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Living With Windows 8 Consumer Preview
I've been waiting to write about the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, wondering if over time, the new user interface would grow on me. Now that I have spent the past couple of weeks trying it on a variety of machines, I still think the Metro UI looks quite good on a tablet. The operating system as a whole, however, is a bit awkward on a laptop and even worse on a desktop.
Microsoft has said that Windows 8 aims to be a "no compromise" operating system, focused on "and" instead of "or"—not a touch screen or a mouse and keyboard, but both together. It sounds great, but as I use it, I'm not quite convinced.
It's certainly improved since the developer preview. You can now use it successfully on a desktop or notebook, but I'm not sure why a typical desktop or notebook user with Windows 7 would upgrade to Windows 8.
(Read "Installing Windows 8 on a Touch-Screen PC.")
Metro UI
The new Metro user interface looks the same as it did on the developer preview and similar to the interface in Windows Phone (or the Zune), but it has undergone some important fixes that make it work better on a machine with a keyboard or mouse.
It's still a tile-based interface with "active tiles" on the Start screen that bring up what are essentially full-screen applications. If you have a Metro application open, you can typically slide it over to one side so you can see two Metro applications side by side. One appears on a third of the screen, but it's a tiled interface (as in Windows 1) rather than the overlapping windows we've gotten used to in more recent versions of Windows and the Macintosh.
With a touch screen, you press a tile to start the application, swipe down to get back to the Start screen, swipe left to right to switch applications, and swipe in from the right side to see the Windows 8 charms. (The charms include basic functions such as Search and Share that can work within any Metro application.) There are also options to return to the Start screen, see your devices, and edit settings. You can make applications appear next to each other just by sliding them to one side.
With a mouse and keyboard, you can click on the tiles to open applications, return to the Start screen by pressing the Windows key or clicking in the lower left-hand corner, and get the Charms menu to appear by moving the point to the upper right-hand corner. It's different, but it certainly works. To get a Metro app to appear on the side of the screen, you need to select the top edge with your mouse, which brings up a little hand, then drag down and move it to the side you want. This is a bit less intuitive, but again, it does work.
In either case, one of the tiles brings you to the "desktop," which looks essentially identical to the traditional Windows 7 desktop, except that the Start menu isn't there anymore. Instead, you click on the lower-left hand corner and go to the Metro Start screen.
For a mouse and keyboard user, that's a bit jarring; it looks completely different, of course. More importantly, while that's great for moving to Metro apps or other things you have "pinned" to the first page of the start screen, it's hard to see all of your programs.
Fortunately, there's a new feature called Semantic Zoom. By pinching the Start menu with a touch screen or by selecting a tiny icon in the lower right-hand corner with your mouse, you can see the whole range of your Start menu, which makes it easier to arrange it or see an application that isn't immediately visible without a lot of scrolling.
Perhaps even more useful for most desktop folks is an "all apps" screen that you can get to by swiping up from the bottom of the screen, right-clicking the start screen, or hitting Windows+Z.
This gives you a view that's reminiscent of the old Windows Start screen. It lists all your applications, segregated into groups, albeit not with the pop-up, cascading menus. Alternatively, you can think of it as full desktop of icons. It's prettier than the old Start button, but involves more scrolling.
From the desktop, but not from a Metro app, you can move the pointer from your mouse to the lower left-hand corner to pull up an icon for the Start menu, and hold it in the upper left-hand corner to see the last opened Metro app. Pulling down on this icon shows you all your running Metro applications, but not your desktop ones.
The good news for mouse and keyboard users is that the familiar Alt+Tab combination also shows you all of your running programs—both desktop and Metro apps—and lets you easily cycle among them.
All of this works notably better than it did in the desktop preview. So, why am I so skeptical? In general, for a desktop user, everything seems to require an extra step. There are new keyboard combinations to learn, and that means more retraining. I suppose that would be worthwhile if the Metro apps were compelling, but I'm a bit doubtful of that as well, at least for desktop users.
Metro Apps
It's hard to judge the state of Metro apps, as most of what are on the consumer preview are also pre-release applications.
These include applications for Mail, Photos, Weather, Finance, Maps, People, Calendar, Messaging, Store, Video, and Music, as well as a number of games. In general, these seem fairly basic, but they work. For instance, the Mail app will connect to most Web mail services, as well as to Exchange. Microsoft really wants you to have a Microsoft account for the store, Video, and Music, but again, it works.
I've tried a number of third-party Metro apps and while there are few, they are interesting. USA Today, for instance, looks quite good, however I do worry about its habit of text moving off screen, even when there's plenty of space available.
This is part of the design of the Metro UI: Applications are made to scroll from left to right, and usually indicate that there's more if you scroll. This scrolling to the right makes some sense on a tablet (although I wonder if there's a way to switch directions for languages that read right to left). On a desktop, though, where you're likely used to scrolling by moving your mouse button up and down, it's a bit awkward.
Perhaps the biggest concern I have with the Metro apps I've seen to date is that they all really seem designed for a relatively small screen, like a tablet's. That's ok on a laptop, but on a desktop with a large display, you often get a lot of wasted space. With a multi-monitor setup, at least right now, Metro apps only run on a single screen; a second screen gets the traditional desktop. As long as you're mostly running desktop applications, with the occasional Metro app, that will work, but it seems a bit unfinished.
Another issue is the way most of the apps handle the "pinch and zoom" feature we're used to on smartphones and tablets. It works fine with a touch screen, but on a desktop, you use the mouse with the control key and a scroll wheel. On a laptop, the only solution I can find is to use the Windows key and the plus and minus keys; it would be nicer if it supported gestures (like pinch and zoom) on the touchpad itself.
It's also not immediately apparent how to close a Metro application, as the system was designed to have such applications simply suspended rather than closed. That's what we've come to expect on smartphones and tablets, but on the desktop, we're used to closing boxes in the corner of the window. Metro apps are full-screen (which can be quite nice), so you don't have the Window outlines or the red "x" option. Bringing up the task-switching panel lets you right-click on an individual application and then choose an option to close it; alternatively the Alt+F4 key combination works, as it has in Windows for years.
For desktop users, there are some workarounds. PCMag's Michael Muchmore has a good list of keyboard and mouse shortcuts and ZDNet's Ed Bott has some good ideas for customizing Windows 8 if you're primarily a desktop user. But the need for such guides just proves that desktop users don't seem to be the target here.
Perhaps upcoming Metro apps will change my mind, but for now, what I've seen isn't compelling for a desktop user.
Browsing on Windows 8 is a rather strange experience because there are actually two browsers, both labeled Internet Explorer 10, but with somewhat different features. Indeed, both Firefox and Chrome are planning Metro versions to complement their desktop browsers.
The Metro version of IE 10 is a full screen browser that runs without plug-ins and, as a result, is very fast. However, because it doesn't have plug-ins, certain sites (such as those that use Flash) just don't work and others end up with holes in them for the unsupported data. To see these sites correctly, you'll have to choose a "display in desktop browser" option, which immediately puts you into the desktop version.
This aside, both browsers seem to work well, and they seem faster and more responsive than the current version of Internet Explorer.
New Features
No matter what you think about the new user interface, almost every Windows user should be happy with some of the little changes Microsoft has made to the utilities within the desktop environment, particularly changes to the way the system moves and copies data.
