text:
Washington, D.C., fans don't have it so great. Their once-blooming hockey dynasty recently hit a wall, and now they're locked out. Their football team is 6-6 and elated because of how bad the past decade's been. And their basketball team, well, the less said about their basketball team, the better.
But none of Washington's troubled teams produced a moment quite as wrenching as the one in the top of the ninth in Game 5 of the 2012 NLDS, when a full crowd turned silent - so silent the Cardinals dugout made more noise than the entire stadium -- after Pete Kozma's two-run single to right. It was no fun to see the Cardinals headed back to another Championship Series, but more than that, it was no fun to see a band of mostly likable upstarts lose. Setting aside all the minor annoyances Washington produced -- the Stephen Strasburg shutdown debate, residual Expos guilt, most everything Bryce Harper said or did - this was a team most everyone could root for. They had baseball's best record in a truly joyous, unexpected season, and then they lost.
So how are the Nationals supposed to ensure that never happens again? They appear to be well on their way. They've made just two moves so far, but what moves they were: Washington traded for the Twins' Denard Span and signed Dan Haren to a one-year, $13-million deal.
The Span move does a lot. First, as one might expect: Washington gets Denard Span. He's great on defense -- Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference both love him -- and he's a fine leadoff man. He takes walks (career .357 OBP) and steals a handful of bases (17 last year). And he's affordable: The Nationals will pay Span just $11.25 million over the next two years, and they have a 2015 option for $9 million. Meanwhile, Shane Victorino and Angel Pagan, older free agents with similar skills and just a bit more power than Span, will average $11.5 million in salary per year in their new deals. The Nationals got the better bet.
But the Span addition works on another level. It shifts Bryce Harper to left field, which improves the Nationals' outfield defense substantially. Mike Morse had become downright Willinghammian out there. Morse, for now, moves to first. If Mike Morse is your first baseman, you're not in bad shape: He's a .295/.347/.492 career hitter. But the Nationals had someone even better at first base last year. Adam LaRoche -- yes, goofy, hangdog-faced Adam LaRoche, the first baseman so ineffectual he was traded straight-up for Casey Kotchman in the prime of his career -- hit .271/.343/.510 with 33 homers for Washington in 2012. LaRoche is now a free agent. He reportedly wants a three-year deal; the Nats want to keep him to two. Now, with Span sliding Morse to first, Mike Rizzo has a viable alternative he can use as leverage in his negotiations. The spare part instills every bit of the general manager's bluster with the weight of truth.
But if I were in charge of the Nationals, I'd sooner let LaRoche walk than pay him $13 million or more per season on a multi-year deal. Paying a 33-year-old first baseman because of his career year is like buying a heavily used pickup truck because it just completed a cross-country haul. Don't invest more in the thing; just thank your stars you got what you did, and move on. Stick Morse at first and grab a low-risk lefty platoon-type fellow -- the Nationals already have Chad Tracy on their roster, but come on, he's Chad Tracy; how about Travis Hafner instead? -- for insurance's sake. Do that, and hire a witch doctor to pray for Wilson Ramos's knee. Kurt Suzuki, who is the Nationals' planned starting catcher until Ramos proves he's healthy, isn't the hitter Ramos is.
But it isn't the bats that make the Nationals a special team. It's their pitching staff. To their gang of four young, good starters -- Gio Gonzalez, Jordan Zimmermann, Ross Detwiler and Stephen Strasburg -- they've added Dan Haren, who, circa 2009, was one of baseball's best aces. He tailed off a bit with age, injuries and his transition to the American League, but he'll spend 2013 presumably healthy and back home on the senior circuit. Think of all the starts he'll get to make against the Miami Marlins. They'll be like Triple-A games, only with fewer fans in attendance. And it's a one-year deal, an expensive but not future-plans-altering cameo.
There's just one big offseason question for Washington's staff, and it has nothing to do with player acquisitions: How are the Nationals going to get more innings out of their starters? Haren eats innings, so if he's healthy, he'll be fine. But no Washington starter cracked 200 innings last year. (I don't know if you guys read about this, but there was a cap on Stephen Strasburg's innings.) The Nationals had to pass a lot of games off to their bullpen early.
That didn't matter last year, because the bullpen was so good (a 3.23 ERA and 470 strikeouts in 515.1 innings of work). Bullpens are notoriously temperamental, but the Nationals' should be fine in 2013, so long as they make the right tweaks. One member of last year's crew, Sean Burnett, a fine left-hander, has defected, and the Nats are already hard at work trying to replace him with J.P. Howell. That's not a bad idea. They might as well try throwing a little cash at another lefty, too, whether it be Mike Gonzalez (who succeeded for Washington last year and might be accordingly expensive), or someone low-risk, like Pedro Feliciano. And they should add a righty, too, if they find one they like. So long as they stick to one-year deals, and stay far, far away from a sentimental reunion with Miguel Batista, they'll be fine.
But back to the rotation. The Nationals should win the East again in 2013 with the roster they have. They need not swing any more trades or splurge on another free agent; they're there. Yet they could be a supremely special team, a real juggernaut, if they found some way to stretch their young arms out. If I were GM, I'd assemble all the orthopedists and physiologists I could find, and hell, I'd even invite Leo Mazzone -- if he'd first take a Benadryl to calm down -- and we'd devise a plan to turn these five into the '71 Orioles. Too bad that isn't the company Mike Rizzo seems to keep.


