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As mass social demonstrations, and the military, have toppled Mohammed Morsi in Egypt and called for new elections, it's worth remembering why transitions to democracy never begin and end with the man on top. Countries that sweep new governments in through revolutions often face a common problem: While the leadership can be replaced, from the fall of the Soviet Union to the Arab Spring rebellions, anti-democratic, sometimes corrupt, institutions often outlast the autocrats that helped create them.
One big reason for this is that new democracies almost inevitably inherit many of the old regime's civil servants and politicians; and even first-time politicians installed through democratic elections may see their new access to the levers of power as an opportunity to take their share, rather than as a chance to support democratic consolidation. Across many African countries, for instance, a similar phrase is used to describe this kind of politics: In Kenya, it's called "our turn to eat," while in Cameroon it's "the politics of the belly." The pervasiveness of this sort of mindset means that, when institutions are toxic, even when opposition groups finally get in power, they often fall into similar patterns of behavior to those of the people they ousted.
Which is a pattern confirmed even by very recent history:
Many international observers praised Kenya's elections in March of this year as heralding a fresh start for the country and the end of strongman Mwai Kibaki's 10-year stint in power, a period marred by corruption allegations and brutal violence in the wake of the disputed 2007 elections. But it was only in 2002 that Kibaki's electoral victory was hailed as the arrival of democracy, sweeping out of power long-time dictator Daniel arap Moi. It still remains to be seen if the country's new leader, Uhuru Kenyatta, will deliver meaningful change. It is worth bearing in mind that Uhuru is the son of Kenya's founding father, Jomo Kenyatta, who constructed a one-party system, and he contested the election against the son of Oginga Odinga, Jomo's erstwhile ally, and later on, most formidable rival. Both Uhuru and his vice president have been indicted by the International Criminal Court on charges of inciting violence in the aftermath of the 2007 elections.
Democratic optimists have also commended Zambia for its commitment to democracy, where regular elections have been held since 1991, but until 2011, the same party had held power, and allegations of endemic corruption continued. Despite the reformist platform of the country's first democratically elected president, Frederick Chiluba, by the end of his tenure he sought to manipulate the constitution to perpetuate his rule. Though he failed in his effort, the attempt illustrates the dangers of democratic backsliding once the initial euphoria has dissipated.
The 2010 election victory of the Ivory Coast's Alassane Ouattara was also held up as a victory of democracy over autocracy, but the actual transfer of power involved French military intervention to override the ruling of a blatantly biased Constitutional Council, which pronounced victory for the incumbent strongman, Laurent Gbagbo. Ouattara was formerly a key member in the government of the country's first authoritarian ruler, and the autocratic Gbagbo began his political career as an exiled dissident advocating for multi-party politics.
Constitutions are also vulnerable, a fact exhibited by the late Hugo Chavez. Venezuela's legislature was outmaneuvered, and then neutered. A constitution is an impediment to the ambitions of an aspiring dictator, but by no means an insurmountable one. Similarly creative methods of circumventing term limitations have been employed effectively by Putin in Russia.
All of these countries have their own political idiosyncrasies, of course, and all have different records of democratic performance; but they all, just the same, illustrate that that the transition from democratic elections to democratic institutions is in some ways as tough a proposition today as it's ever been. We can hope that Egypt's next leader will prove fairer and more open than Morsi, but a real transition to democracy will take much more than that.
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As our society changes and we are living longer, many families are facing increasing difficulty planning and caring for our older citizens, and are turning to qualified professionals knowledgeable in elder care for assistance.
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IDV Courts respond to a historic problem in the court system, which requires domestic violence victims and their families to appear in different courts before multiple judges, often located in different parts of a county, to address their legal issues. Dedicated to the "one family - one judge" model, IDV Courts allow a single judge to hear multiple case types - criminal, family and matrimonial - which relate to one family where the underlying issue is domestic violence.
IDV Courts aim to provide more informed judicial decision-making and greater consistency in court orders, while reducing the number of court appearances. In addition, these courts offer enhanced services to victims and ensure offender accountability.
Since their inception, IDV Courts have handled over 33,000 cases and served over 7,000 families. Currently, there are 28 IDV Courts in operation and 9 IDV Courts in planning*. Currently more than three quarters of the residents of New York State live in counties served by these courts.
This year marks a pivotal stage in the evolution of IDV Courts and their role in this era of statewide and national court reform. We celebrate the continued accomplishments of these courts in their efforts to better serve communities in need and to bring justice to families in crisis across New York State. Thank you for your interest and support in this endeavor.
* Case statistics current as of May 2006
Judy Harris Kluger
Deputy Chief Administrative Judge
Court Operations and Planning


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Today is the day after Thanksgiving, and I spent the last part of Wednesday and the first part of yesterday mad as hell, and even lost.
Just now, I saw this email letter. Let's just say that communications like this one bring life and love to my heart. And I thank its author from the depths of my heart for bringing me such "put you back on the saddle" words of encouragements at a moment it's so needed. Thank You!
"Dear Ms. Wade,
My name is V. M and I am the Director of Operations for XXX. Part of my job is to transcribe S.H interviews. I felt impelled to tell you that it has been a privilege to transcribe your interview, which I'm only about half-way through. Not only is your story absolutely fascinating, but you are one of the rare gems in the world that I refer to as "people who make me happy just knowing that they exist." I've even directed my teenage daughters to your website sot that they could read your principles ("mes principes").
I apologize for jumping the professional line–I have never personally contacted an interviewee without being properly introduced through S.H (out of respect for my boss, who is also a dear friend). But, one of my personal principles is that when you find someone you can look to as an example of what human potential can attain, you let them know how much you appreciate them.
So, thank you. (And, Happy Thanksgiving!)


text:
Oklahoma eGov News I New Online Services & Websites I Upcoming State Holidays I Upcoming Events I Share Your eGov Story I About OK.gov
Oklahoma eGov News
New Service Allows Oklahoma Teachers to View Certification Scores Online
OKLAHOMA CITY – July 1, 2013 – The Oklahoma Commission for Teacher Preparation (OCTP) recently released a new application allowing Oklahoma Educators an online location, available 24/7, to view certification examination history on multiple platforms. In addition, the application allows OCTP to collect and monitor Certification Examinations for Oklahoma Education (CEOE) data electronically.
More People Are Talking To The Government On Mobile Devices
About 40 percent of federal government website visitors have gone to the same website on a smartphone or tablet, according to a quarterly survey by the Consultancy ForeSee released on Tuesday. After the first quarter of 2013, only one-third of federal website visitors said they'd looked at a government site at some point using a smartphone or tablet.
Government Agencies Create Mobile Apps In Advance of Stage 2
Government agencies are taking a proactive role developing apps to help the public stay healthy or find help when needed. Information Week asks if 2013 will be the year of the mobile app, and it seems Uncle Sam thinks so. Health apps created by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) being promoted to the public in part to help with "new patient engagement requirements that are part of the government's Meaningful Use Stage 2 program."
New Online Services & Websites
City of Sayre Online Payment Center
Monday, September 2
Monday, November 11
SoonerSave Retirement Seminar
50th Anniversary March on Washington
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The Today Show snagged an interview with the Colombian prostitute, Dania Londono Suarez whose haggling with a Secret Service agent caused an international scandal.
And she spilled more incriminating details:
- She said that the agents were drinking vodka, "like it was water."
- Suarez described them as lifting up their sweaters while they danced, "They liked to show off their bodies, great bodies, well-defined abs."
- "They way they approached us [for sex] it seems obvious they were used to doing it."
- "These seem like completely stupid, idiotic people," Dania Londono Suarez said "I don't know how Obama had them in his security force."
- She could have stolen everything in the Secret Service agent's room if she had wanted.


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This is an excerpt from Focused for Rugby by Adam Nicholls, Jon Callard.
What Is Mental Toughness?
Most coaches and athletes believe that mental toughness is one of the most important psychological characteristics that determine success in rugby. Mental toughness is a widely used, but often misunderstood, term. People who are mentally tough have complete self-belief in their own ability, an unshakable faith that they are in complete control of their own destiny, and a conviction that they will be relatively unaffected by setbacks.
Four Cs of Mental Toughness
Mental toughness consists of the 4 Cs: control, commitment, challenge, and confidence (Clough, Earle, & Sewell, 2002).
The four Cs are the foundations of mental toughness. Researchers have also identified a number of traits and behaviours that are associated with mental toughness (see figure 4.1).
Becoming More Mentally Tough
We have now explained what mental toughness is, and you might now be asking yourself what you can do to become more mentally tough. Researchers have investigated the strategies and behaviours of the most mentally tough athletes. You can improve your mental toughness by
1. adopting the mind-set, attitude, and behaviour of a mentally tough rugby player and
2. engaging in the strategies used by the most mentally tough athletes.
Read more from Focused for Rugby by Adam Nicholls, Jon Callard.
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Amid pressure from Democratic lawmakers, Homeland Security officials reiterated Friday that a foreigner's longstanding same-sex relationship with a U.S. citizen could help stave off the threat of deportation.
Binational gay couples are eligible for consideration under a federal program designed to focus resources away from low-priority deportation cases and let officials spend more time tracking down convicted criminals, said Marsha Catron, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security.
However, the Obama administration will not automatically shelve deportation cases or process green card applications involving foreign citizens married to same-sex American partners.
Catron said her agency will continue to comply with a 1996 law that prohibits the government from recognizing same-sex relationships, even as Homeland Security takes these relationships into consideration when evaluating possible deportation.
The Obama administration last year said it considers the 1996 law unconstitutional and would no longer defend it in court.
Friday's statement, which builds on comments Homeland Security officials made last summer, came three days after 84 lawmakers demanded the agency put its position in writing to help protect same-sex couples from deportation.
Immigrant advocates welcomed the comments but said a formal policy still is needed.
"It is significant to me because it is expressly inclusive of LGBT families," said Lavi Soloway, an immigration attorney who represents a number of same-sex couples in deportation proceedings.
However, "as long as it's not in writing it doesn't mean that much for an individual in deportation," Soloway said.
That sentiment was echoed by Drew Hammill, a spokesman for Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, one of the authors of a letter this week urging the federal government to recognize couples' ties in a memo or field guidance.
The statement was first reported on Thursday by the online news site BuzzFeed.
Homeland Security officials did not answer questions about whether a written memo would be issued.
The federal government last year began reviewing deportation cases to determine which ones should be top priority and which ones might be shelved. Government attorneys weigh factors such as a person's criminal record, family ties and community relations in making their decisions.
Taxin reported from Orange County, Calif.


