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Giant Sloth Fossils, Mayan Relics Discovered in World's Largest Flooded Cave
Archaeologists exploring the world's largest flooded cave—discovered last month just outside of Tulum, Mexico—have found an impressive treasure trove of relics.
The vast, 216-mile cave actually connects two of the largest flooded cave systems in the world, the 164-mile-long Sistema Sac Actun and the 52-mile-long Dos Ojos system. Aside from an extensive reserve of freshwater and rich biodiversity, the cave also contains an 11-mile-long, 66-food-deep cavern dubbed "the mother of all cenotes." Cenotes are natural pits, or underwater sinkholes, that are often holy sites in ancient Mayan culture.
Since its discovery, the cave explorers have uncovered an elaborate shrine dedicated to the Mayan god of commerce with a staircase accessed through a sinkhole in the middle of the jungle, AFP reported.
They also found human remains dating back at least 9,000 years, and the bones of extinct animals such as giant sloths, bears and gomphotheres—an ancient elephant-like animal—that roamed Earth during the last Ice Age (the Pleistocene period).
Archaeologists find "impressive amount of artefacts" in the world's largest underwater cave in Mexico, including fo… https://t.co/9RbGkZEYhx— AFP news agency (@AFP news agency)1519095466.0
According to Mexico's National Anthropology and History Institute (INAH), water levels in the region rose 100 meters (330 feet) at the end of the Ice Age, flooding the cave system and leading to "ideal conditions for the preservation of the remains of extinct megafauna from the Pleistocene."
"It is very unlikely that there is another site in the world with these characteristics. There is an impressive amount of archaeological artifacts inside, and the level of preservation is also impressive," said De Anda, a researcher at INAH.
"I think it's overwhelming. Without a doubt it's the most important underwater archaeological site in the world," said Guillermo de Anda who is also director of the Gran Acuifero Maya, a project dedicated to the study and preservation of the subterranean waters of the Yucatan peninsula.
Scientist at Work: I've Dived in Hundreds of Underwater Caves Hunting for New Forms of Life https://t.co/64uPRy5ZSM… https://t.co/JfB9S0NJ6e— EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)1515449712.0
EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
By Zahida Sherman
Cooking has always intimidated me. As a child, I would anxiously peer into the kitchen as my mother prepared Christmas dinner for our family.
Falling in Love With Food All Over Again
Slowly, through my most intimate relationships with friends and partners, I began to see the beauty — and rewards — of cooking.

I got tired of giving in to defeat and always bringing chips or paper products to social gatherings. I started asking my mom to send me her Christmas and Thanksgiving recipes. I even volunteered to host Thanksgiving dinner at my place.

Each time I heard my loved ones sing the praises of the foods I prepared for them, I felt a tinge more confident that I could carry out our traditions my way.

In reaching out to other relatives for their favorite recipes, I learned that they had a little help of their own. They didn't rely solely on their ancestral cooking instincts. They turned to Black chefs for guidance.

These 7 cookbooks by Black chefs have inspired my family and fed us in nutrients, joy, and spiritual sustenance. They're also helping me overcome my personal fears of cooking.

Get CookingWhether you're in recovery from cooking fears like me, or are just looking to expand your culinary confidence with dishes honoring Black heritage, these Black chefs are here to support you on your journey.Turn on some music, give yourself permission to make mistakes, and throw down for yourself or your loved ones. Glorious flavors await you.
- 18 Cookbooks for Building a Diverse and Just Food System ... ›
- 19 Individuals and Groups Building Stronger Black Communities ... ›
- 8 Cookbooks We're Reading This Fall - EcoWatch ›
FDA Expands List of Potentially Deadly Hand Sanitizers
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has expanded its list of potentially toxic hand sanitizers to avoid because they could be contaminated with methanol.
- Here's How to Clean Your Groceries During the COVID-19 Outbreak ... ›
- Why Hand-Washing Really Is as Important as Doctors Say - EcoWatch ›
- If You're Worried About the New Coronavirus, Here's How to Protect ... ›
- Vodka Won't Protect You From Coronavirus, and 4 Other Things to ... ›
By Tara Lohan
The conclusion to decades of work to remove a dam on the Middle Fork Nooksack River east of Bellingham, Washington began with a bang yesterday as crews breached the dam with a carefully planned detonation. This explosive denouement is also a beginning.
The History
The Middle Fork Nooksack drains glacier-fed headwater streams that run off the icy summit of 10,778-foot Mt. Baker. The Middle Fork joins the North Fork and then the mainstem of the Nooksack River, which travels to Bellingham Bay and Puget Sound. The entire Nooksack watershed stretches 830 square miles across Washington and into British Columbia.

American Rivers
A Plan Comes Together
The Middle Fork dam is not a pool dam built for water storage. Much of the time, water flows over the top until dam operators drop a floodgate to divert water to new locations. That water travels about 14 miles through tunnel and pipeline to Mirror Lake, then Anderson Creek, and to Lake Whatcom before finally being delivered to residents' taps.

Before removing the dam, engineers had to move the water intake 700 feet upstream and situate it at an elevation that still enabled city water withdrawals throughout the year, regardless of flow conditions.

They also needed to make sure that the rushing water didn't sweep up fish and accidentally send them through the water-supply system.

"The solution required a fairly complex design in the intake structure, including a fish exit pipe out of that structure to put fish back into the river in a way that meets current environmental permit standards," explains LaCroix.

Project layout for the removal of the Middle Fork Nooksack diversion dam and rebuilding of water intake. City of Bellingham
Despite the cost and the work, she says, being able to continue to meet their municipal water obligations while opening up habitat for threatened species has been a win-win.

"I think there's a lot of benefits to having a dam removal versus fish passage — the main one being that you get a free-flowing river that can be a dynamic ecosystem and change over time," she says. "A static fish ladder just can't provide that same level of ecosystem benefit."

Restoration Success
Despite local authorities' championing dam removal on the Middle Fork, the project has largely flown under the radar, overshadowed in the Pacific Northwest by heated discussions about a much larger potential project — removing four federal hydroelectric dams on the lower Snake River, a major tributary of the Columbia River.

Proponents of dam removal there see it as the best chance for recovering threatened salmon populations, including Chinook, which could help starving Southern Resident killer whales. Those dams also provide irrigation water, barge navigation and hydropower, so there's been more pushback against removal efforts.

Previous dam removals around the country, however, have proved successful at aiding fish recovery and river restoration.

Most notably the 1999 demolition of Edwards Dam on Maine's Kennebec River restored the annual run of alewives, a type of herring essential to the food web. The fish run has gone from zero to 5 million in the two decades since dam removal. Blueback herring, striped bass, sturgeon and shad have also extended their reach. And the resurgence has brought back osprey, bald eagles and other wildlife, too.

The overwhelming success of river restoration on the Kennebec helped to spur a nationwide dam removal movement that's now seen 1,200 dams come down since 1999. Last year a record 90 dams were removed in 26 states, including 20 dams in California's Cleveland National Forest.

Spider excavators remove on dam on San Juan Creek in California's Cleveland National Forest. Julie Donnell, USFS
The results have been seen in the Pacific Northwest, as well, which boasts the largest dam removal thus far in the country. In 2011 and 2014, the demolition of two dams on Elwha River, which runs through Washington's Olympic National Park, opened up 70 miles of habitat that had been blocked for a century. Scientists have started seeing all five species of salmon native to the river coming back, particularly Chinook and coho. Bull trout, they've observed, have increased in size since the dams were removal.

Benefits on the Middle Fork Nooksack
McEwan hopes to see a similar outcome on the Middle Fork.

Like the Elwha the Middle Fork Nooksack is a relatively pristine river with little development, and dam removal is expected to provide a big boost to fish. The additional miles of spawning habitat are important, but so is the temperature of that water.

The dam removal will open access to cold upstream waters, which are ideal for salmon and getting harder to come by as climate change warms waters and reduces mountain runoff.

"This is really great for the climate change resiliency for these species," says McEwan.

Steelhead will get back 45% of their historic habitat in the river, and scientists expect Chinook populations to increase in abundance by 31%.

That could help Southern Resident killer whales.

"When you get to the ocean, it's a little bit of a black box in terms of what you can model and say definitively is going to help, but more fish is better for orcas," McEwan says.

Upstream habitat will see benefits, too.

Oceangoing fish like salmon enrich their bodies with carbon and nitrogen while at sea. When they return to their natal rivers to spawn and die, the marine-derived nutrients they carry back upriver become important food and fertilizer for both riverine and terrestrial ecosystems — aiding everything from trees to birds to bears.

"Once the fish start making their way back, it will start changing the whole ecological system," says Delgado.

But any ecological benefit from salmon restoration, either in the ocean or the upper watershed, won't be immediate.

"The population of salmon on the Middle Fork is so low that we expect it's going to take quite a while to rebound," she says. "But the big picture is that what's good for salmon is good for the region — our history and our destiny are intricately intertwined."

After decades of work, that process of restoration has finally begun.

- 4 Exciting Dam-Removal Projects to Watch - EcoWatch ›
- Jump-Starting the Dam Removal Movement in the U.S. - EcoWatch ›
- Boom: Removing 81 Dams Is Transforming This California Watershed ›
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said Tuesday that a trend of increased coastal flooding will continue to worsen as the climate crisis escalates.
- Sea Level Rise Is Speeding up Along Most of the U.S. Coast ... ›
- Protecting Mangroves Can Prevent Billions of Dollars in Global ... ›
- Flooding Risk for U.S. Homes: Millions More Are Vulnerable Than ... ›
- 300 Million People Worldwide Could Suffer Yearly Flooding by 2050 ... ›
- Sea Level Rise Could Put 2.4 Million U.S. Coastal Homes at Risk ... ›
By Katie Howell
A new tool called The Food Systems Dashboard aims to save decision makers time and energy by painting a complete picture of a country's food system. Created by the Johns Hopkins' Alliance for a Healthier World, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Dashboard compiles food systems data from over 35 sources and offers it as a public good.
Sydney's Endangered Seahorses Find Protection in Underwater Hotels
By Manuela Callari
It can grow to a maximum of six inches (16 centimeters), change color depending on mood and habitat, and, like all seahorses, the White's seahorse male gestates its young. But this tiny snouted fish is under threat.
Building an Ocean Seahorse Destination
Seahorses are found in tropical and temperate coastal water worldwide, but are most abundant around Australia, China and the Philippines.

