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Is Blockchain the New Internet?
Evolving beyond its association with bitcoin, blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies can remove significant layers of complexity from global supply chains. It can facilitate greater trust and transparency between supply chain stakeholders, supporting the automation of administrative and commercial processes. Smart contract concepts will also create opportunities for new services and business models in logistics.
Key Developments & Implications
Blockchain is a nascent technology which at its core represents a fundamental shift from a centralized to a decentralized and distributed database system. By sharing information on a blockchain-based system, the technology can support collaboration and transparency in the highly fragmented logistics industry. The greatest application area lies in global trade, where solutions that reduce supply chain trade barriers can increase global GDP by nearly 5% and global trade by 15%. Looking ahead, industry adoption, governance of standards, and interoperability will be critical to the success of this technology in enterprise applications.
Faster and leaner logistics in global trade using a common blockchain-based system creates transparency for all supply chain parties as they can view progress of goods, status of customs documents, and other data (e.g., Maersk/IBM joint venture). Key trade documents such as the bill of lading can be digitalized with participants issuing, transferring, and receiving the original document through a blockchain network (e.g., ZIM e-bill of lading). Industry-wide adoption will have significant impact, reducing delay, fraud, and costs across the supply chain.
Improving traceability and transparency of goods across the supply chain, from point of origin to last-life will be possible with blockchain technology. Several initiatives are monitoring goods provenance, from how they were made to how they are being managed. This data is stored permanently and shared across decentralized networks, enabling comprehensive track-and-trace beyond current capabilities. Users can verify if products are authentic or have met handling requirements (e.g., Walmart pilot on food tracking).
Automating commercial processes with blockchain-based smart contracts can greatly enhance payment times and reduce invoicing errors through instantaneous payment once agreed conditions are met (e.g., initiating payment as soon as a pallet arrives at the right location). A key application area in future will be machine-to-machine payments (e.g., IoTA).
Topics Covered in the Report
- Understanding blockchain
- Blockchain examples across industries
- Blockchain in logistics
Talk to an Expert
Gina Chung
Head of Innovation
Americas and Trend Research, DHL
Gina Chung leads the research and innovation activities of DHL and is in charge of the DHL Americas Innovation Center: a state-of-the-art platform to engage startups and industries on the future of logistics. Since 2012, she has shaped DHL's global innovation agenda by driving a portfolio of projects focused on the rapid testing and adoption of technologies such as collaborative robotics and artificial intelligence across DHL's operations. Prior to her current role, she also led the development of DHL's trend research series including co-authoring publications such as IoT in Logistics together with Cisco and the DHL Logistics Trend Radar. Gina is based in Chicago and holds two degrees from the University of Auckland.


