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When Sonja Kent was introduced to triathlons, two of the three disciplines appealed to her. Of course, the swimming would be a strength for Kent, now a junior in the sport at WPI.
She only had a mountain bike, but she could deal with some distance cycling.
But running? "I hated running," the 20-year-old West Boylston High graduate said. "I was so horrible at it."
Her tune has changed considerably over the past four years, especially since three weeks ago when Kent won the overall women's sprint triathlon title at the USA Triathlon Age Group National Championships in Burlington, Vt. Her strong performance in the 5-kilometer run put the exclamation point on an impressive weekend during which more than 3,000 competed.
The victory also earned her a berth in next year's world championships in London.
In 2008, her aunt and uncle, Patsy and Kevin Sullivan, recruited Kent to give triathlon competition a shot. She had worked her way up to a quality distance swimmer at the Worcester Jewish Community Center and the relatives thought she may enjoy an activity they had thrived in.
So Kent entered an event near the Sullivans' home in Chelmsford. While she didn't exactly have state-of-the-art triathlon equipment, she emerged from the swimming portion in good shape. "But with my mountain bike, everyone was passing me," said Kent, who managed through the run and still won her age group. The sport was starting to win her over.
She entered more and more events, many in the USA Triathlon Northeast Junior Development program, about 10 per season. With a road racing bike she purchased, she started consistently placing high in that series. She estimates that she has completed more than 40 triathlons of various distances.
For Kent, triathlon training begins in March just after the college swimming season. She competes in distance events for WPI, so after the season she cuts back a little on her swimming mileage.
She doesn't bike at all during the winter, but starting in March Kent will go on 12- to 30-mile rides four to five days a week. She also hikes up the running miles, from about 20 a week during the winter to about 35 in triathlon training. Now, the running isn't so bad.
"This summer, I was determined to be a runner," she said. "I went out to act like a runner and be like a runner."
Along with the increased mileage, she toiled with speed work at the WPI outdoor track, but by herself.
"It was hard to be motivated sometimes," said Kent, who would set out for 1-3 miles on the track, punctuated by eight 100-meter pickups with jogs in between. She stepped that up to 200-meter intervals.
Once or twice a week this season, Kent would drive to Chelmsford for longer bike rides with the Sullivans and their son, Sean, also a triathlete. "Those rides helped a lot with my leg strength and endurance."
All that paid off for Kent, who took on an ambitious double at last month's nationals. She competed in the Olympic triathlon on Saturday, the day before taking on the sprint triathlon. "I was motivated to do it all," she said.
It was only her second time competing at the Olympic distances — a 0.9-mile swim, 26-mile bike ride and 10K run. The wind was tricky for the swim and the bike ride, but Kent placed 13th in the women's 20-24 age group. "I was satisfied," she said.
The Saturday competition didn't wear down Kent, it merely energized her for the sprint event, which features a 750-meter swim, 20-kilometer bike ride and 5-kilometer run.
"I was in a tunnel-vision mode and it carried over to Sunday," Kent said. "I did well in the swim and bike then had the most amazing 5K of my life. I really felt like I was flying."
Kent, who rarely runs in road races, did take part in the West Boylston Road Race in June, finishing the 5K in 19:45. On the final leg of this sprint triathlon, she shattered that personal best in 19:10.
Her overall winning time was 1 hour, 5 minutes, 25 seconds, more than a minute better than runner-up Taylor Spivey. Kent did it with consistency, turning in the fifth-fastest swim, sixth-fastest bike ride and fifth-fastest run.
"I'd like to go back next year and improve on my Olympic time," said Kent, an industrial engineering major at WPI who began fall semester classes a couple of weeks ago. She's thinking about pursuing a master's degree after enjoying a summer internship in marketing at MassWorks in Natick.
She eventually wants to work her way up to Ironman triathlons (2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike, 26.2-mile run), in which the Sullivans have participated. "They've done them; that's an amazing thing," Kent added.
Much training is involved, but it's all enjoyable to Kent.
"I'd never do it if it was work," Kent said. "I love to train, and I love to race."
And she even enjoys that other discipline.
"I love to run now. … I'm a runner."
There was a time you could get away with exaggerating a marathon result. Not today.
You enter a road race, there's hardly a chance the result can't be obtained by Googling your name.
Sure, my grandfather told my dad his best Boston Marathon finish was eighth, he told one of my older cousins seventh, and me third. Had he lived longer, that 18th-place finish in 1922 might have been a victory.
And there's no shame in Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan's 4:01 clocking in the 1990 Grandma's Marathon in Minneapolis — not bad at all for a 20-year-old, not exactly an age common for marathon training.
Why try to fudge the numbers? Remember, timing devices never lie.
John Conceison can be contacted by email at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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We are looking forward to a delicious wine dinner tomorrow night at Carol's at Cat Spring, my restaurant that is adjacent to my Texas weekend getaway, Blisswood.
Carol's at Cat Spring will be featuring California wine from Flora Springs Winery during our six course feast! AND, we will be giving away a magnum of Flora Springs wine during each of the courses! There is still space, make sure to call the restaurant and reserve you spot now! (979)865-1100
We will be enjoying:
A reception with a selection of amusing bites
Tomato Soup with black and green olive ciabatta toast; Napa Merlot
Grilled hearts of romaine with shaved Parmesan and a light herb vinaigrette dressing; Pinot Grigo
Halibut Steaks grilled and topped with pineapple salsa; Napa Chardonnay
Petite Beef Wellington: center cut beef tenderloin with wild mushroom ragu and a puff pastry; side by side tasting Napa Cabernet and Single Vineyard Cabernet
Chocolate Surprise Cake with chocolate ganache: Flora Springs Port
Whew! My mouth is watering already! I hope to see you tomorrow night at the restaurant!
AND…if you are planning that special Texas Romantic Getaway, make sure that Blisswood and Carol's are in your plans! Blisswood is a Texas Bed and Breakfast with all you could ask for and more: private and comfortable accommodations, beautiful scenery, wildlife, farm life, romance and activities!
So come and see us for Valentines Day weekend. We are having some great specials at the restaurant, and Blisswood on the Lehmann Ranch is always a great place for couples to rejuvenate!
The Valentines Day Menu at Carol's:
Chicken Bacon bites – Free range! Seasoned and seared with a sweet and spicy dipping sauce.
Oysters Rockefeller – Fresh Blue Point oysters topped with sauteed spinach and bacon, then baked.
Chocolate spiced soup or mixed green salad with strawberries, spiced candied pecans and apple cider vinaigrette.
Chilean Sea Bass – Pan seared with white rice, fresh spinach and saffron burre blanc
Beef Tenderloin – Served with chocolate vegetable chutney seasoned and seared & set atop potatoes
White Marble Farm Quail – stuffed with our chorizo cornbread stuffing, baked in butter and finished with sweet and spicy cranberry sauce.
The meal starts a 5:30, make sure to make a reservation! (979) 865-1100
Yum, YUm, YUM! I hope you get the chance to bring your sweetheart to see us for Valentines Day! You never know, maybe next time you come it will be for outdoor Texas Weddings!

