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Kempinski Residences & Suites, Doha
Price (US$):
$350 - $910 / night
Location. Kempinski Residences & Suites, Doha is located in central Doha, close to City Centre Doha, Corniche, and Museum of Islamic Art. Nearby… more »
Price (US$):
$1071 - $1072 / night
Location. Four Seasons Hotel Doha is located on the beach in central Doha, close to City Centre Doha, Corniche, and Museum of Islamic Art. Other… more »
Price (US$):
$245 - $651 / night
Location. Hilton Doha is located on the beach in central Doha, close to City Centre Doha, Corniche, and Museum of Islamic Art. Other points of… more »
Price (US$):
$169 - $366 / night
Location. Millennium Hotel Doha is a business friendly hotel located in central Doha, close to Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium, Corniche, and Doha Fort.… more »
Renaissance Doha City Center Hotel
Price (US$):
$302 - $376 / night
Location. Renaissance Doha City Center Hotel is a business friendly hotel located in central Doha, close to City Centre Doha, Corniche, and Museum… more »
Qatar (قطر "kat-ir") is a peninsula jutting into the Persian Gulf, to the north of Saudi Arabia, East of Bahrain and West of the Emirates.
Since the mid-1800s, Qatar transformed itself from a poor British protectorate noted mainly for pearling into an independent state with significant oil and natural gas revenues, which enable Qatar to have a per capita income almost above the leading industrial countries of Western Europe. Qatar is home to the Al Jazeera television station and is rapidly gaining interest among foreigners as it hosted the 2006 Asian Games and is now scheduled to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Oil accounts for more than 30% of GDP, roughly 80% of export earnings, and 58% of government revenues. Proved oil reserves of 15 billion barrels (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Qatar) should ensure continued output at current levels for 23 years. Oil has given Qatar a per capita GDP comparable to that of the leading West European industrial countries. Qatar's proved reserves of natural gas exceed 7 trillion cubic meters, more than 5% of the world total, third largest in the world. Production and export of natural gas are becoming increasingly important. Long-term goals feature the development of offshore natural gas reserves. In 2000, Qatar posted its highest ever trade surplus of $7 billion, due mainly to high oil prices and increased natural gas exports, and managed to maintain the surplus in 2001.
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Khor Al Udeid (Inland Sea) - a region of rolling dunes and high revving engines, many tourists and locals alike enjoy racing up and down the seemingly endless sand dunes. There are a variety of tourism companies that will give you a guided tour of the region, often complete with a traditional Arab meal and campfire.
Zubarah - Contains the ruins of a deserted city and a fort built in 1938 by Sheikh 'Abdu'llah bin Qasim Al-Thani. Also the planned site of the Qatar-Bahrian Friendship Bridge which will allow road travel between North-West Qatar and Bahrain.
Qatar issues a visa on arrival at Doha's airport to passengers who are citizens of Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brunei, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg, Malaysia, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, USA and Vatican City. The price is QR 105.00 (US$ 28), payment by credit card is accepted, and grants a 30 day stay.
Citizens of GCC countries: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and United Arab Emirates do not need a visa to enter Qatar.
For other nationalities, visa procedures can be complicated, as you will need a guarantor on the Qatari side, either a company or a government entity. Also Qatari embassies, unlike those of most other countries, are not entitled to issue visas, so someone in Qatar will have to file the application for you. 4/5-star hotels offer full visa service, for a price, if you book a room with them for the duration of your stay. Qatar Airways can arrange the hotel and visa for you, tel. +974 44496980. In this case, there also seems to also be a new regulation in place (2008) to either present a credit card or QAR 5000 at the point of entry - which should generally not be a problem, if you can afford the room. When booking with other hotels, you'll need a guarantor in Qatar.
For longer stays, visas must be arranged by having a sponsor. Unmarried women under the age of 35 will have a hard time in procuring a visa for a lengthy stay, as the country seems to fear that their safety and well being cannot be guaranteed.
When going by plane to Qatar, you will most probably enter the country at Doha's airport. Local carrier Qatar Airways is building a growing worldwide network with flights from there.
The only land route to Qatar is from/through Saudi Arabia, night travel by car is not recommended.And if you are travelling during the day, watch out for speeding cars and trucks. Wear your seat belt and try not to speed over 5 mph.
You can travel to Qatar by bus from/through Saudi Arabia, there are fixed bus routes, within Qatar, although mostly used by men only. However, customs can take up to 4 hours especially at night. You will not be treated nearly as well as if you fly into Doha. Flying in costs only slightly more than a bus ticket.
There are no specific boat routes, but there are commercial freight boats coming into Doha from all over the world, as well as small commercial boats coming in from Dubai and Iran.
There are three different modes of public transportation that you can use in Qatar: buses, taxis and limousines, all of which are owned by Mowasalat (Karwa) apart from some limousine companies.
The bus service began in October 2005. Ticket prices start from just Qr2.00. You can travel as far north as Al Shamal/Al Ruwais, as far west as Dukhan, and as far south as Mesaieed (Umm Said).
An alternative to taxis and buses would be to use a limousine service, which will send a car to your location (as will Karwa taxis if they are booked by telephone). Limousines are expensive, but they are the most comfortable form of transport.
Walking and using bicycles' is usually not a good idea in the hotter months of the year, as the heat can get very intense and tiring.
- The Museum of Islamic Art, Doha
- Souq Waqif
- Pearl Island: a man-made island connected to Doha by a bridge. You can find a big variety of restaurants and shops, mainly in the high range.
-Villaggio Mall: a spectacular Venetian style shopping mall with a canal and gondolas as well. A huge variety of shops from casual to luxury.
Arabic is the official language, particularly the Gulf dialect. As Qatar was a British protectorate, English is the most common second language, and most locals would be able to speak basic English. As Qatar has thousands of guest workers from US, UK, Australia, South Africa, China, Japan, India, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand and various other countries, a word or two of any languages spoken in these areas can be helpful. However, with such a mixed international population, English is the de facto language allowing the Qataris to communicate with the people who generally handle all of the menial jobs in their country, so it is widely spoken. If you can learn a few words of Arabic, your hosts and any other locals you may meet, will be very impressed and appreciative.
The country is surrounded by the sea so watersports are a must. Kite-surfing is increasingly popular for the westerners while the locals prefer driving jet-skis at high speed next to the beaches. If you like land more than the sea, feel free to go on one of the safari tours to the desert, try dune-bashing with Landcruisers, Nissans etc. Visit the collection of widely scattered malls around Doha and enjoy yourself.
The national currency is the Qatari riyal (QAR). The riyal is pegged to the dollar at the rate of QR 3.65 to US $1.
City Center is currently the largest mall in Qatar and has many stores to choose from. Other malls include Landmark (has a Marks & Spencer store), Hyatt Plaza (becoming a lot better), The Mall (okay), Royal Plaza and Villagio (owned by the same company that owns Landmark and is home to Virgin, The One, and is ranked one of the best malls in the world by Forbes). All of these malls have a huge variety of stores.
Blue Salon has huge sales twice a year where you can pick up Armani, Valentino and Cerutti suits for half price. There are many things to buy here but be wary of cheap pearls as they may not be real. There are many good tailors in Qatar and it is a good place to have clothes made to measure and copied.
The souqs in downtown Doha also have a lot to offer, although the goods are usually of cheaper quality than those of the malls. Prices are usually negotiable, so practice your bargaining skills. Souq Waqif (The Standing Souk) is the most interesting of the souqs; it was recently renovated to look as it did 50 or 60 years ago. You can buy anything from a thobe (dish dash, traditional dress for men) to a pot large enough to cook a baby camel in! It is being expanded to 10 times its current size due to popularity.
Qatar has seemingly endless options for food, much of it excellent. If you would like European cuisine in a fancy setting, visit a hotel like the Ramada or the Marriott, both of which also offer excellent sushi and the choice of having drinks with your meal (the only restaurants in town that can do this are in the major hotels), but at a steep price. Authentic and delicious Indian and Pakistani food is found throughout the city, ranging from family-oriented places to very basic eateries catering to the Indian and Pakistani workers. You may attract some curious stares in the worker eateries, but the management will almost always be extremely welcoming, and the food is very inexpensive.
For excellent and truly authentic Thai cuisine, try either Thai Twin (near the Doha Petrol Station and the computer souqs) or Thai Snacks (on Marqab St.), and be sure to sample the delicious spicy papaya salad at either location, but be careful, if you ask them to make it spicy, expect for it to burn.
Middle Eastern cuisine is everywhere as well, and in many forms—kebabs, breads, hummus, the list goes on. It can be purchased on the cheap from a take-out (many of which look quite unimpressive, but serve awesome food) or from a fancier place, like the wonderful Layali (near Chili's in the 'Cholesterol Corner' area) that serves gourmet Lebanese food and has hookahs with flavored tobacco. Refined Persian cuisine is available for reasonable prices in the royally appointed Ras Al-Nasa`a Restaurant on the Corniche (don't miss the cathedral-like rest rooms).
Don't be afraid to venture into the Souqs looking for a meal; it will be a unique experience in an authentic setting, and although some of the places you see may look rundown, that's just the area in general, and the food will be probably be quite good. Be advised that many of the restaurants in the Souqs (as well as the shops) shut down during the afternoon hours. If you are in a funny kind of mood, you can try a McArabia—McDonald's Middle Eastern sandwich available only in the region.
There is one liquor store, Qatar Distribution Centre, in Doha. To purchase things there, you must have a license that can only be obtained by having a written letter of permission from your employer. You can only get a license when you have obtained your residency permit and you will need to get a letter from your employer confirming your salary in addition to paying a deposit for QR1000. The selection is good and is like any alcohol selection of a large supermarket in the West. Prices are reasonable although not cheap. Alcoholic beverages are available in the restaurants and bars of the major hotels, although they are pricey. As far as non-alcoholic drinks go, be sure and hit some of the Indian and Middle Eastern restaurants and juice stalls. They whip some tasty and exotic fruit juice combinations that really hit the spot.
It is forbidden to bring alcohol in to the country as a tourist; at Doha airport customs xray bags and will confiscate any bottles of alcoholic drink. They will issue a receipt valid for 2 weeks to reclaim the alcohol on exit from the country.
Hotel prices are on the rise in Qatar, and you can expect to pay as much as US$100 for an ordinary double room in a mid-range hotel. Budget accommodation does not seem to exist in Doha. The only hostel is very hard to find; even the taxi drivers at the airport may have to talk it over! It costs 100 Qatari Riyals per night if you don't have YHA membership, QR90 if you do.
Education City is a new project in Doha funded by the Qatari Government though the Qatar Foundation. It is the home to Qatar Academy, the Learning Centre, the Academic Bridge Program (similar to a college prep school), as well as branch campuses of Texas A&M University (Engineering) , Weill Cornell Medical College (Medical) , Virginia Commonwealth University (Arts and Communication), Carnegie Mellon University (Business and Computer Science), Georgetown University (School of Foreign Service), and the latest addition to the fold, Northwestern University (Journalism) the all located in Education City to the east of Doha in the Rayyan area.
In addition to this Education City is home to the Qatar Science and Technology Park, one of the only places in the Middle East undertaking research and development initiatives. The location of so many academics and students is very appealing for research focused organisations.
The College of the North Atlantic (based in Newfoundland, Canada), also maintains a campus in Doha in the northern section of the city, near the local Qatar University. The University of Calgary (Nursing) is also in Qatar.
The work day starts quite early in Qatar. Do not be surprised by 7AM meetings!
In the summer, many small stores and Arab businesses will be open from 8AM-12PM and 4PM-8PM. During the "siesta", most people return home to escape the oppressive heat.
The emergency phone number for police, ambulance or fire department is 999.
Western women might experience harassment, but it will likely be more annoying than threatening; such as having a man circle around the block whilst you walk down the street, or whisper at you to get your number in the store, but for the most part it will be men staring since it's normal. Women from countries such as Nepal, India, and the Philippines, working as housemaids, are subject to physical abuse. The Indian ambassador noted nearly 200 women working as housemaids sought refuge at the embassy in 2007.
An abaya, the long, black cloak and headscarf worn by local women, can be purchased at a variety of places in Doha.
Haze, dust storms, and sandstorms are common.
Drink lots of bottled water! No matter how much you drink, you should drink more. Likewise, take proper precautions for the sun, including clothing that covers your skin and sunscreen.
Respect the Islamic beliefs of Qataris and Bedouins: While there is no legal requirement to wear the hijab, women shouldn't wear tube tops, and skimpy outfits, although there is no strict rule and women are free to dress as they feel. It is absolutely acceptable for any nationality to wear the traditional Qatari clothes, the thobe.
If you're dining with a Qatari, don't expose the bottoms of your feet to him/her. Don't eat with your left hand either, since the left hand is seen as the 'dirty hand'. Similarly, don't attempt to shake hands or hand a package with your left hand.
If your Qatari friend insists on buying you something—a meal or a gift—let him! Qataris are extremely hospitable, and typically there are no strings attached. It is generally a custom to argue for the bill.


