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The site navigation utilizes arrow, enter, escape, and space bar key commands. Left and right arrows move across top level links and expand / close menus in sub levels. Up and Down arrows will open main level menus and toggle through sub tier links. Enter and space open menus and escape closes them as well. Tab will move on to the next part of the site rather than go through menu items.
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For a stop promptly decaying to a top quark and an invisible neutralino, the new search excludes the mass range between m_top and 191 GeV. These numbers do not seem impressive at first sight, but let me explain why it's interesting.
No sign of SUSY at the LHC could mean that she is dead, or that she is
So, the stealth stop window is not completely closed yet, but we're getting there.

subset: commoncrawl


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Tertiary character | |
iHawk | |
Gender | Male |
Species | Robot |
First appearance | "War Is the H-Word" (2ACV17) |
Voiced by | Maurice LaMarche |
iHawk is a robot doctor who works as a medic in the DOOP Army in the war against Spheron 1. He has two settings: Irreverent and maudlin. Irreverent makes him tell jokes and make fun of people, maudlin makes him unhappy about war. One of his hands is replaced by a martini holder and his name is written on his chest. He frequently argues with Zoidberg when in Irreverent mode as he thinks he is a better doctor and funnier- and given what is known of Zoidberg, he probably is.
- Mom, creator
Additional Info
- iHawk may be related to iZac.
- His name is in obvious parody of Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce of M*A*S*H*, and his voice is a dead-on impression of Alan Alda, who played the character. Additionally when he says "Dis isn't war, it's a moider", he says it like Groucho Marx, who Hawkeye was known to imitate.
- His name follows the pattern (and parodies) of many Apple products, which insert a lower-case "i" before a common word to make a product name. iZac is another example.
Jellyfish nurse: Dr. Zoidberg has twice the training you do.
iHawk: Yeah, he's a doctor and a butcher. [Switches to maudlin.] When will the killing end?
Jellyfish nurse: Are you ready to operate doctor?
iHawk: I'd love to, but first I need to perform surgery.
[iHawk laughs.]
Zoidberg: [angrily] That's my joke! I'll kill you!
iHawk: Jeez Zoidberg, leave some for the enemy to kill.
iHawk: [maudlin] This isn't a war. It's a murder. [Switches to irreverent, now imitating Groucho Marx] Dis isn't a war. It's a moider!


