year—and from my point of view, Lucifer and the Apocalypse is just one part of it. The big piece of the pie, the one that everything else hinges on, is trust. The brother's trust in each other, in themselves, in help that's offered, in what they know to be true.
Maybe they can't be what they were. Maybe what they can be is something better.
Thanks for reading. See you next week!


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ADDISON — Incoming Addison Central School Principal Matt DeBlois will be a full-time presence in the building during this coming academic year after a Thursday decision made by the ACS board.
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Blowback: Nothing defensible about DOMA
Maya Rupert responds to our editorial, "Defense of Marriage Act: Attack the law, not the lawyer." She is the federal policy director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights. Click here for more information on Blowback, our forum for readers to respond, at length, to Times articles.
In its April 21 editorial, The Times argues in favor of Paul Clement's decision to defend Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, known as DOMA, which discriminates against legally married same-sex couples by prohibiting the federal government from recognizing their marriages for any purpose. In the editorial, The Times takes the curious step of extending the familiar maxim that "every person deserves a lawyer" to the more expansive "every position deserves a lawyer." The first is a fundamental right upon which we base our criminal justice system. The other is a fiction that mistakenly seeks to insulate a shortsighted law firm from criticism for its decision to defend a discriminatory law.
As the editorial correctly points out, there is an honorable tradition of lawyers defending unpopular and controversial clients. Civil liberties organizations, for example, have repeatedly, and admirably, defended plaintiffs whose views they abhor (such as members of the Ku Klux Klan), in order to protect cherished principles like freedom of speech and assembly. In this case, there is no greater good, no cherished larger issue at stake; the only issue contested is discrimination. There is no venerable tradition of lawyers defending laws that single out certain groups for discrimination.
DOMA forces the federal government to discriminate against same-sex married couples and to treat their families as unworthy of protection or respect. A law that serves only to designate some families as second-class citizens has no principled defense. Defending DOMA simply prolongs the harm to same-sex couples and their children. There is no countervailing good.
A private lawyer is under no obligation -- from a state bar, pursuant to ethical rules, or out of respect for the adversarial process -- to defend an indefensible law. Those who choose to defend such a law do so at the peril of their reputations as fair-minded and just advocates. Clement has made a decision not just to stand on the wrong side of history but to lead the charge on that side and, sadly, to bring his law firm, King & Spalding, along with him. He is free to do so, but we should not pretend that decision represents a magnanimous fidelity to the adversarial process or to justice.
Throughout history, discriminatory laws have weakened our country's commitment to equality and fairness. Those laws have generally remained in effect until judges, lawyers and the public took a stand against them. And those powerful statements -- that people will no longer use their power or profession to foster discrimination and harm -- forced those viewpoints into the far fringes where they belong. There are moments in history where people are called upon to make such statements. This is one of those moments. King & Spalding had an opportunity to use its considerable power to further justice, not perpetuate discrimination. In declining to do so, it acted in a way that is indefensible.
--Maya Rupert
Adoption made hard for gay couple
In the Netherlands, gay marriage's anniversary
Photo: Same-sex couple Nowlin Haltom, left, and Michael McKeon hold a sign calling for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act outside the county clerk's office in Los Angeles in February. Credit: Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty Images


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NWSB Insider and Washington St. Cougars blogger Britton Ransford tells us all about the on going renovations known as the Cougar Football Project. A huge donation by Cougar Alum Greg Rankich has started the ball rolling. Started after the final game of the 2011 football season, the project will fully renovate two sections, and will take about 15 months for full completion.
The WSU Cougars football project: Martin Stadium remodel
June 22, 2012 By


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KILLINGTON, VT (RNN) - The goal for most clothing designers is clear - to help customers channel their inner runway model, leaving them feeling chic, trendy and all around stylish.
Annemarie Blackman has a different goal in mind. Words you might use to describe her creations? Tacky, gaudy, garish.
Don't worry, you won't hurt her feeling by saying so. Blackman is the owner of My Ugly Christmas Sweater.
The name of the company is pretty self explanatory. She collects, repurposes and sells ugly … really ugly … holiday sweaters, cardigans, even dresses.
A jingle bell here, some fringe there. There's no sweater she can't make a little more outlandish, no ugly she can't improve upon.
"There's actually a sweater I didn't sell because I love how ugly it is. It's a 1980s padded shoulder with children's toys, a giant Raggedy Ann, a toy box. To me it's like a scary clown. I was going to wear it to a party but I want to add lights to it," she said.
What started as a small home-based business has grown into a fringe-and-light-and-whatever-else-you-can-think-of filled warehouse. Blackman ships out thousands of over-the-top sweaters via her website, myuglychristmassweater.com.
So how do you go from stay at home mom to ugly sweater peddling entrepreneur?
"A few years ago, my kids were finishing up high school, getting ready to go to college. So I was looking for something to sell during the holiday season," she said.
Hoping to pick up some extra cash, she hopped on Google and stumbled upon the Ugly Christmas Sweater party.
"I had never heard of those parties," she said. "But I thought I could make sweaters uglier than those on the market."
So she got to work and put a handful of repurposed creations up on eBay.
"They all sold quickly. I knew I was onto something," Blackman said.
She's since created a one-stop-shop for all your ugly Christmas sweater needs. And if you buy one, you might come away with your party's prize.
"I try not to use the word 'guarantee,' but I think you're always a contender," she said. "Not everyone wants to be the center of attention. But if you're going to one of those parties, you should be."
"I do get feedback from people who say, ' I won.' One guy said, 'I won the cheese wheel.' It's actually worth spending more for a good prize."
They also make great gifts for your fashionable friends, your enemies or your frenemies.
"People primarily buy them for themselves. Some buy them for their boss for work."
So the next time you see a really tacky Christmas sweater at your local mall or holiday party, remember, a lot of thought, care, and love probably went into making it look that way.
"There are some really, really ugly fringes that I can get off old fabrics. I buy the scraps that real quilters don't want," Blackman said.
"It's like trash to treasure. I can use that trash to make another treasure."
Copyright 2012 Raycom News Network. All rights reserved.


