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Employee Benefits News
UK employees earning less than they were over a decade ago
A new survey has revealed the shocking fact that the average employee in the UK is currently earning less than they were over ten years ago, The Independent reports.
According to an annual survey of hours and earnings in the UK, conducted by the Office of National Statistics, a typical worker now earns less in 2015 than they did in 2003.
It was found that this year, UK employees brought home on average £528 per week; and while this was up from the £518 earned per week last year, it is well below the £534 earned each week in 2003.
Explaining why people´s pay packets aren´t increasing was Charles Cotton, a pay and reward adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). Cotton argues that the biggest obstacle facing today´s workforce is productivity.
"Until we see gains in productivity," he told the publication, "people are unlikely to feel the benefit in their pay packets so businesses need to concentrate on better people management and better working practices to shift the dial on this.
On April 2016, the minimum hourly rate for workers over the age of 25 will increase from £6.70 to £7.20, increasing wages for more than half the nation´s employers. In order to counteract this additional cost, employers are likely to push for increased productivity from their workforce in return.
Despite wages beginning to creep up, however, the report shows that most people aren´t being paid much more than they were a decade ago.
Editor-in-chief at money.co.uk, Hannah Maundrell, also notes that the higher costs of living are making it difficult for households on low incomes to make ends meet. Therefore, although low inflation has helped with day-to-day budgeting to some degree, "as soon as prices start to creep back up we´ll all feel the squeeze once again," Maundrell predicted.
Copyright M2 Bespoke 2015
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PaperCon and NETInc
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The Renewable Energy Systems Group in the ORNL Environmental Sciences Division is an interdisciplinary team of engineers and natural scientists who develop strategies to deliver agricultural and forest resources to produce fuels, power/heat, or bioproducts. This work is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Bioenergy Technologies Office and the Center for Bioenergy Innovation. Our goal is to conduct research and analysis that enables development of technologies to transform biomass resources of the U.S. into cost-competitive, high-performance biofuels, bioproducts, and biopower. Designing innovative biomass supply chains to achieve cost, quantity, and quality targets is an important research focus of the BRES team. A position is available for a staff researcher to conduct analyses of biomass supply chains for quantifying impacts of system design and operation on feedstock cost, quality, and risk.
Major Duties/Responsibilities
•Lead and conduct research projects related to modeling variability in biomass composition and predicting changes in quality that can occur during harvest, storage, and preprocessing. This work involves collaboration with multidisciplinary scientists and engineers at ORNL and other national laboratories to understand the impact of plant structure and composition on bioenergy and bioderived material conversion technologies and how these change from the time of harvest to use. •Explore research into the alternative uses of biomass, including high-value bio-derived products, fuels or chemicals. Connect biomass quality attributes to polymer science and related material properties •Leverage ORNL's staff and capabilities in high-performance computing, biological sciences, neutron sciences, and advanced imaging to advance the development of technologies and systems for delivering high-quality biomass feedstocks for fuels, power, and products. •Develop internal and external collaborations and attract external funding to sustain a robust research program in biomass engineering.
•Ph.D. degree in agricultural engineering, biological engineering, or chemical engineering
•At least 5 years of R&D experience in the field of biomass engineering and logistics including development of improved harvest, storage, or preprocessing operations and supply chain modeling or technoeconomic analyses
•Experience with ExtendSim or another discrete event modeling tool is desired •Experience and success in writing proposals to multiple federal agencies for materials research
•Willingness to participate creatively in a variety of collaborative, dynamic team environments
•Ability to both lead teams and to also support the leadership of other staff in some teaming arrangements and provide thought leadership to team and others
•Motivated and safety conscious
•Ability to set priorities, multi-task and adapt to ever changing needs
•An excellent record of productive and creative research demonstrated by publications in peer-reviewed journals or by reports and patents from industrially-focused research
•Excellent written and oral communication skills and the ability to communicate in English to an international scientific audience


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McHugh Motorsport
We had our first shakedown on Saturday night at Toowoomba. The car looked great on the track and our lap times were really pleasing. We certainly drew attention with plenty of positive feedback. We spent the off-season giving the car a good going over. Ed from Sport Engines put the motor through its paces on his Dyno and seems to have found a bit more for us.
Whilst we are using this season as a learning curve for both Driver and Crew, we are fortunate enough to have Glenn Seton putting in a tremendous effort with the shocks and set up and we believe we are starting the season with a solid package. Obviously we also painted in our new team colours which we hope you all like. We are planning on heading to Carina Speedway Bundaberg for a 2 night show on Fri the 11th and Sat 12th Sept. Thank you all for your support!
The McHugh family has a long involvement in Motorsport beginning with Geoff McHugh's racing in the J2 Allard and Mildren Maserati from the 1960's to now, in it's third generation the tradition continues!! Between Jamie and Lachlan someone in the family is usually racing or practising most weeks of the year. Check out the profile below, follow the racing season or have a look at the photo gallery. Whether it's Smash Repairs, Speedway or Karting we are always trying to finish ahead of the pack.
If you would like to check out the racing scene a little more closely let us know and our promotions manager (Emilio - 0419 121 485) can arrange for you to meet up with one of the race teams when we are next racing in South East Qld. These track visits are popular and give a real insight into the technical, strategic and unusual aspects of motorsport.
Name: Jamie McHugh
DOB: November 25,1960
Home Town: Gold Coast Australia
Children: Holly 16 and Lachlan 12
Occupation: Proprietor Miami Smash Repairs and The Caravan Repair Company
Started Racing Speedway 1995 - V8 Super Sedan (equivalent to Late Model)
Career Highlights: Since winning Rookie of the Year in 1995, Jamie has gone on to win every prestigious speedway race Australia has to offer. He has traveled to every state in Australia chasing his victories.
The most notable highlights of his 15 year speedway career are:
- 2 times Australian Champion - 2008 and 2010
- 2 times winner of Australia's richest race The Apple Isle Grand Prix in Tasmania
- 5 times winner of Queensland's richest race the International Firecracker
- 8 times Club Champion winner
Over the years Jamie has also had the opportunity to compete against visiting USA test teams and in the 1998/99 season was the overall winner of the USA vs Australia All Star Series. He has raced and won against the likes of Steve Francis, Charlie Swartz, John Gill and Bert Cheatham. Jamie has been voted by speedway magazines in Australia as the Best sedan driver in the country.
Other Interests:
Karting with son Lachlan, Current South Australian and Queensland Champion.
Name: Lachlan McHugh
DOB: 27 May 1998
Home Town: Gold Coast Australia
Occupation: Student
Started Racing: Aged 7 in 2005
Career Highlights:
- 1'st 2007 Midget/Rookie Title-Ipswich Qld
- 1'st 2009 Rookie SA Open State Champion
- 1'st 2010 Junior National Light Qld Open State Championship
- 1'st 2010 Junior National Light Southern Star Series (Won all 5 Rounds)
Midget Division - 2006
Mainly club shows - numerous results
Main achievement in first full year was 2nd in a five track series
3rd Thomas Horey Memorial Gold Coast
Midget Division - 2007
3rd SA Open State Championship
2nd NSW Open State Championship
2nd Qld Open State Championship
1st Midget/Rookie Title - Ipswich Qld
2nd City of Melbourne Championship
2nd Thomas Horey Memorial Gold Coast
3rd Young Guns Lismore NSW
Midget Division - 2008
1st Northwest Title - Mildura Vic
3rd Young Guns Lismore NSW
Rookie Division - 2009
1st Young Guns Lismore NSW
1st SA Open State Championship
1st Junior Sprint Classic
2nd Ipswich Club Championship
1st City of Melbourne Championship
Junior National Light - 2010
1st Qld Open State Championship
1st Qld Closed State Title
2nd NSW Open State Championship
1st Qld Southern Stars Series (won all 5 rounds)
2011 will be the first time Lockie is eligible to race a National Title.
Lockie also races speedway and won his first race in Quarter Midgets.
In the 2014 season Lachlan will start racing ModLites


