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Shopping malls throughout Broward County will offer free fingerprinting and safety information for children between the ages of 3 and 14 during Kids Identification Sign Up week April 7 to 13.
The malls are participating in a nationwide program sponsored by the Internation Council of Shopping Centers. More than 4,000 malls in the United States and Canada will be participating.
Ever since the flurry of publicity surrounding the abduction of Adam Walsh from the toy department of Sears at the Hollywood Mall in July 1981, shopping centers have been concerned about the welfare of children.
``Shopping centers have been closely associated with missing children, although kids have been missing and things have been happening for years,`` said Henry B. Glover of Plantation, general manager of the Galleria at Fort Lauderdale.
``The Adam Walsh movie really brought it to life.``
This is the first national program sponsored by the New York-based ICSC. The child safety activities will be conducted simultaneously at all the participating malls.
``We wanted to get behind the project as an industry because we have alrealdy been in the news,`` said Glover, who is spearheading the Broward County effort. ``We thought we could do the most good by fingerprinting the kids.``
Law enforcement officers will oversee the fingerprinting. The sole copy of the prints will be given to the parents for safekeeping along with a brochure on child safety.
``It`s a good idea to have your child fingerprinted,`` said Joe Swails of Plantation, an officer in the Crime Prevention Unit of the Plantation Police Department. ``We can positively identify them in the event they should ever become lost, whether or not they are found alive or dead.


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Armbro Global drew the rail today and was made the early 2-1 favorite for the $1,422,500 Woodrow Wilson Pace for 2-year-olds Saturday night at the Meadowlands.
Armbro Global will lead a field of 12 after winning his elimination race by five lengths in 1:53 4/5, the second fastest time for a 2-year-old at the Meadowlands. The fastest time is by Nihilator, with 1:52 4/5 set in the 1984 Woodrow Wilson Pace.
The three-horse common-ownership entry of Kingston, Threefold and Camtastic will leave from the No. 5, No. 8 and No. 9 positions, respectively, and was made the second choice at 3-1. Even Odds and Pied Piper were next at 5-1, followed by Scott Herb at 10-1. Prince Royce and Shipps Big
Towner were at 12-1, with Raging Glory, Ever So Rich and Albert Albert at 20-1.
In a draw at Roosevelt Raceway today, Sugarcane Hanover was made the early 7-5 favorite and drew the fifth post position in a field of eight entered in Saturday night's American Trotting Championship there.Continue reading the main story

subset: commoncrawl


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A downdraft range vents by pulling steam, grease and smoke into a vent and forcing that air outside. Downdraft range vents are placed low to be kept out of the way, but that placement can impact its ability to vent effectively if a pot or pan is too far away.
Downdraft range vents use fans to pull in the various effects of cooking on a stovetop. Conventional range vents use the natural rising motion of heat to pull cooking emissions into a hood above the stovetop. Downdraft range vents pull emissions towards the back of the stovetop, providing a sleeker, more space-efficient solution than a conventional range hood. The emissions are sent through filters for grease or odor, then vented outside. All range vents must exhaust outside in order to be useful.
Many downdraft range vents can slide down into the rear of the stovetop to provide extra room. The blower that powers the suction of the range is often located beneath the floorboards or in a cupboard beneath the cooking range. With a blower that is further removed from the cooking area, the sound of a downdraft range vent is significantly reduced. Unlike conventional range vents, a malfunctioning or clogged downdraft range vent can allow harmful cooking emissions into the house.


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The news that the Joyce Center will be renovated can be nothing but good news for not only Notre Dame, but potentially the entire area.
It will be very interesting to see how many concerts Irish officials try to bring in with nearly 10,000 seats with chair backs, including 800 in a suite area.
Add on a thousand or so for performers on center stage and Michiana now has a very viable venue.
Coming from an area in Illinois of similar population with an arena of almost the exact same size as the new Joyce, you will be amazed at what this area can get.
I believe promoters will be thrilled at what such an arena can draw. Plenty of full houses, in my opinion. And itÂ?s so close to Chicago, there should be plenty of good concerts.
Three or four big-time concerts getting performers in their prime should not hurt other local venues. And it would greatly enhance Michiana for young and old alike.
What do you think? Could this mean more big-time concerts for the area?


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Whether you're a lone wolf or gym class fanatic, let Shopcade help you find your niche and get decked out in super slick fitness gear by none other than Sweaty Betty!
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Scroll right to WATCH Sweaty Betty's beautiful SS15 campaign and shop below to become one with YOUR sports style...
Photo Credit: Instagram, Pinterest
Video Credit: Sweaty Betty
Like this post? Hit the heart to save to your profile for later


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Wendy Villatorro's mother told her if she got pregnant again she'd throw her out of the house. Wendy already had one child. But when the young woman got pregnant again, she sought advice from a friend, who told her a lawyer might help place her baby with a foreign family.
"She said they'd give me $640 if it was a girl and $380 if it was a boy," Ms. Villatorro says, underlining how the "market" can fluctuate depending on demand. Wendy named her baby boy Joshua, because she was told the lawyer's clients liked American names. A few days after he was born, Wendy handed Joshua over to a woman contracted by the lawyer to care for the baby until legalities were completed.
But Wendy still hasn't received her $380 - with second thoughts, she's trying to get Joshua back.
Last year, more than 3,000 women like Wendy gave up their Guatemalan babies for adoption.
Most went to families in the US. Guatemala is fourth in the world for the number of babies provided for adoptions, just behind China, Russia, and South Korea. But the skyrocketing adoptions figures, coupled with mounting reports of cases in which mothers are either offered money, recruited, coerced, or even robbed of their children has unleashed a public backlash that Guatemala's prolific adoption rate is nothing more than trafficking in children. Some allege adoption is a multimillion-dollar-a-year business.
"Our laws don't put many requirements on adoptions, making it as easy as possible for people to adopt," says Hector Dionicio, a lawyer with Guatemala's office of Covenant House-Latin America, a children's rights organization. "But some people have taken advantage of the laws and see a good opportunity to make money in a fast and simple way, and this has converted the noble institution of adoptions into a successful business."
Young ones better off abroad?
However Jorge Carrillo, a lawyer who specializes in adoptions, cautions against sensationalism, saying the young ones are often better off with adoptive families from abroad. "If they close the doors of adoption to these children," he says, "they will be in the streets."
While many stories of baby-nappings are reported widely, child advocates say the problem with Guatemala's adoptions is far more subtle. They say the root of the problem does indeed lie in Guatemala's adoption laws, deemed unique by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and permitting private adoptions with little state oversight. According to a recent UNICEF report on adoptions, fully 99 percent of adoptions in Guatemala are processed this way.
"Everyone says they are letting illegal adoptions go through, " says Juan Francisco Flores, a lawyer with the federal attorney general's office. "That's not true. The problem is that they are legal.'
"We don't know which adoptions are legal and which are not," says Elizabeth Gibbons, UNICEF's representative in Guatemala. "The legal system is so intransparent that legal adoptions go through, and so do illegal ones."
In the recent report, UNICEF recommended that extra-judicial adoptions stop until Guatemala passes an adoption law in line with The Hague Convention for International Adoptions and the International Convention on the Rights of the Child.
One of the stipulations of these conventions is that nationals should be given preference to adopt over international couples. In Guatemala, 98 percent of adoptions are international; 62 percent of all adoptions go to US families. The US Embassy in Guatemala estimates that American families pay an average of $24,000 to adopt a Guatemalan baby. Gibbons says there are 200 lawyers who work on adoptions, and that last year adoptions represented a $60 million business for these lawyers.
Lawyers who work in adoptions say the recent UNICEF report and press reports exaggerate the situation. Mr. Carrillo says UNICEF's ulterior motive is to restrict the flow of Hispanic babies to the US. Another lawyer, Susana de Umaa, says that organizations like UNICEF and Covenant House are trying to stem international adoptions so there will be more street children, further justifying the existence of these organizations. Lawyers maintain that their rates include care for the child while the adoption is being processed.
No culture of adoption in Guatemala
Carrillo says he and a group of colleagues have been offering pro bono adoptions to Guatemalan couples. But he says there aren't any couples interested. He asserts that Guatemalans have a long tradition of racism, and that most children up for adoption are indigenous or dark-skinned. Further, the strong strain of machismo here has discouraged a culture of adoption, because the men don't want to raise another man's child.
"If a law of the kind UNICEF recommends is passed, these children will stay in their country and die in their country before the age of five," Carrillo says.
Indeed, Guatemala and Haiti share the highest mortality rate in Latin America for children under 5. This, some lawyers say, coupled with the fact that Guatemala has one of the highest fertility rates in all of Latin America, would be a recipe for disaster were adoptions to be restricted.
Gibbons also maintains that one of the most tragic aspects of the adoption situation in Guatemala is that it is not the children who most need homes that are being adopted. "There are some 300 orphanages in the country that are overflowing, and only 12 percent of the children being adopted come from institutions," she says, adding that it often takes years for a baby in an orphanage to be declared abandoned and eligible for adoption. By then, it is often too late for the children, since most adoptive parents prefer babies. "The supply of children [for most foreign adoptions] is coming from completely different sources," she says, emphasizing the importance of legislation.
According to Mr. Flores of the attorney general's office, there are currently 18 proposals to change adoption laws before congress. Yet neither he nor UNICEF's Gibbons has much faith that acceptable adoption legislation will be passed. Apart from the current turbulent political situation in Guatemala, many advocates say adoption lawyers constitute a strong lobby.
The solution to the problem, Gibbons says, is more likely to come from receiving countries. One positive step she expects to have a significant impact is the United States' vote in Congress this month to sign The Hague Convention for International Adoptions.
Once this convention takes force, 18 months from now, US citizens will only be able to adopt children from countries where there is a central government authority for adoptions and in which the court system plays a role.
(c) Copyright 2000. The Christian Science Publishing Society


