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The US Navy underwater robot Bluefin-21 has returned to the depths of the Indian Ocean in search of missing Malaysian airliner MH370 after aborting its first scouting mission.
The multinational team of searchers launched the autonomous underwater vehicle Monday, nearly a week after pings believed to be transmitted by the missing jet's black boxes went silent. But the sub aborted that mission after reaching a patch of ocean that exceeded its maximum depth capacity.
"That part of the area was deeper than we thought it would be," Navy spokesman Chris Johnson says. "We're not entirely clear what we are going to run into, though we are fairly confident we are searching in an area now that is within the depth parameters."
The Bluefin-21, which is manufactured by Bluefin Robotics in Quincy, Mass., is capable of traveling up to 4,500 meters about 2.8 miles) below the ocean surface, Bluefin CEO David Kelly told the Monitor during an interview in late March.
That's plenty deep for the majority of the Indian Ocean, which has an average depth of roughly 3,900 meters. However, portions of the search area known as the Zenith Plateau, which is about 1,000 miles northwest of Perth, Australia, reach nearly 5,000 meters deep.
When it comes to deepwater exploration, pressure is the limiting factor.
Mr. Kelly describes the pressure at 4,500 meters as "equivalent to a Cadillac Escalade balanced on your thumbnail."
Oil-filled bladders protect the sub's internal communication system, data storage compartment, and surveillance technology from those pressures, but are not guaranteed to withstand additional force.
While the sub is capable of forming an image of what it "sees" by piecing together acoustic waves captured by sonar, it has to be about 50 meters above the seafloor to capture a reliable image, Bluefin's director of marine operations, Will O'Halloran, told the Monitor during a tour of Bluefin Robotics on March 28. To capture an optical image, it has to get even closer.
Although operators program search constraints for the sub, as an autonomous vehicle, it determines its own course, Mr. O'Halloran explained. In this case, operators aboard the Australian Royal Navy ship Ocean Shield preprogrammed a search area with the mission to "fly" 50 meters above the seafloor and obtain an image.
Because the Zenith Plateau is outside Australia's economic zone, it has not been mapped extensively. It was not until the Bluefin-21 attempted to follow along the seafloor at the prescribed distance that the extent of the depths became clear. Rather than compromise the onboard equipment by exceeding the sub's maximum depth capacity, the vehicle aborted its mission and returned to the surface.
Authorities were already aware of the drone's limitations but have not yet been able to obtain a vessel capable of searching deeper ocean.
"I would caution you against raising hopes that the deployment of the autonomous underwater vehicle will result in the detection of the aircraft wreckage. It may not," search coordinator Angus Houston said at a news conference prior to the aborting of the first mission. "However, this is the best lead we have, and it must be pursued vigorously. Again, I emphasize that this will be a slow and painstaking process."
It takes the Bluefin-21 an entire day to complete a single mission – two hours to reach the bottom, followed by 16 hours of searching and another two hours to return to the surface. If the sonar data reveal anything of interest, operators must initiate a second complete mission to obtain optical images. Authorities speculate that the search process could take another two months.
• Material from The Associated Press and Reuters was used in this report.


text: Midway had a new build of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe on hand at the Leipziger Messe, giving Games Convention attendees a total of ten fighters to choose from, including the newly added Kitana. While the most recently announced kombatants weren't yet unlocked, the first villain on the DC side Joker was. How does he fight? Not exactly well known for his hand-to-hand combat skills, the Joker comes appropriately equipped with a bag of tricks. From a comically large, spring loaded boxing glove that has an amazing reach to a pocket full of smiley faced bombs, the Joker flexes his fisticuffs skills beyond just punches and kicks.Not surprisingly, the Joker can throw deadly playing cards, one of his projectile attacks. He can also lob short fuse bombs, at close or far range. The former will knock his opponent away from the Joker, the latter will launch the bomb victim at the Joker. That bomb can also be used in another suite of moves, one that will make the Joker a force to be reckoned with. He can emit a camouflaging puff of bright green smoke, allowing the player to parlay that into one of four moves — a pistol whip, a sliding double kick, a jumping double kick, or an up close, hand delivered bomb. The special is perfect for sowing confusion, making the Joker players will probably love to hate being matched up against. That giant glove I mentioned earlier not only has serious range, it can do multiple hits. The animation requires a lot of frames, however, so it's a dangerous move. The Joker also carries an electrocuting hand buzzer. Attack while he has his hand exposed and the Joker's opponent will receive quite a shock. Finally, the Joker has a little jig that... well, I don't know what that one does, as Batman's arch nemesis just kind of prances about for a second or two. The Midway developed title has one new addition we hadn't seen in previous hands-on time with the game. The Games Convention build of MK vs. DCU features a new "Rage" meter, just below the health bars. It will fill as you take damage, building up in two parts. When the meter is full, pulling the left trigger (or is it both triggers?) will make your character "power up", emitting a small burst of energy and giving him or her a golden glow. The Rage meter will slow deplete, giving your attacks a bit more oomph — but not something we really noticed. We'll ask Midway for further details on how that affects gameplay.

subset: commoncrawl


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Sigi 3
System Interactive Guidance Information (SIGI 3) Career Self-Assessment Tool is designed to help you assess your interests and goals and offers current and in-depth career information. Access is provided for RCC students and alumni!
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Vanessa Hudgens & Stella: Mani-Pedi Pair
Vanessa Hudgens heads out with younger sister Stella on Thursday afternoon (January 3) in Studio City, Calif.
The sisters grabbed a cup of coffee before stopping off at a nail salon, for some mani-pedi pampering before heading to lunch.
PHOTOS: Check out the latest pics of Vanessa Hudgens
"Weee," Stella posted on Twitter with a pic of her pretty nails.
Just the day before, Vanessa was seen out with boyfriend actor Austin Butler on their way to a yoga class.
10+ pics inside of the Hudgens sisters…
Posted to: Stella Hudgens, Vanessa Hudgens


