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What will be the hot electronic product this holiday season, particularly when it comes to gift giving? "Parents — consider yourself warned," said Warren Buckleitner, editor of Children's Technology Review, "Apple's iPad Mini will most likely be the hot toy this holiday season."
What will be the hot electronic product this holiday season, particularly when it comes to gift giving?
"Parents — consider yourself warned," said Warren Buckleitner, editor of Children's Technology Review, "Apple's iPad Mini will most likely be the hot toy this holiday season."
The new addition to Apple's tablet line isn't priced in the stocking-stuffer category: $330. What makes it attractive to children, wrote Buckleitner in CTR's December issue, is its "just right" size: bigger than the iPod Touch ($300), but smaller than either the iPad 2 ($400) or iPad 3 ($500).
"Children's smaller hands are a better match with a smaller, lighter device, especially when it comes to holding and tilting, required with many apps," he noted.
He went on to say that not only do kids like its size, they like Siri — the tablet's voice-recognition program: "The new Mini can talk and listen, via Siri — and we've noticed that kids love to play with Siri, as much as they do a Furby."
Carisa Kluver, founder of Digital Storytime, a children's book-app review site (www.digital-storytime.com), said this week that the iPad Mini could well become the e-reader of choice for kids.
"While the iPad Mini's price point and portability make it an attractive holiday option for families," she said, "it's the explosive growth on iTunes of quality book apps — a hybrid of an e-book and a game — that make it irresistible in the educational-technology world."
The hybrid e-books "often have narration, animation, music or text highlighting, all interactive elements that help kids stay with the reading material," she added.
And Apple's iTunes store has book apps that are not only more numerous than offerings found for Android- and Kindle-based tablets but exceed other apps in quality and quantity.
PC Magazine's Sascha Segan gave the iPad Mini a hands-on test last month and said the tablet could be "a top tablet for kids, especially in education. It's a four-fifths-scale iPad; they're four-fifths-scale people. Apple reaches out to schools and helps design curricula, which often involve iPad-only apps."
Over at EssentialKids.com, Anna Spargo-Ryan took on another aspect of the iPad Mini. Basically, it's another iPad, built like the ones used by adults — and that's not a good thing in this case: "It has not been specifically designed for kids to use, and if yours are anything like mine you'll know that means being dropped in the mud, used as a badminton racquet, covered in breakfast, run over by a bike and made fun of."
She concluded: "The iPad Mini is no more robust than the existing iPad, which means it runs the risk of broken and scratched screens and water damage." Not a good thought for a $330 product.
Spargo-Ryan said that rather than "than trying to jam the iPad-Mini-shaped peg into the child's toy-shaped hole, you might like to check out a tablet that really is designed for kids."
That would be the Innotab 2 Learning App Tablet from vTech. It has a 5-inch color screen and can take photos and videos. It's not a iPad Mini, but it's not priced like one either: It's about $70.
A company spokesman said the Innotab 2 has parental controls, built-in learning apps, a microphone, tilt sensor, pop-up on-screen keypad, and a stylus. "Children can play games, create art, take notes, or use utilities like the onboard calendar or friends list all on one device," he said. "Cartridges with licensed characters are sold separately and teach essential skills in reading, logic, and creativity. Additional apps such as games, e-books and music can be easily uploaded to the InnoTab 2 through VTech's Learning Lodge Navigator."
The Innotab 2 is designed for children in the 4-to-9 age group.
Parents rate it highly — four out of five stars on Amazon.com. Wrote one parent: "My kids won't let go of it anymore ... With plenty of apps you can download from v-tech (e.g. learn to write by tracing letters etc.) there's absolutely nothing a kid can't learn."
At one-fifth the cost of an iPad Mini, there can be more than one tablet under the tree.
[ Lonnie Brown has written the computer column for The Ledger for more than 30 years. He can be reached by e-mail at firstname.lastname@example.com. ]


text: I remember the first computer game I ever played was North and South on the Amiga. That must have been 12-13 years ago, but I remember the game was a lot of fun and I'd like to play it again. I have not been able to find it for PC. Does anyone have any suggestions on where I could find it? Has anyone else heard of the game?

subset: commoncrawl


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i want to know if there are any lipid extraction protocols available for bacteria? can i get the research papers or reviews for those protocols? please provide the link!!! thank you...
Submit your paper to J Biol Methods today!
Lipid extraction from bacteria
Started by piyushvarade, Mar 11 2011 07:08 PM
1 reply to this topic
Posted 11 March 2011 - 07:08 PM
Posted 12 March 2011 - 08:21 AM
Here is a protocol from DSM:


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News Feature
Originally published in Island Ad-Vantages, September 27, 2012 and The Weekly Packet, September 27, 2012
Candidates for House 36 seat take on issues
by Jessica Brophy
The two men running for the State House of Representatives District 36 seat—which includes Brooklin, Deer Isle, Isle au Haut and Stonington, among other towns—both share an interest in the welfare of the fishing industry and the communities it supports.
Walter Kumiega III is the incumbent Democrat who has served two years as Representative. A self-employed carpenter, Kumiega and his family have lived in Deer Isle for 18 years.
Kim Strauss is the Republican challenger for the seat. He and his wife Charlene live in Bass Harbor. Strauss owns a boatyard, runs nature cruises with his son Eli and captains a ferry boat to Frenchboro, Long Island.
Regulating the fishing industry
Given the abnormally low boat prices experienced by lobstermen this summer, the candidates were asked during recent interviews whether they believe some agent of the State of Maine should have the ability to temporarily shut down the lobster industry during an economic crisis.
Strauss said his initial reaction is no. "The industry belongs to fishermen, and they should decide for themselves," said Strauss. Any decision that is made about a potential shut down would need to be "fishermen-driven" he continued.
Kumiega said the idea might work, but he would be uncomfortable with resting the power to suspend the industry in one person, like the Department of Marine Resources Commissioner. "I would be more comfortable with a commission, like the milk commission, rather than the authority sitting with one individual," said Kumiega.
Kumiega said he wasn't convinced having the ability to suspend the industry is a good idea. "In reality, lobstermen are grownups," he added.
In terms of other potential regulations aimed to improve the health of the lobster industry, neither Strauss nor Kumiega have a specific agenda.
Kumiega, too, thinks that any changes in regulation need to come from the fishermen rather than from Augusta.
"I'm happy to help, to facilitate," said Kumiega. "And once it gets to that point, I'm happy to make sure the law is written correctly to make sure it doesn't create more problems than it solves."
Strauss said the good ideas he has heard over the past several months have come from fishermen. One such idea he has heard is to increase the gauge size for part of the year, perhaps from Memorial Day to Labor Day, as a way to slow down landings during the peak season, with the hope that the price per pound increases.
Strauss also thinks processing is a good idea in terms of jobs, but doesn't see more local processing as improving the boat price to fishermen, as a processor's goal is to pay low prices for lobster to process.
Improving Internet access and service
Internet access and quality of service is a concern for many of the communities in District 36. Some pockets still use dial-up and have no access to high-speed Internet; other areas such as Deer Isle and Stonington struggle with quality of service.
Both candidates were asked whether Internet service is necessary for economic health and whether they would support measures to improve service in rural areas.
The candidates agree that Internet service is an important part of Maine's economic health.
Strauss said his primary focus is the fishing industry and that this kind of problem requires focus and information-gathering. Strauss said he would seek out other legislators with knowledge of the issue and work closely with them.
"I don't care what party they come from, if they know what they're talking about," said Strauss, who said he would be more than happy to share his expertise of and connections to the commercial fisheries with any legislator as well.
Kumiega said the state has made a lot of progress in terms of updating the capacity and infrastructure statewide, but the problem is the "last mile," or getting that improved service to Mainers living in rural areas.
Kumiega praised the efforts of ConnectME, a program dedicated to improving connectivity.
One potential solution, said Kumiega, is to push for the Internet to be regulated like other public utilities such as electricity or telephone service. "It's kind of a heavy handed approach, but it needs to be part of the conversation [with Internet service providers]," said Kumiega, who hopes that leaving that option on the table might prompt more effort on the part of the companies to improve access and service.
Transparency and accountability in government
Both candidates were asked how accountable public officials should be to the public. More specifically, both candidates responded to the question of what they would do—or have done—to ensure accountability and connection to the people the candidates would represent.
Kumiega said Maine has a strong Sunshine Law (meetings are open to the public) and a good Freedom of Access law as well. Kumiega said he has voted once in favor of increased transparency and once against a bill that would have exempted some of the governor's working papers from Freedom of Access requests.
Kumiega says he personally maintains a Facebook page where constituents often get in touch with him, as well as an email address. "Getting out into the community is important, too," he said. "In Maine we're lucky enough to have small districts where you really can knock on most every door."
For Strauss, an important part of maintaining his connection to his constituents is to take only small donations. "I've been approached by [political action committees] and different groups," said Strauss. "If I go to Augusta, I'm not going to be accountable to any group, just everyone I represent."
One of his goals, if elected, is to set up a website for lobstermen with a discussion forum to help fishermen stay up-to-date on any potential legislation. It would also allow fishermen from different zones to talk to one another.