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Saturday, October 6, 2007
The Temptatious Dangers of Ron Paul
Many months ago I fell under the allure of Ron Paul -- the Republican Hero of the Internet. With all the support coming from sites such as YouTube and Digg, it was difficult not to notice the sensation which was taking American apathy by storm. People who once saw the government as a breeding ground for corruption and perversion began waving the Republican flag in opposition to the Totalitarian ruler at the helm of our Executive Branch. It wasn't until his appearance on the Colbert Report that I began to question the wisdom of a "Strict Constitutionalist."
Steven ended by naming a variety of organizations which Ron Paul responded to by raising his hand in support of their abolishment. Department of Education? Tear it down! Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security, the IRS: ABSOLUTELY! (Raising his hand even higher to the amusement of the crowd.) UNICEF? Well, he would tear that one down last. Apparently the rights and well being of our children aren't so high on Ron Paul's list as to warrant their destruction right from the start. Really shows the compassion he shows for America's future.
In the immortally misquoted words of Bill Hicks: "The Anti-Marketing Market is a Huge Market!" So many Americans have become so overwhelmingly disenchanted by the corruption of the American Government that they've adopted a "Tear It All Down" mentality. Furthermore, the rising prices of every aspect of our lives have left many without the ability to keep up with all the new iPod models. These two attitudes have created an "Anti-Government" market which seeks to destroy any regulations that carry the stink of Socialism, selling the country instead on the benefits of Capitalism.
What surprises me is the fact that so many have failed to recognize the effects of Privatization -- what Noam Chomsky and the Bolivarian Revolution refers to as NeoLiberalism. Once our Oil and Energy were sold to private institutions the prices began to soar. As the country continues to decline we see the rise in Privatization in our roads, our schools, our medicine -- everything a society needs to both survive and prosper. Instead of control over these vital organs resting in the hands of the people, Ron Paul advocates issuing command to the Corporations, depending on the power of the dollar as the great equalizer.
To entrust the Almighty Dollar in place of our vote is to welcome a class division unlike any we've seen in this country, where the wealthy wield the power of governments (with enormous economies and privately funded militaries). While your dollar may carry enormous influence over McDonald's Dollar Menu, it won't mean squat when you go to fill up your gas tank, or pay your electricity bill, or post on the Internet where usage requirements prohibit the slander of your service provider, assuming you're able to afford them.
In order to get past the temptatious dangers of Ron Paul, you need something that he clearly rails again: A Plan. The Founders had a plan when they Drafted the Constitution. They knew that a single document would not protect our Democracy alone, that its Citizens would be required to be vigilant, and make the necessary amendments to protect them from the rich and the powerful who wield enough influence to shackle the people in the shadow of the Kings they fought so hard to overthrow. Tearing everything down is not the answer. Building a better tomorrow is.
Recognize that the Cold War has evolved into a War against the People. Every Democratic state our government has overthrown was an attempt to keep control over the resources out of the People's hands. Time and time again the Military Industrial Corporations have funded military dictators by supplying them with weapons and money, only to turn around around "free" the people by unleashing the American Government. We're currently caught in this same war, with the same players fighting for the same resources.
Allow me set the record straight by highlighting the fact that a Democracy is "by the people, for the people." This huge conspiracy that the eradication of Government is the only path to Freedom is a myth. The Government is Our Voice! We must be vigilant to make our vote count. Relying on the dollar to represent us is absolute insanity! The same Government you fear meddling in all your personal affairs would be replaced by a Corporation which dictates your rights to you. Such a choice would effectively mean the end of Democracy as we know it.
The solution is Open Source. Do NOT vote to silence your voice in Government, but instead: Show your support for the system that replaced the backbone of the Internet, the Internet Browser, the corrupt channels of media, the music and entertainment industry with Open Source. This is our revolution: The Open Source Revolution. We must carry this to the highest levels of Government in order to ensure that the People are in control, NOT the Corporations. We must be strong and enact the Open Source philosophy on our Constitution in order to ensure that Democracy remains "by the people, for the people."
11 comments:
- ilovetheconstitution said...
This article is ridiculous. What you seem to not realize is that the corporations are the ones who are making the rules with regulations to keep the competition out.
We have a government who works for the corporations and not the people. That is corporatism, or facism.
- October 6, 2007 at 5:17 PM
- Christopher D. Ritter said...
I agree with you completely (with the exception of your first line).
The solution is not to roll back Democracy 200 years but to advance it by Opening the Source to the people.
- October 6, 2007 at 5:48 PM
- Texas Little El said...
Interesting that you missed the mark so completely.
Look now at the amount of money that PAC's and Lobbyist give to campaigns.
Do you think it is only happenstance they give so much to politicians and don't expect anything back?
Of course they get something back and are willing to pay big bucks for that access.
Give me a break, Fascism, which is what our country has right now, is what you are concerned about and yet it is already here.
In Texas, Governor Rick Perry attempted to ram down the throats of Texans a drug designed only for young women to prevent HPV (Human Papilloma Virus) making it mandatory for my daughter to have this vaccine even if I didn't want her too. Guess why? Corporate influence via campaign contributions.
Go to the www.fec.gov and look at how much money, Clinton, Obama and Edwards got from PAC's and Lobbyist. Or check on the amount of money Giuliani or Thompson got.
Heck Fred Thompson WAS one of those lobbyists.
Fascism becomes more difficult when you have to deal with governments on a state by state basis.
By reducing the amount of money that the federal government can take from the tax payers the less incentive the Lobbyist have of influencing them.
I don't know who you listened to on the otherside of this issue, but if you think that Ron Paul is handing our nation over to corporations, you missed they boat. They have that access now and will fight him to prevent his becoming President.
Watch in the next two months as certain businesses start the cry that Ron Paul is anti american, or something to that effect.
- October 6, 2007 at 5:57 PM
- Christopher D. Ritter said...
I'm not advocating any character assassination on the part of Ron Paul. He has a history of cutting the most fat from Government as any modern politician could claim.
However, it's irresponsible to take his good nature to the extreme, where 200+ years of Democratic advancement would be systematically undone in response to the overly pervasive corruption.
I'll say it again: Open Source is the Solution. Allow the people access to every level so that "corporate influence" would require that everyone gets their own private leer jet.
- October 6, 2007 at 6:51 PM
- KineticReaction said...
You're absolutely wrong, with a constitutional republic, where everything is in the hands of private individuals (i.e. schools, hospitals, etc), but the law is still democratically created, the people retain full rights.
THe key is the law and police, as long as they're created democratically and not by private hands, then justice will be blind and impartial.
- October 7, 2007 at 12:49 AM
- KineticReaction said...
"This huge conspiracy that the eradication of Government is the only path to Freedom is a myth. The Government is Our Voice!"
You're so wrong! It's actually shocking! Government is the institution of force and coercion. Government is the mechanism by the which people put restrictive bounds on each other. When people use government to limit each other's liberty (example: people voting in a government that imprisons other people for smoking marijuana, or ingesting cancer treatments not yet gone through the FDA approval process), that is evil: that is tyranny.
Since government is the institution of force and coercion, it must be limited. Taxes are the greatest form of tyranny there is. For a government to take away 30% of the fruits of your labor is a gross infringment of your liberty.
- October 7, 2007 at 12:53 AM
- Christopher D. Ritter said...
"Since government is the institution of force and coercion, it must be limited."
If you're not aware of what's being done to you: the Corporations are currently promoting a number of presidential options to see which sells better to the general public.
However, you're not considering the Open Source solution. Instead, you're falling into the "Anti-Marketing Market" which makes Ron Paul so appealing.
As the voice of the people we must work to support an Open Source government, along with the control an Open Source government has over the increasingly more powerful Corporations.
To hand over the most critical elements of our society to the likes of Microsoft and Wal-Mart is absolute insanity.
- October 7, 2007 at 11:56 AM
- KineticReaction said...
"If you're not aware of what's being done to you: the Corporations are currently promoting a number of presidential options to see which sells better to the general public."
Corporations have a right to promote anything they want. Corporations are merely a coop made up of a group of people, and since people have a right to freedom, they have a right to make any social arrangement they wish, including a corporation, and through it engage in any non-coercive business activity or campaigning they wish.
It is up to the people to stay informed and not be misled by selfish political propaganda, and instead support politicians that limit government (coercion).
- October 7, 2007 at 2:45 PM
- Christopher D. Ritter said...
"Corporations are merely a coop made up of a group of people, and since people have a right to freedom."
Democracy was intended to give the power to the individual so that they would no longer be subjugated to the control of the rich and powerful.
We used to call them Monarchies, but in today's world it is the Corporations who exert pressure on entire nations of people -- a far cry from the individuals you compare their rights to.
- October 7, 2007 at 3:29 PM
- KineticReaction said...
"Democracy was intended to give the power to the individual so that they would no longer be subjugated to the control of the rich and powerful."
Yes, that is exactly why I wrote:
"Corporations are merely a coop made up of a group of people, and since people have a right to freedom, they have a right to make any social arrangement they wish, including a corporation, and through it engage in any non-coercive business activity or campaigning they wish."
Note the term "non-coercive business activities".
If the activities of the corporations wade into the realm of coercion or fraud, then it is the job of the democratically appointed justice system that to use the coercive powers of the state to punish the corporation and force it to give compensation to the victim.
As long as the activities of corporations are non-coercive, they should not be interfered with.
- October 7, 2007 at 11:44 PM
- Christopher D. Ritter said...
I take it you've missed the latter half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st.
- October 8, 2007 at 10:08 AM

subset: commoncrawl


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Abrams, Howie & Jenkins, Sacha
The Merciless Book of Metal Lists (Book review)
May 2013
Released: 2013, Abrams Image
Rating: 3.5/5
Reviewer: Peter Atkinson
10 Things You Should Know About "The Merciless Book of Metal Lists"
1.) It is exactly as advertised – a book of lists. Save for the intro interview with Slayer guitarist Kerry King, a brief preface by the authors and an afterword essay by Phil Anselmo it is 208 pages of lists.
2.) You can probably read this book, cover to cover, in about 20 minutes.
3.) The top five lists most people will care about: "The Best Metal Albums Ever!" (the underlining and exclamation point for emphasis on "Ever!" is theirs), "30 of the Greatest Metal Guitarists," "20 of the Greatest Metal Bassists," "25 of the Greatest Metal Drummers" and "20 of the Greatest Metal Voices."
4.) The five they probably won't: "70 Metal Songs About Metal," "10 Observations From Lemmy's Warts," "What Would Varg Vikernes Do?" "10 Heavy Metal Living Social/Groupon Deals You Will Never See" and "15 Metal Album Covers Featuring Goats."
5.) The shortest list? "Two Band Names Sepultura Considered Using Before Choosing The Name Sepultura," from ex-frontman Max Cavalera – they were, by the by, Tropa De Shock (Shock Troops) and Guerilha (Guerrilla). The longest slags the "200 Embarrassingly Bad Album Covers." Oddly, there is no best album cover list.
6.) A large portion of the lists pertain to New Wave of British Heavy Metal and the first wave of thrash and death metal. Contemporary metal takes a distant back seat and genres like black metal are referenced largely — though not particularly effectively - for comedic effect. And what's with all the friggin' Manowar?
7.) There are a lot of lists and reminiscences from the actual participants of said New Wave of British /first wave of thrash and death metal – S.O.D./Nuclear Assault's Dan Lilker, Raven's John Gallagher, Hirax's Katon W. DePena, Anthrax's Scott Ian, Exodus' Gary Holt, Bitch's Betsy Weiss. However, there's not a whole lot of revealing info in them.
8.) Far more revealing – and gross – are the shit-and-puke laden "5 Craziest Things Richard Christy Has Ever Done In His Life" by the ex-Death drummer/current Howard Stern lackey.
9.) And speaking of gross, there's "The 25 Most Fucked Up Song Titles By Cannibal Corpse." Only 25?
10.) The list of "Best Metal Blogs" does not include Metal Rules.com.
The back cover of "The Merciless Book of Metal Lists" boasts that "this book will start conversations and fights" and that's probably pretty spot-on. It's meant to spark arguments, not settle them. It's silly, irreverent and occasionally downright stupid. But it doesn't pretend to be anything else. It's a book from metalheads for metalheads who like to talk about metal. Simple as that.
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Panama limited (no jug! ) band with their 4th and best psychedelic beefheartique folkrock from 1970. Posted by request.
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Thanks! Been looking really hard for this one.
just listened to this one.... fucking amazing! thank you.
I got this one last Friday and I love it. Just wanted to drop by and say Thank You.
This is amazing stuff!! thanks so much!
Where can I get more of their stuff?
great stuff .Got me the re-issue years ago.Good to see this here. .Fist time in your b.log . Love it already.Keep it up
This really is a Masterpiece, but that all zhere is, the Single "Lady of Shallott" is in this groove and has the jug band style b side and there`the Jug Band album and a couple of things on saydisc, I think on "Blues Like Showers of Rain"


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Deluxe Hamburger Casserole
We stopped making hamburger helper when we found this recipe. It's easy to make and very cheesy.
cheddar cheese, cheese, +cream of mushroom soup, +garlic powder, +green pepper, +hamburger, +elbow macaroni, +onions
Hamburger - Rice Casserole
cheese, cheddar cheese, +onions, +green pepper, +tomato sauce, +bread crumbs, +water, +rice, +hamburger, +black pepper, +salt, +oregano
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Hamburger - Rice Casserole
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Favorite Hamburger Bites
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cheddar cheese, +garlic powder, +salt
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This has layers of sliced potatoes, cheddar cheese and hamburger. It's creamy and easy, with lots of cheese!! After reading the reviews, I think I didn't...
cheddar cheese, +cream of mushroom soup, +ground venison, +milk, +onions, +potato, +salt
Hamburger Pie
"I'm not sure where this recipe came from, but it's been one of my favorites since I was a kid. Now that I'm grown up, I make it for my husband and he...
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cheddar cheese, +broccoli, +hamburger, +cream of celery soup, +onion rings
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This is my favorite hamburger casserole. I like to serve it over the top of garlic mashed potatoes. Don't let it's unusual ingredients stop you from trying...
cheddar cheese, +coleslaw, +tomato soup, +ground beef, +rice, +onions, +black pepper, +salt, +water
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Squirrels have fuzzy tails.
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This just isn't in depth enough for me, I guess. if I want to use A1 for this digital light sensor, I would use "cbi(DDRA, PA1); //set A1 as input pin" in control.c, correct? Where do I put the last two lines of code, and do i really need to use both lines (changing to "... (PINA, 1)")? What is the difference between them if the comments both say "returns a 1 or 0?Finally, once I have the pin set as a digital input and have it returning a 1 or 0, how do I use this value in my code to control the servos?
cbi(DDRA, PA1); //set A1 as input pin//if the sensor output is 0, do somethingif(bit_is_clear(PINA, 1)) take_over_world();


text: I was thinking to open a costume business this December in Dubai and I want to have a cool website. I found Grow Digital Services Company and decided to let them do the project. What else do I need to ask them before our meeting this Wednesday? Any suggestion on what will I need? Thank you so much for any responses.


