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(AP) --Starting Tuesday, California's minimum wage will take the first of two scheduled increases to $9 per hour.
It's one of several new laws taking effect in July.
Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB10 into law last fall. It will boost the minimum wage to $10 an hour starting on Jan. 1, 2016.
Democratic Assemblyman Luis Alejo of Salinas, who pushed for the increase, says it will allow "hardworking Californians to provide food, clothes and housing for their families."
The increase comes amid a national debate about wages. A bill that would have further raised California's minimum wage failed in the Legislature this year.
Washington has the highest minimum wage of any state, at $9.32 an hour.


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Living Well with Osteoarthritis: A guide to keeping your joints healthy
This report focuses primarily on osteoarthritis — the most common type of arthritis — which affects 27 million Americans. Many people believe it's a crippling and inevitable part of growing old. But things are changing. Treatments are better, and plenty of people age well without much arthritis. If you have osteoarthritis, you can take steps to protect your joints, reduce discomfort, and improve mobility — all of which…Learn More »

subset: commoncrawl


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All Entries Tagged With: "seeds of gratitude"
Seeds of Gratitude give rise to Loves Bloom
A wise, dear friend once taught me our Soul-Purpose in this world is to tend our Sacred Garden. I believe this to be true. This same friend, who understands the freedom found in cultivating ones' own life, is now serving time in the state penitentiary. A paradox in many ways and profound a mirror of something I deeply acknowledge: We teach what we most need to learn.
November 18, 2009 | Space | Comments 35


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Newstweek is a device for manipulating news read by other people on wireless hotspots. Built into a small and innocuous wall plug, the Newstweek device appears part of the local infrastructure, allowing writers to remotely edit news read on wireless devices without the awareness of their users.
While news is increasingly read digitally, it still follows a top-down distribution model and thus often falls victim to the same political and corporate interests that have always sought to manipulate public opinion.
Newstweek intervenes upon this model, providing opportunity for citizens to have their turn to manipulate the press; generating propaganda or simply 'fixing facts' as they pass across a wireless network. As such, Newstweek can be seen as a tactical device for altering reality on a per-network basis.
Newstweek also signals a word of caution, that a strictly media-defined reality is a vulnerable reality; that along the course of news distribution there are many hands at work, from ISP workers, numerous server administrators and wireless access point owners.
Moreso, with the increasing ubiquity of networks and their devices comes greater ignorance as to their function, offering a growing opportunity for manipulation of opinion, from source to destination.
Newstweek was developed by Julian Oliver and Danja Vasiliev, 2011.


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The Final Word On Rule 240
Reader Laura was nearly stranded in Manchester when Continental canceled her flight two days before a major college test. She politely asked to be rebooked; she begged for another flight; when that failed, she invoked Rule 240. Laura's experience presents the perfect opportunity to clarify once and for all what Rule 240 is and isn't. First, her story.
Hi all,
As a devoted reader of your site, I have read the multiple articles on the famous "Rule 240" which can sometimes assist the desperate traveler. Thus, when I saw that my return flight was canceled, I remained calm knowing I was armed with this knowledge. I had arrived a full two hours before my flight, and was extremely patient in the fifty minute wait to get to the counter. A different flight had also been canceled, and I watched with amusement as one man actually put his friend on speakerphone to confirm that weather was *not* an issue in Newark. I must say that the agent's face was a lovely shade of eggplant during this stunt. When I finally reached the front of the line, I was positive that courteousness and sympathy would cajole this harried staff into pushing me onto another flight.
At this point, it is important to give a bit of background. I am a full-time college student, so naturally money is always an issue. I had decided to fly home for spring break, and had booked it out in advance on Continental using my father's miles. I had the perfect setup: an early flight on Saturday + an evening flight on Sunday = maximum time with family and pets. I had an exam on Tuesday, and the review was Monday morning. Missing class was NOT an option. I was flying out of South Bend, Indiana into Manchester, New Hampshire- two very small airports which are both two-three hours away from the major hubs of O'Hare and Logan.
Now- back to the story. I asked if he could check whether or not there was an available route that would get me back to school (I stressed that the number of connections were not a problem) and he responded that the absolute soonest he could manage this was TUESDAY. I explained the issue with my exam, and was met with a blank stare. I decided it was time to drop the 240 line. He rolled his eyes and responded, "Well you can ask them," motioning to the other counters. I glanced at the Delta and United lines, which were approaching Disneyworld length, and politely requested that he check what would be available to me before I left the counter. He told me he could not do that. I asked if he could check Logan, figuring they would have many more flights. After no more than two seconds of glancing at his screen, he said that they had nothing. I then asked if he could specifically check Logan to O'Hare. This time he didn't even pretend to look- he just flat out said no. I was trying to remain calm, but I was almost in tears at this point. I was literally running up against a brick wall.
I hauled my bags down to the Delta counter. Once I reached the front, I quickly explained my dilemma to the woman. She gnawed on a red talon as she informed me that the Delta flight to Chicago was pulling back and there was no way I could get there in time. I almost lost it at this point- if Mr. Continental had gone the extra inch, I could have been on that flight. She was slightly more helpful in terms of willingness to actually use her computer, but produced no results. I got the basically same story at United.
Thankfully, my father saved the day. He went online and found a Southwest flight to Chicago leaving in about fourty minutes with a few open seats. Given the circumstances, we had no choice but to pay the exorbitant price for the last minute ticket. So much for saving money. I made it back to Chicago, but missed the bus back to campus by fifteen minutes. I had to wait another two hours to catch the next one (another $40, by the way), finally returning at 2 am. My car was still at South Bend airport, and I couldn't find a ride to collect it until Wednesday ($30 extra). The final kicker? A heavy baggage charge from DELTA randomly appeared on my credit card from the flight home (I hate dealing with Capital One).
Bottom line: I would not be writing this e-mail if the agent had offerend one iota of assistance or even sympathy. I know they are often the messenger who gets killed, and I always keep this in mind when I am dealing with them. Screaming at them is no more effective then screaming at your local gas station owner about prices. However, I expect this decency to be returned, and I truly feel that it wasn't. I urge EVERYONE to vote for the airlines (most especially CONTINENTAL) in The Consumerist's worst company contest… they are working harder than Hillary to win this thing.
Rule 240 does not exist. It was once a pillar of traveler's rights back in the good old days when regulators wore suits and ties to work and struck fear into the hearts of businessmen. The rule, which required airlines to rebook waylaid travelers on the next available flight regardless of airline, officially disappeared with the Civil Aeronautics Board in the 70s. However, even though it is no longer enforceable in the "I'll get my lawyer!" sense, it is worth asking ticketing agents to 240 you. Sometimes they are nice and help out. It didn't work for Laura, but it was well worth a try.
Still, we can't help but notice that the real disservice here is from Laura's college. Who schedules a midterm two days after spring break? That's just cruel.
(Photo: lunchtimemama)
Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.


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GREENWICH, Conn. -- Greenwich Hospital held its annual heart health fair in honor of American Heart Month on Wednesday, Feb. 26.
Coordinated each year by community health at Greenwich Hospital, the fair is a free community event that provides screenings, demonstrations and information on how to promote heart health and avoid heart disease.
Visitors had an opportunity to meet with cardiologists, dietitians, diabetes educators, holistic practitioners and other healthcare professionals.
In addition, visitors also checked their blood pressure, cholesterol and had pulmonary screenings.
Healthy snacks were provided to participants.


