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In reading the article about Maryland's transportation finances ("State plan for funding roads, transit elusive," Feb. 20), I'm surprised the money lasted this long.
Why is it always on the taxpayers' back to pay for the deficits the state makes? Now, it's "Let's raise some taxes so we can fix the roads and continue with road building projects."
Has anyone ever really read the questions when voting about government borrowing? Maybe voters should. I always vote "no."
I've said for years the roads in Maryland are the worst in the country. Go down I-695 toward Glen Burnie and see how much of the road is buckled and wavy. On a good day, try keeping your vehicle in your lane and avoid the waves in the road. In one section of the highway it looks as if the waves from Ocean City are rolling in.
As a former state employee with over 22 years of government experience, I can honestly say the state wastes money like it's water with no end in sight.
D. Rosner, Elkridge


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Before university cuts, change Bright Futures
Source: Palm Beach Post
View Original Article
Gov. Crist announced last week that he wants to cut 3.6 percent overall from the state budget, but 6.2 percent from the university system's budget. This would happen even as the state devotes nearly $400 million to Bright Futures scholarships, many of which go to average and above-average students and to families that don't need them.
When legislators created Bright Futures in 1997, they supposedly wanted to keep top students in the state. Yet the program has become the closest thing to socialized higher education in Florida. Florida Academic Scholars receive 100 percent of tuition and fees at a public university if they earn a 3.5 high-school grade point average, score at least 1270 on the SAT and perform 75 hours of community service. Yet for just a 3.0 GPA, a 970 SAT score and no community service, the Florida Medallion Scholars Award pays 75 percent at a university or 100 percent at a community college.
The weaker standard amounted to the difference between the $85,435,986 in Academic Scholar grants for students at the four-year public universities during the 2005-2006 academic year, the latest data available, compared to the $152,467,231 in Medallion grants to B students. At the two-year community colleges, the disparity was even greater: $2,845,005 in awards to the top scholars, and $24,748,646 to the Medallion students.
Meanwhile, the university system's financing is down $3,000 per full-time-equivalent student since the late 1980s. Fast-forward, and somewhere between death by a thousand cuts and the Legislature's historical underfinancing of the system is Gov. Crist's proposed cut of more than $600 per student.
Yet this year, Gov. Crist vetoed a 5 percent tuition increase that would have cost students $55 per semester while providing more teachers and classes to help them graduate. Since Florida is investing nearly $1 billion on high-tech research institutions such as Scripps, the failure to invest in the educational foundation to make that money pay off makes no sense.
To put that 970 Medallion SAT qualifying score in perspective, the nationwide average SAT score for 2007 was 1017. The state average was 993. In 2003, Florida Atlantic University's average score was 1020, and new President Frank Brogan said it needed to be raised.
Bright Futures money is too easy to get, with no connection to need. The percentage-based formula, rather than a lump-sum award, keeps tuition artificially low because legislators know that there's only so much lottery money. But Bright Futures isn't written in stone. It's just legislation. And it's past time to rewrite that legislation.

subset: commoncrawl


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The Game Effect wants to know what you think of eSports. Do you like them? If not, what would it take to make you care?
No, nothing. Gaming is a hobby for me enjoyment, story, social, competitive.
I could care less about stats and accomplishments from other people.
I do enjoy talking about games with friends, but it's the story and discovery I talk about not KDR.
I don't care about the whole e sport trend that's going on
I like watching fighting game tournaments but I'm not much of a fan of e-sports like Halo or RTS games, just fighting games.
I am all for anything that propogates the love, and acceptance, of video games.


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Discussion in 'The Bar' started by Smell Muhfinger, Jan 29, 2013.
I think it's fucking crazy, womens are not built for that shit, unless they are bull dykes.
They need more cannon fodder
we run out of men to fight for us?
if they want to let them. i don't believe they should be distracting the mens by fucking them in port a loos though.
I'm fine with it as long as they don't let them drive automobiles or vote
Its about time
Women's only parking lot...
I'm okay with it.
WGAS, WGAF. They are braver than you.
Nigga plz, who give a fuck yo.. niggas only gonna put tha good ones there yo.. if a hoe cant handle it she aint gonna be up in thurr yo. Army niggas aint gonna fuck around. They say they is allowt ta but not that shit be required.


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Rapids unveil new 'alternate' road jersey inspired by Colorado state flag
At various times last season, Colorado Rapids fans lobbied the club's front office with an idea for a new uniform: Why not take the Colorado flag as inspiration for the design?
Club president Tim Hinchey didn't show his cards then. But Major League Soccer and Adidas require more than one year's notice on new jerseys. And that's exactly what the Rapids were working on.
The club today revealed an "alternate" shirt the Rapids will wear for most road games – breaking with its signature burgundy for a jersey incorporating the red, blue and yellow of the Colorado flag.
One thing still missing from the jersey front, at least to start the season: a corporate sponsor. Hinchey said he came close with two large Colorado-based corporations in the past six months. He said the club's next step probably will be to court a company based elsewhere that has a strong presence in Colorado.
For now, fans will have to be content with the new Colorado flag-themed kits, which had been hinted at in MLS marketing materials and will be formally unveiled at an event at a LoDo bar Tuesday night after a tour of the state. The Rapids will wear the bright blue jerseys in the season opener Saturday at FC Dallas.


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(S.D.)-Officials Hope Fingerprints Help Identify Black Hills Body
By: Chris Fankhauser Posted at: 09/06/2013 03:17 PM
RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) - Investigators have released a better description of the body found last weekend in the Black Hills but still don't have her identity.
Someone taking photos along Iron Mountain Road near Mount Rushmore discovered the decomposed female body.
Pennington County and Rapid City authorities say an autopsy determined the woman was of middle age, possibly 40 to 60 years old, 5 feet 8 inches to 5 feet 9 inches tall, with shoulder-length brunette or auburn hair.
She was wearing a T-shirt and Capri-style sweatpants.
Her race could not be confirmed but she was possibly Caucasian.
Investigators believe she died sometime in the past month.
Partial fingerprints and potential DNA samples are being checked to see if they help in identifying her. Detectives are also checking missing persons reports.
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press)


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Did you read today's front page stories & breaking news?
From the Wires
Australian Department of Defense and Accenture Successfully Complete Major Milestone for Data Center Migration
By: Business Wire
Jan. 22, 2013 06:00 PM
The Australian Department of Defense, in collaboration with Accenture (NYSE: ACN), has successfully completed a major milestone in the migration of the Department's primary data center to a new facility in Sydney, a core outcome of the Data Centre Migration (DCM) project.
The migration is a key part of the Department's Strategic Reform Program to consolidate data centers, and its IT environments, in an effort to deliver AUS $1.9 billion in savings over the next decade. As the Department's primary data center, the new Sydney facility will house the core enterprise resource planning applications including payroll, human resources, finance and logistics.
"The successful completion of this significant and complex data migration project will assist the Department in realizing its cost-savings goals under the Strategic Reform Program. Importantly, the project will deliver Data Centre agility and IT operational effectiveness for the Department's business critical applications including HR, finance and logistics," said Matthew Gollings, who leads Accenture's Defense business in Australia.
The seamless data migration of the primary data center will lead to savings on support and equipment costs, enhanced delivery of information and communication services and reduced energy consumption by the Department.
"I am thrilled with the recent data center migration, a major milestone within the Strategic Reform Program," said Matt Yannopoulos, chief technology officer, Australian Department of Defense. "The success of what has been a significant and complex journey is a result of Accenture's extensive engagement with many parts of the Chief Information Officer Group and the wider Defense organization, and their global experience in data centers."
The Data Center Migration Project is one of a number of projects Accenture is completing for the Australian Department of Defense. Accenture was recently awarded a five-year contract as the Department's Human Resources Applications Sustainment partner, as well as a contract to complete design of a modern human resource IT capability under JP2080 Phase 2B.1. of the Department's Defense Management Systems Improvement program.
Learn more about Accenture's global defense business including recent contract wins with the Norwegian Armed Forces, UK Ministry of Defense, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy and the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency.
Learn more about Accenture's Defense & Public Safety business, Turning Insights into Outcomes
About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with approximately 259,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world's most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$27.9 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2012. Its home page is www.accenture.com.
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According to Google Trends, it appears there may have been a significant drop in traffic from Google referrals to major Internet Yellow Pages (IYPs) sites:
Yellowpages.com, Superpages.com, Yelp.com, Citysearch.com, and WhitePages.com all look like they're dipping in sync.
Is it possible that IYPs have fallen under the treads of a Panda update?
It's still perhaps early to tell, but it's looking like they're all experiencing something similar.


