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Recently, the debate on the origins of the major European Y chromosome haplogroup R1b1b2-M269 has reignited, and opinion has moved away from Palaeolithic origins to the notion of a younger Neolithic spread of these chromosomes from the Near East. Here, we address this debate by investigating frequency patterns and diversity in the largest collection of R1b1b2-M269 chromosomes yet assembled. Our analysis reveals no geographical trends in diversity, in contradiction to expectation under the Neolithic hypothesis, and suggests an alternative explanation for the apparent cline in diversity recently described. We further investigate the young, STR-based time to the most recent common ancestor estimates proposed so far for R-M269-related lineages and find evidence for an appreciable effect of microsatellite choice on age estimates. As a consequence, the existing data and tools are insufficient to make credible estimates for the age of this haplogroup, and conclusions about the timing of its origin and dispersal should be viewed with a large degree of caution.
1. Introduction
Since the first attempts to use biological variation in humans to aid our understanding of early human migrations, the peopling of Europe has been a major research focus [1,2]. Following the development of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent some 10 000 years ago [3,4], this technology spread from the Near East westward into Europe, causing a major cultural transition from itinerant hunter–gathering to sedentary farming, which led to dramatic population growth [5,6], during what has become known as the Neolithic transition [7,8]. Within this archaeological framework, debate rages about the relative contributions to modern European populations of the first people of Europe and those who migrated into it with the Neolithic transition, both in terms of their genetic legacy and as to the processes of migration and succession [9–16]. The true scenario is undoubtedly multi-faceted and complex. Both early work on 'classical markers' using principal components analysis and more recent studies using the Y chromosome have shown that in Europe, genetic variation is distributed along a southeast–northwest gradient. Such observations have been suggested to support a model of demic diffusion for the Neolithic transition in Europe (i.e. that the spread of agriculture also involved an associated movement of people from the Near East) [2,17–19].
New work [20–22] has addressed the Neolithic transition in Europe by focusing on the main western European Y chromosome haplogroup R1b1b2-M269 (hereafter referred to as R-M269). This lineage had hitherto received little recent attention in this context, although previous work suggested that the broader R-M173 clade (excluding the R1a-M17 sub-lineage) and Haplogroup 1 (derived at single nucleotide polymorphism, or SNP, 92r7) are likely to have spread into Europe during the Palaeolithic [17,18,23], and therefore unlikely to have been carried into Europe with the migrating farmers. Balaresque et al. [20] (hereafter 'Balaresque') used 840 Y chromosomes within haplogroup R-M269 to show that, although this haplogroup is characterized by a strong frequency cline from high in the west to low in the east, the associated cline in haplotype diversity (measured as mean short tandem repeat, or STR, variance) is in the opposite direction. They posited that this correlation could be explained by a more recent dispersal of this lineage from the Near East coinciding with the Neolithic transition in Europe. The lineage was estimated to be approximately 6000 years old in various populations, which was argued to be consistent with this model. This result, as noted in their introduction, 'indicates that the great majority of the Y chromosomes of Europeans have their origins in the Neolithic expansion' (p. 2 in [20]).
Myres et al. [21] described several new SNP mutations downstream of R-M269 that show strong geographical structuring in a much larger sample of 2043 R-M269 chromosomes. They highlight an essentially European-specific clade, defined by the presence of SNPs M412 (also known as S167) and L11 (S127), which is clinal from high frequencies (greater than 70%) in western Europe, decreasing eastward. This study showed that the distributions of several downstream SNPs exhibit striking frequency patterns and appear to spread from different areas of highly localized frequencies, some of which were also observed by Cruciani et al. [24]. Myres et al. estimated coalescence times for the R-S116 haplogroup in different populations in Europe and suggested, in broad agreement with Balaresque, that the R-M269 haplogroup may have spread with the Neolithic, and more specifically with the Linearbandkeramik, a Neolithic agricultural industry that spread throughout northern Europe, from Hungary to France, around 7500 years ago.
The current uncertainty surrounding STR mutation rates shows that despite these recent studies, there can still be no consensus on when and where the R-M269 haplogroup originated and spread in Europe. Even if invoking the origins of the European Y chromosome gene pool 'must be viewed cautiously especially when such an argument is based on just a single incompletely resolved haplogroup' (p. 100 in [21]), it is of profound interest to try to understand how the vast majority of western European men (greater than 100 million) carry Y chromosomes that belong to the R-M269 Y chromosome haplogroup.
Consequently, we have addressed these issues with our own large R-M269 dataset, both on its own and in combination with compatible data from the most recent comprehensive survey [21]. We show that the fundamental relationship between mean STR variance and longitude, which is the basis of the recent claim of support for the Neolithic hypothesis [20], does not hold for our larger and geographically broader sample. We also explain how this previous analysis may have resulted in this spurious association. We finally explore the spatial distribution of genetic diversity associated with the R-M269 European-specific sub-lineage, defined by SNP S127, showing an essentially homogeneous background of microsatellite variation at several different sub-lineage levels, based on a common set of 10 STRs typed across 2000 R-M269 chromosomes.
While acknowledging uncertainty, researchers usually report the age of Y chromosome lineages based on differences between individuals across multiple STRs, often using average squared distance (ASD) or related summary statistics [25,26] as unbiased estimators of coalescence time, T. We investigated how ASD changes in our dataset based on different sets of STRs. Contrary to common belief, estimates of ASD, and therefore T, vary widely when different subsets of STRs are used with the same sample. While recent evidence has increased support for the Neolithic spread of R-M269, we conclude that at the present time it is not possible to make any credible estimate of divergence time based on the sets of Y-STRs used in recent studies. Furthermore, we show that it is the properties of Y-STRs, not the number used per se, that appear to control the accuracy of divergence time estimates, attributes which are rarely, if ever, considered in practise.
2. Material and methods
(a) Ethics statement
All males sampled gave informed consent following ethical approval by the ethics committees at the various universities where the samples were collected.
(b) DNA samples and genotyping
We assembled a dataset of 2486 R-M269 Y chromosomes from across Europe, the Near East and western Asia, from a total population of 6503, which included both novel and previously published Y chromosomes. To assess the frequency distribution of R-M269 and various sub-haplogroups in Europe and Asia, we combined our data with that of Myres et al. [21], which gave a combined set of 4529 R-M269 chromosomes from a total sample of 16 298 from 172 different populations (electronic supplementary material, table S1 and figure S1). The frequencies of the following SNPs, whose phylogeny is shown in figure 1, were ascertained: S127/L11 (rs9786076), S21/U106 (rs16981293), S116 (rs34276300), S145/M529 (rs11799226) and S28/U152 (rs1236440). Samples were amplified in a standard PCR reaction and the SNaPshot Multiplex System (Life Technologies Corp., Carlsbad, CA, USA) primer extension protocol was used to characterize the allele present at each SNP loci. All primers are listed in the electronic supplementary material.
For the majority of the individuals typed in this study (2289), the following 10 STRs were available: DYS19; DYS389I; DYS389b (subtracting the alleles scored at DYS389I from the DYS389II locus); DYS390; DYS391; DYS392; DYS393; DYS437; DYS438; and DYS439, either being previously published or having been typed by ourselves using the Yfiler kit (Life Technologies Corp.) [27] or the Promega Powerplex assay (Promega Corp., Madison, WI, USA) [28]. For the samples from Weale et al. [29], only five STRs were previously published, and so the remaining five were typed with an internally designed and verified multiplex using primers from the study of Butler et al. [30] for DYS391, DYS437, DYS389I and II and DYS439, and primers from the study of Gusmao & Alves [31] for DYS438. DYS391 calls were used to check for consistency with the original haplotypes of Weale et al. Three of the Weale et al. populations were not typed further for these STRs (114 individuals). Individuals typed using the Yfiler kit (1035) were used to investigate the effect of STR selection on ASD calculations (electronic supplementary material, table S2).
Populations with a total size of 30 or above were used to build the frequency maps (electronic supplementary material, figure S1). Variance was calculated only for those populations where haplotypes were available for at least 10 individuals within the relevant haplogroup.
(c) Analysis
Maps of SNP frequencies were displayed using ArcMap GIS (v. 9.2; ESRI). Interpolation was performed using the inverse distance weighting procedure. Latitudes and longitudes for all populations were based on the highest-resolution sampling centre associated with the samples and are shown in electronic supplementary material, table S1.
The R statistical package [32] was used to calculate the median STR variance (the variance in the number of repeats within a locus averaged across all loci) between all individuals within a population following 1000 bootstrap replicates with replacement over individuals. Regression analysis was performed in R to compare average STR variance with latitude and longitude for the R-M269, R-M269(xS127) and R-S127 haplogroups.
We investigated how ASD estimates change within our sample when using different combinations of STRs based on two separate criteria: mutation rate, μ; and observed linearity, θ(R) (table 1). We used the observed μ calculated recently [33] to rank the 15 STRs on a scale of speed, and separately calculated ASD based on the seven fastest and seven slowest rates (electronic supplementary material, table S4). Our second criterion was based on the estimated duration of linearity, D, of different groups of STRs. Duration of linearity is an estimate of the divergence time after which ASD ceases to increase linearly with time. For STRs mutating under a strict stepwise model, Goldstein et al. showed that ASD initially increases linearly with time, but that this linearity is constrained by the maximum number of repeats an STR can take, R [26]. D is approximated using θ(R) (which is a simple transformation of R) and μ, and the effective population size (Ne) (eqns 3 and 4 in [26]). Greater values of θ(R)/2μ yield increased estimates of D. Using STRs with greater values of θ(R)/2μ should allow linearity to be assumed further into the past, and ASD calculated from these STRs should be less likely to be underestimated as a result of saturation. Table 1 and electronic supplementary material, table S4 show the different groups of STRs used and associated values of μ, R, θ(R)/2μ and ASD.
To check that any differences in time to the most recent common ancestor (TMRCA) estimation are not specific to methods based on ASD, we used BATWING [35] on the HGDP Bedouin population for which a greater number of Y-STRs (n = 65) were available [36]. We compared four different sets of STRs with varying degrees of duration of linearity estimates (electronic supplementary material).
3. Results
To investigate the origins of the R-M269 lineage in Europe, we analysed a large dataset of 4529 R-M269 chromosomes (2486 of which have not previously been published at such detailed resolution) from several populations across Europe, the Near East and western Asia (electronic supplementary material, figure S1 and table S1). Within Europe, we observed a northwest–southeast frequency cline for R-M269, similar to those observed previously [10,11,37], from high frequencies in western Europe to lower frequencies in the east. Within haplogroup R-M269 we genotyped a newly characterized SNP, S127 (equivalent to L11), for which the distribution in Europe and the Near East, together with that of R-M269 and R-M269(xS127), are shown in figure 2. The distributions of R-M269 and R-S127 are broadly overlapping, but the frequency of R-S127 drops off around the Balkans, reaching extremely low values further to the east and outside of Europe. Conversely, R-M269(xS127) shows higher frequencies in eastern populations. Frequency maps showing three geographically localized R-S127 sub-haplogroups (R-S21, R-S145 and R-S28) are shown in figure 3.
