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We are proud to work with our customers and business partners from across the globe to help tell their success stories with AMD technology.
Some of our customers and business partners include leading brands, such as Acer, Apple, Asus, Cisco, Dell, GE, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft, Nintendo, Samsung, Sapphire, Sony, Toshiba, Vizio and XFX.
These companies collaborate with AMD to help power their solutions, providing you with the best experience with your technology at work and play.
Public educators in School District 42 within British Columbia, Canada have been working to complement their conventional school system with a revolutionary approach to teaching – one that doesn't rely on desks, chairs, blackboards or even a classroom. These educators looked to HP and AMD to help support their innovative approach to education.
For 25 years, Corel has developed award-winning applications. Today they offer one of the industry's most versatile portfolios of photo, video, graphics, office productivity and digital art software. Their ongoing collaboration with AMD is helping to bring digital photographers the most cutting-edge tools in their field.
Together, AMD and Bluestacks are delivering a completely virtualized Android environment that runs all of the most popular Android entertainment, content consumption and productivity apps right within the Windows desktop.
Read more
"We find that combining the power of the GPU and the CPU – it's not only brilliant, it's a very astute use of excess resources on a system. To continually have the highest performing software and hardware combination – that is huge. And that's why we're collaborating with AMD right now on optimizing for HSA."
- Jacques Lamontagne, Director of Product Management, and Marketing, WinZip
AMD and Oculus VR are changing how you game. Watch the full video to see why Oculus chose AMD graphics to help develop their new virtual reality goggle system: Oculus Rift.
Watch the full video
All major game consoles use AMD technology. AMD collaborates with major game console manufacturers, including Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony, to drive breathtaking image quality and to deliver truly out-of-this-world gaming experiences.
Stony Brook University unveiled the world's first gigapixel display, comprising more than 1.5 billion pixels using 416 HD monitors and 72 AMD FirePro graphics cards along with 18 AMD FirePro S400 cards to sync video signals and create one contiguous display.
View the full video
"The AMD FirePro™ professional graphics cards we use are central to producing multiple, high-quality, uncompressed media streams from a single server. Our customers love the result. They get an amazing wow factor, yet all they need to do is load and play. It is quicker, cheaper and easier for them."
- Ian Macpherson, Director, 7thSense Design
A team of Bentley University and Northeastern University students took the top spot in the Student Cluster Competition (Commodity Cluster track) with a cluster they chose to power using AMD's A-Series APUs.
Read more
South Korea-based company, EMTs, breaks performance and power efficiency barriers with a fanless 4K ultra-HD video and display PC built with AMD Embedded R-Series APUs.
Read more
Haier taps AMD Embedded G-Series APUs and Windows® Embedded Standard to pioneer a next-generation, x86-optimized smart TV.
AMD's GX-210JA APU, part of the AMD G-Series SOC family, uses one-third less energy than the previous low-power Embedded G-Series SOC product and has garnered major industry awards.
Learn more
"AMD Embedded G-Series APUs gave us the high-performance processing platform we needed to achieve our design goals with as little friction as possible.Our VBOX-3200 systems are a testament to the superior value and functionality that APUs can help enable."
- Kevin Hsu, President, Sintrones
OpenCL and the OpenCL logo are trademarks of Apple Inc. Used by permission by Khronos.


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DailyDirt: Foods Going Out Of Style...
from the urls-we-dig-up deptFood scarcity is a real problem in many parts of the world, but in affluent nations, there are different kinds of food limitations. Not being able to find a "cooler ranch" flavored snack and having to settle for "original flavor" is definitely a first world problem. Here are just a few examples of some food shortages from around the world.
- Would you spend about $100 for some Twinkies? Limited-edition baked goods might trump loooots of t-shirts.... [url]
- Illegal hunting in South Africa could endanger large carnivores like cheetahs, lions and leopards. A boom in bushmeat trade threatens the food security of rural communities. [url]
- The American poultry industry has invested a lot of resources to create copious amounts of white meat on various farm-raised birds, but now there's more demand for dark meat. Look out for genetically modified six-legged chickens soon. [url]
- The European Parliament has voted (again) to ban shark finning practices that endanger certain sharks. The EU first passed a ban in 2003, but it left loopholes that allowed for shark finning to continue. Shark fin soup fanatics may need to start looking into the viability of shark farms soon. [url]
Filed Under: bushmeat, dark meat, food, poultry, shark fins, twinkies

subset: commoncrawl


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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People who lead overall healthy lives — getting exercise, eating right, and not smoking — are significantly more likely to keep their aging eyes healthy, new study findings report.
Exercise and diet were each linked to a lower risk of age-related degenerative changes in the eyes, but both combined, along with a lack of smoking, caused a "particularly profound lowering" of the risk — by more than 70 percent, study author Dr. Julie Mares of the University of Wisconsin in Madison told Reuters Health.
"We don't need to be passive victims of these ravages of old age," Mares said. "Relatively small things could make a difference in whether or not we develop AMD (age-related macular degeneration) in our lifetime."
"Eat well, move, and don't smoke," she advised.
As the population ages, the concern over AMD grows. The disease is most common among people 75 and older, a group that will triple in size over the next 40 years, Mares noted. Already, one in four people older than 65 have early signs of AMD, she said.
AMD is caused by abnormal blood vessel growth behind the retina or a breakdown of light-sensitive cells within the retina itself, both of which can lead to serious vision impairment.
There is no cure, but a U.S. government clinical trial recently found that a high-dose mix of specific antioxidants — vitamins C and E, beta-carotene and zinc — can slow the progression of AMD in the intermediate stages, and doctors now commonly prescribe it for such patients.
Another study published earlier this year found that older adults who eat fatty fish at least once a week may have a lower risk of serious vision loss from AMD.
But healthy habits tend to work together in achieving certain health goals, such as lowering blood pressure, Mares noted, suggesting that diet and exercise could have a synergistic impact on eye health into old age.
To investigate, she and her colleagues reviewed information about diet, exercise, and smoking from 1,313 women between the ages of 55 and 74, collected during the 1990s. Women were revisited on average six years later, at which point they received an eye exam to check for AMD.
Two hundred and two women had AMD, most of it early-stage disease.
Among the women who ate the healthiest, 11 percent had developed an early form of AMD. In contrast, the condition was present in 19 percent of women with the worst diets, factoring in their intake of fruit, vegetables, whole grains, fat and sugar, among other elements.
About one in 10 women who exercised the most developed AMD, versus one in five of those who barely got any exercise. When the researchers combined the influence of diet, exercise and no smoking, the risk of AMD decreased even further, even though smoking alone was not related to AMD.
Since previous research has linked specific dietary elements to AMD, the researchers looked at the associations of specific antioxidants with AMD risk. Women with higher levels of these antioxidants were less likely to develop AMD, but not as much as women who ate well overall, Mares noted. "The findings for overall healthy diets are much stronger than for single nutrients," she said.
And when it comes to exercise, even women who didn't hit the gym everyday saw a benefit, the researcher added. Simply 10 hours of light exercise — including housework, gardening, or walking — or 8 hours of moderate exercise ("exercise you can talk to") per week was associated with a lower risk of AMD, Mares said.
The study doesn't conclusively prove that a healthy lifestyle causes the decrease in AMD, but there are many possible reasons why that might be the case, Mares said. Diet and exercise lower blood pressure, for instance, which can protect the eyes from degeneration. They also reduce the production of damaging free radicals, and are associated with lower levels of inflammation. These effects could directly protect against AMD or help enhance the accumulation of pigments at the back of the eye, which absorb potentially damaging light.
Even though the study only included women, Mares said she suspects there will be a similar trend in men. "There's no reason I can think of to expect different results in men or women. However, these findings need to be confirmed in separate samples that include men."
"Decades of studies — basic science, retrospective and prospective clinical trials — have all established that AMD is, in part, a nutrition-responsive disease," Dr. Stuart Richer of the Captain James Lovell Federal Health Care Facility told Reuters Health in an e-mail.
Furthermore, AMD is associated with cardiovascular health, Richer noted, suggesting that "nutritional choice, smoking cessation, and cardiovascular conditioning have myriad benefits with respect to improving blood flow that aids the delivery of nutrients and removal of waste products from the retina, as well as beneficially altering blood chemistry."
The current study argues for a "frontline assault against the disease," Richer said, to help health professionals and patients find AMD in its earliest stages.
"Our current approach is to detect AMD at the end of the disease process and then utilize injected designer pharmaceuticals." This has helped people with advanced AMD, but there are many more people with earlier forms who have vision problems and also need help, Richer said.
SOURCE: link.reuters.com/car32r Archives of Ophthalmology, published online December 13, 2010.