subset: commoncrawl


text: Review - HP MediaSmart Windows Home Server December 8, '07 Comments [40] Posted in Home Server | Reviews Sponsored By Yesterday I received my HP MediaSmart Windows Home Server in the mail. There's two versions, the 500gig and the 1TB. I've been using WHS since Beta2 and was ready to tidy up my Frankenserver, which was largely a DIY (Do It Yourself) and I'd been having some hard drives go belly up lately. Fortunately I hadn't lost any data, since Home Server makes copies, but I was getting nervous with my existing hardware. You might remember that I did a Podcast with the Father of Windows Home Server, Charlie Kindel. I encourage you to check it out. The Home Server is so pretty I took it out of the Wiring Closet and put it in the Home Office. I took one of my Western Digital My Book External Drives and use it as a Backup to the Backup. The HP MediaSmart is REALLY small. Like maybe the size of 2 technical books. It's headless, meaning it has no VGA or DVI port. No monitor. You have to remote into it with the Home Server Software, which is really no big deal. Here's some unboxing photos. The soda can is for size reference. The tooling on the hard drive enclosures is brilliant. Mine came with bays 3 and 4 filled with two 500 gig Seagates, so I added some other SATA drives I had lying around. There were NO tools required and no cables. Just shutdown, seat the drives, push them in, boot up and tell the admin console that the drives are cool to use. Even better, the lights on the outside of the case turn Red if a drive is failing, Purple if there's a drive but it's not configured and Blue if it's configured, so I watch the lights go blue as I added each drive. It took all of ten minutes. It defaults to the name "HPSERVER" and you get one opportunity to change it so I made it just "SERVER" so we've got \\server\software and \\server\users\scott, etc. It's very tidy. I robocopy'ed over about 70 gigs of data then backed up all the machines in the house. You're allowed ten machines. Then I installed SyncBackSE on the Home Server itself (you're not supposed to install stuff on it that wasn't written for it, but SyncBack was a natural thing to want on it and it works great as long as you only refer to your Home Server by UNC path like \\server\foo. Hm, I should make a SyncBack UI with the WHS SDK, or they should...) and set it to backup my blog and website. Here's a screenshot of my setup showing 1.25 TB of space. I've redirected both our "My Documents" and "My Pictures" using mklink.exe so we're both writing to the server seamlessly. It doesn't run a domain, so we have to keep our password synchronized, but the Home Server Connector software warns you if they are out of sync and handles it. The HP software adds another button as you can see above, with some additional features like an iTunes music server, so I have my iTunes protected music streaming from there to other instances of iTunes around the house, and my unprotected music streaming via Windows Media Connect to the Xboxes. That was an unexpected treat, as I didn't know it had iTunes integration. You will have to install the HP software on at least one 32-bit machine in order to "bootstrap" the server the first time. However, there will apparently be a 64-bit Vista Connector for 64-bit folks (like some of my machines) available as on Windows Update in the near future. Check out We Got Served, the best Home Server Community site I've seen, especially their list of Home Server Add-Ins. Also, here's the WHS team blog and their pretty clever advertising campaign about Stay At Home Servers. So far I'm very happy with Windows Home Server. Now I'm just waiting for Mozy to include support for it. They had better pretty soon or I'll jump ship. « Paternity Leave - Week 1 | Blog Home | Power Consumption of the HP MediaSmart H... » About Scott Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author. About Newsletter Sponsored By Hosting By Comments [40] Share on: Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or use the Permalink