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Alex, Alexander, Harvey, Sophie, Parsons, Teresa, Pullen, Frank S., Wright, Patricia and Riley, Jo-Anne (2009) Can density functional theory (DFT) be used as an aid to a deeper understanding of tandem mass spectrometric fragmentation pathways? Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, 23 (17). pp. 2619-2627. ISSN 0951-4198 (Print), 1097-0231 (Online) (doi:10.1002/rcm.4163)


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Georgetown Law Creates Climate Change Adaptation Resources
November 4, 2011 —
Georgetown University Law Center is pleased to announce the creation of the Adaptation Clearinghouse, an online database that seeks to help state and local communities adapt to climate change.
"The country may not be able to pass a climate bill at this moment, but states and communities can start planning for the inevitable consequences of climate change," said Vicki Arroyo, executive director of the Georgetown Climate Center. "We can help communities prepare for rising sea levels and storm surges, for example, by providing planners with greater access to existing policy tools and information that they can use to meet this challenge."
Developed by the Georgetown Climate Center, the Adaptation Clearinghouse offers policy proposals, legal analysis, legislative tracking, emergency responses and other resources to state and local communities faced with flooding, drought and other conditions associated with climate change.
In addition to the Adaptation Clearinghouse, the Georgetown Climate Center has issued the Adaptation Tool Kit: Sea-Level Rise and Coastal Land Use, a report that explores 18 different tools for responding to the threats posed by rising sea levels to both public and private coastal development and infrastructure. The Climate Center has also released Adaptation Case Studies in the Western United States, two case studies that examine water shortages in the West and the protection of the greater sage grouse, an endangered ground-dwelling bird.


text:
Creating an SEO Workflow
How to create an SEO workflow
Ask a dozen different SEO's how their process is run and you'll get a dozen different answers. This is a product of the lack of standardization within the SEO industry and a reflection of the level of maturity the industry suffers at the time of writing this. Because of this, creating an SEO workflow can be a difficult task and many organizations end up resorting to expensive consultancies. I've been thinking about how to define the role of SEO within an organization and how we can standardize some approaches to make life easier for not only the hiring managers and search marketing teams, but for the SEO his or herself. We'll go over an example of a workflow for SEO and how it can be used to run day to day operations for a large organization.
A process based approach
In the late 90's, when SEO was born, process improvement and redesign were both nascent approaches to organizational thinking and laser printers cost a couple grand. The term silo is a recurring word in many business texts to refer to the era predating this time, when org charts ruled the landscape and there was little incentive for a department to support anyone other than their immediate vertical chain of command
Creating a workflow for SEO involves involving SEO's pre and post-processes. This is to say, who is supplying the inputs, and who will be receiving the outputs. First, we'll consider the inputs to the SEO process and how they can be transformed in to an actionable product.
The primary inputs to the SEO process for a generic enterprise organization look something like this.
• Raw data from analytics tool
• Industry news, whitepapers, research
• Other marketing teams
The generic SEO process involves extracting the three inputs, transforming them into insights and producing actionable documents for team members. Below is a very general workflow diagram showing how SEO can fit in to an organization. Note the customers of the SEO process: It's important to know that even though in this diagram they are customers of the process, those same stakeholders will also need to pull the SEO process in to all of their respective projects that involve making changes to the website. This will prevent suboptimal changes from rolling out to a website Thus, for their respective workflows, SEO needs to be a component as well.
The previous workflow example is simply a very broad example based on my experiences. There are many other activities that take place within the function of SEO so I am simply proposing this as a starting point for diagramming workflow of SEO within an organization. I hope this has helped non-SEO's and SEO's alike understand how SEO fits in to the larger scheme of an organization and helps people begin to think in terms of processes, workflow and standards with regard to the SEO industry. It's an industry that needs more thought on its processes to grow. It's my hope to build this blog based around building out a search arm that takes a process-focused approach and to add useful tools, guides and posts about how to implement one.
I look forward to hearing any experiences anyone may have with building a search team and integrating it into the processes of the organization to add real value.
Subdomains vs Subfolders for SEO
Disclaimer: Neither I nor anybody else can say with 100% certainty how Google reacts to site architecture changes. Do your due diligence and draw your own conclusions based on available research and theories.
There's no shortage of FUD in the SEO industry when it comes to search engine updates rolled out by Google. When Matt Cutts of Google dropped a hint to Hub Pages that they should try using subdomains in order to recover from the Panda update the industry was taken back a bit. Reason being, it has been said previously that subdomains were no longer treated any differently than subfolders and webmasters had no reason other than vanity to consider the differences. The advice, however, seemed to work out well for Hub Pages, allowing them to recover a good portion of their search traffic.
Does this mean that subdomains are the best choice for SEO friendly site architecture? Not necessarily. Why were subdomains optimal for Hub Pages? Because they had a lot of trash content. And subdomains allow websites to signal that these mini-sites, while under the main domain should not reflect on the quality of the site overall. Any black hat SEO that the pages within the subdomain are found guilty of, will theoretically not impact the other subdomains or greater domain itself.
This is not a license to create millions of doorway pages with subdomains, but rather a guideline for how to architect your site with SEO in mind. I tend to side with the camp that says subdomains aren't the catch-all SEO solution for site architecture…but there are circumstances when it pays to consider your options.
Questions to ask yourself when considering the subdomain vs subfolder question:
- Do you want the prevent the content of this new section from reflecting on the quality of the overall parent domain?
- Is the goal of the content in the new section different than the goal of the content on the main domain? (for example, is your main domain transactional while your new content is largely informational?)
- Is the new section largely user generated?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then you have a strong candidate section for a subdomain.
I'm interested in any case studies or evidence that you may have to shed additional perspective on these observations, or if you have evidence pointing to the contrary of what I say.
B2B Keyword Research
One of the great things about SEO in a large organization is the wealth of information you have at your disposal via connections that cut across functional units. It's important for an SEO to not just operate within a silo and to cut across functional divisions to utilize knowledge within the company. After all, the keywords that consumers use to find products frequently differ than the keywords that B2B buyers use to find products online. In this situation, the best keyword is not always the most intuitive according to what the AdWords Keyword Tool says it is.
Relationships With Product, Category or Service Managers
If you have never spoken with any product managers, category managers or service managers within your organization, you are missing out on crucial intel surrounding how consumers talk about your products and services. Reaching out to these people and integrating them into the keyword research phase of content optimization will help tremendously.
Why? Because many organizations will use marketing language that contains phrases that are unique to strictly their business. This is great for branding campaigns, but not the kind of thing you want to optimize content around. Consider a scenario at at tech company seeking to enhance their search results positions. If you reach out to those in charge of marketing these solutions, you can tell them: "Ok, so pretend I'm a potential customer. I am interested in optimizing my infrastructure. What are the words and questions that I am going to type in a search engine to look for this? If I'm looking for cloud business reviews, what are the words and keyword combinations I'm going to use when researching this?"
This seems simple enough and like something that should have been considered at the initial content creation phase, it frequently is overlooked. These direct questions to different functional managers can yield impressive insights in to their world…Insights that may bring forth keyword ideas that go somewhat under the radar on the AdWords Keyword Tool while bringing in massive deals for the relatively low volume search traffic.
This is additionally helpful when you are targeting multiple segments. Different segments use different language to refer to the same thing. Getting the assistance of a subject matter expert of a particular segment will yield much more success than merely relying on keyword tools who are demographic-agnostic.
On Site Search Analytics
By far, the greatest measure of what your customers are actively searching for. Many on-site search engines can tie in with your analytics providers to provide you with this kind of information. This is also a measure of how your customers perceive you as a business. If you a services provider, make sure that the on-site search traffic is indicative of that.
Here's an exercise. Take a list of all of your on-site keywords for the past month or so. Go to http://www.wordle.net/create and enter your list. The resultant keyword cloud is a visual representation of how customers perceive your offerings. If what you think you're offering is not what is prominent in the keyword cloud, it's time to reconsider something in the way of design or website branding to make sure that all of your offerings are called out.
Also, it's good to take a look at the more granular levels of the keyword cloud to make sure that the on-site search demand is properly reflected through optimizations of your targeted natural search content. After all, creating content that is catered to your users demands is one of the highest value activities you can engage in.
Other Ways
These are just a few of the ways in which you can analyze current and potential keywords. The important thing to take away here is that when you're dealing with B2B or any specific segment, keyword patterns might not follow the trend. Take a step back and think about ways you can research your market's keywords outside of things like the AdWords Keyword tool. Go across functional divisions in glean insights in any ways you can.
A Maturity Model for SEO in Organizations
I've been reading a lot lately about improving business processes and thinking about how I can integrate best practices for business process improvement with search engine optimization in a large organization. After all, if there's one department, that I feel still operates in silos at many organizations, it's search.
Why? Search is still relatively new. Most of the popular search agencies have little experience developing the skillets of their clients to integrate the data they are being given into organizational processes.
Given this, I've drafted a capability maturity model for SEO within organizations, based off of the traditional capability maturity model developed by the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Melon. I encourage anybody with input to add to it. I don't claim to be an expert in business process integration, so if you have a suggestion for this model let me know, and let's keep this a living document!
Level 1 – Initial – Organization has no process for managing search across the organization. Ad hoc reporting is used.
Level 2 – Repeatable – Organization has baseline metrics that are managed such as natural search visitors and rankings and on some consistent basis. Most SEO efforts include on-page content optimization and meta code. Effort is still siloed.
Level 3 – Defined – Clearly defined projects are undertaken and managed with a focus on technical site optimization and remediation as well as crossing into other functional areas of the organization. Metrics are more specific and speak to brand, non-brand and how these impact revenue.
Level 4 – Managed – KPIs and year over year goals are set for natural search teams to aim for. Projects have clear timelines and clear returns. Metrics are the same; however the report sees other functional areas of the organization.
Level 5 – Optimizing – The organization learns from the insights gleaned from the search team and data is integrated into the decision making process of cross-functional teams.
I would say most small businesses are in Level 2 if they have a local SEO company working for them. Level 3 is where most businesses end up after they first contract a search agency. Level 4 is something that is difficult for agencies to see unless they do a lot of on-premise work. Something that is currently only executed by the larger consulting firms. Level 5 is, in my opinion, only scalable when search has been fully integrated into an in-house organization. What do you think? Where are you in this paradigm?
Think good SEO can replace paid search? Think again.
If there's one thing to take away from the following post it's this: "89% of the traffic generated by search ads is not replaced by organic clicks when ads are paused."
Google recently published a study stating that their AdWords service drives an additional 89% of incremental search traffic. The measure of incremental search traffic is a metric they call "Incremental Ad Clicks" or "IAC".
The IAC is a ratio of how many total clicks a site gets over how many paid clicks the site gets across two periods. Consider their example:
A: An advertiser spends $1,000 in period A and receives 400 organic and 300 paid clicks.
B: In period B, they cut ad spend to $0 and get 500 organic clicks and 0 paid clicks.
The resultant IAC is 66.7%, which means that 66.7% of the traffic was not replaced by organic traffic when the paid search campaign was paused.
What does this mean for B2B search marketers? Taken at face value, it means that good organic positioning for keywords is no reason to decrease spend on paid search campaigns. And I imagine that the AdWords team were absolutely thrilled when they came to this conclusion. A few lingering questions remain however: What kinds of keywords comprise the 89% gains of incremental traffic? If I bid on my branded keywords, will I still see 89% lift? Is it still 89% if I run strictly non-branded campaigns? No word yet from Google on whether or not their conclusions hold across brand and non-brand terms.
Ultimately, the take away from this study is that the more places your potential customers can see your message, the better. I would argue that there is most likely a significant difference in the IAC of brand and non-brand terms, however there's no escaping that you will lose clicks by forgoing a paid search campaign because of a strong organic presence.
It appears that paid search, despite it's low CTR relative to organic, is here to stay. What do you think? Have you had any experience with decreasing spend when ranking well organically?