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Almost 13 years ago, Mitt Romney left Bain Capital, the successful private equity firm he had helped start, and moved to Utah to rescue the Salt Lake City Olympic Games and begin a second career in public life.
Yet when it came to his considerable personal wealth, Mr. Romney never really left Bain.
In what would be the final deal of his private equity career, he negotiated a retirement agreement with his former partners that has paid him a share of Bain's profits ever since, bringing the Romney family millions of dollars in income each year and bolstering the fortune that has helped finance Mr. Romney's political aspirations.
The arrangement allowed Mr. Romney to pursue his career in public life while enjoying much of the financial upside of being a Bain partner as the company grew into a global investing behemoth.
In the process, Bain continued to buy and restructure companies, potentially leaving Mr. Romney exposed to further criticism that he has grown wealthier over the last decade partly as a result of layoffs. Moreover, much of his income from the arrangement has probably qualified for a lower tax rate than ordinary income under a tax provision favorable to hedge fund and private equity managers, which has become a point of contention in the battle over economic inequality.
An examination of Mr. Romney's public financial disclosures, as well as interviews with former Bain partners, business associates and counselors to his campaign, reveals the extent of his financial relationship with Bain Capital and how it has allowed him to continue amassing a personal fortune while building a political career.
Though Mr. Romney left Bain in early 1999, he received a share of the corporate buyout and investment profits enjoyed by partners from all Bain deals through February 2009: four global buyout funds and 18 other funds, more than twice as many over all as Mr. Romney had a share of the year he left. He was also given the right to invest his own money alongside his former partners. Because some of the funds and deals covered by Mr. Romney's agreement will not fully wind down for several years, Mr. Romney is still entitled to a share of some of Bain's profits.
During his political career, Mr. Romney has promoted his experience as a businessman while deflecting criticism of layoffs caused by private equity deals by noting that he left Bain in 1999. But records and interviews show that in the years since, he has benefited from at least a few Bain deals that resulted in upheaval for companies, workers and communities.
One lucrative deal for Bain involved KB Toys, a company based in Pittsfield, Mass., which one of the firm's partnerships bought in 2000. Three years later, when Mr. Romney was the governor of Massachusetts, the company began closing stores and laying off thousands of employees. More recently, Bain helped lead the private equity purchase of Clear Channel Communications, the nation's largest radio station operator, which resulted in the loss of 2,500 jobs.
Much information about Mr. Romney's wealth is not known publicly. Federal law does not obligate him to disclose the precise details of his investments. He has declined to release his tax returns, and his campaign last week refused to say what tax rate he paid on his Bain earnings.
But since Mr. Romney's payouts from Bain have come partly from the firm's share of profits on its customers' investments, that income probably qualifies for the 15 percent tax rate reserved for capital gains, rather than the 35 percent that wealthy taxpayers pay on ordinary income. The Internal Revenue Service allows investment managers to pay the lower rate on the share of profits, known in the industry as "carried interest," that they receive for running funds for investors.
"These are options that are not available to the ordinary taxpayer," said Victor Fleischer, a law professor at the University of Colorado who studies financial firms. "You continue to take your carried interest — a return on labor, not capital invested — and you're paying 15 percent on it instead of high marginal income rates."
Mr. Romney is among the wealthiest candidates ever to run for president, with a family fortune that his campaign has estimated at $190 million to $250 million. In the years since he left Bain, much of his wealth has migrated into investments outside the company or into family trusts, including an additional $100 million set aside for his five sons.
But the family's Bain holdings are still considerable: in his 2011 disclosure, Mr. Romney reported Bain assets between $12.4 million and $60.9 million, which provided between $1.5 million and $9.3 million in income. The blind trust for his wife, Ann, held at least another $10 million, generating income of at least $4.1 million. Because the campaign is required to provide only a minimum value for some Bain assets now held by Mrs. Romney, the total could be far more.
A spokesman for Bain declined to comment on the specifics of the arrangement, citing confidentiality agreements with Mr. Romney.
Andrea Saul, a spokeswoman for Mr. Romney, said, "This was a typical market deal. Bain Capital has no incentive to overpay Governor Romney, and they didn't."
While other private equity firms have granted departing founders and senior executives a share of carried interest, also known as "carry," Mr. Romney's retirement deal appears unusual for its length and the number of future funds it covered.
"Ten years ago, I would have said receiving carry on two successor funds would be considered fairly normal," said Cédric Teissier, a partner and general counsel at Triago, which raises money for private equity firms. Mr. Teissier said an arrangement like Mr. Romney's "would probably be on the extravagant side."
Other executives contended that the deal did not make Mr. Romney nearly as wealthy as his peers in private equity who took their firms public.
Profitable Percentages
While Mr. Romney is often described as a founder of Bain Capital, it originally grew out of another business: the management consulting firm Bain & Company, which spun off the private equity arm in 1984.
It was early in the leveraged buyout era, when sharp-elbowed Wall Street dealmakers like Henry R. Kravis, Stephen A. Schwarzman and Peter G. Peterson were starting private equity firms that raised money from investors — university endowments and state pension funds — and combined it with enormous amounts of debt to buy companies.
Bain & Company's patriarch, Bill Bain, persuaded Mr. Romney, one of his rising stars, and several other young Bain consultants to run Bain's new private equity operation. The majority of the $37 million raised for Bain Capital's first fund came from Bain & Company.
Small early deals, like a $2 million investment in an office supply store that would become Staples, proved successful. Bain's funds — and deals — grew quickly, with acquisitions like Domino's Pizza and the Sealy mattress company.
About every three years, the firm raised a new buyout fund, each doing business for about a decade: buying companies, restructuring and streamlining them, and then selling them, usually for a profit. In the early 1990s, the firm formed a new management entity, Bain Capital Inc. Mr. Romney was given full ownership, although it is not clear how much of his own money he invested.
Private equity firms typically act as the general partner for each fund they create. The firms collect an annual management fee equal to 2 percent of the fund during the period it is buying and restructuring companies. When companies are resold, the firm's partners also split a percentage of the profits. Bain's returns were so good, averaging 88 percent annually through the late 1990s, that it began taking 30 percent of the profits instead of the traditional 20 percent.
Former Bain officials say that when Mr. Romney ran the firm, he motivated colleagues by spreading profits widely and keeping a smaller percentage, often in the single digits, for himself. He and his co-workers also invested their own money in most of the deals to increase their personal returns.
Eventually, Mr. Romney turned his sights beyond the business world. In February 1999, he left Bain to help turn around the troubled organization of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. In 2001, Mr. Romney announced that he had formally transferred his ownership of Bain Capital Inc. to other partners.
But behind the scenes, Mr. Romney had negotiated his retirement agreement. Although he would no longer be a partner, he would continue to be paid a part of the firm's profits in buyout deals and other businesses, much as active partners were. The agreement would cover any new fund or venture started by his former partners until February 2009, although his stake would decline with each successive fund.
He and his wife also would be permitted to invest their own money in co-investment vehicles typically reserved for Bain executives.
While some former business associates said they considered the deal generous, others said Mr. Romney might have gotten even more from Bain had he not wanted a quick move into public life.
"He made a very sweet deal, he had a very good exit," said one former Bain partner, who requested anonymity because of confidentiality agreements. "But my guess is, given the actual economic value of Bain Capital at the time, Mitt walked away with less than he could have if he did not take into account the adverse publicity and attention that a battle with former partners would have caused if he had negotiated and played hardball."
Some specifics of Mr. Romney's holdings were revealed when, fresh off his successful stint running the Games, he entered the 2002 campaign for Massachusetts governor.
A disclosure form filed with the Massachusetts Ethics Commission, detailing the Romneys' finances for the previous year, reported stakes ranging from 2.1 percent to 16.5 percent of the firm's share of the profits in several Bain funds created before Mr. Romney left.
After taking office in 2003, Mr. Romney moved the bulk of his assets into two blind trusts, according to his Massachusetts financial disclosures. Today, many of the family's Bain assets appear to be held in Mrs. Romney's blind trust.
The 1999 retirement deal turned out to have a huge upside that few could have predicted: the golden age of private equity was just around the corner.
A Share of Huge Growth
Like the giants of the business, KKR and Blackstone, Bain's business ballooned in the years after Mr. Romney left. Private equity firms, armed with megafunds and cheap and easy Wall Street financing, set their sights on acquiring big brand-name companies. Bain formed a venture capital arm, spun off affiliates to pursue private equity investments in Europe and Asia and expanded Sankaty Advisors, an affiliate that makes investments in debt securities.
Mr. Romney's campaign declined to specify his share in the Bain funds started after he left. But even as his share of profits declined over time, the size of those funds was growing enormously.
In 1999, Bain had about $4 billion in assets under management, 100 or so employees and a single office, in Boston. In 2005, Bain had over $21 billion in its funds. Today, Bain manages about $66 billion over all, with 900 employees and 10 offices in 6 countries.
By giving Mr. Romney a stake in funds after his departure, Bain's partners effectively compensated him for his founding interest in the firm without having to write him a large check or taking Bain public, which would have allowed Mr. Romney to continue holding equity in the firm or cash out by selling his shares on the public market.
"One of the benefits of going public is that the founding generation of leaders can monetize their ownership stakes in their firms," said Scott M. Sperling, a co-president of the private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners. "Bain has decided to remain a private partnership and chosen a different way to compensate its founder, which is not unusual."
While Bain's deals typically yielded enormous profits for its investors and partners, several have led to serious financial problems — and sizable layoffs — at companies it acquired.
The 2000 purchase of KB Toys, then one of the country's largest toy retailers, became one of the most contentious.
As in most Bain deals, the partnership put up a small fraction of the money — in this case $18 million — and borrowed the rest of the $302 million purchase price. Just 16 months later, the toy company borrowed more to pay Bain and its investors an $85 million dividend.
That gave Mr. Romney and the other partners a quick 370 percent return on their money. But it also left the toy company with a heavy debt burden. Before long, the company began closing stores around the country and laid off 3,400 workers. It filed for bankruptcy protection in 2004.
Two more recent deals have also led to spiraling debt loads and layoffs. Since Bain and another private equity firm led a buyout in 2008 of Clear Channel Communications, the company has struggled under nearly $20 billion in debt and has cut 2,500 jobs.
Sensata Technologies, a European company that makes sensors and controls used by the auto and aerospace industries, prospered after a Bain-led buyout in 2006, but the firm also laid off several hundred American workers. Most of the jobs were moved overseas, and the federal Labor Department spent at least $780,000 to retrain some people who lost their jobs.
While difficult competitive and economic conditions have contributed to those companies' problems, Democrats have already made layoffs at Bain companies during Mr. Romney's tenure at the firm a centerpiece of their attacks on him. Americans United for Change, an independent group backed by organized labor, has begun an ad campaign comparing Mr. Romney to Gordon Gekko, the marauding buyout king portrayed in the movie "Wall Street."
"Bain Capital is proud of the work our employees and management teams do to build growing businesses and deliver superior returns for our investors," said Alex Stanton, a Bain spokesman. "Mitt Romney has had no involvement with the management of the firm or any of our investments since February 1999. We understand some may question our record for political purposes, but our focus remains on building great companies and improving their operations."
Mr. Romney has expressed regret for lost jobs while defending the work of private equity firms in creating efficient and successful companies.
"In each case, we tried to grow an enterprise and, in doing so, hopefully provide a better future for those associated with that enterprise," Mr. Romney said in an interview Sunday on Fox News Channel.
Tax Benefits
Tax treatment of hedge fund and private equity compensation has been another point of political contention. The debate in Washington boils down to whether the "sweat equity" provided by investment managers in putting deals together should entitle them to the special 15 percent tax rate on long-term capital gains, as opposed to the rates of up to 35 percent that normally apply to people providing services.
The lower rate had traditionally been reserved for investors who put their own capital at risk, but I.R.S. rulings in the early 1990s extended it to the share of profits paid to private equity and hedge fund managers. Democrats in Congress have periodically sought to rescind that privilege, and the Obama administration is considering another push to change that provision.
Mr. Romney's retirement deal, like that of other private equity managers who keep a portion of their firms' profits when they retire, could give him the lower rate on profits from deals he had nothing to do with.
"The rationale for having a capital gains preference is to encourage investors to put their cash into investments," said Mr. Fleischer, the University of Colorado law professor. "Romney here isn't even putting in any labor."
Much remains unknown about the Romneys' remaining holdings in Bain. Federal law does not require candidates to report underlying assets held by hedge funds or private equity firms in which they are invested, since the firms typically do not provide that information to their investors. Moreover, many of the family's Bain assets reside in Mrs. Romney's blind trust, which has looser disclosure requirements.
Much of that uncertainty would evaporate if Mr. Romney was elected: federal officeholders are not permitted to hold such private equity and hedge fund investments. If elected, Mr. Romney would most likely have to unwind his stakes in all Bain funds.

subset: commoncrawl


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Hi, I am new to geocaching. Absolutely new.. I have never done any geocaching but have always had an interest to start.. Where do I start??
I am in the Hot Springs, AR area..
Hi, I am new to geocaching. Absolutely new.. I have never done any geocaching but have always had an interest to start.. Where do I start??
I am in the Hot Springs, AR area..
Welcome to geocaching. When we first started geocaching there were only a couple of active geocacher from the Hot Springs area, Now there are several new cachers from Hot Springs with new caches to find.
The cachers on this forum will help you with any question you might have. Don't be afraid to ask. If we can be of any help just let us know.
Just pick you out an easy cache and go for it.
Have Fun.
Where do you post the caches?
I have been surfin the site and I have not been able to locate the list of operating caches...
I found some listing in the state parks thru links.....
Go to www.geocaching.com, you can type in your zip code or select state and city. The caches are rated by difficulty and terrian, with 1 star being the easiest 5 stars being the most difficult. I am assuming you have a GPSr. Enter the posted Co-ordinates into your GPSr for the caches you want to hunt. Print out the cache pages for your selected caches. If you need a hint to find the cache when you get to the cache site, usually one is listed in the cache description, but not always. I probably have left some important information out, but maybe this will help you get started.
I remember when we first started caching, I had a ton of questions. Anytime you have a question someone on this forum will probably know the answer. I have questions myself from time to time.
Hope this helps.
Welcome on board ArkieGC, I am normally in Arkadelphia but temporarilly in Kuwait......but from what I know and have experienced you are talking to a great guy in CacheMates and they will lead you right every step of the way. The GeoCache website will answer all your questions and hang on because it is a great, fun interesting hobby and I think you will really enjoy it. I sure do, have fun and stay active on the Forum Boards, lots of great folks here.....some a little different but hey we all have our oddities, ha ha!!
Hay thanks for the info.
I don't even own a GPS yet,, but I am starting by finding some benchmarks for now.. I picked out 3 I was gonna work on today but got busy with some other things and never got started.. I got the directions and maps layin in the truck so I will go at it when time allows..
I have gone to geocaching.com
Signed up and logged in...
But I can't access anything because it says I need to validate,,, but they haven't sent me the email with instructions or code to validate...
Any ideas??
Just be patient, it will come soon. I remember how I had to wait and finally I went to bed woke up the next morning and it was there, ha ha too funny!! Once you get logged in and validated just have a blast working your way through the site. It is a wealth of info and the more you read the info and the forums the more you will get it. It is a blast. Good luck and hope to meet you on the trail one day!!
If your not living life on the edge your taking up too much space!!!!!!
ArkieGC did you get the validation link, are you up and running now??


