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Goldman Sachs Group Inc. on Thursday reported earnings and revenue fell for the first quarter but still beat earnings estimates. The bank reported strength in investment banking but lower revenues for its fixed income unit.
Check out our live blog starting at 9.30am Eastern as MarketWatch's Sital Patel covers the analyst call with CEO Lloyd Blankfein and CFO Harvey Schwartz.
Here are the highlights to get you started.
By the numbers: The investment bank reported its first-quarter earnings fell 10% to $2.03 billion, or $4.02 a share, compared with $2.26 billion, or $4.29 cents a share, in the same period the year before. Total revenue was down 8% to $9.33 billion compared to $10.09 billion in the year-ago quarter. Analysts expected EPS of $3.48 on revenue of $8.66 billion.
FICC: Fixed income revenues for the firm fell 11% in the quarter, compared to rivals Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, who increases in the same area.
Investment banking: Revenues were up 13% to $1.78 billion, which firm notes is the highest performing quarter since 2007. Strength in financial advisory and equity underwriting revenues helped.
Compensation: This is about 43% of revenue and usually rises in the first-quarter. The firm reported compensation and benefits expense was up 45% from the fourth-quarter but down 8% year-over-year.
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- 8:34 am
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Listening to elevator music waiting for the call to get started.
- 9:52 am
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Goldman Sachs CFO kicks off the earnings call with some broader comments about uncertainty around the strength of the global economic recovery and the dominant role that central banks play in driving broad economic activity and capital market sentiment.
CFO points to market participants struggle to reconcile mixed economic data across different regional economies. And discussions among market participants also centered on the potential for additional central bank activity.
"Given uncertainty surrounding the outlook for central bank activity it is understandable that it was subdued."
The banks said diversity was key in FICC:
"despite market headwind, our performance within FICC demonstrated the benefits of offers to our clients of diversified product suite meeting needs across rates, credit, currencies, mortgages and commodities."
ISI Glenn Schorr asks about the firm getting Volcker compliance for private equity.
The CFO says it's an important question and goes through the math.
- 9:57 am
- by Sital
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Schorr asks about the firm's Fed's CCAR results on pre-provision net revenue and risk-weighted assets, having the biggest distance of all the firms.
CFO points out that the Fed has designed a process that is not transparent so it's difficult at this stage to reconcile our results with the Fed's results.
"An important take away here, we are not encouraged as a market participant to replicate their tests."
"This window for modifying your capital actions is a good part of the process which we obviously participate in."
- 9:59 am
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On market structure debate the CFO references president Gary Cohn's op-ed.
And says the focus of the firm is not necessarily HFT but more about marking sure market structure catches up with speed.
"The market evolution speed of execution has just gotten ahead of the market infrastructure on the market plumbing."
- 10:03 am
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Translation: Goldman can no longer make money in HFT RT @JoeSaluzzi: Goldman: Equity market speed has gotten ahead of infrastructure
— Steve Gomez (@TodayTrader) April 17, 2014
- 10:11 am
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CLSA analyst Mike Mayo asks about when the firm will provide financial targets.
CFO basically say it's not going to happen.
"I'm not sure necessarily having a published target is necessarily the best way to think about how we're managing the franchise."
- 10:15 am
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"I think the takeaway from the FICC business this quarter is really the given the market backdrop we had where sentiment was fluctuating we had concerns about Asia growth and then political events, I think it really reinforces that if you're going be in these businesses you really need the diversification," says CFO Harvey Schwartz.
- 10:21 am
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Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Christopher Kotowski asks about the firm flagging the backlog in investment banking was down. Says he doesn't remember anyone doing that before.
CFO says: So it was down. That shouldn't be a surprise.
"The backlog had hit a post crisis high in the third quarter, then another post crisis high in the fourth quarter and obviously the fourth quarter tends to be more the billed quarter."
- 10:22 am
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Goldman Sachs /quotes/zigman/188479/delayed /quotes/nls/gs GS shares up 0.8% in trading.
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- 10:27 am
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On a question about the increases in assets under management this quarter.
CFO says they are being "old-fashioned" and "focused on performance, delivering for clients and having differentiated performance."
"Obviously this has been a strategic growth area for us."
- 10:31 am
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No more questions and the call ends.
CFO hopes everyone enjoys the rest of the day.


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The 2013 Cape Fear Independent Film Festival kicked off Thursday night with its Regional Showcase ? a block of shorts produced in Wilmington and the surrounding area.
By the time I arrived at the Browncoat Pub & Theatre, 111 Grace St., the venue was sold-out and standing-room-only.? Given the full house, CFIFF announced a second screening of the shorts 6 p.m. Friday, May 10, at the Browncoat.
Aside from Michael Raab?s music video of still images taken at a bike rally, 2013?s regional block runs the gamut of fiction, with lots of comedy, film noir and even a mystery thriller.
?Change,? a romantic comedy directed by Matt Warzal, started off the night. The film follows Matt (potrayed by Warzal), a loveable daycare teacher who, despite relentless ?encouragement? from his over-the-top family, just can?t seem to get a reasonable date.
?Car Jacked,? directed by Dan A.R. Kelly, is a succinct comedy that follows two thieves who commit grand theft auto and wind up with way more than they bargained for.
The quirky ?50 Shades of Olivia? had the entire audience laughing out loud.? Shot in just a few hours at Old Books on Front St., the film was directed by and stars Langley McArol as Sy, a nerdy book clerk dumbstruck by the beautiful Olivia (Ashley Bratcher).
Both ?Red Handed? and ?A Dream on Fire? stepped out of the comic realm to delve into the genre of black-and-white film noir.? ?Red Handed? came across as a glorified experiment in style and periodization, using some elaborate post-production editing and creative set design to create an anachronistic city of modern-day cars, architecture and street signs run by 1930s-esque gangsters, mobsters and dames. The production value really shines.? In a Q&A after the screening, director Jordan Allen, a film student at Cape Fear Community College, revealed that the film was shot with a RED camera checked out from CFCC?s film department.
In ?A Dream on Fire,? director Michele Seidman utilized beautiful black-and-white footage of downtown Wilmington and noir-like narration to adapt a short story by Blair Bourassa.? The film is an allegory on the struggles of the creative process.
In filmmaker Bill Mulligan?s ?Cache Me If You Can,? a couple goes geocaching ? a treasure hunting game in which participants use GPS to seek containers hidden by other participants.? They follow a trail of intricate riddles to uncover a series of way-too-good-to-be-true prizes.? But as our two protagonists venture deeper into the woods, the day gets darker, and things get creepy.
The usual issues found in low-budget indie films turned up throughout the block ??things like overacting, continuity errors and issues with overall tone.? But it?s fun to step back from the pristine polishing of big budget cinema every once in a while. Somehow, it actually brings out the magic in filmmaking.
The CFIFF rages on all weekend, with features screening tonight at at Brown Coat Pub and Theatre and at 8 p.m. at the Wilmington Convention Center, 515 Nutt St?.? A full-day of events is scheduled for Saturday, May 11, and an awards ceremony will be held Sunday, May 12 at 7 p.m. in Front St. Brewery?s Beam Room.
Go to the CFIFF website for a full schedule, tickets and more details. Or, check out StarNews writer Ben Steelman's preview of the festival.

subset: commoncrawl


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Cockney drifter Thomas Gynn, after tangling with crooks ends up in Yorkshire where he teams up with narrowboat owning Sally Hardcastle in a series of adventures. John Lively runs a junkyard
beside a canal in Yorkshire. He turns out to be a very sympathetic character in his interactions with a young runaway, Pippa, who he has taken in and sheltered.
Add this episode to your queue to receive more information about
Bigamy Blues and we will let you know when it becomes available.


text: Gain an understanding of different types of legal entities that are appropriate for structuring and starting a new business. Topics covered include: tax and liability issues, basic elements of a contract, collections, licenses, registrations, employment and property issues, leasing and insurance. Prospective business owners will be guided in setting up the organizational structure that will help protect you from unnecessary legal challenges.


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REYKJAVIK, Iceland - Starting out 2018 with the ambitious agenda to close the gender wage gap by 2020 - Iceland has now made it illegal for companies to pay men more than women for the same work.
The country announced the new legislation, under which any company, including Icelandic government agencies, that employ 25 people or more would have to prove to the government that they pay their women workers as much as their men workers.
The new law came into effect this week and officials pointed out that if a company cant justify their salary compensation for employees, they will get fined.
Dagny Osk Aradottir Pind, from the Icelandic Womens Rights Association, said that the legislation is a way of tackling the old problem with a new method.
She explained, Women have been talking about this for decades and I really feel that we have managed to raise awareness, and we have managed to get to the point that people realise that the legislation we have had in place is not working, and we need to do something more.
Since 2006, when a global study - theGlobal Gender Gap Report drew attention to the issue, Iceland has improved its gender pay gap by 10 percent.
The country became the first country to execute such a legislation that was first announcedin March 2017 on International Womens Day.
Currently, Icelands Parliament consists of nearly 50 percent female members.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) ranked the nation as the worlds most gender-equal country for the last nine years, acting as a leader on female political empowerment and a strong performer on wage equality.


