text:
Saturday January 8, 2005
SCI FI's hit miniseries that proved to be cable's most-watched miniseries of 2003 -- in a special three-hour presentation on Saturday, January 9 prior to SCI FI's new series premiere of "Battlestar" on January 14. Originally broadcast as a four-hour miniseries that updated its original predecessor, "Battlestar Galactica" will be edited to three hours to accommodate NBC's primetime schedule on January 8. Directed by Michael Rymer ("Queen of the Damned") and written by Ronald D. Moore ("Carnivale," "Roswell"), the miniseries--and subsequent series--stars Edward James Olmos ("Stand and Deliver," "Blade Runner") as Commander Adama, who leads the last remnants of humanity in their war against a new and deadlier breed of Cylons. Edgier and racier than its predecessor, SCI FI imbued "Galactica" with a decidedly modern twist -- upping the ante on the action, adventure, romance and family drama that made the original television series so beloved. While maintaining the groundbreaking story of man versus machine, this time, the Cylon robot is no longer a recognizable enemy. The ragtag fleet, comprised of all that remains of the human race, is forced into a dramatic final showdown for survival.


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Fisrt of all I am a Windows developer guy but really like Linux. On Windows, Visual Studio provides an excellent IDE for C and C++ development. The only other IDE and toolkit I like is the Qt SDK and I've used it a bit on Windows.
I currently run Linux in a VirtualBox VM on Windows 7 so that I can mess around with it fearlessly. I have a KDE-based Kubuntu 11, which is quite heavy. I also have an Xfce-based Xubuntu 11 VM (which I like) and Linux Mint 11.
I want to delete the Kubuntu VM but KDE is based on Qt, and the other distros I have use gnome/GTK+. Would Qt on a Gnome-based distro be any different than using it on a KDE-based distro?

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Product 7/42
179 x 234
On 18 count
Aida finished design will be
25cm x 33cm -- 9" x 13"
This product was added to our catalog on Wednesday 30 November, 2011.
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text:
Early last week, former Florida governor Jeb Bush — regarded by many as a likely candidate for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination — ignited a fire storm of abuse with what seemed to any reasonable person an inarguable observation about undocumented immigrants.
Speaking to a gathering at his father's presidential library in Texas, the younger Bush brother remarked that, for many newcomers without papers, undocumented immigration — with all its dangers and hardships — was an "act of love." Bush mused, "Someone who comes to our country because they couldn't come legally, they come to this country because of their families — the dad who loved their children was worried that their child didn't have food on the table. And they wanted to make sure their family was intact, and they crossed the border because they had no other means to work to be able to provide for their family. Yes, they broke the law, but it's not a felony … It's an act of commitment to your family. I honestly think that that is a different kind of crime. There should be a price paid, but it shouldn't rile people up that people are actually coming to this country to provide for their families." He went on to urge an end to the "harsh political rhetoric" around the immigration reform issue.
(Actually, his brother, George W. Bush, put the matter even more succinctly in his 2000 presidential campaign when he remarked, "Family values don't stop at the Rio Grande.")
It wasn't the first time that Jeb Bush has strayed from the unbending anti-immigrant orthodoxy of the GOP's so-called conservative grassroots. Less than a year ago, he echoed the consensus among most serious economists when he told the Faith and Freedom Conference that "immigrants created far more businesses than native-born Americans, over the last 20 years. Immigrants are more fertile, and they love families, and they have more intact families, and they bring a younger population. Immigrants create an engine of economic prosperity."
Within hours of his most recent comments, Bush was being accused on Fox News and across the right-wing recesses of the web of "betraying" not just his party's principles, but also the nation's. Even the more sober among his critics charged that Bush had all but disqualified himself from winning the GOP nomination by merely observing that most undocumented immigrants undertake the dangerous crossing of our border out of concern for their families' well-being.
Charles Krauthammer labeled Bush's comments "bizarre" and alleged that, politically, he was pointlessly "leading with his chin." The National Review's Jim Geraghty alleged that the remarks were among "these nagging indicators that he's either not in touch with the mood of the conservative grassroots, or he's willfully at odds with the conservative grassroots, and confident he can dissuade the grassroots of their opinion." The Republican congressional leadership quickly disavowed the prospective candidate's opinion, but that was nothing compared to the right-wing websites and commentators, who accused Bush of joining "the treason lobby" and even attacked his Mexican-born wife, falsely alleging that she had entered the country as an "illegal alien."
The abuse showered on Bush contrasted starkly with the national Republicans' silence last week, when their party's leading California gubernatorial candidate — Twin Peaks Assemblyman Tim Donnelly — unflinching said he stands by remarks he made in 2006 as a leader of anti-immigrant vigilantes. "I am a descendant of Jim Bowie who died at Alamo," he told his audience. "It is rumored that he took a dozen Mexican soldiers to their deaths before they finally killed him. How many of you will rise up and take his place on that wall. We are at war. You may not want to accept it, but the other side has declared war on us … There is a growing insurgency right here in Los Angeles … Right now, in the United States, there are 850,000 gang members, two-thirds of whom are illegal aliens." Donnelly argued that the belief that undocumented immigrants come in search of a better life "is one of the lies. At least 20 percent are coming to commit the crimes that American criminals no longer will commit."
There's so much mean-spirited wrong-headedness running through those remarks that they don't bear dissection. Suffice to say, it's easy to see why the latest Field Poll on the California governor's race shows the Democratic incumbent Jerry Brown with 57 percent of the vote and Donnelly with 17 percent. Similarly, the sort of dismissive abuse hurled at Bush from across the country is a pretty good partial explanation of why the GOP has lost the popular vote in five out of the last six presidential elections.
Immigration reform is just one of the issues that festers unresolved because of the angry, resentful, inflexible, fantasy-fueled character of so much of our national political life. Jeb Bush, for example, is in most ways a candidate with impeccable conservative credentials. His financial conservatism has made him a Wall Street favorite. As governor of Florida, Bush — a convert to Catholicism — demonstrated a consistent social conservatism that won him a following among a large swath of the religious right. However, depart from the anxiously inflexible checklist orthodoxy that now dominates so much of our grassroots politics, and you're a heretic banished to the outer darkness. (The same is increasingly true in many Democratic constituencies; no matter what your other credentials, try running in one of the party's primaries if you try oppose any restriction on abortion, or maintain religious reservations about marriage equality.)
In his 1993 study of resurgent ethnic consciousness across the globe, "Blood and Belonging: Journeys into the New Nationalism," Michael Ignatieff wrote: "I cannot help thinking that liberal civilization — the rule of laws, not men, of argument in place of force, of compromise in place of violence — runs deeply against the human grain and is achieved and sustained only by the most unremitting struggle against human nature. The liberal virtues — tolerance, compromise, reason — remain as valuable as ever, but they cannot be preached to those who are mad with fear …"
History suggests that we add compassionate humanity to those other virtues and the categorical rejection of its introduction into the national conversation on immigration reform is worse than alarming. The instantaneous and savage pillorying to which Jeb Bush was subjected this week is further evidence that the real crisis is not over this particular question of national policy, but in our increasingly angry and fearful politics themselves.
Tim Rutten is a columnist for the Los Angeles News Group. email@example.com.


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Have you ever wanted to know which outbound ports are open in your school's/workplace's firewall? I know I have. And it always frustrated me that finding out seems like an impossible task. And it isn't really that odd, either, as you would need a host listening on every single port from 1 to 65535 that you could attempt to connect to in order to find out if the firewall would let you through. Well, I've come up with a solution.
In an attempt to find out which outbound ports are open in my university's firewall, I developed a small test suite consisting of 2 PHP scripts – a client and a server. The server script must be run on a host that has pretty much unrestricted access to the Internet. If you're running it at home, on a host behind a NAT router, I recommend configuring it as the "DMZ host" on the router, as that basically forwards all ports to it.
The suite then works by having the client send a request to the server to open a specific port range to be tested. The client then attempts to connect to these, and when done, it requests the next range, until every port is tested. The server may discover that it is unable to open certain ports due to other services running on the host, and the client will be notified. These will show up as "Untested ports" in the test results.
Please take a look at each file in your favorite text editor – there are a few settings you probably need to adjust, including the server host name, last port to test and such.
Note: You will need the PHP interpreter to run the scripts. You can get a Windows build here. Also, you must enable the Sockets and cURL extensions for it to work.
Tip: If you have a dynamic IP address on your Internet connection, you can use services such as No-IP to get a dynamic DNS domain that always points home.
Warning: I made no attempts to implement any sort of security into this test suite, so you shouldn't leave it running for any longer than absolutely necessary, nor can I recommend permanently having your computer as "DMZ host".
Update: To test single ports without having to set up your own server, you can use http://portquiz.positon.org/


text:
Math and StatisticsLibraries for .NET
public override double MomentFunction(
int order,
double x
Public Overrides Function MomentFunction (
order As Integer,
x As Double
) As Double
virtual double MomentFunction(
int order,
double x
) override
abstract MomentFunction :
order : int *
x : float -> float
override MomentFunction :
order : int *
x : float -> float
The order must be greater than or equal to zero.
Copyright (c) 2004-2017 ExoAnalytics Inc.
Copyright © 2004-2018,
Extreme Optimization. All rights reserved.
Extreme Optimization, Complexity made simple, M#, and M
Sharp are trademarks of ExoAnalytics Inc.
Microsoft, Visual C#, Visual Basic, Visual Studio, Visual
Studio.NET, and the Optimized for Visual Studio logo are
registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.


