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Our modern digital radiography suite is available for use 24 hours a day. Our powerful x-ray machine can image any pet from a small reptile or bird to the largest St Bernard, and we also have a fluoroscopy machine which displays moving x-ray images. This facility is particularly useful for studies of the bowel (such as barium meals), the urinary tract, and the heart, and is also used for orthopaedic work
Because we see so many chest cases, our machine has to be capable of taking very fast exposures, and has specific attachments for accurate positioning which is so important for examinations such as films taken for the BVA/Kennel Club Hip Dysplasia Scheme.
To comply with Health and Safety Regulations, patients are not held for x-rays, and so films are usually taken under anaesthetic or sedation, unless this would be life-threatening. Accurate positioning is vital for high quality diagnostic films. Do talk to us about sedation for routine x-rays such as for the BVA/ Kennel Club Hip Dysplasia Scheme. Unlike a human hospital, there are no waiting lists for operations or x-rays, and usually if your pet requires an x-ray, it can be undertaken on the same day.


text: It is beautiful! It is the story of Moina Michael - the woman who started the tradition of wearing poppies in remembrance of fallen veterans. The pictures are gorgeous and it gives a very different picture of Veterans Day. I made some materials to go with it. You can pick up them up FREE here. I hope that you enjoy them! Please leave some feedback if you check it out. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/FREEBIE-Veterans-Day-The-Poppy-Lady-955857