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David Cameron has had four strong years. Now Gordon Brown is playing the posh card - and no wonder, it may just give him half a chance
It doesn't seem that long. But David Cameron has now been leader of the British Conservative party for four years. And he's achieved plenty. He has spruced up the Tory image, stitched up internal ruptures, and seen popular support climb and climb. Remember, Cameron had inherited a party that - more than eight years on - had still not recovered from the walloping they received at the 1997 general election from Tony Blair, a party that was still bedevilled by infighting that leader after leader - William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith, Michael Howard - had failed to smother.
Cameron's pitch was always centred on modernising. "We must give to this country a modern and compassionate conservatism which is right for our times and our country," he said in his first speech as leader. His strategists had watched admiringly as Tony Blair reinvented a Labour party regarded as out of step with the times, heavily coated in the dust of opposition and in hock to special interests. They knew their task was similar. In an early exchange in the House of Commons, Cameron quipped at Blair: "You were the future once." At one point he had even gone as far as to describe himself as the "heir to Blair".
In 2006 Cameron attempted to soften perceptions of Tory crime policy with a call to "hug a hoodie". The following year he was endorsing the thinking of leftwing Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee. By the start of 2009, his compassionate conservatism had evolved rhetorically into "progressive conservatism". Now the Conservatives were, he told us, the party of the poor. The message wasn't all touchy-feely message, but it was pretty clear who was being courted: the left of centre sorts who still shudder at the name Margaret Thatcher, those for whom to vote Tory would be an act of tribal disloyalty. The right edges of the Tory party and Tory press retched at all this. But it made sense.
And it seemed to work. Which was quite an accomplishment, not least because the man piping this new tune was not, like William Hague (now shadow foreign secretary), a northern lad of humble roots. David Cameron is proper posh. His family tree is bespeckled with stockbrokers; his maternal grandfather was Sir William Malcolm Mount, 2nd Baronet and high sheriff of Berkshire
And then there's the entourage. The "Notting Hill set", his closest allies, tend to be come from good breeding, not least George Osborne. The shadow chancellor has massive influence on Cameron's thinking, and is, like Cameron and London mayor Boris Johnson, an alumnus of the now infamous uber-posh Bullingdon Club. Private schools and Oxbridge run through the backstories of the shadow cabinet - more than half are privately educated.
Given the enduring importance of class - for all Tony Blair's Estuary vowels it still runs deep in the bones of Britain - you might think these Tory toffs offer an open goal to their opponents. It certainly looked that way to the team plotting Labour's campaign in the Crewe and Nantwich byelection in May 2008. The Tory candidate, Edward Timpson, a millionaire barrister and heir to his father's multi-million-pound shoe repair business, was ridiculed by Labour activists as the epitome of the posh Tory. Teams of campaigners were sent on to the streets of the constituency clothed in top hat and tails, quaffing champagne, in an effort to lampoon "Tory boy" Timpson and his posh, unreconstructed party.
It didn't work. In fact, it failed spectacularly. "What the Crewe campaign is doing is signalling that Tony Blair's Labour Party is dead and another, much less attractive, organisation has replaced it," wrote Daniel Finkelstein in The Times on the eve of the vote. "Class warfare, even if waged against someone else's class, is spectacularly unattractive. It makes Labour seem aggressive, prejudiced, an exclusive sect more interested in your background than your ideas. Mr Blair wanted his party to be a big tent, welcoming everyone. This idea, this powerful political idea, which brought the Tory party to the edge of extinction, which brought landslide Labour majorities, is now over. And with it Labour's political hegemony."
That sentiment was shared by many, across the political spectrum. Labour had not just lost the byelection, they'd also lost a chunk of dignity. The class warfare kit was locked in its box.
Until now. In the House of Commons this week Gordon Brown latched on to revelations that another former Etonian, Zac Goldsmith, the aristocrat former editor of the Ecologist and candidate for a Tory safe seat at the next election, had claimed non-domicile tax benefits. Linking the news to the Tories' controversial policy to cut inheritance tax for the wealthy, Brown said. "Their tax policy seems to have been determined on the playing fields of Eton."
Some of the papers detected the hand of Alastair Campbell - had the original New Labour spin doctor returned to draft a line or two? - but without exception Fleet Street hailed the return of class warfare.
It was a sign of desperation in the Brown camp, said commentators on the right - as did some on the left. Maybe, but recent polls have shown a dent or two in the Tory lead, and there's no doubt that the prime minister this week scored a palpable hit. But does it resonate on the high street? Fraser Nelson, editor of rightwing weekly the Spectator argued in the Guardian this week that, while these leftwing "dog whistles" make good Westminster sport, they had no traction with the wider public. They wouldn't, agreed former MP and Times columnist Matthew Parris, so long as Cameron refused to take the bait: "Nothing would be more counter-productive than to react to class-based attacks by ditching policies, or by going pink in the face and shouting ad hominems (in an upper-class accent) back."
But desperate or not, it looks increasingly likely that the Labour strategy to cling on to power (even a hung parliament would be seen as a victory of sorts, given the last year or so) will depict Cameron's Tories as rooted still in those Eton fields, oblivious to the real concerns of the British public. The Conservative demand for sharper, faster spending cuts to correct the deficit can be wound into that thesis - detached from real life, they are impervious to the real pain. And at a time when opprobrium at bankers is off the chart, Labour will hope that people might come to see the Tories as kin to the bonus-fattened tax-dodgers.
Labour strategists will tell you that the first thing people in focus groups offer when asked for an image to describe David Cameron is that of the Tory leader cycling in to Westminster, dating from 2006. A pretty, modern picture - except that the reason it's memorable is because, it was revealed, his chauffeur-driven official car was travelling close behind, briefcase on board.
If Brown can stoke that sense that Cameron is not what he claims to be, he could really be on to something. If he can staple the Zac Goldsmith/inheritance tax/harsh-cutting charge sheet to Cameron's gold-inked curriculum vitae, and wave it persuasively at the public, who knows how the gap might narrow. And if he can bundle all that up into public resentment - fury, even - about the bankers, just maybe it will be a tight contest next year after all. The top-hat histrionics of the Crewe campaign should be binned forever, but that doesn't mean that the posh card can't be played, carefully, from time to time.


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Knock on wood (kinda)
This weekend we decided to come home early from out east and get an additional project finished. Wow talk about determination. We ended up getting home around midnight on Saturday night and then Sunday morning (ok it's was really early afternoon) we got started on putting down laminate wood flooring in the Florida room aka my new office.
Here is what the floor looked like before:
The flooring was concrete, which we then primed and painted with the left over paint we had. We liked the way it looked, but the main problem was our pups. They were leaving claw marks everywhere!
So we went to IKEA and found an inexpensive fix to our problem.
We went to just to look and see what they had, but we came home with the TUNDRA click lock laminate.
I was surprised at how simple it was do. I kept asking Jon what I could do, how I could help, but I ended up just cleaning up the little bit of mess it made and finished reading The Beach House and Trail of Crumbs.
So, without further ado here are our steps for laying down the flooring.
1. First you have to clean up the floor. So a quick sweeping job and a little vacuum action and we were in business. Since we were laying it on top of concrete we had to buy a roll of plastic sheeting as a moisture barrier.
We just rolled it out and used a small razor blade to cut the excess. Pretty simple.
2. Next step is to lay down a floor liner. Which meant we had to roll it out and again use a razor blade to cut off the excess. For the floor liner you need to make sure there is no overlapping, because that would cause the flooring to not be leveled.
3. We were now finally able to open up the packages and get to work! We chose to go with the antique oak, because it had a weathered look to it and we figured it would helpful to hide any scratches that the dogs might do to it.
4. In laying down the flooring you have to do it in a subway tile format and stagger the pieces. So our table saw came in handy to trim down some pieces.
5. Then the pieces simply click and lock into place. In order to get a good fit Jon was taking a small piece of excess wood he had and butting it up to the piece of flooring he wanted to lock into place. The extra wood was there so that when he knocked in the piece into place he didn't hit the flooring.
Finished piece:
6. Since wood expands due to humidity you need to:
A. Leave the panels in the packaging for at least 48hrs in the room they are going to be laid in.
B. Leave a border around the entire room so that when the wood swells it has space to go into.
We found out that a CD case is the perfect size for the spacing that they recommend so we went around putting those in to make sure we had enough spacing.
7. Now when you are done laying down the flooring you are going to want to lay some sort of trim place to hide the spacing that you have now made. We made a quick trip to Home Depot and came back with 48 feet of trim. You need to make sure that when you are nailing it in you nail it to the wall and not the flooring.
8. Now you get to pat yourself on the back, because you did it all by yourself and you are DONE!
We are so happy with the way it came out.
It was super easy and not that pricey.
The room was 8' x 16' which meant we had 128' sq ft.
Each package of flooring comes with 25.73 feet of flooring for $29.58, which means that we needed 5 packages and that came to: $ 147.90
Floor liner was: $ 24.99
Plastic Sheeting was $ 19.99
48' of trim was .59 cents per foot, which is: $ 28.32
So the whole project came up to : $221.20 plus tax it comes to around $240 and took from around noon till 6:30/7pm to finish.
Ok so I wanted a totally relaxing weekend and didn't truly get that. We did get to relax on Saturday and on Sunday a lot of the "We" I kept typing above we're actually just Jon so I got a bit of relaxation in as well on Sunday along with crossing something off my to do list, which always feels fabulous.
Labels: DIY, flooring, florida room, Home Improvements


