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A man accused of two counts of second degree murder and armed criminal action in Morgan County will be undergoing a mental exam.
A man accused of two counts of second degree murder and armed criminal action in Morgan County will be undergoing a mental exam.
Derrell Spellmeyer of Eldon was charged in the shooting deaths of Freddie and Carol Wilson of Versailles.
The court approved the defense request for a mental exam at a hearing in Versailles May 10. The exam was ordered to be done at Fulton State Hospital.
Another hearing in the case will not be set until the exam is done and results are back. That could be within 60 days or longer.
Spellmeyer, 43, was arrested along with Garland Mitchell, 45, and Mandy Mitchell, 28, near the Wilson's home on Dorsey Lane south of Versailles on Feb. 4 shortly after a 911 call from Carol Wilson reporting that she had been shot.
According to the probable cause statement issued by the Morgan County Sheriff's Department, a white van with Spellmeyer and Garland and Mandy Mitchell inside swerved and hit a patrol car as it responded to the call.
The trio were taken into custody at the scene of the crash where officers also reportedly recovered a .32 caliber hand gun, a bottle of Hydrocodone belong to Carol Wilson and a .32 caliber casing. Officers also reported blood on Spellmeyer's hands and clothing.
In a later interview with detectives, court documents state that Spellmeyer admitted to shooting the gun and inflicting knife wounds on Freddie Wilson, telling officers "they made me do it."
Court documents also state that the Mitchells told detectives that they drove Spellmeyer to the Wilson residence to obtain drugs. Although they did not enter the home, the Mitchells recalled hearing gunshots a short time later, according to the probable cause statement.
All three then fled the scene in the van before encountering officers.


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STOCKTON - Doctors and medical personnel who have examined a critically injured 11-month-old Stockton foster child believe the baby is the victim of "a clear-cut case of shaken baby syndrome" according to a search warrant affidavit from April 22.
STOCKTON - Doctors and medical personnel who have examined a critically injured 11-month-old Stockton foster child believe the baby is the victim of "a clear-cut case of shaken baby syndrome" according to a search warrant affidavit from April 22.
Paul Teldeschi, 37, is in county jail on multiple child abuse charges after his foster daughter suffered cardiac arrest on March 30 in his Cleveland Street home. According to the affidavit, Teldeschi was home alone and placed the child in a swing so he could begin preparing dinner. The baby, suffering from bleeding on the brain, suddenly vomited, and went into cardiac arrest. Teldeschi administered CPR and called 911.
The baby, identified in the affidavit as Prinsess, was later airlifted to Oakland Children's Hospital, where doctors found she also suffered from 13 broken ribs that they believe were caused seven to 10 days prior to the cardiac arrest, a broken clavicle and a traumatic spinal injury "like the victim had been bent in half."
Doctors told police the "amount of force needed to see these types of injuries might be seen in a vehicle accident," but that there hadn't been a crash, the affidavit states. One doctor told police he believed the child was the victim of at least two violent attacks.
The brain bleeding, doctors say consistently throughout the detective's report in the affidavit, was caused by shaking. In shaken baby cases, injuries are found all around the brain. If it were blunt force trauma, the injury would have only been in one area, the report explains.
A doctor who examined Prinsess also told police that the bleeding on the brain had to have occurred just prior to the 911 call, because there was a lack of symptoms reported by the foster parents and family members who had watched the children on a couple of occasions.
In early April, and prior to Paul Teldeschi's arrest, Child Protective Services removed three other children from the Teldeschi home - one foster child and two biological children of Paul and Christine Teldeschi. The children were each given medical exams and X-rays.
According to the affidavit, the second foster child and the Teldeschis' biological daughter showed no signs of injury. The Teldeschis' 1-year-old son, however, did have a broken arm and broken finger and neither had been medically treated. A CPS nurse told police that the type of fracture the boy suffered "was common in childhood and not necessarily indicative of child abuse."
The affidavit states that Christine Teldeschi, who is employed by The Record, has continued to cooperate with police in their investigation. Christine Teldeschi, who said she has filed for divorce, had expressed concerns with doctors that Prinsess had some developmental delays and was seeking physical therapy services for her, according to the affidavit.
Over the few months that the Teldeschis had the foster children in their home, Paul Teldeschi was the primary caregiver. He was not employed. During early intervention sessions with the child for developmental disabilities, one social worker told police Paul Teldeschi was "creepy" and "when one of the children dropped something, he would pick it up and then slammed it when he gave it back to the child. There was also a time when the brother was crying and Paul got in his face and told him to 'knock it off,' " according to the affidavit. The social worker thought the behavior was "more than simply being firm," the affidavit said.
The affidavit mentions two instances when Prinsess was dropped, but neither appeared harmful. Once, Christine Teldeschi said she stumbled and fell while holding the child. Prinsess didn't appear injured and was consoled easily. A second time was when the early intervention teacher dropped the child about five inches off the ground.
Prinsess is still in critical condition at the Oakland Children's Hospital. Doctors do not expect her to survive. Paul Teldeschi is expected to appear in San Joaquin County Superior court for arraignment Tuesday.
Contact reporter Keith Reid at (209) 546-8257 or email@example.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/edublog and on Twitter @KReidme.

subset: commoncrawl


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A petition from the campaign to
INDEPENDENCE DAY 2013 came and went and Congress did not deliver a lasting tribute to those who served during the Vietnam War and Era as well as their families by enacting March 29th Vietnam Veterans Day. Now that the nation had a chance to reflect on the significance of our freedoms and hopefully on the sacrifice and service of those who deliver and defend it. We ask our representatives in Congress to move forward and deliver this long overdue expression of gratitude and respect .
Each of the 58,286 honored on "The Vietnam Wall" and who "No longer have a voice or a choice" and their families deserve 1000s of voices demanding that their sacrifice not be forgotten. Those who came home with the physical and emotional wounds from the Vietnam War, those who already left us since then (with many as a consequence of that War), and their respective families also deserve to have their sacrifice and service remembered in perpetuity.
The Vietnam Veteran's children/grandchildren have lived through their parents/grandparents own rollercoaster of emotions, it will help them also heal and be better at dealing with what life delivers them knowing that their parents have found a way to heal and claim the honor and gratitude that is rightfully theirs and delivered on BEHALF OF A GRATEFUL NATION.
We need to deliver MARCH 29th VIETNAM VETERANS DAY "FOREVER" before any more of our brothers and sisters as well as our families and friends pass on and are deprived from experiencing it.
IT WILL HELP HEAL OUR NATION and give hope and assurance to our current and future generations of our country's defenders and their families that their sacrifice and service will not be forgotten. Many of those who have served our country since the Vietnam War and are now serving are children and grandchildren of Vietnam Veterans, delivering March 29th Vietnam Veterans Day will be uplifting and a special thank you to them.
There no legislation introduced in this session of Congress and we need to motivate both Senators and Representatives to introduce legislation to establish March 29th
Vietnam Veterans Day "FOREVER"
Because of a 1995 Rule of the U.S. House of Representatives (No bills
introduced for commemorative days) and after the Korean Veterans Day was
passed, we have to have the U.S. Senate first pass the bill and then send to
the House to act on by either Consent or Suspension of House Rules.
**** Explanation why NO to March 30th and No to Welcome Home in name below ****
Six ACTION PLANS to get National MARCH 29th VIETNAM VETERANS DAY "FOREVER" accomplished:
(1) Get your own state's U.S.
Congress on board and to become Co-Sponsors
Veterans, Military, Family members, Friends and Fellow Citizens register your support
Ask those on Facebook to join the MARCH 29th VIETNAM VETERANS DAY cause
at http://www.causes.com/march29vietvetday
and also sign the petition at http://www.causes.com/actions/1751882-time-to-deliver-march-29-vietnam-veterans-day-forever
(4)Ask those not on Facebook - send e-mail to[email protected]
with "I support a national March 29th Vietnam Veterans Day-
FOREVER" in the subject area and in the body provide name, city and
state (indicate if Veteran, family, or information would like to share that we
could forward to Congress),
(5)Or send a
letter with "I support national March 29th Vietnam Veterans Day -
FOREVER" with their signature and contact info to:
March 29th Vietnam Veterans Day
c/o Equal Honor For All
P.O. Box 32070
Cleveland, Ohio 44132-0070
(6)Call Congress Senators and Representatives offices, ask staff to
record your name and message "I support a national March 29th Vietnam
Veterans Day - FOREVER"
Why No to March 30th
March 30th is tainted because the blood of our nation's defenders was spilled
by the North Vietnamese when the Eastertide invasion started on March 30, 1972 and lasted through October 22 of 1972, a complete affront to our goodwill at the peace negotiations.
The Easter Offensive, and also (Chiến dịch Xuân hè 1972 in Vietnamese) was a military campaign conducted by the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) against the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN, the regular army of South Vietnam) and the United States military.
The offensive was given a title steeped in Vietnamese history. In 1773 the three Tây Sơn brothers (so-called because of the place of their origin) united a Vietnam divided by civil war and social unrest. The youngest brother, Nguyễn Huệ, then defeated an invading Chinese army on the outskirts of Hanoi in 1788. This was an obvious 200th anniversary goal to unite Vietnam under Communist rule regardless of the Peace Treaty negotiations.
Also on March 30 of 1975, the North Vietnamese again violated the peace
accords and disregarded our goodwill and deprived the South Vietnamese people of their right of self determination agreed to by the North. It created despair and the death of more of our people while trying to protect and help evacuate the people of the illegally occupied South Vietnam.
Why No to "Welcome Home"
Using "Welcome Home" comes across like a "LAST MAN
STANDING" tribute, it is not all encompassing and lacks clarity as to whom
gratitude and respect should be delivered especially in memory of those died during the Vietnam War and as a consequence of it as well as their families. This day is a perpetual message on behalf of "THOSE WHO NO LONGER HAVE A VOICE OR A CHOICE" that no other generation will endure the same pain.
R Ray Saikus
This petition closed over 2 years ago
All who have served during the Vietnam War and Era and their families have earned the gratitude and respect of our nation and its citizens. On the 50th...
All who have served during the Vietnam War and Era and their families have earned the gratitude and respect of our nation and its citizens. On the 50th Anniversary Commemoration of the Vietnam War it is time to deliver a thank you with the establishment of March 29th Vietnam Veterans Day


