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AUGUSTA — Gov. Paul LePage declared a civil emergency Wednesday because of the federal government shutdown, but the implications were unclear and his declaration drew swift criticism.
The governor's office said the declaration is intended to enable the administration to minimize the financial impact on the state and its federally funded employees. But officials did not specifically identify how LePage intends to use an executive power that allows him to suspend state rules or regulations that "prevent, hinder and delay effective management of the emergency," according to state law.
Democratic leaders were suspicious of the declaration, calling on LePage to outline his plans for his new authority. The union representing state employees, nearly 3,000 of whom face temporary layoffs because of the shutdown, called it an overreach of power.
"The failure of leadership in Washington, D.C., has resulted in a federal shutdown, preventing the flow of federal money to Maine," LePage said in the news release announcing the declaration. "Unfortunately, this means that a large number of our federally funded state employees may have to be laid off."
Democrats questioned why the Republican governor would give himself additional power, and how he intends to use it.
Attorney General Janet Mills, a Democrat, described the civil emergency as confusing and "a diversionary tactic."
"I don't know what the hell he's talking about," she told the Portland Press Herald. "He can put anything he wants down on paper. I'm not sure what powers he's creating or trying to exercise."
A civil emergency doesn't give LePage any additional spending authority, which is tightly governed by the Maine Constitution. It does allow him to suspend some rules and regulations, but the administration would not say which ones it has in mind.
Carlisle McLean, LePage's chief legal counsel, said the declaration wasn't made in anticipation of "anything that the public isn't already aware of," a reference to the shutdown's accumulating effects on state employees and agencies.
McLean said the administration initially believed that the shutdown would be over quickly, but since Oct. 1 it "has snowballed beyond what any of us expected."
Maine and other states are beginning to feel the impact of the federal shutdown because their operations and staffing are intertwined with federal money.
Maine has 2,739 state workers whose positions are fully or partially funded by the federal government. On Monday, the administration announced 52 temporary layoffs at the Disability Determination Office in Winthrop, in addition to furloughs of four employees in the Department of Health and Human Services and three in the Department of Labor.
Last week, 406 technicians in the Maine Army and Air National Guard were furloughed, although most were later recalled.
In a letter to employees, LePage referred to three meetings with the union, but it wasn't clear if the administration expected the unions to help alleviate the shutdown's effects.
"Our administration met three times with the union since Friday to express our concerns, and we have been seeking solutions to minimize the impact on our state employees," LePage's letter said.
MaryAnne Turowski, legislative liaison for the Maine State Employees Association, said she attended the meetings with LePage but no proposals were made by the governor.
She said, "We're in the dark as to what he's talking about. We certainly think this is an overreach."
The union released a more critical statement Wednesday night.
"Gov. LePage is the only governor in the United States to take the drastic step of proclaiming a civil emergency in response to the federal shutdown that his Tea Party colleagues at the national level created," Ginette Rivard, also with the union, said in the statement.
Administration officials wouldn't say whether more furloughs are coming. State employees and the administration have been bracing for that possibility.
The administration said it is still bound to the terms of its collective bargaining agreement with the state employees union during a civil emergency.
State law authorizes the governor to declare a civil emergency. Such a declaration isn't unprecedented.
In 2009, Democratic Gov. John Baldacci declared a civil emergency in response to an outbreak of a deadly flu virus. That allowed the state to hire temporary clinicians in a mass vaccination drive.
In 1991, Republican Gov. John McKernan declared a civil emergency during a budget dispute that shut down state government, temporarily putting 10,000 state employees out of work.
Democratic legislative leaders quickly called on the governor to lay out his plan to use powers that allow him to suspend certain rules or regulations in order to carry out state business. They expressed surprise that LePage had used the executive power.
House Speaker Mark Eves, D-North Berwick, said the "action gives the governor significant power to suspend any of the state's laws. We want him to clearly lay out what he intends to do – which rules, statutes and laws he intends to suspend. We are calling for transparency, accountability and collaboration as we move forward."
Senate President Justin Alfond, D-Portland, said in a prepared statement that he hopes the governor will work "toward a calm solution for the workers of Maine."
"Actions like this are surprising and unsettling for Mainers," Alfond said.
House Minority Leader Ken Fredette, R-Newport, issued a statement praising the action, although he did not elaborate on how it will help.
"I commend Governor LePage for taking this decisive and necessary action to ensure that the impact of the federal shutdown on federally funded state employees and to the state overall may be alleviated," Fredette said in the statement.
Legislative leaders are scheduled to meet with LePage on Thursday morning to discuss the civil emergency and its implications.
Staff Writer Joe Lawlor contributed to this report.
Steve Mistler can be contacted at 791-6345 or at:
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The biblical blogosphere is abuzz with comment in the wake of the recent Khirbet Qeiyafa press conference (go here for the press release). Two facts are indisputable. (1) Khirbet Qeiyafa continues to produce finds of exceptional interest that threaten closely held theories and scholarly commonplaces. (2) In a first blast of scholarly output which resembles a case of Montezuma's revenge, the finds at Khirbet Qeiyafa are engendering new hypotheses and new scholarly reconstructions that are even less grounded than the ones they threaten. The comments online of greatest interest so far are those of Todd Bolen, George Athas, Victor Avigdor Hurowitz, and the joint reflections of Seth Sanders, Matthew Suriano and Jacqueline Vayntrub. Below the fold, an analytical roundup.
The press release is riddled with statements and conjectures that are unlikely to stand the test of time. Todd Bolen takes issue with this press release statement:
The biblical tradition presents the people of Israel as conducting a cult different from all other nations of the ancient Near East by being monotheistic and an-iconic (banning human or animal figures). However, it is not clear when these practices were formulated, if indeed during the time of the monarchy (10-6th centuries BC), or only later, in the Persian or Hellenistic eras.
Bolen pushes back:
In other words, the presence of cultic material outside of Jerusalem challenges the biblical claim that Israelites worshipped only one God in one place. But there is no such biblical claim. Scripture is very clear that though the Lord commanded the Israelites to worship only at the central altar (Deut 12), the Israelites perennially failed to keep this command. … What discoveries like these from Qeiyafa show is not that monotheism evolved only late in Israel's history but that God's covenant people failed to worship in the prescribed way, just as the Bible records.
The trouble with Bolen's pushback is that the prescriptions of Deut 12 as usually interpreted (it's about time that Adam Welch's work is dusted off and read again; go here) and the cult centralization program initiated under King Josiah stand in contradiction to prescriptions found in Exod 20:21-22 ("in every place"). It is not a question of prescription in contradiction with description. It is a question of prescription in contradiction with prescription. Given Exod 20:21, it comes as no surprise that an 8th cent. BCE prophet like Amos demonstrates no awareness of a "one place of worship" rule. His critique of goings-on at Bethel, Gilgal, Dan, and Beersheba has nothing to do with a "one place of worship" rule.
George Athas on his part takes issue with the ark of God nonsense. Then he turns around and offers speculation that is no better grounded:
The most likely explanations for this state of affairs [the fact of the single stratum at KQ datable with some plausibility to ca. 1000 BCE] are that either there was a localised authority in the Shephelah region (cf. David Ussishkin's perspective), or someone up in the highlands of Judah had a hand in this. Are the spotlights converging on us finding the kingdom of David in archaeology? Well, if there was a House of David (which I argue is another name for Jerusalem) that could be a player on the international stage in c.800 BC as per the Tel Dan Inscription, and there is an organising authority in the Valley of Elah in c.1000 BC, it's not inconceivable that the two entities could end up aligning, such that we eventually have some strong evidence for a Kingdom of Judah in the time of David and Solomon.
What? Now we have two entities? The House of David is another name for Jerusalem? Hurowitz (fifth comment on the thread) calls him on it: "I think both you and Yossi have gone overboard."
What should we conclude in the wake of the finds of Khirbet Qeiyafa? The best anyone can do is offer controlled speculation of the kind that clearly distinguishes premises and conclusions. I herewith offer my own controlled speculation in interaction with that of Sanders, Suriano, and Vayntrub, whose post is the most substantial to appear so far.
SSV note first of all that the press release's claims about the new discoveries might easily be characterized as "exaggerated, self-contradictory," "fundamentalist," and "hasty." As if the claims were designed to launch sales of a new book about KQ, Footprints of King David. It is hard to argue with SSV on this score.
SSV go on to note:
if the new object is a temple model from around 1000 BCE, and Judahite, it suggests people here were already aware of, and perhaps worshipped in, temples before the Jerusalem one. This is the world that was drawn on, and rearranged, to produce Samuel and Kings' memories of an earlier Jerusalem
But it would be more accurate to say that (premise 1) if the 1000 BCE date for the Iron Age I terminal/Iron Age IIA initial stratum of KQ with which the inscription, the gates, the clay shrines, and the other blockbuster finds are associated is correct, and (premise 2) if KQ is a Judahite site, both reasonable but not indisputable premises, the world said stratum at KQ presents to us was, to conclude, that "drawn on, and rearranged, to produce Samuel and Kings' memories of" realities in ancient Israel before Solomon built a temple in Jerusalem.
SSV go on to note:
if the excavators are right in dating it [the said stratum and associated finds; in particular, the inscription] so late -- against the paleography and probably the pottery -- it shows that the writer of Qeiyafa was nearly contemporary with, but separate from the standar[d]ized scribal culture that spread from the Phoenician coast to Israel and Judah.
However, one might just as well note that (premise 1) if the stratum and associated finds, including the inscription, reflect the culture of a perimeter site of a polity which ran from Beersheba in the south to Beth-Shemesh to the north, the center of which and eastern limits of which cannot be pinned down on the basis of archaeological finds alone, a polity that (premise 2) contended with another, that of the Philistines, another polity for which we would not have a name if we did not credit biblical literature with at least some degree of accuracy in terms of its passed-down cultural memories relative to a time frame with a conceivable lower limit of 970 BCE, both reasonable but not indisputable premises, said finds, including the inscription, are compatible with the notion that, to conclude, a standardized scribal culture did not spread from the Phoenician coast to the aforementioned non-Philistine and non-Canaanite polity before the reign of King Solomon (or someone with a different name who did things similar to those attributed to him in the Bible).
Why will some scholars balk at the formulations just offered? Some scholars, Israel Finkelstein in primis, are heavily invested in a theoretical framework in which the biblical sequence Saul-David-Solomon is deliberately called into question. Fine. Bring it on. But many others, with greater justification in my judgment, will counter that the Saul-David-Solomon sequence and the specific cultural transitions the sequence implies is one of the things biblical tradition is unlikely to have gotten completely wrong.
My take: the finds from KQ Yossi Garfinkel and his team continue to present to the public with great fanfare are boring. They are compatible with biblical traditions about the time period in question. They also fail to confirm those traditions in the sense of proving that, for example, someone named Saul based in the northern highlands contested the Philistines, only to be succeeded by someone named David based for a time in Hebron and then in Jerusalem, to be succeeded by someone named Solomon who developed organic ties with the Phoenicians of Tyre and endowed Jerusalem with a state-sponsored temple.
NOTE: A number of statements I make in this post will be hard to follow by anyone who has not read the relevant bibliography by Kang and Garfinkel, and the relevant articles by Singer-Avitz and Finkelstein in recent issues of Tel Aviv. Those who want pdfs of said articles are free to email me and ask for them. Further background reading, with bibliography, is available at Avi Faust's place. Note especially his article entitied "The Archaeology of the Israelite Cult." For Nadav Naaman's (far from convincing, but interesting) take on the recent finds, go here. For comment by qualified archaeologists, check out Aren Maeir here, and Owen Chesnut here.