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ARPA-E 2011 Keynote: Secretary Steven Chu
You are here
SECRETARY STEVEN CHU: Thank you, room. A lot of people here. That's a good sign. As long as the attendance keeps rising over the coming years, we will be very, very happy.
Let me talk about what we're facing. This is a recent history – inflation-adjusted history of oil prices from 1996 to 2011. Well, that goes to 2010 but that's the price today, roughly speaking, $100 a barrel. And, you might ask, by 2020 or 2015, what will the price of oil be? And the answer is we don't know. It could be down here at $40 a barrel, it could be here at maybe 80 (dollars) or $90 a barrel, or it could be up here.
And so, what do we do? Do we hope for the best, plan an economy at $40 a barrel, or plan for something different? Now every time the price of oil goes up we do this. (Laughter.) And when the price of oil goes down, we do this. (Laughter.) So what I suggest is let's take a longer-term, more measured approach to solving this problem.
This is the oil trade – lots of arrows going back and forth, lots of arrows coming into the United States. About a billion dollars a day worth of oil comes in. About a billion dollars worth of money goes out. It's also redefining all the geopolitics of the world. And so, again, this is something I want to remind you of, that there's a lot of money flowing out of the United States.
There's also going to be a tremendous increase in the demand for accessible, affordable clean energy, and the accessible, affordable is very important. The sun and the wind actually are in most countries, and so that's another reason why there will be a deeper demand for accessible clean energy.
And our national security is very dependent on our energy security. And I want to stress this; that the energy we create at home is wealth creation at home, and that's very important. So, I think our strategy should not be one of hoping for the best and planning for the best, but let's decide where the world is going to be and skate where it's going to be, not where it's been. And I think Wayne Gretzky's "I skate to where the puck is going to be" is a good philosophy, and I think America should follow that philosophy.
So we have to decrease our dependency on oil, so what are the steps we're taking? Well, we're increasing fuel efficiency. Just in case you're wondering, these are pictures of the Ford Fusion and the Chevy Volt. We are working to electrify vehicles. This is a FedEx all-electric truck and a Nissan Leaf.
And we're also working on next-generation biofuels. These are Department of Energy bioenergy institutes. They've been in operation for about two-and-a-half years, maybe three years, creating a bevy of patents, already spin-offs going to companies.
And these are some of the – Amyris is one company, for example, that is taking some of the intellectual property generated in these bioenergy institutes, JB in particular, and has already contracted with Brazil to set up a pilot plan. They think they can produce – using bacteria and feeding it simple sugars, they can produce diesel fuel and market it at $4 a gallon. So this is going to be testing whether this is commercially viable.
Another biotech company being supported by RPE (ph) so that the – this company is working on something that's – within the plant itself there are peptide chains that would fold into enzymes after the harvest of the plant, and those enzymes would help digest a plant, so that the most costly part of the process of reducing grasses and straws and lignocellulose would then be actually supplied by the plant itself. So that's another novel approach, not quite ready for prime time but rapidly advancing because some of the most rapidly advancing areas in science are in biotechnology.
So, anyway, there is a race going on to develop clean energy technologies that the world will demand. China, the EU countries, and others, recognize there are huge opportunities and they're investing big time. How much are they investing? Well, the top-10 countries in clean energy investments as a fraction of the GDP, we have Spain, China, the United Kingdom, Brazil and so on, and the United States is down here not doing as well.
If you look at China in particular and look at how they're dealing with this energy challenge, they have, for example, installed the highest-voltage and highest-capacity and lowest-loss high-voltage lines in the world. They have an 800-kilovolt DC line and a 1,000-kilovolt AC line. The DC line, for example, can transmit electricity 1,200 miles with a 7 percent loss in energy.
I looked up what the highest voltage/lowest-loss DC lines in the United States were. If you wanted to transmit that far a distance with those lines, it would have lost 80 percent of the energy, not 7 percent. And so they're clearly now world leaders and, surprisingly, or not so surprisingly, they feel that there's a huge market in the United States which will have to rebuild its high-voltage infrastructure.
Out of more than 60 nuclear power plants that have broken ground recently, China has broken ground at 25 of them. They've just recently surpassed the United States as the world's fastest supercomputer.
They hold the record for the highest-speed rail in the world and in some of the rail lines they have scheduled speeds – not one-time record speeds but actually schedules with 220-mile-an-hour operational lines with plans for 5,600 miles of high-speed rail now under construction. By comparison, Japan has 1,500 miles. France has 1,100 miles. And the U.S. – defining high-speed rail as anything 100 miles an hour – has zero.
And China will achieve – certainly in their plan, mandatory they will achieve 15 percent renewable energy by 2020, but the odds – spending odds is they're going to get to 18, possibly even 20 percent renewables by 2020.
They are also hard at work and not only manufacturing – it's not only low-cost manufacturing; it's high-tech manufacturing. And this is the growth – the green curve is growth – of China. The blue curve is the United States. The EU is holding steady. And if you go to China's factories you find highly roboticized factories, hardly any people – very, very modern factories.
Now, where are these investments coming from? And so, there are several types of investments. There's asset financing. This is like project financing. This is what the United States and China and the rest of the world uses to install, for example, wind farms. And it's an indicator of deployment and it directly is related to job creation. And you see that China is way out in front of the world; U.S. is second in asset financing.
This is the deployment of clean energy technologies. There's public market financing. This is essentially selling stocks. And, again, China is in the lead, although not as much in the lead as the United States, followed by the rest of the EU countries.
There's one area where we're ahead, and that's venture capital funding. And the United States is way in the lead. China is way down here. And so this is certainly one of the small businesses – the venture capital firms are certainly one of the things where we excel in and continue to excel.
The mix of investments in venture capital are very different. In the previous slides you see a large deployment of – blue is wind, by the way. Yellow or orange is solar. And green – all the rest are renewables. So there's a huge deployment of wind because that's getting to be a fairly mature technology and close to competitive with fossil fuel. But the venture capital money is now going to next-generation biofuels – solar energy, energy efficiency and smart grid technologies – a very different mix.
So, we have a race. To repeat what I said, China, the EU countries and others are moving because they see this incredible economic opportunity, and what about the U.S.? Well, we are doing this. We've recognized that to create jobs is a strength and a security, and in the clean energy race, we do also need long-term range – long-range policies, sustained commitments to support energy innovation. And our president is committed to making America the world's innovation leader.
So what are we doing? Well, I was fortunate to accompany the president to Penn State to tour one of the engineering labs, and this happened to be sort of a meeting at Penn State where we were showcasing an energy hub that would develop energy efficient buildings.
Now, the accessible energy part is there, all countries have it, but the real question is, can the costs of clean energy – and by that I mean the full costs. The levelized costs of energy, CapEx, the operating expenses, the maintenance, the decommissioning, everything – can it really be competitive with fossil fuel?
So this is from the "America's Energy Future," a National Academy of Sciences and Engineering report, and it shows what the current cost of energy is by this dashed line. The new forms of energy, whether it even be new gas or new coal, will be slightly higher than this.
But it also shows you where other forms of energy are. For example, here we have nuclear energy, which is more costly, but there's a large uncertainty because we don't actually know whether the new generation of plants can be built on time and on schedule.
And so, one of the things the Department of Energy is trying to do is help the industry get started to demonstrate that these new plans can be built on budget and on schedule. And if we do that, the costs will be driven down.
There is a tremendous amount of headroom – that is to say, room for technological improvement in solar photovoltaics and possibly concentrated solar power and thermal power. Coal/CCS will never be – coal with carbon capture and sequestration – will never be as cheap as without it, but this is – coal and fossil fuel plants and gas plants with carbon capture will be a higher form of energy because it's really energy on demand, and so one has to fold that in.
But the point here is that we believe, in the Department of Energy – and we look very carefully at the roadmaps of some of these technologies and we believe in certain instances that they can be competitive with fossil fuel. Whether it's 10 years from today or 15 years from today is the issue, but that is what's really driving this. If you get renewables that are actually cost competitive with fossil fuel, then it's a very, very different world
And so, federal support of research and development is critical, and let me give you one example. We've had some support of advanced batteries. The Department of Energy supported research that led to the invention of the lithium ion battery by a fellow named John Goodenough, who got one of the most prestigious science awards in the U.S., the so-called Enrico Fermi Award. That was invented by an American but it soon migrated over to Asia, to Japan in particular, and it was Sony that developed the commercial lithium ion battery.
Now there's a competition between Japan and Korea. However, just because we lost the lead doesn't mean we can't get it back, and researchers at the Oregon National Laboratory developed a unique set of patents that describe the cathode material not only made of lithium but actually with a mixture of manganese.
And so, this additional new material has made these batteries much safer, less likely to catch fire, longer lasting, higher energy density and less costly to manufacture. The remarkable thing about this battery is it grew out of very basic research by this team of Argonne scientists using an intense x-ray source of synchrotron facility light source.
The transition from scientific discovery to patent to licensing was just a few years, and then the discoveries that they have made are going to be going into the next-generation Chevy Volt. Already LG Chem and General Motors are beginning to license their suite of patents, so very, very quick adaptation and deployment.
Here's another basic research study that lent itself to very quick adaptation. We have tremendously high-performing supercomputers in the Department of Energy, and BMI Corporation is using these supercomputers to look at the airflows around the long-haul, you know, 18-wheeler trucks. And by using these aerodynamic simulations they can actually reduce the wind resistance on these trucks.
And BMI, they found that if you actually modified the undercarriage slightly, you can achieve fuel savings between 7 and 12 percent per truck. And if this was installed on all long-haul trucks, we're talking about 1.5 billion gallons of diesel fuel a year that are saved.
And if you recall how rapidly the streamlining on the upper part of the truck went into place as soon as this was noted, just a few years we will expect that there will be a very rapid deployment on the undercarriage as well.
RPE is also funding some cutting-edge research. In carbon capture and sequestration we have an existence proof that there need not be a large energy penalty in capturing carbon dioxide, transporting it and putting it somewhere else. You're doing this as I speak now, as you breathe, because, after all, your cells are generating carbon dioxide for metabolism.
Your blood is able to pick up that carbon dioxide, transport it to your lungs. You exhale and the carbon dioxide is expelled. This is all done without any overt energy penalty. And so, if we can then think of catalysts or enzymes that can actually capture the carbon dioxide, and then, with the change of pressure or something like that, release it, this could be greatly – it could greatly decrease the energy costs of carbon capture.
RPE is also looking at a new approach to wind turbines. This funny-looking thing is actually taking its lessons from modern turbine jet engines and then training flows with these jet engines, and in that sense it can actually become much more efficient than the turbines of today.
Looking at a number of other things – building efficiency through innovative thermal devices, looking very closely at whether you can completely rewrite the book on air conditioning. This is the amount of energy per kilogram of cooling.
Cooling is a strange thing. It's still described in tons. Just in case you've ever wondered, that tons of ice. In the old days you had a block of ice and you blew air over it. So, in any case, it's still – it's like horse power. Never mind. (Laughter.) What are they, say the younger generation? Anyway, in any case, we could really rewrite the book, we think, in terms of air conditioning, which will be in high demand around the world.
One other thing, we need some sort of guidance so that the – some sort of guidance that will guide the private sector in making investments. And in President Obama's State of the Union address, he said that, "Clean energy breakthroughs will only translate into clean energy jobs if businesses know there will be a market for what they're selling."
So, in the State of the Union address he proposed a clean energy standard, and what does a clean energy standard do? It says, we can define clean energy as nuclear or sun or wind or hydro. Gas can count half clean because it's half the carbon emissions of coal. Coal with carbon capture and sequestration, if it captures 90 percent of the carbon, counts as 90 percent clean, and so on. So it doesn't actually say which technology will win, but it does guarantee a market for any clean energy technology.
Today, using that accounting scheme, we're roughly 40 percent clean energy, and he asked by 2035 to go to 80 percent. So it will give you a guaranteed market for clean energy. As long as you build something competitive, you have a market for it.
That market means there's investment certainty, and so companies can go to people who can loan them money and say, well, we can sell this for sure. That market certainty actually means that there's going to be a business, domestic supply lines spring up, especially in the heavy-duty equipment, for example wind turbines in new power plants, new nuclear reactors.
You need a certain number of orders in order for a manufacturer to actually set up a domestic supply line, but if it's heavy stuff, it's much more economical to set it up in the home country, and that's why China is deploying so rapidly. They actually want to set up domestic supply lines.
And, finally, if you look at the states that have renewable energy portfolio standards, that this demand certainty will actually stimulate long-term planning of the grid. So, if you start with a clean energy standard of 2035, all of a sudden you're going to get planning of the transmission distribution system, which you don't see in states that, for example, don't have this. So this again stimulates the best type of investments over the longest period of time.
So, my take-home message – and this is the last slide – is that we still have the opportunity to lead the world in clean energy and capture jobs in the 21st century, but time is running out. Other countries realize this economic opportunity. They're moving very fast. It is a race and the train is leaving the station. Thank you.