text:
The Dreamweaver Templates Resource is a reviewed listing of high quality website template companies. These companies produce professional templates for webmasters. In many cases our reviewers have extensive experience with the products and in other cases we have done a site review to make your job locating a suitable professional template somewhat easier.
We hope this listing will save you time searching for well constructed, beautiful templates with high consumer appeal. Dreamweaver Web Site Templates also make excellent teaching examples for students of all levels. Many years of graphic design experience has been employed in producing these resource listings but please remember that Dreamweaver-Templates.org does not assume any responsibility or liability for these resources. The list is in order of popularity and is provided as a free service, please use at your own risk.
|Sort: Popularity Alpha
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|Dreamweaver Graphics Company
|Inexpensive and easy to use small business web site design templates. These basic business layouts are suitable for a wide variety of uses. Great for business start-ups. Their ease of use also makes them ideal for students or personal sites.
|Template Monster
|Highly stylized designs. The largest selection of online website templates we know of; most utilising Adobe Photoshop PSD files and suitable for all development environments. You might prefer this simpler Template Monster Search website for your research.
|These templates utilise a combination of Dreamweaver's built-in template and library functions to get your web site underway quickly and easily. Useful documentation and online help.
|May very well be the most beautiful and technically astute CSS templates on the web, bar none. A must see.
|Legend Web
|High quality and inexpensive. Legend Web offers a straightforward assortment of standard and ecommerce templates.
|Ecommerce Templates
|Quick setup · Great designs · USPS Shipping · PayPal Instant Payment Notification · Search Page · Product options · Layout options and More.
|Timothy Web
|HTML Templates and CSS Templates that are easy to use. Collection of web templates for Dreamweaver, Expression Web, and Visual Studio.
|Our own selection of professionally designed templates for all types of sites. Choose from hundreds of templates in many business categories. Designed by some of the best template designers.
|The osCommerce Store
|osCommerce Templates are ready made solutions to use for on-line shops. These ecommerce shops are a combination of osCommerce software provided by osCommerce.com in conjunction with a template store-front design.
|Low cost well constructed design, many Wordpress templates. jQuery templates also.
|Web Templates for Dreamweaver CS3/CS4/CS5/CS6 and CC (Creative Cloud). Unique website templates with many options. Include step-by-step tutorials.
|Many lessons on Dreamweaver basics and advanced topics. High quality website designs. Template categories include Business, Food, Family, Sports, Travel, Real Estate and more! Unique features include drop-down menus, swap images and rollover buttons. An easy to follow customisation guide is also included with each download.
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|We like the structure of these templates. The CSS and HTML are well programmed. These templates are fairly simple and may work well for those with minimal experience. They are fast loading and uncomplicated to modify.
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|Simple HTML templates. Will work well in Adobe Dreamweaver, MS Expression Web, Coffee Cup and/or any HTML editor.
|Allwebco Design
|Mobile friendly HTML web sites with, full instructions, css text menus, multiple pages plus built-in scripts and features.
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text:
Pesci - Hate In My Blood [Duct Tape Ent Submitted]
Duct Tape Ent own Pesci exposing all the fake industry niggas in Atlanta. Mixtape H.N.I.C Hosted By Dj Swamp Izzo In The Streets Now
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text:
The NFL is "investigating" a sexually explicit video of Brandon Spikes, the New England Patriots rookie linebacker and former Florida Gator star. The video is a recording on the random web-cam-based chat service Chatroulette. The sexually explicit video shows Spikes lying in bed with a woman and receiving oral sex.
ESPN.com reports NFL spokesperson Greg Aiello says, "We are looking into it." Spikes faces a fine and possible suspension by the NFL over violating the league's personal conduct policy. In the 48 hours ago since it surfaced, Reebok has also decided against finalizing an endorsement deal with the footballer, reports the Boston Herald.
The video was reportedly first offered to Deadspin for $1,500 and later released on WorldStarHipHop.com. Spikes is certainly not camera-shy and apparently doesnt have any shortcomings to worry about.
Spikes received notoriety last fall when as a Florida Gator he gouged the eyes of Georgia Bulldog Washaun Ealey. Spikes' agent Terry Watson says the sexually explicit video was apparently made when Spikes was in college. "It certainly doesn't reflect the kind of person that he is," Watson claims.


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Hundley's three-run homer paces Padres
GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Rough starts such as Wednesday's don't happen too frequently for Chris Sale.
But it was the Padres who controlled the left-handed ace and not the other way around during an 8-0 victory over the White Sox at Camelback Ranch.View Full Game Coverage
GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Rough starts such as Wednesday's don't happen too frequently for Chris Sale.
But it was the Padres who controlled the left-handed ace and not the other way around during an 8-0 victory over the White Sox at Camelback Ranch.View Full Game Coverage
Sale was able to throw strikes over his 2 2/3 innings of work, with 41 of his 59 pitches in the zone. When he did work around the plate, the Padres connected for six runs on six hits.
San Diego scored four runs in the first inning on singles from Everth Cabrera, Xavier Nady and Kyle Blanks, with Nady's scoring Cabrera. That shot up the middle was followed by Nick Hundley's opposite-field, three-run shot to right.
The Padres tallied single runs in the second and third on fielder's-choice grounders before Sale exited with two outs and two on. It wasn't the sort of results he was looking for, but Sale was more interested in the work than the runs allowed.
"We are here for a reason. It's to prepare yourself," Sale said. "You still want to do well and have success. But I'm definitely not losing any sleep tonight over this one.
"April and May comes around, June and July, something like that happens, that's when it eats at you. We are here to get our work in and results are secondary to that."
Andrew Cashner, who could get the Opening Day starting nod for San Diego, as Sale figures to have with the White Sox, produced work and results in Wednesday's victory. The right-hander allowed singles to Conor Gillaspie and Adam Dunn over three innings, striking out Gordon Beckham twice and fanning Marcus Semien once.
"The breaking ball was maybe the best it's been since 2012," Cashner said. "I started throwing my spike again and got the depth and bite I like. I threw some good changeups and broke some bats on some inside fastballs."
Paul Konerko singled in two at-bats, coming through on his 38th birthday. Cabrera and Rymer Liriano had two hits apiece for the Padres. Cody Decker crushed a two-run homer of White Sox reliever David Purcey in the eighth inning.
Up next: Ian Kennedy makes his second start of Cactus League play at 12:05 p.m. PT (live on MLB.TV) on Thursday when the Padres face the Rangers at the Peoria Sports Complex. Kennedy allowed one hit and one walk with two strikeouts over two scoreless innings against the Royals on March 1. Left-handed reliever Alex Torres, who arrived late in camp because of visa issues in his native Venezuela, will make his Padres debut by pitching one inning against the Rangers.
Scott Merkin is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Merk's Works, and follow him on Twitter @scottmerkin.


