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The Smyrna Farmers Market is returning for another season after its inaugural year in 2012.
Smyrna Manager of Planning & Zoning Janet Vinc – who helps run the market – said opening day is scheduled for Saturday, June 15. The market will run through Saturday, October 5.
Hours will be 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.; the market will once again be on Market Street Plaza in front of town hall.
Smyrna resident Robin Bruner helps run the market with Vinc.
The town is currently in the process of reviewing applications and is working on various public relations endeavors to get the word out about the second season of the market, Vinc said.
Vinc said many of the vendors from last year are returning, and there are already a few new vendors who have joined the market. Last year, the farmers market averaged between 12 and 15 vendors per week.
"We hope to have at least 15 vendors this year," Vinc said. "Based on the success of last year's market, we hope to continue to have the same type of vendors – farmers, processors, local artisans, and craft workers."
The only thing changing from last year is the fact this year is a shortened season. Last year the town had 20 market days and this year's market has been shortened to 17 market days. Vinc said attendance – by customers and vendors – was down once the market went into October.
Vinc said all the feedback they've heard in response to the upcoming season of the market is very positive and it seems as though people can't wait for the June 15 opening day.
Vendors are encouraged to submit their applications via email at email@example.com, by fax at (302) 659-4169, or by mail to P.O. Box 307, Smyrna, DE 19977, Attn: Smyrna Farmers Market.
Applications are also available on the town's website at http://www.smyrna.delaware.gov/index.aspx?nid=365.
To stay up-to-date on what's going on with the market, the town has set up a Facebook page for the market. The link is www.facebook.com/SmyrnaFarmersMarket.


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Kiki van Eijk
Floating Frames 2.0 | Lamp Shade L
anodized aluminium | 66 x 66 x 52 cm | 2012
A family of objects that shows only the skeleton of what they could be, yet representing a function in full state. The objects exist between fiction and reality, they are ultra transparent and seem to float in space. Kiki has designed a new collection of anodized metal wire works such as a series of lights, a coffee table, candleholders, a wall clock, and a high cabinet, as an addition to the existing Floating Frames collection.
Available in the webshop »

subset: commoncrawl


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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Josh Reddick homered and drove in four runs for the A's on Sunday. Jed Lowrie had three hits, including a homer of his own.
So when Eric Sogard went deep, who really cared?
"There was no home run tunnel or anything," the light-hitting Sogard joked of a rather muted home run celebration that awaited him after rounding the bases during a 10-4 win over the Kansas City Royals. "They were probably surprised I hit one."
Sogard went without a homer in 260 at-bats, since April 27, 2012.
It was that kind of day for the Oakland offense, though. The A's pounded out 15 hits, and everybody in the starting lineup except Chris Young had one against the Royals' haphazard pitching.
"We got some runs early," said Josh Donaldson, who had a pair of hits. "Then it seemed like every time they got a run our offense would answer right back."
A.J. Griffin (7-6) rebounded from a miserable start against the Cubs to go five innings for the A's. The only damage he allowed came on solo homers by George Kottaras and Alex Gordon.
Jesse Chavez earned his first career save with four scoreless innings of relief.
"Saved the bullpen, that's all I was trying to do," Chavez said.
Luis Mendoza (2-5) allowed five runs in the second inning for the Royals, and was yanked to a round of boos after retiring just four batters. It was the right-hander's shortest start in exactly five years — since an outing on July 7, 2008, when he was still with Texas.
"He fell behind early, which puts you in a defensive mode," Kottaras said. "Once he falls behind, hitters can look for a pitch in a certain zone and took advantage of it. It happens."
It's happened twice in a row now: Mendoza gave up four runs on six hits and four walks in just four innings his last time out against Cleveland. He hasn't won since June 14 at Tampa Bay.
"A rough outing really for our pitching staff today," Royals manager Ned Yost said.
Mendoza's struggles began with a single in the second by Yoenis Cespedes. John Jaso added a one-out walk and Reddick's line drive to left gave Oakland a 2-0 lead.
Mendoza struck out Chris Young before another double by Sogard and back-to-back singles by Coco Crisp and Lowrie knocked him from the game. Chen came in from the bullpen and gave up another base hit to Josh Donaldson before finally getting out of the inning.
Kottaras got the home crowd energized with his homer in the second, but the A's refused to let the Royals engineer another five-run comeback like they did Thursday against Cleveland. Jaso's one-out single set the table for Reddick, who launched his fourth homer of the year.
After a breakthrough year in which he hit 32 homers, Reddick had been scuffling until he got to Kansas City. He was hitting just .210 with three homers and 25 RBIs in his first 57 games, but found the expansive outfield off Kauffman Stadium to be to his liking.
"Reddick's been swinging the bat really well here recently," A's manager Bob Melvin said, "and that's the next step, to start driving the ball."
Gordon, who missed the first game of the series after a scary collision with the outfield wall earlier in the week, validated his first All-Star nod a day earlier with his homer. His ninth of the season came with two outs in the fifth inning.
Lowrie answered it with a solo shot of his own in the sixth.
The Royals tried to rally again in the bottom half off A's reliever Jerry Blevins. Mike Moustakas hit an RBI double and Miguel Tejada an RBI single in which he beat a throw to first with a head-first slide. Chavez ended the rally when he retired Eric Hosmer with the bases loaded.
Sogard's two-run homer in the seventh ended any thoughts of another Royals comeback.
"We're in the middle of a tough stretch," Yost said. "It started here. We're 3-3 in this tough stretch. The Yankees are tough, a four-game series. And it's going to be a tough three-game series in Cleveland. We've got to continue to play good baseball if we're going to be successful this next week. We're going to have to grind it out and try to find a way to win some ball games."
NOTES: All-Star C Salvador Perez was held out of the Royals' starting lineup. Yost said Perez has been playing through a soft tissue and bone bruise on his leg from a foul ball. ... Melvin said All-Star RHP Bartolo Colon will pitch next Sunday against Boston. That will make available another spot on Detroit manager Jim Leyland's AL roster. ... Lowrie was back in the A's starting lineup at SS after experience stiffness in his left calf.


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Those states unable to meet the water quality guidelines in the timeframe allotted may be faced with the burden of additional regulatory red tape and more restrictive federal mandates.
"It makes me a little nervous to think how we can make these huge non-point source flow reductions and be able to guarantee such decreases with reasonable assurance, and without additional rules and regulations," says to Jan Boydstun with the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality in Baton Rouge, La.
According Boydstun, who spoke at the joint meeting of the Louisiana Plant Protection Association and the Louisiana Association of Agronomists in Baton Rouge, current federal TMDL regulations mandate that states identify which water bodies are pollution "impaired," whether it be by point source discharge, such as waste water treatment plants, or whether it be non-point source pollution, such as water run-off from crop fields.
In addition, each state must establish priority rankings for their list of "impaired" water bodies and then set total maximum daily load limits to determine the amount of pollutants each body of water can assimilate and still be able to meet water quality standards.
Boydstun describes the total maximum daily load regulation as a tool for determining the allowable pollutant load for each water body in the state and providing for the establishment of any water quality based controls necessary.
While the regulations included as part of the Clean Water Act may sound simple enough, a lawsuit by the Sierra Club seems to be tightening the leash between the Environmental Protection Agency and individual states.
"Our state and many others have been sued by the Sierra Club because it did not feel like the EPA was forcing the states to enforce these regulations," says Boydstun. "To make a long story short, the lawsuit has resulted in a lot more TMDLs for us to complete and a much shorter timeframe in which to get them done."
Originally, the state of Louisiana agreed to a 12-year implementation schedule with the Environmental Protection Agency. However, an October 1999 court order mandated a December 2007 implementation deadline. The court order also disapproved Louisiana's list of 609 TMDLs, instead targeting 1,711 potential TMDLs on 349 water bodies in the state. The story is the same for many other Sunbelt states.
According to Boydstun, under the TMDL regulations the manmade non-point source pollution reductions required for the state's water bodies range from around 30% to as much as 90%. The state may also need to set more stringent limits on the permits for point source pollutants.
To make matters worse, many southern states like Louisiana must deal with water bodies with warm temperatures, little or no slope, little or no flow, and high amounts of sod and re-suspension. "With these factors, we aren't surprised that when the required model is run, we're seeing these huge non-point source load reduction requirements," Boydstun says. "To me, this means our water bodies already have so much material on the bottom of them that there's isn't room for any more pollutants."
What TMDL regulations mean to the future of agriculture?
There are some pro-active steps the agricultural industry can take, Boydstun says, to eliminate, or at least limit, further regulatory restrictions.
Currently, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality is collecting edge-of-field data from a number of farming operations in the state to help determine which are the best ways to achieve better water quality using the best management practices presently utilized by farmers.
Boydstun says, "We're evaluating watershed by watershed to see how many acres of each crop type exist there and how much pollutant load comes from each type of agricultural production. Then, we're trying to determine how much we can reduce the pollutant load with the use of best management practices.
"This is the kind of data we really don't have and it's the kind we've really got to have to write a water quality implementation plan that means anything. It takes a lot of work and a lot of players, but we'll be looking at best management practices for crops such as sugarcane, soybeans, crawfish and pastureland. We'll also be monitoring water quality and making sure our data is defensible in court in case we wind up having to be tested in the courts on this," she says.
One of the best management practices Boydstun believes will go a long way to improve water quality is conservation tillage.
"We definitely feel that conservation tillage is the best way to keep sediment out of the water bodies from the fields. And, because many of our water bodies are impaired due to low dissolved oxygen, anything that keeps oxygen demanding substances out of the water should help us meet the TMDL restrictions," she says.
Currently unregulated activities, which she feels will eventually be covered under TMDL regulations, include all animal feeding operations, crawfish and catfish production, and timber harvesting.
"A lot of crawfish ponds are located on the Mermentau and Vermillion water basins," Boydstun says. "So, if you look at the 80- to 90-percent pollutant reduction needed for the Mermentau, you can bet EPA will soon be looking at an implementation plan for crawfish production, which is currently an unregulated activity."
"The bottom line is that all water bodies must meet water quality standards by the deadlines that have been set for us. If we do not meet these water quality deadlines, I think there will be additional pressure to move toward a regulatory program for things like rice field discharge and crawfish pond discharge," Boydstun says.
"There are a lot of uncertainties about all of this and I wish the science was a little better but it isn't," she says. "We don't need the generalities anymore. We really need the specifics. We'll continue to monitor the water bodies and determine whether voluntary projects are successful and we'll continue to look at what kind of back-up regulatory authority may be needed if they aren't successful," she says.
For the most up-to-date information available on total maximum daily loads, Boydstun recommends visiting the website: www.deq.state.la.us/technology/tmdl/index.htm. In addition to information about the TMDL requirements in Louisiana, the website offers links to EPA and other state departments of environmental quality.