Trade in the tiny creatures is strictly regulated because of their use in traditional medicine, aquariums and their sale as dried curios. But because they are poor swimmers and cannot easily move elsewhere, habitat loss is a particular threat for these curious animals.

Seahorses wrap their tails around seagrass and corals to avoid being carried away on currents. They use the habitat to spawn and hide from predators such as crabs, while also feeding on riches of plankton and small crustaceans living in the reef.

Where corals aren't available, scientists found seahorses taking up residence in fishing nets and old crab traps abandoned at the bottom of the ocean.

Mixing With the Locals
Baby seahorse mortality is high in the wild because they are easily caught, so those bred in the protected environment of the aquarium weren't ready to be released into the wild until early May.

The team released 90 new arrivals into Sydney Harbor, placing some directly into the purpose-built hotels, and others onto a net that wild seahorses had already settled on.

Before setting them free, the researchers marked each young seahorse with a fluorescent tag with unique IDs inserted just beneath the skin to track how they get on in the different environments.

"The most exciting part was being able to put these animals into the wild and then go back a month later and still see them surviving and growing," said McCracken.

The seahorses will be old enough to mate and reproduce around October or November 2020. And researchers hope that by then, they will be able to breed with the wild population.

Building a Global Seahorse Hotel Chain
With seahorses everywhere facing the loss of their coral reef homes, similar projects have sprung up in places like Greece and South Africa, home to the world's most endangered seahorse, the Knysna seahorse.

"The endangered South African seahorse is benefiting from something quite similar, even though it wasn't intentional," said Peter Teske, professor at the Department of Zoology, University of Johannesburg.

In the South African case, seahorses have bedded down in "Reno mattresses" — wire cages filled with rocks — that were used to build a new marina. Researchers from NGO Knysna Basin Project found the structures acted as a refuge for the animals.

While Teske describes the seahorse hotels as "a positive news story" and a great way to create public awareness of conservation, he added that establishing artificial habitats in some areas will only prevent the extinction of local populations.

"For a complete recovery, it is necessary to give the natural habitat a chance to regenerate," said the seahorse expert.

Underwater Mascot
In Australia, the researchers hope the project could provide an opportunity to raise awareness not only of the plight of the Sydney seahorses but the other animals with which it shares its ocean habitat.

The waters around Sydney and the east coast are rich in biodiversity and include several threatened species like the weedy seadragon — a relative of the seahorse — and the grey nurse shark. Like the seahorse, they're also under pressure from pollution, ocean traffic and habitat loss through storms and coastal construction.

"It's a good thing to get people's support and interest. The seahorses are a useful vehicle to get people concerned if the harbor is in trouble," said David Booth, professor of marine ecology at the University of Technology Sydney who is also working on the project.

The hotels have become an attraction for divers hoping to catch a glimpse of these small but near mythical creatures.

"Everyone loves seahorses," added Booth, "they are so popular."

- 7 Amazing New Fish Species Discovered in 2017 - EcoWatch ›
- Millions of Seahorses Wind Up Dead on the Black Market for This ... ›
Presidential hopeful Joe Biden announced a $2 trillion plan Tuesday to boost American investment in clean energy and infrastructure.
- Green New Deal Champion AOC Will Serve on Biden Climate Panel ... ›
- Biden-Sanders Unity Task Forces Unveil Improved Climate Policy ... ›


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October 03, 2013
City Wire Service
Former Assemblymember Holly J. Mitchell was sworn in to the state Senate Friday September 27, following her victory in last week's special election for California's 26th Senate District.
Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, will serve out the unexpired term of former state Senator Curren Price who was elected to the Los Angeles City Council in May. The term expires next year. The 26th Senate District is entirely within Los Angeles County and includes Culver City, the communities of Baldwin Hills, Beverlywood, Carthay Circle, Century City, the Crenshaw District, Hancock Park, Hollywood, Hyde Park, Jefferson Park, Ladera Heights, Lafayette Square, Larchmont, Los Feliz, Miracle Mile and parts of South and West Los Angeles.
"I am deeply honored by the trust voters of the 26th Senate District have invested in me. I take seriously their charge to continue working hard every day to help ensure that California remains the kind of home we want to live in and offers the future our children deserve," said Mitchell, who served nearly three years in the Assembly, where she chaired the Budget Subcommittee on Health and Human Services, authoring major legislation expanding health care access, family services and reproductive rights. Mitchell will retain her position as chair of California's Legislative Black Caucus. "I am also excited to work once again for the Senate, where I began my professional career in the office of Senator Diane Watson, the first of only two previous African American women to serve in the state's Senate.
By her side as she took the oath of office was Mitchell's mother, Sylvia Johnson, whom Governor Jerry Brown appointed as warden of the California Institution for Women-Frontera during his first term in office. Johnson also served as Chief Probation Officer of Alameda County.
"I will continue to push for schools that are open, affordable and safe; communities with good paying jobs; access to affordable health and medical services; and environments that are safe for our children, our seniors, and our families," Mitchell said.
Mitchell received 80.6% of the vote in the election, defeating perennial Democratic candidate Mervin Evans, who received 19.4% of the vote.

subset: commoncrawl


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Project Rushmore Theatre Presents WORLD OF SINATRAS and EXQUISITE POTENTIAL in Rep, Beg. Tonight
WORLD OF SINATRAS takes place in suburban New Jersey during the 1960s. Vietnam, civil rights, the assassinations, and sex, drugs, and rock n' roll burn up the American streets, mirroring the turmoil inside the Murdoch home. Once a star athlete and student, 15-year-old Sam is engulfed by alcohol, drugs, and vandalism . . . As well as his rage towards his father, Jack, a brilliant, charismatic, Sinatra-obsessed NYC psychiatrist who can't escape the alcohol and rage of his working class past.
WORLD OF SINATRAS is written by award-winning playwright Sean O'Connor, whose work has been published and produced extensively in New York, in Dublin, and in regional theatre. His works include There is an Angel in Las Vegas (Best New Dramatist Prize with Washington, DC's Source Theatre), Who Collects the Pain (Emerging Playwright Award with NYC's Playwrights Preview Productions, now Urban Stages), Kidnapped (Best New Play with NYC's Workshop Theatre), New Truck for Paulie (Best Play Award with the Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre), The Knitting Club and the film script Imitate the Sun (First Prize in Hollywood's American Accolades Competition). Three of his plays have recently been translated into French by the Baz'Arts Theatre and are scheduled for production in France next year. Sean has written films for USA Network and Nasser Entertainment, and he's also acted extensively in theatre, TV and independent film.
The cast of WORLD OF SINATRAS features Justin Cimino (Rooster), Danielle Delgado (Marie Murdoch), Sarah Elmaleh (Gloria), Dennis Ostermaier (Jack Murdoch), and Jeff Rubino (Sam Murdoch).
In EXQUISITE POTENTIAL, all parents think their children are great. Alan Zuckerman just happens to think his 3-year-old son, David, is the Messiah. Literally, as Alan and his wife, Laura, visited their rabbi to verify David's possible divine nature. Thirty years later, David has grown up and the answer to a father's question is revealed. EXQUISITE POTENTIAL is a funny and probing look at the bond between parent and child.
EXQUISITE POTENTIAL is written by award-winning author Stephen Kaplan, who wrote his first play, And Jack Came Tumbling After (Old Globe, EST, HERE) when he was 15. The play won the Blank Theatre's Young Playwrights' Contests and led him to write Self Addressed (Blank, Edinburgh Fringe). Other plays: In Mrs. Baker's Room (Commission: Abingdon, Winner: Father Hamblin Award); A Real Boy (Produced at This Is Water Theatre; Semi-Finalist: PlayPenn, Ashland New Play Festival, MTWorks' Newborn Festival, Dayton Playhouse FutureFest); Exquisite Potential(Winner & Production: NJ Playwrights Contest, Dezart Performs; Finalist: Woodward/Newman; Semi-Finalist: Seven Devils); Tim Eless, Private Eye(Blank: w/Noah Wyle); and Six Seniors in Search of an Ending (special commission written for President Bill Clinton).
The cast of EXQUISITE POTENTIAL features Bob Ader (Gary Gerber), Matt Biagini (Gary and David Gerbert), Rachel Evans (Laura and Beth Zuckerman), Vince Gatton (Alan and David Zuckerman).
WORLD OF SINATRAS and EXQUISITE POTENTIAL have scenic design and props by Samantha Gass, costume design by Ryan Hanson, lighting design by Alejandro Fajardo, and sound design by Abi Degay. The Technical Director is Zack Cook, the Production Stage Manager is Josephine Ronga and Christal Vassilyadi is the Stage Manager.
Sydnie Grosberg Ronga (Director) is on the Artistic Board of Project Rushmore. She was the Co-Founder of Max & Louie Productions, St. Louis, where she directed critically acclaimed productions of The Violet Hour, The Lady With All The Answers and It Had To Be You. Sydnie is the adaptor/director for Gotham Radio Theatre here in the city. Last season she directed Valhalla for Project Rushmore and The Awful Truth for Gotham Radio in the NYC Fringe Festival.
The Project Rushmore Theatre Company is committed to exploring the American Spirit. The company brings to life the voice of America in its many forms, presenting plays that offer inspiration and insight into American culture. Project Rushmore takes inspiration from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) of the 1930s, and like that program, they aim to create jobs in the Performing Arts. Last year, the company produced the NY premiere of Quality of Life by Jane Anderson and Paul Rudnick's Valhalla. The company presented a special benefit performance of E-mail 9/12 by Midge Guerrera, with proceeds going to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center.
Presented by The Project Rushmore Theatre Company, WORLD OF SINATRAS and EXQUISITE POTENTIAL will be performed at the Arclight Theatre (152 West 71st Street) Tuesday July 15th through August 3rd, 2014. Each play will be performed 12 times.
Tonight, July 15 at 7:30 PM, Wednesday, July 16 at 7:30 PM, , Saturday, July 19 at 2:00 PM, Saturday, July 19 at 7:30 PM, Wednesday, July 23 at 7:30 PM, Friday, July 25 at 7:30 PM, Sunday, July 27 at 2:00 PM, Sunday, July 27 at 7:30 PM, Wednesday, July 30 at 7:30 PM, Thursday, July 31 at 7:30 PM, Saturday, August 2 at 7:30 PM, Sunday, August 3 at 2:00 PM
Thursday, July 17 at 7:30 PM, Friday, July 18 at 7:30 PM, Sunday, July 20 at 2:00 PM, Sunday, July 20 at 7:30 PM, Tuesday, July 22 at 7:30 PM, Thursday, July 24 at 7:30 PM, Saturday, July 26 at 2:00 PM, Saturday, July 26 at 7:30 PM, Tuesday, July 29 at 7:30 PM, Friday, August 1 at 7:30 PM, Saturday, August 2 at 2:00 PM, Sunday, August 3 at 7:30 PM


