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DU chemistry special
We ran a Tyler Ruegsegger story today to advance the UAA series. It's about Tyler's strong Christian background. But I think it also points to team chemistry, which is not discussed in the story. I keep hearing how this team gets along so well. Captain Andy Thomas, goalie Peter Mannino and defenseman Zach Blom each have told me it's the tightest group they've played with at DU. Certainly, it's showing on the ice.
I think Ruegsegger has a lot to do with that. Don't get me wrong, I don't wholeheartedly support his views. But I respect them. Just like I'm sure he respects my decision to focus on common sense rather than the Bible. I was raised Catholic and now I'm, well, a guy that knows from right and wrong and doesn't need to attend church to feel good about myself. I shouldn't get into that, but I'm sure a lot of guys on the hockey team aren't the religious sort like me, but support Ruegsegger's beliefs because, hey, if it's working for the guy why fight it?
Just like how nobody gives it to goalie Peter Mannino for not having a cold one (or 20) after a series. Let's face it, hockey players are like a volcano. They bust their tails all week and then need to an avenue to blow off some steam. Plus, they're college students. Partying is part of the culture.
My point is, when you've got two big-time leaders in Ruegsegger and Mannino, there's a heck of a lot more focus on winning hockey games and the Frozen Four and staying out of trouble than looking ahead to what girls are going to show up late Saturday night, when the party begins. Hangovers aren't part of their training, and they aren't going to go after a teammate's girlfriend, which a heard caused multiple problems in the past couple seasons.
DU has 19 underclassmen, and like Gwozdecky said in the following story, Ruegsegger and Mannino are two key leaders and very influential. I think that influence has generated a special focus for this team. Anyway, here's today's story if you missed it in the paper:
He'll preach what he practices
Ruegsegger goes on faith
By Mike Chambers
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 12/14/2007 12:35:46 AM MST
Tyler Ruegsegger is known as one of the University of Denver's hardest-working and reliable hockey players. But what he really wants to be known for is his work and reliability for his faith.
Hockey is important. But for the sophomore star center from Lakewood, it's more a means to deliver his message.
"I've always believed in Christ, and him dying on the cross for everyone's sins," Ruegsegger said of his Protestant beliefs. "I believe he changes your heart when you accept him. And I believe the hockey world is my mission trip. That's been my place to witness."
At 19, Ruegsegger supports his faith in simple terms — areas that aren't the norm for most hockey players or college students.
"No drinking. No swearing. No chewing (tobacco)," he said. "And keeping it clean with the girls. No premarital sex," he said.
Last summer, DU coach George Gwozdecky made Ruegsegger an assistant captain, a rare honor for a sophomore. Character had everything to do with it.
"It's a long season, a marathon, and so many things happen over 6 1/2 months, so many things change, with so much adversity to battle," Gwozdecky said. "When you have great character in your leaders, it's passed along.
"Tyler is such a positive influence. The new players come in every year and they are influenced in so many ways. Tyler, (goalie) Peter Mannino and our other leaders set an example for those guys to make better choices, better decisions."
Ruegsegger wants to become a minister, or at least work overseas with underprivileged people in the summers when not playing hockey. Devoting all his time to his faith likely won't happen soon.
He's been a hockey star at every level, and his career could take him to the NHL. The playmaker was a sixth-round draft choice of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2006, selected 166th overall.
Ruegsegger — who a year ago became the first Colorado native to accept a full scholarship from Gwozdecky direct from high school hockey — has 22 goals and 47 points in 56 games at DU.
After the Pioneers' series at Alaska-Anchorage this weekend, Ruegsegger and linemate Rhett Rakhshani, also a sophomore, will join the U.S. World Junior Team and play in the under-20 international championship in the Czech Republic over the holidays.
Ruegsegger will undoubtedly try to deliver his message to his fellow American all-stars. He knows that some players will frown on his remarks, but he hopes they will respect him like his DU teammates.
"The guys (at DU) have been great. They know what I believe and they respect it," Ruegsegger said. "At times it can be tough, but when you believe as strong as I do, it's something you're willing to go through for the good of the cause."
Mike Chambers: 303-954-1357 or firstname.lastname@example.com


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Asteroid impact craters are among the most interesting geological structures on any planet. Many other planets and moons in our solar system, including our own moon, are pock-marked with loads of craters. But because Earth has a protective atmosphere and is geologically active – with plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions, mostly relatively young oceanic crust, and harsh weathering from wind and water – impact structures don't last long and can be tough to come by.
But on a few old pieces of continent, especially in arid deserts, the marks of asteroids have been preserved. One well-known example is our own Barringer crater, also known as Meteor Crater, in Arizona. The images here show some of the biggest, oldest and most interesting impact craters on the planet. Aorounga crater, pictured above and below, is one of the best preserved impact craters on Earth, thanks in part to its location in the Sahara Desert in Chad. The 10 mile-wide crater is probably around 350 million years old. The stripes are alternating rock ridges and sand layers, known as yardangs, caused by persistent unidirectional wind. The image above was taken by astronauts in the International Space Station in July. The radar image below, taken from the space shuttle in 1994, reveals that Aorounga may be one of two or three craters.
Images: NASA https://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2009/08/impact_shoemaker1a.jpg
The Shoemaker crater in Western Australia, formerly known as the Teague crater, was renamed in honor of the planetary geologist Eugene Shoemaker for whom the Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 is also named. The age of the crater unclear, but it could be 1.7 billion years old, which makes it the oldest known impact in Australia. The brightly colored splotches are seasonal salt-water lakes. This image was taken by the Landsat 7 satellite.
Image: NASA/USGS, 2000. https://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2009/08/impact_manicouagan1a.jpg
The Manicouagan Crater in northern Canada is one of the largest impact craters known on Earth. The impact occurred around 210 million years ago at the end of the Triassic period and may have caused a mass extinction that killed around 60 percent of all species. Though the crater has mostly eroded, Lake Manicouagan outlines what is left of the 43-mile wide impact structure. The asteroid that created the crater is thought to have been about three miles wide. Today the lake is a reservoir and popular salmon fishing location.
Images: 1) NASA, STS 9 Crew, 1983. 2) NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team, 2001. https://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2009/08/impact_spider2a.jpg
This crazy looking structure in Western Australia is called the Spider crater, for obvious reasons. Geologists determined it was an impact crater when they found shatter cones, telltale cone-shaped, grooved rocks found only around impacts. The crazy looking legs surrounding the impact are mostly due to erosion of different rock layers. The harder sandstone ridges withstood the weathering of wind and water better than the softer intervening layers. The crater is somewhere between 600 million and 900 million years old and the raised area at its center is around 1,600 feet wide. The image above is a false-color image taken by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer on NASA's Terra. The true-color image below was captured by Taiwan's Formost-2 satellite
Images: 1) NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team, 2008. 2) Cheng-Chien Liu, National Cheng-Kung University and Dr. An-Ming Wu, National Space Organization, Taiwan, 2008 https://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2009/08/impact_gossesbluff1a.jpg
The Gosses Bluff crater in Australia's Northern Territory sits between two mountain ranges. The raised circular feature in the center of the structure is around 2.8 miles across, but the original crater rim was probably at the edge of the surrounding grayish area. The crater was formed caused by an asteroid impact around 140 million years ago.
Image: USGS https://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2009/08/impact_clearwater1a.jpg
Clearwater Lakes in Quebec, Canada were formed by a pair of asteroid impact craters. The impacts probably occurred simultaneously around 290 million years ago. The larger crater measures 22 miles across.
Image: NASA https://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2009/08/impact_roterkamm1a.jpg
The Roter Kamm crater in Namibia is hard to see in visible light, but shows up more clearly with imaging radar. The crater's 1.5 mile-wide rim stands out as a bright ring in the lower left of the image, which was taken by a radar instrument on board the space shuttle. Irregular surfaces show up brightly and smooth areas are dark. The white splotch at the bottom of the photo is a rocky hill, the darkest areas are wind-blown sand dunes, the blue around the crater's rim may be material that was ejected during the impact, the red is limestone outcrop and the green areas are mostly vegetation. The impact occurred around 5 million years ago.
Image: NASA/JPL, 1994. https://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2009/08/impact_lonar1a.jpg
The Lonar crater in Maharashta, India is around 6,000 feet wide and 500 feet deep and contains a saltwater lake. Scientists determined the structure was caused by an asteroid through clues such as the presence of maskelynite, a glass that is only formed by extremely high-velocity impacts. The impact occurred around 50,000 years ago. This image was captured by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer on NASA's Terra satellite. It is a simulated true-color image
Image: NASA, 2004 https://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2009/08/impact_vredefort1a.jpg
The Vredefort Dome in South Africa is possibly the oldest and largest clearly visible asteroid impact on Earth. The 155-mile crater is approximately 60 miles southwest of Johannesburg and was formed around 2 billion years ago.
Images: NASA https://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2009/08/impact_bs1a.jpg
We here at Wired Science love a really good, cheesy artist's rendering of a space object or phenomenon, so we couldn't resist this beauty. This is one man's idea of what a 300-mile wide asteroid would look impacting Earth. This event probably would have killed everything on the planet. Fortunately, NASA says nothing this big is headed our way anytime soon.
Image: NASA/Don Davis

