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Nicholas DiMeo and Scott Ertz, of F5 Live: Refreshing Technology are excited and ready for our fourth year of covering the International CES 2013 in Las Vegas, NV. For us, the holidays aren't over until we've covered every inch of the now 1.8 million square feet of show space that is CES 2013. Our show is now fully integrated into the Tech Podcast Network coverage and we can't wait to show all of you the coolest, most innovative and downright nerdy gadgets and toys that we're able to find. From professional audio equipment to the next leap in processing power, CES has it all and we are interested in finding the products that will end up as holiday gifts by this time next year.
With the TPN booth being moved to just outside the North Hall, things are bound to get a little hectic and crazy so be sure to follow the news, as it happens, on your phone, computer or tablet as we bring it to you as live as it can be. We'll be live streaming (quite literally), live blogging, live tweeting and doing pretty much everything we can do be the only source you need to log onto during the most important week of the technology world. From big time CEOs to the startups at Eureka Park, we'll have 45 hours of content for you to enjoy from the moment the show floor opens, right here on this site. Then, once the show comes to a close, we will be providing you with more in-depth interviews from the show floor, as our team scoured the floor extensively to make sure we didn't miss a thing. Oh, and don't forget to keep the site up so you can catch all of the antics that happen during the afterparties and events that take place during the night. Those videos will also be right here for you to enjoy, as informative or as crazy as they might be!
It's all going down on January 8-11, live from beautiful Las Vegas, Nevada so mark your calendars. We're ready; are you?
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Let's rip a crappy old Upper Deck pack for a lousy Sunday night. And let's mix it up and do commentary on each card like the cool kids do. I'm going to keep opening this junk until I pull a Reggie autograph.
235 Eric Hanson - I wasn't allowed to wear a baseball cap for my senior photo in high school.
8 Jose Bautista - Jose's up to somethin. I think he was about to nail Randy Milligan in the back of the head with that ball but he got caught.
75 Bo Jackson - Bo's wave reminded me of a Roman salute, which reminded me of Cartman dressing up as Hitler for Halloween and through randomly clicking on YouTube links I ultimately found this, which rates 5.9 Goatses on the Standard Internet Offensiveness scale.
147 Curtis Wilkerson - A baseball cap, flip down shades and eyeblack. Curtis doesn't mess around with his ocular health.
198 Bill Doran - No comment necessary.
653 Duane Ward - The first card too boring to scan.
671 John Dopson - The second card too boring to scan.
San Francisco Giants hologram - The Giants completely suck. Thanks to a three game sweep by the Nationals, the Braves are a half game worse than the sucky Giants. Now you know why I'm having a lousy Sunday.
783 Mark Langston - This card rates 7.2 Goatses. Hell, it practically is Goatse.
756 Sandy Alomar Jr. - Thank goodness, a nice card.
554 Alan Trammell - You just know Alan is providing some chatter out at short. Sa-WING Batta!
534 Jay Buhner - No one signed poor Bone's cast. Heh, Bone broke a bone.
420 Don Carman - Don't worry, this YouTube video isn't offensive at all. Weird as all get out, but not offensive. Of course posting something weird in conjunction with 420 is very offensive.
499 Dale Sveum - One time when I was at the local card shop some guy came in wanting to buy all the Dale Sveum cards they had. I don't remember why, I think they went to high school together or something. I will always remember the sheer frustration on the owner's face as he thought of all the Sveum cards from junky 80's sets he surely had, but would never, ever be able to find. Shortly after that he retired and left the business to his son. This card is also way too boring to scan even with the cool Brewers cap.
384 Israel Sanchez - To not scan this card would be anti-semetic, and therefore, offensive.
216 Jose Rijo - Radioactive caps are always worth a scan.
I am offended that this pack had no Reggie at all. Of course I suffer from offensensitivity. I need to re-read Card Sharks now to find out how many cases of this stuff are out there so I can figure out odds on the signed Reggie. 14 billion divided by 2500 is good odds, right?
Monday, September 01, 2008
2 comments:
- Andy said...
The bonus shot of Tony Gwynn on the Doran card is SUH-WEET!
Ben and I were talking the other day about how the Reggie was probably the very beginning of the current card craze. Factor in that the UD cards were so much nicer than the others at the time, and blammo--there you have your explanation of how we got to today's craziness. - 9:59 AM
This post has a different tone than what you usually write. Was it ghostwritten?
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subset: commoncrawl


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Home Page Chess Life Online 2009 13-Year-Old Naroditsky Wows in Concord
13-Year-Old Naroditsky Wows in Concord |
By Michael Aigner | |
March 13, 2009 | |
Few locals had faced the added
pressure of competing for a four-digit first place cash prize. Some forgot to bring chess equipment,
unfamiliar with the prevailing policy of the Continental Chess Association not
to supply boards, sets and clocks. And
most players never before met that gray-haired man with the official-sounding deep
voice; even fewer knew that he is the current President of the USCF. Yes, Bill Goichberg came to town! Over the past decade, the San Francisco Bay Area has become the incubator for some of America's top juniors. Just in the past two years, local talents brought home two World Youth medals, shared a US Junior championship and earned the distinction of youngest USCF master ever. Northern California now boasts six junior masters, not counting three more who graduated from high school in the past two years. Bay Area events are full of so many kids as young as five years old (!) that calling them 'adult tournaments' has become a bit of a misnomer. The juniors even dominate the Labor Day state championship; eight of the top twelve places in the Master section last year went to players under the age of 20, including the champion. Therefore, it came as quite a surprise to actually see a successful adult tournament with a strong majority of the players old enough to vote. The Western Chess Congress on March 6-8 in Concord was, in fact, the first Bay Area tournament with an paid prize fund over $10,000 since the 1995 US Open, coincidentally held at the exact same hotel over thirteen years ago. Unlike the Firecracker Open, which failed miserably in 2001, Bill Goichberg and the Continental Chess Association managed to draw a respectable first year turnout of 229 players, including eight International Masters and five others with FIDE titles. Those that came to the Hilton hotel found an almost idyllic chess venue in the rolling hills of the East Bay. The playing hall was large, quiet and had decent lighting. The lobby and enclosed courtyard offered space to sit and relax between rounds or for parents to wait until their children finish playing. Many parents wrote emails or watched movies on their laptops. A bike and jogging trail next to the hotel allowed the opportunity to exercise or enjoy the pleasant spring weather. Although the hotel had decent food, most players went across the street to a mall or drove to the many fast food places within a mile radius. The selection included something for just about every taste, from American to Italian to Oriental. Last but certainly not least, the venue was easily accessible by freeway from all three major cities in the Bay Area and by Bay Area Rapid Transit (via a free hotel shuttle to the nearest station). The tournament was five rounds long, with a traditional 3-day option beginning on Friday night and a faster 2-day schedule (first two rounds at G/75) starting on Saturday. The players were split almost evenly between these two schedules, although a majority of kids-perhaps more likely their parents-chose the shorter one. The eight class sections were divided every 200 points at odd numbered intervals: U2100, U1900, etc, down to U900. The Western Chess Congress began with a slew of upsets on the top boards, as I reported on Saturday night. In fact, the six 2400+ rated players in the tournament combined for two losses, three draws and merely one win in the first round! There were so many upsets in the 2-day schedule that one low master beat an IM in round 1 and, as a reward, got paired down versus an expert in round 