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DIY Oatmeal Face Mask
Mmmm, boy do I love me some oatmeal (especially for brekkie with sliced bananas and vanilla almond milk)… I also love using oatmeal as part of my beauty regimen.
Did you know that oatmeal works wonders for oily, acne-prone skin? Oatmeal absorbs excess oils, combats bacteria, helps exfoliate dead skin cells, and tightens up pores. It also has soothing properties that can reduce skin irritation.
- 3/4 cup of plain oatmeal
- 1 cup of filtered water
- 1 teaspoon of agave (optional – it has nice soothing and healing properties)
- A few blueberries or strawberries (optional – high in anti-oxidants)
- A few drops of tea tree oil (optional – it's a great antiseptic)
Put the oatmeal and water in a pot and bring to a boil. Cook the ingredients for 1 to 3 minutes, and then remove from heat and allow it to cool. Next, add your optional ingredients and mix everything together into a nice paste.
Apply your mask to clean skin and leave it on for about 15 minutes. Feel free to use this time to snack on leftover oatmeal, pluck your eye brows, paint your toe nails, shower your furry fartsicorns with lots of snuggly poos, etc. Now, rinse off the mask with warm water and pat dry with a towel. Use this mask once a week for a month and you'll start to see improvement in you skin.
Enjoy! xx
About Sunny (Sunny's Profile)Longtime vegan, hardcore compassionate beauty junkie, serious cake aficionado, and lover of all things floofy and sparkly! If there's something in particular you'd like me to review, drop me a line at firstname.lastname@example.com. You can also find me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Google +.
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Do you know how long this could sit in the fridge for? Makes more than enough for one mask, so I'd like to save the leftovers!


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Open Verification Library (OVL) Working Group
To define and deliver standard OVL LRM and libraries of assertion checkers to be used by design, integration and verification engineers to check for good/bad behavior in simulation, emulation and formal verification – provided in Verilog, System Verilog, VHDL, PSL, and SystemC.
This working group is currently inactive. For more information, please contact us.
The OVL library of assertion checkers is intended to be used by design, integration, and verification engineers to check for good/bad behavior in simulation, emulation, and formal verification.
The Open Verification Library (OVL) Working Group is responsible for the definition and development of the standard OVL language reference manual and assertion-checker libraries.
OVL Version 2.8, released in December 2013, is the latest OVL release implemented in Verilog, VHDL, System Verilog and PSL (Verilog flavor).
Join this Working Group
If you are an employee of a member company and would like to join this working group, click here (requires login) and click Join Group.

subset: commoncrawl


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Stay Up to Date
Receive Bicycle Friendly America news delivered straight to your inbox every other week.
May 21, 2010by Darren FluscheOn this Bike to Work Day -- the tenth time Houston has celebrated the day -- League President Andy Clarke and Education Director Preston Tyree, together with the City of Houston, announced the launch of BikeEd.org, an online Bicycle Education tool.
May 21, 2010by Darren FluscheIt's here. Enjoy it. Photo from Arizona DOT
May 20, 2010by Darren FluscheIn their Innovators series, TIME Magazine calls workability guru, Dan Burden, one of the top six civic leaders:
May 20, 2010by Darren FluscheIn January, Jim Rogers, a cyclist well known in Nevada County, California was killed in a crash with a motorist who was reportedly on her cell phone at the time.
May 20, 2010by supportThe League, along with its partners in the America Bikes Coalition, would like to thank Senators Kerry (D-MA) and Lieberman (I-CT) on the introduction of the American Power Act.
May 19, 2010by supportTo coincide with Bike to Work Week, the League of American Bicyclists is excited to announce our third annual Bicycle Friendly State (BFS) rankings.
May 18, 2010by Alison DeweyGoogle Bike Doodle - Vote Now!
May 18, 2010by Darren FluscheAs we pointed out in our report, The Economic Benefits of Bicycle Infrastructure Investments, studies have shown that real estate property values increase with proximity to bicycle paths.
May 17, 2010by Darren FluscheHappy bike to work week, everybody. Here are two videos to get you inspired. Neither has much audio to speak of, so I suggest you hum your favorite tune while watching the fabulous sight of thousands of happy cyclists heading to work.
May 14, 2010by support


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Home > Bowling Pin "Shocker"
Have fun "shocking" your bowling buddies with this electrifying 4" bowling pin "shocker". Encourage someone to "Flip the switch", while holding the pin, and give them a JOLT! Remember the old-time shake hands buzzer??? This pin emits an electrical shock. It may interfere with electrical devices such as a pacemaker. NOT RECOMENDED FOR CHILDREN. You will receive one of the assorted colors of red, white or blue.


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Rewind your mental DVR because we want to know what you think are the best TV shows of the year.
Who is the best TV actress of 2012?Did old favorites like 30 Rock, Grey's Anatomy and Breaking Bad live up to your expectations? What about newcomers like Revolution, Arrow and The New Normal? And are The Walking Dead and Homeland having their best seasons yet?
Who is the best TV actor of 2012?
Tell us your selections below!


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Now then, since I've admitted one pet peeve, let me just throw out another one, only this one is really important. In fact, I may have to get an internet petition started on this one. To wit:
We should quit calling it the "bald" eagle. Rather, it should be called the "crowned" eagle. It's too majestic a bird to be called a "bald" eagle, and I happen to know for a fact that not one of them birds would like being called that if they could speak English.
It is "crowned" eagle. That's the only word befitting such a majestic bird's piercing demeanor.
And for those of you that are bald, and who like to say, "Bald is beautiful!" Well, have at it. Say it all day long if you want to...
Just leave it off of my Crowned Eagles.


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Photos of BMW's latest M3 sedan and M4 coupe have surfaced online weeks before their intended debut at next month's Detroit Auto Show.
The overhauled vehicles feature a sportier exterior and upgraded interior detailing. The leaked option sheets also show that adaptive suspension, 19-inch wheels, and heads-up display will be available to complement the usual options of heated seats, LED lighting, and side and rear cameras.
Check out the photos of the new M4 coupe in Austin Yellow Metallic and the M3 in Yas Marina Blue Metallic:
Photo: Bimmerboost.com
Photo: Bimmerboost.com


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Questions tagged [the-door]
2009 German mystery thriller/drama (orig.: Die Tür) starring Mads Mikkelsen as a father who gets the chance to undo his daughter's death when he discovers a door leading into the past, and the resulting consequences of trying to maintain his past happiness.
1 question
986 views
What is the meaning of the butterfly?
In the movie The Door (org.: Die Tür) there are repeated ocurrances of a butterfly. First of all David's daughter Leonie wants to go catching butterflies when her father doesn't have time for her and ...


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Celine Dion's baby dreams are coming true twofold: she's having twins.
"We're ecstatic," Rene Angelil, Dion's husband and manager, told People over the weekend. "Celine is just hoping for a healthy pregnancy. She was hoping for one baby and the news that we are having twins is a double blessing."
The 42-year-old Canadian megastar had her first child, Rene-Charles, in 2001 and her desire to expand the brood has been well documented.
U.S. & World
Following a tragic miscarriage last year, the "My Heart Will Go On" singer made six in-vitro fertilization attempts and even turned to acupuncture to boost her chances at conception, People reported.
"I feel like I've been pregnant more than a year," Dion told the French-language Le Journal de Montreal of the in-vitro fertilization process. "I never gave up. But I can tell you that it was physically and emotionally exhausting."
Angelil spoke of his wife's "guts" in the Le Journal interview, which was translated by People.
"These treatments were truly hard on my wife's body," Angelil said. "It wasn't simple at all."
Dion is now 14 weeks into the pregnancy and said she will find out the gender of the twins next month.


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Paul Klee: Making Visible (Tate Modern)
Tate Modern's freshest exhibition traces the artistic career of Paul Klee, commonly considered one of the most highly regarded artists of the early twentieth century. Beginning in Munich in the years 1912-13 through to the artist's last years in Switzerland around thirty years later, the exhibition brings together works that exemplify Klee's idiosyncratic pictorial constructions and use of line and colour in painting.
Curator and Courtauld alumnus Matthew Gale has carefully selected fascinating works by the German-Swiss artist, many of which are rarely given attention in the paradigmatic visual histories of Klee's artistic developments. The most striking examples are perhaps found in Room 10 – where one can see how Klee combined drawing and sprayed or splattered paint in Sacred Islands or Clouds (both 1926) – and in Room 13 – where works such as Clarification and Memory of a Bird (both 1932) exemplify the artist's use of pointillism.
The chronological principle privileged throughout the exhibition – which, in other contexts, sometimes feels reductive or simplifying – has the merit of organizing a quite diverse and, at times, not obviously reconcilable body of work, and of helpfully juxtaposing it – never too simplistically – to historical and social dynamics. The many inclusions of Klee's own words and the division of space into relatively small rooms each introduced by section labels successfully avoid the now pervasive sterilization of gallery spaces.
My only misgiving is that I doubt that "Making Visible" is the most appropriate title for this exhibition. If at the start we are indeed led into thinking that the exhibition will address the various shapes that Klee's concerns with vision and the visible took throughout his artistic career – the walls of the opening room are upholstered with the quotes "Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible" and "Today we reveal the reality that is behind visible things" – those concerns are not explicitly brought back in the subsequent rooms. Paul Klee: Making Visible rather takes the form of a survey – to be sure, a thorough and articulated one – of the artist's pictorial techniques and innovations, which I would not have so easily identified with interests in vision and visuality. But this is a quite minor hitch when compared to the exhibition's overall successful achievement of its aims.
Vincent Marquis is an MA student at the Courtauld.
Paul Klee: Making Visible is at Tate Modern until 9th March 2014.


