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This strategic shift represents, as far I as can tell, an important realignment of Israel's position, which is almost certainly arising out by Israeli leaders' increasing concern with international criminal prosecution for various war crimes. Since (at least) the Goldstone report highlighted the inhuman and illegal collective punishment of 1.7 million Gazans—a crime bordering on persecution, i.e. a crime against humanity—Israel has struggled to find a narrative that justifies its behavior. Hell bent on stopping a humanitarian convoy designed to make break the siege, Israeli lawyers appear to have been hard at work constructing a new rationale, which we now see regurgitated ad nauseum by Israel's army of PR specialists on our television screens and across the intertubes.
The core legal claim being made is this: Under Part IV, Section II of the San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea, 12 June 1994, Israel argues it is justified to impose a naval blockade on Gaza because it is in a state of armed conflict. Quack VP Biden said as much today as well in arguing that Israel is "in a state of war with Hamas".
Debatable Legality of Israel's Official Position
But the type of armed conflict between Israel and Hamas is much less clear than Israel suggests. In particular, there is substantial legal confusion over whether Israel's "war" with Hamas constitutes an International Armed Conflict (IAC) or a Non-International Armed Conflict (NIAC).
As discussed in an excellent post on Opinio Juris:
it is difficult to argue that Israel is involved in an IAC with Hamas. First, it is obviously not in a traditional IAC, because Gaza is not a state. Second, not even Israel claims that the conflict has been internationalized by the involvement of another state. And third, although the Israeli Supreme Court held—controversially—in the Targeted Killings case that armed conflict between an occupying power and a rebel group is international, Israel's official position is that it not currently occupying Gaza.
Israel's defense of the blockade thus appears to create a serious dilemma for it. Insofar as Israel insists that it is not currently occupying Gaza, it cannot plausibly claim that it is involved in an IAC with Hamas. And if it is not currently involved in an IAC with Hamas, it is difficult to see how it can legally justify the blockade of Gaza. Its blockade of Gaza, therefore, seems to depend on its willingness to concede that it is occupying Gaza and is thus in an IAC with Hamas.
Israel is trying to get simultaneously the benefits of two distinct legal interpretations. On the one hand, Israel wanted to use the laws of IAC to justify its blockade; on the other it doesn't want to abide by the particular requirements imposed on it in an IAC.
For more on the distinction between IAC and NIAC, see here.
Implications of Israel's Legal Position
What are these additional requirements? Accepting that the situation is one of an IAC would turn Hamas militants into " privileged belligerents" and a host of provisions from the Fourth Geneva Conventions kick in. Israel must recognize, as suggested above, its continued occupation of Gaza, something it has spent years trying to persuade us to forget. Additionally, Hamas militants, when captured must be treated as prisoners of war, something which Israel would also likely find unacceptable.
The converse is also true. Any on-duty Israeli soldier would also be a privileged belligerent. Therefore, although Hamas would still be in violation of international law for firing rockets at civilian centers, it would be fully and unequivocally justified in its capture of Gilad Shalit. It would be allowed, in my understanding, not only in fighting off Israeli incursions into Gaza but also in attacking Israeli forces wherever they are found, including inside the Green Line.
Thus, in a desperate effort to justify its brutal assault on a humanitarian convoy in international waters, Israel's legal position appears to be a direct attack as well on Gilad Shalit, its arguments used to criticize his captivity, and all other soldiers inside the Green Line.
Additional Considerations
Even if Israel's legal position is accepted, at least three additional legal issues arise.
First, military action is only justified when all other options have been exhausted. As seen with the Gaza assault in 2009, Israel knowingly and deliberately violated a ceasefire (in November 2009) that would have obviated the "need" for military action. Israel's leaders chose that military option when others were available, and continue to commit the same error with respect to the blockade.
Second, "the San Remo Manual also contains rules governing the lawfulness of the blockade itself, and there can be no authority under international law to enforce a blockade which is unlawful. Paragraph 102 of the Manual prohibits a blockade if 'the damage to the civilian population is, or may be expected to be, excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated from the blockade'", according to Prof. Saul (Co-Director of the Sydney Centre for International Law at The University of Sydney). Considering the disastrous humanitarian outcomes for 1.7 million people, while the alleged belligerent Hamas is stronger than ever, this requirement is also on very uncertain ground.
Third, Israel's behavior against the flotilla activists must follow standard international rules governing proportionality of military action. The precise sequence of events is murky, largely because Israel refuses to divulge the full collection of video that it seized/stole from the ship, from activists, and from journalists. Israel knew the convoy was full of unarmed humanitarian activists, yet a large group of commandos, supported by navy boats, helicopters, etc., armed to the teeth, managed to kill between 9 and 19 civilians with over 50 others seriously injured. Establishing proportionality in such a context will require a lot more evidence than the IDF has managed to produce from the selective editing to produce about two minutes of material from hours of video footage.
Israel's Catch-22 seems to grow continually in its complexity—and gravity.


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Welcome to Alderwood
Alderwood Primary School is a values–based education community dedicated to the care and development of the whole child. Our values underpin everything we do from our broad and balanced curriculum to how we treat each other and our environment every moment of every day.
Our school prides itself on its calm and purposeful environment where the children feel supported, challenged and extended. The School Council plays a fundamental role in whole-school decisions, ensuring our children have a deep understanding of their role in society as thinkers and leaders of change.
To prepare our children for life in the 21st Century, we strive to build intellectual minds capable of flexibility, capable of problem solving and tackling challenges with a growth mindset. We nurture the whole child ensuring the children receive a range of challenging, high quality experiences at our school and we provide an annual programme of educational visits using our local environment and the advantage of being situated in Greenwich and London. We believe in indoor and outdoor learning: our Year 6 children go for a week's residential school journey and we have trained Forest School leaders who support our children in the outdoor learning we can provide here.
Our links with our community are very important to us. We maintain a close connection with our adjoining Children's Centre, our local churches and the University of Greenwich. The views of our children and parents are always listened to and we use them to enhance our school environment and learning. Parents at our school show a keen interest in being involved and supporting the school in any way they can. We talk to the children about their learning, friendships and lives. It is crucial that our children see them selves as pivotal members of our school and the world they live in.
Alderwood is a member of the Compass Partnership of Schools,along with Willow Dene School, Horn Park Primary School, Halstow Primary School, South Rise Primary School, Wingfield Primary School and Deansfield Primary School.

subset: commoncrawl


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Falcone Banned at Fidelity for 7 Years by N.Y.'s LawskyErik Larson
Billionaire Philip Falcone was banned by New York state's top financial watchdog from being an officer or director of Fidelity & Guaranty Life for seven years for using his hedge funds' money for his personal taxes.
Falcone, 51, is also barred from "direct or indirect control over the management, policies, operations" and investment funds of Fidelity's New York unit, the state's Department of Financial Services said yesterday in a statement. The ban also applies to employees of his hedge fund, Harbinger Capital Partners LLC, which controls the insurance company.
Falcone's absence isn't a major concern because he "is not involved in the day to day," Kevin Cassidy, an analyst at Moody's Investors Service, said by phone. Harbinger Group Inc., the insurer's parent company, has other executives who can oversee Fidelity, Cassidy said.
The ban stems from Falcone's accord in August with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which had sued him over the same claims and banned him for five years from the securities industry. In that case, Falcone admitted to improperly borrowing $113.2 million from the fund and giving preferential treatment to some clients when returning their money.
Potential Influence
While Falcone isn't an officer or director at Fidelity, the ban is intended to prevent him from exerting his potential influence over the insurer in any capacity through his role as Harbinger Capital's chief executive officer, according to a person familiar with the matter who wasn't authorized to give details about the case. Fidelity's SEC filings list Falcone as the company's "ultimate controlling person."
Fidelity, based in Baltimore, is run by Chief Executive Officer Lee Launer, a former executive at MetLife Inc., the largest U.S. life insurer.
"It is vital to ensure that those who operate insurance companies will always put retirees and policyholders first and act with the utmost integrity," DFS Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky, who regulates banks and insurers operating in New York, said in the statement.
Falcone, who became a billionaire by betting against the U.S. housing market in 2006, was approached by Lawsky's office following his settlement with the SEC, Matthew Anderson, a spokesman for the DFS, said in a phone interview yesterday.
Seven Years
Harbinger Capital's general counsel, Robin Roger, and its chief financial officer, Keith Hladek, resigned from Fidelity's board in anticipation of the ban, said two people familiar with the matter, who weren't authorized to discuss the moves publicly.
Employees of Harbinger Group aren't affected by the ban, and some of its employees are still on the board, the people said.
Hladek declined to comment when reached by phone yesterday. Roger didn't immediately return a call for comment.
Following negotiations, Falcone, Harbinger and Fidelity all agreed to the seven-year ban against Falcone and the deal's reach beyond New York, where the regulator has authority, Anderson said.
The New York ban comes as Fidelity is seeking a valuation of at least $1 billion in its initial public offering, according to two people involved in the planning. Harbinger Group bought Fidelity & Guaranty, the U.S. life and annuity unit of London-based Old Mutual Plc, for $350 million in 2011.
Falcone's hedge funds last month sold $158 million of Harbinger Group shares, a stake of about 13 percent, to Leucadia National Corp. as the money manager meets redemption requests after the SEC settlement.
Eric Goldstein, a lawyer representing Harbinger Capital, didn't immediately return a call for comment on the DFS ban.
'Falcone's Fitness'
The wrongdoing exposes "serious issues related to Mr. Falcone's fitness to control the management, operations, and policyholder funds of a New York insurance company," Lawsky said in the statement. The statement didn't say what specific role, if any, Falcone had at Fidelity.
Fidelity's New York unit agreed to put in place new policyholder protections under yesterday's agreement, including setting aside $18.5 million in a trust account to replenish its risk-based capital levels to protect consumers from unexpected losses, Lawsky said.
The guidelines are modeled on internal rules adopted by other insurance companies owned by private equity firms and investment companies at the financial regulator's request, according to yesterday's statement.
U.S. money manager Guggenheim Partners LLC and Apollo Global Management LLC agreed this year to similar policyholder protections, according to the statement.
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Good Saturday Morning!! Hope your weekend has started out great 🙂 Just wanted to let you know I have a quick 2 day giveaway going on HERE, check it out!
There is also THIS ONE going on too.
This recipe was published @ http://picky-palate.com/quick-weekend-giveaway/
Copyright © 2007-2013 Picky Palate. All rights reserved.


