text:
Like Benito Cereno, Moby-Dick was also inspired by real-life events. In this case, it was the story of the whale ship Essex that Melville incorporated into the novel. The Essex was attacked by a sperm whale while hunting in the South Pacific—rammed twice, in fact—and sunk. The crew was able to escape on the three whale boats with some water and hard bread, and also makeshift masts and sails. At the time, they were some 1,000 miles from land, but instead of sailing to Tahiti they chose to make for the coast of South America. They were afraid of cannibals.
Owen Chase, first mate of the Essex, published his Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex (likely ghostwritten) after his return to Nantucket. The account is harrowing; a few men in a tiny boat in the middle of the ocean, slowly running out of food and drink. And they do run out. The men are in despair, of course, but:
I reasoned with them, and told them that we would not die sooner by keeping up our hopes; that the dreadful sacrifices and privations we endured were to preserve us from death, and were not to be put in competition with the price which we set upon our lives, and their value to our families; it was, besides, unmanly to repine at what neither admitted of alleviation nor cure; and withal, that it was our solemn duty to recognise in our calamities an overruling divinity, by whose mercy we might be suddenly snatched from peril, and to rely upon him alone, "Who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb."
Chase speaks thus throughout of his attitude and the hope he tries to instill in his men. Could he really have been so rational and optimistic? He is very cool and collected when it comes to the most intelligent way to ration out food and drink, and even when it comes to eating his fellow sailors seems to keep reason at the top of his mind. But all this can just as easily be the way he wants himself remembered acting during such an adventure.
At the beginning of the Narrative, Chase has a note to the reader that I found very interesting, both in terms of this book and all the others:
I am aware that the public mind has been already nearly sated with the private stories of individuals, many of whom had few, if any, claims to public attention; and the injuries which have resulted from the promulgation of fictitious histories, and in many instances, of journals entirely fabricated for the purpose, has had the effect to lessen the public interest in works of this description, and very much to undervalue the general cause of truth. It is, however, not the less important and necessary, that narratives should continue to be furnished that have their foundations in fact; and the subject of which embraces new and interesting matter in any department of the arts or sciences.
I love that he considers his book to embrace "new and interesting matter" in science. It was unheard of for a whale to attack a ship in this manner. And in any case, you could say he furnished new and interesting matter in the arts as well—Moby-Dick.


text:
Location: Summit Point Motorsports Park
Cost: Ticket Prices: $25.00 at gate, $23.00 in advance ~ 6 pm Fri until 10 pm Sat $15.00 at gate, $13.00 in advance ~ 10 pm Sat until 3pm Sun
Contact Info:email@example.com or 800-879-4722 or 301-572-7444
Website: http://www.wdcr-scca.org/ClubRacing/tabid/59/Default.aspx.
Description: The DC Region Sports Car Club of America will be holding it's season opening Mid-Atlantic Road Racing Series (MARRS) amateur club race Apr 16-17 at Summit Point Motorsports Park. Tickets are $25 Saturday – good for both Saturday and Sunday admission. Admission includes parking, pedestrian paddock access and overnight camping. $2 discount for tickets purchased in advance from the track. (304) 725-8444