We next calculated STR diversity for each population for the whole R-M269 lineage, and for the R-S127 and R-M269(xS127) sub-haplogroups, and investigated the relationship between average STR variance and longitude and latitude in exactly the same fashion as Balaresque. We provide estimates of uncertainty for these values by bootstrapping over individuals, and report the median of the observed variance values and its 95 per cent CI (figure 2). We normalized latitude and longitude, and performed a linear regression between these values and the median microsatellite variance for the three R-M269 sub-haplogroups. We found no correlation with latitude (data not shown) and, contrary to Balaresque, we did not find any significant correlation between longitude and variance for any haplogroup.
The Balaresque dataset presents genotype data only to the resolution of SNP R-M269. Our results show that the vast majority of R-M269 samples in Anatolia, approximately 90 per cent, belong to the R-M269(xS127) sub-haplogroup. Removing these Turkish populations from the Balaresque data and repeating the regression removes the significant correlation (R2 = 0.23, p = 0.09; details in the electronic supplementary material and figure S2). These populations are therefore intrinsic to the significant correlation.
We observed that the Irish haplotypes used in the Balaresque analysis had a very low STR variance (0.208) compared with those included in our analysis (0.35; originally published by Moore et al. [38]). Balaresque used a sample of Irish haplotypes downloaded from the online Ysearch database (http://www.ysearch.org). To test if the Ysearch haplotypes were representative of the Irish R-M269 of Moore et al. [38], we independently resampled the Moore et al. dataset 10 000 times, selecting sub-samples of 75 haplotypes from which we estimated the variance using the same nine STRs used in the Balaresque paper (detailed methodology and justification can be found in the electronic supplementary material). The median variance of these 10 000 repetitions was 0.354 with a 95 per cent CI of (0.285–0.432). When we repeated the regression analysis with this different variance estimate, the correlation was no longer significant (R2 = 0.09, p = 0.19).
Microsatellite-based ASD has been shown to increase linearly with time [26] and has been used as an unbiased estimator of mean coalescence time, given that it approximates to 2μT [21,25,39]. It would be expected that using different sets of STRs should not dramatically alter the estimation of T: as μ changes, ASD should similarly change, with T staying constant. Table 1 shows estimates of the duration of linearity based on observed mutation rates estimated recently [33] and range estimated from the YHRD [34]. The ASD for R-S127 was calculated by comparing the 15 STR haplotypes of its two major sub-haplogroups, R-S21 (141 chromosomes) and R-S116 (717; electronic supplementary material, table S3). Figure 4a is a plot of T (estimated as ASD/2μ) for several different sets of STRs with different characteristics (electronic supplementary material, table S4).
To further explore the correlation between T and STR selection, we calculated T in the same way as described above based on chromosomes belonging to the two deepest branches of the Y chromosome phylogeny, AxA1 and B [40] (figure 4b; electronic supplementary material, table S4). As a comparison, ASD calculated from the same STR subsets is shown for the R-S127 on the same plot.
4. Discussion
Here, we have confirmed with the broadest analysis to date that the spatial distribution of Y chromosome haplogroup M269 can be split by R-S127 into European and western Eurasian lineages. Contrary to the results of Balaresque, we see no relationship between diversity and longitude (figure 2) for R-M269. The presence of two sets of populations in the Balaresque paper appears to be causal to the observed relationship: the underestimated diversity of the Irish population and the inclusion of the Turkish chromosomes, the majority of which potentially belong to the non-European clade R-M269(xS127). When these elements are properly taken into account, jointly or independently, the correlation no longer exists. This correlation is the central tenet to the hypothesis that R-M269 was spread with expanding Neolithic farmers.
Morelli et al. [22] (hereafter 'Morelli') found STR motifs that split R-M269 into eastern and western lineages. We observed that 71 per cent of the Myres et al. R-M269(xS127) chromosomes for which STR information is available have the eastern motif (DYS393-12/DYS461-10), while 80 per cent of the R-S127 chromosomes of Myres et al. have the western motif (DYS393-13/DYS461-11). No R-S127 chromosomes displayed the eastern motif, while 5 per cent of R-M269(xS127) chromosomes displayed the western motif (all of which were either L23 (S141) or M412 (S127)-derived). In both cases, however, these motifs differed from those suggested by Morelli by having one repeat less at the DYS461 locus. The dichotomy observed by Morelli based on a two STR motif is therefore corroborated, at least in part, by the presence of this SNP.
Dating of Y chromosome lineages is notoriously controversial [25,41–44], the major issue being that the choice of STR mutation rate can lead to age estimates that differ by a factor of three (i.e. the evolutionary [25] versus observed (genealogical) mutation rates [33,45]). Interestingly, despite the fact that Myres et al. and Balaresque used different STR mutation rates and dating approaches, their TMRCA estimates overlap: 8590–11 950 years using a mutation rate of 6.9 × 10−4 per generation, and 4577–9063 years using an average mutation rate of 2.3 × 10−3, respectively. Separately, Morelli calculated the TMRCA based only on Sardinian and Anatolian chromosomes, and estimated the R-M269 lineage to have originated 25 000–80 700 years ago) [22], based on the same evolutionary mutation rate [25,41] as Myres et al.
In seeking to find a suitable set of STRs with which to estimate the average coalescence time, T, of sub-haplogroup R-S127, we have shown that not all STRs are of equal use in this context. We concentrated on estimating the duration of linearity, D, using different sets of STRs. Our analyses suggest that the D of an STR is key to its ability to uncover deep ancestry. Duration of linearity refers to the length of time into the past over which ASD and T continue to be linearly related for a specific STR. Goldstein et al. [26] showed that D is affected by two properties of the STRs used to calculate ASD: the mutation rate and range of possible alleles that the STR can take. When we manipulated our choice of STR marker based on θ(R)/2μ (a surrogate for D; table 1), we found that different sets of STRs gave different values for T. It is clear, then, that coalescence estimates explicitly depend on the STRs that one uses.
Our analysis confirms that this phenomenon is not specific to the R-M269 haplogroup nor to methods using ASD. Figure 4b shows that STRs with high D produce larger estimates of T. What is clear is that estimates of T implicitly depend on the STRs that are selected to make this inference. Using BATWING on an HGDP population for which 65 Y-STRs are available, we have shown that the median estimate of TMRCA can differ by over five times when STRs are selected on the basis of the expected duration of linearity (electronic supplementary material, figure S4). While researchers take into account STR mutation rates when estimating divergence time with ASD, commonly used STRs do not have the specific attributes that allow linearity to be assumed further into the past. The majority of haplogroup dates based on such sets of STRs may therefore have been systematically underestimated.
5. Conclusion
The distributions of the main R-S127 sub-haplogroups, R-S21, R-S145 and R-S28, show markedly localized concentrations (figure 3). If the R-M269 lineage is more recent in origin than the Neolithic expansion, then its current distribution would have to be the result of major population movements occurring since that origin. For this haplogroup to be so ubiquitous, the population carrying R-S127 would have displaced most of the populations present in western Europe after the Neolithic agricultural transition. Alternatively, if R-S127 originated prior to the Neolithic wave of expansion, then either it was already present in most of Europe before the expansion, or the mutation occurred in the east, and was spread before or after the expansion, in which case we would expect higher diversity in the east closer to the origins of agriculture, which is not what we observe. The maps of R-S127 sub-haplogroup frequencies for R-S21, R-S145 and R-S28 show radial distributions from specific European locations (figure 3). These centres have high absolute frequencies: R-S21 has a frequency of 44 per cent in Friesland, and R-S28 reaches 25 per cent in the Alps; and in the populations where they are at the highest frequency, the vast majority of R-S127 belong to that particular sub-lineage. For example, half of all R-M269 across southern Europe is R-S28-derived, and around 60 per cent of R-M269 in Central Europe is R-S21-derived. At the sub-haplogroup level, then, R-M269 is split into geographically localized pockets with individual R-M269 sub-haplogroups dominating, suggesting that the frequency of R-M269 across Europe could be related to the growth of multiple, geographically specific sub-lineages that differ in different parts of Europe.
A recent analysis of radiocarbon dates of Neolithic sites across Europe [46] reveals that the spread of the Neolithic was by no means constant, and that several 'centres of renewed expansion' are visible across Europe, representing areas of colonization, three of which map intriguingly closely to the centres of the sub-haplogroups foci (electronic supplementary material, figure S3). Future work involving spatially explicit simulations, together with accurate measures of Y chromosome diversity, are needed to investigate how the current distribution of sub-haplogroups may have been produced. In this context, recent work by Sjödin & François [47] rejected a Palaeolithic dispersion for R1b-M269 using spatial simulations based on the dataset of Balaresque. Nevertheless, we note that additional work is still necessary as these authors were not aware of the limitation of the Balaresque dataset presented here, and did not fully explore the impact of the different molecular characteristics of the investigated loci on their analysis.
Age estimates based on sets of Y-STRs carefully selected to possess the attributes necessary for uncovering deep ancestry (for example, from the almost 200 recently characterized here [33]), and from whole Y chromosome sequence comparisons, will provide robust dates for this haplogroup in the future. For now, we can offer no date as to the age of R-M269 or R-S127, but believe that our STR analyses suggest the recent age estimates of R-M269 [20] and R-S116 [21] are likely to be younger than the true values, and the homogeneity of STR variance and distribution of sub-types across the continent are inconsistent with the hypothesis of the Neolithic diffusion of the R-M269 Y chromosome lineage.
We thank all donors who contributed DNA for this project and Hugh Sturrock for help with the spatial analysis. We also thank Prof. Bernd Brinkmann at the Institute of Forensic Genetics in Münster for access to samples from Turkey. G.B.J.B. and C.C. conceived and designed the experiments, G.B.J.B., F.B., P.S.D., E.R.L., C.M.C., M.G.T., D.G.B., L.G., M.V., G.F. and J.F.W. genotyped the samples, G.B.J.B. analysed the data, C.M.C., M.G.T., D.G.B., L.G., B.W., W.B., M.V., V.C., F.S., S.T., G.V., R.P., C.V., T.Z., I.R., S.K., D.T., P.A., G.F., C.R., T.H., T.M. and J.F.W. contributed reagents/materials, and G.B.J.B. and C.C. wrote the paper. G.B.J.B. is supported by a BBSRC doctoral training grant and Somerville College, University of Oxford, and J.F.W. by the Royal Society. A subset of the genotyping data was generated within a project funded by the British Academy (BARDA-47870). V.C. was supported by Provincia Autonoma di Trento (BIOSTRE project, Post-doc 2006). C.C. is an RCUK Academic Fellow. F.B., V.C. and P.A. were supported by grant Prin 2009 project 200975T9EW from MUIR. S.T. was supported by a University of Pisa 60%2010 grant. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The authors declare no conflict of interest.
- Received May 17, 2011.
- Accepted August 3, 2011.
- This journal is © 2011 The Royal Society


