text:
About bananas Edit
Bananas are tropical fruits with sweet, soft, creamy flesh and yellow peels. The most common variety, the Cavendish, can be purchased when the peel is still green and ripened at room temperature. Other varieties have red skin and pink flesh.
Bananas are the most popular fresh fruit in the United States. They have a peel that comes off easily, they ripen after they've been picked, there is a generous supply all year, and they are inexpensive. Bananas have both a high amount of carbohydrates as well as potassium, which also makes them the fruit of choice for many athletes. (Wellness Encyclopedia of Food and Nutrition, 1992).
A banana plant is a herb in the genus, Musa, which because of its size and structure, is often mistaken for a tree. It is cultivated for its fruit, which also bears the same name. Bananas are of the Family Musaceae and closely related to plantains. Globally, bananas rank fourth after rice, wheat and maize in human consumption; they are grown in 130 countries worldwide, more than for any other fruit crop. Bananas are native to tropical southeastern Asia.
The main or upright growth is called a pseudostem, which when mature will obtain a height of 2–8 m (varies by cultivar), with leaves of up to 3.5 m in length. Each pseudostem produces a single bunch of bananas, before dying and being replaced by a new pseudostem. The base of the plant is a rhizome (known as a corm). Corms are perennial, with a productive lifespan of 15 years or more.
The term banana is applied to both the plant and its elongated fruit (technically a false berry) which grow in hanging clusters, with up to 20 fruit to a tier (called a hand), and 5-20 tiers to a bunch. The total of the hanging clusters is known as a bunch, or commercially as a "banana stem", and can weigh from 30–50 kg. The fruit averages 125g, of which approximately 75% is water and 25% dry matter content. Bananas are a valuable source of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and potassium.
In 2003, India led the world in banana production, representing approximately 23% of the worldwide crop, most of which was for domestic consumption. The four leading banana exporter countries were Ecuador, Costa Rica, Philippines, and Colombia; accounted for about two thirds of the worlds exports; with each exporting more than 1 million tons. Ecuador alone provided more than 30% of global banana exports according to FAO statistics.
Bananas are classified either as dessert bananas (meaning they are yellow and fully ripe when eaten) or as green cooking bananas/plantains. Almost all export bananas are of the dessert variety; however, only about 10-15% of all production is for export, with the U.S. and EU being the dominant buyers.
Bananas and plantains constitute a major staple food crop for millions of people in developing countries. In most tropical countries green (unripe) bananas used for cooking represent the main cultivars. Cooking bananas are very similar to potatoes in how they are used. Both can be fried, boiled, baked or chipped and have similar taste and texture when served. Nutritionally one green cooking banana has about the same nutritional and calorie content as one potato.
The vast majority of producers are small-scale farmers growing the crop either for home consumption or for local markets. Because bananas and plantains will produce fruit year-round, they provide an extremely valuable source of food during the hunger season (that period of time when all the food from the previous harvest has been consumed, and the next harvest is still some time away). It is for these reasons that bananas and plantains are of major importance to food security.
The incorrect word from Between the Lions is binini.
Scientific name Edit
- Musaceae
Selection Edit
Avoid bananas with brown spots that seem very soft. Select those bananas with a nice color, specific for the variety. Choose fruit that is firm and free of bruises. Best eating quality has been reached when the solid yellow skin color is speckled with brown. Bananas with green tips or with practically no yellow color have not developed their full flavor. Bananas are overripe when they have a strong odor.
This is the only fruit that actually gets better if it is picked while it is unripe. When choosing a ripe banana, choose a plump yellow banana with brown flecks. Avoid any with blemishes.
Green bananas can be bought and allowed to ripen at home on the countertop, or they can be placed in a brown paper bag with holes pierced through it.
Storage Edit
Bananas should typically be stored, unpeeled at room temperature to encourage ripening. Once ripe they can be stored in the refrigerator for 3 to 5 days in order to stunt the fruit's ripening. The peel may turn brown in the refrigerator, but the fruit will not change. Peeled bananas should be eaten immediately lest they discolor due to exposure to the air.
Bananas can be frozen, but as many frozen fruits they tend to lose much of their texture during the thawing process. Typically they can be safely frozen for up to 3 months. This must also be done after the fruit has ripened as exposure to freezing temperatures can halt the fruit's ability to ripen.
Lastly, Bananas are an ethylene producing fruit, and as a result will ripen quicker if not given room to breathe. In addition, storing Bananas with other fruits will cause other fruits to ripen quicker as well.
Varieties Edit
The very popular yellow banana of Cavendish is the banana we see in grocery stores. However, Plantains, Finger Bananas and Red Bananas are also popular varieties. Most have a soft texture when ripe.
There are hundreds of varieties of bananas grown around the world. The Cavendish is the most popular in the United States. Other varieties that may be found in specialty markets are: Burro, Blue Java, Dwarf, Manzano, Mysore, Orinoco and the plantain.
Geography Edit
Bananas are only grown in hot, humid, tropical climates.
Nutritional Qualities Edit
High in carbohydrates, low in fat, high in potassium and Vitamin C.
Trivia Edit
Once peeled, a banana will turn brown fast! To avoid this from happening, brush the banana with lemon juice.
Over-ripe bananas may be frozen in a plastic bag until enough bananas have been saved to make banana bread! Thaw before using.
Wine Pairings Edit
Equivalencies Edit
1 lb. fresh = 3 medium bananas = 2 cups sliced = 1¾ cup mashed = 1 cup dried
Additional Information Edit
Banana Recipes Edit
Source Edit
- Fruit of the Month: Banana by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, public domain government resource—original source of article
- Parts of this article were originally published at Suite101.com.


text:
Total Members Voted: 461
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
He was shite in about 98% of the time he was on the pitch. Its just that people focus on the 2%.
Oh well. Chelsea bought him because he was cheap and is also still in the frame for playing some top football. Unless we start winning things soon, the youngsters we have here now will be gone ' for a new challenge', too.https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/900591/Chelsea-Antonio-Conte-CONFIRMS-Ross-Barkley-Everton
Never thought Id say this as his #1 fan but:Ross you cunt, you cost us £20m coz your arse twitched late last August. You cunt.
Seriously should be asking Chelsea for one of their players on loan here, its fucking ridiculous if we don't
Do we reckon hes getting much game time at Chelsea then?
Of course we have the intention we just fall down in reality.
Apologies if I'm wrong, but didn't we fail to meet Ross's salary demands?
Page created in 0.051 seconds with 27 queries.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
- Discover CSUB
- |
- Academics
- |
- Admissions & Aid
- |
- Student Life
- ASI (Student Government)
- Antelope Valley Campus
- Bookstore
- Campus Dining
- Campus Programming
- Career Education & Community Engagement (CECE)
- Children's Center
- Counseling Center
- Graduate Student Center
- Health Center
- Housing & Residence Life
- Services for Students with Disabilities
- Student Financial Services
- Student Organizations
- Student Recreation Center
- Student Rights & Responsibilities
- Student Union
- Vice President for Student Affairs
- Wellness
- |
- Athletics
- |
- News & Information
- Grants
- Loans
- Scholarships
- Federal Work-Study
- Athletic Grant-In-Aid
- Waiver / Reduction Programs
- Fellowships & Internships
Types of Aid
Need help paying for college? There are many kinds of financial aid that are available to students at CSUB. Please see summary below or click on the links at left for more detailed information about specific programs.
Federal Grants and State & Institutional Grants are considered "Gift Aid" and are funded by federal and state governments, foundations, corporations, and/or non-profit organizations. Recipients are typically determined based on financial need, or in connection with a research proposal or project. The proceeds of the grants are used to help offset recipients' cost of education and/or research expenses.
Stafford Loans are low-interest federal student loans that ensure the borrower will have a reliable and predictable source of funding. Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students (PLUS) (also available for graduate students) may be used to replace the family contribution to the extent that it does not exceed the difference between the student's cost of attendance and other financial aid. Nursing students are eligible for low-interest federal Nursing Student Loans. There are also many Private Loans available, but these tend to have much higher interest rates and fees and should only be used when you have exhausted all other options. Short-Term Emergency Loans (up to $250) are also available to help with unanticipated emergency situations.
There are many CSUB Scholarships available that are funded by corporations, non-profit organizations, and individual donors. Recipients are typically determined through a competitive application process based on academic achievement, financial need, and/or other criteria established by the donor. We also encourage students to apply for External Scholarships. Student athletes may be eligible for Athletic Scholarships.
The Federal Work-Study (FWS) program is a federal campus-based program designed to provide students an opportunity to gain work experience on campus while earning money to help pay for their education. Jobs are available on campus, with flexible schedules that can be adjusted around each student's class load. Money earned will not affect a student's future financial aid eligibility.
Athletic Grant-in-Aid
Athletic Grant-in-Aid is an athletic scholarship funded through private donations to the university's intercollegiate Athletics program. The CSUB Athletics Department provides scholarships in 18 Division I sports. Recipients are typically determined by the head coach of each sport. The coach also determines the amount of the award, in consultation with the Director of Athletics and/or the Athletic Compliance Officer, based on the student's athletic ability, academic eligibility, their sport's NCAA headcount or equivalency limits, and available funds. Coaches may propose an increase to an existing athletic grant-in-aid award at any time during the academic year. They may also reduce or cancel an award in accordance with NCAA Compliance Manual bylaw 15.3.4 - Reduction or Cancellation During Period of Award.
Additional Types of Aid and Programs
- Fee Waivers/Reduction
The CSU system offers a variety of Fee Waiver and Reduction programs for various student groups, including California veterans, CSU employees and their dependents, California residents 60 years and older, International Exchange Students, and many more. Students who live and attend college in western states may benefit from the Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) Program, which allows out-of-state students to enroll at a reduced tuition level.
- Tax Credits
Education Tax Credits can help offset the costs of education. The American Opportunity (Hope Credit extended) and the Lifetime Learning Credit are education credits you can completely subtract from the federal income tax, not just deduct from taxable income.
- Fellowships & Internships
Fellowships are typically awarded to students pursuing graduate or doctoral degrees and are used to help offset recipients' cost of education and/or research expenses. An internship is typically a hands-on learning experience within a business or organization setting that exposes the student to their field of interest.
Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships
9001 Stockdale Highway
Bakersfield, CA 93311-1022
Phone: (661) 654-3016
Fax: (661) 654-6800
Email: email@example.com
Federal School Code: 007993
Follow us on Facebook
CSUB Academic Scholarships
iGrad Financial Literacy


text:
Each knee walker manufacturer provides a height range for accepted use of their products. These height ranges are a general guideline, but don't account for all of the different leg & torso proportions that are out there. The best way to make sure that a knee walker model is a good fit, is to measure the distance from your knee to the floor.
To measure...
If your knee to floor measurement is between 18.75" and 21.75" you can use any one of our knee walker models. Of all units the Free Spirit Knee Walker is the most versatile, so if you are on the shorter or taller side of the spectrum, it's your best bet.
To see if our knee walkers are a fit for you, check to see if your knee to floor measurement is within the knee pad adjustment heights below.