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This week in Island history
The news of 10 and 15 years ago is from the Jamestown Press. The news of 100 years ago came from the collection of the Newport Historical Society.
100 years ago From the Newport Daily News, December 3, 1907
The tide was very low along the shore of the island today, and the clam fishermen profited thereby.
From the Newport Daily News, December 7, 1907
The firemen gave the second of their series of whists last evening in the Gardner House hall. The attendance, in spite of the bad traveling, was large.
The members of the Grange enjoyed an oyster supper at the town hall last night.
75 years ago From the Newport Daily News, December 1, 1932
The American Legion and Auxiliary are launching an "I have Your Food" campaign and the citizens of the town will be asked to contribute at least one pound a week of non-perishable food stuff.
From the Newport Daily News, December 5, 1932
The benefit dance held at the Holy Ghost hall Saturday evening was well attended, a number of young people from Newport attending. The Racketeer orchestra furnished music.
50 years ago From the Newport Daily News, December 4, 1957
Anthony J. Miller, superintendent of the Jamestown Elementary School, announced that grade 6E, Miss Theresa Pinto teacher, had the highest attendance record with an average of .96 for the first quarter. From the Newport Daily News, December 5, 1957
A spectacular fire during the height of last night's northerly gale destroyed the storage shed and more than 30 boats at Wharton's Shipyard on the east shore of Jamestown.
Films of the anniversary observance at Jamestown, Va., and the tercentenary celebration of Jamestown, R.I. last summer were shown at the meeting of the Jamestown Grange last night at the Grange Hall.
From the Newport Daily News, December 6, 1957
Gov. Dennis J. Roberts today directed Joseph L. Byron of Newport, state purchasing agent, to begin negotiations with the state of Virginia to purchase two surplus ferry boats for service between Jamestown and Newport.
"Kid talk" of a possible wide-spread fracas between teenagers of Jamestown and North Kingstown has not materialized into anything, police said today.
From the Newport Daily News, December 7, 1957
The Jamestown Water Co. could have furnished 100,000,000 gallons of its surplus supply to a potential customer during the fiscal year ending last June 30, Allan G. Davenport, manager, observed today.
25 years ago From the Newport Daily News, December 3, 1982
The School Department has several blank spaces to fill to produce a 1983-84 budget bottom line, school officials said today. The blanks include the costs of a new teacher's contract, of a new bus contract and tuition rates for Jamestown students attending North Kingstown High School.
From the Newport Daily News, December 7, 1982
The battle over Beavertail has taken a new twist with the introduction of legislation that would put the 6.8 acres of federal land into the hands of the state and town.
15 years ago From the Jamestown Press, December 4, 1992
The Jamestown Community Playground will remain closed until its drainage problems can be fixed.
Town officials will hold a public work session at 8 p.m. at Town Hall to discuss a $4.3 million state plan to improve North Main Road.
The annual village Christmas tree lighting at East Ferry will highlight a full day of holiday activities in Jamestown tomorrow.
10 years ago From the Jamestown Press, December 4, 1997
A new buzzword in education is "standards." What are these new standards? Who determines them? And will Jamestown children be taught differently as a result of these new standards in education? The New Standards Tests reflect state and national expectations of what students need to know to be "productive workers, responsible citizens and lifelong learners," according to a press release from the state Department of Education.
The streets of Jamestown village will be full of bustling shoppers out and about this Saturday, Dec. 6, a day filled with a variety of Island holiday activities.


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Baruch College Welcomes Alex Rovt, President and CEO, IBE Trade Corporation to Discuss
"Buying in on Wall Street"
An Exclusive Conversation on Real Estate Investing and the Global Economy
NEW YORK, NY- January 6, 2014 - The Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute, part of the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College will host billionaire philanthropist and industrialist Alex Rovt, President and CEO of IBE Trade Corporation, for a conversation regarding his recent all-cash $303 million purchase of New York's iconic, ziggurat-topped Bankers Trust Building at 14 Wall Street. The event, which is scheduled for 8 a.m.-10 a.m., Thursday, January 30, provides a unique opportunity to learn firsthand about strategic real estate investing from one of America's most successful industrialists.
"This interview will provide a rare opportunity to learn more about a man whose genius, intuition, remarkable timing and ability to seize opportunity have made him a respected force in the international business community. Mr. Rovt's acquisition of 14 Wall Street was a stellar example of how he converged his keen understanding of real estate, our city, the global markets and our economy to forge a new strategic direction for his next area of investment opportunity," said Jack S. Nyman, Executive Director of the Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute. "The importance of this event is to gain valuable real estate and business insight from a global thinker who lives on the international playing field. What better way to do this than through a man of Mr. Rovt's success and character."
Nyman will moderate the discussion with Alex Rovt, regarding his international perspective on a variety of topics, including:
- foreign investment and how it relates to Manhattan
- what lower Manhattan means to him
- leveraging as a component to our real estate system
- the challenges and importance of landmarking
- the New York and global economies
- the role of the middle class in strengthening America
- what his faith has taught him about land, gold and cash
Alex Rovt built his fortune as CEO of the global fertilizer giant, IBE Trade Corporation. He is ranked 372nd in Forbes' list of the 400 wealthiest Americans and is the owner of more than 23 properties around New York City and many European holdings. Rovt serves on the NYC Board of Correction, is trustee of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and runs a private global investigation firm out of the Manhattan offices of his company, IBE Trade.
WHAT: "Buying in on Wall Street: Learn the Inside Story on 14 Wall Street's Defining Moment"
WHEN: Thursday, January 30, 8 a.m.- 10 a.m.
WHERE: Baruch College, The William and Anita Newman Conference Center, Room 750, 151 East 25th Street (directions)
Co-sponsors for this event include Herrick Feinstein LLP, Sciame Construction and Executives on Campus, Baruch College Accounting Society, Por Columbia, Golden Key Honor Society, Italian American Association, Corporate Ethics and Etiquette Society.
The Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute at Baruch College offers a wide range of educational and research opportunities to broadly address the needs of the real estate industry. The Institute is part of the Zicklin School of Business, the largest accredited collegiate school of business in the United States, and offers professional education courses and workshops to train current practitioners, as well as the next generation of real estate professionals, helping them succeed in, and contribute to, a dynamic and fast-evolving marketplace. As Executive Director of The Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute, Jack S. Nyman leads operations, strategic planning and industry partnering; and guides professional development and continuing education programming, topical research, symposia and public events. Under his direction, the Institute has achieved national recognition as an industry provided of cutting edge programs to inform real estate asset managers on cost effective strategies for portfolio optimization. Individuals, academics, students, corporations, nonprofits, and government agencies all benefit from the programs offered by the Institute.
About Baruch College:
Baruch College is a senior college in the City University of New York (CUNY) with a total enrollment of more than 17,000 students, who represent 160 countries and speak more than 100 languages. Ranked among the top 15% of U.S. colleges and the No. 5 public regional university, Baruch College is regularly recognized as among the most ethnically diverse colleges in the country. As a public institution with a tradition of academic excellence, Baruch College offers accessibility and opportunity for students from every corner of New York City and from around the world.� For more about Baruch College, go to http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/.
Manny Romero, (646) 660-6141, firstname.lastname@example.com
Mercedes Sanchez, (646) 660-6112, firstname.lastname@example.com
Celene McDermott, (646) 660-6134, email@example.com


