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John Romero knows the hazards of hyping a game too much (Daikatana, anyone?). So, even though he is talking about his plans for a new game, he isn't saying too much. But what he is saying is enough to have us wanting more information.
"I'm definitely going to be making another shooter and it will be on PC first," Romero said in an interview with Eurogamer. "I don't want to talk about the details but I already know what it is. I've already kind of designed the thing and it's pretty cool--though of course, I am going to say that. I think it's a neat design, I haven't seen the design anywhere else."
Romero also hinted at a "MMO-ish" style of play, with a persistent world and data. He also wants to keep the pace fast and frenetic.
"I love twitch 180s, fast targeting, fast firing, fast movement," he said. "So anything that's not like that--like current shooters that are basically a track going through a level to the exit and everything is closed off--is not interesting to me. I like to explore my levels, y'know? So I'm not a fan of on-rail shooting or slow-moving cover systems. That's not to say that Gears [of War] isn't a great game but as a player I'm more interested in speed and fast movement."
No comment on whether his Loot Drop studio, which is already working on Ghost Recon Commander for Facebook, would do the project.


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WILMINGTON - In the late 1990s, Mike Scheur started taking his mountain bike on the trails around Lake Placid, hitting spots like the Peninsula trails and those on the former Lake Placid Club property.
"I was terrible at first," he said.
But he continued to ride, and it wasn't long before he hit the trails at Whiteface Mountain, where he went again and again until his skill levels improved. He was hooked.
Article Photos
Mike Scheur rides at the Whiteface Mountain Ski Center's mountain bike center. He goes by the name 'Downhill' Mike because of passion of the sport.
(Photo — Mike Lynch)
"I moved up here to backpack, you know, and all of the sudden I started mountain biking, and it was kind of like hiking, but I could cover way more ground," said Scheur, who was an avid skier and snowboarder and worked as a wholesale distributor for his families business, Acme Sales and Distribution, in Buffalo, before moving here in the 1990s. That job required him to drive 60,000 a year.
Now Scheur and his business partner, Elias Ingraham, run the downhill biking center at Whiteface Mountain for the Lake Placid-based High Peaks Cyclery, which they've been doing for roughly a decade.
And Scheur has essentially shed his last name and goes by the moniker Downhill Mike. He's become part of the mountain from June to October.
Scheur is an avid proponent of biking at Whiteface. It's how he makes a living, but it's obviously a passion for him too.
"I guess you could call it work, but if I didn't have to work I'd be doing the same thing," he said.
He's fond of pointing out factoids. For example, Little Whiteface Mountain, where the most difficult trails start, is about 3,676 foot high and drops 2,424 feet to the base. That's tops in the East.
"The majority of (mountains) offer between 800 and 1,000 feet of vertical," he said. "Killington and (Mount) Snow are up about 1,600 or 1,700 feet, but we just tower over the others."
There are 27 trails, 23 of which are for downhill riding. Most of them are single track. Like ski trails, they are labeled green for easy, blue for intermediate and black for expert. Those who want to ride the expert trails from the top of Little Whiteface can take the gondola, while other riders use a shuttle service to lower elevations.
Scheur said Whiteface offers "some of the most challenging trails on the continent." Many of the trails are "old-school single track with roots and rocks and switchbacks and physically challenging downhill."
But those trails aren't for everyone, and there are plenty of easier trails for beginners.
"If you're new in the sport, you want to talk to us," he said. "You want to stay on the lower mountain, where you can use your own bike just to keep it affordable. You want to keep it comfortable."
Scheur and his partner also offer guided trips and lessons for those who want them.
In addition to the trail riding, Whiteface Mountain offers weekly downhill races. There have been large-scale races in the past at Whiteface, but now they are pretty low key, said Scheur, who knows a thing or two about races. In recent years, he's been organizing downhill races in Boulder City, Nevada, during the winter months called the Bootleg Canyon Winter Gravity Series. The races attract hundreds of competitors and spectators.
Although he spends a lot of time out West, Scheur said the Northeast offers more opportunities for mountain biking. The centers, on ski mountains, are located much closer together. Out West you have to drive many hours between mountains.
"There are more mountains are running their lifts for mountain bikes than before," he said. "The Northeast is just a hot bed for this."
When Scheur first started getting interested in the sport in the 1990s, that wasn't the case.
"Mount Snow, Plattekill and Whiteface were kind of the three original places in the Northeast that really started running their lifts for mountain bikes," he said.
Now it's common for ski resorts to transform into mountain bike centers in the summer, which is right up Scheur's alley.
"I really want to turn people on to it," Scheur said.

subset: commoncrawl


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Eastland-Pearl City clinched at least a share of the Northwest Upstate Illini Northwest title with a 45-7 victory at Dakota on Friday night.
The Wildcatz (8-0) can clinch an undisputed title next week with a home victory over Forreston.
Tyler Thomas rushed 13 times for 149 yards and three touchdowns to pace the EPC attack.
The Wildcatz also had three special teams scores. Cody Kluck returned a kickoff 84 yards for one score and a punt 75 yards for another. Donny Groezinger added a 66-yard punt return for another score.
Dakota averted a shutout after a 13-yard TD run by Matt Ryan in the fourth quarter.
Galena 50, West Carroll 7: Shaun Magill's 83-yard kickoff return in the first quarter provided the lone highlight for the Thunder in a road loss to the Pirates.
West Carroll had just 59 yards of total offense, compared to 510 by the Pirates.
Austin Long (13 carries, 175 yards, 2 TDs), Jesse Sinagra (10 carries, 118 yards, 3 TDs) and Roberto Salgado (13 carries, 111 yards, 1 TD) led Galena.
Warren 39, AFC 22: Jake Kaecker rushed 20 times for 151 yards for the Raiders in a home loss to Warren.
AFC climbed to within 21-16 early in the third quarter after a 6-yard TD pass from Andrew LeFevre to Paul Rod, but Warren responded with three straight scores to seize control.
Brady Raab rushed 13 times for 146 yards, including TD runs of 33 and 70 yards, to lead Warren.
River Ridge 36, Milledgeville 6: The Missiles (1-7, 1-6 NUIC Upstate) managed just a lone score in a road loss.


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Get the latest tips & apps for your Smartphone
Wii U GamePad has 3-5 hour battery life
Shack News Andrew Yoon Jun 6, 2012
Shack News Jun 6, 2012
Andrew Yoon Jun 6, 2012 Read Source
Jun 6, 2012
Nintendo's Wii U GamePad features a ton of tech: gyroscope, camera, and a giant touch screen. So, what kind of battery life can we expect?
According to Nintendo's Japanese website, it will last about 3 to 5 hours.
Battery duration will depend on the brightness of the screen and the stated time is meant merely as a "guideline." Nintendo warns that it may be shorter, depending on how you use it. The GamePad will come with an AC adapter. You will be able to use the GamePad as it charges.


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Its interesting watching the journalist / news release re publishers solely focus on competition from download services and totally ignore mail order.
Download took away all the "I want it on release day" and "I want it now".
Mail order took away all the "I want it cheap" and "I've got metered/slow internet access" and "I want something unusual"
That leaves retail stores with... gift sales? Apparently the book industry has given up on retail except for gift sales, and that works for them, but video games are too fast moving of a target.
Actually, Blizzard is stepping in and issuing refunds to players who buy the game online tonight and submit their preorder receipt.
http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/14/blizzard-fixing-game-australias-mess-giving-diablo-3-to-those/ [joystiq.com]
Thanks for keeping me abreast of this News for Nerds, this Stuff that Matters, Slashdot!
the company's customers hold various claims against the company under loyalty cards, gift cards and vouchers.
Nice to hear that they have some respect for the customers in that regard. When Blockbuster went under, they stopped accepting gift cards locally (gift cards that were paid for in cash) for the final sales. Seems Australia treats the customer better than Canada in such instances.
Loose bits sink chips.


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Orange City, FL Rental Homes and Apartments for Rent
Search rentals in Orange City, FL. At RentalGuide.net, we have comprehensive rental listings to help you find Orange City apartments for rent. You can also find rental houses and condos. Click on a listing to view details, or refine your search for Orange City apartments to search by price, beds and other criteria.


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Bastrop gets its first taste of preseason action tonight when it visits the Alexandria Trojans for a 6 p.m. scrimmage.
After two weeks in pads, coach Thomas Bachman says the Rams are ready to line up against an opponent.
"I think we're at the point where it will be good to go bang with somebody other ourselves," said Bachman, the Rams' second-year head coach. "It's been Week 10 against Franklin Parish since we've had the opportunity to do that."
From a coaching perspective, the scrimmage offers the chance to evaluate the team's strengths and weaknesses.
"This gives us an opportunity to see the progress we've made and the things we need to continue to iron out as we move closer and closer to Week 1."
Bastrop's first offense will run a dozen plays to start tonight's scrimmage, followed by a 12-play scrimmage for ASH. Next, both second offenses will take eight snaps. Also, the first and second offenses from both schools will run a goal line segment. The scrimmage wraps up with a 12-minute quarter.
Two players who have stood out in practice this week are running back Kevin Heard and free safety Lester Lee.
Heard was a reserve last season.
"Kevin Heard had a real good day Wednesday," Bachman said.
Lee, who recorded 32 tackles with an interception last season, is a returning starter.
"LL's played well," Bachman said. "He's an athlete, plus he's smart. He understands what (defensive coordinator Brad Morace) is trying to get accomplished."
Bastrop will play Ouachita on Saturday, Aug. 25 at 6 p.m. in the Bayou Jamb at ULM's Malone Stadium. Other games on the docket include Sterlington vs. West Ouachita at 2, Ouachita Christian vs. Oak Grove at 4 and defending Class 4A state champion Neville vs. defending 5A state champ West Monroe at 8.
Rams scrimmage at ASH
Bastrop gets its first taste of preseason action tonight when it visits the Alexandria Trojans for a 6 p.m. scrimmage.


