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The following procedure shows how to display the properties of an LDAP data source and how to set the properties that you require to change. The procedure shows the commands using which any of the properties of the LDAP data source can be changed. It also shows how to get the detailed information of a property, which helps you to set that property.
You can use DSCC to perform this task. For information, see Directory Service Control Center Interface and the DSCC online help.
View the properties of the data source by using this command syntax:
$ dpconf get-ldap-data-source-prop -h host -p port \ [-M unit] [-Z unit] source-name [property...]
In this command, -M and -Z refer to the units in which you want data to be displayed. The M option specifies the unit of time. The value for -M can be M, w, d, h, m, s, or ms, to represent months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds, or milliseconds. The -Z option specifies the data size unit. The value for -Z can be T, G, M, k, or b, to represent Terabytes, Gigabytes, Megabytes, kilobytes, or bytes.
If you do not specify a property, all properties are displayed. The default properties of an LDAP data source are as follows:
bind-dn : - bind-pwd : - client-cred-mode : use-client-identity connect-timeout : 10s description : - down-monitoring-interval : inherited is-enabled : false is-read-only : true ldap-address : host ldap-port : port ldaps-port : ldaps monitoring-bind-timeout : 5s monitoring-entry-dn : "" monitoring-entry-timeout : 5s monitoring-inactivity-timeout : 2m monitoring-interval : 30s monitoring-mode : reactive monitoring-retry-count : 3 monitoring-search-filter : (|(objectClass=*)(objectClass=ldapSubEntry)) num-bind-incr : 10 num-bind-init : 10 num-bind-limit : 1024 num-read-incr : 10 num-read-init : 10 num-read-limit : 1024 num-write-incr : 10 num-write-init : 10 num-write-limit : 1024 proxied-auth-check-timeout : 1.8s proxied-auth-use-v1 : false ssl-policy : never use-read-connections-for-writes : false use-tcp-keep-alive : true use-tcp-no-delay : true
Enable the data source.
$ dpconf set-ldap-data-source-prop -h host -p port source-name is-enabled:true
Configure all the properties that are listed in Step 1, if you want to change the default settings.
$ dpconf set-ldap-data-source-prop -h host -p port source-name property:value
For example, if you want to modify entries on a data source, configure the data source to allow write operations.
$ dpconf set-ldap-data-source-prop -h host -p port source-name is-read-only:false
To use a read connection to process write operation when all the write connections are busy, run the following command. The vice-versa is also true.
dpconf set-ldap-data-source-prop -h host -p port source-name \ use-read-connections-for-writes:true
To find information about a property used in a subcommand, run this command:
$ dpconf help-properties ldap-data-source property
For example, to find information about the is-read-only property, run this command:
dpconf help-properties ldap-data-source is-read-only
To list the key properties for data sources, use the verbose option -v with the list-ldap-data-sources subcommand.
$ dpconf list-ldap-data-sources -v Name is-enabled ldap-address ldap-port ldaps-port description ----------- ---------- ------------ --------- ---------- ----------- datasource0 true myHost myPort ldaps - datasource1 true myHost myPort ldaps -
If necessary, restart the instance of Directory Proxy Server for the changes to take effect.
For information about restarting Directory Proxy Server, see To Restart Directory Proxy Server. For a list of configuration changes that require a server restart, see Configuration Changes Requiring Server Restart.


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If creationism were true, wouldn't that mean that no animal species could be related to another? And DNA would be varied from species to species showing no relationship at all. Every species would be related only to itself, having come from no common ancestor. Horses would not be related to zebras, wolves to coyotes, polar bears to grizzly bears, or llamas to camels. Tigers and lions could not be related, and would be incapable of cross-species reproduction. There would be no ligers or tigons. That applies to plants as well. We would be unable to cross-pollinate two different plants to come up with a hybrid.
Views: 1145
I have to disagree with your approach: fundamentalist creationists do share our scientific assumptions whether they want to or not — and whether they know it or not. With the exception of certain areas of theoretical physics, astrophysics and advanced mathematics (String Theory, yes or no?), current science is all of one piece, and can't be picked apart, accepting this area but not that.
The chemistry, biology, geology and physics that allow modern man to have gasoline and food preservatives, flu shots, offshore oil drilling, mobile phones, television, cars and men on the moon is the same science that invented and used carbon dating, geology, fossil analysis and astrophysics to date the universe, the solar system and the earth, and validate the theory of evolution. You can't believe your Chevy Silverado truck exists yet not believe the earth is millions of years old, because the same scientific method created both the truck and the earth dating science.
With all due respect, Paul, yes you can drive a gasoline powered vehicle and believe that the presence of gasoline on Earth is part of a grand scheme rigged up by God to test the faith of dutiful modern Christians. It doesn't need to make sense if it comes from a pulpit.
That's fairly easily refuted by simply saying that god used the same building materials, or he whimmed it that way or whatever creators do, and that it's all part of a giant plan that's mysterious. Evolution is so obviously logically correct, that only people who do not apply logic could deny it. Those that do so, are not therefore going to be very susceptible to logical arguments. To them, logic does not apply.
Religion has become political and powerful. Those in control will be difficult to convince that they should drop the very system that gave them their power. There's no money in atheism.
Strega, the creation story says god created man from dust, for all the animals and plans, he willed them into being. In that case, the building block is in his let there be phrase! But then the theist must now tell us why there is a similarity between our DNA and other apes since man is created from dust before life is breathed into him!
Chimpanzees share 98% of our active DNA. Just a 2% difference between world destroying civilization and throwing your own poop, though some theists tend to blur the line on that second one.
Love this. I will be quote stealing from you H3xx.
Good point there. Creationists often argue how sound their beliefs are despite all these arguments.
"God did it. He can do it like that because he's god." Sigh.
Not necessarily. The Big Guy might have used modular coding and copy and pasted from one creation to the next. I sure wish he would have corrected the lumbar spine and the prostrate gland, just to mention two major screw ups.
I happen to like my prostate gland, thank you very much.
You won't if it ever gets cancer...
It's probably being very good to you now. Heh. Heh.
(was that creepy enough? no. ok.)
One advantage us gays have, is the direct stimulation and massage of the prostate gland. Studies have shown that that helps to prevent prostate cancer.

subset: commoncrawl


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CNN anchor Anderson Cooper went on the record about his sexuality, announcing he is gay.
And the world responded with… well, not much of a response.
And that's a good thing. Sure, a lot of people would tell you that fact was already established somewhere in their consciousness.
But it seems to us that reaction to the news, which probably would have been a bigger deal even a few years ago, is indicative of broader public acceptance of gay people.
In this case, a big "So what?" is the best answer.


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Shows are held at the location of your choice and are between 45 minutes to a full day in length.
Fire and Ice – Children will be dazzled and entertained as they interact with our Mad Scientists! Foggy dry ice storms, giant beach balls floating in the air and even a special Mad Science "burp" potion will amaze children as they learn about chemical reactions, air pressure and the states of matter.
Up, Up and Away! – This spellbinding special event introduces children to the principles of air and pressure. Hot air balloons, vortex generators and even a hovercraft will help children understand the power of air.
Spin, Pop Boom – The audience will be amazed when the Mad Scientist is able to defy gravity in this energetic and spectacular special event. Didgeridoo tubes, foaming hands and steaming chemical reactions will introduce children to a world of exciting chemistry.
Be Tobacco Free – An exciting, educational, and entertaining approach to help children make healthy choices about using tobacco products. Volunteers will pump up a real sheep's lung, and children will see how the heart and lungs work and discover all about the toxic chemicals contained in tobacco products.
Call to book an event


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Expert Tire
Hours And Locations for Dubuque, Iowa
Category: Tire-Dealers-Retail
No one looks forward to the time when their car needs attention. At
ExpertTire we understand. We provide the right solutions, one
customer at a time. Our professionals understand cars and they
understand people who drive them. We use advanced technology and
offer a choice of products from brands you trust. All of which add
up to a total car care experience that meets each customer's
personal needs...more
There are over 80 Expert Tire locations in the US.
Expert Tire Hours And Locations for Dubuque, Iowa IA
555 John F Kennedy Rd
Hours — Sat: 7:00am-7:00pm
Hours — Sat: 7:00am-7:00pm
Locations currently open are Green and those currently closed are Red.
As of:6:16 am (CDT) Sat Sep 21. [Change]
As of:6:16 am (CDT) Sat Sep 21. [Change]
See all Expert Tire locations nationwide.


