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AVGN: Swordquest
Mike Matei / February 18th, 2010
April 8, 2010 at 12:02 am
they need to bring this kinda stuff back that be awsome i can see me holding a life size halo sticky grenade haha
January 6, 2014 at 4:56 am
Nobody would ever do this today, though. Different times and different mindsets for everyone involved ("Why not put the money to making a good game if you have it?"); devs don't have the money to do it or the interest in making a gimick game (at least movie tie-ins would be remembered for the movie itself if nothing else); publishers would cringe at the costs of hosting a one-shot deal like this for little chance of a return; gamers would either get butt-hurt if they didn't win, destroying any good will the contest would have earned the company, or ask themselves why they should buy a one-shot game with no re-playability and little chance of winning the prize when there are thousands of games out there that are probably better and which can be pulled out and enjoyed again and again long after the initial victory is had and the contest is over? Games with sharply defined shelf lives just won't work anymore.
This could never work as an off-the-shelf game for the masses today, there's just too much risk involved for too little reward, and the competition would eat them alive for trying. But, all hope is not lost: if the professional gaming tournament scene ever got hold of this idea, they might be able to do something with it in a special tournament. Perhaps as part of the cash prize, make fancy items like this for the winners, too? It's not cheating the players, because if they want the money, they could either melt it down or sell it at an auction for a markup. I'd be more interested in watching a pro match if the winner got a diamond studded shield as well as a check at the end!
February 3, 2014 at 6:52 am
But the quest most find is champion.Don Skiver
July 6, 2015 at 1:05 am
I wish they could too…but it'll never happen. We're just in a totally different time and place nowadays. Not to mention, there's just too many people out there willing to cheat to win by either reverse engineering the game's code to find the clues or by employing a bunch of people to play the game and decipher the clues for them.
Plus, everything Darkmage said above is also true. Game publishers already have a bad habit of releasing unfinished games and patching them later just so they can make a quick buck and post their earnings sooner…why would they ever front the costs on something like this when they can just continue with the status quo with unfinished games, Day 1 DLC, microtransactions, etc etc and keep making money hand over fist?
matthew bartholomew
February 1, 2017 at 9:48 pm
you know i think the sad thing is that the contest did continue, or at least for waterworld. after atari was bought the last contest had continue for legal purposes because the game was sold and marketed as a contest not to mention people gave their answers. but the winner will not be revealed for i dont know what some other legal shit. but the sword was smelted down to make a profit and the crown for all i know truly is lost. if it is found im willing to guess that it's value will triple surly for the fact its history of origin and will likely be the greatest gaming artifact sense the nintendo world championship gold cart.
April 8, 2010 at 3:06 am
Manly tears have been shed seeing this video, so epic.Alex
April 8, 2010 at 4:26 am
looks like very VERY hard trilogy
The Kaleidoscopic God
January 10, 2015 at 11:32 pm
Hey, that's what my girlfriend calls my genitals. jk i dont have a gf ;-;999philip999
April 9, 2010 at 4:23 pm
Awesome and epic games! 😀Christian
April 10, 2010 at 10:52 pm
I want to be a movie maker and might be a game maker with my movie if i ever get rich i would buy atari continue the contest and finish air world THIS CONTEST MUST CONTINUE I DONT GIVE A CRAP IF IT HAS BEEN 30 YEARS RETRO GAMERS SHALL FINISHdethkloknirvana
April 11, 2010 at 12:01 am
Lol my dad and i are talking about all the zelda's we've beat together and he go's "hey i should show you swordquest, it's like zelda!" and i go "NO, THE NERD HATH WARNED ME OF THAT PIECE OF CRAP!"
June 30, 2013 at 11:51 am
i think you did not watch the video the nerd never saids its stupid and also wich swordquest the nerd likes it watch the video before you comment
July 11, 2013 at 3:51 am
I totally agree
April 12, 2010 at 5:30 pm
this game looks sick, they should do that with Zelda, I mean, a solid gold tri-force would be bad ass, along with the three jewels from ocarina of timeBeware77
April 13, 2010 at 10:04 am
Is there any petition (or something like that) I could sign to get the ball rolling on the "Quest" again? I think gamers would love to finish this sort of thing, especially after all these years.
A great weapon of legend, lost in the pages of history, calls to it's true master…
April 13, 2010 at 6:00 pm
I know a few other games that tried to do something like this, specifically Treasure Master on the NES.Hardgrave
April 23, 2010 at 5:14 pm
Atari still makes some pretty sweet games now days don't they? I'm sure money isn't a problum for them and the remaining items are still in Ataris posesion. I say Atari finishes the rest of the games but for PS3 Xbox360 and Wii and have the first 2 winners come back for the finals.rubius
May 11, 2010 at 8:35 pm
that is just wrong, the true king must be found and where can i find that music at the end?jeffercation
May 18, 2010 at 12:40 am
What I like about the nerd is he's entertaining but he teaches you things about video games that you never would have known. And this is another fine example of that. You guys rock, cinemassacre.WongSSJ
May 25, 2010 at 11:51 am
Yeah, it almost made me cry too. Even make me register to post something… that's some real shit of a reward for beating a game! Game developers should do something like that… or give virtual rewards to the first people that finish a game or find all the secrets or something like that…
Zohup says:
April 8, 2010 at 3:06 am
Manly tears have been shed seeing this video, so epic.Zelda_Boy
June 8, 2010 at 6:58 pm
that box thing looks nothing like a Philosopher's Stone. A Philosopher's Stone is supposed to look like a large red jewel. I mean, seeing as how Harry Potter AND Fullmetal Alchemist have ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with each other and yet both had an almost identical design for the Philosopher's Stone, I surmised that it's a universal rule that a Philosopher's Stone is supposed to look like a big, bright red jewel.NiGHTS_2011
June 11, 2010 at 12:36 am
Man, this could have eventually been so huge that Nintendo World Championships wasn't even as big as this.Overlord9015
June 13, 2010 at 6:51 am
They should make something like this with the Legend of Spyro trilogy for the PS2. That would make the games over 9000 times betterThere Are Those Who Call Him Tim
June 22, 2010 at 7:45 pm
very interesting video. if only they did something like that today. i assume the only reason that nothing like that is around today is because if somebody figured out the clues to a game made like that today,, they would post it all over the internet for anyone to see and ruin the fun. it would be neat to see something like that done with zelda though. could you imagine a quest like that. imagine if they made 3 games based off the triforce pieces and then the winners of those 3 contests come back to compete for a master sword. that would be epic. i think nintendo could pull it off.browncoat
June 28, 2010 at 12:07 am
I have to admit, I have never played Swordquest but I definitely heard about it. I never knew about the contest, but that definitely sounds pretty awesome. I wonder if there is any modern day equivalent to this type of treasure hunt competition.shipman96
July 7, 2010 at 3:45 pm
dose anyone know where to get swordquest waterworld for a reasonable price
i have the first two i just need the therd one
it dose not nee to be comlete or on good shape
it just needs to workCommenter
July 14, 2010 at 1:58 am
"The Kingdom of Nerdom Depends on it!"
i salutedSuperjay45
July 17, 2010 at 5:52 pm
Why am I not surprised?
Jack Tramiel is a Jew who survived the Holohoax
He kept treasures for himself which clearly belong to real gamers
Typical Jewish Greedvolt28
July 20, 2010 at 12:50 am
@ Superjay45
WTF?? Kinda anti semitic no?? I going to assume your jokeing because I hope seriously that you are
Can you imagine if a company did something like this today? I'm not sure that most of the little spoiled brats of today could appreciate the epic awesomness of it.Weist96
July 25, 2010 at 11:13 pm
I remember my cousin talking about this contest from back in the 80s, he wondered what happened and why only 2 prizes were given out of all of them, he also wondered where Air World was. He's gonna be surprised when I tell him85512 Is in Mario 3
August 6, 2010 at 1:38 am
us gamers need to ban together and get Atari to make that game so that someone worthy can have those items they don't belong in some guy's living room that just so happened to buy the company when they had them that's bull crap they belong in the hands of some of the best gamers of our timeColton
August 6, 2010 at 6:10 pm
The philosophers' stone (Latin: lapis philosophorum) is a legendary alchemical substance, said to be capable of turning base metals, especially lead, into gold; it was also sometimes believed to be an elixir of life, useful for rejuvenation and possibly for achieving immortality.
the philosophers stone was a substance, not an actual stone of any sort, thus making any and all of the harry potter and any other movie, where it is represented as such, wrong in terms of mythology.
Also, it is portrayed that way in books, movies, etc. because having the title of a movie, or just having the people in the movie calling something a stone and then having it be a liquid substance might be rather odd and people would ask to many questionsLinusgubben
August 12, 2010 at 2:33 pm
It's really sad to see that nowadays Atari makes some what crappy games. Although Test Drive Unlimited for the 360 is an alright game and Unlimited 2 will be out soon.. i hopejohnsonbrad9
August 16, 2010 at 3:45 pm
I bet the AVG would love this! hahaha http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160468679137&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:ITwyatt8740
August 16, 2010 at 11:36 pm
I got a heavy sixer and all 3 released swordquest games, in he boxes never opened mint condition from my grandfather, who was an atari club member, when I was six. BEST BIRTHDAY PRESENT EVER! (Besides the unopened in box top loader)wyatt8740
August 16, 2010 at 11:40 pm
Oh and I found another waterworld cart for 60 bucks at Mcvans video games (http://mcvans.com/) while traveling through Indiana. That place even had a 40 buck top loader, and a jack bros. virtual boy cart.Lorelai
August 18, 2010 at 4:48 pm
They sure belong in the hands of gamers …. But, if you think – just a brief moment – like an economist … Don't you think Atari would have sold the stuff to regain some money? I don't know. Truth is, I wouldn't have sold it. But, then again, I'm a nerd.Castlevaniafanatic
August 31, 2010 at 4:48 pm
We all need to email atari the quest must be completed we need to start a online pwtition and email it to atari they can hold the water world championship and make air world for the 360 email me at [email protected] for your ideas.Otaku4Life
September 3, 2010 at 8:18 pm
According to Michael Rideout, the Chalice is in a bank vault. He was thinking about selling it from time to time, but decided to keep it as a family heirloom.
Also according to Rideout, Steven Bell decided to melt down the Talisman and solded it to a coin dealer (but he decided to keep the small sword that was on it).thelveres
September 25, 2010 at 8:11 pm
based on the inflation data CPI which is 82 in 1980 and 211 at present and extrapolating this data and applying the method of partial differentiation on this:
1$ in 1980 = 3.57$ today
October 2, 2010 at 3:36 pm
