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Just in time for the holidays, our friend Ainsley Bevis from BloomWebDesign.net sendis this great Adobe Illustrator tutorial! Now, you can run like this, or modify the color scheme for perfect holiday decoriations! She covers a number of good techniques good for beginner to intermediate Illustrator users, and then takes you all into Adobe Photoshop for the finishing touches.
Ainsley writes . . .
In this tutorial I'll teach you how to create a Colorful Balls Text Effect/Typography Poster using Adobe Illustrator to create the text, and Photoshop to add some finishing touches. We'll be going through some basic Illustrator & Photoshop methods to create this fun & colorful text effect.
Final Result at right
1. Create a new document that's 600×300 pixels. Using a thick/bold font, write out your letters in black. Lock the letter's layer and create a new layer.
2. Using the Ellipse Tool draw a circle while holding down the shift key (to keep the shape perfect). Duplicate the circle 3 times by dragging the circle away while holding down the ALT Key. On each circle put on a different colored gradient like below.
3. Draw a smaller circle with the Ellipse Tool again and put in the gradient below. This will create a nice light glare on the ball.
4. Duplicate the light glare and place it on the other circles.
5. Next select each ball with the light glare and click on the Merge button in Pathfinder to merge the 2 shapes together.
6. Now comes the most time consuming part! Select each of the balls and duplicate them over the letters, changing the size of them by selecting the balls with the Selection Tool and dragging a corner down or up while holding down the shift key. If you want to rotate them so the light glare is in a different direction, select them with the Selection Tool and rotate a corner.
Do this with all the colored balls until the black letters are hidden. lots of sizes, lots of variety!
7. Remove the black text layer from view, and save the document.
NEXT we take the whole piece into Photoshop for finishing touches
... continues on the next page!


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Th it's is such a great question. It is either my Redwing iron ranger in Amber Harness, or my Gustin Olive Twill Duffle. No wait my Hardwick suit I bought on a new year's Eve sale that fits better off the rack than my made to measure suits at half the price.
It's been a big year of shopping.
My best purchases were a pair of black horse bit loafers from Ferragamo and a black Sanyo dressy rain coat.
2018 was the year of a long challenging job search for me. I bought both of these at the amazing new Nordstrom Mens shop in NYC about halfway through the search. Both of these pieces are super versatile, and express a little bit about my personal taste. Theyre more versatile than I was thinking and I get so many wears out of them. They boosted my confidence on the search.
Both on the expensive side but well worth it for me.
Nordstrom price matched from a sale I found at Saks on Google shopping:
I'd say my best was picking up a Gustin waxed trucker jacket. I got it in summer when I found a nice deal and couldn't really wear it until October. But then I wore it for the rest of the calendar year and was very happy.
Pretty sure 2016 my New Years goal was not to buy clothing. I sold about 2000$ worth on the forums and eBay, sold my house and moved and traveled down the worm hole of buying a new house.
Ever since I bought and started working on the house I really stopped buying clothing besides very specific items which were planned out and all rationalized though. Replacement sweatshirt to replace a destroyed hoodie, AE Surrey to replace my destroyed Clarks. Two polos for work from Polo outlet.
2019 I also see as not being a big clothing year again. Hopefully sell some stuff again with a big eBay purge. Maybe sell a couple watches since the market is prime to sell.

subset: commoncrawl


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The Egnyte mobile apps enable users to access their shared company files, regardless of where they are physically stored – in the cloud and on premises. For files that are too sensitive to go to the cloud, businesses can utilize Storage Connect to provide access to files behind the firewall directly from a mobile device, and data never touches the cloud.
Users can securely access, share, edit, upload and manage files from iOS and Android. Your files stored in Egnyte can be easily downloaded and saved for offline access.
Access, search, bookmark, and manage files and folders directly from the mobile app, and all file creations, edits and permission changes are automatically synced to Egnyte so those changes can be accessed from anywhere.
Easily share files with team members, partners and clients using Web links or shared folders. Password protection and folder permissions set by Admins or Power Users ensure all of your collaborative efforts are secure.


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A/C Auto Service Orange
Elite Car Care in Orange County
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Open 6 days a week. M-F: 7:00AM-6:00PM & Sat: 8AM-5:00PM
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A/C Auto Service Westminster
949-415-5425 ~ A/C Auto Service Westminster. When you need A/C Auto Service in Westminster, call the professionals Elite Car Care at 949-415-5425. We have been serving satisfied customers in Orange County for over 20 years. All of our technicians are ASE Master Certified to ensure that only highly skilled professionals do all your service. At our technologically advanced service center we employ state of the art diagnostic equipment to diagnose and repair your vehicle's air conditioning. We are experts at servicing both domestic and foreign vehicles including Honda. Our technicians use only high quality parts and fluids to service your vehicle. We are confident of our superior service and proudly offer a2 Year 24,000 Mile Warranty on most repairs. For specialized A/C Auto Service in Orange you can trust your air conditioning maintenance and repair to the experts at Elite Car Care in Westminster.
949-415-5425 ~ A/C Auto Service Orange by Elite Car Care. Our mission is to be the source for all of your vehicle's maintenance and repair. We specialize in GMC, Honda, Toyota and other models repair. Our experienced technicians will make sure that all of your vehicle's complex systems are operating at peak performance by adhering to the manufacturer's regularly scheduled maintenance. When your vehicle does need repair, most repairs can be performed the same day. For your convenience we provide free shuttle service, towing and loaner vehicles to make your air conditioning repairs hassle-free. A complimentary car wash is included with all service. Call the experts atA/C Auto Service Orange by Elite Car Care 949-415-5425 today.
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Many of your air conditioning repairs involve repairing the electrical system. Honda A/C Auto Service Orange technicians will diagnose the exact issue and perform repairs efficiently and at very competitive rates. Our technicians have the electrical knowledge needed to repair your vehicle properly the first time. To keep your vehicle's A/C performing at its best, we follow all manufacturers' regularly scheduled maintenance recommendations using only high quality parts and fluids. As a full service auto repair center, we are experts at all domestic and foreign vehicles including Lexus repair. Call the friendly experts at Honda A/C Auto Service Westminster by Elite Car Care and schedule an appointment today.
The experienced team of professionals at Elite Car Care are committed to excellence in customer service. We offer a drop off/ pick up service for your convenience. A complimentary shuttle service leaves every 5 minutes. For service that requires more time we can arrange a loner car. We have a kid's play room and an internet work station to make service and repair of your vehicle convenient. Call Honda A/C Auto Service Orange by Elite Car Care today at 949-415-5425.


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Home > News & Events > Conferences & Events > Overcoming Obstacles to Small Business Lending
Overcoming Obstacles to Small Business Lending
FDIC Small Business Forum: Issues Raised
Event Transcript - PDF (PDF Help)
Small Business Forum Photo Essay
The FDIC is hosting a Forum, "Overcoming Obstacles to Small Business Lending," on January 13, 2011, from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm at the L. William Seidman Center in Arlington, Virginia. The Forum will explore ways in which credit can be made more accessible to the small business sector. The FDIC recognizes that small businesses are critical to fueling the nation's economic growth, and their ability to generate new jobs depends, in large part, on access to credit.
The Forum will feature two panels consisting of thought leaders from the government and the private sector, with a moderator facilitating the panel discussions. Representatives from the small business sector will be invited to attend the Forum and submit questions in advance and during the discussions for the panelists' consideration. We hope the robust dialogue will result in workable and effective strategies that will benefit small businesses. The Forum will be webcast on the Internet and archived on the FDIC's Web site (www.fdic.gov) after the event.
We are accepting questions for this event via email. Send your questions to firstname.lastname@example.com.
Agenda (as of January 4, 2011)
Opening Remarks
Framing the Issues Panel
Moderator: Steve Liesman, CNBC
Sheila C. Bair, Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Confronting the Obstacles Panel
Moderator: John Harwood, CNBC
Don D. Graves, Jr., Deputy Assistant Secretary for Small Business
Closing Remarks
|Last Updated 4/15/2011


text: Updated 2016 Queenstown is the sort of city that people consider moving to right after they first arrive. The city center itself is compact and charming and the scenery in every direction is hypnotically gorgeous. Set on the edge of Lake Wakatipu and surrounded by the Southern Alps on New Zealand's South Island, Queenstown is almost impossibly beautiful yet it offers many different varieties of fun both day and night.


