text:
This week was 50 miles of "real running" and 8 "miles" pool running, plus 1700 yards of swimming breathing drills -- training log is here.
Adventures and misadventures this week. The good news first. I've been dealing with some recurring hip issues on my right side. Nothing brand new or earth shattering - it's just that I tend to get a lot of psoas tightness on that side, combined with some hamstring tightness. Both of these tend to flare when I'm coming back to running after time off, and also seem to be triggered by fast running downhill. Plus occasional bits of stabbing pain in my pelvic area on that side, where the various muscles of the upper leg tie into the pelvis. And (possibly) related to this, I've always noted that my right hip "snaps" or "pops" when I lift my leg forward in a certain way.
As I noted, none of these are new, but I noted them again as I started this training cycle, and I decided it was worth a pilgrimage to my preferred orthopaedist to check it out. It's a journey - Dr. Pereles is in Kensington, which is about 30-40 minutes from me (I'm used to having all my doctors within a mile of me - spoiled), but Dr. Pereles is worth it. I wanted to make sure that I wasn't teetering on the edge of a significant injury - i.e. a pelvic stress fracture or labral tear - and I trusted Dr. Pereles' evaluation.
He took x-rays and did an eval (of course, it wasn't hurting at all when I was in his office, so I had to simply describe the situations in which it would hurt), and issued his diagnosis - a very mild case of osteitis symphysis pubis. I'm totally fine to run and train and do 20 milers, especially when I'm not feeling it at all. If it flares, back off on the running and take some NSAIDs. But good to go.
So yay.
And then, of course, I got sick and missed my long run anyway. In a way, I was a bit relieved to discover I was sick. On Friday, despite great weather, I had a tempo workout that was a slog and much slower than I expected. I run my workouts off of perceived effort, rather than goal paces, and I was glad I did, because I most certainly would have crashed and burned had I chased my normal splits.
At the time, I attributed to having had blood drawn for my annual physical the day before, which always leaved me feeling a bit off. But I also feared (wouldn't we all), that I was in bad shape.
Friday night I started feeling lousy. Saturday morning, after some debate, I went out for an easy run, doing 8 instead of my scheduled 10-12. Felt OK if sluggish during the run, but then even worse as the day went on. My throat got sore on Saturday night, and I declared myself sick and skipped my long run in favor of the couch. Sucked to miss the long run, but a bit of a relief to know what was behind that lousy tempo.
Most annoying aspect, besides the missed long run itself, was the fact that my resting heart rate remained low. I monitor my resting HR regularly, to get advance warning of when I'm getting overtrained or sick, so I can cut back before I dig myself into a hole. But it failed to warn me this time. Apparently (based on discussion with others), resting HR doesn't always rise when you're getting sick, especially if you don't have a fever.
I feel so betrayed.
Monday: In the morning, 50 minutes of easy pool-running for "5 miles" followed by injury prevention and upper body strengthwork. Foam rolling in the afternoon.
Tuesday: In the morning, 13.5 miles, including a workout of 7 hill repeats – nonstop circuit of up a hill for about 2 minutes, a 90 second easy jog, a stride, and then some more easy jogging to the bottom (whole circuit takes ~5 minutes). Followed with injury prevention work and 15 minutes of shake out pool-running. Floor barre and foam rolling at night.
Wednesday: In the morning, 8 miles very easy, (9:55 pace) followed by yoga. Later, 8 miles easy (7:51 pace). Also foam rolling
Thursday: In the morning, upper body strengthwork and injury prevention work plus 1700 yards of swimming breathing drills. Foam rolling at night.
Friday: In the morning, 12.5 miles, including a workout of 5K at tempo effort (20:20, split as 6:35/6:31/6:29/0:45), 5 minutes break, 1600m "hard" (5:59). Followed with injury prevention work and 15 minutes of shake out pool-running.
Saturday: In the morning, 8 miles easy (8:18 pace). Foam rolling in the afternoon.
Sunday: Off. Just foam-rolling.


text:
The Cabela's store in Dundee, Mich., is closed temporarily due to a small electrical fire early Wednesday morning.
The store will remain closed until further notice, as employees and outside contractors complete a thorough cleanup and restocking process.
All merchandise damaged by the fire and soot will be removed from the store and replaced with new inventory that will meet the quality standards Cabela's customers expect.
The building did not suffer structural damage, however soot from the smoke and the compound from fire extinguishers sprayed on the blaze left residue on some merchandise, taxidermy and store fixtures.
Cabela's will honor sale prices for its upcoming Warm Up To Savings and Let's Go Camping Dundee retail promotions through Sunday, May. 12.
Dundee customers are asked to call the store at (734) 529-4700 prior to their next visit to ensure the store has reopened. Shopping can also be done online at www.cabelas.com.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
July 4, 2009
The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died July 4 at Combat Outpost Zerok, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked the outpost using small arms and indirect fires. They were assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, Alaska.
Killed were:
Pfc. Justin A. Casillas, 19, of Dunnigan, Calif.
Pfc. Aaron E. Fairbairn, 20, of Aberdeen, Wash.


text:
North America | English
Narrow Results by:
Price: $199.99
Your Price: $199.99
The Magellan RoadMate 9055-LM is a premium GPS navigator with a huge 7" touch screen and packed with features including lifetime map updates1, Bluetooth calling, OneTouch™ favorites menu, free lifetime traffic alerts, highway lane assist and much more.
Premium navigation features
The 7" touch screen provides routing and POI information on a huge display that is 50% larger than a standard 4.3" screen.
Free Lifetime Map Updates included. Receive updated maps for the life of the GPS receiver. Never worry about out-of-date maps again!1
Enjoy hands-free calling and a noise-cancelling microphone with our advanced Bluetooth technology. Making great sounding calls from your GPS navigator is now easier than ever.
The OneTouch favorites menu lets you bookmark your favorite destinations and searches. Find your favorites anywhere you travel. With a single touch, find your favorite café or restaurant when traveling within any city.
Free Lifetime Traffic provides real-time traffic information. Avoid traffic jams, detours and construction zones. No subscription-fees ever!
Highway Lane Assist shows realistic highway signs to guide you and ensure that you'll choose the correct lane when approaching an upcoming interchange or exit.
Easily keep your eyes on the road as you drive because spoken street name guidance announces the street name and direction of each turn.
Ready to roll
QuickSpell quickly narrows your address and city searches, as you type, making destination entry easy. Find cities and streets without worrying about misspelling them.
You're always ready to travel with preloaded maps and points of interest for United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.
We have also added an A/V input so you can watch movies or listen to music during your downtime.
Find over 6 million of points of interest at your command and easily locate gas stations, restaurants, ATMs, coffee shops, and much more. Even search for gas stations, restaurants, or lodging, near upcoming highway exits.
Multi-destination routing lets you plan your trip with multiple stops in the order you want or automatically optimize for the most efficient route, helping save time and money.
Navigate in confidence
Perfect for any size vehicle, especially trucks, RVs or SUVs, the Magellan RoadMate 9055-LM has the premium features that allow you to navigate with confidence anywhere you go.
1Lifetime Maps entitles you to receive up to four (4) map updates per year, for the life of the GPS receiver or until Magellan no longer receives relevant map data. Internet connection and Content Manager required.
1Les cartes illimitées vous permettent de recevoir jusqu'à quatre (4) mises à jour par an pour la durée de vie du receveur GPS ou jusqu'à ce que le Magellan ne reçoive plus de données de carte appropriées. Une connexion à l'internet et le logiciel Content Manager sont requis.
1Los mapas ilimitados le brindan hasta cuatro (4) actualizaciones de mapas por día durante la vida útil del receptor GPS o hasta que Magellan no reciba datos relevantes de mapa. Se requiere de conexión a Internet y el software Content Manager.
GPS & Sensors
Mapping & Navigation
User Generated Content
Interface & Communications
Gerber Knife
Activity Tracking
7" Leather Case
Price: $29.99
Your Price: $29.99
Magellan RoadMate 9055-LM
Click on the store of your choice to see their store locator.
Buy yours at one of these other online stores:
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text:
This is a guest post by Dr. Krysti DeZonia, a founding member of TERI (Training, Education, and Research Institute) and the CEO of the International Association for Life Quality.
Let's start with a basic fact: Parents with kids who have autism need more help.
We simply aren't able to access the degree of support we need in order to help our children, and ourselves, lead happy and fulfilling lives. We are stressed, tired, and looking for answers that don't seem to be available to us. It is, without question, time for a new model of family support.
We think we have at least part of the answer: Special Needs Life Quality Coaching.
For the uninformed, a Life Coach is someone who is trained to help you meet goals that you have been unable to attain without some help. A Life Coach will assist you in designing an action plan to change careers, recharge your love life, or earn your first million. They hang with you until you reach your goals.
After 30 years, when looking for a way to formalize our support for parents and expand it worldwide, Life Coaches came immediately to mind. Upon further research, we found—to our great surprise—that no one is providing specific training to people so they can serve families whose children have special needs. We closed this gap by designing, and offering, online Special Needs Life Quality Coach training.
Given that this is a completely new career path, we were uncertain whether our idea would, in reality, meet the unmet needs of families and individuals with autism and other special needs. We also weren't sure who would be interested in taking the class and in starting a private practice in this field. Here's what we have learned.
Almost every family we talk with is interested in having access to a Special Needs Life Quality coach. There isn't a need for too much explanation—they get it.
Our class is offered online and designed for working people, so anyone living anywhere can take it. The hours are flexible, and the class gives students opportunities to have direct experience with families and their children or adults as well as with their local service delivery system. By the end of the 16-week course, they have learned valuable coaching skills, have forms and other tools for documenting their progress, and are able to access follow-up support when they need it.
We also weren't sure who would take our classes. We have found that our students come from all walks of life, but are primarily professionals who already have a private practice and want to extend it (financial planners, attorneys, psychologists, etc.), educators, and parents or other family members. These are all people who see an unmet need and are anxious to fill it.
How hard has it been for coaches to find families who want their services? Not hard. One of our coaches, Ben, had 16 interested clients after he posted a notice on a local autism forum—way more people than he could handle. He specializes in helping individuals with autism develop social circles that will, hopefully, grow into friendships. He's having great success so far.
Our dream is that the help of a Special Needs Life Quality Coach will soon be as available to families and individuals with autism as is speech or occupational therapy. Spread the word.
If you want to learn more about Special Needs Life Quality Coaching classes or services, go to www.teriinc.org/ialq or call 760-721-1706.
Dr. Krysti DeZonia is a founding member of TERI (Training, Education, and Research Institute-www.teriinc.org) and is the CEO of the International Association for Life Quality. You can follow her blog at www.QandAwithDrK.com.