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Series: Nisus Writer 4.0.6
Article 1 of 3 in series
Nisus Writer 4.0.6, Part 3: Multimedia
by Nigel Perry
[This article began in TidBITS-263, continued in TidBITS-264, and finishes here. -Tonya] Sound and Speech -- Nisus Writer can speak, and not just using Apple's PlainTalk either - it comes with its own English, French, German, Italian, and SpanishShow full article
[This article began in TidBITS-263, continued in TidBITS-264, and finishes here. -Tonya]
Sound and Speech -- Nisus Writer can speak, and not just using Apple's PlainTalk either - it comes with its own English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Nisus does not do translation; but it can use different accents and pronunciation rules. So if you want to hear how your document would sound spoken with a French accent, or if your document is in French, Nisus can oblige. However these voices take up rather a lot of disk space, almost 1.5 MB, so you might want to rely on PlainTalk, which Nisus happily uses.
Nisus Writer also allows you to annotate parts of your document with sounds and to record sounds for your text by word, sentence, and so on. Sound annotations are shown by an icon, but - curiously - if you record a sentence there is no indication that you have done so. Nisus Writer offers a catalog of sounds (which are stored in a folder, not your document), and you can play them all back - so though you can't see which parts of your document might have attached sounds, you can find them.
Looking at the sound features prompts the question "Why?". Having the Mac read back your text using "Good News" (a MacinTalk 3 voice) is great fun for my seven-year-old son - but he uses SimpleText for this, not Nisus Writer. Nisus is not a presentation package and does not come with a "player" application, so it is not the best program to use for a multimedia presentation.
Tonya tells me that people with a variety of disabilities find Text to Speech features enormously helpful. When she took calls at Microsoft, the two most common types of people requesting Text to Speech features were people with vision problems or dyslexia who wanted to "proof read" documents by listening to them. Nisus Software might have had this in mind, but this still leaves me questioning the decision to include comprehensive sound recording abilities.
Movies -- Nisus Writer has jumped on the QuickTime bandwagon. Unfortunately, this part of Nisus Writer is poorly implemented. A movie appears in a document just like any other graphic and can be inserted into a document as a character graphic or on the graphics layer. However, for movies inserted on the graphics layer, there is no indication that the picture is a movie, not even QuickTime's standard film strip icon. To run a movie you must first double-click the picture - if its not a movie, you end up in the graphics editor; if it is a movie, a new window opens over the top of the picture and this one has the file strip icon on it. Click the icon and the movie controller comes up and you're away. Why a new window, why not inline? Nisus Software says it's so you can scroll your document and not lose the movie, but this could be made an option for those who wanted it. And of course the window title can obscure part of your text, so you have to move the thing - assuming you have anywhere to move it.
Don't get me wrong, I like QuickTime, I even write programs which use it, but Nisus Writer isn't for QuickTime aficionados. [And frankly, essentially no one ever uses QuickTime in a serious word processing document - it's a red herring feature flopping around on the word processor beach. -Adam]
So, Nisus Writer leaves me with but one question about multimedia: Why?
Overall Conclusion -- Though Nisus Writer suffers from a number of quirks and annoyances - in particular in the word and document processing areas - its text processing is unparalleled. It does have bugs - some of which are still left over from Nisus - but I can also put Microsoft Word into a tailspin.
An enormous opportunity was lost when Nisus Software chose to add new features, some of questionable value, rather than concentrate on finishing the job they started with Nisus. I don't understand what market they are aiming at with some of the additions. Had Nisus Software chosen to make the styles work more flexibly, Nisus Writer would be hard to beat for many different types of document creation, though for documents requiring high-end layout features, you'd still need to look elsewhere.
Nisus Writer currently runs in 68K mode only and requires System 7 or later. It works on any 68000-based Macintosh or newer, with the exception of the Macintosh Plus. Nisus Software plans to include support for the Plus in the Nisus Writer 4.0.7 update, which should be ready (with a free updater available online) in a few weeks. A Power Mac native version of Nisus Writer is in the works, but the program is relatively speedy even now. To use all of Nisus Writer's features, you'll need to allocate 3 MB to the program, but to do basic word processing in shorter documents without tables, equations, and sounds, you can run reasonably in 1,700K of memory. The full installation, which includes examples and tutorial documents, consumes 7 MB of disk space.
If you have been using Nisus for the last four years and it has met your needs - which it probably has as well as any rival or you would have switched already - then the upgrade is worth it.
Nisus Software -- 800/890-3030 -- 619/481-1477
619/481-6154 (fax) -- <email@example.com>
[For more opinions and resources related to Nisus, check out the Nisus Writer page on World of Words. -Tonya]
PDFpen: PDF toolkit for busy pros on Mac, iPhone, and iPad.
TextExpander: Your shortcut to accurate writing on Mac, Windows,
and iOS. Free trials and friendly support. <http://smle.us/smile-tb>
Article 2 of 3 in series
Nisus Writer 4.0.6, Part 2: Word and Document Processing
by Nigel Perry
[If you read last week's TidBITS-263, you recall that this review began with a look at Nisus Writer's text processing features. This week, we look at its word and document processing features, and finish next week with details on multimedia featuresShow full article
[If you read last week's TidBITS-263, you recall that this review began with a look at Nisus Writer's text processing features. This week, we look at its word and document processing features, and finish next week with details on multimedia features. -Tonya]
Styles -- Nisus supports character and paragraph user-defined styles, which you set up in the Define Styles dialog box. Character styles can include all the usual attributes: font, colour, size etc. Paragraph styles add a named ruler to control paragraph layout.
Nisus follows the original MacWrite method of inserting rulers into a document to control layout. A ruler specifies attributes such as margins, line spacing, and space before paragraph (there is no space after paragraph). In Nisus Writer, you must define a ruler (though you need not set its attributes) in the main document window before you can include a ruler in a user-defined style. In earlier versions, you could name a new ruler in the Define Styles dialog box and Nisus Writer would automatically create the ruler on first use of the user style - I can't figure out why Nisus Software made the change.
The split between user styles and rulers can cause much frustration. The problems are at first minor annoyances, but they can become significant. When applying a paragraph style, Nisus attaches the style information to the text, but inserts the ruler into the document - and then only if Nisus thinks the ruler is needed. [Word users might understand this better by thinking of style information as character formats and ruler information as paragraph formats. -Tonya]
The example below shows problems this causes. Consider a document containing five paragraphs, the first three in style A, the last two in style B. The document looks something like:
Ruler A Paragraph 1 in style A Paragraph 2 in style A Paragraph 3 in style A Ruler B Paragraph 4 in style B Paragraph 5 in style B
If you move paragraph two below paragraph four you get:
Ruler A Paragraph 1 in style A Paragraph 3 in style A Ruler B Paragraph 4 in style B Paragraph 2 in style A Paragraph 5 in style B
Paragraph two ends up styled according to A but laid out according to B! The fix is not difficult, you just manually insert an A ruler into the text. However, that Nisus Software did not fix this in Nisus Writer is indefensible.
Nisus Writer has a number of similar quirks, and as a result you must be careful while editing documents. Whenever you move text or change its style, you must make sure you end up with the ruler and style you expected. The fact that Nisus Software did not fix these quirks shows a misunderstanding on their part of what word processing rather than styled text editing is about.
[A few days ago, I innocently asked Nigel to give some examples of the "similar quirks" referred to above, and Nigel helpfully replied with an assortment of examples, most of which I ended up not including. Unfortunately, to understand them, you need a deeper understanding of Nisus Writer than we have room for. - Tonya]
You might ask why people (such as myself - Nisus Writer is my main text processing workhorse) use Nisus Writer if it has these quirks. The answer is simple: Nisus Writer's powerful text processing capabilities usually offset the annoyance of having to be careful with rulers, or the lack of hierarchical styles - a much-requested feature.
Numbering and Referencing -- You can set up flexible numbering sequences for chapters, four levels of sub-topics, figures, equations, and tables. Nisus Writer also provides six custom numbering sequences for anything else you might need to number (maps, pie charts, whatever).
Nisus Writer has added the ability to restart the page numbering within a document, something missing from earlier versions, but in an obscure manner which requires the selection of the page break character to access the settings.
Nisus Writer provides powerful cross-references that automatically update. Sections of text (or most anything else, such as graphics or tables) can be marked with a label and then referenced. The reference may contain the contents of the marked item, and you can also reference the page number of the object, its line number, and so on. By making multiple trips to the Cross Reference dialog box, you can insert references like "See Cheese Preferences on page 68, paragraph 6."
Unfortunately, you must individually mark anything that you want to cross-reference. Nisus Writer does not automatically mark figures, figure numbers, and the like. Further, though you can refer to the current chapter number in a header or footer, you cannot refer to the title of the chapter itself.
Nisus Writer provides footnotes or endnotes (but not both in the same document). You cannot place a cross-reference in a footnote or a table. Nisus Writer works with Niles and Associates' End Note Plus, a popular utility for tracking lots of reference works and quickly formatting references.
Tables of Contents and Indices -- Any text can be marked for inclusion in the table of contents or index - and the index marking can be done through the powerful Find and Replace feature (and thus through a macro if you like) or through a user style. For example, you can set the Table of Contents attribute to be part of the definition of the styles you use for section headers. The Create Contents and Create Index commands each accumulate all the appropriately marked text and produce a separate file containing a table of contents or index. You must then format the file and either print it separately or insert it into your document in the right place. If you recreate the table of contents or index, you must format it again: probably a good job for a macro.
Graphics -- You can paste graphics in-line or on a separate graphics layer, which supports basic drawing tools with colour and grid alignment. Items on the graphics layer can appear in front of or behind the text, or text can flow around them. Graphics can be attached to a particular page or flow with a paragraph. You cannot, however, flow a picture with a paragraph and keep it at the top or bottom of a page. The graphics support and flow-around would appear to make Nisus suitable for small newsletter-style documents, but only if their designers want to put up with having the same number of same-width columns on all pages.
Will OpenDoc be this bad? Apple has seen the future, and the future is OpenDoc - or so we are told! With OpenDoc, the document, rather than the application, becomes the centre of things. A document acts as a container for objects produced by different applications, so your text object might be under the control of Nisus Writer, but your molecule picture might come from a chemistry program.
How is this relevant to Nisus Writer? Tables and equations, two new features, are supplied by separate modules: Macreations's Tycho Table Maker and Design Science's MathType (a full version, not the crippled version that comes with Word - but it only launches from Nisus Writer). To insert an equation, you launch MathType by choosing Insert Equation from the Insert menu. After creating an equation in MathType, you close the MathType window, thus returning to Nisus Writer with your equation inserted. Inserting tables works the same way, but with Tycho Table Maker acting as the editor. All this magic works by means of an Apple event suite called EGO (Edit Graphic Object), and any program that supports EGO (such as Expressionist and DeltaGraph Pro) can provide services to Nisus Writer - though the initial insertion is more complicated as the program names do not appear on the Insert menu.
[Late-breaking news flash! Nisus Writer owners can update to the most recent MathType version for the same price charged any MathType owner. The update launches with or without Nisus Writer. -Tonya]
This sounds wonderful, and very much like OpenDoc, but there are problems. Nisus Writer contains style sheets; Tycho Table Maker contains style sheets; MathType contains style sheets. Three sets of styles sheets are hard to keep in sync! You can spell check in Nisus Writer, but you can't spell check a table from Tycho Table Maker, or in Tycho Table Maker itself. We can hope that OpenDoc will do better at integrating tools while retaining power.
Interoperability -- Nisus uses the Apple/Claris XTND system to support other file formats and comes with a handful of filters. Although the filters handle basic formatting information, they lose some important elements of the document's structure, including user styles. Nisus Writer also comes with a PageMaker import filter, and FrameMaker support is available thorough DataViz's MacLinkPlus.
The latest version of the MacLinkPlus translator package from DataViz reportedly has added support for user styles; however, Nisus Software should address this problem more directly (even if that just means bundling MacLinkPlus) in order to better work in the real world of multiple file formats.
Word and Document Processing Conclusion -- Nisus Writer offers a reasonably rich set of word and document processing features. It lacks some features that others have, and has others that they do not. However, Nisus Writer has a do-it-yourself feel to it, which programmers and fiddlers will love, but which lacks the polish to make it attractive as an everyday word, and particularly document, processor - unless you want or need its editing and multilingual text processing.
DataViz -- 800/733-0030 -- 203/268-0030
Design Science -- 800/827-0685 -- 310/433-0685
310/433-6969 (fax)
Niles and Associates -- 510/649-8176 -- <email@example.com>
Nisus Software -- 800/890-3030 -- 619/481-1477
619/481-6154 (fax) -- <email@example.com>
[For more opinions and resources related to Nisus, check out the Nisus Writer page on World of Words. -Tonya]
PDFpen: PDF toolkit for busy pros on Mac, iPhone, and iPad.
TextExpander: Your shortcut to accurate writing on Mac, Windows,
and iOS. Free trials and friendly support. <http://smle.us/smile-tb>
Article 3 of 3 in series
Nisus Writer 4.0.6, Part 1: Text Processing
by Nigel Perry
[Welcome to our Nisus Writer review! Because the review is somewhat lengthy, we plan to run it in three parts: text processing, word and document processing, and multimediaShow full article
[Welcome to our Nisus Writer review! Because the review is somewhat lengthy, we plan to run it in three parts: text processing, word and document processing, and multimedia. So, this week, keep reading to find out about Nisus Writer's text processing features, and stay tuned for next week's installment about word processing features. -Tonya]
Late last year, Nisus Software released Nisus Writer, the long-heralded update to Nisus. The last major release to Nisus was about four years ago, with an update (Nisus 3.4) in between (see TidBITS-168). Updates to Nisus were promised, with Nisus Software even advertising "Nisus XS," but nothing appeared. Nisus Writer was released last October with a maintenance update coming out just in time for Christmas (see the URL below for the update and a demo). Nisus has always been a product with a loyal following, and its users - admittedly with growing impatience - eagerly awaited the update.
Nisus Writer wasn't made from the same mold as other word processors. To understand it, you must understand that Nisus Writer combines a text processor, a word processor, and a smattering of multimedia tools. I will address each area in turn, and try to share the flavour of Nisus Writer and how it differs from Nisus. In the rest of this review "Nisus" means both Nisus and Nisus Writer; "Nisus Writer" means only Nisus Writer.
Nisus Writer, at 1.9 MB in size and with a 3 MB RAM allocation, is bigger than Nisus's more svelte 513K on disk and suggested RAM allocation of 1 MB. Much of the size increase comes from the lack of compression: previous versions of Nisus used the AutoDoubler Internal Compressor (as did the first release of Nisus Writer - updates are no longer internally compressed). File saving time also seems to have increased, so if you have the regular backups preference set, you get disconcerting pauses at the interval you've specified once your file grows past about 30 pages. One feature which speeds up Nisus is that it keeps documents in RAM, but this is also one of its disadvantages if you wish to work on long documents that are larger than Nisus's available memory, since there is no way to chain smaller documents into a longer one. Based on unscientific measurements, Nisus feels faster than Word 5.1, Nisus Writer a bit slower.
Text Processing: -- Nisus Writer comes from the same company that produces QUED/M, a highly regarded macro-programmable editor for programmers. Given this heritage, Nisus has superb text processing capabilities. Nisus offers keyboard and mouse commands for moving the cursor, selecting text, and extending a selection forward or backward by character, word, line, sentence, paragraph, screen, or document. Nisus provides a unique discontiguous selection feature along with a slightly more common rectangular selection.
For Cut and Paste operations Nisus offers ten clipboards and such unusual but useful operations as "append to clipboard" and "swap selection with clipboard."
Nisus Writer adds little to the text processing facilities of Nisus, but that is because these features were already so comprehensive! The editing window has had minor 3D-style interface improvements and some of the menus have been reorganised - this might make the program a little easier to use but adds little additional functionality.
WorldScript -- Nisus is a WorldScript I and II compatible editor and handles right-to-left and multi-byte languages with ease. It supports European, Scandinavian, and Japanese languages with the appropriate Language Module and/or Apple software. Users can also purchase a Language Key and extend Nisus to support Arabic, Cyrillic, Eastern European, Farsi, Hebrew, and Chinese. The Language Key, also known as a dongle, must be plugged into your Mac's ADB port. This feature was universally loathed by Nisus users, but Nisus Software has kept it in order to avoid piracy and to satisfy contracts with overseas partners who required the dongle in exchange for technical and marketing assistance. [See TidBITS-170 for a fleshed out discussion of this complex issue -Tonya].
In mixed left-to-right and right-to-left text, Nisus handles selections correctly. The Find/Replace command handles multilingual text both through its support for fonts and special PowerFind wildcards that match character sets in the languages. Nisus also supports glossing. [As one example, people use glossing to place Hiragana or Katakana pronunciations above Kanji characters. -Tonya]
Finding and Replacing -- Nisus provides an unparalleled Find/Replace feature, offering three levels of complexity: Normal (just text), PowerFind (a simple, icon-based GREP), and PowerFind Pro (full GREP). You can also find and replace using character formats and styles. So, for example, if you want to find text in 10-point italic Geneva and change it to 14-point bold Helvetica, Nisus easily handles the job. Another example of the flexibility of the Find/Replace command: consider the task of finding all dollar amounts in a file, such as $45, and placing them in brackets together with "NZ" (after all, this review comes from New Zealand!), so $45 would become [NZ$45]. In PowerFind, the Replace operation could be written as:
Find: $(Digit)(1+) Replace with: [NZ(Found)]
(Note that in PowerFind, "(Digit)", "(1+)", and "(Found)" would appear as icons.)
Nisus Writer adds a "sounds like" (or "fuzzy") find feature which is useful if you're not sure of how a word is "spelt."
Nisus provides multiple levels of undo and redo, up to 32,767 steps with a default of 300! If you perform a complex Replace operation and end up with a mess, just undo it.
Nisus allows you to open multiple files at once, limited only by memory. This is a real limit as Nisus is a memory-based editor and cannot edit files larger than will fit into memory. This is an area Nisus Writer could have improved upon but did not. On the plus side, the Find/Replace command can search multiple files, whether open or closed, which makes handling groups of files easier. [Of course, if you can give Nisus a lot of memory, as I do when I wish to perform multiple searches through 30 or 40 large files of the chapters of my books, being RAM-based means that Nisus can handle all the files quickly and easily, unlike in other word processors. -Adam]
Macros -- Nisus supports a macro programming language which is a curious mix of two dialects: the menu dialect and the programming dialect. Macros (either coded or recorded) help you easily accomplish extremely complex operations, especially with the help of PowerFind statements. For more sophisticated programming concepts like loops, you will end up typing code in the programming dialect, which is not as easy as it could be. The combination of the two dialects is peculiar, with a strange mix of menu command equivalents and programming language features such as arrays and stacks - some of the language also attempts to appear object-oriented. That said, the macros are powerful and, once learned, a useful tool, even if the phrase "great hack" comes to mind when studying them!
Macros could do with improvement: they execute onscreen, so while a macro runs dialog boxes may flash up and have text "typed" into them, and menus will flash away. Macro speed is often a problem, but even though macros can take a long time, doing the same job by hand would typically take far longer.
[The folks at Nisus Software point out that they believe they've cut down on the amount of onscreen macro executing for the Nisus Writer 4.0 release, thus somewhat addressing this concern and speeding up macro execution times. -Tonya]
Two sought-after features - multiple open macro files and AppleScript compatibility - have not arrived with the upgrade. The lack of AppleScript is a major blow to scripters, though Nisus Writer does support Frontier (the runtime-only version of which is supplied). Using Frontier, it is possible for Nisus Writer macros to control other applications, but Nisus Writer itself cannot be controlled. The manual covers Frontier in just two pages, with no details of the UserTalk language - so writing Frontier scripts is not easy.
Text Processing Conclusion -- Nisus Writer runs slower than Nisus on some operations, particularly Find/Replace on long documents has become much slower. Fortunately, in a few low-key tests that I ran on a beta copy of the next release of Nisus Writer (version 4.0.7), the Find and Replace feature ran 33 percent faster on average, although this is still 50 percent slower than the average speed of Nisus 3.4L. These times could easily improve before shipping.
Among Macintosh word processors, Nisus Writer is unparalleled for text and multi-lingual processing. In fact, if you need to handle multi-lingual text then Nisus might be the only real choice, depending on the languages you need.
Nisus Software -- 616/481-1477 -- 619/481-6154 (fax) --
<email@example.com> -- <firstname.lastname@example.com>
[For people wanting more opinions and resources related to Nisus, check out the Nisus Writer page on World of Words. -Tonya]
Check out the perks at <http://tidbits.com/member_benefits.html>
Special thanks to Herb Royden, Norman Cohen, Craig B. Luigart, and
Gary Reimer for their generous support!