2. As is often the case, the youngsters picking up these scalps include some of the brightest rising stars, certainly future titled players themselves. Northern California's newest master, 15-year old NM Rohan Agarwal, swindled the former state champion IM Vladimir Mezentsev in a G/75 blunder-fest. Two players from Arizona tasted early success too: Cuban native WFM Liulia Cardona defeated IM Vladimir Mezentsev while 12-year old expert David Adelberg earned the point against 2300-rated Arjoe Loanzon. However, one junior stood taller than all of the rest. Always short for his age, former World U12 champion FM Daniel Naroditsky, now 13 years old, has grown in more ways than one over the past year. In Concord, he proved that he was the man to beat, transforming from a shy player with a mid-2300 rating into a confident champion with the composure of a veteran professional. Known to family and friends by the Russian form of his name, Danya easily won his first three games before cruising with a pair of solid draws against experienced International Masters. Amazingly, the score of 4-1 held up for undisputed first place! The key game of the tournament came in round 3 against Danya's friend and occasional study partner IM Sam Shankland. Both Naroditsky and Shankland have tasted success at the highest level and share the distinction of medalling at the World Youth Chess Festival. While friends off the board, their games over the years have been uncompromising and the contest in Concord was no exception. Thanks to FM Naroditsky for sharing some of his observations below. 2949 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 This is the Classical Variation of the Scheveningen. It is one of the best lines in the Sicilian for black and may be extremely dangerous if white doesn't know what he is doing. 6.Be2 I decide not to go into the theoretical duel after Bg5 and play Karpov's pet line. The main idea is to set up the Bishop on e3, Castle, and follow it up by f4. White's position will be extremely solid and centralized. 6...e6 6...e5!? Is also an interesting line. 7.Nf3 h6 8.0-0 Be7 9.Re1 0-0 10.h3 Be6 11.Bf1 White has a slight edge. 7.0-0 Be7 8.Be3 0-0 9.f4 Qc7 10.Kh1 Bd7 11.Nb3 The position is a normal position for the Be2 Sicilian. Black will play on the Queenside, while white will prepare a Kingside attack with g4-g5. Here, black makes a mistake, missing my 14th move. 11...e5? 11...a6 reaches a main line Scheveningen. 12.Nd5! 12.f5? Na5! 13.Qd3 Bc6 with counterplay 12...Nxd5 13.exd5 Nd8 14.f5! This is the idea. White will now transfer his b3-N to the dominant e4 square, when black's position will be extremely passive and tied up. 14...f6 15.Nd2 g6! This is black's best chance, but it still doesn't help. 16.Bd3 Kg7 17.c4 Nf7 18.Qc2! Forcing black to play g5, when he will have no counterplay. 18...g5 19.b4 b6 19...b5 20.c5 a5 21.c6 with a large advantage. 20.Ne4 Qb7 21.a4 Stopping the counterplay with b5. 21...a6 22.Nc3 Rfc8 23.Qf2 e4!? This is black's best chance-he opens the e5 square for his N. 24.Nxe4 Ne5 25.Bxg5! Nxd3 26.Bxf6+! A nice final combination, which wins immediately. 26...Bxf6 27.Qg3+ Kh8 28.Nxd6 Black cannot defend both against Nf7 checkmate and his Queen. 1-0 What is the secret to becoming a World Youth champion? Obviously, the achievement requires a deep commitment to chess. Most observers expect the prodigy to levitate over his laptop between rounds while digesting the latest variations from Rybka. To the contrary, Danya's pre-game relaxation last weekend actually included video games, not chess databases. After the tournament, the champion also needed to cool off properly. Since there was no need for a blitz playoff for first place, Danya had to satisfy his speed chess appetite online later that evening. Six participants, including International Masters Dmitry Zilberstein, Mark Ginsburg, Ricardo DeGuzman and Emory Tate, all shared second place at the surprisingly low score of 3.5 out of 5, all with two wins and three draws. What happened with all of the draws? Amazingly, the top seven boards in the final round were all drawn. It certainly was not for lack of trying; all games lasted at least 2.5 hours and three exceeded 50 moves on Sunday evening. A few contests simply petered out into an even endgame after some exciting tactics. The presence of the brilliant tactician IM Tate added some spice to the tournament, although he was unable to wow his fans in this last round encounter against the solid IM Zilberstein. 2950 1.d4 c5 2.d5 g6 3.e4 Bg7 4.c4 d6 Tactical players like IM Tate enjoy dynamic openings such as the Benoni. 5.Bd3 e5 6.Nc3 Nd7 7.Nge2 a6 8.a3 Ne7 9.0-0 0-0 10.Kh1 f5 11.exf5 gxf5 12.f4 e4 Will black's passed e4 pawn be considered a strength or a weakness? Time will tell. 13.Bc2 Nf6 14.b4 b6 15.bxc5 bxc5 16.Rb1! The open b-file is always important. 16...Ra7 17.Qe1 Ng6 18.Nd1! The knight is the ideal piece to blockade the passed pawn. 18...Re7 19.Ne3 Nh5 20.Bb2 Bxb2 21.Rxb2 Rg7 22.Rb3 Bd7 23.Rb7 Qf6 24.Rb6 Bc8 White claims an advantage because his pieces have more space and coordinate better than black's. 25.Qc3 Qd8 26.Rb8 Nh4 27.Qe1 Qf6 28.Ng3 Nxg3+ 29.hxg3 Ng6 30.Qa1 Qf7 31.Kg1 h5 32.Bd1 32...h4 The computer points out that white has no useful way to defend the g3 pawn after Ne7. 33.g4 fxg4? Mandatory was Qc7 to gain a tempo. 34.Bxg4 Qc7 35.Rxc8 Rxc8 36.Bxc8 Qxc8 37.Qf6 Qf8 38.Qe6+ Kh7 39.Qxe4 Now the e4 pawn turns out to be a weakness. 39...Re7 40.Qd3 Qf6 41.Kh2? Better was Ng4 and pushing the f-pawn as far as possible. 41...Rf7 42.Ng4 A move later, black survives because his rook blockades the passed pawn. 42...Qd4 43.Qxd4 cxd4 44.g3 Ne7 45.gxh4 Nf5 46.Rg1 d3 47.Rd1 Rc7 48.Rxd3 Rxc4 49.Ne3 Nxe3 50.Rxe3 Rxf4 As many masters have said, all rook endgames are drawn. This one is no exception. 51.Kg3 Rd4 52.Re7+ Kg6 53.Ra7 Rxd5 54.Rxa6 Kf5 55.Kf3 Rd1 56.Ra5+ d5 57.Ke3 Ke5 58.Ra8 ½-½ Fortunately, not all of the games between titled players ended in a perfunctory draw. Since IM DeGuzman and IM Shipman both enjoy playing endgames, it seemed quite natural for their game to be decided after the queens and most minor pieces were traded. 2951 The other two players who tied for second were rapidly improving juniors: NM Steven Zierk from the Bay Area and the previous mentioned expert David Adelberg. The CalChess high school champion Zierk continues to impress; he was a C player just a little over two years ago and now is merely a handful of rating points short of the FM title. However, the big revelation of the weekend was the 2438 performance turned in by Adelberg. He finished undefeated against five masters and, now rated 2169, he will no doubt join the ranks of master very soon. Watch how efficiently he goes king hunting against IM Mezentsev in the following game. 2948 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 The Sicilian Najdorf is the primary weapon for the majority of elite juniors against 1.e4. 6.Be2 e6 7.Bg5 Be7 8.Qd2 0-0 9.0-0-0 Qc7 10.g4 Nbd7 11.f4 Re8 12.h4?! Too slow! 12...b5 13.Bxf6 Nxf6 14.g5 It seems that white should have captured f6 on move 12 and then pushed g4-g5 before playing h2-h4. Perhaps he forgot about black's thematic reply. 14...b4! 15.Ncb5 axb5 16.gxf6 Bxf6 17.Qxb4 Rxa2 18.c3 Bd7 19.Nxb5?! This move is either gutsy or suicidal. 19...Bxb5 20.Bxb5 Rb8 All of black's pieces aim at the white monarch. 21.Kb1 21...Rxb2+!? This move wins style points, but perhaps it was better to tighten the screws with either Qa7 or Ra5 followed by Rba8. 22.Qxb2 Qc5 23.Qd2? White's only hope was 23.Rd4 (intending Rb4) 23...Bxd4 24.cxd4 Qxb5 25.Qxb5 Rxb5+ Although 5 vs. 4 on one side of the board is often drawn, white's weak pawn structure and the large number of remaining pawns gives black plenty of reason to be optimistic. 23...Bxc3! 24.Qxd6 Rxb5+ White resigned in the face of 25. Kc2 Rb2+ 26. Kc1 Qe3+ 27.Rd2 Rxd2 28. Qb8+ Rd8 discovered check! 0-1 While most Chess Life Online articles focus on the Open or Premier section, the majority of players are in the lower divisions. Two veteran Mechanics' Institute members, Larry Snyder and Igor Traub, shared the top prize in the U2100 section, followed closely by several fellow competitors from the Tuesday Night Marathon in San Francisco. In fact, most of the class section winners were adults, bucking the trend of scholastic supremacy established in most Bay Area tournaments. The lone exception was U1900 section champion Rahul Desirazu, who earned both a nice payday and gained 130 rating points for a 5-0 score. At the other end of the age spectrum, a few of the Bay Area's talented juniors did come to match wits against the big boys. Samuel Sevian, the nation's youngest expert (achieved at the age of 8 years and 2 months) scored 50% against much older opposition in the U2100 section. Although he dropped below 2000 in Concord, Samuel remains on track to shatter the USCF youngest master record held by another Bay Area resident, NM Nicholas Nip. Ironically, Samuel lost his two G/75 games and then came back with 2.5/3 in the six-hour time control. Who says little kids can't play long games? However, Samuel wasn't even the youngest player in Concord; that distinction went to national Kindergarten champ Arun Khemani, playing in the U1100 section. Western Chess Congress Winners
