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Welcome to the AMC - Delaware Valley Chapter Meetup site. The AMC is the Northeast's oldest outdoors club and one of its most respected. The AMC is built on the pillars of conservation, outdoors education and in getting people outdoors. Our "About" page provides more information about the AMC and our Chapter. We ask that when you join you submit a photo and tell us a little about yourself. It's not mandatory that you provide this information but it's useful to many members who want to meet people with similar interests.
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In his inaugural homily in St. Peter's Square, Pope Benedict concluded, "At this point, my mind goes back to Oct. 22, 1978, when Pope John Paul II began his ministry here in St. Peter's Square. His words on that occasion constantly echo in my ears: 'Do not be afraid! Open wide the doors to Christ!'"
Indeed, the whole Church will look back to Oct. 22, 1978 — that's the new feast day for Blessed John Paul. For the feast day's Office of Readings in the breviary, an excerpt from the day's "Be not afraid" homily has been chosen.
The "Be not afraid" inaugural homily remains one of the electrifying moments of the entire pontificate, and John Paul repeated the exhortation to Christian courage and witness over and over for nearly 27 years. Yet to go back to Oct. 22 means more than words; there are striking images from that day too.
During the inaugural Mass, the entire College of Cardinals processed to the new pope to show their fidelity and loyalty. One by one they knelt in front of his chair and kissed his ring.
Yet when Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, the primate of Poland for 30 years at that point, approached the new Polish pope, John Paul tried to prevent him from kneeling. He rose from his chair, and as the old cardinal kissed the fisherman's ring, the young pope embraced him with profound emotion, kissing his forehead, kissing the primate's ring.
Wyszynski, who was imprisoned for three years by the communists, kept the Polish Church vibrant and strong during the long night of its persecution. Without the wisdom of Wyszynski, the Polish Church may not have produced Wojtyla – John Paul II. Save for John Paul, Wyszynski may have been the greatest churchman of the 20th century.
The Oct. 22 moment — so memorable that there is a statue of it at the Catholic University of Lublin — was a moment filled with history. The old warrior was handing over his command to the new.
Later in the same procession another cardinal came, this one even younger than John Paul — Joseph Ratzinger, archbishop of Munich. That encounter — two extraordinary men face to face, eye to eye — was not about the past, but opened a window to the future.
John Paul is expressive, expansive, firmly seizing Ratzinger, even shaking him with vigorous affection; the reserved Ratzinger is slightly taken aback, rather shy before the new pope. The two personalities are clearly manifest. Now, 33 years later, the latter is beatifying the former and declaring that unforgettable October day to be his feast.
I have the picture of John Paul and Ratzinger from Oct. 22 hanging in my rectory, and it often brings tears to the eyes. This week of John Paul's beatification has brought so many images flooding back to the mind and the heart, and so many of those bring tears too.
Could Cardinal Ratzinger have imagined then what this new pope would do to him, would do with him? That he would call him to Rome to serve as the chief lieutenant of his papacy, that he would insist that he would remain to the end, despite being past the age of retirement, that it would fall to him to occupy the same chair of Peter, that as Benedict XVI he would complete what in many ways is a two-part millennial pontificate?
Did John Paul know how important Cardinal Ratzinger would be? Could he have imagined that 33 years later — a Christological number — that man would, as pope, lead the Church in celebrating for the first time his feast day?
To look at the image — John Paul and Ratzinger — is to marvel at the shepherds the Lord has chosen for his Church. Had Karol Wojtyla and Joseph Ratzinger never been elected universal pastor of the Church, each would have been celebrated as a one of the most outstanding Christian scholars and teachers of his generation. To have both of them as bishop of Rome is to see the bright lines of Providence written across the threshold of the third millennium. The promise Christ made to Peter is being fulfilled in abundance.
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Despite headlines regularly highlighting conflict and crushing poverty in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson, says there is reason to believe conditions in that strategic country can improve.
"In the past five decades, DRC has been a poster child for all that afflicts Africa - military coups, rampant corruption, runaway inflation, health pandemics, conflict minerals and poor governance," Carson said during a speech at the Brookings Institution.
"The international community has a moral imperative to act more effectively in the DRC, to break this cycle of death and suffering and to address the other consequences of this violence: the unmitigated rape and sexual violence against women and children, the nearly two million internally displaced people, the approximately 450,000 Congolese refugees who have been forced to flee to neighboring countries," he said. More than five million people have died as a result of continuing violence over the past 15 years.
Carson delivered prepared remarks and answered questions from the moderator, Brookings Senior Fellow Michael O'Hanlon and from the audience of several hundred. He said DRC has a strong constituency among Americans, Africans and the broader international community that want the DRC to reach its true potential and surmount the plague of unrealized economic potential.
"After a string of recurring crises, many write off DRC as hopeless, but that is a serious mistake for Congo, its neighbors in the region and the global community," he said.
"This administration has support in Congress to elevate the issues in DRC to a new level of importance", Caron said. The country should be a political and economic powerhouse, given its precious materials, fertile soil and unparalleled hydroelectric potential, he said. As home to the world's second largest rainforest, the country has special importance in the efforts to combat climate change, he added.
"If DRC is stable and has an economy that benefits its people, DRC could become a leading exporter of natural resources, agriculture and science products that would attract foreign investment," Carson said.
Noluthando Crockett-Ntonga, reporting as Phyllis Crockett, covered the White House for National Public Radio and was based in sub-Saharan Africa for more than 10 years working on development issues. She was part of an AllAfrica team in Liberia to report on agricultural development and poverty reduction and currently is a development consultant.


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Despite reports from the 12 Federal Reserve districts indicating that economic conditions are improving modestly since the last report more than a month ago, market conditions for commercial real estate and construction were reported to have weakened in virtually all districts, with rising vacancy rates and downward pressure on rents.
In its Beige Book, the Federal Reserve reveals expectations for commercial markets are low. Boston and Kansas City, Mo., described their commercial markets as "distressed." However, other districts reported signs of movement, such as increased leasing from the health care and education markets. Atlanta indicated a slight pickup in new development projects, Minneapolis described some recent activity in hotel and retail development, and San Francisco noted minor improvement in availability of financing for new developments.


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From Openmoko
A top-view space shooter, available from 2008.8 repositories.
Source Code released:http://www.olofson.net/kobodl/download.html
From the README: The menu can be controlled by clicking the frame borders. Touching the inner part of the screen is like a button press. In the game mode a click in the upper right corner activates pause mode and the lower right corner escapes to the menu.
The four corners of the screen and then the centre of the screen are 5 different "buttons". Trial and error means someone will eventually work out which is which and document it here.


