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Angry Birds developer Rovio Entertainment's chief marketing officer Peter Vesterbacka has revealed that his company is probably worth more than $1 billion, and could file for an initial public offering as early as next year. The Finnish developer makes additional revenue via advertising, in-game purchases, and physical merchandise, and recently acquired the animation studio, Kombo. The company is currently hiring in both the U.S. and China, and Vesterbacka noted that he "is weighing more acquisitions."
"We're insanely profitable," Vesterbacka told Bloomberg Television in a recent interview. "We are very, very profitable. We're not a publicly traded company yet, but we can fund our own growth."
Vesterbacka also revealed that the company is working on a "20-year plan" for the Angry Birds brand, across multiple distribution channels.
He claims that the smash-hit mobile game currently has about 150 million "active users," and asserts that merchandise sales account for somewhere between ten and twenty percent of the business. Factor in the upcoming Angry Birds movie plans and a number of past and present promotional tie-ins with other entities like Starbucks and Barnes & Noble, and Vesterbacka's supposition that Rovio could have "a good shot at being the first entertainment brand that has a billion fans," doesn't seem like a complete pipe dream.


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Get an alert when new Grand Opera Of Belarus dates are announced
The theatre is one of the three theatres in the former Soviet Union to receive the status 'Bolshoi'. The National Opera and Ballet Theatre opened in 1933 and quickly gained an exceptional reputation for its high quality and professionalism. The theatre toured the most prestigious stages in the former Soviet Union, including the honourable, Bolshoi theatre in Moscow. It gained the honorary 'Bolshoi' status in 1940, (translated 'Grand') and was given the title 'Academic' in 1964.
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We attended a performance of Madam Butterfly on the 10th of february in Shrewsbury at the Severn Theatre. It was a really excellent show and we are sure Puccini would have been proud. Unfortunately despite having purchased a programme we were unsure of the soprano's name but she was truly… (cont'd) Paul from Wrexham
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subset: commoncrawl


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Surprise! Activision has announced yet another free DLC drop for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, the second gratis add-on for the popular online shooter.
"Terminal," the popular multiplayer map from Modern Warfare 2, is being re-released for free for both Call of Duty Elite subscribers and non-subscribers. The map will be available first on Xbox 360: July 17th for Elite, July 18th for non-Elite.
PC and PS3 will also get access to the map, but must wait at least 30 days due to Microsoft's exclusivity clause.
The first free DLC drop for Modern Warfare 3 was the "Face Off" mode, which debuted with two maps. Perhaps Activision will release even more free content for those that have yet to subscribe to Elite?


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Watch Puppy Trying to Play with Cat. Watch Cat Want to Kill Puppy.
Our King Charles Spaniel Percy really just wants three things in life: Treats, Scratches, and to play with the 'Fur Pig.' Our snow white cat we lovingly call 'The Fur Pig' hates the puppy. She would like to drown him in his dog dish.
No matter how hard he tries to make nice, she will have none of it. As you can see in this video he even brings gifts for her to play with. She drops her ears back and responds with a firm slap-upside-the-head. In true puppy fashion he just keeps going back for more.


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I shared with you recently that an NFL scout related to me his opinion that any team hoping for a good chance at finding a starting quarterback should think of accomplishing that goal early in the draft, certainly not much later than the first round.
Well, the folks at draftmetrics.com are putting statistical weight behind that opinion now.
In studying the NFL drafts of 1991-2010, draftmetrics has come up with the astonishing fact that over 48 percent of quarterbacks starts the past 20 years were made by players selected in the first round (selections 1-28), which is nearly twice as much as the average for all positions.
There have been 241 QBs selected by NFL clubs from 1991-2010 and a whopping 68.2 percent of the ones picked within the first 13 picks of the draft became five-year starters.
Let that marinate for a moment.
The NFL draft is, in my opinion, a 50-50 proposition. Bill Parcells famously said, "they don't sell insurance for this."
Yet nearly 7 of 10 QBs picked between No. 1-13 overall were good enough to be starting for their teams for a long time. That is impressive.
The draftmetrics folks also bust the myth that drafting a quarterback must necessarily be an exercise in patience because 30 QBs over the past 20 years of drafting have started at least eight games in their rookie seasons.
Why am I sharing this you?
Well, if you think the Dolphins can find a five-year starter with the No. 15 overall selection in the coming draft, this study suggests the chances are much better if Miami could trade up a couple of spots to get a higher rated player.
It tells you that if you are convinced the Dolphins cannot find a 2011 starting quarterback in this draft, you are not recognizing facts because 30 rookies did exactly that since 1991.
If you are advocating the Dolphins trade back -- rather than up -- to add a pick and take a lesser rated QB, history is saying you're making a bad deal. Consider that while 68.2 percent of QBs picked by the 13th overall pick become five-year starters, only 14.3 percent of QBs picked between selections 49 and 74 accomplished the feat and only 6.7 percent of QBs selected from 74-114 overall accomplished the feat.
Point is teams maximize their chances of success with QBs by getting them earlier. And the ones that come late are typically not going to solve your QB issues.
Yes, there are exceptions. Tom Brady was the 199th player selected. Tony Romo was an undrafted free agent.
But exceptions are rare.
The top quarterbacks, the quarterbacks that start right away and last for at least five years as starters go early in the first round, according to the 20-year study.
So what does this mean in today's real world?
Well, it means that Blaine Gabbert, likely the first quarterback off the board in 2010 and likely a Top 10 pick, has a very good chance of being a success according to the history.
It means that JaMarcus Russell's failure was the exception and not the rule.
It means that quarterbacks teams rate as later prospects are more likely to become Brady Quinn than Tom Brady.
All of this should give teams pause. And it does. I know for a fact teams conduct similar studies of past drafts to maximize their chances of success.
So say, for example, the Dolphins have Nevada's Colin Kaepernick on their board as the No. 49 rated player ... Well, the historical probability of him becoming a five-year starter for Miami?
14.3 percent.
Think about that.


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Shelby County Commissioners have several important questions to consider Wednesday, July 17, in committee sessions, all of them having to do with that most volatile of political questions – taxes.
The Shelby County Commission has lots of important questions to answer in committee meetings as a new property tax rate is still needed.
(Daily News File/Lance Murphey)
More than two weeks into the new fiscal year, Shelby County government has no new property tax rate. The commission last week on third and final reading voted down the $4.38 tax rate proposed by Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell.
Until a tax rate of some kind is approved, commission Chairman Mike Ritz is proposing a hiring freeze and a freeze of spending on county travel, dues and memberships, and grants to nonprofits.
The 15 line items account for $1.4 million in spending.
Meanwhile, Commissioner Terry Roland has a resolution in committee to cut the general fund budget by $57 million.
It was a motion Roland tried to make at the July 8 commission meeting but he didn't have the specifics in writing.
Roland's goal in the motion was to take the budget down to a corresponding county property tax rate of $4.02 in Memphis and $4.06 in the county outside the city. The tax rate for the county outside Memphis is 4 cents higher to pay off rural school bonds used to finance the construction of Arlington High School.
Meanwhile, Commissioner Steve Basar, part of the seven-vote majority last week that voted down the $4.38 rate, moved later to take the tax rate to $4.32. That is the rate at the "certified" amount it is estimated it would take to produce the same amount of revenue for county government as the $4.02 rate, taking into account property value lost in the 2013 property reappraisal.
The 6-cent property tax hike beyond that would produce about $9 million in revenue, which would be roughly half of the $20 million in new revenue the county would use to fund the consolidated school system.
Without the tax hike or a reallocation of other funding within the county budget to education, the school system would have to make further budget cuts as the school year is about three weeks from starting or dip further into its reserve funds. The countywide school board already voted to use $10 million from its reserves to fund the gap left between revenues and expenses for the system with the $4.38 rate.
Basar moved for reconsideration of the tax rate resolution vote after $4.38 failed. His move for the certified rate was voted down. Basar then moved to defer further reconsideration of the tax rate until the commission's July 22 meeting. That kept the tax rate resolution alive but with a blank where the tax rate dollar figure goes.
–David Lenoir Shelby County trustee
The budget committee session is likely to be an indication of what is to come next week.
The commission also hears from Shelby County Trustee David Lenoir Wednesday with a look at the first fourth quarter revenue figures before he closes the books on the fiscal year that ended June 30.
Those numbers will be important in determining if there is any surplus.
The art of the budget for local governments is to hit several fiscal targets – revenues, expenses and a bottom line – that are 12 months away. Because of the distance, the bull's-eye can be pretty big depending on the variables.
For local governments, the biggest variables tend to be revenue collections on the state level especially for money that flows almost directly to local governments. "Almost" is an acknowledgement of the importance of timing in the flow of revenue during the year. And sometimes state funding formulas change.
Lenoir was preparing to send out property tax notices or bills to county property owners at about this time a year ago and his office took in $32 million, he estimates during the first three months of that fiscal year. That money flowed into the coffers of county government to begin funding line items and decisions made during the budget deliberations of the spring of 2012.
Lenoir is waiting on not only the answer to the question of what the property tax rate will be, but he also needs to know how the tax rate is distributed. That is a question Ritz was already asking last week as Roland and Basar proposed their alternative tax rates.
"Where are you trimming it from – from general fund, education or debt service?" Lenoir asked last week as he framed the more specific issue beyond the tax rate. "That's the thing in terms of trying to figure out who takes the hit. We don't really know yet which of those buckets is going to take the hit."
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Climate change and its implications for regional agriculture is the topic of a free web-based seminar being offered at 2 p.m. on Friday, April 25. The webinar is sponsored by the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development, which is directed by Stephan Goetz, professor of agricultural and regional economics in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.
"There is growing interest among those in the agricultural community about how the temperature and precipitation changes that are forecast to occur over the next decades may affect food production in the Northeast region," said Goetz, who will co-facilitate the webinar. "While yields for some crops may be adversely affected, new opportunities may also emerge for growing other crops that could not be grown previously."
This 90-minute webinar will feature scientists whose research focuses on these issues. Art DeGaetano is a professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at Cornell University and is director of the federally supported Northeast Regional Climate Center. DeGaetano, who describes his research as "applied climatology," develops research methods and data sets that provide climatological information to decision-makers in a variety of fields.
David Fleisher is an agricultural engineer in the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. As a member of the ARS Crop Systems and Global Change Lab, Fleisher carries out research to improve the growth, yield and quality of crops in the face of climatic changes, through increased understanding of the mechanisms controlling response and adaptation to changes in CO2, light, water, temperature and soil chemistry.
The webinar will be moderated by Doolarie Singh-Knights, assistant extension professor of agricultural and resource economics at West Virginia University and the local and regional foods scholar at the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development. As the Center scholar, Singh-Knights organized this webinar to help identify current research, teaching and extension efforts that promote practical and profitable responses to climate change challenges. She also expects the webinars to promote regional collaboration in these areas.
"We organized this webinar series as part of the Northeast Center's efforts to help build stronger networks among land-grant and related institutions in the Northeast," said Singh-Knights. The webinar is the third in an occasional series organized by Singh-Knights that focuses on local and regional food systems. Previous webinars in the series are archived online.
Register for "Climate Change: Implications for Local and Regional Food Systems" online or contact Singh-Knights by email for more information.