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Over the years we have amassed a great number of digital files that are full of private information at both work and at home in our private lives. Portable hard drives have surely made life easier, but if they are lost or stolen it can be a headache for all the parties that had confidential or private data on the storage drive inside. StarTech has developed a USB 3.0 to 2.5-Inch SATA Storage Drive Enclosure that features 256-bit AES hardware encryption to help secure your data on the go. This diskless SATA enclosure runs $79.99 shipped and your data is protected by a 4-8 digit numeric password. If someone takes the hard drive out and tries to connect it directly to a computer they won't even see your partitions and it will show up as a bare drive. Sound interesting? Let's take a closer look at what you get with this product and how it performs!
The StarTech USB 3.0 to 2.5″ SATA Enclosure with Encryption is sold under part number S2510BU3PW and comes in a small cardboard box that gives you just the basics of what the product is. This enclosure works without the need of any software, so as long as you are using a PC that has a USB port available you should be in luck. It doesn't need any software as the 256-bit AES hardware encryption is being done in the portable enclosure thanks to a 32-bit ARM controller that handles the encryption.
StarTech.com USB 3.0 Encrypted Enclosure Features:
Inside the box you'll find the 2.5in SATA Enclosure, USB 3.0 Cable, USB to DC Adapter Cable, Carrying Pouch, Cleaning Cloth, Screwdriver, Screw Kit and an Instruction Manual. Everything that you'd need is included with the exception of the hard drive or solid-state drive that you will be using for data storage.
The StarTech S2510BU3PW measures in at 123mm x 77mm x 14mm and weighs 94g without a storage drive. The top portion of the housing is made from plastic and the lower half is made from steel. On top of the unit you'll find an integrated numeric touch pad and above that you'll find a small OLED display. The touch pad is very simple to use as have a menu button, enter button, the numbers 0-9 and finally up and down arrow keys that work when you are in the menu mode.
The back of the StarTech S2510BU3PW is chrome that shows finger prints and scratches very easy. We managed to scratch ours in our light box, so expect it to get smeared and scratched up the first time you use it. StarTech included the cleaning cloth for a reason! The back cover is held on by two screws and StarTech provided two additional screws in the event that get lost over time.
Inside the StarTech 2.5″ Encrypted Hard Drive Enclosure (S2510BU3PW) you'll see the tiny printed circuit board (PCB) that handles the encryption and converting the SATA drive over to the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 header. The large sticker inside the enclosure states that if you lose the password or if there is a hardware failure (storage drive or enclosure) that the data stored on the drive will become unrecoverable. It also states that you should backup your data regularly to another location to prevent any change of losing your data. You should always keep your portable data backed up on the cloud or on a home NAS, but not everyone does. When you are dealing with encryption it is a must though.
The StarTech 2.5″ Encrypted Hard Drive Enclosure works with 2.5″ SATA HDD's and SSD's that have a z-height of 9.5mm or less and those that are under 1TB in capacity. Since this enclosure features USB 3.0 and is ideal for those that like fast data transfer speeds, we used a Crucial m4 256GB SSD with firmware 040H for testing. The storage drive just slides in and is held down by rubber pads on all four sides.
With the storage drive inside the unit we turned it on for the very first time and were able to see the OLED display for the very first time. The OLED display is super tiny, but it's OLED (You are supposed to be impressed here)!
The enclosure knows that a new drive has been installed and it guides you through the process of enabling its encryption function using its OLED display and the touch pad. The password needs to be between 4 to 8 digits, and must be keyed in a second time for confirmation. The encryption process formats the drive, so all the data on the drive will be erased. The process of installing a new drive and initializing the 256-bit AES hardware was painless and took just a couple minutes on our Crucial m4 256GB SSD.
Once you have encrypted the drive you can use the menu button to display the storage drive temperature, usage time, change passwords or to enable write protection. there is also a way to enter in a contact number that flashes briefly on each unsuccessful authentication attempt. The 'HDD Temp.' feature did not work on our SSD, but all the other functions worked fine.
Here is a quick look at some of the other menus. Here you can see the menu to change your password and the box for enabling write protection. It should also be noted that with most drives both USB cables do not need to be used. We used both for testing, but we later found that the SSD was getting more than enough power from the USB 3.0 cable and did not need the additional power from the USB 2.0 power cable.
Now that we know what the StarTech enclosure does, what it comes with and how you set it up we can take a look at how it performs!
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subset: commoncrawl


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Mike Tyson was horrified when an ex-girlfriend cooked and ate one of his beloved racing pigeons.
The boxer-turned-movie star reveals his ex even offered him a bite of her boiled bird, but he couldn't bring himself to dine on a feathered friend.
Appearing on the Boomer & Carlton radio show on Thursday, the avid pigeon fancier recalled, "I was dating this young lady and she said, 'I don't know why you're flying those damn birds, you should be eating them.'
"She happened to grab one and she cooked one and proceeded to eat it. And I just couldn't do it… It just wasn't the right thing to do… It wasn't cool. But it was her house and we were living off of her dime, so she could do (it)."
"The Hangover" star, who is currently touring theaters with his one-man show, reveals the romance ended soon after the bird-eating incident.


text: Pro-Life "(We) stand ready to do all in our power to help any expectant mother or any person suffering serious illness to choose life rather than to make the tragic choice of abortion or of physician-assisted suicide. Our mission is to offer the help and compassion of Jesus Christ in support of each precious human life." —Archbishop Allen Vigneron We believe that every life is important. Preserving life, whether it's the terminally ill or an unborn child, is our central mission through Project Life. Through Project Life, we offer help for those conflicted in their decision to undergo an abortion or assisted suicide. Please call us, before you decide: Project Life Crisis Hotline: 800-281-2102 We utilize the resources of the Archdiocese of Detroit, Catholic social service agencies, health care service organizations and parishes to inform our communities of the importance of saving lives. In January, Remember Roe vs. Wade January 22 marks the anniversary of a U.S. Supreme Court decision to legalize abortion in 1973, known as Roe vs. Wade. Each year at that time we come together to remember those lost to abortion. Today, fewer abortions are being performed each year, fewer doctors are willing to practice abortion, and states have passed more laws restricting or regulating the practice than laws promoting or protecting abortion. Read more about the Pro-Life activities of the Catholic Church in America through the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.