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UK Team Misses Balloon Altitude Record, But Beats a Few Others 34
An anonymous reader writes with this report from Hackaday, which recently covered an attempt at the UK altitude record for an amateur balloon launch. Says the story: "Things don't always go as planned, but the APEX team did manage to beat the several other UK records, including ones for the longest distance and flight duration for a latex balloon." The balloon drifted east from its launching point England, being tracked by Ham radio operators for much of the way, but eventually fell out of range, and is suspected to have ended its flight in Poland or Russia: "The APEX team is offering a reward for finding Alpha, so if you see a small styrofoam box in Eastern Europe, drop the APEX boys a line."


text:
Story highlights
- Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt leads nominations for IAAF male athlete of 2012
- Bolt became the first man to retain his 100m and 200m Olympic titles in London
- Kenya's Olympic 800m champion and WR holder David Rushida also included
- America's 110m hurdles Olympic champion Aries Merritt completes list
He became the first man in Olympic history to defend both his 100 meter and 200 meter crowns and Usain Bolt's gold-plated 2012 could be about to get a little better.
The fastest man on the planet was untouchable during the Games in London, completing his unprecedented sprint double and also picking up gold with Jamaica's 4x100m men's relay team.
It is no surprise then that Bolt leads the nominations for the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) male athelete of the year award.
Bolt is joined on the list by two other male stars that enjoyed a successful summer in the English capital.
The second athlete chosen is American Aries Merritt, who took the men's 110m hurdles crown in London, before breaking the world record at a meet in Belgium shortly after.
Merritt took seven hundredths of a second off the previous mark, held by Dayron Robles, which had stood for four years.
The 27-year-old also took gold over the 60m distance at the World Indoor Championships held in the Turkish city of Istanbul in March.
The third nominee is David Rushida, who holds one landmark Bolt will never gets his hands on after the Kenyan became the first man to break a world record on the track in London's Olympic Stadium.
The 23-year-old was the first person to run under one minute and 41 seconds in the 800m as he broke his own world record storming to gold.
His performances drew praise for the chairman of the London Organizing Committee, Sebastian Coe, who called Rushida "the most impressive track and field athlete at these Games."
But there is no place for Britain's Mo Farah, who joined an elite list of distance runners by taking Olympic gold in both the 5,000m and 10,000m.
Bolt will be favorite to take the award after dominating the sprint category in London just as he did in Beijing four years previously.
The 26-year-old held off the challenge of compatriot Yohan Blake to secure his 100m and 200m double, labeling himself the "greatest athlete" to have lived after his triumph.
Bolt's holds the world record in both disciplines and holds six Olympic gold medals, after also winning the men's 4x100m relay in 2008.
The winner will be crowned on 24 November during the IAAF's Centenary Celebrations in the Spanish city of Barcelona.


text:
Michael Owen has indicated he is on the brink of resolving his future.
Owen was released by Manchester United earlier this summer after three seasons at Old Trafford which were plagued by injury woes. Stoke are understood to be leading the race for the 32-year-old former England international, who managed just four appearances for United last season, with his last on November 2.
Via his Twitter account, Owen said: "Getting closer to finding a new club. Had a good deal of interest but just need to pick right! Can't wait to get going again."
Copyright (c) PA Sport 2012, All Rights Reserved.
Do YOU want to write for GiveMeSport? Get started today by signing-up and submitting an article HERE: https://www.givemesport.com/writeforgms


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Jasper Nicholson, 74, of Woodburn, died Jan. 6, 2013, at his home.
Services were 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 8, at Pierschbacher Funeral Home in Chariton. Interment was in Norwood Cemetery. Memorials may be directed to Lucas County Humane Society or HCI Care Services, Osceola. Online condolences may be left at www.pierschbacherfuneralhome.com.
Jasper Marion Nicholson, son of Leta (Crooks) and Marvin Nicholson, was born Oct. 30, 1938, in rural Clarke County.
Marion went to Puckerbrush Country School.
In 1958, Marion married Eva Marker.
Marion worked construction and in the steel industry in Des Moines for many years. He built the steel that was used in the Ruan Building and for the first skywalks in Des Moines. He farmed even when he was working in Des Moines and had a repair shop at his home.
Marion is survived by his mother Leta Nicholson; wife Eva; children, Roxane (Bill) Shreck of Marshfield, Mo., and Wesley Nicholson of Burlington; granddaughters, Ashley (Kevin) Childress and Jennifer (Joe Phelps) Neer; great-grandchildren, Lili and Lucas Childress; sisters, Marilyn (Gene) Marsh and Cindy Jo (Monte) Hutchings; and nieces, nephews, relatives and many friends.
Marion was preceded in death by his father.


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While football may be the farthest thing from many minds, some new guidelines for pre-season football practices have been approved by the Iowa High School Board of Control during meetings in March. Those changes have been explained to Iowa High School Athletic Association member school's athletic directors and administrators and will go into effect for the 2013 Football season later this year.
With an eye to the safety of participants in the game, the new measures incorporate many recommendations from research and studies by the medical community relative to the length of practice, the amount of contact in pre-season drills and the acclimatation of young athletes.
In December of 2012, the new regulations were discussed and approved by the Football Playoff Committee, a group representing school administrators and the Iowa Football Coaches Association. The regulations were approved by the Board of Control and in March explained to the Representative Council.
Specifically, these new regulations will come into play during the acclimatization period each football season that will effect the state's 342 prep football programs and 21,200 student athletes by addressing the following areas:
(1) There shall be no more than one practice per day.
(2) A practice is defined as a period of time in which a student participates in physical activity.
(3) A practice cannot exceed three (3) hours in length. Warm-up, stretching, speed and agility rules, strength training, and cool down are all considered part of a practice. Optional weight training activities that are available to all students are not considered part of the practice.
(4) On the first two (2) days of practice helmets and mouth guards may be worn and no activities that require protective equipment shall be done.
(5) During days three through five (3-5), helmets, mouth guards, and shoulder pads may be worn and contact with blocking sleds, tackling dummies and technique drills for blocking and tackling may begin, but no full contact. Above the waist contact between players focusing on proper tackling and blocking techniques may occur.
(6) Starting on the sixth day of pre-season drills, all protective equipment may be worn and full contact drills may begin.
(7) The first two Sundays during the 14-day acclimatization period shall be days of complete rest. On those days, no practice, stretching, conditioning, speed and agility drills or strength training, etc. may take place.
"We had great discussions with the football committee and representatives of the coaches association", noted Todd Tharp, Assistant Executive Director of the IHSAA and the administrator for football. "The health and safety of athletes is always everyone's number one priority and these new measures apply equally to all schools."
Several other states implemented many of these same measures in the 2012 season.
Iowa has been among the national leaders in addressing player safety and health issues including being among the first to define illegal helmet contact, heat and hydration issues, and addressing protocol for dealing with possible concussions/head injuries.
In other Board of Control action related to football, four other items were approved effective this fall. They are: (1) The IHSAA and the Football Coaches Association will work jointly to produce a football safety video; (2) Schools are now allowed to have a scrimmage with another school prior to the first legal playing date and after 10 days of practice; (3) In games where the continuous clock is being used the clock will stop for the administration of penalties; and (4) The UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls will be used only for semifinal and championship round contests unless the host school uses the UNI-Dome as their primary home facility.


text:
FORT STEWART, Ga. — More than 3,000 civilians working for the Army in southeast Georgia are bracing for a painful cut to their paychecks expected to cost the workers roughly $10 million overall.
Civilian employees of Fort Stewart and neighboring Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah will begin taking one furlough day per week next month and continue through September. That means they'll lose 20 percent of their pay for nearly three months because of the automatic federal budget cuts that kicked in months ago.
Casey Taylor-Racinelli was among 100 people attending a Friday town-hall meeting on the furloughs at Fort Stewart. She's a physician's assistant and among those facing 11 unpaid days off.
Taylor-Racinelli says her family is already tightening its spending on groceries and air-conditioning. She expects to lose $1,000 each month.


