text:
Three hundred and forty-one New York City firefighters. Twenty-three New York City police officers. Thirty-seven Port Authority police officers. Three court officers. Two EMS workers. Thousands of innocent civilians. Numbers alone, of course, cannot do them justice.
A whole portrait of America was taken from us in an instant: individuals of every race, religion, and ethnicity; fathers and mothers, children and newlyweds, brothers, sisters, and best friends. Amid our grief we now see that New York had been distracted by flash and wit and cash for too long. The heroic actions of those we lost reawakened us to the essential importance of personal courage. Overnight, and somewhat to our surprise, New York has been embraced as the nation's symbol of resilience, the indomitable heart of America.
On my desk is a list of every firefighter, police officer, and uniformed service member who died in the line of duty on that day. Their names fill 47 pages. As Mayor Giuliani's speechwriter, it has been my responsibility to write or edit each of their eulogies. The New York City Fire Department had lost 778 men from its founding in 1865 until Sept. 10, 2001. In the course of one morning, it lost nearly half that historic total. Nothing had prepared the city or the department for this volume of loss. And so it fell to four of us in our small office to do the best we could to do them justice, to say thank you, to provide some measure of comfort to their families on behalf of their city.
It should not be forgotten that September 11th began as a beautiful blue-sky day. Primary elections were being held throughout the city, and as people were lining up to vote at polling places or dropping their children off at school, suddenly they stopped and turned their heads toward a rumble in the sky. It was 8:46 a.m. The pilot of the first hijacked airplane, Mohammed Atta, was flying American Airlines Flight 11 low and loud down the length of Manhattan with the lives of 92 passengers in his hands, above stores, churches, and finally past the Washington Square Arch as he aimed for the heart of the Twin Towers.
The first plane flew by my window. I was sleeping late after a long weekend of work, when my girlfriend heard the roar of its engines approaching. She shook me and we both saw its silver underbelly pass by the window of my fifth-floor walkup in Greenwich Village. We assumed it was going to crash, but the plane seemed strangely in control to be flying so low. We waited for impact, heard a faint sound, and then saw the beginning of the black smoke curl above the trees, beyond the church steeple of Our Lady of Pompeii. Then the first sirens of that long day sounded in the distance. I recalled that a plane had once crashed into the Empire State Building in 1945. Despite the cloudless sky, I tried to convince myself that this also could have been an accident.
At 9:03, the second plane banked sickly toward the south tower as the world watched on television. An orange blossom of flame exploded on our screens as a new reality dawned. As I left the apartment for City Hall, fire companies from around the city were already racing to join those who had already arrived at what would become ground zero.
On the streets people stood frozen in mid-commute, gathered at street corners, talking to strangers or on their cellphones, gazing at the blazing scars cut into the sides of the Twin Towers. I passed a kindergarten playground opposite a firehouse where children were still playing as their teachers looked over their shoulders at the buildings burning in the distance. The steel seemed to have melted around the impact zone and it reflected the sunlight, giving the edges a quicksilver sheen, like an overwrought special effect. Despite the horror of the scene, there was an assumption that the worst had already occurred; few people thought that the towers would actually come down. After all, they had been bombed before in 1993, and though six people had died and thousands were injured, the Twin Towers still stood.
Subways were shut down and taxis proved impossible to find, so I made my way down Broadway against a sea of people evacuating uptown. Black smoke now filled the sky, evident from anywhere on the island. I expected to see mass panic, but instead the exodus was relatively calm and orderly. It was the response of a civil society to a massive attack.
Friends and colleagues were standing on the steps of City Hall, staring up at the towers burning less than three blocks away. Inside the hall there was concern and controlled panic—grim glances passed between co-workers worried that sites like Times Square and the United Nations would be targeted next. Reporters were calling the press office for comment. I looked at a newspaper someone had thrown across the desk and committed the date to memory. It contents were instantly irrelevant, news from another century. Three blocks away, people were throwing themselves from upper floors of the World Trade Center. One observer recalled them hitting the ground "like melons," as the music piped into the plaza played "How Deep Is Your Love?"
Firefighters in full bunker gear were rushing up the stairs of the trade center as workers tried to get down to safety. This was the image that survivors would repeat over and over, "as we were going down, they were going up."
In City Hall, we received word that the mayor was getting ready to do a press conference on a street one block from the burning buildings. The purpose was not only to get information out to the general public but also to get information up to those who were still trapped above the flames in the Twin Towers. They were calling out to family and friends, asking if there was anything that could be done, and in some cases, saying goodbye.
At 10:05, the south tower shuddered and collapsed; 23 minutes later the north tower fell as well. It was an avalanche in Lower Manhattan, reaching 2.4 on the Richter scale. The rumble of the buildings coming down was like a thousand jets taking off at once. Below the roar you could almost hear the collective sigh of human life, the disbelief, horror, and resignation as the steel finally buckled and 110 stories imploded, floor upon floor.
A gray cloud of debris rolled violently toward us across City Hall Park, an unforgiving wall of pulverized concrete against the still briefly blue sky. Then it hit City Hall, and everything became dark as night and quiet, except for the patter of debris hitting the roof of the old stone building. For a moment, we thought that we might all die, if not from the building collapse itself then from some biological agent swirling around in the air. Base alloys of emotion bubbled up to the surface. Tough women with children at home curled up in the rotunda at the foot of the grand staircase. Some men grew silent, scared. Others shouted conflicting orders. After several minutes, the dust cleared enough to let some light through, and we could see that Lower Manhattan had been transformed into a gray wasteland of ash and smoke pierced by sirens.
It seemed that every New Yorker knew someone in the towers. In City Hall, we worked alongside the uniformed services every day: They were friends and, in some cases, family. Capt. Terence S. Hatton was the leader of Rescue One, the city's elite rescue unit. He and the mayor's executive assistant Beth had been married four years before in a ceremony at Gracie Mansion. His photograph on her desk—face covered in soot after fighting a fire—was a constant reminder of who we really worked for and what real courage looked like. Terry Hatton could have been anything he wanted to be. He was six-foot-four, with the inner dignity of a young Gary Cooper. He could have been a movie star. But if he had been a movie star, his job would have been playing people like Terry Hatton—impossibly courageous and down to earth, possessing both integrity and intelligence. Like his father before him, Terry Hatton loved being a New York City firefighter. He had been decorated for bravery 19 times in his 21-year career. In August 2001, Terry had rescued eight people perilously stuck in an elevator shaft near the 80th floor of the World Trade Center. Rescue units were among the first responders, and on the 11th of September they were presumably the highest up the towers, racing to put out the fires and save the people who were stranded. Rescue One lost 10 of its men that day.
We lost so many of the best of New York's Bravest, including 60 off-duty firefighters who rushed to the towers when they heard of the attack. The legendary Capt. Paddy Brown was by some accounts the most decorated firefighter in the nation. He'd served two tours as a Marine in Vietnam, come back home to Queens and devoted his life to fighting fires and saving lives; lately, he'd taken up yoga and teaching blind people martial arts. We lost Father Mychal Judge, the beloved department chaplain who shepherded families through the tragedies ranging from fires to the crash of TWA Flight 800 off the coast of Long Island. We lost Chief of Special Operations Ray Downey, a 40-year veteran who led the recovery mission after the first bombing of the World Trade Center, and then FEMA's rescue effort after the attack at Oklahoma City. In return for his heroics and battlefield expertise, Downey had been appointed to serve on the president's antiterrorism task force. His sons, also in the FDNY, would spend the better part of the next month digging through ground zero, looking for their father.
In the hours and days immediately following the attack, New York City was transformed into something like Battle of Britain-era London, with the whole sections of the city evacuated and a military presence on street corners. The acrid smell of smoke and ash hung in the air, and people walked around shell-shocked—a mixture of adrenaline and despair—as they waited for what many assumed was the inevitable next attack.
Four hours after he had almost been killed in the collapse of the south tower, Mayor Giuliani appeared in front of reporters at the Police Academy on East 20th Street. He was asked how many people had been killed. "More than any of us can bear," he said promptly. He spoke without notes and inspired confidence in a hurt world because of his directness, honesty, and compassion. That evening he returned to ground zero to supervise the recovery effort and strode around the wreckage of the city he loved like a latter-day Churchill. In his morning and evening executive staff meetings away from the cameras, the mayor transformed himself into a wartime leader, decisively organizing massive amounts of information and directing the recovery effort. The mayor was now spontaneously applauded when he walked down the street. His tireless courage inspired us to rise above the devastation. Working around the clock, we met whatever challenges we faced—after all, the extraordinary is ordinary to the people experiencing it. The city's emergency command center had been destroyed in the attack, but 72 hours later, a new command center was fully operational within a pier near 52nd Street by the Hudson River. Outside the mayor's office in the new command center we pinned a Revolutionary War-era flag to the wall bearing the phrase "Don't Tread on Me."
The morning after the attack, I returned to City Hall. FDR Drive was closed to all traffic except emergency vehicles, and we drove down it with lights and sirens flashing. The beauty of the blue-sky day ignored what had occurred 24 hours before. The absence of the Twin Towers in the skyline was jarring, as was the sight of tanks and humvees posted along Park Row. Crushed police cars were lined up along the side of the road. On storefront windows, messages had been written into the dust on the glass: "Rest in peace to all the people who died today 9/11/01." City Hall was dark and empty except for a few guards. In the mayor's office, the portrait of Fiorello La Guardia stared intensely into the tomblike silence. Outside, somebody had taken care to lower the flags to half-staff.
I wandered down to St. Paul's Chapel off the southern tip of City Hall Park, passing rescue workers trudging back from the smoking skeletal wreckage of ground zero, discouraged to their bones that so few survivors had been found. When St. Paul's had been built in 1766, the land around it was considered countryside. George Washington had walked there to pray after he was inaugurated as the first president of the United States. Since 1973, St. Paul's had stood across the street from the World Trade Center. Now in the chapel's graveyard, trees were torn out at their roots, 200-year-old tombstones were cracked or knocked over entirely, ripped sections of Venetian blinds rattled amid branches, and a six-inch-thick blanket of papers, debris, and ash coated the ground. Upon closer inspection these were pieces of bills, bank statements, old photographs, and company ledgers from people who had worked in the World Trade Center. What once seemed important was brutally exposed as irrelevant. Outside the gates of the graveyard, on the edge of ground zero, an advertisement for Investor's Business Daily above a subway entrance was still intact: It read "Choose success." One minor miracle was apparent amid the devastation—St. Paul's Chapel had escaped the towers' collapse without a single broken window.
As city government mobilized to overcome the effects of the attack, the speechwriting department began to plan for the inevitable memorial services. Remote historic figures such as Churchill and Roosevelt gained new relevance with their themes of courage, defiance, and freedom from fear. A biblical quote, John 15:13—"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends"—resonated because hundreds had laid down their lives for thousands of strangers. But for us, the greatest inspiration by far came from the deep grief of ordinary New Yorkers: makeshift memorials of notes and melting candles in parks outside firehouses; the American flags that hung from almost every apartment building; the steadfast souls who stood along the West Side Highway every hour of the day and night for more than a month, holding handwritten signs and cheering the rescue workers on their way to and from ground zero. This was the spirit of a resilient city—outraged, engaged, and unified. Slowly the eulogies began to take shape, common themes woven through the contours of their extraordinary individual lives.
On Sept. 15th, the first funeral was held. It was for Father Mychal Judge, the beloved Fire Department chaplain who had been killed by debris as he administered last rites to a fallen firefighter. Three months later to the day, we laid to rest Chief Ray Downey. In between, there were more than 400 other heroes of the uniformed services and thousands of civilians from 83 nations. Their stories were told again and again in an attempt to assimilate the tragedy, to comprehend the incomprehensible.
There was the middle-aged woman from Kazakhstan who had reported early for her first day of work in America, and the young bond trader who was killed on her one-month wedding anniversary. Firefighter John Chipura had survived the 1983 terrorist attacks on the Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 of his colleagues and then served seven years as a member of the NYPD before joining the Fire Department. John O'Neil spent a career serving as a counterterrorism expert for the FBI and leading the search for Osama bin Laden after the al Qaeda attack on the USS Cole, before taking a job as director of security for the World Trade Center in August 2001. Henry Thompson was a court officer who commandeered a van and raced to the towers with two of his co-workers. Chief of the Department Pete Ganci had ordered his men to move the FDNY command post away from the trade center and then walked toward the burning buildings minutes before their collapse. Glenn Winuk was a respected lawyer who also served as the commissioner of the volunteer fire department in his hometown of Jericho, New York; after the attack he helped evacuate coworkers from his law firm and then headed toward the towers to help the rescue effort. Capt. Timothy Stackpole was a father of five who had recently returned to the job after recuperating from burns of 90 percent of his body that he sustained in a fire that killed two of his friends. Police Officer Moira Smith had been among the first to report that a plane had smashed into the towers, and hours later this mother of a 2-year-old and wife of a police officer became the first female NYPD officer killed in the line of duty. The legendary 71-year-old First Deputy Fire Commissioner Bill Feehan, who had held every position in the department, became the oldest New York City firefighter in history to die in the line of duty. Firefighting and police work tend to be family traditions in the city of New York, and the attack affected some families and communities disproportionately: the brothers Joseph and John Vigiano; brothers Thomas and Peter Langone; brothers Timothy and Thomas Haskell; cousins Manuel and Dennis Mojica; and the father and son Joseph Angelini, Sr. and Joseph Angelini, Jr.—all died together on September 11th. This was more than just the fraternal bond between firefighters and police officers; this was family.
Their services have been held in small chapels, ornate synagogues, simple firehouses, and grand cathedrals. More than a dozen were held at St. Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue. It is there that you get the fullest sense of majesty and tragedy of this city transformed.
Thousands of firefighters in their dress blue uniforms line the street. Hundreds of friends, admirers, and fellow citizens crowd the steps of the cathedral. Two fire trucks parked side by side, with their ladders raised and extended as a large American flag hung between them waves in the breeze. Everyone falls silent as the black limousines carrying the family arrive. Then the faint sound of bagpipes and drum rolls grows louder as the Emerald Society pipe band marches closer, announcing the approach of an engine truck rolling mournfully slow with a flag-covered coffin and flowers placed on top. When the truck reaches the door of the cathedral it slows to a halt, and simultaneously a thousand firefighters snap into a salute that is held until the coffin and family are led inside. During the service, prayers are read; family and friends offer eulogies, followed by the mayor and surrogates such as Fire Commissioner Tommy Von Essen and Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik. After the final blessing is given, the coffin is carried out by brothers from his fire company and lifted onto the waiting truck, on the back of which is written "We will never forget." The salute is held again as the engine disappears down Fifth Avenue, preceded by the bagpipes playing "Amazing Grace," "America the Beautiful," "Battle Hymn of the Republic," and "Going Home."
One unseasonably warm night in early December, I went walking down from my office toward ground zero. I walked without a coat, wanting to take a break and refocus my mind. We had written nearly 400 eulogies for the mayor and his surrogates to deliver over the past three months, as many as 45 in a single weekend, with the mayor attending up to nine wakes and memorials in the course of each of his marathon 18-hour days. The relentless pace required us to impose a certain degree of emotional distance to get the job done. But now the feelings of heartache increased as the workload diminished.
Rescue workers had been laboring at ground zero every hour since the disaster. At night the site was lit by spotlights, like a movie set. Fires had burned there for 80 days, rekindling when a lower level of the underground fire was exposed to the oxygen in the air. Now tourists and well-wishers on pilgrimage sought out the site, standing at great distances, taking pictures of the hulking wreckage and skeletal spires looming over the fences. There were flowers left against every gate and poetry scribbled on paper taped to the lampposts. The missing-person posters that had appeared around the city in the days after the attacks had given way to heart-wrenching goodbyes, handwritten cards with photographs promising them that we would never forget. Family members still gathered at the platform set up on the edge of the site and gazed at their loved ones' last resting place with haunted eyes. The largest mass grave in America existed uneasily as both hallowed ground and deconstruction site. The scope of the destruction, the size of the wound cut into the heart of our city, remained humbling and retrained its ability to inspire calm outrage, cold purposefulness.
On my way back from ground zero, I stopped by St. Paul's Chapel. It now served as a shrine of sorts, its metal gates covered with posters and canvas tarps upon which people wrote notes urging faith, expressing sadness, and calling for courage. Inside, the chapel had been transformed into a sanctuary for rescue workers with beds, food, clothing, and massage tables, and occasionally a string quartet to help soothe their souls. The pew where George Washington had prayed now served as a nurse's station, full of bandages and medications. The sheer functionality of this sacred space was heartening—democracy and theology effortlessly intertwined. Most startling and beautiful was this: Along all the walls of the church, posted on pillars and taped in pews, were letters and cards written by children from across the United States, covered with brightly colored drawings of eagles, firemen, the towers gratitude: "Thank you… you were my heroes… I am sorry the people died…. Thank you for saving the people… I love the city… God Bless America."
These notes sustained the spirits of the men who each day would sift through the debris, finding body parts that, as often as not, would disintegrate at the touch. Their actions and those cards were powerful examples of why our city and nation would triumph over terror: In ways both large and small, we had met the worst of humanity with the best of humanity.
After leaving St. Paul's Chapel that silent New York night I walked down Broadway, past Wall Street and Trinity Church, past Bowling Green and into Battery Park. I stared out into the dark waters of New York Harbor for a time and then looked up and was almost surprised by the sight of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island still standing serenely in our harbor.
And then, for a moment, I saw the city through history's eyes. I remembered that this was the same body of water into which Henry Hudson had sailed the Half Moon in 1609. He could not have imagined the wilderness he saw becoming home to 8 million people from all over the world. He could not have imagined that buildings taller than mountains would one day crowd the island. In less than 400 years our city has grown more than other cities have in a millennium, fueled by the energy, resilience, and innovations of each successive generation.
Our great symbol of world trade is now gone—what was intended by its architect to be a symbol of world peace was destroyed in a vicious, unprovoked act of war. But what was really attacked on September 11th was the idea of New York City and America itself—a beacon of freedom, diversity, and equal opportunity. That spirit is intact and undaunted. In fact, our devotion to those ideals has only been strengthened by the selfless heroism we have seen.
We now recognize that we are all part of a larger narrative, and while our city may never be the same, we will be better and stronger as a result of all we have experienced. Much has been taken from us, but much remains; and even in the dark, a great deal of light still shines upon the city of New York.
Editor's Note: This essay by Daily Beast Editor-in-Chief John Avlon was written in December 2001, when he was chief speechwriter to New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and included in the anthology Empire City: New York Through the Centuries, where it won acclaim as "the single best essay written in the wake of 9/11" by Fred Siegel in The New York Sun. It is republished by The Daily Beast every year on 9/11.


