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RFE/RL Senior Correspondent Golnaz Esfandiari explains the growing movement against the compulsory Islamic headscarf in Iran.
A new wave of protests in Iran against the compulsory hijab for women began December 27, 2017, when 31-year-old mother Vida Movahed stood on a metal utility box on a busy street in Tehran and silently waved a white scarf tied to a stick to challenge the hijab requirement, in place in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Women in the capital and other cities have since followed her example , climbing atop utility boxes and waving head scarves in protest, and the videos and images have gone viral on social media.
On February 26 Amnesty International reported that more than 35 women had
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and arrest in Tehran alone since the campaign began, and that dozens of women are at risk of being punished with prison sentences.
RFE/RL Central Newsroom Senior Correspondent and editor of the award-winning Persian Letters blog Golnaz Esfandiari spoke to RFE/RL Pressroom about the significance of the protests and the courageous women behind them.
RFE/RL Pressroom: Women in Iran have protested the hijab rule before, but what stirred this most recent wave of dissent?
Golnaz Esfandiari: I think the recent protests are the continuation of years of opposition against the compulsory hijab, which violates the most basic rights of women and puts them at risk of harassment, detention, and other forms of punishment.Golnaz Esfandiari:
Pressroom: Do the protests represent a wider movement for women's rights in Iran, or human rights or political rights more broadly?
Esfandiari: These are unprecedented acts of civil disobedience against one of the pillars and most visible symbols of the Islamic Republic. The protests have sparked a debate about the compulsory hijab, which has been a sensitive topic. These women have brought domestic and international attention to the issue of the hijab and made it harder for authorities to claim that the majority of Iranian women support the hijab rule. Even hijabi women have expressed solidarity with the women who are removing their scarves in public.Esfandiari:
These women are sending a clear message: they want to have the right to decide about their appearance in public. It's a protest against four decades of discrimination and humiliation. They're standing up for their rights, knowing that they are likely to be arrested and sentenced to prison. We've received reports that some of them have been beaten up by the police. There's a video of one of them being violently confronted by a security officer. Her leg has been reportedly injured as a result of being pushed down from a utility box.
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Reputation is what people think about a company or offer.
Building a strong reputation is very valuable; people are willing to pay more for a good reputation.
It's critical to understand that you don't control your reputation, people will decide what your reputation is. You can't "manage" it. You can only improve it over time by making sure that those who do business with you are glad they did.
Building a good reputation takes time and effort, but it's the most effective kind of marketing there is.
In my opinion, "branding" is one of the single most over-used and over-hyped ideas in the modern business world. There's nothing magical or complex about building a brand: when business professionals say they want to "enhance their brand" or "build brand equity," they almost always mean "improve their reputation."
is what people generally think about a particular offer or company. Reputations naturally arise whenever people talk to each other. Some
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and services are worth the price; others are not. Some experiences are worth having; others aren't. Some people are good to work with; others are not. No one wants to waste their time or money, which means people pay close attention to what others say about offers, experiences, or people they're interested in.
Building a strong reputation is hugely valuable: people are often willing to pay a premium for a good reputation. One of the reasons well-known consumer brands like Tide and Crest can continue to charge premium prices in near-commodity categories is the strength of their reputation. Potential customers want to feel certain that the purchase they're considering will benefit them, that others will think highly of their decision, and that they won't be wasting their money. As the saying goes, "no one ever got fired for buying IBM."
It's important to note that your reputation is not directly under your control-it's the sum total of what others think about everything you do: the products you release, the advertising you promote, the customer service you provide. No matter how hard you try, you can't directly "manage" your reputation-you can only try to improve it over time by making people glad they chose to do business with you.
Always remember that the marketplace is the final arbiter of your reputation, and that it's always watching what you do. When you build a great reputation, your customers will continue to do business with you, and will refer you to others because they think highly of you (and because referring friends to good products and services is a way to build their own reputations).
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Students in Lower Manhattan got an early taste of the GRAMMY Awards on Friday.NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) –
As CBS2's Jessica Moore reported, their learning came alive with the help of a GRAMMY-nominated group.
Friday never looked so fun at P.S. 142 thanks to the visit from Alphabet Rockers, a California-based kids hip-hop group on a mission to spread love across the world.
"I hope the message is to be kind to others, be proud of yourself, and treat everyone how they want to be treated," member Lilly Ellis told Moore.
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Kaitlin McGraw and Tommy Shepherd Jr. started the group 10 years ago with the idea of kids inspiring kids through music.
"We knew that kids deserve to learn in different ways, and hip-hop is a freedom space that you can learn, regardless of culture," said McGraw.
"It's so fulfilling just to see them feeling like we're on the same page with them and we're connecting with them," Shepherd added.
So what did the pre-K, kindergarten and first graders think about the Alphabet Rockers?
"I love it because, I love singing," student Zoey Seawright said.
"I like their dancing, even the boys' dancing," a boy added.
"My favorite part about today was when they sing the songs," Adele Hernandez said.
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Your suggestions and feedback provide valuable insights which allow us to continually serve you better. Please let us know if you have a suggestion, feedback or complaint that you would like to share.


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Kansas City Financial Center
The Kansas City Financial Center (KFC) was established in 1935 as a disbursing office for the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (Fiscal Service), a bureau of the Department of the Treasury.
Almost eighty years later, KFC is one of two Financial Centers. Known within the Bureau as the Payment Center of Excellence, KFC is now responsible for 100 percent of the processing of Treasury-disbursed payments, both domestic and international, including printing and mailing responsibilities.
The disbursement of public monies, via paper check, is now split between KFC and its sister site, the Philadelphia Financial Center (PFC). In addition to shared mailing services, PFC is also responsible for all post payment functions.
Quick Links
Kansas City Financial Center
P.O. Box 12599-0599
Kansas City, MO 64116-0599

subset: commoncrawl


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First Time Auditions Taylor Daye
Joining us today for her First Time Audition is Taylor Daye and this girl is a cutie. Pretty face and a nice little shape. I could not wait to get her naked to see what her body really looked like. This girl was great she has a perfect set of tits and is a super freak. Ramon came in to put her to the real test and I must say that this girl did not disappoint. She was loving every minute of Ramon inside her. Here is an update I'm sure you be pleased with. Enjoy!


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Despite contract, Oregon Zoo claims baby elephant 'will be here for life'
PORTLAND, Ore. - A strange and shocking development came to light Monday night after The Seattle Times reported that Rose-Tu's new baby elephant born just last week belongs to a traveling circus.
According to The Times, the Oregon Zoo has a valid contract with the traveling circus known as "Have Trunk Will Travel" and doesn't have legal custody of the calf. According to a contract obtained by The Times, Have Trunk Will Travel is the rightful owner the second offspring of bull elephant Tusko, which is this baby.
The contact says Have Trunk Will Travel can obtain ownership of the elephant calf after it has been alive for 30 days. 30 days after the birth will be Dec. 30.
Zoo spokesman Hova Najarian confirmed the existence of the contract to KATU News late Monday night but said the zoo is in talks with the traveling circus to keep the calf in Portland.
In an email, Najarian said reports of the contract are "true" but also said it has been "no secret" and reported on by local media in the past.
"The elephant is not going anywhere. The elephant will be here for life," said Najarian. He said a news conference with Zoo director Kim Smith to "address the inaccuracies in today's Seattle Times article" is planned for Tuesday morning at 8:30 a.m., according to a press release.
A post on the Oregon Zoo's Facebook page Tuesday morning read:
Rest assured the fate of the zoo's latest arrival is not, and has never been in question. We will be clarifying the inaccuracies contained in this article and will reach out in the morning to local media with more information. The zoo remains committed to its vision of "elephants being elephants" and allowing the opportunity for them to live in family groups for generations.
According to The Times, "Have Trunk Will Travel," is controversial and rents out elephants to the entertainment industry.