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Bots are complicated. They're made to process repetitive actions autonomously and can be fairly easy to build, but they aren't always working on the side of good. Here's what you need to know.
Each year, EContent magazine compiles a list of the 100 companies that matter most in the digital content industry.
Voting is now closed. We'll announce the results of the first-ever EContent 100 list chosen by the people!
Philip De Lancie
Jul 18, 2003
Less than a decade ago, "browse" was just another word for "window-shop," and most people had never heard of the Internet. From a business perspective, the years since have been a roller coaster ride, but the technological progress has been remarkably swift. A key driver of this innovation has been the impulse to enhance and expand end-users' content experience. That's what led to the development of the World Wide Web and its attendant browsers in the first place, and subsequently to the support for dynamic media such as audio, animation, and video, to the rapid refinement of codecs, and ultimately to the advent of Content Delivery Networks purpose-built to speed access to digital content.
While the end-user experience is as important today as ever, a tougher business climate is forcing reevaluation of CDNs' value. Some CDNs have simply fallen by the wayside, and the rest are under increasing pressure to justify their expense in terms of tangibles such as Return on Investment (ROI). Meanwhile advocates of CDN alternatives are arguing that the need for traditionally-defined CDNs is on the decline, and that competing approaches can better meet customer needs. With the content-delivery market in a state of flux, even some of the best-established companies are acknowledging that they will have to adapt to stay viable.
Enhancing PerformanceThe rise of the CDN came about in the context of rapidly expanding demands on Web sites, not only because of the amount of traffic they were called on to serve, but also because the type of content they were serving was increasingly rich, and thus bandwidth-intensive. For many companies, keeping up with these demands in-house became both a burden and a distraction. At the same time, broadband in the home was still a relative rarity and the delivery infrastructure was drowning in the sheer volume of data, resulting in a poor user experience that was giving the Internet a bad name: "World Wide Wait." Together, these two related trends created an opportunity for outside providers that were willing to take on the twin tasks of handling site traffic and bypassing network bottlenecks.
The first companies to dive into the field defined what has become a traditional approach to enhancing content delivery performance. Chief among these was Akamai Technologies, which currently claims over 80% market share in the "content delivery space." Bobby Blumofe, Akamai's VP for technology strategy, says that one core attribute of CDNs is an infrastructure that is globally distributed. "Size of deployment is important," he says. "There is a lot of value to being truly at the edge where the eyeballs are. You also need mapping technology that can ensure that end-users are always able to access a server that has the capacity to handle their request, and also is near enough to them on the network to deliver high reliability and performance when satisfying that request."
While differing over specifics of implementation, many of Akamai's competitors also operate on the premise of maintaining multiple points of service and determining which of these is likely to deliver to a given client most efficiently. "Akamai believes that the sheer scale of their global delivery network will assure better delivery results," says Gordon Smith, VP of marketing at competitor Speedera Networks. "But third-party testing results and customer experience does not bear that out. We look at where the user is, the network conditions at the time, and what application they want. Based on these variables, we then figure out the best place within our global network of servers from which to serve the content."
According to Rob Friedman, executive VP of corporate development at Digital Envoy, which provides IP intelligence technology for the Internet, it's not necessarily possible to conclude that one or another of the traditional CDN approaches performs best. "Some CDNs deploy massive amounts of servers throughout the Internet," he says, "while others have more strategically placed servers. They each have a different story regarding why they are the best and the fastest. But they all have good performance; which is fastest often depends on a particular site's traffic patterns."
Perhaps because, as Friedman sees it, customers view all CDNs as virtually the same when it comes to pure speed of content delivery, CDNs are aware that they also must address other customer concerns. "Localization/customization is at the top of all CDNs' lists," Friedman says. "Customers are running into the need to comply with legal requirements in streaming or downloading of content, such as U.S. regulations against making encryption software available to countries like Cuba. With geolocation, customers can obey these legal requirements."
Friedman adds that the more value a CDN can add, the less likely it is that an enterprise will bring content delivery in-house because it becomes more difficult and time-consuming to replicate the CDN's built-in capabilities. "With value-added services such as geolocation," he says, "CDNs can offer customers a 'one-stop shop.' In the next 6-12 months, we see this trend expanding as CDNs try to attract new customers and differentiate themselves from the pack."


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Many thanks to Raphael Stolt for letting us know about his latest post, a tutorial on using the Zend Framework with Ajax to perform a server-side identification request.
He used a "@ajaxaction" marker in a previous article to implement the Ajax requests, but with other tools there could be an issue with the response. To help with this, he's worked up a handler to detect what needs to be done with the response. He applies this to create the authentication system, making it easy to include a simple ACL method into his application.
He includes code examples for the Controller to handle the detection, how to implement it, and the class to work with those "doclet" markers for the Ajax actions.


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Recently online shop Dixi approached me and asked me to be part of a giveaway they are having as part of their May update for their shop. They are giving away "the" ring of the moment, which is obviously a genuine Yves Saint Laurent Gold Plated Blue Glass Arty Ring, worth £120.
Dixi are one of those little online boutiques that sell a mix of vintage and modern clothing, Personally I'm a massive fan, I dont really "do" all the effort of finding my own vintage style clothing so its nice these little boutiques that get their hands on the nicest peices and update them for a modern wardrobe. They have kindly given me a free shipping code for you all to enjoy so just use "LLYMLRSMEETSDIXI"!
There is only one prize, which is the genuine YSL arty ring. The size is a US 7, The measurements are Width 1cm, Length 4cm, Circumference 5.6cm, Width of the stone 3cm, Height of the stone 2cm.
The competition is open to WORLDWIDE residents. You may increase your chances of winning by visiting the Dixi Facebook Page to see the other entrant points! All entrants from all entry points will be gathered together and ONE winner will be picked at random using randomnumber.org. Please ensure you leave a current contact email as this is how the winner will be notified. The competition runs from 29th May to Midnight 26th June [GMT].
1. Visit www.shopdixi.com, pick your top 2 items in store, then simply let us know in a comment what they are.
2. Follow the Dixi Blog & this blog if you already arent!
3. Then just leave a comment (on this post) with your name, the two items you have chosen, and form of contact.
(PS. Dixi has sole responsibility for the giveaway and I am purely hosting this post to aid in promotion of their giveaway, and problems or concerns should be directed towards them!)


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Roses on Black Circle Wall Decal
Don't be such a square! These circular self-adhesive cutouts are simply seductive in appearance. Stick one or stack 3+ for a geometric gallery effect. Break out the bubbly and go to town with these circular cutouts. They'll have you flush with joy and no matter how sideways you get, these circles are never tilted and always level.


