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Gibson L-1 Robert Johnson signature. Lovely period-correct 1930's Gibson reissue acoustic with beautiful blues tone. Good condition, some minor marks from playing (no serious dings or repairs). Great to play, with comfortable action and lovely tone. Includes hardshell case.
Gibson Acoustic's Robert Johnson L-1 guitar captures the haunting, timeless sound of the man whose legacy and contributions to blues music are unmatched. Though he died tragically in 1938 at the age of 27, Johnson's historic blues recordings have inspired countless generations of blues artists and guitarists. The Gibson Robert Johnson L-1 guitar is tribute to his instrument of choice. It features Gibson's traditional L-1 body design, exactly as it was on the first L-1 in 1926.
Nickel Gotoh White Button Tuners
The Gibson Robert Johnson acoustic guitar features Gotoh's SD91 white button tuners. With a gear ratio of 15:1, the Gotoh's deliver precision tuning in a durable housing that provides maximum protection for the gear and string post. All moving parts are cut for exact meshing, eliminating the possibility of slippage, and a special lubricant inside the gear box provides smooth and accurate tuning stability.
Rosewood Fingerboard with Rolled Edges and Dot Inlays
The fingerboard of Gibson's Robert Johnson guitar is constructed from the highest grade rosewood on earth, which is personally inspected and qualified by Gibson's team of skilled experts before it enters the Gibson factories. The resilience of this durable wood makes the acoustic guitar's fingerboard extremely balanced and stable, and gives each chord and note unparalleled clarity and bite. The Gibson L-1 guitar's dot inlays, as well as the custom Robert Johnson signature inlay at the end of the fingerboard, are made of genuine mother of pearl, and are inserted using a process that eliminates gaps and doesn't require the use of fillers. The fingerboard also sports a rolled edge"instead of the usual right angle where the fingerboard surface meets the neck, Gibson Acoustic's rolled edges are slightly beveled for an extremely smooth and comfortable feel, enhancing the playability of the Robert Johnson L-1.
A rosette is the beautiful, hand-crafted circle around the soundhole, and can be one of the most ornamental elements of any acoustic guitar. It is also one of the most subtle and complicated woodworking decorations on any acoustic guitar. The rosette on the Gibson Robert Johnson L-1 is a single-ring rosette consisting of three-ply binding, adding a stylish, understated elegance to the Robert Johnson L-1.
Body Tonewoods (back, sides and top)
The Gibson Robert Johnson acoustic guitar is based on the body design of their L-00 small body. The top is made from AA-grade solid Sitka spruce, while the back and sides are constructed from solid Honduran mahogany, giving the Robert Johnson L-1 a combination of tonewoods and features that produce a volume and clarity not expected from such a small guitar, and the rich, warm tone central to Johnson's unforgettable sound. Selecting the right wood, and the formula to dry it out, are two of the most central procedures to Gibson's guitar-building process. Beginning with its first catalog in 1903, Gibson has assured its customers that every guitar would be built using woods with "the most durable, elastic, and sonorous qualities," and today's guitars from Gibson Acoustic are no different.
Every acoustic guitar made by Gibson features hand-scalloped, radiused top bracing inside the body, a feature normally found only in limited run, handmade guitars. By scalloping each brace by hand, the natural sound of the acoustic is focused more toward the center of the body, enhancing the instrument's sound projection. The inside of the Robert Johnson L-1 acoustic guitar features Gibson's traditional "X" bracing pattern from the early 1900s, which helps project a volume and clarity not expected from such a small guitar, and the rich, warm tone central to Johnson's unforgettable sound.


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General advice and specific pointers for authors submitting manuscripts to journals.
Pick up any newspaper or magazine, and one of the first things you'll notice are the headlines. Copy editors put a great deal of time and care into developing just the right combination of words to synthesize the facts of stories, to echo the tones of the writers and to entice readers to immerse themselves in the tales that are about to unfold on the page. In scientific publications, titles carry the same importance, only the manuscript author must act as both article composer and title writer extraordinaire. That's a pretty big undertaking, given that scientists aren't likely to frequent workshops on top-notch title writing or masterful wordsmithing.
Whether you're a born poet or still a relatively clunky scribe, crafting a compelling title for an article takes creativity and concentration. I should know: I'm a recovering newspaper copy editor and have written more headlines than I can count. So when it was suggested that I provide some tips on how to write slam-dunk titles for scientific papers, I huddled with the editors of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology's journals and the society's chief multimedia communicator to come up with some general advice and specific pointers for authors submitting to the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Molecular and Cellular Proteomics, and the Journal of Lipid Research.
"Clarity trumps just about everything else," says Ralph A. Bradshaw, co-editor of MCP. Indeed, the consensus is that the greatest challenge authors face when crafting titles is communicating complex ideas clearly in a small space.
Perhaps feeling constrained by mandated word or character limits, many well-meaning but misguided authors resort to loading titles with acronyms, which can result in what editors of all walks have dubbed derisively "alphabet soup." Here's a somewhat soupy example: "ABC activates DEFG1 channels via HI2K-LMN-OPQ-RST3/4 signaling pathway." (Note: The acronyms in this story have been changed to protect the innocent.) "The simple rule is this: Don't use them," Bradshaw says.
But he and the others acknowledge that even best practices are contingent upon multiple variables. JBC Editor-in-Chief Marty Fedor says she agrees that use of acronyms should be minimized, but she adds, "There are good arguments for not banning them completely, including their usefulness as indexing and search terms."
If you simply must use an acronym in a manuscript title, make sure that it is one that has been deemed acceptable by the publication to which you are submitting. The JBC, for example, has a list of approved acronyms on its website for this very purpose; a panel of editors has determined that those on the list are understandable for researchers across the discipline.
"A major advantage of publishing in the JBC is that our articles attract scientists from a broad range of fields. What we want to avoid are titles that wouldn't mean anything to a reader who is not familiar with field-specific nomenclature or jargon," Fedor says. Also, Fedor adds, some acronyms are not all that meaningful even when they are spelled out: "When this is the case, modifiers can help to clarify the meaning of the acronym, as in 'membrane receptor,' 'cytokine,' 'regulatory RNA,' and so forth."
The nuts and bolts of good writing also apply to titles, of course. That means authors should employ active voice rather than passive voice. Take this title, for instance: "The DNA-damage-response kinases DNA-UV and XYZ are stimulated by bulky adduct-containing DNA." Putting that idea in active voice, which means putting the object of the action last, simply requires switching the structure around to say "Bulky adduct-containing DNA stimulates the DNA-damage-response kinases DNA-UV and XYZ." An easy fix.
"A direct assertion of the major finding is likely to capture more interest than a vague, descriptive title."
Another tenet of effective composition is to use lively, descriptive verbs. Rather than reporting that something "affects" something else, for example, try to come up with a word that means "affects" but also tells readers how it affects whatever it is. To unearth verbs with depth, don't be afraid to consult a thesaurus. You don't have to have all the right words in your head; you just have to have all the right words in your title.
But, Bradshaw warns, "Don't get cute." You should be in tune with the audience you are trying to engage. Wordplay, according to Bradshaw, "is OK for editorials, news articles or other sorts of opinion pieces, but I think that research articles shouldn't have such. Many of the witticisms you see are based on cultural references, and they are likely lost on or not understood by many readers in different countries."
Meanwhile, authors often avoid using precise language in titles because the results they are reporting are not completely conclusive. Yet, says Fedor, "A direct assertion of the major finding is likely to capture more interest than a vague, descriptive title."
Label titles usually don't have the aforementioned weak verb problem: They simply abandon verbs altogether. Here's an example of a verbless label title: "Hydrolysis of O-Acetyl-ADP-ribose isomers by ADP-ribosylhydrolase 3 (ARH3)." The label title is a safe route to take under certain circumstances, but at least consider whether a more straightforward approach will be more strategic.
"When I write a manuscript, I spend a lot of time designing the title, as it is the single most important line in an article," says JLR Editor-in-Chief Edward Dennis. "Titles should be assertive and relay the conclusion. 'Studies on …' doesn't do it, whereas 'Demonstration of …' does. Even better is to say 'X causes Y.'"
Also problematic are lengthy, often convoluted word combinations meant to operate in unison to describe a single concept. Here's a fabricated example: "The beta-arrestin pathway-selective angiotensin AB1C receptor agonist Def2Igh3Ijk." And here's another: "A novel XIM (XYZ-9 interacting mediator of cell death) D8-ligase, tripartite motif containing protein 57 (TRIM57)." In isolation, those word combinations aren't impossible to navigate. But if you insert them into a title and read it as a whole, the cadence of the language can drag. The root of this problem, of course, is that sometimes there is no single word that conveys such a complex idea. It is up to the writer, then, to take a step back and make sure the title doesn't trip up readers. Rule of thumb: Rewrite so that your reader doesn't have to reread.
"You don't have to explain everything in the paper in the title," adds Bradshaw. "Long, long titles usually are more confusing than helpful, particularly because readers will find the papers they are looking for by keyword or even whole-text searches, so run-on titles aren't needed and basically aren't helpful."
With texting, RSS feeds and social media sites like Twitter driving communication today, the pressure is on authors to write titles that are brief and that resonate across multiple technological platforms. Everything communicated on Twitter, for instance, must be done in 140 characters or fewer. Talk about making every word count! Think back upon the title of the last manuscript you submitted for publication. Could it have been tweeted?
"Shorter titles are not only less intimidating for readers, but they also are easier to read on mobile devices such as iPhones," emphasizes Sarah Crespi, who heads up ASBMB's online communication efforts. The JBC has an iPhone app and can be read on the Kindle, and all three of the journals have mobile sites that streamline content for handheld devices. Also, ASBMB has Twitter and Facebook streams that are updated throughout the day. The content you create should fit on all the lanes of the information highway, or it will get left behind.
All of the journal editors recommended that authors make crafting a strong title a priority during the manuscript composition process, and they emphasized that the title, abstract and figures work together to tell your whole scientific story. If those elements are not deliberately and skillfully crafted, all the other important prose that you placed in the body of the manuscript may not get the attention it deserves.
In the weeks after the publication of this article, I was pleased to observe on our social media channels and through traditional mediums that readers were motivated to discuss title writing, even though some challenged the best practices I provided. For those reasons, and to feed my own hunger for thinking about and writing about writing, I'd like to acknowledge some of the points readers have made.
One reader zeroed in on the passage about how to turn passive voice into active voice so that a title is more direct. It read:
"Take this title, for instance: 'The DNA-damage-response kinases DNA-UV and XYZ are stimulated by bulky adduct-containing DNA.' Putting that idea in active voice, which means putting the object of the action last, simply requires switching the structure around to say 'Bulky adduct-containing DNA stimulates the DNA-damage-response kinases DNA-UV and XYZ.' An easy fix."
"Take this title, for instance: 'The DNA-damage-response kinases DNA-UV and XYZ are stimulated by bulky adduct-containing DNA.' Putting that idea in active voice, which means putting the object of the action last, simply requires switching the structure around to say 'Bulky adduct-containing DNA stimulates the DNA-damage-response kinases DNA-UV and XYZ.' An easy fix."
The reader acknowledged that my edits would satisfy a structure stickler but noted that the paper in question (and apparently not so skillfully cloaked by changing a few acronyms) focused primarily on DNA-damage-response kinases and not on bulky adduct-containing DNA. Putting the main player of the paper at the end of the title, the reader said, ultimately de-emphasizes its importance.
I'd never heard such an argument for passive construction before, but I find it intriguing. I chose this title as an example not because it was badly written (it wasn't) but because I could use it to illustrate the difference between active and passive constructions. Furthermore, I don't imagine any reader would not understand the title in its original form, which brings me back to what Ralph A. Bradshaw, co-editor of MCP, said: "Clarity trumps just about everything else." So, I appreciate the reader's point and predict that it will influence my editing in the future.
Other readers differed on when to use acronyms. As you can see in the article, even the ASBMB journal editors have different approaches. It really comes down to being in tune with your audience, and by that I mean the journal's audience. If you are publishing in a journal with a broad readership, your title will be very different than one for a specialized journal. Just be sure that whatever you come up with (a) follows the journal's guidelines and (b) is tailored to that journal's audience.
I'm pleased to report that the JBC is implementing a new step in the publication process to assist authors with crafting compelling titles. Starting this week, editorial board members will be on the lookout for titles that could use a bit of wordsmithing and will send those manuscripts to our seasoned science writer/editor Harry Smith, who then will consult with the authors on how best to tell their story. We hope that this new service will yield more succinct and impactful titles and greater exposure for authors.
If I've learned anything during my editing tenure, it's that writing is personal, even when we try to distance ourselves from it. Each word and punctuation mark represents a choice, and it says something about how the writer's mind was working at the moment of composition. Sometimes that snapshot is a clear representation, and other times it is blurrier than we intended. Having said that, regardless of whether or not you agree with the tips presented or with how I presented them, thank you for making the article one of the most popular ones in the June issue and for contributing to the discussion.
More from the current issue