Click here for the rating report. Click here for a slideshow on Flickr. Fortunately, the first Western Chess Congress will not be the last. Bill Goichberg plans to return to Concord on Martin Luther King weekend in January 2010 for an even bigger 7-round festival over four days (with accelerated schedules available). Perhaps more participants from Southern California and other western states will turn out next year; it always is more enjoyable to play strangers instead of all of your local buddies. Finally, I wish to share an endgame from one of my games. On Friday night, either fate or a bribe to an assistant TD saw me paired on top board against my friend IM Shankland. I managed to salvage a draw from a losing position by successfully hypnotizing my talented opponent with multiple dubious moves. We pick up the action after time control, as the game entered the interesting endgame of knight and two separated pawns against bishop and one pawn. Aigner,Michael (2262) - Shankland,Sam (2477) [D15] Western Chess Congress 41.Kc2 The endgame is drawn, but only with accurate defense. White keeps king on c2 or c3, shuffles bishop between c1, d2 and e3 and pushes g5 if necessary. As long as the bishop has enough squares, then zugzwang is impossible. If the black goes after the g-pawn, then white captures the c-pawn for a theoretical draw. 41...Kd5 If 41...Kf3 42.Kc3 Kxg4 43.Kxc4 Nf4 44.Bb4 All white needs to do now is sacrifice the bishop for the last pawn. 44...g6 45.Be7 Kf5 46.Kd4 Nh5 47.Ke3 Nf6 48.Kf3 g5 49.Bxf6. 42.Kc3 g6 43.Bh6?? 43.Bc1 Also OK is Be3. 43...Nc5 44.Be3 Ne4+ 45.Kc2 Ke5 46.Bc1 Nf6 This is a tricky position. White must gain a tempo to prevent black from setting up zugzwang. 47.Bb2+! 47.g5? Nd5 48.Bd2 c3! Here's the threat! White loses the pawn endgame if he takes. 49.Bc1 Kd4 Zugzwang! The bishop has run out of available squares on the key diagonal. 50.Ba3 Ne3+ 51.Kb1 Kd3 52.Bc1 Nd5 53.Ba3 Kd2 54.Bc1+ Kd1 55.Ba3 c2+ 47...Ke6 48.g5 Ne4 49.Bc1 43...Nc5?? Sadly, two blind mice missed that g5 traps the bishop, thus allowing black to walk over and capture it with the king. 44.Kd2 Ne4+ 45.Ke3 Nc5 46.Bg7 Ne6 47.Bc3 Nd8 48.Kf4 Nf7 49.Bb2 With an optimal position, white calmly sits and waits. 49...Kc5 50.Bc3! Gaining time by forcing black to go around the long way to get to b3. 50...Kb5 51.Ke4 Ka4 52.Kd5 More simple was Kd4 and Bd2. Once the knight moves, then the white king runs to e5 and f6. 52...Kb3 53.Bd2 Kc2 54.Bf4 Kd3 An interesting try was 54...c3 55.Ke6 g5 56.Be3 Kd3 57.Bc1 Nh6 58.Kf6 Nxg4+ 59.Kxg5 Ne3 60.Kf4! Dvoretsky demonstrates that this position can be won if white's king is far away. Alas, the king is close enough here. 60...Nc4 61.Kf3! Nd2+ 62.Kf2 Kc2 63.Ba3 Kb3 64.Bc1 Kc2 65.Ba3 Nc4 66.Bb4 55.Ke6?? Walking into a trap. Instead, white needed to shuffle his bishop again, this time to c1. 55...g5?? I guess it was lucky day! 55...Ke4! This move wins a tempo. 56.Bc1 (Or if 56.Bd2 Ne5 57.Kf6 Nf3! 58.Bc1 g5 59.Bb2 Kd3 60.Kf5 c3 61.Ba1 c2 62.Bb2 Nd2 63.Kxg5 Nc4! The White bishop runs out of squares. 64.Bc1 Ke2! 65.Kf6 Kd1 66.Bf4 Nd2 And Black cleverly promotes the pawn.) 56...Ne5 57.Kf6 c3! Once again the White bishop is out of moves. 58.g5 Nd3 59.Ba3 Nf4! 60.Bc1 c2 61.Bb2 Nd3 62.Ba3 Kd4! 63.Kxg6 Kc3 64.Kf7 Nb2 65.Bxb2+ Kxb2 66.g6 c1Q Black wins because the last pawn is not a bishop or rook pawn. 56.Bc1 Nh6 57.Kf6 Nxg4+ 58.Kxg5 Nf2 If 58...Kc2 59.Bf4 Nf2 60.Be5 is similar to the game. 59.Bb2! While this move is not the only way to draw, the plan now quickly becomes apparent quickly. White keeps his bishop on the long diagonal, shuffling between a1, b2 and g7, h8 as needed to prevent the knight from shielding the last pawn. 59...Ne4+ 60.Kf5 Nc3 61.Ke6 Kc2 62.Ba1 Kb3 63.Kd7 Na4 64.Bg7 Nc3 65.Kc6 Kc2 66.Kd7 Kd3 67.Kc8 White doesn't need his king to draw this position and therefore he keeps it far away to avoid accidental knight forks. 67...Nb5 68.Ba1 Nd4 69.Kb7 Nb3 70.Bb2 Nc5+ 71.Ka8 ½-½ Check out MSA rated results of the Western Chess Congress and also see Michael Aigner (aka f-pawn)'s blog for frequent updates on Bay Area chess. |
The concept of a big money adult tournament in Northern
California seemed so foreign that many participants needed a day or two to


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Here at Calloway Cleaning & Restoration, we strive to treat every customer as if they are family or friends. We understand the importance of doing our job correctly the first time. Our goal is to respond to any Commercial Flood Cleanup projects within one hour. This is one of the ways we keep damage to a minimum and keep our customers satisfied. Please feel free to check out our 5-star Google, Facebook, HomeAdvisor, and BBB ratings to find out why Calloway Cleaning & Restoration is the premier name in cleaning and restorations. Call us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to join the Calloway family!
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Easy Ways to Practice Mindfulness
What is mindfulness—and how does it help?
Simply put, mindfulness is about bringing your attention to the present moment by focusing a single object or experience. Once considered an alternative wellness practice, continued empirical evidence demonstrates its benefits to good health and lowering stress. Across the globe, today many people practice mindfulness. It compliments, rather than replaces, conventional medicine and other good health practices.
Recent studies demonstrate these same benefits apply to those living with Alzheimer's and associated memory loss. Gaining easy-to-learn skills can help strengthen your personal resilience and expanding your positive experience with the world around you.
Easy ways you can practice mindfulness include:
Focus on your breath
This is a simple exercise than can be done anywhere at any time. Just stop and focus on your breath. Start by breathing in and out slowly. Try to extend the length of each inhale and exhale. Feel the air fill your lungs. Let your thoughts go and become present by paying attention only to your breath.
Just sit and observe
Focus your attention on a single object, often something in nature. Simply choose an object – a flower, insect, or the clouds in the sky – and observe without judgment. Look at it as if you're seeing it for the first time and pay attention to every detail. Connect with its energy and its purpose in the world.
Adopt an attitude of gratitude
In this exercise, one simply notices the things and/or events that happen each day and being grateful. This could be something as simple as giving thanks that there's food in your refrigerator, that your bus is on time or that the sun continues to rise each day.
Getting started: practicing mindfulness in a multitasking world
We live in a busy world that rewards achievement and getting results. Given these circumstances, it can be a challenge to practice mindfulness. Here are some tips to get you started.
Adopt a consistent routine
The good thing about mindfulness is that it can be done in a very short amount of time. Focusing on your breath for just a minute can often reduce stress almost immediately. Almost everyone can find a minute in each day.
Observe your present moment without judgment
You may be feeling anxious, sad, guilty or angry. During your mindfulness practice, allow yourself to feel these emotions without judgment and observe what effect your mental state is having on your body. You can practice on simple things around you. For example if you're observing a grasshopper, do so without trying to make sense of its actions or trying to figure out why it's behaving the way it is.
As judgment arises, acknowledge it, then let it go
It's easy for our minds to start wandering during either mindfulness exercises or meditation. When this happens, simply realize what's going on and then return your attention to your breath or whatever it is you're observing. Be kind to yourself and understand that there's no perfect way to be mindful. Just allow yourself to be whatever you are in the moment.
Source: IlluminAge


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A passenger on a flight from Beijing to Melbourne, Australia, was listening to music on her own personal headphones when the headphones suddenly caught fire, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau says.
The ATSB assessed that the batteries within the headphones were probably the cause of the fire.
