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Los Conquistadores was the name of a professional wrestling tag team in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) with the team consisting of two masked wrestlers known as 1 (or Uno) and 2 (or Dos). The original team consisted of Jose Luis Rivera and Jose Estrada, Sr., but several other wrestlers made use of the gimmick in 2000 and 2003. The original costume was golden spandex bodysuits and golden masks, but later teams have varied it to blue and gold Japanese-style wrestling masks with elaborate shoulder pads while still using the name.
The OriginalsThe original Conquistadors were a foreign heel masked team consisting of José Luis Rivera and José Estrada (Sr.) two Puerto Rican wrestlers (but billed as "from somewhere in Latin America") who were used mainly to make other teams look good in the ring. The full golden bodysuits and masks meant the two were immediate attention grabbers, but as the losses piled up, it became clear they were not destined for greatness. The Conquistadors won so few matches that it was considered an upset if they beat mid-card teams such as The Killer Bees or The Rockers or even fellow "jobber team" The Young Stallions.
The sole highlight of the Conquistadors' 1980s stint was their first and only pay-per-view appearance, as part of the 10-team (20 man) elimination match at the Survivor Series 1988. The Conquistadors and the Powers of Pain were the last two teams left in the ring. They were bit players in the double turn of The Powers of Pain and Demolition, which came about when Mr. Fuji attacked Demolition and joined forces with the Powers of Pain. The Conquistadors remained in the ring for over 5 minutes while The Powers of Pain and Demolition battled outside the ring. The Conquistadores lost when Mr. Fuji tripped up Uno and Barbarian hit him with a headbutt to win the match for the Powers of Pain.
The team spent the rest of 1988 and 1989 losing to established teams, except for a surprising victory over The Rougeau Brothers in Canada. In 1989, Conquistador #1 (Rivera) started to appear on his own as "The Conquistador" while #2 (Estrada) appeared only sporadically before both masked men left the WWF.
During 2000, The Hardy Boyz and Edge and Christian feuded, competing in the first-ever Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match (TLC) match. The Hardy Boyz captured the WWF tag team championship in a steel cage match at Unforgiven. The next day they were scheduled for a Ladder match for the tag belts. Commissioner Mick Foley stipluated that if Edge and Christian lost, they would not get another title shot for the duration of the Hardy's title reign. Edge and Christian lost the match.When Los Conquistadors made their "shocking return" weeks later, they didn't look physically like Rivera and Estrada but instead looked and acted more like Edge and Christian, a suspicion that was boosted by Los Conquistadors immediately targeting the Hardy Boyz in the hopes of getting a shot at the titles. They later won a tag-team battle royal on SmackDown! to earn a title shot. After the match, Los Conquistadors were congratulated backstage by Edge and Christian. Since they were seen with Los Conquistadors, Edge and Christian claimed there was no way they could be Los Conquistadors, as people suspected. Their title shot came at No Mercy, where they defeated the Hardys using tactics similar to those employed by Edge and Christian, especially when Conquistador Dos hit the Unprettier (Christian's finisher) for the win. Backstage, Edge and Christian (who looked like they just came out of the showers) politely challenged Los Conquistadors for a title shot the next night. On Raw, Edge looked confident as he made his way to the ring. Edge found Christian backstage seemingly put through a table. So, Edge was left to fight the Los Conquistadors by himself. Edge was shocked when Los Conquistadors put up a fight and quickly defeated him. When Christian showed up at ringside, Los Conquistadors unmasked themselves, revealing themselves to be Matt and Jeff Hardy. They explained that they had attacked Edge and Christian's hired goons (Christopher Daniels and Aaron Aguilera, who had doubled for Los Conquistadors in backstage segments) backstage and stole the costumes.
As Edge and Christian complained, it was declared that Edge and Christian's title victory the previous night was official. At the same time, because the Hardy Boyz had just defeated the champions, he ruled they were now the tag team champions. After being outsmarted by the Hardy Boyz, Edge and Christian gave up the golden costumes of Los Conquistadors. Due to the stipulations, the title reign of the Hardy's that Edge and Christian were banned from challenging had ended when "Los Conquistadors" had won so Edge and Christian could wrestle for the titles again without disguises.
On the July 17, 2003 edition of SmackDown! Rob Conway and Nick Dinsmore assumed the roles of Los Conquistadors in a match in which they were defeated by Rey Mysterio and Billy Kidman. Unlike previous versions of Los Conquistadors, Conway and Dinsmore wore blue and gold masks with exposed mouths, similar to the mask of Último Dragón, along with blue shoulder pads.
On July 27, 2003, another set of Conquistadors participated in the APA Invitational Barroom Brawl Match at Vengeance, where they were soundly beaten up by the APA. In this case, the men under the masks were Rob Conway and Johnny Jeter, who were both working in Ohio Valley Wrestling at the time.
In wrestling
- Finishing and signature moves


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Book: W.H. offered Craig judgeship
President Barack Obama tried to avoid a high-profile ouster of his original White House counsel, Gregory B. Craig, by coaxing him out of his job and into a federal judgeship, according to a new book.
Craig declined Obama's offer, and his forced removal — which he learned of while reading the morning paper — caused a backlash by Craig's Washington loyalists, who felt he was being treated shabbily, and by many liberals, who believed he was being punished for trying to fulfill Obama's failed campaign promise to shut the terrorist detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Story Continued Below
The details on last fall's Craig imbroglio are among the revelations in Jonathan Alter's "The Promise: President Obama, Year One," a behind-the-scenes narrative of the administration's first year that comes out Tuesday.
In the first substantial, reported book about the Obama White House, Alter explains that Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel felt Craig was trying to build up his own mini-National Security Council instead of focusing on bread-and-butter legal issues.
Emanuel became furious after Craig, in an apparent show of solidarity with former detainees, traveled with four Chinese Muslim Uighurs from Guantanamo to Bermuda.
Obama called in sympathy after The Washington Post story about his ouster, and Craig said nothing critical about Obama when Alter talked to him.
Craig isn't the only person to have run-ins with Emanuel, who plays to his reputation as a trash-talking, F-bomb-dropping operative in Alter's 458 pages. The book contributes to an emerging perception of a male-oriented West Wing where aides jostle for position through locker-room badinage.
Certain employees loved when "Rahmbo" called them "princess."
Others didn't.
"Take your f—ing tampon out and tell me what you have to say," Emanuel told an unnamed male aide during a meeting in his office, wrote Alter, who asserts that reports Emanuel "mellowed over time were untrue."
Emanuel denied that he harassed Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) in the shower of the House gym, but Alter reports that Emanuel did dress down Massa over the phone.
The book offers new evidence of early tension between the White House and Democratic leaders in Congress. Speaker Nancy Pelosi fumed in Jan. 2009 when Obama said he had "no pride of authorship" in the stimulus bill, despite how hard he lobbied Democrats to take the politically costly votes for it. Emanuel encouraged conservative Democrats to criticize the package so Pelosi would strip out unpopular sections.
"The president threw me off the truck," Pelosi said privately.
Obama's nickname for Larry Summers, the chairman of the National Economic Council, is "Dr. Kevorkian," Alter says. The president made fun of him for falling asleep at meetings and sweating in winter.
Summers had been Harvard's president, but he stepped down after an uproar over comments he made about women's scientific abilities. That made him sensitive to criticisms of sexism after Christina Romer balked that he tried to cut her out of important meetings.
"Don't you threaten me," Summers yelled at Romer, in Alter's telling.
"Don't you bully me," Romer shot back.

subset: commoncrawl


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A sentence for the word assault. Journalists, word game players, and readers may find this page particularly useful. The lines of text below use assault in a sentence, and provide visitors a sentence for assault.
Also see sentences for: attack, charge.
- Andrew flew into such a rage that he committed an assault on the man. (10)
- Edward Blancove credit for not meaning to be active in a dastardly assault. (10)
- Evan thought him half-mad; the waggoner was about to imagine him the victim of a midnight assault. (10)
- He could oppose only a paralyzed smile to the assault. (10)
- He dashed some laughter with gravity to prepare for my next assault. (10)
- How gallantly he would have rushed to the assault, and taken her by storm! (8)
- It was easily perceived that Lord Ormont stood expecting an assault at any instant; prepared also to encounter and do battle with his redoubtable sister. (10)
- Now, tell me what you know of the assault on the constable. (8)
- On his recounting the circumstances of the assault, they were taken down and read over to the defendant with the usual warning. (8)
- The doctor, he said, had been severely shaken by the monstrous assault made on him, and had been most unrighteously handled. (10)
- The extreme gravity of her large face dispersed all idea of an assault. (10)
- The right wing of my own regiment was thrown slightly backward to threaten the flank of the assault. (7)
- Theft of a silver cigarette-box and assault on the police; the two charges were taken together. (8)
- Then for an instant she would pause to hear the voice, and renew her assault. (10)
- We shall have to charge him with the assault, sir. (8)
- You never saw a fortress more unprepared for dread assault. (10)
Glad you visited this page with a sentence for assault. Perhaps also see a sentence for abandoning and ways to use abandoned in a sentence. Now that you've seen how to use assault in a sentence hope you might explore the rest of this educational reference site Sentencefor.com to see many other example sentences which provide word usage information.People looking for: use assault in a sentence, assault sentences, assault use in sentence, sentences with assault, assault in a sentence, assault used in a sentence, sentence assault, sentences for assault, what is a sentence using assault, visited this page.