subset: commoncrawl


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First population-based study to show that environmental factors may outweigh genetics in myopia development; researchers suggest students should spend time outdoors
SAN FRANCISCO — German researchers have found strong evidence that attaining a higher level of education and spending more years in school are two factors associated with a greater prevalence and severity of nearsightedness, or myopia. Published online this month in Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the research is the first population-based study to demonstrate that environmental factors may outweigh genetics in the development of myopia.
While common, nearsightedness has become even more prevalent around the world in recent years and presents a growing global health and economic concern. Severe nearsightedness is a major cause of visual impairment and is associated with greater risk of retinal detachment, myopic macular degeneration, premature cataracts and glaucoma. In the United States, nearsightedness now affects roughly 42 percent of the population.[1] Developed Asian countries report increasing myopia rates of up to 80 percent, the rapid growth rate of which suggests that environmental factors play a significant role.[2] Environmental factors that have been linked to myopia include near work such as reading or using a computer, outdoor activity, living in urban versus rural areas and education.
To further analyze the association between myopia development and education, researchers at the University Medical Center in Mainz, Germany examined nearsightedness in 4,685 Germans ages 35 to 74, excluding anyone with cataracts or who had undergone refractive surgery. Results of their work, known as the Gutenberg Health Study, show that myopia appeared to become more prevalent as education level increased:
In addition to education levels completed, the researchers also found that people who spent more years in school proved to be more myopic, with nearsightedness worsening for each year of school. Furthermore, the researchers looked at the effect of 45 genetic markers, but found it a much weaker factor in the degree of nearsightedness compared to education level.
The antidote to the rise in myopia could be as simple as going outside more often. In the last several years, studies of children and young adults in Denmark and Asia show that more time outdoors and exposure to daylight is associated with less nearsightedness.[3]
"Since students appear to be at a higher risk of nearsightedness, it makes sense to encourage them to spend more time outdoors as a precaution," said Alireza Mirshahi, M.D., lead author of the study.
For more information on myopia, visit the American Academy of Ophthalmology's public education website EyeSmart.
Other notable studies published in the June 2014 print issue of Ophthalmology include:
Visual Acuity after Cataract Surgery in Patients with Age-Related Macular Degeneration. Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2, Report No. 5 After cataract surgery in persons with age-related macular degeneration AMD of varying degrees of severity, improved best-corrected visual acuity was demonstrated after surgery when compared with preoperative visual acuity across all severities of AMD.
The Impact of Anti–Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Treatment on Quality of Life in Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration In neovascular age-related macular degeneration, vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitors improve quality of life when vision improves and maintain quality of life when vision is maintained, irrespective of whether the worse or better eye is treated.
About the American Academy of Ophthalmology The American Academy of Ophthalmology, headquartered in San Francisco, is the world's largest association of eye physicians and surgeons — Eye M.D.s — with more than 32,000 members worldwide. Eye health care is provided by the three "O's" – ophthalmologists, optometrists, and opticians. It is the ophthalmologist, or Eye M.D., who has the education and training to treat it all: eye diseases, infections and injuries, and perform eye surgery. For more information, visit www.aao.org. The Academy's EyeSmart® program educates the public about the importance of eye health and empowers them to preserve healthy vision. EyeSmart provides the most trusted and medically accurate information about eye diseases, conditions and injuries. OjosSanos™ is the Spanish-language version of the program. Visit EyeSmart or OjosSanos to learn more.
About Ophthalmology Ophthalmology, the official journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, publishes original, peer-reviewed, clinically-applicable research. Topics include the results of clinical trials, new diagnostic and surgical techniques, treatment methods, technology assessments, translational science reviews and editorials. For more information, visit www.aaojournal.org.
[1] Increased Prevalence of Myopia in the United States Between 1971-1972 and 1999-2004. Arch Ophthalmol 2009;12712:1632-1639
[2] The Association between Time Spent Outdoors and Myopia in Children and Adolescents, Ophthalmology 2012: 11910: 2141-2151
[3] Evidence Mounts That Outdoor Recess Time Can Reduce the Risk of Nearsightedness in Children, AAO.org


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Measurable effects of homeopathic medicines in insomnia
A research team at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson (USA) recently examined the effects of one dose of placebo versus either Coffea Cruda 30c or Nux Vomica 30c in relatively healthy young adult human subjects with a past history of coffee-induced insomnia.
They used polysomnography (PSG), which can distinguish divergent findings, if present, between subjective sleep complaints and objective all-night sleep recording assessments in certain types of insomnia.
The authors refer to multiple studies on healthy animals that have shown measurable effects on sleep of three different homeopathic medicines at potencies prepared to a dilution past Avogadro's number (Histamine, Coffea Cruda, and Nux Vomica) compared with placebo. In these studies each medicine at a 30c potency altered sleep patterns notably with differential effects on electroencephalographic delta frequency (0.5– 2.5 Hz) power during sleep, while other investigators have demonstrated effects of Nux Vomica 30c on alcohol-induced sleep time in mice.
The authors argue that the relative lack of objective measures to evaluate homeopathy in human subjects has thus far hindered advances in both clinical care and research. Polysomnography, in their opinion, can offer a potentially valuable tool for homeopathic investigations.
In this trial young adults of both sexes (ages 18–31) were included with above-average scores on standardized personality scales for either cynical hostility or anxiety sensitivity (but not both) and a history of coffee-induced insomnia. At-home polysomnographic recordings were obtained on successive pairs of nights once per week for a total of eight recordings (nights 1, 2, 8, 9, 15, 16, 22, 23).
Subjects (N = 54) received placebo pellets on night 8 (single-blind) and verum pellets on night 22 (double-blind) in 30c doses of one of two homeopathic medicines, Nux Vomica or Coffea Cruda. Subjects completed daily morning sleep diaries and weekly Pittsburgh sleep quality index scales, as well as profile of mood states scales at bedtime on polysomnography nights.
This study demonstrated that the homeopathic medicines significantly increased PSG total sleep time and NREM, as well as awakenings and stage changes. Findings are similar though not identical to those reported in animals with the same medicines. Possible mechanisms include initial disruption of the nonlinear dynamics of sleep patterns by the homeopathic medicines.
Bell IR et al (2010). Effects of homeopathic medicines on polysomnographic sleep of young adults with histories of coffee-related insomnia. Sleep Medicine, doi:10.1016/j.sleep.2010.03.013 <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20673648> Effets mesurables de médicaments homéopathiques dans l'insomnie (TRADUCTION FRANÇAISE)


