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Item #3068
100 days from transplanting. Habaneros are said to be 100
times hotter than jalapenos (but
after the first 100,000 Scoville heat
units, who's counting?) Prized by
chile aficionados not only for its
intense heat, but its distinct fruitiness,
the habanero is used in sensational
salsas (see recipe inside), and will
turn a bland barbeque into a fiery
100,000-350,000 Scoville heat units (extremely hot).
This packet yields approximately 24 plants started indoors.
Seedling Image
Days to Emerge:
Seed Depth:
Seed Spacing:
Row Spacing:
When to sow outside: 2 to 4 weeks after average last frost when air temperature is at least 70°F and soil temperature is at least 65°F.
When to start inside: RECOMMENDED. 8 to 10 weeks before average last frost. In USDA zones 9 & 10, can also sow in midsummer for fall/winter crop.
Harvesting: Harvest when peppers start to turn orange?red. When harvesting, take care to avoid touching the interior of any broken peppers, as the capsaicin is an extreme irritant, especially to the eyes. Wash hands thoroughly after harvesting, or wear gloves to harvest peppers.
Artist: Pat Fostvedt
Item #3068
30 seeds
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There are no tuition fees at the partner university for students studying abroad through the exchange program. This is because of partnership agreements between the universities.
Tuition fees are waived in the agreements but students must cover non-tuition costs (administration fees, applications fees, deposits, etc.), travel expenses, insurance, cost for student permit or student visa and living expenses (accommodation, food, etc.). It is the students' responsibility to buy airplane tickets, make visa arrangements, organize their accommodation, ensure they have adequate medical insurance and so on. Please note that the costs may vary depending on the country and university.
The information about students' exchange semester is updated on Ladok and available for CSN (no CSN documents are required).
It is extremely important to apply for the whole year of study at the same time. This means that if you go abroad only one semester you must send in two applications to CSN, one for the study abroad and the regular one for your studies in Sweden.
A scholarship is a financial contribution which is given by foundations, associations, companies, banks and trade associations. These scholarships are generally tax-free, but can sometimes be counted as wages subject to conditions and may need to be taxed. Scholarships awarded for educational purposes, however, are usually free of tax. It is a good idea to check with the contact person in the International Relations office of the partner university if there are any appropriate scholarships available.
For studies within Europe you may apply for a scholarship within Erasmus+. For studies in the Nordic countries, there are scholarships within the network Nordplus.
Texten granskad / uppdaterad 2019-03-13

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Opens in a new window Opens an external site Opens an external site in a new window
EICC Testing Centers
EICC Testing Centers provide fee-based proctoring services for non-EICC students. Proctoring fees for tests are $25 per exam. EICC offers paper-pencil and internet-based testing.
Testing Center Locations
Please call Test Centers for hours and to make an appointment:
- CCC Testing Center
Clinton Community College
1000 Lincoln Boulevard, Clinton, Iowa 52732
- SCC Testing Center
Scott Community College
500 Belmont Road, Bettendorf, Iowa 52722
Online appointment form
- SCC Urban Campus Testing Center
SCC Urban Campus
101 W Third St., Davenport, Iowa 52801
- MCC Testing Center
Muscatine Community College
152 Colorado Street, Muscatine, Iowa 52761
Please note the following important information:
- Testing times are limited and scheduled by appointment. We do not offer testing on
a "walk-in" or "same day" basis.
- Tests should be mailed and received by the campus Testing Center a minimum of two
days prior to the scheduled exam.
- Exams need to be mailed directly from the test administrator via US mail or email.
We will not accept testing materials hand-carried by test takers, even if the envelope's
seal appears to be intact.
- All exams will need to include directions regarding return of the exam. Information
to be included is: method in which to return the exam, contact name, phone and email
of the individual the test should be returned to.
- Test-takers must bring a valid photo ID and can choose from the following options:
State/Federal issued ID, State Driver's License, US Military ID or Passport
- Test-takers needing physical accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities
Act (ADA) should contact the campus Testing Center at least one week before the scheduled
- Test-takers need to arrive at the campus Business Office at least 20 minutes before
their scheduled exam to pay their testing fee. Proof of payment must be presented
to the testing center prior to taking the exam. Forms of acceptable payment are: cash,
check, debit card or credit card. Testing fees are non-refundable.
- Test-takers that need their exam returned via US mail must provide to the test center,
a postage paid return envelope prior to taking the exam.
- EICC offers a variety of software accommodations at each testing location. Please
check with the testing facility prior to your exam, to ensure the software needs of
the exam can be met. Keep in mind, EICC will not install additional software for any
- Please contact Campus Testing Centers for scheduling, a list of exams that are proctored,
hours and fees associated with exams.
- Be sure to plan ahead, allowing yourself enough time, in the case that your preferred testing date is already full.


