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Plants grown in a greenhouse must be acclimated carefully before planting or placing them outdoors. This is especially true in hot or sunny locations. Many species should never be grown in full sun. Before purchasing a plant, learn about its sun requirements. Knowing the plants requirements can avoid any damage to the plant by incorrectly giving it the wrong conditions.
If your grape vine was grown in a greenhouse, here are a few steps we recommend you follow:
These are general guide recommendations. Some plants take longer than others to acclimate.
The best way to succeed is to plan before you plant. Let's discuss location: Do you know where you want to plant your new grape vines? Avoid many future problems by considering all aspects of the planting spot, such as:
Is a pollinator variety present? Cross-pollination by a different variety, of the same type of plant, is key to the success of many plants. In most cases, its absence is why the plant doesn't bear fruit or produces poorly.
Your plant would love a sunny place with well-drained, fertile soil. But it will be quite satisfied with six to eight hours of sunlight. Good drainage is required to keep your plant "happy." If your soil has high clay content, use our Coco-Fiber Potting Medium or add one-third peat to the soil at planting time. We do not recommend planting in heavy, pure clay soils.
Once you've found out about fruit growing goodness firsthand, you'll want to expand your home orchard. It's important to plan so that the future growth areas will be ready when you are.
Few things are as delicious as homegrown grapes, and the success of your harvest begins right with the planting site and method. For maximum growth and yields later on, give your plants the best foundation possible.
Before you plant, check your soil pH. This can be done by contacting your local County Extension Office for information about soil testing in your area, or purchase one of our digital meters for quick and accurate results. Ideally, your grapes need a soil pH between 5.5-6.5. Steer clear of soils that are extremely heavy or very poorly drained. Grape vines will grow in a wide range of soil but they must have good drainage.
Preparing your soil before you plant will greatly improve your plant's performance and promote healthy, vigorous growth. It is a good idea to have your soil tested to determine if it is lacking in any essential minerals and nutrients. This can be done through your County Extension Office or with one of our digital meters.
The goal of soil preparation is to replenish vital minerals and nutrients, as well as break up and loosen any compacted soil.
Soil preparation can be done at any time that the ground is not too wet or frozen. Your trees may be planted even when temperatures are quite cool. If a hard frost is expected, it is advisable to delay planting for a while until temperatures become more moderate. Generally, as long as your soil is workable, it is fine to plant.
Your lawn can provide you with ideal organic materials such as grass clippings and shredded leaves. Not only will the grass and leaves break down to provide soil nutrients, but they will help loosen the soil as well. You can gather these in the fall with spring planting in mind.
Adding organic materials, such as our Coco-Fiber Potting Medium and compost will improve most every soil type. Organic materials bind sandy soil particles so they retain moisture and nutrients better. They also break apart clay and silt particles, so that water can infiltrate and roots can spread.
Fertilizing is an excellent way to replenish the natural nutrients in your plant's soil. We recommend using Stark® Tre-Pep® fertilizer for your grapes, applied 2-3 inches deep and 10-12 inches away from the plant. A second and third application may be made at the same rate after six and twelve weeks of growth. Always apply fertilizer according to the package directions.
Organic fertilizers such as fish emulsion, compost, crab meal, or cottonseed meal may be used as alternatives.
Every plant has the future potential for disease and insect damage. Factors such as location and weather will play a part in which issues your plants encounters. If available, disease-resistant varieties are the best option for easy care; and for all types of plants, proper maintenance (such as watering, pruning, spraying, weeding, and cleanup) can help keep most insects and diseases at bay.
Yellow spots appear on leaves with downy spots on underside of foliage. Older leaves in center of vine are infected first. Can infect fruits, become soft, grayish, wither, may or may not have downy symptom. Over-winters on fallen leaves, so fall clean up is vital.
White knots between the bark and hardened at or below the soil line. Infected tissues have a mushroom-like odor when moist. Black fungus strands that look somewhat like roots, may be formed on the outside of the roots. During fall and early winter, fungus may produce mushroom-like fruiting bodies at the soil line around the trunk. Plant may die quickly or may show a slow decline with wilting leaves, and/or small dark green leaves. Disease progresses by root contact with infected plants. Soil fumigation may be necessary.
Usually on bark of young twigs and branches, encrusted with small (1/16") hard, circular, scaly raised bumps with yellow centers, may also be on fruit. Sap feeding weakens vine.
Reddish-brown spots on leaves, spots soon appear on fruit, turn black. Then entire fruit becomes black, hard, shriveled mummy. Disease usually infects vine from bottom up. Over winters in fallen mummies (some mummies may cling on plant and can transmit disease also). Fall clean up is critical in control.
May cause early season shoot blight following spring rains. Flowers can become infected during bloom. Then becomes dormant until sugar content of the infected berries increases later in the season. Infected berries split then leak and the fungus continue to grow. Intact ripe berries can be infected as harvest nears. Berries damaged by insects or birds are more susceptible. Removal of some leaves around the clusters can help control the disease. Don't remove too many, especially on side that receives afternoon sun, to prevent sunburn of fruit. Fungus over-winters in berry mummies on ground and hanging on vine. Fall clean up is critical.
Seldom seen in vines less than 8 years old. Most readily recognized symptoms are noticed during first 2 months of annual growth. They are malformed and discolored shoots, young leaves are small, cupped and often develop small necrotic spots and tattered margins. Grape clusters on affected shoots may have mixture of large and small berries. Symptoms become more extensive each year until part or the entire arm fails to produce shoots in the spring. Prune directly after a rain risk of infection is lowest at this time and prune late in dormant season to promote rapid healing. Spray or hand-paint large pruning wounds with fungicide soon after pruning and before rain.
Black or brown lesions appear, especially on young leaves. Center of lesion becomes grayish-white and dries, may fall out giving a shot-hole appearance. May affect the shoots and the berries. Lesions on berries have dark brown or black margin, center is violet gradually becoming whitish-gray.
Appears as red blotchy areas on dormant canes. First appears on leaves as pale yellow or white spots on the upper surface. Soon a white webby substance appears and the white powdery masses. Fruit may be completely covered. Fungus may over-winter in dormant buds.
During summer or early autumn leaves on white varieties show yellow and red varieties show reddish patches, which enlarge and dry out. Severely infected leaves may drop and canes die back from the tip. On berries small round dark spots, bordered by a brown purple ring, may occur. Spots may appear any time between fruit set and ripening. In severely infected vines, berries may crack and dry on the vine. Believed to be caused by wood-rotting fungi that enter thru large pruning wounds. Occurs sporadically. Insect is more likely to occur in areas with consistently high summer temperatures such as California and Arizona.
Infected leaves have small, light green irregular or circular spots with dark centers. May be puckered along veins or margins may be turned under. May also have dark brown to black spots along veins and on leaf stems. Spots may drop out giving a 'shot hole' effect. Infected portions of leaf may turn yellow, and then brown and leaf may drop. Young shoots, fruit stems and leaf stems may have spots that enlarge and form dark brown or black streaks and stretches, which eventually crack leaving open wounds. The fungus also causes fruit to rot. The grapes gradually turn brown and shrivel. Infections are worse when vines are kept wet by rainfall for several days after bud break.
The range of bacterium in wild vegetation that causes this disease extends from northern California southward in western US southward from latitude of Tennessee in the eastern states. It is not a problem where the bacterium is not established in the wild. Is transferred mainly by sharpshooter, leafhoppers and spittlebugs.
Chlorotic spots develop on leaves, discoloration intensifies and tissues begin to wither. In late summer drying spreads in concentric zones until entire leaf may be infected and drop, leaving the leaf stem attached to the vine. Late in the season, wood of infected canes show green 'islands' of tissues, surrounded by dark brown mature wood. Bud break in spring is delayed. First 4-6 leaves are small and tissues along major veins appear dark green against chlorotic background. Subsequent leaves are also small but normal in color. Affected vines may die the first year or may live for several years.
Adult is pale yellow with dark brown and reddish markings. Over-winters as an adult and found in spring on grape leaves and weeds. Lays eggs in tissue of leaves in April and May, which appear as bean-shaped blister-like bumps. When nymphs emerge they are almost transparent, later becoming white. Feeding from adults and nymphs causes pale yellow stippling on leaf. When populations are very high can cause loss of leaf efficiency and leaf drop, which weakens the vine for the following season. They have some natural predators such as green lacewings, lady beetles and some mites. Grape vines can tolerate high densities of leafhoppers.
Adult is bell shaped, blackish gray snout-like mouthparts, forewings dark rusty brown with tan tips. Over winters in larval stage in mummified berries, in weeds and other trash. Moths emerge in spring and lay egg masses on leaves. Eggs hatch in 5 days and larvae tie two young leaves together to form nest in which they feed. Does not roll leaves. Later nests can be found in flower clusters and in bunches. Damage is not only from feeding on leaves, flowers and berries, but feeding sites allows rot organisms to enter fruit.
Over winters as pupae, moths emerge in April. May lay eggs singly on upper or lower leaf surfaces. Larvae are transparent. After hatching they feed for about 2 weeks between two webbed leaves. Then each larva rolls a leaf edge and feeds from the inside on the leaf edge. Then the mature larvae construct a separate leaf envelope in which they pupate. Early generations cause little damage, but generations later in summer can cause severe damage by complete defoliation to sunburned berries, soft fruit and direct feeding.
Adults are 1/4" long, flat, oval shaped with a white waxy covering. Yellow to orange eggs are laid within an egg sac. Crawlers are yellow to brown in color. Over winters as an egg or very immature young in or near a white, cottony egg sac, under loose bark or in branch crotches, mostly found on north side of vine. They are not known to damage vines. Damage is by contamination of fruit clusters with egg sacs, larvae, adults and honeydew, which promotes growth of black sooty mold.
Caterpillars are dull colored with inconspicuous marks differing in different species. Varies from 1/2" - 2" in length. Many varieties of grapes can tolerate significant damage. Feeds on grapevines from bud swell till shoots are several inches long. Injured buds may fail to develop vines or clusters. Can cause yield reduction on varieties with unfruitful secondary buds. Problems are usually spotty or localized. Other insects cause similar damage. Cutworm feeding after shoots are several inches long does not result in significant injury.
Adult metallic bluish or greenish-black moth emerges in early spring to June. Pale yellow capsule-shaped eggs laid in clusters on underside of leaf. Larvae feed side by side on underside of leaf. Five stages of larvae ranging from cream colored to brown to yellow with two purple and several black bands. Have conspicuous tufts of long black poisonous spine, which cause skin welts. When mature, larvae crawl under loose bark or in ground litter and spin a dirty white cocoon to pupate. Larvae feed on lower leaf surface leaving only veins and upper cuticle. This leaves a whitish paper like appearance. Later larvae stages skeletonize leaves, leaving only larger veins. Can defoliate vines by July and larvae may then feed on grape clusters causing bunch rot.
Adult is bell shaped about 1/2 " long, orange colored, and has dark V-shaped marking mid wing. Caterpillars are straw-colored with a brown head, very active. When insect is disturbed they wiggle sideways or backward and either drop to ground or hang by silken thread. Overwintering larvae feed on vines, weeds and on any grape mummies remaining on vine. In spring feed on buds, canes and webbed leaves. Then enter bunches and make nests of webbing among the berries.
Adults are wingless females, generally oval shaped, less than 1/2" long, vary in color from yellow, olive green, brown or orange. Eggs are yellow and oval. Over winters as small nymphs on roots. In spring start feeding and growing. Damage occurs when insect feed on the roots, which swell and turn yellowish. Dead spots develop at feeding sites. If there are a lot of dead spots, vines become stunted and produce less fruit.
Adult females are dark brown beetles, cylindrical shaped, and males have white bodies, c-shaped with brown head. Males excavate tunnels where larvae spend up to 10 months. Adults burrow into canes thru base of bud or into crotch between shoot and spur. Infested canes can twist and break. Larvae bore into wood at dead and dying parts and feed. Not a significant problem in well-pruned vineyards.
Small insects, less than 1/2" long, with feathery wings, yellow to brown in color. Cause damage if they lay eggs in fruit soon after bloom, scarring fruit. In summer they feed on new vegetative growth and damage summer foliage, not usually considered a problem. Avoid mowing cover crops infested with thrips before bloom or they may move to vines.
Adults are light gray, about 1/4" long. Larvae stages are spent in the soil, adults emerge in mid-January to mid-March. Adults cause crop loss by feeding on opening buds and eating the bud center. After new shoots are 1-1 1/2" long, damage is negligible.
Adult is cylindrical black beetle, 1/4" long. Emerging from round holes in trunks of damaged vines and from dead wood in spring and early summer. Larvae are 1/3" long and cream color with dark head. Larvae are C-shaped and may be found in tunnels on the vine where they feed. Not a common pest.
Adults are small, yellowish flies and are attracted to fermenting fruit of all kinds. The larva is 1/4" long maggot shaped and can be found in damaged fruit. Eggs are laid in the exposed fruit tissues and emerging larvae feed on the berries. Main damage from the pest is sour rot organisms it carries from bunch to bunch. Any practice that reduces bunch rot will also reduce population of the vinegar fly.
There are several species of these mites. These pests range in color from amber to greenish to reddish to yellow, depending on the species and where on the vine it is located. As a result of feeding, dead spots appear on the leaves. High populations may cause leaf burning and prevent them from doing their work.
Flea beetles are approximately 1/10 inch long, shiny blue purple to blue green, with enlarged hind legs for jumping. Adult beetles damage primary buds when they feed on them and larvae feed on the leaves. Remove debris and leaf litter in and around grapevines. This will help to eliminate overwintering sites.
Adult moth is small 6 mm long and brown in color. Eggs are laid singly on buds, stems and berries. Newly hatched larva is creamy white with a dark brown head then becomes greenish and eventually turns purple. Larvae feed on stems, buds and berries and often they feed inside protective webbings.
Adult is metallic green beetle, which skeletonizes leaves. Larvae are a grub, which feeds on turf roots. Check turf product labels for timing of control of grubs. This is more of this problem is east of the Mississippi River.
Pruning is very important in maintaining your plants good health. There are several reasons to prune: maintain the size and shape of the plant, stimulate for strong growth and overall fruit quality.
In late winter, from the third year on, your grapevine should be pruned severely. On each of the four "arms," select a good pencil-size stem as the fruiting cane, trimming it back to keep about 8 to 10 buds. Near the base of each of these fruiting canes, leave a stubby stem with two buds to form next year's fruiting canes. All other canes are pruned away. Keep doing this each year to maintain your vine in the very best of bearing condition. This pruning system may sound drastic, but it really works!
Muscadine: In late winter, the canes are cut back to leave only three to four buds above the horizontal main stem.
First Pruning and Second Season Growth
To ensure good fruit production, pruning of the past season's growth should be done each winter when the leaves have dried and fallen off the vines and the plants are dormant between January and February. After the lateral shoots have been established as cordons, canes extending from them should be pruned back to spurs.
Second Pruning and Third Season Growth
In the winter after the second growing season, canes grown from the previous year's buds should be pruned back to three buds per spur
To start out the second year, begin training the vine on a permanent support. Make sure this trellis support is strong enough, because it will soon be holding up lots of heavy bunches of grapes. Select the best side canes to form the "double T" shape (see above diagram). This training is used in most vineyards because it's the most productive. Your crop of grapes will be produced on new growth from 1-year-old stems, so it pays to keep old wood to a bare minimum. Muscadine grapes are more productive with a different type of training. A "single T" shape has a row of short, upward growing branches.
A good reference book, such as Pruning Made Easy, can answer questions and guide you through the pruning process.
Spraying is important to the survival of your plants. To handle potential diseases and pests, reference the guidelines below to know what you should spray, and when you should use it.
Before you begin, read and follow all instructions on labels.
Spray every 14 days with Bonide® Fruit Tree Spray as a preventative measure. No more than 2 applications per year. Do not use more than 2 quarts of spray suspension per 100 square feet of grape vine. Cease spraying 7 days before harvest. (Not for use in California.)
Unless you're in an area where irrigation is usually needed for normal plant growth, you probably won't need to water after the first growing year. Until then, follow these guidelines to get your new grape vines off to a great start.
Are you ready to enjoy delicious homegrown fruit? Harvest is the time to enjoy the results of your hard work. Keep a few things in consideration as you reap the fruits of your labor: the best time to pick the fruit, and how to store your harvest.
You can start harvesting your grapes in the third season. Harvest when weather conditions are dry, wet grapes do not keep well.
Several factors will help you determine if it is time to harvest your grapes:
Use a pair of sharp well-oiled easy to use shears. Gentle pull the clusters away from the vine and clip with the shears. Keep grapes out of direct sunlight.
Annual average yield per plant:
The better the condition of the grape the longer they will keep. Do not wash them before storing. Remove any damaged, soft, moldy or bruised grapes before putting in a plastic bag and storing in the refrigerator. Storing in a zip lock plastic bag will help preserve their freshness and prevent the skin from drying out.


