text:
Exercise to Strike up on a Modern Driver
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PING G400 Crossover Ironsview other products
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text: There are not many words to describe a Game 7. "Awesome" would be a good place to start and finish. The Cardinals jumped out to a 3-1 series lead, riding whatever Tony LaRussa magic potion/moonshine he left in the office but the Giants have battled back to force this decisive game. Joe Buck and Tim McCarver will be our guides and this will be your space to take out the papers and the trash, and yakety yak (feel free to talk back, though.)

subset: commoncrawl


text:
HIV, AIDS and Older People
National Institute on Aging
June 2004
Grace was dating again. George, a close family friend she had known for a long time, was starting to stay overnight more and more often. Because she was past childbearing age, Grace didn't think about using condoms. And because she had known George for so long, she didn't think to ask him about his sexual history. So, Grace was shocked when she tested positive for HIV.
What Is HIV? What Is AIDS?
Like most people, you probably have heard a lot about HIV and AIDS. You may have thought that these diseases weren't your problem and that only younger people have to worry about them. But anyone at any age can get HIV/AIDS.
HIV (short for human immunodeficiency virus) is a virus that damages the immune system -- the system your body uses to fight off diseases. HIV infection leads to a much more serious disease called AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). When the HIV infection gets in your body, your immune system can weaken. This puts you in danger of getting other life-threatening diseases, infections, and cancers. When that happens, you have AIDS. AIDS is the last stage of HIV infection. If you think you may have HIV, it is very important to get tested. Today there are drugs that can help your body keep the HIV in check and fight against AIDS.
What Are the Symptoms of HIV/AIDS?
Many people have no symptoms when they first become infected with HIV. It can take as little as a few weeks for minor, flu-like symptoms to show up, or more than 10 years for more serious symptoms to appear. Signs of HIV include headache, cough, diarrhea, swollen glands, lack of energy, loss of appetite and weight loss, fevers and sweats, repeated yeast infections, skin rashes, pelvic and abdominal cramps, sores in the mouth or on certain parts of the body, or short-term memory loss.
How Do People Get HIV and AIDS?
Anyone, at any age, can get HIV and AIDS. HIV usually comes from having unprotected sex or sharing needles with an infected person, or through contact with HIV-infected blood. No matter your age, you may be at risk if:
Is HIV/AIDS Different in Older People?
A growing number of older people now have HIV/AIDS. About 19 percent of all people with HIV/AIDS in this country are age 50 and older. This is because doctors are finding HIV more often than ever before in older people, and because improved treatments are helping people with the disease live longer.
But there may even be many more cases than we know about. Why? One reason may be that doctors do not always test older people for HIV/AIDS and so may miss some cases during routine check-ups. Another may be that older people often mistake signs of HIV/AIDS for the aches and pains of normal aging, so they are less likely than younger people to get tested for the disease. Also, they may be ashamed or afraid of being tested. People age 50 and older may have the virus for years before being tested. By the time they are diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, the virus may be in the late stages.
The number of HIV/AIDS cases among older people is growing every year because:
Anyone facing a serious disease like HIV/AIDS may become very depressed. This is a special problem for older people, who may have no strong network of friends or family who can help. At the same time, they also may be coping with other diseases common to aging such as high blood pressure, diabetes, or heart problems. As the HIV/AIDS gets worse, many will need help getting around and caring for themselves. Older people with HIV/AIDS need support and understanding from their doctors, family, and friends.
HIV/AIDS can affect older people in yet another way. Many younger people who are infected turn to their parents and grandparents for financial support and nursing care. Older people who are not themselves infected by the virus may find they have to care for their own children with HIV/AIDS and then sometimes for their orphaned or HIV-infected grandchildren. Taking care of others can be mentally, physically, and financially draining. This is especially true for older caregivers. The problem becomes even worse when older caregivers have AIDS or other serious health problems. Remember, it is important to get tested for HIV/AIDS early. Early treatment increases the chances of living longer.
HIV/AIDS in People of Color and Women
The number of HIV/AIDS cases is rising in people of color across the country. About half of all people with HIV/AIDS are African American or Hispanic.
The number of cases of HIV/AIDS for women has also been growing over the past few years. The rise in the number of cases in women of color age 50 and older has been especially steep. Most got the virus from sex with infected partners. Many others got HIV through shared needles. Because women may live longer than men, and because of the rising divorce rate, many widowed, divorced, and separated women are dating these days. Like older men, many older women may be at risk because they do not know how HIV/AIDS is spread. Women who no longer worry about getting pregnant may be less likely to use a condom and to practice safe sex. Also, vaginal dryness and thinning often occurs as women age; when that happens, sexual activity can lead to small cuts and tears that raise the risk for HIV/AIDS.
Treatment and Prevention
There is no cure for HIV/AIDS. But if you become infected, there are drugs that help keep the HIV virus in check and slow the spread of HIV in the body. Doctors are now using a combination of drugs called HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy) to treat HIV/AIDS. Although it is not a cure, HAART is greatly reducing the number of deaths from AIDS in this country.
Prevention. Remember, there are things you can do to keep from getting HIV/AIDS. Practice the steps below to lower your risk:
Health agencies in most cities offer HIV testing. The following national organizations have information about HIV/AIDS.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
CDC National Prevention Information Network
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
National Association on HIV Over Fifty
Senior Action in a Gay Environment (SAGE)
For more information on health and aging, contact:
National Institute on Aging Information Center
To order publications (in English or Spanish) online, visit www.niapublications.org.
Visit NIHSeniorHealth.gov (www.nihseniorhealth.gov), a senior-friendly website from the National Institute on Aging and the National Library of Medicine. This website features popular health topics for older adults. It is simple to use, has large type, and a 'talking' function that reads text aloud.
This article was provided by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.