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Now we go one baby-step down the path where debugging tools like the ones used by these "hackers","pirates", and "anti-establishmentarians" require a license to own and use, because tools like this can apparently cause more damage to our society than an unlicensed firearm can do in a school...
From The Right To Read [gnu.org]:
Dan had had a classmate in software, Frank Martucci, who had obtained an illicit debugging tool, and used it to skip over the copyright monitor code when reading books. But he had told too many friends about it, and one of them turned him in to the SPA for a reward (students deep in debt were easily tempted into betrayal). In 2047, Frank was in prison, not for pirate reading, but for possessing a debugger.
Except, of course, for Windows Media Player which already has (i) patches every few weeks or months anyway (and so its mean time between patches << the probable mean interval between key revocation and 99.99% of customers purchase of a new disc); and (ii) a mechanism for patch delivery that most users are already using and comfortable with.
I'm sure Microsoft would be very upset if 99.99% of the population's perceptions were that every other software movie disc player had issues playing some, mostly n
It's not only feasible, it's exactly what AACS does. Each player has about 500 keys from which it can derive billions more, all structured so that a disk only needs a small number of media keys encrypted with "processing" keys, which the players can derive from the device keys they have. The number of copies of the media key that must be present on each disk is guaranteed to be no more than 2r, where r is the number of individual players that have been revoked. On average, only 1.25r media keys are required.
Though the application is evil, the "subset-difference tree" concept used to make all this work is a very cool bit of math.
Breaking a major hardware player is a big deal, however breaking a software player is fairly trivial in the long-run as long as it can be upgraded.
Breaking a single hardware device won't be a big deal, either, since the key revocation scheme allows that single player to be revoked (not the brand, not the model, not even the factory batch -- that single, specific physical player). What would be big would be finding a way to easily extract the keys from a model, or, even better, a whole class of players. Then, the hackers could just do a player every few weeks, and the worst case for those of us who like to back up the movies we buy is that we'd have to wait a few weeks after the release before we could back it up.
The way AACS key revocation works is that there is a massive binary tree of binary trees of possible encryption keys. The "main" tree is 31 levels deep (allowing for 2^31 possible player devices) and each node has a number of "shadow" trees associated with it (specifically, nodes in layer n of the main tree have n-1 shadow trees). Each player is given a carefully selected and unique set of ~500 keys, from which it can derive an enormous number of keys -- almost every key in that big tree of trees, in fact.
The "almost" in the last sentence is important.
Assuming no players are revoked, each disk needs only have few copies of the media key[1], each encrypted with a "processing" high up in the tree. All players have keys needed to derive[2] these processing keys. When a player is revoked, the publishers carefully select a set of processing keys to use so that every player *except* the revoked player can derive the processing keys. There's a fairly simple algorithm to select such a set of keys, and the structure of the trees ensures that for any set R of revoked players, no more than 2|R| processing keys need to be used (|R| means "size of R", in case that's not obvious).
Each encrypted copy of the media key consumes 32 bytes of disk space, so, assuming a million players have been broken and revoked, each new disk will "waste" 32 MB on encrypted media keys. Given the capacity of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray disks, 32MB is a pittance, so it really is practical for publishers to revoke every key that is extracted and published -- the hard part will be finding them all.
ANY software player will have to put their key in memory at some point while it's running, the new key will be found quickly. And the keys for almost all software players will be found.
Yep, that's a seriously hard problem to solve -- especially when you consider that time and manpower are 100% on the side of the attackers. The attackers have a disadvantage in that they have to work with binary-only code, but if this goes on for long enough, I'll bet the major software players will be so thoroughly reverse engineered that this will cease to be a very meaningful disadvantage.
Large-scale DRM simply cannot work. If you give the devices to enough interested and technically skilled people, they will be broken again, and again, and again.
And, of course, if publishers *did* somehow manage to get ahead of this game, it would just mean that the hackers would keep the keys to themselves, publishing them only to small groups of trusted friends -- all of whom would be ripping movies like mad and making torrents available so that everyone else can get them.
[1] The Media Key is used to encrypt the title keys, which are used to encrypt the titles. There are generally multiple titles per disk -- usually one for the main feature, and others for each of the extras, some for bits of the animated menus, etc. I've been puzzling over exactly how many copies of the media key are required in the no-devices-revoked case, and I haven't been able to figure it out yet. An answer and explanation from someone who understands this stuff well would be appreciated.
[2] The keys given to the players are called "device keys". The players l
Correction -- If a million players are revoked, up to *two* million copies of the media key will be required, consuming 64MB of space on each disk. However, that's only if the million broken devices are selected so that revocation is maximally inefficient. If they're selected at random, on average only ~1.25M MKB entries are required, so only 40MB of the disk must be used for MKB entries. That's 0.2% of a single-layer HD-DVD and 0.08% of a dual-layer Blu-Ray. Or, it's about 20 seconds of HD video, assuming that a single-layer HD-DVD will hold two hours. If a dual layer Blu-Ray disk contained video encoded at such a high bit rate that it would only hold two hours, the MKB block would eat up space equivalent to six seconds of video -- and that's with a *million* revoked keys).
In practice, of course, the time unavailable for video will bever be a problem. If the movie and the MKB can't both fit, you just tweak the encoding to drop the average bitrate by a 10-20 kbps. When you're encoding normally at 8,000-20,000 kbps no one will be able to see the reduced quality. Also, even regular DVDs are rarely within 100MB of being full. There's plenty of room available for "large" MKBs.
What do you mean, "will result?" It already has resulted in hardware DRM -- if you have Vista and a machine with a TPM, it's already there!
What do you mean, "will result?" It already has resulted in hardware DRM -- if you have Vista and a machine with a TPM, it's already there!
No, actually, it isn't. While the TPM could be used to "seal" the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray player device keys to a given boot state, the decryption of the disk contents would still have to be done using the main processor (TPMs don't do bulk decryption, don't know anything about AACS, and aren't programmable to teach them how to do the AACS key derivation/decryption scheme).
Also, I don't know that Vista is really TPM-aware.
In the near future, it may become the case that if you have (a) Vista + some service pack, (b) a TPM and (c) a processor with hardware virtualization support (Intel VT/AMD-V), then your HD-DVD/Blu-Ray player may run on a separate virtual machine which your main OS has no access to and which you therefore cannot debug, and the TPM may be used to seal the device keys to the particular software in that VM, so that no other piece of software has any reasonable hope of retrieving them.
Collectively, BTW, (a), (b) and (c) above are known as Palladium, aka NGSCB.
Personally, I think it's more likely that your video card may gain an AACS subsystem, so your PC would feed the data stream from the disk to your video card, which will decrypt the data and display it. The video card would then have to have a way to securely transfer the audio stream to your sound card. Or maybe your sound and video card will negotiate secure data connections to your HD-DVD-ROM drive and the drive would do the AACS stuff and feed it securely to your output devices, so that your main processor never gets to see an unencrypted copy.
There are ways to make software players more secure, but a TPM alone is insufficient, unless the OS is airtight, unhackable/modifiable even by the administrator. Given Microsoft's track record with making an OS unhackable by random people around the world with no privileges on the box at all, I don't think that's going to happen.
As I've mentioned in another post, each device has a whole bunch of keys, which can be used to derive any one of a few billion processing keys. Those processing keys are what are actually used to encrypt the media keys. Device revocation is done by choosing a set of processing keys which are not derivable by any of the revoked devices.
I mean, a formal proof. You're making a pretty broad statement, after all. The fact that some DRMs were cracked doesn't necessarily mean that all of them are inherently crackable.
At some point between the information and your eyes and ears, the information must be in "plaintext." (Otherwise you can't see it or hear it.) At that very point, the information stream can be intercepted and stored. This is true even if we have jacks in the backs of our heads to accept personal AV signals.
Here's another way to loo
"We don't care. We don't have to. We're the Phone Company."


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I hope we opt to take picks in 2014. We could end up controlling the top of the draft.
I wouldn't be opposed to trading him to Buffalo b.c I think the pick will end up being a good one.
For the record, I think we should keep Revis and Cro, the problem isnt spending $$$ on those two its spending money on Pace, Scott and Harris (non-premium positions in Rex's D) that have killed this team.
There will be guys taken in the first that in previous years were 2nd round talents, but there may be guys available in the 3rd round that are also 2nd round talents.
BBBBuuuttt, i thought making it public that we are looking to deal Revis would kill his trade value. LOL at (some) Jets fans.
I love how everyone acts like picks are guaranteed things .. There's alot more Kyle Wilson's in a NFL draft than there are Revis's
The thing I don't like about dealing Revis is that he truly is the premiere player on this team, by far.
It's not Green Bay where you have two or three elite talents that you can market and rally around, like Aaron Rodgers, Clay Matthews, etc. The Jets are a mix of average players, a decent group of very good guys (Cro, Wilk, Mangold), and one very bright star in Revis.
Well the way I see it, is we Better trade Revis now because woody had to be a clown and open his mouth. Revis will now see just how badly other teams will want him so there's no way we resign him.
I hope that we can get a first second and third and next years second with chance to move up to a first depending on the teams success and how much Revis plays.
Revis needs to be traded do a team with at least 15 mill of cap room and a need for a corner- no tampa-2 zone teams in other words.
The patriots, they don't have the cap room to be a player for him even if he was a FA.
Last edited by patman; 01-25-2013 at 11:44 AM.
It's very early in the process and I am sure a few teams have interest but are playing it cool for now.