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What is the definition of Antabuse, and how does this medication help alcoholics stay sober? Improve your understanding of how this drug can help drinkers kick the habit for good with this review of its benefits.

How Does Antabuse Work?

Also known as disulfiram or antabus, Antabuse is a medication that helps people stay sober by increasing their sensitivity to alcohol. If you have taken Antabuse (pronounced ant-a-byoos), and you have an alcoholic drink, you will experience the intense negative effects of alcohol.

These symptoms are similar to the ones induced by a hangover, such as nausea, vomiting, headache, dizziness, and shortness of breath. Of course, many alcoholics have experienced all of these symptoms after episodes of heavy drinking and continue to drink anyway. Nonetheless, Antabuse is used to help people maintain abstinence from alcohol by pairing these unpleasant symptoms with alcoholic beverages. The goal is to deter recovering alcoholics from drinking and to create negative reinforcement for drinking.

The Drawbacks of Antabuse

Because the effects of Antabuse are so intense and unpleasant, it is usually only considered an appropriate treatment for people with severe alcohol dependence and who have been unable to maintain abstinence with other treatments. But if you think Antabuse might be the right treatment for you, talk to your physician, counselor or another health provider about whether you might be a good candidate for the medication.

If you do receive an Antabuse prescription, however, remember that you have a greater influence over staying sober than any medication does. Once you're ready to stay sober, you will commit to making the choice to prioritize your mental and physical health, career and personal relationships over drinking. Many alcoholics enter recovery and maintain sobriety without ever using Antabuse.

Alternative Roads to Sobriety

Alcoholics and people with other addictions all recover by making the same choice: They decide to examine the mental health issues that led them to develop a substance use problem in the first place. Are you drinking because you come from a long line of alcoholics and likely have a genetic predisposition to alcoholism? Are you drinking because you saw your family members use alcohol to "solve" their problems by numbing their feelings?

Were you emotionally, physically or sexually abused as a child? Are you lonely, depressed or suffering from another (undiagnosed) mental health condition? Reflecting on your formative years, family history and mental health background can help you uncover why you began drinking in the first place.

Joining a 12-step program, entering rehab and signing up for psychotherapy are all moves you can take to get control over your drinking and achieve sobriety. Once you enter recovery, you'll need a strong support system to lean on when times get tough and you're tempted to drink again. If you're religious, your faith in God or in a higher power may help you maintain sobriety.

Making new friends who don't drink or use drugs, staying out of establishments with a strong focus on alcohol and following your passions in life may collectively help you stay on the road to recovery.


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Pink and baby blue? Bunnies and choo-choos? Not today. We've got a hankering for cozy, slouchy hats, slippers, and newborn mittens with vibrant, European style that we've just found.
The owner of Rattle Tat goes straight to Sweden for the sort of bright, iconic fabrics it's hard to find over here in the States. Clouds, stars, buses, monkeys, mushrooms and more, work for both genders in a stretchy mix of 100% cotton and Lycra.
Each piece is designed and handmade by a Swede living in England, which means prices are in pounds and shipping is a bit high. Yay for our European readers, right?
Still, if you're looking for bright colors and unisex accessories no one else will have, you just might find it in the Rattle Tat shop or be able to order it from her fabric page. Hats are available in four sizes from small to extra large, while matching newborn scratch mittens and toddler slippers are one-size. Cuteness however is off the charts. –Delilah
Find stretchy hats, newborn mittens, toddler slippers and more at Rattle Tat.


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|Looking for TLC with my sexy lover
52-year-old SugarDaddy
(Next birthday in 1 weeks) Pisces
Rockville, Maryland, United States
Seeking SugarBaby 21 - 55
Personal Details
|About Me:
Out to find my adventure partner to escape for sprees of enticing, eclectic, exotic, erotic excitement...
I love to spend time outdoors, nothing like a fine picnic in a beautiful very private setting! As well, a romantic night out in the city is hard to beat! Major music fan... very passionate, will take good care in all respects!
I love a womans touch in all ways; I give a fine massage and enjoy all fine things in life...come on out and let's tantalize and spoil each other as if there was no one else around! I especially crave a woman who knows what she likes...
What I'm Looking For
She is hot, sweet, passionate, sensual, adventurous, lots of soul, funky, sexy, spontaneous and delicious! Looking for a beautiful flower in blossom who is looking for mutual TLC!
Looking For


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Are you sitting down? And if you're a male teen, can you accept the fact that no, you should not have thought of this first?
In what is even by today's va-va-voom viral standards a mind-boggling progression, Jake Davidson – a senior at Milken Community High School in Bel Air – has gone from posting a humorous Kate Upton prom invitation on YouTube March 16, to receiving a "maybe" reply from the supermodel via Twitter on Tuesday, to appearing this morning on The Today Show. With Upton joining in via telephone!
Milken alumni include former LA Galaxy player Benjamin Benditson and collegehumor.com comedian Amir Blumenfeld. But in one fell YouTube swoop – before graduation – Davidson has done more for his future Alma Mater than those two and the rest of the student body combined.
The big night is May 23. If Upton does indeed accompany Davidson, he will owe a very big thank you to family friend and USC film student Talia Myers, who shot the video.*
*Update – 03/21/13: A reader has let us know that Myers is also an alumnus of Milken Community High School. Class of 2011.


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Panasonic goes live with the DMC-G2 & DMC-G10 pricing
We already knew everything about the DMC-G1 and DMC-G10. Panasonic announced them back in early March and revealed their 12.1 MP sensors, 3-inch LCD screens, and 720p video modes. But the press release back then didn't mention anything about pricing. Don't you hate that? We do. Read More
Canon FD and Leica mount adapters for Micro 4/3rds
If you're looking to try out a new Micro 4/3rds camera, a good way to compare quality would be to take a picture with the same lens, same exposure, etc. An adapter is the only way to go about this, and a few have just shown up. And anyway, if you're using the smaller hybrid SLR as a backup camera, having a lens adapter is a really good idea because it means you'll only have… Read More
Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 cameras shipping early
I have absolutely no problem with companies saying that a certain product will ship at a certain time and then shipping said product a couple weeks early. In fact, I wish they all did that. Panasonic appears to have done it with its new Lumix DMC-G1 Micro Four Thirds cameras. The company's shopping site lists the cameras for sale now to be shipped out within 1-3 business days. Read More


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From fantastic face and breast lifts to stunning success with repairing muscles, bones and cartilage, adult stem cells promise to revolutionize modern medicine. The good news: They are available right now. The better news: You already have them inside you.
In Tampa, a man who was told that not even surgery could restore his knee to full use is now playing baseball without pain. A woman in California no longer needs the hip operation she was scheduled for. Another man in New York has recovered completely from the rheumatoid arthritis in his hands that plagued him for years. A middle-aged woman in Texas whose face looked ravaged from aging now looks buoyantly youthful.
What do these people have in common, besides seemingly miraculous cures for their various complaints? All have benefited from the use of stem cells.
Stem cells, those magical, mystery bullets that were officially frowned on during the Bush Administration, are back—and this time they are launching a healing revolution that could change medicine forever. Already they are changing the face of cosmetic surgery, with scores of therapeutic applications not far behind.
A Fat-Astic Find
So what exactly are stem cells, and why are they so important? Stem cells are found in all multi-cellular organisms, humans included. They are a kind of undifferentiated prototype cell that can take on the identity of other cells. The ones most people are familiar with are embryonic stem cells, found in the unborn fetus, which become all the different organs of the body. It was the use of these controversial embryonic stem cells in research that enraged the pro-life community.
There is another kind, however—the adult stem cell—and this is what all the excitement is about. It's been known for decades that all human organs have stem cells in them, and that these stem cells can act in the same chameleon way as embryonic stem cells. The problem was that the only way to acquire any of these cells was from bone marrow, a painful process that did not yield an abundance of them.
Then, around ten years ago, a team of plastic surgeons at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center discovered that there were a huge amount of stem cells in fat. With liposuction already popular at the time, it didn't take long to figure out that, if you could just extract those stem cells from the fat, you could probably find a lot of good uses for them.
The discovery of all those fat or 'adipose' stem cells answered another question, which came from cosmetic surgeons who for years had been transplanting fat. The early advocates of what is called an 'autologous fat graft'—meaning the fat comes from you—were reporting great success with breast augmentations, butt lifts and even facelifts. More incredibly, they were reporting improvements in the skin itself.
Sydney R. Coleman, MD, one of the early pioneers of the fat transfers, said he first began noticing the effect of fat grafts on skin in the 1980s. "Early on I noticed that the overall quality of the skin would improve—its volume and its color—with wrinkling decreased, and pores decreased in size."
Nor was Dr. Coleman alone in his observations, shared by an increasing number of doctors today. "The long term effects on the skin are remarkable," says Todd Malan, MD, who practices stem-cell fat transfers in Scottsdale, Ariz. "There is thickening of the skin, repair of solar damage and repair from aging—even the disappearance of stretch marks…. We are seeing remarkable healing capacity."
At the time Dr. Coleman first observed the phenomenon, however, he and other doctors could not explain it. "We thought it was the volume increase [from the fat] that reduced the wrinkles, or that the fat provided a physical barrier between the muscle and the skin," he says. "But in fact it appears that the stem cells were the reason."
After it was revealed that the fat was loaded with adult stem cells, doctors began figuring out ways to extract them, or at least concentrate them. Dr. Coleman developed a simple technique using a centrifuge, where the fat was spun around in a tube until it separated into layers. One layer of thick white fat was extremely rich in stem cells.
"I found I could exponentially increase the predictability of the results with the dense fat, because there were far more stem cells and growth factors," says Dr. Coleman, which is another way of saying that this was the stuff that really worked.
That was about seven years ago. Flash forward to the present, and voilá, you have a whole cadre of pioneering doctors who are using stem-cell rich fat for facelifts, breast lifts and now, the more serious business of repairing broken and diseased body parts.
"Prior to 2001 we thought the only source of stem cells was bone marrow," says R. Craig Saunders, MD, who practices outside of Dallas, Texas. "Since then [the discovery of 'adipose'
stem cells] there has been a tendency to use fat as a volumizing agent, because the stem cells are reparative and regenerative."
Even knowing that stem cells can repair and rebuild, Dr. Saunders says that when he first heard that adult stem cells could help restore heart muscles and other types of tissue, "I thought it was nonsense," he says. Today his clinic uses stem cells for both cosmetic and therapeutic purposes. In particular he uses stem cells to repair sports related injuries, in which the stem cells regenerate the cartilage and bone damage.