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Bridges have been around ever since humans began to move themselves -- and their goods -- from one place to another. Early bridge engineers had to do little more than fell a tree across a ravine or stream, but they soon discovered that they could span greater distances and haul heavier loads by putting more time and energy into their structures.
Roman engineers perfected the stone arch and used it to build aqueducts -- bridges that conveyed fresh water great distances -- and similar structures to carry traffic across streams and rivers. But the Industrial Revolution took bridge building to new heights and even greater lengths.
By the end of the 19th century, record-breaking bridges seemed to come fast and furious. The Brooklyn Bridge, completed in 1883, was the longest spanning bridge in the world -- until Scottish engineers completed the Firth of Forth Bridge just seven years later.
A new century brought longer, more amazing bridges. In 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge stretched its 8,981-foot (2,737-meter) back over the treacherous waters of the San Francisco Bay.
Today, engineers continue to test the limits of science and imagination. They experiment with innovative materials, designs and methods of construction. Their finished products move cars and trains. They also move people's souls. What follows is a survey of some of the most breathtaking bridges of the modern era. We've limited ourselves to just 10 bridges, but not to any particular region of the world.
Our first stop is the Hangzhou Bay Bridge in China.
The Hangzhou Bay Bridge
The Chinese are not new to bridge building. The Anlan Bridge, a suspension bridge first constructed in A.D. 300 using bamboo cables, still carries pedestrians across the 1,000-foot (305-meter) Min River [source: NOVA]. More than 1,700 years later, in the Jiangsu Province, Chinese engineers completed a project that includes a 4,888-foot (1,490-meter) suspension bridge and a 2,575-foot (758-meter) cable-stayed bridge. Known as the Runyang Bridge, it was the country's longest bridge -- for a while.
Today, the Hangzhou Bridge, which opened in May 2008 after nine years of planning and construction, holds the honor as China's longest bridge. It stretches a mind-boggling 22 miles (36 kilometers) across the Qiantang River at the Yangtze River Delta on the East China Sea. That's almost 25 times longer than the Runyang Bridge and nine times longer than Japan's pride and joy, the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge! The cable-stayed bridge snakes across the open ocean, carrying six lanes of traffic in both directions. Commuters have to pay 80 yuan, or almost $12, to cross it, but the toll fee is nothing compared to the bridge's price tag of 11.8 billion yuan ($1.72 billion). If it lasts as long as expected -- 100 years -- it should have a long time to pay for itself.
Up next, we're headed west across Asia to the very eastern edge of Europe. There we'll find the Strait of Bosporus and the next amazing bridge on our list.
The Bosporus Bridge
The Strait of Bosporus, also known as the Istanbul Strait, connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara. It also separates Asia from Europe. As such, it holds great strategic value during times of war and peace. Although attempts to bridge the narrow body of water date back to the Persian Empire, the most impressive structure didn't open for business until 1973. That's when engineers completed the Bosporus Bridge, a 4,954-foot- (1.51-kilometer-) long suspension bridge that remained the only bridge in the world linking two continents until the Fatih Sultan Mehmed Bridge suspended its roadway above the strait nearly 15 years later.
Even with a companion bridge stealing some of its glory, the Bosporus Bridge remains a grand sight, especially at night. Thanks to an LED lighting system, the bridge's towers and zigzagged cables glow brilliantly in different colors.
Day or night, the Bosporus Bridge shuttles traffic between continents on an eight-lane deck. Each direction has three lanes for vehicles, plus one emergency lane and one sidewalk. Pedestrians were allowed to access the bridge until 1977, when authorities stopped the practice for safety reasons. They temporarily suspended the rule in May 2005 when Venus Williams and Ïpek Senoglu played a tennis match on the bridge to promote the inaugural Istanbul Cup in Turkey. Fans gathered on two of the bridge's lanes to watch the players trade volleys from Asia to Europe and back again.
The next bridge on our list has never hosted a tennis match, but it has become one of ngland's hottest tourist attractions.
Gateshead Millennium Bridge
In a bascule bridge, one or two pieces of the bridge deck, known as leaves, swing up to provide clearance for boat traffic passing underneath. They open quickly and efficiently but aren't the most elegant pieces of architecture. This was the challenge facing engineers when officials in Gateshead, England, announced a contest in 1996 to design an innovative cycle and pedestrian bridge to span the Tyne River. The new structure had to allow ships to pass underneath without blocking the view of other nearby bridges or interfering with cultural activities taking place on either bank.
The winning design solved the problem, not with a bascule-type system, but with a never-seen-before tilting mechanism. Here's how it works. The bridge is made up of a pair of steel arches. In its "down" position, one arch forms the deck of the pedestrian and cycle path. The other arch sits at a 90-degree angle to the first, with cables strung between the two to provide support for the deck. When the bridge needs to move to its "up" position, eight electric motors tilt both arches as a single, rigid structure. As one arch lowers, the other rises to act as a counterbalance.
When the 413-foot- (126-meter-) long bridge opened in 2000, 36,000 people lined the banks of the river to watch the bridge's inaugural tilt [source: Gateshead Millennium Web site]. And in 2007, its likeness appeared on a new pound coin from the Royal Mint.
Our next entry -- the tallest vehicular bridge in the world -- also wowed people when it opened in 2004.
Millau Viaduct
The Eiffel Tower, which looms over the Paris skyline, measures 1,063 feet (324 meters) high from its four-footed base to the tip of its flagpole. Now imagine tearing the tower from its moorings and carrying it southeastward, through the Massif Central region of France to the Cévennes Mountains. Now imagine setting the tower down in the Tarn Valley, a deep gorge surrounded by high, rolling hills near the town of Millau, France. Now, finally, picture lining up six more similar towers and stringing a roadway across the valley. Et voila -- the Millau Viaduct, a massive bridge that opened in 2004 to carry the A75 motorway south to Beziers.
In reality, the highest point of this cable-stayed bridge is taller than the Eiffel Tower by 62 feet (19 meters) and only a little bit shorter than the Empire State Building (1,250 feet or 381 meters tall, if you're wondering). A car traveling over the span is actually suspended 890 feet (271 meters) above the valley. Drivers who overcome their fear of heights can shave 62 miles (100 kilometers) and four hours off the long trip from Clermont-Ferrand to popular destinations along the Mediterranean Sea. The bridge also reduces pollution by relieving congestion that used to occur as cars queued up to cross a much older and smaller bridge in Millau.
Another amazing cable-stayed bridge is the Octavio Frias de Oliveira Bridge in Brazil. That's the next stop on our tour.
Octavio Frias de Oliveira Bridge
São Paulo, Brazil, just down the coast from Rio de Janeiro, is known for its extravagance. It's a cosmopolitan city, with a flourishing nightlife and a lively arts scene. It's also Brazil's financial hub -- home to some of the wealthiest people in the country. Because of these qualities, it's not surprising that the paulistanos (São Paulo inhabitants) designed and built one of the most unique bridges in the world.
Named after the Brazilian media mogul Octavio Frias de Oliveira, the cable-stayed bridge spans the Pinheiros River, which bisects the western side of the city. The bridge is only 2,953 feet (900 meters) long and not particularly high at 453 feet (138 meters), but its design features two curved decks that cross each other through an X-shaped supporting tower. The two roadways, suspended from the tower by 144 cables, link the São Paulo districts of Brooklin and Real Parque.
Motorists crossing the bridge at night enjoy a spectacular show courtesy of LED lights. The lighting system enables bridge authorities to illuminate the X-shaped tower with different colors for commemorative dates or for special events. But it's not all about special effects. A series of 140-watt bulbs shine on the roads to ensure the safety of drivers.
Innovative safety features also define the next bridge we're going to cover. To get to it, we need to travel out of South America, through Central America and into the United States.
St. Anthony Falls Bridge
On Aug. 1, 2007, a steel deck truss bridge carrying motorists in and out of Minneapolis collapsed into the Mississippi River during the evening rush hour. An investigation revealed that 16 gusset plates, which connected steel beams in the center span to the load-bearing columns, were too thin to function properly. As a result, they fractured and caused the bridge to collapse. Within hours, officials vowed to rebuild the bridge and to restore public confidence by incorporating a variety of advanced safety features. The result was the St. Anthony Falls Bridge, which opened in September 2008.
This box girder bridge truly is a marvel of modern engineering. It's made with high-performance concrete, which provides great strength and inhibits corrosion. More than 15 million pounds (6.8 million kilograms) of rebar -- all of it coated with epoxy to prevent the steel from getting weak and brittle -- reinforce the concrete [source: McCarthy]. At the same time, 323 sensors embedded in the bridge substrate constantly monitor the integrity of the structure, collecting data that can be analyzed to determine unusual stress points or other trouble spots. While it forms a solid foundation, the concrete is also cleaning the air. That's because it's made with cement containing TX Active, an agent that, in the presence of light, breaks down air pollutants, including carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and benzene.
High-tech materials such as TX Active are becoming commonplace in modern bridges. One such bridge is located to the east of Minneapolis, in Fond du Lac, Wis.
DeNeveu Creek Bridge
Concrete, a hard and porous composite of cement, sand, aggregate and gravel, forms the foundation of most bridges. It holds up well to compressive forces (those that push down at right angles), but not as well to tensile forces (those that act along the length of the material to pull it apart). Engineers use steel bars, also known as rebar, to reinforce the tensile strength of concrete.
Unfortunately, steel rebar can corrode when exposed to freshwater or saltwater, which can cause distress in the concrete. One method to prevent this wear and tear involves coating the rebar with epoxy to shield the steel from corrosive chemicals. But scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed another solution -- a reinforcing matrix made from a novel fiber-reinforced polymer. Because it is nonmetallic, the polymer material won't corrode, which means the concrete remains stronger longer.
The first real-world test of this new and improved concrete is the DeNeveu Creek Bridge, a 40-meter (131-foot) span along Highway 151 in Fond du Lac, Wis. Driving over the bridge, you would never know there is anything special hidden inside the nondescript box girder bridge. But the real payoff will come far into the future. The bridge deck is durable enough to last at least 75 years, whereas most traditional bridge decks last between 30 and 40 years before they need to be replaced. That means the DeNeveu Creek Bridge, completed in 2005, may not need any significant maintenance until 2080!
Next, we're headed back to Europe and a border-crossing bridge that links Denmark and Sweden.
Oresund Bridge
Building a single-purpose bridge is a complex engineering feat. Now add other complicating factors, like a bridge to carry both trains and cars. And join that bridge seamlessly with an immersed tunnel. These were the design requirements facing engineers when they began planning how to connect Denmark and Sweden across the Oresund Strait. Their solution was one of the largest infrastructure projects in European history: the $3 billion Oresund Fixed Link [source: Lundhus].
The Fixed Link actually consists of three major parts. If you're traveling from Copenhagen to Malmö, Sweden, the first thing you encounter is an immersed tunnel 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) long. Back at sea level, you emerge from the tunnel onto Peberholm, a Danish artificial island built from material dredged up during construction. After Peberholm, you access the final leg of the Fixed Link, a cable-stayed bridge stretching for 5 miles (8 kilometers) and ending on Swedish soil.
Collectively, the Oresund Fixed Link is a miracle of modern engineering. It is the world's longest cable-stayed bridge for both road and railway [source: Oresund Bridge Web site]. Its towers are 669 feet (204 meters) high and provide a navigational clearance of 187 feet (57 meters) under the main span. The bridge features two levels, with the railway running along the lower deck and the roadway on the upper.
Luckily, Oresund Bridge builders didn't have to deal with earthquakes and other seismic activity during construction. The engineers in charge of the next bridge on our list weren't so lucky.
The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge
Japan is both a bridge-building dream and a nightmare. Japan consists of four main islands and 4,000 smaller islands -- a veritable mother lode of options and opportunities for bridge crossings. Unfortunately, Japan is also located in the Ring of Fire, an area where large numbers of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur. That makes building big structures a supreme engineering challenge. With the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, Japanese engineers were up to the challenge.
The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge opened in 1998 and stunned the world with its epic size. It spans 2.4 miles (3.9 kilometers) across the Akashi Strait, with a central section stretching almost half of that length. Its towers soar 928 feet (283 meters) above the water, and its cables carry tensile forces of 132,000 tons (120,000 metric tons). It's not just the crowning glory of Japan's elaborate bridge system; it's the longest spanning suspension bridge, with the highest towers, in the world. What makes the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge even more amazing is the fact that it weathered a 7.2-magnitude earthquake during construction. The temblor struck on Jan. 17, 1995, creating a new fault near the bridge. This shifted the bridge's foundations and expanded the central span of the bridge by 2.6 feet (80 centimeters) and one side span by almost a foot (30 centimeters). Luckily, the earthquake didn't damage the towers. Engineers increased the length of the cables, redesigned the girders to accommodate the increased length of the bridge and proceeded with no further mishaps.
Back in North America, another long bridge tested the skill and ingenuity of engineers.
Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel
Two bridges span the Chesapeake Bay, a long estuary sandwiched between Virginia and Maryland. The first is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, a dual-span, 4.32-mile- (6.95-kilometer-) long bridge that connects the eastern and western shores of Maryland. Although this bridge offers an interesting collection of designs in a single structure -- cantilever, arch and suspension -- it pales a bit when it is compared to its cousin located a few miles to the south. The official name of this second bridge is the Lucius J. Kellam, Jr. Bridge-Tunnel, more commonly known as the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.
As its name suggests, the link consists of a series of bridges and tunnels to span the 17 miles (27.4 kilometers) of brackish water separating Cape Charles and Virginia Beach, Virginia. The majority of the bridge-tunnel complex is above the water, supported by more than 5,000 piers. Most of these piers are relatively short, so that the bridge seems to skim just above the surface of the water. To allow ships to pass, two 1-mile- (1.6-kilometer-) long tunnels carry traffic beneath the bay's primary navigation channels. Man-made islands, each approximately 5 acres (2 hectares) in size, are located at each end of the two tunnels and act as transition points between the tunnels and bridges.
When the original bridge-tunnel complex (what is now the northbound side) opened in 1965, it won the American Society of Civil Engineers award for "Outstanding Engineering Achievement." It was also designated "One of Seven Engineering Wonders of the Modern World" in 1965. Thirty years later, engineers began construction on a second link (the southbound side), which opened to traffic in 1999.
Still hungry for more information about bridges and how they work? Explore the links on the next page.
London Bridge Has Never Fallen Down, But It Keeps Getting Rebuilt
Despite what the nursery rhyme says, London Bridge is not falling down and never has. But the bridge spanning the Thames has been rebuilt over and over.
Related Articles
- Top 10 Construction Projects That Broke the Bank
- The Five Heaviest Buildings Ever Moved
- Bridge Quiz
- Curiosity Project: 10 Sustainable Buildings
- Bain, Jenn. "Amazing Bridges of the World." Travel + Leisure. August 2008. (April 1, 2009) http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/amazing-bridges-of-the-world
- Gateshead Millennium Web site.http://www.gateshead.gov.uk/Leisure%20and%20Culture/attractions/bridge/Facts.aspx
- Hoffman, Carl. "The 20th-Annual Best of What's New: Strait of Messina Bridge." Popular Science. Nov. 7, 2007. (April 1, 2009)http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2004-04/strait-messina-bridge
- Kashima, Satoshi and Makoto Kitagawa. "The Longest Suspension Bridge." Scientific American. December 1997.
- Kleefeld, Eric. "UW-Madison engineers apply award-winning technology to road building." Wisconsin Technology Network News. Nov. 9, 2005. (April 1, 2009)http://wistechnology.com/articles/2465/
- Lundhus, Peter. "Bridging Borders in Scandinavia." Scientific American Presents: The Tall, the Deep, the Long. 1999.
- Macaulay, David. "Building Big." Walter Lorraine Books. 2000.
- McCarthy, Erin. "New Minn. Bridge Plans Arise as Bad Plates Fingered in Collapse."
- NOVA. "China Bridge" Companion Web site, "Bridge the Gap" resource. (April 1, 2009)http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lostempires/china/meetsusp.html
- Øresund Bridge Web site. (April 1, 2009)http://www.oresundsbron.com/documents/document.php?obj=994
- PBS Building Big Web Site: All About Bridges. (April 1, 2009) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig/bridge/index.html
- Popular Mechanics. Jan. 26, 2008. (April 1, 2009)http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/transportation/4245065.html