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News Eagle Correspondent
The Shohola Board of Supervisors would consider having a cell-phone tower built in the township if a local resident can provide the land.
A township resident expressed concern over the lack of communication during Hurricane Sandy at the Nov. 8 monthly supervisors meeting, and suggested a cell-phone tower would be a good solution.
"You can do it, but it's a conditional use-type situation. First, someone would have to come before the Planning Commission. I think it was done maybe 15 years ago. For whatever reason, it didn't pass, but that was before people had cell phones," said Chairman George Fluhr Jr. "Right now, I think at this point, we would entertain anybody who would be interested in it. Of course, it depends on where it would be put."
Supervisor Keith Raser, who is also director of Transportation for Pike County, said he heard CellularOne has been purchased by Verizon, and it is looking for locations to build a cell-phone tower in Barryville, Lackawaxen or Shohola.
Storm roundup
The resident also asked whether the township can take down trees crossing over state roads such as Route 434 because of fire hazards. He mentioned that two trees were blocking Route 434, and the road was closed by the state. Fluhr said he had extensive discussions with PennDOT, and the answer is no, only PennDOT has the power to re-open the road.
Chris Malzahn, chief of Shohola's fire department, said that the emergency operations center at the fire station opened at 2 p.m. on Oct. 29, the day Hurricane Sandy arrived. He explained that the fire station was open 24/7 from Monday, Oct. 29, until Saturday, Nov. 3 to keep the generator going, as a location for local residents to get water for their homes, and to address medical needs.
Malzahn said that the department set up portable generators for several local residents who have medical issues, and he called in 46 poll numbers to PPL to notify them they were down. He emphasized that Shohola residents should let the department know when future storms happen if they need help.
We cleared 90 to 100 trees from different roadways throughout the township. At some point during the storm, the trees were coming down so fast, we had to cut our way in, turn around, cut our way back out. So, it was a very busy night," Malzahn said.
Fluhr thanked the fire and police departments for their work during Sandy.
On behalf of the board, we would like to thank you and the entire department for all that you did. We all communicated back and forth, but it was a pleasure to work with such an efficient and professional unit, and the Shohola Police Department," said Fluhr. "They really did an outstanding job, and I think the whole town should be proud of how things were done."
Raser noted that any Shohola residents who are on food stamps and lost their food during Sandy can receive a voucher from DPW to replace it. He also said that, according to the governor's office, hurricane deductibles will be waived when filing insurance claims.
In other news:
• Michael Sullivan, executive director of the Pike County Economic Development Authority and Chamber of Commerce, asked the supervisors to consider a five-year property tax abatement program on improvements for businesses that move to Shohola. Businesses who make improvements would receive a 90 percent tax abatement in the first year, 80 percent in the second year, 60 percent in the third year, 40 percent in the fourth year, and 20 percent in the fifth year. Sullivan said there is a Shohola business owner who currently has 40 employees and is looking to expand to 80, and it's important to create incentives for businesses to stay and move to the township. According to Sullivan, New York State made a more attractive offer to the business owner, but they decided to stick with Shohola because it's a hospitable place to be. Sullivan also said the township would need to hold a public hearing before approving the move. Fluhr said Township Solicitor Jason Ohliger will review the proposal. According to Sullivan, all the county commissioners are on board with the proposal.
• The supervisors approved the purchase of a new police and road crew vehicle.
• Former township administrative assistant Marianne Yeaw said she heard some permits being issued are taking more than six weeks to be granted by zoning officer Robert DiLorenzo. She suggested the township look for another sewage enforcement officer if DiLorenzo doesn't have enough time to balance his workload between Shohola and other townships. Fluhr Jr. said if somebody is having permit issues, they should come directly to the board.
The Pumpkins in the Park event, held Oct. 13 at Rhoman Park, drew 219 residents with children. More than 100 children participated in the costume parade.
Shohola Board of Supervisors meetings are held the second Thursday of each month at 7:30 p.m., at the township building, 159 Twin Lakes Road.
Sups open to cell phone tower Shohola, Lackawaxen and Barryville sites mentioned
News Eagle Correspondent


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Any biographer who labours on a book for 13 or 14 years should be pitied rather than praised, says Jeffrey Meyers, an American literary scholar and author of 50 books, including 22 biographies.
"It's just inefficient," he says. "They become resentful. I've reviewed a lot of biographies and you can tell when the author feels his life has been eaten up by his subject."
Professor Meyers, who lives in Berkeley, California, is so efficient that he researches his subjects for six months, then writes three pages a day until he finishes a 400-page biography in three or four months.
Meyers is in Australia to give the Seymour Biography Lecture. His intriguing subject is the discovery of secret lovers while researching the biographies of Joseph Conrad, Wyndham Lewis, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Robert Frost.
The poet Frost, for example, was widowed in his early 60s in 1938 and was considered an old man whose sexual and emotional life was over.
"But I'd seen Frost read when I was a student and he was in his 70s and still a vigorous man," Meyers says. "When I wrote the book [published in 1996] I was about 60 and I asked myself, am I willing to give up my sexual life? I assumed he had a sexual life and so I asked, with whom?"
Meyers learned Frost had a 25-year affair with his married secretary and wrote many of his love poems for her. He tracked down the woman's daughter, who as a girl had watched her father drive his car while Frost sat with his arm around her mother in the back seat.
"When I went to her house she said, 'I've been waiting all my life for you to come'. She didn't want to tell the story but she was willing to relieve herself of the secret she had kept all her life."
Some of his best research, Meyers says, was for Inherited Risk, a double biography of the Australian-born actor Errol Flynn and his son Sean, a war photographer who disappeared in Cambodia in 1970.
He traced a path to a Cambodian woman who was researching missing journalists and learned that Sean Flynn had been beheaded in a Vietcong prison camp.
Most recently he published a biography of the filmmaker John Huston and a collection of letters the English novelist Iris Murdoch wrote to him over 20 years.
He puts his productivity down to experience, enthusiasm, "extreme" organisation and his wife's editing.
"We have very interesting intellectual arguments when I think one way and she thinks another," he says. "I'm very pleased with what I write and she says, 'It's a piece of crap, throw it out and start again'."
Jeffrey Meyers will lecture on The Search for Five Women at the National Library on September 13 and the State Library of NSW on September 20.


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Development: The DVB Decoder Challenge
When implementing a Hard- or Software MPEG2 Decoder one will encounter several challenges, most of them are not too hard to solve but very DVB-specific and can be quite annoying if not properly handled.
So this page tries to list them, to discuss common approaches and to outline elegant solutions.
The STC sync problem
Whenever a client has to decode a live stream from a server it has to adjust it's own system time clock to the one of the server, for several reasons:
- Transmitted data is bursty, the decoder has to display content with a little delay. This delay should get minimized, otherwise you always hear your neighbors celebrating the soccer championship goal 3 seconds before you can see it.
- The server clock may run continously faster or slower than the host clock, so the time difference may increase with time
The Solution is the PCR (Program Clock Reference) a special clock reference value transmitted every few MPEG2 TS packets in the TS packet header. This reference allows the client to synchronize it's own clock to the one of the server. Hardware MPEG2 decoders use voltage-controlled oscillators or numerically controlled oscillators for this purpose.
Software decoders followed different approaches in the past:
- naive codes just watch the buffer fuel level and drop or delay frames.
- VLC low-pass filters the incoming clock references and uses a linear approximation algorithm to approach the server clock reference.
- A theoretically a little hard to understand but very efficient and easy to implement approach uses Kalman Filtering.
Audio/Video Sync
You should ensure that Audio and video frames are correctly presented to the user at the System Clock Time encoded in the frame's PTS (Presentation Time Stamp).
The STC should get synchronized regularily to the server clock using the PCR. For recorded playback you can either use the host clock, the video frame sync or the audio crystal as clock reference to sync.
Screen/Decoder Sync Aliasing
Unless the Display Refresh rate is at least twice as high as the frame rate of the displayed video you will get aliasing artifacts (jerking video due to dropped or double frames). See Wikipedia:Nyquist and Wikipedia:Nyquist-Shannon_sampling_theorem for a overview over sampling theory and a short explanation of aliasing artifacts when sampling below the Nyquist frequency.
Audio Clock pitching
Since the sample rate of most soundcards can't get smoothly adjusted while playing it may be possible to resample the audio signal in software before sending it to the sound card. Naive nearest-neighbor or sample-drop approaches are trivial to implement, even linear filtering costs only a few lines of code. Most audio libraries have resampling routines built in, there are also resampling libraries available on the net.
ISO/IEC13818-1 allows maximum clock rate changes of 0.075Hz/sec in order to avoid audible artifacts in playback.
Color Correction, the Gamma Question
Computer Monitors and Video Projectors have a different Gamma Curve than Television Screens. Thus you need to apply a proper correction curve to the display. All common graphics libraries like SDL, DirectFB and SDL provide an API to set up the Gamma Color Lookup Tables. Not hard to do, just has to be done correctly otherwise you risk weak colors on the display.


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Mar 09, 2007
March 9, 2007
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - UC Santa Barbara's Jennifer Schwalb and Anne Marie May were in action on day one of the 2007 NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving Championship on Thursday n Minneapolis, Minn.
Schwalb, a senior, placed 48th out of a field of 69 in the 200 individual medley. Her time was 2:02.42. May, a freshman, placed 21st out of 72 in the 50-yard freestyle, and her time of 22.70 was the second-best among freshmen all freshmen competing.
Schwalb will compete in two more events in the meet. On Friday, she will swim in the 100 butterfly and on Saturday she will go in the 200 fly. May will swim in the 100 freestyle on Saturday.