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Remember playing Bounce on your old phone? It is now available on your Android devices and it is free! Genico Studio proudly presents, Bounce Classic, a fan-made remake of the Bounce game, which for years was driving you crazy and draining the battery of your old cellphone. Bounce consists of the 11 original levels of the game packed as an original episode. That is not the end of the story, this game contains another brand new series of episodes and many yet to come soon. Enjoy 11 original levels, collect all rings and beware of dangerous thorns. Stay in touch with your friends and beat their scores. Most popular Bounce game - now on your Android devices! Flappy Bounce is HTML5 games and funny. Ecaps Games with tons of games for all ages and bringing fun to player Play free online games.
Use Mouse To Play and Keyboard
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Mr. Chairman, delegates, and fellow citizens: I am honored by the support of this convention for vice president of the United States.
I accept the duty to help lead our nation out of a jobs crisis and back to prosperity – and I know we can do this.
I accept the calling of my generation to give our children the America that was given to us, with opportunity for the young and security for the old – and I know that we are ready.
Our nominee is sure ready. His whole life has prepared him for this moment – to meet serious challenges in a serious way, without excuses and idle words. After four years of getting the run-around, America needs a turnaround, and the man for the job is Governor Mitt Romney.
I'm the newcomer to the campaign, so let me share a first impression. I have never seen opponents so silent about their record, and so desperate to keep their power.
They've run out of ideas. Their moment came and went. Fear and division are all they've got left.
With all their attack ads, the president is just throwing away money – and he's pretty experienced at that. You see, some people can't be dragged down by the usual cheap tactics, because their ability, character, and plain decency are so obvious – and ladies and gentlemen, that is Mitt Romney.
For my part, your nomination is an unexpected turn. It certainly came as news to my family, and I'd like you to meet them: My wife Janna, our daughter Liza, and our boys Charlie and Sam.
The kids are happy to see their grandma, who lives in Florida. There she is – my Mom, Betty.
My Dad, a small-town lawyer, was also named Paul. Until we lost him when I was 16, he was a gentle presence in my life. I like to think he'd be proud of me and my sister and brothers, because I'm sure proud of him and of where I come from, Janesville, Wisconsin.
I live on the same block where I grew up. We belong to the same parish where I was baptized. Janesville is that kind of place.
The people of Wisconsin have been good to me. I've tried to live up to their trust. And now I ask those hardworking men and women, and millions like them across America, to join our cause and get this country working again.
When Governor Romney asked me to join the ticket, I said, «Let's get this done» – and that is exactly, what we're going to do.
PBS NewsHour/YouTube
President Barack Obama came to office during an economic crisis, as he has reminded us a time or two. Those were very tough days, and any fair measure of his record has to take that into account. My home state voted for President Obama. When he talked about change, many people liked the sound of it, especially in Janesville, where we were about to lose a major factory.
A lot of guys I went to high school with worked at that GM plant. Right there at that plant, candidate Obama said: «I believe that if our government is there to support you … this plant will be here for another hundred years.» That's what he said in 2008.
Well, as it turned out, that plant didn't last another year. It is locked up and empty to this day. And that's how it is in so many towns today, where the recovery that was promised is nowhere in sight.
Right now, 23 million men and women are struggling to find work. Twenty-three million people, unemployed or underemployed. Nearly one in six Americans is living in poverty. Millions of young Americans have graduated from college during the Obama presidency, ready to use their gifts and get moving in life. Half of them can't find the work they studied for, or any work at all.
So here's the question: Without a change in leadership, why would the next four years be any different from the last four years?
The first troubling sign came with the stimulus. It was President Obama's first and best shot at fixing the economy, at a time when he got everything he wanted under one-party rule. It cost $831 billion – the largest one-time expenditure ever by our federal government.
It went to companies like Solyndra, with their gold-plated connections, subsidized jobs, and make-believe markets. The stimulus was a case of political patronage, corporate welfare, and cronyism at their worst. You, the working men and women of this country, were cut out of the deal.
What did the taxpayers get out of the Obama stimulus? More debt. That money wasn't just spent and wasted – it was borrowed, spent, and wasted.
Maybe the greatest waste of all was time. Here we were, faced with a massive job crisis – so deep that if everyone out of work stood in single file, that unemployment line would stretch the length of the entire American continent. You would think that any president, whatever his party, would make job creation, and nothing else, his first order of economic business.
But this president didn't do that. Instead, we got a long, divisive, all-or-nothing attempt to put the federal government in charge of health care.
Obamacare comes to more than two thousand pages of rules, mandates, taxes, fees, and fines that have no place in a free country.
The president has declared that the debate over government-controlled health care is over. That will come as news to the millions of Americans who will elect Mitt Romney so we can repeal Obamacare.
And the biggest, coldest power play of all in Obamacare came at the expense of the elderly.
You see, even with all the hidden taxes to pay for the health care takeover, even with new taxes on nearly a million small businesses, the planners in Washington still didn't have enough money. They needed more. They needed hundreds of billions more. So, they just took it all away from Medicare. Seven hundred and sixteen billion dollars, funneled out of Medicare by President Obama. An obligation we have to our parents and grandparents is being sacrificed, all to pay for a new entitlement we didn't even ask for. The greatest threat to Medicare is Obamacare, and we're going to stop it.
In Congress, when they take out the heavy books and wall charts about Medicare, my thoughts go back to a house on Garfield Street in Janesville. My wonderful grandma, Janet, had Alzheimer's and moved in with Mom and me. Though she felt lost at times, we did all the little things that made her feel loved.
We had help from Medicare, and it was there, just like it's there for my Mom today. Medicare is a promise, and we will honor it. A Romney-Ryan administration will protect and strengthen Medicare, for my Mom's generation, for my generation, and for my kids and yours.
So our opponents can consider themselves on notice. In this election, on this issue, the usual posturing on the Left isn't going to work. Mitt Romney and I know the difference between protecting a program, and raiding it. Ladies and gentlemen, our nation needs this debate. We want this debate. We will win this debate.
Obamacare, as much as anything else, explains why a presidency that began with such anticipation now comes to such a disappointing close.
It began with a financial crisis; it ends with a job crisis.
It began with a housing crisis they alone didn't cause; it ends with a housing crisis they didn't correct.
It began with a perfect Triple-A credit rating for the United States; it ends with a downgraded America.
It all started off with stirring speeches, Greek columns, the thrill of something new. Now all that's left is a presidency adrift, surviving on slogans that already seem tired, grasping at a moment that has already passed, like a ship trying to sail on yesterday's wind.
President Obama was asked not long ago to reflect on any mistakes he might have made. He said, well, «I haven't communicated enough.» He said his job is to «tell a story to the American people» – as if that's the whole problem here? He needs to talk more, and we need to be better listeners?
Ladies and gentlemen, these past four years we have suffered no shortage of words in the White House. What's missing is leadership in the White House. And the story that Barack Obama does tell, forever shifting blame to the last administration, is getting old. The man assumed office almost four years ago – isn't it about time he assumed responsibility?
In this generation, a defining responsibility of government is to steer our nation clear of a debt crisis while there is still time. Back in 2008, candidate Obama called a $10 trillion national debt «unpatriotic» – serious talk from what looked to be a serious reformer.
Yet by his own decisions, President Obama has added more debt than any other president before him, and more than all the troubled governments of Europe combined. One president, one term, $5 trillion in new debt.
He created a bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report. He thanked them, sent them on their way, and then did exactly nothing.
Republicans stepped up with good-faith reforms and solutions equal to the problems. How did the president respond? By doing nothing – nothing except to dodge and demagogue the issue.
So here we are, $16 trillion in debt and still he does nothing. In Europe, massive debts have put entire governments at risk of collapse, and still he does nothing. And all we have heard from this president and his team are attacks on anyone who dares to point out the obvious.
They have no answer to this simple reality: We need to stop spending money we don't have.
My Dad used to say to me: «Son. You have a choice: You can be part of the problem, or you can be part of the solution.» The present administration has made its choices. And Mitt Romney and I have made ours: Before the math and the momentum overwhelm us all, we are going to solve this nation's economic problems.
And I'm going to level with you: We don't have that much time. But if we are serious, and smart, and we lead, we can do this.
After four years of government trying to divide up the wealth, we will get America creating wealth again. With tax fairness and regulatory reform, we'll put government back on the side of the men and women who create jobs, and the men and women who need jobs.
My Mom started a small business, and I've seen what it takes. Mom was 50 when my Dad died. She got on a bus every weekday for years, and rode 40 miles each morning to Madison. She earned a new degree and learned new skills to start her small business. It wasn't just a new livelihood. It was a new life. And it transformed my Mom from a widow in grief to a small businesswoman whose happiness wasn't just in the past. Her work gave her hope. It made our family proud. And to this day, my Mom is my role model.
Behind every small business, there's a story worth knowing. All the corner shops in our towns and cities, the restaurants, cleaners, gyms, hair salons, hardware stores – these didn't come out of nowhere. A lot of heart goes into each one. And if small businesspeople say they made it on their own, all they are saying is that nobody else worked seven days a week in their place. Nobody showed up in their place to open the door at five in the morning. Nobody did their thinking, and worrying, and sweating for them. After all that work, and in a bad economy, it sure doesn't help to hear from their president that government gets the credit. What they deserve to hear is the truth: Yes, you did build that.
We have a plan for a stronger middle class, with the goal of generating 12 million new jobs over the next four years.
In a clean break from the Obama years, and frankly from the years before this president, we will keep federal spending at 20 percent of GDP, or less. That is enough. The choice is whether to put hard limits on economic growth, or hard limits on the size of government, and we choose to limit government.
I learned a good deal about economics, and about America, from the author of the Reagan tax reforms – the great Jack Kemp. What gave Jack that incredible enthusiasm was his belief in the possibilities of free people, in the power of free enterprise and strong communities to overcome poverty and despair. We need that same optimism right now.
And in our dealings with other nations, a Romney-Ryan administration will speak with confidence and clarity. Wherever men and women rise up for their own freedom, they will know that the American president is on their side. Instead of managing American decline, leaving allies to doubt us and adversaries to test us, we will act in the conviction that the United States is still the greatest force for peace and liberty that this world has ever known.
President Obama is the kind of politician who puts promises on the record, and then calls that the record. But we are four years into this presidency. The issue is not the economy as Barack Obama inherited it, not the economy as he envisions it, but this economy as we are living it.
College graduates should not have to live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms, staring up at fading Obama posters and wondering when they can move out and get going with life. Everyone who feels stuck in the Obama economy is right to focus on the here and now. And I hope you understand this too, if you're feeling left out or passed by: You have not failed, your leaders have failed you.
None of us have to settle for the best this administration offers – a dull, adventureless journey from one entitlement to the next, a government-planned life, a country where everything is free but us.
Listen to the way we're spoken to already, as if everyone is stuck in some class or station in life, victims of circumstances beyond our control, with government there to help us cope with our fate.
It's the exact opposite of everything I learned growing up in Wisconsin, or at college in Ohio. When I was waiting tables, washing dishes, or mowing lawns for money, I never thought of myself as stuck in some station in life. I was on my own path, my own journey, an American journey where I could think for myself, decide for myself, define happiness for myself. That's what we do in this country. That's the American Dream. That's freedom, and I'll take it any day over the supervision and sanctimony of the central planners.
By themselves, the failures of one administration are not a mandate for a new administration. A challenger must stand on his own merits. He must be ready and worthy to serve in the office of president.
We're a full generation apart, Governor Romney and I. And, in some ways, we're a little different. There are the songs on his iPod, which I've heard on the campaign bus and on many hotel elevators. He actually urged me to play some of these songs at campaign rallies. I said, I hope it's not a deal-breaker Mitt, but my playlist starts with AC/DC, and ends with Zeppelin.
A generation apart. That makes us different, but not in any of the things that matter. Mitt Romney and I both grew up in the heartland, and we know what places like Wisconsin and Michigan look like when times are good, when people are working, when families are doing more than just getting by. And we both know it can be that way again.
We've had very different careers – mine mainly in public service, his mostly in the private sector. He helped start businesses and turn around failing ones. By the way, being successful in business – that's a good thing.
Mitt has not only succeeded, but succeeded where others could not. He turned around the Olympics at a time when a great institution was collapsing under the weight of bad management, overspending, and corruption – sounds familiar, doesn't it?
He was the Republican governor of a state where almost nine in ten legislators are Democrats, and yet he balanced the budget without raising taxes. Unemployment went down, household incomes went up, and Massachusetts, under Mitt Romney, saw its credit rating upgraded.
Mitt and I also go to different churches. But in any church, the best kind of preaching is done by example. And I've been watching that example. The man who will accept your nomination tomorrow is prayerful and faithful and honorable. Not only a defender of marriage, he offers an example of marriage at its best. Not only a fine businessman, he's a fine man, worthy of leading this optimistic and good-hearted country.
Our different faiths come together in the same moral creed. We believe that in every life there is goodness; for every person, there is hope. Each one of us was made for a reason, bearing the image and likeness of the Lord of Life.
We have responsibilities, one to another – we do not each face the world alone. And the greatest of all responsibilities, is that of the strong to protect the weak. The truest measure of any society is how it treats those who cannot defend or care for themselves.
Each of these great moral ideas is essential to democratic government – to the rule of law, to life in a humane and decent society. They are the moral creed of our country, as powerful in our time, as on the day of America's founding. They are self-evident and unchanging, and sometimes, even presidents need reminding, that our rights come from nature and God, not from government.
The founding generation secured those rights for us, and in every generation since, the best among us have defended our freedoms. They are protecting us right now. We honor them and all our veterans, and we thank them.
The right that makes all the difference now, is the right to choose our own leaders. And you are entitled to the clearest possible choice, because the time for choosing is drawing near. So here is our pledge.
We will not duck the tough issues, we will lead.
We will not spend four years blaming others, we will take responsibility.
We will not try to replace our founding principles, we will reapply our founding principles.
The work ahead will be hard. These times demand the best of us – all of us, but we can do this. Together, we can do this.
We can get this country working again. We can get this economy growing again. We can make the safety net safe again. We can do this.
Whatever your political party, let's come together for the sake of our country. Join Mitt Romney and me. Let's give this effort everything we have. Let's see this through all the way. Let's get this done.
Thank you, and God bless.