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Friday Fashion Hotlist | 12.2.05
December 2nd, 2005
Issue XVIII of the Friday Fashion Hotlist: a weekly compilation of the cutest and coolest stuff Style Intelligence Report saw out there this week.
This week, we present to you the cutest women's sweatercoat and an awesome men's herringbone jacket!
For women…
Thames Sweater Coat | $248 at Anthropologie
Obedient Sons Herringbone Jacket | $555 at Active Endeavors
Entry Filed under: Friday Fashion Hotlist,Trend
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Whenever journalists groan after a media boss says something about "doing more with less" while laying off a chunk of the staff, I'm fascinated. All kinds of industries deal with this all the time. How they do more with less leads to some interesting insights into the future of journalism.
Pardon a little military history lesson.
From the dawn of the Cold War, the United States military knew that the Eastern Bloc had more than they did. More soldiers, more guns, more tanks, more bombs, more everything. So all war planning started with larger force vs. smaller force. Planners solved the problem through the idea of force multiplication. Force multiplication is how much more effective a unit is with a new tool than the force was before. Put another way, a small force can be as effective as a much, much larger one.
In the early 1990s, the U.S. military began the Future Force Warrior program. The time had come to make soldiers "smart weapons" by adding off-the-shelf computing and technology to their battle gear (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_Warrior).
Each soldier would have smart devices with maps, GPS, advanced communications gear and up to the moment battlefield data to pierce the "fog of war" Von Clausewitz wrote about in 1832. They'd have several high-tech gun sights, including video sighting piped into heads up displays allowing them to shoot around corners.
I'll skip the bureaucratic details, but the plan was scrapped in 2007. The fatal problem with the system? Batteries. During a battle, you can't stop to plug your smart uniform into a wall socket to charge up. And carrying enough batteries to keep the system running for a good length of time weighed soldiers down too much.
What does any of this have to do with the future of journalism?
Like Cold War American military planners, journalists now face far more tasks than there are troops to handle them. Journalists, then, must think about force multipliers. How can we make a smaller force more effective? What would a Future Force Journalist look like?
They'd have the internet on a pair of eyeglasses and other smart devices. They'd be constantly tied to sensor networks, algorithmic bots and even drones, helping them look for news. Those bots, drones and sensors could even help them produce journalism.
Sound like sci-fi? Sound far-fetched? Everything I just described -- all of it -- are in development or available now.
-- Google's Project Glass adds smart device capabilities to an eyeglass borne heads up display. It's augmented reality, providing the user with alerts for email, directions directly into the glasses and other real-time information uses not yet devised. Journalists could, for example, see, based on GPS-derived geography and direction, where events nearby occurred, or record live interviews from their point of view.
-- Software bots that do "reporting" already exist. The LA Times crime mapping news application generates an alert when property or violent crime spikes in an area based on past crime levels. As the New York Times' Derek Willis describes, the bulk of beat reporting is knowing what's normal, and what's different.
-- More and more devices are connecting to the internet and reporting data. Technologists call these internet connected sensors the Internet of Things. Citizen scientists are already creating their own pollution sensors and reporting data directly to the internet.
-- The same technology advancing smart phones is also fueling a DIY Drones movement, allowing anyone to have an aircraft capable of autonomous flight. I've started the Drone Journalism Lab at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to test using drones for journalism .
Imagine what a reporter, connected to all this technology, could do. Far fetched? Hardly. These things are either already on the market or will be in the next year.
Bildnachweis: Matt Waite


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Body zorbing requires that the opponent score just like it is with the soccer game but the main difference is that the players are in a giant plastic orb. This is the reason why it is referred to as the bubble soccer since the players are trapped inside the bubble from the waste.
Body zorbing is the most incredible bubble football game that you have ever played.Tap to tackle or dribble. swipe to other players, or to shoot on goal.
This game is a cross between the zorbing and soccer. It is very easy to play since the rules are almost similar to that soccer. All you need to have is the perfect bubble soccer facilities to enjoy the game to the fullest and this is what we are offering you. We have a reputation of providing some of the best bubble soccer facilities and equipment including the plastic orb. Our products are designed to fit the games and players' expectations and we ensure that the player is fully contented with the quality.
One thing that we are guaranteeing you is the quality of our body zorbing. We do not compromise our product's quality with anything else. We have some of the high-quality inflatable products that you can find in the market. Apart from the quality, our prices are highly competitive, friendly and indeed some of the lowest that the market. These are some of the two factors that make us stand out from the competitions. Whether you need supplies for the whole club or team, then we will be grand to do it and you may get the supplies at a discounted price considering the quantity. With us, your bubble football game will never be the same.


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If you know me in real life, you'll know that getting me to shut up is usually harder than getting me to talk. And that I'm constantly writing something. So where have all the words gone? They've slipped off the blog and into emails, articles for work and lists of things to do.
This happens. One of the things I'm trying to learn to accept (and that collection of tentative words sums up my success) is that I prefer being a wandering tinkerer than a settled 10,000-hour master. The latter feels more worthy, and is certainly more in line with how school and society define success. But my way means more travel. It means more jobs and more interesting jobs, although not in a clearly defined career path with a nice big pension pot.
I will come back to the blog. I do have things to say. In the mean time, thank you for your patience. Here's a somewhat random picture of cherry blossom, because I also haven't been taking many photos lately!


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Artist: Nate Hook
Album: Progressive Overload
Label: Self Released
Release Date: 10/28/16
I'm not all that sure where I stand with Nate Hook's Progressive Overload but I do know, with his ears set to the future with his foundations in the past, there will be fun listening going forward.
Falling into the jazz spectrum somewhere between Bird and Zappa, Hook's gutsy, muscular sax bites into his swirling compositions like a tornado in his home state of Texas while his tunes stretch like an far open prairie. Moving East to absorb New York's rich jazz heritage, Hook bonds with pianist Billy Test, guitarist Travis Reuter, bassist Louis De Mieulle and drummer Paolo Cantarella, to drop beats, shift meter, mash and open up new possibilities. Leaving ample room for his cohorts to set the stage and fire up all around him, distinctly buoyant and unwinding melodies bounce about on the time shifting "Lantern Face," the punchy "You Probably Thought This Would Be Fun," and the rubato/gospel of "Stabat Ego."
At 24, Hook's off to a galloping start.
—Mike Jurkovic


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Forward Emily Saville headed in a last-minute pass to give the Central College women's soccer team a dramatic 3-2 triumph at Northwestern College Tuesday.
Keywords: Central College Women's Soccer, Dutch, Iowa Conference, Northwestern College
Freshman Anna Striegel captured two wins but the Central College women's tennis team fell short against Northwestern Saturday, suffering a 5-4 setback.
Keywords: Central College Women's Tennis, Dutch, Iowa Conference, Northwestern College
President Trump has proposed a 25 cent increase in the gas tax to fund infrastructure improvements. Is this a good idea?
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Free Slot Machine game with strip models
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I had every intention of making bacon-wrapped beef tenderloin for Valentines Day, but when I went down to the freezer, what I thought was beef tenderloin was actually sirloin. So we went to Plan B: out for sushi! The next night we had beef tenderloin tips that had been in my freezer for a couple of months because I wasn't quite sure what to do with them. Since I was in the mood for tenderloin steaks, I decided to modify the recipe to make these as close as possible. You could definitely adapt this recipe to other cuts of beef. Be sure not to overcook the beef tips or they'll dry out a bit.
Adapted from allrecipes.com and www.health-bent.com.
Balsamic Beef Tenderloin Tips with Mushrooms and Acorn Squash
- beef tenderloin tips - 2 pounds
- fresh mushrooms - 16 ounces (I used baby bella and shiitake), sliced
- acorn squash - 1, halved lengthwise, seeded, and then cut crosswise into 1/2-inch slices (to make crescent shapes)
- sea salt - to taste
- freshly ground black pepper - to taste
- extra virgin olive oil - 1/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp
- good quality balsamic vinegar - 1/2 cup, divided
- grainy Dijon mustard - 1 Tbsp
- fresh rosemary - 2 tsp, minced
- pastured butter - 2 Tbsp, divided
- onions - 4 small, cut into 1/2-inch dice (about 2 cups)
- Preheat oven to 400º F.
- Season tenderloin with salt and pepper.
- Combine oil, vinegar, mustard, and rosemary in a medium bowl. Place tenderloin in balsamic mixture and let marinade for 30 minutes.
- Place acorn squash on a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with 1 Tbsp olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake for 15 minutes or until tender but not mushy. Keep warm.
- While meat marinates, warm butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and saute for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they begin to caramelize.
- Add mushrooms and continue to cook for 5-10 minutes or until mushrooms are cooked. At the same time in another large skillet, warm the remaining 1 Tbsp butter. Add meat to the pan and transfer the marinade to a small sauce pan. Simmer the marinade for 2 minutes to kill any bacteria.
- Saute steak for 3-4 minutes or until medium rare. Add it to the mushroom mixture and stir to combine.
- To serve, divide steak and mushroom mixture evenly among plates. Place acorn squash on the side and drizzle with balsamic marinade.


