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Show All Answers
Household income is defined as the combined gross income of all persons who live in the household, whether taxable or non-taxable. Gross income includes, but is not limited to the total income from:
Back to H2O homepage - srcity.org/H2O
You are required to submit the most recent, signed copy of your Federal Income Tax Return.
If your Federal Tax Return is not available, enter the reason on the application and submit all applicable documents with your application:
Each household member should submit his/her own individual income documentation as listed above, with their name and address printed on the form. Any dependents or other individuals in the household without income (i.e., children, elderly, non-working) should either appear as a dependent on the Federal Tax Return of another household member, or should submit a copy of a recent recurring bill, bank statement, or other type of correspondence that includes the name of the household member and the service address of the water bill.
The H2O water bill assistance will be included in your summary of charges within one to two billing cycles after you have:
The workshop, coaching session and audit provide education and water saving resources that do not require the property owner's permission to participate. In many cases the audit will help identify plumbing inefficiencies that would be the responsibility of the property owner to repair and can help save you money on your water bill.
The audit will be performed by Santa Rosa Water's trained water efficiency experts who may provide free water saving devices, help detect costly plumbing leaks, and show you ways to save water and reduce your bill even more. In addition, our staff will assess your eligibility for a number of rebates and available programs for replacing inefficient fixtures with high-efficiency models.
The City hopes that eligible customers will benefit from the savings provided by the H2O's discounted water and sewer service. In return, you are asked to partner with the City to ensure that each H2O household is water-efficient, protecting the valuable water resources. The home audit will help to identify plumbing fixture inefficiencies and leaks and educate customers on water-conserving behaviors. All services are provided free of charge by our Audit program.
An audit is mandatory for all new applicants to be eligible to receive the H2O discount. Customers currently participating in H2O are not required to participate in an audit for re-enrollment. However, if water usage exceeds an acceptable range of daily water use per household occupant, you will be required to schedule an additional audit. Many customers enjoy the opportunity to learn more about saving water and further ways to reduce their water bills. If you would like to decline the audit, we respect your decision and you will not be eligible to participate in the H2O program
No. If your toilet qualifies to be replaced for free, you may decline the offer. Please note that homes with inefficient plumbing fixtures will continue to experience higher water bills and toilets can account for 30% of household indoor water use. The average customer will save an additional $200 per year by replacing an older, water-guzzling toilet model. Santa Rosa Water provides plumbing fixtures and devices that have been thoroughly tested and meet the highest plumbing standards.


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From Axis and Allies, Dungeons & Dragons, to Magic the Gathering and Scrabble, this is the place to talk about all things Board Games, RPG, and CCG related.
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Disney's Magic Kingdom (Bloggerfest 2009!)
We got up early Saturday morning and headed straight to the Magic Kingdom to meet our friends. Man, I gotta tell you that this was a VERY special day for me. We were finally going to meet some Blogger friends that go back YEARS! Including my dear friend, Donna, who I've known since October 2004 when we were both members of a non adoption forum and were paper chasing for our first adoption from China. All these years later, we have Gwen and Catherine! More pics of them later....
So, here's the Kiddo Group Shot. Not an easy feat with so many little faces looking everywhere except the camera! I had to do some Photoshop magic to get everyone's best side. And I added Catherine who was there only in spirit when this group photo was taken. Her Momma was bummed out that she missed being part of the group shot so I hope she's feeling better now!
There was also Gabi (who we met in 2005 when we adopted Gwen) and the cuties in black dresses and red and white bows are the darling "Moose" and "Goose". The last two in the pic above are Katie Starr and her brother Ethan (who was not quite himself today). It was a highlight of this trip that I got to meet their momma, Lori. She's even more wonderful in real life and, again, I'm wishing California wasn't so far away! Not pictured were Esther and Emma of "Two Twin Terrors" (more on Esther later) and Gwynn of "Jamail Family Blog" who was wearing the cutest little home-made Disney shirt I've ever seen!
We met Esther in September 2005 when we were in China adopting Gwen and visiting her SWI. Shortly before traveling, I found Esther's mom, Nancy, online and promised that I would look for her baby girl at the orphanage. A few months after we met Esther, her dad and big sister traveled to China to bring her home. Today she's one of 7 children in this amazing family. We are so happy that we got to finally meet them but I'm a bit sad that I couldn't meet Sera (big sister) because I've really come to know and love her all these years. I hope we'll someday meet though!
Here are the girls all lined up in anticipation of a lollipop! There were five lollies and just one of them was the coveted red one so everyone was giddy with anticipation that she'd be the lucky one to get it. The fourth lolly was red (and it went to Gabi) and Gwen was equally excited for her friend and mournful of her loss and we caught it all on camera. I just love the last photo (above, bottom left). Just look at her face! The bottom half is smiling but the top half is about to cry! (precious!!)
Next, we rode all of the roller coasters that were newly made available to us becuase of Maddy's recent vertical accomplishment. She's finally exactly 40 inches tall and we're letting the good times roll! But the old times are also pretty dang good so here she is with her sister and our friend Donna (with Catherine) on the Teacups. We're really glad that Donna volunteered to get dizzy so we could stand on the sidelines and pretend to sacrafice all the fun by taking pictures!
At 8:30 PM, several of us met in the lounge of the Animal Kingdom Lodge (sans husbands and kids) to share some quality girl time. In addition to the moms we met today, Beth and her mom (Carol) also met us. Also, Martha was there (with Hannah who joined us at the end of the evening). This was the first "Mom's Night Out" I've been on since long before 2005 when we adopted Gwen. My heart is full! Thanks so much to all my wonderful friends who took the time to join us in Florida!


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The Super 1050 is a commercial grade reloading machine that loads 1000-1200 rounds per hour. It features automatic indexing, automatic powder measure, automatic primer system and automatic casefeeder. Includes one caliber conversion including factory-adjusted reloading dies. The Super 1050 also swages military primer pockets. Quickly change calibers with optional toolhead conversion and caliber conversions (sold separately).
Be the first to review this product! You'll be the talk of the town.


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Mobile Notary Public Service for Greenport
Greenport Notary Public
Notary & Apostille Service is a Traveling Mobile Notary Public Service that is willing to travel to your location in Greenport to handle your normal everyday notary public, international notary public (Apostille, Legalization) or any urgent or emergency needs for a Notary Public in Greenport (11944) Long Island.
Mobile Notary Public Service & Certified & Background Screened Notary Signing Agent (CNSA) service is available for work in Greenport or any New York City, Nassau, Suffolk, Queens, Brooklyn County. A Notary Signing Agent is a Notary Public who is qualified to handle the special requirements of notarizing mortgage loan documents, or deeds. We specalize in notarizing Refinance loan, new Purchase, Reverse mortgage, CEMA, RESPA, VA, Deed of Trust, Warrenty Deed, Quit Claim Deed, equity loan, etc.
Our normal business hours are from 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM. However, we do offer after hour Notary Public Service on a case by case basis for additional compensation. For any service before 8 AM or after 7 PM or on Sundays there is an extra charge for Mobile Notary Public service. The extra charge depends on the how late in the evening or how early in the morning & the distance that has to be traveled to you in Greenport . We Do not offer "in our office" notary work, as we are strictly a Mobile Notary Public Service.
- Nationwide Notary Public Service - If you are located in any of the following USA States we can located a notary public in your area or locate one who is willing to travel to your location to notarize your document: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii,Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Alaska, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Washington.
- Attorney Assist - We can assist in notarizing affidavits for clients who can not come to the office, email or send us any document for your client, we'll print it out, take it to your client & return it to you. we can assist in swearing in for telephone or in-office depositions.
- Mortgage Loan Closing - Assist Title companies, escrow companies, real estate attorneys in finding a Signing Agent to witness close a mortgage loan (e.g., Refinance, Purchase, HELOC, RESPA, CEMA, Deed of Trust, Warrenty Deed, Quit Claim, Equity loan, VA.
- Title Loans - we can provide Equity or Finance companies with a notary to handle any Title Loan.
- Notary Signing Agent - Mortgage Loan Closing is a Notary Public who is qualified to handle the special requirements of notarizing mortgage loan documents, for example refinance loan, new purchase, reverse mortgage, CEMA, Deed of Trust, Quit Claim, Warranty Deed, equity loan, etc.
- Nationwide Notary Locator - Assist title companies, escrow companies, real estate attorneys with finding a Signing Agent to witness close a mortgage loan.
- Apostille & Consular Legalization - In addition to our regular notary service Notary & Apostille Service can also assist you in getting your documents Legalized with an Apostille or Consular Stamp Apostille for your personal & business documents.
- Criminal Background Record Check - Same day instant background check, no fingerprints required.
Mobile Notary Fee
The total cost for your notary service consists of the following:
Frequently Asked Questions
A. Yes, you can sign up with LegalShield and they offer an excellent work from Home Business, no prior education or past experience is necessary. Training is available through mentors, conference calls, meetings. LegalShield also offers legal help for its members. If you want more information or if your ready to start your own Home Business, click the link below or give us a call.
The following are ACCEPTABLE identification documents (only one is required):
- A Driver's license issued by a state or outlying possession of the USA, provided it contains a photograph or information such as name, date of birth, gender, height, eye color and address
- Non-drivers Identification Card that is issued by the DMV
- Passports
- Federal IDs such as a military identification card
- Military dependent's ID card
- School ID card with a photograph
- State id, county and local government IDs (that contain a picture, signature
- Lawful permanent resident cards (often called "green cards")
- Marriage documents or court document WILL BE necessary to show change of name if your current identification does not match the name used on document
- Social security card
- credit card
- birth certificate
- photograph
- Medicare Cards
- Student Identification with no picture
- Gym Membership Card
- Temporary Driver's Licenses
- Driver's Licenses without photographs