text: London - Swimming officials are considering the introduction of underwater video for judging following the controversy over an alleged illegal "dolphin" kick by South Africa's Cameron van der Burgh in his Olympic 100m breaststroke gold medal win last week.Olympic rules allow one dolphin kick at the start of a 100m breaststroke race.In a dolphin kick, the swimmer's body moves like a wave in the water, resembling the movement of a dolphin. The intensity of the wave created propels the swimmers forward faster underwater than if they were on the surface of the water.Underwater footage of Van der Burgh's start revealed him doing more than the one - some reports said he did three - dolphin kicks. He won in a world record of 48.46 seconds.Van der Burgh admitted he did the extra kicks but said he was forced to because the rule was not policed properly and illegal kicking had become common.As the fastest qualifier for the Olympic final, Van der Burgh swam in lane four, which is lined with numerous television and still cameras that clearly documented the infraction. But the cameras are for TV use only, and the judges cannot look at the images."Judges can only judge what they see," Cornel Marculescu, the executive director of swimming governing body FINA, told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "They cannot judge what they don't see."Illegal dolphin kicks are common in breaststroke events. At the 2004 Athens Games, American backstroker Aaron Peirsol accused Japanese winner Kosuke Kitajima of using a dolphin kick at the start of his race after watching team-mate and world record-holder Brendan Hansen finish second.This time, Hansen took bronze behind Van der Burgh and Christian Sprenger of Australia."If you're not doing it, you're falling behind," Van der Burgh told the Sydney Morning Herald. "It's not obviously - shall we say - the moral thing to do, but I'm not willing to sacrifice my personal performance and four years of hard work for someone that is willing to do it and get away with it."FINA wanted to install underwater video use at its last two world championships in Rome (2009) and Shanghai (2011), but host broadcasters protested because of the cost. It would require three cameras in each of the eight lanes.But after a new controversy it may not be an option anymore. FINA discussed the possibilities of underwater video with coaches at a meeting on Sunday to wrap up the pool competition."This is something to be looked at by the technical swimming committee," Marculescu said, adding that a decision on video use could come at the next FINA congress at the 2013 world championships in Barcelona.In the meantime, the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee on Tuesday issued a statement "surrounding the media interest" in Van der Burgh's admission.South Africa delegation leader Patience Shikwambana said she had spoken with the manager of the aquatic squad, Shaun Adriaanse, who is also Swimming SA's chief executive officer."It's clear and simple," Shikwambana said. "There is really no point in commenting on media reports. Suffice to say we haven't been informed by FINA of anything untoward and neither have we heard anything from the International Olympic Committee."Meanwhile, there is also discussion in swimming circles of eliminating the women's 800m freestyle race and replacing it with a 1 500 free - the longest race in the pool. That would make the men's and women's programs the same.At world championships, both men and women race the 800 and 1 500, and women have shown how far they can swim by competing in marathon races like the 10km event, which was introduced to the Olympic program four years ago."The women can do the 1 500," Marculescu said. "Why not?"American 15-year-old Katie Ledecky won the 800 free in London ahead of Spain's Mireia Belmonte Garcia and defending champion Rebecca Adlington of Britain.


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coupon dude needed a new web page design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 41 designs submitted by 15 freelance designers.
We are looking for a graphic 700X350px to go on our homepage. Must include graphic and text. It should go along with the style of the website home page here:
We are looking for a professional graphic for our home page. Must include an illustration(s) or photo(s) (prefer illustration). Include the following text: "Get more out of comparison shopping. Comparison shop with coupons!". Take a look at the page here to get an example of our graphic style. http://www.couponshack.com/images/c…ner.jpgYou can use shopping bags, shopping cart, etc.. for the illustration part of the banner.
- Width: 700px, Height:350px
- Graphic or multiple graphics that have to do with shopping.
- Prefer illustrations for graphics and not photos, but if you have a photo you think would work well, go ahead and use it. We are not ruling it out.
- Must include the following text: "Get more out of comparison shopping. Comparison shop with coupons!"
- Must fit with existing style of site
- UPDATE: do not use the name "couparison" or the logo in the graphic. We are changing the name, so make this graphic generic.
- Busy designs. Don't go overboard.. keep it fairly simple and to the point.


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gcdetective needed a new web page design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 9 designs submitted by 5 freelance designers.
Sell Supplements
I need to have an order page revised.
The current order page is
Attached I have the original psd for the current design and some jpegs of some designs that I want it to be similar to.
The order information will be on the left and the order form on the right. The terms of the order will be underneath the order information part.
I really like they layout of this order page but we are not selling muscle building supplement but rather weight loss and the look and feel has to be similar to our current website.
The LeanBodyX in the attachment and the NitroMuscle Mass ones are good to get inspiration from.
The order form should be designed in a way so that if we add more information to the order form, then it can expand down further if need be.
Need to have it look really sharp and professional.
Note that we are selling only one option on the sales page, so make sure there is not more than one option. That one option is to get a trial and they just pay for the shipping and handling.


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Plastic electronics company Plastic Logic has demonstrated colour video animation on a flexible plastic display, which it claims is the first example of an organic thin-film transistor (OTFT) driving electronic paper at video rate.
The demonstration proves that the potential uses of electronic paper extend far beyond monochrome text-based e-readers to more sophisticated tablet-style devices that can run colour video, while still keeping power consumption low.
Electronic paper only draws power when the display is updated, making it very energy-efficient. It also reflects light in the same way as ordinary paper, so there is no need for a backlight.
Paul Cain, Plastic Logic's senior manager for technology, said that playing video on electronic paper uses more power than static images, because it is updating all the time, but still uses less power than an equivalent display with an LCD backlight.
At the moment, the frame frequency of videos running on Plastic Logic's plastic electronic displays is fairly low (12 frames per second), because increasing the speed can reduce the contrast of images. However, it is sufficient for simple video clips, such as Flash content on websites, and Cain said the company was working to improve this.
"Ultimately it's a trade off between speed and contrast," said Cain. "Our partners who provide the media are very interested in working on this as well."
Plastic Logic's plastic electronic displays are not only low-power but also thin, light, flexible and extremely robust. This opens up a range of possible uses, including wearable gadgets such as digital watches and hospital wristbands, rugged educational tools, electronic billboards and ID cards.
The ability to render colour images and the low power consumption of e-paper displays, which results in extended battery life, also makes them attractive for business use.
During an open day at its R&D centre in Cambridge, Plastic Logic also showed how an e-paper display could be used as a smartphone accessory, allowing the user to wirelessly transmit images and attachments from the phone to a portable lightweight e-paper screen for larger viewing in seconds.
The company said it was currently working with a number of smartphone companies to grow this concept.
Last month, Plastic Logic announced it was abandoning plans to manufacture its own e-readers, deciding instead to to license its flexible display technology and software to OEMs, system integrators, and device manufacturers.
"Some of our discussions are with e-reader companies where they are interested in rugged or flexible versions of their products," Plastic Logic CEO Indro Mukerjee told Techworld.
"We along the way have worked out how to optimise the front-of-screen performance on EPDs using our backplane, and therefore we have a number of elemental software parts which we could also take to market as licensing solutions," he added.
Earlier this month it was announced that Plastic Logic is sharing in a £20 million round of funding from the Technology Strategy Board for collaborative research and development related to electronics, photonics and electrical systems.
Now check out Techworld's slideshow of interesting innovations on display at Plastic Logic's open day in Cambridge


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Why Should You Choose The Appropriate Standby Generator?
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What Has Changed Recently With Equipment?


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We've sung the praises of Jerad Marantz's fantastic concept art before. Now check out the mecha, orcs, and shogun robots Marantz designed for Zack Snyder's sanitarium-and-schoolgirls escape flick Sucker Punch.
We're pretty sure bushido-borgs weren't exactly in vogue in the 1950s, but when Marantz is drawing them, we certainly aren't complaining. You can see more of these everything-but-the-kitchen-sink bad guys at Marantz's site.
[Via CBM]


