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There may still be plenty of snow on the ground, but the management at the Bos Landen Golf Resort are already getting prepared for the upcoming season. The majority of the 2010 Maintenance Plan for the course was approved at Tuesday's Pella City Council meeting. Pella Assistant City Administrator Michael Marcinkowski says the city's maximum reimbursement of $90,000 largely goes toward chemicals and fertilizer for the course, which was approved, though expenses for repairs to the cart paths has not yet been okayed.
"There was a $9,000 expense on there. The council has not approved that part of the $90,000 yet, only because with all the snow we've had, we weren't able to get out and see if the repairs to the cart path were needed," said Marcinkowski. "With the exception of that $9,000, the council approved that expenditure."
Marcinkowski says the City of Pella has been pleased with the lease agreement with R & R management and feels that their leadership will continue to find ways to improve the course at Bos Landen.
"For those that are anxious to golf, I think that they have probably over the last year seen some major improvements out there, and we're looking forward to continuing to work with R&R Management Company and we feel that they will continue to make improvements."
Bos Landen was ranked as Iowa's #1 course from 1997 to 2001 and was also awarded with Golf Digest magazine's "Four Star Place to Play" award in 2007.


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High-Def/Blu-ray Disc Plug-In
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
McManus led the Tritons to their 10th CCAA South title in 2011 and earned CCAA Coach of the Year for the fifth time. UCSD went 13-3-4 overall and 12-1-3 in conference play in McManus' 25th season at the helm. The honor marks the sixth time McManus has taken home the award since 2000, when the Tritons joined the ranks of NCAA Division II.
UCSD got off to its best start since 1994, going undefeated (8-0-4) in its first 12 games. After their first loss on October 14 to No. 20 Cal State L.A., the Tritons shutout their last five opponents to end the regular season at 13-1-4 and clinch the CCAA Tournament's No. 1 seed.
Despite falling in the CCAA Tournament semifinals to Cal State Stanislaus, UCSD earned the top seed in the West Region for the NCAA Tournament and played host to CSUS and Chico State in the West Subregional at Triton Soccer Stadium. However, UCSD would fall victim to an early goal in an eventual 1-0 loss to CSUC in the Second Round.
To this point, 17 postseason awards have been handed to members of UCSD's 2011 squad, including CCAA Player of the Year and Daktronics West Region Player of the Year to senior goalkeeper Kristin Armstrong. Armstrong and junior defender Hayley Johnson were also named Daktronics All-Americans. Three players- Sara Spaventa, Anne Wethe and Sarah McTigue- were selected to the Capital One Academic All-District Team for District 8.
In his quarter-century tenure as head coach, McManus has compiled an overall record of 417-64-38 (.840). He's guided the Tritons to seven national championships, 25 NCAA Tournament appearances and seven CCAA titles.


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Search begins for new Director of UH Manoa Cancer CenterUniversity of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Associate Vice Chancellor
University of Hawai'i at Mānoa Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw has appointed a search committee for a new Director of the Cancer Research Center of Hawaiʻi. Dr. Carl Wilhelm-Vogel resigned as Director last November and Dr. Michele Carbone is currently serving as interim Director.
The panel is chaired by Jay Maddock, Director of Public Health Studies at UH Mānoa, and the Vice Chair is Jackie Young, Chief Staff Officer of the Mission American Cancer Society Hawaii Pacific, Inc.
"The new Director will play a crucial role in moving forward on the construction of the new Cancer Center building in Kaka'ako and recruiting accomplished researchers to generate new advances in cancer detection, treatment, and prevention, thereby securing the future of basic and clinical cancer research in Hawaii," said UH Mānoa Chancellor Hinshaw.
"We hope that finalists for this position can meet with campus constituencies in late spring and begin this fall," said Gary Ostrander, Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education.
More information on the search process and members of the search committee is available at:
For more information, visit: http://www.hawaii.edu/executivesearch/CRCH


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They say you eat with your eyes first, and verrines are the perfect way to feed your vision. A verrine is simply a petite parfait, designed to showcase colorful, contrasting flavors and textures. They can be sweet or savory, but they always center on small tastes of food, artfully arranged in glass vessels. It's like making a culinary stained-glass window.
|Clockwise from L: blueberry soy yogurt with pineapple and papaya; blueberry and vanilla soy yogurt with raspberries and oatmeal; vanilla soy yogurt with pineapple, raspberries and cinnamon
Breakfast verrines are easy and fun to make. Just layer soy, almond or coconut yogurt with fresh fruit [finely diced], jam, granola, oats, etc. Aim for contrasting colors. Eat with a demitasse spoon and savor slowly.


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DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/mn7f8v/india_mri_systems) has announced the addition of the "India MRI Systems Market Outlook to 2020" report to their offering.
Our new report, "India MRI Systems Market Outlook to 2020", provides key market data on the India MRI Systems market. The report provides value, in millions of US dollars, and volume (in units) and average price data (in US dollars), within market categories - High Field MRI Systems, Low Field MRI Systems and Mid Field MRI Systems.
The report also provides company shares and distribution shares data for each of these market categories, and global corporate-level profiles of the key market participants, pipeline products, and news and deals related to the MRI Systems market wherever available.
The data in the report is derived from dynamic market forecast models. GlobalData uses capital equipment-based models to estimate and forecast the market size. The objective is to provide information that represents the most up-to-date data of the industry possible.
Capital equipment-based forecasting models are done based on the installed base, replacements and new sales of a specific device/equipment in healthcare facilities such as hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centers. Data for average number of units per facility is used to arrive at the installed base of the capital equipment. Sales for a particular year are arrived at by calculating the replacement units and new units (additional and first-time purchases).
Extensive interviews are conducted with key opinion leaders (KOLs), physicians and industry experts to validate the market size, company share and distribution share data and analysis.
Key Topics Covered:
1 Table of Contents
2 Introduction
3 MRI Systems Market, India
4 Overview of Key Companies in India, MRI Systems Market
5 MRI Systems Market Pipeline Products
6 Financial Deals Landscape
7 Recent Developments
8 Appendix
Companies Mentioned
For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/mn7f8v/india_mri_systems
Research and Markets
Laura Wood, Senior Manager.
U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907
Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716
Sector: Diagnostic Imaging
Source: Research and Markets


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ELYRIA — A cake shop owner has been indicted in a food stamp fraud investigation.
Kitty Meszes, owner of Cakes, Candy and Flowers, 8 Chestnut St. in Elyria, has been charged with two counts of conspiracy and single counts of trafficking in drugs, and theft.
Assistant Lorain County Prosecutor Dave Muhek said that Meszes, 52, participated in a scheme where she used food benefits to purchase from the now shuttered Shopway Food Mart.
Last year, in conjunction with the Ohio Investigative Unit, a confidential police informant was used to investigate whether WIC cards were misused at Shopway, which was across the street from the cake store.
The informant told one of the owners, Thaer Mustafa, that he wanted to use his WIC card to purchase a cell phone and synthetic marijuana. Mustafa told the informant to go across the street to the cake shop to have them take $200 off the cards and place it on his account, according to police.
The informant bought synthetic marijuana known as "spice" on Feb. 25, 2013, police said. The informant purchased 2.6 grams of synthetic marijuana that day and on Feb. 27, 2013, police have said.
Mustafa was arrested April last year and is facing charges. When the raid happened in April last year, no one was arrested from Cakes, Candy and Flowers was arrested.


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Bay County sheriff's investigators say they have found the teenagers responsible for the June murder of 17-year-old Jeffrey Shane Elliot. He was beaten and left for dead at a Grand Lagoon area boatramp on South Lagoon Drive.
Early Thursday morning deputies arrested 19-year-old Steven Fox, 18-year-old Kyle Sites, 18-year-old Ryan Gray, 17-year-old Derrick Humphreys and 17-year-old Aaron Cashon. All five have been charged with felony murder and armed robbery.
Investigators say on June 2 the men beat up Jeffrey Elliot who may have been trying to buy drugs. They supposedly robbed him of $50 and beat him up. Elliot died two days later.
The arrests were part of a massive effort by more than 20 investigators from the Bay County Sheriff's Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Sgt. Steve Harbuck says, "These are not just little punk kids causing criminal mischief. These guys will hurt you and rob you and need to be dealt with in a serious way."
Investigators say the men belong to a gang called the "Crazy White Boys," a group charged with more than 20 crimes in a two-year period. The charges go back almost two and a half years and range from drug trafficking, grand theft and now for the aforementioned young men, murder.
Authorities say the Crazy White Boys gang operates on Panama City Beach and has more than 35 members. Most are high school dropouts and grow up into the gang. Currently, authorities have nine members in custody and have warrants out for three other members.
They believe the gang will be linked to even more crimes. Investigators have stopped short of saying Bay County has a gang problem. They believe the group is an isolated group of criminals.