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Original URL: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/07/another_zombie_bogus_app_bug_shambles_out_of_android/
Another zombie 'bogus app' bug shambles out of Android
KitKat is safe, older Androids susceptible to .ZIP-derived attack
Posted in Security, 7th November 2013 03:58 GMT
Jay Freeman, aka @saurik, has detailed another Zip implementation bug in pre-4.4 (Kit Kat) versions of Android which, similarly to the notorious APK vulnerability exposed earlier this year, opens a hole that malware can sneak through.
Freeman – whose previous credentials include security analysis of Google Glass and uncovering the dodginess of the "iMessage for Android" app – has written in a blog post that he uncovered the extra vulnerability in June, but waited until Android 4.4 (with a fix) was shipping.
Freeman's dense post is here, and is unpicked and explained by Sophos' Paul Ducklin at Naked Security here.
In brief, the extra APK vulnerability offered a path for an attacker to exploit the way Android used Zip file headers to verify the software. As Ducklin explains, Zip still carries an obsolete of its history around with it: lots of filename redundancy in case files had to be split across multiple floppy (remember those?) disks. To help a program navigate a file, the header includes a field for filename length – this lets an extractor navigate to where the file data is, by skipping the header.
As Ducklin writes, the problem is this: "The Java code in Android 4.3 and earlier, that extracts the file data to verify it, uses the filename length from the central directory. But the C code that extracts the file to install and execute it uses the filename length in the local header."
An attacker could then take a verified app, add their malware, and modify the header length the C-code loader uses to point not to the legitimate app, but to the malware. Ducklin's illustration shows this simply:
Image: Paul Ducklin, Naked Security
As Saurik writes: "The central directory includes a file offset for each local header, so that once the Java code has finished verifying a file, it can jump directly to the next one, thus avoiding the local header data that would cause it to skip forward incorrectly. The imposter data, squeezed between the legitimate file and the next local header, is simply ignored."
The fix in Kit Kat is to force Java to look at the same data as the C-loader so that a discrepancy is identified. ®


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Renesmee is about five years old now, looking around the age of twelve of thirteen. The whole Cullen clan is doing great; but Jacob is antsy about Renesmee. He wants her to grow faster so he can be with her already, and is tired of waiting. What will happen between them when a new vampire comes?
Multiple POVs.
1. Chapter 1; Lake Greetings
Rating 0/5 Word Count 1108 Review this Chapter
I walked out of my room, wearing a purple dress over my blue bikini. "Hey mom, dad, I'm going out to the lake!"
My parents walked out of their room into the hallway, "Why don't you just go swimming in the lake outside our room?" My mom asked.
I shrugged, then sighed. "Mom, I know that's in memory of when you went to Esme Isle, when it was just you two, not me. I'm not ruining your favorite memories."
"You wouldn't be ruining our memories," my mom pulled a curl behind my ear, "You're our best memory."
"Even though I almost killed you."
"Nessie," my mom whined with her perfect bell like voice.
"Don't call me Nessie," I said. "It's Renesmee. You made it up. You're going to use it," I put my weight on my other foot. "Just like your twos lake," I motioned in their room to the glass door that their lake was behind, "It's yours. You're going to use it."
"Renesmee, my memories are all perfectly clear, you can't ruin them just by swimming in our lake," my dad said.
"Yeah, your memories are perfect," I then pointed to my mom. "Hers aren't. She was a human then. Her memories are blurred. I'm not fogging them up anymore than they already are."
"Renesmee, I don't need those memories," my mom hugged my dad, "I have him forever now. Nothing could be better than that."
"Well, whatever. I'm going swimming at the other lake." I walked down the corridor-like hallway into the living room then exited. I wasn't going to the one you had to pass to get from the house that Carlisle, Esme, and the others lived in-I had found my own lake. But for all my parents knew, I was at the crossing one. I ran to my lake quickly-I knew I was there when I saw 'RCC' scratched into a tree. I walked into the opening- the trees had formed a big circled around the lake and left some land around the lake. I slipped out of my purple dress and jumped into the lake. Once I had submerged in the water, I opened my eyes-and almost had a heart attack when I did.
In front of me swam the most beautiful boy with blond hair, and the blackest of black eyes. My mouth formed an 'O', and water filled my mouth. I tried swimming back up for air, but he pulled me to him and kissed me. My eyes shot wide open, and he was staring at me with those crazily black eyes. He was a vampire;that, or he was a human wearing black contacts. I closed my eyes, and started kissing back.
He eventually pulled us both out of the water and on the grass. I was gasping for air by then. He blinked several times, and ran his right index finger over my cheek. It was freezing cold. Well, that settles the vampire/human argument that has previously went on in my head.
"Your eyes..." he said, locking his dark gaze in mine, "They're beautiful."
I gasped, still breathing heavily. "Mine? Mine beautiful? What about yours?" I said, shakily. "Black."
"Green," he said, stroking my face with his frozen hands.
I raised an eyebrow, "G-green?" I stuttered.
He nodded slightly. "They're beautiful...human. Haven't seen human eyes in a long time," he whispered very quietly.
"Half," I said.
He gave me a confused look. "You heard what I just said? About humans?" He quickly sat up and got off of me.
I pushed myself up with my hands, then crossed my legs. "Why haven't you seen human eyes in a long time?"
He stayed quiet. The air suddenly got foggy.
"I'm half vampire," I whispered, knowing he could hear. "And you're a full vampire. I could tell by the black eyes and the freezing skin."
The fog went away. In it's place, the sun glared down on us. Specifically him. His skin sparkled brightly.
"Half," he said. "A lebishomen is your father?"
I shook my head. "No. My father Edward married my mother Bella, and my mom was still human. During their honeymoon, they found out that my mom was pregnant with me. I almost kill-"
"I know. Same old story, but the male vampire actually loved the female," he interrupted.
I smiled, and then bit my lip. I crawled over to him, and pressed my hand against his face, showing him what I saw when I first jumped into the water. Then I showed him my father, mother, Carlisle, Esme, Alice, Jasper, Emmett, and Rosalie. I removed my hand from his face.
He smiled a bright white smile at me, and then it became very dark and began to rain. I looked up into the sky, and it stopped.
I looked at him as it became bright again, "You can do that?"
"When I was human, I could always sense what the weather would be like," he said.
"Oh," I pulled a curl out of my face, "The girl with the spiky black hair that I showed you. Her name is Alice. She can see whats going to happen."
"Alice Cullen?" he asked.
I nodded. He started talking again, "Married to Jasper Hale?" he asked. I nodded once again. He seemed to think for a second before his face rose, "You're Renesmee Cullen!" he said.
I raised an eyebrow. How would he know that? I don't even know him!I thought.
"I'm William," he said. "I've heard of your family. Alice was invited to join the Volturi."
"I-I didn't know other vampires knew that," I admitted.
"Yeah, well-" William got cut off by someone shouting his name.
We turned our heads to see 3 boys. Two were actually adults, while the other was younger than William. The two old ones both had long black hair. The young one had short brown hair. The taller old one nodded his head, "C'mon."
William sighed, and looked at me. "Bye Renesmee. I'll see you later." He bent down and kissed my cheek.
"Bye William," I said.
I watched him walk off with the other boys. I sat there for a while, then slipped on my dress and started running back to mine and my parents castle-like cabin. I stopped when I got about two miles from the house. My dad would be able to hear my thoughts about William. Heck, he could probably hear them right now if he concentrated enough. I ran back to my lake. William was standing there in front of the lake smiling. "Ditched my brothers."
I smiled and we both sat down again, continuing our earlier conversation.
- Author
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1. New Lords Gifts
Welcome to our new world, Cecrops. The land is both fertile and dangerous. To help you settle in, we have prepared some gifts for you which you can claim on certain levels.
1. If you reach at least level 15 at 8am GMT, Feb-7-2013, you will have a Bless of Building II to help you develop further.
2. If you reach at least level 30 at 8am GMT, Feb-14-2013, you will have a 100 Gems to make you even stronger.
The rewards are sent in twice in three days after the event ends.
2. Time-limited Charge Bonus
To celebrate the creation of our new world, Cecrops, your first charge will have a +10% bonus on gems purchased in the next 7 days.
For example, the first time you pay $100 for gems, you will receive 3200 + 320 = 3520 gems in all.
Please notice that,
1. The charge bonus is only effective on your first payment.
2. The event is only effective from Jan-31-2013 to Feb-7-2013.
3. The bonus gems are sent in three working days after the event ends.
3. Top Lords (New World)
We are celebrating the creation of our new world, Cecrops, by holding an event of top lords.
The event ends at 8am GMT, Feb-7-2013, when top twenty lords on the player rank receive item listed below,
The champion lord gets a Ring of Phoenix (Command +340)
The 2nd - 4th lords get a Ring of King (Command +300)
The 5th - 10th lords get a Gold Chest and a Gold Key
The 11th - 20th lords get two Blesses of Space
The rewards are sent in three working days after the event ends.


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WATCH: Phosphorescent Covers Randy Newman's "Days of Heaven" Live at PickathonPosted by katie on August 17th, 2012
It's been a bit since we've seen anything from Phosphorescent. Quiet no more! KEXP shares an intimate new video of Matthew performing live at the Pendarvis House during Pickathon a few weeks ago. He covers Randy Newman's "Days of Heaven" and does so quite beautifully. Watch above.
In a week or so, Matthew will head to Sweden to perform in the first ever Brooklyn, Sweden Festival, featuring musicians that hail from Brooklyn. Details HERE.