The Australian safety agency released information about the incident on its website, omitting the woman's name and any details about the kind of headphones she was using. They quoted the woman's description of what happened, beginning with the loud explosion she heard while she was sleeping:
"As I went to turn around I felt burning on my face. ... I just grabbed my face which caused the headphones to go around my neck. "I continued to feel burning so I grabbed them off and threw them on the floor. They were sparking and had small amounts of fire. "As I went to stamp my foot on them the flight attendants were already there with a bucket of water to pour on them. They put them into the bucket at the rear of the plane."
The ATSB says the battery and cover of the headphones melted to the floor of the aircraft, and the smell of melted plastic and burnt hair filled the aircraft.
The press release doesn't identify the type of battery. But lithium-ion batteries, the kind widely used in rechargeable small electronics, have caused issues on planes before.
Between March 1991 and December 2016, the Federal Aviation Administration documented 138 incidents at airports and in airplanes of devices smoking and catching on fire. The tally "should not be considered as a complete listing," the agency says. Culprits included e-cigarette devices, laptops, loose batteries and small devices crushed in seat-adjusting mechanisms.
There are several documented incidents of fires erupting on cargo planes carrying large volumes of lithium-ion batteries, causing at least one deadly crash. Last year, the U.N. urged national aviation regulators to ban such batteries from being carried as cargo on passenger planes.
And the Galaxy Note 7, a Samsung smartphone whose lithium-ion batteries infamously caused explosions and fires, were banned on all U.S. flights months ago.
Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.


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Noticias comerciales
HOUSTONand MURRAY HILL, N.J. – 16 November 2010 - The world's largest biofuel plant producing liquid natural gas from landfill gas has received a 2010 California Governor's Environmental and Economic Leadership Award.
Recognized in the category of Sustainable Facility, the plant is located at Waste Management's Altamont Landfill and Resource Recovery Facility near Livermore, California. The plant, which produces up to 13,000 gallons a day of near zero carbon fuel, is owned and operated by a joint venture between Linde North America, part of The Linde Group, a world leading gases and engineering company, and Waste Management (NYSE: WM), North America's largest waste management company.
The award is California's highest environmental honor and recognizes exceptional leadership in conserving California's precious resources, protecting and enhancing the environment, building public-private partnerships and strengthening the state's economy.
Since Linde and Waste Management's plant began operating in September 2009, it has produced over two million gallons of clean, renewable fuel from landfill gas generated through the decomposition of waste at the Altamont Landfill. More than 300 of Waste Management's liquid natural gas collection vehicles in California are powered daily by the fuel generated at the Altamont facility, displacing tens of thousands of tons of vehicular greenhouse gas emissions annually.
"We are closing the loop in the waste disposal business," said Duane Woods, senior vice president for Waste Management's Western Group. "Converting the landfill gas into a sustainable, clean alternative fuel source is the very essence of closed-loop recycling."
"Our natural gas collection vehicles produce 97 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than comparable diesel fuel vehicles. Creating a healthier environment through reduced emissions and improved air quality is the essence of green innovation. Waste Management is proud to be recognized for this achievement," Woods added.
Pat Murphy, president, Linde North America, said, "Linde is proud to improve air quality for millions of Californians. The ultra-low carbon fuel our plant produces already meets the California Air Resources Board's 2020 low carbon fuel requirements and the goals of AB32. Receiving the Governor's award confirms that our fully local, 'wells to wheels' solution has hit the ball out of the park for the residents of California."
"As usual, California is a leader in recognizing and promoting alternative fuels that help clean the environment, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and boost the economy. We hope this plant, and California's progressive thinking, can serve as a model for the rest of the country as we look to tap unused biogas resources," Murphy said.
By displacing 2.5 million gallons of diesel a year, the renewable biogas the plant produces eliminates over 30,000 tons a year of transportation greenhouse gases – the equivalent of removing over 5,000 passenger cars from the road. Nitrogen oxides (NOx) are reduced by nearly 200 tons and particulate matter emissions by over four tons a year.
Four California agencies contributed to this project, including the California Integrated Waste Management Board, the California Air Resources Board, the California Energy Commission and the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
About Waste Management
Waste Management is the leading provider of comprehensive waste management services in North America. Our subsidiaries provide collection, transfer, recycling and resource recovery, and disposal services. We are the largest recycler in North America as well as a leading developer, operator and owner of waste-to-energy and landfill gas-to-energy facilities in the United States. Our customers include residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal customers throughout North America. Waste Management's Bay Area operations are based in Oakland. Visit www.wm.com or www.thinkgreen to learn more about Waste Management. To learn more about the Altamont Landfill, visit www.altamontlandfill.wm.com.
About The Linde Group
The Linde Group is a world leading gases and engineering company with almost 48,000 employees working in more than 100 countries worldwide. In the 2009 financial year it achieved sales of EUR 11.2 billion (USD 15.3 billion). The strategy of The Linde Group is geared towards sustainable earnings-based growth and focuses on the expansion of its international business with forward-looking products and services.
Linde acts responsibly towards its shareholders, business partners, employees, society and the environment – in every one of its business areas, regions and locations across the globe. Linde is committed to technologies and products that unite the goals of customer value and sustainable development. For more information, visit Linde North America online at http://www.lindeus.com
Waste Management
Wes Muir
Karen Stern
Jon Lederman


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Updated August 23, 2022 at 5:11 AM ET
Long before the pandemic forced many office workers to depend on their home internet, Jared Mauch had been working from home for about two decades.
When he moved to Scio Township in 2002, an area in rural Michigan not far from Ann Arbor, his employer set him up with a great home internet connection — many of his neighbors at the time were still stuck with sluggish dial-up.
After a while, though, his bandwidth couldn't keep up with his tech job and his growing family.
But when he started shopping around, he wasn't happy with his options. The internet speeds from AT&T were painfully slow. Comcast wanted to charge him an up-front fee of $50,000 to expand service to his home. He opted for a third route.
Rather than shell out that kind of money only to depend on the whims of an internet service provider, the 46-year-old decided to create his own fiber ISP.
"I had every reason to believe that I would be able to execute and perform a lot of these pieces of it, and most likely be more able to bring the service to the community than, you know, a large company," he told NPR. "I saw it as an excellent opportunity both to expand service and something I'm passionate about."
He created the company in 2017 and secured permits in 2019 to start construction the following year. In August of 2020, he was officially in business. Just in time for his kids to start virtual school during the pandemic.
"It was great," he recalled. "I had a home fiber that I controlled, and the ability to kind of control my own fate in the future."
Along the way, he also hooked up his neighbors to his high-speed fiber lines. His business has grown to service 71 customers with reliable internet.
With the help of contractors, he's already laid down 14 miles of cable across the county. Sometimes it takes half a mile of cable to hook up a single house in the rural area.
Now, Mauch is getting $2.6 million in federal funds to continue his work. Last year, a COVID-19 relief package allocated $15 million to Washtenaw County, where Mauch lives and where many residents lack internet service.
He was one of four ISPs awarded federal money to expand fiber internet service in the county.
With that money, Mauch plans to get 600 more homes connected. He told Ars Technica, which first reported on Mauch's ISP venture, that he plans to lay down another 38 miles of cable for the project.
The first step to wiring up the neighborhood: mapping out where service is missing
That's about a quarter of the work that needs to be done to get Washtenaw County to 100% reliable internet, says Chris Scharrer, the founder and CEO of DCS Technology Design, the telecommunications engineering firm contracted by the county to oversee its broadband gap-filling project.
Scharrer has taken inventory of broadband access in underserved areas as part of a countywide mapping project required to secure federal funding. He identified some 8,000 households in Washtenaw County that lacked reliable broadband in 2020.
About 2,800 of those homes that Scharrer identified were previously misreported as having service coverage. It's a known issue due to inaccurate FCC mapping throughout the country.
"I actually find a lot of gaps, where they think that they have service when they actually don't," he said. "We find that that error rate can be as high as 50% overstated in some areas where it's supposed to be served by a major ISP."
In reality, he said, cable companies stop down the road, where the connection might not reach past long driveways, for example, or it could be cost-prohibitive for the homeowner to pay installation fees.
"It takes people like us to go out that aren't restricted by anything and can go out and just visually map everything out, find out where it's at and put it on paper," he said.
Scharrer is hopeful that, by the end of 2024, the entire county will be served by high-speed broadband.
Fiber "mavericks" are helping close the broadband gap
The federal government has been pouring billions into fiber infrastructure in recent years, especially in unserved rural areas — where experts say that the major telecom companies such as Comcast and AT&T often aren't expanding because they don't see a return on investment. With many rural homes separated by acres of land, Scharrer said, "there's a fairly large cost-per-mile to build these systems and we just have to find ways to make it work."