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Saltsburg Social Center 60+
Thursday, April 04, 2019
212 Point Street, Saltsburg, PA
9 am 3 pm Tues, Thursday. 1 pm 7 pm Monday & Wednesday.
Thecongregate mealis served at Noon. The suggested donation is $2.00 per meal. Reservations must be made (and are appreciated) by Noon the day before you intend to attend the center for lunch. ASI offers a modified meal for those with special dietary needs. Call 724-639-9055 to reserve a meal.
On Wednesday the center offers anEvening home-cooked meal, along with activities, for those who might not be able to attend during daytime hours. Dinner is served at5:00 pm, and a reservation in advance is needed so we may know how many to prepare for. Call 724-639-9055 to reserve a meal.
Breakfastis also available every Tuesday from 9:00 am - 10:00am. No reservation is needed, come on in!
Special breakfasts, picnics, parties & other fun events are held throughout the year. We also do fundraising events to generate funds for special projects.
- Fitness Class
- Crafts
- Bingo
- Cards
- Puzzles
- Wii Games
- Trips
- Parties
- Musical Entertainment
- Internet Ready Computers
- Blood Pressure Screenings
- Volunteer opportunities
An Apprise Counselor visits each center to assist participants with complexities of health insurance, insurance benefits, Medicare and Medicaid, claims filing, consumer protection, and other current issues.
Health and Lifeskill topics are often presented by ASI staff and other Community Professionals. Computer classes available for all knowledge levels.
Transportation is availableto and from each center through Indigo (724-465-2140). We offer scheduled shopping trips and provide transportation to medical/therapy appointments.
For more information about this event, please contact:
Aging Services


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Equipment Tips.. Rosin Cleaning Bow Hair Endpin Holders Bow Rehair Frequency Replacing Strings String Types Wolf Tones Buying a Cello Trying a Cello
The ins and outs of cello playing.. Weight Lifting, Martial Arts, and the Cello Putting Tape On Your Fingerboard Playing In the Tenor Clef Another Dvorak Concerto? A Good Bow How to Meet Other Musicians Power At the Bow's Tip Tips About Standard Repertoire Buying A Cello Tension in the Right Arm A Multitude of Tips from Iseuat Chuat's Master Class Why Play Scales and Etudes? How Often to Change Strings How To Sit The Bridge and the Sound Post Amateur Chamber Music Players Overcoming Stage Fright Practicing Octaves PlayingFast Which Strings? Vibrato Playing Octaves Keep Practice Interesting Your Favorite Cellists A Painful Left Hand More About Bowing Don't Play with Pain! How to Create Vibrato Cello Chair and Stage Fright Too Old to Play the Cello? Need A Seat Cushion? Electrifying Your Cello Cello Technique Made Simple Cello Rosin, Bowmaker's Advice Cello Strings vs. Bridge Height Cleaning/Polishing A Bow Playing With Right Hand Pain Recording the String Quartet Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Endurance Physical Movement While Performing The Danger of Pain Cello Electrification Becoming a Professional Soloist "That Room at the Top," Starker Learning Cello as an Adult Right Shoulder Pain Memorizing More About Stage Fright Wolf Tones Drugs to Calm Nerves Flying Staccato Channelling Power Shostakovich Trio Harmonics More on Vibrato Flat or Curved Fingers? Square Left Hand? Walking/Grouping Fingers Circular Elbow Motions Intonation Help Intonation in Chamber Groups Bent Endpin Should we memorize? What's after 1st Position Teaching Bach Teaching Spicatto Popper High School Wrong Notes Holding the Bow Stock Concerto Korngold Concerto Playing Louder/Bigger
Staff Tim Janof, ICS Director
Copyright ©1995 - 2011


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Oculus, Facebook Face Challenge to Rights Over 'Rift'
ZeniMax Says Employee Who Left to Join Oculus Took Virtual-Reality Tech With Him
In March, Facebook Inc. agreed to pay $2 billion to buy virtual-reality startup Oculus VR, hankering to gain technology it hopes will transform the way people interact online.
Now, with the deal yet to close, another company is laying claim to an important part of Oculus's technology.
ZeniMax Media Inc., a Maryland-based maker of videogames,...
To Read the Full Story


text: Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums :: View topic - What is the difference betwen a good friend and best friend Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Students and Teachers from Around the World!" FAQ Search Memberlist Usergroups Register Profile Log in to check your private messages Log in What is the difference betwen a good friend and best friend Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums Forum Index -> Family View previous topic :: View next topic Author Message snowchocolateJoined: 22 Aug 2004Posts: 10 Posted: Wed Sep 22, 2004 9:13 am Post subject: What is the difference betwen a good friend and best friend Hello , I would like to talk about " friendship " . Have you ever thought that there are a lot things which are different between a good friend and a best friend ? As for me , I thought so many times about this problem . All we have a lot of good friends , but It is hard for someone to find a best friend . I think this problem will depend on your own thinking . And the way which you make a definition about " Friendship " . Back to top emeJoined: 05 Oct 2004Posts: 32 Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2004 9:26 pm Post subject: hi... Hi..... as what you said ,I agree with you that there is different between good friend and best friend.... maybe you can find good friend easly in some situation but you can not find best friend until you feel that he/ she is realy best from his/ her behavior..... good lack... Back to top Display posts from previous: All Posts1 Day7 Days2 Weeks1 Month3 Months6 Months1 Year Oldest FirstNewest First Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums Forum Index -> Family All times are GMT - 8 Hours Page 1 of 1 Jump to: Select a forum Student Forums----------------ComputersCurrent NewsCultureEnglish SchoolsFamilyFilm and CinemaFoodHealth and FitnessHelp CenterHobbiesHolidaysLearning EnglishLiteratureMaking FriendsMusicOpinionsPetsScienceSportsThe Strange and MysteriousTOEFL and Other English ExamsTravel You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forum Dave's ESL Cafe is maintained by the one and only Dave Sperling. Banner Advertising | Bookstore / Alta Books | FAQs | Articles | Interview with Dave Copyright © 2018 Dave's ESL Cafe | All Rights Reserved | Contact Dave's ESL Cafe | Site Map Teachers College, Columbia University: Train to Teach English Here or Abroad Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group


