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GUY RAZ, host: It's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Guy Raz. And our book today is a story of America's only unsolved airline hijacking. Writer Geoffrey Gray recounts what happened in his new book "Skyjack: The Hunt for D.B. Cooper." The day before Thanksgiving in 1971, a man boarded Northwest Orient flight 305 from Portland to Seattle. He was wearing a dark sports jacket, a clip-on tie and horn-rimmed sunglasses, and he took a seat in row 18E at the very back of the Boeing 727.
And also immediately, he ordered a bourbon and water and lit a cigarette. Ah, the '70s. Anyway, as the plane was beginning to take off, he passed a note to the stewardess, and it read, "Miss, I have a bomb here. I want you to sit by me."
GEOFFREY GRAY: She thinks he's kidding. So he looks at her, no. He's very insistent. He's stern. His mood changes, and she can tell, and he opens up his briefcase. It's a leather attache case. And inside, she looks and she finds red cylinders, lots of wires, and he tells her it's a bomb, and it's real.
RAZ: Wow. So what did he want? What were his demands?
GRAY: He wanted $200,000 in American currency and four parachutes.
RAZ: OK. So he makes these demands. The plane actually does land in Seattle where it was supposed to land. What happens there?
GRAY: Well, in Seattle on the rainy tarmac, the demands are met. The passengers are all let off and the money and the parachutes are brought onboard directly to him.
RAZ: And who's left on the plane?
GRAY: It's just him and her, her being Tina Mucklow, the youngest stewardess on the crew. And inside the cockpit, there are a pilot, a co-pilot and a flight engineer who had never left the cabin all throughout the flight.
RAZ: Mm. He orders the plane to take off again, and where does it go?
GRAY: He wants the plane to go to Mexico City. And people thought, well, that's crazy. You know, under the way that he wanted the plane to fly, it was a tremendous drag, so it would have to refuel in Reno, Nevada. So around midnight, the plane landed in Reno, the aft stairs dangling in the back, sparks flew, and FBI agents raided this plane. And one of the things they found when they went into the mall of the cabin was that some things were missing. One of them was a parachute, all the money and him.
RAZ: And him. He was not on the plane when it landed in Reno to refuel. So somewhere between Seattle and Reno, Nevada that night, the man who became known as D. B. Cooper, this hijacker, escaped. And the presumption is he jumps out of the plane with the parachute and escapes, makes an escape. At that point, what does the FBI do?
GRAY: The manhunt began that morning, and it was an epic manhunt that followed, I mean, one of the biggest in the nation's history. And one of the first things they tried to do, in addition to figuring out who he was, was where he landed. Now, this area of terrain to search is some of the most remote, if not the most remote in this country. It is where Big Foot lives.
So they went about trying to pinpoint when the hijacker actually jumped, and they composed all different kinds of maps. And what they were able to determine after everything had been transcribed is that the hijacker jumped between the minutes of 8:12 and 8:17 p.m. For 1971, that's pretty good. To pinpoint five minutes, I think is, you know, pretty impressive.
The only problem is, is that if you're pinpointing a jump from a plane moving 200 miles an hour on a flight path that's 15 miles wide, where you're searching is hundreds of square miles long.
RAZ: And they literally sent hundreds of people to trample through the forest looking for this guy or any trace of him.
GRAY: It almost became a Thanksgiving ritual for people over the years. You know, let's go in the woods and see if we can find D. B. Cooper's money. And it wasn't only lawmen in the woods. It was treasure hunters, amateur sleuths, reporters, just people curious to see if buried treasure was out there or Cooper's body was hanging from a branch.
RAZ: I'm speaking with author Geoffrey Gray about his new book called "Skyjack." It's a story of the infamous hijacker D. B. Cooper. You - when you started working on this book, actually, the inspiration for you to go ahead and write this book was that you got a call from somebody who said, "Geoffrey, I know who D.B. Cooper was. I'm going to give you this information and you are going to solve this case." Who was that? What happened?
GRAY: Well, I had no idea who D.B. Cooper was. I had never heard of this case. You know, I'm a crime writer. I cover cops. I cover unsolved cases. And a lot of my sources are private investigators. In the summer of 2007, one of them, a guy by the name of Skipp Porteous, called me and said, "Hey, we've got to talk." And he told me the story about an elderly man in Minnesota who had contacted him.
And this elderly man was just a kooky guy. He was an inventor. He was a retired Post Office worker. And he was convinced that his older brother was D.B. Cooper. And he had good reason to be convinced because his older brother, what I later found, looked exactly like the hijacker. And I took off and followed the trail from there.
RAZ: And you thought, "I'm going to nail this thing."
GRAY: Big booty in this case. This is a huge case. To close the deal on D.B. Cooper is tantamount to finding the lost Dutchman mine in reporter land.
RAZ: This is the Holy Grail. This is the Holy Grail for crime reporters.
GRAY: It's better than that.
RAZ: Right. Except sadly, as a good reporter does, you did your work, and you followed your leads, and you discovered that in fact it wasn't him.
GRAY: Well, what I ran into was something called the Cooper Curse. And the Cooper Curse is something that affects all Cooper hunters the closer they get to unmasking the hijacker's identity. And it's hard not to get obsessed with it because we just don't know. There was somebody who boarded the plane that night. So the fact that we don't know, the not knowing, continues to gnaw at me.
RAZ: And it's amazing, you think about in this era of sort of terrorism investigations and the national security apparatus, that this is still the only unsolved case of a hijacking in U.S. history.
GRAY: In the world.
RAZ: In the world. Right. Nobody has any idea how it happened. And in a sense, it's like the perfect crime. Nobody was hurt. Everyone survived, maybe this guy did, and he almost heroically jumps out of a plane, gets away with the cash, and it's like a Robin Hood or a John Dillinger crime. It's this perfect crime.
GRAY: Right. You know, there is, though, a difference between the D.B. Cooper myth that we want to believe in, but there's also the real story of Dan Cooper. And what I was able to find is that it's a totally different story in my opinion. And I believe that the actual hijacker was somebody who was not a hero, who was loser, who was a loner, who was depressed, who was after, in his last gasp trying to make something of his life, the ability to achieve one fine thing.
RAZ: Geoffrey, over the years, bits and pieces of clues have been found, pieces of parachute, some of which may have been the one he used, some may not, bones, none of which were traced to this hijacker. But there was decomposed cash that was found just a couple years ago in that area. And that was the cash that was given to the hijacker because all the serial numbers were recorded. So parts of him or maybe Cooper himself landed. Do you think he survived? Do you think he actually made it?
GRAY: I do. One of the things I found in the FBI files was that FBI agents interviewed parachute experts directly after the hijacking who told them surviving that kind of jump, even in the trees, was possible. And one of the things we now know about the case is that the hijacker likely landed a little bit farther south than what the feds originally thought. And that area is not as harsh as the legend of D.B. Cooper portrays it to be. It's a little bit marshy. It's closer to the Columbia River. Not a bad place for a parachute jump.
RAZ: That's Geoffrey Gray. He's a contributing editor at New York magazine and the author of the new book "Skyjack: The Story of the Infamous Hijacker D.B. Cooper." Geoffrey Gray, thank you so much.
GRAY: Thanks for having me.
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Meet your fellow owners in our Owners Clubs
MB M Class Owners Maintenance and Repair
Hello everyone,
This is the topic to discuss any problems that your M-class has (had) and any solutions to the problems.
Vans and SUVs message boards
This is the topic to discuss any problems that your M-class has (had) and any solutions to the problems.
Vans and SUVs message boards
kenyee Posts: 738I've collected a list of known problems at the M-Class Outpost.0
Spraying some silicon spray into that area (along the base of the windshield/dash) and letting it work its way in for a few days solved the probem for me. However, I did mention it at Service A. FYI, according to the work order, "A-pillar trim fit foam under dash corner to realign corner of dash. Refit A-pillar trim". The slight amount of play that used to be there is now completely gone. It is as tight as the A-pillar trim/dashboard on the driver's side. No squeaks, no creaks. :-)
Vans and SUVs message boards
kiiwii Posts: 318There was an engineering oil class action against MB. Not sure what the model year coverage is, instead of 50k miles, I belive the engine warranty is extended to 100k for the engine oil problem.0
jmsintx Posts: 41How do I get to the cabin air filter for replacement ? Is it behind the glove box like on the E's ? TIA. JMSinTX0
lsl1207 Posts: 6I have a '00 and at 10k it needed new brakes and at 26k it needed a new transmission. At one time or another all of the computer lights go on for no reason. Next time I'll buy Japanese...0
dietmike Posts: 7My upgraded Bose stereo on my 2001 ML320 Sport seems to have a reception problem. Most of the major stations in the Dallas, Texas area come in "weak". It sounds as if the treble cuts in and out just a bit. The CD works fine so I know it has something to do w/the antenna/tuner.
Where is the antenna, in the windshield? .. and has anyone else had this problem?
tlwwso Posts: 12I'm getting a popping noise coming from somewhere at the base of the windshield on the passenger side. I saw the post from Jan. and didn't know if this is the same problem. The service department can't seem to fix the noise. Any suggestions? Thanks.0
djdj Posts: 111In the general M-class commentary I have read that several owners have had problems with false readings appearing.