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Lots of video effects. Multicam. Good titling tools. Trailer-like movie templates. Solid audio editing tools. Strong disc authoring, with more than 100 templates. Motion tracking. 4K file support.
Not much help with difficult procedures. Lacks import and organization tools. Extra costs and coded downloads for some video formats.
Bottom Line
Movie Edit Pro spans the range of digital movie creation from simple template and storyboard options to 4K, 360-degree, and multicam editing, but it's not as fast or pleasant to use as the best of the video editing competition.
When Americans think of video editing software, they think of Adobe, Apple, maybe Corel, and possibly CyberLink. But in Europe, Germany's Magix has been a leader in the field for over two decades. Its Movie Edit Pro enthusiast-level product competes with software from those better-known outfits, and it even boasts support for new technology like 360-degree and 4K content. In its 2018 edition, Movie Edit Pro promises improved 360-degree editing, HEVC support, an in-app plug-in store, and better stabilization. These join a full stable of features, such as motion tracking, titling, action-cam templates, beat-based editing, and hardware acceleration. It's a decent upgrade, but the app still trails the competition in organizational tools and overall usability.
Similar Products
Pricing and Starting Up With Magix
Magix's video editing software is available at three levels: the standard Movie Edit Pro 2016 ($69.99), Plus ($99.99), and Premium ($129.99, the version reviewed here). Those are official list prices, but you often see them discounted online. The standard edition is surprisingly capable, with 64-bit operation, support for 4K content, and lots of effects. The Plus edition increases the track limit to 99 from 32 and adds multicam editing, faster 4K editing, more effects, and more audio tools. Premium adds professional plug-in effects from Red Giant, an industry-standard video software maker. For the real pros, Magix offers Video Pro ($399). Free 30-day trial versions are available for all versions. Finally, the Movie Edit Touch app for Windows 10 and Android expands the product's reach.
To install the software, you first download a small stub installation app, and you get a choice of also installing Music Maker. The stub in turn downloads the 567MB video editing program and the music software, so have a speedy connection or plan to wait. The installer unfortunately does try to install a system cleaner utility—boo! That's not what I expect or want to see after paying over $100 for an app. Installation requires a restart, something I don't see so much any more. You have to register the software with your contact information before you can start using it. You'll also have to do more online activations before using certain features, such as working with MPEG files.
There's another step in setting up the app if you want to edit some 4K video formats: You'll need to separately buy a codec activation code priced at €4.99 (or about $5.63 at the time of this writing). This is seriously annoying, and something I haven't encountered in any other video editing software. It's not like Movie Edit Pro is cheaper than the other products, such as PowerDirector.
Video Editing Interface
New for Magix Movie Edit Pro's interface is a redesigned set of flat-style button icons for all the effect types. Otherwise, the same three-panel setup and gray borders with near-black editing area pervades. The video preview panel sits at top left, the content and effect source panel to its right, with the multitrack timeline taking up the full window width below them. You can resize and even undock the panels and move them around to taste. Clear undo and redo buttons sit above the timeline, along with mouse and ripple mode choices. There's a search bar for Source, but it doesn't work within Effect sections. You can't, for example, search for the specific shape or direction you want for a wipe or blur.
Unlike Adobe Premiere Elements and Pinnacle Studio, Magix doesn't use top-level mode buttons to switch among importing and organizing content, editing, and outputting. There are buttons at top left to switch between editing and burning disc projects. The emphasis on discs seems a bit passé, but I suppose people editing event videos still may want a solid final form for their projects. It certainly doesn't detract from the product.
Working with the Timeline
The program doesn't have a clear Import procedure, just an Import tab in the source panel showing the disk folder tree. Nor does it have any organization tools, such as tagging or project bins. For my test project, it dumped all the clips into a storyboard movie rather than adding them to a source panel as most apps do. You can, however, create a new folder in Windows that will show up under the Media entry as long as you right-click it and choose Add link. An Android app called Camera MX now lets you transfer from your phone over Wi-Fi. Video clips from my iPhone and Windows Phone 4K video displayed upside down, something I'd run into previously with PowerDirector. You can use the rotation tool to fix this, but it would be nice not to have to.
Dragging and dropping clips around the timeline feels snappy, and it's a cinch to move back and forth in the timeline or adjust its time scale with the mouse wheel. Hover the mouse cursor over any unfamiliar interface element, and a helpful tooltip fills you in on its function. One minor annoyance is that you can't filter the source panel to display just video or just photos, as you can in most competing software. Another odd thing about the timeline is that, if you play your movie, it keeps playing past any content in the tracks, so if you leave it unattended, you could find yourself miles to the right of your video clips.
A storyboard view of your movie's clips offers more than most competitors' equivalents: Icons for text, sound volume, and transitions let you perform those actions. Moving around in and zooming the timeline seems natural using the mouse wheel. You can also easily drag and drop clips to different tracks and positions. I wish the video preview pane had a pause button, however, since hitting stop takes you to the beginning of the clip.
The preview window shows the time value for the play-head position and total clip time. You can easily switch between previewing the current source clip and the movie project using arrow icons in the source thumbnails. The keyboard arrow keys let you advance one frame at a time, though there's no on-screen button for this. An interesting difference from most other programs is the tab bar above the timeline, letting you have multiple movies open at once.
Easy Digital Movies
Magix's templates resemble iTunes' Trailers; but to get them I had to go to Help > Download Extra Content, which amounts to several gigabytes. Many templates are extra cost, as are some other effects like title animations and background music. To use templates, you fill placeholder thumbnails, which show descriptive diagrams of what should go in them. A panel on the right describes the desired content, such as Action, Close-Up, and Extreme Long Shot. There are thirty holes to fill in the Blockbuster template; Xs appear in the placeholder thumbnails, but you can't delete excess shots.
The result added dramatic music timed to scene changes and added titles in my testing, but it wasn't as well-thought-out shot-wise as Premiere Elements' similar feature. Magix doesn't let you edit the content during this building process, even to crop or rotate. Once you move a template project to the full editor for customization, you lose the ability to see your project in the template anymore. In all, it's not a flexible or wizard-driven enough of a process.
Basic Video Editing
Most trimming in Magix is done right on the timeline, with a razor icon for splitting the current track, which can be switched to Remove Start, Remove End," or Split Movie (to split all tracks at the same point). For more precise edits, the Edit trimmer lets you fine-tune a transition between clips, and the Object Trimmer window lets you do so for the start and end of a single clip. The dialog for both these activities is fairly complex, with three panels and no fewer than 25 control buttons, but I can see how, after you get accustomed to it, it could be useful.
Magix has joined the industry in calling transitions transitions instead of fades. You don't get the vast choice of transitions you get in PowerDirector, but for your 3D projects, 10 Stereo fades are on offer. As in most good video editing software these days, you can drag a clip's corner to produce a cross dissolve transition—the most commonly used transition of all. The Edit Trimmer mentioned above offers detailed control over this type of transition.
Full-Power Video Editing
Double-clicking on a clip's timeline entry opens the Effects panel, which offers text, lighting, color, chroma-key, distortion, speed, and lens correction (barrel and pincushion adjustment), and movement effects such as size/position and rotation. Some presets offer cool (or goofy, depending on how much of an artiste you are) motion effects. Magix now offers motion-tracking like that in Corel VideoStudio Pro X9, which lets you follow and onscreen object with an image, text, or effect. (More on that below.)
Magix's stabilization tool shows you what it's doing, and gives you the option to suppress black borders that result from the stabilization process's necessary cropping. As with any of these tools, smoothness is improved, but there's no substitute from on-camera stabilization or shot-steadying equipment. Another option in the two higher levels of the program is stabilization, with the included proDAD Mercalli plugin, which offers even more control and a stabler result.
New with the 2018 version is ProDAD Mercalli 2.0 pro stabilization, and it's available as an option from the Stabilize menu. You start using this by tapping its Run Analysis button. The tool also requires an online activation. A 1-minute clip took about a minute to analyze on a Core i7 3.4GHz PC—not bad compared with some advanced stabilization tools. You can split the screen to compare results, which were indeed good.
Magix has Project Markers, Snap Markers to remind you of important locations in your movie, but those differ from standard keyframes, which the program also supports. Keyframes comprise a powerful video editing technique in Movie Edit Pro. This technique lets you smoothly progress an effect, title, crop, and so on, from one point in a movie to another. In Magix, you can use these with most effects, but the actual keyframe markers don't appear in the main timeline; rather, they only appear at the bottom of the Effect panel. PowerDirector has recently made a push to make everything keyframe-able, and its implementation is clearer.
Editing 360 Degree Video
Movie Edit Pro was among the first video editing software capable of editing 360-degree content. To test its VR prowess, I loaded some footage from a Samsung Gear 360 camcorder; for content using HEVC format, you have to buy a separate codec code from Magix. It's annoying to pay $129 for a program and then have to pay more for claimed functionality. In Magix's defense, Premiere Elements wasn't able to open the clips at all, but PowerDirector imported it with no problem. I was, however, able to open a clip from the Ricoh Theta S in Magix without extra steps.
When you start a project, the Movie Settings dropdown now offers 360-degree options. With a clip selected in the timeline, you can choose the 360° Panorama section and muck around with the clip's viewing angle on three axes. New for the software is the ability to stitch video to create 360 degrees, for example from shooting simultaneously with two or more GoPros. You can also adjust the video's perspective (really zoom) and fisheye/barrel distortion. You can now output to pan-able video formats like those found on Facebook and Vimeo.
Despite a few improvements, Magix is behind PowerDirector in 360 editing in a few important ways: PowerDirector offers fully 360-degree titling, stabilization, motion tracking, and transitions. All of those are limited or missing in Magix's software.
Motion Tracking
Magix Movie Edit Pro's motion tracking lets an object follow something that moves around the screen in your video clip. You can use an overlay, such as text, or an effect, such as blur. Tracking is often used to obfuscate license plates or body parts. Magix uses the term Object Tracking for this.
Unlike Corel VideoStudio, which presents a clear motion tracking button above the timeline, in Magix Movie Edit Pro you have to hunt for the tool. It's hidden in the right-click context menu when you have an object selected in the timeline below a video clip. You choose "Attach to picture position in the video," but only after you've positioned the object or text. I tried the feature to add text that follows a moving bicyclist.
After you find the tool, a long-winded dialog box tells you to "Select a picture section for which movements should follow the overlay object." I did so, and indeed the text box followed the football player I'd attached it to. But there's no dialog box where you can refine the effect, and adding a tracked blur overlay is much harder than in competitors. The whole process is way less intuitive than what you get in Corel VideoStudio, which even lets you do multipoint tracking. What's more Magix doesn't show you the actual track or let you edit it the way Corel does.
Fancy Movie Effects
Titles. Title templates included in Movie Edit Pro are categorized by their use; for example: intro/outro, caption, and subtitles. The upper two editions of Movie Edit Pro also include animated titles from NewBlue. There are 39 title animations, and you can apply simple horizontal and vertical animation to any text you add. There aren't, however, 3D titles like you get with Apple's Final Cut Pro X.
Effects. Movie Edit Pro's Effects panel offers an Artistic filter, with controls for Erosion, Dilate, Emboss, Substitution (for colors), Quantize, Colorize, and Contour. You can get some pretty zany looks with these. The Distortion tool offers Whirlpool, Fisheye, and Kaliedoscope effects, among others, all of which you can combine into one unrecognizable vision.
You can also add objects, such as arrows or a cigar. More downloadable effects and objects include a cartooner, a de-interlacer, noise reduction, and a liquid effect. The extra effects aren't as well integrated into the program as CyberLink PowerDirector's plug-ins.
Movie Edit Pro Premium's Film Looks retro and tone effects can give your picture added impact. Other choices include three Cinema looks, Cold, Warm, Fresh, Tilt Shift, and vignette. You can easily add plug-in effects with a right click menu option. Chroma-keying is very well implemented in the software.
Multicam. This advanced technique takes some preparation to use in the Magix software, and the capability isn't straightforward. Audio-based synchronization and an increase in the allowable camera angles to four are highlights of this version. Performance slowed down during my testing, making angle switching not as precise as I'd like, but at least you can make adjustments after the fact in the new timeline tracks the process creates.
Time stretching. Time stretching is really easy in Magix, too, with its Stretching toolbar button, which can fit a clip to another track's length, either by slowing it or speeding it up. You can also go to the Speed effect and plug in a value from .25 to 4x. Time stretching speeds up the audio without changing its pitch, while the Resampling option lets you turn your subject into one of the Chipmunks.
Picture-in-Picture. Under design elements effects are 25 picture in picture (or PiP) presets, such as 2/1 left, 4/3 top left—it would be nicer to see visual representations for these as PowerDirector gives you. As with that app, you can also simply adjust the size and position of each track for a custom PiP. I really like how easy it is to rotate video, from the Rotation/Mirror effect.
Two video effect panels deal with color—Color, and Color correction. The first offers a white-point dropper, a color wheel, and an auto-color button, along with sliders for each of the primary colors and saturation. This lets you easily correct a shot, for example, to remove a greenish cast.
The Color correction tools lets you create a mask by clicking on, say, a sky, and then intensifying the blue of just that area. But you don't get an equivalent to Premiere Elements' three-way color correction, which lets you separately adjust color for low-, high-, and mid-tones. Nor is there color matching between clips.
3D Editing. The third dimension has fallen out of favor lately, but Magix lets you easily import 3D footage and apply 3D titles and effects. You can adjust vertical and horizontal alignment. The program supports anaglyph and interlaced 3D.
Movie Edit Pro can display the waveform for each clip in the timeline, and a full mixer pops up when you click its icon on the top-right corner of the timeline. A full-fledged sound editor, Magix Music Editor, can clean audio and apply noise reduction, equalizing, compression, and stereo FX. It's pretty advanced, letting you choose a noise sample, optimize for voice, de-hiss, and remove camera noise. It also lets you convert older media, such as LPs, to digital.
A good selection of background music for soundtracks is available on the Audio tab of the source panel. One audio tool lets you add reverb and echo—I got a football game to sound like it was in a swimming hall. You can also raise or lower pitch, or change the tempo of music. The included synthesizer can add a variety of sounds—flowing water, wind, traffic, crowds, applause—fun stuff. A drum and bass synth turns you into your movie's DJ. For slideshows, there are dozens of background tracks included.
With Magix's beat-based editing, the program can decide when to switch clips based on the background music's beat. You do this by opening the Snap Markers tool on the Effects tab, and tapping it like a drum to show it the strong beats in the music. After this, when you drag clips or trim them near the snap marks, they'll automatically snap to those points in the timeline. It's not exactly automatic, but I can see how it could be useful, especially to action cam users.
Output and Sharing
Movie Edit Pro offers a lot of good output options, including direct uploading to Facebook, YouTube, and Vimeo from the Share menu. You can also send creations to anyone with Send Anywhere; this gets you a code to send to anyone. You can choose private or public viewing. As your movie uploads, a progress bar crawls across the bottom of the screen and shows time remaining. I like that it even lets you create HTML viewer code for your video that you can put on a website.
Full disc authoring with menus and chapters is provided, and you can output to most standard video file formats, including 4K but and the newer H.265. Device output options have been simplified in the latest version, with simple High Resolution and Low Resolution options for iOS and Android. Tablet choices are more up to date, with Microsoft Surface among the choices.
As I mentioned above, working with clips in the timeline was very snappy in my testing, and I didn't experience any unexpected program shutdowns—something that not all video editors can boast, including products from big companies like Apple. Native 64-bit operation is clearly a help here, and its performance on my timed rendering performance test has improved with H.264 hardware acceleration. Oddly, this hardware acceleration is turned off by default, so be sure to go into export settings and enable it.
I tested rendering time by creating a movie consisting of four clips of mixed types (some 1080p, some SD, some 4K) with a standard set of transitions and rendered it to MPEG-4 full HD at 15Mbps, H.264 High Profile. Audio was MPEG AAC Audio: 192 Kbps. I tested on an Asus Zen AiO Pro Z240IC running 64-bit Windows 10 Home and sporting a 4K display, 16GB RAM, a quad-core Intel Core i7-6700T CPU, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 960M discrete graphics card.
The test movie (whose duration was just under 5 minutes) took Magix Movie Edit Pro Premium 2:56 (minutes:seconds) to complete, which puts it in third place behind Pinnacle Studio (1:35) and CyberLink PowerDirector (1:59), but ahead of the rest of the pack, including Corel VideoStudio's 4:20 and Adobe Premiere Elements' 5:18.
Magic Magix?
It's likely that Magix Movie Edit Pro 2018 Premium has everything you need for an enthusiast-level digital movie project and more, with many powerful effects, multicam, and audio editing tools. Its interface has improved, though it lacks the handholding, clarity, and smooth workflow found in competitors, especially for advanced effects like motion tracking. Other products such as our two top picks, CyberLink PowerDirector and Corel VideoStudio, make getting the effects you want easier to find and use, as does Adobe's far more intuitive Premiere Elements.


