text:
Difference between revisions of "Wikitravel:Welcome message"
Revision as of 17:51, 9 February 2008
When new Wikitravellers set up a user account and make a new user page, it can be nice to welcome them onto the site with a brief welcome message. This has the dual benefit of letting them know that we want their help and shared knowledge, as well as giving some good starting points for learning how to be the best darn contributor ever. See also Wikitravel:How to handle unwanted edits if the newcomer is not too familiar with Wikitravel conventions.
Anyone can welcome new users to the site, and they can use whatever text they want. It is recommended that new user is welcomed if they:
The following Wiki markup has most of the important starter links in it, however, and makes a good standard welcome message.
You should be able to copy and paste that into someone's user talk page. Or you can type {{subst:welcome}} to insert the same text from Template:welcome.
It's nice to personalize the message, though! One easy way to do that is with Template:welcomeplus. When you type "{{subst:welcomeplus|Personal comment here.}}" it inserts a personal comment immediately after "Welcome to Wikitravel." You can also add comments after the template, before you sign the message.
For likely Wikipedians, consider the following message:
You should be able to copy and paste that into someone's user talk page. Or you can type {{subst:wikipedian}} to insert the same text from Template:wikipedian.
Anonymous users
Anonymous contributors should be welcomed in cases of:
Some guidelines we try to follow here:
Just as an example:
Benefits for creating an account
If you feel that you need more reasons for creating an account, the following list may be helpful:
Business owners and Tourism professionals
See Wikitravel:Welcome, business owners and Wikitravel:Welcome, tourism professionals.
Business owners
For business owner who started with some edits, start with something like this:
When the user removed information about competitor:
When the user contributes too flowery description of his properties, something this can help:
or, if you need a more wordy message:
When a flowery list of nearby attractions is added to accommodation property:
When districts are not considered and the item is [repeatedly] added to the main article:
When apartment rental is [repeatedly] added, and it doesn't meet our criteria:


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Cholesterol is a type of fat in the blood. High cholesterol is when there is too much of this fat.
Cholesterol is carried throughout the body by lipoproteins. There are 2 types:
- Low density lipoproteins (LDL) are known as bad cholesterol because they cause fats to build up in blood vessels. High levels can cause diseases of the arteries and heart.
- High density lipoproteins (HDL) are known as good cholesterol because they can remove fats from the blood and protect against disease.
High cholesterol increases your risk of stroke and heart disease.
Causes of high cholesterol include:
- Genetics
- A high fat diet
- Excess weight
- An inactive lifestyle
Risk Factors
The risk of high cholesterol increases with age. It is more common in men. It is also more common in women after menopause.
Factors that may increase your risk of high cholesterol include:
- Family members with high cholesterol
- A high fat diet
- Excess weight
- An inactive lifestyle
High cholesterol does not usually cause symptoms. However, it can increase your risk of atherosclerosis. This can block the flow of blood with a fatty buildup known as plaque. Cholesterol deposits may also form in tendons, under the eyes, or in the eye.
Other factors that may increase your risk include:
- Chest pains—angina
- Heart attack
- Stroke
- Peripheral artery disease (PAD)
Some people with high cholesterol may also have cholesterol deposits in tendons, under the eyes, or in the eye.
Cholesterol screening is done as part of your regular exam. You will be asked about factors that may increase your risk of heart disease or stroke.
A blood test will be done to measure fat levels in your blood. Tests may include:
- Total cholesterol
- HDL cholesterol
- LDL cholesterol
- Triglycerides
Talk to your doctor about the best treatment plan for you. You will need to decrease your LDL levels to lower your risk of heart disease and stroke. Options include:
Diet Changes
You will need to reduce fat in your diet to decrease your LDL levels. Talk to your doctor about the best diet for you. In general:
- Balance the calories you eat with the calories you use through physical activity. This will help you reach or maintain a healthy weight.
- Eat a diet that is high in fruits and vegetables .
- Include foods that are whole grain and high in fiber .
- Eat fish at least twice a week.
- Eat low-fat dairy products.
- Limit red meat and sugary foods and beverages.
- Choose and prepare foods with little or no salt.
- Consider drinking green or black tea. These teas have been shown to help reduce cholesterol.
- If you drink alcohol, drink in moderation. This means no more than 1 drink per day for women and 2 drinks per day for men.
Lifestyle Changes
Things you do throughout the day can help you lower your cholesterol:
- HDL removes fat from the blood. You can raise your HDL through activity. Talk to your doctor about which exercise program is right for you.
- Smoking lowers HDL. If you smoke, talk to your doctor about ways to quit.
- Excess weight raises your LDL and lowers your HDL. If you are overweight, talk to your doctor about ways to lose weight safely.
Treat and control any other medical conditions you have, such as high blood pressure and diabetes.
Cholesterol-Lowering Medicine
Statins are a medicine that may help lower your cholesterol and reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke.
Statins work best when you also eat healthy and exercise. They should not be used in place of healthy lifestyle changes.
To help reduce your chances of high cholesterol, follow the lifestyle and diet changes above.
Some cholesterol issues are due to genetics. These are harder to prevent. Many are linked to diet and lifestyle. Changes to these can help reduce your chances of high cholesterol.
Revision Information
- Reviewer: EBSCO Medical Review Board Marcin Chwistek, MD
- Review Date: 03/2018 -
- Update Date: 04/04/2018 -

subset: commoncrawl


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Welcome to the new CommScope.com experience. Need help? Get Help
Post-SCTE news continued to drive tech media coverage on content delivery & distribution, CCAP and cloud services. CableFAX's Michael Grebb highlighted the industry's next step forward with the upgrade to DOCSIS 3.1 and the growing focus on developing more intuitive software to improve set-top box navigation.
Multichannel News shared more insight from our own CEO Bob Stanzione, who predicted a new class of cloud-connected boxes and gateways will help "spur growth in the industry," while NASDAQ highlighted our third-quarter earnings, showing strong growth in both revenue and net income.
Our Fourth Annual Media Engagement Barometer showed the second screen experience is becoming even more important, which was reinforced by a new study seen in Mashable that children today are using tablets or smartphones to watch videos before they can even speak in full sentences. The study found that by age eight, 72% of children have used a smartphone, tablet or similar device, which will certainly continue as they mature and seek out even more content. Separately, Rapid TV News shared a survey conducted by IHS, which projected that encoder and decoder channel shipments will grow by 25% between 2013 and 2017, demonstrating another effect of online video consumption.
Tell us what's happening in your home. How are you (or your kids) using second screens while watching TV? We want to know!
- 5 Takeaways from SCTE (Oct. 25) By Michael Grebb, CableFAX: The SCTE Cable-Tec Expo just wrapped in Atlanta. And while most of the show involves language that most of us couldn't even begin to comprehend, we were able to decipher a few key takeaways that may help you understand why nearly 10,000 techies, operators and vendors chose to make the trip, a 6% increase over last year.
- Arris CEO Stanzione Sees Video Poised for a Comeback in Cable (Oct. 28) By Jeff Baumgartner, Multichannel News: A mix of fierce competition and a haggard housing market has conspired to keep cable video in the doldrums, but the industry's shift to IP video and cloud-based services will help cable operators reestablish video subscriber growth, at least according to Arris Group chairman and CEO Bob Stanzione.
- Arris Beats on Q3 Earnings (Oct. 31), NASDAQ: Yesterday, after the closing bell, Arris Enterprises Inc. declared strong financial results for the third quarter of 2013, significantly beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate. As a result, in the aftermarket trade on Nasdaq, the stock price of Arris was up by 51 cents (3.09%) to $17.
- 38% of Children Under 2 Use Mobile Media, Study Says (Oct. 28) By Meg Wagner, Mashable: Nearly two in five children have used a tablet or smartphone before they could speak in full sentences, according to a new report. Conducted by family advocacy organization Common Sense Media, the study found that 38% of children under the age of 2 have used a mobile device for playing games, watching videos or other media-related purposes. In 2011, only 10% had.
- IHS: 25% growth for professional encoders, transcoders to 2017 (Oct. 29) By Staff, Rapid TV News: The market for professional encoders and transcoders is seeing a huge benefit from current soaring online video consumption, assisted greatly by content bingeing, says new research from IHS Electronics & Media.