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Windows XP is easily one of the most successful operating systems that Microsoft has ever released, but for those of us who remember the good old days of DOS, using a computer with a graphical point and click interface, seems almost magical – and mundane.
Tell me, where's the fun in not having to deal with himem.sys and esoteric commands to make the sound blaster mode work ? I'm sure none of us really miss those days. But, for an old timer like me, DOS will always hold a special place in my heart.
I still remember all those fun filled afternoons when I'd come back from school, drop the schoolbag and sit and play Digger on our state-of-the-art IBM PC. Haven't heard of digger ? How about Invaders ?
When Microsoft released Windows XP in 2001, they effectively ended an era of DOS based games and applications. All Microsoft operating systems before XP, had DOS at their heart and could run DOS applications pretty well, but XP was based on an all new architecture which was supposed to be more secure, faster and free of the legacy of DOS.
Security and a spiffy new architecture is all well and good but if you're like me and you crave good ol' games of yore, there is still hope for you. What to know how to play DOS games under Windows XP? DOSBox is here to the rescue.
How to Play DOS Games Under Windows XP With DOSBox
DOSBox is an open source DOS emulator. What that means is that it creates and emulates a DOS based environment for your application. To the application, it appears as if it's running on it's own under DOS. So, while DOSBox manages the show behind the scenes, the user really doesn't need to bother about compatibility, memory management and other stuff which only the old timers amongst us would recognise.
DOSBox is also really easy to get started with. All you need to do is download DOSBox and execute the installer. The installer will create a shortcut to DOSBox on the desktop. Double click the shortcut to run DOSBox for the first time.
Does that Z:\> prompt look familiar ? How about C:\>? Well, DOSBox, by default, does not create a C: drive for you. Instead, it lets the user select a directory on his/her computer and mount that inside the emulator as the C:\. This is the directory which we'll use to store all our old DOS utilities and time wasters games.
Create a directory named DOSApps under c: on your windows computer. The name of the folder or the drive on which it is created does not matter as long as you can remember it.
Copy all the DOS apps that you want to run under DOSBox to this folder. I'm going to use DOSBox to run Digger, my favorite DOS game.
Now, get back to DOSBox and at the Z:\ prompt, type in the following command:
mount c c:\DOSApps
As you can, DOSBox has mounted Drive C and mapped it to the local directory c:\DOSApps that you created earlier. Now, switch to the c:\ drive and enter the dir command to see a list of all the files in it. You should see a listing of all the DOS applications that you copied to the directory earlier.
That's all. I'm all set now to play my favorite DOS game of all time. I give the command digger at the prompt and, lo-and-behold, digger it is, in all its (former) glory.
What are your favorite DOS games ? Try running them in DOSBox and let us know how you fare. Do you have your methods to play DOS games under Windows XP? Share them in the comments section below.
Leave a Reply
It is still not working. I'm trying to play Chips Challenge. Gahh! Help?
You can laso try some good abandonware site like where you can play games directly.
All the animation are just great, it very cool game try it
I'm still running my favorite DOS-based Mahjjong game on XP/SP2 using a PIF file copied from the WIN98 machine. But, there's no sound involved in the game. Perhaps DOSBox is needed to activate sound.
By the way, there is a version of Digger for Xp. It's called Digger XP.
> All Microsoft operating systems before XP, had DOS at their heart
Wrong. Windows NT 3, 3.51, 3.52, and WIndows 2000 had NO DOS whatsoever, and are the origin of CMD.EXE
Mac users should use the fantastic DOSBox front-end Boxer. Just drag and drop the folder containing the original game (or application) files and Boxer configures and packages it for you. Dead easy.
I tried DosBox some time ago but had some trouble to have audio working. As far as I remember, the "set blaster..." command was conflicting with Win audio settings. All my memory efforts, to recall the tricks I played with real MS-Dos, were not effective. How did it run for you?
BTW, most of people who started with MS-dos are for sure more aware of what a computer does and how it has to be managed, than "GUI-only" users. Do you remember hot it was to install drivers in the good ol' CLI days?
Viva la command line! (I still use it a lot, both under Win and Linux!).


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Contact Us
Your views and needs are important to us. And we want to help you to make contact with the person or people who can assist you best. We hope that the following list of contacts can be of service to you in communicating with the Methodist Church in Ireland.
Official Correspondence
Official correspondence should be directed to the Secretary of Conference (Dr John Stephens):
1 Fountainville Avenue
Belfast BT9 6AN
Tel: +44 (0)28 9032 4554
Fax: +44 (0)28 9023 9467
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com [1]
General enquiries
If you have a general enquiry about the Methodist Church in Ireland today, or if you can't find the specific person you're looking for, please contact firstname.lastname@example.com [2]
This website
If you have any comments or queries regarding this website, or if your Methodist congregation/group would like an irishmethodist.org URL and email address, please email firstname.lastname@example.com [3]
Office 365
For information and support relating to the MCI Connexional Office 365 System please email email@example.com [4]
Specific enquiries
If you are looking for a particular person, congregation or department, please view these links for their contact details:
- Officers of the Methodist Church [5] (and its departments, boards, etc.)
- Local Methodist congregations in the Find a Church [6]section. [6]
Methodist Historical Society of Ireland
If you are interested in archives, genealogy and other aspects of Irish Methodist history, the Archivist of the Methodist Historical Society may be able to help.
Rev. Robin P Roddie
Address: MHSI, Edgehill College, 9 Lennoxvale, Belfast, BT9 5BY
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com [7]
Charity Registration Numbers:
North - XN69890 / South - 253


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Mr James's family had feared the worst after losing a landmark legal case, just three days before Christmas, allowing doctors at a hospital to withhold treatment if his condition deteriorated.
The 68-year-old, who had brain and kidney damage, passed away in his hospital bed in the early hours of New Year's Eve with his wife May, 67, and three children by his side.
His son Paul said his father's heart had stopped beating. Paul, 37, told the Liverpool Echo: "It's been absolutely horrendous at what was already a difficult time.
"And what gets me is that with this court case, all that's been discussed, nothing has ever been brought up about why he ended up in that situation.
And what led to his deterioration. That's been pushed under the carpet. "We've still got questions that need answers and we're not going to stop."
Earlier this year a hospital trust, which cannot be named for legal reasons, launched legal action seeking permission to withdraw potentially life-saving treatment from Mr James, a well-known musician from Liverpool, arguing that the suffering it would cause would outweigh the tiny chance of recovery.
But his family claimed he was not ready to die and in an emotional testimony painted a portrait of a man who enjoyed the company of his grandchildren, liked listening to music and even joked with visiting friends.
A judge initially rejected the hospital trust's application, ruling that it had undervalued the limited quality of life Mr James could still enjoy.
But the trust went back to court to appeal the decision and this time Appeal Court judges backed doctors, ruling that treatment could be withheld of Mr James's condition deteriorated.
Delivering the ruling, Lord Justice Ward said it was a "sad and harsh" decision, and one that he and his colleagues had agonised over.
But he added: 'We're quite satisfied that this is a very sad case indeed – where if it's necessary, and in the clinical judgment of the hospital it's no longer in the interests of [David James] to engage in this difficult treatment, then the hospital are permitted to refrain from administering it."
Adding that he was "hugely impressed" with the professionalism of the hospital staff involved in the case, he spoke of his hope that they and the James family should work together towards David's best interests.
Mr James's daughter Julie, 48, had described the ruling as "legalised murder", adding: "It's heartbreaking for us after everything we've been through and we feel bullied."
Mr James had initially been admitted to hospital in May with suspected constipation.
But within three weeks his condition had deteriorated and he developed pneumonia, a water infection and septicaemia.
He spent months on a ventilator and suffered a stroke and cardiac arrest while his court case was still under way. But his family have refuted the hospital's claims that he suffered "multiple organ failure" several times. It's understood they had planned to take his case to the Supreme Court.


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A digital future: financial services and the generation game is a report sponsored by Banco Santander for presentation at the Tenth Santander International Banking Conference, written by The Economist Intelligence Unit.
It assesses how people's expectations of their financial services providers are changing and how technology must be deployed to meet them. The report is based on extensive desk research and in-depth interviews, conducted in August-October 2017 with 14 representatives of financial institutions and companies.


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Now Viewing:
Product Highlights
This item is noncancelable and nonreturnable.
You Pay: $90.00
The DB25-TRS DigiSnake (4-Foot) from Avid is a 4-foot input or output snake that is used to connect an Avid HD I/O peripheral (such as the 192 I/O or 96 I/O), or a control surface with external equipment. The snake features a DB25 connector to eight 1/4" TRS phone connectors, and is color coded specifically for Pro Tools systems.
|4' (1.2 m)
1 x DB25
8 x 1/4" TRS phone
|Packaging Info
|Package Weight
|1.3 lb
|Box Dimensions (LxWxH)
|8.4 x 7.9 x 4.6"