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The Legislative Yuan yesterday ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 42 years after the nation signed the two UN treaties in 1967.
The legislature also approved the Act Governing Execution of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (公民與政治權利國際公約及經濟社會文化權利國際公約施行法), giving the two international covenants legally binding force in Taiwan.
The act states that government agencies on all levels should protect human rights and requires the government to establish a human rights reporting mechanism in accordance with the two conventions.
Although the nation's then-ambassador to the UN Liu Chieh (劉鍇) signed the two covenants on behalf of the government on Oct. 5, 1967, the two covenants had never been validated by the legislature.
The Executive Yuan had referred the two covenants to the legislature in a bid to promote the nation's human rights standards after President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in February pushed for the ratification of the two human rights conventions.
Meanwhile, the legislature also passed a proposed amendment to the Employment Insurance Act (就業保險法) to allow the Council of Labor Affairs to extend the eligibility period for unemployment subsidies from six months to a maximum of 12 months in accordance with the unemployment rate.
Lawmakers also agreed to allow employees on parental leave to apply for subsidies to care for children under three years of age. Applicants will be able to receive the subsidies, which are limited to one subsidy per couple, for a maximum of six months.
The amendment sets the subsidy at 60 percent of an employee's average insured salary six months prior to the application.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Sue-ying (黃淑英), who had been pushing the bills, said their passage was meaningful and would help ensure social stability.
DPP Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) described the bills as the government's "small presents" to the unemployed, adding that the bills were also expected to reduce discrimination against pregnant women.
The legislature yesterday also approved a proposal by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Shyu Jong-shyoung (徐中雄) that would allow employees over the age of 60 to apply for retirement.
It also passed an amendment to the Income Tax Act (所得稅法) to impose a 10 percent tax rate on individuals who earn profits from interest on short-term transaction instruments, securities, government bonds or corporate bonds. The regulation will take effect on Jan. 1 next year.
The Presidential Office yesterday expressed gratitude for the legislature's ratification of the two UN conventions, saying it showcased the smooth cooperation between the government and the KMT.
Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said the two conventions had been sent to the legislature for approval several times since 2001.
That they were passed yesterday highlighted another achievement in the administration's efforts to protect human rights, he said.
Wang said that before the two treaties go into effect in Taiwan, the president would like to see government agencies conduct a thorough examination of existing laws and regulations in a bid to advance the implementation of the two conventions.


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Red Carpet-Worthy Hair and Makeup in 10 Minutes or Less
The celebrity hairstyles and makeup looks you loved from the Emmy Awards minus the hours of prep time
Next, spritz hair with a heat protecting spray, then grab a one-inch curling iron and wrap one-and-a-half to two-inch sections of hair around the barrel of the iron, rotating the direction of the curl with each new section. This will "create a big, loose wave instead of a tight curl," says Townsend. Sleep and then the next day, when you're ready to wear the style, reapply a bit of the mousse to dry hair and blow dry it gently with a round brush to freshen up the ends. Rake a small amount of shine-enhancing taming cream like Nexxus Sleek Finish Frizz Taming Silkening Lotion, $10.99 to add smoothness and shine.
Finish by misting hair with a flexible hold hairspray and scrunching your ends a bit.
Next: See how to get Jones' makeup look
SEE NEXT PAGE: Makeup: January Jones
Older comments
by EricaC123 Saturday, December 29, 2012 at 07:28AM Report as inappropriate
A lot of these look like they take longer than ten minutes.
by NillaButterfly Sunday, December 23, 2012 at 02:07PM Report as inappropriate
These looks took waaay more than 10 minutes. Also remember, these people have more than one specialist for everything (hair stylist, cosmetician, general stylist, etc.).
by robyne00 Sunday, December 9, 2012 at 04:48PM Report as inappropriate
I don't think I can pull any of these hairstyles off in 10 minutes or less.
by MissXu Thursday, April 19, 2012 at 08:58AM Report as inappropriate
I can bare get a decent bun in ten minutes... i just don't have the hand dexterity, or the nice hair. what up do can one do with thinning hair that still looks voluminous?
by Minibear Friday, March 16, 2012 at 04:09PM Report as inappropriate
I tried bob-length do's .. very easy, just gorgeous!! My friends were envious.
by islands4me Friday, March 16, 2012 at 11:30AM Report as inappropriate
I had no idea hairstyles like that could take so little time!
by sportimonki13 Tuesday, December 27, 2011 at 04:58PM Report as inappropriate
ten minutes??? Try thirty... :*(
by Bon_Bon Monday, August 15, 2011 at 02:30AM Report as inappropriate
by Bon_Bon Monday, August 15, 2011 at 01:11AM Report as inappropriate
by eatinglipstick Monday, July 18, 2011 at 07:13PM Report as inappropriate


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Latest update : 2010-10-29
US - Midterm elections: can Obama bounce back? - part 1
Polls point to major losses for the Democratic Party just one week before America votes in mid terms. Hundreds of senators, congressmen and governors are battling it out for a seat. The Republicans, who lost out badly two years ago, are seeking to restore their influence but find some of their veteran candidates being ousted by members of the Tea Party.
- Meredith GOWAN LE GOFF, Chair, Democrats Abroad France
- Guy NUMA, Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics, Harvard University
- John R. MacARTHUR ,Publisher, Harper's Magazine (Satellite from NYC)
- John FONTE, Director, Center for American Common Culture, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute (By phone from Washington DC)
Click here to watch the second part


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American Physical Society Sites|APS|Journals|PhysicsCentral|Physics
- American Physical Society Sites
- Publications
- Meetings & Events
- Programs
- Membership
- Policy & Advocacy
- Careers In Physics
- Newsroom
- About APS
- Become a Member
By Bassam Z. Shakhashiri, American Chemical Society and Robert Byer, American Physical Society
Scientific and medical research conducted in our nation's laboratories and agencies that sustains national defense, addresses health challenges and develops energy security could be severely hampered under new rules imposed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that limit federal employees' travel to participate in meetings. Legislation pending on Capitol Hill, such as H.R. 4631, the Government Spending Act, could go even further with new requirements.
OMB has ordered federal agencies to reduce travel and meeting expenses by 30 percent in fiscal year 2013. Its directive also requires senior-level administrative staff to review the costs of participating in meetings that exceed $100,000 and cap at $500,000 the amount any agency can spend on a single meeting. Congress has legislation pending that contains provisions more onerous than those in the OMB memo.
Science and technology are key drivers for American innovation, and to work optimally they require unhampered collaboration and communication among multiple institutions and laboratories. If scientists can't collaborate, their research, which drives economic growth, would be severely constrained. And if they can't communicate, project costs would rise, and taxpayers' dollars would be wasted. The OMB rules, and pending Hill legislation, pose significant risks for American innovation.
Consider the case of an anti-cancer drug, developed by Plexxikon, a company based in Berkeley, Calif. Plexxikon capitalized on high-intensity X-ray studies carried out by a team of scientists at three geographically diverse national laboratories: SLAC in Menlo Park, Calif., Argonne National Lab near Chicago, Ill., and Lawrence Livermore Lab in Berkeley, Calif. These scientists collaborated to probe the molecular structure of proteins in malignant melanomas. The result: a highly promising drug known as vemurafenib. Conferences were invaluable to the success of this project.
Now let's look at the consequence of budgetary caps contained in the OMB regulations and the pending legislation. Scientists are notoriously thrifty as convention bureaus attest, but even on a barebones budget a typical attendee will spend about $2,500 for travel, lodging, meals and registration fees for a weeklong meeting. The OMB cap of $500,000, if imposed, could limit the number of participants to 200 from any single agency.
To put such a number in context, the U.S. Department of Energy, for example, supports 17 national laboratories that directly employ about 16,000 scientists and engineers and 100,000 more workers as contractors. The OMB rules apply to all of them. Other federal agencies, such as the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and National Institutes of Health are also covered by the OMB regulations.
At the March Meeting of the American Physical Society, 600 or more researchers from DOE facilities usually attend. Under the OMB rules and the pending legislation, two thirds of them would not be able to do so. They would not be able to exchange ideas with the other 9,000-plus scientists from around the world who typically participate.
The American Chemical Society's (ACS) two annual national meetings, which each attract on average 13,000 chemists and chemical engineers and play a major role in germinating transformational research, draw about 800 federal scientists. Under the new rules and the pending legislation, 50 percent of those federal scientists could be cut off from the global chemistry community that participates in ACS meetings. These rules will not only adversely impact science, but also the American economy and thus, American taxpayers, whose dollars are an investment in scientific research.
Additionally, the OMB rules apply to agency program managers who administer federal grants. Wise decision-making requires familiarity with the latest discoveries, and scientific meetings provide administrators with the knowledge they require to do their jobs.
Scientific meetings provide much more than a venue for organized presentations by well-known scientists. They offer participants opportunities for synergies that are almost impossible to replicate in any other way. Impromptu conversations in the corridors outside the lecture rooms have led to transformational discoveries.
Building a better America requires making science a priority. It also requires giving America's scientists the opportunity to capitalize on creativity. The OMB rules and their pending companion legislation will have extensive and unintended negative consequences on American science, innovation and economic prosperity.
Shakhashiri is president of the American Chemical Society. Byer is the former president of the American Physical Society. Reprinted from 9/10/12 with permission from The Hill newspaper.
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Jason Maxiell, Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe combined for 38 points and 28 rebounds, and the Detroit Pistons pulled away to beat the undersized Orlando Magic 105-90 Tuesday night.
AUBURN HILS, Mich. — The Detroit Pistons don't get a lot of chances to dominate games with their post presence. When they got an opportunity Tuesday night, they took advantage.
Jason Maxiell, Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe combined for 38 points and 28 rebounds, and the Pistons pulled away to beat the undersized Orlando Magic 105-90 Tuesday night.
"The performance from our bigs was really good," Pistons coach Lawrence Frank said. "That was a big part of our game plan tonight."
Brandon Knight led Detroit with 18 points, while Monroe scored 16 and Drummond and Maxiell each had 11 points and 11 rebounds.
The Pistons ooutrebounded Orlando 54-41, including 16-6 edge in offensive rebounds. The Magic had their size issues magnified when Glen Davis was benched for much of the second half after taking 15 first-half shots and grabbing just three rebounds.
"I knew I had a big matchup tonight against (Davis), and I wanted to set the tone early," Maxiell said. "In a game like this, I'm completely focused on defense. The offense is just going to come on its own."
After missing his first shot of the second half, Davis picked up a technical foul from the bench and ended up with three teammates and an assistant coach surrounding him to prevent an ejection. He only returned briefly when the game was out of hand, and finished with 11 points.
"I played 23 minutes and I took 16 shots that were all good looks," he said. "The second half, I should have stayed aggressive, but I took myself out of the game by getting a tech, and I was not helping the team, so Coach sat me."
J.J. Redick was Orlando's biggest threat, scoring 26 points on 9-for-10 shooting — including 5 for 6 on 3-pointers. Jameer Nelson added 14 points and nine rebounds, but leading scorer Arron Afflalo missed his only four shots.
"I was really excited and enthused about our approach tonight, and I thought we had a great shootaround this morning," Orlando coach Jacque Vaughn said. "We certainly didn't get the results we were after. You have to play at both ends of the floor."
After an even first half, the Pistons got a tiebreaking basket after a strange play to end the second quarter. Detroit had a foul to give, so Will Bynum grabbed Nelson 30 feet from the basket. Nelson, trying to draw a shooting foul, flipped the ball straight up into the air. Both teams froze, expecting a whistle, but when nothing was called, Kyle Singler grabbed the loose ball and Monroe finished the half with an uncontested dunk.
That put the Pistons up 54-52 at the half despite 17 first-half points from Redick. He hit all six of his first-half shots, including three 3-pointers and a four-point play.
"Redick is just a monster out there," Frank said. "He's having the best season of his career, and when he starts shooting like that, there's not a whole lot you can do. We knew that we had to make the difference inside, and that's what our bigs were able to do."
Maxiell had nine points and 11 rebounds in the half for Detroit, who only committed two turnovers in the first two quarters.
"We were shooting 60 percent from the floor and 50 percent on threes, and we were still down two at the half," Vaughn said. "That shows you that it boiled down to the matter of stopping the other team."
Monroe and Drummond combined for 16 points in the third quarter, including back-to-back dunks by Drummond in the last minute of the period, as Detroit built a 82-66 lead. By the fourth quarter, even 6-foot-5 Rodney Stuckey was dunking in traffic against the lethargic Magic defense.
"We know that if we play with a lot of fight and a lot of effort every game, we'll get some great wins," Drummond said. "We weren't trying to do anything fancy. We were just finishing plays."