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Urban renewal: This year's breakout Canadian now starts for Ravens
Brent Urban's ascendancy in four years as an NFL player can't be plotted on a straight line.
More like a check-mark. Sliding downward for a full year-and-a-half, then a sharp turn left, and rocketing steadily, steeply upward ever since.
The towering defensive end from the west-Toronto suburb of Mississauga makes his first pro start for the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday at Cincinnati.
After three standout pre-season performances last month against mostly first-teamers, Urban appears to be the breakout Canadian NFL player in 2017. As it is, he's perhaps the least-known starter on Baltimore's defence, one of the league's stingiest.
In 75 pre-season plays from his interior line position in the Ravens' base 3-4 formation, the 6-foot-7, 300-pounder forced two fumbles and registered one sack, three tackles-for-loss and seven tackles.
Those are the kinds of numbers Urban's positional idol — three-time NFL defensive MVP J.J. Watt of the Houston Texans — puts up.
For the 26-year-old Urban, does it feel as though his play has risen to a new level in 2017?
"For sure. This is the best I've felt mentally and physically," Urban said in a phone interview from Ravens headquarters in suburban Owings Mills, Md. "I'm expecting to get better every day.
"Compared to my play from last year at this time, or even the end of last year, I believe I'm a different player. The feedback I'm getting is, 'You look like a player who's getting better.' I feel as though I still have a lot of untapped potential. Being out, really, those first two years, I have a lot of potential still there."
Before getting into Urban's initial, injury-plagued 2014-15 seasons with the Ravens, let's back up, pre-checkmark.
Like his idol Watt, Urban's first-love sport growing up was hockey. And, like the now 6-foot-5, 295-pound Watt in his youth in Wisconsin, Urban in Mississauga was a mammoth forward playing travel rep. His Mississauga Ice Dogs triple-A bantam and pee-wee teams included future NHLers Ryan Ellis of the Nashville Predators and Casey Cizikas of the New York Islanders.
But by Grade 11 in high school, like Watt, Urban found he was outgrowing hockey. Tried football and loved it.
While starring at Mississauga's Lorne Park Secondary School, Urban earned an athletic scholarship as a defensive linemen to the University of Virginia. By his junior and senior years at UV, 2012-13, NFL scouts were checking him out.
The Ravens selected Urban in the fourth round of the 2014 NFL draft, and that's when his run of bad fortune began.
Urban promptly blew out an ACL and didn't play a down as a rookie. A biceps tear the following summer forced Urban to miss much of training camp plus Baltimore's first 10 games of 2015.
The moment of his sharp career upturn came at the end of his first game as a pro, in Cleveland on Monday night, Nov. 30, 2015.
With the score tied 27-27 and the host Browns attempting a game-winning 51-yard field goal, with millions watching on TV across North America, Urban knifed between Browns linemen and legally blocked the kick. Ravens teammate Will Hill scooped up the loose ball and returned it 64 yards for the winning touchdown after time ran out, for a crazy 33-27 Baltimore victory.
Last season, Urban stayed healthy, playing in all 16 games as a backup in the Ravens' D-line rotation. He notched two sacks and gradually began to see what he could become as an NFLer, especially late in the season. Head coach John Harbaugh rattled his cage a bit during a Dec. 4 game against Miami.
"I got into the backfield and kind of missed a tackle. It should have been a TFL (tackle-for-loss)," Urban said. "Coach comes up to me and says, 'Look how big you are. You should be making those kinds of plays.' You know, giving me a different perspective.
"You don't necessarily look at yourself as one of the biggest guys out there all the time. And coming off those injuries, your sense of self is maybe downplayed, I guess, because you might not have full confidence. So I guess that kind of helped me realize what I have going for myself, and really boosted my confidence in the situation. I think I went out there later in the game and ended up having a TFL."
Urban said he spent most of this year's off-season working out at Ravens headquarters. This is a contract year for him, the most important season for an NFLer from a money standpoint. Specifically, it's just months before his four-year rookie contract expires in March.
The second contract is where the real money is. Is it hard for Urban not to think about that?
Actually, no, he said.
"If you just focus on getting better every day, you'll play well and then get an opportunity somewhere. The rest will take care of itself."
A catalyst in allowing the late-blooming Urban to bloom at all is having the same head coach, same defensive coordinator (Dean Pees) and same overall scheme through his four years in Baltimore. Not many fourth-year NFL players can say that. See the Buffalo Bills, Cleveland Browns, San Francisco 49ers …
"It's great," Urban said. "I go into every training camp knowing all the plays already, kind of. I'm able to look specifically at each movement in more detail now, every time I go over it and over it and over it. So continuity really helps. You really get a better sense of what the defensive coordinator is doing, and you get a better rapport with the players around you in the same system.
"An extra year is going to help you around great coaching. You should be in an upward trajectory as long as you're in your early years, which is where I consider I am. I should keep getting better."
Charlottesville 'was horrible,' says former resident Urban
Brent Urban lived for five years in Charlottesville, Va., up to 2014, while on football scholarship at the University of Virginia.
Yes, he watched on TV that awful Saturday in August as escalating violence between armed white-supremacist demonstrators and baiting protesters blemished one of America's oldest university towns. Casualty count: Three dead, 19 injured.
"Oh, it was horrible. It was a terrible thing," Urban said. "Your heart just goes out to all those victims. It's hard to make sense of it, really. It's one of those things where you have had your time and your experience there, and you've never associated that with any acts of violence or hatred or anything like that. It was just a terrible thing to see.
"Obviously, change needs to happen. Hopefully some positives can happen because of it, and help the country come together and really stamp out those issues."
What made it all the more difficult for Urban to comprehend was when he continually recognized places in Charlottesville he knew well.
"For sure. Every scene on TV showed places I was familiar with. It was almost not real, seeing places you have fond memories of and terrible things happening there. Definitely had those moments. Not good.
"I have a lot of friends there still. It definitely hits close to home. We've talked about how awful it was."
Urban and Canadian teammate Bo Lokombo go way back
This summer Brent Urban lost one Canadian teammate, but gained another.
Guard John Urschel, his teammate on the Baltimore Ravens since both were drafted together in 2014, retired just two days into training camp, over long-term concerns about concussions. Urschel was born in Winnipeg and raised for a time in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., before moving stateside.
But former CFL linebacker Boseko (Bo) Lokombo of Abbostford, B.C., made the Ravens' practice squad.
"It's funny. We were the two top Canadians coming out of high school in 2009, like, by Rivals.com or whatever," Urban said. "We had Facebook-messaged each other, wishing each other well, like all the way back in 2009. He was going to (the University of) Oregon, I was going to Virginia. I've kind of kept up with his progress. My Virginia team played his Oregon team one year, and I said, 'What's up?' to him or whatever, after the game.
"I'm hoping he takes advantage of this opportunity."
Urban a jersey-wearing Leafs fan in Caps country
From a hockey standpoint, Brent Urban lives and works in Washington Capitals country. Or at least a short drive's north in Greater Baltimore.
Has Urban — himself a rep hockey player from Mississauga, Ont., as a kid — become a Caps fan now? Not on your life.
You can take a boy out of the Toronto area, but the Toronto Maple Leafs fan stays in him.
"Oh, no question. No question," Urban said. "I definitely miss the game a little bit from time to time. But I keep up with my Leafs on TV during the season. The game is still close to my heart.
"I even made it down there for one of the Leafs' playoff games down in D.C. in the spring. I had my Leafs jersey on and everything. So, yeah, still a big Leafs fan."


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I'm trying to run The Secret of Monkey Island on my Treo, but I don't have "scumm.engine"
Could anyone tell me me where I could find it and/or download it?
Thanks in advance.
I had the exact same problem. The engine files weren't in the PalmOS archive. I just downloaded it again, and there they were.


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Pospisil, Sock win Wimbledon men's doubles title
Canada got a Wimbledon champion Saturday after all.
No, not Eugenie Bouchard. Vasek Pospisil.
Just hours after Bouchard lost the women's final, Pospisil, along with partner Jack Sock, took Centre Court and won the men's doubles championship at the All England Club in London.
The 24-year-old from Vernon, B.C., and his American teammate defeated No. 1 seeded brother duo Bob and Mike Bryan in five sets, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (3), 6-4, 3-6, 7-5.
It was nail-biter from start to finish. Pospisil and Sock needed a fifth championship point in the final set to put it away. After going up 5-4, they had their opponents on the ropes with two chances to break the twin brothers, but failed to convert. They did not make the same mistake two games later, putting down the Bryans for good.
Pospisil and Sock were competing as a team for first time and are the first duo since Lleyton Hewitt and Max Mirnyi in 2000 to win a Grand Slam title in their first tournament together. The Bryans, considered the best men's doubles team of all-time, were vying for a 16th Grand Slam championship.
Pospisil commented after the match how he and Sock complemented one another throughout the tournament.
"I think our games click perfectly together," Pospisil told reporters. "Throughout the tournament when one guy was down the other guy just raised his level at the perfect time."
Pospisil had extra reason to be happy. After struggling with back issues for six months he is finally competing pain-free.
"These last few weeks have been amazing, to be honest, because the whole year was a struggle," he said.
It was Pospisil's first doubles title ever, let alone at a Grand Slam event. He also became the first Wimbledon men's doubles champion from Canada not named Daniel Nestor. Nestor, who hails from Toronto, has raised the trophy twice (2008, 2009) at the All England Club and won a total of eight Grand Slam doubles titles.