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Back in its hay-day, Looney Toons was a very popular show. With fame, comes a price. In the case of Hugh Harman, the creator of Looney Tunes, insanity. In 2006, a small group of fans were allowed into the Studios at Warner Brothers Inc. These people have never been identified. They went into the room where Harman wrote some episodes.
When the group decided to take a picture, one of the members backed up to get a better shot, when the back of his foot hit something. It was a small case, and written on it were undecipherable scribbles, and random sketches of unknown characters from Looney Toons. Some of them even looked like prototypes of existing characters. Inside the case, was a film reel. They picked it up, reading a label on the reel. It said "Hugh: Fudd". They assumed it was a test reel created by Mr. Harman himself. They were excited, and quickly went over to the reel projector that had already been set up beforehand.
They loaded the reel up, and started the projector. This was not a vintage projector, rather a modern one that scanned the reel and then displayed it. Employees set it up for the group, knowing they would want to see some old cartoons. They proceeded to watch. The following information was collected when the video was analyzed. It started out to be nothing but static, as if the reel itself were interfering with the projector. Then came up a picture of Elmer Fudd blankly staring at the screen. The music was, well, not even music. It was one continuous note with varying pitches. Elmer's eyes were bulging, and more realistic than what is usually seen in these cartoons. His hat, however, was a different story. It was poorly drawn, and the color seemed to be scribbled on. The brown color from his hat overlapped his face a bit. The video got progressively more shaky. This went on for about thirty seconds.
Elmer's face quickly overtook the screen. His eyes dark red, and white pupils. The static got worse than it ever was. You could barely decipher what was happening. All that could be heard was a grown man repeatedly screaming, as if being tortured. This went on for about thirty more seconds. Then, as the screaming faded out, an image popped onto the screen. It was Bugs Bunny, ribcage exposed, and eyes whited out. He was screaming, hands covered with blood. The noise I heard was screaming, and it sounded as if someone put a microphone right up to the screamers mouth. The screaming was constantly cut off, and when he screamed, the static got worse. One could hear the faint sounds of the blood curdling screams of a infant. The screen went black. After 2 seconds a video clip of an unknown episode reversed. It was too distorted to see what it was. After the clip ended, a face with red eyes and red teeth appeared on the screen, accompanied by faint screaming. This concluded the video.
Eye witness accounts say that the group had run out screaming. One of them jumped out of a window, while two others slit their necks with the broken glass. The last ran out, never to be seen again until 2007, when he robbed the studios and took the video with him. This could explain why it was uploaded onto YouTube. The question is, why it took him until 2011 to upload it. It is said that he obsessed over it. It was his whole life, but after the robbery, he was never heard from again. Even when the authorities tried to track down the IP address that uploaded the video, it said it never existed. The video is still studied.


