text:
Join John Adams, world renowned Intl Matchmaker, Monday nights 8:30 EST for Live Webcasts!
And check out Five Reasons why you should attend a FREE AFA Seminar! See locations and dates here.
View Active Topics View Your Posts Latest 100 Topics FAQ Topics Mobile Friendly Theme
What's Up Guys...
Introduce yourself here and let us know who you are.
Moderators: fschmidt, jamesbond
Forum rules
Welcome. If you are new here, please read the Forum Rules.
Post Reply
15 posts • Page 1 of 1
What's Up Guys...
Hi all, I'm Jon. I've lurked around here for a while and finally signed up. I'm a youthful 40, in great shape ,and own a few web businesses. I lived for about 10 years in Northern Europe, where I have friends I still visit; and I'm considered quite social and charming there. But...I moved home to the US a couple of years ago, and for the first time in many years, found that I had virtually no social or dating life.
Perhaps it's because I stayed gone so long, but when I returned to the US, it seemed socially awkward, shallow, immature and (if I'm honest) culturally backwards.
I appreciate Winston doing this site because frankly, I know he's right. Before I moved abroad my social life in the US was a 2 out of 10 (at best). When I moved abroad all that changed dramatically, and I made true friends and dated gorgeous women. Actually, I lost my visa to stay in Europe, otherwise I probably would never have come back.
I've been back a couple of years and I've really tried to make things happen here. But now I have finally had enough. This year (2009) I'm planning to leave the country. I haven't decided exactly where I'll go yet (I'm considering a few places), but I do know that I'm definitly leaving, and "sooner rather than later."
I have seen the quality of my social and dating life go down significantly here in the US, and frankly, life is too short for this bullshit. You know what they say: once you get used to champagne, it is tough to go back to kool-aide.
If anyone wants to chat and/or share info about moving abroad, please be in touch. I'm social and cooperative by nature (as opposed to paranoid and competitive). Perhaps that's WHY I don't fit in the US?
Be well,
Check out our Dating Sites and International Romance Tours!
Hey Jon, you definately are not alone. I may not have lived overseas, nor have had any travels overseas, ( yet ). But I and many others here know EXACTLY what you are talking about, when it comes to the dating scene here in the U.S.
I've spent my whole life here. Since my late teens, until this point in my life of 32 years of age. I have been considered by others, as a classic "dateless loser." but what's the catch? why am I being called such a rude verbal gesture when I have done everything I could from seducion manuals, to pick-up video material, pick-up ebooks, and more. Yet, I go out there in the dating scene. And I still come home alone with no girlfriend in my life here in my local area of North East America?
I can go online and communicate with a lady from overseas and it's so comforting and easy to talk to most ladies from different countries abroad, than I can get here in the states from ladies. As for my social lifestyle. I have no complications. I have no difficulties in approaching or talking with people, and women for that matter.
I'm sick and tired of the horrible dating scene here in the states where having "a choice" in the "dating scene" is a nightmare. I cannot even have an intelligent conversation with a lady here without drama or 5 minute interval chat convos from "her side." it's a game that I do not want to play. I have no time for it. And you are right! "life is too short!" for the bullshit and games ladies play. Even both sides of the sex in terms of the dating scene here in the states, are playing the exact same format of "the pick-up game."
I value socializing and talking with people. But there's just no climax in my life at this point for true happiness, until I go abroad. I congragulate you on making a "wise move" in packing your stuff and running towards the hills of leaving and going abroad, to enjoy your happiness.
You'll find many individuals like myself, Winston and others here. Who have heard and are living your story of the scenario of America, when it comes to the dating scene.
I salute you and I welcome you aboard. I'm also am a fan on Winston Wu's work and experiences. This website and his experiences, that are PROVEN, is the fact of why I am going abroad this year in 2009.
Take good care and welcome aboard. At least, I know how you feel about the social decline of the atmosphere here in America. You are not alone in your experiences. As you are correct and you're spot-on in your analysis and experiences.
Hi Jon,
Welcome to the forum! Wow you have a great testimonial that exemplifies my meaning well and about how it is to return to the US when you have it better abroad.
Do you mind if I add your account to this page of relevant testimonials? http://www.happierabroad.com/ebook/Page74b.htm
Why couldn't you extend your visa in Europe or just go to another European country south? I guess the answer must be complicated.
Maybe you can consider Asia on your next move abroad?
I'm sure with your web businesses, you can live anywhere right?
Can you tell us what the key to success in web businesses is? Many of us here are interested in that venue as a means to support ourselves while abroad.
Glad to hear from you,
Check out my FUN video clips in Russia and Female Encounters of the Foreign Kind video series and Full Russia Trip Videos!
Join my Ukrainian/Russian Women Dating Site to meet thousands of legit foreign girls at low cost!
"It takes far less effort to find and move to the society that has what you want than it does to try to reconstruct an existing society to match your standards." - Harry Browne
Yeah, why you lose your visa to Europe? Couldn't you just reapply or go elsewhere in Europe? Why go back to the states? Everytime I go back there to visit relatives I feel like committing suicide it sucks so bad, ha ha.
"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor and stoic philosopher, 121-180 A.D.
Thanks for the great words of encouragement guys. Much appreciated!
About my EU visa situation: Here's the short version: I had a work permit through my employer, but the company went under, leaving me visa-less. This was complicated by a tax problem, because the government found out I had lived there without a visa when I first arrived for about a year (which was true), so they instructed me to:
1. Pay huge back taxes/penalties for the year I was there illegally.
2. THEN, leave the country (because my visa had run out).
I opted to simply leave.
The whole thing really left a bad taste in my mouth because I felt like I had been screwed by the bureaucracy. Just the fact that they could so easily kick me out of the place that had become my home ( with all my friends, business and social contacts, etc.) seemed so ridiculously unfair. I hired lawyers, etc. to fight the situation, but to no avail.
So, I resigned myself to return to the US, and decided to make the best of it. And I have certainly tried -- I'm not a quitter by any means. But now I've reached the point where I have "given just about all I can take," so I'm looking for an exit ASAP.
I'm considering Asia (especially Philippines). I'm also interested in Costa Rica, Brazil, even Eastern Europe (Estonia, etc). Obviously, I'm still in the research phase right now, but once the desicion is made, I'll be moving pretty quickly. If anyone else is getting out this year, I'm not opposed to teaming up; just be in touch.
By the way Winston, feel free to use any of my scribbling on your testimonials page -- no problem. Maybe it will help motivate someone who's contemplating getting out.
About my web businesses: I think I'll have to save that one for another day--there's too much to get into (haha). I've been doing it about five years, and I'm really big in the personal development niche, as most of my educational background is in that area.
I'll leave it there for now, but I truly appreciate all the support guys!
Hi Jon,
Thanks for the clarification. But what I don't understand is, when you left that country, why didn't you just go to a neighboring country and start a new life? If you were in Norway, why didn't you just go to Sweden or Finland, for example? Or go down south to Italy or Greece? Most Americans love it there.
Check out my FUN video clips in Russia and Female Encounters of the Foreign Kind video series and Full Russia Trip Videos!
Join my Ukrainian/Russian Women Dating Site to meet thousands of legit foreign girls at low cost!
"It takes far less effort to find and move to the society that has what you want than it does to try to reconstruct an existing society to match your standards." - Harry Browne
"why didn't you just go to a neighboring country and start a new life? If you were in Norway, why didn't you just go to Sweden or Finland, for example?"
Hey Winston, One reason was because of the new EU and EEC rules. You don't get a Norwegian visa these days, you get a "Shengan Visa." It's to do with the Shengan Agreement that binds most of the EU and surrounding countries together politically and for immigration issues. It gives you access to all those countries, but losing it denies you access to all of them too.
Of course, there are ways to get around some of these rules, but as I mentioned, at the time I was extremely upset that I could be kicked out of my home, separated from my friends and business connections so easily. It really up-rooted my life to a great extent, and I never wanted to give any bureaucracy that much power to "make or break me" again.
But after being back in the US and experiencing a lower level of social and dating contact than I can remember in my lifetime, I've softened my views somewhat on living as an immigrant in another country (haha). I decided I could handle the insecurity of living as an immigrant, but I couldn't handle having zero social life.
So I'm doing my research and getting a plan together to go somewhere that suits me better. I'm particularly interested in cheaper countries, where my decent income might afford me a very high standard of living. Of course quality of life is also a big issue, so culture, security, dating, and lots of other issues come into play. Any tips you may have would be appreciated.
I see. Couldn't your Norwegian friends help you? Those are usually countries with friendly governments. Can you go back there again? Or would you have to pay heavy fines to return there?
Sure, going to a cheap country like Philippines, Thailand or South America would get you a higher standard of living and be seen as a higher status too (which women prize highly, probably more than looks) but then you'd be putting up with inefficient corrupt governments, dirty streets, etc. It's a tradeoff. But hey, it's worth trying. If you like Asian women (do you?) you'll love the Philippines and Thailand. They make love with a warmth, tenderness and sensuality that the white women lack. It's hard to explain. You gotta experience it.
If you have any questions about Asia, just ask me, Ladislav, Mr S, or Momopi here, as we all have some experience with this region.
Check out my FUN video clips in Russia and Female Encounters of the Foreign Kind video series and Full Russia Trip Videos!
Join my Ukrainian/Russian Women Dating Site to meet thousands of legit foreign girls at low cost!
"It takes far less effort to find and move to the society that has what you want than it does to try to reconstruct an existing society to match your standards." - Harry Browne
hey whatsup
Hey whatsup, im Ishmell. Im 24 years old and I currently live in Tampa, Florida. I cant agree more with the material ive been reading on this site recently. I have been jumping through hoops and bending over backwards here in america just to get a girl to even look at me and im a decent looking guy with a job. You cant go out and get a girl anymore you have hope and pray that you end up bumping into a girl thats your match but I came to the conclusion its a very slim chance that an american woman is a good match for me. Even if I was feeling a good vibe with an american girl I wouldnt know what to say because shes been scorned and has a bad attitude that a simple " hi, whats your name" makes me look like a creep. American women are the worst quality women on the planet, men like us deserve better, thats why I refuse to settle for them. I want to travel abroad, and soon move to a different country, maybe the Dominican Republic, Ive had my eye on Rio de Janeiro Brazil for a long time, the culture is great and the women are unbelieveable. Im thinking of starting an internet business where I can work from anywhere in the world, anyone interested collaborating or have ideas just send an email: email@example.com
That's what I miss. Most women although they claim they want it themselves can't be bothered to give this warmth or just a simple cuddle. I put my head in one English girl's lap and she said "You're like a dog." Great. Thanks!!!
One Russian girl I was with wouldn't hold hands in the street saying only children did that. I think she was the exception though. One nice thing you sometimes see on the escalators of the St Petersburg Metro is the girl standing on the step in front of the man facing him with her arms round him and sometimes a gentle kiss. St Pete's has the deepest Metro in the World and it takes a long time to get to the top or bottom.
Isn't that something? This PUA stuff teaches men how to pursue western women (women in the US, UK, Canada and Australia). So you are paying money to learn how to pick up western women (which are the most undesirable women in the world).
On top of that, PUA teaches men that if the woman doesn't respond to your seduction techniques then it's you who is the problem, not the undesirable western woman!
"When I think about the idea of getting involved with an American woman, I don't know if I should laugh .............. or vomit!"
"Trying to meet women in America is like trying to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics."
The biggest problem with PUA garbage is that it makes women the object. You, the man, are the object to be desired by a woman. If you believe that and act on it you will be met with success.
Sounds like Denmark or Sweden.
"Well actually, she's not REALLY my daughter. But she does like to call me Daddy... at certain moments..."
PS -- Merc, thanks for coming out of the closet" and posting.
Interesting situation.
Can you still enter the EU as a tourist?
For non EU and low-tax I guess there's Montenegro, right? I believe residency is available there by forming a corporation in Montenegro. And it's a great European location.
You might give Uruguay a look too. They are easy on offshore income, and Punta del Este would give you a world-class address for Argentinian tail, with a lot less tax and banking bureaucracy.
"Well actually, she's not REALLY my daughter. But she does like to call me Daddy... at certain moments..."
Post Reply
15 posts • Page 1 of 1