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Who was the biggest spender in this year's ballot initiatives? The Mercury News reports that Stanford physicist Charles T. Munger Jr., who donated $12.6 million to the cause of redistricting reform. He backed Prop 20, which extended a still-being-created citizens commission for redistricting to cover Congressional seats (2008's Prop 11 had established the commission for state legislative districts). He also opposed Prop 27, an effort to repeal the commission.
Prof. Munger is entitled to spend money however he wants. But it says here he mostly wasted his millions. Redistricting reform eliminated a conflict of interest that permitted state legislators to draw their own districts. That's nice. But the reform won't change California politics. It can't.
Why? Well, because Californians have sorted themselves into communities of the like-minded. The California coast is blue Democratic, and the inland red Republican. That reality -- combined with the fact that California, like other states (and other former British colonies), continues to use single-member districts (that is, each district has just one representative) -- means that you can't create more competitive districts (which is the theory behind redistricting reform). And the commission Munger supported with his millions is ill-equipped to do the job. It's not permitted to look at party data. The result: the commission's districts will look very much like the ones we have now, and our legislature will be little different.
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
Real reform involves broader changes to the shape and size of the legislature and its districts. California needs a larger legislature -- we have just 120 lawmakers to represent 38 million, the same number we had when the state had fewer than one million people. And to get real competition, the state should shift to multi-member regional districts with elections that allocate seats by proportional representation. Those changes would fulfill the goals of the redistricting reformers -- creating more competition and making every vote count.
But Munger shouldn't feel too bad. He's hardly the only person to spend his time and millions on redistricting reform. For California elites, such reform has been such a weird fixation that it amounts to a fever dream. Let's hope that political success will end the fixation, and that reality will set in. You can't change the legislature by changing who draws the line. You have to change the legislature directly.


text:
changes.mady.by.user Nicholas Clarke
Saved on Jul 24, 2012
Saved on Oct 14, 2012
This wiki describes the overall packages and also includes some detail on how the main classes are implemented.
The JWAT code was originally intended for use only in a number of JHove2 modules, but since the classes can be of use outside the JHove2 project, an independent project was created.
Note: Even though the repository is about 80mb, most of that is test data. The libraries themselves are very small!
Mercurial source repository Issue tracker Continuous integration Browse source code Code analysis Downloads Maven site: TBD. Reviews
Powered by a free Atlassian Confluence Open Source Project License granted to SBForge Open Source Hosting. Evaluate Confluence today.


text:
Curvy as a chanteuse and as bright-eyed as a Hollywood musical, the Fisker Karma is a blue-sky vision of a green future, a 5,600-pound sedan born from the unlikely marriage of low-slung looks and guilt-free consumption.
Fisker Karma
Gorgeous concept-car styling. Imaginative interior design. Best-of-intentions eco-consciousness.
Six-figure price tag. Rough-edged drivetrain. Cramped rear seats. EPA numbers aren't as attractive as promised.
How We Rate
- 1/10A complete failure in every way
- 2/10Sad, really
- 3/10Serious flaws; proceed with caution
- 4/10Downsides outweigh upsides
- 5/10Recommended with reservations
- 6/10Solid with some issues
- 7/10Very good, but not quite great
- 8/10Excellent, with room to kvetch
- 9/10Nearly flawless
- 10/10Metaphysical perfection
But in the four years since it debuted as a concept car in 2008, the Karma has also grown to represent what can go south in this modern era of high-stakes automotive startups. Oft-delayed and priced at $102,000, 20 percent more expensive than originally anticipated, the Karma was recently slapped with lower-than-expected fuel-efficiency numbers by the EPA, triggering the withdrawal of $529 million in funding from the Department of Energy.
"We are not dependent on the Department of Energy…. We are here to [launch and] make money on the Karma," designer and company founder Henrik Fisker told journalists at the car's press intro in Beverly Hills, California. "The reality is we're selling cars every day, we're self-sufficient, and we don't really need that money," he added.
Driving the Karma unfurls complex, mixed emotions; for all its slick, Speed Racer-meets-muscle car looks, a few rough spots remind you this is a beta version of future propulsion.
Political and financial hijinks aside, the Fisker Karma proved itself an alluring creature during a two-hour drive up the coast and across the looping canyon roads of Malibu, California. Exuding a panther-like road presence, the Karma's crouched silhouette attracted the not-so-subtle interest of typically jaded Angelenos, drawing plenty of slow-downs, camera phones, and "What is it?" questions.
Remarkably, the Karma looks virtually identical to the concept car which was unveiled back in 2008. It's an impressive but not entirely surprising achievement considering the company president also penned the Aston Martin V8 Vantage and BMW Z8. Karma rides on massive 22-inch wheels, encapsulates a compact cabin amidst a luxuriant overall length that's less than half a foot shy of a Chevy Tahoe, and has less cargo space than a Porsche Cayman.
Climb inside and you're hit with an even stronger sense of its intended audience: unlike anything short of a Bentley or Rolls-Royce, this cabin lives up to the plus-sized promises of its sinewy sheet metal. The materials on our $130,000 Eco Chic tester are the most environmentally friendly of the Karma lineup, but they're also buttery soft and imaginatively finished, with whimsically tinted inlays, unusually stitch forms, and contours that seem to have emerged from a schoolboy's doodles. Though minor details like the steering wheel-mounted buttons appear sourced from lesser domestic cars, singular focal points such as the intricately etched leaf vein patterns on the glass-topped transmission tunnel more than make up for the parts bin lapses.
Using a combination of twin 201-horsepower electric motors juiced by lithium ion batteries and a GM-sourced turbocharged 2.0 liter, 4-cylinder Ecotec engine working in conjunction with a 170 kW generator, this low-lying sedan can be operated in electric only "Stealth" mode (for a total of 32 miles according to the EPA, though Fisker claims it's just over 50), or "Sport" mode for a blend of EV and internal combustion. Stealth is good for 0-60 mph in 7.9 seconds and a top speed of 95 mph, while Sport yields a 5.9 second sprint and a 125 mph terminal velocity. Fisker reckons a combined total range of 300 miles (with 50 of those coming from electricity, which is incrementally aided by a rooftop solar panel.) In Stealth mode, the Karma gets an EPA-rated 52 MPGe; using the gas motor, that figure drops to the 20-something range.
Driving the Karma unfurls complex, mixed emotions; for all its slick, Speed Racer-meets-muscle car looks, a few rough spots remind you this is a beta version of future propulsion. In all-electric Stealth mode, Karma accelerates as silently as you'd expect, though there's a subtle shudder produced at low speeds as the electric motor's stator and rotor surfaces pass over each other, a quality inherent to the technology. As tempting as it is to milk Stealth mode for all its decibel-free deliciousness (save the artificially produced, pedestrian-repelling "Tron" sound, which was authored for Fisker by Hollywood sound designers), Sport is the likelier setting, with its longer range and fossil fuel-burning accelerative assistance. And that's also where things get a bit less sexy, with the turbocharged four-banger firing up with a noticeable hum and occasionally disarming valve clatter. The latter, incidentally, is due to the engine's state of tune; it was designed to start at 200 rpm in its GM application, but that was figure was boosted to 1,100 rpm here, which results in a few moments of valvetrain oil starvation during cold startups before the gooey stuff gets to the metal bits.
Acceleration becomes somewhat wheezy as the Karma climbs steep hills, with the engine working noticeably harder to get these 2.75 tons of car up to speed. This Fisker can certainly scoot along respectably, with sticky road holding and good body control, thanks partly to the battery's low center of gravity. But there are also a few unpolished edges to the drivetrain's power delivery that don't live up to the car's overall sense of aesthetic polish and finessed styling — small flies in the hundred thousand dollar ointment, but flies, no less.
With 80 global dealerships set up and 2,000 cars already built, Fisker's dream of forming a cutting edge car company from the ground up is an absolute reality, all of this despite governmental tussles and operatic criticism from the likes of Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney.
As with all things in the brave new world of eco-transpo, the Fisker Karma — in spite of its gorgeous design and novel execution — comes attached with a few pesky asterisks, the least of which is the possibility that it could go the way of the DeLorean, in that casual, Darwinian sort of manner. It would be a shame, really, a fate nobody outside of the most hardened ecological skeptics would wish upon this four-wheeled creation. After all, who doesn't crave automotive utopia, even it's tempered with a few imperfections and a prohibitive price tag?
Photos by Basem Wasef/Wired
When you buy something using the retail links in our product reviews, we earn a small affiliate commission. Read more about how this works.Go Back to Top. Skip To: Start of Article.