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The summit is the kickoff to a 12-month initiative to promote green business by the Queens Chamber of Commerce (QCC), the event's main sponsor. According to Jack Friedman, QCC's executive vice president, the summit is more than just a trade show for companies, it's a learning experience.
"We're here teaching businesses ways that they can incorporate new business practices into their existing businesses in order to be more green," explained Friedman.
The summit allows companies to create business connections as well as explain their green efforts. The mix of companies present suggests that businesses in all fields can find their own ways of practicing environmental stewardship.
Crafts and Scents Recreation & Leisure Service is owned by Loretta Coleman, a creative arts specialist. She teaches others how to make gift-worthy crafts by recycling common household items like toilet paper rolls and fabric scraps. Coleman signed up to be part of the summit to demonstrate how the art world is being ecologically-conscious.
Magic Exterminating, based in Flushing, only sprays pest control chemicals as a last resort. When spraying becomes necessary, the chemicals used are organic and contain ingredients such as rosemary and peppermint oil, greatly reducing the environmental impact.
Magic's president Hal Byer mentioned that most people don't associate pest control chemicals with green pest control, but the green movement is catching on, and it's something that people really want.
"It takes the abnormal fear of our profession, it takes it out of the concept, by the fact that we're green," says Byer.
The Office of Recycling Outreach & Education (OROE) is part of the Council on the Environment of New York City. The office teaches residents how to fully participate in NYC's recycling program.
Most people, for example, know that newspapers and cardboard are recyclable, but don't realize that the city also accepts paper towel tubes and junk mail. OROE works with communities on a borough-specific basis to increase the city's recycling rates.
The Center for the Urban Environment also uses education as a tool to promote sustainability. The non-profit organization does a lot of work in the school system, but it also provides workshops and training for communities and local businesses.
"We're at the Green Business Summit, but in reality you can't talk about business and workforce without talking about education first," says Aisha Glover, the center's director of Public Affairs.
Glendale-based AM Exclusive Business Machines, Inc. repairs Hewlett-Packard LaserJet machines for businesses. It also sells compatible toner cartridges, which are made with recycled toner shells.
According to sales manager Jaclyn Miccio, recycled cartridges create less waste in landfills, and they use less energy and money to produce. A savings of 20 percent off the price of the non-recycled cartridge can be passed on to customers, proof that one can save green while still being green.
"People are green-conscious, but when it comes to the dollar, especially in these economic times, the dollar is still above being green, so the companies that are going to survive also have to show how they're going to save money," says Miccio.


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An incredible movie about a man who ages backward who falls in love with a women who ages normally. It's a simple, yet haunting plot and leaves the audience in tears at the end.
I saw The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button...and I wish I had a cleanex box with me. :(. But it was great!
by Jaques Pellegrino May 15, 2009
The most boring, tedious movie i've ever wasted my time on. I don't even know why everyone seems to have liked it. The plot idea is decent i guess, but they could've made it more interesting, because it was boring as shit and way to long. Seriously.
OMG i had to see the curious case of benjamin button so i chopped off my leg just out of boredom.
by whootwhoot March 24, 2009
buy the domain for your pet blog


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People, you astound me! Last weeks' party was a-mazing!
Every week I look forward to kicking off another great party and seeing what kind
of genius gets linked up, it's such a highlight for me!
of genius gets linked up, it's such a highlight for me!
I'll be setting up a voting poll for you all to vote for your favorite feature of the month,
keep a look out and be sure to vote!
A few standouts from party #11 were:
A Thrifty "Before and After" from Simply Simplisticated
The transformation of this $2.00 lamp is actually jaw-dropping. The before shot is absolutely shudder-worthy!
Katie over at Creatively Living shared her Bedroom Reveal with blogland, and my goodness, is her master suite ever stunning! I don't think she overlooked one detail, her new room is a lovely oasis.
Hungry for a tasty, yet healthy(ish) snack? Give these delicious looking Zucchini Boats from Suburbs Mama. I think I'll be trying these out for the next girls night in with my girlfriends.
I love the solution Tricia from Making It Feel Like Home came up with for adding some privacy to their front door. Her "Frosted" Privacy Window not only adds the privacy that she was looking for, but a huge pop of personality for their front entrance.
If your link was featured above, feel free to grab a featured button:
And now, let's get this party started!
Here's the rundown:
Link up as many of your own posts as you like, try to keep them fairly recent. You could post anything from recipes, crafts, and refinished furniture, to essays, photography, and fashion, whatever you do! The party will be open until Tuesday evening. At the end of the week, I'll pick a few of my faves and share them with you. At the end of the month I'll set up a vote and you all will get to choose the winner of the Head to Head Showdown!
I only ask a few things:
1. Please only link up posts you have written, created, etc.
2. Please display my party button somewhere on the post you're linking or on the side bar of your blog.
3. It's a party, so hang out and visit a few other link ups as well!
4. I'd love for you to follow my blog!


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NEW YORK (AP) — Playful sea lions and trusty penguins are welcoming visitors back to the New York Aquarium for the first time since the Coney Island marine haven was damaged by Superstorm Sandy.
The Wildlife Conservation Society's shorefront aquarium will partially reopen on Saturday.
Visitors will be able to peer down into pools containing walruses, harbor seals and other mammals. Sea lions will perform in the renovated aquatheater.
And there are large tanks containing fish and other sea life, native to everywhere from Africa to Belize.
The back half of the aquarium remains closed for repairs until 2016.
The jellyfish and sea horse collections are among exhibits still off-limits.
The late October superstorm's surge flooded tanks with debris-filled water and knocked out backup power to all of the exhibits.
Online: http://www.nyaquarium.com/


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(NASHVILLE, TN), March 26, 2013 — The Senate Judiciary Committee approved legislation today which strengthens penalties against spectators and participants of cockfights. The bill, sponsored by Senator Bill Ketron (R-Murfreesboro), also closes a loophole in existing law that allows for spectators of cockfights to be treated with greater leniency than those who attend dog fights.
"Cockfighters routinely go jurisdiction shopping for states with the weakest penalties and go to those states to commit these crimes," said Senator Ketron. "Tennessee has some of the weakest cockfighting laws in the Southeast and is becoming a destination of choice for animal fighters. These events are also magnets for other criminal activities, including illegal gambling and drug trafficking."
Currently, those who are charged with owning, possessing, keeping or training a rooster in Tennessee for cockfighting purposes face a Class A misdemeanor offenses which carries up to $2,500 in fines and a maximum of 11 months, 29 days in jail. This bill sets the fine at a minimum of $500. The legislation increases the penalties for the owners, trainers and promoters of cockfights upon a second or subsequent offense to a Class E felony, punishable by up to six years in prison and a fine of up to $3,000.
On the spectator side, currently it is a Class B misdemeanor to attend a dog fight and a Class C misdemeanor to attend a cockfight. This bill closes a loophole in existing law used by offenders to avoid prosecution by increasing penalties for being a spectator at any type of animal fight to a Class A misdemeanor, with a minimum $500 fine.
Animal fighting is now illegal in all 50 states and is a felony offense in 40 states.
"Cockfighting attracts such criminal elements as the Mexican drug cartel that ran multi-ton quantities of meth and heroine through cockfighting pits in our state. Federal investigations have revealed intricate gambling operations with millions of dollars changing hands illegally."
"Children are routinely in attendance at these events where they are exposed to a host of criminal activities and animal cruelty," added Senator Ketron. "I am pleased this bill has received committee approval and am hopeful we can pass it this year."