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PRINCETON — 1st Farm Credit donated $250 to the Bureau Valley FFA Chapter.
The individual donation is part of a larger, $5,000 donation given to 20 different FFA chapters in Illinois. FFA chapters throughout the state were given the donations after members attended the farm Progress Show in Decatur wearing a special T-shirt provided by 1st Farm Credit Services.
The blue "Building Legacies" T-shirts were used to promote FFA and 1st Farm Credit Services during the three-day show.
"This donation is a simple way to say 'thank you' and help support these young adults who are contributing to the future of agriculture," said Aaron King, vice president with 1st Farm Credit Services. "FFA plays a critical role in exposing students to all the opportunities that exist in the agriculture industry. When members attend the Farm Progress Show, they learn about the up-and-coming technology and possible career paths in agriculture."
More than 1,000 FFA members were given the T-shirts before and during the show. The two Farm Credit associations in Illinois donated more than $10,000 to 45 different FFA chapters whose members wore the shirts during the show.


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Swimming and Diving Hosts Drexel Saturday in Home Opener
By ODU Athletics
Oct. 29, 2004
NORFOLK, VA - The Old Dominion swimming and diving team will host the Drexel Dragons Saturday at the J.C. "Scrap" Chandler Pool, inside the ODU Field House, in their first home swim meet of the season. Diving begins at 10:00 AM, while swimming starts at 1:00 PM. The men's and women's teams both went 2-0 in a tri-meet at Virginia Military Institute last Saturday. The men defeated VMI 117-79 and Canisius 107-62, while the women defeated Radford 120-84 and Canisius 114-86.
The women defeated the Dragons in last year's meet in Philadelphia, winning 133-94. The men dropped a 126-112 decision. On the women's team, Lauren Timby (Rochester, NY) won three events: the 200 freestyle (1:55.72), the 1000 freestyle (10:16.53) and the 500 freestyle (5:04.81). Liane Publow (Las Vegas, NV) won two events: the 200 IM (2:14.36) and the 200 butterfly (2:12.56). Samantha Combs (Travelers Rest, SC) also won two events: the 50 freestyle (24.97) and the 100 freestyle (54.41).
On the men's side, Ryan Kletz (Virginia Beach, VA) won the 1000 freestyle (10:05.11), Nate Tschohl (Chesapeake, VA) won the 200 butterfly (1:59.38), Michael DeNise (Midlothian, VA) won the 500 freestyle (4:49.01) and Martin Lundgren (Vaxjo, Sweden) won the 200 breaststroke (2:17.53).
Admission is free.


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26 Critics
Blue Beard is the story of two sisters and a monster. Catherine Breillat's new film shows two girls recounting their favorite fairy tale of a wife-eating ogre as they transpose themselves onto the Charles Perrault classic. Two young sisters are home alone in present day France. The younger of the two decides to torment the older by reading the story of "Blue Beard". The tale parallels that of those telling it, in "Blue Beard" there are also two sisters. The girls live in 16th century France and are thrown out of their school and into poverty when their father dies.


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Last week, I wrote about a report that Clint Eastwood was getting snippy at questions about the "gay side" of his biopic J. Edgar, about the closeted FBI director. The script was written by Oscar winning writer Dustin Lance Black (right), who has had some success with gay profiles (Milk). Well, now Black goes on the record to the film's defense. In Next magazine, he says this:
"I wrote this with Ron Howard and Brian Grazer's Imagine company, and there was never any limitation in terms of where I could or should go except they were very interested in finally figuring out the truth about Hoover. We all wanted to find out what really happened. What was his sexuality. What did it look like. I wanted to get to the truth of his political work and the things that deserve applause and things that were heinous. The gay stuff was only ever going to be a third of it. It's not Milk, but it's there. When I finished a draft I liked, and think I got to what the truth is, it's a story that reflects what gay life was like pre-Stonewall, which was very different from what it looked like for Harvey Milk. That's the script Clint and the studio read and I'll tell you what — not only did Clint and the studio never cut or change a word, they never had a note about it. Clint said some things that were so incredibly moving that he understood the struggle young gays go through today. If anything, Clint made it even more human and universal."


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On April 9, 1968, I was part of the human crush inside Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church not far from six of that year's presidential candidates: Richard Nixon, Hubert Humphrey, Nelson Rockefeller, George Romney, Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy. Mahalia Jackson gave an unforgettable rendition of Martin Luther King Jr.'s favorite, "Precious Lord, Take My Hand," and at the widow's request a tape of Dr. King speaking just two months earlier about his own funeral was played:
"Tell him (the eulogist) not to talk too long. ... Tell him not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize. That's not important. ... I want you to be able to say that I did try to feed the hungry. I want you to be able to say that I did try in my life to clothe the naked. I want you to say that I did try to visit those who were in prison."
After the funeral, many in the church and thousands outside marched in the Georgia heat behind a simple farm wagon drawn by two mules and bearing the mahogany coffin some 3½ miles to Morehouse College for the public service.
Not quite two months later, I was working in the presidential campaign of Kennedy. A week earlier, the New York senator had finished second to McCarthy in the Oregon primary and, in so doing, became the first Kennedy to lose an election. I had been in Oregon and was then working out of San Francisco on the get-out-the-vote effort for the June 4 California primary, the outcome of which would determine whether RFK had a real chance to become the Democratic presidential nominee.
Kennedy won California and, minutes after thanking his supporters in the ballroom of Los Angeles' Ambassador Hotel, walked through the hotel kitchen, where an assassin waited to shoot and kill him.
King was 39 years old. Kennedy was 42. But those are not the numbers I want you to think about.
In this nation's wars — including, but not limited to, the Revolutionary, the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the bloodiest of all, our Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf War, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq — the price in human lives lost in battle is well beyond steep. In 236 years, 659,073 Americans have died fighting for their country.
In just the 42 years immediately following the assassinations of King and Kennedy — between June 1968 and the end of 2010 (the last year for which, as they say, official figures are available) — the number of civilians killed in the United States by firearms, according to official records, was 1,260,781.
That's right, nearly twice as many civilian fatalities by firearms as suffered by American service members in wartime — and in less than one-fifth the number of years.
There is no safety in these numbers. Nor in the World Health Organization's 2011 report on firearm deaths in 23 high-income countries around the globe. This is a group that would include France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Canada, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom and the United States. For the most recent year for which results were available from all these countries, there were 7,653 firearm deaths in all the other 22 countries and 29,771 deaths in the United States from firearms.
To put it bluntly, nearly 80 percent of all the deaths from firearms in the First World were here in the U.S.A. This is one aspect of American Exceptionalism in which no resident can take any comfort.
These numbers are real. These numbers are in unacceptable. We're Americans. We're better than that.
— Mark Shields is one of the most widely recognized political commentators in the United States. The former Washington Post editorial columnist appears regularly on CNN, on public television and on radio. Click here to contact him, or click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.


