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Bikini Girl Screen Washer Live Wallpaper.
It's really easy for smartphone screens to get smeared and dirty. If only there was an app that could automatically clean it for you. Enter Bikini Girl Screen Washer for Android. OK, so this app won't actually clean your screen for you, but you'll enjoy it just the same. An attractive woman in a red bikini is "washing" your screen from the inside, and you have a front row seat.
This woman is very good at her job, and if you want to see her technique in fine detail, just lower the frame rate on the wallpaper. Cleaning work has never looked so good. Note: Not all phones support live wallpapers. To check, go to Home>Menu>Wallpapers>Live Wallpapers. If that option is not there, this app will not work on your device.
*Available for Nexus One, Prime, S, Droid, Milestone, Motorola, Xperia, Desire, Evo 3D, 4G, Samsung, Galaxy, HTC, Sony-Ericsson and other powerful devices*


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fairchase necesitaba un nuevo diseño de página web y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 22 diseños de 6 diseñadores freelance.
We are running a promotion for users to register to win free tickets to Kenny Chesney Poets & Pirates Tour in the location of their choice.
We need a design that is simple and DOES NOT use any trademarks or copyrighted material related to the performer or the tour.
ADDITION TO CONTEST: I have received some legal feedback on the designs submitted so far and I need to make some changes. If someone who has already posted an entry ends up winning with a different design I will give you an extra $200 to make up for my mistake in the initial posting.
I need the design to focus on a concert venue...think a stage, lights, seats, people in the audience...whatever.
I like the "shadowed" form of the images used by the posted designs...but I need to refrain from using things like the palm trees, the compass, pirate ship etc....basically, I need to convey my message with a great looking design that does not look similar to the official tour website. We need to be careful not to do a design that makes it look like we are affiliated with the tour in anyway.
Page 1 of the website (the landing page) should feature the message:
Win 2 FRONT ROW TICKETS to the Kenny Chesney Poets & Pirates Tour 2008. The name "Kenny Chesney" should be the largest element in this headline with the other content taking a subordinate role in the headline.
Then the page should prompt the user to "Choose their concert location" and then it will list all of the locations in a 2 or 3 column table. You can get the concert locations from StubHub.com (or use generic place holder) These should be selected by a radio button selection by the user.
Once the user selects a location by clicking a radio button we will take them to page 2. Page 2 should be very simple and prompt the user to "Register now for your chance to WIN"....the form should be the focal point of the page with only supporting graphics to maintain the design. The form should prompt the user to enter the following info (fname, lname, address, city, state, zip, phone, email, gender, dob)
- I want to focus on the concept of a concert...big stage, big lights, etc.
- A Guitar, a Microphone, drums & other instruments, a Stage, Lights, Crowd...would all be things you could use...and I'm sure there are many more.
- Any images would prob be best if they are "blacked out" to create a "shadow" effect...I'm not sure how else to describe this.
- Another possible way to go would be to show some concert seating with chairs and maybe put "reserved" on the front row seats to show the image of what they can win....this could be done nice as a real image I think versus using the shadow effect...and it could also work with the shadow effect...just a thought.
- I am open to other ideas that help sell the message. The focus here needs to be a clean design that leads the user to take action and choose a venue on page 1 and then register on page 2.
- Due to legal compliance I need to refrain from using any of the design elements common on the Kenny Chesney website and official tour promotions....this include things like palm trees, pirate ships, compass, etc.

subset: commoncrawl


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Style # 222294
Glamour goes full bloom in this bebe dress, featuring luxuriously stretch-mesh fabric in ruched panels and a pretty floral print. Try yours with a pair of metallic sandals to amp it up.
- 92% nylon, 8% spandex
- Center back to hem: 21" (53 cm)
- Light knit lining
- Invisible zipper
- Dry clean
- Imported
- Model is 5'9" and is wearing a US size S
Deep V-Neck Cross Back Dress is rated out of 5 by 4.
Rated 2 out of 5 by dancer from wrong shape Honestly I am a girl with wide hips and this dress makes me look like I'm 2 sizes bigger than I am. The material is beautiful but definitely not for the pear shape or hourglass shape more for squared or athletic shape bodies.
Date published: 2013-11-24
Rated 5 out of 5 by IMORALES from Sexy and feminine This dress is sexy yet classy... Has a deep plunging neckline but is for fitting so your boobs don't fall out! Can be paired with the me evie boots or pumps and a leather jacket;) you won't be disappointed
Date published: 2013-10-27
Rated 4 out of 5 by Bebe1 from Versatile dress! Wanted to give this dress 5 stars but it definitely has a deep neckline which I was a bit weary of. However, when I tried it on, I still had jeans on. Looking in the mirror, it actually looked like a shirt before pulling it all the way down. So, having the option of wearing it either way was fantastic! The only downside, besides the very open top, was that it is hard to get on. Once I was able to manage to get it on correctly, it was worth it. A great deal!!
Date published: 2013-09-03
Rated 2 out of 5 by momo from Wanted to love it but didn't! I had such high hope for this dress! I love the fabric and the print. It looks good from the back but the cleavage on this dress is ridiculous: it's very revealing and spread too much apart. The straps on the dress sold in stores are different than the straps on the model on the stairs. The ruching of the fabric goes all the way up the shoulder and that bothered me. If you compare the two models, you can see the difference in the pictures. I wish the neckline was designed differently! I passed! Thumbs up if you can pull this dress!
Date published: 2013-08-16


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Scripture is full of verses which remind us that the Lord is particularly concerned about the poor and the helpless. As scientists and science teachers, how can we share that concern in the course of our professional work? We spend most of our working hours among the (relatively) privileged and wealthy. Few of us have jobs that directly redress injustices or give support and dignity to the poor.
One way to is to look around our professional world and ask, "Who in this world is poor? Who here suffers from injustice?" It may seem difficult to think of our scientific colleagues this way. It may also seem difficult to think of the non-scientists at our workplaces, such as secretarial and custodial staff, as being part of our professional world. But exploring these questions can also give us new love and compassion for these people.
In asking these questions, we have found a surprising number of answers. Not all of these ideas are appropriate for every person; rather, we hope they will stimulate you to find the specific ways you are called to be part of bringing justice into your professional world. We're eager to hear stories of how you have seen God work within your profession to set the prisoners free and to lift up those who are bowed down.
In today's society, technical knowledge and a college education are
increasingly a significant source of economic opportunity and social
-Do science education outreach to the general public, elementary schools and high schools. Do this especially at poorer schools and communities with less resources.
-Offer to tutor students who are struggling with science or math. Find such students at your institution, at a local school or children's ministry, or through your church.
-If you are a college or university faculty member, particularly if you are in a position of leadership, be aware of your institution's admissions and financial aid policies. Advocate admission of -- and outreach to -- capable students who are from disadvantaged backgrounds.
-If you work at a prominent institution, offer resources and connections to faculty at community colleges and other less prestigious institutions which tend to serve students from poor backgrounds.
At universities, graduate students and other student employees lack
power and need an advocate.
-When hiring students to be research assistants, rather than automatically choosing those with the highest grades and most extensive experience, also look for students who can become just as capable but have lower grades or less experience because of more limited backgrounds.
-Make yourself available to counsel students who are facing difficult career decisions, both your own students and other students in your department. Give particular help and encouragement to those who doubt themselves and their ability.
-Don't assume it's best for all students or post-docs to take "the fast track" to a prestigious research career. Affirm priorities that they have in addition to pursuing science.
At major research universities, some faculty give little time or
effort to teaching, or focus their attention primarily on the talented
-Teach in a way that challenges and benefits all students, not just the most talented ones. Don't ignore the poor and under-prepared students in your classes. Give them time, and connect them with tutoring and other resources.
-Familiarize yourself with the research done in the last few decades about how students learn science, so you can teach as effectively as possible.
In the research world of academia and industry, power and
opportunity are awarded to the best-known and most accomplished groups.
The "rich tend to get richer and the poor, poorer" in literal funding
dollars, as well as figuratively.
-When looking for research collaborators, don't automatically choose labs with strong reputations, and so try to "hitch your wagon to their star." Look for less well-known collaborators who can do the work just as well.
-When refereeing papers, giving talks, writing review articles, and so forth, give credit to groups who do good work but are less well-known than the "stars" of the field -- especially groups from poorer countries. Be aware of and help publicize good work done at less prestigious schools.
Support staff at our institutions often lack autonomy and may also
be poorly compensated for their work.
-Learn the names of support staff whom you see regularly, including cleaning staff. Express appreciation for their work and treat them with dignity. Find out how your institution treats them and advocate fair employment practices. Pray for them.
-When giving work to support staff, think about whether your requests, and especially the time frame for completing them, are reasonable.
The powerful in society often use science and technology at the
expense of the powerless.
-Consider the impact your research has on other people, including the social and ethical implications of technologies developed by your discipline (not just your own work). Speak out for developing applications which benefit all of society, not just the rich.
-Think about the needs of the poor and whether work in your own discipline can serve those needs directly. You may be able to chose a research project which directly benefits the poor.
-Ask whether your research activities damage the environment directly or indirectly (such as through production of toxic chemicals), and how you can minimize their impact. Speak out on the need for environmental stewardship within your own research community. Some may be called to study extensively and speak publicly on these issues.
-Be active in your professional societies and encourage them, as institutions, to champion the cause of the oppressed. Many scientific societies already speak out for scientists who are unjustly imprisoned by repressive governments; we can challenge them to advocate justice on a wider scale.
And of course, all of us have lives outside our profession.
-In use of personal money, and in conversations, be aware of the needs of the poor -- especially in countries which often don't "make the news." By our actions we can raise our colleagues' awareness of injustice and prejudice.