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This pack includes a large, 22g bottle of BOOSTnBLEND (approximately 3-4 months supply) plus a handy 8g travel/purse sized bottle (another 1-2 months supply) in Smooth Medium Brown.
You'll also receive one of our new Hi Lift Wide Toothed Shower Combs. Hang it in your shower to remind you to comb through your conditioner and get more even coverage. It's gentle on wet hair and won't break or damage the hair strands. All this comes neatly packaged up in one of our zip up makeup bags which is ideal for storage in your handbag or for travel purposes.
Please note that comb colours may vary.


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The Swirl: Michael Jordan And His Girlfriend Do Vegas
- By Bossip Staff
Michael Jordan and his girlfriend Yvette Prieto attended his 10th Annual Michael Jordan Celebrity Invitational Welcome Reception at Haze nightclub in Vegas all bunned up and giddy.
She kinda looks like Scottie Pippen's jawn Larsa a lil bit from Real Housewives of Miami.
Peep more images below including Flex and Shaniece, Ken Griffey, Jr., Gabe Aubry, Stuart Scott swirling as well and more!!


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Hello all, Here is my review of the Test citext casts written by David Wheeler: http://firstname.lastname@example.com 1. The patch applies cleanly to the latest GIT repository. 2. The citext type installs, uninstalls, and re-installs cleanly. 3. The coding style is mostly consistent with the existing code. The only coding style difference I noticed was introduced in this patch: In the citext.sql.in file the following functions are created using the non-dollar quoting syntax: * regex_matches * regexp_replace * regexp_split_to_array * regexp_split_to table * strpos In the citext.sql.in file the following functions are created using the dollar quoting syntax: * replay * split_part * translate I do not have a strong preference either way and I do not even care if they are consistent. I am interested to see if there was a reason for using both syntaxes for these functions. 4. The regression tests successfully pass when PostgreSQL is built with --with-libxml. They fail when the PostgreSQL is built without --with-libxml. Since the default PostgreSQL configuration does not include --with-libxml and is not run-time detected when the libxml2 libraries are present on the system I would recommend adding an additional expected output file (citext_1.out) that covers the conditions when PostgreSQL is compiled without --with-libxml. As an experiment, I was able to add the citext_1.out and the regression tests passed with and without the --with-libxml option. Review of the additional regression tests show they provide coverage of the new casts and functions added with this patch. Overall I think the patch looks good. After reviewing the patch, I played with citext for an hour or so and I did not encounter any bugs or other surprises. Thanks, - Ryan
Next: From: David E. Wheeler Date: 2008-09-05 04:42:20 Subject: Re: [Review] Tests citext casts by David Wheeler. Previous: From: Alex Hunsaker Date: 2008-09-05 03:48:41 Subject: Re: hash index improving v3


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BAGHDAD, Iraq – Bitter rivalry between two powerful clans for leadership of Iraq's Shiite Muslims snarled efforts Tuesday to agree on the next prime minister, the key issue that is blocking a national unity government. Meanwhile, the U.S. military reported the deaths of five more soldiers, including three killed Tuesday in a roadside bombing north of the capital.
On Wednesday, gunmen in Baghdad hunted down three different government employees and shot them dead on their way to work, police said.
An internal affairs officer at the Interior Ministry was killed by men in two cars while leaving his house in Amil in western Baghdad. A Housing Ministry employee was killed as he drove to work in the same neighborhood, police said.
In northern Baghdad, gunmen shot down an Oil Ministry worker at a bus stop, police said.
The motives of the attacks were not known, police said.
The latest casualties raised the U.S. death toll so far this month to at least 31 — the same for all of March, according to an Associated Press count.
Neither side showed any sign of compromise over Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, leaving negotiations deadlocked four months after elections for a new parliament that the Bush administration hopes can improve stability and lessen the need for U.S. troops.
Violence took at least 23 lives Tuesday. A car bombing killed five people, and three others died when a bomb exploded on a minibus, both attacks in Shiite areas of the capital, police said.
Police also found the bodies of 24 people — apparent victims of sectarian death squads. Most of the bodies were found in Baghdad but it was unclear when they died, police said.
Sunni Arabs and Kurds, whom the Shiites need as coalition partners in parliament, blame al-Jaafari, a Shiite, for the rise in sectarian violence bloodying Iraq. They are demanding that he be replaced before they agree to join a new government.
Al-Jaafari has repeatedly refused to step aside. And his Dawa party and his key backer, radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, remained firm in their support for him during a meeting of the seven factions in the Shiite alliance Tuesday.
Behind the scenes, al-Jaafari's bid to remain prime minister is opposed by the biggest Shiite party, which is led by a member of a family that has competed for decades with al-Sadr's clan to lead Shiites.
Shiite negotiators planned to meet again Wednesday, but officials said there was no hint an agreement was near.
Al-Jaafari barely won nomination during a vote in February among Shiite lawmakers, who are the largest bloc in parliament.
Shiite officials said his supporters fear removing him would bolster the position of the biggest Shiite party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI.
SCIRI is led by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, whose family has long been a rival of al-Sadr's clan for leadership of the Shiite community, which is an estimated 60 percent of Iraq's 27 million people.
Al-Sadr was credited with engineering al-Jaafari's nomination victory in February, which he won by a single vote over al-Hakim's candidate, Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi.
Al-Jaafari's supporters want assurances that if the prime minister steps aside, he will not be replaced by Abdul-Mahdi or someone else from al-Hakim's party, Shiite officials said.
"There are long-running tensions between SCIRI and the Sadrists," said Khalid al-Attiyah, an independent Shiite politician. "There have been problems between them before. This generates a state of mutual mistrust."
The rivalry between al-Hakim's family and the al-Sadr clan goes back decades, when they began competing for power in Najaf, the seat of the Shiite religious leadership. Both families claim descent from the Prophet Muhammad and have produced distinguished figures.
Imam Musa al-Sadr was the most important Shiite figure in Lebanon until he disappeared on a trip to Libya in 1978. Muqtada al-Sadr's father, aunt and uncle were killed by Saddam Hussein's agents. Al-Hakim lost more than 70 family members during the former regime.
Al-Hakim's older brother, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, fled to Iran and led the Iraqi Shiite opposition to Saddam from there. He returned to Iraq after Saddam's fall but was killed in a huge truck bombing in Najaf in August.
Since then, militias linked to the two families have competed for leadership in the cities and towns of the Shiite heartland south of Baghdad.
Last summer, a fist fight in Najaf between followers and opponents of al-Sadr triggered battles throughout southern Iraq between the cleric's supporters and followers of al-Hakim's party. Four Cabinet members and 20 parliament members linked to al-Sadr walked off the job until al-Jaafari intervened.
In reporting the bombing that killed three U.S. soldiers Tuesday, the U.S. military also announced the deaths of two other Americans in combat Sunday. One suffered fatal wounds in Anbar province west of Baghdad and the other was killed by a roadside bomb near Balad, the military said.
At least 2,359 U.S. military personnel have died since the war began in 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven civilians employed by the U.S. military.


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I Hate Corporate Culture
I don't hate capitalism. I think it's great, and wish we all didn't need licenses to sell ****, like a vendor's license. That was made a law through corporate pressure, I'm sure.
I don't hate corporations, but I despise some of the laws that govern such a thing. I hate the yes-man, smiling, happy face they have to wear. I hate the fakery. I hate the dishonesty. I hate the soulless beast. Now, I'm a beast myself, in many ways. But I hate the soullessness. I feel, I'm an individual. IfI do something wrong, I have to deal with it, and it's my life, my only one. If you're working for a corporation, you hang your soul next to your coat at the door. I can't say they're all bad, but most of the big ones are. Almost all of them do excrable things. And people do these things, because it's thier job. Like I said, leave your soul at the door.
Now I've done some pretty awful, evil things to people. There was that one time when I drove that girl to suicide ( She didn't die), and that one time when I smacked this guy to **** in front of alot of people when he tried to be my friend. I'm not a nice guy. But, I'm careful when I change the oil in my car to not get much on the ground. You can almost never get it all. And I'm not talking about environmental **** either. Whole tribes in the Amazon have been slaughtered. Though, from what I know of them, that wasn't a bad move. See Headsmashers Ball at Twisted edge.com . But, I think killing people for no good reason is a bad idea. Now, true, these corporations have paid restitution to the families of thier murders, and sometimes, willingly. But usually, they adviod this **** like the plague. And what is a person worth, even if worthless. I mean, c'mon, I condone the random taking of human life like anybody else, we got a population problem, unless you haven't heard. But let's do it for a good reason people. Lets do it cause they were an *******. Let's do it cause he/she beats thier kids. Lets do it because they're always drunk/high and can't be bothered to find a job, and suck on welfare. Not that if you're on welfare you should die. Sometimes people just need some help. I'm talking about the drags on our society, as humans, that we should resist. You beat your kids, they're gonna grow up angry, and/or injured. What the ****. While we need more angry people, we don't need more hurt people. And if you can't be bothered to justify your existence so that people will give you money, you suck. Live in the gutter, and live on what I throw away. ****, you'd starve first.
Also, quit throwing **** away. Look, my garbage gets taken by the same people yours is. I don't throw away useful ****, and as a garbage picker ( If you throw something out I want, I will stop and grab it), you guys throw away too much. I could make a living off it, and work six hours a day.
But, corporations are what started it. They enable it. But I'm not gonna go out without saying this. For all the soulless, evil things you do, you do do alot of good. So keep that up. Just drop a note to your Dickhead Department, and tell them to consider a change to the fixing ****-ups department. Happy Hanuakka!
you are retarded
The mafia has better morals than you people!
Excellent point. I do not hate Corporate America... Corporate culture, is another thing altogether.<br />
I am pro-Capitalist, pro-Corporate America, anti-US Government shoving their hands into the pockets of every Corporation in this country and turning them into beasts to work for... the "culture" part.
You lost me.


text: March 8, 2013, International Women's Day – President Barack Obama recently signed into law the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization, which also contained the Trafficking Victims Protection Act Reauthorization. No country is immune to Violence Against Women. In Ethiopia, 81% of the women believe it appropriate for a husband to beat their wife, while in Guinea, 60% believe it reasonable for a wife to be beaten for saying no to sex; and in Vietnam, a recent study demonstrated that true cost of violence against women was costing the country nearly 1.4% of its GDP.