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Tactical Solar ETI0021-6035 Portable Solar Panel Charger UPS
- Provides renewable emergency power source in remote locations
- Can charge cell phones, blackberries, GPS, IPOD or MP3 players and other electronics
- Universal adapter kit provides multiple connections to allow charging for most small electronics
- 5W panel 5500mAH LiION charger pack
- Portable design stores easily in a backpack and can be used on the go
Tactical Solar Panel Charger is extremely light weight, compact, and very durable. Enables you to charge most small electronics systems or store power in the power pack for use later. Designed for users who need lightweight portable power for cell phones, satellite phones, gps units, MP3 players, and other small electronics. The included universal adapter kit allows you to charge a variety of electronics. Easy to transport, the charger kits can be attached to a backpack, or placed on the dash of


text: Hello, I just wanted to let you know that I put my arbor together today and I absolutly LOVE It! I have other pvc trellis's but this one takes the cake... This transaction was PERFECT! This arbor is going to be the talk of the town! Keep up the good work and again THANK YOU!... Thanks again, Rena


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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Robbers stabbed a clothing store employee and sexually assaulted another during an hours-long hostage drama that ended early Friday with a police SWAT team surging into the shop and rescuing 14 workers.
No robbers were found. Police were seeking at least two men and also were trying to determine whether a vehicle found abandoned in neighboring Culver City was the getaway vehicle.
The ordeal at the Nordstrom Rack store near Los Angeles International Airport began at about 11 p.m. when a man called 911 and reported that his girlfriend had called and said there were gunmen in the store, Lt. Andy Neiman said.
"She told him, 'Call 911. Two guys with guns just came into our store,'" Neiman said.
Police officers and special weapons team members swarmed the Promenade at Howard Hughes Center, an outdoor shopping center that also contains restaurants and a theater.
The officers saw a man leave the second-floor store but he ran back inside when they tried to contact him, Neiman said.
Moments later, another man came out with a woman, but when he saw the police he grabbed her and pushed her back inside, Neiman said.
SWAT members surrounded the location but weren't able to talk to anyone inside during the three-hour standoff.
"One of the reasons they made entry so quickly is we had reason to believe that there were a number of other employees who had not been heard from that were possibly inside the location," Neiman said.
When they finally burst into the store, they found most of the hostages locked in a storage room and two others in a bathroom, police said.
The 13 women and one man were all employees because the store was closed when the robbery began.
One hostage was treated and released at the scene for a non-life threatening stab wound, Neiman said.
Another employee had been sexually assaulted, Neiman said, although he declined to provide details.
Other workers complained of minor injuries, "probably because they'd been manhandled or pushed away by the assailants," the lieutenant said.
Officers searched the store to make sure nobody was hiding but didn't find the robbers, Neiman said.
The mall was expected to reopen Friday, but the store will remain closed, police said.
Robbers assault some hostages at Los Angeles store
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Robbers stabbed a clothing store employee and sexually assaulted another during an hours-long hostage drama that ended early Friday with a police SWAT team surging into the shop and rescuing 14 workers.


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My heart is broken for her, and any words seem very inadequate at times like this, especially since Kato was such a fixture on this forum for so long.
Kate was a hero to many of us, as is Dee - their battle w/cancer was long and hard, and they both fought with grace, determination, and courage.
Dee was the very first person to reach out to me and Jessica when Mick was diagnosed with lymphoma... and as devestated as we were, she never failed to cheer us on and give us hope. She did some research for us, linked me with tons of advise and info - and Kate even generously shared some of his "magic mushroom potion" with Mickey.
Even through their own struggles they always had some kind and encouraging words for those of us who also ended up with cancer dogs... and they never complained.
In time Jess and I came to think of Kate as "one of our own", and I'm sure I'm not alone... these past few weeks have been incredibly hard on everyone who "knows" them becuase Dee and Kates love and devotion for each other have touched many, many hearts...
But because of Dees optimism and unwavering hope, and because of Kates heroic fight and love for life - I will not remember him as a "cancer dog".
He will live on in my heart as the shining star he was, and his spirit will walk beside us, always.
This is what Dee posted on FB earlier...
"Now cracks a noble heart. Goodnight, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest." Run Free Kato...
Kate did, indeed, have a noble heart and a gentle soul... and he will be missed by many.
Be at peace now, sweet boy... I love you.
Dee, you are in my thoughts and in my heart.


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Ingrid Dankmeyer 1989 signed Not Donating Till We Divest 2017-05-05 00:03:20 -0400
Not Donating Till We Divest132 signatures
Join us in withholding your donations
until Williams commits to keep endowment money
from financing fossil fuel extraction. Sign below.
Members of the Williams College Board of Trustees,
We will withhold any further contributions to Williams College, and urge current and future alumni to do the same, until the College takes direct steps to divest its endowment funds from fossil fuel-based companies.
Investment in fossil fuels is not a morally neutral act. Accepted science has clearly demonstrated the existential threat to the planet from the continued extraction and burning of fossil fuels. Its fundamental impropriety is heightened by the fact that the largest producers of petroleum products have invested significant resources in deliberately suppressing climate science, misinforming the public, and purchasing political influence to protect their industry at the expense of safer and saner alternatives.
Moreover, President Trump and most of his cabinet not only deny the existence of global warming, but appear committed to policies that can only exacerbate its effects in the interest of the fossil fuel industry. For Williams not to take a firm, public stand against such dangerous sophistry is to turn its back on its historic moral responsibility.
Some contend that a decision to divest from fossil fuels presents a choice between Williams' moral responsibility and its financial responsibility to maximize return on its investments. We believe that Williams' decisions should always be driven by moral responsibility, but we are also convinced, given continuing research on investment risks and returns, that in this case what is morally correct would be the more financially sound course to take over the long term.
We note that Yale University, whose endowment fund is managed by one of the most respected investors in the world, added climate change awareness to its investment strategy and has moved to eliminate its exposure to oil and coal industries. Longitudinal studies have shown the wisdom of this strategy, demonstrating that over time portfolios without fossil fuel investments have fared as well and sometimes better than those with such investments. We are concerned that the large number of Williams' Trustees who themselves have significant investments in fossil fuels has stood in the way of the College's serious consideration of a similar, forward-looking position that reflects Williams' national leadership role.
We note that you have asked your fund managers to consider the impact of their investments on greenhouse gas emissions. We now ask that you follow up with more meaningful action. We request that you create a three-year plan that:
1- identifies the extent to which endowment funds are financing fossil fuel extraction, misinformation, pro-fossil fuel lobbying, and other initiatives that work against efforts to confront climate change;
2- directs the endowment's fund managers to begin divesting from those investments as soon as possible and in no case later than three years; and
3- disassociates the College from fund managers who persist in financing endeavors that contribute to global warming.
We did not reach this decision lightly. As advocates of a strong Williams, we understand the role alumni donations play in supporting its continued role as one of the premier educational institutions in the country. We believe it is wrong, however, for the College to ask for contributions that it in turn invests in industries that threaten our very survival. We look forward to the time when we can once again offer our financial support to Williams.


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FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The NFL Players Association has filed a grievance to help former New England Patriots star tight end Aaron Hernandez collect an $82,000 workout bonus.
Hernandez's contract provided for him to receive that amount if he participated in 90 percent of the team's voluntary offseason workouts.
"On behalf of all players, it is our responsibility to protect the rights in the collective bargaining agreement," the union said in a statement. "We are not tone-deaf to what the allegations are in this case, but for the benefit of all players, there are important precedents here we must protect."
The Patriots cut Hernandez after he was arrested on June 26 and before he was charged with murder later that day. He pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail in the shooting death of Odin Lloyd, a friend whose body was found June 17 near Hernandez's house. The union believes Hernandez earned the bonus before his arrest.
Patriots owner Robert Kraft indicated he disagreed.
"It's simple," he said Tuesday. "You can look at our history. We honor all our contracts and we expect the people who sign them to honor their part of the contract."
Asked if he felt Hernandez didn't do that, Kraft said, "We honor our contracts and we expect the people on the other side to do the same."
Last year, Hernandez signed a five-year, $40 million contract extension through the 2018 season. The contract, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, includes an $82,000 bonus if Hernandez "successfully completes" at least 90 percent the possible offseason workouts at the team's facility. The bonus would have been paid "on or about" Aug. 1.
The NFL's collective bargaining agreement allows teams to recoup bonus money when a player is incarcerated. The Patriots cut Hernandez before the bonus, if earned, was due.
Hernandez was indicted last Thursday on first-degree murder and weapons charges in the death of Lloyd, whose bullet-riddled body was found in an industrial park about a mile from the ex-player's North Attleborough, Mass., home.
Prosecutors say Hernandez orchestrated Lloyd's killing because he was upset at him for talking to people Hernandez had problems with at a nightclub days earlier.
Kraft said that since he bought the Patriots before the 1994 season, "we've had probably over 2,000 people playing here and I think, by and large, we've done a pretty good job. If you look at the last four years I don't think we had any off-field incidents. So we're as diligent as we can be.
"We know what we want to achieve, yet, when people go outside this building, it's like those of you who have children," Kraft told reporters. "Once they get to a certain age, you can't control all their activities."
He also said that "every year in all of our businesses, we recalibrate what we are doing to make sure we're staying fresh and on top of things, and once you stop doing that, you'll perish."
The NFL, Kraft said, is "the most competitive business I've ever been involved in and so we have reviewed everything. We've been very diligent (in) the way we look at things and we'll try to do things as best as we can to achieve the results we want."
The Patriots are "a microcosm of the world," he said. "All kinds of things are going to happen. We do our best to hope that (players) understand they're in a unique place. Playing in the NFL is a privilege and we hope they're wise and mature enough to make sure they know how to take advantage of that."
AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org
Follow Howard Ulman on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP--HowardUlman


