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Editor's Note: We're coming up on the start of NIU's fall semester, when a new NIU Business social media intern will post to Student Voices. In the meantime, another NIU Business student sent in a guest post and we're delighted to publish it! In this post, Ludwig Gerdes (that's him in the picture!) shares great suggestions for building your digital presence and your personal brand. It's a wonderful thing to do because building a personal brand helps you become more intentional about your goals and even more focused on how you Show Up for things in this great adventure called Life! Check out all of Ludwig's suggestions in this story (below) and also on Ludwig's web page. (We couldn't help but notice that one of Ludwig's tips is to build a branded webpage. And we also couldn't help but notice that he not only gives the advice, but lives it too! Awesome. So now your turn…go for it!)
A guest post on building your personal brand by Ludwig Gerdes
You may not realize it yet, but you are already contributing to your prospects of getting your dream job in the future. Whether your contributions are positive or negative, however, is the real question that you should be asking yourself.
What I'm trying to say is that your personal brand is already having an influence on your future, and it is high time you manage what your personal brand is saying to the people that matter.
"Your brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room." – Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon.Jeff Bezos, CEO Amazon
Do a Google search for "Jeff Bezos". What do you see? Probably you'll see multiple pages detailing his biography, some videos of speeches he's done, and numerous articles about or concerning his work with Amazon.
Now search for your own name. What do you see? You'll probably find your Internships.com profile, an old assignment you did for a class during your freshman year of college, and who knew you still had that old MySpace page.
So how are you and Jeff Bezos different, other than the $30.2 billion between your net worth and his? Well, he understands the importance of his personal brand more than you do yours.
But here's how you can fix that.
1. Delete EVERYTHING (and start over)
It's time for a good old-fashioned wiping off of the slate. Oh, but you spent so much time racking up those 2,000 friends on Facebook! They'll still have profiles when if you come back. Think of it as a breath of fresh air. Believe me, you'll thank me later.
If you do, however, have content that you want to keep (e.g. Facebook photos of yourself in high school, old Tweets you thought were hilarious, or Pinterest pins that showed exactly how you can turn that old desk in your parents' basement into a GORGEOUS vanity) back it up. Save screenshots, download files, or whatever you have to so that you don't regret deleting everything else.
If you need help, you can head over to PrivacyFix, or to one of these sites to search for any profiles you might have missed. If you're willing to spend some money, head over towww.reputation.com. These sites are useful if you are worried that you might have missed something on the web.
Now that you've made it through that step and are most likely shaking from separation anxiety, you can start thinking about the next part: what do you want to do with your life?
2. Make Your Personal Strategy
Where do you want to be in your life? No, this isn't an existential question. I'm asking you what you want your career to look like. Where do you want to work? What do you want to do to make money? Where do you want to live?
You should ask yourself all of these questions before you even START to think about anything else. Give yourself time though. It's your life – don't rush through it. Good? Great.
Understanding where you want to be in your career in the next 2, 5, and 10 years is vital before you start shaping your personal brand with different social media accounts.
"It's important to build a personal brand because it's the only thing you're going to have. Your reputation online, and in the new business world is pretty much the game, so you've got to be a good person. You can't hide anything, and more importantly, you've got to be out there at some level." – Gary Vaynerchuk, Author of Crush it! (2009) and Jab, Jab, Jab Right Hook (2013)Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO Vaynermedia
Gary Vaynerchuk (one of my personal heroes) understands the value of personal branding. Having attended a small private school in Massachusetts and receiving less-than-noteworthy grades, his personal brand and his attitude have more than anything made his career what it is today: a multi-million dollar media agency.
A. What Platforms to Choose (Professional)
Just how exactly do you start choosing what social media platforms to have a profile on, you ask? Well, really it depends on where you said you want your career to end up, and how that relates to different social networks.
If you're a design student (graphic or otherwise) you'd better have somecombination of profiles on Behance, Pinterest, Instagram, and Dribbble.
But wait! Don't be on all of them. My recommendation is 2 – 3 accounts so that you can stay active on each of them, and it doesn't stop being fun. Too many and you'll never keep up; too few and you won't have enough of a presence.
You can take a look at my comprehensive guide to choosing a social media platform based on industry. But in the meantime, let's just say you're majoring inbusiness administration, like me.
As a business student, your best friend is your LinkedIn account. On it, you can display your professional work, talents, and interests in such a way that someone interested in hiring someone with talents such as yours can easily find you. Did I mention that approximately 94 percent of recruiters use LinkedIn to source and vet job candidates?
Secondly, you'll want somewhere to host your work.
You love making slideshow presentations? Slideshare. Avid photographer? Instagram + Pinterest make for a one-two combo. You have musical skills? Use SoundCloud to show off your masterful ability.
Each social platform has its unique features that lend itself to the betterment of your personal brand. Be creative and have fun.
B. What Platforms to Choose (Personal)
Now that you've decided on some professional profiles, you can decide if you want to accentuate them with one or two "personal" profiles.
What you have to remember in any case is that your personal accounts are still visible. Even if you set all of the privacy settings to your personal accounts to MAX, there are still numerous situations in which potential employers, co-workers, or recruiters can see your profile. So do not post anything you wouldn't want emerging in an interview with the employer of your dreams.
