text:
Can you imagine telling someone a century ago that a hundred years hence a stack of electrified silicon would be studying for its medical exam?
IBM announced its question answering machine Watson will begin to study medicine.
The students and staff at the Cleveland Clinic will do for Watson what the rest of us do for Google—hone its answering accumen by using it.


text:
Cast Brass Construction
Meets ANSI Standards
This Heavy Duty Door Stop is a cast brass stop and holder intended
for door mounting. This product features a secure four hole mounting with a
4-1/2 inch (114 millimeter) kick-down leg. This product meets ANSI Standards.
Color: Polished Chrome
Minimum Order: 1 Package

subset: commoncrawl


text:
When Google turned 13 last year there was concern in some quarters that it might become a truculent teen and stop answering our questions.
But any disquiet that we were set for a spell of bad behaviour from the internet's king of search seems to have been unfounded. Google can still be relied on to give straight answers to search queries, which is what millions - if not billions - of users count on it to do.
But while Google has become the standard for information-seekers, for many businesses it has become much, much more.
For many companies, especially those serving a niche market, Google has become the primary way in which they connect with potential customers - even if they happen to be on the other side of the world.
Here are four firms which have made Google an indispensable part of their business.
Any online venture that denied depending on Google to bring in new business would be lying, reckons Peter Miles, head of holiday home listing site Bookabach.
Bookabach.co.nz has been online since 2000, and now gets about half its visitors from Google searches. Nearly 6000 properties are listed and the site handles thousands of booking requests a month.
The business' reliance on Google goes well beyond search, says Miles, whose original online foray was BachClub, which came along two months after Bookabach. The two sites were soon merged, and in 2007 the AA bought half the business.
"Google brings visitors to Bookabach via natural and paid search; we use Google maps; we use Google's DoubleClick display ad-serving technology; we use its Analytics website analysis tools; and we even use Google code repositories to keep files so we don't need to store our own versions."
"Book a bach" and "Bookabach" are the two top searches that land people on the site. Miles says that highlights a striking fact: that for many people Google is not just a search engine, but has become the interface to the internet.
"People searching for 'Bookabach' know they want to go to www.bookabach.co.nz, but it's faster, easier and more natural for them to type 'Bookabach' into Google and then click on the link Google provides."
Google's dominance is corroborated by the vastly greater number of site visitors it delivers than the next-ranked search engines: Bookabach gets 30 times more Google-generated traffic than it does from Bing and Yahoo!
Miles says during the peak summer months and the winter ski season, the business spends up to 12 per cent of revenue on Google AdWords. Search engine marketing (SEM) is a "bottomless pit", but still worth spending on.
"SEM does work; it's highly measurable and converts to bookings," argues Miles
He doesn't fret about the business' dependence on Google, although he is wary of the US company's ambitions.
"I think where every purely online businesses loses a little sleep is in not knowing 'where will they go next?'. Google can be highly disruptive - and accidentally or intentionally carve whole new paths across industries.
"The obvious example is in the business directory space. Where in the past business directory portals like a Yellow or Finda were strong in restaurant and retail listings, now Google Search bypasses the portals and brings up that information directly."
Google's move into real estate listings, abandoned at the start of last year, is another example of its adventurousness.
"It had to backtrack on direct-listing real estate on Google Maps when it realised how much advertising business it would lose from all the real estate portals," Miles says.
Bookabach calculates it is relatively safe from a similar Google foray because the holiday rental market is tiny. "When it comes to 'owner-managed properties', most owners would have no interest in having their property and contact details show up directly in a Google Search result.
"Also, we're somewhat buffered by the major tourism portals, which spend significantly with Google. So we doubt that Google will ever take on the baches and holiday homes market directly and compete with Bookabach."
And there's an upside to Google's dominance, Miles says: it means Bookabach has just one search provider to deal with.
Wellington internet-based venture Ponoko would still be in business if Google disappeared overnight. However it would be much diminished.
"Do we rely on Google for almost half of the traffic to our site? Yes," says Ponoko co-founder Derek Elley. "Do we spend marketing dollars on our optimisation for Google? Absolutely, yes."
However over the past six months the company has stopped using paid Google AdWords to bring visitors to ponoko.com, as the site is revised to maximise the return on the US$2 ($2.50) each click-through costs the business.
AdWords will again be part of Ponoko's marketing, Elley says, but for now the company is putting money into optimising its site for Google searches.
That effort, for which it pays a consultant, works out at about 0.5USc a click.
It's paying off. In May, 44 per cent of site traffic came from web searches. Of that, 96.4 per cent was Google searches, with Bing, Yahoo! and others fighting for the scraps.
Over the past 12 months web traffic has risen nearly 200 per cent, Elley says.
A good deal of that can be attributed to Ponoko being a pioneer in a fast-growing market. The company, which was launched in 2007, describes itself as having "the world's easiest making system".
Ponoko.com is a service that allows customers to order the manufacture of one-off items by a variety of computer-controlled processes. Users of the service, 85 per cent of whom are in the US, come up with their own designs, or download them from a range of free or commercial sources.
It's a business that was born on the internet, set up with chief executive Dave ten Have after Elley had run and then sold internet marketing agency First Rate. A blog, links on partner websites and PR are also important marketing tools, Elley says, but reliance on Google is greater than ever.
The cost of AdWords soon mounts up for a site with 150,000 visitors a month, making it crucial to turn a good proportion of AdWord-generated traffic into paying customers. But using ponoko.com is not an impulse purchase.
"This is not classic shopping - our business is about people creating and making things. They come to our website and learn about things like 3D printing, then have an idea about what they want to make and go about designing it, then upload the design.
"The sales process between first visit and close is between two and three months long."
From past experience, with AdWords on full throttle, user numbers can be expected to double within three months.
"So the traffic is certainly there, but you pay a hefty price for it," Elley says.
AdWords has the advantage, however, of landing the clicker on the part of the site that is most likely to result in a sale, whereas search traffic arrives randomly.
Having learned that, Elley says, Ponoko is now looking for a designer to fine-tune the site to get the most from AdWords.
If it wasn't for Google, Wellington musician Paddy Burgin would be busking for a living.
Burgin is also a luthier, or maker of stringed instruments. Until his first website went up in 2000, he was lucky if he took a single order a year from a New Zealand customer wanting one of the Weissenborn slide guitars or mandolin-like bouzoukis he specialises in.
That was despite his efforts at direct marketing.
"I had a brochure featuring the four or five instruments I had made and I would wander around town until I saw someone with a guitar case, then pass them this flyer." He would also go to see bands and press his card on them during a break.
The clincher was playing one of his own instruments in a band five nights a week, which he thought would have people approaching him to demand to know where he'd got his "really cool guitar".
"I stood there for a year, man, and no one said boo."
A dozen years later, the burginguitars.co.nz website is at version three and the orders, comparatively speaking, are flooding in, mostly from the US.
"My demographic is a 45-year-old man with three or four nice guitars and he's looking for number five," Burgin says. "I know I'm usually number five or six because these people often send me pictures of their guitar collections. They're all lined up on the sofa and there's mine on the far right because it's just arrived."
They stumble across his Wellington workshop by one of two methods: either through a chance Google search for "Weissenborn", or a more deliberate search sparked by a word-of-mouth recommendation.
"The only thing that's out there is my website - I've never advertised." Yet within a fortnight of being online, Burgin had a new customer.
Burgin's prize piece of marketing collateral is a connection with guitarist David Lindley, "right-hand man" of American singer-songwriter Jackson Browne. Burgin says Lindley tours with two of his instruments, which lends the Burgin name credibility among other guitarists.
While many websites go to great lengths to ensure high rankings in search results, he professes a "low-tech" approach to drawing attention to his site. Weissenborn guitars are a sufficiently rare commodity that any search using those words places burginguitars.co.nz in the first few pages of results.
That natural advantage, and an apparently instinctive understanding of e-commerce, are providing Burgin with the 20 or so orders he can cope with a year.
His other tactics to bring visitors to the site - and once there, to turn browsers into buyers - could have come straight out of an online marketing manual. But Burgin has never sought outside help.
He occasionally posts to guitar forums, where he will link to his site, and does the same in video clips of him playing that he uploads to YouTube and tags with the names of slide guitarists such as Lindley and Ry Cooder.
"People who are fans of that kind of music might watch the clip, even for just five seconds, and see my name. I'm just trying to promote myself in a soft-sell kind of way."
He also makes a point of pricing his instruments in US dollars.
"I figure my customer is sitting there on the other side of the world surfing the net with a bourbon in his hand and, when he comes across one of those 'Burgin twangers', he doesn't want to click twice to find the price."
Burgin has no hesitation in crediting Google with keeping him in business.
"If there was a sunspot and the internet collapsed for six months, I would be busking."
When Pukekohe online printer cartridge shop Computer Food got going, print advertising and flyers were its main promotional tools.
Today, after more than a decade in business, Google brings the business many of its customers and accounts for a large chunk of sales.
"I think we're one of the longest surviving e-commerce sites in the country," says owner Richard Barnett, who bought the company and took it online in 1999.
"All my competitors at the time have since gone. I'm sure there are people who've been around longer but we've certainly been online a long time."
Computer Food, which uses the web address consumables.co.nz, began the shift from print to internet marketing via online directories such as Yellow Pages. But Google has since conquered all.
"Google is the main focus of advertising for most businesses of our sort these days - you have to have a Google presence."
The company uses both AdWords and Google search to bring traffic - and hopefully customers - to its site. But getting a high ranking in Google searches is a challenge, Barnett says.
About half the company's marketing spending ends up in Google's coffers, although flyers haven't been abandoned.
Google dominates not just because it is an efficient way of reaching shoppers for the wide range of consumables - ink, paper, storage media - that Computer Food sells. Barnett says AdWords has built-in power for analysing buyer behaviour that old media can't match.
"You put out a flyer or an ad in the paper and you really don't know how much business you're getting from it, but with AdWords you do. You can see how many people go to your site and how many make a purchase, which is a key difference from more traditional forms of advertising."
Next month, what began life as Google Product Search will turn into Google Shopping, a new service that Barnett says looks like cost comparison site PriceSpy. That spells more trouble for bricks and mortar retailers such as Dick Smith Electronics.
"That model of company will really struggle when more and more people search online; not necessarily buying online, but finding the cheapest prices near where they are, and if that Google service does that it will change New Zealand retail."
About a third of Computer Food's revenue of less than $10 million makes its way to the company courtesy of Google. Microsoft's Bing doesn't register as a significant competitor, and Barnett hasn't considered advertising on it.
He admires Google's "don't be evil" slogan, although he says it's a matter of debate whether it can always claim to have stuck to it.
"I think it's a brilliant slogan - it's a dig at Microsoft, I think. But you need to maintain trust."