subset: commoncrawl


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In her book, When Women Were Birds, Terry Tempest Williams tells a story of nearly being murdered, but silencing herself from speaking out. It's quite shocking, but so very plausible with the written and unwritten rules for well-mannered girls and the nagging belief that she brought it on by ignoring her intuition – victims often blame themselves. Her sense of guilt when realizing her silence could hurt another woman inspired me to share a story. A story where someone found their voice to report an act of violation, how she was supported when she did so, and how it may have helped other women…
That someone was me, 20 years old at American University in Washington, DC in 1995. I have woven our two stories to show the striking parallels although the threat of danger was much greater in hers than mine.
I had just done the most courageous thing yet in my young life – believed I was worthy of a top school, believed I could make it work all alone, and taken action to make it happen. I applied to transfer to American University to pursue a degree in international business and study foreign languages. To my surprise and delight, I was accepted as a transfer student for the Spring 1995 semester. So I packed my little Mitsubishi Galant full of everything I owned and drove for three days from Houston, Texas in the dead of winter to the overwhelming world of snow, politics, and glitter.
"I had seen him around. He was striking, thirty-something, tanned, blond and fit….Joseph wore me down. It was easier to say yes than to say no. I put my pen and papers down, put on my hiking boots, and followed him. How bad can this be? I thought. The fresh air will do me good."
I hadn't been there but a few days when I went to a university play right across from my residence hall. At intermission, a charming young Latin man leaned over from the row behind me and introduced himself as Persi. He asked me where I lived and responded "Hughes Hall." It's a common thing to tell people in which hall you live, but later I wondered if that wasn't my fault for disclosing too much.
Persi did a great job of convincing me that I should go clubbing afterwards as he and many of his Latin American friends would be at the Spy Club – a popular hangout for American U students. It didn't take much convincing though. I was eager to make new friends, always had an affinity for Latin culture and the Spanish language, and dancing was my favorite activity to blow off steam from the stresses I was under as a young woman on her own without emotional or financial familial support.
I was excited to be going out for my first social interaction and put a lot of effort into looking especially nice. I took a cab to the club and wandered around. I saw Persi and was relieved to already recognize some of his friends from around campus. Despite my protests (I was not a big drinker and I was under age), Persi bought and handed me a drink. I drank at least half not to appear ungrateful. Persi asked me to dance, but grinded up against me in a way that I was not comfortable. I put up with it long enough to be polite but finally pulled away and said I was going to walk around. I decided I wasn't really having fun and left without saying goodbye.
"I made a calculation that continuing to follow a man who was increasingly mad was a better risk than bolting at this point. I didn't want to upset him. I can't say it was good manners, exactly, that kept me deferring to him, when every decision I was making was sabotaging good judgement, but the effort to just keep walking seemed easier than trusting what I knew. I didn't have the energy for conflict. I kept quiet. But I made a crucial error."
When I got back to my residence hall, my Resident Assistant was still awake in our floor's common area cooking a late night snack. I joined her to tell someone about the events of my evening. I was still pretty excited about going out for my first night on the town, but I neglected to tell her about my discomfort with Persi. To do so would have been admitting that I was wrong about his intentions and I also know how easy misunderstandings can be, especially with intercultural interaction.
I was shocked when Persi arrived on our all female floor and opened the door to the common area. Again, not wanting to seem impolite, I didn't express that surprise out loud or ask him what he was doing there. Instead, a string of pleasantries were exchanged – oh hey, how's it going, yeah I got tired and left, sorry I didn't say goodbye, so I really am tired now, going to go to bed, have a nice night…
My RA watched as I left the common area and Persi followed me back to my room.
Finally my intuition was firing loud enough that I began to pay attention and feel justified with my sense of unease. I left my door wide open earlier and he walked in right behind me with no invitation. What was this guy doing? I felt had not given a single positive reinforcement to anything he had said or done but instead had repeatedly backed off each time. I told him, of course still politely, that he needed to leave because I was done for the evening.
"I turned around. Joseph was standing on a large square rock. The veins in his neck were protruding. The pupils in his eyes dilated black. In what seemed to be happening in slow motion, I saw him raise a double-edged ax, now reflecting light, directly over his head, with the force of his whole body about to bear down on his target. Our eyes met. The ax was meant for me. As he lunged forward, he slipped. I ran. For a mile and a half I never looked back."
He insisted that he would indeed leave, but he really wanted a hug before he left. I wasn't attracted to him at all and my stomach turned as I said "fine." A hug is innocent, right? I shouldn't be rude after he'd come all this way to find me, right? I didn't want to alienate on of the first human beings with whom I'd made contact on campus, right? He held me tight, locked his embrace around me, and forced his lips onto mine. I was able to extricate myself from the unwelcome embrace and began to find my voice.
"Hey! Who do you think you are that you can come into my room late at night and assume I want to mess around with you! I'm not that kind of girl!" Truth is, I WAS that kind of girl, but only with someone that would have given an ACTUAL invitation to my room. However, it seemed like the only good defense at the time. Really, truly, I am a good girl, don't violate me!
Persi backpedaled, apologized, and insisted he really just wanted a regular hug and would behave this time. What do I need to do to get this guy out of my room? OK, fine, fine. You are probably not shocked that he did it again. Negotiating clearly wasn't working with this guy, so I wriggled out of his arms again, pushed him out the door as politely as I could, and locked it behind him.
"In my remaining days in the Sawtooths, I wanted to tell someone, anyone, what had happened. I wanted to speak. I wanted to say how scared I was, how I was almost murdered, hacked to pieces by a madman with an ax, and it wasn't my fault, but I didn't believe it. I believed it was my fault. I betrayed my instincts. My body tried to warn me. The owl tried to warn me. But I ignored them all and walked past my intuition. When one woman doesn't speak, other women get hurt. And now Joseph could be hurting another woman asleep in another wilderness."
I was incredibly unnerved by the incident. How did he get onto our floor and into my room? How far could it have gone in the worst case? What had I done to create the situation? What would I do if I saw him again? I felt like I should do something to quiet my mind and my stomach, but I realized nothing had really happened. He hadn't raped me and had barely put his mouth on me, I had no bruises, he eventually left…but I still felt violated and gross. My dorm room, my brand new home, no longer felt safe.
The next morning I sought the counsel of my RA and told her all the details of the prior evening. She said she, too, thought it was weird that he showed up on our floor seemingly uninvited at that hour (normally residents are called by the front desk and have to physically come down to escort guests) but figured it was fine since I acted like I knew him. She validated my feelings of discomfort and encouraged me to report the incident to campus police. I protested saying nothing had really happened and I didn't want to make a big deal out of it. Her reasoning was that he may have done things to other women or it might escalate the next time. Funny how I was not motivated to stand up for myself, but when I realized my inaction could harm other women, I found the courage to risk judgement by going to Campus Police.
"Next to the creek, at the base of the ravine, there was a small wickiup constructed out of willows. Inside were bloody deer skulls and amulets made out of bone. A small library of esoteric books on Mesoamerican cultures from Aztecs to Mayans were in orderly stacks, with sections on human sacrifice marked with pieces of torn paper. And then one of the students pulled out the double-edged ax."
Campus Police had an entirely male staff, and they were very supportive. They asked questions gently, listened, and made no judgements implying that I had done anything wrong in process. They seemed interested only in being kind while getting as many clear, concrete details as possible such as what exactly was said in what order. They asked me if I would be able to identify Persi if shown some photographs and I was confident I would. They put together six photographs and laid them out on the table. Persi was among them. Why would they already have a picture of Persi on file, I asked? The response was disturbing. He had a history of peeping on showering women in the dorms!
This was the final straw and Persi would go before an administrative committee to determine whether he could stay at the university or would be dismissed. He dropped out that semester temporarily. His Latin guy friends were in all of my classes and we were on projects together. When they learned that I was "the bitch" that was getting Persi kicked out of school, they said "Why are you doing that? Persi is just a regular guy that gets horny when he gets drunk!" I explained what had happened and that I did need to be dealing with Persi's unwanted horniness late at night. Thankfully, the guys got it. As much as they had a brotherhood, they wouldn't want their sisters treated the same way.
"When we don't listen to our intuition, we abandon our souls. And we abandon our souls because we are afraid if we don't, others will abandon us. We've been raised to question what we know, to discount and discredit the authority of our gut."
Persi returned to school a year later. The committee hearing took place and I was asked to testify. I answered all of their questions calmly and there was a sense of seriousness and impartiality in the room – someone's future was at stake. But I could feel the committee members vibe shift when I answered there final question, "Was he next to you or behind you as you walked to your room?" Persi was behind me. He was found "responsible" (this was not a court of law) and only then the committee was given access to Persi's full file so they would have complete information for a disciplinary decision. Using the information in the file, they decided to dismiss him from American University.
It's a story of a small injustice that was carried through to completion. I can rest easier that perhaps Persi learned his lesson and will not go further in his transgressions against women. There's no guarantee in that, but I'm satisfied that I found my voice, stood up for myself, and had the opportunity to be supported along the way. I've never forgotten that lesson.
"It's not the lips of a prince that will save us, but our own lips speaking."
Terry Tempest William's book, When Women Were Birds is a beautiful and unique autobiographical piece about a mother's influence on a young Mormon woman during the time of women's liberation through a radical act – leaving behind years and years and years of blank journals. You can find it here on Amazon.