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london wrote:Hello ladies
I probably will nit find out until another six weeks but I have a sono this Friday where I will be 15 weeks and 3 days so I might find out then I hope so.
I have had like three nose bleeds and sinus headaches
I just pray that my babies are just healthy babies and growing on target
I cannot wait to find out so I can start decorating myself that is the best!
Good luck ladies on upcoming appointments
cymplicity27 wrote:faith, my round ligament pain stays in that area you described in the front...either on my right or left side between my pelvic bone and belly button. It never goes around to my back and only lasts about 2-3 mins. When I do feel it, it's pretty intense though! I don't think I could stand it for an hour. I did read that it's different for everyone. So maybe mine are more intense and shorter and yours are dull and last longer...who knows?! I feel mine a couple times a week and lately they've gotten more intense as my belly gets bigger.
MedStudentMom, I was told with my SCH that I would either spot/bleed until it was gone or my body would absorb it. Lucky for me my body began to absorb it pretty quickly so I think I only spotted a couple days. BUT I bleed really heavily with clots on the first day so maybe I just got rid of most of it up front.
faith77 wrote:Thanks for the help concerning the pain I was having yesterday. I ad my appointment today, and everything checked out fine, so DR is not worried, therefore- I will not worry. Just normal pregnancy pain and changes.
Onto the more interesting news.... It's a boy and girl!!!:) We couldn't be happier, all the testing and anatomy looks great and the dr seems to happy that we are progressing as expected.
Hope everyone else is doing well!
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LITTLE ROCK � Raised-up seams on the baseball used in college plus toned-down bats have all but extinguished the home run hope that is such a part of the game.
LITTLE ROCK � Raised-up seams on the baseball used in college plus toned-down bats have all but extinguished the home run hope that is such a part of the game.
Personally, the preference is a pitcher�s duel over a slow-pitch softball slugfest, but every-game shutouts get old and players and fans should be able to believe that most anybody can jack one out and make up a two- or three-run deficit. In today�s game, that isn�t going to happen.
Watching the futility of hitters in the College World Series, I wondered about Dave Van Horn�s position on the bats that came into play in 2011. Turns out, the Arkansas coach is OK with elimination of the so-called trampoline effect in the name of safety, but favors a transition to the ball used by the pros. That move, he believes, would increase scoring and reduce pitchers� blisters like the one DJ Baxendale dealt with last year.
Accompanying the word on Van Horn�s position was a link to an ESPN Sport Science show about the college baseball vs. the one used in the major leagues. Enthusiastic host John Brenkus said the seams on the college ball are higher by about the thickness of a post card. From there, he explained, the faster the ball spins, the more it breaks, spin is generated by grip; the higher the seams, the better the grip.
Pitching batting practice to 11- and 12-year-olds years ago, I needed higher seams to accentuate a dinky curve.
There is more, Brenkus said.
The seams create �drag� when the ball is hit, Brenkus explained. He said an MLB ball hit at a particular launch angle travels 395 feet while the college ball struck identically goes 376 feet. To me, that effect was even more dramatic than enhancement of the breaking pitch and the info reminded me how shallow the outfielders played in Omaha.
As a group, college pitchers are talented, but not as good as the numbers indicate.
For example, 4-0-1-1-4-4-1-2-0-0-1-1-1-0 were the runs scored by the losing team in the CWS. UCLA started 4-0 with five hits in two games and six hits in the other two. Nineteen of the 22 were singles.
During the CWS, THREE home runs were hit. In 2010, there were 32 homers in 16 games. After the bats were changed, there were nine homers in 14 games in 2011 and 10 in 15 games in 2012.
If the decline in home runs was exclusive to the CWS, I would be willing to place much of the blame on hitters fighting a prevailing wind in the new ballpark that faces in a different direction than Rosenblatt Stadium three miles to the south. But, the dearth of home runs is true throughout college baseball.
For example, Arkansas smacked a school-record 92 home runs in 2010. Reacting to the revamped bats, Van Horn has configured his teams differently, but the Razorbacks hit only 27 homers this year. In 61 games, their opponents managed 19.
The NCAA does not set standards for seams, but most conferences use the raised-seam ball during the season because it is the ball that is in play in NCAA tournament games.
Dave Keilitz, executive director of the American Baseball Coaches Association, said a couple of months ago that if all college coaches �think we need to have a flat-seam ball instead of a raised seam,� the NCAA might consider making that the rule.
The NCAA Baseball Rules Committee won�t consider rules changes until July 2014, so the raised-seam ball will be in play again next year. In light of that, get ready for another year of 3-1 and 2-0 scores, sacrifice bunts and suicide squeezes, and well-struck fly balls that die on the warning track.
Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media�s Arkansas News Bureau. Email: arkansasnews.com" >hkingarkansasnews.com.


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Autopsies Show Blast Injuries Killed Zarqawi, Rahman
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
BAGHDAD, June 12, 2006 - Abu Musab al-Zarqawi died of blast injuries sustained by the coalition bombing of his safe house June 7, coalition officials said today.
The officials also said that DNA testing proves that the body is that of the terrorist leader. "We have clear evidence he died of blast injuries," said Army Dr. (Col.) Steve Jones, the command surgeon in Iraq. "There is no evidence to suggest that he was beaten and I have no reason to suspect that happened."
Jones and coalition military spokesman Army Maj. Gen. Bill Caldwell briefed reporters on the results of the autopsies here today.
The results of autopsies on Zarqawi and Sheik Abd al-Rahman - Zarqawi's spiritual adviser - prove that both men died of massive blast injuries. Zarqawi survived for a time, but blast injuries to his lungs stopped oxygen from being absorbed into the blood.
"The cause of death was closed-space primary blast injury of the lung," Jones said. "Blast waves from the two bombs caused tearing, bruising of the lungs and bleeding."
The injuries cannot be seen without opening the body. "All the injuries found were consistent with those found on blast victims," Jones said.
Coalition experts conducted the autopsies to put an end to "speculation, misinformation and propaganda," Caldwell said.
The Iraqi people deserve the facts and the fact "that he was treated better in death than he treated his victims in life," Caldwell said.
Senior DoD pathologists conducted the autopsies. "Two medical examiners participated in each autopsy to ensure it was thorough and there were no questions about the findings," Jones said.
All coalition officials said that the bodies of Zarqawi and Rahman were treated with the utmost respect. "We treated them with the same high degree of dignity and respect that we treat our own casualties," Jones said.
Caldwell said coalition and Iraqi forces conducted 11 raids, mostly in the Baghdad region, on targets from information gleaned from the ruins of the house Zarqawi was killed in.
Related Sites:
Multinational Force Iraq [http://www.mnf-iraq.com/]
Special Report: Zarqawi's Death [http://www.defenselink.mil/home/features/2006/al_zarqawi/]
NOTE: View the original version of this web page on DefenseLINK,
the official website of the U.S. Department of Defense, at


text: |Table-top, food, product, and all commercial photography in Northern California, including Sonoma, Napa, Marin and Central California. Located in Sacramento, Sonoma County and San Francisco, California. Ad club Gold winner in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco. Read our Privacy Statement. Check our Site Map. Read About Bartone, and check out our wedding photography website. For the Great American Artisans project, click here.