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Monday, October 18, 2010
The Haunting Sound of Chakpu Creating a Mandala
Walking around an eco festival in Manhattan, I happened to wander into a tent where a Tibetan sand mandala was being created. This process was being directed by an ordained Tibetan Buddhist monk named Lama Tenzin Yignyen. The scraping-like sound make by the long metal funnels used to place the sand precisely, called chakpu, was like nothing I had ever heard before, and only partially comes across in the video.
Almost as soon as they finished this, they dumped the sand into the water, probably the Hudson River, which was only a few feet away from this table. Words that come to mind: transitory, compassion, disseminate, kindness, temporary, fleeting, ceremony, illusion, destruction, dismantling, this fleeting material world. Get up. Go ride.
Posted by John Romeo Alpha at 5:00 AM
Labels: art, art that floats, flow circles, mandalas
3 comments:
don't the Navajo do something very similiar?ReplyDelete
NYC, nice. I ran across the Brooklyn bridge a couple of times. Would be nice if you could ride across with your camera on. Nice boardwalk on top of the thing.
FraSiec - well yes they do. So do the indigenous Australians. As for Brooklyn Bridge, one more thing left undone, for the next trip out there!ReplyDelete
The mandala I mean.
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Select your initial and start layering. A hand-brushed finish and single gemstone give a unique touch to this disc design. The perfect everyday necklace. Pendant chain is adjustable to 18", 16.5" and 14".
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The Last Battle
Lewis, C. S.
AbeBooks Seller Since June 28, 2003Quantity Available: 1
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Bibliographic Details
Title: The Last Battle
Publisher: Macmillan Publishing Company, New York
Publication Date: 1962
Binding: Hard Cover
Illustrator: Pauline Baynes
Book Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: Good +
Edition: 2nd Printing.
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Politics & Government
Rescue package aside, economy faces deep challenges
WASHINGTON — The congressional compromise drafted over the weekend to rescue Wall Street, assuming it wins approval, is expected to fend off a potential meltdown of financial markets for now. But it won't cure much of what ails the struggling U.S. economy.
Many economists believe the U.S. economy is in recession, or so close to it that it's almost an academic question. The weekend compromise in Congress doesn't fix that, but it prevents things from getting worse by calming the jittery credit markets, which are vital to the ability of corporate America to fund itself through issuance of short-term debt.
Finance is something that happens in the background, like the fan belt on an automobile's engine, a whirring that goes unnoticed over the sound of the road. Everything runs with the help of these credit markets, and when they stop working, as they did on Sept. 17, it gets attention quickly.
"People watch the stock market, but that is not the key here. The credit markets are the key," said David Wyss, chief economist for the rating agency Standard & Poors in New York.
In recent weeks, hotel and other big construction projects have ground to a halt as financing suddenly went dry, and automobile finance companies have suddenly found it hard to lend. Credit markets reflect an important intersection between Wall Street and Main Street.
If credit markets respond positively this week, the spread, or gap, between the interest on Treasury debt -- the safest place to lend money -- and other lending rates will narrow. This widening gap has hurt corporate America's ability to conduct needed short-term borrowing except at extremely high rates.
If this spread narrows, the problems of the past 10 days may be just a blip on the charts that make up a historical record of the American economy. If these markets remain in turmoil, there could be even more bank failures, and a fast accelerating economic slowdown.
"If history tells us one thing, it's that you cannot let these (modern-day) bank runs go on. You've got to stop it," said Wyss.
A principal risk now for the American economy is that the spate of bad news will feed on itself, creating a downward spiral.
For example, the wave of bank failures and mergers is sure to lead to large layoffs in the financial sector, and already computer makers like Dell and Hewlett Packard have announced job cuts in the expectation of a worsening sales environment.
As the number of jobless grows, the number of delinquent home loans grows larger. And defaults on car loans rise. More consumers will fall behind on credit card payments, restaurants will shutter their doors because of fewer diners, and fewer restaurants will cut demand for farm and processed food products. It's all inter-linked and becomes a spiral.
For the moment, the unemployment rate stands at 6.1 percent, a number that's expected to grow when the Labor Department provides the September jobless numbers on Friday. Today's unemployment rate is low by historical standards, but it is up by more than 2 percentage points since its low point in summer of 2006.
"All 10 previous occasions in the post-war era when the unemployment rate has risen so much have been associated with recessions," said Michael Mussa, a former director of research for International Monetary Fund, in a paper presented Friday on global economic prospects.
Given the sharp gap between the current and potential growth of the U.S. economy, Mussa said that for "practical purposes, this magnitude of an economic slowdown should probably be regarded as a recession - even if the exact timing of its starting and ending points are hard to specify."
Housing is front and center in the nation's economic problems and will be a determining factor for the speed and depth of recovery.
The rescue legislation will make available up to $700 billion in taxpayer money to remove bad mortgages and other distressed assets off the books of banks and financial firms. The reason for doing so is that accounting rules that took effect in 2007, put in place partly because of the spectacular 2001 collapse of energy giant Enron Corp. - force banks to provide a present-day value of these mortgage bonds every quarter.
Since housing continues to lose value month by month, banks have been going through wrenching write-downs of assets each quarter, forcing them to seek more capital. This is called mark-to-market accounting.
Instead of lending, banks are forced to raise capital in order to cover the widening losses on mortgage bonds that they are declaring quarterly.
Some economists like Mark Zandi, author of the new book Financial Shock, have called for a temporary suspension of these accounting rules since mortgage bonds have a hold-to-maturity value. That means these bonds will be worth more when the housing market rebounds than they do now, and this is why the treasury could make money over time on the rescue package.
"Current mark-to-market rules have exacerbated the crisis as financial institutions have been forced into a self-reinforcing negative cycle of asset price declines forcing write-downs and thus asset sales and further price declines," said Zandi, chief economist of forecaster Moody's Economy.com. "Mark-to-market accounting could be adjusted so that the marks are smoothed over time so that sharp price declines don't force big write-downs immediately."
The proposed rescue plan orders the Government Accountability Office to conduct a study of the current mark-to-market rules and make a recommendation. The plan also restates that the executive branch has the authority to suspend these rules.
Supporters of mark-to-market accounting suggest it is brutally transparent and will prevent the kind of hide-and-seek employed by Enron that brought about its collapse. Had mark-to-market rules been in place during the savings-and-loan crisis in the 1980's, there surely would have been more bank failures, said Mussa, the former IMF researcher now with the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
Once the government takes over the troubled mortgage assets, it will face the challenge of restoring faith in these mortgage bonds - technically called mortgage-backed securities.
That will prove challenging until home prices stabilize since the government will face the same problem that banks now face - the difficulty determining the real value of the mortgage bonds as home prices keep falling.
Mortgages pooled together are the underlying collateral of these bonds, and banks have been reluctant to refinance a lot of these troubled in loans in markets like California and Florida. That's because a home that originally carried a $700,000 mortgage is now worth $500,000 and could be worth $400,000 next year.
Treasury Secretary Paulson vows that in government hands, loan modifications will take place at a faster pace. This could serve to put a bottom in falling home prices and begin the housing recovery.
If that doesn't happen and home prices deteriorate further, taxpayers will be taking losses on loans reworked by the government.


text:
Alopecia areata is a type of hair loss that occurs when the immune
system mistakenly attacks hair follicle roots, where hair growth begins. It is
most common in people younger than 20, but children and adults of any age may
be affected.
Medical treatments for alopecia areata may include medications that
are either put on the scalp or injected. Because hair often regrows, treatment
may not be necessary.
Last Revised:
May 29, 2012
Healthwise Staff
Medical Review:
Adam Husney, MD - Family Medicine & E. Gregory Thompson, MD - Internal Medicine
This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use. How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions.
To learn more visit Healthwise.org
© 1995-2012 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated.


text:
Movie actress, reality TV star…and now author.
Denise Richards is going to write her memoir, People magazine reported. The actress has signed on with Gallery Books, a Simon and Schuster imprint, for a book that will touch on aspects of her life. Among those will be her arrival to Hollywood and life with Charlie Sheen, whom she married and later divorced.
The couple has two children together-- Sam, 6, and Lola, 5.
"I wanted to write a heartfelt, honest book that would be a source of hope for others going through difficult times," Richards said.
The untitled memoir is slated for publication in July of next year.
Richards had previously appeared on the reality TV series "Denise Richards: It's Complicated." She will star in the upcoming movie "Mother's Little Helpers."