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Does Linux Need Hard Times To Succeed?
Linux at the Tipping Point
If Walmart is looking for another product to add to its Great Value range, perhaps it should look no further than Linux.
But that doesn't mean they have to compromise on quality. Just because a product has a premium brand and commands a higher price doesn't necessarily mean it's better. You can pay five times as much for a packet of Tylenol as you would for generic acetaminophen, but either will get rid of a headache equally well.
So it's not surprising that 65 percent of IT professionals recently polled by IDC said they plan to increase Linux server workloads by 10 percent or more this year. IDC carried out the poll for Novell, and the draft results were reported in InformationWeek.
Another thing IDC's poll found was that "forty-nine percent 'of respondents' said they expect Linux will be their primary server platform within five years."
InformationWeek also said, "Asked what factors would accelerate Linux deployments, respondents said 'reducing costs and stronger interoperability with Windows' as the two top issues ... Given a chance to migrate away from Unix, the respondents often said they would choose Linux as the replacement based on its low support costs."
This suggests that open source software is now widely perceived as a low-cost but viable alternative to proprietary systems, despite the FUD some closed vendors have tried to spread over the past few years.
This is backed up by Matt Asay, a VP at open source content management software maker Alfresco, with a telling observation on his Cnet blog
Two years ago a Fortune 500 company approached Alfresco (my employer), and ultimately concluded that they were too conservative and open source was too risky to move forward. A week ago the same people contacted me to say that times have changed, and now it's considered too risky to not be using open source due to its potential cost savings.
Recessions can be disastrous for businesses and individuals, but because they disturb the status quo dramatically they also present tremendous opportunities for companies offering different or innovative ways of doing business.
The likely losers in this particularly severe economic downturn are proprietary Unix and many of Microsoft's server offerings. In the future, we may well look back and see it as an important tipping point when Linux and open source server software finally became the prudent corporate norm.
Paul Rubens is an IT consultant and journalist based in Marlow on Thames, England. He has been programming, tinkering and generally sitting in front of computer screens since his first encounter with a DEC PDP-11 in 1979.
Article courtesy of ServerWatch

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Find My iPhone has just been updated to version 2.0.3 and all Apple's saying is that it contains bug fixes and stability improvements.I haven't seen anything particularly of interest but I know I was experiencing crashes periodically while using it so we'll see if those issues are corrected over time.
We've had a few users reporting issues when attempting to sign into the updated version. One user said he was prompted to update to an iOS 7 beta before he could use the app. May be a one off issue and none of us were able to duplicate it. If any of you have any issues, make sure you let us know in the comments!
- Free - Download Now
This post may contain affiliate links. See our disclosure policy for more details.