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Stage listings are compiled by Guardian staff. Performance times may change; call venues to confirm. Reviewers are Robert Avila, Rita Felciano, and Nicole Gluckstern. Submit items for the listings at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Bauer San Francisco Playhouse, 450 Post, SF; www.sfplayhouse.org. Previews March 18-21, 8pm. Opens March 22, 8pm. Runs Tue-Thu, 7pm; Fri-Sat, 8pm (also Sat, 3pm); March 23 and April 13, 2pm. Through April 19. San Francisco Playhouse presents the world premiere of Lauren Gunderson's drama about artist Rudolf Bauer.
Twisted Fairy Tales Shelton Theater, 533 Sutter, SF; www.leftcoasttheatreco.org. $15-25. Opens Fri/14, 8pm. Runs Thu-Sat, 8pm. Through April 5. Left Coast Theatre Co. performs the world premiere of seven one-act LGBT-themed plays based on classic children's stories.
Wrestling Jerusalem Intersection for the Arts, 925 Mission, SF; www.theintersection.org. $20-30. Previews Wed/12-Fri/14, 7:30pm. Opens Sat/15, 7:30pm. Runs Thu-Sat, 7:30pm; Sun, 2pm. Intersection for the Arts presents Aaron Davidman in his multicharacter solo performance piece about Israel and Palestine.
Arms and the Man Barn Theatre, 30 Sir Francis Drake, Ross; www.rossvalleyplayers.com. $13-26. Previews Thu/13, 7:30pm. Opens Fri/14, 8pm. Runs Thu, 7:30pm; Fri-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm (no show Sun/16). Through April 13. Ross Valley Players perform George Bernard Shaw's romantic comedy.
Children Are Forever (All Sales are Final!) Stage Werx Theatre, 446 Valencia, SF; www.brownpapertickets.com. $15. Fri-Sat, 8pm. Through March 22. Writer-performer and comedian Julia Jackson's well acted and consistently funny autobiographical solo show details her and her female partner's attempt to adopt a newborn girl from a young African American mother in Florida. Along the way, Jackson's smart script details the trials, red tape, and unexpected market incentives in the field of adoption for a same-sex, interracial couple. If the generally involving story nevertheless attenuates a little across its two-act structure, Coke Nakamoto's precise direction (which builds on original direction by W. Kamau Bell) offers a lively framework for Jackson's excellent characterizations as well as her frank and interesting commentary on the social, political messiness of certain natural urges. (Avila)
Crystal Springs Eureka Theatre, 215 Jackson, SF; www.crystalspringstheplay.com. $20-65. Fri-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm. Through March 23. Eureka Theatre presents Kathy Rucker's world-premiere drama about parenting in the digital age.
Feisty Old Jew Marsh San Francisco Main Stage, 1062 Valencia, SF; www.themarsh.org. $25-100. Sat/15, 8pm; Sun/16, 7pm. Charlie Varon performs his latest solo show, a fictional comedy about "a 20th century man living in a 21st century city."
Foodies! The Musical Shelton Theater, 533 Sutter, SF; www.foodiesthemusical.com. $32-34. Fri-Sat, 8pm. Open-ended. AWAT Productions presents Morris Bobrow's musical comedy revue all about food.
Hundred Days Z Space, 450 Florida, SF; www.zspace.org. $10-100. Wed and Sun, 7pm; Thu-Sat, 8pm. Through April 6. Married musical duo the Bengsons (Abigail and Shaun) provide the real-life inspiration and guiding rock 'n' roll heart for this uneven but at times genuinely rousing indie musical drama, a self-referential meta-theater piece relating the story of a young couple in 1940s America who fall madly in love only to discover one of them is terminally ill. As an exploration of love, mortality, and the nature of time, the story of Sarah and Will (doubled by the Bengsons and, in movement sequences and more dramatically detailed scenes, by chorus members Amy Lizardo and Reggie D. White) draws force from the potent musical performances and songwriting of composer-creators Abigail and Shaun Bengson (augmented here by the appealing acting-singing chorus and backup band that also feature El Beh, Melissa Kaitlyn Carter, Geneva Harrison, Kate Kilbane, Jo Lampert, Delane Mason, Joshua Pollock). Playwright Kate E. Ryan's book, however, proves too straightforward, implausible, and sentimental to feel like an adequate vessel for the music's exuberant, urgent emotion and lilting, longing introspection. Other trappings of director Anne Kauffman's elaborate production (including an inspired set design by Kris Stone that echoes the raw industrial shell of the theater; and less-than-inspired choreography by the otherwise endlessly inventive Joe Goode) can add texture at times but also prove either neutral figures or distracting minuses in conveying what truth and heft there is in the material. Ultimately, this still evolving world premiere has a strong musical beat at its core, which has a palpable force of its own, even if it's yet to settle into the right combination of story and staging. (Avila)
Lovebirds Marsh San Francisco Studio, 1062 Valencia, SF; www.themarsh.org. $15-50. Thu/13-Fri/14, 8pm; Sat/15, 8:30pm. Theater artist and comedian Marga Gomez presents the world premiere of her 10th solo show, described as "a rollicking tale of incurable romantics."
Mommy Queerest Exit Studio, 156 Eddy, SF; www.divafest.info. $15-25. Fri-Sat, 8pm. Through March 29. Sex scenes in solo shows might sound a little onanistic, but in the right circumstances a door jam or a love seat can serve as a fine co-star. Stand-up comic and actor Kat Evasco demonstrates as much in this raunchy and high-spirited story of her sexual awakening as a lesbian-identifying bisexual, coming out in a household dominated by her closeted mother, a Filipina American drama queen with a long-term female companion she insists is the "gay" one. Presented by Guerrilla Rep and the Exit Theatre's DIVAfest, and directed by Guerrilla Rep's John Caldon (who co-wrote the play with Evasco), the story follows a familiar and predictable arc in some ways — familial hypocrisy giving way to inspirational cross-generational understanding — and the characterizations and set-ups (including a family feud on Jerry Springer) come with not always inspired choices. Moreover not all the jokes land where they should in a performance that starts as stand-up but immediately shifts into the style of a solo-play confessional. (A more thoroughgoing subversion of the stand-up format might have produced more complex, less foreseeable results.) At the same time, there's no denying Evasco's charm and energy, or her buoyant comedic talent, which makes it easier to forgive the play's structural shortcomings. (Avila)
"Risk Is This … The Cutting Ball New Experimental Plays Festival" Exit on Taylor, 277 Taylor, SF; www.cuttingball.com. Free ($20 donation for reserved seating). Fri-Sat, 8pm. Through March 29. Five new works in staged readings, including two from Cutting Ball resident playwright Andrew Saito.
The Scion Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia, SF; www.themarsh.org. $15-60. Thu-Fri, 8pm; Sat, 5pm. Through April 18. In his latest solo show, Brian Copeland (Not a Genuine Black Man; The Waiting Period) explores an infamous crime in his hometown of San Leandro: the 2000 murder of three government meat inspectors by Stuart Alexander, owner of the Santos Linguisa Factory. The story is personal history for Copeland, at least indirectly, as the successful comedian and TV host recounts growing up nearby under the common stricture that "rules are rules," despite evidence all around that equity, fairness, and justice are in fact deeply skewed by privilege. Developed with director David Ford, the multiple-character monologue (delivered with fitful humor on a bare-bones stage with supportive sound design by David Hines) contrasts Copeland's own youthful experiences as a target of racial profiling with the way wealthy and white neighbor Stuart Alexander, a serial bully and thug, consistently evaded punishment and even police attention along his path to becoming the "Sausage King," a mayoral candidate, and a multiple murderer (Alexander died in 2005 at San Quentin). The story takes some meandering turns in making its points, and not all of Copeland's characterizations are equally compelling. The subject matter is timely enough, however, though ironically it is government that seems to set itself further than ever above the law as much as wealthy individuals or the bogus "legal persons" of the corporate world. The results of such concentrated power are indeed unhealthy, and literally so — Copeland's grandmother (one of his more persuasive characterizations) harbors a deep distrust of processed food that is nothing if not prescient —but The Scion's tale of two San Leandrans leaves one hungry for more complexity. (Avila)
Shit & Champagne Rebel, 1772 Market, SF; shitandchampagne.eventbrite.com. $25. Fri-Sat, 8pm. Open-ended. D'Arcy Drollinger is Champagne White, bodacious blond innocent with a wicked left hook in this cross-dressing '70s-style white-sploitation flick, played out live on Rebel's intimate but action-packed barroom stage. Written by Drollinger and co-directed with Laurie Bushman (with high-flying choreography by John Paolillo, Drollinger, and Matthew Martin), this high-octane camp send-up of a favored formula comes dependably stocked with stock characters and delightfully protracted by a convoluted plot (involving, among other things, a certain street drug that's triggered an epidemic of poopy pants) — all of it played to the hilt by an excellent cast that includes Martin as Dixie Stampede, an evil corporate dominatrix at the head of some sinister front for world domination called Mal*Wart; Alex Brown as Detective Jack Hammer, rough-hewn cop on the case and ambivalent love interest; Rotimi Agbabiaka as Sergio, gay Puerto Rican impresario and confidante; Steven Lemay as Brandy, high-end calf model and Champagne's (much) beloved roommate; and Nancy French as Rod, Champagne's doomed fiancé. Sprawling often literally across two buxom acts, the show maintains admirable consistency: The energy never flags and the brow stays decidedly low. (Avila)
The Speakeasy Undisclosed location (ticket buyers receive a text with directions), SF; www.thespeakeasysf.com. $70 (gambling chips, $5-10 extra; after-hours admission, $10). Thu-Sat, 7:40, 7:50, and 8pm admittance times. Extended through May 24. Boxcar Theater's most ambitious project to date is also one of the more involved and impressively orchestrated theatrical experiences on any Bay Area stage just now. An immersive time-tripping environmental work, The Speakeasy takes place in an "undisclosed location" (in fact, a wonderfully redesigned version of the company's Hyde Street theater complex) amid a period-specific cocktail lounge, cabaret, and gambling den inhabited by dozens of Prohibition-era characters and scenarios that unfold around an audience ultimately invited to wander around at will. At one level, this is an invitation to pure dress-up social entertainment. But there are artistic aims here too. Intentionally designed (by co-director and creator Nick A. Olivero with co-director Peter Ruocco) as a fractured super-narrative — in which audiences perceive snatches of overheard stories rather than complete arcs, and can follow those of their own choosing — there's a way the piece becomes specifically and ever more subtly about time itself. This is most pointedly demonstrated in the opening vignettes in the cocktail lounge, where even the ticking of Joe's Clock Shop (the "cover" storefront for the illicit 1920s den inside) can be heard underscoring conversations (deeply ironic in historical hindsight) about war, loss, and regained hope for the future. For a San Francisco currently gripped by a kind of historical double-recurrence of the roaring Twenties and dire Thirties at once, The Speakeasy is not a bad place to sit and ponder the simulacra of our elusive moment. (Avila)
Tipped & Tipsy Marsh Studio Theater, 1062 Valencia, SF; www.themarsh.org. $15-50. Sat, 5pm; Sun, 7pm. Through April 6. Solo performer Jill Vice performs her Fringe Festival hit.
The World of Paradox Garage, 715 Bryant, SF; www.paradoxmagic.com. $12-15. Mon, 8pm. Through April 7. Footloose presents David Facer in his solo show, a mix of magic and theater.
Yellow New Conservatory Theatre Center, 25 Van Ness, SF; www.nctcsf.org. $25-45. Wed-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm. Through March 23. Playwright Del Shores (Sordid Lives, Southern Baptist Sissies) returns to his native South — while detouring from previous camp-comedy treatments — with this affirming family drama set in Vicksburg, Miss., about a progressive white couple whose marriage and family are rocked in the wake of their son's illness. Kate (Dana Zook) and Bobby (Andrew Nance) are celebrating 19 years together. Their oldest son, Dayne (Damion Matthews), is a handsome high school senior and football star; their daughter, Gracie (Ali Haas), is his high-strung younger sister, a drama devotee in more ways than one with plans to be the next Meryl Streep. Gracie's best friend, Kendall (Maurice André San-Chez), is an effeminate young man with a golden singing voice but a strict fundamentalist mother (Linsay Rousseau) from whom he must hide his plan to join Gracie in the school's production of Oklahoma. Kendall's fractured family encourages his tight orbit around Gracie's — including Dayne, on whom Kendall has an impossible-to-disguise crush — all of whom accept the closeted, innocent youth unequivocally. But when Dayne comes down with a rare liver disease (the title has nothing to do with race, which is not explored here, but references, at a literal level, the sickly color that overcomes Dayne at one point), the seemingly ideal family itself fractures along lines of a deeply buried secret regarding his paternity. Amid their worry for Dayne's future, and the painful dynamic opened between Kate and Bobby, Kendall's mother moves in with proselyting zeal, alienating her son to the point of total rejection, but also adding to an already volatile tension between his adoptive parents. Helmed by New Conservatory Theatre Center's founding artistic director, Ed Decker, the production achieves (after some initial warming up) decent performances across the cast, which, along with Shores' careful plotting and consistent humor, helps keep this sentimental, somewhat too neat story involving until the end. (Avila)
Accidental Death of an Anarchist Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison, Berk; www.berkeleyrep.org. $29-99. Opens Wed/12, 8pm. Runs Tue and Thu-Sat, 8pm (no show April 18; additional 2pm shows March 20 and April 17; also Sat, 2pm, but no matinee March 22); Sun, 2 and 7pm. Through April 20. Berkeley Rep presents comic actor Steven Epp in Dario Fo's explosive political farce, directed by Christopher Bayes,
Bread and Circuses La Val's Subterranean, 1834 Euclid, Berk; www.impacttheatre.com. $20-25. Thu-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 7pm. Through April 6. Impact Theatre performs "a cavalcade of brutal and bloody new short plays" by various contemporary playwrights.
Geezer Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston, Berk; www.themarsh.org. $25-50. Thu, 8pm; Sat, 5pm. Through April 26. Geoff Hoyle moves his hit comedy about aging to the East Bay.
The House That Will Not Stand Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison, Berk; www.berkeleyrep.org. $29-59. Wed/12, 7pm; Thu/13-Sat/15, 8pm (also Thu/13 and Sat/15, 2pm); Sun/16, 2 and 7pm. July 4, 1836: As a white New Orleans patriarch (Ray Reinhardt) passes from the scene, under somewhat mysterious circumstances, his longtime mistress, Beartrice (an imposing, memorable Lizan Mitchell), and their daughters (the charmingly varied trio of Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Flor De Liz Perez, and Tiffany Rachelle Stewart) — all free women of color — vie for dominance while trying to secure their respective futures in Berkeley Rep's sumptuous and beautifully acted world premiere. Nationally acclaimed playwright and Oakland native Marcus Gardley (And Jesus Moonwalked the Mississippi; This World in a Woman's Hands) brews up a historically rich and revealing, as well as witty and fiery tale here, based on the practice of plaçage (common-law marriages between white men and black Creole women), grounding it in the large personalities of his predominately female characters — who include a nosy and angling intruder (played with subtlety by Petronia Paley) — and lacing it all with a delirious dose of magical realism via the voodoo charms of Beartrice's slave, Makeda (Harriett D. Foy, who with Keith Townsend Obadike also contributes lush, atmospheric compositions to the proceedings). Gardley delves productively into the history overall, although he sometimes indulges it too much in awkward and ultimately unnecessary expository dialogue. When he allows his characters full scope for expression of their personalities and relationships, however, the dialogue sails by with brio and punch —something the powerhouse cast, shrewdly directed by Patricia McGregor, makes the most of throughout. (Avila)
Lasso of Truth Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller, Mill Valley; www.marintheatre.org. $37-58. Wed/12, 7:30pm;Thu/13-Sat/15, 8pm (also Sat/15, 2pm); Sun/16, 2 and 7pm. Marin Theatre Company performs Carson Kreitzer's new play about the history of Wonder Woman.
The Lion and the Fox Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant, Berk; www.centralworks.org. $15-28. Thu-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 5pm. Through March 30. Central Works performs a prequel to its 2009 hit, Machiavelli's The Prince, which depicts a face-off between Niccolo Machiavelli and Cesare Borgia.
The Music Man Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College, Berk; www.berkeleyplayhouse.org. $17-60. Fri and March 20, 7pm; Sat, 1 and 6pm; Sun, noon and 5pm. Through March 23. There's trouble in River City! See it unfold amid all those trombones at Berkeley Playhouse.
Once On This Island Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield, Palo Alto; www.theatreworks.org. $19-73. Tue-Wed, 7:30pm; Thu-Sat, 8pm (also Sat, 2pm); Sun, 2 and 7pm. Through March 30. TheatreWorks performs the Tony-nominated musical about a star-crossed love affair in the tropics, inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid.
Caroline Lugo and Carolé Acuña's Ballet Flamenco Peña Pachamama, 1630 Powell, SF; www.carolinalugo.com. Sun/16, March 22, 30, April 6, 12, 19, and 30, 6:15pm. $15-19. Flamenco performance by the mother-daughter dance company, featuring live musicians.
Companhia Urbana de Dança Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission, SF; www.ybca.org. Thu/13-Sat/15, 8pm. $25-35. Brazilian dance troupe under the direction of Sonia Destri Lie.
"Dream Queens Revue" Aunt Charlie's Lounge, 133 Turk, SF; www.dreamqueensrevue.com. Wed/12, 9:30pm. Free. Drag with Collette LeGrande, Ruby Slippers, Sophilya Leggz, Bobby Ashton, and more.
Feinstein's at the Nikko Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason, SF; www.feinsteinssf.com. This week: Cheyenne Jackson with musical director Ben Toth, Fri/14, 8pm; Sat/15-Sun/16, 7pm, $60-75.
Greg Fitzsimmons Punch Line Comedy Club, 444 Battery, SF; www.punchlinecomedyclub.com. Thu/13, 8pm; Fri/14, 8 and 10pm; Sat/15, 7:30 and 9:30pm. $23.50. The comedian performs.
"The Garden Party" Phoenix Theatre, 414 Mason, SF; www.overcasttheatre.com. Fri/14-Sat/15 and March 19-22, 8pm; Sun/16, 5pm. $11-13. Overcast Theatre performs Václav Havel's 1963 comedy.
"LEVYdance Presents: The Salon" LEVYstudio, 19 Heron, SF; www.levydance.org. Sat/15, 8:30pm. $10. Performing arts showcase featuring 10 local artists of various disciplines.
"LOL Mondays at OMG" OMG, 43 Sixth St, SF; www.clubomgsf.com. Mon/17, 7pm. Free. Comedy show hosted by Valerie Branch, with featured performers Imran G., Samantha Gilweit, and Barry Fischer, plus an open mic.
"Magic at the Rex" Hotel Rex, 562 Sutter, SF; www.magicattherex.com. Sat, 8pm. Ongoing. $25. Magic and mystery with Adam Sachs and mentalist Sebastian Boswell III.
"The Naked Stage" Bayfront Theater, B350 Fort Mason Center, SF; www.improv.org. Sat, 8pm. Through March 29. $20. BATS Improv performs a completely improvised play.
"New Winter: Winter Choreographers Showcase" Dance Mission Theater, 3316 24th St, SF; www.brownpapertickets.com. Fri/14-Sat/15, 8pm. $14. Works by Tika Morgan's Reggaeton Fusion Performance Workshop, Allan Frias' Hip-Hop Performance Workshop, Maurice Stokes, Natasha Carlitz Dance Ensemble, and more.
"Paper Wing" NOHspace, 2840 Mariposa, SF; www.theatreofyugen.org. Fri-Sat, 8pm. Through March 22. $15-35. Sculptural costume artist Sha Sha Higby presents a new solo performance.
"Point Break Live!" DNA Lounge, 373 11th St, SF; www.dnalounge.com. April 4, 7:30 and 11pm. $25-50. Dude, Point Break Live! is like dropping into a monster wave, or holding up a bank, like, just a pure adrenaline rush, man. Ahem. Sorry, but I really can't help but channel Keanu Reeves and his Johnny Utah character when thinking about the awesomely bad 1991 movie Point Break or its equally yummily cheesy stage adaptation. And if you do an even better Keanu impression than me — the trick is in the vacant stare and stoner drawl — then you can play his starring role amid a cast of solid actors, reading from cue cards from a hilarious production assistant in order to more closely approximate Keanu's acting ability. This play is just so much fun, even better now at DNA Lounge than it was a couple years ago at CELLspace. But definitely buy the poncho pack and wear it, because the blood, spit, and surf spray really do make this a fully immersive experience. (Steven T. Jones)
"Shotz: Featuring a Strong Female Lead" Tides Theatre, 533 Sutter, SF; www.amiosnyc.com. Tue/18, 8pm. $10. Seven plays, five minutes each, created in less than a month, and united under the theme "Featuring a Strong Female Lead."
"Silenced" and "The CONTACT Project" CounterPULSE, 1310 Mission, SF; www.counterpulse.org. Fri-Sat and March 20, 8pm; Sun, 2pm. Through March 23. Performance works by Charya Burt and Krista DeNio.
"Sorya! 2014: We Are Still At It" NOHspace, 2840 Mariposa, SF: www.brownpapertickets.com. Sat-Sun, 2pm; Mon, 7pm. Through March 24. Theatre of Yugen presents its 35th anniversary season with a performance by founder Yuriko Doi in the kyogen play Kawakami.
SOULSKIN Dance Joe Goode Annex, 401 Alabama, SF; soulskindance.brownpapertickets.com. Fri/14-Sat/15, 8pm. $20. A multimedia pop culture journey directed by Adrianna Thompson.
"Speechless" Public Works SF, 161 Erie, SF; www.speechlesslive.com. Wed/12, 7:30pm. $20. One-year anniversary special of the PowerPoint-based comedy show.
Stephen Petronio Company Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater, 700 Howard, SF; www.sfperformances.org. Fri/14-Sat/15, 7:30pm. $35-50. The company performs the West Coast premiere of Like Lazarus Did.
"An Evening of Relentless Humor in Multiple Formats from SOB" 142 Throckmorton Theatre, 142 Throckmorton, Mill Valley; www.142throckmorton.com. Sat/15, 8pm. $25-35. Sketch and improv comedy.
Savion Glover Marin Veterans' Memorial Auditorium, 10 Avenue of the Flags, San Rafael; www.marincenter.org. Fri/14, 8pm. $20-60. The tap dancer performs his new work, StePz.
"The Ironbound" Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller, Mill Valley; www.marintheatre.org. Mon/17, 7pm. Free. Staged reading of a new play by Martyna Majok.
"MarshJam Improv Comedy Show" Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston, Berk; www.themarsh.org. Fri, 8pm. Ongoing. $10. Improv comedy with local legends and drop-in guests.
"Mortified: March Madness" Uptown, 1928 Telegraph, Oakl; www.getmortified.com. Thu/13, 7:30pm. $20. Also Fri/14, 7:30pm, $21. DNA Lounge, 375 11th St, SF. Fearless storytellers share their most adorably embarrassing childhood writings.
Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir's Annual Spring Musical First Congregational Church of Oakland, 2501 Harrison, Oakl; www.oigc.org. Sat/15, 7:30pm. Free. OIGC performs spiritual and gospel music under the direction of Terrance Kelly, with special guest Calvin B. Rhone.
"Poetry Express" Himalayan Flavors, 1585 University, Berk; poetryexpressberkeley.blogspot.com. Mon, 7pm. Free. Ongoing. This week: Richard Silberg, plus open mic. Next week: Ambrose Mohler, plus open mic.
"Some Girl(s)" Dragon Theatre, 2120 Broadway, Redwood City; www.dragonproductions.net. Fri/14-Sat/15, 8pm (also Sat/15, 2pm); Sun/16, 2pm. $15. Dragon Theater's 2nd Stages Program kicks off with this production of Neil LaBute's dark comedy. *