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VISION 2017 Grants
FIRST® LEGO® League Robotics Grant 2017
State Library and FIRST® Australia have partnered to provide a second round of this popular Grant which is now open to Queensland public libraries and Indigenous Knowledge Centres to deliver robotics workshops for young people aged 9 – 16 using LEGO® Mindstorms Kits.
What you'll get:
- A LEGO Mindstorms EV3 Robot, challenge mat, and assorted Lego
- Free registration for your team at the Queensland FIRST LEGO League Robotics Tournament in November
- Entry to one full day of training in one of 2 Queensland metropolitan locations - facilitated by FIRST® Australia
- $2000 from State Library of Queensland towards costs associated with attendance at the one-day training, and implementation of workshops and community events.
Your commitment:
- Grant recipients will be required to attend one full day of training in one of two Queensland metropolitan locations.
- Participating libraries will provide weekly workshops for six weeks to a group of up to 10 young people using the LEGO® Mindstorms kit. The groups will learn to build and program a robot, learning about science and engineering in a fun and play-based setting. At the end of the six week program each library will run a community event to demonstrate participant achievements.
- Councils that received the grant in 2016 must guarantee that the Kit and Team Registration will be used by a library branch that has not previously been involved with the program.
Applications have now closed.
Find out more about LEGO® Mindstorms and what they can do on the Public Libraries Connect website
For further information contact Regional Partnerships firstname.lastname@example.com, 07 3842 9049.
Previous grants
Coding and Robotics Grants 2016
Reflecting all of the themes outlined in The Next Horizon: Vision 2017 for Public Libraries, funding of over $300,000 has been awarded to 33 councils (PDF 380.8 KB) to deliver coding and robotics programs through public libraries across Queensland.
The activities being funded range from introducing new technologies such as the NAO humanoid robot, holding community beginner coding days and hosting Code Clubs for participants of all ages, touring Robotics Roadshows to schools and community groups, and even staging an underwater robot race in a local public pool.
For more information on coding and robotics platforms and to see some examples of how robots and coding are being introduced across the state, visit the Coding and Robotics page.
Incubators of ideas, learning and innovation grant announced
$250,000 worth of grants have been awarded to 11 councils under the Vision 2017: Incubators of ideas, learning and innovation grant round. The grants are designed to position public libraries as places for creative collaboration and learning where ideas can be imagined and new skills acquired through innovative library programs and collections. A wide array of creative projects across Queensland will be undertaken using grant funds, including a steampunk festival for young people, workshops and spaces to encourage small business start-ups, sensory and new technology play experiences for all ages and abilities.
The grant round inspired 25 councils to submit applications to a total value of $873,250. Selection was highly competitive and congratulations are extended to those councils successful in receiving funds.
2013 Creative Community Spaces Grant: Successful grant applicants [DOC 63 KB]


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Throughout The Car Industry
Gulf Oil Disaster; Deja Vu All Over Again
It amazes me that in today's day and age, with all the technology that we possess, we can't cap the well to stem the onslaught of crude from poisoning the gulf waters. It all sounds pretty easy to us armchair well drillers—just screw the cap on and call it a day. But, in reality, it is not that easy; in fact, the company responsible for this disaster should be well aware of just how hard the task is because they had to deal with the same scenario in 1979. Only back then the company was called Sedco, before it became Transocean, the world's largest offshore drilling contractor.
The Ixtoc drilling platform exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on June 13th, 1979 spewing 30,000 barrels of oil into the water every day because of a malfunctioning blow-out preventer. Sedco used planes to drop chemical dispersants and utilized "containment teams" to deploy long booms and "oil skimming vessels" to help control the spill, all with little success. Concerns about underwater plumes of oil and the spill reaching Florida's beaches were growing every day. Does any of this sound familiar?
Sedco made gallant efforts to get their well under control for weeks that turned into months. They tried to capture the oil with a large cone, nicknamed "operation sombrero," very similar to what BP is calling a "top hat." The "top hat" plan is to capture up to 90% of the oil and pump it to ships at the surface. It failed 30 years ago and it failed now. The similarities do not stop there; back in 1979 they tried to pump cement and sea water down the well to plug it up—and failed. Much like the "top kill" method used today where they pump cement and seawater down the well to try to plug it up. I guess try and try again is their motto, even if it is 30 years apart and both resulting in failures.
It took Sedco nine months to cap the well, but only after relief wells were drilled. Relief wells are the only affective way to reduce the pressure so the main well can be capped, but it takes a long time to drill them. Every day for nine months, 30,000 barrels of oil were dumping into the gulf waters while they worked on the relief wells. The Ixtoc was in a paltry 200 ft. of water and could not be contained with the booms, cones, skimmers, dispersants, or top kill. Why on earth would you try these methods on a well that is 5,000 ft. under water? Was it BP's Hail Mary?
How easy would it have been to cap the well if there were relief wells already in place? Common sense says that if we can't rely on the blow-out preventers, then relief wells should be mandatory. Many countries already require relief wells, why can't we? Since the oil industry makes more money than any other industry can even fathom, I think they can invest in better blow-out preventers and the immediate use of relief wells. If you look at the sheer economics, BP is going to pay far more for clean-up and law suits than the cost of some additional safety requirements. Factor in the public relations nightmare and the herculean efforts that will be necessary to repair BP's image and it seems like a no-brainer.
The oil companies would have you believe that they are a technologically-advanced industry, and maybe they are, but only in the drilling aspect. After all, drilling deeper makes them money. Time has stood still for advancements in the prevention and countermeasures, but the deep drilling techniques have been pushed fast-forward. We can put a man on the moon, build smart bombs, smart phones, smart cars…but we can't figure this one out.
BP is throwing money at the problem as we speak, around $20 billion. I know that money is the cure-all for everything, but before you start to get all warm and fuzzy after watching the BP commercials telling you how much they care, remember the 11 workers who perished on the Deepwater Horizon, remember the images of the dead sea turtles, dolphin, birds, and fish. Remember the faces of the commercial fisherman and fishing guides who can't work and put food on the tables or make their bills. Remember all the people who are indirectly affected by the lack of tourism. Above all, remember that the representatives of this great nation are too busy working on getting re-elected, and insuring that their benefits are always getting better, to tackle something as important as this. If the oil industry refuses to learn from its mistakes then maybe we should learn from ours when election time comes.
Photo Gallery (click a thumbnail to enlarge)
Posted In: Miscellaneous, Safety
Tags: oil spill, gulf, fisheries, Ixtoc, plumes, Gulf Oil Clean-up
gator done | 11:49AM (Fri, Jun 18, 2010)
Why aren't the Hollywood Stars throwing their telethons for this horrible disaster? I know several of them have million dollar homes on our Florida Beaches. I guess their private beaches aren't going to be effected.
Leave A Commment


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Lots of great Surface news!
IdentityMine has been working with Surface technology since it first hit the airwaves, and we're huge fans of the technology. As lovers of Natural User Interface (NUI) our team of UX experts and software application developers are excited about the potential for Surface 2.0 - it's lighter, more affordable, and more intelligent than its predecessor.
We've already started converting our Surface 1.0 experiences to work with Surface 2.0, but there are more new Surface experiences on the way. Our clients in the retail, hospitality, and entertainment industries have been craving a new level of customer interaction, and Surface 2.0 proving to satisfy appetites to a degree that Surface 1.0 struggled to achieve.
Read Microsoft's blog post about the Surface 2.0 release here.
The entire MSDN documentation for Surface 2.0 is now live as well. It's well worth a read!
Check out our past work with Surface here, here, here, here, here, here, and here!


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The Bridge is Colby's all-inclusive queer and ally student-run club. We are part of the Pugh Center for Multiculturalism. We encourage our members to help plan events that they want to see put on at Colby, and this type of member involvement directly translates into exciting and unique events on campus.
Contact us: email@example.com
Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/colbycollege.bridge
Follow us on Twitter: @TheColbyBridge


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I. Certificate of Need Program
A. AL2016-006, University of South Alabama Medical Center, Fairhope, AL: Proposes to relocate the existing USA Medical Center Fairhope Outpatient Department to new leased space approximately a quarter of a mile from its existing leased space at 188 Hospital Drive, Ste. 400, Fairhope, AL. Opposition: None.
B. AL2016-007, Dale County Health Care Authority d/b/a Dale Medical Center, Ozark, AL: Proposes to initiate a Swing Bed Program by certifying ten (10) of its acute care beds into the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Swing Bed Program. Opposition: None.
C. AL2016-009, Rehabilitation Hospital of Phenix City, LLC d/b/a Regional Rehabilitation Hospital, Phenix City, AL: Proposes to expand the existing forty-eight (48) licensed bed capacity by adding ten (10) new inpatient rehabilitation beds pursuant to a Plan Adjustment approved for Russell County, Region V, by Gov. Bentley. Opposition: None.
D. Al2016-010, Bio-Medical Applications of Alabama, Inc. d/b/a Fresenius Medical Care Valley Creek, Selma, AL: Proposes to add six (6) hemodialysis stations to the existing ESRD facility consisting of sixteen (16) stations, for a total of twenty-two (22) stations, pursuant to Chapter 410-2-3-.05(2) of the Alabama State Health Plan. Opposition: None.
E. AL2016-011, Bio-Medical Applications of Alabama, Inc. d/b/a Fresenius Medical Care Tallassee, Tallassee, AL: Proposes to expand the existing ESRD facility consisting of ten (10) hemodialysis stations by adding two (2) home training stations. Opposition: None.
II. Reviewability Determinations and Pending Reviewability Determinations
A. Reviewability Determinations
RV2016-011, Cullman Regional Medical Center (CRMC), requests to construct and operate a diagnostic center and urgent care center on CRMC's campus. Status: Non-Reviewable
RV2016-012, Comprehensive Medical Affiliates, LLC, requests to develop and operate a mobile magnetic resonance imaging service from the existing medical practice office located at 8075 Madison Blvd., Ste. 110, Madison, AL. Status: Non-Reviewable
B. Pending Reviewability Determinations
RV2014-028: Surgicare of Mobile, Ltd., requests to add five (5) operating rooms, twenty (20) pre-/post-op bays, and four (4) restrooms and expand the waiting room and business office. Status: Pending
Opposition: Providence Hospital filed a letter opposing the Reviewability Determination Request. Mobile Infirmary Association, d/b/a Mobile Infirmary Medical Center, filed a letter opposing the Reviewability Determination Request. In litigation, CV2014-901553, Springhill Hospitals, Inc., filed a Complaint for Declaratory Judgment and Injunctive Relief.
RV2016-013, Homestead Hospice requests to consolidate two parent providers, currently located in Choctaw and Dallas Counties, into one surviving parent provider (Dallas County) and one satellite provider (Choctaw County). Upon approval of this request, the CON to operate the Choctaw County provider will be surrendered. Status: Pending
RV2016-014, Curo Health Services, requests to consolidate three parent providers, currently located in Baldwin, Houston and Clarke Counties, into one surviving parent provider, (Butler County), and one satellite provider, (Escambia County). Status: Pending
RV2016-015, HGA HomeCare, LLC d/b/a Huntsville Hospital HomeCare, requests to relocate the administrative home health office from 6767 Old Madison Pike N.W., Bldg. 4, Ste. 400, Huntsville, AL, Madison County, to 500 Blvd. South S.W., Ste. 203, Huntsville, AL, Madison County. Status: Pending
Rural, Russell Medical Center, requests to install and operate a new GE Revolution M3B CT unit. Status: Pending
After a public hearing, the Board voted to approve the following new administrative rules:
Click here to view table.
The next CON Review Board meeting will be held on April 20, 2016.