Now, the new file management features can visually show you file conflicts, so you're not mistakenly copying one file on top of another. Windows 8 should do a better job of displaying copy time remaining, but it will let you pause copying when you have other things going on, or just want to suspend the machine.
Many of these utilities now have a "ribbon" (as in Office 2007 and 2010) showing you all the features, but typically these are minimized unless you want to see the options. It's interesting to see Microsoft move toward the ribbon in one way, and yet move completely away from such menu options (in the Metro interface) at the same time.
A number of other file management features have been updated as well; for instance, photos you view in Windows Explorer now are automatically rotated.
These make for convenient, though not exciting, enhancements. Similarly, the task manager has gone through a major update, now providing both a more visual display of which applications are taking the most CPU, memory, disk and network bandwidth; and also a history of how applications have been using system resources. One interesting thing you'll note is that unlike most desktop apps, Metro applications, including the browser, typically are suspended when they aren't running.
Another interesting new feature is that Microsoft SkyDrive is built in, giving all Windows users 25GB of free storage. This is a Metro app, and the interface seems very much tablet-oriented, but is a useful feature. Microsoft has a lot of different users with different needs here; enterprise users will almost certainly want to turn it off but the Metro app is a bit limited. I wonder if it would have been better for typical consumers if this and the synchronization app (what Microsoft calls LiveMesh) were somehow combined. This very much seems to be a work in progress; Microsoft is working on a new desktop version.
Another feature I like is a new "credentials" site where you can store all your passwords. Sure, there have been third-party products such as RoboForm (my favorite) and LastPass that do this, but it's good to see it finally in the OS itself.
You now have the ability to show the estimated data usage on a connection (such as Wi-Fi or broadband wireless), and to "reduce data usage" on indicated connections, so as not to run up your broadband bill.
It has an improved "refresh" setting that lets you save user data and documents, while reverting the PC to its initial settings, which could prove quite useful.
Finally, I'm also impressed by a new feature called Windows To Go that lets IT departments more easily create a version of Windows that runs from a USB flash drive. I've tried this on an array of systems now, with varying results, and will write more on this later.
Tablet Features
Other features seem designed more for the tablet market, such as support for a gyroscope, accelerometer, and magnetometer; a new "airplane" mode; and a new "picture password," which lets you tap and swipe parts of an image to create a password. Microsoft says there are about one billion possible gesture combinations for a picture password, though I still won't be surprised if IT departments want to force more traditional passwords instead.
For tablets, Windows 8 offers an on-screen keyboard that pops-up from the bottom of the screen when you move to a text entry field. You can easily switch between a standard keyboard and a split keyboard designed for typing with your thumbs, with a couple of variations.
Alternatively, you can use a stylus with handwriting recognition, as on the old Tablet PC products. Over time, this has become surprisingly good, though my handwriting has proven a challenge.
Hardware Requirements
From a hardware perspective, Windows 8 should run on any machine that can run Windows Vista or Windows 7. Microsoft stated minimums of a 1 GHz processor, 1GB of memory (for the 32-bit version; 2GB for the 64-bit one), 16GB of free hard drive space, and DirectX 9 graphics. While the speed is certainly improved on faster machines, I haven't had any trouble thus far running it, even on somewhat older machines.
You will need DirectX 9 graphics (which includes almost everything made in the past seven or eight years), a 1024-by-768 display or better to run the Metro interface (with 1366-by-768 necessary to display two Metro apps or one Metro app and the desktop).
Pre-Release Issues
As is typical, the consumer preview is a pre-release version, and I did run into a number of issues. My issues are probably driver-related and I expect they will be fixed before a release candidate.
On a Lenovo ThinkPad X1, Internet Explorer initially did not display certain fonts correctly; an upgrade earlier this week seems to have solved the issue. While I have been able to connect wirelessly, I find it often doesn't work initially and I need to run the "Network troubleshooter" to make the connection. This almost always works, but is annoying.
I had difficulty getting the Cisco VPN client to work properly, but a registry key change I found online fixed the issue.
I did note that you can't upgrade the developer preview version to the consumer preview, although you could erase the drive and install the consumer preview, then add in tools such as Visual Studio. In addition, it doesn't run the Windows Phone development software, which isn't an issue for me, but could be for some people.
None of these are big problems; they are the kind of issues anyone who installs pre-release operating systems ought to be prepared to deal with.
Conclusions and Suggestions
Overall, I've gotten used to running Windows 8, and while a lot of it is neat, I'm still a bit skeptical.
In short, it almost feels like two operating systems in one: Metro, which works quite well on touch screens and tablets but feels awkward in the desktop mode; and the classic Windows UI with a Metro Start screen for desktop users, where the new UI seems unnecessary at least for now. It makes a lot of sense on a tablet with an optional keyboard, or with a hybrid or convertible notebook/tablet, but those seem to be relatively small parts of the market.
I think there are a number of things Microsoft could do to make Windows 8 more appropriate for desktop users. I'm not expecting it, but it would be nice to see an option for desktop users to return to the classic Start menu, and even launch Metro apps from there. For laptop users, it would be good to be able to use a touch pad for the kind of gestures you would use on a touch screen (a similar feature is in Mac OSX Lion). And for desktop users, I would be interested in an option to run Metro apps within windows, so you could have a number visible at the same time, particularly for large or multi-monitor setups.
As it is, Microsoft is right in saying there is "no compromise" to utility. You do get both sets of features, but simplicity of operation is compromised, I fear that will make a lot of desktop users in particular rather unhappy.
(Read PCMag's "Hands On with Windows 8 Consumer Preview.")


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Priory Square,
01527 854386
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Opening Hours:
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Young Explorer's Menu at The Barley Mow
Keep the little ones occupied with a smile, all thanks to our Young Explorer's menu at Studley. There's plenty to keep the kids satisfied, whether that's with our kids carvery, fish fingers, chicken nuggets or even one of our 6" pizzas. If they're under 5, we've got a selection of dishes that are perfectly sized for their growing appetites, while tasting great!
Our kids' menu is also packed with plenty of sweet treats for those budding explorers to discover, so the kids can dig into a Dessert — with a big grin!
Choose from our freshly carved roasts.
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Raffaele Calace, Italian Neapolitanian violin, 1916 (certificate Eric Blot)
This Italian Neapolitan violin by Raffaele Calace is a full-blooded Italian Instrument with a warm, large, Italian sound dating back to 1916; its maker was a liutaio in every sense of the word, since the term describes someone who crafts both violins and lutes. Like many other southern Italian ateliers, Raffaele Calace's workshop had stayed in the family for over three generations and earned itself an outstanding reputation for its lutes and mandolins. Raffaele Calace himself won 11 gold medals and 8 silvers in addition to numerous other awards for his instruments. To this day, he remains a well-established figure in the world of plucked instruments, known as a virtuoso, composer and innovative designer of new kinds of mandolins, whereas the string instruments from his atelier are best known amongst a select group of well-informed aficionados– despite the fact that his clients included excellent musicians such as Fritz Kreisler. This Italian violin features Raffaele Calace's original dated label and has captivating tonal properties as well as a confident aesthetic with striking effects: the clean margins have no fluting and reach perfection with the delicate purfling of a truly rare quality. The vertically positioned scroll is a self-assured piece that belongs to the unmistakably Neapolitan tradition and forms an appealing contrast to the playful charm of the sound holes. The transparent, golden-brown oil varnish magnificently accentuates the unique grain of the top-tier tone woods and their shimmering colours; its heavy crackling gives the perfectly-maintained violin an unconventional antique appearance. In the course of being painstakingly set up at our atelier for restoration, the violin underwent a minor repair to the upper sound hole eye on the treble side. This tonally extremely interesting Raffaele Calace instrument is now ready to play, and we recommend it highly for its large, warm sound full of typically Italian character. The price includes a certificate of authenticity by Eric Blot, Cremona.