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My Thought for the Day can be found, here. If you like it, please let us know with an official thumbs up.
Happy Mother's Day. Another year has passed, and we've all lived to tell the tale. I hope you have a wonderful day and are surrounded by a doting and appreciative family, who truly know your worth. If they don't, we do. I've closed my kitchen for the day, so while I have no new recipes to share with you, I do have two older recipes that will be making an encore appearance in this post. Both are cold, lime based desserts that I think you'll enjoy as much as I do. They are perfect for chillin' on a warm spring day. Here are the recipes.
Key Lime Sherbet
3 cups water
1-1/4 cups sugar, divided use
3/4 cup light corn syrup
2/3 cup key lime juice, strained
2 to 3 drops green food coloring (optional)
2 egg whites
1) Place water, 1 cup sugar and corn syrup in a 2-quart saucepan. Bring to a boil, over high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat; continue to boil for 5 minutes. Set aside; cool to room temperature.
2) Stir in lime juice and food coloring, if using. Pour into a shallow metal pan. Place pan in the freezer and freeze until solid throughout. Place bowl and beaters of an electric mixer in the freezer as well.
3) Remove pan from freezer. Quickly break up lime mixture with a wooden spoon; turn into frozen mixer bowl. Beat with frozen beaters at low speed, just until mixture is lump free. Remove bowl containing lime mixture from stand and transfer immediately to the freezer. Return beaters to freezer as well. Refreeze.
4) When the mixture is refrozen, place egg whites in a small mixing bowl. Add a pinch of salt; beat until slightly thickened. Add reserved 1/4 cup sugar and beat until egg whites hold their shape. Set aside.
5) Remove lime mixture from freezer, Break up with a wooden spoon. Beat with chilled beaters until just smooth. With mixer set to low speed, beat in egg whites only until just incorporated. Immediately return bowl to freezer. Refreeze, folding gently from bottom to top, two or three times during freezing process. Serve firm. Yield: 6 cups.
Cold Lime Souffle
5 large eggs, separated
1 cup granulated sugar + sugar for coating extensions
2 teaspoons finely grated lime zest + additional zest for garnish
3/4 cup lime juice, strained
1 tablespoon (1 envelope) powdered gelatin
1-1/4 cups heavy cream, lightly whipped
3 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1) Cut four strips of parchment paper or aluminum foil to fit around four 8-ounce baking cups. Fold each strip in half lengthwise. Tie strips around souffle cups to extend the height of each by 1-1/2 inch. Brush extensions generously with melted butter. Sprinkle with sugar to coat, tapping out excess. Set aside
2) Combine egg yolks, 1 cup sugar and lime zest in a medium bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until the mixture is thick and pale, about 3 minutes.
3) Heat lime juice in a small pan until warm. Slowly beat into yolk mixture.
4) Pour 1/4 cup water into a small cup. Sprinkle with gelatin and let sit until gelatin softens. Fill a small skillet with water; bring to a boil. Lower gelatin bowl into water; stir unti gelatin is dissolved and clear. Cool slightly. Add to lime mixture, beating on low speed until combined. Transfer to a large bowl, cover and refrigerate until thickened but not set. The mixture should have the consistency of a light cream sauce. Fold whipped cream into lime mixture with a spoon.
5) In a separate bowl beat egg whites with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Fold whites into lime mixture until just combined. Spoon into prepare souffle dishes. Refrigerate and chill until set.
6) When ready to serve, combine 1 cup whipping cream and confectioners' sugar in a 1-quart bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Remove collars and top with whipped cream. Sprinkle with lime zest. Yield: 4 servings.


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Poland had a successful campaign in Israel and booked themselves a play-off against Belgium to stay in World Group II, but a video surfaced on YouTube after the tie, where a clearly irritated Agnieszka was extremely short with reporters in the press room and the whole press conference barely lasted 90 seconds.
Reports have indicated that both Agnieszka and Urszula might have been insulted by the Israeli crowd and while the Polish star did not give details, she says that what happened there was unacceptable.
"To be honest I was really disappointed," Radwanska told reporters in Doha after she won her second round match 6-3, 6-2 over Anastasia Rodionova.
"I didn't really expect something like this to happen on the tour, especially that I think a lot of teams were there and a lot of top players, and, yeah, a couple of things happened.
"It's always sad and always unfair, as well. I think it's not a responsible way to behave."
Here is the video from her presser in Eilat:


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Attorney General Lockyer Announces Settlement With the Reader's Digest Association to Provide Improved Sweepstakes Disclosures
"High Activity" California Customers Eligible for Refunds
(SACRAMENTO) – Attorney General Bill Lockyer today announced that California, 31 other states and the District of Columbia have reached a settlement with The Reader's Digest Association, Inc., one of the nation's largest sweepstakes mailers, to require dramatic changes in what it tells consumers and provide refunds to "high activity" customers.
"Responding to sweepstakes mailings, some consumers are lured into buying magazines and other products with the mistaken belief they are improving their chances of winning," Lockyer said. "Through this and other recent settlements with sweepstakes companies, consumers will be able to clearly see that buying products will not improve their odds of winning."
The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. (RDA) sends out millions of pieces of mail annually, most of which offer consumers the opportunity to enter a sweepstakes. As part of the sweepstakes mailers, consumers are offered subscriptions to Reader's Digest and other magazines, as well as the opportunity to buy books, audio tapes or video tapes sold by RDA. The sweepstakes offers at times have been combined with skill contest offers that require the recipient to buy something to enter the skill contest.
The agreement provides more than $6 million for refunds to "high activity" sweepstakes customers, which includes about $1.5 million for California. An estimated 1,890 California consumers will be eligible for refunds, having made purchases of more than $2,500 in any of RDA's fiscal years 1998, 1999 or 2000. The company will contact consumers eligible for refunds. In addition, RDA will pay more than $2 million for attorneys' fees and the costs of the investigation.
The terms of the settlement with Reader's Digest requires that all sweepstakes mailings provide a clear and conspicuous "Sweepstakes Facts" disclosure notice to consumers. The Sweepstakes Facts will include a statement that buying won't help the consumer win the sweepstakes, that the consumer has not yet won, that the consumer doesn't have to buy anything to enter the sweepstakes and the odds of winning a prize.
"One of things that we wanted to make certain is that consumers who receive sweepstakes mailings understand they don't have to buy anything to have a chance to win and that buying will not help their chances of winning," Lockyer said. "We believe the Sweepstakes Facts disclosure notice will help consumers do this."
Under the terms of the agreement, RDA will not be able to misleadingly state that a consumer is the winner or about to become the winner of a sweepstakes, misleadingly tell consumers that they have a better chance of winning a sweepstakes than they actually do or represent that the sweepstakes mailing has been sent by special courier or a special class of mail, if it has not been.
Attorney General Lockyer noted that RDA has agreed to not continue soliciting any future "high activity customer" who meets one of three threshold purchase amount tests, unless RDA actually makes contact with that customer to protect against inappropriate purchases. Reader's Digest also has agreed to establish a "Do Not Contact List" which requires RDA to stop sending consumers on the list new sweepstakes or skill contest solicitations.
The settlement requires RDA to identify and send special letters to individuals who spend more than $1,000 in a six month period telling them they are not required to make purchases in order to have a chance to win the sweepstakes, that making a purchase will not improve their chances of winning and that all entries have the same chance to win whether or not the entry is accompanied by a purchase. RDA also has agreed:
*future mailings will contain separate entry forms for skill contests and sweepstakes contests, that nothing on the sweepstakes entry form will refer to the skill contest and that there will be a clear and conspicuous statement telling consumers that they can enter the sweepstakes without also entering the skill contest
*to clearly disclose to consumers if automatic renewals are being used for any subscriptions made. The company also will provide advance notice to consumers that the renewal will take place unless the consumer cancels, and provide a notice with the first billing that a consumer can still cancel and receive a full refund.
*to severely restrict its use of "customer only" sweepstakes.
The multistate settlement is the fifth entered into with major sweepstakes companies since public hearings the Attorneys General held into sweepstakes sales activities, policies and procedures during the Spring of 1999 in Indianapolis. Settlements requiring increased consumer notices through the use of sweepstake fact sheets and refunds to high activity customers were reached last year with US Sales Corporation (also known as USPE), Time Inc., American Express Publishing Corp., and Publishers Clearing House.
The other states involved in the settlement are Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming.


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DETROIT -- If you don't love your new Chevrolet, now you can return it.
Or, you can do your research ahead of time, test drive the car to confirm it's what you really want, realize that you'll later discover something super-annoying no matter which brand of vehicle you buy, and then ask your Chevy dealer for an extra $250 or $500 discount in exchange for giving up the right to return it later.
These are the options available to consumers through the new "Love It or Return It" that GM rolled out this week -- although GM didn't highlight the waiver option very much. I'm no financial expert, but seriously, take the $500.
Are you really so unsure of your ability to make and stick with a decision in life that it's worth saying, "No, thank you, nice Chevy salesman. I would rather not have $500, because there's a chance that the four hours we've been sitting here has all been a waste of everyone's time"?
Then, if you're on the fence about the car in a month or two, remember that you have an extra $500 -- or you used to, anyway, before you blew it on a big-screen TV -- and see if your opinion improves. No matter how irritating your coworkers/friends/in-laws/children are, you'll probably find them less annoying if you got an extra $500 to tolerate their presence.
And if your car truly ends up making your life so awful, just use the old-fashioned version of GM's return guarantee: "Love It or Leave It in the Bad Part of Town and Collect the Insurance Money." (I do not recommend this, but if you try it, take the garage-door opener out first.)
So, after you have the keys to a new Chevrolet and an extra $500 in your pocket, think about this: Sears has a 42-inch Panasonic HDTV advertised this week for $499.99.
Whatever you do with the extra $500, don't accidentally give any of it right back to the nice Chevy salesman through the other new program that GM announced Tuesday: Total Confidence Pricing.
"All 2012 model year Chevrolets will be offered at the best possible prices in addition to all current vehicle-specific incentives," GM explained in its announcement. "No mystery about it -- the price you see is the price you pay."
For consumers terrified at the thought of talking to a car salesman or using the Internet for something besides forwarding email chains, Chevy's offer of no-haggle prices on 2012 models can potentially make buying a car easier.
But it probably will not help -- and may even hurt -- those who know how to do all their research and don't mind a bit of back-and-forth to get the best deal.
Chevrolet is basically making supplier discounts openly available for the next two months to all customers, even those who don't regularly buy resin by the truckload. What many people may not know is that they might already have had access to those discounts, either through a relative or by being a member of a credit union or other organization.
I received a supplier discount when buying a Chevrolet two years ago, just by showing that I have a credit-union account.
For those who don't automatically qualify, supplier pricing has generally been available to everyone through a technique known as "asking for it." A check of Edmunds.com shows that in many cases, the supplier price is very close to the Web site's "True Market Value" -- in other words, the average price people already pay.
Chevrolet's online vehicle locator shows that a dealer in suburban Detroit has a Silverado pickup with a suggested retail price of $33,375, now offered at a "Total Confidence Price" of $29,957, including shipping.
Edmunds shows the "True Market Value" of a Silverado with the same sticker price as $29,890 after incentives, meaning most buyers are paying less than GM's new no-haggle, "best possible" price.
On the other hand, a Malibu is listed as having a "Total Confidence Price" that is about $200 less than the Edmunds "True Market Value." So it works both ways, depending on the nameplate and configuration.
Of course, there's nothing to stop dealers from agreeing to haggle on the no-haggle price. When I bought my car, I negotiated to get about $400 more off, despite being told initially that the supplier price was firm.
GM obviously has reason to believe these new promotions will bring in new customers and increase Chevrolet's sales. It also knows that its products are good enough that it won't have disgruntled buyers dumping them en masse in six weeks, as many might have 30 years ago if given the option.
It's that improvement, not a new promotion, that should give shoppers "total confidence" to go buy a new Chevrolet without having to worry they'll soon hate it. And then go ahead and buy yourself the new TV, even if you do not need it. You can always return it.