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Calling all LDS musicians, singers, and bands – you are needed! Would you like to have one of your songs featured as a bonus track on an album that is expected to have significant sales?
I am producing an album project right now of pop/rock music that is targeted towards Christian teens, and LDS Young Women in particular. The album is in the pre-production stages currently, but recording in earnest is expected to begin early next month, with a single out in April and the full album out in May. The general theme of the album is to promote the values taught within the Young Women Program, but in a non-preachy, upbeat way.
We also would like to use this album project to help aid listeners in the discovery of new, exciting, and positive music – YOUR music! That's right, we aren't looking for slow, stuffy, or stereotypical "Sunday only" music, we are looking for strong songs that are fun, engaging, fresh sounding, and positive. They don't need to have a Christian or LDS specific message, they simply need to avoid the pitfalls of worldly music and leave the listener engaged, inspired, or entertained with a positive, LDS youth friendly message.
I need your help. We have 3 to 4 slots available, and the planned album release will be here before you know it. If YOU or someone you know might be interested, please see the following link to see the general album concept, and also get full details on the inclusion of other artists.
This album is being written and produced with the assistance of LDS youth, and will feature vocal performances by LDS youth. The message will connect, and the music will be happening. We expect good distribution of the album as the word gets out and really feel this is an EXCELLENT opportunity for a new or lesser-known LDS artist to get some great exposure.
Click HERE for more information.
Please check it out and direct any questions to me through the kickstarter site or through my contact information on this page.
Thanks, and we look forward to helping promote your music as part of this project!
Matt is a music producer, engineer, and writer. This album project will feature not only his work but the work of some youth, including his 2 daughters.


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On Sunday, November 18, 2012, Interscope Records and NIVEAKiss hosted a dinner and after party for some of music's biggest stars in celebration of the 40th Anniversary American Music Awards at the Redbury Hotel in Hollywood, California. Industry leaders of all genres were in attendance, including DJ Skrillex, Far East Movement, Skylar Grey, Andy Dick, Rumer Willis, Connor Cruise and various up and coming artists.
Upon arrival, I can feel the energy and excitement the night had to offer. The red carpet extravaganza at the Redbury Hotel began with a cocktail reception served with a variety of light hor d'oeuvres. Artist and VIP guests were then treated to a private sit-down dinner prepared by executive chef Daniel Elmaleh at Cleo.
Upstairs, on the 2nd floor, Blackbook and Vibe Magazine conducted interviews and photo ops with notable artists in the Media Lounge. Next door offered an array of mouth watering cupcakes and cocktails were served in the #NIVEAKiss Lounge indoor bar. Throughout the evening, guests enjoyed the Instagram photobooth, which immediately printed photos that were uploaded from smartphones on to Instagram and Twitter tagged with #BetterKisses.
The Library bar was hosted by Ciroc Ultra Premium Vodka. I was compelled to order the uniquely enticing vodka yogurt shots, a delightful concoction made with Ciroc Vodka and Tarté Yogurt. Project Photobooth captured images that were available for download through their website, while Mrs. Bella's Dolls walked around passing out goodies.
Towards the end of the night, Skylar Grey and Thavius Beck took the stage and gave an amazing performance. Grey sang numerous songs, including her top hits, "I need a Doctor", "I'm Coming Home" and "I Love the Way You Lie" (recorded by Eminem and Rihanna). Skylar Grey's album, "Don't Look Down", is set to release on December 11, 2012.
After her performance, Skylar Grey, and other artists continued to mingle and pose for photos with friends and fans. Guest-of-a-Guest photographers were there to capture the evening's unforgettable moments. I had an amazing time and was honored to attend such a spectacular party hosted by Interscope Records and #NIVEAKiss.


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New cosplay process video! Scarlet Witch!18 December, 2016 Construction Notes News Comments 0
I documented the making of my Scarlet Witch costume, from the new Marvel comic book series, and cut together a little process video. Hopefully, this will give you a little more insight into how this cosplay came together. Hope you enjoy it! I will share more videos like this on my Youtube Channel, so please SUBSCRIBE if you're interested!!
See my full photo gallery for Scarlet Witch + construction notes!


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I know this looks like a huge laundry list of ingredients, but believe me, it's worth it! This BBQ sauce is incredibly dynamic. It starts off somewhat smoky, then tangy, and then it has this little kick at the end from the red peppers. This BBQ recipe would probably work best with chicken. The longer you leave it in the fridge, the more time the flavors have to meld together and the more delicious your recipe will be. It is time consuming, but the results are certainly worth the effort, especially if you want to add a little something special to your backyard BBQ (or classy dinner party).
Yield: 1 quart
Prep Time: 1 hour
- 1 lg onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ c vegetable oil
- 1 c (10 oz) tomato paste
- 1 c cider vinegar
- 1 c honey
- ½ c Worcestershire sauce
- 1 c Dijon mustard
- 1 c soy sauce
- 2 tbsp chili powder
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
In a large saucepan over low to medium heat, sauté the onions and garlic in vegetable oil until the onions are translucent. Add the tomato paste, vinegar, honey, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, soy sauce, chili powder, cumin, and crushed red pepper flakes. Simmer uncovered on low heat for 30 min. Store in refrigerator if not using right away.
Source: slightly adapted from Ina Garten


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Laverna Parrish will celebrate her 80th birthday with family and friends.
She was born on Dec. 26, 1933, at Cimerron to Jesse and Kathryn Puckett. Don and Laverna were married on Dec. 26, 1953, at Englewood, Colo.
She and her spouse, Don, have four children: Jim (Theresa) Parrish, Chicago; David Parrish, Wichita; Timothy (Katherine), Moundridge; and daughter, Kathryn (Larry) Hoelscher, Newton. She has 12 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.
A card shower is requested: Laverna Parrish, 175 W. Hickory St., Apt. H3, Hesston, KS 67062.


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The 2012-13 Hope College men's and women's track & field teams have been recognized among the top scholar teams in NCAA Division III, while two members of the Flying Dutch are top scholar athletes nationally.
The U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) have honored the Flying Dutch and Flying Dutchmen. Both teams earned the distinction as a result of being the highest-placing teams with at least a 3.10 cumulative grade point average at the most recent Division III indoor and outdoor national championships, respectively.
The Flying Dutch were one of 148 teams honored by the USTFCCCA after posting a team grade point average of 3.50. The Flying Dutchmen were one of 80 lauded after posting a 3.17 team GPA.
Individually, junior Sheri McCormack (West Ottawa HS) and senior Sarah Venlet of Zeeland (Holland Christian HS) are two of 367 females receiving All-Academic status from the USTFCCCA.
Scholar Athlete of the Year Awards are determined from among those who earned All-Academic status and placed highest in individual events at the most recent NCAA Championships. Those who earn multiple individual championship titles rank higher in the tie-breaking process, and cumulative GPA is weighed as the final tiebreaker to establish a winner. Separate awards are given to track athletes and field athletes for the indoor and outdoor seasons, resulting in four categories.
McCormack is a Spanish major who recorded a 3.90 GPA. She finished 14th at the Division III Outdoor Championships in the 1,500-meter run.
Venlet is a Nursing major who posted a 3.80 GPA. She placed eighth at the NCAA outdoor finals in the 400 hurdles, becoming the second Hope female athlete to achieve All-America status in the event and first since Julie Darling in 1987.
Earlier, the Hope women's track & field team claimed the MIAA Team GPA award.


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Use this red extra coloured gel paste colour to colour your sugarpaste, marzipan, cake mix etc.
Sugarflair Spectral Food Colouring Paste - Red Extra - 42g
Red Extra spectral paste colouring, to colour all your sugarpastes, royal icing, butter icing and cake mixes etc.
When mixing into sugarpaste, use sparingly to achieve a pastel shade, but add more to give a strong, vibrant colour - the consistency will not change too much!
If used for painting onto sugarpaste, dilute a little with clear spirit or rejuvenator spirit. Water may be used but will not dry as quickly, or give quite such a good finish.
Vegetable Glycerine E422, Mono Propylene Glycol E1520, Water, Ponceau 4R E124, Allura Red E129.
E124 & E129 may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children.
Allergy Advice:
Suitable for vegetarians & vegans.
Gluten, Nut & GM free.
Kosher certified.
Sugarflair Colours Ltd, Benfleet, Essex, SS7 4PW