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Waynesville considers compromise on parking in front of building
Waynesville leaders will vote this month on whether to loosen town guidelines governing growth.
A special task force spent the past 18 months reviewing the town's development standards and recommending changes. The town's land-use plan was heralded for its smart growth principles when it was passed in 2003, but developers have repeatedly complained the standards were too arduous and confusing, prompting the task force review.
The task force, which includes development and real estate interests, presented its recommendations to the town board at its last meeting, but aldermen elected to take some extra time to consider the measures.
Long at the center of contention have been the town's parking regulations. For new commercial buildings, parking lots must go to the side or rear — rather than in front — of the building.
The concept promotes a boulevard aesthetic in the town's commercial districts, advancing the goal of making Waynesville a more walkable, visually-appealing town, said the Lawrence Group, consultants who helped the town craft the new ordinances.
The idea is to turn streets now fronted by parking lots into tree-lined avenues and store façades that will provide a more welcoming entrance into the town.
Related Items
In the new regulations, however, there is a provision for allowing limited parking in front of buildings in certain commercial districts. But nailing down the specifics of just how and when that option can be invoked has been the subject of some ire over the last year as the new standards were discussed.
"That was probably our biggest friction point with developers was the parking in front," said Paul Benson, Waynesville's planning director. In the new regulations though, Benson pointed out "there are a lot of variables in parking patterns now."
Benson presented aldermen with a number of different scenarios that could crop up under the new guidelines, trying to illustrate what the more relaxed rules would look like for real businesses.
For big-box stores like Wal-Mart, they could have up to 150 spaces in front, while large retailers with a slightly diminished footprint, like Best Buy, would only be allowed around 25 spaces in front. Smaller stores such as CVS or banks would only get about eight front spaces under new regulations.
Among some members of the task force, this compromise didn't always meet a positive response.
"It doesn't help that much," Joe Taylor said of the front-parking concessions in the updated guidelines. Taylor, of Taylor Ford dealership in Waynesville, was on the steering committee and was an outspoken advocate of allowing parking in front.
He said the committee suggested the provision for front parking to give potential developers a break in otherwise tight regulations. The problem, he said, is that it doesn't quite do what they'd originally envisioned.
Under the new wording, up to 50 percent of the minimum parking required for the stores under the town's ordinance could go in front.
But the minimum number of parking spots required for a store is far less than any store would actually have.
"We don't require a lot of parking. They [developers] usually want almost three times as much as we want," said Benson.
Taylor said the required minimum is so small, that allowing 50 percent of that to go in front doesn't do much.
"It takes the benefit of it away unless it's a real large store," Taylor said.
Though aldermen could have voted to adopt — or reject — the updated rules after the public hearing in March, board members all said they wanted just a little more time to mull over the proposals and give the public one last chance to weigh in.
And in the mean time, Benson has proposed a new option for the contentious front parking issue: special use permits, which would give developers with legitimate parking gripes a way to talk about it with planners.
By allowing special use permitting, said Benson, the board of adjustment would be able to hear pleas from business owners and builders on a case-by-case basis, judging them against a set of standards that complement the parking compromises already reached.
Under this recommendation, if a site meets one of several requirements — it has tricky terrain that governs where the building can sit or the business is looking to join with others and create a courtyard parking atmosphere, among others — the board would be able to give them some leeway.
In the end, the aldermen all said they wanted to reach a set of standards that are best for both the town residents and businesses.
"I'm a firm believer in compromise and finding the best compromise for this community. I want to maintain what is best for Waynesville and I believe we can do that," said Alderwoman Libba Feicther.
For his part, Mayor Gavin Brown said that, after months of negotiation and debate, he's ready to get the changes to the land-use plan out of discussion and on the books.
"I think the process has been more than democratic," said Brown, and now it's time to take that democratic effort and translate it into real, working guidelines that will hopefully lead the town into a better, more beautiful future.


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Made to order vest, Style him025 |
Receiving Time = Processing (2-4 days) + Standard Shipping (7-15 business days) Receiving Time = Processing (2-4 days) + Expedited Shipping (3-6 business days) |
$20 extra for adult sizes |
1.V-neck, 3 buttons, 2 real side pockets, 1 real chest pocket.
2.Full Lined.
3.Back adjustable belt offers more accurate fit.
4.If you prefer a loose fit, pls order one or two sizes bigger than your real size.
5.Washing Instruction: Hand Wash/Dry Clean.
Can't find a perfect style? Send us a photo, or a sketch, or a brief description to Request Custom Order.
*See more ways to get free dresses.
The vest can be made-to-order. Please tell me the following information in your order:
Color: _______(3rd pic)
Bust: _______
Waist: _______
Length: _______(see the last pic)
Date when you need the vest: _______
There is no extra charge for made-to-order vests.
Our men's suit vests are in high quality. We can say there is no difference between our vests and $100 vests. Free return guarantee if you think it doesn't worth the price.


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By Photojournalist Susan Brannon. Through the use of documentary photography and participating in photography workshops, The Crossing Borders Project encourages citizens to generate their own voice, rather then others doing it for them. Participants capture images to reflect their lives, their interests, and their stories to share across borders.
Tuesday 30 May 2017
Gregory's Story- Haiti- Agriculture
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The shoes I got at thrift store for only $2!! They are from the Ann Taylor Loft. And admittedly they are a bit too small but I just couldn't pass them up.
I don't have to really do a tutorial for this. All you have to do is hot glue the bauble to a shoe clip. But if your bauble doesn't have a flat bottom like mine which was hollow underneath, just hot glue a piece of felt to the underside and cut any fabric that shows. Then hot glue the clilp to the felt.


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WASHINGTON, May 3, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A NASA-led modeling study provides new evidence that global warming may increase the risk for extreme rainfall and drought.
The study shows for the first time how rising carbon dioxide concentrations could affect the entire range of rainfall types on Earth.
Analysis of computer simulations from 14 climate models indicates wet regions of the world, such as the equatorial Pacific Ocean and Asian monsoon regions, will see increases in heavy precipitation because of warming resulting from projected increases in carbon dioxide levels. Arid land areas outside the tropics and many regions with moderate rainfall could become drier.
The analysis provides a new assessment of global warming's impacts on precipitation patterns around the world. The study was accepted for publication in the American Geophysical Union journal Geophysical Research Letters.
"In response to carbon dioxide-induced warming, the global water cycle undergoes a gigantic competition for moisture resulting in a global pattern of increased heavy rain, decreased moderate rain, and prolonged droughts in certain regions," said William Lau of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and lead author of the study.
The models project for every 1 degree Fahrenheit of carbon dioxide-induced warming, heavy rainfall will increase globally by 3.9 percent and light rain will increase globally by 1 percent. However, total global rainfall is not projected to change much because moderate rainfall will decrease globally by 1.4 percent.
Heavy rainfall is defined as months that receive an average of more than about 0.35 of an inch per day. Light rain is defined as months that receive an average of less than 0.01 of an inch per day. Moderate rainfall is defined as months that receive an average of between about 0.04 to 0.09 of an inch per day.
Areas projected to see the most significant increase in heavy rainfall are in the tropical zones around the equator, particularly in the Pacific Ocean and Asian monsoon regions.
Some regions outside the tropics may have no rainfall at all. The models also projected for every degree Fahrenheit of warming, the length of periods with no rain will increase globally by 2.6 percent. In the Northern Hemisphere, areas most likely to be affected include the deserts and arid regions of the southwest United States, Mexico, North Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan, and northwestern China. In the Southern Hemisphere, drought becomes more likely in South Africa, northwestern Australia, coastal Central America and northeastern Brazil.
"Large changes in moderate rainfall, as well as prolonged no-rain events, can have the most impact on society because they occur in regions where most people live," Lau said. "Ironically, the regions of heavier rainfall, except for the Asian monsoon, may have the smallest societal impact because they usually occur over the ocean."
Lau and colleagues based their analysis on the outputs of 14 climate models in simulations of 140-year periods. The simulations began with carbon dioxide concentrations at about 280 parts per million — similar to pre-industrial levels and well below the current level of almost 400 parts per million — and then increased by 1 percent per year. The rate of increase is consistent with a "business as usual" trajectory of the greenhouse gas as described by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Analyzing the model results, Lau and his co-authors calculated statistics on the rainfall responses for a 27-year control period at the beginning of the simulation, and also for 27-year periods around the time of doubling and tripling of carbon dioxide concentrations. They conclude the model predictions of how much rain will fall at any one location as the climate warms are not very reliable.
"But if we look at the entire spectrum of rainfall types we see all the models agree in a very fundamental way — projecting more heavy rain, less moderate rain events, and prolonged droughts," Lau said.
Link: NASA-led modeling study


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Photographs and Video Consent, Waiver, Indemnity and Release
For good and valuable consideration, the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged, I hereby consent to the photographing of myself and the recording of my voice and the use of these photographs and/or recordings singularly or in conjunction with other photographs and/or recordings for advertising, publicity, commercial or other business purposes.
I understand that the term "photograph" as used herein encompasses both still photographs and motion picture footage.
I further consent to the reproduction and/or authorization by ___________________to reproduce and use said photographs and recordings of my voice, for
use in all domestic and foreign markets. Further, I understand that others, with or without the consent of ________________ may use and/or reproduce such photographs and recordings.
I hereby release _____________________, and any of its associated or affiliated companies, their directors, officers, agents, employees and customers, and appointed advertising agencies, their directors, officers, agents and employees from all claims of every kind on account of such use.
Print Name: ___________________________
Signature: ___________________________
Date: ___________________________
Must be signed and dated before video shoot begins.


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Floral - - Wallpaper
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Wallpaper is quite possibly the simplest, easiest and most effective way to add character, color, texture, warmth and energy to your interior. Because we know how important it is to spend time in spaces that bring you joy and reflect your individual personality, Ellie Cashman Design wallpapers are designed to help you instantly transform your space into a beautiful and meaningful expression of you.
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text:
National Pool of Trainers on Leadership Skills and Ethics.
Minimum Government and Maximum Governance
citizen friendly and accountable administration is the focus of the government.
A series of steps to achieve this goal have been initiated. These include
simplification of procedures, identification and repeal of obsolete/archaic
laws/rules, identification and shortening of various forms, leveraging
technology to bring in transparency in public interface and a robust public
grievance redress system.
Doing away with the practice of submitting Affidavits for small level executive
jobs in the Government and allowing Self-Certification of certificates is one
important step in this regard. This has greatly led to the reduction in time
and effort on the part of both the citizen as well as the officials in many
Government offices.
Leveraging the
power of information technology brings with it the advantage of transparency and
speed for the benefit of the citizens. In this regard the Government has
embarked upon a time bound Digital India Plan. The details of this plan are
available on the Website of the Department of Electronics & Information
Technology (www.deity.nic.in).
As a part of Digital India Plan, the Department of Administrative Reforms &
Public Grievances has been made the nodal ministry for implementation of
e-Office in Central Ministries/Departments. The Department is regularly
monitoring implementation of the e-Office project. The Ministry of Panchayati
Raj has moved into 100% e-Office platform.
Central Secretariat Manual of Office (CSMOP) has been revised and the
14th Edition of the CSMOP was brought in the form of e-Book form on
22nd May, 2015, which is available on the website www.darpg.nic.in.
This is a much reduced and simplified version of the manual in comparison to the
earlier editions. A number of redundant and repetitive literatures and words
have been removed.
Government of India has also taken a number of initiatives for improving 'Ease
of Doing Business'. The emphasis has been on simplification and rationalization
of the existing rules and introduction of information technology to make
governance more efficient and effective.
of the focus areas of Government is to reduce the decision making layers to the
minimum while allowing for faster means of information sharing/dissemination.
The Government has launched a website firstname.lastname@example.com and
india.gov.in for this purpose. This is a citizen centric platform to
empower people to connect with the Government and contribute towards good
governance. Suggestions are also received on the PMO website. It also seeks
expert advice from the people, thoughts and ideas on various topics that concern
India. Citizens can join the discussion to share, debate and add value.
was stated by Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances
and Pensions and Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Dr. Jitendra
Singh in Lok Sabha today in a written reply to a question by Shri Nalin Kumar
Kateel, Shri B.N. Chandrappa, Shri D.K. Suresh and Shri R.K. Bharati
Source : PIB