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Biophysics, Dendrites & Neural Computation
Our laboratory studies how the biophysical features of neurons, including ion channels, receptors, and membrane electrical properties, endow neural circuits with powerful processing capabilities, ultimately allowing them to perform the complex computations required to drive adaptive behavior. We focus on the role of dendrites, the elaborate tree-like structures where neurons receive the vast majority of afferent input. Due to the spatial arrangement of synaptic contacts on dendrites and the presence of particular biophysical mechanisms a complex array of interactions among synapses can take place. Elementary input-output operations that manifest as coincidence detection, pattern recognition, input comparison, and simple logical functions can all be carried out even in small dendritic subunits. Our hypothesis is that computations in neural circuits are built out of these fundamental integrative operations conducted at dendrites. The goal is to provide mechanistic explanations for how the neural circuits underlying sensory processing and navigation create complex, abstract representations of the environment and past experiences to ultimately guide behavior.
If neural circuits use integrative operations at single neurons as the building blocks for computations, then synaptic and cellular plasticity provide a potent means for either reinforcing or changing neural processing algorithms. Dendritic mechanisms governing input transformations likely impose plasticity induction rules distinct from the canonical spike-timing dependent plasticity framework, which currently dominates learning models. Using electrical and optical recording in behaving rodents as well as in vitro preparations we hope to understand the mechanisms and functional consequences of plasticity in dendrites to ultimately relate changes in synaptic and cellular function to the alterations in computations that occur during learning to modify behavior.
Many cognitive disorders, including Autism, are characterized by conspicuous changes in the number, distribution, and/or morphology of dendritic spines, the anatomical locus of the majority of excitatory synapses in the brain. However, there is limited functional data on how, or even if, these morphological changes effect neural circuit operation. We plan to address the relationship between anatomical aberrations observed in mouse models and the functional consequences for synaptic efficacy, plasticity, and integration to identify disease-associated mechanistic loci. Manipulation of these processes during behavior is hoped to causally link changes in synapse anatomy and cellular function with potentially ectopic computations in the relevant microcircuit and behavioral alterations in these animals. We hope this novel research plan will shed new light on these complicated and currently intractable disorders.
Beaulieu-Laroche L, Toloza EHS, van der Goes MS, Lafourcade M, Barnagian D, Williams ZM, Eskandar EN, Frosch MP, Cash SS, Harnett MT (2018). Enhanced dendritic compartmentalization in human cortical neurons. Cell 175(3):643-651
Beaulieu-Laroche L & Harnett MT (2018). Dendritic Spines Prevent Synaptic Voltage Clamp. Neuron 97(1):75-82
Shin Yim Y, Park A, Berrios J, Lafourcade M, Pascual LM, Soares N, Yeon Kim J, Kim S, Kim H, Waisman A, Littman DR, Wickersham IR, Harnett MT, Huh JR, Choi GB (2017). Reversing behavioural abnormalities in mice exposed to maternal inflammation. Nature 549(7673):482-487
Harnett MT, Magee JC, Williams SR (2015). Distribution and function of HCN channels in the apical dendritic tuft of neocortical pyramidal neurons. Journal of Neuroscience 35(3):1024-37
Harnett MT, Xu N, Magee JC, Williams SR (2013). Potassium channels control the interaction between active dendritic integration compartments in layer 5 cortical pyramidal neurons. Neuron 79(3):516-29 *Preview article in Neuron by Dax Hoffman, p409
Marvin JS, Borghuis BG, Tian L, Cichon J, Harnett MT, Akerboom J, Gordus A, Renninger SL, Chen T, Bargmann CI, Orger MB, Schreiter ER, Demb JB, Gan W, Hires SA, Looger LL (2013). An optimized fluorescent probe for visualizing glutamate neurotransmission. Nature Methods 10(2):162-70
Xu N, Harnett MT, Williams SR, Huber D, O'Connor, DH, Svoboda K, Magee JC (2012). Nonlinear dendritic integration of sensory and motor input produces an object localization signal. Nature 492(7428):247-51
Harnett MT*, Makara J*, Kath W, Spruston N, Magee JC (2012). Synaptic amplification by dendritic spines enhances input cooperativity. Nature 491(7425):599-602


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Now this is interesting. On the same day as their E3 2013 press conference, Sony trademarked the phrase "Bid for Greatness". Now you might think that it's just a part of the marketing campaign for the PS4, Greatness Awaits, but it seems to be far more intriguing. - PSLS
SEN auction house :)
It can be very cool, if implemented well.
More choices for the consumer as well, there's a social aspect to it also.
Looking forward to see what/if they do something with this.
oops, if i can resell my huge digital game then it's just simple AWESOME!!!!
I wonder if, assuming trophies can be sold, you can then effectively re-unlock them? I can think of several games I'd love to plat all over again.


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A husband and wife were found dead last night -- apparently murder victims -- in their Liberty Heights Avenue home after failing to show up for work on morning and afternoon shifts at a Giant Food supermarket, Baltimore City police said.
The victims, found shortly before 10 p.m. after a relative entered the two-story brick and shingle house through the basement, were identified as Peter E. Burrus and his wife, Dawn.
The woman, 27, was found bound, gagged and apparently stabbed in a first-floor bathroom, while Mr. Burrus, whose age was not given, was lying dead in the basement, initial police accounts said.


text:
Dear All.
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|Will I get a reply this time...
Jan 1, 2005
Dear Dr. Barbara:
On December 4, I wrote you the following letter, asking your opinion and advice. Unfortunately, up to now, I have not receive your reply. I understand that, you may have hundreds of letter to answer, so I'm sending you my letter so that you would remember me. I just want to know if I'm still a threat to other people. Thank you. I take this opportunity to wish you and all the doctors here a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Dear Doctor:
I was diagnosted with HB in 1992 even then the doctor told me that I might have it for at least five years ago, so I was told I was a HBV a carrier. In those days I knew nothing about HB. Since then, I tried to learn more so as to avoid doing harm to other people. Now, Im in high hope that my condition is turning to better. Unfortunately, doctors say that this disease is very complicated and difficult to understand, so I still am not very sure about my present condition. I wrote twice to you (doctors from this web site) before, but got not reply. I hope and pray that this time I will have a reply.
My last test, done October/November 2004, has returned with the following results:
HBsAg positive HBeAg negative Anti-HBe positive Anti-HBc - positive
HBV-DNA (PCR) <3x10^5 copies/ml
The doctor said that the tests also showed that I had a fatty liver, but this condition could be caused by many reasons and the overhall has indicated that my HB is in a inactive state.
Apart from the HBV DNA test which is the first time I did all test result match those done several years ago, in 1999 and 2001.
I would be very glad to hear your opinion and advice. Thank you. M Frank
Response from Dr. McGovern
I suspect that the level of virus noted on the DNA testing may be below the level of detection of the assay. I can't say for sure since you did not include this in your information. However, assuming that this indeed is the case, I agree with your physician who says that your hepatitis B is in an "inactive" state. This is good news although since you have a surface antigen that is positive, you are still a chronic carrier - although an "inactive" one.
As for the risk to others, the very low level of virus in the blood makes the risk to others extremely low. It is not zero though, since hepatitis B can "reactivate" from time to time so the best approach would be to always have sex with condoms.
I would discuss the issue of the viral cut mentioned in my first paragraph further with your doctor to be certain that this is true.
Dr. McGovern
second treatment
High risk Case ..... Transmission
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Hebrew Interpreters: TJC's Hebrew Interpreting Services
TJC Global can offer a full range of Hebrew interpreting services. Utilizing a truly global network of interpreters, we can offer Hebrew services across the globe in a wide variety of industries. We choose only linguists who are native-level speakers of Hebrew and who have years of interpreting experience in their chosen field. With this priceless knowledge, our interpreters can offer fluent, clear products conscious of technically specific terminology and cultural idioms.
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Kitchen is the most important place in our house. The health of our entire family depends on the cleanliness level of our kitchen. The important thing to keep in mind is that if you don't keep your kitchen clean then your family can get seriously ill. Most of the women …Read More »
Home / Tag Archives: Kitchen Cleaning remedies


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Washington, DC – November 2, 2011 The COM.Geo 2011 and 2010 conferences made great successes. There were 14 keynote speakers from governments, universities, and leading industries and 200+ speakers around the world at the COM.Geo 2011 and 2010.
Now COM.Geo 2012 is inviting you to submit your research or application work to the multiple program sessions, such as full papers, short papers, courses, panels, tech talks, demo talks, posters, workshops, invited sessions, etc. Suggested topics include all computing, geospatial, and related applications.
COM.Geo published submissions are read and cited worldwide. They have broad impact on the development of theory, method and practice in Computing for Geospatial fields. Accepted manuscripts appear in the COM.Geo Proceedings on Computing for Geospatial Research and Application, published by ACM, and in the ACM Digital Library.
For more information on the conference, please visit: http://www.com-geo.org/conferences/2012/index.htm
About COM.Geo Conference
COM.Geo Conference is the leading-edge computing for geospatial conference, focusing on the latest computing technologies for multidisciplinary research and development that enables the exploration in geospatial areas. Innovative geospatial research and application technologies are the brightest spotlights at COM.Geo conference. COM.Geo is playing a guiding role to advancing the technologies in computing for geospatial fields.