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Many times it is the people on the team that limit their own company's growth. Infighting, politics and a lack of conviction at the top are the most common inhibitors to growth that we see in our work as consultants. Sure, breakthrough ideas backed by a strong business case are needed to fuel continued growth, but many times those are easier to come by than team collaboration and consensus. People stand in the way of progress.
It seems that while generating growth strategies is an intellectual exercise, team alignment for execution and implementation requires emotional intelligence. The concept of emotional intelligence was popularized in business lexicon in the late '90s by Daniel Goleman, who focuses on EI to drive leadership performance. Goleman's model outlines five main EI constructs:
1. Self-awareness – the ability to know one's emotions, strengths, weaknesses, drives, values and goals and recognize their impact on others while using gut feelings to guide decisions.
2. Self-regulation – involves controlling or redirecting one's disruptive emotions and impulses and adapting to changing circumstances.
3. Social skill – managing relationships to move people in the desired direction
4. Empathy – considering other people's feelings especially when making decisions
5. Motivation – being driven to achieve for the sake of achievement.
Emotional competencies are not innate talents but, rather, learned capabilities that must be worked on and can be developed to achieve outstanding performance. Goleman posits that individuals are born with a general emotional intelligence that determines their potential for learning emotional competencies. These qualities may sound out of place in the business arena, but Goleman found direct correlation between emotional intelligence and measurable business results.
For a growth initiative to take root, emotional intelligence must be present throughout the company. The middle management team needs to successfully achieve executive buy-off and then the executives must successfully enroll the team needed for implementation. The more emotionally intelligent the company, the faster the process will progress and ultimately the more innovative the company will become.
It is troubling to think about the amount of time and energy expended on navigating internal politics. Further, it zaps employees' creativity, enthusiasm and motivation. Think how much more effective your company would be if everyone was rowing in the same direction.
Communication and mandate alone are not enough to win over hearts and minds. Company leaders must strengthen their own emotional intelligence and then intentionally create a culture based in emotional intelligence. In this case the popular phrase "it starts at the top" is not totally true. It needs to be systemic – one or two bad actors can be toxic for the whole organization. Want to get smart? Hire emotionally intelligent people.
Jocelyn Atkinson and Michael Graber run the Southern Growth Studio, a strategic growth firm based in Memphis. Visit www.southerngrowthstudio.com to learn more.


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That detail, the one detail that has been both the object of pure love and court battles, was happenstance.
On a trip to Boston this week, renowned shoe designer Christian Louboutin recalls the moment when the famous red sole of his extravagant designs was born. He was looking at prototypes of colorful stilettos he'd designed based on an Andy Warhol painting. But there was something about the shoe that was slightly off.
"When I looked under the shoe, there was this big black mass," says Louboutin, dressed in a casual rust blazer before a shoe signing — yes, shoe signing — at Saks Fifth Avenue Tuesday. "I realized the problem was this big black mass."
Sitting next to him was a woman using red nail polish. He borrowed the nail polish, started painting the soles, and a world-wide footwear icon was born. That was years ago, and in celebration of the 20th year of his Paris shop, the designer has been very busy.
It began earlier this year with a retrospective of his work at London's Design Museum. He also produced a $150 coffee table book (with a forward by Cambridge resident John Malkovich), bound in pink faux leather. Of course, it would be difficult for any book to capture Louboutin's prolific imagination. He estimates that over the past 20 years, he has designed more than 40,000 shoes.
"Obviously not all of them have been produced," the French designer says before checking his math. "But it's about 2,000 styles a year."
Louboutin sketches designs, and leaves the technical aspects to shoe engineers. As a result, he isn't necessarily thinking about the comfort of the shoe as he draws. He's been able to make his shoes more dramatic over the years. He said when he started in 1992, there were complaints that a 3-inch heel was too high. Now 6-inch heels are routine in fashion circles.
"I don't think about the comfort of the shoe when I'm designing," he says. "It doesn't mean I'm not concerned about it, but it shouldn't enter into the design process, otherwise you end up making Dr. Scholl's kind of shoes. But I don't want a person looking at my shoes and thinking 'Oh, that looks so comfy.' That's not the kind of thing I would take as a compliment."
But Louboutin is quick to point out that he's not a fan of a procedure that's been dubbed "Loub jobs," where women inject botox in their feet so they don't feel pain while wearing their heels ("I don't like that they're using my name," he says). Nor does he condone a story he once heard from a woman who surgically removed her small toes to fit into her shoes. "They weren't for my shoes," he's quick to point out.
Inspiration for his fanciful shoes — he recently designed a Cinderella shoe in collaboration with Disney — comes from a variety of places. But he says that growing up in a house with a strong mother and four sisters certainly gave him an idea of what women like.
"I've never seen a woman looking happy if she doesn't think she looks good," he says. "That's the goal of my shoes, to make women look beautiful."Christopher Muther can be reached at muther
@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @Chris_Muther.


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The DuraTrans case is small briefcase-size, and engineered for protection and convenience with the Voyage-Air TransAxe Series electric folding travel guitars. This case comes equipped with a highly rigid injection-molded top panel for impact resistance. Covered with black 800 Denier Ballistic Nylon, the DuraTrans case is elegant and road-tough. All TransAxe series guitars fit precisely into this case, with a strap to position the neck in the folded position, and a separate strap to secure the strings. Thin, light and convenient: that's the DuraTrans case!
And there's more: a zippered pocket on the back has room for storing a laptop computer and other on-the-road needs. Padded backpack straps are within another concealed pocket, so the straps aren't in the way when you carry it 'briefcase-style.' Yet in seconds, you can sling this case over your shoulders and take your full-size electric guitar wherever you go.
|DuraTrans Case Specs: (inches)
• Length = 22"
• Width = 17"
• Height = 7.5"
|• Fits easily in overhead compartments on most airliners
• 800 Denier Ballistic Nylon Covering (black)
• Molded High-Density EVA foam top shell
• Interior storage pocket for tuners, extra strings and stuff
• Zippered lap-top accessory pocket (fits up to a 17" lap-top computer)
• Concealed, highly padded backpack straps for comfort
• Extremely durable, and light-weight
• Can be baggage-checked or gate-checked for airline travel


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Allure Energy EverSense
Like many home management systems, Allure's Energy EverSense 2.0 solution is meant to help users keep track of and, ideally, minimize their home energy costs. The system has built-in proximity controls that sync with users' smartphones and determine whether they are actually in the house. If users aren't home, the system will automatically turn down the AC or the heat, and if they are -- or if they're nearing home -- the system boots back up.
Allure's EverSense product also doubles as a media player and can stream and play music from users' smartphones.
The system is compatible with Android and iOS devices and starts at $349.


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Ultimate journey
Broadway Books, Aug 1, 1996 - Body, Mind & Spirit - 320 pages
In 1958, a successful businessman named Robert Mornroe began to have experiences that drastically altered his life.ĀĀUnpredictably, and without his willing it, Monroe found himself leaving his physical body to travel via a "second body" to locales far removed from the physical and spiritual realities of his life. He was inhabiting a place unbounded by life or death.
Monroe recorded these experiences in two bestselling, landmark books, Journeys Out of the Body and Far Journeys.ĀĀUltimate Journey, his final and career-defining work, takes us further than we thought possible--and reveals to us what it all means.
Ultimate Journey charts that area which lies "over the edge," beyond the limits of the physical world. It presents us with a map of the "interstate"--the route that opens to us when we leave our physical lives, with their entry and exit ramps, their singposts and their hazards.ĀĀIt also tells us how Monroe found the route and travelled it, and uncovered the reason and the purpose of this pioneering expedition.ĀĀIt is a journey that reveals basic truths about the meaning and purpose of life--and of what lies beyond.
After six hardcover printings, the trade paperback edition of Ultimate Journey, will offer an even wider range of readers this exhilarating reading experience, the masterwork of one of the most daring and original thinkers and explorers of our time.
What people are saying - Write a review
LibraryThing ReviewUser Review - IonaS - LibraryThing
All three of Monroe's books are unique and amazing. To my knowledge, he was the first to explore OBEs at length and to report about them. This is Monroe's third book. The only problem I have with it ... Read full review
It is a 5 star book that should not be read until the first two books Robert Monroe wrote have been read but I will summarize them briefly. The first book is about his discovery of out of body states and a growing confidence in what he experiences in his out of body travels. The second is an expansion of his out of body travel and he learns that he is not alone, there is a presence with him at times. He receives rotes, which I understand were packages/downloads of information into his mind that he could unpack at his leisure.
Ultimate Journey is different, he has learned a lot and has come to see himself collecting bits of himself. But also he's rescuing lost/stuck souls (??) and mapping the inner territory he is travelling through by experiences that are sometimes frightening to think about. Its a personalized life journey as well as work done for another level, but that's what I got from it. There is a kind of life review as well as an exploration of mind states and the undeniable fact that the body is tethered to an other non-physical body. I later was introduced to Emanuel Swedenborgs writings which would have seemed more fantastic than any of the science fictions I have read if I had not read Mr. Monroe s books and learned from them that they were stages of his journey.
Ultimate Journey is about his discovery of the 10 basics. How odd that UJ was published at about the same time that James Redfields Celestine Prophecy and his 10 insights became a global best seller .
1 The Variable
2 The Long Long Trail
3 Along the Interstate
20 other sections not shown