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European CUs Meet their Parliamentarians
WOCCU's European Network of CUs Launches Organization-wide Lobbying Day
December 08, 2010
Nearly 50 representatives of credit unions in eight countries met in Brussels this week to participate in the first "lobbying day" aimed at educating lawmakers in the European Parliament about the strength of credit unions.
BRUSSELS, Belgium — Credit union representatives from seven European countries got a taste of political lobbying — several for the first time — as World Council of Credit Unions' (WOCCU) European Network of Credit Unions met with legislators at the European Parliament here Wednesday. Nearly 50 credit union and trade association professionals met with 30 European parliamentarians in multi-national delegations to spread the word about the services credit unions provide throughout the European Union (EU).
Participants from Estonia, Ireland, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, the United Kingdom and the United States spent time with lawmakers to discuss issues as broad as the global economic crisis and as specific as the growing need for deposit insurance among emerging movements. Even Latin America was represented by WOCCU 1st Vice Chair Manuel Rabines, president and CEO of Federación Nacional de Cooperativas de Ahorro y Crédito del Perú, who participated in the process. The primary purpose of the visits was to introduce credit unions to parliament representatives unfamiliar with them and lay the groundwork for ensuring favorable legislation for credit unions.
Fiona Cullen, head of lobbying for the Irish League of CUs, makes a point to Pat "the Cope" Gallagher, who represents Ireland in the European Parliament.
"Lobbying day is an important way to raise awareness among legislators and show our uniqueness compared to other financial service providers," said WOCCU 2nd Vice Chair Grzegorz Bierecki, who led an eight-member delegation representing the National Association of Cooperative Savings and Credit Unions, the Polish credit union trade group in which Bierecki serves as president and CEO. "Our efforts will create a positive view of credit unions."
Most EU member countries have cooperative banks, but relatively few have credit unions. This can create recognition problems when it comes to exercising EU-wide legislation involving financial institutions, according to Marian Harkin, a parliamentarian representing Ireland and a credit union champion who welcomed the group. Effective lobbying efforts are critical to credit unions' continued growth and influence throughout the "Euro zone," Harkin said.
"Credit unions are strong in just a small number of European countries, and that creates an issue when you are not a force in a particular state," Harkin explained. "Credit unions need to create networks of alliances with other cooperatives or similar institutions throughout the EU to expand their message to a wider audience."
Fiona Cullen, head of legal and lobbying activities for the Irish League of Credit Unions and part of a six-member Irish delegation to Brussels, agreed. "It's a process of education," Cullen said. "We don't have anything specific today that we're lobbying for. Our process is simply to open doors."
Although WOCCU helped form the European Network in 2009, the global trade association has been effectively helping its European members lobby on their own behalves for the past five years. For lobbying novices like Efim Lupanciuc, general director of Moldova's Central Association of Savings and Credit Associations, WOCCU's experience will be an effective force in helping with the emergence and regulation of Moldova's credit unions.
"We want the European Parliament to keep in mind that we are Europe-oriented and at the very beginning of our efforts," said Lupanciuc, part of one of the newest credit union movements in a country on the cusp of joining the EU. "As credit unions, we want to be part of the global movement and up to the standards of other WOCCU members."
World Council of Credit Unions is the global trade association and development platform for credit unions. World Council promotes the sustainable development of credit unions and other financial cooperatives around the world to empower people through access to high quality and affordable financial services. World Council advocates on behalf of the global credit union system before international organizations and works with national governments to improve legislation and regulation. Its technical assistance programs introduce new tools and technologies to strengthen credit unions' financial performance and increase their outreach.
World Council has implemented 300+ technical assistance programs in 89 countries. Worldwide, 89,026 credit unions in 117 countries serve 260 million people. Learn more about World Council's impact around the world at www.woccu.org.


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This double basin sink provides increased versatility for any task. This undermount sink features tightly angled corners to maximize basin space and a sloped bottom that helps with draining and clean-up. Constructed from premium grade 304 stainless steel, fully undercoated and padded with unique multi layer sound eliminating technology, which also prevents condensation. Scratch-resistant commercial-grade premium satin finished, guaranteed to never rust.
Overall Dimension: 32.68"L x 17.72"W x 10"D (830mmL x 450mmW x 254mmD)
Small Bowl Dimension: 12.13"L x 15.75"W x 10"D (308mmL x 400mmW x 254mmD)
Large Bowl Dimension: 17.64"L x 15.75"W x 10"D (448mmL x 400mmW x 254mmD)
Drain Size: 3.5" (90mm)
- Constructed from 304 stainless steel for durability and reliability.
- Includes soap dispenser, basket strainer and drain pipe.
- All mounting hardware is included.
Free Shipping to major countries in North America, Europe and Asia. More details
Total Delivery Time = Processing Time + Shipping Time More details
* Processing time differs from category to category. The actual time is subject to the instructions on each product page.
* We partner with major international shipping companies like DHL, UPS, FedEx and EMS to offer two shipping methods:
Expedited Shipping: 3-5 business days
Standard Shipping: 6-8 business days
* We will do our best to provide you with accurate shipping times for your package, but please note that the times are estimates only.
* The definite shipping method varies with the product weight, size, destination country and other special circumstances. More details
Please note that all import duties including any taxes, tariffs are the sole responsibility of the customer. Most of shipments to countries with high tax-free threshold won't be charged any customs fees, for example the US, Australia, New Zealand, as we can easily control the declared value within tax-free amount. For countries with low tax-free threshold, customs duties or fees are to be expected, for example the EU countries, Canada. But we will declare the value as low as possible to save customs fees for customers. More details
Customers can initiate a return or exchange within 30 days of receipt. Items must be returned in new or unused condition and contain all original materials included with the shipment. More details


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David Petry, author of the book, The Best Last Place: A History of the Santa Barbara Cemetery, will host a walking tour of the Santa Barbara Cemetery this Halloween weekend:
Saturday, October 31, 2009
10 AM to 12:30 PM
901 Channel Drive, Santa Barbara
$15 per person
Meet at the Cemetery Chapel
The Santa Barbara Cemetery is unique among cemeteries. Overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the cemetery is home to actors, industrialists, authors, musicians, sports stars, and many of the town's founders and leaders. It was, for the duration of the Reagan presidency, the chosen site for the Reagan's burial plot. The Cemetery Chapel is the only sacred structure designed by famed architect George Washington Smith; inside are the only completed murals of Mexican muralist Alfredo Ramos Martinez. Where most cemeteries are corporate-, church-, or government-owned, the Santa Barbara Cemetery is owned and operated by a nonprofit board whose by-laws were originally drafted in 1867.More information about this event is available here.
P.S. I have a copy of Mr. Petry's book, and it is excellent. The history of this cemetery is really quite fascinating!
Copyright © by Elizabeth O'Neal


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Easy-to-create truck planter woodworking project is great to display your collection of fine flowers. The plans arrive with a list of all the materials and instructions which clearly explains each portion of the project. These wood project plans are perfect for spreading cheer in your home, on your lawn, porch or anywhere! Simply trace the outline of the truck planter woodworking project onto the wood and cut out with a jigsaw.
Design Group Patterns arrive with your local home improvement stores materials list. Create your own customized line of woodworking products for the Holidays from these classic full-size project plans. Affordable way for carpenters to improve their and your homes decor. Easily build out of plywood, masonite, or cardboard from your local home improvement store. Our beginner wood craft projects are perfect for displaying your new talents in woodworking. Great for senior community crafting circles, artists, kids, high school and grade school students technology crafting workshops. 10″ x 4″ x 6″
Invoice • Shop • Bird Houses • Children's Room • Christmas • Furniture • Garden • Kitchen • Shelving • Toys
Truck Planter Woodworking Project Instructions
- Using transfer or carbon paper trace all lines onto 3/8 Inch minimum plywood or masonite.
- Cut out outline, gently sand edges.
- Paint outlines first, let dry.
- Paint in other colors use suggested color guide or make up your own selections.


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Masao Yamamoto
Kawa=Flow #1633
Edition of 20
Masao Yamamoto
Masao Yamamoto Biography Masao Yamamoto's photography is known for evoking emotional power in the form of small-scale photographs. Photographer Masao Yamamoto (1957-present) was born in Aichi Prefecture in Japan. Originally interested in pursuing painting, studying oil painting specifically under Goro Saito. Though Masao Yamamoto eventually transitioned into photography in 1993, his painting background is apparent in his works' painterly look,...


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What Can We Learn from Google's "Mistake?"
Google's every action is studied under a microscope. However, one major "mistake" that Google made may have gotten lost. Google's policy of freeing up 20% time for all engineers, no management approval needed, was cancelled. Yes, this is the same policy that was responsible for Gmail. Google's former policy had been held up as best practice at Google and in the tech community, and was advertised as a Googler perk. Although the 20% rule had been used at 3M and HP before, Google made it their own and resulted in industry changing products.
You may ask - why was the 20% rule such a good idea and why is removing it a mistake? The reason Google's 20% time off is a great idea is because it worked and worked well. One needs a certain amount of freedom to be creative. A study on mechanisms of grant funding (long term vs. short term) found that freedom encourages creativity when the freedom was believed to be long term. "If you want people to branch out in new directions, then it's important to provide for their long-term horizons, to give them time to experiment and potentially fail. The researcher has to believe that short-term failure will not be punished" " says Pierre Azoulay, an associate professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and an author of an MIT study on the subject. Freedom of thought inspires creativity and the development community, more than anyone else needs to break away from traditional thinking.