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It's the most wonderful time of the year. It's also the most anxiety-inducing time of the year, as the inevitable holiday gift-buying frenzy approaches. Everyone wants to give wonderful gifts, but with a lack of time and with friends and family living distances away, buying gifts can prove a stressful task, made even worse with harried trips to the mall, and outrageous shipping costs.
One simple solution is the gift of digital gift cards. This holiday season, buy gifts up until the last minute, from the comfort of your own home, at clickit!togiftit! The website offers busy people the opportunity to send digital gift cards redeemable at almost 50 vendors, including restaurants, retail stores, entertainment and online stores. There is no cost to ship and no fee to purchase. You can even personalize your gift by selecting the egift card design of your choice or uploading your own photos or images, to be delivered directly to the recipient's inbox.
The best part? Clickit!togiftit! offers a special gift with purchase promotion starting now. For example, gift a $25 TGI Friday's eGift card and get $5 to use yourself. Or, receive a $10 eGift card at The Children's Place for every $40 you send. The promos change each week and you can see the newest promos by visiting Clickit!togiftit!. You can even buy gift cards for your own use and reap the reward, like a "daily deal."
I was compensated by Clickit!togiftit! in exchange for sharing this information with you.


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HARTSVILLE, S.C. – Coker's freshman right-hander pitcher, Chris Garcia (Miami, Fla.), picked up the first win of his collegiate career on Friday afternoon as he tossed a magnificent eight innings for the Cobras in their 11-1 win over Clarion University.
In addition to Garcia's stellar pitching, the Cobras used 15 hits to plate 11 runs in the win. Coker scored their runs in bunches with two runs in the second, two in the third, three in fourth and another four in the eighth. Clarion's lone run came in the fifth inning on an RBI by Mark White.
The line on Garcia for the day was one run on four hits with seven strikeouts in eight innings on the hill. Scott Berkes (1-1) took the loss for the Golden Eagles. He allowed seven runs on 10 hits with two strikeouts in 3.1 innings of work.
Jake Frazier (Indian Harbor Beach, Fla.) was the Cobras leading hitter with two doubles, a triple, three RBIs, three runs scored and a stolen base. Dyson Coker (Turbeville, S.C.) added a double, three RBIs a run scored and a stolen base, while Matt Ammons (Chester, S.C.) had a pair of hits, an RBI, two runs scored and three stolen bases. Chad Nader (Rock Hill, S.C.) also had a double with an RBI, two runs scored and a stolen base and Tyler Witzel (Melbourne, Fla.) was 3-for-4 with a run scored.
For Clarion, Seth Peterson was 2-for-3, while Scott Berkes and Josh Beimel each had a hit. White drove in the only run and Dane Dobson scored the run.
Coker returns to the field tomorrow to take on the No.3 ranked Trojans of Mount Olive in a three-game Conference Carolinas series. The Cobras and the Trojans will play a doubleheader tomorrow starting at noon, with game three being played on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. All three games will be played at Coker's Tom J. New Field.


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Weekend Sports Round-Up
Cross Country
St. Marys Boys 4th at Celina Rotary invite
CELINA — Runners from St. Marys and New Knoxville competed at the Celina Rotary Cross Country invitational on Saturday at the Wright State Lake Campus.
The St. Marys boys cross country team finished fourth in the boys green division race with 110 points. Findlay won with 25 points, Bryan took second with 72 points, Celina was third with 86 points.
Nick Durkee paced the Roughrider boys team with a seventh-place finish and a 17:46 time.
The Riders' Alex Mielke finished 17th with an 18:49 time.
John Meier finished took 23rd for St. Marys (19:14), Anthony Tenney was 32nd (19:57), Luke Grieshop was 36th (20:23), Kyle Oswalt took 50th (21:15), Zack Goodwin was 63rd (22:00), and Matt Schroyer was 68th (22:24).
Celina's Cole Mertz won the boys green divison race with a 17:10 pace.
The Coldwater boys won the white division race with 34 points. Parkway took third (126 points), Fort Loramie was fifth (161 points), Marion Local finished ninth and New Knoxville was 10th.
Coldwater senior Mike Seas won the white divisoin race with a 16:42 time.
The top New Knoxville finisher was Isaac Kuntz in 7th place with a 17:39 time.
Girls Races
The St. Marys girls team finished sixth in eight-team green division race with 128 points.
Hannah Tobin led the way for the Roughriders with an 11th-place finish and a 22:44 time.
Marissa Schrolucke was 20th (24:24), Sarah Wilker took 30th (24:43), Christine Sullivan ran 33rd (24:55), Jesica Jeffries was 40th (25:40), Alicia Fledderjohann finished 61st (29:00), Carol Saunders took 66th (29:13) and Melanie Howell ran 67th (29:14).
Coldwater won the girls white division race with 26 points, paced by Sarah Kanney's new meet record time of 19:08. Fort Loramie was second with 45 points.
New Knoxville had two girls take top-10 finishes. Cassie Boyle finished fifth with a 20:56 time. Clara Shroyer took 10th with a 22:01 time.
Minster wins Schul Invitational
The Minster boys and girls cross country teams both won Divison III race titles at the Bob Schul Invitational at Milton-Union on Saturday.
The three-time defending state champion Minster girls team won with 57 points in the Division III girls race, eding out Liberty West Salem's 60 points. Versailles
finished third with 64 points.
Hannah Butler was the first Wildcat across the finish line in 10th place with a 20:34 time. Natalie Fausey took 12th (20:41), Olivia Enneking was 13th (20:41), Amanda
Sherman was 15th (20:58), Gabrielle Barga finished in 16th (21:02), Leah Niekamp was 21st (21:26), Logan Arnold was 26th (21:49), Samantha
Hoelscher was 30th (21:55), Kayla Albers took 33rd (22:03), Nikki
Bordergin was 34th (22:04), Olivia Winner was 39th (22:15), and Alana Poeppelman was 41st (22:18).
Versailles' Tammy Berger won the race with a 19:14 time.
The Minster boys won the Division III race with 46 points. West Liberty
Salem took second with 64 points and Versailles was third with 119 points.
Minster's Francis Slonkosky paced the Wildcats with a third-place finish and a 16:19 time.
Dominic Slonkosky took sixth (16:55), Eric Dahlinghaus was 10th (17:09), Andrew Albers took 13th (17:31), Andrew Fausey was 14th (17:40), Johnathan Fausey took 26th (18:09), Ted Trzaska finished 44th (18:47).
Versailles' Samuel Prakel won with a 15:54 time.
New Bremen at DSJ
DELHPOS — The New Bremen boys cross country finished fourth and the girls took 10th at the Delphos St. John's Blue Jay Invitational on Saturday.
New Bremen's Derek Bornhorst paced New Bremen with a 10th place finish and 17:44 time.
Brent Bertke finished 32nd with an 18:49 time and Jared Kremer took 35th with an 18:55 time. Drew McClurg was 41st (19:10) and Jacob Rutschilling
was 42nd (19:11).
Victoria Hirschfeld led New Bremen with a 27th place finish and a 22:30 time.
Ashley Berning took 49th (23:36), Jill Rhoades was 51st (23:55) and Elaynne Speckman took 52nd (23:56).
St. Marys, New Knoxville 6th, 7th at Coldwater Spikeoff
COLDWATER — Both the St. Marys and New Knoxville volleyball teams finished the third annual Coldwter Spikeoff Classice on Saturday, with the Roughriders finishing sixth and the Rangers taking seventh in the tourney.
The St. Marys Roughriders got a tough draw in their first match, falling to St. Henry 25-17 and 25-9. St. Marys recovered and played much better in its second match against Lima Senior to win 25-17 and 25-8.
The final match for the Riders was the fourth-place match against host Coldwater. It was a disappointing outing by the Riders, as Coldwater earned fourth place with a 25-9 and 25-17 victory.
New Knoxville hung with the Vikings, but were still defeated by Miami East 25-20 and 25-17.
The Rangers battled back and forth with the host Cavaliers and forced a third game before losing to Coldwater 20-25, 26-24 and 26-28 in their second match.
The Rangers played well in their final match to claim seventh place with a 25-17 and 25-19 victory.
"It is nice to get a win under their belts and take the pressure off," Roode said. "I told them we can get a lead and now we know we can get a win and now we got that so we are good. We just want to take these games as a learning experience and get better each game."
In the three matches Haley Dillon hand 20 kills and Paige Lehman had 18 kills, while Kalyn Schroer had 26 digs and Haley Horstman had 38 assists.
The Riders and Rangers will play each other Tuesday at St. Marys.
Minster wins two at Paris Graham
The Minster volleyball team swept a tri-match at at Paris Graham on Saturday morning, defeating Sidney and Graham.
In the first match, Minster downed Sidney, 26-24, 28-26.
Kassi Brown and Claire McGowan led the Wildcats with six kills apiece. Sara Hosey had 15 assists and three aces for the Wildcats.
Minster defeated Graham 25-14, 25-21.
Kassi Brown had six kills to lead Minster. Allison Jutte had nine assists. Alisha Monnin had four aces.