text:
Tonight at the Raven Lounge at 9PM, improv group Rookie Card will do a little something different with their monthly show. Rookie Card Presents: Not Rookie Card will feature groups that feature members of Rookie Card, got it. So, instead of seeing the gang all together you will get to see Sue Taney and Darryl Charles, along with the rest of Hate Speech Committee, Marc Reber will join the fellas of Rintersplit, Tom Whitaker will perform with I Do, and the night will be hosted by Jake Alvarez.
This Thursday, also at the Raven Lounge, Center City Comedy will celebrate their Third Anniversary with a show featuring favorite comics from around Philly. After the show, the guys will have a party upstairs at the Raven. More details to come later this week.
This week is another week of shows at the Philly Improv Theater, the first in a six week run at the Shubin. The line-up includes favorites such as Chip Chantry's One Man Show (With Special Guests), Reasonable Discourse with Jerks, Cage Match, Hey Everybody, The Gross Show and PHIT House Team Night.
Philly Mag's G Philly recently ran this article about the upcoming Q Festival. In it they talk to festival producer Alejandro Morales, as well as Greg Maughan of PHIT. Shows run at various venues throughout Philly from Monday, October 10 through Saturday, October 15th.
October will be a busy month for Philly comedy. In addition to the six week PHIT run and the Q Festival it is also the second annual Comedy Month. The Philadelphia Shakespeare Theater will feature three weeks of comedy from the Seventh Annual Philadelphia Improv Festival, The Fourth Annual Philly Sketchfest, and the first ever City Spotlight. We posted about the Improv Festival last week, and added all the shows to our calendar – and we will add more info about the rest of Comedy Month soon!
Super DPS wrote this review of Alex Gross and Ian Vaflor's Pro Mania Fringe Festival show. The review mentions performances by James Hesky, Joe Dougherty, Brendan Kennedy and Dennis Trafny. Check it out.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The First Art Newspaper on the Net
Established in 1996
United States
Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Critics to Artdaily
Referral Links
Last Week
Special Photos
Art on the Underground collaborate with BFI to present films from the National Archive at Canary Wharf
Solarflares Burn for You, Arthur Johns, 1973. Photo: BFI.
The final instalment of Canary Wharf Screen will see
Art on the Underground
collaborate with BFI to produce a season of films showcasing previously unseen footage, rare and restored film, and recent experimental works by some of todays most renowned British moving image artists. The three-part programme, sourced from the BFI National Archive, will be screened in the ticket hall of Canary Wharf tube station from December 2012 March 2013 and coincides with the 150th anniversary of the London Underground in January 2013.
Part 1, The Artists Year in Nature, explores the contrast between images of nature and the industrious concrete environment in which they are to be screened. Part 2, Tales from the Underground, comprises films showing the Tube at different points in its history to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the London Underground. From the City to the Sea: A Century of Archive Film concludes the season with a double bill of feature-length creative archive documentary films that tell the story of the last century, and simultaneously tell the history of film itself.
Part 1: The Artists Year in Nature
BFI opens Season 4 of Canary Wharf Screen with a programme of films intended to evoke a sense of the great outdoors in an underground setting. Extracts from experimental films by the UKs leading image artists will be combined with historical non-fiction documentaries that demonstrate the artistry of early film techniques. The compilation is organised as a calendar, progressing through the months and seasons in 12 films. Highlights include Derek Jarmans arthouse drama The Angelic Conversation; a Shakespearian sonnet symbolising February and St Valentines Day is narrated by Judi Dench. March is represented by one of the first examples of time-lapse photography, Percy E Smiths Birth of a Flower, made in 1910.
Part 2: Tales from the Underground
Using rare and restored archive footage, Tales from the Underground presents the London Underground throughout history and coincides with the Tubes 150th anniversary. The collection revives the early silent era of feature filmmaking with the screening of Anthony Asquiths Underground, 1928. Other highlights include instructional videos produced in conjunction with new ticketing and barrier technology in the 1960s, and Ralph Keenes Under Night Streets, which documents the fluffers who cleaned and maintained the Tube system fifty years ago. In January Café OTO will perform an experimental musical score to accompany the films live in Canary Wharf ticket hall.
Part 3: From the City to the Sea: A Century of Archive Film
A screening of two feature-length documentaries, spanning one hundred years of archive footage, as well as a variety of recorded formats, ends the final season. Hand-cranked 35mm, 16mm, Super 8, videotape and digital film create a rich montage of colours and textures that express a range and diversity of ideas.
Award-winning director Penny Woolcocks From the Sea to the Land Beyond is a lyrical portrait of Britains unique coastline. From two World Wars through to the modern age, Woolcock depicts the coast as a place of leisure and industry, yet also a wide landscape. The band British Sea Power have composed and performed an original score, creating a uniquely uplifting film experience.
London The Modern Babylon, the latest film by Julien Temple is an epic time-travelling voyage into the heart of his beloved city. Temple combines archive film and music to show how Londons subversives musicians, writers, artists, dangerous thinkers and political radicals have transformed the city into a global metropolis.
Jane Giles, Head of Content, BFI, said: Film has the ability to transport us to other times and places, and we hope that the travellers passing through Canary Wharf and the London Underground staff who work here will get pleasure from this season, whether the films are glimpsed for seconds during the hectic rush-hour commute or watched for longer during quiet moments out of the day.
Tamsin Dillon, Head of Art on the Underground, said: We are delighted to be working with the BFI on this fourth season at Canary Wharf Screen. Coinciding with the momentous occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Underground itself in January, this is a wonderful opportunity to bring some rare and wonderful films about the Tube from the BFI archives to our audiences. The delivery of their season in 3 distinct parts allows us to see a tiny glimpse of the range of the BFI archive from nature to Babylon I think it will be a highly compelling 3 months at Canary Wharf!
Canary Wharf Screen is an innovative motion picture screening programme that launched at Canary Wharf Tube station in March 2012, initiated and presented by Art on the Underground. The year-long project shows some of the best artists moving image, chosen by four of the UKs leading film organisations and institutions, Film and Video Umbrella, Animate Projects, LUX and BFI. Canary Wharf Screen will return for a second year with a new programme and collaborators in May 2013.
Canary Wharf Screen offers an insight into the UKs leading filmmakers and film institutions whilst surveying the strength and vibrancy of Londons arts community through its artists, commissioners, distributors and programmers.
Designed by Sir Norman Foster and intended as the showpiece of the Jubilee Line extension programme, Canary Wharf is one of the busiest stations on the London Underground network. With footfall of some 40 million per year, Canary Wharf Screen has a potentially huge and diverse captive audience.
Art on the Underground
BFI National Archive
Today's News
December 18, 2012
Moscow Design Museum opens with an exhibition of Soviet post-war design
Louvre boss Henri Loyrette to step down at the end of his current term of office
Exhibition offers unique chance to see one of Picasso's masterworks in an intimate setting
National Portrait Gallery in London buys artist Craigie Aitchison's own slashed self-portrait
Gail Albert Halaban reimagines famous watercolors by Edward Hopper in exhibition at Edwynn Houk Gallery
French actress wins case against mother French-Romanian photographer Irina Ionesco's explicit photos
Art dealer Dorsey Waxter appointed President of the Art Dealers Association of America
Works by Siobhan Hapaska & Stephen McKenna combined in new exhibition at Kerlin Gallery
The Whitney Museum of American Art celebrates the topping out of its future home
Bryan Adams 'Exposed' embarks on tour, Goss-Michael Foundation in Dallas is first stop
New book shows uninterrupted series of photographs of North Korea's former leader looking at things
Rescued from a tag sale, Garrard centerpiece brings $32,500 at Heritage Auctions
Swedish Transport Agency says artist Fredrik Saeker can use painting as driving licence pic
Art on the Underground collaborate with BFI to present films from the National Archive at Canary Wharf
Definitional Disruptions with Nel Aerts, Filip Gilissen and Hedwig Houben at Kunstraum
'Styling an American Family' features 1910s fashion at the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms
The inaugural Ian Potter Moving Image Commission awarded to Angelica Mesiti
Contested Chinese seal auctioned in Paris for 1.1 mln euros
Dutchman launches life-sized replica of Noah's Ark
Most Popular Last Seven Days
Original 'Star Wars' creators lift lid on special effects challenges
Lost '$170 million Caravaggio' snapped up before French auction
Mansell's 'Red Five' on pole for Bonhams sale
Impressionism's 'forgotten woman' shines in new Paris show
Sotheby's to auction the best-surviving NASA videotape recordings of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing
Exhibition explores Dutch and Spanish painting of the 16th and 17th centuries
Cyprus discovers 'first undisturbed Roman shipwreck'
Sotheby's unveils 'Treasures from Chatsworth' with Leonardo Da Vinci drawing, Lucian Freud portraits, and more
Infamous botched art restoration in Spain gets makeover
1958 Gibson Flying V Korina played by Dave Davies to grab center stage in Heritage Auctions' sale
Related Stories
Spectacular Digital Moving Image Installation for Canary Wharf Underground Station
Digital Art
Special Photos
Special Reports
Featured Stories
Art Fairs
Art Quiz
3D Images
Last Week
Ignacio Villarreal
Editor & Publisher:
Jose Villarreal
- Consultant:
Ignacio Villarreal Jr.
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Royalville Communications, Inc
Founder's Site.
The most varied versions
of this beautiful prayer.
to a Mexican poet.
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Your name *
Your e-mail address *
Name of recipient *
Recipient's e-mail address *
Your message *
Sending Mail
Sending Successful