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Find hotels & motels in Alliston using the list below. Search for cheap and discounted hotel and motel rates in or close to Alliston, ON for your corporate or personal leisure travel. We list the best Alliston, Ontario motel and hotel rooms. Browse the Alliston area hotels to find the perfect lodging! Please use the provided map of the Alliston hotels.
The Alliston center point is about 18 miles southwest of Downtown Barrie and 22 miles northwest of Downtown King City.
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The latest entry in the 'super midsize' competition is put through its paces
Gulfstream Aerospace soon will begin customer deliveries of its $24-million G280, a 3,600-nm-range super midsize jet.
Although not new to the category—Gulfstream acquired the Galaxy (nee Israel Aerospace Astra IV) in 2001 and renamed it—the G200's performance was inferior to Bombardier's muscular Challenger 300, which went on to garner nearly 400 sales in the past decade. Nonetheless, G200 operators say their passengers loved the cabin and the aircraft's reliability. Gulfstream, along with Galaxy Aerospace, succeeded in delivering more than 240 aircraft.
Still, to remedy the G200's shortcomings, Gulfstream gave its successor a new wing and empennage and replaced the 6,040-lb.-thrust Pratt & Whitney PW306A engines with a pair of Honeywell HTF7250G turbofans, each rated at 7,624 lb. thrust, giving it the best thrust-to-weight ratio and runway performance in the category. And it boasts a more tanks-full payload, 350 nm more range and better fuel efficiency than its Canadian competitor.
Of equal importance to operators, G280 has more cabin volume than either Challenger 300 or G200, along with a lower cabin altitude and reduced cabin sound levels. Its 120-cu.-ft. aft baggage compartment is the largest in its class and it is now accessible inflight because the G200's aft fuselage fuel tank has been eliminated. G280's cabin has 19 windows—four more than G200.
Up front, there is large, full-service galley and a cockpit jump seat for the flight attendant. The aft lavatory has a vacuum toilet, a first for a super midsize aircraft. And all the way up front, the G280 features a PlaneView flight deck, which will be discussed more fully when we outline the flying characteristics later in this article.
Before taking to the air, it's good to note the regulatory milestones that have been met. G280 has new CAA Israel and FAA Part 25 type certificates, and complies with Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) Part 25 through Amendment 1-120, plus A122. The European Aviation Safety Agency CS-25 A2 type certification is in the works. The aircraft meets International Civil Aviation Organization Annex 16 and FAR Part 36 Stage 4 noise standards, along with FAR Part 34 fuel venting and exhaust emission requirements.
The green aircraft is assembled at Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) in Tel Aviv, fitted with a ferry package and flown to Gulfstream's Dallas-Love Field facility for outfitting and painting. The G280's wing—derived from the G550 airfoil with a slightly different twist distribution and new large, wide radius winglets—has more sweep and 495 sq. ft. of area, 34% more than the G200 wing. Similar to G550, design cruise speed is Mach 0.80, up from Mach 0.75 for G200. That yields up to 29 more kt. true air speed (KTAS), enough to shave 30 min. or more off London-New York flight time.
The larger wing, along with the wing center section tank and feeders, also holds 20% more fuel than the G200's, enabling Gulfstream to shrink the forward belly tank and eliminate the 5,515-lb.-capacity, 67-cu.-ft. fuselage tank, replacing it with a 1,130-lb.-capacity aft belly tank. Overall fuel capacity actually is 390 lb. less than the G200's, but the more-efficient wing and new engines make up for the difference.
The G280's T-tail empennage features larger area fin and stabilizers to handle the aircraft's nearly 2-ton weight increase.
The flight-control system of the new aircraft has little in common with that of G200 other than similar pitch-control mechanisms and the stall-protection system. The roll-control system, for example, uses manually actuated ailerons with servo tabs that provide high-fidelity aerodynamic feel. Computer-controlled multi-function spoilers provide most of the muscle needed for roll control. The result is natural feel, abundant roll-control authority and well-harmonized pitch and roll forces at the yoke.
G280 is fitted with a fly-wire-wire (FBW) rudder in place of the manually actuated, boost-assisted system on the G200.
In keeping with long-standing Gulfstream design practice, G280 has no leading edge high-lift devices. The trailing edge flaps are electrically controlled and hydraulically actuated.
The aircraft boasts an updated, fully split buss electrical system with increased automatic load shedding compared to G200's hybrid split/parallel buss architecture that shares common emergency and hot battery busses. Aboard G280, there are left and right 28-volt-direct-current (VDC) 400A brushless generators, plus a 28-VDC 400A auxiliary power unit (APU) starter-generator rated for inflight use up to 40,000 ft. at reduced output. Left- and right-side 24 VDC 38AH heated lead-acid batteries, plus a standby battery, are standard.
The hydraulic system has been updated to provide additional redundancy for the FBW rudder. The left and right sides have both engine-driven and electrically powered hydraulic pumps, similar to Challenger 300. The design provides the necessary power redundancy for the digital FBW rudder.
The G280 has a new brake-by-wire system with an auto-braking function, a first for this class of business aircraft. The auto-braking system has low, medium and high deceleration levels, plus a rejected takeoff off mode for maximum braking.
The ice protection system has been changed significantly. Gone are the G200's pneumatic de-ice boots on the leading edges of the wing and horizontal stabilizer. G280 uses a bleed-air for heated wing anti-ice.
Rockwell Collins Pro Line Fusion avionics provide the backbone of G280's PlaneView cockpit. The main instrument panel features three 15-in. screens with cursor control devices on the left- and right-side ledges and left and right standby multifunction controllers [SMCs] in the glareshield panel. Gulfstream invented the SMCs to provide each pilot with a full-function electronic standby instrument system that doubles as a display and test control box. The 3 X 4-in. full-color LCD screens are in direct, head-up view of each flight crewmember.
Two multifunction control display units in the center console provide a flight management system (FMS), radio tuning and other functions. The throttle quadrant assembly that sends electronic commands to the engine Fadecs has servos that move the throttles in response to auto-throttle commands.
Other standard features include triple VHF comm and dual nav radios, dual distance measuring equipment, dual combined Mode S/Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) transceivers, dual FMS with 12-channel wide-area-augmentation/satellite-based-augmentation-system GPS receivers, dual digital air computers and dual solid-state attitude-heading reference systems, along with a single Multiscan weather radar, automatic direction finder receiver, HF transceiver, triple-frequency emergency locator transmitter, radio altimeter, 120-min. cockpit-voice/flight-data recorders and a terrain awareness and warning system (TAWS). A VHF comm radio is data-link capable for air traffic control functions such as Europe's Link 2000.
The passenger seating area is 17 in. longer than the G200's because the fuselage fuel tank has been removed.
Buyers have a choice of interior configurations with standardized floor plans, cabinetry, cabin sidewalls and systems. Eight-, nine- and 10-passenger configurations are available, each having a forward four-seat club section.
About half the buyers opted for an aft section with two facing chairs on the right side with a 6.7-ft.-long, three-place divan on the left. Others selected a four-place conference grouping on the left side of the aft cabin with the three-place divan on the right. The life raft is stored underneath the divan.
All seat pairs fold into berths. The divan may be extended into the aisle to form a 31-in.-wide berth. The aircraft can sleep four on extended flights in fully or near-flat berths.
The cabin management system is designed to use off-the-shelf iPod Touch personal digital assistants (PDA), loaded with a company supplied app, as the remote control. Two iPod Touch PDAs are included with the aircraft. The master seat has an iPod Touch docking station for charging as well as an Iridium satellite phone communications handset.
The cabin audio/visual system offers dual 160-gigabyte media servers that each can store 80-100 high-definition movies. There also are laptop ports for inflight business presentations.
Standard equipment includes a 19-in. forward bulkhead LCD monitor and a proprietary moving map system with flight information, high-resolution satellite imagery, geographic borders and passenger briefing videos.
Belt into the left seat of G280, as we did recently, and it is immediately clear that the Plane-View280 flight deck puts this aircraft on par with the best of Gulfstream's large-cabin aircraft. Brian Dickerson, the company's senior production test pilot, was in the right seat and Bob Wilson, midsize Gulfstream aircraft experimental test pilot, rode along as safety pilot.
Dickerson explained that G280 is the only aircraft in this class to have both full-authority auto throttles and an auto-braking system. It is also the only super midsize aircraft in current production to offer an optional head-up display and an enhanced vision system, although these were not installed on the demonstrator.
Dickerson and Wilson prepped the aircraft and they had the APU running when we arrived at Gulfstream's ramp at its Dallas-Love Field facility (elev. 487 ft.). Outside, the temperature was 33C/91F; inside the aircraft it was 70F.
Pre-start checks were straightforward, using the standby multifunction controller to run through stall warning, TCAS and TAWS tests, plus setting the landing field elevation. The FMS performance database was not yet certified, so Wilson computed takeoff data for a 32,000-lb. takeoff weight and flaps 20 deg. He calculated 106 KIAS for V1 takeoff decision speed, 112 KIAS for rotation and 124 KIAS for the V2 OEI (one-engine-inoperative) takeoff safety speed. En route climb speed was 171 KIAS. Using those speeds and opting for a "bleeds off" takeoff, we computed takeoff field distance at 3,725 ft.
Rolling out of the chocks, we found the nosewheel steering and new brake-by-wire system to be smooth and precise.
Once cleared for takeoff on Runway 13R, we advanced the throttles midway and engaged the auto-throttle system. Rpm advanced to 90.6% N1, providing just under 7,400 lb. of thrust on each engine. With a weight-to-thrust ratio of 2.16:1, acceleration was spirited.
Rotation force was moderate and roll force was well harmonized with pitch force. The ailerons and elevator have virtually no perceptible on-center stiction, making the aircraft quite enjoyable to hand fly. In addition, thrust changes cause very little pitch change. Some pilots may not want to relinquish control to the autopilot, but the auto-throttle system is so smooth and precise that there is little reason not to use it.
After takeoff, the pneumatic system automatically switched from APU bleed air to engine bleed air. At that point, we secured the APU.
Following a 250 KIAS/Mach 0.75 speed schedule, the aircraft climbed westward from Dallas-Love to Flight Level (FL) 450 in 21 min., including a 3-min. ATC delay. That is impressive as the outside air temperatures (OAT) were mostly ISA (international standard atmosphere)+15-17C until we climbed above FL300. At FL450, though, OAT cooled off to ISA-5C. Fuel burn for the climb was about 1,000 lb.
We checked cruise performance at Mach 0.80 normal cruise and Mach 0.84 high-speed cruise at FL450 at ISA-5-6C. At a weight of 30,800 lb., fuel burn was 1,510 lb. per hr. (pph) at normal cruise and 1,810 pph at HSC. The flight manual indicates the aircraft's long-range cruise speed at this weight is Mach 0.79 and fuel flow should be about 1,400 pph. At Mach 0.84, it predicts 1,778 pph at that weight and OAT.
The aircraft was buffet-free up to a 40-deg. angle of bank, corresponding to 1.3g. At maximum takeoff weight, the aircraft has 1.2g of buffet margin from Mach 0.75-0.80 at FL450. Buffet margin drops sharply above normal cruise speed.
We descended to 16,000 ft. for airwork southeast of Abilene, Texas, using idle thrust and the variable position speed brakes for drag. The air brakes produce very mild pitch-up when fully extended and just slight airframe rumble that is unlikely to disturb passengers.
When level at low altitude, we flew a couple of steep turns. It is easy to maintain altitude using the primary flight display's flight path marker and airspeed trend vector. Pitch force is moderately heavy, thereby preventing over control. Roll response, with the help of the fly-by-wire roll spoilers, is crisp, but roll effort is moderate, again preventing over control.
Dickerson next demonstrated the low-speed protection system. If the aircraft is slowed to 72% of the angle of attack (AOA) at which the stall warning stick pusher fires, the auto-throttle system engages and power is advanced to prevent the stall. Up to maximum available thrust, the auto-throttle system will not allow angle of attack to exceed 78% of stick-pusher AOA.
We then flew clean, flaps-20 approach and landing configuration stall approaches to stickpusher at weights of 30,150-30,250 lb. For the three configurations, stall warning stickshaker then stall prevention stickpusher, respectively, were triggered at 139 KIAS and 131 KIAS; 113 KIAS and 106 KIAS; and 107 KIAS and 101 KIAS. Aircraft behavior during each of the maneuvers was very benign.
Next, it was off to Abilene's Runway 35R for pattern work, starting with the instrument landing system approach. Wilson pegged Vref at 128 KIAS for the aircraft's estimated 29,600-lb. landing weight, providing a 23% margin over stall. The auto braking system was set to medium deceleration for demonstration purposes.
We flew the approach at Vref+5 until crossing the fence. The relatively large wing and absence of leading edge/Kreuger flaps provide considerably more ground effect cushioning than in the G200. We floated down the runway for a few hundred extra feet before touching down. The auto-braking action was very smooth and progressive, and the aircraft slowed to moderate taxi speed in about 2,500 ft.
To sample G280's engine-out takeoff performance, Wilson computed speeds of 101 KIAS for V1, 109 KIAS for rotation and 121 KIAS for V2. Just above 101 KIAS, Dickerson retarded the right throttle to idle, simulating an engine failure. Only light left rudder pressure was needed to control yaw because of the powerful FBW rudder system. But the servo system moved the rudder pedals enough to make it apparent to our feet that the left engine was producing substantially more thrust than the right.
The aircraft was easy to control throughout the simulated OEI approach and landing. We noted that thrust response to throttle movement is very linear and predictable with the HTF7250 turbofans, thus speed was easily controlled. That's a vivid contrast to the throttle response of the G200's PW306As.
After landing, we taxied back to sample the aircraft's auto-braking rejected takeoff feature. During our simulated takeoff roll, Dickerson called "Abort! Abort!" just over 80 KIAS. We snapped the throttles to idle. The ground spoilers fully deployed and the auto braking responded with maximum braking effort. There was the slightest tendency toward triggering the anti-skid system, but the aircraft decelerated smartly to a stop with no loss of directional stability.
Returning to Dallas-Love Field, we easily stopped the aircraft in the first 3,800 ft. of runway.
Conclusions? G280 delivers sporty performance, excellent handling qualities and unsurpassed avionics capabilities in this class of business aircraft. Meanwhile, its range and speed capabilities are on a par with far more expensive large-cabin aircraft.
|Wing Loading
|80.0 lb./sq.ft.
|Power Loading
|2.60 lb./lbf.
|Noise (EPNdB)
|Dimensions (ft./meters)
|Width (Maximum)
|Width (Floor)
|2 Honeywell HTF7250G
|Output/Flat Rating
|7,624 lb. each/ISA+16.7C
|Inspection Interval
|Weights (lb./kg)
|Max. Ramp
|Max. Takeoff
|Max. Landing
|Zero Fuel
|Max. Payload
|Useful Load
|Executive Payload
|Max. Fuel
|Payload With Max. Fuel
|Fuel With Max. Payload
|Fuel With Executive Payload
|Mach 0.850
|Time to FL 370 (min.)
|FAR Part 25
|OEI rate (fpm/mpm)
|FAR Part 25
|OEI gradient (ft./nm; m/km)
|Ceilings (ft./meters)
|All-Engine Service
|Engine-Out Service
|Sea Level Cabin
|FAR Part 25 A1-120, 122