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Academic Support
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Test Preparation for the CBEST
CSET, and TOEFL
How We Are Different
Community Supported
With roots based in LA, LA Tutors has developed tight-knit relationships with schools, teachers, counselors and admissions staff to better serve your needs.
Personally Transformative
Your tutor will be hand-selected to match your needs. With LA tutor's unique pedagogy and veteran tutors by your side, your success is all but guaranteed!
Technologically Empowering
We integrate cutting-edge educational technologies, like our proprietary score analyses, in order to provide you with every tool you need on your academic journey.
Our Satisfied Clients
"I began my tutoring with LA Tutors at the beginning of my senior year and continued for a few months in order to prepare for the November SAT. I was fortunate to have Mahlena Johnson as my tutor, who demonstrated exceptional mastery of the SAT curriculum as well as practiced patience and understanding when I struggled with some concepts. With Mahlena's help, I was able to increase my initial SAT score by over 200 points! I was also able to achieve admission to the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Los Angeles. Without a doubt, I can credit LA Tutors for my academic achievements!"
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"LA Tutors rocks!!! Deja's total score increased 110 points with only 5 additional hours for the December test! That's a total 240 point increase with 30 hours … in spite of Deja's busy schedule!! Before selecting LA Tutors, I researched many other companies. I selected LA Tutors because they had the cheapest rates that I found. And, I was also impressed by the fact that they made no false promises or score "guarantees." Well … 30 hours and 240 points later, I am so pleased in the investment that I made. Her increased score was key to her receiving a Presidential Scholarship at Xavier University in Ohio, the school she will be attending in the Fall of 2014!! Thank you LA Tutors for working with Deja and …"
"Ms. Watson helped me to increase my overall grade point average. In my English class I was failing, but after receiving help from Ms.Watson, I now have an A average in that class. For Economics, Ms.Watson helped my grade from an F average to a B/C average. She taught me a lot about general information for my core classes in addition to what I need to know for my tests and she keeps me on task. Ms.Watson has become more than a tutor, she has become my academic mentor. Now I have techniques and skills that help keep me focused and prepared in high school as well as college. I was so proud to have earned better grades in these classes for my senior year and I have Ms.Watson and my parents to thank for their …"
"I worked with LA Tutors to help me prepare for the ACT, and I couldn't be happier. I worked with Negin, who was very helpful and extremely patient with me. Before I started working with Negin, I was averaging about a 30 on the ACT, but by the end, she helped me bring my score up by three points. Everyone at LA Tutors was helpful, even Arash, who consistently checked up on my progress and kept in touch with my parents and myself. Overall, I would definitely recommend working with LA Tutors and Negin to increase your test scores …"


text:
California braces as drought sparks early fire season
In recent months, as California officials started to calculate the fire danger posed by the state's prolonged and historic drought, they tucked an extra $23 million into the Cal Fire emergency wildfire budget for the fiscal year that began July 1, bringing its total to $209 million.
By July 6 – just days into the fiscal year – the agency already had spent $13.9 million battling two major blazes, and is now bracing for one of the longest and most difficult fire seasons in memory.
"That's just the first week, and we still have 51 more weeks to go," said Daniel Berlant, spokesman for Cal Fire, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. "We're not even to the peak of the fire season yet."
Berlant and top fire officials have been warning for months that the state faces serious peril from wildland fires this year, as the drought – stretching into a third year – has sucked dry much of the state's brush lands and forests more quickly than in years with more normal precipitation levels.
"We're not just saying it's dry, it's not just a mantra," he said. "We are seeing the effects now. We are absolutely seeing increased fire activity and numbers."
In just the first week of the fiscal year, Cal Fire has marshaled roughly 2,500 firefighters from across the state to battle the Monticello fire in Yolo County and the Butts fire in Napa County, which collectively burned 10,800 acres.
State, local and federal firefighters have seen blazes break out exceedingly early in the calendar year, when forests typically would be awash in moisture: an 865-acre blaze in the Lassen National Forest started on Jan. 2; the 333-acre Red Fire began two days later in Humboldt County; and a 1,952-acre wildfire erupted Jan. 16 in the Angeles National Forest in Los Angeles County.
Since Jan. 1, Cal Fire has battled nearly 3,000 fires – about 900 above average for the period – and seen nearly as many acres burn as were recorded in all of 2010, when fires torched 25,438 acres.
After it became evident over the winter that California was facing its worst drought in a generation, officials began taking extraordinary steps to prepare for the fire season. Even as Gov. Jerry Brown declared a drought emergency in mid-January, Cal Fire was hiring seasonal firefighters in the north state, a move that typically occurs in May.
"Hiring seasonal firefighters in January in Northern California is not only unusual, it's unheard of," Berlant said. "But it was needed to meet the dry conditions through this winter."
Normally, Cal Fire would hire 2,400 seasonal firefighters to handle blazes statewide, but this year increased that staffing to 2,700. The department also took a number of other steps to prepare for a potentially catastrophic fire season, including awarding a $5.4 million contract for a DC-7 air tanker that already has been deployed to the Monticello and Butts fires and augments Cal Fire's fleet of 50 aircraft.
President Barack Obama on Tuesday sent a letter to Congress seeking a $615 million emergency appropriation request to fund firefighting efforts; California is expected to ask for the bulk of the federal reimbursements, given predictions for where wildland fires are most likely in coming months.
The latest map from the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise shows that forecasters believe California, Nevada and Oregon face the gravest threats.
The prediction for California? Most of the state, and virtually all of the northern half, is considered to be above normal for "significant wildland fire potential," and if those fires materialize they will affect fire agencies ranging from federal and state behemoths to tiny volunteer agencies that already have been pressed into action.
When the Butts fire erupted just after noon on July 1 northwest of Lake Berryessa, the tiny Pope Valley Volunteer Fire Department was among several agencies activated to battle the blaze, and the department's volunteers worked through a couple of nights protecting homes and advising Cal Fire officials on the tricky winds they were facing, Chief Mike Damonte said.
"Our department is 12 people and, out of those 12, six of us are over 60," said Damonte, who is 61 and in his third decade as a volunteer firefighter.
"This is the first big fire we've had in years," Damonte said, but the rapid and concentrated response helped keep damage to a minimum, with two homes reported destroyed, along with seven other structures.
Like other agencies pressed into duty for the Butts fire, the Pope Valley department can seek reimbursement for its costs through Cal Fire and, eventually, the federal government. The state won approval of a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency shortly after the blaze erupted to seek up to 75 percent reimbursement from the federal government for firefighting costs associated with the Butts fire.
For now, Cal Fire considers Northern California to be at greater risk for major blazes than the southern half of the state, and has been shifting resources north to be ready when needed. After the Monticello fire broke out the night of July 4 in Yolo County, the department sought help from area agencies. Among them was the Sacramento Fire Department, which dispatched two engines before dawn the next day, as well as crews from Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and San Diego counties.
Sacramento's crews returned from the fire Wednesday. Firefighter Roberto Padilla, the department spokesman, said mutual aid agreements among agencies allow for greater flexibility in shifting resources to wherever they are needed most quickly, as occurred the afternoon of July 4 during a grass fire that burned along the American River Parkway behind Cal Expo.
"Today, we're helping them; tomorrow, they're going to come and help us like we experienced with the Cal Expo fire," Padilla said. "At no time was the city of Sacramento left unstaffed."
Both the Butts and Monticello fires ended up causing relatively little property damage, but how quickly they exploded has officials concerned about what could happen later in the fire season, when conditions are even drier.
"The last two major fires in our area were perfect examples of the type of fire behavior we have been worried about," Berlant said. "The Butts fire started with 90-degree temperatures, so they weren't extreme.
"There was light wind on it, but it still grew at an explosive rate. … We didn't have strong winds, we didn't have high temperatures, but we had the fact that the brush and the trees in that area were so dry that the fire was able to really burn at an unheard-of rate. We have been very fortunate."


text:
Marina - Litre Tin
Marina - Litre Tin
1 Litre Tin
No sanding or priming needed.
Apply 2 to 3 thin coats.
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With all that there is to be done at work, I have been guilty a number of times of working straight through my lunch break, checking email in the morning during breakfast, or bringing home reports to read in the evening.
At times, I've even felt guilty for not doing these things, especially when I look around and seeing my boss and people who I respect working 12-, 16- and occasionally even 24-hour days. Don't get me wrong, I do get a rush from these marathon sessions. There's something exciting about being awake in a flourescent-lit room blasting music and working on deadline with a collaborator while the rest of my time zone sleeps. And I do understand that at certain times, a tight deadline can make the difference between impressing the donor or customer or having them pass you by.
Despite the feel-good effects of speed-working, more and more studies are showing that working long hours without periods of rest and renewal leads to a drastic decrease in productivity.
"Speed is the enemy of reflection, understanding and intentionality," writes Tony Schwartz at the Energy Project, who is my new favorite writer on applying mindfulness techniques at work.
That is why I am joining the "Take Back Your Lunch" movement. For the rest of the month of March, I am going to resist the temptation to eat lunch at my desk or during a meeting and instead use that hour for a relaxed meal and a period of renewal and rest.
Here are some more tips for managers and the managed from Tony on how to increase productivity and get more by doing less.