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My Drap: Halfway Between Paper & Cloth Napkins
One of the more interesting items I spotted at the Home & Housewares show were these unusual hybrid table linens. They come on a roll and are a very thin cotton fabric napkin, perforated to allow you to tear them off as needed...
They are reusuable and can be laundered approximately 6 times before starting to break down. Once they can no longer be used, they are recyclable, biodgradable and compostable. Available in a large amount of colors,patterns and sizes we can see this new product (from Spain) catching on as a fun alternative for tabletop.
Definitely a step up in looks and durability from paper napkins but without quite the commitment of cloth napkins in terms of price and upkeep, we can imagine giving these a go when wanting to do a an unusual color or pattern for a special occasion table where buying good quality cloth napkins in an offbeat color wouldn't fly. Also, they would be a fun touch for upmarket picnic outings and casual entertaining.
What do you think of the concept? Would you go for a roll of cloth napkins?
MORE INFO: My Drap
Images: Janel Laban


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Bacterial meningitis with cerebral abscesses. Immunocompetent patient. You just don't see this stuff any more.
File under "better thee than me."
File under "better thee than me."
Posted by shadowfax at 10:55 AM
EEEWWWW. What was the outcome?ReplyDelete
I had a young 24 year old guy recently with strep viridans subdural abscesses. Getting taken off life support this week since he ain't makin' it.ReplyDelete
I was so confused, I could not get the main of the picture, but I think that the information helped me a lot, thanks!!22ddReplyDelete


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Stephen Strittmatter, MD, PhD
Vincent Coates Professor of Neurology and Professor of Neuroscience; Director, Cellular Neuroscience, Neurodegeneration and Repair; Director, Yale Alzheimer's Disease Research Center; Director, Memory Disorders Clinic
Physician Biography
Stephen M. Strittmatter earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard College, summa cum laude, in 1980. He completed M.D. and Ph.D. training at Johns Hopkins in 1986 with mentorship from Solomon H. Snyder, M.D. He then moved to Massachusetts General Hospital for a medical internship and an Adult Neurology residency. While at Massachusetts General Hospital, he worked as a Research Fellow with Mark Fishman, M.D., exploring the molecular basis of axonal guidance. After a year as Fellow, he served briefly as an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School before moving to Yale University in 1993.
He is currently holds the Vincent Coates Professorship of Neurology and co-founded the Yale Program in Cellular Neuroscience, Neurodegeneration and Repair. His research on axonal growth during development and regeneration has been recognized by honors from the Ameritec Foundation, the John Merck Fund, the Donaghue Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, the Jacob Javits Award of the NINDS and the American Academy of Neurology.
Patient Care
Accepts new patients? Yes
Patient Type: Adult; Geriatric
Referrals: From patients or physicians
Patient Care Organizations
Neurology: Memory Disorders & Cognitive Neurology
Yale Center for Research on Aging (Y-Age)
Board Certifications
Neurology AB of Psychiatry & Neurology (1991)


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Monday, September 14, 2009
Halloween Dots: Bat, Candy Corn & Ghost
Candy Season has started with the first Halloween candy entering the aisles as drug stores, discount warehouses & grocery chains move their summer & back to school merchandise to clearance.
I was excited to find the new Bat Dots in the large theater-sized box at Target over the weekend. They haven't quite put out all their Halloween items yet, but I found these in the regular candy aisle on a little hanging display at an endcap. I first tried them after All Candy Expo and was looking forward to seeing this single flavor box.
Bat Dots are black but instead of being the black licorice Crows in a different box, they're Blood Orange.
The package is great and plays with themes of the orange as a harvest moon, the word bat is juicy and the little bat shaped Dot uses an orange slice as a smile.
It's unusual to find a box of Dots that has just one flavor, and for it to be blood orange is quite a coup for citrus lovers.
As far as flavor goes, these are packed with it. There's an immediate tartness followed by some nice zesty notes and a strong orange juice flavor. They're soft and easy to chew ... and for some reason they're not sticking to my teeth quite as much as other Dots.
My only misgiving with these is the heavy use of food coloring so I get a little weird aftertaste ... if I don't pop another one in my mouth right away.
Rating: 7 out of 10
Candy Corn Dots seem like a natural mash-up. They look pretty cute - though I have to say that they weren't as consistent as the package leads me to believe. The layering is sometimes spot on, with a yellow third on the bottom and an orange top (no white tip) but other times I had to turn over the Dots to even see the yellow.
I didn't know what flavor to expect but I girding myself for fake butter. Instead they ended up being a pleasant French vanilla or maybe pudding flavor. It was missing that light touch of honey that the better candy corn has ... but overall it's a cute take on Dots.
Rating: 5 out of 10
Ghost Dots have actually been a seasonal product for three years now. Again, I give Tootsie some props for the package design and the concept itself.
They're regular fruit Dots, but they're all the same translucent & spooky beach glass light green color.
The spooky part is you never know what you're going to get. It's rather interesting to experience the flavors without the color contribution to the flavor event. It confirmed that I really don't like cherry much, even if there isn't a crazy aftertaste and I had trouble telling my citrus apart from time to time. It's tempting to think that they should be glow in the dark, but I don't think that'd be safe. (Though maybe it would be - kids could mount them on little sticks and carry them around while trick or treating for extra visibility!)
Rating: 6 out of 10
I really couldn't beat the price on these either - for a buck they're a fun change-up and hopefully they'll go over well and return every year. (I haven't seen them in the Trick-or-Treat size yet ... has anyone else?)
Related Candies
POSTED BY Cybele AT 9:19 am
Next entry: Toffee Flavored Chocolate Covered Candy Corn
Previous entry: Walkers' Nonsuch Liquorice Toffee
Meticulously photographed and documented reviews of candy from around the world. And the occasional other sweet adventures. Open your mouth, expand your mind.


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Sunday, November 02, 2008
Leyan - Oct/Nov 08
Posted by Ms Long at 2:25 AM
Labels: kaira
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We should never fear God's leading, even into the turbulent Jordans of our lives, for God stands behind His commands with His omnipotence. Trusting God is taking that step of faith. Trust Him today for today's step of faith.


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A weblog post mentioned in a Slashdot story apparently gives the account of a San Francisco native's encounter with the FBI as the fed's raided his home looking for evidence in connection with the theft of the Half-Life 2 source code (story). According to Slashdot (since the site has been, naturally enough, Slashdotted), the blog includes a scan of the FBI's search warrant. Thanks Captain Trips.
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I have many things to be thankful for and like to take moments like this to think about all the great things I got to do and all the reasons why I'm very lucky.
I consider myself lucky for the big things, such as taking a trip to Egypt and Jordan in March, and little things like finding awesome scrapbooking bloggers that I now read daily. Not everything was rosy and a fair amount was stressful, but I prefer to dwell on the good (and I'm not usually a positive person).
2012, nice to meet you! 2012 is going to be packed, packed I tell you, with all sorts of fun things happening in my life. And while I see myself going lots of places, my favorite place to be on New Year's Day is sitting on the couch at home with my husband watching football. For all of those things, I'm truly thankful.