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Gold Cardboard BucketsItem: 146-1986
Present Your Goodies In An Extra Special Way
Now that you have found the perfect favors, present them in extraordinary buckets! Place your party favors in Gold Cardboard Buckets for a presentation they will remember. These sturdy gold baskets work beautifully for 50th anniversary parties, wedding receptions, birthday gatherings, Mardi Gras festivities, and Hollywood inspired events!
- 6 buckets with ribbon handles.
- Approximately 4¼″ x 5″ squared buckets.
- Made of heavy cardboard.
Stock up on gift buckets for your holiday and birthday party favors. Keep gift boxes and bags on hand for last minute gifts throughout the year!


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Summer Naomi Smart
Passage to ZarahemlaHD
IMDb: 5.1
95 min
Two teens from L.A. make their way to Utah to hide with distant Mormon relatives from their troubled pasts. An earthquake opens up a time ...
Country: USA
Actor: Summer Naomi Smart, Moronai Kanekoa, Brian Kary, D.L. Walker, Sila Agavale, Jose Bacio, Jan Broberg, Bryce Chamberlain, Chris Heimerdinger, Spencer King, Chris Laird, Jenny Latimer, Bruce Newbold, Seth Packard, Alex Petrovitch


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My Favorite Flirts is a feature that lets you reach your favorite Flirts easily from My Account or on 1-800-TO-FLIRT.Manage My Favorites
(0 Reviews)
When I can, I even like to flash my cunt.
I love cock and dildos the bigger the better and I especially talking about HOT NASTY SEX - the kind that leaves you breathless.
I want to fulfill all your nasty fantasies.
I'll tell you mine!


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Gov.Martin O'Malley's proposal for a 6 percent sales tax on gas is a bad idea. With the current 23.5 cents per gallon tax, consumers are already struggling to make ends meet. When a Maryland citizen doesn't have enough money to pay his bills, he is forced to cut his spending and adjust his budget. As steward of the public treasury, the same standard should be applied to our governor.
Creating jobs can be accomplished not by raising taxes but by cutting taxes to make the environment more accommodating to the private sector. It is after all, the private sector that creates wealth and jobs.
Dominic Pileggi, Columbia


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Coker Tire needed a new web page design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 27 designs submitted by 8 freelance designers.
Coker Tire
Antique tire company in business for over 50 years, serving clients worldwide.
Car collectors of all ages
Coker Tire Company needs a redesign of our store for the Magento ecommerce software. We need our store redesigned to mesh with our homepage (also awared in 99designs), but to have a clean look/feel of an ecommerce store. We have provided wire fames for the three pages we need designed: front page, product details page, and catagory/search results page.
This is DESIGN ONLY, so you will not have to do any coding.
We do want this site to mesh with the homepage in the psd provided, but we do not want an exact copy of it. If you have any questions, please let me know!
For complete details and files, visit http://store.coker.com/redesign/


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Table of Contents
Welome to the Pluto Wiki
Pluto is the Reference Implementation of the Java Portlet Specfication (JSR-168).
Portlets are designed to run in the context of a portal. They are written to the Portlet API which are similar to the Servlet API. A portlet container provides a runtime environment for portlets implemented according to the Portlet API. In this environment portlets can be instantiated, used and finally destroyed. The portlet container is not a stand-alone container like the servlet container; instead it is implemented as a thin layer on top of the servlet container and reuses the functionality provided by the servlet container.
Quick Links
Pluto's Website, Chinese translation - Site translated and maintained by ZHENG Zhong.
Pluto Road Map - What we are currently working on.
Pluto Test Suite - Pluto's test suite for testing Pluto in regards to Portlet Specification compliance.
Powered by Pluto - Projects that use Pluto for their portlet container.
Pluto Related Resources - Articles, Extensions, Presentations.
Pluto 1.1 Example Portlet - A 'Hello World' portlet that builds with Ant or Maven
Installing Pluto 1.1 into Sun Application Server (GlassFish)
Mailing Lists
If you would like to find out more or become involved, please subscribe to the project's mailing lists.
Pluto User List - Subscribe Unsubscribe Archive
Pluto Developer List - Subscribe Unsubscribe Archive
There is also a Pluto user mailing list archive hosted at Nabble allowing easy browse and search.
Issue Tracking
Issues, bugs, and feature requests should be submitted to the Pluto Jira issue tracking system. Here is the list of Pluto's open issues.
Source Repository
The Pluto project uses Subversion to manage its source code. Instructions on Subversion use can be found at http://svnbook.red-bean.com/
To check out the latest source code, you should firstly install a Subversion client, and then use the following command:
svn checkout http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/portals/pluto/trunk/ pluto
You may also browse the source repository online via web access.
Pluto 1.1 Architecture Ideas
Pluto V2 Prototype Architecture Ideas
Release Plans


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Date(s) - Tuesday, January 13, 2015
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Wild Wings Cafe
Our trivia night provides an enjoyable experience for customers to compete for prizes that go to the top teams of the night. The concept is simple and the questions are fun, but don't be fooled – our questions will prove challenging for all participants. Questions are divided into broad categories like sports, history, and music, as well as specific categories like cartoons, architecture, and fashion.


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First off I would like to thank everyone for the wonderful back to school stories, the jokes and the all around good time with my cup of coffee this morning. I learned that a lot of you are teachers. I also found out that like me, Gene ate paste as a kid. Ha!
I have some great things in the works for this blog that are coming this year, and I am so excited to share it with all of you. Your comments are always so thoughtful and encouraging, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
So this is how it will work. There were 491 entries, and 8 winners matching the numbers you see above. I am going to try and email them all and hopefully get through.
I want you all to give me a list of the order in which your favorites are, the prize you want the most being number 1. After all the emails have been returned I will mail the first number there first pick and go down the list as to what gift is remaining. Make sense? OK here are your 8 lucky winners.
Made Contact - 126:: Robin
Made Contact - 158::Janssen Designs (Rachel)
Made Contact - 468::Anne
Made Contact - 490::Jessica
Made contact - 51:: Megs
That's all folks. Congratulations to all of the lucky winners, and thank you for celebrating
1000 sales on Etsy with me.
I will give everyone a week to email me back. If I do not hear from someone I will choose another winner.


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How 'Mortgage Release' Works
Oct 7, 2013
Mortgage Release™ allows eligible homeowners who are delinquent on their mortgage to voluntarily transfer their home (the title and all property associated with it) to the owner of their mortgage in exchange for being "released" from their mortgage obligation. Mortgage Release may even provide a cash incentive of up to $3,000 to eligible homeowners to help with moving expenses.
The program features three options for exiting your home:
- Leave the home immediately
- Stay in the home for up to three months (without paying rent)
- Stay in the home for up 12 months (paying market-rate rent)
Get Started
Should you determine that Mortgage Release is a good option for you, you should contact your mortgage company (the company that sends you monthly mortgage statements) to inform them of your interest in voluntarily transferring ownership of your home, a process also referred to as a deed–in-lieu (DIL) of foreclosure (DIL).
If you are eligible, your mortgage company will send a Conditional DIL Agreement with terms and conditions that must be met within time frames stated in the document for successful completion of the process.
After you've signed and returned the Conditional DIL, a title search will be ordered for your property. Any additional liens discovered during the title search must be resolved and removed in order for the Mortgage Release process to proceed. In addition, any mortgage insurance company or guarantor must approve the Mortgage Release terms.
On your agreed-upon moving date, you must vacate your property and leave it in "broom clean" condition—free of trash, damage, and personal belongings. House keys and other access devices, such as garage door openers and alarm codes, must be delivered to your mortgage company.
Your mortgage company may terminate a DIL Agreement for cause during this process. "Cause" might include your failure to complete all terms and conditions within the required time frame; changes in your financial situation; the lender determining that the transaction was undertaken in bad faith; changes in your property condition; a bankruptcy filing; or inability to obtain clear title to the property.
As an additional cautionary note, a Mortgage Release transaction may have tax consequences for you. To determine whether you will be impacted, seek advice from an accountant or tax professional.