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The Miami Heat went up 2-1 in the NBA Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday night, but the big news of the day on Monday in Chicago was about Luol Deng and how the Bulls seem to be very willing to trade him.
Of course, trade rumors involving the eight year veteran aren't new around these parts, but this somehow feels different.
The Bulls apparently are exploring ways to not only shed salary, but get into the lottery at the same time.
And even with an injured wrist that may or may not need surgery, Deng's value is at an all-time high, and a lottery team – like the Sacramento Kings who have a history of trading with the Bulls – looking to get better right away might be interested in making a deal with Chicago for the eight year veteran's services.
The biggest rumor bandied about around the Internet has been the Bulls reported interest in North Carolina's Harrison Barnes after it was revealed he had a conversation with the team during the NBA's recent draft combine. But is he the best choice if the team trades up and makes it into the lottery?
Barnes and Deng seem to be similar players and when you already have Jimmy Butler waiting in the wings, why not go in another direction entirely and draft the type of guy the team has been missing for 14 years and counting?
And given what seems to be the organization's love affair with Duke players (Elton Brand, Jay Williams, Deng, Chris Duhon and Carlos Boozer), why not use the pick on a shooting guard and take Austin Rivers who is anything but short on confidence in himself and would be exactly the kind of player fans would love.
A dynamic athlete and scorer like Rivers, who loves big games and seems to be immune to pressure, paired with a healthy Derrick Rose in the backcourt would wreak havoc on the NBA for years to come.
His relationship with Tom Thibodeau only helps and could be another reason the organization might be enticed to take a guy who, by all accounts, could be a great offensive player (and defensive player, if coached by Thibs) in the NBA.
What looked like a mundane off-season for the Bulls could potentially be exciting if the speculation and Internet rumors become reality.


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Kitty Shelter
Patricia White July 13, 2012It has to eat sometime. Someone will love it and take it home like I did. Always nice to have kitties around. #1474738
Took a walk in the park and saw this little kitten. It was scared to come out as children and parents tried to offer it milk.
F/8 - shutter 1/6
Exif: F Number: 8, Exposure Bias Value: 0.00, ExposureTime: 10/60 seconds, Flash: did not fire., ISO: 500, White balance: Auto white balance, FocalLength: 48.00 mm, Model: NIKON D90
Uploaded on July 13, 2012
Copyright for this gallery photo belongs solely to Diane Underwood. Images may not be copied, downloaded, or used in any way without the expressed, written permission of the photographer.
Log in to follow or message this photographer or report this photo.


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Keynote Speaker
As a keynote speaker, Matt works with you to present content that is relevant to your audience. Matt customizes his presentations to focused on your industry, drawing on his 20+ years of experience. He is known for his inspirational and evangelistic style, yet also being highly practical.
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Attendees and conference organizers consistently rate Matt as one of the most entertaining and informative speakers on the circuit!Contact Matt!
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|Episode Description
|Monday, Jun 10, 2013 - 1:00 AM
In 1981, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, a spiritual leader from India, and thousands of his disciples moved to Wasco and Jefferson Counties. On what had been the Big Muddy Ranch, the "sannyasins" set out to build a new city, a utopian community in the desert - - Rajneeshpuram. Thousands of people from around the world gathered here to celebrate life. D
|More Rajneeshpuram on WORLD (MT)
Monday, Jun 10, 2013 - 1:00 AM


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Follow Up for Primary Peritoneal Cancer
Dear OncoLink "Ask The Experts,"
I am a Primary Peritoneal Cancer survivor (19 months in remission). I want to know which is best to have, CT scan or PET scan to check for recurrence of disease? Also if recurrence does occur, is it possible to have intraperitoneal (IP) therapy again?
Stephen C. Rubin, MD, Professor and Chief of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology, University of Pennsylvania Health System, responds:
Primary Peritoneal Cancer (PPC), which arises in the lining of the abdominal (peritoneal) cavity, is nearly identical to ovarian cancer in its outlook, treatment, and follow-up. As with ovarian cancer, most patients with PPC will have an elevated CA 125 at the time of diagnosis. After entering remission, a re-elevation of CA 125 is generally the earliest sign of recurrence. We typically follow CA 125 levels about every two to three months once our patients enter remission. CT scans and possibly PET scans are often used to evaluate patients with elevated CA 125 levels. (See this previous question about PET/CT use). It is possible to have IP chemotherapy a second time if circumstances are appropriate, but it would be unusual.


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State - INACTIVE
As Citizens sheds policies, consumers face new decisions
In the next month, almost 400,000 people whose homes are covered by the state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. will get a letter in the mail from another insurance company taking over their homeowners' insurance coverage by Nov. 5.
Policyholders will have two options:
Say no, and remain with Citizens, taking a chance that their options will become even more limited beginning in January, when a $44.9 million clearinghouse comes online to allow insurance agents in the private market to handpick Citizens policies.
Or say yes, accepting the coverage from the so-called "takeout" company, one of 10 smaller carriers. Unlike Citizens, those companies have the right to raise insurance premiums by unlimited amounts when the policies come up for renewal.
It's all part of the aggressive and controversial push by Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature to shed Citizens Property Insurance of its 1.2 million state-subsidized policies. Under current law, if Citizens falls short of the cash it needs to pay its claims after a massive storm, policyholders of other lines of insurance and state taxpayers will be assessed fees to foot the bill.
But as Citizens shifts policies to the private market, the bottom line for homeowners is that costs will rise. Private companies don't face the same rate caps as those imposed on Citizens, and they don't benefit from the taxpayer-backed system.
Under legislation passed by lawmakers last spring, Citizens policyholders will be prohibited from renewing their policies if they receive a comparable private-market offer that is equal to or less than their Citizens renewal premium.
Beginning Jan. 1, homeowners applying for Citizens policies for the first time will be required to go with the private carrier if it offers coverage that is within 15 percent of Citizens' rates. Current Citizens customers will be treated differently. Private carriers may offer them less coverage, but it must not be more expensive than their current policy.
That leaves policyholders who receive a takeout offer this month in a quandary: What incentive is there to shift to the new company when you might have more choices later?
"Arguably, takeout recipients have more choice," said Citizens spokesman Michael Peltier. "They can try out the private takeout carrier, which may offer better coverage, and still be eligible for Citizens until their renewal comes up."
But homeowners who turn down a takeout offer in November might not be able to keep their Citizens insurance much longer anyway. "In theory, the more close the Citizens rate is to the market rate, the more likely that multiple offers are forthcoming," Peltier said.
The centerpiece of the new law is a clearinghouse that will be used by insurance agents representing private carriers to identify potential customers.
Policyholders who receive an offer from a takeout company have 30 days after the private company takes over their policy to come back to Citizens at the same rate they paid before, Peltier said. But policyholders who receive an offer of coverage through the clearinghouse will have only 48 hours to shop around.
The goal of the clearinghouse is to make sure that Citizens doesn't take on new customers as it sheds old ones.
Last month, the Citizens board approved a $21.7 million, five-year contract with Bolt Solutions of Connecticut to design and operate the software for the clearinghouse system. The contract could be extended another five years, with the value not to exceed $44.9 million, and the cost is contingent on the number of policies actually transferred to private carriers.
"This is like the iPhone for insurance in Florida," said board member John Rollins, before the vote. "It's going to really transform everything about the way a consumer thinks about shopping for home insurance."
But state Rep. Frank Artiles, R-Miami, a frequent critic of Citizens, said that while the clearinghouse concept offers some consumer protections, it is designed to benefit insurers and insurance agents over customers.
"My take on the clearinghouse is that it was built to protect agents," he said, referring to the agents who sell auto, life and personal-property coverage for national companies but do not sell homeowners insurance in Florida. "Your property gets put into the clearinghouse, and it gets shopped around for anybody who is writing insurance so they can keep their clients."
Under a compromise reached with the Miami-Dade delegation, Citizens policyholders who are forced to take a policy from a private carrier in the clearinghouse will see their premium increases capped at 10 percent for three years and have the option to return to Citizens.
Artiles advises Citizens customers to do their homework.
"Ask for a copy of the policy, and ask for the differences between it and your Citizens policy," he said.
For example, private companies have the right to repair damage to a home instead of paying for replacement coverage. Hidden in some policies, however, is a statement that if they hire a third-party contractor to do the work, the carrier is not responsible for the work, Artiles said.
"I have a problem with that," he said. "If you want the right to repair, then you have to take full responsibility for the subcontractor or vendor who works for you."
While the clearinghouse will not be available for consumers to comparison-shop, it will be available for agents. Meanwhile, the Office of Insurance Regulation has a website that offers information about each takeout company at www.floir.com/Sections/PandC/TakeoutCompanies.aspx
Artiles considers the website difficult to navigate and understand. He advises: "If you have to make a decision with your eyes closed on a takeout company, stay with Citizens."