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Kids Scissors
18 Items
Stanley Art & Scissor Caddy with 24 Pack of Pointed Tip Kids ScissorsSpecial Price $19.99 Regular Price $26.99
Stanley Art & Scissor Caddy with 24 Pack of Blunt Tip Kids ScissorsSpecial Price $19.99 Regular Price $26.99
OUT OF STOCKStanley Student 7" Pink Scissors$3.99Out of stock
OUT OF STOCKStanley 7" Student Scissor, Teal$3.99Out of stock
18 Items
Teacher tested and kid-approved! Browse a wide selection of kids scissors from Bostitch Office here! Whether it's at home or in the classroom, having the appropriate supplies for children of all ages is a necessity. When it comes to kids scissors, it's also a matter of safety. Choose from pointed or blunt-tip kids scissors, ideal for kids ages four and up, in a variety of fun colors! Both styles feature kid-safe blade angles so teachers and parents don't have to worry about accidents. Pointed tips are great for precise cutting jobs, while the blunt tips are perfect for generally classroom cutting. 7" student scissors are also available for kids ages eight and up. The handles of these small scissors feature built-in name tag windows for labeling in busy classroom settings. No more arguments over whose scissors are whose! Students can write in their own names and take responsibility for their own classroom supplies.
Trying to stock up on supplies for your classroom? Check out our caddies that come stocked with 24 pairs of pointed or blunt tip 5" scissors. Use this item in an arts and crafts area or any other common area in your classroom. Each caddy features 4 cups that easily separate for sharing. Caddies are also available without supplies, so teachers can use them to hold art supplies, pens, pencils and more!
When you choose Bostitch Office products, you are choosing quality construction and durable materials. The same applies to these children's scissors. All blades are made from hardwearing stainless steel to extend the cutting life tenfold. Additionally, the scissors are smooth and comfortable, while accommodating both left and right-handed users. Integrated rulers on the all-metal blades allow for quick, accurate cutting.