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Erik Jorgensen --- Fairfax community church
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Product Details
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There's so much I've managed to not say here over the past few weeks. I've started and stopped my Retrospectively Introspective New Year's post like seven times so far. The long and short of it was that everything I had dreaded on New Year's Eve 2012 hadn't even crossed my mind on New Year's Eve of 2013 until I went and read the former year's post, because (I think) I have finally chosen to walk towards something rather than run from something. The running sure did make my butt look great, but it wasn't so great on the person I was. My butt looks like shit now, but I'm a better person. I am unafraid. I am happy. I am so stupidly in love. I am so stupidly loved in return. I feel like an adult. The end.
Speaking of feeling like an adult, I got halfway through the 22nd anniversary of the last day I would be my mother's daughter/the first day of the rest of my life before I decided that 21 years had been exactly long enough for me to helicopter-parenting myself, and I just didn't need to check in with me anymore. I am past the drinking age, and have gotten most of my rebellious shenanigans out of my own system. I'm ready to wear sensible foundation garments and have a job to get up for in the morning, you know? It was what it was. I had a mother, I lost her on January 9th, and that was partly my own doing. Bygones and shit, yo.
I didn't write that post, for the first time in the nine years and two days I've been writing this blog.
I just now realized I missed my blog's 9th anniversary. On January 19th, I was staring out over the edge of the world, teaching little girls how to jump over the endlessness of eternity, gently lapping at their ankles, and teaching not so little boys how to make good sand balls and how get seagulls to actually eat the alka-seltzer. (They didn't.) (Yet.) It was lovely. I can't think of a single better way to ring in the birth of the thing that I couldn't have known would eventually lead me to this life on this coast with these people -- even if it was a completely unintentional celebration.
Every January, I mark my own death and subsequent rebirth. I mark beginnings, I mark ends. I used to wallow in the ending and dread the beginning, and now I am in this new space where I can see them both right there in front of me, I can regard them, I can even be grateful for them, but I don't need them to hold me up anymore. I have new bookends in the story of my life; arms wrapped around me, binding the pages of my life together into something that makes sense, has an arc, and resolves.


text:
In order for atheism to become ubiquitous, certain widespread perceptions must be addressed and shown to be in error, and certain stereotypes must be countered. Atheism is widely perceived to be something that is only for radical liberals who are far from the mainstream in both appearance and attitude. First and foremost, those who want atheism to be ubiquitous must drive home the point, in the minds of the masses, that atheism is value neutral. In other words, theists must come to understand that atheism is simply the lack of a belief in any deity, and that there are no socio-political-economic strings attached to the decision to become an atheist.
These perceptions and stereotypes are promoted by factions of each of the two camps in the so-called "culture war": (1) Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck et al., who certainly promote caricatures, innacurate perceptions, and outright falsehoods about atheists and atheism (one of them being that, if you're not a liberal, then you must be a theist), and (2) a sub-set of liberal atheists who are actively hostile to non-liberal atheists (I have seen, on more than a few occasions, liberal atheists telling non-liberal atheists that the latter are an illogical combination, or that, as non-liberals, they do not belong on an atheist message board, or that atheism is the natural "turf" of the former group). The assorted nonsense of the first group is already being countered by atheists. I would like to see the second group become more accepting of atheists of all political and social persuasions, so that these pernicious perceptions and stereotypes, which greatly retard the spread of atheism, in my opinion, disappear.
Logically, there are two possible ubiquitous atheism futures: (1) modernization converts everyone to liberalism, thereby undermining the very premise of this thread and destroying any self-imposed barriers to the masses accepting atheism, or (2) the perceptions and stereotypes that prevent many non-liberals from becoming atheists disappear. The former is extremely unlikely, in my opinion, because there will always be non-liberals, such as conservatives and libertarians, as long as there are humans: the desire for small, limited government, and many other non-liberal concerns---all of which are not at all incompatible with atheism---will always exist. Instead of ignoring promising non-liberals, or writing them off, as I have seen many liberal atheists do, there should be outreach to such individuals. Furthermore, non-liberals who are already atheists should be more vocal, and announce their existence as widely as possible.
Finally, I am not saying that liberalism, and a personal style that is outside of the mainstream, are bad. I am saying that it is bad when atheism is sincerely thought to be, politically, only for liberals, and socially, only for people who are outside the mainstream (when I tell people that I'm an atheist, I often encounter much surprise, because I don't have the "alternative" look). Since the promotion of diversity is one of the core principles of the liberal ethos, I sincerely hope that liberal atheists will welcome and support non-liberal atheists. :)
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Real Estate's Hot 100
Photo By Norma Lopez Molina
A recent University of Florida study showing that the state's real estate market is displaying the first signs of recovery should make everybody breathe a bit easier.
But that doesn't mean the challenges are over—recovery takes time. So whether you're a buyer or seller, getting the best deal means finding a real estate agent who has savvy and know-how, and gets results. On these pages are some agents who have demonstrated those skills.
Orlando magazine's list of "Hot 100'' real estate professionals is in alphabetical order and compiled from several sources. We consider data on sales volume, value of sales, number of sales, number of listings and value of listings.
R. Lee Acker
Robert Anarumo
Jason Asa
David Ashley
JoAnn Ayre
Nancy Bagby
Lorraine Barrett
Veronika Beads
Kathleen Beaulieu
Frank Benevento
Pablo Bernal
Julie Bettosini
Judy Black
Dennis Blay
Reeta Casey
Russell Chiodo
Jeff Clark
David Cobb
Kim Coburn
Paula Cox
Jason Crane
Maria Cubelo-Hinton
Matthew Davies
MaryStuart Day
David Dorman
Dianne Duvall
Cynthia Elkhander
Ed Fasula
Pamela Feirick
Mitchell Finn
Michael Fouts
Cheryl Foutz
David Francetic
Tim Frush
Jay Garick
Diane Gerry
Robert Gillespie
Scott Graham
Phillip Gribbons
Shelley Heistand
Troy Hensley
Gail Higley
Hazel Hissam
Cynthia Hollenbeck
Mark Humphreys
Susan Jackovich
Gail Johnson
Heather Joubran
Michael Kara
Suzi Karr
Jennifer King
Jay Martin
Nichole Martin
Kristi Matthew
Charisse May
Allyn Maycumber
Kristin Mazza
Matthew McKee
Pamela Merritt
Cristian Michaels
David Miller
Jim Mitchell
Christine Modric
June Moore
Timothy Morgan
Carolyn Moriarty
Wendy Morris
Alison Mosley
John Muccigrosso
Christopher Myers
Abby Nelson
Chelsea Nevius
Mick Night
Jenette Nowakowski
Debra Parrish
Donna Pastore
George Philbeck
Andrew Philippone
Kelly Price
Mark Ramey
Cindy Rosenbloom
John Ross
Pamela Ryan
Sue Silberbusch
George Stringer
Allan Sutton
Kenneth Teixeira
Bill Ucci
Gitta Urbainczyk
Barbara Vance
Jan Walker
Wayne Weger
Russie Weidl
Jennifer Wemert
Cathleen Williams
Susie Wilson
Douglas Woehr
Scott Young
Ronald Ziolkowski
Jamie Zweifel


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Australian Service Provider, Telstra, Achieves Cisco Cloud Partner Certification
Cloud continues to be the significant trend reshaping the IT industry. As businesses seek to move their services into a cloud environment, Cisco is on the front foot in helping partners become cloud services builders, providers and resellers through the Cisco Cloud Partner Program. Primarily, the program is aimed at:
● Cloud builders who want to help customers build on-premise private clouds;
● Cloud providers who want to offer Cisco-powered services in the marketplace; and
● Cloud services resellers who want to want to resell provider services.
One of the latest Australian companies to become a part of the program is telecommunications and media company – Telstra.
A Diamond sponsor of Cisco Live 2012 in Melbourne, Telstra announced that its infrastructure-as-a-service cloud and related managed services processes, practices and tools have met all of the requirements to receive certification in the Cisco World Wide Cloud Partner Program. Telstra's investment in cloud computing is one part of Telstra's strategy to grow its network application and services business and it can continue to do so with the endorsement of being considered with Cisco's global best practice.
As part of the strategic partnership, Telstra and Cisco will also expand their sales and marketing collaboration to include Telstra Cloud Services.
Ultimately, the Cisco Cloud Partner Program, and associated certification, helps partners meet the necessary milestones of becoming cloud builders, providers and resellers. In doing so, Cisco empowers its partners to help their customers accelerate adoption of this new and powerful business solution.
In an effort to keep conversations fresh, Cisco Blogs closes comments after 60 days. Please visit the Cisco Blogs hub page for the latest content.