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Your recruiting resources are based on how many scholarships you have open and the division you are in. You're given separate budgets for each scouting and recruiting
Division 1: 35K + 4K per Opening
Division 2: 25K + 3K per Opening
Division 3: 15K + 2K per Opening
Division 1: 5K + 3K per Opening
Division 2: 3K + 2K per Opening
Division 3: 1K + 1K per Opening
Recruiting Attention Points:
20 + 20 per Opening
Note: The max number of openings considered for resources is 6 open scholarships. If, for example, you have 8 open scholarships you would still receive the same amount of resources as if you had 6 open scholarships.
You only get half of the resources for a scholarship opened due to an unfulfilled promise. Also, you will not get resources for rescinding the scholarship of a player you recruited.
A player's reaction is based on the player's class, his recruiting position rank, and how he ranks on his team, (so if he's one of the worst on the roster, he's more likely to accept it).
Also, his reaction (whether he's upset or accepts it) will always be the same as it was the first try for a given season. So there won't be any benefit to removing and applying it multiple times.
If you do apply the red-shirt multiple times, and he's not happy about it, his work ethic decline will likely be much more drastic..
Yes, a player's scholarship can be rescinded anytime after the conclusion of the job change period, and prior to signings starting during the following recruiting period. Note that you must have seasons remaining on your account before you can rescind a scholarship. Simply click on 'rescind scholarship' next to the player's name in the coach's office.
Keep in mind that rescinding a scholarship of a player who you signed for no fault of the player may make recruiting for your school more difficult in the future, as no kid will want to play at a program which isn't loyal to its players. You do not receive any additional recruiting money when you rescind a scholarship. Also, cutting a player could cause other players to leave as well.
The term "redshirt" is used to describe a student-athlete who does not participate in competition in a sport for an entire academic year, and thereby does not use one of his 4 years of athletic eligibility. Here are the rules for redshirting:
Any given player can only be redshirted once in his career
A player can have a redshirt year any of his four years
A player can be tagged as a redshirt if:
This setting allows you to focus your defense on a particular area of the floor, such as tightly guarding the perimeter or packing the lane. Each has it's pros and cons. If you focus too much on the outside, you'll give their outside shooters fits and you'll probably be called for less fouls, but their low post players will have an easier time inside as will players that drive to the hole. You'll also be out of position for many rebounds.
On the other hand, if you focus on stopping the inside game, you'll give a good passing team many open outside shots, but you'll have more players in position to rebound.
This option give the sim permission to adjust your defensive positioning by up to +/- 2 based on the offense of the opposing team.
The amount of the adjustment is based on the percentage of points the opposing team is scoring from outside vs. inside. For example, if you set your defense to a -2 and the other team is producing a 20 of their 30 total first half points from the perimeter, your defensive positioning would be adjusted to a 0 to come out and help guard the perimeter.
Please keep in mind that there won't necessarily be an adjustment at halftime even if your criteria for adjustment are met. The sim will only adjust if you're adjustment criteria are met AND your opponent is scoring a significant percentage from the inside or outside relative to your defensive positioning. Sometimes you may be losing but you're applying the correct defensive positioning, so no adjustment will be made.
The offensive distribution settings allow you to distribute offensive touches to individual players by applying relative weightings. The offensive distribution settings are found on the player game plan page within your office. You can distribute points to each player (100 maximum total points) to indicate which players should get more touches in your half-court offense. This only affects who will have plays run for them in your offense based on the defense you are playing against.
Offensive distribution does NOT refer to shots that come from non-halfcourt offense - this includes offensive rebounds and transition baskets.
You can dictate who the offense will run through by allotting players distribution points. So if you have your starting 5 set to 18,18,18,18,18 all players will get a relatively equal number of touches/shots. If 4 backups come into the game, and you're at 18,1,1,1,1 (for example) - the player with the 18 would now be taking 81% (18/22= 81%) of the shots.
These are your ideal distributions - obviously the defense will be able to impact your offense when the game is played via defensive positioning (see above) and double teams (see below).
You can, and should, set your distributions for the 4 possible defenses you can face throughout the season (and even within a single game). Simply select each defense from the dropdown list to enter your settings for that defense. If a team switches defenses during a game, you will automatically switch to the appropriate offensive distribution and 3 pt. frequency settings that you've entered.
NOTE: If you leave all of the distribution points to zero for all players, the engine will determine the frequency at which players will shoot and their frequency of 3 pt. shots. This is not recommended as the computer only looks at your offensive skills - ignoring the opposing team and their defensive style completely.
There are several factors that determine how offensive distribution settings translate to shot attempts in a game. First, keep in mind that not every player possession ends up in a shot. The player may also turn the ball over or get fouled.
Also remember that the distribution points are relative to the other 4 players on the court during a given possession. For example if you set four players to a 1 and one player to a 10, the player with 10 is going to get far more than 10% of the shots while those 5 are on the floor. In fact, he'll get about 71% of the shots (10/14).
Second, you have to look at minutes played. The more minutes he plays, the more shots he'll get - So FGA should be looked at on a per minute basis, not on an absolute basis. You also have to factor in offensive rebounds and steals as both can lead to shots that are not part of the normal offensive sets.
Additionally, play-by-play should be looked at to determine how many possessions that particular player was fouled without resulting foul shots, as well as how many possessions led to turnovers. These are all possessions that will not yield FGA.
You also have to look at double-teams. When one or more players are double-teamed, that will lead to (normally) less shots for the double-teamed players, and more shots for the non-double-teamed players.
Next you need to look at FTA. A player who is fouled does not get charged for a FGA. So if you see a player who had 10 FTA, that's roughly the equivalent of 5 more FGA.
Finally, there is just random chance. On each possession your offensive distribution weightings are evaluated and someone will take the shot based on those numbers - But that is done on a possession by possession basis, which over the course of a season will balance out, but may lead to more or less shots in an individual game.
The individual 3-point frequency setting allows you to adjust the frequency on a player-by-player basis against each type of defense.
The possible 3-point settings are:
Target minutes allow you to provide a range of minutes you'd like to see each player receive during a normal game. Obviously, in close games or games which go to overtime, you're more likely to see your starters receive more playing time than your backups and vice versa.
In addition to providing a range of targeted playing time, you can also designate players to a 'mopup' role. This means that they'll play when the game is out of hand (or in case of emergency situations due to fouls, injuries, ejections, etc.). The other option is to designate a player as 'rest'. This option is only available for players who were injured and are not yet 100%. They will NOT dress for the game.
Double-teaming a player will put more defensive pressure on the player selected, reducing his shot attempts/efficiency and possibly forcing more turnovers.
On the other hand, if a player is double-teamed, that means somebody is open - giving the open player(s) more open shots than they'd normally see.
Setting a player to 'always' will result in an attempt to double-team him when he has the ball. Setting a player to 'leading scorer' means that you will only attempt to double-team him if he is the leading point scorer for his team.
Keep in mind that the defense won't be able to successfully execute the double-team on every possession.
These settings allow you to insert backups into the game once the outcome has been safely decided. There is a separate setting for when you're winning and when you're losing. The SimEngine will then give your 2nd string players more precedence to come into the game.
You may want to use this option if you want to help protect your starters from injury and/or to provide valuable playing time to your younger players. If your team is already young, you may not want to use this option so your players will get as much experience as possible regardless of the score.
At a high level, prestige is a reflection of a school's recent success in all areas. It is updated at the end of each season. That update is determined differently in DI compared to DII and DIII.
An important thing to know about prestige is that the visible letter grade actually represents a range of numbers. For example, a B- might cover the number range of 250-400 (these are not the actual numbers). That's important to know because prestige may be improving or decreasing within that range without the visible letter grade changing at all. On the flip side, if the prestige number is right on the edge between two letter grades, a slight change in the number could also change the letter grade.
So, where a school's prestige falls within that range is important. The downside to this is that since you can only see the letter grade, you may not see any evidence of a change, when in fact there could have been a relatively significant change taking place. Rest assured that even if you can't see a change in the letter grade, the number is changing appropriately. And most importantly, the number (not the letter grade) is what we actually use in the game to affect recruiting and other things.
In DII and DIII, prestige is updated at the end of each season based on the following items:
In DI, prestige updates work a little differently. We look at the past 4 seasons and put a different weighting on each season. Basically, the further back the season is, the less weight it gets, and subsequently the less impact it has on the current prestige. Each season's success is based on the following items:
Also, if a school has one or more players drafted, that will give an additional boost to prestige - the amount depends on the number of players drafted and where in the draft they were picked. The higher the pick, the bigger the boost. This change won't be seen until the draft is completed, and is not reflected in the prestige that you see in your team history page within your team profile.
A couple of important notes about prestige:
Between seasons, home court advantage is reset based on traditional fan loyalty of the college, and the success of the team in the previous season.
The RPI (rating percentage index) is a standardized formula based on winning percentages, and the Top 25 rankings are a simulated media poll.
More information about RPI can be found in article #349. More information about the Top 25 rankings can be found in article #804.
Yes, the jobs are limited based on the number of schools. In Division III, there are 384 jobs - once those are full, no new coaches would be able to signup in that world. As coaches are successful and accept jobs in Division II, their old jobs would then be available to be filled by new coaches. The same would be true of a coach who decides not to play in a subsequent season (see "What happens if I don't renew my team?" below) - his job would then be open for a new coach.
If all of the jobs are taken in a World, you will see a note that your name has been automatically added to the wait list. When jobs open up as other coaches accept positions at other schools, the coaches on the wait list will be emailed regarding the job opening. Jobs are filled on a first come, first served basis.
When you purchase seasons for HD, they go into a pool of available seasons. The pool of seasons is then used for renewing your team.
To manage renewal settings for each world, click the "Manage Renewals" link under the Office menu. From there, you have two different ways to reserve a season for a particular world, ensuring that you won't lose your team.
The first way is by clicking the action link on the right to immediately reserve a season from your available pool for that world. You can also undo a renewal by clicking the action link for a world that already has a season reserved for it.
The second way to renew is to set that world to auto-renew. Then, just before the renewal deadline for that world, the system will automatically reserve a season from your pool. Note: you must have available seasons in your pool at the renewal deadline for the world or the auto-renew will fail and you'll lose your team. Auto-renew will never purchase new seasons for you with your credits or credit card.
The prestige of the school may go up or down based on the prestige of your last job. If you're moving up a division, then the school prestige will drop, and if you're moving down a division it may go up. When you're moving within the same division and you are coming from a higher prestige school, your new school may get a small increase in prestige. If you're coming from a lower prestige school (as is most common), you may see a decrease in the school's prestige.
This change accounts for the impact a new coach will have on the national perception of a school, especially in recruiting.
Each school requires a minimum level of recent success from a potential coach, which differs depending on the level of the school. The better the school, the more success required.
A coach's success is measured by looking at his team's results over the past 10 seasons. If a coach hasn't coached a full 10 seasons, then it looks at all seasons coached. The more recent the season, the more weight it's given - so the most recent season carries the most weight in the overall success of a coach.
The success of a individual season is based on the following items:
When you browse the list of job openings, each one will have a brief bit of advice from your agent, which will give you an indication of whether you're qualified.
There are multiple factors that a school uses to decide whether to accept your application, including but not limited to (and not necessarily in this order):
Your loyalty grade represents how loyal you've been during your coaching career at the various schools you've coached. Coaches are graded from A+ (best) to F (worst). For each season you remain at the same school, your loyalty will improve.
Every time you make a career change, your loyalty takes a hit. The hit is based on the prestige of the school you are moving to relative to the prestige of your current school, as well as your prior length of stay at that school.
While your loyalty won't hurt your recruiting efforts, it may certainly keep you from making another job change as Athletic Directors are going to want a coach who will stay and build their program instead of using it as a stepping-stone. Please note that applying for other jobs does not impact your loyalty rating.
NOTE: All new coaches begin with a loyalty rating of B-.
Also, each player has a Free Throw Grade, which indicates free throw shooting ability, and ranges from A+ (great) to F (very poor).
Yes, based on the stamina of the player, how many minutes he's playing, the style of defense, offensive tempo, and stoppages in the game, players can get tired which can impact performance. There is no game to game fatigue – meaning everyone starts every game at 100%. The stamina ratings refer to their in-game conditioning. For example, playing a player with a 20 stamina rating for 35 minutes is not a good idea – he'll stay in the game, but he'll be tired and play worse.
Durability refers to their likelihood of injury - and if they do get injured, how quickly they can recover.
Player roles are basically a way to assign a custom overall rating to players. When you create a player role formula, you apply a weighting to each rating. The overall rating for a player using that role is then calculated by applying those percentage weights to the player's ratings and then adding them all up.
These custom formulas can be used in a number of ways to make evaluating players easier:
Go to your schedule, click on 'Schedule Exhibition'. Choose a team to challenge from the list. If it is an AI team, the game will automatically be added to your schedule. If the team is coached by another user, then they'll see a 'pending challenge' - which they can either accept or reject.
You may schedule up to 2 exhibition games per season. Games must be scheduled prior to 1 PM EST to be played that day. Once a game is scheduled, it can not be cancelled.
Every game played helps your players improve by giving them more game experience - exhibition games are no exception.
In addition, it's also a great opportunity for coaches to experiment with different lineups, depths, tempos, etc. Those are the logical reasons to play exhibition games. Other possible reasons could include the desire to take on a buddy in another conference, or perhaps you want to see how your team stacks up with the elite programs in DI.
The downside to playing an exhibition game is that you always risk having a player go down with an injury.
Overall Conference record, at the conclusion of the regular season, is used to seed teams 1 through 12. There are also several tie-breakers that may be necessary.
The following procedures are set up to establish seeding for the championship and to break ties. Follow the appropriate steps in order.
Two-way Tie (2 teams in the same division conclude the regular season with the same conference record)
Multiple-Team Tie (3 or more teams in the same division conclude the regular season with the same conference record)
National Tournament selection and seeding both rely on the same logic.
The logic for ranking teams for the postseason essentially calculates a score for each game on the team's schedule. This game score is determined by the following components:
Once the tournament field has been determined, then the seeding process will begin, using the same evaluation logic. Some teams may be moved slightly in order to avoid same-conference match-ups early in the tournament.
Once the National Tournament bids have been handed out, the PostSeason Invitational teams are selected using the same process.
Note: teams must have a minimum of .500 win% to qualify for National Tournament at-large bids and a minimum .425 win% to qualify for the Postseason Invitational.
Tournament seeding is not directly based on RPI or SOS. Often a team can have a high RPI without actually having many impressive wins.
For full details on what goes into selection and seeding, reference article #352.
Work ethic does not change based on practice minutes. It will change based on playing time and starts.
With regards to the offenses and defenses, the more practice and playing time a player receives under each set, the better the offense will function with regards to efficiency, and the same holds true on defense. If you have 5 Seniors who have been practicing your offense and defense for 4 years, you'll have a very "smart" team on the floor. Whereas if you try to switch your offense and/or defense in mid-season, many players will have to spend time learning the new system which can lead to poor shot selection, unforced turnovers, and missed assignments on defense.
Each player is different, but the general rule of thumb is that the closer a players GPA is to 2.0, the more study hall time he'll need to stay eligible. Also, the more important role he plays on your team, the more you'll want to try to ensure he makes the 2.0 GPA cutoff. Heavy study hall minutes do NOT guarantee a player will be eligible. It just improves the odds of eligibility.
You'll receive mid-term academic progress reports on each player, so it may be necessary to adjust study hall minutes at that time.
The RPI (Rating Percentage Index) is a measure of strength of schedule, and how a team does against that schedule. It does not consider margin of victory. It is used by the WCAA as one of the factors in deciding which teams to invite to the National Tournament and where to seed them.
The basic formula is 25% team winning percentage (WP), 50% opponents' average winning percentage (OWP), and 25% opponents' opponents' average winning percentage (OOWP). When calculating winning percentage (WP), the RPI weights a road win as 1.4 x a normal win, a home loss as 1.4 x a normal loss, a road loss as 0.6 x a normal loss and a home win as 0.6 x a normal win - neutral site games are not adjusted (weighted at 1.0).
Top 25 rankings are based on a combination of talent and game results. The "talent" portion is calculated by looking at the skill ratings of players (excluding Work Ethic, Stamina, and Durability), with more weight given to a team's top 5 players. The "game results" portion is based on opponent rank, score margin, and result (win or loss) for each completed game.
Before the season starts, all weight is placed on talent - and then as the season progresses, more and more weight is placed on game results. By the end of the season, almost all of the weight is on game results.
There may be significant movement of teams early in the season because there are so few games, but as the season moves along, the best teams will rise to the top.
Conference awards are based on stats accumulated during conference games. Each award has its own factors for determination as indicated below.
Player of the Year: Scoring, Scoring Efficiency, Steals, Assists, Blocks, Rebounds, Turnovers, Fouls, Team Success
Defensive Player of the Year: Steals, Blocks, Fouls, Defense Rating
All-Conference: Same as Player of the Year
Freshman of the Year: Same as Player of the Year, but only including freshmen
National awards are based on stats accumulated during the entire season. Each award has its own factors for determination as indicated below.
Player of the Year: Scoring, Scoring Efficiency, Steals, Assists, Blocks, Rebounds, Turnovers, Fouls, Team Success
Defensive Player of the Year: Steals, Blocks, Defense Rating
Freshman of the Year: Same as Player of the Year, but only including freshmen
All-American: Same as Player of the Year
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Lowell met Elizabeth Hardwick at Yaddo, the writers' colony in Saratoga Springs, New York, in the summer of 1948. One of eleven children in a Kentucky family, Hardwick (born 1916 and married to Lowell from 1949 to 1972) loved Lowell with extreme devotion and, like Antigone with the aged Oedipus, was willing to sacrifice herself to protect him. Endlessly masochistic, she had a remarkable capacity for suffering and endurance. In Bartleby in Manhattan (1984), writing with Lowell in mind, Hardwick noted that the artist looks at his own "drunkenness, infidelities, vanities, madness . . . with a ruthless, acerbic intimacy," but fails to notice their destructive effect on other people. Lowell used Hardwick's harrowing personal letters in his penultimate book, The Dolphin (1973), written when they were estranged and italicized in his poems, though he knew that publishing them would humiliate and torment her. For Lowell, his art was worth her pain. Guilt-ridden and ruthlessly remorseful, he quotes her furious condemnation for wavering between herself and Blackwood, for being a hypocrite and not realizing the suffering he'd caused:
You can't carry your talent with you like a suitcase.
Don't you dare mail us the love your life denies;
Do you really know what you have done?
read more in the current issue of Salmagundi