text: In Oakland, police shot rubber bullets at peaceful protesters, critically injuring a war veteran [GALLO/GETTY] What happens when a government builds a massive, unaccountable police apparatus to thwart infiltration by a foreign menace, only to see the society it's supposed to protect take to the streets for entirely different reasons? It looks as though we may be about to find out. The Occupy protests have been mostly peaceful, with a few fairly dramatic exceptions. But the sight of a huge police presence in riot gear is always startling, and tactics that have been honed in Europe (such as "kettling") against anarchist actions have not been as common in the United States as elsewhere. More standard forms of crowd control, such as the aggressive use of pepper spray and "rubber" bullets have so far been the outer limits of the police use of force. But it is hardly the outer limits of the possibilities.The US has actually been militarising much of its police agencies for the better part of three decades, mostly in the name of the drug war. But 9/11 put that programme on steroids.Recall that six short weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks, the US congress passed the PATRIOT Act, a sweeping expansion of domestic and foreign intelligence-gathering capabilities. This legislation gave the government the ability to easily search all forms of communication, eased restrictions on foreign intelligence-gathering at home, gave itself greater power to monitor financial transactions and created entirely new categories of domestic terrorism to which the PATRIOT Act's expanded powers to police could be applied.It was one of the greatest expansions of government police power in history, an expansion which, after some tweaking, has been mostly validated by the congress and reaffirmed by the courts.A little more than a week after the PATRIOT Act was passed, President Bush created the Office of Homeland Security to "develop and coordinate the implementation of a comprehensive national strategy to secure the United States from terrorist threats or attacks" and a year later, the Department of Homeland Security was established by the Homeland Security Act of 2002.Today it is the third-largest government agency, after the departments of defence and veterans' affairs. Aside from the billions the federal government spent on its own agencies, it has disbursed many billions more to various state and local police agencies, ostensibly for the purpose of fighting the terrorist threat.Campus police with M-16sMore often, it created new surveillance opportunities for non-terrorist activity. In one notorious case from 2006, it was revealed that Homeland Security had given the remote Alaskan village of Dillingham (population 2,400) $202,000 to purchase surveillance cameras in order to track alleged terrorist activity.Needless to say, Dillingham was not on any known terrorist's target list, so the only people the surveillance cameras were watching were the citizens. But surveillance wasn't the end of it. "It wouldn't be surprising to find that swaggering around armed to the teeth and dressed like RoboCop might lead some cops to adopt a more militaristic attitude." As reported by Radley Balko in the Huffington Post, a Pentagon programme - started in the 1980s - to give military equipment to local police escalated in the 2000s, with even university campus police receiving everything from M-16s to armoured personnel carriers. Balko quoted one county sheriff saying that he'd use his new Homeland Security-funded SWAT team "for a lot of other purposes, too ... just a multitude of other things".All over the country, police switched out their traditional uniforms for Battle Dress Uniforms, dubbed by one retired policeman in the Washington Post as "commando-chic" regalia. It wouldn't be surprising to find that swaggering around armed to the teeth and dressed like RoboCop might lead some cops to adopt a more militaristic attitude.Former San Jose chief of police Joseph McNamara raised these alarms as early as 2006 in the wake of the Sean Bell shooting in New York. He pointed out that the effects of the drug war and 9/11 had led to "an emphasis on 'officer safety' [where] paramilitary training pervades today's policing, in contrast to the older culture, which held that cops didn't shoot until they were about to be shot or stabbed".Likewise, in the name of "officer safety", the Taser became a common tool in everyday policing, deployed with little knowledge of the effects, and a tendency to Taser first and ask questions later. But over the course of the past decade, the body count grew as it became more and more obvious that tasers were sometimes as deadly as the guns they purported to replace. 'Pain compliance' And that's the most prosaic of the new policing toys that are becoming available. Reporter Ando Arick analysed the new generation of weaponry in an article in Harper's called "The Soft-Kill Solution - New Frontiers In Pain Compliance". He recounts a 60 Minutes investigation into a new weapon to be used for what the military said was "crowd control in Iraq".Yet in military exercises in Georgia, soldiers were dressed as protesters, carrying signs that say "world peace", "love for all" and "peace not war" for some reason. In what was presented as a choice between backing off and shooting into the crowd, the audience was then shown that a "ray gun" was on top of the Humvee. "An operator squeezes off a blast. The first shot hits them like an invisible punch. The protesters regroup, and he fires again, and again. Finally they've had enough. The ray gun drives them away with no harm done." Except for the repeated "invisible punches", of course. But like the Taser, the whole point of this "pain compliance" is to inflict short-term physical agony on human beings to "induce behavioural modification".They have developed plans for a flying drone that fires stun darts at suspects, a "Shockwave Area-Denial System", which blankets the area in question with electrified darts, and a wireless Taser projectile with a 100-metre range, helpful for picking off "ringleaders" in unruly crowds.Would the public balk? Probably not. After all, they've accepted the Taser to such an extent that it's now a staple of movie comedies and viral YouTube videos. The ground has been well-prepared. And after all, just as the government has expanded its police powers and built up its arsenal of "pain compliance" weaponry, the broader culture was lifting the centuries-old taboo against torture.It was an abstract and obscure debate that took on a surreal cast when it was revealed that early government brainstorming meetings about interrogation tactics at Guantanamo relied heavily on the question, "What would Jack Bauer do?"Jack Bauer, of course, was a fictional character in the then-popular television show "24", a secret agent who was known for his willingness to break any law and social norm in the pursuit of a ticking time bomb. He was specifically admired for his innovative torture techniques.This character was a great favourite of high-ranking members of the government - notorious torture memo author John Yoo cited him in his memoir, and even Justice Antonin Scalia once publicly exclaimed: "Jack Bauer saved Los Angeles ... He saved hundreds of thousands of lives. Are you going to convict Jack Bauer?"The idea that sometimes the threat was so great that authorities had no choice but to set aside even deep cultural taboos was promulgated by the most powerful people in the nation.The lesson from that debate was that there are times when the government has to, as Vice-President Dick Cheney famously described it, "take off the gloves". What wasn't decided was the criteria the nation would use to decide when that "time" was.Today we are in a different world.Economic justiceNo longer is the nation obsessed with the terrorism threat. Guantanamo is rarely mentioned. Osama bin Laden is dead. The president has declared that the "enhanced interrogation techniques" have ended. A few stalwart civil libertarians are still fighting in the courts, but the nation's attention has turned to a new threat - economic injustice, income inequality and political corruption. And they are taking their grievances into the streets all over the country.So far, there have been few clashes between the Occupy forces and the police, although Oakland and New York have both seen some dramatic confrontations and the events at the UC campus in Berkeley last week were downright brutal. There have been many arrests, however, and some of the communities are starting to react unfavourably to the demonstrators, demanding that the occupations disperse. The big question for everyone is what will happen if they don't.Arick concluded his Harper's report with an ominous observation: "Each year, some 76 million people join our current 6.7 billion in a world of looming resource scarcities, ecological collapse and glaring inequalities of wealth; and elites are preparing to defend their power and profits. In this new era of triage, as democratic institutions and social safety nets are increasingly considered dispensable luxuries, the task of governance will be to lower the political and economic expectations of the masses without inciting full-fledged revolt. Non-lethal weapons promise to enhance what military theorists call 'the political utility of force', allowing dissent to be suppressed inconspicuously." The United States has never had fully militarised police before, armed with the kind of high-tech surveillance and weaponry that would never be allowed if the National Guard were called up in an emergency. And neither have we ever had such a malleable definition of what constitutes an emergency. At a time of increasing citizen unrest, it's a volatile combination.Certainly the government seems to have been preparing for such confrontations for some time now.Whether the people will accept high-tech "pain compliance" to "modify" dissent remains to be seen. If the attitude towards Tasers is any guide, many won't have a problem with it and "enhanced interrogation" of terrorist suspects has become, at best, a moral grey area for many in the US.We have essentially normalised torture and created a high-tech police apparatus with more capability than any military in history. Human nature suggests that if you build it, they will use it.Heather Digby Parton writes the liberal political blog Hullabaloo. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy. SOURCE: Al Jazeera ABOUT THE AUTHOR Heather Digby PartonHeather Digby Parton writes the liberal political blog Hullabaloo. Politics US & Canada Iraq United States