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For decades, scientists have used ancient shorelines to predict the stability of today's largest ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. Markings of a high shoreline from three million years ago, for example — when Earth was going through a warm period — were thought to be evidence of a high sea level due to ice sheet collapse at that time. This assumption has led many scientists to think that if the world's largest ice sheets collapsed in the past, then they may do just the same in our modern, progressively warming world. However, a new groundbreaking study now challenges this thinking.
The Greenland ice cap [Credit: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images] |
Using the east coast of the United States as their laboratory, a research team led by David Rowley, CIFAR Senior Fellow and professor at the University of Chicago, has found that Earth's hot mantle pushed up segments of ancient shorelines over millions of years, making them appear higher now than they originally were millions of years ago.
"Our findings suggest that the previous connections scientists made between ancient shoreline height and ice volumes are erroneous and that perhaps our ice sheets were more stable in the past than we originally thought," says Rowley. "Our study is telling scientists that they can no longer ignore the effect of Earth's interior dynamics when predicting historic sea levels and ice volumes."
The study, published online in Science on May 16, was a collaboration that included CIFAR Senior Fellows Alessandro Forte (Universite du Quebec a Montreal) and Jerry Mitrovica (Harvard), and a former CIFAR-supported post-doctoral fellow Rob Moucha (Syracuse).
"This study was the culmination of years of work and deep collaboration by researchers in CIFAR's program in Earth System Evolution," explains Rowley. "For this study, each of us brought our individual expertise to the table: Rob and Alex worked on simulations of Earth's mantle dynamics, Jerry provided calculations on how glaciers warp Earth's surface, and I shaped our understanding of the geology of the landscape we were looking at. This study would not have been possible without CIFAR."
The team studied the coast from Virginia to Florida, which has an ancient scarp tens of metres above present-day sea level. Until now, many research groups have studied this shoreline and concluded that during a warm period three million years ago, the Greenland, West Antarctic and a fraction of East Antarctic ice sheets collapsed, raising the sea level at least 35 metres. But the new findings by Rowley and his team suggest that these ice sheets, particularly the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (the world's largest), were probably more stable.
To do their study, the team used computer simulations to follow the movement of mantle and tectonic plates that occurred over time. Their prediction of how the ancient shoreline would have developed over millions of years matched what geologists mapping this ancient coast have observed. The next steps for the team are to try to make accurate predictions in other locations around the world.
"The paper is important because it shows that no prediction of ancient ice volumes can ever again ignore the Earth's interior dynamics," explains Rowley. "It also provides a novel bridge between two disciplines in Earth science that rarely intersect: mantle dynamics and long-term climate. It is the kind of study that changes how people think about our past climate and what our future holds."
Source: Canadian Institute for Advanced Research [May 16, 2013]


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This limited edition Acrylic Glass Print, designed by Victoria Deregus, comes with a numbered and signed certificate of authenticity. Printed on archival-quality photo paper mounted on the back of a 1/8" thick, clear acrylic substrate, this artwork comes ready to hang on a wire attached to a wooden frame fixed on the back.
Hi there !!! Welcome to my open store :) All goods designed by Victoria Deregus. See more great designs at my storefront. Find something made for you :) Big thanks & Have a great day !!!


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Your buddy's wife decides to "friend" her ex on Facebook. Your local politician gets busted sending pictures of his private parts to his campaign workers. Your sister tells you her boyfriend wants her to watch pornography with him.
It's easy to offer your two cents in these situations -- but what would you do if they happened in your relationship?
That's the premise of a new survey I developed with my colleague Kristen Mark, director of the Sexual Health Promotion Lab at the University of Kentucky.
We asked nearly 5,000 men and women how they thought they would react in 50 different sex and relationship scenarios to get a sense of how the average person would respond when faced with their own fun, adventurous -- and sometimes, anxiety-provoking -- situations. Their answers (and your own feelings on these subjects) might surprise you.
The latter two groups may have the right idea: In my experience, people tend to greatly underestimate the pitfalls of Facebook and other forms of social media. I see many couples who are struggling with emotional or sexual infidelity as the result of new hookups and reconnections with old flames online, where it's easy to romanticize each other.
"Relationships require more negotiation in this technological age around the 'rules' of what is appropriate and respectful and what is not," explains Mark.
When it comes to actual infidelity -- in this case, a hypothetical one-night stand -- 30% of respondents say they would tell their partner right away, while the same number thought they would keep the slip-up a secret. Men were more likely than women to keep quiet about their cheating.
"The big question to ask yourself is, 'Is telling your partner in his or her best interest -- would they want to know, or are you just trying to make yourself feel better by getting it off your chest?'" says sex therapist Megan Fleming. "If your partner would likely find out, I've found that almost universally, the preference is to hear it from you first."
"You should be able to talk openly and honestly about sex with your partner -- and if monogamy isn't your strong suit, you may want to consider negotiating an open relationship," adds social psychologist Justin Lehmiller. "You don't need to be monogamous to have a good relationship, but you do need to be able to trust one another."
People seem somewhat more willing to spill the beans when they receive unwanted sexual attention from someone else.
Asked to imagine that they were on the receiving end of a sexual text message from their boss, 45% of respondents said they would reply with a message saying it was inappropriate, while 35% would either go directly to human resources to report it or would ignore it completely.
"I find these results surprising," says Fleming. "I'd like to think that in 2013, people would feel empowered and comfortable to appropriately set boundaries and let their boss or any other co-worker know when they've crossed an unwanted and unacceptable line."
And keeping mum on the situation could backfire: "It isn't easy to be honest and direct with authority figures who can potentially damage your career," explains clinical psychologist Zoya Simakhodskaya. "However, doing nothing can lead your boss to believe that such behavior is acceptable -- and you will feel more and more uncomfortable at work."
On a lighter note, we found that most participants were willing to try something new in the interest of their sex life.
For instance, 70% of respondents said that they would accept a sex toy as a gift and integrate it into their relationship. About the same number -- both men and women -- were game to watch porn with their partner, and to try something in bed that made them blush if it pleased their partner. A third of participants said they would even consider "swinging" with another couple, as long as their partner was involved.
These answers seem right in line with what many experts see as a mainstreaming of certain sexual activities.
"People want to keep things fresh and have new experiences in their intimate lives," says sex educator and entrepreneur Patty Brisben. "You can build a house with a strong foundation, but if you don't decorate it, it's not going to be a very exciting place to live.
"The same goes for relationships: If you don't take the time to keep it interesting and fresh and experience new things in your intimate life, your relationship will suffer," she says. "If you arm yourself with knowledge and communicate openly, both partners can feel satisfied."


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I'm hooking up a dishwasher and failed to check wiring before I removed the old one.
Black - Red = 120v Black - White = 120v Red - White = 0v.
So obviously Red and white are Neutral and Ground. How can I tell? If the Red were Green or Bare, I wouldn't worry, but seeing as the original installer used the wrong wire, I need to question everything.
Is there a simple way of telling the two apart? Keep in mind that I'm in Canada, where the code does not allow grounding to Neutral.
-- Resolved. I ended up tracing back to the panel, Opening the panel and seeing that Red went into the rat's nest of bare copper. So, IN THIS CASE ONLY, Red was ground.
However, this leads us to the greater problem of Contractors using non-standard parts because they happen to be laying around. If I couldn't get to the panel, how could I determine the difference. I was think that a continuity check between a known ground and (test)neutral should be open, and known ground to test ground should be closed. Is that a correct assumption?