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By Ryan MackThese days, working from home is starting to look better and better — not only for workers, but also for companies. There are just so many reasons that it makes better business sense. While only six percent of Americans already work from home full-time, according to a recent Career Builder survey, it is expected to reach 63 million in the United States by 2016, predicts a March 2009 report by Forrester Research, Inc.There are still some businesses that swear by working in an office together, but research is now showing that telecommuters are gaining recognition in many ways. There are environmental perks, money savingsand, most of all, happier employees!Let's take a look at why working from home can make you happier, healthier and better balanced:
Telecommuters & Happiness
Aside from the obvious things that would make you happy, such as cutting your commute time and having more 'you' time, there are astronomical cost savings associated with it on a national level. The Telework Research Network studies show that 40 percent of American jobs are compatible with telecommuting, and if those people worked from home just half of their work week:
- We would save more than $15 billion in gas at the pumps.
- We would save $12 billion per year in accident-related costs.
- Employees would save between $1,800 and $6,800 in transportation and work-related costs, including child care expenses.
- Americans would save more than $650 billion a year total!
This would, of course, make for some very happy people with more spending power! Furthermore, companies would incur huge cost savings — and there are two main points to make here on that note:
- It would save businesses more than $200 billion (more than $10,000 per employee) through all the different amenities that they would no longer need in running an office.
- National productivity would be increased by 5.5 million man-years or $235 billion worth of work.
According to survey conducted by Staples Advantage, all of these factors make employees more loyal. In fact, 76 percent of telecommuters are more willing to put in extra time on work and say they are more loyal to their company since telecommuting.
Telecommuters & Health
The Staples Advantage shows that there are a number of health advantages to working from home, such as:
- Telecommuters say their stress levels have dropped 25 percent (on average) since working from home.
- Seventy-three percent even say they eat healthier when working from home.
Telecommuters & Work-Life Balance
The Staples Advantage survey says that more than 80 percent of respondents who work from home say they now maintain a better work-life balance. With all of the extra time and money you will save, it will become easier to plan your work-life balance. So many people plan their lives around work, so why not shift that and balance it so you can have more fun?
It is pretty clear why so many businesses are starting to look at telecommuting as a viable money saving option, and it is no surprise that the projections for 2016 show that so many more employees will be working from home by then.
Would you want to work from home? If so, what are your main reasons? If not, why would you prefer to stay in the office?
Ryan Mack is a partner at TruYuu, an online service that helps people present themselves as more than just a resume to employers. You can connect with Ryan and the TruYuu team on Facebook and Twitter.
Read more posts on Come Recommended »


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PC World Evaluation Team Review - MSI PS63
The MSI PS63 is an amazing laptop and I would definitely consider buying one in the future.
The Sony Walkman NWZ-B153 is a good option for users looking for a compact, sturdy and easy-to-carry MP3 player. Its impressive battery life and good overall sound quality makes for a balanced product.
The Sony Walkman NWZ-B153 MP3 player delivers good sound quality and has a useful three-minute battery quick charge feature. Its unintuitive navigation wheel and limited format support may be deal-breaking for some but it is one of the few good mini MP3 players available today.
The latest from Sony, the Sony Walkman NWZ-B153 is a basic pen-drive MP3 player with additional features over the previous NWZ-B-series of players. In a world where smartphones come with more than capable music playback prowess, let's see what this pen-drive jukebox has to hold its ground.
Sony Walkman NWZ-B153: Features
Sony has packed the Sony Walkman NWZ-B153 with 4GB of internal memory, FM radio with recording, voice recording via its built-in microphone and drag-and-drop support. The NWZ-B153F plays only MP3 and WMA files, which is disappointing as players like Cowon iAudio E2 let you play FLAC and OGG too. The player features the ZAPPIN function which plays the chorus of the upcoming tracks quickly – to make finding tracks easier.
There is also a Bass On feature with a dedicated button which was not present on the previous model, the NWZ-B143F. The LED around the rotary dial starts blinking when the Bass mode is activated and we wish there was an option to turn the blinking LED off.
The player comes with a unique and useful 3-minutes quick charge feature that charges the built-in battery to last at least 90 minutes of playback. When fully charged, the battery has a rated playback time of 18 hours. The Sony Walkman NWZ-B153 player comes with Sony's regular earbuds and no other accessories.
Sony Walkman NWZ-B153: Design & Usability
The Sony Walkman NWZ-B153 has a lipstick form factor with the USB connector protected by a plastic cap. Sony has not done much to make this player look different than the other B-series MP3 players apart from the new navigational wheel. It's not as sleek and classy as the Apple iPod Shuffle but the pen drive form factor is more functional and comes with a screen. The screen is good enough to let you browse menus and playlists but don't expect it to let you view your album art as it is just a 3-line LCD.
The body is made of shiny plastic which attracts fingerprints, but due to the body being filled up with buttons, smudging isn't an issue. We received the pink-cap and black body combination which we think suits the younger crowd, but there are other variants like black, red and gold. The Sony Walkman NWZ-B153's build quality is good enough to withstand a few drops but the loosely fitted USB cap requires good care.
We had an acceptable experience during our usage - which could have been better if Sony opted for the regular directional flat pad like it did for the NWZ-B143F. Unfortunately, using the new directional wheel on the Sony Walkman NWZ-B153 is hit and miss, and we strongly recommend you give a try before you buy. . The buttons on the front and sides are conveniently located and it has all basic shortcuts for easier operation.
Sony Walkman NWZ-B153: Performance
The Sony Walkman NWZ-B153 player took one hour to fully charge the battery via the PC USB port and the three-minute quick charge feature worked as advertised. Battery life without using the Bass feature is close to the rated 18 hours which is good enough.
When it comes to audio quality, the Sony Walkman NWZ-B153 with its bundled earbuds did a fairly good job with well defined midrange along with subtle bass and highs. Turning on the Bass feature does get some thump in but it also introduces muddiness, disturbing the overall sound quality. Plugging in our own in-ears (Apple In-Ear, Soundmagic PL30, Sennheiser CX300 and Philips SHE9800), the sound was a bit bass heavy with the "Bass on" mode and we preferred to keep the mode off throughout out testing period.
Overall, sound quality is better than most of the mini MP3 players we tested before – that includes the latest iPod Shuffle and the Creative Zen Stone Plus. It falls behind the Cowon E2 in terms of accuracy though, so, it is certainly not going to wow the audiophiles. However, for a mini MP3 player, the Sony Walkman NWZ-B153 scores second to the Cowon iAudio E2 in terms of pure sound quality.
The MSI PS63 is an amazing laptop and I would definitely consider buying one in the future.
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This smart laptop was enjoyable to use and great to work on – creating content was super simple.
It really doesn't get more "gaming laptop" than this.
As the Maserati or BMW of laptops, it would fit perfectly in the hands of a professional needing firepower under the hood, sophistication and class on the surface, and gaming prowess (sports mode if you will) in between.
The MSI PS63 is an amazing laptop and I would definitely consider buying one in the future.
Brother RJ-4230B
This small mobile printer is exactly what I need for invoicing and other jobs such as sending fellow tradesman details or step-by-step instructions that I can easily print off from my phone or the Web.
Microsoft Office 365/HP Spectre x360
Microsoft Office continues to make a student's life that little bit easier by offering reliable, easy to use, time-saving functionality, while continuing to develop new features that further enhance what is already a formidable collection of applications


