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Puerto Rican voters will once again ponder the decades-old question over the island's political future when they go to the polls Tuesday: What kind of relationship do they really want with the United States?
Do they support the status quo? Or would they prefer statehood, independence or "sovereign free association," a designation that would give the island of nearly 4 million people more autonomy?
Officially, the Caribbean island is the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, a semi-autonomous extension of the U.S. mainland, its giant neighbor 1,000 miles to the northwest. But in fact it is a territory, lacking both the freedom of an independent country and some of the fundamental rights it would have if it was a U.S. state.
Aimed at resolving the 114-year-old conundrum over Puerto Rico's status, Tuesday's referendum marks the fourth time in 45 years that a vote has been held on the island's future. Past balloting has never given statehood a majority, and independence never garnered more than 5 percent, but debate over the territory's legal standing remains heated.
The latest vote comes at an especially difficult time for the island as it struggles to recover from an economic crisis and fights a wave of violent crime. Puerto Rico reported a record 1,117 killings last year, and its 13.6 percent unemployment is higher than that of any U.S. state.
The ballot measure's first question asks voters if they support the island's current status, while a second one offers the options of statehood, independence or sovereign free association. The U.S. Congress would have to agree to any change.
Recent surveys have said a limited majority favors the status quo in the referendum's first question. Regarding the second question, surveys found statehood and increased autonomy nearly tied, with a small percentage favoring independence.
Noel Colon Martinez, a political analyst who once ran for governor under the Puerto Rican Independence Party, said the referendum is confusing because it forces voters to choose from three options they might not favor.
Colon also said that whatever the vote's outcome, the U.S. Congress is unlikely to lend too much attention to the status debate given Puerto Rico's "pressing economic, political and social problems."
Voter turnout likely will be high, said Luis Delgado, who heads an organization that supports increased autonomy for Puerto Rico. "It's a tiny country of 4 million people coming face-to-face with the world's biggest political and economic empire," he said, describing the island's relationship with the United States.
The referendum is being held along with elections for Puerto Rico legislators and governor, with Gov. Luis Fortuno of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party seeking a second term. He is running against Alejandro Garcia Padilla of the Popular Democratic Party, which supports the island's current political status.
Even though Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, they cannot vote in Tuesday's U.S. presidential election. Both President Barack Obama and challenger Mitt Romney have said they support the referendum, with Obama saying he'll respect the people's will if there is a clear majority.
Backers of statehood consider Puerto Ricans' inability to vote for president an outrage, and remind voters that the island would benefit from an extra $20 billion a year in federal funds if it could become the 51st U.S. state. It would also get two seats in the U.S. Senate and five in the House of Representatives, instead of its current single congressional representative with limited voting powers.
"We don't want to continue being a colony. We want the full rights that we're entitled to as American citizens," said Thomas Rivera Schatz, president of the territory's local Senate. "Because we're a colony, we have the misfortune of being first (in line) for federal cuts and last in line for handouts."
Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi, a statehood supporter who represents Puerto Rico in the U.S. House, is seeking re-election and running against Rafael Cox Alomar. Pierluisi said some people on the U.S. mainland incorrectly view Puerto Rico as a welfare state that is "too Spanish," and insisted it eventually will become a state.
"It's going to take a while for my colleagues in Congress to accept it, to deal with it," he said. "This is going to be a fight."
Those who favor the status quo insist statehood would erode the island's culture, including its use of the Spanish language.
Leoncio Burgos said he voted against statehood in the other referendums in 1967, 1993 and 1998, and will vote the same way Tuesday. Playing dominoes under a leafy tree in a public park, the 90-year-old San Juan resident said he is a lifelong member of the Popular Democratic Party, which favors the status quo.
"I have carried that in my heart since I was small," he said, tapping his chest.
Independence supporters, meanwhile, say the island should stop depending on federal funds and needs the freedom to negotiate trade agreements with any country without U.S. approval.
Juan Dalmau, gubernatorial candidate with the Puerto Rican Independence Party, compared the island's current status to a bonsai: "The Americans look at the colony as a cute, tiny little thing because it's convenient to them."
By DANICA COTO


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best insurance stock - Brightcove Inc earnings loss q4 2012 : Brightcove Inc. (BCOV - Snapshot Report) reported a loss of 13 cents in the fourth quarter of 2012, wider than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 7 cents. However, loss per share was narrower than a loss of 75 cents reported in the year-ago quarter.
Revenues jumped 31.3% from the year-ago quarter to $24.3 million, slightly better than the consensus mark. The year-over-year surprise was primarily driven by a 34.2% surge in Subscription and Support revenues, which fully offset an 8.4% plunge in Professional services and Other revenues.
Brighcove's revenues from premium offerings jumped 29% year over year to $21.8 million. Premium refers to Brighcove's traditional video cloud customers, the enterprise edition of app cloud and Zencoder customers on annual contracts. Revenues from volume offerings surged 53.0% year over year to $2.5 million.
Brightcove's customer base expanded 64% from the year-ago quarter to 6367, which includes 1625 premium customers and 4742 volume customers. Sequentially, both premium and volume customers increased by 52 and 172, respectively.
Brightcove added a number of major companies to its customer base that includes the likes of insurance provider Allstate (ALL - Analyst Report) and biopharmaceutical company Bristol Meyers Squibb (BMY - Analyst Report). Brightcove also entered into a partnership with Viacom (VIA - Snapshot Report) and NBC.
Revenues from non-media customers (60% of total revenues) grew 60% year over year, while media customers (40% of total revenue) increased 17% from the year-ago quarter. Recurring dollar retention rate was 89% in the fourth quarter.
Region wise, revenues from North America (64% of total revenue) increased 29% year over year to $15.6 million. Europe (23% of total revenue) jumped 33.0% year over year to $5.6 million. Asia-Pacific including Japan (13% of total revenue) soared 35.0% from the year-ago quarter to $3.1 million.
Gross margin increased 20 basis points ("bps") on a year-over-year basis to 69.8% in the reported quarter. Operating expenses soared 27.7% year over year to $20.7 million due to 27.5% year-over-year increase in research & development expenses, 20.6% year-on-year rise in sales & marketing expenses and a 46.1% jump in general & administrative expenses.
Loss from operations (including stock-based compensation) was $3.7 million, wider than $3.3 million reported in the year-ago quarter on a higher revenue base.
Net loss (including stock based compensation) of $3.7 million was narrower than a loss of $3.8 million incurred in the prior-year quarter.
Balance Sheet and Cash flow
Exiting the fourth quarter, Brightcove had cash, cash equivalents and investments of $30.0 million, down from $30.8 million reported in the third quarter. Brightcove generated cash flow of $2.7 million in the fourth quarter. Free cash flow was $2.5 million in the quarter.
For the first quarter, Brightcove expects revenues in the range of $23.5 million to $24.0 million, which represents 18% to 21% year-over-year growth. Non-GAAP operating loss is expected to be $2.0 million to $2.3 million. Non-GAAP loss is expected in the range of 8 cents to 10 cents per share.
For fiscal 2013, Brightcove expects revenues to be in the range of $102.0 million to $105.0 million, which represents 16% to 19% year-over-year growth. Non-GAAP loss is expected to be $4.5 million to $6.5 million. Non-GAAP net loss per share is expected in the range of 18 cents to 25 cents per share.
We believe that strong demand for cloud-based solutions, security and mobile products, and online videos along with strategic acquisitions are the positives for the stock over the long term. However, intense competition and sluggish macro-economic environment are the near-term headwinds.
Currently, Brightcove has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).


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About us
ProHealth Medical Group's primary care physicians and specialists connect you to everything you need to lead an active, healthy life. From education and preventive screenings that detect diseases at the earliest stages, to advanced diagnostics and leading-edge treatment options, you can rely on us to help keep you and your family on the move.
Our primary care and specialty physicians, as well as the independent specialists within our clinics, are supported by the full resources of the ProHealth Care system, including ProHealth Waukesha Memorial Hospital and ProHealth Oconomowoc Memorial Hospital. New patients of all ages are welcome and most insurance plans are accepted.
When you choose a ProHealth Medical Group physician, you have a trusted partner to manage your health.
Hours of Operation
If you need medical assistance when we are closed:
- Reserve your spot in line at one of our urgent care locations
- Visit one of our emergency departments