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As I reported a couple of days after the Oscars, every source I talked to that weekend was of the opinion that George Clooney and Stacy Keibler had entered the third act of their relationship. I also wrote that she was rumoured to be calling Geoff Stults behind George's back; Stults is an actor she was dealing with before she and Clooney started dating. Click here for a refresher.
Now according to US Weekly, "the end is near". Apparently they have divergent interests and have been growing apart. And his friends don't like her. As I previously noted then, it'll have to be soon. Because if Clooney plays next award season by his usual game plan, he'll have to have a new companion installed by summer, so that Stacy's replacement can be securely in position by the fall, when campaigning begins.
Here's Stacy last night at a jcpenny event to launch Joe Fresh (a Canadian original!) looking like she's well aware that her post-comma descriptor is about to change:
Stacy Keibler, ex-girlfriend of George Clooney.


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Regarding Sonia Sotomayor
I'm always fascinated when people with no background in jurisprudence (the philosophy of law) take up questions like "How should judges judge?"
Judges themselves have considered this question in some detail, and there are several schools of thought on the matter. The two main schools are "legal positivism" (which, through John Austin, is based largely in utilitarianism) and "legal realism" (which follows the basic philosophy of the English common law, i.e., "what works"). Judge John Hutcheson famously gave judges the idea of the "judicial hunch": all other factors being equal, you finally come down on the side that simply "seems" right. That's not as arbitrary as it seems, but neither is judging merely a machine-like process. Judicial realism, indeed, takes into account the background and experience of the judge (and accepts those elements as valid). Judicial positivism is rooted in Thomas Hobbes, where the political sovereign has no limitations on his power whatsoever. If that begins to sound like Antonin Scalia or, more appropriately, Chief Justice John Roberts, it should. Funny nobody ever discusses the philosophy of judicial nominees in even these broad terms, isn't it?
When people with no knowledge of jurisprudence take up the subject and seriously ponder the qualifications of would-be Supreme Court Justices, they end up asking and answering stupid questions the equivalent of: "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?"
Which may be why so many public figures think Antonin Scalia is so "smart."


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So, Rage recently got unlocked for EU territories, and the first thing I noticed once I started playing is an awful lot of screen tearing.
I heard that forcing V-Sync (since sadly there's no option within Rage to turn it on) solves the issue, and it certainly did the trick for me.
However, I couldn't find a way to have forced V-Syncing turned on just for Rage. I am currently using an AMD card, but I seem to recall that when I was using an Nvidia card there were options for performing tweaks on a per-application basis by creating some sorts of application profiles. Sadly, I couldn't find anything similar in the Catalyst Control Center.
So, is there such an option buried somewhere inside the Catalyst Control Center? Is there some sort of trustworthy third party tool that could help me with this? Maybe there is some secret configuration file for Rage where I can turn on V-Sync instead?


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On sex, drugs and spying: The surprises of 2013
- 2013 marked the first time that majorities of Americans favored allowing same-sex marriage and legalizing marijuana use
- The case of Edward Snowden brought government surveillance to the forefront
- Democrats saw a resurgence of populism%3B GOP dealt with establishment pushback against Tea Party
WASHINGTON — When 2013 began, nobody was seriously predicting the year would end with same-sex couples getting married in Utah, one of the nation's most conservative states.
Or that President Obama would be spending his Hawaiian holiday considering recommendations for the most extensive limits on government surveillance since the Sept. 11 attacks, thanks to a 29-year-old fugitive contractor who spilled secrets and helped spark a reassessment of the balance between security and privacy.
Or that progressives, libertarians, fiscal conservatives and Millennials would be joining forces across the country to legalize marijuana use, turn back mandatory minimum prison sentences and reconsider the four-decade-long war on drugs.
When it comes to policy and politics, the year just past has had its share of surprises. They will help shape what happens in the year ahead — from defining the Democratic and Republican parties for the 2014 midterm elections to determining just how far the federal government can go in routine surveillance of Americans.
Among the surprises of 2013 are what failed to happen. Remember the confident predictions that the 2012 election returns and a bipartisan desire to cultivate support among Latino voters meant immigration laws would be overhauled this year? Not so much, it turned out.
While legislation in Washington was stalled, however, sweeping trends were playing out through lawsuits in courts and referendums in states. For the first time, majorities of Americans favored allowing same-sex marriage and legalizing marijuana use. On these and other issues, public opinion and political momentum seemed to hit tipping points that accelerated the pace of change beyond what even activists had imagined 12 months ago.
Below, five surprising developments in the year that ended Tuesday.
1. Same-sex marriage: 'A Cinderella moment'
Last January, President Obama — who had opposed same-sex marriage just nine months before — called for marriage equality in his second inaugural address. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down parts of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. And in December, a federal district judge declared that the ban on same-sex marriage in Utah, approved by voters in 2004, was unconstitutional.
Rising public support capped by the Supreme Court decision created "a Cinderella moment" for advocates of gay marriage in 2013, Yale Law School professor William Eskridge says. "It's the moment when Cinderella met her Prince Charming, and although the wedding date has not quite been set, this is now a marriage made in heaven." A Pew Research Center Poll found that Americans favored same-sex marriage 51%-42%.
In December, New Mexico became the 17th state (plus the District of Columbia) to allow same-sex marriage when the state Supreme Court ruled that marriage equality was guaranteed by the New Mexico constitution. The Utah decision followed the next day; that ruling is likely to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Three days later, a federal judge in Ohio found that same-sex marriages performed elsewhere should be recognized on death certificates, a decision that could lead to challenges to the state's ban on gay marriages.
Advocates of traditional marriage were hard-pressed to identify a victory this year.
In 2006, Eskridge co-authored a book titled Gay Marriage: For Better or for Worse? that included a generally accurate prediction of the sequence of states that would authorize same-sex unions, starting in the Northeast and on the West Coast and followed by the Great Lakes. The authors didn't venture to outline a likely timetable, though. "I will say the Utah ruling was a surprise," he says. "No one had predicted that."
2. Government surveillance: The Snowden effect
At his final news conference of the year, Obama promised "a pretty definitive statement" in January on proposals by a presidential commission to change the way the government gathers telephone and digital data on U.S. citizens and others. He said he wants to restore the public's faith that the right balance is being struck between intelligence gathering and privacy protections. "The environment has changed," he said.
Why now?
"The answer ... is definitely Edward Snowden," says David Cole, a Georgetown Law School professor and co-author of a book published this year titled Secrecy, National Security and the Vindication of Constitutional Law. "He showed us that the government's ability to track us went far beyond what most people thought possible." For the first time, a majority of Americans (53% vs. 43%) said the federal government threatened their personal rights and freedoms.
In recent weeks, there have been conflicting views of the constitutionality of the National Security Agency's data collection program, with a federal District Court judge in Washington calling it "almost Orwellian" and probably unconstitutional, and one in New York saying it was legal. The dispute is likely headed to the Supreme Court.
"The discussion reflects a growing recognition that the digital age has changed the calculus of privacy," Cole says. "The government now has the capability to learn more about us than most of our closest friends know, through digital data. The question we face going forward is whether privacy protections will be updated in the face of this new reality. I think it's probably the most significant civil liberties question of the next decade. And Edward Snowden put it on the map."
The former NSA contractor, now 30 and granted temporary asylum in Russia, said he set out to provoke a global debate. Viewed as a hero by some and a traitor by others, on that he has succeeded.
3. War on drugs: A truce
Residents in cities from Lansing, Mich., to Portland, Maine, voted in November to legalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana, following initiatives that passed the previous year in Colorado and Washington state legalizing recreational use of pot. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. announced over the summer that the Justice Department wouldn't try to block those state laws, assuming certain safeguards were followed, even though they are at odds with federal drug laws. He also ordered prosecutors to sidestep mandatory minimum sentences when charging low-level drug offenders.
On Wednesday, the first legal recreational pot shops opened for business in Colorado.
A pendulum has swung since then-president Richard Nixon declared a war on drugs four decades ago and since alarm about the crack epidemic prompted passage in the 1980s of tough mandatory minimum sentencing laws. In 1969, Americans opposed the legalization of marijuana by an overwhelming 7-1. This year, 52% supported it (vs. 45% opposed), the first time a majority has done so.
Ezekiel Edwards, director of the ACLU's Criminal Law Reform Project, sees a "sea change" on attitudes toward marijuana legalization and the beginning of a broader trend on criminal justice issues, especially mandatory minimum sentences. "It's no longer just a progressive issue, and that's really important," he says. Human rights activists, libertarians and economists have joined the debate. Fiscal pressures have spurred some states, including conservative ones such as Texas and South Carolina, to reduce or eliminate prison sentences for non-violent offenders, many of them convicted of drug charges.
In December, Obama commuted the sentences of eight federal inmates who had been convicted of crack cocaine offenses and given long — sometimes life — sentences under mandatory minimum sentencing laws.
Public uproar? Almost none.
4. Democrats: Populist revival
The Occupy Wall Street protests are only a memory, but the economic inequality and suspicion of powerful financial interests that fueled it are now being felt in a resurgence of populism not seen in decades. It helped elect Bill de Blasio as mayor of New York — the most liberal mayor in the nation's biggest city in a generation — and undermine former Treasury secretary Larry Summers as a potential nominee to head the Federal Reserve.
Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren has emerged as the movement's hero, especially after she went to the Senate floor to propose increasing Social Security benefits — heresy to deficit hawks in both parties. The issue of income inequality is expected to be a theme in Obama's State of the Union address Jan. 28, and populist politics could shape the Democratic presidential contest in 2016.
"The economy has been growing for a while now, but much of the growth is headed straight for the top," says Jared Bernstein, a former economic adviser at the Obama White House who is now at a senior fellow at the liberal Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. "I do think there is a desire to see some more robust policies that connect to progressive ideas."
That includes a push to extend the long-term federal unemployment benefits that expired Saturday and to raise the minimum wage. While the federal bill is stalled in Congress, 13 states raised their minimum wages as of this week, and a dozen more are expected to consider increases in 2014.
"In the past six months, the last year, we're seeing this strain of populism that is about tackling the Big Guys," says Democratic consultant Doug Thornell, a former Democratic House aide. Activists on the Democratic left as well as the Tea Party right are "tapping into the frustration, the anger many Americans feel toward the people who are perceived as playing by a different set of rules — the big special interests, the big corporations — including the fact that Washington isn't working."
5. Republicans: Tea Party pushback
The Tea Party movement that erupted in 2009 and helped Republicans gain control of the House in 2010 has provided many of the foot soldiers and much of the energy in the GOP, including challenging Republican incumbents deemed too moderate. Tea Party hero Ted Cruz, the freshman senator from Texas, could not be deterred in his push for a government shutdown in October that ended up damaging the GOP's standing without winning policy concessions.
That spurred some establishment Republican leaders, big party donors and business interests to push back in more public ways than before. House Speaker John Boehner managed to win passage of a bipartisan budget deal in December over the objections of the most outspoken Tea Party members. "Frankly, I just think they've lost all credibility," Boehner told reporters.
"Frankly, Mr. Speaker, continuously making promises and then breaking them is how you lose credibility with the American people," Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of a group called Tea Party Patriots, retorted, vowing not to back down. "Pitting your colleagues against their constituents is how you lose credibility with your conference. Not upholding conservative principles is how you lose credibility with the voters, who will find someone else if you are not willing to do your job."
At stake is the definition of the GOP. The party's civil war is likely to rage at least through the 2014 midterms. Seven of the 12 Republican senators running for re-election now face primary challengers who claim Tea Party backing — battles that could hurt the party's chances of regaining control of the Senate.
In 2010 and 2012, Tea Party candidates won contested Senate primaries in Colorado, Delaware, Indiana, Missouri and Nevada, only to lose general elections.
Most Republicans and most Tea Party supporters share a desire to elect conservatives, says Brad Dayspring, a spokesman for the GOP's Senate campaign committee, but there is an increasing willingness to challenge groups that he says care only about raising their own profiles. "In general, people have had enough of leaving seats on the board that we should have won."