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SX1278 LoRa 433MHz Low Power Long Range Transceiver Module with IPX Ra-02
The SX1278 transceivers feature the LoRaTM long range modem that provides ultra-long range spread spectrum communication and high interference immunity whilst minimising current consumption.
93 in stock (also available on backorder)
- Description
- Additional Information
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Product Description
Features of SX1278 Module
- Using Semtech's patented LoRaTM modulation technique.
- Low RX current of 9.9 mA, 200 nA register retention
- Programmable bit rate up to 300 kbps
- 433MHZ Frequency
- About 10Km Long Range
- Excellent blocking immunity
- Support IPX Connector
- Dimension: 16x17x2 mm
OverView of SX1278
The SX1278 transceivers feature the LoRaTM long range modem that provides ultra-long range spread spectrum communication and high interference immunity whilst minimising current consumption.Using Semtech's patented LoRaTM modulation technique SX1278 can achieve a sensitivity of over -148dBm using a low cost crystal and bill of materials. The high sensitivity combined with the integrated +20 dBm power amplifier yields industry leading link budget making it optimal for any application requiring range or robustness.LoRaTM also provides significant advantages in both blocking and selectivity over conventional modulation techniques, solving the traditional design compromise between range, interference immunity and energy consumption.
- LoRaTM Modem 168 dB maximum link budget
- +20 dBm – 100 mW constant RF output vs. V supply
- +14 dBm high efficiency PA
- Programmable bit rate up to 300 kbps
- High sensitivity: down to -148 dBm
- Bullet-proof front end: IIP3 = -11 dBm
- Excellent blocking immunity
- Low RX current of 9.9 mA, 200 nA register retention
- Fully integrated synthesizer with a resolution of 61 Hz
- FSK, GFSK, MSK, GMSK, LoRaTM and OOK modulation
- Built-in bit synchronizer for clock recovery
- Preamble detection
- 127 dB Dynamic Range RSSI
- Automatic RF Sense and CAD with ultra-fast AFC
- Packet engine up to 256 bytes with CRC
- Built-in temperature sensor and low battery indicator
Additional Information
|0.008 kg
|13 x 27 x 2 mm
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Jd- wrote:If you're mental enough (and I hope at least a few are), my publication of choice for the canon has always been Leslie Klinger's annotated series. There are notes for every single oddity, discrepancy, nuance, bluff, and typo for every page of every short story and every novel.
They're sold in two different sets: two volumes for the short stories, and one for the novels. Here are the linkz:
The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Novels (A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Valley of Fear) (On sale for $37.77 as of this writing)
The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Short Stories (2 Vol. Set) (On sale for $59.85 as of this writing)
Yes, these collections are very bulky, but Mr. Klinger has laid out notes on every single story like you would never believe. It's basically a Sherlockian Encyclopedia laid out across every single piece of the canon, and there are also some brilliant introductions to each and just all sorts of small details that you have to search far and wide to find elsewhere. And really, even should you not be interested in like, these editions still have every word of every story ready to go. Even if you really aren't interested in the extras, they really are the most aesthetically-pleasing of all the publications (I should know, given I have at least eleven different complete collections alone; much less the publishing clearances I have for individual mini-collections and of the canon collections themselves--I can't resist a good cover ).
Also among the pages (there's rarely a page that doesn't have a footnote off to the side) are theories presented by various Sherlockians over the years to explain discrepancies within the canon (Watson's injury being a classic one, but also about his second wife, and everything else you can imagine).
I highly recommend both of them and would say they're worth every penny (or yen, or euro).
My library has those books! They're huge!!! They're also practically untouched... perhaps because people are intimidated from looking at the size of it. it is HUGE. The annotations = priceless!
tantei okuoku wrote:jamiecabascos wrote:i don't know if that "coming soon" SH movie is good. i watched the trailer but i didn't get interested. if you guys would only watch the older SH series/movies, you'll not going to get impressed with the coming soon SH
I am worried about the coming soon holmes movie, however I would LOVE for that movie to do for true mysteries what transformers did for it (just saw the second movie and I thought it was better then the first one).
I'm looking forward to seeing RDJ's performance. I just wish they used an actual SH story. Oh well.


text:
GameStick, a prospective Android gaming platform that easily surpassed a $100,000 funding goal within days of being listed on Kickstarter, has had its fund drive pulled by Kickstarter in light of "an intellectual property dispute." That decision is per Kickstarter itself.
Engadget reported that a support email sent out by PlayJam, GameStick's management, said they have 30 days to resolve and re-list their Kickstarter project. "If we are not able to re-post it within 30 days, we will cancel the project," says the email. Kotaku has reached out to a GameStick representative for comment.
The project seeks to deliver a $79 console—basically a thumb drive plugged into a TV's HDMI port—and a controller, allowing the user to play Android mobile titles on the television.
Just this morning, PlayJam announced an agreement to support a fully analog bluetooth controller made by Green Throttle Games. The statement said that GameStick had raised more than $270,000 in funding so far. The Kickstarter campaign opened Jan. 1.
Update: Looks like it's back up. A GameStick representative says a statement is coming shortly. We'll update with it here.
Second Update: The project's Facebook page said: "This IP issue has NOTHING to do with our design or product! It's a small snag in one of our promo videos demonstrating a game that was exposed without clearance. An oversight and one that we're editing in the video now."
Third Update: A statement from GameStick confirms the above: "As we launched on Kickstarter, we made a small oversight in one of our promo videos hosted on our campaign wherein we overlooked a game image in the video that wasn't cleared for exposure. ... To give Kickstarter credit, they look out for the intellectual property of others. They were alerted to this game in our video and immediately hid our campaign from the public. Once we learned what the intellectual issue was, we quickly removed the video and within two short hours we are now back up and running."
GameStick pulled from Kickstarter due to IP dispute [Engadget]


text:
twice in two days someone from carcharging called me to ask if i was going to accept their new agreement, which apparently has the bay area air quality management district paying them for access to charging statistics again.
they claim that upon acceptance of the agreement, they will send someone out posthaste to repair chargers that still exhibit the "self-test" fault (which mine does).
they seem to be pushing pretty hard on this… i guess it's free money for them but i'm concerned about losing ownership of the hardware again. (i assume that at this point, since the agreement is lapsed, that i own the equipment? it was originally installed under the federal EV program at no cost to me)
anyone else getting the hard sell from blink?


text:
Efficacy of a compulsory homework programme for increasing physical activity and improving nutrition in children: a cluster randomised controlled trial
NZ Research Abstract
posted by Research Admin 1 on 16 September 2019
Scott Duncan
T. Stewart
Julia McPhee
Robert Borotkanics
Kate Prendergast
Caryn Zinn
Kim Meredith-Jones
Rachael W. Taylor
Claire McLachlan
Grant Schofield
Year of Publication
International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, Volume 16, Article number: 80 (2019)
Publication Type
Journal article
This trial evaluates the success of a 'Healthy Homework' initiative designed to get children to engage in healthy behaviour at home. The most successful outcome was an increase in physical activity.
Type of Study
Randomised controlled trial
How to Access
This is an open access article and can be read in free full text at: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-019-0840-3