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VATICAN CITY — Even a jailed inmate can have a fairytale, Catholic wedding.
The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, ran a lovely story of one couple's journey of preparation for the sacrament of marriage.
It's not your typical scenario: the couple had been together for 27 years, had children and grandchildren, and now, the groom was serving time in a prison in Catania, in southern Italy.
The story is told by the prison chaplain, Father Francesco Ventorino, who, while not identifying the couple, talks about the groom's spiritual awakening.
The man wanted a Catholic wedding, even if it meant holding the ceremony in jail, because he wanted to "give spousal dignity" to his wife, give their children "the sense of belonging to a true family" and to abide by "his Christian conscience," the priest said.
"Rarely have I found myself in front of people with so much curiosity and desire to understand the mystery that they were going to celebrate in the faith and what this added to the love they had already lived, faithfully and fruitfully," Father Ventorino said.
The priest said the inmates were doubtful the church would even allow the couple to have a Catholic wedding, and the townsfolk believed the only people who got married in the church were families who could afford a lavish ceremony.
Both communities — inside and outside the prison walls — were about to see things could be different.
Father Ventorino hit the streets, calling friends and finding ways people could pitch in to help; the groom had no money, the priest said, "not even to buy a tie."
A goldsmith in town donated the wedding rings, the notary gave the groom one of his best suits and others contributed money, baked desserts, made party favors and got the flowers to decorate a makeshift altar set up in a room in the prison where the ceremony would take place.
The whole saga of getting everything ready "was followed closely by his cellmates and the inmates in his ward — like a shared adventure."
The couple were married in the detention facility in the presence of their family, prison staff and police, and "an improvised choir made up of volunteers."
When it was time to exchange their vows, the chaplain said, the couple was so choked up, they could barely get the words out. Such a moving, emotional moment is "something that rarely happens today, even with young people," he said.
"The two newlyweds had understood that with the sacrament, their love entered into Christ's love for his church, and required, from then on, the same kind of fidelity and selflessness, an absolute giving up until death."
Getting married in the church made the things the couple believed and expressed about God "more credible," the priest said.
After the wedding, the priest said everyone told him the ceremony had "rendered, even more glorious, the face of Christ" inside the prison — that face of mercy and forgiveness that Pope Francis says makes life in any situation more human.
And if that weren't enough of a happy ending: Father Ventorino said the number of detainees asking to get married in the church "have multiplied!"


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Letter from Africa: Soul-searching over rape crimes(A letter from an African Journalist to Africa itself)
In our series of letters from African journalists, filmmaker and columnist Farai Sevenzo considers the recent case of the rape and killing of two South African children in Diepsloot.
My abiding memories of Diepsloot - the sprawling shanty town north of Johannesburg - since reporting from there in 2004 are of metal shacks housing many people in small spaces, the smell of paraffin in the darkness, an absence of light, not enough sanitation and vigilantes trying to protect a community from criminals in the face of zero police presence.
Nearly a decade on, nothing much has changed and the police still do not have a permanent presence in this sprawling eyesore of 70% unemployment which was the setting for the heart-wrenching tragedy that brought the police onto Diepsloot's streets.
This month, two cousins, Zandile and Yonelisa Mali, aged two and three, were allegedly abducted in broad daylight by a man who sparked a nationwide hunt and despair in the hearts of mothers everywhere.
The subsequent search ended with the discovery of the children's raped bodies in a public toilet - and the ripples of this heinous crime have the nation soul-searching and the politicians promising justice, while urging restraint.
Armchair judge
Last month, Anelise Mkhondo's five-year-old body was found raped and strangled a hundred yards away from the same public toilet in Diepsloot.
Five men have been arrested for the alleged abduction, rape and murder of the cousins, calming an incendiary atmosphere in Diepsloot, whose residents threatened to target foreigners and lash out at the government's lack of will in providing security for the youngest of the poorest in Africa's most developed nation.
It is easy to sit in armchair judgement about our continent's ills and wonder at the contradictions in policy and rights.
But what is it about some South African males that render them incapable of relationships with adult females?
How wrong was the first person to suggest that raping a child could cure a grown adult man of Aids?
And what of women with Aids? Is there a supposed cure for them through young boys?
Which mystic "muti" pedlar suggested a man's riches can be increased by human sacrifice and the body parts of young children?
As Gauteng Premiere Nomvula Mokonyane attempted to calm the Diepsloot community with words like "enough is enough", the crowd listened but did not follow her when she urged them to let the police do their jobs and bring these men to justice.
They wanted the suspects to be released to them, into their angry hands for the kind of justice any parent wants before reason and humanity bring them back from the brink of barbarity - the kind that had claimed their daughters.
Meeting for men?
There is of course a tendency among all of us in a changing Africa to decry negative images of our continent and ask where in the world are paedophiles not present, that men rape and that is all there is to it.
But step away from the war zones of the Democratic Republic of Congo and consider the figures.
South Africa's Medical Research Council (MRC) said that in 2009, 40% of all victims who reported rape to the police were under 18 and 15% under 12.
It is in South Africa that nine-month-old girls have been victims of rape.
And, as in every country, only a small fraction of rapes are reported to the police.
Then there is the "corrective rape" of lesbian women, the sexual harassment of students by pupils and teachers and never mind the knee-jerk xenophobia - a third of rape cases against minors are committed by a family member or close relative.
The world is fond of reminding women and girls that they matter in memorable UN days, in Women Empowerment conferences, in A World of Women celebrations - fair enough.
But in South Africa it is time for the men to have a serious meeting.
It is not the politicians, it is not poverty, it is not muti or juju it is not anything but the sickness in our heads.


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Lianne La Havas
Singer/songwriter Lianne La Havas is a real gem--easygoing, ridiculously talented, and innately stylish to boot. The British vocalist quickly popped up on our radar when she performed at the Moschino Cheap and Chic F/W 12 show last year, but we really fell for her when she released Is Your Love Big Enough? (We're not the only ones swooning: iTunes UK named it the Best Album of 2012.) A little bit jazz, a little bit R&B, La Havas croons sultry and tender lyrics in her smooth, smoky voice--it's bourbon straight up with a twist. The newcomer's ornate fashion sense is not lost on us either. When we invited La Havas to stop by the WWW offices and raid our clothing racks for this month's Styled By feature, she immediately gravitated toward playful prints, casual silhouettes, and cool accessories. Get the details on her expertly curated outfit and on-point fashion picks below! **Her Look** After spending only a few minutes with La Havas in the fashion closet, it became apparent the songstress has a fondness for abbreviated tops and full skirts. She paired the two, specifically American Apparel's Short Sleeve Crop T-Shirt ($25) and Tory Burch's Kyra Skirt ($395, 310.248.2612), to create the foundation of today's spring-ready look. She threw Joseph's Suede Military Jacket ($1375) over her shoulders to give the outfit a bit of nonchalance and layered on a smattering of jewels, including A.L.C.'s Ball & Chain Necklace ($295), Mociun's Oval Turquoise Ring, Pamela Love x SUNO's Cat Cuff ($200, 212.564.8260), and Macha's Rockwell II Ring ($265) in Sterling Silver. Her MZ Wallace Red Heart Perf Louie Bag ($85) added the perfect punch of color, while the snake-print Alice + Olivia Ilise Wedge Sandals ($325) made for a chic finish. **Her Picks** Alice + Olivia Candice Sleeveless Printed A-Line Dress ($396) Alice + Olivia's Candice Dress, with its cheery lemon print, immediately caught La Havas' eye. "It has a very flattering shape, plus I love the quirky motif and the texture," she commented. Diane von Furstenberg Parker Mini Bag ($265) La Havas found the new-for-spring Parker Mini Bag by Diane von Furstenberg to be quite charming. She adores its petite size--perfect for when she is traveling around the globe--and the shot of neon. "The way the bag locks is so clever," La Havas says, referring to the bag's nifty front flap and hardware. Tom Ford Anastasia ($360) La Havas' preferred sunglass shape? A cool cat-eye. "They remind me of '40s and '50s Hollywood glamour, and I love that," she says. Auden Soleil Checkmate Necklace ($1098) "This necklace is show-stopping and modern," La Havas says. We completely agree! It's a great statement piece you can wear with a simple t-shirt and jeans or an elegant evening look. Marc by Marc Jacobs Debbie Stripe Pants ($398, 323.866.3562) "This is my favorite garment because I love slouchy, high-waisted pants, and you can easily dress them up or down," La Havas says. "They remind me of prisoner pants, but in a good way." Rachel Comey Lady Top ($530) Rachel Comey's eye-catching version was a no-brainer for La Havas, who fancies crop tops. "The print and shape are so harmonious," she says. Pierre Balmain Skirt ($1000, available late February) When wearing an abbreviated silhouette on top, La Havas likes to balance the look with a ladylike full skirt. She called out this style by Pierre Balmain, noting its versatility and the movement of the fabric. Love Moschino Rain of Hearts Platforms ($375, available in May) Picking her favorite heels out of the sea of shoes was easy for the songstress. "I love Moschino, and the metal hearts on these nude pumps are wonderfully feminine," she says.