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Slop From The Trough 06-12-09
This is a new blog I'll plan to do at least weekly starting with training camp. For now, at least, it will just be something along the lines of a Redskins notebook. I'll be going to the internet trough and posting some of the slop that I come across that seems relevant. Feel free to comment to let me know if I've missed something or you have ideas for improvement.
For now, let's get started with LaRon Landry, Jason Campbell, two signings and James Thrash:
Tags: chris cooley, Cody Glenn, Colt Brennan, DeAngelo Hall, devin thomas, Eddie Williams, James Thrash, Jason Campbell, Jim Zorn, laron landry, malcolm kelly, Marko Mitchell, slop from the trough, Todd Collins, Washington Redskins


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A warm and friendly welcome awaits you at Bosanneth Guest House Falmouth. Set within award-winning gardens, this beautiful Edwardian house provides quality accommodation overlooking Gyllyngvase beach and Falmouth Bay.
Recognising our hospitality the AA places us within the top 20 of 4000 guest houses countrywide for outstanding friendliness and service. Our renowned and hearty breakfasts and evening meals are home-cooked using fresh, local produce. Our garden is an oasis of calm and colour and most rooms including our lounge and dining room enjoy spectacular sea views.
Just two minutes walk from Gyllyngvase beach, Bosanneth Guest House Falmouth is your ideal choice for a long relaxing stay or a short getaway break. Fully licensed and open all year.
Find us on tripadvisor.co.uk where you can read our guest reviews.
Bosanneth Guest House
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01326 314 649


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Protoceratops (meaning 'First Horned Face', derived from Greek proto-/πρωτο- 'first', cerat-/κερατ- 'horn' and -ops/-ωψ face)[1] is a genus of sheep-sized (1.5 to 2 m long) herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur, from the Upper Cretaceous Period (Campanian stage) of what is now Mongolia. It was a member of the Protoceratopsidae, a group of early horned dinosaurs. Unlike later ceratopsians, however, it lacked well-developed horns and retained some primitive traits not seen in later genera.
Protoceratops had a large neck frill, which may have served to protect the neck, to anchor jaw muscles, to impress other members of the species, or combinations of these functions. Described by Walter Granger and W.K. Gregory in 1923, Protoceratops was initially believed to be an ancestor of the North American ceratopsians. Researchers currently distinguish two species of Protoceratops (P. andrewsi and P. hellenikorhinus), based in part by their respective sizes.
In the 1920s, Roy Chapman Andrews discovered fossilized eggs in Mongolia that were interpreted as belonging to this dinosaur, but which turned out to be those of Oviraptor.
Description Edit
Protoceratops was approximately 1.8 meters (6 ft) in length and 0.6 meters (2 ft) high at the shoulder. A fully grown adult would have weighed less than 400 pounds (180 kg). The large numbers of specimens found in high concentration suggest that Protoceratops lived in herds.
Protoceratops was a relatively small dinosaur with a proportionately large skull. Although a herbivore, Protoceratops appears to have had muscular jaws capable of a powerful bite. These jaws were packed with dozens of teeth well suited for chewing tough vegetation. The skull consisted of a massive frontal beak and four pairs of fenestrae (skull openings). The foremost hole was the naris, which was considerably smaller than the nostrils seen in later genera. Protoceratops had large orbits (the holes for its eyes), which measured around 50 millimeters in diameter.[3] Behind the eye was a slightly smaller fenestra, the infratemporal fenestra.
This quadrupedal dinosaur had a neck frill at the back of its skull. The frill itself contained two large parietal fenestra (holes in the frill), while its cheeks had large jugal bones. The exact size and shape of the neck frill varied by individual; some specimens had short, compact frills, while others had frills nearly half the length of the skull. The frill consists mostly of the parietal bone and partially of the squamosal. Some researchers, including Peter Dodson attribute the different sizes and shapes of these bones to sexual dimorphism and the age of the specimen.
Discovery and species Edit
Photographer J.B. Shackelford discovered the first specimen of Protoceratops in the Gobi desert, (Gansu, Inner Mongolia), as part of a 1922 American expedition looking for human ancestors. No early human fossils were found, but the expedition, led by Roy Chapman Andrews, collected many specimens of the Protoceratops genus, along with fossil skeletons of theropods Velociraptor, Oviraptor, and ceratopsid Psittacosaurus.
Walter Granger and W.K. Gregory formally described the type species, P. andrewsi in 1923, the specific name in honor of Andrews. The fossils hail from the Djadochta Formation and date from the Campanian stage of the Upper Cretaceous (83.5 to 70.6 million years ago). Researchers immediately noted the importance of the Protoceratops finds, and the genus was hailed as the "long-sought ancestor of Triceratops". The fossils were in an excellent state of preservation, with even the sclerotic rings (delicate occular bones) preserved in some specimens.
In 1971, a fossil was found that captured a Velociraptor clutched around a Protoceratops in Mongolia. It is believed that they died simultaneously, while fighting, when they were either surprised by a sand storm or buried when a sand dune collapsed on top of them.
In 1975, Polish paleontologists Teresa Maryanska and Halszka Osmólska described a second species of Protoceratops, also from the Campanian stage of Mongolia, which they named P. kozlowskii. However, the fossils consisted of incomplete juvenile remains, and are now considered synonymous with Bagaceratops rozhdestvenskyi.
In 2001, a second valid species, P. hellenikorhinus, was named from the Bayan Mandahu Formation in Inner Mongolia, China and also dates from the Campanian stage of the Upper Cretaceous. It was notably larger than P. andrewsi, had a slightly different frill, and had more robust jugal horns. The arch of bone over its nostrils had two small nasal horns, and there were no teeth at the front of the snout.
Reproduction Edit
In the 1920s, Roy Chapman Andrews discovered the first known fossilized dinosaur eggs, in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia. Each egg was about 8 inches long, and newborn hatchlings estimated to have been about a foot in length. Due to the proximity and abundance of Protoceratops, these eggs were believed at the time to belong to this genus.
The contemporary theropod Oviraptor was thought to consume Protoceratops eggs due to the discovery of an Oviraptor skeleton present at a nest. The skull was crushed, and it was speculated that the injury was received by an angry Protoceratops mother defending her nest from the predator.
However, in 1993 Norrell et al. discovered an embryo inside a supposed Protoceratops egg. This embryo, upon close examination, turned out to actually belong to Oviraptor itself. The original find actually represented Oviraptor brooding behavior rather than a failed attempt at oophagy.
Classification Edit
Protoceratops was the first named protoceratopsian and hence gives its name to the family Protoceratopsidae, a group of herbivorous dinosaurs that were too advanced to be psittacosaurids, but too primitive to be ceratopsids. The group is characterized by their similarities to the Ceratopsidae but with more cursorial limb proportions, generally smaller frills, and lack of large horns.
In 1998, Paul Sereno defined Protoceratopsidae as the stem-based clade including "all coronosaurs closer to Protoceratops than to Triceratops." Some studies placed Bagaceratops, Breviceratops, Graciliceratops, Lamaceratops, Magnirostris, Platyceratops, and Serendipaceratops within Protoceratopsidae, but in 2006, Makovicky and Norell published a new phylogeny which removed several genera from Protoceratopsidae; several other phylogenies also exist. Bainoceratops may be synonymous with Protoceratops.
Origin of griffin myths Edit
Folklorist and historian of science Adrienne Mayor of Stanford University has suggested that the exquisitely preserved fossil skeletons of Protoceratops and other beaked dinosaurs, found by ancient Scythian nomads who mined gold in the Tian Shan and Altai Mountains of Central Asia, may have been at the root of the image of the mythical creature known as the griffin. Griffins were described as lion-sized quadrupeds with large claws and a raptor-bird-like beak; they laid their eggs in nests on the ground.
Greek writers began describing the griffin around 675 B.C., at the same time the Greeks first made contact with Scythian nomads. Griffins were described as guarding the gold deposits in the arid hills and red sandstone formations of the wilderness. The region of Mongolia and China where many Protoceratops fossils are found is rich in gold runoff from the neighboring mountains, lending some credence to the theory that these fossils were the basis of griffin myths.