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Schaffhausen bound over in homicide case
A man accused in the murder of his three young daughters was bound over for trial in St. Croix County Circuit Court Tuesday morning.
Judge Scott Needham found probable cause that Aaron Schaffhausen committed a felony and set an arraignment hearing for Aug. 28 at 4 p.m. when he will enter a plea.
Schaffhausen, 35, is charged with three counts of first-degree intentional homicide in the July 10 deaths of daughters Amara, 11, Sophie, 8, and Cecelia, 5, at their River Falls residence. He appeared in an orange jail suit in handcuffs and showed no emotion through the hour and one half hearing.
Gary Freyberg of the Wisconsin Attorney General's office and Assistant District Attorney Amber Hahn prosecuted the case. The team called three witnesses.
Fallon Moore, a UW-RF student who served as a babysitter for Aaron and Jessica Schaffhausen for five years and who was taking care of the children on July 10, took the stand first.
She testified that she received a call from Jessica who said Aaron wanted to visit with the children. He arrived about 1:30 p.m. "The girls were happy to see their father," she said. "They greeted him at the front door."
When asked about Aaron's demeanor at the time, Moore said he was, "slightly gruff but not impolite," which was normal for him.
She said the girls went upstairs with their father and Moore left the house.
Ailene Splittgerber, a six-year employee with the River Falls Police Department, took the stand next.
She testified she was working her eight-hour shift that included handling no emergency calls when she took a call from the Ramsey County, Minn., dispatch at about 3:30 p.m.
She said the call was from Jessica who was hysterical and crying. "She wanted officers to go to her residence at 2790 Morningside Ave. and check on her children. She said her ex-husband called her and said he had killed the children," Splittgerber said.
She said calls to her desk aren't normally recorded but after "less than a minute" of conversation, she started recording it. She kept talking to Jessica for an estimated 40 minutes.
The prosecution's third witness was investigator John Wilson of River Falls Police Department. He testified he was dispatched to the Schaffhausen home and arrived about 4 p.m.
Wilson said he went upstairs and found a young child in the first bedroom he came to, "lifeless with a blanket pulled up to her neck, blood on her face and her eyes open."
He testified to finding the two other children in similar condition in separate upstairs bedrooms and a large pool of blood and blood spatters in one of the rooms.
Wilson said he observed the autopsies on the three girls at the Ramsey County Medical Examiner's office in St. Paul. He said two of the girls had, "large gaping wounds across their necks," and one child had "two gaping wounds across her neck."
A specific murder weapon has not been identified, but the prosecution believed it was a knife in earlier statements.
Wilson said he was later informed that Aaron turned himself in to the department and had what appeared to be blood on a right pocket of his cargo shorts. He "did not say a word" during an interview," the investigator said.
Public defender John Kucinski represented Schaffhausen along with public defender Alex Andrea from the Hudson office. Kucinski did not call any witnesses.
The court room was well represented by members of the Twin Cities and surrounding media. Kucinski had filed a motion to exclude media, in the form of cameras, from the courtroom. Judge Needham partially denied it but allowed only one TV camera in the courtroom and other television outlets had to take a feed off it.
"With cameras and TV, people testify differently," Kucinski argued in defense of his client.
Judge Scott Needham presided over the hearing in place of Judge Howard Cameron who was on vacation. Cameron heard Schaffhausen's initial appearance July 12 and will resume the case at the arraignment Aug. 28. Schaffhausen has been held in the St. Croix County Jail on $2 million cash bail since his arrest.


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From the beginning, the founders of the biotechnology startup Emerald Therapeutics wanted to develop an ideal research platform that would allow for lab and process automation during experiments as well as easy communication of their findings.
Mathematica provides all the tools the Emerald founders needed to carry out their vision, while the Wolfram Language powers Emerald Cloud Lab, a web-based life sciences lab.
About the decision to use Mathematica, cofounder and co-CEO Brian Frezza says, "It struck the perfect balance of being powerful enough and versatile enough to allow our engineering team to develop sophisticated software within, yet the language is easy enough to learn that it's accessible to our chemists and biologists to use as a primary means of keeping a daily lab notebook."
Emerald's team of scientists and engineers have a shared code base in Mathematica, which allows them to use one platform for carrying out all the tasks in their antiviral research workflow—from developing functions to processing and storing data, designing and managing experiments, presenting findings and even controlling lab instruments.
Having Mathematica as the core platform means the Emerald team can trust the repeatability and accuracy of their results and rapidly grow their experiment base. "We can keep handling larger experiments and we can do more complicated things each day because we're building on a base that is incredibly reliable and precise.... You need that level of reproducibility in biology. You need something that can handle all the quantitative detail in a way that's still accessible and manipulatable to the scientists."
For Frezza, having one language that both the engineers and scientists can share and perfect is extremely valuable, especially as a startup in the pharmaceutical industry. "The way in which we're able to build is just incredible. Our burn rate is incredibly low for a startup because the number of people we need to do what we're doing, which is incredibly ambitious, it scales incredibly well when you have a tool like that."
In addition, the team's discoveries can be easily and interactively communicated to investors, partners and vendors using Mathematica's Computable Document Format, which Frezza says is "fantastic for external communication of data."


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Duke Nukem Forever was, I thought, an absolute disaster. I was not alone in this. Yet Gearbox co-founder Brian Martel thinks the game's poor reviews weren't a consequence of the game being terrible. They were because reviewers were somehow unfair to the game.
"There were
towards the high and things towards the low, but the middle just didn't get any traction. It's pretty obvious that people were using it in some ways to kind of use it as a soapbox or whatever," he told Eurogamer in an interview, originally held at GamesCom in August but only now being published.
When he was asked if that meant the game was reviewed unfairly, he replied, "I think that if we were going to review the reviews fairly, no."
"We've had this internal debate," he added later. "Would Half-Life today be reviewed as highly as it is, you know, even today? As a new IP coming out with the same sort of mechanics Half-Life had."
"I think we all have a nostalgia and love for that particular brand. Obviously Gearbox got its start working on Opposing Force so we love Half-Life. But is the current gamer, would they have the same love for that? It'd be interesting. I think the same kind of thing happened with Duke."
Sometimes, even if you feel like the whole world is against you, you just have to take it on the chin and let it go. Before you start sounding a little crazy. This is one of those times.
Gearbox: Duke Nukem Forever wasn't reviewed fairly [Eurogamer]