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An East Coast psychologist who specializes in such matters will be in Moab on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 9-10, to teach parents how they can best communicate about the topic.
Sharon Maxwell, whose practice focuses on childhood and teen sexual issues, will present a talk Friday from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Helen M. Knight Elementary School all-purpose room.
She also will conduct workshops Saturday at noon and 2:15 p.m. at the Grand County Public Library. The session at HMK is for parents and guardians of children up to 7 years old and the second is for those with children from "tween" through early teenage years.
All sessions are open to the public free of charge. They are sponsored by the Moab Community Action Coalition and Personal Responsibility Education Program-Moab (PREP).
"I am an advocate for parents having a language to talk with their kids and share what their values are," said Maxwell, adding that she is neither pro-abstinence nor anti-abstinence. "It is not about an agenda. It's about helping parents find a way to figure out how they feel about this and having a sustainable long-term conversation with their children."
She emphasized that advances in technology present challenges for parents that did not exist a generation ago. Maxwell said she envisions parents on an island in the middle of a raging river "and the river is our culture."
"You put that computer in your house and you've let everything in the world into your child's bedroom," she said. "How many of us understand the technology well enough to be informed about what we need to tell our children?"
Sexting – trading sexually explicit images or text message via smart phones – is a particularly serious threat, she said. Maxwell said more than half of children with smart phones have either received or sent a sext message.
"That's crazy," she said. "These are 12- and 13-year-olds who think they can get attention that way. Sexting has become a commodity that you add to your resume to be popular. We happily give kids an iPhone but we don't understand the implications of that iPhone."
Pippa Thomas of PREP said the topic is important for Grand County parents because Utah Department of Health statistics show the teen birth rate here is higher than other counties and the state average.
"Ask any teen or pre-teen if they know someone who got pregnant or got someone pregnant as a teenager and the vast majority will say 'yes,'" Thomas said. "Often, the person they know is their own parent or sibling. So teen pregnancy is a perceived norm in our community."
Maxwell, who is the author of a book about talking with children about sex, says even pre-pubescent girls believe they need to be sexy.
"They believe that will give them prestige," she said. "It has become an asset rather than something that has meaning in terms of a relationship or love. We have taken their childhood away."
Maxwell, whose own parents did not talk about sex with her, hopes to show parents how the discussion must evolve as children get older. It will be her first trip to Moab and she said, "It is an honor for me to know there are people who want to do this better."
Teen pregnancy facts
Pregnancy rates: An average of four out of 100 teenage girls will get pregnant in Grand County.
Effect on education: Teen mothers are 30 percent less likely to complete high school or obtain a GED by age 22. Less than 2 percent of teen mothers receive a college degree before age 30.
Societal effect: Almost 80 percent of unmarried teen mothers end up on welfare.
Source: Personal Responsibility Education Program-Moab.


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For the track and field team, junior Vincent Asante of The Bronx, N.Y., was honored for the men's team. Asante, running at the Reggie Poyau Memorial Invitational, Brandeis's only home meet of the season, won the 55-meter dash with a time of 6.52 seconds. Asante ran a 6.55 in the prelims and then set a personal record in the finals. His time translates to 7.01 seconds in the 60-meter dash, ranking him sixth in the nation in Division III in the event according to directathletics.com. Asante also finished third in the 200-meter dash with a time of 23.21 seconds. Asante is a graduate of the High School for the Arts, Imagination and Inquiry.
Junior Amelia Lundkvist of South Portland, Maine, was recognized for the women's track and field team. She was the runner-up in the mile run at the Reggie Poyau Invitational. After a late charge, Lundkvist finished the mile just 0.04 behind a competitor from Division II UMass Lowell with a time of 5:25.78. Her time is tops in the UAA and 19th in Division III. Lundkvist is a graduate of Cheverus High School.
For the swimming and diving teams, sophomore Max Fabian of Keene, N.H., earned the honor for the men. Fabian continued his fantastic season with three wins in a tight 138-128 loss to Clark University on Dec. 8, all coming in different disciplines from his normal distance freestyle events. Fabian captured the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:06.30, won the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:25.25 and the 400-yard individual medley with a time of 4:27.18. The closest of Fabian's three races, the 200 breast, was still decided by more than a full second, with his 400 IM win coming by more than 15 seconds. Fabian is a transfer from Connecticut College in his first year with the Brandeis swimming and diving team, which this year returned to action after a two-year hiatus. Fabian is a graduate of Oak Meadow High School.
On the women's swimming side, senior Holly Spicer of Northampton, Mass., earned UAA honors for the first time in her career. Spicer, a captain of the women's squad, continued to impress in the breaststroke, winning both events in a 172-118 loss to Clark. Spicer captured the 100 in 1:09.49, a margin of four seconds, and the 200 in 2:35.26, winning by more than 18 seconds. Spicer is a graduate of Northampton High School.
- 30 -


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Osceola Chamber Main Street (OCMS) was recently awarded a grant from Main Street Iowa to help with Retail technical assistance. The grant was offered to all Main Street Iowa communities to help with visual merchandising and window displays in the downtown Main Street District. Competitive applications were accepted from all 49 Iowa Main Street communities and Osceola was one of 14 selected for the honor. The grant consisted of two parts: One was a community workshop that focused on the basics of window displays; and two was visits to four stores in the community that had signed up to take part in the consultant visit.
On Thursday, August 8th, the community workshop was held at the OCMS office and focused on the basics of window displays. Anna Buhmeyer, the grant consultant, discussed the different aspects of lighting, product placement, balance, and much more in the hour-long workshop. A number of businesses were represented at the workshop and walked away with some great ideas.
Friday, August 9th found several volunteers from the OCMS Retail Committee on hand to help with hands-on window display consulting and implementation. Shoes N Shirts and Robinson's were the recipients of window display implementations and found the experience exciting and helped them realize the potential of their display space. "The windows look great," Dennis Foote explained. "It's a great idea and something I never would have thought to do on my own."
OCMS Retail Committee Chair, Amy Lundquist, spoke of the great opportunity this represented for the community. "When you are in business for a time, you can neglect easy things like window displays or take them for granted. It's hard to find the time and the energy that can go into the implementation of the window displays." Lundquist was one of six volunteers who helped implement the display windows at both locations.
Derek Lumsden, OCMS Executive Director, noted that the window displays were already causing people to talk and hopefully would inspire more changes in businesses. "There is no better way to encourage people to shop in your business than to have a great way to draw them in. This grant helped several business owners get ideas on how to do exactly that."
While Shoes N Shirts and Robinson's were the only implementations done during the day, Flowers N More and Serene Day Spa received personal consultations from the consultant as well. OCMS hopes that more businesses will see the effect and want to have help from the Retail Committee to possibly help revitalize their displays. "We are here to help the community prosper and we want businesses to come to us with questions on how we can help," Lundquist said.


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Press Release
Send an Email to Stop Syringe Exchange Ban From Being Reinstated. TAKE ACTION TODAY!
December 12, 2011
We need your help to protect syringe exchange programs, email your Senator immediately! We are hearing that syringe exchange programs are under attack in last minute Fiscal Year 2012 appropriations negotiations. There have been remarkable gains in prevention over the past two years due to syringe exchange programs, all of which would be lost if language reinstating the federal ban on syringe exchange is included in the FY12 budget package.
Please let Senate leadership and conferees know that these policy riders are unacceptable. HIV and hepatitis C prevention is too important to trade away.
This article was provided by Latino Commission on AIDS.
Add Your Comment:
(Please note: Your name and comment will be public, and may even show up in
Internet search results. Be careful when providing personal information! Before
adding your comment, please read TheBody.com's Comment Policy.)


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Silver Spoon
We've been fans of the Daytrotter folks for some time, and in return, they've been steadily working through our favorite bands.
This time, they've tracked down indie stalwarts Spoon for a stripped-down set recorded in Daytrotter HQ in central Iowa. The songs are culled from Spoon's decade-plus career (including one cut from the eleven-year-old Soft Effects EP), along with a Paul Simon cover that manages to fit right in. Of course, Simon is the musical inspiration du jour, so it's interesting to hear what the old guard makes of him. Apparently, it sounds a lot like Spoon.


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She makes you work for it though. On any given hour I can be caught grinning madly at her saying 'hello' over and over again like a demented parrot. And if she's been fed and is rested and in the right mood she'll reward you with a round face of crescent moons or a lopsided smirk. I love her.
But can I tell you something? Sometimes I feel like I'm missing her infancy. Sometimes I feel like I miss her even when she's right there. Crazy, right?
And we're working towards getting a semblance of a routine in place. Right now she sleeps for 1-2 blocks at night and catnaps during the day. I'm trying to pat her to sleep in her hammock instead of having her fall asleep in my arms so we can lay the foundations for her to self settle. Boring but necessary.
Preschooler tangent: he's also started calling things 'awrd' which makes us laugh, e.g: 'that's an awrd dawg, mama.'