subset: commoncrawl


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|TidBITS#86 19911007
Some people would prefer that title to be "Apple/IBM: It's Oh-fish-al," since they think they detect a tell-tale smell. However, the Apple/IBM deal appears to be real and was consummated last week in the press releases, where all good industry relationships eventually end up. Nothing much has really changed since the first news came out, but the two companies are focussing more on multimedia than was expected, even though we thought that IBM would be interested in Apple's QuickTime technology.
The deal has five main points, although no one can be sure how long it will take for some of these things to appear on the market. First and least interesting to those of us who don't connect to large IBM systems will be some products that will help meld the Mac with the mongo IBMs. My opinion is that this is good for Apple's appearance to the big buyers, but has little interest otherwise. Of course this stuff is the easiest and was probably in the works as soon as Sculley and IBM's Akers started talking. Look for it by the beginning of 1992.
Second come the PowerPC RISC processors, although Apple and IBM, along with Motorola, are hoping that their RISC processors don't finish second to the MIPS R4000. Motorola hitched a ride on this part of the deal since Apple will be ignoring a Motorola-designed RISC chip that was reputed to have some problems despite a lot of Apple input. The PowerPC chips will evolve from IBM's current implementation of the technology in its RS/6000 workstations. I've heard differing opinions on how good the PowerPC technology is overall and where its strengths and weaknesses lie, but since I know little about processor design and implementation, I'll stay out of the fray. Since Motorola has to do quite a bit of work on the new single-chip implementation of the PowerPC, it will be several years before Apple and IBM, much less anyone else in the market, can buy them from Motorola.
Third comes Unix, or at least the melting-pot combination of IBM's version of it, AIX, Apple's version, A/UX, and the POWER architecture of IBM's RISC chips. From what I've heard, the resulting dish will be able to run Macintosh software along with both AIX and A/UX software, and will sport some of A/UX's interface features, but will be built on the AIX core. Of course, to mix in a little spicy confusion, Apple and IBM will both continue enhancing AIX and A/UX independently. And people wonder why Unix has never caught on?
Fourth comes the new emphasis on multimedia. Rather than just a little cross licensing, Apple and IBM will create a new independent company that will come up with new multimedia technologies and license them where ever possible. I wouldn't be surprised to see some consumer electronics products come out of this joint venture, although I certainly hope that it is staffed with totally new people. I've seen few interesting multimedia efforts from IBM, due in part to the fact that multimedia is essentially entertainment-like and IBM just isn't terribly entertaining. Apple has a much better concept of this, which is one reason that Apple will continue to lead in the multimedia market, despite the multimedia extensions to Windows. And please accept my apologies for using the term "multimedia." I realize it's a poor word, and linguistically incorrect, but it's the jargon of choice.
Fifth and finally comes the primary focus of the deal. Apple and IBM will create an independent company to develop a next-generation object-oriented operating environment. If I threw "multimedia" in that sentence as well, I'd probably get a triple sentence score in Jargon Scrabble. This company will work with Apple's Pink OS and attempt to create an operating system that is platform independent to the extent that it will work on RISC workstations, machines based on the 80x86 chips, and computers using Motorola's 680x0 chips. To be real, I'd say that you can forget about the lower end PCs and Macs, and the Commodore 64 is right out. The only mildly new bits of this part of the agreement are that both companies will license parts of the technology and incorporate them into existing operating systems before the new company comes out with a complete operating environment, which probably won't be for another three or four years at best. Also included as a little teaser is the fact that Apple and IBM are cross-licensing patent and visual displays, "including a limited license to the Macintosh visual displays." That last phrase leads me to think that OS/2 might sport a decent interface in the relatively near future, which certainly wouldn't hurt in its battle with Windows.
Like it or not, Apple and IBM have signed the papers and all that remains now is to see what comes out when. I suspect the new companies will lay low for a year or so, much as General Magic has done. I'm sure the people at General Magic aren't sitting around, but they also haven't said anything new for some time now. Eventually something will show up.
Information from:
Apple/IBM propaganda


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(Note this blog is simulposted here and on Jags Ramnaryan's blog. Jags is our Chief Architect and his blog is well worth subscribing to!)
This week we finally reached GA status for VMware vFabric SQLFire – a memory-optimized distributed SQL database delivering dynamic scalability and high performance for data-intensive modern applications.
In this post, I will highlight some important elements in our design and draw out some of our core values.
The current breed of popular NoSQL stores promote different approaches to data modelling, storage architectures and consistency models to solve the scalability and performance problems in relational databases. The overarching messages in all of them seems to suggest that the core of the problem with traditional relational databases is SQL.
But, ironically, the core of the scalability problem has little to do with SQL itself – it is the manner in which the traditional DB manages disk buffers, manages its locks and latches through a centralized architecture to preserve strict ACID properties that represents a challenge. Here is a slide from research at MIT and Brown university on where the time is spent in OLTP databases.
Design Center
With SQLFire we change the design center in a few interesting ways:
1) Optimize for main memory: we assume memory is abundant across a cluster of servers and optimize the design through highly concurrent data structures all resident in memory. The design is not concerned with buffering contiguous disk blocks in memory but rather manages application rows in memory hashmaps in a form so it can be directly consumed by clients. Changes are synchronously propagated to redundants in the cluster for HA.
2) Rethink ACID transactions: There is no support for strict serializable transactions but assume that most applications can get by with simpler "read committed" and "repeatable read" semantics. Instead of worrying about "read ahead" transaction logs on disk, all transactional state resides in distributed memory and uses a non-2PC commit algorithm optimized for small duration, non-overlapping transactions. The central theme is to avoid any single points of contentions like with a distribtued lock service. Our documentation has more details on how transactions work in SQLFire.
3) "Partition aware DB design": Almost every single high scale DB solution offers a way to linearly scale by hashing keys to a set of partitions. But, how do you make SQL queries and DML scale when they involve joins or complex conditions? Given that distributed joins inherently don't scale we promote the idea that the designer should think about common data access patterns and choose the partitioning strategy accordingly. To make things relatively simple for the designer, we extended the DDL (Data definition language in SQL) so the designer can specify how related data should be colocated ( for instance 'create table Orders (…) colocate with Customer' tells us that the order records for a customer should always be colocated onto the same partition). The colocation now makes join processing and query optimization a local partition problem (avoids large transfers of intermediate data sets). The design assumes classic OLTP workload patterns where vast majority of individual requests can be pruned to a few nodes and that the concurrent workload from all users is spread across the entire data set (and, hence across all the partitions). Look here for some details.
4) Shared nothing logs on disk: Disk stores are merely "append only" logs and designed so that application writes are never exposed to the disk seek latencies. Writes are synchronously streamed to disk on all replicas. A lot of the disk store design looks similar to other NoSQL systems – rolling logs, background/offline compression, memory tables pointing to disk offsets, etc. But, the one aspect that represents core IP is all around managing consistent copies on disk in the face of failures. Given that distributed members can come and go, how do we make sure that the disk state a member is working with is the one I should be working with? I cover our "shared nothing disk architecture" in lot more detail in this blog post on GemFire 6.5.
5) Parallelize data access and application behavior: We extend the classic stored procedure model by allowing applications to parallelize the procedure across the cluster or just a subset of nodes by hinting the data the procedure is dependent on. This applicaton hinting is done by supplying a "where clause" that is used to determine where to route and parallelize the execution. Unlike traditional databases, procedures can be arbitrary application Java code (you can infact embed the cluster members in your Spring container) and run collocated with the data. Yes, literally in the same process space where the data is stored. Controversial, yes, but, now your application code can do a scan as efficiently as the database engine.
6) Dynamic rebalancing of data and behavior: This is the act of figuring out what data buckets should be migrated when new capacity (cluster size grows) is allocated (or removed) and how to do this without causing consistency issues or introducing contention points for concurrent readers and writes. Here is the patent that describes some aspects of the design.
Embedded or a client-server topology
SQLFire supports switching from the classic client-server (your DB runs in its own processes) topology to embedded mode where the DB cluster and the application cluster is one and the same (for Java apps).
We believe the emdedded model will be very useful in scenarios where the data sets are relatively small. It simplifies deployment concerns and at the same time provides significant boost in performance when replicated tables are in use.
All you do is change the DB URL from 'jdbc:sqlfire://server_Host:port' to 'jdbc:sqlfire:;mcast-port=portNum' and now all your application processes that use the same DB URL will become part of a single distributed system. Essentially, the mcast-port port identifies a broadcast channel for membership gossiping. New servers will automatically join the cluster once authenticated. Any replicated tables will automatically get hosted in the new process and partitioned tables could get rebalanced and share some of the data with the new process. All this is abstracted away from the developer.
As far as the application is concerned, you just create connections and execute SQL like with any other DB.
How well does it perform and scale?
Here are the results of a simple benchmark done internally using commodity (2 CPU) machines showcasing linear scaling with concurrent user load. I will soon augment this with more interesting workload characterization. We have more details on the SQLFire community.
Comparing SQLFire and GemFire
Here is a high level view into how the two products compare. I hope to add a blog post that provides specific details on the differences and use cases where one might apply better than the other.
SQLFire benefits from the years of commercially deployed production code found in GemFire. SQLFire adds a rich SQL engine with the idea that now folks can manage operational data primarily in memory, partitioned across any number of nodes and with a disk architecture that avoids disk seeks. Note the two offerings, SQLFire and GemFire, are completely unique products and deployed separately
As always, I would love to get your candid feedback (link to our forum). I assure you that trying it out is very simple – just like using Apache Derby or H2.
Get to the download, docs and quickstart all from here. The developer license is perpetual and works on upto 3 server nodes.