text:
'The Canon Vixia HG21 is an excellent HD camcorder that's reasonably easy to operate out of the box and looks good, too.'
'The overall video image quality is very high, and the features and usability are there.'
'great video and image quality'
'translucent black and burnt amber gradient color scheme'
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'Awkwardly placed USB port.'
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not too bad looking either
The Left Side (5.5)
The left side of the Canon HG20 will see a lot of action.'
'Does not have a viewfinder.'
'Aside from the improved aesthetics of the SW21, Panasonic has also beefed up the mechanism for securing the watertight doors over the various ports. '
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'It also survived a dip in the Coney Island ocean and a nice video session underwater in a bathtub with Mr. '
'It has a 34x optical zoom which is pretty good for this price range.'
'Compared to other consumer camcorders on the market, it is very inexpensive at around $270..'
'compelling video'
'extremely sharp pictures'
'Limited recording time'
'And with Hybrid recording technology, you can capture it all directly to a DVD or removable Memory Stick Duo or Memory Stick PRO Duo media. '
'This Sony HandyCam DVD Camcorder can be purchased online and through retail stores for an average price of $300.'
'cool digital camcorder'
'in the Digital Camcorder Buying Guide Video cameras using a memory card format are able to achieve an ultracompact design.'
'overall • Zoom is noisy • Footage'
Good video performance for the asking price
'No SD/MMC card expansion slot.'
'The bad: No SD/MMC card expansion slot.'
'the picture quality goes from poor to abysmal, particularly in how it handles motion.'
'Poor video and photo quality.'
'two robust recording formats'
'Transfer images to your computer in a flash with the built-in high speed USB 2.0 connection.'
'ridiculous 1200x digital zoom'
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'does not include a full manual control mode'
'the software is not that great'
'Best deal around with this feature set.".'
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(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
Contact us for information about using this image.
Situated in the hills above Williamsburg, Massachusetts, the Williamsburg reservoir dam, nearly 600 feet long and 43 feet high, spanned pasture-covered hills. Made of a masonry core wall (a remnant of the west wall appears on the left) supported by earthen embankments, the dam blocked up a mountain stream and created a 100-acre lake. Like other New England reservoirs, it had been built by mill owners downstream to collect water that could be released in a regular flow to their factories to turn waterwheels and turbines. Reservoirs such as these made the industrial revolution possible.
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See Also...
"Mill River Calamity" from "Harper's Weekly"
"Harper's Weekly Journal of Civilization" illustrations of Mill River Disaster Flood
"Reservoir Disaster" article from the Gazette and Courier newspaper
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mail system, equipment, supplies, etc., for personal gain or the publication of one's
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any charges resulting from their personal use of the telephone.
Questions about this policy and its application should be directed to the Director of Administration at ext. 2449.
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text:
Firmly establishing the urgency of the global water crisis as the central issue facing our world this century, this documentary illuminates the vital role water plays in our lives, exposes the defects in the current system and shows communities already struggling with its ill-effects. Featuring activist Erin Brockovich, respected water experts including Peter Gleick, Jay Famiglietti and Robert Glennon and social entrepreneurs championing revolutionary solutions, the film posits that we can manage this problem if we are willing to act now. Check the movie: Last Call The Oasis
Drought in Thailand:
Low dam levels, El Nino phenomenon indicate water shortages: scientist.
Thailand might deal with a severe dry spell next year due to the El Nino weather condition phenomenon, a leading meteorologist has actually alerted.
In another stressing indicator, experts have actually cautioned that the present volume of water reserves in the significant dams is insufficient to satisfy need this year.
Maytee Mahayosananta, director of the Meteorological Department's Central Weather Forecast Division, stated after he studied a number of weather report models, he found that the El Nino phenomenon would start in Thailand this year.
As an outcome, Maytee stated Thailand would not have sufficient water this year and next year as the sensation decreased rainfall.
"The volume of water this year will be less than that in 2013," he stated.
According to the Royal Irrigation Department, the volume of water reserves in two major dams, Bhumibol and Sirikit, was only 21 per cent or about 3,893 million cubic metres.
This quantity of water will be used in the Chao Phraya river basin.
The department found that the quantity of water reserves in the two dams has actually drastically decreased and will not suffice for human use and to preserve ecosystems.
Thongplew Kongjun, director of the Department's Office of Water Management and Hydrology, has urged members of the general public and farmers to be conservative in using water.
He said that the department this year anticipated to make use of 5.3 billion cubic metres of water from 3 major dams during the dry season however the water reserves it had actually used surpassed the plan by 600 million cubic metres.
Rains to arrive late
In addition, the department expects the rainy season to begin later on this year than typical in mid-May, which implies Thailand will not have water reserves this year and next year.
"Hopefully, farmers will not start growing their rice farms during this season. If they do not, then we will have sufficient water," Thongplew added.
Suwattana Jitraladakorn, chairman of the Engineering Institute of Thailand's water resources engineering sub-panel, said the quantity of water in the Chao Phraya River this year was lower than regular.
Because the authorities had released a big volume of water in 2012, he stated that water reserves in significant dams were low.
He found that the overall number of rice farms this year had grown over 200 per cent.
Hydro and Agro Informatics Institute director Royol Chitradon said there was some rainfall in the upper locations of the Bhumibol and Sirikit dams, and that was why there were small quantities of water reserves in the dams.
"We discovered that the level of water reserves in these 2 dams was the least expensive in 10 years," he said.
According to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, about 38 provinces across the country have actually been proclaimed dry spell zones.
In a proposal to fix drought in Thailand troubles in the long term, National Water and Flood Management secretary basic Suphot Tovichakchaikul stated all abandoned water resources must be recuperated and have their capacity improved.
The use of water must be matched by demand and supply in cities, he stated. He said he was preparing a Bt2-trillion mega job to connect all water resources and disperse water straight to farmers.
Under this job, the water from the Mekong River will be diverted to the Kingdom during the rain period.
"This project will be suggested to the new government," he stated.
Reference: http://news.asiaone.com/news/asia/expert-warns-severe-drought-thailand-next-year
Save water !


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text:
Strong female entry in record breaking Rolex Fastnet Race
A key feature of this year's Rolex Fastnet Race will be the number of high profile women taking part when the world's largest offshore race sets sail from Cowes on Sunday 11th August.
Yet again the Royal Ocean Racing Club's flagship event is breaking new records in terms of the size of its fleet with 372 boats entered at present. The biennial race, from Cowes to the Fastnet Rock off southwest Ireland and back around the Scilly Isles to Plymouth, is now by far the biggest of all the international 600 mile offshore races.
The largest on the start line will be the 40m trimaran Spindrift 2, which as Maxi Banque Populaire in 2011 romped around the course in just 32 hours 48 minutes. As she was finishing most of the fleet had still to round Land's End en route to the Fastnet Rock. Since the last race, the fastest offshore boat in the world, which holds the record for the highest ever 24 hour run (908.2nm or 37.84 knots average) has been sold to the Franco-Swiss Spindrift racing team. Her new co-skippers are Yann Guichard and Dona Bertarelli, whose brother Ernesto Bertarelli twice won the America's Cup with his Alinghi team.
Spindrift is obviously gunning to beat the existing record of its new trimaran. However even with a good forecast this shouldn't be taken for granted.
"This race is a big challenge for me and for the Spindrift racing team as a whole, not only because of its historical importance, but for several other reasons," explains Bertarelli, who has spent the last years campaigning the D35 catamaran Ladycat in Switzerland. "The Rolex Fastnet Race will be my first offshore experience, but it will also be our first race with Spindrift 2. We are competitors and even though we will have had little time to train, to get to know the boat and build a strong sailing team, our objective remains to win."
Team SCA is competing in the Rolex Fastnet Race as part of the Swedish campaign's rigorous training regime and selection process to mount the Volvo Ocean Race's best ever all-female campaign. As part of their training regime, they typically sail their VO70 training boat - formerly Puma Ocean Racing's mar mostro - with their male coaches on board. For the Fastnet this will comprise multiple Volvo Ocean Race winner Brad Jackson, Joca Signorini and Spanish bowman Pepe Ribes. Among the British crew is Vendee Globe skipper Sam Davies and Olympic match racer Annie Lush, two of the five women already selected for the team.
For Davies this will be her fifth Rolex Fastnet Race, having last competed with Sidney Gavignet aboard the IMOCA 60 Artemis Ocean Racing in 2009. On board she is navigator although as she points out "we are all in the watch system, so I will be sailing and navigating."
Team SCA is at present one of four VO70s competing, up against the Ian Walker-skippered Abu Dhabi, which set a monohull course record in 2011, plus the former Team Russia and the latest entry, Camper, being campaigned by an Australian crew led by TP52 owner Jason van der Slot.
How do Team SCA expect to get on against Abu Dhabi? "We have done a lot more sailing, but we are missing the Volvo experience still. I'm sure their crew will be made up mostly of people who have done the race before."
Likely to finish between Team SCA and Spindrift 2 will be another Vendee Globe competitor, Dee Caffari.
For Caffari this will be her seventh Fastnet, her first having been as skipper of the Challenge boat Group 4 in 2001. In 2007, her IMOCA 60 Aviva had to pull out with a ripped mainsail and a very sick quadruple Olympic gold medallist Matthew Pinsent on board, while last year she received her multihull baptism, hitching a ride on Steve Ravussin's MOD70, Race for Water.
"I'd never done the race that quick before in my life, so I am really delighted I'm back on a MOD70," says Caffari, who this year joins Sidney Gavignet's team on Oman Air-Musandam.
As part of Oman Sail's continued efforts to develop women's sailing in the sultanate, Omani sailor Raya Al Habsi will also be competing on board. She has previously competed in Sailing Arabia-The Tour in 2012 and 2013, and is currently part of the all-female Oman Sail entry at the J/80 Worlds. "Raya has been with us from the beginning of the girls' offshore sailing," says Caffari. "She has been working the bow on the Farr 30 and has been cold, wet and beaten up and still continues to smile, which is a good characteristic to have for a tough environment, which the Fastnet is. This is big deal for Oman Sail and for Arab women in sport."
As to their prospects this year Oman Air-Musandam will be up against another MOD70 in the Seb Josse-skippered Edmond de Rothschild. Caffari remembers two years ago when they match raced another MOD70 Veolia Environnement for the entire race. "I am really looking forward to being back in that intensity again."
Some way behind the grand prix speedsters will be another all-female team led by Lucy Reynolds. While husband Christian Reynolds will be campaigning the Swan 53 Northern Child, Lucy has entered the First 40, Southern Child. "One of our regular crew asked if I'd be interested in doing an all-female campaign and I went 'why not?'" says Lucy of how this came about. The Reynolds run a charter company and the crew of Southern Child is mostly paying guests.
"One of our crew has done the race before and another has done the ARC and various transatlantic and offshore passage, so it is a mixed level of experience, and we have a couple coming in from the States," says Lucy.
To date they have had a training weekend and competed in the RORC's Morgan Cup and have the Cowes Dinard St Malo and Channel Races ahead of them to build up their experience and qualification miles.
"It has been very enjoyable, everyone just growing and learning," explains Lucy for whom this will be her third Rolex Fastnet Race. "Quite often with female sailors, they do a task and they don't understand why they are doing it. So it has been a really enjoyable process empowering people to do things for themselves and understand why they are doing it."
At present there are six First 40s competing in IRC Two and given that two, La Réponse and Lancelot II Logic, finished just nine seconds apart on corrected time in the RORC's recent Morgan Cup, they can expect some close racing.