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State Sen. Mark Grisanti, R-I-60, will hold a press conference at the SPCA on Ensminger Road in Tonawanda to urge Gov. Andrew Cuomo to sign Bill S.3753 into law. This would hand regulation of pet handlers and breeders from the state over to municipalities, in an effort to hinder rampant abusive pet breeding and holding techniques.
"New York state appears to be the only home-rule state in the country that explicitly prohibits its towns and cities from regulating commercial pet breeders and pet stores. I am calling on the governor to pass this piece of legislation so that New York can effectively regulate puppy mills, and put an end to abusive breeding techniques," Grisanti said.
Also attending the press conference will be Barbara Carr, the executive director of the Erie County SPCA; and Lorry Schlick, president of NYS Citizens Against Puppy Mills.
Tuesday, July 16, 1 p.m.
Erie County SPCA, 205 Ensminger Road, Tonawanda
Grisanti's camp said this bill would allow forward-thinking local governments to regulate commercial pet breeders and pet stores. The legislation, it said, addresses the ineffectiveness of New York's "Pet Dealer" law, the proliferation of unregulated dog breeders in the state, and the pet industry's complicit support of inherently cruel, out-of-state puppy mills.

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Are Food Stocks Safe Havens?
Food and beverage stocks have been battered by the markets, but financial analysts believe theyre weathering the storm better than most companies.
Although the food and beverage industry has the reputation of being recession-proof, even its companies are suffering through the current economic downturn. The new year brings new challenges and opportunities to investors and product developers alike.
The year 2008 ended with Pilgrim's Pride Corp., Pittsburg, Texas, entering Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and its two top executives exiting the company as part of the deal. Also in animal protein, Tyson Foods Inc.'s CEO Dick Bond stepped down suddenly, as the Springdale, Ark., company reported a $198 million loss for its first quarter 2009, which ended Dec. 27, 2008.
On the other hand, Interstate Bakeries Corp., Kansas City, Mo., in reorganization since September 2004, is scheduled to emerge from bankruptcy protection any day now.
To cut costs, Kraft, announced in October it was cutting 400 jobs, or 1 percent of its North American work force. Sara Lee said in December it would cut 700 jobs to bring $200-250 million in savings in the next three years.
Obviously, there's a rough road ahead, even for food and beverage companies. Which ones are positioned to weather it better?
"Not all companies in the sector are making money now, but investors like food stocks because they're relatively immune to tough times," says Christopher Shanahan, research analyst at Frost & Sullivan (www.frost.com), San Antonio, Texas. Fluctuating ingredient costs hampered food makers' profits in 2008, but grocery stores had higher traffic, a trend that helped shares of some companies with private label business, a Frost & Sullivan report said.
Food companies are benefiting from economic woes as Americans eat at home more often.
Balance sheets for most are relatively strong, and falling commodity prices are a plus. The knock on the group is that it has a boring profit outlook: Analysts typically see annual earnings-per-share gains of 5-9 percent. While not stellar in most years, those look pretty attractive today.
So a little perspective is in order. U.S. food stocks lost 28 percent in 2008, according to the Dow Jones U.S. Food Producers Index. In the same period, the Dow Jones Total Market Index lost 40 percent and the Standard & Poor's 500 lost about 39 percent.
Even though General Mills Inc.'s stock price ended 2008 at $60.75, below the year's high of $70.06 (on Sept. 19), the Dec. 31 price was 8 percent higher than it was on the first trading day of 2008. In late December, the Golden Valley, Minn., company reported figures for its second quarter of fiscal 2009, ending Nov. 23, 2008. Despite all the bad news from Wall Street, General Mills sales were up 8 percent in the quarter (to $4.01 billion) from the second quarter of 2008, and "segment operating profits" were up 9 percent (net earnings were down 3 percent, although still a healthy $378 million).
Analysts say they like General Mills' focus on cost-savings and creating new products, which helps keep consumers wanting its brands (mainstays such as Cheerios, Yoplait and Pillsbury), even though they look for less expensive alternatives to many other products.
Some investors are looking harder at large-cap stocks, such as Coca-Cola and Kraft, which pay a healthy dividend yield at a low risk of being cut significantly.
Even as food costs rose in mid-2008, trends were good for food makers. As cash-strapped consumers looked to save money — grappling with their budgets amid job cuts and record-high gas prices — they turned more to grocery stores and away from pricier restaurants. The increased traffic in groceries created a bigger market for food makers expected to continue as long as consumers are trying to stretch their budgets.
Roller coaster commodity costs
Many issues marred profits for food makers in 2008. At mid-year, the main culprit was the cost of ingredients. The price of everything from corn and wheat to oil rose to record highs over the summer. Many food makers successfully raised prices to offset the costs. Some tried to hedge their ingredient purchases to save money, but that hurt in the long run, as the cost of commodities dropped in the fall.
Costs were particularly troublesome for meat producers. In the same boat as Tyson and Pilgrim's Pride, pork producer Smithfield Foods Inc., Smithfield, Va., saw its stock value fall about 54 percent last year.
Speaking generally of commodity-sensitive food stocks, "We believe the market has unduly punished these stocks over the past four months," says Chris Lynn, president and chief investment officer of Milwaukee-based JC Investment Management (www.jcinvests.com). "Relative to other equity sectors, the food & beverage companies are well positioned to weather what we believe will be a continued equity market downtrend.
"Year-over-year results for these companies will be favorable due to the dramatic decline in raw materials cost," Lynn continues. "Transport costs are way, way down. Corn prices are down and we expect that they will continue to be cut in half in six months [when making year-over-year comparisons]. Packaging costs that are so heavily dependent on oil in one form or another — like cellophane and paperboard — are going to be much lower."
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NASA set to launch latest satellite to study sun
June 4, 2013
LOS ANGELES (AP) — NASA is preparing to launch its latest sun-monitoring satellite on a mission to improve space weather prediction.
The Iris satellite will observe a little-studied region of the sun that emits ultraviolet light. Scientists hope examining the sun's lower atmosphere would help them learn more about how this region drives solar wind and powers the corona, the sun's outer atmosphere seen during eclipses.
Iris carries a UV telescope that can take high-resolution images every few seconds. It's scheduled to be launched on June 26 from the Vandenberg Air Force Base on California's central coast. Once in orbit, it will circle about 400 miles above the Earth.


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J.Crew offers triple-initial monograms in either a classic block or diamond insignia. For classic block monograms, in which all letters are the same size, the initials will appear in the following order: first name, middle name, last name. For diamond insignia monograms, in which the center initial is larger than the rest, the initials will appear in the following order: first name, last name, middle name.
size & fit
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Welcome to the latest Piwik 1.8.4, most stable, most secure, and fastest Piwik release to date.
What's new in Piwik 1.8.4?
In short: bug fixes, Piwik requires significantly less memory on medium to large websites, and other new features and usability improvements. View more information and screenshots in the 1.8.4 blog post.
NOTICE: This new version contains major database schema changes, so please be careful when running the Update script. On large Piwik setups (if your Piwik database is 100Mb size or more), make sure to run the Update Script from the Shell!
After You Update
New & Updated pages
List of 23 tickets closed in Piwik 1.8.4
Many answers and more information about Matomo you can find here:
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Xbox One features remote play, can talk to you – report
Xbox One will not only use Kinect for voice commands, but the camera will also talk to you and let you know if there is someone in the room it doesn't recognize, and will ask the person to identify themselves.
According to source speaking with Polygon, the new person identified will then have their identity saved to the console, and then will be "welcomed" by the system.
Think of the ability for Kinect to talk in a similar fashion to Siri on iPhone or Kitt on Knight Rider. Hopefully, not as annoyingly sarcastic though.
The system's voice capabilities may not be available at launch, as Microsoft may opt to patch it in later.
Xbox One will also feature remote play, according to the source. For instance: you are having a tough time killing a boss, you just Skype with a friend who has rad skillz, and then they can take over for you in your game and kill the boss for you.
A demonstration of the feature, the source said, showed a message on screen asking if it was okay for the person they were Skyping with to take over in the game. The initial player was then able to watch the new player take matters into their own hands. Both could end remote play just by pressing a button.
The source said the demo was shown via two console connected locally, yet was told Microsoft isn't worried over any latency issues.
Microsoft has yet to respond to the report on these features.
PS4 will also feature remote play via Gaikai, to do essentially the same thing, as well as take your game on the road through Vita.