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Source: si.com
Gulbis is one heck of a golfer. She may have disappeared from the public eye a bit, but I expect a big year from her in 2013. If not, her Twitter account might end up being the best thing about her…
Natalie Gulbis on Twitter – @natalie_gulbis
More at Female Athletes: 20 Hot Ones To Follow On Twitter In 2013
World No. 1
World No. 1 Yani Tseng, along with US duo Natalie Gulbis and Paula Creamer, Choi Na-yeon of South Korea and Suzann Pettersen of Norway are all expected to attend the press briefing.
There will be a charity skins game on Thursday at the Miramar Golf and Country Club in Linkou, New Taipei City, which will be followed by a 54-hole invitational featuring 95 players from Friday to Sunday, according to the organizers. Continue reading


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News & Events
For the Media
Clarkson University's Sazonov Performs Bridge Experiments in Malaysia
[A photograph for media use is available at http://www.clarkson.edu/news/photos/sazonov.jpg .]
Edward Sazonov, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Clarkson University, recently collaborated with faculty from the National University of Malaysia (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, UKM) to perform bridge experiments on location in Malasia. UKM sponsored Sazonov's visit, which focused on wireless bridge monitoring technologies that he has developed at Clarkson with substantial funding from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).
Sazonov's group has developed a wireless system, which provides utility similar to a conventional wired system, but does not need wires. The wireless sensors are capable of time-synchronous data acquisition and 100 percent data delivery in a scalable system that can include hundreds of distributed sensors. Sazonov's research shows that synchronization on the level of microseconds is required for vibration analysis of highway structures. Sazonov's system satisfies such stringent requirements and can serve as a platform for applications of structural health monitoring that use vibration.
The experiments in Malaysia followed earlier experiments in New York State in which 44 wireless sensors were deployed on a steel girder bridge. The goal of the joint experiments with UKM was to test the system's applicability to different construction technologies and different environments. In the experiment, the sensor network was installed on a pre-stressed concrete bridge. Then, the vibration response of the structure, due to passing traffic, was analyzed to provide information useful for damage detection.
The results of the experiments demonstrated that the system can be deployed successfully on structures constructed using different technologies. This was good news to Muhammad Fauzi Mohd Zain, who is deputy dean and co-director, Advanced Engineering Centre, Faculty of Engineering at UKM and Sazonov's Malasian host. "In Malaysia, commonly we use visual inspection routinely to detect small cracks or defects. It is like finding a needle in a haystack and impossible in areas that are inaccessible or hard to access," said Zain. "Gradually such constraints are being overcome with emerging new technologies... for vibration based monitoring of structures."
Clarkson University launches leaders into the global economy. One in six alumni already leads as a CEO, VP or equivalent senior executive of a company. Located just outside the Adirondack Park, Clarkson is a nationally recognized research university for undergraduates with select graduate programs in signature areas of academic excellence directed toward the world's pressing issues. Through 50 rigorous programs of study in engineering, business, arts, sciences and health sciences, the entire learning-living community spans boundaries across disciplines, nations and cultures to build powers of observation, challenge the status quo, and connect discovery and engineering innovation with enterprise.