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SAFETY HARBOR— Unexpected holdups pushed the price tag for the city's S Bayshore improvement project $93,000 over budget, and commissioners asked tough questions Monday before agreeing to cough up the extra cash.
In the coming days, the city expects to tie up loose ends on the two-year, $2.3 million project, which includes repaving, improved drainage and a widened sidewalk on S Bayshore Boulevard.
The project began smoothly but faced several setbacks in the past year that caused delays and hiked the cost.
For example, the city found a stretch of clay that had to be replaced with dirt to ensure proper drainage. City officials also did not anticipate how much archaeological work would be required for the project, which is near an Indian burial ground.
Commissioner Cliff Merz questioned whether steps have been taken to ensure the city knows the costs before a project begins.
"Have we come up with some different policies?" he said.
City Manager Matt Spoor replied that some of the extra expense was unforeseeable. But he said Safety Harbor hired a contract specialist, who started Monday, to help officials get as firm a grip as possible on the cost of future projects.
Hiring a contract specialist was an idea long in the works and isn't a result of problems on this project, Spoor said.
Also at Monday's City Commission meeting, officials debated the fate of Safety Harbor's public access television station, pondering whether to split costs and programming with the city of Oldsmar or to scrap the channel altogether. If the cities share, Safety Harbor would pay Oldsmar a $4,000 yearly fee rather than invest $40,000 in new equipment.
The proposal seemed poised for approval until Commissioner Richard Blake questioned whether anyone actually watches the channel, which airs commission meetings and educational programming.
"TV is dead, and I question why we would spend $4,000 per year on something that's dead," he said.
Spoor said he would find out this week how much it would cost to get viewership numbers.
In other action, the commission decided the City Park field and an adjacent stretch of road along S Railroad Avenue will be named for Safety Harbor Little League volunteer Danny Donovan. Donovan died in March as he prepped the park for the night's games.
The memorial came at the request of league president Robert Cursey.
Donovan, who lined the fields, umpired and coached during his two decades as a volunteer, was reluctant to take credit for his work, but it's important to recognize him now, officials said.
"I like honoring people that don't look for the spotlight and stay under the radar," Mayor Joseph Ayoub said. "I think this is very appropriate given how much he's helped with the Little League."
Contact Brittany Alana Davis at [email protected] or (850) 323-0353. To write a letter to the editor, visit tampabay.com/letters.


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Micro Focus has announced four new product releases as part of the launch of Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 -- Visual COBOL, Silk4Net, DevPartner Studio, and Analyzer Express. Together, the tools help developers build, analyze, and test code, and all are fully integrated with Visual Studio 2010.
- Micro Focus Visual COBOL lets developers exploit existing enterprise applications on the Microsoft platform. The millions of organizations that continue to rely on COBOL-based applications to run their business now have a low-risk opportunity to take advantage of Visual Studio 2010 without the need for rewriting their applications.
- Micro Focus Silk4Net brings functional and regression test automation to Visual Studio 2010. Its benefits include:
- The ability to test a variety of application types from Visual Studio 2010.
- Detects defects early in projects and reduces rework through more frequent testing that complete in less time.
- For testing teams, it reduces repetitive manual testing enabling more qualitative testing.
- Micro Focus DevPartner Studio lets developers debug, analyze, test and tune applications and will deliver enhanced visibility into the inner workings of applications being developed within Visual Studio 2010. Key benefits here include:
- Automatic detection and diagnosis of software defects, performance problems and security vulnerabilities.
- Improvement of overall software quality by taking advantage of built-in coding standards and best practices.
- Management visibility with actionable reports revealing the quality and stability of the code base.
- Micro Focus Analyzer Express for Visual Studio helps developers accelerate their day-to-day maintenance activities. Key benefits here include:
- Acceleration of development activities, allowing development team members to gain greater insights into applications. Micro Focus claims this knowledge means that change requests can be executed faster, reducing the time required to complete a business requirement by up to 45%.
- Immediate access to data-flow analysis, enabling entire teams to be "instant expert" and as much as 40% more effective, says the company.
- Improvement of application quality due to access to accurate and complete data-flow analysis, which helps development teams avoid costly errors and re-work that can lead to poor quality applications.
"Our presence in the roll-out of Visual Studio 2010 demonstrates both the relevance of core IT assets within global organizations' IT infrastructures and the demand from the developer community to exploit them on Microsoft platforms," said Peter Duffell of Micro Focus.


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Federal government must pay Hugh Culverhouse after his land was seized to build the county park.
The cost to build one of Southwest Florida's most popular walking and bicycle trails has ballooned in recent months — and the hit to taxpayers may not be over yet.
Sarasota County developer Hugh Culverhouse has been awarded $3.2 million in an unusual eminent domain case nearly a decade after a public agency called the Surface Transportation Board seized a sliver of his Palmer Ranch property to build the Legacy Trail on an abandoned rail line. The judgment could swell to $5.1 million after interest.
A federal judge last week found Culverhouse's 50-foot-wide slice of vacant land bordering nearly a mile of the trail was worth $1.3 million, and also awarded him damages for lost road access and property devaluation for his remaining 360 acres of property there.
The decision comes just months after a similar eminent domain case involving claims by 48 land owners along the Legacy Trail fetched a $6.5 million settlement. Another 13 Legacy Trail claims are still pending.
"The government took these folks' property a decade ago, and they have the right to be paid," said Thor Hearne, the lead trial attorney representing Culverhouse. "We have won every argument we made."
More than 120 individuals who owned land next to or under a 12.5-mile section of the former CSX Railroad corridor filed claims in federal court. Each claimed to be owed money when the land was turned into a public park.
The law stems from the National Trails System Act of 1983, which allows railroads to abandon unproductive lines by relinquishing them to sponsoring entities such as Sarasota County — with the caveat those properties would be made into recreational trails.
The program has exploded across the country as fewer goods are shipped by train, and an increased number of rail lines are deserted.
But property owners who lost land to mandated easements for rail-use decades ago have argued they were owed back that property when the railroad owner abandoned the line.
Regarding the Legacy Trail, Judge Mary Ellen Coster Williams of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims agreed with them in 2009, ordering the U.S. government pay "just compensation" to all of the involved property owners.
Although Legacy Trail is a county park, the money awarded from the trial last week, and costs to hear the lawsuit and others like it, are covered by federal tax dollars.
"This has been tried all over the country, and we have had a number of other cases in both Florida and other states where property has been negatively affected," said Debra Albin-Riley, who also represented Culverhouse in the case. "This decision was a long time coming."
Sarasota County spent $30 million to develop the Legacy Trail. The park draws between 120,000 and 150,000 visitors annually.
County commissioners who voted for the park plan almost a decade ago say they had no idea at the time property owners could sue the federal government for land reimbursements.
"This whole thing is very strange," Commissioner Nora Patterson said. "We didn't know a thing about it."


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We were visiting my mother's college roommate's family on this day, ca 1952.
Back of photo states Livermore, CA and the Quartermans.
Love it! Even black & white sunshine looks good today.
Is that you in the high chair? Very cute!
Thank you Nolichucky and Heather. I am on the right side, in the middle...wish I was a blond!
I love how the drug the high chair out there in the field for the picnic! Looks like everyone was having a great day!


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Rockwell Collins SVP Shares Lesson of Success with SSE Graduates
At the Stevens School of Systems and Engineering (SSE) graduate Commencement ceremony, held in the Burchard Building on May 24, Nan Mattai spoke from personal experience to graduates earning master's and Ph.D. degrees in Systems Engineering, Software Engineering, Engineering Management and Financial Engineering about overcoming the challenges they will face in today's workforce.
Mattai is senior vice president, Engineering & Technology for Rockwell Collins, a pioneer in the development and deployment of innovative communication and aviation electronic solutions for both commercial and government applications. As the company's chief engineering officer, she is responsible for guiding future technology direction, investment and development.
Her main message was that for graduates to realize their career goals, they have to believe in their capabilities, partner with others and recognize that change is inevitable.
"You will be the developers of solutions that will address the challenges of the 21st century, enhance our competitiveness and provide competitive differentiation," Mattai said. "But the road ahead will not always be easy."
Mattai said the rapid pace of technology advancement, greater global competition, and the increased diversity of product development teams are some of the complex challenges engineers face today.
"Given these challenges, there is tremendous need for innovation, creativity and leadership – areas in which you are well positioned to contribute," she said.
Recognizing this year's campus-wide 40th anniversary celebration of Stevens becoming coeducational, Mattai used her own personal story as a female engineering leader – as well as the story of her personal hero, Nobel prize-winning scientist Marie Curie – to share key lessons for success.
"First, you have to believe that you are capable," Mattai said. Neither Curie, who began her university studies in the late 1800s when no women in Europe had completed a doctorate degree in research science, nor Mattai, who had no female engineering role models growing up in Guyana, let doubts or uncertainties get in the way of achieving their goals.
Mattai also encouraged the graduates to be open to working in partnership with others. Curie collaborated with her sister on financial arrangements to make their dreams of attending college happen, and her husband was her lifelong research partner. Mattai has worked in partnership with her husband throughout their marriage, and she uses business partnerships daily to achieve growth and success at Rockwell Collins.
Finally, Mattai spoke of the importance of embracing change. Curie's pioneering research on radioactivity was only possible because she drew on timely earlier discoveries about X-rays and uranium. Mattai's early career was designing software for GPS receivers – which at the time, in 1984, was hardly more than a far-fetched idea – and that experience launched her career in the aerospace and defense industry.
"Today, my job is to ensure the Rockwell Collins is positioning for change, whether it's change within our organization, our marketplaces or our industry," she said. "We have to constantly be thinking about what our customers need – now and in the future. We also have to look at ways to adapt in order to solve problems. If we don't, we'll fall behind."
Mattai closed with one final word of advice to the graduates: "As you walk out of this room today, I encourage you to always consider the impact you wish to make in the world."
Read full coverage of Stevens' 140th Commencement here.