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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70 HASKINS & SELLS November Trust Company Auditing A TRUST company is a hybrid organi-zation incorporated under the laws of some one of the various States or of the District of Columbia. Any attempt to classify a trust company as to the kind of business transacted meets with difficulty, in that many of them carry on a banking business in addition to performing the function of a trustee, while many others combine these functions with title insurance and what-not. In the State of New York, Laws of 1914, Chapter 369, "when authorized by the Superintendent of Banks, as provided by Section 23 of this Chapter, seven or more persons may form a corporation to be known as a trust company. Such persons shall subscribe and acknowledge an organization certificate, in duplicate, which shall specifically state: (1) The name by which the trust company is to be known. (2) The place where its business is to be transacted. (3) The amount of its capital stock (ranging from $100,000.00 to $500,- 000.00, depending upon population) and the number of shares into which such capital stock shall be divided. (4) The names and places of residence of the incorporators. (5) The term of its existence, which may be perpetual. (6) A declaration that each incorporator will accept the responsibilities and faithfully discharge the duties of a director therein, if elected to act as such, when authorized by the provisions of this chapter." "Every trust company shall . . . . . keep on deposit with the Superintendent of Banks interest-bearing stocks or bonds of the United States, or of this State, or of any city, county, town, village, or free school district in this State authorized by the Legislature to be issued to the amount in value of ten per centum of its capital stock," (but not less than $20,000 to $100,000, depending upon the population of the place in which the company is located.) Trust companies derive their corporate powers from the general and stock corporation laws of the State, the special provisions of the banking law (Consolidated Laws of New York, Chapter 2, Article 5, Paragraph 185), and such additional powers as may be granted to them under their respective charters. Most trust companies in this State are members of the Clearing House Association, and many of the leading ones are members of the Federal Reserve System. In this latter particular, the trust companies are rapidly falling into line. A trust company has as its object the making of profit, like any mercantile organization. It is divided, generally speaking, into two parts: the banking department and the trust department. Today many trust companies have foreign departments. The functions of the banking department are, in a general sense, to receive deposits, make loans, invest any surplus funds, and maintain the necessary legal reserves. The following are the functions of the trust department: Establish and maintain trusts with— (A) Individuals. (B) Corporations. (A) Called Individual or Personal Trusts: (1) Serving as depositary under agreements with living persons. (2) Serving as Executor and Trustee under wills. (3) Serving under appointment of courts: (a) Substituted Trustee under agreement or will. (b) Guardian of minors. (c) Trustee for incompetents (B) Called Corporate Trusts : (1) Trustee under Mortgage to secure bonds:
Object Description
Trust company auditing
|Trust companies -- Auditing
Haskins & Sells Bulletin, Vol. 01, no. 09 (1918 November 15), p. 70-71
Haskins & Sells Bulletin, Vol. 01, no. 10 (1918 December 15), p. 80-82
Haskins & Sells Bulletin, Vol. 02, no. 01 (1919 January 15), p. 06-08
Haskins & Sells Bulletin, Vol. 02, no. 02 (1919 February 15), p. 14-16
|Originally published by: Haskins & Sells
|Deloitte Digital Collection
|Digital Publisher
|University of Mississippi Libraries. Accounting Collection
|Date-Digitally Created
|HS Bulletin 1-9-p70


text:
Ebone Hoodrich - Racks On Me [Chicago Unsigned Hype]
Ebone Hoodrich iz back again wit his first single off his upcoming project (Books and Kush) track produced by Cryptonite and video shot and edited by Seuss Leroy stay tuned #BMB!!!!!!!!!@EBONEHOODRICH @CRYPTONITEBEATZ @SEUSSLEROY @BAGMONEYBOYS
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text:
iRingPro iPhone and Android ringtones were specifically designed for use by professionals and adults. So you'll find no annoying songs, and no grating or silly sound effects. Each iRingPro ringtone is the result of painstaking engineering, and over 3 years of real-world testing and optimization.
We created the tones we've always wanted; sophisticated, professional, and envyingly fashionable.
Zen Collection
Minimalist. Elegant. Sophisticated. Zen is the newly updated version of iRingPro's revolutionary collection of professional tones.
Origin Collection
Inspired by the origins of music, iRingPro has assembled a lyrical collection of tones that evoke the dust and adventure of a distant place and time.
Tek Collection
The sounds of a certain secret, well-funded, research division; Tek was inspired by the most sophisticated technology imaginable.
The iRingPro Master Collection
Every tone we've ever produced. All three collections, one complete set.
Download the iRingPro Master Collection - FREE ›
Optional Extended Silence
Unlike any other tone collection in the market, or on your device, every iRingPro tone provides the option of a longer silent pause between rings. So you'll experience less annoyance and urgency, and have more time to silence your phone before it can ring a second time. No other tone maker provides this unique feature, and as long-time users of the tones ourselves, we can't imagine why.
Ringer Grades
Every iRingPro tone was specially engineered and tested to classify under one of 2 Grades:
Meeting Grade
iRingPro's Meeting Grade tones are subtler and lower pitched. They were designed specifically for quiet or professional settings. Though distinct, conversation can continue undisturbed.
Active Grade
Our Active Grade tones are stronger and more resonant. They have been engineered to maximize your phone's "small-speaker" technology, and are ideal for social and outdoor settings.
Our Multi-Tone alerts sound different each time your phone rings, until you silence it. When you get a call, you'll hear a recognizable sound on the first ring, and if you don't pick up (or silence it) you'll hear a different sound on the second, and so on. With Multi-Tone alerts you know how quick to move, because you always know how many times your phone has rung so far.
* Android tones are provided in the MP3 file format. Please ensure your phone model, OS and carrier, support the installation of 3rd-party custom MP3 files as ringtones.