text:
At 25 — not ready for his AARP card, but some five years older than the NBA rookie he once aspired to be — Stefan Welsh still has game. If you don't believe that, you obviously weren't at Maury High School on a Saturday afternoon in late June.
The setting, atmosphere and competition were nothing like what he saw at Arkansas, but Welsh had one of those days where it might not have mattered who was checking him. When it was over, and his team had a 133-106 win in the Hampton Roads 7 Cities Pro Am, Welsh had scored 59 points.
Thirty of those came on 3-pointers. A bunch more came on pull-ups, fade-aways, and-ones, you name it. Somewhere along the way, he might have even given that Michael Jordan "Hey, what can I say?" shrug.
"He was so hot," said James Flood, the league's CEO and operator, "condensation started forming on the floor."
"And I missed 10 free throws," Welsh added.
According to Flood, it's the most points scored in a league game since he took over in 2005. He also points out that the second half of that 48-minute game was played with a running clock. Welsh had 34 of his points in that second half.
Eight years after his final season at Woodside, and three years after leaving Arkansas, Welsh still loves the game. He's pretty much given up on The League, but there's plenty of basketball to be played around the globe. Welsh has been to Israel, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Canada and (most recently) China.
He's still single … sort of.
"I'm married to Spalding," he said, referring to the basketball manufacturer. "It's been 14 years now, and hopefully the 15th will be really special."
Coming out of Arkansas, Welsh knew his draft chances were slim. After beginning his senior year on suspension, he had returned to a diminished role. With only one start (Senior Night), he averaged 20 minutes and 5.8 points a game.
Welsh played the 2011-12 season in the NBA Development League, where he averaged 8.3 points a game for the Austin Toros. But a step up was not to be, so Welsh has spent the rest of his professional career overseas. A 6-foot-3 guard, Welsh said he averaged a double-double last season in China.
"Everybody's dream is to play in the NBA," he said. "At this point, though, it's more about money because it's a business. If I'm not going to be in the NBA, I'm going to go where I can be paid the most. It's always fun to go see other places. Some guys never get to leave their city. The ways of life and customs are real interesting to me.
"I lived in China for five weeks, and over there there's no Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, none of that. Food over there is totally different than the Chinese food you get here. You might find a KFC or a McDonalds, but for me, the food was the hardest thing."
Another perk: He was something of a celebrity.
"Everybody treated us like we were Kobe or LeBron," Welsh said. "I was impressed with the competition level there. The Asian market is one of the best in international (basketball)."
Where next? That's up in the air. At the moment, Welsh is playing in the first of two Eurobasket Summer League camps in Las Vegas. The first wrapped up Wednesday; the second begins Thursday.
From all indications, things are going well in Vegas. In Tuesday night's game, he had 18 points, seven assists and five steals on the way to making the all-camp team. James Blackburn, an international scout, tweeted Wednesday that Welsh "is tough in transition (and) communicates well on defense."
Welsh is hoping to have some options come fall.
"It's going to come down to wherever my agent and financial adviser decide I need to be," he said. "I'm looking to go to Europe, somewhere like Greece or Italy or France. Somewhere a little more Americanized. But I'm going to keep playing.
"I've got 10 solid more years left and I'm trying to max out as much as I can. I definitely have the same love for the game."


text:
3,443 words
Michel Houellebecq
The Elementary Particles
Translated from the French by Frank Wynne
New York: Knopf, 2000
"I get my kicks above the waistline, Sunshine."[1]
"The universe is nothing but a furtive arrangement of elementary particles. . . . And human actions are as free and as stripped of meaning as the unfettered movements of the elementary particles." — Michel Houellebecq, Read more …


text:
It`s simple to renovate your yard, garden or lawn. Landscaping can be an easy and enjoyable hobby if you just learn the basics. This article is full of tips that will help you to do just that, so that you can create the exact look for your yard that you want.
For a nice update to your yard, consider re-edging rock beds or flower areas with soft curves. Curved beds are a lot more up-to-date as opposed to straight lines and sharp corners. Not only is cutting fresh edges an inexpensive project, it can also make a huge difference in the appearance of your flower beds and your lawn.
When landscaping, use native plants if you can. When you are landscaping your yard or garden, make sure you use flowers, shrubs and trees that are considered to be local to the area. This is because plants that are native will thrive as they are used to the environment of your home, they'll also require less upkeep as well.
An excellent landscaping tip for everyone is to compile a list of every material you might need before beginning your project. Nothing can be more of a bummer than beginning a project and then finding out that you're short a few things. This can zap your enthusiasm and delay your project.
Landscaping is more than just planting grasses and trees. Landscape design also includes water features, decorative elements and walkways. You can be a little more creative with decks, birdbaths, archways and even pergolas. These elements come in a broad range in terms of prices for any budget.
This article has provided a diversity of tips to help you begin designing your landscape. Take a sampling of these ideas, and try them out. If successful, you will be on your way. Your excitement will grow as you watch the transformation you have begun.
What You Can Do To Improve Your Landscaping


text:
|Southeast Spotlight
Thunder Mountain Big Band preps for the holidays
Published: 12/06/2012 12:45:00
Many people who enjoy the entertainment culture of Juneau know that our fair Capitol city has a lot to offer. Theater Groups, Symphonies, a Lyric Opera, and a perennial favorite that you see at a lot of events around town, The Thunder Mountain Big Band, who are getting ready for the holidays. Ron Maas, the Band Leader, told us a bit more about their plans.
VIDEO: A perennial favorite around town, the Thunder Mountain Big Band is in full swing, getting ready for their holiday performances. (Image: Rik Pruett)
"We rehearse every Monday night in our studio here and in this holiday season of course we're quite busy I think we've got five or six gigs lined up, the big one of course is New Year's Eve, with Jazz and Classics; we're bringing up a very famous vocalist from Los Angeles by the name of Cassie Miller. She played with all the big bands for years and now we're bringing her up here and we're going to have a big bash on New Year's Eve down at the JACC."
I asked Ron about that quintessential big band sound; what really defines the genre?
"Well there's usually five parts in the saxophone section, four parts in the trombone section and four parts in the trumpet section and that sound is the sound that so many people liked when I was a kid during the late 40's and 50's and 60's, and we have that same sound and we try to keep it going forever.
Fifteen musicians and a vocalist, when we can find a vocalist, (laughs)
The purpose of the band really is to continue the big band feel and sound, and that's what I'm trying to do."
The Thunder Mountain Big Band performs at various venues around town during the holidays, keep an ear out for them, they're guaranteed to get your toes tappin'.
By: Rik Pruett - email@example.com


text:
lessthanpleased wrote:Given the little I know, I would rank the Chairman first. While Mao lacks the panache of the fictional Zhuge Liang (and probably the historical Kongming as well), at the end of the day what the Chairman did worked from a military standpoint.
I would rank him above Sun Tzu: just as Sun Tzu reportedly learned lessons from military strategists of the past, so did Mao. But Mao, rather than being a mere academic or theoretician, used his knowledge to turn hordes of peasants into a force that brought a government to its knees, created revolution, and survived the aftermath to be the absolute ruler. What he didn't synthesize from Sun Tzu, he surely synthesized from Machiavelli, Napoleon, and probably even Julius Caesar in his Account of the Gallic Wars, all of which would have been studied by an academic during his time period.
The amount Mao accomplished is almost unthinkable given the resources he was allocated. He outshines even the fictional Zhuge Liang insofar as he began with similar resources (the hearts of the peope) and did what the deity never could: unified China.
The man was a genius. Not a very nice person, or even good person towards the end, but a stunning tactician.
Mao took most (if not all ) of his miltary teachings from Sun Tzu.


text: Having served with this organization for a couple of years, I can attest to the value of The History News Network. It provides many interesting articles and news stories on a wide variety of subjects. Now, HNN needs your help, as it is attempting to raise $10,000 to cover expenses. I ask you all, if you are able, to consider supporting HNN by giving a tax-deductable donation, which you can do by going to this link.


text:
14 March 2011 - Lucca, Italy
Tagetik Positioned in the Visionaries Quadrant of the Magic Quadrant for Corporate Performance Management Suites
Leading industry analyst firm's evaluation based on completeness of vision and ability to execute
Tagetik, a global provider of enterprise software solutions for Performance Management, Governance, Risk & Compliance and Business Intelligence, today announced it has been positioned by Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com) in the Visionaries quadrant of the "Magic Quadrant for Corporate Performance Management (CPM) Suites" [1]. This annual report evaluates software vendors on their completeness of vision and ability to execute.
"We have reached for a sought-after position in the quadrant, and are pleased to have been recognized by Gartner as a Visionary," says Manuel Vellutini, EVP Chief Operating Officer at Tagetik. "Placed among thirteen vendors in this Magic Quadrant, Tagetik leverages as an independent, specialist player exclusively focused in the CPM market. Compared to the mega-vendors, we have a state-of-the-art, unified software with a clear product roadmap and no uncertainty or overlapping functionality. This is the reason why organizations are selecting Tagetik 3.0, versus a patchwork of acquired solutions."
"We continue to innovate and grow at a rate faster than the average in the market, while executing our product roadmap in all areas of CPM functionality," adds Vellutini. "Also, we significantly improved on last year's customer satisfaction survey that indicates we have added capability to support our global, rapid expansion and confirms our good depth of knowledge of the more complex aspects of CPM."
"We remained particularly strong for complex financial consolidation, financial, management, statutory reporting and budgeting, planning and forecasting-type solutions but also shared Gartner's vision who foresees aspects of financial governance become integrated and implemented in conjunction with core CPM," continues Vellutini. "That is why we have successfully worked to deliver a number of new, unified features for disclosure management and XBRL/iXBRL technology, allowing customers to support further auditability, financial governance, reconciliation management and the financial close process."
"Two years ago, we started to expand on our roadmap, incorporating a broader view of BI and PM that was meant to be a tight integration with Microsoft SharePoint Server and Microsoft BI Platform. Today, we leverage a strategic relationship with Microsoft Corp. and a truly revolutionary product ('Tagetik 3.0 Enabled by Microsoft® SharePoint® Server 2010' software solution) that are generating global opportunities, introducing us to new clients and further enhance our market position, especially in North America," concludes Vellutini.
[1] Gartner "Magic Quadrant for Corporate Performance Management Suites" by Neil Chandler, John E. Van Decker, 8 March 2011
About the Magic Quadrant
The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2011 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
Request a Demo
Our personalized demo allows you to speak directly with a senior solution specialist and discover the key functionalities of CCH Tagetik.
Would you love to know more about CCH Tagetik?
For more information, please complete the form and a member of our team will reach out to you shortly!