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It's funny how we adapt to change without realizing it.
Technology moves forward — sometimes slowly, sometimes by leaps and bounds — and before long some of the things we used to do are rapidly fading in the rear-view mirror.
It brings to mind a line from an old Joni Mitchell song that goes, "Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got till it's gone?" In Joni's case, she was clearly lamenting good things that had gone by the wayside.
But as a consumer, I'm not so sure I miss some of this stuff that's disappearing.
Let's start with phone booths. When was the late time you even saw a phone booth? And how about those payphones we used to see mounted on the outer walls of liquor stores and virtually every other kind of business? There are still a few of 'em around — but not many.
Nope, these days we're all using cell phones — and in many cases, smartphones. And let's be honest here: A smartphone is really a small computer that also happens to function as a phone. It seems that everybody's got one. They're using them to look up directions, find phone numbers and even secure movie tickets.
Now let's have a show of hands here. Does anyone really want to go back to those days when we had to pull into a greasy, run-down gas station and pick up a payphone that reeked of alcohol? A phone that was likely just used by a drug dealer looking to score it hit?
And while we're on the subject of phones, how about phone books? Used one lately? Didn't think so. These days we're going online for nearly all of our phone numbers and addresses.
And continuing on this information track … how about maps and the iconic Thomas Guide? When's the last time you whipped one of those out? I can still remember trying to chart my directions using a Thomas Guide. Invariably, I'd have to switch to another page to see where the road I needed to take was going. I miss that about as much as I miss Barry Manilow's last album.
Rand McNally still produces spiral-bound Thomas Guides, which is kind of surprising. But they also offer a bunch of GPS navigation devices.
Here's another one. When's the last time you wrote a letter and mailed it to someone? More importantly, you do ever write in cursive anymore? Probably not much, if at all. These days most of our communication is done via texts or emails.
That's good because there's nothing more rewarding than emailing a message that is so devoid of grammar it resembles a cryptic funeral notice from the ancient Greeks.
And photos? Remember the days when you took photos and had to drop the film off at the local drugstore? No more. Now the photos we take show up instantly on our cameras. And the shots we take on our smartphones are often better quality than we used to get with a standard camera.
Lastly, I want to mention libraries. Now hold your water because I can already feel the ground shaking as hard-core readers dig in their heels. I'm not saying libraries are going away. But their role has definitely expanded to include computers, e-books, automated cataloging systems and more space for community events.
Some libraries even have 3D printers and scientists say we'll eventually be able to create living organs with those devices. I can hear the conversation now:
"Yes, I'd like to check out the latest Stephen King novel … and I'll take a kidney with that, please."