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Is Your Region Ready for a Drought?
In January of 2002, 62 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties were under a drought watch or warning. Communities, counties, and state-level offices participated in meetings to discuss the issues and plans they would implement if conditions worsened. The meetings gave water providers and users an opportunity to begin thinking about the steps they would need to take if the drought worsened. Groups considered how they could continue to support the population and the economy if water supplies were reduced by various amounts, from 5% up to 50%.
Throughout 2002, counties implemented water conservation measures. Precipitation totals rose above normal in the late spring and the drought ended in most counties by October. The people of Pennsylvania who faced mandatory water conservation measures became much more aware of the ongoing potential for drought.
In this activity, you'll explore some of the economic, environmental, and social impacts of drought, and consider how they would impact your own community. You'll also stage a meeting similar to the ones held in Pennsylvania to discuss drought preparedness plans for your own community.
Keeping Track of What You Learn
In these pages, you'll find two kinds of questions.- Checking In questions are intended to keep you focused on key concepts. They allow you to check if the material is making sense. These questions are often accompanied by hints or answers to let you know if you are on the right track.
- Stop and Think questions are intended to help your teacher assess your understanding of the key concepts and skills. These questions require you to pull some concepts together or apply your knowledge in a new situation.


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JERSEY CITY – In preparation for the July 10 special council meeting to amend the Jersey City's 2013 budget, the city clerk's office has released details of the amendments to be considered. They would increase taxes by 3.92 percent.
City Council President Rolando Lavarro Jr. has scheduled a special City Council meeting for Wednesday at 6 p.m. to introduce an amendment to the 2013 municipal budget.
The 2013 calendar year is half over and Jersey City has yet to pass a municipal budget for the year. Former Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy presented a $486 million 2013 city budget to the council in February, and the governing body held a public hearing on the spending plan, but never adopted it.
The eight-page budget amendment includes several line items of note.
For example, wages and salaries in the mayor's office will be upped from $929,650 to $1,029,650 – an increase of $100,000. Wages in the revamped Mayor's Action Bureau will increase by $180,137, from $366,863 to $547,000.
The city's website touts a "new and improved" Action Bureau whose "goal is to provide [residents] with quality information, courteous customer service, and quick turn-around on quality-of-life complaints."
Details on how new Mayor Steven Fulop plans to overhaul and improve the Mayor's Action Bureau have yet to be released. But during a series of town hall meetings Fulop held throughout the city in June, many residents expressed a desire for better constituency services from municipal departments. An expanded Action Bureau may be Fulop's attempt to address these criticisms.
Salaries in the city's law department will also be increased under the amended budget, from $2,998,221 to $3,173,221 – an increase of $175,000. There will also be salary and wage increases in the city's Department of Public Works and in the Department of Housing, Economic Development, and Commerce.
General expenditures under the amended budget will rise from $500,097,007 to $515,923,451. About $95,272,529 of the city's 2013 expenditures are excluded from state-mandated spending caps, and the amount of money to be raised from taxes increases by $15,935,378 in the amended budget.
It remains to be seen how the Fulop administration plans to address the budget shortfall and cover increased staffing in certain departments.
On Tuesday Mayor Fulop announced that his administration will conduct a desk audit of city workers and programs to, according to the mayor, "make every employee and every office accountable and working to its fullest potential for the residents and business owners." – E. Assata Wright


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The carnage in Kiev is vaguely reminiscent of the great riots of 532 AD in Constantinople that began at the chariot races when the rival fan clubs, the brawling followers of the Blue and Green racing teams, joined forces and turned on Emperor Justinian the Great. It is perhaps trivializing of the issues at stake in Kiev to point out this connection with Constantinople (which, by the way, converted the Kievan Rus to Orthodoxy in 969), but this famous story is worth recalling in its own right.
For some reason, this tale is peculiarly appealing to science fiction authors. (The influence of Edward Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire on sci-fi writers would be an interesting topic: e.g., Isaac Asimov's Foundation series is obviously inspired by Gibbon.)
For most of the 20th Century, historians assumed that the Blues and the Greens of Byzantine Constantinople weren't really just sports fans, but represented the upper class versus the lower class or the religiously orthodox versus the heretical or some neighborhoods versus some other neighborhoods. After all, nobody would get that worked up over sports, would they?
But in the 1970s, historian Alan Cameron, referencing the soccer hooligans of his own day, argued that we shouldn't overlook how important sports were in the Byzantine Empire to young men: "The truth is (of course) that Blues hated the Greens, not because they were lower-class or heretics—but simply because they were Greens."
But that raises the question of whether sports rivalries can be uncorrelated with other subdivisions of society. Generally, sports rivalries in the modern world correlate with all sorts of demographic traits because they are territorial: teams have their home fields, which tend to attract local fans.
However, the home turf of both the Greens and the Blues was the vast hippodrome in downtown Constantinople.
A vague modern analog might be the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers, who have both played in the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles for the last 15 years.
Traditionally, the Lakers are more successful and more popular, especially with movie stars, but it's not particularly clear that fans of the Lakers or Clippers represent different neighborhoods or classes or ethnicities. The Lakers tend to appeal to Angelenos who like winners anddon't mind spending money to associate themselves with winners (i.e., most of them) , while I presume the Clippers appeal to the budget-conscious (the Clippers charge about half as much as the Lakers for the same seat) and those who like underdogs. A marketing plan for the Clips speculates:
The Clippers' current fan base is of a low income bracket, probably young and from out of town, doesn not want to be seen as a bandwagoner, prefers to avoid the mainstream teams and is hoping the Clippers will write a Cinderella story.
On the other hand, the Lakers v. Clippers rivalry is low intensity by the standards of Chicago Cubs v. Chicago White Sox, much less Rangers v. Celtic in Glasgow. One reason for this is the lack of success of the Clippers hasn't generated much loyalty toward them.
Another is that Southern California hasn't been conducive to local sports animosities — only USC v. UCLA in football generates much heat. Los Angeles Dodger baseball fans, for instance, often root for the Anaheim Angels if they are winning and vaguely wish them well when they aren't. In general, as James Q. Wilson noted after moving from L.A. to Boston in the 1940s to attend Harvard, Angelenos don't have turf, they have cars.
Finally, since enthusiasm (such as it is) for the Clippers has been distributed less regionally or ethnically than psychologically, with the Clippers appealing to random frugal eccentrics, there's not much this rivalry does to tap into human territoriality.
On the other hand, it's hard for me to fathom how the Blues and Greens couldn't come to be correlated with other factors such as class or neighborhood.
Gibbon wrote:
Constantinople adopted the follies, though not the virtues, of ancient Rome; and the same factions which had agitated the circus, raged with redoubled fury in the hippodrome. ...
Insolent with royal favor, the blues affected to strike terror by a peculiar and Barbaric dress, the long hair of the Huns, their close sleeves and ample garments, a lofty step, and a sonorous voice. In the day they concealed their two-edged poniards, but in the night they boldly assembled in arms, and in numerous bands, prepared for every act of violence and rapine. Their adversaries of the green faction, or even inoffensive citizens, were stripped and often murdered by these nocturnal robbers ...
The first edict of Justinian, which was often repeated, and sometimes executed, announced his firm resolution to support the innocent, and to chastise the guilty, of every denomination and colour. Yet the balance of justice was still inclined in favour of the blue faction, by the secret affection, the habits, and the fears of the emperor; his equity, after an apparent struggle, submitted, without reluctance, to the implacable passions of Theodora, and the empress never forgot, or forgave, the injuries of the comedian. ...
As a poor child, the family of the future Empress Theodora was scorned by the Greens but treated well by the Blues.
Sedition of Constantinople, surnamed Nika, A.D. 532, January.A sedition, which almost laid Constantinople in ashes, was excited by the mutual hatred and momentary reconciliation of the two factions. In the fifth year of his reign, Justinian celebrated the festival of the ides of January; the games were incessantly disturbed by the clamorous discontent of the greens:...
At this dangerous moment, seven notorious assassins of both factions, who had been condemned by the praefect, were carried round the city, and afterwards transported to the place of execution in the suburb of Pera. Four were immediately beheaded; a fifth was hanged: but when the same punishment was inflicted on the remaining two, the rope broke, they fell alive to the ground, the populace applauded their escape... (51)
As one of these criminals was of the blue, and the other of the green livery, the two factions were equally provoked by the cruelty of their oppressor, or the ingratitude of their patron; and a short truce was concluded till they had delivered their prisoners and satisfied their revenge. The palace of the praefect, who withstood the seditious torrent, was instantly burnt, his officers and guards were massacred, the prisons were forced open, and freedom was restored to those who could only use it for the public destruction. A military force, which had been despatched to the aid of the civil magistrate, was fiercely encountered by an armed multitude, whose numbers and boldness continually increased ... The conflagration involved the cathedral of St. Sophia ...
Thus was destroyed the predecessor of the great St. Sophia cathedralthat was built five years later in 537 AD.
From such scenes of horror and distress, the wise and wealthy citizens escaped over the Bosphorus to the Asiatic side; and during five days Constantinople was abandoned to the factions, whose watchword, NIKA, vanquish! has given a name to this memorable sedition. (52)... They agreed to censure the corrupt management of justice and the finance; and the two responsible ministers, the artful Tribonian, and the rapacious John of Cappadocia, were loudly arraigned as the authors of the public misery. The peaceful murmurs of the people would have been disregarded: they were heard with respect when the city was in flames; the quaestor, and the praefect, were instantly removed, and their offices were filled by two senators of blameless integrity. After this popular concession, Justinian proceeded to the hippodrome to confess his own errors, and to accept the repentance of his grateful subjects; but they distrusted his assurances, though solemnly pronounced in the presence of the holy Gospels; and the emperor, alarmed by their distrust, retreated with precipitation to the strong fortress of the palace. The obstinacy of the tumult was now imputed to a secret and ambitious conspiracy, and a suspicion was entertained, that the insurgents, more especially the green faction, had been supplied with arms and money by Hypatius and Pompey, two patricians, who could neither forget with honor, nor remember with safety, that they were the nephews of the emperor Anastasius.
... If the usurper [Hypatius], who afterwards pleaded the merit of his delay, had complied with the advice of his senate, and urged the fury of the multitude, their first irresistible effort might have oppressed or expelled his trembling competitor [Justinian]. The Byzantine palace enjoyed a free communication with the sea; vessels lay ready at the garden stairs; and a secret resolution was already formed, to convey the emperor with his family and treasures to a safe retreat, at some distance from the capital.
Firmness of Theodora.
Justinian was lost, if the prostitute whom he raised from the theatre had not renounced the timidity, as well as the virtues, of her sex. In the midst of a council, where [General] Belisarius was present, Theodora alone displayed the spirit of a hero; and she alone, without apprehending his future hatred, could save the emperor from the imminent danger, and his unworthy fears.
"If flight," said the consort of Justinian, "were the only means of safety, yet I should disdain to fly. Death is the condition of our birth; but they who have reigned should never survive the loss of dignity and dominion. I implore Heaven, that I may never be seen, not a day, without my diadem and purple; that I may no longer behold the light, when I cease to be saluted with the name of queen. If you resolve, O Caesar! to fly, you have treasures; behold the sea, you have ships; but tremble lest the desire of life should expose you to wretched exile and ignominious death. For my own part, I adhere to the maxim of antiquity, that the throne is a glorious sepulchre."
The firmness of a woman restored the courage to deliberate and act, and courage soon discovers the resources of the most desperate situation. It was an easy and a decisive measure to revive the animosity of the factions; the blues were astonished at their own guilt and folly, that a trifling injury should provoke them to conspire with their implacable enemies against a gracious and liberal benefactor; they again proclaimed the majesty of Justinian; and the greens, with their upstart emperor, were left alone in the hippodrome.
The fidelity of the guards was doubtful; but the military force of Justinian consisted in three thousand veterans, who had been trained to valour and discipline in the Persian and Illyrian wars. Under the command of Belisarius and Mundus, they silently marched in two divisions from the palace, forced their obscure way through narrow passages, expiring flames, and falling edifices, and burst open at the same moment the two opposite gates of the hippodrome. In this narrow space, the disorderly and affrighted crowd was incapable of resisting on either side a firm and regular attack; the blues signalized the fury of their repentance; and it is computed, that above thirty thousand persons were slain in the merciless and promiscuous carnage of the day.