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They say you can never be too rich or too thin. But if you have to choose one or the other, many say it's tough call.
A poll released Wednesday finds that only 28 percent of Americans would be willing to gain 25 pounds to get out of debt.
The online poll, conducted by Harris Interactive for personal finance website Credit Karma, also found that 43 percent of Americans think how much they weigh is more important than how much debt they have. That left a narrow majority – 57 percent – who disagreed with the idea that weight matters more than debt.
(Read more: Sometimes the boss really is psycho)
If they had to choose between more extreme examples - obesity and bankruptcy - financial fitness appeared to win out. About 62 percent said they would prefer to be obese but free of all debt, while 38 percent said they'd prefer to be their ideal weight but facing bankruptcy.
The poll of about 2,000 adults was conducted in June.


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The new additions to the Dividend Achievers Index were announced a few weeks ago by Mergent. The dividend achievers index includes companies with the following characteristics:
- Trade on the NYSE, Nasdaq or AMEX
- U.S. companies with at least 10 consecutive years of increasing regular dividends
- Have a minimum average-day cash volume of at least $500,000 (U.S.)
I typically screen the list of dividend achievers at least once a month to search for attractively valued dividend stocks to accumulate. With more than 200 individual dividend growth stocks comprising the index, I have plenty of companies to sift through to find the 20 or 30 that ultimately could find their way in my dividend portfolio.
In addition, looking at the list of new dividend achievers additions might enable me to identify the next big dividend growth story, finding a company that will pay rising dividends for the next several decades.
The companies added to the index in 2012 include the following companies:
Southern Company (NYSE:SO), through its subsidiaries, operates as a utility company that provides electric service in the southeastern United States.
Monsanto (NYSE:MON), together with its subsidiaries, provides agricultural products for farmers in the United States and internationally.
Nike (NYSE:NKE), together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, development, marketing and sale of footwear, apparel, equipment and accessory products for men, women, and children worldwide.
Norfolk Southern (NYSE:NSC), through its subsidiaries, engages in the rail transportation of raw materials, intermediate products and finished goods primarily in the United States.
Magellan Midstream Partners (NYSE:MMP), together with its subsidiaries, engages in the transportation, storage and distribution of refined petroleum products and crude oil in the United States.
W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB), an insurance holding company, operates as commercial lines writers in the property casualty insurance business primarily in the United States.
Harris (NYSE:HRS), together with its subsidiaries, operates as a communications and information technology company that serves government and commercial markets worldwide.
NuStar Energy (NYSE:NS) engages in the terminalling, storage and transportation of petroleum products primarily in the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, St. Eustatius in the Caribbean, the United Kingdom and Mexico.
Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD), together with its subsidiaries, engages in the acquisition and management of precious metal royalties.
Senior Housing Properties (NYSE:SNH), a real estate investment trust (REIT), primarily invests in senior housing properties in the United States.
Nu Skin Enterprises (NYSE:NUS) develops and distributes anti-aging personal care products and nutritional supplements worldwide.
Inergy (NYSE:NRGY) engages in the retail marketing, sale and distribution of propane to residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural customers in the United States.
Delphi Financial Group (NYSE:DFG), a financial services company, together with its subsidiaries, provides specialty insurance and insurance-related services in the United States.
Valmont Industries (NYSE:VMI) produces and sells fabricated metal products, pole and tower structures, and mechanized irrigation systems in the United States and internationally.
Watsco (NYSE:WSO), together with its subsidiaries, distributes air conditioning, heating and refrigeration equipment, and related parts and supplies in the United States.
Sanderson Farms (NASDAQ:SAFM), an integrated poultry processing company, engages in the production, processing, marketing and distribution of fresh, frozen and prepared chicken products in the United States.
1st Source (NASDAQ:SRCE) operates as the bank holding company for 1st Source Bank that provides commercial and consumer banking services to individuals and businesses in the United States.
Tompkins Financial (AMEX:TMP), through its banking subsidiaries, Tompkins Trust Company, The Bank of Castile and The Mahopac National Bank, provides banking and financial services to individuals, corporations and other services to business clients in New York.
Republic Bancorp (NASDAQ:RBCAA) operates as the holding company for Republic Bank & Trust Company and Republic Bank, which provides banking, tax refund solutions, and mortgage banking services to individuals and businesses in the United States.
Arrow Financial (NASDAQ:AROW) operates as the holding company for Glens Falls National Bank and Trust Company, and Saratoga National Bank and Trust Company that offer various commercial and consumer banking, and financial products in the United States.
Cass Information Systems (NASDAQ:CASS) provides payment and information processing services to large manufacturing, distribution and retail enterprises in the United States.
Connecticut Water Service (NASDAQ:CTWS), through its subsidiaries, operates as a regulated water company in Connecticut.
The average yield of the new additions is 3.5%. There are a few companies on this list which I have observed for several years as they have been approaching dividend achiever status.
I plan on further researching these new additions by analyzing the historical performance and determining whether there are any competitive advantages that will protect future profits.


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In last week�s column I mentioned I don�t watch a lot of television. Some of y�all were curious what I do watch. So here goes.
In last week�s column I mentioned I don�t watch a lot of television. Some of y�all were curious what I do watch. So here goes.
First what I don�t watch: anything to do with singing, dancing, cooking or any other contests. I don�t understand how so many seemingly intelligent Americans fall for that garbage. I watch very few police shows. Frankly I find most of them outrageously stupid with �NCIS� topping the list. I know several NCIS agents. They are great investigators and good people. The show doesn�t do them justice.
I pretty much don�t watch anything with acronyms like �CSI� and �Law & Order: SVU.� The last typical procedural show I followed was the original �Law & Order,� but that was because I like Jeremy Sisto and Anthony Anderson.
OK. On to what I watch and why. I honestly don�t know why people like reality TV. I want pure escapism in my television viewing. I deal with stress and jerks and criminals and such all day. Why would I want to spend two hours at night staring at them on my TV screen?
When it comes to television I look for the far out and intense. I want compelling scripted storylines set in original locations with round, deep characters. For me that means five shows in no particular order:
�Game of Thrones� (HBO)
Based on George R.R. Martin�s masterpiece novels, �Game� takes you to the fantasy world of Westeros where anyone can be killed. And they ain�t kidding. The main character was beheaded in the penultimate episode of the show�s first season. How many TV programs can claim that?
It�s all about who can take and keep the Iron Throne � a seat made of melted swords of vanquished challengers. There are sword fights aplenty, sex, intrigue, betrayal and dragons. It may just be the best show ever made.
�The Walking Dead� (AMC)
A woeful tale of survivors in a zombie apocalyptic Atlanta area, the show is based on a series of graphic novels by Robert Kirkman. The characters here are just as deep as �Game� with the added stress of having to flee from an endless, relentless undead horde. The show strips away any vestige of civilization and shows the viewer just what a world without society would be like. Sure there are zombies, but they�re not even the real villains. The real bad guys are other humans. What would you be willing to do to save yourself and loved ones from such an unforgiving world? Oh, and the body count of main characters is higher than �Game.� That�s saying a lot.
�Justified� (FX)
With the show based on the work of novelist Elmore Leonard, rich characterization is expected � and delivered. �Justified� spends more time on the characterization of a minor character that is about to be shot dead in one episode than most network shows put into main characters over several seasons. The show, set in rural, modern-day Kentucky, offers a glimpse into what white trash really means. Timothy Olyphant plays U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens who periodically takes out that trash. Hands down makes other cop shows look silly.
�Supernatural� (CW)
Brothers Sam and Dean Winchester fight demons and all manner of monsters on their road trip across America. It�s sort of like Jack Kerouac meets Alfred Hitchcock as envisioned by Stephen King. Of course none of those guys have anything to do with the show, but their influence is all over the place. One of the few shows to survive the 2006 merger of fledgeling networks The WB and UPN, �Supernatural� has grown into a solid story about family, the good fight and the human condition.
�Person of Interest� (CBS)
This show by J.J. Abrams is better than the sum of its parts. I tuned in because I like Jim Caviezel. I have stuck around because the story is more original than any other outing on network TV right now. You see, this nerdy computer programmer invented a machine that can predict when a violent crime is about to happen. The government uses it to fight terrorism, but the programmer and a former-assassin-turned-altruistic badass, use information from the machine to bodyguard everyday people. The story has evolved from the typical adventure-of-the-week premise to an ensemble plot involving cops and spies in a twisting tale as the machine has recently shown itself to be self-aware.
A few others
The new SyFy show �Defiance,� as I mentioned last week, is quickly becoming a favorite. �Castle� is a guilty pleasure. I�ve watched �Dexter� since it debuted, but I�m ready to see it go. �The Big Bang Theory,� �Raising Hope� and �The Mindy Project� are my favorite sitcoms. I�m looking forward to the return of �Longmire� and �The Killing.� I pretend not to, but I pay attention when my wife and daughter watch �Revenge,� �Parenthood,� �Glee� and �Pretty Little Liars.�
Next week I�ll list some of the best books I�ve read and what they meant to me at the time I read them.
Contact Daily News Senior Reporter Lindell Kay at 910-219-8455 or email@example.com. Follow him on Twitter and friend him on Facebook @ 1lindell.