text:
Contact us 24/7: +1 877 678 9627
View product details
Zoom In
Need a second opinion? Ask your personal shopper:
Need a second opinion? Ask your personal shopper:
GET EXPERT ADVICE Need a second opinion? Ask your personal shopper:
- - True to size
- - Wide-leg; high-rise style
- - Fitted at the waist and hip; loose fitting through leg
- - Unhemmed pant can be altered to fit
- - Model is 177cm/ 5'10" and is wearing a FR size 36
Invest in Yves Saint Laurent's timeless sophistication with its luxurious black cashmere pants. With a high-waisted cut and wide leg, this masterfully tailored pair ensure an elegant/glamorous silhouette that will be your staple for this season and beyond. Wear them with a classic shirt for a formal lunch date, swapping to a pussy-bow style for cocktails.
Shown here with: Chloé top, Roberto Cavalli cuff, Eddie Borgo bracelet, Yves Saint Laurent ring and clutch, Burberry Prorsum shoes.
- - Black cashmere
- - High-waisted, wide-leg
- - Slant pockets
- - Gold zip and concealed hook fastening at side
- - 100% cashmere
- - Dry clean
Product Code: 182331
For alternative suggestions, contact our Fashion Consultants
Help & Advice
Product Code: 182331


text:
Through various "sources" (insert dramatic music here) I have, I was able to obtain a copy of the complaint yesterday before the press conference and had a chance to peruse it. They're definately just hoping for some sort of settlement that allows Carroll to either buy an ISC racetrack and move the race from there to Kentucky or just grants Kentucky a Nextel date and tells them to stop bothering NASCAR with lawsuits.Ky. Speedway sues NASCAR
Track demands $400M and a 2006 Nextel Cup race
By Mike Rutledge and Cliff Peale
Enquirer staff writers
COVINGTON - Kentucky Speedway's owners are seeking more than $400 million in damages and a 2006 Nextel Cup race in a lawsuit filed in federal court Wednesday against NASCAR and International Speedway Corp.
Cincinnati lawyer Stan Chesley, representing Kentucky Speedway LLC, said NASCAR and ISC violated federal antitrust laws by restricting which tracks host NASCAR's premier Nextel Cup races.
Chesley said NASCAR officials told the speedway's owners that the Sparta track would not get a Nextel Cup event.
"They literally said ... you're not going to get a race," he said.
The suit also seeks an injunction forcing NASCAR to establish a competitive-bidding process in awarding Nextel Cup races and elimination of some Nextel Cup rules that the speedway calls monopolistic.
"In my opinion, the facts clearly support a conclusion that NASCAR and ISC have colluded to exclude competition in order to financially benefit themselves," Chesley said.
"By doing so, they have harmed not only Kentucky Speedway but also all stock-car racing fans nationwide."
Officials with NASCAR and ISC, both based in Daytona Beach, Fla., said they had not reviewed the suit and wouldn't comment.
"We've not even had a chance to review the lawsuit at this time, but as a matter of corporate policy we don't comment on pending litigation issues," NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said. "That's our statement."
The 20-page lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Covington says NASCAR and ISC share common officers, including Bill France Jr., ISC's chairman, who served as NASCAR chairman from 1972 to September 2003. He remains a NASCAR vice chairman.
Other members of the France family also hold leadership positions with both entities.
Fans eager for Nextel race
As NASCAR fan Tim Finke cut a hind quarter of beef Wednesday evening for a customer at Bill Finke & Sons Meats in Fort Wright, he said he hopes Kentucky Speedway wins this battle.
"I think it'd be great," Finke said. "I'd love to have a (Nextel) Cup race this close."
Finke has traveled to tracks in Bristol, Tenn., and Chicago, and says "everything about the Kentucky Speedway is nicer."
"They're definitely being deprived," Finke said. "I don't think it's right. It's more or less just a monopoly. They can have a race wherever they want."
Since before Kentucky Speedway opened in 2000, the raceway has sought a piece of NASCAR's premier series, then called Winston Cup. The 858-acre race facility, which has more than 68,600 seats and 50 luxury suites, does host NASCAR's lower-rung Busch and Craftsman Truck series races. The track could be expanded to seat more than 100,000.
The lawsuit argues that NASCAR and ISC have illegally restricted the award of Nextel Cup races to newly built or purchased ISC racetracks, or ones ISC is considering buying, shutting out other qualified tracks.
Despite dramatic increases in demand, NASCAR has created only three new Nextel Cup races since 1999, each at ISC-owned tracks in Florida, Illinois and Kansas, according to the suit. ISC-affiliated tracks now host 20 of the 38 Nextel Cup races, and ISC plans to build tracks in New York and the Pacific Northwest to host Nextel races.
Here's how the speedway's lawsuit contends that various interests have been harmed:
Fans, because of limitations on the number of races, face higher ticket prices and have "fewer options to watch their favorite drivers."
Drivers have their winnings limited because of rules that restrict how often they can test their vehicles, including during non-NASCAR races.
Sponsors have fewer options in aligning with races.
Television and radio broadcasters are limited in the number of races that feature the highest-caliber drivers.
Independent tracks such as Kentucky Speedway can't get races.
"This is a day Kentucky Speedway did not want to happen," Chesley said. "We have done everything to avoid this day. We've even looked at trying to buy a race and bring it here. ... We are here because we have no other place to go, other than the United States federal court."
Speedway officials deferred comment to Chesley, who said that if monopolistic practices are proven in federal court, damages are automatically tripled.
Chesley acknowledged that NASCAR could end up pulling its Busch or Craftsman races.
"I would call that retribution," he said. "If that's how NASCAR wants to play, that's a sad day for the United States of America."
Chesley declined to estimate how much the lack of a Nextel Cup race has cost the track, but he said it is in no danger of closing.
Suit 'not surprising'
Dennis McAlpine, a securities analyst with McAlpine Associates LLC in Scarsdale, N.Y., who follows the motor sports industry, said he wasn't surprised by Kentucky Speedway's lawsuit because of a settlement NASCAR reached last year on a suit filed by Francis Ferko, a shareholder of race promoter Speedway Motorsports Inc.
Under that settlement, SMI, which controls six tracks that host Nextel Cup races, bought North Carolina Speedway from ISC. That track closed and its race moved from Rockingham, N.C., to Texas.
"It's not surprising at all, given the outcome of the Ferko suit, in which there was another race granted to Texas Motor Speedway," McAlpine said.
"I think (Kentucky Speedway chairman and developer) Jerry Carroll has done an excellent job with that track," McAlpine said. "I think given the circumstances, he has made the most of what he has for races, and has promoted some of the most successful Bush races and IRL (Indy Racing League) races."
McAlpine years ago worked for an investment bank that sought to raise money for Kentucky Speedway's construction.
"NASCAR and ISC's activities have harmed race fans in Ohio and Kentucky," Houston-based lawyer Steve Susman, also representing the speedway, said in a news release. "NASCAR's treatment of Kentucky Speedway makes the most egregious tactics of drivers fighting for position on the track look like a Sunday-afternoon drive in the country."
The interesting question is what happens to Carroll if he loses on dismissal or summary judgment; he'll be the owner of a giant white elephant that will never get a Nextel cup race as long as the Frances are in charge, and he'll likely be forced to sell for pennies on the dollar to try and recoup some of his investment. I don't think there's much of a chance of that (they've likely met their pleading burden for both a 6(b) and a 56 motion), but still a rather large risk...
Either way, you know this isn't going much further past initial motions by the defense, if for no other reason than Chesley's law firm simply doesn't have the manpower or attorneys to handle the huge reams of discovery they're getting from the NFL in the Hamilton County suit AND the huge reams of discovery they'd likely have to pour through to get this suit to trial.
Interesting stuff, though...


text:
Savannah-Chatham Police seek the public's assistance in identifying an armed robber who held up a Parker's conveneience store at E. President Street and Beech Street just after 3 a.m. Saturday morning.
No one was hurt in the incident, but the robber made off with an undisclosed amount of cash and a single pack of Newport Light cigarettes.
Anyone with information regarding the identity of the suspect is asked to call the Savannah-Chatham CrimeStoppers hotline at (912) 234-2020.


text:
Beaches are islands best jewel and lure during hard times
February 5, 2009 - By ELLA NAYOR, firstname.lastname@example.com
Orlando might have Disney World and Miami is an epicenter of culture and art museums. But the two hot spots don't have the watery gems of Sanibel and Captiv....
No comments posted for this article.
Post a Comment
You must first login before you can comment.