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Charges in Portsmouth child porn case thrown out due to lost search warrantBy JAMES A. KIMBLE
Union Leader Correspondent
June 13. 2013 1:42PM
BRENTWOOD – A judge has thrown out evidence in a child pornography case against a Portsmouth man because the search warrant used to search the man's home and computer was lost.
All charges against Jerome Steffen, 49, were dropped by the Rockingham County Attorney's Office Wednesday morning as a result of the decision, according to County Attorney James Reams.
Steffen, who has been free on bail, faced more than 80 charges in Rockingham County Superior Court related to possession of child sexual abuse images.
Judge N. William Delker made his decision after two hearings, one on Jan. 11 and the other on March 15, which included testimony from Portsmouth police detective Timothy Cashman and Circuit Court Judge Sharon DeVries.
"To be clear, the court does not find that the police did anything wrong in this case or that Judge DeVries, in fact, issued a search warrant without probable cause," Delker said in a 15-page order.
Delker concluded that without the warrant, the defense would not be able to challenge how Portsmouth police collected evidence against Steffen – a violation of his due process rights.
Defense lawyer Howard Gross first raised the issue of the missing warrant on Dec. 12.
Delker had allowed prosecutors to call on Cashman and DeVries as witnesses during the two hearings in an effort to substitute the testimony for the missing affidavit that went with the warrant.
Gross argued that evidence in the case should be thrown out because a copy of the affidavit used to apply for a search warrant was not included with investigatory materials provided to him by the state.
The missing affidavit for the search warrant set off a search by county prosecutors, police and staff at Portsmouth Circuit Court, according to prosecutors.
But the affidavit could not be found.
The state has not been able to produce a copy of the affidavit – even an earlier unsigned draft of the affidavit which would reflect the precise wording,? Delker said.
Prosecutors tried to re-create the content of that affidavit, with the sworn testimony and a police report written by Cashman.
"There are several problems with that approach in the context of this case,"? Delker said. ?"More specifically, the importance of the need for the precise contents of the affidavit is illustrated by the cross examination of Det. Cashman."?
Cashman acknowledged during his testimony that he was aware that another detective had spoken to Steffen's wife, who accused her husband ?"of being a child molester to be spiteful,"? according to the court order.
"She also told this other detective that the pornography she saw on the computer was not child oriented,"? Delker said.
Cashman admitted he did not include these facts in the affidavit he presented to Judge DeVries.
Delker said Cashman's police report was not an adequate substitute for the affidavit, even though the detective testified that the report had essentially the same content as the affidavit.
Under cross examination, Gross elicited testimony from Cashman that the original police report had been created on Feb. 19, 2009, and the version submitted into evidence was modified Feb. 25, 2011 – more than two years after the original report was written.
Cashman testified he did not make any changes to the report and explained that after he submitted the report to a supervisor for approval, only a supervisor could modify the report, the order said.
He acknowledged that he did not know who may have modified the report in 2011, or what the change was, Delker said.
While the change could have been a simple grammatical correction, there was ?no way to review the original report,? which was the basis for the search warrant, according to Delker.
Police started their investigation into Steffen in 2009 after an attempted suicide by his then-wife.


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Sunscream wrote:The first three options are all great, but everyone is here because of what you started with Avlis and Neverwinter Nights. In my opinion everyone's enjoyment of the game will only increase if you get back behind the reigns. I voted for option three.
apandapion wrote:So for all of you who voted to "whip the team into shape", what do you think that means?
Sickocrow wrote:You want us whipped?!?
Gorgon wrote:I picked 3, but I already think the team here is doing an amazing job.
Melakin Skywieder wrote:Whipping the team eh
So that's what you all think
*Get's out his army of Nwal'maer's*
I'll show you some whuppin'
Ingrateful PC's
joking of course......maybe
Registered users: Bing [Bot]


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The Colorado Purple
The state is finally taking a shine to Democrats. But is it blue enough to accept Obama?
Read the rest of the Swingers series.
DENVER—The good news for Barack Obama is that Colorado is more Democratic today than it was four years ago, when John Kerry lost the state by almost five percentage points. The bad news is that a Colorado Democrat is not necessarily an Obama Democrat.
In 2004, Democrats recaptured majorities in both chambers of the Colorado Legislature and replaced retiring Republican U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell with Ken Salazar, a pro-gun moderate. Two years later, they elected pro-life Democrat Bill Ritter as governor. Both men are part of a long tradition of conservative Colorado Democrats, and their statewide organizations will undoubtedly help Obama. Even more encouraging is the recent success of a semi-obscure five-term congressman from Boulder who is running for Colorado's open Senate seat. If Mark Udall can win in Colorado, the thinking goes, so can Barack Obama.
The problem is that Udall is not a typical Colorado Democrat. His district includes Boulder, the state's liberal enclave, and he has the voting record to match. He supports universal health care, civil unions, and abortion rights, and he opposes drilling on Colorado's Roan Plateau and the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Udall (the son of former Arizona congressman Mo Udall) also voted against the authorization of military force in Iraq in 2002.
Obama's positions line up well with Udall's. Because this is Colorado, however, Obama has to be careful not to identify his campaign too much with Udall's. To win the state, Obama needs the Salazar and Ritter voters in the center. Westerners like to describe themselves as "independent," but Colorado has the numbers to back it up. A quarter of the population—and a third of registered voters—has no party designation. These voters are most heavily concentrated outside Denver in Jefferson and Arapahoe counties.
The state has its havens of orthodoxy, like Colorado Springs, home to Focus on the Family, and the aforementioned Boulder. But most voters sit somewhere in between. Ask politicos in the state to describe an average unaffiliated voter, and you hear everything from "Wal-Mart moms" to small-business immigrants to anti-war pro-lifers to fiscally conservative environmentalists. The one thing everyone seems to agree on: "Unaffiliateds," supposedly, are put off by negative attacks.
If so, the candidates—and the 527s that support them—didn't get the memo. Colorado attack ads make "Celebrity" look polite. One now-famous spot depicts two veterans mocking Udall for supporting a "Department of Peace." "Boulder liberal," they keep repeating. "Radical Islam wants Americans dead," the narrator tells us. "What part of dead does Mark Udall not understand?" Another ad portrays the Department of Peace as a hot-boxed VW bus. An ad against Udall's opponent, Bob Schaffer, a former member of the U.S. House, shows a club of 10-gallon-hat-wearing oil barons sitting around a poker table, toasting to "Big Oil Bob."
As for whether the ads work, the results are still unclear. Polls show Udall leading Schaffer by about five points. He's winning unaffiliated voters by a 2-to-1 margin. And of course, the Udall campaign claims the anti-Udall ads are doing more good than harm.
So why isn't there more coordination between Udall and Obama? At his appearances in Colorado last week, Obama was introduced by Ritter and Salazar. Udall spokeswoman Tara Trujillo unconvincingly cites logistics: "We don't know if Obama's going to be in town until a couple days beforehand."
More likely, the reasons are deeper. In Colorado, fiscal conservatism is not exclusively Republican. Guns and religion are important issues, not simply things for people to cling to. Bipartisanship is practically a fetish. "If there's a gang, [Salazar] joins it," says independent pollster Floyd Ciruli. Thus Udall is more of a barometer for Obama's success—if he's doing well, then Obama should do well—than a model for it.
Politics aside, Obama is also trying not to repeat John Kerry's tactical mistakes of four years ago. Unlike Kerry, who at this point in 2004 was yanking ads from the state, Obama's campaign has opened 26 offices. "We've never had as much staff in the field as we have right now," says state Democratic Party Chair Pat Waak. Last week, Obama visited Grand Junction and Pueblo—not exactly the belly of the beast, but somewhere toward the back of its throat.
None of which worries Dick Wadhams. The chairman of the Colorado Republican Party has two jobs this election: First, to make sure his state does not swing Democratic for the first time since 1992. And second, to get Schaffer elected to the Senate over Udall. (They are running for the seat left open by Republican Wayne Allard, who is retiring.) Wadhams' strategy is almost a mirror opposite of the Obama campaign's: lump Obama and Udall together at every opportunity. They're both typical tax-and-spend liberal weenies ("mile-high, inch-deep"). The name Udall doesn't escape Wadhams' lips without the prefix Boulder liberal. After a while, they start to sound like Udall's first and middle names.
Of course, Wadhams can get exercised about Obama, too. The candidate's acceptance speech, he says, was a "self-worship rally" that displayed the "elitism" of the Democratic Party. Republicans also dismiss the Democrats' field organization, which Wadhams called the "One Field Office for Every Voter Plan." "Theirs is more of a shotgun approach," says state GOP spokesman Tom Kise. "Ours is more of a laser, very strategic."
These attempts to peg Udall and Obama as fey liberals may be the Republicans' only hope. In everyone's favorite phrasing, the "fundamentals are strong" for Democrats. The state has seen an influx of new voters in the counties surrounding Denver. Meanwhile, Democrats are catching up in the registration game. During most of the '90s, there were about 150,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats. Their advantage has shrunk to about 60,000. Turnout has been rising. Larimer County, north of Denver, saw 93 percent Democratic turnout in 2006. For a midterm election, that's unheard of.
Even in deeply conservative El Paso County, which includes Colorado Springs, Democrats are optimistic. They can't win the county, says Democratic state Sen. John Morse. But "if we can get 40 percent," he says, "then we win."
It's a modest goal—but then, El Paso County has voted for the GOP presidential candidate for decades, and in 2004 Kerry won only 32 percent of the vote. And, truth be told, such modesty is in keeping with the Colorado Democrats' general demeanor. Obama may want to change the world, but Colorado Democrats will be happy with changing the minds of 8 percent of voters in El Paso County.