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A Japanese Company is making a footprint in Bryan-College Station with 50 new jobs, some paying up to $100,000 a year.
Hitachi Consulting has chosen to open up an IT and Support Services Center in Bryan.
A major announcement from a global company as Hitachi Consulting is opening an Information Technology services center.
50 new jobs are coming with salaries ranging from $40,000 to $100,000.
The are hiring people with IT backgrounds right out of college to 7-8 years experience.
Jim Cole is the Senior Vice President of Managed Services for Hitachi Consulting.
"So that kind of support will basically be to provide guidance to customers and how to to use the software applications they have installed in their business . Those applications could be financial, human resource," said Cole.
B/CS beat out 249 other cities in their search including Tulsa, Oklahoma and Fort Collins, Colorado.
"For us job and economic growth is priority one and the way that we service our clients well is all dependent upon the people that we have and for us to grow we've got to have good quality people," added Jim Cole.
Todd McDaniel, President and CEO of the Research Valley Partnership says it's a great addition.
"I mean you think of Hitachi as being a company that's involved in electronics, it's a very very large company. What they'll be doing here in Bryan / College Station is basically IT services for some of the world's largest companies," he said.
The service center is expected to open up in the Galleria Village in Bryan by March 4th.
The company will initially start with 25 employees.
So far around six people have already been hired.
Texas A&M and the educated workforce here also helped Hitachi Consulting choose to move here.
*Press Release*
Hitachi Consulting, a subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd (TSE: 6501) and a leading provider of IT and Management Consulting solutions and services, today announced that it has chosen Bryan-College Station Texas out of a potential 250 U.S. cities to host a new on-shore IT services delivery center for their global Managed Services business. The company plans to quickly establish a substantial presence in the region to further expand their global delivery scale. The center is expected to employ up to twenty five initially and could double that number in the next twelve to eighteen months, making Hitachi Consulting one of the top employers in the area outside of retail and the higher education.
The rigorous selection process for the facility initially included an analysis of consumer price index, population, geographic proximity to existing offices and commercial airports, preference for central time zone, and a strong supporting network of higher education offering IT degrees. In collaboration with the Research Valley Partnership and utilizing an innovative geospatial site selection tool, they then took their research one step further, collecting additional data regarding the average wage rate for IT jobs as well as number of IT employees in each market based on job classes. Bryan-College Station scored considerably higher than the competition and became the obvious best choice for Hitachi Consulting's needs.
"It was extremely important to identify a location with a technologically diverse yet locally-centric talent pool together with access to a wide range of available functional and technical support skills across a broad mix of technologies." said Jim Cole, Senior Vice President of Global Managed Services for Hitachi Consulting. "We found this unique mix in Bryan-College Station and are very excited to become a significant contributor to the local economy while helping to deliver the solutions our clients are demanding."
"We are thrilled that Hitachi Consulting has chosen Bryan-College Station to locate their new delivery center," said Todd E. McDaniel, CEcD, President/CEO of the Research Valley Partnership. "They are an industry leader bringing new IT jobs to our area. We are proud they can leverage our strong network of high-quality universities and state of the art technical infrastructure to further develop their business while opening up exciting employment opportunities for our community."
This move marks another milestone in Hitachi Consulting's growth strategy and vision to provide IT value through lower costs, higher quality and consistent delivery of their strategy, implementation, and technology services for businesses across the globe.
About Hitachi Consulting Corporation
As Hitachi, Ltd.'s global consulting company, with operations throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, Hitachi Consulting is a recognized leader in delivering proven business and IT strategies and solutions to Global 2000 companies across many industries. With a balanced view of strategy, people, process and technology, we work with companies to understand their unique business needs, and to develop and implement practical business strategies and technology solutions. From business strategy development through application deployment, our consultants are committed to helping clients quickly realize measurable business value and achieve sustainable ROI.
Its client base includes 35 percent of the Fortune 100 and 25 percent of the Global 100, along with many mid-market leaders. With offices throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, Hitachi Consulting employs approximately 5,000 professionals across 12 countries with delivery centers in India (Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad), China (Guangzhou) and the United States (Fargo, North Dakota) to offer global delivery scale. For more information, visit www.hitachiconsulting.com.


text:
On the island of Odina, a grand fortress once stood. It had been terrifying not only in size and complexity, but also in reputation and legend.But now, in its place a solitary figure stood instead. She could not help but observe the debris and wreckage with a smug air of superiority.In her clawed hand, she held a single stone tablet.It was titled "Black Diamonds": Some beings foolishly carry around the superstition that finding a black diamond is bad luck. I have means to prove why that belief holds true for everyone but me. You see, I am fortunate to have my own assembly of these 'black diamonds' at my disposal. And while they wreak havoc and ill fortune on others, so to speak, never have they brought me sour luck, quite the contrary, in fact.Let me clarify.To be as cold as the winter's wind, and to be as dark as Karzahni's heart, to be as callous and unfeeling as a stone, yet brilliant and accurate like ice; all of these can be attributed to a black diamond. Yet, at the same time, that description matches my Dark Hunters.Each agent on the roster, with his or her own history, found in the rough and brought to me by a twist of fate. Some came here as nothing more than clods of dirt, and others dull and lifeless. Training and lifestyle here doubtlessly cut and polished my Hunters individually, working them to perfection. Missions and operations carried out under my name can be fulfilled with me trusting that I'm being represented respectably. Agents can be showcased under my authority, making it known that the Dark Hunters are not a force to be overlooked.Perhaps the best thing about black diamonds is that they are nature's immortals, taking forever to form and an even longer forever to fade. Even though we are all mortal, our legacy is not.-The Shadowed OneThe figure dropped the tablet to the ground, watching silently as it shattered.She had a long, complicated history in which the Dark Hunters were entwined. It was almost revenge served sweet and cold, standing here in the remains of her enemy's stronghold. She only wished its fall had been by her doing.Although the one to whom she was speaking had no way of hearing her words, Roodaka spoke them regardless, as she crushed the shards of tablet beneath her heel."You silly fool. I thought everyone knew that black diamonds are nothing but coal."₪҉₪
Edited by Zosia Darr, May 21 2012 - 02:31 PM.