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Spineless citizenry deserves an oppressive government. Don't worry they'll keep you safe in your digital cage.
Good thing the government took their guns away first
Like all the gun-totin' cowboys in the US of A have made a difference.
Your corporates have stolen your economic future and sold it to themselves, your governement is all over you like a rash, your brothers, sisters, sons and daughters are sent to fake wars just to siphon a few trillion taxpayer dollars to corrupt military contractors, Every so-called security agency spies and blackmails you NSA, FBI, TSA, Police, Whatever, they're all out of your control. Lobbyists buy politicians to bring in SOPA/CISPA or whatever you're calling it this month etc etc,..
Thing is, all you chubby gun nuts spouting the second amendment and claiming you needed automatic weapons to protect yourselves from government abuses have just proved you're all intestine and no fortitude.
Thing is, all you chubby gun nuts spouting the second amendment and claiming you needed automatic weapons to protect yourselves from government abuses have just proved you're all intestine and no fortitude.
Ammosexuals, the lot of 'em.
Now why would that matter? Seriously. Why would it?
If you planned to overthrow government with armed forces, I somehow don't think "gee, I'm not allowed to have a gun, let's forget about it" is the train of thought you'd follow...
Looks like Ozzy politicians are even more short-sighted and dumber than the sorry bunch of venal no-hopers currently running Westminster.
I wouldn't be too sure of that: Tory MP says astrology is good for the health [telegraph.co.uk] "David Tredinnick, a member of Commons committees on health and science, says Britain should look to the stars to improve the nation's health"
I can only agree. Swindling idiots out of their money is easy work with little stress and guaranteed to not result in burn out.
Spineless citizenry deserves an oppressive government.
Well, then most of my fellow citizens in the US definitely deserve the oppressive government we have. But what about the ones who are actually trying to change things? The problem is, you often get stuck with the government that other people deserve.
Yeah, being repressed sucks [youtube.com].
They are going to block google search and youtube? The two largest offenders..
If we can somehow throw in Facebook I bet that should piss off the NSA enough to label Aussieland some axis of evil candidate.
They'll only block sites that don't have the money to put up a fight.
As an Australian, my biggest objection to this is the huge waste of money to set this up, maintain it and enforce it.
Personally, I've got a $4.00 per month VPN. Let's see, what country shall my computer be in today...
"As an Australian, my biggest objection to this is the huge waste of money to set this up, maintain it and enforce it."
And the amount of money to a\work around it. Like in France, where people are massively shifting to VPN.
"Tackling Piracy" is the cover story, but it's just for the government to grab control of the free internet. A little bit at the time, they come up with reasons to censor this, ban that, people too stupid to see what is happening. Until one day, you have nothing left of the internet as we know it today.
Did anyone notice that *they* used the correct term "copyright infringement" while the story submitter used the incorrect term "piracy" ? It's usually the opposite happening.
What's incorrect about the term "piracy"? Its been used to refer to copyright infringement for hundreds of years.
Publishers often refer to copying they don't approve of as "piracy." In this way, they imply that it is ethically equivalent to attacking ships on the high seas, kidnapping and murdering the people on them. Based on such propaganda, they have procured laws in most of the world to forbid copying in most (or sometimes all) circumstances. (They are still pressuring to make these prohibitions more complete.)
The fact that it's been in lexicon for all this time doesn't make the implicit allegations an
Ahh, that bullshit.
Correct, incorrect... language changes. Better to reclaim the word as a symbol of pride, as The Pirate Bay does.
I've given up most hope of ever reclaiming 'hacker' now, though.
...let alone packets.
Last time, the then Labor government insisted that the two biggest ISPs put blocks in place, even though the legislation didn't get through the parliament.
The end result: amongst others, a school tuck-shop (canteen) got blocked. Those nefarious parents were maliciously placing orders for kids lunches online!
And, less than a day after it started, school kids could tell you how to bypass the blocks.
I've never pirated a movie, for the lack of bandwidth, and the lack of desire. I've never pirated music
I've got a 30GB a month ADSL2+ connection, and better things to do with it.
But I resent the huge amount of bullshit that governments and movie and music companies put out about piracy, to the point where I won't even buy discs of either until they fall off the "peak interest" of being the latest thing out. When it's cheap, I'll think about buying it.
A lot of the time I won't buy it even then as a direct result of the crap that they all spout.
Australia is obliged under its free trade agreements with the United States, Singapore and Korea (not yet ratified) to provide a legal incentive to ISPs to cooperate with rights holders to prevent infringement on their systems and networks.
And, ladies and gentlement, there you have it. Again. Completely bypassing the democratic process, FTA's trump national legislation. And anyone that thinks that Singapore and Korea are actually the ones pressing Australia to ramp up their pro-copyright industry efforts is naive. It's just a little smokescreen. So Who's Your Daddy?!! Good ole Uncle Sam (MPAA/RIAA/USTR) is. Bend over, and take it like a man Aussies!
Experience varies directly with equipment ruined.


text:
Apple and Google: New CEOs, old strategies
Taking the fight to Facebook?
Both Apple and Google saw their CEOs stepping into the background this month, for different reasons, but there was still a sense of an old guard standing aside. However, the change is likely to come from outside.
Apple and Google, two of the companies that have helped define the new web age – once the closest of allies, now bitter enemies – will not be steered onto a radically new course by their new operational chiefs. Indeed, to the disappointment of some observers, they have stuck firmly with the old guard.
Apple COO Tim Cook is reprising his now-familiar role of standing in for Steve Jobs while the CEO takes leave for health reasons (though he remains involved in strategy and may still return to day-to-day control). And Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who becomes executive chairman, is replaced by co-founder Larry Page. There is good reason not to mend things that aren't broken, but by sticking to their old courses, especially in the volatile world of mobile, Apple and Google may come under threat from the real forces of change, the new wave of web giants personified by Facebook.
One of the speculated reasons for Schmidt's abrupt change of status was his failure fully to respond to Facebook. Google, despite various efforts, has not exploited the huge social networking boom, which is changing working and leisure habits as surely as browsing and searching did. If it continues to be weak on the social front, it will also be disadvantaged in other key areas that should, logically, expand its core advertising business – location services, recommendation engines and payments.
One of the critical challenges for Google's reshuffled executive team will be to follow through on the aim of creating an end-to-end platform that embraces the entire web value chain, and is open to all types of developers and devices. This is no longer a far-sighted vision but an urgent necessity – because Facebook clearly has something similar in mind.
In recent months, the social network has started to transform its app into a fully fledged developer platform with open APIs, has added a range of location and purchasing capabilities, and this week reports surfaced that it was striking right at Google's heart by acquiring a mobile advertising engine, start-up Rel8tion.
This may be a minnow compared to Google's AdMob or Apple's iAd, but Rel8tion taps into the modern face of the mobile internet, particularly with support for 'hyper-local' advertising, which can be precisely targeted. According to AllThingsDigital, the start-up is working on a platform to synchronize a subscriber's location data with the most relevant advertising inventory. This could integrated with the Facebook Places location service. Co-founder Peter Wilson has a strong heritage – he has also been consulting with Facebook, and previously worked for Google and Microsoft.
This deal sees Facebook making serious efforts to monetize its vast user base and brand, and achieve a fully-fledged web platform, and should be a wake-up call to Google's new CEO. Although the official reason for Page's elevation was to "simplify our management structure and speed up decision making", many are hoping for faster action in the mobile and multiscreen services environment. Android, of course, is a huge success, but in many ways embodies the 'traditional' mobile web model, focused on downloads and conventional cellular data plans, while the world is shifting towards browser/cloud approaches and new-style devices and content.
In the new structure, Page will lead product development and technology strategy, while Brin "will devote his energies to strategic projects, in particular working on new products". Schmidt will take the role of executive chairman, "focusing externally on deals, partnerships, customers and broader business relationships, government outreach and technology thought leadership". He will also act as internal advisor to the two others.
He hinted that one of his key roles would be communicating with, and lobbying, government agencies, as calls for antitrust probes rise on both sides of the Atlantic. "People don't understand what we do or don't do," he said on the firm's fourth quarter earnings call. For the quarter, net income was up 29% year-on-year to $2.54bn on revenues up 26% to $8.44bn, with mobile activities a critical driver.
Indeed, Schmidt marked his new role by writing an article in the Harvard Business Review, outlining Google's strategies for the year ahead, which he says are "all about mobile".
This broke down into three main areas. One, harnessing the spread of 4G networks, which "will usher in new and creative applications, mostly entertainment and social, for these phone platforms". This, of course, raises the specter of Google's failure, so far, to exploit the social networking phenomenon. Two, developing new applications, especially mobile money and payments systems, which could be another area where Google could gain huge influence across the whole value chain, as it has in advertising and search. Three, increasing the availability of cheap smartphones in poor regions of the world to allow "literally a billion" people to use mobile services.
Sponsored: Minds Mastering Machines - Call for papers now open


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Despite all the new fresh-pressed, organic juice spots that have opened up in the past few years, Liquiteria in the East Village remains my favorite to this day. Juices and smoothies are the highlight, but there's also much more to discover. I'm currently hooked on this Chocolate-Chai Cake offered at $4.50 a slice. It's vegan with a wheat flour base and plenty of chocolate chips for your sweet tooth. The chai element comes in unexpectedly strong, even with the chocolate, and you can easily make out flavors of cardamom, ginger, and cloves. Couple with one of their hot drinks and you're all set for a Fall breakfast.
170 2nd Avenue, New York, NY 10003 (map)


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CFL lighting is quite common now, but soon enough we predict LED lighting will overtake compact fluorescents, thanks to their superb energy efficiency and arguably their overall better form factor. On average, LED lighting should consume less energy than other sorts of lighting technology readily available. Their small size also allows for some pretty interesting designs, specifically for LED task lamps for the home offifce.
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The Most Efficient Way to Light Up Your WorkspacePublished March 30, 2011 blogs , technology Leave a Comment
Tags: Apartment Therapy, blogs, energy efficient, LED, lighting, table lamp, technology, unplggd, workspace


