text:
Chaotik Stylz just dropped his first official release via Brick Records on July 16th. The Subliminal Substance is fully produced by OH NO except for two tracks, one of which is produced by DJ Romes, the other by Georgia Anne Muldrow. Features on the album include Oh No, M.E.D., Roc C, Declaime, Romes and Georgia Anne Muldrow amongst others.
The album is dark, gritty, and covers every aspect of Chaotiks life whilst he was literally going through chaos. From dealing with drug addiction, to his Mother passing away, trying to raise his daughters, trying to succeed in the rap game whilst holding down a 9 to 5.
I recently spoke to Chaotik and we discussed all of the above plus the making of his album, how he hooked up with Oh No, his past and what he hopes for the future
Interview conducted by Pattch82 (firstname.lastname@example.com)
Interview Date: July 17th 2013
PATTCH82: Wassup Chaotik
CHAOTIK: Whats goin on man how you doing?
P82: Yeah Im not bad. Yourself ?
C: Yeah Im doing alright man, Im living. Living the dream homie, haha.
P82: Cool. First off, can you explain what your name represents ?
C: Haha, well its Chaotik Stylz a.k.a. Chaotik Kojima. My life since the day of my birth has been chaotic in every single way. My Mother was an English teacher so the misspelling of words was completely unacceptable but the way I was living was unacceptable too, so the style Ive got is chaotic, so simply its Chaotik Stylz. Now the Chaotik Kojima, Im a big fan of Metal Gear and its kinda an ode to Hideo Kojima the guy that created all that because he changed the game. Youre not going out there to kill people and Im not either. Im not going out talking about busting guns or anything. I guess thats pretty much the best way I could say it, my style is just ill, its Chaotik.
P82: For the people that dont know can you give us a little history on where youre from, how you got in to the game, etc
C: Oh man, well I grew up in Buffalo, between here and L.A. throughout half of my life. I started rapping when I was fifteen, a little crew out here. Then I got serious after my Mom passed away back in 2005. Luckily Myspace was kinda blowing up around then; I sent a blind message over to M.E.D. through Myspace. He hit me back; we did a track then all of a sudden boom I get a call from Oh No and then we built on from there so its kinda cool.
P82: I was going to ask how you initially hooked up with Oh No so did he reach out to you initially ?
C: Well I reached out to him first just to say whats up, then all of a sudden I get a phone call out of the blue at the house and then we kinda just started building from there. I spit a verse for him over the phone, he liked it and then he started sending me a couple of beat tapes and stuff and then yeah, we just started working on some songs and everything, I started writing. My first actual recording session was in front of Oh No and DJ Romes! My first recording session ever.
P82: No pressure there then ? Haha
C: Yeah man quite a bit, Haha. That was one of the most hectic moments of my entire life to be honest, Haha.
P82: When you were recording with Oh No, what were the sessions like ? What was the vibe like in the studio ?
C: Well Oh No was there for the first recordings and then he had to go and do other things and everything so it ended up mostly being me and DJ Romes initially. But it was amazing, it was so laid back we just kinda flew with everything and then a couple of tracks got switched and then we just started working on an entire project together.
P82: I first heard about the album a long time ago, possibly back in 2009, maybe 2010. Was there any reason for the long delay or were you continuously working on it ?
C: Well we were kinda wrapping it up around 2009/2010 and around that time I was also kinda working with a label out of France called Coffee Break and things just got put on hold. You know, money gets involved and everything. Then all of a sudden, a good friend of mine named John over at Beat Tape Co-Op, gotta give him a big shout out, he really helped me get this project out. He knew about the album, he asked me to send it to him. This was just a couple of months ago, so I went on the web, did it and all of a sudden Im on Brick Records now so its pretty cool.
P82: Cool. So are you actually signed to Brick Records or are you just putting out this project with them ?
C: Im putting it out through them right now. Im free right now but Im hoping to actually be locked in to a deal eventually but right now I just decided to put this album out through them. Im kinda just riding everything on this album you know. This is a big portion of my life, completely different to what Im sounding like now but like I said, it needed to be heard and Im glad its getting the chance to do so.
P82: The album dropped yesterday (July 16th). What has the response been like so far from the people that have heard it ?
C: Wow, really good. Its been odd to be compared to some of my favourites like Talib Kweli and just to see some of the reviews online; people seem to really like it a lot. Its really good to see it getting a good response and people are enjoying it, thats the whole point you know. Money has never been a big thing for me; just my daughters who I give my life to and the freedom that music gives me. The ability to freely express myself and Im glad that people get to hear just how I was brought up because like I said, Im sober now but while we were doing this I was all fucked up. You know what I mean? So like I said, its a completely different me. This was a long process and it wouldnt have been what it was without the help of Oh No, hes like a brother to me now, weve became really good friends and hes had my back for years through this whole thing. And then with Dudley and Georgia, M.E.D., Roc C, everyone who was involved with it, especially Romes too, I mean without him and without my boy DJ Optimus Prime out here this album would not be what it is at all.
P82: Ive been listening to the promo copy for the last week or so, had it on repeat for a good few days. Its classic Oh No beats but paired with an MC that actually has something to say and its really good to hear
C: Yeah man, thank you for that man. Like I said, its just my soul on paper coming out man. Thats all I can really say about it. Its been a blessing to work with everyone Ive been able to and its hopefully gunna bring me a lot more in the future. Im working on some new stuff now, hopefully have another album out soon, me and Oh No gunna be working again together too so I just keep it moving you know what I mean
P82: Can you go in to some of the topics that you cover on the album ?
C: Oh wow Well I lost a lot of family and friends growing up. From a young age to my Mom passing and stuff so theres the pain of loss, theres drug addiction from each sides. Drug Muzik is basically just like how can I put this its like me talking shit about drugs but loving it at the same time. Its like the mind of an addict, you can hate it but you love it. Its killing you but you need it. The same thing for Substance the whole theme of the album is basically that drugs and music are one and the same nowadays. Its fed down your throat, youre told that you need this that and the third, youre told that this is what youre supposed to like and people do. And I just wanna remind people that you dont have to be like that. You can free yourself from the bullshit thats on the radio; you can free yourself from all the bullshit your doctor is telling you to take. Ive been clinically told that Im bi-polar, ADHD, crazy shit. Ive been clean and sober and changed everything. So yeah I would say the pain of life, the pain of loss, the pain of drugs, you know. I never really touched on love as much as I would like to on the album but I got love for the music and thats really what I tried to show on it.
P82: On the album you have a lot of guests that are/were associated with Stones Throw Records. Is that something that happened through Oh No or DJ Romes ?
C: I just reached out and then when I got out to Cali when I started really working on the album, me and Declaime had talked beforehand on Myspace and stuff so we got in contact. I went over to record with Georgia Anne Muldrow and Dudley as well and that was just an amazing situation. We had my daughter, shes 8 now but shes probably about 1 and a half there, so youll hear her on some of the old songs like on Sorrow and The Check too, youll hear her in the background. It was just an amazing experience and Im glad I was able to capture it and give it to the world. But yeah, Romes and I just kinda sat in the lab for a good few days just writing and writing, recording and recording and sat out at the hotel I was at just writing half of the album right there, and then the other half was done out here mostly with DJ Optimus Prime so it was a blessing all over.
P82: Who influenced you coming up ? Was there any particular MCs that inspired you to pursue Hip-Hop ?
C: Oh wow, A Tribe Called Quest umm Gang Starr man M.E.D., MF DOOM! obviously, hes just such a fuckin beast. Man theres just so many Pete Rock & CL Smooth you know, the list goes on and on and on but Id say Tribe, Talib, Mos Def, those are like my biggest inspirations.
P82: I read that your family have a bit of history in the entertainment business Is that something that inspired you to go in the same direction ?
C: Yes indeed man Im just trying to keep it positive you know what I mean. As long as I can just enlighten people and I just wanna bring a smile to peoples faces you know. If anyone can relate to what Ive been through, if anyone can relate to any of the songs, I just wanna bring light to the darkness so to speak. Any way I can do that, like I said if people are enjoying it, Im really glad theres been a good response so far. I hope that reflects in sales obviously but if it doesnt then it was an experience that Ill never forget and Im glad I was able to share it with the world.
P82: Ive been checking out the music on your Bandcamp page. Theres a lot of music on there that you are giving away for free
C: Yes indeed
P82: Is that something that you feel needs to be done these days to create a fanbase or a buzz ?
C: I just decided to say, you know what, this game has been sold to so many people, let me just record and put my feelings out there and a lot of the songs that I did on there were in a lot of bad times in my life but you can tell theres so much difference in what is going on in the Subliminal Substance album obviously but I just wanted to give it out to be heard. I know me myself, I struggle, I still work a 9 to 5, but still I know I would want to check out some new shit if I had the opportunity so why not give it out for free.
P82: The U Can (Not) Advance EP was really good, the production on there is crazy. Do you plan on putting out more projects through Bandcamp in the future ?
C: Oh of course I do man Im actually gonna start working on my next project right now, Im thinking about calling it Standalone Complex. I think that title alone kinda reflects on where Ive been just recently after the album was done until now. I stand alone but I stay together and Im still complex as hell and Im even getting more complex as I go along. Like I said, Im gunna keep dropping stuff on Bandcamp, hopefully this next album will get picked up as well and well go off from there, see what happens. I do it for the love man, Im glad people are enjoying it so far.
P82: The projects that you have on Bandcamp at the moment, are they more recent recordings ?
C: Oh yeah lets see Revengance I just did on the Mac Book in my house, so I was like Im just gunna put my thoughts on paper and spit it out and a lot of people like those songs. The U Can (Not) Advance EP that was done maybe two or three years ago, wordisbond.com really liked it, they supported it and put it on their page. It got a lot of love too because theres a lot of different stuff on there compared to the Subliminal Substance, you can really hear the difference between the two.
P82: Can you speak on any future projects that you have in the pipeline ?
C: Yeah like I said, Im trying to work on my next album. Im also doing a collab with a good homie of mine out here named Jugalar Starr, were working on a project together just me and him. I got beats from Dibiase that I owe him forever ago. Im still just working, working, working and were gunna see what happens with this next project and everything but Im excited.
P82: Do you have any plans on collaborating with Oh No again in the future ?
C: Oh yeah most definitely, were talking about working on some more stuff for the next album too. Oh No is like a brother to me man, till death I got that dude, hes been such a blessing in each and every way so he knows I got him till death and same thing vice versa.
P82: Is the ultimate aim to be able to do this full time and make a living out of it ?
C: Oh of course, I love this music, its my heart and soul man and Im definitely going to be putting my all in to it forever man. I got babies so I never stop working, just work on top of work, straight grind mode all day. I love being in the studio, like I said I cant wait to get started on this new album. But yeah this is my life man, all the way around the music evolves me and I revolve around it. Same thing with my sobriety now, shits crazy how it all kinda melded together and allows me to be completely free now.
P82: With regards to your sobriety, was there a certain situation that made you think now is the time ?
C: Legal problems after legal problems after bad relationship after bad relationship. Man thats all I can say, when life hits you it hits you hard and it took me to go through that heavy things to get where I am now. Im almost six months sober now and through that everything has changed you know, I got a good chick riding beside me now, Im a better Dad, tryna be working my ass off as much as possible and the music is coming out so much better. Thats why its crazy for me to hear The Subliminal Substance now because that was when I was all fucked up, but now its on a whole different level and thats why I cant wait for people to hear the album inside of that now.
P82: If you could give people one reason why they should go out and buy the record, what would you say ?
C: Man this is my life on vinyl or on a CD. Its something you can relate to, something you can bang out. Obviously I dont even need to say about the features man you already know about them. This is my life man enjoy it, it sounds tight. Drugs, life, everything, everybody can relate to it so just bang that shit, haha.
P82: Is there anything else youd like to put out there ?
C: Yeah shouts to everyone that supported me throughout the years man I wouldnt be anything without everybody that supported, to many people to name but just thank you so much to the whole world for the support man. Its such a blessing, such an honour to be able to do this and to present this shit to you guys.
P82: Thanks for taking the time to speak with me
C: Sick man I really appreciate the time man. God bless.
Hope you enjoy the read and check out the album... it's a really good joint.