text:
If you have played around with the old Nokia phones running Symbian then you surely must have visited Zedge to download themes, wallpapers and ringtones for your device. As Android came along, Zedge moved to the platform in the Android play store and continued to remain a one stop shop for all the wallpapers, ringtones and notification tones for the users. The app has been one of the most appreciated and received several accolades while featuring in the top list of apps often.
We live in the era of Holo designs on Android, and no wonder Zedge has adapted to the design language too and received a major update to the UI making the app look prettier than ever. The content in the app remains the same and you can still download virtually unlimited wallpapers and tones for your smartphone.
Not just this, some more features of the app are as follows:
• Set ringtones, notification sounds, wallpapers and live wallpapers directly from the app.
• Find new games recommended just for you.
• Browse exciting content in the sections Featured, Popular and Recent. More sections to come.
• Supports default ringtone, contact ringtones, message tones, alarms, alerts and all types notifications.
• All downloads are collected in My Downloads within the app.
• A Game Launcher widget that automatically collects your games into one customizable widget. No more need to look through all your apps to find a game.
• High quality wallpapers that match your favorite launcher.
We really did like the new 4.0 version of the app and urge our readers to definitely try Zedge. The app can be downloaded from the Google Play Store here
Image Via: Android Central


text:
Click HERE to download form (opens in new window)
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The FEE for this 2017 event is $100.00 and must be received no later than Monday, March 20, 2017.
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c/o Adelle Mickelson
P.O. Box 5774
Canton, GA 30114
Questions: Call Adelle Mickelson at 404-218-5930.
Don't forget, due date for registration is Monday, March 20, 2017.
Thank you for your continued support and we hope to see you at the Extravaganza!


text:
We are proud to participate in the 2017 Row by Row Experience!
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We are located behind Adam Dental Clinic on 53rd Street in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.
Phone Number: 867-920-0303


text: On Thu, Jan 20, 2005 at 10:22:12AM +0200, Mihai CHELARU wrote: > Manuel Bouyer wrote: > >Note that, with this hardware configuration, you can't even paralelize > >accesses to the hardware, because you have 2 disks per IDE channel (so > >some access have to be serialized). Things would be a bit better if you > >could > >have one disk per channel (for each write, you have to write data and > >partity, at last if those can be paralelized, you get soome performance > >boost). > > True, but even in this case I should expect the performance to be near > the performance one hard disk has, isn't it ? At best it will be 1/2 the performance of one hard disk (for one write, you have to do one read and 2 writes). With your setup (2 disk per IDE controller) it's likely to be more like 1/3. Then, because you have one read followed by one write for the same block, you don't have a sequential I/O on the disk, so things gets even worse, possibly by a large amount (performances drop significantly when you start doing seeks). -- Manuel Bouyer <firstname.lastname@example.com> NetBSD: 26 ans d'experience feront toujours la difference --


text:
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Edinburgh International Book Festival
The world's largest public celebration of the written word, right in the heart of Edinburgh, 12 - 28 August 2017 #edbookfest


text:
Benefits of light therapy
Light therapy is an exciting new approach to treating acne - see examples of research into light therapy for acne - and here are just some of the benefits:
Non-thermal and not painful
Can be applied to all skin types
Suitable for all ages – teenagers experiencing acne for the first time or older sufferers
Safe to use during pregnancy
Can be applied to any part of the body affected by acne vulgaris
No risk from tanning
Natural treatment and a replacement for creams and medications
No mess as with drugs and creams
Doesn't result in antibiotic resistance
Can be used alone or with other skincare treatments, although we recommend first consulting GP or dermatologist
Can be used more than once.
There's another benefit too; we conducted our own initial Lumie Clear trial and were so confident in our product that we offer a 45-day trial.
Lumie Clear trial
Results of Lumie Clear in trials undertaken by Lumie, showed an improvement in skin appearance by over 70% of its product users.
Participants were asked to keep a diary over a number of weeks as well as answer questions on treatment type, noticeable changes in the number of spots, the amount of skin inflammation they were suffering, any issues they encountered whilst using Lumie Clear, and if they noticed their skin getting clearer. Their answers were supported with photographic evidence of their acne.
Case study participants observed a reduction in skin inflammation and in the number of spots they had as well as an improvement in clearer skin.
Lumie are currently developing a questionnaire for users of Lumie Clear to complete that will be used for further evaluation and research purposes. Let us know if you'd like to be involved and share your experience of using Lumie Clear.