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PFed needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 50 designs submitted by 27 freelance designers.
Red Flag Media
My partner and I have been working in the independent film business for decades and are starting a company to distribute independent films - we will do classical theatrical distribution, but also plan on experimenting with alternative distribution ideas on new digital platforms such as VoD, digital downloads, etc. We are determined to help find a solution in the troubled independent film distribution marketplace so independent filmmakers can continue to make films and have them distributed.
independent film lovers - while this audience tends to be in 30's+, they can be of any age although they are most likely to be educated and discerning....and supporters of the arts.
The wikipedia definition of Red Flag is interesting: uses key words like "defiance" or a red flag was used to "incite" a crowd into action. Originally we thought of it because of tagging an important email....as if to say "if you look at any email, look at this one"....We don't even mind the communist heritage of the red flag (although we are not looking for strong Soviet realism iconography). We prefer something that is clean and crisp as the name suggests, yet suggest something active or "important".
Obviously, we want to stay away and actively lead our audience away from any negative connotations to red flag...such as "warnings".
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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TV series films at local hotel
Andy Patel admits to knowing practically nothing about Sleepy Hollow, Ichabod Crane or the Headless Horseman, but he was glad when a television crew filming a reincarnation of the classic story called to shoot scenes at his motel.
"They called a couple of days ago and said they liked the location," Patel said.
Patel owns the Sherwood Motel at 318 W. Main St. in Havelock, where it was lights, camera, action all day Monday.
A Wilmington freelance film crew under contract with 20th Century Fox is filming scenes for the television show "Sleepy Hollow" that stars Tom Mison, Nicole Beharie, Orlando Jones and Katia Winter. The show will air on the Fox television network at 9 p.m. Mondays and premieres Sept. 16.
"They are filming in one room but they blocked about 30 rooms," Patel said.
The crew came in with trucks and trailers and virtually filled the parking lot with gear.
"Anything and everything they brought on their own. They brought their own catering," Patel said. "They didn't even need to go to the hardware store. They brought everything they need. They said they even bring the circus with them if they need it."
All the trucks, lighting and equipment created quite a stir in sleepy Havelock.
"It's interesting," said Alan Gephart, a hotel guest. "We came down for a vacation and get to see this. Supposedly they are filming the first one here. That's what they told us."
One of the scenes involved a couple of sheriff patrol cars, complete with Sleepy Hollow emblems and actors dressed up as deputies, prompting a call to the Havelock News asking what was going on at the hotel and why deputies were there.
For their part, the crew remained silent. An actor in a Sleepy Hollow Sheriff's Deputy uniform waiting for a scene to start said he was not permitted to talk to the press.
The filming brought Shirley Kendell and Gloria Jensen out to the hotel.
"We're here to watch the show and to see my favorite hotel is on TV," Kendell said. "What we've seen is people bringing cameras in and out and some boards. So far, we haven't seen anybody dead yet."
They said seeing a little bit of Hollywood come to Havelock was neat.
"We don't see this every day here. It's cool. It's kind of exciting," Kendell said. "The security people are very nice to let us sit here and see what's going on. We're trying to see if we see anybody famous."
Patel said the crew was to wrap up work by Monday night, when the scene was expected to shift to Tryon Palace in New Bern.
"They've been good," Patel said. "It's good for business. Hey, it's good for Havelock."


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Vargas blanks A's as Royals hold Central lead
KANSAS CITY -- Jason Vargas got the Royals back on the winning path -- and in a big hurry.
Vargas mowed down the Oakland Athletics with a complete-game three-hitter, 3-0, on Wednesday night to keep Kansas City in first place and keep 21,099 fans at Kauffman Stadium in a happy zone.View Full Game Coverage
KANSAS CITY -- Jason Vargas got the Royals back on the winning path -- and in a big hurry.
Vargas mowed down the Oakland Athletics with a complete-game three-hitter, 3-0, on Wednesday night to keep Kansas City in first place and keep 21,099 fans at Kauffman Stadium in a happy zone.View Full Game Coverage
Just three starts removed from an appendectomy, Vargas dispatched the A's with surgical precision. After giving up a third hit to start the second inning, he induced a double play to begin a string of 23 consecutive batters retired -- right down to the last out of the game.
"We made an adjustment," Vargas said. "We saw that they were kind of trying to lean out and get themselves a pitch out over the plate or be able to stay on that changeup that's away. We threw some good ones and they got some hits or put them in play."
So, he began throwing more fastballs with great effect.
Vargas cut down the A's in 2 hours and 6 minutes, the Royals' swiftest game since 2011.
"He got back to being who he was. We thought it would take him two starts before he got sharp again and, luckily, it proved to be right," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "He was just dynamic, he was in complete control, he was commanding both sides of the plate. His changeup was unbelievable."
The A's had snapped Kansas City's eight-game winning streak on Tuesday night. But this was the Royals' 17th victory in their last 21 games since July 22.
The Royals have won four out of six games from Oakland, possessor of the Majors' best record (73-47), and can win this four-game series on Thursday afternoon.
Vargas didn't need a lot of offense, but the three runs he got were sufficient to let him finish the game and rest the bullpen.
Omar Infante hasn't hit a lot of home runs this year but when he has, it's been a good sign for the Royals. He's banged six so far and the team is 6-0 in those games.
No. 6 came in the third inning, a two-run shot off left-hander Scott Kazmir. Infante dropped a 2-0 fastball into the left-field bullpen, also scoring Nori Aoki, who had singled.
The homer was Infante's first since June 27 against the Angels, 149 at-bats ago.
"Yeah, long time, huh?" Infante said. "I feel happy because I made good contact on that pitch."
Christian Colon, in the lineup at third base for Mike Moustakas, opened the Royals' fifth inning with a safe bunt to third base. Aoki's sacrifice moved him along as did Infante's infield hit and Salvador Perez's sacrifice fly.
That was the third run which meant that even though the bullpen backend of Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland was ready to go, they could get a second straight night off. Always a good thing.
"Anytime you've got a three-run lead, Vargy's throwing good and the three guys we've got in the 'pen are down there, you feel pretty good," Yost said.
This was the third complete game by KC starters in the last seven games. Jeremy Guthrie and James Shields also went the distance. Vargas, with his 97 pitches, was the most efficient.
To put that in perspective, those were the fewest pitches by a KC pitcher in a nine-inning, complete-game shutout since Tim Belcher dispatched Toronto with 90 pitches on Sept. 2, 1996.
"Vargas just does a good job of pitching to all quadrants of the zone and using all of his pitches all the time," said the A's Josh Donaldson, who had a double in the first inning. "He's one of those guys it's hard to just sell out on a certain pitch. Just does a good job of manipulating the zone, and when he's on, he's tough."
There was great jubilation earlier in this Royals season when, in June, they reeled off a 10-game winning streak. But they immediately faltered and lost seven of their next nine games.
Yost doubts that will happen again.
"This is a total different feeling. It's hard to explain why," he said. "There's just a real energy -- and I'm not saying there wasn't energy then -- and a real sense of confidence inside that locker room. Like they're not going to let anything deter them."
The Royals have won six consecutive series -- over Chicago, Cleveland, Minnesota, Oakland, Arizona and San Francisco. Now, a seventh is possible, again over the A's, on Thursday.
"We went into the series at Oakland and it looked like a daunting task. Three tough games against that pitching, that team that has that defense," Yost said. "Arizona's been tough on us in the past, you know the Giants are tough and then back four with these guys. That's a tall order."
Perhaps it can be filled.