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Telescope Makers Workshop
"Surely the making and putting into use of a powerful astronomical telescope goes far toward properly orienting one's self in the great scheme of things."
- Russell Porter
I Can Build A Telescope?
Yes! Open to all ages, the Telescope Makers' Workshop is an all-volunteer group committed to helping people build their own telescopes. Bring your interest and curiosity, and we'll provide knowledge, enthusiasm, and advice to help you complete your telescope-making projects. No experience necessary.
Originally founded in 1930, the Telescope Makers' Workshop has operated continuously since 1967, guiding hundreds of members in building their own telescopes. People of all ages and backgrounds have successfully completed fun-to-use instruments that provide hours of enjoyable observing of the night sky. Many have gone on to build more complex designs that are available to the amateur telescope maker today.
Where & When
The Telescope Makers' Workshop is held every Friday night from 7pm - 10pm, excluding major holidays (e.g. Christmas Day and New Year's Day) that fall on Fridays. The Workshop is always closed on Memorial Day Weekend. Attendance every Friday night is not mandatory, and members work at their own pace.
The Workshop meets at Chabot Space & Science Center, 10000 Skyline Blvd., Oakland. Contact us for more specific details:
Contact: E-mail Richard Ozer or (510) 406-1914
What Kind Of Telescope Can I Build?
Most of our members build Newtonian telescopes on Dobsonian mounts. These telescopes and mounts are economical, fun to use, and relatively simple to build. Newtonian telescopes are much larger and perform much better than inexpensive department store telescopes, and building one is a terrific learning experience.
How Do I Build A Telescope Mirror?
The process of making a telescope mirror is very simple and requires no previous experience. With mirrors, a concave, spherical-shaped surface will reflect light from a star to a focused point. Two pieces of round glass are used, one of which is the mirror blank, the other the tool. By placing the mirror blank on top of the tool with a slurry of water and grinding compound between them, then pushing the mirror blank across the tool until it overhangs the bottom piece of glass by about one-third its diameter, the center area of the mirror blank is ground away faster than the edge. After about seven strokes, the tool and mirror blank are rotated a quarter turn from each other so another part of the mirror's surface is ground. Thus a concave surface is ground out of the mirror blank.
Using successively finer grinding compound, and then a polishing compound, a polish is put on the surface of the glass. Fine-tuning of this surface, called figuring, puts the glass into the best shape for focusing starlight.
How Long Does It Take & How Much Does It Cost?
We charge no fees to attend the workshop. All of our instructors are unpaid volunteers. You will be expected to buy your own materials, including a mirror blank, a grinding tool, a rinse bucket, a spray bottle and paper towels. The workshop carries a small stock of mirror kits for sale at cost, and we can provide you with the names of other sources.
The typical 8"-diameter telescope mirror blank and tool cost under $150. A completed 8" telescope on a wooden Dobsonian mount can be built for under $300, compared to $400 - $900 for a commercially-made one.
It normally takes around forty hours of work to complete your first mirror. Some of this work is easier to do in the workshop, but much of it can be done at home, an hour or so at a time. Depending on your skills, you might spend a similar amount of time constructing a wooden mounting for your telescope with just a hammer, saw and screwdriver.
Who Builds A Telescope?
Since its start in 1967, the Telescope Makers' Workshop has seen hundreds of members build their own telescopes. People of all ages and backgrounds have successfully completed fun-to-use instruments that provide hours of enjoyable observing of the night sky. Many have gone on to build more complex designs that are available to the amateur telescope maker today.
Telescopes built at the Telescope Makers' Workshop have won awards for mechanical, design, and optical excellence at many of the major national telescope makers' conferences, including the Riverside Telescope Makers Conference, Stellafane, and the Texas Star Party.
Many people build a telescope because it is less expensive than purchasing a commercial instrument. Parents often pair up with their children to do a family project, and school-aged children complete telescopes as a science fair project or homework assignment. Members sometimes come with just their curiosity and a desire to view the heavens with something they have made themselves. Whatever the reason, our members find advice and a sense of camaraderie among the many others who have found enjoyment in making their own telescope.