text:
April 29th, 2014
And what costume shall the poor Disembodied Narratorbot X-15735 wear
To all tomorrow's SILENCE?
A hand-me-down dress from who knows where
To all tomorrow's SILENCE
And where will Disembodied Narratorbot X-15735 go and what shall Disembodied Narratorbot X-15735 do
When SILENCE comes around?
Disembodied Narratorbot X-15735 will turn once more to Sunday's clown
And cry behind the door
Yes, it's that time when the party goes sour, when the brave and the beautiful have gone home, or on to wilder more fabulous parties, and all that's left is the desperate dregs and the too far gone. The man that no-one knows who smells of milk. The broken, the twisted and the boring. And Gary Lactus & The Beast Must Die of course, sat in the corner pretending they have a podcast, shouting at the wall, laughing, singing idiotic jingles about imaginary people and talking, talking always talking.
Time to go home.
<ITEM> Admin time, with Batman Eternal, start at the middle, Hollyoaks vs Game of Thrones, Dinner Dance on Douglas Mountain, jingles and PREMIUM BONUS CONTENT.
<ITEM> The 100the anniversary self-congratulations continue with another gruelling session of The Quizzlertron! Think that scene in Clockwork Orange, but no-one's wearing any clothes and there's a lot more comics lying around. The ramblings include: Image comics jam session, De LA Soul's Fallin, Judgement Night, Jack Kirby and Bernie Wrightson, The SILENCE Comic, Brightonandhove, The Secret Origin of Silence, Young Love, Fame, The Full Gronch, Penis Fancy Dress, Joe Sacco vs Frank Quitely HOTTTT, 2000AD Prog 626, Frank by Jim Woodring, Dave's and Gosh, Micronauts, ROM, James Stokoe, The homo-eroticism of Johnny Alpha, the hunkiness of Rogue Trooper, Rob Liefield on Wireheads, Fantasy 2000AD, 21st Century Tank Girl Kickstarter, Geoff Darrow & Pat Mills on Flesh, Vincent D'Onofrio, Ryan Gosling, Claire Balding, Eric Stoltz, Steve Gerber, jack Kirby's Fourth World, 1986, Little Nemo, Krazy Kat, Gleat, Machines taking over, and so very much more.
<ITEM> A brief dip into the Reviewniverse to talk about Evan Dorkin's excellent Eltingville Club, then it's home for tea and biscuits.
So stop grubbing aound those ashtrays looking for stub-ends, stop mine-sweeping those half-empty beercans, and plonk yourself down next to Milk guy for a nice listen to…SILENCE!
Click to download SILENCE!#101
Contact us:
[email protected]
This edition of SILENCE! is proudly sponsored by the greatest comics shop on the planet, DAVE'S COMICS of Brighton.
It's also sponsored the greatest comics shop on the planet GOSH! Comics of London.