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The PENSION DISTIBUTION ANSWER BOOK covers all facets of qualified plan distributions, including in-service distributions, pre- and post-retirement distributions, and plan terminations. You get expert advice and practical tips on hundreds of complicated issues - from legal requirements, including ERISA And The new SBJPA provisions, To administrative and reporting requirements, To planning strategies to minimize taxes and penalties and maximize benefits and contributions. Over 500 critical questions are answered, including: How to know when a partial termination occurs When can highly compensated employees receive a lump-sum distribution from a defined benefit plan How to apply the taxation rules for corrective distributions on 401(k) plans How to defer taxes by stretching our payments for 70 years How to determine minimum distribution amounts How to terminate an underfunded plan and more.Gucciardi, Joan is the author of 'Pension Distribution Answer Book, 2002' with ISBN 9780735523746 and ISBN 0735523746.[read more]
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text:
Very Thankful, Indeed
I'm thankful to have a supportive husband who is a great father, and I'm thankful to have an awesome sister who makes me laugh. I'm thankful to have amazing friends; the ones who have been with me my entire life, and the ones I've been lucky enough to meet through blogging.
I'm thankful this week, because I was honoured at my son's school for being a volunteer, and I saw how proud he was of me when I stood up in front of everyone to receive my certificate.
I'm thankful that my four year told me he loves me so much he has hearts coming out of his head.
I'm thankful I had the chance to appear on CTV Ottawa Morning to talk about and show everyone some awesome gift ideas for Mother's Day. You can watch the segment here! It's always a blast, doing work on television, and I miss the days of working in a busy newsroom.
Also? I'm thankful that I've got two amazing Samsung cameras to give away to two of my readers, for Mother's Day. I take tons of pictures of my children, and this camera is so small, you can just slip it in the back pocket of your jeans so you're always ready to take those perfect candid shots. My favorite part about this camera is that it has built-in Wi-Fi! Total bonus, right? The Samsung DV300F talkes up to 16.1MP high-resolution pictures and 720p HD video, and has a a front-facing screen, too.
To enter to win, just leave me a comment telling me what you love about Mother's Day.
I'll randomly pick two winners on May 14th.
Good Luck!
And to all the moms I know, Happy Mother's Day. I believe we should celebreate motherhood every day of the year, don't you?
41 comments:
- Bees With Honey said...
The best part of Mother's Day is witnessing the excitement, the look on their faces and the sense of accomplishment my girls feel in planning the day. I love how special they make me feel and how important it is to them to do something for me.
- May 12, 2012 at 12:45 AM
The best part of Mother's Day is the joy on my sons' faces as they bring me breakfast in bed - have me unwrap their presents and give me snuggles. They honestly love having a special day to honor their Mom - me!
- May 12, 2012 at 12:56 AM
- Maria @BOREDMommy said...
What I love about Mother's Day is that I'll be getting something handmade from both the kids and hopefully a nice breakfast of Eggs Benedict at my favorite breakfast spot! Thanks for the giveaway!
- May 12, 2012 at 1:03 AM
- Sue said...
The best part of Mother's Day is reflecting on growing up and remembering and honoring my own mother. As a child or even as a young adult, I don't think there is any way I could have truly appreciated the role she played in my life and how she helped shape who I am today.
Now that I am a mother, I am beginning to grasp and understand the extraordinary task she had of being my mom! I wish she were alive today so I could tell her this and thank her and let her know I appreciate her more than ever.
Thanks for the chance to win and Happy Mother's Day to all.
- May 12, 2012 at 1:32 AM
- Brandee said...
I love seeing the pride on my son's face as he shows me what he has picked or made for me. That is the best part of Mother's Day for me. I love that he has out his own thought into something for me, be it a picture from school or something ths he chose at the mall. Oh, and the giant hug and. " I love you's" that I know I will get.
- May 12, 2012 at 2:11 AM
- Unknown said...
My favourite thing about Mother's Day is how much my dad wants us kids to spoil my mom. Each year (without fail) he encourages us to band together and give my mom a special day. He suggests "cooking something for once." lol.
- May 12, 2012 at 2:17 AM
- KanataNewf said...
I love that I get a chance to tell all the Mom's I am privileged to know, just how special they really. I don't know how they do it ALL!
- May 12, 2012 at 7:25 AM
- Jessica said...
I love Mother's Day because my children love celebrating it! For me, it is not about me. It is about seeing the joy in my 2, 4, and 6 year old as they pull out their handmade crafts they made at school. I love the joy in my daughter's eyes when she sees me put on the special pin she made.
- May 12, 2012 at 8:16 AM
- Jessica said...
The best part about mother's day is seeing the joy in my children's eyes when I open their handmade crafts from school. It isn't really about me. They love to celebrate ANYTHING and this is yet another day for them to rejoice, have sweets and hopefully be sheltered a little bit longer from the big, wide world.
- May 12, 2012 at 8:17 AM
I just love spending time with my kids. Also just not having to clean and cook for the day.
- May 12, 2012 at 8:36 AM
- Mailyne said...
I love Mothers Day because it is another day to get together as a family. This is my first year being a mom and I love every second of it. It's about the love you get, the love you give and the time you get to spend.
- May 12, 2012 at 11:45 AM
- Alexis Gentry said...
Mother's Day...what a bittersweet snapshot in time. It's all things rolled into one. The gratitude that I feel for my family, my precious children, and the reality that THEY WANT TO BE WITH ME at this moment. I know that will not always be the case as they grow, but for this teary moment, it is enough. Sometimes sadness creeps in with the day to day realization that this is fleeting, but that is so often the case with joy...Here's to a joyful day for all of you! :)
- May 12, 2012 at 11:46 AM
- Angella said...
My favorite thing is the questions they have the kids answer about me (I just posted Emily's to Instagram). I also love all of the handmade stuff they make me, and that we get to go out for a nice brunch. :)
- May 12, 2012 at 12:01 PM
- designHER Momma said...
I know it's cheesy, but I'm always so thankful that I every get to celebrate Mothers Day. I feel incredibly blessed to have 4 kids. 4 kids, wow!
- May 12, 2012 at 1:40 PM
- AlwaysARedhead said...
I love that on Mother's day, I will have to leave my house by 5:30am, to take the teenage boy to a rowing regatta (no I am not being sarcastic). He gets up at 4:30am six days a week to practice, so the least I can do as a mother, is actually go and watch him.
- May 12, 2012 at 5:59 PM
- Kathryn said...
I love the idea that there is a day set aside to honor such an important role in our world. When you have a child you realize that you are connected to everyone all over the world. Celebrating this is important.
- May 12, 2012 at 6:05 PM
- jemrah said...
It is a special day to honour our mothers, and remember how important they are in all of our lives.
- May 12, 2012 at 6:21 PM
- Alicia xoxxo said...
I love this post because I feel very thankful too! I have an awesome husband, and the most beautiful amazing 10mos old baby boy a girl could ever dream of. This is my first Mother's Day, and my weekend has been amazing and special just spending quality time with my boys. But I think what I like most about Mothers Day is that I can take a minute to stop and really think about all that my mom has done for me. And I don't say that in a cheesy way. I didn't realize how much she did for me until I became a mom myself.
- May 12, 2012 at 8:23 PM
- Marinka said...
I love the fact that on Mother's Day we all sort of pause, exhale and say "thank you." My kids thank me, but I thank them too. Because they make motherhood so fantastic for me
- May 12, 2012 at 8:49 PM
- Nancy said...
Mother's day is bittersweet for me because I lost my mother 34 years ago. I love my daughters, but I would give anything for a hug from my mom and just to hear her tell me that everything will be all right.
- May 13, 2012 at 3:27 AM
- Unknown said...
I love being able to simply relax and not worry about my "motherly" duties. And my son smiling as he gives me the gifts he has picked out for me.
- May 13, 2012 at 8:40 PM
- Stephanie said...
Oh I love the home mad cards and the extra hugs!! I may also love the coffee delivery in bed:)
Happy Mother's Day!
- May 13, 2012 at 8:43 PM
- Corn Flake said...
Sticky kisses and handfulls of dandelions!
- May 13, 2012 at 8:55 PM
- Sweet Panda said...
What I love about Mother's Day is that my hubby will think of something to make with my kids together and then either give it to me or if it is food, we will eat them together!
sweetpanda2010 at gmail dot com
- May 13, 2012 at 9:01 PM
- Robin said...
The best part of Mother's Day is being a Mom of a pretty awesome kid!
- May 13, 2012 at 9:01 PM
- StopAtOne.com said...
My favorite part about Mother's Day is my daughter's expression when she gives me a card that she has been working on without my knowledge, she doesn't ever want to hide anything from me so she is so bashful when she presents me with a gift and card! I also love the part where my husband does the dishes, makes dinner and all of those yucky daily tasks!!!
- May 13, 2012 at 9:01 PM
- kellidaisy said...
The best part of Mother's Day is that I get to be a part of it. Being a part of this crazy sorority that is motherhood is awesome, and knowing that I made those 4 little people is all the thanks I need.
- May 13, 2012 at 9:05 PM
I love the gifts my kids pick out themselves!
- May 13, 2012 at 9:44 PM
- janicelynn said...
Best part of Mother's Day is getting together with the family to have a special day for all the special Mom's!
- May 13, 2012 at 10:23 PM
- Steve aka @greenleafwood said...
The thing I love about Mother's Day is helping my daughters plot and scheme in preparation. They're at a good age for this (9 & 12) because they put thought into what their mom wants, not necessarily what they want to do.
Oh, and helping with breakfast for mom rocks, despite the mess!
- May 13, 2012 at 10:42 PM
- Studio Frogbot said...
I love Mothers Day because I spend it with my mom, mother in law, and my husbands Grandmother. They are three inspirational ladies in my life, and I adore having brunch with them every year at my house. I also love the little things my children make for me each year, along with the handmade cards they give out. Overall it is just an awesome day.
- May 13, 2012 at 11:20 PM
- Jonnie (JB) said...
I love the amazing homemade gifts kids come up with for Mother's Day and the fact that moms keep them. I love going back and looking at gifts I made my mom and the gifts my boys have given me.
- May 13, 2012 at 11:34 PM
- Sara said...
I'm 29 & not a mother yet but, I dream of the day I'll be blessed celebrate this holiday. Mothers Day this year for me was about finding inner peace, forgiving, letting go of the past, and appreciating those who have inspired me to be the strong woman I am today. I had a rough childhood with a mother that suffered from a serious drug addiction & thankfully today she is clean. Today I let her know I forgive her and that the past is the past. I also let my grandmother (who raised me from early teens on) know I am a better person because of her. My struggles in life are lessons for my future.
- May 13, 2012 at 11:54 PM
- Cherie-Lynn said...
Mothers day is always a day of mixed emotions for me. I love my kids more than anything but I always miss my mom too. It's been almost 15 years an every special occassion it feels like the first year all over again.
I'm thankful that my kids recognize this and give me the time to reflect on how fortunate I was. I only hope in passing on to my kids what my mom passed on to me.
- May 14, 2012 at 12:13 AM
- Kate Coveny Hood said...
I love having a special day that is all about me - but without the "one year OLDER" stuff that comes along with birthdays.
Seriously though - Mother's Day makes me feel like I'm part of something very special. And becoming a mother is absolutely the best thing that ever happened to me.
- May 14, 2012 at 2:16 AM
- Unknown said...
What I love about mother's day is having my kids help make me breakfast and draw me cards - and hearing them say "you're the best mom in the world" :)
- May 14, 2012 at 7:59 AM
- Unknown said...
- This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
- May 14, 2012 at 7:59 AM
- Stacy Monaghan said...
I love the excitement in my kids faces as they give me the presents that they have been working on for weeks at school.
- May 14, 2012 at 12:26 PM
- Chantal said...
I love mothers day because it is the one day I feel special as a mom, as opposed to just any other day. :)
- May 14, 2012 at 3:21 PM
- Unknown said...
I can always tell by your posts about your boys how much you love them. And you're right, everything you said about Motherhood is true! Happy belated Mother's day, Loukia!!
- May 15, 2012 at 12:03 AM
- Tammi said...
I love Mother's Day for all the extra hugs I get from the kids, and the homemade cards can't be beat!
Congrats on the TV segment, that's amazing!!!
- May 16, 2012 at 8:40 AM