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Alarming Rise in HIV/AIDS Incidence Worldwide Drives the Global Market for Condoms to $5.4 Billion by 2018
By: PR Newswire
Dec. 10, 2012 05:45 PM
FARMINGTON, Conn., Dec. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Over 220 million women have an unmet need for modern contraceptives. In the developing world, while the proportion of women using modern contraceptive methods has undergone little change over the years, the number of women with an unmet need for such contraceptives has remained the same owing to various factors. The turn of the 20th century witnessed a paradigm social transformation in the developing countries from large families to smaller ones. Increased usage of modern contraception methods, and rising participation by Governmental, non-Governmental agencies, private organizations, clinics and pharmacies to increase awareness through family planning programs have all fueled growth in modern contraceptives usage. The group which faces the greatest challenge among such women are those who are poor and with low education and who live in rural and semi-urban areas having low access to services.
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Furthermore, the unprecedented rate of population explosion has become a cause for grave concern the world over. One of the most devastating diseases to affect humanity is AIDS. As of 2011, about 35 million people were surviving with this life-threatening infection worldwide, while over 2.5 million newly infected cases were reported. In terms of death toll since the spread of the disease, about 30 million people have succumbed to date, with the year 2011 alone accounting for over 1.7 million deaths. AIDS is one of the leading causes of death in the world and considered the number one cause in the sub-Saharan African region.
Global Information Inc (GII) highlights two significant reports covering the global contraceptives and condoms market from our premium market research partner Global Industry Analysts, Inc.
The global market for contraceptives is forecast to exceed $20 billion by 2018. Key players profiled in the report include Ansell Limited, Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals, Church & Dwight Co Inc., Conceptus Inc., Condomi Health International GmbH, Female Health Company, Fuji Latex Co., Ltd., Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co Inc., Okamoto Industries Inc., Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited, and many others.
Developed markets of United States and Europe garner a substantial share of the global market for Contraceptives, as stated by the new research report. The market is driven by the growing need to avoid/postpone unwanted pregnancies, rising levels of education, sophistication, and need for pursuing career goals among young working women. About 60% of all pregnancies, particularly in developed nations such as the US are unplanned. Therefore, a keen interest in causes of unintended pregnancy and its control is one of the main criteria for Governments in the developed world. Majority of developing markets are plagued by issues of ever increasing population, alarming rise in sexually transmitted diseases and poor health and hygiene infrastructure. In the context, contraceptives with their tremendous potential to prevent undesired pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) hold bright growth prospects in the developing markets. Asia-Pacific, led by dynamically growing markets of India, China, Bangladesh, Pakistan and others, is set to expand at a robust CAGR of 8.6% over the analysis period.
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A third Democratic state senator facing possible recall after voting for gun-control measures will resign, allowing Democrats to maintain control of the Senate.
Sen. Evie Hudak of Arvada sent the resignation letter Wednesday. Opponents planned to submit signatures next week petitioning Hudak to a recall election. Her resignation means Democrats will appoint a successor and maintain their one-seat advantage.
Two other Democratic senators were ousted from office in September.
Sens. John Morse of Colorado Springs and Angela Giron of Pueblo, were the first recalled state legislators in Colorado history.


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So says commenter B Moe over in the comments to an open thread at Protein Wisdom — which I noticed because I saw traffic coming from there because, unlike the Freepers, at least they open up the pathway so readers can see the object of their criticism for themselves.
And then McGehee says:
Althouse typifies a new hyphenation: the Hormonal-American. If only we could bring a bunch of state legislators up to today from 1920 or slightly before, to see what these Hormonal-Americans have done to the country, maybe they'd return to their own time and just repeal Prohibition a decade early.The old joke — women shouldn't have been given the right to vote because they're emotional. I was making that joke myself, making that joke as a joke, as I was out biking and conversing with Meade about the very material that would later take the form of the post that's made
And then some commenter named Car, whose icon is a baby — McGhee is an old cowboy and B Moe looks like the Disney Br'er Bear — Car says:
Can we all stop reading Althouse now? Can we get Glenn to give her up?This is a classic theme in anti-Althousiana: jealousy that I have readers and, especially, that I get Instapundit links. (Hey, I'm a guestblogger on Instapundit right now. If I wanted, I could go over there myself and write a post lambasting Rush Limbaugh for playing and replaying that racial-fear-stimulating video over and over. But I'm keeping it here, in this cozier place, where I let commenters in. And there are 600+ shots at me in the "How Racist?" comments thread.)
Car says:
And, please, when was the last time Althouse was IN a city? Women like the one Rush played, over and over, you SHOULD fear them- or the segment of society who they represent. She's not there for the upwardly mobile, educated black. She was there shouting her membership as one of the failures of black society- the takers.Well, thank you, Car. You're proving my point. You do have a highly emotive mental picture of those terrible black people, the very brain zone Rush was stimulating.
Our cities, and it's [sic] denizens, are going down like the mutherfocking bootleg fireworks. A cop came into our shop and said whole areas are basically lawless, and that people need to protect themselves. And Ann just wants to turn the other cheek and pretends it's not happening, because it's not happening in her line of sight.See?
And it's not a function of color. The cities just HAPPEN to be populated by folks that could look like Obama's son.I think "it's not a function of color" is intended sarcastically. He's saying I should look at the reality he knows, and it's full of terrible black people.
And they also just happen to be represented by race pimps who don't care what happens to "their people" as long as they get their own filthy lucre as they pretend to fight the power.So he's reinforcing my point! That video stands for a large group of people who really are the problem and voters ought to wake up and get scared!
But, you know, I'd like Ann to head to Detroit, get our of her car on the East side – you know, near Kelly and Gratiot, and use her rational mind to get to know those folks. Don't fear those folks, Ann. VOTE for Obama.
Put your head back in the sand, Ann. Rush probably made that woman up.


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I've been running through James Litton's excellent Unison tutorial, and I've got everything working beautifully, synchronising a folder on 3 machines with a central server. I'd been trying to roll my own solution with rsync for a couple of weeks without much luck, so the tutorial was perfectly timed.
I noticed two things in the shell script provided in the article. One I know is a typo, the other was my mistake, but is down to the poor differentiation between 1 and l in the font used for code in the article.
Line 11 of the script
- Code: Select all
if [${stst:0:7}] == "Nothing"]; then
should be
- Code: Select all
if [${stat:0:7}] == "Nothing"]; then
However, when I initially copied out the script, I noticed that I was getting a notification even when the script had nothing to do. After a bit of poking around I realised that line 6 ends with
- Code: Select all
tail -1
- Code: Select all
tail -l
Once again, many thanks for a really useful tutorial, and I hope the above helps anyone else who's having trouble getting this working.


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NEWARK, Del. – The University of Delaware women's lacrosse team looks to start its winning ways Wednesday as the Blue Hens (0-1) welcome Lafayette (0-1) to Delaware Stadium for the home lid-lifter beginning at 5 p.m.
Live stats for Wednesday's game will be available via www.BlueHens.com.
All Delaware women's lacrosse home games will be live streamed, for free, via Hens All-Access at www.BlueHens.com.
Follow Delaware women's lacrosse online at facebook.com/DelawareWomensLacrosse and on Twitter at @DelawareWLax.
· Delaware opened the 2014 campaign this Saturday with an 11-19 loss at No. 10 Georgetown.
· The Blue Hens saw career games in the loss from Kara Dattellas and Shannon Hawley as each registered their first career hat tricks. Dattellas tallied a game-high five goals while Hawley picked up three. UD also saw a hat trick from Chelsea Fay, who recorded three goals for her 13th career hat trick.
· With her three goals against GU, Fay has successfully scored at least one goal in 27 straight contests.
· Caitlin McCartney dished out one assist at Georgetown and has now posted at least one point in 30 consecutive games. McCartney did not pick up a goal against the Hoyas and therefore snapped a 25-game goal-scoring streak.
· Goalies Alex Zaugra and Tori Zorovich split time between the pipes at GU as Zaugra collected two saves in 13:27 while Zorovich tallied six saves in 46:33.
In CAA preseason voting, Delaware was predicted to finish fourth overall while McCartney was named to the Preseason All-CAA team, as chosen by the league's head coaches.
· Delaware returns 25 student-athletes, including 11 starters, from a 2013 squad that finished 10-6 overall and posted the highest winning percentage since the 2008 season. Additionally, the Blue Hens have added eight newcomers as UD strives to return to national prominence.
· UD is 19-24 (.442) all-time at Delaware Stadium.
· Delaware leads Lafayette, 14-9, all-time since the first meeting in 1981. The Blue Hens have won seven straight dating to the 1993 season and are 7-3 all-time against the Cougars in Newark.
· Last season, UD picked up a commanding 19-7 victory over the Leopards in Easton, Pa.
The Leopards are also 0-1 on the season after dropping a close, 8-10, decision at Marist Monday evening. Laura Kleiber and Kirsten Wilhelmsen posted multiple goal games with four and two goals, respectively. Goalie Meghan Curtin collected three saves in the loss. Seniors Rachel Martin and Ana White, the 2013 Patriot League Midfielder of the Year, were named to the Preseason All-Patriot League team while the Leopards were tabbed to finish sixth in the conference. Lafayette is led by sixth-year head coach Alison Fischer, who worked as a graduate assistant with the Blue Hens in 2002. Delaware alumnus Corinne Drost is also an assistant coach for the Leopards. Drost was a three-year starter for the Hens and also served as an assistant with Delaware following graduation.


text:
Rockwell Part # AP113
Our Part # RKWAP113
Style: APOSTLE
Not the
fire-and-brimstone Apostle, but this one will certainly hold
up against the elements. With multiple color ways on both
leather and stainless steel bands, it's difficult not
to find an Apostle to love. Clean-cut with a casual flare,
The Apostle will keep you in good graces.


text:
Russia will sell India military helicopters and military equipment worth about $3bn under a new agreement as bilateral trade might double to $20 by 2015.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and India's PM Manmohan Singh signed a number of arms deals during Putin's visit to Delhi, which include the supply of 71 military helicopters for $1.3bn and kits to assemble 42 Sukhoi jet fighters for a further $1.6bn.
India is currently the world's largest arms importer, and one of Russia's top clients for arms sales as Russian-made military equipment accounts for 70% of Indian weaponry.
Trade between Russia and India has been growing steadily and is expected to reach around $10bn dollars in 2012, up from $7.5bn in 2009, according to Indian official figures. Ahead of the visit, the Russia President called to increase bilateral trade to $20bn by 2015. ...