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We had two carving teams--Jason and Ellie/Cutie and me. I was happy with this arrangement, since Cutie gave all of the decision-making opportunities and artistic license to me. He was happy just playing with a piece of the pumpkin I carved out.
Ellie was excited to scoop out the goop and didn't make any faces about getting dirty.
Cutie soon lost interest in our project and decided to push a chair around the kitchen. He is SO close to walking, but just won't do it. He stands very well by himself if he's distracted. I'm sure it won't be long!
Here are the finished pumpkins:
Ellie and Jason's turned into a mixed-media piece. She decided it needed hair and that she needed to draw it on with a magic marker. She even drew a nose, since Jason "forgot" one.
Friday morning we enjoyed a special Halloween breakfast, skeleton face/hand toast and pumpkin milk (it doesn't taste like pumpkin, it just has pumpkin pie spice and brown sugar in it). Yum!
Here's Cutie banging away on a metal bowl.
He really likes his costume. Okay, not really. He screamed and cried every time we tried to put in on him. Then he'd lay on the floor in protest.
It reminded us of "A Christmas Story." Cutie laid there like a slug, it was his only defense.
Ellie loved her costume, especially when we painted her face pink. We weren't able to get all of the pink face-paint off last night. Her face is still stained a bit today, too. Hopefully it'll go away soon. Any suggestions?


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A spring start is scheduled for a $7-million addition to and remodeling of the administration building at the base of the control tower at Los Angeles International Airport.
New construction will account for about 50,000 square feet of office space and 16,000 square feet of existing space will be remodeled, according to Fumio Konishi, project architect for Albert C. Martin & Associates, the architect.
Completion is expected before February, 1986, on a design that will see the existing exterior skin replaced with an aluminum and glass facade to match the new facilities. The addition will consolidate Department of Airports administrative activities at the airport.


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Failing grade on No Child Left Behind could redirect money
The U.S. Department of Education says Kansas gets a failing grade when it comes to meeting No Child Left Behind mandates. And that could cause the Kansas State Department of Education to lose out on a big chunk of federal funding.
But that wouldn't mean local school districts would suffer, because the federal dollars would instead go straight to local school districts.
"The funds will stay in the state, but they won't be used for administrative purposes at the state (education) department. They'll be passed through to the district to use in local programs," Deputy Education Commissioner Tom Foster said Friday.
It's the federal government's way of encouraging the state to meet requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind law.
If the dollars are redirected to the districts, that would have a big effect on the state education department's budget.
"Those funds pay salaries of people who work with the districts, so it's a real burden on the agency if we don't have those funds," Foster said.
There are eight states in the country, including Kansas, in this situation.
Kansas Education Commissioner Bob Corkins said the state's low rating was due to the way the state tests students and reports their scores. He said it doesn't reflect a poor education system.
"It really is just technical compliance to assure the validity and the reliability of the process," Corkins said.
Corkins said he thought the state would meet the standards before the federal government finalizes its decision to redirect the money.
"This is just a regular process the federal government goes through, and we have all the confidence in the world we'll be able to respond to the questions and keep things running smoothly," Corkins said.
Next week several members of the state education department will have a phone conference with federal counterparts to determine where Kansas goes from here, and to find out whether the state will get another chance to correct its mistakes before the money goes directly to local districts.