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Privacy Policy
Our members' privacy is very important to us. For that reason, KCBS, MMA Creative and their marketing partners use all reasonable efforts to be responsible when gathering personal information and to protect such information. Although this policy is not a contract and does not create any legal rights, it does demonstrate our commitment to protecting personal information and your privacy.
This policy is intended to answer your questions about the kind of information we collect from this web site and how we safeguard its confidentiality in the event that anything is shared with partners. There are options that allow you to prevent information sharing or to correct any personal data.
In order to facilitate your experience, and manage our business, we collect and maintain personal information about you. The Company collects customer information from many sources to understand and meet your needs. We collect personal information about you from:
- You personally, when you voluntarily provide us with information;
- Your browser, when you visit our web sites and your browser interacts with us;
- Your transactions and interactions with our affiliates, partners, sponsors and service providers;
- and other sources, in connection with information booths at events.
The personal information we collect about you through these various sources may include, but is not limited to:
Name, address, telephone number, date of birth (DOB), country of residence, gender and favorite driver; - E-mail addresses, fax numbers and pager numbers - Your Member number, login name, password, password hint and display name; - Credit/debit card numbers, including associated billing addresses and expiration dates; - Transactional and online activity data pertaining to the Program; - Information concerning your interests and/or your use of products and services; - Personal information provided via survey, focus groups or other marketing research efforts; and - Personal information provided to customers-service representatives to research and resolve issues or question.
You may also be able to submit information about other people. For example, you might submit a person's name and e-mail address to send an electronic message or to send a gift membership or, or another person's name and address if you order a gift online and want it sent directly to the him/her.
Depending on the request, you may be asked for additional information to properly authenticate your membership with KCBS. For those benefits that require you to submit a reimbursement/rebate claim for merchandise, you will be required to complete a form requesting the information needed to process the claim. Depending on the type of claim and the circumstances surrounding the claim, additional documentation may be required. In most cases, when a claim is submitted to us, the data is transferred to a partner for processing. The claim information submitted and the claim status can be reviewed or updated by sending an e-mail to email@example.com.
Only persons who provide us with the requested membership or personal information necessary will be able to order products from this web site and possibly participate in other sponsor/partner offerings.
In addition to obtaining your personal information, when you use our web sites or the web sites of our affiliates, partners, sponsors or service providers, we may collect tracking information such as your browser type, the type of operating system you use, the name of your Internet service provider, and the pages visited on the site. We obtain this information to improve the functionality and user-friendliness of our site and to better tailor our site to our visitors' needs. We also use this information to verify that visitors meet the criteria required to process requests. None of this tracking information identifies you personally; we collect it for reporting onsite activity in the aggregate. For example, we may want to know how long an average user spends on our site or which pages or features get the most activity.
To enhance your experience with our site, many of our web pages use "cookies". Cookies are text files we place in your computer's browser to store your preferences. Cookies, by themselves, do not tell us your e-mail address or other personally identifiable information unless you choose to provide this information to us by, for example, registering for a service or product on the site. However, once you choose to furnish the site with personally identifiable information, this information may be linked to the data stored in the cookie.
- We use cookies to understand site usage and to improve the content and offerings on our site. For example, we may use cookies to personalize your experience at our web pages (e.g., to recognize you by name when you return to our site), save your password in password-protected areas, and enable you to use shopping carts on our sites. We also may use cookies to offer you products, programs, or services.
- "Web trax" are small pieces of code placed on a web page to monitor the behavior and collect data about the visitors viewing a web page. For example, web beacons can be used to count the users who visit a web page or to deliver a cookie to the browser of a visitor viewing that page. We may use web trax on this site from time to time for this and other purposes.
- In addition, we may use third-party advertising technology to serve advertisements on search engines and/or when you visit our Web site and sites upon which we advertise. This technology uses information about your visits to this Web site and the sites upon which we advertise to serve advertisements to you. In the course of serving our advertisements, a unique third-party cookie may be placed or recognized on your browser. We may also use web trax, provided by our ad serving partner, to help manage our online advertising. These web trax enable our ad server to recognize a browser's cookie when a browser visits this site and to learn which advertisements or listings bring users to our Web site. The information we collect and share through this technology is NOT personally identifiable.
We may also provide survey questionnaires and track your traffic patterns, benefit usage and preferences in a personally identifiable manner, in order to better service your membership in a sponsorship program, personalize your service and develop additional benefits that will be of interest to you.
Any information gathered from click data, benefit usage, surveys, preferences, log files, cookies and other ways you interact with our sites is aimed at servicing your membership, helping us develop the design and layout of the site, and determining additional benefits and offers that may be of value to our membership. Any information gathered from refund/rebate claim forms is used to service your claims.
In the course of ensuring network security and consistent service for all users, we employ software programs to do such things as monitor network traffic, identify unauthorized access or access to nonpublic information, detect computer viruses and other software that might damage our computers or the network, and monitor and tune the performance of the network. In the course of such monitoring, these programs may detect such information as e-mail headers, addresses from network packets, and other information. Information from these activities is used only for the purpose of maintaining the security and performance of our networks and computer systems.
We recognize the importance of protecting the privacy of children. For this reason, we do not collect or maintain information from children we know are under the age of thirteen (13) except as permitted by law. We also encourage parents to discuss the Internet with their children and monitor personal information that a child may provide via the Internet
We do not sell or disclose your personally identifiable information to third parties except to the extent required by law or otherwise in compliance with this policy. Specifically, please note the following:
- We may use the information you provide about yourself to fulfill your requests for our products, programs and services, to respond to your inquiries about our offerings, and to offer you other products, advertisements, programs or services that we believe may be of interest to you.
- We sometimes use this information to communicate with you, such as to notify you when you have won one of our contests or when we make changes to our membership agreements, to fulfill a request by you for an online update, or to contact you about your account with us.
- We use the information that you provide about others to enable us to send them gifts or membership info. From time to time we also may use this information to offer our products, programs, or services to them.
- In addition, we may use data for administrative and analytic purposes, such as information systems management, accounting, billing, and audits, credit card processing and verification, customer-relations correspondence, and other operation management functions with respect to our services.
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Todd Nelson has hundreds of pictures on his iPhone, and as he scrolls through his galleries, the themes are clear.
Todd Nelson has hundreds of pictures on his iPhone, and as he scrolls through his galleries, the themes are clear.
Family. Food. Decorating.
Those themes come together for a central purpose: to make Kalahari Resorts the biggest and best family-owned water park resort company in the country.
When Nelson, a former auctioneer, truck driver and restaurant owner, opens Kalahari's newest location at Pocono Manor (target date: November 2014), he'll get one step closer to that goal, and in the process create the biggest resort facility in the Poconos.
As he made the rounds in the Poconos last week, meeting with local and state government officials and business leaders, he tried to get the same message across here that he has at Kalahari's two other locations in Ohio and Wisconsin:
No matter how large this project is, locals will be dealing with a family company that is constantly expanding and improving and is borderline obsessed with being a good neighbor.
"Sometimes, I think we're a little too nice," he said. "We might be nice to a fault. I don't care. That's how we do business."
Nelson and his company have proposed a $350 million, 150-acre resort complex in Pocono Manor.
The three-phase project, when fully developed, would include 1,200 rooms, a 10-acre outdoor water park, a 300,000-square-foot indoor water park and 300,000 square feet of convention center space.
That would make the indoor water park the largest in the country and the convention center the third-biggest in Pennsylvania.
The first phase is expected to cost $189 million, with construction starting in April in time to finish for November 2014.
Phase two construction likely would begin in September 2015, but the additional phases would be based on need, Nelson said.
Currently, the company is working on securing approvals from state and local agencies to begin the aggressive construction schedule.
"It's the same kind of schedule we've had in Sandusky (Ohio) and at The (Wisconsin) Dells," Nelson said of the other two Kalahari locations. "We're trying to make the same kind of schedule here, and if everything goes according to plan, we can."
This week, Nelson stayed at the Inn at Pocono Manor and met with officials from the governor's office, Sanofi Pasteur, local tourism officials and the Delaware River Basin Commission, among others.
It was his first time meeting with many of them, and in between the business talk was a strong dose of Kalahari salesmanship, including its history, its future and what the company can do for the Poconos.
Nelson grew up on a farm in Wisconsin Dells, and started working as a professional auctioneer when he was 15 years old.
That was a part-time gig, but it's one he still can perform instantly in classic fast-talking auctioneer cadence.
He served as an auctioneer for a benefit at the Sandusky site in September that raised about $75,000 for charity.
After high school, he worked for a railroad company and drove a beer truck to support his new family.
A year out of high school, he married his wife, Shari, and the two will celebrate their 31st anniversary this month.
When he was laid off from the beer truck driving job a month before his wedding, he decided to buy a bar in his hometown.
He bought it with his brother-in-law, hence the name of the bar, Brother-In-Laws, and signed on the dotted line in December 1981 when he was 20.
Two years later, he bought the building and another building across the street, turning a former family restaurant into Pizza Pub, a still-popular Wisconsin Dells restaurant.
"There was only one pizza place in town, and it was always packed," Nelson said. "To buy the bar, we also had to buy the restaurant, even though we really didn't know what we were doing in the restaurant business. But we kept growing it because my wife and I worked every shift, every day."
Ten years later, Nelson started to see change coming in his town.
The Polynesian hotel added two small water slides to its pool area in 1992, and it soon became the only hotel in the tourist town that not only was busy all summer, but all through the year.
So in 1997, he bought a small hotel behind Pizza Pub and opened the RainTree Resort. Nelson immediately added a 12,000-square-foot indoor water park.
"At the time, it was the biggest in town," he said.
Then came the indoor water park boom around the country, with Wisconsin Dells turning into the "Water Park Capital of the World."
Nelson was on the ground floor of the trend when he sold the RainTree in 1998 and immediately went a few blocks down Wisconsin Dells Parkway to build the first Kalahari resort in 2000.
By the time it opened, he already was looking for a new location. That became Sandusky, Ohio, a tourist town on the shores of Lake Erie. It's famous as the home of the Cedar Point amusement park, touted as the second-oldest amusement park in the country.
Like the Dells, it was a tourist town for four months a year — until Kalahari came to town. Now it's one of Ohio's biggest convention centers, with 215,000 square feet of available space.
About 35 percent of all of the Kalahari stays in its 884 hotel rooms in Sandusky come from convention business. Within the next two years, he expects about 45 percent of the stays will be from convention business.
"When you figure it, half of the year, kids are in school," Nelson said. "So what can an indoor water park do for the other half of the year? For us, it's the convention business. It's a big part of what we do."
That includes catering not just to kids with water parks, arcades and zoos, but to adults with bars, nightclubs, retail shops and fine dining.
That's the formula for the proposed Poconos location.
As soon as the Sandusky location opened and Nelson immediately saw how successful it was proving to be, he planned two things: expansion of the Sandusky location and a new location.
His first choice for a third Kalahari resort was the Poconos, and he started touring sites in 2005.
He visited over a dozen locations — including a first pass at the Pocono Manor property — but couldn't find a match in the Poconos.
When the Poconos wasn't working out, he turned his attention to Fredericksburg, Va., near the affluent suburbs of Washington, D.C.
Construction was supposed to start in 2008 — fall of 2008, to be exact — just when the stock market collapsed and bank financing for large projects dried up. The Virginia project currently is shelved.
"It's not completely dead," Nelson said. "Virginia has a lot going for it. After the Poconos (project), we're hoping to get back down to Virginia."
The lull in financing allowed Kalahari to look back to the Poconos, including a potential deal that was "close" to Kalahari proposing the resort at the former Mountain Manor property in Smithfield Township in the spring.
"Real close," he said. "We looked at every hotel in this area at least once. Mountain Manor, the (former) Caesars properties, we looked everywhere."
Nelson would not elaborate on what happened at the Mountain Manor property.
Pocono Manor Investors, owner of the current, proposed site, and Tobyhanna Township swooped in to secure the resort and its projected, massive tax revenues that would go far into the millions.
The Sandusky location generates $48.2 million in payroll, sales and property tax each year, according to Kalahari officials.
"A big part of it was how willing both (Pocono Manor Investors Managing Partner) Jim Cahill and everyone at Tobyhanna Township was to work with us," he said. "The attitude of Tobyhanna Township was really crucial."
For its part, Kalahari has been just as eager to work with the township.
"Whatever I have asked for them to explore is immediately addressed," said Phyllis Haase, the township's zoning and code enforcement officer and planning township secretary. "They are extremely professional and detail-oriented."
For a company about to build a $350 million behemoth of a resort, Kalahari's make-up is unique as a family-run business.
Kalahari has no outside investors. The seven shareholders of the company are Nelson, wife Shari and five other family members.
His five children, ages 30 to twin 25-year-old daughters, all have executive and management positions at the company. So do his sister, his brother-in-law, his niece.
So many family members work at Kalahari, it's even tough for Nelson to keep count.
"I know it's between 12 and 15," he laughed.
It's a small percentage out of more than 2,000 employees at the two locations, but Nelson intends to keep Kalahari a family-run business. He's already contemplating how he'll work in his two (and very soon to be three) grandchildren into the business.
One of those grandchildren, Todd Nelson III, is 6 months old.
"This is the way my wife and I envisioned it, with our kids working with us and passing it down," he said. "I know a lot of times, you expect something like this to be the big, bad corporation. But that's not what we are. We know you've got a pretty special place here. When we come here, we're going to become part of the community."
Nelson showed groups this week a number of promotional videos, one of which is government and school district officials from around Sandusky raving about Kalahari's openness, honesty and commitment.
Nelson promised that's the attitude locals will have once Kalahari builds the Poconos location.
And whether it strictly follows the construction schedule or not, Nelson assured that Kalahari will be in the Poconos.
"We're coming here, one way or the other," he said.