text:
Gallery: Miss America Pageant
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A 23-year-old beauty queen from Kenosha, Wis., won the Miss America pageant Saturday in Las Vegas after singing opera and strutting in a white bikini and black beaded evening gown.
Laura Kaeppeler also had to answer a question about whether beauty queens should declare their politics.
"Miss America represents everyone, so I think the message to political candidates is that they represent everyone as well," she said. "And so in these economic times, we need to be looking forward to what America needs, and I think Miss America needs to represent all."
Miss Oklahoma Betty Thompson came in second, while Miss New York Kaitlyn Monte placed third.
Kaeppeler wins a $50,000 scholarship and gets the title for one year. Her platform during the competition was supporting and mentoring children of incarcerated parents — a topic close to her heart.
Kaeppeler's father, Jeff Kaeppeler, told The Associated Press he served 18 months in federal prison for mail fraud.
He said when his daughter approached the family about making the personal topic her chosen platform, they supported it even though they knew it would be discussed publicly.
"We've seen this come full circle," he said.
Jeff Kaeppeler said his daughter's win on Saturday night was the best day of his life. He attended the event in a black tuxedo with a baby blue vest and bow tie.
"It taught us that God can turn everything into good if you let him," he said.
Laura Kaeppeler's hometown of roughly 97,000 people, Kenosha, is about 40 miles south of Milwaukee.
She majored in music and vocal performance at a private Lutheran liberal arts college in Kenosha, and told pageant officials she planned to obtain a master's degree in speech and language pathology and become a speech therapist.
Kaeppeler was crowned the new Miss America by a panel of seven judges during a live telecast on ABC. The event was the culmination of a week of preliminary competitions and months of preparations for the titleholders from all 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
As the new Miss America, Kaeppeler will spend the next year touring the country to speak to different groups and raising money for the Children's Miracle Network, the Miss America Organization's official charity.
Teresa Scanlan of Nebraska won Miss America last year at age 17 to become the pageant's youngest winner ever. She said contestants' nerves likely were at their highest point just before the pageant.
"You can always breathe a sigh of relief" once the live pageant begins, Scanlan said.
Pageant officials earlier announced the winners of preliminary competitions, including Kaeppeler, Thompson and Miss Hawaii Lauren Cheape for talent; and Monte, Miss Texas Kendall Morris and Miss Utah Danica Olsen for swimsuit.
Kaeppeler took home a $2,000 scholarship for her opera performance of "Il Bacio" in the talent competition.
Officials also said Miss Idaho Genevieve Nutting won the $2,000 Fourpoints Award, while Miss Kentucky Ann-Blair Thornton won the $6,000 Quality of Life scholarship.
The Miss America Organization touts itself as the world's largest giver of scholarships to women, with about $350,000 to be given this year at the national level.
Scanlan said she planned to use her scholarship to help pay for law school en route to a life in politics.
(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The Cincinnati Reds will try again to reach the 50-win mark when they resume a three-game series versus the Seattle Mariners Saturday from Great American Ball Park.
The Reds had a three-game winning streak halted with Friday's 4-2 loss versus former starting pitcher Aaron Harang, who limited the hosts to a pair of runs in six innings. Cincinnati countered with Mike Leake and he was dealt the loss for giving up all four runs over five innings.
Leake was victimized by a pair of homers in falling to 7-4 on the season.
"They had a good plan," Leake said. "They were aggressive against me. They obviously knew I throw strikes. There were a couple of mistakes that got me."
Joey Votto belted his 15th home run of the season and posted two of Cincinnati's six hits.
Cincinnati dropped to 29-15 at home this season, but has still won 15 of the past 24 games at the Ball Park.
Mat Latos is 1-2 in his last three outings since opening the season 6-0 with a 3.08 earned run average in 14 starts. Latos gets the nod Saturday for the Reds and is coming off last Sunday's 3-2 loss at Texas, where he gave up three runs -- two earned -- and eight hits in 6 2/3 innings.
Latos managed to strike out nine batters and has 31 K's in his past three starts. He is 7-2 in 17 starts with a 3.03 ERA and 4-1 in seven home appearances. Latos, a right-hander, has faced Seattle three times in his career, going 1-2 with a 4.00 ERA.
Seattle has won three of four games to start the month of July and set the tone early in Friday's win with Nick Franklin's two-run home run in the first inning. Michael Saunders led off the second inning with a solo blast for the Mariners, who are 9-1 all-time against Cincinnati.
Raul Ibanez went 1-for-4 and has hit in 11 straight games for Seattle, which has homered in 13 consecutive games.
Harang allowed six hits to move to 3-0 against the Reds in his career. Oliver Perez struck out three in the ninth for his second save.
"It has to be a big deal for him because he spent a lot of years here," Seattle manager Eric Wedge said. "He had a lot of good years here and the fans appreciated him tonight. He threw a good ball game for us."
Mariners veteran Jeremy Bonderman continues his return to the majors Saturday and looks to put a rough start behind him. Bonderman lasted only 3 1/3 innings in last Sunday's 7-6 loss to the Chicago Cubs and was touched for six runs -- four earned -- with two K's and two walks.
Bonderman, who is 1-2 in six starts with a 4.05 ERA, lost his only career start against the Reds and gave up seven runs in three innings of a 9-4 loss on May 19, 2006.
The Mariners swept a three-game set when the teams last played in Cincinnati in 2002 and are making their first trip to Great American Ball Park.