About 42 million Americans lack broadband access, according to BroadbandNow. And the pandemic brought the critical need for broadband to the forefront, says Gary Bolton, CEO of the Fiber Broadband Association, a trade organization that advocates for the deployment of fiber networks in North and South America.
"Broadband means jobs, economic development. It's the ability for online schooling and remote health care, public safety," he said.
He says people like Mauch aren't waiting around for governments to get the money needed to get decent internet.
"We certainly see some people that I call mavericks that are taking measures in their own hands," Bolton said. "A lot of the private citizens, they've actually been able to do it without a whole lot of federal funding."
Now that government funds are starting to trickle in, Bolton said, there will be a lot more opportunities for smaller outfits and community co-ops to bridge the digital divide. Rural electric cooperatives, which operate as nonprofits and are owned by their members, are the largest and fastest growing segment in broadband.
But during this fiber gold rush, Bolton said the bar will be set high for which businesses will get the money to expand broadband services.
"We want to make sure that the funding goes to sustainable networks," Bolton said, and "that any provider that gets money has the wherewithal to be in it for the long term. We wouldn't want, you know, networks to be funded that are just going to be flipped by people just trying to make money."
Building your own ISP isn't easy
In a presentation he uploaded to YouTube, Mauch offers a how-to guide of sorts on how he built an ISP for his community. But he warns that not everyone is cut out to do it.
"This is totally something that people can do. But I have a really unique set of skills that I think would make it incredibly challenging for somebody else to do this without having two or three different people," he said.
Before starting on this DIY venture, Mauch was already familiar with the inner-workings of ISPs. By day, he's a network architect at Akamai Technologies, where he helps companies get content like video streaming to their customers faster.
Building an ISP that would allow him those same services in his own home was an ambitious side project — an expensive one at that.
In all, Mauch says he's spent about $300,000 out of his own pocket building his service. But he says that he's signed up enough customers at this point that he's breaking even.
"My goal wasn't necessarily to make a lot of money doing this — but be able to connect people that really needed it," he said.
At the national level, access is still the first challenge. The FBA's Bolton says the next hurdle is making good internet affordable across the U.S.
As for Mauch, he usually charges about $200 for installation, with monthly rates starting at $65, according to hiscompany website. Although inflation has hiked up the cost of materials, he says he tries to keep his prices fair. For now, he seems to be keeping his neighbors happy.
"I have so far lost zero customers," he said.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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During these unsettling times, sellers and buyers are concerned about staying healthy and virus-free as we all are. To keep all parties safe, new procedures should be considered regarding the procedure for showing houses.
Agents are reporting that they are selling homes where the buyers have not physically been in the home and base their decision on the virtual tour found online. Some states have suspended showings because they are not considered essential services and other states have not addressed the subject.
In the spirit of stepping up to do what is necessary, the following suggestions should be considered:
- Buyers should view the pictures online first to see if the home meets their needs. Most listing agents upload enough pictures to get a good idea of what a home looks like.
- Buyers should ask their agent questions that the photos don't address. Then, their agent can go through the listing agent to ask the seller direct.
- It may be possible for the agent or owner to do a Facetime walk-through which would allow the buyers to ask questions and direct the agent or owner where to point the camera.
- When possible, buyers can make an appointment to see the home through their agent. They should meet the agent at the home in their own car. No children should attend showings.
- Recommended safe distances will be maintained between the owners and listing agent, if present, the buyers and their agent.
- Transfer is almost inevitable, and all precautions should be taken. Buyers should carry their own sanitizing wipes and or gloves and avoid unnecessarily touching surfaces. Allow their agent to open doors and cabinets.
- They should be disposed of in a trash bag in their car after they exit the home.
The social distancing and isolation could present some buying opportunities due to a lack of competition. At the same time, the lack of inventory in many markets could keep prices high. Overall, home prices nationwide are stable and, in many cases, continuing to rise which makes it a far less volatile alternative to investing in the stock market.
With mortgage rates being at historic lows, there will probably never be a cheaper time to finance a home.
Please stay safe; wash your hands; practice social distancing and follow all the guidelines necessary to promote good health. We're all in this together!
Thank you again for looking at my listings and let me know if we can help you in any way.


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No Plush Toy Is Indestructible - Not Even Fluff & Tuff
Our goal is simply to combine superior quality materials with proven construction specifications to create the most durable plush toy for your dog to have fun with. That being said, we do NOT guarantee our toys. We DO want to educate and bring awareness on purchasing the best toy that fits a dog's personality. Our toys are premium, unique, and safe. We hope you and your dog love them. Read more on how to find the best toy for your pup.
Features & Care
- Superior, ultra-plush outer fabric
- Thick, durable Tuffweb™ mesh liner
- Concealed and double stitched seams
- Non-toxic polyester fill placed for optimal shaping and play-ability
- Embroidered eyes
- All Fluff & Tuff toys are machine-washable
Play Safe
Always supervise your dog's play time. While our toys are made with high quality materials to be more durable, they are still plush toys – not chew toys – and therefore are not indestructible. All Fluff & Tuff toys meet the same strict standards set for manufacturing children's plush toys in the United States, including: ASTM F963-11 (Standard Consumer Safety Specs for Toy Safety), testing for lead and Phthalates, and double scanning for foreign or metal objects.


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Read Message | Help |
TO: Chief Executive Officer CFW Communications c/o 401 Spring Lane Waynesboro 22980/tdc VIRGINIA STATE, USA tel: (540) 946-2638 fax: (540) 943-5001 email: <firstname.lastname@example.com> <email@example.com> copy: <firstname.lastname@example.com> FROM: Paul Andrew Mitchell, B.A., M.S. Counselor at Law, Federal Witness and Private Attorney General DATE: July 8, 1998 SUBJECT: Copyright Violation TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: This is to inform you that we will soon complete our research in preparation for judicial enforcement of My exclusive copyrights in "The Federal Zone: Cracking the Code of Internal Revenue" (all editions). Formal NOTICE AND DEMAND are served upon you to deliver a certified copy of the author's written authorization, permitting you to promote a stolen electronic copy of "The Federal Zone: Cracking the Code of Internal Revenue" at Internet URL: http://www.cfw.com/~mattb/ date: 6/22/97 The offending link is: http://www.levity.com/deoxy/fz/ This certified copy must be delivered to: Supreme Law Firm c/o 2509 North Campbell Avenue, #1776 Tucson 85719/tdc ARIZONA STATE no later than 5:00 p.m. on July 20, 1998 (ten days hence). Beyond this deadline, your silence will activate estoppel, pursuant to Carmine v. Bowen, and constitute fraud, pursuant to U.S. v. Tweel. Court citations are available in Gilbertson's OPENING BRIEF in the Supreme Law Library. I am authorized to make this formal demand of you. Sincerely yours, /s/ Paul Mitchell, B.A., M.S. Counselor at Law, Federal Witness Private Attorney General and Author (under a pen name) copies: litigation files (pending) copyright enforcement staff _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com


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Ford Performance Parts M-6017-M50A Engine Control Pack M-6017-M50A
Call us at 800-767-8468 to confirm
availability and an install date at your local store.
Availability: In Stock
Shipping: FREE LOCAL STORE PICKUP ON MOST PRODUCTS
Support: 1-800-767-8468
As low as $39/mo or less with Affirm.
Over the years, racing has become big business for teams, sponsors, and manufacturers around the world. However, "grassroots" motorsports remain at the core of Ford's DNA. Grassroots performance began with Ford and has become a part of American culture. The Model A is the most modified car in history, and enthusiasts the world over continue to embrace Ford, Mercury, and Lincoln cars and trucks from the 1930s right on through to today. Road racers, drag racers. circle track competitors and street rodders have channeled, stepped-on, hopped-up, chopped down and modified their favorite cars to excel on the street, at the track, and in car shows. The Ford Mustang immediately became part of this culture when it was introduced in 1964-and remains a staple of grassroots performance to this day. In 2014, Mustang marks 50 years of winning, and has driven its way into racing history. Moreover, the car's appeal is universal; a recent European study identified Mustang as the most desirable classic car in Europe. Motorsports continue to evolve, with advances in technology and greater demand for smaller powertrains, as well as growing appetite for new formats like Rally Cross and Drifting. How it develops in the next 50 years remains to be seen, but we intend to be there to celebrate it, thanks to passionate enthusiasts like you, who have driven the success of Ford, Ford Racing and Mustang since the beginning.