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It's never been criminal. But breaching copyright could get you sued by the copyright owner. The new system of warning letters is replacing a proposed "3 strikes" system where you would lose your internet access after 3 warnings, but with no accountability for being accusing of copyright infringement this was a stupid system.
The new one is simply sending warning letters to let people know they have been reported as infringing copyright, and so might want to be careful to avoid being sued in the future.
It's never been criminal.
Are you a lawyer in the UK? The Crown Prosecution Service say that [cps.gov.uk] deliberate infringement may be criminal.
The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 [legislation.gov.uk] also lists criminal penalties such as those copied below. It might be worth getting competent legal advice given jail time is a pretty significant punishment.
(2A)A person who infringes copyright in a work by communicating the work to the public—
(a)in the course of a business, or
(b)otherwise than in the course of a business to such an extent as to affect prejudicially the owner of the copyright,
commits an offence if he knows or has reason to believe that, by doing so, he is infringing copyright in that work.
(4A)A person guilty of an offence under subsection (2A) is liable—
(a)on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or a fine not exceeding £50,000, or both;
(b)on conviction on indictment to a fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or both.
OK, I was referring to downloading a film. If you upload and seed a film the day before release, you could get prosecuted under 2A(b).
Even after release, because it means less viewers in movie theaters and less DVDs sold later on...
I think this would be difficult to prove.
Since when do they have to prove anything? You're guilty unless proven innocent. As far as I know, they don't even have to prove that a single sale was 'lost' in order to be able to sue you.
"The new one is simply sending warning letters to let people know they have been reported as infringing copyright, and so might want to be careful to avoid being sued in the future."
They should offer a seedbox in Tonga in the same document.
At least they would see _some_ money.
It means it's still illegal, but the government has no interest in enforcing that law. It's going back to just a civil matter, between the copyright holders and the copyright infringers.
It means it's still illegal, but the government has no interest in enforcing that law. It's going back to just a civil matter, between the copyright holders and the copyright infringers.
Nitpic: It does not mean they have no interest in enforcing the law, it means that the government realises that the law is un enforceable however much they'd like to enforce it. In future you will get four warnings and then, by the sound of it, you can pirate download all you want as far as the govt. is concerned. They'll probably still be going after large scale distributors and facilitators. This also means that UK courts will in future be choked beyond capacity with civil suits against copyright infringe
If I was in the position of a copyright-dependent industry body right now, I'd be looking into ways to apply ISPs into doing some of the enforcing. There should be some common ground to work on: Pirates suck up a ridiculous amount of bandwidth.
Not if you can demonstrate that some of those pirates consume so much bandwidth they actually cost more than their subscription fee.
It doesn't make a blind bit of difference to the criminalisation of IP infringement, it just makes the first step towards closer government interventions.
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/ipenforc... [ipo.gov.uk]
Interestingly a cursory reading of the relevant law suggests that it's only supplying IP-infringing goods that is a criminal offense in the UK; being a recipient is at most a civil offense.
Of course you have to actually show up in court on the relevant days, having filed the appropriate motions and paid the appropriate fees, to make the case that "no, I'm not responsible for any and all copies and descendents of the original". Otherwise the people suing you win by default. And then maybe at the end you can recover your fees again, and if you are very very lucky, the cost of your time.
That's what a lawyer is for. So it's his time and his time costs your money, which is far easier to get back.
It's still a tort, aka civil violation. It means you can't be arrested for it, and that someone has to proactively go after you (as a plaintiff), not just make a complaint and let the state prosecution do the work. It also means that the plaintiff can seek compensatory and punitive damages, but they can't put you in jail.
Is this 4 warnings per ISP, per year?
It seems to me that there should be a cycle date, because users may go through different ISP's at some point, or have new friends/roommates/parents that don't give a royal **** about filesharing.
Personally I nag my parents every time I visit because I've seen all the pirated stuff they have. If it was ever available to buy or VOD, then I make the same kind of Frustrated Marge "hgrnnnmmm" noise, when the "Homer's" in my family pirate things.
They send you a letter with 4 warnings inside.
Your parents should be proud to have such a good daughter.
RTFS? It says that in the summary. The goal here is to alert people who don't know their internet connection is being used for piracy and who aren't OK with freeloading, parents being the given example.
Because parents in 2014 are cavemen who don't know how technology works.
A simple phone call would be better. You get confirmation that the warning has been received and understood, you don't waste paper and you don't waste energy moving that piece of paper around.
You're a parent. Which are you more likely to listen to?
1) A robo-letter addressed and stamped by the government
2) A robo-call that requires listening for more than half a second once you realize it's a robot
If you're worried about waste and efficiency, then you go down the rabbit hole of
3) They should just send an email
4) They should just send nothing
5) They should just repeal those stupid laws and let crowdfunding fill the void.
Yeah right. Like anyone would listen to some twit on the phone waffling on about copyright.
They'd just get told to f*** off and the phone would be slammed down after about 5 seconds. Same as happens to all the other scammers.
Nobody with a brain ever listens to any sort of phone spiel any more.
Show me one parent who gives a shit about copyright. If a letter comes with contents to the ring of "you might be sued for billions and billions", at least it will turn the older generation against the overreaching copyright too...
Wait 'til the big networks pick up the story.
Because they can turn around in a few years when this is normalised behaviour and say "Hey, isn't it ridiculous that we know who all these inveterate pirates are, but we aren't doing anything? Maybe we should pass a simple law that fines them a few hundred quid, that's not much of a problem, is it?"
What they are ultimately incapable of is remaining benign, since this "issue" is important to some voter or campaign contributor.
Something must be done.
If people are illegally sharing stuff, then get 4 pieces of paper, print stuff with ink, and mail it to them? Why bother wasting the ink, paper and postage to send the letters if no further actions are to be taken?
Yeah, they should save the paper, ink, and postage costs and distribute the letters through Bittorrent instead.
Geoff Taylor, chief executive of music trade body the BPI, said VCAP was about "persuading the persuadable, such as parents who do not know what is going on with their net connection." He added: "VCAP is not about denying access to the internet. It's about changing attitudes and raising awareness so people can make the right choice."
We could not get file sharers drawn and quartered, so we are going to spin the decision that we fought kicking and screaming to our advantage and make us look better than we really are.
... in litigation.
In court, a person could not use the, "Gee
I would hope that the recording industry worldwide has learned from the example of the MAFIAA, where judges started throwing out their massive fishing-expedition style lawsuits against hundreds of John Does based on the flimsiest of proof. The courts in the United States have made it clear that it is not their job to help the MAFIAA make a profit, and I would hope that judges in the UK rule the same way.
Well, it's not for free. The industry is paying ISPs £750,000 one off + £75,000 per year. The ISPs have to pay £250,000 towards it and £25,000 per year.
I'd be amazed if they even ever see a return on that investment. As someone else pointed out in the UK you don't get the absurd escalation of penalty costs in court that you do in the US, you actually have to prove damages and only get actual damages. Even if they do litigate that amount they'll gain from doing
No, only when there is a profit motive in supplying does it become a criminal case. If you're supplying without charging it's still very much a civil case.
However you may and wish to try and twist the argument to cover up your misunderstanding that's still not what is deemed in law to be criminal infringement because it's still not commercial activity.
You may dislike the word profit but that's generally the key factor, the only exceptions are if you're say doing it to encourage your business to grow in other areas - i.e. you can have this "free" illegal copy if you buy something else from us.
Using BitTorrent in a personal capacity is by definition not a comme
Don't say "ask another lawyer" when you're clearly not a lawyer. I don't know what you're on about mentioning the UK is based on common law not constitutional law, yes, well done, so what, what was the insertion of that random factoid about exactly? Do you feel that if you add in random quotations about different law in different jurisdictions that that somehow adds weight to your argument on this particular case? It really doesn't, it looks like a really really poor attempt at misdirection.
Criminal copyrig
My sentence was meant to be read as your current one does not seem to be that good. Yet you fastened on a less likely alternative and latched on to it with certainty as if it were an absolute truth.
And there is the issue, 'certainty
I hope this results in two things:
1. More people use a VPN to block ISP monitoring.
2. Someone sues over the accusation that they infringed copyright.
Maybe then the "sorry, I don't read spam" defense?
You can't use that defense anyway, ignorance is not an excuse legally speaking.
I hope and think that the brainwashing of the younger "freeloading" generation will fail.
It is truely disgusting to see the attempts to brainwash the people to protect vested economic interests.
The collateral damage to prevent sharing of bitstreams is just too high.
We cannot prevent this, neither with laws nor with brainwashing. Sharing is just too easy and natural.
We'll have to adapt our economic model to the new reality instead, the "new normal".
File sharing is in fact so natural that my house cat just sent a copy of a Steven Demetre Georgiou album to the neighbour's cat.
File sharing is so natural that I think my cat is trying to develop a new transfer protocol involving shed cat hair. At least, I assume that's why he rolls around on my pillow and covers it in cat hair.
Sharing is more than easy and natural, it's good. Sharing is so important to civilzations that early ones developed writing systems to facilitate it, and later ones have been improving it ever since. Reading and writing used to be only for the nobility, for the practical reason that educating everyone was more expense than was thought worthwhile, though this was also correctly seen as an excuse not to educate the masses. Words were terribly subversive, best if the people can't read them. The pen is not
We teach our kids in preschool that they should share, and then we punish them for it.
Talk 'bout mixed messages...
How much did this cost?
On the one hand, its nice that this regime is measured and not over the top. On the other hand, if I hadn't pirated anything, because my flatmates/kids/friends/neighbours had done something I didn't know about, I'd still be pissed off receiving that letter. I don't think the good people of the UK should be completely satisfied with this situation. There should be a way to push back and say, no I didn't do it, take your stinking letter back.
Most people in this situation have no hope of knowing who did it. For example, I have 4 flatmates. If one of them does something like this, I would have no way of finding out which one it was. So its an utter waste of time. If I had kids at home, I'm sure they would all deny it too, like kids always do. If I had friends over, what am I going to ring my friends and accuse them? Ha!
If I were in the UK, and received such a letter, it would be interesting information for me, because I like to know how my connection is being used. It's only an informational letter, after all.
That's just the tip of the ice cube.
Imagine you're living in a country where movies are dubbed. Dubbed BADLY, I should probably add. I would PAY to get movies that run on public TV if I could only watch them without the atrocious dubbing!
And don't think that buying the DVD would solve that problem. Because of course you can ONLY get the dubbed version, while importing any media is of course outlawed. I tried to ask some politicians around here why it's ok for companies to manufacture abroad and import them
I already pay $10 a month for Spotify and $8 a month for Netflix. I am uncomfortable with the DRM and try to download full albums when I like them rather than just a song from them, but for most of my listening Spotify is great. I would happily pay four times what I pay Netflix if there was an equivalent selection of movies and TV, and equivalent good performance. Right now Netflix's selection is really limited, and there are occasional streaming problems (Amazon's streaming service is complete garbage comp
Don't even mention that BS..
Somebody in our Network decided to download GoT, and we got the letter.
Our lawyer came directly to me (the IT manager of a small company).
Called the ISP (name withheld on purpose), and they couldn't give me anymore details for me to hunt down what was going on, my logs firewall logs had already rolled over, so the ISP was useless to my investigation, and all I got was: reset the wifi password from them.
My response to the laywer, ISP told us to reset wifi password, done, and there
... though his invention worked superbly -- his theory was a crock of sewage from beginning to end. -- Vernor Vinge, "The Peace War"