text: Russia's apocalyptic Wellew, jumped on the techno scene's map and immediately stole the whole show with his phenomenal ''Want U Back EP'', a double production that will definitely be in the history books, graced by the signature of Barcelona's prolific and pioneer, Devotion Records. To spice things up, the ultimate techno legends Ben Long and Spiros Kaloumenos were invited for a remix, reworking those brilliant originals with their own each unique sound which conquers the dancefloors for a couple of decades, and last but not least, label boss Lucas Freire couldn't miss the chance to throw a remix as well, and offered another stunning rework, alongside with the very talented label's resident, Dante Pippi. A package that will make every dancefloor, every clubber, every monitor shout ''Want U Back'' to those tracks.


text:
This Haunter is a ghost/poison-type Pokémon that was owned by the Captain.
Gastly was Captain's Pokémon he used in the Orange League 300 years ago. Using Gastly and Haunter, the captain managed to win the trophy and store it in his ship. The ship sank and Haunter and Gastly remained in their Poké Balls. Due to an underwater expedition, people managed to retrieve the trophy, but Gastly and Haunter were awakened. When Team Rocket came to the ghost ship, Gastly and Haunter took the trophy and protected it, then told Ash, Misty and Tracey the story via Meowth. When Team Rocket woke up, they were blasted off, while Gastly and Haunter used their powers to levitate the ship away.
Known moves
|Confuse Ray
|A Shipful of Shivers
|Psychic (move)
|A Shipful of Shivers
|+ indicates this Pokémon used this move recently.*
- indicates this Pokémon normally can't use this move.
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.


text:
Domestic data due in the next week could again highlight the strength of Australia in a global economy facing renewed worries over the stability of Europe and potential steep budget cuts in the US.
Global markets were unnerved by Italy's inconclusive election results, sending Australian shares tumbling almost 1.5 per cent at the opening bell before ending about one per cent lower on Tuesday.
Voting so far in the eurozone's third largest economy shows Democratic Party leader Pier Luigi Bersani, who has indicated he will continue unpopular austerity measures, controlling the lower house.
But former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's party, which campaigned on a populist, anti-austerity platform, appears to be ahead in the race for the Senate.
"Investors hate uncertainty, so the inconclusive Italian election result has certainly unnerved investors across the globe," Commonwealth Securities chief economist Craig James said in a client note.
If that wasn't enough, the US economy is about to be hit by $US85 billion ($A83.02 billion) in budget cuts on Friday unless Congress and the Obama administration can find a better way to address the country's massive deficit.
"The longer these cuts are in place, the bigger the impact will become," President Barack Obama told the nation's governors on Monday at the White House.
The Australian dollar held steady just under 103 US cents despite volatile market conditions.
Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) assistant governor for financial markets Guy Debelle indicated the currency was still on the high side of where the central bank would like.
In an address to the University of Adelaide Business School, he said the RBA had been able to counter the effects of the higher dollar with lower interest rates.
"We still obviously retain scope to lower interest rates further, should the need arise, including counterbalance the pressures of an elevated exchange rate," Dr Debelle said.
But he said lowering rates too far can cause problems because it can generate an excess credit expansion or asset price inflation such has been experienced in Canada, Hong Kong and Switzerland.
"The RBA would prefer looser financial conditions to come via (a lower) exchange rate, not interest rates," RBC Capital Markets strategist Michael Turner said.
The RBA will hold its monthly board meeting next Tuesday, but at this stage markets see only a slim chance of a cut in the cash rate.
Crucial to the outlook will be Thursday's capital expenditure (capex) data for the December quarter, which will also include the first estimate for investment in 2013/14.
During his appearance in front of federal politicians last Friday, RBA governor Glenn Stevens said the peak in the level of resource sector investment was now "close", but he did not think it would be a rapid decline from this very high peak.
The capex report is one of several quarterly reports due out in the next week that will help shape the December quarter national accounts on March 6, kicking off with construction work on Wednesday.
The RBA is forecasting economic growth of 3.5 per cent for the year ending December, which would need a robust quarterly increase of 1.1 per cent to be achieved.


text:
Photo: motogp.com
Jorge Lorenzo took his first premier class victory at the Losail International Circuit to open the 2012 MotoGP™ season in the best possible manner, after battling reigning World Champion Casey Stoner and the Australian's Repsol Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa for the duration of the 22-lap race. It was also a superb start to the new 1000cc era in MotoGP, as the CRT machines also made their debut in an action-packed race.
Starting from pole for the first time since the US Grand Prix last July, Lorenzo held the lead until the third lap before Stoner assumed first position with a pass on the start/finish straight. Lorenzo then followed Stoner for the majority of the race before passing his rival with three laps to go, and he eventually crossed the line 0.852s ahead of Pedrosa who placed second as Stoner ended the race third.
After a difficult weekend which had seen Pedrosa qualify in seventh the Spaniard shot from row three of the grid into third position on the opening lap, and on lap 20 passed his team-mate Stoner with a superb move on the brakes going into Turn 1 to take second. Stoner, who had won in Qatar for four of the past five seasons, took his 16th successive podium finish as he got his title defence underway.
With the leading trio involved in an eye-catching contest for the podium positions at the front, an excellent duel between Monster Yamaha Tech 3 team-mates Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Dovizioso played out in their wake. The Italian, in his first race on the M1, was in front with his British team-mate all over his exhaust until lap 17, when Crutchlow got past Dovizioso and held out for fourth to equal his best-ever MotoGP result.
Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) was the highest placing Desmosedici, beating Álvaro Bautista (San Carlo Honda Gresini) to sixth by just 0.033s on the Spaniard's debut with the team, and 2011 Moto2 World Champion Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda) capped an impressive debut MotoGP ride with eighth place.
Héctor Barberá (Pramac Racing) had been in the hunt for sixth but ran off when he pushed too hard in the closing stages and the Spaniard finished ninth, and the final spot in the top 10 went to Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) who had appeared to be struggling with his Desmosedici GP12 in the early stages of the race.
Yamaha Factory Racing's Ben Spies ended the race in 11th, whilst the honour of the highest placing CRT went to Colin Edwards (NGM Mobile Forward Racing Team). The American held off the challenge of Randy de Puniet (Power Electronics Aspar) to place his BMW-Suter 12th, with Yonny Hernández (Avintia Racing MotoGP) and Aleix Espargaró (Power Electronics Aspar) taking the last points on offer.
Karel Abraham (Cardion ab Motoracing), Danilo Petrucci (Came Iodaracing Project) and Michele Pirro (San Carlo Honda Gresini) all suffered the disappointment of not finishing the race.
The MotoGP class returns to action in just under three weeks, for the Gran Premio bwin de España at Jerez, which takes place from April 27-29.


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text:
Q: Are there different steps for treating a pondless waterfall versus a pond?
Debbie – Johnston, RI
A: Easy care is one of the most attractive features of a pondless waterfall, particularly for those who have a penchant for ponds but no time to perform routine maintenance on them. You get all the benefits of a water feature—the sound of running water, the added aesthetics in your garden space, even the plants and wildlife that it attracts—but you don't have to deal with those pesky seasonal chores.
As ideal as they are, pondless water features do require some attention. Here are three simple steps to keep your waterfall looking its best:
1. Keep Your Water Clean and Clear
With no body of water, your pondless feature may not require you to remove muck, fish waste, decomposing leaves or other collected pollutants, but you still should keep the water looking clean and clear. Plan to periodically add some beneficial bacteria, like those found in Liquid Clear™, to gobble through any fine debris that may discolor your water or feed algae blooms.
2. Remove Buildup from Your Rocks
Rocks and other surfaces in your pondless waterfall will no doubt become breeding grounds for string algae and other debris, so take time to remove any buildup with an algaecide, like Algae-Off® String Algae Remover, or a pond cleaner, like Oxy-Lift™ Defense®. These fast-acting solutions use the power of oxygen to lift and wash away accumulated algae and muck. For best results, plan to turn off your system's pump to ensure the powder contacts every surface, restarting it after the product has time to work.
3. Check Your Water Levels
Because the water basin is hidden, you can't always see how much water there actually is in your pondless waterfall. To prevent your pump from drying up, make sure you periodically check the reservoir — or, better yet, add an auto-fill valve, like the PondBuilder™ Automatic Water Fill Kit, that will refill any water lost to splashing or evaporation. It's easy to install and can be adapted to any garden hose, ½-inch irrigation line or vinyl tubing.
If things have really headed south, try performing a partial or complete water change along with using some beneficial bacteria. They will get you—and your pondless waterfall—back on track and ready for summer enjoyment.
Pond Talk: What's your favorite thing about your pondless waterfall or water feature?
Filed under: Algae Control, Benefits of Owning, Pondless Waterfall, Water Gardens & Features, Waterfall | Tagged: pond less waterfall, pondless, string algae | 4 Comments »


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Yesterday, I visited Rockwell Retirement Center, which is located in the former middle and high school building on Turbot Avenue in Milton.
The owners are committed to reducing their environmental impact, and that included reusing building materials from the school when the center opened in 1989.
Here's the proof:
The black tiles are made from the chalkboards used in the former building! They were polished and coated to make them more durable.
That is some cool design and a nice homage to the building's past.