OIL HI frequently comes up because it takes 8.5 bottle of oil and somedays mechanics pour in 9 whole bottle.
But the problem could result from a bad sensor.
After a 4 day battle with my dealer, the truth came out that this sensor is frequently defective. Mine read "OIL HI" and then "-2.0".
The sensor needs to be replaced and it happens so often the dealers keep a number of the replacements on their shelves.0
synthroid Posts: 1I have a 2000 ML320 and this is the second time that I have been stranded due to a seized fuel pump. Am I alone? Also, I have had numerous problems with the air conditioner, side door film, easily chipped paint, cracked rear support, etc. I never expected the MB to have so many problems.0
Hey, Buddy You are not alone, It happened to me twice also, if you read my post a few months back, my fuel hose busted on me while I'm driving in a high speed on a highway my ML just died and that was one of the scariest moment of my life I have my family with me. I just thank god and I managed to pull my ML to the safe side of the highway. They replace it twice and so far up to this date I don't have any problem. Take it back to the dealer and have them replace.
Good Luck,
svasile Posts: 1Did anyone experience this problem? I was driving on the highway, a couple of days ago, and I noticed the ETS light (second left on the dashboard) being ON. It stayed like that eversince, when the engine is started, with the exception of 2-3 seconds right after I started the engine ytesterday day.
I thought it may be a fuse, and this is how I saw in the fuse box that F22 coresponds to cruise control + traction control (ETS) + ...
The fuse was fine, but this is how I got to test the cruise control, that I don't usually use, and found out it's not working anymore.
So, please, if anyone had this problem before me, tell me, what should I expect if I go to the dealer? Is the diagnostic free of charge? This would be my first time going to the dealership with a problem...
Thank you in advance,
If your vehicle is still under warranty take it in and have thenm check it. I had aproblem on my BAS but not ETS.got fixed under warranty.0
alvamb Posts: 1I have a 99 ML 320 and recently the fuel pump also died as I was trying to get the car out of the garage, I am so fortunate that I was not on the highway as "biker5" above! The dealer replaced it under warranty, however the other things - rattles in the rear door and the electrical problems (all warning lights go on for no reason, window motor dying, rear wiper motor quitting)I have had it with this vehicle & I am turning it in when the lease is up. This is my first Mercedes and I have really been disappointed by the experience. I am looking at Toyotas and VWs now.0
Lucky you, that you are still in your garage when that fuel pump failure happened to you. So you read my experience Huh!. But since they replaced mine I don't have any more problem...knock on wood.;-) anyway have the dealer fix all the problem, yours still under warranty right.0
rpalaba Posts: 1Need information on ML320 2002. Inside air circulations turns off by itself every few minutes. Benz dealer says it is a feature, although it took a while for them to tell us it is a feature (over the weekend for the salesman). Can't find the feature documented elsewhere. Is this true?0
mclass4 Posts: 3My new ML320 had a power steering leak and a faulty fuel pump after 11 days of driving. Anyone else heard of this happening?0
don99lhs Posts: 9Last week my 2000 ML320 developed a tranny leak. It seams to be leaking around the rubber seal on the trans. pan. The bolts that hold the pan on seam a little loose but when you tighten them it leaks worse. What should I do?0
rnurse Posts: 3Wow! I was really keen on buying a used, err uh, previously owned 2001 ML430. But after reading all this, I'm not so sure anymore. Is there a place where I can find out if there have been any recalls on this vehicle?0
Karen_S Posts: 5,092Check this Edmunds.com article for info:
Recalls, Technical Service Bulletins, and Other Good Stuff
Owners Clubs0
aspesisteve Posts: 833trying to sell my used ML320.
Having by far the lowest priced Y2k car in the paper tells me these cars are not selling,
because the only interest I get is people who want to pay $26k for a car that sold for over $40k just 2 years ago.
The dealer I bought it from offered $25k - and said only on a trade. I was so pissed off that
I told him I would park it out in front of his lot with giant for sale signs on it and a price much lower than the $35k he asks for the very same car. The MBZ dealer thinks he adds value by certifying a car that is fully under warranty and has been meticulously maintained.0
aiyee Posts: 2I have a 98 ML320, when I'm driving with the AC on and I make a right/left turn, water comes out into the driver/passenger side. Dealer wants $100 to look into it. Any suggestions before I authorize the work. Thanks.0
greglynn Posts: 1I have a 1999 ML430 equipped with about every option including the now discontinued/not supported 1st Gen slapped on Nav GPS system. To date:
Wind noise at door seals - warr service
CD failure - replaced unit warr
Nav system failure - replaced unit warr
Transmission computer keeps ML in kicked down passing gear after I back off on gas pedal. Asking dealer about this..
Seat belt recall - factory warr service
Front brakes replace at 25K
Sunroof failed - full replace under warr
Sun visor bracket breakage - warr serviced
Spring failure in rear seats
Cup holders knocked out of alignment by long legged passengers
Nose angle of hood is prone to rock chips from other cars
Overall the vehicle has been great. Outstanding power, handles like a car, unbelievable traction control especially in rain. Can get interesting in extreme emergency maneuvers like any HCG SUV. Short wheelbase makes it still bounce you more than one likes for extended highway cruising. Seats in this model are not as comfortable as my Explorer was or 2000 model ML is. I have 6 yr 100K extended warranty. Am looking forward to 2004 larger SUV Mercedes has in design right now.0
lambo_oreo Posts: 15Just bought a brand new 02 ML320. I occassionaly have an issue where it feels like the engine is not getting enough fuel so it starts shaking and eventually die. The feeling is similar to a manual trans where you are trying to mix the clutch and the gas so it won't die on you. They replaced the fuel pump at 4k miles and now at 5.5k miles, the problem is showing up again.
Has any one seen this?0
have a problem w/ my 2002 ML320. the passenger side mirror supposed to tilt down when you put the gear in reverse and you can program it(angle of the mirror) to your memory seat. I tried to
follow the manual for programming but didn't work. called the dealer and they said the manual was misprint and you can't program the mirror. I got the convenient pak. just for that feature b/c it is really useful when you do parallel parking in city. Is this true? They said I was the first one noticed it. Seems like nobody knows how to fix this problem.0
orland Posts: 9The sales brochure implied that it was standard. When I called 1-800-MERCEDES to ask about it, they said that the tilt-down function was part of the M2 package, which I do not have but you do. I would definitely call Mercedes and ask about it. I would also ask your salesman and/or another dealer.0
I've finally got an answer from the MB. regarding malfunctioning passenger side mirror. In order to activate the tilt down feature, you need to press memory button under driver's seat every single time you get in the car. I think it is the most ridiculous feature I've ever seen in my life. They keep saying that it was just engineered like that, no further explanation! I thought owning a MB. would give me a piece of mind, in terms of service and quality, but I was wrong. I've learned my lesson in a very expensive way. Think twice when you buy a MB.0
jlangmd Posts: 6I have no problems with my mirror tilt down feature. You do need to have the passenger side mirror selected on the center console switch for it to work. I have never pressed my memory button.0
Yes, I know that you need to select the passenger side mirror button to mobilize the tilt down feature. It seems like the mirror is working when I program it, but it doesn't tilt down once I restart the engine. Is my ML only one doing that?0
momwithkids Posts: 5Hi, we use our 99 ML320 for commuting to work and nothing else - all freeway driving. The fuel service pump died - but we thought it was a service issue - now we realize that it was not. It died twice. Every door lock has been replaced. And now the engine died at 80,000 and has to be replaced. Cost of new engine? 20,000 buckaroos for a new one, 9,000 for a used. We do have extended warranty coverage and they want to put in a used engine. I figure once the engine is in, I will have almost a completely rebuilt car!
Mercedes has been extremely unhelpful about all the problems,except that the service guys have admitted that all of my problems (except the engine failure) are common to the ML320 - and not just in the 99 year.
I had a jag before this, so I guess that this is just part of the "charm" of owning an ML320. But it irks me because I thought Mercedes was more reliable than jags. Looks like I made a mistake!0
bobeberhardt Posts: 39A Class Action Lawsuit was filed against Mercedes Benz that effects owners of all 1999, 2000 and 2001 Mercedes Benz vehicles. When Mercedes Benz implemented the Flexible Service System (FSS) in 1999, which permitted extended oil change intervals of up to 20,000 miles, they recommended changes with regular (fossil) oils. By 2001 they experienced some engines with excessive sludge deposits and early engine failures. They then recommended oil changes with only specific brands of synthetic motor oils to address this problem. Since Mercedes Benz initial recommendation for use of fossil oils resulted in not only engine failures of 1999, 2000 and 2001 vehicles, but also premature wear in others, a class action suited was filed against Mercedes Benz. Approximately 2 weeks ago, Mercedes Benz agreed to settle this suit by agreeing to extend the warranty on all 1999, 2000 and 2001 Mercedes Benz vehicles to 10 years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first. In addition, the owners of 1999 vehicles will receive a total of $3,500 of service, of their choice, at a Mercedes Benz dealer.
Hope this information shows that Mercedes Benz plans to stand behind their vehicles. I would think the Mercedes will be contacting owners of 1999, 2000 and 2001 vehicles in the very near future.0