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My thoughts on Dunn, Konerko, 'Ozzie Ball' & more
Hey, everyone! Sorry for not posting in a little bit, but I have been all over the place. But now it's time to talk to you guys and let you know what I have been up to. Last week, I was at the Winter Meetings for a day. I am glad we made the moves that we made, even though I was probably just as surprised as you guys when I heard them. People in Chicago should feel very proud and lucky they have an owner like Jerry Reinsdorf, and also proud of the people in the front office for making such aggressive moves. I'm very happy we have my captain, PK (Paul Konerko), back, and I'm happy he will hopefully finish his career with the White Sox. As far as Adam Dunn goes — wow … he's a big boy and seems like a very fun guy who stays loose and ready to play. I like that.
Right now, I am in Venezuela and will be here for a few weeks. Other than doing some relaxing, I am doing some work through the Ozzie Guillen Foundation, helping out kids with cancer and other problems they face here in my home country. I will post some pictures soon on here as well as on my Facebook page so you guys can get a feel for what exactly we are doing.
I was reading through some of your questions and one came up about "Ozzie Ball" and what it is exactly. I think most times, people don't know what it means, so let me explain: "Ozzie Ball" means playing the game the right way; it has nothing to do with bunting, stealing bases or the lack of home runs. It's about playing hard-nosed baseball the way I liked to play it, or better yet the way Paul Molitor, Lenny Dykstra, Rickey Henderson and George Brett played the game. I want 25 guys playing the game that way every single day.
Now, on to more of your questions:
Q: Are you currently in your dream job?
A: Yes, I am in my dream job. I have been with the White Sox for 22 years of my life, and I have lived in Chicago longer than anywhere else in my life. Chicago is my home. With that said, my home is where my family and I are at that current time, and right now, that's Chicago. I hope it stays that way, but it's out of my control.
Q: Do you have a favorite place in Chicago to get a hot dog?
A: I don't really eat a lot of hot dogs, but when I do I like Maxwell Street by UIC. They have a lot of good food, especially the pork chops.
Q: Ozzie, I've always wondered, what's it like to make your money playing baseball?
A: I was always blessed to stay healthy for a long time like I did to play the game that I love. It truly was a blessing. I hope everyone loves their job as much as I do, because when you do you really give it your best. Many of us who had the privilege to play baseball for a living recognize how blessed we are. That's why I try to do as much for the community as I can. I want everyone to be as healthy and blessed as we have been.
Q: Since the Dodgers have Juan Uribe and he played for the White Sox, what can you tell us about him?
A: Uribe is awesome. He may look like a little Buddha, but he is an amazing baseball player. I think he is so good because he is not afraid of the moment. He really is fearless, maybe because he has no idea how big the moments actually are! (haha) I only kid with him because that's my boy, and he will be great for the Dodgers.
As I always say, keep the questions coming!
Until next time …
— Ozzie
6 Comments
So my older brother was dropped on his head and is a Cub fan. What should I buy him for Christmas?
Ozzie, Thanks for everything you have done in baseball. And of course THANKS FOR 2005. LETS DO IT AGAIN!
Other than baseball, what do you like to do in your spare time? (other than helping out organisations and stuff) your own personal time. do you play video games? poker?
for email@example.com, you can buy him packs and packs of white sox. Hey after all, even cubs fans wear white sox. Jajajaja…!
hey Ozzie, other than baseball and helping other organizations. What do you like to do on your spare time? do you play video games? poker?
as for email@example.com, you can buy him a few packs of white sox. Hey after all, even cubs fans wear white sox! jajajaja…!
OZZIE! It's the Shermanator. How can I get up there and work for the Sox. I've spent the past 2 years working with the Braves Minor Leagues and recently graduated college. I'm looking for a change in life and I can bring all that good luck up to Chi Town from Florida! Hope you get around to answering, but for now have a great offseason and go Sox!
Thanks for your explanation of what "Ozzie Ball" is.
Merry Christmas!
Mr. Guillen,
At times you have been criticized for not directing your pitchers to throw at batters in retaliation for them throwing at White Sox batters. I think you are trying to make the game more gentlemanly and also protect White Sox batters by establishing a reputation for clean play. That is, other teams won't throw at our players because they know we don't ever hit someone intentionally. What are your thoughts on this?


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Home >> Course Descriptions >> College of Arts and Sciences
Photography I.
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An introduction to film-based and digital photography as an artistic medium. Topics include basic photographic methods, processes, and concepts; camera operation; a multicultural survey of the history of photography; and basic black-and-white darkroom and digital lab practice. Prerequisites: ARTS 1311 or consent of instructor.
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Christ Is Risen!
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Gregory Isaacs: "Night Nurse"www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLy9Lt58XSEA true "lover's rock" reggae classic.Selam
Hey Nebelpfade! Is that "Tri Yann" related to Alan Stivell? I'm a big fan of Alan Stivell, and I think he had a CD called "Tri Yann." Have no idea what it means, but I love Alan Stivell's music. Soo cool!!! I think I posted a video or two of his on this same thread a while back.Selam
Quote from: Gebre Menfes Kidus on August 24, 2009, 04:27:10 PMHey Nebelpfade! Is that "Tri Yann" related to Alan Stivell? I'm a big fan of Alan Stivell, and I think he had a CD called "Tri Yann." Have no idea what it means, but I love Alan Stivell's music. Soo cool!!! I think I posted a video or two of his on this same thread a while back.SelamThey were both part of the Celtic folk revival that took place in the 1970s. I know they have performed together several times, since Alan Stivell is one of the kings of the celtic harp, and it fits very well into that Tri Yann's style of folk/folk rock. Both have become rallying points for people in Brittany, as some battle for greater recognition of their unique culture and language within France. They are both also very popular in Quebec, since so many can trace their roots back to Brittany.http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3264319521662612331 A video of them together.Tri Yann just means "Three Jeans", after the founding members Jean-Louis, Jean, and Jean-Paul.I'm a huge fan of Alan Stivell as well, I love Celtic folk music. Symphonie Celtique still ranks amongst one of my favourite albums!
I love that song! No idea what they're singing, but I love it. [...] So, you can imagine how I have loved it ever since. And I am amazed to find someone else who has even heard of him! Wow. Selam
Three young sailors tra la la la la la laThree young sailors went on a journeyThe wind pushed themTo NewfoundlandBeside the old, stone millThey dropped anchorAnd in this millThere was a servantShe asked meWhere we knew each other from?In Nantes, the marketWe chose a ringThe engagement ringAnd we were about to be marriedWe will marryEven though we don't have much (wealth)My mother, you live comfortablyYou don't know who is in needWe have neither a house nor strawNor a bed to sleep in at nightWe have neither a sheet nor a blanketNor a pillow underneath our headsWe have neither a bowl or a spoonNor what is needed to make breadWe will follow the partridgeWe will sleep on the groundWe will follow the woodcockWhen the sun rises, it fleesMy song is completeAnyone who knows it, continue
You have great taste in music, Nebelpfade. Do you want to go to a real party? The Corrs - Toss the Feathers:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-awvWnqNvcDo you like Altan?
I also saw you posted Nothing Else Matters before, have you ever heard this version? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbTozgoj9OQ (Their One cover is great too)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9oW91Iv8D8"Are You Washed in the Blood of the Lamb?"
Quote from: Rosehip on August 28, 2009, 11:52:44 PMhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9oW91Iv8D8"Are You Washed in the Blood of the Lamb?"Wow! Did that ever bring back memories, Rosehip. Geeze... I just about teared up. I grew up and cut my eye-teeth on hymns like that one. I can see my sister sitting up with her girlfriends in a pew several closer to the front. I was still little and forced to sit with mum and dad. So many good hymns from my youth. Thanks.
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Penelope Cruz has confirmed she is pregnant with her second child.
The 'All The Pretty Horses' actress, who already has two-year-old son Leo, with her 'Skyfall' actor-husband Javier Bardem, will not travel from the US to attend the Goya awards in Spain on February 17 because of her pregnancy, her publicist Javier Giner told broadcaster RTVE.
The 43-year-old beauty is nominated for Best Leading Actress at the ceremony and is said to be "extremely happy and very excited" with the news but didn't want to take a long haul flight.
Penelope and Javier, who had been friends for years, started dating in 2007 and married in early July 2010 in an intimate ceremony at a friend's home in the Bahamas.
Penelope has previously spoken out about how motherhood has transformed her life.
She said: "From the first second, you feel so much love.
"It is a revolutionary experience. That's the best way I can describe it. It transforms you completely, in a second.
"Nature is very wise and gives you nine months to prepare, but in that moment, when you see that face, you are transformed forever."
She is also determined to keep her kids out of the public eye, despite her's and 43-year-old Javier's successful careers.
She explained: "I want my son and my kids - if I have more - to grow up in a way that is as anonymous as possible.
"The fact that his father and I have chosen to do the work we do doesn't give anybody the right to invade our privacy."
Congratulations Penelope and Javier!
FemaleFirst @FemaleFirst_UK