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The ability to accurately measure and compare the energy use of commercial buildings is critical to improving their performance and increasing standards of efficiency. The compilation of performance data for the purposes of comparison and analysis will ensure new benchmarks. Recent building codes, such as the 2012 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) are aiming to increase energy efficiency in new buildings by 30% over the 2006 edition and 17% over the 2009 edition. In addition, policies, such as the Better Buildings Initiative are prompting partners in the private and public sectors to make America's buildings 20% more efficient over the next decade. Therefore, data collection is proving vital to gauging baselines of energy consumption and establishing benchmarks.
Although energy modeling, particularly when performed during the design phase, can be instrumental in making decisions regarding design, it can sometimes prove unreliable for predictive metrics. For instance, in 2008, Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) commissioned a study from the New Buildings Institute (NBI), White Salmon, Wash., which compared design intent to the actual performance of 121 buildings certified under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) New Construction (NC) ratings system. The study found that data reported by more than half the buildings deviated by more than 25% from design predictions, with 30% performing significantly better than predicted and 25% performing significantly worse.
A study released last November by NBI and developed jointly with Ecotope, Seattle, summarizes the extent to which operations and occupant behavior impact a building's energy use compared to design characteristics. "Sensitivity Analysis: Comparing the Impact of Design, Operation, and Tenant Behavior on Building Energy Performance" also makes recommendations for design teams, owners, and operators on what they can do to ensure the full potential for energy savings from efficiency measures is realized — and provides a broad perspective on how buildings use energy and what aspects of building energy performance deserve more attention in design, operation, and policy strategies. Most significantly, the study suggests that although the market generally assigns responsibility for building energy performance to the design team for aspects such as envelope, HVAC system, and lighting system features, operational and tenant practices have a significant impact on building energy use.
For example, decisions about the efficiency levels of the lighting and controls systems are fully under the purview of the designers, according to the report, but the ultimate effectiveness of the lighting controls is more in the hands of building operators and occupants. "The perception that energy performance is relatively set once the building is designed and constructed is not valid," explained NBI Technical Director Mark Frankel, an author of the report. "In fact, a significant percentage of building energy use is driven directly by operational and occupant habits that are completely independent of building design, and, in many cases, these post-design characteristics can have a larger impact on total energy use than many common variations in the design of the building itself."
Therefore, while computer modeling of buildings built to the 2012 IECC shows on average more than 30% better energy efficiency than those built to the ASHRAE 90.1-2004 model code, the real-world performance of the buildings (once they're built and occupied) may not meet that level. The effect of occupant behavior, in particular, on energy use is difficult to predict. Despite being built to correct specifications, buildings may not perform as well as their modeled estimates because of end-users' unpredictable energy use. As a result, the new code contains language requiring proof of commissioning once the certificate of occupancy is issued, which may also be used for compliance reporting after building occupancy.
An Explosion of Data
"There's definitely going to be a lot of measurement and verification of energy efficiency savings as a result of these national energy efficiency targets," says Eric Bloom, senior research analyst contributing to Pike Research's smart buildings practice with a focus on building systems, high-efficiency lighting and controls, and energy-efficient building design, construction, and operations. According to one of the firm's recent reports, advances in technology and the availability of much more detailed data and information on how buildings can use energy more efficiently have sparked growing interest in, and rising sales of, building energy management systems (BEMS).
Pike Research estimates worldwide revenue from BEMS, with North America leading the market, will increase at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 14% through the rest of this decade, reaching just under $6 billion a year by 2020. "The BEMS market is evolving rapidly and is enjoying a burst of innovation, leading to an explosion in the amount of data that is available on the energy performance of commercial buildings," says Bloom, who points to the ability of BEMS to benchmark buildings' energy use, efficient or inefficient, according to the prevailing average energy cost per square foot. "Just knowing how a building performs — and how it performs to comparable buildings — is a huge benefit in which few companies or building owners invested in the past."
In an additional report, Pike Research reveals that the market for the commercial building automation systems (BAS) is in the midst of revolutionary change in terms of technology and relevance to building energy management. From the 1970s until the mid-1990s, modern building automation consisted of individual systems, or silos, with simple control panels for switches, timers, and alarms. New systems, however, are designed to perform complex tasks and play a more central role in efficiency. Overall, the market for commercial BAS is expected to double over the next decade, increasing from $72.5 billion in 2011 to $146.4 billion by 2021.
Because commercial buildings consume roughly 23% of all electricity globally, the automation systems that improve, measure, and verify efficiency are a critical part of global energy management, concludes the report. "Software systems are being developed to listen in on data being produced by BAS and other sensors in buildings and using that data to tell the right people within an organization — be it the CEO, CFO, or facility manager — about how energy is being used in their buildings and how energy can be used better in their buildings," says Bloom. "It's really about the evolution of the technology itself."
According to Bloom, five years ago, there were no software systems that provided that type and amount of information. "There weren't that many buildings that had sophisticated enough building automation systems with digital controls that could actually feed this kind of information into any kind of software platform," says Bloom. "Today, there's more of a critical mass of buildings being built, and new buildings are much more intelligent than buildings built 10 years ago."
Integrating software with those systems allows building owners to get insight into how energy is being used. "As a result of the advance in technology, what's really happening is that energy is being transformed from basically an inevitable cost of doing business to something that can actually be managed," says Bloom. "More than anything else, it's just the availability of such a system."
However, despite significant growth and much publicity, the green construction and technology market still accounts for only a small percentage of the existing commercial building stock. Newer buildings built within the last 10 years may contain digital controls that can be updated. But older buildings, which may contain pneumatic or analog controls, are out of the market for installation of these types of energy management systems. "What you can do for an older building is replace old chillers or other HVAC equipment with more efficient equipment," says Bloom. "The payback, depending on how old and inefficient the building is, can be pretty strong." Yet, these buildings still need an energy use benchmark.
There Can be Only One
Since 1979, the U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) Office of Energy Consumption and Efficiency Statistics has been compiling and publishing the results of its national sample survey, the Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS), which it conducts every three to four years. The results provide the only national-level source of data on the characteristics and energy use of the existing stock of commercial buildings in the United States. "CBECS is meant to be a snapshot in time of what was going on in commercial buildings during the reference year of the survey," says Joelle Michaels, CBECS survey manager. "It represents commercial building stock as a whole."
The survey process includes an advance package of materials (including worksheets) that is provided to the building owner or operations contact a few days before the interview is conducted. The interview, usually conducted in-person by a professional interviewer using a computerized survey instrument programmed in-house by EIA using a survey processing language, covers many topics, including building size and use; ownership and occupancy; energy sources, uses, and equipment; and
energy consumption and cost. The average interview lasts around 30 minutes.
"There are questions about the building itself," says Michaels. "Those set up general questions about the building, and then we get more technical and more energy related."
The questions differ depending on building size, type, and use. "A huge hospital is going to have a much more complex interview than a corner store that basically is more residential in its systems," says Michaels. "A small building will have different questions versus a huge building with multiple systems. It varies widely."
In addition, the interviewer tries to get to the best source of information about the building and its energy use. "We contact the building owner, the building manager, the operations lead, or the energy engineer," says Michaels. "The type of information we get varies a lot by the type of person, so we're looking for the person who is knowledgeable about the energy use in the building. Ideally, if you have an operations and maintenance person, that's your best respondent."
If energy usage information is not available or if there are questions about the data provided, the building survey is followed up with an energy supplier survey. "If they can't provide the information or if it seems incorrect, we have some edit checks built into our instrument just to make sure the figures seem reasonable," says Michaels. "We ask them to sign an authorization form, and we'll go to their energy supplier."
Energy suppliers are consulted for about half of the CBECS buildings. Historically, the sample size totaled between 5,000 and 7,000 buildings. Unfortunately, due to budget issues, the database is missing the data from last two information-gathering cycles. In 2007, in an effort to save money, EIA contracted out the interview process. After reviewing the data, the office determined the CBECS 2007 data did not meet EIA standards for quality, credible energy information. As a result, EIA will not publish complete data tables from CBECS 2007 or release a public use file. "There was somewhat of an experimental approach used to update our frame for buildings — the list of buildings from which we will select buildings to interview — that were constructed," says Michaels.
EIA expected to save 30% of the usual survey cost, which equated to a few million dollars. "We've learned that we cannot cut corners on this survey," said Tom Leckey, director, Office of Consumption and Efficiency Statistics at EIA, in a press release accompanying the announcement that the results would not be published. "It delivered on the lower costs, but it did not deliver on the validity of the sample."
Then, in 2011, the survey was suspended as a result of budgetary cuts by Congress, which cut EIA's funding by 14%. Due to these setbacks, the latest available data dates back to 2003, forcing the programs that rely on it to date back almost a decade. For example, an office within EIA uses the data for its 30-year long-term energy use forecast. In addition, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Energy Star uses the CBECS data as an essential input into its Target Finder program, a no-cost online tool that enables architects and building owners to set energy targets and receive an EPA energy performance score for projects during the design process. Projects that earn a score of 75 or higher are eligible for certification and can be submitted for the Energy Star Challenge. USGBC's Building Performance Partnership (BPP) relies on CBECS data for the commercial sector, along with WegoWise for multifamily residential.
"There's been a 10-year gap in the CBECS," says Bloom. "Overall, business has become much more of an energy-intensive process, so companies are using more energy and, therefore, stand to benefit more from investments in energy-efficient technology. Now information technology (IT) uses so much more space in commercial buildings than it had in the past, and IT is obviously very energy intensive."
There are alternatives to CBECS. California customers have access to the California End Use Survey (CEUS), which has benchmarked 2,700 buildings. Gridium benchmarks with both CBECS and CEUS for California customers. ASTM BEP offers a standardized process for benchmarking. The National Institute for Building Science (NIBS) has proposed a High-Performance Building Data Collection Initiative, which NBI supports, as a path forward for collecting and disseminating data. The Green Building Alliance — now in consort with the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) — has been working for several years to develop its Database for Analyzing Sustainable and High Performance Buildings (DASH), a publicly available collection of data about building operation, maintenance, and performance, especially for green, sustainable, and high-performance buildings. Additionally, owners of multiple buildings can perform internal benchmarking, or they can arrange to trade data with owners of other buildings.
However, EIA has resumed preparations to conduct the next CBECS, with plans to field the survey between April and September 2013, with the energy supplier survey following. "We're finalizing our questionnaire right now and working on the sampling frame," says Michaels. "So we're doing all that right now in preparation to go into the field and do the survey in April. We're deep into the development of the survey."
The interviewers will collect data for reference year 2012. EIA expects to publish the first results of the survey in the first half of fiscal year 2014.
EIA will provide regular project status reports to the public throughout the course of the project. To safeguard the integrity of the data, EIA's status reports for CBECS 2012 will report on risk mitigation strategies undertaken to assure the delivery of the data. "For 2012, we're returning to more tried-and-true methods of updating the sampling frame that we are confident will provide accurate and reliable results," says Michaels.
Yet, there will be some changes for 2012. The sample size will be increased by 150%, meaning the target number of buildings for 2012 is around 8,500 buildings. In addition, a subset of buildings will be re-interviewed/verified using energy audit techniques. Finally, some interviews will be conducted by telephone in order to locate more knowledgeable respondents.
On May 15, USGBC hosted the 2012 CBECS Stakeholder Meeting. About 20 participants attended in-person and another 40 or 50 participants virtually attended via webinar, representing a variety of industries — including government, trade associations, real estate, energy consultants, advocacy groups, architects, engineers, laboratories, and equipment manufacturers. EIA presented its planned changes to the 2012 CBECS questionnaire and took comments from the audience on each section. "We have very extensive meetings with our stakeholders and got a lot of input on changes we should make and new questions we should ask," says Michaels. "So we are revising the questionnaire quite a bit to keep it relevant."
Still, Michaels speculates that some gains in energy efficiency will prove to be offset by increased energy use in commercial buildings. "You'll have existing buildings that aren't part of these energy-efficient initiatives," says Michaels. "So I'm not sure whether we'll see dramatic results or not."
According to Michaels, in addition to all the energy-saving policies and initiatives that have been implemented, there's also a lot more energy use occurring in buildings. "There are a lot more computers," she continues. "End-use has gotten more intensive at the same time as buildings have become more energy efficient, so those measures cancel each other out."