subset: commoncrawl


text:
A good looking woman walks into a bar wearing a tube top. She raises her hand to signal the bartender for a beer, revealing that she does not shave her armpits.
Meanwhile, a sloppy drunk on the other side of the bar signals the bartender, "Buy that ballerina over there a drink on me."
The bartender replies, "What makes you think she's a ballerina?"
"Because," answers the drunken man, "any chick that can lift her leg that high has GOT to be a ballerina."


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KENTUCKY – Over the weekend of Sept. 30 through Oct. 2, eight western Kentucky counties will team up to present the sixth annual Highway 60 Yard Sale. The sale will stretch for 200 miles along U.S. Highway 60 through Livingston, Crittenden, Union, Henderson, Daviess, Hancock, Breckinridge and Meade counties. Cities along the route include Smithland, Salem, Marion, Sturgis, Morganfield, Waverly, Corydon, Henderson, Owensboro, Lewisport, Hawesville, Cloverport, Hardinsburg, Irvington and Muldraugh, as well as dozens of smaller communities in between.
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Have you tuned in yet to the race for president? If the record-breaking voter turnout and close-call primaries haven't been enough to hold your attention, consider this: Amid the pack of journalists at the debates, campaign rallies, and victory parties, students your age are reporting the whole scene from a kid's perspective.
Outfitted in bright red shirts and armed with microphones and notebooks, the Scholastic Kids Press Corps has 80-plus members ages 10 to 14 from all over the United States.
Their stories at Scholastic News Online (www.scholastic.com/election2008) include everything from the candidates' ideas about education to interviews with their children.
They'll even tell you about behind-the-scenes stuff, like a security dog sniffing its way down a line of people before an event.
Before they started, the Kid Reporters got tips from professionals about how to cover a story. But it's up to them to come up with questions and write up what they hear and see. (See the questions in the box at the top of the next page.)
"The first time [I was] trying to speak to a candidate, I was nervous and it was difficult for me," says Hana Knowles, a fifth-grader at Beaver Meadow Elementary School in Concord, N.H.
She thought it would be scary, but when she started talking to the candidates at a debate, "it felt like just talking to [an ordinary] person," she says. "They treated me nicer, because they let me have extra questions, but other than that, I think they treated me like a real reporter."
That's because she is a real one. "Their copy [another word for story] is treated just like any other professional journalist's copy is treated," says Suzanne Freeman, editor of Scholastic News Online.
Sometimes the kid reporters turn heads as they set up alongside much taller journalists. Photographers focus cameras on them, but these novice newshounds keep focused on their mission.
A few days before the New Hampshire primary, Hana and three of her fellow fifth-grade reporters attended a rally for Sen. Barack Obama at Concord High School. They propped up tripods and video cameras on two corners of an elevated platform for the press, and waited.
This day they arrived early enough to stake out a good spot. But student videographer Peter Newland says his most challenging moment during the fall campaign came during a John McCain event. There he had to struggle to hold the camera high enough to film over people's heads.
Peter says he enjoys telling other students about the presidential candidates because "the president will affect your future.... They could make it better; they could make it worse. It helps if you watch those types of things."
His classmate Zachary Speigel recalls asking McCain about the rising cost of college: "I asked this huge, five-minute question about education, and he was just stunned and said, 'How old are you?' " Zachary says with a wide-eyed laugh.
McCain went on to answer "that we definitely need to at least try to put the prices down, because kids like us need a good education," he says.
Many student reporters have told Ms. Freeman that they're disappointed the candidates aren't talking more about education. "They say to me, 'They must think NCLB [the federal No Child Left Behind law] is working,' " she says.
Freeman selects kid reporters based on the originality of essays they write about their communities.
"I look for the kids that go beyond [descriptions of] tourist attractions," she says. One student stood out by writing about Portland, Ore., as a bicycle city, with all the issues that raises, such as bike safety and environmental benefits.
Freeman gives them a run-down on how media events work and the basics of interviewing. Some of the key lessons: Look people in the eye. Never ask a question that can be answered with just a "yes" or a "no." Report the facts, not your opinion or emotions after hearing a charismatic speaker.
True to their training as objective journalists, the kids in New Hampshire wouldn't let on if they had any favorites in the race for president.
The idea of having kids do the reporting for Scholastic came to Freeman during the presidential race in 2000. The first kid reporters were from Beaver Meadow, where principal Roger Brooks had already trained some students to do local reporting.
Now the Scholastic Kids Press Corps reports on other news, too, not just elections. "They're really now like the bureau chiefs for Scholastic News and Junior Scholastic magazine," Freeman says. "They've interviewed [Supreme Court] Chief Justice John Roberts and Tom Cruise – the whole gamut."
As music pumped up the crowd at the Obama event, the red-shirted foursome scanned the crowds for good photos. They barely took notice as a snowman walked by – they'd seen him at other election events, trying to draw attention to global warming.
Principal Brooks, a tall man wearing an American flag tie, occasionally helped with equipment, but otherwise he stood back and watched.
"When they think back at the Beaver Meadow experience, I want them to think of days like this and ... kind of crystallize their whole experience of being an elementary school student," Brooks says. "The most important thing we teach in elementary school is communication skills.... Being an actor on stage, giving a speech, coming out and asking a question ... [in those situations] the learning stays with the kids a lot longer."
Soon a collective cheer bubbled up from the audience and all eyes were on Obama. The kid reporters listened for him to address any of their questions during his speech, occasionally writing notes in their reporters' pads – or in Zachary's case, on a brown lunch bag. (Even the best reporters sometimes forget their notebooks!)
When the speech ended, they found out there would be no press conference. Their only choice was to join the crowd up at the rail to try to get Obama's attention as he made his way out.
It was a tense few minutes as Zachary and fellow reporter Nua Toy-Giles wormed their way through the pack. Hana opted to head up to the bleachers where she could get a good view.
Obama stopped to talk to several people as he inched his way toward the kids. Finally, they caught his eye, and he leaned down to hear Zach's question.
When Zach and Nua emerged, their principal's face was beaded with sweat from the excitement and the exertion of holding the video camera high above the crowd.
As Zach caught his breath, he shared Obama's answer to his question, the first one they always ask candidates: Why should my parents vote for you? "He told me he's very good at bringing people together ... to agree on things like healthcare. And he said he's a very honest man, too."
The kid reporters had time for a short break before heading to a Mitt Romney event at a local restaurant. Over the weekend, they'd be busy writing up their stories.
On Feb. 5, known in election lingo as Super Tuesday, another set of kid reporters will be busy keeping tabs on the primary elections in other states.
The Scholastic Kids Press Corps will continue its coverage through the general election in November. They'll even write about the inauguration of the new president in 2009.
Who knows, maybe when the 2012 presidential election rolls around, you'll be one of those red-shirted reporters yourself!
1. To be elected president of the United States, a candidate must receive _____ electoral votes.
a. 266
b. 270
c. 271
d. 279
2. The voting of the people is called the _______ vote.
a. electoral
b. popular
c. majority
d. state
3. The first political party in the United States was called the ________ Party.
a. Democratic
b. Republican
c. Federalist
d. Colonialist
4. The Green Party formed as a result of the _______ movement.
a. feminist
b. environmental
c. equal rights
d. civil rights
5. To serve as president of the United States, a candidate must be at least ___ years old.
a. 35
b. 40
c. 45
d. 50
6. Americans vote for the US president on election day, which occurs every four years in early _______.
a. September
b. October
c. November
d. December
7. The first primary was held in _________ in 1868.
a. Virginia
b. Georgia
c. Massachusetts
d. Pennsylvania
Source: www.scholastic.com
Scholastic News: © 2008 1. (b) 270
2. (b) popular
3. (c) Federalist
4. (b) environmental
5. (a) 35
6. (c) November
7. (d) Pennsylvania


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Learn more about Woman Quotas
Candidate quotas is a system in which political parties are penalized for not running a certain percentage of women candidates for office. In 2012 legislation was introduced which would have required parties to field at least 30% women candidates at the next election and 40% at the election after that. If a party failed to meet these thresholds they would lose half of their public funding. Women currently make up 24.7% of the lower house and 38.2% in the upper house. Of 189 developed countries Australia currently ranks 46 out of 189. Proponents of quotas argue that they help promote gender diversity in government and are responsible for a 20% increase in the proportion of women in parliaments worldwide. See recent woman quotas news


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Scroll to the bottom for the giveaway winner.
This humble quilt I saw in an antique store. I wonder why the quiltmaker felt the need to chop off the stars!!?? I love the big Baptist fans.
Karen at Log Cabin Quilter was the name that was pulled from the hat. Thank you all for entering!!!
Congratulations Karen!!


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Latest News
Kidnapping threats escalate in Lebanon, neighboring Syria
Relatives of nine men who've been held by rebels in Syria for the past year have threatened to kidnap any Turkish nationals found in Beirut.
Two Turkish Airlines pilots were abducted Friday. The arrest of a Lebanese man Sunday in that kidnapping – he's a son of one of the men held in Syria – triggered threats to snatch up even more Turks in Beirut.
The abduction of the pilots marked a quick escalation of hostage taking as various factions hit by the Syrian civil war angle for leverage to win the release of earlier abductees.
Such retaliatory kidnappings figure to complicate allegiances in the region and to gut Lebanon's shaky tourism trade.
The Northern Storm Brigades rebel group abducted nine Lebanese pilgrims in Syria last year while they were headed to Shiite Muslim religious sites. They were taken hostage as suspected members of the militant group Hezbollah, which has strongly backed the Syrian regime in its fight against the rebels.
The nine men have been held pending a swap for female prisoners held by the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The pilgrims' families hailed Friday's abduction of the Turkish pilots from central Beirut as a way to force the issue.
They've grown frustrated with a lack of progress in freeing the men, and they share a belief – widely held among Lebanese Shiites – that the Turkish government could easily deliver the pilgrims' release.
Turkey, which has officially cut off diplomatic ties with the Assad regime and expressed support for the opposition, was involved in negotiating the release months ago of two pilgrims who were with the nine still held.
The families are threatening further abductions unless the man whom Beirut's Internal Security Forces arrested Sunday in connection with the kidnappings – Mohammed Saleh, the son of one of the pilgrims – is released.
Saleh allegedly received a number of congratulatory messages on his mobile phone after the pilots were abducted.
Attempts by Lebanese lawmakers and political leaders to broker a release of the pilots and Saleh failed Monday night. That prompted the pilgrims' families to declare that any Turkish citizen in Beirut might be targeted next and that an escalation of the protests to close Beirut's international airport might come at any time.
"The detention of Saleh is a political move by the Information Branch" of Lebanon's national police force, Hayat Awali, the wife of one of the hostages, told a news conference of local media in a southern Beirut suburb. "Therefore, a large group of the relatives of hostages are heading to Beirut's streets, and any Turk seen there will be kidnapped."
The Information Branch of the national police force is widely seen in Lebanon's fractious political and sectarian environment as politically opposed to Hezbollah and anti-Shiite.Turkish institutions responded dramatically to the weekend of threats. The Turkish military announced that it would withdraw several hundred troops from a United Nations peacekeeping mission along the border with Israel. It also ramped up security around its diplomatic facilities, cultural centers and businesses.
The announcement that the Turkish government was withdrawing its contribution to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon followed abruptly on the heels of the pilots' kidnapping. It came amid concern over Hezbollah's power in south Lebanon, where the special U.N. force is based.
"Hezbollah doesn't need to have done the kidnapping themselves," said a Western military attache with close ties to the U.N. force, speaking only on the condition of anonymity because of a lack of authorization to talk to journalists. "They're in a position to control these sorts of incidents, and the message is clear that they aren't going to stop them."
A resident of the predominantly Shiite southern suburbs of Beirut said Hezbollah was keen to a growing anger among residents about the kidnappings.
"The government can do nothing for our hostages and the Turks control their fate," said Abu Ibrahim Moussawi, a storeowner in southern Beirut. "Hezbollah knows that the people are furious and need to let the families . . . pressure the Turks to release our people."
A Hezbollah security commander denied the group's involvement in the kidnappings. But he said the situation was being closely monitored to "make sure things do not get out of control. The people are very angry, and we have to respect them."
The escalating drama around the nine pilgrims – who appear to have close family and cultural ties to Hezbollah – has thrown Beirut's tourism industry into disarray even as Syria's tiny neighbor already has seen a massive drop in the economically crucial sector, which represents at least 25 percent of the country's economy.
"What happened could be the last nail in the coffin of the tourism sector," interim Tourism Minister Fadi Abboud told a local TV station. He stressed that the kidnappings came just as the Lebanese government was attempting to convince several nations to relax their travel warnings on Lebanon.