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Category Archives: howto
[GUIDE] HEVC:The Future Of Video Coding
If you've ever watched a DVD or Blu-ray, caught up with a show using an on-demand service, streamed a film with Netflix or laughed at the latest viral video, you have benefited from a video codec. Thistechnologycompresses a video file into a smaller package, making it easier to store or transmit. The next generation of codecs — including a technology called HEVC — will make several things possible or easier to do. The most notable of these is streaming 4K, aka Ultra HD video.
What is HEVC?
HEVC stands for high-efficiencyvideocoding. Also known as H.265, this new video codec will compress video files to half the size possible using the most-efficient current encoding format, MPEG-4, aka H.264 (used on Blu-ray discs and some satellite TV broadcasts). That will be one-quarter the size of files compressed using the MPEG 2 codec that most cable-TV companies still employ. More importantly, HEVC is used to compress video with 4K resolution — and possibly even 8K resolution in the future — so it can be efficiently delivered.
What is a codec?
A codec (an abbreviation of the term "coder-decoder") is software that uses an algorithm to systematically compress raw videodatainto a compact form fit for broadcasting, transmitting over an Internet stream or storing on a Blu-ray disc, for example. At the receiving end, the same codec in your TV, computer or disc player uncompresses the data to display the video on your screen. Codecs also remove some detail from video to reduce its size, and a high level of compression can drop too much data, resulting in choppy and blocky video. Most pay-TV services use aggressive compression to get all those channels into your cable or satellite receiver, which is one reason the video from your cable box does not look as good as that from a Blu-ray. A good codec will compress video while causing few defects due to overcompression.
High-definition video can take a lot of data. A full-HD image has about 2 million pixels and up to several million colors per individual frame, with hundreds of thousands of frames making up a movie.
Why use HEVC for 4K video?
The current MPEG-4/H.264 codec makes it possible to compress the huge amount of information in a film so that it can stream over Netflix, rather than storing all of that data on a physical source like a Blu-ray. Those high-definition images from Netflix are in either 720p resolution (1280 x 720, or 0.92 million pixels per frame) or 1080p resolution (1920 x 1080 resolution, 2 million pixels). The images from a 4K video that Netflix is now streaming to 4K televisions have 8 million pixels (3840 x 2160 resolution). Such a huge jump in detail requires a better way to compress the data in order to transmit or store it. HEVC is twice as efficient as MPEG-4/H.264, and experiences only a minimal loss in quality. As a result, current content will need only half the data to stream over Netflix, and it will become viable to stream 4K content. (Netflix recommends a 15 Mbps or better broadbandconnectionfor streaming 4K.)
What content will use HEVC?
Potentially everything. Each service will have to decide if it will send data using HEVC/H.265 instead of MPEG-4/H.264 or MPEG-2. Netflix has already begun using HEVC to stream 4K content to the few 4K TVs equipped to decode HEVC. New televisions coming this year from LG, Samsung, Sony and Vizio will support HEVC and will be able to stream 4K video from Netflix. Though they haven't mentioned Netflix deals, both Panasonic and Toshiba have announced that their new 4K TVs willalso support HEVC.
Amazon has been filming all of its original content, such as political comedy "Alpha House," in 4K. The company also has partnered with several studios for 4K streaming using HEVC, including Warner Bros., Lionsgate, 20th Century Fox and Discovery. Amazon hasn't announced when it will offer streams or downloads of these videos as 4K via Amazon Prime Instant Video, though Samsung is the first partner that will have 4K-capable Amazon Prime Instant Video on its televisions.
Streaming service M-Go has announced it will be offering 4K video via HEVC soon, including via an app for Samsung televisions. Individual cable companies will have to decide when to change both the data they are sending and the receiver to decode it to HEVC. But that likely won't happen for several years, if and when they broadcast in 4K. Though they aren't broadcasting in 4K yet, DirecTV and Comcast's Xfinity will have 4K apps to stream video over the Internet to Samsung televisions.
Most current cellphones and tablets don't have hardware compatible with HEVC, but some new devices are starting to support it. The new Sony Xperia Z2 smartphone, for example, supports HEVC to shoot 4K video.
But that doesn't mean all mobile devices will eventually support HEVC. For instance, Google has announced its own 4K codec, called VP9, that will be used with YouTube. Other companies may support that, or possibly both 4K codecs.
Can I watch HEVC content now?
Yes, if you have the right hardware. Newer televisions support 4K video via HEVC, though these TVs have limited 4K content.
Windows users can use the latest version of VLC media player to play HEVC coded videos.
Linux users can also install the latest version of VLC along with vlc HEVC plugin using the following command:-
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:strukturag/libde265
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install vlc-plugin-libde265
Android users can install the latest version of MX player to play HEVC coded videos.
How did HEVC come about?
Two tech-standards organizations, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Moving Pictures Expert Group (MPEG), developed HEVC. These same groups are also behind the MPEG-2 standard used in DVD, cable and other content formats for standard- and some high-definition video. ITU and MPEG also created the MPEG-4/H.264 standard used in Blu-ray, some cable satellite broadcasts and high-definition online video.
Source:Tom's Guide
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Quickly catalog, filter, sort, and manage your expenses. Add pictures, condition, notes, voice recordings, personal details and more!
- Apple Watch support. Review and search through your catalog on your watch.
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- Sort by different fields
- Add pictures, videos and URLs
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- Full template customization that allows you to add any extra details/fields to your collection:
• Add voice notes
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• Track locations on the map
• Choose any of the available 20 different information types like Text, Number, Photos, Videos, Handwritten Notes, Voice Recordings. (Full list below)
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Data types
Modify your collection template with any of the following data types:
• Text
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• Choices (Multiple selections)
• Checkbox
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• Time
• Date
• Rating
• Location
• Phone Number
• Email
• Sketches and handwritten notes
• Slider
• Color
• Voice notes and audio recordings
• Stopwatch
• Lists of items
• Notes


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It seems to have been common practice in the 17th and 18th centuries in Britain to capitalise the first letters of nouns in English, e.g.
At which Time he prov'd himself the Noah's Dove, that finding himself no Rest anywhere, was receiv'd again into his own Ark, and brought a peaceable Olive-Leaf in his mouth.
Most original sources I can find on the net have used modern rules for capitalisation, so what I'd like to know is:
- was the practice used for all nouns (note mouth in my quotation above isn't capitalised)?
- when did this practice begin?
- when did it end, and why?


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What is GoDaddy Website Builder?GoDaddy Website Builder is an online editing and publishing tool that helps you create a website, regardless of your technical skill level. Just create an account, pick a design and use the built-in editor to add your own images and text. You can make your website as simple or complex as you'd like.
Can I connect my social media and website?GoDaddy Website Builder can act as your hub, the place where your friends and contacts can see your posts, photos, videos and more. With the option to link to your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn and YouTube on your website, your visitors can be everywhere you are on the web. Being able to cover multiple platforms gives you the opportunity to reach more people, while creating appropriate content for each of your socials (like posting all of your photos on Instagram, and tweeting about your most recent business venture on Twitter). By centrally locating all the links in one place – your new website – you are giving your website visitors a seamless experience. Linking to your social media in your website gives you an advantage in communicating with your visitors; the more they can connect with you and do so in the forum that's most comfortable to them, the more they'll engage with your site, and thus you or your business.
Are SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tools included with Website Builder?Select Website Builder plans come with built-in SEO tools to help your website show up in search engines like Google. In Website Builder, you'll find the SEO Wizard, a step-by-step guide that provides suggestions on how to optimize each page of your website by adding relevant keywords and description
How can I keep my website secure and safe for my customers?In all Website Builder plans any data transmitted from your site will be encrypted using a SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate. Your SSL will establish an encrypted link between your web server and the browser of the person visiting your site. This means that all data will be kept private; which is important if you want visitors to your site to be safe. If you want to sell products or services in your store, you will want to have a SSL since it protects credit card and bank numbers from being intercepted by hackers.
What's included in the Free Website option?Free Website allows you to sign-up for a permanent, no-cost website, no credit card required. You can build and publish your website with unlimited pages and content, and you also get social media, email marketing, one-time appointments, SSL and much more. Oh, and you also get all the same 24/7 support that you do with any other GoDaddy plan.
Can I customize my website?Absolutely. You have the option to customize your website based on your business needs. You can add site content wherever you'd like in a variety of sections; from multiple site pages, to scrollable sections that you can add to each of those pages, to a gallery of images, menus and price lists, and YouTube or Vimeo videos. Each section in your website is customizable as well, from the name of the page, to your website's navigation bar. You'll also have the ability to change text colors, styles and font. It's important to make a responsive website that is mobile and desktop friendly. With Website Builder you'll be able to choose tablet and desktop layouts to give your visitors the experience you want them to have.
What is GoDaddy InSight?
GoDaddy InSight is a technology system that provides tailored recommendations gleaned from insights across more than a million GoDaddy customers in different locations and industries. InSight is designed to help you improve your online presence by providing you with performance metrics and advice on how to improve them. GoDaddy InSight powers a central dashboard where you'll find your:
- GoDaddy InSight Score, which is an assessment of how you're doing across your website, social media and marketing activities.
- GoDaddy InSight Metrics, which offer details about your website activity, and social sites including Google, Facebook and Instagram. Plus, the ability to respond to reviews from one place.
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Is Free Website really free?
Yes! You will never be charged for our Free Website plan. If you choose to upgrade to a paid plan with premium features, just pick the one that best suits your needs. See Website Builder plans and pricing for more info.
What if I want to move from a Free Website to one of the paid plans later?You can absolutely do that. If you want to upgrade to a paid plan to get some of the features you want, then you can switch at any time through the My Products option in your account or with the help of a GoDaddy Guide. Once you upgrade your site will have all the same customizations and work that you've already put in place, just with the added features. See Website Builder plans and pricing for more info.
Can I connect a custom domain to my Free Website?No. All websites created with the Free Website plan will have a url like "www.yoursitenamehere.godaddysites.com." If you want to connect a custom domain to your site, you will need to upgrade to a paid plan.
Does the Free Website plan come with Online Store features?With the Free Website plan you can set up your store at no cost, and you don't need to pay any extra. Once you're ready to take orders you'll need to upgrade to the Ecommerce plan.


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nexaris Angio-MR-CT
At the nexus of treatment innovation
Siemens Healthineers will accompany you along the journey of customizing your multi-modality OR. We will help you tailor the solution to your specific needs using our technical and clinical experience with multi-modality setups. When setting up your nexaris Therapy Suite, it is crucial to keep the whole project in mind and at the same time address the particular needs of different stakeholders from both a clinical and a technical point of view.
- Initial consultation: We bring in experts in architecture, clinical apps, technical installations, and rules & regulations
- OR planning: We will refine layout options until they fit
- Smooth operations: We consider the priorities and requirements of different stakeholders in your institution
The combination of nexaris Angio-MR-CT and PILOT1 for seamless multi-modality imaging and hospital-wide patient transfer creates an entirely new treatment experience that will exceed your expectations.
Advanced imaging
Robotic angio system
ARTIS pheno is a unique robotic angiography system with excellent imaging capabilities and OR integration that lets you perform complex treatments while reducing complications and improving outcomes.
MAGNETOM Skyra (3T) and MAGNETOM Aera (1.5T) both offer exceptional image quality, increased flexibility, and superior speed to enable MRI for the whole body.
Sliding gantry CT
With SOMATOM CT Sliding Gantry systems, you get advanced CT imaging on rails that combines exceptional scan speed for time-critical cases with advanced imaging capabilities.
Seamless workflows
Maquet Magnus
The Maquet Magnus1 surgical table adds extraordinary flexibility to your OR, providing seamless access to all imaging modalities of nexaris Angio-MR-CT with the patient in the final treatment position.
Combi Dockable Table
The Combi Dockable Table2 enables safe patient transfer from the surgical table to the MRI modality for whole-body MRI at any time.
Maquet Transmobil TT-M
No matter where your patient is located, the height-adjustable Maquet Transmobil TT-M1 enables you to bring him to the OR and back without any repositioning.
Related Products, Services & Resources
1The information shown herein refers to products of 3rd party manufacturer's and thus are in their regulatory responsibility. Please contact the 3rd party manufacturer for further information.
2The products/features (here mentioned) are not commercially available in all countries. (Due to regulatory reasons) their future availability cannot be guaranteed.