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Big Texas tarpon adventure
Tarpon fishing along much of the Gulf Coast usually comes to life in June and gets better as we head in the hot months of August and September. Many are caught in October, or until the cool fronts begin to chill the water. In fact, the Texas state record tarpon was caught on Oct 4, 2006.
So where is the best place to fish for tarpon along the Gulf Coast? Based on personnel experience, you can't go wrong out of Venice, La. Along the Texas coast, tarpon fishing can be pretty darned good from the Sabine jetties and on down the coast around Port O'Connor.
One of the heaviest tarpon ever caught out of Sabine was back in July 1997. That's where Lufkin angler Jerry Blackmon caught a silver king weighing an estimated 200 pounds. That monster 'poon was caught on a free-lined pogie about 32 miles southeast of the Sabine jetties.
One of the greatest days of Texas tarpon fishing was back in 1995 on Labor Day. That's when Capt. Jim Leavelle jumped seven and caught five. Capt. Dana Bailey jumped 14 and caught five. And Capt. James Plaag jumped 20, leadered eight and broke off four. Tarpon fishing doesn't get better than that anywhere on earth. Those are Galveston based guides. But guess where they were fishing on this spectacular day? How about the short rigs out of Sabine Pass. It goes without saying that some of the best tarpon fishing you'll find is on the upper Texas coast.
Mobile is a key word when hunting Texas tarpon. You've got to stay on the move. The first tarpon I ever jumped was at the Port O'Connor jetties. That was in 1973. Since that time, I've caught them while fishing out of Venice, La., Sabine, Port O'Connor and on down to the South Padre jetties. Heading farther south, I've had some classic battles with fly fished tarpon at places like the Yucatan, Campeche, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and out of Belize. But for numbers of big tarpon, I don't think the action gets any better than what you'll find along the Texas coast from now through October.
My best day so far this summer was 23 shots at tarpon up to about 130 pounds while fishing the area of water from the Port O'Connor jetties and on over to Pass Cavallo, a few miles east of the POC jetties.
Great tarpon guides along the Texas coast all have their favorite options for baits. Many use fresh dead baits like shad, mullet, sand trout or pogies. Most of the time those baits are rigged on 14/0 to 16/0 circle hooks. A live mullet is excellent tarpon bait. Ditto that for big shrimp, piggy perch, croakers and hardheads.
Ballooning suspended dead or live baits about 8 feet deep is a top tactic for tarpon, especially on calm days with no current. By the way, strong currents are usually the kiss of death when tarpon fishing. In fact, the dead water when tides are switching directions is excellent when you're fishing along the jetties.
The most exciting option for hooking up with tarpon is to use artificial lures. Some of the best are the 77M MirrOlures. A Coon Pop jig has caught tons if big tarpon. Another good jig is a 3-ounce Texas Tarpon Pop (one of my favorites). The Coon Pop, Term Pop and Texas Tarpon Pop are very similar. Basically it's a lead-head jig attached to a plastic curl-tail grub. The jig and grub are wired to something like a 16/0 circle hook. The Coon and Term Pops are rigged on 2-ounce lead head jigs. My personnel best tarpon, 185 pounds, was caught on a Coon Pop. Louisiana's Capt. Lance "Coon" Schouest invented the Coon Pop, and many look-alikes have been developed over the years.
Casting, trolling or bump trolling with a trolling motor are productive ways to catch tarpon. When trolling or bump trolling, a boat is normally pulling four to five lures. Plaag, among the best tarpon guides on the Gulf Coast, says he likes to bump troll with four rods. Two are rigged short and two long with one on the shotgun line that's well back and straight off the stern One of his best days this summer was when he spent about eight hours on a school of tarpon out of Galveston. They had 11 strikes and got three to the boat. The heaviest tarpon ever caught on his boat weighed an estimated 237 pounds. It was 6 feet, 9 inches long with a 49-inch girth. That one was caught on a dead shad. Plaag says he's been chasing tarpon for about 20 years. During that time he's caught about eight over 200 pounds. Just so you'll know, a 200-pounder will have a girth of 45 inches or more.
Of all the sporting fish in the world, there aren't many as profoundly beautiful and talented as tarpon. And guess what — the time is right for catching one off the Texas coast right now.
Capt. Robert Sloan runs tarpon fishing charters out of Port O'Connor. He can be reached at (409) 782-6796 or at www.hightailangler.com. Capt. James Plaag, with Silver King Adventures, runs tarpon trips out of Galveston. He can be reached at (409) 935-7242.


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Movie News & Reviews
'Lincoln': lovely but meandering portrait of Honest Abe
The leading man is slightly too short, barely suggesting the height that Abraham Lincoln's contemporaries said made him "tower o'er other men." And his voice, researched and accurate as it might be, is not the Lincoln that has been inside our heads for generations.
The actress they cast to play his wife is two decades older than the woman she is portraying. Ulysses S. Grant is a sharp-dressed redhead and, like Lincoln himself, is played by a Brit.
We don't get the whole of Lincoln's life and career: the hardscrabble childhood, the hard-won election, or even much of the Civil War that election led to.
But Steven Spielberg's Lincoln is an elegiac turn from a filmmaker we thought was out of new tricks, a vivid, melancholy and meditative look at one of America's most revered presidents. Daniel Day-Lewis gives us a very human flesh-and-blood Lincoln, weighed down by events but never at a loss for a funny story, rightfully lionized by history but flawed and willing to take political shortcuts to secure his place in history.
Lincoln, using Doris Kearns Goodwin's book Team of Rivals and other historical texts as its guide, zeroes in on the president and his quarrelsome cabinet, and their race to amend the Constitution to ban slavery before the Civil War ends. They're racing because of the potential for renewed conservative Southern interference from a new Congress, including newly reunited Confederate states. In brief but pointed sketches, Spielberg paints in the "rivals" Lincoln packed into his cabinet: the secretary of state, William Seward (David Strathairn), who longed to be president himself but came to worship Lincoln; and the impatient, oft-embattled secretary of war, Edwin Stanton (Bruce McGill, ill-tempered and terrific). The filmmaker captures the political wheeling, dealing, bargaining and bullying that it took to make a lame-duck Congress turn permanent the sentiments of Lincoln's earlier Emancipation Proclamation.
"We're whalin', Mr. Ashby," Lincoln tells one weak-kneed congressman. "We've been chasin' this whale a long time."
I love the way Lincoln enters the picture: weary, seated, meeting soldiers who tell of their exploits — and atrocities — men so excited at the sight of him that they jabber, all at once, interrupting the president.
That's a recurring motif here, people talking over Lincoln, impatient with his jokes, homilies and allegorical stories. His wife, Mary Todd Lincoln (Sally Field), can point out that "No one's as loved as much as you," but that doesn't mean his political contemporaries — friends and foes — feared insulting him, brushing him off or shouting him down.
Day-Lewis gets across the gentle humanity of the man, a doting dad, tolerant husband (Field ably makes Mary's famous mood swings understandable) and a kind soul who was simply good, and never more good than when he kept things simple.
Tommy Lee Jones lends flint and fire to "radical" Republican Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, whose chief criticism of Lincoln was the president's equivocating and delaying the ending of slavery. John Hawkes, Tim Blake Nelson and a hilarious James Spader are back-door wheeler-dealers angling to bribe enough votes to secure passage of the 13th Amendment. Hal Holbrook brings great gravitas to political kingmaker Francis Blair, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is well-cast as Lincoln's older son, Robert.
Jackie Earle Haley stands out as Alexander Stephens, the Confederate vice president angling for a peace treaty that will preserve slavery. More problematic is Jared Harris (Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows) as Grant. His hair, air and accent don't work, and turning the rumpled, hard-drinking general into someone this spit-and-polished doesn't help.
Tony Kushner's script pauses, time and again, for Lincoln to tell a joke or a little story, always to get across some larger point. Day-Lewis is nobody's idea of a comedian, so he lacks Lincoln's Mark Twain yarn-spinner timing.
For all its grace notes and lightly lyrical touches, the movie, like the Great Man himself, ambles, meanders and wanders off on storytelling tangents. It's a flaccid 21/2 hours long, which does make for a somewhat more complete portrait of the man but which robs the movie of any sense of forward progress and urgency.
This renders Lincoln closer to Amistad than Schindler's List in the Spielberg canon: historically meticulous, well-intentioned, but missing emotion and a sense of momentum.
It's still a lovely film, and thanks to the research and good-humored, stoop-shouldered interpretation of Honest Abe, the Lincoln that American schoolchildren picture in their heads from now on could have a weedy drawl provided by an Oscar-winning Englishman, one of the finest actors who ever lived.


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How to install Joomla Console on cPanel Shared Hosting
Joomla Console is a command-line utility for the Joomla web CMS/application. It provides advanced functionality for powerusers who wish to manage their Joomla site via SSH. These advanced functions include creating new sites in Joomla rapidly, installing extensions, creating symlinks to custom code, version control with git, and many more - all through command line. More information on how to use this utility is available at joomlatools.com, the developer of the CLI utility. This guide will not cover how directly to use the Joomla Console utility, but will cover how to properly install Joomla Console in GoDaddy shared hosting powered by cPanel
|DIFFICULTY strong>
|Basic - 1 | Medium - 2 | Advanced - 3 td>
|TIME REQUIRED strong>
|15-30+ min
|RELATED PRODUCTS strong>
|Linux-based VPS or dedicated servers
Obtain the Joomla Console Files
Log in to your cPanel hosting account via SSH. Make sure SSH is enabled for your IP before connecting.
Once logged in, make sure you are in the home directory of your hosting account. You can ensure this by using the command pwd to print the working directory. It should show you as being in /home/username, where username is your primary username for cPanel.
From your home directory, use the wget command to get the newest version of Joomla Console. We suggest getting this directly from the joomlatools.com GitHub, to ensure that it is always the most up-to-date version of Joomla Console.
You now have a zip of the most up-to-date version of Joomla Console - named master.zip
Installing Joomla Console files
Unzip the Joomla Console archive by using the following command
This will unzip the files to the ~/joomla-console-master directory. For the ease of use, lets rename this directory to be 'joomla-console,' by using the following command:
You should now have a directory in your home directory named 'joomla-console.'
Just to make sure we are keeping our hosting account clean, lets remove the original master.zip file. If we need to update Joomla Console later, we can do so by pulling from the GitHub again:
Before moving on, lets also update the permissions to the Joomla Console executable so that can be executed by the server. Do this by using the following command:
Installing composer
PHP composer is a PHP dependency management suite that allows PHP to do the heavy lifting for you, ensuring that PHP knows which libraries to use when executing Joomla Console commands. This section will show how to get Composer, then properly use composer to complete the install of Joomla Console.
Navigate to the Joomla Console directory by using the cd command.
Use the curl command to grab the composer files, then pipe them to PHP to be executed. This is done by using the following command:
You should see an output regarding the settings of composer.
Run the command that composer provides to you to properly install Joomla Console.
You will see an output of different dependencies that are installed for Joomla Console. Composer should now complete the dependency installs for Joomla Console
For Joomla Console, unlike other CLI utilities, you need to run php composer.phar update instead of php composer.phar install. This is due to composer needing to correct the dependencies inside the Joomla console software first before installing.
Configuring bash to recognize Joomla Console
Now that we've installed Joomla console, we need to make some changes to two of our files that control how bash will behave with the new utility
Change back to your home directory with the following command:
Now that we need to add the proper alias to our .bashrc file in our home directory. If you are intending to use a text editor such as Notepad++ or vim, then you may simply add this line to the .bashrc file.
If you've never edited your .bashrc file, or never installed any other command line utilities, its likely that you can add this to the .bashrc file by using this one-line command:
So that's one file down. Next, we need to make a similar edit to our .bash_profile file. Again, if you're using a text editor, simply add this line to the bottom of the file named .bash_profile:
And just like the previous command, if you're not often making edits to your .bash_profile file you can use this one-liner to automatically append it to the file. Most people can use this command, though if you're not sure its always safer to edit manually.
Using the source command, update bash's settings so that it pulls the new settings from the new .bashrc and .bash_profile files:
source .bash_profile
And we are done! To confirm that Joomla Console is working, run the command:
You should see an joomla console output. Congratulations, you have successfully installed the Joomla Console.


