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"Following the fertilizer plant blast, Texas cited terror concerns in withholding information on dangerous chemicals. Some say that secrecy deprives citizens of the ability to make decisions about their safety."
"ATLANTA -- Before an ammonium nitrate tank blew up in the small central Texas town of West on April 17, with a blast so powerful it registered a 2.1 on the Richter scale, some residents said they were aware of possible dangers at the plant, while others said they had absolutely no idea that something could go so horribly wrong.
Two days after the Boston Marathon bombings, a fire at the West Fertilizer Company ignited a chemical tank, sparking a massive explosion that killed 15 people – 12 of them first responders – hurt hundreds, leveled a retirement home, and damaged a school and dozens of homes.
Whether or not widely available information about what could happen at the plant would have made a difference in how the town of West, over decades, snuggled homes and schools up to the facility's perimeter is perhaps impossible to answer – especially as, some economists have found, Americans tend to downplay the risk from high-risk jobs and living next to dangerous industries."
Patrik Jonsson reports for the Christian Science Monitor May 3, 2013.
"From Washington To West, System Failed To Protect Texas Town From Tragedy" (Dallas Morning News)
"Lax Security at Fertilizer Plant Hints at Regulatory Gaps in Texas" (Christian Science Monitor)
"Texas Plant That Exploded Carried Only $1M Policy" (USA TODAY)
"Exclusive: At Texas Fertilizer Plant, a History of Theft, Tampering" (Reuters)
"Officials: No Breakthrough Yet in Texas Explosion" (USA TODAY)
"For Texas Volunteer Firefighters, Budget Debates Not Just About Money" (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
"Fight Brews Over Tighter Plant Rules" (Wall St. Journal)


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JERSEY CITY – Plans to consolidate various Jersey City departments could include layoffs as "all options" are on the table to save money and avoid a municipal tax increase in 2014, according to Mayor Steven Fulop.
The Fulop administration announced plans to consolidate and merge several city departments which the city estimates will save approximately $343,112.
As has already been announced, the city will merge the Jersey City Fire Department and the Jersey City Police Department into a newly created Office of Public Safety. The city's Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security will also become part of the Office of Public Safety.
On Wednesday the City Council will vote to appoint James Shea, a former deputy chief with the New York Police Department, as the new director of public safety.
On Wednesday, the administration will also ask the council to consider an amendment to combine the Division of Architecture and the Division of Engineering, Traffic, and Transportation into a single office within the Department of Public Works (DPW). The administration said this will eliminate duplicative efforts within the current divisions, conserve resources within DPW, streamline services, and make services more efficient for constituents.
Another amendment to be considered by the council Wednesday will create the Division of Sanitation within the DPW to do demolition, street sweeping, snow and ice removal, solid waste collection and recycling, and graffiti removal work.
Many of these functions are currently performed by the Jersey City Incinerator Authority (JCIA) and this proposal appears to be an attempt to merge JCIA operations into the DPW, as Fulop has proposed for years. Calls by Fulop to merge the DPW and JCIA when he was a city councilman led to protests among low-level, low-wage JCIA employees who feared the loss of financial stability if the merger plan became a reality.
The Division of Cultural Affairs, the Division of Senior Affairs, and the Division of Veterans Affairs will all be moved into the revamped Mayor's Action Bureau, which the Fulop administration has expanded and renamed the Resident Response Center.
The Office of Pensions and the Office of Payroll will be consolidated under one division. Redundant services and jobs within these two departments will be eliminated.
When asked Tuesday whether the consolidation plan includes layoffs or saving realized due to attrition, Fulop told the Reporter, "We are exploring all options, as we have started our desk audit. Our goal is to stabilize a structural deficit that we inherited from the previous administration."
The mayor added that the administrations consolidation plans will be discussed with members of the City Council.
"Not only are these changes essential from a fiscal standpoint, but also from an operational standpoint," Fulop said in a release. "We are cutting costs, streamlining services and creating synergy between previously separate departments." – E. Assata Wright

subset: commoncrawl


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Daily Readings for Monday, April 8, 2024
- Morning Psalms 97; 145
- First Reading Exodus 14:21-31
- Second Reading 1 Peter 1:1-12
- Gospel Reading John (14:1-7) 8-17
- Evening Psalms 124; 115
Morning Psalm 97
1 The LORD is king! Let the earth rejoice;
let the many coastlands be glad!
2 Clouds and thick darkness are all around him;
righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
3 Fire goes before him,
and consumes his adversaries on every side.
4 His lightnings light up the world;
the earth sees and trembles.
5 The mountains melt like wax before the LORD,
before the Lord of all the earth.
6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness;
and all the peoples behold his glory.
7 All worshipers of images are put to shame,
those who make their boast in worthless idols;
all gods bow down before him.
8 Zion hears and is glad,
and the towns of Judah rejoice,
because of your judgments, O God.
9 For you, O LORD, are most high over all the earth;
you are exalted far above all gods.
10 The LORD loves those who hate evil;
he guards the lives of his faithful;
he rescues them from the hand of the wicked.
11 Light dawns for the righteous,
and joy for the upright in heart.
12 Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous,
and give thanks to his holy name!
Morning Psalm 145
1 I will extol you, my God and King,
and bless your name forever and ever.
2 Every day I will bless you,
and praise your name forever and ever.
3 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
his greatness is unsearchable.
4 One generation shall laud your works to another,
and shall declare your mighty acts.
5 On the glorious splendor of your majesty,
and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.
6 The might of your awesome deeds shall be proclaimed,
and I will declare your greatness.
7 They shall celebrate the fame of your abundant goodness,
and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.
8 The Lord is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 The Lord is good to all,
and his compassion is over all that he has made.
10 All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord,
and all your faithful shall bless you.
11 They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom,
and tell of your power,
12 to make known to all people your mighty deeds,
and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures throughout all generations.
The Lord is faithful in all his words,
and gracious in all his deeds.
14 The Lord upholds all who are falling,
and raises up all who are bowed down.
15 The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food in due season.
16 You open your hand,
satisfying the desire of every living thing.
17 The Lord is just in all his ways,
and kind in all his doings.
18 The Lord is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
19 He fulfills the desire of all who fear him;
he also hears their cry, and saves them.
20 The Lord watches over all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy.
21 My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord,
and all flesh will bless his holy name forever and ever.
First Reading Exodus 14:21-31
21Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land; and the waters were divided. 22The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. 23The Egyptians pursued, and went into the sea after them, all of Pharaoh's horses, chariots, and chariot drivers. 24At the morning watch the LORD in the pillar of fire and cloud looked down upon the Egyptian army, and threw the Egyptian army into panic. 25He clogged their chariot wheels so that they turned with difficulty. The Egyptians said, "Let us flee from the Israelites, for the LORD is fighting for them against Egypt."
26Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and chariot drivers." 27So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at dawn the sea returned to its normal depth. As the Egyptians fled before it, the LORD tossed the Egyptians into the sea. 28The waters returned and covered the chariots and the chariot drivers, the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea; not one of them remained. 29But the Israelites walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.
30Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 31Israel saw the great work that the LORD did against the Egyptians. So the people feared the LORD and believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses.
Second Reading 1 Peter 1:1-12
1Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2who have been chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ and to be sprinkled with his blood:
May grace and peace be yours in abundance.
3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, 7so that the genuineness of your faith - being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire - may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, 9for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
10Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that was to be yours made careful search and inquiry, 11inquiring about the person or time that the Spirit of Christ within them indicated when it testified in advance to the sufferings destined for Christ and the subsequent glory. 12It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in regard to the things that have now been announced to you through those who brought you good news by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven - things into which angels long to look!
Gospel Reading John (14:1-7) 8-17
1"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. 2In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. 4And you know the way to the place where I am going." 5Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" 6Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."
8Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." 9Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? 10Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. 12Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.
15"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. 17This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
Evening Psalm 124
1 If it had not been the LORD who was on our side
— let Israel now say —
2 if it had not been the LORD who was on our side,
when our enemies attacked us,
3 then they would have swallowed us up alive,
when their anger was kindled against us;
4 then the flood would have swept us away,
the torrent would have gone over us;
5 then over us would have gone
the raging waters.
6 Blessed be the LORD,
who has not given us
as prey to their teeth.
7 We have escaped like a bird
from the snare of the fowlers;
the snare is broken,
and we have escaped.
8 Our help is in the name of the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.
Evening Psalm 115
1 Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory,
for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness.
2 Why should the nations say,
"Where is their God?"
3 Our God is in the heavens;
he does whatever he pleases.
4 Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of human hands.
5 They have mouths, but do not speak;
eyes, but do not see.
6 They have ears, but do not hear;
noses, but do not smell.
7 They have hands, but do not feel;
feet, but do not walk;
they make no sound in their throats.
8 Those who make them are like them;
so are all who trust in them.
9 O Israel, trust in the LORD!
He is their help and their shield.
10 O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD!
He is their help and their shield.
11 You who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD!
He is their help and their shield.
12 The LORD has been mindful of us; he will bless us;
he will bless the house of Israel;
he will bless the house of Aaron;
13 he will bless those who fear the LORD,
both small and great.
14 May the LORD give you increase,
both you and your children.
15 May you be blessed by the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.
16 The heavens are the Lord's heavens,
but the earth he has given to human beings.
17 The dead do not praise the LORD,
nor do any that go down into silence.
18 But we will bless the LORD
from this time on and forevermore.
Praise the LORD!