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Quote from: Pikhristos Aftonf on October 12, 2011, 10:28:17 PMmy respect for Patriarch Kirill increased so much after reading this... i am honoured that he called us his brothers in faith Indeed there is a wonderful and beautiful fraternity between Russians and Copts because they both know suffering and persecution. I experienced this recently among some Russian clergy (even in ROCOR) which made me realize that the "real world" is very different than what is presented often times on internet forums.Let me share with you a beautiful story from a just a couple of weeks ago.I was invited along with all my congregation from St. Marina Coptic Orthodox Church (Irvine, CA) to attend a local Serbian Church where the Myrrh-Streaming Icon of Hawaii (which belongs to ROCOR) was visiting. This was the second time I went due to the wonderful relationship between me and the local Serbian priest. This time I came with about 125 Copts from my parish after Sunday liturgy.While we were gathered, Reader Nektarios, the guardian of the icon, related to us Copts the following story with sincere emotion...When the Holy Theotokos was appearing in Warraq Cairo (Dec. 2009), Reader Nektarios received a phone call from a friend that happened to be visiting Egypt. This friend was among the several thousand people standing outside the Church when the Mother of God appeared. He called Reader Nektarios in great amazement describing the details of how the Holy Virgin looked and how she smiled at the people (he said the videos don't do any justice to what they saw in person). She was appearing while he was on the phone...He asked Reader Nektarios, "what is the icon doing right now?" Reader Nektarios responded that the icon stopped streaming! Then a few moments later, there was great sound from the crowd and Reader Nektarios asked what happened. His friend told him that the Mother of God disappeared. His friend asked a second time what was happening to the icon and Reader Nektarios responded that it began to stream again! A third roar from the crowd came when the Holy Virgin appeared again, this time on the bell tower (first time was on the dome) and the friend asked a third time about the icon and Reader Nektarios indicated that it stopped streaming! For Reader Nektarios, it was clear that the moments when the Mother of God was appearing in Egypt, the icon stopped streaming. He told the story with an obvious great love for the Copts and was certain about how much the Mother of God loves the children of Egypt.Another great link between the Russians and Copts...I know some will not accept the story or its conclusions, but there it is for you to make what you will of it.In Christ,Fr. Kyrillos
my respect for Patriarch Kirill increased so much after reading this... i am honoured that he called us his brothers in faith
Viewpoint: Egypt's Copts must not submit to griefby Yousef Sidhoum, Editor of Al-Wataniexcerpt: "During the uprising, all Egyptians flocked to Tahrir Square calling for reforms to bring social justice, more jobs and the cancellation of forged parliamentary elections. Muslims and Christians were bound by the same challenges and aspirations. In the square a strong, unprecedented bond of national solidarity was forged. This amazing bond moved the hearts and souls of Egyptians all over the country - little wonder, as previously it had been absent in daily life except when Egypt played in international football matches. 'Discriminatory tide'As a Coptic Christian, deep down in my heart there lies a wound that does not heal. It has festered over more than three decades as the grievances of Egypt's Copts have mounted. In the 1970s, our good-natured, amicable Egyptian character began to change. Copts started to feel that they were rejected, marginalised, and denied their full citizenship rights both by the state and their Muslim fellow citizens, merely because of their religious denomination. A strong wave of fanatic, fundamentalist Islam invaded our country, a vicious, discriminatory tide that flooded state bodies, official establishments and educational institutions and affected Muslim clergy. It resulted in legislative inequalities and selective rules that had an Islamic flavour and meant Copts were treated as second-class citizens"http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15385063
(AINA) — Hundreds of Coptic Christians mobilized on Tuesday in front of the Monastery of the Virgin and St. John the Beloved, located on the Desert Road from Cairo to Ismailia. Although the Monastery has the necessary permits, the army had sent a message to the monastery that they would come on the next day, October 25, to demolish its fence, which guards it from unauthorized visits and criminals.The official website of the Monastery warned of threats of a " new massacre" by the Egyptian Armed Forces, and the removal of its fence, pointing out that the Monastery was built in 2002 and is under the supervision of the secretariat of H.H. Pope Shenouda.When the Army vehicles with demolishing equipment arrived at the monastery, they were met by priests, monks, deacons and Copts all dressed up in white for mass, holding wooden crosses, praying and singing hymns.
Members of the clergy, Coptic Lawyer's Association, Coptic Solidarity, and CopticWorld as well as Coptic representatives from Michigan and other states met with White House officials today in a closed door meeting to address recent events in Egypt concerning Copts.
Today the parents of the 17-year-old Christian student Ayman Nabil Labib, broke their silence, confirming that their son was murdered on October 16, in "cold blood because he refused to take off his crucifix as ordered by his Muslim teacher." Nabil Labib, the father, said in a taped video interview with Copts United NGO, that his son had a cross tattooed on his wrist as per Coptic tradition, as well as another cross which he wore under his clothes.Both parents confirmed that Ayman's classmates, who were present during the assault and whom they met at the hospital and during the funeral, said that while Ayman was in the classroom he was told to cover up his tattooed wrist cross. He refused and defiantly got out the second cross which he wore under his shirt. "The teacher nearly chocked by son and some Muslim students joined in the beating," said his mother.According to Ayman's father, eyewitnesses told him that his son was not beaten up in the school yard as per the official story, but in the classroom. "They beat my son so much in the classroom that he fled to the lavatory on the ground floor, but they followed him and continued their assault. When one of the supervisors took him to his room, Ayman was still breathing. The ambulance transported him from there dead, one hour later."
Moscow, November 1, Interfax – Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, the head of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations has accused the West of failing to stand up for Egyptian Christians during recent violence against them and has slammed Western governments for putting economic interests before human life....He called for Christians to come together "to defend their brothers and sisters who are suffering in various regions.""If this doesn't happen, we will look even less convincing in the eyes of this world. On the other hand, by defending our fellow believers, we will strengthen our positions, will become more unified, and hence closer to one another," he said...."Christian Churches, primarily the Orthodox and Catholic Churches, and also the ancient Eastern Churches, should come together today and join forces. We have the imperative need to create a community of Churches following the apostolic tradition where we would together discuss problems and challenges of the modern world," the metropolitan said.He also suggested setting up "joint informal information structures that would provide objective, fresh and verified information on events that are of determining significance for the future of the Church and the world."
Ramez Atallah: ...I'd like for the Western press to fight for the rights of Muslims and forget the Christians.MJT: Really? Why?Ramez Atallah: Because the minute moderate Muslims are okay in Egypt, Christians can breathe. Christians can live. If there are no more moderates in power in Egypt, Christians will be very limited. But they won't be as badly off as the Muslims. We are a sort of protected species in Egypt. We will suffer less than the Muslims.
This issue of sectarian tension lurks behind the election campaign now being waged across Egypt. People don't often speak about it directly, but it's an abiding fear here — as in most other countries shaken by the Arab Spring. The question is whether, as democracy empowers Islamist parties across the Arab world, Christian minorities will have a viable future.
Dozens of residents of the village of Baheeg in Assiut, Upper Egypt, burnt three houses owned by a Christian family after a Christian villager allegedly published cartoons mocking Islam on his Facebook account.A number of Muslim students attacked their Coptic classmate for posting the cartoons, a Muslim student told Al-Masry Al-Youm.The Muslim students attacked the Coptic student on Thursday at Monqebad Secondary School in Assiut. Eyewitnesses said the military intervened to break up the fight and escorted the Coptic youth and his family away from the village. Later, Muslim villagers set fire to the family's houses.
Update at 6:25 p.m. ET: Facebook has apparently taken down the account of at least one group threatening a New Year's attack on Egyptian Christians. An Arab-language Facebook page (not linked to in the story but monitored by msnbc.com reporters) no longer loads.
(AINA) -- A mob of over 3000 Muslims attacked Copts in the village of Kobry-el-Sharbat (el-Ameriya), Alexandria this afternoon. Coptic homes and shops were looted before being set ablaze. Two Copts and a Muslim were injured. The violence started after a rumor was spread that a Coptic man had an allegedly intimate photo of a Muslim woman on his mobile phone. The Coptic man, Mourad Samy Guirgis, surrendered to the police this morning morning for his protection.According to eyewitnesses, the perpetrators were bearded men in white gowns. "They were Salafists, and some of were from the Muslim Brotherhood," according to one witness. It was reported that terrorized women and children who lost their homes were in the streets without any place to go.According to Father Boktor Nashed from St. George's Church in el-Nahdah, a meeting between Muslim and Christian representatives was supposed to take place in the evening in Kobry-el-Sharbat. But, by 3 P.M. a Muslim mob looted and torched the home of Mourad Samy Guirgis, as well as the home of his family and three homes of Coptic neighbors. A number of Coptic-owned shops and businesses were also looted and torched. "We contacted security forces, but they arrived very, very late," Said Father Nashad. The fire brigade was prevented from going into the village by the Muslims and the fires were left to burn themselves out. "Those who lost their home, left the village," said Father Nashed.
(AINA) -- An Egyptian court has ordered a 16-year old Christian girl to be held in a state-owned care home, instead of returning her to her family, allegedly for expressing her wish to convert to Islam. She is to be held in state care until she reaches the age of 18. The decision has been widely criticized by Copts, who say it encourages Islamists to continue unabated the abduction of Christian minors for conversion to Islam."The decision taken by a prosecutor in Boulaq El Dakrour district, Giza, makes him an abductor and makes the law an accomplice to the crime," said Dr. Oliver, a Coptic activist. "What this prosecutor committed is a crime -- he legitimized child abduction and detention."Dr. Oliver explained that these crimes are committed by thugs, criminals and kidnappers of children, and when the State legitimizes them it makes itself a partner. In addition, placing a girl under care for allegedly wishing to convert to Islam while still a minor is tantamount to abduction by the State.
Well, one of the most crucial mistakes the Coptic community in Egypt made, was its naive stand on believing in the Arab nationalism. I think because of that they were unable to establish a geographic area of concentration. This was a big mistake!
Quote from: Balthasar on January 30, 2012, 10:50:44 AMWell, one of the most crucial mistakes the Coptic community in Egypt made, was its naive stand on believing in the Arab nationalism. I think because of that they were unable to establish a geographic area of concentration. This was a big mistake!I disagree. It's not a mistake. Whether Arab nationalism or not, we'll always get Muslim religious bigots. But nationalism is to be encouraged if you don't want to isolate the moderate and liberal Muslims.Love your country, serve her, and don't forsake your religion. This is always the standard we must live by.
Quote from: minasoliman on January 30, 2012, 06:26:02 PMQuote from: Balthasar on January 30, 2012, 10:50:44 AMWell, one of the most crucial mistakes the Coptic community in Egypt made, was its naive stand on believing in the Arab nationalism. I think because of that they were unable to establish a geographic area of concentration. This was a big mistake!I disagree. It's not a mistake. Whether Arab nationalism or not, we'll always get Muslim religious bigots. But nationalism is to be encouraged if you don't want to isolate the moderate and liberal Muslims.Love your country, serve her, and don't forsake your religion. This is always the standard we must live by.Why do the Copts have to pretend they Arabs, which they are not?If the Copts had won the battle in the past, it would have been right to say strategically they played a very wise role. I am sure, one way or the other, one day, they are going to win. But at the moment it doesn't look like like they are winning. If 100.000 Copts left Egypt in the past 10 months, there is something terribly wrong with their handling of the situation. On the other hand look at to south of Egyptistan, Sudan, the Southern people fought 'from their enclave' for their freedom,, and it took them 'only' 40 years to get to where they are now. Imagine the position of the Copts, if they had the Alexandria, or the Aswan region only for themselves? They would have dominated the whole area in all aspects of life. They would have kept their beautiful Coptic language and superior tradition in a pure and unspoiled manner. Me thinks so...
It's too late to speculate on "preserving the Coptic tongue" and "oh my God, the ancient language of the Pharaohs is gone" and "I have to speak this stupid terrorist language." All of that is a waste of time and energy. The energy is on the faith now. It matters not if it's Arabic or Coptic.
Coptic movement to protest 'forced eviction' of Amreyya Copts By Heba Hesham / Daily News Egypt February 1, 2012, 7:00 pmCAIRO: The Maspero Youth Union announced that it will organize a protest Thursday in front of the Journalists' Syndicate, to condemn what they called violations against the Coptic residents of Sharbat village in the district of Amreyya in Alexandria.The sectarian clashes reportedly erupted on Friday Jan. 27 when Mahmoud Te'ma, a barber, claimed that 34-year-old tailor Morad Gerges snapped pictures of Muslim girls in the fitting room of his workshop. However, according to Ramy Kamel, a Coptic activist, Te'ma tried to extort money from Gerges, but when he refused Te'ma spread the rumor. Te'ma was later arrested, he said."A number of Muslim residents attacked Gerges' home and when they didn't find him, they abused his family," he said, claiming that the attack was led by Salafi leaders in the village....Kamel claimed that the homes of 11 other Coptic families were also attacked, forcing them to flee to nearby villages where they have been in hiding since.
The audience also saw graphic footage of people killed at the riots in Maspero on Oct. 9, 2011. It was ugly footage that showed bodies crushed and dismembered by the armored personnel carriers driven by the Egyptian military. The audience looked at the screen unflinchingly.The video, displayed on two large screens, demonstrated the power of technology to tell the Coptic story and Islamist violence. The Internet is filled with footage of the aftermath of the Maspero riots which began when Egyptian military personnel attacked Christians protesting the failure of the Egyptian government to protect their churches from attacks. During the non-violent protest, reporters on state-sponsored television called on Egyptians to defend the military from attacks by the Christians.
During his sermon, Very Reverend, Peter-Michael Preble, pastor of St. Michael's Romanian Orthodox Church in Southbridge, Massachusetts told the audience, "Sitting here watching the video reminds me of how easy we have it in the United States.""We cannot sit here as human beings and not rise up to our feet and say … 'The violence must stop,'" he proclaimed. He also warned the audience not to think that this activism will be done by someone else."The someone else is us," he said.
Quote from: minasoliman on February 01, 2012, 02:47:04 PMIt's too late to speculate on "preserving the Coptic tongue" and "oh my God, the ancient language of the Pharaohs is gone" and "I have to speak this stupid terrorist language." All of that is a waste of time and energy. The energy is on the faith now. It matters not if it's Arabic or Coptic.Forgive me for being so bold as a non-Copt and non-Arab(ized) person, but I don't think this is true. Or, rather, if it were true, there would not be such a commitment to preserving the Coptic tongue in its liturgical setting as I know there is both in the diaspora and at home in Egypt. People may assign different meanings to the use of the language (whether we are talking about Coptic or Arabic or any other language), but to say people who claim not to be Arab are resentful of the Arabic language or the Arabic culture...that's not something I've seen, even from the staunchest of the "We're not Arabs!" faction. To give an example that is not from the diaspora (so that it can not be attributed to children of the diaspora projecting their ideology onto Copts in Egypt), HG Bishop Thomas of el-Qusiya has said quite emphatically that he rejects the Arab identity, but I think you will find that his explanation of his stance is not in any way bigoted or built on delusion that he is anything but an Arabic-speaking Egyptian. (There are other linguistic and cultural minorities in Egypt for whom a similar dichotomy probably exists, such as the Nubians; they are also Egyptian, of course, and yet I doubt anyone would claim that they are "wasting their time" in asserting their cultural and ethnolinguistic rights, which is all that I've ever seen Copts anywhere in the world fighting for anyway.)As for the fate of the language, the example of Modern Hebrew (as the most successful example of language revitalization in modern times) should be of much interest to those who push for the revitalization of Coptic, though they are definitely a minority. I am certainly not optimistic about the fate of any Middle Eastern or other minority language in today's world, but I will also say that virtually nothing is too late or impossible, and Coptic has many things going for it that other dead languages do not (e.g., a native writing system, a large corpus of texts covering a long period of development, many dictionaries and grammars describing many different dialects, a population that strongly identifies with it, etc).
(AINA) -- Two Coptic priests appeared yesterday before an investigations judge in connection with the events of the Maspero Massacre, in which 28 Copts were killed and 329 injured after being shot and run over by and military Armored Personnel Carriers (AINA 10-10-2011). Father Mattias Nasr of St. Mary's Church in Ezbet el-Nakhl in Greater Cairo and Father Filopateer Gameel of St. Mary's Church in Giza, both founding members of the Maspero Coptic Youth Union, which organized the October 9 demonstration, were accused of causing the death of military soldier Mohamed Ali Shetta, possession of weapons, use of force against the military, attempting to storm the Maspero TV building and incitement to violence.As evidence, the investigating judge produced video footage collected from radical Islamic websites. "Between the footage there were parts in which a shaikh called on me to convert to Islam," said Father Filopateer.Commenting on the investigations Father Matthias Nasr said: "I wonder about the conditions prevailing in Egypt now, whereby victims are being investigated, while the real perpetrators are ruling the country and continuing with their crimes against the Egyptian people and peaceful demonstrators everywhere."
QuoteCoptic movement to protest 'forced eviction' of Amreyya Copts By Heba Hesham / Daily News Egypt February 1, 2012, 7:00 pmCAIRO: The Maspero Youth Union announced that it will organize a protest Thursday in front of the Journalists' Syndicate, to condemn what they called violations against the Coptic residents of Sharbat village in the district of Amreyya in Alexandria.The sectarian clashes reportedly erupted on Friday Jan. 27 when Mahmoud Te'ma, a barber, claimed that 34-year-old tailor Morad Gerges snapped pictures of Muslim girls in the fitting room of his workshop. However, according to Ramy Kamel, a Coptic activist, Te'ma tried to extort money from Gerges, but when he refused Te'ma spread the rumor. Te'ma was later arrested, he said."A number of Muslim residents attacked Gerges' home and when they didn't find him, they abused his family," he said, claiming that the attack was led by Salafi leaders in the village....Kamel claimed that the homes of 11 other Coptic families were also attacked, forcing them to flee to nearby villages where they have been in hiding since.http://www.thedailynewsegypt.com/human-a-civil-rights/coptic-movement-to-protest-forced-eviction-of-amreyya-copts.htmlThe article mentions other instances of forced eviction, and describes three "reconciliation meetings," which were really venues for the perpetrators to demand the further displacement of Copts. This really is ethnic cleansing. It needs to be brought before international human rights organizations.
CAIRO, Egypt (AsiaNews / Agencies) – The radical Muslims are trying to forcibly empty a village near Alexandria of its Coptic Christian population – 62 families, on the basis of unfounded allegations against a Copt. The Copts of Kobry-el-Sharbat (el-Amerya) were attacked on Jan. 27 by a crowd of some three thousand Muslims led by Salafi leaders who set fire to the Copts houses and shops.The violence were sparked by the allegations of a barber Muslim Toemah, who claimed that a Coptic tailor of 34, Samy Mourad Guirgis, had "illegal" photos of a Muslim woman on his cell phone. Mourad has denied the charges, and turned himself in to police in fear of his life. The Muslims set fire to his house and his shop, and his whole family was forced to leave the village. Mourad is still under police custody.Since then there have been three "reconciliation meetings" in the police headquarters in el-Amerya, attended by representatives of the Coptic Church, the Salafis and the Muslim Brotherhood. According to police, the woman concerned has denied the whole story, and no compromising photos of any kind were found Mourad's cell phone. But radical Muslims argue that "Muslim honor has been damaged," and at the first meeting, they refused any type of compensation for the Copts who were innocent victims of their violence.
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Black Hole
From Gambit wiki
Black Hole is a module system for the Gambit Scheme system.
Black Hole (from now and on addressed as "BH") enables Gambit with robust functionality for incremental software development, and thus enables Gambit for the development of large software projects.
BH is completely R5RS compliant, and any R5RS Scheme code can be taken into use within BH without any modifications.
Read further in the Introduction section of the documentation, found below.
Its latest version is avilable via GIT, and can be downloaded using GIT by
- git clone http://mwaza.dyndns.org/apps/files/modules.git
Is available in PDF, HTML, OpenOffice and Microsoft Word versions.
Bundled libraries
BH is bundled with a set of standard libraries, that serve a general purpose in Scheme software development. Please note however that BH in itself is completely independent of the bundled libraries, and can be separated from them without any modifications.
The bundled libraries include:
- SRFI 1 (list processing), 13 (string), 14 (character sets), 16 (case-lambda support), 19 (time data types and procedures), 95 (sorting)
- pregexp, hash digestion, base64 handling, UUID generator
- HTTP client, server, URI and session variable handling
- XML<->SXML routines
- FIFO queue, mailbox, weight balanced tree, erlang-style list matcher
- String, u8vector, list, exception handling helper libraries
- let-optionals support
See the documentation for more information.
Additional libraries
Termite: A version suited for usage in Black Hole is found at X.