text:
Grand Galactic Actuary – Short Story by Gennady Stolyarov II
Gennady Stolyarov II
The short story below was authored by Gennady Stolyarov II, ASA, ACAS, MAAA, CPCU, ARe, ARC, API, AIS, AIE, AIAF, Chairman of the U.S. Transhumanist Party, and is one of the entries in the Society of Actuaries 12th Speculative Fiction Contest. It was published as one of the contest entries here.
You can read all of the entries here and vote for your choice of three of them here, until March 21, 2017. You are encouraged to read all of the submissions, and also to consider supporting Mr. Stolyarov's story, which has a transhumanist and cosmopolitan message, couched in a bit of insurance humor. Remember only to vote one time!
Euclid Jefferson, recently retired actuary, stepped off the MoonX tourist shuttle and into a dull gray meteor crater. He found unfamiliar the combined experiences of low gravity and his cumbersome spacesuit. Although he could leap ahead and quickly jump out of the crater, he found it challenging even to raise his arms. After a few minutes of tentative jump-walking, he slowly turned to observe the shuttle's pilot make a hasty takeoff. He wondered why he had been the only passenger on this particular flight. In the year 2036, such sparsely booked flights were not unheard of, but already quite uncommon. The weather at the spaceport had not been inclement, and the Archimedes Research Base usually attracted a steady flow of journalists, academics, and curiosity seekers. Why was today different?
The domes of the research base were lit only dimly, and the moonscape was strangely empty as he approached. There was no welcoming party – just a lone figure at the base entrance, clad in the field uniform of a lunar geologist, but without the tools. As Euclid approached, he discerned the face of his wife Hypatia. He had not seen her for a year; on Earth, he had received a series of experimental rejuvenation treatments that took approximately twenty years off of his biological age. She, having been moon-bound in the meantime, still had the appearance of a woman in her early fifties. Over her spacesuit, she still wore the necklace Euclid had given her before their wedding. They had planned to return to Earth together, where she would recover from the muscle and bone atrophy caused by prolonged low-gravity exposure, and then planned to receive the rejuvenation treatments herself. For now, though, she looked weary and showed relief, but no joy, at his arrival. Her expression predominantly showed deep alarm.
"Euclid – no time for greetings. The base has been evacuated. All world governments are on standby to see how this situation is resolved. You were able to come because only you were cleared to come. Your pre-scheduled trip to the base was the fastest opportunity for getting an actuary here. You – only you – are needed."
"What?" Euclid was incredulous.
"We have made first contact with an alien life form. It only wants to speak to an actuary. It refuses to move until it has done so."
Hypatia pressed a key on her remote control, and the door into the base's main dome slid away, admitting them inside. The research equipment had been cleared out, and no other human being was in sight. A few small utility bots scurried around the edges, performing routine essential maintenance, but the center of the dome's vast floor was occupied only by a massive, indistinct contraption, semi-shrouded in shadow. It seemed to be a makeshift structure – one supported by hundreds of thick, cylindrical, mechanical legs on top of which sat ten-meter-high black panels, arranged in a dodecagon, the center of which emitted a faint glow. Narrow cracks between the panels betrayed hints of slow, deliberative motion.
As the doors slid shut behind them, Euclid and Hypatia removed their helmets. "I am Euclid Jefferson!" Euclid shouted at the black structure. His voice echoed throughout the dome. "I am an actuary!"
The mechanical legs lifted briskly off the ground, floated in mid-air for a full second, then descended upon the floor with a resounding stomp.
"Well, here we finally are," boomed a slow, bass voice in perfect English. It was a self-assured voice, almost at the edge of Euclid's auditory comfort, but he did not perceive it as malevolent or threatening. The room brightened suddenly as half of the structure's panels slid away, leaving six standalone, massive computer screens. Thousands of three-dimensional spreadsheets, hundreds of thousands of lines of code appeared before Euclid in characters that were themselves three-dimensional, each comprised of intertwined geometric shapes more intricate than anything he had ever seen. Altogether they created a sea of ever-shifting, ever-evolving alien text. It seemed to him that calculations were ensuing in mid-air, but what was being calculated and why remained a mystery. At each of the six screens sat … an upright tortoise? Two meters tall? Deep blue in everything – skin, shell, eyes? In a thick black overcoat with a cutout for the shell? Typing? Was the low gravity getting to Euclid's head?
"My loyal associates," the voice resounded again. "I hired them as hatchlings. They reason well, but still need a few centuries to learn."
Euclid remained perplexed. "Who are you? How can you speak English?"
The sea of letters receded, and out of the center of the structure emerged the largest tortoise Euclid had ever seen – also completely blue – also in a black overcoat, except with ornate ruffles around the neck, limbs, and shell. He sat on a colossal, four-meter-tall throne, wrought from millions of tiny fibers that nonetheless buoyed his massive frame. A comparatively small table floated in front of him, filled with several dishes of giant leaves folded into elaborate designs. The alien's eyes regarded Euclid with a superior but also inexhaustibly patient gaze.
"You stand before Turtor the Old, Grand Galactic Actuary, Ratemaker of the Milky Way. For my analytical and data-gathering capabilities, renowned throughout the civilized universe, the absorption of your primitive Earth languages is but a moment's afterthought – and I have long observed your species and its myriad perplexing exemplars."
"Grand Galactic… Actuary?"
Euclid paused to think. It occurred to him that Turtor and his associates must be products of convergent evolution – unrelated to the tortoises of Earth but simply similar in their biological structures. They must have emerged on another world where slow, herbivorous, non-senescing terrestrial reptiles became the dominant life forms instead of primates. Euclid wondered what sort of world it must have been. A perpetually warm one, with plenty of plants? No predators? Ample space and time to deliberate?
"You humans have finally sent one who is worthy to speak to me. All I was offered before were some meaningless dignitaries: General, President, some Secretary of some strange organization pretending to represent all your little tribes, your 'nations'! Do you humans have no recognition that insurance rules the cosmos?"
"We had no idea that there was any sentient life apart from Earth!"
"This is no excuse," boomed Turtor. "I have watched your world for centuries. You stumbled in the dark, speculating, but now you have emerged from your species' infancy and can no longer evade the truth. You must now pay."
"Pay for what?"
"Cosmic general liability insurance, of course."
Euclid's eyes widened. "What is this insurance you speak of?"
"Think back a few decades, in your world. When a teenager drove one of your primitive manual automobiles, he was required to purchase liability insurance. Even your primitive laws recognized the potential damage that an inexperienced young driver could inflict on others, so they required all drivers to provide financially for that eventuality. Now it is your species' turn."
"But what is the parallel here?" Euclid still did not understand.
Turtor let out a prolonged sigh. "I have all the time in the universe to explain, I suppose. Your species is no longer a child species. You have established a settlement on another world. Children who cannot drive do not need insurance. A child species that cannot colonize space does not need insurance to protect others from its depredations. But once you are out settling on other worlds, you can do great damage – just like a teenager driving one of your old Earth vehicles for the first time!"
"But respectfully, the Moon is a barren rock!" Euclid objected. "No other life exists here. We are only beginning to establish ourselves and master even this environment. We were not even aware of life forms on other worlds until you arrived!"
"We know your species sufficiently well to highly doubt that you will stop with the Moon," Turtor replied. "There is a good reason why you were ignorant of the existence of other sapient species. As part of the Universal Insurance Mandate, those lacking required cosmic general liability insurance are shielded from any visual, auditory, or kinesthetic stimuli emanating from the rest of the galaxy's inhabitants. Your species' primitive efforts to search for extraterrestrial intelligence have yielded no signs to date precisely because of this. We have developed the ultimate risk-management strategy: avoidance of all contact with those who might do us harm and refuse to pay for the risk."
"So we cannot contact other species unless we have cosmic general liability insurance – and who will sell us cosmic general liability insurance?" Euclid inquired.
"The Galactic Insurance Consortium – developed and operated by the most renowned actuaries of the Milky Way – exists for the sole purpose of maintaining, pricing, reserving, and selling insurance that accompanies all transactions of civilized beings. Whatever can be done, we provide the insurance policy that precisely covers all of the risks involved."
Now Euclid was beyond intrigued. "A policy precisely tailored to each risk? How is this possible?"
"It is good that I am not in a hurry. You humans hurry too much, by the way – often pointlessly." It was true that Turtor was taking his time to explain. "My species – whose name would be far too intricate to pronounce in your language but is translated literally as 'Blueshellians' – are the most skilled students of risk this universe has produced. Our ancestors took their time, wandering through our world's lush meadows, eating leaves, and, most importantly, pondering. For all the time you humans devoted to slaughtering one another, we spent orders of magnitude more time thoroughly cataloguing and comprehending all the risks on our home-world and devising ways to mitigate them. You fragile humans can senesce and die… we only grow larger and stronger with age. Only accidents and infectious disease can destroy us – so the foremost focus of our work has been on preventing accidents and diseases and finding ways to quickly pay for repairing the unpreventable damage. By the time we were ready to venture out into space, we could anticipate every major contingency and threat. Any more warlike species had no means of defeating us, since our predictive models foresaw their strategies and devised the perfect defenses. Eventually they all realized that their best interest was to adopt the Universal Insurance Mandate and retain us to manage their risks. The system we have built undergirds the galactic order. Through insurance of everyone against every conceivable fortuitous peril, we give everyone a stake in peace and good behavior – and the primitive way of law enforcement through force has been made entirely obsolete. We actuaries have rendered obsolete the rulers and political systems of primitive species. You humans are actually fortunate to have evolved as late as you did; you would not have wished your first contact to have been with any of the conqueror species whom we supplanted."
"But how can you possibly comprehensively anticipate all major risks?" Euclid pressed.
"You might call this 'big data' – except far vaster than your human minds or even supercomputers can encompass. I travel the stars in search of species that may soon enter the spacefaring era and seek to observe them over the course of at least a few centuries before they establish their first settlement outside their home planet," Turtor explained. "My tour takes me to your region of the galaxy once every two of your decades, and this is my twenty-fifth visit. If I combine what I have learned of your species, those in similar stages of technological development, and those far more advanced, I can formulate reliable exa-variate predictive models of the risks facing humankind."
"Are you claiming to be able to predict the future? Can you anticipate what I will do next?" Euclid was incredulous.
"You will continue to stand here, questioning me. But no, my models will not exactly foretell the future. They will, however, lay out the paths along which the future is likely to unfold, with reasonable accuracy as to the probability of each path."
"So what are the major risks that your insurance policy would cover for humans?"
"Cosmic general liability insurance will compensate for the unintentional damage your species might inflict upon others. Your species has a propensity toward violence driven by tribalism and ideology. Not even my insurance can cover intentional malfeasance; for that, we would simply block you in perpetuity. However, as a result of human belligerence, you also still have eighty-year-old arsenals of nuclear missiles with astonishingly poor oversight. Our policy will cover the damage you humans might inflict on other species as a result of accidental nuclear launches. Your species also practices poor overall hygiene and may inadvertently transmit your Earth diseases to other worlds. Humans, furthermore, have a tendency to unthinkingly alter the climates in which they reside. If you introduce climate changes that are harmful to another sapient species, we have geoengineering controls in place to repair the damage, but the insurance policy will pay the cost of such repairs. And of course, there are miscellaneous coverages if any of you humans should unintentionally injure another sapient being or cause damage to its residence or spacecraft."
Euclid was puzzled. "I can see how these risks would eventually exist after contact with other life forms, but what is the rationale for requiring the entire species to purchase the policy? Individuals, after all, are responsible for inflicting particular instances of damage. Not all people will even be capable of harming other species at any given time!" Then a thought occurred to Euclid as to how this mandate might be escaped. "Are you not introducing cross-subsidization if you require everyone to pay for the losses that only a few are responsible for causing?"
"No more than one of your human group or blanket insurance policies or social insurance systems would produce cross-subsidization today," Turtor replied confidently. "As with those policies, it is simply far more convenient to encompass all potential sources of risk within the same policy – and that way the premium gets spread across a larger population with less burden on each individual."
"So what is the premium in any event? You require us to purchase coverage for risks that we have long considered uninsurable and enormous in the potential severity of losses. How much money are you planning to charge us?" Euclid realized that it would be best to obtain all relevant details before devising a response.
"Money? Your governments' fanciful pieces of paper, or your primitive electronic credit system? No," Turtor replied. "We have advanced for beyond your economic structures and their cumbersome media of exchange. The payment we seek is something… more tangible. And you are correct; the risks are enormous. Indeed, it is a wonder that your species has succeeded in surviving to this stage of development. My model from nineteen years ago gave this outcome only a 45-percent probability. That was quite a dangerous time period you just overcame. Even your own scientists said then that you were… two and a half of your minutes from doomsday?"
"So if not money, what are you seeking? Resources?"
"In a manner of speaking. Unless your species changes its ways, the premium that would suffice to cover your first twenty-year policy term will be… hmmm… can those calculations be correct?" He gestured to one of his Blueshellian associates, who nodded in affirmation. "They must be: Two Earths."
"Two Earths!"
"Yes, everything tangible on your planet, except for life forms, twice over. It would actually come out to 2.08616 Earths precisely – but, given the divisibility issues involved, I will give you a discretionary schedule-rating discount equal to the fractional Earth."
"But this is impossible – even if we wanted to pay!" Euclid objected.
"Hence our dilemma," Turtor noted matter-of-factly.
"Surely there must be other discounts, loss-prevention measures we can take to reduce the premium!" Euclid expressed a faint hope.
"This is why I needed to speak to an actuary. Yes, we have approximately 1.5 trillion discount possibilities built into the rating plan. The indicated premium for your policy adjusts in real time based on the known behaviors of individual humans as well as decisions of large institutions within your societies. Ah – it looks like there is another civil war breaking out in your Sudan just now; you really need to stop having those! Were it not for my discretionary discount, your species' premium would have risen by another 0.04 Earths as a result."
"So what can we do? Nuclear disarmament?"
"That would save you 0.5 Earths. Not having the ability to destroy all sapient life forms from a centralized location is a good start."
"That still leaves an impossibly high premium!"
"To solve the problem of infectious disease, you need to deploy nanobots that will detect and destroy harmful pathogens. We happen to offer them as a benefit to policyholders. As a bonus, they will also repair aging-related damage to your organisms far more seamlessly than your crude rejuvenation therapies. You might potentially live indefinitely like we do."
"I would gladly take them if I could!" Euclid replied. Was there an opportunity to be had from all this?
"Very well, assuming they are deployed with haste, this results in a savings of another 0.8 Earths."
"But now we at a premium of 0.7 Earths," noted Euclid. "How could we possibly pay that?"
"Your planet has oceans covering approximately 70 percent of its landmass. You will cede the oceans to the Galactic Insurance Consortium," Turtor responded. "It will not be obtrusive. Your ships will maintain right of way, but we will build monitoring platforms and maintain suitable habitats for all aquatic species. All oceanic resource extraction will now be performed by us; we can do it much more elegantly than you, with no long-term damage to any species' population. We will trade with you for any resources you continue to extract from land. As part of our risk-management program, we will also maintain a permanent contingent of peacemakers who will live on the ocean platforms, observe your geopolitical dynamics, and interpose defensive shields around any humans who are about to be menaced by war or violent crime. If this results in a steady increase of peace and stability of your societies, you may, over time, become eligible for a conflict-free discount."
It did not take Euclid long to decide. "An end to war and disease? Solutions to our environmental problems? In exchange for your oversight? This is a reasonable offer indeed! But what am I to do? I am but one traveler, one retired actuary! What authority do I have to make such a deal for all humankind?"
Hypatia tapped him on the shoulder. "You do not know?" She whispered to him. "All the governments of Earth and their intelligence agencies are tapped into this discussion. They have been listening all along! You were brought here as a last-ditch attempt to negotiate…"
"… And we can even hear your whispers!" another voice, harsher than Turtor's, reverberated throughout the room. "Mr. Jefferson, this is Director Mal Powers of the United States National Security Agency. We thank you for your efforts to communicate with the alien entity and discover its demands. Our diplomats have been in ongoing international deliberations regarding this proposal."
"I recommend approval. This could be just what humankind needs to escape its age-old miseries and join the advanced species of the galaxy!" Euclid exclaimed.
"Yet there are those among the nations of the world who espouse a different outlook," Director Powers replied. "The alien entity, they contend, is a threat to human civilization, our distinctive culture and way of life. There are many who say we cannot abide this alien influence transforming our economy, taking our jobs in fishing, oil rigging, medicine, and arms manufacturing! And if we allow these Blueshellians to settle on our planet, how soon before they have a demographic advantage over us? So there is now a vote at the United Nations."
"A vote on the proposal? But what is the alternative? The status quo?" Euclid inquired with confusion.
"Remember, we still have nuclear missiles on high alert. Instead of dismantling them, which could render us vulnerable to a stealth invasion by the aliens, we could launch them preemptively at this base and solve the situation in this way!" Euclid was horrified. Powers had sounded almost gleeful at the prospect.
"Are you seriously considering this?!" Euclid was furious. "The destruction of the most sophisticated life form we have yet encountered? Because of xenophobia and protectionism?!"
"Mr. Jefferson, we thank you for your service, however unintended, but these policy decisions are simply beyond your realm of expertise. You are an actuary, and you have proved invaluable in negotiating with this… galactic tortoise actuary – but we will remind you to leave the important decisions to those true policymakers who have global security interests in mind!" That did not sound like a mere reminder.
"If you would, Director Powers, at least let us know how the United Nations vote is proceeding?" Hypatia attempted another approach.
"Well, apart from Canada and the Scandinavian countries, whose delegates voted in favor of this insurance scheme, your recommendation does not have much support, it seems. The United States is probably going to abstain; I would have recommended opposition – but it was determined that this would appear too inhumane for some constituencies. Still, I think the outcome is a foregone conclusion, as there are plenty of nuclear powers willing to launch…"
"WHAT YOU FORGET," Turtor's voice boomed suddenly, "IS THAT ACTUARIES RULE THIS GALAXY!" Turtor's platform shot up in a furious ascent, then landed thunderously upon the floor. The screens of Turtor's associates swiveled around so that Euclid and Hypatia had a full view of what they displayed.
Missiles in silos throughout the world, bearing American, Russian, Chinese, British, French, Iranian markings… were all crumbling! The screens flashed again. Rows of tanks and military aircraft were shown literally coming apart at the seams. Within moments, they were mere piles of scrap metal. The next series of screens showed what looked to be state-of-the-art cyber-command centers. Euclid spotted a scowling, incredulous man in uniform who must have been Director Mal Powers. All of his computers were melting before his eyes. His analysts, too, sat, speechless. The last set of images was from within the United Nations Building. The delegates of all the nations of Earth were shown with mouths agape at a gigantic projection of Turtor, seated on his throne, proclaiming, "YOU SHALL HAVE PEACE!"
Then the screens fell dark, and Turtor calmed. "They shall have peace, but not access to other civilized life forms – not yet. Your species' morality and restraint have yet to catch up to your technological advancement. Explore the barren segments of the universe for now, if you wish, but you will not have access to anything truly remarkable. Perhaps in a century or two, we might reconsider."
"But individual humans do not all share the same hostile inclinations! These proponents of reflexive violence do not represent me!" Euclid protested.
"Nor me!" Hypatia exclaimed.
"Hmmm…" Turtor pondered for a moment. "I suppose I can make an underwriting exception, since we did have a productive conversation. I can price a cosmic general liability policy for a family of two. Associates, input the risk characteristics, please. Interesting… the underwriting system has accepted you."
"But what will be our premiums?"
"This, I think, will suffice for the first policy term." Turtor pointed to Hypatia's necklace. "It has no real use-value in our economy – but our species also has retained a penchant for collecting shiny objects."
Euclid turned to Hypatia. "This is a difficult choice… we can do it if you are certain."
"Oh, it's only a necklace!" she exclaimed. "The universe for a bauble? We accept!"
Gennady Stolyarov II (G. Stolyarov II) became the second Chairman in the history of the Transhumanist Party in November 2016. Mr. Stolyarov is an actuary, independent philosophical essayist, science-fiction novelist, poet, amateur mathematician, composer, and Editor-in-Chief of The Rational Argumentator, a magazine championing the principles of reason, rights, and progress. Mr. Stolyarov regularly produces YouTube Videos discussing life extension, libertarianism, and related subjects. Read more about Mr. Stolyarov here.