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The Convention of Thieves is a wandering affair, never in the same city from one year to the next. It is held once a year, generally during the fall, and under the aegis of autumn festivals such as the Feast of the Harvest, the Autumnal Equinox, or the Saints Parade. Each of the thieves guilds across the Haracon Empire choose their best and brightest to send to the convention to represent their interests and ideas. In dark backrooms, away from the hustle and bustle of the Black Market the guildmasters wrangle out deals with one another over turf and status, leveling the playing field for the coming year. Now it may seem odd to some that the thieves and burglars, smugglers and illicit goods dealers would come together each year for such a convention. There is certainly the risk of key members being apprehended by the local law enforcement, bounty hunters, or even the doughty knights of the King. But after the violence and death of the Guild war twenty years ago, both the surviving guilds and the locals were more than willing to accept the convention in lieu of more violence.
Origins of the Convention
Twenty years ago in the Year of Leaves-Not-Falling, a great war raged between two of the most nefarious thieves guilds in the empire of Haracon. A bloodier affair could not have been waged on a field of battle than the one fought on the streets, rooftops, and sewers of Marsuth. Blood flowed freely, only to be washed away by the rains. The common folk and even the law enforcement wisely stayed clear of the chaos that ensued. It all began when the upstart Dodgy Brotherhood, led by the ambitious Hoel Spaca began to encroach on the business interests of the venerable and established Soft Wall House, led by its charismatic guild master "Sil". Up to that time, the Dodgy Brotherhood was an up and coming guild, specializing in petty street crimes, and not much else. It was when Spaca decided to advance into the lucrative extortion racket that he crossed into one of The Soft Walls House specialties. Merchants and shopkeepers were devastated when they began to have to pay for "protection" twice, once to the Soft Walls House's enforcers and again to Spaca's thugs. The necessary dynamic was in place for conflict. Sil was furious at the gall of the Dodgy Brotherhood, and had four of Spaca's men captured, executed, and had their corpses dumped in the main plaza in broad daylight for everyone to see. A brutal but effective lesson Sil had thought. What he did not consider was that Spaca was a proud, willful man, and was enraged not humbled. What Spaca did in retaliation, lived on in infamy for a long time afterwards among the thieves of Marsuth. Spaca had the wives of seven of Sil's men, raped and killed, dumping their corpses in turn, in front of the of the very gates of the Soft Walls House mansion. This was the spark that lit the powder keg.
For the next year and a half, a ruthless, brutal and unrelenting war raged, until Spaca was left with only a handful of men, and even the great Soft Walls House suffered severe casualties. Law enforcement officials were bribed to turn a blind eye, and those that didn't were murdered along with the thieves of the respective guilds. Assassins and mercenaries were hired by both guilds, in an ever-escalating campaign of terror. It almost goes without saying that the business of making money suffered greatly for both guilds as well. Finally, as the festival known as the "Monsters Ball" approached, one enterprising priest of the One True Faith decided he would intervene and attempt to end the murderous conflict, which was now spilling over to include the innocents. Father Jarry by name, this priest sought to mock both guilds. The "Monsters Ball" was a celebration not unlike a combination of our present Halloween and Carnival. People would don intricately designed costumes depicting monsters of lore and legend (dragons, giants, demons) and paraded the main thoroughfare, trying to outdo their neighbors in their pageantry and fearsome appearances. Father Jarry made two of his followers dress up as huge, exaggerated costume versions of Sil and Hoel Spaca, despite the fears of these priests, and had them put in giant hangman's nooses, tied together with another rope. He then sent the great float rolling through the streets for all to witness. As a breeze, or a turn in the street, sent either Sil's or Spaca's giant head lolling to one side or the other, the rope would tighten, choking both men simultaneously. What a spectacle this was for the people of Marsuth, who had lived through the fearsome guild war over the past year and a half. But not just to the common people. Sil and Spaca also witnessed their caricatures and the thinly veiled parody of Father Jarry. It was Sil, who at that very moment in time, finally came to his senses. He approached Spaca personally in the street, as the latter stared agape at his own and his enemies heads, "strangling each other" with every bend of the road. The two men went to the nearest inn, and unnoticed by the drunken festival goers, retired to a dark corner of the establishment. They then proceeded to talk, and talk some more. They talked all night and the better part of the following morning.
Finally after countless lives and coins were lost, the Dodgy Brotherhood and the Soft Walls House ended their war. Not only ended the war, but declared a permanent truce, as well as some rather fair (for thieves) divvying of turf and profit, along with settling on future roles of their respective guilds. The more they talked the more they realized that they could learn from each other, and another idea, a grand one, was born. Sil suggested a thief's festival. A week long party, between the men of the two guilds, to try and erase the hatred, jealousies, and overall ill-will which ensued between the two guilds during their war. The gala was a big success, and the two guild masters agreed to stage an annual event! Throughout the following year, inspiration struck Sil, and with Spaca's agreement, the two men decided to invite another guild to the following year's event. This third guild was secretive, unassuming, and even older than the Soft Walls House in its heritage and traditions. It was also extremely wealthy. It operated in the docks and warehouse districts of Marsuth. Pororn Wesovi, the guildmaster, was amused by, and accepted this invitation, effectively squelching any designs the now aligned Sil and Spaca, might have had on HIS business. And so, The Esteemed Brotherhood of Cargo Masters joined the party. The next invited guild was from nearby Powlgraff the Fowl City. The precocious Cocks and Peckers, led by the beautiful and wise Ossidra, were making quite a name for them selves, and accepted the invitation, figuring they had finally "hit the big time". And so it went…more guilds were invited and soon the event evolved into an extravaganza
Hosting the Convention
The event is a major undertaking and one of the last events of each Convention is the election of the next site to host. The potentials volunteer their home towns for the honor, so preparations for the convention actually run a minimum of one year before the convention. Some of this is procuring the hall space to host events like the roast, cant off, and a venue to host the Black Market. In this aspect, the Convention is run in a manner similar to the modern Olympics. There is one advantage, in that a hosting city already has the home turf advantage and only tradition of the wandering convention has prevented the event from becoming fixed in one location. Once a city has served as host, its chances of hosting again drastically increase.
Another aspect is greasing the palms of the city administrators and officials who need to look the other way, as well as getting the guardsmen on the guild's payroll to police the area that is serving as the site of the convention. That way no vigilantism takes place with a do-gooder looking for promotion tries to run in Yoshi of the Thousand Fingers. None of the generally older guild masters want to be caught up in the entanglements of the law system should a trusted associate be apprehended, nor do the younger members want to face such a hassle. It is considered a mark of shame and inability to be taken into custody by the city guard of a host city.
The Final aspect is presenting the city as a place that the thieves will want to visit. Despite the Black Market and thievery awards, another aspect is to draw attention to their city and their pride, be it the exceptional quality of Powlgraff's prostitutes, Cilagros' canal-cruising, singing, rogues or the more elitist artistic realm of Vandergraff and its counterfeiters and forgers.
Flow of Events
Day One
Opening Ceremony - laying out the bounds of the convention, commemoration of the Guild wars and the cost in gold and lives, opening feast and Thieves Ball in the evening. The opening rounds of the Cant Off begin, with younger streetwise thieves competing for the accolade of their peers.
Day 2
Black market opens, and stays open for the rest of the Convention, peddling their illegal and illicit wares. The Guildmaster's Roast commences with the evening dinner (An invitational event, akin to brandy and cigars rather than ale and dice) The second evening Gala, devoid of the esteemed leaders of the guilds is a more raucous affair of boozing, gambling, carousing and a general celebration of all things roguish. The Prize is revealed to be stolen, and the list for the scavenger hunt is released.
Day 3
Guildmaster's Summit - with the frivolity out of the way, the guildmasters, many nursing hangovers, get into the business of turf disputes and grievances. Regular thieves enjoy the city, as well as participating in the scavenger hunt. Third evening gala consists of sneaking into Royal affairs during the fall festival, or crashing commoner affairs if security is too tight.
Day 4
Declaration of the winner of the Cant Off, the Scavenger Hunt (who was actually able to lift a chicken's tooth off of the wizard AND a pair of the princess' garters?) The final ball and dance as well as the election of the next site of the convention. The closing ceremonies are quite short as most of the participants are either dead tired from being up all night, hung over from too much ale, and all are ready to go home to spread the tales of the convention, and their own accomplishments.
Competitions and Attractions
The Scavenger Hunt
On the second evening, the list is released, being 3D6 items in length. Some of the items are quite common, such as a pair of ladies slippers, though a thief who lifts the pink silk slippers of the princess is going to get more kudos than the thief who nabs a pair of plain woolen slippers of a midwife. On the end of the list are a small number of very rare, and difficult to find items. These can include keys to the stockade, the Steward's sword, or an explicit pillow book from the local mage. Those who seriously competed in the hunt present their trophies on the closing day to see who has won. The winner generally receives not only respect but a valuable magic item of some sort. This is also a chance for the local guild to show off its wealth and prosperity.
Cant Off
A new competition, this runs the full length of the event, with the younger thieves and rogues using the skill as fast-talking and using the cant, or thieves lingo, compete with one another. Some sue musical instruments to pace their cant, others simply "keep it real" and show respect to their roots on the hard and dirty streets. The winner of the Cant Off is guaranteed to return next year, as well as getting much respect for his skills.
The Prize
This tradition came about on the fifth year of the convention when Phinneas Baerd of Vandergraff declared that the thieves of his city were so good that he could lay a gold hilted dagger in the middle of a convention table and none could take it without being caught. Fifteen minutes later the dagger was gone and the Prize came about. Each year, a item is declared the prize and it is the duty of the hosting guild to protect the prize (hang it from a chain in the middle of the room, place it in a strong box, anything except standing armed watch over it. It takes a master thief to filch the prize, and doing so gains respect for that thief's guild, as well as netting the thief quite a prize in the item taken.
The Roast
The elders of the Guilds are made men, each having gained their position by wit, skill, cunning and charisma. As such, they are a very diverse and 'interesting' lot of men and no few women. At the Roast, the most prominent Guildmaster is the subject of the roast. Most often, it is a retiring member who has decided to pass his seat on and retire to that villa in the countryside. Other times its a Guildmaster who has seriously flubbed up, or one who has proved himself or herself exceptional. No matter the circumstances, the Roastee must accept the roasting in good humor, though only those being roasted for ineptitude are sorely tested on their temper. The roast consists of a recounting of the Roastee's most memorable, embarrassing and revealing anecdotes, to which the Roastee is allowed to respond, but it is considered bad form to try to hard to refute an anecdote.