Personally, I recommend sticking to the messenger apps like GroupMe rather than other, often problematic social media accounts, but for each their own.
C. 100% Completion
It's not enough to just have a profile on a social network. You need to invest the time and energy required to reach 100% completion. Otherwise, you'll come off as looking like an amateur. Do you want your brand to say "Amateur"?
Start by making sure that you have a sound profile picture. The picture should be less than six months old so it actually looks like you and not your younger, less stylish self. Also make sure the picture looks professional. No selfies or mugshots. Nor any generic background photo that looks like you cut it out of a yearbook. (I'm talking to you, NIU faculty!)
Link all of your professional accounts to each other so that they are easy to keep track of. Also, PLEASE customize your social account web addresses, if possible. http://www.linkedin.com/in/ludwiggerdes looks infinitely more professional than www.linkedin.com/in/12019283102
Just go the extra mile to avoid looking like an amateur.
3. Create A Professional Website
Now that you have a professional presence on social media and are benefitting from the improved SEO that comes with that presence, you can take it one step further and create a professional website that can serve as a portfolio, blog, or simple contact form.
I know that you may have made a basic website during the early stages of your college career, but let's face it. It was probably a piece of garbage. If you haven't yet, go back and delete it.
With more modern technology, you can create a website with little-to-no difficulty using a combination of HostGator (web hosting) and WordPress (Content Management Software). I recommend following THIS GUIDE to creating your professional website.
I did, and then I slowly improved. You can take a look at my finished copy atwww.ludwiggerdes.com
One thing that I do (albeit less frequently than I would like) is write articles and publish them to my self-hosted blog. A quick Google search of my name will show you that my personal website is one of the highest-ranking results, just behind my LinkedIn profile and the work I've published for LinkedIn. That's because original content is king. You can use this to your advantage just as easily as I have, and boost your own ranking in Google searches.
Regardless of whether you blog or not, the most important part of your website is the message behind it, and the brand promisethat it displays. Again, be creative and original.
"Your premium brand had better be delivering something special, or it's not going to get the business." – Warren Buffett, Investor and philanthropistWarren Buffett, CEO Berkshire Hathaway
4. Stay Active
So you have successfully created your professional presence on social media, a professional website for yourself, and cleansed the Internet of all traces of your unprofessional self.What's next?
Well, now comes the hard part.
You need to stay active online. Not for a grade like some college courses require. I meanfor the sake of your future career.
You should endeavor to contribute to online communities, because other community members will take notice. However, you shouldn't contribute by not contributing (e.g. spamming LinkedIn groups with questions you don't actually care about).
Your personal brand is only viable if you maintain it. If you don't strive to maintain it, then you are in essence telling potential employers that you don't take pride in your work, and that you can't be relied upon.
So you need to keep up with your social media presence, your professional website, and the online community that you are a part of.
If you don't, then you may have already ruined your chances of getting your dream job.
"Be Yourself, Everyone Else is Already Taken." – Oscar Wilde, Author and Playwright
Ludwig Gerdes is the social media marketing strategist for Northern Illinois University, as well as the 2014-2015 President of BASA, NIU's Business Administration Student Association.


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You are currently browsing the tag archive for the 'Civil Services Examination' tag.
Q. Kaun banega agla pradhan mantri ??
A: I don't know.
I've been thinking about this topic for last few days and 4 names popped up in my mind.
We'll discuss about all of them.
First lets focus on the present scenario.
The policies of the Congress Govt have failed to satisfy "aam admi". So called "mango people" by some of the ministers. I am one of those mangoes and I am DISAPPOINTED. Corruption, Scams and Scandals are hot topics of discussion in every household. The parliament is the highest institution in India and people have completely lost trust on it.
Reservation, price hike, increasing number of crimes in cities etc shows the complete failure of the ruling party.
Not only Congress, other political parties are drenched with corruption as well.
NOW its time to answer the BIG question .. muhahahaha **Evil Laugh** XD
Candidate No. 1
Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia
Surprised ??
YES, you must be.
Even I'm surprised.
India may be talking about Rahul Gandhi but according to me Mr Scindia is the most eligible person in Congress. [ If Rahul can, then why can't he] He is the son of Late Madhavrao Scindia and Madhavi Raje Scindia. He majored in Economics at Harvard University graduating in 1993. In 2001 he received M.B.A Stanford Graduate School of Business.
He was elected in Lok Sabha in Feb 2002 from Guna District. He was re-elected in May 2004 and again in 2009 when he was also appointed as Minister of State for Commerce and Industry in Govt. of India.
He is young, highly qualified and has more than 10 years experience in Politics. AND lately Mr Dickvijay Singh have denied from any possibilities of Rahul being next Prime Minister.
Candidate No. 2
Narendra Damodardas Modi
The HULK of Indian Politics.
The most influential and powerful Indian politician at this moment. A follower of Swami Vivekanand.
He is the Engineer of modern Gujarat.
Has a vast experience in politics, has an impressive personality and never hesitates to take independent decision, unlike "SOME" other politicians.