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"The real key is motorcycle-specific brackets."
The Latest in Motorcycle Lighting
By: Yesenia Salcedo
(Ed. Note: Virtually any small LED emergency light from any LED light manufacturer can be adapted and upfitted to a motorcycle or off-road vehicle by a competent upfitter. However, some companies have specifically entered the niche police motorcycle market by producing both the LED lights and customized brackets.)
The variety of lighting options available in today's emergency lighting market offers endless possibilities for all public safety vehicles. Emergency lighting products are one of the most important accessories put onto police vehicles, and today, almost anything you can put onto an emergency vehicle can be put onto a police motorcycle, which is more widely used as an emergency vehicle than one would think. Here's a look at some of the latest emergency lighting products for police motorcycles from a few of the lightbar industry's leaders.
Code 3 – Public Safety Equipment
St. Louis-based Code 3 PSE offers many integrated law enforcement solutions for motorcycles. Code 3 lights are strategically placed to offer 360° visibility of the officer. Code 3 offers several products for Harley, Honda, BMW and Victory motorcycles.
For Harley motorcycles (based on 2008-2013 Electra Glide), Code 3 offers its SuperVisor front windshield light; Torus 3-Up and 6-Up exterior lights for multiple front, rear and side mounting positions; various models of its XT3, XT4 and XT6 exterior lights for multiple front, rear and side mounting positions; Par36 fog lights; and a siren and speaker system.
For BMW motorcycles, Code 3 offers a front light kit system that combines emergency lighting into optimally focused compact LED light modules. These modules accommodate an additional 45-degree front LED module that blankets the front quadrants in emergency lights. Together with an integrated wiring harness and programmable flash control module, this new system can provide any current flashing sequence/switching combination through settings on the programmable flasher.
Also, the company offers a rear light kit that combines rear- and side-facing LED emergency lights together with rear-facing brake/tail LED and side turn-signal LED lights. Additional rear facing LED emergency lights can be installed and powered in conjunction with the rear facing lights, or controlled by photo-eye to disable the lights during the dark to reduce glare at night/low light situations.
Code 3 also offers its LED X and Torus 3-Up and 6-Up LED exterior lights with adaptable brackets for multiple front, rear and side mounting positions, and an integrated siren flasher and speaker system.
For Honda, Code 3 offers XT3, XT4, XT6, T-Rex and LEDX exterior lights for multiple front, rear and side mounting positions and a siren and speaker system. For Victory, Code 3 offers XT4, XT6, T-Rex and LEDX exterior lights for multiple front, rear and side mounting positions; Par36 fog lights and a siren and speaker system.
Whelen Engineering
Whelen Engineering has a long history of working with law enforcement, including a reputation for quality, innovative lighting products and siren systems for police vehicles and motorcycles. New motorcycle systems provide maximum protection to the front, rear and sides of your bike, including products designed for specific vehicle manufacturers such as the light array for the Harley Davidson windshield, where moving the light higher on the vehicle offers one more added level of warning coverage.
Today, Whelen has a large offering of certified warning products for the front, rear and side of police motorcycles including super-tough, super-bright LED lightheads and beacons, sirens and siren speakers, and Whelen HDP power supplies and flashers. All Whelen motorcycle warning products are certified by independent test laboratories as meeting or exceeding the appropriate legal requirements for SAE, AAMVA and California Title XIII, according to the company. Its products are designed and manufactured in the United States.
The Chester, Conn.-based company's motorcycle windshield Super-LED light array offers the ability to put the warning light higher on the windshield with a high-intensity Super-LED light array. The higher placement assures more visibility to larger vehicles either oncoming or in the rear-view mirror, and adds another level of protection to your warning system.
It is built with a rugged steel bracket and custom-molded, high-impact polycarbonate housing that fits snugly to the fairing of the motorcycle, preventing flashback.
SoundOff Signal
While big-name vehicle lighting company SoundOff Signal doesn't have turnkey emergency lighting products for motorcycles, it does fill a need in this area. The Hudsonville, Mich., company offers its Predator II surface mounts and crash bar brackets for Harley, Honda and Kawasaki bikes.
The Predator II surface mounts feature wide, bright angle output; light sync technology to synchronize the lights to alternate the flash patterns or flash simultaneously; and includes santophone rubber mounting gasket and mounting hardware with 18 inches of three-wire cable. SoundOff offers them in black, white and chrome housing.
Yesenia Salcedo is technical editor for LAW and ORDER and Police Fleet Manager Magazines. She may be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Published in Police Fleet Manager, Sep/Oct 2013
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The Best Ways to Lose 20 Pounds
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I got hungry between meals sometimes. In Europe there were typically two meals a day: Various legumes , like chickpeas , fava beans and field peas were also common and important sources of protein , especially among the lower classes. At the same time, reading other people's testimonies and reviews of the Nutrisystem diet was encouraging and inspiring, too. Articles with French-language external links Pages with login required references or sources Featured articles.
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Exceptions from fasting were frequently made for very broadly defined groups. Since the sick were exempt from fasting, there often evolved the notion that fasting restrictions only applied to the main dining area, and many Benedictine friars would simply eat their fast day meals in what was called the misericord at those times rather than the refectory.
Medieval society was highly stratified. In a time when famine was commonplace and social hierarchies were often brutally enforced, food was an important marker of social status in a way that has no equivalent today in most developed countries. According to the ideological norm, society consisted of the three estates of the realm: The relationship between the classes was strictly hierarchical, with the nobility and clergy claiming worldly and spiritual overlordship over commoners.
Within the nobility and clergy there were also a number of ranks ranging from kings and popes to dukes , bishops and their subordinates, such as priests. One was expected to remain in one's social class and to respect the authority of the ruling classes. Political power was displayed not just by rule, but also by displaying wealth. Nobles dined on fresh game seasoned with exotic spices, and displayed refined table manners; rough laborers could make do with coarse barley bread, salt pork and beans and were not expected to display etiquette.
Even dietary recommendations were different: The digestive system of a lord was held to be more discriminating than that of his rustic subordinates and demanded finer foods. In the late Middle Ages, the increasing wealth of middle class merchants and traders meant that commoners began emulating the aristocracy, and threatened to break down some of the symbolic barriers between the nobility and the lower classes.
The response came in two forms: Medical science of the Middle Ages had a considerable influence on what was considered healthy and nutritious among the upper classes. One's lifestyle—including diet, exercise, appropriate social behavior, and approved medical remedies—was the way to good health, and all types of food were assigned certain properties that affected a person's health.
All foodstuffs were also classified on scales ranging from hot to cold and moist to dry, according to the four bodily humours theory proposed by Galen that dominated Western medical science from late Antiquity until the 17th century.
Medieval scholars considered human digestion to be a process similar to cooking. The processing of food in the stomach was seen as a continuation of the preparation initiated by the cook. In order for the food to be properly "cooked" and for the nutrients to be properly absorbed, it was important that the stomach be filled in an appropriate manner.
Easily digestible foods would be consumed first, followed by gradually heavier dishes. If this regimen were not respected it was believed that heavy foods would sink to the bottom of the stomach, thus blocking the digestion duct, so that food would digest very slowly and cause putrefaction of the body and draw bad humours into the stomach.
It was also of vital importance that food of differing properties not be mixed. Before a meal, the stomach would preferably be "opened" with an apéritif from Latin aperire , "to open" that was preferably of a hot and dry nature: As the stomach had been opened, it should then be "closed" at the end of the meal with the help of a digestive, most commonly a dragée , which during the Middle Ages consisted of lumps of spiced sugar, or hypocras , a wine flavoured with fragrant spices, along with aged cheese.
A meal would ideally begin with easily digestible fruit, such as apples. It would then be followed by vegetables such as lettuce , cabbage , purslane , herbs, moist fruits, light meats, such as chicken or goat kid , with potages and broths.
After that came the "heavy" meats, such as pork and beef , as well as vegetables and nuts, including pears and chestnuts, both considered difficult to digest. It was popular, and recommended by medical expertise, to finish the meal with aged cheese and various digestives.
The most ideal food was that which most closely matched the humour of human beings, i. Food should preferably also be finely chopped, ground, pounded and strained to achieve a true mixture of all the ingredients.
White wine was believed to be cooler than red and the same distinction was applied to red and white vinegar. Milk was moderately warm and moist, but the milk of different animals was often believed to differ.
Egg yolks were considered to be warm and moist while the whites were cold and moist. Skilled cooks were expected to conform to the regimen of humoral medicine. Even if this limited the combinations of food they could prepare, there was still ample room for artistic variation by the chef. The caloric content and structure of medieval diet varied over time, from region to region, and between classes. However, for most people, the diet tended to be high-carbohydrate, with most of the budget spent on, and the majority of calories provided by, cereals and alcohol such as beer.
Even though meat was highly valued by all, lower classes often could not afford it, nor were they allowed by the church to consume it every day. In one early 15th-century English aristocratic household for which detailed records are available that of the Earl of Warwick , gentle members of the household received a staggering 3.
In the household of Henry Stafford in , gentle members received 2. In monasteries, the basic structure of the diet was laid down by the Rule of Saint Benedict in the 7th century and tightened by Pope Benedict XII in , but as mentioned above monks were adept at "working around" these rules.
This was circumvented in part by declaring that offal , and various processed foods such as bacon , were not meat. Secondly, Benedictine monasteries contained a room called the misericord , where the Rule of Saint Benedict did not apply, and where a large number of monks ate. Each monk would be regularly sent either to the misericord or to the refectory.
When Pope Benedict XII ruled that at least half of all monks should be required to eat in the refectory on any given day, monks responded by excluding the sick and those invited to the abbot's table from the reckoning. The overall caloric intake is subject to some debate. As a consequence of these excesses, obesity was common among upper classes.
The regional specialties that are a feature of early modern and contemporary cuisine were not in evidence in the sparser documentation that survives. Instead, medieval cuisine can be differentiated by the cereals and the oils that shaped dietary norms and crossed ethnic and, later, national boundaries. Geographical variation in eating was primarily the result of differences in climate, political administration, and local customs that varied across the continent.
Though sweeping generalizations should be avoided, more or less distinct areas where certain foodstuffs dominated can be discerned. In the British Isles , northern France , the Low Countries , the northern German-speaking areas, Scandinavia and the Baltic , the climate was generally too harsh for the cultivation of grapes and olives.
In the south, wine was the common drink for both rich and poor alike though the commoner usually had to settle for cheap second pressing wine while beer was the commoner's drink in the north and wine an expensive import. Citrus fruits though not the kinds most common today and pomegranates were common around the Mediterranean. Dried figs and dates were available in the north, but were used rather sparingly in cooking. Olive oil was a ubiquitous ingredient in Mediterranean cultures, but remained an expensive import in the north where oils of poppy , walnut, hazel and filbert were the most affordable alternatives.
Butter and lard , especially after the terrible mortality during the Black Death made them less scarce, were used in considerable quantities in the northern and northwestern regions, especially in the Low Countries. Almost universal in middle and upper class cooking all over Europe was the almond , which was in the ubiquitous and highly versatile almond milk , which was used as a substitute in dishes that otherwise required eggs or milk, though the bitter variety of almonds came along much later.