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5-IN-1- Steinberg Virtual Instruments Collection released
First released as part of Steinberg's successful Studio Case product, the Steinberg Virtual Instrument Collection is now available as a stand-alone package. The range of five VST-powered virtual instruments offers a complete range of musical instruments and sounds for VST host applications. While Groove Agent SE takes care of the drum department with its authentic grooves, Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE offers dynamic, startlingly realistic electric guitar phrases in a variety of styles. The Grand SE provides smooth, natural piano sounds, while D'cota SE offers analogue and FM synthesis for a wide range of sounds and textures. The package is rounded off by the Special Edition of Steinberg's award-winning HALion VST sampler, with disk streaming, 32-bit/96 kHz support and the same great-sounding Waldorf filters found in the full version of HALion.
"This one-stop power package offers professional music-making technologies in a very modest price range, and provides an arsenal of powerful tools for beginners, students and bargain hunters alike," commented Arnd Kaiser, Steinberg's Senior Product Manager for Music Technology


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Having a ball: New Yorker Zack Hample catches 2 homers at 1 game for 2nd time
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NEW YORK – Zack Hample leads the majors in hogging home run balls.
The 35-year-old New Yorker picked up Didi Gregorius' first big league homer when the Arizona Diamondbacks rookie lined a pitch into the third row of right-field seats in the third inning Thursday night at Yankee Stadium.
Then he caught a tying drive by Francisco Cervelli of the Yankees in the first row of left-field stands in the ninth.
"It's a little bit of luck, obviously. I move all over the place constantly," Hample said after Arizona's 6-2 victory over New York in 12 innings. "People don't notice the seven games I've been to this year and didn't catch a home run."
Author of the 1999 book "How to Snag Major League Baseballs," Hample is having a ball, the Cal Ripken Jr. of his hobby. Hample said he's come away from 880 consecutive games with at least one ball, a streak dating to September 1993 at old Yankee Stadium.
He caught two homers in one game for the second time after accomplishing the feat at Baltimore's Camden Yards on May 13, 2010, drives to right in consecutive innings by Seattle's Michael Saunders and the Orioles' Corey Patterson.
Hample caught Barry Bonds' 724th home run, at San Diego off Chan Ho Park on Aug. 12, 2006. He caught the first big league home runs by Mike Nickeas (April 21, 2011) and Mike Trout (July 24, 2011) and the last home run hit by the New York Mets at Shea Stadium (Carlos Beltran on Sept. 28, 2008).
By Hample's count, he's come up with 29 home run balls: 24 off the bat and five tossed to him after landing in bullpens and other areas.
He claimed he would have grabbed Martin Prado's sixth-inning homer to left had he not been speaking with a Diamondbacks television reporter at the time.
"I really just go by instinct. I don't position differently for different hitters," he said. "I had a friend sitting out in right field tonight who called me early in the game and said, 'We're over here. Say hello.' I intentionally waited for Gregorius' first at-bat. I knew he had no home runs."
A graduate of Guilford College in North Carolina, Hample works at Argosy Book Store, which was founded by his grandfather near Bloomingdales on Manhattan's East Side. He does some baseball writing and has turned ball-hawking into a business: He accompanies fans to games and guarantees each they will get a ball.
Hample has a website to track his quest, is quick to tweet pictures of himself with each newly caught ball and stores his home run records on his cellphone.
"I'm a dork, but not a big enough dork that I have it all memorized," he said.
Even though he lives in Manhattan, in a ball-filled, one-bedroom apartment, Hample was wearing a Diamondbacks cap because he's been a Heath Bell fan since 2004.
"Zack's crazy. I know Zack from when I was a rookie with the Mets," the Arizona reliever said. "He probably was a Padres fan when I was a Padre, a Marlins fan when I was a Marlin."
Hample, who gave Gregorius back his home run ball in exchange for an autographed baseball, has been to Yankee Stadium, Citi Field and Fenway Park this season and plans on going to all 30 major league parks this year.
He's being sponsored by BIGS sunflower seeds, which will donate up to $15,000 to Pitch In For Baseball, which collects and redistributes baseball and softball equipment to people in needy communities. It will donate $500 for each stadium where he gets a game-used ball — he has to grab it on his own; he can't accept balls picked up by other fans. So far he's 3 for 3, and he hopes to give BIGS a set of 30 balls to auction off, one from each ballpark.
Hample said he's caught 153 foul balls during games and gotten 6,516 — "that's the exact number" — baseballs from big league ballparks, mostly during batting practice. He's caught more balls than many big leaguers in their entire careers.
"I've given away more baseballs than I can count," he said.


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The Bistro is open from
7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.
For information call 540.316.4402
|Freshly prepared food is abundant at the Bistro.
Welcome to the Bistro on the Hill - an innovative dining design featuring sophisticated cuisine at every turn. Create your own Mongolian stir-fry by selecting from a variety of fresh seafood, meats and vegetables. Our Chef's Special area is famous for comfort foods, like turkey and dressing, meat loaf, baked salmon, mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables. Pizza… yes, we have homemade gourmet pizza with a variety of delicious toppings. On the lighter side, we have the best salad and soup bar in Warrenton! Our Deli area is loaded with customer favorites all made to order from the highest quality meats and fixings. Try one of our Bistro Bakery homemade pies, cakes or pastries. Enjoy the hill-top view while you savor our healthy, delicious cuisines. In a rush? Check out our Grab N Go section for freshly made sandwiches, salads and snacks.
Bistro Hours of Operation
Monday through Friday: 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM
Saturday, Sunday, Holidays: 7:00 AM to 2:00 PM
For information call 540.316.4402
Join us Tuesday and Thursday from 4:30-6 p.m. for the Senior Supper Club.
Enjoy a complete meal for $5.47.


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Car Review
2013 Ford Fusion: Trim Level Comparison
The all-new 2013 Ford Fusion offers a wide variety of engines and trim levels. Choosing the right one can be hard, especially for shoppers looking for certain items and features. To help you navigate the Fusion's trims, we've listed each one and described what they include.
Fusion S
The Fusion S is the sedan's base-level trim. Priced from $22,695 with shipping, it comes in one configuration and doesn't offer options. A 2.5-liter 4-cylinder engine is standard, as is a 6-speed automatic transmission. Ford's SYNC infotainment system is standard; however, the Fusion S doesn't offer the MyFordTouch touchscreen. Air conditioning is standard, as is remote keyless entry and cruise control. The Fusion S has cloth seats and a CD player with an audio jack. It also includes front knee airbags, as well as dual front and side curtain airbags. Finally, the Fusion S features Ford's MyKey programmable key system.
Fusion SE
The mid-range Fusion SE starts at $24,625 with shipping. Three engines are offered. Base-level Fusion SE models carry over the Fusion S model's 2.5-liter 4-cylinder. For $795 more, shoppers can get a 1.6-liter EcoBoost 4-cylinder with a manual or no-cost automatic. At 178-horsepower, the smaller engine is slightly more powerful than the 175-hp 2.5, thanks to turbocharging. It's more efficient, too. Shoppers who want even more power can pay another $1,650 and get the 237-hp 2.0-liter EcoBoost turbo.
In addition to new engine choices, the Fusion SE adds standard equipment. Such items include a 10-way power driver's seat, a SecuriCode entry keypad and SiriusXM satellite radio. Shoppers who upgrade to a Fusion SE also can get options that are not offered on the Fusion S, including leather upholstery, navigation, heated front seats, dual-zone automatic climate control and a rearview camera. Ford's 8-inch MyFordTouch touchscreen is offered, as well. So are new safety features such as blind spot monitoring, lane departure warning, a self-parking system and rain-sensing wipers.
Fusion Hybrid SE
The Fusion SE Hybrid includes the same features and options as the Fusion SE, but its base price is $27,995 after shipping. That makes it $3,370 more expensive than a base-level Fusion SE and around $2,500 more than the fuel-saving Fusion SE EcoBoost. The Fusion Hybrid is powered by a 180-hp hybrid 4-cylinder. Fuel economy is rated at 47 miles per gallon city/47 mpg highway. That's well above the 1.6-liter Fusion's rating of up to 25 mpg city/37 mpg hwy.
Fusion Titanium
The Fusion Titanium is the sedan's top-tier trim level. Starting at $30,995, the Fusion Titanium offers just one engine, the 237-hp 2.0-liter EcoBoost turbo -- optional in the Fusion SE. Among the newly standard features is Ford's Intelligent Access system, which allows drivers to open the door and use a button to start it without removing the key from your pocket or purse. The MyFordTouch touchscreen is newly standard, as is a rearview camera and backup sensors.
A premium audio system with HD radio is also standard on the Fusion Titanium, as are 18-in wheels. Finally, the sedan's equipment list gains a power passenger seat, leather upholstery and heated front seats. The Fusion Titanium also offers two new options: 19-in wheels and, most importantly, all-wheel drive. AWD benefits shoppers who drive in challenging climates or on rough roads. It's available for an extra $2,000 more than the standard front-wheel drive.
Fusion Hybrid Titanium
The 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid Titanium starts at $32,895 with shipping. That makes it $1,900 more expensive than the gas-powered Fusion Titanium. Like the Fusion Hybrid SE, power comes from a 180-hp 4-cylinder that returns 47 mpg in combined city and highway driving. Unlike the gas-powered Fusion Titanium, all-wheel drive isn't available in the Fusion Hybrid Titanium.