Order a certificate of appraisal with this violin, the certificate option is available in the shopping cart.


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should life be plural or singular? life refers to the people and there are many so life should be plural right?
The people who have been in this country their whole life
The people who have been in this country their whole lives
now lets consider change whole to all. all = plural right?
The people who have been in this country all their life
The people who have been in this country all their lives
Should "life" be plural or singular in the sentences below?
"life" as a word is singular. You are asking, should the singular or the plural be used here.
"Life" refers to "the people" and there are many, so "life" should be plural, right?
This is a thorny one, because what is formally correct, and what you will hear far more often in conversation, and even in news reports on TV, are two different things. Other contributors may disagree with me, but I'll put in my tuppence worth.
Firstly, you are absolutely correct. "Lives" should be used in all of those sentences. If you stick to your guns and use this correct grammar, it will in no way stand out that you are being 'oh so correct' and pedantic. (Though it may well 'register' with a teacher of English, and with anybody who loves the English language, and would suggest to them that you are an educated person!)
"The people who have been in this country their whole life..."
You will often hear this in conversation. It is as if the speaker is using the plural "people" but actually in his mind thinking, "Every person..." They follow through automatically with the correct plural personal pronoun, and then use "life" as if referring back to "every person". The same holds true for your other sentence:
The people who have been in this country all their life.
Imagine this conversation round the dinner table:
He: "You ask anybody who's lived in this country all their life, and they'll tell you how much things have changed for the worse since they were children."
She: "Well, the people I talk to say their quality of life has improved immensely."
He: "Yes, but how old are they? People who've lived their whole life here and and in the sixties and seventies wouldn't agree with you."
The first speaker correctly uses the singular "life", referring to the singular "anybody".
The second speaker just happens to introduce the word "people'.
The first speaker picks up and uses "people" as he now continues, but, just as I mentioned above, will often use the singular "life" as if still talking about "anybody".
Last edited by David L.; 13-Nov-2007 at 02:59.


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Johnson set to announce '14 plans
Sen. Tim Johnson will make an announcement on his political future next week, and the South Dakota Democrat is widely expected to declare that he will retire at the end of 2014.
Johnson, 66, told POLITICO that he would have an announcement on Tuesday, but he declined to offer any specifics on what he will say.
Story Continued Below
"I will announce whether I'm running or not," Johnson said in an interview on Friday.
When asked whether he would be retiring, Johnson would not provide any more details.
"I decline to say," Johnson responded.
Behind the scenes, top Democrats have been expecting for months that Johnson will retire and have already been looking for other candidates for a challenging race in red South Dakota. Brendan Johnson, the senator's son and U.S. Attorney for South Dakota, and former Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin — who lost her reelection bid in 2010 — are the leading choices to replace the elder Johnson.
Johnson's expected retirement would leave Democrats with yet another open Senate seat to defend in 2014 — bringing the total to five so far. The South Dakota seat would be perhaps the most perilous vacancy after the West Virginia one being vacated by Sen. Jay Rockefeller.
Three other Democrats have announced their retirement: Sens. Tom Harkin of Iowa, Carl Levin of Michigan and Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey. The Iowa seat is expected to yield a competitive general election, while Michigan and New Jersey are more likely to stay in Democratic hands.
Two Republicans, Sens. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and Mike Johanns of Nebraska, have already announced their retirements, and both seats are expected to remain in GOP hands.
Johnson has represented South Dakota in Congress since 1986, joining the Democratic House majority in a year when his party gained seats in both chambers. He won his Senate seat a decade later, defeating incumbent Republican Larry Pressler in 1996 in a hard-fought campaign. Johnson won reelection in 2002 by only just over 500 votes, defeating then-GOP Rep. John Thune, now his junior colleague in the Senate.


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Sanad Hospital
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Johnson County Commissioner Albert "Smokey" Wildeman has officially thrown his hat in the ring to run for his seat on the county commission in this year's election.
Wildeman's seat is the only one up for election this year.
He said he wants to keep his seat to help maintain the commission's progressive stance on issues through a coming rough economic time.
Other projects he is proud of during his seven years on the commission include getting water to the fairgrounds, building the public health office, the realignment and reconstruction of Trabing Road and the current refurbishing of the fairgrounds.
Looking ahead at what he feels still needs to be done is improved infrastructure, and other smaller projects such as a joint city/county community building as well as building a broad economic base for the city and county without adding debt for future generations. He also said more cooperation between governmental agencies in the future will benefit all county residents.
He said he is hopeful for the future.
If elected, it will be Wildeman's third term on the commission.


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A tight passing move by rookie Ricky Stenhouse led to a multi-car crash at Talladega today, sending Kurt Busch spinning and flipping and taking out Ryan Newman, Danica Patrick, and a bunch of others in the Aaron's 499.
It appears as if Stenhouse looked to squeeze in between the wall and J.J. Yelley's #36 car, sending #36 spinning into Kurt Busch, who flipped on top of Ryan Newman's car.
The announcers are totally unfazed, however:
Has Ryan Newman had cars on top of him before here?
I think the 2009 race.
I think you're right.
It looks as if no one except for Stenhouse's rookie pride was hurt.
David Ragan in car #34 ended up taking the checkered flag.


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text: Pinch to zoom I'm in! 18ct Rose Gold And Yellow Gold Large Hoop Earrings by Hurleyburley £35$65.64€40.21$44.33 19 customer reviews(19) free gift wrap Favourite Favourite Ask Seller View your favourites gold optiongold option (required)Rose GoldYellow Gold gold option (required)Rose GoldYellow Gold gold option (required)Rose GoldYellow Gold gold option (required)Rose GoldYellow Gold quantity personalise PRODUCT DETAILS made in britain free gift wrap Stylishly simple classic hoops earrings in a choice of 18ct rose gold or yellow gold vermeil. A perfect and popular gift These statement earrings are the perfect accessory for every outfit and suit all age groups. The simplicity of these timelessly classic earrings makes them the perfect gift for all occasions and they will beautifully match other 18ct gold pieces. Perfect with everything from jeans to a little black dress. They make a gorgeous gift which will be treasured. Free standard postage FREE GIFT BOX FREE STANDARD DELIVERY All our jewellery comes beautifully packaged in a free Hurleyburley gift box tied with a silk ribbon and we can add a gift card for your special message. Our standard postage is by Royal Mail 1st class post which has delivery guidelines of 1-2 working days but is not guaranteed to arrive within this timeframe. We regret we are unable to exchange earrings for hygiene reasons Free standard delivery made from: 925 Sterling silver plated with 2 microns of 18ct rose gold. 925 Sterling silver plated with 2 microns of 18ct yellow gold. dimensions: Hoops are 3.2cm diameter product code: 410212 see more see less CUSTOMER REVIEWS 19 customer reviews see more customer reviews read about our product rating system trusted independent customer feedback forum DELIVERY This product is dispatched to you by Hurleyburley. RETURNS You have 28 days, from receipt of cancellable goods, to notify the seller if you wish to cancel your order or exchange an item. Please note: goods that are personalised, bespoke or made-to-order to your specific requirements, perishable products and personal items sold with a hygiene seal (cosmetics, underwear) in instances where the seal is broken are non-refundable, unless faulty. Read more about our returns policy.Should you choose to return or exchange your order you will need to deliver the item(s) to the UK, where this seller is based.