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Infrared Spectrometer And Array Camera
ISAAC was the first Very Large Telescope (VLT) multimode instrument developed by ESO. Together with its "son", SOFI, it was part of a new generation of machines working at infrared wavelengths, an underexploited field at that time, due to slower progress in the development of the astronomical detectors.
Installed in November 1998 on VLT Unit Telescope 1 (Antu), ISAAC could look into the dusty Universe — a previously hidden realm. Visible light cannot penetrate the huge clouds of dust found throughout the Universe, and before ISAAC and others of its kind were invented, astronomers had no way of knowing what lies behind or within these clouds. ISAAC quickly got to work on a variety of objects in the infrared Universe, from star-forming regions in the Milky Way to distant galaxies.
ISAAC was unique. In 1998 infrared studies were considered a dark art, because of the very limited field of view of infrared instruments, and because of the complexity of the observation procedures. ISAAC and SOFI were the first multimode instruments with two-dimensional detectors in the near infrared , "making it essentially a near-infrared EMMI," says Claus Madsen in his book The Jewel on the Mountaintop. In a few seconds, ISAAC could be converted from an imaging camera into a spectrograph, and it could also measure the polarisation of the light; furthermore, the complexity of the infrared observations was hidden in pre-defined sequences, allowing even non-expert astronomers to perform them.
During its time of service ISAAC was used to make infrared images and spectra at wavelengths from 0.9–5 micrometres (up to seven times longer than can be seen by the human eye) achieving science highlights such as the most distant object discovered in the Universe in 2009 (eso0917) and observations of quasars that reconciled observations with astronomical models (eso0821).
To achieve maximum sensitivity, the complete optical system of ISAAC was housed in a large vacuum vessel with a diameter of 1.7 metres and cooled to a temperature of -200º C. It had two independent arms, each possessing a detector of 1024 x 1024 pixels that covered a wide range of infrared wavelengths. While 1 megapixel sounds modest by today's standards for digital cameras, these were then state-of-the-art detectors.
Now, ISAAC is resting. It was removed from its final home on Unit Telescope 3 to allow SPHERE to be installed. The last data taken with ISAAC were obtained on a bright star in the Orion Nebula on 12 December 2013, but its legacy at the VLT remains.
Science highlights with ISAAC
- Accretion discs show their true colours (eso0821)
- The most distant object discovered in the Universe (eso0917)
- ISAAC observes Jupiter occultation (eso9860)
- Discovery of most massive stars to date (eso1030)
- Dwarf planet Makemake lacks atmosphere (eso1246)
Additional Images
A raw image from ISAAC
This raw ISAAC image was used, combined with many others, to generate the photo at the top of this page. All the images taken with astronomical instruments are monochromatic: the information on the colour is obtained by taking exposures through different filters. In infrared light, the sky is so bright that individual exposures must be kept very short. To reach the long total exposure time needed, hundred of exposures are combined. The dark spots are defects of the detector, and the bright line in the centre marks the separation between the areas of the detector processed by different electronics.
A raw spectrum from ISAAC
A long, narrow slit isolates a small strip of sky. On this image, the slit is vertical, and slightly curved by the optics in ISAAC. The spectrograph then splits the light from the slit into its individual infrared colours, each point of the slit forming a horizontal rainbow. In the lower part, the horizontal fuzzy line is the spectrum of a faint galaxy. The glowing areas on the edge mark the position of the four amplifiers dealing each with a quarter of the detector. These electronic devices are slightly warmer than the rest, causing a minute amount of infrared light registered by the detector.
ISAACThe authoritative technical specifications as offered for astronomical observations are available from the Science Operation page.


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Chewy Coconut Lime Sugar Cookies
Chewy Coconut Lime Sugar Cookies are super soft and chewy rolled in sugar for a slightly crispy edge. This dessert is a tropical cookie and smells amazing while baking.
Our most recent leg of our vacation was to Las Vegas for the Garth Brooks charity in which we are involved. We were able to meet some of the kids that the foundation helped out which was awesome.
We were put up in style at the Wynn hotel. All I have are 2 words for you: hospitality suite.
The hospitality suite was a suite that had access to computers, snacks (not mention the drawers of candy bars), and drinks for anyone that was part of the charity for the down time between meetings and events.
As you know I have a hard time saying no to free treats so every time I left the hospitality suite I had at least two of their freshly baked pancake-sized cookies.
I had good intentions of saving them for later up in my room but they never quite made it past the elevator ride.
That happened more times than I would like to mention. I'm not sure at what point my husband started calling me me the Cookie Monster but I can't deny that it was a name that I earned. What happens in Vegas…stays in Vegas.
Since I can't share with you the cookies I had in Vegas…and believe me I wish I could share some of those calories I consumed…I wanted to share one of my favorite cookies of the summer.
These Chewy Coconut Lime Sugar Cookies! This cookie dough is the bomb.
The toasted coconut adds a great texture and flavor. These are unbelievably chewy and melt in your mouth. The lime flavor is so refreshing!
- The Best Snickerdoodle Recipe
- Almond Cookies
- My Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Monster Cookies
- No-Bake Cookies
- Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
- S'mores Cookies
- Soft Sugar Cookies
- Coconut Lime Swig Cookies
- Chewy Sugar Cookies
- Toasted Coconut Cookie Dough Bites
Chewy Coconut Lime Sugar Cookies
- 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter, , softened
- 1 ½ cups white sugar
- 1 egg
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon coconut extract, (optional)
- zest of one large lime, finely minced
- 3 tablespoons lime juice
- ½ cup unsweetened toasted coconut
- ½ cup sugar for rolling cookies
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. If you haven't already toasted your coconut just put a layer of coconut on a cookie sheet and bake it at 350 degrees for 5-7 minutes. Watch out. It goes from white to burnt really quick if you aren't watching closely.
- In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- Using a mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until smooth and very fluffy.
- Beat in egg, vanilla extract (and coconut extract if using), lime juice and lime zest.
- Gradually blend in the dry ingredients and toasted coconut.
- Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and roll in sugar. Place on lined cookie sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart. I made mine too big and they ran together. These do spread quite a bit. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly browned.
- Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks


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Even though they seem happy during the show, at many times they are following commands from the voice-over ("show Tinky Winky the bowl"). They also seem to obey the wind mill when it starts spinning, sometimes saying "uh-oh" as if they have forgot something, or as if they should obey immediately. Even the strange loudspeakers that come from the ground tell when the Teletubbies should wake up or sleep.
Are then the Teletubbies prisoners of some kind, forced to obey the wishes of the one that keeps them in the garden and house? Is the baby in the sun the one that locked them up, since he is watching them constantly and smiling when they obey?


text: Many of our students participate in Florida State University's honors program, which provides special opportunities and an enriched program of academic experiences for our most outstanding students. Many high-achieving students also conduct undergraduate research with a professor, join honor societies and compete for national fellowships and scholarships. Florida State students have won many top awards, including three Rhodes Scholarships in the past four years.


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Poland and Ukraine will host the European Championships for the first time in 2012, welcoming 14 other teams and football fans from across the continent.
World champions Spain will defend the title won in Austria and Switzerland four years ago, when Fernando Torres scored the only goal of the final against Germany.
The Germans, who like Spain went undefeated in winning the tournament in 1996, will also be back as Joachim Low's team seek a fourth title in the competition's 52-year history.
Click on the countries' marker flags above to find out more details about the the sides taking part in the June 8-July 8 event.
To move from one country to another, first close the box by clicking on the "x" in the top right corner.