text:
Save More with AMTA
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| To Order 1-888-918-2253
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Hot Massage Medium Stones - Set of 8
Medium Massage Hot Stones are perfect for use in large or bony areas such as the arms, legs and back. They can be used for direct pressure, or to protect the therapist's hands. The ability to hold heat or cold, and the generally smooth texture of the stones make them ideal for contact with the skin. If used properly, these stones can help bring relaxation, healing and stimulation to damaged or weary muscles and tissue. They can be used on high energy or high stress regions of the body, enhancing relaxation, harmony and rejuvenation. Set comes with 8 stones. Stone sizes listed are approximate and may vary.
I love the size and shape of these stones. They are also easily manageable in your hands.
This product allots me to do my deep tissue without stress to my body
The stones heat well but they were all on the small side. I only had 2-3 stones in each set of 8 that would be considered 3".
They are a good size fit for the palm of your hand. I only use mine for cold therapy during a massage because I have the heated bamboo set from this site. They do the job


text:
Scurvy is a disease caused by a lack of vitamin C in the diet. It
causes weakness, swollen joints, muscle hardness, gum problems, tooth loss, and
slow healing of wounds.
People who are malnourished or who do not eat enough foods that
contain vitamin C are at risk for scurvy. Citrus fruits (such as oranges,
grapefruits, lemons, limes, and tangerines), berries, melons, red and green
bell peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, and dark green, leafy vegetables are all good
sources of vitamin C.
Scurvy is treated with daily vitamin C (ascorbic acid) tablets.
Symptoms usually improve quickly.
Last Revised:
June 20, 2012
Healthwise Staff
Medical Review:
E. Gregory Thompson, MD - Internal Medicine & Alan C. Dalkin, MD - Endocrinology
This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use. How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions.
To learn more visit Healthwise.org
© 1995-2012 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated.


text:
Cheesy corn cakes
Nutrition and extra info
- Freezable
Nutrition: per corn cake
- kcal127
- fat4.8g
- saturates2.3g
- carbs16g
- sugars0.9g
- fibre0.8g
- protein5.4g
- salt0.64g
- 175g self-raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
Baking powderbay-king pow-dah
Baking powder is a raising agent that is commonly used in cake-making. It is made from an alkali…
- 2 eggs
The ultimate convenience food, eggs are powerhouses of nutrition, packed with protein and a…
- 125ml milk
One of the most widely used ingredients, milk is often referred to as a complete food. While cow…
- 198g can sweetcorn, drained
Sweetcornsw-eet corn
Also known as corn on the cob, sweetcorn is composed of rows of tightly packed golden yellow…
- 100g mature cheddar, grated
- 2 tbsp chopped chives
- 2 tsp sunflower oil
Sunflower oil
A variety of oils can be used for baking. Sunflower is the one we use most often at Good Food as…
For the salsa dip
Mix the tomatoes and ketchup for the salsa dip in a bowl and set aside.
In another bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, eggs and milk until smooth. Stir in the sweetcorn, cheese and chives. Season well.
Heat half the oil in a non-stick frying pan. Add six spoonfuls of the mixture to the pan and flatten out slightly with the back of the spoon, keeping them separate. Cook for 1½ minutes over a medium heat until golden. Turn and cook the other side, then remove from the pan and keep warm while you make six more corn cakes with the remaining oil and mixture. Serve with the salsa dip.


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pumpkin Guru Thursday 11/10/2007, 18:01
We've been expanding the rules again. There section on abilities and bonus has been expanded to include more information and also has the round tester. This tool lets you plug in any two characters, set whether any other members of their clan are in the deck and assign an amount of pillz to each and it will tell you the outcome stats of the battle. This can tell you the winner for non random matches or each cards win ratio if random is turned on.
Gus Lee Imperator Thursday 11/10/2007, 18:13
Were can i find this or akivate
0-Jade Imperator Friday 12/10/2007, 01:56
It is a good feature I think it should be place is somewhere more visible. I check it and it was able to determined if ability and bonus are active, the attack and damage of both characters after the bonus and ability resolve. But I didn't saw the win ratio. Can you add also the chances of a character winning in a random room?
0-Jade Imperator Friday 12/10/2007, 01:57
And for those having a hard time finding it. It is at the bottom of this page:
Fraggle Imperator HK's fox on typewriters Friday 12/10/2007, 06:22
Jade? Attack vs Attack ? What you need more for the win ratio?
0-Jade Imperator Friday 12/10/2007, 08:08
Actually if I remember correctly for a random room with have a computation for the chance for a card to win, am I right? The formula is your attack divided by the combined attack of the two characters. Wouldn't it be helpful to show it as well as only few have this knowledge. If it is ok with you.
Fraggle Imperator HK's fox on typewriters Friday 12/10/2007, 09:30
Well, it is, but it's the same as:
my chances are XX attack vs your chances as YY attack.
But we will make it clearer


text:
If you reside in 92014, San Diego, and you are looking for a reliable locksmith service provider, call Locksmith SD.
Locksmith SD is a company that offers high-quality, reliable and affordable residential, commercial, auto locksmith services in 92014, San Diego.
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View large image
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Containing meadowfoam oil, a gentle and effective moisturiser for baby's delicate skin, Baby Cow Organics Buttery Bottom Balm is perfect for protecting baby against nappy rash. Meadowfoam oil is known to be one of the most stable vegetable oils, making it safe and long-lasting. Cowshed's botanical formulations are naturally paraben, petrochemical and sulphate free, suitable for vegetarians and contain certified organic ingredients.
Express Delivery Available - If ordered before 11pm, delivered by courier next working day. More Info »
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In stock | Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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text:
With age comes a great many things: wisdom, maturity, beauty… And also a weaker immune system! This places adults over the age of 65 at greater risk for severe complications from influenza.
Prevention is an important step to keeping healthy this flu season, and getting a flu vaccine is crucial.
Standard Dose
High Dose
2 influenza A viruses + 2 influenza B viruses (broader protection with both B viruses included in vaccine)
2 influenza A + 1 influenza B. Contains four times the amount of antigen (prompts the body to make antibodies) contained in regular flu shots, to create a stronger immune response.
Vaccine Types
Standard shot – age 6 months and above
High-Dose shot – designed specifically for age 65 and above
Flu Season
In the US, flu activity peaks in January and February, but can begin as early as October and continue as late as May. Vaccines take 2 weeks to build immunity in the body.
Flu vaccines are safe. Vaccine viruses used are inactivated ("killed") or weakened and CANNOT cause influenza.
60% less likely to need treatment for flu after get vaccination. Also reduces other illnesses, antibiotic use, time off work, hospitalizations, and deaths.
Side Effects
Soreness, redness, or swelling where the shot was given; fever (low grade); aches
Soreness, redness, or swelling where the shot was given; fever (low grade); aches; headache; potential for increased local side effects
© Liberty MediCenter Pharmacy | (765) 223-2121 | 10 South Main Street, Suite A, Liberty, Indiana 47353 email@example.com
HIPPA Notice
Powered by Element 74


text:
Scott Martin's Latin Soul Band: 9:00pm
Not many artists can boast about their Latin Jazz influence and their Soul Jazz leanings like Scott Martin can.
Scott Martin traveled the world, performing, recording, composing and arranging with the Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band, winning a GRAMMY® Award for Best Latin Jazz Performance. They also won 2 Billboard Music Awards, and embarked on countless World and Nationwide tours. He was an influential part of the Poncho Sanchez Band and recorded with Ray Charles, Billy Preston, Sam Moore and many other jazz and soul greats.
Scott Martin's Latin Soul Band has performed at numerous venues and festivals in the last couple of years. They've performed tours of Malaysia, Japan, Thailand, and Canada, they have played at the Borneo Jazz Festival, Hawaii International Jazz Festival, Temecula International Jazz Festival, KSDS 'Jazz Live' from the Saville Theatre, Brea Jazz Festival, Oxnard Jazz Festival, San Jose Jazz Festival, and many more concerts, events, and jazz clubs.
Scott's compositions have been featured on many recordings, and on TV shows such as "Sex and the City", "The Jimmy Kimmel Show", "As The World Turns" and more. Scott Martin has also performed and recorded with many artists and performers such as Celia Cruz, Tito Puente, Jose Rizo's Jazz on the Latin Side All Stars, Mongo Santamaria, Francisco Aguabella, Ray Charles, Fred Wesley, Pee Wee Ellis, Barry Manilow, Dr Dre, Alex Acuna, Eddie Harris, Chick Corea, Karrin Allison, Diane Reeves, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Larry Coryell, Joe Sample, Joey Defrancesco, Sam Moore, Billy Preston, Pete Escovedo, Eddie Palmieri and many others.
Scott Martin is exploding on the scene as a leader of his own band, The Latin Soul Band, after more than fourteen years of playing and recording with the GRAMMY® Award Winning Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band.