text:
The 21 Day Detox Program / Workshop
The 21 Day Detox is a safe and guided detoxification program designed to cleanse, rejuvenate and lose weight. For some, the results can be life changing. This program teaches people the basic fundamentals for prevention and self-healing, through nutrition and a restful cleanse.
Click here to find the next workshop near you!
The 21 Day Detox is a technique that does not require expensive supplements, drastic diet changes or unusual machines. The success stories have caught the attention of the media with CBS "48 Hours," CNN Headline News, KCAL-9, Lifetime Television and The LA Times.
The workshop includes:
The 21 Day Detox participants are put on a three-week program:
Week 1 focuses on plant-based food, eliminating many of the toxins people receive in their diet.
Week 2 moves you into a live-food diet with uncooked foods and two blended meals, which decreases stress on the digestive system.
Week 3 is the liquid part of the program where the digestive organs get a rest and healing begins on a cellular level.
The workshop offers 4 different levels of cleansing, from gentle for those with serious health conditions to advanced, for others who are already on a healthy path.
The 21 Day Detox workshop is spaced by one week and held on four consecutive weekends. Each workshop class lasts three hours with a refreshment break. The workshops cover a wide range of topics such as food preparation, an acid/alkaline test, health food store tour, personal health coaching, nutritional medicine, enzyme theory, therapeutic fasting and the basic healing tools for becoming your own doctor.
The workshop provides a motivational advantage for those that find it difficult to navigate the rigors of a cleanse. A question/answer session is heldbefore each workshop and helpful hints for avoiding health pit falls are offered. The course closes with a potluck feast for friends and family of the participants.
In the first week of the cleanse you will be encouraged to consume a plant-based diet. A move away from animal products will decrease the harmful exposure to toxins by as much as 50%. A menu, emphasizing organic whole foods, shopping guide and recipes are provided.
In the workshop setting, health information on the benefits of plant based nutrition for detoxification are discussed. Class participation is encouraged. After the first workshop participants are offered a field trip to a local health food store where we discuss how to be a healthy shopper.
In the second week of the cleanse you will be encouraged to consume a raw (uncooked) plant-based diet. A move away from cooked and processed foods will decrease stress on the major digestive organs and the supplements prepare the body for deep healing. An organic live-food menu, shopping guide and recipes are provided.
The workshop topics include food preparation, acid/alkaline and and the use of a live food diet for detoxifcationa and rejuvenation.
In the third week of the cleanse you will be encouraged to consume a liquid diet. A move away from a whole live-food diet to blended food will give the digestive organs a complete rest and will supply regenerative nutrients to insure healing at the cellular level.
In the workshop, the benefits of a liquid diet for rapid healing are discussed. The workshop also covers the practical application of reflexology, yoga, meditation and light therapy with scientific evidence to substantiate the chakra system as a healing tool.
The final workshop meeting covers helpful hints on maintaining optimum health and a potluck feast. Family and friends are encouraged to attend the final day.
This is a thorough cleanse experience. In most cases more than one detox is needed. The 21 Day Detox is a technique or healing tool participants learn to apply for any condition. The overall experience is designed to teach the basics of becoming your own doctor.
There are no workshops scheduled at this time.
Previous Workshops:
Los AngelesLocation:
Crossroads School
1737 21st. Street (East side of the street)
Santa Monica, California
San Francisco / Fort MasonLocation:
Fort Mason, Room C370
San Francisco, CA 94107.
There is plenty of parking available.
This workshops are done on a donation basis.
The cost for the workshops is normally $199.00 for first time participants
and $100 for returning participants.
Outrigger Hotel
There is plenty of parking available.
The cost for the workshops is $199.00 for first time participants
and $100 for returning participants.