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How can we let the hilarity end???
Any more good ones??
Barney Fife goes bad in the after life !Originally Posted by Fishooked
How can we let the hilarity end???
Any more good ones??
bump again
Originally Posted by Chadwick1
Anyone is free to post whatever they want in here, I guess I got a little burned out after the first coupla weeks, lol.Originally Posted by CTjetfan51
Find something good? Post it up!
Oh, thank you, SamWise-You Are the King Of the Cool Pic Thread!!!
Here's a bus, why don't you just throw me under it???Originally Posted by CTjetfan51
Well done, Fish, Well done...
As the originator....of this one
you get the kudos for Initiating!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
....nice BUS
Here's my contribution
Buzz-as always-
you rule, too.
ps- I love WBW
eric yellin at last years office halloween party (sorry dude, had to)
stand back, they might blow !!!
do you need help getting the sand off ???
bull 2, spanish dudes 0
hope these work:
why don't you tell us how you REALLY feel?
probably fake, but still funny
why can't more plumbers be like her?
LMAO!Originally Posted by samwise
Thats so fn true!!!!!
Had to throw this in here before I forgot...
Nice ride...
No words for this one...
Touch my nuts I'll kill ya
Alligator vs snake
LOL, a must for all teens...
Creepy-ass Beatles...
I think I found another sig pic for Gagoots!
Free's cow got loose!!!
Its hard to make Gary Busey look any crazier, but....


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UNION – The McHenry County Historical Society has announced its lineup for the 2013 Sampler Lecture Series.
The cost for the entire series is $35 for nonmembers; members pay $30. All programs take place at the society's museum, 6422 Main St., Union.
• 7 p.m. March 12: "The Next Year that Almost Was: Chicago, Baseball and 1977." Tim Draper, a history professor at Waubonsee College, presents an American retrospective set to the backdrop of the 1977 baseball season in Chicago, when both the Cubs and White Sox led their divisions late into the season before collapsing. At the intersections of Rust Belt de-industrialization, urban and racial politics, 1960s legacies and popular culture, there were fundamental changes in professional sports in an era of American vulnerability. The program is made possible by a grant from the Illinois Humanities Council. The requested donation is $10.
• 3 p.m. April 1: "Archeological How-tos." Dr. Rochelle Lurie, owner and president of Midwest Archeological Research Services in Marengo, explains how she and her team find and decipher archeological sites. MARS, Inc. has logged and preserved nearly 1,700 prehistoric and historic sites in the region since 1986. The cost is $10.
• 7 p.m. April 15: "Desperadoes: Notorious Outlaws of Early Illinois." Dr. John Hallwas, regional historian, author and retired professor of English from Western Illinois University, discusses early frontier lawbreakers. Before the 20th century, Illinois was fraught with crime. Dive into Illinois' notorious past and learn about early law enforcement, vigilantes, lynching and more through dozens of images, featuring outlaws, jails, wanted posters and more. This program is made possible by a grant from the Illinois Humanities Council. The requested donation is $10.
• 3 p.m. April 29: "Early Trails of McHenry County." Ders Anderson, a Crystal Lake resident and Greenways director for the Openlands Project in Chicago, discusses historic trails in the county that were present when settlement first occurred. Some of those trails provided the imprint on the landscape that future roads then followed. The cost is $10.
To register, call 815-923-2267.


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Long Beach proposes lowering speed limit
Long Beach will hold a public hearing next month on a proposal to lower the citywide speed limit to 30 mph.
The proposal states that the speed limit will be 30 mph everywhere in the city, except for some neighborhood streets where it already is lower.
The maximum speed limit in some parts of the city is 35 mph.
City Manager Jack Schnirman said city officials are hopeful that a lower speed limit would help curb excessive speeding, which some civic groups say has been a problem in Long Beach for years.
"It's part of an effort to slow down traffic throughout the city," Schnirman said. "This will help."
The proposal, if enacted by the city council after the public hearing, would strike down a few city codes regarding its major streets.
Areas where the speed limit is 35 mph include Long Beach Boulevard north of Park Avenue and East Park Avenue between Long Beach Boulevard and Maple Boulevard.
Councilman John McLaughlin said he was not convinced the lowered limits would stop drivers from speeding. Drivers who are accustomed to the 35 mph zones might not even notice the changes, he said.
"Is this going to do anything for us? If you've been living here your whole life and the sign says 30 now, are you going to slow down for that?" McLaughlin said.
The city council voted in September to reduce the speed limit from 30 mph to 15 mph in Long Beach's President Streets neighborhood.
Long Beach's city council set the public hearing at its meeting Tuesday night.
The public hearing is scheduled for 7 p.m. on July 2 at Long Beach City Hall, 1 West Chester St.


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On this date in...
1940: The first episode of radio soap opera THE CARTERS OF ELM STREET, written by Mona Kent, aired on the Mutual Network.
1966: On ANOTHER WORLD, Pat told Alice (Jacqueline Courtney) she thought Lee identified with Hope Bauer (crossed over for a year from THE GUIDING LIGHT) as a motherless child. Alice said she thought Mike Bauer was a doll.
1966: On DARK SHADOWS, which was shot in live-to-tape format, actor Louis Edmonds (Roger) said his line incorrectly: tthe accident happened "a hundred miles" down the hill. He then quickly corrected himself with "seemed like a hundred miles - a hundred feet."
1984: On GUIDING LIGHT, Phillip (Grant Aleksander) and Bert (Charita Bauer) had a heart to heart talk while Alexandra (Beverlee McKinsey) was devastated when Lujack (Vincent Irizarry) rejected her not knowing he did it to protect her.
1985: John Aniston debuted as Victor Kiriakis on DAYS OF OUR LIVES.
1991: On SANTA BARBARA, Shell Danielson aired for the final time as Laken Lockridge, while Wanda De Jesus debuted as Santa Andrade.
1994: Christopher Stone aired for the final time as Bill Horton in DAYS OF OUR LIVES. Stone died in 1995 at age 53.
1999: On GENERAL HOSPITAL, Faison watched Felicia as she made her way to her car in the parking garage.
1999: On THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, it was decision day in the custody battle between Nick and Sharon Newman (Joshua Morrow and Sharon Case) vs. Alice Johnson (Tamara Clatterbuck) over Cassie (Camryn Grimes). And while Alice had basically retreated by this point, serious questions remained about the stability of Nick and Sharon's marriage and the untruths they presented to the court while making their case. But before a decision came down, Cassie surprised everyone by entering the courtroom, seeking to address the judge herself.
Thanks to FoxCrane for sending in this item.
2004: Charity Rahmer began a three-week run as Belle Black in DAYS OF OUR LIVES.
2007: MAD MEN premiered on the AMC network.
2009: On EMPIRE, Cane attempted to get to the bottom of what happened to his parents.
2010: Scott Clifton debuted as Liam Cooper in THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL.
Celebrating a birthday today are:
Helen Gallagher (ex-Maeve, RYAN'S HOPE; ex-Hannah, ANOTHER WORLD; ex-Maud, ONE LIFE TO LIVE; ex-Nurse Harris, ALL MY CHILDREN) - 87
William Gray Espy (ex-Mitch, ANOTHER WORLD; ex-Snapper, YOUNG & RESTLESS) - 65
Beverly Archer (ex-Shirley, THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS) - 65
Peter Barton (ex-Eddie, SUNSET BEACH; ex-Scott, THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS) - 57
Andrew Kavovit (ex-Paul, AS THE WORLD TURNS) - 42
Erin Cummings (ex-Ann, THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL; ex-Michelle, DANTE'S COVE; PASSIONS) - 36
Danny Roberts (ex-Jean-Jean, DAWSON'S CREEK) - 36
Jared Padalecki (Sam, SUPERNATURAL; ex-Dean, GILMORE GIRLS) - 31
Lauren Mead (ex-Joey, DAYS OF OUR LIVES) - 23
EDITOR'S NOTE: If you would like to submit a piece of soap opera history for this daily column, please email it to firstname.lastname@example.com.