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Elbe Pants - Celestial, wine
Elbe Pants - Celestial, wine
Add To Cart
Elbe Pants are versatile, comfortable, and free flowing. They can be worn on and off the dance floor, complementing most body sizes and shapes (one size fits most - model is 5'4"). They come in a variety of patterns and colors, are made with a very soft 100% rayon fabric, and are romper convertible.
Hand or machine wash cold water, gentle cycle. Hang dry.


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Lots and lots of diesel news these days … and this time, it's Volvo's turn.
In this case, the Scandy company best known for cars as safe as bank vaults, is rolling out a new twin-turbo oil burner for their S80 sedan. It's a 2.4-liter, five-cylinder engine putting out 205-horsepower and around 310 lb-ft of torque. The engine allegedly gets around 38 mpg while meeting strict Euro 5 emissions standards. Sadly, there's no plans for bringing it to the North American market (dumb) for reasons unknown. Why does Europe get all the cool diesel tech, huh?
Anyway, this same diesel powertrain will also be dropped into the upcoming S60 sedan and the evergreen V70 wagon. For those of you that are engine geeks, the specifics are like this:
As mentioned, the mill uses twin turbochargers, and features ceramic glow plugs and piezoelectric fuel injectors to cut down on fuel consumption. The engine, which is all aluminum alloy, is light weight and uses transverse cooling to keep a more uniform temperature in the cylinder head and engine block than a typical diesel. This improves reliability. The engine also features asymmetrically sized turbos, that together deliver 26 PSI pressure across the rev range.
Really, Volvo (and/or parent company Ford) should bring this one here.
Source: LeftLaneNews


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Entering adulthood saddled with student loans and possibly other debt is the norm for most American millennials today. But debt is not like an allergy " you don't have to
Entering adulthood saddled with student loans and possibly other debt is the norm for most American millennials today.
But debt is not like an allergy " you don't have to live with it forever. Those who paid off debt at a young age say taking the reins early " even if you don't earn a rock-star salary " �lets you choose your own path instead of one dictated by debt.
Having little to no debt gives you the flexibility to change careers, start a business or take time off for parenting, says Donna Freedman, 60, a personal finance journalist who writes about frugal living at DonnaFreedman.com.
Here are ways to take control of your debt, including tips from three people who tackled debt early on and now live debt-free.Know your numbers
Say you have student loans, maybe a car loan or credit card debt. But do you know exactly how much you owe?
Rachel Smith, 24, and her husband, Travis, found out the hard way that they didn't.
'We did not talk enough about our finances before we got married,' says Smith, who blogs about living debt-free at BudgetsandKale.com. 'My husband didn't know how much his student loans were " and they were triple what he thought they were.'
The Smiths graduated college in 2015 with a newborn baby and $185,000 in student loans.
Start by writing down how much you owe on each debt, the interest rates and the minimum payments. Knowing their numbers forced the Smiths to come up with a debt-payoff plan; they used a mix of two popular techniques, debt avalanche and debt snowball. They were able to speed up their repayment and pay off the total amount in 14 months, thanks in part to good-paying jobs and help from family.Use your emotions as fuel
'People want to spend less and save money, but there's no emotion behind it,' says Derek Sall, 32, a blogger and financial analyst who blogs at LifeandMyFinances.com. 'If they really don't have a reason why, they won't do it.'
Sall says he used fear and anger as motivators to stick to a budget, cut back spending and work additional jobs to tackle debt.
Together with his first wife, Sall paid off $18,000 in student loans, driven by the fear of carrying so much debt as they started out. When they later divorced, he owed her $21,000 in home equity and paid it in six months " driven by anger and a desire to break all ties, he says.
Buoyed by his success, Sall challenged himself to pay off the $54,500 remainder of his mortgage within a year using the same tactics " and he did it.
Having since remarried and become a dad, Sall says he now has positive reasons to continue living debt-free: to keep his career options open and put his daughter through college.Personalize your budget and savings
Lydia Senn, 35, builds a different budget each month to stay on top of expenses. Along with her husband, Jason, the mother of three paid off $36,000 in credit card debt, student loans and medical bills in just over two years.
'People forget that different periods of your life are unique,' she says. A budget for each month helps account for irregular expenses, like car insurance or birthday gifts, she says.
'Sit down before the month begins and decide how much you're going to spend where,' Senn says. At the end of the month, check to see if you stuck to your plan and how you could adjust for any overspending in next month's budget.Avoid temptation " or make it count
It's hard to say no to going out with friends, shopping for clothes online or picking up extra items in the checkout aisle at a grocery store.
So be smart about it, says Freedman, who has lived frugally on a freelance writer's salary most of her life while also supporting a daughter with a disability and earning a degree in her late 40s.
Look for happy hour specials at your favorite watering hole, shop only when there are sales, or have your groceries delivered to your home instead of going to the store, she says.
'Allow yourself to do these things, but don't make it a blind habit,' says Freedman.
More From NerdWalletHow to Say No to Co-Signing " and Yes to Helping Retiring to Ocean Breezes and Cheap Rent. What's the Catch? Rake in Cash at Your Yard Sale
Amrita Jayakumar is a writer at NerdWallet. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com. Twitter: @ajbombay.
The article These Young Adults Are Totally Debt-Free " True Story originally appeared on NerdWallet.