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They landed, one after another, in 2015: plans for nearly a dozen interstate pipelines to move natural gas beneath rivers, mountains and people's yards. Like spokes on a wheel, they'd spread from Appalachia to markets in every direction.
Together these new and expanded pipelines — comprising 2,500 miles of steel in all — would double the amount of gas that could flow out of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. The cheap fuel will benefit consumers and manufacturers, the developers promise.
But some scientists warn that the rush to more fully tap the rich Marcellus and Utica shales is bad for a dangerously warming planet, extending the country's fossil-fuel habit by half a century. Industry consultants say there isn't even enough demand in the United States for all the gas that would come from this boost in production.
And yet, five of the 11 pipelines already have been approved. The rest await a decision from a federal regulator that almost never says no.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is charged with making sure new gas pipelines are in the public interest and have minimal impact. This is no small matter. Companies given certificates to build by FERC gain a powerful tool: eminent domain, enabling them to proceed whether affected landowners cooperate or not.
Only twice in the past 30 years has FERC rejected a pipeline out of hundreds proposed, according to an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity and StateImpact Pennsylvania, a public media partnership between NPR member stations WITF in Harrisburg and WHYY in Philadelphia. At best, FERC officials superficially probe projects' ramifications for the changing climate, despite persistent calls by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for deeper analyses. FERC's assessments of need are based largely on company filings. That's not likely to change with a pro-infrastructure president who can now fill four open seats on the five-member commission.
"They don't seem to pay any attention to opponents," said Tom Hadwin, a retired utility manager from Staunton, Va. He doubts FERC will be swayed by the flood of written comments — including his own — and studies critiquing the Atlantic Coast pipeline. It's the largest of the pending projects and would wind nearly 600 miles from West Virginia into his home state and North Carolina.
"FERC will issue the certificate," Hadwin said. "They always have."
FERC declined Center and StateImpact Pennsylvania requests to interview Cheryl A. LaFleur, its acting chairman, as well as senior officials. In response to written questions, the agency said it hasn't kept track of the number of projects it denies. It provided a brief statement offering little insight into its pipeline-approval process. FERC spokeswoman Mary O'Driscoll wrote that, as a quasi-judicial body, "we must be very careful about what we say."
In the statement, the agency said the Natural Gas Act of 1938 requires it to approve infrastructure projects that it finds would serve "the present or future public convenience and necessity." FERC wouldn't explain how it weighs competing interests; instead, it pointed to a 1999 policy outlining how it defers to market forces. That policy, still in effect, was influenced by, among others, Enron, the energy firm whose spectacular collapse in 2001 led to prosecutions and bankruptcy.
Former insiders defend the commission, describing its mandate as limited. Renewable-energy consultant Jon Wellinghoff, a FERC commissioner from 2006 to 2013, including nearly five years as its chairman, said the agency has little leeway for denying a pipeline. "It has to stay within the tracks," he said.
Donald F. Santa Jr., a former FERC commissioner who heads the pipeline industry's trade group, the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, said the agency's low denial rate merely reflects the quality of the projects. They're so expensive to build that few make it off the drawing board into FERC applications.
"It's the envy of the world," Santa said, referring to the nation's pipeline network. "It is something that has enabled us to have remarkably competitive natural gas markets that have benefited consumers and the economy."
Two former directors of the FERC office overseeing pipelines say no project survives the vetting process without route alterations or other changes. On occasion, FERC has delayed or rescinded approval of projects that don't meet specific conditions. But at every turn, the agency's process favors pipeline companies, according to Center and StateImpact Pennsylvania interviews with more than 100 people, reviews of FERC records and analyses of nearly 500 pipeline cases.
Among the findings:
- It's hard to see where FERC ends and industry begins. Dozens of agency staff members have had to recuse themselves in recent years while negotiating jobs at energy firms. Most commissioners leave FERC to work for industry as well, in some cases lobbying their successors.
- Four of six major pending pipelines in the Appalachian basin were proposed by companies planning to sell pipeline capacity to utilities they own. Analysts who have scrutinized some of these cases say this new wave of self-dealing raises the risk of companies pursuing unneeded infrastructure that utility customers would end up paying for. FERC dismissed such concerns about two pipelines approved last year.
- The Obama-era EPA repeatedly asked FERC to scrutinize projects' climate impacts, saying in a rebuke in October that its failure to properly do so did not comply with a key environmental law.
- FERC delays appeals of its pipeline approvals for months while allowing companies to begin construction. In seven cases since 2015, gas already was flowing in the pipeline by the time opponents could challenge it in court.
In February, on his last day as a commissioner, former FERC Chairman Norman Bay recommended that the agency evaluate the cumulative effects of increased gas production in the Marcellus and Utica shales, mostly in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio — an analysis environmentalists have advocated. Bay urged the agency to be more rigorous in its reviews.
"It is inefficient to build pipelines that may not be needed over the long term and that become stranded assets," wrote Bay, an Obama appointee.
But FERC has resisted making such reforms. Now, with FERC down to a single commissioner and temporarily without a quorum, President Donald Trump gets to reshape the agency. Among those he has tapped for the commission is a pro-gas utility regulator from Pennsylvania, Robert Powelson, who in March likened protests against pipelines to "jihad," later calling that "an inappropriate choice of words."
"We've got abundant supply," Powelson said at a gas-industry conference. "What we don't have is adequate pipeline infrastructure."
Close ties with industry
In the past few years, FERC has overseen what it says is one of the largest boosts in natural-gas pipeline capacity in American history. It issued certificates in 2015 for projects that collectively can carry 14.5 billion cubic feet of gas per day. The next year, it approved an additional 17.6 billion cubic feet.
Newly built pipe has helped move Appalachian gas to markets along the East Coast and in the Midwest, the agency says.
That, in essence, explains how FERC sees its role — dating to its birth in a decade marred by energy crises. In 1977, amid a natural-gas shortage and after an oil embargo by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Congress created the agency and placed it within, yet independent of, the new U.S. Department of Energy. FERC's mission: "Reliable, Efficient and Sustainable Energy."
Proponents of the pipeline buildout argue that more American gas brings jobs to places sorely in need of them by fueling energy-hungry factories. And gas has bypassed higher-carbon coal as the dominant energy source in the U.S. But grassroots pushback is coming from both ends of the political spectrum, driven by concerns over the climate and individual property rights.
To such critics, FERC has come to epitomize a captured regulator.
Records obtained by the Center and StateImpact Pennsylvania through Freedom of Information Act requests reveal an exceptionally cozy relationship between regulator and regulated. Emails and official calendars from mid-2010 through 2016 show a steady march of industry representatives before commissioners. Large energy companies — Kinder Morgan, Dominion Energy, Energy Transfer Partners, Duke Energy — scheduled at least 93 meetings with FERC officials during those 6 ½ years. Trade groups like Edison Electric Institute and American Gas Association wooed commissioners and staff with invitations to executive dinners and after-hours parties. Former commissioners-turned-lobbyists, such as INGAA's Santa, called on their successors.
By contrast, records show, FERC commissioners met with environmental and public-interest groups 17 times over this period.
In many ways, FERC operates like a one-way street: Commissioners may come to it from legislative or regulatory bodies, but almost always leave for industry. Eighty percent of the 35 former commissioners have spent at least part of their post-FERC careers at energy companies or law firms, trade groups and consultancies representing them. Many have ties to natural gas through work or positions on corporate boards.
There's a similar pattern among FERC's rank and file. Since 2012, staff members have submitted more than 50 requests to recuse themselves from regulatory work while seeking jobs at energy firms or consulting groups hired by the industry, agency documents show.
Some who have left FERC return to do the bidding of their new employers. In email exchanges in 2016, one woman who now works for Edison Electric Institute called on her former co-workers multiple times — seeking materials for an email blast, for instance, or inviting FERC commissioners to EEI events.
"Are you ready for the protestors??" she wrote in one email to her former colleagues. "Too bad you guys can't move the open mtg like last year. They just keep sucking!"
Many critics see an inherent industry bias at FERC: Its budget is fully covered by fees collected from regulated companies. Last year, a Pennsylvania environmental group sued FERC over this funding mechanism, alleging it creates "a perverse incentive" for the agency to build pipelines. The lawsuit is on appeal after a federal court dismissed it in March, noting that Congress ultimately sets FERC's budget.
This is the agency's approval process: Take proposals as they come, see if the pipeline has long-term customer contracts, gather public feedback, try to keep local impacts to a minimum and assure basic safety standards.
J. Mark Robinson, an industry consultant, worked at FERC from 1978 to 2009, heading the office overseeing gas pipelines in his final years there. Interstate transmission lines often never go forward, he said, but FERC's results speak for themselves. Pipelines get built; people get energy.
Pipeline companies, for their part, say the review process is exacting. Bruce McKay, senior energy policy director at Dominion, majority owner and operator of the Atlantic Coast pipeline, said the companies behind the proposal have submitted 100,000 pages of documentation to FERC and made 300 route adjustments to avoid ecologically sensitive areas at the agency's request.
"They're not there to do our bidding," McKay said of FERC.
It doesn't seem that way to Chad Oba, a mental-health counselor from Buckingham County, Virginia. There the Atlantic Coast developers plan to build a massive compressor station where engines would throb to keep gas moving. Oba attended a FERC meeting on the project in 2015, driving nearly an hour with as many neighbors as she could to testify. They didn't want an industrial complex in their rural area, already crisscrossed by four gas pipelines. They questioned its siting amid a largely poor, African-American community founded by freed slaves.
"I thought, 'Surely, these things will be considered,'" said Oba, of the anti-pipeline group Friends of Buckingham. But FERC has backed the location. The agency has never held a hearing in her county, despite requests from her group and a county commissioner.
"They've treated Buckingham very badly," she said.
Such sentiments may not be what Charles B. Curtis, FERC's first chairman, envisioned in 1979, when he wrote in congressional testimony that "we must create public confidence ... and demonstrate that regulation can work effectively to promote the public interest." At the time, he was looking to fund a congressionally mandated Office of Public Participation at FERC.
That never happened. Members of Congress couldn't agree on funding for the office that year. The Center and StateImpact Pennsylvania found no evidence that FERC tried to launch the office again, despite congressional requests and a formal petition to do so.
Those seeking to challenge a pipeline frequently run into roadblocks. Before mounting a case in court, opponents must first appeal to FERC, which, by law, has 30 days to act. Yet records show commissioners routinely fulfill this obligation by granting themselves more time to issue a final ruling, leaving the challengers in limbo. Meanwhile, FERC allows pipeline companies to move ahead. By the time opponents get to court, construction can be well underway — or finished.
Ryan Talbott, an environmental lawyer at Appalachian Mountain Advocates, said he's seen this pattern play out in every pipeline case he's fought — more than a dozen so far. Last year, he set out to analyze FERC's record on pipeline appeals. He found that commissioners take, on average, eight months to deliberate — then deny the appeals. A lawsuit filed against FERC seeks to have this practice declared unconstitutional.
The agency declined to comment.
FERC's methods have fueled a grassroots campaign against it. Pipeline opponents have protested outside its Washington, D.C., headquarters since 2014. Some have gone on hunger strikes, interrupted commission meetings or picketed commissioners' houses. Last year, 182 groups in 35 states called for congressional hearings into "the many ways communities are being harmed by FERC."
Current and former officials consider the protests misplaced. Comprehensive energy regulation isn't within FERC's purview, they say; those who want changes should talk to Congress.
FERC opponents have done that, to no avail. But William Penniman, a retired lawyer who represented pipeline firms before FERC and is now active with the Sierra Club's Virginia chapter, said the agency already has the authority to do more, yet chooses not to.
"Climate change, stranded assets, the construction bubble — they are not coming to grips with that," he said.
Pressing FERC on climate
Gas-company executives often pitch their fuel to FERC as a long-term necessity for the country, filling in for renewable energy sources when the sun fades or the wind lags, powering industrial furnaces, heating homes. Companies propose new pipelines meant to last 50 years or more, presenting them as climate-friendly.
Environmentalists disagree, however, and are pushing FERC to dig deeper. Each additional gas pipeline, they warn, will make it easier to delay no-carbon alternatives and could lock in even worse effects of global warming.
Natural gas burns cleaner than coal, giving off about half the planet-heating carbon dioxide and a fraction of the toxic air emissions. Yet to avoid the worst of the heat waves, droughts, floods and other consequences of climate change, the Obama White House said the U.S. needed to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by at least 80 percent below 2005 levels no later than 2050. That's all emissions from all sources, not just electricity and heating. And it's 33 years from now, less than the lifetime of a pipeline.
Indeed, some advocates have calculated that new pipelines in the Appalachian basin would yield enough greenhouse-gas emissions from natural gas alone to surpass that goal.
That's because the primary component of natural gas — methane — is a short-lived yet powerful greenhouse gas also contributing to climate change. Methane wafts into the atmosphere during every stage in the gas supply chain: Wells, processing facilities, pipelines and compressor stations all leak. Some vent methane by design.
The EPA has pegged the national rate at which methane escapes from oil and gas drilling sites at between 1 and 2 percent, based on industry estimates. Some independent research suggests that may be accurate.
But Robert Howarth, an environmental biology professor at Cornell University, estimates that methane emissions produced by shale gas from wellhead to delivery could add up to a 12-percent leak rate — causing substantially more warming in the short term than coal. Howarth sees the rapid rise in gas development as a contributor to the recent spike in global temperatures, including record-breaking heat waves in 2015 and 2016.
"The buildout of pipelines," he said, "is a true climate disaster."
Despite prodding from the EPA since 2013, FERC hasn't taken a comprehensive look at the climate effects of gas projects before approving them. The agency only began estimating greenhouse-gas emissions from the burning of gas last year, and not in all cases. The total emissions for five pipelines, all pending: 170 million metric tons per year combined, the warming equivalent of 50 coal plants.
FERC refused to comment on its climate reviews, citing unspecified litigation. The Obama EPA contended that FERC has a duty to evaluate a pipeline proposal's climate impacts under the National Environmental Policy Act. EPA officials said so in a pointed letter to FERC in October, after yet another pipeline review failed to estimate production or end-use emissions, calling the absence of these calculations "very concerning."
The EPA says productive discussions have taken place since. But FERC has yet to evaluate greenhouse- gas emissions for pipelines as thoroughly as its counterpart urged.
It also doesn't delve into whether electric utilities seeking gas for future plants could handle demand another way, such as energy efficiency and renewables. Such alternatives, FERC says in its reviews, would not fulfil the purpose of the project — "to transport natural gas."
It boils down to a dispute about how far FERC can or should go.
"FERC has no legislative authority whatsoever to look at climate impacts," said Wellinghoff, one of the only former commissioners with a renewable-energy background. "I would have loved to have had that authority at FERC, but I didn't."
Still, people keep pressing FERC to act. Last year, the Sierra Club and other groups sued the agency over its failure to calculate greenhouse-gas emissions from the since-built Sabal Trail pipeline, which runs from Alabama into Georgia and Florida. At a D.C. appellate court hearing in April, judges asked a FERC lawyer why the agency hadn't done so.
The lawyer said FERC had determined the project wouldn't meaningfully contribute to climate change. Judge Judith W. Rogers said it wasn't possible to know that without doing the calculations.
"FERC said, 'We're just not going to do anything,'" she said.
Enron's advice
In the 1990s, FERC posed this question: Was its pipeline-approval process working well? One company argued that the agency needed "to shift its focus away from command-and-control regulation towards policies that increasingly rely on market forces."
That company was Enron. In 1999, its free-market views influenced FERC's policy on how it would weigh projects. Years later, a New Jersey man fighting a pipeline that would run 167 feet from his daughter's bedroom read the historical document with outrage and disbelief.
"You might have heard of Enron," said Mike Spille, a software engineer trying to fend off the PennEast project, planned in Pennsylvania and his state. "It was a big giant bubble company that exploded and lots of people went to jail. Companies like Enron are the ones that set this FERC policy, and it's part of the reason why it's so bad."
For the agency, customer contracts for pipelines are "strong evidence" of what the market wants. Since 1999, it has never denied a project that had them. The two it rejected did not.
Pipeline company executives believe this makes sense. No developer would sink potentially billions of dollars into an unnecessary project, they say. No utility or other gas shipper would pay millions of dollars for unneeded capacity.
But relying on contracts to judge need can be problematic. The Appalachian pipelines illustrate that.