text:
|FastMail Forum All posts relating to FastMail.FM should go here: suggestions, comments, requests for help, complaints, technical issues etc.
|Thread Tools
|17 Jan 2017, 01:00 PM
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 2,679
Representative of:
Guest and Member subscriptions being discontinued
FYI, we're finally closing off guest and member accounts entirely. Emails are going to users in batches, so not everybody has received a notification email yet. Everybody will get them, and later we will start adding more obvious warnings on login page and webmail screens.
We have already not allowed new signups at those service levels for quite some time. We are offering very generous discounts for upgrades.
|17 Jan 2017, 01:22 PM
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: May 2003
Location: mostly in Thailand
Posts: 2,848
I do sympathize for this move, but expect some flack for it, especially from the few remaining legacy member account owners. I have a suggestion, that will cost Fastmail little except some administrative costs. As an additional option to the US$15 credit and 50% discount, offer to actually refund the US$15 to those who insist they bought a lifetime subscription and object to paying more. In practice, I think only a minuscule number would take this option.
|17 Jan 2017, 01:32 PM
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 2,679
Representative of:
|17 Jan 2017, 01:42 PM
Cornerstone of the Community
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 547
Sure glad I never bought a "lifetime" account. Would I ever be miffed.
I don't think it's good business but whatdoIknow.
|17 Jan 2017, 02:30 PM
Ultimate Contributor
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Canada.
Posts: 10,355
The member accounts were introduced at a critical time in Fastmail's development, when they needed serious funding (when they first went paid) I purchased a member account myself but cancelled it shortly afterward, when I received an email (with a huge attachment) that locked my account up. I remember being seriously annoyed at the time but I should not have been, as I could have set up a rule to refuse these.
That Fastmail have honored their commitment (to keep these accounts valid, over all these years) I consider impeccable. Good on you Fastmail for keeping these accounts open; I thought they would have been shut down a long long time ago.
|17 Jan 2017, 03:42 PM
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 36
How about a class action for breach of contract
Anyone interested in bringing a class action against Fastmail for breach of contract.
A lifetime subscription is exactly what it says (a subscription for the duration of the life of an individual) and for Fastmail to unilaterally withdraw that service is a breach of contract.
The fact that they have not been available for some time and that they were introduced "at a critical time in Fastmail's development, when they needed serious funding" is completely irrelevant.
Fastmail needed the money and should honour those who stepped in to help them out at that time by buying those lifetime subscriptons.
I thought I'd spotted a bargain and was prepared to take the risk that the company would not disappear completely (the only circumstances in which ending these subscriptions would be inevitable) and bought accounts for my children fully expecting them to last a lifetime.
Each got a neat e-mail address which is in use and will be lost if they fail to pay for a new service.
Perhaps the least Fastmail could do is to offer a free and user-configurable forwarding service for those who don't want to pay to stay.
|17 Jan 2017, 05:01 PM
Master of the @
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: USA
Posts: 1,425
Ya really .. who would want to be forced to pay WHEN ITS GOING TO GET MUCH WORSE AFTER 30 JUNE!! (When they force everyone to the new interface)
THEY USED TO BE THE BEST EMAIL SERVICE OUT THERE and now they are becoming just like Yahoo and Google..... Its very sad
|17 Jan 2017, 05:07 PM
Intergalactic Postmaster
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Irving, Texas
Posts: 8,611
I suggest you read the Fastmail Terms of Service (in Help) before getting too excited. Be sure to read sections 6, 7, 8, and 11.
Some people have gotten into the habit of inventing a "lifetime" subscription account. There never was such an account. There was no Guest (free of charge) account at the time when Member accounts started about 15 years ago. Fastmail created a "Member" account with a one-time fee so new users could try out an account before getting a Full or Enhanced account. These accounts didn't expire at the end of a year, so there was plenty of time for Member accounts to consider an upgrade to a yearly subscription account. There was no specific expiration date, but no guarantee of the account lasting for a lifetime. See my post about this (nearly four years ago):
|17 Jan 2017, 05:47 PM
Essential Contributor
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Germany
Posts: 234
Okay, you don't like the new/recent/default interface. For me, it was one of the main reasons why I signed up for FastMail some years ago. I wouldn't mind if they'd maintain the classic interface until kingdom come as long as this doesn't affect the running and development of the service. Obliously, they can't afford this, so I can understand their decision.
Just my two cents
|17 Jan 2017, 06:02 PM
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: VK4
Posts: 2,840
Bill Try this http://www.emaildiscussions.com/show...member+account
|17 Jan 2017, 07:04 PM
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: May 2003
Location: mostly in Thailand
Posts: 2,848
As you say, Fastmail considered and rejected extending one-time payment to Full and Enhanced accounts. The main thread discussing this is instructive:
I sympathize with Fastmail on this, and think the old Member accounts are quite impractical for any current real email use. I cannot really imagine why anyone feels strongly about keeping such an account. However, Fastmail may be on shaky legal grounds here if a few people want to be bloody-minded.
|17 Jan 2017, 09:40 PM
Essential Contributor
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 364
From that point of view, I can understand it, and perhaps the suggestion of a forwarding service isn't all that far off, although I can understand how that might be a pain for FastMail to maintain, I definitely think it's something they should at least consider, as this is also going to be a nuisance for anybody who expected to sign up and get an email address that would never change.
Now, that said, while I can understand that point of view, I've always been a firm believer in getting what you pay for. Personally, the only way I can guarantee an email address that will never change is to register and pay for my own domain name — then I can host it at any service that I like (and have done so, over the years).
Again, though, I do feel their pain when it comes to the email address issue — anybody who expected that their FastMail address would exist in perpetuity is going to be forced to either start paying a regular fee or go through the headache of changing away from an email address that they've had for possibly a decade or more. It looks like there's a six-month transition for people to sort this out before the Guest/Member accounts go away, but it's clearly going to be a headache — I know it's something I wouldn't want to have to deal with, considering the vast number of places that have my email address — I still occasionally get relevant emails to a domain name that I haven't used in almost a decade (I still own the other domain as I have some friends and family using it, but I switched away from it for my personal email about a decade ago).
|17 Jan 2017, 10:20 PM
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: May 2003
Location: mostly in Thailand
Posts: 2,848
@jhollington I agree with the points you make.
|17 Jan 2017, 10:37 PM
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: May 2003
Location: mostly in Thailand
Posts: 2,848
What about the forwarding idea, with the following provisos:
My concern is that the people who paid $12.95 or $14.95 15 years ago, and expect never to need to pay another cent for their email service are just the kinds of people that will feel entitled to free support on complex forwarding issues whenever they should arise. My gut feel is that it would just be setting Fastmail up for future grief.
|18 Jan 2017, 12:07 AM
Essential Contributor
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 364
All of that said, however, while I recognize that 2002 was a totally different era for the Internet (heck, Gmail was only a gleam in Google's eyes back then), I really do wish more people would understand that you get what you pay for, and expecting any online service to be sustained for little or no money is unrealistic they're either making money by advertising or they're making money from the users.
|Thread Tools


text:
Victorian govt beefs up renewable energy
New solar and wind farms will pump more than 900 megawatts of energy into Victoria's grid following the state government's reverse auction.
Premier Daniel Andrews and Energy Minister Lily D'Ambrosio on Tuesday announced six successful projects which are expected to deliver power to more than 646,000 homes once complete.
"It's a fact that the quickest new build of energy, the cheapest new build of energy that you can get into the system, is renewable energy," Ms D'Ambrosio told reporters.
The government ran a reverse auctions scheme which saw project developers compete to be the lowest-cost provider.
Mr Andrews called it a "stunning success" and Ms D'Ambrosio said it provided the certainties investors needed.
Berrybank wind farm west of Geelong, will produce 180MW; Cawarp solar farm south of Mildura will produce 121.6MW; Cohuna solar farm north-west of Echuca will produce 34.2MW; Dundonnell wind farm north-east of Warrnambool will produce 336MW; Mortlake South wind farm will produce 157.5MW; and Winton solar farm near Benalla will produce 98.8MW.
Building will start early 2019 and they are expected to be completed in 2020.
The state government has renewable energy targets of 25 per cent of generation by 2020 and 40 per cent of electricity generation by 2025.
Mr Andrews on Tuesday also announced if re-elected, 10,000 households which already have solar panels could be paid nearly $5000 to install battery units, part of a wider, $1.3 billion solar energy plan which also includes subsidies for solar panels and hot water systems.
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said more details on the renewable energy reverse auction needed to be released to make sure taxpayers weren't paying more for the scheme than they needed to.
"I don't think we should be subsidising power generation simply for the sake of it," he told reporters.
Australian Associated Press


text: Hi all Once again this year I am willing to order CITO shirts for anyone interested. I have the upcoming event planned2nd Annual Penobscot River Clean-up. As some of you knew I order a CITO shirt for anyone who wanted one. I am looking to do the same again this year. Buying them in quantity will save us on shipping, The shirts are $7.00 up to size XL and $10.00 for larger sizes. There are children's sizes available too. If you add a dollar for shipping it will come out about right. The cut off for you to be included on my order will be May the 6th. If you would like to have a 2006 CITO shirt for the clean up event or just to have then e-mail or PM me and I'll send you my address to send me a check. I have to have these prepaid. Last year I ordered some on good faith and I still have some in sizes that I don't wear. These are nice looking shirts this year so don't miss out. When they sell out they are gone. OK let me know .