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Preserving an Island's History
North Haven is a small island community off the coast of Maine, with a history dating back to 1762 when the first permanent settler arrived. The North Haven Historical Society was organized in 1975 to acquire, study, and preserve archival material and artifacts chronicling the community's past. Two decades later, it was in need of a suitable storage facility.
In 2002 the Historical Society applied for and was awarded a $60,000 NEH challenge grant, to be matched by $180,000 in nonfederal donations. The society proposed to use the funds to construct an Archives Building for the safe housing of the documents and artifacts embodying the history of the island and its people. The society met the required three-to-one match well ahead of schedule, and in 2004 and 2005 sought bids for construction to be completed by 2006.
Unfortunately, the original estimates for the construction costs were far too low, especially given the expense of hiring an "off-island" contractor to do the work. Few bids were submitted in response to the original solicitation, and those that were proved to be far more expensive than originally anticipated (upwards of $850,000 as opposed to $350,000). The society persevered, however, using the same fundraising techniques that had allowed them to meet the NEH matching requirement ahead of schedule, and by spring of 2006, when it was warm enough to pour concrete, the new building was finally under construction.
The NEH challenge played an important "leveraging" role even after the grant was officially closed. As the project director reported in 2005: "In no small part, the reminder to our donors of the NEH grant helped considerably [to raise the extra money needed]. The prestige such a grant affords is impressive and very helpful." That is, the effects of the grant were both tangible, in the form of funds, and intangible in the form of motivation. While paying for only a portion of the new building, the challenge grant proved to be the stimulus for a transformative enhancement of the society's humanities capabilities.
The building was finally completed in 2008. On Memorial Day of 2009, the Office of Challenge Grants received the following report. "[T]he North Haven Historical Society has moved into its new archives building and is coping with the overwhelming task of achieving order for the vast amount of material that has been given for preservation and education.
"Once again we are reminded of the generous and encouraging challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. How thankful we are for the courage that grant gave us to move forward and build an excellent facility that should serve the island for many generations. It was just the incentive the Society needed and a clear indication to our potential donors that we - and you - meant to provide an archival safe haven for all that we had been given, for future acquisitions, and [as] an enticement for community members (especially students) to explore their heritage. It has all come to fruition and programs with the school this past year have been inspiring."


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Drought: Feds cut water to Central Valley farmers to zero
Unprecedented action will also cost consumers, growers say
Central Valley farmers took a crippling blow Friday when U.S. officials made the unprecedented announcement that they would get no irrigation water from the federal government this year because of the drought.
But growers in a region with the country's most productive soil said the loss of one of their chief water supplies won't be their problem alone: Consumers will be hit hard in the form of higher prices at the produce market.
California's unusually dry weather is forcing producers of fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains to make tough decisions about which crops to plant, and which ones not to plant due to a lack of water, leaving harvests that are likely to fall short of demand.
A recent estimate by an industry group, the California Farm Water Coalition, suggested that as much as 600,000 acres of land, or about 8 percent of the state's total, could be left fallow in the coming year.
"Before, when people asked me whether prices would rise, I'd say no," said Paul Wenger, president of the California Farm Bureau Federation. "But over the last two to three weeks, things have gotten so severe that it's got to affect the market."
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials said Friday that meager snow and rain in the Sierra Nevada means they won't be able to provide farmers any of the water they normally receive from the federally run system of reservoirs and canals fed by mountain runoff. The system supplies water for about a third of the state's agricultural land.
Snowpack 29% of average
If weather conditions change, the plans may change, federal officials said. But with Sierra snowpack at just 29 percent of average for this time of year, they expect runoff to remain scant and supplies in the Central Valley Water Project to remain insufficient.
"This low allocation is yet another indicator of the impacts the severe drought is having on California communities, agriculture, businesses, power, and the environment," said the reclamation bureau's commissioner, Michael Connor, in a prepared statement.
Farmers still reeling
While the announcement wasn't unexpected, it was more bad news for an agricultural industry in California that is the nation's most valuable, and is still reeling from last year's low water allocations.
The state's agricultural yield was estimated to be worth $44.7 billion in 2012.
In 2013, most Central Valley farmers who contract for federal irrigation water got just 20 percent of their normal water allowance. This year, their allocation is projected to be zero for the first time.
Growers will have to rely on local wells and stored water. Farmers in some parts of the state are in a better position to do this than others.
Officials at the State Water Project - which provides a lesser amount of irrigation water - said last month that they were also likely to provide nearly no water to farmers.
State's driest year
California is coming off its driest year since record keeping began in the 1800s, and the first part of the year has seen little rain. The past two winters have been abnormally dry, too.
Residents and business in many communities also rely on the state and federal water projects, as do wildlife such as sensitive fish populations. They're likely to suffer as well.
In the San Joaquin Valley, the state's most productive agricultural region, many growers have already ceased planting winter crops such as broccoli, tomatoes and lettuce because of the drought. Upcoming plantings of watermelons and cantaloupes also could be cut short.
"I don't know any farm in the area that's not affected by the drought," said Fresno County grower Don Cameron, who runs Terranova Ranch near the small town of Helm.
Valuable well water
Cameron has had to use valuable well water to nourish his carrots and tomatoes, which are normally supported by winter rains. The only good news for Cameron is that he has access to water outside the state and federal systems, meaning he's been able to sustain production.
"Everywhere I look, though, it's field after field with nothing in them and nothing being prepared to grow," he said.
Water experts say growers will direct what limited supplies they have to their most valuable crops. That means high-dollar products, such as almonds and grapes, won't disappear anytime soon while lower value items, like grains, are likely to fall off.
Specialty produce
Specialty vegetables and fruits also may become harder to find.
Jay Lund, who heads the Center for Watershed Sciences at UC Davis, said products from other parts of the world will fill some of the void, easing the impact on price.
"They'll go up a little bit," Lund said. "But I don't think it will be catastrophic. Time will tell."
Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: email@example.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander


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AMERICUS - The Georgia Southwestern men's basketball team sits alone atop the west division of the Peach Belt Conference after winning a black-and-blue battle with UNC Pembroke, 61-39, at the Storm Dome on Sunday afternoon. GSW held UNCP to 22.9 percent shooting, including 10 percent from beyond the arc.
The Hurricanes, winners of five straight and eight of their last nine, trailed early, falling behind 9-4 in the opening six minutes of the game.
Southwestern grabbed the lead for good with 8:49 remaining in the first half (21-18).
The margin grew to 11 points at the break (32-21) and eventually expanded to 22 (55-33) with 4:50 to play.
GSW finished the game shooting 34.8 percent from the floor. The teams combined for only 27 field goals.
However, the Hurricanes turned in an impressive performance from the charity stripe, sinking their first 21 free throws and finishing the game 23 of 25 from the line.
GSW converted 20 UNCP turnovers into 20 points, while the Braves picked up 12 points off of Hurricane miscues.
Evan Mobley led GSW with a game-high 13 points. Colin Slotter added 10. Phillip Brown grabbed 10 rebounds.
The Braves (11-4, 4-3 PBC) failed to have one player score in double figures. Chris Hargrove led UNCP with nine points. George Blakeney pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds.
The Hurricanes have won four-consecutive PBC games (with a 17-point margin of victory). A far cry from last year, where GSW won three conference games all season.
Meanwhile, it was UNCP's first loss by more than four points this season. The Braves entered the game averaging 81.0 points per game, which was third in the conference.
GSW (10-3, 4-1) returns to action on Wednesday, hosting North Georgia at 7:30 p.m.