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PIM Storage
From Openmoko
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== Overview ==
== Overview ==
PIM storage describes a means of storing data in an extensible and cross-referencable way.
PIM storage describes a means of storing data in an extensible and cross-referencable way.
== Goals & Objectives ==
== Goals & Objectives ==
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== Interactions ==
== Interactions ==
* Embedded EDS needs libglade2, [[
* Embedded EDS needs libglade2, [[]], and libdb.
== Unresolved Issues ==
== Unresolved Issues ==
Revision as of 12:25, 22 October 2008
PIM storage describes a means of storing data in an extensible and cross-referencable way.
Goals & Objectives
- Method to exchange data between all applications completely transparent
- Personal data security / encryption
- Great bidirectional sync of personal data
- Easy method for backup (ideally this should be automatic)
- Real-time incremental search
- Autocomplete of personal data information
Use Cases
- I would like to attach arbitrary data to a contact (AKA: custom fields)
- I would like some level of integration with automatic switching of profiles. For example, it would be cool to automatically backup my personal data to my desktop PC when I get home.
- I want to type the first few numbers of a phone number and be presented a list of matching contacts.
- I'd rather take a person, choose home/work, choose land-line/mobile and not bother with numbers anymore. Useful when I'm on my way to meet that person, or the person has his/her birthday, i.e. the person is already listed on my screen!
- I want to add a contact to multiple groups (AKA: categories)
- I want to be able to send my contact info to other Openmoko devices over bluetooth
- I want to be able to two-way sync all calendar, contacts (and tasks) with a GroupDAV server (e.g. Citadel) over-the-air
Implementation Recommendations
- This will be based on Embedded EDS, this way we will can directly use Evolution data, get OpenSync for free, and eventually be able to talk to a Microsoft Exchange Server using the Novell Connector.
- Alternatively: Go for a radically different approach: Use Topic Maps to store PIM data, use Topic Map's integrated merging features for syncing. --xbaldauf
- Topic Maps allow multi-way sync, storage of arbitrary data (including categories, and even a hierarchy of categories), integration of PIM data which is separated otherwise (calendar, addressbook, personal notes, representing networks who knows whom and who works for whom and on which project, ...), multiple entries for each field (e.g. multiple addresses, multiple names, multiple phone numbers, ...)
- Embedded EDS needs libglade2, D-Bus, and libdb.
Unresolved Issues
- Synchronizing w/ Outlook
- Synchronizing w/ MacOS X - most Macs have bluetooth builtin and OSX addressbook supports BT sync.
- Synchronizing w/ Google services
Possible solutions:
- mokod - An Openmoko daemon to run on host operating systems
- Syncevolution can sync with Scheduleworld which can sync with Google, and other programs.
Questions and Answers
- Q: When will an Embedded EDS specification be available? i.e. How I can get applications to store and retrieve data from in it, in a compatible way?
- Q: Will it out of the box synchronize with the Kontact PIM suite (KDE)?


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Stealth black carbon and world champion stripes come together on the Ritchey WCS Carbon Trail Rizer handlebar and WCS Trail stem we picked up at the company's headquarters in San Carlos, Calif. recently. Before we mount them to a bike for testing, we thought we'd give you a First Look.
The $170 wide WCS Carbon Trail Rizer handlebar is 740mm wide, has a 31.8mm clamping diameter, 15mm rise, unidirectional carbon finish, and weighs 193 grams. The bars feature an anti-crush grommet (top, left) to prevent damaging the bar end by over tightening Lock-On-style grips.
The $100 WCS Trail stem is specifically designed with longer-travel trail bikes in mind and features Ritchey's unique rear-entry bolt configuration. It's revised C260 clamp configuration is designed to clamp carbon bars precisely and firmly, providing slip-free performance and maximum lateral stiffness. The 3D forged alloy stem weighs 115 grams, fits 1-1/8-inch steerer tubes and features opposing-thread steerer clamp bolts. Ours measures 70mm in length but 45, 60, 80, 90, 100, and 110mm versions are also available.
Look for a full review of the Ritchey Carbon Trail Rizer handlebar and WCS Trail stem on Mtbr in April.
For more information visit ritcheylogic.com.


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The exhibition is supported by the Edith Stenhouse Bingham, Smith class of 1955, Art Museum Fund, The Louise Walker Blaney, Smith class of 1939, Fund for Exhibitions, the Charlotte Frank Rabb, Smith class of 1935, Fund, the Emily Hall Tremaine Fund through the initiative of Dorothy Tremaine Hildt, Smith class of 1949, the Publications and Research Fund of SCMA, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a State Agency.
Image Credit: Bartolomeo Cesi. Bologna 1556–1629 Bologna. A Striding Youth Carrying a Bundle of Sticks; verso, A Veiled Woman Praying, 1591/94. Red and white chalk on blue paper; verso, red chalk.13 3/8 x 8 5/8 in.; 340 x 220 mm. Private Treasures, cat. 26


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• Aug. 20, 2004 | 8 p.m. ET
Rethinking the Sphinx: After years of fighting the critics of his controversial theory on the age of the Great Sphinx, John Anthony West wants them to join him.
West — an author whose 1993 TV documentary, "Mystery of the Sphinx," laid out an unorthodox tale about Egypt's best-known sculpture — says he is trying to organize a panel of geologists to take an in-person look at the weathered limestone and render their judgment.
It could be a tough sell. After all, it was more than a decade ago that West and his colleague, Boston University geologist Robert Schoch, made the claim that the Sphinx could be thousands of years older than the 4,500 years accepted by most scientists. Since then, a lot of harsh words have been exchanged.
Critics scoffed at West's suggestions that a mysterious Atlantis-type civilization might have chiseled the Sphinx somewhere between 7,000 and an amazing 38,000 years ago. West gave as good as he got, calling mainstream Egyptology "the mental equivalent of Agent Orange" and referring to the venerable society that frequently funds Egypt expeditions as "National Pornographic."
Now West wants to stop the jeering and focus on the geology.
"The plan now is to put together a panel of absolutely independent geologists who have never been there ... a dozen geologists and a handful of experts in other fields," he said in an interview last week. The panel, including "maybe four or five geologists who are committed to the opposition point of view," would make their own study of the Sphinx and its surroundings.
The problem is finding the money. "We're talking about $250,000 to get this crew over there and spend two weeks," West said. "But it seems next to impossible to get that out of any funding source."