text:
urpmi.addmedia - adds a new rpm media to be used by urpmi
urpmi.addmedia [options] <name> <url>
urpmi.addmedia is used to add a new media to be used by urpmi, so it can find new rpms at the specified location. Currently supported media types are: local drives, removable drives (such as CDs), and networked media via different protocols (http, ftp, ssh and rsync). One of the following modes must be chosen:
A mirror list is a special API to describe mirrors available. urpmi will pick the nearest mirror, and will dynamically handle new mirrors. Example:
urpmi.addmedia --distrib --mirrorlist
urpmi.addmedia --mirrorlist '$MIRRORLIST' backports media/main/backports
where <name> is a human-readable name for the new media (e.g. "updates"). <name> is optional if --distrib is given in the options list. <host>/<path> is the location of the media directory on the net (e.g.
media/main). The location is given relative to <path>. curl is used by default to download files, wget may be used if curl is not installed or if or --wget is given in options. Example:
urpmi.addmedia http http://jpackage.sf.net/rpm/free
The same as for http. Add your login and password if required (note that you don't need to specify anonymous as login for anonymous access ftp servers). If wget is used to download files with a firewall you may have to ensure that the passive_ftp option is on in /etc/wgetrc (that's usually the default). Example:
urpmi.addmedia ftp ftp://a:a@leia//export/media/main
The same as for http and ftp; add your login and password if required. You may want to export the public key in order not to have to type your password. rsync over an ssh connection will be used to get files. urpmi will try to re-use the same ssh connection over multiple invocations.
urpmi.addmedia ssh ssh://fpons@bi/c/i586/media/main
The same as for http; you can use the <host>::<path> syntax too. Example:
urpmi.addmedia rsync rsync://ftp.orst.edu::mandrake-devel/contrib/ppc
where <name> is a human-readable name for the new media (e.g. "local updates"). <path> is the location of the media directory on your machine (e.g.
<path> is the location of the media directory in the CDROM or DVD.
Use the given url as a mirror list. It is quite special, please see examples at the beginning of this page.
You can also give a space separated list of urls. Each url can be either a mirrorlist or a mirror url. This is useful if you have a mirror to use inside a local network, but still use standard mirrors when the local mirror is not available.
nb: $MIRRORLIST is a special variable which gives the default URL for the current distribution/arch. $MIRRORLIST is the default mirrorlist.
Find a media repository for the current distribution using zeroconf (DNS-SD). It can be used together with --distrib or by specifying a media name and a path to the media directory, relative to the repository root.
Retrieve a set of media from a distribution. Typically, the URL provided to
urpmi.addmedia will represent the parent directory of a directory media, which in turn will contain various subdirectories for each medium of the distribution. <name> is combined with medium names found to create newer medium names in the urpmi database.
This option is to be used with --distrib. With it,
urpmi.addmedia will ask for confirmation for each media it finds for the specified distribution.
This option is to be used with --distrib. With it,
urpmi.addmedia will attempt to add all media it finds. By default, it won't add media containing source rpms, or media corresponding to supplementary CD-ROMs on distributions.
Adds a media which will be taken into account by MageiaUpdate or by
urpmi --update when looking for updates.
If used together with --distrib, it will only add media flagged "update".
Activate or deactivate rpm signature checking of newly added media. It's activated by default, and can be overridden in global configuration.
Use the specific policy for downloading xml info files. It must be one of: never, on-demand, update-only, always. See urpmi.cfg(5) for more information.
Use synthesis file.
Use rpm files (instead of synthesis).
Creates a virtual medium: the medium is always up-to-date and so it does not need to be updated by
Add the new media in the urpmi configuration file, but don't update it nor proceed to any download. The media, to be usable, will need to be updated with
urpmi.update; it's ignored until then.
Don't import pubkey of added media.
Use wget only for downloading distant files. By default curl is used if available.
Use curl only for downloading distant files. This is the default if curl is available.
Specify additional command-line options to be passed to curl, rsync or wget when retrieving files. If several options are to be passed, separate them with spaces and enclose them in quotes.
Note that the rsync options will also be used for ssh media.
Try to limit the download speed, rate is given in bytes/sec. This option is not active by default.
Use specified HTTP proxy.
Use specified user and password to use for proxy authentication. Specifying --proxy-user=ask will cause
urpmi.addmedia to prompt for a username and a password.
Use the file system tree rooted for urpmi database and rpm install. Contrary to --root, the urpmi configuration comes from the rooted tree.
If the urpmi or rpm db is busy, wait until it is available
Beginning with urpmi 4.6.16, you can use variables in media URLs (for example /mnt/mirror/$RELEASE/$ARCH/media/main). The variables supported so far are:
The architecture (if found in /etc/release).
The OS release (if found in /etc/release; its value should be cauldron on a Mageia cauldron system.)
The canonical hostname of the machine urpmi runs on.
The url of the default mirrorlist for the distribution.
urpmi(8), urpmi.update(8), urpmi.removemedia(8), urpmf(8), urpmq(8), urpmi.files(5).
Pascal Rigaux <firstname.lastname@example.com> (original author and current maintainer), François Pons, Rafael Garcia-Suarez


text:
Simple Machines Blogs > SMF Team Blog
Rewriting the Customization Site
(1/18) > >>
Even before I became the customize team lead, I had an interest in seeing the customization being updated for modern times, streamlined, and made more user friendly not only to the team, but most importantly, to you guys, the users.
When I became the team lead, I had the perfect opportunity to implement my vision of the site and add a whole lot of features to make it really draw some attention and make mod development and support easier. A few months back, I really got into learning about PHP OOP style of doing things, as well as MVC architectures. Armed with some new knowledge, I dove into writing my own PHP MVC Framework which has now become the basis of the new customization site. This will also be tightly integrated with SMF as well (and may even be released as a mod itself, who knows).
Let's highlight some of the features the new site will bring to SM.org:
* Totally new design for all pages of the Customization Site
* Essentially all current features of the current customization site
* Customization Changelog
* Customization Issue (bug) Tracker
* - Public or Private status, with issues that can also be declared as public or private
* FAQ pages for customizations
* Ratings system for customizations
* XML/RSS Feeds for Customizations
* Customization Tutorials
* Customization Requests
* - Allow community members to take on requests
* - Allow requesters to manage their request
* - Status/Progress bars
* Package Parser that is able to show the contents in a raw format of all files in a Customization (Similar to how the Package Manager does it)
* Package Maker
* Community Customizer implementation - Allow the community to assist in reviewing unapproved modifications
* Support for customizations will be given on the Customization site, rather than on the forum
* Language editor for customizations - ability to automatically package these as well
* Automated checking of customization packages for approval purposes
* Versions does not work with, versions works with, versions untested with
* Advanced 'Report as unsafe' feature
* Mod transfers will no longer require customization team approval/assistance
This is a very long list of things to implement, and the entire site is being rewritten from scratch, so it will take some time, and you won't likely see all of these features at once, but rolled out in waves as I build and test modules with the team.
Sounds like a very well thought out plan. I think a lot of the features you suggested will be very helpful for the site overall. Can't wait to see the progress.
Wow, that is certainly a huge list of things SD. :)
Personally, I can't wait to see some of these things be implemented. Any advancement in the site is a wonderful thing indeed. It was kind of a few months back since the first post about having a new Cust site, but this just reaffirms that good things are on there way. I hope that the first little glance at this is released soon for the community to marvel at.
I'm not sure how many other people have said it, but thank for putting the work in revamping the Customization Site, SlammedDime. It's appreciated by one person to say the least. :)
Looking great, SlammedDime.
Hopefully it'll be appreciated by users (since as cool as it is I won't be using it)
Good to see someone continuing with my plans (and adding to them) after I left.
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text:
The town of Superior approved a land swap Monday with the Colorado Department of Transportation in which CDOT will take ownership of three parcels totaling nearly 18,000 square feet near the intersection of U.S. 36 and McCaslin Boulevard.
In exchange, the town will get a 74,000-square-foot parcel near the Superior Cemetery from CDOT. The deal is valued at $65,000.
The swap was necessitated by CDOT's need for right-of-way in order to build the second phase of the U.S. 36 Managed Lanes project, between Louisville and Boulder.
Superior hopes to incorporate the property it gets from CDOT into its future Superior Town Center development.


text:
An astute comment made by someone previously was that the addition of MD and Rutgers was not about bringing MD and Rutgers to the Big Ten, but rather about bringing the Big Ten to MD (DC/Baltimore area) and Rutgers (NYC area). That is, selling cable TV on the appeal of bringing Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, and Nebraska to those TV markets every year.
Comcast in the DC area may not sign up to put the BTN on basic cable just because MD will be shown on the BTN, but they will put the BTN on basic cable if it is MD playing Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, and Nebraska.


text:
Stubbs is a nice guy to have in the system.
But it's almost a year since the pick & I still can't understand the logic of eschewing pitching (starting or relief) and / or a big bat for the sake of speed & defense.
Good pitching and big bats are the two costliest needs to acquire either as a FA or via trade. That's what you draft.
Speed & defense? That's for lower in the draft.


text:
The New York Times front-pages, "Clinton lined up with Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, in endorsing a plan to suspend the federal excise tax on gasoline, 18.4 cents a gallon, for the summer travel season. But Senator Barack Obama, Mrs. Clinton's Democratic rival, spoke out firmly against the proposal, saying it would save consumers little and do nothing to curtail oil consumption and imports."
"While Mr. Obama's view is shared by environmentalists and many independent energy analysts, his position allowed Mrs. Clinton to draw a contrast with her opponent in appealing to the hard-hit middle-class families and older Americans who have proven to be the bedrock of her support. She has accused Mr. Obama of being out of touch with ordinary Americans who are struggling to meet their mortgages and gas up their cars and trucks."
The Washington Post's fact-checker weighs in on the matter. "The advocates of a 'gas tax holiday' are exaggerating the benefits to consumers from their proposal. If the Illinois experience is a guide, there is likely to be some reduction in the price of gas, but it would fall well short of the size of the tax reduction. In order to pay for the tax cut, the government would have to cut back on highway construction and maintenance or find some other way of plugging the shortfall in revenues to the Highway Trust Fund."
Meanwhile, NBC's John Yang reports that President Bush will hold a news conference today in the Rose Garden at 10:30 am. He will deliver an opening statement (approximately eight minutes long) regarding Americans' understandable anxiety about issues affecting their pocketbooks. He will also call upon Congress to send him sensible and effective bills that will help Americans weather this difficult period and keep our country moving forward.