text:
If You Go
When: Open Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Please call on windy days, as they may have be closed, at (970) 522-8657.
Where: 24235 E. Highway 6, about five miles east of Sterling and just north of Highway 6.
Cost: Amount is based on weight and material. Call the landfill for more information.
It's true that every spring the city of Sterling goes around conveniently picking up yard trimmings and assorted trash in front of households.
But if you missed the date, continued yardwork past the pick-up date or don't live in Sterling city limits, don't worry. You can always take your trash to the Logan County Landfill yourself.
Located about five miles east of Sterling off of Highway 6, the landfill offers a opportunity to throw away all those things that won't fit in the average trash can.
Here are some answers to common questions people might have about the landfill.
When is it open?
The landfill is typically open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday, through rain and snow. But Matt Chrisp, assistant supervisor of the landfill, said that it helps to call once winds pick up to around 20 mph. The state will fine the landfill if they find trash blowing around and out of the site, so they close on days when the wind is strong.
If the winds pick up to about 30 mph, forget it.
Assuming it's a nice day, when's a good time to beat the crowd?
Chrisp said the crowds vary from day to day, so it's difficult to tell.
"When the weather's nicer, it's a little busier," he said. "But we can comfortably handle between 60 and 80 vehicles per day without a bunch of stress, from our point of view."
What can you take?
There's a list of what people can and can't take online at http://bit.ly/17uO9gd. Some items on the "no" list include liquid wastes, PCB's, "friable" asbestos, large animals and car bodies.
Chrisp said that for the most part, though, they can take the loads no matter what size they are. That includes hot tubs and — what he'd seen earlier in the week — a 17-foot fiberglass boat.
Any other items to be wary of?
Chrisp said a common item they have to turn away is old, wet paint cans. The landfill can't take wet paint of any age, though they can take dry paint.
He suggested going to Home Depot or a hardware store to buy materials that will quickly dry the paint, or simply dashing it on an old rug that might be headed to the landfill anyway.
Other items that are regularly turned away are those with freon in them, such as refrigerators and air conditioning units.
Do I have to separate materials?
No. But Chrisp says it helps.
"If you have metal, separate it out," he said. "We actually recycle metal. And it's difficult to work with because it's hard on the equipment. … it's more of a safety issue than anything.
He also said that the landfill can burn trees and other folliage, but they couldn't burn wood that's been tainted with chemicals or paint.
Is it free?
Cost to use the landfill depends on weight, so disposing of old concrete might cost more than a pile of old hedge clippings.
Still, it depends on the kinds of items being discarded as well.
Anything else?
On July 1, they'll no longer accept e-waste, such as old TVs and computers. They can take them as they always have up until then, but after July 1 people will have to pay for the landfill to recycle their items.
Chrisp suggested looking around Sterling or near the Front Range for free recycling options.
Contact Journal-Advocate staff writer David Martinez at 970-526-9283 or firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
mama's bed
When I little I remember being sick or sad and wanting to be in my mom and dad's bed. There was something so comforting about that place and I love that now Israel feels that way about my own bed. It's impossible to keep 'made' because he comes in and throws pillows or plays under the blankets. Sometimes he's lucky enough to play a game or two on the ipad, he loves the Toca Boca apps. He's so sweet, that boy!
Other Stories
8 comments:
So sweet-I see Toca Boca,my sons favourite!ReplyDelete
Same here -the Toca Boca :) Have a nice weekend with your family!ReplyDelete
He is so sweet and is growing up. Like you said, parents bed have this special something, I remember I loved to be with my mom when I was sick and now my son love to be in our bed too.ReplyDelete
Have a lovely weekend!!
- AnonymousMarch 17, 2013
I have such vivid memories of my twin sister and I hiding under my mothers blanket in her bed hiding and her pretending that she didn't know where we were. So cute!ReplyDelete
My son is the same. He's just 18 months but whenever he gets the chance he crawls into my bed with a big smile and pulls the cover up to his chin. Just so cozy, cozy. :)ReplyDelete
There's no better place for kids than the bed from mom and dad:) Even when they are 10 years:)ReplyDelete
Have a good week!
I remember this feeling so well when I was sick as a child. The feeling of waking up in my mother's soft bed and her warm embrace made feeling unwell bearable.ReplyDelete
I hope he is feeling better.
Juliette x
Beautiful pics!ReplyDelete
I had not heard of Toca Boca, so had a look, and my 2 year old Meadow, is now loving the Santa one! Thanks for the tip!
Thank you for your comments, I love hearing from you!
Questions, comments or sponsorship inquires, please contact me via the 'contact' link.


text:
MIDDLE VILLAGE, NEW YORK 11379- A neighborhood to be proud of. By Jim Turano resident since 1965 and Real Estate Broker since 1979
When people look for a place to live, this should be the number 1 Queens area to go to. We have top rated Public schools. Plenty of Nursery schools, and Pre-k schools. Stores are plentiful. Restaurants by the dozen. A Park that is 10 blocks long with tennis, handball, basketball, and bocce courts, as well as seven baseball fields and a quarter-mile running track around a turf football/soccer field.
Convenience to all stores, 3 supermarkets, butchers, 99cent stores, 8 banks, 8 nail salon and 8 hair salons, 4 bus lines, 4 pizzerias, express buses to Manhattan, a High school-Christ the King, 4 Churches of Worship, and two Malls to go to. And last but not least the M train station on Metropolitan Avenue. You can literally walk to everything.
Strong Community minded area with organizations that care. You will not even see any foot patrolmen around. You will not see Community Driveways full of discarded washing machines, refrigerators, or piles of garbage all over. The Community residents would not stand for it. And any late spring or summer afternoon, you will not hear loud blasting music coming from homes like it is a block party which does happen in many other areas.
You may Google Middle Village, New York 11379 and find interesting reading, but if you type in 10 best neighborhoods, you may not even find it at all. Street Advisors doesn't even have us on their list. Many other sites do not list Middle Village, NY at all. Why? I do not know.
We are 20-30 minutes from Manhattan by trains or buses. We are located near 5 major highways. If you shop and compare, you to will find that Middle Village, New York should be on the top of your list to reside in.


text:
Argentine carmakers suspend staff as sales plunge
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentine automakers are reducing production and suspending factory workers as sales plunge because of a gathering storm of economic trouble.
Most Argentine cars are exported to Brazil, where sales are down in a slowing economy. Meanwhile, a 23-percent peso devaluation so far this year puts cars with foreign parts out of reach for many Argentines. New taxes imposed by President Cristina Fernandez have made many cars even more expensive, and there's less credit available due to Argentine banking rules.
A grim report from Moody's Investors Service on Wednesday shows Argentina's economic woes go beyond the leading automotive industry. Most of the Argentine companies Moody's rates face a high risk of a liquidity crisis, with "significant debt coming due in the next 24 months, limited cash in relation to upcoming debt maturities, sizable negative free cash flow, a lack of access to committed bank credit facilities, or some combination of these factors," the ratings service said.
Union chief Antonio Calo said Wednesday that he's hoping trade talks between Brazil and Argentina will protect the industry. He spoke out after Fiat's truck-making subsidiary Iveco said it is suspending about 700 workers, and Peugeot-Citroën announced suspensions of 1,000 workers until sales catch up with production. The Peugeot-Citroen workers at the Villa Bosch factory outside the capital will get 65 percent of their pay until production resumes, the company said.
Union leaders worry that Argentina's General Motors factory may be next, because it exports 79 percent of its production to Brazil, where currency changes have made Argentine cars more expensive.
Argentina's overall industrial production is down 3.1 percent this year, and much of the downturn involves the auto industry, whose production is down 16 percent this quarter compared to the year before, according to a report by the Management & Fit consultancy. Sales numbers are even worse, down 35 percent compared to April 2013, according to Argentina's automotive sales association.
"Companies that generate a meaningful amount of cash in Argentina and have a significant amount of debt denominated in US dollars are most at risk. Currency weakness also exacerbates Argentina's already high inflation," the report said. Among those most exposed are Argentine food producer Arcor S.A.I.C.; oil and gas producers YPF S.A., and Petrobras Argentina S.A.; timber producer Alto Parana S.A. and the Cablevision, S.A. media company, Moody's said.
With limited access to affordable credit, many Argentine companies are hoarding cash against the threat of another devaluation, and delaying the kind of longer-term investments needed for economic growth, Moody's concluded.


text:
The system begins with two thermal infrared cameras mounted on top of a vehicle. The cameras, pointing in opposite directions, read information at far infrared wavelengths and detect heat given off by living things. "Hot" signatures are juxtaposed to the "cool" fingerprints of trees, buildings and other inanimate objects in the surroundings.
The students' algorithms process images capturing heat from the deer's bodies. These hot areas in the image are extracted from the background and matched to the templates of deer images the students created.
If there's a positive match, the deer's location is passed to a communication system comprised of speakers and 12 lasers mounted on the back of the vehicle with corresponding reflective dots on the windshield.
"The speaker will start beeping faster as you get closer to the deer and the dots with lasers will align where the deer is so the driver doesn't have to take his eyes off the road," said Colin Axel '13 (B.S., imaging science), a Ph.D. student from Rochester. "The whole point is that we don't want to take the driver's eyes off the road at the moment when it is most important for them to pay attention."
The team of Ph.D. students will display the project in subsystems at their booth in the Gordon Field House. They will demonstrate each of the components that create the overall system."We will have a controlled demonstration of how the whole system operates," said Justin Harms, a Ph.D. student and a U.S. Air Force officer from St. Louis. "We will also have other experiments using color and thermal cameras, where you can grasp the concept of looking at something not by its color but by how hot it is. You won't see the room as you would normally see it; you see it as how hot or cold it is."
The cohort of imaging science Ph.D. students who worked on the deer-alert system includes Doug MacDonald, Kamran Binaee, Brittany Ambeau, Kevan Donlon, Viraj Adduru, Zichao Han, Yue Wang, Justin Harms, Utsav Gewali, Jie Yang, Yansong Liu, Osborn de Lima, Kelly Anderson, Zhaoyu Cui, Shusil Dangi, Lauren Taylor, Colin Axel and Chi Zhang.