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By Tiernan Ray
Shares of hosted, or "cloud computing" software provider NetSuite (N) are up $6.77, or 10%, at $77, after the company this afternoon reported Q4 revenue and earnings per share that narrowly exceeded analysts' estimates.
Revenue in the three months ended in December rose 33%, year over year, to $85 million, yielding EPS of 6 cents a share.
Analysts had been modeling $83 million and 4 cents.
CEO Zach Nelson was not shy in dismissing cloud computing efforts of Microsoft (MSFT), and SAP AG (SAP),:
In a year that saw Microsoft once again fail to deliver cloud-native ERP solutions, and in a quarter that saw SAP miss their most recent top- and bottom-line forecast as more large enterprises moved to the cloud, NetSuite delivered its best year ever. And we continue to put even more distance between us and our competitors with the introduction of new capabilities like NetSuite SuiteCommerce which transforms operational business systems into customer-facing commerce solutions.
In addition to competing with established enterprise vendors such as those, NetSuite competes with other hosted software vendors such as Workday (WDAY), Salesforce.com (CRM), and ServiceNow (NOW), and Oracle (ORCL) is an investor in the company.
Update: On the call, the company forecast revenue this year of $397 million to $402 million, and EPS of 26 cents to 27 cents. That's higher than the average $396 million estimate for revenue, but it misses the consensus view for 31 cents profit.
Since that forecast, the stock has cooled a little but is still up $4.97, or 7%, at $75.20.
Update: Regarding Nelson's remarks about SAP, above, the company was in contact this afternoon to point out the characterization of recent results was not accurate. SAP did not miss its forecast for revenue in the Q4 that it reported on January 23rd. SAP reported full-year software and software-related service revenue of €13.16 billion in IFRS terms (European GAAP) and €13.25 billion in non-IFRS terms. That was better than the revenue outlook provided on October 24th for 10.5% to 12.5% growth in software and services revenue, from the prior-year's €11.35 billion level.
SAP's full-year non-IFRS operating profit of €5.21 billion "was slightly below SAP's non-IFRS operating profit guidance (which was in a range of €5.05 – €5.25 billion at constant currencies)," it said, "due to the company's continued investments in key innovations as well as the expansion of SAP's global go-to-market activities."


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5 U.S. Code § 3320 - Excepted service; government of the District of Columbia; selection
The nominating or appointing authority shall select for appointment to each vacancy in the excepted service in the executive branch and in the government of the District of Columbia from the qualified applicants in the same manner and under the same conditions required for the competitive service by sections 3308–3318 of this title. This section does not apply to an appointment required by Congress to be confirmed by, or made with the advice and consent of, the Senate.
Historical and Revision Notes
U.S. Code
Revised Statutes and
Statutes at Large
June 27, 1944, ch. 287, § 20, 58 Stat. 391.
Former sections 858 and 869 are combined and restated for clarity and to conform to section 3318(a). The word "authority" is substituted for "officer" in recognition of the several appointing authorities named in section 2105(a)(1). The words "shall select for appointment to each vacancy in the expected service in the executive branch and in the government of the District of Columbia from the qualified applicants in the same manner and under the same conditions required for the competitive service by sections 3308–3318 of this title" are substituted for "In the unclassified Federal, and District of Columbia, civil service, and in all other positions and employment hereinbefore referred to in (c) of section 851 of this title . . . shall make selection from the qualified applicants in accordance with the provisions of this chapter". The reference to the excepted service "in the executive branch" is substituted for the exception of the legislative and judicial branches in former section 869. Former section 869 did not prohibit the application of those provisions of the Act of June 27, 1944, which relate to the competitive service in the legislative or judicial branch by reason of the specific provisions of section 311 of the Act of June 10, 1921, as amended (31 U.S.C. 52); 28 U.S.C. 602; and Executive Order No. 67 of June 13, 1895. The reference to appointments of postmasters is omitted from this section since those referred to are in the competitive service. The application of former section 869 to the remainder of the Act of June 27, 1944, is covered by the sections into which the remainder is carried (see Table I).
This section merely continues, and does not in any way change, the requirements in former section 858 relative to the selection of applicants for positions in the excepted service. Under this section, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies having positions in the excepted service will continue to fill those positions in the same manner that they have been filled under former section 858. Such excepted appointments are appointments authorized to be made without regard to the statutes, rules, and regulations governing appointments in the competitive service and this is not changed.
Standard changes are made to conform with the definitions applicable and the style of this title as outlined in the preface to the report.
Pub. L. 93–198, title VII, § 734, Dec. 24, 1973, 87 Stat. 823, authorized the United States Civil Service Commission to advise and assist the District of Columbia Mayor and Council in the further development of the merit system or systems required by the District of Columbia charter, which was approved on May 7, 1974, and authorized the Commission to enter into agreements with the District government to make available its registers of eligibles as a recruiting source to fill District positions as needed, with the costs of any specific services furnished by the Civil Service Commission to be compensated for under the provisions of section 685a of former Title 31, Money and Finance [31 U.S.C. 1537].
LII has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references LII.


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I completely forgot to post Barefoot Bloggers' recipe for Herb-Roasted Onions chosen by Kelly from Baking with the Boys. I dont' particularly care for onions unless they are in something else, so I have to go off of my guinea pigs' responses. Supposedly two-thumbs up.
Click here for the recipe.


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There were some very interesting results byu the local college teams on Saturday.
First, San Bernardino Valley College defeated Mt. San Jacinto 28-17. That's three in a row for the Wolverines and it is that much more noteworthy given that SBVC had lost 19 in a row before that mini streak.
Kevin Emerson didn't get hired until August so for him to win three games is impressive. These looked to be the most winnable three games on the schedule, even before the season started. Now come the more difficult games as SBVC is left with Southwestern on the road, Golden West on the road and L.A. Harbor at home. If it can just win just one of those, this would be a hugely successful season because of how far the program has come.
Second, Chaffey lost to Citrus (again) 20-17. Last year the Panthers had a bye week, then laid an egg when they came back against the Owls. Looked like this was a repeat of last year. While it is not surprising Chaffey hasn't been able to go toe-to-toe with the biggies such as El Camino and Mt. SAC, the losses to Citrus are puzzling.
On the four-year front the game of the day was Occidental surviving 14-13 over La Verne. That's a nationally ranked and defending conference champion that barely hung on to beat an 0-6 team. This Oxy team is not nearly as good as the ones the Tigers have had in the past, that is pretty obvious. (They also barely beat 2-4 Chapman the previous week).
Give the Leopards credit. It would be easy for them to come into this game a little down and overwhelmed but they gave the Tigers a battle. Andy Ankeny is a class individual and I hope for good things for his team.
Redlands trounced Claremont-Scripps 53-27. The Bulldogs got 36 points in the second, 29 of those from CMS turnovers. The Stags were up 17-3, but then . . .
Pomona-Pitzer picked up its fourth win, beating Whittier 15-7. Not a great game just by glancing at the boxscore but the Sagehens prevail.


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Mumbai: ICICI MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar today said "growth and vibrancy" need to be brought back into the economy to make India a financial services hub.
"The large macro thing that we need to do for India is to become a financial service hub. (For that) first bring back growth and vibrancy in the domestic economy, which would include stable levels of fiscal deficit and current account deficit; and bringing inflation under control," Kochhar said.
She was speaking at a seminar on 'Financial Services-a key driver for economic growth' at the Gujarat International Finance Tec (GIFT) City, with chief minister Narendra Modi in the audience.
The top banker also stressed upon creating a deeper and vibrant working environment in the country.
"...The next set of initiatives would be regarding regulation, legal environment and taxation. It is not only the existence of such regulatory and legal environment that is important but the consistency in policy and taxation laws is most important," she said.
"When people come and invest in India they invest on a certain premise, and the fact that the very premise can change worries them a lot. This becomes an inhibiting factor for them (in) starting to invest in India," she said.
Kochhar also expressed the need to deepen capital markets and the bond currency, and to make the derivatives market much more vibrant.
"Finally, there is need to create an environment that goes beyond work space. This will help attract global talents and even retain the talents available in India. As we move in that direction, there is room to increase the scope of financial services in India.
"There are lots of India-related business which is nourished overseas. I mean India related business that is done off-shore. There are lot of funds that are invested in India and run by Indians but are being operated from outside, mainly because of the taxation laws," Kochhar pointed out.
Hinting at the need for swift governance, Kochhar said "getting small things like Visa or driving licence should be made easier as we, in financial service sectors, are dealing with financial regulations and tax constraints," she said.


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courtesy KXNT/Smith(photo: KXNT/Smith)
(Las Vegas, NV) — Sports fans bet a record $98.9 million at Nevada casinos on the Super Bowl.
The Gaming Control Board says unaudited tallies show 183 sports books made $7.2 million on the action. The San Francisco 49ers started out as a 5-point favorite but the Baltimore Ravens won 34-31.
Oddsmakers say California fans drove the unprecedented handle, flooding Las Vegas and northern Nevada with wagers on the hometown team. The 49ers hadn't been in a Super Bowl since 1995.
The previous Nevada record was set in 2006, when gamblers wagered $94.5 million.
Casinos say they lost big on proposition bets, including a long-shot on whether there would be a safety.