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Meal Prepping: My #1 Weight Loss Tool + a Roasted Garlic Rosemary Chicken Recipe/
Exsoycise is now Awakened Nutrition & Training, a blog for health seekers, food lovers and dream body builders!
If you knew me about 6 years ago, you would have laughed at the thought of me being a healthy eater much less a health coach. I had just moved to NYC and my time as a vegetarian was coming to an end. I can see how when one would hear me say "I was a vegetarian", that would lead you to believe I was health conscious. But let me tell you, I was so far from the picture of health! I was the girl eating pizza at 2am after a long night of drinking and partying, and I loved any and ALL desserts that NYC had to offer. I mean, you can't move to NYC and not enjoy some of the best foods on Earth, right?
I often times, I would forget to bring my lunch to work and order food that I know wasn't great for me usually under the pressure of co-workers. Or I'd have a fridge full of random food and I wouldn't know what to cook. The next thing you know, I'd be so ravaging hungry that I'd end up ordering take-out or another poor food choice - like a tub of ice cream in the freezer or an entire jar of peanut butter.
I was already heavy when I moved up here, but with all the amazing foods I was eating the scale continued to go up and my closet was also expanding from having to buy larger size clothes as my waistline expanded.
I was not happy with how I looked and despite how bad I wanted to lose the weight, I was never able to achieve my weight loss goals mainly because I didn't know where to start. I was so tired of falling back into my old habits of crash dieting and needed a serious change!
Luckily, I started dating Chris and he came to my rescue like a knight in shining armor! He taught me about foods, like clean proteins, complex carbs and health fats, that I should to eat to nourish my body and workouts I should do in order to create lean muscle.
I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what food I should eat for the week and even more time putting them all on an excel spreadsheet. Meal planning became even more of a struggle for me once I did an allergy elimination diet and realized I was allergic to soy and intolerant of dairy. I soon realized that it's nearly impossible to find packaged foods at the store that were both soy and dairy-free. I had many "freak out" moments in the aisles of the grocery store when I realized I could no longer enjoy many of the foods I had loved my entire life.
It was a struggle for me at first, but I soon learned that these foods were acting as poisons to my body causing me to stay in a constant state of inflammation, hold onto body fat, and causing me to have a leaky gut. Once I cut out most processed packaged foods and started incorporating more whole foods by planning and cooking my meals each week, those stubborn pounds started to come off which resulted in 17lbs of weight loss in the first year.
Meal planning over the years has helped me to transform my body and take a lot of stress out of eating a soy, dairy and gluten-free diet. AND I almost always start noticing a shift in my weight when I start to stray away from planning and preparing my meals regularly. You can look back at many past blog posts where I have "gotten back on the wagon" using meal planning. It's really such an easy and effective tool.
It's been my goal over the last few years has been to show my clients and blog readers that cooking and eating healthy foods, even when dealing with food allergies or sensitivities, does not have to be difficult or boring; it can be an easy process and taste delicious at the same time! That is why I rcreated the 4-Week Soy, Dairy & Gluten-Free Meal Plan and recipes just to share with all of YOU!
The 4-week meal plan is the perfect jump-start to help you get back on track with your health and wellness goals after the holidays without having to follow some fad diet. You don't have to let poor food choices get in the way of achieving your goals any longer! Let healthy wholesome food be the solid foundation for achieving your own transformation!
Maybe you are also soy, dairy and/or gluten-free and are looking for some easy-to-make recipes or maybe you just want to incorporate more whole foods into your diet in order to shed a few pounds or maintain your current weight. Whatever your reasons for wanting to be the healthiest version of YOU possible, these meal plans are loaded with so many great recipes and tips that will help!
But I really want you to be successful whether you buy my meal plans or not, so I've completely revamped the FREE 7-Day Meal Plan, that many of you all have already downloaded! It now includes 15 delicious recipes, an easy-to-read 7-day plan, and an exact list of what you need to buy from the grocery store. I want meal planning to be as simple as possible for you guys because I know that it's one of the key tools that will help you make daily healthy food choices to maintain your ideal body weight and remove inflammatory foods that are making us sick and fat. You can grab the new copy of the FREE 7-Day Meal Plan HERE. I'm so excited to hear how you guys like it!!
I wanted to share one of my favorite entrée recipes with you from the meal plan. I seriously make it just about every week and it's so easy! It's also a great dish to serve when you have guests over for dinner. When I made it this last Thursday, I also added 1-2 teaspoons dried Thyme and 1 tablespoon dried Sage that came from Chris's mother's garden – such a treat! You can really add any herbs to this recipe and it would taste amazing!
Roasted Garlic Rosemary Chicken Breast and Legs – 4 Servings
From Week 4 of the 4-Week Soy, Dairy & Gluten-Free Meal Plan
- 2 bone in organic chicken breasts and 4 legs with skin on (I get the pack from Trader Joe's)
- 3-4 cloves garlic cut into thick slices
- 1 ½ tablespoon coconut oil melted
- 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spread about 1 tablespoon coconut oil into bottom of a 9x13 pan.
- Cut garlic into thick slices and chop rosemary. Salt and pepper the bottoms of chicken, then place into pan skin side up. Separate and lift up the skin, place 2-3 slices of garlic under the skin and make sure they are covered under the skin. Brush the tops of the chicken with ½ tablespoon coconut oil, sprinkle rosemary, salt and pepper to taste.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or until done. Enjoy!


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I was delighted and relieved to be over the testing. Did I say relieved !! Seriously relieved, so much I forgot to pack my arrows to take home. A huge weight was off my shoulders. However soon to replaced with the increased weight of a new challenge…Sandan.
This is the getting Kyudo serious level. I heard it was Yondan, but now they are tightening up now even at Sandan. So Sandan is like a brown belt and Yondan is real black belt. From the preview of this week's exams I can see reaching Sandan is to be bigger ( an more valued ) challenge. I some say, (I heard through the tsuru), this past test was more like real Japan testing, no giveaways ! So like Zanshin is really the beginning of the next shot, this was the beginning of the next test level training. I really want to nail down things for the test next year. It will be a real challenge, Shugyo Renshu for the year. With less than 360 days to prepare, training starts now…but on what ? Smoothness over all, more spirit, more power, less power, wider stance, narrower stance, Nobei? See where I'm going with this.
Here is an unofficial summary of the testing results from Friday:
1 – Nikyu
25 – Ikyu
29 Shodan
12 Nidan (out of 15)
3 Sandans (out of 13)
2 Yondans (out of 18)
2 Godans ( out of 10)
From looking at these scores at Nidan – Sandan is where the crack down starts. Three out of thirteen passed , wow!
These test are good in that they let one see how their skill stands up to the traditional set standard, international…hmmm, Japanese standard I guess is the best description.
However the bad part of what I see is that, even though if you fail you will push yourself more next time. However there is no feedback system setup to let you know where you are weak in skills. Ok, in Kung Fu there is this saying, thought, teaching that if you do something 1000 times, kick, punch etc, you will understand the practice item and do it correctly…suppose you do this "practice item" 1,000 times incorrectly because no-one told you it was wrong. In this training, Kyudo, one can shoot 1000 arrows but do it wrong 1000 times, how do you really learn? From your Sensei, ? He/She said you were ok, before you came to the testing grounds. If pass fine, but if you do not…?
I suppose one could follow the philosophy that if you practice everything , the area you are the weakest will also improve. The shotgun approach. Is it efficient … Hmmmm , I wonder…?
I just had an idea, for feedback. Since there is already a record of who is what number, the Judges make notes beside the number, the local Sensei gets the note after the seminar and discusses it with the student. ii, ne !?
I think the part about only the judges from Japan can do the rank test is good. That way there is no local favorites involved in the process. I was told the way to pass these test is to remember the correction(s) you received when being watched at the seminar and do the correction at testing time. I think that is only part of it. That would be too simple, Kyudo is more complex than that. Also watching the higher levels it seems more complex than that. Perhaps this is true at the mudan, shodan, Nidan level. With the high ratio of failures starting with Sandan I would think there is another factor involved. I wonder does Nihon have these same number ratios. I know someone said that the higher you look in the kyudo ranks, there are less people testing.
A thing that is similar to Kung Fu with Kyudo is the ranking business. In a way it is a big deal to go up the ranks, but the lack of having belts or some visible symbol makes it not . We have no belts in Kung Fu because the point of the training is not the belts, it is the skill and knowledge. There are no belts in Renmei Kyudo, there is the ranking thing. I see the ranking as a verification of one's skills and knowledge by an formal established recognized panel/organization. Like the American Sailing Assoc. saying yes you have the skills and knowledge to sail a boat safely. This in turns opens up access to a deeper knowledge base. In Kung Fu after proving one's self by years of training and dedication to a school or Shifu (Sensei), you can become a closed door student or disciple…maybe. This gives one access to a deeper knowledge base for increasing skills and knowledge. In Kyudo there is a formula to reach this knowledge pool, in Kung Fu there is none. The down side of the ranking system is that many see the reaching of the rank or a rank is the goal and stop training when they reach the rank of their desire. So the lack of rank makes the training more of the goal, than the rank.
Anyway these are just some misc random thoughts that have come to mind. All this just to say, I think it would be good to have some way for those who did not pass to find out where they were lacking. That would be helpful in their training path, rather than just left hanging and bummed.
I had said in an earlier post Northfield was south of the boonies in the middle of no-where. I was right it is, however it is the nicest middle of no-where I have encountered in a while. In many cases I am quite fond the middle of no-where, it can be peaceful. The MN Renmei did an outstanding job putting all this together. In many ways I learned more at this seminar than in Tokyo. I loved the lectures. It gives the learning of Kyudo more depth, than just being able to shoot. It goes well since the Kyohon is already a part of the study matter. Speaking of which the study of the Kyohon this time around was more insightful. That insightfulness awareness should increase as my eyes, mind and body grow in this expression of the Tao.
The biggest fault in the working of the seminar, (just to add some balance to the post for growth), I saw was the group photo at the end. The person taking the picture was not an aware photographer . Too many short people were standing in the middle of the group when the full group photo was taken. There is no way they were in the picture. No balance, but that was just me seeing/bothered by that perhaps having done these type of shot$ However chisai koto ( not a big deal ). It is a small thing compared to the large excellent product. With the excellent job done by the organizers there was not much else one could have wanted from this event…well other than to pass.
This was a great experience attending this event. Not just from the point of Kyudo study but also from the people encountered. Someone once posted on FB something like. " it is the people and friendships we make during the study of Kyudo and at these functions that make the gatherings special "
I notice there is a big increase of FB friendship hook ups after these seminars. It was interesting for me to meet a few if the people live I had only "seen" on Facebook. It will be interesting to see some of them again in Northern Ca and Japan in the future.
With my brain so on Kyudo these last weeks I noticed the other day there is a space just across from my boat, on marina property that I can ( QUIETLY) use for a 28 meter shooting range .
I can not leave it ip 24/7 but with the right equipment it could be setup and broken down easy. I know this year I need to work on my Tenouchi and my hitting. Last year I had more time to put the range I was more on point with my hits. My form is better this year but my hit rate is down. Next year I'm pretty sure I will need to hit one. Unless… my form looks really sharp…I'm guessing.
My plan is if I can pass Sandan next year. I will take the next two years for practice before testing for Yondan in Japan!
after that… we'll see. The training will continue, the testing… We'll see.
Anyway that is getting a head of things. Right now there is Nidan practice. 2o12 is the year of Shugyo Renshu. I need to make myself and the boat ocean ready, tighten up my Kung Fu and Tai Chi, and be Sandan test ready. It will be a busy year of training. It is good that training in one helps the training in another…There is no duality…