text:
Don't see your question? Visit our help section.
Get access to great in-store deals and local pick-up
Sign up for our email deals newsletter!
In "Disney Epic Mickey: Power Of Illusion," gamers will play as Mickey Mouse as he infiltrates the Castle of Illusion on a quest to put an end to the evil witch Mizrabel's diabolical intentions. Players will be taken on an all-new adventure made specifically for the Nintendo 3DS where, "Reality Is What You Paint Of It." Created by critically acclaimed video game developer DreamRift, under the direction of Disney Interactive's Junction Point, "Disney Epic Mickey: Power Of Illusion" furthers the Wasteland saga by taking players on a completely new story and adventure.
Rated 5.0 out of 10 by Game Informer.
Pro Price


text:
LONG Building Technologies helps customers make the most of their building investments by offering continued support after equipment, controls and systems have been installed. Understanding and maintaining building elements is the key to making sure they work properly and to your advantage for increased longevity. Customer site trainings or classes within LONG's on-site training center help customers learn how to maximize energy efficiency without compromising other goals, make buildings easy to operate and maintain, provide comfortable and productive work environments and understand important issues such as open protocols, indoor air quality and predictive maintenance.
Please see our training calendar for a schedule of classes offered in LONG's training center located within our Littleton location.
Our Clients Speak Out:
"I just wanted to drop you a line regarding the work and efforts of your control division regarding the Mitchell High School project this summer in Colorado Springs. As you may or may not know this was an extremely difficult project with an almost impossible schedule of 3 months. I would like to thank Bob Cleaver, Dave Gardiner, Mark Vils along with Greg Custer and your field technician Phil in addition to your field crew for a very fine job under extremely difficult conditions...
Gregory B. Even, Cobb Mechanical Contractors
In this day and age of our fast paced society it is hard allocating time for anything. Customer service is about as rare as polar bears in Florida. On that note I would like to make you aware that it has been a pleasure working with your staff on our continuing upgrade and maintenance of our DDC system here at the (Denver) Zoo. We have an extensive animal collection, whose health and well-being rely on certain climates special to their needs, so we have to be sure to take all necessary...
Gene Roybal, HVAC Master, Denver Zoo
"I call on LONG because of their responsiveness. I know that they will answer my phone call or email and get back to me with an equipment selection or product information quickly. When it comes to equipment selection they are the first call I make."
Erik Johnson, PE, Engineering System Solutions, ES²
"Travis, I wanted to THANK YOU for saving me this morning. It was way above and beyond of you to come out early on a Sunday morning in the freezing cold and get the heat running. I know that was not technically part of your job description at all, but your willingness to help get our system running correctly through thick and thin speaks volumes to your character and work ethic. Everyone left the class happy, and the heat worked great for the 11 and 4:00pm. Thank you again.
Marcy Donovan, Tula Hot Yoga Denver


text:
A paper in the works for quite some time. You can download the latest version here.
Here's what the abstract says:
Join patterns are a powerful concurrency abstraction to coordinate multiple events. We propose an extension with guards and propagation and argue that both features are essential in many programming situations. We develop a parallel execution scheme which we have fully implemented as a library in Haskell. Our results provide new insights how to write parallel programs on multi-core architectures.
Interested? You can get the implementation via the Haskell platform hackage. Download the join package which in turn relies on the multisetrewrite package. The multisetrewrite package provides the basic functionality to execute join patterns (with guards and propagation) in parallel. The join package adds synchronous and asynchronous arguments and join method calls. The user interface is still a bit clumsy to use but this will hopefully be improved over time.
Saturday, 6 December 2008
Parallel Join Patterns with Guards and Propagation
Posted by Martin Sulzmann at 09:15
Labels: concurrency, join pattern, parallelism
2 comments:
- Don Stewart said...
Martin, I'm soh happy you're blogging and release code on hackage simultanesouly. The work is much more accessible now. Thank you!
Now we just need to get Oleg to releaes on hackage :-)
- 6 December 2008 at 16:32
- Martin Sulzmann said...
Thanks for hackage Don (and of course all others involved). It's a great way to publish my research projects.
In the longer term it might be useful to consider a 'boost' (certified, peer-reviewed) branch of hackage. Just a thought.
- 7 December 2008 at 01:12
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
If it weren't for my obnobvious headline, you'd all be wondering what the hell this is. Just 15 of these Champagne tower chillers, with room for a dozen magnums in individual, lit drawers, have been designed for Veuve Cliquot by Porsche Design. Want to see what it looks like open?
Almost six-and-a-half feet in height, expect to see these stainless steel monstrosities in the kitchens of F1 drivers in time for their Christmas parties. [Sybarites]


text:
Free, high quality, 1-day, SQL Server Training events.
You'll find it's a great way to spend a Saturday.
Find an Event
PASS SQLSaturdays are free 1-day training events for SQL Server professionals that focus on local speakers, providing a variety of high-quality technical sessions, and making it all happen through the efforts of volunteers. Whether you're attending a SQLSaturday or thinking about hosting your own, we think you'll find it's a great way to spend a Saturday – or any day.
Have SQLSaturday questions or suggestions? Feel free to contact the PASS HQ Team at any time!
Love SQLSaturdays? Join us at PASS' main event, PASS Summit 2019, Nov 5-8 in Seattle, WA.
Show More


text:
The Massachusetts Historical Commission will hold a meeting of the consulting parties regarding the demolition of the historic school and the proposed new construction for the Dearborn School STEM Academy Project in Boston (Roxbury), MA on Thursday, June 4, 2015 at 10:00 AM. The meeting will be held at the Massachusetts Archives Building located at 220 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston and will be open to the public.
This meeting is for the purpose of conferring with the consulting and interested parties, as well as to give members of the public the opportunity to receive information regarding the project. The consulting parties will discuss project alternatives which could eliminate, minimize, or mitigate the adverse effect on historic properties. See 950 CMR 71.07(3)(c). This is a consultation meeting between the parties that is open to the public, it is not a meeting of the governmental body subject to G. L. c. 30A, §§ 18-25.


text:
I would like to talk a bit about something I explained in a recent viewer mail to someone who wrote in to ask the following (emphasis mine):
In agreement with the Big Bang theory, where the existence of the Universe was once an immeasurable "ball" of infinite density and mass, and wherein a reaction took place causing the creation of the Universe; was the matter always existent? Was the matter created? If everything has a beginning, would not the matter need a beginning as well? If science cannot explain such a question, then why is the unexplainable or supernatural not more plausible than "no, it wasn't created", considering that science will never be able to explain before the existence of time and space? (And yes, I'm aware of quantum gravity and physics)
After I replied, he said only: "I thank you very much for you reply, and the information relating my cosmological questions. This was very informative. Again, thank you!" This leads me to be hopeful that my response actually may have been helpful to a person who did not know why supernatural explanations are less valid than natural ones. If it can shed any light, then I would like to share it:
The second part of your question is why supernatural hypotheses would be considered less valid than natural hypotheses in claims of causation. The short answer is "things that do not exist cannot be the cause of other things." This is not a claim that supernature does not exist. It is a statement asserting that in order for anything (including supernature) to be put forward as a valid cause, that "thing" must at the very least be existent. Nature (matter) is known to exist. Supernature is not known to exist. So, if we wish to posit supernatural explanations, we then compound the problem by putting forward an explanation that also needs an explanation. In other words, to make our supernatural explanation even begin to be valid, we need to find a way to show that there actually is such a thing as supernature that can do what we're claiming. Until we can examine supernature, we can't make any valid assertions about what supernature is or what it does.
So, we have an unexplained event-X. And we have nature which can be examined to see if it can do what is required to achieve X. Then we have supernature, which we can't examine, neither can we demonstrate, and about which we can make zero informed claims. So it is literally just an unknown variable: Y. In this case, if we put supernature forward as the cause, we're saying something we can't explain was caused by a thing we can't know anything about and for all we know doesn't even exist. So, mysterious event-X is caused by unknown, possibly nonexistent cause-Y.
Saying Y caused X where Y cannot be defined is not an explanation.
I hope this helps.
Part of why I put this forward is that it seems to me to be the first step in many conversations that gets shoved out of the way as though it doesn't matter. We forget to verify our cause exists and jump into arguments regarding what it does, what attributes it may have, what motivations (if any), and so on. However, we can't verify any of our claims about this cause-Y are valid if we can't examine cause-Y. It's a very different question to ask "can this occur naturally," where we have nature to examine and investigate the answer, than to invoke supernature, where we have no means to compare claims against the cause-Y we're claiming.
The practical benefit, I hope, will be less people arguing with theists about what sorts of things god does/doesn't do, and whether or not there is actually a god. I would hope that the atheist who finds himself arguing against endless or repeated claims of god's attributes or actions would see a light come on and ask "Wait–how can we be arguing over the attributes or actions of something we can't even say exists?"


text:
Government of India
New Delhi, dated September 19, 2016
Auction for Sale (Re-issue) of 7.73 per cent Government Stock 2034
F.No.4(3)W&M/2016(ii): Government of India hereby notifies sale (re-issue) of '7.73 per cent Government Stock 2034 (hereinafter called 'the Stock') for an aggregate amount of ? 2,000 crore (nominal). The sale will be subject to the terms and conditions spelt out in this notification (called 'Specific Notification') as also the terms and conditions specified in the General Notification F. No. 4 (13)–W&M/2008, dated October 8, 2008 issued by Government of India.
Method of Issue
Allotment to Non-competitive Bidders
Place and date of auction
When Issued Trading
Date of issue and payment for the stock
By Order of the President of India
(Prashant Goyal)
We feel proud in offering export-import data information services to our respected clients.