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So, let's just take a quick look at just one area of government regulation and intervention - food. I'm no expert in this area, and this tour d'horizon is the result of a quick skim through the bodies that come most readily to mind.
What do we absolutely need to do collectively? (i.e. that cannot be left to individuals, communities or the market) in relation to food? I'd suggest (a) food security issues at a national level - that we can grow, harvest or import enough food to feed the population (b) adulteration - that consumers are reasonably protected from being poisoned, or sold bread made from sawdust rather than flour. And that's about it. Production, distribution and sale can be left to the market. So what are we actually being charged for by the State?
(1) The Food Standards Agency, current annual cost £135,680,000, describes its purpose as 'to protect the public's health and consumer interests in relation to food'
(2) In addition, each local authority employs Environmental Health Officers to inspect and licence premises preparing, storing, selling or serving food. Say 450 local authorities employing 6 EHOs each on this work at a per capita cost of say £45k including pension and employer's NI - £121,500,000
(3) DEFRA - The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - is a big one. Its gross annual budget is £3,936,750,000, but only £2,225,760,000 is for the Whitehall department itself. Since they do water and litter as well as food, say 35% of this is food related; £779,016,000
(4) Food-related Quangos, Agencies and NDPBs:
- School Food Trust
- Agricultural Wages Board for England and Wales
- Agricultural Wages Committees for England x 15
- British Potato Council
- Food from Britain
- Gangmasters Licensing Authority
- Home Grown Cereals Authority
- Horticulture Development Council
- Meat and Livestock Commission
- Milk Development Council
- Sea Fish Industry Authority
- Wine Standards Board
- Advisory Committee on Organic Standards
- Advisory Committee on Packaging
- Advisory Committee on Pesticides
- Agricultural Dwelling House Advisory Committees x 18
- Animal Health and Welfare Strategy England Implementation Group
- Committee of Investigation for Great Britain
- Committee on Agricultural Valuation
- Consumers' Committee for Great Britain under the Agriculture Marketing Act 1958
- Farm Animal Welfare Council
- Hill Farming Advisory Committee for England, Wales and Northern Ireland
- Independent Agricultural Appeals Panel
- Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB
- Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee
- Agricultural Land Tribunals
- Commons Commissioners
- Dairy Produce Quota Tribunal
- Plant Varieties and Seeds Tribunal
- Alcohol Education and Research Council
- Committee on Carcinogenicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment
- Committee on Mutagenicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment
- Herbal Medicines Advisory Committee
- Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition
- Advisory Committee on Animal Feedstuffs
- Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes
- Advisory Committee on Research
- Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Food
- Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment
- Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes (ACNFP)
- Expert Group on Vitamins and Minerals
- WRAP (minimisation of food waste)
- Marine & Fisheries Agency
- Rural Payments Agency
- Animal Health
The final four cost £456,000,000 a year. The others on a quick count come to about £330,000,000 a year.
(5) The Environment Agency, with a fairly wide brief but which regulates farming through regimes such as Nitrate Vulnerable Zone (NVZ) compliance, water abstraction licences, discharge consents and farm waste regulations, and which regulates aspects of fisheries and fishing, has an annual budget of £796,000,000. Say 35% of this is related to food and farming; £279,000,000.
(6) Finally, the costs of compliance. There's no easy way of calculating the direct costs of compliance, or the opportunity costs of over-regulation. So I'll have to leave these out. Also all the other indirect regulatory costs related to food production, distribution and sale such as planning and transport, energy and health, and all the other Guardianista costs of 'safe eating advisors', 'sugar reduction workers', 'fat education outreach officers' and the like.
Right, totting the above costs up, I get £2,101,196,000 a year. That's probably equivalent to 7% of the annual value of the food we buy at retail cost; exclude retailers' transport costs, premises costs and overheads and profit and it's got to be over 10% on food value alone. Add the costs of compliance and the true costs become terrifying.
The Gordian Knot of it he will unloose,
Familiar as his garter
And it's time to cut this Gordian Knot. We can pick at it forever, but a bold stroke is needed. Cameron must be prepared to take the blade to not only the mess of food regulation but the whole mess of national regulation. And with the exception of the strategic national policy aspect, the answer is local.


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We had the pleasure of working with Jillian Harris of Jillian Harris Design, Inc, at the PNE (Pacific National Exhibition) in Vancouver, British Columbia this last month. The PNE is the largest annual exhibition in Canada, putting on an incredible show yearly since 1910. We were thrilled to be there, and thrilled to work with Jillian, who has her design firm in Vancouver. She was the interior design mastermind of the showcase home, the jewel in the crown of this exhibition.
Some of you readers may recognize Jillian from her time on ABC's "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette." She's a past co-host ABC's "Extreme Make-Over, Home Edition," and has another new Home TV Show launching in 2012. She is also a BIG Pendleton fan!
Jillian artfully used our blankets, throws, towels, and dishes in a home that is natural, modern and sophisticated. Even a few items of iconic Pendleton apparel made it into the mix. This is a ski-in, ski-out home! You can see a nice video walk-through here.
Over 100,000 people toured the Show Home, and it was featured nationally through several media channels – including print and TV. Those who entered the PNE's sweepstakes are eligible to win the home itself! Yes! The home, the furnishings, all of it. Now, that's a prize.
The winner will be announced soon. Let's take a look at their prize, shall we?


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It is currently Fri Oct 18, 2019 4:52 am
Adam Blake wrote:First of all, I have no idea if this is true but I hope it is
Roy Harper put it thus
'Later I'm playing the gig, going down quite well, building up to the finale. Then Ginger starts walking on with drums, setting up right in front of me, destroying everything. I couldn't believe it. So I left the microphone and said 'Hey, what you doing?' And he said, 'F--- off, you've been on here too f---ing long, you c---' and his band started bringing all their gear on.
'So I started to seethe, nudged one of his drums with my left foot and he lunged at me. I just burst, turned round and gave him one right in the guts. Ginger goes, 'Urrgghh you c----.' Then we were fighting and the stage was full of people. I completely flipped my lid.' '
There we were at a festival dedicated to peace and love man and I hit someone. He may have been the thickest idiot at the festival but I'd actually hit him.
After that I was filled with frantic remorse and basically just wanted to hit everyone, everything I could lay my bloody hands on.' 'So they got hold of my arms and carried me off, looking like I'm ripe for Broadmore, wearing this human straightjacket, screaming 'You f---ing bastards. 'I'd lost it altogether, I was fighting f---ing mad.'
According to Harper the crowd then proceeded to bottle Ginger , one hitting him on the head
Hello... I want to add my piece about the fight onstage between Harper and Baker... Glastonbury 81.
It was the most unforgettable thing i ever saw on a stage. Harper was doing fine... we were warmed up and enjoying the show; after a handful of numbers I recognised Baker onstage and a fist fight kicked off. I remember Roy H hitting out and people grappling and tumbling around. Harper got forced off-stage by people holding his arms as he struggled furiously.
There were boos and bottles as Baker started up... They impressed us but rocks came at the band.. sharp chunks of granite or similar. A near fist sized chunk arked from a long distance and smacked Ginger on the forehead. It should've killed him surely but he didn't miss a beat. He continued with furious energy till the end of his set.
Next day I saw Baker walking around the site with a thick black gash on his forehead, obviously in need of stitches. Baker was asking people if anyone knew who the bastard was who threw the rock.
Keith Emslie Mitchell
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text:
Area residents interested in volunteering will be able to check out 20 nonprofits at one time on Monday morning.
Area residents interested in volunteering will be able to check out 20 nonprofits at one time on Monday morning.
The second annual iServe Volunteer Fair will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Northwoods United Methodist Church, located at 1528 Gum Branch Road.
Lauren Welch, director of Volunteer Onslow, which is sponsoring the fair, said that the event aims to pair up area nonprofit agencies with those looking to help in the community.
"This is a good way to walk in and get connected on the spot," she said.
And this year, the nonprofits will get to talk with each other before the volunteers roll in during a networking hour from 9 to 10 a.m.
The move was suggested by those who participated last year, Welch said.
During the 2013 fair, 30 to 50 people signed up for more information from each agency that participated.
Possumwood Acres Wildlife Sanctuary in Hubert met with 47 people at its booth, director Toni O'Neil said.
"We participate because we are looking for volunteers, obviously. ... We are trying to kind of gain publicity, let people know who may not have had a chance to hear about us to know about us," O'Neil said.
O'Neil said she was not sure how many of those 47 people volunteered at the agency since she does not always ask where they heard of Possumwood Acres, but she had several say they learned about the organization from the volunteer fair.
"It served its purpose; it worked," she said.
For more information about the iServe Volunteer Fair, call 910-938-4357 or visit volunteeronslow.org.
Amanda Hickey is the government reporter at The Daily News. She can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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What ruling means for gay marriage
The Supreme Court just set a series of big changes in motion for same-sex couples in its decision Wednesday.
They've won new rights that come with marriage, like inheritance rights and Social Security benefits. And they might be able to get health coverage through the workplace more easily. But they might have a bigger tax bite on the way, too — just like other married couples get to pay.
Story Continued Below
In a statement Wednesday, President Barack Obama said he's ordering Attorney General Eric Holder and other Cabinet secretaries "to ensure this decision, including its implications for Federal benefits and obligations, is implemented swiftly and smoothly."
All of this applies to couples who were married in the states where same-sex marriage is legal — nine states plus the District of Columbia. But it will be legal in three more states by Aug. 1, according to the advocacy group Freedom to Marry.
( Also on POLITICO: Gay marriage decision may shrink deficit)
What's not clear — yet — is whether it will apply to same-sex couples who were married in one state and then moved to a different state. But in the long run, the impact will be bigger if the decision leads to similar laws in more states.
Here's what the decision means for same-sex couples:
Congratulations! Here's your bigger tax bill
When couples get married, they can file jointly for the first time – but that means many couples won't get all of the tax breaks that they could have gotten if they'd filed individually.
( PHOTOS: Gay marriage Supreme Court rulings: Reactions)
So same-sex couples who get married now could face these marriage penalties for the first time. It's more likely to happen if both people have similar incomes. If one person earns a lot more money than the other, they could win "marriage bonuses" instead – but experts say it's more common for same- sex couples to have comparable incomes.
Roberton Williams of the Urban Institute, who studied the issue as a Congressional Budget Office analyst, uses the example of the child tax credit – which gives families a $1,000 a break for each child under 17. That credit starts to phase out when an individual earns more than $75,000 a year – but for couples, it gets reduced when they earn $110,000 a year.
So if two people get married, and each is earning around $75,000, their joint income will be about $150,000 – so they'd lose the tax credit faster than if they had stayed single.
That doesn't mean every same-sex couple has to worry about a marriage penalty – they'll get lower tax bills if there's a big gap in their incomes. "Some couples will see their taxes go up, and other couples will see their taxes go down," said Lee Badgett, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst who has studied the economic impact of same-sex marriage.
But it does mean they'll pay fewer taxes if one person becomes a stay-at-home spouse – as long as they don't mind having less money to spend.
( PHOTOS: Celebs react to gay marriage rulings)
But don't worry about those estate taxes
One big tax benefit will come to people who won't have to pay big estate tax bills when their spouses die – but that only affects same-sex couples who are wealthy enough to have a lot of assets.
That was the issue at the heart of the lawsuit by Edith Windsor, who got stuck with more than $360,000 in inheritance taxes after the death of her partner, Thea Clara Spyer. Married people can leave an unlimited amount of assets to their spouses, so the decision is an unqualified victory for same-sex couples with significant assets.
The estate tax isn't really going to affect that many couples by itself, though – Williams has estimated that fewer than 4,000 estates will have a high enough value to owe taxes (more than $5 million), and not many of them are owned by same-sex couples.
Yes, you can get health coverage
And it doesn't even have anything to do with Obamacare. It's all about not being taxed for domestic partner health benefits anymore.
When the Defense of Marriage Act was the law of the land, a same-sex couple had to pay more for workplace health coverage even if they were legally married – because the partner's health benefits were treated as taxable income. They couldn't get the same deal as a heterosexual married couple, who can both get coverage through an employer without paying taxes on it.