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Drug smuggling is one of the oldest trades known to man. Since Roman times, dealers have looked for ingenious ways to transport drugs from place to place, undetected.
Now, one enterprising American Airlines bag handler has been caught for leading a drug smuggling ring. And he's serving three life sentences for it. Plus an extra 35 years, just in case.
Victor Bourne's drug ring, which included 19 other baggage handlers, was discovered in 2011. American Airlines 1384, a daily flight from Barbados to New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, was nicknamed the "Cocaine Express."
Bourne and his team would stash bricks of cocaine in luggage and compartments. One time they even disassembled the wing to stash bricks of the drug. Luckily they put it back together properly and the plane didn't have a major malfunction.
The sentence is harsh, but they did that in order to make sure nobody else is this stupid again.
Photo Credit: Getty Images


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Receive free standard shipping on orders over $25 to addresses in the continental United States.
Your 2000 Ford Explorer might be the best vehicle you've ever owned. Or you may just be struggling to keep it highway-approved. No matter the situation, Advance Auto Parts has the Brake Master Cylinder Bleeder product you desperately need.
We currently carry 1 Brake Master Cylinder Bleeder products to choose from for your 2000 Ford Explorer, and our inventory prices range from as little as $13.79 up to $13.79.
On top of low prices, Advance Auto Parts offers 1 different trusted brands of Brake Master Cylinder Bleeder products for the 2000 Ford Explorer. We only sell parts from trusted brands like Cardone so that you can find quality parts you can count on.
Don't take our word for it - check out customer ratings and reviews to buy with confidence. We have 12 reviews on our Brake Master Cylinder Bleeder products for the 2000 Ford Explorer from previous customers.
Have parts delivered straight to your home, or find the nearest Advance Auto Parts store to check out our Brake Master Cylinder Bleeder stock in-person!
Search through our amazing selection of Brake Master Cylinder Bleeder products for your 2000 Ford Explorer to find exactly what you're looking for. Compare prices and reviews to choose the best part for you.
Submitted 2014-10-15
By 82MustangGT
From Middletown NY
This tool is not sold on the store shelf. You have to ask at the counter and give them the part number (Part No. 10-5000MCB). Worked really well I used it while the Mast Cylinder was on the car.
Bottom Line recommended
Submitted 2013-02-01
By trunkywunky
From hayward ca
want a faster way of bleed the master cylinder. this is the way to go. unlike the other ways which can take forever
Bottom Line recommended
Submitted 2012-04-12
By Mike
From Ambler , Pa.
Very ingenious tool, makes bench bleeding a snap . Greatly reduces system bleeding time after master cylinder replacement .
Bottom Line recommended
from $13.79View Product


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the insert credit show, episode 128 – if the shoe fits, be a clown
Getting Breath of the Riled in here.
Sharing games with your friends can be fun, OR IT CAN BE ILLEGAL!!!!
Music 'Very No' From Ane-san.
Getting Breath of the Riled in here.
Sharing games with your friends can be fun, OR IT CAN BE ILLEGAL!!!!
Music 'Very No' From Ane-san.
Fruit is vegetables for idiots.
Insert Credit answers your questions! Figuring out a guaranteed ROI, Movie Games, and reviewing the Nintendo Switch.
Music 'Gruen' From Bulk Slash.
Dip yourself into Insert Credit.
Insert Credit talks memories and conventions.
Music 'Heart of Fire' From Castlevania: Harmony of Despair.
Insert Credit Is Stuck in a Room Full of Holes.
That Let's Play Cancer, 3D Printing Steam Controllers, Fake NX Controller, Favorite Easter Eggs, GTA Deer Cam, Xbox Wins Gross GDC Party Award, and Firewatch Copycats.
Music 'Everything vs Everything' from MUGEN
Insert Credit Announces 'The Face Phone.' Changing the World One Face at a Time.
Coleco Chameleon, Insert Credit Console, Nintendo NX, Spintires, Hacking Your Own Game, Caravan Mode, Cool Modes in Video Games, Best Video Game Remixes, Doom.
Music 'Brutal Doom Trailer Theme' by Andrew Hulshult.
In this episode a fruitless conversation will ensue.
Real Life NPCs, Worst Licensed Beat 'Em Up Possible, Video Game Reactions, Arbitrary Constraints, and Heat: The Video Game.
Music 'Duck Hunt Remix Collab 01 – M.V.F.L.G.' by YouTube User Tellee Kinetic.
Are you a paragon? Or are you a maverick?
Narrative Genre Classifications
Music 'Heartache' From Undertale.
Video games, but who cares?
Writing, Voice, Grasping for Words, Reading Influences, Starting with a Point or a Feeling, Worst Writing, Liking Your Own Writing, and Forgiving Bad Writers.
Music 'Courtroom Lobby First Prelude' From Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
"I'd pay hundreds if I was assured it'd be a great experience." -Nicholas Wasilewski, Action Button Entertainment Programmer
The Witness, $100 Video Game, Most Paid for a Game, Greatest Resell Value Games, RAD Lifetime Spending.
Music 'The Witness Release Date Trailer' From The Witness.
Personally, I call it a Star Punch.
Thoughts on the term 'Gamer.'
Music 'Main Theme' From Punch-Out!! Wii.


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So, you're considering leasing your next vehicle.
Sure, about 80 percent of auto consumers either pay cash or finance their purchase with a loan, but you're considering joining the other one-fifth of intrepid consumers willing to forgo ownership for a new set of wheels and the short-term benefits that leasing provides.
Maybe you're self-employed and can write off your leasing payment as a business expense. Or maybe you're trying to get into a luxury model for less upfront cash. Or maybe you demand the latest safety and technology innovations and don't want to be saddled with a 60-month loan term. Or maybe you just like driving a new car every couple of years.
Most consumers don't need a new car every few years, but maybe you're in the minority.
For many leasing consumers, the monthly payment is the carrot. When interest rates are low, lease payments may be close to payments for buying a car outright. When interest rates go up, leasing becomes more attractive. But even tossing out interest rates, the reliability and quality of new cars can make leasing appealing. It often comes down to residual values, or the worth of a car after several years of ownership, experts say.
Lower payments and higher interest rates aren't the only reasons to lease, because leasing also offers purchasing flexibility, experts say. Lessees don't have to worry about owning a depreciating asset (as automakers know all too well) or dealing with hefty repair bills. At the end of the lease term, assuming they've kept the car in good condition and stayed within prescribed mileage limits, they can simply turn in the car and walk away.
Of course, those benefits have a price. While it's fun to have a new car every few years, consumers who lease have nothing to show when the lease is up; they have to either lease another car, or bite the bullet and purchase a car.
Categories: New Inventory, Finance


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Telecommunications encompasses a wide variety of tasks for the entire college including all of the telephony devices on East, West, and Main Campuses including emergency and elevator telephones. We also provide and maintain all of the Telecommunication needs of the Livingston County Center and the Clinton County Center.
Telecomm's largest task is the administration as well as the initial setup and the maintenance of a complex VoIP telephony system that includes approximately 2600 end points (phones, etc.) 7 servers, and two analog PBX devices spread over 20 locations.Phone and Voicemail Tip Sheet
Another part of the telephony system involves the setup and maintenance of 10 Automated Call Distribution queues. These are a computerized system that helps to ensure that callers reach the correct party when they try to contact college resources such as the Help Desk, the Welcome Center, Counseling and Advising, and Enrollment Services.
Personal Computing, Network, & Telecommunication Services
Phone: (517) 483-5221 (Help Desk)
Additional contact information »