text:
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Life's too short to avoid the *SPLORT*! Visit Daily Squee for your daily cuteness!


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Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it could land some drivers in trouble with police, and even facing citations.
Chad Filiatreau, transportation engineering supervisor with the Kentucky Department of Transportation, said driving on closed roads, such as the new Springfield Northwest Bypass, is dangerous, as well as illegal.
Two people were arrested near Mackville Sunday in connection with a meth lab being operated in a mobile home.
According to Jim Smith, a detective of the Springfield Police Department assigned to the Kentucky State Police Drug Task Force, the meth lab was found after several anonymous tips from people in the Mackville area.
Washington County schools will be closed Thursday, Feb. 10, due to winter weather.
The Washington County Commanderette basketball team opened play in the Touchtone Energy All-A Classic State Tournament Wednesday morning in Richmond. The Commanderettes fell 71-52 to Owensboro Catholic, which was led by Rebecca Greenwell with 39 points.
See complete coverage of the Commanderttes' trip to the All-A state tournament in next week's Springfield Sun.
A job that once took days can now take just minutes to complete.
The Washington County Circuit Clerk's Office is among the latest to move to the e-warrant system for tracking warrants issued through Kentucky's court system, and the process could save a lot of time for law enforcement officials, as well as court officials.
Mother Nature has taken her toll on the 2010-11 Washington County school calendar, and that has left officials working hard to make up lost time.
A Washington County grand jury has returned indictments against three people.
Anna Pettus, Washington County's 2011 Junior Miss, and daughter of John and Barbara Pettus of Springfield, competed in the Kentucky Junior Miss contest over the weekend in Lexington.
While there, Pettus stayed with a host family who served as her family away from Springfield.
Copyright © 2018
The Springfield Sun is your source for local news, sports, events and information in Springfield, KY, and the surrounding area.


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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Jack Ingram still has the competitive fire that led him to 317 wins during his racing career.
Just ask him.
MORE: Hall of Fame induction gallery | HOF sweet for 5 inductees | Media Tour gallery
Ask the 77-year-old about Mark Martin and Kyle Busch breaking the record he once held for the most wins in what is now the Nationwide Series.
"Wouldn't be any of them that ever won 317 NASCAR races," Ingram bluntly stated when asked about the record.
Ingram, who was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame Wednesday night, won 31 races in what was then known as the NASCAR Busch Series and won the series championship in 1982 and '85. He won numerous other races in the old NASCAR Sportsman Series and on various short tracks.
Mark Martin broke Ingram's series record and won 49 Nationwide races. Kyle Busch now holds the record with 63 wins.
Ingram is a little bitter that the most recognition he got was when his record was broken.
"I didn't get credit for nothing hardly that I done in most of this news media and the TV people and everybody," Ingram said. "They want to talk about Mark Martin beating my record.
"Now, I was 45 years old (when the series started and) they're talking about that record. They think I dropped out of the sky at 45 and started racing? I won 317 NASCAR point races. I've got record books, and they got most of it out of the NASCAR record books."
How about his records compared with Dick Trickle, who legend has it won more than 1,000 (some say 1,200) short-track races?
"Dick Trickle was no doubt a great racecar driver but he didn't race against the kind of competition I did and didn't win as many races as I did," Ingram said. "He claimed every time something happened a little bit different, another year or two, he'd won another 100 races.
"He started racing in '67. He stopped in '87 and won 1,400 races. Now anybody ever figure that out? That's the most preposterous thing I've ever seen in my life."


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Language watchers, gun debate participants and other folks inclined to pounce on perceived inconsistencies have noted the irony of Vice President Joe Biden saying that when it comes to gun reform, he's "shooting for" a specific deadline, while warning that "no silver bullet" exists.
I'm not sure it's ironic—a term I'm always afraid to employ for fear of stirring up the angry hornets who live in the "that's not irony, that's coincidence" nest. (Poor Alanis Morissette.)
It's certainly interesting though. Whether, in the course of discussing plans for stemming gun violence, Biden evoked gun terminology for effect, or out of habit, is hard to say. We mention guns a lot (big gun, son of a gun, young gun, up against the gun.)
President Obama, responding to a recent question about health care spending, told reporters, "What I will not do is to have that negotiation with a gun at the head of the American people."
And it's not just guns. We shoot from the hip, take aim, go ballistic, pull the trigger, you get the idea.
"It's in the linguistic DNA," says Burton Bledstein, UIC professor emeritus of history. "It's experiential and personal and distinctive. It's the way people express themselves in all kinds of areas."
He rattled off a few dozen examples, including: stick to one's guns; under the gun; jump the gun; half-cocked; shoot the breeze, trouble shoot; under fire; on the mark; miss the target.
"You find it across occupational groups," Bledstein says. "Business people use it. Mechanics, soda jerks, drivers, athletes. It's more than a language—it's a lingo, a jargon, a vernacular, an argot."
Some are inclined to attach our reliance on gun terminology to an affinity for the Wild West slice of American history. Bledstein calls that nonsense.
"That gives the idea that if we didn't have the Wild West, we'd have a lawful society and wouldn't have any guns," he says. "That's just not the case. There we as many, if not more, guns in cities and rural areas. Guns have certainly never been limited to the Wild West."
Phrases that evoke guns and their various and deadly functions are common because, quite simply, they're powerful, Bledstein contends.
"It has to do with the power of gun technology, which plays a very large historic role since the middle of the 19th century," he says. "The gun transformed the world—certainly it transformed the nature of war. But even people who don't go to war—not very many people do—vicariously experience the power of this tool."
That translates into powerful expression.
"It's the way we express ourselves emotionally," he says. "It's a feeling. It makes one feel more powerful. It's visceral and graphic."
Twitter @heidistevens13