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Scribe Clock
Producer: Ahmed Salim
See al-Jazari's water powered scribe clock brought back to life after 800 years. This fascinating water powered portable clock stands 1 metre high and half a metre wide. The scribe with his pen is synonymous to the hour hand of a modern clock. This is yet another example of an ingenious water system by al-Jazari.


text:
posted do not necessarily represent the opinion of LDN.
Any opinions expressed are those of
the writers.
Medicaid providers to Illinois Gov.
Quinn: Why the expansion rush?
Send a link to a friend
[February 15, 2014]
Benjamin Yount
SPRINGFIELD (Illinois Watchdog) — It looks
like $5 billion is one heck of a motivator.
"We're disappointed in the lack of detail regarding implementation
and oversight," said Vicky Kean, a lobbyist representing United
Cerebral Palsy of Illinois and 52 other Medicaid service providers.
"It leaves us with more questions than answers."
Kean wasn't the only advocate at Friday's public hearing begging
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn's administration for details on what will
happen to the nearly 3 million enrollees if Quinn gets permission
for his planned massive Medicaid overhaul.
The governor wants to use a $5 billion infusion of up-front money to
radically change how Illinois pays for health care for its most
needed. Group homes for the disabled would be closed, more community
care centers would be opened and Medicaid enrollees would be moved
into a managed care system.
Michael Gelder, Quinn's senior policy adviser on health care,
explained that the governor has three goals with the massive
Medicaid shake-up.
"To improve the health of the population, to improve the
effectiveness of our health care delivery system and to reduce unnecessary
costs," Gelder told advocates at Friday's public
But what does that mean?
Diane Drew, president of the Illinois Association of Community Care
Providers, said no one knows.
And worse, Drew said, no one in the governor's office is trying to
[to top of second column]
"There has been no public discussion of operational details,"
Drew said. "Important operational questions have been responded to
with a standard response: 'Details will be worked out later.'"
Drew said "later" may not be enough time for Illinois' multitude of
service providers to adjust to new rules.
Those new rules will include to-be-determined tax rates for
providers, the acceptable number of Medicaid clients in a group home
and even whether local public health departments will be considered
"in network" for the state's managed care system.
One thing that has been determined, Gelder said: Illinois will have
to add hundreds or thousands of new (likely union) jobs.
"This is a very, very exciting opportunity that the governor wants
us to use to get as much federal money in the state's Medicaid
program," Gelder noted. "We can use that money to reinvest in our home and
community based service programs, in expanding our workforce."
The governor is expected to offer a few more details about the plan
later next month when he delivers his budget.
Illinois still has to ask the federal government for permission to
change the Medicaid program, and it's unclear when that will happen
or when the state will get an answer.
Contact Benjamin Yount at
email@example.com and find him
on Twitter:
article courtesy of
Illinois Watchdog.]
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Coach House books exhibit at the new AGO
November 27th, 2008
By: Shawn Micallef
Coach House Books is about as venerable an indie institution as possible in Canada. For over forty years they have been publishing on the edge of Canadian literature (miraculously surviving many close calls) and binding things that the bigger companies overlook. In recent years they started what I thought was a new focus on all things local with the publication of the uTOpia series as well as the Concrete Toronto and HTO volumns (a few of which I participated in). I knew they — and people associated with them — were involved in the local and Canadian art scene over the years, but had no idea of the depth until I saw the Coach House show that opened with the reopening of the AGO two weeks ago.
I keep revisiting this gallery on each trip to the AGO to find out more — the exhibit looks at Canadian Art "through the lens" of folks associated with Coach House, and there is much Toronto to see here. The central Coach House table and walls are full of ephemera produced in the 1960s and 70s: posters for art exhibits and various semi-political events; the famous CN Tower "Fall Zone" poster; photos of people involved with Coach House over the years (all those 1970s beards) — it's very much a documentary exhibit, with the posters actually stapled to the wood as they would have been out in public. A neat addition is a large aerial photo of the Yorkville neighbourhood taken circa 1967 (Rochdale College at Bloor and Huron is just under construction) underfoot. Most remarkable about this view is how many parking lots there were in Yorkville. I think if we were transported back 40 years to the mythic Yorkville's heyday we'd be stunned by all the open space and parking lots.
Around the central Coach House exhibit are pieces from the era, including early work by established artists like Stephen Cruise (who later did the large thimble at Queen and Spadina and some of the public art along the Spadina streetcar line) and Michael Hayden (who later did the now-dismantled Arc en Ciel at Yorkdale subway station). Items from the early Toronto galleries like A Space and Issacs Gallery
are also here, along with work by Joyce Wieland and an homage to
American draft dodgers who were intimately involved in this scene.
It's a fun and exciting exhibit, and one of those moments where I realize how much of the past I'm not familiar with because its been kept out of sight on somebody's shelf for too long. Lots has happened in this city and country, but we (Canadians) aren't as good as keeping those memories alive as perhaps our American friends are. This show at the AGO will do a lot to keep a lot of this work active in our imaginations, and maybe add to what we think of Toronto today.
Gallery photos courtesy of Stan Bevington at Coach House books. Foot photo by author.


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The U.S. currently has 11 aircraft carriers that hold about 5,600 sailors and aviators apiece. While not all of them are deployed at the same time, the ones at home are training, undergoing maintenance, and still filling their crews' days with inordinate demands.
Aircraft carriers have three acres of flattop and are 1,000 feet long. It's common to hear them referred to as floating cities, but they're more than that.
Click here to see life on the Ike >
The carriers projecting America's military power abroad are more exposed than most any other U.S. command in the world. Aside from working and sailing into dicey locations, these big ships are dangerous and the flight deck alone requires just one wrong move to bring an end to the distracted.
There's no room to be anything less than focused, almost all the time and the jobs on board are just as varied as the people who fill them.
From pilots, to navigators, to recruits that wash the deck, everyone works together and supports the overall mission. No bitterness or condescension that I saw, and that would be a tough environment to hide it.
Sixty-one thousand men and women, doing things most people have no idea, in places most others can't imagine. It's like someone took the entire Ohio University student body, and a chunk of the faculty, and sent them off to parts unknown. 61,000 people is a lot, and that's just serving on carriers.
When we went to the Persian Gulf in September we spent about 36 hours on the USS EISENHOWER — or the "Ike" as her crew calls her. There's no way to show everything that goes on, but the following pictures should offer a feeling for what the mad paced, ear crushing scene is really like.