text:
Cisco takes us back to the future
Like the crash (before this one) never happened
Cisco has been showing journalists its vision of the future, which bears a remarkable resemblance to the past. It's somewhere around 1998 by our reckoning, only this time in high definition.
The publicity drive comes with the refurbishment of its Innovation Centre, at its Feltham offices, which has been rebuilt to show how Cisco sees the world of tomorrow making use of networking technologies. In most cases, though, the company's vision seems to be been lifted from a business plan proposed just as the last boom collapsed.
First up in this tour of forgotten technologies was the Virtual Assistant, she of the pretty face and dodgy accent. This time around she makes use of Microsoft's voice tech to perform actions based on natural language recognition. Ask her "What is a bouncy castle?" and quick as a flash she's reading out the Wikipedia entry on the subject - but ask what her favourite colour is and the poor girl is stumped.
Damian Sunne from the Innovations Team waxed lyrical about how the animated lass could watch stocks for you, manage your travel, automatically invite people to a meeting and even book a restaurant to hold it in. In proper bleeding-edge style none of this is working yet, so the bastard daughter of Ananova is restricted to reading out Wikipedia entries for now.
Cisco hasn't addressed the real problems with internet agents - interoperability, where they are hosted, how users pay for them, or who takes responsibility when she screws up and books you 2,000 return flights to Reykjavik. Sorting these basics out seems rather more important than providing you with fast access to the facts on party inflatables.
If it's good enough for Aberdeen
We move on to Dr Duncan's Video Symptom Show - allowing an untrained "nurse" to operate medical sensing equipment so the doctor can see you over a high-definition video link without leaving the comfort of the 19th hole. Cisco has created prototype sensors including a stethoscope, temperature sensors and high-resolution cameras, but thankfully no proctoscope as yet. Cisco is keen to emphasise that the "nurse" may not be necessary, as punters might like to have the kit at home to collect the details of their symptoms.
None of this is new, but that's not stopped Cisco running trials in Aberdeen. It reckons similar offerings are simple point-to-point systems while Cisco's use of IP should allow connections to be routed to the next available doctor, regardless of location. Load-balancing doctors might be handy, but the rural areas where it would be most useful are (at least for the moment) those most lacking in the necessary infrastructure.
It's even harder to find a justification for the next demonstration - all the joys of online shopping from the comfort of the supermarket, as Cisco sees the future of retail.
Apparently the shopper of the future will be able to browse CDs by looking at the cover art and even clicking on an album to hear a track or two, on their mobile phone, while standing in the supermarket - clearly something shoppers have been crying out for. Marginally more useful is the ability to view a map of the store with their location marked, assuming their phone supports Wi-Fi. Getting directions to a specific product is also possible, which is great, assuming shoppers can operate their mobile satisfactorily while juggling a loaded trolley and pack of offspring.
Sponsored: Minds Mastering Machines - Call for papers now open


text:
ARA, TFI Begin Work On Fertilizer Code Of Practice Initiative
The Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA), in partnership with The Fertilizer Institute (TFI), has embarked on a Fertilizer Code of Practice Initiative. This member-led effort will lead to uniform safety guidelines for handling, storage and distribution of fertilizer products throughout the industry, and third-party inspections to ensure compliance with those guidelines. Safety for our members, employees, and the communities in which they live and work is of paramount importance to everyone in the fertilizer business. This Initiative embodies that commitment.
The process leading to this Initiative began in early 2013 when ARA's Board set an objective to evaluate existing codes of practice for anhydrous ammonia (NH3) fertilizer handling and storage, and determine the appropriate approach to take in the United States. Following the unfortunate incident in West, TX, on April 17, the scope of the Initiative was broadened to include ammonium nitrate (AN).
The goal of the Initiative is to create an inspection and auditing system that is transparent, practical, simple and efficient for retailers, and effective in improving safety. The existing system, with specific regulations coming from different agencies, results in a confusing compliance puzzle that in some cases has duplications and in others has gaps. The Initiative will provide a comprehensive collection of regulatory requirements and industry best management practices into one code of practice, with subparts for product-specific issues. Part of the mission is also to integrate as much as possible with existing state regulatory programs, again with the goal of efficient compliance for retailers.
Workgroups will be meeting over the summer months of 2013 to develop details. While some details will undoubtedly change through this process, a fundamental component is third party audits. Third party inspectors will base their audits on adherence to the code of practice. The results of the inspection will be made available to participating suppliers, so they know the audit results for the company they're shipping to, and retailers will also be able to verify that their suppliers are participating.
The ARA Board of Directors will receive an initial update report at its fall meeting on Sept. 18, 2013. A presentation and discussion for ARA member retailers will be provided at ARA's Annual Conference in December. As an interim step, ARA and TFI, in cooperation with the Asmark Institute and the American Agronomic Stewardship Alliance (AASA), are making information available to retailers about a free Compliance Assessment Tool developed by Asmark for retailers to quickly self-assess their compliance with existing regulations.


text:
"Attack on Titan" is easily the biggest thing to happen in anime in over a decade.
"Snake Woman's Curse" follows the plight of a Japanese family that is indebted to a feudal land owner and forced to work for him as slaves. After the father of the family dies, the land owner tears down the wife and daughter's house, and forces them to work for him weaving clothing for the next ten years to pay off their debt. The mother is killed by the landowner while trying to rescue a snake from being killed and then the daughter kills herself after being raped repeatedly by the landowner's son.
"Jigoku" is both an incredible and truly bizarre film. The director of the movie, Nobuo Nakagawa, made 97 films over the course of his career, which is an ungodly large number by American standards (only two other of his films are easily available in the States, i.e. "The Ghost Story of Yotsuya" and "Snake Woman's Curse"). If you think of a current director like Quentin Tarantino maybe making one movie every four years, many Japanese directors at the time, were making four or more movies every single year.
Koala Kacho seems to have everything going for him: he's the vice-president of a pickle manufacturing plant, he has a beautiful girlfriend, and he's about to seal a huge business deal with a South Korean kimchi company. Things couldn't get much better for a giant suit-and-tie-wearing koala right? Only he has one problem: sometimes he blacks out at night and then the women in his life end up dead.
A group of pirates hijack a boat to steal it's cargo and in the process maliciously gun down everyone on board. Months later the ship continues to reappear off the coast and a young girl named Yoriko feels strangely drawn to this ghost ship. She makes her way on board to find out her twin sister was among those who had been murdered, and soon afterwards the gunmen begin to die one at a time.
It's pretty bizarre to me that, as notorious as the film "Audition" is, I'd somehow I'd made it this long without either watching it or even so much as hearing any of the specifics of the movie. In fact the only thing I'd really known about this movie is that it was one of the films that helped inspire "Hostel," thereby helping to launch the "torture-porn" craze in horror here in the States.
"Empire of Passion" is a Japanese film about a young man who becomes infatuated with an older married woman, who then eventually rapes her and convinces her to help him murder her husband so that they can be together. They strangle the husband and toss his body into an old well. Eventually the ghost of the dead husband comes back to haunt them and their lives begin to unravel.
I've got a lot of nostalgia for movies like "The Ring" and "The Grudge." I didn't really grow up with horror movies, so at the time these came out, "horror" basically meant: "I Know What You Did Last Summer" movies, the later and more embarrassing sequels of "Halloween," and a whole host of "Scream" knock-offs.
Every now and then I'll stumble across a movie at my university library that I imagine someone must have snuck by an unwitting librarian. Such is the case with "Blind Beast", a bizarre Japanese sexploitation film from 1969.
Blind Beast tells the story of a blind sculptor who is so obsessed with a particular nude model that he decides to kidnap her with the help of his mother, and take her back to his art studio in the hopes of creating an entirely new genre of art for blind people (and doing a lot of groping).
In "Kuroneko", a woman and her daughter-in-law are raped and murdered by a roving band of samurai. After their death the woman and her daughter-in-law swear their loyalty to the devil in order for them to be able to return to the world as cat-like ghosts and kill every samurai they possibly can. They then lure unsuspecting samurai to their home, deep in a bamboo forest, where the daughter-in-law proceeds to get the samurai drunk and seduce them. When the samurai are at their most vulnerable the mother and daughter-in-law reveal their true forms and kill them.


text:
Château Élan Golf Club - Château Course
Braselton, Ga. • May 24 - 26
BRASELTON, Ga. — Jimmy Lloyd III, 15, of Clermont, Ga., and Matthew Cahill, 16, of Boca Raton, Fla., both carded an even-par 71 to lead the first round of the Boys Division at the Medicus Preseason Junior at Chateau Elan Sunday. Kendall Wright, 17, of Suwanee, Ga., fired a 4-under-par 67 to stake a two-stroke lead in the Girls Division.
Conducted by the American Junior Golf Association, the Medicus Preseason Junior at Chateau Elan is a 36-hole stroke play event being held at Chateau Elan — Chateau Course. The tournament field consists of 72 boys and 24 girls, ages 12 to 18, from 15 states. The Boys Division is playing the par-71 layout at 6,750 yards, while the Girls Division is playing the course at 5,915 yards.
Lloyd had an ominous beginning, and his tee shot on No. 2 ended up in the same water hazard that caused problems for so many players. But he recovered nicely, firing birdies on Nos. 4 and 5 to finish his back nine with eight pars and one bogey. With the Boys Division so tightly contested at the top of the leaderboard, Lloyd knows that it will be important to come back mentally strong for the final round.
"My goal for tomorrow is just to have the same mentality that I had today and to focus on each shot," Lloyd said.
Tied at the top of the Boys Division with Lloyd is Cahill, who like his competitor, is playing in his first career AJGA event. His best shot of the day came on the seventh hole where he managed to get out of a difficult lie and earn a birdie, thus neutralizing his bogey from the previous hole.
Rounding out the Boys Division and tied for third are Steven Fox of Hendersonville, Tenn., Joshua Genoble of Simpsonville, S.C., Richard Powell Jr. of Hixson, Tenn., Miller Capps of Seneca, S.C., Jacob Tilton of Evans, Ga., Chad Siefert of Simpsonville, S.C., and Will Bishop of Lexington, Ky., all of whom shot a 1-over-par 72.
In the Girls Division, Wright, who was placed in the first tee-time pairing at 7:30 a.m., served notice that she would be a force to be reckoned with for the duration of the tournament. Although her score leads the Girls Division, she felt that she could have played even better.
"I missed a couple of putts that came really close," Wright said. "So really, my score could have been a little bit lower."
Finishing the day in second place was Bonnie Hu, 16, of Fremont, Calif. She played very consistent golf all day, tallying 16 pars, and her opening-round score of 2-under-par 69 trails Wright by two strokes. In third place is Allison Emrey, 15, of Charlotte, N.C, who carded a score of 4-over-par 75.
Medicus Golf and The Medicus Golf Institute are dedicated to enabling all golfers to "Live Their Vision" in reaching their potential. By expanding its corporate vision, mission, products and services, Medicus Golf will enable golfers to learn and grow — both as a person and as a player — in a series of new and exciting developmental formats.
Medicus Golf enters its third year of sponsorship of the AJGA by supporting the Medicus Preseason Series. The Medicus Learning System, a comprehensive series of golf training aids, is dedicated to assisting golfers of all ages.
The American Junior Golf Association is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to the overall growth and development of young men and women who aspire to earn college golf scholarships through competitive junior golf. The AJGA, the largest Association of its kind, has an annual junior membership (boys and girls ages 12-18) of approximately 5,000 junior golfers from 49 states and 30 foreign countries.
Titleist, the AJGA's National Sponsor, has been the catalyst and driving force behind the Association's success since 1989. Rolex Watch USA, which is in its third decade of AJGA support, became the inaugural AJGA Premier Partner in 2004. In 2007, after 12 years of support, Polo Ralph Lauren became the AJGA's second Premier Partner.
The start of the final round of the Medicus Preseason Junior at Chateau Elan will be an 8 a.m. shotgun at Chateau Elan — Chateau Course. For more information, please contact AJGA National Headquarters at (770) 868-4200 ext. 1817.