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(CNN) -- Actor Andrew Koenig, who had been missing since February 14, committed suicide, his father told reporters after his son's body was found Thursday in a park in Vancouver, British Columbia.
"My son took his own life," Walter Koenig said at a news conference in the park.
The body of the former "Growing Pains" star was found by several friends who conducted their own search of Stanley Park, where Andrew Koenig liked to walk, his father said.
Koenig, 41, was reported missing by his parents after he did not board a flight to Los Angeles from Vancouver last week.
Walter Koenig -- himself an actor, known for his role as Pavel Chekov in the "Star Trek" series -- flew to Vancouver with his wife, Judy, on Tuesday to help with the search.
"He was obviously in a lot of pain," Walter Koenig said.
The Koenigs said they received a letter from their son last week in which he wrote in a "despondent tone."
He had stopped taking medication for depression about a year ago, his father said.
Unknown to his parents at the time, Andrew Koenig sold or gave away many of his possessions and moved out of his apartment in Venice, California, before traveling to Canada, the family said.
Walter Koenig was helping the friends "get another sweep of Stanley Park" Thursday morning and was nearby when they found his son, he said.
Koenig asked others who may be considering suicide "before you make that final decision, check it out again, and talk to someone."
"If you're one of those people who can't handle it anymore, you know, if you can learn anything from this, there are people out there who really care," he said. "You may not think so and ultimately it may not be enough, but there are people who really care."
Families of those who are troubled should not ignore the warning signs, he said. "Don't ignore it, don't rationalize it," he said.
Andrew Koenig's mother, Judy Koenig, said people who are depressed "don't realize there is help and they need help."
She said they should "connect with each other if there's something that's bothering you."
Andrew Koenig had many people who loved him, but "in his pain, he didn't realize it was available to him," she said.
Koenig fell in love with Vancouver in 1988 when he first visited to film an episode of the TV show "21 Jump Street," his father said.
Koenig appeared in 25 episodes of "Growing Pains" from 1985 to 1989, playing Richard "Boner" Stabone, according to a filmography posted on the Internet Movie Database Web site. He also appeared in episodes of several other television shows.
He was described as "a gifted and passionate multitalented young man" on his father's Web site.
He performed at The Improv and had roles in movies that included "NonSeNse," "InAlienable," "The Theory of Everything" and "Batman: Dead End." He also acted on television in "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," "G.I. Joe," "My Two Dads," "21 Jump Street," "My Sister Sam" and "Adam-12," the Web site said, and edited, directed, produced and wrote a number of films.
Koenig was an activist interested in many causes, his father's Web site says. He was arrested at the Rose Bowl in 2008 while protesting U.S. involvement in the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in China. He opposed U.S. participation because of China's support for a repressive regime in Myanmar, also known as Burma, the Web site says.


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Home >
News & Policies >
August 2004
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
August 9, 2004
Personnel Announcement
President George W. Bush today announced his intention to appoint three individuals, designate one individual and accord one individual to serve in his administration:
The President intends to appoint the following individuals to be Members of the newly established Presidential Emergency Board No. 238:
Robert Oberndoerfer Harris of Maryland, and upon appointment designate Chairman
Donna McLean of the District of Columbia
Peter W. Tredick of California
The President intends to accord the Personal Rank of Ambassador to Lisa Guillermin Gable of Virginia, during her performance of duties as Commissioner General of the U.S. Exhibition at the Universal Exposition in Aichi, Japan, March 25-September 25, 2005.
# # #


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Strategic Vs. Tactical Victory
This is a strategy that I think makes a lot of sense (via Overlawyered)
Vowing no longer to be Mister Nice City (assuming it ever qualified as such), Chicago is now willing to pay $50,000 to fight (successfully) a police-misconduct case it could have settled for $10,000:
Even though the city stands to lose money litigating every case under $100,000, a spokeswoman for the law department said that recently compiled figures showed the strategy seemed to be saving taxpayer money by dissuading lawyers from suing the police unless they are confident of victory.
I used to work for Emerson Electric, a company that amongst its divisions made both ladders and table saws, two sure-fire litigation magnets. We got ladder suits, for example, from some guy who propped the base of the ladder up on 6 stacked paint cans and then leaned the top of the ladder on some high voltage lines, all during a hurricane and got hurt, and immediately sued the ladder manufacturer for making a defective product.
Emerson decided early on it was going to be a hard target. It hired in-house legal staff and fought nearly every single suit all the way to court if necessary. If attorneys had a good case of a real defect or negligence, fine, they could win their day in court. However, if they were looking for a quick percentage of a settlement, they needed to look elsewhere. Turned out there were a lot of the latter.


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xdebug (A PHP extension for debugging PHP scripts)
The Xdebug extension helps you debugging your script by providing a
lot of valuable debug information. The debug information that Xdebug
can provide includes the following: stack traces and function traces
in error messages, memory allocation and protection for infinite
recursions. Xdebug also provides profiling information for PHP,
scripts, code coverage analysis and capabilities to debug PHP scripts
interactively with a debug client.
Once you've installed xdebug, uncomment the following line in
; zend_extension = "/usr/lib/php/extensions/xdebug.so"
Restart your webserver if you're using php with it, and as a
recomendation from xdebug's README: "Write a PHP page that calls
"phpinfo();" Load it in a browser and look for the info on the xdebug
module. If you see it, you have been successful!"
Note that some of xdebug's functionality may be dependent on php core
configuration settings.
This requires: libedit
Maintained by: Heinz Wiesinger
ChangeLog: xdebug
Download SlackBuild:
xdebug.tar.gz.asc (FAQ)
(the SlackBuild does not include the source)
Individual Files: |
doinst.sh |
slack-desc |
xdebug.SlackBuild |
xdebug.info |
xdebug.ini |
© 2006-2024 SlackBuilds.org Project. All rights reserved.
Slackware® is a registered trademark of
Patrick Volkerding
Linux® is a registered trademark of
Linus Torvalds


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Walk the Moon Take Over Your 'Headphones' with New Single
The rollicking, upbeat track rides out on a riff reminiscent of classic Rage Against the Machine.
By kmvq on October 13, 2017
By Scott T. Sterling
Walk the Moon has debuted a brand new song, "Headphones."
The track is the latest taste of what to expect from the band's upcoming full-length, What If Nothing, due for release on Nov. 10.
Related: Walk The Moon Share 'One Foot' Video
The rollicking, upbeat track changes gears from a dance-happy new wave groove to ride out on a riff reminiscent of classic Rage Against the Machine.
Walk the Moon's U.S. tour kicks off in Charlotte, NC, on Oct. 19 and runs through most of February 2018. See the band's full tour itinerary here.
In the meantime, check out "Headphones," which contains explicit language, now on Radio.com.


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Release Blitz: My Bare Lady by Piper Sheldon
My Bare Lady, the first in the all-new opposites-attract romantic comedy from Piper Sheldon and Smartypants Romance is available now!
Suzie Samuels is the only thing standing between Clifford and his life's work. All he has to do is change everything about her. Perception creates reality and Clifford Rutledge needs the irascible stripper to prove it.
Suzie Samuels is set to prove once and for all she's more than Short Fuse Suze, stripper for the Black Demons and renowned motorcycle arsonist. If all it takes is hard work, then Suzie knows how to work it hard.
But Suzie's scandalous spirit tests Clifford's resolve. And Clifford's buttoned-up bullying is driving Suzie bonkers.
Can Clifford move past their differences long enough to pull off the impossible task of changing the bare lady into a fair lady?
More importantly, as perceptions shift and priorities change, will he want to?
'My Bare Lady' is a full-length contemporary romantic comedy, can be read as a standalone, and is book #1 in the Scorned Women's Society series, Green Valley World, Penny Reid Book Universe.
Download your copy today or read FREE in Kindle Unlimited!
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2qBD1SY
Amazon Worldwide: http://mybook.to/MBLPiper
Amazon Print: https://amzn.to/2lCqPyL
Add to GoodReads: http://bit.ly/2lGNwle
About Piper Sheldon
Piper Sheldon writes Contemporary Romance and Magical Realism books that hope to be New York Times bestsellers when they grow up. For now, she works as a technical writer during the day and writes about love the rest of the time. Of course she also makes room for her husband, toddler, and two needy dogs at home in the Desert Southwest.
Connect with Piper Sheldon
Facebook: http://bit.ly/2lAvr8A
Twitter: http://bit.ly/2kxkioK
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2kx2RVn
Instagram: http://bit.ly/2lxxV7H
Website: http://bit.ly/2kitH3H
Connect with Smartypants Romance
Facebook: http://bit.ly/2kvDnb4
Twitter: http://bit.ly/2lzyduO
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2lGdIMQ
Instagram: http://bit.ly/2kwKsYK
Website: https://smartypantsromance.com


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Friends Season 1 Episode 20 : The One with the Evil Orthodontist
Rachel and Barry start dating again, which is slightly awkward because he's now engaged to Mindy, who wants Rachel to be her maid of honor. But when Rachel finds out that Mindy and Barry had an affair while she was engaged to Barry, the two women decide to call Barry out on it. Meanwhile, Chandler goes nuts when a woman he likes won't return his phone calls. The friends become annoyed after they discover someone is spying on them from the buildin...
Episode Guide
Season 01
Season 02
Season 03
Season 04
Season 05
Season 06
Season 07
Season 08
Season 09
Season 10