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AAC: 2013 Baseball Alumni Weekend
More than 70 former players took part in baseball's alumni weekend.
Was on the post-season roster, but did not make an appearance.
2008 (Redshirt Junior)
Batted .258 with 21 RBI and played in 38 games making 26 starts at second base and four at shortstop... tied for the most sacrifice flies on the team with three... third on the team with six hit-by-pitches... recorded 25 base hits, 15 runs, five doubles, one triple and was 2-for-4 in stolen bases... batted .327 with runners on-base (16-for-49)... tallied a .571 batting average (4-for-7) with the bases loaded and hit .382 (13-for-34) with runners in scoring position... posted three multi-hit games, including one three-hit game and one four-hit performance... tied for sixth on the team with five multiple RBI contests... recorded three separate three-game hit streaks... batted .292 (19-for-65) in 23 Southland Conference games... posted a .977 fielding percentage (30 putouts, 56 assists, 2 errors) in SLC play... made NCAA Division I debut going 0-for-3 against Dallas Baptist (2/23)... tallied first multi-hit game going 2-for-2 with a run scored against TCU (3/4)... had a career game going 4-for-4 with a season-high four base hits, four RBI and one triple against Lamar (3/15)... went 3-for-4 with two RBI and one walk against Sam Houston State (4/4)... went 5-for-12 (.417) with seven RBI during a four-game stretch that included one game against UT Pan American and three against Sam Houston State (4/1-6)... scored a season-high three runs going 1-for-1 with two RBI and a double against Northwestern State (4/26)... member of the Capital One/Southland Conference 2008 Commissioner's Spring Academic Honor Roll.
2007 (Junior)
Redshirted after undergoing off-season surgery.
Howard College
Transferred to UT Arlington after earning All-Western Junior College Athletic Conference honors at Howard College... helped lead team to 38-22 record in 2007... hit .425 with 25 doubles and 25 stolen bases in 60 games... ranked third on the team with 57 RBI...member of the Dean's List all four semesters.
High School
Played high school baseball and basketball at Arlington High School.
Son of Lynn and Alan Storms... born Sept. 5, 1985... a finance major at UT Arlington.
More Headlines
BSB: Big Innings Lifts Bobcats Past Mavs
BSB: Ninth, 10th Sinks Mavs in Series Clincher
BSB: Texas State Edges Mavs in Opener
BSB: Mavs Host Texas State to Conclude Regular Season
Texas Trust Scholar-Athlete Of The Week
BSB: Jags Hand Mavs Sunday Defeat


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For many of us, the term MTV brings back memories of the early nineties when we were first exposed to unabridged, unadulterated western music and our parents to the high volumes and liberated attitudes that came with it. When I recently got to test the MTV Twister, a Bluetooth speaker this very popular music brand has brought out in collaboration Soundlogic, a lot of these memories came flooding back.
The MTV Twister is everything that you would imagine the brand to be. It is young, it is bright and it is vivacious. The shape might remind you of the spittoon-shaped loudspeakers of last century. But it is not made of aluminum or metal like that 1900s classic. In fact, the Twister is made of a very rubbery material. That is because it has been made splash and shock proof. That means you would want to use this for a rain dance or a beach party, just be careful you don't let sand go inside the eye of this whirlpool shaped speaker. There is just one button on the device, a power button at the rear. Here you also find a micro USB port for charging and a 3.5mm jack in case you don't want to go wireless. The power buttons is also used for Bluetooth pairing.
The device is easy to pair, though on the iPhone it showed up as a headphone which was a bit confusing. You would expect anything that has MTV on it to be loud. The Twister won't disappoint you on that count. In fact, I did not imagine a 3W speaker to be this loud. It seems the shape does do its bit in ensuring that everyone at the party hears it out. But there is no doubt that those in front of the speaker will hear more than those behind it. Well, you can again blame the shape for that.
I won't call the audio quality bad, but that is about it. This is certainly not for those like to hear an acoustic cover to a popular song. This is certainly for those who like a Yo Yo Honey Singh, or Wham's Wake Me Up if you are from the original MTV generation. But then this is intended for a party and no one hears acoustic covers a poolside parties.
Should you buy it: Go ahead if you are a regular host of parties, especially those that tend to be on the wild side. I wouldn't suggest this as a Bluetooth speaker for the home. It just lacks the versatility that you might want to. But then don't think twice if you are a loud music aficionado.
Rs 2,999
Rating: 3.5
For all the latest Technology News, download Indian Express App