text:
Sumaria Systems, Inc.
B-413508.2: Dec 29, 2016
Additional Materials:
- Full Report:
(202) 512-8278
Kenneth E. Patton
(202) 512-8205
Office of Public Affairs
(202) 512-4800
Sumaria Systems, Inc., of Fairborn, Ohio, protests the terms of request for proposals (RFP) No. FA8650-16-F-4108 issued by the Department of the Air Force for laboratory support services. Sumaria challenges the agency's decision to take corrective action and argues that the terms of the solicitation as they relate to key personnel are unduly restrictive of competition.
We deny the protest in part and dismiss the protest in part.
The decision issued on the date below was subject to a GAO Protective Order. This redacted version has been approved for public release.
Matter of: Sumaria Systems, Inc.
File: B-413508.2
Date: December 29, 2016
James Y. Boland, Esq., and Michael T. Francel, Esq., Venable LLP, for the protester.
Alexis J. Bernstein, Esq., and Lt. Col. Damund E. Williams, Department of the Air Force, for the agency.
Robert T. Wu, Esq., and Tania Calhoun, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision.
1. Protest challenging the agency's decision to take corrective action is dismissed where the protester submitted an agency-level protest, which was denied, and the protester failed to protest to our Office within 10 days.
2. Protest challenging the terms of the solicitation with respect to key personnel requirements as being unduly restrictive of competition is denied where the record shows that the terms of the solicitation were reasonably necessary to meet the agency's needs.
Sumaria Systems, Inc., of Fairborn, Ohio, protests the terms of request for proposals (RFP) No. FA8650-16-F-4108 issued by the Department of the Air Force for laboratory support services. Sumaria challenges the agency's decision to take corrective action and argues that the terms of the solicitation as they relate to key personnel are unduly restrictive of competition.
We deny the protest in part and dismiss the protest in part.
The RFP, issued on May 9, 2016, sought proposals from holders of General Services Administration (GSA) One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services (OASIS) - Small Business Pool 3 contracts to provide laboratory support services at the Air Force Research Laboratory located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (AFB), Ohio. RFP at 1. Award was to be made on a lowest-priced, technically acceptable basis, considering technical approach, management approach, price and past performance factors. Id. at 3.
Under the technical approach factor, the government was to evaluate the staffing proposed by offerors against the performance work statement (PWS). This evaluation would include an assessment of full-time equivalent (FTE) personnel, skill mix, skill levels, specific qualifications, and identified individuals. RFP at 6. Moreover, under the management approach factor, the agency was to assess an offeror's contract staffing, including its proposed approach to staffing. Id. at 7.
The scope of work required offerors to provide various personnel including, as relevant here, a contract program manager and an engineering technician VI (Lead Instrumentation Technician). PWS, at 17, 26-27. Of the 31 FTE positions identified in the RFP, 26 were covered by the Service Contract Act (SCA), including the Lead Instrumentation Technician (LIT). RFP, Attachment 3, Historical Labor, at 1. The position description for the LIT was as follows:
[P]roviding training to lower level technicians on laboratory equipment, materials, and advanced instrumentation installation techniques and procedures, performs sensor installation with little to no supervision, assists instrumentation engineer with the development of non-standard or unique sensor installation requirements, verifies all installations using standard instrumentation processes, leads the transport and installation of the test article along with the sensor connection and final end-to-end checkout, and provides input on instrumentation documentation and reporting. The Lead Instrumentation Technician is considered to be an expert in all areas of instrumentation.
PWS at 26-27.
Proposals were submitted by Sumaria, Peerless and a third firm. Agency Report (AR), exh. 8, Service Designated Official Decision Document (SDODD), at 1. Sumaria's evaluated price was $29,003,422 whereas Peerless' price was $30,117,089. Id. at 7. While Sumaria submitted the lowest-priced proposal, the firm's proposal was rated unacceptable under the technical approach factor due to its assessed failure to provide the qualifications for the contract program manager in its proposal. Id. at 5. The agency awarded a task order to Peerless as the firm submitting the lowest-priced, technically acceptable proposal. Id. at 6.
Sumaria protested the agency's award decision to our Office on August 3, 2016. In its protest, Sumaria argued that the agency improperly found its proposal to be technically unacceptable, arguing that the RFP did not require offerors to identify individuals within their proposals or provide verification of personnel qualifications when no individual is proposed. AR, exh. 14, Protest of August 3, at 2. On August 26, the agency informed our Office that it intended to take corrective action because an error in the solicitation "resulted in unclear guidance to offerors regarding the resultant evaluation." AR, exh. 17, Agency Memorandum to GAO, at 1. The agency indicated that it would terminate the award to Peerless, amend and reissue the solicitation, obtain revised proposals, and make a new award decision. Id. On August 30, we dismissed the protest as academic.
On September 1, Sumaria filed an agency-level protest of the decision to take corrective action instead of correcting the evaluation error and making award to Sumaria. AR, exh. 20, Agency-level Protest, at 2. The agency denied the protest on September 14, affirming its decision to take corrective action as "appropriately tailored to address the error in the current acquisition." AR, exh. 20.1, Agency-level Protest Response, at 1. Also on September 14, the agency released amendment 4 to the RFP. As relevant here, amendment 4 designated the contract program manager and LIT positions as key personnel, required offerors to submit resumes for key personnel demonstrating minimum education and experience, and required signed letters of intent/commitment from the individual identified in the resume. AR, exh. 21, amendment 4, at 3-4. With respect to the LIT position, amendment 4 added the following requirements for minimum education and experience:
The LIT shall possess at least four (4) years of formal training and ten (10) years of instrumentation experience, or twenty (20) years of instrumentation experience. The LIT shall have in-depth knowledge and experience of procedures and methods for application and installation techniques relevant to structural testing. The LIT shall have experience in the installation and buildup of high temperature fiber optic strain gages and flame spraying techniques for free filament strain gages.
AR, exh. 29, Revised PWS, at 26-27.
Proposals were due by the extended closing date of October 3. Sumaria protested to our Office on September 30, challenging the agency's corrective action, including the terms of amendment 4.[1]
Sumaria argues that the corrective action to amend the RFP, reissue the solicitation and not make award to the firm was unreasonable. Protest at 16-17. The protester also challenges the terms of amendment 4, arguing that it is unduly restrictive of competition as the amended RFP defines the key personnel requirements for the LIT position so narrowly as to permit only the incumbent to compete, and that the agency's requirements can be met through less restrictive means. Id. at 12-16. We dismiss Sumaria's challenge to the agency's decision to take corrective action as untimely. We deny the remainder of the protest because we conclude that the specifications for the LIT position are reasonably necessary to meet the agency's needs.
Untimely Protest Ground
Sumaria challenges the agency's decision to take corrective action instead of making award to the firm. In this regard, the protester argues that the agency improperly found its proposal technically unacceptable.
As noted above, on September 14, the agency denied Sumaria's agency-level protest of the decision to take corrective action. As a result, the agency asserts that Sumaria was required to protest the agency's decision to take corrective action to our Office within 10 days of the agency's decision on Sumaria's agency-level protest, and did not do so.[2] Agency Request for Dismissal at 4; See 4 C.F.R. § 21.2(a)(3). The protester responds that its objection to the decision not to award the contract to Sumaria affects the ground rules of the competition and is therefore subject to 4 C.F.R. § 21.2(a)(1) (challenges to alleged improprieties on the face of the solicitation must be filed prior to the next closing date for the solicitation). In essence, Sumaria argues that its protest need only have been filed with our Office before October 3.
We conclude that Sumaria's protest of the agency's decision to take corrective action is untimely. Sumaria challenges the agency's corrective action, and not any particular changes to the ground rules of the procurement or to any alleged improprieties on the face of the solicitation. The record shows that Sumaria protested the decision to take corrective action with the agency, and that the protest was denied on September 14. Any subsequent protest challenging the agency's decision to take corrective action was required to be filed with our Office by September 26, and the protester's failure to do so renders this protest allegation untimely. See 4 C.F.R. § 21.2(a)(3).
Unduly Restrictive of Competition
Sumaria next argues that the LIT position's qualifications are unduly restrictive of competition as they are defined so narrowly as to permit only the incumbent to compete for the order and can be met through less restrictive means. The protester asserts that, while it was able to propose a highly qualified instrument technician, it could not locate, within the time permitted by the amendment, an individual who meets two of the experience requirements for the LIT position: that the individual have experience in the installation and buildup of high temperature fiber optic strain gages, and that the individual have experience in flame spraying techniques for free filament strain gauges. Protester's Supp. Brief at 4. Sumaria asserts that while the work contemplated is not complicated or complex in terms of the basic skillset required, some of the instrumentation used by the lab is used by very few organizations other than the Air Force's research laboratory. Id. at 3. Sumaria contends that this fact, coupled with a requirement for a security clearance and that the individual reside in Dayton, Ohio, means that the requirements are unduly restrictive of competition because the pool of candidates is limited to the incumbent's personnel. Id.
The protester concludes that there are less restrictive ways for the agency to meet its requirements. Sumaria asserts that the agency could remove these experience requirements as the firm's proposed instrument technician has the necessary skills to perform the services, and there is no evidence that an experienced instrumentation technician could not learn the two instruments and techniques quickly following basic orientation. Id. at 4. Alternatively, Sumaria argues that since it has received verbal assurances from the incumbent LIT that he will accept employment with Sumaria should the firm receive the order, the agency should delete the requirements to provide a resume and letter of commitment for this position.[3] Id.
Where a protester challenges a specification as unduly restrictive, that is, challenges both the restrictive nature of the specification and the agency's need for the restriction, the agency has the responsibility of establishing that the restrictive specification is reasonably necessary to meet its legitimate needs. GlobaFone, Inc., B-405238, Sept. 12, 2011, 2011 CPD ¶ 178 at 2. The adequacy of the agency's justification is ascertained through examining whether the agency's explanation is reasonable, that is, whether the explanation can withstand logical scrutiny. Id. Once the agency establishes support for the challenged solicitation term, the burden shifts to the protester to show that it is clearly unreasonable. Id.
The agency contends that the LIT requirement is essential to the successful operation of its experimental test activities, and submits three declarations in support of its decision to designate the position key and to add the relevant experience requirements. Supp. Memorandum of Law at 1, exhs. 1-3. According to the agency, the need to execute ongoing experimental tests requires high temperature strain sensors, and all of these tests are dependent upon expertise for the selection and installation of high temperature strain gages. Id. at 3, Declaration of Chief, Structural Validation Branch. The agency also argues that it is critical that the laboratory not experience a gap in its high temperature instrumentation capabilities, and that the failure to provide a LIT with full capability on "Day 1" will result in delay of several multimillion dollar programs. Id. Finally, with respect to availability of qualified personnel, the agency asserts that it conducted market research and located at least six individuals working in the United States who could meet the requirements of the position. Id.
Our review of the record provides no basis to question the agency's need for a LIT with the qualifications stated in the solicitation. In our view, the agency has articulated a reasonable basis for why the solicitation's experience requirements are necessary to meet its needs. Moreover, we are provided no basis to question the agency's need to evaluate and have assurances that a qualified individual will be available to perform the LIT scope of work, assurances that are provided by the key personnel designation and requirement to submit a resume and letter of commitment.
The market research performed by both Sumaria and the agency shows that the skillset required for the LIT position is specialized; as reflected in the protester apparently not being able to locate qualified personnel other than the incumbent's LIT and the agency's recognition that it could locate only six individuals nationwide who could satisfy the requirements. Given the limited labor-pool of qualified applicants to satisfy this requirement, we conclude that it was reasonable for the agency to structure its procurement to allow it to evaluate and obtain assurances of availability with respect to the LIT position. While Sumaria argues that the verbal assurances received from the incumbent LIT should be sufficient to meet the agency's needs, the agency responds that verbal assurances do not provide it with the same level of certainty as a letter of commitment. In addition, without a resume the agency explains that it will not be able to evaluate the proposed LIT's qualifications. We agree.
We deny the protest in part and dismiss the protest in part.
Susan A. Poling
General Counsel
[1] At the time this protest was filed, our Office had jurisdiction to hear protests in connection with task and delivery orders valued in excess of $10 million placed under multiple-award contracts created by civilian agencies. See 41 U.S.C. § 4106(f); Phacil Inc., B-406628, July 5, 2012, 2012 CPD ¶ 202 at 1 n.1. Subsequent to the filing of this protest, our Office's authority to resolve protests in connection with civilian agency task and delivery orders in excess of $10 million expired. See 41 U.S.C. § 4106(f)(3); Analytic Strategies LLC; Gemini Indus., Inc., B-413758.2, B-413758.3, Nov. 28, 2016, 2016 CPD ¶ at 4-5. Because the task order here was issued and protested prior to the expiration of our jurisdiction, we retain jurisdiction to resolve this protest. See Technatomy Corp., B-405130, June 14, 2011, 2011 CPD ¶ 107 at 5-6.
[2] The agency argues that the protester was required to submit its protest to our office by September 24. However, since September 24 was a Saturday, the protest had to be filed no later than Monday, September 26. See 4 C.F.R. § 21.0(d).
[3] Sumaria also argues that it is unreasonable to designate the LIT position as key because the position is covered by the SCA, and the successful offeror will be required to offer the incumbent employee the right of first refusal. The record confirms that under the incumbent contract, the LIT is designated as an SCA-covered position. AR, exh. 5.11, Historical Labor Question and Answer, at 1. For this procurement, however, the agency executed a determination and finding that the LIT position meets the exemption for professional employees under 29 C.F.R. § 541.300(2). AR, exh. 27, D&F, at 1. While the parties disagree on the agency's authority to designate the LIT position as exempt, this does not change the fact that the agency's need to both evaluate the proposed LIT personnel, and be assured of that person's availability, was reasonable.
Feb 16, 2018
CSI Aviation, Inc.
We deny the protest.
Heskett and Heskett Services
We deny the protest.
Feb 15, 2018
OST, Inc.
We deny the protest.
Feb 14, 2018
Castro & Company, LLC
We sustain the protest.
SysVets, LLC
We deny the protest.
BAE Systems Technology Solutions & Services, Inc.
We sustain the protest.
Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration: 18-Month Extension of Transition Period and Delay of Applicability Dates; Best Interest Contract Exemption (PTE 2016-01); Class Exemption for Principal Transactions in Certain Assets Between Investment Advice Fiduciaries and Employee Benefit Plans and IRAs (PTE 2016-02)
Feb 13, 2018
Al Baz 2000 General Trading & Contracting Company W.L.L.
We deny the protest.
S. E. James & Company
We dismiss the protest.
Looking for more? Browse all our products here


text:
Continued from page 3
The Coverage
ESPN opted to go with Adrian Healey and Taylor Twellman as match commentators for the Final and it was a good decision. The last two seasons Ian Darke (and Steve McManaman in 2010) was brought from the UK to show that mentioning the MLS game of the week once or twice during a Premier League game is not the best grounding for the MLS Cup Final.
The panel of Alexi Lalas, Alejandro Moreno and Kasey Keller was well led by Max Bretos although the analysis was a bit predictable and lacked any telling insight. It would have been interesting to hear what Houston might have done differently after conceding the equalizer.
The Reality
There was an interesting graphic that ESPN displayed just before the kick-off that set out how the league had grown during the "Beckham-years."
It showed the number of teams growing from 12 to 19; soccer-specific stadiums from 4 to 13; average attendance up from 15,504 to 18,807 – all standard fare.
But there was another baseline that caught the eye. According to the data the average player salary in MLS went from $85,329 to $179,166.
Compared to other major sports in North America and the top leagues in Europe the 2012 number is still chicken-feed. But nonetheless it did show that significant progress has been made in terms of MLS salary levels……except the increase does not truly tell the story.
As with so many other statistics the devil is in the details and details were lacking.
Each team is allowed to carry 30 players on their squad as allowed by league regulations. That would give a maximum of 570 although the actual number is closer to 500.
The total payroll for MLS in 2012 is around $90M. That brings the average salary to the $180,000 displayed on the ESPN comparison board.
But back in 2006 there was no such thing as a Designated Player; in 2012 there were 30 of them. And based on the information I could gather these 30 top players collected around $42M for their efforts this season.
So out of a $90M payroll covering 500 players, 30 of these same players are pulling down $42M. Take the designated players out of the equation and you are left with $48M spread over 470 players for a more enlightening number of $102,000 – an increase over the 2006 average of $85,000but not the spectacular doubling that the initial statistic would have us believe.
For a more sober assessment of salaries and why the median wage might better reflect reality rather than average you might want to check out an article from Zach Slaton.