text:
Publication:Wizards Presents: Worlds and Monsters
Back to Main Page → Publication List → 4e Publications
4.0 will not be just a retread of old D&D settings. This book, lavishly illustrated, gives us a tour of the new setting of D&D. To understand this book you must first know it's constructed of essays written by the developers and game designers themselves. Each provides a viewpoint in to the games development, why things were changed and what new form the world will be in. The following is a partial list of those individuals:
- Richard Baker (Senior Game designer)
- Logan Bonner (Game designer)
- Bruce R. Cordell (Advanced Game Designer)
- Mike Mearls (Mechanical Development Team Lead, Advanced Game Developer)
- James Wyatt (Story Design Team Lead, Advanced Game Designer)
- Andy Collins (System Design and Development Manager, Advanced Game Designer)
The world is being created under new assumptions, no longer clinging to the European medieval model as its base. The world can be envisioned with no real world analog. The setting can convey and element of the fantastic. Monsters are common both as foes and as intrinsic components to society. The world also is ancient, having many cultures rise and fall, each leaving behind there legends, cultural fragments and items. Magic is inherent and colors the world, though magic users are still somewhat rare there no longer feared as supernatural threats. A new phrase to the game will be "points of light in a Dark World". This is a setting in which there are no huge empires with stable borders but City-states that exist in the howling wilderness. The deep forest, rugged hills, and fetid swamps hide all manner of unknown threats, and the common folk stay within the safety of there environment, leaving the unknown to the adventurers to deal with. The game cosmology has also been changed. Gone is the great wheel of the past. Instead we have:
- The World. The center of the game and focus of the attention. Here most of the characters will live there lives, having adventures spanning the globe.
- The Shadowfell. The dark echo of the world, a land where the souls of the dead pass. A place where necromancers draw their power. Not truly evil, it borders the World in places of deepest shadow, both sending forth creatures and trapping helpless mortals.
- The Feywild. Another reflection of the world. A land of intense beauty and a source of arcane power. The creatures stepped in ancient magic, granting fantastic powers.
- The Elemental Chaos. The heart of the world consists of an eternal cycle of creation and destruction, a place of elemental powers that give the world substance. Buried deep in this is the Abyss, the home of demons.
- The Astral Sea. Over the world is a shimmering veil, behind which are the stars of the night sky. Parting the veil will bring a traveler to the dominions, the homes of the gods. These realms are much like islands adrift on the shinning seas.
- The Far Realm. A hold over from past editions, home of the aberrants. A home of alien though far removed from the day to day of the common folk. Brushes with the realm leave behind madness, strange creatures with alien goals, and cults dedicated to the strange beings that dwell there.
The goal of the world will be towards ease of use and fun. The monster encounters are also being retooled, gone will be the design concept of 4 on 1 match. Now battles will have many creatures, each assigned a role in the battle. Monsters will be simplified to provide both a challenge on the battlefield and to be easy to run and to allow for quick setup.
The goal of the book is in a sense to soften the blow to the veterans, shaping expectations as to what the game will provide and what will be left behind. The book is not required to run 4.0 and no rules are presented. It is just a glimpse of the future of D&D, and the design path it will follow.
|Jennifer Clarke Wilkes +
|Help Wanted Reason
|Image Needed +
|0786948027 +
|Item Code
|Media Type
|Paperback +
|Page Count
|95 +
|Publication Date
|2008 +
|Wizards of the Coast +
|Dungeons and Dragons 4e +
|Wizards Presents: Worlds and Monsters +


text:
DiM wrote:nietzsche wrote: I'm sorry, until phpbb comes up with a way to do it without having to save the sigs and it's easy to do it (2-3 minutes) it won't happen.
there is a way to limit sig size with the use of a phpBB add-on.
here it is: http://www.phpbbsmith.com/projects/phpbb3/signature-restrictions.html
i've told the admins about this and it was dismissed because apparently they don't want to get complicated with add-ons and stuff like that.
It's because it's a one-guy operation.
If there was a boss, he would simply tell the programmers to implement something, because it's a good idea. But lack doesn't think in terms of good idea/bad idea anymore, he think's in terms of what he can do easily. He is the boss, and he tells himself to do only things he's comfortable doing.
The YouTube tag, I was bugging and bugging, show them the code and finally they did it, and to be honest it's because having Youtube embedded looks very cool. But I also show them the code for the "Like" option but it was more work and I bet he doesn't want to do it because it will take him longer, like 1 day.
So we gotta make a big deal of the Signature file size for it to be implemented. And I agree with OP, some animated signatures make the threads very difficult to read, lately PS' signatures, but there have been others. What I do is I use adblock to hide em.
The easiest solution I bet would be to allow only jpgs and pngs as signatures. No gifs, but this is not ideal because some animated signatures are not as heavy on the browser. I have a fairly fast computer, but I have 2 or 3 browsers open at a time, and each with more than 5 tabs open, so to scroll down on threads filled with this type of signatures it's noticeable.


text:
What if Breaking Bad was all a bad dream? This awesome video featuring Bryan Cranston and Jane Kaczmarek will supposedly be included as a bonus feature in an upcoming Breaking Bad box set, but is already making the rounds (and subsequently being taken down, so get it while you can!):
- Reposted by


text:
Although it's probably the No. 1 new year's resolution, successful weight loss eludes most people, including those who need it most. I've written about weight loss before, and shared my most effective strategies yet I realize that there are still many people who struggle when it comes to dropping a few pounds.
Because there is so much conflicting information about how to lose weight, many people are confused and overwhelmed by the thought of it. Every second magazine I see in the stores promises to help you get a flat tummy or rock-hard abs in a few short weeks. I saw one the other day advertising how you could lose 30 pounds in three months like a famous pop star.
If you're determined to lose weight and are looking for some direction, here's a no-nonsense, tried-and-true program for building muscle, burning fat and being happy with your body. I can't actually make you follow through every step of the way, but I can be sure you know what to do and how to do it.
Always consult your physician before beginning or modifying your fitness program.
Weekly training schedule
I truly believe that an individual should be able to maintain their body weight at desirable levels by doing regular resistance training and eating properly. You shouldn't need to grind away at cardiovascular exercise for hours each week just to keep from gaining fat. If this is the case, then you're eating too much. For anyone whose goal is to steadily lose body fat, I find some cardio is helpful, and the following schedule works very well:
■ Monday/Wednesday/Friday:
Full body resistance training program — 40 to 60 minutes
■ Tuesday/Thursday:
Cardiovascular exercise — 30 to 45 minutes
■ Saturday: Be active
■ Sunday: Rest
The full-body resistance training sessions will jump-start your metabolism by stimulating your muscle tissue. This will increase the number of calories that you burn during all activities. By training the body on non-consecutive days, you'll give your muscles time to recover and repair so they're ready to go for your next workout.
The cardiovascular activity days will improve your cardiovascular health, while burning extra calories.
Having a day on the weekend for activities like cycling, hiking, kayaking or sports will ensure enough variety in your week to prevent boredom, while providing a cross-training benefit. Resting your body one day per week is essential for re-charging your engine and keeping your energy levels up.
The workout
The full-body workouts recommended in this program aren't specific when it comes to particular exercises, and the exercises can be changed from one session to the next. The important thing is that you use as much of your muscle mass as possible for the duration of the training session.
The more muscle mass you use, the more calories you'll burn, and the greater the benefit, both during the workout and afterward.
One approach is to take all of the major muscle groups in the body and pair them up.
The three larger muscle groups that require compound exercises are the legs, back and chest.
The smaller muscle groups that are targeted with more isolated exercises are the shoulders, biceps and triceps.
Pair a large group with a small group (such as legs + shoulders; back + triceps; chest + biceps) and choose two exercises for each muscle group.
Perform three sets of 10 to 15 reps of the first exercises, alternating between the muscle groups, then move on to two sets of 10-15 reps for the next exercises. Repeat for each pair of muscle groups.
A workout might look something like this:
■ Warm-up
■ Resistance exercises, such as the following
Squats and DB shoulder press — 3 sets 10-15 reps
Walking lunges and upright rows — 2 sets of 10-15 reps
Seated cable rows and overhead tricep rope — 3 sets of 10-15 reps
Lat pulldowns and bench dips — 2 sets of 10-15 reps
Incline DB press and barbell curls — 3 sets of 10-15 reps
Pushups and DB hammer curls — 2 sets of 10-15 reps
■ Core work
This may seem like a lot of sets but if you keep moving from one exercise to the next, and only rest when changing exercises, you'll get through the whole workout, including warm-up and core work, in 45 to 60 minutes.
Nutrition: The key ingredient
There are dozens of books and websites devoted to eating for weight loss. I've seen so many of my clients succeed with the approach of eating four to five small meals, evenly spaced throughout the day, that I'm not sure why anyone would do anything else. Choose high quality foods, avoid snacking, and keep sugars, fats and alcohol to a minimum. Limit the amount of carbohydrates that you eat in your last two meals of the day.
Keeping a food diary of everything you eat will help keep you accountable, and drinking lots of water will improve your digestion, absorption and removal of waste products.
Rob Williams is a kinesiologist and posture specialist in downtown Vancouver: williamshealthgroup.com


text:
Produced messages are delivered for routing and subsequent delivery to consumers using physical destinations in the JMS provider. A physical destination is identified and encapsulated by an administered object (a Topic or Queue destination resource) that an application component uses to specify the destination of messages it is producing and the source of messages it is consuming.
If a message-driven bean is deployed and the Queue physical destination it listens to doesn't exist, the GlassFish Server automatically creates the physical destination. However, it is good practice to create the Queue physical destination beforehand.
You can create a JMS physical destination in the following ways:
Use the Administration Console. Open the Resources component, open the JMS Resources component, then select Physical Destinations. For details, click the Help button in the Administration Console.
Use the asadmin create-jmsdest command. This command acts on the default JMS host of its target. For details, see the Oracle GlassFish Server 3.0.1 Reference Manual.
To purge all messages currently queued at a physical destination, use the asadmin flush-jmsdest command. This deletes the messages before they reach any message consumers. For details, see the Oracle GlassFish Server 3.0.1 Reference Manual.
To create a destination resource, see Creating JMS Resources: Destinations and Connection Factories.