text:
I am always concerned about how much of a book's story to reveal. My general policy of describing only the beginning of the story, that is, what is revealed in about the first 50 pages, sometimes means that I have a difficult time in writing a review.
In particular, some authors who are writing a multi-plot book, begin the second or third strand only as late as after page 100. Sometimes I decide not to even mention that plot twist.
I actually like to write my own "blurb" in the first couple of paragraphs of my review. I think this will give the reader a different "take" on the book, see it through my eyes as it were. However when I consider what my blurb reveals about the plot, and what the official one reveals, there is no doubt that sometimes the blurb on the back of a book gives far more of the plot away.
I like also to try to tell the reader what I liked, or didn't like about the book. This will, to an extent, explain my rating of the book.
I try to adhere very strongly to the "no spoilers" principle. I believe that my own reading of the book was a voyage of discovery, and part of what I enjoyed about the book was that feeling of discovery. So I am careful not to take that enjoyment away from another reader.
I think you can see book reviews from two points of view:
- there are those that try to persuade the reader to read the book.
- there are those that the reader will come to after reading the book, and compare their experience, what they liked and disliked with those of the reviewer.
I know some readers who will not read a review of a book until after reading it, because they don't want their reading experience spoiled.
There are probably those who will criticise the sort of reviews that I write as lacking depth. If you come to my book reviews to find out about how the story ended, who killed who at the end, then you will be disappointed. I may tell you about some of the themes the author chose to explore, and I will usually try to tell you more about the author.
What are your really strong principles in reviewing a book?