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Enter keywords, ISBN, author, or book title
Category: Fiction - Short Stories (single author)
Imprint: Vintage
Format: Trade Paperback
Pub Date: March 2000
Price: $15.00
Can. Price: $18.95
Pages: 222
From "The Twenty-Seventh Man":The orders were given from Stalin's country house at Kuntsevo. He relayed them to the agent in charge with no greater emotion than for the killing of kulaks or clergy or the outspoken wives of very dear friends. The accused were to be apprehended the same day, arrive at the prison gates at the same moment, and--with a gasp and simultaneous final breath--be sent off to their damnation in a single rattling burst of gunfire.It was not an issue of hatred, only one of allegiance. For Stalin knew there could be loyalty to only one nation. What he did not know so well were the authors' names on his list. When it was presented to him the next morning he signed the warrant anyway, though there were now twenty-seven, and yesterday there had been twenty-six.No matter, except maybe to the twenty-seventh.The orders left little room for variation, and none for tardiness. They were to be carried out in secrecy and--the only point that was reiterated--simultaneously. But how were the agents to get the men from Moscow and Gorky, Smolensk and Penza, Shuya and Podolsk, to the prison near the village of X at the very same time?The agent in charge felt his strength was in leadership and gave up the role of strategist to the inside of his hat. He cut the list into strips and sprinkled them into the freshly blocked crown, mixing carefully so as not to disturb its shape. Most of these writers were in Moscow. The handful who were in their native villages, taking the waters somewhere, or locked in a cabin trying to finish that seminal work would surely receive a stiff cuffing when a pair of agents, aggravated by the trek, stepped through the door.After the lottery, those agents who had drawn a name warranting a long journey accepted the good-natured insults and mockery of friends. Most would have it easy, nothing more to worry about than hurrying some old rebel to a car, or getting their shirts wrinkled in a heel-dragging, hair-pulling rural scene that could be as messy as necessary in front of a pack of superstitious peasants.Then there were those who had it hard. Such as the two agents assigned to Vasily Korinsky, who, seeing no way out, was prepared to exit his bedroom quietly but whose wife, Paulina, struck the shorter of the two officers with an Oriental-style brass vase. There was a scuffle; Paulina was subdued, the short officer taken out unconscious, and a precious hour lost on their estimated time.There was the pair assigned to Moishe Bretzky, a true lover of vodka and its country of origin. One would not have pegged him as one of history's most sensitive Yiddish poets. He was huge, slovenly, and smelly as a horse. Once a year, during the Ten Days of Penitence, he would take notice of his sinful ways and sober up for Yom Kippur. After the fast, he would grab pen and pad and write furiously for weeks in his sister's ventless kitchen--the shroud of atonement still draped over his splitting head. The finished work was toasted with a brimming shot of vodka. Then Bretzky's thirst would begin to rage and off he would go for another year. His sister's husband would have put an end to this annual practice if it weren't for the rubles he received for the sweat-curled pages Bretzky abandoned.It took the whole of the night for the two agents to locate Bretzky. They tracked him down in one of the whorehouses that did not exist, and if they did, government agents surely did not frequent them. Nonetheless, having escaped notice, they slipped into the room. Bretzky was passed out on his stomach with a smiling trollop pinned under each arm. The time-consuming process of freeing the whores, getting Bretzky upright, and moving him into the hallway reduced the younger man to tears.The senior agent left his partner in charge of the body while he went to chat with the senior woman of the house. Introducing himself numerous times as if they had never met, he explained his predicament and enlisted the help of a dozen women.Twelve of the house's strongest companions--in an array of pink and red robes, froufrou slippers, and painted toenails--carried the giant bear to the waiting car amid a roar of giggles. It was a sight Bretzky would have enjoyed tremendously had he been conscious.The least troubling of the troublesome abductions was that of Y. Zunser, oldest of the group and a target of the first serious verbal attacks on the cosmopolitans back in '49. In the February 19 edition of Literaturnaya Gazeta he had been criticized as an obsolete author, accused of being anti-Soviet, and chided for using a pen name to hide his Jewish roots. In that same edition they printed his real name, Melman, stripping him of the privacy he had so enjoyed.Three years later they came for him. The two agents were not enthusiastic about the task. They had shared a Jewish literature instructor in high school, whom they admired despite his ethnicity and who even coerced them into writing a poem or two. Both were rather decent fellows, and capturing an eighty-one-year-old man did not exactly jibe with their vision of bravely serving the party. They were simply following instructions. But somewhere amid their justifications lay a deep fear of punishment.It was not yet dawn and Zunser was already dressed, sitting with a cup of tea. The agents begged him to stand up on his own, one of them trying the name Zunser and the other pleading with Melman. He refused."I will neither resist nor help. The responsibility must rest fully upon your conscience.""We have orders," they said."I did not say you were without orders. I said that you have to bear responsibility."They first tried lifting him by his arms, but Zunser was too delicate for the maneuver. Then one grabbed his ankles while the other clasped his chest. Zunser's head lolled back. The agents were afraid of killing him, an option they had been warned against. They put him on the floor and the larger of the two scooped him up, cradling the old man like a child.Zunser begged a moment's pause as they passed a portrait of his deceased wife. He fancied the picture had a new moroseness to it, as if the sepia-toned eyes might well up and shed a tear. He spoke aloud. "No matter, Katya. Life ended for me on the day of your death; everything since has been but nostalgia." The agent shifted the weight of the romantic in his arms and headed out the door.The solitary complicated abduction that took place out of Moscow was the one that should have been the easiest of the twenty-seven. It was the simple task of removing Pinchas Pelovits from the inn on the road that ran to X and the prison beyond.Pinchas Pelovits had constructed his own world with a compassionate God and a diverse group of worshipers. In it, he tested these people with moral dilemmas and tragedies--testing them sometimes more with joy and good fortune. He recorded the trials and events of this world in his notebooks in the form of stories and novels, essays, poems, songs, anthems, tales, jokes, and extensive histories that led up to the era in which he dwelled.His parents never knew what label to give their son, who wrote all day but did not publish, who laughed and cried over his novels but was gratingly logical in his contact with the everyday world. What they did know was that Pinchas wasn't going to take over the inn.When they became too old to run the business, the only viable option was to sell out at a ridiculously low price--provided the new owners would leave the boy his room and feed him when he was hungry. Even when the business became the property of the state, Pinchas, in the dreamer's room, was left in peace: why bother, he's harmless, sort of a good-luck charm for the inn, no one even knows he's here, maybe he's writing a history of the place, and we'll all be made famous. He wasn't. But who knows, maybe he would have, had his name--mumbled on the lips of travelers--not found its way onto Stalin's list.The two agents assigned Pinchas arrived at the inn driving a beat-up droshky and posing as the sons of now-poor landowners, a touch they thought might tickle their superiors. One carried a Luger (a trinket he had brought home from the war), and the other kept a billy club stashed in his boot. They found the narrow hallway with Pinchas's room and knocked lightly on his door. "Not hungry" was the response. The agent with the Luger gave the door a hip check; it didn't budge. "Try the handle," said the voice. The agent did, swinging it open."You're coming with us," said the one with the club in his boot."Absolutely not," Pinchas stated matter-of-factly. The agent wondered if his "You're coming with us" had sounded as bold."Put the book down on the pile, put your shoes on, and let's go." The agent with the Luger spoke slowly. "You're under arrest for anti-Soviet activity."Pinchas was baffled by the charge. He meditated for a moment and came to the conclusion that there was only one moral outrage he'd been involved in, though it seemed to him a bit excessive to be incarcerated for it."Well, you can have them, but they're not really mine. They were in a copy of a Zunser book that a guest forgot and I didn't know where to return them. Regardless, I studied them thoroughly. You may take me away." He proceeded to hand the agents five postcards. Three were intricate pen-and-ink drawings of a geisha in various positions with her legs spread wide. The other two were identical photographs of a sturdy Russian maiden in front of a painted tropical background wearing a hula skirt and making a vain attempt to cover her breasts. Pinchas began stacking his notebooks while the agents divvied the cards. He was sad that he had not resisted temptation. He would miss taking his walks and also the desk upon whose mottled surface he had written."May I bring my desk?"The agent with the Luger was getting fidgety. "You won't be needing anything, just put on your shoes.""I'd much prefer my books to shoes," Pinchas said. "In the summer I sometimes take walks without shoes but never without a novel. If you would have a seat while I organize my notes--" and Pinchas fell to the floor, struck in the head with the pistol grip. He was carried from the inn rolled in a blanket, his feet poking forth, bare.Pinchas awoke, his head throbbing from the blow and the exceedingly tight blindfold. This was aggravated by the sound of ice cracking under the droshky wheels, as happens along the river route west of X. "The bridge is out on this road," he told them. "You'd best cut through the old Bunakov place. Everybody does it in winter."The billy club was drawn from the agent's boot, and Pinchas was struck on the head once again. The idea of arriving only to have their prisoner blurt out the name of the secret prison was mortifying. In an attempt to confound him, they turned off on a clearly unused road. There are reasons that unused roads are not used. It wasn't half a kilometer before they had broken a wheel and were off to a nearby pig farm on foot. The agent with the gun commandeered a donkey-drawn cart, leaving a furious pig farmer cursing and kicking the side of his barn.The trio were all a bit relieved upon arrival: Pinchas because he started to get the idea that this business had to do with something more than his minor infraction, and the agents because three other cars had shown up only minutes before they had--all inexcusably late.By the time the latecomers had been delivered, the initial terror of the other twenty-three had subsided. The situation was tense and grave, but also unique. An eminent selection of Europe's surviving Yiddish literary community was being held within the confines of an oversized closet. Had they known they were going to die, it might have been different. Since they didn't, I. J. Manger wasn't about to let Mani Zaretsky see him cry for rachmones. He didn't have time to anyway. Pyotr Kolyazin, the famed atheist, had already dragged him into a heated discussion about the ramifications of using God's will to drastically alter the outcome of previously "logical" plots. Manger took this to be an attack on his work and asked Kolyazin if he labeled everything he didn't understand "illogical." There was also the present situation to discuss, as well as old rivalries, new poems, disputed reviews, journals that just aren't the same, up-and-coming editors, and, of course, the gossip, for hadn't they heard that Lev had used his latest manuscript for kindling?When the noise got too great, a guard opened the peephole in the door to find that a symposium had broken loose. As a result, by the time numbers twenty-four through twenty-seven arrived, the others had already been separated into smaller cells.Each cell was meant to house four prisoners and contained three rotting mats to sleep on. In a corner was a bucket. There were crude holes in the wood-plank walls, and it was hard to tell if the captors had punched them as a form of ventilation or if the previous prisoners had painstakingly scratched them through to confirm the existence of a world outside.The four latecomers had lain down immediately, Pinchas on the floor. He was dazed and shivering, stifling his moans so the others might rest. His companions did not even think of sleep: Vasily Korinsky because of worry about what might be the outcome for his wife; Y. Zunser because he was trying to adapt to the change (the only alteration he had planned for in his daily routine was death, and that in his sleep); Bretzky because he hadn't really awakened.Excepting Pinchas, none had an inkling of how long they'd traveled, whether from morning until night or into the next day. Pinchas tried to use his journey as an anchor, but in the dark he soon lost his notion of time gone by. He listened for the others' breathing, making sure they were alive.
Excerpted from For the Relief of Unbearable Urges by Nathan Englander Copyright © 2000 by Nathan Englander. Excerpted by permission of Vintage, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Lead designers Mackey McCandlish and Todd Alderman, lead animators Mark Grisby and John Paul Messerly, lead environmental artist Chris Cherubini, and programmers Jon Shiring and Rayme Vinson have all joined Respawn, taking the same roles.
Respawn Entertainment was formed earlier this month by Infinity Ward co-founders Jason West and Vince Zampella, who were dramatically fired by studio owner Activision in March. The pair soon sued Activision for allegedly unpaid royalties as well as control of the Modern Warfare brand. Activision dismissed the claims as "meritless" and promptly counter-sued, alleging that the pair had attempted to "steal" Infinity Ward.
Activision is currently restructuring the studio after Respawn's seven new hires and at least six others quit. It seems that their bonuses will be shared amongst all remaining.
"I'm confused, because by leaving, they are giving up their bonus--and the more people that leave, the bigger the bonus gets for the people who stay," 1up spotted Activision social media manager Dan Amrich writing after boldly wading into the hostile waters of Facebook's 'Gamers against Bobby Kotick & Activision' group.
There's still no word on what Respawn has planned, though it's a fair bet the game will involve shooting people in their faces during a period some time after September 1, 1939. The studio has signed an exclusive worldwide publishing scheme with Activision's rival Electronic Arts through its EA Partners scheme.


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Dan Norcini:
... First - We are watching the inevitable effects of the experiment in socialism when it reaches its logical conclusion. When generations are either taught or have it implied to them that they can allow their governments to run up ruinous levels of debt and yet suffer no consequences whatsoever, they have little to no incentive to throw out the political leaders who hold the actual purse strings. The cradle to grave policies of the nanny state are not sustainable over the long haul. The reason is clear - politicians make promises to pay that they cannot keep. Eventually there is not enough money to cover the promises and the government is forced to borrow to the point that it can no longer afford to pay the rate of interest that creditors demand to compensate them for the risk.
We all know that the proposal to confiscate up to 9.9% of the savings accounts of those who have worked hard to amass that money is nothing more than government sanctioned THEFT. Spare us the insults of calling it a "tax" and thereby seeking to justify this reprehensible policy. People use banks because of one reason and one reason only - TRUST. Take that away and you have destroyed the foundation of the banking system.
Put yourself in the place of an average European citizen who is watching this debacle unfold before their eyes. Would you feel the least bit secure if you had now been awakened to the fact that your government's leaders had spent the nation into bankruptcy and were suggesting that as part of the solution to their folly that those same fools who ran up the debt in the first place now be permitted to raid your personal savings account to somehow solve a problem of their creation? What would you do ...