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Ending Sex Slavery in America: A Discussion with Survivors, Advocates & Policymakers
November 28, 2012 —
Ending Sex Slavery in America: A Discussion with Survivors, Advocates, & Policymakers
Monday, December 3, 2012, 5:45 p.m.
Georgetown University Law Center
McDonough Hall, Room 200
600 New Jersey Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20001
Michelle Mitchell, Associate, Hughes Hubbard
Brook Parker Bello, Human Trafficking Survivor; Founder, More Too Life and Above the Noise Transformation Mentoring Rehabilitation Program
Kathryn Flewellen, Co-Founder and Vice President, International Black Women's Public Policy Institute
Tina Frundt, Human Trafficking Survivor; Founder, Courtney's House
Imani Walker, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Rebecca Project for Human Rights
Andria Winters, Deputy Legislative Director, Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.)
The discussion will include a short clip from "Survivor," a documentary on sex trafficking.
This event is sponsored by Human Rights Action-Amnesty International at Georgetown Law.
Media interested in attending should email firstname.lastname@example.com This Article


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A motorcyclist was killed early Wednesday morning when he was struck by an 18-wheeler on a Hopkins County highway.
Hopkins County dispatchers received a call about a wreck on Highway 19 south of FM 71 in Birthright just before 1 a.m. The community of Birthright is just north of Sulphur Springs.
According to the investigating trooper, the driver of an 18-wheeler was coming up over a small ridge when he saw something in the roadway. The driver swerved to avoid it and that's when he could tell he hit something, and called authorities.
The driver of the motorcycle, 51-year-old, Billy C. Martel was pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities believe Martel may have already wrecked and was lying in the roadway when the truck hit him.
Copyright 2012 KLTV. All rights reserved.


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School News
Saltillo ISD nominated as Blue Ribbon School
- Details
- Category: School News
- Published on 02 March 2014
- Written by Mount Vernon Optic-Herald
The Texas Education Agency announced this week that Saltillo ISD is one of 25 Texas public schools nominated for the national 2014 Blue Ribbon Schools recognition.
Founded in 1982, Blue Ribbon Schools is a U.S. Department of Education program that recognizes public and private elementary, middle, and high schools where students perform at very high levels. For more details about the honor, see the Feb. 27 edition of the Mount Vernon Optic-Herald.


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and less critical of myself. I've become my own friend.
I have seen too many dear friends leave this
world, too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes
with aging.
Whose business is it, if I choose to read, or
play, on the computer, until 4 AM, or sleep until noon? I will dance
with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 50s, 60s &70s, and if I,
at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love, I will.
I will walk the beach, in a swim suit that is
stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves, with
abandon, if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the hipster
set. They, too, will get old.
I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again,
some of life is just as well forgotten. And, I eventually remember
the important things.


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One of the real changes in how Ani DiFranco approaches live performing these days may be something she does while not performing. But rest assured, DiFranco indicated during a recent phone interview that it's making a difference in her concerts.
"For most of my life, I'd get off stage and I have this sort of tortured side to my personality where I just, I relive all of the things that I did wrong or didn't quite say right, because I like to speak off the cuff," DiFranco says. "And sometimes it comes out right and sometimes it comes out sideways. And then I have to dissect every moment, and I've done a lot of beating myself up and worrying over the years about not being good enough.
"Now I really consciously try not to do that so I stay more at peace," she says. "I think it sort of helps me to walk out on stage with a more relaxed, ready-to-have-fun version of myself if I can sort of put my worrying gene on the backburner a little bit. So I do that better now. It's still hard for me, but I try to be more zen about it because I know that the best moments on stage are when you're totally relaxed and in your skin. That's when you and the audience get the most out of it."
That emerging inner peace as a performer seems like part of a bigger overall picture of contentment for DiFranco. After years of romantic and personal disappointments (including the divorce from her first husband and long-time musical partner, Andrew Gilchrist — known affectionately as "Goat Boy"), DiFranco met her second husband (and co-producer), Mike Napolitano. The couple had a daughter, Petah Lucia, in January 2007.
Marriage and motherhood clearly agree with DiFranco, 41, at this point in her life.
"It helps to be a parent," she says.
"I've got a daughter pushing 5, and I've got other things in my life that eclipse my job in importance most of the time. It helps keep it all in perspective, and, I think, I've been enjoying that a lot, a little bit of perspective on these moments that are still very important to me. But now that I have a balance in my life, it's not life or death.
"I just feel very lucky to be where I'm at, to have a job that I love, to have a family that I love that's supportive," DiFranco says.
But don't think that a happy home life is keeping DiFranco from noticing things that are wrong in the world and feeling inspired to share her thoughts on these issues.
In fact, her new CD, Which Side Are You On? (which was released on Jan. 17), has its share of topical songs that take on what she considers some of the major issues of the day. If anything, DiFranco feels she's testing boundaries with some of the new songs to see how political and opinionated her songs can get.
"You know, since it seems to be my job to push that envelope, I've been sort of exploring how hard can you push it," she says.
The topical side of the new CD should be apparent enough just from the title. "Which Side Are You On?" is an updated version of the pro-union protest song made famous by folk legend Pete Seeger.
Seeger himself plays banjo on the song, which was written in 1931 by Florence Reece, a wife of a coal miner and union organizer.
This song needed some updating. "I wrote a lot of new words … for the verses to have it reflect the political [situation] now," DiFranco says. "As I worked on this album, over the last few years, that sort of rose to be the title track just because, I guess, it's an urgent question that I'm asking the world around me. We're faced with a lot of crises, and it's not getting any simpler. So we've got to really take action. So it's sort of a cry for action. It's this big rabblerousing show closer on a lot of nights."
The fate of unions and workers' rights, though, is hardly the only topic DiFranco tackles on the new CD.
"I think there's a lot of ideas floating through the new record about changing course, you know, away [for instance] from unsustainable fossil fuel technology and into sustainable holistic technologies of the future," she says.
Another major topic gets explored on the song "Amendment."
"[It's] about the Equal Rights Amendment and trying to revive that, because I think the civil rights of women is an important building block toward future democracy," DiFranco says. "I, myself, strive for a sophisticated understanding of feminism that is just bigger than the rudimentary equal work for equal pay or safety for women on the streets or in the home. It's about a shift in consciousness that brings the feminine sensibility into balance with the masculine. And then through that, a very fundamental, hard-to-achieve sort of shift, we get more of a balance in the way we approach the environment, the way we approach foreign policy and other nations and the way we approach each other in our domestic policies.
"I think that's something that women have a special window into, and if we can bring that into our political and social imagination, I think that we can shift things," she says. "I really feel like a feminist direction is going to be really important in this new century because that is inescapably the world we live in. It's smaller and smaller, and the inter-connectedness is more and more profound in that way."
DiFranco stresses, though, that not everything on Which Side Are You On? is weighty and political. On her previous CD, 2008's Red Letter Year, she had a few songs that chronicled the joys of motherhood and marriage, and some of that happier life also filters into the new CD.
"It's pretty wide scope on this record, I guess, from the very macro to the very micro," DiFranco says. "Yeah, that trend is carrying through from Red Letter Year as well. I mean, for me it provides a nice balance."
DiFranco has been playing a number of the new songs in her live show, and also a selection from across her entire catalog, which now includes 17 studio CDs, all released on her own label, Righteous Babe Records.
And that happier, more settled attitude she's been taking in not being so self-critical of her shows, as well as the stability in her personal life, is having a positive effect on her frame of mind in general.
"I think I'm in such a good place now that my health has improved," she says. "I've noticed my immune system functions, and all of these nagging problems that I was dealing with in my body, a lot of them have really solved themselves. There's nothing like inner peace for medicine."
Respond: firstname.lastname@example.com