text: Chen Wei addresses social issues and documents human values and desires through his photographs of still lifes, empty interiors, and staged nightclub scenes. Whether capturing dark, deserted interiors or dance club portraits, Chen's works are marked by a dramatic, cinematic quality. Chen is best known for the "Float" series, which calls attention to China's prohibition of large gatherings, except in the case of nightclubs. Simultaneously sad and beautiful, the images reveal temporary escapes from a restrictive reality—a sense reinforced by the deliberately exaggerated, dream-like settings. Culling inspiration from the daily news and everyday life, as well as artists such as John Cage, Wolfgang Tillmans, Martin Parr, and Zhang Jungang, Chen is more concerned with capturing the outcomes of dramatic conflicts than showing the stories behind them.


text:
From Nathan's Guest Book:
Nathan has changed my life forever.
I take a million pictures of my kids.
I read them "just one more" bedtime story when they ask.
I put off watching my favorite show to snuggle them in their beds a little longer.
I take them everywhere so they can experience everything.
I apologize when I have been short with them.
I tell them I still love them even though I'm angry at the moment.
I've taught them about death, heaven and God. They are not afraid.
Nathan has taught me that life is too short and too many bad things happen.
He also has taught me to just accept the bad things when they do happen.
There is no time to sulk or think "why me?"
Nathan has taught that I should make the best of every single moment I have on this earth
He has also taught me that good health is nothing to take for granted.
Children are the greatest teachers.
As much as I have learned from Nathan and as much as he has changed my life for the better, I would give it all back if it meant he could stay here on earth with his family.
Stay strong Gentry Family. You are an inspiration to us all.
I couldn't have said it better. You may recall that Nathan is a young boy with Neuroblastoma. He and his parents are in New York looking for new treatments. Send them some love.
15 September 2006
Anonymous Comment
From Nathan's Guest Book:
Posted by shadowfax at 5:41 PM
3 comments:
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.ReplyDelete
Agree +10ReplyDelete
I can say that the humans forget what is really important and the world it's like this because we teach to our children to be like this, nobody cares about anyone, sad but true, good luck good people, because the evil ones are everywhere.
Yeah +10, it's very sad when you saw children in poverty or suffering some kind of abuse, I wonder if there's a real god, why this happend...ReplyDelete


text: A consummate professional with over 30 years of experience in luxury residential real estate, George Ballantyne serves the Greater Boston Area as a highly respected expert in pricing, marketing, and negotiating high-end properties. With his in-depth knowledge of the market and all of its nuances, Mr. Ballantyne is adept at helping buyers and sellers successfully navigate even the most challenging and complex aspects of luxury real estate purchases and sales. In the past year, his Greater Boston Area sales have achieved on average 95 percent of their original listing price, and have gone under contract on average in less than 60 days. Throughout the course of his distinguished career, Mr. Ballantyne has participated in more than 2,000 luxury sales throughout New England. He has achieved record-breaking sales of exceptional properties in every New England state which include "Castle-in-the-Clouds", the historic Lucknow Estate in Moultonborough, New Hampshire; "Skylands", the Seal Harbor, Maine estate purchased by Martha Stewart; "The Anchorage", the former Rockefeller estate in Seal Harbor, Maine; and "Brookhurst", an historic Berkshire estate in Lenox, Massachusetts. Mr. Ballantyne first joined Sotheby's International Realty in 1978 as Senior Vice President, establishing the firm's affiliate network in New England, the Mid-Atlantic and Tri-State regions, the Midwest, and Eastern Canada. Additionally, Mr. Ballantyne established and headed the New England Regional Office of the firm, providing comprehensive high-level services for property listings as well as programs for the on-going training of agents in the luxury market. He has also served as a liaison between Sotheby's International Realty and Sotheby's fine arts auction house. Prior to joining Sotheby's International Realty, Mr. Ballantyne worked for Citibank's Financial Management division in New York, serving the banking needs of high net worth clients. During his tenure there, he introduced the concept of fine arts as collateral for demand loans, which became the foundation of Sotheby's Financial Services. Prior to that, he worked with the Director of the Detroit Institute of Arts, cataloguing the Tannehill Collection of French Impressionist paintings and drawings. A Back Bay resident of 30 years, Mr. Ballantyne serves on the Board of Trustees of Historic New England and on the Board of Overseers of the MSPCA. He formerly served on the Board of the American Repertory Theater. Mr. Ballantyne holds a B.A. from The College of Wooster, an M.A. from Columbia University, and an M.B.A. from Boston University. Along the lines of his career that was to follow, he wrote his theses on "18th-Century Architecture in Newport, Rhode Island" and "Frank Lloyd Wright and His Clients", which focuses on a study of those who desire to live in a Wright-designed house, and examines the relationship between the iconic architect and his clients.


text: Zinger, Crossroads RV: The Z1- Lite brand has been carefully designed and engineered to welcome you to the Crossroads RV family! With a vast array of floor plans to choose from you'll be sure to find the right fit. The Z1-Lite also boasts an abundance of great features typically reserved for higher priced travel trailers. Some of these standard features include a DSI water heater and generous storage, as well as diamond plate protection on the front of the trailer. Additionally, the Z1- Lite's innovative design offers a spacious 6' 6" tall ceiling and an 8' interior width. Explore the Z1- Lite and welcome to Crossroads RV!


text:
Blonde on the Prairie: Accident Prone With Proof
I'm considering making an offer to Hollywood or Fargo-whichever one takes me up on it first I'm supposing. That husband of mine witnesses the things that happen and surely my girlfriends hear about it. I've been meaning to ask my doctor If there is anything written in the medical journals about certain bodies being accident prone and magnets to the not-so-common of occurrences. If it's not written yet I offer myself up to science. My offer was at first just going to include me agreeing to wear a camera attached to the front of me so the researchers could be privy to the things that happen before me. This week though I've decided to include the back side of me as well as a camera atop my head.
It was a normal day as far as days go. Husband went to work as did I. We met back at home and after a welcome home hug and the late lunch like we always have, we went on with our own routines. I plopped down in the recliner to watch Dr. Phil and he putzed around on the computer.
The sage age I am at the moment has taught me that I have to keep moving. If I am moving and in motion it means I am not yet dead. I rather enjoy being alive most days. Like most wives, what I enjoy he will enjoy too — by golly! Whether he knows it or not he loves walking every single day up our long, country drive. I saddled up our dogs since we don't have horses, put on my fuzzy, warm boots and wrapped a scarf around Husband's neck. We usually walk side by side but this day I was a wee bit concerned about my blood sugar being low. I felt a little bit funny so I didn't go all the way to the end. I began walking back in front of him with one of the dogs just in case. A diabetic should never be too far from sugar when she's feeling low. Our driveway has wide-open prairie on both sides until the prairie grasses meet up to the tree claims. When we get to the tree claim we are nearly back home to the cabin.
I would like to announce something. I am the yeller in this family.
Pert-near everything I ever wanted when I was young I had to yell for.
Mama had so many babies that I couldn't be heard unless I did. Husband is a peaceful, quiet soul and pert-near everything he ever wanted when he was young he just had to quietly ask for and it was his. Opposites attract. Imagine my surprise then when there I walked many steps ahead of him, dog on the leash in hand when I heard him yell. He didn't just yell he yelled at me! He didn't just yell at me he yelled with the kind of warning that made me believe he meant it and he yelled loud. I had just made it to the tree claim when I heard him behind me.
"Look OOOooouuu-t!" he yelled.
The rest was in such slow motion that I felt the soft tissue of my face float across the skeleton of my skull. It was as if someone took a pressurized air hose and sprayed my lips across my face. I whipped my head around so fast in disbelief for him using his "outside voice" that I nearly missed the point of his concern.
When my face skin and lips finally ended up where my head stopped I saw it. A doe leaped out at me full force. It flew over me as if I were watching one of Santa's reindeer trying to take flight. Husband began running towards me prior to the doe leaping figuring it was going to hit me instead of jumping over me. I felt the force of the leap. It was a surreal moment. I dropped to the ground in complete awe of what just happened and what could have happened. I was so thankful the doe chose me to show itself to. That said, I could have become the new lyrics to an old song.
"Jodi got run over by a doe deer.
Walking up the driveway Sunday eve.
You can think there's no such thing as accident prone.
But as for me and Husband , we believe!"
Husband has decided it is time. He has asked that I don't leave home walking unless I am wrapped in bubble wrap with an emergency rope and first aid kit attached to my person.
He forgot to consider the dangers in me with plastic near my head, a rope to get tangled in and the many dangers in the first aid kit. Maybe I'll just stay inside and safe. Nah. I'd miss the good stuff then.
Besides, you'd have nothing to read about if I didn't do combat walking with a joyful heart. Thank you for another year of taking the time to read my columns. I'm beyond thankful for you-truly. We've spent the last nine years together already. Pending no more bump ins with this doe I hope for at least another nine.
Ingstad lives on the prairie near Valley City and writes this column for the Times-Record.