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a little rivalry is a good thing.
I'm a fan of both and still believe that putting all your eggs in one basket will just lead to other problems.
Diversity is critical in energy production - is part of why certain groups insists on dismissing any green source that is not capable of meeting 100%+ of energy-needs.
Therein, as the "Watts Up With That?" commenters point out, lies the problem. You can *only* achieve that kind of ROI if you're connected to a power grid that will pay you fixed rates for your excess power when the wind is blowing and the sun is shining, and guarantee availability of power in other circumstances (against base rates).
Power plants have a nasty habit of costing money every second while they're being kept in read
They're both very volatile and cannot be counted upon to meet base-load demand.
This is a myth. All electricity generation in a developed country is indeed connected to a grid. There is never a time when there is no wind/solar/hydro/tide/wave power from anywhere.
Furthermore theses sources are pretty predictable.
Renewables can form part of the baseload, just as other sources can. Diversity is always the key.
Anything you read on Watt's Up With That is inevitably bullshit. It's a site that will make any argument to match a far right wing agenda. It's anti-science.
The grid loss is something in the figure of 5% 7% of total power production germany.
That is regardless of the source. Difficult right now is the transport of wind power from the 'far' north to the 'far' south, because of lack of power conduits, not because of 'grid loss'.
The loss is usually about 7% per 1000km transport distance, however it depends on voltage. E.g. Kasachstan uses 1mega Volt lines, where the grid loss is about 6% per 10,000km, not 1000.
Superconductors are likely not a solution, I guess they are simply to expensive and if one breaks you have a long long long downtime.
A bit simpler are high voltage direct current conduits, the power companies are shifting slowly to them for long range power transport.
The grid loss is something in the figure of 5% 7% of total power production germany.
Germany covers about 138,000 square miles, which makes it just a smidge larger in area than the state of New Mexico. Scaling a grid up from the size of a single state to the entire Continental US is likely to be a whole different kettle of fish.
OTOH, you could argue this extra geographic spread is a good thing, as it affords a US electric consumer the same variety of locale for wind generation that has proven adequate in Germany, within their one state alone. New Mexico is a lot poorer and less populated
You mean HVDC cables? They're installed all over Europe and are working fine, thanks. It would be pretty straightforward to have several of them piping solar power from the Sahara and wind power from the North Atlantic into the same grid with very minimal transmission losses.
http://askjaenergydotcom.files... [wordpress.com]
Sure, lets build a grid capable of handling 10000 times more than the local demand will ever amount to because we're piping electricity from all europe to china through it.
Or we could take the money that would cost and use it to produce any other form of electricity locally.
Wind is actually pretty reliable over the short term. A bit of smoothing helps, and Japan has already deployed 50MWh batteries for that purpose. Even without smoothing with a number of turbines distributed geographically the output doesn't vary much over an hour, and is quite easy to predict a few hours in advance. That gives other sources plenty of notice to ramp up.
Home owners can't really lose with solar PV, unless they somehow get screwed on workmanship or installation costs. The panels with always pay for themselves in a few years and it's shear madness that new houses are being built without it.
Home owners can't really lose with solar PV, unless they somehow get screwed on workmanship or installation costs. The panels with always pay for themselves in a few years and it's shear madness that new houses are being built without it.
If you're going to live in the house for at least the break-even time then yes, you probably can't lose. However, I'm less convinced that it adds so much to the value of the house: if there are 2 identical houses for sale, but one of them has a brand new £20K installation of PV panels on the roof, are people really going to pay £20K more for that one? I suspect not, because its an up-front cost and some people simply won't be able to afford that much up-front. (Ok, so people will tack it onto
> Home owners can't really lose with solar PV
Unless, of course, you happen to live somewhere other than Southern California or Arizona, where weather conditions don't permit the sun to shine at sufficient intensity over the whole year. Here in the mid/upper midwest, the payback period for a solar installation on my house works out to be 17 years. Wind, on the other hand, can be cost effective if you have sufficient land space to put up a tower. I see a few of my rural neighbors with wind turbines on their properties.
The rebuttal is from a climate-change denial site?
What the fuck is this, Fox News? What's next, Free Republic?
Fuck you, Timothy. Seriously, just fuck off.
"A 2.0 MW wind turbine would generate 6.12 GWh per year, assuming a 35% capacity factor." [ourenergypolicy.org]
Right in the fucking source paper. They don't even have that as an argument...
You don't place a commercially used win turbine (or a wind farm) at a place where according to expected wind speeds over the year your 'capacity factor' is only 35%.
Something like that you only do as a privat owner where you perhaps build a 10kW plant because you only need 5kW, and for some reason, kick in wind speed or shut down wind speed or simply price, you find that interesting.
Commercial wind farms are usually build where the 'capacity factor' is far above 100%.
Typical Slashdot. "New peer reviewed science study says something. But random guy on the internet says they're wrong!"
WUWT's publisher gets Koch funding by way of the Heartland Institute... so, not "random".
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2... [mediamatters.org]
Now I get to put my first
Does it matter what the source is, so long as it presents a testable claim?
Besides which, their argument was mischaracterized in the summary. It's not a rebuttal of the ROI period, which is what the summary seems to suggest. Rather, they took issue with the overly-broad statement that seemed to suggest that each turbine would replace the need for traditional power sources for over 500 homes, which is, as far as I can tell, an accurate claim. Obviously, there are lulls in the wind, so while it may on average provide that much power, the lulls would mean that the traditional sources will still need to be used. What was left unsaid is that they would be used in lesser quantities.
Yes, it's a "well duh" sort of thing, but it's also accurate. And if you don't think it is, feel free to disprove them. It wasn't exactly a complicated argument, nor a particular meaningful one, but that's also a bit of a "well duh" sort of thing, given the source.
"(How do Americans manage to consume so much electricity in their households?)"
That electricity is used because of global warming.
Air conditioners use a lot of power in the summer, when its 82F and 100% humidity
Does it matter what the source is, so long as it presents a testable claim?
Yes. Stubbornly refusing to withdraw a claim when multiple independent tests have already found it to be false is the definition of a denier. It's the reason why we laugh at flat earther's and (the original) April fools.
To test Watts' claim simply calculate three trends from his data, one for his "worst" 100 stations, one for his "best" 100 stations and one for the full set of ~1100 stations, if his claim has merit there will be signifcant differences in the three trends. So go ahead, you test his claims if you doubt, I've already done so on many occasions, that's what science is about.
BTW: When you find his claims don't hold water, don't be tempted to post a video about it on youtube because he will issue a false DCMA to try and shut you up.
Rather, they took issue with the overly-broad statement that seemed to suggest that each turbine would replace the need for traditional power sources for over 500 homes, which is, as far as I can tell, an accurate claim. Obviously, there are lulls in the wind, so while it may on average provide that much power, the lulls would mean that the traditional sources will still need to be used.
The same logic applies to all electricity sources because none of them can run un-interupted at full output for their entire lives. Even coal and nuclear plants need regular down time for maintenance, as well as unexpected events.
The grid is a pool, with many generation sources contributing to it. If you only had one turbine they might have a point, but when you have hundreds or thousands you can rely on them for a certain amount of "base load" power. In fact they are more reliable that traditional forms of generation, because a single failure at a coal/gas/nuclear plant can knock out hundreds or even thousands of megawatts, but a single turbine failure is insignificant.
A 4 unit coal fired power station will be lucky to have 80% availability.
Maintenance is continuous on those things, so they don't have 100% availability either.
Admitted, the downtime is handled on site (3 of 4 units still run while one is down), but that's WHY there's a power grid. So the counter argument has flaws as well.
Funny you should mention maintenance. Presumably the smaller generators on wind turbines will last longer with less maintenance. Especially since any maintenance that is required is distributed across a larger number of remote points (some in the ocean) and many feet in the air.
We have a gas fired plant locally that used to have yearly tours (sadly suspended after 9/11). Highly efficient and large turbines, but at the expense of frequent (well once every year or two if I recall) maintenance and overhauls. B
What the hell was that inserted for? It was an idiotic point made on a site which clearly has a political axe to grind. It wasn't made well. Anyone claiming to engage in a scientific debate with the phrase "by my own observation" deserves to be laughed out of the room.
This is supposed to be Slashdot, not Fox. Why the hell was this included?
Well, forget WUWT and you will see there is not much calculations neither in the original claim and in fact, there is a big warning sign in the text, something the cost has not been taken into account in the evaluation but mandatory for their hypothesis to hold, here it is:
"Wind turbines are frequently touted as the answer to sustainable electricity production especially if coupled to high-capacity storage for times when the wind speed is either side of their working range."
So, they presume the high-capacity storage exists and it has zero cost. Seems to me a bit optimistic.
And of course the skeptical take comment section is filled with non-researched and non-constructive comments about wind energy.
Almost as if being for or against green energy were an overt political statement than a well thought out business plan and energy policy.
(I'm from Kansas, we have nowhere near enough utilization of wind energy, despite several large wind farms in the western part of the state).
If this wind farm expects payback in five to eight months, we should be able to find some other wind farm (anywhere) that had payback in less than a year, right? Does anybody have a pointer to that kind of success story?
How is it odd?
It's odd because it's not a particularly relevant statistic (that is, if it didn't give a payback very quickly, then wind farms would be an utter waste).
What matters is when wind becomes cheaper than coal. That's when things get interesting.
Here's a story about investors in traditional power generation plants in Texas looking at losses because of new alternative energy power production:
http://www.renewableenergyworl... [renewableenergyworld.com]
That is an odd definition of payback. The raw material cost of creating something is irrelevant since you cannot buy anything at cost: there are always value-add processes and profit margins to consider.
If you do it in dollar terms the payback will be much faster in some markets due to insanely high spot prices for peak power. In others it won't. Even in the same place six months later it may have much slower financial payback. Energy payback is far easier to determine.
It's an odd definition but it's a common one. People often complain (incorrectly) that solar cells take more electricity to manufacture than they produce in their lifetime.
This is a study saying that they "pay back" the input resources in a small fraction of their life span. It's refuting all of the FUD around green energy that it's just taking Coal and Petroleum and storing it inefficiently in a wind turbine or solar panel to be slowly released over the course of several years.
Why does the article think it gets to define its own meaning of "payback"? If I can basically pick and choose which cost factors to consider, and have a lot of leeway to fudge (some or most of) those numbers because they are not anything that people try to objectively measure, of course I can calculate a ridiculously short payback period. You have really only said that the article is not worth the electrons it is transmitted with, and that we should treat its authors as charlatans.
They aren't. They're using an established term "energy payback". The authors wrote an analysis which will be useful to many people but used the word "payback" in a way which does not match your preconceived notion of how it should be used. For this, you label them "charlatans".
So all the people interested in energy payback times should not be able to publish or read about it because you've claimed ownership of the word "payback" and won't license them to use it? They should use a less clear term to express their meaning because otherwise some random idiot who reads technical papers might make the leap "payback = money", despite the term "energy payback" being self explanatory?
Had you argued that because this is "energy payback" rather than financial payback, it isn't worthy of being reported on Slashdot, I could respect your argument. Instead you label people charlatans because what they discuss is not what you're interested it.
Oddly enough both of the calculations in the OP were correct, yes, the wind turbine generates energy equivalent to its energy of manufacture quite quickly, and yes it is still a bad idea to rely on wind energy for use in a national grid except for a tiny percentage, each MW of wind turbine relies on an additional MW of conventional generators if you want 24/7 availability, or I suppose you could try energy storage, which ought to be added to the turbine operating cost and energy payback.
Interesting to see such knee jerk support for an inappropriate technology. I wonder if the posters above have ever thought through why Germany is
...Germany is
/reducing/ its reliance on wind turbines
That's news to me. Have any proof for that?
Sorry, I misread the article, they are capping the growth in new WT installation for the next 6 years to about 80% of recent growth rates, and are building several new coal plants, whether that results in a net reduction in % windpower depends on economic growth achieved, ie crystal ball.
Well, sort of.
http://www.spiegel.de/internat... [spiegel.de]
What do you mean by Germany is reducing its reliance on wind turbines? Germany is scaling up all kinds of renewables. They way you get reliable energy out of it by averaging over large areas, by having a mix of energy production (e.g. solar and wind complement each other fairly well in Germany) and by having additional plants which can quickly adapt to demand (i.e. not nuclear and coal, but gas or biomass). This works well.
It's hilarious watching people argue over a topic that has already been shown to be a non-issue. The EIA (US) and German statistics show that, in aggregate, wind-energy sources produce a relatively steady amount of power. Individual turbines and even whole wind farms might not be deterministic, but all the wind farms taken together... are.
Please read the "skeptical" article with a skeptical eye. The poor guy goes through all the work to get the specs and highlights the minimum wind speed rate of 4m/s for the turbines to work. He also links to an excellent page showing wind patters and letting you see wind speed across the country.
But then, he goes off the rails. He can "tell from his own experience" that the wind doesn't always blow that fast and "look at all the blue, which means low wind speed". The big problem is that he didn't go
"the time to produce the amount of energy required of production and installation"
The actual study is very, very careful to NOT claim that it will pay back the total system cost. It's just the amount of energy used in production and installation, not the cost of raw materials and labor.
"Watts Up With That? has a more skeptical take on the calculations."
And if you look at the site it's pretty much a site full of straw men and attacks on climate change friendly politicians and scientists, with little actual scientific facts (besides the grandiose endorsement of it's own content.)
Why is this link even here? Did someone just randomly Google it and stick it on there because, hey, it's on the internet? Or did someone want the site to get more page views?
C'mon editors. This is news for nerds. Not news my uncle sent me in his email about how Obama is part of the illuminati.
to be fair, i havent read their current analysis of this particular project. but watts up with that is well known to be well wrong about well lots
About 30 years ago, "wind farms" were built in several places in California where the wind seems constant, not intermittent. One is in the San Gorgonio Pass along I10 between Beaumont and Palm Springs. Another one is in the Altamont Pass in the hills near Oakland. In both places, with what was then primitive technology, the constancy of the wind still justified the construction of these "wind farms". I have seen both installations, and I have never seen them idled by a lack of wind.
Similarly, there are places where sunshine is so prevalent that solar power would have few interruptions during the day. Unlike wind power, however, storage of electricity during the day is needed for use at night.
In the meantime, Southern California Edison has outages at all times of the year. These are not the result of unreliable generation sources. Instead, these are the result of not performing any kind of scheduled preventive maintenance on local portions of the distribution system.
"I shall expect a chemical cure for psychopathic behavior by 10 A.M. tomorrow, or I'll have your guts for spaghetti." -- a comic panel by Cotham


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In a medium saucepan, combine sugar with 2 cups water; bring to a boil over high heat. Add blueberries, wine, and lemon zest; return to a simmer. Cook, stirring, until blueberries begin to burst, about 3 minutes.
Pass mixture through a food mill or a fine sieve into a large bowl, discarding solids. Stir lemon juice into strained liquid. Cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate until completely chilled, about 1 1/2 hours.
Divide soup among six bowls. Swirl about 2 tablespoons buttermilk into each bowl, and serve immediately.