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BERKELEY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aduro BioTech, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, today announced the closing of a $55 million Series C financing. New investor Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation (JJDC) joined the Morningside group and other new and existing investors in the transaction.
Aduro plans to use the new capital to advance its lead program in metastatic pancreatic cancer through its ongoing Phase 2b ECLIPSE clinical trial, to continue clinical development in mesothelioma and high-grade glioma, to expand into additional indications and to advance its small molecule program targeting the immunomodulatory STING receptor. The equity financing follows the company's recent agreement facilitated by the Johnson & Johnson Innovation center in California, which granted Janssen Biotech, Inc. an exclusive, worldwide license to certain product candidates specifically engineered for the treatment of prostate cancer based on Aduro's novel LADD immunotherapy platform. Since inception, Aduro has raised a total of $84 million from equity financings.
"The financing will allow us to build on the momentum from the recent positive clinical data presented at ASCO in metastatic pancreatic cancer and mesothelioma and to expand our clinical development efforts into additional cancer types and combination therapies," said Stephen T. Isaacs, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Aduro. "Ultimately, our goal is to provide cancer patients with more effective, less toxic therapeutic alternatives through novel immunotherapies."
"As we advance toward that goal," added Mr. Isaacs, "we are pleased to have the continued support and confidence from Morningside and JJDC and we welcome all of our new investors."
"Aduro's immunotherapy platforms have the potential to transform the treatment of cancer," said Gerald Chan, founder of Morningside. "Combining the complementary mechanisms of action of the checkpoint inhibitors with Aduro's product candidates, which are designed to activate immunity, may make an enormous difference in the lives of cancer patients."
Earlier this year, at the ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium conference, the company presented data from a Phase 2a trial in metastatic pancreatic cancer patients who failed prior therapy. The randomized, controlled, multi-center study, which enrolled 93 patients, demonstrated a statistically significant survival benefit in patients receiving the combination of GVAX Pancreas and CRS-207 cancer vaccines (Arm A) compared to GVAX Pancreas vaccine alone (Arm B). The median overall survival of the patients receiving the combination was 6.1 months compared to 3.9 months for those receiving GVAX monotherapy (HR=0.59, one-sided p=0.0172). Based on these results, the company is conducting a randomized 240 patient Phase 2b clinical trial (ECLIPSE) in metastatic pancreatic cancer patients who have progressed after at least one line of therapy. More recently, at this month's ASCO meeting, the company presented data from a Phase 1b clinical trial of its novel immunotherapy CRS-207 in combination with standard chemotherapy in treatment-naïve patients with unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma. Of 16 evaluable patients, 69% (11/16) had confirmed partial responses (PR) and 25% (4/16) had stable disease (SD) after CRS-207 and chemotherapy, resulting in an overall disease control rate of over 94%.
About LADD
LADD is Aduro's proprietary platform of live-attenuated double-deleted Listeria monocytogenes strains that have been engineered to induce a potent innate immune response and to express tumor-associated antigens to induce tumor-specific T cell-mediated immunity.
About CRS-207
CRS-207 is one of a family of product candidates based on Aduro's live-attenuated, double-deleted (LADD) Listeria monocytogenes immunotherapy platform that induce a potent innate and T cell-mediated immune response. CRS-207 has been engineered to express the tumor-associated antigen mesothelin, which is over-expressed in many cancers including mesothelioma and pancreatic, non-small cell lung, ovarian and gastric cancers.
About GVAX Pancreas
GVAX Pancreas is one of a family of GVAX vaccines derived from human cancer cell lines that are genetically modified to secrete granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), an immune-stimulatory cytokine. GVAX Pancreas also expresses mesothelin.
About CDNs
CDNs are naturally occurring molecules that target the intracellular STING receptor, which recently emerged as a central mediator of innate immunity. Aduro is developing a series of proprietary synthetic STING-activating CDNs that have significantly higher activity than the natural STING ligands produced by bacteria and mammalian cells.
About Morningside
Morningside, founded in 1986, is a diversified investment company with portfolio investments in private equity and technology ventures. The group invests actively in biotech companies founded on novel science.
About Aduro BioTech, Inc.
Aduro BioTech, Inc. is a private, clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on immunotherapy for cancer. Aduro has ongoing clinical trials with its LADD platform in pancreatic cancer, mesothelioma and high-grade glioma and development programs in non-small cell lung cancer, ovarian cancer and prostate cancer. The company is also developing clinical candidates using novel small molecules that activate the intracellular STING receptor, a central mediator of the innate immune response. For more information, please visit www.adurobiotech.com.


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How to Feel What I Feel
When I chose to become a chiropractor, I knew it was the hard, narrow difficult path. But I wanted to help others. Without the use of drugs or surgery. And chiropractic fit the bill perfectly.
Now, on an almost daily basis, I experience the profound joy of bringing hope to others.
Patients who were threatened with surgery—surgery canceled. Those who had lost hope and told to learn to live with it? Enjoying relief. Those who were told that it was "all in their head"? Pain free at last. It's a great feeling.
Which you can experience for yourself. How? By telling those you love about today's safe and natural chiropractic care.
You'll enjoy the deep, gratifying feeling that comes from helping others avoid needless suffering.
Chiropractic continues to thrive because of delighted patients like you telling others. Who do you know that should be seeing us?
What Others Notice First
It's not your beautiful smile, your gorgeous jewelry or even your bank account. What others notice first about us is our posture.
Sad, but true. What does your posture reveal?
• Depressed and down on your luck.
• Head cocked to one side as if in a state of doubt.
• Burdened by the weight of the world.
Poor posture is often a reflection of our mood. But the reverse can be true as well. A positive posture can produce feelings of strength, power and confidence. What's a positive posture? Try it yourself and feel the difference:
• Wonder Woman – With your feet squarely below your shoulders and your chest out, place your hands on both hips.
• Victory Stance – Raise both hands in the shape of a "V," as if you've just won the 100-meter dash.
Questions about your posture? Be sure to ask on your next visit.


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Remarks by the President before Signing the Tax Delinquency Memorandum
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning, everybody. Before I start, let me introduce the folks behind me: obviously the Vice President. In addition, we've got Senator Claire McCaskill, Congressman Ed Towns, Congressman Brad Ellsworth. We've got Douglas Shulman, who's the Commissioner of the IRS; and Jeffrey Zients, our Chief Performance Officer of the United States.
Here in our nation's capital, there are a number of ways to advance the ideals and interests of the American people. Often it's done through Congress. But it can also be done through what's called a presidential memorandum -- a directive that I give to Cabinet Secretaries and to federal government employees to change how our government works. In a few moments, I will issue one of these directives to help stop government contracts from going to companies that are seriously delinquent in their taxes.
This is not simply a matter of signing a piece of paper or taking a bureaucratic act. By issuing this directive, all of us in Washington will be required to be more responsible stewards of your tax dollars.
All across this country, there are people who meet their obligations each and every day. You do your jobs. You support your families. You pay the taxes you owe -- because it's a fundamental responsibility of citizenship. And yet, somehow, it's become standard practice in Washington to give contracts to companies that don't pay their taxes.
Studies by the Government Accountability Office have identified tens of thousands of such dead-beat companies that are being awarded government contracts. One company owner who owed over $1 million in taxes was paid over $1 million as a defense contractor -- and instead of using that money to pay his back taxes, he chose to buy a boat, some cars, and a home abroad with his earnings. The total amount owed in unpaid taxes by companies like that is estimated at more than $5 billion.
Now, in Washington, $5 billion might not seem like a lot of money. But if we were to invest that money in education, it would be enough to cover the cost of annual college tuition for more than half a million students. If we were to invest in health care, it would be enough to cover 2.5 million children. If we were to invest it in energy, it would be enough to weatherize more than half a million homes.
In a time of great need, when our families and our nation are finding it necessary to tighten our belts and be more responsible with how we spend our money, we can't afford to waste taxpayer dollars. And we especially can't afford to let companies game the system. We need to make sure every tax dollar we spend is going to address our nation's urgent needs and to make a difference in the lives of our people.
The status quo, then, is inefficient and it's wasteful. But the larger and more fundamental point is that it's wrong. It is simply wrong for companies to take taxpayer dollars and not be taxpayers themselves. So we need to insist on the same sense of responsibility in Washington that so many of you strive to uphold in your own lives, in your own families, and in your own businesses.
That's exactly what the memorandum I'm issuing today is meant to do. I'm directing my budget office, together with the Treasury Department and other federal agencies, to take steps to block contractors who are seriously delinquent in their taxes from receiving new government contracts. I'm also directing the IRS to conduct a review of the overall accuracy of companies' claims about tax delinquencies. We need to be sure that when a company says it's paying taxes, that company is, in fact, paying taxes.
Beyond these steps, I'm also calling on Congress to build on the kind of legislation that Senator McCaskill, Congressman Ellsworth, and Chairman Towns have introduced -- and that I introduced when I was senator -- legislation that will crack down on tax cheats by allowing the IRS to share information about tax delinquency with contracting officials. And by the way, when I introduced that Senate bill, Claire stood by me, and Brad led the way in the House.
Further, my budget from last year proposed that if a company with lots of unpaid taxes receives a federal contract, the government ought to be able to pay taxpayers back in full before it's required to pay the contractors themselves. It also proposed that tax collection, on behalf of American taxpayers, should not be subject to long bureaucratic delays -- it should be done swiftly. Since Congress did not act last year on this proposal, I am introducing it in this year's budget -- and I once again urge Congress to act on it.
So the steps I'm directing today and the steps I'm calling on Congress to take are just basic common-sense steps. They're not going to eliminate all the waste or all the abuse in government contracting in one fell swoop. And going forward, we'll also have to do more to hold contractors more accountable not just for paying taxes, but for following other laws as well, including employment and environmental laws.
But the efforts I'm outlining today will scale back waste and abuse. And they will help bring the values of American government and the values of America's companies in line with the values of the American people.
So with that, I'm going to sign this memorandum. And I'm expecting our team to implement it as quickly and as effectively as we can.
(The memorandum is signed.)