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Procedure 847.1
Area: Human Resources
Adopted: 11/11/11
Description: Identification Badges
In an effort to provide a secure, safe teaching and learning environment for all who work, study and visit Atlantic Cape Community College, the following procedure is implemented as a way of identifying college personnel, students, and guests using college facilities at any of Atlantic Cape's campuses.
*Faculty, Staff, and Students: The College Identification Badge (CIB) is issued to faculty and staff at time of hire and to students upon registration. All faculty, staff and students of Atlantic Cape are required to prominently display their (CIB) at all times and in all areas and buildings while on campus.
At Mays Landing Campus, members of the College staff or student body who do not have their CIB on their person are required to report to the following designated offices to be issued a TEMPORARY DAY PASS (TDP):
- Division Office (faculty)
- Human Resources (faculty and staff)
- Student Center (current and returning students)
The Faculty/Staff/Student or Potential Student TDP must be prominently displayed at all times and in all areas and buildings while on campus. The Faculty/Staff/ Student or Potential Student TDP should be returned to the office by the recipients when leaving the campus.
- Division Office (faculty)
- Human Resources (staff)
- Student Center (current and returning students)
- At Worthington and Cape May Courthouse Campuses, members of the College staff or student body who do not have their CIB on their person will be issued at TDP at the Front Desk/Welcome Center.
All guests visiting Atlantic Cape are required to report to security to sign in and receive a Guest Day Pass (GDP). Visitors must display their GDP at all times where it can be clearly seen. Persons on campus without proper identification will be directed to security to obtain proper authorization to be on campus.
- Security (VIPs and guest)
*Because different college personnel work and visit Atlantic Cape's campuses at different times during the year, and security personnel rotate due to shift work, face recognition is not a reliable method for approving entry to the campus. The use of such a recognition system could present a major breach in safety because it assumes that anyone in the building without a badge is a member of the college's staff or student body.
Back to the Policies and Procedures Main Menu


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Oct. 20, 2009
FAIRFIELD, Conn. (October 20, 2009) - Sacred Heart juniors Darcy Demers (Norton, MA) and Kirill Kasyanov (Yonkers, NY) were named the Northeast Conference Tennis Players of the Week announced by the league on Tuesday.
Demers won a pair of singles matches last week and was deprived of an opportunity for two more victories by inclement weather. The Sacred Heart junior advanced to the title match of the New England Championships Second Flight singles draw, but Mother Nature did not allow her to play for the crown. Demers opened the rain-shortened tournament by dominating Hartford's Haley Gileau, 8-0, in the quarterfinal round. She then prevailed over Fairfield's Kristen Liu, 8-4. Teaming with Julianne Kasinow, Demers also made it through to the First Flight doubles final, which was also cancelled due to weather. Demers was on the cusp of defeating UConn's Emily Herb in a mid-week non-conference dual match until darkness stopped play. The third-year Pioneer led 6-4, 5-2, over the UConn opponent who defeated Demers in straight sets earlier this fall.
Kasyanov advanced into the ITA Regional Championship Round of 64 on his way to securing a second consecutive NEC Player of the Week award. A week after capturing the Quinnipiac Invitational Flight A singles crown, Kasyanov posted a first round victory in the main singles draw of the ITA Regional hosted by Dartmouth in Hanover, NH. The third-year Pioneer downed Saint Bonaventure's Diego Valdenegro, 6-3, 2-6, 6-2, in three sets. The reigning NEC Player of the Week saw his run end at the hands of No. 6 seed Thomas Nolan in the Round of 64. Kasyanov fell to his Boston College counterpart, 6-3, 6-2.
The SHU men's team is back in action on Wednesday afternoon taking on the UConn Huskies in dual match action. Pioneer women wrap up the fall portion of their season this weekend at the ITA Regional Championships at Yale University.


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DENVER – Colorado Rockies Hitting Coach Dante Bichette announced today that he will not return for the 2014 season after one season as the club's Major League Hitting Coach.
Bichette, 49, returned to the Rockies organization for the 2013 season, where he was a four-time All-Star (1994-96, 1998) and the runner-up for the 1995 National League Most Valuable Player Award. The Rockies currently lead the National League in batting average (.271), hits (1470), slugging percentage (.420) and OPS (on-base + slugging, .744), are tied for second in runs (690) and RBI (657), second in triples (37) and fourth in home runs (155).
Bichette played seven of his 14 Major League seasons with the Rockies (1993-99) and was a member of the Rockies Inaugural roster in 1993. The West Palm Beach, Florida native batted .299 (1906-for-6381) with 401 doubles, 27 triples, 274 home runs, 1,141 RBI and 152 stolen bases in 1,704 career Major League games with California (1988-1990), Milwaukee (1991-92), Colorado, Cincinnati (2000) and Boston (2000-01). Bichette retired from baseball following the 2001 season. This was Bichette's first career Major League coaching position.


text:
When he's on the ice and healthy, Bruins defenseman Johnny Boychuk stands as an intimidating figure with his knack for bone-rattling open-ice checks.
But right now his presence might be inadvertently affecting the play of his teammates.
Judging by the performance of the Bruins' healthy defenseman tonight in a 3-2 win at New York over the Rangers, it looks like everyone's pressing to make sure they're not the one jettisoned to the press box once head coach Claude Julien re-inserts Boychuk.
It seemed like every Bruins blueliner committed at least one gaffe, some which hurt the Bruins and some which they dodged like a turned over bullet. Were it not for Tim Thomas and his Superman-like ways – 34 saves, including 15 in the third period – the Rangers fans might've lost their voices from singing that "Goal" song.
Dennis Seidenberg and Mark Stuart redeemed themselves during the most critical stretch of one minute, 45 seconds of the game when the Bruins had to kill a 5-on-3 in the third period. Those two, who became a pretty regular pair at even strength tonight, were on the ice for almost that entire two-man advantage and used a couple shot blocks and some timely sticks in the passing lanes to make life a little easier for the rambunctious Thomas.
Of course, those two guys were on the ice because Andrew Ference failed to mind his stick and made contact with Sean Avery's face behind the Boston net, and 15 seconds later, Zdeno Chara shot the puck out of the rink for a rare Bruins delay-of-the-game penalty. Chara got caught running around a few times over the course of the night, and Ference made a pass across the defensive zone earlier in the third period that Ryan Callahan nearly turned into a game-tying goal.
Seidenberg's giveaway at the red line led to Marian Gaborik's goal that cut Boston's lead to 3-2. Matt Hunwick, shifted to the third pair with Adam McQuaid after the promotion of Stuart to Seidenberg's side, made a handful of unforced giveaways, including one that led to two golden chances by Alexander Frolov and Gaborik just after the midpoint of the second period.
Stuart was sound but not great over the course of the evening. Maybe the only Bruins defenseman that didn't stick out like a broken stick was McQuaid. But he only skated a shade more than 11 minutes over the course of the night.
So who comes out if Boychuk is ready to face Florida Thursday night? Obviously Chara and Seidenberg are givens based on their status as the Bruins' best two blueliners. Ference has been strong most of the season, even with an increase in playing time in the absence of Boychuk. He can be a giveaway machine some nights and contributes little to the offense, but we know Julien likes Ference's veteran savvy and leadership.
After struggling to start the season, Stuart finally seems to be hitting his stride and, more importantly, any puck-carrier within range. He has had a tough time getting out of his own end at times, but with third-pair minutes he should be able to play almost mistake-free hockey.
So that leaves Hunwick and McQuaid. Hunwick is Boston's best skater on the back end, but he's not exactly putting those wheels to use. He has only chipped in three points in 16 games so far, and you're more likely to see him chasing after a loose puck he gave away than joining the offensive rush these days. A trip to the press box might totally shoot his confidence, but with McQuaid's size, toughness and right-handed shot, the Bruins are definitely a better team. McQuaid is almost robotic in his ability to do what the coaches tell him and keep things so simple that you hardly ever notice him out there. That's the sign of a solid stay-at-home third-pair D-man — you never even think about him.
The Bruins got enough great saves from Thomas and some timely offense to beat the Rangers despite the high-pressure New York forecheck exposing Boston's Achilles heel on the back end. To make sure that heel is better protected once Boychuk returns, Hunwick has to sit until someone else proves to be the weakest link.


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Some Ohio colleges still have room for freshmen
- Written by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A month after the traditional enrollment deadline, some Ohio colleges say they still have space to add new students.
At least 18 Ohio colleges are among 280 in the U.S. that say they still have space for new students after the traditional May 1 deadline. That's according to an annual report compiled by the National Association for College Admission Counseling.
Colleges notify the association if they want to be added to the list.
The Columbus Dispatch (http://bit.ly/1pLqlO1 ) reports that it's an indicator that some colleges haven't met their enrollment goals for fall.
The group publishes the report for students still searching for a college late in the admission process.
Most Ohio schools in the report are private institutions with fewer than 5,000 students.