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Our Man in Scandinavia provides a full range of representation services to companies in the travel and leisure and hospitality industries looking for a dedicated sales and marketing presence in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland.
We represent individual hotels, hotel groups, destinations, airlines, tour operators, attractions - selling their product to the leisure and corporate market; individuals and groups.
Your natural partners in the Nordic region we have the market knowledge, experience and profile to build partnerships, maximize exposure and deliver results.


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1. products for a wide range of color: according to customer order the production of professional badminton products. Table tennis venue. Basketball courts. Tennis courts. Volleyball venue. Gym. Cultural activities center site. Style training centres in plastic plastic ground. Sports activity center plastic field. The youth activity center. Union activity room plastic plastic ground multiple patterns and multiple sites...... fitness activities. Sports venues sports flooring
2. stability
The structure of sports flooring product is reinforced by 1000D glass fiber reinforcement mesh and special mesh fabric reinforcement layer, which ensures the stability and firmness of the product during the movement and plays an automatic reinforcement role.
3. firmness
The floor of the sports floor foam layer is laid on the bottom, and the reasonable weight can be laid out on the ground. Combined with the artificial roller, the air between the floor and the ground is discharged, forming a relative vacuum state. It has more adhesion and is more stable during movement.
4. comfort
The surface of the sports floor is treated with special treatment, which is consistent with the brightness of the lights. It will not absorb light and reflect the eyes. It can better protect the eyes of athletes, and it is not easy to produce fatigue. The total thickness is 4.5mm, and the appropriate foam bottom is the buffer layer, which makes it more shock-absorbing and rebound. To effectively alleviate the leg impact force, athlete's foot feeling comfortable, better avoid sports injury, improve the level of athletes to play.
5. durability and wear resistance
The sports floor adopts 100% pure PVC high-quality materials, the surface layer is processed by the special high environmental protection high-tech material TPU technology, and has the best durability and abrasion resistance, thus increasing the service life of the floor.
6. easy maintenance
The surface of the sports floor (especially the surface with special high-tech TPU treatment) has the ability to exclude the external pollution, such as surface pollution, and clean it with clean mops and clear water. The key dirty can be cleaned with neutral detergent. Single hole closed PVC shading after acerbity, waterproof, mildew, antibacterial treatment, so that the product itself has a self protective barrier, thereby enhancing the self discharge function of products!
7. excellent noise reduction effects (reducing 25db/28db)
The floor thickness of the moving floor standard, plus the suitable rebound and reasonable shock absorbability, has the function of sound absorption in the movement, and the sound insulation effect is good.


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Group Takes Team Approach to Troop Support
By Samantha L. Quigley
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, June 5, 2008 - In Ohio, a new team is taking a community approach to supporting troops and military families.
"Our mission is to empower communities to support military members and their families through the deployment cycles," said PamelaJune Banks-Anderson, founder of the Ohio-based National Restoration to Military Families Team.
The team, which operates as "National Restoration Team," takes a three-pronged approach to helping servicemembers and their loved ones.
First, the team works to encourage faith- and community-based leaders and organizations to build servicemember- and veteran-friendly communities. It also helps servicemembers with readjustment and reunion issues while remembering the fallen and assisting their families with grief management.
"The threefold effort is ongoing and dynamic," said Banks-Anderson, a veteran of the Gulf War. "We are connecting with community-based organizations like United Way, the American Red Cross, [Department of Veterans Affairs] centers and faith-based organizations to partner with the National Restoration Team to make military members' and their families' transitions as smooth and healthy as possible."
These community connections are made through "Caring 4 Military Family Community Conferences and Workshops," the first of which will be held July 10 in Dayton, Ohio.
National Restoration to Military Families Team is a new supporter of America Supports You, a Defense Department program connecting citizens and companies with servicemembers and their families serving at home and abroad.
"We anticipate National Restoration Team becoming as much a household name as 'America Supports You,'" through ASY networking, visibility and connectivity, Banks-Anderson said.
*Related Sites:*
National Restoration to Military Families Team [ http://www.ntr-caring.org ]
Group Takes Team Approach to Troop Support [ http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=50116 ]


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Submitted by Jim Hurley on Tuesday, July 23, 2013 at 12:00 AM
Tuesday, July 23
In baseball, you will always hear conversations about momentum. But the keenest analytical minds will tell you that momentum is only as good as today's starting pitcher. Things can change dramatically, but it is always good to have a foundation of knowledge when drawing "real time" conclusions.
Although certain trainers and jockeys do get "hot," their "momentum" is usually only as good as the horse they are respectively saddling and riding. This is why the best handicappers will look to not only determine how well or poorly the form of each individual horse in a race is manifesting itself, but how that form will play out given what is often referred to as the "bias" of the surface.
I bring this up because should you want to call it a "bias," there definitely was one regarding the 14 two turn turf races run during the opening 4 days of the Saratoga meet. And that bias, although I like to use the word tendency because it is a better definition of matching a horse's preferred running style to results, leaned quite favorably to front runners and pressing speed types.
First we'll take a look at the results with notes concerning those 14 two-turn races (2 on the Main Turf course and 12 on the Inner Turf Course.)
Monday 7/22
(IT) SEA QUEEN (1 1/16th Miles) - $10.80...First time starter broke ½ length back in 3rd at the 9/16ths pole, took the lead at the 5/16ths pole and continued clear.
(IT) ANGEL'S SOUTH (1 Mile) - $71.50...Monmouth shipper went wire-to-wire. Short field featured one other speed horse, but that was dirt-to-turf opponent, who ran second. Classier, shorter priced closers were slowed down early and couldn't make up enough ground late, although first time in the states starter Corsage (third) got within a length late.
(IT) STARSHIP GAMBLER (1 1/16TH Miles) - $4.30...Went wire-to-wire. Big class dropper opened 8 lengths by 9/16ths pole and coasted home by daylight.
Sunday 7/21
(IT) RAPSCALLION (1 Mile) - $31.00...MSW Speightstown colt (good turf speed breeding) showed good sprinting speed on dirt at Delaware in two lifetime tries, the second of which was washed off the grass. Sharp connections (Graham Motion) finally got spot and the colt went wire-to-wire.
(IT) HAPPY FELLA (1 1/16th Miles) - $58.50...Won "against" the general "tendency" when he closed from 7th place (5 ½ lengths back at 9/16ths marker) and 7th place (3 ½ lengths back at 5/16ths marker.) Second place finisher WILDCATTER ran in 5th from first call until deep stretch (4 ½-3 ½-2 ½ lengths back) before closing to be beaten a neck and complete a $766.00 Exacta.
(IT) JOYSEEKER (1 Mile) - $10.40...Well-bred Heatseeker (Giant's Causeway) colt had show speed in first three MSW tries of career and now got the grass for the first time. Went wire-to-wire vs field of twelve in which only two other horses had ever been in front at any point in their multi-race careers.
(MT) VINNIE GOODTIMES (1 1/16th Miles) - $3.20...At break was in 4th but just 3 l3ngths back. By 5/16ths was still in 4th but just 2 lengths back and pulled away by open lengths when asked. Beat weak field and could have gone wire-to-wire if pushed. Second place finisher RIVIT was on lead by 9/16ths market and held second when caught by winner.
Saturday 7/20
(IT) PALACE DREAMS (1 1/6TH Miles) - $15.40...Went wire-to-wire in field of 12. Place finisher MOONLIT SONNET ran second behind the winner all the way around the race track.
(IT) SILISTA (1 1/16th Miles)...$14.60...Broke in 3rd, just 2 lengths off pace-setter BROKEN SPELL, was 2 ½ lengths back at 9/16ths pole and 1 length back at 5/16ths pole before nosing the front runner at the wire and combining for a $138.50 Exacta.
(IT) TYCOON CAT (1 1/16th Miles) - $19.60...Broke in 3 lengths back in 3rd, quickly moved up to take lead at 9/16ths pole and continued on the lead to the wire.
Friday 7/19
(MT) HARDEST CORE (1 3/16th Miles) - $11.40...One of the two turf winners during opening week that made late rallies work. Was 12th of 12 at the start, was in 11th (6 ½ lengths back) at the 7/16th pole, still 4 lengths back in mid-stretch before getting up late.
(IT) SHORT SHRIFT (1 1/16th Miles) - $30.40...Was in second place, just ½ lengths off the lead at the 9/16ths pole and in front by the time they passed the 5/16ths marker before holding that lead the rest of the way.
(IT) HESSONITE (1 1/16th Miles) - $3.80...This guy did close to win, but the open company stakes winner was dropped into NYSB company in the 6 horse "On The Bus Stakes" and could have taken control at any time.
(IT) SONNYANDPALLY (1 1/16th Miles) - $25.80...Broke only 2 lengths off pace in 4th and was there at 9/16ths pole. Moved to 1 ½ lengths off the pace in third at the 5/16ths pole and drew clear inside the furlong marker.
11 out of the 14 winners PAID DOUBLE DIGITS. The average payoff was $22.20. That is why I pay attention to these things.
There are two ways to utilize this information.
- First, when racing resumes and you are breaking down the two-turn grass races you should definitely give weight to those horses that have shown an ability to utilize pace-setting, pressing or close-up stalking speed to be in good position early into the race. This does not mean that you should use "only" those criteria. Once you isolate such animals you can then apply the ability of the connections, the company the horse(s) have kept, the jockey styles (better on pressers or closers), etc.
You should also keep in mind that a change in the weather can also considerably change how any course is playing. Saratoga is known for its summer rainstorms and the tight dry courses that existed over the first four days can be altered greatly by a good soaking. But even if the "tendency" shown in the first 4 days changes you can still utilize the information.
- Second, in future races, if the "tendency" appears to shift in favor of off the pace horses in two-turn grass races, you might get value on closers that ran well in the speed-style favoring races but were compromised.
FINAL NOTE- I did not catch ALL of these winners, but among my 8 Best Bet winners from 15 races during Opening Week were SILISTA ($14.60) as well as the $138.50 Exacta with BROKEN SPELL, RAPSCALLION ($31.00) and JOYSEEKER ($10.40).
I mention this because I want you to have all the confidence in me as I move forward.
ALL FOR ONLY $20 - Click Here
After a week up north, horses are feeling great in the cool weather. And that's the signal for Jim Hurley's Wednesday WAKE-UP RUNNER. Last year, Jim fell a little short as Chief Gaga ran 2nd, paying $11.00 to place, but Jim did hit that same day Centre Court ($7.50) in the Lake George, a race you'll also get on this day. And the timing couldn't be better because JIM IS EVEN HOTTER THIS YEAR. Already his Sensational Seven Program has caught Longshot Rapscallion on top ($31.00) along with Red Vine for the $108.00 Exacta, first time starter Joy Seeker ($10.40), the Daily Double of the Week with Asset Inflation ($5.70) and Silista ($14.20) ($49.80) as well as the Silista/Broken Spell Exacta ($138.50.)
In addition there was Sure Shot Special Sage Valley ($8.90) and both Exactas both Trifectas and both Daily Doubles when top picks Bahnah and Brazen Persuasion Dead Heated in the Schuylerville as well as also hitting the exacta in the Shuvee Handicap. There is still another week to go in Jim's Sensational Seven so you can get the WAKE UP RUNNER, Horse of the Week and Jim's Personal Clocker's Best Play of the Day plus the 1-2-3 finishers in the Lake George...ALL JUST $20 Wednesday
FINAL NOTE: Make sure you check back by Thursday morning for another important edition of SARATOGA TRACK TALK.