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KABUL: An Afghan interpreter for US special forces arrested on accusations of torturing and killing civilians has denied involvement in the murders to Afghan investigators, and said he was always acting on orders from his US military handlers.
Afghan authorities detained Zakeria Kandahari six weeks ago following allegations he was involved in atrocities against civilians in Wardak, a strategically important province close to Kabul.
In a record of the interview being prepared by military investigators and obtained by Reuters, Kandahari said he had worked for US special forces across Afghanistan for nine years, most recently in Wardak's Nerkh district, where the allegations surfaced in February.
"I was a low-rank translator and had no access to roam around inside the base, or in interrogation rooms," Kandahari told the investigators, according to the three-page document which carried his photograph on the front page, dressed in camouflage fatigues and a hat.
The Afghan government has in the past said that Kandahari is Afghan-American, although his exact background remains unclear.
In the document, Kandahari identified three US special forces soldiers as "Dave, chief of the operations, Hagen and Chris" and told Afghan military interrogators that the trio had been fluent in both of Afghanistan's major languages, Dari and Pashto.
"Kandahari rejects all allegations leveled to him and links the three soldiers to the killings," the interview document said, citing Kandahari, whose case threatens relations between the government and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), already tense over the issue of civilian deaths.
US military officials have consistently denied special forces participated in, or turned a blind-eye to, torture and illegal killings by Afghans working with them in Nerkh.
"US forces conducted several investigations which determined there was no credible evidence to substantiate misconduct by ISAF or US forces," a senior spokesman for the force told Reuters on Tuesday.
"Having said that, ISAF takes all allegations of detainee abuse seriously and we will continue to cooperate with the Afghan government on this matter," he said.
Torture Video
Investigators said in the document Sayed Mohammad, a Wardak resident, was seen in a mobile phone video being beaten by Kandahari, who the investigator said was a senior interpreter for US special forces.
Mohammad was later found dead. "I also kicked him several times while I was taking him to the base. I handed him over to Mr Dave and Mr Hagen, but later I saw his body in a black body bag," Kandahari told his interrogators, according to the record, written in Dari. Afghan officials in Wardak and relatives told Reuters earlier that Mohammad's body was found near the Nerkh special forces base in May with both feet cut off.
Mohammad first disappeared in November last year. The abuse allegations prompted President Hamid Karzai in March to bar elite US troops from Wardak, a potentially risky move because it could give Taliban insurgents more room to operate in an area near the capital.
Karzai later agreed to a compromise with NATO forces entailing a more limited and gradual pullout from Wardak than he had initially demanded.
Atrocities against civilians have been a flashpoint in relations between the government and NATO-led forces since an American soldier was accused of murdering 16 civilians in Kandahar province in March last year, complicating negotiations on a US military presence in the country beyond NATO's 2014 combat exit.
Afghan authorities have already arrested an Afghan army colonel who allegedly handed prisoners over to Kandahari.
That arrest came after the bodies of three men detained in joint US-Afghan raids since November were last month found close to the Nerkh military base.
Reuters has seen a list compiled by the Ministry of Defense of 18 men allegedly detained in Nerkh.
The three whose bodies were found in June were among 10 listed as missing, villagers and officials said.
The other eight were listed as dead.
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ


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Microchip Search
Enter the microchip ID below and click "Search". Enter only the 9, 10 or 15 character microchip number, with no punctuation or spaces. Do not include the microchip type code or manufacturer's name or abbreviation. The results are returned with the most recent entry displaying first. Therefore, start by calling the company listed first in the "enrolled with" box. If you are unable to get the correct information from the top record, work your way down the list.
Microchip to Search:
Searching... Please Wait
Having Trouble?
Having trouble with the new Pet Microchip Lookup experience? Visit the archived Pet Microchip Lookup website here: old.petmicrochiplookup.org
Attention Pet Owners
The AAHA Universal Pet Microchip Lookup Tool is NOT a microchip registry—it is an internet-based application to assist in the identification of those registries on which a particular microchip is registered, or otherwise provide the chip's manufacturer. The tool works by searching the databases of participating companies. It will not return pet owner information contained in the registries' databases, instead it will identify which registries should be contacted when a lost pet is scanned and a microchip number is identified.
The American Animal Hospital Association does not maintain a database of microchips of its own. To register a microchip or update contact information for a microchip, pet owners should contact their pet recovery service. AAHA is unable to assist pet owners with their microchip registration and/or problems.


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HBO Announces the Next Season of 'True Blood' Will Be Its Last
Popular drama 'True Blood' will conclude its run next year, HBO said on Tuesday.
"'True Blood' has been nothing short of a defining show for HBO," the network's Programming President Michael Lombardo said in a statement. "Alan Ball took the books by Charlaine Harris, assembled a brilliant cast led by the magnificent Anna Paquin in the role of Sookie Stackhouse, and crafted a show that has taken its many devoted fans on an unforgettable journey."
"Alan passed the baton to Brian Buckner, who led our fantastic writers and crew in crafting a spectacular sixth season, and he will lead us through the seventh and final season of this amazing show," Lombardo continued. "Together with its legions of fans, it will be hard to say goodbye to the residents of Bon Temps, but I look forward to what promises to be a fantastic final chapter of this incredible show."
'True Blood' wrapped its sixth season last month, and the final 10-episode season will air next summer.


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IMoPA is a joint University of Lorraine and CNRS (UMR 7365) research unit.
The mission of the IMoPA unit is to produce high quality, cutting‐edge science in the field of bioengineering. Due to the complementary expertise of its founding teams, bioengineering is now possible in many different areas ranging from RNA to enzyme sciences through cell and tissue engineering for therapeutic purposes.


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After much hype and rumor, Canon has announced its first ever Compact System Camera - the Canon EOS M
Speculation as to whether Canon may or may not release a Compact System Camera has finally ended with the announcement of the EOS M – the company's first foray into the mirrorless market. Slotting into the gap between Canon's PowerShot range of compacts and its line of DSLRs, the Canon EOS M is a new system that benefits from a smaller lens mount that Canon have branded EF-M.
On first glance the Canon EOS M's styling and design looks like it has taken inspiration from Canon's PowerShot models, however as you delve beneath the surface it becomes clear it shares similar innards to the recently announced EOS 650D. It features, for example, the same 18MP resolution and Canon's DIGIC 5 image processor, as well as the an identical ISO range that runs from 100-12,800, expandable to an ISO equivalent of 25,600.
Boasting a new 31-point Hybrid AF system, the Canon EOS M provides a combination of contrast- and phase-detection AF. The idea behind this is to enhance AF speed and accuracy, with the phase-detection AF being used initially before the contrast-detect system takes over to fine-tune focusing. The key advantage of this is that it enables continuous focusing when recording HD video – a feature that Canon DSLRs have lacked in the past, but have begun to offer with the most recent EOS 650D.
There's a wide selection of AF modes to choose from including Face Detection and tracking, FlexiZone-Multi and FlexiZone-Single, as well as Touch AF. Again, as with the EOS 650D, the Canon EOS M features a 3in Clear View LCD II touchscreen that allows you to touch the display to pinpoint focus and fire the shutter. Featuring an impressive 1040k-dot resolution, the display also supports a multitude of touch gestures for zooming and scrolling through images in playback mode.
There's real-time metering from the image sensor and four metering modes: evaluative, partial, spot and centre-weighted. The camera goes on the offer full-resolution images at a maximum continuous speed of 4.2fps. Full HD video (1920×1080) is captured at a variety of frame rates that include 30, 25, 24fps, with the option of 60fps and 50fps recording at 720p resolution.
Moviemakers will also appreciate the 3.5mm stereo port for plugging in an external microphone and the Video Snapshot feature that gives users the chance to capture short video clips before stitching them together in camera to create fast-paced movie sequences. Unlike many recent releases wi-fi functionality isn't offered, but there's a good range of Creative Filters that include miniature, fisheye and toy camera effects.
The body itself doesn't feature a pop-up flash – instead Canon will ship the camera with a newly designed Speedlite 90EX flash unit. Not forgetting exisiting customers, the Canon EOS M has been made to be fully compatible with the full range of digital EX Speedlite units. Additionally, an optional EF-EOS M mount adapter will allow owners of the EOS M to attach any EF-S or EF lenses that they may already own.
With the arrival of the EOS M comes an all-new Canon EF-M mount, which is physically smaller than the well established EF and EF-S mounts. Two dedicated lenses have been released for the EOS M system so far: the EF-M 22mm f/2 STM pancake lens (equivalent to 35.2mm in 35mm terms) and the EF-M 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM lens (equivalent to 28.8-88mm in 35mm terms). Both feature Canon's Stepper Motor Technology (STM) to provide smooth and quiet focusing, making them ideal for HD video capture.
Available in the UK and Republic of Ireland from October, the EOS M & 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM lens will initially cost £769. The EOS M & 22mm f/2 STM lens & lens adapter will cost £879 and the cost of the EOS M with both the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM lens and the 22mm f/2 lens will be £949. Individually, the lens adapter costs £129 and the Speedlite EX90, £119.