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Effective Date: 3/1/2014
These rules should be construed so as to administer every proceeding fairly, eliminate unjustifiable expense and delay, and promote the development of evidence law, to the end of ascertaining the truth and securing a just determination.
Rule 102 was amended, effective March 1, 2014.
Rule 102 was amended, effective March 1, 2014, in response to the December 1, 2011, revision of the Federal Rules of Evidence. The language and organization of the rule were changed to make the rule more easily understood and to make style and terminology consistent throughout the rules. There is no intent to change any result in any ruling on evidence admissibility.
SOURCES: Joint Procedure Committee Minutes of January 26-27, 2012, page 28; April 8, 1976, page 14; October 1, 1975, page 2. Rule 102, Federal Rules of Evidence; Rule 102, SBAND proposal.
Cross Reference: N.D.R.Civ.P. 1 (Scope and Purpose of Rules); N.D.R.Crim.P. 1 (Scope and Exceptions).


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A Placemaking Journal
Get Your Hotels into a Walkable Town Center!
Series Overview
While walkable mixed use town centers may not be the *easy* choice for the asphalt guy, the engineer, or even the developer who has to attract tenants to an environment they may not be as used to… they are certainly becoming best practices for sustainable community development. More importantly, they are quickly becoming a market favorite and a valuable amenity to their adjacent (and integrated) residential neighborhoods. Too often, however, municipalities and developers choose only to commit to this model halfway, viewing it as a niche market with limited potential where quaint mom and pops struggle away (you know, that one-off new urbanist development at the edge of town), while the "real stuff" happens in large conventional single-use centers down the street.
This lack of commitment allows many of the essential ingredients of a successful walkable town center to get sucked into car-focused single-use centers (the easy place to put them) so that everyone can make excuses as to why the poor mixed use village struggles and we still have to do the conventional stuff until oil hits $10 a gallon.
Here begins the first in a Back of the Envelope series where I will make the case for getting those ingredients out of single-use districts and into walkable mixed use town centers. While this may challenge some who think they've done their green duty with their one-off TND development down the street, my hope is that it will help make the more important case of focusing our limited economic energies onto places of enduring value, rather than continuing on the big race-to-the-bottom that is the big-box shopping center.
The Hotel: 24 hour Mixed Use Value
This week, we'll start with the hotel. Now, anyone who travels has likely witnessed the competition-driven rise in chain hotel sophistication over the past decade. With six pillow choices, hot cookies, and free beer, these guys are going all-out. But what happens when you go out the front door? Too often, new hotels are plunked down into the worst of our automobile-oriented sprawl where you take your life into your hands just to walk down the street to the Applebee's for some jalepeno poppers. While there are some limited cases where you might locate a hotel in this environment, in most cases it is a colossal wasted opportunity. Fortunately, the value-capture of diverting your town's chain-hotel investments into a walkable town center is symbiotic. Here's why I like them there:
– A Destination by Foot: For the guest, the obvious amenity is the ability to leave the hotel after you've checked in to find an engaging pedestrian environment with lots to eat, drink, and entertain yourself with. If you think about it, I find almost no cases where a weary traveler might want to get back into their car (if they even have one) to go in search of food and entertainment in a strange town. Oh, and when you get back to your room, draw the curtains… its ugly out there.
– Captured Market: The flip side of this is that you are bringing the retail side of your town center an ever-changing captive market. It's 150 rooms of foot traffic, and it's valuable.
– Inherently Mixed Use: While one challenge of walkable town centers is to get the vertical mixed use to pencil, the hotel offers a concentrated mixed use building complete with a commercial base (often a restaurant and bar at the base) and 150 plus rooms up above. This is great for shaping urban streetscapes and activating public space. And while your hotel patrons might go somewhere else for dinner, know that you will get non-patrons visiting your food and beverage amenities — something that may rarely happen in single-use environs.
– 24 hour population: The hotel offers a built-in 24 hour population bringing life to your town center streets and putting eyes onto the street.
– Iconic Building: While much of your town center may be 1-3 stories, the hotel often has no problem climbing up to four or more stories. With such an investment, the hotel can be an iconic, or at least highly visible structure within the town center. Add some funky signage onto that tower element that us urban designers like to throw into our plans, and you have far-off visibility that rivals the neon highway sign.
– Infrastructure: And lastly (although I'm sure there's more), dont forget the efficiencies you get with any land use in a mixed use center when you no longer have to build gigantic car-only streets linking disconnected parking lots in transit-repellent wastelands.
Accommodating the Chain Model
As mentioned before, competition is fierce among hotel chains and many of them have their model of operation. But aside from branding, much of this is actually focused within the building. The outside is relatively simple: A shopfront for your food and beverage, a semi-private pool on the sunny side, a port cochere to check in, and a convenient parking lot. And while the hotels have a template for the conventional suburban location, use the rationale above to help motivate them to revisit their model. And know that this is no pipe dream. One of my favourite stories now unfolding is the Village of Providence in Huntsville, Alabama, where a number of hotels are emerging in their walkable town center… and there are many more. Meanwhile, here's a few ideas to help get you started:
– Get your restaraunts and bars in shopfronts on the commercial street. You'll also want a branded entry to the hotel here, but it doesn't have to be the main entrance.
– Just like any use, locate your long-term parking within the block. Good signage, valet service, and directions from the concierge make this an easy task.
– Consider a mezzanine level (second storey) to get your fitness center and meeting rooms overlooking the commercial street.
– If you set aside some of the on-street parking for your hotel port cochere, and bring an awning out over the sidewalk, you have the classic Manhattan hotel scene. But that may not be for everyone.
– Consider a turn-in to your port cochere from the main or side street. If it goes through the building (like a tunnel), you have a weather protected port-cochere and it's under the hotel's full control. And, of course, link this tunnel to the in-block parking and back-of house services. This is how the first hotel in the Village of Providence handled it.
– Consider a dedicated court for your port cochere like Legacy Town Center outside of Dallas. Again, you get full control, but unless you are a larger hotel, it may be difficult to pull this off, and you may create a large hole in the continuity of a commercial street.
– And lastly, if you want to get real urban, consider locating on a square where your hotel can take advantage of the parking and traffic circulation of one leg of the surrounding street. The most celebrated example, of course, is the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan.
Have any other examples or ideas? Post them here! We all want to hear them.
Links for the whole series:
Get Your Hotels into a Walkable Town Center!
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San Francisco Bitcoin ATM - Coinhub
Coinhub Bitcoin ATM in San Francisco, California
You can instantly buy bitcoin with cash at our Coinhub Bitcoin ATM near me in San Francisco, California. Coinhub offers $25,000 daily limits and lowest rates for Bitcoin. Bitcoin ATMs (Automated Teller Machine) are kiosks that allows a person to purchase Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies by using cash. Coinhub's Bitcoin cash kiosks are a fast and convenient way to buy Bitcoin and have it delivered directly to your wallet in minutes. Coinhub Bitcoin machines are easy to use and allow buying at our btc atm to be fast and instant. If you're using a Coinhub Bitcoin Machine near me, you are able to purchase Bitcoin instantly and receive it within minutes. You can purchase Bitcoin in less than 2 minutes, and you don't need an account. To purchase Bitcoin, simply walk up to any Coinhub Bitcoin ATM and verify your details. Many Coinhub Bitcoin ATMs allow you to buy and sell crypto for cash. You can buy Bitcoin using one our Bitcoin ATMs. First, locate the nearest Bitcoin ATM in your area by visiting our Coinhub Bitcoin ATM Locator. Enter your phone number and walk up to the machine. The machine will verify your phone using a code and scan the bitcoin wallet. Enter each bill one at a time to determine the amount you wish to purchase. After that, confirm the purchase by entering the bitcoin atm. The bitcoin is instantly sent to your wallet. The daily buying limit is $25,000. We have Bitcoin Machines conveniently placed throughout the country in major cities! Visit a Coinhub Bitcoin ATM today.
The Coinhub Bitcoin ATM is located in the California Smoke Shop at 819 Geary St. San Francisco, CA 94109, USA. It allows you to buy Bitcoin at any of the following locations and nearby neighbourhoods: Tenderloin, Lower Nob Hill, Civic Center, Nob Hill, Soma; Downtown San Francisco, Chinatown, Pacific Heights, Chinatown, Union Square, Russian Hill, Alamo Square, Hayes Valley, Hayes Valley, Cow Hollow, Marina; Financial District, North Beach; Forest Hill Extension; Forest Hill Extension; Forest Hill; Ingleside Heights, Merced Heights, Westwood Highlands; Sunnyside; Westwood Park, Monterey Heights, Westwood Highlands, Westwood Highlands, Westwood Park; Sunnyside; Westwood Park, Westwood Highlands, Sunnyside; Westwood Park, Sunnyside; Sunnyside; Sunnyside; Sunnyside; Westwood Highlands, Westwood Highlands, Westwood Highlands, Westwood Highlands, Westwood Highlands, Westwood Highlands, Monterey Heights, Westwood Highlands, Westwood Highlands, Westwood Highlands, Westwood Highlands, Westwood Highlands, Westwood Highlands
Los Angeles (US: (listen) lawss AN-jəl-əs; Spanish: Los Ángeles [los ˈaŋxeles], lit. 'The Angels'), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in California. With a 2020 population of 3,898,747, it is the second-largest city in the United States, following New York City. Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic and cultural diversity, Hollywood film industry and sprawling metropolitan area. The City of Los Angeles lies in a basin in Southern California, adjacent to the Pacific Ocean, and extends through the Santa Monica Mountains and into the San Fernando Valley, covering a total of about 469 square miles (1,210 km2). It is the seat of Los Angeles County, which is the most populous county in the United States with just over 10 million residents in 2020.
Angelino Heights, Arlington Heights, Baldwin Village, Baldwin Vista, Beverly Grove, Boyle Heights, Brentwood, Brentwood Glen, Brookside, Bunker Hill, Castle Heights, Central Alameda, Central LA, Cheviot Hills, Country Club Park


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Devotees of cinematic realism, who seems to jump out of the woodwork in packs whenever a new Wes Anderson picture comes out, will probably not be thrilled with this revisionist fairy-tale spectacular spectacle. I wound up being much more taken with it than I had anticipated, thanks in no small part to its secret weapon. More in my review at MSN Movies.
Sorry for the lack of blogging this week. Last week was marked by the unexpectd death of the author of the below literary interlude, a college friend I hadn't laid eyes on in about twenty years; long story. Then I took the Memorial Day weekend off, for real, and now I'm doing a bit of traveling. First to the lovely Berkshires to participate in a panel, and late tomorrow to Long Beach Island for the Lighthouse FIlm Festival. Looks like I won't have a Blu-ray Consumer Guide for May (indeed, as each minute passes it seems less and less tenable) but June? Why not. I supposed we'll find out!


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Sonos One users in Canada can now join their peers south of the border in yelling requests at their connected speakers – a free update issued today enables Amazon Alexa on the Sonos One. The One launched with Alexa support in the U.S., but while the speaker has been available to Canadian buyers since late last year, Alexa voice commands are new with the update.
That means Canadians will be able to do tremendously Canadian things like ask for updates from The Weather Network, get flight info from Air Canada, listen to news reports from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and more. I know what all of these things mean because I am, in fact, Canadian myself.
Canadians also have relatively few options when it comes to premium smart speakers on the market: The Apple HomePod and the Google Home Max have yet to launch in country. Still, an Alexa-enabled Sonos One should be all that most Canadians need – in fact, I recently called the Sonos One the best option out there all around in a smart speaker, and that remains true.


text:
Obama made a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room to trumpet the new figures, which beat initial projections by 1 million people. Equally critical: About 35 percent of those who signed up are under the age of 35, Obama said. Enrolling substantial numbers of younger, healthier Americans is crucial for the law's success.
"This thing is working," Obama said of the Affordable Care Act, his signature domestic achievement.
Obama and Democrats have been anxiously awaiting the age figures, and especially those regarding young people - the most coveted demographic. Younger enrollees tend to be a healthier group overall, so their premiums can help offset higher cost of care for older enrollees. Too few young people in the mix, and the insurance pool could become lopsided and premiums could surge.
The demographic figures also give Democrats an opportunity to blunt the pessimism of Republicans, some of whom have pointedly accused the White House of "cooking the books" by announcing large overall enrollment numbers before releasing more detailed figures that provide a fuller picture.
Following the disastrous rollout of the exchanges in October, when HealthCare.gov was virtually unusable, Democrats have been hoping that higher-than-expected results could help their candidates reclaim the political high ground ahead of the midterm elections. Seven months out from Election Day, Democrats are seeking to turn the page on the law's flawed debut - a strategy underscored last week when Obama announced that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who became the face of the rollout failure, was stepping down.
Polling shows the law remains unpopular in much of the country, but Democrats plan to use the high enrollment figures to argue that by trying to repeal the law, Republicans are actively working to take health care away from millions of Americans who now rely on the exchanges.
"The repeal debate is and should be over," Obama said.