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Fire in Ember
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|Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 320
Vendor: Zondervan
Publication Date: 2011
|Dimensions: 8.50 X 5.50 (inches)
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The Fire in Ember: A Novel - eBookDiAnn MillsZondervan / 2011 / ePub$3.994.5 Stars Out Of 5 11 Reviews
A Woman Called SageDiAnn MillsZondervan / 2010 / Trade Paperback$10.99 Retail:5 Stars Out Of 5 19 Reviews Video
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Pursuit of Justice, Call of Duty Series #3DiAnn MillsTyndale House / 2010 / Trade Paperback$11.49 Retail:4.5 Stars Out Of 5 15 Reviews Video
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Sworn to Protect, Call of Duty Series #2DiAnn MillsTyndale House / 2010 / Trade Paperback$10.99 Retail:5 Stars Out Of 5 13 Reviews Video
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John Timmons life is planned and orderly. He cares for his mother and four younger brothers, and their future depends on him to keep their Colorado ranch profitable. Ember Farrar (Bert) has run away from her lawbreaking family in search of a new life. But, when she attempts to return a horse that her brother had stolen, ranch hands believe she is a thief and a boy and they plan to hang her. John, who is also a deputy marshal, breaks up the hanging. After paying for the stolen horse, he takes the boy home to work off the debt. Later he learns Bert is a girl who refuses to tell him who she is and why she possessed a stolen horse. When ranchers report stolen cattle, Bert is a natural suspect. John is touched by Berts sweet spirit and natural gift of music. Surely shes not a cattle thief. Bert fears for their lives when she is forced to either help her brothers steal or put the Timmons in danger. When John thinks Bert has betrayed him, he ignores God and turns revengeful. Will John learn who Bert truly is? Will their lives ever return back to normal?
Author Bio▼▲
Award-winning author DiAnn Mills is a fiction writer who combines an adventuresome spirit with unforgettable characters to create action-packed suspense-filled novels. DiAnns first book was published in 1998. She currently has more than fifty books published. Her titles have appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists and have won placements through the American Christian Fiction riters Carol Awards and Inspirational Readers Choice awards. DiAnn won Christy Awards in 2010 and 2011.
As the writer of several other western romances, DiAnn Mills knows her topic well. Her characters are initially engaging and Berts search for God is interesting. However, the plot is fairly predictable, and conflicts often have very convenient resolutions. The characters deal with intense conflicts, but they and their emotions are never fully developed, so they remain the typical heroes and heroines of western romances.
Bert's struggle with fear through most of the book demonstrates the lesson taught by John 8:32: "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." The Fire in Ember upholds Christian values, and its characters learn lessons consistent with the Bible. Despite its predictable plot, lovers of historical western romances will enjoy this book. Ruth Anne Burrell, www.ChristianBookPreviews.com


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IMPORTANT NOTE: The department will perform on site inspections to conirm the contents of photographs.
Submission of fraudulent application form(s) and/or photograph(s) is grounds to refuse to issue this and any
subsequent license.
− Photographs must be clear enough to ensure compliance with requirements.
− Each photograph must be dated and signed.
− Photograph must be attached to a sheet of paper, labeled and numbered according to directions below.
• Office
− Photographs must clearly show an office set up to perform the duties required by the license type, including
adequate secure storage for accountable materials and records.
• Entrance
− Photograph(s) of the office entrance, which includes the office address from the outside of the building.
(NOTE: See directions under sign for further directions if the address is not affixed near the office entrance
or to the exterior of the building.)
− If the office entrance is not directly accessible from the exterior, then a photograph from the corridor showing
the direct entrance is also required.
• Office Use
− Exclusive Office Use: A full photograph from the entrance to the back wall which includes both side walls.
Option: Two or more photographs that can be placed together covering the entire office area.
− Non-Exclusive Office Use: Businesses involving vehicles or their component parts must be conducted
separate from other types of businesses. Provide photographs that clearly show the physical division
between businesses involving vehicles or their component parts, (1670 CVC).
• Books and Records
− Photograph(s) of where the books and records pertinent to the type of business being conducted are kept
• Sign
− Photograph(s) must clearly show a sign permanently affixed to the exterior of the building, visible from a
distance of ifty (50) feet. If the address is not visible on the exterior of the building, then it must appear on
the sign.
− Sign From Fifty (50) Feet: A photograph of the sign from a distance of ifty (50) feet is required.
− Sign From Property Entrance: A photograph of the sign from the nearest public entrance to the property.
• Display Area
− Photograph(s) must clearly show an area large enough for the type of vehicle(s) for sale and must be for the
exclusive use of the licensee.
− Photographs of the complete display area.
− Photograph(s) that shows the proximity of the display area(s) to the office. If the display area is not in the
immediate vicinity of the office, another permanently installed sign is required to identify the business name
and office address.
− Photograph(s) that includes display area sign(s). If utilizing designated parking spaces, a sign must be
permanently installed designating the spaces for the exclusive use of the licensee (business name). A copy
of a contract or lease agreement for the spaces must be included with the application.
• Location
− Licensees with minimal license requirements must submit a photograph that clearly shows the place of
business (exterior of building and/or property), posted business name sign and area for licensed activity.