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Nokia has updated its NFC Writer app for Lumia Windows Phones. Version 22.214.171.1240 sounds as though it was a minor bump and you'd be right to assume such a thing. The only notable difference we can spot is the addition of a "NFC Tags" entry on the main menu. This loads a screen that explains why users should purchase and use official NFC tags from Nokia.
As well as some information, there's a link to purchase the NFC tag pack (containing 5 writeable NFC tags) that will take the user to Amazon - though when we try the link outside the US it appears to crash the app). You can download NFC Writer from the Nokia Collection on the Windows Phone Store.


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Shopko Temporary Position - Cashier in Jefferson, Iowa
Job Title:
Temporary Position - Cashier
External Job Posting:
Temporary Opportunity with Shopko!
Position Overview:
Our Cashiers do more than just check out our customers. You are responsible for delivering an outstanding shopping experience. As a cashier, we need you to be friendly and focused on providing exceptional customer service. If you are looking to start your career in retail or just looking for a job, at Shopko we are offering you a fun, collaborative, and energetic team environment.
You are the last person, and sometimes the only person our customer interacts with during their visit. Make it a remarkable one. Join Team Shopko today.
Shopko teammates will be responsible for:
Providing customers with a quick and efficient check-out experience
Accurately scan and bag items
Ensuring customers receive courteous service
Handle money
Maintain Shopko brand standards at the front end area and sales floor
Answering customer questions and restocking items efficiently and accurately
Thank our customers for visiting our store
Why Shopko?
We want you to enjoy what you do
You count and our customers return because of you
Flexible scheduling
Be part of a fun, supportive, and energetic team
We are growing rapidly and promote from within
Minimum Knowledge, Experience & Skills Requirements:
Must demonstrate Shopko's commitment to providing exceptional customer service
Ability to communicate and be friendly with customers
Grow, develop, and have interest in learning more about other areas of the store
Strong work ethic and is honest
Enjoys working with people
Company Overview
We are a growing company with plans to add 200 more stores over the next two years. We provide general merchandise, Pharmacy, and Optical services in our store formats of Shopko, Shopko Hometown, and Shopko Express.
At Shopko, we understand what matters to our customers. Our stores are designed to be simple, clean, and welcoming, not overwhelming. We offer the essentials our customers need and the brands they trust at a fair price. Shopko, the Stuff that counts.
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Shopko is an Equal Opportunity Employer functioning under an Affirmative Action Plan m/f/d/v.
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Success! [Paperback]
Success, an elusive goal that everyone pursues, but not everyone attains. We all know successful people, and wonder what their formula is. More important, we wish we knew how to duplicate their achievement.
Such people are self-confident, poised. They seem to churn through obstacles, to be immune from frustration. Or, at least, so it seems to those who think that success is something that only other people attain. But it doesn't have to be that way. The elusive goal is within reach -- and this book has the formula.
Rabbi Moshe Gans, noted educator and lecturer offers advice and solutions that are sound, tested, and practical. His Make Me, Don't Break Me has become a treasured guidebook for parents and teachers, and in the process has helped many thousands of children reach their potential. In this new book, Success!, Rabbi Gans does for the rest of us what he has done for children: He shows us how we can make the most of what we are.
This book is firmly based on Talmudic and rabbinic thought -- as well as the author's rich experience and vast learning. Flavoring his text with true-to-life illustrations, Rabbi Gans guides the reader step-by-step to a better, more fruitful, more satisfying life.
This is a book that is a pleasure to read, and that will transform attitudes, outlooks, and relationships -- all for the better. You'll be able to confront challenges and weather setbacks. You'll be happier and more confident.
So turn the cover and come to grips with Success! It will be as fruitful a confrontation as you have ever had.
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"The Lovers, The Dreamers, and Me", the Jim Henson tribute show opens today in Gallery Nucleus, Alhambra. We are so pleased to be part of this show and wish we could be there to see what all the other great artists involved have done. I have sneaked some photos of this piece previously and Jonathan posted the concept artwork over on his blog this morning but its time for a full reveal and i just hope you like it and it was worth the wait. Although made predominately as a sculptural piece, it is also a working puppet and I will post the video of him in action at a later date. He is available to purchase, contact Gallery Nucleus for information
Saturday, 10 December 2011
Posted by Feltmistress at 14:18
3 comments:
- Elliott said...
Wow. Stunning. It took me a moment to realize that it was made out of felt (sorry, I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed). That is amazing, though. You are incredibly talented.
- 20 January 2012 at 04:57
- Timm said...
beautiful work! thats so awesome that he also works as a puppet. such great attention to detail.
- 26 January 2012 at 21:32
Absolutely amazing!! I love it!!
- 1 February 2012 at 00:13
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1 Quart Stainless Steel Heated Water Bowl With Rack
Stainless steel bowl keeps drinking water free of ice, even during sub-zero days. Can be attached to any cage or used on a flat surface. Built-in thermostat and 6 ft. power cord. Great for rabbits, dogs or other small animals. 25 watts, 120 volts.
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A Christian apologetics ministry dedicated to demonstrating the historical reliability of the Bible through archaeological and biblical research.
This past month, for the third year in a row, I again participated in the half-marathon race as part of the 2010 Baltimore (Maryland) Running Festival. Just for the record, running does not really describe what I did, and this year was my worst effort to date. But enough about me, participation in the event prompted me to consider a bit more carefully the origin of the event, which led me back to Queen Esther. My own academic work and interests have always been in the earlier periods of Biblical history. In fact, I have tended to consider the Persian period as modern history. I have had minimal contact with Persian material in my archaeological field work and my interest in that period has basically centered on my annual cycle teaching the book of Esther.
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Slowly i took it out from the oven, then took a few photos of it.....and then 'served'!
Results?!!.....Its great! Not to say its very very yummy and delicious, but seeing the kids eating one piece after another....i was so happy and satisfied...:)
I got this recipe from one of my favourite book.."Bake With Yen". I just follow the ingredients for the dough but did some changes for the tomato sauce and the ingredients for the topping. Well, you can just add anything you favour on top, right? So i did some with spicy flavour..:P
Ingredients for the dough:
250g Bread flour
140ml Cold water
1/2 tbsp Instant yeast
1 tsp Salt
2 tbsps Cooking oil
~ Mix flour, cold water instant yeast and salt for a few minutes in a mixing bowl with a dough hook, then add in oil. Mix till dough is elastic. (Knead about 10 minutes)
~ Let proof in a bowl for 30 minutes then divide the dough into sizes you prefer.
~ Flattened the dough and put on an oiled pan or pan layed with baking paper.
~ Proof the flattened dough again for 20-25minutes, pook the dough base with a fork and half bake the pizza bases at 220'C for 10 minutes.
~ Spread pizza sauce evenly over the pizza base and add topping ingredients of your choice.
~ Sprinkle some mozarella cheese on top then bake at 220'C for about 20 minutes.
Ingredients for Pizza Sauce:
1 small tin of tomato puree
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
Some oregano and Bay leaves
3 tbsps Olive oil
2 pips Garlic
3 large onions
3 Fresh tomatoes
~ Grind the onions and garlic. Separately grind the tomatoes.
~ Heat up the olive oil,Fragnant the grounded onions and garlic, add in tomato puree and grounded tomatoes.
~ Cook for 5 minutes then add in bay leaves and oregano. Season with salt and sugar and cook till sauce thicken.
** Sugar can be more if the paste is too sour.
Well for the topping......some with sausages, chicken breast chunks (marinated with some black pepper and soy sauce), capsicum, button mushrooms, pineapples and onions.
Some was spicy...heehee! I marinated the chicken breast chunks with "Nyonya Laksa" paste which my friend gave some time ago. I just recall it was still in my fridge, so i just play with it! And the taste was great too. Of course you can just marinate with some curry powder and salt....it'll turn out perfect too.
Lastly there must be cheese on top. Mozarella cheese ...yea yea....i covered the whole pizza with it. hee hee!
Everybody was satisfied with my creation today...:) I was so happy, so i ate alot too......'sigh'..got to do exercise early morning tomorrow...;p