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Shortrib Ravioli & Creamy Mushroom Sauce
Chuck Hughes' short rib ravioli with creamy mushroom sauce are so rich that your taste buds will scream with pleasure.
Easy, Moderate, Complex
Prep time: 1 hour
Cook time: 4 hours 45 minutes
Inactive prep time: 8 hours 30 minutes
Yields: 6 servings
- 4 pieces short ribs, 2″ cut
- 4 cups red wine (1 l)
- 1 shallot, minced
- 1 garlic clove, chopped
- 5 sprigs of thyme
- 5 sprigs of rosemary
- 4 cups veal stock (1 l)
- 2 tablespoons ketchup (30 ml)
- 2 tablespoons honey (30 ml)
- 1 carrot, chopped
- 1 leek, chopped
- 1 celery stalk, chopped
- Salt and pepper
- 3 large onions, thinly sliced
- Shredded meat from braised shortrib
- 1 cup mixed dried mushrooms (250 ml)
- 2 cups boiling water (500 ml)
- 3 1/2 cup flour (875 ml)
- 6 eggs
- 1 tablespoon olive oil (15 ml)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon chopped herbs (basil, parsley, chives) (Optional)
- Pasta dough (see enclosed recipe)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil (30 ml)
- 1 tablespoon butter (15 ml)
- 2 cups mixed fresh mushrooms (500 ml), sliced
- 1 shallot, minced
- 2 cups braising liquid from the short ribs (500 ml)
- 2 cups 35 % cream (500 ml)
- Salt and pepper
- Chopped chive
- Grated parmesan for garnish
- For the shortribs: Marinate the short ribs with wine, shallots, garlic and herbs overnight.
- Preheat the oven at 350 ˚F (180 ˚C).
- Remove the ribs and keep the marinade for later. Sear short ribs in heavy saucepan on medium high or until golden brown on all sides and remove.
- Add the vegetables in the saucepan and caramelize on high heat, then deglaze with the reserved marinade. Bring to a boil and add the short ribs again, veal stock, ketchup and honey. Season with salt and pepper.
- Cover and place in the oven for 3 hours or until the meat falls off the bone. Remove from oven, strain liquid and skim the fat. On medium heat, reduce the braising liquid by half, about 30 minutes. Keep aside for the creamy mushroom sauce.
- For the filling: Rehydrate dried mushrooms in hot water for about 15 minutes and keep the liquid for the sauce.
- Place the onions in a sauté pan and cook on low heat for about 30 minutes until golden brown and caramelized, stirring on a regular basis.
- In another pan, sauté the rehydrated mushrooms in olive oil and season with salt & pepper. Add the shredded short rib meat and caramelized onions. Season with salt and pepper. Keep aside.
- For the pasta dough: Place the flour on a table in a mound and make a well in the center. Put the eggs and salt into the well.
- Whisk the eggs together with a fork, and gently incorporate the flour into the egg mixture a little at a time. Using your hands, bring the mixture together to form a ball.
- Knead the pasta dough, about 5 minutes. Put the dough in a bowl with olive oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 15 minutes until ready to roll your fresh pasta.
- The pasta can be used right away or will keep in the refrigerator for up to a week.
- Cut the pasta dough into 4 equal sections. Flatten one of the dough balls with the palm of your hand until it's about 1/2 an inch thick and no wider than the slot of the pasta machine. If you don't have a pasta machine, a rolling pin will work fine but make sure to roll the dough thin enough.
- Adjust the slot of the pasta machine to its widest setting (usually #7). Turn the handle while feeding the dough through the slot. Gently hold the flattened dough as it comes out of the pasta machine, but don't pull on it. After the dough has completely passed through the pasta machine, turn the slot down to the next smallest setting and pass the dough through the slot.
- As you make the slot smaller, your sheet of dough will become longer. Try to gently hold the dough as it exits the pasta machine so it doesn't tear.
- Continue passing the dough through the machine until it's about a 1/16th of an inch thick or #2 on the pasta machine.
- For the ravioli: Using two spoons, place about one tablespoon of filling into each pocket. Leave 2 inches in between each of them.
- Brush the edges of the pasta with water. This will help the ravioli to seal tightly when boiled. Place another sheet of pasta over the ravioli filling. Press out any air to form a seal around each ravioli. Using a cookie cutter to cut desired shape.
- Place the raviolis in a single layer on a baking tray lined with parchment paper to prevent from sticking. At this point, if you want to freeze the ravioli for later, place the entire baking tray into the freezer. Once the ravioli have frozen, you can remove the pasta and place them in sealable bags.
- For the sauce: In a pan on medium heat, sauté the shallots and fresh mushrooms in olive oil and butter until golden brown. Season with salt and pepper.
- Add reserved short rib braising liquid and water from the rehydrated mushrooms. Continue cooking until quantity is reduced by half, about 15 minutes.
- Add cream and let simmer until thickened (10 minutes).
- For serving: Cook the ravioli in salted boiling water for 2-3 minutes or until the ravioli floats. Serve 3-4 raviolis per person, add the mushroom sauce and garnish with grated parmesan cheese and chopped chives.
- Cook's note: A pasta machine is great for rolling and cutting the dough. They are inexpensive and can be found at major kitchen stores or online. You can also stuff the ravioli with ground meat or ricotta cheese


text:
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SDCC: Del Rey Announces New Titles
Posted By Jay on July 13, 2012
Besides talking about the already announced titles (
Scoundrels, The Old Republic: Annihilation, The Essential Reader's Companion, X-Wing: Mercy Kill
), Frank Parisi and Erich Schoeneweiss from Del Rey publishing, with author Troy Denning announced three new titles at the show, that sound like they will be amazing!
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
by Michael Reaves and Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff
What: Paperback original title.
When: Spring 2013
Another fast-paced, action-packed Star Wars stand-alone mass market original by New York Times bestselling authors Michael Reaves and Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff!
Ever since Emperor Palpatine's Order 66--which called for the execution of all Jedi--Jax Pavan is the last Knight around to fight the dark side of the Force. Together with his droid I-5, Jax has eluded Vader time and again, all the while wreaking havoc against the Empire through the underground resistance on Coruscant. But now the Rebel's leader on the city-planet has been captured, and it's up to the Last Jedi to ride again...possibly for one final adventure. (Cover illustration by Gene Moloica and cover design by Scott Biel.)
Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void
by Tim Lebbon
What: Paperback original title
When: Spring 2013
A stand-alone mass market tie-in to the successful comic book series,
Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi
, written by fantasy novelist, Tim Lebbon.
Star Wars: Crucible
by Troy Denning
What: Hardcover original
When: Spring 2013
Han, Luke, and Leia are back in action--older and wiser, but as ready as ever to leap headlong into adventure!
Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and Princess Leia have spent a lifetime fighting wars, bringing the Jedi back from extinction, raising families, and saving the galaxy more times than they can count. They've earned the right to rest on their laurels and let the younger generation shoulder the burden--but fate has another adventure in store for our heroes, a quest only they can tackle and hope to survive... (Cover illustration by Cliff Nielsen and cover design by Scott Biel.)
Be sure to visit the Del Rey booth at Celebration VI this August, or in NYCC this October for further announcements of their upcoming publishing plans. Stay tuned to this channel for more news as it surfaces!
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Rebelscum Breast Cancer Awareness Charity Patch
Posted By Philip on November 25, 2014:
Thanks to everybody that ordered patches. I sent a check for $1,600.00 to the National Breast Cancer Foundation on Monday. While it's not as much as I hoped for, it's still very much appreciated. They will remain for sale in the store for anybody that still wishes to purchase them. Details after the jump.
BBC Interviews J.J. Abrams About
Posted By Eric on May 3, 2013:
Episode VII gig "once in a lifetime opportunity"
CEII: Jabba's Palace Reunion - Massive Guest Announcements
Posted By Chris on May 3, 2013:
10 new guests announced!
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30% off
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Mimoco: New Mimobot Coming May 4th
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Who will it be?
WeLoveFine Loves May The 4th
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Contest winners and t-shirt sales all weekend!
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Crap, I accidentally gave greenies.
Real security doesn't come with an installer.
I know a couple journalists , and regardless of freedom of the press there is pressure albeit subtle and implied , there are many things that are well known in journalist circles that do not make the paper do to who or what they are about. In Canada most of the print media is owned by very few. Even more so than the usa.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The international ban against torturing prisoners of war does not necessarily apply to suspects detained in America\'s war on terror, Attorney General John Ashcroft told a Senate oversight committee -- true colors revealed, a brown shirt and jackboots
Forum Rules


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Kosher gains ground as global QC measure
As it turns out, kosher certification, along with other measures like halal, is winning increasing favour in China and elsewhere as we found out a little while back at an ingredients show in Shanghai where there was a conspicuous number of kosher certification agencies.
Increasingly kosher is purely and simply a mark of quality in manufacturing processes, and many who use it are unashamedly uninterested in its religious meaning or origin, certainly not the estimated 150,000 food, food ingredient and chemical manufacturers located in China.
Export ptotential
In Shanghai, rabbi David Moskovitz, CEO of Shatz Kosher Service (SKS), relayed why it is that kosher certification is so much in demand.
"The Chinese are interested in all kinds of certificates to help them export products to the world and kosher is one of the most important certificates export to the US and Europe – you need a kosher certificate so it is a big market."
Moskovitz, whose firm has offices in China, Israel and the US, said his experience had taught him that the quality of ingredients coming out of China was on the rise and not so different from those in other parts of the globe, especially as more underwent QC measures such as those offered by his firm.
He added: "Some of the food scare stories that have come out of China are not unique to there – they happen all over the world. [Chinese ingredients] are surprisingly very high quality."
"It's not so different to say the USA in most instances."