text:
Ways to defend/counter the french defence from black
i like the e4 opening as white because it allows me to play the black-mar gambit but whenever i play the french defence i just get flustered and struggle. what could i do to better myself against their second move of pd5? my usually thing is kc3, pd3 or bb3


text:
A forum about Atari 16/32 computers and their clones. This forum is in no way affiliated with Atari Interactive.
Moderators: Mug UK, Silver Surfer, Moderator Team
leech wrote:Nice! Mine only has 4mb/4mb and no video card, but I do have an ultrasatan hooked up to it, along with an ECL adapter.
We need more VME video cards, that's for sure.
mzry wrote:How do you configure - NOVA drivers + NVDI 5.03 for fonts? When you install NVDI do you choose Nova or TT internal graphics as the option? Also where do you put NVDI in the auto sort order, before all the graphics drivers or after? Thank you
frank.lukas wrote:NVDI5 has a option install NOVA ...
frank.lukas wrote:You can also try NVDI ET4000 as Driver for the graphiccard instead of the nova driver.
Select in the NVDI VMG a Mega4000 and edit the Screenmemory-Address to FEDC0000 and the Registerbasis-Address to FED003B0 ...
elrnsd wrote:Wow! This looks awesome! Makes me excited. I am getting my TT 030 back from a friend who stored it for 20 years. Getting ready to get the VME extender and an ET4000 VGA card. Can't wait to be able to post some pics myself.
Keep up the good work!
Playmobil wrote:Hi Guillaume !
Why use Highwire insteed NetSurf ?
Salut Guillaume, pourquoi utiliser Highwire au lieu de NetSurf ?
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests


text:
|NYU Psychology
|Lila Davachi
Visit the Davachi Lab
How are memories formed? Why do we only remember some of what we encounter? Why do we remember some events in exquisitely rich detail, only have a sense or feeling that weve encountered other events and still forget others entirely?
These are some of the questions that we are exploring in the laboratory. Our laboratory complements cognitive behavioral approaches with a pursuit of knowledge of how the brain carries out mnemonic functions (using fMRI) with the belief that this approach will lead to a unified study of memory in which structure (i.e. the brain) and function (i.e. behavior) will finally be linked. This union will allow for more complex hypothesis testing than either approach on its own.
Since the landmark case of patient H.M., long-term memory formation has been intimately linked to the medial temporal lobe. However, despite the fact that the hippocampus is likely the most studied structure in the brain, the specific contributions of individual structures within the medial temporal lobe and how they interact still remain to be well described. Our laboratory is investigating how the medial temporal lobe supports memory formation, the different kinds or forms of memory supported by this system and how this system interacts with other processing systems (e.g. attentional and emotional systems). Below are examples of some of the questions that we (and others) have long been interested in and how we have gone about studying them.
Recognition and recollection
Sometime we know that we have encountered an item in our past (i.e. we recognize it) and other times we remember vivid contextual details surrounding our encounter with that item (i.e. when and where we encountered it, who else may have been around, what we were thinking or feeling at the timeetc). Much research has focused on whether these two memory outcomes can arise from the same underlying process (i.e. one perhaps supported by a single functional memory system) or are, indeed, the consequence of a two distinct processes.
Our approach has been to use brain data to inform this question. It has been hypothesized that the hippocampus and cortical medial temporal regions (e.g. entorhinal, perirhinal and parahippocampal cortices) might support different kinds of episodic learning. In particular, it has been suggested that the perirhinal cortex might provide a substrate for item recognition, while hippocampal processing might provide the substrate for rapid binding of contextual information. We hypothesized that the hippocampus might then be responsible for incorporating contextual information into the memory trace while, perhaps, other cortical regions such as the perirhinal cortex might be responsible for the encoding of item information (in a sense, devoid of context).
We tested this by having subjects encounter information (in this case, a list of words) while being scanned using fMRI. They performed one of two distinct cognitive tasks (e.g. an imagery task or a phonological task) with each item. We reasoned that the cognitive operations being performed with each word would provide different "cognitive" contexts (as opposed to other types of context which might be harder to implement in a scanner environment). Subjects' memory was then tested for both item information (did you see this word?) and context information (which task did you perform with this word?). The data showed a striking distinction between the kinds of information predicted by hippocampal and perirhinal cortical activation at encoding. Specifically, activation of the hippocampus correlated with whether subjects later successfully recalled the context in which they encountered the word while perirhinal activation correlated with whether subjects were going to recognize each word, but not whether they would recall the context. This was the first study in humans to demonstrate a clear distinction between perirhinal and hippocampal encoding processes (Davachi et al., 2003) and suggests that processes leading to item recognition are distinct from those leading to detailed contextual recollection. These data thus provide strong support for dual process theories of recognition.
Working memory and episodic encoding
Working memory has been defined as the short-term maintenance and manipulation of information. For example, you may engage in maintenance while rehearsing your list of groceries in your mind on your way to the grocery store. Imagine you then get a phone call from a friend with whom you are planning on cooking dinner that night and she tells you that she has certain ingredients and is missing others. As you add and subtract from the original list in your mind, you are actively manipulating this information. Both of these processes fall under the rubric of working memory. It has long been debated whether simple maintenance of information (i.e. rehearsal) impacts long-term memory formation. We have shown that the greater the activation of brain regions known to be involved in rehearsal (e.g. prefrontal, parietal, cerebellum), the more likely subjects were to later recognize having encountered that particular item (Davachi et al., 2001). This data suggest that item rehearsal can serve as a conduit into long-term memory.
Research directions
Our main goals for future research are to (1) further probe the distinct roles that medial temporal lobe regions may play in memory formation, (2) examine whether a functional architecture exists within the hippocampus and what particular kinds of context are supported by this system and (3) investigate the specificity of the medial temporal lobe memory system to long-term declarative memory as there is increasing evidence that it may play a role in short-term or working memory processes as well as implicit learning.
Ph.D. Yale University 1999
Fellowships and Awards
2003 Summer Institute in Cognitive Neuroscience Fellowship, Lake Tahoe
Selected Publications
Davachi, L. (2004) The ensemble that plays together, stays together, Hippocampus, 14:1-3.
Davachi, L., Mitchell, J.P. and Wagner, A.D. (2003). Multiple learning mechanisms: distinct medial temporal processes build item and source memories. PNAS, 100(4): 2157-2162
Davachi, L. and Wagner, A.D. (2002). Hippocampal contributions to episodic encoding: insights from relational and item-based learning. Journal of Neurophysiology, 88: 982-990.
Davachi, L., Maril, A. and Wagner, A.D. (2001). When keeping in mind supports later bringing to mind: neural markers of phonological rehearsal predict subsequent remembering. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 13:1059-1070.
Wagner, A.D. and Davachi, L. (2001). Cognitive neuroscience: forgetting of things past. Current Biology, 11: R964-967.
Davachi, L. and Goldman-Rakic, P.S. (2001). Primate rhinal cortex participates in both visual recognition and working memory tasks: functional mapping with 2-DG. Journal of Neurophysiology, 85: 2590-2601.
Sybirska, E., Davachi, L. and Goldman-Rakic, P.S. (2000). Prominence of direct entorhinal-CA1 pathway activation by cognitive tasks revealed by 2-DG functional mapping in the nonhuman primate. Journal of Neuroscience, 20: 5827-5834.
Levy, R., Friedman, H.R., Davachi, L. and Goldman-Rakic, P.S. (1997). Differential activation of the caudate nucleus in primates performing spatial and nonspatial working memory tasks. Journal of Neuroscience, 17: 3870-3882.
Rangarajan, A., Chui, H., Mjolsness, E., Pappu, S., Davachi, L., Goldman-Rakic P.S. and Duncan, J. (1996/7). A robust point-matching algorithm for autoradiographic alignment. Medical Image Analysis, 1: 379-398.
Carden, S.E., Davachi, L. and Hofer, M.A. (1994). U50-488 increases ultrasonic vocalizations in 3-, 10-, and 18-day old rat pups in isolation and the home cage. Developmental Psychobiology, 27: 65-83.
Lila Davachi