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by Sue Ann Rybak
Zaire Reid, 7, of Chestnut Hill, loves gymnastics. Reid, a first grader at J.S. Jenks Elementary School, is one of 30 boys, age 6 to 17, who are members of Philadelphia Boys' Gymnastics, the only competitive boys' gymnastics program in Philadelphia.
"It's important to stick your dismount," said Reid, who practices in Temple University's Pearson-McGonigle Hall three times a week. But Temple University's recent decision to eliminate men's gymnastics could put a stop to that.
While boys' gymnastics has never been as popular as girls' gymnastics, there have always been community gymnastics programs for boys until now.
Fred Turoff, who coaches Temple's men's gymnastics team, started the boys' gymnastics program 11 years ago to fill a void in the community and help raise funds for the men's gymnastics team.
Karen Felder, Reid's mother, said she doesn't know what she is going to do if Temple decides to cancel the program.
"There is no other competitive boys' gymnastics team in Philadelphia," said Felder, whose son has been taking lessons at Temple since March.
Felder, 42, who participated in gymnastics as a child, decided to enroll Reid in gymnastics because he was so rambunctious.
"As a child he was always getting into something," Felder said. "He was so strong. He was always moving tables and chairs around. I had to do something to corral his energy."
Felder said there are many inexpensive girls' gymnastics programs in the area, such as the girls' gymnastics program at Water Tower Recreation Center, but very few competitive programs for boys' gymnastics.
"Since 1982, we've offered low-cost gymnastic instruction open to anyone in the Philadelphia area," said Turoff, referring to the Philadelphia Boys' Gymnastics' Sunday Clinic Program, which is open to anyone, including adults.
Turoff estimated that the program has helped more than 2400 boys and girls learn the fundamentals of gymnastics. He said many of the boys who participate in the clinics decide later to join the boys' competitive team.
Noting that Temple University has a beautiful facility, Turoff said the program is unique because kids have an opportunity to interact with Temple students, who are exceptional gymnasts.
"The coaches are members of Temple's gymnastics team," Felder said. "He [Reid] will often say 'Look how strong these guys are. I want to do that.'"
Felder said the students are excellent role models.
"The idea of going to college and getting a scholarship in gymnastics becomes a possibility," Felder said. "It's not an unobtainable goal, but it takes commitment – and a good coach."
Under Turoff's tenure as head coach, Temple's men's gymnastics team has won 18 of 37 conference titles, produced five NCAA event champions, 34 All-American individual awards, and 10 U.S. National Team members.
Turoff said cutting collegiate gymnastics programs now will have a long-term effect on future generations of gymnasts.
"As the number of collegiate programs shrinks, the pool of skilled gymnasts will be affected," Turoff said. "Since we're the only established junior program for boys in Philadelphia proper, any boys affected by our loss will either seek programs farther away or possibly switch to another sport, thus diluting the talent pool Philadelphia supplies to our collegiate and national efforts."
While things look bleak for Temple University's men's gymnastics team and Philadelphia Boys' Gymnastics, it is not hopeless.
Turoff encourages anyone who disagrees with Temple University's board of trustees and president to write letters and email them "so they know the value of keeping men's gymnastics and how much poorer Temple would be without it."
Turoff asks people to let their voices be heard by going to Templegymnastics.com, check the Save Temple Gymnastics online petition. For addresses of the president and board members visit the Temple University Men's Gymnastics Facebook page.
For more information about Philadelphia Boys' Gymnastics, go to www.philadelphiaboysgymnastics.org. For more information about its Sunday clinic, send an email request to email@example.com.


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NBA issues first flopping warnings to Minnesota's JJ Barea and Cleveland's Donald Sloan
NEW YORK The NBA issued flopping warnings to Minnesota's JJ Barea and Cleveland's Donald Sloan on Monday, the first two under a new policy designed to end the act.
Barea threw his upper body backward after contact while defending Sacramento's Jimmer Fredette in the fourth quarter on Friday. Sloan tumbled wildly to the court a few feet from contact after a pick set against him by Chicago's Nazr Mohammed on Friday.
"The extra on the end kind of made it bad," Sloan said before the Cavs' game against the Clippers in Los Angeles. "To be one of the first ones (warned) kind of (stinks)."
The NBA announced a new policy in preseason to stop the act of players dramatically overselling contact in hopes of tricking referees into calling fouls. League officials review plays and inform players if something they did falls under the league's definition of a flop, which is "any physical act that appears to have been intended to cause the referees to call a foul on another player."
"It's just a judgment call," Sloan said. "I'm sure they'll crack down on it."
The second offense comes with a $5,000 fine, followed by $10,000 for a third, $15,000 for a fourth and $30,000 for a fifth. Additional flops after that could lead to a suspension.
Barea said before the Timberwolves' game in Brooklyn that he hadn't heard yet from the league, but he drew two charging fouls in the game and assumed he was flagged for one of those. His coach, Rick Adelman, is concerned about the policy and its enforcement, wondering if the 6-foot Puerto Rican guard was targeted for his get-under-your-skin reputation.
"I've said it before, I think it's something that they can certainly look at, but I don't know how anybody, you know, a thousand miles away on TV can tell if somebody gets hit or not hit. I think anybody here, if somebody does that to you, you're going to flinch," Adelman said, swinging his arm upward toward reporters.
"And he got hit. The play that they're talking about, the guy hit him in the face and he got called for a foul. I don't understand how he can get a warning foul."
Video of the plays are posted on nba.com.
Barea and Sloan are hardly the only NBA players accused of flopping. As CBSSports.com's Royce Young noted, the Clippers' Blake Griffin is a well-known offender and in a recent game, the Warriors' David Lee appeared to tell the Clippers star to "stop flopping." Watch video below:


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Moderators: Three Stars, dagny, pfim, netwolf
Gaucho wrote:It's a great deal for Spurs no matter how you slice it.
Avyran wrote:What I don't get is why would the Spurs be hesitating on this deal? Yes, they lose their star man, but they get a massive amount of money. They can infuse that in their academy big-time, buy a couple bigger names during this transfer, and anything else they need to do. They're still a top-8 team, even without Bale (likely top 6, maybe even top 4 depending on how Arsenal play).
Bale's a big name, to be sure, but he's not a Messi or Ronaldo (IMO)... he's a great player, but there are a lot of great players.
Kraftster wrote:Is Kruse the guy that looked good in the friendly played against the U.S. in DC? If that's him, I thought that guy looked really sharp in that game.
Gaucho wrote:I don't really have anything enlightening to say about Gladbach other then they are a solid team with a good coach. I like Kruse and Herrmann, I'm not sure about Xhaka and I don't entirely trust their defense, so I guess I see them finishing midtableish.
WDWBurghGooner wrote:
I find it almost impossible to dislike Dortmund.
WDWBurghGooner wrote:On twitter people are saying that Robben and Ribery are both play acting and diving.
Avyran wrote:That's an impressively awful dive... add me to the list of people that really dislike Robben (and Ribery). I wish it were easier to watch the Bundesliga, though with the EPL being on NBC's sports, I can't complain (was able to lower my cable bill because of that, haha). Guess that's what online streaming is for...
Meanwhile, I've been surprised at Southampton v. Sunderland. It's been enjoyable to watch, with decent chances and good flow. Sunderland looks like a quality mid-tier team, and Altidore looks like he belongs in the EPL (though it seems like he's still trying to figure out what he can & can't get away with). Southampton, meanwhile, still look like that team that could spring an upset at any time, but will likely be closer to the bottom.
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Corals exposed to water that is too warm often lose the symbiotic algae that live in their tissues and provide them with nutrition. The phenomenon, known as bleaching, is a major cause of coral mortality, said WHOI coral scientist Anne Cohen. WHOI climate scientist Kristopher Karnauskas and Cohen studied how global warming may affect reefs in the equatorial Pacific, using a fine-scale model to predict future water conditions around the Gilbert Islands. (Photo by Jessie Kneeland, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) [ Hide caption ]
Climate scientists have predicted that ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific will rise significantly by the end of the century, wreaking havoc on coral reef ecosystems. But a new study shows that climate change could cause ocean currents to operate in a surprising way that mitigates the warming near some islands right on the equator. As a result these Pacific islands may become isolated refuges for corals and fish, according to the study by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution scientists Kristopher Karnauskas and Anne Cohen, published April 29 in the journal Nature Climate Change.
Here's how it would happen: At the equator, trade winds push a surface current from east to west. About 100 to 200 meters below, a swift countercurrent flows in the opposite direction. This Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC) is cooler and rich in nutrients. When it hits an island, like current hitting a rock in a river, water is deflected upward on the island's western flank and around the islands. This well-known upwelling process brings cooler water and nutrients to the sunlit surface, creating localized areas where tiny marine plants and corals flourish. (See diagram below.)
On color-enhanced satellite maps showing measurements of global ocean chlorophyll levels, these productive patches of ocean stand out as bright green or red spots. One of the most prominent occurs around the Galapagos Islands in the eastern Pacific.
But heading westward from the Galapagos, chlorophyll levels fade like a comet tail, giving scientists little reason to look closely at scattered low-lying coral atolls farther west. The islands are easy to overlook because they are tiny, remote, and lie at the far left edge of standard global satellite maps that place continents in the center.
Karnauskas, a climate scientist, was working with WHOI coral scientist Anne Cohen to explore how climate change would affect reefs in the central equatorial Pacific. To familiarize himself with conditions in the area, he examined chlorophyll maps.
When he changed the view of chlorophyll maps on his computer screen to see the entire tropical Pacific at once, he saw that chlorophyll concentrations jumped up again exactly at the Gilbert Islands on the equator. Satellite maps also showed cooler sea surface temperatures on the west sides of these islands, part of the nation of Kiribati.
"I've been studying the tropical Pacific Ocean for most of my career, and I had never noticed that," he said. "It jumped out at me immediately, and I thought, 'there's probably a story there.' "
Global-scale climate models predict that ocean temperatures will rise nearly 3°C (5.4°F) in the central tropical Pacific in this century. Warmer waters often cause corals to bleach, a process in which they lose the tiny symbiotic algae that live in them and provide them with vital nutrition.
"Bleaching has been a major cause of coral mortality and loss of coral reef area during the last 30 years," Cohen said.
But even the best global models, with their planet-scale views and lower resolution, cannot predict conditions in areas the size of these small islands. "The models don't even 'see' them," Karnauskas said.
So he and Cohen combined global models with a fine-scale regional model to focus on much smaller areas around minuscule islands scattered along the equator. To accommodate the trillions of calculations needed for such small-area resolution, they used the new high-performance computer cluster at WHOI called "Scylla."
"Global models predict significant temperature increase in the central tropical Pacific over the next few decades, but in truth conditions can be highly variable across and around a coral reef island," Cohen said. "To predict what the coral reef will experience under global climate change, we have to use high-resolution models, not global models."
Their model predicts that as air temperatures rise and equatorial trade winds weaken, the Pacific surface current will also weaken by 15 percent by the end of the century. The then-weaker surface current will impose less friction and drag on the EUC, so this deeper current will strengthen by 14 percent.
"Our model suggests that the amount of upwelling will actually increase by about 50 percent around these islands and reduce the rate of warming waters around them by about 0.7oC (1.25oF) per century," Karnauskas said.
The scientists hope to measure current temperature variations and sample corals around the perimeters of the Gilbert Islands.
"When you look on both sides of the reef, you see huge cross-island variability," Cohen said. "Corals on the west sides of the islands have different conditions than the east sides, and the west sides 'see' the EUC."
They also plan to study the degrees of connection between the islands, to learn if larvae of corals or fish could disperse across the distances from island to island.
A handful of coral atolls on the equator, some as small as 4 square kilometers (1.54 square miles) in area, may not seem like much. But Karnauskas's and Cohen's results indicate that waters on the western sides of the islands will warm more slowly than at islands that are not in the way of the EUC. That gives the Gilbert Islands a significant advantage over neighboring reef systems, they said.
"While the mitigating effect of a strengthened Equatorial Undercurrent will not spare the corals the perhaps-inevitable warming expected for this region, the warming rate will be slower around these equatorial islands, which may allow corals and their symbiotic algae a better chance to adapt and survive," Karnauskas said. If the model holds true, then even if neighboring reefs are hard hit, equatorial island coral reefs may well survive to produce larvae of corals and other reef species. Like a seed bank for the future, they might be a source of new corals and other species that could re-colonize damaged reefs.
"The globe is warming, but there are things going on underfoot that will slow that warming for certain parts of certain coral reef islands," said Cohen.
"These little islands in the middle of the ocean can counteract global trends and have a big impact on their own future, which I think is a beautiful concept," Karnauskas said.