text:
Financial sponsor Carlyle Group is closing in on a deal to purchase a large Sunoco oil refinery in Philadelphia, according to three people familiar with the matter, in a transaction that could be completed in a matter of days, one of these people said.
Carlyle , the Washington-based private-equity firm that recently went public, has been in exclusive talks with Sunoco since mid-April to purchase the 330,000-barrel-per-day refinery. Nicknamed SunPhilly, the plant was set to be idled in August if Sunoco couldn't find a buyer, a move that would put 800 people out of work.
The exclusivity deal Sunoco and Carlyle inked in April is set to expire Friday, June 15, if a deal can't be reached, said one of the people familiar with the matter. It is unclear whether the two companies will be able to finalize a transaction before then.
Carlyle executives spent Wednesday holed up in meetings at Sunoco's Philadelphia headquarters, two of the people familiar with the matter said, hoping to come to final terms. (Extending the exclusivity agreement is also an option, added one of these people.)
Carlyle's potential deal would come a month and a half after Delta Air Lines — marking a first for an airline looking to save money on jet fuel — bought a smaller refinery in Trainer, Penn., for $180 million. As part of that deal, the state of Pennsylvania kicked in $30 million in subsidies in an effort to preserve local jobs.
If Carlyle does buy SunPhilly, the plant will likely come on the cheap, said one of the people familiar with the matter. Carlyle said in an April statement that it would contribute cash to the refinery as part of a joint-venture arrangement in which Sunoco would retain a minority, non-operating stake in the facility. Carlyle would oversee day-to-day operations, and would be responsible for finding parties to secure crude oil from overseas, ship it to the East Coast, and manage the refining process.
—By CNBC's Kate Kelly


text:
If it's true that the tents are about to be packed, the cages broken down, the sawdust swept, the clowns sedated, the daredevils shot, the lions zipped into their traveling sweaters; if it's true that the circus is about to skip town, on a cloud of greasepaint and diesel fumes, leaving behind only crushed flowerbeds, the odd peanut shell, and three secret broken hearts, then as the final performance begins, it's only fitting that we take a last look at the ringmaster.
Who is he, the squat, dapper, beetle-browed man in the waistcoat and swallowtails, beneath the teetering stovepipe hat? How does he manage this strange combination of mastery and powerlessness, so that the show seems at once tightly in his control and on the verge of slipping out of his hands? Is it a practiced effect, an attainment of his theatrical person, or is the thrill it induces only amateur and incidental, and perhaps legitimately dangerous?
Ladies and gentlemen and children of all ages…allow me to introduce (he drones in his murmurous accent, phlegmatic but definite, like the Nixon administration) direct from the Southernmost Sea, the Fabulous Fire-Breathing Fontellinis and their Trio of Musical Bears. Ah, I see one of the bears has got loose in the crowd (nearly mumbling, like an accountant reading the tax table) and begun to eat the spectators. Don't be alarmed, ladies and gentleman, he'll go to sleep as soon as he's full. Ladies and gentlemen, prepare to be amazed by the Pie-Flinging Calamity, Miss Darwina Butterknot.
With his bullfrog head hanging low and in front of him, less like Richard Nixon than like a man in a Richard Nixon mask, he flourishes his victorious handkerchief, and lists away, oddly tipping, like a ship being cannonaded. No one could be more dour, or more trivial; more plaintive, or more grim. With his glittering epaulets, his watch chain, and his throat-blossoming airy self-conceptions, you can imagine him as a kind of Napoleonic impediment, of the implacable admiralty in some irrelevant council of war; or as a chalky Pluto, disturbed and subterranean on the cloudy heights of Olympus, fingering his figs, looking downward.
The big top is full every night. The tigers get loose among the acrobats, and swallow the flying trapeze.
After the performance, late at night, when the strongman has gone to sleep, the ringmaster creeps out of his room and slips among the cages. Is he making for the clowns' trailer? Will he sit before their mirror, dull as a toadstool, and cover his face with sad paint? So he will. He will rise from his chair, a spectral mime, and dance, alone, to a waltz from a tiny music box. Dust will shimmer in the moonlight. He will look as resolute as failure, and as hopeless as success.
Read More: Avram Grant's Glorious Tap-Dancing Circus, Chelsea, Portraits
by Brian Phillips · April 29, 2008
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By Romi Cvitkovic
Tennis players are a peculiar breed. They lose nearly every week, but they get back on their feet just as often – many times with invigorating activities to keep their focus in check. We catch up with Victoria Azarenka, Milos Raonic, Laura Robson, Maria Sharapova and Na Li as we see what they were up to after losing at the US Open, including fashion shows, parties, charity tours and Olympic parades.
Some players party with Redfoo after a tough loss in the women's championship match…
World No. 1 Victoria Azarenka has had a familiar face in her player's box during several of her matches at the US Open, rock star Redfoo of the group LMFAO, and Sunday was no different. The upcoming sponsor of the Party Rock Open in Las Vegas, Redfoo fistpumped and cheered his way into Vika's heart. The duo – with some extra friends – partied just hours after her heart-breaking loss. And apparently there's video coming up of the night as well. Guess a good party goes a long way to turn that frown upside down, Vika.
We doing shots baby RT @vika7: @RedFoo lets do this….im ready
— RedFoo (@RedFoo) September 10, 2012
Some players attend glamorous events …
When Canadian Milos Raonic lost in the fourth round to Andy Murray, he jetted to Toronto for a plethora of events and appearances, including a Hello! Magazine Canada party where he sported the casual look:
… an amfAR Cinema Against AIDS event where he posed with Miss Universe Canada 2012 Sahar Biniaz. Do I smell a crush, Milos?
… and looking equally suave with a hint of pink and that same killer smile, Milos attended the Glitz and Glamour Breast Cancer Benefit alongside fellow countryman Daniel Nestor.
Some players forget their worries by attending New York Fashion Week …
Even before the US Open began, Maria Sharapova blitzed through the New York media scene with her "Sugarpova" candy launch. So after her abrupt semifinal finish at the Slam, Maria needed a good way to wind down. After what better way for the fashionista than taking in the Victoria Beckham show with good friend Anna Wintour? Looking fresh and outfitted in a color block jacket and elastic waistband red trousers, Maria also had an intimate conversation with the fashion icon. Anything that helps you wind down, Maria, we're all for it.
Some players travel back to the Olympic stadium …
British teenager Laura Robson had her best results at a Slam by making the fourth round, defeating Na Li and ending Kim Clijsters' career before losing to defending champion Sam Stosur. But Laura wasn't disappointed. That gave her the opportunity to return to the Olympic village for the Paralympic Closing Ceremonies and participate in the Olympic and Paralympic heroes' victory parade earlier today – sporting her silver medal in mixed doubles, of course! Compatriot Ross Hutchins joined in as paparazzi.
Some players launch a new book…
Chinese player Na Li is always a good sport even with her surprise loss to Robson last week. But she was back in business in Beijing over the weekend promoting her new book "Play Alone" and rebutting a statement from China's tennis chief.
Last week at the US Open, China's tennis chief Sun Jinfang blamed Li's failure at the US Open due to a lack of education, saying "We have seen for a long time that Li Na can suddenly collapse. Why is this? Because athletes like her have not received a good education." Her rebuttal came at her book signing press conference: "I don't think my temper has anything to do with my education. I'm not angry with such talks. There is a Chinese old saying that rumors stop before the wise…. I'm not worried about being misunderstood. I just say what I want to say." You go, girl.
Earlier, Li played some street badminton, table tennis and even piano(!) with kids during her charity tour to impoverished schools in Beijing, donating money, books and stationery to the charity school. A heart of gold.
In summary, the life of a tennis player is never boring or dull even when you expect it to be after one of the biggest events in the sport. Next up, the ladies have already begun with their tournaments this week in Tashkent and Quebec, and the men are set to begin the Davis Cup semifinals.


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A WSJ piece about children's author and illustrator Robert McCloskey, who died on Monday.
Make Way for Ducklings is one of my favorite picture books, ever. We still read out of the one I've had since I was a child. It shows the power of books on a young mind: when I think of Boston, ducks and even Irish policeman, it's always contextualized by Make Way for Ducklings.
The ducks in "Make Way for Ducklings" must find a place to live, nothing more and nothing less. That place will be in Boston, where a stout policeman named Michael (what else but an Irishman?) will help the nesting family navigate traffic. The Charles River, Beacon Hill and Louisburg Square set the scene.
The ducks' behavior is endowed with transcendent nuance, delightful to human children who recognize their own mothers in Mrs. Mallard. The mother duck puts her bill in the air and "walks along with an extra swing in her waddle" when a passerby admires her offspring. McCloskey wrote that Mrs. Mallard tells Mr. Mallard: " 'don't you worry, I know all about bringing up children.' And she did."