Additional information
Dimensions | 29 × 14 × 20 in |
Actual Weight | 24.200 |
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Classification | Computer Chip Programmer |
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text: HttpContext and Logging to Elasticsearch on a Background Thread 13 April 2019 Tyler-Jensen .NET, ASP.NET, Elasticsearch, ELK, Serilog "HttpContext is not thread-safe. Reading or writing properties of the HttpContext outside of processing a request can result in a NullReferenceException." (from docs.microsoft.com) I am a big fan of Elasticsearch (ELK) logging and have built this into the Ioka.Services.Foundation using the Serilog libary, my current favorite .NET Core logging library. There are many ways to approach this and my intent is not to explore those but to show one way of taking on the task of logging in a background thread while preserving some request context detail in your log. Following the recommendation on the above docs page, we copy the elements of the HttpContext that we need for our background thread logging using the LogContextFactory. Here's a snippet of that code. For your scenario, you'll want to modify what values you wish to preserve and you may wish to remove the fairly heavy duty user agent parser if you don't care about seeing user agent data broken down in the log message. public static LogContext Create(HttpContext context) { return CreateFactory(() => context)(); } public static Func CreateFactory(Func httpContextFactory) { if (null == httpContextFactory) throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(httpContextFactory)); return new Func(() => { try { var httpCtx = httpContextFactory(); var httpRequestFeature = httpCtx.Request.HttpContext.Features.Get(); var context = new LogContext(); context["_ThreadId"] = Environment.CurrentManagedThreadId.ToString(); context["_Source"] = Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().GetName().Name; context["_IpAddress"] = httpCtx.Connection.RemoteIpAddress.ToString(); context["_UserId"] = httpCtx.Request.Headers["APPUID"].Count > 0 ? httpCtx.Request.Headers["APPUID"][0] : context["_UserId"]; context["_HttpMethod"] = httpCtx.Request.Method; In the controller we call the Create method to get a copy of what we need to pass into the background thread async method called DoMathWithLogging (cheesy name for demo purposes only) like this: public async Task<ActionResult<IEnumerable<string>>> Get() { var msg1 = "Another message"; var msg3 = new CustomError { Name = "Second", Message = "Second other message" }; _logger.Debug("This is a debug message. {msg1}, {@msg3}", msg1, msg3); var logContext = LogContextFactory.Create(this.HttpContext); var result = await _mathDemoProvider.DoMathWithLogging(logContext, _logger); return new string[] { logContext["_UserId"], logContext["_RequestId"], result.ToString() }; } Now in the DoMathWithLogging method, we use the ILog interface With method to pass the LogContext object into the logger to preserve what we have copied from HttpContext to the LogContext object. public async Task<long> DoMathWithLogging(LogContext logContext, ILog logger) { long x = 0; try { var rand = new Random(); for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) { x = 1000 * (long)rand.NextDouble(); Thread.Sleep(10); } Thread.Sleep(100); var c = 0; x = 77 / c; } catch (Exception e) { //uses new logger with saved context as this //is not on the request background thread logger.With(logContext).Error(e, "Error: value of {LargeValue}", x); } return x; } Note that in our demo code, we deliberately throw a divide by zero error and log it. And now in the implementation of the With method looks like this, capturing the current thread in the "_ThreadId-With" property on the context. public ILog With(LogContext context) { context["_ThreadId-With"] = Environment.CurrentManagedThreadId.ToString(); var list = _enrichers.Where(x => x.GetType() != typeof(LogEnricher)).ToList(); list.Insert(0, new LogEnricher(context, null)); return new Log(_config, _level, () => _index, _failureSink, _failureCallback, list.ToArray()); } In the With method, we insert a new log enricher for the Serilog logger. This allows us to capture the copied context values in the log messages, such as the Error logged like this: { "_index": "test", "_type": "logevent", "_id": "JAdXF2oB9fWPG6gy8H_9", "_version": 1, "_score": null, "_source": { "@timestamp": "2019-04-13T15:36:40.2296224+00:00", "level": "Error", "messageTemplate": "Error: value of {LargeValue}", "message": "Error: value of 0", "exception": { "Depth": 0, "ClassName": "", "Message": "Attempted to divide by zero.", "Source": "Ioka.Services.Demo", "StackTraceString": " at Ioka.Services.Demo.Providers.MathLoggingDemoProvider.DoMathWithLogging(LogContext logContext, ILog logger) in D:\\Code\\Github\\Ioka.Services.Foundation\\src\\Ioka.Services.Demo\\Providers\\MathLoggingDemoProvider.cs:line 30", "RemoteStackTraceString": "", "RemoteStackIndex": -1, "HResult": -2147352558, "HelpURL": null }, "fields": { "LargeValue": 0, "_UserId": "root", "_IpAddress": "::ffff:172.18.0.1", "_Source": "Ioka.Services.Demo", "_MachineName": "6cf7fdb5f3cf", "_ThreadId": "14", "_HttpMethod": "GET", "_RequestId": "50d32de9-df69-4aee-ae48-075f22b8ac2d", "_Url": "https://localhost:44370/api/Values", "_Query": "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http.Internal.QueryCollection", "_WebUser": null, "_Browser": "Chrome 73.0.3683 Windows 10", "_Header_Connection": "keep-alive", "_Header_Accept": "text/plain", "_Header_Accept-Encoding": "gzip, deflate, br", "_Header_Accept-Language": "en-US,en;q=0.9", "_Header_Host": "localhost:44370", "_Header_Referer": "https://localhost:44370/api-docs/index.html", "_Header_User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/73.0.3683.103 Safari/537.36", "_ThreadId-With": "14" } }, "fields": { "@timestamp": [ "2019-04-13T15:36:40.229Z" ] }, "sort": [ 1555169800229 ] } Note the "_ThreadId-With" property above has the same vs!he as the request thread is. This is because not all async methods will run on a background thread. In previous versions of this code, I forced a long running task to spin up on another thread to verify this. Generally I would not recommend that in practice. Also note the "_RequestId" property which would allow you to filter in Kibana for all entries with that value in order to trace all log entries for a given request. This can be a very useful tool when you're trying to figure out what happened. This is the first of many upcoming posts on the code and use of the Ioka.Services.Foundation. The code base is not intended for production use but to provide a guide when you create your own internal libraries to spin up a set of .NET Core microservices that have a common set of fundamental elements that will make working on them, supporting them and using them easier.


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China Media Train Fire on U.S. Food Giants Over Chicken Scare
Just weeks after Chinese authorities cleared Yum Brands Inc and McDonald's Corp of charges they had served chicken laced with excessive chemicals, local media are again attacking the iconic American firms, while barely reporting on the chances of Chinese restaurants selling similar meat.
The official Shanghai Daily, citing a report from the central government's news portal china.com.cn, said on Thursday one of China's largest suppliers to McDonald's and Yum's KFC and had bought sick chicken from farms and sold them to the food outlets - a claim a local government in the central province of Henan said was untrue after a preliminary investigation.
Chinese newspapers and websites have also criticized some domestic firms, but industry experts say multinationals are hotter targets given the high profile of their brands.
"KFC and McDonald's get media attention because they're the biggest fast-food chains in China. Everyone knows them and everyone talks about them," said Tan Xiaoxue, a reporter at Sohu.com Inc's news portal.
"There are some local chains such as Country Style Cooking, but they cannot be compared with international brands, which have much bigger brand recognition and consumer impact."
In the latest chicken scare case, china.com.cn quoted an unidentified official at Doyoo Group - which sells chicken to KFC and McDonald's - plus employees at Doyoo's suppliers as saying chicken that fell ill were slaughtered and shipped to fast food restaurants including the two American giants.
However, the government of Doyoo's home city Hebi said on Wednesday that it had found no evidence of this in a preliminary probe, and authorities were looking into the case more closely.
In response to the china.com.cn report, Yum's China unit said it will closely monitor the situation.
"If Doyoo is found to have committed any wrongdoings, it will be subject to severe punishment," it said via its official microblog account.
Officials at McDonald's in China and at Doyoo could not be reached for comment despite repeated calls by Reuters.
Last week, Yum warned that sales in China - where it earns over half of its worldwide revenue and operating profit - shrank more than expected in the fourth quarter, citing bad publicity from a government review of its chicken supply.
The firm has been embroiled over the past month in a scare triggered by an official China Central Television report which said some chicken supplied to KFC and McDonald's contained excess amounts of antiviral drugs and growth hormones.
On investigation, the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration found the levels of antibiotics and steroids in KFC chicken were safe, though the watchdog found a suspicious level of an antiviral drug in one of the eight samples tested.
Yum apologized last week to customers over the handling of that scare, but state-run Xinhua news agency immediately weighed in with an editorial on Saturday slamming the U.S. firm.
"Yum's understated apology is rooted in its arrogance and propensity for unfairly treating Chinese consumers, who usually regard foreign brands as being safer and of higher quality than domestic brands," Xinhua said.