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TFA fails to mention why two people are required in the test vehicle. I can understand having a "driver" that can take over if something goes wrong, but what is the purpose of the 2nd person?
To hold the driver's beer. It's Nevada, common now...
To hold the driver's beer. It's Nevada, common now...
Having a second person to hold the driver's beer is common in Nevada? They outlawed cupholders there?
My guess is because the license will be granted with the understanding that it's a research vehicle. Someone will likely want to be closely monitoring the output of the car's instruments, so this insures one guy can do that while the other focuses on the road.
If there wasn't this requirement, one guy could conceivably monitor the instruments and not pay attention to the road since the car is driving itself.
If there wasn't this requirement, one guy could conceivably monitor the instruments and not pay attention to the road since the car is driving itself.
Yet half the drivers on the roads in Las Vegas, Nevada are TALKING ON THEIR CELL PHONE instead of paying attention to the roads! Even after it was made illegal! And many of them can't even maintain a normal speed or sometimes even lane position! Nevermind being able to react to anything around them.
The penalty is a fine, but perhaps it should be having the pho
It's because the real purpose of the vehicle is to drive around and show off to everyone that guy who uses Google Plus.
Creating two new jobs for every single one lost. This sounds like this would be the work of some of very forward-looking Teamsters.
I can understand having a "driver" that can take over if something goes wrong, but what is the purpose of the 2nd person?
The 2nd person is there to help disassemble and hide the car in case it startles a horse.
Google Gets Driverless License For Nevada Roads
1. It is not driverless as there has to be a driver behind the wheel at all times.
2. From the term "driverless license" it seems that they are comparing it to a "driver's license" which is not true. What is actually being issued is an "autonomous testing business license and license plates:.
It is a license to test autonomous vehicle under very strict guidelines.
A much better headline would have been "Google gets license to test autonomous vehicles on Nevada roads"; less flashy but much more accurate
Human: "Holy crap! Computer! You're driving in the oncoming lane!"
Human: "Stop! Abort! Cancel! Computer -- release your controls!"
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Busch, Adolf/Münch/Barsin: Busch Spielt Dvorak/Brahms
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Brahms: the complete symphonies / karajan, berlin po..."
As the sign on the back of the vehicle in the article shows it's "self driving". This is not as driverless or autonomous as has been applied to airplanes up till now. If / when cars like these are available to purchase, that's a big difference. This is essentially autopilot, though a pretty advanced one with collision avoidance. Airplanes have had autopilot for decades now, and they are viewed very differently from AUVs or drones.
The State of Nevada does refer to them as autonomous though. The requireme
Given Google's track record with the new GMail interface change, I can't say I'd be comfortable sitting in a car running their software, ever. You just don't change software that's business-critical willy nilly like that. You just don't. Ever.
Like the kernel module interface in Linux or library ABIs?
Oh man, using an infinity symbol probably seemed such a cool idea when the high tech-ness of it all impressed the authorities. But you know it's going to be a pain when the next generation of even more high tech even more whizzy road vehicles comes along. Oh heck, they'll need plates with "Infinity plus one" . Doh! Bad idea
In less than a century, computers will be making substantial progress on ... the overriding problem of war and peace. -- James Slagle


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Russell Crowe rescued after he gets lost while kayaking off Long Island
From Jordana Ossad, CNN
updated 4:29 AM EDT, Mon September 3, 2012
New York (CNN) -- In his many blockbusters, actor Russell Crowe plays the man of the hour, swooping in to the rescue. But this weekend, he needed a little help of his own.
The Coast Guard plucked the actor and his friend from the waters off New York's Long Island after the pair lost their way while kayaking.
Coast Guard personnel were on a routine patrol in the area when they heard one of the two calling for help Saturday night, Petty Officer Anthony Kozak said.
Crowe paddled out on his kayak to the Coast Guard boat and hitched a ride back with them into Huntington Bay.
"They were just lost in the area after nightfall," Kozak said. "Wasn't really a rescue of sorts, more of an assist. Nobody called 911 or anything. The Coast Guard happened upon the situation."
No one was injured, and Crowe seemed like an experienced kayaker, Kozak said.
The Oscar-winning actor thanked "the boys from the U.S Coast Guard for guiding the way" on his official Twitter feed.
In another tweet, he made light of the experience: "Not lost, we knew where exactly where we were ... we ran out of day."
Crowe won an Academy Award for best actor in "Gladiator." He has appeared in various movies, including "Robin Hood," "The Insider" and "A Beautiful Mind."


text:
The fuel tank in my Brat has some issues...
Has anyone ever used the POR-15 Fuel Tank kit to restore a gas tank?
Here is the link for the sealer;
And here is the link for their Gas Tank kit;
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Has anyone used POR15 in their fuel tank?
Started by Hocrest , Jun 09 2004 08:15 PM
3 replies to this topic
Posted 09 June 2004 - 08:15 PM
Posted 10 June 2004 - 04:39 PM
Posted 10 June 2004 - 06:16 PM
I used their motorcycle kit to repair the tank to a Honda three wheeler. Follow the directions carfully and try not to leave a puddle in a corner of the tank. I did, and when I shifted it to reposition the ventelation fan, the skin on the puddle broke and flakes of it spread all round the tank. It makes the inside of the tank a cool textured silver color. The stuff took a tank that would leak down with a fast drip to a perfectly fuel tight one. The kit even comes with some fiber cloth to cover larger holes. I'd go for it, it seems like a very good system.
Posted 10 June 2004 - 06:43 PM
POR15's rust prevention stuff is good enough that I'd trust anything they made.
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text: Nice draw "retired hunter"! Looks like your retirement might be cut a little short. Area 3 has some very nice goats. I would head up to the head of Reef Creek and look first off. The Game Warden in that area told me a of a big goat in that area a few years ago. Not sure if anyone killed him yet or not. You might also contact Chris Queen the Game Warden for the area. He spends a lot of time of in that area and is usually very helpful with that type of information. I hope your daughter gets a nice goat. -G


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Dennis was great in that episode and really has been this entire season. The entire getting off bit was hilarious.
Dennis was great in that episode and really has been this entire season. The entire getting off bit was hilarious.
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This season still really hasn't had that Charlie episode yet where he comes up with something that is stupid and out there. Like the musical or the band
Jackie Bradley Junior.... that is all
Dennis is great lol. The whole banging the asian kid thing was hilarious.
So far we've had one (I think) big revelation of the main characters and that's Mac being gay. It was always an undertone and it was confirmed.
I feel like they're going somewhere with Dennis' character, there has to be a pay off to his lunacy. I mean, at the reunion last season he had a literal rape kit in his car and has always been weird. Hilarious how he is the voice of reason and smartest one despite being so twisted.
Great episode.
New York Rangers - Atlanta Braves - New York Giants - Kobe Bryant
if I had to guess, I'd assume that he means because he banged the pre-op tranny
Another solid episode... Dennis was great with the whole willing to bang the Asian kid and getting off constantly.
Also, the protein drink commercial was awesome! Great things happen when Mac and Charlie get together.
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49ers = Rebuild Mode! Love my fellow Faithful
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That was a fun episode. Vintage Dennis. Vintage Mac and Charlie.
He growls as he storms the country,
A villain big and bold.
And the trees all shake and quiver and quake,
As he robs them of their gold.
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Yup. Another strong episode. Been a strong season.
this my sig
Great episode, great season. Such a good Dennis episode
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Good episode, Dennis strong as usual this season.
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At this point in their careers I gotta think Ward, Faneca have a great shot. Of course Jerome is a given. Woodson will always be a Steeler in my book, but I'll never forgive him for defecting to the ratbirds! Dermonitti Dawson has a chance to be in as well.
Who else in recent memory has a shot?


text:
Every day you share personal information about yourself with others. It's so routine that you may not even realize you're doing it. You may write a check at the grocery store, charge tickets to a ball game, rent a car, mail your tax returns, buy a gift online, call home on your cell phone, schedule a doctor's appointment or apply for a credit card.
Each transaction requires you to share personal information: your bank and credit card account numbers; your income; your Social Security number (SSN); or your name, address, and phone numbers.
It's important to find out what happens to the personal information you and your children provide to companies, marketers, and government agencies. These organizations may use your information simply to process your order; to tell you about products, services, or promotions; or to share with others.
Scoundrels abound
And then there are unscrupulous individuals, like identity thieves, who want your information to commit fraud. Identity theft -- the fastest-growing white-collar crime in America -- occurs when someone steals your personal identifying information, like your SSN, birth date, or mother's maiden name, to open new charge accounts, order merchandise, or borrow money.
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Put passwords on your all your accounts, including your credit card account, and your bank and phone accounts. Avoid using easily available information -- like your mother's maiden name, your birth date, the last four digits of your SSN, or your phone number -- or obvious choices, like a series of consecutive numbers or your hometown football team.
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text:
Syrian rebels began a coordinated assault on the main prison in the northern city of Aleppo today in an attempt to free hundreds of regime opponents believed to be held in the facility.
Aleppo emerged as one of the major fronts in the country's civil war after a rebel offensive there in July, and the fighting since then has settled into a bloody stalemate.
The city, Syria's largest, holds strategic and symbolic value, and both sides have taken significant losses in the battle to expand the areas under their control.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels detonated two car bombs simultaneously outside the walls of the central prison this morning before trying to storm the facility.
Fierce clashes are taking place between President Bashar Assad's troops and opposition fighters around the detention centre, according to Observatory director Rami Abdul-Rahman.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The city's central prison is believed to be holding 4,000 prisoners, around 250 of whom are jailed for reasons related to the 26-month-old uprising against Mr Assad's regime, said Abdul-Rahman, who relies on reports from a network of informants based in Syria.
For weeks, rebel fighters have been battling government troops in the area around the prison to try to seize the facility and free the prisoners.
Earlier this month, the rebels overran the headquarters of the government's anti-terrorism forces, located near the jail.
Meanwhile, an internet blackout has engulfed the country for the second time in two weeks.
The outage appeared similar to last week's blackout, Syrian residents and the US-based Renesys Corp said.
"It looks like a replay of what happened on the seventh and eighth," Renesys chief technology officer James Cowie said by telephone, referring to last week's nationwide outage.
He said the cause was not immediately clear.
"It's entirely consistent with a technical fault at a central facility; it's also completely consistent with a decision to use an internet kill switch," he said.
Preliminary data from Google Inc's Transparency Report website also pointed to a nationwide blackout, with Syria's online traffic share falling to 0% this morning.
Syrian government websites, including the SANA state news agency, appeared to be down, but SANA reported on its twitter account a technical problem.
It said maintenance units were working to restore the internet as soon as possible. It did not elaborate.
An official at the Syrian communications department said an internet cable was cut in a Damascus suburb and that it will take up to four hours to fix.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give official statements. He did not say what caused the cut.
Syrian authorities have shut off phone and internet service in select areas in the past to disrupt rebel communications when regime forces were conducting major operations.
Such widespread blackouts, however, have been rare, and the reason for the 7 May outage is still unclear.