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COMSOL Blog
COMSOL Conference 2013 Bangalore Award Winners
October 25, 2013by Prajakta Sabnis
After having excellent poster and oral presentation sessions at the COMSOL Conference 2013 Bangalore, winners for the top papers and posters were announced during the award ceremony. Selecting the best ones was indeed the toughest decision that the Program Committee had to make. It was observed that the presenters had conducted rigorous analyses using COMSOL Multiphysics, and many of them also had experimental validation for their work. Now I would like to congratulate the winners once more, and allow you to appreciate the details of their research.
Congratulations to the Award Winners of the COMSOL Conference 2013 Bangalore
To celebrate some of the outstanding work, we gave out awards in four different categories at the multiphysics conference in Bangalore. The Best Paper award was given out in two subcategories: General and Academic. During the Poster Session, the panel of judges evaluated the posters and selected the winner of the Best Poster award. The fourth and final category was the Popular Choice award, where attendees voted for their favorite poster. It's always great to get an idea of how COMSOL users view the work presented by their peers.
Best Paper Awards
The Best Paper award in the General category went to Fahmida Naznin from TVS Motors, Tamil Nadu. Fahmida presented her work on "Fast Charging Methods for Lithium Based Batteries". She proposed an algorithm that takes into account the varying internal impedance of a battery at different state of charge (SOC) levels and minimizes voltage fluctuations. Results validation was done for the experimental and modeling outcomes, which were compared with other state-of-the art fast-charging methods available in scientific literature. As she states in her paper, "the SOC based charging method proposed in this work not only reduces the charging time drastically but also provides optimum battery performance and better thermal management due to controlled charging."
Fahmida Naznin of TVS Motors, Tamil Nadu.
In the Academic category, the Best Paper winner Satrupa Biswas from IIT Kharagpur presented her work in the bioscience and bioengineering application area. She carried out her work on the optimization of an electrode geometry in an epiretinal prosthesis. As Satrupa discusses in her paper, when photoreceptors are damaged, which causes blindness, the surviving inner retinal neurons and retinal ganglion cells (RGC) can be electrically stimulated to restore vision. In this paper, the electrode-tissue interface was modeled to study the effect of electrode size and the distance between the electrode and retina. A biphasic pulse train signal was applied for the electrode stimulation, which is very similar to the stimulation signals given in the actual clinical trials. Inhomogeneous tissues were depicted by incorporating the appropriate material profiles. This study provides more insight into the electric field distribution across the tissue layer. Additionally, impedance measurement across the layers gives more information about proper positioning of the electrodes during implantation.
Satrupa Biswas of IIT Kharagpur.
Electromagnetics Simulations Feature Prominently in the Poster Submissions
Harshad Surdi from Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) won the Best Poster award for his work on "Enhancement of Terahertz Emission by AuGe Nanopatterns". In order to increase the emission efficiency of a terahertz (THz) Photo-Conductive Antenna (PCA), Harshad demonstrated the structure of a PCA with gold germanium (AuGe) nano-patterns. As observed in the simulation results, he saw the same trend of an approximately four-fold increase in the THz emission power with fabricated devices as well.
Harshad Surdi of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR).
The poster "Computational design and analysis of Microwave Tomography in Intracerebral Hemorrhage" was the most popular poster among the conference attendees. For this work, Priyadarshini Natarajan from VIT Tamil Nadu won the Popular Choice vote for Best Poster. She discussed the microwave tomography method wherein tissue dielectric properties were used detect the hemorrhage.
It was a pleasure to review such wonderful submissions for the COMSOL Conference 2013 Bangalore. All the presentations were definitely worthy of appreciation and recognition. Congratulations to this year's winners!
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FIT offers a three-year Bachelor degree programme in Information Technology
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Ph.D. degree programme in Computer Science and Engineering.
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Research forms a very important part of FIT activities. The research is
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For more than 25 years, Grant Prideco has been the leader in the development of rotary-shouldered connections. As a base line product, we provide a large selection of API connections for drill stem products.
Grant Prideco also has several proprietary double shouldered connections. A long-standing workhorse of the industry, the HI-TORQUE™ (HT™) connection provides approximately 40% more torque than comparable API connections.
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The eXtreme™ Torque-M™ (XT-M™) connection is the industry's first pressure-rated, gas tight rotary-shouldered connection. eXtreme™ Torque XT-F™ and XT-MF™ offer XT and XT-M performance with a special fatigue-resistant thread form for the most severe drilling applications.
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Grant Prideco™'s third generation TurboTorque™ (TT™) connection was introduced in 2006. TurboTorque™ features a double start thread form, reduced connection profile and multiple design configurations to meet specific drilling requirements. The results are optimized torque capacity and hydraulics, improved clearance and fishability, extended life and reduced risk of failure. The TurboTorque-M™ (TT-M™), featuring all of the benefits of TurboTorque connections, with the added advantage of an advanced metal-to-metal seal.
Grant Prideco's latest development is the uLtimate™ series connection including uGPDS™ and uXT™. The uGPDS™ and uXT™ connections will provide increased torque capacity, extended fatigue life, and interchangeability with our existing GPDS™ and eXtreme™ Torque (XT™) connections.
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Faithful GetReligion readers will remember the story of William Lobdell, the Los Angeles Times scribe whose first-person account of how covering the religion beat cost him his faith ran on the front page of that newspaper. That was strong stuff and it will, I am sure, surprise few readers to know that Lobdell has now turned that spiritual journey into a book entitled "Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America," which is due out in early 2009.
It is also interesting to read his new account of how he lost his faith in the Los Angeles Times and the modern newspaper, in general. But that's another issue.
However, while visiting his new online home -- he is doing alternative journalism in Orange County -- I noticed his very blunt, very GetReligion-esque take on a recent Associated Press story. The headline: "Media bias against religion."
Take it away, Mr. Lobdell:
In the media, I always thought open and honest debate about religion is healthy for everyone. What I hate is the natural media bias that seeps into news story. Below is a little feature on some parents who were rushing to catch a plane and left one of their five children behind ("Home Alone 6"?). The story gives the basics and then adds, "Israeli media said the parents were an ultra-Orthodox Jewish couple but did not give their names."
Why is it newsworthy to tell the reader that the parents were ultra-Orthodox? Is there a practice within ultra-Orthodox wing of Judaism that orders parents to leave their children behind? What if they were Catholic? Would that make it in the story?
Nope. There's a perception by many that the orthodox branches of any religion are filled with wingnuts. This may or may not be true, but tackle the issue head-on instead of slipping it cynically into news stories.
All I can add is, "Amen." Of course, you see slanted reports about liberal forms of religion in, well, conservative media. Lobdell is right. It's nasty to see that sort of thing in a basic wire-service report. Amazing.
Photo: Well, obviously.


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Why Yes, Copyright Can Be Used To Censor, And 'Fair Use Creep' Is Also Called 'Free Speech'
from the copyright-insanity deptSo, as we'd been discussing, Congress recently had a hearing about copyright reform that was supposed to be about the "content creators'" view of copyright -- but which actually mostly presented the views of the legacy industry which makes money off the backs of creators, rather than hearing from any creators themselves. The hearing was about as silly as you might expect, with Parker Higgins from EFF presenting a good run down of the problems, including the claims that it's copyright that enables free speech, that copyright is good because it's "about control" and that "fair use creep" is dangerous. Of course, if you want a funny, and nearly totally wrong counterpoint, you can read the overview from Tom Giovanetti, who runs a "think tank" that is a favorite of copyright maximalists. Let's compare and contrast, and add some reality.
Giovanetti insists that copyright should be about "control."
Several Twitter critics insisted that, while copyright no doubt has economic benefits, it also functions as "an instrument of control."Except, as Higgins noted, the purpose of copyright has never been about "control." It has always been to "promote the progress of science" for the benefit of the public.
But of course copyright involves control, and rightly so. Control is implied in all property rights. Without some degree of control, you cannot enter into contracts, you cannot license, and copyright becomes impotent—little more than a credit or an attribution. But a credit alone does not incentivize creation, innovation, and distribution of new works. Ownership always involves a degree of control.
Most striking was the repeated assertion that copyright should be understood primarily as a mechanism of control. Testimony from Sandra Aistars, the director of the Copyright Alliance, was explicit on this point. That's funny, because we thought it was supposed to be a mechanism to promote new creativity. Ironically enough, Aistars also claims that copyright "is about choice" and "freedom." Choice and freedom for some people, that is: under her construction of copyright, a grant of copyright is designed to concentrate all of the choice with the copyright owners, at the expense of the public.Of course, Giovanetti's claim that "property rights needs control" is misleading for a whole variety of reasons. First off while the actual copyright itself might be a form of property in that it can be bought and sold, the underlying content is not. That's an important distinction that often gets lost in the mix. Furthermore, while it's true that for true property part of the point of property rights is to "control," when you're talking about speech and expression -- things that are in abundance -- it makes no sense to use it as a tool for control, for a variety of reasons. The reason you want control of tangible property is to avoid having someone else claim it. But copyright is not about that at all. It is, according to the Constitution, solely a tool to promote the progress of knowledge and information. Furthermore, we already have aspects of copyright law today that recognize it's not about control -- including things like compulsory licenses.
Then Giovanetti makes a patently ridiculous statement that copyright holders never want to censor anything:
Several others made the ridiculous assertion that copyright is used to "censor." But as Sandra Aistars of the Copyright Alliance noted in her statement, copyright is "core to protecting our First Amendment rights of freedom of expression." Copyright holders are champions of the First Amendment, have every incentive to see their work disseminated as widely as possible, and have no reason to censor anything. It's a preposterous charge, manufactured by ideologues to create a false premise that copyright is somehow in tension with consumer interests.Oh really? So, KTVU wasn't trying to block the video of its newscaster (accidentally, stupidly) using racist slurs about the Asiana Air pilots? NBC wasn't trying to censor Senator Warren when it pulled a clip of her schooling CNBC news anchors? St. Louis University wasn't trying to censor a faculty member when it threatened him with copyright infringement for daring to send a survey to other faculty members? The government didn't censor a hip hop blog after seizing it and shutting it down for an entire year on bogus claims of copyright infringement, which it never had any evidence to support? The Russian government didn't use copyright to censor activists by raiding their offices and shutting them down with bogus claims that they were using infringing copies of Microsoft software? Copyright wasn't used to block the livestream of the Democratic National Convention? Or the official livestream of the Hugo Awards? Universal Music didn't use copyright to censor a negative review of Drake's album? Musician Dan Bull wasn't censored when copyright was used to block his commentary video about a different copyright infringement case? A Miami business man wasn't using copyright as censorship when he used copyright to sue a blogging critic because she posted an "unflattering photo" of him? A TV station didn't use copyright to censor Free Press after it got upset about claims about its actions? Copyright wasn't used to silence a blogger after a blog fight over birthing methods? Some filmmakers didn't censor a Berkeley professor's documentary about how they portrayed Asian women in films with a copyright claim? Howard Hughes didn't use copyright to censor a biography he didn't like? The James Joyce estate wasn't censoring Kate Bush by refusing to let her quote Joyce in a song lyric? Or when it used copyright to stop a professor from writing a biography on Joyce?
All of that is impossible according to Giovanetti. It makes you wonder if he's even remotely familiar with modern copyright law and how it's used. The paragraph above is just a very short list of examples.
And, in fact, it's why it's so troubling that, in the same hearing, a few of the witnesses tried to hit back against fair use, arguing that "fair use creep" was dangerous. As Higgins notes:
On multiple occasions, the expansion of fair use, or "fair use creep," was trotted out as a bogeyman undermining the business models that have traditionally worked for the content industry. Of course, fair use is both legal and critical for copyright to co-exist with real freedom of speech, especially given that copyright can cover works that are many decades old and part of the fabric of history. Moreover, fair use has been under assault for decades, thanks to laws like Section 1201 of the DMCA, which makes it illegal to bypass a technical protection measure under most circumstances even if your conduct is an otherwise lawful fair use.In fact, the courts have pointed out that fair use is a key "safety valve" in preventing copyright from being used for censorship -- clearly recognizing that (contrary to Giovanetti's ridiculous and unsupportable claim) copyright can be and is used for censorship and to stifle free speech all too often. And yet, the panelists now want to limit that already extremely narrow safety valve? And they don't expect even more censorship to occur?
There are plenty of things to debate about copyright law today, but the debate needs to live in reality. That means that it needs to recognize the actual basis for copyright law: promoting the progress, not giving creators a tool for censorship. And it needs to recognize further the reality of today, which is that the tool can be too blunt and is all too frequently used to censor and stifle free speech.
Filed Under: censorship, congress, copyright, copyright hearing, fair use, free speech, tom giovanetti