SwordQuest was not the worst game ever http://www.vizzed.com/vizzedboard/index.php?ref=65348supermuffin
October 14, 2010 at 8:51 pm
You are fight james, i am only 12, and way to young to be wathing your vids, but im a hardcore fan. Oh yeah, the 4th game should be realised.supermuffin
October 14, 2010 at 8:51 pm
sorry, RIGHT:Pphoenix252005
October 26, 2010 at 2:26 am
October 30, 2010 at 7:21 pm
lets say for a second they did Remake all of the games(and the contest) . The company that does so would easily be rich. PS3, and Xbox just on Rights to the game ALONE would be easily a few million. (meaning it would only be on one or the other)SpeedyEric
October 31, 2010 at 12:37 pm
These games DO look like a epicness of gaming proportions.
Man, I love the ending of this episode, and I'm a nerd myself. I imagine an Indiana Jones type of adventure here which I'd like to title "The Angry Video Game Nerd and the Quest for the Sword."
November 26, 2010 at 1:18 am
This is one of my favorite episodes man. The remaining prizes do begin in the hands of the gamers.
Its truly epic what kind of contest they had.
Oh yeah and the orchestral avgn theme is just awesome in this video.pikmintaro
January 20, 2011 at 10:42 pm
Wow that Philosophers stone sure would be nice, I have this friend whose brother is little more than a suit of armor who could definitely benefit from that.
How did they get that stone though? did they make it themselves and get enough screaming human souls to power it, or did they just rip one from a Homonculus? Homonculus are pretty scarce these days, but I guess it could happen.
Great review btw, the speech at the end really gets ya pumped!Fuck RomEmKing
January 24, 2011 at 5:58 pm
@RomEmKing: He said nothing about it being worst game ever. Moron.NerdGlasses
January 26, 2011 at 1:47 pm
Nerd! listen. I can't tell you my name, but Something important happened after I finished watching the video. I realized that I have one of the lost treasures! I believe It may be the stone, but I am not sure. I remember when I was little, My dad brought something home, but I had no Idea what it was!
That is, until now……….
James, if you're reading this, please respond, and I'll give further detail. ( I can't just give out my e-mail online, now can I? ) If you get this message but can't respond through cinemassacre, My youtube user name is peptalkguy. please, I have to know if it's real or not!Dirty Jared
January 26, 2011 at 4:44 pm
@Fuck RomEmKing Don't bother man. I've told that guy to fuck himself in every conceivable way and it does no good.NellieTheHeartless
April 8, 2011 at 6:41 pm
Someone should start a petition to bring this epic quest back. I don't care how, but it NEEDS to be brought back. Even if they have to make Airworld a PC or handheld game and rob the current company owner's house (or wherever the hell those last items are kept) to make it happen.Dell
June 2, 2011 at 7:46 pm
what is this theme song?Superkirk212.5
June 10, 2011 at 10:14 pm
Where's the sword????????
July 13, 2011 at 7:02 am
FUCK ACHIVEMENTS/TROPHYS!!!!!!!! I WANT THE GODDAMN GOLD SWORD!!!!!!!!!!!mokee9
July 22, 2011 at 10:37 pm
Problem with doing something like this competition now days is that people are much better at hacking games then they were back then, so you'll find alot of people would cheat.mjeckel
July 29, 2011 at 1:35 pm
you know what game you should review: time machine. god that game slurps foot long pubes!!!
August 11, 2011 at 1:14 am
Who's up for stormin that guys mansion and stealin the sword?RayMan2
August 16, 2011 at 12:29 pm
Mind blown, like something out of a movie!probablytheonlyswede
August 18, 2011 at 4:00 pm
Whoahh… I think they would make a "remake" for xbox360 or ps3. The quest muft be fucking finished!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I´m upfyrus
August 23, 2011 at 10:25 pm
wow what a sad story. no sarcasm either!
i would have loved that talisman with the zodiacs on them and stuff.
August 26, 2011 at 1:38 pm
This fat rich ass doesn't deserfe theese things, I'll go to america and get my ass inside his house like the sneaky ass ryu in ninja gaiden and then get this back, can't be stealin' right? Once I have 'em, i have the choice… Sell them and getting REALLY RICH… or just go to a game company not knowing what theyll do with this… :/ maybe it all is in vein
December 5, 2011 at 8:31 am
And you DESERVE a spell check…sorry but you writing vulgar and childish is annoying…phoenix252005
September 12, 2011 at 1:59 pm
Thats so amazing! Who woulda thought there was a video game contest where u win actual treasure! They really should continue the contest,the game would be so awesome in this day and age! That game would sell like crazy
September 19, 2011 at 11:32 am
You know I think you're right, and would totally support that kind of thing, except for 1 thing…Hackers. Hacking is so common now a days in games that people would just hack their way through the game and "claim" their selves as the so called "winners".EmanuelLöfqvist
September 19, 2011 at 8:28 pm
This is the most EPIC game video ever :O i wish i lived during the atari age,,,
September 21, 2011 at 6:22 pm
"Damn that's a good game."
"Gee Whiz, I sure love that game."wallinen
September 23, 2011 at 10:50 am
If hackers is such a big problem. have two contests, one to secure the game and the other to actually play the game :p
November 13, 2011 at 11:04 pm
As much as I agree we need to get that shit back to where it belongs (In the hands of gamers) Jack did not live an easy life so lets not be too quick to make him out to be satan himself. Jack was sent to Auschwitz with his family where he lost his father because the nazi's were too busy pumping gasoline into his blood stream. Jack made it out alive eventually (obviously) and learned to repair office supplies. From Typewriters he worked his way up to home computers and eventually Atari. So please people, can we cut him a little break?
January 10, 2012 at 8:08 pm
Fuck that.
legend killer
February 11, 2012 at 7:45 am
lol @marblehawk _woayumi
March 27, 2012 at 10:47 pm
fuck him.woayumi
March 27, 2012 at 10:47 pm
fuck him.candlewax
November 15, 2011 at 12:04 pm
This would never work today. You would have legions of assholes working on one problem instead of on intrepid detective trying to win a contest.
August 11, 2013 at 5:12 pm
XDDon Skiver
August 2, 2014 at 12:56 pm
"Legions of assholes" lmfao…you got that right! Forum culture ftl.389aaa
November 15, 2011 at 7:52 pm
NERD I AM WITH YOU THE SWORD,CROWN AND THE STONE SOUD BE IN THE HANDS OF GAMERS AND GAMERS ONLY! SO THAT FUCKING ASS SHIT BALLSUCKER SOUD GIVE IT ALL BACKRedSpace
November 27, 2011 at 7:01 pm
Fuck the sword I want that stoneNintendo_Frog
December 20, 2011 at 12:52 pm
How old are the 2 previous winner now? Are they still alive? Do they still have their treasures?
Because if atari was to relaunch a new competition with Waterworld and Airworld, well, how could we be sure that the two previous winners in the early 80's would participate to the finals for the sword?
I They must be more than 50 by now and probably don't give any shit to video games…
March 3, 2012 at 12:06 pm
@Nintendo_Frog Both the winners are still alive. The Chalice winner keeps his prize in a bank vault. The Talisman got melted down and sold, though the winner kept the white gold sword from the front.
Don Skiver
August 2, 2014 at 12:57 pm
Aww man…it got fucking melted down?? How fucked up is that shit?Funeralfog
January 13, 2012 at 9:26 am
they should at least be in a museum or something.
August 11, 2013 at 5:13 pm
January 18, 2012 at 5:56 pm
you are Sir William Wallace himself!EPIC and EPIC music!JaysonGeronca
January 25, 2012 at 12:46 pm
The game title's so lame.
Hey guys, check out "Iron Man: Not a Typical Superhero Story" (a movie review) only @ G-Jays Productions!
For more movie reviews, Visit us @ http://g-jays.blogspot.com/2009/12/iron-man-review.htmlPiet
January 28, 2012 at 3:55 am
as you said, with waterworld started shit to hit the fan, I was afraid you have to drink kevin costners recycled pisswater in order to win the game XD
The balance of the cosmos must be restored!!Ouellette001
February 1, 2012 at 12:27 am
Just want u 2 know nerd, ive started compiling info on The sword and am preping for a questJaysonGeronca
February 11, 2012 at 2:51 pm
G-JAYS Game Zone ! – "Your online shopping center"
Xbox Live Gold Membership (12 months), Wii, Xbox, PS3, PC, Kinect, and games for all consoles now available at G-Jays.
"Top 10 Video Games of All Time" also available, Visit us at http://g-jays.blogspot.com/2012/02/g-jays-gameone.htmltainy
February 20, 2012 at 6:47 pm
Atari didn't cut the line. Air quest was REAL FUCKIN' LIFE. They said that the Jack guy bought Atari, when he didn't. They gave the sword, and possibly the stone and crown, and the gamers were supposed to be led to search for the treasures.
February 24, 2012 at 9:34 am
@tainy I think you sir, are crazy.
March 15, 2012 at 7:57 pm
@CGBongsmoke and you sir, have a good point, that is some of the craziest sh*t iv'e every hearddcondon58
February 21, 2012 at 10:04 pm
Great endingBrieareos
February 23, 2012 at 12:36 am
Too bad that talisman is melted down :l kinda want to see more pics of thatHugoso
March 2, 2012 at 8:18 pm
LOL the ideia was awesome but the games were so shitty!ljngamessuck
March 24, 2012 at 10:35 am
isnt 5 and three a prime number?djugel
March 26, 2012 at 10:18 pm
the episode is easily one of my favorites… but it's more like The Happy Video Game NerdTekkenfan
May 3, 2012 at 6:21 am
Jack is dead he died febuary 2012 so his house is probably still standing so the crown the sword and the stone must still be in his house.Tekkenfan
May 6, 2012 at 9:08 am
air world is about the I chingSuperGnG
June 4, 2012 at 1:40 am
this iz gud
June 8, 2012 at 10:02 am
Hey gamers, check out the latest and greatest gaming site on the web. It's full of gaming videos, reviews and articles. Become a follower and be apart of one of the most epic video game sites on the web!!!
@ Retrogamecloud.wordpress.comShellster04
July 22, 2012 at 4:14 am
I wonder who has the remaining prizes now that Jack Trimael is dead? It would be nice that if he acutally DID have them, his children or relatives would donate them to a gaming museum.DMM_poo
August 25, 2012 at 9:53 pm
I love this episode.The Fettuck
October 3, 2012 at 6:49 pm
2 3 5 7 and 11 are the first 5 prime numbers but 11 is higher then 10 so you can't use that. Now we only have 4 numbers left and not 5 so to make a sentence with 5 prime words is impossible if you only have 10 words. Maybe they also counted number 1 as a prime number but that's bullshit!!
August 11, 2013 at 5:11 pm
not a clue!iLikeTehGamez
November 16, 2012 at 7:33 pm
What an intense promotion. Real gold treasures worth $10k+? Secret messages hidden in comics? Don't make em like they used to.Night-X
December 24, 2012 at 10:09 pm
A another story about some gaming event that I never knew about until now. This shit is better then what Club Nintendo has.
August 11, 2013 at 5:11 pm
it would be great if nintendo did competitions like this but less difficult!Alex Sandoval
January 3, 2013 at 9:55 pm
they should have released Airworld for the Atari Flashback
February 17, 2013 at 11:12 pm
swordquest is badass!!!! all the games nowdays are DLC cash-in ripoffs … they are not worthy to be called games nowdays, i want another game like swordquest, ea games has waaay enough money to TOTALLY OUT-DO swordquest… everyone BOYCOTT EA until they make a quest for real treasures game!
February 17, 2013 at 11:21 pm
speaking of EA… i say ALL games that have that crap where its like "preorder to get x item, or x level" .. and "we took out half the game to sell as a day1 DLC" … those games, are WAAAY worse than atari games… greedy assholes… fuck them, thats why i download games..Ryan Sullivan
March 3, 2013 at 7:46 pm
Jack Tramiel is dead he died of heart failure on April 8th last year so i don't know what's gonna happen to the treasures either his family's gonna keep em or someone is gonna fidn them and keep them i don't know.
August 11, 2013 at 5:10 pm
we need a nerd museum!
March 21, 2013 at 4:30 pm
Best Nerd episode ever, ever!
November 15, 2013 at 5:02 am
Agreed 100%