Overheard at the Roast
"A moment of silence for Kijik the Sparrow. He finally flew to high, but what a little bird he was! Take his wife for instance, no really, TAKE her!" (with apologies to Henny Youngman)
"How about a big round of applause for "The Gnat", finally hangin' it up after all these years. Get it boys? Hangin' it up!" (a few laughs, a few boos)
"They tell me Black Ronnel is retiring to his wife and garden. Well, if that doesn't convince you to never retire, nothing will!" (Black Ronnel's wife tosses a tomato, Black Ronnel is napping throughout the speech)
"And last but not least, 'Baby-Face Ilmar' is calling it a career, ladies and gentlemen. Look at his face now…not quite smooth as a babies anymore is it? That acid splash certainly didn't help!" (Ilmar winces)
"Oh and I almost forgot, lets give the Silver Spurs award to Loppy Binderbrook. Most horses stolen last year in the entire Empire! A horse is a horse of course of course..lalala (severe booing and disagreements ring out from other horse-thieves!)
The Black Market
One of the largest draws of the Convention is the Black Market. Taking its name from the underground illegal market, the Black Market deals almost exclusively in illegal goods. Thieves picks, housebreaking harnesses, weapon black, and easily concealed weapons can all be found here, as well as some unorthodox items. The Market is open each day of the convention, save for the first. On the first day, some are setting up shop in their secured location, while the rest attend the opening ceremonies and the like.
Honor Among Thieves
Each DM's home realm is going to be different, but a thieves post like this would be incomplete without offering some sample thieves guilds from across the Kingdom. Aside from the guilds listed, some good ideas for guilds could be creating them along the lines of a certain skill (beggars, cutpurses, smugglers, etc) or by geographical location (Old Quarter, West Bank, Marketplace) A small city will generally only have one guild that loosely presides over general roguery while a large city can have as many as three or four guilds that can overlapping territories, both in terms of their larcenous skill, but also physical turf. A metropolis, or major city can have as many as a dozen guilds, some no more than street gangs, others organized like the Mafia or Yakuza.
Soft Walls House - The guild that others get judged by. The "Cream". Led by the charismatic "Sil". This guild is located in the capital of Haracon, Marsuth. Sil is the proverbial 'gentlemen thief', well read, aware of the best wine vintages, and tending towards magnanimity to the "innocents" of the city, despite his guilds business. It was Sil's idea to use invisible ravens to communicate with the other guild masters in preparation for any given year's event. It was also Sil's brainchild, to include a toast to 'Saint Jarry', Patron of Thieves, during every years Roast.
Dodgy Brotherhood - A mid-sized guild with some prestige, which has recuperated quite nicely from the war that started it all. Known to employ countless middlemen and other 'pigeons' in its dealings. Still led by the irascible but slightly mellowed Hoel Spaca, the Dodgers still concentrate on "street work", picking pockets, cutting purse strings, and the like.
Esteemed Brotherhood of Cargomasters- Most people don't know a cargomaster from a ship captain, and for that much, most sailors cant tell the difference either. The normal Cargomaster's Guild governs the rates of shippage, and decides what will be moved to where and by whom. By virtue of their control over all non-military shipping, the Cargomasters are both weathy and influential. Within this perfectly respectable if sometimes shady guild is the Esteemed Brotherhood of Cargomasters, each and every one a smuggler, privateer, slaver, and pirate. This guild commands ships and their mercenary crews. Some carry contraband cargos of illicit drugs, illegal weapons, and even innocents in chains to be sold on the slave market. They are as powerful and influential as their legit guildmates, but far less scrupulous. Based out of any port on a contiginous body of water (sea or ocean) this is one of the few guilds that is able to extend its reach beyond the single boundary of a lone city. Pororn Wesovi, a distinguished, goateed, middle-aged man leads this guild with the proverbial iron hand and a soft touch at the same time. He is highly respected among the other guild masters.
The Palmers - Proud and haughty self-styled specialists hailing form the mud-caked streets of Old Olmesh. They have a strange way of picking their leaders. A guildmaster is voted on every year, and replaced the following year by another. "Palm work" though not an original concept, is their forte. This year's leader is one, Handless Henno.
Cryphus Gang - These are bad apples. Employing little organization, and featuring many hoodlums, the thieves here are all relations of the original Cryphus, a fecund hood of the first order, who is now thankfully long dead. Cousins, brothers, sisters and the like, unsurprisingly they all tend to look alike or at least share physical characteristics. Invited grudgingly, the Cryphus gang doesn't 'do it pretty' but they get the job done.
The Roofers - The rooftop brigade! Led by Yazzard the Younger, son of Yazzard the Older, who was blasted off a roof when he was struck by a lightning bolt! Junior has an uncontrollable phobia of lightning unsurprisingly, bordering on lunacy. As by proxy, and due to their particular forte, so do most Roofers. "Chimney-Sweeps", is another appellation they are known by in Josters Lance, the town from which they hail.
Yoshi's Thousand Fingers - the oldest known guild, from the dilapidated, ruined city of Unercropft. Nowhere near 'the best' however, much to Yoshi's resentment, mostly due to countless wars and lawful persecutions. Their name is quite lofty, since there are only about thirty five or so fingers left today. As always, but particularly so this year, Yoshi is looking to make a splash at the gala, come hell or high water. He particularly dislikes Sil and Ossidra, the 'blind fox' and the 'upstart trollop' as he calls them. Also, being nearly one hundred years of age, Yoshi has challenged his Fingers to find him the ways and means to achieve eternal life and immortality, and he is dead (hehe) serious on this matter! How this may go is anyone's guess.
Cocks and Peckers - These precocious thieves hail from Powlgraff, the Fowl City. They are led by Ossidra, a beautiful and wise guildmistress. She is a forward thinker and quite the political animal. Very protective of her 'birds', Ossidra is always on the look out for trouble during these events. Unknown to anyone, except Ossidra, Sil of the Soft Walls House has a fierce crush on the gorgeous, flame-haired guildmistress. The Guild gets its peculiar name, from the fact that the killing and eating of poultry is forbidden in Powlgraff. This stems from a long ago incident when both the archduke of Powlgraff and his duchess choked on chicken bones two minutes apart, during a celebratory feast. Thousands of roosters and hens wander the plazas and streets unfettered in Powlgraff, 'pecking' and 'preening'. And the guild has adopted their bizarre guild name in their honor. The guilds particular expertise is running the prostitution racket. Every streetwalker or brothel doyenne in the city, pays homage (and coin) to Ossidra's collectors and protectors.
The Golden Rule
There is a certain honor among thieves, but the laws they hold as their own are draconian. Any thief caught in the act of stealing at the convention (stealing from a vendor, guild master, hosting party, as opposed to pulling a heist against a local non-protection paying merchant) can be punished by death. But the golden rule comes into play, in that If the thief is not caught, there was no crime.
Plot hooks
The Daring Raid - The Convention is a congregation of the wealthy, and some guildmasters like to demonstrate their success by dripping themselves with gold and jewels. For whatever reason (Cuz they can, coercion and blackmail, or get the McGuffin) the PC thieves have decided to rob one of the attending guild masters, or vendors. Can the PCs pull off the heist, and escape without being branded as thieves among thieves?
Oceans Reversed - Rather than steal something, the PC's have the unenviable task of protecting a valuable item or person. This could be the Prize mentioned above or it could be something that is just really, really valuable. The PC's have to see the other side of robbery. Can they refuse bribes or brow beatings?
Hot to Trot - The King is really annoyed that someone managed to off with his jewel encrusted scepter, and the PC's have it in their hot little hands, the problem is that being caught with it is a worse than death sentence, and no one is will to buy it, no matter the discount. Can the PC's find a fence in the Convention before the law catches up with them?
Do you Have it in Dragonhide? - a lot of thief items are less than easy to come by. The more exotic the item, the harder it is to find. The Black Market is the perfect place to find that wonderful toy the PC wants so badly. The catch, the vendor isn't willing to part with the item easily. Perhaps the PC's have to do a task, provide something in barter rather than plain old gold, or have to find a way to steal it and get away.
Thief games - Can the PC's resist a chance to compete in the Cant Off? Do they want to nab the Prize? The PC's are drawn into the thief games by happenstance or by bet, or even by the order of their stodgy old guild master.
Knife in the Back - tensions are high, some conflict has not entirely quieted during the Convention and a guildmaster fears that a rival is going to have him killed. What will if be, an assassin, a friend bought with Judas silver? An arrow from a dark alley. Paranoid, but unable to avoid the convention the guildmaster attends. 1. The PCs have to serve as bodyguards and protect the old coot, or 2. The PCs have to sneak into a Thieves gathering to assassinate one of its leading members for an unknown party.
The Long Kiss - A well known thief (likely female for a predominantly male group and vice versa for a female group) has been framed for a major crime in the Convention. It is up to the PCs to help the victim escape, as well as uncovering the parties involved in the frame-up and defeating the main villian. The goal? distract everyone from a McGuffin, or to assassinate an important personage. Mayhem ensues.
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Suggested Submissions
- 40 Thieves Guild Missions Plots By: Nobody
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Translation Disclaimer
If you bike, walk, drive or take transit around Berkeley, you have probably noticed the bicycle boulevard signs and pavement markings. Identifying the streets with these signs and legends is just the first phase of creating a network of bicycle boulevards. The City is now engaged in the second phase of implementation - improving the safety and convenience of the bicycle boulevards, including the crossings at busy streets.
Check out the short video explaining Berkeley's boulevard system. Street Films: Berkeley's Bicycle Boulevards
Current Projects
The City is working on the following projects to improve bicycle boulevards:
Hillegass/Ashby Intersection: This intersection is difficult to cross for people biking or walking. The City is working with Caltrans, which must approve any changes to Ashby (a state highway), to improve this crossing.
Ninth Street connection to Emeryville.
What is a Bicycle Boulevard?
A bicycle boulevard is a low-speed, low-volume street which has been optimized for bicycle traffic. Bicycle boulevards discourage cut-through motor-vehicle traffic but allow local motor-vehicle traffic. They are designed to give priority to people biking as through-going traffic.
The Bicycle Boulevard Network
Seven boulevards make up the bicycle boulevard network. Each is named after the street that it entirely, or in large part, travels along. Click here for an interactive google map showing the bicycle blvd network and major destinations. Click here to download a pdf description of each route with a list of destinations.
Photos of Bicycle Boulevard Treatments
Bicycle Boulevard Design Tools and Guidelines Report (April 2000)
Planning & Implementation History
Describes how the bicycle boulevards were developed, what has been done on them to date, and how the City has funded their implementation.
Report Problems on Bicycle Boulevards
Have you noticed a bicycle boulevard sign that is missing or has been tagged? Is there debris or a new pothole on a boulevard? Please let us know!
Contact the Office of Transportation at (510) 981-7010, TDD: (510) 981-6903 or by email.