text:
By the end of this month, all combat operations in Iraq will officially be over—a date much trumpeted by the administration. After all, to end that war was President Obama's campaign promise.
But August 31 is not much of a milestone. The big shift happened last year, when American troops withdrew from the cities and stopped going on patrols.
Having lived in Baghdad at the height of the war between 2005 and 2007 as a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, it was striking to come back then and see how the city had changed, especially in terms of the visibility of American troops.
The man I saw, facedown in a ditch near the Tigris River, was not a victim of death squads (as I first thought) but a reveler who had had too much whiskey.
When I first arrived on a winter's day six years ago, the airport building looked desolate, as if abandoned in a rush. The shelves in the shops were barren and the concourse was empty except for a band of Kalashnikov-carrying mercenaries and a couple of listless porters in dirty blue overalls.
In the dying light, I could barely make out the airport road, pockmarked by bombs and the detritus of war: burned-out car wrecks and craters of soot that evidenced recent explosions. To better control the terrain, the soldiers had torched the grass and the brushes along the road, leaving a bleak and desolate landscape. Charred palm trees loomed over the road like gnarly fingers up through the ground. On military maps and among the headquarters brass, the road was known as Route Irish. But the soldiers on the ground, always more in contact with reality, had nicknamed it The Highway of Death.
There were no rules in Baghdad traffic except for this: Getting too close to American convoys exposed you to their guns but also put you in the insurgents' line of fire and, ahead of us, a line of cars crawled along, staying several hundred feet behind a U.S. convoy. Each of the Humvees had a sign tagged to the back warning drivers in English and Arabic to stay away or be shot.
Officially, the war was over—President George W. Bush had already made his triumphant speech announcing Mission Accomplished. Yet, every day there were more than 100 attacks around the country.
During the next two years, the violence grew, making a lie of claims of progress. During those years, more than two U.S. troops were killed on average every day and thousands of Iraqis were killed by Americans—or each other—in a conflict that seemed like it would never end.
Leaving to come back to the States to cover the 2008 presidential election felt like leaving in the middle of a story, abandoning a novel before the end. And when I got an opportunity to go back again last fall in connection with research for a book I was writing, I was eager to go.
• Andrew J. Bacevich: Stop Pretending the Iraq War Is OverArriving in Baghdad on a hot day in August, I noticed that, beyond the passport control, the duty-free shops had reopened, their shelves heavy with perfume and booze. Hassan, a driver I knew from the old days, picked me up—there were no guards or AK-47s, and, as we drove from the airport, I noticed other signs of change. The once-forbidding airport road seemed almost festive—scenes from Iraqi history had been painted in multicolored murals on the concrete barriers. The palm trees, once charred, had come back to life and, with their full green fronds, swayed tall and triumphant like sentinels along a procession road.
Later, on Haifa Street, once the dominion of radical insurgents, I saw a sky-blue Porsche idling in front of a checkpoint, and at the Baghdad Zoo, I watched Iraqi families admire lethargic flamingos. Along Abu Nuwass Street, strings of lights had been lit again above the reopened restaurants, and the man I saw, facedown in a ditch near the Tigris River, was not a victim of death squads (as I first thought) but a reveler who had had too much whiskey.
But what struck me most was driving around the city was never coming across a single U.S. soldier.
The American troops, who once dominated the streets of the capital in their tanks and Humvees, had been pulled back to their bases and no longer went on patrol. The Iraqi soldiers, who had taken their place, had decorated their checkpoints with garlands of yellow and pink plastic roses to celebrate the Americans' withdrawal.
Things had clearly gotten better but the soldiers' celebration was premature: Although more invisible, the U.S. is still robustly engaged in Iraq.
At the new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad—a fortification the size of the Vatican—civil servants continue to work to protect American interests, in a country so politically dysfunctional it still hasn't seated a government five months after the election.
Among the challenges is how to deal with the Arab-Kurd fault line and the disputed oil-rich city of Kirkuk. Beyond that, al Qaeda-affiliated groups and other Sunni radicals still operate in the country, as do Shiite militias, such as the Promise Day Brigades, an offshoot of Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi Army. The political situation is still unresolved, and political instability may sow violence again. And then there is the question of Iran...
"Contrary to the perceptions of some, this transition in the nature of U.S. presence in Iraq does not imply strategic disengagement," Colin Kahl, the deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Middle East affairs, told reporters at in Washington D.C. this week. "We're not disengaging from Iraq; our engagement will increase. It's just the ratio of military versus civilian engagement is changing."
Part of that change is the consolidation of the State Department's presence throughout the country. Beyond the embassy in Baghdad, there will be two consulates as well as two "embassy branch offices" in strategically important and/or volatile cities. Furthermore, 16 so-called provincial-reconstruction teams (comprising State Department and military officials) will remain in place for now, to advise the Iraqis on rebuilding and construction budgets, among other things.
"Advise and assist" is the popular term for the mission. But while administration officials like to highlight the advice part, the operative word is still "assist."
In addition to the beefed up State Department presence, a contingent of 50,000 troops will stay in the country until the end of 2011, and, as the president himself acknowledged in a speech to U.S. veterans this month, Americans will continue to die in Iraq. "The hard truth is we have not seen the end of American sacrifice in Iraq," he told the veterans, before drumming home his message: "Make no mistake: Our commitment in Iraq is changing—from a military effort led by our troops to a civilian effort led by our diplomats."
Col. Barry Johnson, a military spokesman in Baghdad, told me by phone that while the military real estate in the country has been significantly reduced, it is still sizable: There are today 92 operating bases in Iraq, down from a high of more than 500 at one point. Johnson also laid out the impressive workload for the six "advise and assist" brigades. The troops will continue to train the Iraqi army and police and will also provide help with logistics, air support, and surveillance—operating the ubiquitous unmanned aerial vehicles for reconnaissance as part of the intelligence-gathering operation—as well as provide security for State Department, NATO, and U.N. personnel. And here is the thing that no officials have been keen to talk about: American troops will still participate in counterterrorism operations, because, despite years of training costing billions of dollars, the 660,000 Iraqi security forces still can't operate fully without help.
Iraq is not yet a stable country, and for those 50,000 troops left behind, the end to major combat operations may feel like a conclusion in name only. They—and we—are still engaged in Iraq.
Louise Roug is an editor at The Daily Beast. She previously worked as a foreign and national correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, living in Baghdad and the Middle East for several years. She is a Pulitzer finalist and a recipient of a Hal Boyle Award from the Overseas Press Club. She just finished her first book.


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Rangers beat Cardinals 2-1, sweep 3-game series
By R. B. Fallstrom, AP Sports Writer —
ST. LOUIS — For the Texas Rangers, it was well-worth the wait — again.
Ian Kinsler singled in the tiebreaking run in the seventh inning after the Rangers knocked 10-game winner Adam Wainwright out of the game, and Texas completed a soggy, three-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals with a 2-1 victory Sunday night.
"It says a lot when you sweep a team that's that talented, so I think that's definitely a boost," said seventh-place hitter David Murphy, whose double kick-started the rally. "We had a lot of fun, we played with energy and we did exactly what we wanted to."
Wainwright (10-5) was upset when he was pulled after 105 pitches, and was still hot about it after the game.
Manager Mike Matheny said Wainwright, the third hitter due up in the bottom of the seventh, was going to come out then, anyway, and he thought the right-hander had labored a bit.
"Guys were running on the field and he'd already spoken to the umpire. No amount of lobbying, I wasn't going to stay in that game," Wainwright said. "But I mean, no, I didn't want to come out of that game. I felt I was as strong or stronger at the end there than I was in the beginning."
The finale of Texas' first visit to Busch Stadium since losing Games 6 and 7 of the 2011 World Series, and first time ever in the regular season, was delayed 2 hours and 59 minutes by heavy rain with less than half of a near-capacity crowd sticking around, and even less around for the finish at 1:06 a.m. The first pitch Saturday night was pushed back 1 hour, 6 minutes and was the third rain delay of the Cardinals' 3-4 homestand.
"You can't take that as an excuse," the Cardinals' Carlos Beltran said. "The other team is also going through what you're going through."
Rookie Nick Tepesch had a resurgent outing for Texas, allowing a run on four hits in 5 2-3 innings after surrendering 11 runs in 8 2-3 innings the previous two starts. Kinsler and Murphy had two hits apiece for the AL West-leading Rangers, who have won five in a row after losing six straight.
"Anytime we get a win, it definitely feels good," Tepesch said.
The Cardinals, who have the majors' best record at 47-29, were swept for the first time this season.
Wainwright fell short in a bid to become the first 11-game winner in the National League, allowing an earned run in 6 2-3 innings with six strikeouts and one walk. Leadoff man Matt Carpenter homered to start the sixth, singled and walked for St. Louis.
He disagreed with Matheny's assessment that he'd been laboring the last two innings.
"He's wrong. You don't want to call your manager out and I would never do that," Wainwright said. "Laboring is not what I was doing. He's the manager. He makes the call. I should have got the last hitter out I faced."
Robbie Ross (4-1) got the last out of the sixth to strand a pair of runners and Joe Nathan worked around two hits in the ninth to earn his third save of the series and 25th overall in 26 chances.
"Sometimes it's nice and sometimes it's pretty and sometimes it's beautiful and sometimes it's not," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "Sometimes it's ugly, but the bottom line is he gets three outs."
Pete Kozma, whose fielding error at shortstop set the stage for Kinsler's go-ahead hit, lined into an inning-ending double play.
Wainwright retired the first two batters before Murphy doubled off the base of the right-field wall in the seventh and scored on a single by Leonys Martin to chase the Cardinals ace. Reliever Trevor Rosenthal appeared to get the Cardinals out of the inning still tied but Kozma dropped pinch hitter Jurickson Profar's weak pop fly, and Kinsler followed with the go-ahead hit.
Tepesch, a former Missouri star from suburban Kansas City, held the Cardinals hitless before David Freese singled with one out in the fifth. Tepesch is a Royals fan but saw a lot of Cardinals games when he was at Missouri.
"We were stuck watching them quite a bit," said Tepesch, who struck out three and walked two. "That's what you were working for and I've still got a lot of work to do."
The Rangers had two on with one out in the sixth with the heart of the order coming up after Elvis Andrus drew a full-count walk, but Wainwright got Nelson to pop out to shallow left and Adrian Beltre on a foul ball out.
Both teams have Monday off with the Rangers headed to New York to face the Yankees and the Cardinals opening a two-game set at Houston — but both teams apparently had little interest in a postponement Sunday night.
Notes: Rookie LHP Martin Perez gave Rangers starters their first win of the month Saturday. Relievers claimed the first eight, half of them by Neal Cotts. … Lance Berkman, who helped the Cardinals beat the Rangers in the 2011 World Series, did not play in the series due to knee soreness and because there was no DH in the NL park. Profar didn't start, either, after starting 16 games earlier this month. … Actor David Guintoli, a St. Louis native who stars on the TV show Grimm, waited out the delay and threw out the ceremonial first pitch.