text:
The Italian manufacturer B-Line will present this minimalist side table designed by the German studio Neuland Industriedesign at this year's Salone del Mobile in Milan. 'Abra' is made from smartly folded sheet metal and comes in two different sizes which makes it nestable as well.
B-Line will be at the Milan fair in hall 16, booth E36.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Google Maps for iPad Even Better With New EggMaps HD
EggMaps HD 1.04, is an important update to one of our favorite navigation apps for iPad. Offering a visually appealing directions-list view, with the map of your route in the background, EggMaps HD is the iPad-only app that provides Google Maps at full resolution. Unlike the iPhone version of Google Maps, EggMaps HD takes advantage of the larger iPad screen. Version 1.04 adds markers, terrain view and a much easier Street View. May 24, 2013


text:
A revised version of an important security standard for ecommerce merchants was published on Wednesday.
Version 1.2 of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) mostly tweaks and clarifies the existing framework for the secure processing of credit card data. The 12 existing requirements - covering areas such as the need to used a firewall, store cardholder data securely and encrypt transmission of cardholder data - remain unchanged.
The revised standard, however, adds tighter controls for the security of wireless networks. The latest version of the standard calls for wireless networks "connected to cardholder data environments" to be tested alongside those that transmit card data.
Also, use of the aging WEP wireless encryption will not be allowed in certified environments from the start of July 2010, and banned in new environments from April 2009.
The tightening of wireless security testing follows on from the indentification of an insecure wireless network at a TJX branch that resulted in the exposure of 45.7 million card records last year. Other retailers including Barnes & Noble and Forever 21 were breached using the same approach, according to prosecutors in an upcoming case involving the TJX breach expected to go to trial next year.
PCI DSS v1.2 is effective immediately and becomes the compulsory approach from the start of January 2009. Details of the standard, the fruits of two years consultation between the PCI Security Standards Council and industry, can be found here. A breakdown of changes in the latest version of the standard from the previous guidelines can be found here (pdf).
Compliance with PCI DSS standard ranges from self assessment, in the case of smaller ecommerce firms, to a full annual audit in the case of larger firms. Non-compliant firms risk losing their ability to process credit card payments over the longer term or stiff fines, especially in cases where breaches occur, in the shorter term.
PCI DSS compliance is certainly not a panacea for ecommerce security woes. US grocery chain Hannaford admitted in March that a security breach, later blamed on malware, had resulted in the exposure of an estimated 4.2 million credit card records. Hannaford had the PCI DSS seal of approval but audits have failed to uncover what looks, with the benefit of hindsight, to be a fairly obvious problem.
"Security is more than simple compliance to guidelines. Just because you are compliant doesn't mean you are secure," Gary Jackson, chief exec at application security tools firm Ounce Labs told El Reg last week. ®


text:
Denny Gioia, chair of the Department of Management and Organization in the Penn State Smeal College of Business, was honored last month with the 2013 Distinguished Doctoral Alumni Award from the Florida State University (FSU) College of Business.
The Distinguished Doctoral Alumni Award recognizes FSU College of Business graduates who have used their education and their experience to achieve significant levels of success and distinction.
Gioia is the Robert and Judith Klein Professor of Management and the chair of the Department of Management and Organization in the Smeal College of Business at Pennsylvania State University. He also is a member of Penn State's MBA and Executive MBA core faculties.
Gioia is among the most cited authors in the Academy of Management. His work ranges from the philosophical, theoretical and empirical to the methodological, educational and practical, and appears in the top management journals and in numerous book chapters and proceedings.
He is editor of the Journal of Management Inquiry's "Provocateurs" section and Academy of Management Review's special issue, "Corruption in Organization." He has co-edited two books of original contributions, "The Thinking Organization" (1986) and "Creative Action in Organizations" (1995). He is a Fellow of the Academy of Management.
Gioia's primary areas of theory and research focus on organizational identity, image and reputation. He studies sense-making and sense-giving processes during strategic change efforts, knowledge transformation processes, the role of organizational identity and image in attempting to accomplish change, and identity formation and change processes.
Earlier in his career, Gioia worked as an engineer for Boeing Aerospace at Cape Kennedy on the build and launch teams for the Apollo 11, 12 and 13 missions to the moon. He also worked for Ford Motor Company as corporate recall coordinator.
He earned his bachelor's degree in engineering science, with a concentration on electronics and astronautics, in 1970; his master's degree in business administration, with a focus on management, in 1972; and his doctorate, with a concentration in management and organizational behavior and a minor in social psychology, in 1979 – all from FSU.


text:
Ed. — Occupy.here was supported by Rhizome as part of its 2012 Commissions program, and also received a commission from Triple Canopy in 2013. The project's new website launched yesterday.
Regardless of your feelings about Occupy Wall Street, we can all agree that its genesis was unlikely, to say the least. It appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, in New York's Financial District (of all places). And it continued to exist only because of a lucky break: basing the protests in Zuccotti Park, formerly Liberty Plaza Park, was a fallback plan, following a failed attempt to protest in front of the New York Stock Exchange. It was the unusual rules for Zuccotti—as a Privately Owned Public Space (POPS), it is not bound by the normal city parks curfew, and is required by charter to stay open 24 hours a day—that enabled the encampments to get a foothold. This may have been a lucky break, but one that was earned through years of organizing, cultivating the expertise and tools and networks that allow a movement to grow and sustain itself.
Occupy.here began two years ago as an experiment for the encampment at Zuccotti Park. It was a wifi router hacked to run OpenWrt Linux (an operating system mostly used for computer networking) and a small "captive portal" website. When users joined the wifi network and attempted to load any URL, they were redirected to http://occupy.here. The web software offered up a simple BBS-style message board providing its users with a space to share messages and files.