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Exclusive jewellery shop
The jewellery shop Langaard in central Oslo has a lighting solution that really complements the exclusive brand.
Conrad Langaard is the owner of a exclusive jewellery store in Oslo, Norway. He contacted Fagerhult as he was about to renovate his jewellery shop to one of world class.
The recessed luminaire Noc* is placed along the walls and over the cashier desk to create a soft base for the concept, the light from Noc also functions as the general light.
A blue colour filter is used over the desk to accentuate the jewellery.
The jewellery boxes are visible from both outside and inside, these are illuminated with Diva II LED lists with 4000 K. They are mounted inside, on the side and the top, of all boxes.
To front the products Relay Spot* with 3000 K is used. This gives a good mix between warm and cold light. Every middle spotlight on Relay has a blue colour filter.
*Noc and Relay Spot G2 are no longer in production.


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Competing is 'transformative" for athletes at 2014 Special Olympics USA Games at Princeton
The five runners, competition numbers pinned to their brightly colored uniforms, stepped out of the shadow of the bleachers and onto the sunny track at Princeton University, waving to the crowd. At the crack of the starting gun, the spectators leapt to their feet cheering wildly, waving handmade posters such as "Max=Champion" and "Team Texas." In a matter of seconds, the first heat of the 50-meter dash was done, and each of the five athletes looked equally triumphant.
Throughout this week, June 16-20, Princeton and several colleges, universities and private schools in Mercer County are hosting events for the 2014 Special Olympics USA Games — the first national games to be held in New Jersey. The University is hosting track and field events at Weaver Stadium and swimming at DeNunzio Pool.
Close to 100 members of the University community are serving as volunteers on campus during the games in a range of capacities including competition escorts, awards preparations assistants, awards escorts, food and beverage attendants, family services attendants, and Welcome Day assistants.
Thomas Harrington of Hamilton, New Jersey, has served as an assistant women's track coach at the University since 2005, but this week he is in charge of far more than one team. As athletics commissioner for this year's Special Olympics games, Harrington is overseeing the logistics for nearly 3,500 athletes who are competing in 16 team and individual events including baseball, basketball, gymnastics, golf, soccer, tennis, triathlon and volleyball. The athletes, who are children and adults with intellectual disabilities, are supported by 1,000 coaches and delegates, 10,000 volunteers, and 70,000 spectators and family members.
On the first day of competition Monday, Harrington was everywhere: high-fiving the athletes as he walked through the stadium, greeting families and volunteers, fielding calls on his walkie-talkie, checking the bottled water supply and eyeing the long jump pit he had raked that morning. His main destination was the shot put area, where he sat on a bench among athletes, and soon found himself enveloped in a group hug. "You having fun?" he asked them. They answered with a resounding "Yes!"
Harrington has volunteered with Special Olympics for 25 years, ever since the organization asked him to run a clinic for its coaches when he was the track coach at Lawrence High School.
He said he was "hooked" from the start because of the kids. "They are some of the most wonderful, loving people," he said. "They appreciate everything you do for them. I heard years ago the saying 'every child is gifted; some just open their packages sooner than others.' I'm just happy to be around them as they open them and see the wonder of what they have been blessed to get!"
What keeps Harrington coming back is his commitment to serving others. "The desire to help and give has been my life goal," he said. "I'm a big softy at heart — I just try to hide it. No matter how many times I go away exhausted from helping and saying I won't be back, if I see one of the kids who remembers me and comes up and gives me a high-five or hug, I'm hooked again."
Harrington, who has served as the state director for New Jersey athletics for the Special Olympics for more than a decade, helped bring the games to Mercer County, beginning with presentations three years ago to the Special Olympics national organization.
Several people and departments at the University have helped on campus, Harrington said, highlighting Karen Malec, associate director of athletics, and Gregory Paczkowski, assistant director of athletics for facilities and aquatics; as well as staff of Building Services; Public Safety; Conference and Event Services; Community and Regional Affairs; and Dining Services.
Harrington said it is "really special" to have Princeton host both track and swimming, the two most highly viewed sports at most Summer Olympic games. "Princeton University is a wonderful place with outstanding students and staff and this is a chance for them to show the National Games, athletes, parents and public what a first-class community the University is," he said.
While assembling a committee of volunteers to manage the track and field events, Harrington contacted Agatha Offerjebe, a 2009 alumna and former member of Princeton's women's track team. "She was an All American in the distance medley relay her sophomore year, and Ivy League champ in the 200- and 400-meter dash her senior year," Harrington said, rattling off just a few of Offerjebe's accomplishments.
"I jumped at the opportunity to volunteer because I know the important role track had on my life, and I wanted to help provide a positive experience for the Special Olympics athletes," said Offerjebe, an ecology and evolutionary biology major who joined Princeton in Africa as program manager in 2012, after completing a fellowship with the program in Gaborone, Botswana, in 2009-10. At the end of June, she will start medical school at the University of California-Los Angeles.
Offerjebe said she is particularly proud to see the track and field events taking place at the University. "I ran at Weaver Stadium for four years, and while I may be a little biased, I think it's one of the best facilities in the country," she said. In summer 2015, she hopes to volunteer with Healthy Athletes Experience — which provides free health screenings for the athletes — during the Special Olympics World Games, which will be held in Los Angeles.
Naida Chipego, a staffing assistant in human resources at the University, and her husband, John, who works for BlackRock, one of the many corporate sponsors of this year's games, served as competition escorts. They were joined by their daughter Jennifer, a recent graduate of West Chester University, at Weaver Stadium and assigned to accompany athletes to their events.
Naida Chipego said she has enjoyed meeting athletes from across the country. "Jennifer volunteered for the Special Olympics when she was a teenager and always talked about how rewarding it was. When I heard the Olympics were going to be in our backyard, I thought it was a perfect opportunity to join the community and do something that is personally rewarding and rewarding to the athletes."
At DeNunzio Pool, Laurel West and her husband, Karl Zweerink, of Richmond, Virginia, were eagerly waiting to watch their son, Nick Zweerink, swim the 100-yard individual medley. Seated with the other family members of Team Virginia, including Nick's grandmother, Jean Matzinger, West said that participating in the games "has been a transformative experience" for her son. "He has been practicing six to seven nights a week since he found out last year he had made it on the team," she said. "He has gotten so motivated — he can't believe the moment has finally come."
The athletic events are free and open to the public. Do not bring any bags or coolers. Concessions are available at DeNunzio Pool and Weaver Field.


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Simon Anderson's large size quad set.
Simon's large quad set pairs the SA template on the side fins with a more upright template in the back. Offers remarkable drive and hold for heavier surfers who like to carve on the open face and snap hard off the top.
Open face, down-the-line waves, particularly good in point and reef breaks.
Performance shortboards and hybrid models.
In 1980 struggling with small waves on the fledgling pro tour, Simon Anderson stuck three fins on a surfboard and changed surfing forever. 30+ years later his concept can be found in most surfboards world wide.
A true pioneer of the surf scene Simon is still actively involved in the surf scene, shaping performance short boards under his Simon Anderson label.
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Base: 4.41" / 112mm
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Sweep: 35°
Foil: IFT
Base: 4.29" / 109mm
Depth: 4.41" / 112mm
Area: 14.22"² / 9172mm²
Sweep: 31°
Foil: 50/50