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The Medicare bill just signed into law by President Bush will help states cover prescription drug costs for poor senior citizens, but states will have to give back to the federal government a large chunk of the savings.
Under the bill, which Bush signed Monday (12/8), the federal government will pay the prescription drug tab for nearly 6 million Americans who qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid, the state-federal health care program that covers the poor and disabled. The overhaul of Medicare, the nation's 38-year-old health insurance program for those over 65 years old, will provide a prescription drug benefit to all seniors for the first time.
All 50 governors called for including poor, elderly people on Medicaid in the all-federal Medicare drug benefit, arguing this would relieve states of the cost of more than $7 billion per year for prescription drugs for this group. They said states couldn't keep up with the burgeoning costs of health care, which will grow with the impending retirement of the post-World War II Baby Boom generation.
But states didn't quite get what they were asking for. To state health officials' dismay, a so-called clawback' provision requires states to return to the federal government a significant portion of their savings starting in 2006, when the new Medicare system is slated to begin in earnest.
"I think (state legislators) may be a little bit disappointed because they think, Oh, dual-eligibles are taken care of, that's off the books now.' But it's not quite that," said Jim Frogue, a health policy analyst at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that despite the clawback, states will save about $17 billion in Medicaid cost over the next decade.
Although the 700-page legislation is sparking many questions, state health officials repeatedly cited the provision as a primary concern.
Utah Medicaid Director Michael Deily is one such official. He called the clawback "a huge disappointment." He said his state spends about $40 million per year on the dually-eligible population.
"The overall impact is unclear. With the clawback will state Medicaid programs be saving dollars or actually spending more?" Deily told Stateline.org. "Frankly, we may not know a whole lot until we actually get into it."
In Minnesota, Medicaid Director Mary Kennedy said her staff is overwhelmed by the new legislation.
"We're going to be in effect billed for what (the federal government) assumes we have saved by not being the direct provider of the benefit," Kennedy told Stateline.org.
Under the bill, the federal government will use a formula to estimate what states must pay back each month based on Medicaid spending for the dual-eligibles during 2003 and inflated forward.
Health policy analysts said the clawback was put in place to make covering dual-eligibles fit within the $400 billion price Congress allotted for the bill over 10 years.
"States really won't get a whole lot of fiscal relief from this," said Trudi Matthews, chief health policy analyst at The Council of State Governments, a Lexington, Ky.-based organization that represents state government officials.
States are also concerned because under the plan they won't be able to use Medicaid matching funds to supplement the federal drug benefit. "So if states want to try and fill some of the gaps in the bill they'll have to do it all on their own," Matthews said. The effects of this will vary from state to state.
"In some states that's not a big deal because they probably will think the Medicare benefit is perfectly adequate," said Jocelyn Guyer, associate director of the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. But in other states, some dual-eligibles may wind up with bigger out-of-pocket drug bills, she said.
Guyer cited Texas which caps at three the number of prescriptions a Medicaid beneficiary can receive each month as a state whose poor seniors might be better off with the federal drug benefit. "In Texas this is a tremendous boon for the Medicaid beneficiaries also on Medicare and probably for the state," she said. "There are definitely states that will be much better off as a result of this." The Texas Health and Human Services Commission said they were still "combing through the bill," and declined to comment on its potential impact.
"It's definitely going to put some states in a (quandary) when in order to preserve the benefit to their own citizens they're going to have to supplement the Medicare system with a 100 percent state benefit," Mike Fogarty, chief executive officer of the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, told Stateline.org. "That's not what any state, I suspect, had in mind."
States such as Minnesota and Utah that provide comprehensive drug benefits for dual-eligibles with few restrictions, are worried.
"The biggest unknown is will the administration of the new (Medicare prescription drug) benefit be as efficient as what we are doing?" Minnesota's Kennedy said. "That's what most every state is wondering."


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The photo was shot using a Canon EOS 400D DIGITAL camera at an aperture of f/5.6, 1/640 sec. shutter speed and ISO 100. Tamron AF 17-50mm f/2.8 Di-II LD Aspherical lens was used to capture the image. Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode. The original image file has a resolution of 1024 x 683 pixels, or in other words 0.7 megapixels.The photo has a resolution of 72 DPI and occupies a disk space of 0.14 megabytes.
According to the image metadata, the photo was shot on Tuesday 1st of July 2008. The local time was 10:20:17. The timezone was Europe / Prague, which is GMT +02:00. Please note that timezone was guessed using the GPS coordinates and may not be accurate. The EXIF timestamp may also be wrong if the date and time weren't set correctly in the digital camera.
Canon EOS 400D DIGITAL camera has a built-in GPS receiver and allows geotagging on image files. The coordinates and location where the photo was taken is stored in the EXIF. According to GPS data analysis, the photo was taken at coordinates 51° 3' 12.24" N , 13° 44' 36.58" E. The elevation was 163 meters. Using reverse geocoding, the address associated with the coordinates is guessed as Terrassenufer 2, 01067 Dresden, Germany. Depending on the GPS receiver and the reception conditions the accuracy may vary and the address should not be regarded as exact location.
Apple iPhone 7 at f/1.8, 1/2907 sec. ISO 20.
0.21 km / 0.13 miles away
Carolabrücke, Dresden, Sachsen, Germany
SONY NEX-3 at f/7.1, 1/160 sec. ISO 200.
0.28 km / 0.18 miles away
Neumarkt, Dresden, Sachsen, Germany
Apple iPhone 7 at f/1.8, 1/2994 sec. ISO 20.
0.29 km / 0.18 miles away
Augustusstraße, Dresden, Sachsen, Germany
Canon EOS 400D DIGITAL at f/8, 1/160 sec. ISO 100.
0.31 km / 0.2 miles away
Augustusbrücke, Dresden, Sachsen, Germany
Canon EOS 550D at f/3.5, 1/2500 sec. ISO 800.
0.39 km / 0.24 miles away
Sophienstraße, Dresden, Sachsen, Germany
NIKON COOLPIX P300 at f/2.5, 1/8 sec. ISO 720.
0.44 km / 0.28 miles away
Schloßstraße, Dresden, Sachsen, Germany
Panasonic DMC-TZ3 at f/8, 1/250 sec. ISO 100.
0.47 km / 0.29 miles away
Theaterplatz, Dresden, Sachsen, Germany
Canon EOS 400D DIGITAL at f/8, 0.8 sec. ISO 100.
0.54 km / 0.33 miles away
Ostra-Allee, Dresden, Sachsen, Germany
Canon EOS 400D DIGITAL at f/8, 1/125 sec. ISO 100.
0.69 km / 0.43 miles away
Hauptallee, Dresden, Sachsen, Germany
Canon PowerShot SX230 HS at f/5, 1/500 sec. ISO 100.
2.68 km / 1.66 miles away
Pillnitz, Dresden, Sachsen, Germany
Canon EOS 400D DIGITAL at f/8, 1/200 sec. ISO 100.
10.08 km / 6.26 miles away
August-Böckstiegel-Straße, Dresden, Sachsen, Germany
Canon EOS 400D DIGITAL at f/8, 1/100 sec. ISO 100.
10.13 km / 6.29 miles away