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Defining SAN performance-related terms
seb_ 060000QVK2 Comments (4) Visits (34106)
I claim that in 2012 performance problems will keep their place amongst the most frequent and most impacting problems in the SAN. In many of the cases the client's users really notice a performance impact and so the admin calls for support. Other support cases are opened because of performance related messages like the ones from Brocade's bottleneckmon or Cisco's slowdrain policy for the Port... [More]
Is under-utilization of a SAN bad? And what have slow drain devices to do with that?
seb_ 060000QVK2 Visits (13032)
There is an interesting discussion ongoing in the Linkedin group The Storage Group . The question is "What is the REAL cost of Fibre Channel?" . To my surprise the participants in this discussion relatively quickly came to the conclusion that the problem is over-provisioning resp. under-utitization. My personal opinion was: "I would like to come back to the over-provision / under-utilization part.... [More]
Why inter-node traffic across ISLs should be avoided
seb_ 060000QVK2 Comments (9) Visits (21415)
If you use a SAN Volume Controller it usually is the linchpin of your SAN. Except for the FICON and tape related stuff everything is connected to it. It is the single host for all your storage arrays and the single storage for all your host systems. Because of this crucial role the SVC has some special requirements regarding your SAN design. The rules can be seen in the manuals or in the SVC... [More]
How to deal with slow drain devices?
seb_ 060000QVK2 Comments (3) Visits (52473)
One of the ugliest things that can happen in a SAN is a big performance problem introduced by a slow drain device (or slow draining device). Why is it so ugly? Well, if a full fabric or a full data center drops down - due to a fire for example - it's definitely ugly, too. But such situations can be covered by redundancy (failover to another fabric, to another data center, etc), because the trigger... [More]


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This was a place a buddy of mine grew up, the homes haven't been lived in since they left 14 years ago. The location is just north of Gila Bend but south or the Reservation land. On the way we almost hit a javelina that bolted through a fence and across the road. So after that we found the road can be accessed with a 4wd or anything higher than stock ride height, we walked to stay quiet if we stumbled across anyone. First we reached the Apartment building on the left after entering the property about a 1/4 mile off the road, we explored around there for a bit but didn't venture too far inside with the deterioration of the roof and huge chunks hanging down. The sun was starting to go down so we ventured over to his old house, the one that was gutted by fire, after we took some photos and may have had an appearance. We went next door to the grandparents house, then next to that was the house that he doesn't remember anyone ever living in which was pretty intact, we found a bee hive behind the medicine cabinet in the wash room so we promptly got a safe distance from them since we were a good hour from a good hospital and there were probably about 50-80 bees in the wall. After the sun was almost gone we ventured our way back to the car with the headlamp and flashlights. Sorry for the lack of photos, this was our first trip all together. I hope you guys enjoy the pictures and looking forward to some mines.
(Also I will do a better job of organizing the photos next time, these pictures were taken on both iPhone camera and a older digital camera)
Last edited by GefahrMike253; 09-24-2013 at 08:43 AM.
Fun trip, cant wait for the next Adventure. Until next time,
That whole area from Arlington onto Fortuna Foothills has a lot of older structures from the old US 80 days. The one I always enjoyed is the Gillespie Bridge and what is left the **** a couple miles north of Gila Bend. You get off SR-85 anywhere and its really apparent how past its prime Gila Bend really is.
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End-of-life notice: American Legal Ethics Library
As of March 1, 2013, the Legal Information Institute is no longer maintaining the information in the American Legal Ethics Library. It is no longer possible for us to maintain it at a level of completeness and accuracy given its staffing needs. It is very possible that we will revive it at a future time. At this point, it is in need of a complete technological renovation and reworking of the "correspondent firm" model which successfully sustained it for many years.
Many people have contributed time and effort to the project over the years, and we would like to thank them. In particular, Roger Cramton and Peter Martin not only conceived ALEL but gave much of their own labor to it. We are also grateful to Brad Wendel for his editorial contributions, to Brian Toohey and all at Jones Day for their efforts, and to all of our correspondents and contributors. Thank you.
We regret any inconvenience.
Some portions of the collection may already be severely out of date, so please be cautious in your use of this material.
Connecticut Rules of Professional Conduct
Commentary - Rule 1.16
[1] A lawyer should not accept representation in a matter unless it can be performed competently, promptly, without improper conflict of interest and to completion.
Mandatory Withdrawal
[2] A lawyer ordinarily must decline or withdraw from representation if the client demands that the lawyer engage in conduct that is illegal or violates the Rules of Professional Conduct or other law. The lawyer is not obliged to decline or withdraw simply because the client suggests such a course of conduct; a client may make such a suggestion in the hope that a lawyer will not be constrained by a professional obligation.
[3] When a lawyer has been appointed to represent a client, withdrawal ordinarily requires approval of the appointing authority. See also Rule 6.2. Difficulty may be encountered if withdrawal is based on the client's demand that the lawyer engage in unprofessional conduct. The court may wish an explanation for the withdrawal, while the lawyer may be bound to keep confidential the facts that would constitute such an explanation. The lawyer's statement that professional considerations require termination of the representation ordinarily should be accepted as sufficient.
[4] A client has a right to discharge a lawyer at any time, with or without cause, subject to liability for payment for the lawyer's services. Where future dispute about the withdrawal may be anticipated, it may be advisable to prepare a written statement reciting the circumstances.
[5] Whether a client can discharge appointed counsel may depend on applicable law. A client seeking to do so should be given a full explanation of the consequences. These consequences may include a decision by the appointing authority that appointment of successor counsel is unjustified, thus requiring the client to represent himself or herself.
[6] If the client is mentally incompetent, the client may lack the legal capacity to discharge the lawyer, and in any event the discharge may be seriously adverse to the client's interests. The lawyer should make special effort to help the client consider the consequences and, in an extreme case, may initiate proceedings for a conservatorship or similar protection of the client. See Rule 1.14.
Optional Withdrawal
[7] A lawyer may withdraw from representation in some circumstances. The lawyer has the option to withdraw if it can be accomplished without material adverse effect on the client's interests. Withdrawal is also justified if the client persists in a course of action that the lawyer reasonably believes is criminal or fraudulent, for a lawyer is not required to be associated with such conduct even if the lawyer does not further it. Withdrawal is also permitted if the lawyer's services were misused in the past even if that would materially prejudice the client. The lawyer also may withdraw where the client insists on a repugnant or imprudent objective.
[8] A lawyer may withdraw if the client refuses to abide by the terms of an agreement relating to the representation, such as an agreement concerning fees or court costs or an agreement limiting the objectives of the representation.
Assisting the Client upon Withdrawal
[9] Even if the lawyer has been unfairly discharged by the client, a lawyer must take all reasonable steps to mitigate the consequences to the client. The lawyer may retain papers as security for a fee only to the extent permitted by law.
[10] Whether or not a lawyer for an organization may under certain unusual circumstances have a legal obligation to the organization after withdrawing or being discharged by the organization's highest authority is beyond the scope of these Rules.
Confirmation in Writing
A written statement to the client confirming the termination of the relationship and the basis of the termination reduces the possibility of misunderstanding the status of the relationship. The written statement should be sent to the client before or within a reasonable time after the termination of the relationship.