text:
Tanzanians see official hand in elephant poaching
OPEN WILDERNESS NEAR ARUSHA, Tanzania (AP) — Pratik Patel gazed glumly as the herder's scrawny brown dogs moved between piles of bones to eat the rotting elephant flesh. He pointed to the nearby road and wondered aloud: How could poachers kill an elephant just 5 kilometers (3 miles) from Tanzania's main safari highway?
Conservationists have long warned of the existential danger that poachers pose to Africa's elephants. And it's in Tanzania, home of the Serengeti game reserve and one of the world's two largest elephant populations, that the scale of the killings and the involvement of government employees may be the most chilling.
The three elephant corpses seen by an Associated Press reporter eight weeks ago lay in a game park just a few miles from a busy junction outside Arusha, a city of 500,000 people.
"Twenty-four elephants were shot within 10 square miles over the last three months. Thirty miles from here there are another 26 carcasses," said Patel, a safari tour operator trying to raise the alarm about the country's dying elephants. "And this is just a teaser. If we go to southern Tanzania I can show you 70 carcasses in one day," he said, referring to the Selous, the world's largest game reserve.
The man tasked with saving Tanzania's elephants is Khamis Suedi Kagasheki, minister for natural resources and tourism. Patel believes Kagasheki, a former intelligence officer, is trying hard to beat the poachers, but is up against a government cabal unwilling to give up illegal profits.
Much of the demand for ivory is in Asia, especially China, luring poachers across Africa to slay the giants and cut out their tusks for rewards far beyond the daily wage. According to CITES, the international body that monitors endangered species, the illegal ivory trade has more than doubled since 2007.
Every week brings new reports of elephant deaths and the government workers alleged to have killed them — soldiers, game wardens, police, customs officials, all complicit in the killings of the top tourism treasure for this poor East African nation of 50 million people.
Botswana, the Central African Republic, Chad, Congo and Kenya are also suffering from elephant poaching. But Iain Douglas-Hamilton, the founder of the London-based nonprofit Save The Elephants, says he is most worried about Tanzania's because of its huge population — somewhere between 40,000 and 70,000.
Poaching here "is far bigger than is happening anywhere else in Africa," he said.
Accurate death tolls are nearly impossible to come by. Thirty a day, the government reported at the end of 2012. That's 10,000 a year. Double as much, some government leaders have suggested. The truth, conservationists say, is that the government doesn't know, and that many in the government don't want to know, given the suspicion of official connivance in the illegal trade.
Tour operators in Tanzania and neighboring Kenya, fearing for their livelihood, are increasing the pressure on the government to act. Kagasheki acknowledged to the AP that the poaching problem "is not a pleasant story to tell."
"It's a big problem, it's a huge problem," he said of government officials' complicity in the killing. "But I'm not saying it's beyond resolution. We are trying our best and we are getting there."
Too late for Jonathan Howells' family, however.
In February 2011, his father-in-law, Andre de Kock, a hunting guide for 35 years, was accompanying two clients in search of buffalo on the Maswa Game Reserve, a part of the Serengeti ecosystem.
At 8 a.m. they stopped their car to investigate a blue plastic bag across a river.
"Then 11 guys with AK-47s opened up. No warning. No shouting. They opened up, killing Andre with three shots. One in the foot, one in the belly and one in the temple, while he was sitting in his car," Howells said.
The gunmen — 11 by police count — fled. Help arrived five hours later. In the blue bag were more than a half dozen tusks, each 1 meter (3 feet) long or less — all from young bulls. Scattered in the grass by the river's edge were hundreds of shells from armor-piercing bullets, military-grade ammunition available only to government security forces.
A manhunt began, but within two days all the local police — the first responders — had been reassigned, because, Howells said, they had been tipping off the poachers.
Four people were eventually arrested, he said. More than two years later they are still in prison awaiting trial.
Motioning toward his wife, Howells said her father had died "for less than 18 kilos (40 pounds) of ivory, which two years ago had a street value of less than $1,800."
Today, according to the Born Free Foundation, an international wildlife charity, black market ivory sells in Asia for around $1,300 a pound (nearly $2,900 a kilogram). Poachers in Tanzania's bush get $100 for a pound ($220 per kilogram), Patel says.
In the region around Lake Manyara National Park and Tarangire National Park, where the three elephant carcasses lay, the elephant population is about 3,000 and falling.
Charles Bujiku runs a unit called Village Game Scouts, low-paid Maasai villagers trying to protect the animals on their communal land. Asked if government agents are involved in poaching, Bujiku flashes a big smile, and says: "I think I don't know."
But then he notes that the army, the Tanzania People's Defense Force, has a camp just up the hill, and he pulls out a recent poaching report.
On Jan. 20 an army sergeant was caught helping to transfer a tusk. The report shows a man in army fatigues sitting cuffed in the back of a truck. Beside him sits a curved tusk.
"A lot of the junior game scouts in wildlife division and junior police officers are involved," said Patel, the safari operator.
"For elephants to be shot at the magnitude they are being shot at, being able to have the ivory transferred from game reserves to port, being shipped to the Far East — it's not the guy at the village level that has the capability. It goes all the way to customs, Tanzania Revenue Authority, Port Authority. It needs influence and influential people."
Anti-poaching units hired to patrol private reserves have found text messages between poachers' phones and government officials, Patel said. "Game scouts, poachers and security forces are all talking to each other. Orders were being placed. Orders were being fulfilled. Accomplices were brought in. The transport of the goods from the source to the city was being facilitated at a high level," Patel said.
At last month's gathering in Thailand of signatories to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya were threatened with sanctions, along with Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and China. Those countries now must implement a detailed plan of action to stop ivory sales.
A CITES-led project that monitors about 40 percent of Africa's elephant population estimated that 17,000 elephants were illegally killed in 2011 and that the 2012 number was probably the same or more.
About 70 years ago, up to 5 million elephants are believed to have roamed sub-Saharan Africa. Today fewer than a million remain. Much of the harvested ivory ends up as small trinkets.
Kagasheki, the wildlife minister, said Tanzania is working to reverse the problem.
"I'm optimistic that we'll eventually get there," he said. But he worries "that we may get there when of course big damage has already happened to the wildlife, something we are desperately trying to avoid."
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


text:
Look to Reverse Last Year's Result
NEW HAVEN, Conn.—The Yale women's fencing team will open spring competition with a Jan. 18 bout against Sacred Heart in Payne Whitney Gymnasium in New Haven, Conn.
In what has become an annual match-up in recent years, the Bulldogs and Pioneers have recorded several close verdicts against each other. Last year, Yale fell in a heartbreaking 14-13 loss to Sacred Heart—with a 5-4 win in epee and 5-4 losses in foil and sabre—while in the previous season the Bulldogs triumphed 15-12. Junior captain Lauren Miller led the way last year with a 3-0 record.
When it enters competition on Saturday, Yale will also look to build on its performance at its only fall tournament, the Dec. 8 Brandeis Invitational. There, the fencers posted a 2-3 record that included wins against Boston College (15-12) and MIT (17-10).
After the Sacred Heart match-up, the Bulldogs will travel to New York to compete at the Jan. 26 NYU Invitational before returning home to host Drew and Vassar for bouts on Feb. 1. The Ivy League Championships will take place the following weekend, hosted by Brown on Feb. 8-9 in Providence, R.I.
Fencing against Sacred Heart will kick off in Payne Whitney at 1:00 p.m. Saturday.
Report filed by James Lu '14, Yale Sports Publicity.


text:
Be Serious! Massage Parlor In Philly Busted For Alleged Prostitution
CBS reports: "Philadelphia police arrested two woman at a Center City massage parlor and charged them with prostitution following an investigation"
Please click the "Report" button below if the video on this page is not working properly.
Comments will only be displayed by verified emails. No Spamming or Racism.


text:
Rather than the traditional, honorary trip to the White House this year, the 2010 World Champion Los Angeles Lakers teamed up with NBA Cares and President Obama last week to join members of The Boys and Girls Club of Greater Washingon for an afternoon of education and service projects.
Take a behind-the-scenes look as the President and the Lakers assemble care packages and write letters for wounded military servicement and women, put together supplies for DC homeless, and compete in the "Big Brain Academy Challenge" game which builds skills in thinking, memorization, computation, analysis, and identification.
Watch the activities with the kids below — President Obama congratulated the Los Angeles Lakers on their 2010 NBA Championship in a brief ceremony. (Watch that here or read the transcript.)
(Sarah Bernard is the White House Director of Online Engagment (and a native of LA who loves the Lakers)


