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At the US Marine Corps Reserve Center in Charlotte troops are preparing their battle gear, HMMWV trucks and even their battleships.
"When they see that Marine presence it makes them more generous to actually do versus just having a box out there and not seeing anybody out there collecting a toy," said Gunnery Sergeant Montreal Johnson.
But this is a different mission, one a bit more peaceful and sure to bring many smiles.
"I spent $3000 that day buying toys for children," said Johnson.
These Marines are helping less fortunate kids of Charlotte through their annual Toy for Tots Campaign.
And the Corp says our fragile economy has increased the need in our community.
"We're trying to help those individual families out," said Gunnery Sergeant Johnson.
So far the Marine Corp has collected close to 1000 gifts but that's still not enough.
"As of right we need now roughly 10 thousand," said Johnson.
They're looking for solid, new toys that will last and they should be unwrapped.
This year there is a special need.
"We are in great need of toys for the older children," said Gunnery Sergeant Johnston.
"Granted we'll take whatever we can take but we are looking for ages eight and above."
There are over 60 nonprofit organizations requesting toys this year from the Marines.
It's a very tough order to fill.
"That lets me know the need through the community is fairly high this year," said the sergeant.
But with your help these Marines know their mission will be accomplished.
For a complete list of Toys for Tots drop off locations log on to www.toysfortots.org
The Marines will be accepting donations until December 14th.
You can also help by making a cash donation.


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Filed under: twitchhiker project | Tags: dolphins, invercargill, kaikoura, mount cook, queenstown, south island, steart island
I'm sat at the scarred oak dining table of the Bunkers hostel in Oban, Stewart Island, a fleck of savage rock and fauna 20 miles off the tip of New Zealand. It's like Site B in The Lost World, but with fewer Hypsilophodon and a single pub serving the 400 inhabitants called the South Seas Hotel, one of the most friendly, drunkard locals you could ever care to topple into. Local fishermen slap each other hard over the back while recalling their tales for tourists, while last night's talent quest discovered a gentleman who bore an uncanny resemblance to Paul McShane's dad belting out Burning Love to the tune of In The Ghetto, although not in a manner that suggested it was intentional.
I'm about to head back to Invercargill on the mainland and see out my remaining time there. If the offer of a flight or a boat comes through, that's most likely where I'll need to be to take advantage of it. There's so little Twitter activity now that I've reached the last outpost of my journey, I can't really see my journey progressing. In recent days I've been frustrated that my quest might stop short of its destination, but now I've come this far, my view is more pragmatic. The aim was always to travel as far as I can from my home; wherever I manage to reach will invariably satisfy that aim.
I arrived on New Zealand's South Island after departing Wellington on the InterIslander ferry, courtesy of @ExploreMoreNZ. Smaller than the ferry that had chugged me across the North Sea to Amsterdam all those days ago, this particular vessel possessed a curiously sharp aroma of farmyard that singed the nostrils. Parked near the stern were several cattle wagons, lacking their cargo of sheep but retaining a journey's worth of dung; just what the captain ordered for a three hour ferry crossing. Fortunately the seas remained calm and the stench of my bile didn't add to the already viscous fumes.
The voyage across the Cook Straight into Picton was breathtaking, and not because of the smell. Now, that may appear to be a lazy description and indeed, it's a word that is vastly overused to describe everyday, mundane occurrences that do no such thing. Trust me when I say the sight of dolphins jumping across the path of your ferry while travelling through the forested magnificence of the Marlborough Sounds will cause your jaw to loosen and your lungs to be gently squeezed empty of air.
And it won't be the last time you experience this very real sensation of Mother Nature applying a firm hand to your sternum. This country is the world in high-definition – an infinite wash of shapes and colours, a cascading stream of contours and textures that overwhelms the senses, too much for the eye to comprehend or the brain to process. That is in no way a criticism, but rather a celebration of New Zealand.
In Picton I was met by Smiley – not his real name, obviously – a driver from Kiwi Experience who was to be my chauffeur on the South Island. Built like a brick outhouse, accompanied by a mouthful of teeth that made friends everywhere they went, Smiley was a rugged Kiwi who'd driven tourists up and down New Zealand for years. Like half the population here, he'd worked as a production assistant on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but after years of a career in film production he'd discovered bus driving to prove far more satisfying.
In our Maui Rentals campervan, we travelled the lonely coastal road to Kaikoura that evening. In fact all roads on South Island are lonely; a land mass the size of the UK with only one million inhabitants means you're unlikely to suffer road rage. As the sun set over the rolling foothills of the Southern Alps, ash-blue mists swirled in over the charcoal grey beaches. The occasional surfer tried their luck in the twilight, but otherwise we were alone on our travels.
Because of the kilometre-deep Kaikoura Canyon that lies off the town's coast and the unique transition of ocean currents found there, Kaikoura is renowned for whale-watching. The canyon is also home of the mythical giant squid; although proof of the submarine sized beasts is scarce, remains are washed up along the beaches from time to time. As it transpired, the sperm whales that are commonplace to these feeding grounds remained just as elusive as their squidular nemesis. On our catamaran cruise the following day, we saw plenty of horizon and the occasional albatross, but otherwise it was very much a whale fail.
From Kaikoura, we continued south to Christchurch; our intended route had been to head straight on to Invercargill, but we'd had to take a later trip for our whale watch, and the road to Invercargill was over ten hours long. Instead, we decided to break the journey up by heading to Queenstown, smack in the heart of New Zealand and a journey that took us through the broken land of the Southern Alps. The sight of dolphins in the Marlborough Sounds had brought tears to my eyes; the distant Mount Cook seen from the shore of Lake Tepako caused them to roll down my face.
By contrast to that regal view of peace and splendour, there was Queenstown. It's the destination for 20 something-year-old adventure junkies who want to throw themselves into canyons by way of bungee jumps, parachute over glaciers and seek out other adrenalin-spurting activities I hadn't the slightest wish to indulge in. If that sounds like your dream of Mecca, you're very welcome to Queenstown.
Unfortunately, it also means you deal with hundreds of 20 something-year-old adventure junkies when they're smacked out their skull on drink every evening. Perhaps I was too old to appreciate the scene, perhaps I was too tired to embrace a lively night out, but I can go to the Bigg Market in Newcastle any night of the week for that experience, and at least there I won't find gobby Essex chavs taking the piss out of me for showing a little common courtesy when ordering a late night snack, although the burgers at Fergburger made the abuse from the spindly framed gobshites almost bearable. Almost. Every place needs to let its hair down, and for South Island it's Queenstown; it's an easy place to lose in the vast emptiness of New Zealand if it's not your thing.
Yesterday saw Smiley and I arrive in Invercargill early for a radio interview on local station More FM. Invercargill is rather unfairly referred to by the rest of New Zealand as the arsehole of the country; perhaps that's a purely geographical reference, because from our brief time spent there it looked like a perfectly pleasant small town going about its own business. I did see one or two mullets, however, which is one or two too many, whichever continent you happen to be stood on.
Throughout the week I'd told people of my intention to at least reach Stewart Island, and to a man, not one person in New Zealand had a good thing to say about the ferry crossing. Smiley told tales of wall-to-wall vomit on one particular trip, to the point that he swore he'd never step foot on board again. Let me tell you that Smiley is a particularly fearless bastard, so anything that scared that man troubled me no end.
On this occasion, the crossing was relatively smooth, at least according to the locals; that is to say it was still comparable to necking oysters while downing tequila on the back of a bucking bronco. After 45 minutes of sea-sawing across the Foveaux Strait, I felt like I'd been kicked in the guts by an angry horse. I staggered from the port into Oban and up to the hostel, clutching my guts as the island and my head swirled in opposite directions. I was officially sea-sick and about to say hello once more to the morning's eggs benedict.
24 hours on, I'm still wretchedly ill. As I type this, the living room of the hostel is spinning and I can feel myself gently rocking back and forth. In two hours time I'll be back on the ferry to Invercargill; Stewart Island Experiences (@StewartIslandEx) can't guarantee me a spew-free return, although they were kind enough to bring me here so it'd be rather rude to return the favour by throwing up on their boat.
Once I reach Invercargill, I'll wait and hope that Twitter pulls one final rabbit out of its hat. If it doesn't, I'll be satisfied I reached this point, having travelled this far, meeting the wonderful, gracious people I have, seeing more of the world that most people see in their lifetimes and having raised a healthy amount of money for Charity: water.
Privately, there'll be the tiniest flicker of disappointment and hopelessness in my mind, that I've come so close and fallen at the last hurdle. But I can live with it. I can.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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5 signs your employees have low morale
Poor communication may do the greatest harm to workplace morale, according to a new survey by staffing firm Accountemps.
One-third (33 percent) of human resources managers interviewed said a breakdown in communication is at the heart of most morale problems; almost 1 in 5 (18 percent) survey respondents pointed to micromanagement as the biggest factor. Communication also was cited by 38 percent of HR managers as the most effective way to counter low employee morale.
Accountemps, a specialized staffing service for temporary accounting, finance and bookkeeping professionals, developed the survey, which was conducted by an independent research firm. The results are based on interviews with more than 300 HR managers at U.S. companies with 20 or more employees.
HR managers were asked, "Which one of the following has the most negative impact on employee morale?"
Lack of open, honest communication got the highest response, at 33 percent, followed by: micromanaging employees, 18 percent; failure to recognize employee achievements, 15 percent; fear of job loss, 10 percent; excessive workloads for extended periods, 9 percent; none of these, 14 percent; and don't know, 2 percent.
HR managers also were asked, "What is the best remedy for low morale?"
Not surprisingly, communication was the top response at 38 percent. Both monetary rewards for exceptional performance and recognition programs garnered 15 percent of responses, followed by: unexpected rewards, such as gift certificates or sporting events tickets, 13 percent; team-building events or meetings, 11 percent; and additional days off, 6 percent. None of the above and don't know both rated 2 percent of responses.
That lack of communication is "something that comes up internally within our organization and in conversations with our clients," said Andy Decker, senior regional vice president for Robert Half International in Atlanta. Robert Half is the parent company of Accountemps. "When we are talking to hiring managers, it's not often the job or the money [that leads to low morale], it's not communicating effectively with the boss."
When there is a lack of communication, "people make assumptions and they try to figure out why things aren't being talked about," he said. Rumors and gossip tend to make things worse than clear and direct dialogue, he added.
Accountemps highlights five characteristics of — and remedies for — low morale:
1. An active grapevine
When communication is scarce, gossip and misinformation flourish. Even if you have bad news to share or don't have all the answers, honesty is still the best policy. The more team members can rely on accurate information, the less grist they'll have for the rumor mill.
2. Lack of initiative
Unmotivated employees just go through the motions rather than taking an active seat at the table. Foster an ownership environment in which employees are challenged to take initiative and solve problems in creative ways.
Decker said managers make a mistake when not explaining what the corporate goals are and how employees play into that.
Employees aren't simply happy to sit and do their jobs when they don't understand what the ultimate goal of the company is, he said. "It's not just saying 'Good job.' It's explaining how it relates to a company objective, the collective mission."
Without that explanation, employees might not look at what else they can do to help the company reach its goals, Decker said.
3. Scarce rewards
Step up efforts to recognize employees' efforts with praise, low-cost awards and spot bonuses. Make rewards personal and give them as soon after an achievement as possible.
"One of the things we hear a lot is, 'We can't afford to do what we used to do,' " Decker said, "though that is changing."
But companies are not being creative in how they reward employees, he said. For some employees, having a Friday afternoon off or being allowed to work from home a couple of days a week would be a big reward, "especially here in Atlanta, where we sit in traffic for an hour."
4. Changes in attitude
If employees are unhappy, it will show. Look for red flags, such as increased negativity, higher rates of absenteeism, or reduced cooperation or commitment. Checking in with workers on a regular basis will help you gauge morale and address budding problems.
5. Poor performance
Morale problems can quickly affect a team's quality of work. Signs of trouble include missed deadlines, an increase in mistakes or a decline in service levels. Consider bringing in temporary professionals to ease your team's workload.