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John Wayne Airport Announces the Results of its Economic Impact Study
At the beginning of March, John Wayne Airport (JWA) released an Economic Impact Study that was recently completed by InterVISTAS Consulting, LLC. The study measured the direct, indirect and induced economic impacts generated by JWA in Orange and three adjacent counties (Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino).
The study showed that JWA generates $6 billion in total impacts, adds $3.3 billion in Gross Domestic Product to the economy and supports 43,000 jobs that generate $1.7 billion in earnings. These strong results highlight JWA's contribution to the county's and region's economy.
JWA prides itself on creating and supporting vital connections with Orange County commerce and the community.
View the John Wayne Airport Economic Impact Study (pdf) in its entirety.


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No matter what you're studying, KU Libraries have world-class collections and scholarly resources for your research papers, projects and coursework—and friendly staff with the expertise to help you find exactly what you need.
Video Tutorials
Find videos that show you how to select databases, search the catalog, use interlibrary loan and more.
Subject and Course Guides
Consult our research guides for expert-recommended resources like databases, journals and books to help you find information relevant to your research topic or tailored to your course.
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Have a question or need assistance with your library research? Ask us via chat, in person at a Research Help desk, by email, by phone, or text us.
"Research can be challenging, and students shouldn't automatically know what to do the moment they walk through our doors. I want students to know that the library is more than just a place to find books — it is also full of research experts who want to help."
Jill Becker
Head of the Center for Undergraduate Initiatives & Engagement


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Friends and family of the man nicknamed the "Silent Bandit" called him a caring, fatherly man who overcame cancer but acted out of character when he robbed six banks last April in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, including one in Mount Pocono.
Friends and family of the man nicknamed the "Silent Bandit" called him a caring, fatherly man who overcame cancer but acted out of character when he robbed six banks last April in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, including one in Mount Pocono.
Fawzi Atra of Bethlehem Township, Northampton County, who earned the nickname for his silent robberies, will be sentenced this morning in federal court in Scranton. Attorneys for both sides have recommended a 70-month sentence, but U.S. District Judge James M. Munley can impose a different sentence if he chooses.
According to court records, Atra told police he robbed the banks "because the economy is horrible and he lost his job." He was arrested by Pocono Mountain Regional Police after the Mount Pocono heist.
One letter writer, however, suggests Atra had a gambling problem.
In a letter added Tuesday to Atra's online court docket, Washington, N.J., resident Joy Apostolou wrote, "Fawzi would never hurt anybody. I think his gambling problem took over his thinking."
She said she worked with him for eight years. Another co-worker from the bakery department at the Greenwich Township, N.J., ShopRite said Atra left the job because of a hostile work environment.
"Fawzi was the kind of person you would be glad to have in your life," wrote co-worker Catherine Shadis.
Atra's 20-year-old nephew, Sabreen Khalil of Easton, said Atra was more of a father to him than his biological father. Khalil said his uncle survived cancer, two house fires and the death of his younger brother. Khalil said he was among the multiple nieces and nephews cared for emotionally and financially by the childless Atra.
In begging for leniency, he wrote the judge, "I find it so hard to think my son won't get to grow up with his great uncle but I am going to pray for a miracle."
Co-worker Mario Rivas wrote: "If by any chance Fawzi happens to see this letter, I just want to tell him that I loved working with him (even though he threw dough balls at me). I am always going to remember him as a good person."
Atra has no prior criminal record and lives with his wife, according to court papers filed by defense attorney T. Axel Jones.
Atra, 43, pleaded guilty Oct. 31 to six counts of robbery.
According to court records, Atra admitted to stealing the following amounts of cash from the following banks:
$437 April 3 at KNBT in Giant in Bethlehem. $1,780 April 4 at PNC in ShopRite in Marlton, N.J. $2,967 April 11 at PNC in ShopRite in Warminster. $1,262 April 14 at PNC in ShopRite in Hopewell Township, N.J. $1,888 April 17 at QNB Bank in Giant in Richland Township. $4,200 April 19 at ESSA Bank in Weis in Mount Pocono
Atra has been in prison since his arrest in mid-April.
The plea deal calls for no fine because it says Atra would be unable to pay, but he is required to make restitution.


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MellorsMedia necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 127 diseños de 24 diseñadores freelance.
Statues Online - http://www.statuesonline.com
I am a young, UK-based entrepreneur and this e-commerce site will be my first business. I want my first business to provide people with something they can enjoy and admire their whole lives, and garden statuary is definitely that. Far from being a throw-away product, a garden statue can stand for decades.
I love the way statues are framed by their natural surroundings - flowers, a hedge, a tree. Somehow they compliment each other so well; the grey of the stone and the green of nature.
The statues I'm selling are made by a small family run business called Lucas Stone. Each statue is carved individually from real stone. If you take a look at their website (http://www.lucasstone.com) you'll see how their statues are very unique.
Types of statues I am selling include animal statues, mythical statues, religious statues (mostly buddhas), and classical statues. I will also sell plinths, urns and trough planters.
Garden statuary is a fairly niche market online. Many potential buyers prefer to go to garden centres etc.
My customers are likely to be married home-owners, who probably live in suburban areas, small towns or the countryside. Age range is probably mid-30s to mid-70s. I am only able to ship within the UK, so my customers will be from England, Scotland or Wales.
The designer is given great freedom to be creative with this. I would however like:
1) the logo to be congruous with the website (http://www.statuesonline.com) and its colours.
2) the logo shouldn't be too complex and should be fit for online use and for printing, in small and large prints. Note that if the logo uses a lot of different colours they might be lost in printing.
2) no cartoons.
3) the logo to reflect the value of the statues - most items will be around $150-$250, going up to $900.
4) the logo to incorporate the store name - Statues Online.
5) for those who feel like a real challenge to think of a catch phrase for the shop.
The logo will also be used for business cards etc.
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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The Heron Rookery is a 4.6 acre open space site located on the southwest corner of Bear Creek Parkway and Leary Way in Redmond, Washington. It stands at the entrance to Downtown Redmond and features an urban forest a new trail that runs through the middle.
The Heron Rookery is on the former King County Shop Site that served the County's streets division. Part of the site extends north to include part of the now Redmond Central Connector, across Bear Creek Parkway, and featured tilt up buildings and a fuel station. Located in the center of the Rookery was a private business called the Workshop Tavern.
The Heron Rookery was originally named after a colony of Great Blue Herons that once occupied the site. The first heron nesting occurred around 1997. The Winmar Company donated the site to the City in 2004. When heron monitoring by the city began in 2003, there were still eight active nests. By 2006, no heron nests were recorded. Monitoring continued until 2008 at which time no nests were discovered.
Today the site is still being protected for future generations. Recently in 2012, Redmond received a grant from the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR), which funded a Washington Conservation Corps (WCC) crew to come out for three weeks to begin removing non-native invasive plants, blackberries, English ivy and English holly. These non-native species grow over the native vegetation, which causes problems for the local wildlife. Wildlife and trees a more diverse ecosystem to flourish. When all the debris has composted, an evaluation of the remaining trees and vegetation will be completed to determine the health of the forest.
The city hopes to open this site to the public so they can enjoy the "forest in the city." Covenants control the use of the site; however, small nature trails and benches would allow citizens to find a quiet place to relax and reflect.
Southwest corner of Bear Creek Parkway and Leary Way NE
From the West Lake Sammamish Parkway NE exit on SR520 E, turn left onto West Lake Sammamish Pkway NE. Take the first right onto Leary Way NE. Continue 0.3 mile until Bear Creek Parkway and turn left. Pay-to-park parking lot will be on your right.
Natural Areas
Open Space
Walking Trail