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In the nearly five years since Cara Cox disappeared with her father during a court-ordered weekend visit, deputies say she has been living under an assumed name in a remote region in Mexico.
The Volusia County girl, now 12 years old, was reunited with her mother Saturday. Her father, Aaron Cox, 55, was arrested and faces charges of interfering with child custody.


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At last Dylan Redwine's parents have an answer -- the 13-year-old's remains were found today, according to the La Planta County Sheriff's office. It's the most heart-wrenching answer a parent can get, but after months of wondering and hoping since his disappearance last November at least they know now.
The case was wrought with questions from the beginning as Dylan disappeared while visiting his father, Mark Redwine, in his Vallecito, Colorado home. He typically lived with his mother, Elaine Redwine, in Colorado Springs after his parents divorced in 2007.
Mark left Dylan home while he went out to run some errands on the morning of November 19, and when he returned, the boy was gone ... never to be seen again until today when his body was found, about 10 miles from Mark's home.
Since his disappearance, the already contentious relationship between Mark and Elaine has gotten even worse. Both have blamed each other for the boy's disappearance (though neither has been named a suspect), but now they must bury him together. Mark told the paper:
I am reaching out to his mom so he can have a proper burial. Making sure he gets a proper burial and the respect he deserves is what I have to focus on,
Now that the big question has been so sadly answered, the others must be answered as well: Who would harm this beautiful, innocent boy, and why? Police say they are investigating it as a criminal matter, not an accident. There's no good answer obviously, but in these cases, I always hope that it's not a parent, because I can't imagine anything worse than a person taking the life of someone to whom they gave that life. Unfortunately, all too often it is.
In any case, this family deserves to know what happened. Whoever did it deserves to pay the price. R.I.P., Dylan.
What do you think could have happened in this case?
Image via National Center for Missing and Exploited Children


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A bill which would allow cities to be sued for local gun laws is currently pending in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.
The legislation would require a total of 30 cities — including Philadelphia — to pay damages to plaintiffs who challenge the cities' gun regulation laws.
The bill passed out of the House committee with bipartisan support, and it will be voted in the House in the beginning of March, according to John Hohenwarter, National Rifle Association's Pennsylvania State Liaison.
The bill, heavily supported by the NRA, was in response to the cities' move toward penalizing gun owners who fail to report lost or stolen guns. If passed, NRA and other interest groups can preemptively sue cities for upholding Lost or Stolen Handgun Reporting law.
Four years ago, cities from across the state — Allentown, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia — proposed a statewide Lost or Stolen Handgun Reporting law to make sure legal gun owners would be held accountable for their guns. The proposal was rejected by the state legislature, but Philadelphia was the first to pass the law in 2008, and 29 other cities followed suit in the next two years.
"It's something in the right direction when it's done by the city," Max Nachman, 2008 College graduate and current executive director of CeaseFirePA — an anti-gun violence organization — said.
Nachman, who is against the pending House bill, said illegal guns can always be traced back to someone who once bought the gun legally, whether it was through theft or illegal trafficking.
One of the issues, he said, is that after the police find a gun at the scene of a crime and trace it back to an owner, that owner can just say that it was stolen and he had forgotten to report it. "This happens over and over again," Nachman said.
Pennsylvania law does not currently require gun owners to report a missing firearm. "People who are actually buying them legally and are selling or giving them away illegally are able to get away with gun trafficking since they can't be prosecuted," Nachman said.
The NRA objected to the passing of the Lost or Stolen Handgun Reporting law and sued Philadelphia and Pittsburgh three times each over the past four years, according to Nachman.
"Now, the NRA is trying to change the rules just for them," Nachman said. "So any gun owner can sue the city whether or not they find the city guilty. The fact of the matter is, these cities have not broken any rules. Nobody's rights have been violated. You cannot sue these cities."
Hohenwarter believes that firearms and ammunition should be regulated at the state level.
"You have to have laws which are uniform across the state to avoid 3,000 separate laws and regulations," he said.
"Obviously state law should trump local laws," Penn Shooting Club president and founder Cille Kissel said. The College senior believes that the House bill is meant to "empower individual citizens."
"It sounds intuitive to me," she said.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Mark Fiorino, a 25-year-old Lansdale resident, are currently suing the Philadelphia Police Department for alleged wrongful arrest.
Fiorino constantly carries a Glock .40-caliber semi-automatic pistol under the state's Open Carry Law, which stipulates that legal gun owners may carry guns without licenses and unconcealed by clothing. He claims that he was wrongfully stopped, arrested and had his gun confiscated over the course of three separate encounters.
"I personally think it's tragic that Philadelphia police officers aren't familiar with the laws governing their fine city," Kissel said.
Penn Shooting Club has over 400 members, according to Kissel. The club is bringing the NRA University program to campus on March 15 to educate students on firearm legislation.
"Cities are struggling with gun violence," Nachman said. "Gun crimes are common threats. You're not immune from it just because you're at Penn."
This story has been updated to reflect that Kissel is female, not male.Comments powered by Disqus
Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.