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If you are an Eagles fan and watching the scores roll in today during the Birds' bye week, you had to be pretty happy.
Things went from bad to really bad for the Cowboys with a 35-17 loss to Jacksonville. David Garrard, whose passer rating was virtually non-existent against the Eagles, equaled a team record with four TD passes and ran for another, along with posting a nearly perfect passer rating.
Dallas is 1-5, its worst start since 1989 and is also 0-4 at home. Quarterback Tony Romo was on the sideline with a broken clavicle. Jon Kitna was 34-for-49 for 379, but threw four interceptions.
The Cowboys have now given up 41 and 35 points in their last two games.
According to the Associated Press account of the game, this is how bad it was:
The mood was summed up by two fans holding this sign, which somehow made it onto the humongous video boards: "Hurry up Cowboys, I have a Rangers game to go to." Some of the biggest cheers were for a beefy, mustachioed fan wearing a blonde wig and a skimpy Cowboys cheerleader outfit, bare midriff and all. He proved so popular that he was shown several times, including the kiss-cam segment; he got the smooch, too.
Chants of "Let's go Rangers! Let's go Rangers!" broke out in the second quarter and again in the third. By the fourth, there were hardly enough people left to even make boos echo.
In Detroit, the Redskins fell to 4-4 with a 37-25 loss to the Lions. Matthew Stafford threw four touchdown passes, including a final one on fourth down with 4 minutes left.
The big news there, though, is the benching of an apparently healthy Donovan McNabb, whose interception led to the go-ahead score.
Washington coach Mike Shanahan put Rex Grossman in for McNabb and Grossman fumbled on his first play. Ndamukong Suh returned it for a TD.
Shanahan said after the game that he felt Grossman gave the Redskins the best chance to win in the 2-minute drill.
This is the second time that McNabb has been benched in his career. The other, you might recall, was in 2008 when he was benched at halftime for Kevin Kolb. Both times the backup QB led to defensive touchdowns -- Grossman's fumble and Kolb's interception that was returned 108 yards by Ed Reed.
Here is McNabb, via the Washington Post: "He makes the decisions. I just continue to go with it and just cheer for my team ... When you get benched, you get benched. Just have to learn from it and move on."
"I continue to focus as if I'm the starter," he added. "He said I'm still the starter."
Just for comparison's sake, here was McNabb on that chilly day in Baltimore in 2008: "You go along with it. You just continue to try to motivate the rest of the guys to rally around Kevin and help us win this game. Unfortunately, that didn't happen." McNabb said his first reaction was "wow."


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April 3, 2012
BOSTON — Beacon Hill is buzzing over the indictment of former state Treasurer Tim Cahill. Cahill faces jail time for allegedly misusing public funds to further his 2010 campaign for governor. It's the latest in a long line of prosecutions of Massachusetts politicians — and for Cahill's peers, it raises a troubling question: Has behavior that's been commonplace for years suddenly become criminal?
Cahill defends himself
With bloodshot eyes and a hoarse voice, Cahill stood outside his Quincy home this morning and said that he's being unfairly targeted by Attorney General Martha Coakley, saying, "We will fight these charges and do whatever we have to do to clear my name."
Coakley said on Monday Cahill broke a new state ethics law by running a lottery ad that was really intended to boost his campaign for governor.
The problem is this: Whether it's Boston mayor Tom Menino plastering his name around the city, Secretary of State William Galvin's election-year reminders to get out and vote, or Treasurer Steve Grossman's exhortation to reclaim your abandoned property, politicians routinely do their jobs in ways that are also politically beneficial.
Incumbents "have done that forever," said Peter Ubertaccio, director of the Joseph Martin Institute for Law and Society at Stonehill College. "It is their No. 1 priority to be re-elected or elected to a new office."
Politics as usual?
WGBH News asked Gov. Deval Patrick if the law he signed in 2009 strengthening penalties for ethics violations criminalized standard political practice. His response was less than forthcoming.
"I'm not going to comment, so let me filibuster a little while," Patrick said, then, "Look, you're asking me for a legal opinion — I'm not going to give you one."
Still, that possibility is a hot topic on Beacon Hill. State Rep. David Sullivan (D-Fall River) said he and his colleagues need to be extremely careful.
"People just need to be vigilant," he said, "And people may have a concern about being more careful about what they're doing and how they're doing it."
Ethics, legality and prosecution
Glen Johnson, politics editor for boston.com, pointed out that Patrick's law passed because the public was outraged by ethics violations. The Cahill case has "the potential to shake up the whole establishment."
Law professor George Brown, former chairman of the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission, agreed that people might be getting fed up.
"I think you're kind of getting a convergence of two trends here, which is a growth in public interest in the phenomenon, and unwillingness to continue taking it, and a newfound aggressiveness on the part of law enforcement to pursue new theories and push the envelope a little bit," Brown said.
To Johnson's mind, Coakley couldn't not pursue an indictment. The AG's office has emails and text messages that allegedly show Cahill and his aides intentionally scheming to use public money for his own personal gain, he said: "If you turn a blind eye to that, where are you ever going to draw the line down the road?"
Cahill and two of his aides are due in court for their arraignment Wednesday morning.
The Cahill indictment came on the heels of a nationwide report on state corruption, the State Integrity Project. See the Massachusetts results and give us your grade for corruption in the Bay State.
Your Mass. Corruption Report Card
Sign-up for WGBH News updates, WGBH promotions, and previews of what's coming up on WGBH TV.


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BEREA -- Browns quarterback Brandon Weeden is heading home to help his cherished Oklahoma heal.
Weeden is returning to his home state this weekend to assist in any way he can in the aftermath of the deadly tornado that tore through Moore, Okla., killing 24 people and destroying thousands of homes in the Oklahoma City suburb earlier this week.
Weeden has been in contact with Oklahoma Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb and he plans to be there this weekend to help.
"I'll do anything, whether it's getting in the rubble and doing whatever, it doesn't matter," said Weeden, who is from Edmond. "I'll be there to help."
Weeden's wife, Melanie, has family who in Moore. They were not injured by the monstrous twister, but sustained damage to their homes.
"It actually went right through my wife's hometown," Weeden said following Thursday's practice. "Fourth Street, the path they keep talking about, my mother-in-law lives on Main, which is four blocks north of it, and my brother-in-law lives two blocks south of it. It went right over the top of them. Very, very fortunate to have no injuries and everybody's safe."
Weeden, who starred at Oklahoma State, said there were some frantic moments for he and his wife when they couldn't contact family as the tornado bore down on Moore.
"There's a park, literally there's two blocks between my brother-in-law and my mother-in-law," he said. "They said, 'If you're at that park, get out of the way.' It was destroyed. Once we heard it was destroyed, obviously there's no cellphone service. We couldn't get hold of them for about an hour. So my wife's panicked and we're panicked. It was tough being so far away.
Weeden said family members were able to take cover in time.
"My brother-in-law got in the car and drove away from it," he said. "My mother-in-law works in the administration building for Moore Public Schools, so she was in a basement, fortunately. Very, very blessed, we got lucky. But being up here, seeing my wife, she was rattled and it was very tough."
Browns wide receiver Josh Cooper, too, was affected by the tornado.
His father, Mike, works as a construction manager in Moore and was forced into an underground shelter. Cooper, who is from Mustang, Okla., said he felt helpless as he watched TV coverage of the tornado.
"It was really tough," he said. "My heart was hurtin' pretty good that day. I was checking in with my family and friends and hoping they were safe."
Cooper said no one he knew was seriously injured. He's certain Oklahomans will recover.
"Everybody is kind of helping everybody," he said. "We'll be fine. We get through things like this all the time. Oklahoma strong, you know?"