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In order to login you must be registered. Registering takes only a few moments but gives you increased capabilities. The board administrator may also grant additional permissions to registered users. Before you register please ensure you are familiar with our terms of use and related policies. Please ensure you read any forum rules as you navigate around the board.
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- Updated 4 years ago
Agreed Diversion Routes Area 12Highways EnglandA shapefile to show the agreed diversion routes from the Strategic Road Network on to Local Authority roads. Diversion routes cover Area 12 of the SRN Yorkshire and the Humber. The diversion routes are currently being reconstructed from .pdfs and resurveyed as to their ongoing suitability. The routes included may not therefore be relied upon and are representative only.


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Naked Series: John Laurie Wallace
Circle of Thomas Eakins, American, 1844 - 1916
Photograph taken in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, North and Central America
c. 1883Medium:
Albumen silver printDimensions:
Image and sheet (overall): 3 1/4 × 7 5/8 inches (8.3 × 19.4 cm) Mount: 3 1/4 x 8 3/4 inches (8.3 x 22.2 cm)Curatorial Department:
Prints, Drawings, and PhotographsObject Location:
Currently not on viewAccession Number:
1984-89-1Credit Line:
Purchased with the SmithKline Corporation Funds, 1984
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Photographs of nude models served as an indispensable tool in Thomas Eakins's artistic and academic practice. Eakins became an active proponent of photography during the late nineteenth century, using the new medium to make images that enhanced his already sophisticated understanding of the human form.
Sequential photographs of the front, back, and sides of unclothed models produced by Eakins and his students at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, during the early 1880s, demonstrated the weight distribution and shape of the upright human body. Later, while teaching at the Philadelphia Art Students' League, Eakins created single pictures of nude men and women modeling in standing and seated positions. Although these camera-made compositions were used for study purposes and were not conceived as works of art for public exhibition, the careful consideration of pose, composition, and lighting demonstrates Eakins's ever-present attention to aesthetics.
The photographs of nude men and women made by Eakins and his circle during the 1880s proved highly controversial, particularly because the artist sometimes used his students-and even himself-as models. This bold crossing of nineteenth-century boundaries of propriety contributed to his contentious relationship with, and eventual dismissal from, the Pennsylvania Academy. To this day, these beautiful yet culturally complex photographs of unclothed models both illuminate and raise questions about the role of photography in Eakins's art.