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Worley aims for bounce-back season, rotation spot
BRADENTON, Fla. -- Marty Mason could tell something was off with Vance Worley.
Worley had just been sent down to Triple-A Rochester after posting a 7.21 ERA in 10 starts, including Opening Day for the Twins, and he complained to Rochester's pitching coach about not being able to locate the ball down in the zone.
BRADENTON, Fla. -- Marty Mason could tell something was off with Vance Worley.
Worley had just been sent down to Triple-A Rochester after posting a 7.21 ERA in 10 starts, including Opening Day for the Twins, and he complained to Rochester's pitching coach about not being able to locate the ball down in the zone.
Worley was coming off surgery to remove bone chips in his throwing elbow the previous September, and Mason thought Worley's arm slot was too high, which wasn't allowing him to get the ball down and was hurting his velocity.
Worley noticed a difference immediately thanks to Mason, as he saw his fastball jump from topping off in the low-90s to the mid-90s, and he fared better at Rochester with a 3.88 ERA and three complete games in nine outings.
"For as much as he doesn't want credit for it, he looked at films from previous years and that season, and he saw two outings in Triple-A and said, 'This is what I think I see. We'll see what it's like in the 'pen,' and everything worked out from there," Worley said. "But then the next thing you know, it was my shoulder."
As Worley noted, he didn't get a chance to keep working on pitching with his improved arm slot, as he was shut down for the season in early July with shoulder inflammation. He also believes his arm wasn't ready for the improved arm speed, which led to the injury.
"I went from throwing 88-90 mph to 95-96, and that's when I started to have some problems," said Worley, whose fastball averaged a career-low 89.5 mph with the Twins last season, according to Fangraphs.com. "I started to develop that arm velocity again, and I wasn't used to it and couldn't handle it."
But Worley spent all offseason working on keeping the ball down, and said he's been getting better velocity on his fastball this spring and he feels fully healthy for the first time since he joined the Twins in the trade that sent Ben Revere to the Phillies before the 2013 season. He also lost 25 pounds over the offseason in an effort to improve his conditioning.
"Last year, I was just trying to learn how to throw again," Worley said. "My arm slot was too high. Everything was up. This year, I'm bouncing it, which is something I didn't do last year. So I'll take that over something up in the zone."
This spring is an important one for Worley, who is out of Minor League options and is competing for the fifth spot in the rotation along with Samuel Deduno, Scott Diamond and Kyle Gibson.
Deduno and Diamond are also out of options, so the battle for the fifth spot in the rotation could mean that the two who don't make the rotation could be placed on waivers or moved to the bullpen.
"[We] have roster issues, guys that are out of options, but I think you take the best player," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "Best pitcher. That's what we have to do. We've lost enough. Now it's time to take the best pitchers."
Worley was solid in his three years with the Phillies with a 3.50 ERA in 53 career outings, including 46 starts, but he failed to replicate that success in a Twins uniform last year.
He was off to a strong start this spring before getting knocked around by the Pirates in his latest outing on Friday, as Worley lasted just 1 1/3 innings and gave up five runs on seven hits and a walk.
Worley suffered from some bad luck with a pair of RBI singles that didn't leave in the infield in the first inning, but he also gave up a hard-hit double to Andrew McCutchen in the first and a two-run blast to McCutchen in the second.
"They blooped some balls in and had some choppers in the infield, and it's early in Spring Training, but we want to see better than that." Gardenhire said. "But he has a better angle and the ball is going down better. And that was evident by the choppers. But he still got some balls up that were hammered."
Worley said he was affected by the high winds at McKechnie Field, but he also knows that excuses won't cut it, as he has to prove he's worthy of the fifth spot in the rotation no matter the conditions this spring. He currently has a 10.38 ERA, but in just 4 1/3 innings, so there's still plenty of time to improve after his shaky start on Friday.
It figures to be a close battle for that fifth spot, and Worley is doing his best not to think about it.
"At this point, it's out of my control," Worley said. "It's going to be who the best is this spring, and that's who it's going to go to. I'm just worrying about getting outs and staying healthy."
Rhett Bollinger is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Bollinger Beat, and follow him on Twitter @RhettBollinger.


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Let $G$ be a locally compact totally disconnected group, and to make life easy let's suppose its Haar measure is bi-invariant. Let $C_c(G)$ be the space of locally constant complex functions on $G$ with compact support, which forms an algebra under convolution. Suppose $e \in C_c(G)$ is an idempotent, so that $H = eC_c(G)e$ is an algebra with identity. Is it now true that if $f \star g = e$ in $H$, then $g \star f = e$ as well?
This may be too general to be true, so to be more specific: suppose $K < G$ is a compact subgroup such that $K\backslash G/K$ is countable, suppose $\phi : G \to \mathbf{C}^{\times}$ is a character, and suppose the idempotent $e$ is the function with support in $K$ such that $e(x) = \phi(x^{-1})/\mu(K)$ for $x \in K$. Now is it true that if $f \star g = e$ in $H$ then $g \star f = e$ as well?
[I am reading something that claims some $f$ is a unit but then checks it by checking the existence of $g$ such that $f \star g = e$. So really, the question is whether it follows by some general business that $g \star f = e$, or whether one has to do another computation to check the other direction.]


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Undergraduate Degrees, Majors and Concentrations
ENGL4000 - The Teaching Of Writing
Summer 2019
This course explores theories and central issues surrounding the performance and teaching of writing. Studens examine connections among composition theories, practices in teaching writing, and the role of personal experience in writing. The emphasis is on developing a theoretical understanding of how people write, but pragmatic issues also receive attention. The course addresses the following questions: Why do we write? How do we learn to write? What writing processes do we or could we use? What theories or values are embedded in our conceptualizations of how people learn to write and in our definitions of the writing process? What kinds of environments foster the learning writing?
Prerequisite: 60 credits
3 Credits
Schedule Book for All Active and Available Future Terms, Course starting with ENGL4000
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text: Laxey Woollen Mills has been weaving its tweed since 1881 and produces an impressive collection ideal for bespoke tailoring or interiors. Inspired by the colours of the countryside and the shades of the sea, each tweed provides a unique story about the islands dynamic landscape. The mills tweed is an extremely desirable product due to its exceptional quality and durability.&


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Esab Selected to Support Fabrication of NASA's Next-Generation Fuel Tank
Friction stir welding is the process of choice selected to weld the main fuel tank of NASA's new Space Launch System (SLS), and providing the welding technology to NASA and its contractor Boeing is the Esab facility in Laxa, Sweden. Esab, with North American operations headquartered in Florence, SC, will construct a giant orbital-welding system (dubbed Vertical Assembly Center) to circumferentially weld fuel-tank sections together using the friction-stir process. The SLS project, America's next-generation space program, is slated for launch in 2017.
See also: ESAB Welding & Cutting
Related Enterprise Zones: Welding
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Are we required to memorize the the structures of all 20 amino acids? Or is there an easier way?
No, please don't spend your time memorizing amino acid side chains. You will be given a table of amino acid structures as part of your exam, and they will even be categorized the same way we talked about them in class. You should, however, understand the consequences of being in one group versus another. What does it mean to be polar? What is the significance of being hydrophobic? And so on...
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With more than 2,000 Certified Food Scientists in 55 countries, the Certified Food Scientist (CFS) credential is the only global certification for food science professionals. Unlike any other certification, the CFS designation recognizes the applied scientific knowledge and skills of global food professionals and provides a universal way to identify, cultivate, and retain top talent.
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Environmental Industry Companies in St. Lucia
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The Caribbean Environmental Health Institute (CEHI) was initially established as a project in an attempt by the Region's leaders to address, in an organised manner, the Environmental Health concerns of the people of the English-speaking Caribbean. Today, CEHI has 16 Members States and remains ...
based in Castries, ST. LUCIA.
The Environmental Health and Sustainable Development (EHS) Department of the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) supports the Caribbean's sustainable development agenda by playing a lead role in key areas related to environmental management for optimal public health.
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Only 6 more days until "Tour Time" and everyone is starting to get antsy. I'll be at my local Verizon corporate store on Sunday, and sure many others will be venturing out early as well. If you don't have a local store in your area or just want to try and beat the crowds, it looks like Best Buy Mobile may be the way to go. Best Buy is offering Verizon Tour Pre-sales at all of their stores, and you can pre-order the device with a $50 deposit to be guaranteed a shiny new Tour come Sunday. There is no news of this on Best Buy's site so you'll have to swing by your local store to get in on the action. Big thanks to Michael for the image.
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Bernhard Langer (born 27 August 1957) is a German professional golfer.
Langer was born in Anhausen near Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany. He turned professional in 1976 and has won many events in Europe and the United States, among them The Masters in 1985 and 1993. He was the inaugural World Number 1 when the Official World Golf Rankings were introduced in 1986, and he became a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2001. He ranks second in career wins on the European Tour, with forty and has also played regularly on the U.S. based PGA Tour, especially in the late 1980s and since 2000. He has shown great durability, finishing in a tie for fifth at The Open Championship the month before his forty-eighth birthday and regaining a place in the top hundred of the rankings three months before his fiftieth birthday. He played on 10 Ryder Cup teams (1981, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 2002) and was non-playing captain of the victorious European team in 2004.
Through much of his career, Langer has battled the "yips", a term used to denote a strong tendency to flinch or twitch during putting . He has changed his grip on the putter numerous times in an attempt to cure this problem; while he has been mostly successful, this tendency has colored his career. Langer is remembered nearly as much for one particular missed putt as he is for his titles. In the 1991 Ryder Cup, Langer missed a five-foot putt that would have tied the Ryder Cup and allowed the European team to retain the trophy.


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We first discovered the embroidered work of Coral & Tusk at a local wedding fair where a vendor had a beautifully stitched table runner on display. We loved the detailed feathers and immediately sought out more of their work online.
Founded in 2007 by Stephanie Housley together with her husband Chris Lacinak, Coral & Tusk creates work inspired by their travels all over the globe. Their love of animals, adventure, and the natural world are reflected in every piece they create. We're especially fond of their stitched animals who always seem to be celebrating.
A RISD-trained textile designer, Stephanie creates all of her scenes and irreverent characters as original pencil drawings before she redraws them stitch by stitch using special computer software. Finished by hand in Coral and Tusk's Brooklyn loft, every machine-embroidered pillow, doll, napkin and artwork retains the story-telling spirit and hand-drawn allure of the original illustration. A mix of smart design, magic and mischief is at the heart of every Coral & Tusk embroidery.
View & shop Coral & Tusk here.
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Organizational Change in the Face of Highly Public Errors—I. The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Experience
with commentary by James B. Conway; Saul N. Weingart, MD, PhD, Errors in the Media and Organizational Change, May 2005
A decade ago, two tragic medical errors rocked one of the world's great cancer hospitals, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) in Boston, to its core. The errors led to considerable soul searching and, ultimately, a major change in institutional practices a...