In Europe there were typically two meals a day: The two-meal system remained consistent throughout the late Middle Ages. Smaller intermediate meals were common, but became a matter of social status, as those who did not have to perform manual labor could go without them. For practical reasons, breakfast was still eaten by working men, and was tolerated for young children, women, the elderly and the sick.
Because the church preached against gluttony and other weaknesses of the flesh, men tended to be ashamed of the weak practicality of breakfast. Lavish dinner banquets and late-night reresopers from Occitan rèire-sopar , "late supper" with considerable amounts of alcoholic beverage were considered immoral. The latter were especially associated with gambling, crude language, drunkenness, and lewd behavior. As with almost every part of life at the time, a medieval meal was generally a communal affair.
The entire household, including servants, would ideally dine together. To sneak off to enjoy private company was considered a haughty and inefficient egotism in a world where people depended very much on each other.
When possible, rich hosts retired with their consorts to private chambers where the meal could be enjoyed in greater exclusivity and privacy. Being invited to a lord's chambers was a great privilege and could be used as a way to reward friends and allies and to awe subordinates. It allowed lords to distance themselves further from the household and to enjoy more luxurious treats while serving inferior food to the rest of the household that still dined in the great hall.
At major occasions and banquets, however, the host and hostess generally dined in the great hall with the other diners. However, it can be assumed there were no such extravagant luxuries as multiple courses , luxurious spices or hand-washing in scented water in everyday meals.
Things were different for the wealthy. Before the meal and between courses, shallow basins and linen towels were offered to guests so they could wash their hands, as cleanliness was emphasized.
Social codes made it difficult for women to uphold the ideal of immaculate neatness and delicacy while enjoying a meal, so the wife of the host often dined in private with her entourage or ate very little at such feasts. She could then join dinner only after the potentially messy business of eating was done. Overall, fine dining was a predominantly male affair, and it was uncommon for anyone but the most honored of guests to bring his wife or her ladies-in-waiting. The hierarchical nature of society was reinforced by etiquette where the lower ranked were expected to help the higher, the younger to assist the elder, and men to spare women the risk of sullying dress and reputation by having to handle food in an unwomanly fashion.
Shared drinking cups were common even at lavish banquets for all but those who sat at the high table , as was the standard etiquette of breaking bread and carving meat for one's fellow diners. Food was mostly served on plates or in stew pots, and diners would take their share from the dishes and place it on trenchers of stale bread, wood or pewter with the help of spoons or bare hands. In lower-class households it was common to eat food straight off the table.
Knives were used at the table, but most people were expected to bring their own, and only highly favored guests would be given a personal knife. A knife was usually shared with at least one other dinner guest, unless one was of very high rank or well-acquainted with the host. Forks for eating were not in widespread usage in Europe until the early modern period , and early on were limited to Italy. Even there it was not until the 14th century that the fork became common among Italians of all social classes.
The change in attitudes can be illustrated by the reactions to the table manners of the Byzantine princess Theodora Doukaina in the late 11th century.
She was the wife of Domenico Selvo , the Doge of Venice , and caused considerable dismay among upstanding Venetians. The foreign consort's insistence on having her food cut up by her eunuch servants and then eating the pieces with a golden fork shocked and upset the diners so much that there was a claim that Peter Damian , Cardinal Bishop of Ostia , later interpreted her refined foreign manners as pride and referred to her as " All types of cooking involved the direct use of fire.
Kitchen stoves did not appear until the 18th century, and cooks had to know how to cook directly over an open fire. Ovens were used, but they were expensive to construct and only existed in fairly large households and bakeries. It was common for a community to have shared ownership of an oven to ensure that the bread baking essential to everyone was made communal rather than private. There were also portable ovens designed to be filled with food and then buried in hot coals, and even larger ones on wheels that were used to sell pies in the streets of medieval towns.
But for most people, almost all cooking was done in simple stewpots, since this was the most efficient use of firewood and did not waste precious cooking juices, making potages and stews the most common dishes. This was considered less of a problem in a time of back-breaking toil, famine, and a greater acceptance—even desirability—of plumpness; only the poor or sick, and devout ascetics , were thin.
Fruit was readily combined with meat, fish and eggs. The recipe for Tart de brymlent , a fish pie from the recipe collection Forme of Cury , includes a mix of figs , raisins , apples and pears with fish salmon , codling or haddock and pitted damson plums under the top crust. This meant that food had to be "tempered" according to its nature by an appropriate combination of preparation and mixing certain ingredients, condiments and spices; fish was seen as being cold and moist, and best cooked in a way that heated and dried it, such as frying or oven baking, and seasoned with hot and dry spices; beef was dry and hot and should therefore be boiled ; pork was hot and moist and should therefore always be roasted.
In a recipe for quince pie, cabbage is said to work equally well, and in another turnips could be replaced by pears. The completely edible shortcrust pie did not appear in recipes until the 15th century. Before that the pastry was primarily used as a cooking container in a technique known as ' huff paste '.
Extant recipe collections show that gastronomy in the Late Middle Ages developed significantly. New techniques, like the shortcrust pie and the clarification of jelly with egg whites began to appear in recipes in the late 14th century and recipes began to include detailed instructions instead of being mere memory aids to an already skilled cook.
In most households, cooking was done on an open hearth in the middle of the main living area, to make efficient use of the heat. This was the most common arrangement, even in wealthy households, for most of the Middle Ages, where the kitchen was combined with the dining hall. Towards the Late Middle Ages a separate kitchen area began to evolve.
The first step was to move the fireplaces towards the walls of the main hall, and later to build a separate building or wing that contained a dedicated kitchen area, often separated from the main building by a covered arcade. This way, the smoke, odors and bustle of the kitchen could be kept out of sight of guests, and the fire risk lessened. Many basic variations of cooking utensils available today, such as frying pans , pots , kettles , and waffle irons , already existed, although they were often too expensive for poorer households.
Other tools more specific to cooking over an open fire were spits of various sizes, and material for skewering anything from delicate quails to whole oxen. Utensils were often held directly over the fire or placed into embers on tripods. To assist the cook there were also assorted knives, stirring spoons, ladles and graters.
In wealthy households one of the most common tools was the mortar and sieve cloth, since many medieval recipes called for food to be finely chopped, mashed, strained and seasoned either before or after cooking. This was based on a belief among physicians that the finer the consistency of food, the more effectively the body would absorb the nourishment.
It also gave skilled cooks the opportunity to elaborately shape the results. Fine-textured food was also associated with wealth; for example, finely milled flour was expensive, while the bread of commoners was typically brown and coarse. A typical procedure was farcing from the Latin farcio , "to cram" , to skin and dress an animal, grind up the meat and mix it with spices and other ingredients and then return it into its own skin, or mold it into the shape of a completely different animal.
The kitchen staff of huge noble or royal courts occasionally numbered in the hundreds: While an average peasant household often made do with firewood collected from the surrounding woodlands, the major kitchens of households had to cope with the logistics of daily providing at least two meals for several hundred people.
Guidelines on how to prepare for a two-day banquet can be found in the cookbook Du fait de cuisine "On cookery" written in in part to compete with the court of Burgundy [44] by Maistre Chiquart, master chef of Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy. Food preservation methods were basically the same as had been used since antiquity, and did not change much until the invention of canning in the early 19th century. The most common and simplest method was to expose foodstuffs to heat or wind to remove moisture , thereby prolonging the durability if not the flavor of almost any type of food from cereals to meats; the drying of food worked by drastically reducing the activity of various water-dependent microorganisms that cause decay.
In warm climates this was mostly achieved by leaving food out in the sun, and in the cooler northern climates by exposure to strong winds especially common for the preparation of stockfish , or in warm ovens, cellars, attics, and at times even in living quarters. Subjecting food to a number of chemical processes such as smoking , salting , brining , conserving or fermenting also made it keep longer. Most of these methods had the advantage of shorter preparation times and of introducing new flavors.
Smoking or salting meat of livestock butchered in autumn was a common household strategy to avoid having to feed more animals than necessary during the lean winter months. Vegetables, eggs or fish were also often pickled in tightly packed jars, containing brine and acidic liquids lemon juice , verjuice or vinegar. Another method was to seal the food by cooking it in sugar or honey or fat, in which it was then stored. Microbial modification was also encouraged, however, by a number of methods; grains, fruit and grapes were turned into alcoholic drinks thus killing any pathogens, and milk was fermented and curdled into a multitude of cheeses or buttermilk.
The majority of the European population before industrialization lived in rural communities or isolated farms and households. The norm was self-sufficiency with only a small percentage of production being exported or sold in markets. Large towns were exceptions and required their surrounding hinterlands to support them with food and fuel.
The dense urban population could support a wide variety of food establishments that catered to various social groups. Many of the poor city dwellers had to live in cramped conditions without access to a kitchen or even a hearth, and many did not own the equipment for basic cooking.
Food from vendors was in such cases the only option. Cookshops could either sell ready-made hot food, an early form of fast food , or offer cooking services while the customers supplied some or all of the ingredients. Travellers, such as pilgrims en route to a holy site, made use of professional cooks to avoid having to carry their provisions with them.
For the more affluent, there were many types of specialist that could supply various foods and condiments: Well-off citizens who had the means to cook at home could on special occasions hire professionals when their own kitchen or staff could not handle the burden of throwing a major banquet. Urban cookshops that catered to workers or the destitute were regarded as unsavory and disreputable places by the well-to-do and professional cooks tended to have a bad reputation.
Geoffrey Chaucer 's Hodge of Ware, the London cook from the Canterbury Tales , is described as a sleazy purveyor of unpalatable food. French cardinal Jacques de Vitry 's sermons from the early 13th century describe sellers of cooked meat as an outright health hazard. The stereotypical cook in art and literature was male, hot-tempered, prone to drunkenness, and often depicted guarding his stewpot from being pilfered by both humans and animals.
In the early 15th century, the English monk John Lydgate articulated the beliefs of many of his contemporaries by proclaiming that "Hoot ffir [fire] and smoke makith many an angry cook. The period between c. More intense agriculture on an ever-increasing acreage resulted in a shift from animal products, like meat and dairy, to various grains and vegetables as the staple of the majority population.
A bread-based diet became gradually more common during the 15th century and replaced warm intermediate meals that were porridge- or gruel-based.
Leavened bread was more common in wheat-growing regions in the south, while unleavened flatbread of barley, rye or oats remained more common in northern and highland regions, and unleavened flatbread was also common as provisions for troops. The most common grains were rye , barley , buckwheat , millet and oats.
Rice remained a fairly expensive import for most of the Middle Ages and was grown in northern Italy only towards the end of the period. Wheat was common all over Europe and was considered to be the most nutritious of all grains, but was more prestigious and thus more expensive. The finely sifted white flour that modern Europeans are most familiar with was reserved for the bread of the upper classes.
As one descended the social ladder, bread became coarser, darker, and its bran content increased. In times of grain shortages or outright famine, grains could be supplemented with cheaper and less desirable substitutes like chestnuts , dried legumes , acorns , ferns , and a wide variety of more or less nutritious vegetable matter.