text:
Clemens acquitted on all counts in perjury trial
By John Schlegel / MLB.com | 06/18/12 8:14 PM ET
WASHINGTON -- After deliberating for about 10 hours following more than nine weeks in the courtroom, a jury found Roger Clemens not guilty of all charges at his federal perjury trial on Monday.
Standing before the media gathered outside the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse, where the trial was held for 35 court days at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Clemens could not contain his emotions, which began to spill out in a Clemens family hug in the courtroom once Judge Reggie Walton and the jury departed following the announcement of the verdict.
"All you media guys that know me and followed my career," Clemens said, choking up and then being bolstered by applause from his contingent of attorneys and family, "I put a lot of hard work into that career."
A jury of eight women and four men agreed that it was hard work and not performance-enhancing drugs that made Clemens a winner of 354 games and seven Cy Young Awards in his 24-year career, finding him not guilty on all six charges, including all 13 obstructive acts alleged by the government in the obstruction charge.
Clemens, 49, was indicted in 2010 on three counts of making false statements, two counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of Congress based on his February 2008 testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which was investigating the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball.
Clemens denied all along that he'd ever used PEDs, as had been alleged in the Mitchell Report based on information provided by Brian McNamee, his former strength and conditioning coach for the better part of a decade. McNamee testified before the same House committee and at the trial, but much of his testimony was contradicted by defense witnesses, and the evidence he saved for six years in a beer can and a mailing box apparently was not credible enough to sway the jury.
Defense attorney Rusty Hardin -- echoing a line he used when the first attempt to try Clemens wound up in a mistrial last July -- said, "It is a beautiful day" during the impromptu press conference under drizzly skies outside the courthouse. Crediting his legal team and Clemens himself for riding out the storm, Hardin made it clear this verdict vindicates his client in the legal system, and hopes it goes beyond that.
"I hope that those in the public who made up their mind before there was a trial will now back up and entertain the possibility of what he has always said: Using steroids and HGH is cheating and it was totally contrary to his entire career," Hardin said. "If anything was shown in the trial, it's that this man from 16 to 45 was the same, same person."
Added co-defense counsel Michael Attanasio: "In baseball, there's a saying that some guys are just a class act. The way [Clemens] conducted himself in his darkest hour, with all these accusations that were being made against him that were false, showed what a class act he is, not just a ballplayer but as a man, as a family man."
According to a court official, the jury decided as a group not to discuss the case with the media afterward and had been transported from the courthouse within minutes of the verdict.
Although prosecutors Steven Durham, Daniel Butler and Gilberto Guerrero did not comment outside the courthouse and fellow Assistant U.S. Attorney Courtney Saleski was not present for the verdict, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia released the following statement: "The jury has spoken in this matter and we thank them for their service. We respect the judicial process and the jury's verdict. The U.S. Attorney's Office also wishes to thank the investigators and prosecutors, who pursued this case with tremendous dedication and professionalism after its referral to us from Congress."
The verdict brings to a close a process that began more than four years ago with Clemens' appearance before Congress, and ends a trial that began April 16 just down the street from the U.S. Capitol complex. The first attempt to try Clemens last July ended in a mistrial because of a prosecution error.
After repeated and public denials following the release of the Mitchell Report, Clemens testified in a Feb. 5, 2008, deposition and at a nationally televised Feb. 13, 2008, hearing that he never used performance-enhancing drugs.
McNamee, who worked with Clemens as a strength and conditioning trainer for the better part of a decade, was cited in the Mitchell Report and then testified before the same congressional committee and at the trial, saying that he injected Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs numerous times from 1998-2001. McNamee said he saved needles, vials and medical waste in a Miller Lite beer can and a FedEx box after injecting Clemens in August 2001, and that became key evidence in the trial.
Clemens, who did not testify in his own defense at trial, testified before Congress that McNamee only injected him with vitamin B12 and lidocaine. A little more than two years after that testimony and Congress had referred the matter to the Department of Justice, a federal grand jury indicted Clemens.
Following a jury-selection process of more than five days, jurors heard from 46 witnesses over the course of 26 days of testimony, followed by closing arguments last week, before Walton sent them into deliberations on June 12. The case was expected to last four to six weeks, but it entered its 10th week when jurors returned to their deliberations Monday after a four-day break.
McNamee was the pivotal figure in the trial, and he spent more than a week on the stand as a prosecution witness. He told jurors that Clemens first asked him to give him a "booty shot" of steroids in June 1998, and that became the first of at least a half-dozen injections he gave Clemens that year in Toronto. After they reunited in 2000 because Clemens lobbied to have McNamee join him with the Yankees, McNamee said he injected Clemens with both steroids and HGH in 2000 and steroids in 2001.
McNamee testified that following an August 2001 injection of Clemens, he brought evidence of the injections home to show his wife, who had been upset about the time he spent training Clemens. At her insistence, he said, McNamee kept the items, putting them in the beer can and mailing box and keeping them in his home for more than six years before turning them over to federal authorities in January 2008, about a month before the depositions and hearing on Capitol Hill.
By the time testimony from forensic experts was complete, jurors had discovered that some of the items were connected with others, including McNamee himself, but that two cotton balls and a needle contained both Clemens' DNA and residue of steroids. However, the needle had only six to 12 white blood cells that could be tested -- providing a 1-in-449 chance the DNA on that item belonged to him, compared to a 1-in-trillions chances on the cotton balls.
After calling it "garbage" from opening arguments onward, the defense called witnesses who suggested the items had been commingled and that there was likely cross-contamination, or even manipulation by McNamee. Hardin and Attanasio set the stage for those assertions in the defense case as part of attacks on McNamee's credibility throughout the trial, including attempts to introduce prior bad acts from McNamee, whom they portrayed as a troubled and addicted man.
McNamee was contradicted by his estranged wife, Eileen, who denied that she had anything to do with saving the items. Clemens' wife, Debbie, also contradicted his story about when and how he injected her with HGH, saying it happened in 2000, not 2003, and that Roger Clemens was not there when McNamee said he was. Also, Andy Pettitte had testified before Congress that Clemens once told him that he'd used HGH, but under cross-examination agreed that he was 50-50 on that recollection.
After the jury announced it had a verdict around 4 p.m. ET Tuesday, Clemens was among the last to arrive in the courtroom -- Hardin said he and his sons were working out near the Washington Monument a couple of miles away. But Clemens arrived at about 4:40 p.m., dressed in a tan suit with a blue shirt and orange tie. Debbie Clemens and their four sons took their spots in the family section of the courtroom for when the verdict was read.
Juror No. 7, a man who works for the Treasury Department who himself had testified before Congress, took a wireless microphone and read off "Not guilty" verdicts to each of the charges Walton read to the jury.
Minutes later, the Clemens family huddled closely in tears near the defendant's table in the courtroom. "It's been a hard five years," Clemens told the media afterward.
And now that five years is over for Clemens and his family, and his legal team. With acquittals across the board after barely more than a day's worth of jury deliberations, the Clemens team happily walked together around the side of the courthouse following the media briefing -- the U.S. Capitol in plain sight before them as they walked up Constitution Avenue.
A reporter asked Clemens whether this meant he might make the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and Clemens replied, "I'm not even thinking about that."
Before the Clemens family and legal team made their walk around the side of the courthouse, Hardin summed up the experience.
"It's a day of celebration for us," Hardin said. "Let me tell you something: Justice won out, and all those things we say about what this is supposed to be about came through."


text:
When the Dallas Mavericks and Phoenix Suns used to hook up, it was required viewing.
Now, when the two meet, like they will on Friday night in Phoenix, it will be two lower-tiered Western Conference teams trying to salvage anything this season.
The Mavericks lost their second in a row Thursday night in Oakland to the Golden State Warriors. Andrew Bogut blocked a Brandan Wright shot late and Jarrett Jack canned a pair of big free throws to give the Warriors a 100-97 victory.
Dallas played without Dirk Nowitzki due to a right adductor strain and was led by O.J. Mayo's 25 points. Vince Carter netted 22 points, while Shawn Marion chipped in 18 points and 17 boards in the Mavs' second consecutive loss.
Center Chris Kaman also missed the Warriors game with concussion-related problems.
The Mavericks fell in Portland to the Blazers on Monday and that game came down to the wire. Mayo was called for an offensive foul at the end of the Portland game, which the NBA admitted was an incorrect call. Head coach Rick Carlisle thought there should have been a whistle on Bogut's block and was none too happy after the Warriors game.
"Brandan Wright got hit on the arm and it's obvious," said Carlisle. "And it's two nights in a row. It's very tough to take with as hard as our guys are fighting to not be on the free throw line with a chance to go ahead with six seconds left or whatever it is."
The Suns ended a two-game losing streak Wednesday with a home victory over Steve Nash and the Los Angeles Lakers. It was Nash's first appearance in Phoenix since he was traded to the Suns' Pacific Division rival in the offseason.
The Suns overcame a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit thanks in large part to Michael Beasley. He scored 27 points, including what turned out to be the game-winner with 43.8 seconds remaining, to ice the 92-86 win.
"We just told each other we do not want to lose, especially in front of a crowd like that and on national TV," said Beasley. "It just was not an option for us. We went out there and executed where we needed to execute."
Luis Scola, Marcin Gortat, Jared Dudley and Goran Dragic each scored in double figures. Nash, who received a standing ovation Wednesday night, only had 11 points.
The Mavericks have won 16 of their last 20 against the Suns. Dallas topped the Suns twice this season, once in Dallas and once in Phoenix, and has won five of the last seven in Arizona.