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Establishing the Foundation
While the organization's name was soon shortened to the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, its emphasis on protecting, nurturing and supporting opportunities for children has continued.
For much of the 1930s, the Kellogg Foundation worked mainly in and around its hometown of Battle Creek, Mich. Its very first effort focused on children's health through the Michigan Community Health Project (MCHP). The MCHP served seven counties in south central Michigan. It was a comprehensive effort that targeted K-12 education and public health in rural communities where one-room schoolhouses and outdoor privies were still common.
The Ann J. Kellogg School – named for Mr. Kellogg's mother – pioneered the practice of teaching children with disabilities alongside children without. While this was a groundbreaking idea when it opened in 1931, the Ann J. Kellogg School helped make such "mainstreaming" a common practice and it continues to operate.
Reflecting Mr. Kellogg's conviction that "Education offers the best opportunity for improving one generation over another," in the mid-1930s the foundation experimented with outdoor education by building schools and outdoor camps in rural Michigan. At the conclusion of the experiment in 1940, one of the camps at Clear Lake became the first year-round public school camp in the state, making outdoor education an integral part of the participating schools' curriculum.
Foundation Growth
During the early years of World War II, the Kellogg Foundation expanded its grants beyond Michigan and the United States. More than 450 study fellowships for Latin American health professionals paved the way for extensive programming in the Southern Hemisphere. In war-damaged Europe, Kellogg grants helped revive and modernize farm economies.
Mr. Kellogg died in 1951, at age 91. But virtually until the day of his death, he was interested in and well-informed about the workings of the Kellogg Foundation, which continued to grow. By the foundation's 25th anniversary, its assets totaled $124 million. Its annual "payout," the amount spent for charitable purposes, had skyrocketed from $26,000 in 1930 to $4.4 million in 1955. In its programming, the foundation focused on key areas of postwar concern: the need for more nurses and health care administrators, and the demand for more two-year, community colleges.
Further reflecting Mr. Kellogg's belief in education, the foundation made a long-term commitment to the then-new American Association of Junior Colleges (AAJC). The AAJC's foundation-funded leadership development program prepared a generation of community college administrators to help make their institutions more effective and inclusive in serving their communities.
The foundation's steady growth continued during the 1960s and 1970s. By its 50th anniversary in 1980, the foundation was among the world's largest private philanthropic organizations. Since its creation, the foundation had invested nearly $500 million to improve health, agriculture and education on four continents.
New Opportunities
In the mid-1980s, the foundation enhanced its international reputation by expanding its programming into southern Africa. In the face of apartheid, college bursaries (scholarships) from the Kellogg Foundation gave unprecedented opportunities to black South Africans. Changing social needs also prompted an evolution in the foundation's grantmaking, resulting in the creation of program areas including philanthropy and volunteerism, and food systems and rural development.
The 1990s brought the boom years of the "new economy." Like most modern organizations, the Kellogg Foundation was quick to exploit the benefits of information technology, including improved record keeping, communications and workplace efficiency. The foundation also used grantmaking to narrow the digital divide – reaching out to the millions of people who lacked access to technology because of poverty, illiteracy or geographic isolation.
By its 75th anniversary in 2005, the foundation's assets totaled nearly $6 billion. And during those 75 years, the foundation had granted more than $3 billion.
But as Mr. Kellogg once said, "Dollars do not produce character." As its assets have grown, the foundation has continued to seek more effective ways to advance its vision of a world "in which all children thrive."
An Evolving Foundation
In order to refocus on vulnerable children and renew its commitment to Mr. Kellogg's original intent, in 2007 the foundation adopted its current mission statement: "The W.K. Kellogg Foundation supports children, families, and communities as they strengthen and create conditions that propel vulnerable children to achieve success as individuals and as contributors to the larger community and society."
In 2007, the foundation also became one of a small group of foundations seeking to use its assets more effectively while preserving and growing its endowment. Under a pilot program of mission driven investments, the foundation is investing assets in a way that realizes both financial and social returns, a concept also known as "double bottom-line investing."
By 2012, the foundation's assets had grown more to more than $7 billion, more than 100 times Mr. Kellogg's initial investment of $66 million.
The foundation took another step toward realizing its vision by adopting a new strategic framework. Previously, both the organization and its grantmaking were structured around individual programming areas.


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Global presence - at home in Austria
The CERAM brand of catalyst and industrial honeycombs are manufactured at the IBIDEN Ceram GmbH plant located in Frauental, Austria. The names CERAM and IBIDEN Ceram are used interchangeably. IBIDEN Ceram GmbH owns two subsidiaries based in the United States and South Korea.
CERAM has developed into a global supplier of catalysts and industrial ceramics and currently has customers in more than 40 countries. In the course of its international expansion, the company set up subsidiaries in the United States (IBIDEN Ceram Environmental Inc., Overland Park, Kansas) and South Korea (IBIDEN Ceram Frauenthal Korea Co. Ltd., Seoul). In addition, it opened a liaison office in Beijing in 2006. The company currently has more than 400 employees.
IBIDEN Ceram's history as a technical ceramics manufacturer goes back more than 95 years. The company emerged into the promising new SCR catalyst market in 1985 with the introduction of a homogeneous honeycomb catalyst product. Since this time the company has added non-catalytic honeycombs (heat storage media and foundry filters), proprietary SCR diesel catalyst for commercial vehicles, and SCR plate catalyst.
"IBIDEN Ceram is one of the world's leading producers of industrial honeycomb ceramics."
The introduction of progressive environmental legislation around the world is a key driver of the CERAM´s business activities. The company itself is careful to comply with all environmental legislation, orders and notices. IBIDEN Ceram is certified according to the EN ISO 9001: 2008, EN ISO 14001: 2004and ISO/TS 16949: 2009 standards, which form the basis of its integrated occupational health and safety, environment protection, and quality management systems. The environmental management system is the cornerstone of the company´s effort to make responsible use of natural resources and systematically reduce its wastewater, solid waste streams, and atmospheric emissions.
"Innovation, quality and environmental protection are the keys to our success"


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This page is shown in English as no translation to Język polski is available.
LeSS Courses
There are several courses for learning more about LeSS given by Certified LeSS Trainers:
- Certified LeSS Practitioner: Principles to Practices
- Certified LeSS for Executives: Principles, Organization, and Change
- Certified LeSS Basics: Short one-day Teaser to LeSS
The LeSS Practitioner course assumes basic Scrum knowledge. We'd recommend to read Scrum Primer or Scrum Guide and to join a Scrum course (from either ScrumAlliance or Scrum.org).


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Despite season-ending knee injury, Nerlens Noel should still enter draft
Nerlens Noel is expected to miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL. (Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
By Ben Golliver
This is a nightmare scenario within a nightmare scenario, but it's not a total catastrophe.
Kentucky announced Wednesday that center Nerlens Noel, regarded as one of the top prospects in the 2013 NBA draft, tore the ACL in his left knee during a Tuesday loss to Florida, an injury that will end his freshman season.
"Minor setback for a MAJOR comeback!," Noel tweeted on Wednesday. "I love you all and can't thank y'all enough for the prayers."
There is never a good time and place for an ACL injury but this is about as bad as it gets. Noel was less than five months away from the 2013 draft, in which he has been regarded as a likely top-three pick, and perhaps the No. 1 overall selection. His injury generally carries a nine-to-12 month recovery, forcing him to choose between returning to Kentucky for his sophomore season, joining the team midseason once he's healthy, or taking his chances by declaring for the draft.
If he chooses the college route, he might only have a few months to showcase his skills before the 2013-14 NCAA season completes. If he chooses the draft route, he won't be ready to do any meaningful basketball work during the pre-draft process, forcing teams to evaluate him on his existing body of work.
The NBA's one-and-done rule prevented Noel, 18, from making the leap from high school to the NBA. Noel did everything he could to shorten his journey to the pros, reclassifying during high school so that he could enter college a year earlier than originally expected. And yet here, on the doorstep to the millions of guaranteed dollars that await top prospects, the pages of a carefully laid plan get thrown up into the air. At least that's how the story goes.
In reality, Noel now becomes a major case study for the one-and-done rule, which some see as a nuisance and a disservice to young stars who are ready to be chosen but ineligible to be selected. Had the rule not existed, Noel was a virtual lock to be a first-round pick in 2012. His status for 2013 is thrown up in the air, for the moment, by the injury. It's too early to be certain about his 2014 stock. What a mess, right? Maybe not.
The shock from the gruesome injury is very real but there are a few good reasons to believe that Noel will emerge from this episode better than you might think.
An ACL tear is a major injury but it's become so common in the NBA that it's just a part of the game. Derrick Rose, Rajon Rondo, Leandro Barbosa, Brandon Rush, Iman Shumpert, Ricky Rubio, Josh Howard, Lou Williams and Baron Davis have all suffered ACL injuries during the last year. The treatment path is clear and a player's ability to contribute post-injury has been proven. Executives selecting in 2013 can be reasonably certain that a player will able to do everything that was expected of him pre-injury.
GMs don't select teenagers, especially teenage big men, for their impact in Year One. Missing the first half or two-thirds of an NBA season would be an unconventional way to begin a career, but it doesn't spell disaster for the team. Some executives picking at the very top might feel a major urgency to bring in an impact player immediately, but that feeling dissipates quickly as you go further down the board. Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo selected Jonas Valanciunas No. 5 in 2011, knowing he would likely need to wait a full season to bring the Lithuanian center to the NBA. Would Valanciunas have gone earlier if teams didn't need to wait? Yes, but he didn't slip that far at all.
Once you get outside the top 10, the calculus becomes even looser. Last year, the Rockets selected Royce White, who suffers from generalized anxiety disorder, at No. 16. The Celtics took Jared Sullinger at No. 21 despite red flag issues with his back. White has yet to play a game for the Rockets this season and Sullinger recently underwent season-ending back surgery. An injured Noel would enter the 2013 as a far more promising player than White and Sullinger in 2012. There's just no risk of a free-fall here; it remains a no-brainer that he enter the draft this season because those guaranteed millions will still be there for him.
Indeed, Jonathan Givony of Draft Express wrote Wednesday that Noel is the "same prospect" he was before the injury and that he still expects Noel to go "one-to-three" if he enters the 2013 NBA draft. ESPN.com's Chad Ford, meanwhile, said that Noel would be "highly considered for picks two through five."
What, exactly, would a patient GM be getting in Noel? Here's Sports Illustrated's Seth Davis on his impact.
This is the first time in the long, storied history of the Fast Break that our Player of the Week went through an entire game without scoring a single field goal. That's how good Noel was in all other aspects of the game last Tuesday night at Ole Miss. It was a performance for the ages -- Noel had 12 blocks, seven rebounds and two assists in the Wildcats' season-turning victory. The most impressive aspect was the fact that Noel played the final 10 minutes with four fouls. Noel is obviously not a polished offensive player (especially from the foul line, where he is shooting an unsightly 53.6 percent), but he followed that up by scoring a season-high 19 points (to go along with 14 rebounds, three assists and two blocks) in UK's overtime win at Texas A&M. Noel is getting more confident every time he steps on the floor, which is why this young Kentucky squad is rounding into form.