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President Obama's pursuit of a healthcare overhaul, which intensifies Wednesday night with his address to Congress and the nation, has put sharper focus on a central and perplexing issue: how to control fast-rising costs. The politically easiest path is probably to put off the day of reckoning on costs, but Mr. Obama and fellow Democrats face risks if they push for expanded access to healthcare while failing to address the spending spiral.
This report surveys the choices ahead on a problem that's thorny but not insurmountable.
Q: Why did the push for healthcare reform run into obstacles? Is cost the key issue?
A: Underlying the debate are substantive issues, and cost is one of the biggest. Obama's push comes even as Americans are on edge financially – with workers eyeing a weak job market and taxpayers fretting about rising federal deficits, which are already at a record level due to economic stimulus measures and bank bailouts.
Against that backdrop, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said early this summer that one Democratic health-reform package would probably add about $1 trillion in government spending over the next decade. The message: There's no free lunch. Indeed, reducing the number of uninsured Americans will add costs to a system that's already the world's most expensive per person.
This doesn't mean that a healthcare bill can't pass Congress. About 45 million Americans don't have health insurance, and millions who do are still worried that it's only as secure as their jobs. Americans want major reforms involving access to care – but they also want fixes for those obvious issues of cost and affordability.
Q: How big is the problem of rising medical costs, if there's no cost-cutting reform?
A: It's so large that many economists see a fiscal crisis ahead for the federal government. Much of the burden also falls on states and employers and directly on families.
Medical expenditures in the United States make up almost one-fifth of gross domestic product, and they grew faster than inflation by about 3.6 percentage points a year during the decade that ended in 2005, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris. There's no sign the increases will end without multiple and major reforms.
Yet something has to give. Government spending can't outrun the government's current income (tax revenues) in the huge way that's implied by current policies.
Medical spending is rising partly because of new treatments that, health researchers say, provide considerable benefits. Granted, high costs are not unique to the US. But America's system covers a smaller percentage of the population than in other advanced nations and often delivers poorer results.
Medicare costs are up partly because of a growing prevalence of health problems (such as obesity), as well as expanding treatments, Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff says in his book "The Healthcare Fix."
Q: The healthcare industry isn't exactly a free marketplace. Is that part of the problem?
A: Insufficient competition is a major problem, many economists say. This is a business in which the consumer generally doesn't see the full cost of care, and those providing healthcare services don't have to compete for consumers the way most retail stores do.
Still, how much to emphasize competition as a solution is a matter of debate. Some health-policy experts, citing other nations, emphasize the role that government can play in bargaining on behalf of consumers and holding costs down. At a minimum, they say, individuals would have a hard time finding affordable care – or making wise choices amid the complexities of insurance – without government playing a role.
"We need to think about how to heighten competition in the private sector," says Leemore Dafny, a health-policy expert at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. This could mean placing more responsibility with consumers, but it also could mean making it easier for new firms to enter the market as care providers.
Often, local healthcare markets are dominated by just a couple of large insurance firms, and Professor Dafny's recent research finds that insurers often charge higher prices to businesses with deep pockets than to less-profitable firms. "The fact that they can do that means that the market is far from perfectly competitive," she says.
Q: What can be done to curb costs?
A: There's no one easy fix.
Because so many Americans are uninsured, many plans seek to expand coverage while containing costs.
Some economists say the US could best do this by making the federal government the single payer for care. Whether they're right or not, this approach lacks political momentum.
Leading legislative proposals involve helping individuals and small firms shop for insurance as part of larger "risk pools," so they can enjoy the same pricing leverage as employees of large firms. This would be done through a government-regulated "exchange" in which insurers offer competing coverage plans. Federal subsidies would pick up a chunk of the tab for many people.
Other potential steps could include:
•Reforming Medicare's costly "fee for service" system of payments.
•Investing in better information systems to streamline records, testing, and care.
•Having employers or government provide vouchers to families for purchasing insurance, with the goal of both expanding coverage and increasing cost-conscious choices by consumers.
•Incentivizing healthy behaviors that, for example, reduce smoking and obesity.
Those are just a few among a host of ideas, large and small in scope. Some mix of the ideas could address the problem over time.
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Citizens asked to voluntarily save water to avoid mandatory measures
Water Usage Totals
Mayor Don Wesely joined the Lincoln Water System today in asking citizens to voluntarily conserve water, following Monday's use of 90.4 million gallons. The hot and dry weather translated into high levels of water use over the weekend. From Friday, June 22 through Monday, June 25, Lincoln's water usage topped 80 million gallons per day. Monday's usage marked the first time since 1974 that Lincoln's single-day usage exceeded 90 million gallons.
"Our water supply is not unlimited. In fact, water levels in our well fields as well as Platte River flows are at levels normally seen in the late summer," said Mayor Wesely. "Our community has been very responsive when we've asked for help in the past. We're encouraging good conservation measures and increased awareness to make sure we're not wasting water in these drought-like conditions."
Last year, the first day of 80 million gallon usage was July 6. The city used 81.5 million on Friday, 82.5 million on Saturday and 85.8 million on Sunday.
"We are a growing community, and hot dry days like these emphasize the importance of building new storage facilities and transmission pipelines, as well as additional supply and treatment facilities," said Public Works and Utilities Director Allan Abbott.
Lincoln Water System customers can help conserve water by:
Media Release


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The Treasurer of State enables Ohioans a unique opportunity to invest in Ohio's future through the Buckeye Savers Bond Program, which helps fund the nation's fifth most traveled roadway system. Bond proceeds from the Buckeye Savers Program pay for construction, reconstruction, or other improvements of highways, including those on the state highway system and urban extensions, those within or leading to public parks or recreation areas and those within or leading to municipal corporations. The program also contributes to the state's larger transportation budget. During a Buckeye Savers bond issuance, the Treasurer of State engages in a proactive investor awareness effort to provide Ohioans with information on buying Buckeye Saver bonds. In addition, Ohio retail investors receive first priority to purchase the highest rated, triple tax-exempt obligations of the state; there are extended order periods and a large selling group on each bond issuance. Although secured by the state's general obligation pledge, highway capital improvement debt is also secured by highway user receipts (including the motor vehicle fuel tax), which are constitutionally designated for highways.Upcoming bond salesFor information on upcoming Buckeye Saver (Highway Capital Improvement) bond sales please visit the State Bond Sale Schedule.Link to the State Bond Sale Schedule http://obm.ohio.gov/BondsInvestors/bondsale-schedule.aspxInformationFor additional information on the Buckeye Savers Bond Program, please contact the Office of Debt Management at (614) 752-8460.
*By clicking on a provided link you will be leaving the Ohio Treasurer's office website for another website. The Ohio Treasurer's office is not responsible for the content or for any problems you may have in connecting to it. We are providing a link only as a convenience and the inclusion of such link does not imply any endorsement, approval, investigation, verification or monitoring by the Ohio Treasurer's office of any content or information contained within or accessible from the linked site. The Ohio Treasurer's office does not control the accuracy, completeness, timeliness or appropriateness of the content or information on the linked site. If you choose to visit the linked site you will be subject to its terms of use and privacy policies, over which the Ohio Treasurer's office has no control. In no event will the Ohio Treasurer's office or the state of Ohio be responsible for any information or content within the linked site or your use of the linked site. By continuing to the linked site you agree to the foregoing.


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BISD board approves policy update
The Borger ISD board approved a policy update during its regular meeting Thursday evening.One of the policies, known as FO (Local), pertains to student discipline. Corporal punishment will not be used when a parent has submitted a signed statement to the principal prohibiting the use of corporal punishment. The parent can reinstate corporal punishment by submitting another signed statement at any time.Video and audio recording equipment will be used for safety purposes to monitor student behavior on district property. Signs will be posted notifying students and parents about the district's use of audio and video equipment.Another policy approved under the update, FFH (Local), pertains to student welfare (freedom from discrimination, harassment, and retaliation), and addresses the topic of dating violence specifically.It is now considered dating violence if a person who dated or is dating a student commits violent acts against the student's current spouse or dating partner.Also approved was EFAA (Local), a policy pertaining to instructional materials (selection and adoption). The "Textbook Selection Committee" has been changed to the "Instructional Materials Selection Committee." The majority of the committee members shall be classroom teachers. The requirement that only professional staff may be members of the instructional materials selection committee has been deleted.DFBB (Local) pertains to term contracts (non-renewal). Changes to the reasons for non-renewal emphasize that a reduction in force can either be based on financial exigency (a case or decision demanding prompt action) or a program change.A administrative (principal) recommendation to the superintendent for non-renewal is now required, and must be supported by relevant documentation. The final decision on administrative recommendations to the board on each employee's contract rests with the superintendent. There are also new deadline and delivery procedures. For notice of proposed non-renewal, such recommendations must be received 10 days before the last day of instruction, and hand delivery of the recommendations must be attempted before they are sent by mail.CV (Local) pertains to facilities construction. A change order permitted by law will be approved by the board or designee prior to changes being made in the plans or construction of a facility.CDA (Local) pertains to other revenues (investments). The investment officer will develop procedures to monitor investment ratings and will liquidate investments that do not maintain a satisfactory rating.Also included in the policy were DC (Local) pertaining to employment practices, and CLA (Local) pertaining to buildings, grounds, and equipment management (security).In other business, the board approved action on its financial audit. Chance Welch, BISD superintendent, said the district once again received an unqualified opinion on its financial audit. Brown, Graham, and Company, who are new auditors for the district, presented the audit."Some deficiencies were noted as well as a material weakness due to prior period adjustments made by auditors," Welch said.The board also appointed a new member to the board. Bill Myers will be filling the spot recently vacated by longtime board member Johnny Rusten. Rusten's resignation was officially accepted by the board at its November meeting.Welch said that Kevin McClellan, a teacher at Borger Middle School, has announced his intentions to retire at the end of the first semester. He also said that Jason Carter has been named the Borger High Girls Head Volleyball Coach. See today's sports page for more information on this announcement.


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Saturday, April 23, 2011
Happy Birthday, Judy
The big wind almost blew Steve away, and also blew over a huge cottonwood tree at Emmy's. I got out Dwight's old Baby Brownie Kodak, and took pictures of kids climbing on and sitting in the tree. Doesn't she look innocent? I put a "halo" around her just to prove that point. Now, Judy, you have grown up to be very wise about many things, and to know how to get answers to questions by your patient insights into the rest of your family and our extended family. You do make our life more complete and joyful. Love to you on this birthday.
4 comments:
- Ann said...
Since Steve put a comment on Dwight's post, I will add to Elizabeth's. What a fun thing it has been to be the little sister. You did try reallllly hard to help Steve and me be good - it was a monumental task. I hope you have a wonderful birthday and that you know how much you are loved.
- April 23, 2011 at 12:06 PM
- Judy said...
Thank you for kind words. I don't care if they are true or not. They are nice to hear. Faithful sisters!
- April 23, 2011 at 2:04 PM
- Louise Blood said...
Judy, I certainly meant to include my wishes for a happy birthday yesterday, but didn't get back to do it. To add to what Elizabeth said, I have always admired and been ispired by your insights and wisdom and softness. I think I needed you for my guardian when I was growing up and going out into the world. Happy birthday, dear sister, I love you very much.
- April 24, 2011 at 10:02 AM
- Judy said...
Thanks, Louise. I love and admire you all.
- April 24, 2011 at 3:23 PM