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Xanthine Derivatives/Charcoal Interactions
This information is generalized and not intended as specific medical advice. Consult your healthcare professional before taking or discontinuing any drug or commencing any course of treatment.
Medical warning:
Moderate. These medicines may cause some risk when taken together. Contact your healthcare professional (e.g. doctor or pharmacist) for more information.
How the interaction occurs:
Charcoal may decrease the amount of theophylline your body absorbs.
What might happen:
Levels of theophylline in the blood may be decreased, making the theophylline less effective.
What you should do about this interaction:
Make sure that your healthcare professionals (e.g. doctor or pharmacist) know which medicines you are currently taking. These medicines may be given together in the case of an overdose of theophylline. Your doctor may check blood levels for theophylline. The dose of theophylline may be adjusted or given two to three hours before the charcoal to prevent a decreased effect if the charcoal is not being given for a theophylline overdose.Your healthcare professionals may already be aware of this interaction and may be monitoring you for it. Do not start, stop, or change the dosage of any medicine before checking with them first.
- 1.Sintek C, Hendeles L, Weinberger M. Inhibition of theophylline absorption by activated charcoal. J Pediatr 1979 Feb;94(2):314-6.
- 2.Helliwell M, Berry D. Theophylline absorption by effervescent activated charcoal (Medicoal). J Int Med Res 1981;9(3):222-5.
- 3.Ginoza GW, Strauss AA, Iskra MK, Modanlou HD. Potential treatment of theophylline toxicity by high surface area activated charcoal. J Pediatr 1987 Jul;111(1):140-2.
- 4.Goldberg MJ, Spector R, Park GD, Johnson GF, Roberts P. The effect of sorbitol and activated charcoal on serum theophylline concentrations after slow-release theophylline. Clin Pharmacol Ther 1987 Jan;41(1):108-11.
- 5.True RJ, Berman JM, Mahutte CK. Treatment of theophylline toxicity with oral activated charcoal. Crit Care Med 1984 Feb;12(2):113-4.
- 6.Berlinger WG, Spector R, Goldberg MJ, Johnson GF, Quee CK, Berg MJ. Enhancement of theophylline clearance by oral activated charcoal. Clin Pharmacol Ther 1983 Mar;33(3):351-4.
- 7.Park GD, Radomski L, Goldberg MJ, Spector R, Johnson GF, Quee CK. Effects of size and frequency of oral doses of charcoal on theophylline clearance. Clin Pharmacol Ther 1983 Nov;34(5):663-6.
- 8.Mahutte CK, True RJ, Michiels TM, Berman JM, Light RW. Increased serum theophylline clearance with orally administered activated charcoal. Am Rev Respir Dis 1983 Nov;128(5):820-2.
- 9.Radomski L, Park GD, Goldberg MJ, Spector R, Johnson GF, Quee CK. Model for theophylline overdose treatment with oral activated charcoal. Clin Pharmacol Ther 1984 Mar;35(3):402-8.
- 10.Gal P, Miller A, McCue JD. Oral activated charcoal to enhance theophylline elimination in an acute overdose. JAMA 1984 Jun 15; 251(23):3130-1.
- 11.Sessler CN, Glauser FL, Cooper KR. Treatment of theophylline toxicity with oral activated charcoal. Chest 1985 Mar;87(3):325-9.
- 12.Davis R, Ellsworth A, Justus RE, Bauer LA. Reversal of theophylline toxicity using oral activated charcoal. J Fam Pract 1985 Jan;20(1):73-4.
- 13.Amitai Y, Yeung AC, Moye J, Lovejoy FH Jr. Repetitive oral activated charcoal and control of emesis in severe theophylline toxicity. Ann Intern Med 1986 Sep;105(3):386-7.
- 14.Shannon M, Amitai Y, Lovejoy FH Jr. Multiple dose activated charcoal for theophylline poisoning in young infants. Pediatrics 1987 Sep; 80(3):368-70.
- 15.Minton NA, Glucksman E, Henry JA. Prevention of drug absorption in simulated theophylline overdose. Hum Exp Toxicol 1995 Feb;14(2):170-4.
- 16.Minton NA, Henry JA. Prevention of drug absorption in simulated theophylline overdose. J Toxicol Clin Toxicol 1995;33(1):43-9.
- 17.Jain R, Tholl DA. Activated charcoal for theophylline toxicity in a premature infant on the second day of life. Dev Pharmacol Ther 1992; 19(2-3):106-10.
Selected from data included with permission and copyrighted by First Databank, Inc. This copyrighted material has been downloaded from a licensed data provider and is not for distribution, except as may be authorized by the applicable terms of use.
CONDITIONS OF USE: The information in this database is intended to supplement, not substitute for, the expertise and judgment of healthcare professionals. The information is not intended to cover all possible uses, directions, precautions, drug interactions or adverse effects, nor should it be construed to indicate that use of a particular drug is safe, appropriate or effective for you or anyone else. A healthcare professional should be consulted before taking any drug, changing any diet or commencing or discontinuing any course of treatment.


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The Durango economy is looking up, and a new hotel will be built in Bodo Industrial Park to help accommodate a rising number of tourists.
A Homewood Suites hotel by Hilton will go up in front of Durango Coca Cola Bottling Co. The three-story hotel will have 78 rooms with an average room size of 470 square feet, well above the average for lodges. Each room will have a full kitchen, and the hotel also will have a business center and a meeting room that can hold up to 60 people.
Frank Mapel, owner of the hotel, said he hopes to break ground this summer and open by summer 2013.
Weve been looking at this for quite some time now, and the one thing about Durango is that it has a lot of hotels, but it has a lot of old hotels so we thought there was an opportunity here, Mapel said. This is a different type of product where it offers the suite concept. We think it will create jobs, and we hope it does.
Mapel was born and raised in Durango, and his grandfather ran the Durango Coca-Cola Bottling Co. franchise in the 1950s, and it is still in the family.
John Cohen, executive director of the Durango Area Tourism Office, said Durango needs more hotels.
Were not there yet, but were certainly seeing some nice growth and sharp spikes in advance bookings, he said.
Durango hotels frequently reach capacity when there are big events in town, such as last weekends Soccer Shootout, which brought more than 2,000 junior soccer players and their families to town.
The Durango City Council suspended ordinances on vacation rentals to better accommodate the 20,000 to 25,000 visitors expected in August for the 2012 USA Pro Cycling Challenge.
Mapel said he is deciding between two banks to finance the hotel: First National Bank of Durango and Bank of Colorado.
Durango is starting to see more growth south of downtown, and the hotel will complement that growth, said Jack Llewellyn, executive director of Durango Chamber of Commerce.
Being on that side of town could draw more traffic. And travelers coming in from the south might come in and see the hotel and just stop there, Llewellyn said. Were seeing a growth pattern happening in that area.
The Homewood Suites wont be Durangos only addition. A four-story, 116-room Holiday Inn will be built near Tech Center Drive at the former Cottonwood Camper Park site.
Mapel hired Jim Heumann of HHC Hotels a hotel-management company based in Kansas City, Mo. to manage the lodge. He will be in charge of hiring and training staff members.
The hotel will employ about 25 full-time employees.
Well predominantly look to Durango (for staff members), Heumann said. We prefer to hire locally.
Mapel and Heumann are interviewing general managers for the hotel now and have three finalists, two of whom are locals.
Heumann said he does not have salaries for the employees yet, but they will be competitive.


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The presidential campaigns are continuing to wage an aggressive back and forth, especially in Ohio. But the devastating impact of Sandy will likely put a wrench in residents' plans to vote, and the tallying of those votes. NBC's Chuck Todd reports.
With Election Day just one week away, state officials along the eastern seaboard are assessing the devastation done by Hurricane Sandy, which swept through the Northeast corridor and hit New Jersey and New York hardest.
For the second day, early voting was canceled in Maryland, while some in-person absentee voting locations in northern Virginia were closed, and early voting was suspended in six counties in West Virginia, a state hit by high winds and heavy snow.
Gary Hershorn / Reuters
Floodwaters surround a car parked on a street in Hoboken, New Jersey Oct. 30, 2012. Sandy, one of the biggest storms ever to hit the United States, roared ashore with fierce winds and heavy rain near Atlantic City, New Jersey after forcing evacuations, shutting down transportation and interrupting the presidential campaign.
But the looming challenge was for counties in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut where the storm surge flooded schools and other locations designated as voting sites next Tuesday. Election officials in coastal counties were struggling to assess whether power outages might force changes in some of next Tuesday's polling locations.
The potential for disruptions to voting on Nov. 6 could depress voter turnout in storm-affected areas of New York and New Jersey, for example, but President Barack Obama is still likely to carry those two states with no difficulty.
In Nassau County, N.Y., where the south shore was inundated by the storm surge and where there are more than 900,000 registered voters, towns such as Oceanside and Long Beach are now under a foot or more of water.
Related: Campaign pause set to lift on Wednesday
Nassau County Board of Elections Commissioner William Biamonte said Tuesday that he and other officials were still trying to reach the emergency contact people at each of the polling locations in the flooded areas, but they'd been unsuccessful, as cell phone service was out in parts of the county.
Before the storm hit, officials mapped polling locations in what FEMA designates as Category 1 storm areas: 68 of Nassau County's 400 polling locations are in that flood-prone zone.
"The real issue is power," Biamonte said. "If we still have massive power outages a week from today, there are few options."
One of them: when voters come to a polling location, they would be asked to fill out the ballot used in the county's optical scan machines and instead of scanning them at the polling location (which is the normal procedure), those ballots could be taken to the county board's office and scanned there. This option, he said, would delay the tallying of results by a day.
MSNBC's Chris Jansing talks with NBC's Pete Williams about the impact Superstorm Sandy may have on the election, and the issues that would surround a possible postponement of the presidential election.
Biamonte said he expects voter turnout of about 670,000 in the county next Tuesday but is concerned that about 300,000 of those voters, who vote only in presidential elections, will be unfamiliar with the optical scan machines the county has adopted since 2008. That unfamiliarity might add another element of confusion on Election Day.
But "come hell or high water – which is what we just had – were going to be voting next week," Biamonte said.
As in New York, and in New Jersey too, power outages, massive flooding, and impassable streets are making it difficult for officials along the coast to assess polling locations.
"We're talking about relocating polling locations," said Jason Varano, assistant supervisor of the Ocean County, N.J., Board of Elections. "We don't know what we're going to do. We have no plan yet."
But he stressed, "We're taking an assessment of everything. By tomorrow night, when roads are safe to drive down, we'll have a better assessment."
The county clerk's office in Toms River, N.J., has extended its hours to accept vote-by-mail ballots. The office will stay open until 9 p.m. tomorrow through Saturday and open Sunday as well until 4 p.m., said Scott Colabella, the Ocean County clerk.
Colabella added, however, that the clerk's office currently does not have power and had to move its phone lines.
In New Jersey, anyone can vote by mail without an excuse. Voters can request a ballot at a county clerk's office until 3 p.m. Monday.
Ocean County – one of the hardest hit areas in the state with its 45 miles of coastline stretching from Point Pleasant to Seaside Heights and down to Long Beach Island – has 411 precincts and 250 polling locations.
Monmouth County, N.J., with its 27 miles of coastline directly to the North of Ocean, was also severely impacted. Its offices were closed Tuesday.
Varano, who said county officials are coordinating with and awaiting more guidance from the state, said it will probably be five or six days before they know exactly the extent of the damage and what the county will realistically be able to do about voting.
"Right now," Varano said, "there are massive amounts of numbers of people without power" and that has meant he's having a "hard time getting in touch with" some of those in charge at polling locations. His office is open, but doesn't even have Internet yet, he said.
Ocean County cast about 275,000 votes in the 2008 presidential election and is one of the most Republican counties in the state.
In Connecticut, Secretary of State Denise Merrill will be holding a conference call at 10 a.m. Wednesday with at least 200 town clerks and voting registrars across the state in order to assess whether changes in polling locations might be needed next Tuesday.
Merrill spokesman Av Harris said state officials do not yet know if some polling locations will need to be moved due to power outages or storm damage.
Meanwhile, several counties in West Virginia were still under blizzard or winter storm warnings as of 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.
"We've been calling counties that are under blizzard or winter storm warning – they're measuring the snow not in inches but in feet – and even though some of these places have gotten slammed, they've still managed to open their early voting sites," said Jake Glance, a spokesman for West Virginia Secretary of State Natalie Tennant.
As for contingency plans for next Tuesday, Glance said most of the state's 55 counties use touch-screen voting machines that can rely on battery power if electricity is still out in some places.
He said Tennant's office has been exploring the option of deploying generators in certain precincts to keep lights on and machines operating if electric power is still out next week.
In Maryland, Gov. Martin O'Malley issued an executive order Tuesday ordering early voting centers to be open between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday after the hurricane forced cancellation of early voting on Monday and Tuesday.
NBC's Domenico Montanaro contributed to this story