text:
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This Land Of the Free Small Tote Bag not only can store your cosmetics but also jewelry, electronic accessories, camera, essential oil, toiletries, shaving kit, valuable objects, and so on.
15″W x 16″H, size suitable for makeup and personal stationery. This cute and fun little bag can be used as a makeup bag, travel case, pencil case, purse, pouch, or organizer. This is a perfect gift for friends and family.
Made of high-quality polyester material, this tote bag is scratch-resistant and durable.
You can reuse this small tote bag and reduce your carbon footprint and plastic usage.
Actual product color may vary from the images shown. Every monitor or mobile display has a different capability to display colors, and every individual may see these colors differently. In addition, lighting conditions at the time the photo was taken can also affect an image's color.
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Welcome to DFW Door Repair! We have the door weatherstripping know-how you need and the value you deserve. Proudly Serving Bedford, TX and the surrounding areas.
High Quality, Professional Workmanship, Fit To Perfection
Installs Hundreds Of Doors Each Year
100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
300+ 5-Star Reviews
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Save money by saving energy
Feeling a breeze around your doorways? This could be due to worn-out weatherstripping or a poorly fitted door. This may seem like an easy DIY project but if done incorrectly or if you use the wrong product, you may be costing yourself money in the long run. Don't worry, we have put in the man-hours in Bedford to test the different types of weatherstripping so you don't have to.
Updating your weatherstripping in Bedford has so many benefits. It is proven that sealing your doors can add up to a 10% reduction in your energy loss. A tight seal around your doorways also prevents rodents, bugs, and pests from sneaking in when looking for food or a warm place to rest. Weatherstripping keeps any water from coming into your home or seeping down into the doorway. If left in this state, this can cause mold and will be a much larger issue to repair in the future.
Already seeing signs of water damage or mold? Learn more about our door weatherstripping services here or go ahead and book an appointment to speak to one of our experts.
We know that repairing or replacing weatherstripping can be easy to put off but DFW Door Repair in Bedford makes it so quick and simple that you don't have to! What goes into weatherstripping replacement:
First, we choose the type of weatherstripping that best suits you and your homes needs
Then we measure the perimeter of your door frame in order to know the exact amount of weatherstripping needed
We remove the old weatherstripping
And finally we install the new weatherstripping, making sure it it snug and has a secured seal around the door frame!
It's that easy! Plus the benefits of energy usage production and keeping water and pests out of your home is a huge improvement for something so quick and painless. Just as it is to get a free door weatherstripping estimate today in Bedford! Click the link here to get the door weatherstripping Bedford TX residents rely on from our new brand, Your New Door.
Check Out Our Work!
In order to ensure your home remains properly sealed and insulated, weatherstripping should be replaced at least every 5-10 years.
Common materials used for weatherstripping include rubber, foam, vinyl, felt, and metal.
The cost of weatherstripping replacement depends on the type of material used, the size of the area being sealed, and the complexity of the job. Some weatherstripping jobs cost $200-$300, other weatherstripping jobs cost upwards of $700, it all depends on your wants and needs. We want to make sure that your home is a secured and insulated as possible so we want to make sure we fit your needs.
Weatherstripping is vital in reducing noise pollution, reducing energy usage by up to 10% by keeping out the elements, and preventing water and pests from entering your home!
DFW Door Repair offers a Limited Lifetime Product Warranty. We also provide a one-year service and installation warranty
Have Any More Questions? Call Us Today!
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If you're ready to get started, discuss your weatherstripping options with a DFW Door Repair design specialist in Bedford. We're here to answer any questions you may have, and help make your project easy.