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To hear Michael Corbett tell it, policing should be more about compassion than revenue.
However, during the final years of Corbett's quarter-century of police work, he believes the Novi Police Department didn't see things the same way.
Corbett is suing the department, claiming that his failure to abide by a mandatory ticket quota eventually resulted in his early retirement and a dispute over his pension.
The Novi Police Department responded with a brief statement.
"We have obviously been served with the lawsuit," Novi Assistant Police Chief Jerrod Hart said.
"The allegations are not consistent with our practices or the professionalism of the Novi Police Department."
Corbett left the department last month, citing harassment, retaliation and a hostile work environment.
"I'm very disappointed," Corbett said.
"It's been a long career for me, and I think this is a really sad way to end it, and I'm sad (about) the way the profession is going, because there's too much pressure on everybody to create revenue."
In the lawsuit, filed in Oakland County Circuit Court, Corbett accuses Novi Assistant Police Chief Victor Lauria of implementing a ticket quota in 2006. Road patrol officers were required to make four traffic stops and issue two tickets per shift, Corbett said.
It is against state law for a police department to require officers "to issue a predetermined or specified number of citations."
"They believe in the system of productivity, and they want to get every ounce of productivity out of everything, so I don't think they take the human element (into account)," Corbett said.
"They think of it as factory work or some kind of production. Everything I produce comes from someone else's pocket. Nobody minds arresting people who deserve it, but there has to be some compassion in that field or it just doesn't work right."
The lawsuit accuses the city, Lauria and Novi Police Chief David Molloy of closely monitoring and tracking ticket revenue. A document obtained by The Oakland Press shows that Novi's municipality revenue in 52-1 District Court skyrocketed between the 2007-08 and 2009-10 fiscal years.
In 2008, the city racked up nearly $350,000 in revenue, while that number increased to more than $450,000 in 2010. All other cities, townships and villages that use the 52-1 District Court had revenue numbers that decreased over that time frame. Attorney Deborah Gordon, who represents Corbett, said the Novi figures come to an average of $8 in court costs for each Novi resident every month. The other cities are less than a dollar, Gordon said.
"They're getting a lot of that revenue in their back pocket," Gordon said of the Novi Police Department.
"They're going to be damned if they're not going to find a way to extract (money)."
Gordon said motorists who, in the past, may have received a warning are now given a ticket with an "I" written on the bottom. The ticket will then be changed to impeding traffic in court.
"Impeding traffic is zero points, but it costs more money," Gordon said.
"It's a bait and switch. They get you into the courthouse for your ticket, and in exchange for paying more money, you get no points. It's even more evidence that this is a revenue collection service."
Corbett said the department's practices made it clear that money was the main goal.
"I could write defective equipment tickets or registration tickets that don't bring a fine, because we figured if we have to make these numbers, we'll take it easy on the public and just make our numbers and let them get away with no fine," he said of his initial thoughts on the quota.
"Then command started pulling us in and saying 'No, these tickets don't count, you have to write speeding tickets. You have to write commercial vehicle tickets that have the heavy fines.' It's very clear they want the money."
Corbett said his command officers promised to "make his life miserable." The lawsuit claims that they were successful on that front.
"Lauria advised Corbett that officers who failed to meet their numbers would suffer negative consequences, including having their patrol tapes reviewed and scrutinized to 'make [the officers'] lives miserable,'" the suit states.
"On several occasions, Corbett was called into meetings with his supervisors and chastised for not complying with the ticket quota policy."
Lauria was promoted from lieutenant to assistant chief in 2009. He announced that the ticket quotas were "here to stay" and that ticket numbers were being tracked, the suit states.
"Corbett and other officers with 'low numbers' continued to be harassed, pressured, marginalized, criticized, insulted and attacked by command officers, including in monthly meetings," the lawsuit states.
Molloy chastised Corbett's supervisors in 2010 for Corbett's failure to meet his numbers, and command staff "were increasingly pressured to crack down on patrol officers not meeting their numbers," the suit states.
The harassment of Corbett continued through 2011 and 2012, with supervisors asking Corbett when he'd be leaving the force.
Corbett interviewed for a promotion to detective in 2012, during which he was questioned about his low ticket numbers. He was ultimately denied the promotion. Upon receiving new supervisors in late 2012 or early this year, "the pressure and harassment with respect to meeting quotas intensified further," the suit states.
Two sergeants who were Corbett's supervisors "chastised and threatened" Corbett about his low numbers on Feb. 2. During the meeting, he was told that his supervisors would ensure that he "not only met, but exceeded, his ticket numbers from now on," the lawsuit states. He was also told that he'd work "undesirable details" as punishment.
One sergeant rode along with Corbett in his patrol car that day and insisted that Corbett write a ticket for a motorist who had rolled through a stop sign, "even though Corbett ... determined that under the circumstances, a warning would be more appropriate."
Corbett was not instructed to ticket the driver of a City of Novi vehicle who, speeding, ran the same stop sign moments earlier.
The following day, Corbett submitted a written harassment complaint to the city manager. He described the events of the previous day and expressed concern about the situation.
"I am fearful of repercussions for bring(ing) this matter to your attention and am certain if you want to know the truth and interview our officers you will get confirmation of the hostility here," Corbett wrote.
Corbett never received a response to the email and was subsequently given a punitive job assignment.
Corbett submitted an amendment to the harassment claim on March 7, adding that he was retaliated against "for his complaint and/or for not meeting ticket quotas."
Three days later, Corbett learned he was under investigation at Lauria's direction, and that command staff needed to question him about 84 issues.
Corbett began experiencing chest pains at work "and was forced off on a medical leave" on March 12, the lawsuit states.
"Corbett was subsequently diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from his work environment," the suit states.
"On April 15, 2013, as a result of Defendants' harassment, retaliation and creation of a hostile work environment, Corbett, at age 46, was forced to take an early retirement and resigned from Defendant City of Novi.
"Corbett's forced resignation/retirement was in fact a constructive discharge."
The defendants have also sought to block or delay Corbett's retirement benefits.
"This is a full court press," Gordon said.
"This is really arrogance on display here to an extreme example. I've sued a lot of police departments and I've represented a lot of officers. These people, they're just not going to stop, even though they've been sued."
Corbett is seeking an unspecified amount of legal relief.
Contact staff writer Dave Phillips at 248-745-4631 or email@example.com. Follow him on Twitter @dave_phillips1.


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SOUTH Africa has lost 588 rhinos to poaching in 2012 so far, the Department of Environmental Affairs said on Tuesday.
"The latest rhino poaching statistics indicate that 588 rhino have been lost to poaching since the beginning of this year, with the total number of arrests at 246," the department said in a statement.
The country has lost 140 more rhino than the 448 poached in 2011, while 224 poachers were arrested last year and 165 the year before.
According to the latest figures, 39 rhinos have been killed since the middle of November.
The Kruger National Park has been the hardest hit, with 362 rhinos lost to poaching. The North West, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo provinces collectively lost 186 rhinos.
Earlier this month, North West Premier Thandi Modise said the South African National Defence Force could be called in to help prevent poaching in the province after it emerged that eight rhinos were killed in North West in one weekend, seven on one farm.
Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa is still studying a report from rhino issue manager Mavuso Msimang on how South Africa can better protect its rhinos. She has delayed any possible representation to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) on South Africa trading in stockpiled rhino horn until 2016.
Cites meets next year, but the deadline for submissions to Cites expired before Mr Msimang's report was finalised.
Ms Modise said there was a need to clamp down on illegally issued hunting permits, and communities in the proximity of game parks and farms had to be educated and be involved in nature conservation, tourism and anti-poaching strategies.


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"Please don't call me arrogant, but I'm European champion and I think I'm a special one."
So said Jose Mourinho after taking the Chelsea job in 2004. When, as is expected, Mourinho returns to Stamford Bridge to take over the Blues for a second time, the confidence, the ego, the arrogance will be dimmed slightly. He was once the best coach in the world – now teams are looking elsewhere.
Mourinho was widely linked with both manager jobs at Manchester United and Manchester City over the years. Some saw him as the ideal successor to Sir Alex Ferguson - combative, a born winner, someone who would impress, inspire, and demand respect – who would continue the Red Devils trophy winning ways without delay.
Others pointed out that the ex-Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan manager was simply a big spender, who would empty United's coffers and then leave in two or three years time, leaving some poor sap to pick up the pieces.
City appeared an ideal fit - money, short-term'ism, a relatively low base to build from – but even the powers that be at the Eithad have gone elsewhere, with the placid, thoughtful Manuel Pellegrini the favourite to take over from Roberto Mancini.
The nouveau riche Paris St Germain was another potential destination, but the French club are battling hard to retain Carlo Ancelotti, who led them to a first Ligue 1 title for 19 years.
Who wants Ancelotti? Real Madrid, who are jettisoning Mourinho after a dire season in the league and a comprehensive Champions League defeat to Borussia Dortmund (ignoring the two late goals in the second leg that brought respectability to the aggregate scoreline).
Mourinho will leave behind yet more chaos in Madrid, having upset numerous players including club captain and Spanish No. 1 Iker Casillas, poked the eye of former assistant and current head coach of Barcelona Tito Vilanova, and challenged the Bernabeu support head first. His relationship with the press has been non-existent at best and all out war at worst, and this has all combined to make his time in the Madrid very uncomfortable.
So Mourinho seems set to return to the Bridge and into the arms of Roman Abramovich. Their relationship is reported to have thawed since they departed, but the Russian owner has never liked the idea of his manager having full control over the club's affairs.
How long until manager and owner clash? What will happen to Fernando Torres? Will Mourinho be able to install the kind of blind loyalty in the new generation of Chelsea players like Eden Hazard and Juan Mata as he has in the old guard of John Terry and Frank Lampard?
A return to Chelsea brings with it some comforts, and the 'Special One' has stated his affection for the English game. He respects the media here more, so he says, because they respect him more, but it is easy to respect someone when they are winning.
When the wins and the medals dry up, suddenly the spotlight focuses on other things. All news is good news, Mourinho might think, but the second coming of the Special One might fail to live up to the headlines.
Chelsea offers the chance of redemption after the Madrid madness but it could also be a poisoned chalice that ends the notion of the Special One.
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NRHA's product knowledge training
programs for employees are designed
to give store associates the information they need to be productive right from the
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As an adult, I had forgotten the kind of excitement a kid feels on Christmas morning. For me, that exciting Christmas-morning feeling came in the middle of June at Vrbancic Brothers Racing. It was there at the dyno that the long dormant small-block Chevy roared to life after four years of sitting. As you may recall, we used Holley's System Max II kit in the rebuild of this engine. To refresh your memory: the Holley SysteMax II comes with fully assembled Holley cylinder heads, a Weiand intake manifold, and a Lunati cam with 235-/240-degree duration at 0.050, 0.490/0.490-inch lift, and 112-degree lobe separation (although we opted for a milder running cam). You also get lifters, hardened pushrods, head bolts, a double-roller timing chain and gears, and assembly lube.
The Truth
With that combo of parts, it's easy to hit a homerun out of the park. Numbers don't lie, and the numbers we achieved on the dyno were proof positive that a decent "run around town" small-block is achievable on a budget. On the dyno, the small-block produced 356 lb-ft of torque at 3,700 rpm, and at 5,100 rpm, it produced 303 hp. That's not too shabby. The best part is that these numbers were achieved using 89-Octane pump gas. Your results may vary; it all depends on crank, pistons, bore stroke, etc. This engine, as a long-block, was purchased from a local parts house sale, and most likely bottom of the totem pole parts were used in its initial build. Keep in mind that this engine is going into a '68 Bel Air Wagon, so we didn't require a mega-high-horsepower engine and what we got was just right for the task. With those torque numbers, we're confident this wagon will be able to get out of its own way. However, we're getting ahead of ourselves here. Let's rewind this story back to the beginning.