text:
The New World Order is coming! Are you ready? Once you understand what this New World Order really is, and how it is being gradually implemented, you will be able to see it progressing in your daily news!!
Learn how to protect yourself, your loved ones!
Stand by for insights so startling you will never look at the news the same way again.
NEWS BRIEF: "How the PLO instills its cult of hate", by Jeff Jacoby, The Boston Globe, August 18, 1998, p. B4.
"Israel and the Palestinian Authority shall seek to foster mutual understanding and tolerance and shall accordingly abstain from incitement, including hostile propaganda." [From Article XXII of the Israel-PLO Accord, The Oslo II Agreement signed at the White House, Sept. 28, 1995]
These glowing words of promise, quoted above, seemed, in 1995, to portend a more peaceful time between the Jew of Israel and his Arab cousin, possibly ending several thousands of years of intense and bitter conflict. At least, that is the promise on the surface of this paragraph. Both Israel and the Palestinian Arab [House of Esau] pledged to each other that they will cease the terrible propaganda war which had poisoned the air between the two sides since 1948, when Israel became a nation once again. The question of the hour is, "Has this agreement been fulfilled?" While we are aware of no Israeli propaganda against the Arab, the newspapers and airwaves are filled with graphic examples of Arab propaganda as intense as that coming from Hitler's vaunted propaganda machine.
Columnist Jeff Jacoby examines what the Palestinian Authority [Palestinian Liberation Organization] is currently teaching young children during summer camps. No doubt, you remember summer camps, where you send you child to swim, play games, learn survival skills, and just plain have fun? Many Americans have personal involvement with such summer camps. However, this is not the type of summer camp that the Arabs are running for their children. The Arab children in these camps are being filled with the greatest amount of hate and genocidal propaganda known to man! Listen as Jeff Jacoby demonstrates some examples of this hate, and hateful action, being taught to Arab children in summer camps.
1) "One trainer, Lawy Abu, drills Palestinian children in battle techniques, using 'tires, plaster and nails'."
2) "In one commercial [for Summer Camp] children scream, 'Commando!' and jump into a burning ring."
3) "A PA-TV broadcast on July 19 showed campers standing at attention before a 'huge picture of the Temple Mount -- Judaism's holiest site -- 'covered with blood, arms, and heads', and with Arabian horses going up."
4) "In one TV ad, a camper at Khan Yunis sings: 'I came to you with my sword in hand/ We will drive them {the Jews} into the sea./ Your day is coming, conqueror, then we will settle accounts./ Our accounts are unending in stones and bullets.'"
5) In another promo, you watched a trainer lead children in a chant: 'My children, my children, o my country / Are in the suicide squad.'"
"As the [Arab] TV announcer says" 'Jihad -- holy war -- is the main belief. It will never end."
Most Americans are simply not prepared for this type of terrible, hateful, and genocidal racist propaganda. We should be shocked, and we need to be shocked, into the realization that the Arabs today are like the Arabs of 3,000 years ago in their unbelievable white-hot hatred of the Jews. From the rebirth of Israel in 1948, the Arabs have wanted only one thing: to drive the Jews into the sea, annihilating them man, woman, and child. You can never forget this fact. You can never allow yourself to be taken in by the American Mass Media, propagandist and apologist for the Arab, telling you that the Israelites are the aggressor and the Arab is being badly wronged. In fact, the opposite is true, as our leaders know full-well.
From the beginning of the world-wide Zionist push in the late 1890's to 1948, Jews from all over the world sent money to buy the Holy Land back from the Arabs. The Jews paid for this land, and in most cases, paid more for it than it was worth, because they wanted to re-establish Israel. When Israel announced her statehood in May, 1948, she had bought almost all of the land from the Arab, at more than market value. Yet, the Arab apologist would lead you to believe that the Jews had stolen the land from the Arabs.
Further, every one of the wars Israel has fought since 1948 was either caused outright by Arab attack, or was provoked by Arab buildup toward war. In every one of these wars, badly outnumbered and/or outgunned Israeli defenders totally routed the superior Arab forces. Yet, Israel has given back most of the land she captured as a result of repelling Arab attack! Yet, the Arab propagandist would have you believe the opposite, that Israel attacked the Arab without provocation and stole his land.
The Arabs have taken another path in their incessant anti-Jewish propaganda. They have begun to equate the Jewish government with the Nazi government of Adolf Hitler. If you look carefully at this flag, you will note that the Arabs have drawn a Nazi Swastika at the top of the official flag of Israel. Can you imagine the hatred that would spawn such a monstrosity as this, i.e., comparing the action of the Jew to the action of the most infamous killer of Jews the world has ever seen -- the Nazis under Hitler! This picture should give you an excellent idea as to the depth of the hatred the Arab feels for the Jew.
Now, listen to some of the Arab statements equating Israel with Hitler's Nazi Germany.
* "Israeli practices in many aspects are equal with, if not more brutal than, those practiced by occupying Nazi soldiers dealing with French-Dutch citizens during the Second World War." [ PA Information Ministry press release, December 10, 1997]
* "…the Arab sees with his own eyes an Israeli occupation in Palestine, the Golan and Lebanon, which can not be compared to any occupation in this century except the Nazi occupation..." [from an article in the Palestinian daily Al-Quds, November 17, 1997]
* "The appearance of the Zionist movement prompted the emergence of terrorist, racist ideologies, such as, the Nazi ideology. There is great similarity between the two ideologies: the Zionists believe that they are "God's Chosen People," and that other nations were created to be used and ridiculed... the Zionist Jews claim that they hate the nations since they persecute them out of jealousy of their wisdom, their success and their being God's chosen. Similarly, the Nazis claim that the Aryans are the chosen and the pure ..." [from an article in the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeedah, September 3, 1997]
* "The Nazi ideology pushed the world into the hell of the Second World War...and during the war applied all forms of terrorism, exactly as the Zionists are doing now." -- Ibid.
* "This proves the shared roots of Nazi and Zionist thought. This also explains the cooperation between the Jews and the Nazis during World War II, through which were revealed the forged claims of the Zionists regarding alleged acts of slaughter perpetrated against the Jews during the same period… There is no difference between Hitler and Ben-Gurion ..." [Ibid.] Notice here that the Arabs are denying the Holocaust here, just as the Skinhead Neo-Nazis are correctly being reviled for doing!
* :"It is well-known that every year the Jews exaggerate what the Nazis did to them. They claim there were 6 million killed, but precise scientific research demonstrates that there were no more than 400,000 …" [ from a cultural affairs program broadcast on the official PA television station on August 25, 1997.]
This picture is the official symbol of Yassir Arafat's organization, Fateh. As you can see, this symbol shows the extreme violence of two crossed guns superimposed upon a map of Israel, with a grenade underneath. Certainly, this symbol captures the essence of the Arab frame of mind toward Israel; they want her dead and they want to rule Palestine again. As you contemplate the friction between Arab and Jew, please understand that no Arab wants to co-exist with the Jew; rather, the Arab wants to totally annihilate the Jew. They want to "push them into the sea". The only reason the Arab is "negotiating" with the Jew today is because they have been so totally defeated on the battlefield that they cannot annihilate them right now. Thus, they have borrowed a tactic from the Koran, as espoused by the Prophet Mohammed. This tactic states that, when the Arab is confronted by an enemy that is superior to them, they are to sue for "peace". From the moment this "peace treaty" begins, the Arab is to begin building up his forces, so that the time will come when they can attack from strength, totally destroying their enemy with whom they were supposed to be at peace. This is the "Peace of the Arab" -- the peace of the grave.
Furthermore, the Arab is under strict orders from the Koran to take over the entire world for the Prophet Mohammed, by the edge of the sword, if necessary. They have attempted to carry out this extreme worldview before, with their armies being stopped in Spain by "inferior" Christian forces. As the Arab armies advanced toward the heart of Europe, they wantonly killed, raped, and pillaged entire villages and cities. This is the true Arab, and please do not ever forget it.
Yassir Arafat has been caught by Israeli intelligence on several occasions, articulating this view of the Prophet Mohammed to his listeners, telling them why he is seeking "peace" with Israel now. Arafat has made no bones of the fact that he plans to attack Israel and annihilate her once he has gotten as much land and political concessions from her as possible through negotiation. Once again, study carefully the Fateh symbol, above, as it is truly representative of the Arab inner heart of hearts.
"Israel is distributing food containing material that causes cancer and hormones that harm male virility and other spoiled food products in the Palestinian Authority's territories in order to poison and harm the Palestinian population. We absolutely feel that it is an organized plan and conspiracy which is under the auspices of the Israel Defense Forces… this is a planned and initiated war against the Palestinian people." [PA Deputy Minister of Supplies Abdel Hamid al-Qudsi in a newspaper interview, Yediot Aharonot, June 25, 1997]
"Laboratory tests made on seven brands of Israeli gum smuggled into the West Bank and Gaza showed they contain a sexually-stimulating adrenaline substance." [Saleh Abdulal, Director of the Inspection Department of the PA Ministry of Supplies, quoted by the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, May 26, 1997] Have you ever read any propaganda more stupid than this sentence? In fact, the only more incredible thing to consider other than how stupid this statement is, is the fact that the Arab propagandist must believe the Palestinians are stupid enough to believe it.
"They brought Russian Jewish girls with
AIDS to spread the disease among Palestinian youth."
[Abdel-Razek Al-Majeeda, Commander of the Palestinian General Security Service in Gaza, quoted by the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, May 15, 1997] This example is one more instance of gross stupidity, on behalf of the Arab propagandist and the people to whom it is directed.
Israeli authorities… infected by
injection 300 Palestinian children with the HIV virus during the years of the
[Palestinian representative Nabil Ramlawi at a session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva] (Reported in the Jerusalem Post, March 17, 1997)
"The words 'State of
Israel' should be replaced with 'Zionist entity' in the
Palestinian lexicon."
[Suleiman Roumi, member of the PA Legislative Council (Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, August 10, 1997)
"Jerusalem is a symbol for every
Muslim in the world. The claim of the Jews to the right over it is false, and we
recognize nothing but an entirely Islamic Jerusalem under Islamic
[ PA Mufti Ikrama Sabri, Al-Bilad, July 31, 1997] So the Arabs claim that Jewish claims over Jerusalem are false? They obviously have never read the Holy Bible, as in Zechariah 14th Chapter, Revelation 20:7-9, where God calls Jerusalem the "beloved city", and in Revelation 21-22:5. Jerusalem is God's eternal city, and anyone who comes against her will be totally destroyed.
"The Israeli colonialist
occupation of Palestine is turning into aggression against all Islam and
Christian holy sites. Zionist racism reaches its peak with this Talmudic
offensive, which tears the pages of the Koran, and which offends the Master of
Prophets, Muhammad, Allah's blessing be with him, and the Blessed Virgin,
mother of Christ, may they rest in peace."
[Hasan Al-Kashef, Director-General of the PA Information Ministry, quoted in the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, July 7, 1997] This lie is really funny for anyone who knows modern history of Jerusalem and its holy places. Prior to the June, 1967 war, Jerusalem was under the control of King Hussein of Jordan. Hussein regularly refused admission to the holy places for the Jew and the Christian. He allowed only Arabs to have full and unfettered access to their holy places. However, when Israel recaptured Jerusalem, they studiously allowed people of all three religions -- Muslim, Christianity, Jewish -- to have free access to their holy places. This practice has continued to this day, even though the Arab is doing his best to convince the world otherwise.
Now that we are on the subject of Fateh, and Yassir Arafat, let us examine some of the pertinent aspects of their P.L.O. Charter, which Israel has long asked Arafat to change. Listen to the way in which the P.L.O. Charter envisions itself and its mission. [Taken from www.fateh.org", Click on Publications, and then on Constitution; all red highlighting is emphasis by Cutting Edge].
* "The Palestinian struggle is part and parcel of the worldwide struggle against Zionism, colonialism, and international imperialism."
* "The Zionist Movement is racial, colonial, and aggressive in ideology, goals, organization, and method."
* "Liberating Palestine .... is an Arab, religious, and human obligation."
* "The Israeli existence in Palestine is a Zionist invasion with a colonial expansive base, and it is a natural ally to colonialism and international imperialism."
* "Complete liberation of Palestine, and eradication of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural existence." Notice that the Arabs plan the "eradication" of all forms of Jewish "existence". Make no mistake about the fact that this is a call for as complete an eradication of the Jewish population as Hitler ever had in mind. Truly, Satan has found a new and welcome home within the heart and soul of the Arab. The next time you see large crowds of Arab people demonstrating against something Jewish, notice carefully their faces. You will see this kind of hatred etched deep within their faces.
Israel has long asked that, before she give up any more land to the Arab, Yassir Arafat convene a special meeting of the P.L.O. to eradicate this goal from its charter. On several occasions, Arafat has agreed to take this action, in order to get the Israeli concession at that negotiating moment; yet, he has always refused to actually implement his agreement. Remember this fact when you hear that the Israelis are not complying with such and such agreement. Israel is in a fight for her very existence, and she is well aware of it, even if the rest of the world chooses to ignore this reality.
* "Armed struggle is a strategy and not a tactic, and the Palestinian Arab People's armed revolution is a decisive factor in the liberation fight and in uprooting the Zionist existence, and this struggle will not cease unless the Zionist state is demolished and Palestine is completely liberated." If you and your beloved family were living in Israel, you would not take these words lightly, nor would you want your government cooperating with, or placing any trust in, such a person as Arafat.
You can search the entire Fateh website for the word "peace"without success. This word is not in the Arab vocabulary until Israel is annihilated -- man, woman, and child. Jeff Jacoby makes a somber statement at the end of his column, quoted above. Listen carefully: "They [Arabs] have no intention of living up to their treaties. Or of letting you live up to them, either."
Most of the American people, and a good many Jewish, truly believed that the Oslo Accords and the Oslo II Accords signed in 1995, signalled a new era of peace and good will between the Jew and the Palestinian Arab. However, Arafat has quickly dispelled this fuzzy feeling that "peace was in the air". With Arafat's silent agreement, hostile and radical Arab extremists have set out to kill more Jews after the "peace treaty" was signed that they ever did before. Carefully study the chart here to see that more Israelis have been killed after the Oslo Accords were implemented than before. Is this the "Peace Dividend" everyone promised? No, but it is the typical "Peace of the Grave" envisioned by the Arabs.
Let us study a few more examples of unbelievable hatred toward the Jew. As you read these examples, you can see how the vibrancy of language has been carefully crafted by the Arab propagandist to paint precisely the word picture in your mind that he wants to paint, so you will hate the Jew, as well.
"... But we know that Netanyahu did not change and will not change because [not even] lipstick could make his blood-sucking lips beautiful..." [from an article in the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, October 29, 1997]
"…The Jews always set a trap for the community of Muslims… The Koran repeatedly warns against the traps and plots of the "people of the book". They relentlessly scheme in all times and places and this is what they do today and tomorrow against the Muslim camp…" [excerpt from the weekly Friday prayer sermon at Al-Aqsa mosque broadcast on the official PA radio station the Voice of Palestine, October 24, 1997]
"…It is impossible to rely on international or Arab national circles as long as Netanuyahu's claws of hatred dive into our Palestinian blood in search of oxygen-rich blood cells…" [excerpts from a position paper issued by Yassir Arafat's Fatah faction of the PLO and published in the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, October 18, 1997]
"We believe that the Israelis are not adventuresome because the Jewish brain is cowardly ..." [from an article in the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, July 27, 1997] I find it highly ironic that the Arab, who has had the stuffing beaten out of him on every battlefield since 1948 by the Jew, has the gall to then turn around to say that the "Jewish brain is cowardly"!
"Oh, Allah, destroy America for it is controlled by Zionist Jews...Allah will avenge, in the name of his Prophet, the colonialist settlers who are the descendants of monkeys and pigs...forgive us, oh Muhammad, for the acts of these monkeys and pigs who wished to profane your holiness". [from the weekly Friday prayer sermon by PA Mufti Ikrima Sabri broadcast on the official PA radio station the Voice of Palestine, July 11, 1997.] Isn't it instructive that the Arab hates America almost as much as he hates Israel? This Arab slogan calls us "monkeys and pigs"! Yet, they turn to us for money, assistance, weapons, and support against Israel at every turn. Just keep in mind that the Arab hates America greatly for her support of Israel and for the fact that American Jewry has had such influence in our country. The Arab would not hesitate to destroy us if he could.
At this point, we need to make the point that this type of hatred toward the Jew is historically consistent, extending back over 3,000 years.
Now that we have studied the extent of the
Arab hatred toward the Jew generally and his nation, Israel, in particular, we
need to now study the End Times implication of this type of hatred. Truly,
this kind of hatred is building toward the End Time judgment God has already
pronounced upon this people, the Arab. Your faith will be built up as you
read of these prophecies, and your heart will skip a beat as you realize that
the existence of this Arab hatred is yet another "sign" of the End of
the Age and the Rapture of the Church.
Are you spiritually ready? Is your family? Are you adequately protecting your loved ones? This is the reason for this ministry, to enable you to first understand the peril facing you, and then help you develop strategies to warn and protect your loved ones. Once you have been thoroughly trained, you can also use your knowledge as a means to open the door of discussion with an unsaved person. I have been able to use it many times, and have seen people come to Jesus Christ as a result. These perilous times are also a time when we can reach many souls for Jesus Christ, making an eternal difference.
If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, but have been very lukewarm in your spiritual walk with Him, you need to immediately ask Him for forgiveness and for renewal. He will instantly forgive you, and fill your heart with the joy of the Holy Spirit. Then, you need to begin a daily walk of prayer and personal Bible Study.
If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as Savior, but have come to realize His reality and the approaching End of the Age, and want to accept His FREE Gift of Eternal Life, you can also do so now, in the privacy of your home. Once you accept Him as Savior, you are spiritually Born Again, and are as assured of Heaven as if you were already there. Then, you can rest assured that the Kingdom of Antichrist will not touch you spiritually.
If you would like to become Born Again, turn to our Salvation Page now.
We hope you have been blessed by this ministry, which seeks to educate and warn people, so that they can see the coming New World Order -- Kingdom of Antichrist -- in their daily news.
Finally, we would love to hear from you.
You can contact us by mail or email.