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Torah Co-Working
The high-speed Internet and a meeting room don't make us unique, and our prime Nachlaot location is not our biggest draw. What brings our members together is that Torah learning, creative exploration and collaborative development are all happening in one place. We're leveraging our collective resources for a higher level of spiritual and worldly impact as a co-working bet midrash.
We're building a tribe that transcends geography. If you want access the transformative Torah coming out of Sulam Yaakov, and maybe even join in the conversation – sign up here! We will send you a newsletter with links to classes, thoughts from the bet midrash and upcoming events.
Partners and Projects:
Hashgacha PratitForging links between businesses and community trustees in order to offer reliable Kashrut while maintaining integrity, building social fabric and creating partnership between different communities in Jerusalem.
The Lamp of DarknessFollow Lev, shepherd and musician, as he uncovers his own story while being drawn into the war between the priests of ba'al and the prophets of the Holy One. This exciting and innovative series of biblical fiction novels is a bridge to the world of the prophets for every reader, and an invaluable resource for educators. Unlock your past, unleash your future!
The Shalev CenterLocated in the heart of Jerusalem, the Shalev Center is dedicated to personal growth and spiritual development. We provide authentic Jewish frameworks to explore and create deeper and more meaningful relationships with oneself, with others and with God. We offer a unique array of classes, workshops and retreats as well as caring individual and group therapy.
PreOccupied Territory's Middle East satire slices along the fine line separating tragedy and farce. It might make you laugh – but it will definitely make you think.
And you?
Send an email to firstname.lastname@example.com,
call us at 054-469-0330,
or come visit us at Beersheva 25.


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Question: Is It Legal To Buy OEM Software?

This is typical of a question I receive quite often: "I have come upon many online sites offering 'bargain' software at prices well below most others. The prices are for OEM software -- CDs only. Are these OEM software versions legal?"

Answer: In most cases like this, no. According to the Software & Information Industry Association Anti-Piracy FAQ, OEM software is illegal when not used in accordance with the software license:

Is it legal to install an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) version of software on a computer other than the one on which the software came?
OEM software is only distributed when sold with specified accompanying hardware. When these programs are copied and/or sold separately from the hardware, it is a violation of the license with the software publisher, and therefore illegal.

In addition, very few graphics software programs are licensed to OEMs for bundling. Most of the bargain sites advertising OEM software are actually selling pirated counterfeit copies.

Please note, I am not saying here that all software marketed as an OEM version is illegal. This is a graphics software site, however, and a there are a lot of counterfeit graphics applications sold under the guise of "OEM" when the software publisher has never licensed an OEM version of the title (Adobe Photoshop being one of the most frequently counterfeited software titles).

Legitimately obtained OEM software generally does not come with user manuals or the original retail packaging, and technical support is usually provided by the hardware provider. However, if you purchase OEM-labeled software from a counterfeiter, you will not be eligible for technical support, software upgrades, service packs, or patches--if you even get the product at all.

If you are in doubt about the legitimacy of OEM software you have seen advertised (including the ads and 'sponsored links' on this site), please read my article on software piracy and scams and educate yourself on the warning signs. If you're still not sure, don't take a chance.

Join the Discussion
Darkfell writes: "I recently purchased software from an OEM provider who assured me that their operation is legal, but after collecting my money, not only have they failed to deliver the goods, but they also are not responding to my emails... I am wondering whether I could get into any trouble if I were to report them, as I am now not sure whether their software was legal. I am also wondering what channels to go through to report them and get my money back."

Please note: The sponsored links on this site are ads purchased by companies that want to advertise next to relevant content, based on a set of keywords they specify. Sponsored links are administered and maintained by a third party. Just because an ad appears on this site, it doesn't mean it's a legitimate company!


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Cattle & Cane Announce Brand New Album 'Mirrors' And UK Headline Tour
Led by siblings Joe and Helen Hammill, Cattle & Cane's sophomore album 'Mirrors' is all set for release on Friday 28th April. Produced by Luuk Cox at ICP Studios in Brussels and Temple Studios in Malta, and mastered by Frank Arkwright (Arcade Fire, Coldplay, New Order) at Abbey Road Studios in London, 'Mirrors' features ten tracks that effortlessly showcase Cattle & Cane's ability to shift even the hardest of hearts with their perfect, soaring harmonies.
"Recording at ICP Studios was such an amazing experience. It was pretty special to be in a studio that has seen the likes of The Cure, Lana Del Rey, Lady Gaga, Paolo Nutini and Pharrell Williams! Brussels was such a cool place to be and there was always something going on," said Helen.
She continued, "We mixed some of the album in Malta and that was incredible too. It was our first time over there and the studio was situated right on the beach. One of the most beautiful places I've ever been. It brought so much inspiration being somewhere like that!"
Listen to 'Make Your Vision' from the new album: Here
Very much a family affair, Joe and Helen are joined by their brothers Fran (keyboards & backing vocals) and Vin Hammill (bass), along with close friend Tom Chapman on drums.
"You can say things in an unfiltered way to your siblings which you never could with non-siblings. It's a good thing because there's no skirting around an issue – you just tackle it straight on. None of us get too upset and said Joe. "Being siblings in a band has its pros and cons, but there's definitely more pros. We're best friends most of the time…" added Helen.generally we are nice to each other!"
Joe, Helen, Fran and Vin grew up together listening to a lot of different music at home and that upbringing has undoubtedly helped shape the band's sound. "I remember listening to lots of 70s stuff like Gerry Rafferty, 10CC, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell and still love all that stuff now. I absolutely loved – and still do – Sinatra. The songwriters, arrangements and his voice are just incredible and still stand out today," said Joe.
"My explained Helen. favourite era is the 60s – I love Bridget Bardot, Pattie Boyd, Jane Birkin, the Supremes and anyone that wore their hair big and skirts short! They look so glamourous, yet effortless. Musically, I've always been a big Fleetwood Mac and Beatles fan,"
Although the 60s and 70s influences add a sepia-tinted, timeless quality to Cattle & Cane's music, thanks to the vision of producer Luuk Cox, 'Mirrors' showcases a far more contemporary sound than its processor 'Home'. "I love Luuk's approach to music and really feel his production and ideas have brought out the best in our sound. He comes from a very different background to us, so that excited me in terms of how our songs could develop under his stewardship," said Joe.
One thing that's instantly noticeable about 'Mirrors' in comparison to 'Home' is that Helen sings a lot more on this record. "The types of songs we were writing were really suited to her voice. I think having different lead singers is always an interesting thing to listen to. As a writer, I really like writing songs for other people to sing – it removes a certain pressure/self-consciousness that comes with singing the songs you write,"says Joe, who has also recently written singles with Lucy Spraggan and Belgian chart-topper Alice On The Roof.
With extensive support from BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 6 Music and Amazing Radio, Cattle & Cane have been heavily championed by the BBC Introducing team and have performed on their stages at T In The Park and BBC Radio 2 Live in Hyde Park.
Since being released on 2nd December 2016, recent single '7 Hours' has already clocked up over 400,000 streams and numerous radio plays from long time champion Dermot O'Leary, who previously showcased the band on his 'Saturday Sessions' compilation following a beautiful live session on his show.
With features from the likes of Q, the Independent and Channel 4's Sunday Brunch, as well as tours with Seattle's The Head and The Heart and Montreal's Half Moon Run, Cattle & Cane have built up a loyal and passionate following – a fan-base that helped propel their debut album 'Home' into the top 30 of the Official UK Independent Album Chart in September 2015, sandwiched between Adele and Arctic Monkeys no less.
Last year saw Cattle & Cane perform at acclaimed tastemaker events such as Reeperbahn Festival, Live At Leeds and Evolution Emerging, as well as at some of the UK's finest boutique festivals including Cornbury, Deer Shed and Bingley Music Live. The band also toured abroad for the first time with gigs in Germany, Malta and Belgium, while a sold-out 1,100 capacity show at The Middlesbrough Empire ensured a triumphant finale to 2016: https://youtu.be/5U5qSfUedq0
Wasting no time in making their mark on 2017, Cattle & Cane partnered up with Barbour International for a live session and website feature around the release of new track 'Make Your Vision', which was also quick to gain attention from tastemakers such as 1883 Magazine, Too Many Blogs and Unsigned Music Awards.
The relentlessly hard-working band will be back on the road this spring for a headline UK tour:
15th April Stockton – Stockton Calling
2nd May Liverpool – Buyers Club
3rd May Glasgow – King Tuts
4th May Gateshead – Sage 2
5th May Birmingham – The Flapper
6th May Leeds – The Wardrobe
7th May Masham – Town Hall
9th May Manchester – Gullivers
10th May Nottingham – Bodega
11th May London – Camden Assembly
12th May Bristol – Louisiana
13th May Cardiff – Clwb Ifor Bach
Tickets: https://www.cattleandcane.co.
With the release of 'Mirrors' and the band's next single, the infectious fan-favourite 'Fool For You', Cattle & Cane's ubiquity in their native North East looks set to spread far and wide in 2017.
www.cattleandcane.co.uk | www.