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Hello and welcome back to my blog!
This time i'm going to talk about the basic components that make up a physics engine and how to put them together; this tutorial is aimed at programmers who have a basic grasp of maths and geometry but would like to step into the world of simulation.
It is my hope that if, at the beginning of this article, you are able to code the physics behind the 1972 game Pong, by the end of the article you will be equally happy writing your own constraints to use in your own physics solver!
I've always found the title of those books of from the '...for dummies' series reassuring; after all, if a dummy can learn this stuff you should stand a good chance, right?
Hence the title of this article.
Plan of action
Ok, so i'm going to cover a few of the things you might want in a physics engine:
- Rigid bodies
- Collisions
- Resting contact
- Constraints (Joints)
Bear with me, this is going to start out really basically, but hopefully later on it will become clear why.
Starting out with particles, which we assume will have a position P and a velocity V. Each frame we advance the position of P by adding the velocity V on to it. This is called integration.
You can use whatever units you like for you simulation; the usual choice is one unit/meter which is what i'm using here - the screen is two metres by two metres (in our world), so our velocities are specified in metres/second. To make this work, we must know how many seconds there are per frame, then we can do P += V*dt in our integration to advance the particles properly, where dt is the number of seconds per frame.
We can simulate multiple particles by storing an array of positions and velocities, and looping over integrating each one. To prevent our particles going off screen we would like to collide them against the screen's edges.
To bounce the particles off the edges we simply detect collisions against the edges and reverse the velocity in the offending axis, thus:
for all i if (P[i].x < -1 && V[i].x < 0) { V[i].x = -V[i].x; } if (P[i].y > 1 && V[i].y > 0) { V[i].y = -V[i].y; }; if (P[i].x > 1 && V[i].x > 0) { V[i].x = -V[i].x; } if (P[i].y < -1 && V[i].y < 0) { V[i].y = -V[i].y; }
The first condition of each case checks for intersection of the particle in space and the second checks that the particle is actually heading towards the edge. The second condition is important otherwise we would do the collision response again next frame erronusly should the particles move more than one pixel per frame. This second condition carries though all of impulse based rigid body simulation and is what separates inequality contraints (e.g contacts) and equality constraints (most joints).
This is the kind of example code you will no doubt have written a long time ago when you first started getting interested in simulation. I'm including it here because I think there is a natural progression from this easy example to more complex physics code.
Whats going on in this simple simulation?
Well, without knowing it, we have assumed a physical matieral type for our particles including the coefficient of restituition and followed Newton's principle of conservation of momentum. We have also chosen that the world have infinite mass such that it doesn't feel a collision response when the particles impact on it. By choosing to reflect particles on impact we are also preseving their momentum (even though we have ignored their mass in our calculations), indicating that we have chosen a coefficient of restitution of 1, i.e. perfectly elastic - like a super-ball. Additionally, we have chosen an impulse/velocity model for the collision response, rather than a force/acceleration model - we did this simply by changing the velocity instantaneously, rather than over a period of time.
What we have here is actually a highly optimised special case physics simulation. Optimised how, you ask? Well, let me explain:
If we were to code the above "properly", not taking any short cuts, we would have to assume the following. Our environment is defined by its boundaries which are four axis aligned planes (actually, they're lines because we are in 2d). Each one has a normal (which points inwards) and a distance to the origin. They look like this:
Planes[4] = { (1, 0, 1), (0, -1, 1), (-1, 0, 1), (0, 1, 1) }
So, now we have to detect our collisions as we did before, but we can't take any shortcuts this time. In order to detect if our particles have penetrated the planes we must perform a dot product and add the plane's distance to origin:
for all particles i { for all planes j { distance = P[i].x*Planes[j].a + P[i].y*Planes[j].b + Planes[j].c; if (distance < 0) { // collision responce } } }
What this code is doing is finding, by projection, how much of the vector from the plane to the particle is in the direction of the plane normal. Because our plane's normals are unit length, this is a measure of the closest distance from the particle to the plane. Obviously, if this distance is less than 0, our particle has penetrated the plane and we need to take action to perform the collision response.
Now, if we take a closer look at that distance check above, including each plane's coefficents:
plane0dist = P[i].x*1 + P[i].y*0 + 1; plane1dist = P[i].x*0 + P[i].y*-1 + 1; plane2dist = P[i].x*-1 + P[i].y*0 + 1; plane3dist = P[i].x*0 + P[i].y*1 + 1;
If we simplify that down a bit:
plane0dist = P[i].x + 1; plane1dist = -P[i].y + 1; plane2dist = -P[i].x + 1; plane3dist = P[i].y + 1;
Re-arranging slightly we get these plane tests conditions:
if (P[i].x < -1) if (-P[i].y < -1) = if (P[i].y > 1) if (-P[i].x < -1) = if (P[i].x > 1) if (P[i].y < -1)
Which are exactly the same as those which we used in our first simple example. The second condition for each plane must also be satisfied so we only do the collision response once per collision. This can be done by performing a dot product between the particle's velocity and the normal for each plane;
if (P[i].x < -1 && V[i]•N[i] < 0)
We call this the normal velocity since its the particle's velocity in the direction of the normal. If this results in a value less than zero then the particle is moving towards the plane and we allow the collision. Once the collision is resolved, the normal velocity will be >= 0 depending on the coefficient of restitution. I could perform the same analysis on the second condition as i did the first to prove that this general solution is the same as the first specific version, but i will leave that as an excercise for the reader.
This shows our two approaches are physically the same.
Ok, so what do we do now for the collision response?
We need a solution which achieves the same result as the original program but is more general. We can do this using the reflection vector from the law of reflection. The reflection vector is calculated thus:
Where V is the velocity vector and N the surface normal. We need to do a similar comparison with this operator as we did with the collision checks:
plane0vel x = V.x - 2* 1*(V.x* 1 + V.y* 0) = V.x -2*V.x = -V.x plane0vel y = V.y - 2* 0*(V.x* 1 + V.y* 0) = V.y - 0 = V.y plane1vel x = V.x - 2* 0*(V.x* 0 + V.y*-1) = V.x - 0 = V.x plane1vel y = V.y - 2*-1*(V.x* 0 + V.y*-1) = V.y - 2*V.y = -V.y plane2vel x = V.x - 2*-1*(V.x*-1 + V.y* 0) = V.x - 2*V.x = -V.x plane2vel y = V.y - 2* 0*(V.x*-1 + V.y* 0) = V.y plane3vel x = V.x - 2* 0*(V.x* 0 + V.y* 1) = V.x plane3vel y = V.y - 2* 1*(V.x* 0 + V.y* 1) = V.y - 2*V.y = -V.y
Which, you should be able to see, are the exact same resulting velocities after collision with each plane in the first simple example.
You will have noticed that mass has been ignored in our calculations so far, this is because it just drops right out of the equations when you are dealing with collision against a body of infinite mass (i.e. our simple world).
So what does this new version look like so far in pseudo-code?
for all particles i { for all planes j { N = {Planes.a, Planes.b}; distance = P[i]•N + Planes[j].c; if (distance < 0 && V[i]•N < 0) { // collision response, reflect particle V[i] -= 2*N*N•V[i]; } } }
Great, so we've turned a nice simple example into one that's far more complicated than it needs to be. Why?
Firstly, to demonstrate that the roots of all our inital assumptions were grounded in physics and secondly, to demonstrate the advantages of the more complex implementation. Because we now have a way to deal with arbitrary 2d planes instead of axis aligned planes, it means we can rotate our world and still have the simulation work correctly:
Move the mouse over the demo to rotate the planes. Note that in this demo, i have done some correction to the points as the planes are rotated to make sure the points still lie within the planes.
Ok, so this is all very well but its not a very real world simulation. There is no gravity and the coefficient of restistution is far too high - in the real world, most everyday things have a near plastic coefficient of restitution, i.e near 0.