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CIA Says Area 51 Exists, But Forget About UFOs
The storied spot in the Nevada desert known by science-fiction fans, UFO chasers and plane-spotters as Area 51 is real, according to a document recently declassified by the Central Intelligence Agency.
George Washington University's National Security Archive obtained a document from the CIA about the history of the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft under a public records request and released it this week. While it acknowledges Area 51's existence, there is no mention of the government storing wrecked alien spacecraft there as movies like "Independence Day" have fantasized.
The document includes information about how officials from the CIA and aircraft maker Lockheed came across the old World War II airstrip that later became known as Area 51, a name based on map coordinates. It was also known as Paradise Ranch and simply "the ranch" in part to make the desolate location seem more appealing.
Lockheed's secret-plane division, known as the Skunk Works, developed and tested numerous aircraft at Area 51 including the U-2, SR-71 Blackbird, F-117 "stealth fighter" and even a number of unmanned models.
Jeffrey Richelson, a senior fellow with the National Security Archive, studied the recently released document and a version released a decade ago in which Area 51 information was redacted. He said the latest document indicates the CIA may be more forthcoming with other related information.
"The fact that they released this report opens up the possibility of getting further information about these programs," Richelson said.
Still, the spy agency continues to deny that the site has anything to do with UFOs.
"What readers of the CIA study will find is that CIA tested its U-2 and A-12 reconnaissance aircraft at a site in Nevada sometimes referred to as 'Area 51.' What readers won't find are any references to aliens or other conspiracy theories best left to the realm of science fiction," a CIA spokesman said.


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Vatican City
series: Burt Wolf: Travels & Traditions
air date: 1/22/13 10:00 PM
Rome's Vatican City has a population of only 550 people and a landmass of just over 100 acres, which makes it the world's smallest independent state, but its influence is extraordinary. Burt takes viewers on a unique tour of the city and its history. There are some amazing images from the ceiling of St. Peter's Basilica as well as a look at St. Peter's Tomb below. We see the Sistine Chapel in close-up and visit the Vatican's 500-year-old mosaic studio.
WARNING: Email reminders for this program have already been sent out. Your reminder may not reach the intended address in time for this program's airing.
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Playing conditions were near perfect and the good crowd expected exciting rugby. This came from the Quins in the opening half and from the home side after the interval. Amazing is the only word to describe it.
Early Quins pressure gave Darren Daniel the chance to challenge the home line, Ellis Lloyd was stopped inches short but the visitors secured the ball and moved it right for Ian Jones to power over. Chris Banfield added the points.
The home side were unable to match the Quins' physicality and after 10 minutes, Banfield took the visitors score into double figures with a penalty. The Wizards were denied any clean ball and could not establish any kind of foothold in the Quins half.
The line-out control of Richard Kelly and Gavin Evans and the powerful charges of Ian Jones and Rob Evans gave very little away, creating many chances for the Quins to add to their advantage. Connor Lloyd made a scintillating break only to see James Dixon lose the ball when over the line while Luke Joseph saw another chance go begging.
This pressure and power play was bound to produce something and just before the interval, Lloyd brought his backs into play and a clever reverse pass gave Dylan Morgan the chance to burst through to cross near the posts. Banfield converted and the first half ended with the amazing statistic that Aberavon managed less than five minutes in the opposition half.
The Quins supporters were counting on a bonus point victory but the Wizards had other ideas. The interval team talk certainly had the desired effect and the whole game changed. From the restart, Quins took play up into the Wizards 22 and when they gained possession, they played with increasing freedom. Paul Bamsey gathered his kick ahead to score in the corner and Jamie Davies converted to start the revival.
The Aberavon fly half added a further penalty and with Quins strangely lethargic in all phases of play, hooker Ieuan Davies powered over for Davies to bring the scores level.
The Quins were unable to pick themselves up and two more late penalties sealed their fate.