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Truxedo 549801 Lo Pro QT Tonneau 15-19 Chevy Colorado/GMC Canyon 5'
Truxedo Lo Pro Qt®: Number One Selling Soft Roll Up Tonneau Cover. The Best Selling Tonneau Cover In North America. TruXedo has led the industry with new and innovative tonneau cover concepts that emphasize style, quality, durability and functionality. The TruXedo staff shares your passion for automotive customizing, which allows us to continue to expand and diversify our product line to meet your needs. As a valued customer, your satisfaction is our goal.
- Easy Trigger Latch. One Finger Release Opens Quickly And Easily
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- Floating Velcro®. Industrial Strength Velcro® Moves On The Rail And Works With The Tension Control System To Keep The Cover Tight And Taut, While Reducing Wear And Tear
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- Exclusive Side And Corner Seals. Keeps The Elements Out To Protect Your Cargo
- Improves Gas Mileage Up To 10 Percent
- Quick And Easy Installation Installs In Just Minutes With Pre Assembled, Quick Attach Header Guide
- Limited Lifetime Warranty


text:
ACLU Hails Louisiana Legislature for Passing Bill Aimed at Reducing Elderly Prisoner Population
Bill Is an Important Model for How Other States Can Address Nation's Overincarceration Crisis
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; firstname.lastname@example.com
BATON ROUGE, La. – The American Civil Liberties Union today hailed the passage of a bill in the Louisiana legislature making it easier for elderly prisoners to get a parole hearing as an important step towards reducing the state's unnecessarily high prison population.
The bill, H.B. 138, passed today by the Louisiana Senate after it was passed two weeks ago by the state's House of Representatives, will enable some prisoners to go before a parole board upon turning 60 years of age. The board can then decide to grant parole to those individuals who would pose no danger to the community upon release.
"Louisiana should not be using taxpayer dollars to lock up elderly individuals when they pose no danger to our communities," said Marjorie Esman, executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana. "The state's legislature deserves credit for tackling the state's problem of overincarceration by passing bills like this one."
Louisiana has the largest incarcerated population of any state in the nation, and half of those behind bars in Louisiana are there for non-violent offenses. The state has 1,224 people over the age of 60 locked up – three percent of the state's total prison population.
The Louisiana Department of Corrections estimates that while it costs $19,888 to house a state prisoner for a year, it costs $80,000 to house an ailing inmate.
Research also shows that the likelihood of recidivism drops significantly with age. According to state corrections statistics, only 0.3% of those released at age 55 or older recidivate and end up reincarcerated.
With the passage of today's bill, Louisiana tackled what is a national problem of needlessly incarcerating elderly prisoners. Across the nation, more than 35,000 people over the age of 60 are in prison, or 2.3 percent of the nation's total prison population.
"Today, more Americans than ever before are unnecessarily and unfairly deprived of their liberty with no benefit to public safety and at great expense to taxpayers," said Inimai Chettiar, policy counsel with the national ACLU. "Louisiana is to be commended for looking for ways to reduce its bloated prison population, and other states around the country should follow Louisiana's lead."
More information about the ACLU of Louisiana is available online at: www.laaclu.org
More information about the ACLU's national initiative to combat mass incarceration is available online at: www.aclu.org/combating-mass-incarceration
Stay Informed
Sign up to be the first to hear about how to take action.


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Thousands of teens in Los Angeles are homeless, whether it is due to growing out of the foster care system, abuse or being kicked out of their homes due to sexual orientation. Regardless of the reason, the Los Angeles Youth Network (LAYN) happily gives teens of all backgrounds a safe space to live with a unique approach: tiny homes.
According to Uproxx, senior director of Youth Development Kenneth Cook used to be homeless as a teen, and is determined to help teens have a better future. Alongside providing a transitional living program, educational enrichment, food and personal care items, Cook and LAYN provide many homeless teens with shelter courtesy of tiny homes. As an affordable method of housing the teens, the tiny homes provide them with a place to stay when there is nowhere else safe to go. Elvis Summers, the founder of My Tiny House Project L.A., is the designer of the homes.
"The housing first model works....Give people a safe place to be of their own, and they're going to be self-motivated to better their lives," Summers told Uproxx. The houses are only six by eight feet and $1,200 to create. Each tiny home is built with portable toilets, solar-paneled rooftops, and wheels. Providing the homeless with all of the necessary components of food, water and shelter, according to Summers, is "just the right thing to do."
Watch how LAYN helps homeless L.A. teens below:


text:
fseek, fseeko - reposition a file-position indicator in a stream
#include <stdio.h>
int fseek(FILE *stream, long offset, int whence);
[CX] int fseeko(FILE *stream, off_t offset, int whence);
[CX] The functionality described on this reference page is aligned with the ISO C standard. Any conflict between the requirements described here and the ISO C standard is unintentional. This volume of POSIX.1-2008 defers to the ISO C standard.The fseek() function shall set the file-position indicator for the stream pointed to by stream. If a read or write error occurs, the error indicator for the stream shall be set and fseek() fails.
The new position, measured in bytes from the beginning of the file, shall be obtained by adding offset to the position specified by whence. The specified point is the beginning of the file for SEEK_SET, the current value of the file-position indicator for SEEK_CUR, or end-of-file for SEEK_END.
If the stream is to be used with wide-character input/output functions, the application shall ensure that offset is either 0 or a value returned by an earlier call to ftell() on the same stream and whence is SEEK_SET.
A successful call to fseek() shall clear the end-of-file indicator for the stream and undo any effects of ungetc() and ungetwc() on the same stream. After an fseek() call, the next operation on an update stream may be either input or output.
[CX] If the most recent operation, other than ftell(), on a given stream is fflush(), the file offset in the underlying open file description shall be adjusted to reflect the location specified by fseek().
The fseek() function shall allow the file-position indicator to be set beyond the end of existing data in the file. If data is later written at this point, subsequent reads of data in the gap shall return bytes with the value 0 until data is actually written into the gap.
The behavior of fseek() on devices which are incapable of seeking is implementation-defined. The value of the file offset associated with such a device is undefined.
If the stream is writable and buffered data had not been written to the underlying file, fseek() shall cause the unwritten data to be written to the file and shall mark the last data modification and last file status change timestamps of the file for update.
In a locale with state-dependent encoding, whether fseek() restores the stream's shift state is implementation-defined.
The fseeko() function shall be equivalent to the fseek() function except that the offset argument is of type off_t.
The fseek() [CX] and fseeko() functions shall return 0 if they succeed.
[CX] Otherwise, they shall return -1 and set errno to indicate the error.
The fseek() [CX] and fseeko() functions shall fail if, [CX] either the stream is unbuffered or the stream's buffer needed to be flushed, and the call to fseek() or fseeko() causes an underlying lseek() or write() to be invoked, and:
- [CX] The O_NONBLOCK flag is set for the file descriptor and the thread would be delayed in the write operation.
- [CX] The file descriptor underlying the stream file is not open for writing or the stream's buffer needed to be flushed and the file is not open.
- [CX] An attempt was made to write a file that exceeds the maximum file size.
- [XSI] An attempt was made to write a file that exceeds the file size limit of the process.
- [CX] The file is a regular file and an attempt was made to write at or beyond the offset maximum associated with the corresponding stream.
- [CX] The write operation was terminated due to the receipt of a signal, and no data was transferred.
- [CX] The whence argument is invalid. The resulting file-position indicator would be set to a negative value.
- [CX] A physical I/O error has occurred, or the process is a member of a background process group attempting to perform a write() to its controlling terminal, TOSTOP is set, the process is neither ignoring nor blocking SIGTTOU, and the process group of the process is orphaned. This error may also be returned under implementation-defined conditions.
- [CX] There was no free space remaining on the device containing the file.
- [CX] A request was made of a nonexistent device, or the request was outside the capabilities of the device.
- [CX] For fseek(), the resulting file offset would be a value which cannot be represented correctly in an object of type long.
- [CX] For fseeko(), the resulting file offset would be a value which cannot be represented correctly in an object of type off_t.
- [CX] An attempt was made to write to a pipe or FIFO that is not open for reading by any process; a SIGPIPE signal shall also be sent to the thread.
- [CX] The file descriptor underlying stream is associated with a pipe or FIFO.
fopen , fsetpos , ftell , getrlimit , lseek , rewind , ulimit , ungetc , write
XBD <stdio.h>
First released in Issue 1. Derived from Issue 1 of the SVID.
Normative text previously in the APPLICATION USAGE section is moved to the DESCRIPTION.
Large File Summit extensions are added.
Extensions beyond the ISO C standard are marked.
The following new requirements on POSIX implementations derive from alignment with the Single UNIX Specification:
The fseeko() function is added.
The [EFBIG], [EOVERFLOW], and [ENXIO] mandatory error conditions are added.
The following change is incorporated for alignment with the FIPS requirements:
The [EINTR] error is no longer an indication that the implementation does not report partial transfers.
The normative text is updated to avoid use of the term "must" for application requirements.
The DESCRIPTION is updated to explicitly state that fseek() sets the file-position indicator, and then on error the error indicator is set and fseek() fails. This is for alignment with the ISO/IEC 9899:1999 standard.
IEEE Std 1003.1-2001/Cor 2-2004, item XSH/TC2/D6/42 is applied, updating the [EAGAIN] error in the ERRORS section from "the process would be delayed" to "the thread would be delayed".
Changes are made related to support for finegrained timestamps.
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This forum is a place where Engadget readers can leave feedback for our engineering team about our desktop and mobile sites. We're always trying to give you guys a better experience, and user comments are a great place to start. Drop us a line, and remember: The more specific your feedback, the better. (Oh, and be nice, please!) As a heads-up, this forum isn't for giving feedback on our editorial content, but you're always welcome to leave comments on stories and videos. (Again, be nice!) While we can't respond to every reader suggestion, we do read and consider every piece of feedback we receive. Feel free to send us a note — we'll be happy to hear from you.
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Monday, December 24, 2007
The dead weight loss of Christmas
It turns out that the AER published back in 1993 a short article by Joel Waldfogel with the same title as this post. He surveyed Yale undergraduates to estimate how much the mismatching between the gifts and the wishes of the receivers were destroying the value of the gifts. Results: between 10% and 33% are lost. Losses are at the lower end of the interval for gifts from immediate family and friends, and at the upper end for extended family. Waldfogel finds also that cash gifts are more likely when losses are likely to be high, or when there is high variation in recipient valuation.
Waldfogel's results were controversial, first because the sample was drawn from a highly unrepresentative sample of the American population: Yale undergraduates (rich, young, dependent on parents). Also people seem to value a good more when it is received compared to self-bought. This can even result in a welfare gain from Christmas. Subsequent comments (rarely has a short article in the AER generated so much discussion in the AER) highlight that it is very difficult to measure anyway, and that the sequencing of the survey questions matters.
My take on this: I have the feeling that in many cases the original Waldfogel results are accurate. Just think of all the "gift stores" that sell crap you would not buy for yourself, but is good for giving to others. But I can believe that in some situations, the sentimental value of a gift makes up for the value. Think for example about diamonds: while the diamond industry managed to create the illusion they are worth a lot, their resell value is very low. Yet, all those women receiving diamonds are overjoyed, even when they should realize the hole it created in the household budget.
Once you remove the sentimental value of a gift, it is clear that there is a dead weight loss. This extends beyond Christmas. Imagine for example housing support for the poor, as it is common in the UK. Why give a housing subsidy? Wouldn't the poor be better off with a general subsidy?
Note also that gift buying typically happens in period where buying frenzy is encouraged by stores and media, at least in the United States. I can understand that it becomes difficult for some people to exercise restraint. Such unbridled consumerism can only add to the dead weight loss.
Media often comment how important good fourth quarter shopping results are for the economy. Well, the media is most likely wrong. I would prefer to have smaller seasonal effects and a better allocation of resources.
5 comments:
Call us grinches, but our family has virtually abandoned the gist giving. It just became an empty exercise, a dead weight loss in your terminology. Quite symptomatically, my wife is very explicit in that she does not want jewelry. It is one of the poorest investments you can imagine. Better buy a gold ingot if you insist on rare metals.
- December 24, 2007 at 8:45 PM
- TStockmann said...
I doubt medieval Carnival/Mardi Gras was the best way for peasants to consume scarce calories and there was certainly more at stake than the allocation of discretionary consumption in contemporary western Christmas. Some of us crave the rhythm of comparative austerity and excess, with all the attendant waste.
I'm also not sure there's all that much opportunity cost for some of us, with modest and satified everyday tastes and habitual buyers' remorse. Even a decade of foregone Christmas shopping wouldn't buy anything more meaningful than hit-or-miss holiday gifts, like that desert island, the freedom of a significantly earlier retirement, or a thoroughly bought Member of Congress.
The charity alternative takes us out of the Economic Man analysis of the original post, and is deeply dreary to boot.
She loved the studs this year, by the way. - December 24, 2007 at 9:22 PM
But, think how dreary this time of year would be (in the northern hemisphere) without Christmas. There must be significant value in helping us through the winter solstice, since people have been doing something at this time for thousands of years.
- December 26, 2007 at 9:02 AM
If the goal of Christmas is to make winter less dreary, then it is very poorly timed. It should be in March, so we can build the anticipation as we get closer to it and survive through the dark winter.
I do not think the point of the post was to criticize the excessive consumption on Christmas, it was rather about making it more excessive, or making it as excessive with less resources by just giving people cash. - December 26, 2007 at 10:14 AM
- T-Bone said...
You're right, the media portrays it wrong. I think consumerism is just bad in general. For some reason, people assume that more GDP is always good, and that buying creates jobs.
But that is missing 2 things. One is that leisure time, pleasant environments, happiness, etc. aren't generally expressed in dollar values and are represented in GDP figures. But they sure are worth a lot to me.
2nd is that there's a better way of creating jobs than buying unnecessary items that nobody really wants and that really just create waste. That is to quit your job so someone else has to fill it. If you can't find anything that's truly worth the amount of work hours you needed to afford it, then why work, right? You'd be better off donating to charity than buying something for the sake of consumerism. - December 27, 2007 at 5:45 PM