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A new broom?
We all have a number of connotations or images we associate with a 'new broom'. Is it to be used to sweep out the old, replacing all with the new, irrespective of the worth of the old? Is the new broom to be used judiciously, to tidy up and spring clean? Or should the new broom be kept in the cupboard, only to be used in emergencies? There is no doubt in my mind that I have taken over the editorship of the South African Journal of Child Health (SAJCH) at a time when it is a vibrant and strong member of the stable of journals produced under the auspices of the South African Medical Association, a position which it has attained largely through the hard work and enthusiasm of Prof. Dankwart Wittenberg, the Journal's editor for the past 4 years. Certainly, I don't have the vision of the broom needing to be used in the Herculean task of cleaning out the Augean stables. I would like to thank Dankwart on behalf of child health professionals throughout low- to middle-income countries and South Africa (SA) in particular for the effort and time he has put into the Journal over the last number of years to leave it in the state that I find it.
Having said that, however, there are a number of challenges facing the Journal, the foremost of which, I believe, is ensuring that the publication has relevance and a niche in the future digital age, an issue highlighted by the South African Medical Journal editor in her editorial of September this year.1 Why should researchers publish in our Journal and why should child health professionals in SA read the articles? How do we compete with international paediatric journals, whose articles are readily retrievable from cyber-libraries such as PubMed and Web of Science?
We have to accept that top clinical research, even if of significant clinical relevance locally, will always be submitted first to international journals with high impact factors, as that will ensure that the research is seen and read by relevant research peers internationally, will enhance the international status of the authors and their affiliated universities, and will help to attract future research funding. So what is our niche? I believe the Journal has two important roles to play: firstly, to provide a repository for sound clinical research, which might not necessarily be innovative, but is highly relevant to SA and other low- to middle-income countries; and secondly, to give registrars a vehicle in which they are able to publish their MMed short reports, if these reports meet the standards of the Journal review process, and emerging clinician scientists the opportunity to experience and learn from the process of article submission, review, revision and hopefully publication. A related role of the Journal should be to give senior registrars the opportunity to review articles under the watchful eye and mentorship of more senior researchers.
In order to be an attractive vehicle for publication of SA research, and particularly of registrar MMed research, the turnaround time between submission and receipt of a reviewer's comments together with the editor's decision should be kept as short as possible. International journals for which I review frequently give possible reviewers only 48 h in which to indicate their willingness to review the submission, and 2 weeks in which to complete and return the review. The result is that the average time from submission to first editorial decision is 30 days. It is clear that the SAJCH cannot brag at having such excellent turnaround times; in fact, one of the major challenges facing the Journal is the reluctance of some SA clinicians to either accept the request to review for the Journal or to return the review within an acceptable time, without the editor having to remind reviewers of their outstanding reviews. One does understand that SA academic paediatricians are a relatively small group, whose time is being requested by their patients, hospital management structures and provincial and national health departments, their undergraduate and postgraduate students, university and faculty management committees, and, if they have time, their research activities and supervision. However, I do believe that their support of an SA journal specifically dealing with child health research and issues is of vital importance, not only so that we are able to encourage and develop young paediatricians interested in clinical research, but also to keep our child healthcare professionals informed of research developments.
The argument that it is pointless publishing in the SAJCH as the articles are not accessed by the major digital libraries and therefore are not available to researchers elsewhere in the world is no longer tenable. The SAJCH is included in Scopus and in Google Scholar, and all articles are available as open access through SciELO SA.2 We would therefore like to encourage all interested readers to ensure that they receive the Table of Contents of each issue on publication so that they are able to keep up to date, by registering their email address on the Journal website (http://www.sajch.org.za/index.php/SAJCH).
J M Pettifor
MB BCh, FCPaed (SA), PhD (Med), MASSAf
1. Seggie J. Reflections … they call it 'restructuring'. S Afr Med J 2014;104(9):590. [http://dx.doi.org/10.7196/SAMJ.8766]
2. Veldman S, Gevers W. Increased visibility and discoverability of South African health-related research. S Afr Med J 2014;104(4):287. [http://dx.doi.org/10.7196/SAMJ.7934]
S Afr J CH 2014;8(4):124. DOI:10.7196/SAJCH.884
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Raising the standard of event cuisine.
"Reaching far beyond Phoenix Convention Center, Aventura's impressive menu of services includes full-scale catering and event planning. From site selection to menu creation, Aventura will coordinate every aspect of your special event with passionate precision in our state-of-the-art design center. At Aventura we plan every event one way… your way."


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Rosie O'Donnell openly discussed her feud with talk show host Kelly Ripa while filling in for Anderson Cooper on his talk show "Anderson Live". The Irish American host was joined by "Real Housewives of Atlanta" star and co host NeNe Leakes.
The feud between O'Donnell and Ripa started while American Idol runner up Clay Aiken was co-hosting with Ripa. He put his hands over Ripa's mouth and she reacted by saying she did not know where his hands had been. O'Donnell said Ripa was acting homophobic towards Aiken.
The feud has been going on for six years. Many had thought the two had made up, but it became clear they had not when they were seated next to one another at Madonna's concert in New York City on November 12. O'Donnell tweeted, "Kelly Ripa- the girl can hold a grudge . . . #MadonnaMSG." O'Donnell has defended her tweet saying that she did not insult Ripa and that Ripa is allowed to hold a grudge if she wants.
Despite the tweet, O'Donnell says she is ready to forgive. Referencing her heart attack in August, O'Donnell said, "I just have got to let it go, just let it go since my heart attack, let it go." O'Donnell has denied disliking Ripa and says she has apologized to her.
Anderson Cooper is on location covering the escalating conflict in Gaza. He briefly joined the show via satellite to give an update on the situation there.
O'Donnell talked about her health after her heart attack and her transition to a healthier lifestyle. She said that she is feeling a lot better. O'Donnell told Leakes, "I got my number yesterday, I am way up there. I don't mean weight, I mean like good blood pressure and I've lost like twelve pounds. We are going for a pound a week."
She added that she has been talking about her heart attack a lot. She said, "I keep telling everyone I had a heart attack and my kids are like, 'Will you shut up already?' And I am like, 'No, I had a heart attack.'"
O'Donnell also talked about her new wife, Michelle Rounds, whom she married five months ago. When a picture of Rounds was brought up, O'Donnell said, "There's my beautiful wife Michelle, look at her, she's skinny and perfect." She added, "She is lovely inside as well."
Watch a clip of Rosie O'Donnell on the Anderson Cooper show below.


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We eat a lot of Italian-style food in our home — from lasagna and baked ziti to homemade pizza to 'oh my gosh, it's 5:30 and I haven't started dinner so let's just have plain pasta and sauce'.
For all these meals, I buy jarred sauce, because it just seems easier and quicker than making my own. (Or maybe it's because I'm a little lazy?) But I've always wanted to try my hand at homemade sauce and finally decided that this week was the week!
So, on Monday morning, I sauteed up some onions, set my crock pot to high, and "cooked" the most deliciously fragrant red sauce all day long. I was curious to see whether it would (a) taste noticeably better than our beloved Barilla or Newman's Own and (b) save me enough $ to make the time worthwhile. This $/time balance is always a question when it comes to frugality, so I was really eager to see how it would turn out.
Here's what I learned:
The Taste Test
Did the sauce pass the test? YES! It was incredible. Amazing. So amazing that my 5 yo, who routinely complains that he doesn't like tomato sauce, ate it enthusiastically.
Plus, I felt really good knowing exactly what was in my sauce, and that there were zero preservatives or artificial what-not's. This sauce was just herbs, onions, and crushed tomatoes. Okay, okay, and a pinch of Osem's MSG-free pareve chicken soup mix. (Which, by the way, I have friends or family bring over from Israel for me. All the soup mix I've found in the U.S. has MSG in it. Anyone have a source for the MSG-free kind this side of the Atlantic?)
The Cost Test
Was my slow cooker sauce cheaper than the jarred variety? Ummmm, maybe.
I made about 10 cups worth of sauce. We ate freely the first night and then I had enough left over to freeze four ziploc baggies worth of 2.5 cups each. This is about how much is in a glass jar of sauce. So, for the sake of simplicity, let's say I made five jars worth of sauce.
To make the sauce, I used a gigantic can (was it 8 lbs?) of crushed tomatoes from Costco, which cost less than $3. I also used 2 large onions, which cost no more than $.50 since I buy my onions on sale. I used dried herbs and garlic powder, so my cost on those was seriously nominal, but for the sake of this comparison, let's call is $.30 worth.
So, altogether, the ingredients for the homemade sauce cost me under $4 for what would be 5 jars of sauce. With a sale and coupon, I would probably be able to pay around $1.25 – $1.50 per jar, or $7ish for 5 jars. If I'm being generous, I'd say that this crock pot of sauce cost me half what the equivalent of store bought would be.
But that doesn't take into account the cost of running my crock pot all day (I cooked this for about 7 hours on high). I initially assumed that it would be pennies, but a recent post on Cooking Manager about the surprisingly high cost of operating slow cookers caused me to dig a little deeper. A few quick Swagbuck searches and I'm more confused than ever. For every article that says it's a money saver, there's another that says it uses as many kilwatts/hour as the oven. I'm still not sure, but if I take the more conservative estimate, we're probably talking about a couple of dollars in energy costs to make these 5 jars worth of sauce.
Which means, at the end of the day, that this delicious crock full of good-and-good for you red sauce may not have saved me very much at all over the store-bought alternative.
Even still, my conclusion is that frugal or not, homemade is worth it!
As long as it's not costing me MORE money than buying jars of sauce, I'm going to stick to making my own. The taste difference alone is more than worth it. Plus, the added value of knowing exactly what's in my sauce is truly priceless!
Are you a cook from scratch kinda chef? Have you done the calculations to determine whether scratch really saves over store-bought? Stay tuned for more frugal experiments (granola bars, bread, cookies, ricotta cheese) here at KOAB. And if you have some of your own, I'd love to hear about them!