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What is Budd-Chiari Syndrome?
Hepatic vein obstruction (Budd-Chiari)
Hepatic vein obstruction is a blockage of the hepatic vein, which carries blood away from the liver.
Hepatic vein obstruction prevents blood from flowing out of the liver and back to the heart. This blockage can cause liver damage. Obstruction of this vein can be caused by a tumor or growth pressing on the vessel, or by a clot in the vessel (hepatic vein thrombosis).
Most often, it is caused by conditions that make blood clots more likely to form, including:
Abnormal growth of cells in the bone marrow (myeloproliferative disorders)
Chronic inflammatory or autoimmune diseases
Inherited (hereditary) or acquired problems with blood clotting
Oral contraceptives
Hepatic vein obstruction is the most common cause of Budd-Chiari syndrome.
Abdominal swelling or stretching
Pain in the right upper abdomen
Vomiting blood
Yellowing of the skin (jaundice)
Exams and Tests
One of the signs is swelling of the abdomen from fluid buildup (ascites). The liver is often swollen and tender.
Tests include:
CT scan or MRI of the abdomen
Doppler ultrasound of the liver veins
Liver biopsy
Liver function tests
Ultrasound of the liver
Treatment varies, depending on the cause of the blockage.
Your doctor may recommend the following medicines:
Blood-thinners (anticoagulants)
Clot-busting drugs (thrombolytic treatment)
Medicines to treat for the liver disease, including ascites
Surgery may be recommended. This may involve:
Angioplasty and stent placement
Liver transplant
Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS)
Venous shunt surgery
Possible Complications
Hepatic vein obstruction can get worse and lead to liver failure, which can be life-threatening.
When to Contact a Medical Professional
Call your health care provider if:
You have symptoms of hepatic vein obstruction
You are being treated for this condition and you develop new symptoms
Alternative Names
Budd-Chiari syndrome; Hepatic veno-occlusive disease
Hauser SC. Vascular diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. In: Goldman L, Schafer AI, eds. Cecil Medicine. 24th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Saunders Elsevier; 2011:chap 145.
Stevens WE, Patil A. Vascular disease of the liver. In: Feldman M, Friedman LS, Brandt LJ eds. Sleisenger & Fordtran's Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease. 9th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Saunders Elsevier; 2010:chap 83.


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This week Tom and Andrew check out a lab test of YouTube's new redesign, Major ISP's agree to a "six strikes" policy, Google introduces their first eBooks e-reader, rumors of an HD iPad, Amazon announces an iPad rival, TechCrunch gets a facelift, and our take on the News of the World phone hacking scandal.
Later we discuss Netflix's controversial new pricing plan, and… A million users isn't cool, you know what's cool? Ten million. Or perhaps one hundred million.
The Drill Down 193 [ 1:53:54 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (701)


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Prince's long-standing legacy has reminded folks just what a beloved star he was to the music industry and his influence is still something that appears sacred. Just look at the reaction to Justin Timberlake's 2017 Super Bowl LI halftime show, which featured a projection of the late, great icon. He's someone that most can't touch.
Back in February, "Little Red Corvette," one of the Purple Wonder's first hits, turned 37-years-old and to commemorate the anniversary, as well as Black Music Month, iHeartRadio rounded up six facts about the smash single that you might have forgotten about. Scroll on below to revisit one of Prince's catalog highlights!
1. Prince's backing record for "Little Red Corvette" was recorded at Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood on August 7, 1982, the same day that "1999" was recorded.
2. Speaking of "1999," the song was the lead single off Prince's album of the same name and preceded the release of "Little Red Corvette." Still, the latter did so much better than "1999" when it came to success, hitting the No. 6 position on the Billboard Hot 100. "1999" originally peaked at the No. 44 spot on the chart in December 1982, but rose to the No. 12 position in July 1983 after it was re-released.
3. Prince got the idea for "Little Red Corvette" when he dozed off in band memberLisa Coleman's 1964 Mercury Montclair Marauderafter an exhausting all-night recording session. Yep, you read that correctly. The song was not inspired by a Corvette at all. As the story goes, the lyrics to the one-night stand anthem came to him in bits and pieces during this nap, among others. Prince helped Lisa buy the car at an auction in 1980 in Minneapolis and she reportedly still owns it to this day.
4. Stevie Nicks got the idea for her 1983 song "Stand Back" from the Prince classic. Nicks heard "Little Red Corvette" in her own car and wrote "Stand Back" that night. She even went a step further with her inspiration for the song by calling Prince, who came to the studio and played keyboards for the track.
5. The Purple Wonder's video for the track was one of the first clips by a black artist to get regular rotation on MTV after Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean." The video was shot during a tour stop in Jacksonville.
6. The album version of the track is five minutes and three seconds long, but the radio edit was cut down to 3:08, which eliminated the reprise where Prince breaks it down and screams, "You must be a limousine!"
Photo: Getty Images


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Here at Opposable Thumbs we usually talk about the new systems, the upcoming games, and the politics of the eternal now. Gaming is always looking ahead, and thus we spend a lot of time thinking about the future. Is that the way it should be though? We know from sales numbers that the PlayStation 2 still sells in ridiculous numbers, and we hear about people buying older systems for the first time on a regular basis. Why not? The game library is huge, the price is low, and it's easy to find out which games are good. $100 could buy you a six-pack and a PlayStation 3 game, or it could buy you a stack of PS2 or GameCube games. I'm not even going to point out how many games the $480 price of the Elite could get you.
Going back even further, you have the classic gamers. Racketboy has a great post about why he's a retro gamer, and I agree with almost all of his points. I like being up on everything that's going on in gaming, but it certainly has lessened the time I can spend on a lazy afternoon with a pile of old cartridges and a classic system hooked up via RCA. No worrying about the difference between HDMI or component or fussing with a surround sound system. Just games.
I'm not saying we should turn our backs on new games, but I think it's worth it to step back every now and again and realize how much we've missed in the last generation of gaming, and even more as you go back in time with the classic systems. Think of it this way: would you rather spend $60 on an unknown quantity or four games that you know and love?
Sometimes not keeping up with the Joneses is a good thing.