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Most Christians are uncomfortable with purely naturalistic evolution. The solution for many Christians has been to adopt theistic evolution, which is based on the idea that the God of the Bible employed an evolutionary process to create.
Any listing of the attributes of God would include omnipotence, omniscience, loving, gracious, possessing forethought, and the desire for a relationship with man. Would this kind of God have used long ages of evolutionary development?
Theistic evolution looks back to about four billion years ago when God brought just the right chemicals into the right order to form a single cell. This multiplied and mutated for over three billion years until He either allowed or caused them to evolve into two-celled organisms, then about 500 million years ago into marine invertebrates, such as clams, snails, trilobites, and flatworms.
Over hundreds of millions of years, many types went extinct and were never seen by man. But the flatworm begat fish, then amphibians, then reptiles and birds, then mammals. They would live and die, mutate and go extinct. Some would eat the others. All were subject to disease and starvation. Some, like the dinosaurs, also passed into oblivion before man arrived. The fossil record provides ample evidence of their existence, suffering, and extinction long ago.
Just a few million years ago there were upright-walking apes, then Homo erectus, and then Neandertals, "animals" who made tools, employed agriculture, utilized both religious implements and weapons, suffered from disease and malnutrition. They enjoyed music and flowers and art, but had no soul.
Then, just a few thousand years ago, God made true man. He either created man from scratch or took a sub-human animal and gave it an eternal spirit. As He finished His work, He called it all "very good." God's creation could finally recognize His grace, respond in love, and give God the glory due His name.
But was it all "very good"? Beneath Adam's feet would lay the fossils of billions of animals, many giving evidence of traumatic death. And who were the long extinct dinosaurs? Had God been experimenting, trying to find something He could call His image? Did He not know what He wanted? Was He not powerful enough to create it without so many missteps? If the creation and redemption of man was His purpose, why did He wait so long?
And why did He use the process of the extinction of the unfit to create? His very nature ultimately impelled Him, the Fit, to die for the unfit. In redemption, He would strongly denounce personal works as a method of salvation. Would He have used survival of the fittest as His method of creation and accept "glory" from His creation on this basis?
No, the righteous God revealed in Scripture would create just as described in Genesis One. Creation would be orderly and wise, with man and his walk with God the result. It would be deathless and sinless, compatible with the all powerful, Holy, life-giving Creator's label as "very good."
*Dr. John Morris is President of ICR.


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As a twenty-one year undergraduate in Oxford in 1837, a bright but depressed J. C. Ryle stumbled across a church and entered it on a whim. There, he heard the words of Ephesians 2 preached, and it lit a fire of passion for God in him that would never be extinguished. The rest of Ryle's life would be in service to God, with a strong commitment to preaching and teaching salvation unto others. Ryle was a prolific author, and his numerous books and commentaries were bestsellers and translated all over the world. The J. C. Ryle Collection (18 Vols.), includes his most important works on God and the Christian faith, and contains his powerful commentaries on the canonical gospels.
"I frankly avow that I have studied, as far as possible, to be plain and pointed, and to choose what an old divine calls 'picked and packed' words," he writes. Renowned for its direct, unadorned language and its deep insight, Ryle's work has been inspiring Christians for over one hundred years. Along with his commentaries on Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, this collection includes his sermons and essays on justification, regeneration, sin, baptism, the Sabbath, and more. Filled with practical observations for daily Christian living, they are also rich with the history of the Anglican Church.
With the Logos Bible Software edition all Scripture passages in the J. C. Ryle Collection (18 Vols.) are tagged to original language texts and English translations. This makes these resources more powerful and easier to access than ever before for scholarly work or personal Bible study. With the advanced search features of Logos Bible Software, you can perform powerful searches by topic or Scripture reference—finding, for example, every mention of "regeneration," or "Luke."
. . . a distillation of true Puritan theology presented in a highly readable form.
I am bold to say that perhaps few men in the nineteenth century did so much for God, for truth, for righteousness, among the English speaking race and in the world, as Ryle.
—Richard Hobson
J. C. Ryle's Expository Thoughts series offers a spiritual approach to the Gospels, written in an easy to understand manner for practical teaching and study. This volume on Mathew is an effective companion to the Bible, with Ryle highlighting pertinent passages and offering useful insight into their significance and meaning. Some of the major topics include the birth of Jesus, John the Baptist, Jesus in Galilee, various parables, Peter, and the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.
J.C. Ryle had three goals when writing his Expository Thoughts books: that they be used in family Bible study, a teaching tool for those visiting the sick or poor, or as a companion for private Bible study. They have achieved a higher end to those humble aspirations, and the Expository Thoughts on Mark is a great example. Ryle's helpful commentary on the Gospel of Mark is filled with wonderful insight and practical observations.
Still in keeping with his promise to deliver easy to understand, practical study guides in his Expository Thoughts series, J.C. Ryle has included extensive notes with this volume on Luke for those wanting to dig deeper into some of the more difficult passages. Luke 1–10 are covered by volume one.
Volume two of J. C. Ryle's Expository Thoughts on Luke begins with the Lord's Prayer. "The substance of the Lord's Prayer is a mine of spiritual treasure," writes Ryle. Covering Luke 11–24, Ryle's thorough examination of Luke serves as a wonderful guidebook for improved comprehension of the Scriptures.
"I hold that the Gospel of St. John, rightly interpreted, is the best and simplest answer to those who profess to admire a vague and indistinct Christianity." So says J. C. Ryle in the preface to his three volume masterwork on the book of John. Written in clear and concise language, Ryle expounds the Scriptures like nobody else. His interpretations are insightful, and his observations are practical for daily Christian living. A perfect companion for studying or teaching the Bible, Ryle has included detailed explanatory notes and a comprehensive appendix. John 1–6 are covered in volume one.
"If I can help to make the Bible more plain and interesting to any man's souls, than I shall be abundantly content." So writes J. C. Ryle in the Preface of the second volume in his captivating commentary on the Gospel of John. This volume continues with Ryle's insightful observations, covering John 7–12.
J. C. Ryle's third volume of commentary on the Gospel of John covers John 13–21. Ryle's concluding thoughts on this powerful book of the Bible covey his in-depth understanding of the Scriptures and the joy he has in teaching from them. This three-volume commentary is considered one of the best written commentaries on the Book of John still today.
Attempting to "untie some theological knots," J. C. Ryle's nineteen essays approach doctrinal controversies of the nineteenth century from an evangelical perspective. Written in Ryle's customary direct, plain-language, and filled with insightful commentary, this volume comprises of Ryle's observations on baptism, regeneration, confessions, the Sabbath, and more. This is a key work for understanding the debates within the English Church after the Reformation.
The Upper Room is a collection of sermons, addresses, lectures, and tracts that Ryle composed over forty-five years of ministry. "All of them, I venture humbly to think, will be found to contain some useful truths for the times, and words in season," he writes in the Preface. Over one hundred years later, these selected papers are just as relevant and inspirational as the years they were written.
"I believe firmly that, excepting Luther and his Continental contemporaries and our own martyred Reformers, the world has seen no such men since the day of the apostles," writes J. C. Ryle in his Preface for The Christian Leaders of the Last Century. This volume comprises of biographical sketches of Ryle's eighteenth century influences: George Whitefield, John Wesley, William Grimshaw, William Romaine, Daniel Rowlands, John Berridge, Henry Venn, Samuel Walker, James Hervey, Augustus Toplady, and John William Fletcher.
After sixty years of ministry, J. C. Ryle's selected sermons were published in his honor. Varying from doctrinal issues—sin, redemption, regeneration, sanctification—to the practical duties of living the Christian life, Ryle's sermons are timeless and inspirational.
After providing a short history of the Anglican Church, J. C. Ryle presents the biographies of some of the most influential English Reformers and detractors, some of whom are little known. Light From Old Times includes the biographies of John Wycliffe, John Rogers, John Hooper, Rowland Taylor, Hugh Latimer, John Bradford, Nichols Ridley, Samuel Ward, Archbishop Laud, Richard Baxter, William Gurnall, and James II.