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S.A.S - Built This City & Ransom [Previews]
Video previews to SAS's (Dipset Europe) - Built This City & Ransom's new music videos dropping soon only at WSHH. Shout out to Jordan Tower&IP=126.96.36.199
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by Tom Utescher
Powered by 17 points from rising sophomore forward Carly Monzo and 11 from junior Meg Geatens, Mount St. Joseph Academy recorded a 52-33 victory over Springside School last Monday night in a summer basketball battle. Down by 11 points at the intermission, the Springside Lions pulled within five points of the leaders (28-23) early in the second half. The Magic responded with an 8-0 run and remained in control the rest of the way.
Mount St. Joe is the only team in the Lou Cappiello League that customarily limits it roster to rising freshmen and to sophomores who played junior varsity ball the previous winter. However, since the Magic have not yet conscripted any new ninth-graders for summer ball, a number of varsity veterans such as Geatens and Monzo played in the Springside game.
Two lay-ups and two free throws by senior guard Bridget Higgins helped the Mount build a 12-5 advantage over the first five minutes, with Springside's lone field goal in that stretch coming from senior power forward Michelle Boggs.
This was the first chance new Springside coach Steve Purcell would have to see his players in action, and a lot of girls had to be rotated in and out of the game. The Lions got back-to-back lay-ups from junior guard Gianna Pownall and later senior guard Sydni Epps and freshman Olivia Byron found the hoop as the score tightened up to 16-13. MSJ's Monzo and Geatens shared the scoring as the Magic rang up eight straight points and then continued on to a 28-17 halftime lead.
As round two got underway field goals by sophomore Julia Schumacher, junior Meredith Spann, and Pownall reduced Springside's deficit to five points. Sophomore Julia Shinkle started up the offense for the Magic, and Higgins, Monzo and Geatens joined in to build a 38-23 bulge with about nine minutes left to play, and Springside didn't pose a serious threat after that.
Sophomore Alex Louin wound up with eight points for the winners, who got single field goals from juniors Adrienne Cellucci and Rachel Dapper and sophomore Gen Hagedorn. Epps led the Lions with nine points, and Springside received eight points from Boggs, six from Pownall, and four from Schumacher. Senior Aly Markey added a bucket for the Lions, while classmate Alexis Giovinazzo ran the offense at point guard when she was in the game.


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Hungry Hamptons needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 56 designs submitted by 21 freelance designers.
Hungry Hamptons
We are starting a grocery and goods delivery service in the Hamptons. A catchy logo that will help target children and parents alike.
Summer renters, homeowners and people who can afford to pay us to get their groceries for them. We have a pretty catchy title ( I like to think). We want people to pay us to get their groceries whether it be from local farmers markets, speciality stores or a normal supermarket.
I ordered a tote bag to hold groceries in and have used a turquoise blue color for the lettering of hungry hamptons. I am not not a talented artist or very creative but when i picture the logo I have seen a hippo maybe two H's intertwined ect... a bite out of an H?...but please feel free to do whatever you want we are open to anything and look forward to seeing your much more creative ideas! USE YOUR IMAGENATION!!!
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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In 1959, Barbie was featured in a TV commercial and she sold for $3. A new Barbie doll doesn't cost that much more today, but if you want to buy a vintage Barbie from the 1960s, get ready to open your wallet.
In 1959, Barbie was featured in a TV commercial and she sold for $3. A new Barbie doll doesn't cost that much more today, but if you want to buy a vintage Barbie from the 1960s, get ready to open your wallet.
Like some other baby boomers, Barbie came of age in the '60s. The 1960s Barbie doll reflected the style of the times, best exemplified by first lady Jacqueline Kennedy. The 1960s-era bubble cut hair style is one of the most recognizable connections between Barbie and Mrs. Kennedy.
Speaking of hair, Barbie dolls were manufactured with three shades of hair: blonde, brunette and titian (red). Some rare examples of Barbies during this period had sable brown hair similar to that of Elizabeth Taylor, or white ginger-colored hair like Marilyn Monroe's. In 1963, Barbie dolls came with interchangeable wigs in keeping with the fashion interest of the early 1960s.
In the 1960s, Barbie's face had distinctive features, including blue eyes with eyebrows to match hair color. As if Barbie stepped right out of the beauty salon, her lipstick color matched the popular makeup used in the mid-'60s. In the early years of the '60s, Barbie had traditional red lips — a continuation from original, circa 1959, Barbie dolls. By 1962 and continuing for five years or so, Barbie's lips were shaded a coral color in keeping with the trend from California girls and other fashionistas of the time.
Mattel never forgot that, like all contemporary girls, Barbie was a clotheshorse. Barbies from the early '60s sported a black and white striped one-piece bathing suit, white sunglasses with blue lenses, black peek-a-boo-toed high heels, and signature pearl stud earrings.
A tip for the jewelry connoisseurs — it is common for Barbie's pearl stud earrings to leave behind a green residue on the doll's ears. While unattractive, green ear syndrome on Barbie dolls helps to authenticate the doll. By 1962 and throughout much of the rest of the 1960s, Barbie donned a red one-piece bathing suit, red opened-toe high heels to match, and the traditional pearl stud earrings.
Barbie's red bathing suit is one of the most popular of all Barbie's outfits. It was sold as an accessory in something that Mattel marketed as a "fashion pak." The red swimsuit was part of a Helenca fashion pak sold in 1962 to 1963, including white cat eye sunglasses with blue lenses and metallic gold wedge shoes. In fact, the red swimsuit was the outfit that was included when purchasing any bubblecut or ponytail Barbie from 1962-66.
Condition is key to value for your Barbie doll from the '60s. If you have the original packaging, that will add value. Clothing, complete with the Barbie tags, shoes, hats, jewelry and other accessories, will add value and attract collectors. Hair color, clothing and doll skin tone are all important. If they are faded or damaged, that will cut value.
The markings on Mattel's boxes for Barbie can be confusing, and it is not unusual for one Barbie doll to end up in another Barbie's storage box over the years.
Once Midge is introduced to the Barbie line in 1963, the boxes will have various markings. For instance, some Barbie boxes are marked "Midge T.M. �1962; Barbie� �1958 by Mattel, Inc." However, in 1964, the company adds the word "Patented" to the box markings.
To get the real story, it is a good idea to look at the markings on the doll's buttocks for the date of manufacture. When evaluating Barbie dolls, there are many factors to consider, however, good examples of vintage Barbie dolls from the mid-1960s in their original box command $150 to $200 to start.
Of course, there are the rare occasions when Barbie has brought significantly more money from collectors. A sign of the times, Barbie remains a sought-after American collectible.
Dr. Lori presents antique appraisal events nationwide and is an appraiser on "Auction Kings" on the Discovery channel. Visit DrLoriV.com, facebook.com/DoctorLori or call 888-431-1010.


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Ty Segall tours are planned with thoughtful care, nurturing demographics with blade-sharp calculation and deep, sage wisdom. Hungry fans, sales, and media coverage are all considered and compiled in a collective hive mind telepathically shooting pins onto the map - a Nate Silver approach to rock n' roll touring that's never been known to fail. However, there are boundaries outside the lines, where one aspect of the equation may prevent a deserving city from experiencing Ty Segall live. Perhaps you dwell in one of these cities-off-the-grid, fortunate in your ability to float under the governmental radar, yet unfortunate enough to be passed over time and time again come tour season (and frankly, what season isn't tour season?). It's for people in places with things like you that the radio was invented, and thus lives on. Sure, it's different now than it was back when, not as many live acts hosting shows or flour companies sponsoring them, but you can still use the hoary old format to your advantage in our latter-day jet age. Like for instance, Eastern Seaborders within a certain range can experience the sounds of Ty Segall live, unedited, as he performs on NYC/NJ's WFMU this Sunday, February 3rd. If you're outta FM range, you can always tune in via the latest tool for far-flung fools, the internet. Not enough? Look for more showings outside-societal-lines when Ty pops up on British radio -XFM- next week, as well as but not limited to the free for all that is real German television, ZDF... the rest of us will have to go conventional and keep on moshin' da pit at the following danceterias:
2/1/13 Webster Hall New York NY w/ Ex Cult
2/2/13 Music Hall of Williamsburg Brooklyn NY w/ Ex-Cult, K-holes
2/5/13 Cabaret du Mile End Montreal QC Canada w/ Ex Cult, K-Holes
2/6/13 Phoenix Concert Theatre Toronto ON Canada w/ Ex Cult, K-Holes
2/7/13 The Blind Pig Ann Arbor MI w/ Ex-Cult, K-Holes
2/8/13 Horns Gallery/ Kenyon College Kenyon OH w/ Ex-Cult
2/9/13 Empty Bottle Chicago IL w/ Ex Cult @ 7PM
2/9/13 Empty Bottle Chicago IL w/ Ex Cult @10PM (SOLD OUT)
2/10/13 Sokol Underground Omaha NE w/ Ex Cult
2/12/13 Hi Dive Denver CO