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Magna Entertainment Corp. will acquire a 51 percent stake in the Maryland Jockey Club, the umbrella organization for the two racetracks as well as a training center in Bowie, and will have a right to buy the rest.
Jockey Club President and majority owner Joseph A. De Francis and his sister, Karin De Francis, will remain at the helm of the company, with day-to-day control under five-year management agreements.
They will also hold 49 percent of the voting stock in the operation, though the deal provides for a possible buyout of their interest in the fifth year. Joseph De Francis will be nominated for a seat on the Magna board of directors.
"We could not be more thrilled," said Joseph De Francis, who inherited the tracks upon the death of his father, Frank, in 1989. "This is the right thing to do for the Maryland Jockey Club and for Maryland racing. You look down the road and see what is happening in racing and you can't remain a mom-and-pop island."
The deal, which is subject to approval by the state, values the enterprise at $117 million. Only about half of that amount will change hands at closing because Magna isn't buying all of the stock at first and will assume $30 million in debt.
Magna, based in Aurora, Ontario, just north of Toronto, has assembled the largest chain of racetracks in the world in just four years. The combined operation, which includes California's Santa Anita Park and Florida's Gulfstream Park, account for about 25 percent of all thoroughbred wagering in North America. It is also building a track in Austria.
Led by strong-willed auto-parts magnate Frank Stronach, Magna has bet heavily on a coming revolution in racing, one that will see more fans watching and wagering on races over their desktop computers and on specialty television networks. Magna owns an Internet wagering service, XpressBet, and is backing a satellite- and cable-TV start-up dedicated to racing.
Laurel and Pimlico, home of the Preakness Stakes, provide a needed boost in Magna's holdings, filling a summer and fall gap in its racing calendar when many of its other tracks aren't running live meets. The two Maryland tracks run 220 days of live racing a year.
One of the oldest names in sports, the Maryland Jockey Club was founded in 1743. Among its early fans was President George Washington, who attended meets in . It employs about 900 and holds the Preakness, which remains one of the biggest events in the sport and is the second installment of the Triple Crown series that begins each spring with the Kentucky Derby.
Jim McAlpine, president of Magna Entertainment, promised improvements to the tracks and training center consistent with his company's vision of racetracks as "total entertainment" centers that draw new fans to the sport. That could mean concerts and shops at the tracks and possibly even lights for night racing.
"Basically we should build on the successful experience of places like Vegas, where they took gaming, in our case parimutuel wagering, and they combined it with world class entertainment and shopping experiences for their customers," McAlpine said.
He said it is too soon to be specific on the improvements but said the Preakness would remain at Pimlico, in Baltimore. "One of our first priorities is to make Pimlico a better home for the Preakness," he said.
Magna supports slot machines at racetracks, and will lobby for it, but thinks racing can thrive on its own. Only one of its tracks, a harness operation in Canada acquired this year, has slot machines.
"We are first and foremost a racing company," McAlpine said.
Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley said Magna's takeover "could mean great things."
"When you have a player like Magna, which has ownership of so many tracks and seems to have some pretty deep pockets, they're not afraid to make long-term investments."
With the purchase of Laurel and Pimlico, Magna will either own, lease or have agreements in place to buy 14 racetracks in the United States and Canada. The company, whose stock is traded on the NASDAQ, made a profit of $13.5 million last year on revenues of $519 million, compared with a profit of $441,000 on revenues of $413.6 million the year before.
The company's stock was trading at $6.05 last night, down 39 cents over the day.
Bill Boniface, a third-generation Maryland horseman, said he is nervous about seeing the tracks' control slip to out-of-state interests but glad Joseph De Francis will stay in charge for the foreseeable future.
"He has Maryland roots and Maryland at heart. If they will allow him the control, it will be a good thing," Boniface said.
Alan Foreman, attorney for the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, said the deal "has the potential to be a tremendous plus for Maryland racing, or it could be a nonstarter. We've heard plans to enhance Maryland racing before. That's why many people in Maryland racing are skeptical. Obviously there's concern about their [Magna's] follow-through on their vision. But in fairness to Magna, it's still early."
Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller said he sees the ownership change as a "shot in the arm" for Maryland's horse racing industry.
"There's nowhere to go but up," the Prince George's County Democrat said.
House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. said, "What it means to me is Maryland racing will be reinvigorated, with leadership coming from Magna."
Gov. Parris N. Glendening had no comment. The two leading candidates to replace him welcomed the news.
Michael Morrill, a spokesman for Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, a Democratic candidate for governor, said, "We see this as a beneficial step toward coming to some conclusion about how to best preserve the industry for the long term."
A Republican candidate, Rep. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., said, "An infusion of cash and excitement and partnership and willingness to help Maryland racing and promote it is a great thing."
Boosters of Magna say the firm is providing millions of dollars in fresh capital and a forward-looking vision to a sport badly in need of both. Detractors say it is paying too much for its properties - it has outbid the more conservative Churchill Downs Inc. for many of its acquisitions, including the Maryland tracks - and hasn't demonstrated sufficient ability to successfully run a racetrack.
Stronach's vision of restoring the sport with new-fangled technology and old-fashioned customer appeal is tempting but not without risk, said Adam Steinberg, a gaming analyst with CIBC World Markets in New York, which advised the stockholders in the transaction. "It's a good idea, but because it hasn't been done before it raises the question: 'Will it work?'"
He said Stronach is "definitely a visionary."
Another analyst isn't so sure. Ryan L. Worst, with Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, issued a 60-page report last month that said Magna had paid too much for tracks that didn't offer the kind of quality racing that could compete with Churchill Downs for Internet and TV bettors. He also questioned Magna's operation, noting that betting had fallen at a number of its tracks.
Under the deal, other Maryland Jockey Club stockholders, including General Counsel Martin Jacobs and the New York-based investment firm Leucadia National Corp., will relinquish their stakes in exchange for a total of $49 million.
The De Francis siblings will receive $1.6 million. Karin will own slightly more stock than her brother, about 25 percent to his 24 percent. The two will have the right to appoint three members of a new, seven-member board of directors for the club, with the balance to be appointed by Magna.
Their service as officers is "subject to the normal corporate oversight" of the board, according to a statement from Magna.
Magna also agreed to pay each of the two De Francises $9.2 million at closing for the option to purchase the rest of their stock during the fifth year of Magna's ownership. Magna would pay the De Francises $18.3 million if it chooses to exercise the options. They will also have the right to force Magna to buy their stock over the next five years.
If at the end of five years no one has exercised these rights, the De Francises will remain as minority shareholders and will be free to negotiate new management contracts. "If everything is great, we can continue into perpetuity," Joseph De Francis said.
Another part of the deal protects the stockholders if slots are legalized in Maryland. Leucadia, Jacobs, a group of Laurel shareholders known as "the Guida Group" and the DeFrancises have agreed to form a joint venture to pursue "the potential development and management of additional gaming" according to a statement. This group would receive some of the profits from slot machines, Joseph De Francis said.
The Maryland Racing Commission has 30 days to investigate Magna's background. Then, the commission will conduct a hearing and vote on the sale. If approved, the deal would close in the fall.
Lou Ulman, chairman of the racing commission, said Magna's approval isn't necessarily a sure thing. He said he wants to ensure that Magna will keep Pimlico and Laurel Park open, continue year-round racing in Maryland and retain the Preakness at Pimlico. "We could deny their application if we deem it not to benefit Maryland racing."
John Franzone, a member of the racing commission, said he, too, has questions for Magna leaders: "OK, give us your track record of what you've done with racetracks you've acquired, and, more important, what are you going to do here?"
Sun staff writers David Nitkin, Howard Libit, Greg Garland and Johnathon E. Briggs contributed to this article.