text:
Student activism on college campuses has spurred broad, popular discussion of serious issues for decades. When I was in college, the student activist movement across the country was to band our efforts together to pressure an end to apartheid, the South African government-sanctioned racism and legal segregation. Nelson Mandela and Stephen Biko were our heroes as we held campus sit-ins and built tent cities as a way to pressure our schools to divest their endowment investments from companies doing business with South Africa. Eventually, after many ugly years of violence in South Africa, and heroism by risk takers in that country, in 1991 the legislature there dismantled apartheid for good.
Today's campus cause is divesting from fossil fuels funds. The argument is that burning fossil fuels is contributing to climate change, damaging our environment, displacing and impoverishing indigenous peoples, and no corporation ought to profit from that. As students sponsor rallies from coast to coast, so far three schools – Unity College in Maine, Sterling College in Vermont and Hampshire College in Massachusetts – have announced their endowment divestiture from 200 fossil fuel companies as listed by the advocacy group 360.org.
Universities are just one (important) lever in the growing climate change movement. Concerned institutional and individual investors are increasingly proactive, seeking what's known as "ESG" funds. ESG stands for Environment, Social and Governance. Whether investing a 401K or public pension, the quality of the portfolios take into account all three. For instance, corporate attention and care for the environment covers individual company performance from emissions and pollution reduction to updated reporting; social responsibility spans both in the workplace (e.g. diversity, safety, human rights) and in the community (corporate giving and community relations), and governance measures executive compensation, board accountability and shareholder rights.
But, we're talking about investing. How do ESGs perform? The latest research shows how ESG leads to superior returns over time. Now one of the most influential institutional investors is setting out to find out. CalPERS, the California Public Employees Retirement System, set a sustainability standard for its investments in 2011 and is now kicking off a study to measure long-term returns.
Michael Simmons, Managing Director at Partner at Simmons Wilkes Investment Advisors in Portland, Maine says his firm recently embraced "sustainable investing." For them, sustainable investing incorporates ESG factors in a proactive, as opposed to exclusionary way. "Studies have shown that companies with high ESG ratings have a lower cost of capital, and at least over the longer term, tend to outperform," Mr. Simmons says.
But it still is up to the advisor to set the framework. "ESG is now becoming a tool used in many mutual funds and other investment products," he continues. "At this point there are no real agreed upon standards and different investment companies define these criteria in slightly different ways. The shared goal however, is to find the best of breed companies in all sectors that are continuously striving to improve themselves across these three factors."
Financial Advisors and Wealth Managers like Mr. Simmons' firm are now putting together investment portfolios that are largely sustainable in nature. Because of this, they are introducing more clients, both individuals and businesses, to the idea of sustainable investing. So, for those of us long out of college, we are empowered every day to vote on social policy and corporate behavior with our own portfolios.