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Told from the point of view of a local bartender, this interpretation chronicles the rise and fall of George Remus, "King of The Bootleggers," who built a multi-million dollar operation from bootlegging and speakeasies during the early years of Prohibition. He is reputed to have supplied liquor to the Seelbach Hotel as well.
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nonhocapito » December 6th, 2016, 8:59 am wrote:dblitz » Today, 12:29 wrote:Vigilant Citizen has removed the link to his pizzagate article from his homepage.
This is interesting. VC has no problems making all sorts of assumptions into pedophilia and satanic rituals and super-vague secret elites just by commenting music videos, yet backpedals on creepy instagram and emails of Washington influential people connected to the Clinton Foundation and the current political scenario in DC... Alex Jones has also "disavowed" pizzagate saying that the "pizza place" cannot be the center of it all, innocent people can get caught in this etc etc. Yet, as I said earlier, it is incredibly easy to get closer to the "center" just by going to Washington and start talking to people in government, which none of the "independent media" is doing.
Bottom line, why the fake opposition isn't jumping on a story which after all confirms all of their assumptions and theories, all the pedo-elite stories that have been circulating since the eighties?
That is suspicious! Thanks for following this, nonhocapito (and dblitz). You always seem to have patience for things off my radar, and I appreciate your thoughts, even when just speculating. The sugar mountain and now a clusterfuck of pizza.


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$60.00 (Sales tax not included in item price)
10% of proceeds are donated to the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Cancer Research
Product Dimensions:
Vase: 5" tall
Arrangement: 9" tall
To purchase this one-of-a-kind arrangement please contact AJBees.
Due to the delicate craftsmanship of our flowers, shipping is not available.
This Item is pre-arranged and not available for customization.


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Welcome to Precision Custom Home Builders, a custom home building company committed to building quality homes that meet or exceed the expectations of our customers. At Precision Homes, we believe that a home is not just a place to live, it is a foundation upon which families create memories, raise children, and build dreams. It should be a place of warmth, security, durability, and beauty. Contact Precision Homes today to see how we can build a foundation for your memories.
Precision Custom Home Builders
PO Box 4115
Canton, GA 30114
Fully Licensed and Insured


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structural adhesive products fall under the LOCTITE® and TEROSON® brands. They are engineered to meet a wide range of industrial bonding, sealing and assembly requirements.
LOCTITE® structural adhesives are available in easy-to-use packages for hand-held, manual, and semi-automated applications, including cartridges, syringes, soft-squeeze bottles and dual cartridges for two-part formulations. LOCTITE® structural adhesives are also offered in larger packages such as 20 litre or 200 litre for high-volume dispensing and automated assembly operations.
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The Reef Education Centre has been transformed into a world class learning facility with educational wall graphics and fact sheets as well as 'touch and feel' display boxes for coral and shells. It features informative displays about the dive and snorkel sites around the Island and the marine creatures guests will find while snorkelling and diving. The Reef Education Centre is available for use by School, University and Research groups.
Learn more about the Great Barrier Reef and Lady Elliot Island during our fascinating evening presentations and documentaries shown in the Reef Education Centre. These interesting and informative shows will entertain and educate guests on the many wonders of the marine world.
Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort secured a grant in the 2011 round of the T-QUAL Grants — Tourism Quality Projects to upgrade the Reef Education Centre including wall graphics, fact sheets, orientation video, underwater website and adventure trails. The Reef Education Centre upgrade project was co-funded by the Australian Government under T-QUAL Grants. The T-QUAL Grant Scheme is a competitive merit-based grants program aimed at stimulating sustainable economic growth in the Australian tourism industry. By providing matched funding to large and small-scale tourism projects, the program aims to increase Australia's supply of quality tourism products and experiences.


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I love Twizzlers. I LOVE Twizzlers. they are the perfect (for me) candy. They are not too sweet, not sour, not bitter, they don't taste like chemicals, they don't leave grainy or gritty or sticky residue in your mouth. They're versatile: you can untangle them or chop them into little pieces or suck on them until they melt or nomnomnom a whole bag in one sitting. They're great for movies because they last a while and they don't melt all over your hands. You can use them as a straw if you have 7-up and some time. (Do not try this with milk; trust me on that one.) They don't get too terribly stuck in your teeth. They're delicious.
I love Twizzlers. I LOVE TWIZZLERS. And I can never eat one again, for as long as I shall live.
The moment I eat a Twizzler I will be on the floor having something close to a seizure. You see, there is something in Twizzlers that just doesn't work with my body. I'm allergic to red food coloring and there is not a single thing I can do about it. I can love Twizzlers with all my heart and it doesn't matter. They hurt me, every stinking time I try, no matter what I do to prevent it.
They can't help it, either; they are who they are and I am who I am and we simply don't work.
I ate them for a long time anyway, because the pain was worth it. Eventually the pain stopped being worth it. Eventually they were the bell and I was the dog - every time I saw them my head started to hurt, my body clenched up, and I braced for what was coming. Now I don't try anymore. Now I keep my distance and simply remember how much I loved them, once upon a time.
Sometimes if my kids leave a pack laying around, I'll pick it up and take a long, deep inhale. I love the smell of them still. Enough time and distance has made me able to enjoy, nigh savour, the smell of them and every happy childhood memory that smell brings back for me. (Except that milk bit. *shiver*) Sometimes when I'm having a weak moment, I want to lick one of them, just to test the waters and see if maybe, this time, after all this time...but I know what will happen, and I resist.
I've licked enough Twizzlers to know that the end result never changes. I can't will myself out of this reaction I have to a perfectly fine-for-someone-else piece of candy.
We simply don't work.
We never will.
So it goes.
This post that, while entirely true, has very little to do with candy, is brought to you by the letters M.E.T.A.P.H.O and .R, a healthy dose of DayQuil, and this very lovely post on BlogHer.com. Because this would have made a hellofalong comment.


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Spa Valley Railway » Enthusiasts » Jinty Appeal
Securing the Future of Steam on the Spa Valley Railway!
'Jinty' 47493 is the signature locomotive of the Spa Valley Railway. It was the first ex-mainline steam engine to be based on the railway and is perfectly suited for our operation, hauling many trains between 2004 and 2014. We now have the chance to make it one of our 'Crown Jewels' by offering it a permanent home, but we need YOUR HELP!
The locomotive has recently been offered to the railway and we have reached an agreement to purchase it. Our target for this appeal is to raise £130,000 towards purchasing 47493 and returning it to operation. We have secured a financial commitment to match fund any donation pound-for-pound up to a total of £50,000, if received before June 30th 2020.
Donations can either be individual donations or through a monthly covenant scheme. However we want to encourage the monthly covenants to guarantee regular income. Please encourage interested individuals to complete the Expression of Interest form here or send an email to email@example.com.
Please click here (1.7mb file size) to download the Convenator Mandate Form.
Booking with vTicket