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When Sky was born the gatekeepers of the world had no idea what to make of this strange, tiny creature before them. Less than a hundred of her kind walked the earth prior to her arrival. She neither knew that stat as a child, nor cared. She also ignored all the proclamations of doom and despair spouted off by the well-meaning, but ultimately clueless professionals.
Some mistook her confidence for cockiness, but these were the same people that thought little girls should wear dresses and play with dolls. Sure, she played with dolls. Her Kens ended up together in compromising positions and her Barbies sported bondage gear made out of shoe laces.
Sky ran her first gang in elementary school. They were called the Half-Pint Hurricanes and had laminated membership cards to prove it. For a small fee her gang offered playground protection. By middle school she'd moved on to dice games and poker in the back of the school library. Small time stuff, just a little on the side to supplement her allowance and protection racket.
In a fit of exasperation Sky's mother told her about a mythological creature, half pterodactyl half winged serpent, that would swoop down and snatch up naughty dwarves. And thus was born the legend of the Dwarf Eating Catamaran. This served to curtail Sky's more rambunctious tendencies …. somewhat.
In her late teens Sky met her Prince Charming at a three day blow-out party. Now she had a willing ally in crime, and after nearly thirty years still does.
Sky wanted to be an astronaut. In zero g size is irrelevant. But alas, despite repeated attempts, higher maths just weren't her forte. The lower maths she does fine at. Eventually, after a long meandering journey through various careers, she did end up in Aerospace but by that point the incurable writing bug had wriggled into her soul.
To this day Sky is still trying to tame the Dwarf Eating Catamaran. Certain if she can just manage to jump on its back she can make her way to the stars.


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On View
Farbe absolut
Katharina Grosse × Gotthard Graubner
Through January 26, 2020
MKM Museum Küppersmühle für Moderne Kunst, Duisburg, Germany
Work by Katharina Grosse is juxtaposed with work by Gotthard Graubner (1930–2013) to show how the two abstract artists from different generations adopted varied artistic approaches to color. Both artists spent time at the Düsseldorf Academy of the Arts during the 1980s.
Katharina Grosse, Untitled, 2018 © Katharina Grosse and VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2019
Mansplaining: Figuring Masculinity in the Age of #MeToo
In light of recent developments around the definition of masculinity in American culture, Alison M. Gingeras, the curator of John Currin: My Life as a Man at Dallas Contemporary looks closely at the artist's depictions of male subjects.
Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Winter 2019
The Winter 2019 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring a selection from Christopher Wool's Westtexaspsychosculpture series on its cover.
Reading Nam June Paik
Earlier this year, MIT Press released We Are in Open Circuits: Writings by Nam June Paik. Here Gregory Zinman, coeditor of the book along with John Hanhardt and Edith Decker-Phillips, writes about his first exposure to the artist's archives, the discoveries made there, and the relationship between Paik's writings and his larger practice.
Before the Smoke Has Cleared
Angela Brown provides a glimpse into the charged ecologies of recent drawings and sculptures by Tatiana Trouvé. These works will be included in On the Eve of Never Leaving, Trouvé's first solo exhibition in Los Angeles, opening in November 2019.
Sarah Sze: Art That Explores Time and Memory
Join Sarah Sze as she talks about the questions that drive her work. She describes creating immersive experiences that blur the lines between time, memory, and space—and between art and life.
Abstract Climates: Helen Frankenthaler in Provincetown
Lise Motherwell, a stepdaughter of Helen Frankenthaler and vice president of the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, and Elizabeth Smith, executive director of the Foundation, recently cocurated an exhibition of the artist's work entitled Abstract Climates: Helen Frankenthaler in Provincetown. Here they discuss the origin of the exhibition, the relationship between the artist's work and her summers spent in Provincetown, and the presentations at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, in 2018, and the Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York, in 2019.
In Conversation
Nathaniel Mary Quinn and Troy Carter
On the eve of the opening of his first exhibition with Gagosian, in Beverly Hills, Nathaniel Mary Quinn joined Troy Carter for a conversation at LA's Hammer Museum. They spoke about deliverance, Quinn's new work, and what drives him to make art.
The Art of Perception: Richard Serra's Films
For eleven years, from 1968 to 1979, Richard Serra created a collection of films and videos that felt out the uncharted phenomenological boundaries of the medium. Carlos Valladares explores a selection of these works.
Sterling Ruby: Disjointed Monuments to Nothing
Alessandro Rabottini investigates the theoretical and formal underpinnings of Sterling Ruby's career through the lens of the artist's series ACTS.
Behind the Art
Michael Craig-Martin: Ordinariness
Join Michael Craig-Martin at his London studio as he speaks about his working methods, his interest in the ordinary, and his abiding concern for the sculptural.
Nathaniel Mary Quinn
Anderson Cooper spoke with the artist at his Brooklyn studio about his childhood and the visionary nature of his art.
Nina Simone, Our National Treasure
Text by Salamishah Tillet.


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It seems that as well as being known for making fun lunches for my children, my love of lunch boxes and napkins is also becoming well known. So when Store asked if I'd like two Lego lunch boxes for Top Ender and Big Boy, all I had to do was ask the children which colour they'd like. Top Ender decided to go for Light Pink and Big Boy decided to go for Red.
I personally really like the lunch boxes, I think that they are a good size for a healthy lunch and just the right shape for a wrap and some fruit... which is what I had in Top Ender's the first time I used the lunch box. My excuse was that I needed a lunch box and hers was closest, but really I just wanted to have a fun lunch like the children.
Top Ender and Big Boy love the Lego lunch boxes and are busy saving up to buy the water bottles that go with them.
Now, I just need to come up with a great Lego themed lunch that I haven't already done.
The lunch boxes are available in nine different colours and cost just £6.30
We were sent two lunch boxes to review.