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Modes - The Theory (lesson)
In the previous modes lesson we described what modes are, and a practical way of diving into them. However, modes are a complex subject, and the theoretical underpinnings are fascinating. Once you thoroughly understand the previous lesson, spending some time here can really help you with concepts all across music. So now we know what modes are, lets see what they mean in theory terms and how they were generated in the first place.
How Do We Generate Modes?
We're going to start out by listing all of the modes of the Major scale, along with their formulae - look closely, there may be questions ...
I have also included a column called "scale degree" - this will become clear soon.
The first thing I hope you spotted was that the Ionian mode has an identical formula to the Major scale. (See, I told you you were already using modes!). Yes, that's right, the Ionian mode is another name for the Major scale.
Next, although we haven't had a lesson on minor scales yet, you may have spotted that the Aeolian mode has the same formula as the Natural minor scale ... yes, that's right, you already know the Aeolian mode because it is identical to the Natural minor scale! So we've learnt 2 modes already without trying.
Interesting though that is, the real lesson here is that there is a pattern in each of the successive modes (I have listed them in this order deliberately). With a little more examination you will see that for each successive mode's formula, we take off the first letter, move the rest of the letters along and put the first letter on the end.
This gives us a practical way to generate the modes of a scale, based on a techniques of moving through the notes of a scale. The rule is this:
Pick a major scale. To generate each mode, you move through the notes of the scale, up to the degree listed above for that mode, then play through the scale, starting on that note, but playing notes from the original scale. What this does is two things. First, it shifts the root note from the Major scale root note, to the note that is the degree of the scale to which we have moved. Secondly, since we are starting some of the way through the scale it also shifts the spacing of tones and semi-tones (T & S) into a different relationship, as reflected by the formulae for each mode that I gave you above.
That's a bit of a mouthful, so lets look at an example - the modes of the C Major scale. Notes in C major are C,D,E,F,G,A,B,C - here is one of the CAGED shapes for C Major:
Our first mode is the Ionian, which is the Major scale itself, lets ignore that for now, no explanations should be necessary. Instead, lets look at the Dorian mode. The Dorian mode is mode 2, so we generate the unique formula for Dorian by moving up a degree to D, and playing the notes out of the C Major scale, which would be D,E,F,G,A,B,C,D - it would look like this:
Since we started on D, we would call this "D Dorian", and you'll notice that although we are using the scale of C Major to select our notes, we have ended up with a scale with a root note of D, which you should take into account when writing songs around this mode.
If you want to turn this around and for instance find the notes in a specific key such as "C Dorian" you need to work backwards. What scale has the note C as its second degree? The answer is Bb, here:
So to figure out a C Dorian scale you would look at the notes in the key of Bb, which are Bb,C,D,Eb,F,G,A,Bb. Applying our rule and starting on the second degree ( C ) we get our C Dorian scale as C,D,Eb,F,G,A,Bb,C
When doing it this way around, you must also take account of the fact that different modes have different characteristic chords that fit with them. So for instance, Dorian mode has a Minor 7th feel to it - if you move from C Major to C Dorian, you are also moving from Major to Minor. Modes are characterised ad Major or Minor based on the interval between the 1st and 3rd notes. Not surprisingly, if the interval is a minor 3rd, the mode is characterised as minor, if its a major 3rd, it is characterised as major.
So you see we can work it both ways, going from a scale to a mode, or from a mode to a scale, and of course with practice you won't need to figure the notes out at all, you will just think "Dorian" and your fingers will play it - but that's a LOT of practice by the way!
You can use the same principle above to figure out the notes for any of the modes listed. Its also important to point out that for every mode, we are using the notes out of a major scale, just with a displaced root note, so learning modes is simply a case of re-using the major scale shapes you already know, and altering where you place the root note of that scale in the pattern. This means that you from the CAGED system you have 5 options for playing each of the modes.
Again, What exactly is a Mode?
So when all is said and done, is a Mode a specific pattern of notes, or just a scale played up a few notes?
People disagree on this - my answer to that question is that they are both. The essence of what a mode is, is the Tone/Semi-tone formula you use to construct it - Dorian is Dorian no matter what key it is played in, its the relationship of the notes that counts. But the selection and structuring of modes is done by an orderly progression through the scale you are generating the modes from. You'll notice that we have picked only 7 of the possible combinations of tones and semi-tones - others are possible, but that moves us into the realms of new scales. Modes of scales are strictly generated in the way I have described using movement through the degrees of the scale to generate the formulae for each.
Is That All There is to Modes?
Well we have really just scratched the surface of modes here, but by the time we have covered all of the modes listed above in more detail you will have learnt pretty much everything that most people mean when they talk about modes.
To be accurate, what we have discussed here are the Major Modes, meaning the modes generated from a Major scale. It is actually possible to generate modes from any scale at all though. So for instance, there are modes of the Pentatonic scale, Harmonic Minor scale, Melodic Minor scale and so on. Notice I didn't mention the Natural Minor scale here - although we use it a lot and call it a scale, a more accurate way of looking at the natural minor scale is as a mode of the Major scale (the Aeolian).
If you want to look at other modes (and there are some pretty obscure ones!) I suggest you buy a reference book such as The Guitar Grimoire: A compendium of Formulas for Guitar Scales and Modes. The techniques for mode construction remain the same no matter what scale you use, but sometimes its easier to look them up than to figure them out yourself.
That's it for this lesson. In the following lessons we are going to take a tour through the modes, look at example scales and discus chord voicings.
If you have any questions you know where I am!
Once again, thanks to Tank for proofreading!