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Enable Encrypted Partitions for LS-VL
From NAS-Central Buffalo - The Linkstation Wiki
Revision as of 09:33, 15 November 2013 by Zommuter (Talk | contribs) (Added other tested firmware versions)
This page is work in progress. While all relevant information is already present, the description is not yet complete. Please have a look here again in a few days.
What will you get?
This how-to guides you to set up Encrypted Partitions for LW-VL using dm-crypt / LUKS. Partitions may even be on a RAID.
What you need beforehand
You have to be able to use the root account on the NAS. You can follow Open Stock Firmware LS-VL.
The Guide
- Check whether the kernel support dm_crypt (kernel 18.104.22.168 from Firmware 1.40, 1.41 and 1.60 is known to be okay. It does however not work with 1.63 and 1.65, probably due to the missing __initcall_dm_crypt_init6 - see <http://forum.buffalo.nas-central.org/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=28041>)
# grep dm_crypt /proc/kallsyms c0021f74 t dm_crypt_init c0027e74 t __initcall_dm_crypt_init6 c033bbd0 t dm_crypt_bio_destructor
- Install the package cryptsetup
apt-get install cryptsetup
- Follow the instructions at <http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Root_filesystem_over_LVM2,_DM-Crypt_and_RAID> to setup the encryption.
- Set up an Initrd for Raid-Boot, using linuxrc-cryptsetup.txt shown at that page.
- Install this initrd to /boot and reboot.
- Describe a working way to enter the key via network since LS-VL does not have a serial console connector.
Benchmark results
On a LS-WVL using aes-cbc-essiv:sha256 over a RAID-1
Version 1.96 ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random- -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks-- Machine Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP /sec %CP unencrypted 480M 243 98 71879 34 33253 29 656 99 106898 74 296.7 11 Latency 37950us 344ms 154ms 25967us 10634us 159ms encrypted 480M 238 95 7241 3 3392 0 577 94 7930 0 252.0 9 Latency 32721us 5407ms 3331ms 34872us 78536us 969ms ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create-------- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- files:max:min /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP unencrypted 16 124 2 +++++ +++ 129 2 134 3 +++++ +++ 121 1 Latency 267ms 554us 292ms 306ms 371us 305ms encrypted 16 218 1 +++++ +++ 196 1 188 2 +++++ +++ 222 1 Latency 333ms 528us 200ms 209ms 123us 210ms


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Flammable ice: last hope or gravest threat?
London, March 15, 2013
By John Kemp
There is enough gas locked in ice-like crystals buried beneath the permafrost and trapped under the oceans to guarantee the world will not run out of fossil energy for centuries.
This potential energy source will be irrelevant, however, to almost everyone for many decades to come, except perhaps Japan.
For decades, scientists have been trying to figure out whether there is a commercial way to extract the gas from methane hydrates, nicknamed flammable ice.
In an apparent breakthrough, state-owned Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) has extracted natural gas from hydrate accumulations hundreds of meters below the seabed from a drill ship off the east coast of Japan.
JOGMEC estimates its test area contains enough hydrate to cover 11 years worth of gas imports, according to an article published in the New York Times.
Japan is a special case, because the country has almost no hydrocarbon resources of its own and relies almost entirely on energy imports.
The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology puts the total hydrate in the waters around Japan at enough to cover nearer 100 years of the country's needs.
For most other countries and companies, developing hydrates comes at the bottom of the list of commercial priorities behind easier and proven forms of fossil energy including conventional and unconventional oil and gas, coal-bed methane, gas-to-liquids and coal-to-liquids technology.
Methane hydrates are the reason the world will never run out of fossil fuels over any reasonable timeframe. But their uncontrolled release has also been identified by climate scientists as one of the biggest long-term dangers for the globe.
"Gas hydrate is a solid crystalline substance composed of water and natural gas (primarily methane) in which water molecules form a cage-like structure around the gas molecules," according to the authors of the 2012 Global Energy Assessment (GEA), a landmark study commissioned by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.
"The cage structure of the hydrate molecule concentrates the component gas so that a single cubic metre of gas hydrate will yield approximately 160 cubic metres of gas and 0.8 cubic metres of water," if it is brought to atmospheric pressure and room temperature (20 degrees Centigrade).
For methane to become trapped in a hydrate structure, temperatures must be moderately cool and pressures moderately high.
"Gas hydrates are widespread in marine sediments beneath the ocean floor and in sediments within and beneath permafrost areas," according to USGS. "There pressure-temperature conditions keep the gas hydrate 'stable', meaning it is intact and gases are contained in its solid form."
Under the oceans, the conditions for hydrate stability are usually found at water depths of more than 150 to 200 metres near the poles and 500 metres towards the equator. The zone of hydrate stability may extend several hundred meters down into the sediments on the sea floor.
Beneath that level, rising temperatures as a result of the greater depth make it impossible for gas to remain trapped. "At some depth beneath the sea floor, the temperature increases to the point where the hydrate is no longer stable," according to the GEA.
The same boundary conditions govern the presence of methane hydrates in and beneath the Arctic permafrost. The methane must be buried far enough north and deep enough to meet the pressure-temperature requirements for hydrates to form, but not so deep that the geothermal gradient makes them unstable.
Methane hydrates are found in most offshore areas around the world, as well as across the Arctic, and contain enormous amounts of energy, but no one really knows how much there is or how much might be technically and economically recoverable.
"The volume of natural gas contained in the world's gas hydrate accumulations greatly exceeds that of known gas reserves, although a substantial proportion of that gas hydrate is in low-grade accumulations that are unlikely to be developed commercially," the GEA concluded last year.
Theoretically, hydrate accumulations could contain between 2,500 and 2.8 million exajoules (EJ) of energy, according to the GEA. An exajoule is equivalent to 1 joule followed by 18 zeroes.
For comparison, global conventional gas resources are put at 12,200 EJ, and unconventional gas resources (tight gas, shale gas, deep gas and coal-bed methane) are estimated at 40,000 EJ, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Conventional and unconventional oil resources are put at around 12,000 and 56,000 EJ, respectively.
In 2010, the International Energy Agency's World Energy Outlook (WEO) estimated that methane hydrates contained almost twice as much energy as all the world's resources of gas, oil and coal combined.
But it is anyone's guess how much could actually be recovered. Ten to 50 percent might be technically recoverable, according to the GEA. The amount that could be economically recoverable might range from 12,000 EJ down to zero.
Hydrates can make up as much as 85 percent of the bulk volume of porous and permeable sands and gravel formations, falling away to less than 10 percent of fine-grained sediments like shales.
Unfortunately, most of the gas hydrate appears to be trapped in fine-grained sediment. "The prospects for commercial development of natural gas from such a highly disseminated resource are very poor without a paradigm shift in technology," the GEA concluded.
Because hydrates are only stable under specific temperature and pressure conditions, the obvious way to disassociate them (converting the hydrate into its separate gas and water components) is either to raise the temperature or lower the pressure.
Other options include injecting the accumulation with an antifreeze chemical such as methanol or ethylene glycol to melt the crystals, or injecting it with carbon dioxide to displace the methane (pushing carbon dioxide into the crystalline lattices and methane out). CO2 injection has the added advantage that it could be part of a carbon capture and storage (CCS) programme.
In onshore tests, Japan's researchers explored using hot water to warm the hydrate. But the offshore test relied on depressurisation; pumping warm water under the seabed would have required an enormous amount of energy and been prohibitively expensive, according to the New York Times.
Climate researchers worry that as global temperatures rise, the hydrates will become unstable, releasing thousands of billions of tonnes of methane into the atmosphere. Methane is 21 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
Mass release of methane hydrates from the ocean floor "appears to have occurred in connection with rapid warming episodes in the Earth's history", according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Third Assessment Report published in 2007.
IPCC estimated 4,000 billion tonnes of methane are locked away in ocean hydrates, with a global warming potential equivalent to 84,000 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide. Annual emissions from burning fossil fuels currently amount to 34 billion tonnes of CO2. Releasing all that methane, or burning it, would have substantial climate consequences.
Environmentalists want the hydrates to remain locked away forever, and they are likely to get their wish for now.
Outside of Japan, where hydrates have the potential to provde energy security, flammable ice will remain an interesting curiosity - a last reserve of fossil fuels if humanity should ever need them in centuries to come when other, far easier hydrocarbon resources are nearing exhaustion. - Reuters
(John Kemp is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own)