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RICHMOND — As Akron prepared for the Mid-American Conference tournament, VCU coach Shaka Smart sent the Zips a 45-second motivational video.
"It was all about how much I believed in their team and how good they could be," Smart said Tuesday.
Indeed, Smart knows Akron as well as any team other than his own. He served as an assistant coach there from 2003-06, considers Zips head coach Keith Dambrot a brother and watches them as often as possible.
Sure enough, Akron won the MAC tournament for the third time in five seasons. And come Selection Sunday, the kicker: Dambrot's Zips were matched against Smart's Rams in a South Regional game Thursday in Auburn Hills, Mich.
"He could probably coach our team, and I could probably coach their team," Dambrot said during a media teleconference. "That's how much we know about each other."
Their knowledge is rooted not only in 2010 and '12 regular-season meetings, but also in near-daily conversations.
How did Dambrot adjust earlier this month when starting point guard Alex Abreu was arrested on drug charges and subsequently suspended? How has Smart encouraged insecure sixth man Briante Weber?
There are few, if any, secrets.
"He's the best person I've ever been around at reaching out to people that are down," Smart said during a news conference at the Siegel Center. "Keith, I'll never forget, just the way that he treated the people that worked in the arena at Akron — he treated them the same way he'd treat the university president.
"He was the only one, at that time at least, that would be critical of LeBron James and tell him what he thought he needed to hear. And I think LeBron over the years has really appreciated that."
Dambrot coached James for two seasons at Akron's St. Vincent-St. Mary High School. He then joined the Zips staff under Dan Hipsher, who in 2003 added Smart to the staff.
"He really took me under his wing, and he didn't know me from anyone," Smart said. "My first day on the job at Akron … he took me at lunch to go work out LeBron James. So I'm standing there in a rec center gym in Akron, my first day on the job, and LeBron James pulls up in a Hummer.
"He's a senior in high school, it's like May of his senior year. Keith and I proceed to work him out for the next two months. Well, I take that back. I helped Keith. I didn't really say much the first few times because I was in awe."
A year later, Akron promoted Dambrot to head coach, and Smart remained as an assistant for two additional seasons. The Zips are 210-93 since and have won at least 22 games in each of the last eight years. They've reached seven consecutive MAC tournament finals.
Not bad for a program with one previous NCAA tournament appearance, that in 1986 under Bob Huggins, who's since guided Cincinnati and West Virginia to Final Fours.
The Zips (26-6) won 19 consecutive games from mid-December to late February and are anchored by 7-foot senior Zeke Marshall. A two-time MAC defensive player of the year, Marshall ranks fourth nationally in blocked shots (3.7 per game) and swatted six in an overtime loss to VCU last season.
"It felt like 15 blocks," Smart said. "That was one of our best wins of the year. … He's been great all year long. He's done what college basketball players are supposed to do. He's gotten better and better and better every year, and now he's at the point where, I don't know much about the NBA, but I'd be amazed if he doesn't find a way to stick at the next level. …
"We're going to need to be very aggressive and intelligent in our attack against him. I think that the mistake a lot of teams make is they get so consumed with him and going at him and attacking him and getting him in foul trouble, that it takes away from the rest of their typical game plan."
VCU's game plan starts with its trapping, full-court defense, and with freshman Carmelo Betancourt replacing Abreu, bank on Weber, Troy Daniels, Darius Theus and company swarming with a vengeance.
Unlike the Zips, who've never won an NCAA tournament game, the Rams (26-6) have considerable March pedigree after their 2011 Final Four run and 2012 conquest of Wichita State. So much that they've become a popular choice to return to the Final Four.
"Now it's kinda cool to pick a non-BCS team to advance in the tournament or to make the Final Four," Smart said, citing fellow party crashers George Mason and Butler. "Before you looked like an idiot when you said that. People are a little bit like sheep. They follow and they do what it's cool to do. So we don't put a lot of stock in that. …
"Our guys, especially our juniors and seniors, have won a lot of big games in March and been a part of some very close games, tense games, games with a lot on the line. It's very valuable. It gives you something to draw on."
Akron doesn't have that reservoir, but Smart knows the Zips will be impeccably prepared.
"For whatever reason, some coaches are lifted up as brilliant coaching minds and (others) don't get as much media attention," he said. "Keith has been phenomenal. … In terms of the meat and potatoes of coaching a basketball practice or basketball game, he's as good as anyone I've been around. … He's my best friend in coaching."
But for this week, their relationship is shelved.
"We'll be estranged," Dambrot said, "and then re-bond. … I love Shaka. That's my guy."
David Teel can be reached at 757-247-4636 or by email at email@example.com. For more from Teel, read his blog at dailypress.com/ teeltime and follow him at twitter.com/DavidTeelatDP


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Police questioned 30 people on Tuesday and searched the homes of six employees of a private fertility clinic who are suspected of illegally trafficking human eggs and selling them to Israeli couples with fertility problems.
The sale of human eggs for in vitro fertilization is illegal in Romania.
Police said employees at the clinic in Bucharest harvested the eggs from Romanian women aged 18 to 30, some of whom were students, paying them between euros 600 and 800 ($450 and $600), then sold the eggs for euros 3,000 to 4,000 ($2,255 to $3,005).
Police say a criminal network of 11 suspects has been involved in the illegal trafficking of human eggs, including Romanian and Israeli citizens from medical professions such as doctor, nurse and embryologist.
Most of the people who benefited from the service were Israeli women who visited Romania for artificial insemination, and the suspects made "considerable financial gains" through this illegal human egg trafficking, police said in a statement.
In November, a Romanian court sentenced four Israeli doctors in absentia to five years in prison in a separate egg-trafficking case.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.


text:
< Features
Glitch-free Audio
The PulseAudio sound server has been rewritten to use timer-based audio scheduling instead of the traditional interrupt-driven approach. This is the approach that is taken by other systems such as Apples CoreAudio and the Windows Vista audio subsystem and has a number of advantages, not the least in reduced power consumption.
- Name: Lennart Poettering
Current status
- Targeted release: Fedora 10
- Last updated: 2008-04-09
- Percentage of completion: 50%
Detailed Description
Lennart has written a great explanation of the technical details here .
Benefit to Fedora
Lennarts writeup has a detailed discussion of advantages (and disadvantages) of the glitch-free approach. Some highlights are:
- Less wakeups, reduced power consumption
- Dynamic latency adaption
- Less dependent on audio hardware
- Minimized chance of drop outs
The feature requires a pretty-much rewritten core of PulseAudio.
Test Plan
- Play sound on the desktop in various ways, e.g. music in rhythmbox, or a video in totem, or some flash video in firefox. Verify that the sound experience is the same as on F9.
- While doing the above, run powertop and observe that pulseaudio is not increasing the power consumption as much as it used to.
- Repeat the above with different sound cards
User Experience
Unfortunately not much of this is directly visible. The location where this is best visible is powertop.
The glitch-free logic will only be enabled on mmap()-capable ALSA devices and where hrtimers are available. The non-glitch-free logic will be preserved as compatibility code with older kernels and limited sound hardware or drivers.
From Lennarts writeup:
- System timers on Unix are not very high precision. On traditional Linux with HZ=100 sleep times for timers are rounded up to multiples of 10ms. Only very recent Linux kernels with hrtimers can provide something better, but only on x86 and x86-64 until now. This makes the whole scheme unusable for low latency setups unless you run the very latest Linux. Also, hrtimers are not (yet) exposed in poll()/select(). It requires major jumping through loops to work around this limitation.
- Generally, this works reliably only on newest ALSA, newest kernel, newest everything. It has pretty steep requirements on software and sometimes even on hardware.
Contingency Plan
If the glitch-free PulseAudio exhibits glitches that cannot be fixed in time for F10, we can just revert to the last 'traditional' PulseAudio release.