text:
2015 Dates to be Confirmed
Georgetown Law's Moving from Lawyer to Leader: Building Foundational Leadership and Team Skills is an intensive, hands-on workshop designed for junior-level partners, counsel and senior associates.
This two-day workshop features:
Please click here to download last year's course brochure.
Who Should Attend?
This course is designed specifically for law firm attorneys who are senior associates, junior partners, or counsel. It is useful for any attorney who wishes to understand the basics of how to lead teams and work effectively with others.
Lawyer to Leader Coaching Program
To deepen the impact of the Lawyer to Leader program, Georgetown Law offers an optional leadership coaching component that makes the Lawyer to Leader program unique and personalized. With this option, experienced Georgetown Leadership Coaches work with participants during and after the program to identify leadership development goals and action plans, provide support and additional resources, assist in tracking progress, and provide developmental feedback.
Participants will meet with their Georgetown Leadership Coach in person at the end of the first or second days of the program. After the program, coaching takes place over a six-month period as scheduled one-on-one conference calls.
Some of the benefits to the individual participant and organization include:
• Heightened self-awareness and the identification of strengths and developmental needs


text:
Loading product details ...
Reviews (0)
Need Help?
Product Description:
Women's YMX® Racerback Tank Pocket :: This racerback tank top for women offers a grounded, organic appearance while offering the benefits of lightweight performance fabric.
Features & Benefits:
Your Help Is Here
Shop with confidence knowing your team of Fit Experts is waiting to answer all your questions. You can always find your perfect product and your perfect fit. Your Road Runner Sports Fit Experts will make sure you get exactly what you want and have tons of fun in the process! Give us a call, chat, or email!
Call 800-743-3206 to
You May Also Like


text:
Forum on Clinical Trials and Public Perception Focuses on the Role of the Media
"No disease has been cured as many times as cancer has." -Ellen Stovall, National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS), quoting Rick Weiss of The Washington Post
The media plays a pivotal role in shaping public perceptions of cancer clinical trials, since this is where most people get their information about health and medicine. What gets reported and how it gets reported were the main topics of discussion at a Tuesday ASCO forum devoted to considering media coverage of clinical trials. Moderated by Fran Visco of the National Breast Cancer Coalition, the panel included Ellen Stovall of NCCS, Dr. Larry Norton of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, and journalist Shannon Brownlee, formerly of U.S. News and World Report. Ms. Brownlee, who has spent ten years writing about cancer research, co-authored the October 11, 1999 U.S. News feature "Dying for a Cure," which highlighted negative experiences of clinical trial participants and ethically questionable practices by researchers. As the three panelists shared their different perspectives on this topic, it became clear that the media's desire for an "angle" or compelling story often conflicts with the very nature of clinical trials, which are part of a gradual, cumulative process that does not lend itself to "sound bite" reporting.
Ellen Stovall began her talk by citing a telling example of the media's coverage of the ASCO conference itself. That very morning, as she was getting ready for her presentation, she heard two promotions - one on the local news, one on the national - for stories about a "miracle drug for lung cancer" and a "new breakthrough for lung cancer." She suggested that she could just imagine what the actual news segments would be like: they would focus on the success stories without doing justice to the full complexity of the trial's results. But focusing only on the negative, as Ms. Brownlee's story did, can be equally harmful, Stovall stressed. The cover of the October 11th issue of U.S. News featured a skull and crossbones with the article title, "Dying for a Cure," emblazoned across the front. That horrifying visual, said Stovall, left people with an impression of clinical trials that is difficult to correct, no matter how reasoned the argument.
"This is a common trend," said Stovall. "These sound bites come at us on a daily basis," often leaving people feeling confused and disoriented. Stovall said that she would like to see the media "abandon hyperbole" and report trials more like sports events are covered - that is, play by play, with a full accounting of the various events that were behind the outcome. "Where is the health and medicine page that looks like the sports page?" she asked.
Stovall pointed to the results of the recent Harris Survey on attitudes toward clinical trials as evidence of the wide misunderstanding that exists. The survey used both phone interviews and the Internet to poll over 6,000 people with cancer and nearly 700 healthy people about their opinions of trials. "The vast majority of patients - 84% - were unaware of clinical trials as a treatment option," noted Stovall, "and about one-third said they did not take part in a trial because they believed that standard care would be more effective." At the same time, though, most people who did take part in clinical trials (96%) said they had a positive experience.
A cancer survivor herself, Stovall has experienced the importance of clinical trials firsthand. When she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease in 1971, she was considered ineligible for a new drug trial because she had just given birth. Thirteen years later, when her cancer recurred, she was treated with the very drug that was being evaluated in that clinical trial. "This has led to my interest in quality clinical trials," said Stovall. "The interface between clinicians and patients is a critical juncture," she stressed, and since the media most often fills that space, it is essential that they provide balanced information.
Dr. Larry Norton of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, a breast cancer specialist who is actively involved in clinical research, largely agreed with Stovall's assessment of the media's reliance on hyperbolic sound bites instead of reasoned discussion. As an expert who is often quoted by the press, Dr. Norton said he finds that "quotable statements make the news," no matter how balanced a perspective he may have tried to present during the interview. He cited the example of the recent controversy over the use of bone marrow transplant as a treatment for breast cancer. "There were rational people saying rational things," said Dr. Norton, "but those people weren't quoted."
Like Stovall, Dr. Norton said that he would like to see stories about clinical trials reported as sports or even business and politics are - as "news rather than feature." Too often, he noted, a trial is reported as a "snapshot in time without a sense of evolution." Reporters want to create features out of a study's results without acknowledging the full context that surrounds it, thereby working against the nature of science. "The media wants to create heroes," said Norton, "and that's one of the worst things that can happen in science."
Reporter Shannon Brownlee agreed that there is often a tension between the media's need to create compelling, readable stories and the nature of scientific research. "Journalists need a hero to make the story readable," said Brownlee in response to Dr. Norton's comment, and that has led to some of the "hyping" of clinical trials that has taken place. For the ten years that she has spent writing about cancer research, she said, most of her stories have put a favorable slant on clinical trials. Brownlee noted that she wrote many hopeful stories about the beginnings of clinical trials, many of which did not lead to improved outcomes or treatments. From her perspective, the real problem with media reporting is not just hyperbole, but an overall slant in favor of researchers' work.
"There's been a good amount of cheerleading for clinical trials that has gone on," she said, "and that's not what we're supposed to be doing. We have a different role than advocates and researchers; we need to look for an independent perspective."
Brownlee acknowledged the media's role in hyping bone marrow transplant as a possible cure for breast cancer over the last couple of years, even though the data was not there to support this. "Advocates turned this into a woman's issue, protesting when insurance wouldn't pay for it, and journalists ate up these women's stories," she noted.
When Stovall questioned her about the cover image choice for her "Dying for a Cure" story, Brownlee admitted that she "wasn't completely comfortable with it." But she did stand behind her story, carefully emphasizing that it was really the first negative feature she had done after ten years of covering clinical trials in a positive light. Nevertheless, she said, she received a good deal of "hate mail" accusing her of destroying the possibilities for future progress against cancer. Dr. Norton was quick to add that, as a researcher who conducts clinical trials, he received hate mail and death threats in the wake of Brownlee's article, often from the families of women who had participated in his trials.
Despite Dr. Norton's and Ellen Stovall's calls for a different kind of reporting by the media, Brownlee seemed to think that things would not change much. She emphasized that journalists face the pressure of creating stories that have an angle which intrigues the potential reader; magazines and newspapers have to sell to stay afloat, just as television news programs need to attract viewers. "The 'wow, gee-whiz' things get a lot of press," she said matter-of-factly. Brownlee suggested that the best solution would be to create another source of information about trials, such as a centralized Web site, that could present results and data without an editorial slant. The National Cancer Institute has such a site for federally-funded trials, and several drug companies have their own sites, but Brownlee said that she would like to see one resource available to information-seekers.
In the meantime, cancer patients and members of the general public need to be careful consumers of media information. During the question-and-answer period, one health care professional stood up and said that she already knew what she would be doing back at her office next week: fielding questions about the supposed new breakthrough treatment for lung cancer. No matter how compelling individuals' stories may be when reported by the media, people need to look at the overall picture to form accurate impressions of clinical trials. As Dr. Norton stressed, "One patient does not make a scientific discovery."


text:
You Mean There are Other Things You Can Use Beer for – Other Than Drinking? Who Knew?
I'm sure those who love a good beer might be somewhat upset after knowing that beer can actually be used for something other than drinking. According to the Mother Nature Network, other than drinking, beer can come in handy for some other household chores.
I have to admit, I'm pretty excited to ask my husband to get me a beer some Saturday afternoon. I know he will be thinking I'm ready to get wild and crazy, but it sure will be kind of entertaining for me to tell him that I'm going to be doing some household chores with it instead. (I'm already imagining the look of disappointment on his face. A couple of reasons: a wife that doesn't want to party and what a waste of a good beer!)
Along with the six uses of beer listed below, here are some other options for the use of beer. (Other than drinking, of course!)
- 1
Polish Furniture
If you have ever spilled some beer on your wood coffee table, you might have noticed that there is a shine to the table after you have cleaned it up. Lifehacker says that there is one catch though to using beer as a furniture polish....the beer must be flat. A whole beer won't be necessary, but maybe leave a little in a bottle overnight. Then apply it with a soft cloth.
- 2
Drown Fruit Flies
Fill a jar with about an inch of beer. Take a piece of paper and twist it into a funnel, tape it closed and place it in the jar so the tiny opening is just above the beer level. Make sure the top of the funnel is wide enough that the fruit flies can't escape. The fruit flies will be attracted to the beer, and by giving them a very narrow entrance and not much room to get out, they will eventually drown in the beer. (I know, this sounds like heaven to some people!) It might take some time and a several changes of beer, but you will get the pests. (Hey....it's a reason to drink a beer every day though.)
- 3
Drown Slugs In The Garden
I am ready to try this! I have had problems with slugs in my flower garden and I have tried about everything possible at my local greenhouse to get rid of those slimy things! According to Care2, not only are fruit flies attracted to beer, but so are slugs. Simply get a clean wide-mouth container (doesn't have to be big), bury it in your garden so that the top of the container is flush with the ground and fill it halfway with beer. The slugs will think it's a party when they slide in for a swim, but never get out. Yes, it sounds horrible for the slugs, but so are holes in your plants in your garden.
- 4
Hair Care Products
Why go to a hairdresser? According to SheKnows, you can take a six-pack of light colored beer and apply your own highlights! Further instructions include using four of the beers to saturate your hair, and drink the other two while sitting in the sun, allowing the sun to do it's magic of bleaching your locks. You can also use a beer to add some bounce to your hair. The vitamin B and natural sugars in beer add body and shine, while acting as a natural setting lotion that increases resilience, vitality, and hold. Pour one cup of beer into a glass and allow it to go flat and become warm. Shampoo your hair (using your normal shampoo) then work the warm, flat beer into your hair. Rinse with cool water.
- 5
Clean Your Car Battery
If you are having a problem with your car starting because of corrosion on your battery, beer is the answer! Luckily for you, the carbonation in beer can melt away the buildup and get you back on the road.
- 6
Soak Your Feet
You might have heard of some spas that allow you to bathe entirely in beer. But, that could really cost you some money if you were going to do that at home. So why not just soak your feet in beer? Beer has been known to remove dead skin and calluses and could even help get rid of a toenail fungal problem or Athlete's Foot. Here's a recipe for a beer foot bath.