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For straight line guys, spending hundreds of dollars on something that doesn't give you any extra horsepower doesn't exactly seem like a good deal. Even a federal bean counter could figure that one out. Unless that money buys extra hook off the line, your suspicions of lameness are usually true. However, the one exception to the rule is a high-stall torque converter. Sticking one of these fluid-filled donuts between the engine and trans can often shave a half-second off your quarter-mile e.t.'s. It's all about maximizing power off the line, and nothing accomplishes this better than an optimized torque converter. By allowing a motor to freely rev to the fat part of its powerband almost instantaneously, instead of lugging along at low rpm where torque is at a premium, the result is blistering 60-foot times and phenomenal gains in acceleration. To put it succinctly, all automatic-equipped street machines and drag cars need an aftermarket torque converter.
In essence, a torque converter is nothing more than a fluid coupling that transfers power from the engine to the transmission. Unlike the clutch in a manual transmission, the input side (impeller) of the converter isn't physically connected to the output side (turbine). Instead, converters transfer power from one side to the other by swirling transmission fluid around inside their housings. It's this peculiar dynamic that offers endless tuning possibilities when the task at hand is torque multiplication and powerband optimization. Consequently, torque converter design is a very complex science where simple changes to the length, size, and shape of its internal blades and fins dramatically alter its performance characteristics. Likewise, there are a multitude of ways to build a converter to achieve the same specific performance goal. To get a handle on it all, we contacted two of the sharpest minds in the business, Stanley Poff of TCI and Joe Rivera of Pro Torque. Here's what they had to say.
Stall It
Stanley Poff: "When extracting more horsepower from an engine with components such as a performance intake manifold, fuel delivery system, camshaft, and valvetrain, it's imperative to upgrade from a factory converter to a performance aftermarket unit. In most cases, horsepower has been increased and a more durable torque converter is needed. Likewise, changing the torque converter to a higher stall speed increases torque multiplication and allows the engine to reach its powerband quicker. Raising the powerband of the engine requires flashing the converter's stall speed closer to the peak torque of the engine, and locking it as soon afterwards as possible. For example, if you have an engine that is making peak torque around 2,500 rpm and you use a tight stock converter which averages around 1,500-1,700 rpm of stall, there will be a lag time where the engine will simply not perform as well as it could until it reaches 2,500 rpm. By installing a torque converter that flash stalls to 2,500 rpm, the engine is allowed to reach its optimum hp range quicker and will therefore perform much better."
Joe Rivera: "A performance torque converter is usually the best bang for buck mod for a hot rod. Our customers with 2010 Camaros are picking up four- to six-tenths in the quarter-mile with one of our high-stall converters. It's hard to match that with a set of headers, or a cold-air induction system. It's not that a performance converter makes more power, but what it does is allow your car to transfer power better. By raising the stall speed, or slippage, a performance converter raises engine rpm at launch, which increases power at launch. For example, if an engine makes 100 lb-ft of torque at 1,500 rpm and 175 lb-ft at 2,500, which would you rather have? With a higher-stall converter, your engine isn't making any more power, but it's allowing the motor to get to a place where it's happier more quickly. OE converters follow a one-size-fits-all philosophy. They want grandma to be able step on the gas without the tires spinning. Performance enthusiasts don't want that. They want more power to reach the wheels quicker. As a result, new-car manufacturers stick with conservative stall speeds to prevent you from going WOT in First gear and frying the tires. On the other hand, aftermarket manufacturers want you to fry the tires. When tuning a converter, the goal is to match it to the operating range of the engine. If you have a converter that's closely matched to the engine's dynamics that gets it into the fat part of the powerband more quickly, it will transfer power to wheels more quickly, which translates to faster acceleration."
Converter Components Stanley Poff: "To the untrained eye, a torque converter may look like a big circle with a bunch of fins inside it, but the various components it contains all serve important functions. GM converters can be broken down into two basic groups: non-lockup converters used in the TH350 and TH400, and lockup converters used in overdrive transmissions like the 700-R4, 200-4R, 4L60, 4L65, 4L80, and 4L85. The main components in a conventional non-lockup converter are the mounting cover, turbine, stator, and pump impeller. The mounting cover is what bolts to the flexplate and acts as a housing for all the internal parts. The pump impeller pumps and circulates fluid through the torque converter. As engine rpm increases, the rate of fluid flow through the converter increases until it reaches lockup. The turbine then catches the fluid from the pump impeller and circulates it to the stator and finally back to the pump, in a circular motion. By directing fluid from the turbine back to the pump impeller, the stator is responsible for the stall speed and torque multiplication of the converter. In addition to those four components, lockup converters add a lockup piston to the mix, which enables the converter to lock up at cruising speed. Once the engine reaches a certain temperature and rpm, a solenoid located on the transmission activates the lockup function."
Joe Rivera: "Data acquisition is the key to understanding and improving performance in all areas of racing. The same is true in the development and tuning of performance torque converters. The many years of racing and street car development we have been a part of has allowed us access to some of the best testing equipment available today, from high-end race data acquisition systems to rear-wheel dyno equipment. Even so, it's the race car that is the ultimate test for what we're doing.
"The benefits of data acquisition technology in the development of race converters gets trickled down throughout our entire product line. From the fastest automatic-equipped race cars to the tree-trunk pulling torque of modified diesels, and right down to your street car. For instance, the converters we developed for the fifth-gen Camaro is really a byproduct of all the work we are doing with high-horsepower Outlaw turbo cars. Our billet stators feature a proprietary blade design that offers more stall speed and unbelievable part-throttle characteristics. The process used to create these new billet stators is really revolutionary. We CAD/CAM design the individual blades, and then create a stator based off the physical space requirements. Next, we four-axis machine the parts out of one solid chunk of steel or aluminum. During testing, we rely heavily on our Racepak data acquisition system to find out exactly how to apply the power to the tires.
"When you're making converter changes, you need to understand that every time you change something in the converter, you're making a dynamic change. Kind of like playing a game of Jenga, if you move one piece of the puzzle everything moves along with it. In turbo cars, we worked very hard to find a converter design that both spools the turbos quickly and efficiently transfers power to the wheels. In the past that was very difficult, but with data acquisition and CAD/CAM technology we have been able to create completely different stator designs very quickly to get the best of both worlds. With the Racepak data logging system, we can measure wheel speed, driveshaft speed, g's at launch, and the average g's throughout the run to see how changes to the converter improves performance at the track. Truthfully, we'd be in the dark without data acquisition systems that chart our progress at the track."
Stall Speed
Stanley Poff: "The stall speed of a torque converter plays an important role in overall vehicle performance. Stall speed is determined by the amount of flash rpm the converter is allowed to reach before the vehicle starts to move. Different torque converter cores, stator combinations, and pump fin angles can allow for different stall ranges in a torque converter. It is possible to reach the same stall-speed in a torque converter with different stators and pump/fin combinations, and one of the combinations may yield a better torque multiplication ratio than the others. The optimum stall speed and torque multiplication of a converter is achieved with R&D time on a dynamometer. TCI has an in-house dynamometer that uses a 900hp engine. This dyno was built specifically to test torque converter stall speeds without using a transmission. TCI can map different torque converters with different stall speeds and achieve a unit that will deliver the best stall speed and torque multiplication ratio.
"There are dozens of variables involved in selecting the correct stall speed for an application. First, we ask the customer a series of questions to determine what the vehicle will be used for. Is the car a grocery getter, a street machine, or a weekend warrior? Will it be a heavy cruiser or a lightweight all-out race application? Next, we examine the engine combo by asking for things like the duration of the camshaft and the type of induction system they're running to determine what type of horsepower we are dealing with. We're actually trying to dyno the engine in our heads with the specs we gather, so the customer being truthful when relaying those specs ensures a closer fit in stall speed and an optimum torque converter. Obviously, a converter will flash stall more in a heavy car than it will in a light car. Likewise, a converter will normally stall higher in a big-block application than it will in a small-block application, unless a power-adder is used on the small-block. A higher-rpm engine normally has to use a much higher stall speed than a low-rpm torque engine."
Multiplication Ratio
Joe Rivera: "Most people are familiar with what a converter's stall speed is, but a converter's multiplication ratio is an important performance factor as well. Back in day, all you'd hear about is stall speed, but you can have a converter with a lower stall speed and a higher torque multiplication ratio that accelerates a car faster than a converter with a higher stall speed and lower multiplication ratio. Every torque converter has the ability to multiply torque. This is a product of the converter taking energy from the trans fluid and redirecting it, which multiplies torque. As the ratio of turbine speed to pump speed increases, torque multiplication decreases. The confusing part is that multiplication ratio is independent of stall speed, and it's based mostly upon the design of the stator and pump. The average converter has a multiplication ratio between 1.9- and 2.5:1. The goal is to match the stall speed with an engine's power curve, and maximize the multiplication ratio as much as possible."
Stanley Poff: "Furnace brazing is a term that's thrown around a lot by converter manufacturers, and is a very common method of strengthening the internals. During the furnace brazing process, the turbine and the pump impeller are loaded with a powder brazing and run through an oven that causes that powder to melt and conform along the entire length of the fins. These fins are not very stationary from the factory since they're mass-produced pieces, so they're tightened down at TCI before the process begins. The powdered brazing material melts in the oven, and conforms to the complex contours of the fins. After it cools, the brazing materials bonds to the fins, creating one solid and uniform component. The final product is substantially stronger than an OEM torque converter, which are rarely furnace brazed."
Stanley Poff: "Even though the pump impeller and turbine inside a torque converter don't physically touch each other, the extreme pressures inside a converter can distort its internals. Factory torque converters are mass-produced, and aren't designed to work or last under higher-horsepower applications. They usually incorporate thrust washers instead of needle bearings, inferior stamped steel mounting fronts, and non-brazed internals. To endure the demands of high-hp engines, a TCI performance torque converter has a fully furnace brazed pump impeller and turbine, a machined stator, and sometimes even handbuilt steel stators with bearings that ride on both the surface of the turbine and pump impeller. In some instances we install anti-ballooning plates to the pump impeller and the mounting front to reinforce them for strength. In extreme-hp applications, we use forged or billet front covers."
Joe Rivera: "When it comes to torque converters, everyone hears about features like billet covers and furnace brazing, but do they really understand what that means? There's a lot of time and energy that goes into building a durable product that performs properly. What really good shops do is pay attention to the finer details. One of the things we do differently is box weld the anti-ballooning plates to ensure there is no flex or movement in the pump. We also use anti-ballooning plates on the turbines to make sure they don't move around either. Other tricks include billet stators that are machined from a single hunk of billet steel, and top-of-the-line billet front covers to make sure that they are as light and as strong as they can be. No one talks much about bearings, but they're a critical component in building a durable converter. We use oversized bearings that can withstand the load of up to 4,000 horsepower.
"At Pro Torque, we rate our converters up to a certain power level. Our current catalog includes converters rated at 500-, 650-, 850-, and 1,000-plus horsepower. At the 500hp mark, features such as anti-ballooning plates, furnace brazing, Torrington bearings, reinforced blades, and billet covers and clutches are used to fortify the converter. As power levels increase, the basic components stay the same, but they're just a little beefier. The converters we make for 3,800hp twin-turbo cars actually have similar features as our converters rated at 650 hp. They might have billet steel stators, but the basic components are the same. This is yet another example of how race technology from our top-of-the-line converters trickles down to our street product line."
Stator Design
Joe Rivera: "Through exhaustive R&D, we've learned that modifying the stator is one of the most effective tools in tuning the characteristics of a torque converter. We can take the same pump and turbine, and completely alter the characteristics of the converter just by changing the stator. This is because how a converter transfers power is determined by how the stator redirects the fluid. Thanks to our billet stator program, we've been able to make huge strides in understanding how different stator designs affect performance. The process starts with a solid chunk of steel, which gets machined down into a stator in our four-axis CNC mill. Last year alone, we made 175 different billet stators designs, all with various blade angles, blade pitches, blade lengths, blade counts, blade shapes, and window sizes. All of these factors affect how oil gets redirected inside the converter. By creating our own stator design while leaving the pump and turbine untouched, we can take a 10.5-inch converter and change stall speed between 3,000 and 5,500 rpm.
"There are always exceptions, but generally speaking, adding the number of blades raises the stall speed while changing the pitch of the blades can lower stall speed. Blade design also affects the multiplication ratio, so stator design can get very complex. Let's say you have five different blade counts with three different blade pitches that you want to test. That's 15 different combinations just based on one blade design. Add blade length and window design to the equation, and the number of possibilities goes up exponentially. As you can see, it takes a lot of time and R&D to design the right stator for an engine combination."
Quality Control
Stanley Poff: "Torque converters are inherently complex due to their multitude of moving parts, and we take extreme measures to ensure quality control. Many of the components are made to specifications with tolerances held to 0.002- to 0.005-inch. Items that are heat-treated have to be within a certain range or hardness in order to have adequate durability. Furthermore, endplay in the torque converter is set so the torque converter has the correct preload on the bearings inside. Each torque converter is air-checked in a water tank under 120 psi of pressure to ensure there are no leaks, and every torque converter TCI produces is balanced to within 5-10 grams on a torque converter balancer. TCI also has quality control engineers that spot-check all of its products including transmissions, torque converters, and shift kits."
Loose & Tight
Joe Rivera: "Traditionally, part-throttle slippage has been one of the drawbacks of a performance converter in a street application. It makes the converter feel mushy at part throttle and compromises driveability. Thanks to our race technology trickling down to our street converters, that compromise is a thing of the past. Outlaw turbo drag cars are the most difficult application to build a converter for because you need them loose on the bottom end of the track and tight on the top end. This forced us to get creative and test several new stator designs. Through lots of experimentation, we can now loosen up a converter on bottom without reducing efficiency up top. To accomplish this, we take a stock converter and put one of our stators in it. That one change alone raises stall speed to 3,000 rpm. Our billet stator yields excellent driveability with little to no part-throttle slip, which eliminates that mushy feeling typical of a high-stall converter."