text:
Building on what made the original model a success, the 2012 Kia Cee'd is an all-new motor with enough clout to keep it in check with the other big-boy car markers.
The Korean manufacturer might have a reputation for practical, sensible vehicles, but the latest European-designed Cee'd is a battering ram of design to the brain. It looks elegant, stylish, desirable – all those things you probably never thought you'd say about a Kia. And all those things that could notch it up your purchase list, most likely sandwiched neatly between the VW Golf and Ford Focus.
Not only that but it's also a competitively priced motor and comes with the same seven-year warranty as its predecessor. Kia hasn't entirely dropped its sensible front then, but this is sensible where it counts.
The tech
What you get for the cash will vary depending on the configuration you choose. Kia's four-fold trim grade system ranges from 1 through to 4 – the 1.6-litre GDI 6-speed manual ISG petrol and diesel models we drove for this test were both "2" cars, anticipated to retail for £16,295 a piece. At the top of the stack there's the dual-clutch transmission 1.6-litre "4 Tech" that will cost just a shade under £25,000.
In real terms the grade 2 cars mean (take a deep breath): 16-inch alloy wheels; LED daytime running lights; electronic mirrors and windows; leather trim on the wheel, gearshift and handbrake; cruise control and Flex Steer with comfort, normal and sport modes.
The audio system may have been upgraded compared to its predecessor, but the sound is pretty standard fare. The CD player as a whole is borderline on its deathbed, so the inclusion of a USB socket is much welcome for download fans. There's even 600MB of memory within the radio.
All-new design
The 2012 model is also quite the looker. Almost coupe-like in style, this hatchback looks a little BMW in its headlights, has a body akin to a Ford Focus lovechild, and a rear rather like a Seat. Yet it's no cut and shut job and pulls everything together with all swooping, smooth lines and curves. Very easy on the eye and far more European-looking than its boggle-eyed-headlights predecessor.
Sit in the driver's seat and the dash lights up brightly with its speedometer and fuel gauge. The dash is a sturdy build, and while not desperately exciting it's a decent finish for the price point.
Legroom in the back isn't extensive, but this could easily be a car for a young family – not least because full front and side passenger and driver airbags make this a safe ride and the boot has a decent 380 litres capacity too.
How it drives
But fill that boot up at your peril. The 1.6-litre engine (both petrol and diesel options) that we drove were a little sluggish when it came to zipping away. Added weight doesn't help.
The six-speed gearbox changes up smoothly enough, but the shift between second and third will leave much to be desired. It just needs some more welly. The Swiss mountains that we drove around were cause for plenty of downshifting to keep the car cruising uphill. Neither petrol nor diesel ever felt quite "comfortable" in the lower gears, though the smooth motorway routes were just that: smooth.
But it's not just speed that we're looking at. If a quiet ride is what you're after in a comfortable car then the Cee'd 2012 delivers aplenty. Efficiency, too, is impressive: CO2 emissions of 97g/km make for lower running costs which, as anyone who's had the misfortune to purchase petrol in the UK recently will know, is an important factor. The diesel's CRDi engine is tuned for higher torque than its GDI petrol equivalent, while both models share the instant start-stop (ISG) system for further enhanced economy.
The aforementioned "flex steer" is controlled via a toggle on the steering wheel, though we found the "sport" mode to be a little heavy. Trying to crowbar in some "sporty" elements may sound attractive on paper, but the latest Cee'd feels far from a sporty motor.
It's a tad difficult to get super-excited about the 2012 Kia Cee'd, but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of great things to find here.
It's a little pricier than its predecessor, but it looks oh so much better – all stylish angles with a bit of held-back anger thanks to those elongated headlights. The interior is of a decent spec too, in particular when considering the price point.
But good looks are met with only an average performance. Mute is the word: while quiet and smooth on the road - and this is one efficient motor - there's just not much kick when jumping between the gears. Not a huge problem for commuting or comfortable driving, but performance car this isn't.
But the 2012 Cee'd's big sell is still that seven-year warranty. That makes almost any new car worth buying, and here it's a mega plus point that really pushes the score up a notch.
- Sky Q update discussed, VanMoof S3 e-bike, and the future of solar charging - Pocket-lint Podcast 61
There's plenty of competition out there worth looking at, but the Kia Cee'd 2012 is a model well worth a look-in. It's a practical, nay sensible, car dressed up with good looks that will appeal to families, businesses, young drivers and more. It might not be all that exciting, but it's a versatile mid-sized hatchback if we ever saw one.


text:
Wednesday, April 11
Good morning, TexMessagers! Happy birthday to Kevin Brady, the U.S. Congressman from The Woodlands!
David Dewhurst recently released an ad claiming that President Barack Obama had played more than 90 rounds of golf in his presidency, and that poverty levels are up under the Obama administration by numbers that were rated 'half true' by Politifact.
The lieutenant governor of Texas is one of the hopefuls for Kay Bailey Hutchison's soon-to-be-open senate seat, and the ad uses rhetoric to tear down Obama while building up Dewhurst.
In his campaign against former Dallas mayor Tom Leppert and retired NFL player Craig James, Dewhurst says in the ad that "if we don't change the way Washington is running, we're going to bankrupt the future of our children, and our children's children."
Politifact rates the golf claim as true. To view their evaluation, please click here.
Politifact rates the poverty claim as half true. To view their evaluation, please click here.
Presidential campaign watch
Every morning, we share some headlines from 2012 presidential campaign.
★ A special Texas on the Potomac recap of the Rick Santorum campaign
★ Rick Perry congratulates Santorum fore 'tireless and hard-fought campaign'
★ Ron Paul vows to stay in the race as 'last — and real — conservative alternative to Mitt Romney'
★ Texans bid a fond (and sometimes not so fond) farewell to Rick Santorum
★ Rick Santorum is out — and Texas is irrelevant. AGAIN.
★ Ron Paul's new Texas-themed ad describes him as 'big, bold Texan'
Reader Comment of the Day
In response to our Texas on the Potomac article "Ron Paul's new Texas-themed ad describes him as 'big, bold Texan'" reader "Robert Zimmerman" wrote in the Facebook comments forum:
"cue 'long tall texan'"
Texas Watch
TxPotomac lets you know what stories to look out for later this week.
★ Wednesday, April 11. Ron Paul will be having lunch in Dallas from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Addison Marriott Quorum; at 7 p.m. Paul will host a town hall meeting at Will Rogers Memorial Center in Fort Worth
★ Wednesday, April 11. Rep. Kevin Brady's 57th birthday
Tomorrow and beyond:
★ Tuesday, April 24. Connecticut primary
★ Tuesday, April 24. Delaware primary
★ Tuesday, April 24. New York primary
★ Tuesday, April 24. Pennsylvania primary
★ Tuesday, April 24. Rhode Island primary
★ Tuesday, May 8. Indiana primary
★ Tuesday, May 8. North Carolina primary
★ Tuesday, May 8. West Virginia primary
★ Tuesday, May 15. Nebraska primary
★ Tuesday, May 15. Oregon primary
★ Tuesday, May 22. Arkansas primary
★ Tuesday, May 22. Kentucky primary
★ Tuesday, May 29. Texas primary
★ Tuesday, June 5. California primary
★ Tuesday, June 5. Montana primary
★ Tuesday, June 5. New Jersey primary
★ Tuesday, June 5. New Mexico primary
★ Tuesday, June 5. South Dakota primary
★ Tuesday, June 26. Utah primary
Today in Texas History
On this date in 1953, Oveta Culp Hobby became the first secretary of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. More>>>


text:
State Income Tax Clinic – California
This clinic, also known as the "Taxpayer Appeals Assistance Program (TAAP)—Franchise and Income Tax," is a joint effort between the USD Legal Clinics and the California State Board of Equalization (BOE). Under supervision of an attorney from the BOE's Taxpayer Rights Advocate Office, students assist taxpayers with state income tax disputes against the California Franchise Tax Board (FTB). Students receive legal practice skills training, including gathering and identifying evidence, drafting legal briefs and representing clients/taxpayers in negotiations with the FTB and at oral hearings before the BOE.
No prerequisites.


text:
ID Badge Sleeves are ideal for protecting your paper or plastic employee ID cards from accidental loss and damage. They're also the perfect solution for holding, carrying and protecting more than one card or name tag at a time.
Art Promos' selection of Clear Plastic and Vinyl ID Holders can be paired up with any of our Imprinted ID Cards and attached to our Promotional Lanyards or Personalized Carabiner ID Holders for an ensemble that promotes your business or organization, identifies your employees to others, and makes a powerful statement. Use this customized trio at conventions or tradeshows, events or in your own store or workplace.


text:
This is great news and it comes, remarkably, from the AP (it must be good if the news media is picking it up). Burns is describing exactly what the purpose and strategy of the surge was – empowering the Iraqi people. It's a remarkable turn of events and a huge win for all of our fine forces over there getting the job done. Good luck and Godspeed with the work still to be done.
[ht – gatewaypundit]


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Release Date: 2012 |
Album Rating: 3.5I apologize, but this review is actually unfinished. I have another paragraph critiquing and describing the actual music and bonus tracks in depth, but I've been having connection problems all night and I wanted to post this before my internet cuts out completely. I will edit in the missing paragraph tomorrow, please forgive me cutting the review short.
Album Rating: 3.5See? I'm having all sorts of problems, my comments are getting posted twice when it's telling me it hasn't posted them. Please excuse the cut off summary as well, this will be resolved in the morning.
Album Rating: 3.5 | Sound OffAlex Boobe
Album Rating: 3.5Summary fixed, I'll include the missing paragraph tomorrow.
I don't get why they're called mixtapes? Surely they're just albums
it's available in flac, that's reason enough
oh I don't find the remastering to be as bad as you claim, sure he had to remove a few samples but I don't agree that most songs sound watered down
Album Rating: 3.5It's far from pointless. There are still plenty of people out there who prefer physical music as opposed to mp3s, which are basically compressed boxes of steam. That does of course raise the question as to why it wasn't released on vinyl though.
The new songs are decent but I think they'd have been better off released as a stand-alone EP. They're noticably more polished than the mixtapes and sound completely out of synch tagged on at the end.
Are the artworks from the mixtapes on here somehow?
Will still buy cos I want to get this physically but I don't get the point of changing or adding to the music. Would much rather they'd left it alone
Album Rating: 3.5@ AnarchistFish each disc has a booklet with artwork etc in.
was gonna buy this but if the remaster is really that bad (especially if bits are CUT), fuck that.
hang on I'm confused. are the production changes insignificant or do they noticeably change/worsen the
music? cos if they've gotten rid of all the cool little details that's fucking stupid. and the really
thick synths sounded awesome with my earphones
@ AnarchistFish each disc has a booklet with artwork etc in.
least necessary release of the year!!
I love all three of the releases, and I totally agree.
Digging: Fluke - Puppy
you can purchase an mp3 download of this for 8.50
Album Rating: 4.0My rating is my average for their 3 Mixtapes:
House of Baloons - 4
Thursday - 3.5
Echoes of Silence -4.5
Album Rating: 4.0double post
Album Rating: 3.0that's really interesting
Album Rating: 3.0i think i'll do the same tho
Why buy the cow when you can get the milk fo free
Digging: Protest the Hero - Palimpsest
Bands: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z