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My uncle, Frederic Levesque, spent most of his life at Miserai until his passing in 2010. He was a man who loved his home and got such enjoyment and inspiration from his surroundings. His love for the forest and nature in particular stands out in his work. Constantly smiling, telling jokes and singing, he was truly a joy to be around.
Known for his imaginative, Gothic fairy tale sculptures, Frederic first exhibited at the Grand Palais in 1987. A graduate of the highly regarded école Des Beaux-Arts in Paris, whose esteemed graduates include Degas, Delacroix, Fragonard, Ingres, Monet, Moreau, Renoir, Seurat, and Sisley, he went on to become famous worldwide for his work as an illustrator and avant-garde sculptor.
In the sculpture below, one can see how Frederic was inspired by his surroundings by looking at his take on the pesky moles that occasionally decide to make Miserai's lawn their home!
Frederic's creations can be visited in the barn up on the mezzanine at Miserai:
His work showed his love for his native region of Normandy, but he also brought in worldwide themes, making his work universal. He brought in themes from all over art history — from the Middle Ages and 18th-century French fairy tales to French film spoofs. He also created parodies of various works of motion picture art, including Georges Melies' A trip to the Moon (1902) and W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922). Frederic contributed more than 50 truly unique works of art to Design Toscano. From a submarine engulfed by a giant squid and an actual smoke-breathing dragon called Bessemer to an alligator lunching on his caretaker.
The hunt room at Miserai is filled with his art – from the hand carved fireplace to the hunting scene which adorns the rooms walls.
His designs were done in a style that was truly Frederic: proportionally exaggerated and comically robust. He was truly one of a kind.
You can see more of his creations on his website: http://miserai.com/fred/index.html


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The Ongoing Story of the Route 128 Minicomputer Industry
When we are riding a bus along Massachusetts Avenue in Boston, a man strikes up a conversation with my wife and me. "You know, I'm a 'DEC:ie,' that's what we used to be called when I worked for DEC, Digital Equipment," he tells us.
It's been 10 years since the company ceased to exist, after being bought by PC manufacturer Compaq in 1998. When people still, a decade later, regard themselves as "DEC:ies," it says something about the impact DEC once had, as the first, largest, and most successful firm in the once flourishing Massachusetts minicomputer industry.
When the cluster was at its heyday during the 1970s and 1980s, it was home not only to DEC but to a number of other minicomputer manufacturers, including Wang, Prime, Data General, and Apollo, as well as suppliers of everything from motherboards to software. Today, it may hard to believe that only 20 years ago Route 128, the beltway around Boston, rivaled Silicon Valley as a symbol of innovation and cutting-edge computing technology. Nobody talks about minicomputers any more, the firms have virtually all disappeared, either by being bought up or by going out of business. But the legacy of the minicomputer cluster is still important to the economy in several ways; in fact, some of the product lines that originated from it way back when continue to generate billions of dollars in revenues.
I have my own memories of Digital Equipment. In 1988, I interviewed the company's founder and CEO Ken Olsen for the Swedish magazine Ny Teknik, where I will return to work after finishing my fellowship at Xconomy in a few days.
The company's headquarters was in an old textile plant called The Mill—a huge maze of dark red brick buildings in Maynard, MA. The place had a certain austerity to it, with Ethernet cables running on naked metal cable troughs through corridors and offices, and a reception lobby furnished with rustic shaker chairs.
Olsen and Harlan Anderson, his coworker from MIT's Lincoln Laboratory, had founded DEC in 1957 with $70,000 in seed money from venture capital pioneer general Georges Doriot. They put out their first minicomputer, the PDP-1, two years later. It was followed by an enormous range of other products, not only computers like the PDP-8, PDP-11, and the famous VAX models, but also terminals, printers, communication units, and software.
Ken Olsen was an impressive, tall man who downplayed his own importance during the interview, talking about helping other people grow and delegating responsibilities. But at the same time, he was known to be strong-willed and emotional.
I got a small taste of his well-known hot temper when I asked why DEC was so ambivalent in its support for the Unix operating system—a common complaint among users of the company's machines. "Nobody supports Unix more than we do, it's running on more of our machine's than on any one else's," he told me. After the outburst, I decided not to confront him with his notorious characterization of Unix vendors as "snakeoil salesmen."
When we met, DEC had grown to be the second-largest company in the computer industry. Olsen was generally regarded as one of the USA's most successful managers, and many expected DEC to surpass number one IBM in sales within a few years. But in reality, the company had already reached it peak. The staff had expanded rapidly, but sales were stalling and profits had begun to erode. Ken Olsen abruptly left the firm in 1992, six years before Compaq bought the troubled company. DEC's sale also heralded the end of the Massachusetts minicomputer era.
It is hard to define a minicomputer in specific technical terms. Firms like Apollo, Prime, and Data General each had different approaches, and it might be easier to regard "mini" as more of a cultural identity. The term set the industry apart from the traditional mainframe builders of that time such as IBM or Univac. A fascinating account of the inner culture of a minicomputer company is Tracy Kidder's 1981 book The Soul of a New Machine, in which the author closely follows a development project at DEC spin-off Data General, a company that had been founded by PDP-8 chief designer Ed DeCastro.
Minicomputers were of course smaller and less expensive than mainframe machines, but they were also much more geared to real-time processing and direct user-interaction. Ideally, as a researcher or engineer you could have your own minicomputer instead of relying on a centralized computer department. In a way, minis were forerunners to the personal computers that would eventually supersede them. The machines even looked trendy, with colorful front panels giving a hint that of their personal nature and that it could even be fun to use them. Paul Allen, the billionaire Microsoft co-founder, writes about his memories of the mini-computer era on PDP Planet, a website featuring his big collection of DEC hardware: "I certainly had a ball using them in their heyday—from the late 1960s to the early 1980s! During that period almost all Microsoft development was done on these platforms."
Much has been written about why DEC ultimately failed, especially in light of its so very successful early history. Explanations vary from Olsen's shortcomings, particularly his inability to adjust to the new era of personal computing, the company's engineering culture that has been said to disregard the business side, and so on.
Long before the demise, Gordon Bell, for many years DEC's chief architect and later employed by Microsoft Research, identified the pressures the company would encounter from the new microprocessor technology, saying that "Technology advances in semiconductors, storage, interfaces and networks enable a new computer class (platform) to form about every decade to serve a new need."
And when AnnaLee Saxenian, dean of the School of Information at U.C. Berkeley, compared Route 128 and Silicon Valley in her 1994 book Regional Advantage, she found that "Silicon Valley developed a decentralized but cooperative industrial system while Route 128 came to be dominated by independent, self-sufficient corporations." In other word, the Massachusetts mini-computer industry was vertically integrated, with companies manufacturing a large part of their components and peripherals themselves instead of using a fully developed network of independent suppliers. That made it less able to adapt to changes than its counterparts in California, which could utilize the advances made by others, instead of developing everything on their own, according to Saxenian.
Not only DEC would disappear, by the 1990s so would most of the rest of the Route 128 minicomputer companies. Even The Computer Museum in Boston, which was founded with donations from DEC, has disappeared—moving its collections from the minicomputer era to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, in the heart of Silicon Valley.
Nevertheless, that doesn't mean the minicomputer cluster's impact on the economy just went up in smoke. A recent report on the manufacturing industry in Massachusetts points out that the rapid expansion of the minicomputer industry was critical to the region reinventing itself as a high-tech manufacturer at the very time such low-tech sectors as textiles declined.
That high-tech manufacturing base, in its turn, has given the region some long-term economic advantages that continue to this day. "In terms of the gains in the 1980s, Massachusetts had a run up in its per capita income compared to other parts of the country," says Lynn Browne, executive vice president and economic advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. "That has not fallen back; in terms of capita income, those gains have stayed."
For one thing, says Browne, "The people in the industry did stay and they showed up in other places even if for a while it was hard to see them, because there aren't many large-scale employers in the region, with the exception of EMC. In the late '90s Massachusetts was very active in the telecommunications sector, so my suspicion is that a large number of these persons went into telecomm," says Browne.
What's more, it appears that many Route 128 minicomputer companies didn't disappear by simply going out of business—most were bought by other firms. In some cases their product lines continued to exist for a long time—it wasn't until last year that Hewlett-Packard, which had acquired Compaq, stopped taking orders for new AlphaServer machines, a line originally launched by DEC in 1992 that had roots in the VAX architecture originally developed by Gordon Bell in the 1970s.
Another example is EMC, today one of the region's largest companies. It started in 1979 as a supplier of memory boards for minicomputers. In 1999 EMC bought Data General and in that way got hold of the sophisticated software technology behind the minicomputer manufacturer's Clariion hard-disk arrays. Since then, EMC's Clariion line of disk arrays has accounted for billions of dollars in revenues, far more than Data General ever got from its computer business.
* * *
An exception to the extinction of minicomputer firms is Stratus Technologies. The Stratus headquarters is like a piece of Silicon Valley in New England, a complex of low buildings in a park-like environment that makes 110 Powder Mill Road on the outskirts of Maynard, MA, eerily similar to the offices and labs along Page Mill Road in Palo Alto. This used to be the head office of Digital Equipment Corporation in its final years, after it had moved out of The Mill.
Of all the minicomputer firms that once made up the Route 128 cluster, Stratus is the only one still operating under its old name. I visited the company to find out more about what made Stratus from its employee No. 5, software engineer Paul Green. He joined the company, then based in Marlborough, MA, in April 1980. Stratus started that year as a maker of fault-tolerant mini-computers, machines that had more or less every function doubled or quadrupled to ensure extremely high reliability. Since then, the company has gone through a series of transformations in the form of buyouts, mergers, and spinoffs before emerging in its present form.
"I think there are several reasons why we're here and the others are not," Green says. "It is an interesting question, and one that I have thought about a great deal. Innovation and consolidation are opposing forces. At some point an idea wins out and is adopted as a standard, a real standard or a de facto standard. When I started in the industry hardware was proprietary, the operating systems were proprietary, the programming languages were at least semi-standard. Now we take it for granted that there is all this standard software. It is still a lot of innovation going on, but it has moved into new spaces.
"This whole process is very brutal, there are great forces at play. The PC has changed the whole pricing scheme for computers. It has in many ways sucked the profits out of the hardware business, it is brutal to be a hardware firm. That is basically how you knock out the established companies as an upstart, you change the rules of the game."
Instead of seeing itself as a hardware manufacturer, Stratus identified its core competence as being a provider of fault-tolerant, high-reliability information processing systems. The software can either run on Stratus high-end proprietary hardware or on standard server platforms. Last month, the company even launched its first pure software product, Avance, which transforms two ordinary servers, regardless of manufacturer, into a computer system with more than 99.99 percent availability.
Whether in the case of an individual company or an entire sector, the ability to reinvent oneself has been a hallmark of New England innovation. As Michael Best, retired co-director of the Center for Industrial Competitiveness at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, observed last year in the Boston Globe, "Massachusetts has lost more industries than any region in the world, but has also created more industries than any other region."