First off, some of them are getting eminent-domain authority to take gas out of the country — there simply isn't enough domestic demand, analysts say, which is something FERC does not consider.
Three new or pending Appalachian pipelines have space set aside for gas going to Canada. Another played up its proximity to Dominion's nearly complete export terminal in Maryland. Even projects pitched as purely domestic might not end up that way — pipelines interconnect.
Beyond that, many of these pipeline contracts have an incestuous quality. Companies are building them for their own subsidiaries — mostly electric or gas utilities and gas producers. It's as if one hand wrote the contract and the other signed it.
Industry experts say this trend increases the risk of overbuilding. One reason is that interstate pipelines are more profitable than power plants and other infrastructure that utilities erect for themselves.
"It's a nice way to make money," said Greg Lander of Skipping Stone, a gas- and electric-industry consulting firm. "The market need isn't there."
Lander's firm, hired by an environmental group to examine PennEast, found no economic justification for the pipeline, which will mostly serve utilities and other firms owned by the developers. The New Jersey agency representing utility customers is also skeptical.
"NJ Rate Counsel is concerned that ... the 'need' for the Project appears to be driven more by the search for higher returns on investment than any actual deficiency in gas supply," the agency wrote to FERC last year.
It urged FERC to examine whether the contracts reflected true demand. FERC didn't. Instead, it gave the pipeline a preliminary thumbs-up, the last step before approval.
PennEast spokeswoman Patricia Kornick said the project would improve reliability and ease price fluctuations. Companies signed up "because they recognize the need for an abundant, reliable, clean energy source," she wrote in an email.
Het Shah, who leads natural gas market research at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, a consulting firm, said the Appalachian boom isn't just about new pipelines, but also older ones turning flow around to push gas out of the region. It's "definitely an overbuild," he said, but he sees a strategy driving it — exports.
U.S. gas moved by pipeline to Canada and Mexico tripled in the past decade, with more coming. There's also a rush to build liquefied natural gas terminals to ship product overseas.
International markets could help Appalachian producers battered by low prices. But it makes landowners along pipeline routes livid. They don't see how it's in the public "convenience and necessity" to seize private property in America so firms can make money selling gas outside the country.
That's what people told FERC about Northern Access 2016, a Pennsylvania-to-New York pipeline that would feed much of its gas to Canadian markets. The commissioners said in February that this was a matter for the Energy Department — not noting that the other agency automatically approves exports to Canada.
The point, FERC said, was that all the capacity had been contracted. It approved the pipeline.
The fight on the ground
The policy debates around pipelines can seem far away to those living in isolated communities in west-central Virginia, the epicenter of opposition to the Atlantic Coast project. Residents who don't consider themselves environmentalists don "NO PIPELINE" T-shirts and hats and routinely show up at opposition rallies.
In Virginia, as in many places on proposed construction routes, the threat of eminent domain fuels this fight. Landowners say they object to the idea that companies can take private property — seizing permanent pathways, 75 feet wide or more — for corporate gain. They say the one-time payments they're offered don't make up for what they're losing.
These landowners include Becci Harmon, a drug-and-alcohol program officer from Swoope, whose house sits within 50 feet of the Atlantic Coast route; she fears the one-acre plot on which she's lived for 26 years will turn into a gutter after the pipeline wipes out her trees, garden and septic system. Richard Averitt, an entrepreneur from Nellysford, believes it will jeopardize his plan to develop an "eco-friendly" resort after it cuts the wooded, 100-acre site in half.
"This pipeline in particular is so egregious. It's 95 percent virgin land," Averitt said. "It's land privately owned or in the public trust."
Atlantic Coast became an issue in Virginia's recent gubernatorial primary, but Dominion and Duke say supporters outnumber opponents. The companies point to recent polling by an energy industry group that includes Dominion among its members. Its survey shows that 55 percent of residents back the project while 30 percent oppose it. They also cite a letter, signed by 16 state lawmakers from Virginia, North Carolina and West Virginia, urging FERC officials to approve the pipeline. Last month, a New York watchdog group released a report revealing that five of the signatories are top recipients of either Dominion's or Duke's political contributions.
Supporters writing op-eds distributed by the companies include landowner Ward Burton. He was impressed that Dominion altered the project's route to avoid crossing a creek twice and a forest once on the 565 acres in Blackstone, Virginia, owned by his wildlife foundation.
Unions are eager to see the pipeline move ahead. "We're going to put people to work," said Matthew Yonka, president of the Virginia State Building & Construction Trades Council.
Still, there can be localized problems. The Rover pipeline, which runs from Pennsylvania to Michigan, racked up more than $900,000 in proposed penalties from Ohio regulators after FERC approved it in February. Officials say its owner, Energy Transfer Partners, kept spilling drilling fluid into wetlands, ponds and streams — including, in one case, several million gallons of a clay mixture tinged with petroleum.
Energy Transfer's Alexis Daniel said the company considers land restoration "a top priority" and is working to resolve the matter. Craig W. Butler, who heads the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, said the company claimed the state has no authority to penalize it. He's grateful FERC intervened: It's halted certain drilling work on the pipeline while investigating the damage.
Some states, less impressed with FERC's process, have pushed back. New York regulators denied necessary water permits for two pipelines, the Constitution last year and Northern Access in April. Both projects are on hold as the developers wait for a federal appeals court to decide whether the denials can stand. In its most recent permit rejection, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation said "FERC disregarded the Department's concerns." Based on its experiences with gas pipeline construction, the state agency predicted "significant degradation of water quality in stream after stream."
U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, a Democrat from New Jersey, wants to see reforms earlier in the process — when FERC is still deliberating. Pressed by residents upset about PennEast, she sponsored legislation in May that would require evidentiary hearings in contested cases and regular, big-picture reviews of need.
Absent a state veto or major changes at FERC, there's little a landowner can do to stop the construction juggernaut, as Jeb Bell learned. He and his brother didn't want the Sabal Trail pipeline burrowing beneath their tree farm in Mitchell County, Georgia, so the company took them to court twice — first to get permission to survey the land and then to build on it. Sabal Trail, largely owned by Enbridge, won each time. It also fought off the Bells' counterclaim contending the company had trespassed on their land.
Then the company won the right to collect legal fees from the Bells — $47,258 in all.
Enbridge spokeswoman Andrea Grover said by email that Sabal Trail is entitled to the money because it had offered to settle the "baseless" trespass claim; the brothers turned it down.
Bell, a state-park manager, has no idea how he'll pay if his appeal fails. He can't imagine a multibillion-dollar company needing his money. What it wanted, he's sure, was to send a warning to other landowners: Don't even try to stop pipelines. They always win.
Marie Cusick of StateImpact Pennsylvania contributed to this story.
Pretty soon, the United States might be producing more natural gas than it needs. And yet, there is a pipeline construction boom in the Northeast. Critics say this may be less about providing gas and more about profit. StateImpact Pennsylvania's Marie Cusick teamed up with the Center for Public Integrity.
MARIE CUSICK, BYLINE: The Atlantic Coast Pipeline would wind 600 miles underground, carrying natural gas from West Virginia to Virginia and North Carolina. Its construction could affect thousands of landowners, like Mike Hirrel.
MIKE HIRREL: Hello.
CUSICK: Hi.
HIRREL: Hi.
CUSICK: Nice to meet you.
HIRREL: It's nice to meet you.
CUSICK: The planned route crosses the Blue Ridge Mountain resort, where he owns a second home. Hirrel worries about leaks or explosions, but he tracks the project for another reason. He's a former antitrust litigator with the Department of Justice. In the study of his Northern Virginia apartment is a foot-high stack of research on the pipeline.
HIRREL: Let's see. This is the antitrust file.
CUSICK: Hirrel says the Atlantic Coast Pipeline would be an illegal monopolization. That's because the pipeline and the utilities that would pay for most of the space in it are owned by the same companies. Hirrel and the Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club have filed separate complaints with the Federal Trade Commission.
HIRREL: We haven't seen this sort of antitrust violation since the beginning of antitrust law in the early part of the 20th century.
CUSICK: An analysis by the Center for Public Integrity and StateImpact Pennsylvania finds this kind of self-dealing with four of six major pipelines proposed in the Northeast. Industry analysts say there's a risk of building something that's not really needed.
GREG LANDER: The reason it's upsetting is because the gas pipeline industry is a good industry.
CUSICK: Greg Lander is a longtime gas industry consultant. He and others say building an unnecessary pipeline could still boost a company's bottom line because captive ratepayers pick up the tab.
LANDER: I'd say that there is certainly very likely a measure of greed. And that will hurt everybody. It'll hurt the industry. It'll hurt producers. It'll hurt consumers.
PHILLIP GRIGSBY: I don't believe they're valid criticisms.
CUSICK: Phillip Grigsby is with Duke Energy, one of the companies building the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. They call the antitrust allegations baseless. And Grigsby says there is plenty of use for the flood of gas unleashed by America's shale boom.
Dozens of former coal plants like this one in Pennsylvania are being repurposed to burn cheaper, cleaner natural gas. Grigsby says gas is also used to heat homes and power energy-hungry factories.
GRIGSBY: We have a demonstrated market for the gas in the states and for specific uses.
CUSICK: But by next year, the U.S. Energy Information Administration expects the country to produce more gas than it uses.
HET SHAH: Yeah, there's definitely an overbuild of pipeline.
CUSICK: And Het Shah of Bloomberg New Energy Finance says most of the future demand for gas won't be in the U.S. It will be driven by exports. There is a federal agency whose job it is to decide whether there's a public need for new pipelines.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: The last item for present (ph) and discussion this morning is item A-3.
CUSICK: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC. But former FERC commissioner Suedeen Kelly says the agency has a limited mandate. When it evaluates need, it simply looks to see if there are signed contracts for the gas.
SUEDEEN KELLY: Well, what you're really doing is you're asking the entities that are actually going to use the pipeline, do you need it?
CUSICK: FERC declined multiple interview requests for this story. But earlier this year, its outgoing chair called for more scrutiny, warning that a glut of natural gas pipelines could become stranded assets. For NPR News, I'm Marie Cusick.
GREENE: And you can find our full investigation with the Center for Public Integrity, including maps of pipeline projects, at npr.org. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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SOURCE: Dynavax Technologies
February 26, 2013 09:00 ET
BERKELEY, CA--(Marketwire - Feb 26, 2013) - Dynavax Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: DVAX) announced today that it will present at the Cowen and Company 33rd Annual Healthcare Conference in Boston on Tuesday, March 5, 2013 at 8:40 a.m. Eastern Time (5:40 a.m. Pacific Time).
Dino Dina, M.D., Chief Executive Officer of Dynavax, will provide a company overview. To access the slide presentation, live webcast, and subsequent archived recording, please visit Dynavax's website at http://investors.dynavax.com/newsevents.cfm.
About Dynavax
Dynavax, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, discovers and develops novel products to prevent and treat infectious and inflammatory diseases. Dynavax's lead product candidate is HEPLISAV ™, a Phase 3 investigational adult hepatitis B vaccine. For more information visit www.dynavax.com.
Contact:Michael Ostrach
Vice President and Chief Business Officer
510-665-7257Email Contact
Contact:Michael Ostrach
Vice President and Chief Business Officer
510-665-7257Email Contact
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July 27, 2012
This past Wednesday in the journal Nature, Nancy Archin and colleagues from the laboratory of David Margolis published results from a trial investigating whether the approved cancer drug vorinostat can reverse HIV latency. Vorinostat (also known as SAHA, trade name Zolinza) belongs to a group of compounds called histone deacetlyase (HDAC) inhibitors. Histone deacetylases are a class of cellular enzymes involved in condensing DNA and repressing gene expression. In laboratory experiments, inhibiting histone deacetylases appears to free latent HIV from lockdown, causing viral RNA to be produced. HDAC inhibitors have therefore emerged as lead candidates for depleting latent HIV reservoirs, a task that is widely believed to be an important step along the path to a cure.
Margolis has previously presented preliminary results from the trial, first at a meeting in St. Maarten in December 2011, then at CROI and Keystone in March of this year. Each time the number of participants with available data increased, from four initially to six at CROI and seven at Keystone. The published Nature paper brings the final count to eight. I wrote about the data when it was initially presented, and below is an updated version of that report.
The first step of the protocol involved screening potential participants to assess whether vorinostat could reactivate latent HIV from their CD4 T cells ex vivo. Sixteen individuals had lymphocytes extracted by leukopheresis, then sorted into discrete pools of 1 million purified resting CD4 cells each (ending up with 12-48 pools per participant). These pools were exposed to either vorinostat or no drug, and a mean level of HIV RNA per million cells (and a standard deviation) was calculated for each person (the assay used can measure down to 10 copies per million cells). Margolis noted in St. Maarten that the statistical approach used to calculate the mean RNA levels is robust but complicated, and a paper explaining it is currently in press at a statistics journal. Eleven of the sixteen people screened showed an upregulation of HIV RNA expression in this analysis and eight agreed to participate in the next step of the trial.
A final 400mg dose of vorinostat was then administered with leukopheresis performed 4-6 hours afterward based on the pharmacokinetic data indicating this would be around the time of maximum activity. No grade 1 or greater toxicities were seen, and cell-associated unspliced HIV gag RNA expression increased significantly compared to baseline in all eight individuals by a mean of 4.8-fold (range: 1.5-10-fold). HIV RNA in peripheral blood was assessed using a single copy assay but no change was detected. The researchers also state that "a limited evaluation did not reveal a substantial reduction in the frequency of replication-competent HIV within resting CD4 T cells" but the data is not included in the paper, and they note that this would not be unexpected given that only a single dose was administered. The primary import of the results, they conclude, is the proof-of-concept: "these findings demonstrate that therapy targeted at persistent, latent infection within resting CD4 T cells is feasible, and open the way for the development of HDAC inhibitors with improved specificity, potency and safety profiles for the selective targeting of latent proviral genomes."
When he presented the early results in December 2011, Margolis offered a list of questions that remain to be answered.
Since that time, data addressing some of these questions has been presented and published. Tae-Wook Chun's laboratory at NIAID has shown that the induction of RNA expression by vorinostat does not lead to significant virion production or clearance of the infected cell. Robert Siliciano's group also documented a lack of clearance of infected cells, and furthermore demonstrated that functional HIV-specific CD8 T cells are needed to perform this task.
More recently, at the AIDS 2012 conference that took place this week in Washington DC, Jeff Lifson presented data indicating that multiple doses of vorinostat do not have consistent effects on the viral reservoir in the SIV/macaque model. The relevance of these findings to humans should be revealed when results become available from a clinical trial involving a 10-day course of vorinostat, which is currently being conducted by Sharon Lewin in Australia.
In addition to the caveat that HDAC inhibitors alone appear unlikely to be sufficient to achieve a cure of HIV infection, there is also a question that wasn't on Margolis's list: are there latently infected cells that cannot be reactivated by these drugs? At a symposium on cure research that took place immediately prior to AIDS 2012, Robert Siliciano presented evidence that, while the majority of resting CD4 T cells containing HIV DNA harbor viral genomes that are compromised by various genetic alterations (such as deletions) some -- 16.8% in his study (range: 6-36%) -- contain replication-competent HIV that is not induced by normal methods. It is as yet unclear if this virus can be induced to replicate in vivo.
In a commentary accompanying the Archin paper, Steve Deeks highlights the work that remains and the likely need for combination approaches, but also emphasizes that these results represent an important first step beyond antiretroviral therapy and into new territory, with a cure for HIV infection the ultimate destination.
Richard Jefferys is the coordinator of the Michael Palm HIV Basic Science, Vaccines & Prevention Project Weblog at the Treatment Action Group (TAG). The original blog post may be viewed here.
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The Managerial Simulation is a type of interactive training and feedback often limited to managers in many corporate organizations. In the role of a mid-level manager, you will deal with conflict, influence and motivate others, communicate vision, and deal with stress in the context of two one-on-one meetings. You will receive personal feedback on your performance and very specific guidance on how to handle similar situations in the future.
The purpose of this simulation is to give you an opportunity, in the role as a Vice President of a global firm, to demonstrate your leadership to your senior management team and your organization. The exercise simulates what is waiting for you as a new hire, in your e-mail.
The exercise will assess you in the areas of planning and organizing written communication, interpersonal sensitivity, problem-solving and decision-making, delegation and empowerment, and change management. A group debrief and workbook will help you assess your own performance.
This simulation provides you the opportunity, as an associate brand manager, to demonstrate your readiness to assume more responsibility to your manager and team. The exercise will assess you in the areas of planning and organizing, problem-solving, performance orientation, teamwork, communication, managing conflict and influence. A small group debrief will be facilitated by an executive coach to help you assess your performance.