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The Federal Government has flagged legal liability and a long-standing risk-averse culture as areas of concern as it moves to implement aspects of its Declaration of Open Government, launched last July.
At the Cebit Gov 2.0 conference held in Canberra last week, AGIMO's energetic first assistant secretary John Sheridan spoke candidly about the risks and benefits of making available more Government data and information about its operations.
The Government's eight-month-old data.gov.au now featured 700 data sets that could yield new commercial opportunities for outsiders and industry, he noted.
Sheridan said there were about 14 applications that used data.gov.au data, most of which was provided in raw XML format. Two of those applications were offered on commercial or fee-for-use basis.
But for agencies and departments, public disclosure came with new risks.
Sheridan highlighted concerns that troubled insiders about releasing the National Public Toilet map issued as part of the National Continence Management Strategy.
Significantly, the map and underlying data was one of the few datasets not issued in the public domain.
Government concerns included: What if the toilet was closed and somebody was relying on it -- could the person sue the Government for providing that information?
What if somebody caught some disease from using that toilet? What if there were offensive words inside the toilet and someone felt offended by those words? Where was the responsibility going to lie?
What if someone used geolocation data for some nefarious or malicious purpose that wasn't intended by Government? Would the Government be liable?
Towards an open culture
Sheridan argued the answer was "to create a culture where it is expected that this sort of information can be used by people".
He compared the disclosure of information to sending a bicycle to the local tip for recycling, arguing that the bicycle owner should not be obliged to provide a helmet, a book of instructions or warning that the bicycle should only be used by those with the relevant know-how.
The point, Sheridan said, is that it is better that bicycle be re-used than sit underneath his house.
Sheridan said Gov 2.0 initiatives will likely bring mobile and personal applications that will interact with citizens to deliver services when and where they are needed.
He noted that the hitherto concerns about using Twitter in Government were being gradually overcome, though there was still a degree of caution and risk aversion over its use.
Many agencies tended to use Twitter as another form of publicity rather than engagement with their constituencies.
Meanwhile, ABS Census 2011 and Queensland Police -- which used Twitter to communicate with the public during the Queensland floods -- were hailed as important victories in the battle to make Gov 2.0 a mainstream aspect of their operations.
Australian Federal Police online services director Rob Crispe said it was important to form alliances to drive change and cope with occasional resistance within agencies.
Crispe's personal blog uses an illustration of a tight rope walker navigating over a stream of hungry crocodiles to make his point.
"I believe the government needs to encourage the 'normalisation' of proactive and regular dialogue with the community, so that senior government officials ultimately aren't afraid to admit mistakes or shortcomings to the people whom they serve."