text:
Martina Brueckner, MD
Professor of Pediatrics (Cardiology)
Research Departments & Organizations
Pediatrics: Brueckner Lab | Pediatric Cardiology
Office of Cooperative Research
Research Interests
Cardiology; Heart Diseases; Heterotaxy Syndrome; Kartagener Syndrome; Situs Inversus
Research Summary
My laboratory focuses on the cause(s) of a type of congenital heart disease called heterotaxy. Patients with heterotaxy don't have normal development of their organs along the left-right body axis (some have the heart on the right or in the middle, instead of the normal left), and more than 90% of them have severe congenital heart disease. Currently, we are developing a large-scale international collaboration using state of the art genomic technology to identify the genes causing heterotaxy in humans. In addition, we study mice with CHD to better understand how the left-right axis is formed, and how the heart develops.
Although our medical and surgical management of patients with congenital heart disease has made tremendous progress in the past 25 years, the understanding of why CHD develops remains relatively limited. One challenge in the care of patients with CHD is that different patients with anatomically very similar disease can have greatly disparate long-term outcomes. The mechanism underlying any individual patient's CHD may have as of yet unknown impact on how well they do, and it is hoped that eventually it will become possible to tailor medical management and surgery more specifically based on an individual's combination of anatomical abnormality and underlying developmental defect. If ciliary defects are responsible for some human CHD, it may become possible to treat the later manifestations of the disease, such as the myocardial dysfunction observed in many adult patients who have had successful surgery for their CHD, with drugs aimed at restoring more normal ciliary signaling.
Specialized Terms: Development of left-right asymmetry; Heterotaxy syndrome; Kartagener syndrome; Situs inversus
Extensive Research Description
Brueckner Lab:
Research Interests:
Development of vertebrate left-right asymmetry
Cilia in development
Cardiac morphogenesis
The development of non-random asymmetry along the left-right axis is a unique feature of vertebrate development. Defects in this process in mouse and man commonly affect the development of the heart and result in severe congenital cardiac anomalies. The goal of my laboratory is to understand the mechanism by which embryonic cilia create and signal left-right positional information, and to investigate whether cilia have essential roles in other developmental processes. We have previously shown that the vertebrate LR axis is initiated at the mammalian node late in gastrulation. Dynein-driven motility of monocilia found on node cells generates directional flow of extraembryonic fluid, termed "nodal flow". The direction of nodal flow is determined by the inherent chirality of the cilium itself, and artificial reversal of nodal flow is able to reverse the LR axis. Nodal flow sets up an asymmetric calcium signal found in the cells at the left border of the node. The development of LR asymmetry is also abnormal in mice with defects in the polycystin gene Pkd2, which functions in kidney monocilia as a mechanotransducer by mediating an intracellular calcium signal in response to fluid flow in the renal tubule. We have shown that Polycystin-2 protein localizes to a subset of node monocilia that are non-motile. This data suggests that embryonic cilia may be required to both create and sense nodal flow. The major foci of interest in my lab are currently:
How is the asymmetric perinodal calcium signal transmitted to the developing organs to result in asymmetric morphogenesis? Calcium signaling is being investigated by live-imaging of mouse embryos with a range of mutations affecting cilia biogenesis and function. To evaluate the relationship between perinodal calcium signals and asymmetric morphogenesis, asymmetric gene expression patterns are being correlated with calcium signals. At the cellular level, we are focusing on the inversin protein as a potential transducer of the perinodal calcium signal. Inversin is a highly conserved protein required for LR development, and it has calmodulin binding domains that are essential for its function in LR development. Studies are addressing the mechanism of inversin function in mice and in cultured polarized epithelial cells. We are using time-lapse imaging of live mouse embryos with fluorescently tagged node cells to study the potential link between perinodal calcium signals and migration of node cells.
What is the role of ciliary genes in human heterotaxy? We are collaborating with the laboratory of Richard Lifton in the Dept. of Genetics at Yale to perform a large-scale genomic analysis of human patients with heterotaxy. Analysis of copy-number variation in a cohort of patients with Htx identified >40 novel candidate genes for human Htx. These genes cluster in several developmental pathways, some of which have not previously been linked to LR development. We are validating the role of these genes in animal systems including mouse, Xenopus and zebrafish, and beginning more detailed analysis of their function within the molecular framework established for LR development.
Do cilia play roles in cardiac development independent of their function in LR development? Since cilia function as mechanosensors in other fluid-filled organs they could also be fluid flow sensors in heart development. We have shown that cilia are found in the mouse embryo heart at e8.5 – e12.5, and that heart development in mice with absent cilia is much more severely affected than in mice with paralyzed cilia and isolated abnormalities of LR development. We are using mice with conditional mutations affecting cilia structure and function to generate mice with cardiac-specific ciliary abnormalities in order to investigate the mechanism by which cardiac cilia function directly in heart morphogenesis.
- Nodal flow and Calcium signaling in vertebrate left-right development
- Mechanism of Inversin function in cilia and asymmetry development
- Cardiac cilia and epithelial mesenchymal transformation in cardiac morphogenesis
- TGFbeta signaling in heart development
- Genetic control of human heterotaxy
Clinical Trials
|Study Title
|Diseases of the Cardiovascular System
|Genomic Basis of Neurodevelopmental and Brain Outcomes in Congenital Heart Disease (CHD Brain and Genes)
|Diseases of the Cardiovascular System, Genetics - Adult, Genetics - Pediatric
|Congenital Heart Disease GEnetic NEtwork Study (CHD GENES)
Selected Publications
Conserved function for embryonic nodal cilia.
Essner JJ, Vogan KJ, Wagner MK, Tabin CJ, Yost HJ, Brueckner M. Conserved function for embryonic nodal cilia. Nature 2002, 418:37-8. 2002
Two populations of node monocilia initiate left-right asymmetry in the mouse.
McGrath J, Somlo S, Makova S, Tian X, Brueckner M. Two populations of node monocilia initiate left-right asymmetry in the mouse. Cell 2003, 114:61-73. 2003
Heterotaxia, congenital heart disease, and primary ciliary dyskinesia.
Brueckner M. Heterotaxia, congenital heart disease, and primary ciliary dyskinesia. Circulation 2007, 115:2793-5. 2007
Outcomes after a Ladd procedure for intestinal malrotation with heterotaxia.
Tashjian DB, Weeks B, Brueckner M, Touloukian RJ. Outcomes after a Ladd procedure for intestinal malrotation with heterotaxia. Journal Of Pediatric Surgery 2007, 42:528-31. 2007
Monocilia in the embryonic mouse heart suggest a direct role for cilia in cardiac morphogenesis.
Slough J, Cooney L, Brueckner M. Monocilia in the embryonic mouse heart suggest a direct role for cilia in cardiac morphogenesis. Developmental Dynamics : An Official Publication Of The American Association Of Anatomists 2008, 237:2304-14. 2008


text:
It seems weird to say it, but the Lakers have played better this season without Kobe Bryant.
Sure, Bryant has his five NBA championships, his fourth-place standing on the NBA's all-time scoring list and countless game-winners. But as their 104-91 victory Friday against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Staples Center revealed, the Lakers showed they've thrived this season when they've depended on more than just one player who wears the No. 24 jersey.
The Lakers lacked four healthy point guards, including Bryant, who will stay sidelined for the next six weeks because of a fracture in the lateral tibial plateau in his left knee. But Xavier Henry posted 21 points on 8-of-19 shooting at the position.
Pau Gasol didn't have his trusty sidekick in Bryant. But Gasol had 21 points on 10-of-15 shooting, 13 rebounds and eight assists. After hitting a 3-pointer that gave the Lakers a 95-89 lead with 3:58 left, Gasol lowered himself and exchanged high fives with Nick Young as the two traded smiles every step of the way. The exchange instantly went viral.
"When I turned, he was right there in my face. He got me going," Gasol said. "We had some fun. That's important for our team, especially with everything we've gone through."
After he ended his 25-point effort with a 3-pointer that put the Lakers up 100-91 with 1:59 left, Young drew imaginary guns back into his holster. Young also took several charges to ensure Lakers fans walked away with free tacos.
"Hopefully, I can have the most charges at the end of the year," Young said. "I think I'm winning."
Yup, the Lakers (13-13) are happy despite Bryant out of the lineup. They're also 11-9 without him. Meanwhile, the Lakers went 2-3 during Bryant's presence. He had averaged 13.8 points on 42.5-percent shooting, 6.3 assists and 5.7 turnovers with a noticeable dip in athleticism and ball handling.
The Lakers still miss Bryant, mindful he was shaking off rust stemmed from rehabbing his left Achilles tendon for the past eight months. But in a season in which the Lakers have prided themselves on overachieving, Bryant's latest setback only fed into his teammates' resolve in overcoming the odds.
It wasn't always easy.
Minnesota chipped away at double-digit Laker leads multiple times. The Lakers' 19 turnovers also represented a few gaffes. Henry once dribbled off his foot at midcourt. Young once threw a lob pass that didn't hit the rim. But the Lakers also provided plenty of energy to stave off Bryant's absence for one night.
"That's how you should play. This is fun," Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni said. "They have the best job in the world other than maybe mine. If it isn't fun, something's wrong."
Bryant didn't attend the Lakers' game Friday against Minnesota, and he and Steve Nash (back) will rehab in Los Angeles during the team's two-game trip with stops at Golden State (tonight) and Phoenix (Monday). Jordan Farmar and Steve Blake will travel, but the Lakers estimated Blake will stay absent for five more weeks while nursing a hyperextended right elbow. The Lakers will re-examine Farmar's strained left hamstring on Dec. 24 in hopes he could play Christmas Day against the Miami Heat at Staples Center.
Can the Lakers make the playoffs with a depleted roster?
"We can do that," said D'Antoni, who estimated the Lakers would need to win either 45 or 46 games to secure a spot. That means the Lakers would have to go at least 34-23 through the next four months.
"We got to be a little lucky and we're going to have to start treading a little bit above .500 for a while," D'Antoni said. "If we can do that, then we might get some calvary later on when we need it."
Tall task indeed since the Lakers currently rank 10th in a Western Conference, Then again, so is winning without Bryant.


text:
NEW YORK — The list of the Best and Worst States for Fit Kids was released this month. Connecticut, New York and Vermont top the list with Alaska, Nebraska and Nevada filling up the bottom rungs of the in-shape children ladder.
After five months of studying mandated school fitness and nutrition policies, along with more than a dozen other factors relating to a healthy lifestyle, such as the availability of safe playgrounds, rates of participation in youth sports and the number of fast-food restaurants, Child magazine ranked states (see list below) from best to worst for fit children.
The magazine found that only one state required daily physical education classes for all students and only one in four specified a reasonable physical education class size. Only two-thirds of the schools teach elementary school students about nutrition.
For more information or to see where your state falls on the complete list go to: www.childmagazine.com.
Top 10 States
- Connecticut
- New York
- Vermont
- Massachusetts
- Missouri
- Maine
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Arkansas
- Illinois
Bottom 10 States
41. Iowa
42. Wyoming
43. Idaho
44. Alabama
45. South Dakota
46. Kansas
47. Mississippi
48. Nevada
49. Nebraska
50. Alaska