If those sources are unavailable, West said he has a Plan B: "We're going to do it Howard Dean-style by soliciting small contributions over the Internet."
West hopes that the independent analysis will back up the geological theory Schoch proposed back in the early '90s: that the rounded vertical cracks seen on the Sphinx and the walls of its enclosure had to have been created by water erosion rather than wind erosion, and specifically by rainfall. West and Schoch went on to conclude that the Sphinx must go back to a time when Egypt's Giza Plateau was a much wetter place.
West contends that the arguments against the theory "are so transparently inadequate that they don't hold water — or sand, for that matter." And it's true that Schoch's theory has led geologists to reconsider how the Sphinx was affected by the sands (or rivulets) of time. But the controversy is far from cut and dried.
"There are alternate explanations for what Schoch's seen there. It's not as simple as what he said," said Alex Bourdeau, a cultural archaeologist who has taken on the Sphinx theories in online forums, even though he's not a trained Egyptologist (but then, neither is West).
The mainstream explanation for the Sphinx's weathering patterns goes by the unwieldly label of "salt crystal stress-induced exfoliation," or SCrySIE in Egypto-geekspeak. The idea is that moisture percolates up through the limestone, depositing salt crystals in naturally occurring vertical cracks. As the crystals grow, they push the stone apart — and eventually fragments of stone break off the surface.
"That essentially puts an end to any of their arguments," Bourdeau said. "If you have a good alternative explanation, why turn everything on its head and start all over again as to when the Sphinx was made?"
West tried to explain why.
"It's a very minor sort of thing, and it's quite clear that it simply does not and cannot produce the pattern of erosion that we see, nor can it account for the severity. ... The long and short of it is that each time a new wrinkle is added to these scenarios, we are obliged to answer," West said.
West is hoping that further research will help turn the tide. If he can get his panel of geologists together, he's fairly confident the venture will pass muster with Zahi Hawass, Egypt's head of antiquities. Even though he and Hawass have argued bitterly over the Sphinx, "through an amazing set of circumstances, on a personal level we've become quite good friends," West said.
Assuming West gets his way on the geological question, there would be a natural follow-up: If the Sphinx predates the pharaohs, who actually built it? "The second question is difficult to address, but of course that's the interesting question," West said.
Could it have been Zulus, or Atlanteans, or Martians? Some of the suggestions seem pretty kooky, but West refuses to rule anything out — even a connection to the Face on Mars . "There are a number of people who say that it's still an open question," he said.
For now, West continues working on his writing, his lectures, his tour ventures — and on his unorthodox theory about the Sphinx.
"One of these days somebody is going to get over there and prove it once and for all," he said, "but I really would like it to be during my lifetime."
For updates on the Sphinx and the Great Pyramids, including the latest about the next "Pyramid Robot," check out Guardian's Egypt and The Daily Grail.
• Aug. 20, 2004 | 8 p.m. ET
Space race update: The space race for the $10 million Ansari X Prize seems to be picking up steam: Space Transport Corp., which suffered a launch mishap this month, announces an investment from the Spacefleet Association in Britain, and Romania's ARCA team is planning a test launch on Sept. 8. Meanwhile, there's a hubbub in the Canadian press over just how dangerous the da Vinci Project's X Prize launch in October might be. Could Saskatoon be hit?
There are a couple of interesting non-X Prize developments as well: Doug Haynes, the aerospace professor behind Blue Ridge Nebula Airlines, writes that he's planning to test a flying-saucerish prototype vehicle this fall at Metropolitan State College of Denver. Haynes had applied to compete for the X Prize but was deregistered, as detailed in this article from the MetOnline student newspaper.
Meanwhile, subscribers to the aRocket discussion list are abuzz over the idea of establishing a series of rocketplane races, modeled after NASCAR auto races or hydroplane races. The flights would be more on the order of XCOR Aerospace's EZ-Rocket outings than honest-to-goodness suborbital space flights — but the concept seems to follow the spirit of the proposed X Prize Cup , and could be easier to execute. Would you pay Daytona 500 admission prices (say, $50 or $100) to watch rocket planes face off against each other? Let me know whether or not you think this idea will fly.
• Aug. 20, 2004 | 8 p.m. ET
Take a walk on the wild side of the Web:
• Wikipedia: John Titor, Time Traveler
• The Economist: Gravitational anomalies
• The Independent: Does homeopathy really work?
• Weekly World News: NASA builds biggest paper airplane
• Aug. 19, 2004 | 9:45 p.m. ET
Outlaws and aliens ride again: Who's buried in Billy the Kid's grave? Did aliens really land in Roswell in 1947? You might think there's no controversy over those questions, but then, you probably don't live in New Mexico.
Both subjects touch upon the scientific fringe, and have provided fodder for past Cosmic Log entries — so here are quick updates on the Billy the Kid story and the Roswell renaissance.
For more than a year, we've been chronicling the effort to dig into Billy the Kid's grave in Fort Sumner, N.M., and subject the remains to DNA testing to verify the Kid's identity. Three law-enforcement officials have been pressing in court for the exhumation. Recently, forensics expert Henry Lee (who played a role in the O.J. Simpson trial) joined the investigative team.
Perhaps the most bizarre twist came when attorneys were appointed to represent the interests of the Kid himself, dead for 123 years. Now those attorneys, Bill Robins and David Sandoval, say they are withdrawing from the court battle over the proposed exhumation. However, they'll still be working for the Kid on a more crucial issue: getting a posthumous pardon from New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.
In a phone interview today, Sandoval emphasized that the three lawmen — Lincoln County Sheriff Tom Sullivan, Deputy Sheriff Steve Sederwall and DeBaca County Sheriff Gary Graves — were continuing to seek the exhumation.
"Our role in that particular lawsuit that is filed in Fort Sumner is finished," Sandoval said. "We are still under the direction of the governor to continue to advise him on a possible pardon, and I think that's where were going to focus our efforts in the near future."
The governor also has Roswell on his mind, according to the Albuquerque Tribune. The Tribune noted that in the foreword to a newly published book, Richardson is calling on the federal government to release everything it knows about the Roswell incident — even though the Air Force declared the case closed in 1997, and even though Richardson was himself part of the federal government just a few years ago, as energy secretary.
Today, as governor, promoting New Mexico tourism is one of Richardson's big concerns — which probably helps explain his interest in Billy the Kid as well as Roswell. But in each case, there are those who believe the best course is to leave sleeping legends lie.
That's certainly the case for Trish Saunders, spokeswoman for the Billy the Kid Historic Preservation Society, which opposes the exhumation.
"Again we reach into the realms of the ridiculous with this case," Saunders said today. "Last January, a man who has been dead for 123 years asks to have his own body exhumed. Now, he has apparently changed his mind, and wishes to remain where he is. If Sullivan, Sederwall, and Graves just wanted to have a little fun, couldn't they have just held a séance and saved everybody all this time and trouble?"
Astronomer Phil Plait, who maintains the "Bad Astronomy" Web site, has a similar feeling about reopening the Roswell case.
"The main point, which should not be lost, is that this is yet another pseudoscientifically driven waste of taxpayer money," he said in an e-mail. "What's next? A congressional investigation into the Moon Hoax? A House astrologer? A special Mars probe to investigate Cydonia? Feh."