text: ISS Amateur Radio Status: April 5, 2007 By Miles Mann WF1F, MAREX-MG News www.marexmg.org Manned Amateur Radio Experiment ISS Crew Change April 2007 There will be a crew change taking place on ISS this month. The existing Expedition #14 currently consists of: Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria Flight Engineer and Soyuz commander Mikhail Tyurin Flight Engineer Sunita Williams. Ms. Williams arrived via the Shuttle STS-116 mission last fall. She will also stay on ISS after the crew change in April and become part of the Crew #15. Launch dates, September 18, 2006 through April 20 2007 The new crew #15 will consist of: Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi, an American flying under contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency. Charles will return to Earth with Expedition 14 on April 20th with Lopez-Algeria and Tyurin. Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov Amateur Radio Status: Voice and Packet: The Kenwood D700 celebrated its 3-year of service last December. However after three years of 24/7 usage has taken its toll. Last August the memory channels became too corrupted to be reliable. The procedures given to the crew to configure a channel combination did not always match the instructions and there were a few times when I heard the ISS crew calling for a school and ISS was on the wrong uplink frequency. The D700 was removed from Public access last August and is only being used for pre-arranged school schedules, etc. The good news is that we may get an opportunity to reload the OS on the D700 during the upcoming crew change. The D700 on ISS is running a special OS and channels setup, created just for the ISS. If time allows, the D700 will get a fresh OS reload to set it back to the launch configuration. The OS reload, also includes a very complex channel configuration and other unique settings. The OS reload requires the removal of the covers and the installation of a special ribbon cable. See the attached link (bottom left Picture). As a back up plan, if the reload fails, a few basic channels may be hand keyed into the radio. http://www.marexmg.org/hardware/kenwood.html Ericcsons Systems: The Erriccson HT systems are not currently being used because of an intermittent cable issue. No date on when replacement parts will be flown at this time. The PacCom modems attached to the Ericcsons have not been activate in 3+ years and the memory batteries are probably not functional. http://www.marexmg.org/hardware/ericcson.html Slow Scan TV: The Marex Slow Scan TV project, SpaceCam1 was activated for a few weeks last August using a Borrowed Laptop. The amateur radio projects still do not have a dedicated laptop for the projects and there are no laptops scheduled for flight to be used for Amateur Radio usage on ISS in the foreseeable future. http://www.marexmg.org/imagessstv/SpaceCamImages1.htm Future Projects: Marex is working on keeping ISS accessible and affordable by keeping it on the air. We have submitted proposals for a new packet system, which has been initially approved. We are also working on other proposals, including proposals to replace most of the aging hardware with new state-of-the-art hardware. The goal is to keep it simple and kept it on the air. Your support is always welcome. School Schedules: If you want to listen to ISS school schedules on the 145.800, then you should check the ARISS web page to seen when the next time ISS will be on the air in your part of the world. Listeners are encouraged to tune in and listing to the ARISS School down links. Information about the next scheduled ARISS contact can be found at http://www.rac.ca/ariss/upcoming.htm#NextContact . Marexmg Web page http://www.marexmg.org ARISS Web page and other great Space projects http://www.rac.ca/ariss/ 73 Miles WF1F MAREX-MG Until we meet again DOSVIDANIYA Miles WF1F ____________________________________________________________________________________ Finding fabulous fares is fun. Let Yahoo! FareChase search your favorite travel sites to find flight and hotel bargains. http://farechase.yahoo.com/promo-generic-14795097


text: No longer the new kid on the block, SaaS CRM has evolved into a mature software category. Yet unlike many other industries where products become more commoditized over time, the differences between SaaS CRM offerings have never been more pronounced. While you may be tempted to make a purchase decision based on your company's short-term tactical requirements, you will need to live with a CRM system for many years. Given this fact, what are the best criteria on which to base a purchase of SaaS CRM? Read this guide to learn five areas to consider when choosing a SaaS CRM solution.


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In his recent commentary, Jay Bernstein wants the Maryland authorities to maintain a restrictive policy warning shippers that "if you trade with Iran, you can't trade here" ("Keep up the pressure on Iran," June 21). But the principles of free trade and the rules of the World Trade Organization are very clear: Shippers who conduct perfectly legitimate trade with Iran, some of whom supply humanitarian supplies of food and medicine, cannot be penalized and told they can't do business in Maryland or any other U.S state.
This is why U.S authorities have been reluctant to enforce sanctions because they can easily be legally challenged, and companies can sue for loss of business — sanctioned Iranian banks have already been successful at this.
Yousef Bozorgmehr, Wilmington, Del.


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Inspired by "Band Together" by Bill Kerr and Weeks Ringle of FunQuilts
Quiltmaker: Laura Boehnke
8—9x22" pieces (fat eighths) assorted prints in green, yellow, white, and pink (blocks)
18x22" piece (fat quarter) bunny print (setting rectangles)
1-1/8 yards green floral (setting rectangles, borders, binding)
1-1/4 yards backing fabric
39x44" batting
Finished quilt: 33x37-1/2"
Finished block: 9-1/2x3"
Quantities are for 44/45"-wide, 100% cotton fabrics.
Measurements include 1/4" seam allowances. Sew with right sides together unless otherwise stated. {C}


text: Acclaimed scholar of history, gender and colonialism Tanika Sarkar is the focus of this year's Salon Series, which offers an opportunity to dive into the implications of scholarly texts that make a critical intervention in their field. A diverse group of historians and scholars respond to Sarkar's latest work, which explores the relations among law, personhood, and Hindu idioms of "entangled selves" in colonial India. Tanika Sarkar is the Dahwan Visiting Professor of South Asian History at Yale University, and professor of History at Jawaharlal Nehru University. Her previous works include Hindu Wife, Hindu Nation: Community, Religion, and Cultural Nationalism; and Rebels, Wives, Saints: Designing Selves and Nations in Colonial Times. Joining Professor Sarkar are Neferti Tadiar, professor of women's studies at Barnard College, Anupama Rao, associate professor of history at Barnard College, and other scholars to be announced.


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Civil Engineering
Bradley's Department of Civil Engineering and Construction offers an ABET-accredited Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering program that provides students the necessary background for continued professional growth and prepares them for engineering careers.
Our construction program is accredited by the American Council for Construction Education. The program's multidisciplinary curriculum was developed to include the essentials of contemporary management philosophy, sound business and construction practice, and enlightened human relations. These aims are in consonance with the goals of the Associated Schools of Construction and the philosophy of the American Institute of Constructors.
Graduate Program
The CEC graduate program is quite unique and offers its students opportunities that may not even be available at larger and strictly research oriented institutions. Some of CEC's graduate program attractive features are its size, flexibility, and practicality.


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from June Kim of the UCLA Law Library, here. Many of the links to the databases are UCLA-only, but many other universities subscribe to the databases, too — if you're at a university, chances are that you can find the sources through your library, once you know what to look for.
I'll take a look at UCLA's.
If you have a comment about spelling, typos, or format errors, please e-mail the poster directly rather than posting a comment.
Comment Policy: We reserve the right to edit or delete comments, and in extreme cases to ban commenters, at our discretion. Comments must be relevant and civil (and, especially, free of name-calling). We think of comment threads like dinner parties at our homes. If you make the party unpleasant for us or for others, we'd rather you went elsewhere. We're happy to see a wide range of viewpoints, but we want all of them to be expressed as politely as possible.
We realize that such a comment policy can never be evenly enforced, because we can't possibly monitor every comment equally well. Hundreds of comments are posted every day here, and we don't read them all. Those we read, we read with different degrees of attention, and in different moods. We try to be fair, but we make no promises.
And remember, it's a big Internet. If you think we were mistaken in removing your post (or, in extreme cases, in removing you) -- or if you prefer a more free-for-all approach -- there are surely plenty of ways you can still get your views out.


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Don�t be afraid of cake. Making cake, that is.
Put that box down � I�m talking about scratch cake. Even if you don�t remember where you put the flour, or the difference between baking powder and baking soda, you can make cake. I swear.
As I have said many, many times, I am not the baker in this family. But, when I buckle down and follow directions � without getting distracted � things usually turn out of the pan well. And if they don�t, then I can scrape up the crumbs and make trifle.
It�s true, the first thing you have to put aside when starting a cake is fear. What if it doesn�t rise? Slice it, spread it with butter and toast it for breakfast. What if all the nuts or fruit fall to the bottom? Serve it upside down. (You can usually avoid this by dusting add-ins with flour before adding them to the batter.) What if it sticks to the pan? Well, icing is like bakers� spackle and can hide a multitude of blemishes.
We baking impaired folks have learned some tricks � things natural bakers just know, like how to breathe. Here are a few things I�ve gleaned over the years:
If you�re using a hand mixer, don�t lift the beaters out of the bowl while the motor is still running. Seems obvious, but when my friend, Linda, and I tried to make our first cake, lo those many years ago, I pulled this trick. We spent an hour getting the batter off Mom�s walls, cabinets, and yes, ceiling. And the dog.
Use cake flour for traditional cakes that should be light and airy. Skip it for poundcake , which is prized for its density.
Don�t soften butter in the microwave. No matter how careful you are, part of it will become liquid � no good for encasing sugar crystals, which create those delicious pockets.
You hear it over and over, but using a separate scoop to fill measuing cups with dry ingredients is imperative. If you just dip the cup in the flour or sugar, you�ll smash the ingredients in, and get a lopsided serving.
Don�t use eggs right out of the refrigerator. Let them come to room temperature. If you don�t have time, place them in a bowl of lukewarm water for five minutes.
No one likes to grease and flour pans. That�s why you have children. Make them do it � over the sink to catch the falling excess.
Get a cake tester. This really cheap gadget earns it keep. My mother used to break off a straw from our broom. I shudder to think of the times she probably used the working side of the straw. Tooth picks are too rough. Batter sticks to them, giving you the false impression that your cake needs more time in the oven.
There, that�s not really a scary list. And since I just found a huge jar of fig preserves from Ocracoke in the back of my cabinet, I�m going to share Ocracoke�s Island Inn�s recipe for fig preserves cake. Leave off the glaze if you want a great breakfast cake.
I�m also including a simple poundcake recipe that uses 7-Up. Of course, �round here, you can use SunDrop . In fact, it�s expected�
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a tube cake pan.
3 eggs
1 � cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups flour
1 tsp. each, of nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon and salt
1 tsp. baking soda, dissolved in a little hot water
� cup buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup fig preserves, chopped in necessary
1 cup nuts, chopped
Coat the nuts lightly with sifted flour and set aside. Beat the eggs until light yellow. Beat in sugar and oil. Sift the flour and spices and salt together. With beaters running, add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the egg mixture, then add the dissolved baking soda and 1/3 of the buttermilk. Alternate adding the dry and wet ingredients until everything is combined. Fold in vanilla, fig preserves and nuts. Pour into pan and bake about 45 minutes. Let sit for 10 minutes. Run a thin knife around the edges and invert onto a plate. After five minutes, drizzle with the glaze. (You can poke some holes in the cake with the cake tester before you add the glaze, if you�d like)
While cake is baking, make the glaze:
� cup buttermilk
� cup sugar
� tsp. baking soda
1 � tsp. cornstarch
� cup butter
1 � tsp. vanilla
Combine everything except the vanilla in a saucepan over medium low heat, and bring to boil while stirring slowly but constantly. Immediately remove the pan from the heat and let cool about 20 minutes. Stir in the vanilla. Spoon over warm cake.
1 � cups butter , softened
3 cups sugar
3 cups flour
5 eggs
� cup SunDrop
1 Tbs. lemon juice
1 Tbs. vanilla
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a bundt or tube pan. Cream the butter and sugar together until smooth and kind of shiny. Beat in flour, one cup at a time. Mix in eggs, one at a time. Gently fold in the SunDrop , lemon juice and vanilla. Pour into pan, and bake for one hour. Allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing.