text:
COUNTRY GIRL: A Memoir. By Edna O'Brien. Little Brown. 357 pages. $27.99.
When Irish literary star Edna O'Brien, now in her 80s, was a girl growing up in the wild west of Ireland, an inspector came to visit her school. Because she was then as she is now, spunky and theatrical, O'Brien was the child chosen to give a recitation.
When she had finished saying her piece, the inspector asked O'Brien if she took a great interest in Jesus. O'Brien continues, "I replied that I was disappointed that he had been so curt with his mother at the Feast of Cana, when, worried about the scarcity of wine, he said, 'It is not my business or thine.' "
This is a small incident in a packed book, but the girl who can think and speak so freely about a domesticated Jesus — somebody's son, a young man with bad manners — is exactly the woman who addresses us in her memoir, "Country Girl," from the other end of the same life. Wherever she goes, O'Brien is irreversibly herself.
The County Clare of O'Brien's rural childhood seems as remote as the Middle Ages. O'Brien's young life was devoted to religious observances: "There were morning prayers, evening prayers, vespers, supplications, contritions, psalms, and versicles. There were exhortations about pride, vanity, filthy pleasures. ... The flames of Hell seemed as real as the turf burning in the fire."
She grew up on her father's family estate, Drewsboro. By the time she came along, the family no longer was rich, her father having sold off — or given away in fits of drunken generosity — much of the original land. The two constant loves of O'Brien's childhood are her mother ("I used to promise to die at the very instant she did.") and nature ("Birds swooped in random gusts, and butterflies ... moved in the higher strata like pieces of flying silk.").
If hers is an autumnal attitude, it springs from a saucy, idiosyncratic mind that shows no signs of flagging power. O'Brien is gifted with a memory that puts her in touch with all the moments of her now-long life. The County Clare girl who tried to run away with a troupe of traveling players still is here, along with the convent girl who was drawn into "the wild heart of things" by a nun.
The chapters devoted to her childhood and youth, by far the most vivid in the book, are like prose poems. Plenty happens, all of it strung together by association and the rhyme of memory.
In the chapter titled "Dining Room," for instance, O'Brien begins with an intricate visual description of the dining room. As a child, she called the dining room "Heaven" for its beauty and otherworldliness — a label that contrasts with the most insistent memories set there. In the first of these memories, an unwed neighbor girl who had complained of heartburn waits in the O'Briens' dining room to tell her sweetheart that there's "no cure" for her ailment. Her mother arranges a quick wedding.
The second memory also spotlights the vulnerability of women. O'Brien remembers her father, on a drunken binge, holding her and her mother hostage in the dining room, gun at the ready, until they get him more drink. Eventually, the Cistercian monks take him in for a drying-out.
Once she became famous, O'Brien would be branded a "bargain basement Molly Bloom" and a "Jezebel," and her books were banned in Ireland. Her prose is scrupulous; she can be scathing on occasion, but "Country Girl" is not a score-settling book. The story of her life after she leaves home in County Clare — as a runaway bride, a doll-house wife, a taboo-smashing author and an It Girl of London's Swinging Sixties and beyond — is studded with famous names.
She drops acid (and nearly loses her sanity) with R.D. Laing. Paul McCartney sings her sons to sleep. Richard Burton is a "bard brother." Jackie O gives her a little velvet drawstring purse with a note that reads, "For a lock of your true love's hair."
Edna O'Brien is the remnant of one Ireland who survived to see a new one born, and then to see the newborn Ireland go from boom to bust overnight. Her memoir is full of lost, discarded, changed, devalued and reclaimed things.
In one final, moving return to Drewsboro, O'Brien takes an artist to photograph the ruin of her childhood home. Her mother is weirdly everywhere, from the coal scuttle where she hid bars of chocolate to "one half of an orange curtain, like a theater prop," left at the window. O'Brien tastes the salty residue at the bottom of a holy water font and remembers her mother's last days, when she told stories without shame. Here, truly is O'Brien's own gift: the stories, told in sentences that cascade, without shame.
Reviewer Catherine Holmes teaches English at the College of Charleston.


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Audio Surfboard making industry resilient in face of manufacturing slumpEmily Bourke
TIM PALMER: 2012 was a tough year for Australia's manufacturing sector - the high Australian dollar, rising energy costs and weak demand in export markets culling some big home-grown names and the thousands of jobs they supported.
In Wollongong, over recent years the textile making industry and steelworks shed hundreds of workers. But unlike many other Australian-made products in the Illawarra, the business of custom made surfboards has shown surprising resilience.
But Wollongong's surfing enthusiasts are warning surfboard shapers need to adopt a more professional attitude to shore up their industry.
Emily Bourke has the story.
EMILY BOURKE: The North Wollongong surf club was set up in 1908, making it one of the oldest in Australia and over more than century this seaside city has developed a strong surf culture.
On the main drag sits Carabine Surf Designs, a busy surfboard workshop and store run by Shane Hornby.
SHANE HORNBY: Hand shaping boards is still very much a cottage industry. The core of the surfboard is still the same as it was 20, 30 years ago. So I'm not here to reinvent the wheel, I just know how to make good surf boards.
EMILY BOURKE: How is business?
SHANE HORNBY: Great - I own a surf shop. I've got the best job in the world.
EMILY BOURKE: What are the biggest threats to your business?
SHANE HORNBY: Surprising enough, backyard manufacturers. I mean it's not hard to get a piece of foam, it's not hard to try and chisel it into something that resembles a surf board and sell it to their mates for cheap.
EMILY BOURKE: A few doors down the road is the workshop of John Skipp, He's been making boards since 1963, and he's seen the rise and fall of the industry.
JOHN SKIPP: We used to have huge wholesale markets from Noosa Heads to Adelaide. I guess the '70s and the early '80s were the best for us. But it slowly got eroded away because as the trade was learnt elsewhere, each main coastal town now has got its own surf board manufacturer.
We used to do a lot of export, a lot to the Pacific Islands, Vanuatu, New Guinea - that has all slipped away because there's board shops there that import boards from mass manufacturers all over the world.
EMILY BOURKE: But he says in some ways board makers are better placed to withstand global economic conditions.
JOHN SKIPP: Being a standalone board maker in a town, you can't lie to the customer, anything you sell will come back if it's no good. We have to be confident that everything we sell is going to do the job.
ANDREW WARREN: There's very much a coolness, a cache, to the job. You know, the identity of a surfboard shaper is you know, it's still held as a kind of credible and cool thing to be.
EMILY BOURKE: Andrew Warren is a researcher from the Australian Centre for Cultural Environmental Research at Wollongong University. He's a passionate surfer but he's also studied the local surf board making industry.
ANDREW WARREN: Design and innovation had been something that Australian manufacturers were known for a long period of time. In some workshops the Japanese market was making up 30 to 40 per cent of their production.
EMILY BOURKE: But he says the work culture doesn't make for a high performing business.
ANDREW WARREN: Its origins are very much from a surfing subculture. It's really evolved along a kind of handshake agreement, gentlemen's agreements, there's nothing ever kind of written in ink, contracts are very rare. That informality has actually really hindered a lot of surfboard manufacturers.
EMILY BOURKE: And that's prompted calls for the industry to become more professional.
ANDREW WARREN: There is wider a move at the moment to try and establish an Australian surf craft industry association that would at least give a kind of visible identity to the Australian surfboard industry. It would help with the kind of marketing and promotion of Australian made surfboards and in a way I think that would help also move the industry forward in a more professional training way as well.
In workshops that have been around since the '60s and '70s, a lot of the shapers and surfboard makers in those factories are now approaching retirement age and there is actually a demand for younger people to come into the industry to learn the ropes and to take over.
EMILY BOURKE: That change might come, but the job itself will still be the same for John Skipp.
JOHN SKIPP: We like to think we're artists to a certain extent, the shaping the board is, it's all done by hand and to the good surfer, he looks at it and he looks at like it's a piece of art - yes, that's exactly what I want.
EMILY BOURKE: How many more years have you got in you?
JOHN SKIPP: I don't know. I think it's time I spent more time at the beach.
TIM PALMER: Why not? The Wollongong surfboard maker and artist John Skip, finishing Emily Bourke's report.


text:
SSC board wants to see school operate on smaller budget
Reduces pay of board members by 50 percent
STANDISH — At its most recent meeting, members of the Standish-Sterling Community Schools board discussed finding ways to operate the district on a smaller budget.
The district is currently facing, approximately, a $1 million deficit for the 2011-12 school year with Gov. Rick Snyder's proposed budget cuts. During the meeting, Board President Dr. Leonard LeClair said the district needs to be ready for what the future holds.
"We need to start gearing our thought process toward operating our school on a lesser amount of money, as opposed to reacting to this big shortfall of every, single, little thing we can cut, and things that we are going to have to bring back." he said to the board. "We have to realize that we are going to have to operate on a million less dollars a year for the next — forever maybe."
At the meeting, LeClair said that he believes that everyone involved with the finance committee and the board will continue to look at all options.
"I know that (District Businesses Specialist) Mike Waldie and (Superintendent) Michael Dodge are going to look at getting us a budget that will include things like bus replacements and computer replacements, allowing us to operate at a lesser number," he said.
LeClair said that the board will have to change its current thinking.
"We may have to switch our thinking a little bit about what we believe will need to be cut or reduced," he said. "We have to look at it from a different point."
Board member Ronald Bartlett said that it's important to do what it takes to not let the district fall behind.
"Everything is going to have to be reduced," he said. "But things like technology — that can't be reduced."
Bartlett said that every cut the district makes might never be replaced.
"I would like to see a balanced budget or some kind of plan, so that when we move forward we know where we are at," he said.
Board member Gary Egan said that having a balanced budget is not going to be easy.
"It's going to be hard to have a balanced budget when we don't have facts from the state," he said. "You can project (a budget), but we won't have our facts back from the state until October, and they expect our numbers to be in before that."
At the meeting, the board unanimously voted to reduce its pay by 50 percent.
LeClair said the board has to be willing to lead by example.
"It's a symbol for us to lead by example," he said.
Pooling of Funds
During the superintendent's reports portion of the meeting, Beverly Skinner, director of instructional services for the district informed the board that the district has been selected to the Michigan Department of Education Schoolwide Consolidation Funds Pilot Project.
Skinner informed the board that under the pilot program, the district would be allowed to pool its state, federal and general funds. She added that, as part of DOE's region 3, SSCS would be one of the first districts to take part in the project.
"There is a lot of changes going on with the state right now," she said. "The money we get from the federal government, which is Title 1, can only be used for targeted students, students that are the most in need. If we go to schoolwide, then we will have more flexibility to help any student who may need it."
Skinner said the pilot program will allow the district to have more flexibility with its money.
"We will be able to take our federal money, our state money and our local money and put it into one pot and use it as if it were all the same money," she said.
Skinner gave the board an example of how the virtual consolidation would help improve the district.
"Before, we could not mix our state and federal money," she said. "Now we can mix and mingle our funds together."
Skinner said she believes the federal government is allowing for more flexibility, due to strict educational guidelines placed on school districts.
"We were not allowed to spend some of our Title 1 money on different things because it is federal money," she said. "Now we can do that."
Skinner said a virtual consolidation will help improve the district.
"We are way ahead of the curve," she said.
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