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The Record's recommended spots to find fish in the Central Valley and beyond.
Independence Day boaters are enjoying recreational pursuits - most anything but fishing - this week. The best striped bass fishing is down along Sherman Island with frozen shad or anchovies for fish to 24 inches. Many boaters are rafting near Mandeville tip for Thursday's annual Barron Hilton fireworks show. In-river salmon fishing opens July 16 on the Sacramento and Mokelumne rivers. Limit is two Chinook per day.
Ocean - Recreational salmon fishing is closed every Monday and Tuesday through July 9. After that, fishing is allowed daily. Effective Monday, the minimum-size limit for salmon has been reduced from 24 to 20 inches.
Breezy conditions make for inconsistent scores out of Bodega Bay, but on Sunday most skiffs and charters had a field day on kings at the Whistle Buoy and southwest of Bodega Head. Rick Powers aboard the New Sea Angler offers combination trips, a unique chance to hook rockfish and salmon. His most recent excursion yielded quite a haul: 34 limits of mixed rockfish and 29 salmon to 23 pounds.
San Francisco Bay charters are making long runs to the North Farallon Island and to Point Reyes to enjoy incredible salmon fishing. Emeryville Sportfishing charters managed 62 limits to 30 pounds on the weekend. Rockfishing is very good at the Farallons, as well as in shallow water off the Marin County coast.
Monterey Bay finds slow salmon fishing except for the occasional mooched fish down 275 feet at Soquel Hole. There are solid scores for rockfish with limits the norm, with a bonus lingcod in many sacks. Halibut to 33 pounds are more frequent for live baiters and those who pull hoochies in about 70 feet. Wolf eels and white sea bass also are showing.
San Pablo Bay - Keith Fraser at Loch Lomond Live Bait in San Rafael said halibut fishing improved Monday, especially at Paradise Cay, Angel Island, South Hampton and Red Rock. Halibut to 18 pounds. Striped bass continues slow.
American - In-river salmon fishing opens July 16 from the mouth at Discovery Park to the Hazel Avenue bridge, reported Broadway Bait in Sacramento.
Feather - In-river salmon fishing opens July 16 from the mouth to 200 yards above the Live Oak boat ramp. Closed permanently are the wing dams and area at Thermalito Afterbay Outlet, reported Johnson's Bait and Tackle in Yuba City.
Sacramento - Shad fishing is best from Los Molinos to the mouth of Salt Creek, the only consistent angling for the "poor man's tarpon" in the Central Valley. Back-bouncing Hot Shot lures is productive for wild rainbow trout from Redding to Anderson, according to Kirk Portocarrero of Sac River Guide Service. Rainbows range from 13 inches to 5 pounds and constitute the best tail water angling in the West. No fooling. In-river king salmon fishing opens July 16 from the Carquinez Bridge to 150 feet below the lower Red Bluff (Sycamore) boat ramp.
Hogan - Guide Bruce Hamby of Ripon said fishing still is good for striped bass for anglers who put in their time, working 15 to 25 feet deep and slow-rolling shad or anchovies. Stripers to 3 1/2 pounds. Limit is 10 per day. The water level is down 50 percent, so fish the main body. The surface temperature is 79 degrees.
Los Vaqueros - An improved catfish bite follows last week's plant at the marina. Trout fishing is fair from the shoreline and better from a rental boat and towing a fire-tiger Rapala.
New Melones - Fishing is slow for kokanee that seem to hug the bottom around structure, making for precarious trolling. Better options are for catfish with cut bait or fishing after dark for trout using submersible lights.
Spicer - Trout have gone deep, 35 feet or more. Be sure to tip lures with a piece of nightcrawler and plan to be fishing just after sunrise, when the bite seems best.
Highway 4 - Expect temperatures in the upper 80s, making hiking the canyons a real chore. Trout have been planted in Union, Mosquito and Alpine lakes, as well in the Stanislaus River North Fork and Carson River East Fork.
Highway 108 - Forks of the Tuolumne and Stanislaus rivers are stocked, but the water is low, clear and warming, meaning campers fish them out quickly. If you can stand triple-digit heat, try using bait at Moccasin Creek. Pinecrest Lake is well stocked, but the rainbows are small.
Highway 88 - Caples and Silver lakes are clear and dropping. Fishing is inconsistent. The Carson River West Fork is low and clear, with best prospects found east of the junction of Highway 89, dunking bait in the pools. Beat the heat and try Upper and Lower Blue Lakes, or hike into Summit Lake.


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Trainer Kristin Mulhall definitely will follow the equestrian competition at the London Olympic Games when they start Friday. She says she'll probably watch some other events that are on when she happens to be in front of a TV.
And the thought is likely to cross her mind that she might be a representative of the USA on that equestrian team, and getting up close and personal looks at the athletes from around the world in some future Olympics.
Mulhall, daughter of longtime Southern California circuit trainer Richard Mulhall, was an accomplished equestrienne in both show ring and hunter-jumper events as a teenager. She qualified to become a member of Young Riders, a prelude to competing for a spot on the Olympic team.
"I was moving up in the Grand Prix ranks, still a ways away from qualifying," Mulhull said Wednesday on the Del Mar backstretch. "I had a horse named Superman that was definitely an Olympic quality horse."
Then, while making a tack room ready for occupancy she slipped from a ladder and drove a nail deeply into and fractured her forearm. "It got infected and kind of ugly," Mulhall said. "It took six months to fully heal."
While recovering, she galloped horses for trainer John Shirreffs at Del Mar and, in June of 2002, passed the test for her trainer's license. Her first winner was with Atarama that summer over the Del Mar turf.
In 2004, at age 21, she conditioned Imperialism for a third-place finish behind Smarty Jones in the Kentucky Derby and fifth in the Preakness – bidding to become the youngest, and first female, trainer to win a Kentucky Derby.
She entered the 2012 Del Mar meeting with six stakes wins at Del Mar and immediately won the next-best-thing to a stake, taking the first race on Opening Day with Miss California, ridden by Chantal Sutherland.
Mulhall keeps her riding skills honed by galloping and exercising most of her own horses. On Wednesday, she exercised nine in the early morning at Del Mar and then hopped in her truck for the 130-mile drive to Hollywood Park to get on a few more.
She says of Olympic-time riding. "It's something I'll eventually go back to when I have the time and feel like I have the right horse. I haven't given up (on the Olympics)."
Pleased with her stable's first-week success at Del Mar, Mulhall said she hopes to have some more with a couple of horses coming in from Florida. Tail of a Champion is a possibility for the Grade II, $200,000 Del Mar Mile on Sunday, August 26, and Red Jag for the Green Flash Handicap on Wednesday, August 15.
WICKERR WIN SUGGESTS McANALLY'S GOT A GOOD ONE
Hall of Fame trainer Ron McAnally said that Suggestive Boy, impressive winner of Wednesday's Wickerr Stakes, not only came out of the assignment well but was "fightin' for more" on Thursday morning.
"He ran a big race and he looks like he could be an extraordinary horse," McAnally said. "It's the horse that makes everybody look good, the owner, the trainer, the jockey."
Four-year-old Suggestive Boy, a three-quarter length winner in the one-mile Wickerr with a late burst between horses under Joe Talamo, is one of two Argentine-bred newcomers to McAnally's barn owned by the Pozo de Luna, Inc. stable of Mexican businessman Jose Cerillo. The other, six-year-old Interaction, was runner-up to Acclamation in last Saturday's Eddie Read Stakes.
"We'll try to figure out how to keep them separated," McAnally said. McAnally indicated he fully intends to run both again during the Del Mar meeting and will work both on the Polytrack main surface to determine if there is an option other than turf for one or both.
Two-time TVG Pacific Classic champion Richard's Kid is back in the barn of Bob Baffert and back on the same race schedule that led to the Classic victories in 2009-10.
Richard's Kid drew the rail post and will face five rivals Friday in the Grade II, $100,000 Cougar II Handicap.
Richard's Kid finished second to Unusual Suspect in the 2009 Cougar II before posting a $50.80 upset win in the Pacific Classic under Mike Smith for owner Arnold Zetcher. In 2010, a third-place finish in the Cougar II preceded an $11.60 score in the Classic under Smith for new owner Zabeel International Racing Corp.
The 2010 Classic was the last Del Mar appearance for Richard's Kid. The 7-year-old son of Lemon Drop Kid spent all of 2011 based in the United Arab Emirates. In the most recent of two 2012 starts, both at Hollywood Park, Richard's Kid was second to stablemate Game On Dude in the $500,000, Grade I Hollywood Gold Cup on July 7.
The Cougar II, at 1 ½ miles on the Polytrack main course, is a quarter-mile longer than the Pacific Classic. Richard's Kid won the June 12 Prove It stakes, at 1 3/8 miles on the Hollywood Park synthetic track, after going 0-for-5 in Dubai at distances from a mile to 1 ¼ miles.
"That's a different kind of synthetic track over there and I don't think he likes it," Baffert said. "He really likes this track and I think he's better now than any time since we've had him."
Breeders' Cup and Eclipse Award sprint champion Amazombie was on the track at around 5 a.m. Thursday for trainer Bill Spawr, working a half-mile in :47.00. Spawr had the 6-year-old California-bred gelding galloping out to five furlongs in a minute flat after covering the final eighth of the work in :23 1/5 seconds.
"He usually works a little slower than that, but Mike (jockey Mike Smith) said he just sat on him and (Amazombie) was pulling the whole way."
A field of five was entered for Sunday's Grade I, $300,000 Bing Crosby Stakes, the 6-furlong run that often determines the sprint champion of the meeting. Amazombie was third in the 2011 Crosby behind Bob Baffert-trained Euroears.
The Crosby could evolve into a match race between Amazombie and The Factor, 2011 sprinter of the meeting off a victory in the 7-furlong Pat O'Brien Stakes. But Capitol Account, a stablemate of The Factor, Don Tito and Comma to the Top all could have a say in the outcome.
Comma to the Top, trained by Peter Miller, was scratched from Thursday's seventh-race allowance to run in the Crosby.
CLOSERS – The Lung Cancer Foundation of America "Day at the Races charity event will be held on Sunday, July 29, from noon to 6:30 pm at Del Mar with the one event on the 10-race card being specially dedicated as the LCFA "Breath of Life" race. Master of Ceremonies for the event is Tim Conway, Jr., host of The Tim Conway, Jr. Show on KFI AM 640 Talk Radio. For further information go to http://www.LCFAmerica.org … Ship And Win bonus-eligible horses on today's card include: Four Bettter (2nd, trainer Doug O'Neill); Cosset (2nd, Hector Palma); Blackie's Crown (2nd, Christie Grisham); Grace for Grace (6th, Tevis McCauley); Mary Fildes (6th, Simon Callaghan); Belle de Lune (6th, Tom Proctor); Koko Loca (6th, Doug O'Neill); Bank the Eight (7th, Bob Baffert); Private Zone (7th, Doug O'Neill) … Trainer Craig Dollase has four-time Pacific Classic starter Awesome Gem on the grounds, training for a title defense in the $200,000, Grade III, Longacres Mile on Sunday, August 19, at Emerald Downs outside Seattle. Awesome Gem, 9, has earnings of more than $2.7 million with 11 wins in 50 career starts … Jockey Corey Nakatani, who was excused from mounts late on Wednesday's card when he experienced light headedness, was recovered Thursday morning and work horses for, among others, Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella.
Trakus Facts of the Day for Wednesday, July 25
Lakerville's second win of the meet also featured the fastest final fractions recorded in the last two seasons at Del Mar. Next-to-last turning for home in Wednesday's fourth race, Lakerville recorded a final quarter in 21.73 seconds, and a final furlong in 10.88 seconds en route to the victory.
Compared to 110 starters tracked over the 2011 Del Mar meet at five furlongs on grass, and 27 starters thus far at the 2012 meet, Lakerville's closing fractions on Wednesday were the fastest. A week earlier, Lakerville won with a final quarter timed in 22.10 and a final eighth in 10.99 seconds. Comparatively, the swifter fractions from this Wednesday's victory are also the two fastest final quarter-mile and final eighth-mile splits out of all 2,378 horses tracked at the entire 2011 Del Mar meeting. The second-place finisher, Batti Man (Arg), was beaten just 1.5 lengths, covered 24 feet more than Lakerville in a solid effort.
The final margin of Inner Groove's third race victory was a diminishing half-length, but the daughter of Rock Hard Ten covered added ground. Inner Groove got the trip in 5,347 feet, which was 44 feet more than second-place finisher Belle Gallantey and 30 feet more than third-placer My Friend Gail.