text:
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Boiler Installation Bucklebury
Are you thinking of getting a new boiler installed in your house, flat or place of work in Bucklebury? Boiler 24-7 has a dedicated team of professionals in Bucklebury that are experts in boiler installation services. All of our engineers are registered with Gas Safe and are able to work on your boiler without giving you and worries or concerns.
We provide a reliable and cost efficient boiler installation service to ensure that you get the best possible level of service for the best price. We also guarantee that an engineer will call you 60 minutes before their arrival to ensure that you don't have to wait around all day!
Boiler 24-7 takes pride in the high quality level of boiler installation services that we provide to all of our customers in Bucklebury. Our engineers will always leave your property as they found it and any disruption is kept to an absolute minimum.
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text: Maybe it's the rigorous academics and personalized learning. Maybe it's the Augustinian Catholic guideposts of truth, unity and love. Maybe it's the 250,000 hours of annual community service. Or maybe it's the whole package of distinctive features that makes Villanova a special place—a place that stands out and stands apart; a place that attracts students who want to think critically, act compassionately and succeed while serving others.


text:
St. Germain Investment Management are privately owned, independent & leading investors since 1924 with clients throughout the USA & 10 other countries. We have been managing asset investments based on our client's goal while delivering exemplary & personalized service.
phone: 1.800.443.7624
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Monday, August 15, 2016
China hits seven-month high
China's rally takes the edge out of Japan's poor, last-quarter performance. For the story, click here.
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Featured Post
Is the new professionalism and ACP's new ethics really just about following guidelines?
The Charter ( Medical Professionalism in the New Millennium.A Physician's Charter) did not deal with just the important relationship of ...
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Fewer internists passing re-certification exam
Is the test harder or less relevant to what internists do and need to know or is the knowledge base of the internists falling in proportion to the test scores? Are younger internists not as sharp as the older docs, a position 180 degrees from the views expressed a while back in an Annals of Internal Medicine editorial by Dr. Christine Cassel in which she defended and accepted an unusually poorly done article- see here for some comments regarding that issue- that claimed as physicians aged so did the quality of their care.
Dr. Cassel, President and CEO of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) defends the test and opines that perhaps the current cohort of internists are less competitive,whatever that means.She also wonders if those who take the test early (certification has a ten year cycle and some docs may take the test early and she thinks those may be less prepared because they will have another chance before they are defrocked.)
I have a theory that could actually be tested by surveys of the test takers. Could the decrement be due to more general internists limiting their practice to office patient encounters? If you never treat seriously ill patients in an in-patient setting how current do you feel you should be in regard to a wide variety of medical conditions? Your practice is more involved in seeing if your patient is at goal for this or that and have they had their bone density and flu shot than the choice of antibiotics for a seriously ill patient with pneumonia or sepsis or how to manage emergent upper GI bleeding. It would be interesting to know if internists who practice as hospitalists do better than those whose office day is closer to that of the typical family practice physician.
2 comments:
- Anonymous said...
i received a letter from united healthcare today encouraging my participation in m.o.c.
in fact i should be so interested that i would take time to ensure i forward to united health verification of completion directly from abim.
just out of curiosity why do i have to do moc? why can't i just sign up for the test, as in the past? shouldn't being certified once entitle me that privilege?
who is watching over abim?
- Anonymous said...
ABIM is a money sucking monopoly that doesn't have a clue how to truly evaluate an Internist's knowledge. The test is irrelevant to the practice of medicine and the burden and expense of continuing certification will be the final nail in the coffin of General Internal Medicine.


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This past weekend was Surf City Half Marathon and also my friend Kristin's Birthday! Friday night after I went to the Expo and it poured rain and they were sucking water up with vacuums, I met up with Kristin and my running twin, Aron for dinner in Huntington Beach. It was super delicious and so fun catching up with everyone and seeing everyone out of running clothes. I was so excited so many people came down for the race!
Then before I knew it, it was race morning. I didn't take my own advice, and wasn't prepared for the morning. I was so tired the night before I conked out pretty early and slept well through the night. I realized I had a pink long sleeve and was awoken to my alarm and immediately tensed in bed and listened for rain. There was none! I checked the weather, texted a few people and then decided that I would have to leave my warm cocoon of a bed and get ready. I had no idea what to wear or if I was going to wear my new shoes or not. Finally I opted for the long sleeve pink shirt that I had forgotten about and my Nike Booty Shorts (to all those who ask about the shorts… there is a post coming up soon dedicated to booty shorts) I did my hair in the usual buns and got them nice and secure. I drove over to my cousins house and she drove me and her sister down there. Her sister was running the 5k. Ignore the weird smile. Thanks.
Finally she took off, and Billy and I met up after I told him about the gem of a parking spot. We got all our gear together and I decided to give my blood stained Nike's one more spin before retiring them. They had just a few too many miles on them, so I knew after this race they would be shot. We meandered around a while and saw our friend and speed demon Charlie before the race.
Then I had to go to the bathroom SUPER bad so we went back to the port-a-potties and Billy took this horrific video of me.
Then we got locked outside the starting area and had to wait until Wave 4 to start. It took forever until we started and I tried to find Aron and Kristin, but it was so packed and we had to climb over the fence but we were still stuck in Wave 4. Here is where we are starting the race from Billy's camera.
We started HAULING to try to find them. Mile 2 was easily in the low 7's and we passed a few blobs of pace groups. It seemed like it was swarming with people around the pace groups so we had to run on sidewalk to go around them. We turned the corner a little after mile 2 and found them at the porta potties! I was so happy to see them! Kristin had on the cutest shirt and it got so many "Happy Birthdays!" all day and it was so fun to catch up and ease into a good pace and be relaxed.
The course is pretty flat for the most part. There are a few small hills but they are mostly in the beginning so it's not too bad. We ran together and it was so clear out you could see all the way to the mountains and they were covered in snow. It was a great day for a race.
We all planned on wearing pink and it was so fun running with friends. I love running races like this, the miles just ticked by pretty quickly and before we knew it we were entering the area for the long out and back around mile 6.
There was some lady who was wearing pink like us and we all were talking to her. We were just enjoying each others' company and the nice day out. We talked to a few runner's around us and each other about running and upcoming races.
Then Billy took some fun pictures of us from the front. Yea, I made a horrible face.
Aron and Kristin! Soooo glad they came down here to run the race! :)
Then we started on the out and back section of the race. It was a long way out. I forget how long it feels like. I started to feel a little tired so I decided to take a risk and take some sharkies. They are pretty delicious and I really liked them and they didn't upset my stomach. Win! Here Billy snapped a great pic of me trying to shove some sharkies down my throat.
It was seriously a great day to be out running. After I ate the sharkies I started to feel a little better and knew I wouldn't boink. Perhaps maybe next time I should eat more than a banana before a race, or at least not forget my jelly beans. I got a little bit warm in my long sleeve by the end though. The sun was out shining brightly!
Here is a video of some of the flooding that occured at mile 8. There was a median and everyone had to run on it to not go into the water.
The stretch into the finish line about mile 9. I remember this mile last year this is right around when I realized I wasn't going to get my PR and how disappointed it felt in myself. This race was much different though because I was having so much fun talking with everyone and just cruising along and taking pictures. It's so much different when you know it's just for fun and you can enjoy running.
It was right around here my feet started hurting a little bit. I knew that my foot was bleeding yet again, but, surprise, surprise, it was the other foot and a completely different toe. RIP Nikes. RIP.
I also saw this, which I've seen before but I seriously have so much respect and this totally reminds me how lucky I truly am to run and to be able to do whatever I want. The woman on the lefts shirt says Blind Runner and the guy next to her was her 'Guide Dog'. It's people who get out there and just run because they love it is what keeps inspiring me.
The course is pretty and the waves and beach were nice to look at along the course for the last little section.
Here's a video of a lot of how the course looked:
Then at mile 10 we saw this woman rubbing another woman's butt. That was interesting. I think she had a cramp but just the way they were standing and holding each other was hilarious and I had to take a picture.
Right around mile 12 I started to feel really good and I wanted to get in a little bit more 'hard work' during the race so Billy and I took off in front of Aron and Kristin. I finished with a 7:40 mile and was happy that I pushed it the last mile. I finished with a time of 1:54:21 and I was glad I came in right under 2.
After Billy and I finished the race we met back up and then waited for Aron and Kristin but we never saw them again. Sad, sad, but it was great running with them and I loved catching up and being able to see them! Then we walked back down the street to meet up with my cousins to go home.
Billy and I at the finish line of the Surf City Half Marathon. Another fun race run together!
And I leave you with this gem. Oddly Enough, it was another toe on the other foot that bleed this time. Oh well, I have some new shoes to try out and they are not Nikes so we'll see how it goes! It should either stop the bleeding or it will continue to bleed so we'll find out. I need to retire the Nikes though and there seemed to be no better time to try out a new shoe! I am still not sold on the Surf City race but I was glad this experience was better than last year!