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Activist Terry Randall, a long-time Republican, is running for president as a Democrat so he can run anti-abortion ads during the Super Bowl on Feb. 5.
The ads are graphic and according to the FCC Telecommunications Act networks must air the campaign ads and cannot alter the content. Grand Junction is on the slate for one of 13 markets in which the ads will be aired.
Randall got the idea after a blogger — Sophia Brugato — created #10forTebow on Twitter to urge readers to donate $10 to pro-life efforts for every touchdown Tim Tebow scored. The blogger, who if I read this correct from a CNN report, got pregnant as a senior in high school, elected not to have an abortion and chose motherhood. The blogger has since received death threats and hate mail.
What are your thoughts on this on the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade?


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While many of us profess to not be influenced by society or our friends or even our partners when it comes to what we do with our bodies. The reality is, many of us are. I see it every day.
"Let me check with my husband."
"My friends all swear by fill-in-the-blank book."
"My boyfriend won't let me do that."
"The doctor said I can't."
Our friends become a gauge for our actions… are we nursing long enough? Do we do Elimination Communication with them? Or do we use cloth diapers? If I use disposables, will I be ostracized? What if I can't nurse? What if I don't go to the hospital they all use, have an epidural like they do, use the same doctor?
Many women struggle with these issues. If a woman uses her mind, she is often punished, even shamed into submission. Or at least, they attempt to shame her into submission. If the woman is strong enough, she plows on and often, in the process, she loses those friends and finds a new circle of friends that support her in her new hopes, dreams and desires. Not enough women have the option of finding support outside their circle of friends, but with the Net, at least it's a little better, but you can't always depend on cyber-friends to bolster you when real-life people are smacking you in the face.
But, what if it's your partner that's using psychological warfare? How do you work through the issues of circumcision, extended breastfeeding, VBAC, the family bed and homebirth if your husband is adamantly against what you so strongly believe in?
What if your partner says your breasts will droop and be saggy if you nurse past six weeks? What do you know? You've never nursed, you don't know anyone else who's ever nursed; all you know is what you've read on-line and in books and that issue isn't addressed head on. Is he right? Is he telling you he won't want your breasts/you anymore if you nurse after six weeks postpartum? Is it a threat? Do you even bother nursing at all?
I hear similar stories all the time. Partners can be the mom's biggest allies, but they can also be the biggest antagonists.
- Mom is nursing a few-month old child and goes to the baby, who sleeps in another room, once or twice in the night, to soothe her with a pacifier or, sometimes, a short nursing. The dad, who barely awakens at night, rages during the day about mom losing sleep, howling that she immediately throw out the pacifier and quit going to the baby in the night. He brings home "How to Sleep" books and videos constantly and tells mom how to mother the infant. Mom swears she never complains about being tired and has no problem at all with waking with the child, two or ten times a night. The marriage is suffering.
- Mom realized during the pregnancy that she would never circumcise her son if she had one. Her husband, Jewish, but not Observant, insists that circumcision is required in their family and that's it. When the baby is born, it is, indeed, a boy and the issue turns into an immediate fireball when in-laws, the family's Rabbi and literature all descend on the newly postpartum mom, who still refuses to allow "her" son to be circumcised, using all the heated language she can – making the topic more and more inflamed. When I met mom, the baby was intact and she was in the middle of a divorce.
Who's right? Is mom always right? Does she always have the Right of Veto? In the Pro-Choice world, she does. In the Fundamentalist Christian world, she does not. Somewhere, is there a middle ground? In such heated and black & white issues, is there such a thing as middle ground?
In perhaps the most vile, sad and disgusting episode of manipulating shame I've ever heard, comes that of a woman's "friends" who decided to try and talk her out of a VBAC.
This mom, who was creating the most amazing VBAC scenario of her life, was approached by friends and questioned about her sanity. Why would she want a VBAC at all? Why wouldn't she want to just schedule her surgery? Wouldn't it be so much easier? The woman defended her choice eloquently by explaining the sadness in her last birth, a cesarean… her desires for empowerment for this birth and how hard she was working to make the stars align for her idea of a perfect birth. Instead of supporting her and applauding her amazing bravery for facing the VBAC naysayers in the medical field, they stepped up the derogatory reasons for why she shouldn't have a baby come through her vagina.
Beef Curtains.
A horrid term that can actually be Googled. Also known as Roast Beef Curtains. Beef Curtains is a term used to describe a woman's vulva in repulsive terms, well, let's make that a REAL woman's vulva – one that has folds and creases – not a pre-pubescent vulva that has yet to unfold from inside itself. Those "perfect" ones that are copied in operating rooms across the country when women have plastic surgery to "pretty-up" their pussy parts.
This woman's friends tsk'd tsk'd her insistence on her VBAC by telling her that men just don't want their women to have beef curtains or, another delightful vulvular term, Romaine Lettuce.
How can women be so cruel to another woman? How can women be so cruel to another woman working so, so hard to empower herself as a woman? How can women feel that the natural folds of a vulva can be so ugly and how can they participate in their denigration so thoroughly? How can women, in less than one generation, buy into the Hustler airbrushing un-reality of a woman's body? What power do men have over women that they (women) acquiesce everything, even their most beautiful body part – the (proverbial) flower that opens to allow a lover's touch, a partner's semen, her own fingers and toys… and then, to allow the babies – the BABIES! – the babies to come through.
The babies come through from uterus through vagina and wear the vulva like a petal'd hat just before reaching the earth and inhaling our air and letting go of mom's side of the umbilical cord.
Why would someone want to remove the petals from a woman's body? How could a man not want to fluff with a woman's labial folds? (Could there be a lesbian somewhere that would also insist on labiaplasty?) How can a woman find her own body disgusting unless someone told her it was? How come it's always a woman's body that's defective? (Not that I think men's bodies are, but for god's sake, couldn't there be some balanced see-saw somewhere?)
When, postpartum, this successful VBAC woman cried because she was worried she would need reconstructive surgery, her friends' words reverberating in her head.
(And I know now this is one of the reasons women must be choosing primary cesareans, yes? Isn't this horrible?)
I say we all come up with prepared lines for friends like this. Ready?
1. Well, my days as a Hustler pussy model were just about over anyway, so I think a VBAC is worth the risk.
2. Well, you know all those times we sat on the dining room table and showed our coochies to each other at cocktail parties? Those days just might be over.
3. Since when are you so concerned about the issues between my snatch and my lover? Isn't that between me and s/he?
4. Isn't that a tad private?
5. My, you sure are bold talking about things you don't know about in my relationship.
6. How do you know what my vulva's gonna look like afterwards anyway?
7. How do you know what my man likes?
8. Not everyone's vulva is affected by birth... how do you know mine will be?
9. Well, actually, if the curtains aren't big enough, I'm having surgery to make them into full-on draperies.
10. Are we going to show each other our stuff now?
11. My wo/man likes my cunt to look like a grown-up's, not a child's. A woman's vulva has "curtains." So will mine. A child's has no folds. Is your man into pedophilia?
I think it's time we stop shaming each other. It's revolting.
I think we need to turn the tables and laugh the hell out of the women (and men) who try to shame us into thinking our bodies are wrong/fat/less than/ugly. We should all come up with a billion lines to use, put them on tee shirts, business cards, hats, bracelets, necklaces, tote bags, on the big butts of our jeans, across the flat chests - or saggy boobs - of our blouses and memorize them so they spew forth at any given moment that someone tries to make us feel less than we are.
Don't men and women know that beef curtains (let's de-sensitize the name, shall we?) happen in puberty or pregnancy, not just in birth? Just like saggy breasts happen with the hormones of pregnancy, not with breastfeeding? This is what we get for not living in a naked, non-tribal community... not seeing real live tits and ass.
A former topless dancer friend of mine told me she loved seeing the variations on a theme of women's bodies when she started out dancing. She saw women's labia that hung down several inches and was fascinated there was such a thing! She saw inner labia much longer than outer labia, inner and outer labia of all different sizes, shapes, colors and textures. She loved seeing it all and looked closely and often.
I remember seeing the vulva of a new woman who had a few weeks earlier been a man. It was incredible! I asked her to stand over me, showing me every nook and cranny, opening the folds, letting me see her clitoris, her hood, the labia, seeing how the hair grew... it was just so cool! But, now that I think about it, it looked so... un-used? Young? Small? Perhaps that's what women are wanting for their men, but that seems creepy to me. Anyone else?
It's those that try to shame us that feel shitty about themselves. They are trying to feel better about their own cunts, so they are shaming women about theirs. They don't want women to have VBACs and feel empowered because if they (the VBAC women) become strong, then that means they (the cesarean choice women) aren't strong. (Of course, it doesn't mean that, but in the psychological world, if someone is right, that means someone is wrong.) If the woman has a VBAC and still has great sex afterwards, then perhaps they will be left mute as for the reasons their own sexless, post-cesarean relationship is failing.
The circular thinking needs to stop. It's useless, pointless and stupid. Let's everyone leave everyone's down-below alone, eh? There's enough shame that comes from our parents, for goodness' sake! We don't need it from someone who calls themselves our friend.
Be a friend. Love my cunt the way it is. I promise to love yours the way yours is, too.