So, adding gravity is pretty simple, we just subtract gravity from our particle's velocities before we do any collision, remembering to account for the fact that gravity is an acceleration:
V[i] += G*dt
In this case G is the vector {0, -9.8} and dt is the number of seconds per frame as before.
We would also like to use a different coefficient of restitution as well because our particles might not be made of super-rubber. Recall the reflection vector equation that we used earlier:
We can actually re-write this equation to include the coefficient of restitution:
R = V - (1+e)*N*(V•N)
Where e is the coefficient of restitution which varies from 0 (totally plastic) to 1 (totally elastic). You can see that these two equations are equivelent; if we set e to 1, we get the original equation. The particles in this example have coefficients of restitution varying from 0 to 1.
The only thing we can now do to this particle simulation to make it more realistic (without going to a full rigid body simulation with rotation) is to handle masses in our collisions. To accomplish this, we will have to use circles instead of particles, since its quite unlikely that two particles will ever collide what with them having no actual size!
As per Figure 1, two circles A and B intersect if the distance between them is less than the sum of their radii. The collision normal is simply the vector d between the two, but normalised.
In order to deal with the masses of our particles we need to do some thinking regarding the reflection equation that we already have. What we really need is some kind of mass ratio to apply a bias to the equation so that lighter particles get pushed out of the way by heavier particles, but we need it to conserve momentum as well.
ratioa = Mb / (Ma + Mb)
ratiob = Ma / (Ma + Mb)
The above two ratios will do the trick. Here is an example:
Ma = 1.0
Mb = 0.5
ratioa = 0.5 / (1.0 + 0.5) = 1/3
ratiob = 1.0 / (1.0 + 0.5) = 2/3
Obviously 1/3 + 2/3 = 1, so you can see that this conserves momentum correctly, and since body b is half the mass of body a, it should experience twice the reaction upon collision, which it does.
So we can plug these two ratios into our reflection vector equation to obtain two new equations for the reflected velocity of each body after collision:
Va = Va - (1+e)*N*((Vb-Va) • N)*(Mb / (Ma+Mb))
Vb = Vb - (1+e)*-N*((Vb-Va) • -N)*(Ma / (Ma+Mb))
Our collision code gives us the normal pointing from body b towards body a, so we must reverse the normal to calculate body b's reflected velocity. You will have noticed that there are a lot of duplicated calculations in the two equations above. We would like to simplify this down a bit. What we can do is use the relative velocity of the two objects in question:
Vr = Va - Vb
Now that we have only one velocity to deal with the equation gets simpiler.
I = (1+e)*N*(Vr • N)
Va = -I*(Mb / (Ma+Mb))
Vb = +I*(Ma / (Ma+Mb))
What we are doing here is to treat one object as being stationary relative to the other moving object. But there is still more we can do here to simplify these equations:
I = (1+e)*N*(Vr • N)*(Ma*Mb)/( Ma+Mb)
Va - = I / Ma
Vb + = I / Mb
By combining the ratios we can save some more calculation and reduce the final step to a simple divide though by the mass of the objects in question to produce the final velocities for those objects. You can see this works because
(Ma*Mb)/( Ma+Mb) / Ma = Mb/( Ma+Mb)
(Ma*Mb)/( Ma+Mb) / Mb = Ma / (Ma+Mb)
Finally we can show that (from fractions)
(Ma+Mb)/( Ma*Mb) = 1/Ma + 1/Mb
Which means we can re-write the final linear impulse equation
I = (1+e)*N*(Vr • N) / (1/Ma + 1/Mb)
This is handy because we can just store 1/Ma and 1/Mb inside the definition of our circle rigid bodies so we don't have to re-calculate. It also means that we now have a way to represent infinitly massive objects, such as our world (by storing the inverse mass as 0).
Va - = I * 1/Ma
Vb + = I * 1/Mb
In these demos you can manipulate the circles with the mouse.
Ok, so you probably already noticed we are starting to see problems due to penetration caused by the collision detection system detecting the collision after its already too late. This problem only gets more severe as we add more rigid-bodies, and is compounded by the fact that the system is currently doing nothing to correct the penetration:
To combat this problem, we need to be able to detect collisions before they actually happen and deal with penetration. Luckily i've covered this technique already in a previous article which i suggest you read.
Once this technique is applied the problem just goes away; and there are only a few lines of code required. The only caveat is that we have to assume that the coefficient of restitution is never required to be non-0; in the majority of real-world cases this isn't too much of a limitation, especially given the benefits.
Software engineering
In physics engines, the mathsy part is only half the story; the second half is how you organise your physics engine in terms of classes hierarchy and how you actually code it.
I'm going to present one possible solution here which has worked for me in the past; it may be over-simplified for your requirements but it should give you an idea. The language here is actionscript, but the principles apply to any OO language.
public class RigidBody { protected var m_pos:Vector2; protected var m_vel:Vector2; protected var m_invMass:Number; /// /// /// public function RigidBody( pos:Vector2, vel:Vector2, invMass:Number ) { m_pos=pos; m_vel=vel; m_invMass=invMass; } /// /// /// public function GenerateContact( rb:RigidBody ):Contact { throw new Error("Not implemented on base class"); } /// /// /// public function Integrate( dt:Number ):void { m_pos=m_pos.Add( m_vel.MulScalar( dt ) ); } }
So, i've defined a RigidBody base class containing the three parameters that we need so far in our example. There is an integrate function to move foward in time and (what should be a virtual) function called GenerateContact() which will generate a collision normal and distance between any two RigidBodys.
public class Circle extends RigidBody { private var m_radius:Number; /// /// /// public function Circle( pos:Vector2, radius:Number, invMass:Number ) { m_radius = radius; super(pos, new Vector2(), invMass); } /// /// /// public override function GenerateContact( rb:RigidBody ) :Contact { if ( rb is Circle ) { ... } else if (rb is ...) { ... } else { throw new Error("unahandled case!"); } } }
And we have a Circle which derives from RigidBody and extends its functionality by having a radius parameter. Also, we have implemented the GenerateContact() function to return the required information when needed.
By separating functionality out into base class and concrete implementations we will be able to deal with multiple RigidBodys in the same lists, which greatly simplifies the code.
public class Plane extends RigidBody { private var m_n:Vector2; private var m_d:Number public function Plane(n:Vector2, d:Number ) { m_n=n; m_d=d; super(n.MulScalar(-d), new Vector2(), 0); } /// /// /// public override function GenerateContact( rb:RigidBody ):Contact { if ( rb is Particle ) { ... } else if ( rb is Circle ) { ... } else { throw new Error("unhandled case!"); } }
Above is another concrete implementation, this time representing an infinite plane (our screen edges).
public class Contact { public var m_normal:Vector2; public var m_dist:Number; /// /// /// public function Contact( n:Vector2, dist:Number ) { m_normal = n; m_dist = dist; } }
Above is the definition for the Contact class, which represents the information the system will need to resolve one collision.
private function Update( e:GameLoopEvent ):void { const dt:Number = Math.min(e.m_elapsed, 1.0/15.0); // apply gravity for each ( var p:RigidBody in m_rigidBodies ) { if ( p.m_InvMass>0 ) { p.m_vel=p.m_vel.Add( Constants.kGravity.MulScalar( dt ) ); } } // collide for ( var i:int=0; i<0||rbj.m_InvMass>0 ) { const c:Contact=rbi.GenerateContact( rbj ); ... //resolve collision } // integrate for each ( p in m_rigidBodies ) { p.Integrate( dt ); } }
Above is what our update loop currently looks like. The order here is fairly important;
- Firstly, external forces are applied - i.e. gravity.
- Then, all the collision detection is done to generate a contact which needs to be resolved for each pair of interacting rigid bodies.
- Finally, each RigidBody is integrated forward in time.
The time-step clamping at the beginning is so that as we debug the code, we don't end up with such a massive time-step the next frame that everything explodes!
Ok, so we have a pile of spheres up and running and our physics engine is starting to take shape quite nicely, what about constraints?
Before i talk about this, i feel i should introduce some concepts needed to understand the problem.