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DWTS Season 15 – The All-Star Season
Season 14 has concluded for Dancing with the Stars and TPTB have spent at least half of the season if not the past year fanning flames for Season 15. In the now-official announcement of an "All Star Cast" being on the horizon. For those that are confused, Vogue posted a video a while back of Mario Lopez joining Kelly Ripa on her show "Live! with Kelly" and mentioned that he was approached to be a part of the cast of Season 15.
But before I go any further let's go back a few years. Back in late 2009, John posted a "All I Want for Christmas" DWTS wish list, who would have thought that some of the items would have come true:
1. Replace Samantha – TPTB DID replace Samantha with Season 7's winner: Brooke Burke. In some ways that was an improvement, and in other ways… it still felt the same. Ah well
2. No Live Band – No such luck. *pouts*
3. More Behind the Scenes – I think there is quite a bit behind the scenes footage now… moreso than I remember there being before.
4. How about a themed DWTS? All sports people or all singers or all tv personalities. – Unfortunately when John first mentioned a "themed DWTS" he meant all the celebs be from a particular group versus themed nights… can't have everything.
5. Dancing with the Stars All Stars – More on this later
6. More Pro Dances – This is also hard to see if it has happened or not.
7. DWTS Tour – Well we got a Vegas Live show now… that's better than nothing.
8. Edyta For the Win – Unfortunately Edyta left after Season 10. So unless they bring her back for the All Star Season and make it so she wins… I don't see this happening.
9. Fewer Contestants – Ever since Season 9 (which had a whooping 16 couples), TPTB had only 11 or 12 couples per season.
10. A DWTS Professionals Special – We've had a few specials that showed some of the best routines from previous seasons, be it celeb/pro dances or pro dances or pro group dance numbers. I say this was a win.
Of the above Top Ten wish list, I wouldn't be surprised if TPTB actually went through the list and looked to see what was doable. Now the big one: Since 2009 PureDWTS have mentioned a desire for an "All Star Season" and how cool it would be to bring old favorites from previous seasons and watch them compete for their chance at the mirror ball trophy. In fact Cheryl Burke once tweeted that a possible "All Star Season" was in the works two seasons from when she first mentioned it. Looking at the date of the post… the "two seasons" lead into Season 15, then add to that Mario Lopez's comment of being asked to be a part of the All-Star line up. Well… let's just say that at the date that this post was original written (April 27th) we now know that this is a definitive possibility.
So where does that bring us? Well, I got curious, since I (Marianya) predict scores for the show… having an All-Star season would totally bust my predictions and calculations, because these would all be celebrities that now have some sort of prior dance experience coming in. Another factor is how many of them would actually remember want was taught to them the first time they were on the show? To me it doesn't seem to be very many, but I could be dead wrong. One thing's first certain, the expectations would be higher and the scores would be crazy!
Then there are the celebrities that are participating in the DWTS Live Show at the Tropicana, namely: Carson Kressley, Joey Fatone, Kyle Massey, Sabrina Bryan and Tia Carrere. Would they be counted out since they are already participating in another DWTS related show?
Taking what Tom has already mentioned on the show, he said that the contestants would include:
– Past Mirrorball Winners
– Fan Favorites
– Controversial Characters
Umm… I don't necessarily mind the "controversial character" because I do see the draw of that to the show, but I have an issue with past Mirrorball winners. I mean, I would much prefer that everyone in the cast not have won before so it would give the celebrities a second chance to win. People don't necessarily have to agree with me, but dammit I don't think it would be fair for the celebrities in particular if there were past winners in the All-Star cast. In fact, I would much rather have a separate season (perhaps for Season 20?) where all of the previous Mirrorball winners would compete to see who is the best of the best… but that's just me.
And then there is the question of: What constitutes a "fan favorite"? Do they have polls, numbers, know who averaged the most number of call ins? And on top of all that: Will they be nice and take one celebrity to represent every season of DWTS thus far, but wouldn't that give those of Season 14 an unfair advantage? The questions are endless.
Still, this will undoubtedly bring a lot of the fans that have tuned off the show back on if they have the right mix of celebrities. I've talked to a number of my friends that were fans of the show but haven't really had any huge desire to watch the show in recent months, so perhaps bringing in an All-Star season is exactly what is needed to bring a jolt into the series.
Next up… I'll have posts analyzing the scoring progressions of two of the stars that were rumored to be approached for the All-Star Season: Mel B and Mario Lopez as well as adjustments to the upcoming season.


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I consider myself somewhat of an entrepreneur but one day I hope to have a booming business with employees. For now, I'm on my own and I'm watching closely as others choose the entrepreneurial path. As glamouous as it sounds, I've seen that entrepreurship comes with challenges — particularly strking a work life balance.
Today, Michael Castilla is my guest blogger and shares his work/life experiences as startup founder, student, specialist,and ultimately as an entrepreneur born and raised in Miami, FL by a
middle-class Cuban family. Connect with him @micr0bitz
The young entrepreneur's dilemma: startup or college?
An entrepreneur, regardless of age, has to make very important and usually risky decisions. The earlier you realize who you are and are able to establish long-term goals, the earlier you are able to establish a path for yourself. I've made many important decisions over the past few years that have influenced my path, and I've narrowed down 4 key opportunities and experiences I'd like to share with other aspiring entrepreneurs.
- 1. Identifying myself as an entrepreneur
Identifying myself as an entrepreneur was a big deal. I've been involved with technology and business for the past five years, but only within the past two years have I been able to trulydiscover my inner entrepreneur. Where could he have been hiding? This wasn't my first hurdle, but it was crucial for every other step in my career to happen.
What is the definition of entrepreneurship?
Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled. – Howard Stevenson
Upon making this realization, I've been able to create more opportunities for myself.Entrepreneurship is a lifestyle.
Now with this new word in my head, I've been able to search for entrepreneur-related terms, which has lead to me to explore new and exciting content I never knew existed, right at my finger tips. The Internet is a beautiful thing.
By the definition above, this pursuit of opportunity may sound risky. How can you pursue something you're not entirely sure about? You would be surprised that you can make a career out of taking risks and following your passions. The key idea to take from this definition is that entrepreneurship is an opportunity.
Lesson: Define who you are and never look back.
The path of an entrepreneur sure is bumpy, but it's most definitely satisfying. My only regret is that I didn't realize who I was at a younger age. I hope any aspiring students who read this will be motivated to identify themselves as early as possible.
When your teachers and parents tell you "be the best you can be", what they really mean is you have the opportunity to be whoever you want and to do something you really love and to not let anyone stop you, including them.
- 2. Pursuing a career following my passions
Next up, do you know someone unsatisfied with their job? It happens to a majority of the American working population.
Upon my senior year or high school, I had collected enough resources and networking via the Internet to decide to pursue a career following my passions as, what I consider myself today, a Freelance Digital Craftsman. It's a semi-broad title, but it means I create digital stuff for different companies. I was fond of the idea of making money in your boxers from your laptop. I've recently decided to go full-time with this career, but just a year ago, I was an unmotivated college student who literally couldn't wait to graduate.
Ultimately, I've been taking my 20′s seriously. I've decided to take the next 10 years (crap, that's a lot) to get good at this tech stuff. My visions for technology are great and I believe I can make a successful career from these passions.
Lesson: Believe in your passions and relevant opportunities will present themselves.
I'm fortunate to have had my sights set on technology and business since middle school and not a day goes by where I'm not involved with either. Because I'm passionate about these areas and I'm pursuing them as a career, I have the opportunity to not have to commit to a job that doesn't interest me.
- 3. Moving to a central location within Miami
I had the opportunity to temporarily live on South Beach this past summer and I jumped on it immediately. This opened up my eyes to local business opportunities and allowed me to realize the potential of the community I've been living in my entire life.
Since then I've moved into a house in Little Havana, where I've had much easier access to Brickell and Wynwood, two of the hottest districts in Miami right now.
I was previously living with my parents in Kendall. There were many benefits to running a home-based startup, especially since I had no commute, rent was free, high-speed Internet, and my parents were there to support me. What more could you ask for?
But asides from those great benefits, I was spending too much time at my desk behind my computer, away from all the real action. I yearned for more work experience and engagement with other like-minded people.
If you're eager for creating connections, you should interact with many people on a day to day basis both off and online.
Lesson: Conquer local, before global. Take advantage of the invaluable resources in your own city. Research products created by local startups and find out who's hiring. Not everything you can find locally can be found online.
- 4. Becoming a member of a co-working space
I'm proud to say that Miami now offers a variety of co-working spaces. This leads me to the latest and most important decision I've made this year. I recently became a flex member ofPipeline Brickell, a professional co-working space on the 8th floor of South Tower. On the first day they opened, I showed up with a big smile, met the staff, and signed up! Up until my first visit, I had been following their social media presence but after a tour of the facilities, I was literally sold.
Since joining just last month, I've already become more connected within Miami than I've been my entire life living here. I attended their official launch party in early November, which was very successful and has already lead to new opportunities. Since making these moves, it's been very enjoyable to work so close to home. I can park my car in Mary Brickell Village and walk a few blocks over to Pipeline.
I'm also particularly excited about The LAB Miami's big expansion to their own warehouse. They're hosting HackDay at their new facilities in December, but they're officially opening January 2013. Once they're up and running, they will have the potential to really capture Miami's potential and put our talent to good work.
Lesson: Like-minded people come in all shapes, sizes, and colors.
My Current Life/Work Balance
If the concept of a 9-5 position makes you cringe, this should make you smile. The freedom of an freelance entrepreneur's work schedule is highly attractive, leaving more time for family and friends, but there are still only 24 hours in a day. As an entrepreneur, you have the opportunity to be creative with your schedule, as long as you're still putting in the hours.
Daily exercise and a smart diet have also attributed to a healthy work/life balance. As a freelancer, you come to learn staying health is very important for business. In no way have I chosen the path of least resistance. I haven't necessarily chosen to create my own path, but I have chosen a path least followed. You don't always have to re-invent the wheel, sometimes just spinning it will do the trick.
Most importantly, I've realized no one is going to make these decisions or create these opportunities for me. The younger you get involved with problem solving, whether it be parking issues in the city or complex programming design patterns, the more prepared you will be to make important decisions down any path you decide to create or follow.
As an entrepreneur, you're the key player on your team, the ball is always in your court, you're a referee, and a goalie. There are very little rules in this game and no one tells you what to do or how to do it. Create your own opportunities!
If this article sparks any interest in you, please don't hesitate to contact me with questions or comments. I would love to hear from you! michaelcastilla.com / @micr0bitz