text:
1. Losing all your friends
Man comes home and finds his wife with his friend in bed.
He shoots his friend and kills him.
Wife says "If you behave like this, you will lose ALL your friends."
2. Brother wanted
A small boy wrote to Santa Claus,"send me a brother"....
Santa wrote back, "SEND ME YOUR MOTHER"....
3. Meaning of WIFE
Husband asks, "Do you know the meaning of WIFE? It means 'Without Information Fighting Everytime'!"
Wife replies, "No, it means 'With Idiot For Ever'!!!"
4. Importance of a period
Teacher: "Do you know the importance of a period?"
Kid: "Yeah, once my sister said she has missed one, my mom fainted, dad got a heart attack & our driver ran away."
5. Confident vs. confidential
A young boy asks his Dad, "What is the difference between confident and confidential? "
Dad says, "You are my son, I'm confident about that. Your friend over there, is also my son, that's confidential! "
6. Anger management?
Husband: "When I get mad at you, you never fight back. How do you control your anger?"
Wife: "I clean the toilet."
Husband: "How does that help?"
Wife: "I use your toothbrush ."


text:
MENLO PARK, California — Mark Zuckerberg wants to turn your Android phone into a simple sharing device. And by that, he means he wants to turn it into a Facebook phone.
Facebook just announced Facebook Home, which all but turns any Android handset into a "Facebook phone" by putting the social giant right there on the home screen and all of its products at the forefront of the UI. It isn't a phone made by Facebook. It's something better than that, and in some ways, more important: a deeply integrated application with its hooks set tightly into the Android platform. Think of it as an apperating system.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been hinting at following this path for years, even as he fought back incessant Facebook phone rumors. A phone is "so clearly the wrong strategy for us," he said last year. And he's right. Facebook can't take on Apple and Samsung, or even Microsoft and BlackBerry. Making hardware is a lot of work, and that kind of work doesn't make sense for Facebook right now. Instead, the social network is ensuring it can be as front-and-center as possible on all the most popular platforms today.
"Today we're finally going to talk about that Facebook phone. Or more accurately we're going to talk about how you can turn your Android phone into a great social, simple device," Zuckerberg said at the launch event in Menlo Park. He went on to describe how people most often use Facebook on their mobile devices and explain why Facebook chose to build an Android experience, rather than a phone. "A great phone might sell 10 or 20 million units at best. Our community as more than 1 billion people in it. Even if we did a good job selling a phone, we would only be serving 1 to 2 percent of our community and we want to do more than that."
Of course, Facebook couldn't just come out with what is, essentially, an Android homescreen. It needed something to reskin, so it worked with HTC to release the first phone with Facebook Home, the aptly named HTC First. It's a mid-level handset with decent enough specs and a bland hardware design. Yep, another rectangle with rounded edges and home button. (Surprise! It looks a whole lot like an iPhone.) But that's almost beside the point. You'll see Facebook Home on a whole lot of phones – and soon – because it's designed to work on any Android handset.
That isn't quite what people expected, which explains all of the "Facebook phone" rumors and headlines. But it makes perfect sense: Facebook Home's software has so much more reach than any hardware ever could. Remember the HTC Chacha and HTC Status with dedicated Facebook buttons and signature Facebook blue coloring? No? That's OK. Neither sold well. Facebook Home, on the other hand, doesn't have to sell at all, because it can run on almost any Android phone. (As with any installable, there are hardware requirements, and there are a lot of old Android phones out in the world.) Home offers a deeply integrated mobile Facebook experience without having to give up the Android system you already know and love. Facebook already is the top free app on Google's mobile OS, so demand for Facebook on a smartphone is definitely there — unlike the questionable demand for a phone made by Facebook.
As soon as you launch Facebook Home, you're taken directly to your Facebook home screen — a rotating News Feed — where you'll see the latest updates from friends and pages you follow. The status updates show up as full screen images, which you can interact with right from there. For example, you can double tap to like a photo or status as it's on your home screen.
The phone isn't just about your Facebook network, though. An app drawer gives you quick access to all of the standard Android apps like Play Store, Chrome and camera, while also putting Facebook goodies like Instagram and Messages at your fingertips. Facebook also made some basic alterations to the Android UI, such as making it easy for you post status updates, take and share photos to the site and check in to locations wherever you go directly from there. It's all elegantly designed and seamlessly integrated into Android. The built-in Gallery app lets you share directly to Instagram, Facebook Messenger and Facebook Camera.
A Facebook notification screen, donned with your cover/profile photo, alerts you to all of the latest happenings in your social network. You can see who has sent you a message or liked your post or which of your friends are out at a nearby bar.
Facebook has also created a new messaging system called Chatheads. Yes, Chatheads. Messaging is built directly into the UI so you don't need to hop in and out of different apps to chat with friends. Once a friend messages you, their profile picture pops up as a small circular icon. You can tap it and open up the message thread, and leave the Chathead on the screen so you can easily go back to your chat. You can have multiple conversations as well, with all the chatheads you like on your screen. Once you're done, you can swipe the Chatheads away from the screen. It works with Facebook messages and SMS, and barely distinguishes between the two (except by color with blue and green).
Facebook Home controls more of your Android experience than you're used to – it's much more than an app. It controls your lock screen and can see what other apps you're currently running on the phone through its app launcher. It has control over your system and WiFi settings. The goal is to make it as easy as possible to do anything you'd want to do with Facebook, Instagram and the rest of Zuckerberg empire. Gone is the need to hunt through pages of separate apps. Your whole Facebook experience is all right there on the home screen, one tap away.
The phone is almost irrelevant, because it won't be long before you can install Facebook Home on your own handset. It's a decidedly mid-range device straight out of last year, with a 4.3-inch glass display, a dual-core Snapdragon processor, and running Android 4.1 (a year-old Android OS.) It's available on AT&T's network starting April 12, for $100. On the same day, you'll be able to get Facebook Home on the HTC One and One X, the Samsung Galaxy S III, Galaxy S4, and Galaxy Note II
If HTC First sparks enough interest, other handset makers could start pushing phones with a built-in Facebook Home. Facebook has already set up the Facebook Home project to help handset makers and carriers build Android phones with Facebook Home. It allows Facebook to work with carriers like HTC to optimize for battery life and system notifications. But for Facebook, it's less about the the devices and more about making sure its social network is available as the best experience possible on the world's most popular platform.
Facebook already has deep integration into the Windows Phone platform, with the ability to populate the main People and Photos hubs. And the social network's tools are as integrated as Apple will allow in iOS 6. The one major platform missing deeper integration was Android, and it had many more possibilities than the others considering the malleability of the operating system.
Facebook Home on Android is a huge step for the social networking company. While Zuckerberg has made it clear the company did not want to make a phone, Facebook Home provides the clearest look yet at what Facebook's mobile future looks like and how the company can turn current phones into Facebook phones.