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This modestly sized park is named for an important figure in African-American culture: entertainer and philanthropist Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (1878-1949). Born Luther Robinson in Richmond, Virginia, he was orphaned when still an infant. His grandmother, a former slave, raised him and his two siblings. Robinson left home at the age of eight for Washington, D.C., where he worked as a stable boy at the Benning Race Track. Around this time he assumed the name of his brother William and earned his nickname "Bojangles" after stealing a beaver cap from a hat maker named Boujasson.
Black History in NYC Parks
Learn about the trials and triumphs of the black experience in the United States and how New York City honors black history in our parks today.


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Human remains found off Cape Porpoise in Kennebunkport
Police unsure if remains connected to two missing boatbuilding students
Human remains, found Sunday evening off Cape Porpoise in Kennebunkport, have been turned over to the Maine State Medical Examiner's Office for possible identification.
Kennebunkport Police Chief Craig Sanford said the remains were discovered about 5 p.m. Sunday on Vaughn's Island. Sanford said members of the Kennebunkport police and fire departments recovered the remains and took them to the Medical Examiner's office in Augusta.
Police said a couple of local residents were walking their dog when they found the remains.
Sanford said he is not sure if the remains belong to either of two shipbuilding students who disappeared in the ocean near Cape Porpoise in the early morning hours of Dec. 20 and are believed dead. Zachary Wells and Prescott Wright, both students at The Landing School of Boating in Arundel, were last seen leaving a party at 5 Mills Road, where they had been drinking.
The men's clothing was found on the rocks on an island off Cape Porpoise a few days later.
Kennebunkport Police Chief Craig Sanford said he hoped that the discovery can help bring closure to families affected by the disappearance.
"I can only imagine, as a father myself, that it would be important to know some outcome if it were my family member. I have been in contact with the family and notified them of our findings so far," Sanford said.
Police said it was too soon to say if the remains were of the missing men.
The Maine State Medical Examiner's Office said it would be at least a few days before they would be able to be identify the remains.


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With our first #MilesToEpicenter contest complete, we would like to congratulate Stuart Berman for earning the most Facebook likes! He has won a VIP trip for four to an Earthquakes away match, including airfaire and hotel.
Thank you to all our finalists: Lara Okuniewski, Mike Wondolowski, Scott Ellis, Dia Mundle, and Alan Tran.
The Quakes are now going global! From San Jose to Berekley to Mexico to London, we're making sure every one knows their distance to the new state-of-the-art Epicenter, opening March 2015.
Starting on Wednesday August 13, all you have to do is go to one of our billboards, snap a photo and share on social using #MilesToEpicenter for a chance to win season tickets. Click here for more information.


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Get Your Free Audiobook
How to Succeed with NLP
Non-member price: $35.53
Publisher's Summary
So you want to be a star at work? NLP is your ticket to excellence in every situation. With NLP you can aim higher, do more, and stand out from the crowd. How to Succeed with NLP tells you how. What you really need to do to be successful, NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) is the art and science of personal excellence. It's a commonsense, everyday psychology that will help you identify the most successful people, work out what they do, and break down all the steps you need to emulate their success.
With this audiobook, you'll discover how to:
- Increase your confidence
- Improve your influencing skills
- Create a rapport with others
- Communicate more effectively
- Understand the use of body language
- Handle conflict situations
- Dispel anxiety
- Trust your intuition
- Go from good to great
How to Succeed with NLP will make you more effective in every aspect of your work, helping you to really achieve your full potential. With the tools and techniques included here, everything you need to excel, shine and progress in your career is within your grasp.
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What listeners say about How to Succeed with NLP
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
- John
- 10-07-2010
Kind of Interesting
There is some good information here, but overall I think the book is a little flat. It is all about succeeding as an employee, so if you are looking for a more over-arching view of NLP, this may be only part of what you are looking for.
7 people found this helpful
- Rigsman
- 14-05-2012
This book wasn't for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?
coma patients
Has How to Succeed with NLP turned you off from other books in this genre?
Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Erik Synnestvedt?
I don't think the narrator was the issue here.
What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?
Any additional comments?
This book was like listening to the song that never ends. Despite its title, the book professes at the beginning that it will not teach the concepts of NLP necessary to understand what it's trying to accomplish. For the rest of what I could actually stand to listen to, the book talks in circles, never actually getting to the meat of the matter. My guess is the author had about 3 paragraphs worth of stuff and figured no one would buy something that short, so he added hours of padding. I bet in school, his essays had the words "very, very, very, very... " in a lot of sentences. I bought it with a subscription credit, which means that I spent $11 on what was essentially a poorly written pamphlet.
5 people found this helpful
- morton
- 27-05-2010
Great for Anyone at Any Level of a Company
With job security at an all time low, this is a great audio for anyone at any level of a company. Learning to handle conflict, work with others, understand body language, communicate effectively, and gain influencing skills are important ways to make you a valuable asset to your company. If you're not familiar with the NLP approach, it's a perfect way to learn to change your behavior and your mindset. I highly recommend this audio book.
4 people found this helpful
- Saad H
- 22-03-2015
Where does How to Succeed with NLP rank among all the audiobooks you've listened to so far?
In the second category, which I consider informative useful useful but not top of the top.
- Scott
- 10-06-2010
Full Of Platitudes. Very Simplistic.
I would recommend this someone with Asperger's syndrome. It is chock full of obvious statements that the average person already knows.
A few crappy books more like this and I will cancel my subscription to audible. I want my money back!
4 people found this helpful
- Danielle
- 20-10-2010
the narrator disappoints
This is the first time I have felt that a narrator ruined a book. Why pick an American when the author is British? He stumbles over half of the expressions. Why not find a narrator who is enthusiastic and dynamic rather than one who reads in a dull monotone? Truly disappointing to listen to. I can't rate the book itself because I can't get through the recording.
2 people found this helpful
- Bushcraft For Kids
- 23-12-2012
good over view of NLP
This is a great book about NLP. If you are interested in NLP or personal development. Highly recommended.
1 person found this helpful
- Amazon Customer
- 24-06-2010
Well maybe 3 and a half stars
It's over 5 hours so loads of content. Good value. Having looked at the other NLP books I think this could one of the better ones.
Knowing what I know now, I'd buy it again
1 person found this helpful
- Phillistein
- 23-06-2010
annoying narrator
interesting premise spoiled by irritating narration - shame
1 person found this helpful


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