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Who is Mercury?
Mercury ITdelivers comprehensive outcome-based information technology solutions to businesses in Australia. Our offering is highly personalised—we tailor systems to our clients' strategies, delivering the visibility, control and protection that is required to achieve and excel business objectives.
Since 2004 Mercury IT has been committed to delivering honest, independent and quality IT service. Our life cycle service
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text:
Ocean Jade Wedding Invitation & Stationery - V31
A clever pocket created in tiffany blue and jade green shells. An elegant design for the seaside couple looking for something new and different. Edged in jade satin for a perfect finish.
Available with a full range of accessory cards and complete with matching envelopes.
All stationery is sold in units of 10.
Try before you buy - Order a Sample
|Sample Ocean Jade Invitation
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The following products can be customised to meet your requirements. Select Order and our order wizard will take you through the options to personalise the item selected.
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|Ocean Jade Invitation
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text:
S.Amdt.2111 to S.3187112th Congress (2011-2012)
AmendmentHide Overview
|Amends Bill:
|S.3187 — Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act
|Sen. Bingaman, Jeff [D-NM] (Submitted 05/17/2012, Proposed 05/24/2012)
|Latest Action:
|05/24/2012 Amendment SA 2111, under the order of 5/23/12, not having achieved 60 votes in the affirmative, was not agreed to in Senate by Yea-Nay Vote. 28 - 67. Record Vote Number: 105.
Purpose: S.Amdt. 2111 — 112th Congress (2011-2012)All Information (Except Text)
To provide substantial savings in health care costs to the Federal government and consumers by fostering competition among generic pharmaceutical manufacturers and ensuring that anti-competitive "pay-for-delay" settlements between brand-name and generic pharmaceutical manufacturers do not block generic drugs from entering the market.


text:
Mapper since: February 08, 2016
HP DESIGNJET REPAIR - My Hewlett Packard Design Jet Plotter or HP Laser Jet Printer is Broken, is it Worth Repairing or Replacing? Premier Printer Services provides a list of tips, options and facts regarding repair or replacement of your Hewlett Packard plotter or printer. FAST HP PLOTTER PRINTER REPAIR SERVICE