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We report a patient affected by restless legs syndrome as the presenting symptom of multiple myeloma, a hematologic malignancy characterized by clonal proliferation of plasma cells in the bone marrow and monoclonal immunoglobulin in the blood and/or urine.
Aricò D; Raggi A; Siragusa M; Zucconi M; Ferri R. Restless legs syndrome as the presenting symptom of multiple myeloma. J Clin Sleep Med 2013;9(4):383-385.
Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a sensorimotor disorder1 occurring often as an idiopathic form; if a concurrent condition known to be associated with RLS is found, it is classified as secondary. The most common conditions highly-associated with RLS include renal failure, iron and folic acid deficiency, peripheral neuropathy, pregnancy, celiac disease, Crohn's disease, and others.2
We report here a case of RLS due to iron deficiency in the setting of multiple myeloma (MM), a hematologic malignancy characterized by clonal proliferation of plasma cells in the bone marrow and, usually, the presence of a monoclonal immunoglobulin in the blood and/or urine.3
A 78-year-old right-handed woman was referred to our sleep research center in January 2012 for an 8-month history of uncomfortable sensations in her legs with urge to move, partially relieved by movement. The symptoms were present every day, worsening in the evening; the discomfort forced the patient to get up and walk around at night (with moderate relief). RLS was severe, with a score of 29 at the International RLS rating scale. The patient has not been drinking alcohol (especially in the late evening) or smoke cigarettes. Severe insomnia caused excessive daytime sleepiness (Epworth Sleepiness Scale score 13). The patient underwent a nocturnal polysomnographic (PSG) study, without medication, performed using a complete conventional montage, including bilateral tibialis anterior muscle electromyogram channels. The hypnogram showed abnormal sleep architecture (Figure 1), with very low sleep efficiency (30%) and excessive WASO (65.1%) with numerous and long awakenings. The number of periodic leg movements during sleep (PLMS), scored following the WASM/IRLSSG criteria,4 was abnormally high (PLMS index 80.9/h; PLMS/arousal index 1.6/h; Periodicity index 0.6705). The sleep breathing pattern was within the normal limits (apnea/hypopnea index 3.7/h). Family history was negative for RLS.
Hypnogram before and after treatment with gabapentin; the occurrence of leg movements is indicated by small vertical bars superimposed over the hypnogram
(more ...)
Before our evaluation, the patient had been treated by her general practitioner with prolonged-release pramipexole (0.26 mg); however, this treatment had been suspended before admission to our Centre because of its apparent inefficacy. After our evaluation, gabapentin 400 mg was started together with normal-release pramipexole 1 mg at bedtime.
At our observation, she also complained a generalized pruritus, worsening at night. The pruritus started almost contemporaneously with RLS and was treated with topical steroids and antihistamine agents with scarce benefit. It is important to note that antihistamine agents were started when RLS symptoms were already present and that they did not modify its severity. Several scratching lesions were evident on forearm and legs. Moreover the patient had a second-degree obesity (body mass index 35) and reported severe widespread bone pain and lower back pain, together with generalized weakness and fatigue.
The patient had a past medical history of hypertension, previous depression (not evident at examination), osteoporosis, and spondyloarthrosis; diabetes was not reported. The patient had two uneventful pregnancies, during which no RLS symptoms were reported. Neurological examination only showed bilateral, asymmetrical, distal hypopallesthesia of the lower limbs. Mini-mental state examination was normal (27).
The patient underwent a complete set of blood analyses and the following abnormal values were found (normal limits within brackets): triglycerides 150 mg% (35-135), hemoglobin 9.9 g% (11.5-16.5), glycosylated hemoglobin 6.8% (4.5-5.7), creatine phosphokinase 252 U/l (24-173), hematocrit 31.8% (38-48), ferritin 12 ng/mL (13-150), transferrin 373 mg% (200-360), Katz index 54 mm (3-15). Serum protein electrophoresis showed a peak in the gamma zone. Serum albumin was 50.60 mg/L (52-65.1), alpha-2 macroglobulin 14.6 mg/L (9.5-14.4), β2 microglobulin 3 mg/L (1-2.9). Bone marrow biopsy showed monoclonal plasma cells (25-30%). Electrocardiogram and thyroid function were normal, as well as renal function and calcemia. Brain and spine computerized tomography was normal but, for the lumbar-sacral region, disclosed the presence of abnormally small intervertebral spaces with a clear protrusion of the L3-L4 disc, together with signs of diffuse arthritis. Electro-myography showed signs of peripheral neuropathy depending on lumbar-sacral radicular involvement.
All these results allowed us to reach the diagnosis of multiple myeloma in this patient, who was referred to a hematology clinic.
The patient came back to our institute for a follow-up visit in February 2012. The treatment of iron deficiency, started by the hematologist had resolved the anemia, and the patient reported a notable reduction of RLS symptoms (International RLS severity scale 4); gabapentin and pramipexole were also regularly and continuously taken. A second PSG was carried out and the resulting hypnogram appeared to be significantly improved and practically normalized (Figure 1), and there was a clear decrease of PLMS number (PLMS index 0.13/h; PLMS/arousal index 0.1/h). The respiratory pattern continued to be normal.
The first important consideration from this case report is that the patient was referred to our sleep center because of her severe RLS symptoms dramatically reducing her quality of life. However, our clinical study clearly demonstrated that RLS was not the primary disease but was most probably secondary to a series of factors known to cause it. In this patient, radiculopathy was likely present before the onset of RLS and MM; conversely, iron deficiency and severe bone pain probably started with MM and induced the appearance of severe and apparently dopamine agonist-resistant RLS symptoms.
With our data, it cannot be established if RLS should be considered as a paraneoplastic condition heralding the malignant disease or just a secondary form depending on the development of MM, possibly exacerbated by the association with radiculopathy. Paraneoplastic syndromes are conditions that can have several clinical expressions. They can precede neoplasia or be contemporaneous; they can disappear with the treatment of neoplasia and possibly reappear with the subsequent development of metastases. Interestingly, pruritus often represents the onset symptom of neoplasia and can also precede it by several years. On the other hand, some RLS patients also describe their subjective symptoms as pruritus.
Considering the information available for this patient, we believe that the most likely possibility is that RLS was secondary to iron deficiency, a very well-known and established cause of RLS in the literature.6 This belief is strongly supported not only by the clear results of our blood analyses but also by the important clinical and PSG improvement observed after the correction of iron deficiency while MM was still evident. It should also be mentioned that our patient was taking gabapentin for its known effects on both RLS and pain7 and pramipexole, a first-line treatment for RLS.8
Beside the speculations on the reciprocal interactions and cause/effect relationship between the numerous factors considered in this patient, the most important message from this case report is that RLS symptoms can sometimes be the sign of a life-threatening condition that should be suspected if symptoms do not respond promptly to dopamine agonists; if so, careful and complete collection of clinical and laboratory data should be carried out. In particular, if RLS onset coincides with pruritus and bone pain, a complete blood count should be checked along with ferritin and iron studies; if anemia is found, serum protein electrophoresis should then be checked.
This was not an industry supported study. The authors have indicated no financial conflicts of interest.
Work was carried out at the Oasi Institute for Research on Mental Retardation and Brain Aging (IRCCS), Troina, Italy. This study was supported by the Italian Ministry of Health ("Ricerca Corrente").
Allen RP, Picchietti D, Hening WA, et al., authors. Restless legs syndrome: Diagnostic criteria, special considerations, and epidemiology. A report from the restless legs syndrome diagnosis and epidemiology workshop at the National Institute of Health. Sleep Med. 2003;4:101–19. [PubMed]
Montplaisir J, Allen RP, Walters A, Ferini-Strambi L, authors; Kryger MH, Roth T, Dement WC, editors. Restless legs syndrome and periodic limb movements during sleep. Principles and practice of sleep medicine. 2011. 5th ed. St. Louis: Elsevier Saunders; p. 1026–37
Raab MS, Podar K, Breitkreutz I, Richardson PG, Anderson KC, authors. Multiple myeloma. Lancet. 2009;374:324–39. [PubMed]
Zucconi M, Ferri R, Allen R, et al., authors. The official World Association of Sleep Medicine (WASM) standards for recording and scoring periodic leg movements in sleep (PLMS) and wakefulness (PLMW) developed in collaboration with a task force from the International Restless Legs Syndrome Study Group (IRLSSG). Sleep Med. 2006;7:175–83. [PubMed]
Ferri R, Zucconi M, Manconi M, Plazzi G, Bruni O, Ferini-Strambi L, authors. New approaches to the study of periodic leg movements during sleep in restless legs syndrome. Sleep. 2006;29:759–69. [PubMed]
Allen RP, Earley CJ, authors. The role of iron in restless legs syndrome. Mov Disord. 2007;22 suppl 18:440–8. [PubMed]
Lal R, Ellenbogen A, Chen D, et al., authors. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, dose-response study to assess the pharmacokinetics, efficacy, and safety of gabapentin enacarbil in subjects with restless legs syndrome. Clin Neuropharmacol. 2012;35:165–73. [PubMed]
Ferini-Strambi L, Aarskog D, Partinen M, et al., authors. Effect of pramipexole on RLS symptoms and sleep: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Sleep Med. 2008;9:874–81. [PubMed]