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Student National Medical Association
The Student National Medical Association (SNMA) is the nation's oldest and largest student organization focused on the health needs and concerns of minority communities. Established in 1964 by the medical students from Howard University and Meharry medical schools, SNMA boasts nearly 50 years of committed service to communities. It continues still to advocate for improved, culturally sensitive health care services and education for neglected or underserved populations. SNMA represents thousands of medical and pre-medical students. although consisting primarily of African Americans, SNMA's array of members reflects the organization's appeal to students and professionals everywhere.Some of our members are Native Americans, Africans, West Indians, Hispanics, Asians, Middle Easterners and Caucasians, all of whom bring a global perspective to education and health care issues that the organization addresses.
SNMA membership is open to all who wish to make a difference regarding the medical education and health concerns of people of color. Members at every level receive free copies of the quarterly SNMA Newsletter and SNMA Journal, discounts on SNMA conference travel including car rentals, SNMA merchandise, and eligibility for several scholarships, grants, and loan repayment opportunities in association with Kaplan Test Preparation, National Institute of Health, and National Health Service Corps. Best of all, SNMA affords its members unparalleled leadership, management, and networking opportunities.
SNMA National Office
The goals of the organization include:
- to raise the levels of minority student recruitment, admissions, and retention in schools training health care professionals
- to sponsor programs for minority youth to encourage their entrance into the health professions
- to eradicate prejudicial practices in the medical education and health care delivery
- to provide national leadership in the promulgation of legislative policies for the provision of better health care, and
- to eliminate health disparities among minority communities by disseminating information about general health maintenance and disease prevention.
Choose to make a difference now, so that there is a clear, positive difference in the delivery of health care in the future. Join the SNMA. Additional information is available at the website, www.snma.org, or contact the National Office to receive more information:
SNMA National Office
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Washington, DC 20011
Contact Information
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US utilities moot huge electric vehicle order to boost car biz
Don't want the Big Three's electric car plans kyboshed by credit crunch
The idea of somebody picking up the phone and ordering 10,000 Chevy Volts should be more than enough to improve any General Motors executive's day - and it may not prove to be that hopelessly optimistic.
Senior folk at several US electricity generators and suppliers are worried that the current financial turmoil engulfing the Big Three car makers may derail their electric car projects, the Wall Street Journal reports. The answer? Jointly replace their vehicle fleets with 'leccy cars and vans.
The car makers would get guaranteed multi-year orders – something they generally would sell their grandmothers for – as well as getting electric car infrastructure development undertaken by the very people best placed to do so: the power companies.
Meanwhile, the power companies would be creating an internal market for their own product rather than having to buy petrol for their fleets and could develop demand models without running the risk of the grid going tits up due to unforeseen demand.
One of UPS' 12 Modec-made electric delivery vans
A couple of recent studies have come up with some persuasive figures. According to the Electric Power Research Institute, if 60 per cent of US light vehicles were electrified by 2050, the national power consumption would only increase by around eight per cent while cutting CO2 emissions equivalent to those produced by 82m cars.
Another study, by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, found that 73 per cent of light vehicles could be charged overnight using existing infrastructure and supply thereby saving 6.2m barrels of oil – 52 per cent of current US imports – every day.
It's also the sort of deal that may make Washington re-think the $25bn handout that Detroit is so eager to get its hands on and that is currently held up partly on the fear that rather than being used for anything of long-term environmental value it will simply tide Ford, General Motors and Chrysler over to the next crisis.
Could something similar work in the UK? There is no reason why not. E.ON alone runs a fleet of 5900 vehicles. British 'leccy van maker Modec – which recently announced a deal to supply 12 electric vans to UPS in the UK – would also jump at the opportunity, we suspect.
Sponsored: Detecting cyber attacks as a small to medium business