text:
Natural gas-containing deposits (brown) underlie 32 of the lower 48 states.
Illustration by Michael Newhouse
Tracy Bank was concerned. A geochemist, she makes her living studying how water interacts with rocks. And four years ago, when she arrived at the State University of New York at Buffalo, water was definitely interacting with rocks.
Buffalo is perched on the edge of the largest known reservoir of natural gas in America, a geologic formation known as the Marcellus Shale (pdf). The 95,000-square-mile slab, which lies under sizable portions of West Virginia, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, could contain up to 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas—enough to meet the nation's natural gas needs for at least two years. Owing to this bounty, the areas above the shale are now in the grip of an unprecedented gas-drilling boom. The gas is extracted using a method called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a technique that involves pumping millions of gallons of water laced with
chemicals deep underground to blast open the shale and release the gas trapped inside. The blasting is what got Bank worried.
Fracking has already drawn considerable scrutiny from environmental groups, unhappy homeowners, and teams of lawyers who blame the drilling method for polluting pristine rivers, turning bucolic farmlands into noisy industrial zones, and leaking enough methane to make ordinary tap water as flammable as lighter fluid. Bank is now bringing attention to yet another problem: radiation. Her research shows that high-pressure fluids striking the shale could dislodge naturally occurring radioactive compounds such as uranium and strontium, putting groundwater at risk of contamination.
"Shale is a garbage-bucket rock," she says. "The more organically rich the shale is, the more natural gas is present, but the more other stuff is in there too."
To determine how fracking fluids mobilize metals in the shale, Bank and her team solicited rock samples from drill sites in western New York and Pennsylvania. When the researchers subjected their samples to beamed ions—a high-precision way to dislodge surface chemicals—they confirmed that shale rocks contain a suite of toxic metals, including uranium, barium, chromium, zinc, and arsenic. Bank also discovered something new and disturbing: The metals were chemically bound to hydrocarbons, the organic compounds that make up natural gas. Separated from the rock, uranium or any other toxic metal could easily hitch a ride when the drilling wastewater is siphoned back to the surface, Bank found.
"If the goal of fracking is to extract that organic matter—the natural gas—then you're mobilizing the uranium as well," she says. As a result, she believes, the current methods for cleaning wastewater generated by fracking are woefully inadequate. Right now, water is injected into disposal wells, dumped into evaporation pits, or run through drinking-water treatment facilities. "This water needs to be treated like industrial waste," Bank says. Otherwise, radioactive material and a slew of other toxic compounds could leach into the groundwater, potentially tainting it for generations.
Bank's discovery is just the latest twist in the convoluted tale of fracking, which neatly pits two environmental agendas against each other. Investigations by The New York Times last winter revealed that sewage-treatment plants processing fracking wastewater are discharging radioactive fluid into public waterways, in some cases upstream of intake sites for drinking water. "It's long been known that the Marcellus Shale is a radioactive formation," says Kate Sinding, a senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. "But these concerns have never been dealt with."
On the other hand, the arguments for drilling into the Marcellus Shale are hard to ignore. Natural gas is by far the cleanest-burning fossil fuel, producing about half as much carbon dioxide as the energy-equivalent amount of coal. It also contains almost none of the heavy metals that frequently accompany coal. Moreover, our domestic reserves of natural gas are plentiful: The newly tapped deposits in the Marcellus Shale have helped to more than double the nation's estimated shale gas reserves, from 23 trillion cubic feet in 2007 to some
60 trillion cubic feet in 2009.
The Department of Energy estimates that natural gas produces slightly more than one-fifth of all the electricity used in the United States, and that number is steadily rising. If production continues as planned, over the next couple of decades natural gas could supplant coal as the leading domestic fossil fuel, serving as a cleaner way to heat our homes and fire our electric plants. "We've got terrific natural gas resources," says David Burnett, director of technology at the Global Petroleum Research Institute at Texas A&M University. "Our country is going broke, but the public refuses to realize how much money they're spending on imported energy."
Ernest Moniz, director of the MIT Energy Initiative and a former undersecretary of energy, sees natural gas as the energy source of choice until renewable sources like wind, solar, and geothermal become more commercially viable. "Natural gas truly is a bridge to a low-carbon future and could enable very substantial reductions in carbon emissions—as
much as 50 percent by 2050," he says.
Assuming we can tolerate the collateral damage.
Created nearly 400 million years ago on the surface of a shallow inland sea, the Marcellus Shale formed as tectonic plates pushed up the landmasses that created the Appalachian and Catskill mountain ranges and buried the ancient sea under a layer of rock almost two miles thick. This compression process produced gaseous hydrocarbons that expanded and formed pockets and fissures in the rock—
formations that now hold natural gas.
For six decades gas outfitters have been devising increasingly elaborate ways to tap those buried reservoirs. In the late 1940s, the Halliburton Corp. of Houston pioneered the use of hydraulic fracturing to squeeze gas and oil from vertical wells in sandstone thousands of feet below the surface. Their technique involved pumping large quantities of water combined with fine sand and chemical additives into the ground. Through a bit of geologic alchemy, the injection shattered rock like a baseball hitting a windowpane, pushing natural gas and oil out of the rock and into the pipe when the water was pumped back out.
However, the technique proved difficult to use in shale deposits, which form in layers that are wide but shallow. Vertical drilling in shale hit too little surface area to suck up enough gas to make the effort worthwhile. "If you can't turn the well so it goes along the shale formation and a lot of the well is exposed to the gas, you can't get the gas out economically," says Anthony Ingraffea, a hydraulic fracturing expert and professor of civil and environmental engineering at Cornell University.
In the 1990s, new drilling technology developed in Texas made recovering gas from shale far more efficient. The big innovation was a motor attached to the drill bit that allowed it to turn 90 degrees and bore horizontally for up to two miles. Boring parallel to the horizontal shale layers exposes much more of the gas deposits. Companies can also drill multiple wells in any direction from just one drilling pad, creating a honeycomb of tunnels miles beneath the surface that can siphon gas from hundreds of acres.
Next comes the even more difficult part. Typically, each well requires 2 million to 10 million gallons of water to extract the gas. As with conventional drilling, the water is mixed with sand to keep the fissures propped open, and with a cocktail of friction-reducing lubricants to make the water slick enough to slide through the pipes swiftly. Machinery has to pump the water at pressures high enough to send it anywhere from 3,000 feet to a mile down. It is not uncommon during drilling for a site to have at least 10 trucks with 1,000-horsepower pumps and for dozens of tanker trucks to make 800 to 1,200 trips transporting water if there is no on-site source.
Despite concerns that fracking could seriously deplete or contaminate local water supplies, in 2010 Pennsylvania issued more than 3,300 natural gas permits in the Marcellus Shale. Almost 1,500 wells were drilled, and thousands more are on the way. Other parts of the country with shale beds ("plays" in industry parlance), such as Wyoming, Colorado, Arkansas, and Louisiana, have experienced similar gas drilling booms.
To comprehend the long-term implications of hydraulic fracturing, you need to visit the region where gas drilling first boomed. It sits above the Barnett Shale, a formation that underlies 5,000 square miles surrounding Fort Worth, Texas. Large-scale fracking began here in 2002. There are now about 14,000 gas wells in the area, and it is there that the environmental fallout of fracking has been most pronounced. Residents have complained for years of contaminated water, poor air quality, and unexplained health problems such as headaches, dizziness, blackouts, and muscle contractions.
Drilling operations have turned some of Texas's most affluent communities into industrial wastelands. In towns like Argyle and Bartonville, where drill rigs have been erected within a mile of schools, children complain of nosebleeds, dizziness, and nausea. Parents worry about the release of the cancer-causing chemical benzene in the air above gas fields from processing plants and equipment.
Fracking in the Marcellus Shale has
not been going on as long as it has in Texas, but residents have already begun to experience its dark side. Just ask Craig and Julie Sautner. When the cable technician and his wife moved to Dimock, an agricultural community of about 1,500 nestled in the rolling hills of northeastern Pennsylvania, they had no inkling they were sitting on top of a mother lode of natural gas—that is, not until an agent from Cabot Oil & Gas, a Houston-based natural gas producer, knocked on their door in May 2008. He offered them $10,000 to lease the mineral rights on their four acres, with the promise of even more in royalties if Cabot struck pay dirt. "You might as well sign it because all your neighbors are," the man said, according to Craig. "If you don't, you'll miss out."
In August 2008, the company started drilling less than 1,000 feet from the Sautners' water well. By mid-September the family's tap water was undrinkable. "I noticed the toilet water was murky, and when I used
the water in the sink in the kitchen, it was brown," Craig recalls. He called Cabot Oil & Gas to complain, but representatives insisted there was no way that Cabot's drilling process could have contaminated the Sautners' well water. The gas deposits sit thousands of feet below water wells, the company told him. What's more, the boreholes that channel the natural gas up to the surface are encased in steel and cement. But without admitting fault, Cabot installed a water filtration system in the Sautners' basement, which now looks like "a science lab," Craig says.
Tests conducted soon after by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection revealed that the Sautners' water contained high levels of methane, the main component of natural gas. Although methane is not normally harmful to drink in concentrations below 10 milligrams per liter, it can evaporate from the water. If it collects in enclosed spaces like basements, it can become flammable and explode or suffocate those who inhale it. The Sautners, who have joined with a group of neighbors and filed a lawsuit against Cabot, worry that the methane could explode at any time. "My son asks every night," Craig says, with no small measure of gallows humor, " 'Do you think we'll wake up in the morning?' "
Industry experts respond that it is impossible for their wells to be creating all the environmental havoc their critics charge. "If you calculate the environmental footprint of one drilling operation, it's smaller than a big-box store," Texas A&M's Burnett says. "Most companies employ the same safety practices they use with industrial petrochemical facilities."
But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which declared in a 2004 study (pdf) that fracking posed "little or no threat to underground sources of drinking water," is now reconsidering its conclusion. The state of New York has stopped issuing horizontal drilling permits for the Marcellus Shale while it completes an environmental review. The Marcellus sits atop the Delaware River watershed, which supplies drinking water to 17 million people, including residents of Philadelphia and New York City. A bill now under consideration on Capitol Hill would grant the EPA oversight of fracking and force drilling companies, which are currently exempt from portions of the Clean Water Act, to disclose the chemicals they use in fracturing fluids.
At every checkpoint in the development pipeline, Ingraffea says, there is potential for trouble. "It's disturbing how densely they're trying to pack these wells. The record I know of is 16 wells on one pad. The enormous amount of water injected into such a small volume of rock is creating much more pressure than there has ever been there." There have been reports of small earthquakes near some injection sites for fracking waste in Texas, a state not known for seismic activity. Last fall a swarm of about 500 mini-quakes rocked central Arkansas near the Fayetteville Shale, and a 4.7-magnitude earthquake in February prompted the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission to order two drilling companies to temporarily suspend operations.
Add a host of unknowns—like possible faulty cement jobs in the pipes, which was the cause of the Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, or hitting an abandoned gas and oil well—and the potential for danger expands exponentially.
But it is the threat to the water supply that prompts the loudest warnings. A team of environmental scientists hired by New York City in 2009 to evaluate fracking's environmental impact concluded that the process could be "catastrophic" to the city's water supply because it degraded water quality and exposed residents to potentially "chronic low levels of toxic chemicals."
Health risks aside, natural gas may ultimately prove no cleaner than America's other abundant domestic fossil fuel, coal. Cornell University researchers factored in the carbon emissions over the course of natural gas's life cycle when it is extracted using hydraulic fracturing—which includes drilling the wells, erecting the construction sites, building pipelines to transport the gas, fueling the pumps that force the water underground, and transporting the wastewater—and concluded that natural gas is dirtier than coal. Another wild card is methane, which inevitably seeps out during the extraction process, escaping from imperfect joints on thousands of pipes, valves, compressors, and holding tanks, or simply migrating through hairline cracks in the rock. Methane is 20 times as damaging a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide.
The solution to all of these concerns may be to make fracking more efficient and less toxic. One promising way to do that was recently tested on a string of more than a dozen natural gas wells in the heart of the Texas oil fields. Instead of pumping millions of gallons of water and fracturing fluid into the earth, the company GasFrac used a liquefied petroleum gas gel—propane gas compressed into a thick fluid—to break up the rock. This simple switch could pave the way toward a more environmentally friendly method of extracting natural gas that would do less collateral damage to the land and water while dramatically reducing fracking's carbon footprint at the same time.
Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) has a number of advantages over the chemical-laced water typically used as a fracking fluid. Although it is pumped into the well as a gelled liquid, it converts back into gas while underground. It can then be sucked back out as the natural gas is extracted from the reservoir, meaning that there is a virtually complete recovery of the fracking fluid; water-based methods have roughly a 50 percent recovery rate. Since the LPG is almost 100 percent retrievable, the time and effort of recovering, filtering, and reusing the fluid are dramatically reduced. Propane is less dense than water, so LPG-based fracking projects should require less truck traffic and smaller staging areas, which cuts carbon emissions. This approach also eliminates the need for freshwater tanks or pits for waste and bypasses many of the concerns about tainting groundwater.
Without switching to LPG fracking, some companies are already attempting to clean up natural gas drilling to address the concerns of local communities. In western Colorado, for example, Antero Resources Corp. negotiated an agreement with civic leaders to use nontoxic hydraulic fracturing fluids, monitor water supplies, and avoid the use of wastewater disposal pits. To encourage better drilling practices, the Houston Advanced Research Center—a consortium supported by government, foundations, and private industry—launched the Environmentally Friendly Drilling Scorecard at the end of last year. The scorecard awards companies up to five stars based on their use of cleaner oil and gas drilling techniques, including smaller and more lightweight rigs, well site and road construction that employs low-impact technologies, lower-emission power packages, or advanced water-management systems.
The scorecard is still in the test phase, so no companies drilling in the Marcellus Shale have yet publicly adopted it, though Halliburton has agreed to disclose the chemicals it is using in its fracking fluids. Ratcheting up the pressure, the EPA and
the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection are both taking a closer look at the environmental costs of fracking and are investigating the uranium findings made by Tracy Bank, who continues to research how fracking impacts toxic metals. The EPA is also aggressively prodding state regulators and others involved in natural gas extraction in the Marcellus Shale to release what they know about radioactivity in the wastewater.
Even skeptics like the NRDC's Kate Sinding recognize that fracking is not going away. The economic and environmental factors in favor of natural gas are simply too powerful. "Nothing is ever going to be completely safe or perfect," Sinding says. "The key is to get an inventory of best practices and then make sure you have the resources to implement and enforce them." As the Deepwater Horizon oil spill proved, allowing drilling technology to outpace the development of sound safeguards is courting disaster. Especially when that drilling is going on in someone's backyard.
Discover Magazine


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Pretty Little Liars star Ashley Benson took to Instagram to accuse the show of "ridiculous" Photoshop on a promotional image. She wrote:
"Our faces on this were from 4 years ago....and we all look ridiculous. Way too much photo shop. We all have flaws. No one looks like this. It's not attractive."
A network representative confirmed to Cosmopolitan.com that the image above is the official artwork for season 4, which returns to ABC Family in January, but offered no futher comment.
While it's not uncommon for networks to use stylized promotional art, at least one other Pretty Little Liars cast member agrees it's over the top. Troian Bellisario wrote on Twitter:
Here is a promotional poster from season 1 of the show. It's hard to tell if the actresses — all currently in their twenties — appear older in the season 4 promo art because, well, that's a LOT of 'shop.
Follow Tess on Twitter.
Photo Credit: Getty Images/Instagram