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How to Use
the Readings
Inquiry Question
Reading 1: Early Years and Influences
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born at home on a cold January day in 1882 to Sara and James Roosevelt. Both he and his mother nearly died during his birth, although both recovered with good health. Mrs. Roosevelt was unable to have more children, and she always considered her son to be a precious gift. He was carefully protected by both his parents, given every advantage, and made to feel that all those living and working on the estate were there to serve his every want and need.
Although his parents indulged young Franklin, they did not want to spoil him. His mother taught him about manners, courtesy, and the proper way of behaving. His father, James, taught him the ways of a country gentleman, introducing him to political life and public affairs. James Roosevelt was a kindly, concerned gentleman who participated in many activities, both in Dutchess County and through business dealings in New York City. He was known locally as "Mr. James," a title of respect given to him by villagers for his involvement in Hyde Park's government and contribution to local affairs.
Following James Roosevelt's death in 1900, his wife Sara inherited Springwood. Inspired by stories of family history from his parents and relatives, Franklin Roosevelt became an amateur architect in his own right. However, Mrs. Roosevelt's usual reply to Franklin's suggestions for changes or improvements on the place was, "I think not Franklin. If it was good enough for your father, it is good enough for me." The major changes reflect Franklin's persistence as well as his abiding interest in architecture and the Springwood estate. In 1915, Franklin and his mother worked with an architectural firm from New York City to renovate and enlarge the house and to give it a new look. Springwood changed dramatically, transformed from a simple farmhouse with wooden clapboards in the popular mid-19th century Italian style to a grand stucco-and-fieldstone, early American style mansion. The changes included additional wings, updated electrical service, new plumbing, and space for Franklin and Eleanor's growing family.
In later years, Franklin's interest in architecture would contribute to the design of his presidential library, the only other major change on the estate during his mother's lifetime. In September of 1941, Sara Delano Roosevelt died at Springwood. Roosevelt allowed no changes to be made to the house or furnishings after his mother's death during his lifetime. Franklin died four years later. Roosevelt's architectural influence carried beyond Springwood. His preference for the Dutch colonial style with fieldstone construction extended to the Hyde Park public schools and post office, as well as Eleanor Roosevelt's nearby Val-Kill retreat.
The experiences of his early life at home as a protected, educated, and advantaged young man, in addition to his experiences in field, farm, and village shaped Franklin Roosevelt's experiences in public service later in his life. As Olin Dows, a family friend and neighbor explained:
From his relations with his neighbors he knew that a national, even a world problem, always came down to a personal problem. He tells us that when writing his fireside chat on the banking crisis he was trying to make these problems clear to his old friends and neighbors, to individuals in Dutchess County.¹
Questions for Reading 1
1. What kind of family did Franklin Roosevelt belong to?
2. How do you think the Roosevelt's life compared to that of a farm family or a Hyde Park village family? Do you think you would have enjoyed being a member of the Roosevelt family? Why or why not?
3. What did Franklin Roosevelt learn from his mother while he was growing up? What did his father teach him? How are they similar to lessons you have learned in your home life from parents, relatives, or other family members? How are they different?
4. Give some examples of how a person's home life can influence later life, in both a positive or negative way. How do you think the early years of life at Springwood and Hyde Park helped Franklin Roosevelt during his years of public service?
Reading 1 was compiled from Olin Dows, Franklin Roosevelt at Hyde Park (New York: American Artists Group, Inc., 1949).
1Olin Dows, Franklin Roosevelt at Hyde Park (New York: American Artists Group, Inc., 1949), Introduction.
1Olin Dows, Franklin Roosevelt at Hyde Park (New York: American Artists Group, Inc., 1949), Introduction.


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Puzzle Levels
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Download a FREE Solution for your puzzles!
4D City Scape Time Puzzle - USA
Product Information
|4D Cityscape
|500-999 Pieces, 3D
|Cardboard Box
|Total Pieces
Product Description
4D Cityscape allows you to build the history of the USA over the 4th Dimension of Time. Starting with the base layer, our unique jigsaw play showcases the evolution of the USA - based on territorial expansion from the year 1783 to 1900's. You then assemble the 2nd layer 'modern' jigsaw map - which showcases the formation all 50 states in a time sequence based on each State's date of established statehood. The third layer is constructed using the 4D Time Poster where 93 of the most famous US monuments & buildings are placed into the puzzle in the order that they were constructed.
The puzzle includes 93 plastic building replicas that depict the Country as far back as 1450 to modern day. The puzzle includes such iconic structures as Arches National Park, Mount Rushmore, and the St. Louis Arch. The buildings fit into pre-cut holes in a traditional 2D jigsaw puzzle that form the country's layout and Rocky Mountains. The product includes a Time Poster that directs you through time as you rebuild America's famous history.
Pieces: 950+
Dimensions: 66 cm x 43.1 cm x 5.1 cm / 26 in x 17 in x 2 in
Ages: 14+
Made by: 4D Cityscape
Model # 40008 v1.1
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Will Middlebrooks will likely always remember this day. It could be the first day of the rest of his baseball career. It could be his rebirth as a major league player.
It had better be.
Middlebrooks's second chance started Saturday night, batting ninth for the Red Sox. It's a long way from where the Sox had projected him when the season started. He and Mike Napoli were supposed to be the two righthanded power hitters in the middle of the order. Instead, Middlebrooks, who whacked 15 homers and knocked in 54 runs while hitting .288 in 75 games during a wildly impressive rookie campaign, spiraled into a sophomore jinx he couldn't spin his way out of.
Middlebrooks couldn't have asked for a much better night in the Red Sox' 5-3 victory. Middlebrooks had a two-run single in the fourth and an infield hit in the sixth. Both times he scored on a Jacoby Ellsbury double.
"It felt good. I just wanted to come contribute and help us win in some way,'' he said. "The first hit was a relief. Really just that first at-bat. After that first at-bat [a flyout to left], I was comfortable and I was seeing the ball well.
"[Royals starter Jeremy Guthrie] actually made a good pitch on the hit I got to right, got in on me and I just happened to squib it over the first baseman's head."
He's had two stints in Pawtucket, the last one a seven-week stay during which he watched while infielders Brock Holt and Brandon Snyder were summoned. It was tough to watch. The Sox had made it crystal clear that he was staying down awhile.
This was not a quick fix. Middlebrooks had to show consistency. He had to show he could handle adversity. He had to show that he was that can't-miss guy who once upon a time scouts would say, "Boy, the ball sure sounds different coming off his bat."
But Middlebrooks didn't feel very special after being demoted. Something had been lost.
Maybe he was a big leaguer in his own mind before he was truly a big leaguer.
A second chance. Yes, Middlebrooks can again show he is what he was last season — a stud in the making. And if these last few weeks, where he's been humbled, contribute to that, then great. One thing for sure, the Sox need his righthanded power at third base.
He said he took the following out of his Triple A stint: "Oh man, just not to take all this for granted because you can lose it really quick. I just take it day by day. I'm going to have fun."
He said he needed both a mental and physical makeover.
"Little bit of both. I don't want to say 'play safe.' But you're always looking out for yourself and your career and that can hold you back. Pretty bad habits. It feels good just to be able to go out and play and not think about it," he explained.
Middlebrooks admits "the first couple of weeks were tough. I didn't want to be there. I didn't see the big-picture things. I just saw the right now and that was being sent down. I lost my job. I didn't want to be here. I got over that. With [Pawtucket manager Gary DiSarcina] and [hitting coach Dave] Joppie down there, those are guys that have been [working] with me from the bottom up. It was a really good foundation for me to get my feet back under me and get back to the basics and start having fun again."
He claims he didn't take his career for granted, yet it looked like that from a afar.
"I didn't think I did,'' said Middlebrooks, who batted .192 with a .228 on-base percentage and .389 slugging percentage in 53 games with the Red Sox this season. "As you look back, there's some things you may have done differently. I don't know if I fully took it for granted, I just appreciate it a lot more.''
Middlebrooks realized he may have gotten caught up in the big league life and maybe he just didn't know how to handle it.
"I feel blessed where I'm at. It's been a long road. I'm happy to be where I am, especially in this organization. I think as a young guy in this market you can be caught up in a lot of the off-field stuff. A little bit of everything just snowballed on me. I didn't have blinders on like I normally do and just play baseball. I was worried about this and that. You can't do that and perform at this high level," he said.
It took a while to get going. At Pawtucket, his numbers weren't off the charts (.268, 10 homers, 35 RBIs, 25 runs, and 16 walks in 45 games). But he became more comfortable at the plate and according to Red Sox manager John Farrell they began to notice more consistency in his swing.
"Things started clicking for me," said Middlebrooks. "Feeling comfortable with some minor adjustments. Nothing too huge, not a big deal. Something that worked for me. Have all my direction going to the middle of the field. It's keeping me through the ball a little better."
He learned of his promotion when he got back to his hotel room Friday night.
"I wasn't expecting it. I didn't know when it was going to happen. I stopped thinking maybe it would be today, maybe it would be in a week. I was just playing baseball," he said.
Middlebrooks was fortunate. The Red Sox skipped over Xander Bogaerts, their top prospect. Bogaerts will continue to play some shortstop and third base, just in case Middlebrooks can't bounce back.
"I want to have blinders on again and just play baseball," Middlebrooks said.
What the Red Sox want is to regain their righthanded power, get Middlebrooks and Napoli being forces again. That's the way the Red Sox had drawn it up in February.
Nick Cafardo can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickcafardo.