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Kerry confirmed as secretary of State
Sen. John Kerry was easily confirmed by the Senate Tuesday to become the next secretary of state, installing the first key member of President Barack Obama's national security team in his second term.
The vote was 94-3, with Kerry voting present. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Texas Republicans John Cornyn and Ted Cruz voted no.
Story Continued Below
The swift confirmation was expected; the longtime Massachusetts senator and 2004 Democratic presidential nominee has won plaudits from both Democrats and Republicans, and fellow senators had given no indication that Kerry's confirmation would be a problem. Earlier Tuesday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which Kerry has chaired, also unanimously advanced his nomination.
( PHOTOS: Obama's second-term Cabinet)
Kerry entered the Senate chamber shortly before 4:30 p.m. as his colleagues were voting on his confirmation. He was immediately greeted with handshakes and hugs from one colleague after another, and once the final vote tally was announced, the chamber broke out in a sustained applause.
Kerry was nominated by Obama in December to replace outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
"John has earned the respect of leaders around the world and the confidence of Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, and I am confident he will make an extraordinary secretary of state," Obama said in a statement Tuesday. "I look forward to his counsel and partnership in the years ahead as we ensure American leadership in the world and advance the interests and values that keep our nation strong."
( PHOTOS: John Kerry's career)
His ascendance to be the nation's chief diplomat was expected, particularly after another top choice to become secretary of state — Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations — withdrew from consideration following the controversy over her characterizations of the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya.
"We're so proud of John," Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told reporters. "This is a great way to take his public career to a new level. He is certainly capable of this job, and as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, we all know well how he deals with diplomatic challenges. He's going to be a great secretary of state."
Still, the veteran senator ran into some opposition. A spokesman for Cornyn said he voted no because Kerry "has a long history of liberal positions that are not consistent with a majority of Texans."
"After listening to the nomination hearing, Sen. Cornyn could not support Sen. Kerry's nomination," spokesman Drew Brandewie said.


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Seeing our dinosaurs up close is exciting – but getting your hands on science is an even more amazing experience. Which is why we try to bring you hands-on, educational activities that make you the scientist.
|Visitors search for shark's teeth in our Paleo Hall
Several mornings a week we have a volunteer on-hand in our Hall of Paleontology to help you experience the work of a paleontologist and malacologist.
Come by soon – you can help us sift through the shells and gravel collected by our teams in Bryan, Texas for fossils that are from the Eocene era, from species that lived over 35 million years ago. Help us separate the fossils – old snail shells, clams, mollusks, otoliths, coral and gastropods – and view them in tiny detail under the magnifying glass. Hold barracuda, manta ray and shark teeth in your hands, and help us to categorize them while you learn about ocean life both past and present.
|Sift through shells, gastropods, and teeth
that are over 35 million years old
If sorting through our shell collection isn't hands on enough for you, sign up to go on our family or adult day excursions with one of our curators. Go bird watching with Dan Brooks or collect your own shells on a malacology trip with David Temple. Sign up at hmns.org, and keep your eye open for future science trips.


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The City of Cape Town's Anti-Land Invasion Unit established to prevent the illegal occupation of city and provincial land, is acting unlawfully says Lawyers for Human Rights.
LHR lawyer Sheldon Magardie said the unit demolished structures without a court order and he was planning to approach the Cape High Court for an interdict to prevent the city from doing so.
"In our view, the city is acting unlawfully, because if someone occupies property, whether it is (an) illegal (occupation), or not, one still has to get a court order or legal authority such as a by-law to do so. And if there is such a by-law which allows them to demolish property without notice or fair procedure, that by-law is unconstitutional," said Magardie.
He said the LHR had sent a letter to the city asking them which law the city was using to demolish structures without a court order, but had received no response.
The announcement by the LHR comes after violent clashes between backyarders and police last Sunday after over 4 000 backyarders occupied city-owned land in Tafelsig, Mitchell's Plain on Saturday.
Police used water cannons, teargas and rubber bullets to disperse the backyarders, with reports that police were fired upon with live ammunition.
Sporadic clashes continued until Monday evening as backyarders continued to try to erect structures.
Eighteen suspects were arrested for public violence.
Mitchells Plain Backyarders Deputy Chairperson Shaheed Keet said the residents had come peacefully to squat on the land as people were tired of waiting for houses.
"We did not declare war on the city. All we need are houses. People have been on the waiting list for over 30 years," he said, claiming the police's attack was unprovoked.
"We received no warning from them. They did not even speak to us as a committee."
He said they were trying to ascertain how many people had been injured.
Although an interdict preventing the erection of structures and occupation of the land was only obtained from the High Court on Tuesday – which the backyarders intend to appeal – City of Cape Town media manager Kylie Hatton said the unit acted in terms of the National PIE (Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act of 1998) Act.
"In terms of the PIE Act, the city may only dismantle structures that are unoccupied, as soon as a structure is legitimately occupied the city or a landowner must seek an eviction order from the courts," she said.
However, Magardie said this was the city's interpretation of the Act.
"Even if a structure is unoccupied, if someone is in possession of a structure, whether they are using it for living space or storage, one cannot dispossess someone of something that s/he possesses, unless you have legal authority," he said.
The Anti-Land Invasion Unit, established in 2008, demolishes about 300 illegally erected informal housing structures per month, according to the city.
There are 340 000 applicants on the city's housing database with about 40 000 migrants moving to Cape Town per year, according to official figures.
A visit to Tafelsig on Thursday revealed a field strewn with rocks, a few pieces of clothing, piles of wood and ashes.
In continuing protest, the backyarders continue to sleep on the open field.
Peter Bantam, his wife, brother in law and a few friends gather around a small fire to keep warm.
"They took everything, our blankets, pots and pans. There was no violence from our side. We were dodging bullets," he said.
While Hatton said the city recognized the need for housing but "cannot allow people to illegally occupy vacant land or build informal structures", residents in recognized informal settlements that have been in existence for years have also had their shacks torn down by the Anti-Land Invasion Unit after attempting to renovate them.
An X painted on a shack is often used by the city as a warning that the structure is illegal. In February, Khayelitsha resident, Nokwandisa Shukuma, spent R3000 replacing her old corrugated iron sheeting. She came home one afternoon to find a yellow X on her house. The next day, the Anti-Land Invasion Unit tore her home down.
A lack of communication between the city and the residents was cited as a major problem.
Informal Settlement Network community worker, Vuyani Mnyango said the city failed to inform community leaders of the city's laws and did not respond to applications to renovate informal structures.
Khayelitsha (RR Section) resident's committee secretary, Mandisa Selani, said since January this year 70 shacks in Khayelitsha's RR Section were destroyed. She said that in January, a crèche in the area that was being renovated was destroyed without any warning.
She said the owner had received verbal permission from a city employee to go ahead with planned renovations. – Fadela Slamdien, West Cape News