text:
KLRU added Bill Moyers' new show Moyers & Company to our Friday night public affairs lineup last week. If you want to watch Moyers & Company online, you can go to billmoyers.com
On Friday, January 20th at 8 pm on Moyers & Company, the discussion continues about how money dominates politics. For years, high-ranking administration officials have spun through the revolving door between the White House and American big business. But how have they influenced the regulation of industries from which they came — and American democracy as a result? This weekend, continuing our sharp multi-episode focus on the intersection of money and politics, Moyers & Company explores the tight connection between Wall Street and the White House with David Stockman, former budget director for President.
Currently a businessman who says he was "taken to the woodshed" for telling the truth about the administration's tax policies, Stockman speaks candidly with Bill Moyers about how money dominates politics, distorting free markets and endangering democracy. "As a result," Stockman says, "we have neither capitalism nor democracy. We have crony capitalism."
Stockman shares details on how the courtship of politics and high finance have turned our economy into a private club that rewards the super-rich and corporations, leaving average Americans wondering how it could happen and who's really in charge.
"We now have an entitled class of Wall Street financiers and of corporate CEOs who believe the government is there to do… whatever it takes in order to keep the game going and their stock price moving upward," Stockman tells Moyers.
Also on the show, Moyers talks with Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter and columnist Gretchen Morgenson on how money and political clout enable industries to escape regulation and enrich executives at the top. Morgenson warned of Wall Street's culpability in the widening income gap back in 2007 on Bill Moyers Journal.


text:
Mar 26, 2014
By Gretchen Gregory
Several Ohio University faculty and staff were chosen to present about Ohio University's commitment to inclusion and accessibility for people who have disabilities at the 18th annual State of the State Conference held last week at Bowling Green State University. The annual conference is a chance to discuss issues of equity, opportunity and diversity on a state level and included representatives from education, state and local government, law, healthcare, business and industry.
Dr. Dianne Bouvier, interim executive director of OHIO's Office for Institutional Equity, served as a moderator for the panel presentation, "A Blueprint for Transformation: Creating a Future that Welcomes Inclusion and Accessibility. "This work is never done by one person, it takes the commitment and expertise from multiple perspectives to create change," explained Bouvier, who also is co-chair of the Presidential Advisory Council on Disability and Accessibility Planning, "The panel members each had a unique contribution to the telling of our story here at Ohio University. Audience members came up to us after the presentation inspired to adapt what they learned from us to their own community."
Assistant Dean for Student Accessibility Carey Bush was one of five panelists representing the OHIO and Athens community, and said the goal was to share the work OHIO has been doing to work with disability and accessibility planning. The idea was to share the process so it can be modified and implemented by others throughout the state.
"This was a really exciting opportunity to present," said Busch, who also serves as co-chair of the Inclusion Change Team. "This is a statewide conference that deals with a variety of equity issues, including disability, gender, ethnicity and race, and promotes innovative approaches to supporting positive change in those areas."
Dr. Carolyn Bailey Lewis, an instructor in the Scripps College of Communication, and co-chair of PACDAP, was unable to participate in person and presented with the other panelists via phone. "What Ohio University has and is accomplishing in its efforts to make its campuses one that welcomes, wants and needs persons with disabilities, is a somewhat unique collaboration of numerous individuals and entities," she said. "We hoped to share our success so far and the opportunities presented in transforming the university, as well as the challenges."
Others from the Athens-community who presented at the conference included Dr. Steve Patterson, associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences and an Athens City Councilman who discussed the Memorandum of Understanding initiating a formal collaboration between OHIO and the city; Darrell Purdy, assistant director for employee accommodations and campus accessibility and founder and president of LifeDream International Foundation, who provided an overview about higher education's response to people with disabilities and highlighted the commitment many individuals at Ohio University have demonstrated to move inclusion work forward; and Ray Rood, founder and senior consultant of The Genysys Group, who provided a framework for the University's strategic planning effort on inclusion and accessibility around disabilities.
"In everything we do, we need to ask whether someone with a disability is affected by this decision," Bouvier added. "We want people to be more intentional and to seek the voice of people with disabilities in decision making, and we know that with all of us working together, we will transform our community."


text:
The bartering has begun. A plumber installing sinks and toilets at a Montauk motel in the throes of gentrification showed up late, sunburned, and begging his employer's indulgence.
"I had to go fishing," he said, fully expecting he'd be forgiven, especially because his cooler was filled with Ziploc bags bulging with striped bass and bluefish fillets, coins of the realm this time of year. It's as though Nature's treasury has opened its vault to issue Ziplocked stimulus packages throughout town — blowfish, bluefish, fluke, striped bass — bags of freshly-caught currency for gifts or trade. The employer's frown exacted promises of future tuna from the plumber. The frown vanished. It was replaced with a smile, and a friendly "Get to work."
This season, one is struck by the size and plumpness of both striped bass and bluefish. Normally, early-arriving bluefish, called "runners," show up long and lean. But, because spring arrived early with her migrating prey species including sand eels, both bass and bluefish were feasting long before most anglers wet a line.
Not much action at the start of the Montauk SurfMasters tournament for striped bass that got under way on Friday. No fish had been weighed in at the Star Island Yacht Club weigh station as zof Monday.
However, the fish are around and close enough to shore to catch. Atilla Ozturk made a pre-tournament foray last Wednesday and found a few "rats" and one sizable striped bass while casting from the East Deck jetty at Ditch Plain in Montauk. He was using an ounce-and-a-half bucktail. David Rattray tossed a jointed yellow bomber into Gardiner's Bay from the north side of Napeague and hooked a 33.5-inch bass that, upon cutting, revealed it had been dining upon small sand eels and inch-long silversides.
The West Lake Marina in Montauk reported excellent fishing over the weekend, Saturday more productive than Sunday only because Mother's Day kept anglers at bay — the appreciative, responsible anglers at least.
Chris Miller reported that several nice fluke were delivered to the West Lake scales. The Double D charter boat brought in a 7.7-pounder last week. The Top Hook charter boat had a 25-pound striped bass on Saturday dragged up on a parachute. It had three undersize fluke in its belly, which led Miller to suggest that conservation authorities should begin patrolling the bottom.
Jim Collishaw and his son Kenny and Al Gregg limited out on fluke aboard the Mako Wish on Saturday, 12 keepers in all, the biggest weighing 7.75 pounds. The Mako Wish was fishing off the radar tower in Montauk, a spot that has proved especially productive recently.
"Fat and feeding" was how Miller described the stripers and bluefish being caught on diamond jigs in the area off Montauk Point known as the Elbow.
Nat Miller, an East Hampton Town trustee and commercial trap fisherman, said there was a charge of bunker in Gardiner's Bay last week. The oily fish were drawing the attention of seals that were chomping on them and eating their roe and sparing bluefish and weakfish, his money fish.
Richard Peltonen of Montauk correctly identified last week's mystery fish as a northern stargazer. He said the gazers can be caught on rod and reel, but anglers should know that they give off an electric shock. A southern variety has surprised the feet of bathers in shallow water.
Ralph Carpentier's guess, a deep-sea angler fish, fell short, but he is a fine painter nonetheless.
The fifth annual Ducks Unlimited striped bass tournament will begin on June 9 from the Star Island Yacht Club. The tourney's $250-per-boat entry fee and a live auction will benefit Ducks Unlimited's wetlands restoration programs, and there will be cash prizes.
A captains meeting will be held on Friday, June 8. Eligible fishing areas will include all waters east of a line from Shinnecock Inlet northward to Mattituck Inlet. The awards buffet and auction will be held at the yacht club starting at 5 p.m.


text:
After four days of teases and speculation, Obsidian Entertainment has unveiled Project Eternity as its newest RPG in development. It is looking for $1.1 million on Kickstarter for a game that pays homage to the old Infinity Engine games we loved from the days of Black Isle Studios.
The Kickstarter page for the game (which is using Project Eternity as a working title) says the dev team hopes to "recapture the magic, imagination, depth, and nostalgia of classic RPGs that we enjoyed making -- and playing." Obsidian boasts many of the same Black Isle members that created such games as Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate, including Feargus Urquhart Josh Sawyer, and Chris Avellone. They also have Tim Cain, who worked on Fallout, Arcanum and Temple of Elemental Evil.
For more details check out the video below. The game has already collected more than $85,000 in the short time it has been live.