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- La Liga
Cesc backs Messi to silence Madrid
Barcelona midfielder Cesc Fabregas says that team-mate Lionel Messi will answer recent criticism from Real Madrid winger Jose Callejon and the Madrid media on the pitch during Tuesday's Copa del Rey semi-final second leg at the Camp Nou.
Reports in the Spanish media accused Messi of verbally accosting both Madrid defender Alvaro Arbeloa and assistant coach Aitor Karanka in the aftermath of last month's first leg at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu. Callejon then went on to claim the incident showed the Argentine was not the 'good guy' people usually assumed.
Fabregas said that Messi, like all the Barca players, preferred to avoid such off-the-field distractions, and they would do their talking when the game began.
"We are not the type of team that likes to complain to the press," he said. "There are things that have to be said, but we will do our talking on the pitch. Leo is the best when it comes to this. He is very strong mentally and physically. What he wants to do is play, enjoy the game and win."
The 1-1 first-leg draw at the Bernabeu appears to make Barca favourites to progress to May's final against either Atletico Madrid or Sevilla. However, Fabregas recalled a similar situation in last season's quarter-final, when Barca won 2-1 in the first leg in Madrid, but were slightly fortunate to progress after the return game at the Camp Nou finished 2-2.
"It is vital to score, we cannot go into the match and wait to see what happens," he said. "In last year's Copa Clasico return leg, after we had a good result from the away leg, we were nearly eliminated from the competition. Madrid are very dangerous and to go through we will have to play our best football."
The former Arsenal midfielder put Barca ahead in this season's first leg in late January, and the Catalan side missed a number of chances to add to their lead, before Raphael Varane headed a late equaliser for Madrid. Barca could not afford to be so lax in front of goal again, Fabregas said.
"We had our chances to make it 0-2 in Madrid," Fabregas said. "In the return leg we have to be as effective as possible, because they are very effective. We have to take our chances if we want to get to the final."
The build-up to the return game was further heated on Monday when Barca stand-in coach Jordi Roura appeared to deliberately put pressure on referee Alberto Undiano Mallenco not to allow Madrid to be over-physical. Blancos boss Jose Mourinho reacted by ironically claiming he had learned from Barca never to talk about match officials.
Roura was highlighting a viewpoint in Catalonia that Undiano Mallenco let Mourinho's side get away with plenty when Madrid won the 2011 Copa final 1-0 in extra-time. However, the feeling in Madrid is that they are being targeted by referees at the moment, having picked up eight red cards in 13 games this calendar year.
Barca board spokesperson Toni Freixa told Radio Marca on Monday night that by Roura saying Barca's results in games when Undiano Mallenco took charge were relatively bad, he was just setting out the facts, not trying to gain an advantage.
"Roura gave objective information," Freixa said. "He did not get into judging if the referee had done well or badly. I share his opinion 100%."
However, former Barca striker Hristo Stoichkov, who played at the Camp Nou from 1990 to 1998, said Barca should just concentrate on their own game.
"If Mourinho had said what Roura said about referees all hell would have broken out," the current Litex Lovech coach said. "You are better off not complaining about referees, and Barcelona should not worry about it. It does not help you."
Stoichkov said he expected Messi to have more of an influence than in his below-par showing in the 2-0 Champions League defeat at AC Milan last week and for Barca to progress against Madrid.
"Messi is one of the best players in history, who has scored more goals than anyone and he keeps making history," he said. "Some of the stuff I have read makes me mad. Against Madrid we will not see the Messi of Milan. Barca is the best club in the world, with the best players. They must play quickly against Madrid, who are strong in midfield."