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If IT vendors think that their services businesses are going to save their cookies this year, they may have another thing coming.
According to a report just released by the analysts at Gartner, prices on infrastructure outsourcing services are expected to drop this year and next by anywhere from 5 to 20 per cent on new deals. The report, which has the pithy title Potential Impact of Economic Downturn on IT Infrastructure Outsourcing Prices Q109, says that pricing pressure thanks to the economy and competition among the global outsourcing players is putting prices in a pincher.
The terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the accounting scandal at Satyam, and the weakening rupee have put particular pressure on Indian outsourcers, apparently. And you can bet that outsourcings in North America and Europe will use any lever they can to steal back some business.
"Regardless of the relative strength of outsourcing during a recession, many clients are reporting intense discussion with their vendors and renegotiation of contracts for Terms and Conditions (T&Cs) Service Level Agreements (SLAs), fees, volumes and low-cost offshore delivery locations," says Claudio Da Rold, a vice president at Gartner who tracks outsourcing. "These items are under scrutiny to identify satisfactory concessions to further reduce the cost of services on a case-by-case basis."
Gartner is not saying that will be an across-the-board reduction in outsourcing contract prices. It's saying that for new contracts - and for tough customers who are up for renewal and who are willing to shop a deal around - outsourcers are having to make price concessions.
The company's analysts left a pretty broad range of price declines, but they are something to go on if you are shopping. The company expects that the price of data center service outsourcing contracts will see prices fall by 5 to 15 per cent in 2009 and 2010. Outsourced support for desktop computers and help desk operations will see a 5 to 10 per cent decline this year and next, with network service outsourcing falling by 10 to 15 per cent and application hosting falling by 10 to 20 per cent. (It is very odd for Gartner to have such wide ranges and to have them span two years, but it is their report, not yours or mine).
Gartner says that outsourcers and their clients have to be careful not to push each other too hard. Otherwuse, they will end up being bitter on the outsourcer end (because they can't make money on the deal) and bitter on the customer side (because they get the least amount of service from the vendor to stay in compliance with the contract).
Such an enlightened attitude maybe fall victim to economic necessity, just the same. ®


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Mother bear, cub fatally struck by car near Reno
Associated Press
RENO — Nevada wildlife officials say a mother bear and a cub were fatally struck by a car near Reno, and two of her other cubs may have survived the accident.
Nevada Department of Wildlife spokesman Chris Healy says one of the cubs died at the scene while the mother bear and the other cubs left after the collision Thursday night on old Highway 40 in Verdi just west of Reno.
Healy says after the accident, the mother wandered about 200 yards away with the other cubs and laid down under a tree behind an abandoned house.
Wildlife officials found the mother dead with one cub atop her body on Friday morning, but were unsuccessful in their attempts to capture the animal.
Healy says officials have placed the mother's body in a trap in hopes of luring the cubs and capturing them over the weekend.
The Reno Gazette-Journal reports the cubs would be taken to a Reno-area wildlife refuge, where they would be cared for and prepared for release back into the wild, probably in February.


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LMFAO: George Bush Gets No Love (No One Shaked His Hand) At The G20 Summit!
CNN's Rick Sanchez Reports on Bush being ignored at G20 Summit
Please click the "Report" button below if the video on this page is not working properly.
Comments will only be displayed by verified emails. No Spamming or Racism.


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Greetings, fellow gamers.
Dead Monarchy is my passion project, the closest I can get to my dream game on my own. I have been working on this full-time for a year and a half but it has been in conceptualization since I was 18, I am 24 now.
As of now, I am still working out the kinks in my combat system, there is a lot of polish that I am still working on implementing but I feel like it's at the stage where I can show it off to at least give you guys some sort of idea of what direction I'm going in. As of now I am concentrating on getting the combat demo done, as I am a one man indie team I have to direct my focus to one thing at a time. That said, I have outsourced some work to a coder and a modeler.
I have a really old video on youtube which was the first development blog detailing the combat system. A lot has changed so quite a bit of that info is dated. At the end of the day though, my combat system does take a few pages out of Banner Saga's book. I finished the first game and really enjoyed it. The other influences would be Battle Brothers, XCOM, Jagged Alliance and bit of Age of Decadence.
I'll be using this thread to post updates every week or two


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Gordon's mix & match steak
Nutrition and extra info
- kcal-
- fat-
- saturates-
- carbs-
- sugars-
- fibre-
- protein-
- salt-
Choosing your steak
Rib-eye: The chef's favourite. Allow 200-250g per head to allow for trimming. This cut used to be quite cheap, but is now creeping up in price. It has an open-fibre texture and a marbling of creamy fat. Cook with the surrounding fat still attached, then remove after cooking, if you prefer. The fat adds flavour as well as basting the meat during cooking.
Fillet: The most expensive cut. Allow 100-125g per head. It is very lean and, because it has short fibres, very tender. Ask for a piece cut from the middle of the fillet, not the end. Also, ensure that the butcher removes the sinewy chain that runs down the side. I like to cook my steaks split in half lengthways, not the usual round medallion shape.
T-bone: Generally 350-400g each, including bone. It has a good marbling of fat with a layer of creamy fat on one side – this should be left on for cooking, then removed if you like. You get about 200-250g of meat, with a sirloin on one side of the bone and a fillet on the other. You also get some marrow in the bone which can be spread on the cooked meat.
To cook your steaks, heat a frying pan – to a moderate heat for fillet, hot for T-bone or very hot for rib-eye. Add a swirl of oil, with a whole garlic clove and a herb sprig. Season the steaks with salt and pepper and cook for 1½-2½ mins on each side. For fillet steak, cook the rounded edges too, turning to seal them well.
If you're cooking fillet or rib-eye steaks, add a knob of butter to the pan, allow to foam a little and baste the steaks. T-bone steak has plenty of fat, so simply spoon it over the meat as it renders down. Remove steaks to a plate and allow to rest for at least 5 mins. Trim off any unwanted fat.
Slice fillet or rib-eye steak along the grain, then arrange on a plate with your chosen sauce and side dish. My personal preferences are for rib-eye with mushrooms and the shallot & red wine sauce; fillet steak with oven chips and bois boudrin; and T-bone with wilted spinach and mushroom sauce.
Recipe Tip
The panChoose a heavy-duty frying pan with a thick base and, ideally, a non-stick coating. Don't overcrowd the pan – cook the steaks one or two at a time, then heat them through in the sauce later.
Recipe Tip
RestingThe cooked steak needs to rest for at least 5 mins and will retain its heat in a warm place for about 10 mins.
Recipe Tip
Checking for 'doneness'Use your fingers to prod the meat. When rare, it will feel soft; medium-rare should be only lightly bouncy; well done will feel much firmer.
Recipe Tip
TongsGordon uses lobster-style tongs for easy turning. Don't turn the steak in the pan until it has had at least a minute of cooking each side. That way it develops a delicious caramelised flavour.
Recipe Tip
Oils to useUse groundnut oil for cooking steaks as it can withstand high-temperature cooking without burning and spoiling the flavour. Finish with a little butter at the end of cooking, if you like.
Recipe Tip
SeasoningDon't season a steak until just before cooking, as salt draws out moisture from meat. Gordon sprinkles sea salt and freshly ground black pepper onto a dinner plate and presses the steaks into the seasoning just before cooking them.


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The draft constitution approved by Egypt's Constituent Assembly poses serious human rights problems, a number of NGOs have said.
Criticism has come from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty and others over the past 24 hours.
The draft falls well short of protecting human rights and, in particular, ignores the rights of women, restricts freedom of expression in the name of protecting religion, and allows for the military trial of civilians, Amnesty said on 30 November 2012.
"This document, and the manner in which it has been adopted, will come as an enormous disappointment to many of the Egyptians who took to the streets to oust Hosni Mubarak and demand their rights," commented Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.
Freedom of religion is limited to Islam, Christianity and Judaism, potentially excluding the right to worship to other religious minorities such as Baha'is and Shi'a Muslims.
The constitution fails to provide for the supremacy of international law over national law, raising concerns about Egypt's commitment to human rights treaties to which it is a state party.
Furthermore, the document fails to fully guarantee economic, social and cultural rights, such as protection against forced evictions - it also tolerates child labour.
Paradoxically demands for dignity and social justice were at the heart of the '25 January Revolution'.
"The process of drafting the constitution was flawed from the outset, and has become increasingly unrepresentative. We urge President Morsi to put the drafting and referendum process back on the right path, one that includes all sectors of society, which respects the rule of law – including the vital role of an independent judiciary – and results in a constitution that enshrines human rights, equality and dignity for all," said Hadj Sahraoui.
Amnesty has expressed concern that the assembly - widely boycotted by opposition political parties and Christian churches - is not truly representative of Egyptian society. The body is dominated by the Freedom and Justice Party and the Nour Party. At the outset, the assembly only included seven women and their numbers have since dwindled.
Opposition political parties have withdrawn their members from the assembly, as have Christian churches, in protest at the assembly's make-up and decisions.
They have voiced a number of concerns, including the lack of representation of young people, of a variety political parties, and the role Shari'a law has played – including in respect of women's rights.
The assembly also faced criticism for not doing enough to enshrine the right to adequate housing – a key concern for the estimated 12 million Egyptians living in slums.
A decree issued last week by President Morsi gave the Constituent Assembly an additional two months to complete its work. However on Wednesday the body announced that it would finalise the text in a day. Yesterday, the draft was rushed through a plenary session of the assembly, with no time for real debate or objections from the members.
"The new constitution will guide all Egyptian institutions and it should set out the vision for the new Egypt – one based on human rights and the rule of law: a document which is the ultimate guarantor against abuse. The constitution must guarantee the rights of all Egyptians, not just the majority." said Hadj Sahraoui.
"But the approved draft comes nowhere near this. Provisions that purport to protect rights mask new restrictions, including on criticism of religion. Women, who were barely represented in the assembly, have the most to lose from a constitution which ignores their aspirations, and blocks the path to equality between men and women. It is appalling that virtually the only references to women relate to the home and family."
When asked about the lack of women's rights in the draft constitution yesterday in a state television interview, President Morsi said women were citizens like all others. The President's position mirrors the approach of the Constituent Assembly in ignoring the rights of women.
The vote to approve the constitution came ahead of a 2 December ruling on the assembly's legitimacy by the Supreme Constitutional Court, which was widely expected to order the body's dissolution.
President Morsi's decree, which was announced on 22 November, prevents any judicial body from dissolving the assembly.
The decree, which also removed the Public Prosecutor, granted the president sweeping powers and stopped the courts from challenging his decisions, has sparked widespread anger and protests in Egypt.
Opposition groups plan to march to the presidential palace today (Friday), while the Muslim Brotherhood has called for a protest to support the President on Saturday.
The draft constitution now passes to a national referendum which must take place within 15 days. Any such referendum would require supervision by judges but Egypt's Judges Club, an independent network of judges numbering some 9,500 members, has announced that its members will not take part.
Judges throughout the country are striking in protest at President Morsi's decree, which they see as a threat to their independence.
"Instead of marking a return to order and the rule of law, the adopted text of the constitution has plunged Egypt into even greater chaos and deadlock," said Amnesty's Hadj Sahraoui.