text:
On this Page
Related Pages
Symptoms of benign prostate enlargement
The prostate is a small gland, located in the pelvis, between the penis and bladder.
If the prostate becomes enlarged, it can place pressure on the bladder and urethra (the tube through which urine passes).
This can affect how you pee and may cause:
- difficulty starting to pee
- a frequent need to pee
- difficulty fully emptying your bladder
In some men, the symptoms are mild and don't need treatment. In others, they can be very troublesome.
Read more about the symptoms of benign prostate enlargement.
Many men worry that having an enlarged prostate means they have an increased risk of developing prostate cancer. This isn't the case.
The risk of prostate cancer is no greater for men with an enlarged prostate than it is for men without an enlarged prostate.
Causes of benign prostate enlargement
The cause of prostate enlargement is unknown, but it is believed to be linked to hormonal changes as a man gets older.
The balance of hormones in your body changes as you get older and this may cause your prostate gland to grow.
Diagnosing benign prostate enlargement
You might have several different tests to find out if you have an
enlarged prostate.
Your GP may do some of these tests, like a urine test, but others might need to be carried out at a hospital.
Some tests may be needed to rule out other conditions that cause similar symptoms to BPE such as prostate cancer.
Read more about diagnosing benign prostate enlargement.
Treating benign prostate enlargement
Treatment for an enlarged prostate will depend on the severity of your symptoms.
If you have mild symptoms, you won't usually need immediate treatment but you'll have regular prostate check-ups.
You'll probably also be advised to make lifestyle changes, such as:
- drinking less alcohol, caffeine and fizzy drinks
- limiting intake of artificial sweeteners
- exercising regularly
- drinking less in the evening
Medication to reduce the size of the prostate and relax your bladder may be recommended to treat moderate to severe symptoms of BPE.
Surgery is usually only recommended for moderate to severe symptoms of BPE that have failed to respond to medication.
Read more about treating benign prostate enlargement.
Complications of prostate enlargement
Benign prostate enlargement can sometimes lead to complications such as:
- urinary tract infection
- acute urinary retention
Acute urinary retention (AUR) is the sudden inability to pass any urine.
Symptoms of AUR include:
- suddenly not being able to pee at all
- severe lower abdominal pain
- swelling of the bladder that you can feel with your hands
Go immediately to your nearest accident and emergency (A&E) department if you experience the symptoms of AUR.


text:
The whole busuu.com team wishes you a Happy New Year, Feliz Año Nuevo, Bonne Année, ein Frohes Neues Jahr, Feliz Ano Novo, Felice Anno Nuovo, С Новым Годом, Szczęśliwego Nowego Roku, Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun and عامٌ سَعيدٌ!
To celebrate the new year, we are offering you a huge 15% discount on all our products!
It's the perfect time of the year to get your language learning back on track. With busuu.com, you'll find it easy to stick to your new year's resolutions. Interact directly with native speakers for an important motivational boost!
Experience our award-winning Premium features for less!
With our New Year´s discount, you can get access to all our Premium features for just 4.24 EUR per month. Simply use the code JAN2012 and get 15% discount on our Premium Membership. This discount is only available until 31 January 2012. Don't miss out! Use the code here.
Get access to key phrases and dialogues, and listen to them too! And record your voice to get feedback on your pronunciation from the busuu.com community's native speakers.
Take a look at our full list of features to discover all the advantages:
So, become a Premium Member to improve your language skills even faster! Remember, this 15% discount is only valid until 31 January 2012 so upgrade now!
We wish you successful language learning in 2012!


text:
Feb. 19, 2010
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, VT-Fourteen University of Massachusetts Dartmouth swimmers and four relay teams advanced to the finals on the first day of action at the three-day New England Intercollegiate Swimming and Diving Association Division II and III Championships at the Upper Valley Aquatic Center Friday.
For the women, sophomore Kim Moore (Billerica, MA/Billerica HS) advanced by finishing sixth in the 500 yard freestyle in 5:33.87, freshman Morgan Cooper (Sunderland, MA/Frontier Regional HS) was eighth in the 50 yard breaststroke in 33.60 seconds, freshman Maggie Conlon (Methuen, MA/Methuen HS) was 12th in the 200 backstroke in 2:20 56 and freshman Meredith Maki (Holden, MA/Wachusett Regional HS) 18th in 2:22.55, junior Lindsay Little (Danvers, MA/Danvers HS) was 17th in the 50 freestyle in 27.07 seconds, and senior Kathleen Foley (Haverhill, MA/Haverhill HS) was fifth in the 200 individual medley in 2:22.80. The 200 yard freestyle relay team of senior Kaitlyn Kewriga (Stoughton, MA/Stoughton HS), Foley, sophomore Carly Wadsworth (Haverhill, MA/Haverhill HS) and Little was 16th in 1:50.73, while the 400 medley relay team of Maki, Foley, Cooper and Conlon was ninth in 4:21.02.
For the men, junior David Adams (Tyngsboro, MA/Tyngsboro HS) advanced by finishing 12th in the 50 yard freestyle in 23.55 seconds, and finishing eighth in the 100 yard butterfly in 55.71 seconds. Junior Craig Johnson (Acushnet, MA/New Bedford HS) was fifth in the 100 butterfly in 54.30 seconds, freshman Jake Pesante (Wakefield, RI/South Kingston HS) was 15th in the 500 yard freestyle relay in 5:06.74, freshman Chris Dodge (Holden, MA/Wachusett Regional HS) was 12th in the 200 yard backstroke in 2:10.66, junior Steve Szarek (Middletown, CT/Middletown HS) was fifth in the 50 yard breaststroke in 27.96 seconds and freshman Matt Dean (Londonderry, NH/Londonderry HS) was eighth in 28.93 seconds, junior David Lyons (Haverhill, MA/Central Catholic HS) was sixth in the 200 yard individual medley in 2:06.60, while freshman Kevin Janofsky (Brookfield, CT/Brookfield HS) was 10th in 2:16.01. The 200 yard freestyle relay team of Dean, Szarek, Lyons and Pesante was seventh in 1:32.57, while the 400 yard medley relay team of Dodge, Szarek, Johnson and Pesante was fourth in 3:44.52.
"We had some great swims, and we have athletes in almost every event in the finals," said UMass Dartmouth Head Coach Cathy Motta.
The meet will conclude Sunday.


text:
World Bulletin / News Desk
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan brandished what he said was a file of graft allegations against a senior opposition figure on Sunday, raising the stakes in a political battle after a corruption investigation implicated his own government.
Mustafa Sarigul, the main opposition's candidate for Istanbul mayor, dismissed the allegations as "dishonourable propaganda" on Twitter. He had earlier said all accusations against him had been investigated and dismissed.
Erdogan appeared on live television, holding up enlarged copies of what he described as a report prepared by Sarigul's own party that he said listed "improprieties" during the candidate's time as mayor of the middle-class borough of Sisli.
"Corruption to do with building permits occurred. Hundreds of millions of lira of improprieties were conducted," Erdogan said, referring to what he said were allegations in the report.
"At the Sisli municipality, starting with the Sisli mayor, they continually turned a blind eye and facilitated illegal building ... All of this is in this file. They cooperated with the construction mafia. In exchange for bribes, they secured extraordinary unfair profits."
Sarigul is standing in a municipal election, slated for March 30, that is seen as a test of the popularity of Erdogan's ruling AK party in the wake of the wider graft investigations and large-scale anti-government protests in June.
"Dishonourable propaganda is the game of losers. You cannot stop our big march with slander and defamation," Sarigul said on his Twitter account. "I understand the prime minister's excitement. It's the panic of losing, it has obstructed reason."
Sarigul's Republican People's Party (CHP) accused Erdogan of bullying and defied him to make public any accusations he cared to level when he first threatened to divulge the file on Friday.
Turkey's prime minister has been fending off graft charges against members of his inner circle after a police investigation came to light last month.
Erdogan has said the operation, which included the arrest of three sons of cabinet ministers and businessmen close to the government, was a "coup plot" against his AK Party, in power since 2002.
The prime minister said the allegations against Sarigul had been made in a report prepared by the CHP in 2004.
Sarigul, 57, left the CHP in 2005 and only returned in late 2013 to run on the CHP ticket for the topIstanbul job - a post held by Erdogan in the 1990s.
Erdogan on Sunday denied having any role in the state banking regulator's decision this month to seize all of Sarigul's assets, reportedly in connection with an unpaid loan from the 1990s. He said the watchdog was acting on new information.
Last Mod: 27 Ocak 2014, 10:03


text:
Thinking about the direction of your career?
KoenigRubloff is Committed to Your Success
I am glad that you are considering KoenigRubloff for your next career move.
There is a new spirit at KoenigRubloff and we are confident about the future of Chicago real estate. KoenigRubloff is one of the finest real estate brokerages in the Chicago area with a great history. We are confident in an even brighter future by aggressively pursuing an increase in market share.
Like any real estate firm, we are only as good as our sales agents. Our future growth depends upon recruiting and retaining the best talent in the industry and currently over 1,600 of the best and brightest real estate professionals in our market place call KoenigRubloff home. They do so because they know we are committed to creating opportunities for their success and an atmosphere where agents can develop their careers in real estate to the highest potential.
We provide outstanding administrative support, agent training, cutting edge marketing tools, and experienced coaching from our branch executives. KoenigRubloff has 23 convenient locations around the Chicago area and Harbor Country for our agents to work from. All of our offices offer the latest technology for online access, voicemail, and server support. The following pages give you an overview of what you can expect as an agent at KoenigRubloff.
You have an important career decision to make and I invite you to consider KoenigRubloff. By giving you the support you need to help you reach your goals and by keeping our professional standards high, we can make a difference in your career. Success awaits you. Welcome to KoenigRubloff.
Nancy Nagy
BHHS KoenigRubloff Realty Group


text:
What happens when a YouTube video surfaces with a slide-show of three quick pics of Autobot leader Optimus Prime in truck form, what looks like a leg and potentially Ratchet in vehicle form? Each and every webmaster of each and every Transformer fan site on the web collectively loses control over their sphincter muscles and pubococcygeus muscles and simultaneously release fecal matter and semen into their husky-sized shorts. Sounds graphic? Well, we just wanted to know what we're dealing with over here. All the pics after the jump.
EXCLUSIVE TRANSFORMER PICS: Ironhide Spotted On Wilshire Blvd! [internal]