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To help Save The Artic click here.
My name is Kumi Naidoo. I'm from Africa. I'm the executive director of Greenpeace International.
I am participating in this action to draw attention to the destruction that is already happening in the Arctic, and to draw attention to, if this were to continue, the devastating consequences it will have for the Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic, for the biodiversity of the Arctic, but also the impact that it will have across the world.
1 - 12 of 5649 results.


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Health & Welfare Advisor
The Health & Welfare advisor will serve on the Advisory Council giving insight from the perspective of his/her field. The advisor will also chair the committee in his/her field, as well as serve as chair of the Health & Welfare Committee.
Position Duties
The Health & Welfare advisor will help to create reforms, advise upon policy, and suggest budgets specific to their field. The expertise, direction and insight shared are valuable in moving forward with the structure of this party. The functions of the Advisory Council have a direct impact on creating policy within the NAP.
Position Requirements
Master's Degree or 10 years of experience in the respective field.
- Ability to navigate and use Facebook effectively
- A resident of the state he/she represents
- A member of his/her NAP state chapter
- 18 years of age or older
- Willing to complete a non-disclosure agreement*
Position Proficiencies
No required proficiencies.
*Completion of a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is required in order to protect the confidential information of our membership, as all in leadership positions might receive access to the membership roster. The NAP takes its members' privacy very seriously.
If you have the qualifications and the desire to serve in these positions, please express your interest, and we will contact you with more specific details about the responsibilities of the position. You may contact email@example.com All positions are on a voluntary basis and open to professionals within the field or graduate students within their area of expertise.


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myresourcespace needed a new web page design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 10 designs submitted by 6 freelance designers.
We are looking for a complete redesign of our corporate site : http://www.ayceinternet.com. Added bonus is that the winner will also have the opportunity to do work for us as we are to swamped to keep up with our demand. Look forward to everyones Entries and we will be very diligent with our feedback. We currently are 3 weeks back logged on designs for our coding team.
All You Can Eat Internet
Accepted File Formats:
We would like some sort of theme that goes a long with "all you can eat" and complete marketing solution. We are looking for a professional, web 2.0 site ideally with a flash element , but not a flash site. We need the main page redesigned, and a unique looking portfolio page


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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Are you at risk for dowager's hump? Findings from a small study suggest you may want to try yoga to decrease this age-related curve of the upper spine.
Among a group of elderly study participants, those who did yoga for six months saw their upper spine curve lowered by about 5 percent compared to those who did no yoga, Dr. Gail Greendale, at the University of California at Los Angeles, and colleagues report in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
Those with greater spinal flexibility showed a 6 percent improvement in their upper spine curve, which suggests yoga "when the spine is relatively more malleable" may be most effective, Greendale said.
"Men and women with more flexible spines at the start of the study got even more benefit from the yoga," Greendale told Reuters Health in an email.
Greendale's team took regular measurements of the upper spine curvature of 118 otherwise healthy individuals with indicators of moderate hyperkyphosis - the medical term for dowager's hump.
The study group was mostly — 81 percent — female, about 75 years old on average, and reported almost no physical limitations. However, about three-quarters reported body pain during the 4 weeks prior to study entry, and 60 percent said their pain was frequent or daily.
On 3 days each week for 6 months, 58 individuals took yoga classes using breathing techniques and poses to increase awareness, flexibility, and strength of their back muscles. The remaining 60 participants (the control group) attended 6 monthly informational luncheons.
Compared with spinal curve measures at study entry, the yoga group showed decrease spinal curvature, while the control group had increased curvature, after 6 months.
The yoga group showed significant improvements in upper back pain and were less likely to report of early awakening or insomnia. Yoga participants also had slight improvements in height and in time needed to stand up from a chair.
Since these findings suggest that dowager's hump "is not a fait accompli," said Greendale, she and colleagues call for further investigations yoga's value in larger groups of elders with the spinal condition.
SOURCE: Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, September 2009.