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Reports this weekend indicate that the Dallas Cowboys are at least thinking of acquiring miscreant defensive back, Pacman Jones, from the Tennessee Titans.
Jones has had more legal problems than almost any other player in the history of the National Football League.
Here's his mugshot from Las Vegas:
Jones' exact role in a Las Vegas strip club shooting, during N.B.A. All-Star weekend, last year has not yet been determined.
Though now suspended by the NFL, Pacman has openly campaigned for a job with the Cowboys.
If the Cowboys acquire the biggest scumbag in the league, maybe I can go back to hating them like the Dallas teams of my youth.
Growing up, I wasn't like other kids. I didn't have a favorite team. We moved around too much for me to form any particular allegiance. Instead, my favorite team each week was WHOEVER WAS PLAYING THE DALLAS COWBOYS. That's how much I hated them!
In fact, I can remember the exact moment I began hating the Dallas Cowboys. It was a Thanksgiving in the 70's and I was watching the old CBS pregame show, "The NFL Today," with Brent Musberger, Irv Cross and Phyllis George.
(look: old school racist Jimmy "The Greek")
During the pregame show, Phyllis George, was interviewing the Cowboys coach, Tom Landry.
During the interview Landry said something that I'll never forget. He looked her right in the eye and said, "Phyllis, you have to believe in Jesus Christ to play for the Dallas Cowboys."
Well, even as an 11-year-old I was cynical enough to think "what a load of crap!" I was just starting to read the newspaper every day and it seemed not a week went by without some member of this God Squad getting arrested for some particularly sleazy, heinous crime. I mean, I don't know much about What-Would-Jesus-Do? but I'll tell you what He WOULDN'T do. Jesus wouldn't be in the paper with a story about how He "sexually assaulted a paraplegic minor" like Cowboys defensive star "Hollywood" Henderson. And He certainly wouldn't write a book later about why the reason He did the "bad thing" to the little girl in the wheelchair was because He was high on FREAKIN' COCAINE.
So, in honor of Pacman Jones and those Cowboys of my youth:
The Top 10 Dallas Cowboy Arrests of All-Time:
10. Rafael Septien: January 22, 1987 Former Cowboys kicker, Rafael Septien, was indicted in Dallas County, Texas on a charge of "indecency with a child." He was accused of having sex with a 10-year-old girl. The charges were later ammendended to "aggravated child molestation." On April 9th of that year Septien pled guilty to a single charge of "indecency with a child." And what type of sentence did the now-convicted child molester get? Probation. Don't forget, this was Dallas County (the court did fine Septien a whopping $ 2,000). That's right, Septien didn't spend a single day in jail for being convicted of molesting a child.
At least the kicker felt enough remorse to flee the country. He moved to Mexico after the conviction. (Cancun, in case you were thinking of making a trip. Probably best to leave the kids at home.) Too bad the folks in the Dallas County Prosecutor's Office were incapable of feeling the same amount of shame. The country would be better off if Septien had taken them with him.
This whole story sickens me, so let's just move on.
9. Dwayne Goodrich: January 15, 2003 On the evening of Jan. 14 , 2003 , defensive back Dwayne Goodrich, an active member of the Cowboys at the time, was arrested on two counts of vehicular manslaughter. Apparently these two guys:
saw a burning vehicle on the side of the road of a Dallas freeway. The good samaritans pulled over to help and rushed to pull the driver out of the burning vehicle. Unfortunately, before they could heroically rescue the man from the burning car, Goodrich plowed into them with his silver BMW doing 110 mph killing the would be do-gooders. He then fled the scene of the crime before being arrested the next day.
Additional charges were later added. On Sept. 8, 2003 Goodrich was convicted on two counts of vehicular homicide and sentenced to seven and a half years in prison. In 2006 prosecutor's and the victims families were successful in lobbying to add five more years to Goodrich's sentence.
8. Larry Bethea: August 1987 This former Cowboys defensive lineman was arrested and later convicted of stealing $ 64,000 from his own mother. Amazingly, Bethea is one of TWO Dallas Cowboys who were accused of stealing their mothers life savings!
While on probation for that crime, Bethea, a former first round draft pick by the Cowboys, killed himself in 1987. Apparently he spent all of mom's money and police were coming to arrest him for a pair of armed robberies. Bethea shot himself in the head.
But hey, he played for Tom Landry, so at least he believed in Jesus.
7. Dexter Clinkscale 1998 They say in politics you never want to get caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy. That explains the end of former Cowboys defensive back, Dexter Clinkscale's, budding political career before it ever really got started. Clinkscale was arrested for having sexual relations and molesting an 18-year-old "boy" in 1998. That put an immediate end to him running for political office in Texas but didn't prevent him from being named the director of sports for the Reverend Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH coalition. (and lecturing Major League Baseball about the IMMORALITY of their hiring practices.)
6. Harvey Martin August 13, 1996 After "smoking crack all evening" this former end on the "Doomsday Defense" was arrested for domestic violence. It was the former Dallas star's third arrest in five months. All involved beating a woman. He eventually took a plea deal on domestic violence and cocaine charges and was sentenced to eight months of rehab. He died on Christmas Eve 2001.
Here's the grave of the most prolific woman beater and crack smoker in Dallas Cowboys history:
5. Bob Hayes 1978 A couple of years after his playing career ended, former Cowboys star receiver Bob Hayes was arrested for distributing cocaine. Hayes was so fast he is reputed to be the reason NFL teams came up with zone defenses.
A true sports pioneer, Hayes was the first track star to make the transition to professional football.
He also had another pioneering distinction. "Bullet" Bob was the first world-famous athlete who was convicted of being a drug dealer. Hayes went to prison in April 1979 after he was caught personally delivering cocaine to an undercover police officer. Apparently being "The World's Fastest Human" wasn't enough for him to outrun the long arm of the law.
Bob Hayes once held the world record for the 100 yard dash. He actually ran it in 9.1 seconds (and this was in the 1960's!)
Here's Hayes as an American hero after winning an Olympic Gold Medal:
Hayes died on September 18, 2002 and is the only coke dealer in the Dallas Cowboys "Ring of Honor." So far.
4. Lance Rentzel 1970 This former star wide receiver was arrested for exposing himself to a 10-year-old girl. When he was arrested, Rentzel was married to actress Joey Heatherton (arguably one of the world's most beautiful women at the time.)
I've been pretty careful so far to source and link a lot of references while writing this post. On this one, what's the point? Rentzel himself tried to capitalize on the incident and wrote a really horrible book about it.
Besides, who could make up a story like this???? I can only imagine the conversation Rentzel had with himself that fateful day:
Lance Rentzel: "Hmmm. What should I do today? Go inside the house and hit this…"
or Lance Rentzel: "Nah, I think I'll go bother the neighbor's kid."
Heatherton divorced Rentzel shortly after the episode.
Rentzel actually had the nerve to whine about how the public "perceived" him and how unfair it was for the Cowboys to release him. He told Sport magazine, "There are parts of it…like the hate mail. And the Lance Rentzel jokes: I've heard them all. And it hurts, because as I've said many times, I feel like I have some good qualities too."
Gimme a break! Dude pulled out his Little Lance in front of a ten-year-old girl! What are his nice qualities? He's nice to puppies (before he molests them.)
Besides it's been way too long since I've heard a good Lance Rentzel joke.
Here's a couple of facts I bet you didn't know:
His parents named famed cyclist Lance Armstrong after famed pervert Lance Rentzel.
Joey Heatherton and Lance Rentzel were promoted as the "All American Couple." In fact, they even briefly had their own network tv variety show. Heatherton's co-host on the show was Don Knotts.
Finally, despite being one of the most famous sexual deviants in the country, Rentzel later got tv megastar, Victoria Principal, to date him.
I guess she doesn't read much. Ironically, Principal starred in the tv show "Dallas."
3. Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson November 8, 1983 In November of 1983 colorful former Cowboys linebacker Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson was arrested for smoking crack with two under-aged teenage girls. He was accused of threatening them with a gun and sexually assaulting them. Henderson claims he gave the girls crack in exchange for consensual sex. One of the girls was described as a "paraplegic minor." He pled "no contest' and received a sentence of eight months in rehab then spent two years in prison.
Henderson says his "Hollywood" persona died on that November day in 1983. Since then he has devoted his life to charity and community service work. Henderson even won the Texas lottery in 2000 taking home $ 28 million.
Nate Newton develops sudden case of the munchies
2. Nate Newton November 4, 2001 Looking to expand his employment opportunities following his career as a hefty NFL offensive lineman, Nate Newton was arrested with 213 ponds of marijuana in his car. That alone would be impressive enough but FIVE WEEKS LATER he was caught transporting another 175 pounds of weed.
After his jail sentence Nate Newton became a sports talk show host. Of course.
1. Michael Irvin March 4, 1996 The most famous Cowboy arrest of them all! (Like there was any doubt who was going to end up # 1 on this list!) Actually, Irvin would likely have multiple spots here but I tried to spread the wealth.
In March of 1996 police burst through the door of Irvin's hotel room. He was celebrating his 30th birthday and as police poured into the room Irvin was apparently snorting cocaine off of a stripper's breast.
After a circus trial (which Irvin attended wearing a full-length mink coat) "The Playmaker" eventually plead "no contest" and was sentenced to community service, and ordered to pay a $ 10,000 fine .