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Brokered authentication for REST active clients with SAML
I have been thinking for a while about what could be a good way to support brokered authentication for active REST clients. Something I did not want to do was to force the use of WS-Trust Active profile, which is in essence SOAP based.
Some of the qualities attributes that are easy to reach with REST services, such as simplicity, interoperability and scalability can definitely be affected with the introduction of a additional SOAP stack for negotiating an identity token. WS-Trust passive requestor profile, on the other hand, was designed for dumb clients like web browsers, clients that do not have capabilities to handle cryptographic materials or the SOAP stack itself. This profile basically hides most of the WS-Trust details from client applications through a sequence of http redirections, which could be helpful in this scenario for negotiating a token and still keep simple REST clients. However, as some user interaction is required, this profile is not suitable for consuming REST services from desktop applications or other active client applications.
If we take a deep look at the functionality provided by a Secure Token Service (STS), it is not more than a service that handle the lifecycle of a identity token, it knows how to issue a token, renew it or finally cancel it when it is not longer need it. If we see all these scenarios from a point of view of REST, an identity token is just a resource, something that can be created, updated or even deleted. Of course, there is not any spec available yet for this scenario, all I will show here is just an possible implementation of a Restful STS.
The mapping of supported Ws-Trust actions to http verbs for my Restful STS is defined below,
- Issue = POST, creates or issues a new token resource (A SAML token)
- Renew = PUT, renew an existing token
- Cancel = DELETE, cancel an existing token
- GET, gets an existing token (There is not such thing in Ws-Trust)
I leave out the "Validate" action as part of this implementation.
What I have created for this example is a REST facade layered on top of a STS implementation with the Geneva Framework. The definition of service contract for this Restful STS for supporting that mapping should look like this,
public interface IRestSts
[WebInvoke(UriTemplate="Tokens", Method="POST", RequestFormat=WebMessageFormat.Xml, ResponseFormat=WebMessageFormat.Xml)]
RequestSecurityTokenResponse IssueToken(RequestSecurityToken request);
[WebInvoke(Method = "PUT", UriTemplate = "Tokens/{tokenId}", RequestFormat = WebMessageFormat.Xml, ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Xml)]
RequestSecurityTokenResponse RenewToken(string tokenId);
[WebInvoke(Method = "DELETE", UriTemplate = "Tokens/{tokenId}", RequestFormat = WebMessageFormat.Xml, ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Xml)]
void CancelToken(string tokenId);
[WebGet(UriTemplate = "Tokens/{tokenId}", RequestFormat = WebMessageFormat.Xml, ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Xml)]
RequestSecurityTokenResponse GetToken(string tokenId);
As I mentioned before, the client has to first acquire a token from the STS, that can be done with a regular Http POST containing a RequestSecurityToken message.
The message embedded in the request body to the STS looks like this,
<RequestSecurityToken xmlns="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/02/trust"> <AppliesTo>https://localhost/MyService</AppliesTo> <TokenType>http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/oasis-wss-saml-token-profile-1.1#SAMLV1.1</TokenType> </RequestSecurityToken>
And the corresponding response like this,
<RequestSecurityTokenResponse xmlns="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/02/trust" xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <Links> <Link> <href>http://localhost:7362/STSWindows/Service.svc/_8a6fc87b-7e6a-45c9-a479-20ea42113e40</href> <rel>self</rel> <type>application/xml</type> </Link> </Links> <RequestedSecurityToken>....</RequestedSecurityToken> <TokenType>http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/oasis-wss-saml-token-profile-1.1#SAMLV1.1</TokenType> </RequestSecurityTokenResponse>
Both calls, the first one to get the token from the STS, and the second call to invoke the service in the Relying party should be protected with transport security to avoid any middle in the man attack.
In this sample, the STS is using basic authentication to authenticate the user trying to get access to the token. If the authentication succeed, the STS implemented with Geneva will provide the necessary claims associated with that user.
The code on the client side to ask for a new token is quite simple,
static string GetToken(string address, string appliesTo, string username, string password)
RequestSecurityToken request = new RequestSecurityToken
TokenType = "http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/oasis-wss-saml-token-profile-1.1#SAMLV1.1",
AppliesTo = appliesTo
DataContractSerializer requestSerializer = new DataContractSerializer(typeof(RequestSecurityToken));
WebRequest webRequest = HttpWebRequest.Create(address);
webRequest.Method = "POST";
webRequest.ContentType = "application/xml";
webRequest.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(username, password);
using (var st = webRequest.GetRequestStream())
requestSerializer.WriteObject(st, request);
WebResponse webResponse = webRequest.GetResponse();
DataContractSerializer responseSerializer = new DataContractSerializer(typeof(RequestSecurityTokenResponse));
using (var st = webResponse.GetResponseStream())
var response = (RequestSecurityTokenResponse)responseSerializer.ReadObject(st);
return response.RequestedSecurityToken;
It creates a new RequestSecurityToken message, provides the user credentials and post that information to the STS. The response from the STS is a RequestSecurityTokenResponse containing the issued token, that's what this method returns in response.RequestedSecurityToken.
Once the client gets the issued token from the response, it can include it as part of the request message to the relying party's service. For this sample, I decided to include the token in the "Authorization" header, which is a common mechanism to attach authentication credentials in a request message to a REST service (Basic authentication, and other authentication mechanisms use the same approach).
WebRequest webRequest = HttpWebRequest.Create(address);
webRequest.Method = "GET";
webRequest.Headers["Authorization"] = token;
Now, the hard part, the Relying Party needs a way to parse the token and authenticate the user before calling the service implementation. Fortunately, the guys from the WCF REST Starter kit have provide an excellent solution for this kind of scenarios, message interceptors. What I did here was to implement a message interceptor for SAML tokens, which internally used the Geneva Framework for performing all the validations and parsing the token. An easy way to inject message interceptors in a service implementation is through a custom service factory (Zero config deployment),
class AppServiceHostFactory : ServiceHostFactory
protected override ServiceHost CreateServiceHost(Type serviceType, Uri[] baseAddresses)
WebServiceHost2 result = new WebServiceHost2(serviceType, true, baseAddresses);
result.Interceptors.Add(new MessageInterceptors.SamlAuthenticationInterceptor(new TrustedIssuerNameRegistry()));
return result;
The "TrustedIssuerNameRegistry" is a just a simple implementation of a Geneva "IssuerNameRegistry" provider that validates the issuer of the SAML token.
All this stuff is of course transparent to the service implementation, it only receives a bunch of claims representing the user identity. Those claims can be got accessed through the current user principal. In the code below, the service generates a feed with all the received claims.
IClaimsIdentity identity = (IClaimsIdentity)Thread.CurrentPrincipal.Identity;
var feed = new SyndicationFeed()
Id = "http://Claims",
Title = new TextSyndicationContent("My claims"),
feed.Items = identity.Claims.Select(c =>
new SyndicationItem()
Id = Guid.NewGuid().ToString(),
Title = new TextSyndicationContent(c.ClaimType),
LastUpdatedTime = DateTime.UtcNow,
Authors =
new SyndicationPerson()
Name = c.Issuer
Content = new TextSyndicationContent(c.Value)
The complete sample is available to download from here. Note, it uses the latest Geneva Framework bits (And also the X509 certificates included with the samples, just run the certificate setup file included with the framework).