text:
A-EON Technology, the company behind the AmigaONE X1000, has not exactly been sitting still. They're hard at work developing the successor to the Nemo motherboard (which powers the X1000): it's called Cyrus, and is built around Freescale QorIQ processors, ranging from 32bit 1.5 Ghz (the P3) to 64bit 2.4 Ghz (the P5). Users have been invited to join the beta test programme for this new board, which will eventually power the successor to the X1000. On top of that, A-EON will invest $1.2 million in their partnership with Varisys, the company that builds the Amiga hardware.
Hyperion, the company that develops AmigaOS, hasn't been twiddling their thumbs either. The biggest hurdle the AmigaOS 4 developers are facing right now is SMP, but work on this issue is progressing.
One of the major hurdles right now, as AmigaOS Development Team Lead Steven Solie implied, is getting the AmigaOS Exec-kernel to support multiple CPU cores. As part of the process, a new so called "scheduler" is being implemented. The new scheduler is apparently already running in the current, internal builds of AmigaOS although Steven suggested there will be room for improvement and optimizations prior to an official release. AmigaOS 4.2 will also introduce the Gallium3D WinSys API for hardware accelerated 3D graphics.
As always with these niche products built by and for enthusiasts, it's hard to tell where it will lead to. However, fact remains that the X1000 was apparently a big enough of a success for A-EON to invest into the next generation, and for Hyperion to continue work on getting AmigaOS to support SMP - something that only benefits A-EON's machines.
While everyone else is whining about iOS and Android, the Amiga people are still doing their thing. You have to respect that.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Oh yes!
Try to add 68xxx software and AOS3.9 all the common modern features like True Color graphics, 24 bit audio, and a skin like the standard from Amikit, and be happy discovering how much Windowish slooow becomes the UAE emulated interface even on high clocked Intel processors...
Thanks to God at least we have already PPC Operating Systems and Software like OWB.
Leave the Motorola 68K software for retrocomputing fun. It has limited benefit use, shrinking day by day its value for practical anyday job.
Edited 2013-11-18 15:16 UTC


text:
|2013-02-11, 21:09
|Link #186
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2009
Why Madoka in particular has a lot of yuri fans? Because there are no boys in the series worth pairing off to most fans. Kyousuke sucks, Kyubey isn't human, Madoka's brother is like 1 year old, and Madoka's dad is married. All that's left are girls.
The few OC free Madoka fics I've read with heterosexuality had Kyousuke as the male. But in the series, he's more of a plot device than a character in his own right; add that to how many fans don't like him because of how unresponsive he was to the whole ordeal, and you get very few het non-OC fics.
And source if you don't mind? :3
|2013-02-12, 00:34
|Link #187
Otaku Apprentice
Well those fics are probably buried in a corner of the internet, and most of the pairings are yuri -_-
|2013-02-12, 01:17
|Link #188
For the yuri (╹◡╹)
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: I do not remember
It depends on the secondary part of your question. Kudryavka has answered you if your full question was "Why are there a lot of yuri fans in Madoka magica? Why don't people think of new male characters for them to fall in love with?"
If you meant "Why are there a lot of yuri fans in Madoka Magica? All pairings should be heterosexual.", then you should ignore the rest of the paragraphs of this post and just accept that other people have personal likings like you do. People do like to read and write alternate universe fics although it defies canon (Gen's word of god) so even if he has openly confirmed it people will continue to ship them.
If you can accept yuri...Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?
Last edited by Auxilism; 2013-02-12 at 06:23.
|2013-03-01, 02:32
|Link #189
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: United States
Age: 29
I'm new to the series and heard about the movies. Would you recommend me watching the series first and then the movies or the first 2 movies first? If I watch the series, would I even need to watch the first 2 movies since I read they're just recaps with little new footage?
|2013-03-01, 04:33
|Link #190
The Voice of Reason
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: The Netherlands
Age: 41
|2013-03-01, 10:13
|Link #191
Join Date: Mar 2008
I think it is better to watch the series in 2 episodes batches, that way you get to experiment something similar to the people who watched it live did. If you want to make the experience closer you can go to the madoka crate in the puella wiki so you watch one chapter then read it's respective thread.
|2013-06-21, 21:52
|Link #194
Senior Member
There is one brief flashback where we see Sayaka at a very young age watching Kamijo play the violin. On either side of Sayaka there is sitting an adult - one male, one female (I'll see if I can find it - if so, I'll edit this post). It's quite conceivable that those adults are her parents, but it's not confirmed. Even if they are her parents, that only tells us their physical appearance, of course. The personalities and backgrounds of Sayaka's parents are completely unknown, aside from how one would logically expect them to at least somewhat reflect Sayaka herself.
And Sayaka's biggest fans on this site are likely Coldlight and myself. So I'd honestly recommend you PM Coldlight if you want more info on this question.
Edit: And thankfully darkhalo191 and Coldlight both found this for me. Here it is!
Spoiler for Sayaka and her parents?:
So if you want to make things a bit simpler in the physical description department, you could assume these two people are Sayaka's parents. But if you'd rather have full reign to create OPs for Sayaka's parents, you could just say that these two adults are her Aunt and Uncle, or something like that.
Last edited by Triple_R; 2013-06-22 at 08:59.
|2013-07-29, 11:30
|Link #195
Join Date: Mar 2008
not sure if this counts as a question or just confirmation of facts but in this interview http://pastebin.com/BHgRHdZu gen says that the loops are close to 100, then in the puella wiki it states homura's age being around 14 years old and the loops lasting one month, so if everything is correct homura's age is a bit over 22.
Last edited by maximilianjenus; 2013-07-29 at 18:00.
|2013-07-30, 02:17
|Link #196
The Voice of Reason
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: The Netherlands
Age: 41
About Homura's age, she's probably 22 years old mentally by now. She still looks like a 14-year-old girl, but her mind has definitely aged with those many timejumps.
|2013-10-10, 14:39
|Link #198
Junior Member
Join Date: Oct 2013
Q: Is Homura in love with Madoka?
A(Gen Urobuchi): Probably.
|2013-10-11, 11:55
|Link #200
Junior Member
Join Date: Oct 2013
Yeah, I think it was the same one. He was also asked directly, why did he portray homosexual love (http://wiki.puella-magi.net/Nitro%2B..._Animagic_2013), and said in another interview (http://wiki.puella-magi.net/Shinjida...ine_BLACK_PAST) that he didn't think homosexual love was any different than heterosexual love, so I think it's fair to say the magical girls, are in an early stage of homosexuality (To young to be in a physical relationship, but in-love with each other romantically. Pure romantic love)
|Thread Tools


text:
Dureault named manager of BankRI Buttonwoods branch
Jennifer Dureault of Johnston has been named by Bank Rhode Island as the new manager of the bank's Buttonwoods branch on West Shore Road. Previously, Dureault served as the branch's assistant manager.
As manager, Jennifer is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the office's daily operations and ensuring all staff delivers BankRI's high level of customer service. She will work to grow the Bank's deposit base while developing new business relationships and expanding relationships with existing customers. Additionally, Dureault will train and manage the branch's team of financial professionals.
Prior to joining BankRI in 2011 as a banking specialist, Dureault spent years working in Consumer Lending with Fleet Bank, N.A., and also served as manager with SGR Construction in Carver, Mass.
"Since joining BankRI, Jennifer has been a consummate professional and leader within our Buttonwoods branch; we are pleased to promote her to branch manager," said Steven M. Parente, senior vice president, director of retail banking for BankRI, in a statement. "Her extensive financial experience and knowledge of customer needs throughout the community will be an asset to residents and small businesses within the Buttonwoods area."
Jennifer lives with her husband and two children. She prides herself on being active in the community as a volunteer with various Johnston sports programs.
WOW. I'm switching banks.
Go ahead and switch just because they put a woman in charge. What's the matter, you only like your bankers old and stodgy and your women at home barefoot and pregnant?


text:
Economic Concerns Top Ind. Lawmakers' Upcoming Session
Indiana lawmakers will be dealing with two broad categories of issues when they reconvene next year: Battles they would gladly take on and those they would rather avoid.
Amending Indiana's gay marriage ban into the state constitution and stepping into the continuing education struggles between Republican Gov. Mike Pence and Democratic Schools Superintendent Glenda Ritz clearly fall in the latter category, while just about anything they could do to improve the economy would fall into the former.
When House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, outlined House Republicans' top four legislative priorities - early education, road funding, elimination of the personal property tax and closing the jobs "skills gap" - last week the unifying theme was a focus on the state economy.
"These four issues: the skills gap, early childhood education, road funding and fair business taxation must be our priorities this session. It's my hope that we can work together as we did last session to find solutions that Republicans and Democrats can stand together on and say we're moving Indiana in the right direction," Bosma said during lawmakers' "Organization Day", which typically sets the tone for the session.
Indiana received some welcome news Friday, with word that the state unemployment rate had dropped to 7.5 percent - the best it's been since 2008. Pence credited the state's "pro-growth policies of fiscal responsibility" for the drop in the state's jobless rate. And Indiana has maintained a strong balance sheet, from a cash reserve of roughly $2 billion to a "AAA" bond rating shared by just a few other states.
But that fiscal success has not filtered out across the populace, as legislative Democrats often point out.


text:
Carter Lifts A&T To 60-58 Win
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – It came down to the final minute of the game but redshirt sophomore Christina Carter nailed a game-winning 3-pointer to lift the North Carolina A&T women's basketball team to a 60-58 victory over William & Mary at Kaplan Arena Friday evening.
"Christina played big and my hat goes off to her because she had an up and down game," head coach Tarrell Robinson said. "She was able to pick herself up and make a big play for us at the end. I'm glad we won the game but we've got to find a way to get better and find that magic that we had earlier when we were on our seven-game winning streak. We have to figure out a way to find that team again."
The Aggies (9-2) placed three players in double-figures led by senior Tracy King with 15 points. King's all-around performance also included a team-high nine rebounds, five steals, and four assists. Junior Ariel Bursey added 12 points and three assists, followed by Carter with 11 points.
The Aggies who led for most of the second half found themselves in their worst nightmare when the Tribe (3-9) finally took its first lead of the game, 58-57 with a layup from Latrice Hunter with 1:39 left in the game. Carter responded with composure and nailed a 3-pointer with 1:09 to put the Aggies back on top 60-58. William & Mary took the final possession and attempted to tie the game at the buzzer with a jumper from Hunter but luckily for the Aggies it bounced off of the rim as time expired.
W&M got within one at the 6:52 mark with a pair of free throws but Ariel Bursey hit a jumper and was fouled which resulted in a 3-point play to put A&T ahead 47-43 with 6:30 left to play. The final minutes turned into a 3-pointer shootout ignited by Marlena Tremba with 3:13 in the game. Tremba's 3-pointer sliced the Aggies edge to 53-50 but Tracy King answered with her own on the next possession to give A&T a six-point advantage. Hunter hit one from behind the arc with 2:24 left to tie the game at 56 but Aprill McRae made a free throw to put the Aggies up 57-56 with just under two minutes.
McRae fueled the Aggies to start the game, scoring six of A&T's eight points to drive it to an early 8-4 edge at the 15:38 mark. A&T stretched its lead to 20-11 with 10:06 remaining but the Tribe opened up a 14-5 run with under nine minutes left to close out the half. William & Mary left the Aggies scoreless for nearly five minutes as it cut its deficit to 25-24 at halftime.
Hunter led all players with 17 points. Tremba (13), Jazmen Boone (12) and Mathieu (11) all finished in double-digit scoring for the Tribe.
A&T will host its final non-conference game on Monday, Jan. 6 against Campbell. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. at Corbett Sports Center.