text:
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- v. Present participle of distract.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- adj. Tending or serving to distract.
Sorry, no etymologies found.
I deliberately kept the colours light, to stop them distracting from the character of the outlines.
Other times, including a tedious man vs. monster chase sequence on an ice moon (itself too derivative by half of The Empire Strikes Back), all that action instead feels superfluous and distracting from the main story thread.
As for your conspiracy guy, I can assure you, as a Canadian, that people are not running around in distracting bikinis as winter wanes.
It may be necessary to provide it so that actions (say) have subject matter, but putting more in just slows the pace for us and ends up distracting from the story and draining for the reader (if he or – far less often – she is of one of these other types).
Media talking head after media talking head has claimed that this was a gaffe, carelessness, a serious mistake, etc., and even blamed her for distracting from the great health care debate.
The race card is old and very distracting from the problems at hand.
DeMINT: Yeah, for distracting from the real thing.
Sen. Jim DeMint: Gays And Unmarried, Pregnant Women Should Not Teach Public School
They say these accusations of racism are distracting from the greater issues such as health care.
I also found the focus on Frey to be distracting from the main point.
Special Guest Post: Publishing Industry Evisceration Edition!!!!
How distracting is it when the police are typing on their in car computers and still driving?


text:
Elliott Abrams has a knack for saying scary things in a reassuring tone. Still, much of what he has to say on this week's Need to Know is highly disturbing. We discuss the diminution of American power generally, and Elliott notes the disturbing style – not just substance – of foreign-policy decision making in the Obama White House. (Hint: The fellow who considers himself the smartest man in any room simply doesn't take advice.) We discuss the response of Arabs and Israelis to the perception of American withdrawal and weakness and analyze what the Syria debacle portends for stopping Iran from getting the bomb.
Jay walks down memory lane with Elliott.
Jay and I then address the response to the Navy Yard shootings. Is there a dawning realization that untreated mental illness is the problem we must address and not guns?
We note the racism hoax at Oberlin College, two offenses against civility and logic by the Washington Post, and more. Please join us!


text:
Eight not enough for Flyers; Fall to Jets
The game went from a blow-out to a shoot-out in a matter of nine minutes.
Four goalies and 17 goals later, the Flyers dropped Thursday's home game to the Winnipeg Jets, 9-8, in one of the team's worst defensive games in recent memory.
"I don't think I have ever seen anything like that, though," said Flyers defensemen Kimmo Timonen, who registered four assists and was a +3 on the night.
"Obviously we played two really bad periods in Montreal yesterday and it seems like we were in the same mode today the first half of the game. That's not the way we win games and that's like I said we have work to do and I don't care if it's mental or physical, you have to show up," he added.
The score was 6-2 in favor of the Jets 25 minutes into the game. But for a team that has scored only three goals in the last 75 minutes, that spelled doom for the Flyers, who were on the verge of dropping another game in blowout fashion.
The Flyers, much like last night's loss in Montreal, struck first on a beautiful 2-on-1 set-up by Jaromir Jagr to Scott Hartnell. But like last night, their energy immediately dropped after scoring the first goal and the Jets took advantage of the defense's lackluster play.
Blake Wheeler fired a shot from the point that hit off of former Flyer Randy Jones' skate and into the net to tie the game, 1-1.
While holding a 2-1 lead, Tobias Enstrom sent a shot towards the net and Kyle Wellwood got his stick out front and deflected it past Bobrovsky to make it 3-1 in favor of the Jets heading into the intermission.
The Jets struck back-to-back in the first five minutes of the second thanks to a deflection off Tanner Glass and an easy powerplay goal off the draw by Nik Antrapov.
Antrapov's goal chased Bobrovsky from the game and in came Ilya Bryzgalov with a 5-1 deficit. Claude Giroux put home a goal to make it 5-2 but Evander Kane put home his second goal of the season off a beautiful through-the-legs pass by Antrapov to give the Jets a 6-2 lead midway through the 2nd.
The Flyers answered with a pair of goals in the next six minutes. They cut the lead in half with a deflection by Danny Briere off a Timonen shot that got a piece of Hartnell. A couple minutes later, Max Talbot potted an unassisted goal off the goalie's pads to make it a 6-4 game.
The Flyers had new life at that point with the ice almost at full tilt towards the Winnipeg net. But the Jets held on thanks to a few near misses and desperation stops by defensemen and goalie Ondrej Pavelec.
But the energy didn't go away heading into the final frame.
Briere put in his second goal of the game only 90 seconds into the 3rd period to make it a 6-5 game. And a minute late, Matt Read caught a rebound high off the shoulder of Pavelec, dropped it on the ice and banged home the game-tying goal.
James van Riemsdyk gave the Flyers the big spark, banging home the 7th Flyers goal off new goalie Chris Mason and capped the unbelievable comeback.
But Bryzgalov couldn't stop the bleeding and just like that, the Jets scored two quick goals, giving them an 8-7 lead and capping off an unbelievable run of five goals in the first 4:31.
With van Riemsdyk's go-ahead tally erased, he found the net for the second time of the game. Andrej Meszaros sent a pass to Timonen at the left circle and he sent a beautiful cross-ice pass to JvR, who netted the goal with over three minutes to play.
The Jets struck the closing blow when Andrew Ladd was able to score the game winner on a terrible defensive shift by the Flyers with just over a minute to play. That shift summed up the Flyers defensive problems beautifully.
"It was all about bad breaks on both sides," said Talbot. "It was a game with a lot of momentum shifts. They took the lead and we tried to come back and score three or four goals in a row. It was definitely a weird game.
TALBOT'S SCARE -- With three minutes left in the 1st, Max Talbot blocked a shot with his left foot and hobbled off the ice and went immediately down the tunnel.
Thankfully for Talbot, it was just a bruise on the in-step of his left foot.
"It sucks, it really hurts. But thank God it's just bruised," Talbot said, showing the bruise on his foot (thanks to NHL Hot Stove's David Strehle for the quote).
He rejoined the team in the 2nd period after giving the Flyers a scare. This came only a day after center Brayden Schenn broke his left foot blocking a shot in the Flyers 5-1 loss to Montreal.
They couldn't afford to lose another center at this point and though Talbot will be evaluated, the fact he played and tallied a goal in the game is good enough news on its own.
WHACKY STATS -- Heading into tonight's game, the Jets had scored only 17 goals in their first eight games. They netted nine tonight.
The Jets scored those nine goals on only 25 shots. The Flyers managed eight on 47 shots.
Five Flyers went without registering a point. Only three Jets went without making the scoresheet.
The Jets had nine difference goal scorers.
LOST IN THE WOODS -- The post game interview with goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov was a somber one.
Bryzgalov allowed four goals in the second half of the game and expressed that he is throroughly flustered and lacking confidence in himself.
"I have zero confidence in myself right now," said Bryzgalov. "I am terrible but I will now appologize in front of the fans, in front of my teammates. I have no answer for you guys. I thought this last game in Montreal that nothing worse was going to happen, but today was worse."
Bryzgalov added that this was the lowest he has been in his career and he felt like he was "lost in the woods."
Bryz's coach wasn't quick to blame his goaltender, who is now 0-4-1 in his last five starts.
"I think as a group, generally speaking, when you're giving up too many goals and you're not getting the results you're looking for, it's a good question to ask," said head coach Peter Laviolette when asked about Bryzgalov's confidence. "But there's a lot of confidence in him and what he's done in the past there is confidence and the ability to play but we've got work to do."
Bryzgalov refused to blame his defense in the loss, coming days after saying there needs to be better communication between him and his defense.
"Bottom line, I am the goalie," he said. "I'm the guy who has to stop the puck and clean the mistakes behind their backs. I couldn't stop the simple shots. That's why players make more mistakes because they have no confidence in their goalie. I'm the reason why we lost the game tonight."
Someone, please go into the woods and find Bryzgalov.
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Can't really blame Bryzgalov for getting lost in the woods. All they had in Arizona was deserts, and in Soviet Russia... ah what's the point.
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I'll just leave this here:
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We love so many things about Tacoma, and one thing we love most is the willingness of Tacomans (Tacomers, Tacomites, Tacomaphiles … ) to try just about anything.
Earlier this year, write@253 staffer Sam Loete was wondering how we could get our students' writing out into the public sphere. We know that all students are capable of writing really amazing stuff, whether it's funny, serious, heartbreaking or, sometimes, just plain weird. We read their work all the time and want others to have the experience of seeing into a student's mind, a student whose life and perspective may be very different from our own. We love that about writing.
So we applied for a Spaceworks project to put poetry on the walls of the downtown building on the corner of Market and S. 11th. Our proposal wasn't accepted and, instead, two local artists will transform the space. We've seen the plans, and it's going to be great. But the Spaceworks folks had a proposition for us: Would we be interested in putting poetry in the alley behind the building, where there are a whole bunch of boarded up windows and doors that offer blank spaces that could be filled with words?
Of course we would. So now that corner of our city will have both art and poetry, and we can't wait to get to work. Within the next few days, the Spaceworks team will be prepping the building for us, and our goal is to have poems in the alley by Sept. 1. We may need some help with the installation, so if you are interested, let us know. And if you have an idea, share it with us. We'll try just about anything.