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Hope you've all had a great week! I've been enjoying the nightly airings of the US Swimming Olympic Trials with a nice bowl of vanilla ice cream and berries. Seems like the perfect thing to do now that it's summer. Being a swimmer myself, I enjoy watching the races… but synchronized swimming is my favorite.
My finds from this week are all over the board… but they all look good!
{All images are from the original recipe source, and linked through Pinterest}
Lemon Pudding Cakes
{My friend Megan shared this amazing recipe – look at that delicious lemon pudding!!}
Source: whatmegansmaking.com via Finding Joy In My Kitchen on Pinterest
Summer Squash Pasta
{I mentioned on Facebook that our garden is doing quite well – this seems like the perfect use of our produce in a couple of weeks}
Source: dontwastethecrumbs.com via Finding Joy In My Kitchen on Pinterest
Blueberry Quinoa Pancakes
{Although I haven't actually cooked with quinoa yet, I keep finding recipes that entice me – these pancakes look amazing}
Source: aprettylifeinthesuburbs.com via Finding Joy In My Kitchen on Pinterest
Cheesy White Bean Stuffed Peppers
{These look like a new take on stuffed peppers – I like the excuse to use beans too!}
Source: splashofwhine.blogspot.com via Finding Joy In My Kitchen on Pinterest
Pineapple Upsidedown Pancakes
{Pineapple is a summer fruit & these pancakes look like a really fun treat!}
Source: preventionrd.com via Finding Joy In My Kitchen on Pinterest
What did you find this week?
Please link up to a post containing your list of recipes to try -- do not link up individual recipes please, your links will be deleted. Links that do not follow the guidelines will be deleted. Be sure to leave a link back here to Finding Joy in My Kitchen.
As a reminder, if you like these recipes, either re-pin my original pin, or pin the source of the recipe NOT my blog! The talented chefs that came up with these recipes deserve the credit and traffic, so, please, please pin the source!


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Protests are part of a democracy, and for that reason, such events like Occupy Wall Street are to be expected to a degree. But what exactly are they protesting? Is corporate greed the issue? If it is, they might be more specific. Are they asking that corporations be taxed more? It appears that most of the protesters are angry at Wall Street for the economic conditions of the country, and jobs are at the center of this. Why were they not protesting when the economy was strong? There was more greed when the economy was stronger.
Wall Street, and the complex prism of rates, commodities, and markets is above most of our pay grades. We only know what the news teaches us, for the most part, and that comes in clips and sound bites. If the protesters are saying that Wall Street firms screwed up in an economy where the government was asleep at the wheel, they have an argument.
But what should Wall Street investors do now, quit their jobs? The only way to create more jobs is for the financial sector to get back on its feet. Whether we like Wall Street or not, it needs to survive.
If the protesters are so angry about corporate greed, why are they stopping in at ATM machines and Starbucks every 20 minutes while they camp out among the working folk? If I were angry at corporate greed, I would get my money away from the big banks right away.
Ah, but they are not angry with the part of corporate America that houses their money, they only dislike the corporate America that houses your money.
Why are they protesting three years after the financial collapse? Today, there is a president who, one would guess, is more in line with the beliefs of most protesters. There is more oversight today than three years ago.
I worked on Wall Street three years ago, and there was some demonstrating after the crash, but to bring an Occupy Wall Street movement now is irrational. And for the regular folks, who only want to get to work – many who are not Wall Street bankers – they are now terribly inconvenienced because of this operation.
Mormonism and the Evangelicals
Ah, it was only a matter of time until the anti-Mitt Romney forces started using his religion to scare people off. Right now, it is coming from the evangelical right, but it will soon be joined by the radical left.
Robert Jeffries, of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, has implied that many Christians see Mormonism as less a Christian faith than a cult. Jeffries is right that many Christian groups are unfamiliar with Mormonism – or they simply do not like it. But he was not citing data, he was looking to gain support for that theory.
Romney is going to be the Republican nominee, and now his religion, like Kennedy's Catholicism and Obama's relationship with his pastor, is going to be made an issue. (Both Kennedy and Obama went on to become president, so those might be good historical precedents for Romney.)
Three years ago, while opening a comedy show at Carnegie Hall, former comedian Janeane Garofalo went on a rant about Romney's Mormon faith. There are things about the Mormon faith that are not easy to understand, but most religions ask us to rely on dogma over the easily explicable.
Garofalo and company are going to come at Romney the way the late Senator Ted Kennedy tried to in 1994, when he called Mormonism the "white male religion." Ouch. He later apologized for that, and Romney forgave him. But former comedians (and that is what we call people who are no longer funny – former comedians) are not going to care how offensive this gets.
Romney is in for an interesting ride, and even if he loses to Obama in the general election, he is the best hope to put an intelligent person at the top of the ticket for the Republican Party in 2012.
I may have accidentally referred to former Congressman Charles Djou as being from Alaska in a previous column. I originally wrote that he was from Hawaii (which is true), but in my final editing, I omitted the word Hawaii – which made it appear that he was representing Alaska. Apologies.


text:
Only the finest selection of hard maple from the Great Lakes region of the USA and Canada ia used to weave these superb hampers and accessories. Truly heirloom quality, all surfaces are sanded and finished to our highest quality standard, thereby creating an extremely smooth surface so that even delicate clothing will not be snagged or torn. Each piece is styled to add beauty and decor to the finest of homes. This gorgeous 3 piece set from the Honey Maple Collection is the perfect addition to your home. This set combines elegance, practicality and fine craftsmanship all at once. The Set includes the Honey Maple Rectangular Hamper, Wastebasket, and Compact Hamper. A perfect all in one set.
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'Holiday Tree' drawing discussion in downtown Bangor | News
BANGOR, Maine (NEWS CENTER) --- Decorations in downtown Bangor are a staple of the holiday season. Yet recently the tree that stands tall in the middle of the city this time of year has been prompting discussion. City officials in Bangor call the tree a holiday tree --- not a Christmas tree. The name for the tree was changed about 15 years ago when the city's 'Christmas Parade' became the 'Festival of Lights' parade. According to Steven Robbins, who was hired by the city of Bangor to organize the parade, it was in an effort to be more politically correct.
On Tuesday NEWS CENTER asked many our followers on Facebook how they felt about that. In response, we got more than 600 comments and people said they feel the tree should be called a 'Christmas Tree.'
On Wednesday some people who walked by the tree had their own views to share. "I feel it should be called 'holiday tree'," said Jeff Crandall of Bangor, "because Bangor's a diverse city...it should reflect all person's of Bangor."
"This nation was founded on Christianity," remarked Donna Leland of Bangor,"this is a Christmas three...and as such for me this will always be a Christmas tree...not a holiday tree."
City officials say while the tree has had the name 'holiday tree' for years, they've never really taken any strong arguments against that.
Our Facebook question also showed that the abbreviated form of Christmas or 'Xmas' is also offensive to many Christians who feel it is an attempt to take Christ out of Christmas. When we posed the question on our Facebook page, we used the abbreviated term and it sparked a big response.
Leslie England wrote "Not an X-mas tree a CHRISTmas tree!!! We have to keep Christ in Christmas!!"
Linda Arsenault added this comment: "Christmas tree and it is Christmas, not xmas, when anyone uses the xmas it crosses Christ out of Christmas and we want to keep him in the holiday. Merry Christmas to all."
While many people do feel this way, some scholars say the word 'Xmas' is not a modern term invented for secular Christmas celebrations but a word dating back decades, if not centuries, that is linked to the symbol for 'Christ.'
According to Pauleena MacDougall, a faculty associate in Anthropology at U Maine and the Director of Maine Folklife Center, the 'X' in 'Xmas' refers to the Greek Letter 'Chi'. That's the first letter in the Greek name for Christ. It is also part of the Chi Rho monogram, a symbol for christ which appears as an X intersected with a P.


text:
Photo Gallery | New England Holocaust Institute and Museum
NORTH ADAMS -- After 18 months of displaying artifacts from the darkest days of human history, the New England Holocaust Institute and Museum will close June 30, according to museum operator Darrell English.
A collector of Nazi-era objects for most of his life -- photos, propaganda posters, passports, Nazi documents, even uniforms of both soldiers and prisoners -- English said only a portion of his trove is on display at the museum at 41 Eagle St.
English said the items at the museum depict the rise of Nazism and the demonization of the Jews through the national media.
It is estimated that 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust, the systematic campaign by the Nazis to imprison and exterminate Jewish citizens of Europe in the 1930s and 40s.
As much as the museum has been his mission, and as much as he would like to expand, English said his wife is retiring at the end of June, and they will no longer be able to carry the rent for the 650-square-foot storefront space.
"I'm just not sure we can do this anymore," English said. "Much of our money will have to go to other things."
But there is much more he still hopes to do.
English held up a roll of film he said is a propaganda film produced by Hitler's administration. The film encourages the extermination of the mentally disabled or handicapped because it costs too much to care for them. English said it should be converted to digital and translated so people can see the way the Nazis conditioned the populace to see inherently evil acts as normal and acceptable.
English said he is receptive to the idea of reopening somewhere else, in a more traffic-heavy area, where more people would have the opportunity to benefit from seeing pieces of the past.
"I don't want to give up on it here; this is my hometown," he said. "But there's just not enough people, not enough interest."
Mike Little, an English teacher at Clarksburg Elementary School, said it would be a shame to lose this educational resource.
"I think it's a loss because he's got a lot of great pieces of history you'd have to travel a long way to see, right here in town," said Little, who for years has borrowed artifacts and English's expertise for an annual eighth-grade Holocaust exhibit. "These are artifacts you get to see up close.
English expressed a certain amount of frustration that more schools haven't turned to the museum as an educational resource.
"I should be the go-to place, and it perplexes me," he said.
Nevertheless, he will continue in his mission to collect the artifacts of a chapter of human history that should not be forgotten.
"I try to help people understand the worst time humanity has ever known," he noted. "This isn't your Uncle Henry's bottle cap collection. This is history in the raw."
To reach Scott Stafford:
or (413) 663-3741, ext. 227.
On Twitter: @BE_SStafford