text:
I turn 50 today. I'll be honest with you, I don't feel a day over 44 and a half and I have no clue where the years went. When I look at the big moments in my life and attach numbers of years to them, well none of it seems possible. Nearly 20 ago my first child was born. Twenty seven years since I got my first job as a journalist after college. Thirty one years since I graduated from LaSalle in Troy. And it feels the day before yesterday when I was serving as an altar boy at the 7 a.m. mass at St. Joseph's church in South Troy, then walking two blocks to my Nana's house to eat buttered toast and burnt bacon. She wasn't a bad cook, I asked her to make it that way. That's how you know you're loved when someone will stink up the house just to make you happy.
When you're young, older people tell you to enjoy your youth because it all goes by in a blink but you don't listen. Instead you toss away the years away like old bubble gum wrappers then one day you wake up and your hair is gray, bones ache and you wonder who the guy in the mirror is with all those wrinkles.
I'm lucky. Even though my life hasn't turned out exactly as I planned I have my health, a good job, three great kids and lots of people who love me. Notice I didn't mention "stuff." That's probably the biggest change in me these past five decades; I've learned that things are just things. People matter. In the end it's all the matters. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a nice filet mignon as much as the next guy but the truth is when you're starving a can of Dinty Moore stew tastes just as good.
The first 50 years haven't been a picnic and I'm fine with that. It may sound silly but I'm glad for the hard times. Every time I lost someone it made me love those I still had with me all the more. The times when I didn't have two nickels to rub together have turned me into a guy who is happy to have five bucks in his pocket. I'm also lucky for the people I've met along the way who believed in me. Dave Kissick, the first teacher to encourage my writing. David Allen, the first radio personality who taught me that it's OK to just be yourself in front of a camera. And of course, Lisa Lewis the late Doug deLisle of The Record for taking me out to lunch 20 years ago and asking me if I wanted to write a weekly newspaper column. I told them there's no way I could come up with 52 good ideas a year and they both smiled and said, "Sure you can John. Just try." I've written almost a thousand columns now, that's 80,000 words if you put them all together. I guess they were smarter than me.
They say with age comes wisdom so since today is a milestone I'll tell you a few things I know at 50 that I didn't know when I was 20. If you love someone tell them and always hug them goodbye. If you don't want to do something then don't; your friends will get over it. Slow down, whatever it is can wait until you get there. Play with the dog more, it's good for your mood. If you drop a slice of pizza it will always fall cheese side down. There's no such thing as a temporary tax. There's no diet that works better than eating healthy and exercise. Speaking of which, don't buy double-stuff Oreos for the kids, you'll just end up eating them yourself. And last but certainly not least, let things go. Being right isn't always enough; sometimes it's better to walk away than keep arguing. Trust me you'll sleep better.
My goal in life is and has always been to live to be 80. If that's the case then I have 30 years to laugh, cry, work, retire and no doubt make mistakes. It also means I have thousands of more columns to bang out. Thank you for reading them. You'll never know what it means to me. This old guy will see you in 2013.
John Gray can be reached at email@example.com


text:
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation sent a letter to the Town of Estes Park on Wednesday essentially saying that it does not plan to remove any sediment from Lake Estes caused by last September's flood until it has thoroughly assessed the situation.
To that end, Bureau of Reclamation Area Manager Jacklynn Gould is suggesting that a technical meeting be held in a few weeks with the Town of Estes Park, the Upper Thompson Sanitation District, the Estes Valley Recreation and Parks District, and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to identify issues and discuss ways to collaboratively mitigate flood effects in Lake Estes.
"We're pleased to hear the Bureau of Reclamation will be reaching out to the community partners to discuss the Lake Estes issues," said Estes Park Town Administrator Frank Lancaster on Thursday. "Evaluating recovery options together to determine the best solution for the community and all agencies involved is a logical first step.
"We look forward to the discussion."
The federal agency's response comes four weeks after the Town of Estes Park sent a letter to the Bureau, which owns and maintains Lake Estes. In the letter, the town asked the Bureau to remove silt and other materials that were deposited in the Fish Creek arm of Lake Estes by the flood.
The deposits have created an approximately 8-acre delta.
Estes Park Mayor Bill Pinkham, who authored the letter, outlined the town's concern saying that the flood swept "not just alluvial silt and sand down the stream, but debris from businesses, homes and industrial sites. We had garages destroyed and the contents washed downstream. Undoubtedly much of this debris is buried within the silt accumulation in the lake.
"This includes anything and everything that typically resides in garages and sheds, including gas cans, solvents, pesticides, sharp tools, propane tanks and other debris.
"People are walking across this area and have been seen falling into holes and have the possibility of serious injury and/or exposure. Pets and wildlife also venture onto these silt flats and are exposed to these hazards."
The letter went on to say that it would be irresponsible for the Bureau to ignore the economic, safety, health and environmental impacts that currently exist in the area.
In closing, the Pinkham added: "We believe, as stewards of public lands, the bureau has a responsibility beyond the narrow operating objectives of the organization that extends to any mitigable negative impacts on the environment and your host community."
The letter was unanimously authorized by the town board on June 27. Copies have been sent to U.S. Senator Michael Bennett, U.S. Senator Mark Udall, Congressman Jared Polis, Gov. John Hickenlooper, and various news agencies and associations.
Sen. Bennett responded recently to the town's letter by sending one of his own to the Bureau asking it to reconsider its decision to not remove silt from the affected area.
"As you know, Estes Park's economy suffered a major setback following the devastating flooding that occurred in the community last September," Bennett said in his letter. "The town is still in the process of recovering from the disaster, and they are concerned with the aesthetic and safety implications of the accumulation of the silt and debris remaining in the lake.
"I hope the Bureau can thoughtfully consider the request from the Town of Estes Park on this matter."
Contact David Persons at firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
QPR have opened talks with Tottenham over the possibility of taking strikers Emmanuel Adebayor and Harry Kane on loan.
Adebayor is yet to play for Spurs this season having been granted compassionate leave following his brother's death over the summer which forced him to miss much of pre-season.
Andre Villas-Boas confirmed that the Togolese forward, who was linked with a summer exit from White Hart Lane, was due to return to the club last Monday and would train with the reserves for the foreseeable future.
Now according to Metro, QPR are willing to offer him a way out of north London by taking him on loan for the rest of the season. The paper also reports that they would like to take fellow Spurs forward Harry Kane on loan.
Hoops boss Harry Redknapp was quick to raid his former club during the transfer window, and currently has both Benoit Assout-Ekotto and Tom Carroll on loan.
The former Portsmouth manager is without forwards Andy Johnson and Bobby Zamora because of injury, and confirmed after his side's 0-0 draw against Brighton last night that he hopes to bring in attacking reinforcements before the end of the loan window.
Whether QPR will be successful in their attempts to land the Spurs forward remains unclear - he is amongst the highest earners at White Hart Lane and recently expressed a desire to stay with his current club.
Do YOU want to write for GiveMeSport? Get started today by signing-up and submitting an article HERE: https://www.givemesport.com/writeforgms


text: This news item expired on 6/30/2013, so the information below could be outdated or incorrect. Could You Act FAST? Think you're too young or too healthy to have a stroke? Think again and think FAST, it could save your life. Remember, if you think you or someone you know is having a stroke, act FAST. Remember this acronym and check for these stroke signs: Face = droopy or uneven smile Arm = arm numbness or weakness Speech = slurred speech, difficulty speaking or understanding Time = CALL 911 immediately go to the nearest certified stroke center To learn more about stroke, check out stroke.org.