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Predictive Analytics | Feature
Now that most of the institutions in the University System of Georgia are tapped into a centralized LMS, the state system is ready to put that data to work with predictive analytics.
The University System of Georgia (USG) has 31 public institutions, including powerhouses Georgia Tech, the University of Georgia, Georgia Regents and Georgia State, with individual budgets running up to a billion dollars. Many of the schools making up the extensive university system consume major IT systems -- registration, student information, virtual libraries, applications supporting the physical libraries, financials, student advising software and plenty of others -- that are run by Information Technology Services and centrally provisioned from USG's private clouds hosted in data centers around the state.
Now many of those same institutions are working with USG to introduce predictive analytics into their operations. The initiative is turning out to be one of the largest experiments in higher ed to apply predictive analytics to the ongoing challenge of retaining students and helping them to achieve their education goals. At the heart of this endeavor is USG's learning management system.
Investing in the LMS
In 2011, following an extensive evaluation process, a USG task force recommended Desire2Learn as its next learning management system. That recommendation was accepted by the state's Board of Regents, and eventually 30 of 31 institutions within the system moved over.
According to Vice Chancellor and CIO Curt Carver, two schools, which were moving faster than the rest of the system, requested to have the vendor host their implementations. However, 28 others adopted the version hosted on the private cloud run by the system IT organization. That represents 260,000 students generating about 50 million hits a day, he reported, for all types of courses -- online, traditional, flipped and MOOC. They consume about 42 terabytes of storage just for that one enterprise system. Students and faculty access that content through a variety of means, including mobile devices.
Carver noted that the amazing buy-in among institutions for the centrally hosted version of Desire2Learn resulted from the combination of a "good funding model" and "flawless" deployment. "The first year of system deployment, the availability was 100 percent," he said. "We never went down. Since then we've run at 99.99 percent system availability. It very seldom goes down. Because it always works, the faculty and the staff count on it. Then they can innovate. Once you've got that running flawlessly, people will start to invest in it and take advantage of it."
From "Body Count" to Intervention
Now, a new use is being written for the information maintained within that LMS: powering predictive analytics, the use of data to monitor and predict behaviors and recommend actions to achieve preferred outcomes. For example, analytics may indicate that a student who fails to show up two times during the first two weeks of class has a far greater chance of withdrawing or failing altogether. Knowing that, a school can put strategies in place to change the potential outcome.
That's a far cry from the way schools are used running their operations. "I'm an old military officer," Carver likes to say. "The older systems we had were great 'body count' systems. They could tell us how many students were dead at the end of the semester. You'd go run something in the [student information system] and figure out what happened in retrospect. What we'd rather do is figure out as it's going on and then be able to intervene so that students can successfully complete the course."
Carver likened this latest objective to a Gartner chart: "The dots are your students, and the dots move during the semester. The idea is to get all the kids up into the 'Magic Quadrant' and let them complete the course successfully."
Predictive analytics, he explained, "allows the instructors and support staff to intervene and do the advising, communications and support necessary to figure out what's going on with that individual student, so we can enable student success."
Success Models
The shift from managing student data and courses to predicting outcomes has been a few years in the making in Georgia. The members of the system come together on a regular basis to share what's working and what's not. One recent workshop offered a tech showcase, where three campuses from both within and outside the Georgia system talked about what they were doing to intervene to enable student success, recalled Carver.
First, Georgia State talked about its work with Education Advisory Board (EAB), a research and consulting firm that works with higher ed executives to address major performance challenges. According to a document about the project, in 2012 the institution went live with a Web-based "Graduation and Progression Success" (GPS) advising system that tracks 30,000 students nightly on more than 700 markers that identify academic risk factors. Some of those markers apply to all students; some to specific majors, each alerting advisers when a student has taken some action that puts him or her at risk. Since then the school has begun adding a parallel group of markers based on financial risk factors. The impact overall has been dramatic. In 2013, as a result of the GPS advising system and a number of other initiatives, the institutional graduation rate climbed 5.1 points over the previous two years, even as the student population grew in size, diversity and economic disadvantage.
Second, Valdosta State shared details of its partnerships with Oracle in building a "more traditional" business intelligence approach that culled data from numerous systems feeding a data warehouse to generate automatic alerts, triggers and events. For example, if a student is absent or withdraws from a course, the adviser and the academic success center will be notified to do follow-up. More recent efforts have begun doing information discovery by pulling data from multiple non-traditional sources -- including social media posts and blogs, verbatim text taken out of surveys and evaluations, engagement with campus Web sites and data from government agencies -- to create a complete picture of the student.
Third, Daytona State College detailed its work with Desire2Learn in the deployment of its analytics product, Desire2Learn Insights. The Florida school has been using the company's LMS since 2003 and launched a framework for measuring and reporting on outcomes in 2011.
Several Approaches for Doing Analytics
The motivation behind the discussions was to get possible buy-in from institutions to forge bigger pilots and test out the efficacy of each approach. The Oracle approach was the toughest sell, despite the fact that the technology was already in use within the university system. "We already own all the licensing," noted Carver. "It's not an issue of the licensing or even the hardware." The biggest challenge there: "We'd have to hire some people that know the Oracle business intelligence solution very well. The problem is those folks are just very expensive. We have not had additional institutions move in that direction yet."
However, there was ready acceptance for the other approaches. In fact, schools saw EAB and Desire2Learn as complementary. "EAB works by pulling information out of the SIS, and you get a certain level of granularity with that data. There's other data that's just going to be in the LMS," Carver pointed out. "If you're going in and you're trying to look at how much time they're spending accessing the content or interacting with other students via the discussion boards and with the instructor, you're only going to get that out of the LMS."
What has been "interesting" to watch is the dynamic of how institutions are making the decision regarding adoption of the EAB and Desire2Learn combination, he said. "What they've done is calculate the total cost of deploying the system, and gone back and said, 'How many students do we have to save to recoup that cost?' It's actually a pretty small number. It's been a fairly compelling case. And that's really the focus of the conversation among provosts: 'How many students do we have to save to break even?' When we do that calculation for their institution, they come back with, 'Well, how can we afford not to do this? It seems like a fairly low risk approach.'"
The EAB experience at Georgia State already has "hard results," said Carver, but the Desire2Learn analytics piece is still gelling. "We're at the point where we've seen it work at Daytona State. We've talked with other customers. We've stood up the hardware," he noted. In March, seven institutions were expected to begin participating in a pilot to test the analytics module. By July, the system will bring in additional institutions that are interested in using that model or the combination.
Typically, in these kinds of engagements, Carver's organization negotiates pricing with the vendor with multiple "tiers" of discounts based on how many colleges and universities participate. As the number of participants goes up, the cost goes down for everybody.
The integration of multiple analytics programs makes sense to Desire2Learn CEO John Baker: "Probably the most confusing piece in the marketplace today is the whole concept of people thinking there's one analytical package that's going to answer all questions. We used to think that way too 10 years ago. That's just not the case."
Now it's becoming more common for institutions to combine multiple analytics solutions across campus: some that support learning, some that support the "administrative side of the house" and a dashboard for senior administration. With that combination, he said, "I think we're going to see analytics really start to take off."
Changing the Formula
The initiative to improve student achievement didn't come out of left field. The institutions are responding to a state initiative called "Complete College Georgia," put forth by Governor Nathan Deal in August 2011 that aims to produce 250,000 college graduates by 2020 to meet workforce needs. The effort lays out a series of steps for increasing access, retention and completion of degree programs in both the university system and the technical college system.
A concise report issued in December 2012 by a governor-appointed state commission, which included a number of institutional executives as well as members of the state legislatures, recommended adoption of a new funding formula to replace its existing one. In the previous formula, in place for 30-plus years, the systems received funding when students enrolled, whether or not they were successful afterwards. Under the new structure, schools are funded based on student achievement. Performance funding, as it's called, is afoot in numerous states in response to pressure, in part, to prove that public dollars are being well spent.
This performance-based formula is being gradually implemented starting in the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2014. The plan takes effect in the following year.
Making performance funding work requires access to timely and reliable data and the technology and business process improvements needed to improve student outcomes continually. This requires Carver and his IT organization to work as part of a much larger team, including other state agencies, institutional representatives and system office staff. By summertime they expect to understand the "institutional reaction" to that model. Working as a team, adjustments will be made so that Governor Deal's vision can be realized.
"Change management is one of the hardest parts of this," said Carver. "The key to that is not some new technology, but instead constant communications and building relationships and building trust around a common goal." From there, he declared, it's full steam ahead to "see what we can do to set up early success."
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1:30 pm
Thomas & Friends "All Together Now" Ol' Wheezy Wobbles - On Misty Island, Ol' Wheezy has stopped working. Thomas wants to help and says he can fix Ol' Wheezy. He puffs to the Dieselworks, and asks Den and Dart for help because two busy boilers are better than one. D
2:00 pm
Curious George "Curious George, Spy Monkey/Castle Keep" George uses recycled materials to builds a periscope and goes undercover to solve a mystery.G
2:30 pm
Martha Speaks "Martha in the White House, Part 1 & 2" Martha in the White House, Part 1 - The new president is looking for a dog to live in the White House. Martha knows the perfect dog for the job! What better way to recommend some of her neighborhood pals than to put in a few calls to the White House herself? Vocabulary: (E) neighborhood, nation(al), volunteer, recommend(ing), community, nominate (I) president, white house, leader, country. Martha in the White House, Part 2 - The president is calling! One of his aides heard about Martha's speaking ability and he needs her to report to the White House immediately. D
3:00 pm
The Electric Company "War of the Words" When Hector is chosen to give a presentation on stamina to Jessica and Keith's health class, the pranksters work overtime to keep Hector from getting some much needed rest. Will Hector have enough stamina to make the presentation?. D
3:30 pm
WordGirl "A Vote for Becky/Class Act" A Vote for Becky: It's Election Day! Mrs. Botsford is running for D.A. and Becky is running for student council president. Tobey decides to run against Becky and uses his robots to distract WordGirl. D
4:00 pm
Wild Kratts "Secrets of the Spider's Web" When the creature adventuring Kratt Brothers take a nasty tumble, the Wild Kratts sets off on a mission to find and recreate one of the greatest of all biotech engineering secrets. Spider silk. D
4:30 pm
Cyberchase "True Colors" Hacker becomes a good guy! Can this possibly be true? A new, reformed Hacker runs for election against Motherboard, claiming to have done five good deeds, and promising to turn over a new leaf. Can the kids find a counter example that proves Hacker is lying -- or will he be elected the new ruler of cyberspace? Guest voice: Al Roker as "Sam Vander Rom." The Big Idea: When people use words like always, never, all, or none to claim something is true, be suspicious! Such claims are often false, and you need only a single counter example to disprove them. D
5:00 pm
Fetch! With Ruff Ruffman "Don't Like Fencing? Try Fencing!" Ruff is determined to find the lost Helmet of Victory-an old Ruffman family heirloom that is said to bestow success upon its wearer-and Ruff needs success for his show. Unfortunately, Ruff's owner has set up a new picket fence to keep him yard-bound. He sends Liza and Isaac to learn how to pole vault over the fence, and sends Bethany and Talia out to learn everything they can about fencing. D
5:30 pm
Nightly Business Report Election day is finally here and Americans across the country stood in long lines to vote for the next president of the United States. NBR's Tom Hudson reports from Florida. Virginia will be one of the first swing states to tally election results tonight when polls close at 7pm ET. D
5:56 pm
NewsHour Promo NULL
6:00 pm
PBS NewsHour Election Night 2012: A Special Report NewsHour senior correspondents Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff co-anchor coverage of election results as returns come in from across the country.G
10:00 pm
Surviving The Dust Bowl: American Experience They were called "black blizzards," dark clouds reaching miles into the sky, churning millions of tons of dirt into torrents of destruction. For 10 years, beginning in 1930, dust storms ravaged the parched and overplowed southern plains, turning wheat fields into desert. Disease, hardship and death followed, yet the majority of people stayed on, refusing to give up on the land and a way of life. Liev Schreiber narrates.G
11:00 pm
Charlie Rose NULL


text:
saintelgrouch brauchte ein neues Logo Design und hat einen Wettbewerb auf 99designs gestartet.
Aus 134 Designs von 39 Designern wurde eine Gewinner gewählt.
Our company is a growing bail company based in Los Angeles County is in need of a catchy design for advertising and marketing ventures.
Bail Company
Our company is located in an city within Los Angeles County that celebrates their forefathers whom were from the times of the Old West. Therefore, our company would like to incorporate an Old Wild West feel to this design. The design needs to have the feel of a portrait of an old west character.
Specifically, the closest example we have is the lead character in The Assassination of Jesse James.
The character should have an gun in the portrait.
The full length character is the most important part of the design. We do not need background details or imagery.
The design will be used for a truck-wrap for a 16' x 10' box truck. The entire dimension of the truck does not need to be covered, but the design must be big enough to be eye-catching.
We are looking forward to your great design submissions!
- Old west feel (brown, gray, etc)
- Old west character with a gun
- Think superhero-like
- Read description for dimension specifications
- Free-hand preferred
- Insert company name Santa Clarita Valley Bail Bonds
- No caricatures
- Do not put Bail Company in the design.
Finden Sie heraus, wie ein Designwettbewerb funktioniert, oder lernen Sie mehr über unsere Logo-Design-Angebote.


text:
Do you wear SPF on your lips?
I've noticed that my lips dry out even quicker than normal in this kind of weather but I prefer some colour over just plain lip balm so I am on the look out for lipsticks and glosses that have SPF.
This new Liplicious Moisturizing Balm from Boots No. 7 scared me when it landed on my doormat! Purple Liquorice is a deep purple infused with glitter.
Its actually not too bad when swatched – its sheer, and reminds me of all those sheer black glosses that were about last year. They look almost grey, slightly dirty like my Bobbi Brown Metallic Plum, but depending on your colouring – it can work!
The texture I have no issue with.Its not too sticky, its not too liquid – its sort of, your average gloss.
You do seem to get an awful lot of product for your money too.
On the lips:
I really like the colour! Its so different to what I would normally wear for the summer but its quite a cool, contemporary shade. Not sure about the other colours as I haven't seen them, but they are called: Caramel, Marshmallow, Angel Cake, Sweet Peaches and Sherbet Twist.
These are out on the 14th July for £10 each on Boots.com and counters. I'd definitely check these out since they have the SPF probably in something peachy!
What do you think?