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Among the pleasures of seeing an August Wilson play, it's often said, is just listening to the people talk.
As Los Angeles Times theater critic Charles McNulty has noted, Wilson stocks his scripts with "natural raconteurs" and lets them soar in "verbal arias" full of earthy poetry.
In that sense, a recent dinner break interview with Keith David, John Douglas Thompson and Glynn Turman was more or less an extension of what they'd been doing in rehearsals for the Mark Taper Forum's revival of "Joe Turner's Come and Gone."
The drama, which premiered in 1986 and arrived on Broadway two years later, was the fourth installment in the 10-play Wilson cycle that explores the African American experience in each decade of the 20th century.
All but one, "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," is set in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, where he grew up. The 10th, "Radio Golf," was playing at the Taper in 2005 as Wilson made final revisions before dying of liver cancer at age 60 two weeks after it closed.
PHOTOS: Arts and culture by The Times
Over takeout pizza and sandwiches, the raconteurial spirit carried over into the "Joe Turner" costars' own stories. Even though this is only the second Wilson play for David and Turman and Thompson's first, the playwright's gravitational pull, or that of his crucial ally, director Lloyd Richards, has been strong for all of them.
David plays Seth Holly, a cranky boardinghouse owner and avid backyard entrepreneur who has no patience for Thompson's character, Herald Loomis, a devastated victim of brutal racist exploitation in early-1900s Tennessee.
Loomis turns up at Holly's boardinghouse in 1911, having spent seven years enslaved by Joe Turner — an unseen historical figure who, as the governor's brother, enjoyed impunity while dragooning presumably free blacks into forced labor. Turman plays Holly's longtime boarder and polar opposite, Bynum, a spiritual healer who performs folk-magic rites and tries to help Loomis.
A radiant, hard-earned theme of "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" is that a sustaining force is alive in the world for each of us, and it's possible to bind oneself to it — to find one's "song," as Wilson puts it — instead of staying chained to suffering. Without deliberately trying to, the middle-aged costars told stories about themselves that illustrated a slice of what Wilson says about the importance of finding, or not forgetting, your song.
David and Turman are L.A.-based Emmy Award winners. As a television narrator, David's elegant basso profundo has stitched the fabric of several Ken Burns documentaries, including "Jazz," and, in his Emmy-winning performances, "The War" and "Unforgiven Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson."
The bearded Turman had a recurring part in "The Wire" as Baltimore's mayor. He won his Emmy in 2008 for a guest-starring role in another HBO series, "In Treatment."
CHEAT SHEET: Spring Arts Preview
Thompson, who lives in Brooklyn, collected a 2009 Obie Award playing Othello; around that time he was the subject of a New Yorker profile in which Columbia University Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro described him as "the best American actor in Shakespeare, hands down."
A crucial moment for Wilson came when he dropped out of high school over a teacher's allegation that he couldn't have submitted a brilliant essay unless it was plagiarized. Around the same time, Turman was helping to write an important chapter in the history of American theater and African American life.
One day in 1958, not long after they'd moved from Harlem to New York's Greenwich Village, Turman's mother told him that her friend who lived down the street, "the pretty lady with the Collie dog," had written a play that needed a 12-year-old boy such as himself.
ART: Can you guess the high price?
Reluctantly tearing himself away from baseball, Turman accepted Lorraine Hansberry's invitation and stepped into the role of Travis Younger. The play was "A Raisin in the Sun," and his stage parents were Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee; Turman says he doesn't know whether his stage grandma, Lena Younger, played by Claudia McNeil, was named after his mom, Lena McCaulla.
Turman spent a year with the show, first on the road, then on Broadway, and continued acting in other plays. But his mother died while he was in his teens, and he thinks he might have drifted away from acting if a shop teacher who'd seen him in "Raisin" hadn't urged him to apply to the now-legendary High School of Performing Arts.
As he neared age 20, Turman found himself with no acting roles and driving a rickety moving van through mid-1960s Manhattan. Idling at a stoplight, he sneaked a peek at the casting notices in a stage newspaper. At that moment, he saw, his old "Raisin" director, Lloyd Richards, was holding auditions for a new play by Ron Milner.
Turman sped over to have a word with Richards — his fellow movers and their customer would just have to wait — and resurrected his foundering career. As artistic director of Yale Repertory Theatre, Richards would later usher August Wilson into the limelight, launching six plays in the cycle and taking them to Broadway. But by the time the Wilson-Richards collaboration began in the early 1980s, Turman had moved to Los Angeles. He says he doesn't regret having missed out on Wilson roles until 2008, when he starred in "Two Trains Running" at L.A.'s Ebony Repertory Theatre.
"My aunt had a great saying: `What's for you is what's for you,'" Turman said in a rich, gravelly baritone. Maybe, he says, Wilson's roles were not for him until he passed 60 and, like the character he's now playing, had matured fully into his own life's song.
David's path to his first role in a Wilson play, 18 years ago, was strewn with discordant notes between himself and director Richards.
In the late 1970s, around the time he'd finished his acting degree at the Juilliard School, the New York City-raised David, like Turman an alum of the High School of Performing Arts, flew to Los Angeles to audition for a part in the miniseries "Roots: The Next Generation." David says he was too nervous to seize the job; speaking in an airy whine, he mimicked the chiding reaction of the director, Richards: "`Why'd you get so uptight?'"
In 1983, with a bevy of Shakespearean and other classic stage roles under his belt, David says Richards signed him to star in a non-Wilson play at Yale Rep, with the understanding that he'd be bounced if James Earl Jones became available. Jones showed up, David was out of a job, and Richards made a pledge to the young actor: "He said, 'I owe you one.'"
David said he was invited a few years later to audition for a touring company of Wilson's "Fences" but thought he was too old or too young for the available parts (now in his 50s, he'd love to play Troy Maxson, the embittered former baseball star in "Fences" who was originated by Jones in a Tony-winning turn).
In 1995, Richards delivered on his promise. He gave David — by then something of a draw in his own right after a Tony-nominated role in George C. Wolfe's "Jelly's Last Jam" — the lead as a doomed 1940s bluesman in Wilson's "Seven Guitars."
For David, Wilson's talking arias require the same level of skill, concentration and understanding as Shakespearean verse.
"The demands of the language are just as important," he said. "It's poetry. Wilson isn't writing in iambic pentameter, but he's writing in a rhythm. Phylicia [Rashad, who's directing 'Joe Turner'] was talking about it the other day: You can't miss an 'and' or a 'but.' When you're on the beat and with the beat, then it's like music."
It will be up to Thompson, in the drama's final moments, to effect the sudden transformation of Herald Loomis. On the page, the degree of thespian difficulty seems off the charts.
But if anyone should know about undergoing profound transformation in a theater, it's Thompson.
One night in spring 1986, he stood outside Yale Repertory Theatre holding two tickets to the premiere of a new play — a young computer salesman aiming to impress a student at Yale Medical School with his cultured ways on their first date. It would, in fact, be only the second play he'd ever seen, after Rupert Holmes' musical version of Charles Dickens' "The Mystery of Edwin Drood."
She stood him up, and now he can't recall her name — "I think it was Denise." He remembers the play well. It was "Joe Turner's Come and Gone," and Thompson says it changed his life.
"It was nobility in action, something I'd never seen." The writing and the actors, including Charles S. Dutton as Loomis, "dignified these normal lives and gave them greatness. As I was watching, I was praying this would be something I could do and devote my life to."
Thompson said he deferred his new dream for several years, but when he was laid off, he had enough savings and severance pay to live on while pursuing it with classes at Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, R.I.
And now, here he is. "I said to Keith the other night as I was walking home, 'I'd always romanticized this play and the role because it's what made me want to be an actor,'" Thompson said. "'When you romanticize things, you forget how hard they are.' I hope all the stuff I've done previously has prepared me for this. It's mountain climbing."
'Joe Turner's Come and Gone'
Where: Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles.
When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays. Ends June 9.
Tickets: $20 to $70
Contact: (213) 628-2772, http://www.centertheatregroup.org
PHOTOS: Hollywood stars on stage CHEAT SHEET: Spring arts preview 2014 PHOTOS: Arts and culture in pictures
PHOTOS: Hollywood stars on stage
CHEAT SHEET: Spring arts preview 2014
PHOTOS: Arts and culture in pictures


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INDIANAPOLIS – Everyone knows
Playing in a rush linebacker spot for the first time in his NFL career, Mathis gave opposing offenses nightmares in 2013.
His 19.5 sacks led the NFL and he compiled 46.4 percent of the Colts sack total last year (10 percent higher then any player in the league).
If it hasn't happened already, Mathis will undoubtedly see more attention his way in 2014, and with that allows opportunities for other Colts to get in on the pass rushing action.
Here's a look at the three Colts who followed Mathis in the sacks category last season:
Defensive End
While Redding was one of the better 3-4 defensive ends against the run last year (7th in the NFL according to Pro Football Focus), the 11-year veteran also had his second highest career-sack total with 4.5.
His interior pressure was a welcomed commodity for the Colts defense and something that should only bolster with a healthy
When the 2013 season came to a close, Redding didn't like the sight of all the trash bags around the Colts locker room.
Redding doesn't want those bags coming around until early February 2015 and he left his teammates with this message:
"Don't stop pressing. Continue to press in every phase of your life. Continue to be great men, great fathers and ultimate teammates and never stop. Always continue to keep getting better and get ready to do it one more time. Take time to let your body heal. Refresh your mind, but come back next year ready to grind."
Inside Linebacker
The tackling machine Freeman showed in 2012 was once again on display last year, with an added dimension.
Freeman made game-changing plays from the inside linebacker position, something that isn't typically seen from that spot around the NFL.
In his second year in the NFL, Freeman excelled as a blitzer and Pro Football Focus ranked him as the second best pass rushing inside linebacker last year (5.5 sacks).
Freeman has experience playing on the Canadian Football League's biggest stage (Grey Cup) and now he hopes to reach that same level in the NFL.
"You know how we feel around here is a successful year is a Super Bowl. We have lofty expectations for ourselves, reachable goals though," Freeman said.
"We felt we could have reached them (in 2013) regardless of all the adversity we did face. We're going to get better. We'll be back next year and we'll be alright."
Outside Linebacker
Walden's 3.0 sacks in 2013 don't jump off the stat sheet but Chuck Pagano has made it clear what he is looking for, and what he's getting, out of the man opposite Robert Mathis.
"He's a great edge setter in the run game," Pagano says of Walden. "That's the number one criteria for the position that he plays. No. 2 is pass rush. He's more then a capable pass rusher. The numbers weren't what he wanted or expected but he affected a lot of plays. You may not have a lot of sack numbers like Robert did on the other side but he affects a lot of those plays. He affects plays that other guys make."
Walden came to Indianapolis in 2013 with a Super Bowl ring and after recharging his body this offseason, he's anxious for another shot at Lombardi Trophy No. 2.
"We fell short of our goals but like I was telling the young guys, 'It's a learning experience and you've got to move on.' If this isn't motivation for the offseason, I don't know what is."