"Other multinational companies have displayed the same attitude, capitalizing on loopholes in Chinese law and regulations to escape punishment."
Kevin Der Arslanian, a business analyst at China Market Research Group in Shanghai, said the government is taking a firm stance against foreign companies especially in the food sector given high public concerns over safety.
"They are being harsh on them to show that they are aware of these worries when it comes to food safety," he said.
"I don't think it's unfair that they're specifically targeting foreign brands. These foreign brands and KFC in particular have positioned themselves as extremely healthful and extremely high quality, and therefore if there are scandals it is only fair that they be hit the hardest."
Still, not all local news outlets are joining the attack.
Chen Xiaoxiang, a reporter at Hangzhou city newspaper Metropolis Express said his editors chose not to cover the KFC stories because safety violations are a bigger problem for domestic companies.
"We believe that these international companies are already operating in a relatively well regulated way, and compared with many small Chinese workshop-style food chains, they are more trustworthy," he said.
"Their problems are often minor compared with quality problems at many local companies ... Media focus, rather, should be on those ill-regulated Chinese companies."


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A while back, while we were trying our hand at a few Cantonese dishes, we tried our hand at this one.
I am not sure if this is "Cantonese" per se, but we definitely see claypot rice dishes on the menu in Cantonese restaurants. I'm guessing that it's a Southern Chinese thing.
Claypot rice is another one of those "easy" dishes by which we are baffled. We just assume there are all sorts of secret techniques to which we are not privy.
Wikipedia: Claypot Chicken Rice
We just have no idea how claypots actually work.
From my mother's stories, she claims to have used claypots quite frequently back in the day. She claims that some dishes actually taste better when cooked in a claypot rather than in a metal pot.
How memory goes when time flies -- when we ask our mother how to use the claypot, she seems to have forgotten how the entire process works. So, we were left to our own devices, to figure out how to use the claypot that we bought.
I also have no idea if the claypot we bought was actually a good piece of equipment: being the cheapskate that I am, I of course looked for a claypot that has a "reasonable" price point. In the back of my mind, I realized that this budget-seeking impulse could lead to my downfall.
But, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Time to get cookin'.
Chicken, Chinese Sausage, Mushrooms
First, we marinated the chicken in a little soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, sesame oil, cornstarch and minced ginger. Well, the ginger is supposed to be minced, but as you can see, we got a little lazy in the mincing department.
Claypot rice dishes are generally simple, so besides the chicken, we only had two other components: Chinese sausage (lap cheung) and mushroom.
An easy "rice" dish we sometimes make is Chinese sausage rice, which involves cutting up the Chinese sausage into small pieces and putting them into the rice cooker with uncooked rice and water.
The result is delicious, with the Chinese sausage "juices" infusing the rice.
We reconstituted dried shiitake mushrooms until they were like fresh again. We also used the liquid for cooking the rice for extra mushroom flavor.
The Claypot
There it is, the mysterious claypot.
We figured we'd have to pre-cook the chicken somewhat, so we cooked them in the claypot for a little bit (not cooked all through).
The chicken set aside and the claypot all crusty with good chicken bits...
...we added the rice and water into the pot. Um, I guess we should dump everything else into the pot too. In went the chicken, mushrooms and Chinese sausage. We simmered this for quite a while until the rice was cooked.
Of course, I thought, in the way lazy people think, why not just put the chicken pieces, the Chinese sausage, mushrooms in the rice cooker to cook?
I guess it wouldn't be chicken CLAYPOT rice if I did that.
Whoa, that claypot is getting a tad too full. Why do we always end up with a lot of food?
So guess what? Since we had a lot of chicken rice to make, we did end up cooking the rest in the rice cooker! We plopped the ingredients in the rice cooker and pressed the button to "cook". Easy. Definitely not a mystery.
The Sauce, another mystery
Ah, but here's yet another one. When we order claypot rice in Cantonese restaurants, it is always accompanied by a sauce, served in a separate dish, that is then poured into the claypot.
For the life of me, I have no idea what this "mystery" sauce is!
It is definitely not just soy sauce!
So, we tried to make something up. We started with premium dark soy sauce; it is not very salty at all, but very luxurious. It was a bit too much by itself. So, we added some chicken stock, then seasoned with Shaoxing wine, sugar and five-spice. This was heated on the stove for a bit.
The Claypot Cracked!
A mini disaster occurred during the making of this dish, though. We discovered a crack in our claypot while the rice was cooking!
Of course, JS believes that the "cheap" claypot we bought was defective. But, after finally reading about claypots and how to use them --
and by "finally", I mean that I have just finished reading this important information right now while writing this post and not six months ago when we were actually using the claypot --
I believe we made the error of using high heat when we were "pre-cooking" our chicken. So, don't make the mistake we did. Read about how to actually use claypots before using one.
About.com: How to Cook with a Claypot
Chinese Clay Pot Cooking is Magic
I guess we just need to wait for another sale on claypots and get ourselves another one!
Mini-disaster aside, our claypot rice was nice enough. The rice had turned quite brown on the bottom and on the sides of the claypot. We poured our mystery sauce over the rice and tasted the dish.
By golly, it seemed like it was close to restaurant claypot rice. Well, OK, I wouldn't go that far. ;)
But, it was still very tasty and the mystery sauce was a little reminiscent of the sauce served in the restaurants.
A success, in its own way.
We consider this our starter claypot rice. As you can imagine, the possibilities for claypot rice are endless!
eatingclub Hong Kong/Cantonese
Chicken Chow Mein
Cantonese Braised Beef Brisket, Two Ways
Lobster Congee from a Lobster Feast
Chinese Roast Pork Belly
Gailan (Chinese Broccoli) with Oyster Sauce, Two Ways
Chinese Pork Bone Soup with Carrots and Water Chestnuts
Hong Kong-style Curry Cuttlefish
Dimsum Seafood Trio: Black Pearl Prawn Toast, Scallop in Nest, Jewelled Rice Cup
Hong Kong-style Singapore Noodles (星洲炒米)
Hong Kong-style Stir-fried Water Spinach with Shrimp Paste (蝦醬通菜)
Hong Kong-style Stir-fried Rice Noodle with Beef (乾炒牛河)
Sweet and Sour Pork
Hong Kong-style Curry Beef Brisket (咖喱牛腩), 1st Attempt
Claypot Chicken Rice (瓦煲雞飯)
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Chicken Claypot Rice
Serves 4 to 6
2 chicken legs and thighs, cut into pieces
2 chicken wings (optional)
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon Shaoxing wine
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1 teaspoon cornstarch
2-3 pieces dried shiitake mushrooms, reconstituted in hot water
1-2 pieces Chinese sausage
3 cups rice
4 cups water
"Pouring Sauce"
1/2 cup dark soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon five-spice powder
2 teaspoons Shaoxing wine
1/4 cup chicken stock
Marinate chicken in soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, sesame oil, minced ginger and cornstarch. Let sit for about 1 hour or so.
When you have about 10 minutes of marinating to go, place claypot on the stove and heat on the lowest setting.
Meanwhile, slice Chinese sausages and reconstituted mushrooms.
Heat oil in a wok or sauté pan over high heat, then add chicken pieces and cook until exterior turns color (no longer pink); they don't need to be browned. Set aside. Add rice to the wok and stir a few time, cooking for about 30 seconds to a minute.
Add the rice and water to the claypot. Turn the heat slightly higher, to medium-low or medium. Add the chicken, sliced Chinese sausages and sliced mushrooms to the claypot as well. When the mixture starts to bubble, cover and use the lowest heat setting.
Cook for about 45 minutes to an hour, checking every so often.
While the rice is cooking, make the pouring sauce. Combine all the ingredients for the sauce in a small pot. Heat until barely boiling. Set aside.
When the rice and chicken are cooked, turn off heat. Serve your dish in the claypot with the pouring sauce on the side. You can pour the sauce into the claypot or have each person pour the sauce into his/her individual serving. Enjoy!
Rasa Malaysia also made Claypot Chicken Rice with both a claypot and a ricecooker:
Claypot Chicken Rice
Claypot Chicken Rice (without Claypot)


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Darkroom Door Anniversary Rubber Sentiment Stamp DDSE006
In stock
Darkroom Door Sentiment Stamps are mounted on cling foam. Use as an entire strip of sentiments on your cards and projects, or trim each sentiment into individual stamps. Suitable for card making, art journals, mixed media and more! Darkroom Door rubber stamps are known for their durability, deep etching and high image detail.
Size: 178mm x 36mm (7" x 1.4").
Designed by Rachel Greig. Made in Australia.