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BALTIMORE — Jon Jones punished Glover Teixeira for five rounds and won a unanimous decision Saturday night at UFC 172, successfully defending his light heavyweight championship for the seventh straight time.
Jones (20-1) won 50-45 on all three scorecards and rolled to his 11th straight victory, the longest streak among active UFC fighters.
Jones had the Baltimore crowd roaring when he opened his pre-fight walk with the "squirrel" dance Ray Lewis made famous. The former Baltimore Ravens linebacker had a cageside seat and stood several times to root on Jones. Chandler Jones and Arthur Jones, his NFL-playing brothers, also attended and sat near Lewis. Arthur Jones, who plays for the Colts, was a Super Bowl champion with Lewis and the Ravens.
Often booed, the fighter nicknamed "Bones" turned Baltimore into a home-cage advantage.
Teixeira (22-3) ended a 20-bout winning streak that dates nine years.
Jones was warned twice about eye pokes in the first two rounds and was threatened to have a point deducted if he did it again. No need.
He battered and bloodied the challenger, opening a cut over Teixeira's right eye, and sending his mouthpiece flying with a hard right. Jones took down Teixeira in the final seconds of the fourth and pounded away on his face before the horn sounded.
He was in complete control in his latest dominant performance, something he vowed to do after he took a pounding the last time out against Alexander Gustafsson. Jones, one of UFC's biggest active pay-per-view draws, pinned Teixeira against the cage several times and wore him down with body shots.
Just blocks away from Camden Yards, the real heavy hitters were inside Baltimore Arena for UFC's debut in the city.
In the co-main event, Anthony "Rumble" Johnson cruised to a unanimous decision victory over former Penn State wrestler Phil Davis. Johnson fought for UFC for the first time in more than two years after he was cut once before for repeatedly failing to make weight. UFC President Dana White welcomed Johnson back with one caveat, he would never return if he failed to make weight for the Davis bout.
Johnson made weight for the 205-pound bout — and made Davis pay. He busted open Davis near his left eye with a flurry of strikes early in the first, stopped all eight takedown attempts over three rounds and won 30-27 on all three cards.
Looking at White, Johnson expressed gratitude for his second chance.
"Mr. Dana White, thank you for what you did," he said. "He's the man who changed me. He's the man who turned me into a beast!"
Earlier on the pay-per-view card, Max Halloway choked out Andre Fili in the third round and Jim Miller did the same against Yancy Medeiros in the first round. Luke Rockhold tapped out Tim Boetsch in the first round to keep UFC 172 humming along.
"It's the night of guillotines, I guess," Miller said.
With UFC bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey in her corner, Jessamyn Duke dropped a unanimous decision to Bethe Correia in the only women's bout. Rousey, perhaps UFC's biggest star, accompanied Duke to the octagon and shook her head in disgust after the scores were announced.
"I thought I had it," Duke said. "I knew it was going to be close, but I really thought the fight was mine."
Rousey coached Duke on "The Ultimate Fighter" and they train together with other female fighters known as "The Four Horsewomen." Rousey's appearance had fans standing and snapping pictures and was a highlight among the preliminary bouts.
Chris Beal opened the card with a flying right knee that connected flush on Patrick Williams' chin for a KO.
"This might have been the most perfect flying knee I've ever seen!" White tweeted


text:
DIY Nut Charm Bead
Go nuts!
- For lovers of DIY projects
- Fits all major brands of bracelet (inc. PANDORA, Chamilia, Biagi, Troll)
- Add a leather or silver bracelet
To see all our charm beads, click here.
You know how when you take something apart and then put it back together, there's always one piece leftover at the end, mocking you? This is that nut. Sterling silver. From our friends at Ohm.
These beads have really large holes and will fit all major brands of bracelet (including PANDORA, Chamilia, Biagi, Troll). We have compatibility issues every day with our computers. We don't need them with our jewelry.
Charms come in small, glossy black jewelry boxes, suitable for gifting. The boxes are lined with tarnish-resistant cotton to keep your jewelry shiny longer when not in use.
For our customers with nickel allergies: The DIY Nut Charm Bead is made from solid, nickel-free sterling silver.
Product Specifications
- DIY Nut Charm Bead
- From our friends at Ohm
- Materials: Solid sterling silver
- 4.75mm hole
- Weight: 1 oz.
- WARNING - SMALL PARTS - Not intended for children under 3 years of age


text:
Why is CI Involved in Identity Theft?
IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) detects and investigates tax fraud and other financial fraud, including fraud related to identity theft. Identity theft is most likely to occur in our Questionable Refund Program (QRP) area where individual identities are stolen with the intent to file false returns claiming tax refunds. Additional areas involving identity theft include employment tax cases, abusive return preparer schemes, and narcotics and money laundering investigations.
CI has four Scheme Development Centers (SDCs) across the country whose primary mission is detecting refund fraud. These SDCs have uncovered numerous identity theft related schemes. These schemes are forwarded to one of CI's 26 field offices for criminal investigation and/or to our civil counterparts to resolve victim accounts. After CI completes the initial evidence gathering of our investigations, we recommend prosecution of refund fraud, to include identity theft, when appropriate, to United States Attorney's Offices nationwide. Specifically, we recommend Title 18 U.S.C. §1028, which is commonly referred to as the Identity Fraud Statute, when the evidence supports it. Per IRS policy (Internal Revenue Manual section 18.104.22.168.11.1), the identity fraud statute is not intended to be a stand-alone violation, but rather used as a companion charge when it enhances the overall substantive tax, money laundering, and/or conspiracy charges. As a result, CI generally pairs Title 18 U.S.C. §1028 with other substantive tax or tax-related charges.
In addition to detecting and investigating identity theft-related refund fraud, Criminal Investigation participates in the Department of Justice's Identity Theft Interagency Working Group. Our field offices also participate with other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies on joint investigative efforts involving identity theft.
Statistical Data - Identity Theft Schemes
Enforcement statistics on investigations initiated, prosecutions recommended, indictments, sentenced investigations, and months to serve in prison.
Examples of Identity Theft Schemes
Examples have been written from public record documents filed in the district courts where the case was prosecuted.
Enforcement Actions Taken on Identity Theft Investigations - During the month of January 2013, Criminal Investigation took a number of enforcement actions against individuals involved in Identity Theft crimes
Identity Theft - Be alert to possible identity theft issues.
Criminal Enforcement Home Page


text:
OK I have wacthed more people here that likes this anime any comments ? what do you like about the series? what do you think about Nen? ETC, etc,
edit from mod many years later (June 2014):
Wow, this thread is still around? In spite of long stretches of inactivity, it survives!
Please discuss the original (1999) HxH anime here, as well as the 2011 HxH arcs before the Chimera Ant Arc. General HxH related discussion is good here also.
For Chimera Ant Arc discussion, as well as week-by-week discussion of the 13th Chairman Election Arc once it starts airing, please use the more recent discussion thread:
its one of the better shounen series at least.
Don't believe that online status, I'm always online, but I'm usually not around.
a good solid shounen no doubt
I like this series so much.. But I don't quite like the Greed Island OVA, kinda boring to me..
Descend to the ABYSS~~~
I like killua
I don't like when Gon's chatting with enemies to confuse them . . . .gives me the creeps.
I hate that I'm finished with watching hxh and there's no way for me to find out how it's continuing
I want to know!
mmm Greed Island is not very original in story terms, I woudl like to see more Nen users and aplications the only problem with this series to my likes is that I would like to see more fights with Kurapika and Leorio like in YuYu Hakusho all the main characters had his share of fights, is sad that Leorio doesn,t even have his Nen type revealed in the series, And like that one of the main strenght of Gon is that it turn people on his Side that,s very original and it goes with his personality 8not another stupdidly strong main character like Gohan)
I like hunter x hunter but to bad the writer is sick so the manga is now stopped for awhile and i would like to see hisoka full power when he was in greed island who would have won the match against the gamemaster if hisoka had the intetion to kill.
Dont' u guys think so
Yeah Hisoka,s technique is so weird, he should have more fights with characters at his level of power (there are rumors that Togashi,s wife could continue his work)
and about the fight I would like to see
Zenno Zaoldyeck (Killua,s grandfather) Vs mETERO (THE PRESIDENT OF THE hUNTER,S ORGANIZATION)
Hisoka VS Kuroro Lucifer (that should be a great fight)
Leorio using hatsu (that idiot should have at least a technique)
Kurapika VS The Genei Ryodan
Etc, the series lacks his fights but the few they have are awesome
I just love hxh!
I take everything back I said bout Gon. He's funny but very naive.
Can anyone of you tell me how it continues after hxh GI Final?
I'm so lost without hxh!
Li(refering to killua)orio is pretty useless but very funny.
Killua should have killed more people( has an awesome style)
Kurapika is very strong and I like watching when he's fighting.
Gon SHOULD HAVE STICKED TO THE DAMNED PLAN! ! !
^you are right, the fights are awesome
After Greed Island Gon and Killua have to face the Chimaera ants creatures that can evolve like the animals they eat 8for examplem if they eat a Lion they evolve with Lion-Like features9 they learned Nen by absorbing humans and the story goes on....
Oh and a a comment I love HXH nackgroun music thinks like the piano melody when Kurapika,s talking with Senritsu, Nobutta,s theme (that treatening- oriental like theme) and so many more
for me the best scens are:
Kurapika killing Ubog
Killua taking the hearth of that assasin
Silva and Zenno fighting Kuroro Lucifer (wasn,t that a dragon of the darkness flame?)
and Kurapika making his chain
Killua is the man, Hisoka is my 2nd fav character, they both own.
I've dragged this halo through the dirt for the last time.
^you're so goddamn right!
And some other scenes I like are:
Killua get's punished by his brother , then awakes and asks: Hey, what ya doin'?
the ball game at the end of hxh gi f
killua getting his hunter license
kurapika getting his 1st job
of course this aren't such great fighting scenes though I like them
btw: how do you know about how hxh continues?
It,s on the manga it continues some scenes after Greed Island altoguh that story hasn,t ended yet
The manga is good it,s has more dialogue related scenes (altoguh one of the things I like the most about this series are the sound effects specially when the characters are using Nen and the aura is emiting a sound)
By the way I have posted this before but few people read it so I,m posting this again
Is to see what Kind of Nen type would you have acording to your personality (altough I hade made a better quiz In my own language and got transformation, I got Specialization in this quiz)