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Research Highlights
Atmospheric histories and global emissions of the anthropogenic hydrofluorocarbons HFC-365mfc, HFC-245fa, HFC-227ea, and HFC-236fa." Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 116, no. D8 (2011): D08304.
"Emissions of ozone-depleting halocarbons from China." Geophysical Research Letters 36, no. 15 (2009): L15823.
"First appearance and rapid growth of anthropogenic HFC-245fa (CHF2CH2CF3) in the atmosphere." Geophysical Research Letters 33, no. 20 (2006): L20806.
"First Observations of the Fourth Generation Synthetic Halocarbons HFC-1234yf, HFC-1234ze(E), and HCFC-1233zd(E) in the Atmosphere." Environmental Science & Technology 49, no. 5 (2015): 2703-2708.
"Modern inhalation anesthetics: Potent greenhouse gases in the global atmosphere." Geophysical Research Letters 42, no. 5 (2015): 2014GL062785.
"Abrupt reversal in emissions and atmospheric abundance of HCFC-133a (CF3CH2Cl)." Geophysical Research Letters 42 (2015): 8702-8710.
"Atmospheric histories and global emissions of halons H-1211 (CBrClF2), H-1301 (CBrF3), and H-2402 (CBrF2CBrF2)." Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 121 (2016): 3663-3686.
"Atmospheric histories and emissions of chlorofluorocarbons CFC-13 (CClF3), ΣCFC-114 (C2Cl2F4), and CFC-115 (C2ClF5)." Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 18 (2018): 979-1002.
"Abundances, emissions, and loss processes of the long-lived and potent greenhouse gas octafluorooxolane (octafluorotetrahydrofuran, c-C4F8O) in the atmosphere." Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 19 (2019): 3481-3492.


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I wanted to show you a Halloween lantern swag I recently made for one of my good customers. She asked me if I could make one for her and of course I wanted to accomodate! I actually made two of these and sold the other one before I could list it in my shop!
My supplies came from all over..but the witch hat and most of the ribbon are from Hobby Lobby.
Love the glittered pumpkins and glittered curly sticks from Michael's.
Oh how I can't wait to start Christmas!!! I have so many ideas for these.
I am going to Dallas on Sunday and will be back Wednesday. I am going to market to look for several things including Christmas items. I will be shutting down my Etsy store for a few days starting Sunday. There are still a few things left, but I haven't added much since I'm leaving. If you would like something I can ship it out tomorrow. I am finishing up custom orders and will be on my way!
I will be updating my facebook page while I'm in Dallas so come along with me!
Have a great weekend!


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Author: Karen Stivali
Book: Moment of Fate
Series: Moments In Time #5
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Publication date: February 24, 2017
Length: 244 pages
Cover Artist: Anna Sikorska
Reviewed by Morningstar
Bryan Dane's been living the dream—photography student by day, up-and-coming rocker by night. His summer goals are to earn his last few credits, graduate from NYU, spend as much time in the recording studio as possible, and survive the next few months without sex so he can complete his yearlong goal of self-imposed celibacy. Everything is on track, until he meets Oliver Newcastle.
For years Oliver planned a marriage of convenience with his high school BFF, but now that she's fallen in love for real, with someone else, it's no longer convenient. So Oliver came out to his family, quit his job, and left small-town New England for NYC, an intensive summer study program, and a chance to find his own happiness.
From the moment they meet the sexual tension between Bryan and Oliver sizzles. But Bryan wants no part of a relationship, and Oliver wants to sew his wild oats—he just isn't sure how. Oliver seeks Bryan's help navigating the NYC gay scene, which throws them together in increasingly more sexual situations until they can no longer deny they're hot for each other. Bryan is desperate to keep things simple, but fate might have other plans.
Buy Links
The first time I ever read a Karen Stivali book I fell in love! It was a
free read (still free BTW) called Tonight. I remember reading this wondering
first, how was it freaking free and second, why didn't everyone and their
mother know who she was and buy all her books like now?! Because, for me, her
writing was fantastic, it was the flow, the pace, the characters, the settings,
the HEAT. She had it all. And she quickly became one of my favorite auto buy
authors. Maybe that makes me bias, but I think I can be objective...mostly ;)
The world she created in the Moments in Time series is a world with very
dynamic and fully fleshed out characters that I cannot help but connect with,
cheer for, and swoon over. And Moment of Fate was no different. Bryan Dane is
the down to earth rocker guy who was going to NYU for photography we met in
book one, Moment of Impact. Finally being able to see him and know him was what
I've been waiting for. He's the guy that never shares his problems, never wants
to depend on someone else, but is always there to lend a helping hand. Bryan is
working hard to graduate, taking it slow this summer with his band, and oh yeah
he has that whole year of celibacy thing. I loved the glimpses we got of him in
book one, but seeing him deeper here, finding out his secrets; shed a whole new
light on what makes him tick. He's not as put together as he makes himself out
to be, which honestly made me love him more. He's a funny guy who really gives
everything 110% when he sets his mind to it. So finishing this pact shouldn't be
so difficult…or so he thought until he met Oliver.
Oliver is a new character, and although the story is completely from
Bryan's POV, I felt I knew as much about him as I did Bryan. Oliver seems sweet,
naive, and full of life. After living a half-life; he chose, he's finally out in the
big bad city wanting to explore and learn about the side of himself he's kept
hidden. I loved his blog and Bryan reading it - in his sneaky stalkerish ways -
because it felt like through them I, as the reader, got to know him better. The
chemistry between these two was a super slow burn but was hot and ready to ignite
at any given moment. Karen took their story slowly and I loved each and every
scene between these guys. And can I just say talk about super-hot catch the kindle
on fire sex scenes!!! I know in part it's the chemistry and anticipation but
believe me when I tell you there are very few authors that I can say write
smexy so well and Karen is one of them. It should come with a warning to not
read in public, for sure.
The journey of love is easy to see between them, even when they weren't
ready to admit it. The story talks about Oliver's need for a new experience,
exploring to get to know himself, but in the end this is a story about Bryan
letting go of the past, looking to the future, and letting people in. It was
heartwarming, heat filled, with breathtaking writing, and a place wouldn't mind
going back to again and again.
Enter the monthly giveaway to win
a $30.00 Dreamspinner Press GC
Contest ends March 31st!
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Organic Farming Builds Soil and Organic Matter
USDA Study Shows Organic Farming Builds Soil and Organic Matter Better than Conventional No-Till Farming
USDA study shows organic plots yielded 18% more corn
Sustainable Food News, July 11, 2007
Long-term experiments are a feature of many research efforts by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricutlural Research Service (AMS).
Whether in the Pacific Northwest, Midwest, or Southeastern regions of the United States, these kinds of studies provide valuable insights and, occasionally, unexpected results.
A relatively new long-term experiment at Beltsville, Maryland, has shown that organic farming can build soil organic matter better than conventional no-till farming can.
"It is one of a few long-term studies comparing organic farming with no-till," said John Teasdale, the lead scientist for the nine-year study. "Most others compare organic with conventional plow-tillage cropping systems." Teasdale heads the Agricultural Research Service's Sustainable Agricultural Systems Laboratory in Beltsville.
These results are the latest from several long-term projects that are part of ARS's national program in Agricultural System Competitiveness and Sustainability. This program supports production systems that enhance both profits and natural-resource quality.
Organic Builds Soil Better Than No-Till From 1994 to 2002, Teasdale compared minimal-tillage organic corn, soybean, and wheat with the same crops grown conventionally with no-till.
Many agriculturalists believe that no-till builds soil better than organic farming, which uses tillage to incorporate manure and control weeds. Tillage is known to destroy soil organic matter. But Teasdale's study showed that organic farming built up soil better than conventional no-till because use of manure and cover crops more than offsets losses from tillage.
In a three-year study following the nine-year system comparison, Teasdale grew corn with conventional no-till practices on all plots to see which ones had the most productive soils. Those turned out to be the organic plots. They had more carbon and nitrogen and yielded 18 percent more corn than the other plots did.
"It takes time for organic matter to build up, so we wouldn't have seen these surprising results had we only looked after a few years," Teasdale says.
What About Weeds? Despite organic farming's enrichment of the soil, weed problems during the 9-year study were enough to lower corn and soybean-but not wheat-yields below those of no-till crops.
But in another long-term experiment begun in 1996, Teasdale learned that adding more kinds of crops to the organic rotation helped control weeds.
"Weeds tend to adapt to crops whose growth timetable creates conditions favorable to weed growth," Teasdale says.
Planting the same summer annual crop year after year allows weeds suited to that growth cycle to keep maturing and adding their seeds to the soil. In organic systems, Teasdale showed that rotating diverse crops markedly lowers the numbers of weed seeds lying dormant in soil.
In an ongoing experiment called the "Farming Systems Project," Teasdale and ARS soil scientist Michel Cavigelli showed that after 10 years, corn yields were higher in diverse organic rotations that included a perennial legume.
"This is one of a few studies that consider the effects of rotation length and crop complexity on organic grain yields," Teasdale says.
Sustainable Surprises in Grass Seed Country Results have also come in recently from the grass seed-growing region of the Pacific Northwest, with more pleasant surprises that showed up after years of research.
Farmers in wet western Oregon grow various grasses to produce seeds for use in lawns, sports fields, and pastures.
In a 10-year study, scientists at the ARS Forage Seed and Cereal Research Unit at Corvallis-plant physiologists Gary M. Banowetz and Stephen Griffith, agronomist George W. Mueller-Warrant, and hydrologist Jerry Whittaker-found that rather than burn or bale leftover grass straw after harvest, farmers would do better to plant the next crop right through the straw.
"This can lead to higher yields and lower costs while also protecting soil from erosion," Banowetz says. The study was conducted jointly with Oregon State University scientists.
The team also found that no-till meadowfoam-a native winter annual-was a good addition to perennial grass rotations. "It is very suitable to no-till and low-input production. It didn't need spring fertilizer or herbicide and yielded more seed oil than meadowfoam grown with tillage," Mueller-Warrant says.
Mueller-Warrant and colleagues also found that meadowfoam and some other rotation crops help to control small rodents called "voles" without the need for tillage to disrupt their tunnels.
No-Till for Pacific Northwest Wheat In 2006, Washington State University (WSU) and ARS scientists published a paper on an 8-year study on the wheat farm of Ron Jirava. The farm is in an area that has annual rainfall of 11 inches.
"This paper provides the first comprehensive, multidisciplinary report of long-term alternative annual no-till cropping systems in the low-precipitation region of the Pacific Northwest," says William F. Schillinger, the WSU scientist who led the study.
The ARS scientists in the study were Ann Kennedy, a soil scientist with the Land Management and Water Conservation Research Unit, and Tim Paulitz, a plant pathologist with the Root Disease and Biological Control Research Unit, both in Pullman, Washington.
In that study, Douglas Young, WSU agricultural economist, found that, in years of normal precipitation, returns from growing no-till spring wheat every year were similar to returns from growing one crop of winter wheat every other year with a year of fallow in between.
In dry years, however, the annual spring wheat showed significantly more economic risk. This made the 8-year average net returns for the annual cropping lag behind the conventional summer fallow rotation by $24 to $29 per acre.
Kennedy appreciates ARS's ability to sustain research experiments for the long haul-especially collaborative research with university colleagues when grants may run out.
"We often find things that we wouldn't have found in a shorter study," she says. "This is especially true in farming, where there are so many variables, such as the weather. Even economic studies require a span of years to get a clear view of what's really happening. We need to go through enough cycles to average things out."