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What's new at Creede, The Avenue and BDT
"Dearly Departed" is dead no more. It's coming to the Aurora Fox next month.
Upcoming titles have been announced at three important Colorado theater companies. Creede Rep's ambitious 2010 season will include the quirky, ongoing Broadway phenom "The 39 Steps"; Boulder's Dinner Theatre has announced a fall staging of the 1960s girl-power pop music revue "Shout"; and John Ashton, currently directing "The Graduate for the Aurora Fox, will return very soon to the scene of the crime with a remount of the cult comedy "Dearly Departed, featuring most of the original cast.
Here's more info on each:


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From 1956-1959, Peter Palmer practically lived in the fictional town of Dogpatch as the star of both the Broadway and Hollywood productions of Li'l Abner, based on the popular comic strip that ran from 1934-1977.
Now, more than 50 years later at the age of 81, Palmer lives in Shelbyville and can most often be found at a different kind of dog patch – the Red Orchard Dog Park.
"I'm not retired," Palmer says with a laugh. "The calls just don't come anymore."
He moved to Shelbyville just a year ago to be close to his daughter Farrell Palmer, who works as a horse breeder at Willowbank Farm.
Even if life has finally slowed down for Palmer, he said he has lived a more exciting and varied life than most.
Growing up in St. Louis, he said he always has loved to sing, but he also enjoyed playing high school football. He accepted a scholarship to the University of Illinois and studied music there, while at the same time playing for university's football team as a 6-foot, 2-inch tackle. He sang the national anthem in full football uniform before every home game during the 1953 season.
During his time there the Fighting Illini won two Big Ten championships in 1951 and 1953 and the Rose Bowl in 1952. He said he especially is proud of the 1953 championship, when Illinois defeated Ohio State.
"There wasn't an expert who said we weren't going to be second from the bottom," Palmer said. Though Palmer said he played hard and did his job on the field well, about halfway through his college career, he came to a realization. He knew he wouldn't be continuing his football career after college.
"I was a football player who sang," Palmer said of himself when he entered college. "And somewhere along the line, I became a singer who played football."
On to a new career
That changed his mindset. He continued to play hard, but looking back, Palmer said he could have done better. But he said he doesn't regret the change in focus. He was ready to start his music career.
Many might have viewed Palmer's love of the hard-hitting sport and equally great love of theater as incompatible. Palmer said when starting college he was a little concerned of the flak he might potentially receive from other players. What he got however was the exact opposite.
"I thought they'd say, 'Oh, you're over at the fairy school.' I thought that would be the thing," he said. "'[What they said was] why are you playing football? God, if I had your talent Peter, I'm here to get an education and get out of the coal mine, why are you playing football? You should just sing!'"
And sing he did. After college he flew out to Los Angeles to make a name for himself, meeting his first wife, Jackie Gleason – yes, familiar name, different gender – in the process and landing multiple contract offers. However, he didn't accept any of them, as the draft for the Korean War loomed ahead.
He decided to volunteer, and as it turns out, joining the Army set about a chain of events that would lead to the role of a lifetime.
A big break
"Being drafted was the best thing that could have happened to me because I entered and won The All Army Entertainment Contest, and the winners were on the Ed Sullivan Show," Palmer said.
It just so happened that the producers and writers of the upcoming Li'l Abner Broadway production, based on the comic strip that starred a large, muscular and kind-hearted but naïve hillbilly in a rundown Southern town, were watching, and they believed Palmer's size and singing ability made him perfect for the part. He was immediately contacted. A week later he tried out for the leading part.
A few months later, he was rehearsing the role of his career.
Big role, modest career
For more than three years Palmer did nothing but perform Li'l Abner, both on stage and on film he said. The show started on Broadway, eventually traveling around the country and was performed in Las Vegas for a short time. Soon afterwards a film adaptation by Paramount Pictures was under way, with much of the original show's cast returning for the silver screen, including Palmer.
"I played him [Abner] like a 14-year-old boy in a 18-year-old body, well really more like a 12-year-old" he said. Abner's character was defined by his strength and kindness but also by his lack of intelligence and disinterest in the town's girls.
Despite scoring the sought-after role, Palmer's career didn't exactly skyrocket. He continued to perform in a variety of shows, including the 20th anniversary performance of Oklahoma! and made guest appearances on numerous TV shows such as Dallas, ER and M*A*S*H. Much of his last decade has been spent teaching voice in Tampa, Fla., where he lived with his second wife, stage actress/singer and Miss Dominion of Canada Mary Louise Farrell, who went by the name Aniko on stage.
In a lot of ways better
But the past decade hasn't been easy for Palmer. For the past seven years Farrell, his wife of more than four decades, struggled with cancer. The couple tried for years to move to Shelbyville, but due to Farrell's condition and need for medical attention, it never happened. She passed away in 2011.
"I really spent a forty-five-year honeymoon with her," he said. "My wife left me in a very good place."
His 8-year-old Doberman, Stryker, keeps him company now. Palmer described Stryker as his best friend and said the former shelter dog helped get him through the tough seven years his wife battled with cancer.
Almost every afternoon, the two visit the dog park at Red Orchard Park – he said the park may be one of Shelbyville's best secrets – to meet with other pet owners and for him and Stryker to socialize.
His daughter, Farrell, said when she gets the chance she even joins him at the park, bringing her basset hound, appropriately named Li'l Abner.
When he isn't at the park he attends Centenary United Methodist Church and works on his autobiographical book (tentatively titled Nothing has Anything to do with Anything).
"I'm so busy," Farrell Palmer said, "I'm glad to know he has such a good network of supportive friends from church and the dog park as well. They are all really great people."
Palmer said he saw last weekend's production of South Pacific at the Shelby County Community Theatre and greatly enjoyed it.
"They've got a lot of talented people," he said. "It was a good production, well-directed."
Last Christmas Palmer sang at the church, and he said he hopes to continue to perform there. Even at age 81 and only performing a handful of times in the past eight years, Palmer said he's still got it.
"I'm singing differently now," he said. "It's different, but in a lot of ways a lot better."
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Category : Math Worksheet.
Topic : Decimal to fraction worksheet pdf. Author : Ferreira Craig.
Posted : Fri, Jul 12th 2019 12:07 PM.
Format : jpg/jpeg.
When patterns are found, often in widely different areas of science and technology, the mathematics of these patterns can be used to explain and control natural happenings and situations. Mathematics has a pervasive influence on our everyday lives, and contributes to the wealth of the individual.


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GREG BEACHAM, AP Sports Writer
LOS ANGELES: Aaron Craft and Deshaun Thomas paid attention last weekend when the highest-seeded teams in their regional started toppling like so many dominoes. The Ohio State stars both wondered whether any big names could survive the wild West.
Now that they're on the brink of a second straight trip to the Final Four, Craft and Thomas are confident they won't be the next marquee program to fall to the likes of Wichita State.
The second-seeded Buckeyes (29-7) are a win away from matching last season's accomplishments, and Thomas says the Buckeyes' current run has been easier. Craft believes Ohio State has more momentum than last season after two straight victories on dramatic, tiebreaking 3-pointers.
The ninth-seeded Shockers (29-8) won't surprise the Buckeyes, who know they'll try to force a quick tempo.


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biophase needed a new other design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 102 designs submitted by 29 freelance designers.
We are looking for a banner image for the front page of our website.
Bluefire Poker
We are looking for a banner image for the front page of our website. The image should be 893 x 235 (shown in red box on image2). It should be contain blue, black and whites.
Looking for an image that ties in blue flames, blue fire with holdem poker. Poker can be expressed as chips or cards. If using cards, please use only 2 cards. If including any poker tables or poker related objects, please make sure it is related to texas holdem poker and not any other poker.
The banner should have the text "Welcome to BluefirePoker.com"
Looking to end this contest quickly (3-4 days)
Current website images: (sorry for the poor quality gif) Please make gradients nice and smooth, not like what I'm posting. :)
No need to make "click here to create account" button. That is generated over the image. Please take this into account when creating your submissions.
Second image shows that when someone logs in, the "Click here to create your account" button disappears.
These are just suggestions
- blue fire
- blue flame
- poker chips (if using chips, use only white or blue chips)
- chip stacks
- poker cards
- photos of people playing poker
- non white or blue colored chips


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New Books about Animals
By Nicki Richesin, The Children's Book Review
Published: November 8, 2011
Whether you prefer animals as loveable yet zany characters who talk or as a species that live in the natural world, these entertaining books teach children about both fantasy and science. You'll have a beastly good time reading with these funny, furry creatures that might inspire a life-long interest in nature. Let the wild rumpus commence.