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1989 Yugo 311 1.1 from UK and Ireland
Petrol tank rubber connecting hose perished, replaced.
Clutch cable snapped, replaced.
General Comments:
The Yugo 311 lacks a fifth gear, but still shifts very happily on the motorway at 65-70 mph. Fuel consumption is pretty good for a car of its vintage, it does 6.5-7.5 l/100 km, depending on how you drive it. I drive it around 50 miles daily and have been on several much longer roadtrips without incident.
The car is fun and torquey at low revs, and handles very well in all conditions. Given that there are probably fewer than 100 Yugos on the road now in the UK, it attracts quite a bit of interest, and surprised looks.
So far, the car has been very reliable, with only minor problems to fix in the course of driving it 10,000 miles in just six months. Parts when needed are becoming a bit of a trial, but they are still obtainable.
The only drawback I would note is that it is *very* noisy at speeds over 60 mph, I may have to install my own soundproofing - then again, the engine is the mechanical equivalent of a troubled nightclub singer who smokes fifty a day, so I may just put up with it.
This is a great character car, which does everything I ask of it with not much fuss. I really thought I would miss my old Yugo 513 (see separate review), but I don't - this model has proven far less troublesome.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 5th November, 2009
3rd Feb 2010, 07:02
Hi, I too had one of these little cars, in fact it was my first car, which my parents bought for me after passing my driving test back in 1990.
Very basic, 1983 A-reg, but easy to maintain and always a first starter in all weathers.
Looking back now, it was great times, and when it was time to move on, I went upmarket and bought a Lada 1600 top model!!! Twin round headlamp, built like a tank!! And so solid.


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The process of buying a new Chevrolet car or truck can seem overwhelming if you don't know where to begin. Edmunds.com can get you started on the right track with a convenient directory of Chevrolet car dealerships in and around Lochmere, New Hampshire. Compare online price quotes on the new or used car, truck, SUV, minivan, or wagon of your choice to locate the best deals. Edmunds.com makes it easy to find trusted Chevrolet car dealers in Lochmere, saving car buyers time and money on what will be an important purchase.
Non Display Review Name "After owning 7 different rams I decided I wanted to take a look at a chevy. Our salesman Mark Mulcahy was a delight to work with. Im a very picky pers"... Read more Review by: dillonc07
Non Display Review Name "Ralph did a fantastic job. Knowledgeable and worked hard to find what we wanted. He continued to pursue the search until we were satisfied." Read more Review by: SandyDel
Non Display Review Name "Dover Chevrolet does an amazing job! My salesmen was Shawn Turner and he went above and beyond to not only get me into my beautiful 2014 Ford Focus, "... Read more Review by: SamanthaRoux


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1. Re: DX58SO2 wont boot displays "00"
Same bug here. There seems to be an incompatibility with an USB device. My mainboard displays also "00" or "_0", but only when I habe plugged in my WACOM Intuos tablet. Removed, all is OK an system is stable. One workaround is to ENABLE in BIOS 752 / Boot the USB Optimisation for late loading of USB devices (please be aware that you cannot use a BIOS password in this case).
But, also this optimisation fails every 20th boot attempt, you can see the early blinking LED of the tablet.
2. Re: DX58SO2 wont boot displays "00"justinj Mar 2, 2011 9:18 PM (in response to justinj)
RMA'd the board, all is well. Turns out it would not communicate with the PCIe bus.
3. Re: DX58SO2 wont boot displays "00"
I have same problems did you find out or send me link to fix the issueI
I thank you so much in advance
roger bhatt
4. Re: DX58SO2 wont boot displays "00"justinj Mar 25, 2011 8:38 PM (in response to Roger Bhatt )
Since the board failed within a few days of purchase, I just sent it back and got a new board.
5. Re: DX58SO2 wont boot displays "00"amunaor Apr 3, 2011 9:44 PM (in response to justinj)
I just swapped out my DX58SO for the DX58SO2, which I had pretty much stabilized, only to be landed with this boot problem. Restarting and waking from S3 sleep mode, everything starts up as it should. When I do a complete shut down and boot from cold, the boot process freezes on "00". In order to get out of this lockup I need to hit the hard reset button numerous times to get released.
The only thing I've changed from the swap over is the processor: from i7-920 to i7-970.
6 GB's RAM at standard setting.
BIOS is the most recent: 0765, as are all the other Intel.
System: W7 Ultimate 64-BIT.
Hope there is a BIOS update for this glitch
6. Re: DX58SO2 wont boot displays "00"Fx Apr 4, 2011 3:02 AM (in response to amunaor)
I've got the same problem with two DX58SO2, too. -> RMAd the boards. Hope the replacement will work...
7. Re: DX58SO2 wont boot displays "00"amunaor Apr 4, 2011 6:46 PM (in response to Fx)
Please let us know how things go with the replacement boards. Unfortunately, mine is past the 30 day RMA window with Newegg.
8. Re: DX58SO2 wont boot displays "00"amunaor Apr 4, 2011 1:22 PM (in response to amunaor)
I take back what I said earlier about booting up normally from Sleep Mode. Just had a couple of instances when coming out of S3, the wake process hesitated, when it rebooted all by itself, followed by a hang at "00" with all fans blasting at full speed. Hitting the the reset button failed to resuscitate the board this time. Turned the power supply off. After all the motherboard lights went out, turned power supply back on and it booted up normally. What's in the world is going on here!?
9. Re: DX58SO2 wont boot displays "00"Fx Apr 5, 2011 12:29 AM (in response to amunaor)
With one board I've had the exactly same 'power on and boot' procedure. The other one was even worse. It booted only randomly. Most of the time it got stuck at 00.
Past 30 days for RMA? When did you buy the board? I've got mine in the middle of march. Seems that there is either a systematic error or a batch problem. However contact your dealer for a replacement board. It's worth asking and Intel should know about their faulty boards.
I hope I'll get the boards back in about three weeks.
10. Re: DX58SO2 wont boot displays "00"
I am having the same problem with my DX58SO2 hanging when coming out of sleep about once per week. The board is showing 00, all fans are running at max speed and heat is pouring out of the case. The reset button doesn't do anything and I have to power cycle the machine to get it to restart. For me, it happens in the middle of the night when the machine wakes for backups. I've never had the problem when waking the machine manually with the keyboard or mouse. I have BIOS version 0765 and Win7 SP1. I hope Intel is able to address this issue with a BIOS update.
11. Re: DX58SO2 wont boot displays "00"amunaor Apr 5, 2011 11:07 AM (in response to Fx)
I purchased mine from newegg on March 1st, which was RMA'd immediately because it appeared to have been pre-owned and re-boxed. Although the box appeared to be perfectly sealed, upon inspection, there was little bits of of foam rubber, with fingerprints imbedded within a sticky residue all over the back of the board. These suspicious telltale signs of prior poor handling caused me me to return the board without even attempting an installation, burning up 3 weeks in the process.
I really do hope that it's a flaky BIOS, which problem can be addressed by an update!
The DX58SO had, somewhat, similar flaky booting issues, which appeared to have been tamed through BIOS updates along with tweaks in WIN7 power options. Under "Advanced Settings" go to "Allow Hybrid Sleep" and turn it: "Off"; under USB Selective Suspend Settings: Disabled; PCI Link State Power Management: Off. These worked on the older DX58SO, but apparently not so on this newer incarnation.
The first thing I did after installing the DX58SO2 was to flash up the BIOS to the most recent 0765 version. During this step the board balked at recognizing the DisplayPort connection to my Nvidia Quadro FX-1800. Swapping over to a DVI connector solved that. Once W7 64BIT Ultimate SP1 was installed with all of the pertinent Intel drivers, including Nvidia, the DisplayPort connection worked fine. This initial DisplayPort rejection wasn't a factor with the DX58SO.
After the above power option tweaks, the bootup hangs at "00" are still random and unpredictable. Last night I shut everything down; this morning it booted up as it should. Restarts and waking from sleep work, for now, but there is no telling when the next "00" hang will occur.
I forgot to add, the power supply is an HX750w with sailing ship logo. All components are less than a year old. The video card is low wattage and doesn't require the additional, extra juice, connector.
12. Re: DX58SO2 wont boot displays "00"Fx Apr 6, 2011 1:33 AM (in response to amunaor)
Intel chat support advised me to increase the power of my power supply during building up the systems. I've tried with 720W without result. Seems that more and more people, who have sufficient equipment, report this boot error.
We all hope that Intel will fix this ugly boot bug by an enhanced BIOS. Hello Intel staff: It's up to you now. Time to act!
13. Re: DX58SO2 wont boot displays "00"amunaor Apr 7, 2011 6:24 PM (in response to Fx)
Spent today unplugging unnecessary peripherals, such as USB-2 Canon printer and Intel software RAID-5. System drive is a WD5002AALX (A SATA III drive jumpered for SATA II, since I was unable to utilize the Marvelous SATA-III, blue plugs disabled within the BIOS) Swapped displayport cable for a DVI connection to the Quadro FX-1800 video card. Cycled the system several times with a restart, came to life as it should; forced it into sleep, came to life with the shake of the mouse; left a browser window open and allowed timed sleep to occur; shook the mouse, at which point, instead of waking from sleep it rebooted into "00", had to cycle power at the power supply, several times, in order to boot.
I think Intel should cross-ship us a working motherboard, without charge! This is really getting tiring and annoying!
14. Re: DX58SO2 wont boot displays "00"
What speed is your memory?