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Border Range Loop
Leave the bustle of the city behind as you set off on a three-day drive along the Border Range Loop. This scenic route will take you from Brisbane to Ipswich and across the Great Dividing Range to Warwick before heading to the villages of Tamborine Mountain.
The drive encompasses the state's oldest provincial city, one of its most picturesque areas and a World Heritage-listed rainforest reserve. Mountainous views, ancient trees, wildlife, waterfalls and fresh creeks are the order of these three days. Be sure to bring a camera and a spare memory stick to capture the countless points of interest and intrigue along the way.
Brisbane to Warwick
From Brisbane, follow the Ipswich Motorway to Ipswich. Ipswich is the State's oldest provincial city and is renowned for its architectural, cultural and natural heritage. Meander through the city and marvel at the magnificent and imaginatively designed old houses. After a fascinating tour around Ipswich's stately homes and gardens, clear your head with a relaxing and picturesque drive through the Scenic Rim to Boonah.
Local history buffs should keep a look out for the Templin Historical Museum on the Boonah-Fassifern Road (between Boonah and the Cunningham Highway). The museum contains a collection of artefacts and memorabilia chronicling the history of the local area. Hop onto the Cunningham Highway at Aratula and prepare yourself for the steep incline of Cunningham's Gap. You can stop at the top to take in the awe-inspiring views, looking back towards Brisbane and Moreton Bay.
Arrive in Warwick, a city boasting some of Queensland's finest historical sandstone buildings that stand today as reminders of the region's pioneering past. The Post Office (built in 1891) and the Town Hall (1888), are two fine examples. You can choose from a wide range of bed and breakfast, motels, hotels and caravan park accommodation in town.
Route Details
Level of Difficulty: Grade 2
Itinerary Route: One way
Mode of Travel: 4x4
Activities: Walks, Hiking
Warwick to Mt Tamborine
Today's drive will take you through the ranges of the Queensland-New South Wales Border. On the way you'll pass through the tiny township of Killarney where, on weekends, you can drop into the Heritage Centre (located at the RSL Hall in Acacia Street), which specialises in researching local family history.
A couple of kilometres out of town is the spectacular Queen Mary Falls, one of Killarney's most famous attractions. Queen Mary Falls is nestled in the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range. With a wall of glistening rock as a backdrop, the water plummets to the rocks below before continuing its journey down the valley floor to join the Condamine River's upper reaches. Tables, wood fireplaces, toilets and water are provided in a spacious picnic ground. Allow about 40 minutes for the two-kilometre circuit walk. Take in the stunning views from Carr's Lookout and follow the scenic winding road though spectacular countryside under the gaze of some contented-looking cattle.
Continue on to the villages of Tamborine Mountain, a haven for talented artists who love to share their passions with passers-by. A wide range of bed and breakfast accommodation is available on the mountain.
Route Details
Level of Difficulty: Grade 2
Itinerary Route: One way
Mode of Travel: 4x4
Activities: Walks
Mt Tamborine to Brisbane
This morning, head down the mountain to the old saw-milling town of Canungra. You can take a walk through the sawmill's old tramway tunnel, which is cut through sandstone, or just wander through the many art and craft shops in town. From here take a scenic drive up to O'Reillys Plateau in Lamington National Park.
Lamington National Park is part of the Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves Australia World Heritage Area along the Queensland-New South Wales border ranges. The park's beautiful rainforests include the largest subtropical rainforest remnant in the world and one of the most extensive Antarctic Beech cool temperate rainforests in Australia. You can choose from over 300 kilometres of walking tracks, including O'Reilly's Tree Top Walk.
Canungra Valley Vineyards, just outside Canungra, is an excellent stop for platypus spotting on your return journey to Brisbane.
Route Details
Level of Difficulty: Grade 2
Itinerary Route: One way
Mode of Travel: 4x4
Activities: Walks
Images: Southern Queensland Country
More Information: Southern Queensland Country


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ad hoc distributed queries Option
By default, SQL Server does not allow ad hoc distributed queries using OPENROWSET and OPENDATASOURCE. When this option is set to 1, SQL Server allows ad hoc access. When this option is not set or is set to 0, SQL Server does not allow ad hoc access.
Ad hoc distributed queries use the OPENROWSET and OPENDATASOURCE functions to connect to remote data sources that use OLE DB. OPENROWSET and OPENDATASOURCE should be used only to reference OLE DB data sources that are accessed infrequently. For any data sources that will be accessed more than several times, define a linked server.
|Security Note
Enabling the use of ad hoc names means that any authenticated login to SQL Server can access the provider. SQL Server administrators should enable this feature for providers that are safe to be accessed by any local login. For more information, see the DisallowAdhocAccess option in Accessing External Data.
The following example enables ad hoc distributed queries and then queries a server named Seattle1 using the OPENROWSET function.
sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1;
sp_configure 'Ad Hoc Distributed Queries', 1;
SELECT a.*
FROM OPENROWSET('SQLNCLI', 'Server=Seattle1;Trusted_Connection=yes;',
'SELECT GroupName, Name, DepartmentID
FROM AdventureWorks2008R2.HumanResources.Department
ORDER BY GroupName, Name') AS a;


text: 15-Exquisite-DIY-Box-Braided-Hairstyles-Half-Up-High-Pony-Big-Box-Braids – Find the virtual hairstyle ideas related to 15-Exquisite-DIY-Box-Braided-Hairstyles-Half-Up-High-Pony-Big-Box-Braids only in Hollywoodofficial.com. You can download and obtain the 15-Exquisite-DIY-Box-Braided-Hairstyles-Half-Up-High-Pony-Big-Box-Braids bellow for your own collection and personal use. I hope that the following part of article will help you to better understand this topic. On September 3rd, 2015, a good research has resulted into writing this article for you, I hope it helps. The following article contains information that will help our create a new look for yourselves. We receive well over thirty thousand visitors monthly and have had a great response thus far, from visitors enjoying this article. Hopefully you will enjoy 15-Exquisite-DIY-Box-Braided-Hairstyles-Half-Up-High-Pony-Big-Box-Braids it likewise.


text:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department said on Saturday it had reports that American citizens were injured in an attack when gunmen stormed a shopping mall in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, and it condemned the shooting as a "senseless act of violence".
"We have reports of American citizens injured in the attack, and the U.S. Embassy is actively reaching out to provide assistance," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a statement.
She declined to give details of the Americans injured citing privacy considerations.
Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Sandra Maler


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These natural shave soaps are handmade with a vegetable based formula. Coconut oil, vegan glycerin, shea butter and bentonite clay combined to produce a creamy, thick, rich lather.
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Check Out MissShe®'s Product Reviews
South Fulton Lifestyle Magazine


text:
On nights when I'm not recipe-testing for the cookbook, I crave at least one of the following: a) sushi, b) pizza, or c) Indian food. Good versions of first two are easy to find in my Brooklyn neighborhood, but the third is, sadly, lacking. I don't live anywhere close to Jackson Heights, Murray Hill, or East 6th St., so cravings have to be satisfied by just rolling up my sleeve.
(When I was in Beijing, which was lacking in not only good Indian food but stores to find non-Chinese spices, I periodically whipped up Chinese-Indian food like Gobi Manchurian and chicken lollipops.)
Chicken tikka masala might be many people's introduction to Indian food, even though it's more or less an Indian-British fusion dish. Some claim that it was invented in 1960's Britain, when chefs began adding gravy to chicken dishes to satisfy the British palate, while others argue that it originated much earlier in India during British colonialism. It's such a part of British culture that 5 years ago British foreign secretary Robin Cook declared it "a true British national dish. The Scots claimed that it originated in Glasgow, much to the outrage of chefs in India. But whatever its original, there's little dispute that the yogurt-marinated chicken bathed in creamy tomato sauce is delicious and crave-worthy.
This is an easy chicken tikka masala recipe I make from time to time. And making it doesn't require much that you can't find in your average supermarket, or even your pantry. Rest assured that this sauce is ten times better than any "chicken tikka masala" sauce out of jar. Just be sure to plan ahead; the chicken needs as least 2 to 3 hours of marinating time to maintain its tenderness in the oven. The spicy and creamy tomato-based sauce can be made mild or spicy (see the recipe below), and you'll want to make plenty of basmati rice to soak it all up.
Chicken Tikka Masala
Serves 4
- 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, left whole
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 medium onion, finely diced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- Chopped cilantro for garnish (optional)
- 1 cup plain yogurt
- 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (1/2 teaspoon if you like this dish spicy)
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 8 ounces canned tomato puree or crush tomatoes
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- Salt to taste
- Prepare the marinade: In a small bowl, mix together the yogurt, ginger, cumin, cardamom, cayenne, and black pepper. Pour the marinade mixture over the chicken and rub it all over the meat. Cover with plastic and let sit in the fridge for 2 to 3 hours, or overnight.
- When you're ready to cook the chicken, position the top oven rack about 6 inches from the broiler (the second rung from the top in conventional ovens). Preheat the broiler.
- Cover the inside of a baking dish with tin foil or parchment paper, making sure the liner goes up along the sides. Transfer the chicken to the backing dish, wiping off as much marinade as possible (or else the chicken ends up steaming instead of broiling). Broil for 15 to 20 (depending on how big your chicken thighs are), flipping your chicken over halfway through the cooking time. The chicken should be cooked through and have some black/brown spots on the outside. Remove from the oven and transfer to a cutting board to cool.
- While the chicken is cooling, heat a Dutch oven or large sauce pan over medium-low heat. Add the butter and swirl to coat the bottom. Add the onions and cook gently cook until golden, about 6 minutes. Add the garlic, ground cumin, and paprika and cook for another minute. Stir in the tomato puree, scraping the bottom of the pan or pot to release any brown bits. Allow the sauce to simmer for 12 to 15 minutes, until it's thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.
- While the sauce is simmering, and after the chicken has cooled enough to touch, cut each piece into large bite-sized pieces.
- After the sauce has thickened, stir in the heavy cream and bring the sauce back to a simmer. Adjust the seasoning with salt, if needed. Add the chicken and stir to coat with the sauce. Transfer to a serving dish, sprinkle chopped cilantro on top, and serve with basmati rice.