text:
I read a lot about commitment on BJJ posts. I see a lot of inspiring posts and posters suggesting that excellence is about prioritizing and that if you want to be successful, you figure out a way to make it happen.
I'm not going to lie. That makes me feel kind of bad, because over the last several months (really, over a year), I've had a terrible time getting things together. Many weeks, it's just the three kids and me at home, as my wife travels frequently for work. Two kids in high school and a pre-schooler keeps me on my toes. My older kids are great. They would be more than happy watching their younger sister for me while I go to class. And the truth is, I don't want to be THAT guy… the guy that comes to mind when people think about committing to training. Or the guy who comes to mind when people talk about how many people disappear before they get to black belt.
But here's what goes through my mind. It's very practical. First, what's for dinner? My kids can cook, but that doesn't mean that they will, and Lily will end up eating Mac n'Cheese or something like that for dinner. The second, is the home work done? Finally, after many other questions I get to the meat of the issue, which is where the parental guilt thing kicks in. I don't like the idea of my older kids raising my youngest. It's not their job, and I don't think it's fair. This isn't to say that I don't leave them in charge. I do, often. It's that, once it's institutionalized, it's becomes a primary role, instead of support. If that makes any sense at all.
All of that said, Coach Bing said, "Bring Lily down to the school. She'll be fine." And I think we're going to give that a shot. I miss training regularly and I enjoy it when I go. But, man, juggling my other obligations is rough. I actually had every intention of packing Lily in the car and heading to class Wednesday, but found out after I got home that my son had a band concert that night. He's a great communicator, like all teenage boys. So, class starts at 5:30 pm and I found out at about 4:45 pm that he had to be at the school in his tuxedo at 6:30 pm. And he hadn't eaten dinner, nor had he done his homework.
So, Friday… the goal will be to pack Lily in the car and head to class. We'll see if I can make that happen. I think I can… I think I can.
Other news: Smoothie for today:
- 1 1/2 bananas (Lily ate the other half)
- 1 pear
- 1 cup (about) of frozen fruit (strawberries/blueberries/blackberries)
- 1 tbsp Hemp Protein
- 1 tbsp flax seed
- about 2 cups of broccoli
- 2 hands full of spinach and arugula
- almond milk (unsweetened and unflavored)
Turned out great. The berries turned it from a bright green to a kind of purple color, but the taste is good. The arugula actually gives it a kind of butter flavor which I like, but might be a matter of taste.


text:
TORONTO — Warriors point guard Stephen Curry was knocked out of Monday's game after suffering a mild sprain of his right ankle in the third quarter.
It's Curry's second sprain of that ankle this month. He went the first 36 games without any issues with his right ankle, which was surgically repaired in April. But he missed two games after spraining it in shootaround on Jan. 16 before the Warriors hosted Miami.
Curry had seemed to recover from that sprain until he did it again Monday.
At the 5-minute mark of the third quarter, Curry was driving to his left trying to get down the middle of the lane. While splitting two defenders, it appeared he stepped on the foot of Raptors center Aaron Gray. Curry hit the floor hard and was slow to get up. He tried to walk it off, taking a long walk under the basket to the free throw line.
After signaling to Jackson he was fine, Curry stayed in the game for another minute. Still wincing, he was replaced by Jarrett Jack and immediately checked out by trainers.
For the next several minutes, Curry was looked at by the training staff, sitting on the hardwood fidgeting with his ankle. He took multiple trips to the locker room and even tried to talk Jackson into letting him back in. Jackson wouldn't oblige.