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Log in to Purchase $14.99
JointedRail content is currently supported ONLY in Trainz 12 Build 61388 thru current Trainz: A New Era versions. Items may require connection to the N3V download station for dependencies.
Model and textures by Alex Kulik.
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Copy pasta'd coz I couldn't think of anything else. Dottie be proud. This'll be here for like months and months and months. XDD
And if anyone was counting, we're in the 3rd one now. Whoohoo. \o/
Fanfare. haha.
Newest one. Or, uh, newest one that I can claim credit for.
Full of noises and spatters and displacements and mosaics and clipping masks that I'm surprised it didn't explode.


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Interest free has a new look
Shop interest free for everything from a new 3D-TV, fridge, bed or even some jewellery1
Need extra cash?
With a Direct Credit you can have up to $3,000 in cash transferred into your personal bank account with one simple phone call.Find out more
Interest free shopping
Online shopping with interest free at over 9,000 stores around AustraliaFind a store
1. Available at participating retailers to approved applicants only. Conditions, fees and charges apply. Gem Visa is a credit facility provided by Latitude Finance Australia (ABN 42 008 583 588). Australian Credit Licence number 392145.


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Home > Patients & Visitors > Health Library > Caring for Adults With Autism
Although symptoms may change and even improve, autism is a lifelong condition that presents many challenges through adulthood. Whether an adult with autism lives in a group home, independently, or with family, he or she still requires parental or some support.
Just as children with autism vary in their capabilities, so do adults. Some autistic adults are completely dependent on parents or other caregivers, while others are able to live a semi-independent life.
Resources for adults vary by state and community, but vocational training programs exist in many areas. These programs can help eligible adults with autism work on daily living skills to help them be as independent as possible. Sometimes supported employment opportunities are available, which allow both training and employment for the disabled. Information about state programs can usually be found in the yellow pages of your telephone book under the state Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. Contact support groups or a health professional for help in finding regional programs.
Parents must plan for the future of a child with autism. The cost of care, eligibility for government assistance, and the individual skills and abilities of the child should all be taken into consideration. Some government services may pay in part or in full for your child's adult care, depending upon different factors, such as your income. Become familiar with tax issues and estate planning to ensure that your child will have proper care and necessary resources available should you die. If you have other children who have developed normally, include them in the planning.
Current as of: May 28, 2019
Author: Healthwise StaffMedical Review: John Pope MD - PediatricsKathleen Romito MD - Family MedicineLouis Pellegrino MD - Developmental Pediatrics
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Healthwise Staff
Medical Review:John Pope MD - Pediatrics & Kathleen Romito MD - Family Medicine & Louis Pellegrino MD - Developmental Pediatrics
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This question already has an answer here:
- Typeset an = with an ! above 7 answers
I'd like to have output an equals sign that has a small question mark over the top of it. (I'm proving an equation, but it is not obvious until the final step that the equation is true.)
Do I need to create a special symbol myself (via a macro, etc.), or is there already one defined?


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Lifelong Braves fan was talking to mom just before fatal fall
A lifelong Atlanta Braves fan who fell about 65 feet to his death at the team's stadium was waiting out a rain delay in a smoking area and talking to his mother on the phone shortly before the accident.
ATLANTA — A lifelong Atlanta Braves fan who fell about 65 feet to his death at the team's stadium was waiting out a rain delay in a smoking area and talking to his mother on the phone shortly before the accident.
Ronald Lee Homer Jr., 30, had just told his mother that the rain was letting up and he was about to head to his seat for the game against the Philadelphia Phillies. At least four witnesses told police that no one else was standing near him when he fell over a fourth-level railing into a parking lot for players.
"He said `I love you mom, and I said `I love you too' and that was it," his mother, Connie Homer, said in an interview on Tuesday morning.
Police said the fall that occurred around 8:30 p.m. appears to have been an accident and there was no indication of foul play. An incident report released Tuesday says Homer was unconscious and wasn't breathing when paramedics arrived. He was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
The frequency of such falls around the country – including two others in Atlanta in the past year – raises the question of whether stadiums are safe enough.
The Braves play the Philadelphia Phillies at 7:10 p.m. Tuesday at Turner Field. A team spokeswoman declined to comment on the circumstances of the death or whether safety changes were being made.
Connie Homer said her 6-foot-6 son followed the team through losing seasons as well as winning ones.
"It didn't matter if they were winning, losing or what – he's been a Braves fan forever," she said.
Homer, who always wore a Braves baseball hat, went to three or four games a month and watched every game that was televised, his father Ronald Homer said.
"This this is going to hurt us for the rest of our life," he said. "When you lose a kid, not only your kid but your best friend, too, it's bad."
Homer grew up in Conyers, Ga., and graduated in 2001 from Rockdale High School, where he was involved in student government. He was single, had one sister and did landscape work for a living.
"He was big hearted, just a great guy, very respectful," his mother said.
Neither the team nor the police have said how high the railing is in the area of the stadium where Homer fell. There were no cameras in the area.
Smoking is allowed in the area, which overlooks a parking lot used by Braves players. Though Connie Homer doesn't know details of how her son fell, she said he was a smoker.
Connie Homer said she's heard nothing from authorities as to what might have caused her son to fall.
"They called us up to the hospital and they told us he was gone," she said. "The whole thing is surreal."
An autopsy was planned for Tuesday.
Monday's accident wasn't the first fatal fall by a fan at Turner Field, and two other people fell from heights at the city's pro football stadium in the last year.
Isaac Grubb, 20, of Lenoir City, Tenn., died after falling over a railing at the Georgia Dome during a football game between Tennessee and North Carolina State on Aug. 31, 2012. Authorities said he landed on another man seated in the lower level, and that alcohol was involved.
A man fell about 25 feet over a staircase railing at a Georgia Tech-Miami football game in the Georgia Dome on Sept. 22, 2012 and was not seriously injured.
In May 2008, a 25-year-old Cumming, Ga. man suffered head injuries when he fell down a stairwell at Turner Field during a game between the Braves and the New York Mets and later died. Police found that alcohol was involved. The Braves have said the death was the first one at the park that didn't involve a medical condition.
Turner Field became the Braves' home in 1997, a year after serving as the site of events for the 1996 Summer Olympics.
Homer's father said the stadium should have been designed to prevent such falls.
"I would like to see the building built to prevent something like this happening to another family," he said. "It should have been better engineered from the jump-street when they built that stadium."
Associated Press Writers Johnny Clark and Charles Odum in Atlanta contributed to this report.