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Friday 21 June 2024 (other days)
Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, Religious
on Friday after the Third Sunday after Trinity
on Friday after the Third Sunday after Trinity
Using calendar: United States - Ordinariate. You can change this.
How wonderful is God among his saints: come, let us adore him.
Year: B(II). Psalm week: 3. Liturgical Colour: White.
Mid-morning reading (Terce) | Romans 1:16-17 |
The power of God saves all who have faith – Jews first, but Greeks as well – since this is what reveals the justice of God to us: it shows how faith leads to faith, or as scripture says: The upright man finds life through faith.
Noon reading (Sext) | Romans 3:21-22 |
God's justice that was made known through the Law and the Prophets has now been revealed outside the Law, since it is the same justice of God that comes through faith to everyone who believes.
Afternoon reading (None) | Ephesians 2:8-9 |
It is by grace that you have been saved, through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God; not by anything that you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit.
This web site © Copyright 1996-2024 Universalis Publishing Ltd · Contact us · Cookies/privacy | |
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After the Oil Spill, Finding a Drop in the Ocean
New, highly sensitive method can track dispersant in Gulf of Mexico
In the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster in April, marine chemist Elizabeth Kujawinski recognized that a technique she had developed for entirely different reasons could readily be adapted to track the chemical components of oil from the spill, as well as the dispersant used to try to clean it up.
Kujawinski brought into play a device with a powerful 7-tesla magnet (seven times stronger than the average MRI) and an intimidating name: a Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer, or FT-ICR-MS. It can detect and measure vanishingly tiny amounts of an individual compound in a mixture containing tens of thousands of compounds.
Kujawinski spearheaded the grant proposal to install the FT-ICR-MS at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in 2007. Since then she and WHOI colleagues Melissa Kido Soule and Krista Longnecker have been using it to develop highly sensitive analytical methods to reveal the mishmash of organic matter dissolved in seawater. These molecules—either made or used by marine microbes and other organisms—are like bread crumbs that can lead researchers to key biochemical pathways that make the entire ecosystem run.
In research published online Jan. 26, 2010, in the American Chemical Society journal Environmental Science & Technology (ES&T), Kujawinski and colleagues showed that the highly powerful mass spec and their method were also well suited to detect, measure, and definitively identify minute quantities of chemical compounds from the Deepwater Horizon spill, including a compound in the dispersant Corexit. The dispersant has been used often in small amounts on the ocean surface to break down oil clumps and make the oil easier to clean up. But never has so much been used before, and never before has the dispersant been released in the deep ocean.
Kujawinski and colleagues' method is 1,000 times more sensitive than that used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to track Corexit and could be used to monitor the dispersant over longer time and distances, she said. As such, it provides a means to answer some key questions: What happened to the approximately 800,000 gallons of the dispersant released in the deep sea? Was it effective? Might it have impacts on the environment, deep-sea coral communities, and deepwater fish such as tuna?
Kujawinski received samples of seawater from in and around the oil spill region collected in May, June, and September 2010 by David Valentine, a scientist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and co-author of the ES&T paper. Using their technique, Kujawinski and colleagues provided a first glimpse of what happened to the dispersant. They detected one of the dispersant's key components, called DOSS (dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate)—in concentrations of parts per million. It was present months after it was injected into the depths, indicating that the dispersant had not been rapidly biodegraded by microbes.
The researchers also detected DOSS in even lower concentrations (parts per billion) in a plume of oil and natural gas that flowed 3,000 feet deep in a southwesterly direction away from the broken wellhead. That indicated that the dispersant did not itself become randomly dispersed, but rather became trapped in the deepwater plume of oil and natural gas.
"The decision to use chemical dispersants at the seafloor was a classic choice between bad and worse," Valentine said. "And while we have provided needed insight into the fate and transport of the dispersant, we still don't know just how serious the threat is; the deep ocean is a sensitive ecosystem unaccustomed to chemical eruptions like this, and there is a lot we don't understand about this cold, dark world."
Oil can contain more than 100,000 compounds with different physical structures, chemical properties, and molecular weights. As soon as oil from the damaged Deepwater Horizon rig began gushing into the ocean, it no longer acted as a unified liquid; rather, individual constituents of the oil acted in their own ways. Some compounds evaporated quickly. Others were consumed by bacteria. Some persisted, and of those, some (the proverbial "oil-and-water-don't-mix" variety) remained in droplets or clumps. But other components of oil have electrical charges, and these so-called polar compounds bond with similarly polar water molecules. The FT-ICR-MS can identify and measure these hard-to-detect dissolved chemicals.
"Our goal is to identify compounds in the water that could serve as tracers of the oil in the coming months and years," Kujawinski said. That ability will help researchers elucidate what happens when oil and water do mix, as they have in the Gulf of Mexico.
The FT-ICR-MS accomplishes this by measuring the mass of atoms and molecules in compounds down to the fourth number past the decimal point. So while most mass specs can distinguish between compounds weighing between 407 and 408 atomic mass units (amu) and between 408 and 409 amu, for example, the FT-ICR-MS can detect a substance with a mass of 407.0259 amu. That's precise enough to identify the singular collection of atoms—the one possible compound—that together could have that mass. It's like being able to find—in a crowd of people weighing between 145 and 150 pounds—the one guy who weighs 146.3531 pounds.
—Kate Madin, with additional reporting by Joel Greenberg
Kujawinski, Valentine, Kido Soule, and Longnecker were joined in the study by Angela K. Boysen, a summer student at WHOI, and Molly C. Redmond of UC Santa Barbara. The work was funded by WHOI and the National Science Foundation. The instrumentation was funded by the National Science Foundation and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
From the Series
Related Articles
Featured Researchers
See Also
- First Study of Dispersants in Gulf Spill Suggests a Prolonged Deepwater Fate WHOI News Release
- Elizabeth Kujawinski
- WHOI research on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
- WHOI Scientists Map and Confirm Origin of Large, Underwater Hydrocarbon Plume in Gulf WHOI News Release
- Tracking a Trail of Oil Droplets from Oceanus magazine


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Retro Color Wave Tote Bag
Retro Color Wave Tote Bag
Introducing our Adorable All-Purpose Tote Bags – where style meets functionality! Available in three convenient sizes, these totes are perfect for any occasion, whether you're headed to the beach, the farmer's market, or a day out shopping. Made from 100% spun polyester, these bags are designed to withstand the rigors of daily use while keeping you looking chic and stylish.
Choose from five vibrant handle colors to perfectly complement your unique designs. Our tote bags are not just about good looks – they boast double-stitched seams, sturdy cotton webbing straps, and a nonwoven laminate lining for extra durability. The dye sublimation printing process ensures that your all-over print is vibrant and eye-catching, making a bold statement wherever you go.
Key Features:
- Made with 100% polyester, a medium-weight fabric (6.49 oz/yd² or 200 g/m²) for everyday durability.
- Available in three sizes to meet all your storage needs, each with a spacious large compartment.
- 5 color handle options to match your style.
- Nonwoven laminate interior and cotton handles for added strength and comfort.
Elevate your everyday carry with our adorable tote bags – functional, fashionable, and fabulously you!
Envío y devoluciones
Envío y devoluciones
Debido a la naturaleza de nuestros productos, no aceptamos cambios ni devoluciones. Todas las ventas son finales. Puede leer más sobre nuestras políticas aquí:


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Liquor companies like to make drinkers think their favorite spirits always have been and always will be attached to a very particular place — Kentucky bourbon, Irish whiskey, Russian vodka.
But like many other industries, the liquor business has gone global, and a small number of players increasingly dominate the industry worldwide. The distilling may still be local, but ownership is definitely international.
The next time you enjoy a Kentucky bourbon, whether it's a Jim Beam and Coke or perhaps a Manhattan concocted with Maker's Mark, you might want to tip your glass eastward.
A Japanese company, Suntory, agreed to buy Beam Inc. for about $16 billion in cash and assumed debt. Suntory not only picked up two quintessentially American bourbons but also acquired an array of internationally renowned spirits in the deal, including Canadian Club whiskey, Sauza tequila and Courvoisier cognac.
Suntory is a private, family-run company that has focused on its home market for more than a century. But it will now have a global presence as one of the largest drinks companies in the world.
Frank Coleman, with the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, a national trade association, says if a company wants to be a global player in distilled spirits, it needs brands based in every category and from around the world.
Diageo, a British firm and the largest producer of spirits in the world, owns Johnnie Walker whiskey, Smirnoff vodka and Tanqueray gin.
Chivas Regal whiskey, Absolut vodka and Jameson Irish Whiskey are owned by the French company Pernod Ricard, the second largest distiller.
Another couple of favorites from the U.S. South — Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey and Southern Comfort — are still firmly under American control. They're owned by the Kentucky-based Brown-Forman. It was the third largest distiller worldwide until this latest deal between Beam and Suntory.
Coleman says you see a lot of deals going on in beer and wine, but these sorts of mega-deals in the spirits industry come along every three to four years.
Jeremy Cunnington, a senior alcoholic drinks analyst (now that's a great job title) with the strategy research group Euromonitor International, says it's not surprising Suntory made the bid.
It's one of the oldest distributors of spirits in Japan and has recently expanded to include other food and drinks ventures to help move beyond the shrinking Japanese market.
Suntory and Beam already had a business relationship. Suntory distributes the Beam portfolio in Japan, while the American company moves Suntory products around Asia.
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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The City Attorney's Office represents the City in its day-to-day operations. The City Attorney acts as legal adviser to the City Council, the City Manager and all officers, departments and boards of the City. The department has three divisions: Civil, Prosecution, and the City Clerk's Office.
The Civil Division is responsible for providing legal counsel and representation to the City's elected and appointed officials. It serves the public interest by providing these clients with the affordable, high quality legal advice and representation that they need to best achieve their policies and goals. The division maintains two primary offices, at the Tacoma Municipal Building and at Tacoma Public Utilities. The attorneys in the City Attorney's Office represent the City of Tacoma, and therefore cannot give legal advice to residents or other individuals or entities.
The Prosecution Division is responsible for the prosecution of all violations of City criminal codes before the Tacoma Municipal Court, and advises City departments charged with enforcement. The Prosecution Division represents the interests of the public as a whole and does not represent individuals. The attorneys and staff employed by the office are strictly prohibited from providing any legal advice to private individuals in any criminal matter.