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Postbox - distribution lists?
Composer, ChatZilla and other Mozilla applications, along with Netscape, Galeon, K-Meleon and other products.
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Looking for info on how Postbox handles distribution (mailing) lists. I have several lists with 25+ members and there are frequent membership changes, need to have an easy method of putting together and amending lists. Any advice? Thanks! ...Steve
To be perfectly honest almost nobody on these forums uses postbox and although Postbox links to these forums the program has diverged from Thunderbird to such an extent I doubt anyone here can help you. Historically offers were made to the Postbox team to offer support here (for free) but they were spurned and nobody on the forums was willing to pay them money to learn the program.
What sort of man would put a known criminal in charge of a major branch of government? Apart from, say, the average voter.
"Terry Pratchett"
Thanks malliz, appreciate the info. Looks like Postbox has no forums of its own and offers only prepaid support, guess I'll stick with Pegasus (tried Thunderbird long ago, but the dist lists were not very flexible as I recall)
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(1) and (2): To select inside a frame: activate the selection tool "Select/Selection Tool" (shortcut "S"), then drag a frame around what you want to select. If you need to set the frame exactly by typing in coordinates (or if you want to use the arrow keys instead of the mouse) use the Tab key to set the two corners of the frame.
(3) Unfrotunately we do not have an updated list other than the one that is at the end of the manual (CAMguide.pdf): ftp://ftp.pentalogix.com/Documents/CAMGuide.pdf
(4) We do not support the DOS versions any longer. You should be able to everything you did in DOS in the Windows version. It will just take a little bit of time to learn the new commands.


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Joran Van Der Sloot Blames Lawyer, Begs Forgiveness for Murder in New Letters
Convicted killer says poor legal advice landed him with sentence.
July 4, 2012 -- In two letters, Joran van der Sloot blamed his lawyers for his nearly three-decade prison sentence, while he reiterated he had nothing to do with the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway and begged for forgiveness for the murder of Stephany Flores.
Van der Sloot, 24, is serving 28 years in a Peruvian jail for the murder and robbery of Flores, a -21-year-old business student whose body was found in a Lima hotel room in May 2010, five years after the disappearance of Holloway.
"I ask God every day that Stephany's parents can find it in their heart to forgive me," he reportedly wrote in the letters released by his attorney.
Van der Sloot, a Dutch citizen who spent the majority of his adolescence in Caribbean island of Aruba, is the main suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Holloway, an 18-year-old from Mountain Brook, Ala., who was last seen leaving Oranjestad nightclub with van der Sloot, then 17, while she was on a class graduation trip to the island.
He was arrested but has never been charged with a crime relating to her disappearance.
The letters, in which he refers to himself as a "psychological mess," were written in June but released this week by van der Sloot's attorney Max Altez, according to Reuters. In the letters he asserts that he has "nothing to do with" Holloway's disappearance, while blaming poor legal representation for his long prison sentence. He says that a previous lawyer told him if he pled guilty he would only be jailed for 15 years.
"My rights have been constantly abused," van der Sloot reportedly wrote. "After bad legal advice in which my lawyer promised me I would receive 15 years if I plead guilty, I did … I have a history of psychological problems which were never taken into consideration."
The Peruvian Supreme Court last month ruled that van der Sloot can be extradited to the U.S. to face charges that he extorted $25,000 from Holloway's mother, allegedly telling her that he could give her information that would lead to her daughter's body.
On Sept. 6, 2010 Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reported that van der Sloot admitted to the extortion, saying, "I wanted to get back at Natalee's family. Her parents have been making my life tough for five years."
Van der Sloot confessed to the murder of Flores in January. He said that Flores had been using his laptop without his permission and discovered information linking him to Holloway's disappearance. He is now appealing the 28-year sentence.
Flores died after suffering blunt force trauma to her head, which led to a brain hemorrhage, cranial fracture, and a broken neck. According to court documents her body also showed signs of asphyxiation.


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I was given the opportunity to present an idea to a network of Outreach workerswho are looking at blogs and various online tools in their own practices. Some excitement was generated around the idea with a name already flowering for it, "Pay It Forward Learning". The name was nominated by 2 in the group referring a movie and book of the same title. I haven't seen either of them, but will be watching the movie at least to begin with...
Following is an outline of the idea:
- Set up a wiki to collaboratively develop and deliver course materials on. I have set up the Pay It Forward Learning wikispace for this.
- Select or develop a Training Package that leads to recognition in an Australian Registered Training Organisation (RTO).
- Transfer the list of competencies required for recognition in that course to the wiki, from the National Training Information Service (NTIS).
- Design assignments for each of the competencies that require students to create learning resources for that competency. Include quality links and other student learning resources to assist that student learn that competency.
- Students using the Pay It Forward Learning wikispace are encouraged to keep a weblog of their efforts, uploading assignments as they complete each competency.
- When the student has completed all the assignments in a Training Package, they submit their weblog and assignments for Recognition of Prior Learning to any participating RTO.
- The RTO assesses the weblog, noting any assignments worth loading to the Pay It Forward Learning wiki.
- Any assignments that are used in the wiki, the student receives a discount to the fee they are required to pay to receive assessment, formal recognition, and certification.
- Any gaps in a student's competency, identified through assessment and testing is filled through face to face training.
- The student has an option to act as a mentor to the next student, and pay out part of their fees in hours.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons license.