text:
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2013 and earlier BMW X5 Lease Questions
eddie_chen Posts: 3In NYC, got this lease for a 2013 X5 35i Premium with Convenience and Cold Weather Package, running boards, 36 months 36K miles:
Purchase Price: 58,310
Sales Tax: 2,626
Acq Fee: 725
Total Capitalized Cost: 61,662
Residual Value: 36,223
Money Factor: Unknown - not stated on lease agreement
Zero Money Down
Due at signing (1st month + DMV fees): 1,294
Monthly Lease Payment: $847
Thoughts on this lease?0
What is the Drive for team USA $1000 rebate and how do you qualify?
Also, what is the BMW Ultimate Drive App rebate for $500 and how do you qualify?
Are there better incentives on a 2012 vs 2013 X5? Factory to dealer cash?
We recently signed a deal on a custom order X5D that we are paying cash for and picking up at the Performance Delivery Center. So I can't comment on your lease deal, as we never considered a lease vs. purchase. However, just curious as to your option choices. We found the $1,500 premium sound to be not that much better sound quality than the standard (good) system and with BMW Apps, son't see any value in having Sirius subscription. (Been there, done that with 2 Acura's and a Porsche). Also, we didn't see much value in the Cold Weather package inasmuch as heated front seats are already standard and the ski bag would be useless for us. We live in DC area, but have second home in snow country and still didn't think that rear seat heating was worth getting the CWP.
On other hand, we ordered the sport activity package for the more comfortable sport seats, sport steering wheel and (subjective) better looking 19" wheels. The sport seats alone are worth it to me.
Are you taking a vehicle off the lot, or ordering to your specs and, if the latter, what made you pick the options you chose.0
newbmwx5 Posts: 1i am planning buy x5 sport activity :
jet back
black nevada leahter
dark bambo wood trim
convenience package
multi - countour seats
running board
destination and handing
total MSRP : $63295 dearler offer me $58000 ? sound good deal to me ?0
The person you replied to is considering a lease, which means the cost of satellite and premium sound only add a few dollars per month to the lease.
The premium sound didn't sound much better to you because you were listening to default settings. Premium sound is noticeably better if you take the time to understand the system and set it up properly. The no-cost multi-contour seat option with the sport package is a better seating option than the sport seats when your priority is comfort.
The down side to ordering a base vehicle without things like satellite radio and the heated steering wheel that comes with cold-weather package is that it makes the vehicle less desirable and therefore less valuable if you ever trade it in. Especially in the DC area, which has a very competitive luxury vehicle market where people expect a luxury SUV to actually have luxury features.0
A simple Google search or a look at bmwusa.com website under "Experience" will answer your question.0
I'm not sure how adding $2,250 to the capital cost with premium sound and cold weather packages only adds a "few" dollars to the monthly lease. And, unless I'm mistaken, the multi-contour seats in the x5D are not a no-cost option, but something like $900. Which we tried out and did not like any more than the firmer, side bolster adjustable sport seats. Others may think the incremental $900 is worth it.
As far as your comment on "luxury" expectations, I agree with you to a certain extent. But.....we chose to spend an extra $10-12k over a 2012 MDX "Advance" precisely because of the way the X5D drives and handles. If you want every luxury do-dad, the MDX and Audi Q7 kill the X5, with adaptive cruise control, lane change warning, accident mitigation braking, much better navigation, better sound systems, etc. You can check every box you want on a BMW X5 and you still won't have the latest and greatest luxury or technological features. As such, we decided to check boxes that were important to us, period. And if premium sound is really worth $1,500 to someone else, great. But it's an expensive box that even almost every dealer admitted they wouldn't check, if ordering for themselves. Especially with Apple i-phone connectivity putting a big dent in the value of satellite radio.
FWIW, I sold my 2005 911S last spring that had $13,000 worth of options. I had bought the car off the lot at a $12k discount that made up for some options that I thought were frivolous. Upon resale through a high end independent Porsche shop, the $1,500 upgraded Bose system was worth exactly $0. Navigation and the performance oriented options were probably worth half of what they cost. The next time around, I'll order to my exact specs, get a 5-6% discount off MSRP, and save at least a similar amount by avoiding the boxes that aren't really worth anything to me (or 99% of 2nd owners).0
Looking for MF and Residual for August, 36 months and 10k/year. Been quoted 0.00165 and 60%, although others reporting 0.00145 and 57%. Ordered but not signed papers. PCD tentatively mid-September.
Hi 4tune. BMW FS' August buy rate lease money factor for a 36-month lease of this vehicle is .00145. Make sure that the dealer uses that factor, not 165 to calculate your payment.
Having said that, the selling price that you were quoted, invoice minus all of the available incentives, looks outstanding.
Prices Paid: Buying & Leasing Experiences Forum0
Hi snow26. I believe that Drive for Team USA is a BMW-sponsored test drive event. Consumers who are invited to it are able to get an additional cash incentive.
The BMW Ultimate Drive App is a smart phone App that one can download. Consumers who schedule a test drive through it are eligible for an additional cash incentive off of a new BMW.
Prices Paid: Buying & Leasing Experiences Forum0
Hi snow26. Other than the $750 owner loyalty cash that is available on both, there really is not any cash incentives on either the 2012 or 2013 X5 right now.
Prices Paid: Buying & Leasing Experiences Forum0
Hi Gerry. The .00145 money factor that you have seen mentioned here is indeed correct. If your credit is in good shape, the dealer that quoted you the .00165 factor is marking your rate up to add additional back-end profit to your deal.
Prices Paid: Buying & Leasing Experiences Forum0
Thanks Car_man, the dealer is not going down on the MF of 0.00165, can you please tell me the 2013 BMW X5 residual on a 36 month 10k and 12k lease. Thanks.0
Thanks for the info regarding MF. Knowing that, I'm better prepared to negotiate my lease payment.
I'm still fighting their contention that I can't combine the USAA member $1000 discount with the BMW Drive for USA $1000 credit, the BMW Loyalty $750 credit and the BMW Ultimate Drive $500 toward first lease payment. Am I asking too much of them??0
Hi gerry70, all the incentives you are trying to get are stackable. Meaning you can combine them all. None of them are mutually exclusive. Don't let the dealer tell you otherwise. I checked all the rules on each of them and none of them say that they cant be combined. Hope this helps.0
Are you sure about that? I was told that the drive event $1,000 could be applied on top of the others, but that one could EITHER get a USAA or a BMW Loyalty discount, but not both of those. We were working with a sales manager that had a direct line to a BMW financial services "insider" and was able to let us know 2 weeks in advance that the $4,500 eco-credit was going to be extended past the original July 9 expiration date, so I'd be surprised if he was wrong about this either/or question.0
bmwgal3 Posts: 154tune, this looks like a better deal than I have found. Please tell
me where you got a deal at $500 over invoice, before the rebates. The lowest I can find in Northern California is $1000 over invoice..0
Hi Car_man,
I would like to know what the August 2012 money factor and residual would be for a 2013 BMW X5 50i lease with 36 months and 12,000 miles per year. Thanks, again!0
sillycat1 Posts: 3Dear Car_Man
Can you please look at the following deal and see if it reasonable:
2012 x5d with premium and cold weather package (nothing else added).
Selling $58250
Loyalty $750
Eco credit $4500
Residual 57% for 10K and 36months
No down payment
Due at pick $835 (includes delivery, doc, first month payment)
Monthly payments 680$ including about 30$ WV tax.
Does this sound like a good deal?0
bdr127 Posts: 950Hi Car_Man,
Interested in getting 12k and 15k miles residuals for the X5... Any difference between the base/premium/SAV trims? I assume the buy rate MF is still 0.00145 for August?
Thanks for your help!0
No problem 4tune. BMW Financial Services' buy rate lease money factor and residual value for a 36-month lease of a 2013 X5 xDrive35i Premium with 12,000 miles per year are .00145 and 59%, respectively for consumers who qualify for its top credit tier.
The residual for an otherwise identical lease with 10,000 miles per year would be 1% higher.
Prices Paid: Buying & Leasing Experiences Forum0
Hi nd_irish. BMW Financial Services' August buy rate lease money factor and residual value for a 36-month lease of a 2013 X5 50i with 12,000 miles per year are .00145 and 61%, respectively.
Prices Paid: Buying & Leasing Experiences Forum0
Thanks, again, Car_man!0
sillycat6 Posts: 1Hi Car_Man
Can you please look at the following deal and see if it is reasonable:
2012 x5d with premium and cold weather package.
Selling $58250
Loyalty $750
Eco credit $4500
Residual 57% for 10K and 36months
No down payment
Due at pick $835 (includes delivery, doc, first month payment)
Monthly payments 669$ including sales tax.
Does this sound like a good deal?0
Hi Car_man, thank you for that information. I have posted on this forum a couple of times and thanks to your information I was able to agree on a great deal on a BMW X5 premium. However, I was checking in with the dealership this week to set up a time to go in to sign papers and the dealership went back on the deal. The sales manager said that the client advisor had made a mistake and the deal is no longer on the table. I had done a credit app but have not signed any papers. Because they have done this I will be walking away from the deal. Just wanted to make sure I am not liable. Please advise. Thanks.0
How could you be liable for THEIR mistake, even if you signed papers?
If anything, you could claim damages against them if you lost another deal, due to their mistake, but it's probably not worth taking legal action.
FWIW, the sales manager at a BMW dealership in Baltimore went out of his way to call me on my office and cell phone when he realized that I as not a previous BMW customer and they made a mistake on a quote. He offered that if I still wanted tl drive 50 miles and look at the car, he'd pick up dinner for my family, no obligation to buy.0
kyfdx Posts: 128,430Where in Baltimore?
I leased a car in Silver Spring last September.. flew in and drove it home..
Did you get a good deal? Be sure to come back and share!
Edmunds Moderator0
BMW of Towson.
We ended up ordering from Silver Spring as they were.the only Maryland dealer that could still order a 2012 X5d to our specs. Picking it up at the performance delivery center Sept 5.0
You're welcome again nd_irish .
Prices Paid: Buying & Leasing Experiences Forum0
This discussion has been closed.


text:
Obama to insurers: No bailout
President Barack Obama had some bad news for the insurance company CEOs who met him at the White House: His "fix" might cost them.
Obama asked the CEOs to reinstate millions of Americans' health insurance plans that were canceled because they fell short of coverage requirements under the law, according to two executives who attended the session Friday.
Story Continued Below
The president offered the execs some sweeteners, but admitted they won't necessarily add up to enough to cover the full brunt of added costs that the changes to the insurance market could create.
( PHOTOS: 25 unforgettable Obamacare quotes)
The president's proposed "fix" to the wave of plan cancellations was to allow insurance companies to extend the plans for a year, but those extensions are voluntary, so he needs the industry to buy in.
Obama's frank talk with the CEOs raises the stakes for the short-term solution and is a reminder that as much as the health care law is the president's signature achievement, he still needs industry buy-in for it to succeed in the long run.
"As the president emphasized, there is not an unlimited amount of money out there for the government to do that [make up for extra costs]," said Jim Roosevelt, CEO of Tufts Health Plan, one of more than a dozen insurance company leaders who attended the 90-minute meeting.
The White House did not respond to questions about the meeting with insurers. White House officials said last week that the talks were "productive" and had addressed the next steps in working with states and state insurance commissioners.
( Understanding Obamacare: POLITICO's guide to the ACA)
Obama will allow insurers to keep offering the cancelled plans to people who had them even if the coverage doesn't meet Obamacare standards.
But that proposal is voluntary — and the health insurance industry, along with some state insurance commissioners, have said it could destabilize the law's new health insurance exchanges. They worry that healthier people will stay in these extended plans, leaving sicker people in the exchanges, which would drive up costs.
"I think that like anything else, there are limited finances available," Dr. Mario Molina, CEO of Molina Healthcare in California, said of the ways to mitigate insurers' losses for renewing plans. "I think the best thing we can do to mitigate risk is getting … as many people enrolled as possible. There is no substitute."
( Also on POLITICO: Report warned of HealthCare.gov flaws)
The 2010 health law had several tools aimed at helping insurers through some of the fiscal bumps in the new markets. To address the industry concerns about additional costs if they revive the canceled plans, administration officials said last week they would tweak one of those tools — called "risk corridors" — to give them more help. But Obama made clear that the financial support has a limit, according to the two health executives and several other industry sources who were briefed on the meeting.
Republicans had warned of a costly bailout.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said last week he plans to introduce legislation to stop the government from making payments to plans with higher than expected costs. "Our legislation will … protect … taxpayers from potentially having to bail out the insurance industry," a spokesman said.