NBC News space analyst James Oberg, who has written extensively on UFO tales, weighed in with some sorely needed historical perspective:
"In the bad old days of the Cold War, military establishments in the Soviet Union, the United States and elsewhere soon realized that many of their secret aerial operations could be camouflaged by public misperceptions and myths about flying saucers. ... And now, decades after the motivations for the misdirection have faded, and relevant files, memoirs and interviews have come out, it's almost touching that the last remaining holdouts of believers in the bogus stories are the UFO buffs.
"They proclaim their dedication to dispelling 'government cover-ups' — but in cosmic irony, they are among the last defenders of the convenient Cold War cover stories that protected spy balloons, super jets, missiles, space warheads, equipment malfunctions and accidents, crashed satellites and so many other military aerospace activities whose owners wanted to avoid public awareness.
"If so many dedicated people hadn't wasted so much of their lives on the wild space-goose chases, it might even be funny."
• Aug. 19, 2004 | 9:45 p.m. ET
Quick scan of the scientific Web:
• CBC: Neptune's new moons 'irregular'
• Science @ NASA: Have blood, will travel
• The Guardian: How math helps pick a president
• BBC: Teleportation goes long distance
• Aug. 18, 2004 | 9 p.m. ET
Highs and lows for space sponsor: The Canadian-based da Vinci Project, which is taking aim at the $10 million Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight, is morphing into the GoldenPalace.com Space Program to give its new principal sponsor a publicity boost.
"A two-day comprehensive project management review took place the beginning of the week to identify every milestone and resource needed," team leader Brian Feeney said in a news release distributed today by the X Prize Foundation.
The da Vinci Proj... er, the GoldenPalace.com Space Program is still targeting Oct. 2 for its first launch attempt, which has led some to fret that Feeney is rushing into things. In today's update, Feeney addressed those concerns, saying that a scaled-down version of the launch balloon would be tested in September, and that rocket test firings would start Aug. 31 and run through September.
Space is by no means the only frontier for GoldenPalace.com. If anything, the Internet casino venture is better known for its disruptive stunts at sports events (not to mention its multitudinous pop-up windows). It was in that context that GoldenPalace.com made its biggest splash this week, with an Olympic stunt that could result in jail time.
A Montrealer named Ron Bensimhon sneaked over to the edge of the pool during Olympic diving competition, stripped down to a tutu and clown pants, then pranced and jumped into the pool. The news reports have studiously avoided mentioning the company whose name was emblazoned on his chest, but some photos clearly show a GoldenPalace.com connection.
The casino denies being involved, even though it's put a news release and a video link on its Web site (caution: watch out for pop-ups). Whether or not the casino paid for the exposure, it's Bensimhon who had to face the music. The Greeks didn't take kindly to the embarrassment, particularly since it cast a cloud over their vaunted antiterrorism measures. They sentenced Bensimhon to five months in jail (and also tightened up security to head off future breaches).
Bensimhon, a veteran of such sports stunts, is still free pending appeal, but if Feeney is ever asked to get a henna tattoo on his chest for October's launch, the best advice is not to do it.
• Aug. 18, 2004 | 9 p.m. ET
Space tourism update: Russian millionaire Sergei Polonsky's bid to fly to the international space station in October is at a critical point, with Russia's Interfax news service reporting that the deal could be off unless negotiations are concluded by Thursday. The issue isn't the multimillion-dollar price so much as what happens to the money if Polonsky's flight is canceled. Russian space officials can be hard bargainers, and so this could well be an exercise in last-minute gamesmanship. Stay tuned for "the final decision."
• Aug. 18, 2004 | 9 p.m. ET
Scientific smorgasbord on the World Wide Web:
• Nature: Prions speed evolution
• Popular Science: Cold fusion gains new respect
• CNET: Crypto researchers abuzz over flaws
• Wired.com: It's just the 'internet' now
• Aug. 18, 2004 | 2:15 a.m. ET
Robot racers sign up: Organizers of the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, the robotic road race scheduled for October of next year, have released their first list of entrants — 31 teams who submitted applications at the conclusion of last weekend's Participants Conference in Anaheim, Calif.
As time goes on, we'll learn a lot more about some of the teams — and there will be additional entrants as well. For example, the front-runner from this year's race, Carnegie Mellon University's Red Team, has not yet signed up. But it surely will.
According to the post-conference list from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's list, 16 teams that applied for the first Grand Challenge are returning to the fray: AI Motorvators, Arctic Tortoise, Autonomous Vehicle Systems, CajunBot, Dark Horse, Ensco, Go Baja, Golem Group, LoGHIQ, Overbot, Palos Verdes Road Warriors, Rob Meyer Productions, SARA, The Prodigies, Vista Engineering and ZingerBot.
Here are the new team names on DARPA's list: Dakota Robotics, Excelsior, Kart, Eavin, McNeilly, Mojavation, Omnitech, SC, Spider XTV, Spurriers Hurriers, Tau Ceti, Fast Forward, Juggernaut, The A Team, True Vision. Stay tuned for further details — including the teams' organizational affiliation, contact information and sponsorships.
Some of the teams are also listed on the International Robot Racing Federation's Web site. The IRRF is planning its own million-dollar challenge for next April.
• Aug. 17, 2004 | 6 p.m. ET
Statistics as sport: Computer modeling, it seems, is turning into an Olympic event.
Last week, I mentioned the research conducted by two economists that predicted medal counts for the Athens Games, based on population, per capita income, past performance and the "host effect."
It turns out that the PriceWaterhouseCoopers accounting firm developed its own medal-count prediction, using those same variables — plus a "former Soviet bloc" bonus.
The two studies come up with different results, however: For example, the academic economists predict that the United States will finish with 93 total medals — not quite as many as the 97 garnered during 2000 Sydney Games, but still in the same ballpark. PriceWaterhouseCoopers' prediction is far more downbeat, with a projection of 70 medals.
The United States still leads the list, but only because Russia is also projected to suffer a substantial drop. The accountants say the big gainers should be Greece (by virtue of its host status), India (due to population and income) and the Olympics' lower echelons. Collectively, the top 30 countries are projected to win 9.4 percent fewer medals, while the 172 other participating nations are due for a 47.7 percent increase.
Slate's Daniel Gross takes an in-depth look at PriceWaterhouseCoopers' model.
Both of the purportedly scientific predictions look positively dismal when compared with media forecasts from, say, Sports Illustrated (111 total U.S. medals) and USA Today (119).
So who will turn out to be right, the academics, the accountants or the professional athlete-watchers? It's a little early to tell, and that makes it just the right time to register your own prediction. Cast your ballot using the thoroughly unscientific Live Vote at right, then monitor the medal count as the Olympics progress.
• Aug. 17, 2004 | 6 p.m. ET
Space-race updates on the World Wide Web:
• Flight International: Could SpaceShipOne go orbital?