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CHICAGO (May 1, 2008) - Megabus.com, a low-cost, intercity express bus service with fares as low as $1 via the Internet, announced today it has successfully served one million customers in the United States during the first two years of service.
Megabus.com celebrated its success by recognizing millionth customer Dana Bellers of St. Charles, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis. Bellers, 27, is an employee at Wachovia Securities in St. Louis.
Megabus.com recognized Bellers during a ceremony upon her arrival at the megabus.com Chicago stop near Union Station. She was given a Dell notebook computer and two Chicago Double-Decker/Trolley Tour tickets. All travelers on Bellers' bus also received two Chicago Double-Decker/Trolley Tour tickets as a token of appreciation from megabus.com.
"Megabus.com is the inexpensive, convenient and safe way to travel on my own," said Bellers. "The Online reservation system is easy to use and fares are always lowest compared to rail, air and car. I am honored to be recognized as the millionth customer and look forward to booking additional megabus.com trips Online with my new laptop."
Megabus.com began offering service to and from Chicago and eight other Midwest cities for as low as $1 dollar in April 2006. Since the initial launch megabus.com has expanded to a total of 17 Midwest cities, seven West Coast cities and most recently eight East Coast cities.
"The overwhelming popularity of megabus.com's innovative, express bus service prompts us to keep expanding and offering our service to as many customers as possible," said Dale Moser, president and chief operating officer of megabus.com. "We're excited to have reached our millionth customer and look forward to serving future travelers with the same passion and exceptional value-for-money our customers have come to expect."
Of the one million customers served by megabus.com, 79 percent have used megabus.com as an alternative, instead of driving, using the train and/or flying, a trend that is steadily growing according to Joseph Schwieterman, director of the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development and professor of public service management at DePaul University.
"The public is responding with considerable enthusiasm to the express services provided by megabus.com and other low-cost providers," said Schwieterman "After years of decline, the industry is once again poised for growth."
"We understand that customers made megabus.com successful and will keep us successful," said Moser. "We want to take any opportunity available to thank them for that."
Booking for megabus.com travel is done via the Internet at www.megabus.com. The Web site provides information on routes and arrival and departure times. Passengers can quickly book their travel and purchase tickets from the comfort of their home, office or wireless handheld device. The Web site is in English and Spanish. Customers are encouraged to book early to secure fares as low as $1 and will pay competitive fares the closer they book to the day of departure.
About megabus.com
Megabus.com is the first intercity, express bus line dedicated to bringing high-quality, low-cost travel options to eight East Coast cities, 17 Midwest cities and seven West Coast cities for as low as $1 via the Internet. Service for megabus.com operates daily. Fares shown are one-way and include all government taxes. Since its launch on April 10, 2006, megabus.com has served one million travelers. East Coast cities served beginning May 30 include: New York; Atlantic City, N.J.; Baltimore; Boston; Buffalo, N.Y.; Philadelphia; and Washington in the United States; and Toronto. Midwest cities served include: Ann Arbor, Mich.; Bloomington-Normal, Ill.; Chicago; Champaign, Ill.; Cincinnati; Cleveland; Columbia, Mo.; Columbus, Ohio; Detroit; Indianapolis; Kansas City, Mo.; Madison, Wis.; Memphis, Tenn.; Milwaukee; Minneapolis; St. Louis and Toledo, Ohio. West Coast cities served include: Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Oakland, Calif.; Millbrae, Calif.; San Diego; San Francisco; and San Jose, Calif. Visit www.megabus.com for additional service routes to and from the listed cities.
Chicago-based megabus.com is a subsidiary of Coach USA. Paramus, N.J.-based Coach USA owns and operates more than 20 local companies in North America, some that have been in business for more than 35 years, which operate scheduled bus routes, motor coach tours, charters and sightseeing tours.