text:
Mountain Law: Commission on real estate deals not always clear cut
special to the daily
When is a real estate broker entitled to a commission? The traditional rule and Colorado's version: The traditional rule is that brokers earn a commission when they bring to the seller a buyer who is ready, willing and able to buy the property on the terms set out in a listing agreement. Most states require the seller to pay a commission even if the closing does not occur through no fault of the seller (such as the buyer being unable to obtain financing or the title being defective). However, Colorado law excuses a seller from paying a commission so long as the failure of closing is not the seller's fault.
The purchase and sale agreement controls: If a seller accepts an offer delivered by a broker, the broker is entitled to a commission even if the offer differs from the terms of the listing agreement. For example, if the listing agreement requires the seller to approve the buyer's credit, but the accepted offer omits that requirement, the seller cannot later avoid paying a commission on the basis that she does not approve the buyer's credit.
Broker does not guarantee buyer's performance: Unless the listing agreement provides otherwise, a broker is not responsible for the buyer's default under the purchase and sale agreement. For instance, if a purchase price is to be paid in installments, the broker has earned the commission at closing even if the buyer eventually defaults on one or more of the required payments. The seller could address this issue by requiring the commission to be paid over time following receipt of anticipated payments.
Extension clauses: Listing agreements often provide that the seller remains liable for paying a commission for a stated period of time beyond expiration of the listing period (called the holdover period) if the sale is to a prospective buyer identified by the broker during the listing period. Such extension clauses prevent a seller from unfairly timing a closing with a broker's prospect so as to avoid paying a commission. If a seller enters into a listing agreement with a new broker while a holdover period remains in effect under a previous listing agreement, the new agreement should address how to handle a closing during the holdover period to ensure that the seller does not unwittingly agree to pay two commissions for the same sale. Of course, the new broker has little incentive to market the property if an identified prospect appears likely to purchase the property and the new broker will not receive a commission for that sale.
Procuring cause doctrine: Courts are often called upon to decide issues such as which of multiple brokers has earned a commission for a given sale, whether a broker is entitled to a commission following expiration of a listing agreement in the absence of an extension clause, or whether a broker is entitled to a commission for a contract entered into with a given buyer. The aim in such cases is for brokers to get their fair commissions based on the facts and circumstances. To assist with these determinations, courts often look to whether a broker was the "procuring cause" of a sale, meaning that the broker set in motion a chain of unbroken events leading to the sale and should therefore receive a commission.
Colorado law permits oral listing agreements, but sellers and brokers should take the time to draft written listing agreements that clearly identify the parties' rights. Even when using standard listing agreement forms, it may be advisable for sellers to obtain legal advice.
Noah Klug is principal of The Klug Law Firm, LLC, in Summit County, Colorado, emphasizing real estate, business, and litigation. He may be reached at (970) 468-4953 or firstname.lastname@example.com.
Start a dialogue, stay on topic and be civil.
If you don't follow the rules, your comment may be deleted.


text:
Openmoko:Community Portal
From Openmoko
Community Updates
The Community Updates article is updated at least twice a month by Michael Shiloh. Updates are also mailed to the openmoko-community mailing list, and major updates are also sent to the announce list.
There is always a good group in the IRC channel #openmoko on FreeNode. If you aren't an IRC-er, you might want to review the discussions anyways:
(Courtesy of the NSLU2-Linux project)
Within the time contstraints of middle Europe, the Freenode channel #neo1973-germany is also active and members switch to english on demand.
The old community wiki is at http://www.linuxtogo.org/gowiki/OpenMoko/, since the release of the official wiki at http://wiki.openmoko.org/, it should no longer be used for OpenMoko. Please help integrating the content of the old wiki into this wiki. Please note that you cannot just copy from the old wiki, as the old wiki is (unfortunately) not clearly licensed and the content on this wiki is licensed under GNU FDL. You will instead need to rewrite the articles.
When you have integrated/rewritten an article, please update the old wiki with clear information that you have moved the information, so others do not update the old page.
Useful content that should be transfered
FAQ about the whole project
- some FAQ about the whole projecti created the FAQ page and added it to the introduction section on the main page. There are a few links on this page that will need to be fixed after all the content has been migrated Ryanlerch 12:55, 16 February 2007 (CET)
Cell phone providers--denis_std 16:25, 16 February 2007 (CET) - Done - OpenMoko compatible cellphone providers
Software ideas
- a really mixed up list of software and hardware ideas - Please name your page Wishlist:Pagename and add 'Category:Ideas' if you rewrite one of these
- software ideas
Hardware stuff
comparison Neo / iPhone--Mikesh 09:15, 18 February 2007 (CET) DONE - iPhone At Commands--Andreas Hochsteger 22:11, 24 February 2007 (CET) DONE - AT Commands
- information on GPRS
information on (A)GPS--denis_std 01:57, 16 February 2007 (CET) DONE - AGPS
Content used on OpenMoko
content ideas--denis_std[1] 16:35, 16 February 2007 (CET) - Done - Media Content
Coding instructions
Other useful stuff
Press Coverage--denis_std 16:54, 16 February 2007 (CET) - Done - Press Coverage Testimonials--denis_std 17:34, 16 February 2007 (CET) - Done - Testimonials Translation of OpenMoko--Mikesh 11:42, 18 February 2007 (CET) DONE - Translation FOSDEM Glossary--Andreas Hochsteger 22:41, 24 February 2006 (CET) - DONE - Glossary Video Bounty-- ABANDONED - New hardware renders this task trivial
Development news
Developer news of progress being made on OpenMoko.
User's Manual
An user manual should be created for non geeks. I mean one of those small books you get when you buy a new phone. They are full of pictures, describe basic steps of phone usage and are translated into as many languages as possible.
The wiki is a mess, somebody should suggest a structure easier to navigate.
I do not see a point in translating developer pages in other languages than English, but this is subjective.
--Iztok.jeras 10:56, 23 May 2007 (CEST)
I am French, but I don't see a point either in translating the developer manual. Mickael.
My mother language is Spanish. I think that a developer manual written in English is enough -no need for translation to other languages. Raul.
I have the same idea, but, its free for translate to other laguages. Freddy
I am French, I think that a basic manual for non-geek could be a good idea…
--Bart 10:14, 2 October 2007 (CEST) I am Dutch, if a dutch user manual is needed I'd love to help.
Fradeve11: I give my appreciament and time to translate an user basic manual in Italian ;) very good idea!
darktim: I will do the German part. I'm not a coder, so that could be my contribution ;)
Yorick: I'm willing to do some Dutch translation
USB Keyboards
I'm not sure if this is the proper place to post this, but I think it would be an excellent idea to test out the Neo with a USB keyboard and even for OpenMoko to have at least one suggested && compatible device. I haven't seen details about what standards the Neo's USB device will adhere to (host capabilities? - although that might be somewhat power hungry). Is there even a thing as a keyboard that operates as its own USB host? Actually, even a bluetooth keyboard would be reasonable. I only pose this question because I would like to be able to write snippets of code, and I have some doubts about using the stylus with an on-screen keyboard - especially for certain syntax patterns that are common in most programming languages.
Update: I'm glad someone else has thought about this too :: Neo1973 & Bluetooth HIDs (Human Input Devices)
--Cfriedt 02:07, 20 November 2007 (CET)