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I remember seeing a blog a few years ago about a man that traded a red paperclip for a car. There were several steps between, but I think he ended up with a fairly expensive sports car.
"Thank you for notifying me that you will not buy my item."
Ignore them. There are people whose lives are so pathetic that all they can do to make themselves feel better is to put other people down. The anonymity of the 'net makes it all the easier for them.
How about: "If you feel it's worthless, then don't bid on it."
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Their primary naval weapon is . . .
Iran: "Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency.... Our *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to the Ayatollah
Actually, if Iran has an unlimited supply of boats and suicide-minded crews, the only way to stop them will be to bomb their bases of operation. In other words, carpet bombing Iran's coast: naval bases, fishing villages, women and children . . .
This was not an option on the table, when dealing with the Somali pirates.
This would be ugly, but war is an ugly business . . . and oil is thicker than blood.
The worst thing that could happen to Iran is that they could sink a few US ships.
The US would lose face internationally then and would be required to grind Iran into the dust.
What is so frustrating about the Iranians is how bad they are at dealing with ANYONE else. They're the worst diplomats. No one likes them.
If they go toe to toe with the US over the straight they'll have no backers. The chinese need that straight open. They have a strong interest in free trade. Europeans are finally on board. The Russians are not going to be the outsider if the US, China, and EU are largely in agreement. And there's the Arabs that are also scared that Iran is going to start threatening them with nukes.
So... no friends.
The US almost WANTS iran to attack it just for the justification. But the absolute worst thing Iran could do is sink some US ships. Because they're only going to be able to do that ONCE. The US would never get close enough to let that happen again. And because the US is going to keep going through that straight it would mean Iran either demilitarizes the straight or the US demilitarizes it for them at range.
The Phalanx doesn't agree with your statement - that thing can take out incoming mortar fire - yes, swarming it from close range would be probably be a problem, but I seriously doubt the Iranians would be capable of doing that.
Their primary naval weapon is a missile that can get into ballistic mode before a ship's countermeasure can intercept it.
[[Citation Needed]] A real one, not some tinfoil hat website.
OTOH, a ballistic target can be handled by either CIWS [wikipedia.org], RAM [wikipedia.org], or ESSM [wikipedia.org] systems.
From what I read, the strategy behing "suicide boats" is not the kamikaze strategy of crashing a boat inside an aircraft carrier but rather to be used as the launchpoint of a single anti-ship missile. The launching boat will be easy to sink, but very cheap to replace. If two or three of these boats can sink one large US ship, that is a net win for Iran.
Again, [[Citation Needed]]. a real one, not some tinfoil hat website.
This strategy is not so easy as you might think. Lacking offboard sensors (which can be jammed, and the platforms carrying them destroyed), such boats will have to come over the horizon and either launch optically or use radar. If they're visible during the day time, or if they radiate, there's a a near certainty that they'll be spotted - and destroyed. (After their radar is jammed.) It's damm near a suicide mission with a low probability of success no matter what the label says.
What you and the other armchair admirals don't seem to realize is that the defenses of a US battlegroup are layered. From aircraft out on the edges, through electronic warfare and countermeasures systems, naval guns and missiles, anti-aircraft guns and missiles, and decoys and chaff. No, no one layer is perfect, but there's a lot of overlapping layers. I'm not saying it's impossible, but that you and the other armchair admirals don't realize the difficulties involved.
Most slashdotters are probably too young to remember - but Iran tried this back in the 1980's, and got soundly spanked.
Given the US withdrawal in Iraq, engaging in a war with Iran won't be easy or popular. Lately they've managed to capture drones and threatening the shipping will let them achieve their own goals with the least risk of provoking a US response.
I guess the real question is, what will the US do if it is attacked? In all likelyhood, they will be buzzed by Iranian boats without actually being attacked. But how close will they let such boats approach?
The US people don't want a war, but the current US president would benefit greatly from a new war with Iran. I the Iranian gov provoked war by sinking a US warship, public opinion in the States would swing toward aggression in a minute, and Obama would be a lock for a second term.
Iran unlikely to block oil shipments through Strait of Hormuz, analysts say. [washingtonpost.com]
From the linked article: And Iran — which has enjoyed record oil profits over the past five years but is faced with a dwindling number of oil customers — relies on the Hormuz Strait as the departure gate for its biggest client: China.
"We would be committing economical suicide by closing off the Hormuz Strait," said an Iranian Oil Ministry official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. "Oil money is our only income, so we would be spectacularly shooting ourselves in the foot by doing that."
Ahmad Bakhshayesh Ardestani, a political scientist running for parliament from the camp of hard-line clerics and commanders opposing Ahmadinejad, said it is "good politics" for Iran to respond to U.S. threats with threats of its own.
"But our threat will not be realized," Ardestani said. "We are just responding to the U.S., nothing more."
Just that one?
In 1981 a Canadian diesel submarine managed to sink the USS America (a American aircraft carrier), and another one sunk the U.S.S. Forrestal also a aircraft carrier in NATO's Ocean Venture exercise.
In 1989 The Royal Netherlands Navy in NATO's Northern Star exercise was also credited with sinking another American aircraft carrier using a submarine.
In 1996 during RIMPAC 1996, Chile managed to sink the American aircraft carrier the U.S.S. Independence.
In 1999 again the RN Navy sunk the USS Theodore Roosevelt in JTFEX/TMDI99, as well a Swedish submarine is credited with the sinking of the USS Ronald Reagan in the same exercise.
In 2000 a couple of Russian fighters decided to test the response time of the USS Kitty Hawk, got the the carrier without being detected and managed to do a few fly overs before the Americans decided to do anything about it. Gen. Anatoly M. Kornukov, the Russian air force's commander in chief. 'In the pictures, you can clearly see the panic on deck.'
In 2002 Australian Navy submarine H.M.A.S. Sheehan, took on and defeated the U.S.S. Olympia in another war game.
In 2003, the Australians in another exercise also got credit for sinking another American aircraft carrier, and they successfully took on 2 Los Angeles class nuclear attack submarines in the exercise as well.
And well the US Air Force did well against Iraq, regretfully, most of the Western world has time and time again made a mockery of the American Air Force, just as the mockery of the American's battle fleets.
For the sake of the rest of the world, I hope the American's can learn something from their past before they end up fighting a enemy who wants to fight.
Do the Iranians realize that there are those in the US who think a war with Iran would be a good thing? Is it wise for the Iranians to give them an excuse to proceed?
Only one of the candidates hoping to run against Obama is happy that we're pulling out of Iraq. (And considering the size if the Iraqi embassy and the size of the staff there, "pulling out" is really a euphemism for withdrawing to the embassy.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/12/washington/12navy.html [nytimes.com]
In the days since the encounter with five Iranian patrol boats in the Strait of Hormuz, American officers have acknowledged that they have been studying anew the lessons from a startling simulation conducted in August 2002. In that war game, the Blue Team navy, representing the United States, lost 16 major warships — an aircraft carrier, cruisers and amphibious vessels — when they were sunk to the bottom of the Persian Gulf in an attack that included swarming tactics by enemy speedboats.
"The sheer numbers involved overloaded their ability, both mentally and electronically, to handle the attack," said Lt. Gen. Paul K. Van Riper, a retired Marine Corps officer who served in the war game as commander of a Red Team force representing an unnamed Persian Gulf military. "The whole thing was over in 5, maybe 10 minutes."
Unfortunately, the US Military didn't listen to him. The first round was over quick, but instead of trying to defeat the scenario, the Millennium Challenge (as the wargame was known) was reset and a predetermined plan of attack was ordered. Gen. Van Riper resigned in disgust.
After the reset, both sides were ordered to follow predetermined plans of action, leading to allegations that the exercise was scripted and "$250 million was wasted".[3] Due to his concerns about the scripted nature of the new exercise, Van Riper resigned his position in the midst of the war game. Van Riper later expressed concern that the wargame's purpose had shifted to reinforce existing doctrine and notions of infallibility within the U.S. military rather than serve as a learning experience.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Challenge_2002 [wikipedia.org]
Take a look at a map. The UAE or Omar could build a sea level canal right through the peninsula . Heck the UAE is pretty good at earth moving. They could use the extra dirt to build even more islands.
You just never know how these things will unfold. Lots of posturing and a bit of "chicken." Iran, I believe, has more of a Navy than the article is letting on. But as a former US sailor myself, I can say it would not take much doing to coordinate some drones and install some extra CIWZ mounted around their ships and you will have a pretty fair defense against suicide speed boats. They wouldn't be able to get within 1000 yards... (2000 yard range)
I worked in OPS in a carrier group. We had the radar and sonar systems linked as a net to create a very large picture of everything in the area above, below and at sea level with every form of projectile defense capable of using that data to hit any target at any speed with pants-pissing accuracy.
"What about the Cole?" you ask? Well, at the time, people were worried about whether or not it was another green peace boat trying to spray paint on the hull again and they likely had a fire hose ready to spray them off at the time not expecting what really happened. You can bet that mistake will not happen again. The world has been warned that the US will not allow unknown, unannounced small craft anywhere near a US navy military vessel.
What's more, with today's level of target tracking, incidents like the Stark are unimaginable. That's not to say that some US targets won't take damage... they might... mines are still a threat... a minor threat really. The US ships don't have to be close to be deadly and putting mines into international waters? I don't think so. And we don't need to send landing craft in to invade.
Iran would be foolish to play too much chicken with the trigger-happy US military... a fight with the US would just "create more jobs" in the US bringing support for a war pretty quickly.
It's the cheapest route, but it really isn't as necessary as Iran would have you believe. There's enough surplus pipeline capacity through Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, even Israel to offset about half of the closure [although admittedly not all of that capacity is ready to go immediately, as some of it has been mothballed]. That means world oil supply is reduced by 10% in the near term. A supply shock? Sure. However, the combination of fuel switching for electricity generation and oil already being stored elsewhere, plus the potential increase in production elsewhere (OPEC and otherwise) to grab extra profits suggests this isn't going to be terribly disruptive, and certainly not something worth going to war over.
In the mean time, it's worth noting that a sudden increase in petrol-energy-efficiency could shave off that last 10% in just a few years. Help avoid war: ride a bicycle | ride a bus | ride a subway | walk | telecommute | carpool.
First: This wouldn't be a war like Afghanistan or Iraq, because the US would most likely only be concerned with destroying the Iranian military and forcing them out of the strait of Hormuz. This would be largely an air war, and the US would likely suffer very few casualties as a result. We could destroy their navy, inflict massive military casualties, and cripple their ability to project force into the strait without more than a few boots on the ground, and most likely this is how it would go.
Second: None of that matters, because Iran does not gain from a war with the US. It would be an absolute disaster for their people and it would likely force their government out of power. The reason that they're doing this is because Ahmadinejad needs a scapegoat in order to keep his popularity up, and calling out the US and Israel at every opportunity is a lot easier than dealing with real issues. Hes been doing it for years, the only reason hes making more noise now is because his popularity is dwindling.
Iran, I suspect, can block the strait, just as it says. Asymmetric power works. Ask the Vietnamese. Ask those upstart American colonists. Ask the Afghans. As another writer pointed out, Iran doesn't have to win, they just have to make the conflict too expensive to sustain. And we can't just nuke Iran. The Chinese and Russians might give us some trouble on that, you see, and they have real power, not bluster. We'd have to cut an expensive deal with them.
No good solution here.
It's almost here. 2012 and I feel this year, sans any end of the world scenario playing out, it's going to be one of the most exciting years in recent history. Strap in folks, it's going to be a wild ride.
Isn't one aircraft carrier group the equivalent to any 3rd world country in military power?
Oh well, it's not Iran that concerns me, it's China. Iran and China are classic bed buddies. Didn't China load up Iran on Silkworm missiles that can smoke our jets out of the air? Interesting enough though, China has switched into a Capitalistic mode and both us and them are locked in some grim fandango of economics. Will they back our play or Iran's is the question of the day.
China should, if they were smart, disarm all of their little buddies around them, leaving the US with no excuse to continue it's military spending. Then it all goes to Wal-Mart and then into their pockets, thus defeating the US at Capitalism. Oh the irony!
If we follow this hypothesis, we will not hear China say a peep when we decide to obliterate the Iranian military. Yes, we can do it. People forget how quickly we rolled in on Iraq. We were completely awesome about it. We are like that, we win wars, but lose the peace. The 10 years that followed overshadowed that stunning victory.
What we are looking at here from Iran I think is just more of their ballsy sabre rattling. Their people have discovered they can posture, bluster and sabre rattle thus putting up quite a show for the "rube Westerners." When this happens, we tend to just throw money at them and tell them to shut up. It's the classic "the mouse that roared" situation.
Iran is proving to be a bit retarded though it seems. The American war machine is facing being geared down. The war machine hates this and wants to keep munching on someone's ass. It gets fed well, gets to sleep in a warm bed at night and on the weekends it goes out partying. It really wants Iran to give it an excuse to chew them up into little bitty bits. If Iran doesn't think it's capable, then Iran is smoking some really good weed, and should share it with the rest of the world instead of just its oil.
Can't you imagine them dancing around with each other in glee, like the merry wee people in some film, down at the Pentagon? "Wooohoo!" They all cried in chorus. "The Iranians are going to give us a war!" There is a band with lutes and flutes in the corner, a bag pipe as well. From somewhere a big wooden keg of ale appears, and serving wenches carrying frothing mugs, bustle about. They end it all with a crescendo, singing like a choir "Oh Happy Day."
Then they all run off to their offices to pour over their list of war toys they want to play with. They have had a decade of a big trough of money to buy oodles of war toys, but nobody to play with. Fist fights break out at the water coolers as arguments over who gets to blow up the Iranians with what toy happen.
Hey Iran, posturing around the US during one of their crazy election years is seriously jumping the shark. Hilary will be on the phone soon to tell you what a collective bunch of retards you are, and you are going to have to take it. She's a woman. How do you like dealing with our female Secretary of State? Don't you love having a WOMAN come spell it out for you what you are going to do or else get crushed? Yeah, we did that on purpose. Think about it.
But then again, they might be a bit turned on by it.
All the warnings you need about attacking Iran can be had from geopolitical analyst Dr. Gwynne Dyer, who has to tiredly write another article warning about it being a Bad Idea every couple of years. From the most recent one:
"The Noor anti-ship missile is a locally built version of the Chinese YJ-82. It has a 200-km. (140-mile) range, enough to cover all the major choke points in the Gulf. It flies at twice the speed of sound just meters above the sea's surface, and it has a tiny radar profile. Its single-shot kill probability has been put as high as 98 percent.
Iran's mountainous coastline extends along the whole northern side of the Gulf, and these missiles have easily concealed mobile launchers. They would sink tankers with ease, and in a few days insurance rates for tankers planning to enter the Gulf would become prohibitive, effectively shutting down the region's oil exports completely."
Do they sound a little less "asymmetric" now? Yes, you could bombard the coastline heavily, but some caves can go pretty deep, particularly if the cavers bring mining equipment - 25 years ago. And do you really want to get into a shootin' match with 98% kill probability when they lose a 5-man missile crew and you lose a carrier?
I also like the point about the "insurance costs". You don't think of wars being one by accountants, but that's the way it goes. The Iranians have absolutely zero need to engage with the mighty US Navy at all; they just have to sink a couple of very fat, very slow oil tankers, just a few, then wait for Lloyd's to react, while the probably-unharmed crew are being fished from the lifeboats. And Lloyd's says to itself, "Can even the US Navy check out every goddamn cave the size of a 2-car garage in 200km of coastline? When the 90% that do not contain actual missiles do contain dummies? No, they cannot. Not this week, month, or, probably, year." And so the price of oil sits there at $250/bbl until everybody calms down.
I can't wait to see WHAT will happen!
Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed. -- Neil Armstrong