text:
No tandem in Bengals history has ever done it.
Not Chad Johnson-T.J. Houshmandzadeh or Eddie Brown-Tim McGee or Isaac Curtis and anybody else.
But with two games left, soon to be three-time Pro Bowler A.J. Green (8) and sophomore Marvin Lewis Jones (9) playing in his first full season can become the first pair of Bengals wide receivers to catch at least 10 touchdowns in a season. Jones bids to become the club's first No. 2 receiver with 10 since Houshmandzadeh's Pro Bowl season of 2007 netted 12.
Jones looks like he's heating up again. You wouldn't expect anything less from a guy traded for Chad Johnson (he was the 2012 fifth-rounder) with his head coach's name.
After catching a Bengals-record four touchdowns against the Jets on Oct. 27, Jones didn't score again until one in each of the last two games as he plays through the ups and downs of any second-year player who played just 11 games as a rookie because of a knee injury.
"When we go into the red zone I want to be the guy that makes the play when it comes to me," Jones said after Thursday's practice. "Everybody has to look at A.J. If there's a look where he's getting doubled, and he gets doubled a lot in the red zone with kind of like a vise with two people standing in front of him, then we have opportunities with me if they leave him single."
So far, they have. Jones can't remember anything but single coverage when the Bengals buzz in the red zone with Green and tight ends
Gresham and Eifert are supposed to be the Gronk-like targets down there, but receivers coach James Urban isn't surprised at Jones's production in the red zone.
"Here's a guy who's got really good ball skills, can run and jump and has got good size, so it makes sense," Urban said. "We know he's a playmaker."
According to Pro Football Focus, Jones is seventh in the NFL among receivers when computing passer rating with his numbers. Green is 65th because there have been nine interceptions thrown his way and just two to Jones. It shows the kind of relentless coverage Green sees.
"If A.J. gets singled, he's going to gash them," Jones said. "I feel like us two on the opposite sides in the red zone, we'll take those chances any day."
The numbers go along with what Urban preaches in his room.
"Sometimes it's a natural and the defense is saying, 'No way 18 (Green) is scoring here and Andy (Dalton) knows he's got to go somewhere else,' " Urban said. "All our guys have to be ready when the defense takes away A.J. like that and Marv has done a good job taking advantage of his chances."
Jones's strength coming out of Cal was supposed to be the deep ball. But three Bengals including Eifert have catches longer than Jones's long of 45. But the 6-2, 195-pound Jones has succeeded in the nooks and crannies with surprising strength and confidence for a soft-spoken guy that is cautious with words.
"I wouldn't say prideful," Jones said when asked if his ability to catch touchdowns comes from that trait.
But make no mistake. He's got enormous confidence whenever he's matched up one-on-one.
"I feel like when we're in the red zone and it's just one-on-one," Jones said, "100 percent of the time I'm going to come down with that touchdown."
And a part of history if Jones and Green can score a couple more. The closest the Bengals have come to two receivers with at least 10 TDs in the same season was 2006, when another second-year guy, Chris Henry, scored nine touchdowns to go with Houshmandzadeh's nine.
And keep an eye on Green's career TDs. He's got 26, one more than McGee and one behind James Brooks for 10th already on the Bengals all-time list.