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President's Commission on Human Relations and Equity (PCHRE)
Our Charge
Develop a comprehensive three-to five-year Diversity Plan with measurable outcomes and visible results. The development of the Diversity Plan shall include the following elements:
- Affirm the President's Diversity Statement, and align the Diversity Plan with the University Strategic Plan.
- Create a Diversity Plan that is dynamic and reflects the rich and diverse experiences, values, world views and cultures that make up humanity. The diversity plan shall include specific goals, timelines, strategies, assessments, accountability and budget estimates.
- Review and discuss other institutions' Diversity Plans, planning processes, and best practices.
- Compile and analyze campus demographic data and historical trends for the recruitment, retention and professional development of faculty, staff, students and administrators, as well as data regarding components of diversity. The components of diversity may include but are not limited to support for an inclusive campus climate and breadth of intellectual research and curriculum.
- Discuss the research, theory and writing on diversity issues in higher education.
- Create a campus diversity progress tracking system (i.e., Diversity Scorecard).
- Develop a campus-wide implementation plan that includes activities, education, communication, feedback, and ongoing involvement. This plan shall include a timeline for milestone achievements.
- Secure campus-wide affirmation for the Diversity Plan, monitor its implementation, and begin progress reporting.
Following development and implementation of the Diversity Plan, the PCHRE shall be responsible on an annual basis to:
- Submit an annual Diversity Report to the President, university community, accrediting bodies and other relevant groups.
- Continue to study and review diversity programs developed at other universities on an on-going basis, and recommend actions to be considered by the President or governing bodies of the university.


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Give a gift with sentiment with a word that celebrates the beautiful things in life! This "HOPE" 18K gold vermeil floating charm/pendant has a modern & sleek hidden hinge clasp that allows you to take it on and off any bangle or necklace. Attach and layer it onto your own jewelry or purchase a bangle or necklace to go with it. Charm pendant measures 16mm round & weighs 4 grams.
Includes a So Pretty monogram box and jewelry polishing cloth perfect for gift giving.
Please note the gold vermeil refers to 18K gold plated onto solid sterling silver (3 microns thick).
Sign Up Now
Get Insider Perks, Exclusive Sales, Updates, Products & Presales!


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Engine Case Cover Kit (2pc) for Suzuki GSX-R1000 (K9-)
Product Details
Suitable for the Suzuki GSX-R1000 (K9-)Our industry leading engine case covers are now available in kit form containing all the engine case covers R&G offer for your bike in one go. Developed on track and brought to the road, R&G Engine Case Covers bring BSB and AMA race series approved levels of engine cover protection to your bike for complete peace of mind.
Made in the U.K.
R&G's entire range of Engine Case Covers (ECCs) have been approved by the British Superbike Championship (BSB) and the American Motorcycling Association (AMA) for use in any competition sanctioned by the Organisations.


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Communiqué n° 178
Le Forum Global Sports et Environnement organisé par G-Forse et le Programme Environnement des Nations Unies (UNEP), se tient les 8 et 9 Novembre 2010, à Nairobi (Kenya) au siège international des Nations Unies .
Cette edition du Forum où les Nations Unies se sont encore plus impliquées que lors des précedentes editions, marque bien l'intérêt de la diplomatie internationale pour les relations entre le Sport et les enjeux environnementaux.
- Communiqué officiel de l'UNEP.
2010 has been a year filled with international (sporting) events. From the Vancouver Olympic Games in February; the EXPO 2010 in Shanghai from May to October; the FIFA World Cup from June to July; the Youth Olympic Games in August 2010 and the Commonwealth Games in October, the year has been full of excitement and adrenalin fuelled entertainment for sports enthusiasts.
Alot has also done on "greening" sport events in 2010. This includes UNEP's engagement with the Indian Premier League, the UNEP-Puma Campaign on football and the International Year of Biodiversity and the work of the alternative energy commissions of the motor sports federations. The sporting goods industry has also played a part in integrating environmental considerations in their operations. Several sporting good companies have developed environmentally friendly sports apparels and kits for teams that participated in the World Cup.
The 2010 Global Forum for Sport and Environment (G-ForSE) takes a look at these events and activities and reviews the extent to which environment and sustainability played a role.
Two hundred participants from International Sports Federations, National Olympic Committees, organizers of mass sporting events, civil society organizations and sport and environment enthusiasts took stock of the year and review the impact of these events on climate change and biodiversity. They will provide recommendations on how organizers of future events could strengthen the integration of environmental practices in their activities.
The 2 days event 'll take place at the headquarters of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi.
It will be a forum to discuss major challenges, achievements in integrating environment and sports and also offered a platform for exhibitions showcasing the main environmental features of the 2010 sporting events. It will also offer a platform for organizers of future mass sporting events on ways to engage the sports audience and fans in mainstreaming the environment in their activities


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From MeritBadgeDotOrg
Frequently Asked Questions
How many awards does the mobile version cover?
Now you can have the requirements book on your cell phone for over 300 ranks, badges, and awards!
- 8 Boy Scout Ranks & Badges
- 121 Merit Badges
- 26 Boy Scout Awards
- 8 Cub Scout
- 40 Belt Loops
- 20 Webelos Activity Badges
- 17 Cub Scout Awards
- 16 Venturing - Sea Scouts
- 37 Scouter Awards
- 17 Key Advancement Policies
= 310 pages customized for your mobile phone!
How many awards are on the regular MeritBadge.Org?
- The large screen version currently has 1,209 main articles and thousands of resource links.
Can I set up the pages to work better on my phone?
- Turn off graphics on your phone (or use 'Fast mode')
- The "Myskin" Skin allows better viewing of all pages on a small screen: Click here.
Please report any issues with this page.


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At TEDxReno we look to embrace the notion that even as the essential building block of the community, the citizen is often lost in the shuffle. However, anyone can transform a community, a country, or even the world with something as "small" as an idea. Unfortunately, the development of the consumer-based society has uprooted us from the core concepts of what it means to be a citizen. We are not just a product of our surroundings but a crucial facet to its composition, as our living environment is a mirror reflection of how we view ourselves. The ideas and imagination of The Biggest Little Citizen can allow small ideas to become big ideas; consumers to return to their moral and social obligations; and reflection to become a statement, not a result.
Reno is in a transition period from a consumer standpoint, we've been known for our mining, and more popularly because of our huge gaming industry. We don't exactly know what this city's next niche will be, but the opportune time is now for businesses, events, or experiments to come to make an impact. We don't have the exact answers but we are more than willing to listen to new ideas to stimulate conversation and instill motivation. TEDx is the best platform to make this happen.
About TEDx, x = independently organized event
For more information,visit tedxreno.com


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Hello new week.
Hello spending all Sunday afternoon in a class learning all about my new computer.
Hello day date with my first born. So precious.
Hello cute kiddos that watch their mamas clean up the kitchen.
Hello needing to re-focus on my clean eating. These two blogs are really helpful.
The Gracious Pantry and 100 Days of Real Food.
Hope you all have a wonderful week.