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2835 SE Stark St.
Portland, OR 97214
(503) 459-4450
|[Photographs: Adam Lindsley]
Then along came Baby Doll Pizza.
What separates this place from the myriad other NY-style pizza joints in the city? Could it be owner Travis Miranda's training at the Culinary Institute of America (which has turned out such nationally renown chefs as the Michaels Symon and Ruhlman)? Maybe, although culinary training has in no way proved a direct corollary to excellent food. You have to have the fire in you, the refusal to be satisfied with the status quo, and the drive to produce something of real quality. That's what I think's running the ship at Baby Doll, which makes the best NY-style pizza I've had in Portland.
One of the big things that sets this pizza apart from its local competitors is the sauce. It's the first thing I tasted when biting into one of Baby Doll's cheese slices, and it's excellent. Most other sauces on NY-style pizzas are too sweet, too salty, or overherbed (like most canned versions). Baby Doll prefers a sauce closer to fresh tomatoes. There's a little salt, fresh garlic, and basil in there, but not much. The organic California tomatoes really shine on their own, which is good, because most of the saltiness is delivered via the grated parmesan and the potently cheesy whole-milk mozzarella (which contains a small amount of buffalo milk, incidentally). I will say that the herbacity of the sauce has varied somewhat from one day to the next, but luckily never too far from the perfect notes hit on my first visit to the pizzeria.
My order on that inaugural visit (which produced the photos you see here) included a whole pie: half cheese, half pepperoni and house sausage. While I preferred the cheese slices (if for no other reason than the sauce had less to compete with and therefore shined all the more), the meaty half of the pizza was no slouch. Their pepperoni was a bit on the mild side for me, but I liked their house sausage; it won't give Apizza Scholls's a run for its money, but it's pleasantly porky and crumbled to cover the pie more evenly. A little more fennel seed would improve it further, because the best bites included that unmistakable hit of anise. This half of the pizza wasn't all that greasy, which really surprised me. Not even the curled-up pepperoni turned into the typical chalices of oil in the heat of the oven. It was nice not having to worry about a stream of grease running off the back of the folded slice and down my arm.
The weakest aspect of Baby Doll Pizza is clearly the crust, which is a standard, dense, bland affair. I wouldn't salt it any more than they already do, though, because the saltiness level of the pizza as a whole is pretty perfect as is. However I wouldn't blame you for not finishing these end crusts, because they're very bready and just not that interesting. The crust is the one thing keeping this pizza in the "very good" category instead of "great."
Apparently, if you order a whole pizza, Baby Doll places a free garlic knot on the center of the pie to prevent the box from bowing and dipping into the cheese. I almost never order garlic knots because I want to save room for more slices, but I liked this one, mostly because it didn't taste like it was infused with garlic powder. A nice (and functional) addition to an already delicious meal.
Like pretty much all pizza, Baby Doll's slices suffer considerably once they've cooled down and been reheated. The sauce in particular takes the biggest hit; once it reaches room temperature it comes off far more herbed than it does hot. But that's a weakness of every pizza I've ever eaten, so Baby Doll should not be singled out for it. To-go slices are similarly less impressive than slices from a freshly baked whole pie, so go big when you can, and remember the words of someone wiser than myself (I'm paraphrasing here because I cannot remember where it originated): "Pizza starts dying as soon as it leaves the oven."
New York-style pizza is not a rarity in Portland, but good New York-style pizza? That's something special. Baby Doll Pizza, even with a boring crust, has raised the (admittedly low) bar on this style of pizza here. If you're ordering a whole pie, it worth going out of your way for.
OVEN: Gas
RECOMMENDED: Cheese pizza, house sausage pizza
Addendum (10/21/13): Many subsequent visits to Baby Doll have proved just how wildly inconsistent it is. Some days the pizza is terrific, other days very mediocre. More often than not the pizza's good, but I recently took some pizza-loving friends on their inaugural visit and our pie was really disappointing. Over-cheesed, limp crust...just not the Baby Doll I tout as the best NY-style pizza in Portland. I really want you to succeed, but you gotta step it up, guys.


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This Ferretti is in perfect condition. Full time crew team is looking after and used only for private.
Engine Hours: 400
Innovation matched with a classic-contemporary design, the perfect recipe of Ferretti Yachts 800, penciled by architect Gianni Zuccon from Studio Zuccon International Project in collaboration with Ferretti Group Engineering, the team of engineers and architects of the Group, and AYT&D (Advanced Yacht Technology & Design), the research center of the Group. The result is a yacht featuring wide interior spaces, with a layout generally adopted in larger vessels, blended with catchy external lines, enhanced by the use of color, in which wide windows characterize the external design, plunging interiors into an amazing quantity of light. The external profile of Ferretti Yachts 800 features to distinguishing characteristics: the use of the bronze color for the dome and the graphic lines of windows, which alternate curvy and smooth lines with sharp 'cuts'.
Neyzen Tevfik Cad
Bodrum Milta Marina


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In traditional sinus surgery, an opening is
made into the sinus. The opening may be made from inside the mouth or through
the skin of the face. See a picture of the locations of the
facial (paranasal) sinuses.
Most of these procedures require admission to a
Recovery from surgery may
Traditional sinus surgery may be done
Traditional surgery is an effective
method of treating chronic sinusitis or sinusitis that has caused
Serious risks include:
Endoscopic surgery has become the
standard type of surgery done for chronic sinusitis. But traditional surgery is
still the best choice in certain cases. The type of surgery you have will
depend on which sinuses are affected and how severely they are damaged.1 For more information, see the topic Endoscopic Surgery for
Surgical treatment of sinusitis should be considered
only when more conservative approaches, such as home treatment and medications,
have failed.
Complete the surgery information form (PDF)(What is a PDF document?) to help you prepare for this surgery.
CitationsJoint Council of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (2005). The diagnosis and management of sinusitis: A practice parameter update. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 116(6 Suppl): S13–S47.
Last Revised:
September 12, 2012
Healthwise Staff
Medical Review:
Patrice Burgess, MD - Family Medicine & Donald R. Mintz, MD - Otolaryngology
This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use. How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions.
To learn more visit Healthwise.org
© 1995-2012 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated.


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It's Life After Labor for the girl's of MTV's season three of 16 and Pregnant. Dr. Drew is on hand to host the reunion and ask the hard-hitting questions, as he interviews Jordan Ward, Jennifer Del Rio, Jamie McKay, Danielle Cunningham, Cleondra Carter, Kayla Jackson, Izabella Tovar, Kianna Randall, Taylor Lumas, and Allie Mendoza.
First in the hot seat is Jordan Ward and her husband Brian Finder. You may remember that Jordan was at the center of a tug-of-war between her twin sister Jessica and Brian. An emotional Jordan reveals to Dr. Drew that she felt the need to have sex so soon because of insecurities brought upon by a very unstable upbringing. On the reunion, the couple explains that they are happily married and living with their son Noah in St. Louis with Jordan's grandparents and sister Jessica. Jessica now sings Brian's praises. Both twins get teary when talking about the future. Jessica is so proud that she is the first in her family to go to college, but is distraught that her sister isn't able to do the same. Jordan still hopes to make something of herself, but admits it's hard to even think of the financial burden that school loans would bring to her new family. Brian has enlisted in the Air Force, and as we know from recent news, the couple is expecting their second child…although that tidbit was not addressed with Dr. Drew.


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Warner Bros wants you to trade in your DVDs for cloud-stored video files, the home entertainment's president has indicated - its latest method to persuade punters to buy rather than rent.
Speaking at a Morgan Stanley tech confab in San Francisco this week, Warner Home Entertainment Group President Kevin Tsujihara outlined an initiative, dubbed 'Disc-to-digital', under which movie fans will be able take discs back to shops and get digital copies.
Likewise, online retailers will provide links to downloadable copies of disc contents. And Tsujihara said he can envisage a time when playing a disc for the first time will automatically add the title to your online library of downloadable files.
There's no timeframe for the plan, but it's clear Tsujihara and co. see it as a way of steering punters away from file-sharing sites and from disc rental and streaming services such as Netflix and Lovefilm.
The industry fears these services not simply because they generate far less revenue for it, but because it encourages, it believes, a 'rent and rip' culture. Disc-to-digital is about replacing that with 'buy and download'.
Make it easier for people to get legitimate copies - duplicates that, unlike rips, will be DRM'd, of course, so can't be shared - of content they've already paid for, and they'll be more likely to carry on buying discs, goes the theory.
Such a scheme could tap into UltraViolet, the Hollywood-backed standard cloud-based film library - with associated DRM tech - that, the industry hopes, will get folk buying Blu-ray Discs to keep. ®


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Were Harry Potter's best days in school? Let's face it, those days at Hogwarts were hard to top: Quidditch stardom, a cute girlfriend, defeating the Dark Lord while saving the entire school. Could Harry move on after that, or would he be one of those guys who keeps hanging around his old school?
The Harry Potter epilogue wasn't the only genre sketch Daniel Radcliffe got on last night's Saturday Night Live. He also got to poke fun at the inconveniences of modern life for an audience in the year 2112.
Folks in Hulu-friendly regions can also watch the Harry Potter sketch (as well as the rest of the episode) there.


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About the Area
Cary was known as a resort retreat in the early 1900s and has grown into a community offering a variety of home styles, some with sweeping views of the Fox River. Although much of its land is reserved for open space, Cary still has room for new neighborhoods with growing families. The train station remains the hub of the downtown with many of Cary's residents commuting daily to Chicago.
Cary is one of the fastest growing communities in McHenry County. The population, as of July 2008, is estimated to be 19,559. A small-town atmosphere combined with good schools, an active park district, and the Fox River attracts newcomers. An active lifestyle can be enjoyed at one of the many outstanding small neighborhood parks, biking trails, a preschool center and a senior's center provide activities for all ages.
Cary residents don't have to travel far to shop. They are within a half-hour drive of several malls, including the Prime Outlets at Huntley and the Spring Hill Mall. Operating under a comprehensive growth plan, the community welcomes commercial businesses and retailers alike.
The school district has kept pace with the community's growth. Cary is well known for its innovation in education, with its magnet schools among the country's best success stories.
Newcomers are attracted to the quiet suburban living and small-town atmosphere. With such a family-friendly image with national recognition's that continually distinguish Cary makes this a great place to live.