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A door You must believe that there is a door that will open for you in this world. Perhaps this door is hidden. You need to give yourself strength and cou...
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Shared Vision Shared Goal This is a featured illustration at the Atlassian Design Week 2018 talk around the interplay between Product and Platform teams. Took an inspirati...
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News & Video App Hey guys, these days I'm experimenting new ideas with a new style! Let me know your thoughts in comments. I'll be happy for any feedback. Follow m...
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Time for Tacos Tees I completely forgot to announce on here that we finally made our time for tacos tees! They come in men's, women's and kid's sizes too. Since I am l...
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Mantato2 在一个神秘的星系,我们将和平降落,不会带来伤害。 希望你喜欢它。 In a mysterious galaxy, we will calm down and do no harm. Hope you like it.
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text:
Date: May 7, 2009
Maureen O'Leary, Director of Public Information, 202-334-2138; e-mail email@example.com
Kimberly Suda-Blake, Program Director, at 949-721-2270; email email@example.com
Keck Futures Initiative Awards $1 Million for 23 Research Projects
Research will explore topics ranging from developing artificial eggs to understanding financial tsunamis
"We have selected many bold and innovative proposals and believe these collaborations will result in promising findings," said H. Eugene Stanley Ph.D., director, Center for Polymer Studies,
These competitive seed grants aim to fill a critical gap for research on new ideas. Major federal funding programs do not typically provide support in areas that are considered risky or unusual. The Futures grants allow researchers to start recruiting students and postdoctoral fellows, purchasing equipment, and acquiring preliminary data – all of which can position the researchers to compete for larger awards from other public and private sources.
Established through a $40 million grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation in 2003, the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative is a 15-year effort to enhance communication among researchers, funding agencies, universities, and the general public – with the objective of stimulating interdisciplinary research at the most exciting frontiers. The
The award recipients and their grant research topics are:
JOHN M. BEGGS, THOMAS BUSEY, and Jean-Philippe Thivierge,
Power Law Distributions and Fluctuations in Neural and Behavioral Activity - $50,000
These researchers aim to bridge these distinct but related levels of analysis. Neurons must coordinate the flow of information between various brain areas and structures. The brain and body must coordinate to effect purposeful behavior. Distinct sources of evidence are converging on common principles to explain coordinated neural and behavioral activities.
SALLY BLOWER, Bradley Wagner, and Justin Okano, Semel Institute for Neuroscience, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles
Alessandro Vespignani and Bruno Gonçalves,
Raffaele Vardavas, RAND Corporation,
Designing an Effective HIV Prevention Plan for
These researchers will use an information network model linked with a transmission model to assess the impact of using antiretrovirals to prevent HIV in
STEPHEN J. Bonasera, University of
I.S. Mian,
Christopher Rose, Rutgers, The
Agent-based Modeling of Functional Behavior Selection in the Mouse - $50,000
A key function of the central nervous system (CNS) is maintaining organism homeostasis, a process that itself involves "action selection" or choosing behaviors in real time from a broad palette of repertoires according to ongoing internal and external sensory inputs. These researchers will develop a model of how the mouse brain chooses to perform given current internal and external conditions such as hunger, thirst, need for rest, and environment, in order to improve our understanding of this important yet poorly understood problem.
Ana V. Diez Roux and George A. Kaplan,
Grant S. McCall,
James N. Gardner,
Murray Gell-Mann, Santa Fe Institute,
Jessica J. Hellman,
Paul Humphreys,
John H. Miller, Carnegie Mellon University, Santa Fe Institute
Jessika Trancik, Santa Fe Institute and Earth Institute,
Is Sustainability Possible? Frontiers in Collective Modeling via Scientific Open Source - $50,000
These researchers will adapt modern complex systems methods, both theoretical and computational, to the problem of global sustainability. The principle challenges of multiscale and multidomain modeling will be pursued on scientific and technological tracks: analyzing insect-driven deforestation and climate change and designing a network environment (SOSWorld) for collective modeling by interdisciplinary teams.
Tony H. Grubesic,
Design Principles for Resilient Critical Infrastructure - $50,000
These researchers will develop a mathematical framework for modeling interacting networks, focused on enhancing resilience of critical infrastructure (e.g., transportation networks, electrical grids, water distribution systems and the Internet).
jennifer A. dunne, Santa Fe Institute,
ross hammond, The Brookings Institution,
Humans as Explicit Players in Ecosystems: Using Bioenergetic Food-Web Dynamics and Agent-Based Modeling Approaches to Explore Persistence and Stability in Complex Ecological Networks - $25,000
Ecological networks called "food webs" characterize the feeding interactions of species that co-occur in particular habitats. These researchers will try new approaches for modeling population and individual-level dynamics to assess the impacts of humans on the stability of ecosystems through their roles as predators and prey in complex socio-ecological systems.
Phenotypic Heterogeneity as a Source of Robustness in Bacterial Sensing - $50,000
Using bacterial sensing as a model system, these researchers will examine how the resulting cell-to-cell variability confers functional robustness to a community of cells. Since bacterial chemotaxis can be viewed as a strategy for searching and acquiring information, this investigation into how the distribution of searching capabilities of individuals can optimize the behavior of the population will be of great interest to many diverse fields, including ecology, traffic control, distributed power, financial markets, and load balancing in supercomputers.
JAMES A. GLAZIER and JOHN S. GENS,
Towards the Artificial Egg -- First Steps towards Custom Creatures - $37,500
These researchers will use complexity-based software tools and modern genetic engineering to create lines of living mammalian cells which will interact to generate simple, controllable, emergent structures resembling those in animal tissues, the first step towards building an Artificial Egg.
Marta C. González, Center for Complex Network Research, Northeastern University
Nathan Eagle, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Santa Fe Institute
The Search for Universal Laws of Human Movement: A Cross-Cultural Study - $62,500
The understanding of cultural differences and economic interdependencies underlying human motion has deep implications in fields ranging from urban planning to computational epidemiology. Using mobile phone records, these researchers will quantify the fundamental similarities and differences in the statistics of motion of people among two industrialized and three developing countries, involving approximately 30 million individuals.
Sarah C. heilshorn,
amy l. bauer, Los Alamos National Laboratory,
Theoretical and Experimental Approaches to Engineering Complex Vascular Networks - $50,000
The development of complex vascular networks is a critical process during embryonic development, adult tissue remodeling, cancer progression, and in potential regenerative medicine therapies. This project is to develop theoretical computational models and experimental laboratory models to predict the fundamental biophysics and biochemistry regulating vascular networks.
pradeep kumar,
Interaction of Complex Biomolecules with a Complex Liquid: Role of Water in Biology - $25,000
These researchers aim to improve our knowledge of possible mechanisms for physical and biological phenomena arising from interactions of biomolecules such as protein, DNA, RNA and water. Progress in this field will contribute towards our understanding of the role of water in many biological processes.
david lazer and Junkka-Pekka Onnela,
Nathan Eagle, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Santa Fe Institute
Behavioral Network Analysis - $37,500
This project aims to link behavior-based ways of measuring relationships (such as a phone call between two people) and more traditional ways of measuring relationships (such as asking who someone's friends are) to examine whether particular types of relationships are associated with particular types of behaviors.
nathan S. lewis, California Institute of Technology,
Tuan A. Duong, Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Use of an Electronic Nose for Breath-Based Detection of Lung-Cancer - $50,000
These researchers will evaluate whether mixtures of volatile organic breath based biomarkers that have been implicated as diagnostic signatures suitable for a screen for early stage lung cancer can be detected and identified by a low-power, portable, "electronic nose" array of vapor sensors.
frederick I. moxley,
Juan M. Ocampo, Trajectory Asset Management,
Michael J. North,
Ying-Cheng Lai,
Financial Liquidity and Network Theory - $50,000
.Financial markets are highly complex networks of institutions and transactions through which liquidity, i.e., the flow of credit, enhances economic activity. These researchers will models these networks to provide understanding, prediction, and some degree of control of this important economic factor.
Caterina Scoglio,
michael L. parchman, University of
Quality of Care and Network Properties of Outpatient Health Care Delivery in the Veterans Health Administration - $25,000
These researchers will describe the network comprised of physicians (nodes) and patients (links) with a large health care system and its relationship with quality of care measures across three domains: access, clinical, and satisfaction.
joshua B. plotkin, Anthony Kroch and Robin Clark,
The Population Dynamics of Language Evolution - $25,000
Languages evolve over time. Words that were once common later become rare, or go extinct. These researchers will investigate whether language change is driven by deterministic Darwinian forces, or by random stochastic events. Their analysis will use a database of 23,000 digitized English texts, ranging from Beowulf to Britney Spears.
suzanne scarlata, Stony Brook University, Stony
Amy E. Herr,
Unraveling Complexity in Cell Signaling: Mapping Molecular Markers of Directed Differentiation of Nerve Cells - $50,000
Amazingly, stem cells differentiate into approximately 250 cell types in the human body. Cell signaling comprises complex interactions and feedback – with dependence on time and location. These researchers will employ micro/nanotechnology to characterize cell signaling of neuronal differentiation to try to identify key signaling nodes relevant to neuronal regeneration.
Steven J. schiff,
Brian Litt,
Daniel P. Lathrop,
Model-based Forecasting of Epileptic Seizures- $50,000
Epileptic seizures have similarities to brain storms, yet we have no systematic way that reliably detects impending seizures. This project aims to blend models based from engineering control theory, and the physics of nonlinear dynamics of the atmosphere, to test whether a novel synergistic approach to detecting epileptic seizures can be developed.
H. Eugene stanley, Center for Polymer Studies,
Interdisciplinary Approach to Understanding the Causes of Large Economic Fluctuations - $50,000
Can concepts from statistical physics of phase transitions provide insights into understanding "financial tsunamis"? This research plan will involve comprehensive datasets covering the recent financial crisis, to answer this question. The statistics of correlations will be used to conduct an analysis of the response of price fluctuations to market participant's demand and collective behavior.
jeffrey A. toretsky,
Lajos P. Balogh, Roswell Park Cancer Institute,
Peter Sloot,
Martin Gruebele,
Rigoberto Hernandez, Georgia Institute of Technology,
Peter T. Cummings,
Maia Martcheva,
Muhammad Hamid Zaman,
I.S. Mian,
Amy L. Bauer, Los Alamos National Laboratory,
Dynamic Network Models of HIV Transmission and Cancer Metastasis - $25,000
These researchers will meet to develop "pre-modeling" concepts of transport in complex systems involving networked structures in general and dynamic network models of HIV transmission and cancer metastasis in particular to slow or stop progression of these diseases.
john p. wikswo, Todd R. Graham, and Peter A. Weil,
Amy L. Bauer and Ilya Nemenman, Los Alamos National Laboratory,
Wolfgang Losert,
Mingjun Zhang,
Biology on Demand: External Control of a Complex Cellular System,
These researchers will demonstrate external, multivariable control of the budding yeast, a relatively well-characterized complex system. Their experimental studies will integrate both feedback and feed-forward control of highly instrumented, computer-controlled microfabricated bioreactor, and enable on-demand selection of metabolic and signaling pathways and hence control of cell fate.
larry yaeger and Olaf Sporns,
How Network Structure Gives Rise to Dynamical Complexity - $50,000
Developing formal methods of quantitatively assessing complexity and using them to understand the origins and mechanisms of that complexity are great challenges. These researchers seek to understand how a network's structural characteristics relate to dynamical patterns of activity in that network--how function follows from form.
muhammad H. zaman,
David K. Campbell and Adil Najam,
Complexity of Higher Education Systems in Developing Countries - $12,500
Secondary and higher education in the developing countries represents a highly dynamic and complex problem – socially, politically, financially and academically. Institutions of higher learning in the developing world are often created, but seldom successful. These researchers will convene a meeting of experts to create a roadmap for a quantitative model of education in developing countries.
For more information, visit <www.keckfutures.org> or contact Kimberly Suda-Blake, program director, at 949-721-2270.
# # #
[ This news release and report are available at http://national-academies.org ]


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Earle man missing since '01 identified
By The Associated Press
This article was published February 15, 2013 at 10:23 a.m.
LITTLE ROCK Authorities say they've identified the remains of an east Arkansas man missing since 2001 using DNA samples taken from his family members last year at an event in Little Rock.
Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel's office said Friday that authorities determined that remains discovered in Memphis in 2011 are those of Tommy Lee Newingham of Earle.
Newingham was reported missing in 2001, the same year his vehicle was found in Memphis.
The attorney general's office says Newingham's remains were identified through a national DNA database after his family and dozens of others provided samples to Arkansas' crime laboratory last year at a missing person's day for adults.
Comments on: Earle man missing since '01 identified
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One of the staples of the Winter Meetings is a half-hour, informal gathering with 29 of baseball's 30 managers (Dodgers manager Joe Torre never attends). It's usually bland and lacking in anything controversial, but that wasn't the case in Tony La Russa's session today.
La Russa lambasted third baseman Scott Rolen, with whom he's feuded for more than a year. Rolen remains on the trading block, and he'll have to stay there; can't imagine he can return after these comments.
Some excerpts:
Q: If the situation is serious enough that would like you to explore it, what can you or do you do to remedy that?
La Russa: Well, you know, I've had a long career, and I can't remember ever being the combination of mystified and concerned that I am about this situation. Because speaking for any level of the organization, he has received first-class consideration, respect, gratuities. … I think he needs to understand that our Cardinals have given him a lot since he's gotten there. He's been given a contract; he's been given a couple of World Series, he's been given a World Series championship, been a part of it, and he's given back some. But he needs to give back more. And so, we need him.
Q: Based on what you're saying, why would the club just not say, you're under contract, we have an obligation to you, you have an obligation to us; this is the way it's going to be. … Why accomodate him?
La Russa: You said it perfectly. Speaking for me, and I think that I haven't heard anybody say this differently, there's absolutely no intention to accomodate Scott. I mean, that's not how you run an organization. The idea is to accommodate the St. Louis Cardinals, our team. Our responsibility [is] to our players and to the competition. So no, I don't want to accomodate Scott.
Q: Do you think barring a trade, your next conversation with him is spring training?
A: You know, I've tried to converse. … I told somebody the other day, I can make a list of 50 respect points that this man has been given by our organization. It's time for him to give back. … He's got a contract to play, and we need him to play. And he's going to be treated very honestly. If he plays hard, and plays as well as he can, he plays. And if he doesn't, he can sit. If he doesn't like it, he can quit.