Loosely, this is something which enforces a condition between two rigid bodies. So, when there is a collision we create a constraint which enforces the rule that the colliding rigid body may not move through the object it collides with but also that it do this by only pushing. We already derrived the code for this above (not taking into account rotation yet):
I = (1+e)*N*(Vr • N) / (1/Ma + 1/Mb)
All the constraints i'm going to work with are impulse velocity level constraints. Forces and accellerations will not come into it.
Inequality constraint
This is a constraint which only acts in one direction. So a collision constraint is an inequality constraint because it is only allowed to push and never pull. If it were allowed to pull, it would stick the rigid body to the object it collided with. The way we enforce this inequality is simply the check i mentioned at the beginning:
if (V•N < 0) { // handle constaint }
Little Big Planet contained a lot of constraints of this type; winch, piston, string are a few examples - they only allowed motion in one direction within the limits of the constraint. So a piston, for example was a length constraint with lower and upper bounds on the allowed length.
Equality constraint
This constraint type is allowed to pull and push equally. An example is a point to point constraint, where two rigid bodies are connected by a single point - one point on each body is forced to lie in the same place. With a hinge constraint the whole hinge axis is constrained to lie in the same place on both rigid bodies. A rod constraint would be a a length constraint where the length is never allowed to change.
Designing a constraint
The way to approach how to design a particular constraint is to think about what restricting effect it has on the two rigid-bodies its connected between.
For example, a distance constraint (a rod in LBP) simply prevents the two end points of the rod getting any closer than (or any further away from) the specified distance. Putting the end points exactly at the centre of mass of each rigid body, as we are about to describe keeps simple circular rigid bodies at a constant distance from each other, while still allowing both of them to continue to move around in 2d space.
In Figure 2, bodies A and B must not get any closer than distance d, but are still allowed to move around independently otherwise - this resolves as each body being able to orbit the other as they fly through space.
Impulse/velocity level
As mentioned previously, the simulator i'm describing is an impulse/velocity level simulator, rather than a force/acceleration level one. This means that all the constraints must only be solved by applying impulses to change velocities of bodies.
What this means when designing a constraint is that once you've worked out how it behaves on a position/distance level (i.e. on paper, with a diagram), you need to then think about how that translates into velocities.
So, to recap: our distance constraint stops the end points getting any closer or further away from each other. In velocity terms this is describing a one dimensional constraint; the relative velocity of the bodies is constrained to be zero in one particular axis. That axis is defined by vector between the end points.
In Figure 3, A and B have starting velocities which violate the length constraint that we've placed between them (from Figure 2). The first step in solving a constraint is to figure out where that velocity actually is. In this case you can see its the projection of Av and Bv on to the length constraint axis.
Once we have the velocities we want to remove, we convert into a single, relative velocity (as we did before with the contact constraint) and we already derived the maths required to solve one dimensional constraints (from the contact constraint):
I = (1+e)*N*(Vr • N) / (1/Ma + 1/Mb)
Lets re-write that so it becomes less of a mouth-full:
I = RelativeVelocityMagnitudeToRemove / (1/Ma + 1/Mb)
In addition to the velocity part, there will also be some positional fix-up to do, since with more than one constraint acting in the system simultaneously it will often fail to be resolved with one one solver iteration. In this simple example we just add an artificial correction to the velocity (current length - desired length) / time-step.
Above is the result - you can manipulate the circles with the mouse as before, although one is fixed in place to demonstrate the constraint chain.
Software engineering
So, lets cover the additions to the code.
public class Constraint { protected var m_bodyA:RigidBody; protected var m_bodyB:RigidBody; /// /// /// public function Constraint( bodyA:RigidBody, bodyB:RigidBody ) { m_bodyA = bodyA; m_bodyB = bodyB; Assert( m_bodyA.m_InvMass>0||m_bodyB.m_InvMass>0, "Constraint between two infinite mass bodies not allowed" ); } /// /// /// public function ApplyImpulse( I:Vector2 ):void { m_bodyA.m_vel = m_bodyA.m_vel.Add( I.MulScalar(m_bodyA.m_InvMass) ); m_bodyB.m_vel = m_bodyB.m_vel.Sub( I.MulScalar(m_bodyB.m_InvMass) ); } /// /// /// public function Solve( dt:Number ):void { throw new Error("base class doesn't implement!"); } }
Above you can see we've added another base class; this one defines the basic part of a constraint but doesn't actually define any concrete details - as before, we leave this to the derived classes. It does however provide a framework for us - each constraint must implement the Solve() function which does the meat of the work. Additionally, there is an ApplyImpulse() function defined to save us some work in the concrete implementations.
public class DistanceConstraint extends Constraint { private var m_distance:Number; /// /// /// public function DistanceConstraint( bodyA:RigidBody, bodyB:RigidBody, distance:Number ) { super(bodyA, bodyB); m_distance = distance; } /// /// /// public override function Solve( dt:Number ):void { // get some information that we need const axis:Vector2 = m_bodyB.m_Pos.Sub(m_bodyA.m_Pos); const currentDistance:Number = axis.m_Len; const unitAxis:Vector2 = axis.MulScalar(1/currentDistance); // calculate relative velocity in the axis, we want to remove this const relVel:Number = m_bodyB.m_vel.Sub(m_bodyA.m_vel).Dot(unitAxis); const relDist:Number = currentDistance-m_distance; // calculate impulse to solve const remove:Number = relVel+relDist/dt; const impulse:Number = remove / (m_bodyA.m_InvMass + m_bodyB.m_InvMass); // generate impulse vector const I:Vector2 = unitAxis.MulScalar(impulse); // apply ApplyImpulse(I); } }
Above is the implementation for the actual distance constraint, it does the work as described above.
private var m_joints:Vector.<Constraint>;
In the solver we define a list of constraints - they are different to contacts in that they're more permanent, so they get their own list.
const dt:Number = Math.min(e.m_elapsed, 1.0/15.0); // apply gravity for each ( var p:RigidBody in m_rigidBodies ) { ... } // collide for ( var i:int=0; i<m_rigidBodies.length-1; i++ ) { const rbi:RigidBody=m_rigidBodies[i]; for ( var j:int=i+1; j<m_rigidBodies.length; j++ ) { const rbj:RigidBody=m_rigidBodies[j]; if ( rbi.m_InvMass>0||rbj.m_InvMass>0 ) { ... } } } // solve constraints for each(var jt:Constraint in m_joints) { jt.Solve(dt); } // integrate for each ( p in m_rigidBodies ) { p.Integrate( dt ); }
The solver loop now looks like the above - we have gained a little loop for solving the constraints - i've chosen to do that after solving for contacts which makes the joints 'stronger' than the contacts (in that because they're resolved last, they will be more correct than the contacts which are done first), you can do it the other way around if you like.
This article has uncovered the physics lurking behind the most simple of 2d games (pong), shown that the principles therein are grounded in physics and expanded on the technique used in that game step by step all the way up to the point where designing a constraint in a physics engine can be seen as a simple extension of colliding two objects.
I hope this article has whet your appetite for physics simulation while also being easy to understand. I have run out of time with this article, but depending on its popularity i can write a lot more on the subject. Register your interest by posting in the comments! 🙂
Source code
As ever, if you enjoyed reading this article and would like to see more, please consider buying the source code which accompanies it; this will allow an indie developer like me to pay the rent and buy more food to eat! 🙂
You will receive all the framework code that i've laid out in this article, including the code behind the demos on this page which should serve as a good base to expand upon. They are written in actionscript 3.0 but the techniques are applicable to all OO languages.
After purchasing, you will be redirected to a page where you can download the source immediately.
Subscribers can access the source here
Until next time, have fun!
Cheers, Paul.