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I would like to preface this week's column with a few unrelated statements, the significance of which will become clear later:
•Lutefisk is a traditional Scandinavian dish made of dried cod that is soaked in lye and then boiled.
•I think all of you have nice-looking feet.
•That photo of me from spring break 1991, the one with the "mankini," the case of beer and what appears to be a catapult? Just disregard that.
On to your questions:
Q: What is your position on companies checking out prospective employees' Facebook or other social media pages before hiring? Should they be doing this?
— Jenn in Reno, Nev., via email
A: In the present economy, a job is a gift, and that makes any company that's hiring look like Santa Claus. Would you question whether Santa has a right to know if you've been naughty or nice? No, you wouldn't because you don't talk back to Santa. Duh.
(I am nothing if not terrible at parables.)
My gut reaction to your question, Jenn: Companies would be foolish to not perform at least a cursory check of a job candidate's online activity. Then I made some calls on this and found that my gut reaction is almost as bad as my parables.
It turns out that companies that screen Facebook and Twitter pages of potential employees may be opening themselves up to a wide array of discrimination lawsuits.
"Let's say you apply for a job and on your Facebook site you openly say you're gay," said Peter LaSorsa, a Chicago attorney who concentrates on employment law. "The company goes on your Facebook site and sees you smooching a guy, and you end up not getting hired. Maybe you don't get hired for some other reason, but the company has now set themselves up for a charge of discrimination."
Despite such risks, companies routinely are scouring the online profiles of potential employees.
Max Drucker is CEO and president of the California-based Social Intelligence Corp., which contracts with companies to run social-media background checks on job candidates.
"Some 80 percent of companies, depending on the study you look at, are doing some form of an Internet screening, some form of Google search before they hire candidates," Drucker said. "But in doing so, they're exposing themselves to information that's not necessarily relevant to the job. Those areas are things an employer can very easily encounter, so they give themselves the opportunity to discriminate."
An employer could learn that a woman being considered for a job is pregnant. Or that a person has a disability, or a particular political leaning.
"I don't think it's fair for employers to just Google applicants and make decisions based on that," Drucker said. "I think it's a violation of privacy, and I think there's no way a company can do it with any consistency that makes it fair."
Social Intelligence scans social media for specific types of activity, including racist comments, illicit photos, drug use and the display of weapons, including bombs. They issue reports that detail only the categories the employer selects, giving the company legal cover from discrimination claims.
The Federal Trade Commission recently approved what Social Intelligence does, saying that the company operates within the guidelines of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
LaSorsa said he believes companies should stay away from social-media background checks, relying on more traditional approaches and on the ability of an interviewer to tell "if the person's half-baked or not."
"What is the benefit of looking at somebody's Facebook?" he said. "Are you trying to see if they're just a blabbing idiot? Do you really care on Saturday if they go out and get hammered? If they do their work on Monday, does it really matter to you? Is it worth the increased risk?"
Drucker said the solution for job seekers worried about their online activity being scrutinized is simple: "Don't post racist remarks. Don't post pictures of yourself doing drugs. Don't post pictures of yourself holding weapons or bombs. This stuff is not hard."
Q: As a Minnesota guy, I really look forward to my daily lunch of hot dish, lutefisk and deep-fried cheese curds. However, it seems several times a week someone schedules a webinar or insists a meeting be scheduled at 1 p.m. EST. You'd think our East Coast brethren would be more considerate about not scheduling everything over our lunch break. Is there some psychological advantage to being fat and happy while your audience is distracted by growling stomachs?
— Joel in St. Paul, Minn., via email
A: I imagine this is just another case of the East Coast feeling insecure because it doesn't have as many states that start with "M." But for further insight, I spoke with Susan Friedmann, author of "Meeting & Event Planning for Dummies."
"I get very frustrated because people just don't understand time zones," she said. "They think that whatever time zone they're in is the one that everybody's in. They don't know if they should be adding or subtracting an hour or two. I just don't think that people are cognizant enough about it."
She did add that the East Coast has long been viewed as the primary time zone, but that may be waning with the prevalence of webinars and teleconferenced bicoastal meetings.
"It's a big issue," she said. "All the different time zones need to be noted to make it work."
And Friedmann said it's important that you stand up for your right to peacefully consume lutefisk: "If a time doesn't work, you need to just say, 'Hey, sorry, that's my lunchtime. Can we do it later?'"
Q: Dear Rex: My colleague has ugly feet. And wears flip-flops. Can I hack her feet off with a machete?
—Seth in Montreal, via Twitter
A: Because you live in Canada, you are allowed to do that, as long as you apologize immediately post-hacking. And don't use a sharpened hockey stick. That would be too cliche.
Talk to Rex
TALK TO REX: Ask workplace questions — anonymously or by name — and share stories with Rex Huppke at email@example.com, like Rex on Facebook at facebook.com/rexworkshere and find more at chicagotribune.com/ijustworkhere.