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Tonight's fabulous Orange Friday victory over the Indians showed off two things that I truly love about the defending World Champions:
#1 The Bullpen. They are clearly the factor that make this team tough to beat, even more so than our starters so far this year. Tonight it was 4.1 innings ( 13 outs needed due to another Jonathan Sanchez walk-fest!) and they ( specifically Santiago Casilla, Jeremy Affeldt, Sergio Romo and Brian Wilson ) gave up one lousy walk. THAT WAS IT...ONE WALK! And that guy was picked off by a stellar throw from Chris Stewart.
#2 Andres Torres. What's not to love about this guy? Even though this year has been tough for him, I love to watch him play. Tonight he reminded everyone of what an offensive force he can be: 3 for 4, 2 runs scored, with a homer to get us on the board in the first place. It looks like Bochy's idea of resting Andres a little was a wise one. If he can regain last year's form our run-scoring prognosis goes from grave to critical. Wish I could give a better outlook, but this is one sick puppy we are talking about.
I really feel like this post needs a good Carlos Santana joke - the dude had a major impact on the game with a clutch hit and two huge errors - however I just can't think of one, so I'll leave that chore to the heckling crowd.


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EU-commissioned studies have found that extra demand for food crops such as palm oil for the production of biofuels can have a significant impact on climate change.
Forests and peat swamps destroyed to make way for land to grow biomass for fuel can have an even worse impact on CO2 emissions than some fossil fuels, the Commission has said. An EU proposal released in October said that palm oil was one of the worst biofuel sources in terms of indirect land use change (ILUC).


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MDUSD to discuss budget and charter's possible financial impact on Monday
By Theresa Harrington
Sunday, November 20th, 2011 at 6:32 pm in Clayton, Concord, Contra Costa County, Education, Mt. Diablo school district.
As the Mt. Diablo school district prepares its budget report for December, it expects to take into consideration two possible events that could require cuts — a Clayton Valley High School charter conversion in 2012-13 and state "trigger" cuts due to lower-than-anticipated revenues.
The district has already set aside $330/ADA or $10.7 million in a "State Fiscal Uncertainty" reserve fund for midyear cuts. At the board's Sept. 27 meeting, CFO Bryan Richards estimated the worst-case $4 billion state budget trigger scenario would be $296/ADA or $9.6 million.
"We are prepared," he said.
This means that even with the $4 billion trigger, the district would have an extra $1.1 million left over. However, the LAO has projected a much lower trigger of $180 per ADA, which would amount to nearly $5.9 million. With this cut, the district would still have $4.8 million left over in its State Fiscal Uncertainties reserve.
The State Fiscal Uncertainty reserve is part of a $45.5 million ending fund balance that the district had at the end of the 2010-11 year. Richards reported that about $14.7 million of that was set aside for various uses including nearly $6 million in a required reserve for "Economic Uncertainties," leaving an "undesignated" ending balance of $30.8 million. Richards said this was about $7.6 million more than anticipated.
Yet, district officials say they would need to cut about $1.8 million from other schools across the district if the charter conversion is approved by the county or state boards of education. The district is also pushing the MDEA teachers' union to agree to seven furlough days this year and next year, including five fewer days of school in both years.
The district has built a savings of about $6 million into its budget for furlough days from all employees, including nearly $4.6 million for teacher furlough days that haven't yet been negotiated.
Mike Langley, president of the teachers' union, questions whether the furlough days are necessary at all, given the large ending fund balance. The charter committee, likewise, questions whether the district's calculations related to costs and expenses for the charter are accurate.
Because of the intense debate surrounding the charter's financial impact, Walnut Creek City Councilman Kish Rajan — along with Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla and state Sen. Mark DeSaulnier — asked the board on Oct. 25 to seek an independent review of the financial calculations from the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT). Rajan also suggested that the district convene and independent committee to review the financial data.
That same day (Oct. 25), the district requested a financial review from FCMAT. The independent agency visited the district Nov. 1 and used information available at that time to prepare its report.
However, a lot changed after the FCMAT visit. The next day (Nov. 2), Bill Clark, associate superintendent for business services at the Contra Costa County Office of Education, issued guidance to districts about how to prepare for midyear cuts.
The district asked the charter committee to submit new financial estimates based on this guidance, which the charter submitted on Nov. 4. The board denied the charter petition Nov. 8, based on the charter budget submitted Nov. 4. FCMAT did not review that budget.
Instead, the FCMAT review, based on data obtained Nov. 1, stated that: "Calculations prepared by the district to analyze costs associated with Clayton Valley High School are accurate, reasonable and based on either current year projections or prior year actuals when applicable."
However, the report went onto state that special education costs had not been adjusted to show the charter's intention to use the El Dorado County Charter Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) or to show revenues the district could receive from the charter for facilities and oversight.
The report concluded: "FCMAT reviewed the district's cost impact based on a defined set of assumptions. As these assumptions change, so will the costs either positively or negatively, as these findings are based on a particular point in time. The district and the charter organizers have not completed negotiations regarding some major areas such as facility arrangements and serving special education students. In addition, the charter organizers have resubmitted adjusted financial statements since FCMAT's fieldwork. The financial impact associated with special education and facilities can be substantial. The district is encouraged to clarify these issues with the charter organizers.
The team provided Mount Diablo Unified School District management with suggestions on potential cost impacts associated with the possible conversion. FCMAT verified the source of the data utilized by the district in its calculations but did not perform an in-depth fiscal review or financial audit of Mount Diablo Unified School District, and accordingly, FCMAT does not express any opinion in this regard."
To try to get a better understanding of how the district's ending fund balance could possibly soften the need for cuts, I emailed some questions to Lawrence on Wednesday. I also asked him whether he was following up on the idea of convening an independent committee to look at the financials, as well as on Trustee Lynne Dennler's idea of exploring issues that led to the charter movement.
On Thursday, Nov. 17, I received the following email response from Lawrence:
Q. "I believe you said you would create some sort of independent committee to look at the financial impact of the charter on the district. Have you done that? What is the status of the analysis?
A: I requested that principals attend a meeting next Monday evening along with two parent leaders from their site. The purpose is to review the District's current budget situation based on the November 2nd letter from the Contra Cost Office of Education providing financial guidance on the 1st interim report, and the possible approval of the charter application at the county or State level. The meeting is from 5-7 p.m. at the Loma Vista center. Debi Deal from FCMAT is also able to attend the meeting. Please feel free to attend.
Q: Lynne Dennler said she thought the district should have a dialogue with the charter committee about its grievances, to try to remedy them and prevent future charter efforts. The day after the meeting, Gary Eberhart told me that he thought this dialogue should begin immediately. Has any dialogue begun between the charter committee and the district regarding grievances that led to the charter?
A: We did have a meeting last spring to learn of the concerns that the charter petitioners have. The District then began working to address those concerns by, among other things, interviewing Clayton Valley staff members to determine what they felt was going well and what needed to be changed. Based on those interviews, we made leadership changes at the school. Though we appreciated the efforts of individual administrators at Clayton Valley, there was consensus that a new leadership team would help move the school forward. Since her arrival, Ms. Brothers has meet with both parents and staff members to identify concerns and address them. We continue to support Ms. Brothers, like our other principals, to meet the needs at their site. If the principal at any site thinks it would be useful to have me attend a site leadership meeting to listen to concerns, I would be happy to do that.
Q. Gary (Eberhart) also said he thought the district would need to identify $1.8 million in cuts in the 2012-13 budget for the first interim report, in case the charter is approved by the county or the State Board of Education. Is this what you are planning?
A: Bryan is at the CASBO (California Association of School Business Officials) conference so I do not have the most updated numbers. The financial impact and how it was arrived at will be presented at the meeting on Monday.
Q. What is your response to some critics, who say the FCMAT disclaimer at the end of its report shows that the agency did not actually verify the numbers provided by the district. Therefore, some people are still skeptical about the district's estimates of the financial impact of the charter.
A: This is why we are having the meeting on Monday evening because Ms. Deal and Mr. Richards will be there. Between the two of them, we can answer questions about the FCMAT review as well as how the District developed its numbers."
"Thanks very much for this. Is the public invited to the Monday meeting?"
"The meeting is set up for principals and two parent reps from each school. Given that is 150 people that will fill the room at Loma Vista."
It was unclear to me whether this meant the public could attend. I followed up with an email to Lawrence on Friday, asking whether a "robocall" had gone out about the meeting and stating that there seemed to be some confusion in the community about whether or not it was a public meeting.
I also contacted Clayton Mayor David Shuey on Friday, who told me that the charter committee had not been invited. After my call, Shuey sent the following email to Lawrence:
"Subject: FCMAT meeting Monday?
Dr. Lawrence,
Theresa Harrington called and asked me about a meeting that is apparently being held on Monday that will include a presentation and update from FCMAT on the charter school issue. I have seen no notice of such a meeting (looked on your website just now) and only learned from Ms. Harrington that it is apparently Principals of each school and two parent representatives. I asked our group if anyone had gotten notice of this and am currently unaware of such notice. I also have not seen anything come back from any of my kids schools regarding parent participation. So as you can see I am a little confused on this meeting.
Please kindly provide me the time, location and agenda for this meeting so that those of us interested can attend.
David "Shoe" Shuey
Mayor, City of Clayton"
Lawrence copied me on his response to Shuey below:
"Mr. Shuey,
The meeting is at the Loma Vista Center from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. We asked each principal to invite two parents because that would be a group of about 150 people. However, as long as there is room in the room we won't be turning people away.
Steven Lawrence"
I also called Rajan to find out if a committee comprised of principals and two parent leaders they chose to invite was the type of "independent" committee he envisioned when he suggested the idea of a charter budget review on Oct. 25.
Rajan said he was aware of the meeting, but wasn't sure at that moment how the committee was selected. He later followed up with the forwarded email below, which was sent to him, along with representatives for Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla, Sen. Mark DeSaulnier and Rep. George Miller:
"From: STEVEN LAWRENCE
Sent: Monday, November 14, 2011 6:07 PM
To: Kish Rajan; Herbert, Mark; Satinder S. Malhi
Cc: Johnson, Barb
Subject: FW: Budget Meeting e-mail to principals
Good evening,
I wanted to let all of you know that I am following up on the suggestion from Senator DeSaulnier, Assemblywoman Bonilla and Councilman Rajan for a public meeting to review the district budget and loss of funding due to the a conversion charter high school. It would be great if they or their representative could attend the meeting.
Steven Lawrence
From: STEVEN LAWRENCE
Sent: Monday, November 14, 2011 5:59 PM
To: All MDUSD principals
Subject: Budget Meeting e-mail to principals
Good afternoon,
In order to publicly answer questions about the District's budget and our calculations around the loss of funding that will result if the County or State approves the Clayton Valley conversion to a charter school, we will hold a public meeting at the Loma Vista Center next Monday, November 21, 2011 from 5 – 7 p.m. I know this is the first Monday of vacation, and I completely understand people may have travel plans or other commitments that will not allow them to attend the meeting. We are holding the meeting on November 21 because Debi Deal, who conducted the FCMAT review, is in the area and able to attend at that time. Please invite two of your parent leaders to attend the meeting. If there are specific questions that you or your parents would like to have answered at the meeting, please forward your input to Rose or me so we include the information in the discussion. If people are unable to attend this meeting we will have follow-up evening meetings to address budget concerns. Again, I am sorry that this meeting is during vacation, but Ms. Deal lives in Southern California and happened to be working with another district in our area on November 21st.
Steven Lawrence"
In his email to me, Rajan said (in part): "This was sent to every principal in the district. This is clearly not a 'hand picked' group. And there is no effort to exclude or obscure. It appears very consistent with our request for an open transparent meeting on this matter."
He also asked me if the charter folks were participating and said he hoped they would "participate honestly and not be dismissive of the critical financial facts."
In addition, Rajan asked how the charter committee felt about the state "triggered" budget cuts and whether they would be insulated from them.
I responded, letting Rajan know that the charter folks were not invited, but that Lawrence told them late Friday they would not be turned away, after Shuey asked to attend. I also said that Lawrence's decision to allow principals to select two parent leaders could give some the appearance that the committee was "hand-picked". In addition, I asked whether he thought the meeting should have been publicly noticed, since some people were questioning how open and transparent it really was.
Here is Rajan's (excerpted) email response:
"I trust the principals to invite responsible parents who have no agenda other than to help the kids at their schools.
I think the charter folks have every opportunity to live up to their statements that they want to know the facts of the financial impact the charter would have on the rest of the district. And given the larger triggered cuts that are looming, I would hope the charter proponents are sensitive to the impact all parents are bracing for."
To get a better idea of how midyear cuts may affect the district, I emailed some questions to Lawrence on Thursday and received the following response:
Q: "I know that the district set aside $330/ADA in anticipation of the cuts, or $10.7 million. According to Bryan (Richards)'s most recent budget presentation, the district estimated midyear cuts would cost about $296/ADA or about $9.6 million, which leaves a cushion of about $1.1 million. This doesn't include the extra $7.6 million in the district's ending fund balance that wasn't anticipated. Do you agree with this?
A: Bryan is at the CSBO so I can't run your assumptions by him to validate your numbers. If you review the November 2 letter form CCCOE CBO Bill Clark that is attached to our website the County is recommending that not only do we assume the triggers will be pulled, but we assume they will be on-going, not one time, and we remove any COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment) from our budget for the next two years. Here is the link to the letter http://www.mdusd.org/NewsRoom/Documents/012%202011-12%20First%20Interim%20Guidance.pdf
Q: A recent MDEA (Mt. Diablo Education Association) bargaining update says the district is proposing one furlough day for every $42 in per-student funding from the state, which would equal seven furlough days, if the trigger costs the district $296/ADA, as projected. I understand that MDEA wants to propose a counter-offer. Do you agree with this?
A: I can't speak for MDEA; please contact them.
Q: Another MDEA bargaining update states that the district is asking teachers to agree to 'Make no plan dates,' in anticipation of furlough days. It states that teachers don't want to agree to this unless the furloughs have actually been negotiated.
A: We have received concerns from teachers, high school parents, and principals that they need to know what definitive dates graduation will be held on. They have to reserve dates at the Concord Pavilion and the Concord Center. Parent groups that sponsor grad night need to enter into contracts with vendors. Elementary and middle school teachers don't want to have to change their plans and lose fieldtrip deposits as they almost did last year when furlough days were agreed to late in the school year. Therefore, the District recommended dates that would not impact holding graduation during the last week of school on the current district calendar. We also want to make sure that furlough days don't impact AP Testing and STAR testing."
I also asked Lawrence for quotes the Times might be able to use in a story about midyear cuts.
Q: "Might you be able to tell me in general how you expect the district to cope (will you rely on the reserve you set aside for midyear cuts)?"
A: We set aside a reserve to address one-time, midyear reductions, not ongoing cuts the County is asking us to assume."
I also asked for a general quote regarding the state budget's affect on the district.
A: "Children are being minimized and marginalized by the continual reductions to education funding. We are robbing a generation of children of the rich educational experiences that others received in the past. The Legislature and Governor have to stand up and not let the hemorrhaging continue."
Langley said the district has consistently underestimated its ending fund balance during the past few years, which has prompted the board to make deep cuts to balance its budget. In June, the board cut the hours and benefits of special education assistants — even after Lawrence and Richards said the additional reduction would not be necessary to certify a "positive" budget.
These cuts are hurting students and teachers, Langley said, because the district has been unable to fill many of these positions. He speculated that the district's inability to fill the positions could be because the district reduced the hours to three per day and eliminated benefits. This was an outcome that many predicted before the board made the cuts.
Trustee Sherry Whitmarsh pushed for the special education cuts, saying they would be necessary if teachers didn't agree to furlough days. Now, the district has made so many cuts and has such a large ending fund balance that furloughs may not be necessary this year, Langley said in an email.
"The question parents should be asking is: Why is MDUSD proposing to cut out a week of student instruction when they have a $40 million excess reserve?'" he wrote.
In response, I asked Langley if he thought the public should also question whether the district would need to make cuts if the CVHS charter is approved.
"Anytime the district says it has to make cuts, it should be in context of the amount of reserves," Langley replied. "Although it is important to project the estimates for future demands on reserves, one must remember that the district reserves have been growing during times when their estimates have seriously underestimated the ending balances. This does not bring into question that spending cuts were needed in the past. It does bring into question the severity of the cuts and the areas that were cut. As long as the philosophy of the governing board and top management is focused on pouring resources, time and money, into narrow data-driven goals and starving the human resources that are critical to the education of our children, the public must question every cut and every expenditure. That question must address the basic need: access to a well rounded education."
Shuey said the charter committee had submitted new financials to the district Nov. 4, which responded to the County Office of Education guidance related to midyear cuts.
"We are as interested as anyone else to find out the complete factual basis and truth of the (charter's financial)impact on the district," he said.
In addition, Shuey said he would like to know why each high school gets a different amount of money per student and why some get less than other schools throughout the district. He said he wants the district to explain the methodology it uses to calculate school funding and he wants to know how MDUSD's methodology compares to other districts.
"There's a lot of preliminary factual information that I need to get an understanding," he said. "I'm hoping the meeting on Monday will start that process."
Are you satisfied with the composition of the committee and the district's notification to the community about the meeting?
[You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.]