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Since the Seven Things meme has been charging its way through the members of the PHP community (and some outside it), it's hard to keep track of who is tagging who and if those people have posted their "seven things" and tagged others. Michelangelo van Dam has tried to make things easier with his "Who Tagged Who" map mini-application that crawls through the posts looking for others who were tagged.
Trying to get a bit of overview of all people who have put up their "Seven Things" list, I created a little map that shows who tagged who with an overview of the most tagged persons.
You can also grab the XML source file if you'd like to manipulate it yourself.


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Red and White Checker Print Cake Pop Party Straws | Bulk Sizes
Product Description
Now you can buy our high quality, statement-making Cake Pop Straws in BULK quantities at wholesale prices for your next event, to resell for distribution or for your retail store to resell them!
Our paper Cake Pop Straws are made with 100% food safe paper and soy ink. Additionally, our food-safe paper straws are FDA approved and manufactured using multiple layers of thick paper constructed of only FSC certified craft paper.
Our heavy duty designer paper straws are ideal to use as cake pop sticks/ straws, stirring straws, cocktail straws and more! Best of all, our high quality "designer patterned" paper straws and sticks are perfect for party tables, candy buffet, weddings, baby showers and more.
These bulk wholesale items are sold in 3 bulk sizes: 500 CT, 2000 CT & 5000 CT
** See additional Bulk / Wholesale / Private Label Terms & Conditions - Click Here
Features & Benefits
Choosing Bakell® products ensures quality kitchen tools & baking supplies at the lowest cost. From local dessert shops to international brands, Bakell helps cake artists around the world get quality products at low cost.
Complete cupcake batches or DIY projects with cake toppers or cake pop straws. Find kitchen tools, baking equipment, rimming salts & sugars —and everything else a baker needs to live well— on Bakell.
Buying for a Business?
Looking for larger quantities to buy for a brand (custom label) or resell?Find bulk containers for products, as well as options with minimum order quantities (MOQ) for wholesale & private label cases.
• Copacking & Manufacturing Services: email@example.com


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* The new sealed design keeps the critical working components (brake, power spring, energy absorber) free of dirt, grease, water, and chemicals.
* A built-in carrying handle makes transport and anchoring safe and easy. It also provides a secondary "dropped objects" protection attachment point.
* The retractable lifeline's large pivoting anchorage handle stays in line with load for added security and allows use of a variety of connecting hardware.
* The Anti-ratcheting brake stops falls within inches and limits arresting forces to 900 lbs for added safety.
* Cast aluminum housing and heavy guage steel end plates resist damage and provide corrosion resistance.
* The self locking swivel hook with impact indicator makes connections easy, and provides a visual means of inspection and the i-Safe Intelligent Safety System is built into every unit to track inspections, control inventory, and manage information.
** Meets OSHA and ANSI requirements
*** Due to manufacturer restrictions, we are unable to ship this item outside of the United States. ***
Payment & Security
Your payment information is processed securely. We do not store credit card details nor have access to your credit card information.


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If you're looking for a reason to keep up your new years resolutions, Canadian stylist Kim XO Appelt is ready to give you one.
This episode Kim XO will inspire you to to continue your gym routine with some new outfits for working out.
Appelt showcases three brand new looks that will hopefully give you a little motivation to get to the gym.
The outfits focus on darker colours as Appelt loves wearing black to workout.
"You can't see sweat and it (black) hides a lot of lumps and bumps," laughs Appelt.
Watch below for inspiration on how to look your best at the gym this January.
Appelt is a personal and celebrity stylist with years in the fashion industry and has become a go-to expert on all things fashion.
From Jen Laporte of Disney's Freaky Friday to Kaitlyn Bristowe of The Bachelorette season 11, to Okanagan food blogger Tori Wesszer, Appelt has been key in celebrity styling.
She produces new videos every week to help her thousands of YouTube subscribers turn a shabby look into run-way chic. She also has a strong social media following with more than 58,000 followers on Instagram.
Her passion to help clients find their own style, and her ability to see trends and pull together key pieces, have led the way to a successful styling career.
How to walk in high heels? What's the best way, to tie your Converse shoes? How to pull off a baseball cap? Appelt has you covered.
Trained in New York, Appelt has styled both local television personalities and A-list celebrities through her company Style by Kim XO.
"As a style expert and an influencer, I work with select designers and brands to assist them in promoting their brand," Appelt said. "My services include private launch parties, fashion shows and brand placement."
Be sure to look for Kim XO every Fashion Fridays on the Life channel on all Black Press Media websites.
And in case you missed last week:


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Statement of Eileen Claussen
President, Center for Climate and Energy Solutions
March 4, 2013
We applaud the nomination of Gina McCarthy to be the next administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
President Obama has declared that unless Congress acts, he's prepared to use his executive authorities to strengthen climate action, and EPA is certain to play a strong role in these efforts.
As the nation's top air quality regulator, Ms. McCarthy has a deep understanding of the challenges EPA faces in applying the Clean Air Act to the urgent task of reducing carbon emissions. From her years in state government, she also brings a crucial understanding of the role of states in implementing new EPA carbon standards.
In moving forward, it is critical that EPA consult closely with states, business and other stakeholders. We look forward to working with Ms. McCarthy to arrive at strong, sensible greenhouse gas standards.


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OCEAN CITY — The Ocean City Police Department (OCPD) last month busted two Boardwalk businesses for allegedly displaying and selling drug paraphernalia.
On Aug. 24 and again on Aug. 30, OCPD patrol officers discovered two different Boardwalk businesses selling smoking devices fashioned in a manner to smoke controlled dangerous substances (CDS) and seized the illegal items. At the Shore Side Shop on Aug. 24, the alleged CDS smoking devices were discovered by police in a box on the floor behind the counter.
On Aug. 30 at NY Piercing, the suspected CDS smoking devices were observed in a large glass case. At the time of the discovery, the smoking devices were found in close proximity to various items that promoted the use of marijuana including ashtrays, T-shirts and statues all displaying pot leaves. During the investigation, police consulted with the Worcester County State's Attorney and determined the items were in violation of state law prohibiting the sale of such CDS paraphernalia.
As a result, on Aug. 30-31, OCPD officers made applications for charges of possession and distribution of CDS paraphernalia for the two business owners, identified as Benjamin Darmony, 48, of Berlin, who owns Shore Side Shop, and Claude Darmony, 23, of Ocean City, who owns NY Piercing. Ocean City Police had previously met with both owners in June and furnished them with a 15-page packet containing the Maryland Criminal Law Article governing CDS with explanations and examples of what constituted CDS paraphernalia.
Purse Swiper Nabbed
WEST OCEAN CITY — A West Ocean City woman was arrested on theft charges last week after allegedly swiping a woman's purse containing roughly $1,200 in cash and three checks from a grocery store in West Ocean City.
Around 5:30 p.m. last Wednesday, Maryland State Police troopers responded to the Food Lion on Route 611 in West Ocean City for a reported theft of a woman's purse containing around $1,200 in cash and three checks totaling $432. After an extensive investigation, the identity of the suspect was revealed as Martha A. Jordan, 55, of West Ocean City.
The investigation also revealed Jordan lived near the scene of the crime. MSP troopers responded to Jordan's residence and made contact with the suspect. During an interview, Jordan admitted taking the purse and returned the purse and all of its contents. Jordan was arrested and charged with theft over $1,000. The purse and its contents were returned to the victim.
Armed Home Invaders Sought
SALISBURY — Salisbury Police this week are seeking the public's help in identifying the suspects in an armed home invasion early last Sunday morning.
Shortly after midnight last Sunday, Salisbury Police responded to South Division Street for a reported home invasion and robbery. Detectives learned the victims were sitting on the porch of their residence when they were approached by two African-American males who forced them into the home at gunpoint. The suspects then stole electronics and other property before fleeing the scene.
During the investigation, detectives were able to locate the victims' stolen property and recovered both ski masks and handguns belonging to the suspects. Both suspects are described as African-American males each around 27-32 years old and about 6' to 6'3" tall. Anyone with information is urged to contact Salisbury Police at 410-548-3165.
Two Years For Loaded Gun
SNOW HILL — A Baltimore man arrested in June 2011 after being found with a loaded handgun on his person after picking fights with strangers on the Boardwalk pleaded guilty last week to a weapons charge and was sentenced to two years in jail.
Around 11:15 p.m. on June 10, 2011, OCPD officers were on normal patrol on the Boardwalk near 7th Street when they were approached by a man who told them another man, later identified as Jerome Gray, 25, of Baltimore, was being loud and disorderly and was attempting to fight numerous people on the Boardwalk. The officers began following Gray at a distance and noticed he was allegedly jumping around and shouting at people on the Boardwalk.
At one point, Gray allegedly shoved his shoulder into another man on the Boardwalk as he walked by. Gray and the unidentified man began yelling at each other. According to police reports, Gray was standing on the balls of his feet and pushing his chest out in an attempt to look larger than he actually was as he prepared to fight with the man. According to the report, a crowd had gathered to watch Gray allegedly attempt to instigate a fight with the man, who continued to walk away.
An OCPD officer approached Gray and grabbed the suspect, telling him to give the officer his hands. Gray resisted and said he hadn't done anything. At that point, Gray was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge. During a search incident to the arrest, a Raven Arms MP-25 caliber handgun was found in the front pocket of his pants. The weapon was loaded with one round in the chamber and six total rounds in the magazine. Last week in Worcester County Circuit Court, Gray pleaded guilty to wearing, carrying and transporting a handgun on his person and was sentenced to two years in jail.
Suspended Sentence
SNOW HILL — A Pennsylvania man arrested in June after scrapping with OCPD officers and ultimately getting tazed pleaded guilty last week to second-degree assault and was sentenced to six months in jail, all of which was suspended in favor of probation and a fine.
Around 11:45 p.m. on June 27, OCPD officers on bike patrol in the area of 15th Street and Wilmington Lane observed a suspect later identified as Dylan Richard Thomas, 19, of Shaverton, Pa., strike the trunk of a vehicle stopped at a red light at 15th Street. According to the police report, the officers heard Thomas strike the vehicle from half a block away.
According to the police report, Thomas allegedly unleashed an expletive-laden tirade against the female driver of the vehicle, whom he reportedly did not know and with whom he had no prior contact. When questioned, Thomas told police he didn't strike the vehicle, but fell into it. When questioned further, Thomas asked police "So what if I [expletive deleted] hit the car."
At that point, an OCPD officer attempted to place Thomas under arrest for disorderly conduct and ordered the suspect to put his hands behind his back. Thomas, who appeared intoxicated, launched a few more expletives at the officer, who was able to get one of the suspect's hands cuffed. According to police reports, Thomas then spun around, struck the officer in the chest with his elbow and assumed a fighting stance.
The arresting officer, noting in his report the only open area on Thomas' body was his face, struck Thomas once in the face with a closed fist. Thomas continued to flail his arms, striking another officer in the shoulder and arm.
The other officer then performed an angle kick to Thomas' right leg while the first officer got the suspect to the ground with a modified arm bar take. According to the police report, Thomas continued to resist and shout expletives. Thomas was on the ground with his hands in closed fists under his body and refused to comply with several commands to stop resisting arrest.
Finally, one of the officers stepped back and presented his Taser and told Thomas to stop resisting or he was going to use it. When Thomas still did not comply, the officer yelled "Taser" three times and fired his ECD at the suspect, but both probes failed to hit their mark. The officer then repeated the procedure, offering another warning, but the probes missed their mark again. Finally, the officer knelt on Thomas' back and performed a "drive stun" to the center of the suspect's back, after which Thomas allegedly said "OK, stop," according to police reports.
Bike Theft Alleged
BERLIN — A Berlin man was arrested on theft charges last week after allegedly taking a bicycle without permission.
Around 4:40 p.m. last Friday, Maryland State Police troopers responded to the area of Mary Rd. in Berlin for a report of a suspicious person. Troopers arrived and made contact with Richard Wayne Derickson, 45, of Berlin, who was riding a Huffy bicycle. The investigation revealed the bicycle had been taken from a nearby residence without permission.
When questioned, Derickson told police it was implied he had permission to use the bicycle. Troopers contacted the bike's owner, who said she had not implied permission to take the bicycle and advised she wanted to press charges. Derickson was then arrested and charged with theft under $100.