text:
The Clarkfield City Council held an emergency meeting last Thursday morning to discuss inadequacies with the Home Care program through the Clarkfield Care Center.
The Clarkfield City Council held an emergency meeting last Thursday morning to discuss inadequacies with the Home Care program through the Clarkfield Care Center.
The emergency meeting was enacted after the council received a letter from the Minnesota State Department of Health on Wednesday that listed deficiencies with the Home Care program.
"We as a council don't know all the rules that Ecumen is aware of," City Administrator Scott Weske said of the council's prompt reaction to the letter. "We didn't want to have only two members relay all the information back to the council."
The letter listed five deficiencies that included inadequacies in clinical records and skilled nursing services. The Department then gave the Care Center ten days to come up with a plan of corrections.
The deficiencies were discovered through a survey process that was held several months ago, but that process was delayed due to the government shutdown.
Ecumen recommended ending the Home Care system, but the council was not as keen on ending it so soon. Instead, the council agreed to hire consultants to give a second opinion on whether or not the Care Center can clear up all the deficiencies in the alotted time frame or not.
"It is a big deal to Clarkfield and the Care Center, but is low key across the board in real life," Weske said. "This stuff happens quite often. That is why the consultants have jobs."
Weske explained that the consultants have a good report and work with the state.
"Their job is to come in, work with people and get them back into working order," Weske said.


text:
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Revista de Microbiologia
Print version ISSN 0001-3714
Rev. Microbiol. vol.30 n.4 São Paulo Oct./Dec. 1999
An experimental study of nanoflagellate bacterivory
Ana Júlia Fernandes*; Hilda de Souza Lima Mesquita
Instituto Oceanográfico da Universidade de São Paulo-USP, São Paulo, SP, Brasil
Submitted: April 13, 1998; Returned to authors for corrections: July 27, 1998; Approved: July 30, 1999
Heterotrophic nanoflagellate Pseudobodo tremulans (4.8 to 7.0 µm) and heterotrophic bacteria, isolated from coastal waters in Ubatuba, SP, Brazil, were used in experiments to analyze quantitatively the relationships between bacteria and nanoflagellates. The meaning of these results for the role of heterotrophic nanoflagellates in the Ubatuba coastal ecosystem is discussed.
Keys words: nanoflagellate, heterotrophic bacteria, coastal ecosystem, bacterivory
It has been widely accepted that a highly dynamic microbial loop consisting of pelagic bacteria, autotrophic pico- and nanoplankton, heterotrophic nanoflagelattes and microciliates is an integral part of planktonic food webs (3). Protozoa in the size range between 2 - 20µm (nanoplankton) are the major consumers of free-living pelagic bacteria in the sea (15). Several investigations on the dynamics of microbial loop have used a combination of laboratory and field methods (2, 12). The present investigation aims to quantify the bacterivory by a heterotrophic nanoplanktonic flagellate in "in vitro" conditions in order to get some indication of the importance of bacteria and nanoflagelattes in the Ubatuba coastal water ecosystem.
Surface seawater samples were collected in Ubatuba coastal region (southeast of Brazilian coast - 23oS 25oW). The system is considered to be meso-oligotrophic and is characterized by temperatures ranging from 14 to 24oC and salinities between 35 and 36. The primary production is low and nitrogen has been considered to be its main limiting factor (1).
Water samples were enriched with sterile rice grains and incubated at 20oC during 10 days before use. A heterotrophic nanoplanktonic flagellate (4.8 to 7.0 µm) identified as Pseudobodo tremulans was isolated from these enrichment cultures by micropipeting and a heterotrophic bacteria was isolated from the same enrichment by direct plating onto rice agar (9). The isolated microorganisms were maintained in stock cultures using a broth culture media (9) prepared with natural seawater and sterile rice grains, in the dark at 20oC (ambient water temperature at sampling time).
The experiments were carried out in duplicate and represented two different situations. In the first experimental procedure, the two microorganisms were grown without Cycloheximide, whereas in the second, microorganisms were grown in the presence of Cycloheximide used to inhibit the growth of nanoflagellates and reduce or eliminate predators in the system. Aliquots (5 ml) of bacteria + nanoflagellate stock cultures in the exponential growth phase (bacteria 108ml-1 and nanoflagellate 105ml-1) were transferred to filtered rice media and filtered rice media plus Cicloheximide (200mg l-1). The cultures were maintained in the dark at 20oC. During 13 days at different time intervals 5ml aliquots were taken from each culture flask and fixed with formaldehyde (5% final concentration).
Bacterial abundance was estimated in preserved samples by epifluorescence microscopy using the Acridine Orange direct count method (AODC) (11). Nanoflagellates were quantified by epifluorecence microscopy according to the procedures described by Fenchel (7). Bacteria and nanoflagellate growth curves were done using the average values of the microorganism densities obtained from the duplicates of the experiments. Nanoflagellate biovolume was estimated by measuring the diameters of approximately 50 individual cells in different samples taken during the bacterivory experiments and assuming a spherical morphology (the equation used was 4/3pR3). The nanoflagellate carbon conversion factor used was 0.08 pg C mm-3 (16). An estimated biovolume of 0.10µm3 was used for bacteria and a carbon conversion factor of 0.22 pg C µm-3, according to Bratbak and Dundas (4).
Microbial dynamics in the experiments were described according to a modified Lotka-Volterra type predator-prey model (2). The data used were obtained from growth curves of flagellate and bacteria in both situations (with and without Cycloheximide) at the first bacterial peak.
Fig. 1A represents the growth curves of bacteria and nanoflagellate populations during the experiment without inhibitor (bacteria + nanoflagellate) showing the predator-prey nature of the populations involved. In these experiment, bacterial density increased during the first 71h (maximum 1.75 x 108 ml-1) and then decreased, reaching constant numbers after a time lapse of 167h (Fig. 1A). Approximately 96h after, the bacterial maximum nanoflagellates reached a peak of 5.00 x 105 ml-1 and then declined.
Fig. 1B shows the growth curves of both bacteria and nanoflagellate populations in presence of Cycloheximide. Cycloheximide inhibited both nanoflagellate growth and bacterivory for a period of about 168h. After a time interval of 239h, the nanoflagellates reappeared probably because the Cycloheximide was metabolized by these microorganisms (6). At this time, protozoan grazing was repressed and bacterial abundance increased during the first 167h, reaching a value of 2.75 x 108ml-1.
Table 1 shows the arithmetical means of the grazing data for experiments without and with Cycloheximide, prey and predator densities, growth rates, grazing rates, clearance rates and gross growth efficiency. The average bacterial growth rate in the grazing system was 0.102 divisions h-1 and the nanoflagellate one was 0.079 divisions h-1. In the experiment without Cycloheximide each nanoflagellate consumed 82 bacteria per hour. The estimated average clearance rate obtained for one nanoflagellate was 4.6 x 10-7 ml-1 h-1. The nanoflagellate gross growth efficiency was 39%. The extrapolation of the clearance rate obtained without Cycloheximide to the nanoheterotrophic population densities (mainly nanoflagellates) found in the Ubatuba coastal waters (8, 13) revealed that between 1 and 16% of the water column is cleared of bacteria per day by nanoflagellate populations.
In the experiment with inhibitor, Cycloheximide inhibited nanoflagellate growth and bacterivory and therefore the clearance rate. Comparatively to the experiment without Cycloheximide, the average value found for bacterial densities in this experiment was higher, in spite of the bacterial growth rate being similar (0.104 divisions h-1) (Table 1).
The nanoflagellate growth rate obtained in this study is within the range of values of 0.01 to 0.25 d h-1 reported by Sherr and Sherr (15) and is very similar to that reported by Parslow et al. (14) for Pseudobodo sp (0.083 d h-1) growing on Micromonas pusilla. In the absence of grazing, when nanoflagellate growth was inhibited by Cycloheximide, the bacterial population reached higher densities showing that the functional and numerical responses of the protozoa are probably adequate to control the size of bacterial populations (7).
The nanoflagellate grazing rate obtained in the abscence of Cycloheximide is close to those observed by several other authors (2) specially by Fenchel (7) for Pseudobodo tremulans (84 bacteria flagellate-1 h-1). However, the clearance rate obtained was lower than those reported in literature. Since clearance is inversely proportional to prey densities and cellular volume (6), the high bacterial densities and bacterial volume observed in this work may be responsible for the low clearance rate obtained. Although low, this rate was equivalent to that obtained by Fenchel (8.0 x 10-7 ml flagellate-1 h-1) (7) using hydrodynamic mathematical models.
The extrapolation of the nanoflagellate clearance rate to "in situ" bacterial and nanoheterotrophic densities in Ubatuba coastal waters showed that the nanoflagellate populations cleared a significant portion of bacteria in water column. This value, although significant, is not as high as those obtained by other authors (2, 12). According to Fenchel (7) and Lucas et al. (12), the nanoflagellate grazing rates and the clearance rates depend upon predator and prey species and their densities, relative sizes and the feeding mode of the predator. These factors explain the wide range noted in the literature of grazing and clearance rate values obtained in "in vitro" conditions.
The gross growth efficiency found in the present work is in the range of values reported by Fenchel (7) and Caron et al. (5) and is very close to that obtained by Lucas et al. (12) for Pseudobodo sp. A gross growth efficiency of 39% may indicate either a highly efficient transference of organic matter to higher trophic levels or a high nutrient regeneration rate. The amount of organic matter that could be transferred to higher trophic levels should depend upon the nanoflellate respiration and excretion rates (10). If the nanoflagellate gross growth efficiency is high and respiration and excretion rates are low, the protozoa will have an important role in transference of organic matter to higher trophic levels. On the other hand, if the nanoflagellate gross growth efficiency is high but respiration and excretion rates are also higher, nanoflagellates will be more important in the nutrient regeneration processes.
The results obtained in this work suggest that heterotrophic nanoflagellates and bacteria occupy an important role in planktonic food web of Ubatuba coastal ecosystem. Therefore, studies on nanoflagellate metabolism and nutrient regeneration by these organisms are needed to provide a better understanding of the role of nanoflagellates in this ecosystem either as a source of biomass for higher trophic levels or as organic matter mineralizers.
Um estudo experimental da bacterivoria por nanoflagelados
O nanoflagelado heterotrófico de dimensões entre 4,8 e 7,0 µm (Pseudobodo tremulans) e uma bactéria heterotrófica, isolados das águas costeiras de Ubatuba, SP, Brasil, foram utilizados em experimentos com o objetivo de analisar quantitativamente as relações entre bactérias e nanoflagelados. O significado dos resultados obtidos em relação ao papel dos nanoflagelados heterotróficos no ecossistema costeiro de Ubatuba é discutido.
Palavras-chave: nanoflagelados, bactérias heterotróficas, ecossistema costeiro, bacterivoria
1. Aidar, E.; Gaeta, A.S.; Gianesella-Galvão, S.M.F.; Kutner, M.B.B.; Teixeira, C. Ecossistema Costeiro Tropical: nutrientes dissolvidos, fitoplâncton e clorofila a e suas relações com as condições oceanográficas na região de Ubatuba, SP. Publicação esp. Inst. oceanogr., São Paulo, 10:9-43, 1993.
2. Andersen, P.; Fenchel, T. Bacterivory by microheterotrophic flagellates in seawater samples. Limnol. Oceanogr., 30(1):198-202, 1985.
3. Azam, F.; Fenchel, T.; Field, J.G.; Gray, J.S.; Meyer-Reil, L.A.; Thingstad, F. The ecological role of water-column microbes in the sea. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser., 10:257-263, 1983.
4. Bratbak, G.; Dundas, I. Bacterial dry matter content and biomass estimations. Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 48:755-757, 1984.
5. Caron, D.A.; Goldman, J.C.; Andersen, O.K.; Dennet, M. R. Nutrient cycling in a microflagellate food chain. II. Population dynamics and carbon cycling. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser., 24:243-254, 1985.
6. Cynar, S.J.; Sieburth, J. McN. Unambiguous detection and improved quantification of phagotrophy in apochlorotic nanoflagellates using fluorescent microsphere and concomitant phase contrast and epifluorescence microscopy. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser., 32:61-70, 1986.
7. Fenchel, T. Ecology of heterotrophic microflagellates: II. Bioenergetics and growth. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser., 8:225-231, 1982.
8. Fernandes, A.J.; Mesquita H.S.L. Estudo quantitativo da população microbiana da região de Ubatuba, - Estado de São Paulo: inverno. In: II Simpósio sobre Oceanografia - IOUSP , Resumos. 21 a 25 de Outubro de 1991. São Paulo, 1991.
9. Fernandes, A.J. Estudo quantitativo da bacterivoria por microflagelado heterótrofo. Dissertação de Mestrado. Instituto Oceanográfico da Universidade de São Paulo, 1984, 186p.
10. Goldman, J.C.; Caron, D.A. Experimental studies on an onmivorous microflagellate: implications for grazing and nutrient regeneration in the marine microbial food chain. Deep Sea Res., 32:899-915, 1985.
11. Hoobie, J.E.; Daley, R.J.; Jasper, S. Use of Nuclepore filters for counting bacteria by flouorescence microscopy. Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 33:1225-1228, 1977.
12. Lucas, M.I.; Probyn, T.A.; Painting, S.J. An experimental study of microflagellate bacterivory: further evidence for the importance and complexity of microplanktonic interactions. S. Afr. J. Mar. Sci., 5:791-808, 1987.
13. Mesquita H.S.L. Densidade e distribuição do bacterioplâncton nas águas de Ubatuba (23oS 45oW), Estado de São Paulo. Publicação esp. Inst. oceanogr., São Paulo, 10:45-63, 1993.
14. Parslow, J.S.; Doucette, G.J.; Taylor, F.J.R.; Harrison, P.J. Feeding by the zooflagellate Pseudobodo sp on the picoplanktonic prasinomonad Micromonas pusilla. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser., 29:237-246, 1986.
15. Sherr, B.F.; Sherr, E.B. The role of heterotrophic protozoa in carbon and energy flow in aquatic ecosystems - In: Klug, M. J. and Reddy, C. A. eds. - Currents perspectives in microbial ecology. American Society for Microbiology, Washington, DC, 1984, p. 412-423.
16. Sherr, B.F.; Sherr, E.B.; Fallon, R.D.; Newell, S.Y. Small aloricate ciliates as a major component of the marine heterotrophic nanoplankton. Limnol. Oceanogr., 31:177-183, 1986.
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Instituto Oceanográfico da Universidade de São Paulo, Praça do Oceanográfico, 191, Cidade Universitária, CEP 05508-900, São Paulo, SP, Brasil