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The gallbladder is a small sac under the liver that stores and
concentrates bile, a fluid that helps the body digest fats. After a meal, the
gallbladder contracts and releases bile through the common bile duct into the
small intestine.
Last Revised:
July 15, 2011
Healthwise Staff
Medical Review:
E. Gregory Thompson, MD - Internal Medicine & Arvydas D. Vanagunas, MD - Gastroenterology
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Bianchello: Wine for a Weeknight Wind-Down
There are 1,368 varieties covered in Master of Wine Jancis Robinson's Wine Grapes. Bet you can't try them all.
Note from the author: There are 1,368 varieties covered in Master of Wine Jancis Robinson's new book, Wine Grapes. Bet you can't try them all.
The end of a twelve-hour workday calls for a glass of wine, a quesadilla made in the microwave and the TV remote at the ready. Don't bother me, and please don't force me to think about anything. Is it terrible that I wanted this bottle of Bianchello to be a little unexciting?
Let me be honest: There are nights when I just want a pleasant, refreshing and easy-down-the-hatch wine I can drink two (maybe, um, three) glasses of and not feel like I have to genuflect. Every grape has its occasion, and Claudio Morelli's La Vigna Terrazze Bianchello del Metauro is perfect for exactly this. At the end of a long day, I am beyond thankful for it.
The brief, quarter-page entry on Biancame in Jancis Robinson's Wine Grapes summarizes, "This vigorous, mid- to late-ripening white variety from the Marche[...] is responsible for Bianchello del Matauro DOC wines, which is why the grape itself is sometimes called Bianchello."
It's full of easygoing ripe yellow apple flavors, followed up with a faintly nutty finish, kind of like toasted almonds. But I love the spritzy mouthfeel most—it makes me want to refill my glass...every time the commercial breaks come.
2010 Claudio Morelli La Vigna Terrazze Bianchello del Metauro (Marche, Italy)
The Grape: Bianchello, aka Biancame
The Region: Marche, Italy
Retail Price: $14
The Importer: AI Selections
About the Author: Stevie Stacionis is a wine writer and Certified Sommelier based in San Francisco. She's currently drinking her way through the 1,368 varieties included in the new Wine Grapes tome. Follow her on Twitter @StevieStacionis.
Wine provided as a sample for review consideration.
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


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It doesn't get weirder than that one, neither team could generate any offense, but somehow the Brewers managed to score five runs on three hits. The Cubs weren't any better as they were only able to manage four hits on the night on their way to a 5-2 defeat. Chris Rusin made his major league debut and was very good, unfortunately he didn't get any help from his offense and ended up taking the loss. Rusin went five innings giving up one run on one hit while walking two, hitting two guys, and striking out four. The Brewers "big" inning against Rusin was the fourth, they pushed across a run on one hit thanks to two hit batters and a walk. Rusin got Lucroy to ground into a double play with the bases loaded and one out to avoid any further damage. The Brewers broke it open in the 6th when Alberto Cabrera walked three guys then gave up one hit, all three guys scored, and it was all but over after that. The Cubs were able to score twice in the ninth inning but it was too little too late. Alfsonso Soriano had a solid day at the plate going 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI, he is now hitting .263 on the season with 76 RBI's. The Cubs look to avoid the sweep this afternoon in Milwaukee as Travis Wood takes the mound against Yovanni Gallardo.
Game Highlights:
Chris Rusin's Major League Debut
Castro's RBI Groundout
Soriano's RBI Single
Rusin's First Career Hit…a Triple
Thanks for reading,
– George


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Top Eleven is the most played online soccer management game in which you will have the opportunity to take control of a soccer team, and test and improve your skills while playing against other managers from around the globe.
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Today 5977 User has Generated VBUCKS OGHACKS ORG V Bucks and Extra Vbucks.
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text:
Login Required
You need to have a Pokémon Trainer Club account to save your Favorite Pokémon!Log In Sign Up No Thanks
Most of Gulpin's body is made up of its stomach—its heart and brain are very small in comparison. This Pokémon's stomach contains special enzymes that dissolve anything.
Virtually all of Gulpin's body is its stomach. As a result, it can swallow something its own size. This Pokémon's stomach contains a special fluid that digests anything.
Damages attackers using any draining move.
Protects the Pokémon from item theft.
The Pokémon Company International is not responsible for the content of any linked website that is not operated by The Pokémon Company International. Please note that these websites' privacy policies and security practices may differ from The Pokémon Company International's standards.
Pokemon.com administrators have been notified and will review the screen name for compliance with the Terms of Use.
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Hello Everyone
We are creating a directory of Sencha and Ext JS meetups and local user groups from around the world.
Do you organize one? Or are you a member of one? Or would you like to start one and want to find out if there are any other Sencha fans in your area?
If so, please reply to this thread with details - the name of the group, where you hold the meetups, and a web address if you have one.
We will collate the information altogether and publish the meetup groups on our upcoming web site.
Many thanks,


text:
Physics Park
We welcome to the world of physics. It is a fun and exciting way of learning about physics. What...read more
We welcome to the world of physics. It is a fun and exciting way of learning about physics. What...read more
Do you want to do a fast search for properties of chemical elements? This app is for...read more
Have fun learning all chemical...read more
It will take your quiz and on its base calculate your Chemistry knowledge...read more
Welcome to Learning Science by GameiMax! Explore the colorful and electrifying world of science. Here is your portable chemistry lab, It's only virtual chemistry lab for your device to conduct chemistry experiments, explore all chemistry reactions with lab...read more
Rangkuman Fisika SMP ini merupakan aplikasi android yang memuat ringkasan beserta rumus-rumus fisika untuk pelajar...read more
Chemical Suite includes educational tools related to...read more
Periodic Table it is an application for younger and for these older persons. He contains all most important chemical element. It is an advantage...read more
Features of High School Physics App: 1. Equations Calculator for over 170 equations covering over 20+ topics. 2. 160+ Definitions covering all the topics. 3. Descriptions for all the Units and Lessons. 4. Wiki pages for all the Units and Lessons inside the...read more
Solve physics problems on your Android device with this feature-rich software powered by the Wolfram|Alpha computational knowledge...read more


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I am the woman who passes a mirror and shifts her gaze away. I am the woman who wears oversized clothing to mask the extra 20 or 30 pounds of weight that don't register on my scale. I am the woman who takes the picture rather than appear in the photograph. I am the woman who has had her eyes done, face lifted, collagen and Botox — more than once.
I am the woman who has body dysmorphic disorder.
I was in my mid-20s when I intuited that I had a major body image problem, one that was undermining my life. Although I led an active social life, I tended to avoid serious relationships. I didn't have the courage to discuss this with any of my friends, for fear they wouldn't believe me.
In my late 20s, during a regular checkup, I mentioned all this to my doctor. He told me that my condition was real and had a name. It was a frightening thing for me to hear, but I was too ashamed to ask any questions about the cause or treatment. The World Wide Web and Google hadn't been invented yet, so I confronted the issue by doing my best to handle it by myself.
All these years, I have managed to camouflage my symptoms — although the emotional uncertainty follows me about like a second shadow. When I put on my makeup, I do it one feature at a time so I do not have to consider my face in its entirety. Hairdressers lose me as a customer the moment they spin my chair so that I'm forced to look in the mirror. I shop for clothing in stores that have communal dressing rooms so that I can rely on feedback from others rather than acknowledge my own image.
Latest Health
My secret is that I really do not know what I look like; each attempt to sneak a glance reveals a different facade. When I flip through photo albums of people in my life, I can pick myself out, but I'm always bewildered to find that I appear pretty and slender. How could that be? And how sad to have deprived myself of the confidence I could have had.
Somehow I carved out a happy life and enjoyed successful careers in business and politics. I am blessed with a loving husband and family and many good friends, few of whom would either understand or believe me if I had the courage to confide in them.
Foolishly perhaps, I still carry this difficult burden alone and quietly wonder if I will ever recognize my reflection.
Karyn Foley is a real estate broker and former mayor of Calabasas. firstname.lastname@example.com.
My Turn is a forum for readers to recount an experience related to health or fitness. Submissions should be 500 words or fewer, are subject to editing and condensation and become the property of The Times. Email firstname.lastname@example.com. Read more at latimes.com/myturn.


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Jordan Holliman / Reuters
A tornado is seen near Hattiesburg, Miss., Feb. 10. The tornado, which touched down at approximately 5:30 p.m. local time, was reported to have injured three people and caused damage to the nearby campus of the University of Southern Mississippi.
By Andrew Rafferty, Staff Writer, NBC News
"There are power lines down, some gas lines down. We are encouraging people to stay at home, don't leave home unless you have to," said Kyle Hopkins, a member of Forrest County's Emergency Management team. "University of Southern Mississippi was hit by the tornado. No dorms were damaged and there were no injuries on campus, however some academic buildings were damaged."
The National Weather Service warns that the threat of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes in the Gulf Coast will continue late into Sunday evening. Continue reading.
Related: Tornado damage to University of Southern Mississippi estimated in tens of millions
Rynal Grant / Reuters
Chuck Cook / AP
An overturned car lies in front of the University of Southern Mississippi campus in Hattiesburg, Miss., after a tornado struck.
Youtube video shows damage to power lines and buildings in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, as a series of storms bring severe weather to Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Msnbc's Milissa Rehberger reports.