text:
Brand New Blog: Alana G!
Also, update your doggone RSS feed! It's been over a year, SunsGossip is dead. Seriously, time to move on.
I just love SUNS
Music- John Lennon
So this is Xmas,
And wadda you know
The Suns are the best ones
And the season just began
So this is Xmas,
Suns best in the West
"Whatever we'll do with
Steve Nash and the rest?"
The answer is nothing
The answer is nil
Don't even attempt it
Or you in for a kill.
You can be monstrous (Shaq)
And you can be tall (Yao)
But Stevie is the best one
And he's the best of them all
(and humble too)
Love , HERD (little drunk)


text:
Product Recycling Fund
The price of this item includes a contribution to a Product recycling fund to ensure that waste electrical and electronic equipment is collected and recycled in a responsible manner.
Secondary storage
Get the bigger home you've always wanted
From your record collection to the gardening tools, secondary storage solutions help you create a place for the things you love. And by making the most of the space you have, you'll finally have the room to enjoy using them, too.


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FORD Fiesta CD Radio Fascia Anthrazite Panel Surround & Wiring KIT 2005 – 2010
Ford Fiesta radio dash kit anthrazite + Aerial adaptor + ISO Harness Adaptors
This car stereo fitting kit is designed to fit the following vehicle(s);
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These adaptors will allow you to remove your original factory headunit and replace it with an aftermarket unit.
The kit includes the following parts;
- Fascia plate – converts dashboard to fit new stereo
- ISO adaptor lead – converts wiring to common ISO type
- Aerial adaptor – converts aerial connection
- Stereo removal keys
Radio dash kit: Facia Panels aid easy fitment and hold your new aftermarket unit securely within your dash and are designed to keep the factory fitted look of your vehicle.
ISO adaptor lead: The ISO harness allows you to convert the factory wiring to the ISO connector of the aftermarket headunit. Enabling it to be fitted without cutting any of the original wiring of the vehicle.
Aerial adaptor: Aerial adaptor may be required to complete the installation. Without the right aerial adapter you have a poor radio reception.
If you have purchased a new stereo then you will usually need these parts to fit it.
The parts are specifically designed to fit the vehicle(s) listed and make fitting the new stereo much easier.


text:
About the Program
Students who have earned a baccalaureate degree from a regionally accredited college or university may enroll in the Post-Baccalaureate Certificate program. The Post Baccalaureate Certificate Program will be awarded upon successful completion of twenty-one credits in the specified curriculum. This includes 18 credits listed under the Human Resource Specialization and ADM 464 Strategic Human Resource Administration for a total of 21 credits. Barry University graduates who may have completed some of the certificate coursework in the degree program may take approved substitutes in order to reach the minimum of twenty one credits required for the certificate. A grade of C or higher in each course is required to receive a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate of Completion.


text:
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Sizzix Bigz Die - Heartfelt
Love Hearts Card #3
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Idea #15241-ukView Idea
Tim Holtz
Tim Holtz is a signature product designer for various companies in the craft industry including Sizzix® Alterations™, Ranger Industries®, Advantus®/idea-ology®, Stampers Anonymous, Tonic Studios® and Westminster Fibers. Tim plays an integral part in the development and design of cutting-edge crafting products bringing his unique vintage style. As a well-known designer, Tim travels across the country and internationally to educate and introduce people to his world of techniques and philosophy to simply enjoy the journey...View Designer
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This die is designed for use only with the BIGkick, Big Shot and Vagabond machines and requires the use of a pair of Cutting Pads.


text:
Last week, the breakup was a tragedy. This week, Jake Pavelka and Vienna Girardi's failed relationship turned into a heated war of words.
The ex- "Bachelor" couple recently shot an interview with host Chris Harrison set to run on the July 5 episode of the show. If fans were hoping to see the duo reconcile, comments from an advance ABC press release should lay to rest any idea that there's a happily ever after in their future.
In what ABC called an "intense verbal confrontation," the pair lobbed barbed accusations at one another. "Vienna calls Jake 'a liar' and 'a fame whore'," according to the release, which was excerpted on Entertainment Weekly's website. "Jake feels Vienna always undermines him and tears him down. They face off about who broke up with whom. Vienna defends herself against allegations of infidelity."
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The release also said that while Jake and Vienna admit that the feelings they had for each other were "real," they know that, "...their relationship is beyond repair."
Sounds like must-see TV. Set those DVR's.


text:
Wyoming Court Records
This entry was originally written by Dwight A. Radford in Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources.
The judicial system in Wyoming was set up in 1868 with a supreme court, which performed the duties of an appellate court. It could hold trials in one of the three judicial districts of the territory. In 1869, women in Wyoming Territory were given the right to vote and, therefore, could become jurists. With statehood the court system developed into three major courts: justice of the peace courts, district courts, and the state supreme court. The justice of the peace courts are countywide courts with jurisdiction over minor actions and misdemeanors. District courts are countywide courts with jurisdiction over civil cases including criminal cases, divorces, probate matters, and some appeals. The supreme court continues to be the statewide appellate court.
Most Wyoming court records are on file at either the Wyoming State Archives or the local courthouse.


text:
Mikael necesitaba un nuevo diseño de página web y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 22 diseños de 10 diseñadores freelance.
We are launching a new Internet Community for our members at Mindprovider.com and we are looking for a general design on that community. The design will be implemented on all parts of the community - so there will most likely be more work for the winning designer.
Mindprovider.com (International)
Mindprovider is a company working with top talent and e-recruitment. We are currently setting up an Internet community for our members in whom they can network with other members, use our career services as well as search for jobs and employers among our partner companies. Our customers are medium to large international companies that are looking to hire top talents within mainly the engineering and IT fields.
We want you to make an overall design that can be used throughout the community.
The pages we first want examples of are:
First page – login page. (the greeting page where you also log into your private account)
Profile page – the members own page with photo, information and friends etc. (Think Facebook features).
The design should be somewhat close to the design on our website. Think clean, professional and modern. Think more mac than pc, more http://www.sony.com than http://www.lge.com.
It should also be adapted so it fits our logo. (please visit http://www.mindprovider.com to see logo)
We do not want a design with lots of unnecessary design elements and colors so that you loose overview as a visitor. Keep it simple and clean.


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Innovation in agriculture can bring substantial increases to the productivity of land, labor, capital, and other resources allocated to farming. The adoption of new technology, for example, can increase efficiency, productivity, and profitability of farming systems in a variety of ways. Examples include increasing yields through improved genetic potential or increased resistance to stresses, reducing crop growth cycles or labor needs, or by increasing water and nutrient use efficiencies or the amount of nutritious feed a forage crop or crop residue can provide. More broadly, we can think of these technology impacts as increasing output (holding inputs constant), reducing inputs (holding outputs constant), or enhancing some other valued trait (e.g., improved storability, cooking, processing or taste characteristics) whose impacts are reflected in differentiated quality and a higher consumer price. One key set of HarvestChoice products and services relates to evaluation of the potential consequences of the development, diffusion, and use of improved technologies (or production practices) across farms and regions as a consequence of on-going or planned investments. We undertake these "ex ante" technology evaluations drawing on a number of our core datasets and tools including our baseline crop geographies, our crop and livestock* productivity models, and our market level economic evaluation models (that cater for assessing the productivity and economic consequences of knowledge and technology spillover).
*livestock productivity assessments are undertaken in partnership with ILRI
Access and query over 300 layers of spatially-explicit, agricultural-related data at 10km x 10km grid resolution.


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Chinese Willing to Pay More for Made-in-USA Goods
A new study finds Americans aren't the only ones willing to pay more for U.S.-made products. The Chinese are too.
In a survey conducted by the Boston Consulting Group, 47% of Chinese said they either "absolutely" or "somewhat" favored U.S.-made options when confronted with a choice between two items of equal price and quality — one domestic, the other Made in the USA. Over half said they'd chosen U.S.-made goods over less expensive Chinese products in the last month, with 61% saying they're willing to pay more for the U.S. made goods — in some cases quite a bit more.
Willingness to splurge on U.S. imports varied depending on the product. Some were obvious choices. For instance, many Chinese — mindful of scandals involving food contamination — were willing to pay more for U.S.-made baby food. But other choices were more surprising: The Chinese were also willing to pay big premiums for U.S. made running shoes and mobile phones.


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Comprehensive professional Web Design Services for small to medium businesses and start-ups in Rugby.
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It pays to remember that you never get a second chance to make a first impression - the way people look for products and services has changed, more and more people use the internet as a first port of call to find what they are looking for.
70 percent of mobile searches for products or services will result in a sale in the near future (Source - Televox)
With the majority of us owning smart phones or tablets, unless you have a website that is mobile friendly you could be seriously missing out on a lot of potential customers and ultimately new business.
So if you are looking for a web design service in Rugby, don't delay get in touch with us using our simple enquiry form or call us today on 01455 445021 or 07910 760007.


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Exterior view from the garden
- Date:
- 2 Sep 2004
- Location:
- Lowstead, Wark, Northumberland
- Reference:
- Type:
- Photograph (Negative)
Our website works best with the latest version of the browsers below, unfortunately your browser is not supported. Using an old browser means that some parts of our website might not work correctly.
This is part of the Job: 2K/07690 LOWSTEAD; within the Volume: BF110930 England's Landscapes; within the Series: EHC01/065 England's Landscapes; within the Collection: EHC01 English Heritage(EH):Archive
Copyright Historic England Archive
Photographer: Williams, Peter


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Gordon-Levitt atop the World Trade Center in "The Walk"
"Man on Wire" was one of the finest films of 2008. James Marsh's documentary about French aerialist Philippe Petit's traversing of a cable stretched across the World Trade Center's twin towers in 1974 went on to win the Oscar for best documentary feature. The film was a thing of beauty — capturing the epic and transcendent, and, yes, the mournful: Ah, those towers in their, reach-for-the-Heavens brazenness. That year, the film made my top 10 list with the greatest of ease:
In 1974, Philippe Petit has referred to his love of cable and height as an "absurd arrogance." How thankful we should be for this brand of cockiness. James Marsh mixes real footage as well as re-created scenes of the buildup to that feat and interviews with the participants. The documentary unfolds like a heist flick. Only instead of stealing valuables, Petit gives us something invaluable.
Next year, director Robert Zemeckis brings Petit's book "Reach the Clouds" to the big, ahem, really, big screen. "The Walk" is slated for IMAX 3-D screens come October 2015. The director of "Back to the Future," "Forrest Gump," "Polar Express" likes to embrace cinema's tech possibilities. But it's the human as the heart of this story who boosts my hopes. Zemeckis is blessed or wise (both) to have Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Petit. Here's the teaser out today.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBicCZG4vg0?rel=0&w=495&h=278]


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I am trying to connect to an instance of SQL Server on a remote machine using SQLDMO in a C# application. If the SQL server is already running I have no problem connecting to it. If the server is not already running I want to be able to start it using SQLDMO's Start method. The problem is that when I try this, I get an "Access is denied" message. I get the same message if I try to start the remote MSSQL service using the NET command as well.
Is this problem occurring because I do not have permission to start a remote service? What options do I have to start a remote instance of SQL Server?
Thanks in advance.