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FALL RIVER — The 15-to-18-year state prison sentence a repeat drunken driver received for killing a 51-year-old Fairhaven man is "fair" and "well-deserved" but can't undo what was done, the victim's brother said.
FALL RIVER — The 15-to-18-year state prison sentence a repeat drunken driver received for killing a 51-year-old Fairhaven man is "fair" and "well-deserved" but can't undo what was done, the victim's brother said.
Patrick Coelho, 38, of Dartmouth, "could have got(ten) a thousand years," said Dale Powers, who is a year older than Michael Powers was when he died. "All in all, it was fair but, no matter what the sentence, it's not going to bring my brother back."
Coelho pleaded guilty Monday in Superior Court to being drunk behind the wheel of his Mercedes Benz just before noon on Aug. 1, 2011, when he struck and killed Michael
Powers was riding a motorcycle on Hawthorn Street in Dartmouth and Coelho fled the scene after hitting him.
Minutes later, Coelho was involved in a second accident at Hawthorn Street and Slocum Road in which a motorist was injured. He also fled the scene of that accident, this time on foot, and was arrested a short distance away by Dartmouth police. The victim in that crash suffered a minor injury.
Coelho pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter, leaving the scene of an injury — death resulting, leaving the scene of personal injury and operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol — fourth offense. A pint bottle and two nips of vodka were found in Coelho's car and his blood alcohol level of 0.19 was more than twice the legal limit.
Calling it "one of the most egregious cases I have prosecuted in my 14� years as an assistant district attorney," prosecutor Thomas Quinn had recommended a longer sentence of 18-25 years in state prison but Judge Gary Nickerson imposed the 15-to-18-year term.
Quinn, who is the co-first assistant district attorney in the office of Bristol County District Attorney C. Samuel Sutter, called the accident "a senseless act of recklessness" and said he hopes the lengthy prison sentence "brings a small measure of justice to the family of the victim."
Michael Powers had a kind and giving nature and the type of personality that would light up a room, his brother said. He loved motorcycles and would ride whenever he had the chance; they'd sometimes ride together, Dale said.
He said he and Michael were close growing up in Fairhaven and remained close as adults.
As he drove home Monday from the courthouse, Dale said he thought about all the good times he had with his brother and all the times they will never share now that he is gone.
"The best outcome is that when (Coelho) gets out that he not drink," Dale Powers said. "He needs to get clean and sober and make sure this never happens again."


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Stephen Nelson needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 80 designs submitted by 22 freelance designers.
cars2deliver will provide a service to match a person or company wishing to transport their car, van, tractor, truck or motorbike with a company providing the service at the cheapest price.
In short, it's like eBay for getting your vehicle transported.
The site aims to get the best deal for the customer by allowing service providers to bid for the job in a Dutch auction. The site also aims to reduce carbon emissions by helping service providers to maximise empty space on their vehicles.
We are targeting two distinct customer groups:
- The customer wishing to get their vehicle delivered
- A service provider company whom delivers vehicles
Design requirements:
- We would like the design to be clean.
- It needs to be simple yet effectively communicate the service we offer.
- The logo needs to work on a light/white background.
- The final design needs to be usable on a website, emails and business cards.
Deliverable requirements:
- We require the final design to be vector-based and submitted in a format compatible with Adobe Illustrator i.e. .AI or .EPS.
Not a requirement but possibly incorporate the environmental aspect within the design.
We are based in Europe so the design needs to be tailored to that region if appropriate. We're thinking in terms of any vehicle icons within the logo.
Other than that we are looking for talented designers to excite us with their work. We will provide regular and constructive feedback. Good luck with your design!
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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Style # 211275
AVAILABILITY: Unavailable for immediate shipment.
Stunning open back detail and sheer lace overlay make this bebe maxi dress a true stunner. Try it with a statement earrings and metallic wedge to maximize your style.
- 89% nylon, 11% spandex
- Center back to hem: 47" (119 cm)
- Viscose lining
- Invisible zipper
- Dry clean
- Imported
- Model is 5'9" and is wearing a US size S
Open Back Lace Maxi Dress is rated out of 5 by 11.
Rated 5 out of 5 by Kduffie from classy maxi dress I love this dress. Very classy crochet. I got a large but maybe xl would have been better just for more length. But still not bad at all. I love the back out...no bra revealed. Im 5ft 7in. Size 38ddd...not thin and this size aorks for me. I got the egret/off white.
Date published: 2015-07-19
Rated 4 out of 5 by MamaTo3 from white maxi I ordered the white for my wedding dress and when I received it I absolutely fell in love with it! I wasn't sure about it at first because of peoples reviews but I went ahead and got a small and when it got here it was more than I expected! I also got it while it was one sale plus another 30% off so I got it for a steal! Overall happy with the dress not so bappy about the delivery! Was very disappointed with customer service!!
Date published: 2015-07-17
Rated 3 out of 5 by MarinaBlu from Nice not great The white resembles a nightgown but the black is sexy. Mine went back.
Date published: 2013-08-10
Rated 5 out of 5 by Lee143 from I love this maxi dress. Its appropriate to wear almost anywhere , you can dress it up or dress it down. Regardless of where you go people will complement you on how nice your dress is. I love it so much I got them in both colors, and if they come out with the same style in different colors I will for sure have one of each!!
Date published: 2013-08-05
Rated 5 out of 5 by Sidney23 from Beautiful Dress! This has to be the best summer dress. I wore it out to dinner and got so many compliments. Fits really well, but I found it was a bit long. I am 5'4" and I wore this dress with 3 inch heels, and it still felt a bit long. All in all, I do really love this dress!! Just do not recommend anyone 5'2" or shorter to get it.
Date published: 2013-07-01
Rated 5 out of 5 by Angieaka from Great fit! I am 5 foot 7 140 lbs, size medium fit perfect. I have wide hips and a little bigger butt so I was nervous my hips were going to look big since its so body hugging. To my surprise, the dress showcased my legs and minimized my hips. The style is classy and sexy without trying too hard. Love it! Even though bebe is priced high for my budget, the money is well spent!
Date published: 2013-06-29
Rated 5 out of 5 by LA1970 from Love it I tried it on in beige at the store but needed it in black and loved it. It looks sexy but demure, not too much, can't wait to wear it!
Date published: 2013-06-28
Rated 5 out of 5 by jealousjen from Drop Dead Beautiful This dress is so beautiful and the picture online just does not give it any justice. I am 5 foot 3 and weigh 135. I purchased a size medium and it fit perfect! I received compliments on how lovely the dress was all day. Def would recommend this dress! My new fav...
Date published: 2013-06-12


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The study includes detailed corridor planning of a possible high-priority interstate link between Phoenix and Las Vegas, and high-level visioning for potentially extending the corridor north to Canada and south to Mexico.
In February 2017, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and ADOT initiated the environmental review process for the Sonoran Corridor, a potential new transportation corridor route that would connect Interstate 19 to Interstate 10 south of the Tucson International Airport. A Tier 1 Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is being prepared as part of this process in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and other regulatory requirements
ADOT and the Federal Highway Administration began working on an engineering and environmental study for SR 189 (Mariposa Road) in 2011. The goal of the study is to develop a long-range plan for future improvements between the U.S.-Mexico border and Grand Avenue. The Draft Environmental Assessment (EA) was available for a 30-day public review and comment period from Jan. 13 - Feb. 14, 2017. A public hearing to provide input on the Draft EA was held Jan. 31. 2017. The final Environmental Assessment resulted in a Finding of No Significant Impact approved on November 2, 2017.
The goal of the Airport Master Plan is to provide the framework needed to guide future airport development that will cost-effectively satisfy aviation demand, while considering potential environmental and socioeconomic issues.
A highway study in Pinal County that would improve regional connectivity, provide an additional way of getting around a growing area of the Sun Corridor, and address current and future transportation needs in a growing area is moving forward under a new environmental review process. The project scope also incorporates the extension of State Route 24 from Ironwood Drive to the North South Corridor.
Please download the template data and submit the completed attributes table for each project recommended from the planning study to the ADOT MPD Project Manager upon completion of the planning study. A data dictionary of the GIS data is included so users can understand what the fields represent. Please download a new copy of the template for each study as the template may be updated. If you have any questions please contact Patrick Whiteford of the GIS group at 602.712.8591.
The Arizona Ombudsman – Citizens Aide helps you resolve ongoing issues with State Agencies.
Pursuant to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other nondiscrimination laws and authorities, ADOT does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability. Persons that require a reasonable accommodation based on language or disability should contact ADOT's Civil Rights Office at firstname.lastname@example.com. Requests should be made as early as possible to ensure the State has an opportunity to address the accommodation.
De acuerdo con el Título VI de la Ley de Derechos Civiles de 1964, la Ley de Estadounidenses con Discapacidades (ADA por sus siglas en inglés) y otras normas y leyes antidiscriminatorias, el Departamento de Transporte de Arizona (ADOT) no discrimina por motivos de raza, color, origen nacional, sexo, edad o discapacidad. Las personas que requieran asistencia (dentro de lo razonable) ya sea por el idioma o discapacidad deben ponerse en contacto con la Oficina de Derechos Civiles de ADOT en email@example.com. Las solicitudes deben hacerse lo más antes posible para asegurar que el Estado tenga la oportunidad de hacer los arreglos necesarios.
Copyright © Arizona Department of Transportation – All rights reserved.