text:
Great Lakes women leaders meet in Burundi (NEWS)
(HN, 7/9/2013) - A three-day conference bringing together 100 women leaders from across the Great Lakes region is set to start in Bujumbura on Tuesday. The Burundi meeting aims to develop a road map for the engagement of women in peace processes.
The conference, which has been organized by the UN Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region in Africa, Mary Robinson, in partnership with Femmes Africa Solidarité (FAS) and the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR).
It is also expected to look at ways of implementing the "Peace, Security and Cooperation" (PSC) Framework and the United Nations Security Council resolution (UNSCR) 1325 in the Great Lakes Region.
The PSC Framework is a milestone in national, regional and international efforts to bring peace in the Great Lakes region and in particular in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where sexual violence continues at appalling levels and is regularly used as a weapon of war.
The framework was signed on February 24 by 11 African countries and was the fruit of a concerted effort between the UN, ICGLR, the South African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union.
The conference will also consolidate an integrated regional approach for the effective participation of women in conflict resolution and peace building through the implementation of a Regional Action Plan on UNSCR 1325 in the Great Lakes region.
"A common plan will help to ensure that women's voices are heard "from the bottom up and adhered to and implemented by Governments from the top down," Ms. Mary Robinson, the UN Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region in Africa, said in a statement.
- This article was originally published in the Africa Review and was written by Sandra Chao in Nairobi, Kenya.


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Back in 1999 I was surfing through cable channels in the middle of the night and ran across a show on MTV with a cast entirely made up of sock puppets. I fell in love instantly. I recorded every episode on VHS tape, and played them until VHS was no longer a going thing. And now they are back, and they are reviewing video games, sort of.
My mother used to speak with me using sock puppets on a daily basis — perhaps that's why I love The Sifl and Olly Show so much. Musicians Liam Lynch and Matt Crocco created the show, which ran for two seasons on MTV. A third was recorded, but never shown, though clips have appeared in episodes of Lynch's podcast, Lynchland.
But that's not important right now. What's important is that Sifl is back. Olly is back. Precious Roy is back, suckers! And be greatest sock puppet of them all, Chester, is back.
Somebody get me a VHS tape.


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Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa reveled in a sweeping re-election victory that allows him to deepen his socialist revolution even as he seeks to woo foreign investment in the resource-wealthy Andean nation.
The pugnacious 49-year-old economist trounced his nearest rival by more than 30 percentage points on Sunday to win a new four-year term. He has already been in power for six years, winning broad support with ambitious social spending programs.
Correa's resounding victory on Sunday could set him up to become Latin America's most outspoken critic of Washington as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is locked in a battle with cancer and may be unable to stay in power.
"We will be present wherever we can be useful, wherever we can best serve our fellow citizens and our Latin American brothers," Correa told supporters who celebrated in front of the presidential palace in Quito, waving the ruling Alianza Pais party's neon-green flags.
"This is not just a victory for Ecuador, this is a victory for the great homeland of Latin America," the beaming Correa said.
Correa is now the loudest voice in Latin America arguing against the free-market reforms promoted by Washington and in favor of state-driven economies and expanding ties with China.
Still, the continued success of Latin American socialism will depend on strong commodities prices that underpin generous social spending, and Correa needs to both improve Ecuador's stagnant oil production and spur a nascent mining industry.
In a sign he wants to deepen socialist reforms, Correa's legislative agenda includes a new law that would regulate television and newspaper content, part of his ongoing confrontation with opposition media.
He also plans a land reform campaign to redistribute idle land to the poor.
"Our Ecuador needs a president like Rafael Correa. He has been strong and has not allowed anyone to intimidate him," said Julieta Moira, an unemployed 46-year-old as she celebrated outside the presidential palace. "I'm very excited, happy and thankful."
Correa is also expected to seek changes to a mining law that would help close a deal with Canada's Kinross to develop a large gold reserve.
That will be a major test of his ability to offer investment security while ensuring the state keeps a large portion of revenue.
Leftist allies
Chavez, in a statement sent by Venezuela's government, celebrated Correa's re-election as a triumph for the ALBA bloc of leftist nations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The group has been left rudderless since Chavez was sidelined with cancer.
"It is a victory for ALBA, for the Bolivarian and socialist forces of our America, and will help to consolidate an era of change," the statement said, referring to Venezuelan-born South American independence hero Simon Bolivar.
Correa dedicated his victory to Chavez. [...]
Correa's closest rival, Guillermo Lasso, became the face of Ecuador's opposition on Sunday after winning about 23 percent of votes.
The opposition fielded six other candidates including former Correa ally Alberto Acosta, former President Lucio Gutierrez and banana magnate and five-time presidential hopeful Alvaro Noboa.
Critics call Correa a dangerous authoritarian who has curbed media freedom and controlled state institutions. Even some supporters disapprove of his tempestuous outbursts, fights with media and bullying of adversaries.
Ecuadoreans also chose a new Congress on Sunday, and Correa said he expected the ruling Alianza Pais to win a majority.
That would let him avoid negotiating with rivals to pass proposed legislation, including the new media law and land reform measures.
Correa needs to lure investors to diversify the economy and finance the investment in social welfare and infrastructure that helped him win another four-year term.
Ecuador has been locked out of capital markets after a 2008 debt default on $3.2 billion in bonds, and Correa's government has taken an aggressive stance with oil companies to squeeze more revenue from their operations.
Pragmatic approach
Foreign investment will be key to boosting oil production that has been stagnant for five years and to expanding a mining industry that has barely begun to tap the country's gold and copper reserves.
"We can't be beggars sitting on a sack of gold," is a catch phrase Correa has used in recent months to argue that Ecuador needs to better exploit its natural resources despite opposition from rural communities to some projects.
In that vein, U.S.-educated Correa appears to be cautiously willing to cut deals and soften his image as an anti-capitalist crusader.
"The advantages of our country for foreign investment are political stability, a strong macroeconomic performance ... and important stimulus to new private investment," he said last week while hosting Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the emir of gas-rich Qatar.
But in comments after his win on Sunday, he stressed that investment was not an end but a means to ensure growth. He promised Ecuador would not "mortgage" itself for foreign cash.
Foreign direct investment has generally been less than $1 billion a year since Correa took office in 2007. By comparison, neighboring Peru and Colombia last year received $7.7 billion and $13 billion, respectively.
"There is still a risk that Correa will seek to change terms for the mining sector once it is more developed, but for now, Correa will show signs of pragmatism as a means of kick-starting the sector," the political risk consultancy Eurasia Group said in an analysis anticipating his victory.
His government is also in talks with China to secure funding for the $12.5 billion Pacifico refinery, which would allow Ecuador to save up to $5 billion a year in fuel imports.