text: The Art of Budget Mastery – What Matters Most Profit Planning, Vendor Pricing, Team Goals, Business Development Listen Now Listen to This Free Digital Media Webcast Join property management expert Ernest F. Oriente of PowerHour® and multifamily technology innovator Kerry W. Kirby, Founder and CEO of 365 Connect, for a FREE MultifamilyBiz.com + PowerHour Digital Media Webcast Conference. This fast-paced 60-minute FREE Webcast Conference, focuses on utilizing profitability planning for creating solid budgets in the new year. Conference Discussion Highlights How does budget mastery tie into your revenue and profitability planning for the new year? What are the key steps to having your entire team focused on the same budget goals? Why is it important to engage industry vendors as part of your overall budget process? Why business development should play a fundamental role in creating a road map for the new year? Who Listens? Developers, Owners, Property Managers, Regional Managers, Urban Planners, City Agencies and Officials, Architects, Acquisition Directors, CEOs, Directors, Presidents, Principals, Executive Vice Presidents, Marketing Directors, Portfolio Managers, and All Multifamily Housing Professionals. Conference Moderators Kerry W. Kirby is an entrepreneur, technology innovator and the founder and CEO of 365 Connect, a leading provider of award-winning marketing, leasing, and resident technology platforms for the multifamily housing industry. A renowned speaker, author, and media expert on technology, Kerry has published numerous articles, case studies, and is a contributor to several nationally published books on real estate and technology. Kerry has been a guest lecturer, featured speaker, and panelist at numerous universities, national conferences, and events. Known for his passion to foster the next generation of technology innovators, Kerry is one of the most notable supporters of technology and educational events in the New Orleans area. He has been featured on the BBC Digital Planet program, NPR News and various media outlets, and has led 365 Connect to receive a vast array of national and international technology awards including the Louisiana Governor's Technology Award. Ernest F. Oriente, a business coach since 1995 [29,160 hours], a property management industry professional since 1988-- the author of SmartMatch Alliances...the founder of PowerHour, PowerHour SEO, PowerHour Sales Academy, PowerHour Leadership Academy and Power Insurance & Risk Management has a passion for coaching his clients on executive leadership, hiring and motivating property management SuperStars, traditional and Internet SEO/SEM marketing, competitive sales strategies, and high leverage alliances for property management teams and their leaders. He and his PowerHour team provide private and group coaching for property management companies and industry sales vendors/suppliers around North America, executive recruiting, investment banking, national real estate and apartment building insurance, SEO/SEM web strategies, national WiFi solutions, employee policy manuals, social media leadership and powerful tools for hiring property management SuperStars and building dynamic teams. Ernest worked for Motorola, Primedia and is certified in the Xerox sales methodologies. Recent interviews and articles have appeared more than 7000 times in business and trade publications and in a wide variety of leading magazines and newspapers, including Smart Money, Inc., Business 2.0, The New York Times, Fast Company, The LA Times, Fortune, Business Week, Self Employed America and The Financial Times. Since 1995, Ernest has written over 200 articles for the property management industry and created 350+ property management forms, business and marketing checklists, sales letters and presentation tools. To subscribe to his free property management newsletter go to: www.powerhour.com. PowerHour® is based in Olympic-town…Park City, Utah, at 435.615.8486, by E-mail Ernest also runs the #1 LinkedIn group in the world for property management vendor/supplier sales success, and the #1 LinkedIn group in the world for property management success.