text:
The world's top cyclists will roar back into the Pikes Peak region next summer for two days of racing that will draw thousands of spectators and a global television audience.
The USA Pro Cycling Challenge will track across Colorado on Aug. 18-24, a schedule that includes a circuit race in Colorado Springs Aug. 21, in which athletes will race in several loops around the city. The next morning , Woodland Park will play host to the start of a race stage to Breckenridge.
Southern Colorado ski area Monarch Mountain is also getting in on the action. Organizers chose Monarch as the first mountaintop stage finish in the four years of the race, which will occur Aug. 20 with a stage race from Gunnison and a party at the ski area.
The host cities were announced Monday, to the delight of local organizers, who hosted events in 2011 and 2012 but were left out of the 2013 race.
"It made great sense for us to return. We think it's a great cycling community," race CEO Shawn Hunter said. "It's important to us to work with one of the largest cities in the state of Colorado. All the ingredients are there for success and we're very happy to be coming back."
Hunter said going elsewhere in 2013 was not a slight to the area; organizers simply wanted to showcase other parts of the state. The 2013 race was mostly in northern Colorado.
"We're thrilled," said Meredith Vaughan, part of the organizing committee in Colorado Springs and president of advertising and public relations agency Vladimir Jones. "It's a great thing for a city that is so focused on sports to have one of the best sporting events in the state come back."
The exact route of the race has not been set, but Hunter said fans can expect three or four laps on a 25-mile course that will run by famous landmarks Garden of the Gods and The Broadmoor, as well as downtown, though he said it is too soon to say if there will be a downtown finish and celebration as in the past.
"We know we want to be in the Springs. We know we want to have a circuit, but exactly where we start and finish will be determined over the next 100 days," Hunter said.
For Woodland Park, it will be the most racing excitement since riders competed in a sprint here on the way to Colorado Springs in 2012. Hunter said the city government was happy to work with the race and there was "passion in the community" for the event.
For the first time, organizers will let fans pick what direction the final stage will take. Visitors to prochallenge.com/PickStage7 can decide from four courses: a Denver circuit race; Golden to Denver; Boulder to Denver; or Boulder to Golden.
For Monarch Mountain, a small area popular with Colorado Springs skiers, getting the first mountaintop finish in the race's history was a coup, considering how many other ski resorts are along the route.
"We happen to be at the right place," said Monarch marketing manager Greg Ralph. He said Monarch will host a party, with ample camping in the surrounding national forest, that is sure to be "a crazy scene."
Organizers will work with the local organizing committee to come up with the route for the Colorado Springs circuit. While Colorado Springs' bid to host a stage was snubbed for 2013, there appear to be no hurt feelings.
"We have a great relationship with the race owners. This is an event we'd like to see bounce around. We'd like to have a Colorado Springs presence as much as possible, but we think it's great it celebrates the entire state," Vaughan said.
Said Hunter, "We took the year off in 2013, but we always promised we would return and now that's going to happen in 2014 and I'm sure it will happen again."


text:
Better get some of these puppies.
Better get some of these puppies.
Just Play Music.
And there are alot of people like yourself who ask people to give it a listen, and the internet is a medium for which your voice can be spread among hundreds or thousands of people. That's alot of vocal power.
(yes, author confuses bits & bytes)
The recording studio is the same Music Row space where stars such as Elvis Presley, Chet Atkins and Joe Cocker made albums during an era in which bulky analog tape decks faithfully captured the sound in a studio and music was sold on vinyl records. Analog captures the entire spectrum of sound, as does vinyl, because the music isn't compressed or squeezed to fit.
Digital recordings, on the other hand, are captured by computers, which record only certain slices of sound at split-second intervals that are then encoded into computer language. All those 1's and 0's end up representing a numeric interpretation of sound.
But Niemann's recording session relied on a new piece of recording machinery known as CLASP, which takes a hybrid approach.
It records on analog tape and feeds it into a digital machine, giving producers the ease of editing digital with a better-recorded sound, said CLASP's inventor, local music business entrepreneur Chris Estes.
Vinyl is most faithful medium
Although no medium is capable of duplicating exactly the quality of a live performance, the best audio recordings and playback equipment capture the entire range of sound in the studio.
Vinyl is the most faithful medium, with no compression or translation of music.
Among digital recordings, Blu-ray offers one of the highest resolutions possible the biggest digital space to capture and then rebroadcast a much higher portion of the recorded sound.
But CDs subtract portions of the sound to fit on discs. And MP3s subtract even more.
In mathematical terms, a typical Blu-ray song contains 2,304,000 bits of information. A CD contains a third of that about 705,600 bits.
But a digital version an MP3 downloaded from iTunes or the Internet captures just 70,000 bits.
For all of the hundreds or thousands of minute human-driven adjustments of microphones, sound boards, mixing and mastering that go into constructing a professional album, it's a computer software program that uses a standard algorithm that decides which of the millions of bits of information aren't necessary for the human ear in effect, which parts of a song a listener can do without.
I know my life would look allright
If I could see it on the silver screen
If the idea is that the average digital recording is not as "faithful" to the performance as the best analogue capture, of course. Because the average here is careless and ignorantly done.
The second section is also based on comparing the weakest reproduction of digital masters to the best processing of tape masters. Again, apples and oranges, with the deck stacked in complete favor of the thesis.
I do have horses in this race, but on both sides. I have a very nice vinyl rig and a revealing digital rig as well. No argument that superb vinyl beats crappy digital. But compare the best of both, and the difference is crystal clear and in favor of digital. I spent a long time listening to both top notch digital and vinyl side by side, only the source being different - vinyl vs CD in this case. It did not take long to quantify it. To use an inclusive but non scientific term, the vinyl sounded great by itself but "Soft" next to the digital. I was (& am) using an amp/speaker system that is scary revealing of the input. This would not be as obvious on most systems. But the reveal is that there is much more information in the digital signal, which means more was lost along the way in the other process. Pure and simple, a 13 bit equivalent (vinyl) playback is very audibly different from a 16 bit. If the original recordings were good, it is very, very obvious. My friend who has the same preamp and amp that I do, and different but equally detailed speakers, will no longer play his vast vinyl collection on the rig. He substitutes some tube monoblocks for the First Watt F2Jfet.
Experience - a lot of it - hanging with vinyl fanatics gives me the impression that the softer playback of vinyl is more soothing to them. They say things like smooth, relaxed, enchanting vocals, less strident, etc. And in the case of bad recordings, less fatiguing. All indicate something missing. In their minds, something bad. Vinyl is very easy to listen to. But I prefer to hear more of the performance than it offers. If all recordings were awful, I would probably prefer vinyl.
No argument from me that we already have a playback technology capable of presenting the best to us. Forget SACD and DVD-A. Blu-ray is a sister technology to DSD recording. I have been saying for some time that its best beats the best of any other system we have today. Why it is not being exploited as an audio source is beyond me. Oh wait - the crowd that thinks a $10k DAC sound better than a $2K DAC will not use the onboard one in a Blu-ray player. With no digital out, the high end segment will never go for it. Too bad, because Blu-ray does not need to dumb down anything for playback. Just a DAC between you and the master, if they wanted to do it that way.
Information is not Knowledge; Knowledge is not Wisdom
Too many audiophiles listen with their eyes instead of their ears
Simple. If you like music, its history for the past 70 years and have emotions from music, you will most likely go to vinyl. If you only want to compute numbers and take measurements, then digital is your thing.
Why Vinyl Sounds Better Than CD, Or Not
Sean Olive
Director of Acoustic Research
Harman International
Valley Village, California
Scott Metcalfe
Director of Recording Arts and Science
The Peabody Institute
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, Maryland
I have just down loaded an app called Bitperfect and highly recommend anyone stuck with crappy OSX to give it a try ... a couple of bucks for this and I'm very impressed .
Macbook pro to M2 Young Dac via USB ... Not impressed with the Apple TV sound quality though . For convenience top marks ,but sound quality 4 outta 10
have nice tuneful sunday, Rich
I kinda like MP3's about as much as Drew Daniels did. Which is not. I own no ear buds. But I think I still have a good set of ears.*
But... what about
HDtracks ?
My sound card sucks, but even so I think these guys have got it.
Like I said. High resolution Blu-ray audio. It's here. Thanks, Neil. Wouldn't you know progress would have to come from an artist's initiative.
Just watch. Meridian and Wadia will market super expensive Blu-ray players they claim will sound better. That has my horse laugh in advance.
Information is not Knowledge; Knowledge is not Wisdom
Too many audiophiles listen with their eyes instead of their ears
If the point of the BluRay disc is to deliver 192K/24Bit music, then why not put the files on a DVD disc, which is a bit easier to copy from? Some of the best home digital systems use PCs (or Macs) and dedicated outboard DACs. Ripping CDs to uncompressed files (or FLAC files) provides the cleanest and most convenient listening experience.
As an aside, my current DAC can handle up to 384K/24Bit as well as 6.1 MHzDSD files. I get my DSD files from downloads as well as by ripping SACDs using a modified Sony PS3. I send these to my DAC using a Mac Mini running Audirvana Plus on top of iTunes. Many believe that the DSD format is better than the PCM format found on CDs and HDTracks. To my ear, they are close with an edge to DSD.
I should modify my post: the main reason for the BluRay is to enable use of surround mixes for AVRs in home theaters. Most of us ripping audio (for personal use, I should add) are interested only in the stereo mixes.
Record stores
Revenue decline between 2000 and 2010: 76.3%
Remember when John Cusack's character in the 2000 movie "High Fidelity" barely squeaked by as a record store owner? Today, he'd be toast.
Tower Records is gone. There are no more Virgin Megastores in the United States. It's no surprise, given that CD album sales declined by half in the decade between 1999 and 2009.
But the music didn't die . . . just ask iTunes.
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text:
I have only had about 4hrs all together on it. Planning on finishing today
No announcement yet.
so far on truck
new posts
so far on truckTags: None
Junior Member
- Apr 2013
- 9
Nice !
Weldonwelding, Is this truck for yourself, Do we have a new rig in the works.
I still have the headache rack and a couple braces to do but I'm doing them tomorrow. And I'm also building an alum. Frame for the welder with detachable wheels and lead racks that just locks in the bed.Attached Files
Originally posted by gnforge:305367Did u use a set of plans or just draw it up yourself ? Wanting to build a steel bed for my Dodge dully. Have a Alm. utility bed now but need more room & the Reamers I rebuild are very heavy, tearing up the Alm.
Also... the aluminum is going to be covered and sealed with really good plexiglas so it doesn't scratch as much
so far on truck
Thank you. Weldonwelding, I work with a guy that has a Chev with a bed I like, I may just measure and adpt to my Dodge. Ill let u know if need them. Thx.
Also I bought a Alm utility type bed from Alum-line In 2006 and they sprayed it with some type of clear called shark skin. Alum stayed like new for 5 years. I'm gona try & find that stuff really prolonged looks & life of bed.
Not sure what ya got for rear suspension but if it's stock you should look into airbag helpers. I have them on mine & it's great to dial in for different weights.MM250
Trailblazer 250g
22a feeder
Lincoln ac/dc 225
Victor O/A
MM200 black face
Whitney 30 ton hydraulic punch
Lown 1/8x 36" power roller
Arco roto-phase model M
Vectrax 7x12 band saw
Miller spectrum 875
30a spoolgun w/wc-24
Syncrowave 250
I don't put a lot of weight on this truck but it does have helper springs. I use the f350 or a trailer when I have weight
Weldon welding, where are your tanks going to go.
Are you building that to go out on the pipe line.
Weldonwelding, I thought you did the same type of work as me ( I'm just a General welder not specialized in any one thing )
You should keep your eye out for a truck with a service crane on it and a rack the full length of the truck to haul ladders and long lengths of steel.
I know putting a crane on my truck let me expand my horizons, There are alot of jobs I get just because I have a crane.
You can find used service trucks with a crane for about $ 10,000.00
Just something to think about for the future, I remember being new in business and how tight money was.
The new bed does look nice and I'm sure there are a few Pipe Line guys that would love to have a bed like that.
A truck like yours is great for the pipe line because its short and can turn around easy. ( Provided its 4 wheel drive. )
If I showed up with my truck on a pipe line they would laugh at me I'm to heavy, to long and not 4wd.
Yes, nice and weight savings can be a real deal anymore. The trend has been bigger and bigger and my next truck is going to be single wheel heavy 3/4 or 1T. So much of the tooling is lighter and I plain out need less as i get older, I am about 10 times better tossin off stuff I really do not use and making it all do double duty and as light as sufficient.
My 20K truck is really a gang box, battery tools have come so far it reduces the need for so much. I remember, heavy truck with genset replaced by pickup with inverter and now just the tool with a battery.
I agree with Portable about the crane, it would be on my short list. I was going to put one on my truck, have a place ready to bolt on and never found the time deal and accesssess to other cranes and equipment, it was coming and then I replaced another flat bed with one with Hiab knuckle boom, almost perfect for my job. Not quite as good for erecktion, its like a super pair of vise grips conveniently stashed.
I don'tl dont have one on my service trucdon'tt dont need it, use this 10X, pic and haul. Only thing that would make it better is one class heavier crane. I get by but I am a pproficientccient rigger and a lot of it can be just marginal, a pinch more wouldn'touldnt hurt a thing.