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Friday, May 7, 2010
Is Literary Fiction Dead?
Well, what is literary fiction? A slippery term sometimes identified with 'highbrow' and 'pretentious', it is usually connected with critically acclaimed, award winning fiction. 'It's those serious-minded novels,' said Robert McCrum, 'of high artistic intent by writers with a passionate commitment to the moral purpose of fiction.' Sounds lofty?
You, as a writer, must have often asked yourself that question. Readers, those who don't write, don't usually ask such question. Serious readers might ponder this phenomenon, though. And if literary fiction is dead, to your dismay, those readers will seek pleasure elsewhere, obviously not through the reading form of printed word.
So, it's you the writer who wants to be read is the worrier. And then the editor who makes a six-figure salary to edit a quarterly literary publication. Nowadays, the editor laments the steadily declining readership, the dwindling subscription of his university-based quarterly. Who does he blame? He blames the glut of the MFA programs by the academic institutions, too many, that have produced a surplus of writers who, according to Ted Genoways, editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review, 'bored readers with work that is insular, self-centered and often unreadable, when fictions should be concerned with big issues, radiant and reflecting the larger world.' One thing for certain is the fact that these writers, should they not make it as ultimate authors, would likely end up teaching, editing, agenting. And they are serious readers in this read-no-watch-TV-yes world, unlike those referred to by Gore Vidal: '. . . reading of any kind is on the decline. Half the American people never read a newspaper. Half never vote for President. One hopes it is the same half.' Amen.
So, is literary fiction dead? Not yet. But it's very sick. Now, don't blame the MFA programs, the 'navel-gazing MFA graduates,' says Jay Nicorvo, who are killing literary fiction. Then what's killing literary fiction?
Picture a ballroom full of book editors and the hosts are the commercial publishers. They're here to play the game of musical chairs. 'When the music stops,' Nicorvo wrote, 'the editor who isn't on the acquiring end of a New York Times bestseller—Poor Little Bitch Girl, anyone?—is left without a desk chair.' Today, editors don't nurse an author, giving him time over the years to develop his voice, his style to become a family member of the imprint. Tastes no longer dictate what an editor acquires for. He, like an investment banker, now acquires what makes magabucks for his bosses. With this blockbuster mentality, publishers have killed the midlist authors. This mentality takes the mass market's pulses and feeds the market what it craves. It aims at blockbuster books that pay the bills. Books that might have lasting literary quality bow to books that reflect the current social, political trends.
What has changed drastically is the publishing landscape. Traditional book reviewers have as much impact on a book's sale as amateur reviewers on Amazon, which is out of editors' control. The sure thing for them to do now is to model after the movie business: producing blockbusters. This is like the world of dinosaurs when the meteors hit the earth. The dying breed of literary fiction writers now run for their survival by self-publishing their work through print-on-demand (POD) to preserve themselves. Or they publish online through, say, smashwords.com, where writers become eBook authors overnight. Online publishing has become the nesting ground for e-magazines. Look at the growing popularity of indie publishers like McSweeney's, Tin House, Dalkey Archive, A Public Space. Perhaps printed literary magazines should rethink of making themselves a permanent commodity, instead of just another issue, completely disposable, which costs as much as a new novel.
But don't blame anyone else yet. Look at the quality of literary fiction recently. Does it excite you? Don't blame the readers who gobble up thrillers, YA fantasy, horror and crime novels. Why is that? Well, literary fiction is too boring, 'if anything 'too PC''.
Now, literary fiction isn't dead. Readers, writers, editors, publishers: give it a mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, because if it dies, each of you is to blame.
'If such a crisis brought about the restructuring of the Detroit auto industry,' Nicorvo said, 'aided by the desperate implementation of available and developing technologies, it can usher in the restructuring of New York City publishing.'
[Image source from www.motherjones.com]
Posted by Khanh Ha at 8:13 PM
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Take Control of Move-In Day with DesignYourDorm
Moving into the dorms can be a nightmare, no matter what year you are in college. There is always chaos with countless students doing the same thing you are trying to do at the same time. A sea of cars parked outside the dorm coupled with parents and students unloading boxes of dorm "must-haves"—
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The brainchild of University Arizona graduates, Taylor Robinson and Bryce Widelitz, Design Your Dorm (DYD) is a virtual 3-D dorm room design website where students can arrange the layout of their room from an inventory of more than 140 college dorm rooms and select the desired furnishings all from the comfort of home. Trips to the local department store on move-in day become a thing of the past. DYD not only provides users with a virtual image of the dorm room, you can also see how your room will look laid out with the desired purchases. Best of all, you don't have to leave the site to purchase what you need—sheets, pillows, lamps, even futons! Everything's available from the DesignYourDorm Amazon.com store and gets shipped right to your dorm room!
Inspiration for this business grew from the founders' college move-in experiences. They found process to lack organization and be laden with unnecessary complications during a time meant to be exciting and special. By not knowing the layout or what to expect about their dorm room, they were left to make design decisions the day they moved in. According to Robinson, "This meant getting a rental car to make multiple trips to and from the local big box stores at the busiest time of the year and spending our last moments of quality time with our parents setting up our room." DesignYourDorm has been helping college students avoid this type scenario since June of 2008.
According to the founders, DYD is the only site of its kind in that no other business offers both room design features and product purchasing options. "It is advantageous to use the site instead of waiting arrival on campus so students can know what will fit in their room. They can split room purchases with roommates, and avoid the chaotic last minute shopping that takes place during move-in time," explains Robinson. The services are free and users are only charged when they purchase items from the DYD store.
In addition to their design-click-order suite of services, students can connect with each other using Facebook, Twitter, and AIM. "Student's can even chat with all their friends from various social networking sites directly on DYD, which is a great way for students to get to know their roommates and share their DYD experience with their friends," explains Robinson.
To learn more about to how use DesignYourDorm or to find out how your college might benefit , please join us for #CampusChat on Wednesday, June 30th, 2010, at 9 p.m., Eastern, on Twitter, when a representative from DYD (@DesignYourDorm) will be our expert guest.
Chelsea Merget, a junior at Boston University is
pursuing a degree in Communications
with a minor in Psychology. She is spending the summer as a public
relations intern with Smart College Visit, Inc. For other articles about
college life, visit our Heading to College