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Former Reading star Brian Howard has spent the last week training with Bristol City, head coach Sean O'Driscoll has revealed.
The midfielder, 30, a free agent having left Portsmouth last month, has been given the opportunity to prove his fitness in an Under-21 match at Millwall on Tuesday.
"Brian is someone I've tried to sign before at Crawley but it wasn't such an attractive prospect as joining Bristol City," O'Driscoll told the club's official website.
"He's not long had a hernia operation so we need to do some due diligence and see where his fitness is.
"He'd be a great asset for us, a great personality to have in the dressing room, but we'll have to see whether we offer him anything."
Howard, who has played for the likes of Barnsley and Swindon, began the season with Portsmouth and continued to sign month-long deals with the npower League One strugglers until his contract was cancelled in January.


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Now that you've mastered frontside 360s, you can start learning all the switch frontside tricks like Cab 360s and 540s. Cab 540s are the next big step—they're basically just a switch frontside 360 with an extra 180 added to the end.
1. Try taking a little more speed riding into this trick switch just to make sure you clear the table. You may not "pop as hard riding backward, so the extra speed won't hurt.
2. Ride at the jump flat based, slightly loading up on your heel edge just before take-off—remember, bending your knees is always important.
3. Wind up and spin harder and faster than you would for a frontside 360 to compensate for the extra 180 degrees at the end. You can also get this trick inverted really easy—just drop you leading shoulder back, almost like you're falling into it, like a backflip.
4. Now that you're in the air spinning, things should happen fairly quickly. Grabbing either frontside or melancholy will help you get the entire 540 completed pretty easily. Spin nice and flat throughout the entire trick—unless you're going for a corked Cab 540.
5. This trick is super easy to put down because you come around and land forward—and for the last 180-degree rotation you can see the landing. Because you can see the landing, it's pretty much just like stomping a straight air.
Trick Tip:
"Riding and hitting jumps switch is easier if your back binding it set to a negative degree.—Chad Otterstrom


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Slaughterhouse Westphalia Texas
As an omnivorous species, humans consume both plants and animals daily. Specifically concentrating on the consumption of meat, it significantly surpasses the consumption of plants. Furthermore, as population increases, the demand for meat increases as well. Meat needs to produce at the rate where supply meets demand. The Westphalia Texas slaughterhouse industry produces enough meet in a short time to meet that demand. Three major countries are leading in the Westphalia TX slaughterhouse industry: Canada, England, and the United States. 650 million long tons of meat provided by the Westphalia Texas slaughterhouse industry is Canada. The Westphalia TX slaughterhouse industry in England produces up to 300 million long tons of meat. Finally, the Westphalia Texas slaughterhouse industry in the United States of America produces up to 150 million. This provides clarity to how high meat consumption is.
What is a Westphalia TX slaughterhouse?
A Westphalia Texas slaughterhouse is a building where animals are butchered for consumption. Beef cattle, goats, hogs, bison, sheep, chickens, ducks, and turkeys are the main animals butchered for their meat. The Westphalia TX slaughterhouse industry does have to follow a few laws to include the Meat Inspection Act, the Humane Slaughter Act of 1958, and the Pure Food and Drug Act. These regulations are enforced and overseen by the Department of Agriculture, and the Food and Drug Administration. Even though the entire process from killing to packaging occurs at one facility, the meat is sanitary and carefully processed through various stations. The process of a Westphalia Texas slaughterhouse involves stunning the animal rendering it unconscious, bleeding it out, skinning, gutting, cleaning the meat, sectioning, and packaging.
Benefits of a Westphalia TX slaughterhouse
In older civilizations, a local butcher shop would kill, gut, skin, and butcher the meat. The hide, hooves, horns and other parts of animals would be sold or traded. A Westphalia Texas slaughterhouse does the same thing, only in mass proportions. Most of the Westphalia TX slaughterhouse industry in the United States is in the Midwestern region. To include, only 5-15% of the animals slaughtered are considered waste. 45-50% of the animal is processed for consumption. The other 15-45% of remains is used as ingredients such as leather, soaps, and adhesives. The majority of the animals are used. Furthermore, these animals are specifically bred and raised to be slaughtered.
Essentially, the Westphalia Texas slaughterhouse industry saves the average family from having to raise animals, or purchase animals, and butcher their own animal. Those who could not afford to do so would have to do without, trade, or seek payment in meat. Additionally, this saves the average family from having to store an entire beef cow, a hog, and a few poultry in their freezer; however, some families prefer to purchase the entire animal and pay to have it sectioned. Some believe this is a cheaper alternative. A Westphalia TX slaughterhouse provides carious cuts of meat and packaged into sections delivered to thousands of supermarkets, and eateries. Meat consumers can pick any portion of the packaged animal desired in any quantity.
As squeamish as humans can be, since the primeval nature has become docile, it is a great benefit to have a Westphalia Texas slaughterhouse do what most could not. A Westphalia TX slaughterhouse provides job opportunities, meat in mass production, and byproduct production. A Westphalia Texas slaughterhouse is a humane and quick way to turn a highly consumed animal into meat ready for consumption.
Slaughterhouse Westphalia Texas