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Application Process
Completing the college application is the first step to becoming a Hennepin Tech student. There are other steps you may need to complete before you begin classes. Make sure you review the remaining Get Started steps after you apply.
- New students should submit their high school transcript or GED certificate to one of the addresses below.
- A student must have a high school diploma, GED, or its equivalent in order to receive Title IV financial aid funds
- Returning or Transfer students should schedule a meeting with an Advisor or Counselor to make a career plan after applying.
Additional Admissions Information:
- Selecting a Major
- Transfer Resources
- International Student Requirements
- Law Enforcement Application Process
- PSEO or High School Application Process
Support to Reach Your Goal:
- Admissions and Outreach Staff help you explore HTC programs, visit campus and understand how to apply.
- Enrollment Advisors & Counselors help you explore careers and programs, help with financial aid and choosing the right courses.
- Disability Services can assist if you need accommodation related to a documented disability.
- Veterans Services assist in the certification process for veterans benefits.
- A PSEO Advisor is available to help high school students attend HTC to earn high school and college credit.
Last updated by ahalberg : 2017-11-28 11:59:06


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Lil Wayne: Out of Jail, Ready For Strip Clubsby Free Britney at . Comments
Troubled rapper Lil Wayne is set to walk out of New York City's infamous Rikers Island prison this morning after serving an eight months on a weapons charge.
As soon as Weezy's free, his friends are reportedly planning an "extravagant, elegant" evening of celebration, boozing and strippers to welcome him home.
TRIUMPHANT: Lil Wayne is out of jail and back on the streets. Run.
The platinum-selling, billboard topping star pleaded guilty in 2009 to having a loaded gun on his tour bus. He started serving a one-year sentence in March.
He's expected to get out early due to time off for good behavior, despite "electronic contraband" that landed him in solitary confinement for the last month.
In an interview with MTV, Young Money records president Mack Maine said a party is being planned in Miami to help him readjust to life on the outside."It should be a lot of beautiful women, just ... beautiful scenery. We're going to just treat him like a king, like the royalty that he is and make him feel like we really missed him and welcome him back to the family," Maine told MTV.
The record label boss, who is also a close personal friend of Lil Wayne, said after a private party, the entourage would move over to a strip club called King of Diamonds in Florida's party capital. Readjusting to normal life? Done and done.
Lil Wayne joined a roster of successful rappers who have spent time behind bars, a list that has muddied the line between art and life in their genre.
Tupac Shakur, Lil' Kim, Foxy Brown, Shyne, Mystikal, Gucci Mane and T.I. have been incarcerated for periods ranging from months to years.


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The Student Support Services TRiO program at the University of Maine at Fort Kent works to foster leadership development among its students. One of the programs that it offers is the TRiO Leadership Group. The program is comprised of TRiO program participants, and uses experimental learning opportunities to facilitate skill development in team building, communication, and leadership skills.
The Afterschool Mentoring program is one of the many programs lead by students each semester. The program is an activity-based group for elementary school-aged children to allow them to develop interpersonal skills and to build and maintain healthy relationships.
Connie Malenica, a social worker for Maine School Administrative District #27, shared that "the staff at the Fort Kent Elementary school are pleased to have an additional program to offer to our students. Utilizing the time and talents of our college students down the street just makes sense; with the added plus of the fact that it's offered during time after school. All students can benefit from extra programming related to building social skills."
The Student Support Services TRiO program at UMFK serves 160 students as they pursue their academic, personal, and career goals. The Student Support Services TRiO program is designed to improve academic performance, increase student motivation, and increase persistence and retention rates.
For further information about the TRiO program at UMFK, please call 834-7530, or visit them on the web at: http://www.umfk.edu/trio/


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Hot on the heels of the recent announcements of the big returns of Tristan Rogers and Finola Hughes as Robert and Anna Scorpio to General Hospital, now comes word they will be followed into Port Charles later in February by none other than Holly Sutton Scorpio, played by the beguiling Emma Samms!
TV Line once again broke this GH scoop citing this info: "While Tristan Rogers and Finola Hughes are both returning to GH as part of Kimberly McCullough's (Robin) exit storyline, Samms will resurface in late February for the purpose of helping Luke and the Spencer clan — including her own son Ethan — deal with the always-scheming, always-present Helena Cassadine."
Looks like there may be plenty to take a look at and bring some much needed eyeballs back to the lone ABC soap, with the arrival of the old fab guard of the 80′s and the news of the move of the Mannings and John McBain from Llanview to Port Charles.
Who knows who else might appear from who knows where? What do you think of Emma coming back to her old stomping grounds for another dose of drama? Let us know!


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Fresno County supervisors spar over how to deal with city
Not only are the city of Fresno and the county struggling to get along, but county leaders are now at odds over how to deal with the city.
Incoming Fresno County Supervisor Andreas Borgeas, the former city councilman, proposed this week the creation of a joint city-county task force to try to settle common issues that the two sides don't agree on – building a new animal shelter or high-speed rail or regional growth. Pick a topic.
Sound simple? It wasn't.
The plan garnered just one supporter at Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting –- Judy Case — and perhaps more tellingly, the plan gave the new supervisor a preview of the pushback he's apt to get from his veteran colleagues over the next four years.
Supervisors Phil Larson and Debbie Poochigian said they'd seen task-force ideas like this tried before without success: "We've kind of been there and done that," said Poochigian.
And Supervisor Henry Perea had a plan of his own, which Larson was quick to support: demand the city drop its lawsuit against the county (over development) before any discussion begins. "We'll start the conversation there," Perea said.
Borgeas wasn't amused. Nor deterred.
"It's unethical that two supervisors sort of hijacked this proposal by demanding legal conditions before they would talk with the city," Borgeas said. "This is blatant leveraging in an embarrassing way."
Task force or no task force, Borgeas said he intends to meet with city officials to work through issues. He already has the ear of Mayor Ashley Swearengin, having received a letter from her this week in support of his task-force.
Supervisor Perea, meanwhile, sent his own letter to Mayor Swearengin on Wednesday asking the city to drop its lawsuit against the county.
"I am extending an invitation to meet with you and Council President Blong Xiong to request that the city withdraw all current land-use litigation as an act of good faith," Perea wrote. "We would also like to begin discussions on how we can work together to receive our respective planning objectives."
Whether there's a breakthrough in city-county relations and how it might come remains anyone's guess.
In the meantime, the list of issues that need to be reconciled between the parties gets no shorter. The lawsuit in the fore is over the proposed Friant Ranch development near Millerton Lake, which the county approved but the city doesn't want.
In an unusual twist, Gov. Jerry Brown last week sent envoys to the Valley to try to settle disagreements over Friant Ranch and a handful of other growth issues.


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Gold: Failure to Break Over 1629.35 Warns of a Relapse
Gold has failed to maintain its rise above the triangular consolidation. Instead the relapse that we had feared has taken place. This now warns of a return back into the recent range and potentially lower.
As mentioned in prior reports, we remain wary of participating in such minor breaks higher as they are deemed as potential traps before a reversal lower.
All Images, XHTML Renderings, and Source Code Copyright © Safehaven.com


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Joan Mulholland
Joan Mulholland
Video Set
Civil rights activist Joan Mulholland joins Louie b. Free to discuss her efforts to promote equality.
Freedom Bus Rider and civil rights Icon Joan Mulholland visited Youngstown this week to talk about her experiences to the students of Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past. She'll visit Vindy Radio at 11:15 a.m. Friday with her son Loki Mulholland to give Vindy Radio listeners a peek into her past.
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Asked by Kynkix at 5:45 PM on Mar. 18, 2010 in Money & WorkLevel 1 (0 Credits)
Answer by RutterMama at 6:06 PM on Mar. 18, 2010
Honey, I'm sorry but there is just no such thing! Here are some articles that may help you find what you need...
Top Ten Work at Home Scams to Look out For and Stay Away From
Do Companies Hire People To Work From Home?
Good Luck!
Answer by SabrinaMBowen at 7:35 PM on Mar. 18, 2010
Envelope Stuffing is 100% scam, 100% of the time. Earn Money Online is a good place to start if you're looking for an easy way to make money at home>
Answer by customcat2000 at 9:38 PM on Mar. 18, 2010
Answer by Happymom2-2 at 12:58 PM on Mar. 19, 2010
Answer by dhworkfromhome at 10:26 PM on May. 25, 2014
Answer by starchild35 at 6:12 AM on Nov. 19, 2014
Next question in Money & Work
I have debts w/ cellphone companies, hospitals & credit cards & I...
Next question overall
(Just for Fun)
Question about commercial real estate
Check out some of the top posts today in Groups:


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The axle weights of a loaded rig depend on
two things: (1) empty axle weights,
(2) center of gravity (CG) of payload.
To help balance axle weights
before loading,
Freight Seesaw estimates (2) based
on pallet pattern and individual pallet weights.
Freight Seesaw assumes freight is centered on each pallet (this is almost always true).
It only takes a few trials to determine which CGs work best for your equipment. (Tip: start with loads that have identical freight on every pallet.) Anytime you haul a heavy load, enter the pallet pattern into Freight Seesaw to calculate its CG. If the drive and trailer axles scale about the same, this is a good number for your rig. If the drive axles scale a lot heavier, it is too low. If the trailer axles scale a lot heavier, it is too high.
Freight Seesaw displays CG in the same units as pallet size. Users outside of North America should use 2 cm instead of 1 inch as the base unit.
For those familiar with physics, a good technical discussion can be found here.
DISCLAIMER. Freight Seesaw is offered as is without any warranties, explicit or implied. The developer will not be held responsible for any damages or failures of any kind associated with its use, including but not limited to: reloads, overweight citations (of any kind), hardware malfunctions, inaccurate data entry, or failure to understand what the app does.
The calculation Freight Seesaw performs is based on time‑tested physical principles discovered by Sir Isaac Newton hundreds of years ago. When used properly it can help avoid returning to the dock for load adjustments (including complete reloads) after scaling.
© 2018 mathematrucker. Apple and the Apple logo are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc. Google Play is a trademark of Google Inc.