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Hours before the start of Hollywood's biggest night of the year with the Academy Awards, NASCAR rolled out its own red carpet for the Daytona 500.
Sunday's Sprint Cup Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway, which was completed roughly 30 minutes quicker than the Oscars show, had a number of award winners worth mentioning.
Jimmie Johnson won for best male driver in a leading role for his victory in the Daytona 500. Johnson nabbed the top prize -- the Harley J. Earl Trophy and a $1,525,275 payday -- after winning NASCAR's most prestigious race of the season. The five-time Sprint Cup champion fended off a last-lap challenge from Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. to win this event for a second time. His first came in 2006.
"There's no other way to start the season than to win the Daytona 500," said Johnson, who claimed his 61st career victory in the series. "I'm a very lucky man to have won it twice. I'm very honored to be on that trophy with all the greats that have ever been in our sport."
Is there any doubt who deserved the honor for best female driver in a leading role? We've heard about Danica Patrick 's eighth-place finish more so than Johnson's victory in the Daytona 500. She is worthy of the attention, though. It has been a week full of records for Patrick at NASCAR's most famous racetrack. She became the first female to start on the pole and lead a lap in this race prior to securing the best-ever finish for a woman in it. Her boyfriend, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. , finished four spots behind in 12th.
Unlike Jennifer Lawrence taking a tumble while on her way to collect the Oscar for Best Actress, Patrick kept her pace throughout the Daytona 500.
"Being able to stay up front, get to the lead at one point, just run up in the top 10, for me that was more of an accomplishment," Patrick said.
Let's give her first laps led in the Daytona 500 the award for best sound. Patrick received the biggest roar from the crowd not only during driver introductions but when she led each of her five laps in the race. Sorry, Dale Earnhardt Jr. You weren't the crowd favorite this time.
With Patrick having a solid performance in the race, you certainly have to give her crew chief, Tony Gibson , the honor for best achievement in directing. Gibson has done a marvelous job guiding Patrick's Sprint Cup efforts since the two started working together at the tail end of the 2012 season. It definitely showed during Speedweeks.
"That was awesome," Gibson said after Patrick's top-10 finish. "She came out here and ran up front all day long. To be the first woman to sit on the pole for the Daytona 500, and the first woman to lead a lap in the Daytona 500 and the highest finish ever is pretty damn impressive. What else are you going to get from that?"
Best supporting roles went to all track personnel who worked feverishly overnight on Saturday to repair the damaged catch fence from the horrifying last-lap crash that occurred on the front stretch in the Nationwide Series race.
Hey, why not give the gold award statue for best visual effects to Mother Nature. Unlike last year's Daytona 500, there was no "Skyfall." The weather forecast for the area on Sunday called for a threat of rain.
There is one other award of note. With just two nominees in this category, best foreign-born driver went to Australian Marcos Ambrose , who finished 18th compared to a 39th-place run for Colombia's Juan Pablo Montoya in this race.
While "Argo" won the Oscar for Best Picture, NASCAR's new Sprint Cup race car, the Gen-6, wasn't exactly a hit in the Daytona 500. Maybe the car will get better reviews next weekend when the series heads Phoenix.


text: The synthetic drug K2 mimics the effects of marijuana, and has been banned in Iowa before. But it is still available because manufacturers can simply change the formula slightly, and the new drug isn't banned by the bill. After three students in a Des Moines High School were hospitalized, legislatures have acted on the issue. A bill that provides broader restrictions on synthetic drugs has passed a House committee during funnel week, and is set to be debated on the House floor. Funnel week is a time when lawmakers must pass any bill they hope to debate on the full House or Senate floor through committee, or the bill stands little chance of getting passed. Our local Representative, Jarad Klein, has been working with the bill to ban synthetic drugs for some time. He was a part of the bill that originally banned K2. He says that this bill passed committee, and although it passed along party lines, he thinks there is support on both sides of the aisle. KCII will continue to follow this bill as it gets debated on the House floor.


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Whether Charles Woodson is still an elite safety at age 37 is up for debate. What's not in question is his ability give blunt, honest assessments rather than applying a thick layer of sugar to a sour effort.
Some highlights from two post-game waves of reporters from Woodson, who it should be noted did not exclude himself from the defensive issues in a 37-27 loss to the New York Jets Sunday at the Meadowlands:
The biggest problem for the defense: That's as embarrassing a game that I've ever been a part of. I think each one of us took turns messing up calls, defense (and) not making plays."
Why the defense struggled: I don't want to sit here and make excuses about anything. We've played well at times and we haven't played well and today is as bad as we've played this whole season. It's really embarrassing to be a part of it. We were like the Bad News Bears out there today. In saying that, I do want to give credit to our offense. They just kept fighting today and really gave us a chance to still be in the game. Defensively we went out there and basically peed down our legs."
On if the Jets did anything unexpected on offense: No. They ran what we thought they would run. It's really been that way for the past couple of weeks now. Teams have just done their stuff and they've won with it. We haven't come up close with stops that we neede to come up with to stay in games or finish games.
On the perception that a month ago, the defense was the strength of the team:
Not today. Not today. Just bad football. A lot of bad football out there today, but the whole group. Everybody's included. Nobody's excluded. We all took turns today dropping the ball, basically. We allowed a team to basically do what they wanted today. It's very embarrassing to put that kind of effort out there on film. It looks bad on us. It looks bad on the coaches. This is a tough way to lose, coming into a game feeling like this is a game you should win and lose the way we lost.
On the inability to win in the East Coast time zone: Again, we felt like this is a game we should have won. I don't know about losing on the East Coast and all that, or what it hasn't gotten done, but we haven't gotten it done. So we'll have to try to fix that at some point.
On letting struggling quarterback Geno Smith getting into a rhythm and have big game:
Really just inexcusable. I really can't make any excuses. I can't pinpoint why today was the way it was. But we allowed him to be sort of great today. It's really disappointing.
On the screen pass over his fingertips on a rightside blitz that Bilal Powell turned into a 24-yard gain on third down:
They ended up having a screen play on, and when it looks like you're right there on a screen, that's really where they want you to be. They were able to get it to the running back for a big gain. Just throughout the game today, we didn't play good fundamental football. We didn't do what we were supposed to do as 11 men, as a unit going out there on the field, and that's what happens when you go out there when you don't do it.
On what he wants out of the last three games: I want to win. At this point it's about winning. I don't care about how it looks or what the record is. Winning is winning to me and I'd love to win the next three games.
On if he's surprised at the quality of defense being played at this point of the season: I was very surprised at today. I think we're better than what we displayed out there today. But what we did today is what it is. I really can't explain why it just went as bad as it did today. One of those games you don't really have an answer for. Hey man, we've got to take it on the chin _ again _ like we have a few other games. All we can do now is move forward and make sure we end on a positive note.
The secret of making sure the team doesn't finish poorly: Ain't no secrets. It's all focus and working hard, which is what you need when you've got a winning record. You've just got to focus in on your responsibilities and what you're supposed to do. There's really no guard against guys thinking about the offseason and getting home and that sort of thing, but once you step on the field, you've got to do your job, bottom line.


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text: Hey everyone! I hope all is well. I'm a new to the Online business. Started my first site in May of 2012 and its chugging along. It would be awesome if people could review it and give me some feed back and pointers on becoming more successful. The link is http://www.amlancerevo.com. Thanks to everyone in advance.