text:
February 21, 2012
By -, -
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Sandy Jenkins of Ave Maria (Fla.) has been named the final NAIA National Division II Women's Basketball Player of the Week for the 2011-12 season, the national office announced Tuesday. Jenkins was selected based on her performances from Feb. 13 – 19 and was chosen out of a pool of conference/independent/unaffiliated groupings.
Jenkins, a 6-foot senior forward, led the Gyrenes to their first The Sun Conference regular-season championship with wins against Southeastern (Fla.), 72-67, on Feb. 14 and against Florida Memorial, 72-50, on Feb. 17, before upsetting then-No. 14 St. Thomas (Fla.), 72-51, on Feb. 18. In Ave Maria's 72-67 victory over Southeastern, she recorded her 15th double-double of the season with 18 points and a career-high tying 20 rebounds, while also becoming the second player in program history to reach 1,000 points. Two games later against St. Thomas, Jenkins added another milestone to the week, scoring a career-best 25 points on a 9-for-14 effort from the field and perfect 7-of-7 mark at the charity stripe.
For the week, she averaged 17.7 points, 11.3 rebounds, 2.3 blocks and 3.0 steals, while shooting 52.4 percent (22-of-42) from the field.
Jenkins is one of nine players averaging a double-double this season with 15.3 points and 10.7 boards per game. One of the NAIA's best rebounders, she ranks second nationally in offensive rebounds per game (4.7), fifth in total rebounds (299) and seventh in rebounds per game (10.7).
For a complete listing of all the national statistical leaders, click here.
Nominees: Samantha Wolford, Siena Heights (Mich.); Katlyn Mary, Tabor (Kan.); Chelsea Andorka, Daemen (N.Y.); Lindsey Waters, Union (Ky.); Amber Ramlo, Jamestown (N.D.); Emily Walker, College of the Ozarks (Mo.); Anna Jones, Iowa Wesleyan; Shayla Fetters, Corban (Ore.); Kendra De Jong, Northwestern (Iowa); Laura Carroll, Asbury (Ky.); Alexis Harkins, Mount Vernon Nazarene (Ohio); Jolise Limcaco, Menlo (Calif.); Emily Ragsdale, Judson (Ill.).
2011 Composite Award Winners (Schedule)
Week 1: Lindsey Waters, Union (Ky.)
Week 2: Kendra De Jong, Northwestern (Iowa)
Week 3: Kayla Drake, Saint Francis (Ind.)
Week 4: Teonika Webb, Virginia Intermont
Week 5: Kami Kuhlmann, Northwestern (Iowa)
Week 6: Alexsis Brown, Cal Maritime
Week 7: Amber Kistler, Concordia (Neb.)
Week 8: Sandy Jenkins, Ave Maria (Fla.)


text:
The latest scandal surrounding Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) relates to Hurricane Sandy relief grants in Hoboken.
Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer (D) claims Christie's administration withheld hurricane relief grants as punishment because she didn't back a zoning change for a landowner with ties to one of Christie's top appointees at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Zimmer alleged, in a Saturday report from MSNBC, that in May 2013 Lieutenant Gov. Kim Guadagno (R-N.J.) told her Sandy relief grants would be held up unless Zimmer backed a zoning change sought by the Rockefeller Group — a real estate development firm that owns a 4-acre development site in Hoboken, a city of 50,000 across the Hudson river from New York City. Rockefeller is represented by David Samson, whom Christie appointed to serve as Chairman of the Port Authority.
Zimmer did not support the designation, and Hoboken's city council did not adopt it. And when Hoboken applied for over $100 million under the state-federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) to protect the city against future flooding, it received just $142,000.
The Christie Administration has pushed back aggressively against Zimmer's claims. On Monday morning, Guadagno called them "offensive" and "false." She said Zimmer "mischaracterized" their May conversation. She said "I deny any suggestion made by Mayor Zimmer that there was ever any condition on the release of Sandy funds by me." But she hasn't said exactly what they did discuss. Christie spokesman Colin Reed also declined, on Saturday, to provide Business Insider with more detail on what Guadagno recalls having discussed with Zimmer.
On Saturday, Reed sent around a statement with three lines of response to the accusations: (1) Zimmer made favorable public statements about Christie in August 2013, well after she alleges this threat was delivered in May 2013; (2) MSNBC has it out for Christie; and (3) Hoboken has actually done quite well, grant-wise, having "received approval for nearly $70 million dollars worth of funding" since Hurricane Sandy.
I'll let other people consider points (1) and (2), though I should note in the interest of disclosure that I'm a paid contributor to MSNBC. But I think I can shed some light on point (3). On one hand, the $70 million figure is a red herring, which involves the Christie administration taking credit for a lot of funds it doesn't control. On the other hand, Hoboken's small grant award is a lot less strange than it sounds after you dig into the applications.
I don't know what Guadagno said to Zimmer about the Rockefeller Site. But it does look plausible to me that Hoboken would have gotten very little of what it wanted out of HMGP even if Guadagno and Christie were not trying to retaliate against Zimmer.
(1) The grants.
Hoboken has received $142,000 in Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) funds, out of nearly $300 million available to the state to distribute, or about 0.05% of program funds. It has received another $200,000 in Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds for Sandy recovery, out of a pool of $1.8 billion, or about 0.01% of program funds.
These awards look out of scale to Hoboken's situation at first glance; the city contains about 0.6% of New Jersey's population and is a low-lying area on the Hudson River that suffered severe flooding due to Hurricane Sandy.
But in both programs, the vast majority of grant funds were not available to city and town governments at all. The State of New Jersey provides a good overview of what sort of entities these grants were made available to; most were for homeowners and businesses.
Of the $1.8 billion in CDBG-DR funds, about $200 million was available for grants to governments. Only some of that $200 million has been awarded to date. Hoboken's $200,000 grant (paid out of a $5 million statewide pool for planning expenses related to hazards) came in response to the only CDBG-DR application it has filed.
"We weren't eligible for anything else," said Juan Melli, spokesman for Mayor Zimmer, in an email to Business Insider. Melli did complain that the Christie administration changed the rules midway for another grant pool, $75 million for Neighborhood and Community Revitalization, in a way that caused Hoboken to miss an opportunity to apply. Reed did not immediately respond to a request for comment about that accusation.
While Hoboken made only the one CDBG-DR application (which it received) it filed seven letters under HMGP that sought over $100 million in funding, a large request compared to the $300 million pool of funds — especially since only $25 million of that pool was for direct awards to cities and towns.
$200 million under HMGP was reserved for grants to homeowners, either to buy out their low-lying homes or elevate them to reduce flood risk. Another $53 million was allocated directly to county governments, which would have discretion to fund city-level resiliency projects and develop county-level hazard plans. $7 million was set aside for gas stations.
That left a $25 million pool for which cities and towns could apply (along with other local governments, including counties and water/sewer authorities) specifically for expenses related to energy resilience. From that pool Hoboken got a $142,000 grant for backup generators. This is a lot less than the $1.3 million Hoboken sought for this purpose, but it's typical of the grants awarded to other municipalities. The largest grant was $735,000 to Newark, the largest city in the state.
Hoboken's other applications for HMGP funds included about $30 million for pumps and sea barriers and $60 million to buy low-lying vacant land and convert it into parkland containing flood control facilities. It's hard to see how these would have been funded through HMGP, given the limited funds for cities and towns and the fact that the city-and-town funds were specifically earmarked for energy projects. The Christie administration emphasizes that it is working to pursue additional federal funds for flood control in Hoboken through a separate pilot program.
Arguably, the structure of HMGP cuts against Hoboken's interests. Buying out homeowners or raising their houses, purposes for which 2/3 of the HMGP funds were allocated, are strategies not very well suited to an urban jurisdiction like Hoboken. Hoboken's grant applications note repeatedly the cost-ineffectiveness of buying out low-lying residential units in the city, due to their high value. But whether or not that was a good policy choice, it's hard to see how it could have been a strategy for political retribution aimed specifically at Hoboken.
All of which is a long way of saying: the small grant amounts are not necessarily themselves suspicious.
(2) The "$70 million" claim.
All that said, it's weird that the Christie administration is trying to hang its hat on "$70 million dollars worth of funding" approved for Hoboken. A majority of this amount, $43 million, consists of National Flood Insurance Program claims that have been paid out to flood insurance policyholders in Hoboken. Flood insurance is, well, insurance; it's supposed to pay out when you get flooded.
It's also not responsive to Zimmer's accusation, which is that the Christie Administration withheld funds under its control as punishment for Zimmer not pushing their favored real estate project. NFIP funds are not under Christie's control. Christie's administration can help claimants who are having difficulties getting paid by NFIP (and has often discussed its efforts to do so over the past 15 months) but it can't shut off NFIP funds.
The $70 million figure also includes $8.5 million in Small Business Administration loans, $6.3 million in FEMA Individual Assistance payments, and $2 million in Federal Transit Administration funding. Again, these are federal funding sources where he might be able to put in a good word for a favored city, but he'd have little ability to withhold funds punitively.


text:
3d wallpaper HD Desktop Wallpapers for Widescreen, Fullscreen, High Definition, Dual Monitors, Mobile: http://newwallpapersfree.com/3d-wallpapersCool animated wallpaper on your desktop. nimated Desktop Software puts animated GIF wallpaper on your desktop: http://newwallpapersfree.com/animated-wallpapersDownload best wallpapers for desktop mobiles tablets in high quality HD Widescreen 4K Ultra HD: http://newwallpapersfree.com/best-wallpapersSee how textures, colors, graphics and text pop when placed on a black background. Simply click on a preview image from the roundup below to view: http://newwallpapersfree.com/black-wallpapers
happy new year to my best friend
Nights are Dark but Days are Light,
Wish your Life will always be Bright.
So my Dear don't get Fear
Coz, God Gift us a "BRAND NEW YEAR".
Hello JD saab.. Happy Belated Diwali..
Happy Diwali
Hiya ..
I am Varun..
Some Sserious Attention in General Discussion on the Mali threadis done. Kidly Moderate
Member's Choice of the Month ~ The SB Diva Alia Abdulla
Many Many Happy return of the Day Saabji!!!!
- WilDChilD -
>> RaJvEeR <<
Guru of Eroticism
4th idiot
||>> GhUnDa RaJ <<||


text:
The Canadian Research Working Group for Evidence-Based Practice in Career Development (CRWG) was formed to address two important issues in the field of career development:
The CRWG is a unique coalition of Francophone and Anglophone researchers from six Canadian universities (University of Victoria, University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, University of Calgary, Université Laval and Université de Sherbrooke) committed to proving of the impact of career development programs and services. Members of the CRWG are independent researchers who collaborate on common projects and engage in distinct and related research projects separate from the CRWG.Members of the CRWG also form collaborative partnerships with international researchers.
The CRWG formed to work towards building a framework to demonstrate that what career development practitioners do works. This site contains research reports and fact sheets that document impacts and can be used to demonstrate to funders, clients and managers the value of investing in career development programs and services.