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Personal Stories, Advice, and Support 18 People
Screwed Over On A PromotionI really want to kick every single manager and sr managers ***** right now. Those mother ******* are ********. For ten ******* months i've been watching idiot after idiot get promoted. if these ************* were getting promoted for a good reason, such as experience, knowledge...
SCRUD 36-40, M 0 Dec 17, 2009


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According to a couple of people with knowledge of the situation, Fiat SpA is now revising a move to sell around 1.5 billion euros ($2.05 billion) in mandatory convertible bonds.
The move would be made to lower the debt it made when it cashed out to acquire the remainder of its US subsidiary – Chrysler Group LLC. The two people, who declined to be identified because the matter is still private, said that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV – the new company formed from the merger of Fiat to Chrysler – would issue to banks a bond convertible into shares.
"The most likely option is a mandatory convertible; that has the advantage of being issued at a premium to the share price," Massimo Vecchio, an analyst with Mediobanca in Milan, wrote in a note to clients. "However, the group has several funding options," including giving away a stake in Ferrari or Maserati, he added.
Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne also discussed last month the fact that the company will hold payment of dividends to keep the cash flow running after it paid $4.35 billion to acquire the rest of the Chrysler shares.
Via Bloomberg


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Miley Cyrus Warned: Don't Get Knocked Up!by Hilton Hater at . Comments
Considering how attractive Justin Gaston is (have you seen the guy shirtless?!?), it makes sense that Billy Ray Cyrus allegedly sat his daughter down recently and warned her against giving in to temptation with her new man.
"I told her in no uncertain terms that her career would be over if something were to happen," Billy Ray told a friend, according to Star. "I think I made an impression on her - at least, I hope so."
Miley Cyrus' parents hope she never gets closer to Justin Gaston than she is here.
Reportedly, earlier this year, Tish Cyrus and Lynn Spears spoke at length about their famous daughters.
The conversation left an impression on Billy Ray, who doesn't wanna see his cash cow offspring suffer the same fate as Jamie-Lynn Spears.
"Tish and Billy Ray told Miley, one bad decision and she could forget the showbiz glamor; she'd have to be home feeding the baby, changing diapers and living the life of a teen mom," said a source.
That sound you hear is Bristol Palin crying.


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The Book Has Gone to Print
After several years of hard work, waiting and then more hard work, the book that I have been putting together has finally gone to print and is available at all major book stores, online and in digital publication via iTunes and Nook and soon to be Kindle.
The book is selling like crazy and I'm happy to say that it has been in the top rankings on Amazon as well as on Barnes & Noble and continues to get raving reviews.
- Amazon.com
- Barnes & Noble
- iTunes
- Nook
- Kindle (coming soon)
We Got Social Media Big Time
We're on Facebook and Twitter and we'd love to have you join us! Keep up with what we're doing, get some great tips on smoking meat, participate in polls about smoking meat and more.
We've had a Forum Makeover!
The forum, better known as the SMF, has undergone a complete makeover complete with a brand new platform, new look, wikis, reviews of smoking meat products, a live chat room, photo gallery and so much more.
I am in there quite often answering questions and even shooting the bull in the chat room so feel free to pop in, say hello or ask a question about smoking meat.
The forum is your BEST option if you have a question about smoking meat. I get so much email that there is just no way I can answer all of it however, with all of the experts and experts in training at the forum, you are sure to get your most daunting smoking meat questions answered in no time at all.. usually within minutes.
More than 36,000 members and 750,000 posts on smoking meat.. it is THE place to be if your quest is related to smoking meat and outdoor cooking.
I look forward to seeing you there!
The Smoking Meat Newsletter Archive
Missed a few newsletters or just signed up and wondering how to get past issues? Here is the link to the archive with all of the last 7+ years of newsletters archived in an easy-to-find format just for you.
5-Day Smoking Basics eCourse
This is a free eCourse that comes in 5 chapters.. one each day for five days. I have tried to cover all of the things a beginning smoker would need to know to be proficient at smoking meat.. It has been recently revises to include many things that were not covered in the first edition.
Smoking Meat Videos
The exclusive Smoking Meat University featuring a complete video library on everything from basic smoking techniques to detailed ins and outs of smoking ribs, brisket, fish, chicken, pork shoulder and everything from a to z. In this video series we will be holding nothing back!
This amazing series is only just begun and is available on YouTube as we speak and we will keep adding additional videos as time goes on.
Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel so you can be alerted when a new video becomes available.


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Reasons To Care About Bioshock InfinitePublished on January 21st, 2013 in: Gaming, Science Fiction |
By Paul Casey
Bioshock, released in 2007, is in my estimation, the greatest video game of its generation. My feelings on that game and its importance are documented elsewhere on Popshifter. As we approach the release of Bioshock Infinite on March 26, it seems prudent to expand on why Irrational Game's new work has a good chance at taking that title from its predecessor.
Those who value Bioshock above most or all other video games are proponents of a different value system. The thought that the first-person shooter mechanics are not the most important part of the game is alien to most who spend their time playing competitively online with Halo or Call of Duty. That horrendous cliché of the "Emperor's New Clothes" is wielded in these instances with folded arm assurance. Bioshock, along with other games like Uncharted, Heavy Rain, and most recently The Walking Dead, shows, though, that all of the other things around those core mechanics matter just as much, if not more, to a fair heft of people.
Bioshock Infinite has a good chance of being the definitive game of 2013, and the end of a console generation that has gone on longer than any before it. Much talk has been spent on the delays of the game. There has also been chatter about the exits from the company, including art director Nate Wells who left last August. There are, however, some good reasons to think that Ken Levine and his team at Irrational Games will still hit their mark.
This should be at the front of everyone's minds when making assumptions about the relative troubles of this production. Yes, of course delays and exits from the company could be signs of a game set to fail—the horrendous Duke Nukem Forever being the worst offender in that regard—but they could also be a sign of the demanding nature of the work.
Some of the most important creations of the last hundred years have been those of terrible struggles. Think of Apocalypse Now for pity's sake, which nearly killed its lead actor. Or Finnegan's Wake, which took James Joyce 17 years to write. In creative terms, the delays and friction between those working to get the project on the right track, Bioshock Infinite is small potatoes. When Infinite is released we will see if the effort results in a quality game, but what is already clear is that this is not the work of a contented, comfortable group of people. This is a good thing.
Many publications received hands on time with the game in December. Outlets such as Destructoid and Wired had very good things to say about the game's first few hours. While Infinite has seemingly changed a good measure since its initial reveal, and possibly even since 2011's stunning E3 presentation, there is enough visual evidence to suggest that this could be very special indeed.
It moves well, particularly the use of the skyhook, which from the recent VGA footage looks to be a thrilling element of how Infinite's combat works. It now seems to be clear that this is a fully interactive element, and looks set to change the tone of what Bioshock can be. The scale of the environments are, likewise, exciting as all hell. Columbia seems to be as intricately realized as Rapture. With the player now being a part of the events that turn a utopia to a dystopia, it seems likely that many will become as attached to this new land in the sky, as they were to the one on the seabed.
3. The importance of the narrative experience is greater than ever.
The context in which the story takes place has great potential. The Devil In the White City by Erik Larson—which details the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and parallels its creation with one of America's first serial killers Dr. H.H. Holmes—is cited by Ken Levine and others at Irrational as being of fair importance in establishing the setting, tone, and subject matter of Infinite. It is easy to see why it would appeal. For as much as it was indebted to Ayn Rand, the contrasting of a severely ambitious, inspiring, architectural project with the darkest possible side of humanity also defined Bioshock.
Infinite is set in 1912, and like Larson's book deals with the beginnings and consequences of American exceptionalism, and the way in which patriotic fervor can pervert justice. It deals with racism and touches on such shameful events as the "Massacre at Wounded Knee." It also takes place in a city in the sky, and looks set to involve more overt science fiction elements than the original. That this game is not directly involved or concerned with the events of the previous games raises the enticing prospect of a series of original stories linked by a similar philosophy, which can avoid the financial terror of an unknown series.
More important even than the historical and genre elements involved, is the person you are paired with. One look at what Irrational are trying to do with Elizabeth is enough to make me cover up and stutter myself to sleep in a dribbly, old-timey fever.
From his interview with Eurogamer this past December, Ken Levine talks about how Elizabeth interacts with the world around her:
"One thing AIs generally don't do is react to what's around them," Levine said. "They don't observe what's around them. They have no interest in what's around them. So we spent a lot of time making Elizabeth notice the world and react to the world and engage with the world. That was heightened by the fact she's been locked up. But even so, people are always looking at stuff. When you walk down the street you don't walk down the street like a robot, which is generally what companion AIs do.
"So we had to seed the world with things she was interested in and things she could interact with. We had to seed her with various emotional states that are primarily an overlay on the animation she does. And she has sounds to go along with all of those things. Making her present in the world was one of the most difficult things and one of the most important things."
What frustrated me most about Bioshock was failing to find enough people to experience it with me. The need to proselytize was great, but even buying copies for people did not ensure that I would be able to properly share it. With Infinite the connection is not only between the player and the world, but the player, the world, and Elizabeth. There were people to pity in the original, and in a sense to help—with the Little Sisters—but the player was largely left to pursue his or her own appetites. A look at how well Telltale Games bonded the player to Clementine—the girl left in your care—in the superb The Walking Dead, gives some sense of the possibilities for a character like Elizabeth.
The fall of Columbia, unlike Rapture, will not simply be a thing of horrific beauty. There are people you really care about here. This time the player is set to experience it from the inside and the desperation when it comes apart. It will be a pleasure to despair.