One of the most common constituents of a medieval meal, either as part of a banquet or as a small snack, were sops , pieces of bread with which a liquid like wine , soup , broth , or sauce could be soaked up and eaten. Another common sight at the medieval dinner table was the frumenty , a thick wheat porridge often boiled in a meat broth and seasoned with spices. Porridges were also made of every type of grain and could be served as desserts or dishes for the sick, if boiled in milk or almond milk and sweetened with sugar.
Pies filled with meats, eggs, vegetables, or fruit were common throughout Europe, as were turnovers , fritters , doughnuts , and many similar pastries.
By the Late Middle Ages biscuits cookies in the U. Grain, either as bread crumbs or flour, was also the most common thickener of soups and stews, alone or in combination with almond milk. The importance of bread as a daily staple meant that bakers played a crucial role in any medieval community. Bread consumption was high in most of Western Europe by the 14th century.
Estimates of bread consumption from different regions are fairly similar: Among the first town guilds to be organized were the bakers', and laws and regulations were passed to keep bread prices stable. The English Assize of Bread and Ale of listed extensive tables where the size, weight, and price of a loaf of bread were regulated in relation to grain prices. The baker's profit margin stipulated in the tables was later increased through successful lobbying from the London Baker's Company by adding the cost of everything from firewood and salt to the baker's wife, house, and dog.
Since bread was such a central part of the medieval diet, swindling by those who were trusted with supplying the precious commodity to the community was considered a serious offense. Bakers who were caught tampering with weights or adulterating dough with less expensive ingredients could receive severe penalties.
This gave rise to the " baker's dozen ": While grains were the primary constituent of most meals, vegetables such as cabbage , chard , onions , garlic and carrots were common foodstuffs. Many of these were eaten daily by peasants and workers and were less prestigious than meat. The cookbooks, which appeared in the late Middle Ages and were intended mostly for those who could afford such luxuries, contained only a small number of recipes using vegetables as the main ingredient.
The lack of recipes for many basic vegetable dishes, such as potages , has been interpreted not to mean that they were absent from the meals of the nobility, but rather that they were considered so basic that they did not require recording. Various legumes , like chickpeas , fava beans and field peas were also common and important sources of protein , especially among the lower classes.
With the exception of peas, legumes were often viewed with some suspicion by the dietitians advising the upper class, partly because of their tendency to cause flatulence but also because they were associated with the coarse food of peasants.
The importance of vegetables to the common people is illustrated by accounts from 16th-century Germany stating that many peasants ate sauerkraut from three to four times a day. Fruit was popular and could be served fresh, dried, or preserved, and was a common ingredient in many cooked dishes.
The fruits of choice in the south were lemons , citrons , bitter oranges the sweet type was not introduced until several hundred years later , pomegranates , quinces , and, of course, grapes. Farther north, apples , pears , plums , and strawberries were more common. Figs and dates were eaten all over Europe, but remained rather expensive imports in the north. Common and often basic ingredients in many modern European cuisines like potatoes , kidney beans , cacao , vanilla , tomatoes , chili peppers and maize were not available to Europeans until after , after European contact with the Americas, and even then it often took considerable time, sometimes several centuries, for the new foodstuffs to be accepted by society at large.
Milk was an important source of animal protein for those who could not afford meat. It would mostly come from cows, but milk from goats and sheep was also common. Plain fresh milk was not consumed by adults except the poor or sick, and was usually reserved for the very young or elderly.
Poor adults would sometimes drink buttermilk or whey or milk that was soured or watered down. On occasion it was used in upper-class kitchens in stews, but it was difficult to keep fresh in bulk and almond milk was generally used in its stead. Cheese was far more important as a foodstuff, especially for common people, and it has been suggested that it was, during many periods, the chief supplier of animal protein among the lower classes.
There were also whey cheeses , like ricotta , made from by-products of the production of harder cheeses. Cheese was used in cooking for pies and soups, the latter being common fare in German-speaking areas. Butter , another important dairy product, was in popular use in the regions of Northern Europe that specialized in cattle production in the latter half of the Middle Ages, the Low Countries and Southern Scandinavia.
While most other regions used oil or lard as cooking fats, butter was the dominant cooking medium in these areas. Its production also allowed for a lucrative butter export from the 12th century onward.
While all forms of wild game were popular among those who could obtain it, most meat came from domestic animals. Domestic working animals that were no longer able to work were slaughtered but not particularly appetizing and therefore were less valued as meat.
Beef was not as common as today because raising cattle was labor-intensive, requiring pastures and feed, and oxen and cows were much more valuable as draught animals and for producing milk.
Mutton and lamb were fairly common, especially in areas with a sizeable wool industry, as was veal. Domestic pigs often ran freely even in towns and could be fed on just about any organic waste, and suckling pig was a sought-after delicacy. Just about every part of the pig was eaten, including ears, snout, tail, tongue , and womb. Intestines, bladder and stomach could be used as casings for sausage or even illusion food such as giant eggs.
Among the meats that today are rare or even considered inappropriate for human consumption are the hedgehog and porcupine , occasionally mentioned in late medieval recipe collections. In England, they were deliberately introduced by the 13th century and their colonies were carefully protected. They were of particular value for monasteries, because newborn rabbits were allegedly declared fish or, at least, not-meat by the church and therefore they could be eaten during Lent.
A wide range of birds were eaten, including swans , peafowl , quail , partridge , storks , cranes , larks , linnets and other songbirds that could be trapped in nets, and just about any other wild bird that could be hunted. Swans and peafowl were domesticated to some extent, but were only eaten by the social elite, and more praised for their fine appearance as stunning entertainment dishes, entremets , than for their meat.
As today, geese and ducks had been domesticated but were not as popular as the chicken , the fowl equivalent of the pig. But at the Fourth Council of the Lateran , Pope Innocent III explicitly prohibited the eating of barnacle geese during Lent, arguing that they lived and fed like ducks and so were of the same nature as other birds. Meats were more expensive than plant foods. Though rich in protein , the calorie -to-weight ratio of meat was less than that of plant food.
Meat could be up to four times as expensive as bread. Fish was up to 16 times as costly, and was expensive even for coastal populations. This meant that fasts could mean an especially meager diet for those who could not afford alternatives to meat and animal products like milk and eggs.
It was only after the Black Death had eradicated up to half of the European population that meat became more common even for poorer people. The drastic reduction in many populated areas resulted in a labor shortage, meaning that wages dramatically increased. It also left vast areas of farmland untended, making them available for pasture and putting more meat on the market. Although less prestigious than other animal meats, and often seen as merely an alternative to meat on fast days, seafood was the mainstay of many coastal populations.
It will give you a great idea of what their meals and snacks are like, plus it is a very cost-effective way to reach your weight loss goals. Who is it Best for? Men get some additional servings of the smart fuel and carbs, plus an additional dessert, which why their plan costs more.
For starters, it costs slightly more than their basic package, but there are additional options that make this a more desirable choice. For starters, you can choose the fully-customizable option without paying extra, which means you have full control over the foods you eat. The folks at Nutrisystem are all about providing you the best opportunities for weight-loss success which is why they provide a bevy of prepackaged foods and snacks that you can keep nearby when you feel a craving coming on.
Uniquely Yours plan is a great option if you want total control of your foods, full access to the frozen menu, and access to their largest selection of foods. Nutrisystem has generously extended a special offer for Diet Dynamo readers. If you have less than ten to drop, then you can customize a menu that will still help you meet your goals. Either way, you will be able to find a plan that fits your budget, matches your weight loss goals, and meets your dietary and nutritional needs.
Your job will be to decide how much weight you need to lose, and how many of your meals and snacks you want Nutrisystem to provide.
Obviously, things will vary depending on whether you go with their traditional plans, or the more specialized versions, like what they offer for diabetics or vegetarians, for example. For starters, ADO makes everything very convenient. Basically, with this feature, you get a four-week supply of food automatically sent your door each month.
However, there is one caveat with Auto Delivery, and that is the cancellation fee. Also, if you use Nutrisystem for one month, and then decide you want to cancel after that, there are other routes you can go to avoid paying the early termination fee.
All of this included with your first 4-week order, plus you get access to their team of experts who can give you the best advice for losing weight. This box is loaded with food and shakes, that will help you make the most of your first week on the program. Following the Turbo Takeoff plan should help your body adjust to Nutrisystem diet plan, while also getting your weight loss kicked into high gear.
Follow the detailed plan that is included, and you should lose a decent amount of weight during your first week on the program. For starters, both options come with many of the same delicious food choices, but it comes down to how much freedom you want to have when choosing the foods that you eat. On the other hand, you may prefer having full control of the food you will be eating when on Nutrisystem, which is exactly why they created the Custom Plan.
This option is also great if you have the extra time to really go through all of their food options and prepare your menu for the week. These prices are subject to change at any time. We do our best to keep them current, but ultimately the awesome folks at Nutrisystem decide how much things will cost, and they may change periodically.
I certainly liked reading all that is written on your site. Keep the posts coming. Trying to figure out what works best for me. ET the day before your order is scheduled to be processed by calling My brother recommended I might like this website.
He was entirely right. This post truly made my day. You can not imagine just how much time I had spent for this information! Buy food to supplement 2 of their meals and one snack every day. Oh and supply the food for 2 flex meals each week. You will save a good amount of money. Pus the food will taste better. I still think Nutrisystem is fairly priced, and is an excellent resource for people looking to lose weight quickly.
You will get results when following their plan, which is why it can be a great option for a lot of people who have a significant amount of weight to lose. For me, it has been a good way to reset after weight gain, and then I can go back to focusing on eating healthy and preparing meals on my own, sort of like you plan to do.
In any case, hope your month went well, and best of luck with your weight loss journey. You have made some good points, and the pricing info is well-detailed. Thanks Carla, happy to hear you found the information useful — if you decide to try Nutrisystem, I hope it goes well!
Thanks for the pricing info. Has anyone else been able to do this? Hi Cindy — Thanks for visiting, and happy to hear the pricing info helped! I think 5 to 10 pounds is totally doable, especially if you commit to the full 2 months!
Remember, Nutrisystem does offer counselors to help keep you on track, and as long as you stick to the program, you should see a significant amount of weight loss during that time period! That has definitely been a key to success for me over the years. In any case, best of luck — let us know how it goes! I was pretty pleased to find this web site and your cost breakdown is very detailed. Thanks for all of the information — it makes my decision a lot easier.
Hopefully can report back with some great results. Thanks for all of the information. Makes my decision a lot easier knowing exactly what things are going to cost!
Need to loose about 59 pounds. Thank you for the sensible critique and cost info. Mostly fish and vegetables. Sometimes chicken or turkey but not all the time!
Is there a plan to start me on this regiment? Can you send some ideas and pricing plans? I tried turbo shakes with other companies and they gave me lots of gas…lol Thanks if this gets to you. Hi Jim — sorry, I missed this comment at the time you posted it. I would also recommend looking at BistroMD https: Diet-to-Go has some really good plans that sound like they could work for you. Both are going to be a bit more pricey than Nutrisystem, but sound like they could be a better fit.
My husband and I are considering NS. We also do not want to purchase ANY other food if possible. Hi Lynn — I replied to Ray with a couple of other options BistroMD and Diet-to-Go …I would recommend checking out those reviews if you think they may be something that would work for you and your husband. There are definitely some ways to keep the costs down though.