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UVM Department of Theatre Presents 'The Heidi Chronicles'
- 02-11-2013
- By Wayne H Tetrick
The University of Vermont Department of Theatre presents The Heidi Chronicles, Feb. 14 - 24 on the stage of the Royall Tyler Theatre.
The Heidi Chronicles, written by Pulitzer Prize winner Wendy Wasserstein, is the final main stage production of the 2012/2013, a season which saw the Department of Theatre celebrating the work of women playwrights. Directed by Associate Professor Peter Jack Tkatch, The Heidi Chronicles captures the triumphs of women coming of age in the turbulent times from the 1960's through the 1980's. Heidi Holland juggles her career and personal life in a quest to "have it all" in this funny and deeply moving work that established Wasserstein's place as one of America's cherished female playwrights.
Winner of the Tony award, The Drama Desk and the New York Critics Circle Award for Best Play of 1989 The Heidi Chronicles is a fitting culmination to this season of plays that depict women's struggle to overcome adversity as they remind us of the challenges that still exist in all walks of life.
Performances are Thursday through Saturday evenings at 7:30 p.m., Feb. 14 – 16 and 21 – 23. Matinee performances are at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 16 and Sunday, Feb. 24. Tickets can be purchased in person or by telephone, (802) 656-2094, at the Royall Tyler Theatre box office, Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets are also available online at uvmtheatre.org. Ticket prices are $18 for adults, $15 for UVM faculty, staff, Seniors (55+) and non-UVM students and $7 for UVM students.
Information: (802) 656-2094, uvmtheatre.org.


text:
Bot::Backbone::Meta::Class::Service - Metaclass attached to backbone bot services
version 0.140590
This provides some tools necessary for building a dispatcher. It also lists all the additional roles that should be applied to a bot using this service.
This is a list of packages that will be applied as roles to the bot when this service is configured.
Andrew Sterling Hanenkamp <firstname.lastname@example.com>
This software is copyright (c) 2014 by Qubling Software LLC.
This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.


text:
Up until the present day, an injustice was done to the Jewish refugees from Arab and Muslim countries. Their property rights and their historic justice were abandoned.But the part they highlighted was this part:
During various efforts and talks in pursuit of peace between Israel and the Palestinians, negotiators have overlooked an important element pertaining to the Arab-Israeli conflict - the uprooting of around 850,000 Jews living in Arab nations, the loss of their assets and property, and the difficulties they underwent upon migrating to Israel and their absorption.
Close to half of Israel's Jewish citizen's today, including their descendents, came from Arab countries.This is a remarkable statistic.
The MFA's point:
There should be a joint solution between the Arab countries and the international community in order to provide compensation for both Palestinian and Jewish refugees. In order to achieve this goal an international fund will be created that will be based on President Clinton's suggestion from 2000 and the Congress resolution 185 from 2008 in which Israel will also take part, even only in a symbolic way.However, there is a reason that the almost throwaway sentence highlighted by Al Quds is critically important.
This fund will also compensate the countries that had already been working on absorbing and rehabilitating refugees; amongst others Jordan and Israel (retroactively) and perhaps Lebanon if it is willing to rehabilitate the descendants of Palestinian refugees in its territory. Here we should emphasize that the basis for compensation will be the value of assets of the refugees at the time, which according to research was much greater on the Jewish side than on the Palestinian side.
The fund will also deal with the issue of Jewish property that is still in the hands of Arab and Muslim countries, however the so-called Right of Return will not be relevant as the Jews are not interested in returning to the places from which they were deported from.
The State of Israel will not accept the principle of a Palestinian "right of return" but will prefer to provide compensation by an authorized third party. This demand has historic precedents as in the case of Cyprus.
... The Palestinian refugees will be rehabilitated in their place of residence just as the Jewish refugees were rehabilitated in theirs - Israel. There should be an immediate discontinuation of the perpetuation of the Palestinian refugee issue.
It completely destroys the Arab narrative that Israel is a colonialist entity.
If half of Israel's citizens are from the Middle East, then Israel is not an artificial European colonialist state as the Arab world likes to define it. Israelis are as likely as not to be descended from Jews who lived in the Middle East for centuries.
Of course, even if 100% of Israel's citizens were European Jews, it would not be colonialist either. But this statistic is a much more visceral argument against every stereotype Arabs try to ascribe to Israel, and it is important to highlight the fact that - even after the massive aliyah of Russian Jews in the 1990s - nearly half of Israeli Jews are native to the region by any definition.


text:
Article Tools
Grand Jury presentment part I
Grand Jury presentment part II
The state attorney general's office filed charges against six members of the Bolus family Friday, alleging crimes against the environment, energy companies and health care providers.
The investigation began in September 2011, when the state began gathering evidence that Brian Bolus, 43, 339 Furnace Road, Lewisburg, and his Minuteman Environmental Services Inc., Minuteman Spill Response Inc. and Minuteman Towing Inc. were illegally disposing of drilling wastes at their Harrisburg and Milton sites.
Efforts to reach Mr. Bolus and his attorney, Joshua Lock with Goldberg Katzman, were unsuccessful.
From 2008 through 2013, Mr. Bolus directed employees to take roll-off boxes and trucks carrying wastewater, drilling mud and cuttings from Marcellus Shale wells and rinse their contents onto the ground, according to a grand jury report.
At the Harrisburg site, Department of Environmental Protection inspectors found high levels of petroleum hydrocarbons in dark, gritty sediment collected from storm drains that led to an unnamed tributary of Laurel Run.
Grand Jury presentment part I
Grand Jury presentment part II
Mr. Bolus also directed employees to store roll-off boxes and drums filled with drilling mud, radioactive waste, acid, oil and mercury on one side of the property, where they would leak onto the ground, investigators said.
Minuteman Towing also illegally buried wreckage from a collision of several vehicles and mobile homes on Interstate 80 in Columbia County.
Since at least 2010, investigators allege Brian Bolus' companies were overbilling energy companies for its services. They overcharged Anadarko Petroleum Corp. by $121,000 and 52 other companies — many of them the largest natural gas producers in the state — by unspecified amounts.
Gov. Tom Corbett visited Minuteman Environmental Services in 2012, praising the company for hiring Pennsylvanians. He called the company "an American success story," according to The Associated Press.
The investigation into environmental crimes led to further investigations of insurance fraud. Prosecutors say Mr. Bolus and his father, Bob Bolus Sr., 71, listed family members as employees of their various businesses, though they didn't perform any services. These family members then made medical and pharmacy claims against Geisinger Health Plan.
Three businesses owned by Bob Bolus Sr., were also charged with insurance fraud — Bolus Truck Parts and Towing Services Inc., Key Brockway Inc., and Key Sales and Center Inc., all listed at 922 Sanderson St. in Throop.
An employee at Bolus Truck Parts would not comment on the charges or refer The Times-Tribune to an attorney for the businesses.
Bob Bolus Sr. is being held in Lackawanna County Prison in lieu of $25,000 bail.
Prosecutors also charged Robert Bolus Jr., 48, 8 Red Bud Drive, Bloomsburg; Julie Bolus, 71, 6 Pleasant View Drive, Mountain Top; Debra Bolus, 50, 125 Kestrel Rd., Mountain Top; and Sophie Gregory, 50, 4906 60th Drive E., Bradenton, Fla., with insurance fraud.
Efforts to reach each of these family members were not successful.
All family members except Bob Bolus Sr. were processed at the Union County Sheriff's office and free on bail, attorney general spokeswoman Carolyn Myers said.
Contact the writer: firstname.lastname@example.com, @bgibbonsTT on Twitter


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Specialty Food Shop Review: Scarborough Fare in New Paltz, Ulster County, NY
A well-stocked pantry in Ulster County offers goodies and condiments
(page 1 of 2)
What's the next step for a guy with a degree in exercise science and wellness, who was once a cop in the military, is still a firefighter, and is about to complete a second degree in cellular molecular biology? Yes, that's right: proprietor of a shop selling fine olive oils, vinegars and other gourmet specialties. Such is the background (so far) of 28-year-old Cory Wirthmann, who teamed up with his mother, Donna Wirthmann, to open a terrific little store called Scarborough Fare in New Paltz in April. "It's because of the chemical reaction of oils and vinegars," his mother (sort of) explains about how Cory's education led to this newest venture. "He loves to cook. You can give him five ingredients and he'll make a delicious whatever."
Scarborough Fare is modeled on a shop Donna discovered in Cape Cod. What sets it apart from your run-of-the-mill gourmet shop is the island in the middle built to hold 14 "fusti" — stainless steel containers that look like old-time milk churns, filled with oils and vinegars to taste. So far, nine are filled: 6 with fine olive oils (basil infused, garlic infused, jalapeno, a Tuscan blend, Mission, and a peppery Manzanilla); and three with balsamic vinegars (regular, pomegranate and vanilla).
Once you've tasted, made your purchase, taken it home and used it up, you can bring the bottle back for a refill. Or bring in a clean, empty bottle that once held something else, and fill that. "We're into the reuse thing," Cory says. "Reuse" is appealing for those into the spend-less-money thing, too. A 250 ml bottle of the basil-infused oil, for example, costs $10.99, and you can refill it for $1.09 an ounce. This milliliter/ounce business is a little confusing, but Google reveals that 250 ml equals 8.4 U.S. fluid ounces. (The imperial fluid ounce is bigger, in case you were wondering — a pint in a British pub is 20 fluid ounces, four more ounces than a pint here. It's often better beer, too, despite all the silly jokes about it being warm.)
(Continue on next page)
» Visit Scarborough Fare in New Paltz, NY
» Read more from The Accidental Foodie blog
» Visit our Hudson Valley Food & Drink Guide
» Visit our Hudson Valley Restaurants & Dining Guide


text: Happy Birthday, Prayer Pups! I'm one of the people who tried to wish Phred a happy birthday on January 1. He explained to me that it isn't his birthday but the day he chose for the Prayer Pups :love: :love: and one that is easy to remember. So -- Happy Birthday, dear Cinder and Smokey! I hope your people will give you a big hug from me today (((HUG)))


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Glam slam
If you're a RuPaul's Drag Race fan, you'll love Springfield's first ever Drag Race put on by the Phoenix Center of Springfield and Springfield PrideFest 2012. Six winners of the night's performances will be featured at the May festival. The VIP party begins at 6:30 p.m. with food, cash bar and live music by Josie Lowder. Then VIPs get upfront seating and backstage passes to meet the evening's stars. Included in the lineup as of press time are: Jayla Carrinton, Jericha Knight, Sara Belle Knight, MaKena Murie Knight, J Estellado Knight, Lolita Vixen LaRouge, Morgan Michaels, Milaneyah Knight, Asianna Larough, Veer Pratap Singh, Latonya Manroe Michaels Larough, Honey Lamoore Cass and Ms. Stacy Ames. Tickets can be purchased at a reduced price before the show online at www.atthelegacy.com or at the Phoenix Center, 109 E. Lawrence Ave. All proceeds benefit Springfield PrideFest.
Springfield Pride Drag Race
Friday, Mar. 2, 8-11pm
The Legacy Theatre
101 E. Lawrence Ave.