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ASVAB Test Package will help you learn new phrases and expressions every single day. And you won't even have to cram any vocabulary words into your head. Instead, you will be absorbing bits and pieces of the English language almost without realizing it. This compact ASVAB Test Package is the only printable English test and flash card collection currently available on the Internet. It contains 60 ASVAB vocabulary tests. You will also get 300 ASVAB Words as Flash cards and ASVAB Vocabulary word list in alphabetical order. This unique ASVAB test prep system will help learn all the most essential vocabulary words you need if you want to pass the ASVAB exam.
|© 20032019 english-test.net


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The DaS Symposium at COFES 2015
April 16, 2015
Scottsdale, Arizona
The Design and Sustainability (DaS) Symposium is a leadership
exploration of the future of design and sustainability software for sustainable
products, infrastructure, and environments.
COFES is a unique gathering of leaders representing diverse industry sectors with
strategic interest in software. The DaS Symposium exists within that community to
focus on sustainability. It reaches across disciplines and industries as it explores
solutions to the sustainability challenge.
The goal of the DaS Symposium is to bring sustainability to the forefront of the
conversation among software developers and to look for opportunities and issues
that may be best served by the industry as a whole, rather than by individual players
within the industry. We hope to inspire, raise awareness, build relationships and
seek sustainable synergies.
Founding members of The DaS Symposium include Autodesk, buildingSMART Alliance,
CIFE, Cyon Research, Gensler, PTC, Siemens, SolidWorks, and Sustainable Minds.
The bulk of the DaS Symposium took place on Thursday, April 16, from 8:30 AM
to 3:00 PM PDT, followed by a Roundtable discussion on Saturday as part of the general
COFES program.
A Cyon Research Event


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You can help us design your summer camp ball!
Just click below and select Design 1, 2 or 3. Then check the #YEScamps page in the coming weeks to see the winning 2014 Summer Camp ball design, and register for your nearest camp this summer.
2013 #YEScamps Balls & Jersey
Tag(s): Home


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Thursday with Liz!
When I first introduced my students to Edmodo, I really didn't know what would happen. I knew that Edmodo had the potential to do great things for my class and my students, but I didn't want it to be just another web 2.0 tool. My goal was to motivate my students to connect through social networking while also engaging in the content. I also wanted my students to take the lead in answering questions and to help one another to gain an interest and appreciation for what we were learning in class. I knew that if I could get students to share and create resources, it would truly add to the value to the class PLN.
It didn't take long for my students to begin sharing their questions such as "What is the homework tonight?" They also had no problem asking me questions by sending me a direct note. This was a great start, however, I needed to figure out a way to get students self motivated to share and value each other as a learning resource. I also wanted my students to move beyond the "required" learning and start to extend their learning beyond our four walls. When I thought about it, the motivation to want to share with others is what really what makes a PLN successful. I just needed to find a way to get my students hooked to this idea.
I wanted to share a few ways my students used Edmodo this year to share and create resources within our PLN. Although the resources started as simple answers to questions, as the year progressed, students posted links even created original resources such as a Glog or a website.
Below are 3 of my favorite ways students used Edmodo to share resources this year:
1. The Wow Power
To get the students talking about science, I found a few short videos that had a lot of "wow power" where they could witness cool science phenomena. The students loved watching the videos and naturally began to ask questions about what they saw. After only a few weeks, they began posting videos of their own in an attempt to "wow" their friends. It was really cool to see them having conversations with one another and connect through something of interest that was not graded or required by the teacher.
2. Extending the Learning
I was doing a demonstration in class one day when a student asked if they could video tape it with their laptop camera. A couple of students were absent that day and I thought it would be a great idea to have a video of what happened to share with those who missed it. The student ended up sharing the video on Edmodo and even posted a summary of what I had explained in class. It was such a great resource that I allowed student requests to record and post more lessons and demonstrations throughout the year that would aid in further understanding of content.
3. Student Tips and Tutorials
One of my favorite parts of teaching is when I learn something new from my students. The greatest power of a student PLN is that it includes the teacher and that the learning goes both ways. One of my favorite student resources this year was when my students created posts on technology tips and tutorials. It really empowered my tech savvy students to become leaders with their peers and teachers.
The biggest surprise for me this year was that a lot of my students used Edmodo to share resources without being required to do so for a grade. When I began to see students taking the initiative to share resources on their own, I knew the student PLN was a true success.
I'd love to hear about how your students have created and shared resources with their peers and teachers.
Until next time…Aloha!
4 comments. Leave new
My experience in edmodo has been exactly as you have described. My students have created their own PLN. Admittedly it is not for everyone, but for those who are keen they have really run with it. They are questioning and challenging one another, helping one another, bouncing ideas around and creating great enthusiasm for what they are learning at school whether it be Science or Novel Study or even Homework! It has particularly attracted the more capable students (though not exclusively) and has been an excellent opportunity for enriched learning. I cannot imagine being without edmodo.
I feel the same way! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Hi Liz! Love reading your posts!
My students have really taken to screenwriting and movie production… What started out as just a few students and an iPod touch has turned into a hotbed of 11 year old Hollywood potentials.
After teaching a science concept or historical event, I give my students the rubric to demonstrate that they 'know.' The rest is up to them as they create and produce their documentary, comedy, or drama to fit the content. Student groups keep their final cut secret until "Premiere Day" when I create an Edmodo Group just for that week's project (aren't Fridays always release dates? 🙂 ) We arrange the chairs theater-style and scroll down the Group feed playing their productions. My students respond with praises and tips and are supportive in their peers' films.
Students love to re-watch the movies later on their own and give further tips, suggestions, how to's, and links in the comments. Parents and far away relatives love to log in to the public page of the project feed to view their budding director or actor.
Who knows… maybe the next Scorsese years from now may reference his/her directorial debut was first on the then-young webtool, Edmodo.
Thanks Robert! What you do with your kids is amazing and inspiring.


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About wto605
Evidence: (noun) a piece of information that supports an argument you agree with.
Anytime I have a problem with Comcast I can just call up my friendly NBC affiliate and... oh, wait, that doesn't work.
Imagine if this burgeoning criminal had the audacity to record school administrators or even *GASP* the police while they carried out their sacred duties.
they can't both be handled credibly by the same government agency.
He just wanted a nice quiet night googling himself, instead he sees this and the mood is ruined.
So I was browsing their google results and found the thread on bogleheads where the user's comment was represented as the site's review. They also posted the response (signed by someone whose name matches the cofounders listed on wikipedia) bolding mine:
Thank you for contacting us. Notwithstanding our belief that the content is in the public domain, our intent is not to misuse your site.
All references to your site are scheduled to be removed from www.kisstrust.com ..
This should be resolved by weeks end.
Ned Armand
Edward "Ned" Armand
Maybe if we just ask the NSA what they haven't done, they'll "deny" everything they have done.
Terrorists (read: everyone) assumed and acted as if their cellphones were surveillance targets.
Type-1 Terrorists (read: actual terrorists) know and act as if their cellphones are surveillance targets.
Type-2 Terrorists (read: everyone else) know their cellphones are surveillance targets and are mad about it.
See! Look how much harder it is, they have to fight two types of terrorists!
I always wondered what OOTB's day job was... "documentarian" just sounded off.
Usually I post this:
But this seems more French:
I'm sure "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." sounds better to the DEA than "the road to hell is paved in flagrant violations of the natural and constitutional rights of those whom you are chartered to protect."
Thinking about this some more, I think this might actually be VERY good. I'm sure things are different when criminal elements are involved, but ensuring these events are in the public record is an important step to preventing the offending officers from sweeping them under the rug if they try to stay in the same line of work.
Newspapers do this all the time: http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/05/six-month_suspension_for_offic.html (I knew the URL says blog, but this did in fact appear in the Plain Dealer metro section). Heck, once they latch on to a name (or two) they continue to report on the individual(s): http://topics.cleveland.com/tag/david%20muniz/index.html. All while harping on how light the punishment was.
Honestly I think the bigger deal is that these officers are actually being punished, and the fact that it's coming straight from the horses mouth on twitter makes (the individual) event less newsworthy.
It could go something like this:
"On 9/11/01 19 terrorists killed 2,977 people in an unprecedented attack on the US. On 7/7/05 4 terrorists killed 52 people in the first deadly attack on the UK since the Belfast Agreement. To use this label for purpose of persecuting the partner of a journalist is disrespectful to the memory of no fewer than 3,000 people."
1) Feinstein truly believes all this is a good thing, and she always has.
2) She probably even wanted to tout the programs publicly...
3) In it's 'wisdom' the NSA put a stop to that (both to prevent opposition and keep Feinstein elected).
4) Now that it's out she wants her name of the cover of this
Man... she really is delusional (as if SOPA/PIPA didn't tell us that). When do we have a mandatory retirement age for congress "people"?
1) FBI can't see the forest for the trees... shuts down a grey market for the headlines... snore
2) DHS acts like a jerk and arraigns an informant when he upheld his deal... no news there
3) DHS originally saw the forest (drugs) for the trees (silk road), responded appropriately, and targeted ACTUAL CRIMES??? what's going on in this world.
Either out_of_the_blue's AOL DialUp is down... or this article hits too close to home.
This is like Anthony Weiner complaining that all the press attention to his sexting scandal is taking away from his coveted "Carlos Danger" time.
I heard from a Brazilian friend that some "NASA" agency is doing some pretty nefarious spying too.


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Hi, everyone!
I have a sparse $n \times n$ matrix $A$ with $nnz(A)$ denoting the number of non-zero entries in $A$. Now I use QR factorization to decompose $A$ into an orthogonal matrix $Q$ and triangular matrix $R$. My problem is that : can we use some methods to control the sparsity of $Q$ satisfying $nnz(Q) \le nnz(A)$.