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Subverse Vs F.L.O Rap Battle [Grind Time West]
Drect report "Two battle vets go at it in this highly competitive battle. FLO has been killing the west coast scene for a minute, while Subverse just moved there from Detroit and proved his worth by winning the Cali scribble jam prelims. Who will take this battle? "
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text: This is some bullsh*t. The big wigs need to show some flex if they want to continue making money. It may not be the money they are use to making, but it's better than nothing. If it was me I would drop ticket prices just to get the fans in the door and once they are in the arena you hit them with an increase on what is already overpriced merchandise, food, and drinks. Its like this once you are in the building parents will have no choice but to buy their family all that junk.


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We're incredibly intrigued by Microsoft's recent announcement of the HoloLens, a interface based on interactive holograms that can be manipulated with natural gestures such as pointing waving and pinching, as well as voice commands. The system relies on a headset that can also read head and eye movements to allow you to explore the display, which blends real objects with virtual ones.
As designers, the most exciting potential for the system lies in its ability to allow users to create and manipulate objects. We can see this as an enormous benefit in all parts of the design process, from rough 3D sketches, to CAD development and fine tuning and modifying existing designs. (Some of the everyday scenarios suggested in the video above seem less likely.) Though the handful of journalists who had a chance to try a Hololens prototype earlier this month reported that the demos were highly scripted to illustrate key features and avoid performance snafus, experts seemed impressed by what they experienced. The New York Times' Farhad Manjoo reports that, "…the HoloLens is wondrous. It blew me away. And it suggests that interacting with holograms could become an important part of how we use machines in the future."
And we're also excited to share the news that Lab friends Joshua Walton and James Tichenor whom we interviewed at last year's Sketching in Hardware Summit were part of the team at Microsoft that was responsible for making HoloLens a reality.


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Aerialists who mesmerize their fans high in the air say that daredevil work infuses every circus worker with a snug family bond – and a keen sense that everything could suddenly go very wrong.
Eight acrobats in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus remained hospitalized Monday in Providence, R.I., — four in serious condition, four in good condition — after a mid-air platform collapsed during an act Sunday, sending eight acrobats careening 35 feet to the stage.
"Everybody in that show, from all of the other performers to the guys on the floor who watch them every night, they all are feeling this as a family incident, just as if someone in your family had suffered a bad car accident," said Phil McKinley, who directed Ringling Bros. events for more than 10 years. Starting in 2011, he also directed Broadway's aerial-musical hit, "Spider-Man."
"The circus is a traveling town, a town without a zip code. You are never separated from each other as you live on the train together, going from city to city. Your children go to school together," McKinley added. "And that town is very connected as far as personal relationships."
But within that circus community, where accidents are rare, the risk of serious injury or a lethal crash is a steady, sobering reality that performers and crew accept and internalize daily, no different than firefighters or soldiers, members say.
They willfully put their lives on the line in order to feel the thrill of flight and hear the sounds of crowds in awe, and to know they are part of a select club of athletes who pull off high-wire walks, trapeze grabs or, like the women injured Sunday, the "hair hang."
"You can't choose what you love doing. I loved it, and it's irrational – it doesn't make a lot of sense."
"It (death) is always something to be aware of. You have to respect what it is we're doing," said aerialist Jaleen Francois, who this spring quit her San Francisco office job to join the Ramos Bros. Circus, a small tent show that tours California. She pairs with another woman, performing tricks on a hanging steel hoop called the lyra. "It is a lifestyle. We are all in. And it's why we're here, doing the things we're doing.
"We don't have very high-risk tricks, relatively. But I guess you could ask: Relative to what? Because also I live in this sort of distorted version of normal," said Francois, 33. "So we do take it for granted that we can hook onto this steel hoop with one knee while hanging onto each, to know that we're going to do this, and this is all fine."
Investigators Find Cause of Ringling Bros. Circus AccidentMay 5, 201402:04
Even when accidents happen, some circus families start talking about a performer's return to a high-flying act even as broken bones are being mended.
The father of Widny Neves, one of the injured hair-hangers in Rhode Island, told NBC News in a phone interview that Neves, 24, will undoubtedly be back under the big top once she's fully healed. She sustained a broken arm.
"All circus acts are dangerous jobs," said Roiter Neves, also a veteran circus performer. "If you work in that field, you accept the risk."
The daily care and safety checks of their apparatus falls to the performers and the "riggers," and such inspections are done with fine-detailed scrutiny given the lives at stake, Francois said. She and lyra partner, Emily Rose, look over all of the carabineers, the swivel and the hoop's special taped wrapping, scouring for any signs of slippage.
"We have a good relationship with the head rigger. And knowing the rigger, knowing how to ask the right questions, how to ask for changes (in the equipment) is all part of the job," she said. "I'm actually learning how to tie knots and I'm expanding my knot vocabulary because, well, that's helpful."
Francois said a short taste of trapeze training at age 25 put the thought of a circus career in her mind. She went to graduate school but could never shake that aerialist calling. The tent for the Ramos Bros. Circus holds about 900 people and the show typically moves to a new town every two weeks.
"Went to grad school and tried to repress it and an act like a normal person but I was always on the fringe of the circus world," Francois said. "You can't choose what you love doing. I loved it, and it's irrational – it doesn't make a lot of sense."
But that innate pull to swoop and swing in front of bug-eyed crowds is more typically a mindset found in a performer's DNA as many aerialists and wire walkers come from multiple generations of circus acrobats.
"It's all about man's desire to fly. Aerialists are the humans who come the closest to achieving that desire."
"People in the United States think circus is like carnival. And it's not. It's circus," McKinley said. "There's always been this saying that people 'ran away to the circus.' All of the people I know have run to the circus."
While there is no hierarchy within the circus family, aerialists can earn a slightly loftier status among their peers – and the higher they go off the floor, the more quiet respect they earn, McKinley said.
"It's all about man's desire to fly. Aerialists are the humans who come the closest to achieving that desire," McKinley said. "They say there's something so wondrous about it, that their souls come alive when they're floating, when they're flying."


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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Jacksonville woman who pleaded guilty last month to the kidnapping, robbery and murder of an 83-year-old man leaving Jacksonville International Airport in October 2010 was sentenced Friday to three life terms.
Shanda Merritt, 36, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, kidnapping with a firearm, and armed robbery in the killing of Charles Soukup (pictured below).
Merritt was also sentenced to life in prison last month in the attempted murder of Charles Davis, her ex-boyfriend. Davis was shot right after Soukup's murder.
Also last month Nineteen-year-old Raymond Austin Jr. was found guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping with a firearm, and armed robbery. His sentencing Friday was passed until Feb. 8. He faces life in prison.
Austin, Merritt, Corey Harrington and Marquavious Avery abducted Soukup from the airport, killing him and stealing his rental car. Soukup's body was found in woods near the airport.
Avery, who is Merritt's son, was also sentenced Friday to six years in prison for second-degree murder, kidnapping and armed robbery. He and Harrington previously pleaded guilty. Harrington had already been sentenced to seven years.
Avery apologized to Soukup's family.
"I want to apologize for the unnecessary death of Mr. Soukup. I just hope I'm forgiven," he said.
Avery was 16 at the time. While he's the biological son of Merritt, he lived with other relatives because she was in and out of jail. He said he was there against his will when Soukup was killed and never hurt Soukup. He said he told police everything they needed to know.
"We gave him what we felt he deserved in light of the testimony he provided to assist the state," Assistant State Attorney John Guy said.
Merritt was the only adult at the time of the killing and was quickly pointed out as the ringleader. She's now very sick with a heart disorder that doctors say will kill her soon.
"But for her cardiologist assuring us that she is not going to be on the Earth this much longer, we would not have waived the death penalty," Guy said. "She was more than qualified under Florida law as someone to receive the death penalty."
Soukup's family traveled from around the country to see their loved one's killer sentenced Friday. They were tearful as they sat in the courtroom, waiting to find out the fate of the Gainesville man's killers.
"Words are not enough to describe the deep pain, the turmoil and kaleidoscope of intense feelings that our family has been put through and will be feeling for the rest of our lives," Soukup's daughter, Patricia Holloway, said during victim impact statements.
Soukup's nephew, Bruno Bellido Jr., said after the sentencing that justice has been served in this case, but his family will forever be affected.
"It's hard, very hard. It put a dent in the family that won't be erased," he said.
After the murder, prosecutors said, Austin and Merritt used the stolen car in the attempted murder of Merritt's ex-boyfriend.
A total of six people were arrested in connection with Soukup's death.
Austin and Merritt were convicted earlier this year for the attempted murder of Davis. Austin was sentenced to 45 years in prison in that case.
Merritt's daughter and sister pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence in Soukup's killing. They're facing about two year sentences.