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Lawmakers Move to Impose Regulations on E-Cigs
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - The Minnesota House has moved to impose regulations on the sale of electronic cigarettes though it has stopped short of preventing their use in most public places.
A series of limitations on the fast-spreading devices were added to a health policy bill headed toward passage Monday night. The bill would expressly bar sales to minors, outlaw their use on school property, prohibit their sales from mall kiosks and require their nicotine liquid come in child-resistant packaging.
The bill also bars e-cigarette use in state-owned buildings. The House didn't attempt to classify e-cigarettes as traditional tobacco products and make them subject to the clean indoor air act.
A companion Senate bill does include the indoor air language. Supporters fended off an effort earlier Monday to pare the Senate bill back.


text: Hi my name is Deer, love pc gaming some shooters, RPGs, RTS that sort of thing. I do some modding (mostly in the RPG,RTS deparments mostly coding, cant model very well and don't have the tools for it anymore. am in College right now working on a degree in Anthropology ( for Paleoanthropology or Forensic Anthropology) with a double minor in Psychology & Evolutionary Morphology and Functional Anatomy with an Obective of a PHD and a job doing research and teaching somewhere. Am normally pretty busy with classes, don't have alot of free time but am willing to help if you need it. I would personally consider myself an atheistic agnostic and an anti-theist. I have a low tolerence for bullshit and my greatest pet peeve is people who think they know everything and yet know nothing (also known as young earth creationists) and people who blindly follow without thinking and with no evidence.