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Brigid Quinn or Ruth Nyblod
Washington - The Department of Commerce's United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today sponsored a seminar on the Chinese criminal justice system for intellectual property offenses. The seminar was held to introduce the Chinese criminal justice system to U.S. industry, government agencies, intellectual property owners and legal practitioners so they may better understand the system and use it to their full advantage to combat counterfeiting and piracy. The seminar is part of USPTO's ongoing effort to assist U.S. businesses and intellectual property owners on protecting their rights in overseas markets.
Among the highlights of the program were noted China legal scholar and Associate Dean of Georgetown Law School, Professor James Feinerman, who spoke on the Chinese criminal legal system for handling intellectual property rights infringement cases. Mark Cohen, USPTO's IP attaché assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, spoke on the Chinese Supreme People's Court's recently issued judicial interpretation on "Handling Criminal Cases of Infringing Intellectual Property."
"With 1.3 billion people, China offers a fertile market for American products and services," said Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property Steve Pinkos. "Improving the environment for U.S. companies doing business in China and addressing widespread counterfeiting and piracy is a major goal of this Administration."
Last year, the Commerce Department, in conjunction with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, conducted a high level meeting of the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) on trade issues with China, chaired by former Commerce Secretary Don Evans, U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Robert B. Zoellick and China's Vice Premier Wu Yi. Intellectual property issues are among the top agenda items of the JCCT, and the Chinese government pledged at the meeting that they would issue a new judicial interpretation for criminal intellectual property rights infringements.
In December 2004, the Chinese government issued a new judicial interpretation for criminal intellectual property rights infringements to address deficiencies in the prior system that many rights holders believed thwarted the use of the Chinese criminal justice system to attack counterfeiting and piracy. A major change in the judicial interpretation is that the monetary thresholds for seized and confiscated counterfeit and pirated goods have been significantly reduced. However, there are a number of additional concerns and a need for clarification of terms contained in the new judicial interpretation.
>> Mark Cohen presentation
>> Prof. Feinerman presentation


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The Nissan Quest has typically had a supporting role in the minivan market. The first two generations, in particular, were rather anonymous and subpar. The more recent third-generation Quest made a huge leap ahead in terms of styling and performance, though it, too, never really caught on with the public.
The newest and latest fourth-generation Nissan Quest, however, is the most competitive model yet. Its bold styling, interior refinement and smooth V6/continuously variable transmission (CVT) place it firmly in the discussion among the leaders of the pack: the Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna.
Current Nissan Quest
The Nissan Quest minivan is powered by a 3.5-liter V6 making 260 horsepower, put to the ground through a CVT. There are four trim levels: S, SV, SL and LE.
The base S is sparsely equipped for a minivan, but still offers an auxiliary audio jack and a few other niceties. The SV adds a wealth of other items such as alloy wheels, power-sliding doors and high-tech items like Bluetooth and an iPod interface. The SL trim is more luxurious thanks to its leather upholstery and one-touch folding third-row seats, while the top-trim LE gains a navigation system and an advanced "Around View" parking camera, while offering an optional panoramic moonroof spanning nearly the length of the roof. The kids will be thankful that a DVD entertainment system is available on all but the base S.
Inside, the Quest's controls are logically grouped on the center stack and easily navigable. Interior materials are the best you'll find in a minivan, with the leather-appointed cabins in the range-topping trims feeling especially premium and luxurious. On the downside, the Quest's standard second-row captain's chairs eliminate the option for an eighth passenger. And although the Quest's seats fold neatly into the floor, this design results in about 40 cubic feet less cargo capacity than other mainstream minivans.
Overall, though, the Quest is a legitimate, if commonly overlooked, choice for a minivan. Thanks to its compliant ride, composed handling and smooth power delivery, it should serve families quite well.
Used Nissan Quest Models
The current, fourth-generation Nissan Quest was introduced for 2011. There have been no significant changes since then.
The third-generation Nissan Quest was produced from 2004-'09 (there was no Quest for the 2010 model year). At its debut, it shook up the minivan world with its avant-garde body styling, unique cabin design and a marketing campaign that did its best to disassociate the van from its soccer mom image. The Quest's pillar-style center stack was certainly distinctive, but the multitude of similar buttons made operating often-used functions a hassle. Thankfully, the busy center stack was replaced by a much more user-friendly layout in a 2007 refresh.
All Quests of this generation were powered by a 3.5-liter V6 that produces 235 hp, and power was sent to the front wheels through a five-speed automatic transmission. Four trim levels were available -- the base 3.5, 3.5 S, 3.5 SL and 3.5 SE -- each with an increasing number of features and conveniences. Oddly enough, none of these trim levels included rear seats -- forcing customers to pay extra for a seat package that included second-row captain's chairs and a flat-folding rear bench.
This Quest had a few things in its favor, including a roomy interior and handling that was a cut above most other minivan competitors. However, downsides were numerous, including a third-row seat that wasn't split, a relative lack of cargo capacity and limited availability of stability control. Overall, minivan shoppers would be better served by other top choices in this segment.
The second generation of the Nissan Quest debuted for 1999. Offered in base GXE, midlevel SE and leather-lined GLE trims, this Quest featured a 3.3-liter V6 with 170 hp, as well as a unique sliding (but not removable) third-row seat that could be stowed right behind the front seats -- after the second-row seats were taken out. The van's questionable ergonomics, iffy build quality and poor crash test scores, however, made for a last-place finish in an Edmunds minivan comparison test. The model run continued through the 2002 model year, but there was no Quest sold for the 2003 model year.
Introduced in 1993 and sold through 1998, the first-generation Nissan Quest had a 151-hp 3.0-liter V6. Base XE and uplevel GXE trims were offered and seven-passenger seating was standard. The biggest change for this generation occurred in 1996 when a minor face-lift yielded a new grille, bumpers, headlights, taillights and dashboard.
The first two generations of the Quest were rather anonymous and subpar. It might also be helpful during the shopping process to know that these Quests were also nearly identical to the Mercury Villager from the same time period. With either variant, however, minivan shoppers are still advised to consider better-ranking minivans first.


text: Photographically 2011 was a poor year for me, most of my better shots were taken on a single photoshoot weekend in Liverpool. After Rock365 in 2010 I was a bit jaded photographically and even when I went out I tended not to take the 5D with me. I experimented with a few iPhone pictures and the instagram app which was interesting but they are not good enough to post here. With Rock366 already on the go and a Baltic cruise scheduled for the summer, 2012 already looks like being a better year. However, from the scant pickings of 2011 here are my best five.