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A gratifying aspect of XC has been the contribution of sounds of poorly known species and regions to the collection by locals. The sounds of Sitta ledanti from Algeria are a point in case. It was only discovered in 1975 in an area of northern Algeria and is endemic to that country. It turns out Algerians like Karim Haddad, organised in AquaCirta, are working to safeguard the only forests that the birds live in: mount Babor, the forest of Guerrouche and the forests of Tamentout and Bouafroune, the latter two going without formal protection up to this day. Only last month they secured evidence of its occurrence at a fifth location, the Lerabaa forest of Ouadjana in Jijel province. Excellent.
Algerian Nuthatch Sitta ledanti
What is xeno-canto?
xeno-canto is a website dedicated to sharing bird sounds from all over the world. Whether you are a research scientist, a birder, or simply curious about a sound that you heard out your kitchen window, we invite you to listen, download, and explore the bird sound recordings in the collection.
But xeno-canto is more than just a collection of recordings. It is also a collaborative project. We invite you to share your own bird recordings, help identify mystery recordings, or share your expertise in the forums. Welcome!
Latest News
Hello everyone, we will be updating the site tomorrow. If all goes well, everything will just keep running while we do it. Part of the regular update scheme, which has turned out to be quite irregular this year. Once it's done we'll highlight some of the changes. And yes, there's a few from the most wanted backlist, but not all of them :-)
ok, so there are a few hiccups that we are hopefully fixing today, but mostly thing went smoothly.
one thing that was added is that apart from the usual searches, for example type:male (that would return every type that has "male" in it including "female") you can now also do type:=male that will only return exact matches.
Three of the improvements suggested by XC'ists are now fully functional. Excellent! :)
Check these out: Type searches not phrase searches Email copy of sent messages to Xeno Canto recordists Background species not presented in selected language
....the "country background species" are great!
many thanks to you ulf and w.p.
Nice thanks for these improvements, what about the possibility to play the sonograms? any chance to see this soon in xenocanto..Andres
hi Andres, everything "sonogram" has been postponed until the Grasshopper project. We secured some funding and are working to get it off the ground now. It will involve overhaul of all the sound things (potentially storing .wav, producing other kinds of sonos etc.), so who knows :-)
In my account, country links are not working ... "No recordings were found that match the search term 'dir: LELYWQKUZX cnt: "Kazakhstan"'. To improve your search please read the search tips page".
Is anyone else having problems with the advanced search function? Presently all I see back is that there are no recordings for the requests I make even though I know that they exist.
yes, Scott, Albert, we introduced a bug that causes problems with several types of searches when we fixed another issue. A fix has been tested and looks good. We're checking that now, if ok'ed it will come on-site today. Will keep you posted.
hi guys, should be fixed now. Please check...
Yes, it worked, thanks for the prompt correction ...
definitely from exact location "1" and "2".
dear w.p. .....probaly a day time filter would be also nice
e.g. range from 04:00am earliest morning till 11:00 a.m. later morning
hm... I see Johannes. Ranges in times. Probably a good idea, especially with all the night recordings coming in.
Any chance we can have the "make a map of all locations of the current selection" back as a feature? This has been temporarily suspended for some years now because of performance issues, but maybe those issues have been at least partially resolved now - and if not, could it be enabled only for selections below a certain limit in terms of number of recordings?
keep forgetting that it is turned off because it works for admins..... it is on the list of things to do. sigh, we could have easily done that last update really...
17 replies :: Your reply
9000 hours of tape currently shared by all of you. Onto a round 10000!
.... the site is terribly slow for some reason. We're looking into it. Please bear with us.....
.....better now it seems. As a side effect a most interesting bug was exposed, namely that it is pretty difficult even for admins to remove posts on the front page :-)
This might be due to a new Kaggle competition involving xeno canto data being run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. https://www.kaggle.com/c/birdsong-recognition/data
ok, possibly..... wasn't aware, of the competition, assuming someone mentioned it at some point. Will check the inbox :-) .... Wow, they're offering 25k prize money. Hopefully, and in line with the CC spirit of our licenses, the results will be open for everyone.. must get in touch. And check if Mario Lasseck is participating of course :-) BTW BirdClef has been running a similar task, using XC and Cornell data :-)
So Cornell hosts a competition without using their own vast library of recordings? In any case, they host the XC training data locally, so that's not likely to cause us problems.
I think the point was that entrants are free to and can be expected to roam the web for extra training data, which would have them end up here.
The Birdclef version is here.
Still very slow at my end
Xeno Canto..is running again
many thanks for found out these problems !
We've reached out to the Kaggle competition organisers. We know the organisers and in fact they made us aware of the competition some time ago. Forgot about it. Wonder why :-) Anyway, they've instructed their community to be gentle on XC and have had some positive response. Let's see what happens later today.
@Bob Planqué I'm guessing it's because the terms of use for the Macaulay library are much more strict than most of Xeno Canto's data (which is almost all some variant of CC). The Macaulay library data can't be used "to make products of any kind (whether commercial or noncommercial)" which they clarify includes even just a simple website, the Kaggle competition itself may even count as a product.
Full disclosure, I know this because I started working on a project in line with what the Kaggle competition is doing a few months and decided to use XC data instead of Cornell's because of this licensing. https://github.com/kbrose/chorus
Hi Kevin, yes obviously. It's a shame the Macaulay library has such a restricted license.
XC is still incredibly slow. I've tried opening XC on several browsers but still it takes ages to open. When it eventually opens even then clinking on a tab or sound file takes a long time to open.
hi Eddy, hmm... can you indicate at what time that was in which timezone? During the day in Western Europe all is fine.
Hi Willem-Pier Friday 26/06/2020 at 21:00 South Australian time. Australian Central Standard Time (ACST)
Have also noticed that the site is often still very slow or even unresponsive early on in the day here in Laos (GMT+7), and then it gets better later on. It seems better in the last few days though.
15 replies :: Your reply
.... the site is terribly slow for some reason. We're looking into it. Please bear with us.....
In my account, country links are not working ... "No recordings were found that match the search term 'dir: LELYWQKUZX cnt: "Kazakhstan"'. To improve your search please read the search tips page".
1 replies :: Your reply
Latest Additions
- XC582562: Pygmy Flycatcher by Scott Connop from Nepal
- XC582561: Pale-footed Bush Warbler by Scott Connop from Nepal
- XC582560: Pale-chinned Blue Flycatcher by Scott Connop from Nepal
- XC582559: Pale-billed Flowerpecker by Scott Connop from Nepal
- XC582558: Pale Blue Flycatcher by Scott Connop from Nepal
- XC582557: Oriental Turtle Dove by Scott Connop from Nepal
- XC582556: Olive-backed Pipit by Scott Connop from Nepal
- XC582555: Mountain Scops Owl by Scott Connop from Nepal
- XC582554: Mountain Bulbul by Scott Connop from Nepal
- XC582553: Little Pied Flycatcher by Scott Connop from Nepal
- More...
Great work!
Latest Mysteries
- XC582550 by Brian Hendrix from United States
- XC582543 by Brian Hendrix from United States
- XC582511 by Maxime Pirio from France
- XC582376 by Phil Stockton from United Kingdom
- XC582368 by Ken Lossy from Belgium
- XC582330 by Henrik Storm from Sweden
- XC582328 by Andrew Durso from United States
- XC582326 by Ilan Beer from Israel
- XC582325 by Vandesteene Corentin from France
- XC582301 by Paul Cohen from Sweden
- More...
Latest Articles
- Under the wings of Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) - Soundscapes by Frank Holzapfel
- Under the wings of Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) - Goshawk calls by Frank Holzapfel
- Bird identification Apps: Q&A with Mario Lasseck by Alvaro Ortiz Troncoso
- 32-bit float files – a new era in bird recordings? by Stein Ø. Nilsen
- Ask anything about automatic birdsong id apps, with Mario Lasseck by Alvaro Ortiz Troncoso
- More...