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Same-sex marriage resumes in Pulaski County
This article was originally published May 13, 2014 at 9:17 a.m. Updated May 13, 2014 at 4:19 p.m.
- Comments (13)
- aAFont Size
Same-sex marriage licenses were issued for a second day in a row at the Pulaski County courthouse Tuesday as couples from around Arkansas and out of state got married ahead of a possible stay that could at least temporarily halt the ceremonies.
The marriages resumed in Pulaski County even as Saline County stopped issuing licenses to same-sex couples a day after offering them.
About a dozen couples were in line at the Pulaski County clerk's office when it began issuing licenses at 8 a.m., and 18 had sought licenses by 8:30 a.m.
Terri Langley-Weber, 56, and Lisa Weber, 50, were married in a quick ceremony just down the hall from the clerk's office. Both were in tears as they exchanged rings and vows and were legally married by Julie Gerlinger, a volunteer officiant who performed 40 marriages Monday at the courthouse.
Langley-Weber and Weber drove all night from Houston, Texas, arriving at their Little Rock hotel with time enough only to shower before heading to the courthouse a few hours before it opened.
It was tense waiting and not being sure same-sex marriages would resume, Langley-Weber said. The Arkansas Supreme Court received a motion from the attorney general's office seeking a stay of the Friday ruling by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza that overturned Arkansas's ban on same-sex marriages, and it wasn't clear when a decision would be made. It wasn't expected, though, before noon Tuesday when a response motion is due.
Langley-Weber said the couple is confident same-sex marriages will ultimately be legal as court cases like Arkansas' progress.
"You have a clear understanding if voters aren't going to do it, you go to the courts," she said.
The couple will stay in town a few days to celebrate their marriage and to sightsee.
"And to say 'thank you' to Little Rock," Langley-Weber added.
Gerlinger married several other couples Tuesday morning in quick, no-frills ceremonies that she advertised as taking "45 seconds" and were sometimes a little quicker.
Two other officiants on hand were offering slightly longer, but still brief, ceremonies in the courthouse rotunda. Gerlinger said she wanted to offer couples a wedding as quickly as possible knowing the stay could potentially come down at any time.
"It's terrifying and it's exhilarating," she said, tears in her eyes after leading the emotional ceremony with Langley-Weber and Weber. "But I feel so privileged to be a part of it."
Carol and Ranee Owens, both of Little Rock, were married in the rotunda in a ceremony that took only a few minutes.
It came about two years after they underwent a commitment ceremony together.
"We knew we would be together forever," Ranee Owens said. "Now we're legal."
Comments on: Same-sex marriage resumes in Pulaski County
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 13 total commentsJump to last page >>
Popsmith says... May 13, 2014 at 12:04 p.m.
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searkie says... May 13, 2014 at 12:26 p.m.
Why can one person override the known wishes of the majority of the people, as well as the legislature of the state and the constitution, as well as the recorded will of God, the great law maker, and he not be stopped by the state Supreme Court. What an obvious abuse of power. Why do we elect and pay the legislature to spend all the time they do every year, hashing out decisions if one person can impose his will and the wishes of a minority of people can override their laws and decisions. Will the Arkansas Supreme Court not backup our legislatures? Will the governor not stand for the majority vote of the people of the state? Chris Piazza needs to be removed from the bench. We already have enough of this kind of abuse of power in Washington.
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ToTheLeft says... May 13, 2014 at 12:33 p.m.
If gay people getting married does NOT affect you, don't worry about it.
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hah406 says... May 13, 2014 at 12:34 p.m.
searkie, a judge can over-rule the majority because the Constitution of the United States says he can. It is the principle of judicial review. And his decision will be reviewed by the Arkansas Supreme Court, and then by the United States Supreme Court. The Constitution exists in part to protect the rights of an unpopular minority from the tyranny of the majority. As for God, why don't we just leave it between those individuals and their God. It is very egotistical to presume to know the will of God or how he will judge.
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ArkansasHawk says... May 13, 2014 at 12:35 p.m.
So gay people have gotten married. How has anyone but their lives been changed? Gay marriage goes on in several states now and how has the country been negatively affected by it? I or my friends have not lost jobs, saw our way of life changed in the least bit. SO again what does it matter if they get married? There are real problems in this country the least of which is people of the same sex getting married. If marriage is SO important, why don't we pass a law that says straight and gay people now can only get a divorce if there is adultery involved, because the Bible says that is the only reason for a divorce.
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SRBROTHERINLAW says... May 13, 2014 at 12:51 p.m.
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searkie says... May 13, 2014 at 1:35 p.m.
I just really hate to see people seal their eternal destiny by going against God's plan for them. He will be the Supreme judge.
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ArkansasHawk says... May 13, 2014 at 2:12 p.m.
"No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." - U.S. Constitution
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Arkansasliberal says... May 13, 2014 at 5:47 p.m.
A couple drove all night from Houston to get married at the Pulaski County Courthouse. That's commitment and love. The Miller County Courthouse could have made a boatload of money from people streaming in from Texas, but chose not to.
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wonbigholiday says... May 13, 2014 at 5:51 p.m.
Good for them. Everyone should be treated equally. And I encourage all those in opposition to read Judge Piazza's entire opinion before making uninformed negative comments.
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text:
Original URL: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/03/bluecoat_secure_ra/
Blue Coat claims super-secure remote access
What do you call a secure overcoat?
Posted in Networks, 3rd October 2006 12:50 GMT
Blue Coat reckons its new SSL VPN appliance could be the most secure remote access device yet. Not only does Blue Coat RA encrypt the traffic between the client and the host, it also blocks keyloggers and framegrabbers, and encrypts the files it caches onto the client's hard disk.
The device derives from Blue Coat's takeover of Permeo back in January, Blue Coat international veep Nigel Hawthorn said. "We have strengthened it and repackaged it on the security side."
"What's most interesting about it is that it integrates remote access with endpoint security, and it does it transparently," he added.
The SSL VPN gateway downloads software called Blue Coat Connector to the client. This then scans it for dodgy processes and suppresses them - the company claims this means it can run securely even on clients that it doesn't manage, such as cybercafe PCs, and doesn't require the user to have admin rights to install it.
Where a file is downloaded to the client's hard disk, such as an email attachment, it is stored in encrypted form and only decrypted to the screen. It is then deleted once the session is over.
"We have done a lot of work to scan for and suppress keyloggers and framegrabbers," Hawthorn said. "Plus, the software is completely transient and completely cleans up after itself."
This level of security looks to be a first, although other VPN developers such as F5 and Whale (now owned by Microsoft) have the technology to follow suit.
Hawthorn said there will be three Blue Coat RA models, the difference being the number of remote users they can support simultaneously. They range from the 100-user 510A to the 500-user 810A and 1000-user 810B. Prices start at around £3,750 and go to almost £30,000. ®


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NASHVILLE, - The state Department of Education has rolled out a new package of incentives to help bring the best teachers to Tennessee's worst schools.
Beginning Wednesday the department is offering to pay $7,000 signing bonuses to every new top-rated teacher who agrees to teach for at least two years in the some of the worst-performing schools in the state. In addition, state officials will provide money to school districts to pay retention bonuses to every top-rated teacher who decides to stay at a priority school for the 2013-2014 school year.
Priority schools are the schools that perform in the bottom 5 percent in the state in terms of academic achievement. They are located in Memphis, as well as Davidson, Hamilton, Hardeman and Knox counties.


text:
1. When Bella made the connection between the thief and the Seattle newborns, were you surprised? If not, when did you figure it out?
2. How did you feel about Jess making light of the "friendship" she shared with Bella? Would you have reacted the same way Bella reacted?
3. Do you think Bella would have been more excited to graduate if there wasn't the danger from Seattle looming over her? Or do you think she still would have been contemplating the "ending" of her human life?
4. Charlie expresses some concern about not being able to give Bella everything, yet Bella tells him he's been the best dad. How honest do you think Bella was being in that whole conversation?


text:
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The most important events and product news
with the MUSIC STORE Newsletters!
The super compact Ibanez Promethean speaker has an unbelievably fat sound!
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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)
The winner from the previous month (November): Martin Reinert, Siegburg (DE)
You can rate this product if you like. By rating this product you will be automatically entered into our monthly shopping voucher giveaway!