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Gross Motor Skills
Author: Erin Date Posted:3 August 2017
..so we all know that school preparation/readiness focuses on academic skills (sounds, counting, letter and numeral recognition, basic math facts, sentence writing etc) but did you know it also covers a broader range of skills such as self care, concentration, social, language, emotions, PLAY and physical development (gross motor skills)? Amazing right? Let's talk more about Gross Motor Skills. As a parent of a child in the process of school preparation, what does this mean? What can you do to help them develop the gross motor skills they need to give them a positive start to school?
What is gross motor and gross motor skills?
Gross Motor are physical skills that use the coordination of the muscles in the body that affect movement. They include movement of the large muscles such as the head, torso, legs and arms and the small muscles such as hands, fingers along with the eyes (hand/eye coordination). Gross motor skills also go hand in hand (pardon the pun) with the development of speech and fine motor.
Why gross motor skills are important?
Gross motor skills are important as they allow children to accomplish every day movements, such as walking, running, skipping, hopping, jumping as well as playground skills such as climbing, catching, throwing, hitting and kicking a ball. These movements are pivotal in assisting everyday personal development skills such as getting dressed for school by being able to stand and balance on one leg whilst putting on a pair of pants without falling over or balancing on one knee whilst tying up a shoelace. They also influence other aspects of school readiness as they can affect a child's ability to write, draw, cut out and/or follow instructions which in turn can affect their academic learning.
...so let's niche down and talk about what gross motor skills are needed for school?
•Physical endurance - being able to sit upright at a desk at school, carry a school bag, concentrate, stay awake.
•Hand/eye co-ordination - cutting out with scissors, pasting, drawing, reading, writing and colouring.
•Visual tracking - handwriting and copying from the board, learning to read and write.
•Balance - participating in sport, games and ability to maintain posture.
•Body Awareness - understanding how the body moves for when moving safely within in the classroom/school environment.
•Co-ordination - listening and following instructions, riding a bike, beating a drum, push/pull activities, listening games.
Play Ideas to promote Gross Motor Skills and Development
A great way to build Gross Motor Skills is by providing your child/children with ample opportunities to engage in regular play, sport and games. Here are ten play ideas that promote gross motor development and can help you prepare your child for school:
Yoga is an activity that focuses on movement, posture, breathing, technique and concentration. It is a fabulous way to build and develop gross motor skills that are needed at school. For those that aren't too sure where to get started I'm sharing a couple of our favourite resources. Have you heard of Cosmic Yoga for Kids? It's a Yoga series found on You Tube that integrates storytelling (popular stories and movies) with yoga movements. The other resource we enjoy using is these Yoga Cards. They include a set of instructions to facilitate the yoga technique.
Bean bags are a great tool to use with young learners because they are easy to manipulate, light weight and budget friendly. Here are some play ideas for bean bag games.
Dressing up is an activity that leads to imaginative play but it also creates the opportunity to practise a series of gross motor skills such as postural control, coordination, trunk movement and balance which are needed at school. Two of our favourite dress up games are the traditional role play dress ups where children dress up in a variety of outfits/costumes and engage in imaginary play in that particular role or character and the other is dress up races. They are set up like traditional relay races but include a series of clothes (eg. hat, gumboots, shirt, pants) that need to be worn by getting dressed before proceeding to run.
Have you heard of proprioception? It is a term used to describe how the joints and muscles communicate with the brain to help coordinate movement as well as how a child/children regulate the force of their movements. Each time a child moves against a force they are developing their proprioception skills and therefore their gross motor skills too. Household chores such as carrying out garbage, washing the floor, vacuuming, lifting grocery bags, weeding, making beds allow your child to practise their proprioception skills. Not sure where to get started, why not introduce a chore chart and routine cards? We love this chore chart and routine cards.
Focuses on balance and coordination by hopping and jumping in a sequence of steps. Hopscotch can be created using chalk on concrete/pavers or with foam number mats or simply written on paper and placed in the correct numerical sequence.
Obstacle courses are a fabulous way to foster gross motor development. By using resources such as quoits, balls, hula hoops, wheelbarrows, croquet, badmington, climbing equipment and relay races you can replicate the skills needed to get dressed, body awareness, postural control and physical endurance.
Are a fun way to practise gross motor skills. Playgrounds lend themselves to a multitude of gross motor skills such as climbing, pushing pulling, swinging, jumping, skipping, hopping, crawling, rolling and more. This is an activity that requires minimal preparation and can provide children with extended time to practise gross motor skills (balance, co-ordination, physical endurance, core strength, hand/eye coordination, body awareness, symmetrical movements, hand preference, reciprocal movement and visual tracking.
Is a great game for integrating listening, following directions with gross motor skills (body awareness, hand/eye co-ordination, balance, crossing the midline). For example, Simon says, touch your left foot with your right arm or touch your nose with your right hand while balancing on one foot.
Simple ball games of catching, throwing and kicking use gross motor skills that assist with self care (getting dressed) and visual tracking (hand/eye coordination). Children are required to move their arms towards the midline (middle of body) when catching a ball which is similar to that needed to unzip, zip or button up a cardigan/jacket. When children throw a ball, they rotate their trunk and then bring their arm to the midline as they follow through with the ball (the same action needed to put shoes and socks on). Some fun and ball games for school preparation/readiness to try are poison ball, captain ball, tunnel ball, traditional catch and throw , backyard cricket and some different ball games.
Is a game that requires the copying of actions with movement and hand/eye coordination. It's an opportunity for children to practise their motor planning skills and take on a leadership role.
Erin is a Mum of two, wife, Early Childhood and Primary School teacher as well as the Owner of Nappy Cakes by Erin and the Founder of //celebrate play//. She lives a busy, simple and enjoyable life in Sydney. Her greatest passions are family, organisation, gift-giving, helping others, celebrating events and lifelong learning.
You can find her at Nappy Cakes By Erin, follow me on Facebook, join the Celebrate Play Facebook group .


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The bout will decide the mandatory challenger for the IBF title, currently held by Filipino Donnie Nietes who won the title when he defeated the Thai earlier this year.
For Eaktwan the bout is his first outside of Asia, and sees him look to bounce back from his loss to Nietes back in April, when he had competitive moments against the Filipino. Prior to that loss he had been in good form winning 15 in a row with 11 stoppages. The competition might not have been great but included decent fighters like Takayuki Okumoto and Jenny Boy Boca.
As for Reveco, the former WBA Flyweight and WBA Light Flyweight champion, this will be his third fight since being stopped at the end of 2015 by Kazuto Ioka. The loss was his sole stoppage defeat, and his second loss to Ioka. In his last two bouts he has racked up clear decisions, but has been taking on limited opposition and this does look like a step back up in class for the 33, soon to be 34, year old Argentinian veteran.
For those interested this bout will be televised on TYC Sports.