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Are You Looking For Gold Hill Home Insulation?
All Phase Weatherization, LLC., was established to provide a service to those customers that are serious about reducing their overall energy consumption, increasing their comfortability, and saving money. All of our testing and installation practices are based on the most current building science and best practices for installation.
Serving all of Southern Oregon, we provide the most comprehensive approach to increasing the overall energy efficiency of your Gold Hill home or business.
All Phase Weatherization, LLC. - A Gold Hill Home Performance Specialist
After a careful inspection, our Gold Hill technicians make recommendations, prioritized according to urgency, on how to reduce energy consumption in your home. Some suggestions may be simple, such as sealing gaps around doors. Others may involve repairing or replacing a furnace, for example. Our Gold Hill home performance energy audits are conducted by a professional contractor who assesses the energy performance of your Gold Hill home and may implement recommended upgrades such as insulation or water heater repairs.
Gold Hill Replacement Windows
We pride ourselves on performing top-notch window replacements, appropriate to their settings while at the same time being extremely functional. Trusting and working with your Gold Hill contractor is a very important aspect of the restoration process. Our professional contractors in Gold Hill will work with you to implement an affordable home solution that meets your needs. We take the time to explain what needs to be done before we recommend your next course of action. We also offer house windows, windows replacement, vinyl window replacement and window installation.
Gold Hill Home Remodeling
Whether you are looking to redo one room in your house or your entire house, it would be to your best interest to hire a remodeling contractor to complete the job in the most cost-efficient and hassle-free manner. These professionals have the experience that you might not have when it comes to the nitty-gritty of remodeling – as you might already know, remodeling involves more than just choosing paint colors, furnishings, and decorating elements. Only professional remodeling contractors would know the ins and outs of remodeling as well as have the necessary connections with other design and construction professionals and suppliers. Allocating a reasonable amount in your budget to pay for the services of these professionals is a small price to pay for the convenience, quality, and possibly even discounts on materials these professionals can give you. Take a little time to do some prep work before you start your remodeling project and explore the available remodeling services these contractors are offering.
Depending on your budget, your remodeling contractor can be limited to certain aspects of your home improvement project or you can choose to have him take over the coordination and supervision of the entire project for you. You also have the option to choose separate contractors yourself for the various aspects of your remodeling by hiring separate contractors for design, dismantling or demolition, construction, painting, and interior design.
The Services We Offer in Gold Hill, Oregon
We Proudly Serve
Recent Articles
- Gold Hill Kitchen Remodeling: Considering Kitchen Design Issues
- Gold Hill Remodel Could Lead to Savings for Years to Come