text:
If a writer turned up at a Hollywood studio with a script about a bunch of people who escape the town villains by living in the sewers, they'd be turned away at the door and told to come back with something more realistic.
Except it is real. In Nazi-occupied Poland, Leopold Socha - not a heroic figure by any account - was a simple man who used his knowledge of the city Lwow's (now Lvov in the Ukraine) underground tunnels to shelter hundreds of Jews from their persecutors.
It is one of many wartime stories of heroism handed down through the generations since, and now it's been turned into a haunting Oscar-nominated film, In Darkness, directed by Polish veteran Agnieszka Holland.
Although Holland hadn't heard Socha's story before she received the script, she explains: "I knew a lot of stories from that period, reading and talking to people for years. There were many stories of others who'd risked their lives to save perfect strangers, as well as of people who did the most terrible things. I was born after the war, but the war was very present."
As well as the practical challenges of keeping a tale based mostly underground accessible and interesting, Holland had the extra burden of eschewing dramatic devices for the sake of history:
"It's a huge subject. You're painting a picture of humanity, and asking questions which we don't really know how to answer. In another film you have the luxury of making tiny little decisions to improve the bigger picture, but with something like this, you have to stay true to what you believe is right, you can't get away with anything just to make a better movie."
The film, which Holland worked on for five years in all, has been the most successful this year at the Polish cinema, and Holland has been touched by the reception it has received, particularly from descendants of those who tucked themselves away in the sewers.
But her biggest sentiment is reserved for Socha himself, a man untroubled by good conscience or awareness until he found himself in extraordinary circumstances and, like the far more famous Oskar Schindler, moved to help.
"It was extraordinary how he can suddenly become responsible for these people he doesn't even like very much." reflects Holland.
"It almost happens against his will and without his knowledge, and that I found very moving. I don't want to make films about heroes, because they are very brave or epic, what interests me are the people in the street, because we can so easily project ourselves onto them."
In Darkness is in cinemas now. Here's the trailer ...


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Films provide a very powerful tool in terms of the understanding and appreciation of environmental and human situations. Accordingly they are extremely valuable in terms of education, sharing ideas, promotion of conservation, and influencing decisions within communities, within the business fraternity and among government. Films are also extremely valuable in education enabling people in a virtual sense to experience the marine environment both above and below water.
All SST films are copyrighted but may be obtained from SST for educational and conservation purposes.
Video Gallery
A selection of SST films:


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Real-World Review
2013 vs. 2014 Toyota Corolla
Despite its advancing age, the Toyota Corolla is one of the best-selling cars in the country. Now, a redesigned 2014 Toyota Corolla is on sale, and while the automaker expects to push sales numbers even deeper into 6-figure territory by continuing to deliver what it calls QDR (quality, durability and reliability), it also hopes that more emotional design and improved driving dynamics will make the new Corolla a vehicle people both want and need to buy.
Will car shoppers want to buy a new Corolla, or will an old Corolla better serve the budget-conscious looking for dependable transportation? That's what we're here to determine.
Fuel Economy
While the redesigned 2014 Toyota Corolla contains the same 1.8-liter 4-cylinder engine that came in the old Corolla, new transmissions improve fuel economy in the new model. Toyota is also offering a Corolla Eco model with Valvematic engine technology, which increases gas mileage while generating more horsepower.
In the old Corolla, the 4-cylinder engine made 132 horsepower and was rated to get 30 miles per gallon in combined city and highway driving with the standard 5-speed manual transmission and 29 mpg in combined driving with the optional 4-speed automatic.
In the new Corolla, the horsepower rating is unchanged. Combined fuel economy ratings jump, however, rising to 31 mpg with the new 6-speed manual transmission and 32 mpg with the optional continuously variable transmission (CVT). Even the base Corolla L model, which does without a CVT in favor of last year's 4-speed automatic, improves to 31 mpg in combined city and highway driving.
Toyota says that one of every 10 new Corollas sold will be the LE Eco trim. Equipped with Valvematic technology, an advanced version of its variable valve timing system, the Corolla LE Eco makes 140 hp and returns up to 35 mpg in combined city and highway driving, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Given the significant improvements in EPA ratings, especially for the LE Eco version, the 2014 Corolla gets our vote for fuel economy.
The redesigned 2014 Toyota Corolla has eight standard airbags, including a new knee airbag for the driver and a new seat cushion airbag for the front passenger. Plus, most models have a new reversing camera. Otherwise, the standard safety equipment list mirrors the old model, and each Corolla comes with Toyota's Smart Stop technology, which prevents the vehicle from accidentally accelerating if the brake pedal is pressed.
Toyota says it has designed the 2014 Corolla to excel in National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) crash tests, including the new small overlap frontal-impact assessment by IIHS. However, as this article is written, neither organization had performed official tests on the new Corolla.
The old Corolla was named a Top Safety Pick in each year that it was on sale from 2009 to 2013. In NHTSA testing, the 2012 and 2013 Corolla models received an overall rating of four stars, with an individual rating of three stars for the side-impact pole test. The 2011 Corolla fared poorly after NHTSA modified its testing program for that model year, earning a 3-star overall rating. Looking deeper, the 2011 Corolla's unimpressive 2-star side-impact protection rating results from a 2-star side-impact score for rear-seat occupant protection and a 1-star side-impact pole test score.
Before the changes in NHTSA testing procedures, the 2009 and 2010 Corolla models earned an overall crash-test rating of four stars.
Have your eyes glazed over yet? Let's summarize. Toyota says the redesigned 2014 Corolla will get a 5-star rating from NHTSA and a Top Safety Pick Plus rating from IIHS. That would make the new car the safer model. If you choose to buy an old Corolla, make sure to get a 2012 or 2013 model.
Toyota prides itself on the Corolla's track record for quality, durability and reliability. One glance at this model's record with Consumer Reports confirms that the Corolla delivers on all counts. The data from J.D. Power is more critical, however, showing that quality stumbled in 2009 and 2010, and that owners gave the 2010 model an average rating for dependability. Considered collectively, the data demonstrates that the Corolla delivers better-than-average reliability.
If you elect to give the old Corolla a try, consider one that is certified through Toyota's Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) program. Eligible models must pass a 160-point inspection, and each CPO Corolla includes a CARFAX vehicle history report. Toyota also extends the powertrain warranty to provide seven years or 100,000 miles of protection, and adds one year or 12,000 miles of bumper-to-bumper coverage and free roadside assistance.
New Corollas include a 5-year/60,000-mile powertrain warranty, a 3-year/36,000-mile standard warranty and two years or 25,000 miles of free scheduled maintenance and roadside assistance. While that's appealing, it's unlikely worth spending thousands more on a new Corolla when an old Corolla is likely to last a good, long time. The advantage here goes to the old Corolla.
The trouble with buying old Corollas is that they hold their value extraordinarily well, so you won't save as much as you might expect by choosing one.
The redesigned 2014 Corolla ranges in price from less than $18,000 for the L trim level to about $24,000 for the S Premium model with all the extras. As this article is written, prices for CPO Corolla models range from a low of $10,500 for a 2010 model with 73,000 miles on the odometer to a high of $23,000 for a 2013 model with every option and 11,000 miles.
Given the high prices for used CPO Corollas, our recommendation is to get a new one. Dealers are closing out the 2013 model with low lease rates, low APR financing and cash rebates, and Toyota is already offering an appealing lease payment for the new, redesigned 2014 Corolla. Toyota really wants to increase the number of Corollas on the road, so the company is making it easy to choose a new one over a used one.
In addition to making Bluetooth standard and equipping most 2014 Corolla models with a reversing camera and automatic climate control, Toyota also has expanded the availability of its Display Audio infotainment system, Entune App Suite smartphone services technology and touchscreen navigation system in the new car. Valvematic engine technology dramatically improves fuel economy in the LE Eco model, and the new Corolla also can be optioned with keyless passive entry and push-button starting. Therefore, the technology advantage goes to the 2014 Corolla.
AutoTrader's Advice
If your next car simply needs to provide the most reliability for the least amount of money, a used Corolla makes sense. But so do lots of other cars. That's why we recommend that you strongly consider a new Corolla. The 2014 model's appealing new styling and roomier, more comfortable interior is just the tip of the iceberg. This year, Toyota improves the car's fuel economy, safety, value and technology while engineering the 2014 Corolla to continue delivering QDR.


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Car Review
2013 Honda Odyssey: Real-World Review
We recently tried out the 2013 Honda Odyssey. To give it a thorough workout, we handed it off to one of our married staffers with two young children. He also had relatives visiting from out of town during his time with the Odyssey, offering the perfect occasion to use Honda's minivan exactly as intended.
Not surprisingly, he was impressed with nearly all the van's family-friendly attributes. Among the high points was being able to anchor a child seat in the middle portion of the second row -- an important feature, which the Odyssey makes possible. By doing so, you can seat three people in the second row and use the third for storage -- important when you have to contend with luggage and all the accessories that accompany small children.
Another strong point was the van's seating position. With front-row bucket seats positioned high off the ground, our staffer felt like he was driving an SUV rather than a minivan. That feature was only aided by the van's engine and transmission, which offer performance that would've been unheard of in a minivan just a few years ago. The transmission, especially, boasts smooth shifts and rarely hunts for the right gear.
The van also impressed us with its wide range of capabilities. Not only is it a family vehicle, but with the seats folded down it can carry a wide array of large items, such as furniture. In fact, with the seats down, the Odyssey's interior reminds us of a pickup truck with a camper shell. The van's stereo was a strong point, as well, though largely unnecessary (yet highly welcome) in a vehicle whose main purpose is shuttling children and passengers.
Of course, there were a few weak spots. One was the automatic rear tailgate, which failed to open when its exterior button was pressed. And once it was open, the tailgate had a little height problem: It stopped just short of hitting our staffer's garage door. That could be an issue in a tight parking garage with low ceilings.
The Odyssey's bigger issue, however, is that -- with seating for seven, nearly 250 horsepower and a long list of features, such as navigation, rear DVD players, leather and dual-zone automatic climate control -- it seemed like overkill for a family of four. Still, the 2013 Honda Odyssey remains a great choice for drivers who never want to worry about how everyone and everything will fit.


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redman wrote:i opened cryptostorm a couple of days ago and it asked and performed an update. Since then I have not been able to connect, it hangs at the point "Logging into the darknet". I have uninstall and reinstalled with no luck. I have also removed OpenVPN and halted the AV software during the re-installation. How do I get the logs to see what is causing the issue as area where the logs are usually visible is black. I am running Windows 10 32 bit version.
For instance, it can enter your machine when you click on a malicious link, provided on YouTube, Facebook, Skype, visit a phishing web portal, put infected removable media drive onto your machine, etc. Besides, it is also known that Trojan: Win32/Fuery.B!cl has been spread through Java vulnerabilities and Adobe Flash
df wrote:@RubRiches
It's just a false positive. The CS widget installer randomly gets caught up in their database because it uses the same compression (LZ4) as some trojans.
I use a local win7 VM for widget dev, and the only thing installed on it is the stuff needed for widget dev (Perl, Notepad++, etc.).
I do file integrity checks on that stuff to make sure when I downloaded them they weren't MiTM'd.
The widget installer's hashes were generated on that local VM, and they're checked on the remote VM I use to build the widget, and then they're checked a final time when they're put up on the website.
So it's highly unlikely that something as simple as "Win32/Fuery.B!cl" is going to find it's way into the widget installer (unless your system is already infected ).
http://deletespywares.blogspot.com/2017 ... rybcl.html -For instance, it can enter your machine when you click on a malicious link, provided on YouTube, Facebook, Skype, visit a phishing web portal, put infected removable media drive onto your machine, etc. Besides, it is also known that Trojan: Win32/Fuery.B!cl has been spread through Java vulnerabilities and Adobe Flash
Yea, I'm not using/doing any of that crap on any of the VMs or servers.
Anyways, I'll do what I did last time this happened: send M$ a false positive report so they'll remove it.
I just tested with Windows Defender on win7 and win10 with updated databases, they didn't find anything in the latest installer.
Code: Select all
email@example.com [~/www]# grep ^\# whitelist
#onyx / paris
#cf-i / cryptofree
#alors / paris
#tagus / lisbon
#jord / switzerland
#skana / canadawest
#goo / useast (New York City, NY)
#windy / usnorth (Chicago, IL)
#resurgens / ussouth (Atlanta, GA) - will be removed in August 2018, replaced with "resurg"
#rugby / england
#ham - canadaeast
#silver - uswest (Las Vegas, NV)
#riga - latvia
#rotte - netherlands
#warsaw - poland
#stadi - finland
#warlock - dusseldorf
#brabant - netherlands
#stakaya - uswest (Seattle, WA)
#dc - useast (Washington, D.C.)
#lax - uswest (Los Angeles, CA)
#blocko - denmark
#gambit - rome
#zuna - frankfurt
#voodoo - isle of man
#voodoo - romania
#voodoo - russia
#sallad - ussouth (Dallas, TX)
#balaur - romania
#resurg - ussouth (Atlanta, GA)
#zur - switzerland
RubRiches wrote:Huh, that is weird. I ran Malware bytes and my system is ok.
No worries though I was able to download the new version and now I am stuck on the progress bar while connecting.
This is where it is stuck:
Sat Jul 07 07:52:09 2018 us=54756 [cryptostorm server] Peer Connection Initiated with [AF_INET]220.127.116.11:5060
Sat Jul 07 07:52:10 2018 us=150762 SENT CONTROL [cryptostorm server]: 'PUSH_REQUEST' (status=1)
Tried unchecking ECC instance, then DNS leak etc... but no good.
Please see if there is something I need to do.
One more request can you guys improve the widget as such that I don't have to exit the widget to go to Options while it is trying to connect.
marzametal wrote:Would it be safe to assume that the above means if I choose a random node to connect to in the widget, then all nodes will be attempted to be pre-resolved... and if I choose one specific node from the dropdown, then just that one will be pre-resolved?
Code: Select all
echo $management_password | csvpn.exe --config-options
df wrote:Also in v3.35 is a fix for this weird TAP adapter issue where it would be stuck in a loop of installing/deleting/reinstalling the TAP adapter.
Reason for that bug was that https://community.openvpn.net/openvpn/w ... nameScript doesn't work on Windows 10, but it did in Windows 7.
Instead of using that batch script, I rewrote it to instead use `openvpn --show-adapters` to get the TAP adapter's GUID, which is the part of the TapRenameScript that's broken on Windows 10.
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text: Originally from California, (but a now converted Dallasite) 24-year-old J.R. Nuzum spends most of his time dreaming and letting the paint do the scheming, and as a surrealist painter- you could kind of say that's his job. By bending and blurring the lines of fiction and reality, J.R. is doing what he does best; he's whispering a series of spontaneous adventures, tucking you in, and bringing you into the dream- all with a flick of a brush. J.R.'s romance with surrealism began brewing where most of our first dreams were conjured- at a desk in the middle of math lessons. He attempts to hold back a laugh as he recalls the days of the drool-soaked sanctuaries, "back in school I always tuned out the teacher and would be sketching little adventures in my notebook". By 5th grade, Nuzum began dropping the pencils and stensils to add color to his other-worldly realms. His style is reminiscent of the dreams that we forgot we had as children, mixed in with the more mature undertones that overshadowed adolescence. As premeditated and deliberate as that may sound, J.R. reminds us that much of his work isn't, "Sometimes it goes off of an emotion or an idea, but a lot of the time I do a few random strokes of the brush or just splatters of the paint" he says, " I let the art kind of evolve on its own" -Greg Arellano