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Some might say that the desktop PC market is stagnant, but AMD and Intel have been releasing some very interesting processors that have some serious bang for the buck. In January 2011 AMD released Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), which are processors that have both x86 CPU cores and graphics cores on one chip. The first generation of APUs were called the A-Series 'Llano' APU family and they raised the bar when it comes to overall performance on today's mainstream PCs. AMD has long been considered the value play when it comes to building a PC and the company does not want that to change anytime soon.
Today, AMD is allowing us a preview the second generation AMD A-Series 'Trinity' APU family that they believe will make the desktop experience even better. Along with the second generation of APU comes a new processor socket and an updated chipset as well, so AMD has been pretty busy lately.
AMD's new 'Trinity' APU are still manufactured by GlobalFoundries' on the 32 nm SOI process process, but is based on the newer Piledriver x86 architecture. This is the same architecture that is used on high-end Bulldozer processors, so we finally see this technology becoming available in more affordable processors. The Trinity APU has roughly 1.3 billion transistors and is 246mm2.
AMD also improved the graphics architecture in Trinity and rather than using the VLIW5 arrangement found in Llano, AMD went when the VLIW4 design. AMD used VLIW5 in Radeon HD 6800 and older GPUs and used VLIW4 in the Radeon HD 6900 series cards. All of the newer Radeon HD 7000 series cards use Graphics Core Next (GCN) designs, so expect to see VLIW4 being short lived in APUs as well.
AMD is announcing eight new APUs today and while we can't mention pricing, we can show and talk about all the other details. The AMD A10-5800K will be AMD's flagship processor and that will be the one we will be using today for testing. This processor has a 3.8Ghz base clock and can go up to 4.2GHz thanks to AMD TurboCore 3.0 technology. Don't expect it to be at 4.2GHz for long though as it has many intermediate P-states and is bouncing all over the place for power savings. The AMD A10-5800K also has 4MB of L2 cache and is a 'K' part, which means it is unlocked for easier overclocking. On the graphics side of things, it has the AMD Radeon HD 7660D GPU with 384 cores running up to 800MHz.
New AMD Desktop Processors:
The one bad thing about the new APUs is that they can only be used on motherboards with the new FM2 processor Socket. AMD had to change the pin count from Llano to Trinity and that royally screws all the early APU adopters. AMD didn't originally expect this change and understands that it is a bad situation. The AMD A75 chipset is compatible with the new Trinity APU's, so you will see 'new' AMD A75 based boards coming out alongside the new AMD A85 chipset. The AMD A85 chipset adds two more SATA III 6Gbps ports, improved overclocking features and enhanced AMD CrossFireX support. AMD said that the next generation APU will work with FM2 sockets, so if you buy a board for Trinity then you'll have an upgrade path next year.
Let's take a look at the A10-5800K APU and the A85 chipset based board that we will be using for testing!
Comments are closed.


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See you soon!
January 28, 2013
Frankensteinia Night in London!
Posting here has been rather sparse recently as I have been busy with professional pursuits, promoting my books as co-creator/writer of the Red Ketchup series of graphic novels. Now I'm putting the blog on a short hiatus as I'll be traveling over the next three weeks, first to the Angoulème comics festival in France, and then on to Paris and London on a bit of an off-season vacation combined with some on-the-spot Frankenstein and Mary Shelley research. I think I'll have some interesting new information to share with you when I get back.
If you are in Angoulème this week — January 31 to February 3 — pop over and say hello! I'll be at the La Pastèque stand, #N11. And if you're anywhere near London on February 12, come celebrate Frankensteinia Night!
My friend David Saunderson of the splendid Spooky Isles blog and Spooky London Pubs is honoring Frankensteinia and having me as a guest for a casual, friendly meetup at the Doric Arch Pub on Tuesday, February 12. Also present will be We Belong Dead editor Eric McNaughton; fellow Rondo Award winner Stephen Jacobs, author of Boris Karloff: More than a Monster; Howard Jackson of Red Rattle Books, publisher of Frankenstein Galvanised, and Chris Priestley, author of Mister Creecher and other suitably spooky books. Festivities begin at 7PM, and we'll all make a short hop over to nearby Polygon Square where Mary Shelley was born.
All you have to do is show up. I'd love to meet you! If you want to let us know you're coming, leave a note at the Spooky London Pubs site, or on the event's Facebook page.
Frankensteinia, the Frankenstein Blog, will be back online on Saint-Valentine's Day.
See you soon!
See you soon!
• 02:30
Labels: Frankensteinia Night, News
2 comments:
Look forward to seeing you in London! Cheers David
- January 28, 2013 at 3:02 AM
Just wonderful, Pierre. Wish this sometime-Monster could be there!
- January 28, 2013 at 2:05 PM
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Hanley homers twice behind solid Greinke
LOS ANGELES -- The spring days get shorter, the stretching gets longer.
"I felt like I could have gone another inning," Dodgers starter Zack Greinke said following six mostly brisk Freeway Series innings on Thursday night.View Full Game Coverage
LOS ANGELES -- The spring days get shorter, the stretching gets longer.
"I felt like I could have gone another inning," Dodgers starter Zack Greinke said following six mostly brisk Freeway Series innings on Thursday night.View Full Game Coverage
"I think it's been the longest Spring Training for me," Dodgers shortstop Hanley Ramirez said, eager to move on to the regular season following two impressive home runs in the Angels' 7-5 win in Dodger Stadium.
For the Angels, Hector Santiago's fifth spring outing was one last look as manager Mike Scioscia and pitching coach Mike Butcher watched pitching performances these past few weeks that were far superior to what they endured a year ago.
Santiago, acquired from the White Sox over the winter, is expected to slot into the Angels' rotation behind Jered Weaver and C.J. Wilson, and ahead of Garrett Richards and Tyler Skaggs. He threw 104 pitches over six innings, wobbling a couple of times, giving up runs in four different innings. But he also stranded six runners. Mostly, it was Ramirez he couldn't contain.
Appearing to be far closer to one piece this spring than the injury-plagued Ramirez has been in the past few seasons, he just missed a Santiago pitch in the first, lining out hard to center field. Then he blasted an opposite-field homer in the third (a changeup) and then connected on a long homer over the walkway in left field in Dodger Stadium in the fifth (fastball).
Ramirez said he was looking for the change in the third because the pitch he just missed in the first was a change.
Then in the fifth?
"Before the at-bat, I told [Clayton] Kershaw he was going to throw me a fastball in right here," Ramirez said. "It's all adjustments and getting good pitches to hit."
Ramirez was highly successful in both departments.
As for Santiago, he wasn't all that displeased.
"Two pitches to a great hitter," he said. "Otherwise, I feel good about going into the season.
"For the most part, I think I had good command. Two pitches, and go from there. This is probably one of the better teams I'm going to face. I think they were good pitches ... I think it was just a case of where I fell behind."
Meantime, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly was giving Greinke 85-90 pitches for the night, preferably spread out over at least six innings. Greinke delivered 78 in six and, by the end, his early-spring calf injury was a distant memory.
"I got tired last game," Greinke said. "Around 65 pitches, I was getting tired.
"Today, facing a Major League [lineup], I had a little extra energy."
The Angels popped for four runs to turn the game after Greinke had departed, in the seventh, on Howie Kendrick's two-run single followed by two more when a double steal created some excitement. Dodger catcher Drew Butera's throw to second struck Erick Aybar on the leg and bounced away, allowing both Taylor Lindsay and Aybar to race home.
Extra energy? Following nearly six weeks of spring, with the curtain just hours now from being lifted for the regular season, the extra energy is becoming more and more evident.
Said Ramirez: "I can't wait."
Up next: The Dodgers and Angels continue the Freeway Series at Dodger Stadium on Friday night at 7:10 PT, and fans can watch live for free on MLB.TV.
Scott Miller is a contributor to MLB.com.


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Opening Soon
Taking place on Sunday, June 26, 2018 at Oneida Shores Park in Brewerton, 12 miles north of Syracuse, NY. This women's-only triathlon gives seasoned athletes and novices alike the chance to compete at a sprint-distance triathlon (600 meter swim/30K bike/5K run). The swim takes place in clear Oneida Lake, the bike on the scenic and gently rolling country roads, and the run course on a fast, flat out-and-back course along the shoreline.
On race day, you will become a part of a community that shares your vision for embracing wellness and living life to its fullest. You will be provided with a post-race Breakfast Café, professional timing, personalized race bibs, new custom finishers medals specific to the event, Iron Girl jewelry age group awards, performance shirts sized just for women, post-race giveaways and more.


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PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. - Upon returning home from her honeymoon, tennis superstar Serena Williams was cited for speeding, according to a new report.
The Blast obtained a copy of the traffic citation from the Florida Highway Patrol, stating Williams was clocked going 86 MPH in a 65 MPH zone Saturday morning.
Documents from the citation state she'll pay a $281 fine.
According to the Blast, the citation states she was not traveling with her new baby daughter Alexis.
It's unclear why the new mom was in a rush, but The Blast notes she did attend a charity event in Washington D.C. later that day.
Williams married Reddit mogul Alexis Ohanian last month in New Orleans.


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RB was teaching an online class, but I won't tell you how many times I found him, computer on lap, fast asleep. He usually doesn't vacation well, so seeing him rest made me happy.
There have been times in my life that sleep evaded me. Many times I would stare at the ceiling for hours before falling asleep, only to wake with a migraine. I'm thankful that doesn't happen very often anymore. My secret to falling asleep is two-fold. First of all, I am obedient to Philippians 4:8.
Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
We are healing hearts. Spreading love and hope. Sharing joy. Absolutely priceless. Your hands alone are touching lives through your beautifully handmade donations.
When it comes to sheltering, there's such variety. The way I shelter may not be your choice. We are, however, commanded to shelter others.
Make sure you don't take things for granted and go slack in working for the common good; share what you have with others. God takes particular pleasure in acts of worship—a different kind of "sacrifice"—that take place in kitchen and workplace and on the streets.
I hope you all can find some restful sleep this week -- sleep that gives you energy to shelter. Bake some cookies, sew a pillowcase or offer a hug. Be creative and share with me your sheltering plan. Nothing brings me more joy than reading sheltering reports and ideas.