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San Diego Storm Drain Installation & Repair Services
Drain Help is here to help with any storm drain installation, patio drain installation, rain drain installation, French drain installation, or gutter drain installation need you may have if you are in San Diego County. One of the main reasons you may want to install a storm drain these days is due to the El Nino storm and rain threat. For many customers, the thought of having their yard flood with water is a nightmare that can be corrected by having your outside drains installed properly or cleaned out with a hydro-jetter. In order to prevent water damage, installing a proper storm drain with ABS plastic pipes is what needs to be done.
Here at
Our trained plumbers are always a call away. We work 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to take care of your storm drain installation problems. Now that the El Nino storm season is coming, this information comes in handy. We have been writing extensively about this and why it is so important to clear and unclog your drains now before the storms create unnecessary expenses due to possible damages to your home. Please take a moment to watch the video below. This home in Poway received a much-needed storm drain and now they are EL NINO PROOF.
For expert Storm Drain Installation or Repair services at unbeatable prices, contact the professionals at DrainHelp.com. Call us today at (844) 372-4643.


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Recent Posts
Featured Posts
At HOESCH we are always exploring new ways to maintain our success and to set new standards. Our success story began as far back as 1742. Exactly 275 years ago, HOESCH was founded as a metalworking company in Kreuzau near Düren. HOESCH has today established itself as a highly respected manufacturer of high-quality bathroom products – not just in Germany, but throughout the world. That's reason enough to take a look back at the milestones in the company's history during this 2017 anniversary year.
In 1972, Hoesch became the first company in Germany to start making baths out of high-quality bathroom acrylic. This opened up a new world of design and colour possibilities for the company, meaning that it was the first provider on the German bathroom product market to fully embrace the wellness industry. We have experienced increasing success as we have continually expanded the product range – encompassing revolutionary ideas like the first hexagonal bathtub, for example. And always to the very highest quality standards, and in close partnership with internationally renowned designers.
As the 1990s drew to a close, HOESCH rose to become the market leader in acrylic shower trays and whirltubs, and is still considered the ultimate authority when it comes to acrylic.
In 2005, the company was acquired by investors from the Polish Sanplast Group – the leading manufacturer of bathroom products in that country. The Kreuzau location was expanded to become the European company headquarters, and the product range revamped.Today, HOESCH offers a product range which is unrivalled in its breadth and depth. The high-quality premium bathroom products range from bathtubs and shower trays, through to shower cabins and whirlpools, and even steam cabins.
Our exclusive products have not only drawn the attention of customers, but have also picked up numerous awards in recent years, including the "Red Dot Award" and the 2016 "German Design Award" – not least for the NAMUR bathtub design range. Just like the successful and extremely smooth MUNA bathtub series, NAMUR is manufactured from Solique – an innovative and extremely durable mineral casting. This material combines excellent durability with easy maintenance and an elegant look, and holds plenty of potential for other exclusive bathroom products.
Because HOESCH clearly intends to remain at the forefront of innovation in future, and to enjoy the success that this brings.
(Text excerpt from www.hoesch-design.com)
I'm busy working on my blog posts. Watch this space!


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Insanity MAX:30
In INSANITY MAX:30, the only thing standing between you and the body you want…is YOU. Every day you'll push a little harder, go a little longer, and dig a little deeper. It's not about finishing the workout—it's about seeing how far you'll go before you MAX OUT.
What is Insanity MAX:30?
Welcome to the craziest 30 minutes of your day—and the best results of your life! If you're ready to push harder than ever before . . . and Dig Deeper® than you ever thought you could . . then Shaun T's INSANITY MAX:30 can help you see results you never thought possible. Because it's not about finishing the workout—it's about seeing how far you'll go before you MAX OUT. There's no equipment needed in these killer cardio and Tabata-style strength workouts. Just push to your MAX and get INSANE results in 30 minutes a day!
Why is Insanity MAX:30 effective?
INSANITY MAX:30 can help you get ridiculous results in 60 days thanks to Shaun T's MAX OUT training. The goal is to work as hard as you can for as long as you can until you MAX OUT—the point when you just can't do anymore or you begin to lose form. Each workout pushes you to beat your last MAX OUT time to keep you accountable. Go one minute longer and you'll get remarkably stronger—every single day. That's how you lose more weight and get an INSANE body fast.
Shaun T is your personal trainer and motivater.
Shaun T is back with his next INSANE challenge—INSANITY MAX:30. He's going to work you harder than ever, but don't worry—he'll be there every step of the way to cheer you on, so you can see 100% ridiculous results in just 60 days.
Your 12 WORKOUTS ON 10 DVDS
Month 1: Shaun alternates killer cardio and Tabata-style strength workouts all in preparation for your end-of-week challenge, Friday Fight.
- Cardio Challenge - 30 minutes of the hardest cardio sequences you've ever tried. Welcome to INSANITY MAX:30.
- Tabata Power - Your strength training starts here with traditional Tabata-style "20 seconds on, 10 seconds off" workout structure. Your muscles will beg for mercy.
- Sweat Intervals - Just in case you didn't think Cardio Challenge was hard enough, you'll have 30 minutes of screaming, sweating, calorie-scorching madness.
- Tabata Strength - Shaun T takes it up a notch in this NO REST, Tabata-style strength workout. You heard right...30 minutes, no rest.
- Friday Fight: Round 1 - It's a battle between your mind telling you to push to a new Max and your body saying "OMG, are you serious?" And this is just Round 1.
Month 2: You'll feel like you're back at Day One as the intervals get longer, but the rest stays the same.
- MAX OUT Cardio - This may be the craziest cardio workout you ever tried. Just wait till you get to the first Power Move. What minute are you Maxing Out at now?
- MAX OUT Power - The intervals are longer in this "45 seconds on, 15 seconds off" Tabata-style plyometric power madness.
- MAX OUT Sweat - The more minutes you make it through, the more you sweat and the more calories you burn. Now you know the meaning of "twice the sweat in half the time".
- MAX OUT Strength - Your arms, shoulders, chest, and core will be toast after this upper-body-focused, "45 seconds on, 15 seconds off" Tabata-style routine.
- Friday Fight: Round 2 - The new "hardest workout ever." Every move is a minute in this final fight between your body and your mind. Who's going to win?
Tools for Success
Nutrition to the Max Guide : No complicated diets or strict meal plans here. This simple portion-based plan shows you how to eat what you love and still reach your fitness goals.
Max Out Guide : The secret to great results with INSANITY MAX:30? Pushing to your Max every day. See how to do it, and why it'll help you get insanely fit.
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Bryan Dickson, M.D.
Department Pediatrics
You have reached the Academic Profile.
For more information on the doctor and patient care, please visit the clinical profile.View Clinical Profile
Dr. Dickson is the Medical Director at the Children's Medical Center Dallas' Endocrinology Center. Recruited to UT Southwestern in 1994 from private practice, he is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and oversees the pediatric endocrinology teaching program for residents and the fourth-year medical student clerkships in pediatric endocrinology.
Dr. Dickson holds his undergraduate degree from UT Arlington and his medical degree from UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, where he also completed a residency in pediatrics and a 1-year fellowship in pediatric endocrinology. He went on to complete his fellowship in pediatric endocrinology at Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, and then moved onto private practice in Dallas from 1990 to 1994.
In 1994, Dr Dickson joined the UT Southwestern faculty on a full-time basis. Dr. Dickson is a dedicated teacher and was recognized when he received the Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award from the Children's Medical Center Dallas Pediatric Residency Program in 2000. He has also been serving as medical director of Camp Sweeney since 2000.
Located in Gainesville, Texas, Camp Sweeney is the largest residential summer camp for children with diabetes in the country. More than 800 children attend this camp every year.
Dr. Dickson is currently expanding his role in the Division by becoming a principal investigator for clinical trials. He is presently implementing a pharmaceutical study that will aid children with obesity as a result of hypothalamic disorders. He is active in the pediatric endocrinology community. He is currently a member of the Executive Board and Vice Chairman of the medical board of the Southwestern Diabetic Foundation.
- Medical School
- UT Hlth Sci Cntr San Antonio (1984)
- Residency
- University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (1987), Pediatrics
- Fellowship
- University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (1988), Pediatric Endocrinology
- Fellowship
- Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (1990), Pediatric Endocrinology
Research Interest
- Endocrine Disorders in Neurooncology patients
- Hypothalamic Obesity
- Iatrogenic Adrenal Insufficiency
Featured Publications
- Epidermal growth factor stimulates insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-1 expression in the neonatal rat.
- Murray MA, Dickson BA, Smith EP, Hoath SB, Chernausek SD Endocrinology 1993 Jul 133 1 159-65
- Suppression of insulin-like growth factor I during epidermal growth factor-induced growth retardation.
- Chernausek SD, Dickson BA, Smith EP, Hoath SB Am. J. Physiol. 1991 Mar 260 3 Pt 1 E416-21
- Insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3 secretion from cultured rat sertoli cells: dual regulation by follicle stimulating hormone and insulin-like growth factor-I.
- Smith EP, Dickson BA, Chernausek SD Endocrinology 1990 Dec 127 6 2744-51
- Aldosterone-producing adenoma presenting with hypokalemic myopathy. Case report and review.
- Dickson BA, Franks RC Clin Pediatr (Phila) 1988 Jul 27 7 344-7
- Low Morbidity and Mortality in Children with Diabetic Ketoacidosis Treated with Isotonic Fluids.
- White PC, Dickson BA J. Pediatr. 2013 Mar
- Hypothyroidism in siblings due to a homozygous mutation of the TSH-beta subunit gene.
- Felner EI, Dickson BA, White PC J. Pediatr. Endocrinol. Metab. 2004 Apr 17 4 669-72
- Time course of recovery of adrenal function in children treated for leukemia.
- Felner EI, Thompson MT, Ratliff AF, White PC, Dickson BA J. Pediatr. 2000 Jul 137 1 21-4
- Parathyroid carcinoma in a child.
- Meier DE, Snyder WH, Dickson BA, Margraf LR, Guzzetta PC J. Pediatr. Surg. 1999 Apr 34 4 606-8
Featured Books
Thyrotoxic Crisis and Euthroid Sick Syndrome. In Essentials of Pediatric Intensive Care, 2nd Edition, D. Levin, F. Morriss, eds.
Dickson BA. (1997). Churchill Livingstone
Syndrome of Inappropriate Antidiuretic Hormone Secretion. In Essentials of Pediatric Intensive Care, 2nd Edition, D. Levin, F. Morriss, eds.
Dickson BA. (1997). Churchill Livingstone
Honors & Awards
- Best Pediatric Specialists/Doctors in Dallas
D Magazine (2010-2018)
- America's Top Pediatricians
Consumers' Research Council of America (2008)
- Best Doctors in America
- Texas Super Doctors
Texas Monthly Magazine (2006-2018)
- Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award
Children's Medical Center of Dallas Pediatric Residency Program (2000)
Professional Associations/Affiliations
- Executive Board member, Southwestern Diabetic Foundation
- Medical Director, Southwestern Diabetic Foundation
- Pediatric Endocrine Society of Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas


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We welcome you to our hotel and the beautiful island of Naxos.
Positioned overlooking the bay of Agios Prokopios, Lianos Village was built over a 8,000 square meters land as a traditional village consisting of 8 small Cycladic-style buildings with their uniqueness and charm, designed to accommodate you and give you the privacy you are looking for during your holidays.
The amphitheatrically architecture of the hotel will give you the opportunity to enjoy the breathtaking view of Agios Prokopios beach and our luscious gardens and vineyards.
You are welcome to visit us and experience the special attention and care we will provide for you in this unique environment.
We offer a large variety of services by specialized therapists.
Enjoy the finest treatments such as...


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Fender Guitar Single Strings
(Fender Strings are only available for shipment to addresses in the United States, U.S. Territories & Possessions, APO/FPO destinations and Canada.)
Get exactly the string you want with genuine Fender guitar single strings. By buying single Fender strings from Just Strings, you can replace the strings you need without buying an entire set you don�t need. Just Strings carries single guitar strings from Fender in the Acoustic Guitar 80/20 Bronze line for your acoustic guitar. For electric guitars, Just Strings carries Fender�s Electric Guitar Nickel Plated Steel single strings with bullet ends or ball ends. These strings combine the sound of steel and the smooth feel of nickel. The Fender Electric Guitar Pure Nickel single guitar strings, also in both bullet ends or ball ends, provide the original Fender sound, with warm, full tones. The Plain Steel single treble strings are also available with ball ends or bullet ends. Order Fender single guitar strings from Just Strings and combine the classic sound of one of the most famed names in guitars with the low prices, fast shipping and top service of Just Strings.


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Short-term work visas are available to certain people doing specialized work, including the O visa for outstanding workers in the sciences, arts, athletics, education, or business. (This comes from the Immigration and Nationality Act at I.N.A. § 101(a) (15)(O); 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(15)(O), or the Code of Federal Regulations at 8 C.F.R. § 214.2(o)(1)(ii)(A)(1).)
A job offer from a U.S. employer is a basic requirement for the O visa. There is no annual limit on the number of people who can receive O visas.
Some of the advantages and disadvantages of the O visa include:
O-1 visas are available to people who have not only a job offer in the U.S., but proven extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics. What does it mean to be considered a person of extraordinary ability? See below for the details. In general, the person must have received national or international acclaim in a particular field, or, if working in motion pictures or television productions, have a demonstrated record of extraordinary achievement.
O-1 visas can be given only on the basis of a person's individual qualifications. Being a members of a group or team will not, by itself, qualify someone for an O-1 visa.
In addition, the person must be coming to the U.S. work or perform at an event or a series of events in the area of extraordinary ability. The term "event" is interpreted liberally outside the fields of athletics and arts and can include, for example, an ongoing research project for a private company.
To meet the O-1 visa standards, the applicant must be able to show extraordinary ability and receipt of sustained national or international acclaim for it. This can be demonstrated if the person has gotten a major internationally recognized award, such as an Olympic medal or a Pulitzer Prize, or has accomplished at least three of the following:
If the above criteria do not readily apply to the applicant's occupation, the company filing the immigration petition may submit comparable evidence to show how "extraordinary" the person really is. The company should take care to explain exactly why the above criteria do not apply to the applicant.
When applying as an O-1 alien of extraordinary ability in the arts, the person should start by making sure his or her work fits the immigration law's definition of art. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) regulations define art broadly, to include:
. . . any field of creative activity or endeavor such as, but not limited to, fine arts, visual arts, culinary arts, and performing arts. Aliens engaged in the field of arts include not only the principal creators and performers but other essential persons such as, but not limited to, directors, set designers, lighting designers, sound designers, choreographers, choreologists, conductors, orchestrators, coaches, arrangers, musical supervisors, costume designers, makeup artists, flight masters, stage technicians, and animal trainers.
(See 8 C.F.R. § 214.2(o)(3)(ii).)
The applicant must also be coming to the U.S. to perform in the area of extraordinary ability. He or she must be recognized as prominent in the field of endeavor. To demonstrate such recognition, the applicant will need to supply documents showing that he or she has been nominated for or have received significant national or international awards or prizes in the particular field, such as an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, or Director's Guild Award. Alternately, the employer filing the petition can submit at least three of the following forms of documentation:
If the above criteria do not lend themselves to the person's occupation and situation, the petitioning employer may submit alternative but comparable evidence in order to establish eligibility.
For details about what to expect and do during the O visa application process, see U.S. Immigration Made Easy, by Ilona Bray (Nolo).
You might also wish to consult an immigration attorney for a full personal analysis of your eligibility, and for help with the application process. Using Nolo's Lawyer Directory, you can find an expert attorney who fits your needs and has taken the Nolo pledge promising respectful service. Look in particular for an attorney with expertise in business immigration law (even immigration law has many subspecialties within it).


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Hey cutetricks readers we have a new deal for all of you NIKI application is providing 100% cashback offer for its users which is a pretty exicitng deal for all of the users who travel most of the time.
Winter is coming and so is the Travel season. It's time to plan the trips and make advanced bookings. Chat with Niki and book OYO Rooms, anywhere in India and while you do so, earn 100% cashback (upto ₹500) on your first booking made on Niki App.
The offer, starting from today, is available for first 100 bookings only. Hurry, before you miss this amazing chance to make your Traveling "Grand".
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1. First Download [aio_button align="center" animation="bounce" color="red" size="small" icon="none" text="Niki App" relationship="dofollow" url="https://linksredirect.com/?pub_id=14616CL13171&source=js&url=https%3A//play.google.com/store/apps/details%3Fid%3Dcom.techbins.niki"]
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5. If you don't get we are sorry because this deal is available for first 100 users only ( First come First take)
So, guys hurry up and book a hotel now..
Happy Loot Guys.


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Sunday, May 25, 2008
Not Shiny Day
I was wishing yesterday that today will be another sun shiny day but it is not. Very gloomy outside. Although it is not cold but still I don't like to go out and walk around the complex and you fear that rain will pour down. As usual we just stayed home and did nothing. This will change next week though since our Daddy will be here. Knowing him, he can't be still at home. He always wants to go out. I will just have to remind him that it's not the same as before anymore, going out and driving a lot is already expensive nowadays :-)
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Home Prices in Highland Park for November 2012
Real estate market data for HighlandPark, Los Angeles, CA provided by Patrick Crane of Keller Williams Los Angeles.
The Highland Park area is one of the most sought-after neighborhoods for home buyers right now in Los Angeles.
The number of single-family homes sold in Highland Park rose by 13% in the past 30 days versus the same time period last year. The median price of a home sold in the Highland Park area fell 6% over the same time period – this year's median price in $391,000, while last year's was $417,000. Average sales prices dipped 6% to $379,000 this year versus $402,000 last year. The average sales price per square foot of a Highland Park home sold in the past 30 days was $319 (higher than Silver Lake/Echo Park!); last year's figure is $280, for an increase of 14%. Home prices have definitely risen in Highland Park this year and will, more than likely, continue to follow this trend in 2013. A severe lack of inventory and a very high number of buyers looking to purchase homes has created the mother of all supply/demand imbalances in the housing market. Most properties for sale in Highland Park are seeing multiple offers within the first week of listing.
How much is my Highland Park home worth?
For a current analysis of your home's value and more information on the Highland Park real estate market call me today at (310) 709-4128!
Search Highland Park homes for sale


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This past weekend has been filled with fun and relaxing activities, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Watching movies, eating out, gathering around with friends for games and such put me at ease =)
Recently, I have only been watching good movies, I'll try to put out a movie review…but it won't be anytime soon since final exams are a week away. Two absolutely AWESOME movies I've seen lately are: Invisibile Children and My Little Bride. Both are completely different genres..if anything PLEASE at LEAST watch Invisible Children.
After a fun Thanksgiving holiday and doing some shopping on Black Friday, Brian and I decided it'd be fun to go check out a holiday activity and got Janeemebe, Dianne and Adrian to join us in the tree lighting celebration near town =)
When we arrived to the event, they started the celebrations by having local middle schoolers in jazz band perform some songs.
So it's not a great photo of the tree…but o well… After the middle school band, christmas carollers sang us beautiful songs and then Santa came on stage! then the tree was lit!
I love surprises =)
Well here comes the holidays! It's amazing how fast it came! To wishing everyone a great start to the holidays! Cheers!