1. Trim stamps using fine tip craft scissors.
2. Peel off white backing paper.
3. Place stamp onto a clear acrylic block ready for stamping.


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I'm one of those "job creators" members of Congress profess to admire so much. Thirty-two years ago, my partner and I started a small business with $300 worth of old records and a booth at the local farmers market. We're now the biggest independent music store in St. Louis and employ 22 people. Our annual revenue is around $2 million. We're a classic American success story.
Our incomes are typical for small business owners, which means we're not in the top tax brackets. We've always been at or below the 25 percent tax bracket. So we're trying to figure out how a new Congressional tax proposal is supposed to help small businesses like ours create jobs.
The proposal would cut top individual and corporate tax rates from 35 percent to 25 percent. In addition, it would reward U.S. multinational corporations that have gamed the system with a 5.25 percent tax rate on U.S. profits they have disguised as "foreign" earnings. All this will be great for gigantic multinational corporations, Wall Street and the fat cats who attend those $1,000-a-plate and up political fundraisers. It will be great for the corporate lobbyists gaming our political system every day.
It won't help small business, and it won't help America.
This proposal would give massive new tax cuts to America's largest corporations and wealthiest families and comes as we learn from a Congressional Budget Office report that after-tax inflation-adjusted incomes for the richest 1 percent of Americans skyrocketed 275 percent between 1979 and 2007.
Tax-cut advocates want us to believe that cutting the top rate to 25 percent benefits America's small business owners. Most small business owners wouldn't see a penny of tax cuts under this proposal.
And, anyone who thinks lowering my tax rate would affect hiring knows diddlysquat about running a business. I hire more workers if I think I'll do more business. The costs of finding, hiring and paying new employees are business expenses. They're deducted up-front from taxable income. Any business paying taxes on these expenses needs to fire their accountant.
The biggest challenge facing my business isn't the taxes we pay. It's the decline in customer demand and the continued hollowing out of our middle class, our infrastructure and our economy. It breaks my heart when my customers sell record collections built over a lifetime, to pay their rent, heating bills or medical expenses.
We've tried trickle-down tax cuts to create jobs. How'd that work out? Tax-Cutter-in-Chief, George W. Bush, had the worst job creation record since 1939. What trickled down were economic meltdown, foreclosures, unemployment, budget cuts and business closures.
When Congress proposes stimulating the economy with more tax cuts for those who are far ahead of the rest of us, they do nothing to help my customers or my business. When the wealthy get more tax cuts, it transfers the burden of paying for government services to businesses like mine and to my customers, already living paycheck to paycheck.
If members of Congress want to help small business, they should choose policies that actually create jobs. St. Louis, like many cities, laid off teachers, first responders and construction workers – the people who spend money locally and who we need for a healthy economy. The last thing we need is more cutbacks to pay for more tax cuts at the top.
Job creation today and a brighter future for our kids and grandkids lies in better education, 21st Century infrastructure, universal broadband and renewable energy. How do the advocates of more tax cuts for the affluent expect to compete with emerging economic superpowers if we don't invest in our nation's future? Where do they expect money for that investment to come from, if not from those who have profited most from the investment our parents and grandparents made to build the nation they handed us?
Trickle-down economics has been a miserable failure. It delivered economic ruin for many and riches for a few. It hasn't brought shared prosperity, but driven us further apart. It increased the economic and political power of Wall Street and Big Business over Main Street and small business.
Trickle-down economics is a broken record. It's time to let it go.
Lew Prince is managing partner of Vintage Vinyl, an independent music store in St. Louis. He is also a member of Business for Shared Prosperity, a national network of forward-thinking business owners and executives. A version of this op-ed previously appeared in The Hill.


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8 Reasons Believers Give to Your Church
If you want your church to grow, you must learn how to motivate believers to invest their resources into the Kingdom for ministry and for facilities. It is a key responsibility of leadership. Whoever writes the agenda must be able to underwrite the agenda. If you're going to form the vision, you also have to be able to fund the vision.
A lot of pastors, a lot of elders, a lot of church leaders have a real hangup about asking people to give. They allow personal insecurities and personal fears to limit the ministry. You don't need to be embarrassed about asking people to give. There is nothing greater than the Kingdom of God. There is no more significant cause than the church.
I am very much against fundraising, but I am in favor of teaching people to give. Fundraising is what I call collecting money from other people in return for a product, service, reward, or recognition. But in giving, we simply challenge ourselves to give out of our own resources for spiritual reasons. The result of fundraising is that funds are collected. The results of teaching people to be givers are that funds are collected and disciples are developed.
And to develop generous disciples, you need to understand why people give.
1. People give when they trust the leadership.
John 10:1-11 says, "The sheep listen to [the shepherd's] voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. … He goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him …. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd." Study after study has proven that in the hierarchy of giving, people give first of all to people they believe in. Then they give to purposes. Finally they give to programs. That means the most essential elements in teaching people to give are relational, not functional.
Even if you use a consultant to help you raise money, you as the pastor still need to be out front. Because the person who asks for the giving needs to be the person with the most credibility. And if you are a pastor and you are not the most trusted person, then you have a leadership problem and you're not ready to teach people to give yet. You need to be the most visible because the person who is the best qualified to ask for money should be the person who's the most trusted.
2. People give when they catch a vision, not when they see a need.
The Bible says, "Where there is no vision, the people perish" (Proverbs 29:18 KJV). Did you know that Ivy League schools usually receive the largest endowments? And they are the schools that need the money the least. Why? People give to success. They give to vision. They don't give to needs. That's why in fifteen years we have never had a bulletin with our financial reports in it along with how much we need. Why? Because bills do not motivate people to give. People give when they catch a vision and they get the big picture.
You must be very clear about what your vision is. At Saddleback, we've never had a vision for a building, but rather for what the building can help us do. We've never had a vision for raising money, but rather for what the money can do. Emphasize the lives that will be changed as people give—the marriages that will be saved, the broken people that are going to be put back together, the people who will break addictions, the changed lives that will happen. That's the vision!
3. People give to experience the joy of generosity.
It feels good to give generously—it really does. A person who doesn't understand that has never given generously. The happiest people in the world are the most giving people. Guilt never motivates people to give. Giving that is motivated by guilt only lasts as long as the guilt does. So you never use guilt to motivate people to give. You use joy to motivate people to give.
I absolutely do not accept the health and wealth theology, which teaches that God wants everybody to be rich. But the fact is, there are more promises in the Bible related to giving than any other subject. You cannot out-give God. If you're going to be Christlike, you've got to learn to give.
4. People give when they are inspired by models.
We learn best by watching models. That's why a testimony about giving is a thousand times more effective than a sermon on giving. Models motivate us. Giving is contagious. So I encourage people to write down and send me their testimonies, how they decided to give, and what they were giving.
5. People give when they are involved.
Paul told the Philippians, "I thank my God … because of your partnership in the gospel" (Philippians 1:3, 5). The fact is those who are most involved in the campaign will be those who sacrifice the most. One of our gauges of involvement at Saddleback is how many people have completed our Classes (and you can get our CLASS material here). And the more Classes people have completed, the more involved they are, and the more they tend to give. The average gift from an attender during one of our giving campaigns was about $7,000. For the people who had gone through Class 101, the average gift was $8,500. The average gift from people who had been through Class 201 and 101 was over $11,000. And the average gift of people who had been through Classes 101, 201 and 301, which usually indicates they are actually involved in the ministry of the church was over $15,000.
6. People give when you ask them to give.
James says, "You do not have because you do not ask God" (James 4:2). The Bible says ask and seek and knock. God asks people to give. The fact is we're doing people a favor when we ask them to give because they grow in faith, they grow in love, they grow in sacrifice, they grow in commitment, and they grow in character as they learn to give. They will be blessed in return. Never say no for anybody. Your church will be hurt more by those who would have said yes and were not asked, than by those who were asked and said no.
7. People give when you make it possible for them to give.
Second Corinthians 8:12 says, "For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have." That means you need to make it possible for people to give in as many ways as you can. Teach people how to want to give, and they'll figure out how.
Teach people that they can either give by reason or by revelation. Giving by reason means this—I look at what I have, I figure out what's reasonable, and I commit that amount. It doesn't take any faith to give by reason. I just figure out what can I afford to give. Giving by revelation means I determine my gift by praying "Lord, what do you want to give through me?" This requires faith. When you give by revelation, you're committing an act of worship and saying, "How much am I willing to trust God?"
8. People give when their gifts are appreciated.
The whole book of Philippians is just a thank-you letter from Paul for their offerings, for their financial support. Figure out seven ways to thank people for their gift—a card, a call, a banquet, etc. A little appreciation goes a long way in encouraging people to be generous for the long haul.
Explore Pastors.com small group studies on financial health below:
Financial Fitness Small Group Study
Managing Our Finances God's Way Small Group Study