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Convert flash jobs
You MUST study the files and give me your quote and program need time [kirjaudu nähdäksesi URL:n] The logic of the old Client end was PHP take the learning content from MySQL and generate the XML files. The Client end have some "Edit functions" at the Client side. Similar like Web App and want to send message or communicate with clients
...Video Advertisements • Image Support For Video Advertisements • In-Video Text Advertisements • Standard Advertisements Play Video Page • HD / SD Video Player Button • 4 New Flash Video Players! • Full HD Support • Original Video Playback • Video Advertisements • Add Video To Favorites • Report Videos To Admin • Social Bookmarks &bul...
We have a Flash animated banner with ActionScript 3 that we want to convert to HTML5, and reproduce the original content, animation and actions precisely. As an output we require both the html version and the editable/open files (fla).
im in need of someone to convert some code into a zipped/ standalone hex file, that can then be easly loaded onto pickit 3 interface. i have all the code from open source, but want to make sure the hex file is properly compiled to then be loaded onto pickit 3 to flash pic's. should hopefully be a quick and simple job. cheers
We have a complex aquarium game done in flash, xml, php, db. Game use flash to make the game and php, xml, db to save and extract data to the game Please bid if you are experienced in flash to html conversion. We would hire you later to convert the html5 game to mobile version.
We meed to convert an old flash animation (it has as3 code i think) to an animated SVG, to use in a modern website. Attached is the file so you see the actual animation.
Please bid if you can do this under $100. This game has php and xml files to save and extract data from db.
Need to convert flash game with user management in php and sql to html5 game in order suit mobile technologies
Convert flash game working with php to mobile friendly game Pls let me know how you will do this when y ou bid and the time frame.
I want to convert my flash games to html5 games, We will provide all the source codes
I need a flash developer to reinstall my flash and php virtual pet game so you need to know php as well. Knowing to convert flash to mobile friendly game is optional but if you know please let me know... Initially I installed this game on a specific website and aked to create the game working only on that website. Your work would be to install the game
I have C++ files and flash to convert
...me. Navigation Bar (Back, Home, Recent Button)(Price:100-150USD) My Name Ringtone With Music(Price:120-170USD) Birthday Video Maker with Music(Price:160-220USD) Color Phone Flash - Call Screen Theme, LED(Price:200-230USD) True Mobile Number Location Tracker , Caller ID(Price:100-150USD) OTG USB File Explorer - OTG Explorer(Price:160-230USD) Gujarati
hi need convert CRM in flash actionscript/php/mysql in HTML beacause it not wotks on mobile device
To add an alternative to adobe presenter that will run on HTML without flash with all the same functionalities of the existing adobe presenter on the website. To convert PowerPoint files of all course topics on the website to html5 on ispring or other software and make it run on the website and do a complete testing .
I need to create a Storyline course from .pdf content. Some courses i have on flash format, but almost all on pdf. I have around 13 courses to convert You have to send me the Storyline project. I will give you the psd to adapt the design. I see on all 15 courses, a total of around 6000 slides. Before hire you, i need you show me if you can do this job
I need to Convert Flash content (interactive courses) to HTML5 with text responsive. I have around 13 courses to convert You have to send me the Storyline project. I will give you the psd to adapt the design. I see on all 15 courses, a total of around 6000 slides. Before hire you, i need you show me if you can do this job, only showing me a little part
Internet Hero is a game that...encompasses many graphics, sound, and levels. Initially, it was created using Adobe Flash. The task is to take over the content, convert the content, and re-implement one level using Unity. It is needed to convert the cutscenes and a game. (Mail-Spam) You can look the Adobe Flash version of the game at: [kirjaudu nähdäksesi URL:...
Look at the assets from intelligentmouse.com. No server connections, stand-alone ios app. Milestone 1- Level 1 done- deliver through Testflight. Source code checkin. 20% Milestone 2 - all levels done. deliver through testflight. Source code checkin. 40% Milestone 3 - posted successfully on app store for download. Source code checkin. 40%. Budget $150-400.
I need someone who will convert an fla file from Flash CS6 down to Flash CS3, or CS4 The said file cannot be opened in CS3 because I made a mistake of not removing unnecessary stuff in the library that causes flash CS3 to crash everytime I open it (this is probably due to low program memory). The file opens in Flash CS6. Specifically, I want the


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Laerdal AED Little Anne with Soft Pack/Training MatPart #: 122-01050 Our Price: $435.00
Laerdal AED Little Anne with Soft Pack/Training Mat
Click to Expand Hover to Zoom
A realistic, lightweight, adult CPR trainer that offers all the essential features.
Call or order online and receive:
OverviewNew AED Little Anne Training Manikin with Soft Pack/Training Mat by Laerdal. A redesigned rib plate allows more vertical movement in the manikin's chest. This provides a more realistic feel when performing chest compressions. The updated chest construction facilitates using CPRmeter for real-time feedback on chest compressions. The new Little Anne also features a new head with molded hair and a new jacket. The AED Little Anne manikin features special chest skin and electronic circuitry to interact specifically with the Philips AED Trainer 2.Includes: Soft Pack/Training Mat, 2 Resusci Manikin Faces, 2 Little Anne Airways, 6 Manikin Wipes, and Directions for Use.The Little Anne manikin is a realistic and lightweight adult CPR/AED trainer with all the essential features for adult CPR/AED learning.The AED Little Anne manikin has been developed to provide effective adult CPR/AED training without compromising realism or quality. Its durable and convenient design makes hands-on practice affordable for every student.Product benefits: Educationally effective by offering all of the essential features necessary for learning quality adult CPR/AED
Affordability through increased hands-on practice
Realistic anatomical landmarks provide the essential features necessary to teach adult CPR/AED techniques
Logistically convenient lightweight design makes Little Anne easy to transport
Durable construction allows unequalled long-term use. Internal compression testing has shown no product degradation after more than 1 million chest compressions at a depth of 2 inches.
Product features: Oral and nasal passages allow realistic nose pinch required for mouth-to-nose ventilation
Natural obstruction of the airway allows students to learn the important technique of opening the airway
Head tilt/chin lift and jaw thrust allow students to correctly practice all maneuvers necessary when resuscitating a real victim
Realistic airway function means that the airway remains obstructed without proper head tilt/chin lift or jaw thrust. Chest rise is seen with correct ventilations
Anatomically correct landmarks and sternal notch allow the student to practice identification of all anatomical landmarks relevant to adult CPR
Audible feedback reinforces correct compression depth. An optional 'clicker" feature signals the correct compression depth
Realistic chest compression resistance allows the students to experience the amount of pressure needed to perform proper chest compressions in a real-life situation
Economical disposable airways for quick and easy clean-up
Removable and reusable faces for convenient and affordable maintenance*The AED Trainer 2 must be used with the AED Little Anne and Resusci Anne training manikins with Laerdal Link Technology. This technology allows realistic response to electrode placement on the manikin surface; they also have an LED in the chest skin indicating the center of correct pad placement. The LED lights up automatically when pads are attached. If an electrode is loose or incorrectly placed on the manikin, the trainer will repeat the voice prompt to apply the electrode pads. NOTE: If using the AED Little Anne or Resusci Anne manikin with Laerdal Link Technology, electrode training pads with a white connector are required.
Alternate Part Number(s): 020050, AA-1947, 02005001
Customer Reviews
Customer Reviews
Reference Library
Reference Library
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Animas Whitewater Park maintenance
Durango Whitewater's Animas Whitewater Park maintenance project is underway!
Thanks to a benefit party held in October, Durango Whitewater raised enough money, along with a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers, to spend this week rebuilding features that had been blown out by high water. The project is being overseen by Durango Whitewater's John Brennan along with the city's Animas River Task Force.
The project is a temporary solution ahead of the permanent feature rebuild, which the city has once again pushed back, this time until fall/winter 2013. More info can be found in the Durango Herald article on the project.
Thank you to everyone that attended the benefit that made this possible!
The "new" Smelter