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Friday, November 1, 2013
MPAA Lists The World's Most Notorious Markets For Illegal Film Distribution
MPAA provided the information in response to USTR's
request for submissions from the public on notorious markets outside of the United States. The MPAA list includes peer-to
-peer networks, Bit Torrent portals, infringing download and streaming hubs, linking websites and newsgroups, as well as physical markets located in the Ukraine, Australia, Canada,
China, Indonesia, Ireland, Brazil, Russia, Thailand, Mexico and India.
"The American motion picture and television industry is a major U.S. employer that supports approximately 2 million jobs and over $104 billion in total wages in all 50 states, " said MPAA Chairman and CEO, Senator Chris Dodd. "The rogue overseas marketplaces highlighted in the filing undermine the people who work hard to create the movies and TV shows audiences love, and jeopardize the billions of dollars they contribute to the U.S. economy. The MPAA commends the
USTR's commitment to protect and enforce intellectual property rights abroad and, in so doing, protect U.S. jobs."
The sites identified in this year's filing were identified in part because they make available to downloaders unauthorized copies of high-quality, recently-released content and in some cases, coordinate the actual upload and download of that content:
MPAA also listed infringing download and streaming hubs, which
include what are sometimes referred to as "cyberlockers". These are types of hosting sites that allow users to
upload and distribute files:
The list also includes "linking websites", which
aggregate, organize and index links to files stored on other
Newsgroups originated as text-based Internet discussions forums. Over time, newsgroup technology evolved from transmission of text only messages for purposes of general
Internet based discussions to allow for the transmission of large media files. Newsgroup users post messages to a news server which then shares that message with other participating news servers around the world. This worldwide collection of servers is kn own as the Usenet, a high-speed direct download service offering access to a searchable global file exchange network.
Today, illegal copies of movies and television shows are commonly posted in newsgroups for download by users around the world. MPAA lists Usenext.com, Germany.
Myriad physical markets located around the world offer consumers burned or pressed infringing optical discs. According to MPAA, examples of notorious physical markets include:
There are also alo many markets listed located in Thailand, Mexico, India, China, Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil.
You can read MPAA's complete list here.


text:
Complete biographical and bibliographical information and references on more than 120,000 U.S. and international authors. Each entry contains the nationality, birth/death date, a brief biography, career summary, list of writings, and a bibliography of additional writings on the author. Published criticism on the works of novelists, poets, playwrights, short story writers, and other creative writers now living or who died after December 31, 1959 is also available.
Academic Version
Public Library/Kids Version.
Provides age-appropriate environments for students to look up articles and facts for research papers, class projects or homework.
Updated annually. Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia database indexes over 25,000 records, covering an array of topics. The database contains images, offers brief biographies as well as information in a variety of subject areas.
The world's most comprehensive full text history reference database designed for secondary schools, public libraries, junior/community colleges, and undergraduate research. The database features full text for more than 2,000 reference books, encyclopedias and non-fiction books from leading history publishers.
Specifically designed for high school students with full text of 500 periodicals, 350 reference books, 100,000 primary source documents, 84,700 biographies - plus over 235,000 photos, maps, and flags.
Designed specifically for public libraries, MasterFILE Premier contains full text for more than 1,750 periodicals covering general reference, business, health, education, general science, multicultural issues and much more. This database also contains full text for nearly 500 reference books, 85,827 biographies, 105,789 primary source documents, and an Image Collection of 285,912 photos, maps & flags.
For middle and junior high school students, with 140 full text titles (with Lexile reading level), as well as historical essays, 84,700 biographies, over 235,000 images, and 100,000 primary source documents.
Contains enhanced subject access for over 60,000 fiction and non-fiction titles aimed at the K-8 population. Full-text reviews from sources like School Library Journal and Booklist are available for many titles.
A readers' advisory service that provides access to 155,000 fiction and non-fiction titles with features such as author read-alikes, book discussion guides, reading lists, and more.
Search for current events, world news, and historical facts 1940 - present.
WorldCat Discovery, formerly First Search, includes the collection found at the Library of Congress as well as books, videos, audio books, maps, musical scores, and CD-ROMs found in libraries throughout the world. Send Interlibrary Loan requests to library staff from this website.


text:
The springtime reality check
The real signs of spring are finally making themselves evident. 'Tis that time of year when little buds start forming on bushes, grass turns green and begins to grow, and crocuses pop out of the ground bearing their pretty purple, yellow and white flowers. Women start seeds in little indoor pots so the sprouts will be ready for the garden when temperatures rise. Men spend more time at the boatyard and in the garage as they prepare vessels and fishing gear for the big spring launch. Sounds traditional, happy, and filled with promise, wouldn't you say? Don't be too hasty to agree.
Spring has another side, a much darker side, a side that none of us care to acknowledge, but must address it whether we like it or not. This wonderful, blossoming season is the time when we are destined to come to grips with many realities.
For instance, we must look at the reality of the results of our New Year's resolutions. Those of us who resolved to go to the gym to lose fifteen pounds so we would look fabulous in new bikinis and swimming trunks have to deal with the fact that we actually gained five because all that exercise made us hungry. As difficult as it is to face, it is sadly true.
Men cannot deny that planting a well-planned garden will give the family healthier, fresher food, and reduce the grocery bill by several hundred dollars. They will also have to explain to their wives why it makes so much sense to maintain a boat, buy fuel, spend money on fishing gear, and several thousand dollars to store and dock the vessel. In other words, they must convince their wives that spending upwards of ten to twenty grand a year justifies catching $200 worth of tuna, a necessary nutrient. It's a hard sell.
I might suggest tilling the garden while attempting to give a rational explanation for having a boat. It makes the presentation more palatable, if you catch my drift. If that doesn't placate the little woman, diving into the job jar and helping with spring cleaning, planting flower beds, painting the porch and all those little chores and projects that you've been promising to do for years will surely help. This is her opportunity to dangle the bait. You will soon know what it feels like to be a fish.
On the other side of the coin, many ladies must justify all the money they spent for a new wardrobe of skinny clothes that they still cannot wear because they lost the war in the battle of the bulge. That is also not an easy sale. A little compromise in the boat department could ease the raised eyebrow when the credit card bills arrive.
Even the younger set does not escape spring unscathed. They must make the big decision come spring break, and ask themselves the annual question: Do we party hardy and have some fun, or, do we study hard so we can make good grades when we take finals after spring vacation?
It just doesn't seem fair that report cards can be a direct reflection of the good times that can be had when partying around the clock with impunity with several hundred of their closest friends at a distant resort during their hard-earned, well-deserved holiday. Teenage logic is an amazing thought process. When they are sitting in class at summer school, it finally dawns on them that their thinking might have been slightly askew.
Do not be discouraged. We all go through this every year. At different stages of our lives, we are presented with different challenges. Spring will soon be behind us and we will survive. The garden will be planted, the boat will be in the water, and school will be over so we can do it all again next year while we live in a system we can't quite understand.