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Home near Lake-Large Wooden Deck, Flat Screen TVs. Brick Wood Burning Fireplace in living room. Home has a dining room, Washer & Dryer, full kitchen with all appliances and cookware. Kitchen has a nook overlooking the deck. Large private comfortable Master bedroom extending off deck. Comfortable Queen bed with sitting Chair with ottoman to relax or to read a book, TV/DVD, VCR, with movies. 2nd Bedroom has a queen/Sitting futon with a twin on top. Home has 2 large queen elevated airbeds in 2nd bedroom closet. DVD's, VCR's and cable are in all comfortable locations including the living room. Various movies and a few games are available for your use. Home has plenty of bedding for all rooms and extra to accommodate your various needs. Ample amount of towels are provided for the kitchen and bath. City has designated 2 dedicated Parking spots --1 Large and 1 compact. The house is located on a quite dead-end street. It is walking distance to the outlets and close to the beach. Contact Jack
2-night minimum. Cleaning fee+ taxes /Refundable Security Deposit held on credit card on the day of arrival only!! Accepts all major Credit Cards--
MC,VISA,DISCOVER,PAYPAL,DEBIT, E-CHECK,etc,.
All rates quoted are for the night only and does not include taxes and cleaning.
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Your Lincoln City Property ID: 352537
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For some reason, I thought that the past few months had been kind of quiet on the research front, so when I started this post, I thought it would be one of my shortest roundups yet. I was pleasantly surprised to watch it grow to become one of the longest!
There are some great case studies here, of both large and small sites, which I love to see. There's also some truly excellent debate about responsive design and the mobile web, sparked by a post from Jakob Nielsen last spring, as well as some good stuff about the browser wars and third-party content. So enough with the intro. Let's get into it.
Case studies
Optimizing Retr-O-Mat's Web Performance
A casual performance optimizer details her efforts to get Retr-O-Mat's average load times under 2 seconds. Good information for anyone interested in the nuts and bolts of front-end optimization (FEO).
Web performance can be beautiful too
After performing poorly in a 2011 web performance comparison of leading retailers, Crate and Barrel made WPO a priority moving forward. This blog post from Catchpoint shows just how "beautiful" their performance has been in 2012.
How the Post is improving site performance
Responding to a flood of user frustrations with their website, the IT team at the Washington Post rolled out a number of performance upgrades to their site over the past year. Find out what they did to improve their page speed by 32.4%.
Tips and how-tos
Building a faster web: Tools, tips, and lessons
If "faster connectivity and more bandwidth won't save us," then what will? Google's Ilya Grigorik shares his insight on making the web faster in this in-depth slide deck, and he draws some very interesting conclusions.
How to Make Progress Bars Feel Faster to Users
The human perception of time is anything but linear, and with just minor visual tricks, it gets even more skewed. After reading this post, you may never trust a progress bar again. 🙂
The 3 white lies behind Instagram's lightning speed
More cool perceptual tricks. The "secret sauce" behind Instagram's stellar user experience is rooted in a combination of coding tricks aimed at giving users a feeling of constant responsiveness. Find out how their site "always pretends to work."
The web only works thanks to reload (and why the mobile web fails)
As Mike Belshe points out, web page resources routinely fail, but thanks to the ever-handy reload/refresh button, we can often solve these problems ourselves. With mobile browsing, however, the rules are different. Find out what this means for the future of HTML 5.
Web first for mobile
Performance evangelist Steve Souders focuses his performance research strictly on the mobile web – not on native apps. Why? He's got more than a few good reasons.
A taste test of mobile website development
A solid webcast on the complex world of mobile development, touching on topics including Responsive Web Design (RWD), server-side device detection, and HTML5 performance on mobile.
Jakob Nielsen on mobile sites vs. full sites
Jakob Nielsen believes that mobile and full sites should be entirely different entities. Summarizing his argument, he states that "good mobile user experience requires a different design than what's needed to satisfy desktop users. Two designs, two sites, and cross-linking to make it all work."
Is Nielsen wrong on mobile? Arguments abound
From Net magazine: Jakob Nielsen's assertion that "good mobile user experience requires a different design" is being challenged by a noted mobile expert, who argues that rather than stripping down for mobile, companies should be doing more.
Why we shouldn't make separate mobile websites
More counterpoint to Nielsen's post. Smashing Magazine's Bruce Lawson argues that mobile redirection is unreliable, and excluding features for mobile browsers "perpetuates the digital divide."
Responsive web design: Missing the point
Still more Nielsen backlash: Brad Frost states that, though mobile browsers are getting better at rendering full websites, creating adaptive sites for mobile users is essential to improving the user experience.
HTML5 features increase mobile usage by 28%
Interesting piece explaining how static pages needing an upgrade can vastly improve mobile user engagement through the addition of HTML5. The new release features interactive galleries, overlays, and expandable/collapsible boxes, driving up pageviews and decreasing bounce rates.
More ways to measure web performance with User Timings
Google Analytics has expanded its collection of Site Speed reports with a new feature called User Timings. The feature enables tracking of specific load times for discrete hits, images, and other user interactions.
New mod_spdy release supports Apache servers
More from Google. The latest version of mod_spdy – an Apache module that adds SPDY server support – is intended to fix bugs found in the original release.
"Speed Index" introduced as new performance metric
The Speed Index metric has been added to WebPagetest, helping measure the speed at which page contents are visually populated. The tool is especially useful for comparing page experience before and after optimization.
Browser Speed Tests: Chrome 19, Firefox 13, Internet Explorer 9, and Opera 12
Lifehacker conducts it's semi-regular browser speed tests, pitting the four titans of desktop browsing against each other in races for startup speed, tab loading times, and other performance indicators.
Which Browsers are the Fastest?
An interesting companion read to the Lifehacker piece, New Relic's "Speed Wars" study shows that, while IE 9 speeds past other browsers on Windows, Chrome 13 on Mac was overall the fastest experience. In mobile speed tests, the fastest experience was delivered by Blackberry Opera Mini at 2.6 seconds, twice as fast as Safari 5.1 on iPad.
How the Chrome Predictor hides latency from users
Ilya Grigorik demonstrates how Google Chrome hides latency from users. Interesting stuff here.
Internet Explorer market share surges, as IE 9 wins hearts and minds
From Ars Tecnica: "The browser wars are back on in earnest. For the second time in three months, Internet Explorer made large gains, picking up almost 1 point of market share. Chrome, Firefox, and Safari all lost out, as Internet Explorer 9 won over new users."
A one-size-fits-all CDN solution isn't always best
Server configurations come in all shapes and sizes, which means a one-size-fits-all CDN is seldom effective. Find out which Level 3 customer was the beneficiary of a custom CDN solution and how it worked out.
Third-party content
10 Golden Rules for 3rd Party Providers
Murphy's Law reigned supreme throughout June, with a flood of large-scale outages taking down some of the world's most popular websites. Given the inevitability of online failures, third-party providers must be prepared to deal with the worst. The folks at Catchpoint outline the 10 Golden Rules by which all third-party providers should live by.
The vendor who flunked the web performance test
Are third-party vendors ignorant to the consequences of slow web performance? According to Catchpoint they are, as they detail a story of one such vendor who was completely unaware of the performance impact of their product.
Average UK website has 14 trackers per page
Interesting findings from TRUSTe: Despite the prevalence of privacy policies, over two-thirds of trackers on UK websites originate from third-party companies, and almost half embed themselves permanently.
Google releases +1 button preview – loads 20% faster
Google announced that they've improved performance of the +1 button and Google+ badge. By reducing the size of the js/plusone.js loader and making the code smarter, page elements now load 20% faster.
Third-party JavaScript should be loaded asynchronously
Old news to some, but still worth mentioning: Third-party JavaScript should be loaded asynchronously, as it helps avoid slowdowns and can speed up page loads.
Third-party front-end performance, Act 1
Application provider Bazaarvoice is delving into the realm of front-end performance, and provides an interesting third-party perspective.
Opinions and analysis
Performance Nightmare: Nasdaq & the Facebook IPO
When Facebook began trading on May 18, 2012, a series of performance failures on Nasdaq.com caused a huge headache for the company. This article from Intechnica asks how much these badly timed hiccups cost investors.
More, better, faster: Steve Souders on WPO
Steve Souders kicked off O'Reilly's Velocity video podcast series with an in-depth discussion of the state of web performance optimization. Key topics included measuring slowness, performance monitoring tools, and whether mobile disrupts performance.
Other research
How complex systems fail
As a complex and interdependent system, the web is prone to catastrophe at the highest levels. In this fascinating paper on resilience engineering, presented at Velocity 2012, Dr. Richard Cook outlines the reasons why all complex systems are intrinsically hazardous, why disaster is always just around the corner, and how failure-free operations still require experience with failure.
The growing epidemic of page bloat
I don't usually pimp my own writing here, but this information is too important not to share. I wrote a piece for GigaOM showing that the average page size is now over 1MB, according to the HTTP Archive. At current growth rates, the average page could hit 2MB by 2015, which is a really big deal, especially for mobile users.
How fast are websites around the world?
Some fascinating findings here. Google's Site Speed Reports provides detailed latency data for page load times by separating data according to device, location, and industry.
These links were all sourced from Strangeloop's Web Performance Hub, which contains hundreds (and by now, possibly even thousands) of industry-wide links, organized by topic, source, research type, and industry. It's a pretty good resource, if I do say so. If you have any new links to recommend, let me know.