text:
(To hear the audio version, click here)
Being a celebrity is not a 9 to 5 job, which is why most of them prefer to do their interviews late in the middle of the afternoon. But if you want to speak to Dolly Parton, youd better be an early riser.
Her publicist had sent a message indicating Parton would like to chat at 8:50. "A.M. or P.M.?" I responded. "A.M." was the reply.
Parton couldnt even wait that long: At 8:45, she was already on the line from New York, and she wasnt yawning through her coffee, either.
"I love to get up early and get my work done and get all my paperwork out of the way so I can enjoy the rest of the day," she said, with that trademark twinkle in her voice.
Obviously, its a plan thats worked for her. Since the mid- 1960s Parton has been a force to reckon with in the entertainment world, crossing over from country music to the pop charts, touring tirelessly throughout the decades, launching an amusement park thats about to celebrate its 25th anniversary, and building up a substantial resume of movie and television credits. She even found time to write the score for "9 to 5: The Musical," the stage adaptation of her wildly successful 1980 film with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. The "9 to 5" tour comes to the Wharton Center tonight.
So whos had time for sleeping in?
Horatio Alger never wrote a more incredible rags-to-riches tale than Partons life. Born in a cabin in rural Sevier County, Tenn., nearly 65 years ago, Dolly Rebecca Parton was the fourth of 12 children. Money was, as they say in Tennessee, as scarce as hens teeth.
"My father was a farmer," she said, "and so we lived kind of back there in the mountains, and I mostly just kind of did that until I graduated from high school. I wrote my songs and I used to sing on local radio and television shows back up in the mountains there in Knoxville."
In her 1994 autobiography "My Life and Other Unfinished Business," Parton recalls being unable to afford real cosmetics and instead gussying herself up with Mercurochrome lipstick and ersatz rouge made of berry juice. "If theres one positive thing about being poor, its that it makes a person more creative," she writes.
The day after graduating from high school in June 1964, Parton grabbed her guitar, loaded her things into a cardboard suitcase and got on a bus to Nashville, determined to sell her songs. She had luck on her side.
"When I first moved to Nashville when I was 18, I got a job with a publishing company, writing songs," she said. "I started making $50 a week. That was my salary, so I never really had to work on a lot of other jobs."
Early on, she cut a few records targeted at the pop market: Tunes like "Dont Drop Out" and "Busy Signal" sound considerably more like Petula Clark than traditional Dolly Parton. But charming and catchy as the songs were, they did nothing to raise Partons profile, so she kept working.
Along the way, she even picked up a bit of secretarial experience — sort of.
"When I first moved to Nashville, I had a neighbor that owned an advertising outdoor sign company, so I answered his phone some, so I claimed that I was a secretary, but I wasnt really. It was just a favor and I didnt get paid for it, but I did it enough to kinda get a feel for what it might be like. But I was sittin at my desk writin songs, answerin the phone and writin songs — furthered my own career, not his."
Partons breakthrough year was 1967, which brought her a couple of hits on the country chart, "Something Fishy and "Dumb Blonde," in which she warned the world, "Just because Im blonde, dont think Im dumb, cuz this dumb blonde aint nobodys fool." A guest appearance on the popular "Porter Wagoner Show" led to a lucrative offer.
"The Porter Wagoner Show was the number one syndicated country show at that time in the nation," Parton recalled, "and, of course, that was my first big job when I first moved to Nashville. He replaced a girl singer (Norma Jean Beasler, known professionally as Pretty Miss Norma Jean) hed had for years — he had to because shed gotten married and moved away — so I got that job."
Wagoner, already a huge star, became a valuable mentor to Parton (he was the inspiration behind her signature song "I Will Always Love You," written shortly after she made the difficult decision to dissolve the partnership) and they had more than a dozen Top 10 successes on the country chart, including "Well Get Ahead Someday," "If Teardrops Were Pennies" and "Please Dont Stop Loving Me."
Behind the scenes, however, things werent always easy. In a 2008 interview with The Los Angeles Times, Parton admitted Wagoner was "a male chauvinist pig," adding "I dont mean this in a bad way."
"Thats why we fought like crazy," she told the Times, "because I wouldnt put up with a bunch of stuff. Out of respect for him, I knew he was the boss, and I would go along to where I felt this was reasonable for me. But once it passed points where it was like, Your way or my way, and this is just to control, to prove to you I can do it, then I would just pitch a damn fit. I wouldnt care if it killed me. I would just say what I thought."
After seven years, Parton split with Wagoner to concentrate on her solo career, which had taken off with "Joshua," "Jolene," "Coat of Many Colors" and "Touch Your Woman." The break-up sent shockwaves through the country world and led to tensions between Wagoner and Parton, which were resolved before Wagoners death in 2007.
Partons larger than life look and "countrypolitan" glamour got plenty of attention, but much of her music was serious and topical. Her songs often addressed topics that most country songwriters of the time wouldnt touch, sometimes in surprisingly frank ways.
Come Get Me" is the plea of a woman locked up in a mental institution
by a heartless husband. In "Down From Dover," a pregnant girl prays her
lover will return soon, all too aware that soon "a tiny face will show
itself, cuz waitings almost over."
Shade," a track from her 1970 album "My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy,"
paints a troubling picture of an orphanage run by a sadistic crone named
Mrs. Bailey, who "believed in lots of work with little play" and doles
out abuse on a regular basis. After one girl is beaten with a razor
strap for the crime of having wet her bed, the other kids conspire to do
away with the matron once and for all by locking her inside and
torching the place.
Shade was burning, just like the hell it was," Parton sings in the
songs chilling final line: The children not only get revenge, they
apparently get away with it.
also had risque wit. In "Traveling Man," she sings in the first person
about being denied the love of her life by a mom who wont let her out
of the house. But instead of parents just dont understand, this is a
case of the daughter wising up too late. "That traveling man was a
two-time lover," Parton laments. "He took my love — then he took my
In the late 1970s, Parton broadened her audience by
incorporating pop, rock and even disco into her repertoire: Her 1978
single "Baby Im Burnin" managed to score on the country and the club
music charts, while "Here You Come Again," "Two Doors Down" and
"Heartbreaker" all broke into the pop Top 40. Parton even managed to
take a ballad co-written by disco deity Donna Summer, "Starting Over
Again," to the top of the country charts in 1980.
Partons next major artistic collaborator would come from far outside
the music world. Jane Fonda, who was about to produce and star in a
comedy about beleaguered office workers called "9 to 5," contacted
Parton, reportedly after seeing one of her album covers. According to a
1981 interview with People magazine, Fonda said she remembered thinking,
"Boy, does she ever look like everybodys idea of a secretary."
Parton was also a smart marketing strategy. "(Fondas) line was, to me,
Oh, and Dolly will get us the South," Parton said, with laughter.
"And I said, Well, the South, my butt! Ill get a few that aint in the
South! Anyhow, I think she was just trying to get it to where we would
be appealing to women from different places."
screenplay of "9 to 5" had Fondas character, Judy Bernly, nearly
drowning in the secretarial pool, alongside capable but stressed-out
office manager Violet Newstead (Lily Tomlin) and executive assistant
Doralee Rhodes (Parton), who gets considerable exercise from being
frequently chased around her desk by her crass supervisor, Franklin Hart
Jr. (Dabney Coleman). Thanks to a twist of fate, the trio are presented
with an opportunity to take revenge on Hart.
wasnt the first time Hollywood had knocked on Partons door. "I had
been offered other movies before, but I hadnt really been that
interested and Id never done any acting. But that one was such a great
opportunity, I thought. Jane and Lily Tomlin were so hot at that time,
and even Dabney Coleman (who played the brusque boss) was hot. And I
thought, Well, how hard can this be? Ive got all this support. If its
a hit, Ill take credit -- and if its a flop, Ill blame it on them.
Nobody knows me!"
Parton had nothing to worry about. "9 to
5" was a runaway smash when it opened during the holiday season in
1980, grossing over $103 million (adjusted for inflation, that would be
approximately $271 million). It also established Parton as a bankable
box office name; immediately after "9 to 5" opened, Parton was signed to
star opposite Burt Reynolds in "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas."
was grateful for Fondas support and repaid the kindness a few years
later by leading the actress on a tour of Appalachia when Fonda was
researching her role as a Kentucky woodcarver in the TV-movie "The
"9 to 5" addressed the issues of sexual harassment and discrimination
in the workplace with a humorous touch, Parton insists its messages did
not go unnoticed:
really do think it did help a lot. I do think it brought a lot of
attention to (the topic). Im still proud to be a part of it." It
also raised Partons consciousness a bit. Fonda had extensively studied
the concerns of women in the business world, but Parton admits she
wasnt up to speed on the subject.
that time, I was just interested in being in a movie and hoping I did
good," she said. "I didnt really understand or know what all the real
cause was until later on, what we were really sayin and all that, that
it was a political statement. Knowing now, after years have passed, how
much good it really has done, I think it was great to bring awareness to
it -- and any change at all is better than none. There are still more
changes to be made, but I really do think that movie had a big impact to
make people start thinking."
would be many other films in Partons future, some of them terrific
("Steel Magnolias," in which she blends in perfectly with Shirley
MacLaine, Sally Field, Olympia Dukakis and a young Julia Roberts), some
of them dreadful ("Rhinestone," which gets off to a great start with her
performance of "Tennessee Homesick Blues" and immediately goes into a
tailspin as soon as co-star Sylvester Stallone makes his entrance) and
some unjustly overlooked, like the sweet-natured 1992 mistaken-identity
comedy "Straight Talk," in which she pretends to be a psychiatrist with a
radio call-in show.
when many people think of a Dolly Parton movie, its "9 to 5" that
comes to mind, thanks in part to her memorable, million-selling theme
that was part of my contract," Parton says of the tune. "I had told
Jane, Im a singer-songwriter first of all, and I will be in this movie
if I can write and sing the theme song." When it was time to record
the final track, Parton brought in some back up. "I had all the girls
(who worked on the movie), all
the females — since it was all about the women — I had come down and
sing on it, like a sing-along, so theyre all on the record. In
addition, I used real singers, too, to get the harmonies. But we just
had Jane and Lily and everybody singing on it, which was fun."
song resurfaces to open and close the stage version of "9 to 5." The
rest of the score was composed by Parton to fit the book by Patricia
said writing her first score for a musical was a challenge, although
Resnick, director Joe Mantello and producer Bob Greenblatt made it an
enjoyable learning experience.
they first brought it up to me, I knew these characters so well that I
just wrote a whole bunch of songs in two weeks time and I sent em to
them, and said, Well heres what my idea is … , and we started working
from that," Parton said.
They liked all the stuff, but we certainly had
to tailor-make stuff, cuz I dont know anything about the stage, how
you have to have certain things for Act I and Act II and the timing and
transitions. So thats what they were great with, with me. So all they
had to do was tell me once, and I got it.""
While "9 to 5" did not take
Broadway by storm — the script has been revised and slightly revamped
for the touring production — the show earned Parton a Tony nomination
for best original score and two Drama Desk nominations, one for
outstanding music and another for outstanding lyrics.
shouldnt surprise anybody shes taken so well to the stage: Shes
always been a storyteller first and foremost," commented New York Post
critic Elizabeth Vincentelli. "Her countrified pop, enhanced by fiddle
and pedal-steel guitar, fits perfectly on Broadway. Of all the
mainstream artists whove tried their hand at show music in the past few
years, she may be the most convincing."
Press critic Michael Kuchwara agreed. "You wont mistake Partons words
and music for the works of Stephen Sondheim, yet she has a simple,
direct way with lyrics and a beguiling sense of melody whether its
country twang, gospel, rhythm n blues, power ballad or sentimental
love song."
is also pleased with the results.
"It just seemed natural," she said.
"When they asked me to do it, I said, I dont know if I can do it or
not: Ive never been asked, never tried it, but Ill give it a whirl.
And I actually realized I had a knack for it, cuz it was just right up
my alley, that I could just write all this stuff, say what I wanted to
say, create stories for all these characters that I knew so well, as I
had memorized the script and knew everybody and had been in the movie
and had watched it for 25 years, at that time. So it was easy and fun
and I enjoyed gettin the chance to do that."
9 to 5: The Musical
Center 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Dec. 15 and Thursday, Dec. 16; 8 p.m.
Friday, Dec. 17; 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 18; 1 p.m. and 6:30
p.m. Sunday, Dec. 19,


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OBD Verification Tool reduces communication exemptions
Opus Inspection OBD Workstations include an innovative OBD Verification Tool. This tool is a true OBD Simulator that simulates all currently existing OBD communication protocols and features a female OBD2 connector into which a DLC can be plugged.
As part of our integrated preventive maintenance check program, the functionality of the OBD Scan Tool is verified using the OBD Verification Tool. In less than five seconds, the Workstation software verifies that all five OBD communication protocols are functioning properly in the scan tool. Voltage is also confirmed and recorded. Results are logged and transmitted to the VID for reporting and auditing purposes.


text:
Conjuring walls may not sound like the coolest thing a wizard could do, but in Wizard Walls it's all that stands between you and the nasty goblins and trolls from hurling rocks or going all stabby-stabby on at the townsfolk and their flock. And when you can eventually work up to make walls out of fireballs and bubbles, well, you've got to admit that sounds pretty cool, right?
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If you don't know it now, you will soon figure out that your BIG day is all about the pictures! YOUR pictures!
It's very unlikely that you'll look back at your entree selections, your flowers or even your venue and ever think "OMG! What was I thinking?" On the other hand, choose NOT to have professional makeup and a fantastic hair design and you almost certainly will!
Even you ladies that are not a fan of makeup, trust me, you should have your makeup professionally done. Family with good intentions, friends that are "good at it" or thinking to yourself, "Oh, I'll just do it myself" or even worse – doing your normal makeup routine – are things you should most definitely avoid! You cannot undo bland or just plain bad pictures!
I LOVE eyes. They speak to you; they can lead to the center of your soul. And they can make or break your whole look.
Your eyes are the center of your face and you want them to POP! On your wedding day, your eyes have got to make a powerful statement!
Whether yours is a daytime or evening wedding…slightly bolder makeup is a must. I am not talking about dark or heavy with loads of thick black liner. I am, however, talking about enhancing your brows, using shadow two to three times darker than you normally would, liner a little bolder than you're used to and in most cases, lashes! Adding lashes, even when you have been blessed with fantastic natural lashes bring out your eyes in an incredible way – on and off the camera! It may take a little getting used to but when all is said and done, you will have a stunning look for your photos.
Trust your makeup artist to help you achieve that stunning look and don't be afraid to share your likes/dislikes at your trial. Makeup wipes off and we want YOU to love your look. We work with photographers on a regular basis to help you achieve a perfect balance between "real life" and amazing makeup for your photographs. Team Beauti always has your best interest at heart and promise that you will love the results!