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Is Walmart Going Bagless on July 1? Yes & No
A trip to the local Walmart is pretty much a mundane everyday occurrence for most folks. But a slight change in that routine can cause a huge ripple effect.
Case in point, a viral article coming from 92 Moose in Augusta, Maine (a Townsquare Media station, like this one) which stated that Walmart was going 100% bagless on July 1. Seeing that this article originated in Maine, this was absolutely true.
Maine's Ban on Plastic Shopping Bags Starts on July 1, 2021
What wasn't immediately clear for some readers once the article was picked up by various news sharing platforms, like News Break, was that this was set to happen only in Maine Walmarts on July 1, which was designated to coincide with the Pine Tree State's plastic bag ban on July 1. The ban was originally set to start in April of 2020, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
After a quick uproar on Twitter, the corporate giant's communications team made things quite clear: "Walmart is converting all of its stores in the State of Maine to bagless on July 1."
Snopes: "Walmart has not announced that all of its stores in the U.S. will be bagless on July 1, 2021."
Even "myth buster" fact-checking site Snopes caught wind and took the opportunity to make sure Walmart shoppers in other states knew they would not be deprived of plastic bags just yet.


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Project News
- We made the first 1.9 release candidate today, in preparation for a release next week.
- We're working on a repack of AMO-hosted Jetpack add-ons. If you have an add-on hosted on AMO, and your add-on can be automatically repacked, then you should expect to get an email soon pointing to a new version which has been repacked with the latest SDK. You can then test that version, and if it passes, update your AMO-hosted add-on with the new version.
Quick Stats
- Total open bugs: 324
- Bugs created last week: 26
- Bugs fixed last week: 11
- Total SDK-based Addons on AMO: 924
- Open pull requests on Github: 41
Note: the stats above are based on the queries I linked to for each item. If you have suggestions on how these queries might be made more accurate,please comment below. Stats generated at 2012-07-31 21:20:58 PDT
Meeting Brief
- Alex has written a battery of tools for analysing and repacking SDK-based add-ons. He's repacked all repackable add-ons that are hosted on AMO, next we need to upload these somewhere public, and notify the original authors that new versions are available, if they want to test them.
- Jorge attended BlackHat, which featured a presentation on browser privacy & fingerprinting. Web content can identify which add-ons are installed by trying to load content from resource:// urls. The SDK should use a protocol not accessible to web content for the data files packaged inside add-ons.
Full minutes are available here:


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These 3 Industries are Being Fundamentally Changed by Smart Technology
Smart technology has seen explosive growth in recent years, leading to an uptick in startups popping up to capitalize on smart tech and the innovative ways it can be leveraged. With demand for such devices increasing exponentially, it's little wonder that many industries are diving into this technology. Today, we'll discuss three of them.
Energy and Conservation
It should come as no surprise that a major driving force behind the use of smart technology is for this technology to use energy and natural resources more intelligently. Of course, it also doesn't hurt that smart technology allows us to save time and money as well, through the automation of processes that once required a human touch to complete. In addition to making homes 'smarter' and more accommodating to the needs of those living in them, smart tech has been proven to be a major player in environmental conservation. Automated devices have been able to track and report on various kinds of environmental data, including waterflow, plant health, migration patterns, and many other variables, allowing us to use this data to improve our treatment of our environment.
Fitness and Health
Ever since the first 'smart' shoe - the Micropacer - was introduced in 1984 by Adidas, smart technology and fitness have been close companions. In just the past few years, devices like fitness bands and smartwatches have exploded in popularity, and more innovations have followed fast.
As fitness bands and watches have become more intelligent, the technology that powers them and their functions has improved as well. Now, features like application integration, improved functionality, and quicker response times are available in fabric form. These smart fabrics have led to innovations like smart socks and undergarments, fitness rings, shoe inserts, and other activewear and accessories hitting the market en masse. Using these technologies, everyone from the active exerciser to the casual enthusiast will be able to better measure and optimize their workout regimen, even avoiding injury.
All over the world, one of the biggest time sinks is the battle to get from point A to point B. In many places, the commute to work can be stretched due to traffic congestion, and in others, impractical traffic patterns extend the amount of time spent sitting behind the wheel. This is one issue that is actively being worked on through smart technology now, as is evident by the aggressive research and development into driverless transportation. After all, with machine learning and AI behind the wheel, traffic as a whole could become a cohesive network, rather than the mass of individual, autonomous bodies all looking out for number one.
This is a concept that has long been considered as a solution for the persistent issues with mass transportation that have been evident since, well, mass transportation became a common thing. We have never been closer to successfully revolutionizing automated transportation in a way that is practical for widespread application. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and other places have experimented with concepts like Uber's driverless cars. While this initiative didn't go quite according to plan, it still demonstrated that this technology is on the cusp of market readiness.
Do you have questions about smart technology? Reach out to CTTS today at (512) 388-5559


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Steel Division: Normandy 44 is a Tactical Real-Time Strategy (RTS) game, developed by Eugen Systems, the creators of titles like Wargame and R.U.S.E. This new game puts players in command of detailed, historically accurate tanks, troops, and vehicles at the height of World War II. Players can measure their tactical skills against several opponents in big multiplayer battles or against enemies in a challenging single-player campaign.
Steel Division: Normandy 44 allows players to take control over legendary military divisions from six different countries, such as the American 101st Airborne, the German armored 21st Panzer or the 3rd Canadian Division, during the invasion of Normandy in 1944.


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As print changes and evolves so do trade magazines. Global Print Monitor is a new kind of trade magazine striving to help printers evolve from the traditional definition of print as "ink on paper" towards a new future-oriented "communication service provider" concept. Printers and print service providers nowadays cannot be defined as pure printers anymore. Print and its processes, services as well as results and output are part of the huge communication portfolio that marketers and brands require. Print cannot be seen as a single industry anymore. In turn this affects printers as they are seen as communication consultants by their clients.
In addition, print evolved further into some previously unimagined areas such as printed electronics, RFID as well as solar panel manufacturing etc. that all combine to provide some functionality for everyday life and that should be closely monitored as diversification of print shops and their future might be impacted.
Thus, Global Print Monitor provides the one-stop source for trade news within the printing, packaging and communication markets as well as an extensive portfolio of business related happenings around the world. Global Print Monitor helps printers follow both competitive technologies and emerging opportunities.
Its true worldwide scope, internationally renowned editors and seven languages content with editorial stories, analysis and instant up-to-date news, blogs and white paper sections make it an outstanding publication that within a short time frame has captured worldwide attention and recognition.
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phone +49 172 511 2633
SAS Visuelle Kommunikation, Sabine A. Slaughter, Osterstrasse 59, 30880 Laatzen