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Dylan Snow
Dylan Snow was first introduced to the adult industry when his then-girlfriend, pornstar Emily Grey, started doing cam work and asked him to join in for online sex shows. When his talents for fucking and making women cum hard, not to mention his big, always-hard cock, proved he was as much a star as his lady, Dylan quickly started getting steady work in porn. Since his debut in 2014, this stud has gained a reputation for filming smoking-hot scenes, whether he's working with his girlfriend or with a starlet he's never met before. It's clear that Dylan knows how to keep things exciting, since when he's not working, this adrenaline junkie loves rock climbing, cliff diving, and skydiving. Dylan has a reputation for playing hard after dark, too: when the sun goes down, he can usually be found riding his motorcycle to the next party or rock concert! The only thing that gets Dylan to slow down is when his favorite soccer team is playing. If you haven't watched Dylan in action before, you're in for a treat: Dylan's work is also his play, and he's never a dull boy.


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Been away from here forever- will try harder in the future... Things have been pretty shitty- but it's getting better... Starting to draw again-
Some stuff in progress...
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so I guess I'm not too active here anymore.... Lots of stuff going on- and honestly I still HATE the new site... anyway- I have an epic three week roadtrip coming up soon... I'll post more about that for sure- and a lot more drawings... For now here's what I'm working on right now- @cadavre !!
Finished @_milena- she's such a sweetheart<3
Been pretty busy lately- got to meet @_milena- cant begin to say enough nice things about her- she's an amazing person<3
I've been working on a few non- SG drawings-
That's it for now XOXOX- Jim
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It's amazing sometimes how one little thing can make big things happen.... not too long ago the super awesome @_milena posted this comment on IG-
as soon as I saw it I figured I should find her on SG - when I did I was Blown away by how GORGEOUS she is!!! That led me to draw this-
while I was drawing it we started
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Finished @paon-
working on @_milena
Lots of other stuff in the works too- stay tuned:)
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Finished @zephi- by my count this is my 99th SG drawing- and my first in 2014...
it's been an absolute joy to work with this wonderful women- stay tuned- we WILL be collaborating again:)
For my 100th drawing- @cadavre (of course!) this is the 10th time I've drawn this amazing women- she inspires me like no one else can...
That's it for now... Hope you're
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Been working on a ton of stuff-
Got some cute kitties - really trying to keep busy. The depression has gotten really bad- hope it goes away soon- I'm getting tired of feeling so worthless:(
Hope you all are doing well<3 xoxo
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Nothing to do at work,,, so I'm gonna blog. I organized all the scans of my drawings yesterday- I've done 97 pieces of fan art since I joined in 2010. I had no idea....anyway, working on 2 more right now @elliott (for the 9th time!) and @zephi -
hope you're all well- xoxoxox
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My blog today is for two very special people- @cadavre, who I've been lucky enough to know for more than 3 years now, and @paon, who I was lucky enough to meet very recently. I'm truly fortunate to have such awesome people in my life- love both of them very much<3<3
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thought this one would be simple- nope:) @cadavre- my muse:) hope to finish soon
made some jewelry....


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A Concise History of Australia
Cambridge University Press, Aug 24, 2004 - History - 342 pages
Australia is the last continent to be settled by Europeans, but it also sustains a people and a culture tens of thousands of years old. For much of the past 200 years the newcomers have sought to replace the old with the new. This book tells how they imposed themselves on the land, and brought technology, institutions and ideas to make it their own. It relates the advance from penal colony to a prosperous free nation and illustrates how, in a nation created by waves of newcomers, the search for binding traditions has long been frustrated by the feeling of rootlessness. This revised edition incorporates the most recent historical research and contemporary historical debates on frontier violence between European settlers and Aborigines and the Stolen Generations. It covers the Sydney Olympics, the refugee crisis and the 'Pacific solution'. More than ever before, Australians draw on the past to understand their future.
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Selected pages
Newcomers c 16001792
Coercion 17931821
Emancipation 18221850
In thrall to progress 18511888
National reconstruction 18891913
Sacrifice 19141945
Golden age 19461974
Reinventing Australia 19752004
What next?
Sources of quotations
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Common terms and phrases
Aboriginal Alan Atkinson Alfred Deakin Allen & Unwin American Anzac Asian Australian history became Billy Hughes Brisbane Britain British brought Canberra capacity celebrated cent century civilisation claim colonial colonists Commonwealth communist Concise History convicts cultural Deakin decade Diemen's Land domestic early economic election Empire European federal force Fraser Geoffrey Blainey governor Henry Lawson historians History of Australia Howard immigration imperial increased indigenous industry island John Labor government Labor Party labour leader Liberal London Macquarie Malcolm Fraser Melbourne University Press ment Menzies migrants military movement numbers organisation Oxford University Press Pacific parliament pastoral Paul Keating Phillip political population Port prime minister production protection Queensland quoted Robert Menzies settlement settlers shearers social society South Australia South Wales Stuart Macintyre Sydney tion took trade tralian turned unions United United Australia Party Victoria wage Western Australia Whitlam women workers Zealand


text: 09 Jan 2014 16:00 Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, has appointed Amina Taher, a UAE national with more than 10 years' experience in the field of marketing and communications, as its new Head of Media Relations. Ms Taher joins the Abu Dhabi-based airline's award-winning Corporate Affairs department and will be responsible for all aspects of its expanding media relations program, reporting to Vice President, Michael Venus. Ms Taher joins Etihad Airways from the Mubadala Development Company (MDC) where she held the position of Head of Social Development and Sponsorship in the Group Communications Unit. Michael Venus said: "Etihad Airways continues to expand its operations, increasing the need to recruit the industry's leading professionals. Amina's appointment demonstrates our commitment to having a world class workforce, with Emiratis at the core of the business. "Amina brings great media and communications experience and expertise to the role which will strengthen the department's capabilities as we move forward into the second decade of operations, flying to more than 100 destinations worldwide." Prior to joining Mubadala Amina also held the role of Executive Director, Corporate Communications at Zabeel Investments. Her career highlights also include mentoring Emirati entrepreneurs, starting an organic food company, and speaking at women and leadership conferences. Ms Taher holds a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the London Business School as well as a Bachelor's degree in Applied Media Studies, graduating with honours from the Higher Colleges of Technology, Dubai. Amina Taher, said: "Etihad Airways is recognised as one of the region's most dynamic and exciting companies to work for and I'm delighted to join the department charged with communicating this story to a global media audience." "Etihad Airways is also renowned for its award-winning Emiratisation program and its commitment to UAE nationals, which is very important to me. I'm looking forward to playing a key role in the development of younger Emiratis as well as enhancing my own career." Etihad Airways has one of the busiest media relations teams in the UAE, issuing more than 100 releases and alerts every year and receiving in excess of 200 media enquiries each week from around the globe. The Etihad Airways Corporate Affairs department has rebuilt its strategy and processes during the past 18 months, focusing on core areas including social media, internal communications and corporate social responsibility. The department won the in-house team of the year award at the Middle East Public Relations Association (MEPRA) awards ceremony in December 2013. Bize Ulaşın Tam anlamıyla uluslararası bir havayolu olarak, gerçekten küresel bir faaliyet ağına sahibiz. En yakın Etihad ofisi ile nasıl iletişim kuracağınızı öğrenin. İletişim bilgilerini görüntüleyin Geri bildirim Bize yorum, tebrik veya şikayetlerinizi göndermek ya da soru sormak isterseniz, lütfen buraya tıklayın Bizi Beğenin Facebook sayfamızı ziyaret edin! Bizi İzleyin YouTube kanalımızı ziyaret edin Bizi Takip Edin Etihad Havayolları | Etihad Kampanyaları | Etihad Yardım | Etihad Ödülleri