text:
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The baby shower for my youngest daughter is fast approaching. Thanks to the encouragement of others on here, I decided to design a baby blanket as a big part of my gift. The stroller, pac-n-play, and high chair all have blue elephants. So I decided to embroider some blue elephants on the blankie. Mikey was making the sewing part rather difficult tonight as he would not move.
Mikey decided this blankie is HIS.... if kitty looks could kill. I finally gave up and let him have the blanket for the night. I will finish the elephants tomorrow and work on a blue and gray border -- If he lets me :rolleyes:
Sigh.... I suppose he would consider it his because he's "helped" me every night this week and took to laying on it the moment it got big enough to fit his ample rump.
Anyone predict that I'll make an official Mikey blankie in the not too distant future? Maybe embroidered mousies?
And how much fun will I have painting the small leather storage cubes I got as another part of my gift? I am betting Trixie will take up resisence inside as I paint the outside. :p


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I accidentally posted the same post twice
So how do I delete one of my own posts?
NateD26 wrote:Some forums include the option to delete own post.
Others, like Textkit, reserve it for the moderators.
Send a moderator or Jeff a message if you want to delete a double post,
move them to a different section, etc.
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My natural-born frenemy Dan Savage popularized the term "pegging" after it was voted the winning entry in a contest he ran in 2001, when he and his loyal readers realized that there was no common word for a woman strapping it on and penetrating her man anally.
"Pegging" beat out close runner-ups "Bob," an acronym for "bend over, boyfriend" and "Punt," likening the act to kicking the ball to the other team. I could swear that I used "pegging" before said contest, which inspired 12,000 people to vote-in. But—whatever.
Pegging, as I will call it despite its being "invented" by "The World's Most Popular Sex Columnist" or whomever, is something all you opposite-sexed couples out there should try at least once. Yes, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named agrees with this statement. This sexy act is already uber-pleasurable for your lucky guy thanks to his prostate (a.k.a. the male G-spot). But when paired with simultaneous manual stimulation with a sleeve stimulator (like the vibrating Cobra Libre or textured Tenga Egg) it's extra explosive from all angles.
Off-the-charts orgasms aside, this role-reversing act also eroticizes feminine domination and can be a new way for hetero-paired couples to explore trust, intimacy and sexual liberation for both. For others, it could just be another Thursday night. Either way, pegging necessitates some valuable tools.
As always, a little reading will go a long way, especially when it comes to the delicate man-booty (and its attached macho social expectations). Read past columns "Prostate Power," Parts I and II (August 26, 2010 and September 2, 2010), for tips on why enjoying prostate stimulation does not make him gay, dirty or in pain (unless you want these things, of course) and how to start exploring it for the first time (as in start with your fingers or a small toy before getting all Peggy Sue on his ass).
Other sources to consult include Tristan Taormino's porno Expert Guide to Anal Sex for Men and Violet Blue's The Adventurous Couple's Guide to Strap-On Sex, which include pegging positions and advice.
After having lots of sexually evolved conversations about how great it's going to be to explore new sexual boundaries as well as your own sexual and gender identities through this formerly taboo act, you're gonna need to get yourself a little dick. Literally.
Good Vibrations has an economical toy package called the "Bend-over Beginner Kit," which comes with two very modestly-sized silicone dildos and a vibrating harness with which to strap them to you. While the harness is definitely of starter-kit quality, the vibrator buzzing against your naughty bits adds a little cha-ching.
Another way to get yours while you give it to him is by using a double-ended dildo. Check out the Share series by Fun Factory, which are designed to be worn hands-free and harness-free, with one end penetrating the pegger while the other is used on the pegee. Short and bulbous on one end for her (and her G-spot) and super svelte and beginner-friendly for him, the Share XS is the perfect peg for a newbie.
Graduates can use the noticeably longer and wider standard-sized Share while those pursuing their Ph.D.s (Pretty Huge Dildo) in pegging can challenge themselves to use the Share XL, a giant, ribbed dose of double trouble. Those who want to enjoy a rougher ride without constantly readjusting should consider harnessing their double-ender, which can be done by securing the harness ring around the bend between the two ends and using a harness without a back pad, such as the ASLAN commando.
If the double is a little too much trouble, choose a modestly-sized regular dildo (the Happy Valley Harmony is ridged and vibrates to stimulate pegger's privates) and a fun, girly harness to accentuate your femdom fun. The hot pink ASLAN Crystal Minx, the icy white, thong-style Theo by Spareparts (which accommodates two bullet vibes in the harness pad) or the Betty Harness, which looks like a pair of panties fit for a '50s pinup, will all surely inspire him to take it like man.