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LONDON (MarketWatch) — Mario Draghi, the European Central Bank president, is fast gaining a reputation that no central bank governor should really seek to attain – that of an optimist.
Central bankers are supposed to be paranoiac about inflation, detecting storm clouds on the sunniest of days and taking away the punch bowl of excessive liquidity just when the economic party starts to get going.
Draghi seems to have decided that given the generally pessimistic backdrop to the European economy, he has nothing to lose, and much to gain, by reinforcing a spirit of growing confidence about the ability of Economic and Monetary Union members to solve their problems.
Draghi has his eye on a major milestone in the European debt crisis: the Italian parliamentary election, probably on Feb. 24. This could lead to two totally disparate outcomes, with diametrically opposite effects on the euro.
The first would be Mario Monti continuing in power. Monti has been leading a technocratic government in Rome since November 2011, and — even after his resignation on Friday and his saying on Sunday that he will not run in February's poll — he could end up at the helm of a broad reformist centrist coalition.
The second, looking less probable according to opinion polls, would be the return of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, leader of the center-right People of Freedom party. Berlusconi's increased anti-euro pronouncements in recent weeks have been adding to nervousness about a drifting apart of EMU economies.
The first outcome would cement the improvement of Europe's fortunes and narrow further the yield gap between Italian and German government bonds. The second would raise fresh doubts about whether the euro will survive.
Tortuous background
Draghi, previously governor of the Banca d'Italia, owes his present job to Berlusconi's support when in office. But today's ECB president (together with his predecessor, Jean-Claude Trichet) played a major role in bringing Berlusconi to heel (and eventually out of government) with their now-celebrated August 2011 letter to the then prime minister calling for economic reforms, effectively as a condition for ECB support for Italian government bonds.
Given this tortuous background, and the far-reaching implications of the Italian elections, Draghi can be expected to do everything within his power, overt and covert, to maintain Monti as the most credible candidate for continued office. And in view of his success so far with the high-stakes financial bluff of the ECB's untested Outright Monetary Transactions program, Draghi has potent cards in his hand.
The idea that he's trying to play them to best advantage was clear last week, when he told the European parliament that the euro-area economy has the "best fundamentals" among major economies — and he played up forecasts that the euro economy will be on the mend as 2013 wears on.
Draghi's optimism stands in contrast to the sobriety of leading forecasters such as the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The OECD has spoken of the 17-nation euro bloc as the greatest threat to the world economy, forecasting a GDP contraction of 0.1 % next year before growth of 1.3% in 2014. In reality, though, Draghi and the OECD are talking about the same phenomenon. Given the size and duration of the European growth dip, and based on the day-follows-night principle, recovery, when it eventually comes, will be relatively fast.
Different bases of comparison
Draghi has placed emphasis on the brightest spots of economic adjustment. In his testimony to the European parliament, he highlighted a rise in goods and services export volumes since 2009 of 27% for Spain, 14% for Ireland, 22% for Portugal and 21% for Italy.
The rebalancing of problem-hit euro members' economies toward exports, bringing big improvements in these countries' previously chronic current-account deficits, has been aided in most cases by significant internal devaluations of their currencies though a sharp fall in unit labor costs.
This is a sign of how the euro is acting in a very similar way to the classical gold standard, under which countries facing gold outflows automatically tightened belts and adjusted their economies so as to encourage gold inflows. This phenomenon was forecast years ago by leading German policy makers such as Hans Tietmeyer, who was Bundesbank president when the euro was introduced — although he warned that adjustment could be highly painful (as it has been).
Comparing export improvements across the euro area, Draghi's interpretation relies much on the choice of 2009 for the comparison, a year of world slump. Since then, all countries' exports have risen appreciably. The Bundesbank, by contrast, has selected for its export comparisons the more realistic year of pre-crisis second-quarter 2008. Since then, real exports have risen by 10% in Ireland, 7% in Spain, 6% in Portugal and 5% in Italy – compared with 10% in Germany.
One of the most potent reasons for euro optimism in fact centers on German exports – reflecting demand from outside the euro area. Buttressed by the relatively low value of the euro as well as by insatiable demand from fast-growing areas of the world for German capital goods, German export prowess is still powering the country's growth machine and is one reason the Germans will avoid recession next year.
On latest months' figures, China is catching up on France even more quickly than expected as Germany's principal trade partner, with overall German-Chinese trade turnover (exports and imports) exceeding German trade with France for August (the latest month for which data are available) for the first time.
Although European exports are becoming progressively less relevant for Germany (only a bit more than a third of German exports and imports are now within the euro area), buoyant trade elsewhere is likely to convince the Germans that the euro show is worth keeping on the road.
One thing that could scupper this relative buoyancy would be the return of Berlusconi – which explains why Draghi will be working away behind the scenes to ensure that it doesn't happen.
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text: The School of Art is primarily housed in the 1859 landmark Foundation Building. Additional classrooms and student studio spaces, the Media Lab, the Herb Lubalin Study Center, and the 41 Cooper Gallery are housed across the street at 41 Cooper Square. The studios, classrooms, shops, and labs of the School of Art offer complete facilities for a visual arts education. A professional staff of technical assistants is available in many of these facilities seven days a week to provide help and guidance to students in the School of Art, and to provide a healthy and safe working environment.


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Top 12 Family Features of 2012
- Compiled & Edited by Crosswalk Editorial Staff
- 2013 2 Jan
Will God REALLY grant me the desires of my heart?
How can I be an awesome husband or wife?
Can relationships be salvaged?
Does it really matter what I wear?
Do Christians divorce at the same rate as non-Christians?
What questions should I ask before I get married?
Our Family Life authors discussed these questions and more in 2012. Compiled here are the featured articles which garnered the most pageviews from you. Can't remember your favourite articles from this past year? Check them out!
Top 12 Family Features of 2012
12. Will God Grant Me the Desires of My Heart? by Debbie Wright & Cliff Young
In this edition of the He Said She Said singles advice column, a reader asks "If God gives me the desires of my heart, why am I still single?" The columnists discuss this famous (and often misunderstood) passage from Psalm 37, reminding us that knowing God should always be our #1 desire.
11. Tim Tebow and the Mom Phenom by Barbara Curtis
What is it about Tim Tebow that makes moms around the world willing (and eager) to sit and watch an entire game of football with the boys? One woman weighs in.
10. 7 Tips for Being an Awesome Husband by Joe Beam
Even the greatest athlete benefits from coaching. Marriage coach offers up these tips to go from great to glorious in seven easy steps. Remember, she's not "one of the guys," you don't want to seem like a control freak, romance and listening are key, time matters, she doesn't need another father, and you never stop growing!
9. Why I Stayed, Too: A Husband's Focus on God Saves His Marriage by Trent Coroy
Check out this husband's perspective in a 2-part series about saving Trent and Carla's marriage. Trent talks about pursuing God, chosing his friends wisely, and building a common world between spouses.
8. Why What Women Wear Matters by Tim Laitinen
How fair is it for you to dress however you want to dress, asks the author. and leave it up to us men to deal however we can with the sin it causes us? More often than women may realize, dressing provocatively causes men to stumble into sexual sin.
7. Why I Stayed: A Wife's Focus on God Saves Her Marriage by Carla Anne Coroy
Read one wife's perspective on a crumbling marriage: loneliness, emptiness, an emotional affair, and finally a cry to God and a resolution to stay. God never promises that marriage will be happy or easy. But he rewards obedience and sacrifice.
6. The Christian Divorce Rate Myth by Glenn T. Stanton
"Christians divorce at roughly the same rate as the world!" It's one of the most quoted stats by Christian leaders today. And it's perhaps one of the most inaccurate. Based on the best data available, the divorce rate among Christians is significantly lower than the general population.
5. Ten Ways to Show Simple Acts of Love Toward Your Spouse by Cindi McMenamin
No matter how long you've been married, simple acts of love - those things you used to do to express your love to one another - keep you both knitted together in love.
4. What I've Learned in 21 Years of Marriage by Lori Freeland
You can have a soulmate - you just have to work at it. He CAN read your mind. History is a story that you live together. And yes, it really does get easier. The roller-coaster ride is always worth it in the end.
3. Top Ten Ways to Make Your Husband Happy by Arlene Pellicane
Our role is not to figure out how to fix our spouse. Our role is: How do we reflect Christ in the marriage? Speaker and author Arlene Pellicane shows ten ways that wives can embrace this role by selflessly loving their husbands.
2. Five Goals for Growing Closer to Your Spouse in 2012 by Cindi McMenamin
It's amazing what any couple can accomplish when even one partner is willing to do the work. What if both of you made the effort? What if every day was started with a kiss? What if only encouraging words were spoken? What if you planned regular date nights and prayer together regularly?
1. 12 Questions to Ask Before You Get Married by Whitney Hopler
This piece was adapted from Clayton and Charie King's book 12 Questions to Ask Before You Marry (Harvest House). You can get married with the confidence that you'll enjoy the healthy, holy marriage God wants you to have if you invest time before getting married into asking wise questions.
...and Five from the Archives
The following articles would have made the above list, except that they aren't from 2012. They were originally published on Crosswalk in a previous year, but were recycled this year to a new audience that in most cases cherished and appreciated them more than the original one!
What Does the Bible Say About Sex Before Marriage? by Gregg Farth
Traits of a Godly Wife by Dr. John Barnett
12 Traits of an Abusive Relationship by Laura Petherbridge
Living With a Passive-Aggressive Man by Dr. David B. Hawkins
Why is Higher Education Important? by Dr. Heather Allen
Publication date: January 2, 2013


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Louis Anthony Jewelers Grand Opening Gala
To celebrate the opening of its dazzling new showroom, Louis Anthony Jewelers' owners Louis and Veronica Guarino threw a Grand Opening Gala. The expanded space sparkles with spectacular designer jewelry, offers on-site jewelry and watch repair, and even boasts a sports lounge for gentlemen to enjoy. Guests at the event got an elegant sneak preview with a wine tasting, cigar bar, and informal modeling of some of the exquisite pieces available at the South Hills store location. Photos by Megan WylieRead More
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Before I get into the goings-on in Washington and Albany, I think it is more important to touch on the heartbreaking tragedy that took place last Friday at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., not far across the Sound from all of us.
Twenty-six innocent lives were lost, including 20 young souls, all at the hands of one crazed gunman. This was the second-deadliest shooting in the U.S.; only Virginia Tech was a larger massacre.
This was an unspeakable crime. Who would kill so many children, who had their entire lives ahead of them?
It took only minutes for this lunatic with four guns in his possession to cause such tremendous devastation. It is time to take a serious look at our nation's gun laws. I urge President Obama to begin the national conversation and lead the charge for change.
All the while, time is running out in Washington. Democrats and Republicans have been involved in heated negotiations in an attempt to keep us from falling off the so-called fiscal cliff. After weeks of meetings and divisive battles in the press, both sides remain far apart on a plan to go forward.
On Dec. 10, the White House offered a compromise plan that included a series of tax hikes, mainly on households earning over $250,000 per year, and several spending cuts. Over the weekend, House Speaker John Boehner pitched a tax hike on those earning over $1 million if the president agreed to major entitlements cuts. This was a major concession for Republicans, and the first time Boehner offered a tax rate increase.
But the two sides are clearly still far apart.
Something constructive must be done, and a comprehensive plan must be adopted so we do not go into a recession. My prediction is that no such legislation will pass. Instead we will be stuck with a bill that will be only a Band-Aid on a major problem, a temporary fix, due to the fact that, once again, Congress and the president cannot come together for the good of our economy.