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October 23, 2012
Convey Added Value with a Special Client File
Simple Steps
Convey Added Value with a Special Client File
As lawyers, we have a lot to offer our clients. However, it's up to us to present it in a way that helps them understand and appreciate the value they're receiving from us.
I recently drove my mother to the dentist, and when she came back out from her appointment she had a beaming smile, carrying the new toothbrush and freshly cut pink carnation that our dentist routinely gives patients as a way of saying "thank you" at the end of each visit. I couldn't help but think that there are some things we lawyers could do better to ensure that our clients are happier when they leave our offices—and to make them want to pay our bills, too.
Part of the problem that clients have with legal services, especially with paying for them, is that they're so intangible. With other things, such as a new car or flat-screen TV, buyers have something they can see, touch and, hopefully, are still enjoying a lot when it comes time to make the monthly payment. But with legal services—not so much. Often clients aren't even present when a matter is decided in their favor, and the moment when you get to deliver the good news is just that—a fleeting moment only. So it's up to you to create an atmosphere that serves to reinforce the value of the intangible benefits that result from your hard work. Here's an idea for how you can do that with individual clients.
■ Even if yours is mainly a paperless office, each time you set up the file for a new matter, also prepare a hard-copy folder for the client. Have your firm name printed on the front, and include contact information for yourself and your legal assistant inside the cover. As an added touch, include a mini-legal pad and pen for taking notes.
■ Present that folder to the client and, at the meeting when you agree to take the client's case, place a hole-punched copy of the signed fee agreement in it. State in the fee agreement that this is the client's own file and that you are maintaining a copy of the file as well. Ask the client to bring the folder to all future meetings with you.
■ Establish a system to ensure that, throughout the case, you provide the client with a copy or, whenever possible, the original of all documents as they're produced in your office or received from the opposing side or the court. Have the documents hole-punched so all the client has to do is put them in the folder. Be sure to retain copies, whether paper or electronic, for your own file.
■ At the conclusion of the matter, debrief the client before you hustle off to put out the next fire. Make sure the client really understands what happened during the case and that he's comfortable with, or at least reconciled to, the outcome. Find out what he liked, and didn't like, about working with your firm and how you can improve the experience the next time.
■ Give the client all original documents that you still have, and get a signed receipt indicating you've turned the original file over to the client. (This will save a lot of time and trouble down the road, since you won't have to find the client to return the originals and you'll be free to destroy your own copy in accordance with your jurisdiction's rules and your file-retention policies, whenever that time comes.)
■ Also during the final meeting, let clients know how much you appreciate their business. Make sure they're aware of the other types of matters your firm handles, and that you hope they'll think of you whenever they or someone they know has a legal problem in the future.
Send your bill for legal services as soon as possible after they're completed. This is the point at which the client will feel the greatest sense of value received—and will be happiest to pay.
About the Author
Laura A. Calloway is Director of the Alabama State Bar's Practice Management Assistance Program.