text:
DIGHTON — When Anthony Azar begins his official tenure as the superintendent of Dighton-Rehoboth schools on July 1, it will represent his first superintendent post and a new beginning.
In many ways, it also represents a homecoming for Azar.
Azar served as a principal of the former Mulcahey Middle School in Taunton. He was dismissed seven years ago before he assumed his current post as an administrator of curriculum and professional development for New Bedford Public Schools.
In Greater Taunton, he met his wife and forged lifelong bonds with members of the community.
Azar lives in Rehoboth and will head up a district adjacent to Taunton, a place he holds dear to his heart. He began his tenure at Mulcahey as an assistant principal in 1994. He left for three years from 2001-04 to take on a principal's job in Rhode Island before returning to Mulcahey as principal in 2004.
"I currently count many families and former colleagues in Taunton as very dear friends. When it was reported in the Gazette recently about my appointment to the superintendent position, I heard from many of these people," he said recently. "The school community of Mulcahey Middle School was an extended family."
Azar noted that during his tenure at Mulcahey, the school community faced triumph and tragedy.
One student died while Azar was principal and he noted that a tree is planted on Azar's property in the student's honor.
Azar also faced his own trials. His mother passed away and his son was born prematurely — all within a span of a few months.
"I have vivid memories of how the Mulcahey/Taunton School Community came to comfort me and my family through some extremely difficult and dark times," Azar said.
But with the bad also came a lot of good.
"Despite some of the greatest odds against us at the time, the teachers and students were able to progress further than anyone would have ever believed," he said.
"When measured through MCAS and the provisions in the No Child Left Behind designations, the Mulcahey Middle School was only one of a handful of schools in Massachusetts that went from, in 2006, met no Annual Yearly Progress, to meeting AYP in all measurable areas as reported in 2007," Azar said. "This turn of events was nothing short of remarkable and was never to be repeated again."
In spite of the miraculous turnaround, the popular Azar's position was not extended beyond the 2006-07 school year, a controversial move at that time that led to some parents' protests.
But Azar moved on to his current role in New Bedford and Mulcahey was later converted into an elementary school during the 2011-12 school year.
Azar said his goal for Dighton-Rehoboth will be to raise its status from a state Level 2 district to Level 1.
As a coach and a parent in the community, Azar said some parents have told him that they choose not to send their kids to Dighton-Rehoboth and they are critical of the district.
"At some point in time and over time we began to lose students to other schools," Azar said. "It became very painfully obvious that the school system was not meeting the needs of all students. Thus, parents felt as though D-R was a great place to raise their child, but not such a great place to send their child to the public schools. I personally have not felt that way. We send our children to the public schools, one at the elementary school and one at the high school.
"The potential of this district is astronomical and we need to tap into it and expand it exponentially."
Azar said he plans on reaching out to parents who have lost faith in the school system.
He said many in Dighton-Rehoboth know Azar through his coaching and other endeavors, and have supported him while he was a candidate for the superintendent's position. In the end, the support certainly didn't hurt his chances — the School Committee voted 8-2 in favor of Azar last month.
He is working with D-R interim superintendent Michael Malone this month and next to get more acclimated with the district. After that, he will begin working full-time in June. His official tenure begins July 1.
"It has been a very long road to get back to the Greater Taunton area, and I could not be any happier," Azar said. "What a great way to celebrate my 30th year in education, with many more to come."


text:
Not Exactly Rocket Science
Tag archives for superorganism
The mighty insect colonies of ants, termites and bees have been described as superorganisms. Through the concerted action of many bodies working towards a common goal, they can achieve great feats of architecture, agriculture and warfare that individual insects cannot. That's more than just an evocative metaphor. Chen Hou from Arizona State University has found…


text:
The successful initial airborne maneuvers of Airbus A350 experimental test pilots Peter Chandler and Guy Magrin elicited immense relief and joy in Toulouse June 14. But the A350's first flight just three days ahead of this year's Paris air show also may well mark the end of an important chapter in aviation history.
The new Airbus long-haul aircraft, along with the Bombardier CSeries, are likely to be the last all-new, large commercial aircraft from Western manufacturers in a very long time. While Airbus and Boeing will be busy with development programs for many years to come, they are focusing on derivatives such as the Boeing 787-10 launched last week, either having just delivered an all-new aircraft (the 787) or flight-testing one (the A350). The next all-new Western jet could be as much as two decades away, as the two airframers assemble their commercially successful A320NEO and Boeing 737 MAX offerings into the 2030s and work on further upgrades or stretches of the A350, 787 and 777.
The manufacturers argue that technology is not where it should be to warrant further all-new concepts and the market success of their current and planned aircraft seems to push the next moves further out, if anything. Just how receptive airlines are to the reengining and upgrading concept was demonstrated again by Embraer's launch here of its next-generation E-Jets (see page 28) as well as the NEO and MAX orders Airbus and Boeing recorded during the show, mostly from low-fare carriers.
Eight years after the A380's first flight, Airbus is hoping to complete A350 flight tests and certification in 12-13 months. After an almost flawless first flight, Fernando Alonso, head of the Airbus flight-test center, says one of his challenges is "not to be overconfident." Alonso, part of the A350 crew of six, describes the first flight as "totally uneventful" and "a little bit boring."
A350 flight-test aircraft MSN001 spent 4 hr., 5 min. in the air on its initial flight. It climbed to 10,000 ft. in 8 min. and remained in the 10,000-15,000-ft. range for 2 hr., 48 min. while the crew tested the aircraft first in the most basic version of direct law and eventually in normal law.
"We went through sweeps to see how the structure reacts before we went to normal law," Alonso says. Similar tests were performed in normal law after around 90 min., with data being checked against calculated models through telemetry. "Two hours after takeoff, we were in normal law with all configurations cleared," Alonso says.
The crew engaged the autopilot for the last 5 min. of the cruise flight. The descent was also initiated in autopilot and autothrust mode, and buffeting effects were tested.
Back at 10,000 ft., an approach was simulated in full landing configuration, including a flare. Chandler and Magrin also went through a go-around procedure and decelerated down to a stall warning. While the two had built in some margin on takeoff speed, they took out that margin on landing and used brakes, reversers and spoilers as in routine operations.
The A350 performed its second flight June 19 and cleared the full envelope on a mission that lasted more than 5 hr. The aircraft climbed to 42,000 ft. and reached Mach 0.89, its maximum cruise speed, as well as its maximum angle of attack in normal law. Airbus planned to fly the aircraft over the Paris air show on June 21.
The start of the A350 flight-test program was not the only morale-booster for Airbus. The manufacturer received 466 additional orders and commitments here, 241 of which were firm. That takes the total firm orders to 758 for the year, just short of its goal of exceeding 800 in 2013. Airbus says it has been leading Boeing in the passenger widebody market over the past five years with a combined 820 orders for the A330, A350 and A380, compared to 587 for the 747-8, 767, 777 and 787.
The A380 program received a boon at the air show as well, with a memorandum of understanding for 20 aircraft from Doric Lease Corp., which plans to take delivery of them in 2016-21. These are the first A380 orders this year and, once firmed up, the Doric deal will be the largest for the program since Emirates ordered 32 units in 2010. Nevertheless, Airbus Chief Operating Officer for Customers John Leahy is not raising the target for 2013 (25 aircraft), although he concedes he might "sell a few more."
Indeed, like Airbus itself, Doric is only betting on airlines to order the jet in significant quantities sooner or later, and it is now offering new leasing access to the aircraft. It remains to be seen if actual operators will pick up that opportunity in sufficient numbers. Leahy notes that leasing A380s through Doric will "take a lot of the risk out of the decision to order the A380. We see this is as a breakthrough in marketing the aircraft."
Doric CEO Mark Lapidus says that "the economics [of the A380] are unbeatable" and will be "very competitive" even after the new efficient twins such as the A350 or 777X become available. There will be 400 routes viable for aircraft seating 400 or more passengers by the year 2020, he argues, partly because of scheduling and airport constraints. "We are under-ordering if anything," he says. "There is pent-up demand for this aircraft and we felt we needed to order now."
As Airbus moves closer to introducing the A350, Boeing is further broadening its widebody offering in the medium-large twin segment. The long-anticipated 787-10 launch comes on the heels of 102 orders from five customers. Scott Fancher, Boeing Commercial Airplanes vice president and general manager for airplane development, says launch of the proposed 777X is also "rapidly approaching," perhaps by year-end. The first 787-10, the largest of the three 787 versions, is to be delivered in 2018.
Among the customers launching the program are Air Lease Corp. (30 aircraft), Singapore Airlines (30), United Airlines (20), British Airways (12) and GE Capital Aviation Services (Gecas) (10). These are all new commitments, except 10 of the 20 United aircraft, rolled over from a previous 787 order and converted into the larger version.
The 787-10 is a 18-ft. stretch of the -9, allowing room for 40 more seats; Boeing says it will accommodate 300-330 passengers and have a range of 7,000 nm. Final assembly and flight tests are both to begin in 2017, with first delivery scheduled for 2018.
There have been concerns that, as a double-stretch of the original design, the -10's range might be insufficient for many carriers. And interestingly, none of the otherwise eagerly investing Persian Gulf carriers is part of the launch group—many of their routes are too long for the aircraft. But the increased range and slightly higher maximum takeoff weight of 553,000 lb. seem to have assuaged concerns. Reinforcements in the wing-to-body attachment area and on the landing gear were needed to accommodate the increased weight. Engine thrust will also be slightly higher than originally planned. "The range covers 97% of the widebody city pairs of the world," Air Lease Corp. (ALC) Chairman/CEO Steven Udvar-Hazy points out. Its range will be 1,500 nm less than the -9's.
All of the 787-10 customers so far except Gecas have also ordered a version of the A350. United has 25 A350-900s on firm order; BA is taking 18 A350-1000s (plus options for 18 more); Singapore Airlines has firm orders for 40 A350-900s; and ALC has committed to taking 20 A350-900s and five -1000s. "That is a comment about the size of that market segment," says Jeff Knittel, president of lessor CIT Transportation Finance. "The yields are still better and it is growing faster than short-haul." Therefore "there is a demand for both aircraft."
ALC is also working with Boeing on the 777X, but it is still too early for a launch decision, according to Udvar-Hazy. "It is still under design refinement," he says. However, Boeing's Fancher says the 777X is "very firm in the configuration; the design is very mature."
Boeing is marketing the 777-8X as a 777-300ER replacement and the longer 9-X to fill the existing capacity gap between the -300ER and the 747-8. Both aircraft will share an almost identical composite wing based on the technology experience gained on the 787. "The wing unlocks the efficiency of the airplane," Fancher says, and he believes the "sweet spot" of the market will actually move to the 400 seats of the -9X from 300-350. The 777-8X is planned to offer a range of up to 9,400 nm, while the longer version will fly as far as 8,000 nm, the same as the 777-300ER.
Airbus says it is unimpressed with the proposed new competitor. "They will discover that a derivative will not compete with a clean-sheet design," Leahy asserts. "I doubt that Boeing will ever build the aircraft of today. We don't respond to very heavy paper airplanes."
Sukhoi's Su-35 stole the limelight at the show, demonstrating remarkable thrust-vectored maneuvers in the air. Watch the Russian fighter in action as our senior international defense editor, Bill Sweetman, explains its capabilities.
The Airbus A400M also took center stage at Le Bourget, flying daily in the air display and proving its performance promises.
Boeing stole some of the commercial spotlight from the Airbus A350 when it officially launched the double-stretched 787-10 at the show.
Thales unveiled its new concept for the cockpit of the future, dubbed Avionics 2020. The OEM's head of innovation gave Aviation Week a demon-stration of the concept during the show.
Tap the icons in the digital edition of AW&ST to watch these videos from the Paris air show—and see more videos, photos and all our live coverage from Le Bourget at AviationWeek.com/paris2013