text:
Chatlog 2010-02-17
From W3C eGovernment Wiki
See CommonScribe Control Panel, original RRSAgent log and preview nicely formatted version.
Please justify/explain all edits to this page, in your "edit summary" text.
<sandro> PRESENT: Brand_Niemann, Cory_Casanave, Daniel_Bennett, Ed_Summers, John_Sheridan, Rachel_Flagg, Sandro_Hawke, Chris_Beer, Ken_Fischer <sandro> Chair: sandro 12:57:55 <RRSAgent> RRSAgent has joined #egov 12:57:55 <RRSAgent> logging to http://www.w3.org/2010/02/17-egov-irc 12:58:03 <sandro> rrsagent, make logs public 12:58:12 <sandro> zakim, this will be egov 12:58:12 <Zakim> ok, sandro; I see T&S_EGOV(DMngmnt)8:00AM scheduled to start in 2 minutes 12:58:38 <Daniel_Bennett> Daniel_Bennett has joined #egov 12:59:07 <sandro> Good morning, Daniel. The bridge and IRC channel are all set up. 12:59:09 <Zakim> T&S_EGOV(DMngmnt)8:00AM has now started 12:59:16 <Zakim> + +1.202.449.aaaa 12:59:45 <Daniel_Bennett> aaaa is Daniel Bennett 13:03:27 <Daniel_Bennett> wondering if 8am is that sweet spot of commuting time on East Coast US, sleepy time on West Coast US, and commute or busy time in Europe, and just all around inconvenient time. 13:05:15 <sandro> Could be. It was the best time on the survey, but not a lot of people answered the servey. 13:05:49 <sandro> And the meeting announcement might not have made the strongest Be There! statement. :-) 13:06:01 <Zakim> + +1.202.236.aabb 13:06:06 <Daniel_Bennett> good point. need better marketing 13:06:28 <Daniel_Bennett> who is aabb? 13:06:50 <sandro> whoever is on the phone with you..... 13:06:58 <Daniel_Bennett> cant hear them 13:07:08 <sandro> Ah. Strange. 13:07:47 <Daniel_Bennett> hi brand nieman 13:08:21 <Daniel_Bennett> brand is aabb 13:08:34 <sandro> zakim, aabb is brand 13:08:34 <Zakim> +brand; got it 13:10:02 <Daniel_Bennett> Chris are you there? 13:13:04 <Zakim> -brand 13:13:38 <Zakim> +brand 13:17:23 <brand> brand has joined #egov 13:19:35 <Daniel_Bennett> Agenda Introductions (5 min) Discussion of Scope and Interests of Participants(10 min) Discussion of Statement of Work for this Project (10) Identifying Resources and Project Management for this Project (10) Work on First Project Step (15 min) 13:19:50 <Daniel_Bennett> Agenda #1 13:20:00 <Daniel_Bennett> Brand: hi 13:20:06 <Daniel_Bennett> Daniel:hi 13:20:53 <Daniel_Bennett> agenda #2 13:27:09 <Daniel_Bennett> per an email adding license rights 13:27:30 <Daniel_Bennett> Brand: suggest we use an information model - data model 13:28:13 <Daniel_Bennett> Brand: info model includes topic and sub-topic and the data model includes data table and data elements 13:28:24 <Daniel_Bennett> agenda #2 13:28:42 <Daniel_Bennett> Brand: for data also consider metadata 13:30:42 <brand> http://federaldata.wik.is/Statistical_Abstract_of_the_United_States:_2009 13:31:43 <Daniel_Bennett> hello 13:34:21 <brand> test 13:42:22 <Daniel_Bennett> Brand: use Statistical Abstract for metadata tagging 13:45:08 <edsu> edsu has joined #egov 13:45:50 <sandro> zakim, who is on the call? 13:45:50 <Zakim> On the phone I see +1.202.449.aaaa, brand 13:47:19 <edsu> sandro: is Zakim all set up for scribing? i guess we are using CommonScribe eh? http://www.w3.org/2009/CommonScribe/ 13:47:29 <sandro> Yep. 13:48:17 <Chris> Hey all - I'm here. Not sure how long. 13:48:18 <sandro> for the scribe, you can treat it the same as scribe.perl. 13:48:43 <sandro> Chris, will you be able to call in during the meeting, or only be here on IRC? 13:48:57 <Chris> only IRC tonight 13:49:46 <Chris> (annoying yes, but if I have to call in, I'll keep it to the Web Tech call) 13:50:48 <Zakim> - +1.202.449.aaaa 13:50:50 <Zakim> -brand 13:50:50 <Zakim> T&S_EGOV(DMngmnt)8:00AM has ended 13:50:52 <Zakim> Attendees were +1.202.449.aaaa, +1.202.236.aabb, brand 13:51:03 <Daniel_Bennett> finished the DataMgmt meeting 13:51:58 <sandro> zakim, this will be egov 13:51:58 <Zakim> "egov" matches T&S_EGOV(DMngmnt)8:00AM, and T&S_EGOV()9:00AM, sandro 13:52:03 <sandro> zakim, this will be egov() 13:52:03 <Zakim> ok, sandro; I see T&S_EGOV()9:00AM scheduled to start in 8 minutes 13:55:28 <edsu> brb 13:59:22 <Zakim> T&S_EGOV()9:00AM has now started 13:59:27 <Zakim> +[LC] 13:59:29 <Zakim> + +1.703.994.aaaa 13:59:36 <edsu> Zakim, LC is edsu 13:59:36 <Zakim> +edsu; got it 14:00:43 <Zakim> +Sandro 14:00:51 <Zakim> + +1.509.464.aabb 14:00:52 <Cory> Cory has joined #egov 14:01:20 <sandro> zakim, aaaa is Ken 14:01:20 <Zakim> +Ken; got it 14:01:26 <sandro> zakim, aabb is Rachel 14:01:26 <Zakim> +Rachel; got it 14:01:39 <Zakim> +Cory 14:02:06 <sandro> sandro has changed the topic to: eGov IG http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-egov-ig/2010Feb/0080.html 14:03:05 <sandro> scribe: edsu 14:03:20 <Rachel> Rachel has joined #egov 14:05:13 <sandro> zakim, who is here? 14:05:13 <Zakim> On the phone I see Ken, edsu, Sandro, Rachel, Cory 14:05:15 <Zakim> On IRC I see Rachel, Cory, edsu, Daniel_Bennett, RRSAgent, Zakim, Chris, mhausenblas, trackbot, sandro 14:07:15 <edsu> Topic: Administration 14:07:39 <johnlsheridan> johnlsheridan has joined #egov 14:07:40 <edsu> sandro: next meeting in two weeks, any scribe volunteers? 14:07:58 <edsu> Cory: i can do that one 14:08:00 <sandro> next scribe: Cory 14:08:24 <edsu> Topic: Action Item Review 14:08:39 <Zakim> +??P21 14:08:57 <sandro> zakim, ??P21 is John 14:08:57 <Zakim> +John; got it 14:09:07 <sandro> action-98? 14:09:07 <trackbot> ACTION-98 -- Cory Casanave to ask sandro re lobbying efforts (F2F, etc.) within W3C -- due 2010-02-18 -- OPEN 14:09:07 <trackbot> http://www.w3.org/2007/eGov/IG/track/actions/98 14:10:08 <edsu> Cory: one of the suggestions was to have more face-to-face lobbying efforts, more of an action item for thursday 14:10:11 <sandro> action-99? 14:10:11 <trackbot> ACTION-99 -- Cory Casanave to propose a mission statement for our project -- due 2010-02-18 -- OPEN 14:10:11 <trackbot> http://www.w3.org/2007/eGov/IG/track/actions/99 14:10:28 <edsu> sandro: i guess that's a thursday thing 14:10:47 <edsu> sandro: will make sure there's a way to mark actions for subgroups 14:10:59 <edsu> Topic: General Announcements, News 14:11:14 <edsu> Cory: been pretty quiet the last week 14:11:17 <johnlsheridan> q+ 14:11:24 <sandro> ack johnlsheridan 14:11:46 <edsu> johnlsheridan: i went to an event by the danish gov't on open data 14:12:33 <edsu> ... probably about 150 people there. There was a guy from ActionAmerica in the US. Audience was a mixture of officials and open data entrepeneurs ; interesting to see the agenda played through another nation state 14:13:09 <sandro> johnlsheridan: mixture of US-style innovation/apps, alongside offical long-term stuff 14:13:40 <edsu> ... lots of demonstrations, rapid innovation alongside longer-term strategic thinkng. Interesting to see the same dynamic as in the UK: web2.0 and reference data 14:13:47 <sandro> johnlsheridan: In Denmark, same conversation I'm used to, with Web2.0 meets Official Reference/Mandate stuff. 