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text:
When a user clicks on a map what should they expect to see?
I would say a symbol for where they clicked. A pushpin seems to be the most accepted icon for generic data. Google has pushed the upside down tear drop.
What are other ideas/options and is there a place for finding professional gis oriented icon packs?
I ended up creating this,
This just popped up from the guys at map box. Clean maki icons


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NFP Sunday Blitz
This is a very happy weekend in many NFL facilities, as rookie camp enables proud and pleased team overlords to get a good look at their draft picks in new uniforms for the first time.
And it has been especially happy in Cincinnati, where first round pick Tyler Eifert looks like he can team with veteran Jermaine Gresham to give the Bengals something few teams have.
"He's already made some catches, where it was, 'Wow, how did he do that?'" Bengals offensive coordinator Jay Gruden told me. "We took him in the first round for a reason. He was too good to pass up. We feel very fortunate. Tyler has a long way to go and has a lot to prove, but he has the tools to be an exceptional tight end. We're excited about having him."
The Bengals now may have as much raw talent at the tight end position as any team in the NFL, with the possible exception of the Patriots. Gruden acknowledges studying the Patriots and how they utilize their unique combination.
Eifert and Gresham are a different tandem from Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez. And Eifert is a different style tight end from Gresham.
"Jermaine has already proven he is a good, solid all-around tight end, solid blocker," Gruden said. "He's a big target for Andy. Tyler is a different dimension, little bit more fluid."
Having two tight ends who can run and catch opens up a world of game planning possibilities. Gruden is still figuring out how best to use Eifert and Gresham in tandem, and says he will know a lot more as the team works its way through training camp. He wants to find out what the tight ends are comfortable with and what quarterback Andy Dalton is comfortable with.
Last season, the Bengals' most effective personnel package might have been one tight end, three wide receivers and one back with Mohamed Sanu and Andrew Hawkins complementing A.J. Green and Gresham. Gruden said the plan is still to feature that package quite a bit, probably in nickel.
"It's just that our base package will probably feature more two tight ends, two receivers rather than one tight end two backs," he said. "We can get everything in our running game in that personnel group. It's taking out a fullback and putting in a heck of a pass catcher and hopefully a good blocker. We like to mix up our personnel groupings and keep defenses off balance hopefully and be diverse in what we do. Our goal is to get our best players on the field."
If the Bengals can force defenses to go nickel on first and second down with two tight ends on the field as the Patriots do, running backs BenJarvus Green-Ellis and Giovani Bernard are going to see a lot of daylight. The key is Eifert being multi-dimensional—not just a pass catcher.
"If Tyler is a good blocker, that puts us in a good advantage in the run game," Gruden said. "That's what New England does so well. They get teams to match up nickel with them and they can run the ball effectively out of that two tight end set. They have an extra big body blocking. Tyler has a long way to go to prove he's a good blocker. Training camp will help him. Coach [Jonathan] Hayes has been around tight ends for a long time and is a great tutor for him."
Having two tight ends who are receiving threats should make Dalton and Green better.
"You don't have to be 100 percent right when you are throwing to guys like Gresham and Eifert," Gruden said. "The ball doesn't have to be perfect.
He can throw it so many different locations. You can throw it on top of them and they can jump for it. You can throw it behind them and they can back shoulder it. Throw it low, they can go down and get it. They both have a great catch radius. That makes the job a heck of a lot easier for the quarterback where he is not worried about throwing perfect every time."
Defenses aren't going to suddenly forget about Green. But there will likely be times when less attention is paid to him. "Anything to take pressure off No. 18, because he's the bellcow," Gruden said. "Anytime you get him singled up, we're pretty excited."
Anytime a team gets two tight ends like this, it should be pretty excited.
My Sunday Best: Tight End Combinations
The NFL probably has more potentially outstanding tight end combinations than ever before in history, as the talent pool at the position has gotten deeper in recent years. Here are my Sunday best tight end combinations based on talent level.
Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez are a dynamic duo.
1. Patriots—Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez. There is no question the Patriots have the most gifted and most accomplished set of tight ends in the league. The only question is if they will continue to produce as they have given Gronkowski's injury issues. The interesting thing about these players is each could have been drafted much higher than he was. Gronkowski was pushed down to the second round because of spine issues. He easily could have been a mid first round pick. And Hernandez dropped to the fourth round because teams had concerns about his character.
2. Bengals—Jermaine Gresham and Tyler Eifert. Each of their tight ends was selected 21st overall in the draft, and each was the highest rated tight end in his draft class. Gresham is one of the league's better two-way tight ends and a two-time Pro Bowler. Eifert has the potential to be a better receiver than Gresham.
3. 49ers—Vernon Davis and Vance McDonald. If tight ends were judged by combine workouts, the 49ers' pair would be No. 1. We're not sure yet what McDonald will become, but his talent is outstanding. Davis is a one-time Pro Bowler and a fine player, but the sixth pick of the 2006 draft never really has produced up to his phenomenal ability level.
4. Colts—Coby Fleener and Dwayne Allen. Selecting them in the same year was reminiscent of the Patriots' selecting Gronkowski and Hernandez in the same year. Fleener and Allen were the consensus top ranked tight ends in 2012. The best should be yet to come with this tandem.
5. Cowboys—Jason Witten and Gavin Escobar. An eight time Pro Bowler, Witten is one of the greats. Witten and almost anyone would be a good combination. In fact, Witten and Martellus Bennett formed a more talented combination than Witten and Escobar. But Escobar was picked in the second round for a reason. He didn't have a great workout, but he played like a fine athlete. If he develops the way he is capable of developing, Escobar is going to be an excellent second tight end in Dallas.
6. Eagles—Brent Celek and Zach Ertz. Celek has been a productive player for the Eagles, but he doesn't have as much capability to create mismatches that Ertz does. The presence of Ertz could compromise defenses and create more opportunities for Celek. They have the potential to be a very effective duo.
Kyle Rudolph gives the Vikings some offensive muscle.
7. Vikings—Kyle Rudolph and John Carlson. Both of these Notre Dame products were second round picks. Rudolph came on strong in his second season last year with nine touchdown catches and a Pro Bowl appearance. Carlson isn't as big or dynamic an athlete, but he can be a fine complement if he can stay healthy.
8. Lions—Brandon Pettigrew and Tony Scheffler. A former first round pick and a former second round pick, Pettigrew and Scheffler are a nice blen d of a big tight end who can block and an athletic tight end who can catch. Neither has great speed, but the sum of their parts is very good.
9. Ravens—Ed Dickson and Dennis Pitta. Drafted in back to back rounds in the great tight end class of 2010, Dickson and Pitta are an effective duo. Neither one has been dominant, but they are both important pieces of an effective offense, and they present defenses with tough choices.
10. Chiefs—Tony Moeaki and Anthony Fasano or Travis Kelce. It will be interesting to see how this one shakes out because with the addition of third rounder Kelce, the Chiefs have three tight ends who can ball. Assuming all three are still around in September, Andy Reid has to determine how to use each and how they will fit together.
Things I Didn't Used To Know
ICONChris Johnson might not welcome Shonn Greene with open arms, but Greene could help his career.
*Titans running back Chris Johnson sounds much more excited about the team's additions of Andy Levitre, Chance Warmack and Brian Schwenke than he is about the addition of Shonn Greene, but the Tennessee coaching staff believes Greene can help make Johnson a better player too. The Titans have tried to sell Johnson on the fact that giving Greene some of his carries will make Johnson more effective because he will be fresher, and it will extend his career. They are planning on using Johnson and Greene they way they used Johnson and LenDale White together early in Johnson's career. Greene also will give the Titans some peace of mind in the event Johnson gets banged up. And there will be this benefit: last year while playing for the Jets, Greene was 100 percent on converting third and ones. Johnson was 66 percent for the Titans. Guess who is going to be getting the ball in short yardage?
*For a team that lost three time Pro Bowler Steven Jackson in free agency, the Rams are feeling really good about their running game. Why? They have options. And a potentially pretty good running back committee. The team traded up to draft Zac Stacy, and they clearly believe he has a future in the league. The Rams were higher on Stacy than some teams, but the fact that he was so productive in the SEC gives the team confidence that he can at least fill a role in the NFL. And if Stacy is slow to get moving, the team also feels very good about 2011 draft picks Daryl Richardson and Isaiah Pead. Richardson's average per carry of 4.8 last year was tied for seventh best in the league among running backs. Pead, the team's second round pick, did even better at 5.4, but he carried only 10 times. It's worth noting that both averaged more per carry than Jackson, who ran for 4.1 yards per try. The Rams believe Richardson and Pead are more explosive than the soon to be 30-year old Jackson.
Hot Reads
*Want to know what it's like in a team's inner sanctum on draft day? The one and only Peter King takes you inside Rams headquarters here.
*Nobody asked me, but it seems Marcus Robertson might be a better fit to coach Derrick Rose than Louis Delmas.
*Also on the subject of the Lions, Nick Fairly tells Terry Foster they are going to the Super Bowl.


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Here's the NYT editorial:
From across Europe, nearly 100 representatives of the entertainment industry, including Pedro Almodóvar and Wim Wenders, signed a petition declaring themselves "dismayed" by the arrest, especially since it happened at the time of the Zurich Film Festival....Wow... atoned for the sins of his young years. Polanski was 44 when he raped the 13-year-old girl. 44! Young years! What a long long time some people would give men to run wild!
In Europe, the prevailing mood — at least among those with access to the news media — seemed to be that Mr. Polanski has already "atoned for the sins of his young years," as Jacek Bromski, the chief of the Polish Filmmakers Association, put it.
We disagree strongly, and we were glad to see other prominent Europeans beginning to point out that this case has nothing to do with Mr. Polanski's work or his age. It is about an adult preying on a child. Mr. Polanski pleaded guilty to that crime and must account for it.