text:
Get your vitamins here
Look no further than the end of your fork for the vitamins your body craves.
Science fiction would have us believe that one day in the future we'll get all our food through little pills. Many of us have started down that path by opting for a handful of supplements in order to compensate for not eating right.
Dawn Jackson Blatner, RD, Northwestern Memorial Hospital Wellness Institute, Chicago, subscribes to the "food first" mantra to get vitamins from their source. "You get much more beyond the isolated vitamin," says Blatner.
"When someone eats an overall balanced diet with fruits, vegetables and lean proteins, you will get the whole network of vitamins and nutrition," says Blatner.
One concern with relying on supplements is the danger of consuming too high a level of a particular vitamin. The fat-soluble vitamins, A, D, E and K, can get stored in the body. Water-soluble vitamins, all varietals of B and C, are not stored in the body and must be replaced each day. "Supplement, by definition, means in addition to a healthy diet." All vitamins should dissolve in your stomach within 30 minutes, otherwise your body won't absorb the full amount.
Find your vitamins on your plate
Blatner points out that there is more vitamin C in a red pepper than in an orange. So if you are nursing a cold or the flu, a few strips of red pepper in a salad make for a nice way to get vitamin C, especially if you can't stand to look at another orange. The good news is that foods rich in vitamins are probably already on your plate. Here is a list of the major vitamins and the foods where you can find them:
Vitamin A
eggs, milk, cantaloupe, carrots, sweet potatoes, spinach, apricots, nectarines
Vitamin B
whole grains, such as wheat and oats; fish and seafood; poultry and meats; leafy green vegetables; beans and peas; eggs; dairy products, such as milk and yogurt; citrus fruits, such as oranges
Vitamin C
citrus fruits, such as oranges and lemons; cantaloupe; strawberries; tomatoes; red peppers; broccoli; cabbage
Vitamin D
milk and other dairy products fortified with vitamin D; fish; egg yolks
Vitamin E
whole grains, such as wheat and oats; wheat germ; leafy green vegetables; sardines; egg yolks; nuts
Vitamin K
dairy products, such as milk and yogurt; leafy green vegetables; liver; pork


text:
Did you know we have a mobile site?
Milk means more. More than just good taste and great nutrition. The dairy industry has known that for a long time, but have consumers? It always helps to remind them.
Source: Michigan Milk Messenger
Contact: Kristy Smith, firstname.lastname@example.com
Milk means more. More than just good taste and great nutrition. The dairy industry has known that for a long time, but have consumers? It always helps to remind them.
Using a direct approach, United Dairy Industry of Michigan (UDIM) decided to re-brand its milk promotional efforts in a way that conveys more purposefully the meaning of dairy. Not just to individuals, but to families, groups and communities - those who derive benefit physically, socially and economically from the work of dairy farmers. On April 23, UDIM officially unveiled new "Milk Means More" brand on its website. It's part of a continuing commitment to raising awareness of the benefits of dairy products among multiple generations of Michigan residents. The re-branding reflects both the versatility of dairy products and the diversity of the people who consume them. UDIM's rebranding is the capstone piece of recent consolidation of its four specialty websites, Michigan Dairy news Bureau, Choose Chocolate Milk, Milk is Local, and UDIM.org. The websites have been consolidated into one, unified informational center, at MilkMeansMore.org. UDIM has also integrated its two blogs. The dairy farming -based "Day on the Farm" and the nutrition-themed "Dairy Dish," were combined and are now featured at MilkMeansMore.com. "We recognized simpler would be better and more consumer-friendly," said UDIM CEO Sharon Toth. "We decided to roll all of our web assets, from dairy nutrition, to promotion and consumer confidence information into one website address, MilkMeansMore.org. It will be easier for us to direct people to the 'Milk Means More' themed site than to separate entities that addressed the many facets of dairy." More importantly, the new "Milk Means More" tagline for UDIM increases consumer recognition of Michigan dairy and serves as an ongoing proclamation of its breadth and depth. "Milk Means More" will allow for flexibility in the number of promotional campaigns that can be launched from it. "I've been working for UDIM for over 25 years and know firsthand that most people struggle with remembering our name. It comes out anything from 'Dairy Industry Council' to 'United Dairy Association,' but never the same thing twice. I've heard it all," Toth said. "Summarizing it with the catchy 'Milk Means More' tagline will make more memorable who we are and what we do on behalf of Michigan's dairy farmers." As new promotional materials are developed and ordered, a new, blue milk drop will begin appearing, with a distinctive, cursive "Milk Means More" written across it. What won't be changing is UDIM's commitment to telling the story of dairy in ways that resonate with consumers and increase their awareness of taste, quality, safety and nutrition, which ultimately translate to increased demand for and sale of dairy products.


text:
(SportsNetwork.com) - The New York Knicks have won a season-high three in a row and will try to keep the momentum going Saturday night when they travel to Philadelphia to meet their Atlantic Division rivals, the 76ers.
The Knicks defeated the Dallas Mavericks in Texas, then rattled off back-to- back home wins over the Detroit Pistons and two-time defending NBA champion Miami Heat.
Against the Heat on Thursday, the big story wasn't so much the 102-92 victory, as much as head coach Mike Woodson's decision to bench a healthy J.R. Smith for the entire game.
Smith was fined $50,000 by the NBA Wednesday for recurring instances of unsportsmanlike conduct. Smith was warned by the league after untying the shoelace of Dallas forward Shawn Marion during a free-throw attempt Sunday. He repeated the same action Tuesday in a game against Detroit.
"I didn't know anything about it," Smith said of being benched.
Woodson had no comment about the benching after the game.
"Not going to comment on J.R., just talk about the game," Woodson said.
Carmelo Anthony had 29 points, eight rebounds and five assists for the Knicks. Raymond Felton tallied 13 points, 14 assists and five rebounds for New York, which has won four of its last five tilts.
Andrea Bargnani, Iman Shumpert and Amare Stoudemire all finished in double figures for the Knicks Thursday. Knicks center Tyson Chandler will miss Saturday's game with an upper respiratory infection.
Philadelphia's four-game winning streak is in the past and the team has dropped three in a row. In Friday's 114-104 setback to Detroit in the opener of a four-game homestand, Thaddeus Young scored 22 points and Michael Carter- Williams added 21 for the 76ers, who got 19 points from Evan Turner.
Spencer Hawes added 16 points and 10 rebounds in defeat. The Pistons had lost six in a row and recorded a 62-42 advantage on the boards.
"They made a run we couldn't come back from," Turner said.
The 76ers are 7-10 at home and will also host Charlotte and Miami.
The Knicks have won seven of the last nine against Philadelphia and five out of seven in south Philly.


text:
The New York Knicks carry a four-game winning streak into Monday night's home contest against the Detroit Pistons at Madison Square Garden.
The Knicks haven't lost since a Jan. 26 setback in Philadelphia against the 76ers. All four wins during this great run came at home and Monday's game concludes a five-game homestand.
The most recent victory for the Knicks came Saturday night against the Sacramento Kings, a 120-81 rout, which marked their second-highest scoring output of the season. The top one came against these same Pistons on Nov. 25 in a 121-100 triumph.
What made the offensive outburst against the Kings all the more impressive was the fact that Carmelo Anthony, who is second in the NBA in scoring, had only nine points. It snapped a franchise record 31 straight games with at least 20 points.
"Tonight was one of those games where we tried to find it elsewhere," Anthony said. "We didn't need my scoring tonight."
J.R. Smith led the way with 25 points and Amare Stoudemire added 21. Steve Novak had 15 on 5-for-7 shooting from 3-point range. Kurt Thomas chipped in 11 as those four bench players helped the reserves combine for 82 points.
Tyson Chandler, who will make his first All-Star appearance in a little less than two weeks, also scored 11 points, but enjoyed his second straight game with 20 rebounds.
The last time these two sides met was in London on Jan. 17. The Knicks won, 102-87, for their ninth victory in the last 10 meetings with the Pistons.
Since the game in England, the Pistons are 4-5 and losers in three of their last four. On Sunday, Detroit lost a heartbreaker to the Los Angeles Lakers, 98-97, at The Palace of Auburn Hills.
After L.A.'s Earl Clark missed a pair of free throws with 16 seconds left on the clock and the Lakers up one, Will Bynum, who cut the Pistons' deficit to one with a slashing layup, drove the lane for a tough lay-in, but the ball rattled out.
"It's tough," Bynum said about the shot. "I work so hard and I thrive to be in situations like that. To be in there and not deliver is kind of crushing sometimes, especially when my teammates and coaching staff trust me to make the right decisions. It wasn't my night."
Greg Monroe paced the Pistons with 20 points and 12 rebounds. Bynum had 18 off the bench and 10 assists. Three other Detroit players cracked the 10-point mark.
The Pistons may finally get some help in the form of recently-acquired point guard Jose Calderon. The Spaniard hasn't been able to play due to visa issues following his trade from Toronto, but he may be available on Monday.
Detroit has lost six straight in New York and hasn't won at MSG since April 8, 2009.