text:
perhaps today i have the honor of first post? lol
at first it doesn't seem as if she had any sort of experience like his… hm..
The seeming lack of an experience on Charlie's part makes me so anxious to see what happens next… it is really building suspense!
………..I just realized Charlie is wearing pigtails not just a single ponytail. That is kind of adorable.
The hand-holding is off… Charlie's arm should go under, since she's shorter. It makes it less awkward.
"Oh, it… fell off."
"Ah, okay then ^^"
Heheh, so did Charlie not experience what Ben did? :o I wonder what happened to her during that time?
Hmm. Curious.
So… what happened to his coat, then? Mysterious.
For some reason, I can´t subscribe to the RSS feed…
"Heheh, so did Charlie not experience what Ben did? :o I wonder what happened to her during that time?"
I think she doens't want to tell Jeremy. After all, being possesed by a ghost? Not many people believe that…
uh oh, am i the only one seeing forshadowing for some miscommunication about Ben and Charlie? They both disappeared and Charlie's missing her coat…. I hope Jeremy doesn't start thinking something is going on between them!!
Charlie's missing her coat? In this set, which I take to be "real" her coat is being held by Ben, for reasons yet unclear. I don't think anything disappeared into the past. I find it odd that both Charlie and Ben would interact with their respective team mates simultaneously and especially that Charlie's team mate wouldn't see her coat behind Ben's back, but hey, it's dark out; that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.


text:
Don Pete - Night Of Sin [Houston Unsigned Artist]
Don Pete (Houston Hip-Hop Artist) plays a Vampire in the horror video titled Night of Sin from the Love.Luck.Money EP. @TheDonPeteShow
Please click the "Report" button below if the video on this page is not working properly.
Comments will only be displayed by verified emails. No Spamming or Racism.


text:
Pirates Homestand Highlights March 31 - April 6
Former award winners to be on hand as Pirates open the 2014 season at PNC Park
For the third consecutive year, the Pittsburgh Pirates will open their season on the North Shore at PNC Park. The team begins the 2014 campaign with a six-game homestand that includes a three-game series vs. National League Central rivals, the Chicago Cubs and the defending N.L. Champion, St. Louis Cardinals.
Opening Day festivities will highlight Opening Week as many former Pirates players will return to Pittsburgh to participate in on-field ceremonies and present the Pirates 2013 N.L. award winners. The Pirates will welcome back the team's former N.L. Most Valuable Players as Dick Groat and Barry Bonds will present Andrew McCutchen his 2013 MVP award (Pirates 1978 N.L. MVP Dave Parker was slated to appear as well, but will be unable to attend due to a scheduling conflict). Pirates two-time N.L. Manager-of-the-Year Jim Leyland will be on hand to present Clint Hurdle his 2013 Manager-of-the-Year award. And former Louisville Silver Slugger award winner Jack Wilson will present McCutchen and Pedro Alvarez with their 2013 Silver Slugger awards.
The Opening Day pregame excitement is scheduled to begin at 12:30 p.m. with the professional parachute team "Fastrax" landing at PNC Park to deliver the American flag and Jolly Roger. Fans are encouraged to be in their seats early, to ensure they do not miss a moment of the special ceremonies.
Monday, March 31, 2014-Pirates vs. Chicago Cubs (1:05 p.m.) Opening Day presented by PNC Bank
Game will be telecast on ROOT SPORTS Pittsburgh and nationally on ESPN
- Magnetic Schedule Day: All fans in attendance receive Pirates 2014 Magnetic Schedules compliments of PNC Bank.
- Gate Time: PNC Park gates will open to ALL FANS at 11 a.m.
- Up in the Sky : The professional parachute team "Fastrax," America's skydiving team, will fly into PNC Park and land on the field with the American flag and the Jolly Roger prior to today's Opening Day ceremonies.
- 2013 Awards Ceremonies: 2013 was a memorable run for the Pittsburgh Pirates and along the way several members of the club picked up individual awards for their personal accomplishments. Today in separate on-field ceremonies these players and manager Clint Hurdle will be recognized by the Pirates and fans at PNC Park.
o MVP Cutch: Last season, Pirates center fielder Andrew McCutchen registered his third consecutive All-Star season and at the end of the 2013 campaign was named the National League's Most Valuable Player. Today, McCutchen will receive the award in a pregame ceremony that will include former Pirates MVPs Dick Groat (1960 N.L. MVP) and Barry Bonds (Seven time N.L. MVP, two with the Pirates- 1990 and 1992).
o Manager-of-the-Year: In 2013, Pirates Manager Clint Hurdle guided his team to a 94-68 record and a berth in the National League Division Series, at the end of the season the Pirates manager was awarded the N.L. Manager-of-the-Year award. Today, Hurdle will be presented the award by former Pirates manager and three-time Manager-of-the-Year, Jim Leyland (N.L. Manager-of-the-Year with the Pirates- 1990 and 1992).
o Silver Sluggers: Pirates third baseman Pedro Alvarez and McCutchen will receive their 2013 Louisville Silver Sluggers in an on-field ceremony prior to the game. The two became the first pair of Pirates sluggers to win the award in the same season since Barry Bonds and Andy Van Slyke won the honor in 1992. The awards will be presented by former Pirates shortstop and 2004 Silver Slugger Jack Wilson. Alvarez will also be presented the 2013 N.L. Home Run plaque. Last season Alvarez tied with Diamondbacks first baseman Paul Goldschmidt for the N.L. home run crown with 36 blasts.
o Comeback Player: After a 2013 campaign in which he was 16-8 with a 3.02 ERA, Pirates hurler Francisco Liriano was named the N.L. Comeback Player of the Year. He will be recognized today in a pregame ceremony.
- PNC Check Presentation : PNC Bank will present a donation to the City of Pittsburgh Police K-9 Protective Vest Fund. Officer Phil Lerza, whose K-9 partner officer, Rocco, was killed in the line of duty in January, will throw a ceremonial first pitch.
- Moment of Silence : Today in a pregame ceremony the Pirates, Cubs and everyone in attendance at PNC Park will observe a moment of silence for members of the Pirates family who have passed away in recent months. Honored with a moment of silence will be Pirates alumni Ralph Kiner, Johnny Logan, Eddie O'Brien and Preston Ward along with Pirates minor leaguer Evan Chambers and long-time Pirates beat writer Charlie Feeney.
- Color Guard: Today the colors will be presented by a joint Military Color Guard and joined by members of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police K-9 Unit.
- Lineup: Members of the Pirates and Cubs will take part in player introductions on the infield lines.
- God Bless America: Today, God Bless America will be performed by Staff Sergeant Charles Stoddard of the U.S. Army's 316th infantry.
- National Anthem : The National Anthem will be performed by Petrina McCutchen, mother of Pirates 2013 N.L. MVP and three-time All-Star Andrew McCutchen.
- First Pitch : Scott Kiner, son of Pirates Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner, will throw out the ceremonial first pitch.
Tuesday, April 1, 2014- Off Date
- Ticket Tuesday: Today at noon Jalapeno Hannah will be at the Giant Eagle Get Go location at 7675 McKnight Road (Pittsburgh, PA 15237) with 50 pairs of FREE tickets as part of the Pirates "Bucs Ticket Tuesday" social media promotion. The first 50 people to meet Hannah will receive two free tickets to the Sunday, April 6 game.
Wednesday, April 2, 2014-Pirates vs. Chicago Cubs (7:05 p.m.)
- Buc Night: The popular Buc Night, presented by Sugardale, is back at PNC Park as a limited number of $1 tickets in select sections were available for tonight's game. Also at PNC Park general concession stands, all fans can enjoy Sugardale hot dogs and popcorn for just $1 each.
Thursday, April 3, 2014-Pirates vs. Chicago Cubs (12:35 p.m.)
- Lunch with the Bucs: Need to get out of the office? Do Lunch with the Bucs, sponsored by Trib Total Media. Grandstand tickets are just $20 and come with $5 in loaded value and Outfield Box seats are just $30 and have $10 in loaded value. Loaded Value is a credit on your ticket(s) that can be used during the game at concession and merchandise stands throughout PNC Park. For more information visit pirates.com/lunch.
- Art Rooney Award Dinner: Pirates Manager Clint Hurdle will receive The Art Rooney Award at the 41st Annual Art Rooney Award Dinner & Auction benefitting the Catholic Youth Association. The dinner will be held at the Westin Convention Center Hotel with festivities beginning at 6 p.m. For reservations and information, please visit www.artrooneyaward.com.
Friday, April 4, 2014-Pirates vs. St. Louis Cardinals (7:05 p.m.)
- Free Shirt Friday: The Pirates popular Free Shirt Friday is back in 2014 as the first 25,000 fans, with paid admission, will receive a Raise the Jolly Roger tee compliments of Allegheny Health Network.
Saturday, April 5, 2014-Pirates vs. St. Louis Cardinals (7:05 p.m.)
- Zambelli Fireworks Night: Fans are encouraged to stay in their seats immediately following the game and enjoy an amazing fireworks display presented by Zambelli Fireworks International, courtesy of First Energy Solutions.
- Scratch and Win: Everyone is a winner with the special Scratch 'n Win presented by Eat 'n Park. All fans will receive a scratch-off ticket upon entering PNC Park with an opportunity to win one of several great prizes
Sunday, April 6, 2014-Pirates vs. St. Louis Cardinals (1:35 p.m.)
- Kids Day: Come down early and join the fun as the #1 Cochran Family Fun Zone will be open on Federal Street from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Lined up outside PNC Park will be inflatable rides, face painting, information about the Bucaroos Kids Club, presented by Chick-fil-A and more.
- Kids Run the Bases: Kids attending today's game are invited to stick around after to run the bases on the field at PNC Park with the Kids Run the Bases, presented by Kennywood.
- El Toro Bat: Today all kids ages 14 and younger, with paid admission, will receive a kids Pedro Alvarez Louisville Slugger plastic bat presented by Highmark.
- Autism Awareness: The Pirates have teamed up with Autism Speaks for today's Autism Awareness Day. Tickets can be purchased at pirates.com/autismspeaks with a portion of each ticket donated to Autism Speaks. This is the first in the 2014 Awareness Series in which the Pirates will partner with local nonprofit service agencies throughout the greater Pittsburgh area to host special events to raise funds and awareness for their specific cause. To learn more about the Awareness Series and how to become involved contact Chaz Kellem at [email protected]
- Advantage Card Game: As part of the many fan-friendly values at PNC Park, today is a Giant Eagle Advantage Card game. Fans can save up to $10 on select tickets for every Sunday home game. For complete details, visit pirates.com/advantagecard.
- National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame Dinner: Pirates closer Jason Grilli will be honored as the "Man of the Year" at the 28th Annual National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame Awards and Scholarship Banquet. The event will take place at the Westin Convention Hotel and begins at 5 p.m. For more information, please visit www.italiansportspgh.com.
Fourth Annual Pittsburgh Pirates 5K Home Run & One Mile Family Fun Run
The fourth annual Pittsburgh Pirates 5K Home Run presented by Highmark and Allegheny Health Network and benefitting Pirates Charities, will take place on Saturday, April 19. The run will be on Pittsburgh's North Shore, starting on Federal Street and finishing inside PNC Park. The race is open to fans of all ages and abilities with the top finishers from each category being recognized in a pre-game on-field ceremony before that night's game. Families may also participate by taking part in the One Mile Family Fun Run, presented by Chick-fil-A. To register or obtain complete race details, fans can log onto pirates.com/5Khomerun.
Pirates Charities 50/50 Raffles
The Pirates Charities 50/50 Raffle is back for a second season. The 50/50 Raffles will take place during each Pirates home game throughout the season. Raffle ticket prices are three (3) tickets for $5, 10 tickets for $10 and 40 tickets for $20 with all proceeds benefiting Pirates Charities. Raffle ticket sales close after the last out in the sixth inning. The winning number will be drawn, announced in the 8th inning and the winner will receive 50 percent of the total pot. Winning numbers will also be posted on www.pirates.com/5050raffle within three business days.
2014 Bucaroos Kids Club
The Bucaroos Kids Club, presented by Chick-fil-A, is open to all kids ages 14 and younger. The club offers special member-only benefits and has two great membership options-one of which is free. Fans can visit pirates.com/bucaroos to learn more about the different membership options and how to earn free game ticket vouchers, great gear and access to our exclusive Rewards Program.
2014 Lady Bucs Club
Lady Pirates fans and their closest friends are invited to join the Lady Bucs Club. Experience Pirates baseball in an exciting new way as membership includes one (1) ticket to two (2) Lady Bucs Party Nights, seating in the Baseline Box, membership card and access to each of the four (4) pregame Lady Bucs Club parties in the Pirates Picnic Park. Check out pirates.com/ladybucs for membership costs and a list of detailed benefits.
Dynamic Pricing Section
The Pirates popular dynamic pricing system is back in 2014 and includes both the Bleacher Reserve and Upper Bleacher Reserve sections of PNC Park. Tickets for the 2,400 seats, located in left field, will be placed on sale 10-days prior to each home game. The initial ticket price will then be adjusted- both lower and higher- in real time, based on several factors. For the complete list of games and to find the on-sale dates, visit pirates.com/dynamic.
All You Can Eat
The All You Can Eat Seats are a popular way to enjoy a game in Sections 201 through 205. Those tickets are priced at $43 for White games, $45 for Black games and $48 for Gold games.** They include all the hot dogs, hamburgers, nachos, salads, popcorn, peanuts, peanut butter-filled pretzels, ice cream and soda you can handle for one low price -- and there are dedicated All You Can Eat concession stands with a speed line approach.
(**Advance ticket purchase price. Black games are Saturdays in April and all Fridays from May through September. Gold games are Opening Day (March 31), all Saturdays from May through September, July 4 & 6 vs. Philadelphia and September 16-18 vs. Boston).
Pup Nights at PNC
The 2014 season features NINE Pup Nights at PNC Park with the first scheduled for Tuesday, April 22 vs. the Cincinnati Reds. Each ticket package (1 person & 1 dog) costs just $28 with additional human tickets available for $28 each. A portion of the proceeds benefit local animal shelters and seats are limited and subject to availability. For complete information and to order tickets fans can visit pirates.com/pups.
Hunt Auctions Kiosk
Located on the main concourse behind section 125, the Hunt Auctions kiosk is your one and only source for game-used and autographed items at PNC Park. Stop by to own your piece of the 2013 Pirates post-season, or check out our new autographed and game-used products featuring Gerrit Cole, Pedro Alvarez, Andrew McCutchen and more.
Pirates Season Ticket Plans
Full Season, 41-game, 20-game and 13-game season ticket plans are available for the 2014 season. Full and partial-season ticket plans feature exclusive benefits including guaranteed seats for the biggest games, discounted ticket prices, invitations to special season ticket holder events featuring Pirates players and executives, plus much more. For more information regarding purchasing a season ticket plan, call 1-800-BUY-BUCS or visit pirates.com/tickets.
Special Kids Pricing
The Pirates are pleased to offer special ticket prices for all 81 home games for kids ages 14 and younger in select sections of PNC Park. Save up to $9 on kid's single game tickets, visit pirates.com/tickets for more details.
For a complete list of the 2014 Pirates promotions and special events, visit pirates.com/promotions.