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Delver's Drop - (by Pixelscopic LLC)[Universal]
A Fast, physics-based Action RPG with random dungeons and puzzles
Delver's Drop is a 2D Action RPG with fluid physics-based movement, snappy combat, shifting dungeons, and a rogue's gallery of character classes that can be individually leveled.
With an emphasis on mystery and dynamic gameplay experiences, the game features randomization for infinite replay, enigmatic puzzle permutations to unravel, multiple narrative paths, customizable character growth, and layers of secrets to unearth.
Battle & Adventure:
The movement and combat in Delver's Drop are based on a unique physics system, designed to make the most fluid and tight 2D action game possible. Every character, enemy, object, and environmental effect in the game interact based on this system, and have properties for mass, friction, velocity, acceleration, and bounciness. This opens up a variety of tactical approaches for solving puzzles, defeating your foes, and turning the environment to your advantage.
- Fluid 360-degree movement with controller support.
- The physics affect every interaction, and are integral to defeating some enemies and solving puzzles.
- Use the environment against your foes by swatting stones at them, causing explosions, triggering traps, and more.
Every playthrough, every room discovered, every descent to your ultimate unknown goal is a unique experience through the miracle of Pixelscopic's patented Randungeonization™. Delver's Drop makes each dungeon dive unique by randomizing the dungeon each time you die. Some experience, progress, and completed rooms will remain intact, but the dungeon will shift into a new layout for a totally different experience. Likewise, the class you play and the choices you make affect what happens and what parts of the story unfold in any given journey down the Drop.
- Explore a shifting maze where each adventure is different, and requires players to rely on their wits and skill to overcome the odds
- Enjoy endless replay value - there's always the potential for something truly surprising through the next door
- Dungeon navigation becomes strategic in itself — solve multi-dimensional puzzles that affect the layout and traversal of rooms
Dubious Heroes & Dastardly Foes
Play as one of several classes of imprisoned miscreants - Rogues, Sorcerers, Gladiators, and more. Each has unique movement properties, weapons, perks, and special abilities. Individual "heroes" are somewhat expendable, since each time one dies another is thrown down The Drop. But accomplishments and experience for each class are shared across adventures.
...which is a good thing as you'll need all the help you can get to survive. Enemies come in all shapes and sizes, many rooms are laced with devious traps and puzzles, and even the very architecture itself shifts in attempts to guard its secrets.
Last edited by Sanuku; 02-08-2013 at 09:48 PM.


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Group Business Up at U.S. Hotels in Q1
First-quarter group business at U.S. hotels has been stronger than expected, according to data just released from Smith Travel Research. Read the entire article HERE.
The Power of Religious Meetings
Tough Economic times have put a damper on faith-based meetings, but the Religious Conference Management Association's member survey shows that in 2010 religious conferences continued to be a strong component of the U.S. meetings industry. Learn more HERE.
Increase direct hotel bookings with social media
For many hotels, the profitability of direct website sales justify investment in website optimization. Fortunately, this process does not have to be difficult or expensive. It simply requires an understanding of recent changes to search engine algorithms and consumer behavior that guide current best practices. Read the article in its entirety HERE.


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October 11, 2013
The heavily furloughed Labor Department's inability to put out its monthly report on joblessness is manageable only in the short run and risks long-run damage to key economic measures, according to economists interviewed by Government Executive.
The monthly unemployment numbers, based on surveys of households and employers and watched avidly by business and public officials as a barometer of economic health, are produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The latest report was due out on Oct. 4, but of the bureau's 2,409 employees (supplemented by some 500 contractors), only three are on the job during the government shutdown, according to Labor's shutdown guidance.
"The shutdown hit when the analysts were three days from releasing the report, so they would probably need about that time period to prepare the final report," said Keith Hall, who was BLS commissioner from 2008-2012 and is now a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. "They have pretty much collected all the data from household surveys, but they need to process it and put it in tables."
More problems may arise as the shutdown continues, Hall added, because the current, or second week of the month, is when the data gatherers "would normally be conducting the next household survey if the government had not closed, which starts to impact next month's data. Perhaps worse, data quality can be affected."
While the report's broad unemployment rate garners the most news coverage, industries also focus on the detailed tables affecting their own sector, Hall said. "In terms of current economic conditions, nothing's better than the jobs numbers if you want to see how your industry's doing, whether employment is picking up. We know it impacts financial markets." The Federal Reserve relies on the unemployment rate as a factor in deciding whether to continue its current bond-buying stimulus, he noted.
Chad Moutray, chief economist for the National Association of Manufacturers, said, "Economists in particular are looking for trends and signs of a manufacturing uptick" and can fall back on the private-sector Automated Data Processing unemployment rate calculated by Moody's. "But the lack of data over the past two weeks has really hamstrung us in our ability to say whether the economy is picking up or slowing down," he said.
The NAM-member chief executive officers he recently met with have "long time-horizons," Moutray added. "For the most part businesses are looking at government data as a gauge to see whether what they see in their own business and hear from customers jibes. If we went on a prolonged period without government data, they would be more left in dark." But such uncertainty, while "disappointing, is not the end of the world," he said. "They're not going to stop hiring because they already have put those plans in place. The more pressing challenge is frustration with Washington over ending the shutdown."
Robert J. Shapiro, the undersecretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs in the Clinton administration and now chairman of Sonecon LLC, said the harm from the delayed government unemployment number "depends on what the number is. There would be a larger market reaction if the BLS number when released was significantly different from the private sector's."
Shapiro added: "The larger question is to what extent the shutdown is interfering with the collection of data that goes into all the other reports." Those could include the components of the gross domestic product, for example, some of which lack a private-sector substitute.
"We don't know the extent to which in fact the collection is not going on," he said. "If there's collection but no analysis, an inability to get basic elements of the GDP number would introduce new uncertainties into lots of economic decisions. This also would reinforce the already large effect of the games the House is playing with the nation's economy, a signaling effect that government is less reliable."
The Labor Department could not be reached for comment.
October 11, 2013


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Passenger numbers
UAE airports passenger traffic hits 37.8m in first four months
UAE airports have reported a positive performance in the first four months of the year, handling 37.84 million passengers - a 17.3 per cent increase compared to 32.24 million a year ago, said a report. Dubai International Airport witnesMore…
Etihad to breakeven this year says CEO
Etihad Airways has seen no softening in passenger numbers since Europe's debt crisis and US economic problems hit global markets and expects to break even this year, its chief executive officer said. James Hogan also said he was keen to inMore…
Etihad Q1 passenger numbers up 11pc
Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, said its passenger numbers for the first quarter of 2010 increased by 11 per cent, while premium traffic grew by five per cent against the first quarter of 2009. The airline also reported 25More…


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Scientology Critic Flees U.S. Over Usenet Posts, Pickets 477
"Religious bigotry will not be tolerated in Riverside County," was a Scientology spokesperson's reaction to the verdict.
That's basically the problem right there. The First Amendment gives me the right to be a bigot as long as I don't hurt or threaten anyone. You don't have to like my opinions, but you do have to tolerate them.
If you've ever hung out in an online forum, you'll probably get deja vu reading this Usenet thread. The first message posted is a description of cruising past some Scientology related buildings, complete with GPS coordinates for whatever reason. It's written as a self-mocking, satirical sendup of spy movies. The remainder of the thread is jokes in the same vein.
The question is whether this running gag about "Tom Cruise Missile Coordinates" (get it?) could be taken seriously enough to qualify as a threat under Section 11415 of the California Penal Code.
As I read the recently-passed law, if you go along with the jokes about the "handheld laser guidance system," you might be a terrorist:
Any person who knowingly threatens to use a weapon of mass destruction [including] by means of an electronic communication device, is to be taken as a threat, even if there is no intent of actually carrying it out ...
The fact that the person who allegedly violated this section did not actually possess a biological agent, toxin, or chemical weapon does not constitute a defense to the crime specified in this section.
The victim of said terrorism must have been in "sustained fear" of the threat being carried out. And how does the law know your victim was in sustained fear? Because he or she evacuated the building -- or took "any other action."
Here's what Henson says. In this case, the Scientology organization's legal team managed to bar any evidence from being presented about why Henson was picketing the Scientology location (because of two unusual deaths within a month).
Nor was the context of the above thread, or context of Henson's other Usenet posts, allowed to be introduced. For example, the jury could not see the context of the above thread; they only saw Henson's contribution to the running gag:
Modern weapons are accurate to a matter of a few tens of yards. The terminal guidence ones are good to single digits.
Of the next quote, the jury was only allowed to see the first sentence, not the second:
The only way I can get clear of this scientology mess is to "destroy them utterly." So: This week I will be back picketing gold base.
And you can decide what you think his third quote means, but again you have the advantage of its context being just a click away:
PPS Killing the organization off entirely is the best way to change the future of Scientology.
Worse still, according to Henson's at-the-time lawyer, whether these statements caused fear in some Scientologists was decided not by the statements he actually made, but by hearsay versions they got from others. He points out that Scientology's censorware package ("Scienositter") would have blocked the original Usenet posts anyway:
...cult members, who are not allowed access to the Internet and are actively prevented (by the Church of Scientology "net nanny") from reading the newsgroups on which Henson posts, may have an unreasonable and irrational fear based on unreasonable and out of context statements of which they were informed selectively, but which they did not read.
So picture Keith Henson's situation. He feels strongly about his particular cause. He peacefully carries a picket sign. He exercises his First Amendment right to post on Usenet about what he's doing and why -- and in so doing he uses sentences and phrases which, in context, clearly are not threats, but out of context could be construed that way.
Dragged into court, all context is stripped away and -- while he narrowly escapes conviction as a domestic terrorist -- he is convicted of using the threat of force against people who may never have actually read what he wrote.
If you're smart, you'll take Henson's case as a warning. You'll think about what your own statements would look like, with their context totally removed, and in the harsh spotlight of a courtroom. Do you really need to post that joke, or wouldn't the judge find it funny?
You'll soften up your opinions just a little, trying not to change what you mean while trying to change what you could be twisted to mean.
Maybe it's not such a great loss for you or me; we're not great writers anyway, and if we censor ourselves before hitting Save, maybe that's not the end of the world. We weren't really going to use that First Amendment right anyway, you know?
But somewhere out there is a Mark Twain who's had it up to here and is poised to pen a caustic attack on a religion which will become an important classic. As of yesterday, Mark's a bit more likely to live in Canada.