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Current Theme Song (aka what's playing on my ipod right now): White Shadows by Coldplay.
The Archived Adventures!
As a character on my own adventure out here at the Smithsonian, I'm discovering all over again that little details are so important for a story in making that final leap from trite cliché to startling reality. I keep seeing all these things, little things, that would make a story of an ordinary girl (aka – me) in a very ordinary story (overcoming impossible obstacles in discovering who she is becoming as a young woman all while finding true love! Ahem. Okay, the last part is more wishful thinking) pop out from the page, if I happened to live between the lines of a book.
Here is a list of some quirks of my personal adventure that I've discovered that might not make it into the story from an untrained eye:
1. My shower. It doesn't believe in this temperature called "warm." It's against its religion. It has two preferences – volcanic, and glacial. It speaks both these languages fluently, and often switches between them if I breathe on them wrong.
2. I have ancient space heaters (but ironically with a very posh lobby. I swear, you'd think we were millionaires) – but you know the kind, where you don't see a temperature, but just a little knobby and have to play a careful guessing game to get the right temp. And add to the mix my four other room roommates who we each have our definition of the "right" temperature.
3. My shower is green. Lime green.
4. I have no insulation on any of my apartment windows, and only one sheet of glass. So it gets cold here, very fast (and my head when I sleep is next to the window, which is kinda funny, especially since I like sleeping in a tank top. The space heater is next to my head too. I like the combination of hot and cold. Yes, I'm weird, I know).
5. I have clothes on every surface of my bedroom, all clean, but none in the closet (okay, there's a few).
6. I survive off of pop tarts, instant breakfasts, and fruit smoothies in the morning. Lunch is a sad affair of the same peanut butter and jelly day after day after… Dinners are my specialty though ;)
7. We had a mouse in our apartment. On the fifth floor. And I have no idea how he got up here. I've only seen him once (and hopefully never again).
8. Metro tickets are expensive, and I still feel sick every time my little card number goes down.
9. I rock out to my ipod every morning on the way to work, and I see other very upstanding businessmen listening to theirs too (which I find absolutely hilarious) and I can't help but wonder if they are secretly listening to Metallica. It's a fantastic image.
10. I like Metro surfing. Call me juvenile, but it's fun. I do it discreetly, of course.
11. We have records as decorations on our walls. It's AWESOME.
12. Our dishes are the most random hodge-podge you have ever seen. It's like all the previous interns stole just one glass or one cup from every apartment in the building and brought them to our apartment. There is one bowl that I swear is going to explode any day now.
There's more (oh there's always more, bwahahaha!) but I shall forebear.
Details you never thought to add
Current Theme Song (aka what's playing on my ipod right now): White Shadows by Coldplay.
3 comments:
- Frankie Diane Mallis said...
Heather I love this post! I like all of these little details. And you're right, this is what makes a story jump off the page and stop being a cliche thing. Also, in the winter, my room is sweltering hot, my bed is like over the heater, but I sleep with a fan on-I need that little mix of hot and cold too:-)
- December 7, 2009 at 4:25 PM
- Shannon Messenger said...
Great post Heather. These are the details that add richness to an otherwise boring description. Thanks so much for sharing. Oh, and I'm kind of the opposite. I refuse to let my husband run the heater at night because I LOVE the feel of heavy blankets. I want it freezing so I can snuggle under a mountain of blankets, like it's my own little cocoon. He whines every morning when he has to get out of bed to a cold house, but tough. He married me, he's stuck with me! :)
- December 8, 2009 at 1:00 AM
- Heather Zundel said...
Frankie - I'm glad I'm not the only one. :)
Shannon - I love that feeling too, but I don't like being cold, so it's a precarious balance I walk. But I bet he loves you anyway.
- December 16, 2009 at 2:44 PM