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Contact Info
Orem, UT 84058
- Phone:
- 801-830-8864
- Phone:
- 888-205-7119
- Activities:
- Boating
We have everything you need for your next water sports vacation. Servicing all lakes and reservoirs in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado, Wyoming, California, Washington, South Dakota, Nebraska and Idaho. Invert sports specializes in Competition wakeboard boats and water ski boat rentals and charter services. Jet ski rentals, waverunner rental, and (PWC) personal watercraft rental.
Hyperlite water sports equipment rentals and vehicle transportation/rental. Delivery services to all lakes and reservoirs. Vacation packages to major lakes including Lake Powell, Lake Mead, Lake Mohave, Lake Tahoe, Bear lake, Lake Shasta, and more.
Come and experience the thrill of water sports in the great outdoors! Learn to wakeboard, water ski, wake skate, wakesurf, kneeboard, air chair, tube and more. Ride like a pro using the latest competition boats and equipment on a brand new world-class boat driven by a professional driver. Our chartered boating service is our specialty! This is the way to vacation with a group of friends, business, or family.
We also offer boat rentals with the latest competition wakeboard and water ski boats from MasterCraft, Hyperlite water sport equipment rental, and tow vehicle rentals.
Activity Type:
Additional Details:
Lake Tours
Water Sport Lessons
Waverunner guide
Other Rentals Offered:
Jet Ski Rentals
Water Sport Equipment Rentals
Vehicle Rentals
Rentals Offered:
Personal Watercraft


text:
0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.
He. That must be a unique feeling. There System Requirements normally are lower then Blizzards >_>
The best person ever. She should have won the Peace Prize.
What? No full control over children? You do realize that some of us have particular plans for those children.
That quote is actualy very witty, Celdur. I suggest you use that in your signature.
Them and Basshunter collectively confirm my suspicions. Sweden is the best Scandinavian nation.
I love you Magenti, you are my hero!!
I suppose it's funny that you posted after me, because you are also female. How coincidental.
Quote from: Brandonazz on January 22, 2008, 03:07:33 pmThem and Basshunter collectively confirm my suspicions. Sweden is the best Scandinavian nation.You only say that because you don't live here. Sweden sucks.
OK, both of you die and let us know what happens.
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Millions of American's dream of owning a home, raising a family, and even running their own business. Primary Residential Mortgage, Inc. knows a little bit about those dreams.
We opened our doors for business back in 1998. Operating out of a small executive suite with a handful of employees, our first year we closed 321 mortgages for $35 million. Like many entrepreneurs just starting out, we weren't sure where the road would lead, but we were passionate about our work.
Fast-forward more than 10 years later:
Lead by one of the company's founders, President and CEO David Zitting, our excitement for financing homes hasn't diminished. And in spite of the fantastic growth we've experienced, we haven't forgotten where we came from. We believe in being small even though we've gotten big and hold fast to the principle of keeping a personalized approach to business, making sure our borrowers get a customized mortgage experience.
And the best part of all? We have helped more than 70,000 borrowers seize a piece of the American dream—the dream of owning a home.
Executive Officers
Kenneth Knudson, President and CEO
Tom George, COO
Ruth Green, Senior Vice President, Operations
Chris Jones, President


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"Dietary Supplements," Herbs, and Hormones
Stephen Barrett, M.D.
The most logical definition of "dietary supplement" would be something that supplies one or more essential nutrients missing from the diet. However, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994—commonly referred to as DSHEA—defines "dietary supplement" as any product (except tobacco) that contains at least one of the following: (1) a vitamin, (2) a mineral, (3) an herb or botanical, (4) an amino acid, (5) a dietary substance "for use to supplement the diet by increasing total dietary intake," or (6) any concentrate, metabolite, constituent, extract, or combination of any of the aforementioned ingredients. Herbs ,of course, are not consumed for a nutritional purpose and often are marketed with therapeutic claims. The supplement industry, which lobbied vigorously for passage of this act, included them in this definition to weaken the FDA's ability to regulate their marketing. Since DSHEA's passage, hormones have also been marketed as "dietary supplements."
This page provides an index to information on the wide variety of substances sold as "dietary supplements" by health-food stores, pharmacies, multilevel companies, health practitioners, and mail-order entrepreneurs, and Internet outlets. A few such substances are useful, but most are promoted with false or misleading claims. Most of the articles are on Quackwatch, but some are on other sites.
The articles below are not linked back to this page. If you want to return here after visiting any of the pages below, use the "back" command of your web browser..
General Observations
- Appropriate Use of Dietary Supplements
- Miscellaneous Hype
- "Nutrition Insurance: A Skeptical View
- Orthomolecular Therapy
- Unethical Behavior by Pharmacists
Consumer Protection
- FTC Dietary Supplement Advertising Guide for Industry
- Great Earth's "Vitamitician" Scam
- Health-Food-Store Advice: Don't Trust It!
- AMA Attacks Sale of Non-Health-Related Products in Medical Offices
- Olympic Committee Finds Hormone Precursors in "Dietary Supplements"
- Illnesses and Injuries Associated with the Use of Selected Dietary Supplements (1993 FDA report)
Legal/Political Issues
- How the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 Weakened the FDA
- Why the FDA Does Not Approve Supplements
- Improvements Needed in Overseeing Dietary Supplements and "Functional Foods" (GAO report)
- Pro-Quackery Legislation
Misleading Ads
- FTC Warning: Misleading Ads for Children's Dietary Supplements
- Antioxidants"
- Centrum
- "Macerat" Weight-Loss Plan
- MotherNature.com Blasted by American Pharmaceutical Association
- VitaCor 20/90 (link to another site)
"Supplement" and "Health Food" Products
- Antioxidants
- B-vitamins: Does lowering homocysteine levels prevent cardiovascular disease?
- Barley Green (link to NCAHF site)
- Bee pollen
- Blue-green algae
- Bromelain
- Calorad (link to another site)
- Carnitine (link to another site)
- Cetylmyristoleate (CMO) (link to FTC site)
- Chitosan
- Chlorophyll
- "Clustered Water" (link to another site)
- Colloidal minerals
- Colloidal silver
- Colostrum
- Coral calcium
- Creatine monohydrate
- Emu oil: [FDA Fact Sheet] [FDA Warning Letter]
- "Ergogenic Aids"
- Evening primrose oil
- Fish oils (link to American Heart Association statement)
- Folate Fact Sheet (link to NIH Office of Dietary Supplements)
- 5-Hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) (link to another site)
- Gamma-hydroxybutyric Acid: A Growing Danger
- Glucosamine for Arthritis
- Hydroxycitrate
- Juice Plus+®
- Magnesium Fact Sheet (link to NIH Office of Dietary Supplements)
- Mannatech products (link to MLM Watch)
- MCT oil (link to another site)
- Methylsulfonylmethane (MSM)
- Nutritional Supplements for Down Syndrome
- Propolis
- Protandim (link to another site)
- Pyruvate (link to another site)
- Resveratrol
- Royal Jelly
- Royal Tongan Limu
- SAMe (s-adenosyl-L-methionine) (link to another site)
- Seasilver
- Selenium Fact Sheet (link to NIH Office of Dietary Supplements)
- Shark cartilage
- "Stabilized oxygen"
- Stevia
- Tahitian noni
- Tryptophan
- Vitamin A and Carotenoids Fact Sheet (link to NIH Office of Dietary Supplements)
- Vitamin B6 Fact Sheet (link to NIH Office of Dietary Supplements)
- Vitamin B12 Fact Sheet (link to NIH Office of Dietary Supplements)
- "Vitamin B15" ("pangamic acid") (link to FDA compliance policy guide)
- Vitamin C:
- Vitamin D Fact Sheet (link to NIH Office of Dietary Supplements)
- Vitamin E Fact Sheet (link to NIH Office of Dietary Supplements)
- Wheat Grass (link to another site)
Herbal Products
- Overview
- Can Herbs Help Induce Lactation?
- Airborne (link to another wite)
- Aloe Products
- Aristalochia warning
- Aveloz
- Cellasene and other "Cellulite Removers"
- Chaparral: FDA Warning (1993)
- Comfrey: FDA Warning (2001
- Ephedra Alkaloids (Ma Huang)
- Garlic (link to another site)
- Germander (FDA Warning (1993)
- Herbal cigarettes: Not safer than tobacco
- Jin Bu Huan (FDA Warning (1993)
- Kava (link to FDA warning)
- Kombucha Tea (MMWR report, 12/95)
- Lobelia (FDA Warning (1993)
- Milk thistle (link to another site)
- Nettle
- St. John's Wort
- Willow Bark (FDA Warning (1993
- Yohimbe (FDA Warning (1993)
Links to Other Web Sites
- AboutHerbs (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center database)
- American Heart Association's Position on Vitamin and Mineral Supplements
- ConsumerLab.com (does product evaluations, including laboratory tests)
- Dr.Bill of Health.com
- FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (links to supplement news and information)
- Illnesses and Injuries Associated with the Use of Selected Dietary Supplements
- Index of Supplement and Herbal Product Recalls
- Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database
- NIH Office of Dietary Supplements
This page was revised on May 30, 2011


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By Heather C. Diehl
If you've lived in San Antonio for a while, you probably are aware of the more than 5,000 nonprofit organizations in the metropolitan area and may have received an appeal or two. If you are a fundraiser, you constantly look for ways to sharpen your skills and learn the latest trends in the fundraising profession. If you are a board member, you may want to learn more about how these fundraisers function and how nonprofits look for best practices in order to have efficient organizations that deliver effective services and programs.
You have an opportunity to get useful insight on those topics during the 29th annual conference of the Association of Fundraising Professionals San Antonio (AFP) on Feb. 21-22 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Downtown San Antonio.
Keynote speakers include Lynne Wester, the Donor Relations Guru; Leslie Crutchfield, co-author of Do More Than Give and Forces for Good; Pamela Jones Davidson, planned giving expert; and Bill Sturtevant, author of The Artful Journey and The Moves Management Manual.
Breakout sessions will feature local and visiting presenters who will share their expertise on building an endowment, the fundraising visit, measuring fundraising success and much more.
AFP even offers a separate track on Thursday, Feb. 21, for nonprofit executive directors, presidents and CEOs that will focus on areas most important to their leadership positions.
The deadline to register is Friday, Feb. 15. Go to the AFP San Antonio website http://www.afpsanantonio.org/conference for additional information and registration.
AFP's mission is to promote ethical fundraising through education, training, mentoring, research, credentialing and advocacy. The San Antonio Chapter advances philanthropy by educating people and organizations to practice ethical and effective fundraising. The chapter's core values are collaboration, education, ethics, inclusiveness, philanthropy and professionalism.
Heather C. Diehl is Director of Donor Relations for the San Antonio Area Foundation and a member of the Conference Committee for the AFP San Antonio 2013 Conference.