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Nederlandse Vereniging voor Theoretische Informatica ====================================================
We are happy to invite you for the Theory Day 2008 of the NVTI. The Dutch Asssociation for Theoretical Computer Science (NVTI) supports the study of theoretical computer science and its applications.
NVTI Theory Day 2008
Friday March 14, 2008, 9:30-16:45
Hoog Brabant, Utrecht (close to Central Station)
We have an interesting program with excellent speakers from The Netherlands and abroad, covering important streams in theoretical computer science. Below you will find the abstracts.
Please find the full program and abstracts of the lectures, and some other info below.
Kind regards,
Jaco van de Pol,
NVTI secretary.
Speaker: Colin Stirling (U. Edinburgh)
Title: Higher-Order Matching, Games and Automata
A notable success in theoretical computer science is methods for verifying finite and infinite state systems such as model checking.
An active research goal is to transfer these techniques to finite and infinite state systems with binding. In the talk, we report on some recent work in this direction on higher-order schema and on higher-order matching.
Speaker: Marielle Stoelinga (U Twente)
Title : From Quality to Quantity: Logics, approximation and model checking of quantitative system models
Many system models contain quantitative information, such as time, probability, resource consumption, and continuous dynamics. Boolean analysis of such systems (based on a yes/no answer) is unsatisfying, for example because small perturbations in the system model may lead to opposite truth values. This talk presents a framework for quantitative specification, model checking and refinement.
Starting point is the quantitative transition system (QTS) model, where predicates are assigned real numbers in [0,1]. We consider quantitative versions of LTL and CTL, called QLTL and QCTL, assigning to each formula a truth value in [0,1]. We define the linear and branching distances, which are the quantitative analogi of trace equivalence and bisimulation.
Finally, we discuss how this framework generalizes to Markov Decision Processes and Stochastic 2-player games.
Speaker: Ronald de Wolf (CWI)
Title : Fourier analysis of Boolean functions: Some beautiful examples
Fourier analysis of real-valued functions on the Boolean hypercube has been an extremely versatile tool in theoretical computer science in the last decades. Applications include the analysis of the behavior of functions with noisy inputs, cryptography, machine learning theory, design of probabilistically checkable proofs, threshold phenomena in random graphs, etc. In this talk we will give a brief introduction to this area, illustrated with a number of simple but elegant applications.
Speaker : Christos Papadimitriou (Berkeley)
Title : Computing Equilibria
In 1951 Nash showed that every game has a mixed equilibrium; his proof is essentially a reduction to Brouwer's fixpoint theorem. Whether such an equilibrium can be found efficiently has been open since that time. This talk surveys some recent results that shed light to this problem, essentially by demonstrating a reduction in the opposite direction. We also discuss the many surrounding problems, such as approximate equilibria, correlated equilibria, and repeated games.
It is possible to participate in the organized lunch, for which registration is required. Please register by E-mail (firstname.lastname@example.com) or by phone (020-5924189), no later than one week before the meeting (March 7, 2008). The costs of 15 Euro can be paid at the location. We just mention that in the direct vicinity of the meeting room there are plenty of nice lunch facilities as well.
The NVTI theory day 2008 is financially or otherwise sponsored by NWO (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research), Elseviers Science, CWI (Dutch Center of Mathematics and Computer Science) and the Dutch research schools IPA (Institute for Programming Research and Algorithmics), OzsL (Dutch Graduate school in Logic) and SIKS (Dutch research school for Information and Knowledge Systems).
Prof.dr. J.C. van de Pol, chair Formal Methods and Tools Universiteit Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands
mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com, http://www.cs.utwente.nl/~vdpol
tel: +31 53 489 3017 fax: +31 53 489 3247 secr: +31 53 489 3767


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It's not a problem exclusive to Android, but finding games in the Play Store, especially ones you actually want to play, can be a trial. Sure, you can claw up and down the Top Selling lists, but then you're just seeking better-selling versions of what you might be into. And then you're missing out on games just because they're not selling right there and then. And you can search web sites and read reviews, but in the end, you just don't have enough info. So how do you solve the Recommendation issue? You get something the Game Genome project.
If you're familiar with Pandora, you sorta get the idea. That service started as the Music Genome Project, in which songs were assigned a number of traits so they could be easily identifiable. Pandora took that data and turned it into a recommendation engine based on music and songs you put in. The GGP does the same thing, but with Android games. And while it doesn't automate the process based on which games you enjoy, it's easy enough to manually insert traits (whether you want something fast-paced or science-fiction-themed, for instance) and then get recommendations. You can give it a shot at the link below and while only four traits of a full fifteen are available to chop through, it's still plenty strong enough to get some good Android games quick.
Source: The Game Genome, TechCrunch


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Terrilyn Simmons
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Twitter: @SpelmanMedia
ATLANTA (Oct. 8, 2013) -- The Spelman College Health Careers Program recently received proclamations from the City of Atlanta and Fulton County, in honor of Georgia R. Dwelle, M.D., C'1900, the first Spelman alumna to obtain a doctor of medicine degree. Presented to Barbara Bell, Ph.D., director of Spelman College Health Careers, at the program's annual reception, the proclamations declare, annually the first week of October "Georgia R. Dwelle, M.D., Making a Global Difference in Healthcare Appreciation Week."
The proclamations were issued to recognize and celebrate the extraordinary achievements of Dr. Dwelle, the first Black female physician in Atlanta and the founder of the Dwelle Infirmary (1920), Atlanta's first successful private hospital for Blacks and first obstetrical hospital for Black women. Along with Fulton County Commissioner Joan Garner, attending the reception was John Dwelle, great nephew and caregiver to Dr. Dwelle.
For the past 42 years, the Spelman Health Careers Program has been educating women who go on to make a global difference in health care. Increasing the number of highly qualified minority women and African-Americans entering the health/allied health professions has been the primary goal of the Health Careers Program since it's formalization in 1971. In addition, the program is committed to eradicating health illiteracy by providing a strong educational foundation for Spelman students to further educate the communities they go on to serve.
About Spelman College
Founded in 1881, Spelman College is a highly selective, liberal arts college widely recognized as the global leader in the education of women of African descent. Located in Atlanta, Ga., the college's picturesque campus is home to 2,100 students. Outstanding alumnae include Children's Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman; Sam's Club CEO Rosalind Brewer; JPMorgan Chase Foundation President Kimberly Davis; former acting Surgeon General and Spelman's first alumna President Audrey Forbes Manley; Harvard College Dean Evelyn Hammonds; author Pearl Cleage; and actress LaTanya Richardson Jackson. For more information, visit www.spelman.edu.
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Every year, right around this time, I sit down to write a blog. I am so lucky to have Kevin in my life- it seems only fitting that I should be able to find the words to describe that life. As a result, deep in our blog draft archives are several unpublished, unfinished posts, all about Kevin.
There are posts about laughing, shared experiences and finding true love interspersed with others regarding our parenting partnership. I did actually finish one of those, in the form of a video tribute a few years back:
We laugh a lot. He knows what delights me. The other day he stuck his head in the living room to do this knock-knock joke:
Knock Knock
Who's there?
To who?
To whom.
I'm still chortling a bit, but I'm laughing just as much at the fact that Kevin interrupted his work day to come tell me a joke he probably thinks is lame, because he knew I'd find it hilarious.
It's more than the hilarity and the children that holds us though. Somehow over the years we've found ways to lift each other beyond our own expectations.
20 years ago we started dating. Being with Kevin felt different than anyone else I knew. I felt like someone could really see the me that lurked underneath all the crazy and chaos that comprised my life– he was an oasis of possibility.
18 years ago we were still sorting out our dreams of adulthood. I had an image of my ideal job, but couldn't imagine making it a reality until I read our wedding newsletter, written by Kevin. In it he announced that in the next few years I would be attending graduate school to become a therapist, something I considered little more than an out-of-reach pipe dream.
17 years ago, Kevin, who by the way, hates heat, humidity and conservative politics, packed his bags, skipped out on a lease and moved to Louisiana– more specifically, Fat City— with me.
You might assume that we chose to move South because I had been accepted at Tulane School of Social Work, and while that would be reasonable, it would also be inaccurate. I had visited Tulane, decided it was my destiny, and with Kevin's support and encouragement followed my instinct. I had no official acceptance letter, we had no jobs and the only person we knew was my dad's Marine buddy, who didn't really run in our circles.
Kevin worked nights at Kinkos, I worked days at TGIFridays, we met around midnight to play scrabble and watch MST3K. Eventually I talked my way into Tulane and Kevin found a more palatable job at Xavier University. We developed new talents, forged new connections and spent some time growing up together.
Our time in New Orleans represents the time my own sense of competence and curiosity blossomed- in many ways I see that part of my life as a rebirth– the time I really got to know myself. I wouldn't have made that leap without Kevin at my side.
That's the thing about Kevin– the thing I want to reciprocate– he doesn't just see the best in me, he assumes motion toward my best, propping me up, holding my hand and urging me on. He reminds me who I am, who I want to be. More importantly, he's willing to take the risks inherent in making those leaps together.