"I meet you this day with one simple question—are you among the living, or among the dead?" J. C. Ryle's Living or Dead is a powerful work on daily Christian living. Diving into the Scriptures, Ryle shows the reader how to lead a spiritually fulfilling and happy life, and the consequences that follow undisciplined faith. Celebrating God's all-encompassing love, Ryle provides key passages from the Bible to illustrate how putting faith first leads to a joyful life.
Where art thou in the sight of God? Are you an heir to glory? Shall you be saved? How readest thou? What do you think and feel about the cross of Christ? Have you assurance? Each of these astonishing essays begins in the form of a question found in the Bible. J.C. Ryle's exploration of these "startling questions" leads to powerful and inspiring answers.
A guidebook for spiritual living, J. C. Ryle's Practical Religion aims to "throw some light on what every believer ought to be, to do, and expect." Focusing on subjects such as prayer, Bible reading, freedom, happiness, sickness, eternity, and more, Ryle's insightful observations on the Scripture and living the Christian life are relevant today more than ever.
A collection of four hundred hymns, some meant for congregational use, and some, because of their experimental form or meter, meant for private study. In selecting the hymns, J. C. Ryle aimed to bridge the divide between different variations of the Christian faith. "It is a pleasant thought," he writes, "that however much Christians may disagree in pulpits, on platforms, and in prose writing, they are generally of one heart and one mind, in praise and prayer."
Felt by many to be his masterwork, J. C. Ryle's Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots is a timeless classic on what it means to be a Christian. First exploring the nature of sin, sanctification, and holiness, Ryle then draws examples from the Scriptures to argue that professing one's faith isn't merely enough to live the true Christian life. Written with Ryle's customary straight-shooting verve and packed with biblical insight, Holiness has been impacting Christian lives for over a century.
This series of sermons was based on the key doctrines of the Gospel essential for salvation. In plain and unadorned language, J. C. Ryle endeavors to illuminate some of Christianity's great truths: the immortality of the soul, the sinfulness of human nature, the work of Christ as our Redeemer, forgiveness, justification, conversion, faith, repentance, and more.
J. C. Ryle (1816–1900) was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, where he was a Craven Scholar. He was ordained in 1841, and became the first bishop of Liverpool in 1880. Ryle was a prolific writer his entire life, publishing dozens of bestsellers that were translated into many languages.
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This article is more than 1 year old
Amazon fluffs up cloudy data warehousing service with Redshift
Bezos kicks Teradata, IBM, Oracle, and Greenplum in the ad hocs
re:Invent Amazon Web Services, has used its first re:Invent customer and partner conference in Las Vegas to launch a cloudy data warehousing service dubbed Redshift.
In the opening keynote at re:Invent, Andy Jassy, the Amazon senior vice president in charge of AWS, said that large companies – including Amazon itself, which is the largest consumer of capacity on the AWS cloud as well as running other systems that are not on the cloud – were unhappy with their in-house data warehouses.
"Large companies say it is too expensive and a pain in the butt to manage," explained Jassy. "And small companies are left out in the cold." They simply cannot afford these high-end data warehousing systems, not even cut-down versions that are supposed to be more attractively priced. And they don't have the skills to cobble together their own data warehouses, even using relatively inexpensive Windows and Linux systems as the foundation.
The cloud computing subsidiary of e-tailing giant Amazon has been peddling a relational database service for transaction processing, called Relational Database Service, for years. AWS has more recently added a Hadoop service, called Elastic MapReduce, and a NoSQL data store called, DynamoDB, to handle unstructured "big data." So it is only natural that Bezos & Co would complete the set and launch a data warehousing service, which it did today at its first-ever .
The data warehousing service is called Redshift, and it doesn't mean moving away from IBM and towards Oracle, but rather moving away from both of them and Teradata and Greenplum while you are at it.
A data warehouse is generally a parallel database with a shared-nothing storage architecture that runs on x86 iron, or maybe RISC/Unix gear if you have lots of dough and you don't know what else to do with it. The system is not designed to process online transactions or chew through unstructured data, but to cull through historical transactional data for insights using ad hoc queries to answer hundreds or thousands of questions about relationships in the data.
You could have set up a data warehouse on Amazon's EC2 compute cloud and using its EBS block storage service if you wanted to, just like you have been able to set up and run databases or a Hadoop cluster for years. But Amazon knows that what many companies want is a service where they dump their data, run their algorithms, and get their answers and all they have to do is give AWS some money and it takes care of all the scaling and management.
And thus, the Redshift service will be the next big thing coming out of AWS.
Like other Amazon platform services, Redshift is designed with pay-as-you-go pricing and no upfront costs, which is a stark contrast with any clustered system you might install in your own data center. Redshift is also designed to be easy to provision, grow to a massive scale when necessary, give great performance, do so at a low price, and work in conjunction with popular business analytics tools.
Redshift is in a limited preview right now, so the technical details behind the service are not yet clear. But Jassy said that Amazon has created the service using a columnar table structure, as many old-school data warehouses are now able to do. The columnar data store allows for certain kinds of ad hoc queries to run orders of magnitude faster.
The fact that Jassy's presentation says that the Redshift service also uses PostgreSQL drives to link to third party BI tools would seem to indicate that Amazon has parallelized the open source PostgreSQL database, much as EMC's Greenplum and IBM's Netezza have done for their data warehousing appliances.
While the base open source PostgreSQL database does not support columnar storage, Yahoo! whipped up a columnar variant of PostgreSQL and out it into production more than five years ago, and if Yahoo! can do it, Amazon can, too.
Amazon is using data compression on the server nodes that made up the Redshift clusters on its cloud, which means you can cram more data onto the nodes and queries run faster. AWS is probably sprinkling flash storage in the server nodes to help boost I/O, much as traditional data warehouse appliance makers such as Teradata, IBM, Oracle, and Greenplum have done in recent years. But Jassy did not say.
The combination of columnar storage and compression means that I/O operations on the data warehouse are an order of magnitude faster, and thus queries can finish a lot faster.
Amazon's Redshift block diagram is fuzzy, but it's thinking isn't
The Redshift service runs on two different types of node, giving you the ability to balance compute and memory against raw disk capacity.
The high storage extras large data warehousing node has two cores with 4.4 EC2 units (ECUs) of performance and 15GB of virtual memory; it has three disk drives with a total of 2TB of capacity and a moderate amount of networking (very likely a slice of a 10GE port) and moderate disk I/O.
For the big Redshift jobs, Amazon also is offering a high storage eight extra large (8XL) data warehousing instance that has 16 virtual cores, 35 ECUs of performance, 128GB of virtual memory, and two dozen disk drives with a combined capacity of 16TB.
You can start with a single small node and scale up to a 32 nodes for a maximum capacity of 64TB, while with the fatter data warehousing nodes you start at two and can scale up to one hundred for a total of 1.6PB of capacity. It doesn't look like you can mix and match node types, but this being Amazon you can no doubt move between node types. It may take some time to move over the data, which is presumably stored locally in each node type.
The parallel columnar database behind the Redshift service speaks the standard SQL query language that all relational databases have to speak (if they want to be heard, anyway) and has JDBC and ODBC hooks out to common business intelligence tools such as those from Jaspersoft, MicroStrategy, IBM (Cognos), and SAP (BusinessObjects).
Pricing for the Redshift data warehousing service on AWS
Depending on who you go with, Jassy said that it costs something on the order of $19,000 to $25,000 per TB per year to run an on-premises data warehouse. That's an all-in number, including several database administrators and the hardware, software, and maintenance.
A 13-node 8XL Redshift cluster with heavy utilization using three-year reserved instances costs just under $1,000 per TB. Even assuming that on-premise number is inflated a bit for comparison, that is still a hell of a spread between internal IT ops and what Amazon can do with Redshift.
Being a large retailer, and the largest online store in the world, Amazon knows a thing or two about data warehouses. And so it took a subset of its data – 2 billion rows – and ran six of its most complex queries against it on its internal systems and the Redshift service.
The internal system had 32 nodes, 4.2TB of memory, and 1.6PB of disk capacity and cost "several million dollars," according to Jassy. The data and the queries ran at least ten times faster on a two-node Redshift cluster using the 128GB/16TB fat data warehousing nodes. This cost $3.65 per hour – less than a latte in Seattle – which works out to around $32,000 for an entire year.
"That's pretty game changing," said Jassy. No kidding.
The Redshift data warehousing service is in limited preview right now, with the full service launching in early 2013. ®