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Archive and Legacy
This section includes all Pre Nutch 1.3 material
Reference Section
Frutch Wiki -- French Nutch Wiki
The Old Wiki
Experiences with the Nutch search engine author:Doug Cutting,"Video Lecture"
Instructions for running Bixo on EC2 (includes parts of Nutch)
General Information
OldFeatures - Pre Nutch 1.3
Internal Nutch Documentation
NutchFileFormats - some notes by LarsAronsson, 30 June 2004
Development and Old Nutch 2.0
MultiLingualSupport - In development.
Nutch2Architecture -- Discussions on the Nutch 2.0 architecture (old)
JavaDemoApplication - A simple demonstration of how to use the Nutch APIin a Java application
Pre-Nutch 1.3 Plugin Resources
Nutch <1.3 Tutorials
RunningNutchAndSolr - How to configure Nutch to crawl, but post to Solr for search/index
Tutorial -- A Step-by-Step guide to getting Nutch up and running (<=1.2).
Tutorial -- A Step-by-Step installation guide for dummies: Nutch 0.9.
Nutch_-_The_Java_Search_Engine (Builds on the basic tutorials. Includes index maintenance scripts)
RunNutchInEclipse for v0.8
RunNutchInEclipse0.9 for v0.9 (Linux and Windows)
RunNutchInEclipse1.0 for v1.0 (Linux and Windows)
Upgrading Hadoop Version in Nutch - Basic steps for upgrading Hadoop in Nutch.
Commandline options for 0.7.x
Commandline options for version 0.8
GettingNutchRunningWithUtf8 - For support of non-ASCII characters (Chinese, German, Japanese, Korean).
GettingNutchRunningWithResin - Resin is a JSP/Servlet/EJB application server (alternative to tomcat).
CreateNewFilter - for example to add a category metadata to your index and be able to search for it
Script Administration
Automating Fetches with Python - How to automatic the Nutch fetching process using Python
MonitoringNutchCrawls - techniques for keeping an eye on a nutch crawl's progress.
Crawl - script to crawl (and possible recrawl too)
IntranetRecrawl - script to recrawl a crawl
Whole-Web Crawling incremental script - crawled urls are searchable at each iteration after merging
MergeCrawl - script to merge 2 (or more) crawls


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Looking and feeling great on your wedding day is a major do on most bride's to-do list, the other is mastering the art of taking a great photo. It is much easier said than done but with a few tricks and a confidence booster like Invisalign's®teeth straightening system, your wedding day photographs will be as beautiful as they come. Trust us, a happy, smiling bride is the prettiest bride of all.
Take it from someone who knows her way around a perfectly photographed wedding day, celebrity event designer Mindy Weiss: "In photography we're seeing really close up body shots like shoulders, feet, eyes, hands and mouths. I'm seeing a lot of my brides start working on their teeth to ensure that those close up smiles of the lips and mouth are perfect. In fact, Invisalign, the clear, removable aligners to straighten teeth, recently conducted a survey of over 500 brides with Wakefield Research and found 91 percent of brides said they wish they would have changed something about their smile before their big day. If whitening your smile just isn't enough, it's time to take it to the next level."
Photography by Elizabeth Messina
Beauty should feel effortless on the big day, and a major part of that is a beautiful smile. Invisalign offers treatment options perfect for all types of teeth straightening issues so that every bride can walk down the aisle with a more confident smile by their wedding day. Now add to that a bag of tricks for working your magic in front of the camera and you'll be on your way to picture perfect Bridal look. Get camera ready with these simple pointers…
1. Perfect that posture – standing up nice and straight and angling your body is the easiest way to lengthen and slenderize your frame; no dieting required!
2. Matte makeup is key – avoiding shimmery colors that reflect light for a more polished, less oily look.
3. Know your angles – Chances are you have a good side and this is the time to use it.
4. Feeling comfortable in front of the camera – The best way to get cozy in front of the camera is to have an engagement session before the big day. This allows you to practice those angles and get rid of the camera jitters plus you get amazing images out of the deal.
5. Act natural – A genuine laugh that shows off the beauty of your Invisalign treatment is the best tip of all. Try to act as natural as possible and you get bonus points if you can forget the camera is there.
And now for the best part of all, Invisalign is holding a Pin To Win Sweepstakes on their Facebook page running through June 30. Brides and grooms-to-be can complete a simple entry form and then re-pin their favorite Invisalign wedding pins to their wedding planning Pinterest board. The grand prize is an Invisalign treatment and a wedding photography package (a total grand prize value of $8,500). Grab all the details here!
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Designer - Marie H Designs
Thanks for stopping at Marie H designs store. My love for digital scrapbooking is to be able to help you create amazing memories. I love to be challenged by peoples request. I create high quality digital kits and templates. All my designs are created at 300 dpi for the best printing results.
I am a 30 something french Canadian. I have 3 daughters that are my everyday sunshines. My girls and my family are my first inspiration to create versatile and fun to use products.
All my products are Scrap 4 hire and Scrap for others friendly !!
You can always visit my blog to learn more about me, my products, creations and freebies :


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Nov. 19, 2010
LONG BEACH, Calif. - UC Santa Barbara swimmers Kevin Ferguson and Allie Knight each posted NCAA `B' qualifying times to highlight action on the second day of the Arena Invitational on Friday at Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool.
Kevin Ferguson was the lone UCSB swimmer to qualify for an individual event final on Friday night. He took fourth in the 100 breaststroke with his `B' cut of 55.29 seconds.
Freshman Allie Knight posted her second NCAA `B' qualifying time of the weekend in the 400 individual medley. Knight placed 10th in the event after touching the wall in 4:19.00. On Thursday she posted a `B' qualifying time in the 200 IM.
Later in the meet, Paige Bradley was just .01 seconds off of the NCAA `B' cut in the 100 breast with her time of 1:02.99. She placed 13th in the event behind teammate Sophia Yamauchi, who took 12th with a time of 1:02.51, touching the wall just .02 seconds after her older sister Penelope, who swims for Arizona State. Yamauchi, who went .10 seconds faster in the morning's preliminaries, already achieved a NCAA cut in the 100 breast during the Gauchos' season-opening meet against UCLA and Oregon State.
The men's 200 medley relay consisting of Ryan Garcia, Kevin Ferguson, Max Horrell and Chris Peterson finished fifth with a time of 1:31.31. The women's relay made up of Katie Stover, Yamauchi, Miranda Schneider and Mariah Tharp finished 11th in 1:44.94.
In the final event of the night, the women's 800 free relay of Stover, Monica Garcia, Emma Hunt and Tharp took sixth with a mark of 7:28.20.
Though UCSB had just one individual finalist on Friday, it did have several swimmers collect points in the consolation and bonus final heats.
In the men's 400 IM, Ryan Garcia took 10th (4:02.14) and Randy Aakhus took 14th (4:05.28), though his better swim of the day was in the event's prelims when he touched the wall in 4:01.19. Evan Simoni won the bonus final in 4:01.32, which was the 10th fastest time in the event during the evening session.
Garrett Thompson took 11th place in the 200 free with a time of 1:39.83. Meanwhile, Mike London finished 16th (1:42.92) and posted a time of 1:40.51 in his prelim swim. Lucas Norman posted a time of 1:40.86, which was good for 18th place.
In the 100 butterfly, Horrell won the bonus final in 49.25 seconds, which was the 11th fastest time of the evening. He was one of 11 swimmers to go sub-50 seconds in the event. On the women's end, Miranda Schneider grabbed the Gauchos points with her 23rd place finish (56.76 in the finals, 56.57 in prelims). Rounding out the Gaucho point scorers were Chris Peterson in the 100 back (52.81 prelims) and Scott Nocco in the 100 breast (59.86).
UCSB will conclude action at the Arena Invitational on Saturday with the 1650 free, 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast, 200 fly and 400 free relay.