text:
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If MTV's "Jersey Shore" becomes a franchise — and heaven help us if it already has — I hope they get around to doing a version that focuses on the shore I have come to know and love.
The "Shore" I see on TV is a caricature, a fun-house mirror distortion, a stew of stereotypes and idiosyncrasies. The shore I know personally is an iconic American playground: beaches, boardwalks and old-school amusement parks. It's the clatter of horse hooves on the streets of a vintage seaside town, the roar of a wooden roller coaster and the sound of waves rolling onto a deserted stretch of sand.
Yes, if you are looking for overserved, fist-pumping goombahs, there are plenty of places where you can find them on the Jersey shore. Fortunately, there are many more places where you can avoid them completely while enjoying some of the finest oceanfront on the East Coast.
It's worth noting that just one of the eight original "Jersey Shore" cast members, Sammi "Sweetheart," actually is from New Jersey. The rest are what the locals call "Bennys," a derogatory nickname for the unfortunate byproduct of human endeavor that oozes south from Staten Island and thereabouts to take up temporary summer residence along New Jersey's 127 miles of shoreline.
"These are folks who are here on vacation," said Bob Hilton of the Jersey Shore Visitors & Convention Bureau. "Does their behavior represent the Jersey shore? Probably not."
No, these are people who, despite being minutes away from some of the most spectacular beaches in the country, are spending vast amounts of time playing with their hair and doing laundry.
That's their Jersey shore. Here's mine, condensed into a trial-size three-day weekend.
Day 1: The beach
All of New Jersey is not the shore, and the shore is not all of New Jersey. Let's stipulate to that fact as we drive out of Atlantic City toward Long Beach Island. The drive takes an hour, no more, north on the Garden State Parkway to Exit 63, then down Barnegat Road (New Jersey Highway 72 East) to the causeway that spans Manahawkin Bay and leads to the island.
LBI — the native shorthand — is just 18 miles long and only a quarter to half a mile wide in most areas. Its history as a vacation destination goes back to the 1870s, but before the causeway was opened in 1914, LBI was accessible only by boat or train. Even today, the island feels as though it belongs to another era. Other than a lone Ben & Jerry's ice cream shop, there are no chain stores and no chain hotels.
"The limited access keeps the transient crowd away," said Brian Sabarese, a year-round LBI resident and general manager/partner of the sparkling Daddy O hotel in Brant Beach.
After the causeway, take a right and roll south down Long Beach Boulevard. For a place with such narrow parameters, LBI has a wide assortment of individual communities. The names are colorful — Surf City, Loveladies, Spray Beach — and sometimes maddeningly redundant — Beach Haven, Beach Haven Crest, Beach Haven Gardens, Beach Haven Terrace, Haven Beach and, of course, North Beach Haven and South Beach Haven. But because the island is mainly one long street with a bay on one side and an ocean on the other, it's hard to get lost.
Unless you want to. Follow the main road south until it ends and you're at a national wildlife area, a hauntingly secluded spot occupied primarily by migrating birds and the occasional greenhead fly (warning: they bite). New Jersey may be the nation's most densely populated state, but it sure doesn't feel that way when you are standing here on the southern edge of LBI in Holgate.
Head back north and stroll around Beach Haven proper, which is more or less the center of activity on LBI. Parking generally is free and not hard to find, even in high season. Nearly every east-west street leads to a public beach here. You'll need a beach-pass badge, but the fees are reasonable, and some hotels include badges with rooms. Or head to the island's northern tip, home to a historic lighthouse and a nautical museum, where you can learn why the coast of New Jersey is also a wreck diver's dream.
Have a swim and a seafood dinner. Get a good night's sleep and shake the sand out of your walking shoes. Next stop is another essential slice of Jersey-ness.
Day 2: The boardwalk
LBI hasn't had a boardwalk since 1944. A hurricane destroyed the structure, which was never replaced. So we move south down the Garden State Parkway to Exit 4 and Wildwood, one of the most popular boardwalks on the shore.
The drive is about 90 minutes, or roughly the time it takes to listen to Bruce Springsteen's "The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle" twice. I know, I know, Springsteen is associated with Asbury Park and its boardwalk, but as I said earlier, this is my Jersey shore.
Like LBI, Wildwood is a throwback. It grew into a resort destination in the 1950s, when postwar fun-seekers jumped in their cars and flocked to its beaches and nightlife. This is where Bill Haley and His Comets rocked around the clock and where Chubby Checker twisted. After those glory days faded, so did some of Wildwood's shine. Gradually, many of the hotels and restaurants were restored, however, and the result is a kitschy coolness, with plenty of retro architecture that reflects the town's doo-wop heritage.
Compared with the boardwalk at Seaside Heights, home of the MTV show, Wildwood is tame and unintimidating. The boardwalk here extends out into three piers, each packed with water parks, rides and arcades. Impress your friends with your sweet stroke at the batting cage. Get a fake tattoo and an embarrassing T-shirt. Take a ride on a classic wooden roller coaster, enhanced by an ocean view, then grab some of the famous french fries at Curley's and wash them down with fresh-squeezed lemonade while you people-watch on the boardwalk. The beach — free and wide — is just down the steps, and there are fireworks every Friday night in summer.
Before bed, have a drink in the Astro Lounge at the StarLux Hotel, where you can spend the night in Space Age splendor. Tomorrow, another, much different side of the Jersey shore awaits just down the parkway.
Day 3: The cape
From Wildwood, it's a short hop to Cape May, a classic American seaside town.
Cape May sits on a peninsula between the Atlantic Ocean and the Delaware Bay at the southernmost tip of the state, which makes it a popular destination for bird watchers and whale-spotters. In the summer, beachgoers don't even have to leave their blankets to see dolphins popping in and out of the water.
Cape May's historic district features some gorgeous examples of Victorian architecture, including the grand Cape May Inn on Ocean Street. Stop in and have a drink on the veranda or lunch at the inn's restaurant, Aleathea's, and pretend you are the Great Gatsby. The inn dates to 1894 and has been updated considerably, but the guest rooms have no telephones, and the elevator is manually operated. Take that, progress.
Down the block is the Washington Street Mall, an outdoor pedestrian concourse with dozens of mom-and-pop shops and restaurants. Cape May is an excellent walking city, but if you want a slightly different point of view, take a carriage ride and experience the town the way your great-grandparents might have 100 years ago.
Those were simpler times … no blenders, hair gel or spray-on tanning lotion required. The Jersey shore was popular then and remains popular now for all the right reasons. Its appeal will surely outlive any TV show. This is one of America's jewels, and no matter how many bling-bearing Bennys descend upon it, its charm will never be tarnished for me.
If you go
Getting there
Atlantic City is the closest major airport to Long Beach Island and Cape May, but you'll need to rent a car for the rest of the trip. LBI is about an hour's drive from Atlantic City Airport, while Cape May is about an hour and 40 minutes away.
The Garden State Parkway is the shore's main artery, stretching 173 miles from the New York state line on the north end to Cape May on the south. The drive from Long Beach Island (Exit 63) to Wildwood (Exit 6) will take you about 90 minutes in off-peak traffic times.
Where to stay
Long Beach Island has only a few hotels, so you'll want to book early. Daddy O opened in 2006 on the site of a 1920s-era hotel called Wida's in the town of Brant Beach, just south of the causeway. The new building, a 22-room hotel with a full-service restaurant and bar, stands out among the more weather-worn motels and beach cottages that surround it. There's a rooftop deck with ocean and bay views, and the vibe is hip and upscale. Daddy O, 4401 Long Beach Blvd., Brant Beach, 609-361-5100, daddyohotel.com. Rates start at $240 for August.
If you're looking for something more family-oriented, the Engleside Inn in Beach Haven has an outdoor heated pool, a full-service restaurant and a sushi bar, plus a more casual outdoor bar and grill. The rooms are low on frills, but they're clean and the location is right on the beach and a short walk to the heart of town. Beach-access badges are included with your room. Engleside Inn, 30 Engleside Ave., Beach Haven, 609-492-1251, engleside.com. August rates start at $250.
For a retro-cool Wildwood experience, check out the StarLux hotel, with its all-glass Astro Lounge. It's the kind of place where George Jetson would feel at home. And yes, there are lava lamps. StarLux, 305 E. Rio Grande Ave., Wildwood, 609-522-7412, thestarlux.com. Starting rates range from $162 to $233 through August.
The Inn of Cape May is a sprawling white Victorian beauty overlooking the beach. What it lacks in modern amenities it more than makes up for in character and location. Inn of Cape May, 7 Ocean St., Cape May, 609-884-5555, innofcapemay.com. Rates start at $185 through most of August.


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Study Abroad
Download the booklet (pdf)
Columbia Engineering students have the option of studying engineering at one of the School's partner universities or choosing a peer university. The Office of Global Programs and the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Student Affairs and Global Programs will review your choice, and if it is approved, will help you work out your course equivalencies.
Steps in Planning Undergraduate Study Abroad
- Visit the Office of Global Programs in 606 Kent Hall to review program options and opportunities.
- Visit the Office of the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Student Affairs and Global Programs in 530 Mudd to plan out individual major course arrangements, review course equivalences for study abroad, and to obtain course approvals for major and technical courses.
- Meet with your Advising Dean to review degree progress and obtain study abroad clearance as well as approval for non-technical courses.
- Complete the application process through the Office of Global Programs' online profile.
Please refer to our FAQ page to learn more about SEAS study abroad.