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Samantha Saint – Babe of the Day
With a name like Samantha Saint, you just had to think sinful thoughts, didn't you? And in the case of this legendary adult entertainment actress, that'd be perfectly appropriate. Samantha's also graced the pages of Penthouse and is just a generally gorgeous woman.
You can follow her on Instagram, Twitter and her personal website.


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Servers and Server Systems
Software-defined, cloud-enabled enterprise servers and systems that help you operate at business speed.
The foundation for a software-defined data centre
Transform servers, storage, and networking into software-defined infrastructure to eliminate complex manual processes, spur IT collaboration, and increase the speed and flexibility of IT service delivery. HPE OneView takes a software-defined, programmatic approach to managing infrastructure with efficient workflow automation, a modern dashboard and a comprehensive partner ecosystem.
Meet the HPE ProLiant DL325 – a single-socket, AMD EPYC-based server that provides an exceptional balance of processor, memory and I/O for virtualisation and data-intensive workloads.
Migrate successfully to a real-time enterprise with a proven partner for delivering all that SAP HANA offers.
Speed application delivery with composable, software-defined HPE Synergy infrastructure.
Learn more about how the new portfolio of HPE Gen10 servers can help you thrive in alignment with your unique business needs.
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Systems of intelligence to fuel your digital transformation in a world where time and data are the new currency and business continuity is expected.
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High capacity, mass compute with security and software to match. The highway to Hybrid IT is paved in open infrastructure.
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Choose from a selection of virtualisation and operating systems from our strategic partners for your HPE server investment.
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When you depend on software applications specific to your business, knowing those apps have been tested on your HPE server platform is important. Our HPE Server Partner Program provides quick visibility into the variety of server-based apps verified on HPE hardware.
Take your Infrastructure further
White Paper : Learn about the HPE Server Partner Programme geared for Independent software vendors (ISVs)
Learn about the HPE Server Partner Programme geared for Independent software vendors (ISVs)
Video : Compute: A shift in thinking
Learn how to accelerate service delivery at the right economics.
White Paper : Moor insights: Hybrid IT helps businesses navigate through digital transformation
Prepare your digital transformation journey with Hybrid IT solutions that provide it security, compliance and performance control with on-premises and cloud solutions.
White Paper : Moor insights: HPE locks down server security
Reduce the cost of compliance failures and protect your IT hardware with HPE server security features for firmware protection, detection and recovery capabilities.
Video : Introducing the World's Most Secure Industry Standard Servers
Introducing the World's Most Secure Industry Standard Servers
Presentation : Test your infrastructure-security IQ quiz
IT security has always been a moving target. Threats escalate, often on an hourly basis. New attacks and vulnerabilities are discovered daily. Most enterprises believe they have a handle on the security challenges they face, but that confidence is very often misplaced. Based on your answers to the questions, we'll provide a quick assessment of your IT security profile.
1. Based on external firm conducting cyber security penetration testing of a range of server products from a range of manufactures, May 2017.