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Tassel Hassles
Hey, look! Amber went back to school!
Looks like her folks are still using the same bakery, though. (Piles of dead leaves are such a "hassel", aren't they?)
This next Wreck sees Amber's "hassel", and raises it a "taffle":
If only it had been in quotes - "taffle" would leave so much more romper-room for the imagination, don't you think?
Speaking of lots of room, Courtney M. asked the bakery for a Star Wars graduation cake, and this is what she got:
Well, Courtney, there is a lot of space...in space. So, you know, it could be a metaphor.
Where some Wreckerators call it a day after a lime-headed Yoda and a plastic grad cap, though, others keep going, and going, and...Scuse me, Mr. or Ms. Wreckerator, but I think you missed a spot. Could you cram a few more "09"s on the top? Oh, and while I have you here, a few questions:
1) What are you congratulating math for?
2) Does that inscription really say "this book is for smart people only please donoot atemple to open if you are not smart"?
It does? Ok, then my next question is...
3) For the love of crossed-out-but-not-corrected spelling errors, why? I mean, wouldn't only the really dumb people try to open a cake that only resembles a book in that it is somewhat flat and rectangular? Or am I over thinking this? (Don't answer that, Wreckies; I'm talking to the decorator here.)
Jess K's mom ordered a graduation cake for her brother. To keep it simple, she asked for the cake to read "Woo-hoo Tommy!" Instead, she got:
Unintentionally appropriate with a side of sneering sarcasm. I like it.
Sabrina S., Jess G., & Maureen, you each get a gold star beside your name on my monitor. (Granted, this may make typing a little more diggifult, but fortunetly I learned to typr by touch.)


text:
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text:
With no family history of breast cancer or other known risk factors, Robyn Sharp didn't worry when Uxbridge's Tri-River Family Health Center called her back for a follow-up exam in 2001.
With no family history of breast cancer or other known risk factors, Robyn Sharp didn't worry when Uxbridge's Tri-River Family Health Center called her back for a follow-up exam in 2001.
But when a doctor showed the Upton mother two suspicious but unidentified spots in her right breast, she predicted the outcome, crying all the way home and calling her husband by cell phone.
As Sharp expected, the spots proved cancerous. A limited first surgery did not remove enough tissue to ensure her health. An expanded second procedure also failed.
Finally, Sharp had a mastectomy, followed by reconstruction. While she lost her original breast, she felt thankful doctors had excised her anxiety, attributing her relative fortune to a routine mammogram just shy of her 40th birthday months earlier.
So the substitute school nurse felt angry when a federal panel last week contradicted common guidelines and advised that screening women in their 40s with mammograms provides more harm than benefit in most cases.
"Even if you save one life, isn't it worth it?" Sharp asked Friday after recounting her story.
The panel, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, had previously advised that screenings start at age 40, a recommendation the American Cancer Society and professional associations for oncology and radiology reaffirmed in recent days.
The panel's analysis showed that doctors need to screen 1,904 women in their 40s to save one life, compared to 1,339 women in their 50s.
The panel says it did not consider financial costs. Instead, it decided the frequency of anxiety-causing false alarms and unneeded biopsies left the younger group's screenings unwarranted for those outside high-risk categories.
The advisory group also found no evidence of mammogram benefits for those older than 74, no need for women between the ages of 50 and 74 to get tested annually instead of every other year, and no value in teaching breast self-examination at any age. Those findings also challenge common practice.
Area breast cancer specialists acknowledged the imperfections of mammograms in screening but re-emphasized the importance of the exams and said they are sticking with the previous guidelines. While many area providers' earnings are tied to the volume of mammograms performed, the specialists all cited past patients in their 40s as their motivation.
"You're excluding a certain cohort of women from being screened and being able to save their lives," Newton-Wellesley Hospital's Dr. Alan Semine said, calling the changes "misguided."
Semine, the hospital's chief of breast imaging radiology, said the majority of breast cancer patients don't have a family history, with "high-risk" an imprecisely defined label still being researched and refined.
In addition to questioning the new advice for 40-year-olds, Semine also challenged the finding on self-exams, saying many breast cancers are detected that way.
At Tri-County Breast Surgery inside Milford Regional Medical Center, Dr. Renee Quarterman said breast cancer in patients in their 40s tends to be more aggressive, with women not always flagged beforehand.
"They might just look like they're normal risk," she said.
Marlborough Hospital oncologist Dr. Kathryn Edmiston said the panel's recommendation that 40-year-olds simply check in with their medical provider and craft individual plans only works for those with insurance, access to a doctor and a certain level of knowledge.
"I think that's a very poor public policy," she said.
Are you planning on changing your approach to mammograms because of the recommendations released last week by a federal advisory panel?(opinion)
Edmiston also said the panel just considered mortality, rather than the benefits and value of catching non-fatal cancer early so less of a woman's prime is disrupted. Still, focusing on the group's approach, she described the importance of even just one life.
"All you have to do is sit with her 10-year-old and her 11-year-old to know how devastating that loss of life will be," Edmiston said. Given the aging population and increased life expectancy, she also criticized the panel for casting doubt on the value of mammograms for healthy women older than 74.
The state still requires insurers to cover a baseline mammogram between the ages of 35 and 40 and annual mammograms from age 40 on. Federal Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said last week that Medicare will also continue to provide similar coverage.
While the nation is looking to rein in medical costs, Semine said there are more appropriate places in the system to save money than mammogram screenings.
"This isn't where we want to make the choices," he said. He decried the possible harm to years of awareness campaigns, feeling that many women are reluctant to come in for mammograms and only do so because that course of action has been drilled in.
"For them to come out and undermine everything that's been accomplished is very disheartening," Semine said of the panel.
At Marlborough Hospital, Edmiston is also responding to the confusion.
"Every patient that now comes into my office asks, 'What am I supposed to do?'" she said.
Sharp's three girls are just 16, 14 and 12, but she knows they will get extra attention when they hit the debated screening mark several decades from now. But Sharp wonders what will happen to other women, strangers with whom she might share a medical bond.
"They have the family history, so they'll be watched," she said of the girls. "But there are other women out there like me. I'm living proof a mammogram saved my life."
MetroWest Daily News writer Michael Morton can be reached at email@example.com or 508-626-4338.


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World Food Prize 2012 Borlaug Dialogue
Event Date:October 16, 2012 - 12:00pm
Location:Des Moines, Iowa
October 16 - 20, Nourishing the Planet Director Danielle Nierenberg will participate in the World Food Prize 2012 Borlaug Dialogue in Des Moines, Iowa. She will exhibit at the World Food Prize symposium October 16 through 19, she will lead the Global Youth Institute (GYI) on the 19th, and will serve as a GYI faculty expert on the 20th.
For more information, click here.


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We made it a priority to raise the flag and hang our
recruit hats. Please observe a moment of respect
for our United States Navy...
Okay. Next!
kitchen, I promise!! Lots of nice new cupboards and
an oven that works!!!! Sooo exciting.
the sofa!! She was pretending to ignore me. We were
watching Family Guy when I decided to take pictures
for you, dear reader.
cafe, so... yeah! Pumpkin candles smell so
Autumn-y, by the way.
a day in Wayne, over 400 days ago. The friends
that grace the pages are the ones I hope stick around
for the better part of forever.
plans to put them in a big cd case and bring
them with us to A-school. Hooray!!
room of a house. Maybe one day this will be the
outdated outhouse and they will make a big book
with pictures of bathrooms.
a silhouette. The background is our new house,
by the way.
it's light out, I shall get better outdoor pics.
him more than any of my previous trees. He
sort of fits perfectly into my eager arms.
Busch Man. Busch Lite NA, if you want to be specific.
Busch Man is pretty cool, I suspect you'll be hearing more
about him. He likes music, like we do, and that made
him the topic of our conversation the first night we
slept here.
Conversation About the Busch Man
Recruit Pisces: So....
Me: Yup! I know, right?
Recruit Pisces: Yup...
Candy Man: Huh? Want a beer?
It was enlightening and lovely.
had a really cool pose when he leaned against the
car. But I took too long to capture the 'senior pose'
and I got this instead. Hey. It shows his friendly nature.
Candy Man: Want a beer, Busch Man?
I absolutely want to drink a beer at that thing. Can
someone say, "You look like you moved to the
west, Angel!" Cause I guess I did! (Nashville,
you are just as classy, I promise)
it almost every night. We like cruisin'.
There you go!! Part of the new house!! To be continued...