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Remember the Mako in the first Mass Effect? It could brave insane terrain, sure, but that also meant it was far from a smooth ride. This remote controlled Mako by Laura Ducros, though? Smooth as butter.
To be fair, it's also just traversing flat terrain. Who knows what would happen if it was rocky alien terrain?
"On September 4th, 2012, I made an announcement that I was building a remote controlled Mako from Mass Effect," Durcos explains in the YouTube description. "Exactly 6 months later, it's a reality! It drives and the cannon turns. I'm not able to scale 89 degree walls just yet... that will come in due time."
She uses this Mako as a prop when cosplaying as Shepard at conventions. Cool.
Mass Effect RC Mako [Laura Ducros]


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Some forgotten pictures from the Royal Palace of Madrid.
Classes are now done, and I'm just studying for finals now. But it's not too heavy, so I have lots of time to decorate and organize my new place! I am literally obsessed with staying home and cleaning now.
xo, Dahye


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Telltale Games posted a key art image of The Wolf Among Us: Episode 2 - Smoke and Mirrors today on its Facebook page. It's of series protagonist, Bigby Wolf, brandishing a well-used cricket paddle. The image was accompanied by the message, "Downloading soon to PC/Mac, consoles, and iOS..."
Kevin Bruner, president and co-founder of Telltale, said in a Reddit post last week, "Episode 2 should be available the first week of February. We are working hard with all of our partners (Xbox, PlayStation, Steam, Apple) to coordinate everything, but we're confident enough to announce that here."
The first episode of The Wolf Among Us released on October 11, 2013. If Telltale sticks to a first week of February launch window, that still spells out a four-month gap between the first and second episodes. For comparison, Telltale's The Walking Dead - Season 1, operating on the same five-episode season template, brought out an episode every two months.
The Wolf Among Us delays weren't planned. Bruner continued, "We are very concerned about the long delay for this episode, but this is one of those occasions where several things conspired against us (not to mention the additional delays due to the holidays). I won't dive into the details, but this has been an unusual and specific set of circumstances and we do not anticipate it happening again as we go forward with the rest of the season."
There you have it. Approximately two more weeks until Episode 2 - Smoke and Mirrors, and then a (hopefully) reduced two-month gap between episodes 3, 4, and 5. And if Episode 1 - Faith is any indication, it'll all be worth the season pass.
Also check out the two other images below from the second episode. One features Jack – of Jack and the Beanstalk fame – a dude that's always falling for scams entirely too late. The other is of (I'm presuming from the name of the strip club) Georgie Porgie from the nursery rhyme that goes "Georgie Porgie, pudding and pie. Kissed the girls and made them cry."


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Material Selection Guide
Plastics are increasingly being used to replace other materials like bronze, stainless steel, aluminum and ceramics. The most popular reasons for switching to plastics include:
With the many plastic materials available today, selecting the best one can be an intimidating proposition. Here are guidelines to assist those less familiar with these plastics.
Determine whether the component is a:
Determining the primary function of the finished component will direct you to a group of materials. For example, crystalline materials (i.e., Nylon, Acetal) outperform amorphous materials (i.e., Polysulfone, Duratron® PEI or Polycarbonate) in bearing and wear applications. Within the material groups, you can further reduce your choices by knowing what additives are best suited to your application.
Wear properties are enhanced by MoS2, graphite, carbon fiber and polymeric lubricants (i.e., PTFE, waxes).
Structural properties are enhanced by reinforcement fibres like glass or carbon.
Once you have determined the nature of the application (B&W or Structural), you can further reduce your material choices by determining the application's mechanical property requirements. For bearing and wear applications, the first consideration is wear performance expressed in PV and"k" -factor. Calculate the PV (pressure (psi) x velocity (m/min) required. Using Figure 1, select materials whose limiting PV's are above the PV you have calculated for the application. Further selection can be made by noting the "k" wear factor of your material choices. In general the lower the "k" factor, the longer the wear life of the material.
Structural components are commonly designed for maximum continuous operating stresses equal to 25% of their ultimate strength at a specific temperature. This guideline is meant to compensate for the viscoelastic behavior of plastics that result in creep. Isometric stress-time curves are provided here to help you characterize a material's strength behavior as a function of time at both room temperature (Figure 2) and at 150 °C (300 °F) (Figure 3).
Additional Information on Material Performance
·Flammability Performance
Engineering Plastics are more or less flammable. Their flammability depends on the chemical structure, the fillers and additives, the environment - rich in oxygen or not, the ambient temperature, the part geometry, the presence or not of the ignition source, ect. Through the action of fire, certain polymers burn easily, others with difficulty or even not at all.
Note: These mostly estimated ratings, derived from raw material supplier data, are not intended to reflect hazards presented by materials under actual fire conditions.
In 1995, a number of Quadrant Engineering Plastic Products materials were tested according to the European Space Agency (ESA)-specification PSS-01-702 ("A thermal vacuum test for the screening of space materials"). Samples were heated to 125°C for 24 hours (Method "A"), collector plates kept at 25°C and the testing carried out in a vacuum of 10-3 P.
·Steam Sterilisation
Steam sterilization is commonly used in the medical industry for sterilizing all kinds of reusable equipment, devices, instruments, trays, ect. and is conducted in a pressurized vessel that allows the presence of superheated saturated steam. The main purpose of sterilization is to kill all viable micro-organisms on a certain part.
Tests in which the effect of repeated steam sterilization on the charpy notched impact strength was measured according to ISO 179-1/1eA (measured on dry test specimens at 23°C) clearly show that :


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bud earrings
bud earrings
sterling silver
Stud earrings cast from nature, Unique and wearable for everyday.
Giving Back
We are all in this world together. Please join me in making it the world we want it to be. For each online purchase, db:designs will donate 5% of sales to your choice of one of the following non-profits organizations:
ACLU - American Civil Liberties Union
NOW - National Organization of Women
NRDC - National Resource Defense Council
Orders on in-stock items will ship within five business days, once payment has cleared. If you don't see what you're looking for, or would like a custom piece, send a note and we will happily accommodate!
We ship within the US via USPS Priority mail for a flat rate of $6.80, plus insurance if over $50. If you need expedited shipping please contact us before placing your order. If you need a rush order or an international order, please email at firstname.lastname@example.com, and arrangements can be made.
Returns are gladly accepted on unworn pieces within 10 days of receipt. Return shipping is the responsibility of the customer. Please contact us before shipping a return.
You can reach the studio by phone at 415-867-4862, or by email at email@example.com.
Your information will not be shared. As it should be!