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Talk:St. Edward the Martyr Orthodox Brotherhood (Surrey, England)
Style of Chant
Dcn. Andrew commented in an edit that St. Edward's Brotherhood was using Byzantine Chant. I have no information to the contrary, and just assumed that Russian chant was used because of jurisdiction. --— by Pιsτévο talk complaints at 23:33, April 3, 2006 (CDT).
- When I visited in 2001, I was quite surprised to hear Byzantine while I was there. I asked about it, and they said, "It's what we know." Quite interesting! —Fr. Andrew talk contribs (THINK!) 05:56, April 4, 2006 (CDT)
- Don't suppose you have any photos? --— by Pιsτévο talk complaints at 09:31, April 4, 2006 (CDT)
- Sorry, I don't. :/ —Fr. Andrew talk contribs (THINK!) 15:23, April 4, 2006 (CDT)
Is there any news article or anything that indicates the Brotherhood's change from ROCOR to the Holy Synod in Resistance? I had a look and couldn't find anything. — edited by Pιsτévο talk complaints at 03:37, January 15, 2007 (PST)
- The only source I've seen is this. —Fr. Andrew talk contribs 04:52, January 15, 2007 (PST)


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Networking, Mentoring, and Education for Consultants and Solo Professionals
SPC members have long expressed an interest in an additional channel for unstructured networking and just plain schmoozing about their business triumphs and trials. We launched our Meetups a while back, and have received very positive feedback from those participating ... and so we're pleased to announce our next Lunchtime Meetup, to be held Friday, October 9, at 1 p.m.
For those who haven't yet participated, here's how it works: You just show up!
No need to register or pay a fee.
We push tables together until there's room for everyone. Find yourself something appealing to nosh on, settle at the cash register, and join the group.
We've picked 1 p.m. on a Friday as our start time to avoid the crush and let people take as much time as they feel they can afford…and maybe start a new conversation they can pick up later!
Remember: No registration is required!


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The World's Supply and Demand for Coal
By the Casey Research Energy Team
Coal prices are surging ahead even as most other commodities pull back, spurred on by expectations that metallurgical and thermal coal production will again fail to meet rising global demand this year. The result? Record profits for major coal producers like Xstrata, a surge in acquisitions from coal-hungry India, Chinese electricity shortages, and a raging carbon tax debate in Australia amid record investments in that country's coal-heavy mining sector.
The price spikes in the second half of 2008, which were completely unsustainable and disappeared rapidly in the recession, distort the picture. So instead, imagine the above graph without those peaks. What you get is an almost sustained ascent in the spot prices of thermal and metallurgical coal over the last four years. Metallurgical coal, which is used to make steel and is also known as coking coal, has almost doubled in price, climbing from just above US$80 per ton in mid-2007 to more than US$160 per ton today. Thermal coal, which is burned to generate electricity, has risen from the US$45 per ton range to almost US$80 per ton.
There are a couple of countries that really take notice when coal prices start to rock. Australia is the world's biggest coal exporter and relies on thermal coal for 80% of its electricity. China mines more coal than any other country in the world but still imports more to support its power and steel-making needs – the country mines and burns more than three billion tons of the black stuff annually. And India – where the economy is growing at 8% annually – is facing multimillion ton coal shortages even as it works to halve a 14% peak power deficit within two years.
Let's start with Australia, a country embroiled in a debate over newly introduced carbon taxes. Those taxes are set to come online in mid-2012, ahead of a cap-and-trade system that could begin as early as 2015. Proponents say the tax is necessary to force a coal-reliant country to move toward cleaner energies. However, the tax has drawn widespread criticism from the nation's huge coal industry. Australia supplies 19% of the world's thermal coal and 59% of its coking coal; these industries are worth A$18 million and A$40 million, respectively (2009 numbers). With coal prices expected to keep rising for the next few years at least, Australian coal miners had big expansion plans. Instead, if the carbon tax goes ahead, the industry says it will have to close mines, meaning major tax and job losses for the nation. Opponents of the tax also say it will make Australia's own energy more expensive and less reliable.
Another argument against the tax is that reducing Australia's coal output could in fact increase global carbon emissions, because power stations in China and India would simply use dirtier coal to fill the gap. Australia's thermal coal is perhaps the best in the world, with high energy content and few impurities. Thermal coal from Indonesia has only 70% of the energy value of Australian thermal coal, which means that much more coal would have to be mined, processed, and shipped.
In the context of this very current, heated debate – the Australian coalition government is set to meet this weekend to hammer out the details of the tax – a new report from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences shows that planned investments in the country's mining sector have soared to a record A$173.5 billion. The figure represents development plans for 94 projects, including 35 mineral projects, 35 energy projects, 20 infrastructure projects, and four processing projects. The Bureau estimates A$55.5 billion in mining-industry expenditures in the current year alone.
A fair chunk of these investments will come from coal companies, who have money to spend because the current coal prices are providing record profits. Xstrata, the world's largest exporter of thermal coal, is expected to report an 83% gain in net income this year, according to a Bloomberg compilation of analysts' expectations. Another good example comes from Arch Coal (N.ACI), which recently tendered a $3.4 billion offer for International Coal Group (N.ICO) aimed at creating Australia's second largest metallurgical coal producer.
China is another major coal producer, but there the issue is coal shortages. The country's economy is steaming ahead at a 10% growth rate, and that kind of development requires a lot of steel. This year alone China is facing a shortfall of 56 million tonnes of metallurgical coal – the country is expected to produce 513 million tonnes, but consumption will reach 569 million tonnes. The Asian giant imported 47 million tonnes in 2010, helped by a 278% increase in imports from Mongolia. And even though domestic coking coal production is expected to increase by 80 million tonnes per year by 2015, China's latest estimates predict a 100-million tonne annual shortfall in coking coal by 2015.
It is not just coking coal that China needs. Shortfalls in thermal coal supplies are main culprit in an expected 30-million kW summer power deficit. And the problem is exacerbated by the fact that the country's electricity pricing system has not kept up with coal price increases. Plants sell electricity to the State Grid Corp. of China (SGCC) at a set price, and SGCC then resells to consumers. But the set price has not kept pace with coal prices. As such, coal-fired generators lose money for every ton of coal they burn, which is not exactly an incentive to produce more power. Over the past three years, China's top five state-owned power generating plants have lost some 60 billion yuan, while SGCC posted a 40-billion yuan profit last year alone.
China is expecting to face its worst power shortage in years this summer. Widespread droughts, which have decimated the country's hydropower capacities, are not helping. As many as 20 provinces and territories have already been put on power rationing, including the country's industrial heartland. Some 44 major industries in Zhejiang (a manufacturing hub near Shanghai) have been told to limit consumption or face prohibitive tariffs. The story is much the same in Guangdong, south China's manufacturing hub. And producing more coal is not an option – the government has acknowledged that China is near its peak coal production capacity.
To continue on a familiar theme, India is also facing an acute coal shortage. In April, for example, the nation imported 32 million tons of thermal coal against a total requirement of 36.9 million tons. At the end of March, 26 of India's thermal power stations reported having only critical stocks of coal, including ten stations with fewer than four days' worth of fuel. On Monday the prime minister convened an emergency meeting to discuss the coal shortages, which are expected to total 112 million tons over the next 12 months.
India has been working to address the coal void for some time now. Indian firms have been scouring the globe for coal assets and the effort has secured several major deals: Indian conglomerate Adani is set to buy the 25-million-tonne-per-year coal export terminal as Abbot Point in Queensland, only a year after buying the Galilee coal project in Australia for $2.7 billion; Indian trader Knowledge Infrastructure signed a joint venture deal with Indonesian miner PT OSO International to develop thermal coal mines in Kalimantan; and three Indian firms are among those shortlisted to buy Australian coal explorer Bandanna Energy, a deal expected to top $1 billion.
Coal India, which produces 80% of the country's coal, is not going to be left out of the shopping spree. A few months ago the company set aside $1.2 billion for overseas buys, specifically in Australia, Indonesia, and the U.S. And it has the money – net income for the first quarter totaled $931 million and full-year profits were up 13%. Shares in Coal India started trading Nov. 4 after the government raised $3.2 billion by selling a 10% stake, in the country's largest public offering to date.
The story could go on, discussing other coal-needy countries like Japan, South Korea, Germany, and so on, but perhaps the point has been made. Global production is maxed out with respect to existing infrastructure, so increases from here can only occur as quickly as new mines, rail lines, and ports can be built. Coal prices have been climbing steadily, based on real supply constraints, and most industry watchers agree that they will hold their ground or continue to climb for the next few years.
Those countries with coal should count their blessings.
[Whether the subject is coal, nuclear, or alternative energy resources, Marin Katusa and the rest of the Casey Research energy team dig deep to find the best power plays to invest in. Test-drive Casey Energy Report today; it's risk-free for ninety days. Learn more here.]