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It's late, you're on the streets of San Francisco, and you're hangry. Let tablehopper guide you to salvation with San Francisco's first late-night dining app!
In a city that likes to shut down at 10pm, Tablehopper's Top Late-Night Eats in SF definitive app is essential for anyone who likes to eat and drink after-hours. The tablehopper recommends over 95 San Francisco restaurants, cafés, taquerias, pizzerias, sandwich shops, and more that serve food past 11pm.
Each listing has a short blurb about the vibe and the must-order dishes—and it's written in the trademark tablehopper sassy style (oh you know it!). The app is GPS-enabled and lists the business hours (crucial!) and other info, like the website, address, cuisine, etc.
And, hey, we're not talking about chain restaurants or nasty diners—these are all 100 percent unique and pretty damn delicious. (Well, let's be honest, there are also a bunch of totally grubby places that you'd only go to after midnight.)
And the tablehopper should know—Marcia has been writing about San Francisco Bay Area restaurants since 2002, and is the author of the book The Tablehopper's Guide to Dining and Drinking in San Francisco: Find the Right Spot for Every Occasion.
Tablehopper's Top Late-Night Eats in SF is debuting in the iPhone App Store for $2.99 (Android version coming soon). Yup, the same price as a slice of pizza.
Check out the recent press in: Daily Candy Tasting Table Grub Street SFist SFoodie The Bold Italic Turnstyle Yum/SF Station
This app is part of the Know What network of apps, which features creative and smart people from all over the country recommending their favorite places and best local secrets.


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The gate was opened to me ... in one quarter of an hour I saw and knew more than if I had been many years together at a University ... I saw it as in a great deep in the internal; for I had a thorough view of the Universe, as a complex moving fullness wherein all things are couched and wrapped up. (Jacob Boehme, Mystic) | |
Our true nature is not limited ... it is like the vast ocean. ... When we touch Supreme Consciousness through meditation, then we are boundless, we are everywhere, we are eternal. (Amma Karunamayi) | |
God-consciousness is 10 million times more blissful than sexual experience. (Sage Ramakrishna Paramahamsa) |
To the enlightened one, the world as he knew it ceases to be, and everything now stands enmantled (shrouded) by a shining vesture of divine effulgence, hitherto invisible to his normal vision. (Swami Chidananda, Light Fountain Divine Life Society) | |
If I were to spend years and years imagining how to invent anything so beautiful, I could not do it, and I do not even know how I should try, for, even in its whiteness and radiance alone, it exceeds all that we can imagine. (Saint Teresa of Avila) | |
Everything that occurred to me while I was in this state of consciousness was vastly beyond anything that I had ever experienced and yet at the same time it was familiar - as if I had always known of its existence. Even now when I try to describe something so beautiful I am mute with awe. There are no words in any language to describe such grandeur. (Anonymous, Unbounded Light) |
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The new adventure that awaits the (human) race is a tremendous one of excitement, of achievement, of learning and of loving - loving not just each other, but all the creatures that God has made: an outpouring of affection for Creation that will never have been equaled in all the histories of all the planets of all the systems of this universe. And it is scheduled to happen here, on this tiny planet, millions of light-years from the central hub where the spirit of this galaxy resides. We are allowed to say that even the mightiest of solar and galactic entities aware of the plan for mankind are amazed that God should have selected this far-flung bit of cosmic dust for His greatest demonstration of spirituality. And yet it will come to pass just as the prophets have foreseen. And in that coming to pass, a model of love and beauty beyond anything ever experienced in Creation will manifest. Hilarion, Other Kingdoms |
Trinity's Mind Expanding Story Transmuting the Higher Energy Emitting Light Upwards Into the Universe Communing with Light Beings Trinity 2 Still Mind Angel Class Beings Crystals Pleiadians Space Girl Trinity 3 Stargate Light City Travel in the Void Crop Circles and Dolphins Trinity 4 Remote Sensing Solar Shield Meeting Pleiadian Family Kundalini Energy |
Charity | Philanthropy | |
Altruism | Benevolence | |


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La Casa is an affinity program for students interested in practicing, improving, sharing or maintaining their Spanish speaking abilities and are interested in learning about Hispanic, Iberian or Luso-Brazilian cultures. La Casa also serves the Dartmouth community with open events including movie series, cooking classes, dinners, discussions and conversation hours.
La Casa is an academic affinity house located at 42 North College Street that offers housing for up to 10 students. Sponsored by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, La Casa is designed to serve as a center and meeting place for a wide variety of activities related to Hispanic, Latino, Latin American, Spanish, and Portuguese cultures and languages. These activities will take place over the entire academic year, and can include video and film series, lectures, roundtables, cooking classes and gatherings of student organizations, fiestas, and other extracurricular activities.
The official language of La Casa is Spanish. Residents speak only Spanish in group situations and are strongly encouraged to speak Spanish at all times among themselves, with the Resident Director, and with Spanish-speaking guests.
If you are interested in receiving updates about our events, send us an email to email@example.com. You can also request to be added to our Orgsync group to stay updated about La Casa.


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I have been using Windows 8 through its several beta and preview versions on equipment designed for earlier editions, and I have been wondering for many months whether my unhappiness with it resulted from shortcomings of the hardware. I've now had a chance to spend some time with a first-rate Windows 8-optimized touchscreen laptop and while it works much better than older hardware, the new operating system remains an uncomfortable two-headed beast.
If you want a conventional clamshell laptop with a touchscreen, Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch (from $1,349) strikes me as an ideal workhorse. It features a 14″ 1600×900 display, an Intel i5 or i7 processor, and SSD storage to 256 GB. It weighs 3.4 lb., is .74 in. thick–just a hair thicker than the non-touch version–and provides a solid 5 hours of battery life. The keyboard is outstanding, as you would expect from a ThinkPad, and both the multitouch display and the big trackpad work very well with the full repertoire of Windows 8 gestures (there is also the traditional ThinkPad TrackPoint stick, which remains great for pixel-precise pointing.)
Windows 8 is certainly happier on the X1 Carbon Touch experience than any older laptop I have tried. Most important is that the swipe-from-the-side gestures so important to effective use of Windows 8 now work flawlessly on both the screen and the trackpad. But that's not nearly enough to overcome the essential clumsiness.
Windows 8 still feels like two operating systems loosely bolted together. In fact, what the experience of working both in the traditional Windoiws Desktop and what, for lack of a better name, I still call Metro, most felt like was switching between virtual machines under a system such as Parallels or VMware. The two user interfaces share storage and a clipboard—and not much else.
This separation manifests itself in many annoying ways. For example, if you start typing while in the Metro start screen, you initiate a search for applications, including Desktop apps. Indeed, with the disappearance of the Start button, this is the standard way to launch Desktop applications not on your task bar or desktop. You would expect that if you put the cursor outside any desktop window and began typing, you'd get the same search. Instead, nothing at all happens.
Then there is the failure of of Metro and Desktop apps to communicate. The Metro Calendar and People apps and Outlook don't seem to know anything about each other. So adding an appointment or contact in one has no effect on the other unless you sync through an external service.
The usefulness of the touch display is badly damaged by the wildly inconsistent behavior of applications. For example, pinch and stretch works just as you would expect in the Desktop version of Internet Explorer. But in the Google Chrome browser, the gesture works on the trackpad, but not on the screen.
Adobe Photoshop CS6 would seem to be an application that could benefit greatly from touch, but it just plain doesn't work. You can use touch to select items from menus or palettes. But when you touch the screen inside a picture, whatever tool you are using simply disappears and moving your finger has no effect at all. The tool cursor reappears as soon as you touch either the TrackPoint or trackpad.
Obviously, this situation will improve if and when third-party software vendors add proper Windows 8 touch support to their products. But it's not as though Windows 8 sneaked up on them, and their failure to work properly with touch is depressing.
Microsoft hasn't done that great a job itself with making its most important applications touch-ready. Office 2013 works better with touch than earlier versions, but that's not saying much and the effort has a half-hearted feel to it. For example, the "ribbon," Office's do-everything menu bar offers a choice between "touch" and "mouse" modes. In the latter, the menu items and icons are bigger and further apart and therefore much easier to hit accurately with your finger. But the same courtesy does not extend to other interface elements. In particular, context (right-click) menus are much too small for comfortable touch use. (In general, context menus are evil with a touch interface.)
Office applications also have a strange proclivity to pop open an onscreen keyboard, for example, in Outlook whenever a search box is selected. This makes sense on a pure tablet or a convertible or hybrid when the physical keyboard is not available. But it makes no sense at all on a laptop where the keyboard is permanently attached, and Windows ought to know better.
I think the conventional touch laptop ought to be a truly useful tool. The undoubtedly will become more common since Intel has decreed that touchscreens will required for the next generation of lightweight notebooks to carry the Ultrabook label. I've spent enough time working with a tablet and a keyboard that the idea of reaching to touch the screen no longer feels odd. But the deficiencies of the software keep the hardware far short of its potential. This will change in time, though there is no excuse for Microsoft launching either Windows 8 or Office 2013 half-ready for touch. For now, the fact that you pay a $200 premium for the touch version of the X1 Carbon–other touch models carry a similar premium–is a bet on the come.