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About Jake
I could see the RIAA or any of the numerous collection agencies getting in on the act to "protect" the artists that it represents.
"Sorry, but they aren't offering any alternatives that make the money that DVDs make."
Sorry but this is not an argument. They have not innate right to make a certain amount of money. Consumers felt that a DVD was worth so much money and were willing to pay that much, now they want the digital product and feel that it is worth less. It is what it is, but it is not the consumers problem to deal with, it is the providers problem.
I do have a crazy idea for that, and I am sure that it has been suggested before. I know it would take some working to make it work right but I would support a 100% Death tax along with some sort of inheritance disbursement when you turn 18. Essentially, everyone starts adult life on the same footing instead of it being luck of the draw.
There would have to be some other policies to go along with this I am sure.
That is why it makes sense to convert from an income tax to a consumption tax at the same time. Rich people still spend money to consume things and they do it at a much greater level than poor people. If both these things were implemented, the traditional tax haven would be non-existent, because there would be no taxes to hide your money from, the only way not to get taxed is not to spend it.
Even without calculating I believe that that does not make sense. What you are saying is that Americans, long known as the biggest consumers in the world, pay a level of income tax equal to half of their consumption. I do not think that that is the case. Just look at your own paycheck, see how much they take out of your paycheck for federal income tax in a month, then compare that to how much you spend in a month. For the 50% consumption tax to make sense your tax would have to be half your spending.
Before I get destroyed for this analogy, I know that he/she may not be representative of the whole population and the amount that you pay in income taxes is when you file your taxes either with more taxes owed or a tax return. But it could be a decent estimate without going into to much detail.
Of course you could not just flip a switch on any of these policies. I imagine that the best way to implement something like this would be to slowly decrease the income and payroll taxes, while at the same time increase the consumption/carbon taxes. I mean, do you really think that any rational person would ever advocate that kind of change in an abrupt manner? Just cause it will take time to implement, does not mean that it is a bad idea.
Just think we already have a huge federal dept (IRS) to police and enforce the collection of these taxes.
A consumption tax, essentially a federal sales tax. It says it at the end of making a point. It would probably need to be in the 15-20% range, although I am not an economist so that is a guess, but if you were not paying income tax the price jump would not effect your standard of living at all and you would not have to "do your taxes" every year. This would result in people paying taxed on how much they spend instead of how much they make. There are some logistical hurdles, such as, what if everyone saves among others? But that would be a good thing overall as if everyone increased savings then that would reduce the need for social security which would pump more money into the consumer economy to be saved or spent (ie taxed) and then would strengthen the economy even more. Not to say that there would not be issues to address, but it is an idea that has been supported by pure economists (with little or no political leanings) for years at least.
You realize that these are summaries of what needs done, not a step-by-step on how to implement these things, right?
The bottom line for me is this: Corporations only have one legal responsibility and that is to make money (fiduciary responsibility). So any rights that you grant them are applied only to this. In fact it may be considered criminal, in the US at least, to act in a humanitarian way if it can be definitively proved that that act is not in the best interest of making company money.
Humans on the other hand have the capability to make decisions that are not only good for themselves, but for the society as a whole. Teachers are a great example of this, especially teachers of younger children, where the pay is slightly less than that of someone who breaks rocks with other rocks. These people, who often could do many other things with the years of education that are required to teach in the US, choose to make less in order to enrich society (and no I am not a teacher). Legally corporations can not do this.
So, do all members of society take the responsibilities of our society as seriously as the rights? No, no setup of this nature is perfect, but at least they have that ability.
Which is why I get very irritated when corporations speak of "rights" (IP or other rights, see Verizon and Net Neutrality for a good example). With rights come responsibility, but these corporations only have responsibility to their shareholders not citizenry at large and so should not get the rights of the citizenry either.
If you read the decision it comes down to the fact that the end user is not paying for the content, they are paying to rent equipment. The networks argument is that the transmission counts as a public performance of their work, but the court calls BS and basically says that since only the user requesting the show is the only one that can view it, it is not a public performance. I am not a lawyer though so I could have read it wrong, but that is what I am getting from it.
Look on the bright side, by doing this they have less time/money to Lobby...
You are correct, but there are technologies currently in existence to mitigate this effect. Long range wi-fi comes to mind among others. But the wireless carriers would rather milk customers than spend money on better infrastructure.
The reason that congress is upset about the "leaks" and not the underlying actions is that they already knew about them, or at least had a good idea about what is going on. No one was surprised, therefore no one speaks out in surprise and anger. That is what really scares me...
Just to be clear the spectrum crunch has nothing to do with data caps. The spectrum crunch refers to how fast data moves not how much data. The only way that the users can help with the spectrum crunch is to have less users.
Think of it like this. Say there was a water pipe running down your street. This pipe pumps one gallon of water per hour. If five people are connected to the pipe, each person is getting 1/5 of a gallon of water every hour. To increase that speed, you need to either increase the size of the pipe or remove a user from the pipe. Telling a person that they can only have 20 gallons of water a month does very little to help that speed when all the people are using the water at the same time. There are some instances when it would help, but for the most part, people are just going to start using water only when they need it the most. They will still tend to use the water at the same time and the water will still pump at the same speed. The only thing that will happen is that the pipe will be unused at all during random hours as people try to conserve and not go over the limit.
The fact that people but into the "data caps to combat the spectrum crunch" lie, really irritates me, because it it blatant misdirection in an attempt to increase profits.
"Here's the real funny thing, you can't download stained glass windows, or frescoes."
I can't download a CD either, I can download the music on the CD, sort of like I can take a picture of the window or fresco. Both are copies, yet for some reason some like to argue that they are different. I really do not understand it.
I was trying to apply it to the real world but to keep it digital.
The government could set up a site, free-speech.gov, and say you can say whatever you want on this one site, but every other web site must pass a review board before going live. But since you can still post on that one site, incidentally monitored, but not censored, by the government, then your free speech rights are not affected.
By following your argument you could claim that the government could only allow you to speak freely in a one block radius of Washington DC and say, "Since you can speak freely here, your free speech rights are not affected by being required to be mute everywhere else. You can just not speak on any other property than this one."
Tell me that is not insane.
What about contributors to the blog that have not violated copyright, they lose their forum for speech? What about the people who comment on that blog, didn't they lose some speech rights? There were many people legitimately using that blog to exercise their rights that no longer could do so after it was seized. Whether the violations were justified or not may be another argument, but there is no argument that the violations occurred, it is a fact.