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While Bryce Brown has been stealing most of the headlines since Signing Day came and went, there have been a few other high profile recruits to take their time declaring their intentions for college next season.One of those recruits, Kwame Geathers, a defensive lineman out of Carvers Bay High in Hemmingway, South Carolina is now off the board.That's because Geathers signed his letter of intent to play with the Georgia Bulldogs next season, at a fairly orchestrated press conference at his high school this afternoon. (For more information than you'll ever need, check out this live blogging of the announcement.)Geathers was down to Tennessee, Central Florida, and Georgia before finally deciding on the Dawgs today. He is a four-star prospect according to multiple recruiting services.The 6'5″ 320 lb. lineman will start off as a defensive lineman, but many project him to end up as an offensive tackle.He is he 19th recruit to sign with Georgia this year.
Big Ten pulls plug on fall football amid COVID-19 concerns
The Big Ten won't play football this fall because of concerns about COVID-19, becoming the first of college sports' power conferences to yield to the pandemic.
The move announced Tuesday comes six day after the conference that includes historic programs such as Ohio State, Michigan, Nebraska and Penn State had released a revised conference-only schedule that it hoped would help it navigate a fall season with potential COVID-19 disruptions.
But it was not a surprise. Speculation has run rampant for several days that the Big Ten was moving toward this decision. On Monday, coaches throughout the conference tried to push back the tide, publicly pleading for more time and threatening to look elsewhere for games this fall.
"The mental and physical health and welfare of our student-athletes has been at the center of every decision we have made regarding the ability to proceed forward," Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren said in a statement. "As time progressed and after hours of discussion with our Big Ten Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Big Ten Sports Medicine Committee, it became abundantly clear that there was too much uncertainty regarding potential medical risks to allow our student-athletes to compete this fall."
The Big Ten touts itself as the oldest college athletic conference in the country, dating back to 1896 when it was called the Western Conference, and its schools have been playing football ever since. It became the Big Ten in 1918 and grew into a football powerhouse.
The 14 Big Ten schools span from Maryland and Rutgers on the East Coast to Iowa and Nebraska out west. Not only has it been one of the most successful conferences on the field but off the field it has become one of the wealthiest.
The Big Ten, with its lucrative television network, distributes about $50 million per year to its members.
Trump, coaches push for college football as cracks emerge
President Donald Trump joined a U.S. senator and a number of coaches Monday in the push to save the college football season from a pandemic-forced shutdown.
There was speculation that two of the five most powerful conferences — the Big Ten and the Pac-12 — might call off their seasons. Farther east, Old Dominion canceled fall sports and became the first school in the Bowl Subdivison to break from its league in doing so; the rest of Conference USA was going forward with plans to play.
A Big Ten spokesman said no votes had been taken by its presidents and chancellors on fall sports as of Monday afternoon and the powerful Southeastern Conference made clear it was not yet ready to shutter its fall season.
"Best advice I've received since COVID-19: 'Be patient. Take time when making decisions. This is all new & you'll gain better information each day,'" SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey posted on Twitter. "Can we play? I don't know. We haven't stopped trying."
A growing number of athletes have spoken out about saving the season with Clemson star quarterback Trevor Lawrence among the group posting their thoughts on Twitter with the hashtag #WeWantToPla. Trump threw his support behind them Monday.
"The student-athletes have been working too hard for their season to be cancelled," he tweeted.
Old Dominion has stopped trying. The Virginia school canceled football and other fall sports less than a week after Conference USA set out a plan to play a football season.
"We concluded that the season – including travel and competition – posed too great a risk for our student-athletes," ODU President Broderick said.
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh took a different stand, saying the Wolverines have shown players can be safe after they return to school.
"I'm not advocating for football this fall because of my passion or our players desire to play but because of the facts accumulated over the last eight weeks since our players returned to campus on June 13," he wrote. "I am advocating on August 10 that this virus can be controlled and handled because of these facts."
Sen. Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican, picked up on the safer-with-football theme in a letter to the presidents and chancellors of the Big Ten.
"Life is about tradeoffs. There are no guarantees that college football will be completely safe — that's absolutely true; it's always true," he wrote. "But the structure and discipline of football programs is very likely safer than what the lived experience of 18- to 22-year-olds will be if there isn't a season."
"Here's the reality: Many of you think that football is safer than no football, but you also know that you will be blamed if there is football, whereas you can duck any blame if you cancel football," added Sasse, a former college president. "This is a moment for leadership. These young men need a season. Please don't cancel college football."
Players unite in push to save college season, create union
Michigan defensive back Hunter Reynolds saw the tweets from Trevor Lawrence and other college football players pushing for the opportunity to play this season despite the pandemic.
Reynolds, one of the organizers behind a players' rights movement in the Big Ten, didn't like the way some on social media seemed to be pitting Lawrence's message against the efforts of #BigTenUnited and #WeAreUnited.
"There was a lot of division," Reynolds told AP early Monday morning.
Reynolds got on a call with Lawrence and the star quarterback's Clemson teammate, Darien Rencher, and within a matter of hours the summer of athlete empowerment found another gear.
College football players from across the country united Sunday in an attempt to save their season and ensure they will no longer be left out of the sport's biggest decisions.
Lawrence, Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields, Oklahoma State All-America running back Chuba Hubbard, Alabama running back Najee Harris and numerous other players from Florida State to Oregon posted a graphic on social media with #WeWantToPlay and #WeAreUnited.
"We came to the conclusion, We Want to Play, their message might have been conveyed differently but at the end of the day the message wasn't too far off from what Big Ten United wanted to promote," Reynolds said. "Which is we all want to play sports this fall. Every athlete, I'm pretty sure, wants to play their sports. They just want to do so safely."
The #WeAreUnited hashtag was used a week ago by a group of Pac-12 players in announcing a movement they say has the support of hundreds of peers within their conference. They have threatened mass opt-outs by players if concerns about COVID-19 protocols, racial injustice in college sports and economic rights for athletes are not addressed.
#BigTenUnited arrived on the scene a couple days later, a movement that claimed the backing off 1,000 Big Ten football players. Their demands were more targeted, strictly related to health and safety in dealing with COVID-19.
Sunday night, the call with Reynolds, Rencher and Lawrence led to a Zoom meeting — of course — with some of the Pac-12 players involved in "WeAreUnited."
Washington State defensive lineman Dallas Hobbs got to work on a graphic and now the movement is officially nationwide.
"Just started bouncing ideas off each others' heads and kind of discussing where we go from here and we ended up coming up with that statement," said Reynolds, a senior from South Orange, New Jersey.
Under the logos of each Power Five conference — ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC — the players pronounced their platform:
— We all want to play football this season.
— Establish universal mandated health & safety procedures and protocols to protect college athletes against COVID-19 among all conferences throughout the NCAA.
— Give players the opportunity to opt out and respect their decision.
— Guarantee eligibility whether a player chooses to play the season or not.
— Use our voices to establish open communication and trust between players and officials: Ultimately create a College Football Players Association.
All of this capped a weekend during which the adults who run college sports seemed to be moving toward shutting it all down because of the pandemic.
A day after the Mid-American Conference became the first of the major college football leagues to cancel the fall season, Power Five conference commissioners met Sunday. They discussed mounting concerns about whether a season can be safely conducted with the pandemic still not under control in the United States.
Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said no decisions on the season have been made, but conceded the outlook has not improved.
"Are we in a better place today than two weeks, ago? No, we're not," he said.
Bowlsby cited "growing evidence and the growing pool of data around myocarditis."
Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart and it has been found in some COVID-19 patients. There is concern it could be a long-term complication of contracting the virus even in young, healthy people, a group that has usually avoided severe cardiovascular symptoms.
Also Sunday night, the Big Ten's university presidents and chancellors held a previously unscheduled meeting, a person with knowledge of the meeting told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was not announced by the conference.
Another person with direct knowledge of the meeting, speaking on condition of anonymity, said no votes were taken or decisions made about the college football season.
The final call on whether major college football will played this season rests in the hands of the university presidents who oversee the largest conferences.
With doom and gloom hanging over college football, Lawrence, who has become the face of the sport in a summer of strife, tried to push back the tide with a series of tweets.
"People are at just as much, if not more risk, if we don't play," Lawrence posted. "Players will all be sent home to their own communities where social distancing is highly unlikely and medical care and expenses will be placed on the families if they were to contract covid19."
Penn State tight end Pat Freiermuth had a similar message, and the parents of Ohio State football players weighed in, too.
Reynolds wants athletes to have a say in the meetings that are deciding the fate of their sports — starting now.
"All college athletes through unifying and not being afraid to speak our minds and having social media to kind of mobilize, I think that box on a Zoom call is something that is pretty attainable," he said. "Especially, in the near future."
After MAC surrenders to pandemic, will other leagues follow?
In many ways, the Mid-American Conference has little in common with Power Five leagues that first come to mind when fans think of major college football.
There are no 75,000-seat stadiums in the MAC. Million-dollar per year coaches are rare. In a typical season, NFL scouts might find one or two potential first-round draft picks playing at the 12 MAC schools that dot the Midwest. The MAC's biggest games — #MACtion, if you will — are often played on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Its television deal with ESPN pays per year only a few million more than the $9 million Clemson pays coach Dabo Swinney.
Still, the MAC is one of 10 conferences that competes in the NCAA's highest level of football, and Saturday it became the first of those to surrender to the coronavirus pandemic and cancel the fall sports season.
So is the MAC an anomaly, done in by its small budgets or is this a dire sign of things to come in college football?
"I won't try to judge what other folks are doing," MAC Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher said. "I know we're all in the same place. They all have their advisers. They're going to make judgments based on the information they are receiving."
Not long after the MAC announced it would explore second-semester seasons for all fall sports, including soccer and volleyball, the Big Ten made its own announcement that seemed ominous given the timing.
Tapping the brakes on football's preseason, the Big Ten told its schools that until further notice full contact practices cannot begin. All teams will remain in the first two days of what is known as the "acclimatization period," working out in just helmets. The first Big Ten games of the season are scheduled for Sept. 5.
"As we have consistently stated, we will continue to evaluate daily, while relying on our medical experts, to make the best decisions possible for the health, safety and wellness of our student-athletes," the Big Ten said in a statement.
The MAC's schools were facing a significant financial burden by trying to maintain costly COVID-19 protocols, while also dealing with the uncertainty that campuses can be opened safely.
A move to the spring, however, could also be budget-buster if it means less revenue from the ESPN deal, which pays each school about $1 million per year, and football ticket sales. The MAC also shares about $90 million per year in College Football Playoff money with four other conferences.
"It would be naive to say that you don't give thought and consideration to what the financial ramifications of any decision are, but this was a health and well-being decision first and foremost," Steinbrecher said. "As we sit here today we don't know what this will mean financially and how the rest of the fall plays out."
Steinbrecher said the decision effects only fall sports, not basketball or others that begin in the second semester such as baseball, softball and lacrosse.
He added the decision was unanimous among the membership. Northern Illinois athletic director Sean Frazier, supported by NIU President Lisa Freeman, has been a vocal advocate of delaying the season.
"No one wants to have football or sports more than me," said Frazier, who played football at Alabama in the late 1980s. "Football gave me all the opportunities I have today, but I can't do it at the expense of people's lives."
Eastern Michigan athletic director Scott Wetherbee said he has been feeling a sense of inevitability for two weeks about the MAC canceling fall football, but can't predict whether this decision trickles up to other conferences.
"Could it? Certainly. There's certainly a narrative out there that could happen," Wetherbee said. "No, it wouldn't shock me if some followed suit. In fact, it would shock me if some didn't."
NCAA chief medical officer Brian Hainline made clear that even though plans for the football season have been adjusted to accommodate potential COVID-19 disruptions like the ones Major League Baseball has had, they are all still aspirational.
"Almost everything would have to be perfectly aligned to continue moving forward," Hainline said Friday during the NCAA's weekly video chat on social media.
As the Power Five conferences re-worked their schedules to play exclusively or mostly within their conferences, another of the MAC's revenue streams dried up.
MAC schools, with athletic budgets in the $30 million range, rely heavily on payouts from road games against power conference teams. Kent State alone had more than $5 million in so-called guarantee games canceled. Whether they can be recouped and when is still to be determined. Without that revenue, the strain became too great of trying to keep players and staff safe during a pandemic.
"Certainly there was a cost attached to it," Wetherbee said. "But as a league we were prepared to do it."
The move to try spring football has already been going on in the second tier of Division I.
Nine of 13 conferences that play in the Championship Subdivision, have postponed fall football seasons. The first was the Ivy League in early July.
Now it's the MAC, which was among the first conferences to limit fan access to its basketball tournament in March as concerns for the virus began to soar across the country. On March 12, the MAC was among many conferences to call off their tournaments hours before the NCAA canceled all of March Madness.
"If you told me in March we'd be here today," Steinbrecher said, "I'd never have believed it"


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Tom Jones, the Welsh singer whose sex appeal knows no age limits, is recovering in a hospital in Monaco from a bout of "severe dehydration," his spokesman said Sunday.
The 71-year-old Welsh singer whose sex appeal knows no bounds denied reports in British tabloids that a heart scare had been behind his Saturday concert's cancellation.
The cancelled Saturday show was supposed to wrap up a three-month world tour.
U.S. & World
A spokesman for the Princess Grace Hospital where Jones was recouping told The Associated Press that the pop star was doing well but didn't say when he would be released.
"Sir Tom was ordered by doctors not to perform in Monte Carlo yesterday evening," said a statement on Jones' Web site, where he also apologized to his fans for the unusual cancellation.
Jones became a star beginning in the 1960s with a string of hits like "It's Not Unusual" and "She's a Lady."
Over the decades, he earned an enduring reputation as an international sex symbol with the help of his long-running Las Vegas gigs and his legions of underpants-throwing fans.
Selected Reading: Today, The Associated Press, Entertainment Weekly


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Tonga & the Friendly Islands Heart Map
This vintage map print has been hand embroidered with a heart for that special someone who loves Tonga and the Friendly Islands!
All frames can be hung or displayed on a wall or shelf - whichever suits the owner best (except 11x14 frames - which can only be hung).
Available in 4 sizes - 4x6, 5x7, 8x10 or 11x14. Heart shape differs slightly from size to size.
NOTE: All maps are framed for your convenience in a complimentary vintage-inspired frame unless otherwise specified at checkout.
Hand embroidered in Ottawa, Ontario.


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This item has a slim fit, If you prefer a baggy look with room to grow you may consider sizing up one size. Refer to our size chart for measurement clarification.
Materials include 57% polyester 43% cotton premium medium weight rib knit. Material is not pre-shrunk so please allow up to 10% shrinkage if machine dried.
Our clothing is cut to allow for shrinking, we recommend cold water inside out and tumble dry on low heat or laying flat to dry to avoid shrinkage.
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Campus Calendar
Currently Browsing:
Events in category: ExhibitionsSee all categories (clear "Exhibitions")
for FacultySee events for all groups (clear "Faculty")
- Katayoun Amjadi: A Bunch of Chickens and a Toilet Brush (through Nov. 27)
- William Kentridge: Second-Hand Reading (through Nov. 20)
- William Kentridge: Universal Archive (through Nov. 20)
- Biblio/Botanica (through Dec. 6)
- The Players, et al. (through Dec. 6)
November 2019
Thursday, November 14th
Friday, November 15th
Saturday, November 16th
- You are on Dakota Land: Contemporary Indigenous Activism 12:00 pm
- Girl K and Slow Pulp 10:00 pm
Sunday, November 17th
Monday, November 18th
Tuesday, November 19th
Wednesday, November 20th
Thursday, November 21st
Friday, November 22nd
Saturday, November 23rd
Sunday, November 24th
Monday, November 25th
Tuesday, November 26th
Wednesday, November 27th
Thursday, November 28th
Friday, November 29th
Saturday, November 30th
December 2019
Sunday, December 1st
Monday, December 2nd
Friday, December 6th
- Biblio/Botanica ends
- The Players, et al. ends
Thursday, December 12th
- Form and Function: Connole / Fisher / Shibata begins (through Mar. 15, 2020)