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Inside his trailer on the set of his new Fox series Touch, Kiefer Sutherland can't stop thinking about numbers: 12,000,000... 318... 100...
"It boggles the mind," he says. "It's become a huge part of my life."
No, Sutherland hasn't become obsessed with patterns like his son on the show. Touch tells the story of Martin Bohm (Sutherland), a once promising journalist who's now a widower unloading baggage at JFK. His 11-year-old special-needs son, Jake (David Mazouz), scribbles strangely prescient numbers into notebooks but has never uttered a word. In each episode of the drama, Jake connects those numbers to seemingly unrelated people and situations all over the world in ways that totally freak out his dad and his social worker. Meanwhile, Jake loses it if anyone touches him or his book of numbers.
In real life, Sutherland has a better grip on the digits at hand: 12 million viewers watched the Touch preview that aired in January. The series, created by Tim Kring, the writer and producer behind Heroes, launches for real with a global media event on March 18 — a date that figures prominently in Touch's opening episode. The premiere re-airs that week in more than 100 countries around the globe and on March 22 in the United States. The wait-and-see preview combined with a worldwide rollout makes it an unprecedented launch for TV. "I'm feeling nervous," Sutherland says, lighting a cigarette. "There's a lot riding on this, and I know what it means to have a hit show, certainly."
Which brings us to the most important number of all: 24. The actor's eight-season run as counterterrorism agent Jack Bauer transformed Sutherland from semi-reliable film-acting Hollywood offspring to one of the biggest TV stars of his time. 24 perfectly captured the insecurity and paranoia of the post-9/11 era, one ticking-time-bomb plot after another, and Sutherland became the face of American resilience across the planet.
Wrapping that series was "a mixture of mourning and 'thank God,'" Sutherland says now. He's wearing blue work clothes with a long-sleeve white shirt underneath and still looks as fit as he did back in his CTU days. "I don't believe we ever jumped the shark with 24. It ended really well and I went, 'Whew.'"
Now he's back to holding his breath. Previewing Touch to impressive numbers got people talking, but not all that talk has been positive. The pilot got high marks for its gorgeous look and ingenious plot twists, like the fact that the seemingly autistic mute at the center of the drama is also the show's articulate narrator. "It's an awesome part for me," laughs Mazouz, the 11-year-old newcomer chosen from more than 30 young actors to play Jake. "I don't have to memorize any lines."
But viewers must take a few leaps to buy what Jake and the other characters are saying. When we first meet him, the kid is obsessing over the number 318, and soon 3-1-8 pops up everywhere — on clocks, winning lottery tickets, significant street addresses (enter guest star Danny Glover as the shut-in professor who explains Jake's role as highly evolved humanoid). As Jake climbs atop a telephone tower every day at 3:18, a wayward cellphone gets passed around the world, touching the lives of an Irish songstress, a British couple grieving for their dead daughter, an earnest kid in Baghdad. All those moving parts come together in ways so miraculous, you'd swear the script was touched by an iPhone-wielding angel.
Actually, it's trademark Kring. Just as the comic-book-inspired Heroes imbued seemingly ordinary people with extraordinary "gifts," Touch leans on cosmic conceits like interconnectivity and synchro-destiny. Even Touch's actors find meaning where others might just see coincidence. "It's spooky — my best friend's birthday is on 3/18," says Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who plays Child Protective Services worker Clea Hopkins. "On set we call that a 'Touch moment.'"
Kring clearly has a big-picture plan for putting these themes on the air. "If we consider the ripple effect our lives have, it makes an impact on how we treat people, and that makes the world a better place," he says, sitting in his editing suite at Culver Studios in Los Angeles. He looks stressed for someone given to New Age musings, but that's because he has five episodes to lock. Plus, he's read the early reviews, which were decidedly mixed. One critic called the preview "likable but dumb." Kring is tweaking the show.
"We may not always tie up each episode as neatly as we did in the pilot," he says, adding that not all the stories will be uplifting or positive, and that "minor characters may emerge in one episode and then reappear down the line four or five episodes later."
Ultimately, says Sutherland, "Touch is a show about fate. And you never know what fate will deal you. It's sometimes scary, sometimes funny, sometimes dangerous, sometimes poignant. I guess you can say it's like making a television show."
For more on Touch and spring's hottest new shows, pick up this week's issue of TV Guide Magazine, on newsstands Thursday, March 1!


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It's green soda. Very green. Glowing green. And the blue raspberry and pineapple flavor combination sounds, well, a bit hard to swallow. And maybe that's the point.
Just under the smiling mug of Uncle Sam, his hands outstretched, clutching moneybags, the bottle of Stimulus Soda proclaims it "the nation's first bailout brew!"
"We made it green for money," Rob Metz, the chief bottle washer at Avery's Beverages, a microbrewer of sodas in New Britain, said.
This isn't just a marketing campaign.
The company wanted to donate a portion of sales to charity, and then quickly realized that folks who are struggling in this economy ARE the charity. So, they're handing out a free bottle of Stimulus Soda to anyone who brings a copy of their pink slip to the company's headquarters.
And if you buy a bottle at the store, there's always that 5-cent refund. So everyone wins.
So, like any good investigative reporter, I tried it. (For the record, any journalist will eat just about anything put in front of them.)
Remember Sweet-Tarts? It's like someone dropped a few of those in a bottle of Sprite and then poured in the contents of a glow-stick for color. And I like both raspberry and pineapple flavoring. True to its name, it will make you forget your financial woes for a few.
As for the bubbly business, Metz says it's not quite foaming over the top, but it hasn't gone flat either.
"Fortunately, we've got a bunch of great, loyal customers," Metz said. And, in this day and age, that's pretty sweet.


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Scientists test new toxicant detection tool, links to abnormal fetal development
For more than 40 years, Bisphenol A, more commonly known as BPA, was used in everything from plastic baby bottles and the lining of metal food containers to dental sealants. When scientists began seeing a connection between BPA and abnormal sperm and egg development, it set off worldwide public health concerns.
The types of abnormal development researchers detected could lead to increased cases of Downs and Klinefelter syndromes in children or to infertility.
As more scientists began investigating the effects of toxicant exposure and links to abnormal fetal development, three University of Georgia researchers discovered a more efficient, accurate and cost-effective way to conduct these studies using cells in a petri dish.
Franklin West and Steve Stice, animal scientists in the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and Mary Alice Smith, a toxicologist in environmental health science in the UGA College of Public Health, began testing the efficiency of a technology West and Stice developed to measure the effects of environmental toxicants. They use cells that come from stem cells and represent the early cells that eventually will form sperm cells in adults. The cells are highly vulnerable to toxicants.
Their findings were published recently in Toxicological Sciences.
"There is no human system to study toxicant effects on early sperm development," West said. "But, we can expose these human cells to different toxicants and predict how changes will impact birth defects and fertility later in life."
Currently, most developmental toxicological studies are done using mice or rats.
"We need to move away from rodent tests because they often won't tell us how detrimental or safe chemicals are in humans," West said. "For example, the potential effects of BPA in humans, especially in the unborn child, is still hotly contested. This cell culture system moves us away from animal testing, which most agree is preferable as long as the studies are equally or more reliable."
The new testing model fills a void left by current methods and provides human-specific results.
"Using animal studies, you are looking at more than a year to test a chemical in rodents," Stice said. "Using this test, we get results in two to three weeks at most and possibly shorter."
Considering the vast number of untested chemicals humans are exposed to, with new ones coming out every day, animal testing will never be practical to prioritize which chemicals need further testing, Stice said. There are more than 80,000 chemicals in the environment that haven't been tested for human impact mainly because of the cost and time required using current procedures.
The reliability of those results also must be considered.
"Mice don't have three or four (of the) critically important genes that are leading causes of infertility," West explained. "Sperm and egg cells are the only cells that go through meiosis, a special type of cell division necessary for sexual reproduction. You can't use another type of cell to find the impact a chemical has on these cells and, in turn, fetal development."
West first developed the germ-like cells during his doctoral work in Stice's UGA laboratory.
"Our next step with the cells is to test more chemicals and see what happens with more compounds," he said.
Stice also plans to use neural and bone forming cells he developed to test chemicals for developmental neurological and skeletal toxicology. Scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency already have demonstrated in peer-reviewed studies that these types of cells are very sensitive to known toxins such as lead and mercury. The team is now testing more chemicals on these cells.
"If the assay is predictive and repeatable, the chemical industry will have better, faster and less expensive test systems and, as a result, will reduce the use of animal testing and experiments," Stice said.
"Testing more known chemicals for developmental toxicology will validate these assays for later use by the chemical industry. Our shared long-term goal is to ensure the health and well being of our children," he said.