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Just enter titles or scan barcodes to automatically download game information (title, platform, description, release year, genre, publisher, developer, etc.) & cover images. Keep track of your gaming hardware and accessories in the same database.
NC Launcher (GameForge) allows you to download AION client. The launcher has been custom built for the upcoming AION game that it is hosted on the GameForge servers and company.
Word-Fit is a bilingual (fr,en) crossword puzzle game generator software. You may generate french or english wordfit crossword puzzles with this game software. Complete the 20x20 grill with the supplied word list then create a new one to play again.
ActRaiser is a 1990 Super Nintendo Entertainment System action and city-building simulation game developed by Quintet and published by Enix (now Square Enix) that combines traditional side-scrolling platforming with urban planning god game sections.
The Death and Return of Superman is a beat 'em up video game based on the Death of Superman storyline.
This is a fun gun game based on the film Terminator 2. One or two players can play at the same time shooting the Terminators and various other bad guys culminating in the virtually indestructible T-2000 himself.
Stackup is cool 7 in 1 game with 2 different screen modes to choose from: 1024x768 and 1024x600 (NetBook) modeSo it's a game for both your Desktop and NetBook. Have fun everywhere!
Barbie Supermodel is a one or two player game that allows the player to play as Barbie.The main part of the game comprises very simple arcade-style sequences.
A game endorsed by the American player who stunned the tennis world in the early 90s with his "Image is everything" looks, sporting long hair, earrings and colorful shirts, Andre Agassi Tennis includes eight players (male and female and as
Clever Box Man is a fun logic and strategy puzzle board game, it's a brain teaser featuring the clever porter Box Man, it has beautiful sceneries, orphan background music and sound.
Fish School is a game of matching different colors of fish into schools by pushing them around. You start with 2 colors of fish, and new colors are added at each new level of difficulty. A training mode is included for beginners to learn the game.
Here is a new exciting game called Jezzball Deluxe. This is a totally new kind of a remake of the popular Jezzball/Xonix game.
Bubble Bobble World is a remake of a popular classic game Bubble Bobble. You get to play as one of the two little dragons named Bub and Bob.
ChromaticPuzzle is a very unique puzzle game, totally different from any other game of the kind. The purpose is reassembling plates of different color into tiles and rearranging the resulting tiles into the original image.
If you think it's easy, you need to play Run Painter Run game. You will have to control the movement of the paint basket with specific aerodynamic effects in the game!
Improved version of popular collapse game. You can choose your preferred game mode: when the blocks of colored cubes grow like stalagmites or fall down like stalactites.
Unique brain training puzzle game improving spatial thinking. Crack a catchy logical puzzle removing the unnecessary elements! Try to solve this captivating puzzle game.
The game based on the t.v show, The Simpsons. You take on the persona of comical Bart Simpson, who is on his way through the school science fair when he comes upon a virtual reality exhibit.
Demon's Crest is a side-scrolling platform game developed and published by Capcom in 1994 for the Super NES video game console. The game is part of the Gargoyle's Quest sub-series of the Ghosts 'n Goblins franchise.
A sequel to the arcade game Arkanoid. Use your paddle to move the ball around and hit bricks to clear the level. Once all the bricks are gone in the current level, you go on to the next level.
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Telemarketing scams have in some cases become more profitable than drug trafficking, U.S. and Costa Rican authorities have told ABC News, and the result has been a proliferation of illegal boiler rooms filled with expatriate Americans.
"There are millions of dollars that the bad guys have made in perpetrating these types of schemes," Lois C. Greisman, a scam expert with the Federal Trade Commission, said during an interview for the latest edition of "Brian Ross Investigates."
Official estimates suggest the telephone swindlers operating from Costa Rica have scammed victims out of more than $20 million, and the barrage of phone calls targeting vulnerable Americans – most of them seniors – has picked up in recent months.
The callers are using sophisticated internet telephone technology to disguise their locations, telling victims they are calling from federal government agencies in Washington, D.C., and providing phone numbers with the Washington area code 202 where victims can call them back. The scammers hold out the promise of a sweepstakes windfall, but ask for taxes and fees up front.
Greisman had some blunt advice for anyone who receives such a call: "Hang up."
Click Here For Advice on How to Protect Yourself from Phone Scammers
"The main message is this," she said. "There is no one from the federal government who is going to call you and tell you you've just won a sweepstakes. The other tell tale sign it's a fraud is if someone asks you to pay money up front. There's simply not a single legitimate sweepstakes marketer out there who requires an up-front fee of any kind."
The latest edition of "Brian Ross Investigates" also includes two other segments on the massive phone scam, which uses audacious, high-tech methods -- and the good name of a legitimate charity -- to bilk elderly Americans.
Click Here and Here To Learn More About the Phone Scam
Victim Sent $300,000 To Scammers
"Unlike the standard telemarketing frauds … these weren't people hiding behind a phone number you couldn't call -- a voice you couldn't recreate. These were people who left telephone numbers and would talk to you," said Paul Allvin, a vice president of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, who became alarmed when he started hearing from multiple victims a week about the fraudulent calls.
And talk they did. One team of con artists spoke with Patricia Bowles, the owner of a Virginia modeling studio, almost every day for more than a month. Eventually, they had persuaded her to send more than $300,000 through Western Union and Moneygram in what she thought were luxury taxes and insurance fees on the $1.1 million prize they promised would be arriving any day. She told ABC News Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross that she was devastated when she learned the woman claiming to be from the U.S. Treasury Department was really just a crook, and her money was never coming back.
"She said, 'Mrs. Bowles, we've been trying to reach you.' Very, very warm. Very kind. 'There is money here for you … it is sitting here on my desk. And I am just determined this money is yours. And I just want to help you get it,'" Bowles recalled.
"It's trust in people. I'm not living in a dream world. Trust me, I have been shaken out of that many times. But I think this time it has taken away that very, very core of me that is just sad to have to [relinquish]."
During a six-month investigation, ABC News obtained never-before published recordings of the phone calls and tracked down two fugitives who have been hiding in Costa Rica. The two men, Roberto Fields Curtis and Andreas Leimer, both Americans formerly of Florida, have been indicted in the scheme but avoided extradition because they also held Costa Rican citizenship. Both denied their involvement in the fraud, but both also made clear they had no intention of returning to the U.S. to attempt to clear their names.
Click Here To Listen To a Phone Scammer At Work
Ross approached Curtis at his residence in suburban San Jose and asked what he would tell people who have been victimized. Curtis shrugged.
"I'm sorry about it," he said.
Boiler Room Raid
Federal prosecutors have alleged that Leimer reaped millions installing internet phone lines in the illegal call centers -- a charge he denied when ABC News found him in a posh gated community in Costa Rica.
"I have had nothing to do with it," Leimer said. "I've never had anything to do with it."
U.S. Postal Inspector Jose R. Gonzalez told ABC News Leimer was "lying."
"He's currently under indictment, and there is sufficient information and sufficient evidence for us to be able to not only indict him, but also, I feel, definitely put him away," Gonzalez said.
Federal officials thought they had extinguished the scam in 2006 when they conducted a dramatic raid on 16 boiler rooms in the Costa Rican capital of San Jose. Stephen W. DeWitt, a special agent for the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service, said the Costa Ricans sent more than 150 agents into the call centers in a complex operation that needed sanction from top Costa Rican judges and law enforcement officials. "Everybody acted in concert," he said.
Peter B. Loewenberg and Patrick M. Donley of the U.S. Justice Department's criminal fraud section helped put 37 participants behind bars. Two of the masterminds of the scheme received 50-year sentences.
CLICK HERE to follow the ABC News Investigative Team's coverage on Twitter.
CLICK HERE to follow ABC News Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross on Twitter.
CLICK HERE to follow the ABC News Investigative Team and Brian Ross on Facebook and join in on the discussion.
Scams Pop Back Up
But U.S. authorities have marveled at the scale of the scam that has regenerated – believed to be the product of the Costa Rican citizens who remained free after the 2006 raid. And they say the potency of the swindle remains breathtaking . One early victim in Florida wired more than $800,000 to Costa Rica on the promise of a million-dollar sweepstakes check that would never arrive.
"Any time you have a scam that earns a lot of money, you know it's going to pop back up," said Anthony V. Mangione, the special agent in charge of Homeland Security investigations in Miami.
Mangione said some of the callers have pretended to be Customs agents, "taking our good name and eroding public confidence."
The scams have also been personal for Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz, who told ABC News his own mother was called by the swindlers. "She calls me and goes, 'Jon, I won this sweepstakes, and I'm just wondering if it's possible that this could be not legitimate.' And I was like, 'Mom, I think it probably is a scam.'"
But among those most alarmed have been the officials who lead the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which relies on the trust of the public for its funding. Earlier this year, the non-profit organization posted a fraud alert on its website. But Allvin said the volume of calls from victims only increased.
"We've never seen something so despicable," Allvin said. "These people around hiding offshore -- willingly destroying people's lives by taking every nickel they can suck out of them. And they're using the good name of the Make-A-Wish Foundation to do it. I'm not sure how much more you can pile on top of that collection of underhanded tactics just to line your own pockets."
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has set up a hotline for victims to call to report having been ripped off. It is 1-866-DHS-2ICE. The Federal Trade Commission has posted information about the scams and advice for victims on two special web pages here and here and has also been compiling a list of complaints for law enforcement agencies to pursue.
"Brian Ross Investigates"
"Brian Ross Investigates" is a weekly 30-minute investigative news magazine show that features exclusive interviews, undercover videos and extended investigations and story updates.
It airs every Friday on Hulu.com and ABC News Now, the network's 24-hour news channel available throughout the U.S. and Europe, at 1:36pm. Each show is also available on mobile devices, including the iPhone and iPad.
Viewers can submit videos and personal thoughts on controversial issues and current topics through Facebook and Twitter, including the "Skype Gripe" segment, in which viewers are invited to interact with Ross about recent investigations.
To join in on the discussion and be part of the show, follow Brian Ross on Twitter at @BrianRoss, the Investigative Team at @ABCNewsBlotter, and on Facebook (ABC News Investigative Team).
This week is the 31st episode of "Brian Ross Investigates." All shows are archived on Hulu for viewing.
CLICK HERE to follow the ABC News Investigative Team's coverage on Twitter.