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Well, it's finally here. I waited this long for a reason. It is 12:00 AM December 22nd, 2003. It has been exactly 1 year since I wrote the very first Bastard admin story that started all this. I worked harder on this one, and it's as long as my penis. You better like this one, it's the first one I ever spent more than 30 minutes on.
As always, reply with what you think about it. So, without further babbling, here it is:
Written entirely by: gore.
Blackmail is just a friendly game of Lets make a deal. With that said, let the bastardization commence.
8:00 AM: I wake up early as hell and get some coffee ready. Should be a fun day, I logged into the cache server remotely last night and there are a few emails I think I will bring up.
8:05 AM: Well, it seems a few of the secretaries in the building are expressing there love for one another. They think all email they send is actually kept secret and that no one can read it. A few of the guys on the company swim team have also done the same.
8:07 AM: I think it should be a pretty fun time. I wonder who will be the highest bidder. I drive into work still sipping my coffee and get stuck behind a police officer, who seems to be going slow to annoy me.
The speed limit on this road is 50 MPH; he on the other hand is doing 30. Being in a hurry I pass him to the astonishment of the others no the road. He seems to have that look in his eyes as if he wished he could pull me over.
8:10 AM: I get to work and decide to go straight into my office. I walk in, start the espresso machine, and sit down. Today should be very cool. I fire up my terminal and an extra server I made a few months ago but never used to be sure I have a copy of all of the emails.
I can get away with this because the government wants companies to be able to find every e-mail ever sent on there networks in case someone got into trouble. Its not invasion of privacy, its patriotic!
I send a quick email to the people who are afraid to come out and let them know whats going on. The bidding starts now.
I get an email about 5 minutes later from a manager who hasnt told anyone about her enjoying eating from the fuzzy plate. She is pissed that I know and says she will have me in trouble for blackmail.
I send another email to her and remind her that this is not blackmail, its just a game of Lets make a deal. She is NOT happy. I reply and also tell her about company policy to have emails easy to find in a secure location. Just like a server in my house running OpenBSD with a few Linux and BSD based firewalls.
She replies and gives in. Looks like Ill be getting a new laptop again. I remind her that her dignity should be worth a bit more to her and that I want a desktop thrown in too. She replies and tells me that she has saved all of these emails and will be showing the boss the ones about me asking for cash and computers.
Amateurs, I log into her account and use secure delete on all of them in her account and then send her another email. She again realizes what defeat tastes like. I reply again and tell her since she tried to **** me over I now will be making the specs for this new PC.
She is now pissed but complies. I reply with my specs: An Alienware Roswell extreme customized with a full tower Alienware case, Alienware cable management system, Dual Intel Xeon processors at 3.06 GHz with 533 MHz front side bus, 512 K cache, 3GB DDR PC-2100 SDRAM Registered ECC - 2 x 1024MB Module + 2 x 512MB Module, Hard disk is a dual 500GB Western Digital Caviar SE Serial ATA RAID 0 Array.
As for optical drives:
Drive 1:
Plextor PlexWriter Premium 52x32x52x CD-RW Black
Drive 2:
Plextor PX-708A 8x DVD±R/W Drive Black
The video card is:
NVIDIA Quadro® FX 3000 256MB 8x AGP w/Dual DVI. Im sure you are all shocked I picked an NVIDIA card.
Video cooling:
AlienIce Video Cooling System with astral blue color effect.
And also I decided to add digital video editing because well, I need a way to piece together all those security camera clips I have and maybe add a few girls to ones with my boss in them.
So for digital video I went with:
Adobe Video Collection Professional.
A $1,200.00 software package.
Sound card:
Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy 2 - 6.1
No integrated bullshit here. I went with an Intel® PRO/1000 XT Gigabit Server Adapter.
The machine comes with Windows XP Pro preinstalled but that may not be on for long. But maybe Ill use the second 500 GB HD for another OS.
I of course just went to Alienware.com and customized one of there professional machines for all of this.
As for monitors:
Display 1:
NEC 30" LCD3000 LCD Black
Display 2:
NEC 30" LCD3000 LCD Black
Hey, there only a little over 4 thousand dollars, why not get two right?
For speakers I went with:
Klipsch ProMedia Ultra 5.1 500-Watt Speakers.
Conspiracy blue keyboard.
As for a UPS I went with:
Belkin Universal UPS 1200VA
And for when I feel like listening to the Misfits in the office I also had it come with:
Creative® NOMAD® Jukebox Zen NX 30GB USB 2.0
But also MP3 players dont exactly come with the best of head phones either so I had this all come with:
Sennheiser RS85 Stereo Wireless Headphones with HiDyn Plus.
And just because I wasnt paying for any of this I decided to have it come with:
Microsoft Wireless Desktop Kit
And some removable storage:
Alienware USB 2.0 128MB Flash Drive
Iomega Zip® 250MB USB Zip Drive
For some reason, even though I already have a copy, I have Microsoft office XP professional come with it as well. And also a cool tool for Alienware systems:
AlienAutopsy: Automated Technical Support Request System.
Me being a gentleman, I add up how much this will cost by using the Alienware website. The total is:
This is of course BEFORE my liquid cooling system.
I email her and show her the list. She of course shits herself having paid less for her current automobile. I reply and tell her since she is giving me attitude I will be adding another machine to this list.
I go to the Sun website and configure a Solaris server and send her that too. I guess her dignity is worth 50 thousand dollars because thats how much all of this came too. She uses a credit card and pays for all of it and has it sent here for me.
9:10 AM: Well, this days going better than I thought and Ive only been here an hour! I go to the next one on the line. One of the bean counters has a problem coming out of the closet too. I of course take a rope around his waist and threaten to yank him out in front of everyone.
Just so happens he also works part time at a pharmacy. Happy Birthday to gore! I send him an email listing a few things I want. I want a prescription for Morphine and Vicodin without ANY limit on refills.
He of course quickly complies. This has to be one of the best days ever! Next on the line is surprisingly the CEO of the company. I mail him and tell him what I know about him. I tell him not to worry though. For a 10 dollar an hour pay rise and a low priced $15,000.00 contribution to bastard inc. He can forget about his worries of this getting out.
He e-mails me back and says he just sent the pay rise through bean counter central and also there is a check in an envelope waiting for me in his office. I walk on in and grab my check and make sure my raise cant be tampered with by locking the database.
9:30 AM: I run to the bank to cash my check and have a little fun. I get 20 dollars in pennies and when no one suspects anything, I drop them all over the counter.
The bank workers all jump for it. A few of them grab handfuls at a time. The manager walks over and asks what is going on and I say I dropped my money and ask for some info on my account.
I logged out the terminal so he has to log in. Knowing the intellect of most managers I know he will log in using his account. He logs in on the Windows machine as administrator and with the password password.
Talk about making it hard to guess. Oh well, my mortgage and house is going to be paid off when I get back to work anyway. I get back and send another email to the other person who wasnt exactly happy about coming out of the closet.
I get another Alienware machine out of them but this time configuring an AMD Opteron processor based machine. It comes out to be $17,774.00. Im on a roll today!
Its not even 10 AM yet and Im already doing well. I hook up a terminal to the electric system of the building for fun later on. I get up and give the bean counters a black out and see what they do on my security camera system.
Most of them run around smacking into each other which is great fun. I made sure to hit record so I have something to send to Bastard funniest home videos this month. The boss runs in and asks what the hell is going on.
Im an admin, how the hell should I know? I offer him a deal, for a couple grand Ill go check out the light sockets and see what is going on. He agrees and I walk around for about an hour and then sit back down at my terminal and turn the lights back on.
9:50 AM: I set up an account at the bank using the online banking system. After an Nmap scan of the banks IP range, I see they are running Windows 95 on the server This is just saddening.
Well for them anyway. I write up a quick exploit and gain access to the system and add a million dollars to my account. Life is good. I look on my network monitoring tool that I built with some friends.
10:00 AM: The boss is looking at a porn site! We cant have that now right? I walk in his office to say I fixed the lights and he of course freezes up. I add to the pressure of the moment by walking towards his screen and asking for a few things; like new server for miscellaneous storage for example.
He hits the power button on the monitor. That wont stop me though, when he gets up to grab a paper in his desk I turn it back on and then act shocked. He says he was trying to find something for the medical students that attend a class the company teaches for extra cash.
I tell him not to worry, its better than what you usually look at as I grin. He is not amused and asks what I mean. I tell him how I have to monitor all traffic, company policy.
He is not happy. He tells me to either stop or I will be fired. Threats rarely work on me so I go back to my lab/office and mail the CEO with logs from the web cache of the machine my boss uses.
He emails me back and says to close the account because the boss wont be using it anymore. I watch the boss packing his things up and leaving and think to myself how funny it is.
Right away the CEO hires a new manager though. It could be worse I guess. The new manager looks over a few things and then asks why I ordered a new machine with a 256 MB graphics card.
Instead of saying Doom 3, I tell him its good because our network monitoring tools sometimes use similar colors and only a good card can tell the difference. He thinks for a second, and then walks off.
He comes back again, asking about the 30 inch flat screen monitor I ordered with it. Well, when you have as many network monitoring tools as I have to look at all day, its easier to just have a big monitor than have to keep tabbing them all down.
He says I seem to have an excuse for everything and that he will be watching me closely. Somehow I doubt that. He gets back to his office and I log into his machine and start popping up browser windows with beastiality images.
I hear a scream from his secretary, meaning she probably got the email I sent her telling her the boss wanted to speak with her. Looks like another cover up in bastard candy land. I run in to see why I heard a scream and of course the boss is trying to explain he didnt do it.
I see my chance and go for it. I tell the secretary there may have been an intrusion in the system by a cracker and that Ill look at his machine and let her know. She walks away disgusted and I close the door.
I tell the boss Ill get him out of this but it will cost him. I say You can either make a deal with me or be without a job. He agrees to a deal giving me an extra miscellaneous budget of about 2 thousand dollars, and also puts 5 grand in my bank account.
I sure am on a roll today. It must be bastard get rich day. I tell the secretary we had an intrusion in the system and not to worry because I have found the problem. I walk away and everyone is somewhat happy.
I got back to my office and unplug the phone and start up a fresh brew of extra strong coffee. Just as I am about to fall asleep, the net monitor goes haywire. I look up and see we have an attack in progress.
I get up and find the IP for our cracking friend and scan the IP. I start a trace program a friend of mine wrote for me and it traces the IP that showed up on the logs, and then logs into the machine remotely.
I look at the logs on this machine and see another IP has broken into it as well. I scan THAT IP address and see that its a Windows ME box and has a DDOS attack in the system processes.
I shut down the DDOS tool and have a message print across the screen reading Prepare to be owned. I love a good hack game. I run the usual deltree after stealing all credit card numbers found with my new program Credit Scan and then log out.