text: 1Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) interface 2 3This provides an overview about the Linux PWM interface 4 5PWMs are commonly used for controlling LEDs, fans or vibrators in 6cell phones. PWMs with a fixed purpose have no need implementing 7the Linux PWM API (although they could). However, PWMs are often 8found as discrete devices on SoCs which have no fixed purpose. It's 9up to the board designer to connect them to LEDs or fans. To provide 10this kind of flexibility the generic PWM API exists. 11 12Identifying PWMs 13---------------- 14 15Users of the legacy PWM API use unique IDs to refer to PWM devices. 16 17Instead of referring to a PWM device via its unique ID, board setup code 18should instead register a static mapping that can be used to match PWM 19consumers to providers, as given in the following example: 20 21 static struct pwm_lookup board_pwm_lookup[] = { 22 PWM_LOOKUP("tegra-pwm", 0, "pwm-backlight", NULL), 23 }; 24 25 static void __init board_init(void) 26 { 27 ... 28 pwm_add_table(board_pwm_lookup, ARRAY_SIZE(board_pwm_lookup)); 29 ... 30 } 31 32Using PWMs 33---------- 34 35Legacy users can request a PWM device using pwm_request() and free it 36after usage with pwm_free(). 37 38New users should use the pwm_get() function and pass to it the consumer 39device or a consumer name. pwm_put() is used to free the PWM device. Managed 40variants of these functions, devm_pwm_get() and devm_pwm_put(), also exist. 41 42After being requested a PWM has to be configured using: 43 44int pwm_config(struct pwm_device *pwm, int duty_ns, int period_ns); 45 46To start/stop toggling the PWM output use pwm_enable()/pwm_disable(). 47 48Implementing a PWM driver 49------------------------- 50 51Currently there are two ways to implement pwm drivers. Traditionally 52there only has been the barebone API meaning that each driver has 53to implement the pwm_*() functions itself. This means that it's impossible 54to have multiple PWM drivers in the system. For this reason it's mandatory 55for new drivers to use the generic PWM framework. 56 57A new PWM controller/chip can be added using pwmchip_add() and removed 58again with pwmchip_remove(). pwmchip_add() takes a filled in struct 59pwm_chip as argument which provides a description of the PWM chip, the 60number of PWM devices provider by the chip and the chip-specific 61implementation of the supported PWM operations to the framework. 62 63Locking 64------- 65 66The PWM core list manipulations are protected by a mutex, so pwm_request() 67and pwm_free() may not be called from an atomic context. Currently the 68PWM core does not enforce any locking to pwm_enable(), pwm_disable() and 69pwm_config(), so the calling context is currently driver specific. This 70is an issue derived from the former barebone API and should be fixed soon. 71 72Helpers 73------- 74 75Currently a PWM can only be configured with period_ns and duty_ns. For several 76use cases freq_hz and duty_percent might be better. Instead of calculating 77this in your driver please consider adding appropriate helpers to the framework. 78


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Stainless Type 304 is one of the most versatile and commonly used grades of stainless steel. It is a Chromium-Nickel austenitic alloy containing a minimum of 18% Chromium and 8% Nickel with a max of 0.08% Carbon. It cannot be hardened by heat treatment but cold working can produce higher tensile strengths. The Chromium and Nickel alloy provide Type 304 with corrosion and oxidation resistance far superior to steel or iron. It has lower carbon content than 302 which enable it to minimize chromium carbide precipitation due to welding and intergranular corrosion. It has excellent forming and welding characteristics. Type 304 has an ultimate tensile strength of 51,500 psi, yield strength of 20,500 psi and 40% elongation in 2". Stainless steel type 304 comes in many different sizes and shapes including bar, angle, rounds, plate, channel and beams. This steel is used in many industries for many different purposes. Some examples are food processing equipment, kitchen equipment and appliances, paneling, trims, chemical containers, fasteners, springs, etc.
Hunan Gaoxing Steel Development Zone, No.1888 Purui South Rd, Wangcheng District,Changsha, Hunan, China
Tel: 0086-0731-88739521


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More than a decade after it happened, the Senate Intelligence Committee has investigated the use of enhanced interrogation techniques and the secret detention program run out of the Central Intelligence Agency. The report, which McClatchy's sources estimate will run 6,300 pages, is not expected to be complimentary. When that work is complete, the Intelligence Committee may have a brand new topic for a probe, and the Justice Department does now. The Inspector General of the CIA has referred allegations that the CIA spied on the committee and its aides during the investigation to the Department of Justice for potential prosecution:
The CIA Inspector General's Office has asked the Justice Department to investigate allegations of malfeasance at the spy agency in connection with a yet-to-be released Senate Intelligence Committee report into the CIA's secret detention and interrogation program, McClatchy has learned.
The criminal referral may be related to what several knowledgeable people said was CIA monitoring of computers used by Senate aides to prepare the study. The monitoring may have violated an agreement between the committee and the agency.
The development marks an unprecedented breakdown in relations between the CIA and its congressional overseers amid an extraordinary closed-door battle over the 6,300-page report on the agency's use of waterboarding and harsh interrogation techniques on suspected terrorists held in secret overseas prisons. The report is said to be a searing indictment of the program. The CIA has disputed some of the reports findings. …
The committee determined earlier this year that the CIA monitored computers – in possible violation of an agreement against doing so – that the agency had provided to intelligence committee staff in a secure room at CIA headquarters that the agency insisted they use to review millions of pages of top-secret reports, cables and other documents, according to people with knowledge.
This is among the worst possible accusations that could be levied against an intelligence service in a constitutional republic. For the CIA, it would be doubly worse, since the CIA's charter forbids it to conduct any kind of domestic intelligence; that jurisdiction belongs to the FBI, and it's significantly limited. The legislature oversees CIA, not the other way around, and if the CIA is snooping on their oversight work, that would undermine their authority.
The timing makes it even worse. American intelligence apparently never saw the invasion of Crimea coming; Eli Lake's sources poo-poohed the possibility while the invasion was practically underway. If these allegations turn out to be true, the Senate (and House) Intelligence Committee may well wonder whether the CIA spent too much time trying to peek into its probe rather than do the job it's chartered to do. Add that to the NSA scandal of the last nine months, and it adds up to a very bad time for American intelligence and civilian control.
Of course, these are still allegations, and from the somewhat-ambiguous description, it could be a misunderstanding related to tracking classified material. If there wasn't any substance to the allegations at all or just a misunderstanding, though, the IG wouldn't be referring the matter to Justice. The role of Justice isn't to conduct fact-finding missions, but to open criminal investigations. Ironically, the SSCI report on CIA — which focuses on material misrepresentations made to the Bush administration on interrogation and detention policies, among other things — probably wouldn't have resulted in Justice referrals after all these years.


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(CNN) -- A majority of Democrats would like to see Barack Obama rather than Hillary Clinton win their party's presidential nomination, according to a national poll out Monday.
A new poll out Monday shows Democrats prefer Sen. Obama over Sen. Clinton to win the nomination.
Fifty-two percent of registered Democrats questioned in a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey say the senator from Illinois is their choice for president, with 45 percent supporting Clinton.
The poll also suggests Democrats are more enthusiastic about an Obama victory (45 percent) than for a victory by the senator from New York (38 percent).
The two remaining major candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination are locked in a fierce battle for their party's presidential nomination, with Obama holding a slight lead both in delegates and the overall popular vote in the primaries and caucuses to date.
"The same patterns that we have been seeing in recent exit polls are holding true for Democrats nationwide as well. Obama's biggest support comes from men, younger voters and independents who lean Democratic," CNN polling director Keating Holland said. "Clinton does best among women, older voters and whites. One interesting difference, unlike the exit polls in many states, there is no difference in the national poll between college-educated Democrats and those who never attended college."
The nomination could hinge on two major matters: superdelegates and the possibility of do-over primaries for Florida and Michigan.
The two states broke national Democratic Party rules by moving up the dates of their primaries to January. None of the major Democratic candidates campaigned in the two states, and Obama's name wasn't even on the ballot in Michigan.
The national Democratic Party also banned Florida and Michigan's delegates from attending the party's national convention this summer. But with the fight for the nomination nearly deadlocked and the reality that winning both Florida and Michigan is crucial for the Democrats to take back the White House in November, there's now a movement toward letting both states vote again. Watch more on the Florida, Michigan primaries »
Sixty-three percent of Democrats said the two states should hold new primaries, with 19 percent saying delegates from Florida and Michigan should be seated at the national convention based on the results of the January primaries, and 15 percent saying no delegates should be seated at all.
If Clinton and Obama finish the primary season with close to an equal number of pledged delegates, then superdelegates could decide which candidate wins the nomination.
There are nearly 800 superdelegates, mostly Democratic members of Congress, top elected state officials and leading members of the Democratic Party. Fifty percent of those polled say that it's a bad idea for the party to have superdelegates, with 42 percent supporting the system.
Since the party is not going to scrap the superdelegates, the big question is how they should base their vote for the nomination.
Democrats appear split on this question -- 49 percent say that superdelegates should base their votes on their view of who would be the best candidate; 46 percent say that superdelegates should base their votes on the results of the primaries and caucuses.
The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll was conducted by telephone March 14-16, with 1, 019 Americans questioned, including 463 registered voters who identify themselves as Democrats or independents who lean Democratic.
The survey has a sampling error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points. E-mail to a friend
All About U.S. Presidential Election • Elections and Voting