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Food for turf: Slow-release nitrogen
Synthetic controlled-release fertilizers accounted for nearly 30 percent of all fertilizers applied to U.S. golf courses in 2000. Controlled-release nitrogen (N) represented 69 percent of the total N contained in fertilizers applied to U.S. golf courses. These figures are expected to increase because of environmental concerns and the inclusion of controlled-release N in Best Management Practices (BMP) programs.
The basic concept of controlled-release or slow-release fertilizers is that they release their nutrient contents at more gradual rates that permit maximum uptake and utilization of the nutrient while minimizing losses due to leaching, volatilization or excessive turf growth. Methylene urea products are the most popular controlled-release fertilizers, accounting for 63 percent of the total of synthetically produced materials.
Controlled- or slow-release fertilizers are broadly divided into uncoated and coated products. Uncoated products rely on inherent physical characteristics, such as low solubility, for their slow release. Coated products mostly consist of quick-release N sources surrounded by a barrier that prevents the N from releasing rapidly into the environment. Different mechanisms, but similar (though not identical) end results.
The terms "controlled-release" and "slow-release" can mean different things to different people, but for purposes of this discussion, the two terms are synonymous. Except for a few slow-release K sources, almost all slow-release fertilizers are N sources. They represent a relatively small segment of the total fertilizer industry (3 to 4 percent), but their use is growing faster than soluble (quick-release) materials. This is primarily because they reduce the overall environmental impact of N fertilizers, as now mandated in BMPs.
Following is a discussion of the chemistry, mechanism of release and anticipated turfgrass response to the application of the different types of slow-release materials used on turf.
Uncoated controlled-release fertilizers
Non-coated materials of limited solubility can, for the most part, be manufactured in a smaller particle size than coated products, which makes them good choices for use on putting greens and other close-cut turf. (Although some coated-fertilizer manufacturers produce coated products of small size designed specifically for close-cut turf.)
Another characteristic of uncoated products is that they are homogenous. That is, their composition is the same throughout the particle. By contrast, coated products, which consist of a fertilizer core, or substrate, surrounded by a coating are not homogenous. This is important because a coated product's release rate depends on the integrity of its coat. If a mower or some other equipment damages a particle, it will release its nutrient almost immediately. Homogenous fertilizers, by contrast, release at a rate that is not dependent on any coating. Thus, equipment cannot destroy the fertilizer particles' slow-release characteristics.
- Ureaformaldehyde reaction products
Ureaformaldehyde (UF) reaction products represent one of the oldest controlled-release N technologies, having been first produced in 1936 and commercialized in 1955. Urea and formaldehyde are reacted together to various extents to produce polymer-chain molecules of varying lengths. The more these products are reacted, the longer the chains tend to be. Chain length, in turn, affects release characteristics.
Ureaform is the oldest class of UF reaction products. It is sparingly soluble, and contains at least 35 percent total N, with at least 60 percent of the total N as cold-water-insoluble N (CWIN). Ureaform is composed largely of longer-chained molecules of UF polymers. The unreacted (and, therefore, quick-release) urea N content in UF is usually less than 15 percent of the total N.
Methylene ureas are a class of sparingly soluble products that evolved during the 1960s and 1970s. These products predominantly contain intermediate-chain-length polymers. The total N content of these polymers is 39 to 40 percent, with between 25 and 60 percent of the N present as CWIN. The unreacted urea N content generally is in the range of 15 to 30 percent of the total N.
UF solutions are clear water solutions. They contain only very-low-molecular-weight, water-soluble UF reaction products, plus unreacted urea. Various combinations of the UF solutions are produced. They contain a maximum of 55 percent unreacted urea with the remainder as one or more of methylolureas, methylolurea ethers, MDU, DMTU or triazone.
Agronomic properties and nutrient release mechanisms of UF materials. The conversion of UF reaction products to plant-available N is a multi-step process, involving dissolution first, and then microbial decomposition. Once in the soil solution, UF reaction products are converted to plant-available N through either microbial decomposition or hydrolysis. Microbial decomposition is the primary mechanism of N release. Environmental factors such as soil temperature, moisture, pH and aeration affect microbial activity and, therefore, the rate of N release.
The rate of N release from UF reaction products is directly affected by polymer chain length. The longer the methylene urea polymer, the longer it takes for the N to become available. For ureaform and methylene urea products, the rate of mineralization is reflected by the CWIN content and its Activity Index. The higher the AI value, the more rapidly the N will become available. It is questionable if the very long methylene urea polymers (HWIN) are effectively used by the plant.
- Isobutylidene diurea (IBDU)
Unlike the reaction of urea and formaldehyde, which forms a distribution of different UF polymer chain lengths, the reaction of urea with isobutyraldehyde forms a single type of molecule. Although similar in chemical structure to methylene diurea (MDU), its physical properties are quite different.
IBDU is a white crystalline solid available in fine (0.5 to 1.0 mm), coarse (.7 to 2.5 mm) and chunk (2.0 to 3.0 mm) particle sizes. The product contains a minimum of 30 percent N with 90 percent of the N in water-insoluble form. The typical commercialized product contains about 31 percent N.
Agronomic properties and nutrient release mechanisms of IBDU. Nitrogen from IBDU becomes available to plants through hydrolysis. In the presence of water, the compound will hydrolyze (break down) to urea and isobutyraldehyde. The rate of hydrolysis is accelerated by low pH and high temperature. Unlike UF polymers that rely on soil microbial populations to make the N available, IBDU is primarily dependent on water as the critical element in N availability. Its low water solubility controls the transport of the product into the soil solution.
The rate at which IBDU dissolves in water is affected by particle size and the amount of water available. Once in the soil solution, the rate of hydrolysis is affected by soil pH and temperature. The powder form is mineralized much more rapidly than large particles under the same field conditions.
Because N release from IBDU is not microbe-dependent, it occurs readily at relatively low temperatures. Thus, it is one of the preferred products for cool-season applications. These, combined with the dependency on moisture, are the distinguishing characteristics of IBDU.
IBDU is used on turf, in commercial nurseries and in landscaping, forestry and specialty agriculture. Although some fine-size IBDU (31-0-0) is used alone for direct application to golf course greens, most turf use is in the form of blended fertilizers, often in combination with other types of controlled-release fertilizers.
Coated slow-release products
Coated products have several advantages. Some coated products offer a relatively inexpensive means to exploit slow-release characteristics. They also may offer desirable release characteristics in certain conditions.
- Sulfur-coated fertilizers
Sulfur-coated urea (SCU) technology was developed in the 1960s and 1970s by the National Fertilizer Development Center. Sulfur was chosen as the principle coating material because of its low cost and its value as a secondary nutrient.
As the name suggests, SCUs are simply particles of urea coated with a layer of sulfur, and usually a sealant as well. SCUs are typically brown to tan or yellow, depending on the source of urea and whether a sealant is used. Soft sealants are used as a secondary coating over the sulfur coating to fill imperfections in the sulfur coating and to help keep the brittle sulfur shell intact during handling. The total N content of SCUs varies with the amount of coating applied. Many range from 30 to 40 percent N.
Agronomic properties and nutrient release mechanisms of SCU. The mechanism of N release from SCU is by water penetration through micropores and imperfections (i.e., cracks) or incomplete sulfur coverage in the coating. This is followed by a rapid release of the dissolved urea from the core of the particle. When wax sealants are used, a dual release mechanism is created. Microbes in the soil environment must attack the sealant to reveal the imperfections in the sulfur coating. Because microbial activity varies with temperature, the release properties of the wax-sealed SCUs are also temperature dependent.
Even though the urea from a SCU single particle is released rapidly once the coating fails, SCUs provide extended, gradual N release because some particle coatings fail sooner, others fail later, and so forth. The overall result is a gradual release of N to the turf.
The release rate of a single SCU particle is directly affected by the coating thickness and the coating quality. Particles with higher sulfur loads (thicker coatings) typically show fewer imperfections than particles with lighter coatings. You can infer, therefore, that thicker coatings may be desirable because they will extend the release rate. There is a risk, however, that particles with sulfur coatings that are too thick will exhibit lock-off, which means they may never effectively release their N.
Depending on the coating weight, N application rate and environmental conditions, SCUs can effectively provide N for 6 to 16 weeks in turf applications. Because of the differential release of N due to the lack of uniformity in coating thickness and the influence of temperature on N release, severe mottling has been observed in turf, particularly close-cut turf such as greens, when SCU was applied during the cool-season growth period.
- Polymer-coated fertilizers
Polymer-coated fertilizers (PCF) represent the most technically advanced state of the art in terms of controlling product longevity and nutrient efficiency. Most PCFs release nutrients by diffusion through a semipermeable polymer membrane, and the release rate can be controlled by varying the composition and thickness of the coating. The type of fertilizer substrate also may influence the rate of N release.
Meister products. Meister products are produced by using thermoplastic resins as coating materials. The coatings are applied to a variety of substrates including urea, diammonium phosphate, potassium sulfate, potassium chloride and ammonium nitrate. Release-controlling agents such as ethylene-vinyl acetate and surfactants are added to the coating to obtain the desired diffusion characteristics, while coating thicknesses remain similar for most products. Release rates can also be altered by blending talc resin into the coating.
As with other PCFs, nutrients are released by diffusion through the coating. Typical of most polymer-coated fertilizers, the release is largely controlled by temperature.
Reactive Layer Coating. A relatively new coating technology known as reactive layer coating (RLC) combines two reactive monomers as they are simultaneously applied to the fertilizer substrate. These reactions create an ultra-thin membrane coating, which controls nutrient release by osmotic diffusion. RLC products include coated basic fertilizer materials such as urea, potassium nitrate, potassium sulfate, potassium chloride, ammonium sulfate, ammonium phosphate and iron sulfate, in various particle sizes. Coating weights on urea vary from 1.5 to 15 percent, depending on the release duration desired.
The RLC process permits application of ultra-thin, hence lower cost, membrane coatings, which distinguishes this technology from many other PCFs. Another advantage of RLC is that its manufacturing process costs less than many other commercial polymer-coated fertilizer technologies.
The coating thickness determines the diffusion rate and the duration of release for RLC products. RLC-coated urea with a 4-percent coating (44 percent N) will release at twice the rate and will have half the duration as an 8-percent coating (42 percent N).
Multicote products. In the production of multicote products, fertilizer granules are heated in a rotating pan and treated with materials that create multiple layers of a fatty acid salt. This is followed by the application of a paraffin topcoat. Coating weights are relatively large compared to other technologies, but this is offset by the comparatively low cost of the coating materials. Substrates include potassium nitrate, urea and triple superphosphate. The various coated components are blended together into different grades.
- Polymer-coated sulfur-coated fertilizers
Polymer-/sulfur-coated fertilizers (PSCF) are hybrid products that utilize a primary coating of sulfur and a secondary polymer coat. These fertilizers were developed to deliver controlled-release performance approaching that of polymer-coated fertilizers but at a much-reduced cost. Sulfur is employed as the primary coating because of its low cost. Low levels of a polymer topcoat control the nutrient release rate. Unlike the soft wax sealants of SCUs, the polymers of PSCFs are chosen to provide a continuous membrane through which water and nutrients must diffuse, rather than fill in imperfections. The water permeability characteristics of the polymer controls the rate of water diffusion in and out of the particle. The combination of the two coatings permits a positive cost/benefit value over products with single coatings of either sulfur or polymer. PSCFs possess excellent abrasion resistance and handling integrity. Because the outer coating is a hard polymer, the products do not leave waxy residues on application equipment.
The nutrient-release mechanism of PSCFs is a combination of diffusion and capillary action. Water vapor must first diffuse through the continuous polymer layer. The rate of diffusion is controlled by the composition and thickness of the polymeric film. Once at the sulfur/polymer interface, the water subsequently penetrates the defects in the sulfur coat through capillary action and begins to dissolve the fertilizer core. The dissolved fertilizer then exits the particle in reverse sequence.
This mechanism provides greater uniformity in nutrient release compared to typical SCU fertilizers. The agronomic advantages of this are reduced surge growth after application and longer residual; up to 6 months. In addition, the combination coating renders the nutrient release rate much less temperature sensitive than most polymer-coated fertilizers.
Growth responses to controlled-release fertilizers
Most controlled-release fertilizers are N-based, and most of the research involving them has evaluated plant responses to N application. Additionally, because most controlled-release N sources cost several times more per pound of N than the soluble sources, most of the evaluation has been conducted on higher-cash-value crops such as ornamentals, vegetables, citrus and turfgrasses. Little research has been conducted on agronomic crops because their use in this sector is not considered economically feasible. Technologies currently under development may reduce the cost of controlled-release products to the point that they can be used on agronomic crops, but such is not yet the case.
- Responses on turfgrasses
Probably more research has been conducted evaluating the response of turfgrasses to controlled-release fertilizers (CRF) than any other plant. Turfgrasses respond well to N and the slow-release extended longevity of N is well suited for turfgrass growth.
The various controlled-release fertilizers respond differently to temperature and climatic conditions. In areas where different turfgrass species are grown during different seasons, it is important to know which CRF to use on the turfgrass species that is actively growing. For example, in many parts of the United States, bermudagrass is grown as the warm-season turfgrass species, and overseeded ryegrass or Poa trivialis is grown during the cool-season. Different CRF products will produce various responses in these different turfgrass species.
The cool-season turfgrasses grow best when supplied with CRFs that are not temperature-dependent for N release, such as IBDU (see Figure 1, page 16). Ureaform products tend not to produce acceptable turfgrass growth or quality ratings when applied alone during the cool season because of the slow release on N under low-temperature conditions. Generally, he coated materials are somewhat intermediate in their response on turfgrasses during the cool-season. The type and thickness of the polymer coating has an influence on the cool-season response.
In general, the various CRFs produce a different relative response when applied during the warm-season growth period. In areas of high rainfall, IBDU tends not to produce as good or as long a growth response as some of the other CRFs during the warm season, while coated products tend to produce a better, more long-lived response in these conditions (see Figure 2, above). Methylene ureas and ureaformaldehyde products produce somewhat intermediate responses. Nitrogen release rate for some of the more methylated ureaforms is still somewhat slow, even in the warm season, and the turfgrass growth rates tend to lag behind that of some of the other CRFs. This may be desirable if it helps you maintain acceptable quality with less mowing.
There is another advantage to using some of the ureaform products: with continued use, soil tends to accumulate N, which is slowly released over an extended period, perhaps enabling a reduction in the application of N over the long term.
Environmental impacts
Not only do CRFs enhance the efficiency of nutrient utilization, they also reduce the impact on the environment and the possible contamination of the subsurface water with N. Significantly, less N has been shown to leach from controlled-release products than from soluble N sources. For this reason, controlled-release N sources are being recommended as a BMP. In the future, as a result of BMPs for various crops, the demand for controlled-release products should increase.
Numerous studies have been conducted on turfgrass to evaluate the quantity of N lost through leaching. Almost without exception, application of CRFs to turf results in less total N being leached. In a grow-in study where the turfgrass was under intensive N-management conditions, approximately 25 percent of the N leached when applied as ammonium nitrate, whereas only 8 percent of the N leached when 50 percent of the N was applied as IBDU. A primary advantage to using CRFs is the reduced threat of groundwater contamination with N. This is one reason CRFs are frequently recommended as a BMP.
Dr. Jerry B. Sartain is professor of turfgrass science in the Soil and Water Science Department at the University of Florida (Gainesville, Fla.).
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The Albany Sonic Arts Collective is bringing Jason Anthony Harris, known as Public Speaking, to the Upstate Artist Guild Wednesday April 3rd.
Harris makes songs out of little pieces of sound that he coaxes into beats which then mingle together with horns, guitars, and other orchestration. It is his voice that glues all of these pieces together transforming these sounds into something closing in on the sublime. Check out "Funny You Ask" (below) it's really great.
1983 is an alias of Jason Cosco, who has played live on WCDB before as part of Grab Ass Cowboys. Cosco makes harsh dark pieces—the audio equivalent of course sandpaper—in the best possible way that is.
Tiki bats bring the heat with their danceable chaos. They meld punk, industrial, noise, and what ever else together to get something, that on somedays, you might be able to dance to.
It should be an awesome show. You can get more info at the Albany Sonic Arts Collective website