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Sandra Duran Wilson
Mixed Media Abstract Painting EVOLUTIONARY DANCE by Santa Fe Contemporary Artist Sandra Duran Wilson
30 x 30 in (76 x 76 cm)
Mixed Media
Contact Me
My Websites
Sandra Duran Wilson-Science and the Princess of Paint
About This Painting
artists workshops, mixed media art, Sandra Duran Wilson, where ART lives
How to Purchase Paintings
Please email me to inquire about availability and pricing
About Sandra Duran Wilson
The senses become intertwined in the mind of the artist. Sounds appear as colors, numbers sing songs and frequencies dance in her head. Synesthesia is a crossing of the senses. The mixed media work represent a beautiful blending of sounds, nature and science. Sandra Duran Wilson comes from a family of artists and scientists. She grew up in a world where all things were possible in her imagination. It was a world where she could look through the microscope in her fathers office and paint what she saw. Her early years were spent on the border of Mexico where the people, animals, landscape, music, culture and the stories of the curanderas shaped her reality. Years later she would return frequently to Mexico and South America to absorb the culture, traditions and art. Her spirituality combined with her scientific studies directed her work from realism to abstraction. Her work is influenced by scientific concepts in physics, chemistry and biology. The pure fun of exploring what paint can do and her natural curiosity keeps the work fresh and lively. She is continually exploring new surfaces, materials and techniques. Her work is represented in galleries in the US and Australia and is found in corporate, civic and educational institutions and private collections globally.


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Why does Oregon's history rock? From the Oregon Trail to Portlandia, Oregon is full of fascinating, rich, and quirky stories that make up our state's history. To tell these stories, the Oregon Historical Society and Clear Channel Outdoor are sponsoring the first ever "Oregon History Rocks Billboard Contest," open to students across the state.
The contest will be divided into three age categories based on age level: Kindergarten to fourth grade, fifth to eight grades, and ninth to 12th grades. A panel of judges from OHS, Clear Channel Outdoor, and local advertising agencies will judge the entries and choose a winner from each category, whose billboard will be printed and displayed in downtown Portland. The official unveiling of the three billboards will be on Oregon Statehood Day, Feb. 14, 2013.
"The Oregon Historical Society is excited to partner with our neighbors at Clear Channel Outdoor to sponsor this fun and historic opportunity for school children throughout Oregon," says OHS Executive Director Kerry Tymchuk. "With so many great reasons to love Oregon's history, it is sure to be a challenge choosing the winning entries!"
Interested students can pick up an entry form at the Oregon Historical Society (1200 SW Park Avenue, downtown Portland), or can print the form online at http://ohs.org/education/billboard-contest. Deadline for submission is Jan. 18, 2013 at 5 p.m. All entry forms must be mailed or delivered to Clear Channel Outdoor, 715 NE Everett Street, Portland, 97232, Attn: Oregon History Rocks Billboard Competition. Please visit the OHS website for complete contest rules and submission guidelines.
Since 1898, the Society has served as Oregon's primary research collection and museum about Oregon history. OHS has an extensive collection of historical pieces, including over 85,000 artifacts and 3 million photographs and films. It safeguards and presents Oregon's history through a museum, research library, traveling exhibits, school programs and website content.
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Please read our commenting policy before posting.
Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.
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Did you read today's front page stories & breaking news?
From the Wires
ASPCA Announces Settlement with Feld Entertainment, Ending 12 Years of Litigation
By: PR Newswire
Dec. 28, 2012 10:28 AM
NEW YORK, Dec. 28, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The ASPCA® (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals®) today confirmed that it has reached a settlement and is ending 12 years of litigation with Feld Entertainment, Inc., the producer of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® Circus. As part of the settlement, the organization does not admit to any liability or wrongdoing.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20060731/NYM024LOGO)
"The Court decided the underlying Endangered Species Act case filed by the ASPCA on the issue of standing, and never ruled on the merits of the elephant abuse allegations. In fact, this litigation has stopped being about the elephants a long time ago. After more than a decade of litigating with Feld Entertainment, the ASPCA concluded that it is in the best interests of the organization to resolve this expensive, protracted litigation. We are glad to put this matter behind us so we can focus most effectively on our life-saving work, preventing cruelty and improving the welfare of animals," stated ASPCA President & CEO Ed Sayres.
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Extension > Agriculture > Dairy Extension > Milk quality and mastitis > Preparing for Grazing Season
Preparing for Grazing Season
Extension Educator, Carver/Scott Counties
April 15, 2011
As spring has finally arrived and urban home owners have started to clean up their yards and dig in their flower beds� what do dairy farmers do at this time of year? They are cleaning up their buildings and open lots where animals were housed after a long winter. They are getting equipment ready for field work and planting. They may be re-examining their feed inventories and making ration adjustments until forages can be harvested. Some may be evaluating their breeding programs for the coming year as they periodically need to do from time to time. Those that utilize pasture in their dairy operations will be thinking about the grazing season and the steps needed to have good productivity and success in the months ahead. For those that use grazing, it is now time to develop a plan, if one isn't already developed, to get those pastures prepped and ready.
The following is a short checklist to help you prepare:
- Reflect. Take some time to reflect on the previous grazing season. What worked and what didn't? How did the weather patterns effect your rotations, paddock use and supplementation needs? You may have kept some notes (either on paper or mentally) about certain paddocks that needed improvement via seed, fertilizer, fencing, etc. Have you taken a soil test of some of your paddocks recently? By taking a soil sample in a few of your paddocks over time, perhaps sampling so many per year, you can determine the nutrient needs of each paddock. This will help assure good productivity in that paddock continues by balancing the forage yield needs for your animals with the nutrient needs of the forage.
- Mending fences. What a good saying! Good fences not only work for good neighbors and relationships, but they are a critical item to think about when evaluating your pasture system. Have all the fence lines survived any flooding, downed trees, or wildlife crossing over them since last fall? Maybe it will be worth some time to replace older fences with high tensile lines. Perhaps you might be able to use portable fences to break up paddocks into smaller parcels if needed. If you use electric fence, it is important to take the time to make sure the fencer is still working and the power is still adequate for the amount of line you want to cover. What about the electrical gates? Are they properly wired to provide an electrical charge and do all of them still have their insulated handles?
- Clean up. Items end up in a pasture that should not be there. Take some time to walk paddocks and remove items that may have blown in or arrived since last fall. Rocks, tree limbs, and trash all fall into this category. If some paddocks are in an area that has been flooded then there are additional issues to deal with like silt, mud and debris, and time needs to be allowed to clean up and restore the area back to productivity.
- Establishment. You may have done some seeding last fall to create a few new pasture areas. Those areas need to be checked as soon as possible this spring to see how they have fared through the winter. We are seeing some greening up now in our pastures, and that is a welcome sight! Pay close attention to these newly seeded areas, as they will not withstand the typical grazing pressure and traffic as compared to some of the older stands. They should be worked into your grazing strategy in such a way that you can adjust their use in the months ahead. In doing so there is a better chance of having successful stands in the future.
- Water. Depending on the layout of the paddocks and how they are set up, more than likely you will have watering lines and livestock tanks in different areas. All of the lines, valves, hoses, tank floats and tanks need to be checked to ensure they are all in working order. Winter weather can be hard on these items if left outside. Another consideration is to make an evaluation on whether or not water access needs to be changed or added to a new area. Also, determine a strategy for keeping the area around the water tanks clean and dry so animals don't get dirty feet and legs while drinking.
This is just a short list of key areas to think about when preparing pastures for grazing. Each dairy producer's system will vary based on their needs and preferences. You can find more information about utilizing pastures for dairy cattle on the University of Minnesota Dairy Extension website at www.extension.umn.edu/dairy.


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Data Elements
Data Elements
The following data elements are available for marriages occurring in Missouri since August 2001, when the Missouri Report of Marriage was last revised. Please note data for marriages occurring from 1969 through July 2001 are available upon request, but may contain fewer data elements. See the link below for details.
- [Complete List of All] Data Elements Reported to DHSS
- Data Elements That May Be Requested* for Research, Administrative or Statistical Purposes (Conditional on DHSS Approval)
*Not all data items reported to DHSS may be released due to statutory requirements or privacy considerations.