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is an attack of a phosphorous compound (III), like triphenylphosphine, to the azide to generate one phosphoazide (loss of N2 to form an iminophosphorane).
Don't you think that the presence of the fluor could make the azide more electrophilic and therefore more prone to nucleophilic attack? As far as I know the electrophilic behaviour of azides can change a lot depending on the R.R-N3
Mitch Andre Garcia's Chemical Forums 2003-Present.
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Hi all, I'm planning to visit US in June 2012 with my boyfriend and therefore I'm after some advice. We're going to fly to New York, stay there for a couple of days (too short, I know, but our time is limited!), and then start to travel to the west, something like New york - Washington D.C. - Miami - New Orleans - Dallas - Roswell - Las Vegas - LA - San Fransisco. In total we have about 4 weeks to do this so something might have to be left out. What I would like to hear from you is recommendations of local oddities/festivals/anything fun along this general route. It doesn't have to be in any of the cities I mentioned, as we would like to visit smaller places, too, as they often are surprisingly interesting. So, if any of you know there's a great "Cats and Giraffes festival" in some tiny town, or the World's biggest spoon -museum, or things like that, please let me know! Or anything you consider very typical for your area, that could be interesting for a foreigner to experience, I want to hear about it! I also would like to know if there's an especially over-the-top tacky honey moon suite somewhere in Las vegas, as we're getting married there. We hope to use trains and buses as much as possible but if it's very much cheaper or faster we can also fly or rent a car for some journeys between destinations.
Have you actually looked at a map and seen the distances between all those places? I know that a lot of Europeans totally underestimate the size of the US. San Francisco to LA is about 8 hours and if you look at a map, they look like they are right next to each other.
On the subject of over the top honey moon suites, the Madonna Inn in San Louis Obispo CA is very much over the top and a about halfway from LA to SF (each room is different and the website is worth a look). Hearst Castle is also near there and worth seeing.
If you are looking for local oddities, there's this website: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/I can't speak to its accuracy for the states where you will be visiting, but for the states that I've used it for, it's been pretty good.
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Celebrity Chefs Reunite for Parkinson
"Celebrity Chefs Reunite" was hosted at Eno Terra on Sunday evening, March 6, 2011. Over 100 supporters gathered and enjoyed the culinary creations of Chef Christopher Albrecht and Chef Jonathan Benno of Lincoln in New York, former colleagues who plated together at Danny Meyer's Gramercy Tavern. The Parkinson Alliance appreciates the generous support of all those who made this event possible. Our sincere thanks to:
- Carlo and Raoul Momo for hosting the event and generously donating all the food for the evening.
- Chefs Christopher Albrecht and Jonathan Benno for their extraordinary culinary creations.
- Wines of Chile for their generous donation of wine for the evening.
- The Tuchman Foundation for matching the net proceeds of this fundraiser.
- All our guests who came out to support The Parkinson Alliance and Parkinson's research.
We are grateful to be part of such a supportive and generous community.
View photos from the event.