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Automatic cuts' effect on intelligence-gathering won't be obvious right away, Clapper warns.
The nation's top intelligence officer on Thursday said across-the-board budget cuts will likely continue for at least another year and are already forcing his agencies to take risks in doing without certain security-enhancing tools.
James Clapper, director of the Office of National Intelligence, spoke of "the three S's -- sequestration, Snowden and Syria" -- to an audience of several hundred at a daylong conference of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, a policy research group of retired officials and contractors.
In a talk heavily flavored by the ongoing impact of the leaks by former contractor Edward Snowden exposing the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance activities, Clapper said today's "diverse challenges present the worst array of threats I've seen in my 50 years." He cited al Qaeda terrorism, the Boston Marathon bombing, sequestration, the Middle East, Syria and Snowden. "But we will respond to all of them and focus like a laser, despite all the distractions," Clapper said.
Many people wrongly assume the 16 agencies that make up the intelligence community "were exempted from the sequester," Clapper said. "And it's not like longer lines at the airport or shorter hours at National Parks." With cuts to intelligence agency analysts and capacity, "you can't see or feel it for a long time -- it's insidious," he said. "Whatever you think of intelligence, you will have a lot less of it to complain about."
He said his team is "trying to make smart choices to protect investments" rather than "apply the salami-slice approach." One tenet is to "protect our most valuable asset—our people," he said. But "we can't sugarcoat it, in some areas we're taking higher risks by being in the mode of 'you can't do that' due to budget cuts." In areas such as cutting money for acquisition programs, it might work for one year but it is not "sustainable," he said.
Slamming Snowden as "not a whistleblower but a leaker," Clapper said: "If there is a good side to this story, it's that we're having some conversations that needed to happen. We were already focused for the long-term on insider threat detection, but probably not with the intensity we have now."
Describing the intel community's long-term adoption of a single information technology enterprise, Clapper said the innovation -- originally savings-driven but now focused on enhancing security -- might have detected Snowden earlier if it had been fully operational. "What we spend on IT is amazing," he added, noting sarcastically that his community's budgets and congressional justifications since the Snowden revelations are now familiar to all.
But the system has its problems, he hinted. "We're well past the euphoria of what a great idea this is and are now in the passive-resistance phase," he said.
Another response to the Snowden affair, Clapper said, is the community's need to accelerate security clearance refreshers for veteran employees. And the release this week of 1,800 pages of the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court's opinions on NSA domestic activities "refutes the allegation that the court is a rubber stamp for the NSA," he added. He said he expects Congress to make some changes in surveillance law.
Transparency, Clapper said, is important to "restoring the confidence of the American people in intelligence and in their leaders. But our adversaries go to school on it, too." He called the NSA "an honorable institution with a phenomenal workforce dedicated to conducting their mission lawfully." They are "appalled by Snowden," he said. The ex-contractor has made their "crucial work more difficult."
Recent weeks for Clapper have been "all Syria, all the time," he said. He cited with pride the community's recent report on the Aug. 21 deployment of lethal chemical weapons against hundreds of Syrian civilians, saying it reflected "improved tradecraft, analytic integrity and the red-teaming" increasingly used since the 2002 national intelligence estimate on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq turned out to be off-base. "It's a case of melding a collection of disciplines, with a heavy use of open sources," he said.
Clapper spoke emotionally of the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks by "a dangerous and agile adversary."
"We have reinvented ourselves and reconstituted the areas cut in the 1990s, repealing the peace dividend" the country enjoyed after the collapse of the Soviet Union, he said. Intelligence spending then was cut 22 percent. "We weren't as connected as a community," he said. But even today "integration of the intel community is a journey, not an end."
In response to a moderator's question, he said all in all the country is safer today and that the "huge investment" after 9/11 has paid off.
Like the Pearl Harbor attack of Dec. 7, 1941, Clapper said, people will remember 9/11 but they "won't dwell on it like they used to. The most important factor to contemplate on 9/12 is the focus on the centrality of mission."
NEXT STORY: Why Some People Have No Boundaries Online


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Last Sunday I was in Dublin for the highly successful Back to Our Past event. Whilst here I managed to catch up with Bob Blatchford, who along with wife Liz, was literally being swept off his feet in selling the new Irish Family and Local History Handbook (www.genealogical.ie). I grabbed a few words with Bob on my trusty camcorder - so here's the man himself, and thena few words form me on my thoughts on the book...!
I have literally been reading this book non-stop since I returned from Ireland, as it is packed with all sorts of articles of great interest to me. I've contributed to the book myself, but rather than blab about what I've done for it, here's a quick run down on some of the articles that I've read that have really stood out for me.
By far the article that has impressed me most has been Joseph O' Neill's Famine, Fear and Fraternity, discussing the migration of the Irish to Liverpool and Manchester during the famine. Two words to sum it up - bloody hell. It's a really powerful account of the hardship, discrimination and more that they faced in their new home. I've come across the situation in Scotland, but never really read an English account, and this one is absolutely top notch.
Claire Barlow's article on John W. Dulanty, effectively Ireland's first ambassador to the UK, is another unputdownable account, whilst William Roulston's articles on general Irish research and on Ulster Presbyterianism are close to definitive, as is Ann McVeigh's guide to the goings on at PRONI. Another enjoyable account by Stephen Wade looks at Dublin Castle and the mystery of the stolen crown jewels! FindmyPast Ireland's Ross Weldon provides a good backdrop to the online collection, accompanied by a case study, whilst Jayne Shrimpton's article on photography in Ireland is a useful guide also. There are also many useful explanatory articles on other collections, including from Karel Kiely (RootsIreland), Audrey Collins (National Archives) and various others.
I'm actually enjoying this more than the UK edition, but only because so much more of it is relevant to my background. Definitely a worthy accompaniment to the UK run, and looking forward to the next one!


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Inside the American Apparel Revolt
In Vote to Oust Dov Charney, Directors Cite Alleged Misconduct
It wasn't long after Dov Charney showed up at American Apparel Inc.'s board meeting this week that he learned he was there to be fired.
The controversial CEO and founder of the casual-clothes retailer had weathered years of lawsuits that alleged sexual harassment and abusive behavior in painfully explicit terms. But he reached the end after a group of directors troubled by his responses to some of the suits began to doubt his trustworthiness, a person familiar with the decision said....


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The First Ab Fab Movie Trailer Has Arrived!
Feb 18, 2016 2:10 PM EST
The first trailer for Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie has arrived and it's pretty darn fabulous. But only if your idea of fabulous is a low-budget commercial for wine coolers and cruises. In the one-minute teaser, Patsy (Joanna Lumley) and Eddie (Jenn… Read more


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WALTHAM, Mass. – Brandeis University junior lefty Mike Swerdloff (Scarsdale, N.Y./Ardsley) tossed a complete-game six-hitter today to lead the Judges past visiting Roger Williams University, 3-1, in non-conference baseball action on Stein Diamond today. With the win, the Judges improve to 7-28 on the campaign, while the Hawks fall to 10-22.
Swerdloff's complete-game performance was his second of the season, the fifth of his career and his first in a nine-inning game. He struck out eight opposing batters, the second-highest total of his career and three shy of his collegiate best. He threw 115 pitches on the afternoon, 87 for strikes. Swerdloff allowed just two base-runners between the third and seventh innings and improved to 2-4 on the season.
The Judges got all the scoring they would need in the fifth inning with only one ball leaving the infield. Rookie 2B Tom McCarthy (Bronx, N.Y./Fieldston School) hit a dribbler back to the mound that he legged out to lead off the frame. Roger Williams sophomore Ryan Motta (Dighton, Mass./Dighton-Rehoboth) hit Brandeis senior CF Zach Malis (Merrick, N.Y./Bellmore JFK) with a pitch to put the first two men on. With the runners in motion, sophomore LF Brian Ing (Sandwich, Mass./Sandwich) moved them into scoring position by fighting off a 1-2 pitch with a grounder to second.
Rookie SS Brian Allen (Salem, N.H./Central Catholic) followed with a ball up the middle that Motta deflected, allowing it to get past his middle infielders and score McCarthy with the first run of the contest. Rookie RF Zach Bardwell (No. Andover, Mass./Central Catholic), a high school teammate of Allen's, followed with a grounder to second base that was knocked down but not fielded cleanly, plating what proved to be the game-winning run. Motta was able to escape further damage with another grounder to second and a strikeout to end the inning.
The Judges added an insurance run in the seventh, when McCarthy led off with a single up the middle. After he stole second, Ing doubled to left field to make the score 3-0.
RWU broke through against Swerdloff in the top of the eighth. Senior CF Chris Comeau (Southbury, Conn./Pomperaug) led off with a hit to center field, turning it into a double with aggressive base-running. Comeau moved to third on a ground out to second, and Swerdloff issued his only walk of the game to rookie 2B Derek Jerome (New Nedford, Mass./New Bedford) on a full count. Hawk junior SS John Oppenheimer (Westport, Conn./Staples) laced the next pitch to center, but Malis was there for the catch and a strong throw prevented Comeau from tagging up. Roger Williams denied the shutout bid, however, when senior 1B Trevor Manzi (Beverly, Mass./St. John's Prep) singled to right. Swerdloff responded by getting a three-pitch strikeout to end the inning, fanning two more in the ninth to cement the game.
Offensively, McCarthy led all players with three hits, scoring two of the Judges' three runs. Bardwell was the only other Brandeis player with two hits, while Ing's double was their only extra-base knock.
For RWU, Manzi and rookie DH Joe Hock (Braintree, Mass./Braintree) each went 2-4 with a double. Comeau also had a two-bagger. Motta had a fine performance spoiled, as he went seven innings and allowed just the three earned runs. He gave up nine hits and struck out seven without issuing a walk.
Brandeis takes on Endicott College Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. in Beverly, Mass., while RWU hosts Commonwealth Coast Conference leaders Western New England College in a noon doubleheader the same day.