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Easy fold-away side table with a zig-zag design gives you more on-stage performance room!
Need more performance space onstage?What you really need is a handy place to put the props you are about to use, or to safely put down the effects you've already done. How about a portable table? Here's another great table based on the famous Harbin "Pack-A-Way" table design! This is a classic design, for a good reason! Sets up in a flash, and folds away just as quickly and easily!
This is a table that is easy to carry and easy to use, especially if you are working without any assistants. It starts out as a flat folded up unit, but quickly converts to a convenient side table size, making your show look more exciting, professional and fun. When you use a magical-looking stage table like this one, you really set your audience in the right mood for magic!
What to use it for? Don't fumble around with props after you've used them! Finish a trick, and place it aside on this table, out of the way of your main performing space. Keeps the flow of your show going smoothly and without interruption. Plus, take a tip from the famous stage magicians like Blackstone Sr.- leave as many props visible after using them as possible. Makes your show look bigger!
The entire table is made of wood. The base is cut into a visually striking zig-zag shape, reminding you of Robert Harbin's famous ZIG ZAG GIRL illusion. How magical is that??
The table is approximately 28" high. The table top is a really generous 19.5" x 12", with a working height of 28". This table will give you many years of dependable use!
And that's all you need!
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French travel icon, Club Med, will be likely Chinese-owned by Feb 9 after regulators approved the takeover bid by Fosun International, which has offered €24.60 per share for the resort operator, valuing it at around €939 million. Fosun has been in a bidding war with Italian businessman Andrea Bonomi for Club Med since May, 2013, the longest takeover fight in the history of the Paris Bourse.
- Sydney, November, 2020 -
Work is under way on Short Term Thinking, the first Australian event focused on short stay accommodation.
It will be an action-packed day where all sectors of the industry can meet, learn and network, setting up their year ahead with new relationships, contacts and prospects.
Space has been blocked for mid-November in Sydney.
While a lot can change between then and now, we're confident we'll be able to run a flesh and blood event with live streaming for those who can't make it.
Because final capacity is understandably uncertain at this point, please register your interest to be put on a non-obligatory wait list and also receive the latest updates.
At the moment we're looking for foundation partners - please call event producer Martin Kelly on 0414 774 978 to find out more.
Travel IQ is a content, marketing, research and strategy consultancy for travel businesses.
It helps travel companies improve positioning, communications, stakeholder engagement and public relations through content-led strategic initiatives.
Typically, Travel IQ develops a multi-tier approach including stories/blog posts, newsletters, media releases, white papers, reports and events - all designed to better connect business with their customers.
Often, clients have neglected their marketing communications, so Travel IQ works with them to create credible positioning and messaging to ensure a solid, relevant platform before embarking on outreach.
Travel IQ is run by Martin Kelly, who has a strong background in travel, journalism, communications and marketing.
He is also a respected travel industry analyst, contributing to Phocuswright's regional research reports while representing them as a speaker at events in Australia and overseas.
For further information please email email@example.com
We're proud to be a part of Travel Massive - a tourism community that started in Sydney and has grown to more than 40,000 members world-wide in 70 countries.
Connect with TravelTrends on Travel Massive, and join the community so your business can get discovered.
You can find Travel Massive in these Australian cities:
It's a fantastic community - the only one of its kind - isn't it time you joined?


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I am working on a site where a user will input an email address, it will then need to be checked whether or not that email exists in a database, and only if it exists can the user continue. What I would like ideally is an input field where the user writes the email, then below that a line which shows either green for 'email found' or red 'email not found, try again'. I also want the user to be unable to continue if the email field is filled in, but giving the 'not found' message.
I have been searching for hours for a tutorial on this, but so far could not find any.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!


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Login pages are very useful for websites, whether you want to lock down membership pages or make users login to download files, the reasons are endless. This tutorial is going to be based on the need of a login page for an Admin console on a website, it will be limited to one account, but I will write another one to show how to connect to a database.
Now, let's begin shall we?
First of all, open your program of choice, mines VS 2005 as usual.
Then, go to your project and a new page. It can be a content page or just a plain page. I'm going to name mine login.aspx.
Next, go into the code behind file and in the Page_Load write the following code.
You will notice that my page inherits from a custom Page Class, don't worry about this, the default Page Class will still work.
Time to explain the code above :
- If Not Page.IsPostBack Then - This checks to see if the user hit refresh or F5. If they didn't, then bind the page.
- Private Sub BindData() - This is just a routine that will hold any special binding code.
Once you have that setup, import System.Web.Security
Now, go into the actual HTML view of the page (Also called Design view). Here is where you can decide how you want to do this. I'm going to create a Panel so I can switch the whole login section on and off. You can use a Div here with it set to runat="server" I'm going to place a Table inside of my Panel so I can easily setup the structure of the page. I'm making the first row host two Labels, one for telling the user to enter his Email and Password to login and the other to tell the user if they entered in wrong data. Make a Textbox for the Email and Password, make them both required by using a RequiredFieldValidator. I add a Regex to the Email Textbox to verify it is a correctly formatted address.
Here is the RegEx: ^\w+([\.-]?\w+)*@\w+([\.-]?\w+)*(\.\w{2,4})+$
Next, add a button so the user can submit their Email and Password. Here is how mine looks.
I added another Panel underneath the one I just created, you can do it however you want.
Next, go back to the code behind and create the Page_PreRender, then add a check to see if the user is loged in (The code comes included when you Import the Security dll). If they are, it shows the loged in Panel (Or whatever you choose to use), if not, it displays the login Panel. Then we set the Email Textbox to focus.
Now, in the code behind again, make the Button Click event. This is where the magic happens. When the button gets click, the first thing we do is check to see if the Page.IsValid. This checks to see if all the validators passed or not. If that goes through, we want to see if the Email and Password they entered match what is stored in the Web.config (I'll show you how to set this up). If it is, then set a Cookie and take them to where they were headed.
Time for the final piece, setting up the Web.config to store the Email and Password. The following bit of code goes in the <system.web> tag.
You won't have to change any of the above code except for the Email and Password (of course) and forms name, it must be in that style, you need to keep the .ASPXAUTH and just add your project name to the end.
And there you have it. A login page to keep your Admin console safe . If you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them here. Thanks for reading!


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- Focus on Funds
Hedge Fund Managers Outperform In May; Industry Assets Hit $1.8 Trillion
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Even though hedge funds lost on average 1.2% in May, that was better than most of their underlying benchmarks, says independent market researcher Eurekahedge.
Managers in all regions outperformed, according to a report sent to clients today.
Still, May was the first negative month for hedge funds since June 2010. But Eurekahedge points out that the MSCI World Index lost much more, 2.5%, in the month.
Downside performance of hedge funds was limited to less than 2% on a regional basis. For example, Latin American hedge funds were actually up 0.42%, beating the MSCI EM Latin America Index, which was down 3.18% in the month.
Long/short equity and multi-strategy funds were up 0.54% and 0.44%, respectively. Distressed debt hedge funds produced a ninth-straight month of positive returns.
Also, assets in global macro hedge funds assets reached a record $122 billion.
Industry assets dropped by $5 billion to a total of $1.82 trillion.
Hedge funds attracted net positive asset flows of $8.1 billion in the month, bringing the total asset flow for the year to $113.8 billion.