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This article is more than 1 year old
Google accused of avoiding YouTube revenues
Toilet-using cats cheaper than you think
Google acknowledges that YouTube is still losing money. But according to an opinionated San Francisco IT research and consulting firm, it's not losing as much as it wants you to believe.
In April, the financial brains at Credit Suisse famously estimated that Google will spend a good $711m on YouTube this year while pulling in revenues of only $240m. That's a $470m loss. But a new report from RampRate - a firm that claims better IT knowledge than Credit Suisse - says that number is much too high.
"YouTube as a millstone around Google's profitability is a mirage. Contrary to Credit Suisse's estimates of a $470m annual loss, Google is more likely losing a fraction of that amount, due to peering for 73 per cent of its traffic, buying bandwidth from some of the lowest-cost Tier 1 providers, using unprecedented bulk purchasing power to secure very favorable wholesale rates, and running data centers far away from expensive locales," the report says.
"RampRate estimates that, based on our experience working with other top internet, e-commerce, and media firms, Google's maximum loss is no more than $174M without challenging Credit Suisse's revenue assessment."
What's more, RampRate argues that Google has purposefully allowed such misconceptions to proliferate. The firm insists that Mountain View is using tales of YouTube money eating as a way of gaining negotiating leverage against TV, movie, and music houses looking to license their content as well as copyright holders crying foul over piracy.
"Google is no doubt thrilled to let YouTube be known as a financial folly. In the dangerous waters of online content, a whiff of potential profit is an irresistible lure for predators such as copyright lawyers circling user-generated content monetization and content partners that are all too ready to turn on their distributors in a feeding frenzy," the report continues.
According to RampRate chief executive Tony Greenberg, the report was an effort to deliver video-happy businesses from the notion that the web will never make them any money. "The intent of the report was to really pull the dagger out of the back of video-based distribution businesses to show that their are ROIs after Google and after YouTube, that there will be many profits and opportunities on the largest social networking site in the world: YouTube," he tells The Reg.
Certainly, Google won't say how much it's losing from YouTube. But Google won't say much of anything. And in the wake of the Credit Suisse report, the company seemed to indicate the report's numbers were inflated. "Most people build outside views of what it costs us to do things, and often they exaggerate," Google chief financial officer Patrick Pichette told the Canadian magazine Macleans shortly after the report was released.
"When people run models, they generally use standard industry pricing for bandwidth, storage, but we build everything from scratch," he added. "So we know our cost position but nobody else does."
Whatever it's spending on YouTube, Google has also said it's having trouble convincing advertisers to spend money on the site. "The one thing that's not there with the fragmentation of media is a large audience," Jordan Hoffner, YouTube's head of content partnerships, told a San Francisco conference last year.
"We've seen that because of the increased fragmentation of audiences, brand advertisers that we deal with - Coca-Cola, Proctor and Gamble, General Motors - feel like they're missing something. They want to know how you reach a large number of people with a small amount of money."
For Greenberg, this too is Google FUD. He wants content owners to know that ads aren't the only way to make money from online video. "Video business is a possibility," he tells us. "Google is clearly doing a revenue avoidance."
Greenberg argues that at this point, Google is merely interested in beefing up its relationships with the TV, music, and movie crowd. Once Google augments the "cat videos" with professional vids, he says, they'll flip the revenue switch, expanding ad coverage and tapping other revenue sources, including direct video e-commerce. "Their strategy is to create advantageous content revenue sharing relationships, and content owners need to hold their mark."
Google did not respond to our request for comment. But a company spokesman tells the AP that Google is running millions of ads within or near millions of YouTube videos in an effort to reduce the site's loses. "We want our partners to do well, because when they succeed, we succeed," the spokesperson said.
Considering the state of the economy - and the way Google is scrambling for extra dollars in other areas - we find it hard to believe it's "doing a revenue avoidance" with YouTube. But we have no doubt that those Credit Suisse numbers are inflated. ®


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Posted by: Samker
« on: 02. September 2008., 19:33:00 »Google is launching a beta version of its own Web browser on Tuesday in more than 100 countries, the company announced Monday in a blog posting.
The open-source browser, called Chrome, first appeared on an unofficial Google blog in the form of a comic book. "As you may have read in the blogosphere, we hit 'send' a bit early on a comic book introducing our new open source browser, Google Chrome," the company said in the official announcement that appeared late Tuesday afternoon after the Internet began buzzing about the comic-book site. The blog posting was by Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management, and Linus Upson, engineering director.
The browser window is "streamlined and simple," they said, describing in words what can be seen visually at the unofficial blog, Google Blogoscoped. "To most people, it isn't the browser that matters. It's only a tool to run the important stuff -- the pages, sites and applications that make up the Web. Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast. It gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go," the blog posting said.
Components from Apple's WebKit and Mozilla's Firefox are part of the open-source Chrome, they said.
Updated information about the browser and its availability Tuesday will be provided at the company blog, they said.
News Source: PC World


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Persons with albinism must not be treated as "ghosts", UN experts stress
"They are regarded as ghosts and not human beings who can be wiped off the global map," said the group in a message marking Tanzania's National Albinism Day. "People living with albinism [are] the target of many false and harmful myths in several countries, especially in the African region."
Albinism is a rare, non-contagious, genetically inherited condition occurring in both genders regardless of ethnicity, in all countries of the world. It can happen to anyone if both father and mother carry the gene for it even if they do not have albinism themselves. Albinism results in a lack of pigmentation in the hair, skin and eyes, causing vulnerability to sun exposure and bright light.
In several African countries, it is believed that body parts of persons with albinism possess magical powers capable of bringing riches if used in potions produced by local witchdoctors. Some even believe that the witchcraft is more powerful if the victim screams during the amputation, so body parts are often cut from live victims.
Non-governmental organizations working in the field have documented 186 ritual attacks against people with albinism since 2000. Abductions and killings were recorded in 15 African states.
"These are manifestations of the worst forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and can never be justified," the Special Rapporteur on torture, Juan E. Méndez, said. "Under international human rights law it is the duty of the State to afford protection to persons with albinism against such barbaric acts."
People with albinism are not only brutally mutilated and tortured, but also killed and often buried alive together with tribal chiefs so as not to leave them in the grave alone. "These acts must be stopped and the perpetrators must be brought to justice without delay," said Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns.
"States bear full responsibility to undertake thorough, prompt and impartial investigations of all killings of persons with albinism, as well as to adopt the necessary measures to bring an end to impunity and prevent the recurrence of such killings," he added.
People living with albinism is that they are often rejected and abandoned by their own families due to pressure from society, the UN Independent Expert on minority issues, Rita Izsák, noted.
"Their stigma, the lifelong social exclusion and general discrimination they face is a similar experience to those vulnerable racial minorities because of their different skin colour," she said.
While numbers vary, in North America and Europe it is estimated that 1 in every 20,000 people have some form of albinism. In Tanzania, and throughout East Africa, albinism is much more prevalent, with estimates of 1 in 2,000 people being affected.
The Special Rapporteur on racism, Mutuma Ruteree underlined that Governments must ensure that persons living with albinism have the same opportunities as everyone else and that they are treated with the same dignity.
Almost all people with albinism are visually impaired. They may also have a shortened life span by lung disease or may develop life-threatening skin cancers. The Special Rapporteur on health, Anand Grover noted that they often do not receive the necessary health care, and urged authorities to assess their needs to increase their life chances.
Educating children about albinism is also important to prevent discrimination against them, said the Special Rapporteur on the right to educations, Kishore Singh. "There are now several educational methodologies and guides to teachers that have proved efficient in the course of educating children with albinism. These must be widely promoted and applied."
The experts urged UN bodies such as Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to study the root causes of discrimination and attacks on persons with albinism, and call on world governments to raise awareness and educate the public at large about the true nature of albinism.
"Dedicated national days, such as it exists in Tanzania can provide a great opportunity to trigger more attention to and launch discussion on the plight and needs of people living with albinism," they said. "They are not ghosts; they are simply persons like you and us, but living with albinism."


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So he dumped us for the Red Sox and $70 million. So he was a "high-priced bust" during the regular season. Don't feel sorry for J.D. Drew—we never did—because with one monster jack, he's become the latest former-Dodger-turned-Boston-hero, following in the steps of Dave Roberts.
The former-Red-Sox-star-turned-Dodger-goat line starts with Bill Mueller. (I'm giving Nomar a pass because of this and this.)
Meanwhile, Julio Lugo awaits his turn in the spotlight....
Don't think Mueller misses the glory days? He threw out the ceremonial first pitch at Fenway Park last night. Oh well, maybe the $4.5 million the Dodgers are paying him this year will ease the pain of not being on the Red Sox roster.
cheese photo by Thomas Guschl; cheesy Drew photo by Al Bello/Getty Images