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You've written a book about how technology is "changing our minds for the better." Have readers been agreeing or disagreeing with you?
I've had a lot of positive feedback to my discussion of "ambient awareness"—which is the deep, rich, intellectual, and social connections we develop with each other via short-form status updates. Most people have been trained—via a parade of gloomy op-eds in their newspapers—to think of their online utterances as mere "narcissism"; that there could be no conceivable value in tweeting or using Instagram or using Facebook, apart from a sort of constant shilling of the self. So when I point out the interesting social science that underpins some of the pleasures and values of persistent connection to each other, I've found that people are really excited about that. It resonates.
What do you see as the social good of Twitter?
For many of the more avid users, it provides a lot of new, useful things to think about—serendipitous stories, insights from others. It's a sort of global watercooler, with all the good and bad that suggests. It's good because many folks feel like they're immersed in an interesting conversation that's going on—and even if they're just lurking, not actually talking (studies show the majority of folks using Twitter are listening but not contributing that often), they get exposed to all sorts of material they'd never see otherwise. And bad, because, well, you can really get swept it in and distracted from work that you're supposed to be doing.
How do you think Twitter is going to change once it goes public?
The one complaint about the Internet that I wholeheartedly endorse is that most of these tools have been designed to peck at us like ducks: "Hey, there's a new reply to your comment! Come look at it!" And if you don't develop good skills of mindfulness—paying attention to your attention—it can really wind up colonizing much of your day. This is precisely why I suspect Twitter going public will be bad for its users. The whole reason these services need to peck at us like ducks is that their business models are built on advertising, and advertising wants as many minutes of your day as possible. As the pressure builds for Twitter to make more money, its pressure to redesign itself to interrupt us even more.
What do you think of the idea that the Internet—as a virtual space where we can trade ideas, art projects, and videos, and become enormously popular doing so—has replaced cities as the centers of creative cultural ferment?
I don't think the Internet has replaced cities in any significant way, nor really could it. Cities are dynamic—and deeply seductive for the people who flock there—because they broker all sorts of fantastic and useful connections, cultural and economic and social. And the types of face-to-face connections and serendipity that you get in a city are quite different from the ones you get online. That said, there are deep similarities in the things we enjoy about cities and the things we enjoy about the Internet! In both cases, the density of connections is what brings the real intellectual fun and joy. Edward Glaeser famously argued that cities increase the productivity and creativity of people within them. I suspect the Internet has a very similar effect for folks who use it mindfully.
Nicholas Carr has written about how book-based learning taught us certain habits of mind, a more empathetic way of thinking that we are rapidly losing with screens and screen-reading. Do you agree?
I quite agree with Carr that tools affect how we think—and considered as a tool, books have many absolutely fantastic and magical effects on the way we think. They encourage us to slow down, which is good; they synthesize large volumes of knowledge. But what Carr sells short are the enormous benefits that come from social thinking—and social thinking is where the Internet really shines.
There's an idea, popular with many text-based folks—like myself, and many journalists and academics—that reading books is thinking; that if you're not sitting for hours reading a tome, you're not, in some essential way, thinking. This is completely false. A huge amount of our everyday thinking—powerful, creative, and resonant stuff—is done socially: talking to other people, arguing with them, relying on them to recall information for us. This has been true for aeons in the offline world. But now we have new ways to think socially online—and to do so with likeminded folks around the world, which is still insanely mind-blowing. It never stops being lovely for me.
I was in a radio station the other day, and while I was waiting to go on the air I watched the staff work. There were six or seven of them, and they were all engaged in this incredibly complex activity that's behind the scenes of the show: they're talking about the next segment, writing down ideas, looking things up, organizing the next batch of things the host is going to talk about. This is what thinking looks like in the real world. A lot of it is incredibly, deeply social. And it has the effect of making the host put on this much smarter, richer show than he or she could do on their own.
When people get into discussions and arguments online, whether it's on Twitter or in a forum about their favorite TV show or even in a thread underneath an Instagram photo, this is the same thing transpiring. In the Phaedrus, Socrates worried that this dialogic nature of knowledge would die out with text, because text was inert: you asked it a question, and it couldn't answer back. What I love about the online world is that it's pitched neatly between those two poles. It's a lot of textual expression, but with the added dimension of it being text that we use to talk to each other, argue with each other, call each other names, compliment each other.
Everyone is staring at their phones all the time. Are we a generation that has been overwhelmed by a device we can't handle?
No, I don't think we're doomed to be overwhelmed. We have a long track record of adapting to the challenges of new technologies and new media, and of figuring out self-control. Cities, considered as a sort of technology in themselves, were enormously overstimulating and baffling for the new residents when the West began urbanizing, in the nineteenth century.
More recently, we tamed our addition to talking incessantly on mobile phones. People forget this, but when mobile phones came along, in the nineties, people were so captivated by the idea that you could talk to someone else—anywhere—on the sidewalk, on a mountaintop—that they answered them every single time they rang. It took ten years, and a ton of quite useful scrutiny—and mockery of our own poor behavior—to pull back.
One problem with social media is its relentless quality. Are we all really just going to keep on tweeting forever?
âªI think people are going to continue to enjoy ambient contact. Twitter may (and probably will, possibly soon) die off; Facebook may (and probably will, possibly soon) die off; indeed, every geegaw we're using to communicate with each other will die off and be replaced by something new. But that essential behavior—broadcasting bits of our thinkings and doings to other people who are interested to know them—will continue, in whatever form.
I suspect it'll continue because it's a historically robust behavior. For centuries, we paid ambient attention to each other, and used our joint awareness for lots of good things. Studies of journalists in their offices or subway-router workers in their offices, for example, found they've always done a lot of "talking out loud"—talking to the room, to no one in particular, because it helped create a floating group self-awareness of what everyone was doing and thinking, and this helped groups of people collaborate. So it's an old, venerable cognitive technique. It's just that we now do it with disparate minds, connected over long distances, in interesting new ways.
What are the downsides of ambient contact? Besides knowing way too much about sports scores and who has eaten a cronut?
âªI think the big downside of today's ambient contact is that it makes us too present-focussed. Psychologists talk about something called "recency"—our tendency to assume that whatever is happening to us right now is the most important thing going on. It's a long-standing bias in our psychology, long predating the Internet. But modern media have made it worse. By "modern" I'm beginning with, probably, the telegraph, and certainly the newspaper. When you read the novels of the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century, they're already complaining about people being far too fascinated with the events of the day instead of paying attention to history. And this got seismically worse once cable TV realized that you could keep everyone riveted to their seat with live coverage of basically anything.
Today's self-publishing tools, almost from the get-go, were designed to privilege the present and ignore the past. When blogs first became popular, they were all organized in reverse chronology, with the most recent post at the top, the older ones fading into the background, and the clear implication of that design is that what's written today is more important than what was written last week or last year. That design has carried over into basically every tool of social media. And, again, because most of the big social-media tools are paid for by advertising, they have even more economic impetus to reinforce recency in their design. They want us to be constantly refreshing the feed over and over again, because that'll give them more eyeballs to which to sell ads.
What this suggests, though, is that one could design all sorts of quite delightful tools for expression and contact that didn't prize recency. If you founded a social network that charged a minimal amount of money, for example, you wouldn't need ads at all, and suddenly the economic need to reinforce recency is gone. Facebook only makes five dollars a year off of each user. That's actually an amazingly piddling amount, when you think about it.
Our social sharing is being recorded and monitored, though. That's not good, right?
âªThere's a clear problem in so much of our public thinking now living on the servers of private-sector companies. The big one that's obvious, post-Snowden, is that these huge corporate servers create one-stop shopping for the government when it wants to Hoover up our utterances. I don't think there's any purely technological solution of that. It requires a political solution—a policy solution. The U.S. needs laws that roll back its current addiction to dragnet spying.
There are many thinkers who have been working on these questions for much longer than I have. I'd encourage everyone reading this to read everything Bruce Schneier has written about the subject lately. I do think, though, that there are some very interesting ways we could re-architect our online social lives that move away from highly centralized corporate servers. There are oodles of open-source programmers and advocates—like Eben Moglen and the FreedomBox Foundation—who are trying to create software and hardware that lets us do all this valuable social talk on devices that live in our houses, and are under our own control. They're very gestational right now. It would probably take a long time before they're ready for prime time. But they're a useful approach to think about in addition to the direly needed political solutions.
Photograph: Brad Barket/Getty Images for Wired


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2013 Chevrolet Equinox
The Chevrolet Equinox rolls into 2013 with a new, more powerful 3.6L V-6 engine and other features that will help maintain its momentum as one of the most popular small crossovers.
Sales for the first eight months of 2012 were up 16.6 percent, building on sales of more than 193,000 in 2011.
With a starting MSRP of $24,155, the Equinox seats five and is available in LS, LT (1LT and 2LT trims) and LTZ models, with available all-wheel drive. When equipped with the standard Ecotec 2.4L direct-injected engine, the FWD Equinox achieves an EPA-estimated 32 mpg on the highway.
Additionally, the aforementioned 3.6L V-6 is available on LT and LTZ models and delivers best-in-class 301 horsepower and 272 lb.-ft. of torque. That's 14 percent more horsepower and 22 percent more torque than the previous 3.0L V-6, with the same EPA-estimated fuel economy – including 24 mpg on the highway (FWD models).
Equinox design
Equinox wears Chevrolet's signature global face. It features a two-tier grille and prominent gold bowtie insignia – that combines with strong fender shapes, distinctive premium roofline, wraparound headlamps and dual round taillamps. Equinox also stands out with a multi-dimensional hood and wheels-at-the-corners stance.
Additional exterior features include chrome trim and a range of 17-, 18- and 19-inch wheels.
Interior amenities
Equinox's interior is designed for comfort, convenience and versatility.
Family-friendly features abound and include several storage bins, an oversized glove box, a closed storage under the center armrest, four 12-volt power outlets and eight cup holders.
Additional interior features include standard air conditioning, with automatic climate control standard on 2LT and LTZ; standard leather-appointed seating on LTZ and available on 2LT; ice-blue ambient lighting that accentuates key areas of the cabin and provides an upscale look and feel; a range of standard and available audio systems, including a Pioneer Premium System with up to eight speakers and 250 watts of output and more.
As mentioned earlier, the 2013 Equinox comes with the standard Ecotec 2.4L engine or an available 3.6L V-6 engine.
The 2.4L engine produces 182 horsepower and 172 foot-pounds of torque. Average fuel economy ratings are 22 mpg city and 32 mpg highway for FWD and 20 mpg city and 29 mpg highway for AWD.
Additionally, the powerful 301 horsepower 3.6L engine averages fuel economy ratings of 17 mpg city and 24 mpg highway for FWD and 16 mpg and 23 mpg highway for AWD.
To learn more about this efficient crossover, visit your local Southeast Texas Chevrolet dealer or www.chevrolet.com.