text:
For the attention of Incident Reporting Users with access to the Incident Reporting Tool hosted on the IG Toolkit website.
Since the launch of the IG Toolkit Incident Reporting Tool in June 2013 there have been
approximately 430 incidents opened but still not closed as advised within the
"Checklist Guidance for Reporting, Managing and Investigating Information Governance and
Cyber Security Serious Incidents Requiring Investigation". Therefore, new
functionality has been built within the incident reporting tool in response to this issue.
An auto closure feature will automatically close incidents where no updates to an "open"
record have been undertaken within the last 90 days. Relevant incident reporting users will
be notified by email 10 days in advance of planned auto closure and within 24 hours after closure.
Further details are described in Appendix A of the "Incident Reporting Tool User Guide".
When incidents are automatically closed you will be sent another notification email to inform you of the closure(s).
The emails will be sent to all the following persons:
This functionality will help to ensure records are kept up to date or closed within a reasonable time frame.
It should be noted that any incident that has been "auto closed" can be re-opened at any time.
Further instructions can be found in the "Incident Reporting Tool User Guide"
Consideration should also be given to the quality, accuracy and appropriateness of level 2 closed incident reports
and the commitment HSCIC has to publication of information as specified within the IG Toolkit Incident Reporting
Publication Statement found on the IG Toolkit "Publication" page.
External IG Delivery Team
Your IG Toolkit session will automatically timeout in 5 minutes
Please press Ok within 5 minutes of this message appearing to stop your session
timing out


text:
Gay & Lesbian Travellers
Germany is a magnet for schwule (gay) and lesbische (lesbian) travellers, with the rainbow flag flying especially proudly in Berlin and Cologne. There are also sizeable communities in Hamburg, Frankfurt and Munich.
- Legal stuff: Homosexuality has been legal since the late 1960s. Same-sex marriage is legal.
- Attitudes tend to be more conservative in the countryside, among older people and in the eastern states.
- As elsewhere, Germany's lesbian scene is less public than its male counterpart and is centred mainly on women's cafes and bars.
- Gay pride marches are held throughout Germany in springtime; the largest, in Cologne and Berlin, draw hundreds of thousands of rainbow revellers and friends.
Blu (www.blu.fm) Free print and online magazine with searchable, up-to-the-minute location and event listings.
L-Mag (www.l-mag.de) Bimonthly magazine for lesbians. Available at newsagents.
Spartacus International Gay Guide (https://spartacus.gayguide.travel) Annual English-language travel guide for men. Available online, in bookstores and as an app.
Websites & Apps
German National Tourist Office (www.germany.travel/en/ms/lgbt/home/home.html?et_rp=1) Dedicated LGBT pages.
Spartacus World (www.spartacusworld.com) Hip hotel, style and event guide.
Patroc Gay Travel Guide (www.patroc.com) Travel information to 25 European destinations.


text:
This year Zach's team did great! They made it to the playoff's. The team was lucky enough to have some very talented parents who were willing to take photos of every game. Check out Zach's season in photos:
Zach #1 and Stockton (his cousin) #5
Zach blocking
Zach in action
Zach in action
Randomly our team had two #1's on it. I was grateful for Zach's yellow mouth piece because it was one way to help tell them apart.
Until the last few games when Stockton gave Zach a new mouth piece which he called his Binkie...love the pink!
Zach running onto the field after 1/2 time.
Zach tackling someone
Zach making his way through the parent tunnel after a win
Zach blocking