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Boulder, Colo., USA – New Geosphere postings online on 7 and 16 May include additions to two special issues: CRevolution 2: Origin and Evolution of the Colorado River System II and The ANDRILL McMurdo Ice Shelf (MIS) and Southern McMurdo Sound (SMS) Drilling Projects. Other articles cover India-Asia collision; a Late Triassic snapshot in the U.S. Southwest; the Alabama and western Georgia Blue Ridge; and the Jemez Mountains volcanic field.
Abstracts for these and other Geosphere papers are available at http://geosphere.gsapubs.org/. Representatives of the media may obtain complimentary copies of Geosphere articles by contacting Christa Stratton at the address above.
Please discuss articles of interest with the authors before publishing stories on their work, and please make reference to Geosphere in articles published. Contact Christa Stratton for additional information or assistance.
Non-media requests for articles may be directed to GSA Sales and Service, email@example.com.
Preliminary balanced palinspastic reconstruction of Cenozoic deformation across the Himachal Himalaya (northwestern India)
A. Alexander G. Webb, Department of Geology and Geophysics, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803, USA. First published on 16 May 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/GES00787.1.
This study offers the first geometrically rigorous reconstruction of deformation in response to the India-Asia collision across a key portion of the western Himalaya. The reconstruction demonstrates the viability of important concepts pertaining to the dynamic evolution of crustal-scale contractional systems. First, despite variations in erosion and exhumation, the crystalline cores of mountain belts may be emplaced at depth. Second, zones of rapid uplift along the length of mountain belts in their interior may result from deep accretion and stacking of slices from the down-going collisional plate. Third, such stacking may occur in multiple systems at different crustal levels, all developing simultaneously. Finally, the reconstruction resolves much of the apparent mismatch between shortening estimates of two different types across the western Himalaya; i.e., between estimates based on reconstructing mountain belt deformation and estimates based on restoring plate motion using sea-floor magnetic anomalies.
Review and analysis of the age and origin of the Pliocene Bouse Formation, lower Colorado River Valley, southwestern USA
Jon E. Spencer et al., Arizona Geological Survey, 416 W. Congress Street, #100, Tucson, Arizona 85704, USA. First published on 16 May 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/GES00896.1. Issue: CRevolution 2: Origin and Evolution of the Colorado River System II.
The lower Pliocene Bouse Formation in the lower Colorado River Valley (southwestern USA) consists of basal marl and dense tufa overlain by siltstone and fine sandstone. It is locally overlain by and interbedded with sands derived from the Colorado River. Jon E. Spencer and colleagues briefly review 87Sr/86Sr analyses of Bouse carbonates and shells and carbonate and gypsum of similar age east of Las Vegas that indicate that all of these strata are isotopically similar to modern Colorado River water. They also review and add new data that are consistent with a step in Bouse Formation maximum elevations from 330 m south of Topock Gorge to 555 m to the north. New geochemical data from glass shards in a volcanic ash bed within the Bouse Formation, and from an ash bed within similar deposits in Bristol Basin west of the Colorado River Valley, indicate correlation of the two ash beds and coeval submergence of both areas. The tuff bed is identified as the 4.83 million year old Lawlor Tuff derived from the San Francisco Bay region. Spencer and colleagues conclude, as have some others, that the Bouse Formation was deposited in lakes produced by first-arriving Colorado River water that entered closed basins inherited from Basin and Range extension, and estimate that first arrival of river water occurred about 4.9 million years ago. If this interpretation is correct, addition of Bristol Basin to the Blythe Basin inundation area means that river discharge was sufficient to fill and spill a lake with an area of ~10,000 square kilometers. For spillover to occur, evaporation rates must have been significantly less in early Pliocene time than modern rates of about two to four meters per year, and/or Colorado River discharge was significantly greater than the current ~15 cubic kilometers per year. In this lacustrine interpretation, evaporation rates were sufficient to concentrate salts to levels that were hospitable to some marine organisms presumably introduced by birds.
Porosity and density of the AND-1B sediment core, McMurdo Sound region, Antarctica: Field consolidation enhanced by grounded ice
F. Niessen et al., Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Am Alten Hafen 26, 27568 Bremerhaven, Germany. First published on 7 May 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/GES00704.1. Issue: The ANDRILL McMurdo Ice Shelf (MIS) and Southern McMurdo Sound (SMS) Drilling Projects.
F. Niessen and colleagues present a study of density and porosity for the 1285-m-long AND-1B core recovered from a flexural moat in the McMurdo Sound (Antarctica) in order to interpret sediment consolidation in an ice-proximal location on the Antarctic shelf. Various lithologies imply environmental changes from open marine to subglacial, and are numerically expressed in high-resolution whole-core wet-bulk density (WBD). Grain density data interpolated from discrete samples range from 2.14 to 3.85 g/cm3 and are used to calculate porosity from WBD in order to avoid the 5% to 15% overestimation and underestimation of porosities obtained by standard methods. The trend of porosity extends from 0.5 near the top (Pleistocene) to 0.2 at the bottom (Miocene). Porosity fluctuations in different lithologies are superimposed with 0.2 to 0.3 in sequences younger than about one million years and 0.5 to 0.8 in Pliocene diatomites. The AND-1B porosities and void ratios of Pliocene diatomites and Pleistocene mudstones exhibit a large negative offset compared to modern lithological analogs and their consolidation trends. This offset cannot be explained in terms of the effective stress at the AND-1B site. The effective stress ranges from 0 to 4000 kPa in the upper 600 m, and reaches 13,000 kPa at the base of the AND-1B hole. Niessen and colleagues suggest that an excess of effective overburden stress of ~1700 and ~6000 kPa to explain porosities in Pliocene diatomites and Pleistocene mudstones, respectively. This is interpreted as glacial preconsolidation by subsequently grounded ice sheets under subpolar to polar, followed by colder polar types of glaciations. Information on Miocene consolidation is sparse due to alteration by diagenesis.
The Early Mesozoic Cordilleran arc and Late Triassic paleotopography: The detrital record in Upper Triassic sedimentary successions on and off the Colorado Plateau
N.R. Riggs et al., School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona 86011, USA. First published on 7 May 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/GES00860.1.
A volcanic arc grew along the southwest coast of North America in Permian-Triassic time, between about 280 and 200 million years ago. One of the best ways to understand how this arc developed is to look at the sedimentary rocks that were deposited in river systems as it eroded, especially the durable grains that carry a record of the volcanic material that originally incorporated them. This paper by N.R. Riggs and colleagues provides results from a study of zircon grains from three Triassic sedimentary units, one each in northern and southern Arizona and one in eastern California, which together provide a Late Triassic snapshot of the rivers that drained off this volcanic arc. The chemical composition of the zircons can also be used to show how groups of the grains are likely related.
Late to post-Appalachian strain partitioning and extension in the Blue Ridge of Alabama and Georgia
Mark G. Steltenpohl et al., Dept. of Geology and Geography, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA. First published on 7 May 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/GES00738.1.
Kinematic analysis of the Goodwater-Enitachopco and Alexander City faults document that dextral strains in the Alabama and western Georgia Blue Ridge are partitioned much farther toward the foreland than is reported to the northeast, likely as a consequence of the southern Appalachian master décollement having passed obliquely across a several kilometer step up along the Cartersville transform. The top-to-the-south-southeast normal-slip component of movement along the Goodwater-Enitachopco fault is unusual, considering its position far toward the foreland. Loose timing constraints for this extensional event (late Carboniferous to Early Jurassic) leave room for several tectonic explanations, but Mark G. Steltenpohl and colleagues favor the following: (1) Late Pennsylvanian to Early Permian crustal thickening created a wedge of Blue Ridge rocks bound above by the Goodwater-Enitachopco, below by the décollement, and to the northwest (present-day direction) by a topographically steep mountain front; (2) further convergence and crustal thickening caused this wedge to gravitationally collapse with southward-driven motion; and (3) Mesozoic rifting reactivated some of the faults as the Gulf of Mexico began to open.
Spatial and temporal trends in pre-caldera Jemez Mountains volcanic and fault activity
Shari A. Kelley et al., New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, 801 Leroy Place, Socorro, New Mexico 87801, USA. First published on 7 May 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/GES00897.1.
Nearly continuous eruption of lavas and tuffs over the last 10 Ma in the Jemez Mountains volcanic field (JMVF) on the western margin of the Rio Grande rift provide a unique opportunity to examine the interplay between faulting and volcanism along a rift margin. New 40Ar/39Ar dates on JMVF lavas and tuffs are coupled with the first comprehensive evaluation of the history of fault activity between 10 and 2 million years ago in this region to document a complex east to west to east pattern of faulting and volcanism through time in the northern JMVF. This pattern requires a reorientation of volcanic center alignment from a NE to a more northerly-striking trend, an episode of rift widening, and reactivation of previously unmapped Laramide structures. In addition, the new ages, combined with detailed mapping of both volcanic rocks and the Santa Fe Group, document significant pulses of faulting, erosion, and deposition during middle Miocene time and during late Miocene time along the Cañones fault zone, a significant rift bounding structure that is exposed in the northern wall of the Valles caldera.