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hi guys,
I am doing a class register on a website where i will generate a list of names of students from a database and alongside each name there will be three tick boxes labelled "Present", "Absent" and "Late".
Generating the list of names to come on the website is very easy, the problem is how do i connect the three tick boxes to the names so when for example the "present" tick box is checked for that student, it will register on the database that he is present on a specific date.
I can do it with fixed values, for example if there are fixed names of pupils i can always name the check boxes and it's easy from there but the names are generated at random from a long list in the database.
Anyone have a solution code or a link that can help me?


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SmithKline Beecham's New Acellular Pertussis Vaccine Demonstrates Enhanced Efficacy in Major NIAID Studies
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, July 13, 1995 - SmithKline Beecham (SB) announced today that the efficacy of its new acellular pertussis (whooping cough) containing vaccine, Infanrix, was confirmed in a landmark, placebo-controlled clinical trial, conducted by the United States National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). This study was part of a co-ordinated effort to compare, for the first time, the efficacy of four acellular pertussis vaccines and a whole-cell vaccine. In two countries - Sweden and Italy - a total of 25,000 children were involved.
Until recently, vaccination has typically been with classical combined diphtheria (D), tetanus (T) and whole-cell pertussis (Pw) vaccines, commonly associated with a number of side effects. New acellular pertussis (DTPa) vaccines have been shown to cause significantly fewer side effects than whole-cell vaccines but until now have not been demonstrated to be effective for primary vaccinations in such a large group.
The three-year NIAID study in Italy included 15,601 children who were vaccinated with one of four vaccines: Infanrix, SB's new DTPa vaccine, another new acellular pertussis vaccine; a whole-cell pertussis vaccine (DTPw) or a diphtheria and tetanus vaccine without the pertussis component.
The two acellular vaccines were significantly more effective than the whole-cell vaccine. The SB DTPa and the other acellular vaccine had 84 per cent efficacy and the whole-cell vaccine demonstrated a 36 per cent level of efficacy. In addition, as expected, the acellular vaccines had dramatically fewer side effects than the whole-cell vaccine. The acellular pertussis vaccines both contained three components: pertussis toxoid (PT); filamentous haemagglutinin (FHA) and pertactin (69kDa outer membrane protein).
In the three-year NIAID study in Sweden, 9,829 children were vaccinated with one of four vaccines: an SB two-component acellular vaccine (containing only pertussis toxoid and filamentous haemagglutinin), a five-component acellular vaccine, the whole-cell pertussis vaccine (DTPw) or a diphtheria and tetanus vaccine. The five-component acellular vaccine in the study was more effective than the whole-cell vaccine (85 per cent efficacy versus 48 per cent). The two-component vaccine (which did not contain pertactin) was not as effective as the five-component acellular vaccine. This result demonstrates the importance of pertactin as an integral component of acellular pertussis vaccines. Since 1991, SB has been focusing on its three-component vaccine Infanrix, which includes pertactin, both for DTPa and in combination with hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) and polio.
It appears that pertactin is an important addition to the performance of the vaccines in these studies as the only vaccines demonstrating efficacy contained pertactin. SB is the exclusive worldwide licence holder from Evans Medical (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Medeva) of the pertactin component.
Conducted under epidemic conditions, the NIAID study in Italy shows that Infanrix was protective against pertussis. It confirms an SB German household contact study, presented at ICAAC (Interscience Congress for Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy) in October 1994, which showed that Infanrix protected 9 out of 10 vaccinees.
SB's Infanrix, the only acellular pertussis vaccine in the NIAID studies approved for primary vaccination, was cleared for marketing in Germany in March 1995. Registration has been applied for in 11 countries. Infanrix is also licensed in Germany as a booster dose for children vaccinated with either whole-cell or acellular pertussis DTP vaccines.
Pertussis, commonly known as 'whooping cough', is a serious disease. Each year, there are about 50 million cases worldwide leading to an estimated 350,000 deaths. Vaccination against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis is recommended by the World Health Organisation and the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention as well as most governments worldwide.
Childhood vaccinations are a central feature of healthcare strategies around the world and SB is committed to developing combined paediatric vaccines to prevent a wide array of infections affecting children. SB has filed its first combined vaccine based on DTPa with Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib). Phase III clinical trials are ongoing for a number of DTPa combined vaccines to protect against hepatitis B, Hib and polio.
SmithKline Beecham is one of the world's leading vaccine manufacturers. Each year, SB distributes about 550 million doses of vaccines in more than 175 countries. The company continues its commitment to the discovery, development and worldwide distribution of innovative paediatric vaccines.
In addition to vaccines, SmithKline Beecham discovers, develops, manufactures and markets pharmaceuticals, over-the-counter medicines, health-related consumer products and clinical laboratory testing services.
In announcing the results of two landmark, placebo-controlled efficacy studies for pertussis (whooping cough) vaccines, the United States National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has clearly demonstrated that acellular pertussis vaccines are highly effective and much less reactogenic than the current whole-cell pertussis vaccines in providing protection for infants around the world. Pertussis, also known as whooping cough, is a highly contagious bacterial infection that causes violent coughing spells that make it difficult for an infant to eat, drink or even breathe.
Both studies began in 1992 and together enrolled more than 25,000 children. They were designed to investigate a new type of pertussis vaccine - acellular pertussis. One study was conducted in Sweden; the other in Italy. They coincided with severe pertussis epidemics in both countries. Until these studies, only limited data on the efficacy and safety of acellular vaccines in infants were available.
In most countries, the classical whole-cell pertussis vaccines have been effective in reducing the incidence of pertussis, but they have been linked to a number of side effects such as fever and local reactions at the injection site and fretfulness.
The NIAID selected Sweden and Italy for these studies because in these countries pertussis vaccination is not compulsory and large populations of unvaccinated children are at risk for pertussis. Because of the widespread use of DTP vaccination in the United States, the number of cases of pertussis occurring there is so small as to make a definitive efficacy trial impossible to perform.
The concept behind acellular pertussis vaccines is to take the parts of the whole-cell bacteria, which are believed to provide the protective efficacy of the vaccine, and to leave out those which may cause side effects. The acellular vaccines have been shown to have fewer side-effects than whole-cell pertussis vaccines, but until now the acellular had not been tested for safety and efficacy against whole-cell vaccines in large, well-controlled clinical trials.
This study began in September 1992 at 62 sites in four regions in Italy. A total of 15,601 children were vaccinated with one of four vaccines: either one of two acellular pertussis vaccines (DTPa), a whole-cell pertussis vaccine (DTPw) or a diphtheria and tetanus (DT) vaccine without the pertussis component. The average duration of follow-up after the third dose was 17.2 months.
The vaccines used in the trial were:
· SmithKline Beecham: Infanrix, a three-component DTPa vaccine containing PT, FHA and pertactin*
· Biocine-Sclavo: three-component DTPa vaccine containing PT, FHA and pertactin*
· Connaught Laboratories Inc: DTPw vaccine
· Biocine-Sclavo: DT vaccine
The study objective for demonstrating effectiveness was an efficacy rate of more than 80 per cent. According to these criteria, both Infanrix and the Biocine DTPa vaccine were effective, with no significant difference between them. The whole-cell vaccine was less effective. The actual efficacy data are summarised in Table 1.
Both Infanrix and the Biocine vaccine had significantly fewer side effects than the whole-cell vaccine.
This study began in March 1992 at 14 sites in Sweden. A total of 9,829 children were vaccinated with either one of two acellular pertussis vaccines (DTPa), a whole-cell pertussis vaccine (DTPw) or a diphtheria and tetanus (DT) vaccine without the pertussis component. The families were followed for two years after the third dose.
The vaccines used in the trial were:
· SmithKline Beecham: a two-component DTPa vaccine containing pertussis toxoid (PT) and filamentous haemagglutinin (FHA)
· Pasteur-Mérieux-Connaught: a five-component DTPa vaccine containing PT, FHA, pertactin* and agglutinogens 2 and 3
· Connaught Laboratories Inc: DTPw vaccine
· Swedish Bacteriological Laboratories: DT vaccine
The study objective for demonstrating effectiveness was an efficacy rate of more than 80 per cent. According to these criteria, the Pasteur-Mérieux-Connaught DTPa vaccine was effective; the SB two-component DTPa vaccine and the Connaught Laboratories DTPw vaccine did not fulfil the pre-set efficacy criteria. The actual efficacy data are summarised in Table 1.
Both the Pasteur-Mérieux-Connaught DTPa vaccine and the SB two-component vaccine had significantly fewer side effects than the whole-cell vaccine.
Table 1
Number of components
Contained pertactin?
36% (Italian study)
48% (Swedish study)
Based on this data, scientists predict that acellular vaccines will become the cornerstone of new combination vaccines that will require fewer doses and will protect children against numerous diseases.
*SB is the worldwide exclusive licence
holder (from Evans Medical) for pertactin.
Posted: July 2004