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Rooney Mara Lands Lisbeth Salander Role in Fincher's 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'
Hollywood's most prominent young actresses can quit their can fighting. Rooney Mara has been granted the coveted role of Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon tattoo adaptation. Her deal includes an option for two sequels based off the second and third book in the Millennium Trilogy, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.
Mara, younger sister of hottie Kate Mara, will run and hack computers alongside Daniel Craig, who's already been cast as the investigative journalist and part owner of the magazine Millenium. Both Robin Wright and Stellan Skarsgard are also in talks for roles. Our deepest condolences go out to Ellen Page, Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Carey Mulligan, Mia Wasikowska, Emily Browning, and every other starlet who really REALLY wanted to nab the role of the decade. We hope these words help you in your time of grief: Life's unfair and stuff. (Deadline)


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for vacuuming dry wall dust. Do i need a bag or just a two stage filter.
No announcement yet.
wd1245 shop vac
new posts
- Mar 2002
- 93
Kansas City, Kansas
Two stage filter is a good idea. But, clean it often. Drywall dust clogs any filter easily and is hard on motors. A bag will make dumping the vac easier.Mac
Problems are opportunities in disguise
Senior Member
- Jun 2002
- 936
Project Administrator, EPDM & Thermoplastic Flat Roofing
I have 3 Ridgid Wet/Dry Vacs that I use in my shop until I can addon and have room for a cyclone for dust colletion to my shop.
I find the paper fins of the filter clog faster than I care to see and "pull" from the VAC lost. While at HD one day, I snagged up a package of 5 cheep paper bag filters made for some "Genie" application.
They fit over the filters perfectly and was like 3 bucks for 5.
I use to spend 10 minutes with the air line on each filter a couple times a week. But I rarely use the air line now. I simply use the bench brush when I dump the tub and it's good to go. I have not noticed any less "pull" from the VAC, because the filter fins don't clog anymore.
For 3 bucks, it's worth a try.
I'll get the Genie item # off the bag tomarrow and edit this post for those interested.John E. Adams
www.woodys-workshop.com
Junior Member
- Jan 2003
- 7
Auburn, AL
Hello, I am a design student from Auburn University. We are currently working with Emerson tool company (the makers of Ridgid wet/dry vacs) in redesigning the vac. I stumbled upon this forum to look for research on what users commonly find wrong with current models. So far the information I have received on this one topic has been invaluable. Thank you. I ask you to please list additional problems you have with user functions. Any additional ideas on improving existing wet/dry vacs would also be very welcomed. Either reply on this post or feel free to email me at - email@example.com.
[ 01-30-2003, 05:47 PM: Message edited by: design_student ]
I would like to see the little plastic "elbow" inside the canister (where the hose plugs in) that can be used to attach filter bags (in addition to the normal pleated filter. The shop vac and I think some Craftsman models have them. They make sanding plaster (a common home repair task) much more tolerable.Mark
For my "WD12450", I made a "Bag Adapter" using 2 pc. of 1-1/2" White PVC pipe, which allows me to use the Shop-Vac brand bags (10,12,14 gal size). You can use either the cheaper white bags (3 per pack) of the more expencive yellow drywall bags (2 per pack).
The first piece is a 90Deg M x FM (street) Elbow, Genova # 72916.
The second piece is a 45Deg FM x FM Elbow, Genova # 70615.
The female end on the 90Deg Elbow fits the I.D. of the hose end (as it is attached to the side of the vac). Assemble the 45Deg elbow to it with the curve going the same direction with the end with the two protuding "nibs" being the outlet (these 2 nibs help retain the bag). With these two elbows this way, the bag will actually be installed backwards when compared to how it would be installed on a Shop-Vac brand vac (opening towards middle of vac instead of towards the outside).
Because of the restriction these pieces of PVC add, this bag adapter set-up is not reccommended for anything other than Drywall & other fine-dust pick-up.
I also highly recommend getting a Cleanstream filter element installed in place of the std. Ridgid element. Cleanstream doesn't actually make one for the "Ridgid" application, but the one for the Craftsman vacs fits acceptably.
[ 02-03-2003, 09:51 AM: Message edited by: dougmac ]
Another way to reduce filter clogging with drywall dust is to get a Sand & Kleen Dustless Drywall Sanding System. This incorporates a bucket with water in it that is placed before your vacuum.
A few years back I had bought one of the sanding heads that you attach to an 1-1/4" shop-vac hose. This works pretty good, but you still have the filter (or bag) clogging too fast.
With my latest drywall project, a friend lent me his Sand & Kleen and boy does that work good. For one thing, it uses a small 3/4" dia. hose that is really lightweight & flexible (plus longer than the 1-1/4" hose I was using before).
The Sand & Kleen is made by Magna Industries and I've seen it at Menards, but my friend thought he had got his from HomeDepot. They have both a 2-Gallon size bucket System for $20.00 (use with 1-1/4" size hose shop-vacs) or a 5-Gallon size bucket System for $40.00 (use with 1-1/4 or 2-1/2" size hose vacs).
The majority of the vacuum's suction is diverted through adjustable openings in the hose adapter, so you are not putting too much load on the vacuum's motor. Suprisingly the small amount of suction actually going to the sanding head is enough to pull in all the dust !! The one I've borrowed is the smaller size, and I can see how the larger bucket would help by extending the time between water changes.
Use this in conjunction with the Shop-Vac brand Drywall Dust Bags as I am doing and you will really extend the time between filter cleanings and reduce the exhaust dust particles.
[ 02-03-2003, 09:53 AM: Message edited by: dougmac ]


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Well, It's July. That's right. We're half way through 2013 and that's a perfect time to check into our New Year's Resolutions and see if we are still on track. We all know that about 90% of people have fallen off the wagon by now.
If your resolutions involved weight loss, you might enjoy my cover story for AY Magazine that's all about my 40 pound weight loss over the last 2 years. Plus two other inspiring Arkansans and their weight loss stories are featured in this Good Health issue. Believe me, nothing "looks" better on a person than feeling great, and I feel at least 10 years younger than I did just a few years ago. So don't miss the details in AY's July issue.
As for my resolutions, they involved several exciting new firsts for me this year all based on my Word of the Year…Inspired. If you want a reminder of what my goals were for this 2013, you can read my Resolutions post from January right here.
I hope you'll pull out your resolutions and meet me here Tomorrow. I'll be back then to tell you how I am doing so far this year and what my big plans are for finishing strong in 2013. You can do a self-assessment of your goals then too. And I'll have some tips, sources and other helpful hints for helping you finish strong this year. Or if you haven't started, what are you waiting for? I'll give you my top tips for jump starting your success this week. It's not to late for a few mid-year resolutions. Let's do this together.
See you tomorrow!


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Thursday, October 02, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
|Sorry but the first week at work's been pretty hectic. Lots of things to get used to as you can imagine. It's a very different world is all I really can say, and parts of my brain that have assumed non-activity for a fair bit of my life have suddenly been kicked into action.
Anyway, more later. For now, though, our amazing niece, Nicola, has done her first piano recital for the school year. Check her out (and the funky top I bought her for it!). She's very good.
*Proud uncle and aunt beaming*
Okay, gotta get back to work. Will check in again soon!
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Monday, August 04, 2008
|Yes, we're alive.
It has been one hell of a month, not least because both of us are in so deep with the upcoming ST relaunch. Won't bore you with details, but needless to say, it has resulted in the blog being somewhat neglected.
The good news is that we have, in between, finally found a little bit of time from our Ireland trip (which now feels like it happened a year or more ago), and hopefully once things calm down, you'll (finally) find out what we got up to (that we're willing to tell you about). Heh.
Either way, wanted to quickly pop in and say a BIG congratulations to Sam and Ash on the birth of their little girl, Misha, who made her bold entrance on July 24. Snapped a picture but it's so grainy that I gotta go get another. It will come soon, coz you gotta see how gorgeous she is.
Okay, gotta run. Catch ya later.


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There are many exciting and fulfilling opportunities to get involved at Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper. Volunteering your time is an excellent way to become more active in your community while expanding your knowledge and skills, meeting new people, and making a contribution to something that you are passionate about. Volunteering at Waterkeeper allows you to serve a local, not-for-profit organization, and helps Waterkeeper to surpass its objectives and strengthen programs that are improving our community and its ecology.
Your participation makes a difference. You can spend two Saturdays a year helping at our cleanups, take on an internship in one of our programs (see below), or you can give your time and energy to habitat restoration efforts on a regular basis–it's up to you. If you are ready to start volunteering at Waterkeeper, e-mail Wendy Paterson at firstname.lastname@example.com or call at 716-852-7483 ext. 26.
Join us in making a positive impact on our waterways by considering the following opportunities to volunteer:
Waterkeeper organizes a cleanup every spring in Buffalo. This is a great opportunity to get down and dirty with Waterkeeper while actively improving the atmosphere in Buffalo–both aesthetically and environmentally.
Click above to get more info regarding cleanups, and while you're there, check out the progress we made in removing trash and other pollution from waterways last year! Be there this year so we can make it even better!
Waterkeeper is coordinating efforts to improve the habitat and water quality of local waterways through restoration projects and the help of volunteers like you! Getting outside and getting involved in these efforts is the first step in protecting and restoring our ecosystem. Your energy and effort will earn you first hand experience in improving water quality and natural habitats, and will immediately strengthen our efforts to increase public awareness and activeness in these fields. Learn more about the program here.
Waterkeeper is expanding its water monitoring program and needs help from community members to protect our local waterways. Through training, workshops, and first-hand experience, Waterkeeper can help you improve your understanding of local water issues. After learning what to look for and how to take action when you find it, you can help Waterkeeper achieve its mission, and your community will thank you for it! For more info, click here.
Other Ways to Get Involved
Waterkeeper has several internship opportunities available at this time, and can always use a little extra help in the office with data entry and logistical work. Waterkeeper coordinates numerous programs that could not operate without the help of dedicated volunteers. If you want to give your time and skills to help Waterkeeper's cause, there is always something you can do to help!
You can make a difference in your community and your environment. It is everyone's water, and we all have the right to enjoy its countless benefits in a healthy way. It is also our responsibility to keep it healthy–now is your chance to do your part.
If you are interested in getting involved at Waterkeeper and have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Wendy Paterson at 716-852-7483 extension 26 or by e-mail at email@example.com.


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Golf Rates
Breakfast Hill Golf Club offers great greens fee specials throughout the season. By subscribing to our mailing list, you will be notified of all pricing specials. Some specials will be announced only days in advance. To subscribe to our email list, simply add your information at the top of the front page!
Please note the Club only allows 18-hole play on weekend (Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays) mornings prior to 12:00 pm.
Cart notice: All carts must be returned by a specified time as determined by the Golf Shop. In general, the final release time for 18-hole carts is 4.5 hours before sunset and for nine-holes 2.5 hours before sunset.
Click on the links below to view rate cards
Shoulder Season Rates (open to May 18 and September 25 to close)
In-Season Rates (May 19 to September 24)