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Jewish Theatre Workshop Opens THE CURIOUS SAVAGE Tonight
Jewish Theatre Workshop presents the first show of its eighth season, John Patrick's THE CURIOUS SAVAGE.
THE CURIOUS SAVAGE tells the tale of Mrs. Ethel P. Savage, who inherits a business empire worth ten million dollars from her husband. Wanting to create a "happiness fund" in his name to help people realize their dreams, no matter how foolish, she sells the family businesses and converts the cash to negotiable securities, concealing their location from her grown stepchildren. Believing the money to be their birthright, her stepchildren commit her to a "sanatorium" hoping to "bring her to her senses" and reveal the location of the money. There, she bonds instantly with the other "guests" of the institution who, believing in the justice of her cause, conspire with Mrs. Savage to confound her stepchildren and achieve her dream.
Directed by Etan Weintraub, with costume design by Marcia Norris and set design by Amalia Kotlicky, the production is overseen by stage manager Ariella McCown and assistant stage manager Ari Cane. The cast features:
The Guests: Kristin Hessenauer as Florence, Willie Drayton as Hannibal, Melissa Ostroff as Fairy May, Will Fleagle as Jeffrey, and Lisa Jacobs as Mrs. Paddy.
The Family: Nancy Blum as Mrs. Ethel P. Savage, Ron Zyna as Senator Titus Savage, Deb Carson as Lily Belle Savage, and Scott Ference as Judge Samuel Savage.
The Staff: Ariella McCown as Miss Willie and Avi Sonenthal as Dr. Emmett.
The show will run from tonight, February 7th through Sunday, February 17th, with Tuesday and Thursday performances starting at 7pm, Saturday performances starting at 8pm, and Sunday performances starting at 2pm. Tickets at the door are priced at $15 for adults, $10 for students and seniors. Tickets are available for pre-order online NOW until February 3rd on their website at www.jewishtheatreworkshop.org, and receive a 20% discount. Group discounts are also available.


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The Wall Street Journal is reporting that British Petroleum has agreed to plead guilty to felony charges stemming from the Deepwater Horizon disaster that killed 11 workers and precipitated the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. As part of the plea bargain, BP has agreed to pay the federal government $4.5 billion in penalties, including $1.26 billion in criminal fines.
BP has reportedly agreed to plead guilty to 11 felony counts relating to the worker deaths aboard the drilling rig and, significantly, to one felony county of obstruction of Congress. The latter charge relates to BP's underreporting the rate of oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico from the doomed well. The settlement with federal prosecutors remains subject to approval by the U.S. District Court.
These are by far the largest and most serious criminal enforcement sanctions ever assessed in a U.S. environmental prosecution. At first blush, the plea bargain appears fully consonant with the egregious corporate behavior that gave rise to and followed the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
The $64,000 question is what criminal and civil sanctions lie ahead for the other corporate actors whose acts of omission and commission contributed to the disaster?