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For more than 2,000 years, traditional Chinese herbalists have valued antler velvet - the early growth stage of deer antler, which regenerates naturally every year. This restorative tonic was traditionally renowned for its ability to promote balance, strength, and an overall feeling of well-being.
Now Planetary Formulas offers you Full Spectrum Antler Velvet, a combination of velvet from New Zealand elk and deer. Full Spectrum Antler Velvet is harvested humanely in accordance with the standards of national animal welfare and veterinary associations.
Traditional Asian Tonic
Unlike the horns of cattle or sheep, which grow throughout the life of the animal, the antlers of deer and elk are grown new every spring and then cast off. For thousands of years, traditional Asian herbalists have harvested antler growth in the early stage, before it hardens into bone.
Antler velvet, as this naturally regenerated, early-stage growth is known, has been prized in traditional Chinese herbalism, as well as in countries including Korea, Russia and Japan. Used predominantly as a vitalizing tonic, its traditional uses have also included reducing the negative effects of stress, improving mental function and improving circulation.
Humane Harvesting
Planetary Formulas Full Spectrum Antler Velvet utilizes deer and elk velvet from New Zealand. The velvet is specially harvested by a veterinarian or a trained and certified farmer, and then frozen within three hours of removal until ready to be processed into tablets. Full Spectrum Antler Velvet is harvested approximately eight weeks after the antlers begin their growth cycle - the time when velvet contains the greatest amount of nutrients to support rapid growth. Antler removal is regulated under a code developed by the Animal Welfare Advisory Committee of New Zealand's Ministry of Agriculture, in conjunction with specialist veterinarians, animal welfare organizations and animal behavior specialists. The National Velveting Standards Body audits animal welfare standards and ensures that analgesic removal methods are used so that the process is not painful to the animals. Most important, harvesting antler velvet preserves the herds, in contrast to the common practice of killing the animals for meat, hides or trophies.
Rich in Nutrients
At the time of harvesting, antler velvet is rich in nutrients. These include: the minerals calcium, nitrogen, magnesium, phosphorous, sulfur, sodium and potassium and the trace minerals iron, zinc, copper, manganese and selenium. In addition, antler velvet supplies growth factor 1, phospholipids, glycoplipids, collagen and small amounts of glycosaminoglycans and glycoproteins, all of which support the skeletal system.
Combining Tradition and Modern Science
Like the rest of the Planetary Formulas herbal product line, Full Spectrum Antler Velvet combines the wisdom of traditional herbalism with the advances of modern technology. The result: supplements you can count on to deliver the benefits you are seeking from an herbal product.
Label Copy
Planetary Herbals Full Spectrum Antler Velvet is a tonifier that has been used in China for over 2,000 years. Antler velvet is the early stage of antler growth and is a rich source of collagen, glycosaminoglycans, and glycoproteins, all of which support the skeletal system. Antler velvet is regenerated every year and harvested with great care in a humane manner by specially trained farmers or veterinarians who conform to the National Velvet Standards Body (NVSB) of New Zealand. Traditionally, antler velvet has been used to restore, balance, and strengthen the body, support joint function, and cultivate an overall feeling of well being.


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Somewhere in Time Too
Tybee Island, GA 31328
Historic beach house (duplex) built in 1928 on the south end of Butler Ave. 200 steps to South Beach. Two units - upstairs and downstairs. Can be rented separately or together. Upstairs has 2 bedrooms - one king and one queen, sleep sofa in the living room. 1.5 baths. Downstairs has 3 bedrooms - 2 with queen bed and 1 with twin beds. 2 baths. TVs in both living rooms and in the master bedrooms. Both have large screened in porches. WiFi. Close to the back river; within walking distance to downtown. Come and spend some time on our front porch;listen to the ocean at night and feel the cool breeze blowing. Enjoy breakfast, lunch or dinner on the porch or just relax and read a book. Our rental agent is TybeeJoyVacationrentals.com or visit our own website which will link you to the TybeeJoy website: http://www.tybeejoyvacationrentals.com
Info & Amenities
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Sunday: All Day
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Wednesday: All Day
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Friday: All Day
Saturday: All Day
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Call for Rates
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Hair Dryer
Setting & Style
Beach & Coastal
Historic & Charming


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with the MUSIC STORE Newsletters!
The Pearl DMP925S/C Decade Maple Drum Shell Set White Satin Pearl is a 5-piece shell set, that consists of a 22" x 18" bass drum, 10" x 7" and 12" x 8" tom toms, a 16" x 16" floor tom, and a 14" x 5.5" snare drum, featuring a white satin pearl finish. The Pearl Decade Maple Series features 5.4mm thick drum shells crafted from 6-plies of fine maple, combined using Pearl's own Superior Shell Technology, all connected to strong chrome hardware. These highly resonant drums produce a rounded tone with plenty of attack, thanks to Pinstripe and Powerstroke 3 drum heads from Remo.
The Decade Maple Series is ideal for advanced drummers who want to develop or for experienced professionals who need a second set for smaller performances or rehearsals. This series comes with low mass lugs that guarantee an optimum performance. This drum shell set comes supplied with two tom holders featuring Opti-Loc, with strong feet on the floor tom providing air suspension. This set is completed with a hardware package containing a snare stand, a hi-hat stand, two cymbal stands and a bass drum pedal.
The main features of the Pearl DMP925S/C Decade Maple Drum Shell Set White Satin Pearl include:
Every month we are giving away a shopping voucher among all submitted reviewers worth 500 EURO!
Congratulations to the winner of December: Michael Rauser, Heilbronn (DE)
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You can rate this product if you like. By rating this product you will be automatically entered into our monthly shopping voucher giveaway!


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Fare Thee Well, Elizabeth Taylor
via Like Cool
We Hardly Knew Ye: Jerry Saltz gives a sendoff to Elizabeth Taylor, stopping to hang out with Andy Warhol along the way. [NYMag]
The Nautical Belt Returns: Another handsome belt option. [Mister Crew]
Two Angry Men: A profanity-laced tete-a-tete between Hunter S. Thompson and Ralph Steadman, recorded for posterity. [Letters of Note]
Mix It Up: The dangers of the monochrome outfit. [Die, Workwear]


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Maungakiekie MP supports Tongan Community with relief effort
Press Release – New Zealand National Party
Cyclone Ian passed over the Ha'apai island group of the Kingdom of Tonga as a Category 5 storm over the weekend. There has been one confirmed fatality and extensive damage to housing, crops, public buildings, key infrastructure and communications.Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga
MP for Maungakiekie
15 January 2014 Media Statement
Maungakiekie MP supports NZ Tongan Community with disaster relief efforts
Cyclone Ian passed over the Ha'apai island group of the Kingdom of Tonga as a Category 5 storm over the weekend. There has been one confirmed fatality and extensive damage to housing, crops, public buildings, key infrastructure and communications.
"My heartfelt thoughts and prayers are with the family who lost a loved one and all those who have had their homes and livelihoods devastated by Cyclone Ian. My sympathies also go to the Tongan community here in New Zealand who are also deeply affected by the cyclone," Mr Lotu-Iiga said.
"I welcome our Government's immediate response to the disaster. This includes $50,000 made available immediately for assistance and the deployment of a P3 Orion to survey the damage. I also welcome the support from the New Zealand Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management who have sent a staff member to assist Tonga's National Emergency Management Office (NEMO) at their request with response coordination.
"Last night, I attended a public organised by the Tongan community to respond to the immediate needs of the affected areas. I addressed the meeting updating the Tongan Community of our Government's efforts to assist with disaster relief.
"I am working with the Ha'apai Relief Committee that was formed at the meeting to assist where I can. The committee is working with Matson Shipping on sending 3 containers of aid, as well as a fundraising concert and rebuilding projects," Mr Lotu-Iiga said.
Members of the public who want to assist are encouraged to give cash donations via the NZ Red Cross (https://www.redcross.org.nz/donate/pacific-disaster-preparedness-and-response-fund/) or Oxfam New Zealand (http://www.oxfam.org.nz/donate-online/appeals/cyclone-ian). People who wish to donate goods are advised to do so only if they know there is a specific need for the item.
Content Sourced from scoop.co.nz
Original url


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"It was long believed that the queen played a central role in the complex social order of an ant colony, through the exercise of direct command and control over her subjects. Not so. Biologist Pierre-Paul Grasse coined the term "stigmergy" for the anthill's social organization There is no central coordination, no hierarchy, no administrative mechanism. Each ant's behavior is entirely spontaneous and self-directed, as it responds independently to the chemical trail markers left by other ants."
"Mark Elliot, whose doctoral dissertation is probably the best study on the subject to date, applied the term "stigmergy" to any form of human socialization in which coordination is achieved not by social negotiation or administration or consensus, but entirely by independent individual action against the background of a common social medium."


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Tangye, David & Wright, Graham
How Black Was Our Sabbath (Book Review)
May 2013
Released: 2004, Pan Books
Rating: 4.0/5
Reviewer: JP
I've pretty much read every Black Sabbath book on the market and going into this book I wasn't expecting too much; what more was there to tell? Well, quite a lot actually! HOW BLACK WAS OUR SABBATH was first published in 2004 and was written by two ex-Sabbath roadies, David Tangye and Graham Wright. None so British… Although the charming tale is unauthorized, Bill Ward and Ozzy each gave it their blessing so it does carry some weight, authority and credibility in my mind. This was not just written by some guy who worked for the band for a few months. Graham and Dave were with the band during the first glory-era from roughly 1974-1980 and do they have some stories to tell!
This paperback is about 237 pages long and has about 45 pictures from the authors own personal collection. They are black and white, printed on glossy paper and spread through the book. There are many candid shots, most of which I have never seen before. I especially enjoyed the photos of 'Atrocity Cottage', his country home and birthplace of many Ozzy 'bad boy' legends, usually involving drinking, a shotgun and various farm animals. It was neat to finally see the place…the band looks so young!
The script follows a familiar and comfortable chronological retelling of the early days of Black Sabbath but loaded with the kind of detail that can only come from people who were actually there…quotes, jokes, incidents and accidents all liberally marinated in a pint or three of Newcastle Brown Ale. The intimate level of detail is stunning because not only were the lads (the authors) part of the road-crew, they acted as personal assistants, gopher's helpers, and comrades in crime as they assisted in the debauchery as much as helped plug in amplifiers each night.
There are so many stories, many of which I had never heard and the ones I had had more detail. HOW BLACK WAS OUR SABBATH was not airing of dirty laundry, the privacy of the various members of the band was respected, but the authors also were there during the dark times when various members would come and go, have divorces, drug issues, car crashes and assorted rock n' roll behavior. I'm sure they could probably do more damage to their former employers if that was their intention, but fortunately not. The mood, tone and tempo is positive as they assisted a band at the height of their power. What was also revealing is how much work it was to be a traveling band in the 70's.
The language could be a bit mystifying for younger North American readers, as the book was written by two lads who grew up in England, in the 50's and 60's. For example on page 11, they make a reference to an obscure (by modern North American standards) to a British television (sorry 'telly') sit-com called 'Open All Hours'. If you had never heard of that the show, the sentence about Tony's parents that states, "They ran a store in Park Lane, which was a bit like Ronnie Barker's Arkwright, although it was not 'open all hours', would make no sense at all. My family, has English heritage so I got it but I feel many young readers may not understand the slang of the older British guys. However, to me the way they write, with regional linguistic flavour, makes it all that more authentic.
I thoroughly enjoyed HOW BLACK WAS MY SABBATH. It's warm, charming and funny. The story about the smuggled moonshine (hidden in the fake cocaine naturally) being confiscated in Salt Lake City, Utah, is hilarious, and it is just one of many. I feel this is one of the better, more intimate, more real portrayals of the legendary band. A great read for all Sabbath fans!
Track Listing