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Why You Can't Kick Your Summer Cold
Having trouble kicking that summer cold? It's not your imagination. Summer colds are caused by different viruses than winter colds and tend to last longer than the winter variety. Angela Chen reports. Photo: AP.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
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European Commission
Brussels, 18 December 2013
Questions and answers on the EU Clean Air Policy Package
Poor air quality is a major health risk, causing lung diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. Children, the elderly and citizens suffering from asthma and respiratory conditions are most affected. As well as negative effects on health, air pollution has considerable economic impacts, cutting short lives, increasing medical costs, and reducing productivity through lost working days. Air pollution also has impacts the environment, affecting the quality of fresh water, soil, and ecosystems.
In 2010, more than 400 000 people are estimated to have died prematurely from air pollution in the EU, and almost two-thirds of the EU land area was exposed to excess nutrient above safe levels. Air pollution can also damage materials and buildings, and some air pollutants behave like greenhouse gases that cause climate change. The economic cost of the health impacts alone is huge, estimated at EUR 330-940 billion (3-9% of EU GDP).
Air pollution is caused mainly by economic activities such as industry, transport, energy and agriculture, as well as some domestic household activities like heating. The major air pollutants are:
All EU citizens will benefit from improved air quality, but children, the elderly and citizens suffering from asthma and respiratory conditions will benefit the most. Industry will also benefit because measures to reduce air pollution will boost innovation and enhance European competitiveness in the field of green technology. Air pollution is a worldwide problem, and the demand for low-emitting products and production methods is expected to increase rapidly in the short and long term. Public authorities will benefit too, as the new policy will help them reach existing air pollution standards.
Air pollution crosses national borders so it is a matter of international concern. International cooperation takes place under the 1979 UNECE Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP), which has a number of legally binding protocols. The Gothenburg Protocol to Abate Acidification, Eutrophication and Ground-level Ozone, for example, was adopted in 1999. It aims at limiting air emissions of particulate matter, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, VOCs, ammonia and from Europe and North America, setting national emission ceilings for the main air pollutants which may not be exceeded by 2010. The Protocol was revised in 2012, with new ceilings agreed for 2020.
At EU level, the main components of the air quality policy framework are:
EU and international policies have reduced some air pollution problems in recent decades. Sulphur dioxide emissions (the cause of acid rain) have been cut by more than 80% in the past two decades, and nitrogen oxides and VOCs by 40-50%, for example. Despite this, the EU is far short of its long-term objective as outlined in the agreed 7th Environmental Action Programme, which is to achieve levels of air quality that do not have significant negative impacts on human health and the environment.
The existing air quality standards in the Ambient Air Quality Directive (AAQD) were carefully examined in the review, and it is clear that they are insufficient in relation to the WHO air quality guidelines on air pollution, which represent the levels where health risks are minimized. But it is also clear that further tightening existing EU air quality standards will be ineffective unless we see real cuts in air pollution from the main sources. As many Member States are currently facing infringement cases for failing to reach existing standards, proposing stricter standards at this point in time may prove counter-productive. Instead, the new policy proposes stricter emission ceilings in the revised NECD and, together with new source legislation, this will pave the way for tightened standards in the Ambient Air Quality Directive at a later stage.
Nevertheless, the Commission will also consider simplifying the implementing measures of the Ambient Air Quality Directive without revising the core obligations, in the context of comitology.
The review of air policy that preceded this package of measures revealed a gap in EU source legislation for smaller energy plants for street blocks or large buildings, and small industry installations (1-50 MWth). This new instrument is designed to close this gap and make a significant contribution to reduce pollution of NOx, SO2 and PM by setting limit values for new and existing installations, together with a simple registration scheme. In this way, the Directive will help deliver a significant part of Member States' emission reduction obligations. The Directive is also necessary to avoid possible trade-offs between air quality and increased biomass use, which may otherwise result in increased air pollution.
The WHO air quality guidelines are very challenging, especially in air pollution hotspots such as large cities. The proposed policy is based on available technology, and represents a careful balance between benefits and costs. It sets the pathway to significant improvements in the long term, but with the help of larger, more structural changes, such as moving to a low carbon economy, progress will be faster. If we agree on an ambitions post 2020 climate package, for which the Commission will present a proposal in 2014, overall air policy objectives can be reached well before 2050.
There is compelling evidence that air pollution has a serious impact on health. One of the more recent findings came from the WHO, which now classifies air pollution and particulate matter as carcinogenic. Failing to act on this evidence is not an option – and urgent action is needed at both Member State and EU level.
Air pollution is a transboundary problem, which can only be solved through international cooperation. EU air policy has a good track record in this area, and much progress has already been made. This shows that the policy works – but we need ensure that existing legislation is implemented in the short term, and identify a strategic pathway towards achieving the overall air quality objective in the longer term.
Air pollution is a serious and growing problem around the world, especially in major cities such as Beijing, Bangkok, Mexico City and Los Angeles. As a consequence, the demand for low emission products and processes is about to increase dramatically. Some of the US air legislation is already more stringent than in the EU (for example on particulate matter), and China and many other emerging economies are about to strengthen their policies on air pollution, both in terms of regulation and investments. The air policy package will help EU business to maintain its position as world leader in providing this green technology. This means that air quality policy is not only an environmental objective, but also an economic opportunity and a driver for innovation: a strengthened air quality regime in the EU will actually benefit European competitiveness.
The main priority for transport policy will be to ensure that the existing legislation fully delivers on air pollution, in particular with regard to the new Euro 6 standards for vehicles. In addition, the Non Road Mobile Machinery Directive will be revised shortly to ensure maximum benefits for air pollution, the Directive on sulphur content in marine fuels will be implemented, and EU-harmonised voluntary top runner benchmarks for super low emission vehicles (SULEVs) will be considered for use by Member States to tackle air pollution in hotspot areas.
Two air pollutants are relevant from a climate policy perspective:
EU air policy builds on a long-standing and robust scientific basis for air policy. In the underlying policy review supporting the policy package, efforts were made to ensure that the new policy was based on the latest scientific findings. For example, the Commission has worked closely with the UN World Health Organisation (WHO) to review and validate the WHO air quality guidelines, and developed the most advanced EU emission projection model currently available. The Commission has also launched several other studies covering for example ozone pollution, non-compliance of current NEC ceilings, and transboundary pollution.
When implemented, the clean air policy package is estimated to avoid 58 000 premature deaths. The corresponding economic benefits can be monetized based on robust scientific methodology, resulting in about €40-140 billion per year in 2030
The costs of pollution abatement to implement the package are estimated to reach € 3.4 billion per year in 2030. This means that the monetized benefits will be about 12-40 times higher than the costs.
The package will also provide about €3 billion in direct economic benefits to society due to higher productivity of the workforce (€1850 million), lower healthcare costs (€650 million), higher crop yields (€230 million) and less damage to buildings (€120 million), and add the equivalent of around 100 000 additional jobs due to increased productivity and competitiveness because of fewer workdays lost.
The proposal is estimated to have a positive net impact on economic growth.
When implemented, the clean air policy package is estimated to:
While these ecosystem benefits are very significant, there is yet no robust scientific methodology available to monetize the corresponding costs and benefits. Thus, the total monetized benefits calculated for implementing the clean air policy package does not include any ecosystem benefits at all, meaning that they are considerably underestimated.
This is for Member States to determine. Some of the available measures include:
A key measure to reduce both pollution and poverty is to reduce to demand for solid fuels. The Energy Efficiency Directive and the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive are designed to promote such development, and some Member States can provide economic incentives to support better insulation of houses, double glazing, or replacement/retrofitting of heating systems. In addition, the EU has adopted or is soon expected to adopt requirements for new heaters within the Ecodesign Directive, and many receive EU funding, such as the Ultra-Low Dust project, which aims at providing solutions that are cheap and easy to operate.
Another important measure is to raise awareness on how to minimize emissions from solid fuel heaters. A lot of pollution is due to mis-use and ignorance on what and how fuels should be burned. Some Member States already promote this through information campaigns and labelling schemes. Some Member States have also successfully banned the sales of low quality fuels such as "smoky coal".
The proposal is based on a thorough policy review that has taken three years to conduct, starting in early 2011 and finalised in October 2013. It also aligns with an international UNECE agreement to amend the Gothenburg Protocol, which sets out the main lines for the National Emission Ceilings Directive, with new emission ceilings for 2020 agreed in 2012. The Ambient Air Quality Directive, which sets out local air quality standard which must be respected everywhere in the EU, was adopted as late as 2008.
The package will now be considered by the other EU institutions, with a view to negotiate and agree on the different elements in package. This process may take 1-3 years.
See also IP/13/1274
Side Bar


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Hello and thank you for allowing me to join this group! I have owned many Celica's over the years including a 77 Coupe, 78 Liftback, 86 Coupe, and a 75 coupe for a short time all a very long time ago. I currently have a 1977 RA29 Liftback that is nice and rusty, been in a wreck and has a massive oil leak. I bought it to tear down and rebuild about 10 years ago but after I got started with it life got in the way and it sat in my barn ever since. Recently my 17-year-old son has become interested in getting it going! Surprisingly enough all it needed to start up was a little starting fluid and away we went. Hope to have it road ready soon.
IMG_0124 by Michael Shepherd, on Flickr