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Originally Posted by Nitrodaze
When a team assumes a position of unrivaled dominance, it is usual for fans to complain about lack of competition at the front. When Michael Schumacher chalked up 5 consecutive drivers title with Ferrari, there was endless complaints of how boring f1 had become. But even in that era, Hakkinen and Alonso managed to win double driver titles each. Hence, there were teams close enough to Ferrari to give Ferrari a good run for their money each season. The team dynamics was centred around Schumacher with
Originally Posted by Nitrodaze
Originally Posted by Jag_Warrior
I agree with you, Bagwan, in that if the guy writing the check (sort of) says that there is a problem, then there is a problem... within the team, at least. But I think it's more likely that Mercedes and Wolff are playing the long game here, looking ahead to 2017 and beyond, when the gap to Ferrari, and maybe Red Bull and others, will have probably closed. Both Hamilton and Rosberg scored enough points individually this year that even with Susie Wolff in the second car, Mercedes would have still


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I would rather walk with God in the dark than go alone in the light.
Support ministry or a child in need at Concordia Children's Services
Lutherans providing child welfare in the Philippines for 28 yrs
A bus ran over a Catholic man in Iowa City. The gravely injured man kept calling out to the gathering crowd to get him a priest. No one came forward and no one knew how to respond. Finally a little old Jewish man stepped in and said, "I'm not a priest but I live next to a Catholic church and everynight I overhear their services. I can remember most of it. I will try to confort this poor man". He knelted down, leaned over the man and in a solemn voice said, B4.... I 19 ...... N 38... G 54.... O 72
Please click survey and give us your feedback in a mostly multiple choice quick survey so we can improve LutheranCentral. We will be most grateful and will listen carefully to your suggestions. Thank you!
Idea Starter: Have Small Groups meet in the public places (click the link to see story)
The Young Messiah
An inspirational movie about Jesus' childhood
Opens in the theaters March 11, 2016


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Author Talk: Edwidge Dandicat and Michèle Voltaire Marcelin reads from Haiti Noir 2
Edwidge Danticat is the author of numerous books, including Breath, Eyes, Memory; Krik? Krak!, a National Book Award finalist; The Farming of Bones, an American Book Award winner; and The Dew Breaker, a PEN/Faulkner Award finalist and winner of the first Story Prize.
Thursday, January 16, 2014
S. Stevan Dweck Center
Central Library


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CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—Student-athletes from all four Harvard and Radcliffe crews will represent three nations at the 2010 World Rowing Under 23 Championships July 22-25 in Brest, Belarus, USRowing, British Rowing and Rowing Canada Aviron confirmed with announcements this week.
Seven Harvard/Radcliffe athletes will row for the United States, while three Crimson heavyweights will represent Great Britain and Harvard lightweight Stuart Taylor will be a member of Team Canada. Harvard lightweight freshman coach Linda Muri will coach the women's U.S. pair and women's four.
Racing begins Thursday, more heats will follow on Friday, with finals taking place Saturday and Sunday. Over 880 athletes from 57 nations are confirmed to participate in the regatta.
Taylor, a rising sophomore, will be a part of Canada's lightweight men's pair. Two of his Harvard lightweight teammates will make up half of the U.S. lightweight men's four. Senior Will Newell, Harvard's 2010-11 lightweight captain, will stroke that boat, with junior Austin Meyer in the bow seat. Sophomore Erich Schultze will sit in the two seat of the U.S. lightweight men's quad.
Senior Olivia Coffey of the Radcliffe heavyweight crew will be part of the U.S. women's eight for the second straight summer after placing second last year. Coffey is set to row in the bow seat of the U.S. eight. Senior Lizzy Bates had previously qualified for the U.S. U23 team and will race in the women's lightweight double.
Harvard heavyweight junior Nick Jordan will occupy the bow seat in the U.S. men's four without coxswain, while senior Anthony Locke will row for his native Great Britain in the men's eight. Junior Patrick Lapage and incoming heavyweight freshman Andy Holmes are part of the British coxed four.
Formerly known as the Nation's Cup and the Match des Séniors, this is the sixth year that this regatta for rowers under 23 years of age has had "World Rowing Championship" status. It started in 1976 with 11 nations and 65 rowers participating. The event acts as a stepping stone for athletes on their way to the elite level, but who are still refining their skills.


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Shouldn't we all be putting money overseas?
According to The Denver Post's Sara Burnett in a Spot blog post, some Colorado Democrats this week joined the national campaign to portray Mitt Romney's foreign investments as sinister, as well as typical of a man who's out of touch with average Americans.
"In a conference call, [Aspen] Mayor Mick Ireland, state Sen. Gail Schwartz, D-Snowmass Village, and Colorado Democratic Party Chairman Rick Palacio noted recent news reports about Romney having accounts in Switzerland, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands," Burnett wrote. "Ireland noted that most Americans' savings are tied up in their home – if they still have equity – and that they don't have the opportunity to put money away overseas."
Actually, many Americans put money overseas. I certainly do. In fact, if you've been salting away savings in retirement accounts for any significant number of years, you'd be foolish not to diversify your portfolio by having some of it in funds that invest overseas. It is not evil to invest overseas; it is prudent and wise.
If Democrats want to call for Romney to release more years of tax returns, that's fair game – although ABC News has reported that Ronald Reagan "only released one year of tax returns in his first bid for office — the returns from the previous year." And if they want to dispute Romney's claim that he gained no tax benefits from parking a fortune in havens like Bermuda, so be it, so long as he refuses to release additional years of returns.
But critics need to be careful to maintain the distinction between investing overseas and trying to dodge taxes, because they're not the same thing – and it just fuels ignorant economic chauvinism to conflate them. Maybe most Americans don't have enough money to put any of it overseas. But that hardly means that in principle it's a bad thing.
Finally, here's a good rebuttal, by Matt Welch at Reason.com, to Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., idiotic claim that "there is no such thing as an ordinary Swiss bank account."


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ENGG 332: Topics in Plastic Flow and Fracture of Solids
Cannot be used to satisfy any A.B. degree requirements
Advanced study may be pursued on topics related to the microscopic aspects of the plastic flow and fracture of solids. The topics extend those introduced in ENGS 130 and ENGS 132 by providing an in-depth examination of the methods of strengthening, brittle and ductile fracture, fatigue, creep, and superplasticity. The emphasis is on the mechanisms underlying the phenomena. Readings in the literature will be assigned, and the student will be required to prepare a detailed term paper.


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dkendall needed a new other design and created a contest on 99designs.
2 winners were selected from 30 designs submitted by 11 freelance designers.
Crievewood Baptist Church is hosting a citywide 3 on 3 Tournament in May and we need a logo for it. The Church's website is http://www.crievewood.org
CBC, 3 on 3, very open to ideas.
Desired Color Scheme:
Sports colors are Royal Blue and Gold but I am very flexible with this
Desired Style:
You decide
This logo will be printed on T shirts with the possibility of being used for future recreation uses. The logo needs to have at least the abbreviation CBC and 3 on 3 included. The front Logo will be stretched across the shirt and the back will just go across the top. You all have free rain on how this should look and I have nothing really particular in mind!