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Kailasa giri is located on a hilltop and is a must to visiting place for all people visiting Vishakhapatnam. It is one of the prominent hill top parks with panoramic sea view on the East Coast. This has developed as an attractive picnic spot, with the seven different beautiful view points to enjoy the serene atomosphere and scenic beauty. Greenery and Fresh Breeze from one side and the beautiful hills round there give a pleasant feeling. Some of the important points are Shiva Parvathi Statue, Shanku Chakra Naama, Floral Clock,J ungle Trails, Food Courts, 7 Wonders of Vizag, Shiva Temple, Titanic View Point, Shanti Ashram, View Points, Art Gallery, Road Train, Gliding Base Point, Children Play Park, Conference Hall, Telescopic Point. http://www.go2india.in/ap/kailasagiri.php
Visakhapatnam, also known as Vizag, is the second largest city in Andhra Pradesh, after the state capital Hyderabad. It is the industrial capital of the state with major industries such as Steel Plant, HPCL, Hindustan Shipyard, NTPC, etc. It is blessed with a natural harbour and houses the Headquarters of Eastern Naval Command of the Indian Navy. Popularly known as the City of Destiny is a jewel on the east coast of India. It has some breathtaking beaches, thronged by the Eastern Ghats. Naturally formed red sand dunes(reminiscents of rivers), Buddhist monuments, etc., add to the beauty of the city.For more information refer to the Wikipedia page.


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231 Old Christchurch Road,
01202 312174
Open today:
Opening Hours:
(Monday) 9am - Midnight
(Tuesday) 9am - Midnight
(Wednesday) 9am - Midnight
(Thursday) 9am - Midnight
(Friday) 9am - 2am
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(Sunday) 9am - 11pm
Festive Buffet
Enjoy a selection of festive inspired food. You don't have to stop craicin' it up when you need to eat.
with sour cream dip and cashel blue cheese dip
with BBQ dip
with smoky salsa dip
with guacamole, salsa and sour cream
All Wee dishes plus
with lettuce and Ballymaloe relish
with BBQ dip
All Wee & grand dishes plus
with hoisin dip
with Sriracha sour cream
mini peppered steak and mini chicken and bacon pies


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Win a FREE iPod @ Dolphin Music!
You read it right! We are giving away new iPods when you buy one of our selected items.
Those products are listed in our new Special Offers category, where you can also find other great deals. To view the FREE iPod offers, just click HERE:.
The iPod models on offer - from iPod Nano 1GB to iPod 80 GB - vary according to the different products they are bundled with, a wide selection of products ranging from FX pedals to software, microphones, guitars and more!
Unfortunately we can't guarantee the iPod colours - they may vary according to the available stock.
This great offer won't last long, so hurry up and get your FREE iPod today!


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Retro & Folk Styled Softies & Prints
We love the retro and folk stylings of Etsy artist Junecraft. The softies are the cutest with line art drawings on the front and gorgeous vintage fabrics on the back. The art prints are just too wonderfully groovy. Read on to learn more about the artist behind these adorable decorative accents.
Kayanna Nelson, the creative talent behind Etsy shop Junecraft, loves mid-century illustration, design and textiles and that shows through in her work. She has updated her shop with one-of-a-kind softies and her limited release new line of fabric. Get them while you can!
Be sure to follow Kayanna's blog where she shares all sorts of crafty eye candy including her adventures in sewing for her two little girls (and also her more recent adventures in designing for and playing on a local Roller Derby team! Now that's our kind of Mama!)
(Images: Kayanna Nelson)


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HOW TO INSTALL GOOGLE CHROME OS LINUX: Do you want to install Google Chrome OS Linux distro? If yes, then just read and follow the following (very easy) instructions on installing the Chrome OS Linux distro on virtual machine. Note: This is just a Linux distribution with a Chrome theme and not the actual Chrome OS being created by Google.
First, some requirements:
* Download Chrome OS Linux from HERE.
* Download VirtualBox from HERE, and then install it.
How to Install Google Chrome OS Linux:
1. Open VirtualBox, create a new virtual machine, name it, and set the Operating System to "other". Click on "Next".
2. Set the size of base memory (RAM). I think the recommended RAM is 512 MB so I would recommend setting it that way. You can always increase the memory later if you need to.
3. Next, create a new virtual hard disk. Make sure "Boot Hard Disk (Primary Master)" is checked.
4. Pick the type of storage that you would want to use. I choose dynamically expanding storage.
5. Select the size of your virtual hard disk. I recommend you use at least 2GB. Click on next and proceed by starting Google Chrome OS Linux.
6. After pressing the "Start" button, the "First Run Wizard" will appear to help you manage the media to use. You will have to select and add the downloaded Chrome OS Linux ISO image of course.
7. The installation of Chrome OS Linux will start immediately after having selected the installation media.
8. The Chrome OS Linux installer is really easy to use so just go on and finished the installation.
I will be updating this post once I've tested Chrome OS Linux on real hardware (not virtual machine) and will show you the installation process as well.
Enjoy and let us know your thoughts about Chrome OS Linux via comment.


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(Niamey, 24 October 2013): Valerie Amos, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, has allocated US$7.9 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to boost implementation of nine underfunded humanitarian projects in Niger. The projects are part of the 2013 Humanitarian Appeal for the country and aim to provide assistance to more than 650,000 vulnerable people.
The funding will support the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and UN agencies FAO, WHO, WFP, UNFPA and UNICEF - with their operating partners - to ensure humanitarian assistance to vulnerable migrants expelled from Libya in the Agadez region; to strengthen the resilience of pastoralists and agropastoralists in five regions; to provide emergency response to malaria and diphtheria outbreaks; to ensure humanitarian air services in Niger; to establish minimum emergency reproductive healthcare and medical assistance to rape victims; to provide education to Malian refugee children; and to promote water and sanitation interventions in response to malnutrition.
"This CERF allocation complements the generous supports we have received from other donors. It will help us to overcome the financial challenges we face in meeting urgent needs especially in sectors such as water, hygiene and sanitation, education, protection and health," said Fode Ndiaye, the Humanitarian Coordinator in Niger.
Although the $355 million Humanitarian Appeal for Niger is currently funded at 67.3 percent, three specialized sectors, or clusters, have mobilized less than a third of what they need. Water and sanitation projects have received 17.5 percent of required funding, education 20 percent and protection 27.7 percent. In addition, even in better-funded sectors there are aspects of the response that require additional donor support. These include resilience projects for the food security sector which is otherwise funded at 77 percent.
"Our projects for strengthening the resilience of 659,000 pastoralists and agro-pastoralists were not funded at all until July," said Dr. Amadou Saley, FAO's Assistant Resident Representative in the Niger. "The $2.5 million received from CERF to bolster these projects will help people to better cope with the constant risk of food insecurity."
CERF has also granted $6.4 million to Niger since July to support the rapid response to a cholera epidemic,
to forced displacement of people and to protect livelihood of vulnerable populations, bringing the overall
CERF support to Niger in 2013 to $14.3 million.
Read the full press release here.


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Library Chic: Card Catalog Furniture
Between the nostalgia, the symmetry and the compartmentalization that card catalogs offer, they have recently jumped to the top of my 'to find' list.
I've become quite fond of old library furniture lately. I scored myself a nice yellow book return cart with the masking tape scribed 'returns only' still on it. It sends me straight back to elementary school when I was a library volunteer.
So now that I have the return cart I am on the hunt for some good 'ol card catalogs to make into something spectacular. Here are a few inspirational makeover ideas I've been tossing around as of late:
1. Turned into buffet table. Here are the step-by-step instructions from Dream Book Design.
2. Made into a hideaway bar. From Apartment Therapy.
3. As drawers of a desk. From Matthew Fairbanks.
4. Crafted into a credenza. Check out the tutorial from Oakland-Avenue.
5. Used as a coffee table with an industrial twist by adding casters. From stegersaurus31 on flickr (licensed for use under Creative Commons).
(Images: as linked above)


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Phone: 407-278-4961Email: email@example.com
Dr. Reggie Kidd joined Reformed Theological Seminary in 1990 and serves as Professor of New Testament. He teaches core courses: Introduction to Pastoral and Theological Studies, Acts and the Pauline Epistles, New Testament Greek, Classics of Personal Devotion, and Christian Worship.
Dr. Kidd earned his Ph.D. in Christian Origins at Duke University. While in graduate school, he taught biblical studies and language courses at Duke University and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Dr. Kidd's New Testament research and teaching has focused on the letters of the Apostle Paul – Romans through Philemon. His published doctoral dissertation examined Paul''s view of wealth and generosity in 1-2 Timothy and Titus. He contributed the chapter on the Pastoral Epistles to The Baker Illustrated Bible Commentary (BakerBooks, 2012). Dr. Kidd has contributed study notes on Ephesians and Colossians to The Spirit of the Reformation Study Bible (Zondervan, 2003) and The Reformation Study Bible (Ligonier Ministries, 2005) and has developed a video series on Paul's teachings through Third Millennium Ministries. Dr. Kidd is a member of the Evangelical Theological Society and has participated in the Disputed Paulines group of the Society of Biblical Literature.
In addition to New Testament studies, Dr. Kidd also has significant interest in the theology and practice of worship. He currently teaches at the Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies, has directed worship ministries at local churches, and served as RTS Dean of Chapel for 15 years. His book With One Voice: Discovering Christ's Song in Our Worship (BakerBooks, 2005) articulates his worship theology.
Dr. Kidd also regularly writes columns for Worship Leader magazine.
Dr. Kidd is an ordained priest in The Episcopal Church and has served as a pastor and elder at multiple churches. From 2006 through 2012, he served as staff chaplain at Z88.3, a local Christian radio station.
Dr. Kidd and his wife, Sharon, have three sons. Dr. Kidd enjoys playing guitar and piano, and cutting tatami with his samurai sword.
Whether you're a prospective student, current student, alumnus, donor, or friend of RTS, we would love to hear from you.