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STYZO is a grid-based (Twitter Bootstrap Grid System) one page Responsive MODX template for creative or Digital Agency, Photostudio, Small Business or freelancers. Features of STYZO include valid HTML5&CSS3 code, Fully Customizable in MODX CMS, Custom Animations, Filterable Portfolio, Cube Portfolio, AjaxForm, , Working Blog Section, Pricing Table, JQuery cycle.
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Version Update 1.1 – 25-Aug-2014
Images are only for the demonstration purpose. Links to the images are given in the documentation. No any PSD file included in the download file.


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Anti-Shiite attacks up in Pakistan; analysts say officials give militants room to operate
QUETTA, Pakistan – Pakistan's minority Shiite Muslims have started using the word "genocide" to describe a violent spike in attacks against them by a militant Sunni group with suspected links to the country's security agencies and a mainstream political party that governs the largest province.
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a group of radical Sunni Muslims, who revile Shiites as heretics, has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks throughout Pakistan. Linked to al-Qaida, it has been declared a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S., yet it operates with relative ease in Pakistan's populous Punjab province, where Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and several other violent jihadi groups are based.
The violence against Shiites has ignited a national debate — and political arguments — about a burgeoning militancy in Pakistan. The latest attack was a massive bombing earlier this month that ripped apart a Shiite neighborhood in Pakistan's largest city of Karachi, killing 48 people, many of them as they left a mosque after saying their evening prayers. So far this year nearly 300 Shiites have been killed in devastating bombings, target killings and executions.
The unrelenting attacks also have focused the nation's attention on freedoms that Pakistani politicians give extremists groups, staggering corruption within the police and prison systems and the murky and protracted relationship between militant groups and Pakistan's military and intelligence agencies.
"The government doesn't have the will to go after them and the security agencies are littered with sympathizers who give them space to operate," Hazara Democratic Party chief Abdul Khaliq Hazara, told The Associated Press in a recent interview in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan where some of the most ferocious anti-Shiite attacks have occurred.
He labeled the killings as the "genocide of Hazaras," whom are mostly Shiites and easily identified by their Central Asian facial features.
"I have a firm belief that our security agencies have not yet decided to end all extremists groups," said Hazara. "They still want those (militants) that they think they can control and will need either in India or Afghanistan," he said referring to allegations that Pakistan uses militants as proxies against hostile India to the east and Afghanistan to the west.
The army has a history of supporting militant Islamists using them as proxies to fight in Kashmir, a region divided between Pakistan and India and claimed by both in its entirety. It is repeatedly criticized by the United States and Afghanistan for not doing enough to deny Afghan insurgents sanctuary in the tribal regions that border Afghanistan. Angry at the criticism, Pakistani army officials say they have lost more than 4,000 soldiers — more than NATO and the U.S. combined — fighting militants.
Yet, police officials in Baluchistan and the capital, Islamabad, told the AP that Pakistan's intelligence agency had ordered them to release militant leaders who had been arrested. The militants were not necessarily affiliated with Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, said the officials, who asked not to be identified because they feared losing their jobs.
Even the judiciary has queried Pakistan's security agencies for information about their alleged ties to militants.
The Supreme Court previously ordered the intelligence agencies and the paramilitary Frontier Corp, which was given sweeping powers to track and arrest militants in Quetta, to explain accusations of their involvement in anti-Shiite attacks. The intelligence agency was told by the court to identify unregistered weapons and vehicles some of which were alleged to have been involved in suicide attacks targeting Shiites.
Still in Pakistan's most populous province of Punjab where 60 percent of the country's 180 million people live, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and other militant groups move largely unrestricted.
In 2010, Punjab's Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif issued a surprising appeal to the Taliban, asking them to stop attacks in Punjab province because his government — just like the militants — opposed the dictates of the West. In a recent interview with the AP, Ahsan Iqbal, the deputy secretary general of Sharif's conservative Pakistan Muslim League, clarified his boss's comments.
"What we were saying to the Taliban at the time was 'if you are fighting the Pakistan government because they are stooges of the U.S. ... if that is your logic then why are you attacking in the Punjab because we are not stooges of the United States," he said.
The dramatic increase in sectarian violence also has spawned fierce political debate in Parliament with rivals firing volleys of accusations and counter accusations.
The ruling, liberal-leaning Pakistan People's Party has accused its conservative rival, the Pakistan Muslim League, which governs Punjab province, of patronizing radical Sunni groups, including Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. In response, Punjab parliamentarians have shot back, charging the Pakistani federal government with inaction and ineptness for failing to establish a coordinated, nationwide anti-terrorist campaign during its five years at the helm.
Iqbal says his Pakistan Muslim League has "zero tolerance" for extremists yet its provincial Law Minister last year campaigned alongside the leader of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi's parent organization, Sipah-e-Sahabah Pakistan, which is outlawed in Pakistan.
"It is political expediency in the Punjab that they think they need the support from the SSP in some parts for votes," said Hazara. "But the policies of these extremists will destroy political parties in Pakistan. It will destroy Pakistan."
Today, the SSP operates in Pakistan's Punjab province under a new name, Ahle Sunnat wal Jamaat. It runs scores of religious schools unencumbered by government restrictions. The schools churn out students, who graduate with a loathing of Shiite Muslims, a willingness to be foot soldiers for other Sunni militant groups and ambitions of making Pakistan a radical Sunni state.
Both organizations also have links to Afghanistan's Taliban and in 2011 Lashkar-e-Jhangvi carried out an attack in Afghanistan, killing nearly 70 Shiites in a series of coordinated strikes in three Afghan cities. The attacks raised concern that insurgents wanted to further destabilize Afghanistan by adding a new and deadly sectarian flavor to the conflict already being waged between insurgents and Afghan and foreign forces.
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi operated militant training camps in Afghanistan during the Taliban's rule that ended in 2001, said Waliullah Rahmani, an ethnic Hazara and executive director of the Kabul Center for Strategic Studies, a private think tank in the Afghan capital, Kabul. Still, Rahmani said the Afghan Taliban have not promoted sectarian violence, which might explain why there have been no other anti-Shiite attacks, Rahmani said Thursday in an interview.
Zahid Hussain, whose books plot the rise of militancy in Pakistan, linked the latest round of sectarian carnage in Baluchistan to lashkars, or tribal militias, established with the support of Pakistan's intelligence agencies to crush a burgeoning secessionist movement.
The militias, Hussain said, draw heavily from local religious schools or madrassas, which are heavily financed by donations from Gulf and Arab countries and are run by hard-line clerics with close ties to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
"That provides a deadly and unholy nexus (between) forces fighting the Baluch separatists and those waging war against the Shia community," Hussain wrote in a recent column. It also implicates Pakistan's intelligence agencies, even if indirectly, in the carnage — an allegation they deny.
In a column assailing the Punjab government's "dangerous liaisons" with militants in its province, Hussain said: "Pity the nation where the blood of innocents comes cheap and murderers live under state patronage."
Kathy Gannon is AP's special regional correspondent for Pakistan and Afghanistan and can be followed on www.twitter.com/kathygannon