• X Prize Foundation: Argentine rocketeers test escape tower
• Masten Space Systems: New entrant in suborbital market
• The Guardian: Space travel goes sailing
• Aug. 16, 2004 | 9:30 p.m. ET
Tracking the science of storms: When it comes to forecasting the course of hurricanes, the surest prediction is that there will be some unwelcome surprises — and such was the case with Hurricane Charley . Over the weekend, the director of the National Hurricane Center found himself on the defensive because Charley unexpectedly strengthened and turned into Florida's Gulf Coast south of the originally projected bull's-eye.
It shouldn't be so surprising that hurricanes can be surprising — after all, they rank among the most violent and chaotic weather phenomena on Earth. Their fearsome power makes it difficult to get close enough to take an accurate reading. So how do meteorologists get the data they need for better predictions?
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's "hurricane hunters" are in the front lines of the struggle to understand severe storms: They supplement satellite imagery by flying instrument-laden airplanes into the hurricane, in cooperation with NASA and the U.S. Air Force.
Since 1996, the hunters have been harvesting real-time data by dropping dozens of parachute-equipped instrument capsules, each about the size of a thick rolled-up newspaper, into the heart of each hurricane. The capsules, known as dropsondes, contain sensors to monitor pressure, temperature and humidity, plus a GPS locator device and a radio transmitter.
All those readings are fed into modeling software at the hurricane center, and that's where things really get tricky. As with most chaotic systems (even, say, the stock market), a small change in a variable can mushroom into a huge difference in the result. That's what makes hurricane forecasting an inexact science.
Some scientists are looking beyond the issue of tracking hurricanes, focusing instead on what makes a hurricane tick. For example, the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, which NASA recently extended through the rest of the hurricane season, is providing satellite-based "CAT scans" of severe storms.
At the Colorado-based Center for Severe Weather Research, lead scientists Joshua Wurman is interested in how a hurricane evolves once it makes landfall.
Video: Storm-tracking science "Drastic changes occur with a hurricane as it comes on land," Wurman explained today. For example, some hurricanes turn into major rainmakers, leaving dangerous floods in their wake. And all six of the hurricanes that Wurman has studied so far seem capable of whipping up "windstreaks," gusts of super-strong wind that may set the patterns for the storm's destructive power.
Wurman hopes to do further research into windstreaks during the current hurricane season.
"We're trying to first confirm that these things really are present all the time," he said. "Are they stronger in some storms, weaker in others? We're at the beginning of our study on this, and there aren't many chances to see it."
His crew missed out on Charley, but Wurman is planning to bring the center's radar-equipped trucks to the scene of the next big hurricane — then ride out the storm. "The goal is basically to park them where the eye is going to come on shore or just to the right of where it comes on shore," he said.
It sounds risky, and Wurman always advises others not to try this at home. But he has confidence in his "Doppler on Wheels" fleet.
"The strongest winds we've seen are over 100 [miles per hour], and the trucks do fine," he said. "Certainly if it was a Category 5 storm, we would have concerns, mainly for airborne debris."
The bottom line? "The main thing is just to plan smart," Wurman said.
Good advice, whether you're studying hurricanes or just trying to Hurricane facts and figures.
• Aug. 17, 2004 | Updated 12:20 p.m. ET
DARPA's Grander Challenge: Thirty-one teams have signed up for next year's $2 million edition of the DARPA Grand Challenge, presented by Pentagon researchers to promote the development of autonomous vehicles that could someday show up on combat resupply routes.
The 31 teams submitted applications by the end of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's "Participants Conference" in Anaheim, Calif., on Saturday, organizers said. That lineup includes 16 fresh entrants who didn't compete in the run-up to the first Grand Challenge in March. The full list of applicants should be available Tuesday.
More entrants could well apply in the next few months, including the Stanford Racing Team, which is modifying a 2004 Volkswagen Touareg for the robotic race. They'll all have to do up "audition tapes" demonstrating their vehicles by next March, then go through a winnowing process. The race itself is scheduled for Oct. 8, 2005.
None of this year's entrants came even close to finishing the 142-mile course through the Mojave Desert, and Grand Challenge organizers say next year's course will be even longer and tougher. But the teams may well be tougher-minded as well. Stay tuned for updates Tuesday.
Update for Tuesday: Although the Stanford team attended the Participants Conference, they did not at that time formally apply for the Grand Challenge. This item has been updated to reflect that status.
• Aug. 16, 2004 | 9:30 p.m. ET
Your daily dose of science on the Web:
• Technology Review: Death of the dinos, 25 years later
• Discovery.com: Beluga whales have distinct voices
• S.F. Chronicle: New Mexico governor rekindles Roswell
• Popular Science: Is science fiction about to go blind?
The fine print: Looking for older items? Check the Cosmic Log archive. Share your perspective on cosmic subjects with Alan Boyle. If you link to this page, you can use http://cosmiclog.msnbc.com or http://www.cosmiclog.com as the address. MSNBC is not responsible for the content of Internet links.


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Laura Kropp knew something in her hectic life had to give when one of her two young sons threw up while off in a corner during one of her Mount Clemens school board committee meetings.
With her husband out of town on business and no other babysitter available, the working mom had to take the kids with her to the study session and gave them iPads to keep them busy. But the youngest, 2-year-old Miles, came down with the flu and told his mother his tummy hurt seconds before sickness set in.
It took her a while to decide but Kropp knew she had too much going on in her personal and professional life, so she reluctantly resigned from the Mount Clemens Board of Education.
'The job today is very different from the one when I first started here because of the problems the district is facing,' Kropp said.
'You can have different levels of commitment, but I can't do anything halfway. I felt like I was getting to a point in my life when I was doing so many things, and in my opinion, maybe not doing them well. I realized then that I'd rather do less.'
Kropp, who works full time as a special education teacher for Utica Community Schools, was appointed to the school board in 2009 to fill a vacancy when Joe Rheker resigned. She was elected to a 4-year term a year later.
But Kropp, whose husband operates a growing woodworking business, found the demands of the school board were ever increasing as the district has come under state review for financial and academic issues, and the number of committee meetings continued to increase.
Unlike neighboring school communities, trustees in Mount Clemens receive no compensation for their hours of work.
Kropp said she wanted to serve on the school board to make the district a better place to educate children. To help her 6-year-old son Jack understand her role, she would tell him 'some kids need momma's help.' When the youngster would attend school events, he began to understand. 'Are these the kids who need your help,' he asked her.
But as the board ventured into politically volatile areas, the climate shifted and she found her son on the receiving end of harassment from other youngsters over her school board work. She eventually decided to transfer him out of the district.
As a result of the move, she found herself heckled by parents who felt she should have kept her children in Mount Clemens. Seeing a more unpleasant side of some parents made her realize she no longer 'desires to be the first family of Michigan.'
'While I believe women should go for it all, the reality in my life was our family business is growing, and I have two young sons, and my own teaching career, at this point, I can't do it all,' she said.
The challenge of balancing work, family and civic duty is increasingly becoming a difficult one, according to the Michigan Association of School Boards.
On average, a board member may attend two board meetings a month, each lasting two to four hours, along with meeting preparation and community functions. Add on committee meetings and special circumstances such as contract negotiations or crisis situations, and a member's calendar quickly fills up.
'Serving as a school board member in a local school district does require quite a commitment of time,' said MASB spokeswoman Pam Jodway.