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Men's Glow in the Dark #4 Black T-Shirt
Men's Glow in the Dark #4 Black T-Shirt
A Jack O'Lantern Face as unique as you! get yourself ready for Hallowe'en with one of our fabulous faces for fright night!
The T-shirt is a high quality Gildan Black T-Shirt with heat pressed Glow-in-the-dark vinyl to make up the face.
This T-shirt can be washed up to 40 degrees and ironed on the back.
Available in S,M,L,XL,2XL
Have a scary night!!
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Entries in Kelly Bikes (1)
My new project | Kelly Roshambo 29'er 1 x 1
"Ahhhhh ringk gingk gingk!" That was the sound of the 'chant' my buds and I used to make as we threw our paper, rock or scissor on the 3rd and last 'gingk'. You ALWAYS throw on the 3rd gingk. So many rounds of beers, shotgun seats or general slave-like tasks were won and lost over rounds of Ro Sham Bo amongst my crew…so when I saw this little number for sale on the Pros Closet, and then focused-in on the name of the frame, she had to be mine. It was destiny.
The Kelly Roshambo is a steel singlespeed frame, made of True Temper OX Platinum Steel. She's old school with V-Brakes, but irresistible nonetheless. I am selling my old 26" Dean singlespeed as I just can't justify riding on 26" wheels any longer. My 2 years on my Ahrens Revolver 29'er has converted me to big wheels without a need to look back. Seeing what Specialized and Gary Fisher are doing with their full suspension 29'er bikes has also effectively blown up this image in my brain that 9'ers would simply not have a place in the FS market. All that has changed too…
So to the bike, I am building it slowly. Transferring parts from the old Dean including a (I think) 1st generation Chris King headset (bomber!!), 2007 XTR V-Brakes, Time ATAC pedals, Syncros seat post circa 96 and ultra-bomber and stiff Race Face DH cranks. New stuff will include a Thomson 110/0° rise stem, flat bars and bar ends. The wheels will be built up on a set of 1998 Chris King MTB hubs with new Stans ZTR 355's (for rim brakes) and likely DT spokes. Not 100% sure on rubber yet but those Geax Saguaro's tread pattern is delicious in their 2.2 and likely I'll stick with those which I tested on the Edge Composites carbon wheels.
Anyways, the project is fun and being done on the super-cheap as a 1 x 1 should! I'll report back once I get this thing to a completed state and have ridden around on it. And yes, this is what I'll be rocking in Durango come September.


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2013-08-14 / Obituaries
Irma Louise Poppe Fleming, longtime resident of Amityville and Amityville High School graduate, Class of 1938
Irma Louise Poppe Fleming, a longtime resident of Amityville and a graduate of AMHS Class of 1938, died July 14, 2013. She was 92 years old. She was the daughter of Frederick G. and Laura F. Poppe who used to spend the summers on Long Island with their family.
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As the standing-room-only crowd gathers one hot September afternoon, it's not just the heat they are trying to avoid, it's weeds — more specifically, herbicide-resistant weeds.
"If I had given this talk 12 months ago, the room would be half empty," says Aaron Hager, University of Illinois Extension weed science specialist. "But producers are starting to experience weeds that they can't control, and they are concerned."
Michael Owen, extension specialist at Iowa State University, who shares the stage with Hager at the seminar, tells the crowd bluntly, "Weeds are the single most economically important pest complex producers have to manage. And weed management isn't what it used to be."
Hager and Owen show growers images from areas where resistant weeds have taken over. Palmer amaranth and waterhemp, along with marestail, are resistant to several classes of herbicides and render entire fields unfarmable. Crews of workers are using hoes to chop down resistant Palmer amaranth before it can produce seed. And fields that two years ago only had a "few" weeds are suddenly choked with resistant waterhemp.
"The issue of herbicide-resistant weeds is a crisis to the producers who are living it," says Arlene Cotie, product manager, communications and trait integrity for Bayer CropScience. "One grower in Arkansas lost $230 an acre and had to hire a chopping crew to cut down Palmer amaranth with stalks so large they couldn't get their hands around [them]."
And while weeds that have developed resistance to glyphosate have been put under a microscope, experts are quick to point out that glyphosate-resistant weeds are by far not the only concern. Lurking in the shadows are weeds that are resistant to other chemistries, and in some cases multiple chemistries.
"The most important thing to remember is that this is not a problem with the herbicide," Owen says. "How the herbicide has been used, and the management programs used, have caused this problem."
In fact, the issue of weeds adapting and changing predates herbicides, and in some cases weeds have changed due to cultural practices. "More than 100 years ago, Charles Darwin described how organisms respond to their environment. They either adapt or die," Owen says. "Any single thing you do, if it is successful and puts selection pressure on that organism, ultimately that organism will change to survive."
Producers using a single class of chemistry, year after year, to control weeds turned their fields into petri dishes where the continual use of one mode of action meant that ultimately a few weeds would survive, passing along this resistance to the next generation.
For amaranth species, such as Palmer amaranth and waterhemp, a single plant can produce more than a half million seeds. If these weeds are left to mature, a combine becomes a very large seed spreader during harvest.
A playbook for fighting resistance
While the list of herbicide-resistant weeds continues to grow, weed scientists are focused on the "driver weeds" that can potentially cause the most economic damage — Palmer amaranth, waterhemp and marestail (also known as horseweed).
"While we have concerns regarding the evolution of resistance in several weed species, these are the weeds of major concern moving forward over the next five years as the infestation levels intensify and expand," says Bryan Young, weed scientist at Southern Illinois University.
"We need to improve the control of these weeds, learn how to recognize failure due to glyphosate resistance, and take a proactive approach to deter the shift towards resistance in areas that would still be feasible," he adds. "If you wait, and react to weed resistance to glyphosate on your farm, you are too late."
Growers need a playbook of strategies to fight the encroachment of weed resistance. Here are some key plays growers can use to start the offense.
Review the opponent
Young says early resistance problems can be difficult to spot, or are reasoned away by producers. "If a producer sees a slight failure rate, he may blame it on a faulty nozzle, poor herbicide coverage, or bad weather — anything but resistance. If those few plants go to seed, the next year you will have an even greater problem. The weeds will still be there, and as long as you keep using the same chemistry, you will continue to select for that weed."
Weed resistance is a numbers game, says Les Glasgow, technical asset lead and head of weed-management strategies for Syngenta. "Weed resistance is all about how many weeds are being exposed to a single mode of action," he says. "That sets you up for resistance.
"It doesn't matter if the active ingredient is glyphosate, atrazine, or any of the other chemistries," Glasgow continues. "If you overuse it, the plant will develop resistance."
Clean the field
Another rule in the playbook is start with a clean field and keep that field free of weeds.
"When you spray a field and 5% of the weeds remain and don't die, you want to deal with those weeds immediately," says Steve Muhlenbruch, agronomy manager for Dows Farmers Cooperative, Dows, Iowa. "We still have options available to us, but we don't want those weeds to get out of control."
Multiple attacks on offense
The message to producers is: diversify, diversify, diversify. And control options can, and should, include several modes of action, preplant and post application, and in some cases even cultivation and rotations to different crops and different herbicide-tolerant packages.
"The reality now is that we cannot rely on a one-size-fits-all weed management strategy," Glasgow says. And for producers who would once tank mix one herbicide for grasses and one for broadleaf weeds, it now means putting more than one active ingredient in the tank to target the same weed species and using a preemergence herbicide to keep weeds from emerging in the first place.
An example of a diverse program approach for soybeans, according to Glasgow, includes Boundary pre-applied followed by Flexstar GT 3.5 early post application. It uses four modes of action and provides residual control.
Diversifying is striking a chord with growers, reports Rajan Gajaria, marketing director, Dow AgroSciences. He's heard more growers ask about the company's future 2,4-D choline and glyphosate product called Enlist Duo to use with SureStart as a preplant in corn. "We are seeing more producers ask about this program in an effort to diversify their weed management system," he says.
Future defense
Glyphosate remains effective on a wide array of weeds, but reinforcements are coming. Here are just a few products in the pipeline.
Zidua herbicide, developed in a partnership between BASF and Kumiai Chemical Industry, has shown strong residual control of amaranthus species in corn and soybeans and Italian ryegrass in wheat. BASF is expecting EPA approval of the herbicide by the end of the year. It will join the company's Kixor herbicide launched last year.
Enlist Duo, Dow AgroSciences' new herbicide, includes a new formulation of 2,4-D mixed with glyphosate to be used over the top of Enlist corn and soybeans.
An HPPD trait for soybeans is in the works through a partnership between Bayer CropScience and MS Tech. Bayer launched its LibertyLink soybeans and Ignite herbicide in 2009. The two companies expect to have a GlyTol- and HPPD-stacked trait in 2015, and with a LibertyLink trait on top the following year. In addition, Bayer recently announced collaborations with Syngenta on HPPD technologies coming the latter half of the decade. HPPD represents the first residual herbicide-tolerant in soybeans.
Dicamba-resistant traits also are in the pipeline. These are being developed by Monsanto and BASF.
Potential superstars?
Glyphosate has been called a once-in-100-years herbicide. But if you are looking for the next new glyphosate, think again. While there is active research and development to find the next great active ingredient, any search is still in its infancy. No superstar product like glyphosate is being talked about openly by any company.
"We have some exciting leads, but we are still a year or more away from getting anything into the early development stage," says Steve Bowe, team lead, biology, BASF. "And then it would still be several more years before anything would reach the market."
Instead, growers need to take a long-term, multi-pronged approach to weed management. "We don't need a short-term fix," Hager says. "Even if a new active ingredient were introduced tomorrow, if we simply relied on that one AI, in a few years we'd be right back to where we are today."
And as the crowd filters out from Hager and Owen's seminar into the Illinois heat, that message is resonating.