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The euro lost more than one cent against the dollar Thursday after the European Central Bank left rates unchanged and ECB chief Mario Draghi gave a middling picture of the eurozone economy.
At 2200 GMT, the euro was trading at $1.3395, its lowest level in two weeks, down from $1.3519.
"At first, it was Draghi's subdued tone that sent the euro-dollar lower but the selling gained momentum as the ECB president started to talk about the currency," said Kathy Lien of BK Asset Management.
In a press conference after the ECB rate decision, Draghi fended off pressure to adopt a policy to hold the euro down.
"The appreciation is in a sense a sign of return of confidence in the euro," Draghi argued.
However, Lien pointed out, he also stressed that exchange rates should reflect fundamentals and that if the euro kept climbing, it could be a challenge to price stability.
"While Draghi believes that the exchange rate is not a policy target, the amount of time he spent talking about inflation in his prepared commentary suggests that the euro rally is impacting their view on monetary policy," Lien said.
The yen was mixed, its steady drop of recent months on hold for the moment. The dollar edged up to 93.61 yen from 93.57; the euro was at 125.40 yen, down from 126.46.
The British pound gained to $1.5709 from $1.5658. The dollar rose to 0.9183 Swiss francs from 0.9101 francs.


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How to Use the Images Drawing 1
Drawing 1
The Wilcoxes improved upon the interior and exterior of their house, transforming it into a stately mansion reflecting the status of a prominent lawyer and his wealthy wife. They turned the two first-floor parlors into the large library pictured here. The room has been meticulously restored to its 1901 appearance.
Questions for Photo 1
1. What can this photo tell you about the Wilcox family and their lifestyle? What can it tell you about life in general at the turn-of-the-century?
2. Why might this room have been chosen for the inauguration?
* The photo on this screen has a resolution of 72 dots per inch (dpi), and therefore will print poorly. You can obtain a larger version of Photo 1, but be aware that the file will take as much as 32 seconds to load with a 28.8K modem.


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Do you attend Spring Training or Minor League baseball games?
Not anymore it seems my expendable income to drive there buy a tickets have an adult beverage and a sandwich has been reduced.
You see I live in Cape Coral and will be cutting back on things like this that defined the term, "quality life style".
If I could get out of Cape Coral I would but since I am invested here as I am I could not.
Maybe if my city leaders didn't buy $13.1 million in worthless land which I will have to wait for them to sell. They remain $20 million short in there budget and are going to extract an additional charge not a tax to every home in Cape Coral, Fl. In the meantime maybe a bigger marketing campaign can be mounted in Immokalee to support the stadium even though I know the tourists do a good job in supporting the teams.
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Perform at your best
Knowing what you know, or what researchers call metacognition, is a key to top performance. Many people operate somewhere in the two extremes of thinking they know a lot when they don't or thinking that they only know a little. The problem with many people is that they are not committed to knowing or searching for answers. People that are not afraid of such a search or of being committed to the answers they find almost always do well. The difference is being committed to knowing, meaning that you are committed to finding out. However, you also have to be committed to doing, after you know.
The best performers judge themselves against a standard that's relevant for what they're trying to achieve. You have to get beyond yourself; to see life's issues from a better, higher perspective. In the model offered by the Bible there is a great value placed on people that take a higher perspective and then employ what they discover. God knows that which we build and tend to personally we usually treasure more. The best performers go into their work with a powerful belief in their ability to perform; to get the job done right.
The most important regulatory skill that top performers use during their work is self-observation. The Bible calls on people of faith to examine themselves as a way of making sure that they are on target with the truth (I Corinthians 13:5). If such an examination is conducted honestly, the truth will be discovered. However, in the discovery, the follow-up must be application of the truth as the final step of proper interpretation. It is important to realize that God will never work beyond the scope and confines of our own heart and mind. Though many have debated the issue, theologian John Locke (1632-1704), asserted that Christianity not only contains nothing contrary to reason but also nothing above reason. That should be received as good news because it means that the truth has been communicated in a way that is understandable, relevant and practical.
God's resources are people, not things. Those that advocate Christianity should never emphasize the acquisition of things because they understand that all the resources needed to fulfill a Divine commission are available. An account in the Old Testament book of Exodus, chapter 35, says that God gave various craftsmen (Bezaleel & Aholiab) the knowledge, wisdom and understanding to perform various difficult tasks. God had qualified these men as master builders (top performers) and the passage also says that they were willing to share that knowledge. The individuals involved had become top performers but they had also discovered that such insight and skill finds its highest usage when it is shared with others. This is a way that many hands make the work light. Top performers want to be a part of a legacy of learning.
We can have all the best instruction, knowledge, wisdom and understanding but it still comes down to the choices that we make. God wants, and makes, top performers, but it will never happen to someone that is unwilling or uncommitted. What God was asking of Bezaleel and the others with him was a tremendous task of craftsmanship and engineering in a remote location with very few apparent resources. It may be the greatest knowledge, wisdom and understanding to see the potential for something good when others see little or nothing. Part of what a top performer does is to give others the opportunity to learn. Most of the time all that is really missing is an opportunity.
Those following the Biblical paradigm should be most interested in being a top performer for God and then passing their knowledge, wisdom and understanding along to others. There are many potential top performers out there that just need an opportunity. When it comes down to proving that one really is a person that is persuaded by the truth, it may be that the most solid piece of evidence is showing others how to be a top performer by the way one lives.
This column is the opinion of Dr. M. Hildon Guy, President of the University of Christian Studies & Seminary in Eagle River and a board member of Love INC. of Eagle River.


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A traditional welcoming ceremony for female first-year and transfer students will celebrate the connections and contributions of women at Rochester Institute of Technology.
RIT will hold its eighth annual Lighting the Way ceremony at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 23. Starting in the Gordon Field House, the orientation event allows female students, faculty and staff to show incoming women that they are supported and valued by the university.
"The path for women to contribute can be tough to navigate," says Cha Ron Sattler-Leblanc, associate director of the Center for Women and Gender. "By creating a place where everyone can contribute, life becomes better for everyone."
The ceremony will include performances by the RIT/NTID Dance Company; Mental Graffiti, an RIT poetry club; Dangerous Signs, an NTID poetry group; and Vocal Accent, an RIT women's a cappella group. Speakers for the event include Sattler-Leblanc; Heath Boice-Pardee, interim senior vice president of student affairs; and Margaret Bailey, principal investigator and director of NSF ADVANCE Connect@RIT, faculty associate to the provost for female faculty and professor of mechanical engineering.
The women will then lead a processional at 8 p.m. with candle-lit lanterns along the Quarter Mile to a dessert reception in the Davis Room Cafeteria, Student Alumni Union. The reception will allow students the opportunity to meet women from various groups and organizations on campus and learn about getting involved.
"Defining that path to contribute at RIT depends on our students finding their fire and using it to light the way," says Sattler-Leblanc.
The event is sponsored by the Center for Women and Gender, the Office of the Vice President of Student Affairs and the Office of the Vice President of Finance and Administration. The event was started by James Watters, senior vice president of finance and administration at RIT, and is modeled after the University of Pittsburgh's "Lantern Night," a 93-year-old tradition.


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I was wondering if anyone knew how I could create a transition matrix for a Markov chain from a dataset. 2 examples of such data are attached. In the first example (in the first tab) a rabbit moves from one field to another across 7 months. How would I use MLE's to predict the transition probabilities in a transition matrix (with the current month being July)?
In this first example, there would be 3 fields A,B,and C.
In the second tab, there are also 3 fields, but there is a fourth state, D, which indicates that a particular rabbit has died. In this model there are also births. So given the current state, how could I then populate a transition matrix?
I do not want to include births in transition matrix. So ultimately with the second example, I would like to create a transition matrix to predict how many rabbits of the current population will be dead or in state A,B, or C by December (excluding any more births from August to December).
If I did want to allow for births as well, would this be a separate model? A Poisson process perhaps?
Any ideas are welcome.....