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Hearings and Business Meetings
May 25 2011
PUBLIC LANDS AND FORESTS HEARING ANNOUNCEMENT: to receive testimony on the following bills: S. 233, S. 268 S. 375, S. 714, and S. 730 (Hearing Room SD-366).
SD-366 Energy Committee Hearing Room 02:30 PMThe purpose of the hearing is to receive testimony on the following bills:
S. 233, to withdraw certain Federal land and interests in that land from location, entry, and patent under the mining laws and disposition under the mineral and geothermal leasing laws;
S. 268, a bill to sustain the economic development and recreational use of National Forest System land and other public land in the State of Montana, to add certain land to the National Wilderness Preservation System, to release certain wilderness study areas, to designate new areas for recreation, and for other purposes.
S. 375, to authorize the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior to enter into cooperative agreements with State foresters authorizing State foresters to provide certain forest, rangeland, and watershed restoration and protection services;
S. 714, to reauthorize the Federal Land Transaction Facilitation Act, and for other purposes; and
S. 730, to provide for the settlement of certain claims under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, and for other purposes (Hearing Room SD-366).
The hearing will be webcast live on the Committee's website, and an archive video will be available shortly after the hearing is complete. Witness testimony will be available on the website at the start of the hearing.
If you are having trouble viewing this hearing, please try the following steps:
- Clear your browser's cache - Guide to clearing browser cache
- Close and re-open your browser
- If the above two steps do not help, please try another browser. Internet Explorer or Microsoft Edge have the highest level of compatibility with our player.
Witness Panel 1
The Honorable Max BaucusSenatorUnited States Senate
The Honorable Mark BegichSenatorUnited States Senate
The Honorable Jon TesterSenatorUnited States Senate
Witness Panel 2
Under Secretary for Natural Resources and EnvironmentDepartment of Agriculture
Deputy DirectorBureau of Land Management, Department of the InteriorBurkeTestimonyCombined.pdf (89.0 KBs)
Witness Panel 3
DirectorSealaska Corporation
Edna Bay, AlaskaPoelstraTestimony.pdf (197.9 KBs)
President and OwnerSun Mountain Lumber, Inc.AndersonTestimony.pdf (136.1 KBs)
District 3 DirectorMontana Cattlemen's AssociationCongdonTestimony.pdf (15.3 KBs)


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A couple of weeks ago at the ACI Conference I was afforded the opportunity to present at a Building America Expert Meeting for the discussion on Determining Air Change Rates in Envelope Leakage in Attached Dwellings. Specifically my presentation covered the Feasibility and Futures of Infiltration Testing on Low-Rise Multifamily Housing where I was able to share how we at NRCERT have been able to audit and specifically perform infiltration testing on Low-Rise Multifamily (LRMF) housing and discuss the quantity and quality of the data we've been able to collect by doing so.
At the end of the presentation, several people in the meeting room expressed interest in reviewing a sampling of the data we can provide. In the chance that anyone viewing on the streaming webinar at that time would like to take a look at a sampling of our data, or anyone particularly interested in the subject matter, I would like to include you in the discussion.
If you respond to this thread with your contact information, I would be happy to share this data on LRMF infiltration test results with you.
Chase Counts
Trainer, New River Center for Energy Research & Training (NRCERT)


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October 28th, 2014
Newsflash: Music Industry Sees Record Low Sales
I had breakfast with a close friend this morning in Venice, California. Richard is in town with his daughter to visit USC and check out the music industry program there. His father was the founder and [...]
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Researching HD-Audio: The Truth
July 4th, 2020
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June 22nd, 2020
Audio trade shows have ceased operations due to the pandemic. No more AXPONA, T.H.E. Show, or Capitol Audio Fest until further notice. But that doesn't mean they've opted out completely from holding [...]
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June 18th, 2020
DXD CDs I hadn't planned on writing today. My efforts lately have been focused on the relaunch of iTrax.com. Everyday, I try to add a couple of albums from the AIX Records collection AND from the [...]
Surround Music Rules!
June 8th, 2020
There is simply no better way to dramatically enhance music listening experiences than to switch from traditional stereo to immersive surround sound. "No question, it's better," encourages Paul MacGo[...]
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May 17th, 2020
It's been a very challenging semester. The shutdown of face-to-face classroom instruction caused no end of headaches, compromises in the quality of teaching, and some serious doubts about tests and g[...]
HD-Audio Challenge II: Update
May 8th, 2020
It's incredibly gratifying to see the list of submissions for the HD-Audio Challenge II grow past 400! Everyday, my email includes dozens of people asking if it's too late to participate. I respond b[...]
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Mark Just regarding your comments on the Meyer and Moran study. I


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Ordering information
SAF and SAW pillow (plummer) blocks are typically supplied as complete kits including housing, seals, bearing, adapter sleeve (or nut and washer) and a standard stabilizing (locating) ring. A complete pillow block is specified by a designation provided in the product tables for:
Optional features can be specified with a prefix and suffixes. If several suffixes are required, put them in alphabetical order.
All pillow block parts can also be supplied separately. Designations for the different parts are listed in the product tables.
Optional components are listed in the product tables and in table 1.
Order example
A shaft with 4 3/16 inch diameter has to be supported by two SAF pillow blocks with 22224 EK spherical roller bearings on an adapter sleeve, one at the shaft end for the non-locating bearing position and one for a through shaft at the locating bearing position. The housings should be sealed with PosiTrac Plus seals.
The following items should be ordered:
- 1 pillow block SAF 22524 TLCY
1 pillow block SAF 22524 TLC
The delivery will contain:
- 2 housings SAF 524
- 2 spherical roller bearings 22224 EK
- 2 adapter sleeves with lock nuts SNW 24x4.3/16
- 2 locating rings SR 24-20
- 4 labyrinth rings with O-rings LOR 113
- 3 contact elements B-10724-113
1 end plug EPR 14


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Part and Particle: Being at the show makes it better
Particle and Rock Star Showdown
at Starr Hill
August 22 and 23
Friday night's plan to check out Particle at Starr Hill came to a halt when my two-year-old daughter kept waking up with an upset stomach. I'd heard mixed reviews about the group and wanted to judge for myself, but I wasn't about to leave my daughter with a sitter in her condition. So much for Particle.
The next night I planned to check out the "Rock Star Showdown" at Starr Hill. Before going, I stopped off at a friend's house to get a review of the previous night's event. Come to find out, he had videotaped the entire show. Instead of living vicariously through him, we just watched the tape of the show.
Particle reminds me of Disco Biscuits with less trance and more... how do you say... noodling. I can say that it was hard to follow their spastic style. One minute they sat comfortably in a dance groove that had the crowd in a frenzy, only to follow it up with a song so disjointed that I could have sworn they were having practice on stage.
The intense intelligent lighting system they brought with them did a good job distracting from the looser points of the performance. Maybe a more altered state of consciousness would have put me in a better mood for their style.
Or possibly I may have not gotten quite so annoyed listening to four plus minutes of the guitarist scratching his strings completely off beat. People seemed to be having a good time on the tape. I guess you had to be there.
After about a 45 minutes of Particle, I headed over to the Rock Star Showdown. I really didn't know what to expect, so when I got to Starr Hill to find an almost sold-out venue, I was pleasantly surprised.
Unfortunately, I missed the first half of the eight performing bands. Truth be told, the Showdown was awesome. The bands weren't the best in the world, but you don't expect that from a group of people thrown together and given a month to learn a few tunes.
The energy in the room told the whole story. Here are various musicians who love what they do, but for one reason or another haven't made it to the big stage. When given the opportunity, they put their all into it and sincerely put on a show for everyone in the room.
Kudos go to the rock stars of Charlottesville. Great show.


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If you would like more information about the Process and its techniques, we recommend that you attend an Information Evening. Information Evenings are a wonderful opportunity to find out more about the Process, meet Hoffman staff and teachers and to hear course participants speak about their experience. The evenings are held at least once a month, starting at 7.30pm and finishing around 9.30pm. They're free to attend and there's no need to book.
Come on your own or with friends or family – either way, you'll be guaranteed a warm welcome. You can just browse the information on display and listen or, if you have questions, there will be plenty of time for them to be answered. We'd also love to see people who have done the Process, who would like to meet up and share their experiences.
For more information about the Hoffman Process and other introductory events, click here.
- Information Evening
November 24, 2020
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Venue: Regent's University
London Information Evenings are held at Regent's University, Regent's Park, London NW1 4NS. They are free to attend and there is no need to book.
Nearest Underground station – Baker Street. On leaving the station turn left and take the next available left into York Gate, continue into Regent's Park over York Bridge and the main entrance is on the left. (Walking time – 15 mins)