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Today was long. I'm not enjoying a 5 AM start time for work. We agreed today that our newest team member will adjust to different hours starting next week. The purpose of her hire was to be our phone representation. Most of our clients are on the west coast. None of them have ever needed to phone us at or anywhere near 3 AM. We negotiated more suitable hours, and next week I'll probably be less of an airhead. Probably.
Even in the Army, we didn't run until 6 AM. That mean waking up at 5:45 AM to use my toothbrush, (with toothpaste applied the night before). I slept in my PT uniform, and could put on my kicks and dash out to formation, where I would strategically tie them while doing warm up exercises. Sleep was precious then, and I could sleep pretty much anywhere, anytime. One time in basic training, I thought I was being so clever by sneaking in some ZZzz's while pretending to tighten up my bunk from beneath it. I heard abruptly cut off laughter, and opened my eyes to see my Drill SGT's face inches from my own. I'm fairly certain I lost about 3 years from my life expectancy from that moment of sheer terror.
Hopefully, the rest of the week will fly by. I don't have enough to do this week, and it's messing with me. I'm conscious of working too quickly for my teammates, so I'm deliberately holding back from jumping to another project. I walked the circle a lot. Being in motion seemed to help. I did several Twitter fly-by's, and tried to play a few hashtags. I'm a very casual hashtagger, but it's mostly because I usually need several examples before I understand how to play whatever tag is going around. Ironically, the few times I've done a funny one, it was where I misunderstood the tag. I think. I'm too literal. And knowing I'm too literal doesn't seem to make any difference, which kinda pisses me off.
Fortunately, the people who play regularly are generally pretty kind, and will favorite some of my attempts. I'm pretty sure some of them are pity favorites, but I've decided that's just fine. I take it as, "You keep hanging in there! You're bound to tweet something funny someday! Here, have a favorite!" Or something similar. I'm just glad I saw a tweet early on that was making fun of people who gushingly thank anyone who retweets or favorites their tweets, (because that's totally something I could see myself doing). When I understand the tag, and can also think of a tweet, it's a good feeling. It's like solving a mini puzzle that leads to a new puzzle. I love puzzles as much as candy. Maybe more.
I'm rambling because I'm embarrassed. I want to rage against unexpected things, but that would be a waste of energy. When I'm in my apartment, I keep my entry door locked, and then don't worry about being fully dressed, as it's just me and my cat. When I get home, I tend to take off my shoes, socks, and jeans. I'm on the top floor, so even if I walked past an open window, nobody would be able to see anything private. I've mentioned before that I'm a bit of an airhead. Well, tonight I proved it. I walked down the hallway past several closed apartment doors, to the trash chute. It's in a little room near the middle stairwell. When you open the door, the light comes on automatically, (motion detector).
Up until that point, it didn't occur to me that I was in only my t-shirt and undies. Technically, nothing private was exposed, I suppose. But this was an accident. I saw my reflection in the door to the chute. I could feel myself start to shut down, but I didn't. I bolted from the room and walked quickly back to my apartment. Nobody opened their door. I hope nobody looked out their peephole. When I was 3 doors away, I heard a nearby door unlock, and I ran the last few steps. We have electronic locks, so there was no key fumbling. I was in, and then I did that thing I'm always whining about. I slammed the door. Sigh.


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If you are looking for an answer to the question What is Artificial Intelligence? and you only have a minute, then here's the definition the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence offers on its home page: "the scientific understanding of the mechanisms underlying thought and intelligent behavior and their embodiment in machines."
However, if you are fortunate enough to have more than a minute, then please get ready to embark upon an exciting journey exploring AI (but beware, it could last a lifetime) …
Held, M. | Karp, R. M.
This paper explores new approaches to the symmetric traveling-salesman problem in which 1-trees, which are a slight variant of spanning trees, play an essential role. A 1-tree is a tree together with an additional vertex connected to the tree by two edges. We observe that (i) a tour is precisely a 1-tree in which each vertex has degree 2, (ii) a minimum 1-tree is easy to compute, and (iii) the transformation on "intercity distances" cij → Cij + πi + πj leaves the traveling-salesman problem invariant but changes the minimum 1-tree. Operations Research, 18, 1138–1162.


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Discovered near one of Florida's shorelines, this sea-faerie mummy is as real as these things get in the real world and it could have been yours.
This extremely rare creature has just been auctioned off on eBay and sold for $305. Had more people known about it, for sure the price would have went even higher. How many times do you get the opportunity to buy a sea faerie. Although it didn't actually live in the sea, its parts did.
eBay member aquatica_art created the faerie by draping once organic fish skin around a short human skeleton. The wings are made from fish fins, and the lips, teeth and jaw-bone also come from fish. The long antennae were borrowed from the tail of a stingray. So you see, this IS a real sea-faerie!
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Welcome to the Middle Of Nowhere... Follow the trail of loose beads to the Life,Times,and Thoughts of this Lakota woman.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
History is not to be forgotten
My brother made it to Mardi Gras before I did. He went with a bunch of friends on a cross country trip and Mardi Gras was one of the stops.
He also went to Mardi Gras last year. He was in for a big shock when he saw the destruction that Hurricane Katrina left behind. He told me what freaked him out was how it looked as if the hurricane had gone through there the day before and what freaked him out even more was the fact that the government just kind of completely forgot about New Orleans.
That kind of sounded familiar to me.
The other day I watched a documentary on the musicians of New Orleans. they talked of how they felt their music represented America because they were always there.
I started seeing parallels and similarities from this documentary to another place in history and time.
Just certain things people said in the documentary and the narrator said that made me think of another people.
Such as:
"History started here too and to write it off means you are not saying anything for your own country."
"It's unbelievable that this was a city for 200 years and the music is all that is left. Where are all the people that gave this city a name, gave it it's culture. There is nobody left."
"I am from here, this is my home, I love the music. When I lost my home to the Hurricane I thought I would rebuild and come back. But what can I do except vote and give the government the right to say what I probably don't want to say. I ain't nothin but a vote in this country during election time. The rest of the time I am forgotten."
"This is my life and home, this (jazz music) is my culture, where do we start to get it back."
One of the last quotes from the documentary I will put down is this one.
"Mardi Gras came back in 2006 to a torn city with an air of joyful defiance, but where does it go from there?"
It was this documentary that made me realize that history is important to all of us. While some people would rather forget about it and push it under a rug, it is important to the people it happened to and it will remain important for generations to come. Just because it is easy for the government to forget it, the people never will.
Hopefully, one of these days I will make it down there, but Yankee Stadium is first.
2 comments:
- New Orleans News Ladder said...
Howdy! I really enjoyed your post and placed it onto today's NO News Ladder. You write very well.
However, you failed to mention the name of that 'music documentary' with the requisite Link. Please do this in the future (or add it now) as we blog reader types always love to follow the links, and such a practice stitches your posts deeper into the Net. (If you use Blogger, then switch to 'rich text edit in your posting area)
I would also recommend corresponding with your sources, as we are doing now, in their own comments sections. That has become half the fun of all this for me.
Please feel free to email me from the profile. You really have a great blog, beautiful and informative heart song.
Thank you for keeping the lights on in New Orleans, Noble Mon.
editor~NO News Ladder
- January 23, 2008 at 5:00 AM
- Dana Dane said...
Thank you so much, I am honored. Hopefully one day I will make it down there. I wished I had known the name of the documentary. I was not in the room when it started, but I did finish watching it and looked for a name. I know it was on the musicians and I think it may have been on either a Showtime channel or Sundance. I shall visit your blog.
- January 23, 2008 at 9:03 AM


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Monterey Hotel Evacuated Because Of Toxic Gas
Monterey Hotel Evacuated Because Of Toxic Gas
MONTEREY, Calif. —
The Portola Plaza Hotel and Spa in Monterey was evacuated Monday morning after a chlorine-type gas flowed through the hotel's ventilation system.
The air hazard was created by housekeeping staff members, who mixed chemicals and accidentally created a toxic gas, Monterey Fire Division Chief Paul Goodwin said. The staff members were likely mixing cleaning chemicals.
Five people were transported to a local hospital to be evaluated for possible pulmonary edema.
The ventilation system was shut down to prevent the chemicals from spreading further. The hotel will remain evacuated for at least two hours, Goodwin said.
Firefighters and a Hazmat team have blocked off the hotel and are evaluating air quality.


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Movie Nights
Once a month we visit Murray& Viv or Nancy to watch a movie and share our thoughts over supper.
A great opportunity to see a good film and get to know each other in a relaxed setting.
Walking Group
A Sunday afternoon stroll once a month to destinations unknown and varied, finishing at a Coffee shop.
Hymn Singing at Mayflower
Once a month a group lead hymn singing at Mayflower retirement/nursing homes.