text:
ACParadise Network: American Cosplay Paradise American Cosplay Experience American Cosplay Snapshots
What to say. I do cosplays since 2001. First once a year but after I found a group it got more.
Recent Updates
Newest Favorites
Newest Fans
Recent Comments
- Tikku15 says, "i like it you look like her"
- For Yachiru Kusajishi from Bleach
- Ellome says, "Nice!"
- For Era from Toward the Terra
- Chinako says, "Peganosuke! CUTE! I love this series... so happy someone cosplayed from it!"
- For Peganosuke from Damekko Doubutsu
- Diaphanous says, "This is one of the best Hotohori costumes Ive seen, great detail."
- For Hotohori from Fushigi Yuugi
- Miri says, "Horay for Quatre, my favorite Anime character ever. :D Nice costume! ^_^"
- For Quatre Raberba Winner from Mobile Suit Gundam Wing


text:
Eclipse Government Day
Eclipse in Government Day is a day-long event that shows insights into how Eclipse technology and Open Source is being used in various governmental agencies and related industries. This day is targeted primarily for technical managers, architects and directors who oversee and use Eclipse technology on a daily basis in Government. The event will be considered a success if we increase the knowledge and social networks of the various Government Organizations that are using, building and extending Eclipse technologies.
The dress code is strictly casual please, no suits!
Reston, Virgina
Tuesday, October 12, 2010. Near the Hyatt Reston, Reston VA. 9:00am - 4:15pm. Lunch and closing reception to be provided.
Thank you to Oracle Corporation for providing the space for this event.
Note: Agenda is currently a placeholder while being built. Check back in mid/late August, 2010 for a completed picture.
|Main Track
|9:00 - 9:45
| Keynote
Path Forward: Open Source Software in the Government and Military
John M Scott, Recent Bios: [1], [2]
|9:45 - 10:30
| Equinox Agility In Action
A system architecture to support Prognostics & Diagnostics before they even Exist.
John Cunningham, Band XI, Recent Bio: [3]
|10:30 - 11:00
|Coffee break
|11:00 - 11:45
| Eclipse to the Rescue (TBD) [4]
Austin Riddle, Texas Center for Applied Technology. Recent Bio: [5]
|11:00 - 11:45
| BIRT Exchange by Actuate
Reserved for Gov Related Speaker chosen by Actuate
|12:30 - 13:30
|13:30 - 14:15
| Eclipse and Oracle
Reserved for Gov Related Speaker chosen by Oracle
|14:15 - 15:00
| Eclipse for Computational Social Science in DOD
Ed MacKerrow, Los Alamos Labs, Recent Bio: [6]
|15:00 - 15:30
|Coffee break
|15:30 - 16:15
|16:15 - 17:00
|Closing Reception (location TBD)
For the Eclipse Government Day, our sponsors have agreed to use speakers who will represent Government use of the various Eclipse Technologies they use.
All attendees must pre-register for this event. There is no fee, but space is limited to we suggest you register early. To register, please email firstname.lastname@example.com. Attendees must be an employee or contractor of a government agency, corporation or related field, so please use your corporate e-mail address to send the request.
There are currently less than 89 spaces remaining.
Travel and Logistics
See the Reston Events Logistics page for more information about travel, hotels and local attractions.


text:
YALSA at the 2009 ALA Midwinter Meeting
From YALSA
The revision #4256 of the page named "YALSA at the 2009 ALA Midwinter Meeting" does not exist.
This is usually caused by following an outdated history link to a page that has been deleted. Details can be found in the deletion log.


text:
Last week the United States Attorney for Minnesota held a press conference to annnounce the indictment of 25 defendants for operating an international sex trafficking ring whose hub was based in Minneapolis. Listening to the charges described at the press conference, I thought the crimes charge sounded like some kind of Third World nightmare that has erupted in our midst.
That is in fact what seems to have occurred. The gist of the indictment is that numerous women have been imported from Mexico and Central America and essentially held in bondage to work as sex slaves on behalf of the defendants. Seventeen of the 25 defendants are illegal aliens and all of the victims are illegal aliens.
Authorities from the various law enforcement agencies that participated in the investigation — the St. Paul Police Department, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement — attended the press conference. According to the indictment, the hub of the ring and most of its business sites were located in Minneapolis.
Yet the Minneapolis Police Department was conspicuous by its absence at the press conference. It had not participated in the investigation. It had apparently turned a blind eye to the alleged ring over the years it had been operating under its nose. And during the press conference Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and Police Chief Tim Dolan emailed the media to distance themselves from the indictment, reminding the media that Minneapolis authorities "will not enforce immigration policy." The St. Paul Pioneer Press story on the indictment quotes the Minneapolis Police Department spokesman Amelia Huffman:
[W]e do not independently investigate, we do not detain, we do not arrest, when immigration violations are the principal issue. We are interested in making Minneapolis safe for all residents of the community, regardless of immigration status.
Twin Cities media have studiously avoided exploration of the anomalies represented by the pronouncements of Minneapolis's Mayor and law enforcement authorities. In her Star Tribune column today, however, Katherine Kersten asks the mayor what's happening here:
On Wednesday, Rybak acknowledged that the ordinance doesn't bar police from engaging in crime fighting just because immigration is involved. "When the issue is clearly prostitution, we will continue to stand strong against it," he said.
But wasn't prostitution the issue in the sex ring bust? "The line between what is prostitution and what is immigration was blurry," Rybak replied.
The problem is that it's a bad line to draw to begin with. When you start with an erroneous premise, you necessarily produce an erroneous (if not laughable) conclusion. Mayor Rybak serves as a potent case study in the perils of serving up political correctness as public policy.
To comment on this post, go here.


text:
The road to being a high-tech center has had its twists and turns in central Illinois.
The Peoria NEXT consortium made up of engineers and other tech types from area resources such as Caterpillar Inc., universities, hospitals and government agencies such as the Peoria Ag Lab was greeted with great fanfare back in 2001.
Richard Florida, author of "The Rise of the Creative Class," came to town in 2004, drawing more than 1,000 people to a forum on creativity at the Peoria Civic Center.
The Peoria NEXT Innovation Center opened at 801 W. Main St. in 2007, not only providing an incubator for startup businesses but a high-tech symbol for central Illinois.
In the meantime, startup businesses such as Firefly batteries rose and fell — and then quietly rose again. Other fledgling enterprises battled a slumping economy.
By 2013, the move to make Peoria a high-tech haven had lost both visibility and momentum.
That's when Startup Peoria arrived on the scene. Founded by Jake Hamann and Amy Lambert, Startup Peoria is part of the Seattle-based Startup America, an organization that looks to promote new ideas across the country.
"Startup Peoria is getting more formalized. We have a board and getting our office prepared," said Hamann, referring to the Nest, a "community office" established over the Sugar restaurant, 826 SW Adams St.
"We have rich talent in this region. It's just not well connected," said Hamann, the president and CEO of OneFire Inc., a digital business-to-business firm based in the Peoria NEXT building on Main Street.
"A big part of the entrepreneurial community is that we need to talk about our successes," he said, noting that Startup events seek to bring people together to share information and experiences.
"This area can be another Cedar Rapids, Iowa, or Austin, Texas. The building blocks are coming into place," said Hamann.
Randon Gettys is the 32-year-old community engagement manager for Startup Peoria. He's also the only paid employee, a job he takes seriously.
"My job is to make profound people-to-people and people-to-idea connections," he said.
"Part of my job is to get people out of their silos, out of their basements," said Gettys.
While Gettys and the rest of the Startup team work to bring people together, it's important to note that there has been entrepreneurial activity in central Illinois. The Illinois Science & Technology Coalition noted that, between 2010 and 2013, Bradley University assisted in the creation of seven companies all of which are still active and based in Illinois.
From 2010 to 2013, Illinois universities produced a total of 354 startup businesses. Of those, 283 are still operating with almost three-quarters of that number choosing to remain in Illinois, reported the coalition.
While Chicago had the majority of the startups, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was the downstate leader, producing 54 startup operations in the past four years.
Some area startups have developed on their own, outside of incubator or university assistance. One example is Memory Lounge, a startup based in Peoria Heights developed by Zach Neff, now seeking funding for an app that provides an online memory booth where photos and videos can be stored for special events such as weddings.
For Startup Peoria, the challenge is more than just holding special events to hear about new ideas, said Gettys. "This town — with Caterpillar, Bradley and the hospitals part of the scene — will always attract talent. What we want to do is keep that talent in Peoria," he said.
Steve Tarter is Journal Star business editor. Reach him at 686-3260, or email@example.com. Follow his blog, Minding Business, on pjstar.com