I post the card numbers to a well known cracking site and continue with my coffee. I get a phone call on my private cell phone and answer it. Its my aunt that I grew up with. The following ensues:
Her: Allen, someone stole my credit card and my computer is acting funny
Me: Has it been working fine, then started giving random errors?
Her: Yes, exactly how you said it.
Me: Ah, yes, this is a well known error on your power supply. Its fairly easy to fix though. All you need is a paper clip. You need to jump the core drivers in your PCI bus electro current mod switch chips.
Dummy mode on.
Her: How the hell do I do that?
Me: Well, comb your hair a few times to help out with the charge and then get a sweater on. Then you want to rub your feet on the carpet for a bit, allowing the electro pulse to rise up. Then all you have to do is stick your left hand in a pail of water to make a safe discharge of the electro field. Then shove the paper clip into the opened vents of the power supply.
Her: Where the hell is that?
Me: On your PC its the fan near the top. Just pull the side of the case off. You still have the same PC right?
Her: Yes. Although this started acting up the last time you fixed that other problem I was having.
Me: Yes, I know. If you would have read the manual, you would have found all of this listed in it.
Her: Oh, ok.
Me: Ok, now do you have the side case off?
Her: yes.
Me: Ok, shove the paper clip into the side of the power supply where the opening is. Not where the fan is, but where you can look inside it and see little parts.
Her: Ok, I think I found it. Oh here it is! Thanks for your help BBZZZZRRRRRRRTT! *Thud*.
Maybe now she has time to think twice about treating me bad. Now Im in a REALLY good mood! I refresh my coffee and relax for a bit. I decide to have some fun with the lusers and limit all downloads to 50 bits.
This should help the girl in sales who is downloading a CD. I put the phone back on the hook and it rings immediately. I answer and she screams at me that she was downloading a work document and it started going slowly.
I tell her its the weather outside. Its about 20 degrees right now and it is making the wires a bit to cold. I tell her she can help with the problem at hand slightly though. She asks how and I tell her to put the cat5 cables in her mouth so they get warmer.
She thinks for a second and then does it. I ask if she has them in her mouth and I hear a muffled Yes. I trace her call and find what room she is in and plug in the wire kill I made at home.
8,000 volts pump through the cable. I tell her to bite down a bit to get to the parts inside the wire. I know she has because I hear what sounds like shooting sparks and then a loud thud. Another happy user, I hang up and sip more of my coffee.
A user runs in screaming about their machine crashing. Well, it has Windows NT and 8 Megs of RAM. The fact it booted up startles me. Not funny says the luser. Well, I thought it was.
I walk into the extra space in the machine room I usually call home and invite the user in to see something neat. He doesnt realize that I walked to the side when I came in and runs in too see.
After falling 15 feet into a basement like surrounding I put the cover back on and walk away, leaving him plunged in darkness. He should be fine; there are plenty of rats down there!
Today sure has been productive! Of course I took some steps to ensure my ass isnt in any danger by pre recording the security cameras to show the usual normal activity. Aeallison even helped record the part of me helping a luser with a problem.
Anyone that checks the cameras will see nothing but me being the great admin that I am. A quick grep of the email server brings up my name one time. This is unacceptable. I check the email out and it is from a systems manager saying that I have been A bit of a problem lately.
This is exactly why I have all email on a timer. The email server only forwards out all the email, and only delivers it, once an hour. I told everyone it was a security issue and that the email server is actually doing a virus scan on all of them before sending to prevent infection.
In actuality all it is doing is giving me time to make sure no one is trying to **** me; Like now. I change the email to read I have been doing a wonderful job and that I deserve a raise.
I hop back on the network monitoring station I set up and see someone downloading a movie. This company does a lot of development, so it has dual T3s running on Fiber Optic cabling for the most part.
And also there is an OC-256 line running for the back bone. Why they have dual T3s AND this OC line is beyond me. But then again, it is fun downloading movies at 13 GB a second.
The company makes software for other businesses and also another section of the company creates hardware components. Beside that, we also have a few classes taught here in random subjects.
I check my personal version of the network monitoring tool and see they are downloading a huge movie. I check for the name and it happens to be a porn film Coming from the head bean counters machine!
I pull his network cable out and put the phone back on the hook. 5 seconds later it rings and I answer. The head bean counter is screaming at me that he was grabbing a file from an FTP server he needed to use in a presentation in an hour.
I check around and realize that there really is a presentation in about an hour and he is giving a demonstration with the CEO involved. I plug him back in and tell him to try now. He says it is working fine now and says how I had better not let this happen again or it will be my job.
I do not like threats. I log into his machine and find the presentation hes using for the company speech and change a few things around. If he is downloading that porn for the speech, Ill be sure it is actually involved.
An hour and a half later I get a call from the CEO asking what the hell happened to the slides for the presentation. I tell him I am not to sure really. Apparently, the poor **** was giving his presentation and then it cut into a film clip from Yes, I will suck you for cash.
I thought it was funny, but the police and school principles that were attending didnt find it humorous at all. The CEO tells me to delete his account; he was fired for the presentation.
Just goes to show, when your telling a bastard admin It will be your job, it actually turns out to be YOUR job. Isnt it nice how that works out? I start up another pot of coffee as Aeallison runs in saying he saw the head bean counter coming towards the office.
I guess he didnt think my joke was funny. There is just no pleasing some people. He asked me to see if I could get more disk space out of his home machine he brought in, and I helped him out.
I found that I could save him a lot of disk space by formatting his HD. He didnt think it was as funny as I did. Im not worried though. Since it was not a company machine he cant do anything about it.
I start drinking my coffee as he walks in with a pissed off look on his face. That was not saving me disk space you bastard! Actually it was, I counter. Well dont think youll be getting away with it! I have a brother who is a cop!
Opportunity knocks.
Whats his name? He gives me his brothers name and I nod to Aeallison. He knows what to do. Aeallison goes into the police database and finds the officer in question. After grabbing a picture of him he creates an image of the cop with another man In bed.
He e-mails a picture of the cop to the head bean counter and walks back in the lab where we are still arguing and tells him to go check his mail. He walks out, and 5 minutes later runs back in.
No! Dont! Hell be fired!
Arent you already? What the hell are you still doing here anyway? And after the boss receives that e-mail you just sent him, I really do not think youll ever get a job in this town again. The head bean counters eyes grow wide. He can see his life floating away slowly.
I Email the police chief the picture of the bean counters brother, and Aeallison gets the message from the CEO telling him to close the bean counters account NOW. Security is called and we watch the bean counter get dragged away.
Aeallison tells me how much of a bastard I am. Well, I reply, sometimes you have to MAKE things happen.
I tell Aeallison we should play doom to see who has to go do the usual network monitoring we are required to do each day. Half an hour goes by and I stand victorious. I never said no cheating. He walks off to monitor some network traffic as I sit in my chair and relax.
Aeallison has been getting fairly trusting lately. I pop a couple laxative tablets into his coffee and go back to playing my game of Unreal Tournament. Aeallison walks back in and takes a gulp of coffee and asks if I would like to bet money on the match we are about to have.
Sure man! Winner is the one still standing in 15 minutes. He agrees and we start. He puts his money on the table and so do I. After 10 minutes he runs to the bathroom and I kill him off and pocket the money.
Aeallison gets back in and realizes what has happened. Sorry I say. How about I take you to lunch and make up for it? Alright he says. How are we going to get lunch at this time though? The boss wont let us leave!
Not to worry, I have a plan! I tell the boss that we need some Cat5e cables to hook up the new router he ordered, and a friend of mine has agreed to give me the said cable needed to use. The boss agrees and thinks what nice young men we are deep down and tells us we can have a few hours overtime for being such good sports, and bringing on things for the company when we did not have to.
Aeallison looks on nervously. Hes going to be expecting cable when we get back you know Yes, I know, but not to worry, I took some from the store room last month and updated the database to not show the missing cable. Its in the trunk of my car as we speak.
Aeallison smiles and we leave. Upon leaving KFC I see they shorted my change by $3.00. This is of course unacceptable and we both agree that something should be done. Well, they made me lose money, so Ill make THEM lose money.
I grab the drive through head set I stole from a fast food restaurant a few months ago and we drive by the KFC again. I park a block away and turn on my headset. Right away I hear an order being taken.
Could I have my combo upsized? And then I cut in: sir did you want that **** sized? The customer gasps and drives off angry. I hear the managers flying about the place and trying to see what is going on.
Another order comes up and I take it. The customer wants a combo #7 and I tell them no. they ask why not and I say Because you sound ****ing stupid The manager is on in a fly.
Please do not listen to that! Someone is playing on our headsets in the parking lot. I reply saying not to listen to them. The customer gets pissed and drives off. Just then, I notice a couple of employees outside the building looking for us.
I get on the headset again and tell them I can see them and that they will never find us in the blue van we are in. Realizing that there is in fact a blue van in the parking lot filled with older people.
The employees rush the van and throw drinks at it. The elder people get out and start yelling at them and the manager tries explaining, but to no avail. These people are pissed. The manager has to fire the employees on the spot.
I sit and laugh and continue. Aeallison says you really are a complete bastard! with a slight hint of jealousy.
December 22nd 2003. 12:05 AM. Thank you everyone for making this entire year of bastardization complete and fun. This story goes out to all of you that read it and begged for more. I thank all of you.
Dedicated to Anti Online and all of the people here that helped me to change for the better, and helped me learn a **** load in the process. I thank you all, and decicate this to you. If I ever take your advice and make all of these into a book, I'll be sure to list you. Thanks again,
Monday December 22nd 2003.


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Sex with robotsThat's where it starts, but it goes much further, up to an interesting way, how the humanity could end.
In era when both STD epidemics and massive human over population are rife, this is an innovation that couldn't come too soon.
"Earth's natural wealth: an audit" by New Scientist magazine states that many of the minerals that we use for a variety of products are in danger of running out in the near future. "A handful of geologists around the world have calculated the costs of new technologies in terms of the materials they use and the implications of their spreading to the developing world. All agree that the planet's booming population and rising standards of living are set to put unprecedented demands on the materials that only Earth itself can provide. Limitations on how much of these materials is available could even mean that some technologies are not worth pursuing long term.... "Virgin stocks of several metals appear inadequate to sustain the modern 'developed world' quality of life for all of Earth's people under contemporary technology".
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