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Baby & Child Swimming Lessons in Chelmsfordfrom 10 weeks to 4 years old
At Baby Nurture we pride ourselves on having highly trained staff. Our classes are small enough to tailor each activity to meet your child's needs and stages of development.
Baby Nurture teachers will get to know your child and be able to work with them as they reach various milestones, to give that extra support when needed.
Gemstone Pool
Rough Hill Farm Complex, The Tye, East Hanningfield, CM3 8BY
Pontlands Park Hotel
West Hanningfield Road, Great Baddow, Chelmsford, CM2 8HR
Wentworth Primary School
Viking Road, Maldon, Essex, CM9 6JN


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The telecentre is equipped with four computers with CDroms, a photocopier, digital camera and lots of paper content including books, brochures, posters, pamphlets. The telecentre is run by the programme manager who oversees all the activities undertaken and a group of volunteers who are always on hand to research for information beneficial to the families under the telecentre program.
How KIFAD telecentre Operates
The telecentre takes on an intermediary role in connecting HIV/AIDS support organizations with the people in the Wakiso community. These include;
- AIDS Information Centre, specializing in HIV/AIDS counseling and testing, a service now available to the community every month free of charge.
- Infectious Diseases institute, working with discordant couples care and HIV/AIDS counseling and testing.
- Naphofanu, an umbrella group for people living with HIV/AIDS. These are offering training to mostly women to setup and run income generating activities, demystifying HIV/AIDS and promoting positive living.
- Uganda redcross society. KIFAD telecentre being a member of this society in involved in practices like blood donation exercises to save lives. Red Cross has also offered to train members in providing first-aid treatment.
- Mildmay, family Hope – are some of the organizations that are providing free HIV/AIDS care and treatment but albeit unknown to many HIV/AIDS patients.
- Support to children of families affected with HIV/AIDS with education funding agencies.
- KIFAD has given hope to so many people in the Wakiso community. From humble beginnings of a couple of families to a sizeable number of over 200 working together for development.
- More people are getting are becoming aware of the dangers of HIV/AIDS and are more willing to undergo HIV/AIDS counseling and testing.
- Several children and women run families have been equipped with business skills. There are some already producing very good products, which include; fruit jam, flour, operating a retail shop
- More children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS are now attending school
- Stigmatization has greatly reduced. HIV/AIDS carriers can now open come out to talk about their experiences.
- To use information communication technologies (ICTs) including mobile phones, computers, portable devices (PDAs) in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Using the freely available web 2.0 resources (blogs, wikis, social media) to tell story of living positively with HIV/AIDS online.
- Have couples freely undergoing HIV/AIDS counseling and testing sessions together. At the moment, most men shun these sessions leaving them to only the women and children
An idea in offing on how to use ICTs in fighting HIV/AIDS
A donor's experience supporting one of KIFAD's HIV/AIDS projects
A volunteer's experience working with KIFAD
Submitted as an entry to the telecentre.org Blog Contest.


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Welcome to WebmasterWorld Guest from 184.108.40.206
Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
Introduction to Google Ranking [googleblog.blogspot.com]
I thought this principle of "no query left behind" was interesting but would love to find out more how they determine what "less than ideal results for any query" are.
Do they monitor specific keyword phrases and use those as benchmarks? Are they low volume searches? Are they numerous queries for the same keyword phrase? What indicators do they use to modify their results?
What factors do we know about?
An old NY Times article gave an example for local results but curious what other factors are mentioned that I have missed.
Curious if the upcoming posts will have anymore insight.
I was also curious what the impact is of their "We make about ten ranking changes every week". I don't seem to notice these changes much for my sector and was curious if they are for concentrated niches or area specific results.
Curious if anyone has any insight into the matter.
[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 6:10 pm (utc) on July 9, 2008]
[edit reason] added Permalink [/edit]
joined:Jan 27, 2003
votes: 0
"less than ideal results for any query"
From Google's point of view, they likely want to deliver the best result first: or certainly within the top 3 results.
I don't think I've heard anything specifically about how Google judge if results are 'ideal' or not, but I would speculate that a lot of user data is involved. I imagine the worse case scenario for a search is if the user does not click on any results at all, especially if they click through multiple result pages. Of course, this has to be weighed against the fact that there are bad search queries, as well as bad results. "less than ideal" search queries are one of the reasons Google offers 'related searches' for many words and phrases.
Another factor may well be use of the back button: if a user clicks a result and then is straight back to results to click a different one, the chances are high that the results didn't match their search.
And of course, there are also obviously poor results like spam, which amongst other methods can be identified by direct user reports (e.g. the "dissatisifed" link) and by the people Google use to specifically identify spam within results.
I imagine that clear patterns emerge from the substantial user data Google has, enabling a pretty reliable judgement of whether a particular result 'tweak' improved user satisfaction or not.
No one human editor can directly change the ranking of a url. Instead, a number (say, 5 per SERP) work on rating the same SERP independently from each other. If a URL in some position is seen as either better than ranked or worse than ranked by all the raters (according to the specific criteria they are trained to use) then that human input can be integrated back into the algo and either raise or lower ranking for that url.
Here's our thread on the human editorial input patent [webmasterworld.com]. And here's a related thread about Google Quality Raters [webmasterworld.com].
I was talking to a SEO firm and they said they have application running to check the algo changes and so on. I wonder why people need to do it.
For me its simple, "Make it talkable and you will win".
In the patent, the human editorial input is used in a very creative and algorithmic way. [webmasterworld.com...]
Tedster - Can you explain "creative and algorithmic way "
2. Get their ratings for each url that appears in that SERP - whether it's really good for the user, should be higher, or should be lower.
3. If every one of the editors agrees, then flag that domain with a factor to raise or lower it for that particular SERP. If there's an obvious disagreement (especially is/isn't spam) then kick that up to a supervisory level.
4. Rinse and repeat.
5. Also take that feedback and see how the algorithm might be made stronger.
Not from any patent but just some logical thoughts. If a website produces some negative signals (may be because of bad linking patterns, content issues etc) then can it get inspected manually before triggering some filters.
I remember it happening with Yahoo once. One of my friend was ranking in top 10 for very very high competition. All of sudden they were thrown to nowhere and rest of the SERP remained the same (So not on a basis of query term, looks site-specific). After talking to some internal Yahoo guys we came to know that it was a manual filtering. Only after a series of mail exchange, they could get it removed.
If you don't rank for important terms in your industry, you won't get inspected ;)
I wonder what the top / subjects / industries are, that would be most prone to ranking inspections. Any ideas ?
[edited by: Whitey at 5:14 am (utc) on July 17, 2008]
I also think they're working on statistical means to back up (and eventually replace a lot of) the human editorial input.
Along the lines of the need for human editorial input, I recently read some heavy math that demonstrated pretty conclusively that search as a whole is not a process that submits to ordinary statistical analysis - standard deviations and all that jazz. In other words, AI as it's normally conceived of is not going to take over here, because the model keeps getting surprised too often. That may be why we hear about Google-stlye analysis working on "no modeling at all [webmasterworld.com]".
There was an interview with a top Google employee earlier this year where he said that they have a machine-learning version of the algo running in parallel with the live one that gets intensive, eyes-on checking. And they don't feel that the machine learning version is up to the job, as of now, so it doesn't run live.
I've been wondering recently if all this cycling we hear reported might be an artifact of trying to integrate some machine learning into the live SERPs. No one's likely to tell us, of course, but it's fun for me to think about anyway - I can't stop myself, in fact.


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A Louisiana man on Thursday filed a federal lawsuit against the City of New Orleans' ban on stun guns contending they are protected arms under the Second Amendment.
Crescent City resident John Ford wants to buy and own a taser for self-defense in a city whose per capita murder rate is among the highest in the nation. However, New Orleans has a ban on owning and carrying a stun gun or a Taser, making the devices unlawful except for police use despite the fact that they are legal under state law and can be carried without a permit.
As such, Ford filed suit in federal court against New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Michael S. Harrison in his official capacity this week, hoping to strike the ban.
Attorneys for Ford argue that, going back to the 1939 Miller case, and more recently Heller in 2008 and the Supreme Court's treatment of the Caetano case this year laid the framework for the challenge.
In Caetano, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld the conviction of a woman who bought and used a stun gun in self-defense from an abusive ex-boyfriend, citing the device "is not the type of weapon that is eligible for Second Amendment protection" because it was "not in common use at the time of [the Second Amendment's] enactment." On March 21, the entire U.S. Supreme Court took one look at that logic and unanimously rejected the state's argument.
Caetano is also cited heavily in a complaint filed by Second Amendment advocates in New Jersey against the Garden State's ban on stun guns in August as well as a Washington, D.C. case earlier the same month. Since then, D.C. has reversed its ban while the New Jersey Attorney General last week has signaled his state's prohibition is unconstitutional.
"Basically in Heller the court said that Second Amendment rights pertain to 'all bearable arms,'" Ford's attorney Alan Beck told Guns.com on Thursday. "So the language is already there, in Heller, and was extrapolated on by the Supreme Court in Caetano to find that stun guns fall under the scope of Second Amendment rights because they are in common use and they are obviously bearable arms."
Stephen Stamboulieh of Mississippi and Jeffrey P. Berniard of Louisiana also represent Ford. Beck and Stamboulieh, it should be noted, are also on the legal team suing to end New Jersey's ban.
The plaintiff is seeking to overturn New Orleans' prohibition as well as court costs and legal fees.
Coincidentally, on Thursday the editorial board of USA Today came out in favor of repealing stun gun bans as a whole, holding up the case of Jaime Caetano as an example.
"Several states and cities that ban stun guns, including Hawaii, New York, Rhode Island, Baltimore, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Tacoma, Wash., would do well to take a hint from the Supreme Court," noted the publication. "Not only are the devices protected by the Second Amendment, but there is a public safety case for them."