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Extension > Agriculture > Nutrient Management > Nitrogen > Nitrogen application with irrigation water-chemigation
Nitrogen application with irrigation water: chemigation
On this page
- Advantages and benefits
- Disadvantages and risks
- Irrigation systems
- Nitrogen sources
- Nitrogen rate and timing
Applying a portion of a crop's nitrogen (N) requirement with irrigation water is a recognized best management practice to reduce nitrate leaching losses for some crops grown on coarse textured soils.
This practice is called nitrogen chemigation but is more commonly referred to as fertigation. This practice has been widely used by irrigating farmers for several years.
Research in Minnesota and neighboring states has shown that splitting N applications on high N use irrigated crops such as corn, sweet corn, and potatoes grown on sandy soils generally benefits crop yield, N use efficiency and the environment. Minnesota's N management plan, developed by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) and others, also encourages the use of this practice for some irrigated crops grown on sandy soils. Tables 1 and 2 show corn and potato yield response to different N management strategies for different years.
Table 1. Corn Yields Affected By N Management at Becker, MN.
|N Treatments
|Corn Yield - bushels per acre
|Nitrogen pounds per acre
|Split 2/3, 1/3
|Split 1/3, 2/3
|8 Leaf
|12 Leaf
|Split 1/6, 1/6, 3/6, 1/6
|Leaching Events
|5" early June
|+5" mid-June
|+IH = first N application contained a nitrogen inhibitor
2 split = preplant + 12 leaf; 4 split = preplant + 8 leaf + 12 leaf + tassel
Source: Malzer & Graff, 1980, 1981 and 1982, University of Minnesota Soil Science Series
Table 2. Potato Yields Affected By N Management at Becker, MN.
|Fresh Weight 3+ oz. Size
|cwt per acre
|40, 40, 40
|80, 80, 0
|0, 120, 120
|40, 100, 100
|80, 80, 80
|120, 60, 60
|40, 40, 40, 40+40
|Leaching Events
|+5" June
|4 rains
|N splits - starter, emergence, hilling, post hilling w/sap test
Source: Rosen, 1991 and 1992, University of Minnesota Soil Science Series
This publication outlines the factors (irrigation systems, safety devices, calibrations, etc.) that a farm manager who irrigates needs to consider before starting nitrogen chemigation with one or more irrigation systems. A chemigation user permit must be obtained from MDA and safety devices installed to apply N after January 1994.
Advantages and benefits
- Provides the farm manager with an option to apply additional N to a rapidly growing crop needing extra nitrogen.
- Reduces the environmental risk associated with having a large portion of a crop's fertilizer N supply available for potential leaching into the ground water by major rains.
- Increases the crop's N use efficiency in most growing seasons.
- May reduce the total N application, especially in growing seasons without excessive spring rains.
Disadvantages and risks
- Uniformity of N application depends on the water uniformity from the irrigation system.
- Extra investment must be made for the chemigation system and safety equipment.
- Liquid N sources for injection are commonly more expensive than other forms.
- The farm manager/operator must take time to learn about chemigation safety devices, calibration and management practices.
- Potential risk for all or a portion of the N supply to flow back into the irrigation water source (ground or surface) if two or more of the required safety devices malfunctions while chemigating.
- Requires maintaining a chemigation user permit with the MDA.
Irrigation systems
Apply nitrogen with irrigation water only with systems that can provide a uniform water application over the entire field and at an application rate that does not exceed the infiltration rate of the soil. Distribution of injected N through an irrigation system is no better than the same system's distribution of water.
An irrigation system that causes water movement down the plant rows is exceeding the soil intake rate and will not provide adequate N distribution. This situation may cause some N to either leach into the ground water in the areas where the water ponds or move into surface water by runoff.
Sprinkler systems like the center pivot (electric or oil drive) and the linear move can provide a very uniform distribution of water and N if the sprinkler package is properly selected and maintained. However, most water driven center pivots should not be used since the application around each drive tower is usually much higher than between the towers. Center pivots and linears can be equipped with several types of sprinkler packages (10 to 60 psi) and each can provide adequate water distribution. The end gun on a center pivot should only be operated during chemigation if it can be controlled to spray water within the field property.
Center pivots and linears are continuous moving systems. The nitrogen supply must be injected into the irrigation water at a constant rate and concentration to produce a uniform N distribution. Use a liquid N source and an adjustable injection metering device (piston pump, diaphragm pump or venturi injector).
Traveling guns and set move sprinkler systems (side wheel roll, hand move lateral) do not distribute water as uniformly over the field as center pivots because of the overlaps between moves. These systems should only be used to apply N fertilizer when the wind is very low and no other N application method is available.
Solid set sprinkler or trickle systems can provide adequate distribution of water and N when properly designed and operated. These systems do not generally require constant N rate injection so some granular sources may be dissolved in water and batch loaded with a venturi injector or a mixing tank.
Nitrogen sources
Several sources of commercially prepared N fertilizer are available for supplementing a crop's N needs. However, not every source can be easily injected into irrigation water or mixes well with irrigation water. Some fertilizer sources, such as ammonium thiosulfate, may also have limitations on application rates to prevent plant damage.
Liquid urea-ammonium nitrate (28%) is the most common source of N injected into irrigation water. It maintains a constant concentration without agitation and is easy to transport and store. These are necessary characteristics for irrigation systems such as the center pivot that require continuous injection to produce a uniform distribution of the fertilizer. This N source supplies three (3) pounds of N fertilizer for each gallon applied.
Granular fertilizers like ammonium nitrate or sulfate can be used in batch loading situations with solid set sprinkler or trickle systems.
Anhydrous ammonia or any other N fertilizer that has free ammonia should not be applied through any sprinkler systems in Minnesota. Ammonia can react chemically with the salts in the water and form precipitates that coat the inside of pipelines and possibly plug sprinklers. Some of the ammonia can also be lost to the atmosphere due to volatization while water is sprayed into the air.
Nitrogen rate and timing
Timing of a N application and the N rates suggested for irrigated crop production depend on several factors. They include type of crop, soil texture, crop growth rate, yield goal and in-field N credits from previous crop and manure.
For corn, chemigation is best used to apply only the last 1/6 to 1/3 of the crop's N needs. This should be started at or just before the plant's peak N uptake time. Peak N use time for corn starts between the 12th and 16th leaf stage of development and slows down substantially by the time the silk turns brown.
Figure 1.
Timing of a late N chemigation for potatoes generally should only be applied when based on petiole nitrate status. Nitrogen demand by potatoes is generally greatest between initial tuber growth and tuber enlargement (3 to 8 weeks after emergence). Figure 1 shows the rate of N uptake by potato vines and tubers as the plant matures.
The total amount of N fertilizer applied by chemigation typically may vary between 20 to 60 pounds per acre depending on the N requirements for the crop. With the larger amounts, the application should be split into two or three chemigation events.
The total N requirements for a given crop can be estimated from information published in:
- Managing Nitrogen for Corn Production on Irrigated Sandy Soils (PDF);
- Nutrient Management for Commercial Fruit & Vegetable Crops in Minnesota; and
- FO-3425 Potato Fertilization on Irrigated Soils.
Injection methods
Nitrogen can be injected into pressurized irrigation systems by several metering methods.
Continuous moving irrigation systems like the center pivot require a meter device that can provide a constant injection rate. The positive displacement pumps and the venturi injector are the most common injection equipment for moving systems like the center pivot. The metering device for a given system should be sized to have the ability to apply the desired N rate per acre (eg. 10 to 30 pounds) at a reasonable water depth (1/3 to 1").
Solid set sprinkler or trickle systems can be set up to apply N at a constant rate but both are more commonly operated with a batch loading technique. The venturi injector is suited for either injection approach. Batch loading can also be done with a pressure differential mixing tank for systems that cover small acreage.
Positive displacement pumps are available in two basic arrangements: piston and diaphragm. Both types are marketed by several manufacturers and are available in at least two or more injection rate ranges. A pump should be selected for a given field situation so that it will not have to be operated at the high or low end of the injection range. Some pumps may require a pair of injectors to provide the necessary injection rate.
Diaphragm pumps can be adjusted very easily during injecting while piston pumps need to be stopped. Most pump models can operate within a wide range of irrigation system pressures.
Three-phase electric motors are the most common source of power for piston and diaphragm pumps. Some injection pump models can be driven by belt power or a water motor.
Venturi injectors come in several sizes and can be operated under different pressure conditions. Most venturi systems are set up in a shunt pipeline parallel to the main irrigation pipeline since they require at least a 20% differential pressure to work properly. Venturi injectors do not require external power to operate but some chemigation units utilize a small booster pump in the shunt pipeline to produce a differential pressure. Venturi systems can be easily adjusted during operation to change the rate of chemical injection.
Pressurized differential mixing tanks are available in only a few sizes, with the largest tank suited for only a few acres at a time. Pressurized mixing tanks require diversion of some water from the main irrigation line into the tank; then returning the mixed solution back into the main line at a point of lower pressure. The rate of flow back into the main line is controlled by a regulating valve, but chemical concentration will be slowly reduced over the injection time period. Some mixing tanks are equipped with a collapsible bag that separates the chemical from the water. This modification allows the chemical to be injected at a more constant rate. Both systems may require repeated fillings to complete the application.
Chemigation safety measures
Nitrogen solutions used during chemigation have the potential of getting into the irrigation water source if proper operating procedures and safety devices are not installed or maintained by the operator.
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture's chemigation regulations require all irrigation systems applying nitrogen after January 1994 to contain several safety devices and measures. These measures will minimize the risk of accidentally contaminating the water source. MDA also requires each irrigation system to have a chemigation users permit.
Detailed information on chemigation user permits and safety equipment can be obtained from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, Agronomy Services Office at 90 West Plato Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55107 (phone 612/297-2614).
Chemigation has three main ways of potentially polluting irrigation water sources if safety devices are not functioning correctly. These three are:
- The N solution in the supply tank and irrigation pipe line could flow back or be siphoned back into the water source when the irrigation system shuts down.
- The chemigation system could continue to inject N into the irrigation pipe line when the irrigation system shuts down, thus causing the N solution to spill onto the ground or flow back into the water source.
- The chemigation system could shut down while the irrigation system continues to operate and force water back into the N supply tank causing it to overflow and spill onto the ground.
Figure 2 shows a typical arrangement of safety devices and measures required by MDA regulations to protect an irrigation water well or surface water source from any of the problems described above.
Figure 2.
MDA's basic safety devices and measures for N chemigation are described as follows:
- A single positive closing check valve (MDA approved) must be installed in the main pipeline between the point of chemical injection and the irrigation water supply pump. The check valve must contain an air vacuum relief valve and automatic low pressure release valve immediately upstream from the check valve flapper. The low pressure drain must be located on the bottom of the pipe and positioned to discharge flow away from an irrigation well head or surface body of water. The check valve must also have an inspection port that can be easily opened to inspect the check valve flapper and the low pressure drain when the irrigation system is shut down. If the chemigation system is connected to a potable well or a public water supply system the main pipeline must contain a Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) approved reduced pressure zone (RPZ) backflow preventer.
- The chemigation injection meter must be interlocked with the irrigation system's power source or water supply so it will shut down anytime the irrigation system or pumping plant stops running or the irrigation water flow is disrupted.
- The injector's discharge hose must contain a positive closing check valve that will not allow flow either way when the injection metering device is not operating.
- The irrigation system must contain a low pressure shut-down switch on the main pipeline that will shut down the irrigation system and the chemigation system if the operating pressure of the irrigation system drops to a pressure unsatisfactory for proper N and water distribution.
- The chemigation supply tank must not be located closer to an irrigation well than the distance specified in the MDH rules, chapter 4725. And, it must be safeguarded according to the MDA specifications described in the following discussion. The separation distance from a surface water source must likewise be no less than that specified for an irrigation well unless other state/federal regulations are more applicable.
- The chemigation supply tank must be housed in a secondary containment (dike) unit if the tank storage meets at least two of the following conditions: a) the supply tank has a rated capacity of more than 1500 gallons, b) the tank is located within 100 feet of a water supply, and c) the supply tank storage is located at the site for more than 30 consecutive days.
The minimum required capacity for a secondary containment unit is 125 percent of the tank capacity (110% if under a roof). The secondary containment unit must be constructed of solid reinforced masonry, reinforced concrete, metal or synthetic materials and be leakproof at all times.
Chemigation calibration is very important to assure that the desired amount of N is distributed uniformly over the irrigated field. It is also very helpful in determining the best size of injection meter and supply tank needed to match the given irrigation system.
Several factors are involved in calibrating an injection meter (positive displacement pump or venturi) for a moving irrigation system like a center pivot. These factors are:
- Acres covered by the irrigation system.
- Hours for the irrigation system to cover the acres.
- Gallons of nitrogen solution required per acre.
You can calculate the required injection rate of liquid N into the irrigation water for a center pivot by using the following equation:
GPH = A * V divided by T
GPH = injection rate of liquid N in gallons per hour
A = area to be fertilized in acres
V = volume of N solution needed in gallons per acre
T = time to irrigate/chemigate the field in hours
The area (A) of the field can be estimated using the ASCS reported acreage, or calculated by using actual field dimensions.
The volume (V) of N per acre depends on the concentration of the N source and the desired N application rate. For example, to apply 20 pounds of liquid urea-ammonium nitrate (28-0-0) per acre divide 20 by 3 (3 lbs N per gallon), which means 6.7 gallons of 28% N is needed per acre. Amounts for other N rates are shown in Table 3.
Table 3. Amount of 28-0-0 N fertilizer required to give various rates of available N per acre.
|N Rates lbs/ac
|28% Gallons/ac.
Total time (T) to irrigate/chemigate the field should be estimated by measuring the actual time required to operate a complete pass over the field at the desired water depth. If time doesn't allow for a complete pass, determine the time in minutes the end tower takes to travel 100 feet when operated at the desired speed. For a center pivot, then convert the test time to hours and take it times the circumference of the end tower in feet and divide by 100 (= test run length). If the center pivot is not a full circle, estimate or measure the actual length of the end tower wheel path. Figure 3 shows an example of calculating the total travel time (T) for a center pivot.
Figure 3.
To calibrate the injection meter, first set the meter at the manufacturer's suggested setting for the calculated injection rate (GPH). Then run an injection test (with only water) into the irrigation system while it is operating. While injecting, measure the amount of water that is being injected over a given time and compare the rate to the calculated rate. If the rates are not the same, readjust the injector meter and retest the system.
Once the actual chemigation operation is started, recheck the injection rate and readjust the meter if necessary. Recheck one or more times during the chemigation process.
For batch loading with a solid set sprinkler or trickle system, the volume of total N is the main calibration component. Total volume of N for batch loading is dependent on the area of the irrigated zone and the desired N rate. The injection rate does not need to be precisely controlled. However, the injector should apply the N in a time period which does not result in over-irrigation or leaching of any previously applied chemical and should not be damaging to any part of the irrigation system or crop.
If an irrigation system presents a more complicated calibration situation, assistance can be obtained from one of the authors of this publication, chemical injection representative or county extension staff.
Management tips
Safe and accurate N chemigation requires the following steps to be followed each time an application of N is made:
- Check travel time of the irrigation system at the desired water application depth and recalculate the chemical injection rate for the planned amount of nitrogen.
- Inspect performance of the check valves, low pressure drain, low pressure shutdown switch and all fittings on the chemical supply and discharge hose. Repair all malfunctioning parts before initiating the next chemigation.
- After the chemigation process has started, recheck the N injection rate and adjust if not equal to the planned application.
- Periodically revisit the irrigation system and recheck the operation of the injection meter, operating pressure of the system, and water distribution of the irrigation system including the end gun operation on center pivots.
- At the end of each N application continue running water through the irrigation system until all of the N has been discharged from the pipeline of the irrigation system. This may take 10 to 15 minutes. Also run clean water through the injection meter, chemical discharge hose and check valve. If you're not planning to use the chemigation system more this year, remove any left-over N from the supply tank or relocate the tank at least 150 feet from any water source (unless in the required containment unit).
- If an accident occurs, take action to keep potential spill to a minimum and report the incident to the MDA immediately (1-800-422-0798) for assistance.
Fanning, C. 1981. Fertigation. North Dakota Cooperative Extension Service. Water Spouts Newsletter. June issue.
Fischbach, P. 1973. Fertilizing Through Center Pivots. University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension Service. Fact Sheet 73-20.
Haman, D.Z., A. Smajstrla & F. Zazueta. 1990. Chemical Injection Methods for Irrigation. Florida Cooperative Extension Service. Circular 864.
1993. Minnesota Rules, parts 1505.2100-2800 (MDA chemigation) and 4725.3350 & 4450 (MDH water well cross connection and separation distances with pollution sources).
Wall, D.B. and B.R. Montgomery. 1991. Nitrogen in Minnesota Ground Water. Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and Minnesota Department of Agriculture.
Werner, H. 1991. Chemigation: Is it for you? South Dakota State University Cooperative Extension Service. Fact Sheet 861.
This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Extension, under special project number 91-EWQI-1-9265.Copyright © 2013 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.