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I've been using iPads in education for as long as there have been iPads available to use in education. I implemented the world's first whole-school, one-to-one iPad program, in which all students in my school use iPads full time.
The iPad has served us very well over the last four years but, recently I had grown concerned that iPad was always going to remain the little brother to the Mac. Before WWDC last year, I wrote a blog post in which I outlined the limitations of iOS that we'd discovered when using the platform full-time for serious productivity work.
Last year, I didn't get much that was on my iOS 7 wish-list. (We did get AirDrop and it has been transformational in how easy it is to move large data files around the classroom.) But at WWDC 2014, Apple delivered on a huge chunk of my wish-list, and I couldn't be happier.
The most important feature in iOS 8 for someone who wants to use the iPad as a primary computing device is called extensibility. In fact, I think you could summarize this year's WWDC for education as, "extensibility and...some other stuff." That's not to discount the importance of the many other announcements, but rather an observation about just how important extensibility is for the serious iOS user.
Until now, apps on iOS have had limited means of working together. For example, if I want to save a webpage in Evernote on my iPad (as I often do), the fact that Safari and Evernote cannot directly communicate is a serious impediment. A technique commonly used by "capture a webpage" apps such as Pocket is to check to see if the user has copied a URL to the clipboard when the app is launched; if it is, the app prompts the user to save it. This is awkward and frustrating, even if you understand why it's necessary.
Extensibility will end all of that. In iOS 8, apps can offer to present a small amount of their user interface inside another app. This means that Evernote or Pocket could provide an extension that hooks into Safari and directly clips the current page to their services, without the user ever leaving Safari.
It's not just for the Web, though. A huge source of my "read later" material comes from Twitter. In iOS 7, the ability to send links to Pocket has been something that the developers of apps like Tweetbot and Twitterrific have had to build into their apps. But what if I want to send all my Twitter links directly to Evernote instead? Under iOS 7, I need to lobby every developer of every app I use to build in support for Evernote. In iOS 8, the Evernote developers could make this happen themselves.
Extensibility is going to open up a whole new range of workflows in iOS 8 and, most importantly, make them accessible and understandable to ordinary users. I cannot overstate its importance: extensibility will enable us to stop having those awkward "there's no way to do that on iOS" conversations. If there isn't a way, developers can now make one.
iCloud Drive
I have mixed feelings about iCloud Drive. As a teacher, I have gone from spending time each lesson helping students find the files they saved "somewhere" on their Macs to having them always understand that "your Pages files are inside Pages" on the iPad. The re-thinking of the filesystem that Apple did in iOS has been a huge win when working with novice users.
There's no denying, though, that it was a limitation for more advanced users. There was no way to open a file in another app without copying it to that app and copying it back, duplicating the file twice in the process.
iCloud Drive, essentially, puts the filesystem back into iOS. Not having used it yet, I'm rather conflicted about it. I suspect Apple is too, given the tiny sliver of attention that it was given in the iOS section of the keynote. I had hoped that Apple could satisfy the needs of advanced users without falling back on the hierarchical filesystem that we've used for so long. With OS X Lion, Apple tried to bring the iOS document model to OS X with Documents in the Cloud. I use this extensively but, ultimately, perhaps this is one legacy technology that even Apple can't ditch.
For education, my concern is two-fold. Firstly, from a teaching point of view, I hope that Apple has not reintroduced the ability to "lose" your files on iOS by saving them in the wrong place. There does still seem to be the concept of having app-specific folders for files, but the devil will be in the exact details of the usage model. I'll reserve judgment until I've tried it.
My second concern is about the deployment model. Currently our students use iCloud for those apps that use it--Pages, Keynote, Numbers and a few others. If every app adopts iCloud Drive, I wonder if that will lead to students eating up their iCloud storage allocation more quickly. Apple has announced lower price points for additional iCloud storage, but schools will need some way to provision students with that kind of storage that doesn't involve handing out gift cards.
Google Drive, by contrast, provides schools with 30GB for each student for free. Given the general trends in the cost of cloud storage, it is disappointing to see Apple being less aggressive than it could be here. Still, it's not just about the cost; it's about how easy or difficult it is to actually provide a student with an extension to their iCloud storage limits.
When I started deploying iOS in my school in 2010, the process we went through to set up devices and deploy apps was exactly the same process that I went through to set up my personal iPad. That process was never going to scale beyond 100 or so devices. Today, iOS deployment has become far more professionalised and far more scaleable.
iOS 7 actually did a ton of work to improve this area of iOS management. It introduced Managed Distribution--the ability to deploy apps to devices over the air--and the Device Enrollment Program that hooks your own management tools into the iOS Setup Assistant.
What iOS 8 brings to the table, by comparison, is smaller but still very welcome.
Firstly, there are new Mobile Device Management (MDM) controls and queries. An MDM query allows a management server to interrogate the device to find out something about its state. One that I will use heavily is the ability to discover when a device last backed up to iCloud. This will allow me to be alerted by my management server when students run into trouble with their iCloud backups and help them.
iOS 7 introduced a Web-filter restriction. This restriction, if applied, would enable a content filter that worked at the lowest levels of the iOS networking stack to filter out objectionable content. The problem was that the way iOS decided what was, and was not, objectionable was both extremely crude and almost totally non-configurable. iOS 8 introduces the ability for third-party developers to hook into this system and provide content filtering.
Apple TV has become de rigueur for many schools making heavy use of iOS, but it has always been a little difficult to manage them on large school networks. iOS 7 introduced some new capabilities to make this easier, but it wasn't quite the breakthrough it needed to be.
Last year, Apple added the ability to use Bluetooth to allow an iOS device to discover that it was close to an Apple TV. This eliminated one problem with discovering Apple TV across a large network, but you still needed to be able to send traffic between the iOS device and the Apple TV across that network. This was a problem for many schools where, for example, the student network and the staff network were isolated from each other.
iOS 8 promises to eliminate this problem entirely by, well, eliminating the need for a network between the two devices. Whereas iOS 7 had peer-to-peer discovery, iOS 8 has peer-to-peer discovery and playback.
This is important in several areas. Firstly, those schools with complex networks no longer need to find workarounds to accommodate Apple TV. Secondly, those schools with no networks can still buy and use Apple TV in the classroom. Thirdly (and this is dear to my heart as a travelling consultant), visitors to the school will not need to sneak onto the network just to use the Apple TV.
Keyboard Replacement
This is perhaps a smaller issue. I have not seen much evidence in my school that the iOS keyboard is a barrier to using the device. iOS typing is all about practice, something our students get plenty of. This is also true of a physical keyboard too--something forgotten by many commentators who confuse "what they grew up with" and "the way things should be".
That said, the iOS keyboard has always presented its key caps in upper case. This is actually a problem for younger users who, for starters, don't know any letters at all but, secondly, they're always introduced to lower-case letters first. I hope some enterprising developer will build a lower-case keyboard for schools. Just don't set the caps in Comic Sans, OK?
iPad 2 support
iPad 2 was the iPad that wouldn't die. It lived on in Apple's product line long after it had been made obsolete by newer devices with far faster processors, more memory, better screens, cameras, accessory connectors and network radios. Apple finally ditched it in March, replacing it with one model of the fourth-generation iPad. This was a good thing.
In the years 2011-2014, schools were buying iPad 2 like it was going out of style (which it was). The main reason was that device-to-student ratios trump all other considerations. The most important thing in my experience is to get to a situation where students don't have to share devices, and iPad 2 made that possible for some schools.
I don't have hard data on this, but I imagine that the installed base of iPad 2 is disproportionately slanted towards education. The fact that iOS 8 will run on iPad 2 is a source of relief to many IT managers in schools.
Overall, I'm delighted that iOS has come out of a slightly awkward stage in its development. iOS 6 and iOS 7 really didn't move the platform forward in substantial ways that had obvious impact on users. iOS 8 promises to take the experience of the serious iOS user to a whole new level. I can't wait to see what developers do with it.


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So I bought this camera off a guy who works as a doorman at the Congress Hotel, which is supposedly haunted or whatever. Guy said he found it in a room in basement in a closet that hadn't been opened since 1908. Or 1969, he couldn't remember.
Anyway - really old. Uses film.
I brought it to Wrigley towards the end of this season and took some pictures. Just a regular day, nothing out of the ordinary.
Then I forgot about it.
Just the other day I had the film developed and... LOOK AT THOSE HORRIFYING IMAGES!
It captured actual paranormal activity at my favorite ball park.
Amazingly (and apparently), people or experiences just leave a "ghost" of themselves even if they're still alive.
(I'm certain I'll be contacted by ghost hunters and experts on the paranormal wanting to pay big dollars for my camera, but it was unfortunately destroyed in an accident involving fire, fly wings, a photo of Sam Zell and goat's blood.)
But come ON, what an amazing coincidence I got this photo developed right when Halloween is upon us!
And oddly, it got me thinking about Lou Piniella.
Time will tell, but years from now his legacy just might be remembered the most in popular culture by two words that escaped his mouth while talking to Tribune beat writers: "Cubby Occurrence".
Sure I know the popular way to think about the Cubs any more is to steer clear of goats and jinxes and hexes and stuff. But the other day I'm listening to hugely respected Buster Olney on the radio, and he's talking about the weird "energy" around the San Francisco Giants. How every bounce is going their way. I think I even heard the word "karma" in there somewhere. There are different words to use when it's all positive, right Buster?
But if you're from Texas?
It's nothing but Cubby Occurrences happening to your favorite team, Rangers Fans, and I say "welcome to the club, ya'll".
Well actually, since it's Halloween, lets just call it paranormal activity and leave it at that.
What else?
The World Series continues this evening in Texas.
Lets see if the activity continues.
By the way, I tried to watch that first "Paranormal Activity" movie by myself awhile back.
I honestly got maybe 11 minutes into the movie. Then I turned it off, turned on all the lights, grabbed the butcher knife, sat a chair in a corner so I could see everything, and tried not to cry.
Do not under any circumstances see that movie, or the new one.