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Behind the Scenes: Lavender and Honey Duck at Eleven Madison Park
By now Eleven Madison Park has firmly secured its place within the top tier of restaurants, with every accolade to be had tucked neatly under its belt. While the menu is a constant rotation of inventive dishes, one has stood the test of time: the duck.
The Lavender and Honey Duck has been on the menu for years. It's Chef Humm's signature dish, a symbol of his work as a chef. In brief, it's damn good. We went behind the scenes to learn what goes into the making of this incredible duck. Chef de Cuisine James Kent (who represented the U.S. in the Bocuse d'Or cooking competition) led us through the process from start to finish. Click through the slideshow to see!
Eleven Madison Park
11 Madison Avenue, New York NY 10010 (map)
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


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Storage networks get virtual
The benefits of virtualization can now be applied to storage networks. Read how new products make it possible to pool and share storage networking resources.
- Dennis Martin, Demartek
Storage network virtualization, also known as I/O virtualization (IOV) or I/O consolidation, comprises an emerging family of technologies that extend the concept of virtualization to the major types of input and output (I/O) handled by today's servers.
In recent years, data centers have been deploying server and storage virtualization technologies to more efficiently use underutilized computing assets and to create more flexible infrastructures. In decoupling the logical function from the physical hardware, virtualization allows hardware to be pooled and shared, thus improving utilization. Once in place, virtualization makes new server or storage deployments much quicker and easier, while making it easier to effect changes to the existing infrastructure. For example, it's much easier to deploy new virtual servers than physical servers. And when storage systems are virtualized, many of the data migration issues related to new array deployments can be avoided by adding the new capacity to the existing pool of storage resources.
Virtualization has long been applied to a number of different computing technologies. Although storage virtualization has its roots in the mainframe world, it's only now beginning to gain wider adoption. Server virtualization, on the other hand, has become the poster child of virtualization in the last few years. A handful of organizations are now applying similar virtualization techniques to the "connective tissue" that links servers to storage in enterprise environments.
But I/O virtualization isn't exactly a brand new idea either, with virtualization concepts already being used for some network I/O technologies today. For example, a virtual local-area network (VLAN) separates the logical and physical aspects of a network so that one physical network appears as and can be managed as several smaller logical networks. Network interface card (NIC) teaming combines two or more network adapters and makes them appear to function as a single adapter with increased bandwidth. In both cases, logic in the hardware and management software layers allows the decoupling of the logical functions from the physical hardware, making it possible to carve up the hardware and share it as separate units, or to combine it to present it as one larger unit.
PCI Express and I/O virtualization
A server in an enterprise data center typically needs access to a LAN, a storage-area network (SAN) and local direct-attached storage (DAS). Some servers also need access to high-end graphics processing. A server's access to these resources usually comes by way of an internal system bus. In a newer multicore physical server with a high-speed PCI Express (PCIe) bus, all of these I/O "pipes" occasionally hit peak bandwidth, but rarely simultaneously or on a sustained basis (see "PCI Express boosts I/O virtualization," below). With many virtualized servers running on a single physical server, these I/O pipes are busier, but aren't likely to be running at full bandwidth simultaneously or on a sustained basis.
|PCI Express boosts I/O virtualization
The PCI-SIG, the special interest group responsible for PCI Express (PCIe) industry-standard I/O technology, announced the completion of the PCI-SIG I/O virtualization (IOV) suite of specifications in June 2008. These specifications enable virtualization solutions to tackle the most I/O-intensive workloads by removing performance bottlenecks in both software and hardware virtualization components. The IOV suite provides a set of technologies that can be used by providers of processors, chipsets and I/O fabrics, and has implications for hypervisors and operating systems. These technologies provide:
This set of specifications promises to trigger new virtualization solutions that provide improved performance, lower power consumption and new terminology that will change the way we view I/O to and from a server.
What if, instead of installing separate network and storage adapters in every server, the PCIe bus adapters could be virtualized and shared across multiple servers? Consider the potential cost and power savings for NICs, host bus adapters (HBAs) and SAS/SATA disk controller cards that could be shared across a rack of servers. A rack full of servers could have only one cable for each server connecting it to a virtualized set of I/O adapters at the top of the rack. Then that top-of-rack unit could dynamically direct all LAN, SAN and DAS traffic to the appropriate location as needed, such as end-of-row switches for example, leaving the servers to focus on computing. This "rack-area network" (RAN) concept can allow an entire rack of servers to have some of the same benefits as blade servers, but without the limitations of a blade server chassis. The consolidation realized in this scenario would also mean that the size of the rack servers could be reduced to 1 rack unit (1U) or even one-half of a rack unit (1/2 U).
Consider the movement of a virtual machine (VM) from one physical server to another physical server. Typically, this requires a SAN, because SANs are separate from the physical server and can be accessed from any server, assuming all of the security, zoning and logical unit numbering (LUN) masking issues have been addressed. What if movement of virtual machines could be made to work with any storage, rather than requiring a SAN? I/O virtualization-capable adapters would run some of the hypervisor functions in hardware, offloading the host CPU and freeing up CPU resource that could be used to host additional virtual machines or applications.
I/O virtualization vs. other networking technologies
Ethernet Data Center Bridging (DCB) and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) are a pair of technologies that are young, but slightly more mature than I/O virtualization in today's marketplace. Together, DCB and FCoE allow for hardware consolidation by combining lossless Ethernet with Fibre Channel at the switch and at the host adapter. This DCB/FCoE technology combination provides some of the same type of consolidation that I/O virtualization provides, but it's actually complementary to IOV. Because the DCB/FCoE converged adapters run on the PCI Express bus, they can be used in an I/O virtualization environment and, therefore, could be shared across multiple servers. The host adapters that support DCB and FCoE currently support or will soon support IOV technologies such as Single-Root IOV (SR-IOV). An IOV environment can communicate with existing Ethernet, Fibre Channel and DCB/FCoE switches using existing adapters and, as far as the host servers are concerned, they're connected directly to those switch environments.
InfiniBand is another high-speed, low-latency network technology that's typically used in compute cluster environments for server-to-server communication. InfiniBand provides faster speeds than Ethernet today. The newer InfiniBand host adapters, known as host channel adapters (HCAs), run on the PCI Express bus and can support I/O virtualization. In addition, some vendors are developing I/O virtualization solutions built around InfiniBand technology, using InfiniBand as the high-speed carrier for the IOV infrastructure.
Current I/O virtualization products
The general IOV approach that most current products take is to connect the local host servers into a top-of-rack unit that holds a variety of network, storage and graphics adapters that can act as a dynamic pool of I/O connectivity resources. The top-of-rack device acts as an I/O fabric for the servers in the rack, and can communicate with other servers in the rack or can connect to end-of-row switches for more distant resources. These IOV top-of-rack units may be less expensive than some of the newer high-speed top-of-rack switches.
Click here to view a PDF of the I/O virtualization product sampler.
Two specific implementation models for I/O virtualization are emerging: PCIe- and InfiniBand-based approaches.
One approach to IOV is to extend the PCI Express bus out of the server chassis and into a separate box or chassis populated with IOV-capable adapters that can be shared across multiple servers. The I/O virtualization box would be installed in a rack and would function somewhat similarly to a top-of-rack switch, except that instead of only supporting Ethernet or Fibre Channel, this IOV box would act as a type of fabric switch for all LAN, SAN, DAS and possibly graphics traffic. At least three companies are working on products that extend the PCI Express bus into a separate box for the purpose of virtualizing I/O adapters. One advantage to this approach is that servers today already support PCI Express. Some IOV vendors now have first-generation products available and some are publicly discussing products that will appear this year. Some of these products require support for SR-IOV or Multi-Root IOV (MR-IOV), but others don't have that requirement. These products are built around the PCI Express 2.0 specifications, and vendors already have PCI Express 3.0 plans in their product roadmaps.