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Photo: AP
Tensions are running high between China and Japan other a small series of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, known as the Senkakus in Japan and the Diaoyu in China and Taiwan. You can read more about the history of the island dispute here.What may be especially worrying to American readers is the idea that US troops could get involved if an armed conflict did escalate. Japan is a key US ally, after all, though any kind of military conflict (especially with a military giant and trade ally like China) would clearly not be in US interests.
The key legal document here is the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security from 1960 (you can download a pdf version of the treaty here). The treaty was signed to increase military cooperation between the US and Japan after the end of the post WWII occupation.
Yesterday, at a meeting of a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee, Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said the Senkaku / Diaoyu islands were "clearly" covered by the treaty, Reuters reports.
"We do not take a position on the ultimate sovereignty of these islands," Campbell said, but later added "We do acknowledge clearly … that Japan maintains effective administrative control … and, as such, this falls clearly under Article 5 of the Security Treaty."
China has previously opposed the application of the treaty to the islands, according to Xinhua.
Here's the text of Article 5:
Each Party recognises that an armed attack against either Party in the territories under the administration of Japan would be dangerous to its own peace and safety and declares that it would act to meet the common danger in accordance with its constitutional provisions and processes.
Any such armed attack and all measures taken as a result thereof shall be immediately reported to the Security Council of the United Nations in accordance with the provisions of Article 51 of the Charter. Such measures shall be terminated when the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to restore and maintain international peace and security.
As you can see, Article 5 does clearly request that the matter first be taken to the UN Security Council, but it shows why US observers are getting worried.
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Apr 08, 2008 | ISBN 9780375702877
Apr 10, 2007 | 510 Minutes
"A remarkable feat. . . . Unquestionably authoritative, impressively exhaustive….Nobody has done Edith Wharton such careful justice as [Hermione] Lee." —Claire Messud, The New York Times Book Review
"Magnificent. . . . By far the most comprehensive study of [Wharton's] full, populous and robust life. . . . Wharton lived a spirited and passionate life, and Lee captures that passion." —Newsday
"Thorough and intelligent. . . . This meticulous, generous biography is likely to suffice for a long time." —Diane Johnson, The Washington Post Book World
"Richly detailed, carefully nuanced. . . . Edith Wharton is not only the best book on its subject, but one of the finest literary biographies to appear in recent years." —The Atlanta Journal-Constitution


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Lamb's holiday show boasts a strong company of actors, musicians
Finding refuge in the company of friends old and new, and in the pleasures of turning hardship into harmony.
That's the story behind "Christmas On My Mind," this year's edition of Lamb's Players Theatre's annual "Festival of Christmas" tradition.
It's also, in its own way, the story of Lamb's itself — of a venerable theater that has had a few difficult years but, with help from abundantly talented artists it has embraced and (in many cases) groomed, keeps doing work worth savoring.
"Festival of Christmas: Christmas On My Mind"
Lamb's Players Theatre
When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 4 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 6 p.m. Sundays. Through Dec. 30.
Where: 1142 Orange Ave., Coronado
Tickets: $26-$60
Phone: (619) 437-6000
Online: lambsplayers.org
"Christmas On My Mind," an encore of a Kerry Meads-scripted piece first staged in 2007, is the most successful and satisfying "Festival" piece I've seen yet. It also brings together some prominent members of the theater's extended creative family, including ace musical director (and cast member) Jon Lorenz, actors Bryan Barbarin, Season Bowers and Nathan Peirson, and such multi-threat music and acting talents as Leonard Patton and Cris O'Bryon.
Given that Lamb's had to disband its full-time resident acting ensemble earlier this year in the face of financial struggles, it's encouraging to see that so much of the creative community the company has built over the years remains in the Coronado-based theater's orbit.
The music-filled play, set in a remote mountain cabin during a very snowy Christmas, also is blessed with strong work from some fresh faces (to Lamb's, anyway). Like a traveler getting bogged down in a flurry, the piece does lose its way a bit in the second act. Even then, though, the show's mix of original and traditional music helps pull a playgoer through the deeper drifts.
The setup: Musician Manny (played by Patton) is playing host to a houseful of people who've converged on a nearby resort town and, thanks to a snowstorm and blocked road, have found themselves stuck in the cabin.
There's friction from the start between such parties as Bowers' free-spirited wanderer Noelle and the ex-police chief McFadden (excellent David Kirk Grant), who's a wary and worried granddad to young sisters Parker (Joanne Barber) and Posey (Remy Corbin). (Joanne and Remy, who both did admirable work on opening night, alternate in the roles with Natasha Partnoy and Hourie Klijian.)
The funny and blustery Barbarin plays Roderick, a chef and ex-football player, while O'Bryon, an appealing singer and pianist, is Charlie, an ever-neurotic musician from Miami. (His quip about the unfamiliar weather conditions: "Winter is on Hallmark cards and when the drinks change at Starbucks.")
Lorenz, likewise a whiz on the keys, portrays Gene, Charlie's performing partner and husband to Taylor (sweet-voiced Paula Steiger Bloomer). Nathan Peirson (who's also the production manager for Lamb's) is Big Dee, a lovably gruff, guitar-playing trucker with a troubled past; newcomer Anton Fero makes his mark as Carson, a prickly L.A. rocker with sharp electric-guitar skills.
The story by Lamb's associate artistic chief Meads, who also directs, has some crackling dialogue and vibrant (if lightly sketched) characters, but it functions just as much to showcase the music.
Patton, the singular jazz singer-musician who has anchored multiple "Festival" productions, leads the ensemble in an irresistible reggae take on "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"; his own composition "The Babe Is King" is graced by delicate vocal harmonies.
Lorenz's affecting vocal arrangements highlight "Melancholy Bells," while Grant's guitar-playing brings flamenco texture to "O Come, Emmanuel."
Mike Buckley's copiously detailed cabin set evokes the feel of a sanctuary from the storms that, in various ways, mark all these characters' lives. It's an inviting place to get in tune with the season, and with the work of this durable theater.


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Now we're really in the thick of the Top Gear season. Right in the middle, right where it gets really good. Oh yeah. Perfect. Nice. Yeah.
In tonight's episode:
- Jeremy doesn't much like a slow Danish car
- James drives some GOOD NEWS
- The boys look at a Bond villain lair
Live in the UK, which is clearly the only place you could have watched actually it today, of course? Or do you have a fanciful machine that lets you it acquire it through other means? Let us know what you think of the newest episode of Top Gear in the comments below.


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Pasta with Ham, Peas and Cream
This recipe serves 2
200g farfalle or other short pasta
100g frozen peas
150ml double cream
150g diced ham
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
Cook the pasta according to packet instructions in plenty of salted boiling water, and then after 5 minutes add the peas to the pasta water.When the pasta is cooked, drain with the peas. Put the dry pan back on the heat with the cream, ham and Parmesan and warm it through. Add the pasta and peas back to the pan, tossing everything together well.


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Greg Drayer Andrade, MathWorks
Simulink® hardware support packages now let you create hardware projects with wireless communication using Android and iOS phones and tablets, Arduino®, Raspberry Pi™, and LEGO MINDSTORMS®. You can run Simulink models on each of these devices and include UDP or TCP/IP blocks to let them communicate with each other.
Recorded: 8 Mar 2017


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What is rideshare? What does it mean?
Ridesharing is using an online platform to connect passengers with drivers who use their privately owned vehicles to facilitate transportation needs.
- On-demand ridesharing companies, like Uber and Lyft, require drivers to carry only a standard vehicle operator's license. Taxis require drivers to carry a commercial license.
- With on-demand ridesharing companies, you use an app to complete the entire transaction - you're basically ordering a ride in a privately owned vehicle with your smartphone.
- Both taxis and on-demand services require drivers to complete a background check.
Benefits of Rideshare Services
- Drivers set their own schedules and can work as much or as little as they want.
- The in-app rating system allows riders to rate drivers, and drivers to rate riders. A series of bad ratings could lead to a driver (or a passenger) being removed from the rideshare service.
- There's no cash in the cars. Since all payment transactions are done through the app, there's no need to exchange cash or credit cards in the car. You can even tip through the app.
- You get door-to-door service, which means you don't have the hassle of finding a parking spot or paying for parking. This is great if you're going to a busy event, concert, or high-traffic area.
- You always have a ride home if you've been out on the town. Drinking and driving accounts for 10,000 deaths per year — riding in an Uber or Lyft might help reduces the risk of drunk driving.
- Carpooling options help you go green while you're on-the-go.
- It's an alternative to public transportation.
Rideshare Safety Precautions
Is Uber safe? Is Lyft safe? Taking a few precautions can help you sit back and enjoy the ride.
- Share your trip with others. If you need to travel alone, consider taking the carpool option. It allows you to ride with others who have a similar destination.
- Keep your personal information confidential.
- Request your ride before you go outside.
- Sit in the back seat and wear your seatbelt.
- Know your surroundings. Use the app to follow your driver's progress before they pick you up and while you are en route to your destination.
- Check the driver's ratings and read the feedback before you confirm a pick up. Cancel the request if you are not comfortable with the driver.
- Verify the identity of the driver and car before entering the vehicle. The ridesharing app will show you the driver's photo, the vehicle's license plate number, and the make and model of the car.
- If your personal safety is threatened, call emergency personnel immediately.
- If something doesn't feel right, don't get into the vehicle.
Ridesharing isn't only convenient and budget-friendly for riders, it's also a great way for drivers to earn extra money. If you're interested in becoming a driver, it's important to make sure you understand the Ins-And-Outs of Rideshare Driver Coverage.
Before becoming a driver, check with your State Farm® agent about Rideshare Coverage Options.


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The latest installment of the Harry Potter universe, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1, gives one a distinctly sinking feeling. Not because it means there's only one more episode left, but because one begins to wonder if the films will be able to wrap up the series in a remotely satisfying way.
There's still a popcorn kind of glee in watching a Harry Potter flick, but of late it's seemed trickier for the films to capture the whimsy of the books, something present even in the later, darker chapters. Hallows, Part 1, for example, sees the appearance of Mundungus Fletcher (Mundungus being word that means "foul smelling tobacco"), one of the many fantastical character names author J.K. Rowling rolled out. The movies have just seemed to have lost the ability to have fun with them.
It's been interesting to see them evolve. As Harry has grown older, the stories have become more sinister and ditto the movies, beginning with the genius stroke of allowing Alfonso Cuarón to direct the third installment, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. That film shed the twinkly quality that Chris Columbus brought (appropriately) to the first two flicks for a darker, hipper vibe. Suddenly Harry and company wore street clothes more often and felt more like real, modern tweens. It swerved visually away from the book in the small ways that movies should, without derailing Rowling's narrative.