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Motivation won't be in short supply Saturday when San Mateo hosts Burlingame in the 86th Little Big Game.
Burlingame (9-0, 4-0), which has already clinched the Peninsula Athletic League Ocean Division title, will be trying to put the final touch on a perfect regular-season record and sew up a No. 1 seed in the Central Coast Section Division III playoffs.
An upset win by San Mateo (4-5, 2-2) would make it a season to long remember for the Bearcats.
"It will be a lot like David and Goliath," San Mateo coach Jeff Scheller said. "We're down to 27 guys, 10 less than we had at the start of the summer. But the guys that I put out there are fighters."
The series dates to 1927. Burlingame, which has won 14 of the past 16, leads the series 49-32-4.
The winner of the game gets the Paw and this year will also get a trophy presented by the Great American Rivalry Series, which has selected the Little Big Game as one of the nation's top 100 rivalry games. The Great American Rivalry Series names a game MVP and awards a college scholarship to a student-athlete from each school.
Burlingame dropped down from the PAL Bay to the PAL Ocean before this season, then proceeded to have one of the best years in school history. The Panthers have scored 421 points in nine games and allowed 66.
"The kids deserve all the credit," Burlingame coach John Philipopoulos said. "They've all come together and we've had great leadership. But I told them, San Mateo always plays us tough. They have some good athletes and the last thing they would do is let down. I'm sure we'll get their best effort."
"I told the guys they really have nothing to lose," Scheller said.
The Monarchs hope the layoff is long enough to get 6-foot-3 outside hitter Clare Powers (ankle) back on the court.
Mitty coach Bret Almazan-Cezar said this week that Powers was still in a walking boot and that "we're going to rest her as much as possible."
The Saint Mary's-bound Powers missed last week's West Catholic Athletic League tournament final against Valley Christian, which Mitty won, after injuring the ankle hours before the match during volleyball's equivalent to a pregame basketball shootaround.
Mitty still managed to defeat Valley Christian for the second time in less than a week to win the tournament championship. Valley Christian won the league's round-robin title.
national letter
of intent day
For a list of local athletes who signed national letters of intent, go to blogs.mercurynews.com/hssports/
We will continue to update as we receive more names.


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Entitlement Reform Negotiations Will Be a McConnell/Biden Production
And why not? I mean, the fiscal cliff deal was so awesome, why wouldn't you want to go back to the same guys for this negotiation?
Hey, at least Americans are skeptical about the trillion dollar coin! Of course, Americans don't think we need to do much about Social Security and Medicare, so why do we care what Americans think? Oh, right: because they will vote out of office anyone who does.
Our debt is well over 100% of GDP (about $14 trillion). Historically, countries begin to fail at about 90%. We achieved this dubious goal under this president, and we're not even halfway done with him.
That's what four years of Obama have done to the country. Here's what it's done to me: made me angrier.
My son doesn't seem to care about politics, so I have the political discussions with my daughter. After the last election, I told my daughter it was important to settle political differences without making it personal. After this election, I told her that this president and the other politicians are raising the taxes she will pay as an adult, mainly so we can give money to other people. She seems to take that personally. And I don't blame her. So do I.


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baboosh needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 61 designs submitted by 19 freelance designers.
Fairmount Outdoor Advertising
We are a family-owned advertising company, with a focus on outdoor advertising (10 foot by 42 foot billboards). We are looking to create a lasting company logo that will appear on every advertisement. Millions of people will see your design. Drive down a highway and you will see the logos of our competition: lamar.com, cbsoutdoor.com, clearchanneloutdoor.com, fairwayoutdoor.com
Our target audience is anyone that advertises: Hotels, Restaurants, Shops, Services, Websites. Think of any billboard you have seen when you are driving in your car. Ultimately, we are looking to convey a professional attitude and tone, with a little fun that a creative field like advertising presents.
We are looking to create ONE Logo that carries the following theme: Organic, Earthy, Rustic.
The company: Fairmount Outdoor Advertising
The Logo: Involve a Mountain Vista or similar background, muted blue colors with a clean trim (white, etc).
Please feel free to experiment with different shades of blue.
Font/Typeface: Strong, simple, yet extremely legible as it will be read from a great distance and stand 18 inches in height on a typical billboard. No cursive.
The files we will require are:
Print file format - .tiff or .erb
Web file format - .jpg and layered .psd (RGB)
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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A British grandmother facing the death penalty for drug smuggling in Bali has lodged an appeal at Indonesia's Supreme Court, human rights campaigners said.
Lindsay Sandiford was sentenced to death by firing squad by a court in Indonesia for bringing £1.6 million of cocaine into the country.
The 56-year-old lost her first appeal against the ruling at the Bali High Court last month but has now launched a second bid to overturn the death penalty at the higher court, pressure group Reprieve said.
Sandiford could seek a judicial review if the Supreme Court rejects her appeal though this would largely depend on whether new evidence had come to light.
After that, her final resort would be to seek a reprieve granted by the country's president.
Balinese police claim Sandiford, from Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, was at the centre of a drugs-importing ring involving three other Britons.
She denies the allegations, claiming she was forced to transport the drugs to protect her children, whose safety was at stake.
Sandiford's latest move comes after she lost her appeal over a UK Government refusal to fund her legal challenge.
But she has accrued more than £10,000 from public donations through a fundraising web page.
Sandiford, originally from Redcar, Teesside, was arrested at Bali's airport last May after 4.8kg (10.6lb) of cocaine was found in the lining of her suitcase during a routine customs check.
She was later accused of damaging the image of Bali and received the death sentence following her trial. The penalty was imposed despite prosecutors asking only for a 15-year jail term.
A panel of judges, headed by Amser Simanjuntak, concluded the Brit had damaged the image of Bali as a tourism destination and weakened the government's programme of drug annihilation, and she has since lost another appeal to the High Court.