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There are actually quite a lot there anyway, though. One of the two main Amazon EC2 datacenters in the U.S. is in the Bay Area, for example (the other one is in Northern Virginia). There's a ton of other data centers in San Jose and Fremont as well.
Ironically an IRA bomb almost took out this alternate DC - luckily an empty building took most of the blast.
I think what would have been more ironic is that when the Thames flood barrier broke, the resulting tidal wave put out the burning fuse of the IRA bomb.
Compared to hurricanes, mudslides, snowstorms, and other natural disasters, earthquakes are pretty tame. They happen once every few years, and rarely knock out the power. The snowstorms in the Pacific Northwest caused much more extensive computer outages than the occasional earthquake in California.
Really, the only problem is that you're shaking active hard drives for about 30 seconds, which is never good. But most are good enough to park their heads, and it rarely causes a real head crash.
you have Jinxed us sir! the Earth Quakes COMETH!
Niagara County (Lockport is a bit into Niagara County, it's not "Buffalo" or even in the same county as Buffalo though it's in the same metro area) is not immune to earthquakes, though it doesn't tend to get the big ones like San Francisco.
We've had a couple little bumpers in the 15 years I've lived here.
Beware: it's not what you might think it is...
For guarding these (not that I like the idea):
"South Korea's Machine Gun Sentry Robot"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5YftEAbmMQ [youtube.com]
And see James P. Hogan's "The Two Faces of Tomorrow" (1979) for a good depiction of maintenance drones that repair and extend a computer network.
http://www.jamesphogan.com/books/book.php?titleID=28 [jamesphogan.com]
http://www.webscription.net/chapters/0671878484/0671878484.htm [webscription.net]
So, in the long term, there are even fewer jobs from this than yo
I think maintenance requires some skill, and requires a number of people on site, or at least close to it. It will help with the job situation, especially since low skilled jobs are the ones that are not be being created right now. Skilled educated labor has jobs, for the most part.
I assume you're exaggerating. You would still need some people in there to replace failing hardware to diagnose network issues that cannot be handled via ssh, and doing plain old testing (simulating network congestion, outages, load testing, and doing so in an environment as close to the deploy environment as possible).
So, per my subject-line above? Yes folks: We "upstate N.Y.'ers" can thank the GREAT Nikola Tesla for his creation of the Niagara Falls power turbine system (sends power as far as to NY City too, afaik/iirc)...
That cheap power? It was "part of the package" they used to attract YAHOO & others, along with tax incentives & plenty of cheap land: CHEAP electrical power via "hydro-power"!!!
North Dakota has a not insignificant hydro dam on the Missouri River, and is in the midst of an energy boom. Buffalo, however, has suffered de-indistrialization at such a tragic amount that it is likely they have excess capacity easily available.
North Dakota does not need jobs. The unemployment rate there is the lowest in the nation in the low single digits while the national rate is . . . much much higher. Poster "i-c-electrons" saying North Dakota needs jobs is facile and ignorant. They don't need jobs, t
So, per my subject-line above? Yes folks: We "upstate N.Y.'ers" can thank the GREAT Nikola Tesla for his creation of the Niagara Falls power turbine system (sends power as far as to NY City too, afaik/iirc)...
That cheap power? It was "part of the package" they used to attract YAHOO & others, along with tax incentives & plenty of cheap land: CHEAP electrical power via "hydro-power"!!!
I grew up in Buffalo. I know first hand that electricity there is anything but cheap. Most of the electricity produced at Niagara Falls goes east to NYC and points in between. This is because those areas will pay a higher premium for that "cheap" electricity. If YAHOO is getting cheap electricity it's because they aren't paying the going market rate for the area.
Datacenters don't get power like consumers.
I work at a (relatively crap and smal) datacenter, and we have two "main" feeds from two separate substations. You know, the transformers the size of a car? Yea, we have two on our property for out exclusive use.
You can tell our customers are really into Intel. -rimshot-
For those who are curious, the article is about data centers in Buffalo, New York, and not one of the other many Buffalos in the USA.
The rest of the Buffalos in the US have a combined population of about 1/10th of Buffalo NY's population, and the second largest is in Minnesota, with a population of 10,000 (ie 1/30th Buffalo NY).
It being by far the largest (and the only one with professional sports teams) is why they didn't feel the need to specify state.
Similarly, when somebody mentions Boston, it assumed to be the one in Massachusetts, and not the Bostons Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania or Texas.
Slowly I turned. Step by step. Inch by inch...
Abbott & Costello!
Laurel & Hardy.
Charlie & Chaplin.
Seinfeld & Costanza.
Buffalo is also relatively near New York city and Boston, MA. If you need to go visit your datacenter by spending a weekend in New York City, things aren't so bad. And it's not too much of a stretch to draw graduates from MIT.
Good luck drawing people to Northern Canada. All you have up there is cows and land.
Umm, no. NY State is about the size of England and half of Wales. You don't casually go to the opposite side of the state. (I live halfway between NYC and Buffalo; I don't go to either on the weekend.)
I don't think anyone drives on the 90 to get to NYC from Buffalo (perhaps go as far as Batavia or Rochester). Adds quite a bit of distance to go that way, not to mention the outrageous toll, and the endless speed traps in every little town along the way.
That said, it's relatively near if you take a flight to see your data center, and that one-hour flight it won't cost that much more than driving would.
NYC and Boston are 7 and 8 hours away from Buffalo. You wouldn't be traveling to NYC to visit your data center in Buffalo.
It still might help. It should give us a better communication infrastructure and cause the big hardware vendors to locate more distribution centers and technicians in the area.
If you don't have good communications infrastructure, they aren't putting the data center there in the first place. If the data center needs parts, that's what UPS/FedEx are for - it would take a huge data center (something like an order of magnitude or two larger than anything ever built) to make it worth time for a major hardware v
If you don't have good communications infrastructure, they aren't putting the data center there in the first place.
We don't, but they are. I live three miles from the new Yahoo data center (I'm closer to the city, not further) and Verizon laughs at me when I ask when we are getting FIOS. There are very few places in the area that you can get communications or electrical service from two different last mile providers. When you upgrade to four hour on-site service from a major vendor, half the time they say it's unavailable here. I hope all of these things change. A few big tax-funded data centers will get things off
Your major brand name server components are going to have cache depots throughout the united states to allow for servicing of equipment which has same day or next business day service contracts.
You are also incorrect on staffing from hardware vendors onsite. There are several types of arrangements that can be made and in some situations it can be a free service depending on the size of the facility or cluster. Generally, this type of arrangement typically accompanies a fairly large purchase and the onsite p
If you don't have good communications infrastructure, they aren't putting the data center there in the first place.
Back during the height of the dot-com era, NY installed a bunch of fiber all over the state. Most of it is dark now, but it's still there.
I'm in a craphole of a former-city-descending-into-minor-town, but I'm a mile from a ton of OC-48 lines.
Dell has a service warehouse in Rochester and HP has one about an hour outside of Buffalo as well. So that is pretty much covered
These days, though, with advances in lights out management, you can build a huge data center and only need a few low-pay button pushers
This explains why 10 years ago the admin helped you out, and today you help out the admin.
Remind me not to host any nontrivial systems where your philosophy manages the data centre. I want skilled people working quickly where the problem is going to happen, not slowly by trying to troubleshoot 1000 miles away.
These days, though, with advances in lights out management, you can build a huge data center and only need a few low-pay button pushers
That confirms my belief that America has turned into Soviet Russia.
If you are running a massive data center that hosts a webfarm, cloud cluster, or some other large horizontally scaled computing project and require highly technical staff troubleshooting individual machines onsite, your process and application is completely screwed up. A well designed, horizontally scaled app should not fail if multiple machines go down.
At the scale of Yahoo, Google or facebook, they probably dont even bother to troubleshoot a machine that is even hinting at questionable behavior. They just yank it off the load balancer and have some unskilled dude take the machine, dump it, and put in a new one.
If you have a massive failure of your system, short of a natural disaster it ain't a hardware issue or a server issue. It is an application bug that require software engineers to fix. They don't have to be at the datacenter, they just create a patch from the comfort of their normal office (or home) and push it out to production.
You would probably be wrong....
Sure, no single systems should be the source of any business outage, but service owners can and do fuck things up.
There are also instances where a database application serves in a tier 1 role and while redundant configurations exist no one wants to run in degraded mode for very long.
Yahoo, Google, Facebook and many others employee technicians which service to complete repairs and perform advanced troubleshooting on the host. Typically, these environments operate with technicia
Yanking individual machines off a rack? Nah, they'll just ship back the container of servers to a repair center when it reaches 30%-50% failure.
You want highly skilled people working quickly on the operating system and router configurations. It's less common to swap out a RAID HDD, than to deal with hacked accounts.
Some of the best IT personnel I know have worked from the beach in Asia. They could do that, because A: beaches in Asia are cheap and beautiful, and B: they were able to zoom in on problems and fix them quickly from a command line. Why do you need physical access to a virtual machine? Especially when the best a GUI is going to do for
Roger that. I live further south, in Cattaraugus county, but have to commute weekly to Westchester county - 20 miles north of NYC - to work.
The Bills sure as hell can't play football so they should be doing something useful... (Go Jets!)
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo?
(Yes, I have karma to burn)
So you're saying that confused people from Buffalo who confused people from Buffalo confuse confuse confused people from Buffalo?
Seems straightforward to me.
Actually it's confused buffaloes as the animal, not Buffalonians.
On that matter, I hate confusing people.
A buffalo can be defined as either the animal, or a person who is buffaloed - hence a confused person.
Data center negotiations:
Yahoo yahoo Buffalo yahoo buffalo buffalo Buffalo yahoo.
Cheap hydro power, no summers ( well actually that is not true we had summer last year, it happened on a Thursday). You can also use the excess heat to warm up the parking garage of the employees because the cars will blow their frost plugs even if they are plugged into block heaters and the batteries will freeze if they don't have an electric blanket around them. -60c (-100c with wind chill) is horrible, most people run their cars 24/7 when it gets really cold.
Sounds good! All you need is for somebody to dig through that permafrost to lay some fiber-optic cables...
After all, a data center needs some way to actually, I don't know, deliver data...
Winnipeg would be perfect. Google should build a server farm so big it would produce so much heat that the snow in the city would melt, forcing them to open up the floodway in the winter.
We had a long hot Summer this year in Toronto, It's only really cooled down in the past couple of weeks.
Not sure where the "no Summer" business comes from. Even Winter only lasts 4 months in TO.
Since the OP mentioned battery blankets and block heaters, I very much doubt he's from Toronto. He's likely one of us real Canadians who roll our eyes when someone says how cold Canada is and someone from Toronto says "no, Toronto isn't that cold!"
Ok, having lived in WNY for years - was around for '77 blizzard - I know what you're talking about, but even _I_ would say this hyperbole goes a wee bit over the top. I think it was Wednesday _and_ Thursday.
Here you go. [kidzcoolzone.com]
First off, where did they get that picture of a bunch of mini-tower machines on steel shelving, each with one Ethernet cable, one power cord, and one console connection, sitting on raised floor? That looks like clip art of some data center circa 1998. Here's the actual Yahoo data center in Lockport, [inhabitat.com] which, as you'd expect, is a big farm of 1U rackmounts. The "chicken coop" design is simply a low-cost prefabricated metal building with lots of ventilation grills. Looks like something ordered out of the Butler Buildings catalog.
Yahoo got $9 million in grants and 10 years of no taxes for this. Yet it will employ only 125 people. Probably less, once it's running.
Lockport is desperate. The big employer in town, Delphi Harrison Thermal Systems (formerly Harrison Radiator) had 6000 employees a decade ago. Now it has 2100, and has been threatened with closure several times.
Is that actual open air? Wouldn't dirt and water in the air start causing problems?
It's probably not open air. My guess is that they have air-to-air heat exchangers [xetexinc.com] behind all those grills, so the heat is dumped into the cold ambient air. Mostly the same air goes round and round in the data center, which keeps the humidity in range. So there's not much work for the chillers; mostly it's just fans.
125 people in a town of 20,000 is huge. Each of those people needs housing, pays income tax (which NYS is probably the highest in the US), pays sales tax (8%) need office supplies, phone lines, cell phones, gets married, has children, goes out to eat etc. etc. That's roughly $4-6m/year of extra cash flowing into the local economy.
Besides, Yahoo probably wouldn't pay taxes anyway because they're incorporated somewhere else and claim towards the local tax man that they made 0 profit and have a huge loss into
Skilled help may be needed by these new data centers. So all they have to do is talk high quality employees into the joys of living in Buffalo. If the cold doesn't kill you and boredom doesn't finish you off the state income taxes may have you wander about hoping that you will freeze to death.
Nah, just takes a little marketing.
"Buffalo: At least it's not Utica".
The data center is not actually in Buffalo but rather some distance to the East in Lockport. In additional to the climate advantages, I'm sure Yahoo is getting some nice tax rebates considering the depressed economic situation of the area and the production at the local Delphi plant which was the biggest employer in the salad days.
...Upstate NY weather recognized as an advantage.
Obnoxiously hot always did seem to bother me more than obnoxiously cold; I suppose that would hold even more true for servers that needed to be cooled as well.
1 data center gets built and they are calling themselves the data center capital of the country? Well, Salt Lake just opened EBAY last summer and has Oracle, Twitter, and a 1.3 Billion dollar data center for the NSA under construction and we don't feel qualified to make that statement. You don't see NC claiming that because of the apple one... with the tax rate of New York I hardly see that many businesses moving there!
"The one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception a neccessity." - Oscar Wilde