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Couple robbed of transplant money
Patty Arnold will probably never use the handbag she carried with her Nov. 6.
That was the day she was robbed of more than $1,100 -- money to be used for her husband's double lung transplant.
"I've always been so trusting," Patty, 71, said. "I always thought that it would happen to someone else; it wouldn't happen to me."
But she was wrong. Patty gave a stranger in Hickory a ride in her vehicle Nov. 6, and the stranger jumped out of the car, taking Patty's money with her.
Patty and her husband, Ken, 70, live in Newton and have been married for 50 years. They've had their share of ups and downs, including Ken's upcoming double lung transplant at Duke University Medical Center in Durham.
American Legion Post 48 honored Ken, a U.S. Air Force veteran, with a "Pass the Hat" fundraiser, which raised several hundred dollars for the Arnolds' expenses.
The surgery is costly, but Ken and Patty must also pay for accommodations while staying in Durham, which could last months.
On the day of the larceny, Patty carried in her purse money donated from the American Legion, as well as her checkbook, debit cards, a Belk gift card, driver's license and Social Security information.
She and Ken were picking up one of their vehicles, which needed to be serviced from a mechanic.
Patty came upon a car stopped at a red light near the 1500 block of Tate Boulevard SE in Hickory. The vehicle's emergency lights were flashing, and Patty assumed the driver had car trouble. She merged into another lane to avoid the stopped car and stopped beside the vehicle to wait for the light to turn green.
A woman exited the stopped car and asked Patty for a ride up the hill to her home. Patty's generous, helpful nature took over, and she let the woman ride in the back seat -- where Patty's purse was sitting.
"I thought, 'It's right here at dusk, and it's drizzling,'" Patty said. "So I said, 'Get in.'"
Patty drove the woman a few blocks to where a van was parked near a dead end street. The woman in the back seat suddenly said, "Oh no, she's leaving," and got out of the car and into the van, which drove away.
Ken, who remained behind Patty's car, saw the whole incident. Immediately, he recognized something was wrong.
"She didn't run like women normally run," Ken said. "She had her arms holding her stomach."
The Arnolds later realized the woman probably held her stomach as she ran to prevent the contents of Patty's purse from spilling onto the road.
Patty and Ken continued with their evening and ate dinner at a fast food restaurant. Patty didn't pay for the meal, so she didn't notice her wallet was missing. Only later did she realize her wallet, cash, checkbook and debit card were gone.
"When I found out I didn't have any money, I was just hysterical," Patty said. "I've cried so many times. I've helped people before, and I thought I was too smart to be taken (advantage of)."
Patty and Ken contacted police about 7 p.m. that night, and a Hickory Police officer helped the couple scour the neighborhood for the white van that picked up the alleged culprit. They weren't successful in locating the van or the woman.
"It could have been somebody's friend or somebody's daughter-in-law -- someone who didn't live in the area," Patty said. "We just don't know."
The Arnolds don't know if the larceny was a set up, or simply a crime of opportunity. What they do know, however, is that they needed the money.
Just when the situation seemed dire for Patty and Ken, their children came to the rescue. They have one foster son and four biological children, and without their support, Patty said she would be lost.
"They all chipped in money," Patty said, wiping tears from her eyes. "We're just so thankful."
Ken's physician at the VA Hospital, Dr. Jeffrey Kuch, donated $100 to open an account for Ken's expenses.
"Anything anyone can donate would be greatly appreciated," Patty said.
Donations can be made at BB&T to Kenneth Arnold, Double Lung Transplant, BB&T, 2004 N. Main Ave. in Newton, N.C. 28658.


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An unidentified Volusia school district employee may face discipline over an incident in which the Spruce Creek High band and New Smyrna High football team got into each other's space on the gridiron while officials are taking steps to prevent it from happening again.
An unidentified Volusia school district employee may face discipline over an incident in which the Spruce Creek High band and New Smyrna High football team got into each other's space on the gridiron while officials are taking steps to prevent it from happening again.
Five letters — one of which remains confidential — were hand-delivered Friday outlining the findings of a school district investigation into the Nov. 9 incident.
School district professional standards director Sandy Hovis concluded mistakes were made on both sides when the Spruce Creek band marched onto the field while the New Smyrna Beach team was finishing its pregame warm-ups, and again when some football players cut through the band as it finished its halftime show.
He gave identical letters to principals of both schools, the New Smyrna Beach football coach and the Spruce Creek band director encouraging them to move on and make sure it doesn't happen again.
School officials are holding up release of one other Hovis letter under a state law requiring materials "derogatory" to a school employee remain sealed until 10 days after the person is notified.
School district spokeswoman Nancy Wait said Hovis delivered all the letters Friday. She declined to name the person who received the confidential letter but said it will become public record on Dec. 17.
Hovis investigated the incident after complaints from parents on both sides and the posting of a video on You Tube that prompted allegations each school had broken the rules.
Either the band or the football team should have yielded to the other to avoid the pregame overlap, Hovis concluded.
"However, the band was under the impression the football team was leaving the field and the football team was under the impression they were able to run their final play," he wrote.
Hovis found more fault with the halftime incident. "Even though the Spruce Creek High School band exceeded their designated time, the New Smyrna Beach football staff and players should have planned their route around the performing band and not through the band's performance" when they returned to the bench, Hovis wrote.
"The outcome did not project a positive image of either school or the Volusia County School District," Hovis wrote. "I am sure it is your desire to put this occurrence in the past and move forward with all the positive happenings at your school."
That's what both principals want.
"It's just unfortunate there are so many good things that happened that night that this is the focus of the game," said Spruce Creek Principal Todd Sparger, who agreed with Hovis' findings.
New Smyrna Beach Principal Jim Tager declined comment other than to say he's moving forward with holiday events at his school.
Meanwhile, principals and athletic directors from all Volusia high schools have already discussed ways to avoid such incidents in the future. They've been given guidelines that call for principals of the schools involved to contact each other in advance to develop a timeline for activities that is to be shared with all stakeholders, such as coaches and band directors.
Spruce Creek football coach Bob Goebel, who resigned the same day Hovis delivered the letters, said he didn't receive any correspondence from professional standards and the incident had nothing to do with his decision.
And Spruce Creek band director Andrew Kidd said the incident was "pretty much a nonissue" that was "forgotten long ago." Kidd said he and the band members have turned their attention to preparing for a trip to Ireland in March.
New Smyrna Beach football coach Lance Jenkins declined comment, saying: "I'm too busy (with recruiting) trying to get my players a free college education. I don't have time to revisit the incident."


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In a bid to better their chances in a challenging industry, No. 2 U.S. office-supplies chain Office Depot and the No. 3 player OfficeMax are merging in a stock deal valued at about $1.19 billion. See full story.
Housing starts slump as apartment building slows
Construction on new U.S. homes fell sharply in January as apartment building slowed, according to data released Wednesday that nonetheless contained signs of longer-term growth. See full story.
Videogame shares surge ahead of PlayStation 4
Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard and others have seen their shares jump over the last six months as investors look ahead to a new console cycle that may begin with Sony's unveiling of the PlayStation 4 on Wednesday. See full story.
Gold sinks below $1,600 amid talk of 'death cross'
Gold futures tumble below $1,600 an ounce Wednesday, pressured by strength in the dollar ahead of the release of minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve's meeting last month as talk of a so-called "death cross" in gold prices spooks investors. See full story.
Staples wins if Office Depot, OfficeMax merge
A marriage between No. 2 and No. 3 office-supplies chains Office Depot and OfficeMax would be good news not only for investors in both stocks, but it turns out those owning larger rival Staples Inc. may benefit as well. See full story.
Hot or iced, drip, French press, espresso, Chemex or Keurig, each of us downs about 23 gallons of joe a year on average. It's in our blood. It's also on our streets, where Starbucks outposts outnumber hospitals and colleges. Yet the U.S. coffee market may still be far from saturated. See full story.


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Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sat 22nd Sep 2012 22:07 UTC
Ubuntu 12.10 will include advertisements for products on Amazon. It will look like this - if you search, product suggestions will pop up. This seems like a rather slippery slope to me, and I certainly wouldn't want this on my desktop, laptop, smartphone, tablet, or anywhere else. On the web - fine, I'm on your site, not mine - but my desktop is mine, and mine alone. Not that it matters - open source, someone will disable them. Biggest concern: does this mean my search queries get sent across the web?
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RE[6]: It's just a lens
by Morgan on Sun 23rd Sep 2012 21:57 UTC in reply to "RE[5]: It's just a lens"
They were outed a few days after the big changes were made. A couple of the senior members admitted they not only don't want any new users, they would be perfectly happy to drop down into obscurity and close up the forums if possible. They apparently want the OS to become a members-only club where only the leetest of the leet are allowed in.
There was a minor backlash but I think most of the people against the changes sucked it up and kept using it anyway, and the rest did like me and dropped the project altogether.
RE[7]: It's just a lens
by Gullible Jones on Mon 24th Sep 2012 04:00 in reply to "RE[6]: It's just a lens"


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- Premier League
Sidwell loses appeal against red card
Steve Sidwell has had his appeal over the red card he picked up in Monday's 3-2 Premier League victory over Queens Park Rangers rejected, the club has announced.
The midfielder was shown a straight red by referee Lee Probert for a late tackle on Armand Traore in the latter stages of the game.
After the win, which all but secured Fulham's top-flight status, manager Martin Jol told Sky Sports: "The Sidwell sending off I thought was a bit harsh, that was difficult for us. It was a bit unfortunate.''
The club duly appealed the dismissal but received word on Wednesday that the referee's decision had been upheld by a Football Association panel.
A statement on the club's official website read: "Following an Independent Regulatory Commission hearing on Wednesday, Steve Sidwell has had his claim for wrongful dismissal rejected.
"Sidwell was dismissed for serious foul play during our game at home to Queens Park Rangers on April 1, 2013.
"The player's three-match ban will therefore commence with immediate effect, meaning he will miss our trips to Newcastle United and Aston Villa, as well as our SW6 derby against Chelsea at Craven Cottage."


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Baseball announces more youth camp dates
Related Links
The SDSU baseball team has officially announced that they will be hosting hitting and pitching clinics over the next month. The camps are open to baseball players from ages 10 to 18 and will be located at the Intramural Building on the SDSU campus.
The camps will take place on four different dates (January 13, 20, 27 and February 10).
For more information about the camps contact assistant baseball coach Ben Norton either at (605) 688-5778 or at email@example.com.
The camp brochure is attached with this article.