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Meat Pie (ea)$5.90 Beef, Pork, Puff Pastry Pies
Hebert's Specialty Meats is home of the original deboned stuffed poultry. Our Cajun Food market has developed unique seasonings, marinades, stuffings and cooking processes to produce wonderfully delicious products.
Showing all 3 results
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Transcend's SATA III 6Gb/s SSD230S uses the latest 3D NAND technology that features vertical, stacked expansion of storage cells. By using high-quality flash memory and enhanced firmware algorithms, the SSD230S delivers greater performance and reliability.
Transcend's ESD250C is a portable solid state drive featuring a sturdy metallic case in an alluring space-gray hue, a USB 3.1 Gen 2 interface for unmatched transfer rates, a USB Type-C port, and a pre-formatted exFAT file system.
Transcend's StoreJet 25M3 ruggedized external hard drive combines supreme shock-resistant qualities with the USB 3.1 Gen 1 interface, allowing for ultra-fast file transfers and the highest level of anti-shock protection.
Rather than trust your data to fee-based public cloud storage services, opt for Transcend's StoreJet Cloud to get up to 8TB of personal storage space, and the peace of mind that comes with having total control over your data. Transcend's StoreJet Cloud features fast transfer speeds of up to 110 MB/s and centralized data management, allowing for efficient storage and rapid access to all your data even if you're miles away.
Transcend's DrivePro 230 dashcam was designed with both style and safety in mind. The DrivePro 230 features an Exmor™ image sensor to capture high-resolution videos with extremely fine tonal gradation even in low light. In addition, it features a GPS/GLONASS receiver, a built-in battery, a handy snapshot button, and Wi-Fi connectivity. More than just a safety device, Transcend's DrivePro 230 is a fellow traveler ready to explore more of the world with you.
Transcend's DrivePro Body 60 body camera features a compact camera unit tethered to a control unit, allowing for a wide variety of attachment options. Tailor-made for public safety professionals, the rugged and highly responsive DrivePro Body 60 allows high-definition evidence collection and wireless data previews and transfers.
Transcend's SDXC/SDHC 700S memory cards provide the performance and capacity necessary to harness the full power of your UHS-II compliant DSLR cameras and camcorders. With the incredible transfer speeds, the cards allow professional outdoor photographers and videographers to capture flawless RAW images, and record ultra-high quality 8K videos.
Meeting the new generation of USB Type-C technology, the JetFlash 890 USB 3.1 OTG Flash Drive features a dual connector - a reversible USB Type-C connector and a regular USB 3.1 (Gen 1) connector* - that is designed to transfer and back up your photos, music and videos between the latest USB Type-C port equipped devices such as MacBook and your PC, laptops and Mac computers. Plus, with the free-to-download Transcend Elite App, you can easily explore files on the JetFlash 890 and quickly back up all your precious files stored on your MacBook, smartphone and tablet.
Transcend's RDA2 Lightning card reader means you can say goodbye to those frustrating moments when you can't display brilliant photos and videos taken with your digital camera on your iPhone or iPad, or share them on social networking sites straightaway. With slots for both SD and microSD cards, and equipped with an exclusive app, the RDA2 Lightning card reader reads not only memory cards, but your life!
Rated to endure 3K P/E cycles and featuring a SATA III 6Gb/s interface as well as 3D NAND flash, Transcend's SSD450K-I is the ideal high-speed, lightweight, and shockproof replacement for traditional rotating hard drives, all while being extra cost-effective and brought to you at an attractive price. The SSD450K-I is built with DRAM cache for reliable speeds, outstanding cache performance and customized functions to cater to the requirements of various embedded applications. The SSD450K-I can also perform in a wide range of operating temperatures, and is fully tested in-house to guarantee sustained functionality, enhanced endurance and optimal reliability in mission-critical applications.
Transcend SLC USB Flash Memory features a compact, portable design that can be used in industrial, medical, and military applications where reliability and data retention are crucial. Industrial-grade USB Flash Memory is built to endure severe temperatures, shock, and intensive read/write cycles and features high reliability and extended endurance.
Transcend's Industrial Temp SDHC/SD100I cards combine the advantages of large storage capacity and industrial range (-40°C to 85ºC) operating temperature flexibility, making them the best solution for tough industrial environments where performance and reliability are essential.
JetFlash 890
Thanks to the USB OTG (On-The-Go) technology, the JetFlash 890 combines a regular USB 3.1 (Gen 1) connector and a USB Type-C connector into a USB flash drive, providing you greater portability to transfer precious photos, music, videos and any other digital files between tablets, smartphones, Mac computers, PCs and laptops.
It could be a real hassle trying to get the right side connected to the USB port, but this is no longer the case now. Featuring a reversible design, the JetFlash 890's USB Type-C connector saves not only the efforts to try twice or three times before actually connecting to the USB port, but also your time on data transfer with one-time plug-in.
Equipped with the SuperSpeed USB 3.1 Gen 1 interface, the JetFlash 890 delivers transfer speeds of up to 130MB/s, meaning lightning-fast access to your data.
With up to 128GB capacity and the Type-C USB OTG port, you can effortlessly expand the storage capacities of your mobile devices. "Memory Full" message will not ruin your important moment anymore.
The standard USB interface allows you to easily transfer files to any regular USB port-equipped devices, including desktops, Ultrabooks, laptops, TVs, Blu-ray players, DVD players, stereos and games consoles.
Using innovative COB (Chip on Board) engineering and assembled with a metallic casing, the JetFlash 890 is completely resistant to dust and splash yet extraordinarily lightweight, bringing you to another level of durability.
The cap is designed to fit in with both ends of the JetFlash 890. When one connector is occupied, you can cap on the other side of USB connector, making sure the cap is always on the JetFlash 890 to protect the USB connectors as well as the data.
Transcend Elite is an advanced data management software package compatible with macOS, Windows OS, and Android. Available as both a desktop and mobile app, it is a free download from Transcend's official website and from Google Play. Transcend Elite features backup and restore, data encryption, and cloud backup functions.
Transcend also offers RecoveRx, a free data recovery utility that allows you to search deep within a storage device for traces of erased files including digital photos, documents, music, and videos.
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The Colors of Corian® – Design Without Compromise
DuPont™ Corian® solid surface comes in a variety of hues, tones, and colors for every design sensibility and application, from home kitchen remodeling projects to upscale restaurant design.
DuPont™ Corian® solid surface can be whatever your design imagination commands it to be. Nonporous and stain-resistant, Corian® is easy to clean, making it as ideal a surface for healthcare environments as it is for home kitchens and baths. It's also durable and easy to renew, because the color runs all the way through the material.
DuPont works with homeowners, designers, artists, architects, and experts to offer the largest, most versatile selection of colors available in contemporary surfacing. You'll find the myriad colors of Corian® solid surface in the finest homes, offices, hospitals and schools.
Sample the Colors of Corian®
You can explore all the colors of Corian® with the tool below. When you find a color you like, just add it to your cart.
To order DuPont™ Corian® solid surface samples below, simply follow these steps:
1. Choose your color with the Color Selector.
2. Select "Order sample" from your selected color page.
3. Add your samples to your cart.
4. Continue shopping for more samples, or check out through our trusted fulfillment partner.


text: Oversized Antique Persian Meshad Rug View cart "Antique Indian Rug" has been added to your cart.Antiques > Large Rugs > Oversized Antique Persian Meshad Rug BB5934Oversized Antique Persian Meshad Rug BB5934Price: $50,000This turn of the century antique Persian Meshad rug has a densely spaced all-over design of the herati pattern in rust and blue against a field of black. The herati pattern, also known as the "fish pattern," is a common motif of Oriental rug weaving. A rust border with lush floral motifs contributes to the elaborate and traditional look of the antique carpet.The Persian carpet comes from Meshad, the administrative seat of the Khorassan province throughout the centuries, and home to many well-known Oriental large rustic area rug workshops. The towns of Amoghli, Khamenei, Makhmalbaf, Saber and Zarbaf produced antique oriental rugs that feature both symmetrical and asymmetrical knots, as well as multiple borders with eclectic color palettes. Designs are based on classical models and feature color schemes ranging from traditional burgundies and midnight blues to the more contemporary tints of ice blue and beige.1 in stock Add to cart InquiryProduct added to wishlist. Print Download Add to Wishlist Product added! Browse Wishlist The product is already in the wishlist! Browse Wishlist Item No.: BB5934 Circa: 1900 Size: 14'2" × 22'2" (431 × 675 cm) Style: Formal Origin: Persia Share00Similar rugsAdd to cartProduct added to wishlist. Pattern of Vintage Indian Dhurrie Rug, number: BB6193 $60,000Vintage Indian Dhurrie Rug BB6193Size: 18'0" × 22'2" (548 × 675 cm) $60,000Add to cartProduct added to wishlist. Pattern of Extra Large Vintage Chinese Deco Rug, number: BB2666 $90,000Extra Large Vintage Chinese Deco Rug BB2666Size: 14'4" × 23'2" (436 × 706 cm) $90,000Add to cartProduct added to wishlist. Pattern of Oversized Indian Dhurrie Vintage Rug, number: BB5815 $28,000Oversized Indian Dhurrie Vintage Rug BB5815Size: 15'9" × 21'9" (480 × 662 cm) $28,000Add to cartProduct added to wishlist. Pattern of Oversized Vintage American Rag Rug, number: BB5593 $35,000Oversized Vintage American Rag Rug BB5593Size: 14'0" × 23'4" (426 × 711 cm) $35,000Add to cartProduct added to wishlist. Pattern of Vintage Deco Chinese Rug, number: BB6221 $60,000Vintage Deco Chinese Rug BB6221Size: 15'8" × 16'10" (477 × 513 cm) $60,000