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OTTAWA - The War of 1812 may be one of the world's oddest conflicts, if only because both sides are confident they won.
A new survey suggests Canadians and Americans have vastly divergent attitudes towards the border war that broke out in 1812 and bumbled along for three years.
Americans see it as a war that produced their national anthem. Canadians see it as a war which saved them from American assimilation and preserved them from American politics, gun laws and shared citizenship with Snooki of the Jersey Shore.
During the course of the war, the Americans repeatedly tried to invade and were repeatedly repulsed, by often-outnumbered mixes of British redcoats, Canadian militia and aboriginal allies.
The Ipsos Reid poll conducted for the Historica Dominion Institute for the bicentennial of the war found that 54 per cent of Canadians felt the most significant outcome was that the invaders were turned back.
Given a list of things which might define Canadian identity, 53 per cent of respondents picked universal health care, but winning the War of 1812 and squelching the American invasion was ranked second, with 25 per cent support.
Americans had a dramatically different take. For a third of them, the key outcome of the war was their national anthem. Francis Scott Key wrote the words to the Star Spangled Banner after watching a British naval bombardment of Baltimore's Fort McHenry in September 1814. A plurality of 36 per cent saw no significant outcome at all.
When the Canadians were asked what would be their great concern had the war gone the other way, 60 per cent said they wouldn't want to share the American political system.
"We agree that we do not want to be under the same politics and government system as they have in the States and we take pride in that," said Jeremy Diamond, director of development and programs for the Historica Institute
Another 18 per cent of the Canadian respondents said they didn't want American gun laws.
And six per cent said they didn't want to share citizenship with Snooki and her cohorts from Jersey Shore.
John Wright of Ipsos Reid said the survey results reflect the development of the two countries. The War of 1812 doesn't stand out for Americans because they see other, much bigger watersheds
"The War of Independence is their touchstone for their nationhood," he said. "Ours seems to have been a gradual one."
While some might point to 1812 as a key point on the way to nationhood, others might look at Vimy Ridge, or the patriation of the Constitution.
"We don't see the 1812 war as a stand-alone piece as an American would see the War of Independence, because our nationhood has tended to be evolutionary as opposed to revolutionary."
The American view is sharply different.
"Wars don't play the most significant roles in our country because of the transitional nature of what we did, but in the United States wars play a really big part."
Diamond said, however that Canadians seem to see the war as big event.
"This is a touchstone towards Confederation, it's an important part of the story of Canada," he said.
While they differ on the main outcomes, both Canadians and Americans agreed the war is worthy of commemoration.
More than 80 per cent of respondents on both sides of the border agreed that the war was a significant part of the history of their respective countries and about the same percentage agreed that their national governments should support commemoration of the war.
The Canadian government is spending at least $28 million on the bicentennial.
Almost 90 per cent of all respondents agreed that it is important to celebrate significant historical anniversaries.
But only 58 per cent of Americans and 49 per cent of Canadians agreed that their nation is good in promoting its history.
"There's an interest in celebrating significant historical events," said Diamond.
Wright agreed, noting that a good chunk of respondents said they would take part in some event to mark the anniversary.
"When I see that 31 per cent of the Canadian public, these are adults, say that they are going to take part in celebrations dealing with this sort of thing, and activities, that means that there are 10.5 million adults out there who will probably do something in the course of this year which actually commemorates the 1812 conflict."
The country is entering a five-year period in which major anniversaries come thick and fast. This year it's the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the War of 1812 bicentennial. Then, 2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War. The year after that is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Sir John A. Macdonald. And 2017 is the 150th anniversary of Confederation.
Diamond says he sees a new kind of Canadian patriotism growing, which manifested itself during the Vancouver Olympics when wearing the Maple Leaf seemed the right thing to do.
"I think that the next set of opportunities here with these commemorations are going to give Canadians that chance again," he said.
The Harper government has gone out of its way to stress the importance of Canadian history by promoting the Jubilee and the 1812 commemoration and by re-writing the citizenship test to require wider knowledge of the country's heritage.
The government is already planning the commemorations of the next few years. If the poll is right about Canadian attitudes, then it may be on to something.
The poll was conducted Jan. 26-30. It sampled 1,015 Canadians and 1,015 Americans from the Ipsos online panel. Weighting was used to balance demographics. Unweighted this poll would have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
By John Ward, The Canadian Press


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Mission awareness trip
July 12 ñ 19, 2008
From Guatemala to El Salvador
A team of four of us from Guatemala (Jorge Armas, Israel Itzol, Cristina and myself) had the privilege of spending a couple of days with the mission awareness trip group and the staff in El Salvador. We arrived precisely when all the sponsored children were gathered with the sponsors at Cerro Verde, high above Lake Coatepeque.
On Thursday, we were divided into four groups to visit communities, interact with the sponsored families, organize and document the distribution of benefits. This experience offered the sponsors a close-up view of the personal outreach which characterizes CFCA. I enjoyed being with the mothers and children in the subproject of Bolanos.
In the course of the morning, we took a quick survey. Around 70 percent of these mothers in Bolanos are heads of households, raising their beautiful children on their own. They need and deeply appreciate the CFCA program.
The enthusiasm of this El Salvador trip group is expansive. So far on this mission awareness trip, they have sponsored 20 new children. They have been able to meet each one.
On to Colombia
My wife, Cristina, and I are on our way now to begin the mission awareness trip in Bogot·, Colombia. We are deeply grateful for the opportunity to spend this time with the sponsors, together walking with the sponsored families.
Godís blessings.
Bob Hentzen
From El Salvador


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Casey On Status of Debt Discussions
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) released the following statement:
"It is unfortunate that some in Washington have chosen to continue putting partisan gamesmanship ahead of the economic needs of our country.
"Government spending must be cut and the deficit must be reduced. However, this should be done through shared sacrifice – not on the backs of those who could least afford it. Powerful special interests should not be exempt while Medicare and working Pennsylvanians are targeted. The unrealistic proposal voted on today by the Senate fails this test.
"The Congress and President Obama continue to discuss a debt plan. It is imperative that these discussions produce a bipartisan agreement that cuts spending and does not threaten job creation and our economic competitiveness. The stakes are too high for continued partisan politics."


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Jesus' Last Words
The Bible tells us that Jesus didn't immediately go to heaven after He rose from the dead. For forty days, Jesus spent time on earth in his resurrected, glorified body. During this time period, we see Jesus throughout the gospels appearing to the disciples to encourage and teach them.
Even after spending three years with Jesus, these disciples were thinking, hoping and wishing that Jesus would physically establish His kingdom then and there. He told them in Acts 1:7, "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority." He wanted them to focus on being His witnesses.
The very next thing He said to them Acts 1:8 would be His very last words on earth: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
If all God wanted from you was just to have a relationship with you, don't you think He would have taken you to heaven immediately after you accepted Christ? We'll be developing our intimate relationship with Christ throughout the endless age. The reason He left us here is because there is a Gospel to preach, a Jesus to proclaim, and Good News to tell to the world.
Jesus has called us in our personal lives to be faithful witnesses. 1 Peter 3:15 tells us, "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect."
When I was a college freshman, I had the opportunity to share Christ with a guy named Eric in my dorm who was an atheist. I truly sensed the Holy Spirit softening his heart. I explained to him that it takes more faith to be an atheist than to be a Christian. Either creation came from nothing, or it came from something.
He began to follow that train of thought. I shared Gospel with him, and told him he could pray to receive Christ right there and then, and know he would be in presence of God for eternity, should he die in his sleep that night.
Tears welled up in his eyes, and I thought for sure this was the moment he was going to become a Christian. But he said, "Josh, I'm just not ready now." I prayed with him anyway, and he went back to his dorm room.
I lay in bed for several hours beating myself up because he didn't respond. I soon lost touch with him because I transferred schools at the end of the semester.
Sometime later, I was talking to a friend of mine involved in campus ministry, who mentioned that Eric was at a retreat that weekend.
Stunned, I asked my friend if this is the same Eric who lived on our hall as a freshman. He confirmed it, and told me that Eric had been given life to Christ, and was involved in campus ministry leadership.
It was through that phone conversation that God taught me that we're not responsible for the harvest. Rather, we're responsible for sowing a seed and being faithful to tell others.
We've all got one purpose and it's to fulfill those last words of Jesus. Heed them as never before. They are vital.