text:
Cooking For Engineers
Analytical cooking discussed.
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
Titanium cookware
Goto page
Cooking For Engineers Forum Index
Tools, Equipment, and Gadgets
View previous topic
View next topic
AdmNAismit not signed in
Posted: Sun Nov 11, 2007 10:05 pm
Post subject:
Cast iron is completely non-stick so long as you keep it well seasoned.
It also holds heat evenly and is pretty much hypo-allergenic.
Back to top
Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 8:32 pm
Post subject:
The good thing about titanium cookware is that titanium oxide is a tough non stick surface.
Back to top
Joined: 26 Oct 2005
Posts: 535
Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 2:39 am
Post subject:
CookNewb wrote:
The good thing about titanium cookware is that titanium oxide is a tough non stick surface.
What COLOR is the cooking surface of your pan??????
What is the manufacturer's name?
Back to top
Michael Chu
Joined: 10 May 2005
Posts: 1654
Location: Austin, TX (USA)
Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 3:15 am
Post subject:
Since when is titanium non-stick?
Back to top
Joined: 26 Oct 2005
Posts: 535
Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2008 4:22 am
Post subject:
Michael Chu wrote:
Since when is titanium non-stick?
Maybe if you season it like cast iron.
My asking the color of the "titanium" oxide cooking surface was really a trick question.
CP titanium and titanium alloys, like grade V, are silvery when machined or polished, and light gray when acid etched or blasted with various abrasive media. Freshly machined or polished titanium forms a monolayer of titanium oxide (a mixture of TiO, TiO2 and Ti2O3, the TiO2 being the predominant species) in a nanosecond. Within a milisecond, the oxide grows to 15-50 nm and then pretty much stays at that range in air. Oxidative environments can cause a slight increase in the oxide thickness over time. Various proprietary processes can increase the thickness, but those oxide enhanced surfaces are unmistakably pale gray, and rough in texture--definitely NOT a smooth nonstick surface. I look at titanium oxide surfaces daily, and titanium ISN'T black or dark gray like the "titanium" surfaced pans I've seen in various stores.
Back to top
Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2008 8:56 am
Post subject:
I'll have to go back and find where I read that titanium oxide is a non stick surface. I read it in passing so I don;t even know if it was just marketing propaganda.
Back to top
Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 11:42 am
Post subject: My experience with Titanium cookware
I purchased some of the "exclusive titanium" cookware from Germany. I bought it in Toronto, Ontario at the Sportsman Show. Paid over $1000 for 3 pieces.
It worked great in the beginning. Got about two years of easy, no hassle cleaning. After about two years however, small pitting began to show up on the surface of the frying pans. I fried some macaroni and cheese in the pan and could not get the food out of the small pits on the surface, no matter how hard I scrubbed. Although the coating did not wear through like it does on cheaper pans, the roughness that the coating developed after two years, made cleaning more difficult than when new.
I learned a lesson the expensive way. I will not buy the titanium cookware again unless it is being sold close to the price of cheaper pans which can be thrown out after two or three years. For now I will go to Walmart and buy coated pans and throw them to be recycled at the scrap yard.
Back to top
Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 7:33 am
Post subject:
I've read a report (
) that Swiss Diamond cookware is coated with diamond dust embedded in PTFE - Teflon is Dupont's brand name for PTFE. PTFE is very bad for the environment and is reported to be carcinogenic.
Woll from Germany
to be titanium dust embedded in PTFE (
), but I've emailed them to be sure.
Other manufacturers all seem to be making coated cookware. Of course, what I want is titanium with heavy aluminum clad to the outside - no coatings.
As I get more answers I'll post more info.
Back to top
Joined: 19 Oct 2007
Posts: 1246
Location: central PA
Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 1:23 pm
Post subject:
PFTE aka Teflon has a long track record of approvals for food and medical devices/implants in USA and multiple other countries.
PFOA - and similar compounds - used in the manufacture of PFTE are not such good actors.
the question is how much PFOA remains in PTFE - which could pose danger to humans.
the question was investigated by EPA stemming from petitions from various environmental groups - the upshot being the petition were denied based on the actual science that low to no detectable levels of PFOA were found in cookware. I've seen data from UK and Sweden which reached similar conclusions - no PFOA compounds detectable in PFTE finished products.
this article recaps PFOA exposure, with sources:
microwave popcorn? bad PFOA actor.
PFTE pan? not a significant source of exposure.
PFTE aka Teflon does break down when over-heated. somewhere in the 500-600'F range. not difficult to achieve on a stove top. in a roomy kitchen, not too likely to affect a mammal, but birds are much more sensitive to the over-heating chemical breakdown and multiple instances of pet bird death have been reported on exposure to over-heated PFTE. so if you have pet birds, avoiding PFTE would be a wise action - simply because kitchen accidents do happen - not because PFTE is inherently unsafe.
the competing non-stick technologies are
- silicone based - works for bakeware, not especially well suited for stovetop
- polyester based
- ceramic based
consumer reviews on the alternatives are mixed. if I had to summarize they fall into two categories:
"I bought this last week and it's wonderful . . "
"I've been using it for a year and after x months it turned into a glue pan"
your mileage may vary . . .
the Woll site shows the three layer coating thickness to be 80 microns thick - takes a thousand microns to make a millimeter - or a little over 0.003 inches thick. seems unlikely to be PFTE at that thickness.
Back to top
Display posts from previous:
All Posts
1 Day
7 Days
2 Weeks
1 Month
3 Months
6 Months
1 Year
Oldest First
Newest First
Cooking For Engineers Forum Index
Tools, Equipment, and Gadgets
All times are GMT
Goto page
Jump to:
Select a forum
Cooking For Engineers
Cooking For Engineers Website Discussion
Messages from Michael
Comments Forum
Travel Comments Forum
Useless Stuff Comments Forum
Food, Cooking, & Dining
Cooking Tips
Cooking for Two
Favorite Foods
Tools, Equipment, and Gadgets
General Food Discussion
General Discussion
Anything Goes
Engineer Speak
post new topics in this forum
reply to topics in this forum
edit your posts in this forum
delete your posts in this forum
vote in polls in this forum
Powered by
© 2001, 2005 phpBB Group


text:
Order By Phone 1-877-777-2646
Shopping Cart 0 Items
Home > Accessories > Pens > Bowling Pin clip Pens - Set of 3
Price: $ 10.00 and above Remove This Filter
Set of 3 click-top bowling ink pens. These plastic red, blue and green pens will clip easily onto your pocket with the single bowling pin clip. Great to keep in your bowling bag to write down those super scores!


text:
If you enjoy politics and tuned into the second presidential debate on Tuesday night, you got quite the feisty show. Particularly on tax issues, the two candidates shared very different policy visions. However, for advisors who've already reached their yearly quota for political discourse, I've tried to distill candidates' tax positions into something that can be consumed in under 90 minutes.
First, it helps to know a bit of history. In 2001, Republicans in Congress passed the "Bush tax cuts." Lacking a strong majority in the Senate, the law was passed under an expedited procedure that limited the life of those changes to 10 years. The cuts were extended at the end of 2010 and are set to expire again at the end of this year. Their expiration, coupled with the end of several provisions intended to stimulate the economy, would result in a $500 billion tax increase in 2013 alone, big enough to push the economy back into recession, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Despite that dire prediction, members of Congress have agreed that nothing can be decided until after the election. Once the electorate has spoken, they reason, the legislative logjam will be broken. Fingers crossed that their theory holds….
Wages and Earned Income
Obama would extend permanently the tax provisions and rates for taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes less than $250,000 for married taxpayers or $200,000 for single taxpayers. The Joint Committee on Taxation, which is tasked with estimating the cost of tax proposals, pegs the price of this at $2.3 trillion over 10 years[1]. The president's plan would allow tax rates for upper income taxpayers in the top two brackets to rise from 33% and 35%, to 36% and 39.6%, respectively. In addition, a surtax of 0.9% that was passed in the president's healthcare reform legislation would be applied to earned income (basically, salary and wages) bringing the top rates to 36.9% and 40.5%. From a strict federal budgeting standpoint, there is no money saved from allowing those rates to rise, as they were already set to do so under current law.
Romney has proposed cutting all income tax brackets by 20% from their current level and making up for the lost revenue by capping deductions, the impact of which would fall mostly on those with higher incomes. During the debate, Romney suggested a cap of $25,000; a $17,000 figure had been floated in early October. (Obama also has proposed limiting deductions, but not by a flat cap.)
In theory, both candidates income tax proposal cost the same: $2.3 trillion over 10 years. Neither side has been forthcoming with specifics on covering that expense. Particular attention has focused on whether Romney's cap on deductions could pay for a further 20% drop in the rates. Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin indicated during the vice-presidential debate that the 20% cut should be considered as a framework for tax reform, suggesting it was a goal more than a fixed percentage.
Savings and Investments
For married taxpayers with incomes below $250,000 ($200,000 single), the president has proposed retaining the 15% rate for capital gains and dividends. For higher earners, the tax rate on capital gains would rise to 20%. In addition, the unearned income (basically, things like dividends, capital gains, interest) of higher earners could be subject to another surtax from the healthcare reform law of 3.8%, bringing the top rate to 23.8% (see "Buffett Rule" below). On dividends, higher earners would be taxed at their income tax rate, resulting in a top combined rate of 43.4% with the surtax.
Romney would drop the rate on capital gains, dividends and interest payments to zero for married taxpayers making less than $200,000 ($100,000 single). Taxpayers above that threshold would continue to pay at the current 15% rate.
Both the Obama and Romney's proposals to limit deductions could impact high earners with investment in municipal bonds that are currently tax-exempt; however, it's worth noting that munis weathered a similar storm during the 1986 tax reform and remained untouched.
Current law effectively only taxes estates larger than $5.12 million at a rate of 35% for 2012. In 2013, the law is schedule to tax all estates larger than $1 million at a rate of 55%. Obama has proposed taxing estates over $3.5 million at a 45% rate. Romney would scrap the estate tax altogether.
Alternative Minimum Tax
Obama would index the AMT for inflation so that it would not affect any more taxpayers than it did in 2011 (the AMT "patch" expired at the end of 2011). The president has also suggested a "Buffett Rule" that would ensure all taxpayers with incomes over $1 million pay an effective rate of 30%. This would effectively make the capital gains rate 30% for these taxpayers as well, double their current levels.
Romney would scrap the AMT and has opposed the Buffett Rule.
Stay tuned.
Please check out AdvisorOne's Election Impact 2012 home page for complete advisor-related election coverage.


text:
ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – The mother of a 17-year-old Bartram Trail High School student is concerned about his safety after his name appeared on a "death list" submitted as a project in a creative writing class.
School officials did sent a note home informing the mother that the boy's name was included in a poem that the school considered threatening.
"It made me sick, and my reaction was, 'What am I going to do to protect my child?" she said. "I mean, what is the school going to do to protect my child, as well as the other children in the class?"
The mother is scared and asked that her face and name not be used, but she is speaking out because she doesn't think the school is going enough. She's not sure exactly what the student said about her son because she says the school refuses to give her a copy of the poem.
"My hope is that they get this student a psychological evaluation, to make sure that he's safe for the rest of the community," she said. That's really all I'm asking."
As a mom, she says, she wishes she knew more what happened. She says she didn't receive a phone call until several days after the paper was turned in.
St. Johns County district officials said the boy who wrote the threatening poem was suspended from Bartram Trail and placed in the county's Gaines Alternative School. While they couldn't speak about the case in detail due to privacy laws, officials say the school followed procedures.
"In this case specifically, the school has handled the matter very appropriately," said spokesman Paul Abbatinozzi. "They took prompt action, parties were notified, the district was involved."
Abbatinozzi said safety is always a top priority for educators.
"When we receive information or we evaluated scenarios that occur on campus, we do it to the fullest with regards to how we deal with it in the scope and sequence of our conduct code," Abbatinozzi.
Those works eased answers the concerns of one nervous mother.
"My fear is that we're not going to be protected," the mother told Channel 4. "That's my greatest fear and I don't want this to be a tragedy if we have tell-tale signs that this is a potential serious event."
The woman says the boy who authored the poem barely knows her son.