text:
Atmospheric Dynamics and their Role in the Changing Arctic Climate System
A research team at the International Arctic Research Center of the University of Alaska Fairbanks has strived to improve understanding of atmospheric dynamics and their role in the rapidly changing arctic climate system. The research is funded in part by the NSF Arctic Sciences Division in collaboration with national and international scientists and students from North Carolina A&T State University, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, North Carolina State University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the NASA Cryospheric Sciences Laboratory, the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, the Met Office Hadley Centre, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The atmosphere is an integral component of the earth's climate system. In addition to its direct impact on our daily lives, including wind, rain, and hot and cold temperatures, atmosphere also consists of a broad spectrum of motions that are governed by internal dynamic and physical processes and external forcings, and that steer daily weather phenomena. These dynamically varying atmospheric states can be representatively described by the large-scale general circulation pattern and the embedded synoptic-scale weather systems. Not only do the atmospheric circulation pattern and weather systems fluctuate over time and move spatially, but they also interact strongly with other components of the climate system. To understand the variability of and changes in sea ice, ocean, hydrology, and land surface processes, various observed and analyzed atmospheric data are used for statistical and diagnostic analysis and as forcing for numerical model simulations. Therefore, better understanding of atmospheric dynamics and their role in the rapidly changing arctic climate system is a central piece in climate research.
Arctic atmospheric circulation and weather systems have exhibited dramatic changes during past decades in conjunction with the amplified warming trend in arctic climate. For example, the leading atmospheric circulation pattern experienced a radical spatial shift during the first decade of the twenty-first century, and this shift enhanced heat transport into the Arctic Ocean and circulated cold polar air to lower latitudes, leading to the record low in summer sea ice and extreme cold weather in Eurasia in 2007 (e.g., Zhang et al. 2008; Overland and Wang 2010; Graversen et al. 2011). A poleward shift in storm tracks and an intensification of storm activity were also detected and suggested as important players in the precipitation increase and sea ice reduction (e.g., Zhang et al. 2004; Serreze and Barrett 2008; Sorteberg and Walsh 2008; Simmonds and Keay 2009).
To further understand the arctic climate as a system, the research team has also recently examined the role of atmospheric dynamics in changes in the arctic water and heat energy cycle, as introduced below.
Enhanced Poleward Atmospheric Moisture Transport and Intensified Water Cycle
Observational studies and greenhouse-gas-emissions-forced climate model projections have indicated an acceleration in northern high-latitude and arctic water cycles. A notable example of this is an increase in Eurasian Arctic river discharge into the Arctic Ocean (e.g., Peterson et al. 2002; Kattsov et al. 2007; Figure 1). The most recent data further revealed that the increasing rate of the river discharge has amplified in the latest decade, and a record-high discharge occurred in 2007 (e.g., Shiklomanov and Lammers 2009; Rawlins et al. 2009). This accelerated water cycle and the resulting river discharge into the Arctic Ocean may intensify interactions among climate system components and further advance climate change, including greater down-welling long-wave radiation and a warmer arctic surface, a fresher Arctic Ocean, and larger Arctic Ocean freshwater export. These have important implications for the arctic sea ice mass balance, the North Atlantic thermohaline circulation, and global climate variability.
To locate the major driver for the accelerated water cycle or increased river discharge, the research team improved a mass correction approach. By employing this approach, they corrected mass biases in the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)-National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) reanalysis data so that its dry air mass is conserved globally throughout the study time period. They then computed atmospheric moisture transport converged into the three large Eurasian Arctic river basins, including those of the Ob, Yenisei, and Lena rivers. They found that the converged atmospheric moisture transport over the three river basins captures 98% of the measured river discharge. The atmospheric moisture transport converged into these river basins has significantly increased during the last sixty years, with a record high in 2006. This enhanced transport has clearly increased precipitation and played a significant driving role in the increased Eurasian river discharge into the Arctic Ocean. Specifically, the moisture transport has increased by about 15.6% and the river discharge has increased by about 10.6% from the 1940s to the 2000s. The increasing rate in the last decade and the 2006 record high in moisture transport can be attributed to the radically shifted atmospheric circulation spatial pattern (Figure 2).
Meanwhile, the record high in moisture transport occurred in 2006, earlier than the record low for sea ice in 2007. This indicates that the record-high river discharge in 2007 may not be attributed to a hypothesized increase in evaporation due to more open water in the Arctic during the period of record-low sea-ice cover. Incidentally, the increasing rate of moisture transport is larger than that of the river discharge, suggesting a wetting trend of the underlying soil.
Finally, this study suggests that, although increased global atmospheric water content is attributed to rising air temperature, a changed atmospheric circulation is the route by which global-warming forcing changes water redistribution. Atmospheric circulation is a fundamental dynamic mechanism for continuing poleward atmospheric moisture transport and a maintained hydrological cycle. A change in moisture transport may intensify regional or global water cycles and cause extreme hydrological events, such as the upward trend of and the 2007 record high in Eurasian Arctic river discharges.
For more information about this water cycle study, see the project website: http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate1631.html or contact the contributing author of this article Xiangdong Zhang (xdz [at] iarc.uaf.edu).
Some content in this article, including Figure 2 was previously published in Nature Climate Change (2012)
Graversen, R. G., T. Mauritsen, S. Drijfhout, M. Tjernström, and S. Mårtensson, 2011: Warm Winds from the Pacific Caused Extensive Arctic Sea-Ice Melt in Summer 2007, Clim Dyn 36, 2103-2112, DOI: 10.1007/s00382-010-0809-z.
Kattsov, V., J. E. Walsh, V. Govorkova, T. Pavlova, and X. Zhang, 2007: Arctic Ocean Freshwater Budget Components in Simulations with the IPCC AR4 AOGCMs. J. Hydrometeor., 8, 571-589.
Overland, J. E., and M. Wang, 2010: Large-scale Atmospheric Circulation Changes are Associated with the Recent loss of Arctic Sea Ice. Tellus A, 62, 1–9, doi:10.1111/j.1600-0870.2009.00421.x
Peterson, B. J., R. M. Holmes, J. W. McClelland, C. J. Vörösmarty, R. B. Lammers, A. I. Shiklomanov, I. A. Shiklomanov, and S. Rahmstorf, 2002: Increasing River Discharge to the Arctic Ocean. Science, 298, 2171-2173, doi:10.1126/science.1077445.
Rawlins, M. A., M. C. Serreze, R. Schroeder, X. Zhang, and K. C. McDonald, 2009: Diagnosis of the Record Discharge of Arctic-draining Eurasian Rivers in 2007. Environ. Res. Lett., 4, 045011, doi:10.1088/1748-9326/4/4/045011.
Serreze, M. C., and A. P. Barrett, 2008: The Summer Cyclone Maximum over the Central Arctic Ocean. J. Climate, 21, 1048–1065, doi:10.1175/2007JCLI1810.1.
Shiklomanov, A. I., and R. B. Lammers, 2009: Record Russian River Discharge in 2007 and the Limits of Analysis. Environ. Res. Lett., 4, 045015, doi:10.1088/1748-9326/4/4/045015.
Simmonds, I., and K. Keay 2009: Extraordinary September Arctic Sea Ice Reductions and Their Relationships with Storm Behavior Over 1979–2008, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L19715, doi:10.1029/2009GL039810.
Sorteberg, A., and J. E. Walsh, 2008: Seasonal Cyclone Variability at 70N and its Impact on Moisture transport into the Arctic Tellus A, 60, 570-586.
Zhang, X., J. E. Walsh, J. Zhang, U. S. Bhatt, and M. Ikeda, 2004: Climatology and Interannual Variability of Arctic Cyclone Activity, 1948-2002. J. Climate, 17, 2300-2317.
Zhang, X., A. Sorteberg, J. Zhang, R. Gerdes, and J. C. Comiso, 2008: Recent Radical Shifts in Atmospheric Circulations and Rapid Changes in Arctic Climate System. Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L22701, doi:10.1029/2008GL035607.
Zhang, X., J. He, J. Zhang, I. Polaykov, R. Gerdes, J. Inoue, and P. Wu, 2012: Enhanced Poleward Moisture Transport and Amplified Northern High-Latitude Wetting Trend. Nature Clim. Change, doi: 10.1038/NCLIMATE1631.