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Naperville voters retained the two incumbents seeking re-election to Naperville Unit District 203 board and elected two newcomers from a field of 11 candidates.
According to unofficial results, with all DuPage and Will County precincts reporting, Kristin Fitzgerald led all with 6,410 votes followed by incumbent Jackie Romberg with 4,738, incumbent Susan Crotty with 4,602 and Donna Wandke with 3,520.
Romberg and Crotty each said they were humbled to retain their seats and excited to work with new boar members. Ultimately, Romberg said voters "value our stewardship of their dollars."
"We're keeping our schools moving in the right direction and I'm humbled that the voters are going to let me keep doing this for four more years."
Crotty said she and Romberg each benefitted from a "lack of contentious issues" before the board.
"To me, that says a lot about the work we've already done and are committed to keep doing," Crotty said. "I'm honored to be able to continue serving this community and excited about the work that stands before us."
Wandke, a church youth leader and former teacher, said she ran her campaign the "old fashioned way, rooted in faith and knocking on 2,100 doors."
She said she has a passion for education and is finally able to serve the community now that her children. are in school.
"I've been called to serve in this capacity and I've been waiting until the time was right," Wandke said. "I'm glad we're past the campaigning. Now I can be a voice for community bring my analytical thought process to the table."
Crotty said Fitzgerald and Wandke will "fit right in" with the current board.
"It's great to have two new people and two new perspectives," Crotty said. "We had a rich field of great candidates."
Romberg said she believes Fitzgerald and Wandke both understand the needs of the community and the work that lies ahead.
Other candidates, in the order in which they received votes were Jay Fisher, David Fish, Charles Cush, Neil Samuels, Derek Krauss, Sabina Qadir and Heather Rajamoney.