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Silicon Valley not buying GOP plan
A California investor — with help from Karl Rove — won the highly competitive contest to help build the Republican National Committee's data platform.
But he's having trouble winning over Silicon Valley.
Story Continued Below
Dick Boyce, once a partner at Bain & Co. and the former CEO of J.Crew, launched Liberty Works with the goal of helping Republicans catch up to Democrats in the digital data world.
( PHOTOS: Republicans on how to fix the GOP)
Liberty Works was hired to create an open-source voter data platform, meaning outside groups and campaigns would have access to the information for outreach and fundraising and also be able to build on it with their own applications. The RNC describes the goal for the shared data as "iPhone-like."
Since the RNC announcement on May 1, Liberty Works has gotten off to a shaky start. Top engineers in Silicon Valley who have been looking for ways to help Republican campaigns question Boyce's vision and say the company's outreach is underwhelming — as are its salary offers.
"At a minimum, they should buy a round or two of drinks before they ask the tech community to get into bed," said Garrett Johnson, the chief executive of SendHub, an Internet communications firm in Menlo Park.
Liberty Works is also discussing plans to outsource the voter data platform it was charged with building to another company called Originate, POLITICO has learned, further upsetting the GOP tech community.
"You're not going to get great quality if you keep passing the responsibility down the line," said Chris Abrams, a Bay Area engineer, who said he met with Boyce and members of his team, including Scott McNealy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems.
The big risk for the RNC is that any delay or failure to keep up with the Democrats' vaunted data operation could hurt their already uphill efforts to win the Senate next year and further cement the GOP's reputation as behind the times in the digital data world.
Complicating things for Liberty Works is competition from other conservative quarters, including the Koch brothers, whose network has also been in the Valley looking for GOP-friendly tech talent to build on its voter data outfit called Themis, which cost at least $18 million to build in 2010 and 2011.
The Charles Koch Institute will co-host a hackathon, a collaborative coding event bringing together programmers and designers to work on a proposed problem in partnership with some of the top engineers in the Silicon Valley, POLITICO has learned.
( PHOTOS: Republicans, 2016 contenders)
The proposed problem for this event is "How do you engage voters on economic liberty issues that matter to them?" according to an engineer organizing the event set for June 21-22 in San Francisco.
"A lot of groups are in early stages for the same idea," Abrams said. "Are they going to work together, or are they going to compete?"


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Stock Image
This hedge trimmer is lightweight and easy to use, ideal for trimming around the home.
Give your hedges a clean trim every time with the STIHL HS 45 hedge trimmer. Available with an 18" double-sided reciprocating blade, this trimmer is powered by a dependable STIHL engine, so you have the power you need to cut through shrubbery with ease. And with its large, comfortable handles, move from hedge to hedge and create clean, even cuts with precision.


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NORTH FROM TAHITI — We've now completed our tour of the South Pacific island paradises. Three years ago, some will remember, my wife and I toured the World War II battlefields of the South Pacific.
Conditions were still primitive in places like Guadalcanal and New Guinea. We expected they would be very different in Fiji, Samoa, Rarotonga, Bora Bora and Tahiti. But we were surprised to find everything much the same.
If you currently subscribe or have subscribed in the past to the Las Vegas Optic, then simply find your account number on your mailing label and enter it below.
Click the question mark below to see where your account ID appears on your mailing label.
|ZIP Code:


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Brief fuels gay marriage speculation
A legal brief the Justice Department filed with the Supreme Court Friday asking the justices to strike down a key part of the Defense of Marriage Act is raising hopes among gay rights advocates that President Barack Obama is on the verge of embracing a federal constitutional right to same-sex marriage.
The brief formally urges the court to declare unconstitutional the portion of the 1996 law barring recognition of same-sex marriages by the federal government for income tax purposes, federal employee benefits, immigration and myriad other programs.
Story Continued Below
( FULL TEXT: The White House's brief)
The portion of DOMA barring federal benefits for same-sex spouses "targets the many gay and lesbian people legally married under state law for a harsh form of discrimination that bears no relation to their ability to contribute to society," Solicitor General Donald Verrilli and other government lawyers write in the brief. "It is abundantly clear that this discrimination does not substantially advance an interest in protecting marriage, or any other important interest. The statute simply cannot be reconciled with the Fifth Amendment's guarantee of equal protection. The Constitution therefore requires that Section 3 [of DOMA] be invalidated."
The brief pulls few punches in its effort to knock out DOMA, using sweeping language about the history of discrimination against gays and finding no legitimacy in the reasons some have offered for rejecting same-sex marriages. The unsparing tone of the government's brief led some observers to suspect that the Justice Department is laying the groundwork to endorse a federal constitutional right to same-sex marriage in another pending case that addresses that question more directly.
( Also on POLITICO: New gay marriage ad won't use Laura Bush)
The Obama administration must decide by next week whether to join with those urging the court to strike down California's voter-approved ban on gay marriage, Proposition 8. The federal government is not required to file any brief in the Prop. 8 case, but those arguing against the measure and in favor of a constitutional right to gay marriage have until Thursday to weigh in with the high court.
"There is nothing at all tentative about the government's embrace of gay equality in this brief. And next week I think we will see the government urging the same standard of review be used to overturn Prop. 8, and with it, all anti-gay-marriage laws," said Richard Socarides, a gay rights advocate and White House adviser to President Bill Clinton. "It's clear from the administration's DOMA brief that they understand and now embrace its connection to the Prop. 8 case. The discrimination evidenced by Prop. 8 itself is cited to support the standard of review urged by the government to strike down DOMA."


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If you would like to use cron then add this as new job to run each minute/hour/day:
- php -q /home/my_username/public_html/phpjobscheduler/firepjs.php &> /dev/null
- The constitute parts:
"php" - this is to invoke the server to run php - require more details: ASK YOUR HOST NOT ME
"-q" - quiet please!
"/home/my_username/public_html/" - this is the location of the root html folder - require more details: ASK YOUR HOST NOT MENOT ME
"phpjobscheduler/firepjs.php" - location of your pjsfire script (this is the default)
"&> /dev/null" - redirect any output to null - remove if it does not work for you.
How often you run the job dependants upon how often you require jobs to be fired. For more info please read:
http://www.phpjobscheduler.co.uk/demo/r ... ramewindow
For further help on cron please refer to:
http://www.htmlcenter.com/blog/running- ... with-cron/
DONT have CRON?
If you do not have access to cron then you can add the following HTML to any page on your website:
Ensure you change 'YOURDOMAIN' to your own domain name!
Code: Select all

If your website does not receive enough hits then you can add that html to any web page on any website (not just to the site where phpJobScheduler is installed).
Hope it helps you!


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bottle(redirected from bottled out)
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Financial, Encyclopedia.
A container for liquids.
bottle/bot·tle/ (bot´'l) a hollow narrow-necked vessel of glass or other material.
wash bottle
1. a flexible squeeze-bottle with delivery tube, or one with two tubes through the cork, so arranged that blowing into one forces a stream of liquid from the other; used in washing chemical materials.
2. one containing some washing fluid, through which gases are passed for the purpose of freeing them from impurities.
bottleDrug slang
A regional term for a vial of crack cocaine or amphetamines.
Vox populi
A vessel, usually of glass or earthenware, formerly of leather, generally used to hold liquids, which is enclosed except for the point of entry or egress marked by a narrow neck/mouth.
A container for liquids.
Patient discussion about bottle
Q. I get the most from her company than from the bottle. My wife is 2 months pregnant. I love to drink only if she gives company. I get the most from her company than from the bottle. Is it okay to drink when pregnant?
A. If you love your wife, you ought not drink in front of her. She shouldn't be drinking either, for the health of the baby. After all, what the mother consumes, the baby does too. I don't think there is a magic filter protecting the baby other than what the mother does. I wish you both well.More discussions about bottle


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Take out enemy armour with the Javelin Man Portable Anti-Tank Missile Launcher!
This set includes:
- 3 x Javelin Launcher
- 9 x Missile (6 components)
- Your choice of arm style, with three different poses of launcher arms,
- Right arm holding a launcher on a strap, and spare parts to make a loose launcher for conversions.
You can use these weapons/arms with any of our Regiments Torsos, or with any similar sized popular plastic torso.
These weapons are also available with complete miniatures, in our Regiments Custom Missile Support Squad.
Assembly Guidance
For best results, we recommend you assemble launchers like this -
- Clean up all parts, removing flash etc.
- Dry fit before adding glue, at all stages of the build, so you can correct any problems and check alignment.
- Glue the weapon to the launcher trigger/shoulder pad assembly (ie. the right arm), ensuring its correctly seated with no gaps.
- Dry fit the weapon/arm to the model with the left arm, ensuring that the optics (held in left hand) mesh correctly with the launcher in your intended pose.
- Glue the arm with the launcher to the torso, then glue the left arm to the torso, gluing the optic to the weapon at the same time.
- You can glue the torso to the legs either before or after assembling the launcher, but choosing poses is easier if you do the launchers first then pair them with legs.
This Regiments product is not a toy, and is not intended for under 14's.
Regiments products are supplied unpainted, and will require some preparation and assembly with super glue. We recommend you carefully read the available Assembly Guide.
Javelin MPAT Missile Launchers (three launchers with arms)
- Product Code: an7730
- Availability: In Stock
Available Options
* Required