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Happy Tuesday all! This week's giveaway is all about helping find time during the holiday season to get delicious dinners on the table in under 15 minutes. You all may recognize the folks over at Bertolli for their delicious pasta sauces (remember the Baked Cheesy Ricotta Gnocchi?!), However, did you all know that they are now bringing you all rich and creamy risotto dishes and soups?
The risottos come in two flavors ~ Roasted Chicken & Mushroom and Garlic Shrimp. Bertolli takes the guesswork and labor out of preparing risotto from scratch! No more waiting at the stove, constantly stirring, and timing it just right. Just heat, serve and eat!
The stats are pretty great decent too.
Sounds pretty delicious, huh?
You get half the bag for 9 points+.
Who doesn't love having homemade soup on a cold winter day? The Bertolli soups are pretty tasty on their own or bulk them up by adding in veggies or serving with fresh, hot bread.
Bertolli is expanding their frozen meal soups with two new flavors ~ Italian-Style Wedding and Ricotta & Lobster Ravioli in a Seafood Bisque.
The folks at Bertolli are hooking you all up with everything you need to make "homemade" risotto at home.
Complete with the coolest Calphalon 10" Pan, serving bowl & Microplane grater!
The pans in your kitchen told me they want this pan to come join the party
- 4 Bertolli Frozen Meal coupons to enjoy Bertolli again and again!
- Risotto pan
- Serving bowl
- Microplane grater
~ This contest is open to US residents Only.
1) Simply leave your FIRST comment telling me what frozen meal risotto or soup flavor you want to try the most.
2) TWEET and/or Facebook about this giveaway, " Want to save in the kitchen & win a @Bertolli Risotto #Cooking Kit? Enter this #Giveaway hosted by @danicasdaily http://danicasdaily.com/?p=40937 ". Be sure to leave your SECOND comment to let me know you did.
3) If you have a blog, LINK back to this contest and leave a THIRD comment letting me know you did.
If you do not have a blog, just leave a comment below telling me someone you told about this giveaway.
The Fine Print: Thanks to folks at Bertolli for letting me share in the fun by giving away a Risotto Kitchen Kit like the one I received to one lucky reader.
The Winner will be randomly drawn and announced on Saturday, December 8, 2012.
Good Luck Everyone!