text:
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Bašić-Jukić, Nikolina and Hudolin, Tvrtko and Radić-Antolić, Margareta and Ćorić, Marijana and Zadro, Renata and Kaštelan, Željko and Pasini, Josip and Bandić-Pavlović, Daniela and Kes, Petar (2011) Bone morphogenetic protein-7 expression is down-regulated in human clear cell renal carcinoma. Journal of Nephrology, 24 (1). pp. 91-97. ISSN 1121-8428
Goluža, Eleonora and Hudolin, Tvrtko and Kaštelan, Željko and Perić, Mladen and Murselović, Tamara and Šošić, Hrvoje (2011) Lidocaine suppository for transrectal ultrasound-guided biopsy of the prostate: a prospective, double-blind, randomized study. Urologia Internationalis, 86 (3). pp. 315-319. ISSN 0042-1138
Gotovac, Kristina and Grubić, Zorana and Kaštelan, Željko and Štingl, Katarina and Kuliš, Tomislav and Krhen, Ivan and Hudolin, Tvrtko and Kaštelan, Maja and Žunec, Renata (2011) Pilot study of the association between the HLA region and testicular carcinoma among Croatian patients. Urologia Internationalis, 87 (3). pp. 288-292. ISSN 0042-1138
Mustapić, Željka and Bašić-Jukić, Nikolina and Kes, Petar and Lovčić, Vesna and Bubić-Filipi, Ljubica and Mokos, Ivica and Kaštelan, Željko and Zekan, Šime (2011) Varicella zoster infection in renal transplant recipients: prevalence, complications and outcome. Kidney & Blood Pressure Research, 34 (6). pp. 382-386. ISSN 1420-4096


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Today is Saint Patrick's Day, conveniently placed during the weekend this year for your recovery needs. What's also nice is that means fewer people will be forced to be part of the festivities if they are not so inclined. And if you are inclined, well, I hope you have ample opportunity to party until you're green in the face. Just be careful on the roads, you certainly don't want to drink and drive, nor be the victim of someone else who doesn't appreciate that fact.
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text:
Rookie center Mickell Gladness will be sticking around after his 10-day contract expires. He is expected to sign with Golden State for the remainder of the season on Sunday, in time for him to play against the host Los Angeles Lakers.
"We're going to move forward with him," coach Mark Jackson said after Saturday's practice at the team's downtown Oakland facility. "We're excited about what he's been able to do in a short period of time."
Gladness has played six games with the Warriors. He's totaled 12 points, eight rebounds and six blocks in 44 minutes.
"Not to sound cocky or anything," Gladness said after Friday's loss to New Jersey, "but not too many big men can do what I do. Block shots. Rebound. Run the floor."