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- MissKittyBoo
- 4 years ago
- Wedding: December 2014
Hi Bees!
Newly engaged (a whole week now!) and Fiance and I have decided to have a very intimate cermeony at my moms house THIS Christmas….thats in like 14 weeks? 12 people including us, in front of the Christmas tree, probably a homemade dinner. My sisters Boyfriend or Best Friend will be officiating. Super intimate.
So I was thinking 1. having magazine vouge style/quality photos arent super important to me. I want to remember the day and have the pictures, but I also dont want to spend much on them, and dont need them to be amazeballs, bc Fiance and I are regular ole people, not models. 2. Having someone we dont know there in such a small and intimate setting might seem awkward. 3. Wearing my moms dress and shoes, venue at my parents house, and no caterer?! We are so not WIC people!
However, I do want amazing Christmas tree shots, with twinkling lights behind us and have a picture in my head of how amazing the wedding would look, and I would hate to have blurry, dark, bad pictures to remember it all by.
I feel like I'll get 50/50 answers here. We are choosing to have our wedding intimate because we want to, not due to a cash issue. We are discussing a 2 week honeymoon over the holidays in Paris? London? both?
Bees, I would love to hear your opinions on the Christmas wedding, photographer, honeymoon, ceremony…all of it! Help a bee out!


text: Cincinnati Reds trade OF Josh Fellhauer to Brewers Doug Gray July 18, 2014 5 Comments The Cincinnati Reds have traded outfielder Josh Fellhauer to the Milwaukee Brewers for "cash considerations" and Milwaukee has sent him to Double-A Huntsville. Fellhauer has been at all levels of the system, peaking at Triple-A in both 2013 and in 2014. His best season came in Double-A in 2012 when he hit .314/.409/.420 with as many walks as strikeouts. That was the same season he began to be used as more of a platoon player, avoiding many left handers. He began the 2014 season injured and returned in early May, spending a week in Louisville before being sent to Pensacola where he had been playing ever since. He has struggled this season, hitting just .239/.338/.313 on the season. He can play all three outfield spots if you need him to, though he does fit better defensively in the corners. 5 Responses MK July 18, 2014 Hopefully Josh will get an opportunity to get his career on track. nycdave July 18, 2014 Anybody know why Stephenson was pulled after 57 pitches? Walt didn't trade him did he? nycdave July 18, 2014 Never mind. Blue Wahoos twitter says he got hit in the leg with a line drive. Should be ok . Doug Gray July 18, 2014 He took a liner off of the thigh, above his right knee. He seemed to be ok, walked off of the field on his own after making the play and then sitting down for about 30 seconds. Had a smile on his face as he walked off and got near the dugout. realtalk July 19, 2014 Really ! Don't they need offense ?


text:
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What is Meditation?
Meditation is an ancient art, increasingly practised in modern times. More and more people are turning to meditation to increase their inner peace, good health and wellbeing. The purpose of meditation is to make our mind calm and peaceful.
...we will be free from worries and mental discomfort
Meditation is a mind that concentrates on a virtuous object, and that is the main cause of mental peace. The practice of meditation is a method for acquainting our mind with virtue. The more familiar our mind is with virtue, the calmer and more peaceful it becomes. Therefore, it is important to train our mind through meditation. By training in meditation, we create an inner space and clarity that enables us to control our mind regardless of the external circumstances. If our mind is peaceful, we will be free from worries and mental discomfort, and so we will experience true happiness. If we train in meditation, our mind will gradually become more and more peaceful, and we will experience a purer and purer form of happiness. Eventually, we will be able to stay happy all the time, even in the most difficult circumstances.
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text:
West Bromwich Albion are believed to be close to signing Swedish international Markus Rosenberg.
The 29-year old striker is a free agent after leaving German club Werder Bremen at the end of last season with reports suggesting he is on the verge of joining the Baggies.
Goal.com is of the belief that Rosenberg could make the move to The Hawthorns as early as Tuesday which will reunite him with Sweden teammate Jonas Olsson.
Rosenberg kicked off his career with Malmo in 2001 and has since spent time with Halmstads (loan), Ajax, Bremen and Racing Santander (loan).
Click here to reach the No1 destination for hard news and exciting gossip on West Bromwich Albion


text:
Disney Savors Its Lemonade
Fictional Band Garners a Real-Life Following—and Sales—After a TV Movie
When Nielsen SoundScan publishes its weekly album-sales chart on Wednesday, the top five is likely to include the Foo Fighters, British vocalist Adele and Lemonade Mouth—a band that doesn't exist, except in a made-for-TV movie.
The nascent real-world success of the made-up band comes courtesy of Walt Disney Co., whose Disney Channel produced the movie. The game plan with "Lemonade Mouth"—the movie, whose plot revolves around the band of the same name—is similar to successful Disney campaigns for "High School...


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Pop-up ads are appearing on my desktop
If you're not running your Web browser and are still getting pop-up ads on your desktop, you've most likely installed adware—a program that displays unwanted ads. Although benevolent adware exists, most of the time adware is up to no good. Getting rid of it isn't easy. "There's a ton of little system-utility tools out there that promise to clean up everything, with names like PC Speed-up, PC Speed Pro, PC Speedifier," Geek Squad's Meister says. "A lot of times those programs are not going to do much. Some programs will work, others are snake oil."
Avoid downloading programs that offer to speed up your PC or clean up your registry. Instead, use a trustworthy adware scanner like the free version of Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware tool.
Running a full scan with credible antivirus software is your first step. If that program doesn't find and remove the adware, turn to Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free, a great utility for removing all types of malware. Just make sure to disable your standard antivirus software before running it.
"Multiple antivirus programs working at the same time will often result in problems," Falcon Northwest's Petrie says. "You only want one active, real-time antivirus scanner installed, but it doesn't hurt to run an additional 'on demand' virus or malware scanner."
Searching online for the name of the advertised product can sometimes yield solutions from fellow victims. If all else fails, there's always the nuclear option: a complete system reinstall. It might take a long time, but it's the only surefire way to remove adware or spyware. Remember to back up all your personal files.


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Quick Preferences Panel
The Quick Preferences Panel provides fast access to commonly used settings and is accessed via a button on the bottom bar.
Activate it by clicking the button with the Firestorm logo shown on the image on the right. To close it, press the button again, and it will appear released.
NOTE: There is a video tutorial about Quick Preferences here.
Panel Layout
NOTE: Not all skins have all the options shown; the order may also be different.
- Draw Distance: Change your draw distance.
(Also set in Preferences → Graphics -> General.)
- Max Particles: Amount of particles to render.
(Also set in Preferences → Graphics -> General.)
- Avatar Physics LOD: Set to 1 to enable full support of avatar physics; 0 to disable entirely.
(Also set in Preferences → Graphics -> General.)
- LOD Factor: Controls level of detail of primitives (multiplier for current screen area when calculated level of detail). Ideal setting is between 2.0 and 3.0.
(Also set in Preferences → Graphics -> General.)
- Max Avatars: How many Avatars to fully render on screen. Lowering this greatly improves FPS in crowded situations. Requires Avatar Imposters to be on. The default is 3 for low graphics and 12 for Mid/High/Ultra.
(Also set in Preferences → Graphics -> General.)
- Tags Offset: Allows you to adjust the height of your name tag above your avatar. Handy for non human avatars, from tinies to large dragons, so the name isn't embedded in the avatar, or floating way above.
- Name Tags: quick toggle to enable/disable displaying tags over people's heads.
- LookAt Target: Enables showing crosshair to indicate where people have their camera focused.
(Also set in Preferences → Privacy -> LookAt.
- Color Under Cursor: If enabled, shows the current color and alpha values under the cursor; these are displayed in white text, on the lower right of your screen.
- Hover Height: It allows "on-the-fly" adjustments to be made to your avatar's z-axis position without having to use the Edit Appearance Hover slider
- Max Bandwidth: Set your network bandwidth in Kbps (see here for best setting).
(Also set in Preferences → Network & Files.)
- Max Complexity: Controls at what point a visually complex avatar is shown as a jellydoll. 9)
- Use Region Windlight: Forces the viewer to use the windlight settings set for the region.
Same as enabling top menu → World → Environment Editor → Environment Settings → Use Region Settings.
- Windlight Sky: Windlight sky settings. Use the < and > arrows to quickly scroll.
- Windlight Water: Windlight water settings. Use the < and > arrows to quickly scroll.
- Day Cycle: Allows for a quick selection of a day cycle to use.
- Time of Day: Drag the slider to change the time of day. The X to the right will reset the time of day to region default.
Adding/Removing Settings
It is possible to add or remove settings from the QuickPrefs window by clicking the wrench icon in the lower right corner. The window will change, and appear as shown to the right. This edit panel overlays the lower portion of the QuickPrefs window.
Adding Settings
- To add a new setting, click the + button. A new "blank" control is added to the QuickPrefs window. Now it needs to be associated with a setting.
- Click on Choose and a long drop down list will appear; these are all the viewer debug settings; the list of Firestorm debug settings is given here for reference.
- Select the setting you wish to add.
- In the space to the left of the drop down, give the setting a name that you find meaningful, for what the setting does.
- The Type field is automatically filled in based on the type of setting.
- If the setting accepts only whole numbers, then click the Integer checkbox.
- For some settings, you can alter the minimum, maximum and increment values; do not do this unless you know exactly what they represent.
To add more settings, click the + button again, and repeat.
Editing Existing Settings
Simply highlight the setting by clicking on the name in the upper portion of the QuickPrefs window. You can then change the name of it to something you prefer, if you wish. Or you can replace it with a totally different setting, which may be faster than deleting the setting and then adding a new one.
Removing Settings
To the left of each of the existing settings in the window, a trashcan icon now is shown; clicking this will remove the associated setting from the window.
Finished Making changes
When you have completed making changes, click the 'x' button in the lower edit panel. It is then best to relog to ensure that changes "stick'.
Reverting Changes
If for any reason you need or want to revert to the default layout of the Quick Preferences panel, then click the Reset button at the bottom. Note that this cannot be reversed.


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Open-Enrollment Workshops
Answer offers open-enrollment workshops at a variety of locations throughout New Jersey for professionals involved with teaching family life and sexuality education. Open-enrollment workshops are for health teachers, school counselors, social workers, community health educators, school nurses, administrators, family-planning educators and youth-serving professionals. Workshop participants will receive professional development certificates for their attendance.
For information regarding our training logistics and policies click here.
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