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Seattle, WA--If engineers formed a list of commandments, thou shalt not create a structure that buckles would undoubtedly make the top ten. Bill Bryant, an engineer at Model + Instrument Development (MIND), knows this unwritten rule well.
Yet as he studied human gait and applied his findings to the design of a new prosthetic foot, buckling was what he wanted. "A foot should be stiff when flatfooted, for stability," he explains. "But to be comfortable, it should get softer as you roll onto the toes and take no additional load to roll the toe over."
The foot also had to be inexpensive and lightweight, yet strong enough to handle moderately active users weighing as much as 225 lbs. Compared to the company's high-end Seattle Lightfoot, the new Seattle Natural Foot had to cost just one-quarter as much. Charged with meeting these conflicting requirements, Bryant created a new class of injection-molded thermoplastic keel-structures, structures that employ a concept he calls Controlled Elastic Buckling.
Engineering books define buckling as a sudden, large, uncontrolled deformation of a structure due to a slight increase in loading. Controlled Elastic Buckling possesses each of these properties as well, but in moderation. Instead of "sudden, large, and uncontrolled," the Natural-Foot keel buckles in a predictable, moderate, and constrained fashion.
To achieve these qualities, Bryant formed the keel from a series of five curved ribs. As the foot bends, the ribs buckle against each other with the lower ribs progressively supporting the upper ones. Two perpendicular webs-added after empirical testing-interconnect the lowest ribs to provide increased stiffness at the limit of bending. "The secret is supporting (the keel) when it gets to the finished bent shape," he says of the design. "We allow it to buckle, then we don't let it go any further."
After several early attempts failed catastrophically-buckled in the classic sense-Bryant decided to reverse the design process. Instead of creating a keel design and bending it, he began with a keel already bent into the desired six-inch radius and then computed rib cord-lengths that would yield that bend.
Finite-element models created with Structural Research and Analysis' COSMOS/M confirmed the final design. Building the FEA models, however, stretched the capabilities of the software and the knowledge of several experts. "Everyone considers buckling a failure mode," says Bryant. The analysis proved extremely nonlinear. It also contained complex contact problems at the points where the ribs touch each other when bent. By working with Gary Ketner, an outside consultant, he ultimately produced a model that converged. The results correlated within 10% of actual measurements and, most importantly, predicted the fatigue failure location.
In a lab across the street from Bryant's office, engineers spent weeks testing sixteen different injection-moldable polymers in search of one that could handle the high fatigue load. Popular plastics such as nylon survived less than 100 cycles. The winner, pure DuPont Delrin(TM), lasted for millions. "There is nothing in high-load fatigue that even comes close to Delrin," says Bryant. Its low cost also kept the foot's price down.
Delrin, however, presented its own challenge: almost nothing sticks to it. Microcellular urethane foam from BASF injected into spray-metal tooling forms the foot's outer shape. To get the foam to bond to the Delrin, technicians must plasma-etch and prime the keels before molding. The foam also had trouble flowing between the keel-ribs, so cut sheets of urethane now fill these gaps. While these manufacturing headaches initially proved disappointing, engineers found that, by carefully selecting the durometer of the foam sheets, they can fine-tune the force-versus-displacement characteristics of different foot sizes.
|Other Applications
The keel's extremely nonlinear character allowed MIND to create just two sizes to cover the full range of feet. The difference in deflection between a 150-lb person and a 200-lb person is small. Ultimate strength is cited as more than 1,300 lbs.
Nothing matches the foot in both price and performance, the company claims. It should prove especially popular in third world countries where cost is extremely important and amputees with a makeshift prosthesis carry quite a stigma.
Bryant envisions many other applications for his controlled-buckling concept and expects other designers will too. "I'm happy that this gives me another engineering tool to work with," he says.
Additional details...Contact Bill Bryant, Model + Instrument Development, 861 Poplar Place South, Seattle, WA 98144.


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For mysterious reasons, the Heat purchased Hardaway's Miami mansion. Maybe not so mysterious: Hardaway's having problems with unpaid back taxes.
Hardaway, like many other professional athletes who banked tens of millions of dollars over their careers, has been having trouble paying his taxes. Over the summer, while the Heat were tossing near-max and veteran minimum dollars at everyone in sight, the IRS filed a lien against Hardaway and his suburban Miami house.
And what a house. Five bedroom, five-and-a-half bath, 6-car garage, swimming pool, and full-length basketball court emblazoned with the Heat logo. We think the logo was there before the Heat took it off Hardaway's hands.
Why would they buy it? They're not talking. But one might assume they're doing a favor for an old valued employee, seeing as how his semi-steady radio work apparently isn't enough to pay off his $120,000 lien. Or, one might cynically offer that they're taking advantage of an old valued employee who needs cash now. They paid him $1.985 million for the mansion, and put it right back on the market for an asking price of $2.5 million. That difference is probably enough to cover the eventual, inevitable Allen Iverson signing.


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Kara Goucher says left Nike Oregon Project because Alberto Salazar ignored anti-doping rules
Kara Goucher, the former University of Colorado distance star who left the Nike Oregon Project in 2011 after seven years, said for the first time in explosive reports published Wednesday that she stepped away from the high-profile distance group because of coach Alberto Salazar's win-at-all-costs persona, his flippant attitude toward therapeutic use exemptions, his willingness to ignore anti-doping rules, and other actions of his that put her health at risk.
According to a joint report from the BBC and the non-profit journalism outlet Pro Publica, Goucher and her husband, Adam, also a former CU star and Oregon Project member, are among several former athletes and coaches who have gone to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency with their concerns. She returned to Boulder in 2014 to resume training with her former college coach, Mark Wetmore, the longtime coach at CU, and Heather Burroughs.
WATCH: Trending Now: Kara Goucher says left Nike Oregon Project because Alberto Salazar ignored anti-doping rules
"I was afraid to say anything," she said, according to Pro Publica. "I'm tired of saying I'm off the Oregon Project because I had a baby and I no longer fit in."
Attempts by The Denver Post to reach the Gouchers on Thursday were unsuccessful.


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Epidurals have become the "drug of choice" in maternity wards across the United States. As of 1997, "nearly two-thirds of all women who give birth in hospitals with high-volume obstetric units had an epidural during labor. In many hospitals, epidural analgesia is routine and is provided to more than 90 percent of all women who are in labor in that hospital." Yet epidurals are not without potential risks for both mother and baby, which is part of the reason the findings from a new study on laboring women are so promising.
A new study reports laboring women given control over their epidural anesthesia resulted in a 30 percent reduction of the amount of anesthesia used and were "basically as comfortable" as women on a continuous dose. Researchers also report a trend toward fewer deliveries that required instrument assistance, such as forceps, in the patient-controlled group.
Dr. Peter Benstein, a professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology and women's health at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, said:
"My personal belief is that epidurals tend to slow labor down. So, if you can get away with less medication with patient-controlled analgesia, I think it's a wonderful thing."
"And, it's not a surprise to me that women used less anesthesia. If you can titrate your own medication, you're probably not going to give yourself a lot. An anesthesiologist will tend to give you a little bit more because they want to make sure there's no pain."
The author of the study is Dr. Michael Haydon, a perinatologist at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center in California.
Generally, epidural anesthesia is given on a continuous basis, according to Haydon. But patient-controlled devices that can control delivery of the anesthesia are widely available, he added. Patients are given a button to push when they feel they need more medication. The devices are programmed to only provide a specific amount of medication for specific time periods to ensure that people don't give themselves too much.
The study randomly selected first-time mothers for one of three groups: "the standard dose given as a continuous infusion; a continuous infusion with an additional patient-controlled option; and patient-controlled anesthesia only." The first group used an average of 74.9 mg of anesthesia during labor. The second group used an average of 95.9 mg, while the patient-controlled group used the least anesthesia of all, an average of 52.8 mg, according to the study.
Women in the patient-controlled group did report slightly higher pain scores when they got to the pushing part of the delivery, but also reported being satisfied with their pain relief overall.
Women's Views On News says:
This is good news because epidurals, despite having made labor more bearable for scores of women, have their pitfalls: they can lead to prolonged labor and an increase in vacuum and forceps deliveries. They can also result in more C-sections, which is far from ideal.
Rebecca on Babble writes:
Less meds with the same level of relief? What's not to like here? A lower dose of medication with adequate pain management would benefit both moms and babies. I find this study so exciting because it opens up new possibilities for women as active participants, not just passive patients, in hospital births. It's ideas like these that may help us progress toward a hospital birth model that takes into account the needs of both babies and the mothers who give birth to them.
Laura Nelson at Think Baby writes about the study's findings and how they might impact maternity care in the United Kingdom.
Patient-controlled epidural analgesia is currently only available in one-fifth of hospitals in the UK due to the expensive costs of the equipment needed. Experts are now looking into whether the positive effects outweigh the costs.??"The technique reduces the need for anaesthetic which in turn reduces the need for forceps delivery – and it gives women a feeling of control. The question is whether the small clinical advantages are enough to justify the cost of new equipment and staff training," Dr Elizabeth McGrady, a honorary clinical lecturer in anaesthetics at Glasgow University said to the BBC.
Personally I'm all for empowering women to be, as Rebecca said, "active participants" in hospital births. Although I did not have an epidural with either my daughter's hospital birth or my son's home birth, there was a point during my induced labor with my daughter that an option like this would have appealed to me (had I not had complications including low platelets that prevented me from getting an epidural anyway). I hope this study leads to hospitals adopting patient-controlled epidurals as standard practice for women who choose to have epidurals.
Related links:
- Over at Women's Health and Pregnancy, there's an informative post with diagrams and pictures about how an epidural is given, as well as the pros and the cons.
- At Anticipation and Beyond, there's another informative post about the dangers of epidurals. The author writes, "This blog isn't to insult those who have made this choice, but to increase your knowledge, so you can make informed choices for the future."
Photo credit: Women Health and Pregnancy
Cross-posted at BlogHer
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Life-Net Will Close
- Written by Bob Gabrielson
- Published in News
(1/24/13) Life-Net, which provides in-home health care, has told state officials it would close its office in Eau Claire by the end of March.
The move would affect 120 employees. Life-Net also has offices in Medford and Schofield – and there was no word on whether those facilities would be affected