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27 May 2010
26 May 2010 quiz: UTL_FILE and newline character: were we wrong?(323)
14 comments:
All of the examples above are based on platforms with ASCII control characters,ReplyDelete
none of them address platforms with EBCDIC control characters (e.g., Oracle 10gR2 on IBM z/OS using the UTFE character set). I don't have access to Oracle on z/OS, so I will concede that passing "\n" through UTL_FILE.PUT will likely produce the prescribed effect (i.e., a line termination); however, it seems unreasonable to expect that UTL_FILE should transalate CHR(10) (i.e., RPT, the "repeat" control character in EBCDIC) into a line termination on an EBCDIC platform.
It has been many years since I last used EBCDIC, but I distinctly remember the pains caused by working with both ASCII and EBCDIC character sets (e.g., different control characters, different sort orders when relying on the binary representation of characters, lazy character range checking, etc.).
The following is directly from the SQL Reference for 10gR2:ReplyDelete
"Use of the CHR function (either with or without the optional USING NCHAR_CS clause) results in code that is not portable between ASCII- and EBCDIC-based machine architectures."
As you stated, the Oracle documentation does not describe some of the behavior of UTL_FILE very well; it is even less informative about the implications of running on an EBCDIC based platform.
Thanks for the detailed response. I did not get a higher score but learning something new is worth much much more :-)ReplyDelete
Steven, thanks for the explanation. That's a lessons learned for me ;)ReplyDelete
You said: "UTL_FILE.PUT puts text into the file buffer, but does not append a newline character.ReplyDelete
OK, but I can always provide the newline character myself, which is what I did in this block. Oracle will ensure that CHR(10) is translated to the platform-specific line terminator(s)."
And I will reply:
"You cannot depend on the behavior described above. Even if you observe that it worked like that, you cannot count on that."
"Unless you can prove that Oracle 10g Release 2 with all combinations of platforms and patch sets/patches ensures the newline character will be translated to a platform specific end of line character, you can't rely on it.
Similarly, many Oracle developers for years relied on GROUP BY also doing an ORDER BY, but this was changed with Oracle 10g Release 1."
Please look at http://www.oracle.com/technology/oramag/oracle/06-mar/o26asktom.html for similar response about trigger ordering.
Note: This reply is rephrased reply which I have received from Steven Feuerstein and later Finn Ellebaek Nielsen at Saturday, 2010-05-01
As we wrote UTL_FILE relies on the behavior of C's fopen and fprintf. I'm fairly confident that this will ensure the correct line terminator(s) on any platform that Oracle runs on. This is not going to change as we've had UTL_FILE provided by Oracle for quite a few years now.ReplyDelete
I don't have access to a database instance running on an EBCDIC-based platform. It would be interesting if any players could test the behavior there.
Any takers?
According to the Oracle SQL Reference, "Use of the CHR function (either with or without the optional USING NCHAR_CS clause) results in code that is not portable between ASCII- and EBCDIC-based machine architectures."ReplyDelete
The explanations/examples defending the quiz's answers do not address behavior on EBCDIC platforms; only ASCII platforms were used. While I don't have access to Oracle on an EBCDIC platform (and thus can't prove my theory), it seems unreasonable to expect that UTL_FILE would translate CHR(10) (which is RPT, the "repeat" control character in EBCDIC) into a line termination in such an environment.
Unexpected behavior caused by the use of literal control characters is one of many issues that I had to deal with many years ago when I wrote code for both EBCDIC and ASCII platforms.
As stated in the Oracle PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference, the UTL_FILE.PUTF procedure "works like a limited printf()" and thus strings such as "\n" will produce the appropriate platform-specific line terminator. However, the examples given in the original post clearly show that UTL_FILE is not relying solely on C's fprint or fprintf to process the passed strings. When using fprintf the "\n" in the format string may result in a multi-character line terminator depending on the platform; however, both fprint and fprintf pass control characters (e.g., LF (0x0A) and CR (0x0D)) unchanged to the output. The first example demonstrates that UTL_FILE.PUT is doing additional processing of at least some control characters. This is outside of the specified behavior of the C library routines and is not specified in the Oracle UTL_FILE documentation. Given this, there is no basis for assuming that character 0x0A ("linefeed" in ASCII, "repeat" in EBCDIC) will be changed into a line terminator by UTL_FILE on an EBCDIC platform (there are, however, many reasons to hope that it would not).ReplyDelete
I'm not particularly concerned about having the quiz scores adjusted, but do want to warn others against relying on undocumented behavior. As adderek noted, unspecified behavior should not be relied upon -- it may change.
On a side note, I'm glad this forum has been established. As Johannes posted, the opportunity to acquire new knowledge is far more important than a few quiz points. The issues we discuss may inspire each of us to improve the quality of our code.
I'm afraid that fprintf does translate some control characters. If the file is opened in text mode \n is translated to the platform-specific line terminator(s).ReplyDelete
Example: Run this under Windows:
int main() {
FILE *file;
file = fopen("c:\\temp\\quiz.txt", "wt");
if (file) {
fprintf(file, "First\n");
fprintf(file, "Second\r\n");
file = fopen("c:\\temp\\quiz.bin", "wb");
if (file) {
fprintf(file, "First\n");
fprintf(file, "Second\r\n");
and you'll the the following contents:
0D31:0100 46 69 72 73 74 0D 0A 53-65 63 6F 6E 64 0D 0D 0A First..Second...
0D31:0100 46 69 72 73 74 0A 53 65-63 6F 6E 64 0D 0A First.Second..
This is how C has always behaved.
I'm not to happy about relying on semi-documented Oracle features either but the point here is that if you do the obvious (CHR(13) + CHR(10) with UTL_FILE.PUT) you get the wrong result.
I was one of the persons that issued both the issues. And I found the reasoning very clear. One of the reaons I prefer the PUTLINE or the \n. But the CHR(10) translation to two characters was a surprise.ReplyDelete
As said before, no rescoring needed. This discussion is far more useful.
You are correct about the behavior of fprintf on Windows platforms. Most of my C programming experience has been on Unix/Linux and embedded systems and I had forgotten about Windows' disparate handling of text and binary mode files (oh, the dangers of inference from inadequate sampling).ReplyDelete
The "\n" used in the demonstration code is not a control character; it is an escape sequence that generates a platform-specific newline control character. IEEE Std. 1003.1 states:
"In addition to the escape sequences shown in the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 Chapter 5, File Format Notation ( '\\', '\a', '\b', '\f', '\n', '\r', '\t', '\v' ), "\ddd", where ddd is a one, two, or three-digit octal number, shall be written as a byte with the numeric value specified by the octal number." (http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/utilities/printf.html)
On ASCII platforms the "\n" and "\012" escape sequences evaluate to the same byte value (decimal 10). On EBCDIC platforms the "\n" and "\045" escape sequences each evaluate to the same byte value (decimal 37). As shown in the demonstration code, on Windows platforms, when writing to a file that has been opened in text mode, newlines are translated to CR-LF pairs. This occurs regardless of whether "\n" or "\012" is used to embed the newline character (it should be noted that such behavior conflicts with the IEEE specification cited above). Passing CHR(10) to UTL_FILE.PUT is the equivalent of passing "\012" to the C I/O library utilities; it is not the equivalent of "\n" on all platforms.
I failed to select two of the correct answers because I read too quickly and failed to notice that they used PUTF instead of PUT. I did not misread the candidate answer that used CHR(10) but answered based on the knowledge that Oracle 10gR2 is available for EBCDIC platforms and that CHR(10) is not a newline on such platforms. The interpretation of control codes is platform specific and is not properly part of PL/SQL. The documentation for UTL_FILE does not specify the control character values but instead states that PUT_LINE, "\n" with PUTF, or NEWLINE with PUT should be used to end a line.
I recognize the difficulties with creating questions and candidate answers that are free of ambiguity and unstated assumptions and greatly appreciate the openness with which challenges have been accepted. Since neither the quiz administrators nor the participants seem to have access to non-ASCII platforms, I suggest that the declared assumptions be amended to exclude such platforms.
In relation to the quiz question from 2010-04-30 about the order of trigger execution order:ReplyDelete
"It seems that answer 'you cannot tell what order of the trigger is execution' is the correct one BUT IT IS NOT TRUE. Triggers are fired in the order that depends on their OID (order is reversed). So you actually can tell what will be the order. That way answer 'There is no way to know for sure' is not correct. Oracle will execute the trigger with highest OID as last - so it seems like answer 'triggers are executed in the order in which they are created' could be correct as well (because the OID is sequential) however the order is reversed - thus it is not correct. I have given the answer that you can never know (that is what Oracle documentation mentioned somewhere) although I don't really feel that the answer is correct."
This is a cite from my mail. I can perform a set of experiments like you have presented - but is there any point to do it?
Note that I have described this "semi-documented Oracle feature" and given an answer that I felt that is expected. It is not about how it works and I am not interested in re-calculation of the points. I am only interested in clarification of the answers and not saying that "this is the correct answer because we can find a situation when it will be true although".
I'm also not happy with using a non-document /hidden feature for the automatic CHR(10) translation in a program, and I'm sure that anyone that new the distinction between /r and /n would also think that chr(10) was not the solution unless they had make that tracking of that "feature".ReplyDelete
Using /n would be the best pratice in that case and not relying in an automatic chr(10) translation that was a surprise to everybody in the challenge (including the creators)
- Anonymous11 October, 2012 08:59
You know what's even worse than the automatic CHR(10) translation? The fact that it happens not only at the end of a line but whenever the character occurs!ReplyDelete
Let's assume the following VARCHAR2 in a variable vText:
"This a two-line
As in, you have a LF/CHR(10) stored in the varchar2 between "line" and "text". If you write this to a file like this:
UTL_FILE.PUT_LINE(OutputFile, vText);
Then you end up with the CHR(10) WITHIN the varchar being replaced with a CHR(13) CHR(10). Needless to say, this is very destructive if the file you were writing was a script that manipulates the database again. E.g. if you create an INSERT statement in the file like this, you will end up with faulty data in the newly created line. You might even exceed the size limit of the VARCHAR2 if the original one was close to it and had multiple linebreaks. This is, imho, a bug. The replacement of CHR(10) should only ever happen at the end of a line.


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Half SiblingsHorses out of the same dam but by different sires. Horses with the same sire and different dams are not considered half-siblings in Thoroughbred racing.
HalterLike a bridle, but lacking a bit. Used in handling horses around the stable and when they are not being ridden.
HandFour inches. A horse's height is measured in hands and inches from the top of the shoulder (withers) to the ground, e.g., 15.2 hands is 15 hands, 2 inches. Thoroughbreds typically range from 15 to 17 hands.
Hand RideUrging a horse with the hands and not using the whip.
Handicap1) Race for which the track handicapper assigns the weights to be carried. 2) To make selections on the basis of past performances.
Handily1) Working in the morning with maximum effort. Compare with, 2) A horse racing well within itself, with little exertion from the jockey.
HandleAmount of money wagered in the parimutuels on a race, a program, during a meeting or for a year.
HarrowImplement or unit with pulling teeth or tines used to rake and loosen the upper surface of a track.
HeadA margin between horses. One horse leading another by the length of its head.
Head of the StretchBeginning of the straight run to the finish line.