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Water SA
versión On-line ISSN 1816-7950
versión impresa ISSN 0378-4738
Water SA vol.34 no.5 Pretoria oct. 2008
Clustering of groundwaters by Q-mode factor analysis according to their hydrogeochemical origin: a case study of the Cariri Valley (Northern Brazil) wells
Carlos José Freire MachadoI; Maria Marlúcia Freitas SantiagoII; Horst FrischkornIII, *; Josué Mendes FilhoII
IUniversidade Federal do Pará/Campus de Santarém, Física, Santarém-Pa/Brazil
IIUniversidade Federal do Ceará, Depto. de Física, Fortaleza-Ce/Brazil
IIIUniversidade Federal do Ceará, Depto. Engenharia Hidráulica e Ambiental, Fortaleza-Ce/Brazil
Factor analysis was applied to 56 groundwater samples collected from wells located in the Araripe Sedimentary Basin, in the north-east of Brazil. The parameters are a set of 9 physicochemical, chemical, and isotope data, constituted by electrical conductivity (EC), ionic concentrations of Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, Cl-, SO42-, alkalinity and δ18Oº/00. In R-mode factor analysis, the first 3 factors explain 62% of the variance, their loadings allowing the interpretation of hydrogeochemical processes that take place in the area. Q-mode factor analysis on the 56 water samples decreases space dimensionality to 6, explaining 93% of the total database information. With the aid of a scalar and angular measurement method, objects were clustered, resulting in 11 groups classified according to their inherent characteristics, related to their hydrogeological origin.
Keywords: hydrogeochemistry, R-mode factor analysis, Q-mode factor analysis, Araripe sedimentary basin, Cariri valley
The ever-increasing demand for potable water requires knowledge of the quality of stored waters, as well as of the natural and anthropogenic processes that influence it. Waters stored in the same aquifer system can differ in their chemical composition due to internal and external processes, and suitable methodologies are needed for their identification.
A great manifold of parameters is used in water research for assessing water quality, pollution, evaporation, flow dynamics and chemical evolution through the water cycle. Thus, great amounts of data are generated. In order to gain insight into the relationships between the parameters associated with a given set of objects, multivariate techniques have been applied to reveal hidden affinities present in the database, and undetectable by other means. Mathematically, these methods reduce space dimensionality by a suitable choice of new dimensions constructed as linear combinations of the original ones, simplifying the representation of the data set and facilitating its interpretation.
Many multivariate analysis techniques have been applied in hydrological studies: R-mode analysis in groundwater quality studies (Grande et al., 1996; Liu et al., 2003; Panagopoulos et al., 2004; Garcia-Rodriguez et al., 2007); R-mode, Q-mode and cluster analysis to assess surface/groundwater interaction and groundwater mixing (Reghunath et al., 2002); R-mode and cluster analysis to study groundwater quality in the Blue Nile basin (Hussein 2004); principal component analysis (PCA), cluster, and discriminant analysis to evaluate spatial and temporal variations in river waters (Wunderlin et al., 2001; Singh et al., 2004); PCA and R-mode factor analysis to understand origin and variation of each solute in natural waters (Anazawa et al., 2005). Geochemical data were used to test the influence of different factor-analysis techniques on the results extracted (Reimann et al., 2002).
Material and methods
A set of 56 groundwater samples was analysed for 9 physical and chemical parameters comprising major ion concentrations (Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, Cl-, SO42-), alkalinity (alka), electrical conductivity (EC) and the isotope oxygen-18 (δ18Oº/00). The samples were taken from wells located in the Cariri valley, part of the Araripe sedimentary basin, Brazil, embedded in Precambrian basement rock. This basin is divided between the Federal States of Ceará, Pernambuco (Pe) and Piauí (Pi). The greatest part is in Ceará and comprises the Araripe plateau and the Cariri valley, containing the most important groundwater storage of the State. Figure 1 shows the region under study, enclosing the towns of Crato, Juazeiro do Norte, and Barbalha and the areas of the formations Exu, Arajara, Santana, and Rio da Batateira. Water samples were collected from the Rio da Batateira aquifer, from wells that provide water for industrial, rural and urban use.
Factor analysis
Factor analysis is a multivariate statistical method which, through a linear dependence model constructed in an abstract space called factor score space, searches for correlations among measured variables that characterise a set of objects/samples. Its main feature is to decrease space dimensionality through the construction of a new dimensional base that preserves the essential information contained in the original database. Linear dependencies of variables are measured in that new space, where new variables are defined by the column vectors of a so-called factor-loading matrix (A) in the space spanned by the column vectors of the factor score matrix (F).
R-mode factor analysis searches for interrelationships among variables. The mathematical model is:
YN x p = FN x kA'k x p + EN x p'
Y is the data matrix in deviate form
yij =
xij - xj (with xij representing parameter j of object/sample i and xj the mean of variable j) or in standardised form, (sj being the standard deviation of variable j)
A' is A transposed and E the residual matrix.
The maximum likelihood estimation method was used to compute estimates for A by a numerical iterative procedure (Jöreskog 1967; 1977; Davis, 1986).
In R-mode factor analysis, to define the best dimensionality (k) of space, we have calculated chi-square (χk2) and the number of degrees of freedom (dk) for every factor space dimensionality. A measure of the relative importance in increasing the number of dimensions by one is defined by as the difference ratio between chi-square and degrees of freedom.
Q-mode factor analysis is a multivariate technique intended to classify objects according to interrelations among them, so that each object (row) in the data matrix is understood as a combination of hypothetical or real objects with specific parameter values. The technique consists of measuring the resemblance among objects (index of proportional similarity) normalising data matrix rows (objects) so that measured variables can be interpreted as proportions, . Imbrie and Purdy (1962) defined the similarity coefficients as cos θnm = wn.w'm of the angle between any two data matrix row vectors (objects n and m), where wn = [wn1 wn2 .... wnp] is a row vector of matrix W. Then, the similarity matrix can be written as HN x N = WW'.
The model is expressed as the product of a factor- loading matrix (AN x k) and a factor score matrix (Fp x k), WN x p ≈ AN x k F'k x p , and the similarity matrix can be written as H = WW' = AF'FA'. This matrix can be factorised (Reyment et al., 1996) to find F and A.
To achieve simplicity (with the elements of factor-loading vectors approaching 0 or 1) varimax orthogonal rotation, designed by Kaiser (1958) so as to maximise the variance of the factors, was applied to the calculated factor-loading matrices.
Results and discussions
The parameters computed for our data set are listed in Table 1. Considerable information is gained when dimensionality increases from 1 to 2 (Δk = 9.74), from 2 to 3 (Δk = 2.59), but not from 3 to 4 (Δk = 0.74). So the best choice for dimensionality is 3, with 74% of accumulated information.
The varimax rotated factor-loading matrix is shown in Table 2 (where only factors with modulus greater than 0.24 are represented). The first factor explains 26% of total variance, the second, 20% and the third, 16%, total accumulated variance being 62%. This is the percentage of variance explained (in the entire database) without overestimating the amount of information available, according to the chi-square analysis. Space dimensionality decreased from the original 9 variables to only 3, so that, with the aid of multivariate statistical analysis, 3 main hydrogeochemical processes can explain the complexity of Cariri valley waters, as presented below.
Figure 2 is a bar diagram illustrating the relative importance of the variables in the factor-loading vectors from Table 2. All 3 factors have high EC loadings. The 1st factor, explaining 26% of the entire sample set variance, shows high correlation between Ca2+, Mg2+, SO42-, alkalinity and EC. As limestone and gypsum are common minerals in the Santana formation (Ponte and Appi, 1990), this factor proves that hydrogeochemical reactions relating precipitation/dissolution processes with calcite, dolomite, and gypsum minerals are important in water quality evolution in this area.
The 2nd factor, corresponding to 20% of total variance, is related to δ18Oº/00, Na+, Ca2+, SO42- and alkalinity. High correlation with Na+ and, to a lesser extent, with Ca2+, SO42-, and alkalinity can be associated with ion exchange by clay minerals, abundant in the Rio da Batateira formation.
The 3rd factor, responsible for 16% of the total variance, shows high correlations with EC, Mg2+, K+, Cl- and inverse correlation with alkalinity, and so it could represent contamination of waters by domestic sewage.
As in the R-mode case, Q-mode factor analysis also needs to define the dimensionality of factor score space. Table 3 defines space dimensionality and shows the information carried by each factor and total accumulated information as space dimensionality increases. When factors number 6, 93% of the information is accumulated; information is more uniformly distributed among factors from the second one on. The information for Factor 7, in 7 dimensions, and for Factors 7 and 8, in 8 dimensions, has low importance and can be discarded.
Results from varimax rotated factor-loading matrix calculation are given in Table 4 (next page) together with object (well) identification.
Application of the selection criteria (described above at the end of Q-mode factor analysis description) to the 56 elements in factor space resulted in 11 groups (Table 5 next page). In order to interpret groups' characteristics, parameter means for each group were calculated (Table 6 next page). As dimensionality is greater than 3, it is impossible to visualise the results from this procedure graphically in our three-dimensional visual space. Instead of grouping objects by visual inspection, they were analysed with respect to their angular and scalar distance between each member of the set, represented by vectors in a six-dimensional space, and from the group's centroid (defined by the mean vector, with unitary modulus, calculated considering all the elements in the group). If the angular separation and scalar distance between a given vector (object) and the group centroid in this factor score space is less than or equal to a respective predefined cut-off value, then the analysed element becomes an element of this group.
In our analysis, a cut off angle (θc) of 45º and a cut-off scalar distance (dc) equal to the equivalent distance between unitary vectors separated by the cut-off angle, i.e. dc = 2[1 cos(qc)] were chosen.
Figure 3 shows bi-dimensional plots of elements' factor score space positions, marked by geometric symbols according to groups. All graphs have Factor 1 as abscissa. To avoid overloading the graphs, only group centroids are shown. Ordinates, representing the 2nd dimension, are Factors 2 to 6, respectively. Values approaching ±1 imply increasing importance.
Table 6 shows that Group 1 (star) waters are only slightly saline and have a δ18O mean value of 3.1º/00, very close to the rainwater value (≈3.2º/00; Santiago et al., 1997) . These waters represent recent recharge derived directly from rainfall. The fact that this group is the most numerous is not surprising, because its member wells exploit the uppermost unconfined aquifer in the Cariri valley. Factor 1 is the most important one to discriminate this group.
Group 2 water samples (circle) have high salinity and the lowest values of δ18O (3.9º/00). High concentration values of Ca2+, SO42- and alkalinity imply that gypsum and limestone dissolution/precipitation processes are involved. These minerals are characteristic of the Santana formation lithology. Thus, this group was interpreted as recharge waters from the top of the Araripe plateau that percolated the Santana formation, and the low δ18O could be due to altitude effect on rainfall and/or to the presence of palaeo-waters because of the long transit time through that aquitard.
Water samples in Group 3 (diamond) show high EC combined with very high Ca2+ and high Mg2+ and SO42- concentrations as well as high alkalinity. Major ions' mean values are similar to those of Group 2, indicating the same geochemical environment. δ18O, however, is slightly higher (3.0º/00), pointing to an origin from rainfall in lower altitude and/or slightly enriched by evaporation during runoff. We interpret these waters as recharge that leached Araripe plateau cliff matter.
Group 4 (square) waters have as principal characteristics high δ18O values (2.9º/00) and low Ca2+, Na+, K+ concentrations and EC, implying fast infiltration to the aquifer. The elevated δ18O indicates slightly evaporated water. Factor 3 is important in discriminating this group.
Group 5 (triangle) waters are characterised by very high EC and Cl-, high K+ but low Ca2+ and SO42- concentrations. As Cariri valley natural waters have low Cl- concentration, these waters, from urban areas, are associated with chlorine pollution through residential wastewater, which is a major source of Cl-. δ18O = 3.5º/00 shows that these waters are mixed with palaeo-waters (uprising due to a reduction of hydraulic heads in the superior aquifer, caused by excessive pumping in well-fields for public supply). Factor 2 is of high importance in this group's discrimination.
The water samples in Group 6 (triangle) have mean parameter values near the universal mean. However, SO42- concentrations are the smallest of all groups. δ18O = 3.2º/00 indicates recent, fast recharge without evaporation. Factor 6 better discriminates this water type.
Group 7 waters (arrows to the right) show very low concentration of K+ and the lowest one for Cl-. The mean value of δ18O = 3.1º/00 indicates rainfall-derived recent recharge waters. Like Group 5, Factor 2 discriminates this group, but with negative values near 1. In this sense, it is the opposite of Group 5.
Water samples in Group 8 (arrows to the right) have very low alkalinity, low Ca2+, Mg2+ concentrations, and EC. The high δ18O value (2.7º/00) reveals recent recharge waters that suffer evaporation before infiltration. Factors 1 and 4 (with positive correlation) best discriminate this group.
Group 9 waters (asterisk) have high alkalinity and close to rainfall δ18O (3.3º/00). Factor 4 (with negative correlation) best discriminates this group.
Group 10, with 2 elements, and Group 11, with only 1, could not be interpreted hydrogeologically, but one can see that Group 9 is near Group 10, and Group 11 is near Groups 1 and 8. If a larger cut-off angle had been adopted and the 'discrimination power' reduced that way, these groups would have been integrated into their respective groups.
Multivariate statistical methods of factor analysis are shown to be an important tool for characterising hydrogeochemical processes and clustering groundwaters according to their shared hydrochemical characteristics. The 3 principal factors identified by R-mode factor analysis correspond to 3 principal processes taking place in the study area: precipitation/dissolution processes of calcium carbonate and gypsum, cation exchange processes occurring in clay layers, and processes related to anthropogenic contamination with chlorine. Q-modal analysis grouped all 56 samples collected in the study area into 11 groups, detecting similarities.
The relatively high number of groups found shows the wide variety of these groundwaters. In spite of it the methodology applied was efficient enough to permit association of factors and groups with hydrogeological environmental features of the research area.
The authors thank COGERH (Companhia de Gestão dos Recursos Hídricos do Estado do Ceará) and FUNCAP (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Ceará) for logistical and financial support, CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível SuperiorMinistério da EducaçãoBrazil) for a fellowship for one of the authors (Machado) during postgraduate studies.
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