text:
Dave Trydahl, lead electrician, American Service, Inc., Big Pine, Calif.; L. Waraiza, master electrician, Dallas Electrical & Data Services, Dallas; and Toby Gagnon, electrician, Gagnon Electric, Saco, Maine, all correctly identified the following Code violations associated with the September photograph.
Per 300.6, Protection Against Corrosion, "Metal raceways, cable trays, cablebus, auxiliary gutters, cable armor, boxes, cable sheathing, cabinets, elbows, couplings, fittings, supports, and support hardware shall be of materials suitable for the environment in which they are to be installed."
In addition, the requirements of 300.6(B), In Concrete or in Direct Contact With the Earth, also apply. "Ferrous or nonferrous metal raceways, cable armor, boxes, cable sheathing, cabinets, elbows, couplings, fittings, supports, and support hardware shall be permitted to be installed in concrete or in direct contact with the earth, or in areas subject to severe corrosive influences where made of material judged suitable for the condition, or where provided with corrosion protection approved for the condition."
The requirements of 314.23(G), Enclosures in Concrete or Masonry, also apply to this installation. "An enclosure supported by embedment shall be identified as suitably protected from corrosion and securely embedded in concrete or masonry."
And last but not least, the rules of 314.29, Boxes and Conduit Bodies to Be Accessible, are also applicable. "Boxes and conduit bodies shall be installed so that the wiring contained in them can be rendered accessible without removing any part of the building or, in underground circuits, without excavating sidewalks, paving, earth, or other substance that is to be used to establish the finished grade."


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Development: How to develop drivers for USB based devices
This article is meant to serve as an introduction to the task of developing a driver for a usb based dvb device. Currently, in terms of this subject, there are a number of scattered resources available that, when organized together, could form the basis of a howto suitable for the noice developer. Hence, it might be very worthwile documenting the process.
Initial Steps
The very first thing you would want to do is to identify the components used in your device as well as determine the device's subsystem ID; refer to the section entitled "Gathering Information About Your Unidentified/Unsupported Device" for details.
The next logical step would be to try to obtain technical datasheets on the component ICs. Many chip manufacturers make this documentation directly readily available. In other cases, the datasheets are available, but it will take the likes of a google search to find (i.e. using the chip's part or model number can quickly track down multiple sources for such documentation ... Note: some "datasheet archive" websites ask you to log in or pay in order to obtain the information, however, be advised that the documentation will almost always be available elsewhere completely free of such restrictions). When no information whatsoever exists, or has been freely released by the chip vendor, if you are still serious about developing driver support for your device, you may wish to contact the vendor directly to see if they will agree to releasing such information to you (which most likely will come in the form of being under a NDA). In the very worst instances, particularly those cases of complex chips that also contain DRM (digital rights management) type engines for conditional access purposes, it is unlikely you, as an individual, will be able to obtain help or information from the vendor.
Familiarizing yourself with a USB driver
To start with, there are some great Linux USB tutorials on Linux Journal:
- start here: How to Write a Linux USB Device Driver
- then here: Writing a Simple USB Driver
- here: Hot Plug
- and then here: Snooping the USB Data Stream
In addition, get the source code for the LinuxTV V4L-DVB driver set. You will find that USB based DVB drivers are contained within the ./v4l-dvb/linux/drivers/media/dvb/dvb-usb directory. Have a bit of a browse through them while you're reading through the first article listed above, and try to get a feel for how the driver is put together (note: there is also a procedure about this that is described in a thread found here). Sometimes you can get a good head start in your own development efforts by attempting to leverage parts of earlier released code -- that which may have been written specifically for the exact same chip as contained in your own device or via code for a near similar chip, such as say from a previous production generation. Simply, modifying existing code to suite your own endeavour can greatly expediate the process of driver development.
Some useful tools
- usbsnoop - a Windows USB sniffer utilitly, which adheres to the WDM architecture
- also see SniffUSB 2.0 - a usbsnoop derivative
- parser.pl - a script for parsing the huge usbsniff log file
- USB Replay - allows one to replay parsed usbsnoop logfiles on a Linux system
- also see this M920x specific script for some ideas
- USBmon
- Usbmon2usbsnoop - a script that converts the output from usbmon to a format that is compatible with USB Replay


text: "This has to be one of the top dropzones on the planet. The customer service is amazing, the facilities are stellar and clean, and the staff is some of the best trained I've ever seen. I felt more safe jumping out of their perfectly good airplanes than I do crossing the street."


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THE DAY REPLAYED – Chile squeezed out a narrow win over Ecuador to reach the FIFA World Cup™ for the ninth time in their history. Despite the defeat, La Tricolor booked the fourth and final direct qualifying slot for Brazil 2014, where they will be making their third appearance in the world finals.
Despite overcoming Argentina to pull level on points with the Ecuadorians, Uruguay were condemned by their inferior goal difference to fifth place and a fourth consecutive play-off, in which they will take on Jordan home and away in November.
The 18th and final matchday of the South American preliminaries also produced a win for Colombia over Paraguay and a draw between Peru and Bolivia, details of which are provided in FIFA.com'sround-up of Tuesday's events.
Match of the dayChile 2-1 Ecuador
Goals: Alexis Sanchez 35, Gary Medel 38 (Chile); Felipe Caicedo 66 (Ecuador)
An inspired Alexis Sanchez scored his fourth goal in four games as La Roja turned in another fine first-half display, though keeper Claudio Bravo had to be alert on a couple of occasions to keep the visitors out. Despite tailing off again in the second half, the Chileans held on for the three points to extend their unbeaten run in the competition to six games, five of them wins.
Reacting to Chile's second successful qualifying campaign in a row, the first time they have achieved the feat, their head coach Jorge Sampaoli said: "At the end of the competition we found a style that gave us the edge over every team we faced."
For their part Ecuador are back in the finals for the first time since 2006. Though they went the whole tournament without an away win, drawing three games on the road and losing the other five, Caicedo's strike at least brought to an end a 533-minute goal drought in qualifiers in Santiago, one that stretched back to Alex Aguinaga's goal in 1996. "We want to dedicate our qualification to the memory of (Cristian) Chucho Benitez," said coach Reinaldo Rueda afterwards, recalling the late Ecuadorian forward.
ElsewhereUruguay finished on the brink of direct qualification once again despite beating Argentina 3-2 in Montevideo. Cristian Rodriguez, Luis Suarez – from the spot – and Edinson Cavani were on target for La Celeste as they beat their rivals from over the River Plate for only the second time in ten qualifying meetings. Maxi Rodriguez struck both goals for La Albiceleste, who had already made sure of first place. The defeat was their first in 14 games, their last reverse coming against Venezuela on Matchday 2 in October 2011.
Colombia went to Paraguay and won 2-1 to make sure of second place, their best ever performance in the preliminaries, eclipsing their third place on the road to France 1998. Central defender Mario Yepes was the unlikely two-goal hero for Los Cafeteros, who have now won on their last four qualifier visits to Asuncion. La Albirroja led through Jorge Rojas but could not avoid sliding to a defeat that means they finish bottom of the table for the first time since the current system was introduced.
In the last game of the competition Peru and Bolivia drew 1-1 in Lima. Yoshimar Yotun put the hosts ahead, with Diego Bejarano levelling the game up to extend the Peruvians' winless run to five games. Though left with their lowest points total of the round-robin era, the Bolivians were at least able to climb off the bottom of the table and ahead of Paraguay on goal difference.
Player of the dayMario Yepes (COL)
The scorer of a solitary goal in 50 previous qualifying appearances, the Colombia centre-half and skipper helped himself to two against Paraguay, ensuring his side finished second in the table. Now 37, Yepes has consolidated his position as a leading figure in a team with high hopes for Brazil 2014.
The stat 11 - The number of goals scored by Luis Suarez in the qualifiers, a tally that allowed him to become the first Uruguayan to end the South American preliminaries as leading marksman since the round-robin system was introduced. El Pistolero outgunned Lionel Messi by one goal and Gonzalo Higuain and Radamel Falcao by two, though none of that illustrious trio were in action on the final matchday.
What they said"It's a good way to finish. I think we were up against a good side, even though they had a lot of first-team players out. We now need to focus on Jordan, and we'll be making a big mistake if we think they're not going to cause us problems. Our mindset is not to believe that the future is mapped out beforehand,"
Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez responds to his side's victory over Argentina.
*Matchday 18 results *Paraguay 1-2 Colombia
Chile 2-1 Ecuador
Uruguay 3-2 Argentina
Peru 1-1 Bolivia
No game: Venezuela


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Pico Alto Goes XXL And the Boys Put On A Show
The 2014/2015 Big Wave World Tour got off to an early start with beautiful 30 - 40 foot waves at the Billabong Pico Alto. Local chargers and fans came out by the hundreds to cheer on the chargers and the show only got better as the day got longer.
After becoming a father only two days before he got the call for Pico Alto, Makua Rothman was on fire in Peru. From his first heat, through to the final the Hawaiian found the biggest waves of the heat and caught them deep and steep. The BWWT is a brotherhood and it was obvious that everyone was happy for Makua.
Any takers?
The Finalists: Gabriel Villaran, Shawn Dollar, Anthony Taschnick, Makua Rothman, Grant Baker and Greg Long.
One of Makua's many beasts.
Greg Long was patient and efficient with his rides, only catching the sets and riding them all the way through.
The aftermath of a sweeper set at Pico Alto.
Shawn Dollar didn't back down from Pico Alto's big green faces, in fact he looked right at home.
2013 BWWT Champion Grant Baker caught the biggest wave of the day in the Final but couldn't find another wave to back it up.
Yup, it was that good.