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America's Armed Forces: Time for a Checkup
|Episode Description
|Tuesday, Sep 18, 2012 - 7:00 PM
At a time when laser-guided missiles, stealth technology and drone aircraft are game-changers on battlefields around the world, we sometimes overlook our nation's ultimate weapons system: the more than one million men and women who put their lives on the line every day in America's armed forces. In America's Armed Forces: Time for a Checkup, moderator John King of CNN and expert panelists examine the wide-ranging impacts health-related issues exact on our nation's military preparedness, national security, healthcare policy and economic stability. Topics include how everyday health issues, such as obesity and substance abuse, affect prospective recruits' eligibility to serve; how we assure that our service men and women are fit for the many difficult challenges they face in the post-9/11 world; and how we take care of our nation's wounded warriors. D
|More America's Armed Forces: Time for a Checkup on PLUS (MT)
Tuesday, Sep 18, 2012 - 7:00 PM
Tuesday, Sep 18, 2012 - 11:00 PM


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Corn fell for a third day in Chicago amid expectations that supplies will be ample as most U.S. crops are developing in good condition.
Rain in northern and western areas of the Midwest this week will maintain adequate soil moisture while warm weather helps plants mature, DTN said in a report today. Seventy-three percent of corn in the main U.S. growing areas was in good or excellent condition as of Aug. 24, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported. The agency projects that the U.S. harvest will reach an all-time high at 14.032 billion bushels.
"The crop is looking fantastic," Michael Pitts, commodity sales director at National Australia Bank Ltd., said by phone from Sydney. "Critical parts of the crop that were a little bit dry received very good rainfall, warm weather after it, there's more rainfall coming. It's the perfect recipe."
Corn for December delivery fell 0.5 percent to $3.63 a bushel at 7:18 a.m. on the Chicago Board of Trade. Prices are down 14 percent this year and declined to $3.58 on Aug. 12, the lowest since July 2010.
Soybeans for November delivery advanced 0.4 percent to $10.32 a bushel after slumping to $10.1975 yesterday, the lowest for a most-active contract since September 2010. Seventy percent of the U.S. crops received the top ratings as of Aug. 24, according to the USDA, which also projects farmers will harvest a record crop at 3.816 billion bushels.
Wheat for delivery in December rose 0.1 percent to $5.5725 a bushel in Chicago after swinging between gains and losses. Milling wheat for November delivery added 0.3 percent to 173.25 euros ($228.36) a metric ton on Euronext in Paris, set for the first gain in three days. Egypt, the biggest importer, bought 175,000 tons of Romanian and Russian wheat yesterday, shunning French supplies while no U.S. grain was offered in the tender.


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These Large Teak Chess Pieces are simply stunning. Every piece has been carefully hand crafted to make this beautiful chess set. This 12" set is popular due to its classic design and exceptional beauty.
This set is very similar to our 8" set. The set can also be easily transported to wherever one might wish to play, but may be even more suited to outdoor play - such as in yard, garden, park, or at beach. All that is needed is a balmy day, a flat surface, and a friend with whom to play.
MegaChess Teak Chess Sets are superior to any made in the world for the following reasons;
32 Beautifully hand carved chess pieces with the light side retaining it full natural color with a light, sun protecting stain and the dark color being stained to allow you to see the natural grains in this elegant wood.
This is the 2nd smallest of our seven teak chess sets. The King stands 12" tall. These pieces are suitable for play indoors or outdoors. The 12" King is more than three times the size of a traditional chess set!
When planning a playing area, consider the minimum size of the square of a chessboard as the diameter of the base of the king (5.75"). The optimum chess board would be 6" squares, a standard tile size, yielding a chessboard 4 feet on each side.
Our Teak Chess Sets are not only beautiful, but they are strong and very durable! In fact teak is one of the toughest woods on the planet! It is particularly resistant to the elements, decay and insects due to it density and internal resins.
Our Teak Chess Sets are featured around the globe in some of the most exquisite resorts, country clubs, corporate settings, and backyards.
Specifications for the MegaChess Teak Chess Set with a 12" King:
King – 2 pieces – 12" tall with 5.75" base – weight 32 oz.
Queen – 2 pieces – 10" tall with 5" base – weight 21 oz.
Bishop – 4 pieces – 9" tall with 4" base – weight 11 oz.
Knight – 4 pieces – 8" tall with 4" base – weight 17 oz.
Rook – 4 pieces – 7" tall with 4.5" base – weight 17 oz.
Pawn – 16 pieces – 6" tall with 3" base – weight – 6 oz.
Total 32 pieces – weight 31 pounds
Shipping information:
Freight Dimensions:
Box #1 - 18" x 18" x 18" - 31 lbs.
If you are shipping this set outside of the Continental U.S. please email us for the best shipping rates.
King – 2 pieces – 12" tall with 5.75" base – weight 32 oz.
Queen – 2 pieces – 10" tall with 5" base – weight 21 oz.
Bishop – 4 pieces – 9" tall with 4" base – weight 11 oz.
Knight – 4 pieces – 8" tall with 4" base – weight 17 oz.
Rook – 4 pieces – 7" tall with 4.5" base – weight 17 oz.
Pawn – 16 pieces – 6" tall with 3" base – weight – 6 oz.
Total 32 pieces – weight 31 pounds
Mega Chess supplies giant chess sets to residential and commercial customers around the world. Since 2002, our Chess Sets, Chess Boards, Checkers and other accessories have been manufactured to the highest quality standards. Our manufacturing facilities in the U.S., Indonesia and China utilizes artisans to handcraft each piece with special care to meticulous detail. You will not find better Teak, Resin, Fiberglass, Plaster or Plastic Chess Sets made anywhere in the world and delivered to your door for better value.
You've seen our life-size chess sets while traveling, on cruise ships, at campgrounds, in shopping malls, at your local parks and recreation facilities, at resorts and hotels, in sports arenas and airports. We are in hundreds of housing developments and in apartment and condominium complexes and time shares. We are at children's hospitals, and science and art museums. We have sold thousands of giant chess sets to public and private pre-schools, elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, colleges and universities.
We guarantee you'll love our giant chess sets!We were are aslo the exclusive distributor of Uber Games and Uber Soccer in North America. Uber Games is the premier manufacturer of Giant Outdoor Games like Giant Connect Four, Giant Tumble Tower, Giant Tic-Tac-Toe and other Giant Outdoor Games. Uber Soccer manufacturer premier match and practice Soccer Balls, Bags, Soccer Training Equipment.


text:
BANGUI (Reuters) - Rebels in Central African Republic said they had halted their advance on the capital on Wednesday and agreed to start peace talks, averting a clash with regionally backed troops in the mineral-rich nation.
The Seleka rebels had pushed within striking distance of Bangui after a three-week onslaught and threatened to oust President Francois Bozize, accusing him of reneging on a previous peace deal and cracking down on dissidents.
Their announcement on Wednesday only gave the leader a limited reprieve as the fighters told Reuters they might insist on his removal in the negotiations.
"I have asked our forces not to move their positions starting today because we want to enter talks in (Gabon's capital) Libreville for a political solution," said Seleka spokesman Eric Massi, speaking by telephone from Paris.
"I am in discussion with our partners to come up with proposals to end the crisis, but one solution could be a political transition that excludes Bozize," he added.
The advance by Seleka, an alliance of mostly northeastern rebel groups, was the latest in a series of revolts in a country at the heart of one of Africa's most turbulent regions.
CAR remains severely underdeveloped despite its deposits of gold, diamonds and other minerals. French nuclear energy group Areva mines CAR's Bakouma uranium deposit - France's biggest commercial interest in its former colony.
Diplomatic sources have said talks organized by central African regional bloc ECCAS could start on January 10. The United States, the European Union and France have called on both sides to negotiate and spare civilians.
News of the rebel halt eased tensions in Bangui, where residents had been stockpiling food and water and staying indoors after dark.
"They say they are no longer going to attack Bangui, and that's great news for us," said Jaqueline Loza in the crumbling riverside city. "It is best for everyone if all sides go to the negotiating table."
ECCAS members Chad, Congo Republic, Gabon and Cameroon have sent hundreds of soldiers to reinforce CAR's army after a string of rebel victories since early December.
Gabonese General Jean Felix Akaga, commander of the regional force, said his troops were defending the town of Damara, 75 km (45 miles) north of Bangui, close to where the rebels were camped.
"Damara is a red line not to be crossed ... Damara is in our control and Bangui is secure," he told Reuters.
Chad President Idriss Deby, one of Bozize's closest allies, had warned the rebels the regional force would confront them if they approached the town.
Bozize came to power in a 2003 rebellion backed by Chad, which wanted to replace the CAR president's predecessor who it accused of supporting Chadian dissidents.
Chad, also keen to keep a lid on instability in the territory close to its main oil export pipeline, has stepped in to defend Bozize against insurgents in the past.
A CAR government minister told Reuters the foreign troop presence strengthened Bozize's bargaining position ahead of the Libreville peace talks.
"The rebels are now in a position of weakness," the minister said, asking not to be named. "They should therefore stop imposing conditions like the departure of the president."
Central African Republic is one of a number of countries in the region where U.S. Special Forces are helping local soldiers track down the Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group which has killed thousands of civilians across four nations.
France has a 600-strong force in CAR to defend about 1,200 of its citizens who live there.
Paris used air strikes to defend Bozize against a rebellion in 2006. But French President Francois Hollande turned down a request for more help, saying the days of intervening in other countries' affairs were over.
Additional reporting by Paul-Marin Ngoupana in Bangui and Jon Herskovitz in Johannesburg; Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Andrew Heavens


text: Narrow Aisle, Pallet Racking P90 - Netthandelen Norge, Norway Sign up for our newsletter here!!! Netthandelen of Norway is the largest online auction site in Norway. After an extraordinary development, Netthandelen Norge AS, had to look for new premises. The decision was a totally new building, totalling 13000 m2, including 11200 m2 store. Netthandelen needed efficient solutions in the store, to handle many users simultaneously. Solution:The solution was a Narrow aisle system, utillising Constructor P90 racking, close to all the loading docks, to achieve a rapid movement of the goods - in and out. To separate between the trucks and the "soft workers", there was established a turnaround for the trucks and a passage way behind the racking, which was secured by wire mesh fencing /walls. Capacities: Pallet places: 12366 palletsLength: 45,5 metersHeight: 11 meters (6 pallets in the height) Print Pdf Add