Jodway said the MASB is seeing a trend statewide of a lack of candidates for open seats. Looking to retain public servants for a greater period of time, some districts now have 6-year terms. 'That's quite a commitment and may be having an impact on the candidate pool,' Jodway said.
In Mount Clemens, the pace isn't expected to 'slow down anytime soon,' said board President Earl Rickman. He said applications for the vacancy are being sought from anyone interested in being appointed to a term that will run through Dec. 31, 2014.
For more information on applying, visit www.mtcps.org.


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Seattle Seahawks
Bellevue's Stephen Schilling comes home with Seahawks
For most of the last decade, Stephen Schilling has been in the center of upheaval.
The first — leaving his family's home in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue to play for Michigan as a teen — was his own doing.
The rest — a coaching change two years into college and another regime change two years into his NFL career — were definitely not his choice.
Sunday, he was still in the center — of the offensive line for his hometown Super Bowl champions. He was the Seahawks' first-team center.
That's a change Schilling can live with.
Schilling was a guard last week in Seattle's exhibition opener at Denver, and since the team signed him as a free agent in March.
But Sunday he was snapping to quarterback Russell Wilson, with starting center Max Unger still limited by a groin injury.
Offensive line coach Tom Cable says center is where Schilling will be Friday night when the Seahawks host San Diego. Whether that's as a fill-in starter or second-teamer depends on how Unger progresses; coach Pete Carroll said Unger may return to practice on Tuesday.
Schilling, 26, played guard and tackle while starting two games and playing in 16 others over three seasons with the Chargers. Then last September, after San Diego had released and re-signed him, Schilling became a center for the first time, but only on the Chargers' scout team.
"It's a lot more responsibility, obviously. You've got the ball in your hand every play, making calls, seeing both sides of the line, getting with the quarterback on calls," he said. "I enjoy it, though. I really do enjoy it. You've got more of a grip on the game."
And, perhaps, a grip on a Seahawks roster spot. The team figures to keep four or five reserve linemen on the regular-season roster. So playing more than one position is the way reserves such as Schilling can make the team.
Playing three triples his chances.
"If you're not a starter you have to be playing multiple positions as a backup in this game. You can't be playing one position," Schilling said. "Just trying to show what I can do at different spots."
This spot, on the eastern shore of Lake Washington, is completely familiar to him.
He is 15 minutes south of where his parents, Joanne and Ralph, still live in the home in which he grew up. This is the first time since he left Bellevue High in 2006 that he's been back home for more than one week.
Two months ago, during Seahawks minicamps, he was there for the birth of his sister Brandi Cypher's second child.
After the training camp portion of the preseason ends Wednesday, Schilling will be moving out of the Seahawks' team hotel and back into the basement of a large home in Kirkland owned by his brother Michael Tudor.
The family time is filling a big void in Schilling's personal life.
His wife Katie, a Michigan soccer player who went onto law school at U of M, is in her second year working at a firm in Chicago. They got married this spring. But she took the bar exam in Illinois, so she is tied to there for now.
"It's really tough," he said.
But he has his family — and now a new position — to occupy him here.
Cable has known Schilling since the coach was an assistant at UCLA in 2005. The Bruins, the hometown Washington Huskies — heck, just about every other college with a goal post — recruited him.
He chose Michigan to strike off on his own. After his sophomore season Michigan forced out coach Lloyd Carr and brought in Rich Rodriguez from West Virginia. Rodriguez changed everything, including how and where the Wolverines practiced and how they ate.
"It was a tough transition," Schilling said. "I mean, everything changed."
Despite not becoming the absolute dominant beast of a lineman many thought he'd be at Michigan, Schilling made it to the NFL in 2011 as San Diego's sixth-round draft choice. He started two games as a rookie for coach Norv Turner.
Those remain the only two NFL games he's started. The Chargers fired Turner following the 2012 season and replaced him and his staff with that of first-time head coach Mike McCoy.
The Chargers didn't tender Schilling a contract when he became a restricted free agent this winter. Seattle was the first to call him in March, and a couple weeks later signed him to a $645,000 one-year contract.
His move to center is sending Lemuel Jeanpierre to guard this week. Jeanpierre started for Unger in Denver and played the first half, when Wilson and backup quarterback Tarvaris Jackson were besieged by Broncos.
Asked about this Schilling-to-center move, Cable said: "I think it can be very viable, but want to make sure. …We are going to see who fits there at backup center and our 'swing' player inside.
"He came into the NFL and he's kind of just been hanging on. I think this is a good situation for him. We are just trying to get him to re-energize and to regain his confidence, to get him to believe in the kind of player that he is."
Asked why it didn't work out for him in San Diego, Schilling didn't use the excuse that he lacked opportunities. He says he simply failed to beat out starters such as Jeromey Clary.
But Seattle? It's home. It's comfortable.
And now, suddenly, it's at center.
"It is," he said, smiling, "a cool opportunity."


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text: A trial lawyer in Altadena is one who practices law. A trial lawyer is required to apply the legal theories while handling a case hence the lawyer must hold an appropriate degree in law and should have a valid license. Trial lawyers usually try cases in the court. They represent the individual in the court of law by gathering information for the case. The aim is to settle the case in favor of the client. Many of the trial lawyers in Altadena work for the government. Much time of these lawyers is spent outside the court wherein they investigate the case and also look for helpful information which is gathered from the witnesses. The trial lawyers should possess the ability to think and speak well. All the lawyers in Altadena are expected to work under strict code of conduct.


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Mineral Exploration Corporation Limited (MECL), the city based CPSE
under Ministry of Mines, Govt. of India has paid first time Interim
Dividend since its transformation into a dividend paying entity from
A cheque of Rs. 19.73 Crores towards the payment of
Interim Dividend for the year 2017-18 was handed over to Shri Narendra
Singh Tomar, Hon'ble Minister of Rural Development, Panchayati Raj &
Mines (Govt. of India), recently at New Delhi by Shri R.N. Jha,
Chairman-cum-Managing Director (I/c), MECL in the presence of Shri Arun
Kumar, Secretary (Mines), Dr. K. Rajeswara Rao, Add. Secretary (Mines),
Shri Bipul Pathak, Jt. Secretary (Mines) Govt. of India, Dr. Navneet
Mohan Kothari, PS to Hon'ble Minister & Shri Yogesh Sharma, GM
MECL is engaged in exploration of Energy
and Non-energy Minerals on behalf of Govt. of India, State Governments,
PSUs and other agencies in various parts of the country. During the year
2017-18, the financial performance of the Company is expected to be
highest since its inception.
MECL is also the "Nodal Agency" for
exploration under National Mineral Exploration Trust (NMET) funded
projects. It has recently completed the Greenfield exploration work by
enhancing its drilling and analytical capabilities through induction of
new Hydrostatic drilling rigs and advance instruments required for
testing in Greenfield exploration work.
Corporate Office:-
Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar Bhawan,
Seminary Hills, Nagpur- 440 006
Maharashtra India.Call : 0091-712-2510310, 2511833 e-mail : email@example.com
Working Hours:
Executive : 10:00 AM TO 5:30 PMNon-Executive: 10:00 AM TO 5:00 PMPublic Dealing Hours:
10:00 AM TO 5:30 PM List of Holidays during the year 2019
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Last Updated On : 05-10-2019
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