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man pages section 1: User Commands Oracle Solaris 10 8/11 Information Library |
- spawn login to a remote terminal
ct [options] telno...
The ct utility dials the telephone number of a modem that is attached to a terminal and spawns a login process to that terminal. The telno is a telephone number, with equal signs for secondary dial tones and minus signs for delays at appropriate places. (The set of legal characters for telno is 0 through 9, -, =, *, and #. The maximum length telno is 31 characters). If more than one telephone number is specified, ct will try each in succession until one answers; this is useful for specifying alternate dialing paths.
ct will try each line listed in the file /etc/uucp/Devices until it finds an available line with appropriate attributes, or runs out of entries.
After the user on the destination terminal logs out, there are two things that could occur depending on what type of port monitor is monitoring the port. In the case of no port monitor, ct prompts: Reconnect? If the response begins with the letter n, the line will be dropped; otherwise, ttymon will be started again and the login: prompt will be printed. In the second case, where a port monitor is monitoring the port, the port monitor reissues the login: prompt.
The user should log out properly before disconnecting.
The following options are supported:
Normally, ct will hang up the current line so that it can be used to answer the incoming call. The -h option will prevent this action. The -h option will also wait for the termination of the specified ct process before returning control to the user's terminal.
The data rate may be set with the -s option. speed is expressed in baud rates. The default baud rate is 1200.
If the -v (verbose) option is used, ct will send a running narrative to the standard error output stream.
If there are no free lines ct will ask if it should wait, and for how many minutes, before it gives up. ct will continue to try to open the dialers at one-minute intervals until the specified limit is exceeded. This dialogue may be overridden by specifying the -wn option. n is the maximum number of minutes that ct is to wait for a line.
This option is used for debugging; it produces a detailed output of the program execution on stderr. n is a single number between 0 and 9. As n increases to 9, more detailed debugging information is given.
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
cu(1C), login(1), uucp(1C), ttymon(1M), attributes(5)
The ct program will not work with a DATAKIT Multiplex interface.
For a shared port, one used for both dial-in and dial-out, the ttymon program running on the line must have the -r and -b options specified (see ttymon(1M)).


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Anisa International announced a major strategic expansion, bringing innovation to new product lines and opening a New York office that will foster a community of designers collaborating to transform the makeup artistry tools and packaging industry. The company also enlisted new senior talent to support its enhanced business objectives. The company will work to bring new ideas to market, such as brush cleaners, nail accessories, and Top Bag classics. And Anisa International's new New York office and showroom at 350 7th Ave. provides a venue where clients can collaborate with the Anisa team on product pairing development and can work in concert to develop their pipeline launches.
World Wide Packaging (WWP) relocated its corporate headquarters to a larger complex in Florham Park, New Jersey. The facility, located at 15 Vreeland Road, provides WWP with 50% more floor space within a more contemporary complex. The move also will provide room for an expanded sample room, a 1,500-square-foot product showroom, additional conference areas and a dedicated section for the company's expanding engineering department, complete with new, state-of-the-art modeling equipment.
Orlandi launched a revamped website, redesigned to be sleek, clean and modern. It features a mix of edgy imagery, refreshed copy and simplified navigation that provides quick access to the company's capabilities and technologies. The new site also provides a vehicle for user interaction as visitors can now share interesting pages and products on their desired social media platforms.
James Alexander Corporation announced an approximately 5% expansion of its employee stock ownership plan, a qualified, employee benefit plan designed to invest primarily in the stock of the sponsoring employer. Following the profit-sharing increase, which goes into effect this quarter, employees will own approximately 20% of the company.
People News
To guide design conversations and build a creative network in the New York office, Anisa International brought on team member Karim Fugel as vice president of bags and accessories. Fugel will specialize in driving the company's portfolio of bags and accessories for both private label and upcoming branded sales. And to enhance brand equity across Anisa International's entire portfolio of products, the company welcomed Jules Dykes to the team as the director of brand management. Dykes' marketing and communications experience will ensure all new lines are rolled out with expert execution.
Laurent Chevallier was named new managing director of Axilone, part of the Ileos Group.
New Launches
Qosmedix expanded its cosmetic packaging collection by introducing three new Black and Clear Airless Bottles. An extension of the company's White and Clear Airless Bottles, these new items work well for packaging liquid cosmetic and skin care formulations. Available in three different sizes, including 15, 20 and 30 ml bottles, the corresponding airless pump mechanism dispenses just a set amount of product every time while the airless pump technology helps prevent product contamination and ensures contents are entirely depleted from the bottle.
Lumson developed Envers, a new airless system of packaging entirely designed, developed and manufactured in Italy by the company. The collection is said to be "inspired by [Lumson's] love of looking at things differently," and it is set for its debut at Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna 2014. A video on the packaging collection is available here.
New on the Shelves
In looking for a dispensing system for its Comme une Evidence fragrance, Yves Rocher worked with Aptar Beauty + Home, which utilized its bulb atomizer to meet the product's two-fold aesthetic and technical goals, including being leak-proof in the closed position, olfactory neutrality and no metal parts in contact with the perfume. Also, the Göt2b Rise N' Shine Body + Gloss Glistening Full Blow Dry Cream uses the Small Gemini Snap Top from Aptar Beauty + Home, the Chi Man Instant Refresh Body Spray and Chi Man Groom & Hold Finishing Spray both use Aptar's VX valve and the Twist-To-Lock Moritz accessory, and the AcneFree Clear Skin Treatments Body Clearing Acne Spray uses Aptar's Bag-On-Valve system for formula preservation and consumer satisfaction and the Twist-To-Lock Moritz accessory. Additionally, the Banana Boat Triple Defense UltraMist Spray for Men also uses the Bag-On-Valve system and the Twist-To-Lock Glencoe accessory, and a series of Kiss My Face Air Powered Spray Broad Spectrum Sunscreens use the Bag-On-Valve system an the Twist-To-Lock Glencoe accessory.
The Timeless fragrance from Cristian Lay comes in a 100 ml glass bottle with a sleever that catches the eye. The Spanish cosmetic company entrusted the packaging to Quadpack, which includes a black aluminum spray pump and a double-wall cap. The design was gravure printed on a PET material, which was then heat shrunk onto the bottle, perfectly following its contours. In addition, the cap has a PP inner and an ABS outer, and is weighted for a more luxurious feel.
Coty Prestige collaborated with Ileos Group company Alliora to create a promotional set-up box for Florabotanica, the eau de parfum by Balenciaga. The subtle packaging highlights the 2D cardboard and decoration know-how of Alliora, and the originality of the dome case resides in the dressing-up of its lid. To showcase the packaging design and to create the illusion of entering into the depths of a mysterious garden, Alliora opted for layers of overlapping paper. The cardboard lid (with a thickness of 1.6 mm) is covered with full-color printed grain paper, itself covered with printed hollowed paper, with a satin varnish finish. Inside, the products are housed in a soft-touch white polystyrene thermoformed packaging and covered with a printed wedge concealer.