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Word Count: 2181
Takes: 7 minutes and 45 seconds to read.
Validated by: Orphan
The new owner of PhpBB Communities Grumpy has agreed to do a interview. His real name is Tommy he is 21 years old and lives in the UK. He was lead packager before becoming the new owner.
It isn't the first time this site gets interviewed. The previous interview can be found here.
1/• Were you willing being the new owner when you signed up for this project? (As in would you have said yes to being the new owner when you signed up on this project, was that part of what you were willing to do when that would happen.)
Grumpy: Hey, first of all would like to say thanks for interviewing me and hope all of your members enjoy reading through my answers to your questions. Firstly, when I signed up to become staff on phpBB Communities, I could've never dreamed to own the site and for it to be this successful. I never discussed with Richard about what would happen if he had to close the site for some reason etc, so I'm glad I made the offer to buy the site really.
2/• How did you get involved with the site "The Hazey", and what made you interested in joining the team on it as packager? What has the package job been like in general? (Both from the past on The Hazey as before you got owner on this site.)
Grumpy: I was one of the first members on The Hazey, and at first, I was just a regular member and got into posting a lot on the site and within about 2 months I had about 1,500 posts. When one of Rich's packagers let him down, he knew I enjoyed posting and asked me if I would accept the role, I gladly accepted and was excited to be a part of such a great site. I loved the job at The Hazey and wouldn't have traded it for any other site at the time.
3/• When Rich told you about his new project, this site… What were your first thoughts about it? Did the idea ever came to mind it might end as The Hazey? Did you ever think it would be more successful then its predecessor?
Grumpy: If I'm being honest, I was a little sceptical at first. Because of the sudden way The Hazey ended, I guess I was a bit worried that the same thing might happen to that site. But after receiving some reassurances from Richazey, I agreed to become a part of the site and was hoping for it to succeed more than The Hazey, as of now it has done just that.
4/• From what site (The Hazey or this one) did you learn the most regarding: the package job, phpbb forum software, gain new exp. in things you didn't know or got better in, etc…
Grumpy: 90% of what I know now about phpBB I learnt through The Hazey and phpBB Communities. Honestly, if I hadn't joined The Hazey, I don't think I would be involved with forums at all at the moment. The packager role was something I knew nothing about before The Hazey, I didn't even know that these types of roles exist and people did them.
5/• Were staff informed before the users about Rich his decision to resign as owner and give the site to you? How did it effect you when you first heard from Rich he was thinking or going to sell the site, give it to someone else?
Grumpy: Yes all staff were told about it, one or two didn't have time to read the topic before the changeover so were a little bit confused when things changed over, but most of the staff read about it prior to it happening. When I found out Rich's plans, my first move was to make an offer for the site. I didn't think twice. I would do anything to keep the community running, and I honestly think that if I hadn't bought the site it may have closed down in a few days. Not questioning Richazey's dedication, but he really had had enough with the site and the issues it caused, and I for one know he didn't want to hand the site over to anyone he didn't personally know.
6/• Why do you think he choose you as the guy being the new owner?
Grumpy: As above, he knows me and has known me for about a year now, we have really connected and we talk to each other daily, also I offered him the reassurance that nothing major on the site would change and things would be kept as they are.
7/• How has the job been like so far?
Grumpy: I have enjoy it a lot, but it's early days yet, I've only been in charge for a little over 48 hours (as I write this) and activity has dropped a little bit since then so we are working on that mainly.
8/• What were you most worried about when you became the new owner to do with this site and the members? (Example: how they would react.)
Grumpy: I was most worried about how some members and staff would take it… A lot of the staff and members are dedicated to Richazey and so a couple of staff followed him when he left, unfortunately for us. That was what I was most worried about, but everything went a lot smoother than I could've hoped for so I am happy!
9/• Do you have such a deep passion for phpBB as Rich? What did you learn about phpbb from this site?
Grumpy: Yes I love phpBB and even though I'm not as advanced as Richard is with it, I still love it and love managing it, I learnt a lot about phpBB from phpBB Communities and I can only hope that everything I've learnt will allow me to manage the forum in a better way.
10/• When Rich was owner there would be each month a interview posted with a phpbb staff here, what will happen with that? Will it continue or stop for the moment?
Grumpy: I have plans to do my best to continue that and am currently trying to secure a phpBB staff member to offer to do an interview with us, so keep your eyes peeled everyone!
11/• The foundation has been laid by Rich, he now has given the whole site with everything on it to you. What do you plan to add or change in the coming weeks to months?
Grumpy: I don't plan to change anything big at all. I have already made a few minor changes, such as adding a couple of new medals to the Medals MOD, and editing some shop items to lower the prices. Other than that, I have not changed a lot and don't plan to anytime soon, either.
12/• You promised Rich no major changes would happen. Do you keep your word because you believe its very important not to make any major changes on a site like this? And also because you promised him? Why do you think its important no major changes are made? (Don't fix what ain't broke?)
Grumpy: No major changes will happen to the site for a long time. I will keep my word because I feel it's in the best interests of the site for things to stay as normal as possible. While it's inevitable that there will be some small things changed, nothing big will be changed for a long time and that is final, nothing will change my mind. However, we do have one or two things already planned in the future to add to the site which will still go ahead.
13/• Favorite forum section, service, feature (mod or core file feature), staff rank, style, bbcode here?
Grumpy: Quite hard for me to decide. My favourite section is the phpBB Articles & Tutorials section as I can find out a lot of information that that I didn't know in the past, also I think that a lot of phpBB users can learn a lot just by searching through that section, so it's definitely worth it. Favourite service is probably the Posting Service since I've worked on it for so long. Feature is probably the KB MOD, I love it… It provides an excellent database for all of our articles. Staff rank, the bolded Admin one since it's mine. Style, our old one called proskyblue is fantastic and I love it, the grey one is good also but personally, the blue one is for me. BBCode would have to be our notice one we use for services, it's fantastic.
14/• What makes this site stand out alot from other phpbb support sites?
Grumpy: Well, we have a lot of things. What other phpBB sites incorporate over 65 modifications into their software, have their own custom MODs too, offer phpBB services as well as other services admin/promotion forums offer? While we are not a promotion forum, we certainly like to help users with that aspect of things.
15/• How do you plan on contributing to the knowledge that is here of phpbb like Rich did?
Grumpy: Well we have a Writers Team that do that for us. I am currently working on developing a custom modification for the site that will be released to the public for use by us in a few months, also our Technician team have a modification in development too. Also we will have daily articles as usual with new BBCodes, styles, articles and general forum administration tips so keep looking out!
16/• If you ever had or would sell this site… Do you think there is a chance that can ever happen? When that time comes do you know already what you will expect of him or her? (make sure you trust the person, he or she will manage the site like you did,etc…)
Grumpy: I would never sell this site. That is for sure. This site means too much to me. I would never give it away either. If for personal reasons I felt the site would suffer, I would hand over temporary adminship to one of the closest people I trust, and that would either be Richazey or Robi. Hopefully the need for that will never arise though.
17/• If you had to categorize the memberbase, are most members here coming for what this site offers for phpbb users or are most members coming for the look and other things it offers? Like a great community full of nice people…
Grumpy: I would say 90% of our current came for what the site offers, look at the services we offer and also look at all of the great discussions we have going, why wouldn't you want to join up to the site? The other 10% probably signed up because of the way the site looks, and I can't exactly blame them for that, Richard and Green CoW (Peter) done a great job on both of our styles.
18/• Is PhpBB Communities its future clear and bright? Do you believe to have saved this site the same faith as The Hazey if you would not have accepted to buy it from Rich?
Grumpy: The future is definitely bright and clear. So long as the users are here, I am too. I love the site and would not give it up for the world, all current staff as well as Richazey and Robi know my views and know how strongly I feel for the site, and they support me all the way to try and make it succeed in the way which Richard made it succeed. Rich maybe would have closed the site if I had not bought it, I can't comment for him but I know he wouldn't of sold it to somebody he don't know, he would've preferred to close it than do that.
19/• Are you the owner or is the other admin and you both the owner of this site?
Grumpy: We both are co-owners of the site, although I will be taking the more "boss" type of role if you would like to put it that way, while Lacey will be handling the financial side of things and won't really be on the site too often… We could call her a pretty face in the corner. Lol, she is a lovely girl and everyone will love her once you get to know her. (And she's really pretty! )
Thanks a lot for deciding to interview me IY, it's really appreciated and glad you wanted me to help out and be interviewed by you. Thanks.
I felt it would be really great to do so, and I turned out to be right. I hope everyone of PhpBB Communities or most of you have a good read on this and some questions got answered or you got to know a bit more about Grumpy his role there. -Max Pen


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"Before we can assess accurately where we are today and where we may be heading, we must know where we have been. A search of the past is not simply the satisfaction of idle curiosity. It helps us understand not only how we have reached our present state, but also what we may have lost along the way." (Taken from "Women in the Eastern Church: Past, Present and Future" by Valerie Karras. The complete article was published in the Winter 1997 issue of the Quarterly.)
As our mission statement states, one of the goals of the St. Nina Quarterly is to educate. It is with this in mind that we begin looking at women in the early Church. Their devotion to the faith forms a basis for our experience today. We are their legacy.
The Editorial Board has selected the following themes for 1998:
- Winter 1998: Creation and Science
- Spring 1998: The Experience of Women in the Church as a Reflection of Society
- Summer 1998: Language and Imagery in the Church
- Fall 1998: Older Women of Our Parishes.
The Fall 1998 issue will be a special tribute dedicated to those who have gone before us. It will include interviews, stories, pictures, etc. of their lives and of the early years of the Church in this country. We have already received some names of women to interview. If you know of others, please contact the Quarterly. We are hoping to publish an anthology if there is enough interest.