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Patricia Uttaro, Assistant Director, System Services at the Monroe County Library System in New York, writes:
I've been meaning to write to you for awhile to fill you in on activities in the Monroe County Library System since your visit here in 2006. The system now has an Emerging Technology Committee that just celebrated its first anniversary. At our last meeting, I asked if anyone was ready to drop off the team after a busy year, and the response I got from one and all was "No Way! We're having way to much fun!"


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In the spirit of examining everything in the game (down to the kitchen sink) it's time to discuss items.
In order to keep this concise, I've edited out my brief blurbs about items that I really don't have any issues with. Feel free to bring them up if you have something to add. I won't be discussing the venom dagger since poison is in flux. Subdungeon items will also be skimmed over here; subdungeons are another discussion in and of themselves.
Blacksmith Items
Sword - I've always disliked that it's basically balanced around a bloated gold cost to synergize with the transmutation seal. It really should stand up on its own merits... which are basically those of an oversized spoon.
Shield - same problem, but to a much lesser extent, than the sword.
Slayer Wand - how many people use this anymore? Ever since it got changed to cap out its XP bonus, I really haven't seen much purpose to it outside of Dragon Isles. Everywhere else it's just not worth lugging around a large item.
Perseverance Badge - This item is just plain better than the other blacksmith items. Its effect is awesome (for orcs it can exceed the power of the sword as early as level 1!) and it's a small item. It's not so powerful as to completely overshadow the others, but I probably prep it about twice as often as every other blacksmith item combined.
Really Big Sword - while functional, it's a real pain to lug around and its niche applicability means it's rarely a consideration. It really needs something on the side. At very minimum make player slow beat monster slow so it doesn't effectively disable the WEYTWUT glyph...
Basic Items
Spoon - 1 gold for 1 base attack is a superb deal, but the shop density is horrific. I realize it's much too late to revisit the issue of shop density, but it still irks me that something so inconsequential (even if it is exceedingly well priced) is in my shop pool, potentially keeping out other cool things.
Tower Shield - as with all resist items, I dislike that it's so mediocre for your standard 0-resist character but can be game-changing for someone already resist stacking. It'd be nice if there was some way to make it a bit more appealing to 0%-ers without pushing it overboard for stackers, but it's probably too late for that kind of thing.
Troll Heart - a bit too expensive and a bit too dependent on finding it at a lower level. Not a deal-breaker, but a bit niche for my tastes unless I'm a rogue.
Quest Items
Piercing Wand - a much more interesting item now that it can chip away resistances of any kind, but still a tad overspecialized. It would be nice if it had slightly better conversion value.
Rock Heart - you know, this item is great if you're using knockback attack or PISORF as part of a melee attack chain, but I just never seem to be able to find it when I'm doing that sort of thing. I think that's more an issue of the limited availability of wall-breaking in the game. At least it's got good conversion value.
Crystal Ball - both overpowered and underpowered at the same time. As an item you pick up in a shop, it's just too expensive to activate. Between its 15 GP cost at 5 GP cost per activation, it just gets ludicrously expensive and will suck up pretty much all your cash. If you prep it ahead of time and work it into a larger game plan, that gold cost is totally manageable and its true overwhelming power shines through. I really feel the gold cost needs to be toned back or removed and a different penalty instated.
Witchalok Pendant - a bit too expensive and low CP for its rather limited effect. Needs some help in that regard.
Battlemage Ring - a pretty powerful item, but suffers from a very steep cost and low CP value. Tweak one or the other and it'll be fine.
Hero's Helm - pretty good for low-level characters, but pretty damn expensive and is largely inconsequential for higher-level characters. The big problem is that +1 MP on its own isn't very useful; with only one exception (WEYTWUT) no glyph really benefits meaningfully from going from the 13 MP to the 14 MP baseline.
Platemail - getting around the "slow" effect is pretty tough to pull off. While I think it's gone in the right direction, it's gone from too powerful to too weak. It needs something to bring it up a bit. At very minimum a bit of extra CP and making it function with WEYTWUT would be nice.
Trisword - halflings and gnomes shall hate me forever, but this weapon really is too powerful. Pretty much all of the game's other "super preps" have been nerfed down to size, but this one remains and sticks out like a sore thumb. A simple fix may be just to cap the effect at +3 per level. That's 15 potions over the course of a dungeon; totally doable for a purist halfling/gnome or anyone who preps for it, while eliminating low-level power-attacking and the more obscenely broken trisword stacking (+40 on naga city, anyone?)
Balanced Dagger - much too niche; killing same-level enemies leaves you in a strategically challenging situation later in the game. Great for Vicious Gaan-Telet where most of the dungeon is carving your way through hordes of level 10 monsters, largely pointless everywhere else.
Mage Plate - overspecialized in its current state, and pretty much requires you to be playing human, gnome or assassin to get good value out of it. Very few classes can afford that kind of significant attack bonus penalty
Blue Bead - same problem as the spoon; poor shop density, but a no-brainer for its cost.
Vampiric Blade - absolutely wicked item. The double-effect on lower-level monsters means it can be used to harvest a lot of health. With all the recent vampire talk I've realized just how powerful lifesteal is in its current state, and this item seems to be really strong now.
Elite Items
Dwarven Gauntlets - These things have the same problem as the troll heart; you really need to find them ASAP to get the most out of them. As a result, they're primarily used as a preparation rather than an in-dungeon purchase. At that price point, the HP gain really needs to be retroactive. They'd be very well-balanced if that was the case.
Orb of Zot - much harder to leverage than Yendor. I rarely use it, but then again it's so rare that I rarely have the opportunity to use it, so that's not entirely a fair judgement. Anyone had success with this item?
Alchemist's Scroll - a bit on the expensive side with its gold activation cost, and also suffers the same problem as a lot of the "per level" items in that you need to find it early to really leverage it the most. What's more, the effect is front-loaded and really at its best at the lowest levels. This makes it rare as an in-dungeon purchase while still being incredibly potent as a preparation. It'd be nice if there was some way to make it more approachable without strengthening it for characters who prep and min/max around it.
Wicked Guitar - tricky to use, but wicked sick when it works. It really could use some better CP, but I can understand why it has the number it does.
Strength Potion - a little strong at low levels, a little weak at high levels. I've always thought it might be cool if this potion got curse cure so it had a more distinct role for high-level characters.
WHUPAZ - not nearly the "must-have" it used to be. Most scenarios now have multiple weaker bosses rather than a single strong one, and HP bloat has been toned down enormously. This is actually a really tame item now, and I only use it on Naga City, Slime Pits, and Dragon Isles.
Vicious Items
Avatar's Symbol - lackluster compared to the Dragonshield. The charge-up attack bonus just doesn't mesh with resistances. It'd be nice if it dropped the resists and swapped them for something else.
Dragon Shield - still a bit on the strong side, but that's primarily resist-stacking. I wish there was some way to reconcile its power for resist-stackers and everyone else, but I suspect it's much too late for that.
Naga Cauldron - weird item. I concur with the others that this would probably be neat to have in your shop pool, but not so much as a locker item.
Miscellaneous (lockerable) Items
Dragon Soul - basically dragonshield mini. Useless once you unlock the real thing, but kinda neat until then. There's some talk about revamping it as a potential shop item, which I approve of.
Sensation Stone - at its 150 value it'll never be locker worthy; it might be cool to try bringing it back up to some of its former values now that stacking orcs are long history, but I'd understand if you don't want to tempt transmutation scroll shenanigans.
Mass09 Ledger - interesting item, but just not good enough to be lockerable. Like most subdungeon items, it's cool to find but not really competitive with the real top-notch locker items.


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Scouts Camp & Explore Adult T-Shirt - Heather Navy
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65% Polyester, 35% Cotton.


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Crewe confirm Stockport relegation: Match Review
Alan Goodall scored an own goal as the Stockport's inevitable relegation from the Football League was confirmed with a 2-0 loss to Crewe at Gresty Road.
Crewe's in-form striker Clayton Donaldson put the result beyond doubt with his 28th goal of the season shortly afterwards.
Anthony Elding should have given the Hatters the perfect start but shot wide from close-range after Patrick Ada misjudged Danny Rowe's cross.
The visitors went close again when Adam Dugdale's clearance hit County midfielder Greg Tansey and almost flew into the Alex goal.
Crewe striker Shaun Miller hit the upright after latching onto Donaldson's pass and Byron Moore's shot on the rebound was deflected to safety.
Miller then headed a superb Donaldson cross wide at the near post before he came out second best in a one-on-one with County keeper Matt Glennon.
Elding turned another shot over the bar but the Alex went in front when Lee Bell's 61st-minute free-kick was nodded into his own net by the unlucky Goodall.
Four minutes later Donaldson picked up Danny Shelley's pass and beat Goodall before finishing low into the far corner of the net.
Elding nearly pulled one back with a fierce shot which Rhys Taylor did well to palm away.
Copyright (c) PA Sport 2009, All Rights Reserved.News Now - Sport News


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....oooeerrh!!!!!.......I think I'm a bit old to be a young bun
I think it's a really good idea, Tamsin
ETA: How would we forum buddies find out what we are then? I don't mean a forum buddy I mean like if we're new kits, etc?
Bunny mummy to Bella.
im not that much
i was looking for this!
500!!? i didnt know i posted that much... i only joined less than a month ago!
Spammer above reported.
Join me on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TheRabbitCrossing
To see my bunnies for adoption at The Rabbit Crossing please click here
http://www.rabbitrehome.org.uk/search.asp?ContID=4125 or contact me at firstname.lastname@example.com
Now I know how I became a young bun I was wondering


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Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: DeathKeep
What do you need help on? Cancel X
An evil Necromancer has escaped from his icy prison and is wreaking havoc upon the surrounding lands. Journey to this frozen wasteland and destroy the forces of evil - if you dare. DeathKeep is AD&D dungeon delving the way you like it - fast, furious and fun! Prepare to fight your way through more than 25 eerie dungeons - each with 8 levels within. Explore icy caverns, 3 ominous towers and a fantastic final dungeon! Battle over 30 different monsters. Avoid insidious traps. Solve brain-busting puzzles. Jump, fly and even fall if you're not careful. The fully 3-D environment means you can look up, down, and all around. Everything you view is in a natural perspective - including the beasties that want you dead!
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