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Excellent wine! Buy it on sight.
More posts
- The carnelian project Pinot noir Santa Lucia highlands
- Big and cold. Key to celebrating any sunday home repair project.
- Tasty, but not exceptionally exciting
- Crisp fruit forward of black currant and strawberries. Sharp pointed tannin finish. Not as smooth as would have liked.
- Love the revolutionary Che Guevara label, but the wine was not so great. Too earthy for a pinot noir .


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The fashion world is one demanding industry. But despite its reputation for being so pretentiously high strung, it is where some of the most brilliant designers reside. As season's change these designers develop new and fresh fashions for women, men, teens, and kids, ranging from sportswear to evening wear, chic to trendy…whatever the case each fashion must be clean, beautiful, modern and stylish, but most importantly appealing to the everyday consumer.
The world of interior design is no different, and the transition from fashion for your back to fashion for your home has proved to be a fairly simple one for some of our favorite fashion idols. Designers such as Versaci, Calvin Klein, Fendi, Armani, Mark Jacobs, and Ralph Lauren to name a few, have successfully mastered the trade of home accessory, home decor, bedding, or fabric design.
Home Collection by Calvin Klein
Versaci Home Collection
Fendi Casa Collection


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A long sandy beach is touched by the sea.
A long sandy beach is touched by the sea.
Category:air views sea photo. The photo "air view coast touch sea" is free for private or commercial use. This free photo may be used for different types of artworks, like digital presentations, books, web design, videogames, exibitions and more. Additional details are available in the faq section. The full stock photos collection includes thousands of photos; more photos related to "air view coast touch sea" are available in the section air views sea.
Author:Valentina Sannicolo.
Publisher:Francesco Cepolina.
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Bachata Tropical Thursday Nights
Bachata, a slinky partner dance from the Dominican Republic, has exploded in popularity in recent years, giving salsa a run for its money and earning dedicated dance nights around town. The Granada was one of the first, and remains arguably the hottest. This isn't your grandparents' bachata: young adherents at the club infuse the dance with fancy footwork and even elements of hip hop for a modern/urban twist. Guys sport jeans and sneaks, while the ladies can get away with tight dresses and stilettos since the turns involved aren't too treacherous. Even beginners will find bachata accessible—and addictive.


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Does what we drive affect how we drive? That's the question posed by Quality Planning, an analytics company that works with auto insurers. Quality Planning ranked the vehicles most likely to be ticketed, based on the number of moving violations issued for each 100,000 miles driven. The resulting top ten of the list contains a few predictable entries, but it's not entirely comprised of flashy red sports cars.
But before we begin the list of the worst behaved vehicles, a rundown of the good guys. The top five "cautious vehicles," that is, the ones with the lowest percentage of violations, are:
5.Buick Lacrosse sedan
4. Kia Spectra sedan
3. Chevrolet C/K 3500/2500
2. Mazda Tribute SUV
1.Buick Ranier SUV
Eight of the top ten cautious vehicles were SUVs or minivans, indicating drivers with passengers (probably of the younger, biological offspring sort) drive more carefully. Click ahead to see the countdown of the worst offenders—or as they are termed in the study, "spirited vehicles," with commentary from Marty Padgett of TheCarConnection.com and MotorAuthority.com and additional information and insight provided by Quality Planning.
Posted June 30 2011


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Natural experiments are great for the social sciences, and has been exceedingly rare for microfinance. Then the AP crisis came along, and caused the kind of change in circumstances that make for just such an experiment.
Basically, microfinance institutions beat a hasty retreat, writing off their outstanding loans as losses to a large part. This caused a pretty significant vacuum in liquidity providers in local economies. Guess who filled it up. SHGs, to a certain extent, sure. But this was also the perfect opportunity for the traditional archenemy of microfinance – moneylenders – to make a roaring comeback!
Relevant section from the abstract:
Both studies validate the fact that the members of the community face issues raising credit in the absence of MFIs. Members of the community have reduced their spending on important aspects such as health, education and business because of non availability of adequate credit from alternative sources. Moneylenders are having a field day with the absence of MFIs. Members of the community are falling back to moneylenders who charge usurious rates of interest to meet their credit needs.
Here's the full report: Andhra Pradesh MFI Crisis and Its Impact on Clients
And a related policy brief: What Are Clients Doing Post The AP MFI Crisis?


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Hunter Hayes, Dierks Bentley, Brantley Gilbert + More Announced as ACM Awards Performers
The country music party of the year just got a little more star-studded with the announcement of additional ACM Awards performers. With some of the biggest names in country music have already been announced for this highly-anticipated event, Hunter Hayes, Dierks Bentley, and Brantley Gilbert are the icing on the cake.
Hayes, Bentley and Gilbert will be joined by New Artist of the Year nominees Jana Kramer and Florida Georgia Line. In fact, Gilbert will have to battle it out with his lovely fiancee, as he's also been nominated for the prestigious newcomer award.
They'll be entertaining via satellite at the 3rd Annual ACM Fan Jam & Post-Award Concert. Throughout the three-hour telecast from MGM Grand, these performers will be belting out their hit songs remotely from the nearby Orleans Arena. During commercial breaks there will be prizes and special giveaways for the fans who are jamming along.
This ultimate fan experience will be hosted by veteran Brad Paisley, who has 14 Academy of Country Music Awards under his belt. The 'Southern Comfort Zone' singer is headlining the event, and will have a busy night, as he'll jump onstage at the Fan Jam after the awards finish up. It's an exciting time for him, with an album to be released just days late.
The Fan Jam will be emceed by GAC's Storme Warren, and LL Cool J is scheduled to make an appearance. While it may seem strange to have a rapper at the event, he has country ties, with a guest spot on Paisley's 'Wheelhouse' album. The 48th Annual ACM Awards will broadcast on April 7 in Las Vegas, at 8PM ET.


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120 Morning Shore CourtLexington, SC 29072
- 5 Beds
- 6 Baths
- 9,908 Sq.Ft.
- Single-Family
This property is not available and may not be listed in the MLS.
Listed by Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage
To manage reports, go to your Dashboard.
All information provided is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified. All properties are subject to prior sale or withdrawal. Data may not be reproduced or redistributed and may not be used for any purpose other than individual consumer's use. Copyright 2019 Consolidated Multiple Listing Service, Inc (CMLS). All rights reserved.


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Free Estimates
We are committed to quality construction services at affordable prices, and dedicated to providing homeowners with a positive experience in all areas of home improvement and remodeling.
As a small, woman-owned and operated business, we bring a unique perspective and a personal touch to every project we work on. We take great satisfaction in helping people build their dreams. We guarantee that your project will take a top priority. Our team will get to know you personally, will collaborate with you, and will be dedicated to providing you with quality craftsmanship and excellent customer service that you deserve.
Big or Small - We do it All
As a general contractor, we can oversee your project, leaving you free to enjoy the process of creating your dreams. We can assist you with additions, remodeling and even whole-house-renovations.
As a small locally owned business, we are also available for emergency repairs and small household projects.
Licensed, Bonded and Insured, we are fully compliant with all state regulatory agencies. We are members of the Master Builders Association and the Greater Seattle Business Association.
Contact us and tell us about your project. We'd love to hear from you!
We are here for you
Total Home Improvement, Inc.
Quality Home Improvements on Your Budget
(206) 941-3791
Website Designed
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Username and other important upgrade information 09/23/2015Please note that the forum is still upgrading will be for most of the night I think,therefore you may find it slow at times, looking different etc etc. This will straighten out (he hopes) as the upgrade continues. One of the big changes is that usernames and display names will change. At the moment you can have a username and display name for example you can have a username of joeblogsy and a display name of Joe Blogs. After the upgrade we will only have usernames. For some this won't make any difference at all but there are a fair few of you that have different display names., many of which I have changed for people for various reasons. If, after the upgrade you notice your forum name isn't right please just send me a PM with your desired username. You may also find you have been logged out, if this happens and you cannot remember your original forum details, please email me at mark@touringandtenting or open a support ticket by
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Mohegan Sun patron wins excessive force case
UNCASVILLE (AP) -- A judge has awarded more than $90,000 to a patron of the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut, ruling that an officer used excessive force against him.
Chief Judge Paul Guernsey of the Mohegan Gaming Disputes Court awarded $92,344 to Jerry D'Ambra Jr. of Warwick, Rhode Island.
He ruled last month that an officer used excessive force during a takedown maneuver, resulting in a painful knee injury that required surgery and 33 sessions of physical therapy.
The force applied to the back of D'Ambra's knee, enough to break off a two-inch piece of bone, "was far beyond what was objectively reasonable under the circumstances," Guernsey wrote.
The judge said D'Ambra was arrested "for behavior that can only be described as drunken and obnoxious." He said there was probable cause to arrest him for breach of peace and he was handcuffed at the time.
The officer, Todd Maikshilo, testified that D'Ambra tried to lunge or pull away from him and that he performed the maneuver to prevent him from falling or escaping.
Robert Rhodes, an attorney for the tribe, says the officer was trying to prevent the intoxicated patron from falling forward and injuring himself. He says he's considering an appeal.
"Obviously we don't agree with the judge's opinion in this case," Rhodes said, adding no one testified the maneuver was done incorrectly.
D'Ambra's attorney, Mary Puhlick, says she's happy with the decision. She said her client disputes accounts of his behavior, saying he became upset after the incident.
"It was a very serious injury," Puhlick said. "I think under the circumstances it was the right result. My client is happy with the result."