14:14:01 <Li_Ding> Li_Ding has joined #egov 14:14:23 <edsu> johnlsheridan: we've got a linked data meetup in london on the 24th. we're going to be talking about work we've been doing at data.gov.uk 14:15:09 <sandro> johnlsheridan: "get real" : be practical in approaches, overcoming perceived complexity barriers. 14:15:13 <edsu> one thing i'm going to be saying is the 'get real' message, how to we overcome the perceived and actual complexity of moving to a linked data paradigm, and how the community can help us do that 14:15:28 <edsu> ... about 170 people have signed up 14:15:35 <edsu> johnlsheridan++ 14:15:54 <edsu> Topic: Project Group Checkin <sandro> Subtopic: LD Outreach 14:16:21 <edsu> Cory: we just had our initial get-together for project 1 & 2 joint meeting 14:16:56 <Cory> http://www.w3.org/2007/eGov/IG/wiki/Linked_Data 14:17:01 <Rachel> Rachel has joined #egov 14:17:02 <Zakim> + +1.202.449.aacc 14:17:12 <Chris> How many on the call? 14:17:16 <edsu> ... a lot of the discussion was about setting our charter 14:17:17 <Daniel_Bennett> aacc is Daniel Bennett 14:17:30 <Cory> http://www.w3.org/2007/eGov/IG/wiki/Outreach_Project 14:17:32 <edsu> ... there is an outreach project page where we have a charter 14:17:38 <joec> joec has joined #egov 14:17:56 <edsu> ... we're going to try to get some of the web-apps together 14:18:24 <edsu> ... outreach resonated with people, we were thinking we might organize things under that 14:18:38 <edsu> ... hope we can get the larger group working on the assets 14:18:42 <Daniel_Bennett> Daniel 14:18:52 <sandro> zakim, aacc is Daniel_Bennett 14:18:52 <Zakim> +Daniel_Bennett; got it <sandro> Subtopic: LD Demo 14:19:12 <edsu> sandro: on the third project, george is travling, and corey is going to summarize 14:19:55 <edsu> Cory: we didn't talk as much about the focus of the demo, but we did have a great tour of the RPI open egov data project 14:19:58 <Cory> http://tw.rpi.edu/wiki/Linking_Open_Data 14:20:11 <sandro> and http://data-gov.tw.rpi.edu/wiki/Demos 14:20:17 <Daniel_Bennett> oh no, the coppers are coming 14:20:19 <sandro> zakim, who is making noise? 14:20:29 <Zakim> sandro, listening for 10 seconds I heard sound from the following: Sandro (25%), Cory (45%) 14:20:37 <johnlsheridan> It was me! 14:20:39 <johnlsheridan> Sorry 14:21:04 <edsu> Cory: they already have gov't demos in place, so we were talking about linking across these demos 14:21:26 <edsu> Cory: i encourage you to take a look at some of the demos on the tetherless world website ; the hope being we could integrate with that 14:21:44 <sandro> Chris: quick report? 14:21:47 <edsu> sandro: chris is on irc for the next group <sandro> Subtopic: Web Tech 14:28:59 <Chris> Quick report from my end: 14:29:29 <Chris> We've got our project page set up. Been adding resources to both that page and Social Media as well. 14:29:55 <edsu> sandro: Brian sent his regrets btw, the plan is to put together a list of the top-10 best practices for social media 14:30:32 <Chris> Going to have some initial issues will handling call until I get VoIP properly set up. Apparently call planned for today (2 1/2 hours time) - ....(more) <sandro> Subtopic: Data Management 14:22:09 <edsu> sandro: lets talk about data management group 14:22:28 <edsu> Daniel_Bennett: i posted up the agenda for the first meeting 14:22:35 <edsu> ... on the wiki 14:23:17 <edsu> ... brand and joe were happy w/ it ; both are working on the metadata portion of it ; how to help governments include metadata for their documents ; that's something that brand will help w/ best practices 14:23:42 <edsu> ... 8 am is a tough time to get people on the west coast of the US 14:24:04 <edsu> ... does anyone on the call have problem with an 8AM EST time? 14:24:20 <edsu> sandro: might make sense to a doodle poll? 14:24:40 <edsu> ... hard to tell who is interested in these calls, only 5 responses to the poll about meeting times 14:24:54 <edsu> Daniel_Bennett: maybe i can do a separate poll, and have them pick times they can attend 14:25:00 <edsu> sandro: yeah, that makes sense 14:25:37 <Chris> sorry - was looking up Skype :) 14:26:12 <edsu> Daniel_Bennett: if you want to make a comment on your blog we can aggregate those, or you can contribute to the wiki 14:26:36 <edsu> ... i think some people have forgotten how to login, sandro can you send out something summarizing how people can use the wiki 14:26:54 <edsu> sandro: can you send me an email detailing what i need to say? 14:26:56 <edsu> Daniel_Bennett: sure 14:27:17 <edsu> Daniel_Bennett: i can put up the notes 14:27:26 <edsu> sandro: i already put up the notes from this morning 14:27:34 <Chris> q+ 14:27:39 <sandro> http://www.w3.org/2007/eGov/IG/wiki/Projects 14:27:53 <edsu> sandro: i've been linking the notes from the meetings column 14:28:06 <edsu> ... if you want to update those that's fine 14:28:09 <edsu> Daniel_Bennett: that's great <sandro> Subtopic: Organizational Issues 14:30:33 <edsu> sandro: any other thoughts on the projects? they seem to be starting smaller, hopefully we'll have an atmosphere where people are welcome to join later when they something useful/interesting 14:31:07 <Chris> Could either delay till around early March - give SM and DM a chance to get rolling (that way can avoid doubling on overlapping work) 14:31:28 <Chris> or with a volunteer, could kick it off today - initial is only going to be as others - planning rough direction. 14:31:29 <edsu> sandro: we had almost 30 people indicate interest in the linkeddata, but not all of them showing up on the calls, trying to brainstorm about ideas to bring them in 14:31:52 <edsu> Cory: i had some trouble w/ invites -- i only saw one invite 14:31:55 <Chris> Will have a dedicated discussion forum set up on my personal site by end of week. 14:32:26 <edsu> sandro: people are being sort of ad hoc in the invitations 14:32:30 <Chris> Hopefully planning most work on discussion forum, Telecons to vote/move on results from forum, wiki to publish output. 14:32:57 <Rachel> Can you (Sandro) send out ONE email w/a schedule of the meetings for the six groups? 14:33:13 <Rachel> Include instructions on how to participae? 14:33:48 <Rachel> No agendas necessary....just a reminder of who's meeting and when 14:34:01 <Rachel> so people can get the meetings on their calendars 14:34:04 <sandro> action: sandro send weekly meeting reminders 14:34:05 <trackbot> Created ACTION-102 - Send weekly meeting reminders [on Sandro Hawke - due 2010-02-24]. 14:34:20 <edsu> sandro: maybe send out Monday morning? 