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McHENRY – McHenry residents are invited to a "Coffee with the Chief" event from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Monday in the classroom inside City Hall, 333 S. Green St.
This public meeting with Police Chief John Jones is offered to residents as part of the McHenry Police Department's continued commitment to keeping the community informed while obtaining feedback from the public.
All McHenry residents are encouraged to attend.
This month's topic is "Street Drugs in the McHenry Area." Topics will include the identification of street-level drugs in McHenry; how they affect our community; and what action is being taken.
The evening will end with a question-and-answer session to allow residents to ask questions or state concerns to Jones.
For information, call the department at 815-363-2200.
– Northwest Herald


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Nairobi, 22 June 2009—A scientific paper, highlighting the need to accelerate action over a group of gases known as Hydroflurocarbons (HFCs) as part of the climate change agenda, was today welcomed by the head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
The findings, by an international team of researchers are published in the Proceeedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The scientists argue that HFC use could climb sharply in the coming years in products such as insulation foams, air conditioning units and refrigeration as replacements for ones being phased-out to protect the ozone layer.
Under a scenario where carbon dioxide emissions are pegged to 450 parts per million HFCs could equal nine Gigatonnes—equivalent to around 45 per cent of total C02 emissions-- by 2050 if their growth is unchecked.
Conversely, rapid action to freeze and to cut emissions annually alongside fostering readily available alternatives could see HFC emissions fall to under one Gigatonne by 2050.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, said: "Dramatically cutting carbon dioxide emissions from society's inefficient energy use is the key to catalyzing a transition to a low, carbon, resource efficient Green Economy. It is also central to delivering a stabilization of the atmosphere as outlined by the assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change".
"But there are other low hanging fruit in the climate change challenge and this new scientific paper spotlights one of them—HFCs. By some estimates, action to freeze and then reduce this group of gases could buy the world the equivalent of a decades-worth of C02 emissions," he added.
The projected growth in production and consumption of HFCs is in part linked with the success of the UNEP-administered Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer.
Since the late 1980s, this treaty has successfully phased-out 97 per cent of 100 chemicals that damage the protective shield that filters out harmful ultra violet rays to the Earth.
Over recent years, research has outlined that global efforts to protect the ozone layer has also delivered climate benefits as many of the chemicals that damage the ozone layer—such as chloroflurocarbons or CFCs-- also cause global warming.
In 2007 a scientific paper calculated the climate mitigation benefits of the ozone treaty as totalling an equivalent of 135 billion tonnes of C02 since 1990 or a delay in global warming of seven to 12 years.
In that same year countries meeting in Canada, under the Montreal Protocol, agreed to an accelerated freeze and phase-out of Hydrochloroflurocarbons (HCFCs)—chemicals designed to replace the old, more ozone-damaging CFCs—in the main for the climate benefits.
The new paper indicates that unless there is action on HFCs, then countries and companies are likely to pick this group of gases to replace HCFCs in products such as air conditioning units, refrigeration and insulating foams.
Guus Velders of the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, the lead author, said in a statement: "Our team of scientists calculates that HFCs present a significant threat to the world's efforts to stabilize climate emissions".
"Because of the projected growth of these climate-warming chemicals, they could represent up to 45 per cent of the total global C02 emissions by 2050 under a scenario that stabilizes C02 emissions at 450 parts per million. Preventing strong growth in HFC use is an important climate mitigation option the world has now".
Under a business as usual scenario, where C02 emissions are higher, HFCs could equate to between nine and 19 per cent of C02 emissions in 2050 causing a greenhouse effect equal to 6-13 years of global C02 pollution.
In 2008, governments requested the executive secretaries of the Montreal Protocol and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change—Marco Gonzalez and Yvo de Boer-- to cooperate more closely including on the issue of HFCs and that cooperation is on-going.
For More Information Please Contact Nick Nuttall, UNEP Spokesperson/Head of Media, on Tel: +254 733 632755 or E-mail: email@example.com
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text:
ROCK ISLAND, Ill. – Trailing by two goals with two minutes remaining in regulation, the Concordia University Wisconsin Men's Lacrosse team responded, scoring twice, the latter coming with four seconds left to force overtime. CUW would then net the game-winner with 1:25 remaining in overtime for a 14-13 Midwest Lacrosse Conference win over Augustana College on Saturday at Thorson-Lucken Field.
Sophomore Matt Garvey (Winnipeg, Manitoba) scored the game-tying goal with four seconds left in regulation and senior Danny Dahms (Calgary, Alberta) buried the game-winner for the Falcons. The Dahms winner was assisted by junior Derek Brueske (Hopkins, Minnesota).
The three late goals capped off an incredible comeback by the Falcons as they trailed by five with four minutes remaining in the third quarter. CUW answered with three goals over a 1:09 span to cut the Vikings lead to two late in the third. Two of those goals were man-up as CUW finished with five man-up goal, two coming from senior Sam Wladyka (Winnipeg, Manitoba).
CUW (2-2, 1-0 MLC) dominated the final the fourth quarter and overtime, outscoring AC 5-1. Junior Matt Larsen (Gurnee, Ill.) scored two of his team-best four goals in the fourth. He added an assist, leading the team with five points. His final goal came with 1:58 left in regulation, cutting the AC lead to 13-12.
The game started out in favor of the Vikings as they built a 4-1 lead after 15 minutes of play. The Falcons would cut the lead to 7-5 before halftime. Larsen scored his first two goals in the second quarter.
After the break, both teams turned up the offense in the third quarter, combining for nine goals, four coming from CUW. Freshman Colin Raley (Inverness, Ill.) scored a man-up goal in the third period, while Dahms added an unassisted score that helped start the Falcons rally.
Sophomore Danny Bundra (Lake Zurich, Ill.) played a key role in the Falcons win as he was dominant in his faceoff role. Bundra won 18-of-28 faceoffs during the contest.
CUW also had an advantage in groundballs, gaining 45 compared to 37 for the Vikings. CUW held a 12-6 edge in groundballs over the fourth quarter. Senior Kyle Burrell (Calgary, Alberta) tied his career-high with eight groundballs in the contest. CUW finished the game with nine caused turnovers.
Junior Emmet O'Malley (Elk Grove Village, Ill.) made 14 saves in picking up the victory. His counterpart, Cody Burgdorff, stopped 13 shots as each team finished the game with 27 shots on goal.
Three Falcons finished the game with four or more points, led by Larsen's five. Dahms and Wladyka each added four points, both players scoring twice and assisting on two goals. Garvey added three points (one goal, two assists) and Brueske finished with a goal and an assist for CUW.
The Falcons will return to action Wednesday when they visit MSOE for another MLC showdown. The contest between CUW and the Raiders is scheduled for a 7 p.m. start.