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Vintage Embroidered Strap - Havana
Product Details:
Actual Strap Pictured - Works as Bag or Camera Strap
Crafted with Full-Grain Leather
Carry your bag or camera in style with a one of a kind, eye-catching strap! All of our embroidered straps are crafted with repurposed vintage belts (called fajas) and feature traditional intricate embroidery from the Maya weavers.
Striped Backing. Thick Lining. Silver Hardware. Keyring clip-on camera style.
Includes small dust bag. Artisan card. Friendship bracelet.
No two straps are the same! Hiptipico prides itself on uniqueness and authenticity. Every Hiptipico product is 100% handmade and has the human touch of the weaver and maker in each stitch. This makes our products uniquely charming and distinct from factory-made accessories. No two are exactly same and imperfections are to be expected and appreciated.
Community Impact:
Our embroidered straps are part of our Market Collection, which features textile treasures from Maya villages all around Guatemala, a country world famous for its intricate textiles and hand-embroidery. This collection is all about art appreciation and revival! When purchasing textiles for crafting our artisanal straps, we make it our priority to select only fajas that could no longer be worn to truly give them a second life.
Size: approx 42 inches long and 3 inches wide.
Origin: Momostenango, Totonicapán
Ethnicity: Maya K'iche'
Don Vicente and his family have a quaint home workshop and local storefront in Panajachel. He comes from a family of rural sheep farmers and at a young age, he moved to Pana to start working with artisan goods. Over the years, he and his wife Ofelia have acquired impeccably curated collection of Mayan textiles that they use to elaborate unique designs with unbeatable craftsmanship. They're passionate about incorporating the authentic Mayan culture into their work and passing these artisan techniques down to their children.


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Hello Torque community!
This is a brand new forum section (thanks @ LukasPJ!) devoted to discussion and support for my Torque based application, MegaMotion, which you can find here:
MegaMotion is the final version of the product that used to be called "Ecstasy Motion". (You can look that up on YouTube for more info.) The purpose of MegaMotion is to help animators and film makers generate quantities of character motion using game industry tools like behavior trees, navmeshes, steering AI, and physics simulation.
There are two versions of MegaMotion: the free trial and the full version for a (currently) $99 indie license. The only difference at the present time is that the full version allows export of sequences into BVH motion capture format, so that you can import them into many other applications. This means that as Torque developers, you can use the free trial version to generate dsq sequences all day long. I do intend to put together a "non commercial use" license or something similar, that basically asks you to buy a license anyway if you are actually using it to make money, but that's down the road and it will be voluntary/nagware anyway, so feel free to work it into your pipeline if it helps you in any way.
My code is also shared, all except for the export BVH part, up on github at github.com/MegaMotion. Please consider this a gift back to the Torque community for all your hard work!
Expect a lot more documentation as time allows, but the main takeaway is this: on the Scene tab, there are two buttons called Start Recording and Stop Recording. Start Recording causes every actor in the scene to start recording all of its motions into a buffer, and Stop Recording causes that buffer to be saved out as a dsq file.
That's the short story, the long story is that inside the program there are many different tools and things you can mess with to get the content you want.
It starts with the sequence editing/cropping tools, which are designed to enable you to very quickly extract useful short, often cyclical, crops from longer motion capture takes. For this purpose I have taken over Torque's "groundframes" concept, which in stock Torque is used only for death animations (to the best of my knowledge). In MegaMotion, I use groundframes to store all movement around the world, so that when you repeat a locomotion animation like walking or running, the character will continue moving forward instead of looping over and over from the same starting position.
The other major component outside of motion capture input is physics simulation. I have working ragdoll physics, which can be recorded the same way as anything else - once you hit Start Recording, anything the character does goes into the recording, whether it's running around the block or flying through the air. I have made an effort to make the ragdolls as realistic as possible, including conservation of momentum so that a running character continues falling forward as they ragdoll. It is also possible to apply impulse forces, or angular forces, to any bodypart at any position, so you can easily generate realistic headshot/gutshot/etc ragdolls to your heart's content.
There are several features of Ecstasy Motion which I was forced to cut out in order to ever get anything to the finish line (FBX support, Kinect support, OptiTrack support, to name a few) but one thing that I do plan to incorporate as soon as I am able is the concept of joint motors. When I made the big switch from PhysX2 to PhysX3 that was one of the casualties, but it is too important to lose: in Ecstasy Motion, it was possible to not only ragdoll a character, but to use joint forces to play an animation using physics. I won't go into more detail here but for the record, that is also on the way.
The other big things you can do with MegaMotion, however, involve steering and behaviors. Once you have made some useful clips for yourself, like a sexy walk for your lady character, you can then apply that sexy walk to moving your lady character all around the world, using Torque's recast/detour navmeshes and BadBehavior's behavior tree system.
I have also implemented a concept I call "Action Sequences", in which you can have generic action names, like Walk, Run, Idle, Attack, Block, etc., and then on the fly you can assign different animations to fill these roles. This is so that you can build behaviors involving eg your "Run" action and you don't have to name the specific animation you are using, and the behavior will work fine with whatever run you have currently set. (NOTE: this is how the system works in theory, in practice at the moment it is a little buggy, and/or completely broken, but I'm working on it.)
I have also incorporated the OpenSteer open source multi agent steering library, which allows characters to avoid each other while using the navmesh. This implementation is not perfect, but it is much better than nothing.
Finally, in order to create a User Interface by which to share all these powerful tools, I ended up creating my own database-driven UI system, which is also exposed to the MegaMotion user. And while we're discussing databases, I use SQLite for storage of all data, and I included a free utility called SQLiteStudio for browsing and editing the database.
This is getting long already so I'll stop, but I just wanted to make a formal introduction here so everybody knows what I'm talking about, and invite everyone who hasn't done it yet to download my free trial and give it a whirl. It's a 400M download, just so you know, mainly because I've included a 200M, 2000+ anim CMU motion capture library, converted into DSQ format, so that people will have something to work with immediately. I expect some issues when it comes to people importing their own BVH files (it will be possible, but at least at the beginning it will be not as easy as it should be) but the CMU dataset should get people started.
Oh, finally, last thing...
To make things easier, I have supported only one character model so far in MegaMotion, and he is a DAZ3D Michael4 character. In the future I hope to have at least a few characters, including a female as well as some kind of generic box figure or robot - but the main point of the program is that what it looks like in MegaMotion isn't relevant, you are supposed to export BVH files and then use them on your own characters to create your final product.
That being said, I also really hope to be able to support makeHuman characters soon, and then the door will be wide open for people to create whatever human figures they want. But one thing at a time.
Anyway, that's the short story of MegaMotion. I'm working on the slow, soft release strategy here, because I know I need a ton more tutorials and sample scenes and sample behaviors and bugs fixed and more features added, but I'm hoping to work my way toward actually making some sales with what I have, among the more intrepid explorers and early adopters out there, in order to make it easier to devote actual work time toward finishing the rest of what needs to get done. Ultimately I intend to market it all over the internet on sites where people buy models and animations, but we're taking it one weekend at a time here so I can't say how far out that day is.
If you do try it out and end up with questions or bug reports, please use this new forum to report them.
Thanks for listening, and happy devving!


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Title Sponsor: Broadcom Foundation
Broadcom Foundation extends sponsorship of MASTERS to 2021
Broadcom Foundation
Founded in April 2009, the Broadcom Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation with its main mission to advance science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education by funding research, recognizing scholarship and increasing opportunity.
The foundation inspires young people to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) through its signature programs, the Broadcom MASTERS®, the premier science and engineering competition for middle school students around the world and Broadcom Presents: Design_CODE_Build.
Learn more at www.broadcomfoundation.org.
Broadcom Limited is a diversified global semiconductor leader built on 50 years of innovation, collaboration and engineering excellence.
Broadcom's extensive product portfolio serves multiple applications within four primary end markets: wired infrastructure, wireless communications, enterprise storage and industrial. Applications for our products in these end markets include: data center networking, home connectivity, broadband access, telecommunications equipment, smartphones and base stations, data center servers and storage, factory automation, power generation and alternative energy systems, and displays.
Broadcom combines global scale, engineering depth, broad portfolio diversity, superior execution and laser-like operational focus to deliver category-leading connectivity products so its customers can build and grow successful businesses today and in the future.
Broadcom CEO, Scott McGregor, announces Broadcom MASTERS, a program of Society for Science & the Public


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On my own blog (http://beyond-the-political-spectrum.blogspot.com/) I recently outlined where the various GOP candidates stood on the issues. A couple of Tea Party favorites are also favorites of Evangelical Christians. The last time religion and politics mixed with a policy, we got Prohibition, and we all know how that ended. Should politicians be allowed to bring their religious beliefs into politics (or policy)?
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