text:
Who better to talk football and Italia, Italia, Italia with than Gabriele Marcotti? The man with an encyclopedic knowledge who writes about football in The Times, Corriere dello Sport, Sunday Herald, SportsIllustrated and La Stampa and can be heard on the Times Podcast and on BBC Radio 5 Live. He's also written three books - Paolo Di Canio: The Autobiography, Capello: Portrait of a Winner and The Italian Job with Gianluca Vialli. And relax.
I decided against dressing up as a woman and saddling up to Marcotti in a covert operation to interview him. The heels proved too much in the end. Instead I opted simply to dial him up. Take that Mail on Sunday. Back at ya Lord T.
So pull up a chair then as Marcotti and I discuss all things Italian, Paolo Di Canio (mad as a box of frogs obviously), Fabio Capello beating up journalists and *adopts serious voice* Why Michele Padovano is a horrible person.
You were born within a gnat's crotchet of the San Siro. Was it there that you saw your first ever match and fell in love with football? No, my first match was actually in, of all places, Tokyo. Juventus v Argentinos Juniors for the World Club Cup. Platini scored a great goal which was disallowed, Juve eventually won. Like many, I fell in love with football well before that. My parents are not football fans, but I watched most of the 1982 World Cup (which turned out rather well for Italy, so it wasn't hard to "fall in love") on TV. Actually it was somewhat interesting because we were living in Germany at the time and that made the final even sweeter.
You're a Chelsea season ticket holder and follow Inter but Monza are your actual team right? It's a bit complex. I followed Inter as a kid because my grandfather, the only football fan in my family, was an Inter supporter. And I started going to Chelsea when I was in high school, between 1989 and 1991, simply because they were my local club. I sort of always liked Monza because their ground is near where my grandparents live one the outskirts of Milan. Later I sort of adopted them.
Why? Because to me being a fan means unconditional, unquestioning love. And, equally, loathing of your rivals. (Yes, it's not very mature, but that's how I see it). But when you work in this industry and you actually meet the people cover you might find that some of the guys you're supposed to support are nasty, unpleasant people. And, conversely, some of the ones you're supposed to loathe are actually great, admirable guys. So now I basically cheer for individuals I like and admire and leave it at that. I don't particularly like Barcelona, for example, but I adore Xavi, Guardiola and Pique. I didn't like Inter's football under Cuper and Tardelli or Chelsea's under Mourinho or Scolari. But I love the way Arsenal play and I like William Gallas, Fabregas and Van Persie, while disliking Ashley Cole. All this confusion tells me I can't really call myself a fan of a big club. Which is why I can support Monza from a distance... I don't really know those guys. I do have season tickets at Chelsea but I also go to the Emirates a lot (a friend has a box).
Deep breath now; poor attendances, antiquated stadia, outbursts of violence, stressful policing and the odd corruption scandal. Are you sick of these tired old cliches about Serie A? Well they may be cliches but they're largely true. Attendances aren't what they should be or could be, though there are a lot of reasons for that and lack of passion or attachment isn't one of them, so I'm not that concerned. I don't really care about antiquated stadia, I don't go to watch a football for the amenities. (Though I do care about bad sightlines, etc.). The policing is pretty crappy, but it's improving, slowly. What really annoys me - and this goes hand to hand with the corruption - is the impunity. But that's a reflection of Italy as a country, it's going to take a long time to change that.
The ultras in Italy are passionate beyond belief and bring noise and colour into the stadiums. They also carry some excess baggage that is said to be putting families off attending games. ID cards aren't the answer though are they? No, they're not the answer, but they can help and the opposition to ID cards isn't based on something rational like Big Brother civil liberties (as it is in the UK), after all, we all have national ID cards in Italy, I don't see how this is different. Opposition is based around wanting impunity. And that's what bugs me. If you misbehave you should be punished. I don't think the Ultras put off families going to games as much as people suggest. I think it's the bad policing coupled with the misceants who use the Ultras as cover. The Ultras need to do a better job policing themselves and the cops need to do a better job policing period.
What do you think is the main differences between Italian and English fans? Let me plug my book here, The Italian Job, in which Gianluca Vialli and I go into this at length. Maybe the biggest difference is that English fans have a different sense of loyalty to the club as a whole: the players, the manager, etc. That's why they continue to support the team even if they're playing badly (unless they really really stink). Italian fans really only care about the club colours and the crest, nothing else. They don't feel like they have to support if the team aren't producing. They feel the players and the manager are sort of the keepers of a sacred flame, but that does not make them immune to criticism. I guess it's the difference between believing in God and believing in the Church. English fans tend to back the Church, Italian fans back God, while reserving the right to be critical of everything the church does. The other big difference is that, broadly speaking, English fans reward effort, Italian fans reward performance, even if the effort isn't there.
The twinning of Italian football clubs is fairly unique. Is there any real love there or is it a case of 'my enemy's enemy is my friend'? It varies to some degree. But generally the twinning is among the sets of fans, not the clubs, so it's often quite genuine.
What is your favourite Paolo Di Canio story? Wow, there are so many. Attacking his brother with a barbecue fork and impaling it in his back... having an anxiety attack while seeing a psychiatrist in Rome and running out into the streets with half the youth team chasing him... making Baresi and Maldini dance like puppets on a string when he was at Napoli... getting into a near fistfight with the late Tommy Burns and then breaking down crying, both men hugging each other in a rainy Glasgow... threatening to kill Ian Ferguson... scoring on his derby debut and winding up the Roma fans and then doing the same thing 15 years later... taking a pay cut to go back to the club he loves... putting fishheads in Peter Grant''s bed and basically making him have a nervous breakdown... ripping the ball from Lampard's hand to take a penalty while at West Ham... being cast to play young Zorro in a film as an eight year old...
What would he have made of Lazio supposedly rolling over against Inter towards the end of the Scudetto just to annoy their bitter rivals Roma? He would have absolutely hated it. But he would have understood why they did it.
"Those who love me follow me, those who hate me chase me" Jose Mourinho of course. Are you a follower or a hater? I can't give anybody the unconditional love he demands. So I guess I'm a hater. I just wish he would grow up and realize that you don't have to be rude and pick fights for people to respect you. And I wish he would not rewrite history at every turn.
I'm not sure if you've heard but the World Cup starts soon in South Africa. Does the World Cup still get the Marcotti juices flowing? Absolutely. There is nothing like it. And if you've been fortunate enough to witness your team winning it - as I have been, twice in my lifetime - there is nothing like it.
What is your favourite World Cup memory? I'll give you two involving Italy, just because they were so personal. Watching Italy v Brazil in 1982 in my little suburb of Frankfurt and seeing Zoff make that late save, that was special. But also the semi final against Germany at the Westfalen stadium, when Lippi brought on the two strikers even as Germany was battering us. And then seeing Lehmann beaten and try to kick Gilardino. Wonderful. As for non-Italy related memories, obviously Maradona's second goal against England, as well as that brilliant reverse pass with his right foot to set up Caniggia against Brazil in 1990. Rashidi Yekini collapsing into the back of the net and praying after scoring for Nigeria. There are plenty others.
Italy stuck two fingers up to the world by winning it in 2006 after their preparations were dominated by domestic match fixing allegations. Did that galvanise both the team and the fans? It galvanized the team, it took the fans a while to get on board. Lippi had annoyed many by having so many closed practices. Plus, Italy fans, especially those at home, are notorious bandwagon jumpers. They're hypercritical and negative and then, if the team does well, they jump on the bandwagon and try to share the glory. Basically, we're pretty crap fans.
There is a huge furore about where the 2018 and 2022 World Cup should take place. Does it actually matter to you where they're played? Yes, I do care. I think the World Cup should be held in a country that loves football and is accessible and affordable to as many fans as possible. It should not be a promotional tool for a country, it's not the Olympics.
If England don't win the 2010 World Cup, it'll be the media's fault for bigging them up too much right? Yeah, but the media always big up England. It depends how England go out. The fact of the matter is that luck and happenstance play big roles. You don't necessarily need to be lucky, you need not to be unlucky.
Tell us something we don't know about Fabio Capello. People don't realize just how good a footballer he was. Most of what I know about him is in my book. He once beat up a journalist who criticized him. How's that? (pretty pretty good - Ed).
Which football journalists or presenters do you admire? Hugh McIlvanney is an inspiration for his writing. Martin Samuel is outstanding, though I don't always agree with him. I like a lot of the people who put in a a lot of hard work to get stories and, among those, I'd include Matt Hughes, Neil Ashton, Ian McGarry and Sam Wallace. Jonathan Wilson is possibly the most intelligent guy I know (though he shocked me once by not knowing who Jim Thorpe was). Guillem Balague and Rafi Honigstein are good friends as well as good journalists so I'm probably biased there. As for presenters, it's a particular skill, I think most are pretty polished. Don't really have faves.
Are there any that you dislike particularly (nobody reads this so you can tell us Gab)? Yes. And I'm not going to tell you who they are because it annoys me when fellow journos have a go at me too. I think it's fair for fans to criticize us in public, but colleagues should steer clear of that. But there are two I absolutely hate, largely because I think they're mean-spirited and allow themselves to be used as pawns. I mean, nobody is fully objective and if a source gives you a story, you're bound to look on them favourably. But there are limits and these guys regularly cross the line.
How much football do you watch a week? Usually two games in person and maybe another ten on TV. (I have three screens in my office and a magic satellite dish). *note to self: order two more screens and magic satellite dish for EFW office*
Who has been the most difficult footballer you've had to interview? The nastiest was Michele Padovano, just a horrible person. But he knows what I think of him. If you're talking difficulty in terms of obtaining the interview then there are many, including the ones I failed to get.
And finally, we obviously love our European Football Weekends. If you could recommend one city or one ground in Europe to watch some football in, what would it be? I guess you guys don't consider yourselves part of Europe, right?
Wrong, we're all about Europe here at EFW. One big party with everyone invited. Ok, I'd say Fulham for the scenery and Celtic, Leeds or West Brom for the fans. Off the top of my head, I'd say Venezia for the surreality of it all, Schalke for the experience and, on a good day, the Rome derby.
His books are available HERE, THERE and EVERYWHERE.
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Also in this series of interviews Sid Lowe and Barry Glendenning.
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text:
Pediatrics Services
Pediatrics refers to the medical care of infants, children, and adolescents. Pediatricians undergo extensive medical training to care for these young patients. Pediatricians may work closely with other specialists like neonatologists and oncologists to manage more serious medical conditions.
DHS offers pediatric services in its pediatric clinics, some of which are based at DHS hospitals. DHS also operates two specialized Pediatric Emergency Rooms for the most serious, life-threatening conditions. Wherever you seek pediatric services, your child is in good hands with caring and compassionate DHS providers.
If your child is a current DHS patient and needs prompt care, contact your child's Primary Care provider to make a same-day appointment or visit a DHS Urgent Care Center listed under the "Services" tab on the homepage. If your child is not a current DHS patient or does not have health care coverage, visit any of the DHS clinic sites listed below that offer pediatric Primary Care services to find a regular provider and get your child linked to services.
Please note that financial screening is required at each of these locations prior to seeing a doctor or making an appointment. Clinic staff will help you determine all available coverage and payment options.
Locations that provide Pediatrics Services
Dollarhide Health Center
1108 N. Oleander
Compton, CA 90220
Edward R. Roybal Comprehensive Health Center
245 S. Fetterly Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90022
El Monte Comprehensive Health Center
10953 Ramona Blvd.
El Monte, CA 91731
Glendale Health Center
501 N. Glendale Ave.
Glendale, CA 91206
H. Claude Hudson Comprehensive Health Center
2829 S. Grand Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90007
Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
1000 W. Carson St.
Torrance, CA 90509
High Desert Regional Health Center
335 East Avenue I
Lancaster, CA 93535
Hubert Humphrey Comprehensive Health Center
5850 S. Main St.
Los Angeles, CA 90003
LAC+USC Medical Center
2051 Marengo Street
Los Angeles, CA 90033
La Puente Health Center
15930 Central Ave.
La Puente, CA 91744
Long Beach Comprehensive Health Center
1333 Chestnut Ave.
Long Beach, CA 90813
Martin Luther King, Jr. Outpatient Center
1670 East 120th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90059
Mid-Valley Comprehensive Health Center
7515 Van Nuys Blvd.
Van Nuys, CA 91405
Olive View-UCLA Medical Center
14445 Olive View Dr.
Sylmar, CA 91342
San Fernando Health Center
1212 Pico St.
San Fernando, CA 91340
South Valley Health Center
38350 40th St. East
Palmdale, CA 93550
dhs content/Home/Services/Pediatrics/Facilities