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Skip to comments.In Search of Meaning at Sandy Hook
Posted on 12/16/2012 1:13:22 PM PST by Kaslin
There are just some things children should never see.
Unfortunately for those who attend Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newton, Ct. they now have not only seen them but will have them burned in their memories for the better part of their lives. Being escorted by police, stepping over bodies of dead classmates, trying to avoid stepping in pools of blood, and simply getting out of your schoolhouse and back to the safety of the arms of a parent--would be trauma enough--even without the violent screams of terror and gunshot that preceded it.
The innocence of a child is one of those true gifts in life.
Their ability to see the beauty in things that adults grow hardened towards is a joy that seems limitless. The wide-eyed wonder of those early years of life is something our culture seems insistent on robbing from them earlier each year. But in the face of sheer evil that wonder begins to be erased all together. When that innocence is robbed from them, the effects of it suddenly being gone--particularly earlier in life than it should be--scars will likely be left on their souls that they may never heal from.
Or so it seems...
Friday morning 20 families dropped off their babies at Sandy Hook, that did not come home with them that night. Nor will they ever again. The holes in the hearts of these families are never made whole. The pain, though it subsides over time, is never fully eliminated.
The mommies who had carefully wrapped a special present and put it under the tree with the joy of giving it to them and to see their face glow on Christmas morning, will discover that moment will forever be in want.
And all the potential of those 20 lives--mowed down as pieces of grass--will forever be withheld from the world's pool of talent. The future contributions each of these young minds, lives, bodies, and hands could create, produce, originate or innovate--society has lost.
Another particularly harsh reality that will set in will be the horrific blame-placing one parent will do to another. Why hadn't they decided to go ahead and keep that child home this morning, he or she told us they weren't feeling well? And if history is any teacher, several of these families or marriages will dissolve because of the unbearable trauma it is to endure when a parent buries their child.
God never intended that reality.
The unfiltered evil on display Friday morning occurred in "the safest place in the entire world," according to those from Newton. It is by most accounts, "an adorable little town."
Then there is the one truly at fault--the one who pulled that trigger. The heart that was bathed, lathered, and soaked in the molestation of a satanic force until it had marinated to a murderous forte, killed unrepentantly, and with no mercy for the innocent. Selfishness screamed louder than selflessness, and the results of such thinking, is a path of abject destruction.
Oddly it is that very presence of evil, and more specifically the identification of it by any who observed, that also points to mankind's greatest hope.
For evil personified can not exist in this reality or any other without an equal level of good also existing.
It's a yin and yang.
We only understand the horror of evil because of the presence of good we have also seen, witnessed to, felt for ourselves. But if evil is real then there is no need to argue anything - good must also be as well. Logic tells us this, no matter what the social engineers, veiled as university academics try to tell us in this post-Freudian age. There is right and wrong, immoral and moral, and there was no confusion about what was what this week at the Sandy Hook elementary school.
That good that is present is also an objective form of good, something elevated above all we can see,
We commonly call him GOD!
And that God knows something of the suffering those families face this day.
For he lost His son.
Not due to a lone, crazed gunman, but to an angry, illogical, dishonest mob.
Not because of the sin of one, but because of the sin of every-one.
Yours, mine, all of them.
I have no answer tonight for the one question every family member is begging an answer to. In this life, and on this earth we likely will never have an answer as to, "why?"
But I know this: God is.
He is not mocked. And as we sow, He reminds us, we also reap!
What are we sowing? Is it wisdom? Is it truth? Is it honor? Will it heal the riff between a troubled man and his mother? Will it stop anger before it explodes?
God take mercy on us, though we do not deserve it.
Show us the way home, obliterating confusion and helping to walk with clarity--in truth--a little bit more--each day!
Such reflections are worthwhile for all of us.
On the other hand, emotional rhetoric from national, state and local political leaders about one disturbed individual's act which destroyed the lives and liberties of these 20 young innocents remind us that many of these leaders' ideology and policies devalue Creator-endowed life and liberty for millions of other innocents--those in the womb--for whom no tears are shed either by them or the special interest groups who elect them.
At the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC on February 3, 1994, Mother Teresa stated: And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?"
Indeed, if we cannot protect the life and liberty of these smallest versions of ourselves, even with their so-called "imperfections," then Mother Teresa's words take on significant meaning.
Nothing can diminish the pain and loss which has been inflicted upon this wonderful CT community.
Political leaders who may use that loss to lead a "national discussion," however, must not be allowed to limit the "discussion" to one focusing solely on inanimate weapons in the hands of a criminal, or deranged, portion of the society. Neither can it be used to emphasize only the so-called "progressive" political view.
The "discussion," to be worthy of the tragedy which prompts it, must also include a deeper discussion on the meaning and purpose of life at all its natural stages. Mother Teresa's words are worthy of consideration.
He was crazy. Once upon a time, this was considered demonic possession, because the strange thing about a crazy person is that they are entirely obsessed with themselves and their peculiar view of themselves in the universe.
I think we definitely need more moral instruction, since even people who are stark raving mad will sometimes respond to the moral guidelines around them (which we have lost), such as "killing is bad."
However, the churches (all of them, including the Catholic Church) are no longer giving ethical or moral instruction because they feel it might be intrusive and make some dysfunctional person feel bad. So even the loonies have no place to go.
In the 1960s, the United States embarked on an innovative approach to caring for its mentally ill: deinstitutionalization.
Sane people don't commit these crimes: Paranoid schizophrenics do. Death demands an answer: the statists see an opportunity to deal a blow against liberty. We must do better and speak the truth: move the debate from guns to what to do about the deinstitutionalized mentally ill.
Are the children of Sandy Hook Elementary really any worse off than the 6-year-olds who 70 years ago in London, Coventry, Hamburg, Dresden, Berlin, Tokyo, Hiroshima, etc, saw their cities nearly-leveled by thousands of tons of high-explosive bombs and the fires of Hell itself?
That's easy: we've sown the wind and are now reaping the whirlwind.
Daniel 9:14
The LORD did not hesitate to bring the disaster on us,
for the LORD our God is righteous in everything he does;
yet we have not obeyed.
In 2008, there were 47 abortion providers in Connecticut.
In 2008, 17,030 women obtained abortions in Connecticut; or about 46 a day; every day, in 2008.
Thats one death a day per provider.
Sandy Hook lost 26 that fatal day; the entire state lost 46.
The next day the state lost 46.
Tomorrow the state will lose 46 more.
Get back to me when tears are shed and prayers are said; for them - the faceless one's that few, if any, will EVER see.
Point 1. Evil exists, and seems part of the nature of Man.
Point 2. Crazy exists, too. Oh, I forgot, 'crazy' is unpredictable.
The Founders gave us the right to be at all times armed so that we could exercise our G*d given right to exercise free will. The unarmed are mere sheeple, and can not make a decision because they can't enforce it or defend themselves against evil.
"In Search of Meaning at Sandy Hook
That's easy: we've sown the wind and are now reaping the whirlwind."
I must disagree.
The core issue lies in the sad fact that a wealthy mother with resources at her command, continued to harbor a known psychotic and violent family member instead of institutionalizing him.
Her fault, not the communities.
Having said that, the community IS at fault for not allowing teachers to be armed. Had they been armed, PsychoShooter would have been stopped with a much lower number of murders.
"The core issue lies in the sad fact that a wealthy mother with resources at her command, continued to harbor a known psychotic and violent family member instead of institutionalizing him."
That is really easy to say. With today's laws, it is almost impossible to get a family member institutionalized. If you can prove that they are "a threat to themselves or others," then they can be sent to get medical help. They immediately are given drugs, and in as little as 3 days, when they are declared "stable," they are released. Soon, decide they don't need their meds, and the cycle starts all over again.
It is incredibly difficult to get anyone permanently "institutionalized." It is a very short, temporary stay, at best.
Disagree all you want - this Nation has a SIN problem.
So true...
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