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Although shy, Audora is a gutsy woman. But the thought of facing down a bat in our daughter's bedroom, at midnight, while Jim was out of town, was just too much. So before the battle even began, she surrendered.
Although shy, Audora is a gutsy woman. But the thought of facing down a bat in our daughter's bedroom, at midnight, while Jim was out of town, was just too much. So before the battle even began, she surrendered.
Being married to Mr. D.I.Y., she had initially decided she would handle this on her own, but changed her mind after consulting Mr. Google and reading about leather gloves and bat bites and rabies (oh, my!).
After spending a mostly sleepless night worrying about how she could safely and efficiently get the flying, squeaking thing out of a house in the midst of a three-day reduction in the grownup population, the online consult emphatically confirmed her inclination to outsource the issue to a professional bat wrangler.
So the next day, as the bat was in the process of being uneventfully removed by someone who knew what he was doing, a variation on the pre-World War II British motivational poster, "Keep calm and carry on" came to mind, "Keep calm and mommy on."
Part of keeping calm was knowing her limits. As a mother, she has tackled a wide range of nasty tasks. Toxic waste diapers? No problem. Mopping up after a sick child? Eww, but she can handle it.
But confronting this one, a living creature who could cause harm, was not a risk she was willing to assume.
Knowing what you can handle in marriage is a vital skill.
It is certainly possible to endure unpleasant times and stumble through the process of learning better skills. Yet knowing when to call in help is critical to survival.
When worn down by life's events, it is easy to spiral out of control and to feel like the whole world is bleak. We rely on our relationship to be our safe haven from life's storms, so when it feels like those storms pop up within our safe haven, we feel lost.
Last weekend, between work and family burdens, we reached a point where our bliss went missing. We grumped at each other. We distanced from each other. We expanded the present issues to past hurts. It was not a good example of conflict resolution.
We called in help in the form of a babysitter and we took ourselves out for a few hours. Away from kids, from responsibility and to-dos and distractions, we were able to talk and to listen, to focus on each other and shore up our Us.
There was a bit more work to do after that, but the immediate points of contention were unraveled and set right. More than that, we felt empowered to finish the work because we had regained the confidence we were both on the same side. And then came the bat…
James Burg, Ph.D., is an associate professor at Indiana University-Purdue, Fort Wayne. His wife, Audora, is a freelance writer. You may contact them at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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International Standard Bible EncyclopediaJAW; JAWBONE; JAW TEETH
jo, jo'-bon (lechi, "cheek (bone)," "jaw (bone)"): In Job 41:2, the Revised Version (British and American) gives "pierce his jaw through with a hook" for the King James Version "bore his jaw through with a thorn" (see HOOK; LEVIATHAN). Psalm 22:15, "My tongue cleaveth to my jaws (malqoach)," is descriptive of the effect of a fever or physical torture, a dryness and a horrible clamminess. Malqochayim is an ancient dual form meaning the two jaws, and, metaphorically, malqoach indicates that which is caught between the jaws, booty, prey, including captives (Numbers 31:11, 26, 32 Isaiah 49:24 f).
Greek4600. siagon -- a jawbone, by impl. cheek
... Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine Transliteration: siagon Phonetic Spelling:
(see-ag-one') Short Definition: the jawbone, cheek Definition: the jawbone, cheek, ...
//strongsnumbers.com/greek2/4600.htm - 6k
Strong's Hebrew3895. lechi -- jaw, cheek
... 3894, 3895. lechi. 3896 . jaw, cheek. Transliteration: lechi Phonetic Spelling:
(lekh-ee') Short Definition: cheek. ... cheek bone, jaw bone. ...
/hebrew/3895.htm - 6k
7448. resen -- a halter, jaw
4455b. malqoach -- a jaw
4973. methalleoth -- teeth
7437. Ramath Lechiy -- "height of a jawbone," a city in Judah
Fragment Xl. "And He Found the Jaw-Bone of an Ass. ...
Concerning the Fortitude of Samson, and what Mischiefs He Brought ...
Samson who did to Others as they did to Him
On the Study of Zoology.
Fragment Xli. This Indicates the Persecution against the Church ...
Given to Abstraction of Thought. Cases in Point. Opinion of ...
How Queen Ethelthryth Always Preserved Her virginity, and Her Body ...
How Fursa Built a Monastery among the East Angles, and of his ...
The Necessity of the Spirit's Work
Psalm LVIII.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary1. (n.) One of the bones, usually bearing teeth, which form the framework of the mouth.
2. (n.) Hence, also, the bone itself with the teeth and covering.
3. (n.) In the plural, the mouth.
4. (n.) Fig.: Anything resembling the jaw of an animal in form or action; esp., pl., the mouth or way of entrance; as, the jaws of a pass; the jaws of darkness; the jaws of death.
5. (n.) A notch or opening.
6. (n.) A notched or forked part, adapted for holding an object in place; as, the jaw of a railway-car pedestal. See Axle guard.
7. (n.) One of a pair of opposing parts which are movable towards or from each other, for grasping or crushing anything between them, as, the jaws of a vise, or the jaws of a stone-crushing machine.
8. (n.) The inner end of a boom or gaff, hollowed in a half circle so as to move freely on a mast.
9. (n.) Impudent or abusive talk.
10. (v. i.) To scold; to clamor.
11. (v. t.) To assail or abuse by scolding.
ThesaurusJaw (6 Occurrences)
... 4. (n.) Fig.: Anything resembling the jaw of an animal in form or action; esp.,
pl., the mouth or way of entrance; as, the jaws of a pass; the jaws of darkness ...
/j/jaw.htm - 11k
Jaw-bone (3 Occurrences)
Jaw-teeth (4 Occurrences)
Jawbone (3 Occurrences)
Teeth (50 Occurrences)
Ramathlehi (1 Occurrence)
Ramath-lehi (1 Occurrence)
Cheek (9 Occurrences)
Beard (23 Occurrences)
Bible ConcordanceJaw (6 Occurrences)
Judges 15:16 Samson said, "With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps on heaps; with the jawbone of a donkey I have struck a thousand men."
Judges 15:19 But God clave an hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water thereout; and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: wherefore he called the name thereof Enhakkore, which is in Lehi unto this day.
Job 41:2 Can you put a rope into his nose, or pierce his jaw through with a hook?
Psalms 3:7 Arise, Yahweh! Save me, my God! For you have struck all of my enemies on the cheek bone. You have broken the teeth of the wicked.
Proverbs 30:14 There is a generation whose teeth are like swords, and their jaws like knives, to devour the poor from the earth, and the needy from among men.
Amos 3:12 Thus saith Jehovah: Like as the shepherd rescueth out of the jaw of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear; so shall the children of Israel be rescued that sit in Samaria in the corner of a couch, and upon the damask of a bed.
Related Terms
Ramoth-gilead (20 Occurrences)
LinksBible Concordance • Bible Dictionary • Bible Encyclopedia • Topical Bible • Bible Thesuarus


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Last night after the Bruins' 3-2 shootout win at Columbus, I noted in my quick game recap that it was pleasing to see Brad Marchand back to his feisty self after his third-period benching last Friday on Long Island.
I hereby retract this statement.
After seeing his hit on R.J. Umberger just once live and once on a quick replay, I didn't give is a second thought, much like the NESN broadcast of the game I was watching.
Since then I've watched the play over and over again, and realized that Marchand really crossed a line by throwing his elbow at Umberger's head from behind in questionable pursuit of the puck. Here it is one more time:
There's no doubt there should be at least a one-game suspension for Marchand, who has not committed any prior infractions worthy of a suspension in his NHL career. Tampa Bay defenseman Pavel Kubina had one one-game suspension prior to his elbow on Chicago's Dean Bolland last week, and Kubina got three games from the NHL. As of 11 a.m., there was no word on any league action in regards to Marchand.
Regardless of how the NHL rules or doesn't rule, Marchand obviously still has some maturing to do. He lost all his third-period ice time against the Islanders because of the stupid penalties he took in the second period of that game and the third period of the previous night's contest against Buffalo; and also because of some other overly rambunctious play that has coincided with a lengthy scoring drought (no goals in nine games).
In the aftermath of the benching, Marchand said he knew he had to tone down his act. Well, he obviously has an odd sense of "toned down."
Luckily for him, the referees completely missed his hit because Rule 48 could've come into play and left the Bruins extra shorthanded. Instead, the Bruins got a scoring chance and then seconds later a goal.
Head coach Claude Julien obviously didn't see the hit either, or he would've been less than pleased with his player making contact with the head of another in a situation that was completely avoidable. He might've even sliced the forward's ice time again.
As always, we can only guess at intent because none of us can read Marchand's mind. But on a play like that, typically a player will reach out for the puck and try to make some shoulder-to-shoulder contact in order to gain inside position. What Marchand did was the equivalent of a chicken wing followed by a half-hearted attempt to reach out for the puck.
Marchand probably couldn't have picked a worse time to make head contact from behind on an opposing player, considering all the Bruins have been through in the wake of the Zdeno Chara affair and what the entire league has been talking about down in Florida during the GM meetings in terms of heightened awareness and stricter penalties for hits to the head.
Just when I thought Marchand had learned his lesson, he not only put his team at risk for an in-game predicament but made it a possibility that the Bruins could be playing a game or more without one of their leading goal-scorers. With the team in the midst of a scoring drought, outside of its No. 1 line and Zdeno Chara, that's the last thing the Bruins need.
And even if the league excuses Marchand's action, Julien might have to address it, again.


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Katie Holmes has cancelled her first planned public appearance since filing for divorce from Tom Cruise.
The actress was due to walk the red carpet at an event for her Dizzy Feet Foundation in Los Angeles on Saturday, but her representative has now confirmed to E! News that the star will not be attending.
Holmes set up the organization in 2009 with choreographer Carrie Ann Inaba and So You Think You Can Dance judges Nigel Lythgoe and Adam Shankman, following her appearance on the show in 2009. She returned as a guest judge last year.
The charity raises money for youth dance education and the Celebration of Dance event at the Los Angeles Music Center's Dorothy Chandler Pavilion will feature performances by Glee stars Harry Shum, Jr. and Chord Overstreet, as well as the cast of new movie Step Up Revolution.
Holmes has kept out of the spotlight since she filed for divorce from Cruise, the father of her six-year-old daughter Suri, on 27 June to bring their five-year marriage to an end.
Katie Holmes has cancelled her first planned public appearance since filing for divorce from Tom Cruise.


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Blackface is not OK for Halloween, it is not OK for your themed parties and definitely not for dressing up as a murdered black teenager! I can't believe we still have to educate some white people on why black face is never OK.
It is surprising that even some supposedly progressive white friends on social media think their black friends are being oversensitive about Blackface. Any friend of mine who hits me with the bullshit "Don't be too sensitive about racism" will get not just a mouthful of sensitive words but also get lectured, if not immediately booted out. If knowing the history of Blackface, you still choose to find and justify some 'good' intent behind it, you really need to check your privilege.
For those who still do not know the origin of Blackface or who want to live in denial, please do your research on the history of Blackface before you don your racist Halloween costume or defend those who think Halloween is not complete without Blackface. [Read more…]