Aprius Inc. is a small vendor that's building a PCI Express gateway device that will support almost any type of PCI Express adapter (including network cards, storage controllers and graphics coprocessors) that can then be shared across multiple servers. These adapters basically form an I/O resource pool that can be dynamically assigned to physical or virtual servers.
NextIO is a company that was involved with developing the PCI-SIG I/O virtualization specifications and had some IOV products as early as 2005. NextIO is working in several areas, including the high-performance computing (HPC) market and is interested in virtualizing graphics coprocessing in addition to traditional networking and storage I/O traffic. They're partnering with several big name vendors for a variety of IOV applications.
VirtenSys Inc. extends the PCIe bus with its I/O virtualization switches that can virtualize the major types of server networking and storage connectivity, as well as interprocessor communication (IPC) for HPC compute cluster environments.
Another approach to I/O virtualization is to use an existing network interconnect technology such as InfiniBand or 40 Gb Ethernet as the transport for virtualizing I/O adapters. Two companies are building products to handle IOV in this fashion:
Mellanox Technologies Ltd., well-known for its InfiniBand products, provides its I/O consolidation solutions using either InfiniBand or 10 Gb Ethernet (10 GbE) as the transport for performing IOV. They're also building 40 Gb Ethernet adapters that are compliant with SR-IOV.
Xsigo Systems Inc. uses InfiniBand HCAs that connect to its I/O Director that provides the infrastructure for IOV-capable adapters. One reason for using InfiniBand is its high speed and very low latency. Inside the I/O Director are the same PCI Express network and storage adapters that would otherwise be installed in each host server. Xsigo's I/O Director has been available for approximately two years, and the company has established partnerships with a number of storage vendors, including Dell Inc. and EMC Corp.
Many network and storage adapter vendors are working on full support for I/O virtualization, especially for compliance with the SR-IOV and/or MR-IOV specifications. The vendor roster includes Emulex Corp., Intel Corp., LSI, Neterion Inc., QLogic Corp. and others. The big server vendors, including Dell, Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co. and IBM Corp., are beginning to demonstrate solutions that support I/O virtualization, either in their rack servers or blade servers, or both. Cisco Systems Inc. has also joined the movement with its Cisco UCS M81KR Virtual Interface Card. The big processor vendors, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Inc. and Intel, include virtualization technologies that help enable some of these IOV functions.
How and when to implement I/O virtualization
Implementation of I/O virtualization technologies will most likely be a slow, deliberate process. That's because the work to make all the adapters function in this manner isn't complete yet, and because the top-of-rack IOV units are still in their early stages. For I/O virtualization to work properly, development work needs to be completed on the adapter hardware and firmware, drivers, operating systems and hypervisors. Several vendors will be announcing support for various forms of IOV in 2010, and it's anticipated that IOV will emerge as one of the top new technologies for the year. However, expect I/O virtualization to take a few years to become commonplace.
Look for 10 Gb Ethernet adapters to be the first to fully support IOV. Demonstrations of IOV-capable 10 GbE adapters were shown publicly in 2009 at a number of trade shows. After the Ethernet adapters, you can expect to see storage adapters such as Fibre Channel HBAs, FCoE CNAs and SAS/SATA non-RAID adapters to support I/O virtualization. The last category of storage adapters that will likely fully support IOV are the RAID controllers, due to the complexity of sharing RAID functions across servers. Separately, some graphics coprocessor adapters will support IOV, with some products possibly available in 2010.
|Hairpin turns
In an I/O virtualization (IOV)-capable environment, traffic can be sent out of one virtual adapter and into another virtual adapter without regard to the underlying physical hardware. This leads to the very interesting possibility that traffic could be entirely contained in a single physical adapter, which is known as the IOV "hairpin turn." The application for this might be a virtual machine (VM) communicating with another virtual machine through their respective virtual network interface cards (NICs), where the virtual machines reside on the same physical server and the virtual NICs reside on the same physical NIC. In this case, the physical NIC is functioning as a mini-switch. This analogy also works with the top-of-rack IOV units, where the physical adapter is external to the server, but functions in the exact same way.
A storage adapter could be made to operate the same way. Suppose a host server had a Fibre Channel, iSCSI or SAS adapter that was located in a top-of-rack IOV unit. A storage server could be located in the same rack and could, theoretically, use the same storage adapter in the IOV unit as its adapter to the outside world. The physical adapter in the IOV unit would have one virtual adapter configured as the initiator and another virtual adapter configured as the target. Interesting possibilities indeed!
Implementing IOV-capable adapters will require top-of-rack I/O virtualization units and either PCIe bus extender cards or InfiniBand HCAs for the host servers, depending on the implementation. The IOV-capable adapters are then placed in the top-of-rack IOV units and can be shared across servers. Drivers for these adapters will be needed, and few production-ready drivers for any operating system are currently available.
I/O virtualization should be implemented in stages, as with the adoption of any other new technology. The IOV implemented stages should begin with pilot tests run on a small number of servers; the pilot implementation should run until the products operate in a stable manner and benefits can be shown. The Demartek lab will be testing various IOV solutions during 2010, and we'll be able to provide first-hand commentary and results.
A good candidate environment for I/O virtualization might be a virtual server environment that would benefit from sharing some higher-end 10 GbE NICs or similar high-speed adapters. One of the goals of IOV implementations may be to acquire the necessary I/O adapters based on the overall bandwidth needs of all the servers in a rack, rather than simply buying adapters based on raw server count. This will require adjustments to the planning process to account for applications and bandwidth usage, and may require more bandwidth measurements to be taken in the current environments.
Management issues with I/O virtualization
Managing virtual pools of I/O resources will require some new thinking. The adjustment is similar to what was required to effectively manage storage systems when SANs and virtualized storage solutions were first deployed. You'll need to understand that the I/O adapters and paths will no longer be exclusively owned by a particular server, in the same way that storage on a SAN isn't owned by a specific server. Rather, these adapters and paths will be dynamically assigned to servers, and can be released or adjusted as needed. Each of the vendors providing top-of-rack IOV units will have their own management interface for the I/O virtualization unit itself, and some level of adapter management. In addition, each of the adapter manufacturers will provide some basic element manager, similar to what's provided today.
It remains to be seen how the operating systems and hypervisors will view these virtualized I/O adapters. Because ownership of the adapters will no longer be tied to a particular operating system or hypervisor, the management of these IOV resources will have to be aware that these resources can logically move around in the data center and that the I/O resources can have multiple personalities.
BIO: Dennis Martin has been working in the IT industry since 1980, and is the founder and president of Demartek, a computer industry analyst organization and testing lab.
Related Resources
- Expert Tips to Address 3 Virtualization-Related Storage Issues –SearchStorage.com
- The Best Storage for Virtual Environments –SearchStorage.com
- eGuide: Storage Challenges in Virtualized Server Environments –SearchStorage.com
- Storage in a Virtual Environment: Expert Answers to 4 FAQ –SearchStorage.com


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Three Movie Screens, Golf, Arcade, Dining
and So Much More!
Tickets: Adults: $7, Children, Seniors & Matinees: $5
The National Theatre is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and received recognition in 1992 from the League of Historic American Theatres for preservation. The National also played host to a gala screening of the 1955 hit Oklahoma sponsored by the American Movie Classics (AMC). In the last ten years, the National has expanded from one-screen to three screens appropriately named The National, The Staircase Theatre (located upstairs) and the Northstar Theatre which is adorned with stars on the ceiling.
We are open 7 days a week, with expanded show times during holidays and summer vacations.