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By Brian T. Smith, John McClain and Jon Marks
Texans receiver Andre Johnson didn't want to leave his team in Week 2, but a concussion forced him off the field.
A shin bruise got the best of Johnson on Sunday during the Texans' 30-9 loss to the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium.
Johnson, 32, again didn't want to leave the contest. But a hobbling receiver who was limping after the game realized the Texans were better off without him.
"Very, very frustrating," said Johnson, who caught five passes for 36 yards. "You kind of just go back and forth with the coaches, trying to tell them you're OK, hoping that it feels better. I know that if I would've went out there, I couldn't play the way that I'm capable of playing. And you see the film, I'm out there limping around."
Johnson said it was too soon to determine whether he'll be available in Week 4 against Seattle at Reliant Stadium. X-rays taken at halftime were negative.
"I watched him the first play," coach Gary Kubiak said. "We threw the ball the first play, and I wanted to see him run. I did not think he could run the way he needs to to play, so we took him out."
Reed a Raven evermore
Much has happened since the last time Texans safety Ed Reed took the field at M&T Bank Stadium, including the Baltimore Ravens winning the Super Bowl.
But just because he's no longer a Raven after 11 seasons doesn't mean Baltimoreans don't still hold him dear.
"I said, 'Hey, you've still got it,' " said Ravens coach John Harbaugh after his team spoiled Reed's homecoming 30-9. "I didn't call him an old man. He played very well, just like we expected he would.
"There's a tremendous respect and love there. He's a Texan now, but Ed Reed will forever be a Raven."
Reed chatted with his former teammates before the game, then was the last man leaving the field when it was over.
"It was awesome to see Ed again," Ravens safety James Ihedigbo said. "In talking to him he continued to encourage me. He's helped so much in my development as a safety. I thanked him for that."
Then Ihedigbo and the rest of Reed's old buddies went out and ruined his new team's day.
Texans smother running game
With running back Ray Rice not suiting up because of a hip injury, the Ravens turned to Bernard Pierce.
The Texans limited the Ravens to 75 yards on 31 carries, an average of 2.4 yards.
Pierce had 24 carries for 65 yards (2.7 per carry). Subtract a 25-yard run in the fourth quarter, and Pierce had 23 carries for 40 yards (1.7).
"He's a physical, downhill runner, and we came out and played real physical against him and their running game," Texans linebacker Brian Cushing said. "They wanted to establish their toughness, but we were physical, too."
The Ravens finished with 236 yards on 57 plays. That's an average of 4.1 per play. Take away a 48-yard catch by Torrey Smith and Pierce's 25-yard run, and they had 163 yards and 2.9 per play.
"It was good but not good enough," Cushing said.
Ravens stadium works its mojo
The Texans are 1-7 against the Baltimore Ravens, including the playoffs.
The Ravens have a 4-0 advantage at M&T Bank Stadium. The only win by the Texans was last season at Reliant Stadium, where they whipped Baltimore 43-13.
"Congratulations to Baltimore," Texans coach Gary Kubiak said. "They did a good job."
The Texans led 6-3 before the Ravens scored on linebacker Daryl Smith's 37-yard interception return and Tandon Doss' 82-yard punt return that gave them a 17-6 lead and brought to life a sellout crowd of 71,168.


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Following a three-day candidate filing period in Pottawatomie County, races have developed in several towns while some candidates have won their prospective seats without opposition.
Following a three-day candidate filing period in Pottawatomie County, races have developed in several towns while some candidates have won their prospective seats without opposition.
All four seats in McLoud will go before a vote of the people.
For the Ward No. 1 seat, the candidates are Becky Carpenter, 50, and Philip Leslie Solinger, 57.
For Ward No. 3 in McLoud, there are five candidates. Jon Barrett, 65, Tim McGuinness, 41, Ann Pearce, 57, Pete Pendley, 68, and Ralph E. Schilb, 75, are vying for that seat.
Candidates for Ward 4 are Chandra Heitzinger, 39, Ronald Kenyon, 66, and Thomas Morris, 69.
For the council member at-large seat, the candidates are Ruben Abilez Jr., 55, Frank Pearce, 62, Robbie D. Remington, 43, Steven Michael Tomaszewski, 57, and James Woods, 70.
Three seats are open in Maud and there will be elections for those as well.
For Maud's Ward 1, Randy Horn, 54, Terry McCracken, 51, and Carl Parramore, 77, are running for that seat.
In Ward 2, Roger Cunningham, 48, James Haws, 61, and Don R. Lam, 66, filed for the seat.
Ward 4 candidates in Maud are Lisa Armstrong, 42, and Woody I. Hopkins, 55.
In Bethel Acres, both open seats were won without opposition.
Curtis R. LaMastus, 55, won the Office No. 4 seat, while Jane Schuster, 65, drew no opponents for the Town Clerk-Treasurer position.
In Pink, Mike Green, 61, is unopposed for the Office No. 4 seat.
A race has developed for Office No. 2 in Pink between Harvey Babbit Jr., 64, and Jamille Parris, 44.
In Wanette, Frank Sturgill, 71, took one board of trustees seat while James Buxton, 57, and Roy VanSchuyver, 68, are candidates for the other seat.
In Asher, Wesley R. Culwell Jr., 58, won a trustee seat unopposed, as did Reva Hamilton, 67.


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Did you read today's front page stories & breaking news?
From the Wires
More Tomato Harvest With New Peel Away(TM) Pots
Exclusive Gardener's Supply Pots Promote Earlier, Bigger Harvest
By: Marketwired .
Feb. 5, 2013 08:34 PM
BURLINGTON, VT -- (Marketwire) -- 02/05/13 -- New Gardener's Supply Peel Away Pots, help create more tomato harvest, and are made from washable, reusable fabric that promotes healthy root growth. At planting or repotting time, the sides of each pot peel open, minimizing root disturbance and preventing planting shock leading to an earlier, bigger harvest.
"These VELCRO® Brand seedling pots performed so well in our raised bed test gardens. The best tomato harvest started in Peel Away Pots as they bore more fruit and had thicker stems than those started in traditional, plastic pots," said Sally Cusack, merchant for Gardener's Supply. "We're very excited for our customers to experience this same success."
"Velcro Industries is continuously seeking opportunities to expand and deliver innovative solutions to new markets," said Jurjen Jacobs, Vice President of Global Marketing, Velcro Industries. "While Velcro Industries currently has a presence in outdoor and DIY products, we knew there was an opportunity to better serve and fulfill the evolving needs of the gardening community. We tapped Gardener's Supply for their deeply rooted gardening expertise and are proud to have created a product that we believe will become quintessential to gardening for amateurs, professionals and every gardener in between."
The product launch is a collaboration between two New England-based Companies with the pot material designed and made in the USA at Velcro Industries' New Hampshire manufacturing facilities and the product qualification done by Gardener's Supply at their test gardens in Vermont.
Winner of the Direct Gardening Association's 2013 Green Thumb Award for outstanding new garden products, the revolutionary Peel Away Pots nurture fragile seedlings three ways. The porous VELCRO® Brand fabric lining air-prunes roots, creating a dense, healthy root system while preventing root spiraling: no more stressed, "pot bound" seedlings. The self-watering tray, included in the Peel Away kits, keeps soil optimally moist. And peel-open sides minimize root disturbance for a smooth transition to a larger container or the garden.
Available in two sizes and in red and brown, Peel Away Pots are sold as a kit that includes pots and a self-watering tray, or in sets of pots only. The 4-inch pots are ideal for tomato, pepper and eggplant seedlings, while the 2-inch pots provide all the benefits of the larger pots, in a size just right for starting seeds. Prices start at just $9.95. Available at Gardener's Supply catalog or call 1-800-955-3370.
About Gardener's Supply Company
About Velcro Industries
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I decided to give it a go and It's actually pretty hard.... Or is that just me?... Here's my attempt....
I decided to give it a go and It's actually pretty hard.... Or is that just me?... Here's my attempt....
Yummy I will try later and post my results
It's not so difficult when your webcam is set up
I'm a sprayer though so its too fast to capture most of the time, anything else is just a bit of dribble. Lol
I've tried - impossible, what with the speed and the moment. I can't concentrate on getting the pic!
as close to an action shot as I could get
Lol some cameras, even on some phones have multiple shutter options so you can take several shots within the space of a second. But you're right to do it the old fashioned way is pretty impossible?
Massguyshowoff that's still a pretty awesome shot.... And how much spunk!? That must've felt gooood :-p
Enjoyed this one very much!
Mmmm, yummy
Good stuff.
here's my little one
Attachment 899282
Been awhile since I posted any of my shots...
heres some from me
Older pic yet still remember the pleasure of that moment. Sure wish those moments would extent beyond. Well, just keep doing it and enjoying it every time.
Moustaki and Seven:
Fucking HOT!!!!
It's hard as fuck to take a picture of this kind of eruption, like ...tough...real tough
^^ Love the pic Jeff!
Trying again. Also, failing again.
Videos work much better; though I am still disappointed.
At least i had fun jerking off.
Awesome dick and cumshots dude
The cumshots in this thread are great!
And WOW itsmejeff you're amazing!! You cum like a rock star, you're the rock star of cumshots lol
^ .......
^^ very nice!
Here you go guys!
Here is one from last month.
I may be bad, but I'm perfectly good at it.
Thank you Andy I'd love to lick you clean too!!
Bill, maybe one day, if fate allows
I may be bad, but I'm perfectly good at it.
Bill and Andy, you guys are making a mess all over the place and need to be cleaned up. Great pics.