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About McDonald's of Yarmouth, MA
McDonald's of Yarmouth has stood as a pillar of the community for decades, welcoming local families and travelers alike with friendly service and great food. For owner-operator Aaron Fitzgerald, success at his McDonald's location begins and ends with an emphasis on providing an exceptional dining experience.
The Challenge
For years Aaron relied on cable television to entertain his dine-in customers, but he became increasingly uneasy with the many challenges cable presented. First, the price of cable wasn't providing enough value, and it also wasn't helping him generate new business. Instead, Aaron found that many customers would order then sit and watch TV for extended periods of time without making another purchase.
To make matters worse, cable programming was constantly showing competitor ads, negative news and other inappropriate content. What Aaron needed was a cost-effective, yet highly entertaining and business-appropriate solution that could help drive sales for McDonalds – not the competition.
"If you're looking for an easy and affordable way to entertain your customers while promoting your business, go with Mood TV. You won't regret it."
The Approach
Mood's local account executive met in-person with Aaron to identify his needs and discuss his options. Knowing that hundreds of McDonald's franchisees and dozens of QSR brands were already seeing success with Mood TV, the account executive suggested that Aaron implement Mood TV for McDonald's. And when Aaron heard how much he'd save compared to cable, he was eager to give Mood TV a try.
The Solution
Combining short-form TV programming with digital signage technology, Mood TV for QSR entertains guests and displays promotional content exclusively for the brand it serves – all on the same screen. Multiple screen zones make it easy to promote seasonal specials and highlight community events alongside popular family-friendly programs such as The Big Bang Theory, 60 Minutes and The Late Night Show with Jimmy Fallon. Content is further enhanced with sports scores, news tickers and weather feeds. Authorized staff can easily take control and make changes using the online Mood portal. The result is an engaging branded experience – with no competitor ads.
The Result
Mood TV for McDonald's made an immediate impact on the dining room experience, providing an upbeat and cutting-edge ambiance that appeals to customers of all ages. For Aaron, Mood TV for McDonald's was the solution he always wanted but couldn't find from other providers.
"Mood TV for McDonald's is simply an all-around great product. First of all, the price is much more cost-effective than cable – and we don't have to worry about competitor ads showing up either. It's fully branded with McDonald's logos and images, and the ability to customize the sidebars with updates on community events, monthly promotions, employee-of-the-month pics and other information is outstanding. With how sleek and futuristic Mood TV looks, you'd think that you'd need to be a tech wizard to make changes. But as it turns out, making changes to Mood TV is incredibly simple. Just drag, drop, click, and you're set."
– Aaron Fitzgerald
Owner, McDonald's of Yarmouth
Sight, Mood TV for McDonald's (QSR)
Case Studies


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Scheduled Cleaning in Prosper
Property and office managers in Prosper understand how much work goes into keeping a commercial building fresh and clean every day. Your internal staff may not have the time or resources necessary to complete every scheduled cleaning service on time, or to your high standards. Many businesses rely on janitorial companies to take care of these details for you. Dream Team Janitorial are leaders in our field. We guarantee forward-thinking solutions that are tailored to your specific targets, without crushing your budget.
Our focus on putting your needs first extends to customizing services to suit the specific requirements of your unique organization. We understand that no two companies are the same, and it takes more than a versatile, well-trained and well-equipped staff to get the job done right. We believe that communication is key. In the beginning, we will sit down with you to discover the challenges you face and the goals you'd like to see become a reality. By understanding exactly what it is you will need to keep your staff and clients safe, healthy and comfortable, we can put together a comprehensive cleaning service package that is one-of-a-kind because it has been built just for you.
To serve your needs better, we offer 24-hour scheduling including being the number one 'cleaning service near me' when you are in a pinch and need an emergency cleaning company. Book us for special business events, cleanups after holiday parties and annual celebrations to get your premises back in top shape— no matter what happens.
Intuitive Daily Cleaning Service
High traffic and high touch point areas will require daily cleaning services to keep fast-moving sicknesses from spreading and dirt and debris from piling up. From restocking disposable items to collecting trash and recycling, we have a large checklist of daily tasks we would be happy to take care of for you. This list includes items that keep your area organized and free of visible grime and include; vacuuming and disinfecting floors and other horizontal surfaces and cleaning glass. Our daily offerings can be scheduled at any time to compliment your work hours and minimize any downtime. Select only the tasks you need to be completed—when you need them.
A Deeper Weekly Cleaning Service
Motivated by keeping your working personnel and clients healthy and safe, weekly cleaning service is designed to improve the health and safety of your premises by eliminating germs and reducing the possibility of the spread of sicknesses. These tasks include; buffing, carpet spot cleaning, window washing, dusting, kitchen appliance disinfection and much more.
Monthly Cleaning Service Extends the Lifetime of Your Investment
Where daily and weekly professional cleaning services are intended to keep staff and guests safe, monthly cleaning service is more focused on keeping your property in excellent condition. Monthly cleaning duties include parking lot cleanups, air duct and vent cleaning, carpet cleaning and re-waxing of hard surfaces.
Get in touch with Prosper's experienced scheduled cleaners today. We want to know more about your building management and disease control initiatives, so we can serve you better.


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Phoenix Marie And Ricki White Tube Video From Brazzers Network ( playtime 3:00 )
Description: Phoenix and Ricki both woke up chained side to side to the wall of a filthy bathroom. None of them knows how they got to this, nor what might await them. By following some left out clues, they realize that they're the latest victims of a big butt maniac who makes his own amusements by putting big butts in eery situations. If they want to make it, they will need to get their asses destroyed by Keiran's big cock!