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Following is the keynote address entitled "Opportunities Presented to Hong Kong by the Express Rail Link" by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Ms Eva Cheng, at High-Speed Rail Symposium held today (October 9):
CK (Chow), Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is my pleasure to join you for this symposium. The great advantage of speaking last is that I have had the opportunity to listen to the expert views already presented today.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your input and for your commitment to the development of Hong Kong's express rail network.
Hearing more about your analysis of high-speed railways for Hong Kong has been both enlightening and sobering. Enlightening because of the dynamic development of high-speed rail networks around the world. And sobering because if Hong Kong does not act fast we risk becoming marginalised and left out of the economic and social benefits driven by high-speed railways.
It seems everyone is talking about high-speed rail travel nowadays.
"Everyone" includes US President Barack Obama described it as, quote: "a smart transportation system equal to the needs of the 21st century".
It also includes British Prime Minister Gordon Brown who said, quote: "We must show how we are going to be part of the high-speed rail revolution sweeping across the world."
And, just before the Beijing Olympics last year, President Hu Jintao said, quote: "The high-speed trains have become a milestone in the history of China's railway development."
Hong Kong is often held up as an example of what can be achieved by efficient railways. Over the years, we have lent our engineering experience and know-how to the development of rail systems around the world, including the newly opened Dubai Metro and Beijing Line 4.
Today, our rail network is the beating heart of the city's public and cross-boundary transport systems. But we must now continue to move with the times.
Why is high-speed rail becoming so important? For one thing, fast and efficient railway systems are good for the environment. Train journey reduces carbon emission by roughly two thirds as compared with a flight trip on a passenger-kilometre basis. Trains also emit only half the carbon as cars do. As other cities race to build their high-speed railways and metro systems, Hong Kong already moves more than one third of our daily trips on our railways . This takes a great strain off our roads and helps keep our carbon emissions under control.
I should also add that our design is to build the full length of the proposed express rail line in tunnels to minimise the impact on the environment.
Strategic Value of the XRL
The strategic value of our proposed high-speed railway project, the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link, or XRL for short, cannot be understated.
Hong Kong has long thrived as a gateway to Mainland China and our cross-boundary rail service began almost a century ago, way back in 1911. Of course, there have been many changes since then and we expect the XRL to completely change the landscape of railway connections and regional travel in the future.
First, it will provide an express shuttle service between our neighbouring cities, relieving congestion at the current boundary crossings and offering a premium service for passengers.
Secondly, it will connect with the regional rapid transit systems of Guangdong Province, providing the necessary connectivity to achieve the concept of the "one hour economic and living sphere" between Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta region.
And third, it will allow Hong Kong to tap into the 16,000-kilometre national high-speed railway network. We are planning to provide a through-train service to 16 major Mainland cities from the heart of our city centre.
The integration with the Mainland's high-speed railway network merits special focus.
The beauty of locating the high-speed railway terminus in West Kowloon, right in the middle of town, enables the XRL to offer a real and competitive alternative to air travel. Including a normal 2 hour pre-take-off and post-landing time necessary for air travel, the high speed railway's total travelling time is actually shorter to cities south of Wuhan in Central China, i.e., within a radius of 1,000 km from Hong Kong. This means that going to Wuhan, Nanchang, Fuzhou, Changsha, Nanning, Xiamen and so on from West Kowloon will be more efficient by rail than by air. So the XRL station at West Kowloon is more than a railway station. Look at it functioning as an in-town airport for these cities but minus all the hassle when taking a plane.
The population of the major Mainland cities in a catchment area within a 5 hour XRL-travelling radius from Hong Kong amounts to more than 80 million, without counting the population of the nearby towns and rural areas. This is about the size of Germany's population and 30% more than that of UK. Linking these city centres to ours by the most environmentally-friendly mode of transport presents enormous opportunities for our future economic development.
From our established economic strengths of financial and professional services to the promotion of six high potential industries (educational services, medical services, testing and certification, innovation and technology, cultural and creative and environmental industries), the high-speed trains will bring these source markets so much closer to Hong Kong.
West Kowloon Terminus
Indeed, the question is not whether we should build the high-speed railway, but rather, how soon can it be completed to realise the full benefits.
Our proposal is for the XRL to terminate at West Kowloon, a booming business and residential district already well served by local railway and road networks. To maximise the strategic advantages of the Terminus, we shall put in place comprehensive pedestrian facilities linking the Terminus with its surrounding areas.
If I may invite you to imagine how the future West Kowloon will look like, you will see the Terminus stand right next door to another major development, the West Kowloon Cultural District, where a wide range of first-class arts and cultural facilities are being planned. You will see a large pedestrian and landscaped area between the Terminus, the Cultural District, the MTR Kowloon Station and the Austin Station. You will see travellers transiting these facilities in a comfortable walking environment. The XRL therefore terminates at this part of our city centre which is also set to become a strategic business and transportation hub for Hong Kong.
Economic benefits to Hong Kong
The XRL, fostering closer economic ties between Hong Kong and the Mainland, will inject momentum and create new opportunities for the future development of Hong Kong in the medium and long term. Passengers may save over $80 billion from reducing journey time alone over 50 years. This figure of course has not included the additional expenditure by business and leisure visitors and the spin-off in investment that enhanced connectivity will generate. The XRL will also provide employment for some 10,000 Hong Kong residents when it is commissioned, in addition to thousands of construction jobs that will be made available shortly after the project gets funding approval.
Co-operation with the Mainland
We must not underestimate the complexity of the XRL project. We must also work together with the Mainland authorities for its smooth implementation. A joint working group with the Ministry of Railways has been formed to deal with engineering and other implementation issues. My colleagues have had very useful discussions with our counterparts in the Ministry as well as with the Guangdong operator, both of which are represented at this forum.
Next Steps
We are now at the final stage of preparation. We are keeping to our target of start of construction before the end of the year. We are proceeding in earnest with the next steps. Our experts in the Highways Department, aided by independent experts, are doing final checking of the budget for the construction to ensure its cost effectiveness. We understand fully that our funding application will need to contain detailed support information. We are also handling the land clearance issue with sensitivity, to ensure that affected households are provided with appropriate and reasonable rehousing options.
Ladies and gentlemen, I believe it is the time to act. It is the time to turn the conclusion of years of debate into reality. It is the time to create decades of new opportunities for Hong Kong and our next generations.
Indeed, planning major infrastructure well ahead into the future has been part of our own success stories for decades. In 1970s, we decided to build the mass transit railway system when the community was pretty much satisfied with the services of the franchise buses and did not see the need for a new mode of transport. In the 1990s, we kicked off the Airport Core Programme when taking a flight was considered by many as a privilege of the business travellers and wealthy vacation goers. Time is the best jury for these decisions.
Promoting Hong Kong's sustainable economic development through infrastructure projects is a major goal of the SAR Government. We have been pushing ahead with the 10 major infrastructure projects, including the XRL. These will consolidate our status as a global city, maintain our competitiveness and ensure Hong Kong remains a bright spot on the map for this part of the world.
I look to all of you for your continued support of this project.
Thank you very much.
Ends/Friday, October 9, 2009
Issued at HKT 20:55


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The Student Health Service is a confidential service available to all students at the University. We work with students to enable them to access appropriate services and all students should register with a general practitioner (GP) in relation to the postcode area of their term-time address.
Our Services
The Student Health Service Nurse can assist in promoting positive health and wellbeing by providing advice and information on looking after your health. We provide support with health related issues, assistance to access other professionals and advice on a range of health issues, minor illness and common ailments.
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