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Hoof n Paw necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 74 diseños de 26 diseñadores freelance.
Hoof n' Paw Pet Supplies
We are a startup pet supply business/boutique with a twist. Most "posh" boutiques cater to pampered pooches. We pamper our pooches too, but in an affordable manner. Ours carries mid to high end pet supplies for dogs, cats and horses (but mostly mid). We focus on natural, holistic and organic treats. Our culture is not stuffy or "park avenue", but rather fun and relaxed without being campy or outlandishly cartoonish.
Our market is going to be both an online web store and a brick and morter store front in southcentral Kentucky. Our target customer loves their pet, but needs affordability. We provide mid-range to high end priced toys, treats, beds, and grooming products for their beloved pet. They get the joy of shopping from an upscale shop without bearing the brunt of the price. We have a warm, personable, fun business personality focused on the well being of the animal. Our treats are wholesome, organic and natural, while our toys and other items are sturdy and safe.
What we want:
A clean logo that makes the shopper feel welcomed and cared for. Crisp, simple, clean lines in the characters and not overly outlandish, campy or cartoonish.
Characters that may be included would be a dog, cat, horse or all three!
Color options are wide open, but we are drawn to bright greens (like fresh cut summer grass), sky blues, warm sunshine golds and other soft colors. Think "sunny pasture" thoughts. Up to 3 colors is fine.
Previous example of a logo we had included a horse drawn out of the "n" in Hoof n'Paw. The "n" was the horse's butt and had a tail, with the horse turned around looking to the viewer. It was cute, but you don't have to stick to that.
What we don't want:
A horseshoe with a paw print inside of it. Trust us, it's been done with all the other businesses out there with a similar name. Make us stand out from the herd!
No victorian, gothic, or unhappy or mean looking critters please!
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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Huskers Named to USTFCCCA All-Academic Lists
Lincoln- The Nebraska track and field team once again set the academic standard in its sport as they produced the most USTFCCCA All-Academic women's selections in 2012. Head Coach Gary Pepin's women's squad produced 15 honorees, while the Husker men posted eight selections. The women's team has now led the nation the past four seasons after producing 19 honorees in 2011, 18 in 2010 and 19 in 2009.
Ashley Miller, Tipton, who was the 2012 Nebraska Female Student-Athlete of the Year, led the way for the Huskers and was joined by fellow seniors Breanna Bussel, Blaire Dinsdale, North Tama, Erica Hamik, Cami Jiskra, Jade Siegel and Victoria Zimmerman. BYU matched Nebraska with 15 selections, while Oregon and Minnesota followed with 14. Florida State and Arkansas rounded out the top-five teams with 11. The Big Ten managed a national-best 81 selections, while the Big 12 had 76 and the Pac-12 followed with 66.
The men were led by 2012 Nebraska Male Student-Athlete of the Year Tyler Hitchler. A CoSIDA Academic All-American, Hitchler was joined on the USTFCCCA list by fellow academic All-Americans Bjorn Barrefors and Nate Polacek. BYU led the country with 16 named to the All-Academic Team, followed by Minnesota (11), Stanford (10) and Duke (9). The Big Ten Conference was the leading league with 47 named to the list. The Big 12 (45) and the ACC (42) were next in the tally.
To qualify for the USTFCCCA All-Academic Track and Field Team, the student-athlete must have compiled a cumulative grade point average of 3.25 and have met either of the following athletic standards: for the indoor season, a student-athlete must have finished the regular season ranked in the national top 96 in an individual event or ranked in the national top 48 (collective listing) in a relay event on the official NCAA POP list provided byTFRRS.org; for the outdoor season, a student-athlete must have participated in any round of the NCAA Division I Championships (including preliminary rounds).
In addition, both the men's and women's squads were named All-Academic scholar teams. The women's team was one of 171 teams, while the men were one of 85 earning the distinction as a result of a cumulative team GPA of 3.00 or better.
Women's Award Winners
Breanna Bussel
Marusa Cernjul
Blaire Dinsdale
Mara Griva
Veronica Grizzle
Ellie Grooters
Erica Hamik
Cami Jiskra
Anne Martin
Ashley Miller
Jade Siegel
Jordan Stiens
Katie White
Morgan Wilken
Victoria Zimmerman
Men's Award Winners
Bjorn Barrefors
Tyler Hitchler
Scott Jorgenson
Luke Pinkelman
Nate Polacek
Patrick Raedler
Teran Walford
John Welk


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Green Target Coloured Lenses
These Green Target Coloured Contacts are sure to draw the attention of the crowd, whether you're at a large party or a smaller social gathering. The obscure design on these crazy contacts can provide the perfect conversation starter or just show everyone that you are ready to party. Of course they're also the perfect implement with which to wow your friends too. Amaze everyone with these crazy coloured contact lenses.
Use these crazy coloured lenses to perfect your costume or just as a part of your evening wear, it really doesn't matter what freaky look you're after. Anyone wearing crazy coloured lenses is going to attract the right kind of attention. If your one who likes to live it up and go wild, these are the perfect crazy contacts for you.
ColorVue are a well known company whose greatest aim is to ensure quality and safety across their entire product range. Their coloured contacts boast a marvellous level of oxygen permeability and are design to be ultra-thin. This aids the coloured contacts comfortability and ensures a safe wear for a full 8 hours.
- ColourVue Green Target Coloured Contacts
- Part of the ColourVue Crazy Lens range
- Ultra thin design
- Excellent oxygen permeability
- Sold as a pair
- Last for 90 days once opened
- Wear for maximum of 8 hours
- Diameter: 14mm
- Base Curve: 8.6
Manufacturer Code: CVZD5A90000
Our Stock Code: 88183


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Shareholders OK Qwest/CenturyLink merger
Qwest and CenturyLink shareholders have overwhelmingly approved the telecommunications companies' proposed merger.
According to preliminary results disclosed at Qwest's stockholders meeting this morning, nearly 97 percent of votes cast representing nearly 80 percent of outstanding Qwest shares voted in favor of the deal. CenturyLink voting returned similar results.
The deal still requires approval from the Federal Communications Commission and regulators in 14 states, including Colorado, and Washington, D.C.
In April, Monroe, La.-based CenturyLink agreed to acquire Qwest for about $10 billion in stock and $12 billion in assumed debt. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2011.
The combined company will be headquartered in Monroe and will serve about 16 million access lines in 37 states.


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Lepay makes FS Wisconsin TV debut
PITTSBURGH -- Matt Lepay has called seven Rose Bowls and two Final Fours as the statewide radio voice of the Wisconsin Badgers for the last 26 years, his latest basketball national semifinal not two weeks ago. Yet he was a nervous rookie before his first Major League Baseball broadcast on Thursday.
"If I told you anything else, I would be lying," Lepay said as the Brewers prepared for batting practice Thursday. "I am a nervous dude.'"
Lepay is the newest member of the FS Wisconsin television team, and is teaming with veteran color analyst Bill Schroeder during the Brewers-Pirates series this week while regular play-by-play man Brian Anderson works the NBA playoffs for TBS.
Lepay has very little experience calling baseball, and was clear with Brewers officials about that as they conducted their search. As a budding broadcaster in southwest Ohio, he called some American Legion games for a local station, and later broadcast a Class A Madison Muskies game as a favor to that team's general manager.
"I told them, 'I did it, but you'll have to take my word for it, because I have no idea where the cassette tape is,'" Lepay said.
The Brewers and FS Wisconsin announced the addition of Lepay in January, and the plan called for some practice broadcasts during Spring Training following the Badgers' basketball season. But Frank Kaminsky & Co. had other plans, beating American, Oregon, Baylor and Arizona to earn a date in the Final Four against Kentucky.
Each time, Lepay had to push back his trip to Maryvale Baseball Park. In the end, the Badgers' run extended into the Brewers' regular season. So how did Lepay brush up on baseball?
"It's hard to explain, but guys who do what I do -- at least I think this is the case -- can sit at home, watch the game, and in my mind, I'll call it," he said. "The At-Bat app became my very good friend. Even toward the end of the [Badgers'] regular season, I could be in a hotel in Lincoln, Neb. or you name it after my Badger work was done, and I'd be watching Brewers [Spring Training] games on my phone or my iPad. That was how I did it."
It will be a significant adjustment from the pace of football and basketball.
"The pace will be different, the fact it is TV will be different, but I'm trying not to make it more than it is," Lepay said. "Baseball is my first love, but it's one thing for it to be your first love, and another to be the guy calling the game."


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