14:34:45 <Chris> Would other projects like a discussion forum made for them as well btw? It would keep the wiki discussion pages a little cleaner 14:34:51 <edsu> Rachel: it sounds like not everybody knows what's happening when, some people expect different degrees of interest ... if you let people know who's meeting when they can drop in easier 14:35:29 <edsu> sandro: on monday i'll send out a list of projects that are meeting that week 14:35:38 <edsu> Rachel: could just send out once 14:35:42 <edsu> Cory: people need reminders 14:35:44 <sandro> http://www.w3.org/2007/eGov/IG/wiki/Projects 14:35:47 <Chris> +1 Cory 14:36:01 <edsu> Chris: kinda like the meetup reminders 14:36:06 <edsu> s/Chris/sandro/ 14:36:21 <edsu> sandro: coordinator can reply or expand on it as necessary 14:36:26 <edsu> Rachel: thanks 14:36:50 <edsu> sandro: next is john w/ provenance 14:36:56 <sandro> topic: Provenance and eGov 14:37:16 <edsu> johnlsheridan: their last call on friday was abot provenance and gov't data 14:37:32 <edsu> ... i spoke about requirements we have in the uk ... for provenance and linked data 14:37:55 <edsu> ... the provenance community that's there is very energized by government data publishing 14:38:04 <Chris> @ John - any links to requirements in writing you can give?? 14:38:08 <edsu> ... was some discussion about whether gov't has different requirements 14:38:41 <Chris> (or do you mean requirements as in not actual mandatory requirements) 14:38:41 <edsu> ... important for high quality statistics 14:39:08 <edsu> ... we talked about use cases, provenance vocabulary, open provenance model in gov't context 14:39:19 <Cory> Short agenda request: Any comments on the proposal to combine LDSTRAT & LDTECH projects? 14:39:25 <edsu> ... we looked at them, but found them a bit difficult to figure out how best to apply them 14:40:13 <edsu> ... a great conversation w/ the w3c provenance incubator group ... strong interest in the work we're doing 14:40:41 <edsu> ... i will be going back in a couple months to talk about our experience, need to think about how we bubble up that conversation here 14:41:05 <edsu> Cory: were they working with any particular solutions 14:41:32 <sandro> q? 14:41:33 <edsu> johnlsheridan: focus was on use cases ; some of the participants have done prior work (some for 10 years) 14:41:50 <edsu> ... for us i think we need to think of gov't provenance use cases to feed into that group 14:42:37 <edsu> ... how important is it to reflect w/ gov't data the remit/function of an organization with the data ; from an archival perspective this is something that happens 14:43:31 <edsu> ... as we are publishing linkeddata, and converting data we need to use the provenance vocabulary to point at the original data, and the algorithms that were used to transform 14:43:39 <edsu> ... this is something that the provenance vocabulary can do 14:44:19 <edsu> ... we're looking at the Open Provenance Model specifically 14:44:36 <edsu> sandro: how much of the group is thinking in terms of linked data versus some other format? 14:44:44 <Chris> @ John - please contact me over email during the week - may well have a use case for you - in fact I can definately say I have a use case for you to trial any approach you'd like 14:45:29 <edsu> johnlsheridan: hard to judge, i suspect the main difference between me and the rest of the group is that they were largely coming from a research perspective, and i was coming from a perspective of wanting to actually solve the problems 14:45:58 <edsu> ... people are more than willing to engage in a practical conversation 14:46:12 <sandro> q? 14:46:23 <edsu> ... sometimes it can be very liberating for research oriented folks to find an actual real problem to work with 14:46:36 <edsu> sandro: are they running for a year? 14:46:55 <edsu> johnlsheridan: yes, use cases by august 14:47:14 <edsu> ... they are very interested in gov't data, a big draw for them 14:47:35 <edsu> Topic: Combining Projects 1 and 2? 14:47:55 <edsu> Cory: i had a question about combining groups 1 and 2, what people thing 14:48:30 <edsu> sandro: there wasn't a lot of overlap in the survey results ; but if we only have 2 or 3 people showing up, then combining them is probably fine 14:49:04 <edsu> Cory: we'll discuss again tomorrow 14:49:21 <edsu> sandro: if you look at the poll, the comments might be helpful 14:49:40 <edsu> sandro: lets wrap it up, thanks for coming 14:49:46 <Zakim> -John 14:49:47 <Zakim> -Ken 14:49:50 <Zakim> -Rachel 14:49:51 <Chris> I think its a smart move Cory - makes sense. 14:49:52 <Zakim> -Cory 14:49:53 <Zakim> -Sandro 14:49:56 <Zakim> -edsu 14:49:57 <Zakim> T&S_EGOV()9:00AM has ended 14:49:59 <Zakim> Attendees were +1.703.994.aaaa, edsu, Sandro, +1.509.464.aabb, Ken, Rachel, Cory, John, +1.202.449.aacc, Daniel_Bennett 14:50:43 <edsu> edsu has left #egov 14:51:11 <martin_alvarez> martin_alvarez has joined #egov # SPECIAL MARKER FOR CHATSYNC. 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March 08, 2012 03:00 ET
CORK, IRELAND--(Marketwire - Mar 8, 2012) - QUMAS today announced that Chris Reid, Chairman of GAMP Europe, is to speak at two complimentary half-day Life Sciences seminars in Germany, focusing on Quality and Compliance Management trends. The first seminar will be held on Tuesday, March 20, 2012 in Frankfurt. The second seminar will be held on Wednesday, March 21, 2012 in Dusseldorf. Each seminar will cover the following topics:
Presenting at the seminars will be the aforementioned Chris Reid, Chairman GAMP Europe and CEO of Integrity Solutions, Tieme Stoutjesdijk, Information Manager at Synthon, and Ken Hayward, Chief Technology Officer at QUMAS.
The seminars are aimed at Quality Assurance, Regulatory Affairs, IT, Manufacturing, and Compliance professionals working in the Life Sciences industry. A complete agenda and registration details for the seminars are available at www.qumas.com/qms.
"These seminars will focus on the current best practices in regulatory compliance and quality management," said Caoimhe Kiely, VP Marketing for QUMAS. "They will also include real world examples of quality solutions across pharmaceutical companies who have a long tradition of regulatory compliance."
About QUMAS
QUMAS is the leader in Compliance and Quality Management Solutions for the Life Sciences industry, with more than 260 global customer deployments and domain expertise in regulatory compliance since 1994.
QUMAS Quality Management solutions provide Electronic Document Management (SOPs, QA documents), Electronic Process Management (CAPA, Deviation, Change Control, Audit), and GMP Compliance Management. QUMAS Regulatory Affairs solutions provide content and Submission Management including eCTD authoring templates, collaborative review, full integration with leading publishing solutions, scanning, and automated import of paper documents.
The QUMAS Compliance Platform is available on Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Oracle, EMC Documentum and Microsoft SQL Server.
For more information, visit www.qumas.com or email email@example.com
All trade names, trademarks, and service marks are the rightful property of their respective owners.
Caoimhe Kiely
VP Marketing
+353 21 4915100Email Contactwww.qumas.com
Caoimhe Kiely
VP Marketing
+353 21 4915100Email Contactwww.qumas.com
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