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Boeing 737-300
Bye bye, Bobby!
Boeing 737-300
Lufthansa has now been using versions of the 737 series for over half a century. They have long been the workhorses of its short-haul network. But their era is coming to an end. The 737, affectionately known as Bobby, is being phased out
Lufthansa was one of the airlines that helped make the 737 the world's highest-selling passenger aircraft. As of 2013, Boeing has delivered more than 7500 aircraft of this type. First introduced in the 1960s and regularly updated over subsequent years, the 737 series quickly became one of the most popular short-haul aircraft among airlines the world over. With the advent of the Airbus A320 family in the late 1980s, these two series more or less dominated the short-haul market segment until quite recently, and Lufthansa has been flying short-haul jets from both these manufacturers on its regional network.
The short-haul Boeing types now flying for Lufthansa are the 737-300 and the 737-500. But these and the Airbus types in the Lufthansa fleet have been joined by more modern short-haul planes from manufacturers Bombardier and Embraer, whose job is to serve the lower-volume sub-section of the short-haul segment, for which the 737 and the A320 are less suitable. These smaller short-haul planes are now replacing Bobby Boeing because they burn significantly less kerosene and are much quieter than the aging 737. The largest version of Embraer's E-jet family, the Embraer E195, has accommodation for 120 passengers, the same number as the smallest 737, the 737-500. And on routes with higher passenger density the larger Boeing 737-300, seating 140 passengers, can be replaced by the newly-developed Airbus A320neo.
The Boeing 737 series will be gradually phased out between now and 2016. This is a logical decision, because Lufthansa can only operate successfully on routes with varying passenger densities if it has modern planes with optimal passenger capacity. On the other hand, it is impossible to manage a modern airline efficiently if its fleet is using too many different types of aircraft. But it's not yet the final farewell to Bobby. Lufthansa Technical Training has taken over one 737-500 that is now based at Frankfurt Airport as a training plane for upcoming mechanics and electronics technicians.


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Washington, June 21, 2014: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, once denied a visa to enter the United States over 2002 Gujarat riots, is expected to receive the honour of addressing a joint session of the US Congress during a visit to Washington in September.
California Republican Ed Royce, chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote to House Speaker John Boehner on Friday and asked that he invite Modi to address a joint session of the House and Senate during his trip.
"In every aspect – whether it be in political, economic or security relations – the United States has no more important partner in South Asia," the letter said. "It is not an overstatement to say that the US-India relationship will be one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century."
Boehner's office did not immediately announce a response to the letter, which was also signed by North Carolina Republican Representative George Holding. Congressional aides said they expected an invitation would be issued to the Indian leader.
The administration of President George W. Bush denied Modi a visa in 2005 under a 1998 US law barring entry to foreigners who have committed "particularly severe violations of religious freedom."
In 2002, when Modi had just become Gujarat's chief minister, more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in sectarian riots in the state. Modi denied any wrongdoing. India's Supreme Court ruled in 2010 he had no case to answer.
President Barack Obama congratulated Modi on his election victory in mid-May and invited him to the White House.
The United States, which sees India as a natural ally and potential counterbalance to China in Asia, is eager to expand business and security cooperation with the Modi government.
However, the relationship has failed to live up to that billing, due to bureaucratic and regulatory obstacles in India to expanded business ties and a political dispute over US treatment of an Indian diplomat accused of mistreating her nanny, which some analysts blamed on a lack of policy focus by the Obama administration.
Foreign heads of states and heads of government have been invited to address joint meetings of Congress since the early 1800s, normally to underscore their countries' close allegiance with the United States.
The last such address was South Korean President Park Geun-hye's more than a year ago, on May 8, 2013.


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Rankings For Best Internet Marketing Companies Under Different Categories
1st Globally
Mexico Square KKare Building
10seos offers the list of best restaurant SEO companies in Ethiopia to help restaurant owners reach a number of people. New restaurants keepers need to maintain an online presence in order to grab customers. Restaurant marketing companies give your website the attractive design and also marketize your business in best possible manner. Build the best marketing plan for restaurants with the help of best SEO service providers. Search engine optimization is a crucial process to maintain an influential online presence. Here's the place where you can find out best marketers. So why not avail these services?
Follow the links and reach out best vendors in your area. The list of top 10 Restaurant SEO services is arranged in a preferential manner with best one at the top. They would not only make you climb high ranks in search engine result pages but also stuff your website with engaging and informative content. Choose the one that suits you the best.
One Destination for all the most happenings around the entire website!
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Saurabh Mahapatra, MathWorks
This webinar was recorded a day before being presented at the SAE Commercial Vehicle Engineering Congress on October 5, 2010 in Chicago, IL. It is being made available for the benefit of those who could not attend the live presentation.
Abstract from the paper is given below:
In recent times, Model-Based Design has been recognized and adopted as a platform for innovation within the automotive industry. The future trends of continued globalization and convergence of the engineering disciplines will pose new challenges for engineers in communicating their design ideas with various stakeholders within their organizations. Automated report generation from software models, rich in information content, can offer a novel solution for addressing these challenges and enhancing process efficiency. We explore the technology in detail with regards to automation, document formats, templates, and interactivity. With examples borrowed from different stages of the development process, we illustrate the types of information that can be captured from a software model as a report for analysis and discussion. We conclude with a set of best practices for reporting that organizations can leverage to strengthen design processes centered on Model-Based Design.
The webinar has extra material that has been incorporated to reflect the author's current thinking on the problem.
Recorded: 4 Oct 2010


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Should I let a Dukes bailiff / enforcement agent in my home?
When a Dukes bailiff visits your home, it is not always appropriate to let them in. You don't have to let the bailiff into your home, even if they say that you do. The idea that bailiffs and enforcement agents have unlimited authority and that you must always do as they say has been born out of fear and rumour. They are not allowed to force their way into your home and must be invited in by you. Note that if you do allow a Dukes bailiff to enter your home, they may begin claiming your possessions to offset the debt.


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The first day of the competition started early to make sure that we could finish the trials with 40 men battling for 14 spots and get started with the main event. The wind was full on right from the start, in the morning the wind was already a solid 25 to 30 knots for the first heats of the day, with gust in the upper 40's by the afternoon. Men were riding between 4 to 7 meter kites. After 4 hours of trials, 14 men were selected and the main event was ready to start. The first round of men was completed and some great match ups like the Hadlow vs Zoon are ready for tomorrow.
The trials were extremely competitive, the field was filed with many top riders like Jaspan, Schitzhofer, Madson, Corniel, Hadlow and many more. The ladder was set up with 3 rounds, winners of the first round heats of 4 were automatically qualified for the main event and the remaining 30 riders had to go two rounds for the last 4 spots.
In the first two heats Nico Suriel and Mario Rodwald easily advanced, the 3rd heat was close between Patrick Blanc and Sam Light, but Sam landed many low technical tricks to get into the main event. In heat four Bakker landed some clean tricks to advance and in heat 5 Crathern went huge to win. In heat six Michael Schitzhofer defeated Madson to win with a last minute slim chance. Borisov had a solid performance landing a big blind judge and mobe. Hutter was landing his stylish S-1\'s and blind judges to win his heat. The final heat of the first round features five time world champion Aaron Hadlow who dominated by landing a BJ, Front Blind, massive kiteloop and a couple of mobes to easily win his heat.
The 2nd round saw the wind pick up and the conditions became more extreme for the competitors and landing the most basic handle passes became a challenge, but 10 riders advanced to go to the 3rd round for a chance to get into the main event. The first heat of round 3 Blanc was kiting extremely well on his 4 meter kite and secured a spot in the main event. The second heat Valentin Garat had a big loop and S-mobe to advance. The 3rd and 4th heats were dominated by the Brazilians Madson and Da Silva.
The women were released for the day and the first round of men started in the extreme conditions of Leucate. The wind was a bit more gusty making the execution of tricks more difficult. During the first heat Da Silva was more consistent and able to defeat Sam Light. The second heat Patrick Blanc kept his run going on is 4 meter kite and won his 3rd consecutive heat and the got the highest heat score of the day 26.26. Crathern put up a good fight against Mario Rodwald, but Mario's competition experience paid off with a win. Hadlow came out in the next heat and executed some solid moves. The next two heats Hutter and Borisov kept on winning. The last heat of the day was won by the wildcard Paul Serin.
The competition will resume tomorrow at 10 AM. We will be running the men's single and women\'s single elimination and possibly start the doubles as well. The live will be running all day so make sure you check out the Live Feed brought to you by Sosh. The wind is forecasted to keep blowing for the next two days and we should see some pretty massive tricks being landed by the top riders.
Make sure you check all the updates at www.prokiteour.com and follow us on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news and results.
Check the Heat scores of you favorite PKRA riders
Day 1 Photos
Read original article: PKRA News:Trials and First round of PKRA Mondial du Vent


text: Register Today! Into Fantasy Sports? Looking for leagues to join? How is your team faring this season? Gamer? We've got the best discussion of fantasy sports and players right here. Connect with other gamers and Fantasy Sports enthusiasts and share the ups and downs of the most popular games and in-season Fantasy Sports.


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Law firm Dentons has hired Campbell Forsyth as a partner in the firm's intellectual property practice in London.
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Dentons, King & Wood Mallesons, partner, patent, Campbell Forsyth, Jeremy Cohen,