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It's been quite the few days. Getting some stuff resolved with my ex. Firing emails off to people I used to know. Ditto to new people. The internet is a funny thing.
On Cross Country Check Up today (Which I fucking hate, by the way, fucking just hate. It's like turnip. Every once in a while I think, maybe it's not so bad as I remember. I should try just a little bit again to see if it's maybe not so bad. And then I spit it out after two chews and think, Why was that invented? Who can like it? Put it back in the primordial sludge, already. I can't decide if I hate C-C-C-UP more or the same amount as Vinyl Tap, which makes me want to punch the radio.) someone was yammering on, and what they were yammering about this time was how computers were wrecking the world because no one talked to each other anymore. Bullshit. It's just a different kind of talking.
Not that I'm saying that computers should replace going out, but for those of us who are much more comfortable - and wittier - when typing to people than talking to them, the interweb has been a godsend.
And it means that I can make arrangements with my ex through pleasant emails and not weepy conversations. Weepy on my side, anyway. And can connect with old band members again. It's nice.
What is nice but is not on the internet is the apple pie I baked tonight. There was pastry in my freezer that needed using. Tomorrow, my co-workers will get a nice surprise when I warm it up and we all get a nice afternoon break.
Busy week coming up. Course starting tomorrow, Divergence movie night Tuesday, band practice Wednesday, PPO meeting Thursday. And an article due for the Xpress on Friday.
Good lord, I need to go get some sleep.


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FULTON – Residents of Michaud Residential Health Services in Fulton boarded their bus for a trip across town to the Fulton Junior High School to see this year's Spring Showcase.
The Junior High Student Spring Showcase was an opportunity for families and community friends to visit the open house and interact with students and learn about information they displayed on projects that they have been working on for the past few weeks, covering a wide variety of topics.
Michaud residents enjoyed presentations from the Art Department, Health Department, Family & Consumer Science, and Technology Department and as a special treat had a mini-concert from the school chorus and Orchestra.