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From the time that we first met Jenn, her first love was for writing and illustrating children's books. So who better to get a report about the SCBWI conference. Take a read below and to see more about Jenn, click here:
REPORT FROM THE TRENCHES: Seven Lessons from the 16th Annual SCBWI Winter Conference
By now, you know that I am a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, and that this international, professional organization is key for any creative person in children's books, whether newbie or pro, or in between. This organization provides encouragement, support, and information on all aspects of the business.
So, you know that I was thrilled to attend this year's SCBWI Winter Conference in New York: a three-day affair for over 1400 people held in the swanky halls and conference rooms of the Grand Hyatt Hotel, in Grand Central Station. While I have attended several times in years' past (different venues), I felt ready to plunge back in, to pick up where I left off before I took a 3-year hiatus to attend FIT for my MFA Degree.
While I didn't attend Friday's Intensives, I entered my portfolio in Friday's Art Directors' Review. No prizes for me, but I did get the chance to see a plethora of portfolios on display. Competition, Baby, competition! Many illustrators had already been published, and most portfolios were of very high quality. Conference Lesson # 1: Raise Your Game!
On Saturday, YA writer Anthony Horowitz kicked off events with a humorous, informative speech on how to grab young readers from first line to last. He spoke of looking for "light bulb moments" to give your writing authority of tone and truthfulness of character. Never write down for children, he advised. Make the children rise up. Lesson # 2: Kids are Smart. Don't Patronize Your Audience.
This was followed by an Editors' Panel, a Report from the Front Lines, by four distinguished publishers. My best take-aways were Laura Godwin's remark that we are going into a Renaissance of the picture book, even though adult titles are currently flat; and Stephanie Owens Lurie's advice for writers and illustrators to 'look broader' than just having the goal of publishing one story. (She also said that kids prefer hardcopies over eBooks!)
My first break-out session was with Ben Rosenthal of Katherine Tegen Books on Creating Nonfiction. His advice "not to overvalue information over narrative" gave me food for thought re: my picture book proposal on the Triangle Factory Fire. I will need to take another look at that… It was wonderful to hear that literary non-fiction is desirable now. Lesson # 3: Narrative, Narrative, Narrative (even in nonfiction).
I also had a break-out session with agent Heather Alexander (Pippin Properties) onDeveloping Your Brand and Career Path. This event was disappointing to me, however, perhaps because so much of the info was familiar to me from my FIT classes. Heather also had tech problems, and that didn't help, either.
Saturday ended with two dynamite presentations to the entire conference: Hervé Tullet of wide-spread picture-book fame declared his love for producing books that express ideas, those that might shock or provoke. Like Eric Carle's books-as-toys before him, Hervé aims for freedom from the expected, books that are engaging as toys. Lesson # 4: Take Risks!
Kami Garcia, author of teen novel Beautiful Creatures, concluded Sat. night's events, speaking of her publishing experience. She took many risks in creating her book since she was not writing to be published, but writing for the love of her teen readers' group. (Kami is a teacher.) She advised: Who is reading your book? Who is your tribe? Lesson # 5: Write for Your Audience, Not to 'Get Published'.
As if Saturday's events weren't enough, I kid you not when I say that Sunday's were evenBETTER. Please keep reading!
Picture book writer/illustrator and Caldecott Honor winner Laura Vaccaro Seeger was first up on Sunday morning with a CAPTIVATING presentation. Her generous display included sketchbooks, journals, and lists, giving all of us a peek into her incredible process. She showed us how she creates her deceptively simple concept books, reminiscent of the work of Lois Ehlert, and how all fits together like a Rubik's cube. She spoke of the power of certain words, and leaving something to the imagination. I was mesmerized and told her so later on. Lesson # 6: Be True to Your Vision.
James Dashner of Maze Runner fame was up next, with a humorous speech on Writing Commercial Fiction, followed by an Agent Panel.
The last speaker of the day, however, was the one that truly brought down the house. Newbery Winner Kwame Alexander was simply electric!! In an engaging presentation,Saying Yes to the Writerly Life, the talk centered on his own writing journey, and was peppered with his emotionally-charged poems (yes, there were tears flowing…), and was infused with his humor, his advice, his humility, his charisma. Working the room like a powerful preacher, he asked the crowd, "How are you going to live this writerly life?" Answer: "Not just sitting in a room writing; it's about getting out there and living," he advised. Woven into the info and narrative was the lesson to say yes to opportunities that come your way, and the mantra: "Do not let other peoples' "NOs" define your Yes." That bears repeating: Lesson # 7: Do Not Let Other Peoples' "Nos" Define Your "Yes"!
Needless to say, I bought Kwame's Newbery book, The Crossover, and had him sign it to me, too. I told him how enthralled I was by his speech, and that I was moved to tears when he'd recited his poem on his daughter's growing up, adding that my own daughter had just gotten married. He replied, with an impish grin, "Then you know what that's all about." Indeed, I do. Thank you, Kwame.
Then we all went home, tired but inspired, and ready to take up the challenge of our work once again.
Until next time,
Creatively yours,
Jenn will be speaking about her own book,
and Visual Thesis Project, SEW STRONG, on Long Island.


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Matt Maher plays on his strengths by expanding on his Americana-folk-country sound with the release of "The Love in Between," his third CD on Essential Records. In the past few weeks I find myself constantly reaching for this CD. I like the country-rock vibe that resonates across the 12 songs. Maher calls it "blue collar gospel."
And it's not just the music that delivers strong vocals it's the lyrics. Lyrics that pose some tough questions to the listener.
His first single "Turn Around," is getting major airtime on the Christian radio stations and showcases the theme of this CD, with even a "Hey" thrown in there. The song spotlights the trouble of an addict, a mother trying to make ends meet and calls us to realize that God's grace is there to help us in all of our situations.
You don't have to take the broken road
You can turn around and come back home


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Ancient superpredator ate sharks for lunch
ERIE, Pa. – Present-day Erie was under a saltwater ocean 364 million years ago.
And a top-of-the-food-chain predator in that ancient ocean ate sharks for lunch. And for breakfast and dinner, too.
Erie geologist Scott McKenzie is patiently putting together pieces of the skull and shoulder armor of that powerful prehistoric fish, Dunkleosteus, the rest of whose remains are embedded in sandy shale in an Erie County location he cannot reveal in an agreement with the private property owners.
Now that spring is almost here, McKenzie, colleagues from other universities and geology students will return to the site to see if erosion through wind, rain and snow have exposed more bones.
"We're restricted to surface collection," said McKenzie, assistant professor of geology at Mercyhurst University. "The landowners don't want a significant hole dug on the land." And digging could damage the missing pieces, he said.
Some years, they find nothing. Other years, they find more bones to add to the collection.
"It's eroding slowly -- much too slowly for my taste," said McKenzie, who makes several trips to the site during the year.
In 10 years, or sooner, McKenzie hopes to have the skull and shoulder armor of Dunkleosteus put together and displayed at the university's Sincak Natural History Collection, where he is curator.
When his work is complete, the specimen will be impressive -- the head, including the shoulder armor, will rival the front of a Volkswagen Beetle in size, he said.
Dunkleosteus was arguably the most terrifying creature during the Devonian period, and its huge jaws opened so fast they created a suction force that pulled prey into its mouth, according to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
Among its many fossil specimens of the creature, the museum has a giant armored skull of Dunkleosteus terrelli on display. McKenzie doesn't know if the fish he's reconstructing is the terrelli species until he gathers more material.
Dunkleosteus -- named after the late David Dunkle, one of the Cleveland museum's former curators -- varied from 15 to 30 feet in length, and possibly weighed up to 4 tons.
McKenzie said the Erie County find likely wasn't a full-grown adult, but still was probably 15 to 25 feet long and weighed about 1 ton. He said it could be the largest of its kind found in Erie County.
"If you caught him on a rod and reel, you'd be in for the fight of a lifetime. And if you fell in (the water), heaven help you because no one else could help you," he said. He displayed the Erie County remains of the ancient fish and pieces of others in a university classroom last week.
Talk about "Jaws." The giant predator could snap a prehistoric shark in two with its "razor-sharp jawbones," according to the Cleveland Museum.
And yet it was a bit of an oddity. The fish did not have developed teeth.
"Instead, the edges of their jawbones kept sharp by rubbing against each other like self-sharpening scissors," the museum said on its website.
Though McKenzie won't reveal the site, he said the remains would be difficult to locate. They are along the side of a stream bank in a heavily wooded area, and a passer-by also would have to recognize that the bones are embedded in the rock, he said.
Some geologists use their tongue to lick bone to distinguish it from rock. The tongue tends to stick to the bone because -- even all these years later -- it draws water to the tongue, he said.
McKenzie doesn't use that method. "I'm a little bit of a germophobe," he said.
McKenzie and Mercyhurst geology students use tools to strip the rock from the bone. "It's a delicate procedure because you don't want to leave any tool marks on the bone," he said.
McKenzie gets a lot of help in gathering pieces of this monster fish and pieces of others like it. He frequently relies on collectors to scout out sites and bring in the remains.
The shoulder armor he is now reconstructing was found by Kirk McFadden, president of the Gem City Rock and Mineral Society. McFadden lifted it out of the ground and carried it out in a backpack, McKenzie said.
McKenzie said it's not rare to find scraps of bone, but he called it "a special occasion" to find a whole plate or the skull and shoulder armor. The body of the fish probably wasn't preserved, he said.
Most specimens from North America have been collected from Cleveland shale in Ohio, said Joe Hannibal, curator of invertebrate paleontology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
"It's really interesting to see somebody put together a reconstructed skeleton based on material from somewhere outside of Ohio," Hannibal said.
"It's good to have another pair of eyes and another brain there to try to figure out how these bones go together, and Scott has a lot of experience in paleontology and he's very insightful," he said.
Hannibal said the rocks of western Pennsylvania are "somewhat different from those of the classic fossil fish-collecting areas in the Cleveland area, and represent somewhat different environmental conditions.
"And so the fossils that Scott has may or may not be somewhat different from the ones in this area, but that remains to be seen," he said.
When he's not reconstructing the fish, McKenzie said he keeps the pieces in a storage area with "proper ventilation and security." The geologist said he once kept fossils of that fish and other prehistoric species at home until his wife insisted that they be moved because "the buckets and buckets and buckets of rock fragments" took up too much space.
He's turned over thousands of various animal fossils to the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh and hundreds more to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
McKenzie said bones such as the one he is putting together are "all over the place," saying it's a matter of recognizing them.
"Every streambed, every rock exposure, is like a lottery ticket, and you could scratch it and come up with Dunkleosteus," he said.