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Lamar trails 27-7 at half
Despite falling behind 7-0, Lamar tied the score in the first quarter after Andre Bevil connected with Marcus Jackson for an 8-yard touchdown pass and Lamar found itself tied with the Northwestern State Demons heading into the second quarter. But the Demons broke the game open in the second, thanks to poor tackling and costly penalties on third down as the Demons scored three times in the second quarter, including two rushing touchdowns and a 19-yard pass and catch on a third and goal from the 19 where Brad Henderson connected with Phillip Harvey, who bounced off two Lamar defenders before running in for the score. Lamar trails 27-7 at half, but they will get the ball back at halftime.


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A mysterious island that moves through time. Travelers in search of answers.
It sounds something like the science fiction television show "Lost," but it also describes a new approach to teaching earth sciences to high school students.
Iris Totten, an associate professor of geology at Kansas State University, and Molly Davies, an associate professor of geology at University of Missouri at Kansas City, designed TerraWorld, an island in Second Life, to help students learn geology in an interactive way. It is part of the larger GeoWorlds project.
"In geology, the only way we can talk about past times is to look at the fossil record," Totten said. "So this tool is especially useful. Through their avatars, the students can see that the biota are different and know that they're in a different geologic time period. They may see flying pterodactyls. They can click on different organisms and bring up more information about them. They can watch videos from the Chicago Field Museum, the Discovery Channel or National Geographic."
Totten and Davies are working with Stacey Fox, a visiting assistant professor of art at the University of Kansas. Initial parts of the project included involvement from iVersity, a company that designs virtual worlds.
Totten and collaborators received a $700,000 grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to study the impact that TerraWorld and the coming WaterWorld have on student learning and attitudes about science. The programs are being piloted at Tolbert and Brookside charter high schools in Kansas City, Mo. In the fall, about 400 ninth-grade students at Junction City High School will start using the program.
Creating TerraWorld meant that Totten had to do in-depth research about the types of animals and plants that existed in each geologic time period. Using a computer-sculpting program, Fox brought the plants and animals to life. Totten and Davies provide the content and design, and Fox assembles the worlds.
To get the students to explore the worlds through their avatars, they complete quests and scavenger hunts. The program is paperless. If there is an assignment students need to turn in, they can put it on a note card in Second Life and drop it in a box, where it goes to the instructor's management system on the GeoWorld's Web site. Teachers can assess all of their student's assignments on the Web site.
The avatars' locations on the island are monitored, which lets the teacher see if students are exploring the worlds and will help the designers make the island more efficient.
The designers also are developing two artificial intelligence bots that will help students answer questions and help them with the scavenger hunts. The bots will be able to learn from each question they are asked and will recognize if a similar question is repeated. Totten said the bots will look like young female geologists and serve as science role models for young women.
"We talked about having Darwin, but we decided that was something we as scientists would want to see, not high school kids," Totten said.
Totten has presented the work at Tulane University, the International Conference on Digital Game and Intelligent Toy Enhanced Learning, and the Education Grantmakers Conference.
She said that Second Life is being used to teach other science disciplines like genetics, by using virtual fruit flies, and chemistry, by showing lab experiments such as the Redi Experiment that are not easily done in the high school classroom.
Second Life has a special role to teach geology to students on the Great Plains, Totten said.
"Living in the Midwest, we don't have a lot of geologic structures that show any kind of deformation," she said. "You have two-dimensional images online, but Second Life is a great option."
|Contact: Iris Totten
Kansas State University


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Chocolate Cake with Milk Chocolate-Peanut Butter Frosting and Peanut Butter Brittle
No, it's not a mistake.\r\nThis cake really doesn't contain any eggs.\r\nThe oil in the batter makes the cake moist;\r\nthe rest of the ingredients provide...
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Pratt & Whitney-Powered X-47B Completes First Catapult Shot
Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Navy completed the first catapult launch of the X-47B remotely piloted aircraft in a shore-based test shot from Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. This event was "the Navy's first catapult launch of an unmanned system," according to Northrop Grumman's release on Nov. 29, the same day as the launch.
"Today's successful launch is another critical milestone in the carrier-suitability testing phase of the UCAS-D program," said Mike Mackey, director of Northrop Grumman's Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstrator program.
Pratt & Whitney's F100-PW-220U engine and exhaust systems power the X-47B.
"Our team has worked closely with the Navy and Northrop Grumman to get ready for this important test and Pratt & Whitney's propulsion system performed well, allowing the aircraft to launch and complete all planned activity during the flight," said Jimmy Reed, director of Advanced Engine Programs for Pratt & Whitney.
After launch, the X-47B flew a series of standard maneuvers, including a holding pattern and a deck landing approach over the Chesapeake Bay, in preparation for carrier trials that are scheduled to begin next year, states the release. Ground handlers also tested the company's handheld control display unit that is designed to taxi, position, and recover the X-47. Testers plan more launches from Pax River over the next several weeks.
Another X-47 vehicle last week embarked on the USS Harry Truman (CVN-75) to begin "deck handling trials" with the control display unit; those activities are scheduled to continue through mid December.


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Todd Gurley and Keith Marshall combined for 163 rushing yards and four touchdowns, as No. 3 Georgia blasted Georgia Tech, 42-10, at Sanford Stadium.
Gurley ended with 97 yards on 12 carries and was augmented by Marshall's 66 yards on seven totes for the Bulldogs (11-1), who kept up the momentum heading to the SEC title game next Saturday against Alabama, which thrashed Auburn in Tuscaloosa.
Aaron Murray completed 14-of-17 passes for 215 yards and scores to Jay Rome and Rhett McGowan. Malcolm Mitchell led the receiving corps with 88 yards on three catches.
"Our goal was to win every phase of the game, for every unit to win. I think we may have done that. That's more than a coach can ask for really," said Georgia head coach Mark Richt.
Tevin Washington and Vad Lee went 10-of-21 passing for 120 yards and one interception for the Yellow Jackets (6-6), whose three-game win streak ended ahead of a meeting with Florida State in the ACC title game next week.
David Sims totaled 71 yards and Georgia Tech's lone touchdown on 14 carries, and Robert Godhigh contributed 66 yards on five receptions in defeat.
Gurley's 3-yard run capped the opening series and put the hosts up 7-0. Mitchell provided Georgia with excellent field position, taking the opening kickoff 47 yards to the Yellow Jackets' 44.
Godhigh was on his way to a TD run on Tech's next possession, but had the ball stripped just before the goal line by Baccari Rambo, who returned it 49 yards to midfield. Eight plays later, it was 14-0 as Gurley took it in from the one.
"Any time you turn the ball over it isn't a good thing, but I think it hurt the flow of the game," said Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson. "They got off to a great start, scored, and we got the ball back and went right down the field and looked like we were going to go in for a score and turn it over. Instead of us having a first down inside the 10, they had it at midfield and went back and scored in about four or five plays."
The Yellow Jackets converted their next drive, as Chris Tanner made a 38-yard field goal, but Georgia came right back on a 15-yard TD run from Marshall.
It was 28-3 for the hosts as Murray connected with McGowan on an 11-yard scoring pass inside of three minutes to play in the second quarter. The 25- point margin stood at halftime.
Murray and Rome combined for a 24-yard scoring pass early in the third quarter and Marshall added a 17-yard TD run punctuated with a dive to the near pylon on the right sideline later in the period.
Sims' 9-yard run to paydirt in the fourth was Georgia Tech's lone answer to the Bulldogs' onslaught.
Game Notes
Georgia, which has won four in a row over their state rivals and 11 of the last 12 meetings, also improved to 33-1 at home vs. non-conference opponents under Richt ... The Yellow Jackets outgained the Bulldogs, 426-379, and racked up 26 first downs to 18 for the hosts ... Gurley also had two catches for 20 yards and Godhigh added 44 yards on six carries ... Rambo added an interception, the 16th of his career which tied the school record currently held by Jake Scott ... Georgia also ran its season point total to 456, snapping the previous record held by the 2002 squad.


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Delhi Township - Fire crews are called to Orchid Stealth Orthopedics in Delhi Township to contain a cobalt fire. Not so much smoke as steam rose from the barrel of the combustible metal filings, as firefighters poured water over the hot metal. The Fire Department was called shortly before 12:30PM to the facility on North Cedar Street, near Edgar Road. News 10 is told that typically a barrel fire like this would just burn out, but this barrel had more material than usual.
The facility was temporarily shut down. The building's air compressors had to be turned off so smoke and steam would not blow through the rooms.
No one was hurt.
Orchid Stealth uses cobalt and titanium among other metals to make parts for medical orthopedic implants.