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who do you think is gonna kick some ass at UFC 82?? I pick Anderson Silva to win over Dan Henderson. Also I think Jon Fitch, Diego Sanchez, and Arlovski are all gonna win there fights.
i would post polls on the fights but I'm not sure how to post a poll...just post which fighter you think will kick some ass!


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BNSF will replace two bridges in Princeton and Wyanet and construct a new siding 7,600 feet long between Barstow and Hillsdale. Three departure tracks at the Galesburg Yard will be extended to a length of 10,000 feet each and track and parking will be added to BNSF's Logistics Park Chicago and Corwith Intermodal facilities in the Chicago area.
BNSF will also continue its maintenance program in Illinois, which will include about 2,700 miles of track surfacing and undercutting work and the replacement of 90 miles of rail and more than 150,000 crossties, as well as signal upgrades for positive train control.
"BNSF's capital investments in Illinois will help ensure our network is prepared for growing demand for freight rail," said Matthew Rose, chairman and chief executive officer. "We are focused on investing to meet our customers' expectations and on expanding capacity where growth is occurring. Given the importance of a low cost supply chain to the U.S. economy, our privately funded rail infrastructure is well positioned to help Illinois compete in global markets."
The planned capital investments in Illinois are part of BNSF's record 2013 capital commitment of $4.3 billion. The largest component of the capital plan is spending $2.3 billion on BNSF's core network and related assets. BNSF also plans to spend approximately $1 billion on locomotive, freight car and other equipment acquisitions, many of which will serve Illinois. The program also includes about $200 million for positive train control and $800 million for terminal, line and intermodal expansion and efficiency projects.


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