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A valid certificate of inspection issued in the District of Columbia or in another state of the United States having an inspection law similar to that of the State of Texas is acceptable on a Texas-registered vehicle provided the inspection certificate was obtained while the owner or operator of the vehicle was residing in the other jurisdiction and the vehicle was regularly assigned, garaged, or stationed outside of the State of Texas. This acceptance does not extend to owners and operators who have resided continuously in Texas.
Exception: New vehicles which are purchased in a state having an inspection law similar to that of the State of Texas which were inspected and issued an inspection certificate before registration are acceptable in Texas until the expiration date of the certificate.
The Department of Public Safety extends the time within which a certificate of inspection shall be obtained by a resident owner or operator of a Texas-registered vehicle, when the vehicle has no valid inspection certificate. The extension will be granted only on the first occasion of operation in this state during an inspection year and only until the resident owner or operator of the vehicle has arrived at his home, station, or destination in this state and for three days thereafter.
Texas-registered vehicles may operate in Texas on a valid inspection certificate from the District of Columbia or any of the following states provided the certificate was obtained while the owner of the vehicle resided in the other jurisdiction: Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia.


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There are a few pivotal moments from Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games that the movie version truly needs to pull off, to win over the crowd. The Mockingjay's song and look must be perfect, or we (along with thousands of angry tweens) will burn the theater down. And Katniss Everdeen's famous parade dress, created by her government appointed stylist Cinna (Lenny Kravitz) is another important moment that this movie must ace.
Why? Because her dress (along with Peeta Mellark's outfit) is literally ON FIRE. Behold the first ever look at Katniss' "Girl Who Was On Fire" Dress, mere moments before being ignited! Does it appease you Hunger Game maniacs?
This official image is from Entertainment Weekly's latest issue.
The Hunger Games will open in theaters on March 23rd.


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Another day, another Ashley Madison "scandal" involving a sexually suggestive billboard mocking a public official. This time, the adulterous online dating site Photoshopped a photo of Queen Sofia of Spain to make it look like her arms are draped around a shirtless dude (and holding a mug of coffee — realistic!) with the slogan "Now you no longer have to spend the night alone."
Her Highness is displeased — not just because the billboard is obviously fake, but because her husband, King Juan Carlos, has a reputation for sleeping around. With that in mind, the billboard's kind of an unnecessary and humiliating low blow, right? She's not exactly Newt Gingrich.
Or, for that matter, her own husband — last year, Ashley Madison ran a billboard of the King with two female models and the tagline, "The best place to 'hunt' for an adventure." The monarchs didn't take legal action then, but this time, Queen Sofia has hired a private lawyer to make sure the billboards are taken down. Ah, drama: exactly what Ashley Madison anticipated.
Queen Sofia of Spain sues U.S. website Ashley Madison over photoshopped picture [NYND]


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Very cool! Thanks for the link. I hope they keep adding topos to the Arizona page. I absolutely love looking at old maps and photos. In my job, I'm often looking for older maps such as these. I already have the San Francisco Mtn. quad but the others are new to me. It is possible to georeference these old maps using newer topos. The process isn't perfect but it'll get you in the ballpark. This makes it possible to quickly get coordinates from the old topos to use in your GPS. Very handy for locating sites.
I've got an assortment of northern Arizona topos from the late 1800s to the 1940s in digital format that I'd be more than happy to share.
Thanks again,


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Vitra Miniatures
Twenty years ago the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein began making miniature replicas of the great milestones in furniture design housed in its collection. A summary of the history of industrial furniture design – moving from the historic and art nouveau to the new Bauhaus' radical design, and from postmodernism all the way up until the present day – the collection has grown to include more than 100 pieces. The chairs are all one sixth of the size of the originals. They are all true to scale and replicate the originals right down to the smallest details in construction, material and color.
3 Item(s)
Vitra Miniatures Landi Chair$385.00 USD
Vitra Miniatures Armchair Nr. 42$290.00 USD
Vitra Miniatures Art. 41 Paimio$290.00 USD
3 Item(s)


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This is a group for anyone interested in research concerning artificial neural networks, deep learning, and so on. The format varies between discussion groups, guest speakers, and tutorials. Proposed topics include: training deep belief networks with unsupervised pre-training/supervised finetuning, recurrent neural networks, different optimization methods, scalable architectures for large networks across clusters, practical GPU programming (with Python!), NNs for NLP, using NNs in robotics, visualizations to monitor NN learning, and other stuff specific to these areas of research. Recent developments in this area of research show a lot of promise, but very few people within the machine learning community have any practical experience with these methods. Since there's so few of us, we should get together and share notes!
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New Poems by Jonah Raskin
"Clearly, Jonah Raskin has known and loved more rock 'n' roll women than any other male has the right to know. Reading these rascally Raskin verses, I came to respect his deep concern for the rock 'n' roll women who've passed time with him. Enjoy the beat, the nostalgia, the age so many of us knew and which only a writer of Raskin's ample talent can convey so concisely and beautifully."
A lusty Valentine to sex, drugs, and rock and roll from a man who knows his era."
"I love Jonah Raskin's Rock 'n' Roll Women, and it isn't just because I see myself in these poems. They remind us just how rock-n-roll women (and men) scream our basic natures and set us all free from the tyranny of the demure, the rigid, and the false. Go! Go! Go!"
"Reading Rock 'n' Roll Women is like taking a cross-county trip in an old VW bug, listening to your favorite tunes while the landscape rolls by, and singing along at the top of your lungs. Each poem salutes a different artist—from the Everly Brothers to Otis Redding, from the Beatles to Beyoncé—and the women in whose company this music sprang to life for the poet. Raskin takes us on this romp through fifty years of 'memory and desire,' sometimes raunchy, sometimes sexy, sometimes political, sometimes tender, all jump-started by the music that 'set our bones on fire.'"
Buy This Book: click here to purchase
© 2012 Jonah Raskin


text: Home Alison Smith Poems Alison Smith Poems Welcome to the Alison Smith Poems section of the PoemsAPlenty community. Feel free to browse through them and enjoy yourself. If you have any poetry to contribute, please do so via the Submit Poem link above. Visitors like you are making this a bigger and better place. Dragon Limerick


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Wallabies hammer France in Brisbane
The Wallabies have opened 2014 in sizzling style by thrashing an overwhelmed France 50-23 at Suncorp Stadium.
Australia were ruthless on Saturday night in an attacking masterclass to pick up where they left off at the end of last year's European tour.
The seven-try blitz was their highest score over Les Blues on Australian soil and their fifth straight Test win - equalling their best streak in nine years - much to the delight of a 33,718-strong Brisbane crowd.
The only worry was the early loss of new skipper Stephen Moore who is in grave doubt for the rest of the three-Test series with a medial ligament tear.
Flanker Michael Hooper stepped up to the plate as captain and led from the front in a superb display in attack, defence and on the ball.
Pre-match concerns over the Wallabies rookie halves pair and their second-row were unfounded as Nic White and Bernard Foley impressed and debutant lock Sam Carter was named man of the match.
When Israel Folau loped 50m and put replacement Pat McCabe over with his first touch of the ball in the 71st minute, Australia led the outclassed tourists 50-9.
Folau also scored a try of his own and played a key role in the try of the night with Nick Cummins finishing a beautiful backline move.
"He is a class player," France coach Philippe Saint-Andre said of the fullback. "He's a match-winner. He showed that tonight.
"Australia were very strong in contact and won 70-80 per cent of the collisions.
"They were physical with a lot of urgency, and we panicked too much."
Foley and White took to their task with relish - finding a hungry array of runners with wide passes that Quade Cooper would be proud of.
To their credit, the French bench made a late impact and closed the game with two five-pointers, including a pushover penalty try on fulltime.
The Wallabies led 29-9 at the break with the game all but over following a four-try first-half where they were helped along by the bumbling visitors with Matt Toomua gifted a try on halftime.
It was 50-cap forwards Wycliff Palu and James Slipper, a stand out in his 65 minutes, who were the unlikely duo to combine and help put Folau over for the opening try in the 19th minute.
The Wallabies were far more clinical in attack while they expertly shut down the uncertain French in defence.
"I think we played a really good mix of territory and ball-in-hand," said coach Ewen McKenzie.
"I thought our breakdown work was very good and we could get continuity of possession."
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