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Hero's Quest 2 (walkthrough)
Hero's Quest 2 Submitted by: Dj Simo So, we find ourselves in Shapeir. An oasis in the middle of the vast desert. We start in the Katta's Tail Inn, talking to Abdulla. Talk to him and he will tell you that you should explore the town. But to do this effectively you will need a map of the town layout. The Inn isn't the place to look for such a thing, so we decide to leave this place. When exiting the Inn, we enter a plaza, and in one corner there is a fellow trying to sell some junk, like ashtrays, t-shirts, maps.. Hey - did he say map? That's exactly what we need now! But when talking the man we soon find out that the money from spielburg isn't accepted here! Fortunately, there is a moneychanger in this town, and if you follow the instructions Ali Chicha gives you, you will eventually find her. After exchanging your money for Shapeir money, return to the stand of Ali Chicha. Buy the map and compass from him. Now we have taken the first step to exploring the town. During the following 12 or so days, all we'll have to do is to defeat several elementals attacking the town. But there are other fun things to do, as well. The Magic-User will want to become a member of the WIT. To become a such, You will first have to find where it's located. There are two magicians in this town that you can ask, Keapon Laffin and Aziza. However, none of those will tell you much. Perhaps give a pointer. To find WIT, you will have to use the spell Detect magic to locate a certain cul-de-sac. When you think you have found the right spot, cast an Open spell to enter WIT. Once inside WIT you will be asked why you seek admittance (answer some- thing like magic), and will be asked to choose a mentor. You can see pictures of different persons, among them Aziza. But she says she don't know you well enough. Hmm.. Who is it on that painting? Remember ol' Erasmus? Well, he seems to remember you, and despite much moaning from other Wizards, he can be chosen your mentor. Then, all you have to do is to pass those tests... The first test is in a dark room, where you will have to use detect magic, fetch and trigger to perform what Erasmus ask you to do. Then it's on to the path of Wizardry. First to block your way along this path is the element of air, in the form of a fan. Make the fan move towards you and then levitate to let it pass under you. Thus, the first obstacle has been negated. Next to hinder you is the element of earth. He can be coped with by casting several calm spells after casting detect magic (or was it trigger?). Just climb over the elemental when he is calm. The third element is fire. To get past this one, extinguish the fire with a calm spell. (be sure to open the door with a fetch spell first) Then, after closing the door (another fetch spell), cast a force bolt at the upper half of the door. The door will allow you to cross the hole. The last hinder is the element of water. It will have to be melted with a flame dart, and then cracked with several well placed force bolts. Once you have finished this, you will be accepted as an initiate in WIT. You do not want to remain there, however, no matter what the other wizards say. The Thief should seek out the moneychanger for more than one reason. She just happens to be the local thieves' guild, and she will give you an assignment if you identify yourself as a thief. Just follow her directions, and remember to lift the rug. (if surprised, just hide in the closet - but be sure you've oiled the hinges first) As a reward for a well done assignment, she will then give you directions as to where more money can be found. The Fighter will later be given the opportunity to join the EOF (ask the adventurers' guild manager about this), but it will take some time before this happens. When it does, just follow the instructions you get (the letters left at the adventurers' guild) and simply break the chains when you're going to be 'executed'. The Town of Shapeir : In the town there are the following locations of interest. The saurus pen. Here you can buy your own riding saurus on day 2 or 3. The Katta's Tail Inn Retire here when it's time to sleep. Also, Omar the prophet will speak here on occasion. The Alchemist. Here you can buy pills and sell differentingredients. You can also buy the incense that will be needed do defeat the fire elemental later on. Ask Harik on fire, since this is his specialty. He will also be able to mix up some dispel potions for you. The Magic Shop. This shop is run by Keapon Laffin, a person attuned to the element of air. He can provide information on the element of air as well as spells and a magic rope. If asked for, he will give away fool's earth. (or something like that) The fountain plaza. Here you can fill your waterskins, get dirt from the flourist, buut a brass lamp to contain a fire elemental and buy food. Aziza. The encantress will let you in if you answer her questions. You can then then get information about the different elementals and the enchanted tree in the desert. While she tells something about all the elementals, she is most attuned to the element of water. Palace plaza. I think this is the place to buy a cloth bag, that will be used to store a earth elemental later on. Aside from that the only thing that can be obtained here is a pin that you're given as a gift after defeating the elementals. Fighter plaza. Here you should find Rakeesh, a paladin and a noble warrior. He can lend you a magical, flaming sword to defeat the earth elemental. He can also tell you 'bout the element of earth. Blacksmith. This man sells swords and daggers, and also like armwrestling. It's a good way to add to your strength. Also, on his sign hangs the bellows that you will use to capture the air elemental. Adventurers' guild. Here you can train, sign your name in the book, and find different quests on the board. Astrologer. You can get your future told here. If there's anything more to do, I admit I missed it. Moneychanger. As have been said, you change money here and get assignments if a thief. Nest of the griffin. Can be found if walking left along the cliffs when entering the desert. Scare the griffin away, and then use the magic rope or levitate to get a feather. (This can be tricky) Enchanted tree. Follow the cliffs to the right when entering the desert to get here. Oasis of the dervish. Ask the guard at the town gate for instructions on how to find this place. What you want here is some of the dervish' beard. On to the quest When you've familiarized yourself with the Town, the elementals should start to appear. The first one is the fire elemental, that will ravage the gates plaza one day after it's first heard of. To defeat this hot- head, get some incense that you spread on the ground. Then lead the elemental into the alley and place the brass lamp on the ground. When You run out of incense, use a full waterskin to force the elemental into the lamp. Viola, you now have a magic lamp! Four days later, an air elemental will appear in the palace plaza. This guy really doesn't like dirt, so if you throw some at him, he'll be paralyzed for a while. When paralyzed, the elemental fit just nicely in the bellows. The next challenge is the Earth elemental. It will roam the streets of the town an can be encountered anywhere buy in the plazas. To defeat it, you'll have to use fire. The two ways to do this is to use either the flame dart spell or Rakeesh's Soulforge. Be sure to collect the remains in a cloth bag. The last threat to the city is a water elemental appearing in the foun- tain. The only thing that can drive it from the fountain is the air elemental captured in the bellows. It can then be captured in an empty waterskin. The last important thing to do before leaving with the caravan to Raseir is to have Harik make dispel potions. To do this, he needs some ingre- dients. All of those you should already have collected, except for one. The missing ingredient is the 'Fruit of Compassion'. To obtain this, you will need to visit Aziza and ask her on the plant. Then get to the tree and give it water, while telling it about yourself. Give it earth and tell it about your deeds. Lastly, give it a hug and tell her her name. (Julanar) The tree will now bear fruit, and Harik should be able to make the potions. (some things are omitted here, but those pose no problems while playing the game) On to Raseir You will now traver to the town of Raseir, where evil rules. After entering the town, enter the Blue Parrot. There you'll find the head of the thieves' guild in Raseir - a really slimy guy. He will have you steal a statuette of a falcon from the captain of the guard. But first, you should meet a lady in distress. She wants your pass, so that she can get out of the city. Of course, that means YOU cant get out anymore, but we're supposed to be heroes, aren't we? Give her your clothes and pass, and then you'll get a mirror in exchange. Now to stealing the statue. Enter the central plaza sneaking, and wait 'til the guard disappears. (as soon as it gets dark) Then use the magic rope or the levitate spell to get to the window on the second floor. Enter the room within and steal the statue from the cabinet. (once again you'll have to use oil to make sure those hinges doesn't make any sound) Upon returning to the 'Blue Parrot' you will be arrested as soon as you leave the tavern. In the prison Remember the pin the Katta gave you? Remember what associasions it gave you? Well after talking to the Katta in the cell (and showing him the pin) You skillfully use the pin to pick the lock to the cell. The Katta then show you a secret passage leading out of here. Don't forget your gear, though. At the other end you will part, just to run into Ad Avis. He will hypnotize you and you will suddenly find yourself in the lost city. The crypt Since the prophecy seems unwilling to fulfill itself, you'll have to help it a bit. With the help of the mirror, the stars will suddenly be in the correct positions and the door to the crypt will open. Ad Avis will then urge you to go into the crypt. Again you will fight the elements. This time Water is the first to oppose you as an underwater stream block your way. Every now and then there floats past a log, could this be of any help? On the other side of the stream there's a hole in the wall wich creates a strong wind. Use force bolt ore brute foce to block the hole, and you've negated the second element. You can then traverse the path to the room with boiling lava. Once in there it helps to keep cool - if you find this hard, you should pour something on yourself. On the other side of the lava you will find a cliff and a door below it. To get down, use the rope or the spell levitate. Once you approach the door, it will start asking nosy questions. (only one, actually) The answer to the question could be discerned from conversation with Abdulla, but why you should think of doing this before you get the question, I don't know. The answer is 'Suleiman' (Ben Daoud, I think) The only thing now standing between you and the statue of Iblis is the treasury. Just don't take any of those goodies, and you'll get through this room without problems. Now you enter the room where the staue of Iblis is located. The final battle Just before you reach the statue, Ad Avis appears out of thin air. He then seal the cave and leave you there to die. Fortunately, Ad Avis has mis- interpreted the prophecy, and when looking carefully you will find a ring on a stalagmite, containing 'He who is left behind'. This being is a djinn, and has the power to grant wishes. Since you have three, you can use two to improve your chracter, while using the last to teleport back to Raseir. Once here, you again meet the Katta from the cell, and he tells you that you should sneak into the palace while the Kattas kepp the guards busy. sneaking to the palace, you see a handkerchief tied to the battlement. Wait until the guard moves away, and then levitate or climb to where the hanky is. You now enter the harem. (Wish one could stay there, sigh!) After a long scene, you will sneak past the eunucks guarding the harem. Now we find ourselves watching how Ad Avis is freeing Iblis. Since this is somthing that should be avoided, our task is to stop him, but how? It is essential to stop him from finishing the ritual, and since you cant get him from here, you must use the rope to get to the tower. uce there, you can throw a dagger at one of the candles and break the spell. However, this will upset Ad Avis. He will do his best to kill you, but if you duck, and throw daggers at him, you should be able to kill him. (I had a hard time doing this, mainly because i never got across the rope fast enough to stop Ad Avis from freeing Iblis) Now all you have to do is to relax and watch the ending scene - you have completed Quest For Glory II : Trial By Fire.