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Cloud free and lightning fast!
Somehow, when I read "cloud computing" I always think of that scene from "Luniz - I got 5 on it", where they pass out because of the smoke inside their car, but with a large geek in a basement. And veeeery sloooowly...
Maybe we should foster that association. ^^
Anna Liu, Associate Professor in services engineering at the UNSW School of Computer Science told iTnews she was excited by Cloud Computing as it could potentially enable organisations to "outsource a certain amount of their risks and costs and tap into new economies of scale."
Sounds more like she has a degree in buzzword engineering.
Anna Liu, Associate Professor in services engineering at the UNSW School of Computer Science told iTnews she was excited by Cloud Computing as it could potentially enable organisations to "outsource a certain amount of their risks and costs and tap into new economies of scale."
Sounds more like she has a degree in buzzword engineering.
From her homepage at UNSW [unsw.edu.au], it seems to be the creation and study of services but her focus seems to be on cloud computing with the "services" being concentrated on these subjects [smartservicescrc.com.au]. While a lot of her about page seems to be buzzwords and journal writing, I really wish they would release their "interoperable service software" and would be interested in seeing their final report for more specific metrics. Her blog doesn't say much about it [unsw.edu.au]. I'd give her the benefit of the doubt, she says in the article, "We saw a lot of hype and confusion, and decided to lead a team of researchers and actually get our hands dirty with this stuff." She also said:
Using Google AppEngine, none of your data processing tasks can last any longer than thirty seconds, or it throws an exception back at you. This is very consistent with the Google business model - they want to enable simple web applications to thrive on the Internet. AppEngine is there to enable the rapid development of simple web applications that don't include intense compute at the back end. - Anna Liu
Which I found interesting. Again, kind of hard to judge the merits behind this research without even a brief description of what the services were
I'm also curious as to what hoops one has to jump through to get those interoperable across all three systems
Well, Microsoft's Azure is in
Sorry, correction. Azure also supports other languages such as PHP, Ruby, and Python, according to their site.
Well, Microsoft's Azure is in
You could do that, but if your intent is to get as much processing power out of each
The challenges for Wave don't rely on nearly the same challenges. Wave involves ONLY data transfer, not processing, storage, etc.. It's a protocol.
Making the comparison you've made is the same thing as saying HTTP is flawed becouse Joes Web Shack servers are slow.
So, what exactly does "cloud computing" bring to the table for me?
Not much as far as I can see, other than a new crop of buzzwords.
Well, for me, it is for low cost hosting for Django Applications, but for business it can be really interesting as there is somebody taking care of the infrastructure while they only need to care about the application itself.
So what exactly is supposed to be new about that? There have been companies providing exactly such services as that for decades.
Really? I see traffic rising on my site. I have 6 servers up and running. I need 6 new servers to come up within the next 10 minutes to service my estimated needs for the next hour.
Wow, access rate is going up faster than expected. I need 6 more servers.
Phew. That was over. I just need 6 in total now. Why am I paying for 18? I'd like to take those down, please.
So, tell me.. who has been providing this service for decades?
Especially given App Engine, if I recall, does all of this for you.
So what exactly is supposed to be new about that? There have been companies providing exactly such services as that for decades.
Indeed. Most people miss the point of these services, which is that you can turn capacity on and off, and only pay for what you use. Imagine, for a moment, that you run a vaguely popular web site. Most of the time it copes well enough with a single server, but every so often it grinds to a halt as more users hit it for some reason or another (e.g. you get slashdotted). With a s
Cloud computing has the benefit that when you need to expand your server park's capacity, you don't have to wait for several weeks for the hardware vendor to deliver the hardware. Instead you outsource that job to the cloud vendor. You can more quickly respond to both increase and decrease in traffic. During peak hours you can spawn a few more servers and at night you can shut down a few without having to worry about the physical hardware and their associated maintenance burden.
CDW usually takes 1-3 days to deliver a server. they ship the same day if you email the PO by 3pm.
How does 1-3 days beat launching a node in 5-15 minutes?
Because for any sufficient volume of processing you're going to be spending many times more using these cloud services than running your own server.
Because for any sufficient volume of processing you're going to be spending many times more using these cloud services than running your own server
And running your own server means keeping an admin guy on staff. It's no more stupid than throwing your box into a colo and having it managed by colo admins or purchasing a virt from a webhost. If you're running a small business, its stupid to host your own these days. A large business has the benefit of economies of scale--small businesses do not.
they give you 250 servers already replicated and working in one day, using the replication fairy?
Yes, they do - that's why they're special. Maybe you're using some new definition of cloud that isn't what I'm thinking of, but they do this by making you engineer your software as basically read-only. Any outputs go to another (equally scaleable) output service.
They aren't sitting there replicating a full OS install to a dedicated server. They're running the same read-only software image and executing it from an extra 250 virtual servers.
During peak hours you can spawn a few more servers and at night you can shut down a few without having to worry about the physical hardware and their associated maintenance burden.
Right, but what does it cost, because guess what, just about everybody else wants more servers at peak hours and wants to shut down a few at night. What does the "cloud" service provider do with all of those servers when nobody wants them? How do they cover their maintenance costs for the time when their servers are idle?
That's right, by charging more for them when you want to use them. The big problem with the cloud concept is that it assumes that the need for servers is spread out evenly across the day a
The fact of the matter is that it isn't, most businesses need/want more servers at the same time.
Do you have a citation for that? I would think that there would be a lot of different services which need servers at different times. Most business services would peak during the day, but I would think most consumer based services (entertainment, shopping) would peak in the evening. And then you have to consider that there are other countries in the world and their day is different than yours. So, their peak times would probably be different. I am not saying that cloud computing is the way to go, but t
Do you have a citation for that? I would think that there would be a lot of different services which need servers at different times. Most business services would peak during the day, but I would think most consumer based services (entertainment, shopping) would peak in the evening. And then you have to consider that there are other countries in the world and their day is different than yours. So, their peak times would probably be different.
Absolutely, the problem is that the consumer services actually have a pretty high demand during the day, even though it peaks in the evening.
The problem with using cloud computing around the globe is that relying on servers that are in Japan to get business done in Europe or the U.S. puts one at significant risk of regular inability to access the servers due to communication disruption.
It's not that cloud computing serves no purpose, it's just that it is not the "world changing" idea that its proponents
just about everybody else wants more servers at peak hours
The theory is that your peak hours won't be the same as everyone else's. A company that caters to businesses will have peak hours during the day, while one that caters to consumers will have them in the evening. Companies that do business in different time zones will have different peak hours too. If a suspended water vapour computing company has enough clients then the demand spikes should even out. They can help this by taking business from things like university research labs which have very processo
Google App Engine gives you enough resources to serve approximately 5 million users per month at no cost. See: http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/quotas.html [google.com]
Google will automatically scale up the number of instances of your application to handle any additional load. Beyond that, the pricing is extremely reasonable. See: http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/billing.html [google.com]
The cool thing is that you're running on Google infrastructure. You don't need to worry about keeping 3 copies of your live data arou
Oh, I thought we were talking about my business documents, not my web site. Sure, if I wanted to run apps in my website, I would consider Google apps.
Run apps in your website? You really have no idea what App Engine is. Google Apps != Google App Engine.
The big problem with the cloud concept is that it assumes that the need for servers is spread out evenly across the day and the year.
Or, more accurately, that it assumes the need for servers is spread out more evenly among multiple customers than it is with only one. And that seems likely.
"Peak" hours have flopped back and forth over the years. I'd guess the PSTN first peaked during the day, as businesses opened. Later, as PBXes spread, maybe peak moved to residential callers at night. Meanwhile, data circu
The point is that the cloud provider has so many customers, the cloud is so big that 10k simultaneous users are just a drop in a big bucket. Website A may have a sudden 10k increase in traffic, but website B and C are idle at this time and will see spikes at different times.
It's certainly more likely that a provider with 10k customers can maintain a larger data center than you ever can, unless you're Google.
You say that it scales badly and that the service is crappy. What makes it more likely that you can d
What I don't seem to see mentioned anywhere is what happens when some event happens that causes everyone to go running to their computers to visit the latest fat "web 2.0" sites and suddenly 1000 or 10,000 different users are asking for massive additional capacity from the cloud?
That's why I'm developing "Storm Cloud 3.0 ®" technology.
It leverages the power of botnets and other online zombied PC's for a synergistic value added service for distributed computing.
Here at Storm Cloud 3.0 ® Central Ministry, our motto is:
"All your box belong to us"
You can trust us. Really!
Saying cloud computing is "hosting for noobs" is like saying automatic transmissions are "transmissions for noobs." Sure, automatic transmissions are inherently less efficient than manual transmissions, but they save you from having to worry about shifting gears. Similarly, cloud computing might not perform as well as traditional hosting solutions, but they save you the hassle and expense of scaling up and down with demand. It's a trade-off, like everything else in life...
> Saying cloud computing is "hosting for noobs" is like saying automatic transmissions are "transmissions for noobs."
To be fair, that's exactly what automatic transmissions are.
Cloud computing, on the other hand, doesn't just dumb everything down for the end user, but give a huge amount of flexibility in terms of how you can use it. I think one of the most useful aspects is painless scaling, which just isn't possible if you just keep the server in your closet. Of course it's not the solution to every pro
Essentially, it allows you to treat any net-connected computer as a dumb terminal with web services acting as your actual computer.
Server clouds. When you access the web with your computer, you're accessing these sorts of servers already. Specifically, applications run in parallel in dozens of locations, potentially across the globe. Toss in anycasting, and the guy in Boston ends up connecting to a server in boston, and a guy in San Fransisco connects to one in LA, but they're both connecting to the same server as far as their concerned.
For the home, however, I have a hard time imagining that it is more feasible to do your computing through the network rather than doing it locally. What about things like audio editors and games, that require latencies in the low milliseconds to be usable?
For businesses, there's a lot of things they do where latency is less critical and where the flexibility of a cloud is a good win. Not having to worry so much about scaling out physical server facilities is a really big win, as is the fact that clouds are damned easy to handle as a customer in accounting terms.
Of course, they have to worry about data security. But trust me on this, they have to worry about that anyway. Really. The cloud doesn't change that very much.
My computer doesn't have to be hooked up to the interweb to work...
Since you are not a candidate for Internet-connected, virtualized, on-demand scalable computing resources (aka "cloud computing"), you are not attracted to cloud computing's value proposition.
For those of us who need these things, vendors such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are building services we definitely want to buy. Amazon's simple storage service, for example, had 40 billion objects [datacenterknowledge.com] in its repository as of February, 2009.
It depends on your application. My application is a genetic algorithm. I want lots and lots of computers some of the time, and no computers some of the time. So, it's perfect for me.
I was recently at a Hadoop user's group. There were lots of people with applications that needed lots of compute time some of the time, and really don't need very much at all some of the time. There was a talk by a guy from Data Wrangling [datawrangling.com] where he's pulling in lots of data every night and doing some runs. He really should
I'm developing a JRuby app for Google App Engine. I'm doing it because as a lone developer, I don't have to worry about anything but my code. I will never have to wake up to troubleshoot a network problem, OS issue, Apache oddity. I won't have to hire networking, DBA, or systems administration staff. And if my app hits off big, I won't have to re-engineer anything to make it scale. It will scale automatically.
I've played the role of network engineer, DBA, and sysadmin in the past. Now I can focus on my application.
That said, appengine is certainly not for all sorts of apps. It only supports a subset of SQL (no joins), I'm sure it won't meet the requirements for payment card processing or anything like that, and my APIs are limited. But for a good chunk of web apps, developing for the google cloud has huge advantages.
As for why you might choose cloud over your
Of course in practice it probably doesn't scale that seamlessly and you have to pay the host based on CPU / disk / database
Where did you get the idea that scalable is free? Resources cost. What's nice about the cloud is that (with well-designed apps on top) you scale almost linearly, especially in terms of cost. There's far less of a problem with non-linearities as you increase in scale (well, not until you're getting up to the size where it might be an idea to build your own server facility...)
The ability to use $10 million dollars worth of hardware for a month without spending $10 million dollars?
Let alone the fact that since, like you say hardware prices are constantly going down, you don't eat the 30% depreciation a year. Also, what good does your terabyte drive do you when it dies?
If you aren't looking for rapid scalability, saving money on huge capital investment, large amounts of CPU and data, then the Cloud might not be for you. It's stupid in the same way that buying millions of dollars
If I want access to the web, I can get it, but that's only a few times a day when I need it.
I don't know about you but I need internet access 24/7.
Secondly, cloud computer is not for nerds.
Its for non-tech types who want to outsource things.
Actually "cloud computing" is a euphemism for "outsourcing".
Well I suppose its for nerds if you are the administrator of a "cloud" but for end users not so much.
I still don't get it. Terabyte drives cost as much as my bi-weekly beer budget, and less every day. Computing power is off of Moore's Law, but is still increasing with multicore and multiprocessors. My computer doesn't have to be hooked up to the interweb to work, nor does it require a subscription to some website to keep rolling. If I want access to the web, I can get it, but that's only a few times a day when I need it.
So, what exactly does "cloud computing" bring to the table for me?
Cloud computing lets
I call it Time Sharing 2.0. I'm young enough to have skipped those days, but old enough to have heard the war stories from the "old timers". Two years ago when I was sitting down to design our product I stuck with what I knew. We started by having our own in house server for development, but as soon as we moved to production I called up Pair Networks and got a couple managed dedicated servers. Why Pair? I've used them for big projects since 1999. They had always been reliable and their servers are man
What does it give you?
It puts your IP in someone else's hands.
For safekeeping.
Kinda makes you feel all comfortable and warm inside, doesn't it?
I can't help thinking this is just thin-client + mainframe again, and just like every other time the model has come around, it's being pushed as the future.
Indeed. But there is money to be made in that observation -- get in early on the next wave of "In-house dedicated hardware is the perfect answer to every problem!" Should be rolling in about two years after the cloud becomes mainstream and people realize it isn't the perfect answer to every problem.
I can't help thinking this is just thin-client + mainframe again, and just like every other time the model has come around, it's being pushed as the future.
The thing is, it's good for some things (e.g., plain old web pages) and the thin-client model is much easier when it comes to deployment. If only there weren't idiots about who insist on using it for everything; some stuff just works better with thick clients or standalone.
I don't really see how this is similar to the cloud at all.
I foresee a unplanned and totally random 'Software Audit' at the University of New South Wales in the near future!!!
Google AppEngine has data reporting to a ridiculous level. This article doesn't even publish any REAL data.
I really HATE commercicles, small articles which make a claim, and then say, 'stay tuned!'.
Someone fire the author. The last paragraph reads:
"Liu will present the findings and offer developers advice on how to build robust applications to withstand the cloud's limitations at the Australian Architecture Forum in Sydney on Monday, August 24."
Wow, I at least they admit that this article has no REAL data in it, and THAT data will be released on Monday.
I only have 5 Apple
Apple is getting better, but ISPs are choking upload speeds (even my business account that I pay $200/Mo for 6 megabits up and down) shows far slower data rates up over down to/from Apple.
You bring up another very real problem with "cloud" computing. Somebody is going to have to pay for all that data to be shuffled between your terminal and the app server.
Yeah, I'm wondering if the article was generated by some sort of AI in an attempt to take the human costs out of blogging. Google's cloud product is, in fact, called App Engine.
I think this has the highest likelihood of being the culprit. Perhaps not google and amazon doing the traffic shaping, perhaps not even their own ISP doing it purposely. But it's not a news flash that doing anything over the internet can have wildly different latency and bandwidth re
And if "time of day" creates biggest issues, that's actually fairly good news, to some degree (when pipes with the outside world are good, for starters...), for those from some small country in totally different timezone?...
I am a computer. I am dumber than any human and smarter than any administrator.