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Oscar's Best Dressed/
The 82nd Academy Awards were predicted to be unpredictable, and certainly turned out some upsets with winners on and off the red carpet. Key trends in Oscar fashion this year were voluminous gowns, bright pink lips, and messy updos (or maybe those were accidental, given the rain). Here are my favorite looks from an elemental perspective...
Sandra Bullock in Marchesa
There's no doubt that this was Sandra's night. As Carson Kressley said on Oprah's After Oscar Special yesterday, "her stylist knew she was going to win," and chose her dress accordingly. This dress is a complete embodiment of Metal energy with an extra spark of Fire, making it the perfect choice for her to win the gold in!
Demi Moore in Atelier Versace
Demi sure knows how to wear nude. How Metal of her! Even though this dress feels like a bit of deja vous from previous years (I'm thinking Penelope Cruz), I gotta hand it to Rachel Zoe for nailing Demi's look. It's sleek, sophisticated, and most of all, sexy - which is just so Demi.
Zoe Saldana in Givenchy
I think this is one of those dresses you either love or hate, and I absolutely love it. If there is anyone who can carry it off, it's Zoe. I love that she went for something so fantastical for the year of Avatar. While there's a lot of Fire going on in all the drama of sparkles and ruffles, my favorite part is the ombre effect - the Water to cool down the Fire, if you will.
Miley Cyrus in Jenny Packham
I know Miley has been getting some negative press around her "bad posture" and whatever else on Oscar night, but I think she looked stunning. This gown had everything a young star would want for the Oscars - girly sass in the bustier top, but an element of youthfulness in the tulle skirt. I can't think of a better person to wear this gorgeous Metal/Fire dress. Just like last year, Miley got it right.
Nicole Richie in Reem Acra
Nicole Richie definitely deserves some points for honoring her essence on the red carpet this year. This elegant Metal Reem Acra dress with a Watery/hippy twist was made for her. I cannot see anyone else rocking it like she did, and that's when you know someone played it right. I also loved the sleek hair (perfect to combat the rain) and smoky cat eye - it all just screamed "Nicole Richie", and that's what I love to see!
Meryl Streep in Chris March
As much as we all love Meryl, sometimes she doesn't quite nail it with her fashion choices. But this dress, to me, was such a perfect choice for her. I loved the pure white Metal look, with touches of comforting Earth in the boxy shoulder and ample arm coverage. It was classic, yet trendy in all the right places. Best of all, it was far from over-the-top. You can tell she is genuinely comfortable, which is something I love to see on an Earth like herself!


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The Academy Awards are the biggest fashion runway on the planet. When Jennifer Lawrence, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried and other stars step out onto the red carpet Sunday, they will be primed to talk as much about what and who they are wearing as about the films that got them there.
But it wasn't always this way. The first Academy Awards, held in 1929 at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, was a low-key affair — a small dinner and 15-minute ceremony. There was no red carpet, and no one's dresses were on display since the event was not televised. When Janet Gaynor picked up her lead actress award, she looked rather ordinary, in a dress that likely was bought in the children's section of a department store (she was only 5 feet tall).
Fast forward to the 21st century, where the Internet has provided a forum in which everyone can voice an opinion on what Hollywood wears, from Angelina Jolie's leg-baring black Versace, to Gwyneth Paltrow's white Tom Ford cape-and-gown ensemble at last year's event.
Here's a look back at how Oscars red carpet fashion has evolved.
Before the world could see the show
1931: Norma Shearer's husband, MGM studio head Irving Thalberg, thought she needed to ramp up her sex appeal to win a part in "The Divorcee" and hired costume designer Gilbert Adrian to help her get the right look. It worked. She got the part, took home a best actress award in 1931 and started a long-term collaborative relationship with the designer, foreshadowing today's actresses who work with specific designers or stylists.
1936: Bette Davis injected politics into awards show fashion in 1936, when, nominated for best actress for her role in "Dangerous" — a film she disdained — she attended wearing a simple blue-and-white dress and coat designed by Orry Kelly. Her intention was to look like the hired help — which was what she felt like under contract to Warner Bros.
1937: Luise Rainer thought her chances of winning best actress for "The Great Ziegfeld" were so slim in 1937 that she planned to stay home. A last-minute phone call from boss Louis B. Mayer ordered her to the ceremony, and she ended up picking up her award in her nightgown — but it was actually a pretty chic-looking nightgown.
A mix of glamour and patriotism
1940: Rainer could get away with a nightgown in 1937, but things changed in 1940, the first year the awards were filmed, and stars and their studio bosses realized the PR potential of glamour dressing. That's the year Vivien Leigh won for "Gone With the Wind," wearing a red poppy-print chiffon gown by Irene Gibbons, designed to be worn without a bra, that was about as far removed as possible from the corsets and hoop skirts she donned to play Scarlett O'Hara. The gown would still look gorgeous today.
1942: Jimmy Stewart struck a patriotic note in wartime in 1942, wearing duds that came courtesy of Uncle Sam: his Army Air Corps uniform.
1944: Jennifer Jones wore diamond earrings that reportedly were on loan to her from Harry Winston. It is believed this was the start of the now-common practice of jewelers lending precious baubles for the big night.
Stars align with dawn of TV age
1951: The black Christian Dior gown Marlene Dietrich wore to present the foreign-language Oscar in 1951 set the actress apart from the mostly pastel-wearing crowd. A sexy bow at the hip and slit that showed a lot of leg helped revive her career — and cemented Dior's place in Hollywood.
1951: Marilyn Monroe, also a presenter in 1951, had to deal with a ripped dress — that was quickly mended just before she went on stage, thereby avoiding what could have been one of the first celebrity wardrobe malfunctions.
In 1953, the Oscars were broadcast on television for the first time, and lest you think actresses of that day were more demure than today's crop, a worried academy appointed costume designer Edith Head to be the program's first "fashion consultant," charged with making sure no one ran afoul of the censors. She kept bunches of flowers and pieces of lace backstage, ready to be used to hide any dangerously exposed décolletage.
1954: Audrey Hepburn slipped into a yellow lace Givenchy gown to accept her award for "Roman Holiday" in 1954, vaulting the designer into the international spotlight and creating a path to fame and fortune that fashion designers follow to this day.
1955: Edith Head, an eight-time Academy Award winner herself for costume design, outfitted dozens of actresses for awards ceremonies, and collaborated with Grace Kelly on the ice-blue sheath Kelly wore when she won the lead actress award for "The Country Girl" in 1955. The dress cost $4,000 — an eye-popping amount at a time when cars didn't cost as much as that.
1960s and 1970s
Fashion picks for the show loosen up
1960: Janet Leigh sparkled in an Edith Head gown festooned with thousands of bugle beads in 1960, as the end of the studio system ushered in an era of anything-goes individuality.
1966-1978: Not convinced? There was the gold jumpsuit Julie Christie stitched up herself and wore when she accepted the lead actress award for "Darling" in 1966, the Arnold Scaasi bell-bottom pantsuit Barbra Streisand donned in 1969 to pick up her award for "Funny Girl," Diane Keaton's "Annie Hall" look by costume designer Ruth Morley in 1978 (Keaton was another recipient of the lead actress award) and Farrah Fawcett's disco chain-mail dress by American designer Stephen Burrows in 1978.
A decade of glorious excess
1986, 1989: If the '60s and '70s were madcap, the '80s were all about excess. In 1986, Nolan Miller, costume designer on the television shows "Dynasty" and "The Love Boat," was appointed as the Academy Awards fashion consultant, and looks became larger than life. Consider Cher's Bob Mackie feather gown and headdress in 1986 and Demi Moore's bustier and bike shorts in 1989.
Looks on loan — and for sale
1990: In 1990, Rodeo Drive retailer Fred Hayman took over as fashion consultant. Determined to avoid worst-dressed disasters, he established a dressing service at his store where stars could buy or borrow clothes for the ceremony. At the same time, cable TV networks began extensive red carpet coverage.
1990: The same year, Jodie Foster, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jessica Lange and Julia Roberts all wore soft, minimalist Armani — a breath of fresh air after the preceding decades, and millions of dollars' worth of free publicity for the designer.
1995: Prada had its debut at the awards, dressing Uma Thurman (supporting actress nominee for "Pulp Fiction") in lavender chiffon with a dusting of sequins at the hem.
1996: The next year, Dolce & Gabbana designed its first Oscar gown, a copper-colored creation, for lead actress winner Susan Sarandon of "Dead Man Walking."
1996: Also in 1996, Sharon Stone wore a Valentino ball skirt with a Gap turtleneck pulled from her closet. But first she called Gap Chief Executive Millard Drexler and persuaded him to make a donation to her charity in exchange for plugging Gap on the red carpet.
Designers get closer with stars
2001: Vintage began to make a splash on the red carpet, as stars sought out individual looks. Renée Zellweger and Julia Roberts went elegantly vintage in 2001, Zellweger in a Jean Dessès gown from the 1950s and Roberts in Valentino circa 1982.
2001: In a flash of true individuality, Björk chose a Marjan Pejoski swan dress with matching egg purse in 2001.
For the most part, the 2000s have been about the symbiotic relationships between high-end designers and the stars who wear their clothes, often for a handsome sum.
2002: Halle Berry brought Elie Saab to prominence in 2002, wearing his burgundy gown to pick up her lead actress award for "Monster's Ball."
2005: Charlize Theron wore Dior in 2005, after becoming the face of Dior's J'Adore fragrance.
2012: Viola Davis was one of last year's most-watched nominees before the Oscars, giving a boost to a number of high-end designers. She wore a dreamy white and gold Marchesa gown to the Screen Actors Guild Awards; a one-shoulder, wine-colored Emilio Pucci at the Golden Globes; a bright pink dress by Juan Carlos Obando at the Academy Awards nominees luncheon. But at the Oscars, her green mermaid gown by Vera Wang was upstaged when attention shifted to her hair. She ditched her wig and wore her short hair natural.