Narendra Modi has been the member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh since very childhood. He is a workaholic. He is an idol for thousands of young Indians.
Occasionally Modi wears business suits and interacts with netizens at Google+.
Narendra Modi may have faced lot of criticism from his opponents, but then, if you haven't faced criticism in politics, it means you have never stood up for something.
Overall, he is the most deserving candidate and the toughest contender.
Candidate No. 3
Arvind Kejriwal
Kejriwal graduated from IIT Kharagpur with a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering in 1989. He joined TATA Steel after graduation and left the job in 1992. He worked for Mother Teresa's Missionaries of charity in Kolkata, Ramakrishna Mission in North-East India and Nehru Yuva Kendra.
In 1992 after qualifying Civil Services Examination , he joined the IRS as Joint Commissioner which he later resigned in 2002.
Kejriwal came into limelight during the "Jan Lokpal Bill" movement alongside Anna Hazare.
And since then, haven't stopped his fight against corruption.
Overall, a simple , humble and honest person, and willing to fight for the rights of common man.
He is not linked to any serous controversies, but his recent statement about Batla house encounter was not appreciated.
For last 50 years people have been voting for the same faces , lets support Kejriwal this time and give him enough power to make some serious changes.
Candidate No. 4
Dr. Subramanian Swami

subset: commoncrawl


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The number one thing you must learn is to never trust what the guy behind the counter is telling you. Why do think he's there working for barely above minimum wage, instead of working as a painter making $18-$22 an hour or more????? These guys are lucky if they've ever touched a spray gun in their life. Base coat is better sprayed wet and the color change paints are just plain old base with a funky flake. Two feet, eh! Hmm.....
Do some research to find out how your paint gun should be adjusted as far as how to mix the viscosity of the paint and test how much runs out of the gun with the trigger pulled wide open. There is a formula for most products and you will have to adjust the gun accordingly to what the paint manufacturer recommends.
These are only guidlines as far as I'm concerned, but they do give you an idea of where to start. Sounds to me like you were spraying with too much pressure and a restricted fluid flow. Without giving us ALL the information. We can't much help you to the full potential. If you would take the time to tell us everything in great detail of how you paint in one post, we can help. Many of us have been doing this for longer than we care to admit.
Give us the particulars. I asked you all this back when you first had the problem, but I don't remember ever getting a response.
What type of gun were you using? HVLP or Conventional? include the make and model of the gun.
What is the fluid tip size?
What air cap are you using?
What was the pressure AT THE GUN?
What is the length of your air hose as well as the diameter of the air passage of your fittings?
What size and type of air compressor do you have?
How far from the panel do you consistanty spray?
How is your gun set-up? wide fan? narrow fan? Somewhere in between?
How is you gun setup for fluid control? full trigger pull? or have you got it restricted somewhat by cranking the knob in?
Are you absolutely positive the gun is thoroughly clean, with absolutely no debris lodged anywhere??
Is the vent hole of the cup clear, and free of any paint build-up?
Are you mixing your paint to exact directions by the manufacurer?
When spraying, are you moving quite fast to avoid the chance of runs, or are you taking your time and making sure the paint lays down very smooth and even?
When the base coat is applied, does it go on looking somewhat glossy, then allowed to flash dull before proceding to the next coat?
When spraying the clearcoat. Do you spray the first coat just as you would the last, or are you applying a somewhat dryer tack coat first?
Please answer these questions, as this will give us a better idea of how to properly get you on the right track. Your willingness to answer each of these questions, although you have aswered a couple of them already, will tell me just how serious you really are to learn this craft. If you don't answer them this time, I can only assume that you're not interested past a surface level and you won't be needing any further advice.
i wouldnt buy paint from napa its crappiest one theyve got out there, id go at least with ppg's Omni
Hey Ill go ahead and post in great detail and answer all the questions next time I spray actual paint. Ill be spraying a neighbors wire wheels probably tomorrow. I cant answer them now cause its been about a month since I did anything but sand and prime
"The number one thing you must learn is to never trust what the guy behind the counter is telling you. Why do think he's there working for barely above minimum wage, instead of working as a painter making $18-$22 an hour or more????"
You know what I was thinking to my self a while ago that same thing maybe they are just sales-people? Ill post all my projects up here from now on I promise. I hope yall will help me out then and thanks for the help now. Thanks, Chris
"Just sales people" I have to tell you, "sales people" have a lot to offer, you just have to know who to trust. The guy at the counter at a NAPA store, most don't have much. I know, dealing with those very guys was by business for five years of my life. Some took it seriously, they got training at the S-W tech center (M-S and S-W paint is the EXACT same product, only the label is different).
In the "old days" when the parts store was the only place you bought paint, and the paint wasn't so complicated ("a gallon of lacquer primer please") it worked fine. But these days, it just takes too much education to keep up. I do have to say there were a number of these guys whe REALLY knew their stuff and could really send you out the door with the right product.
Now, just because you are going to an independent DuPont, PPG or who ever jobber, doesn't mean you will be treated any different. The ODDS are better you will, but I have ran into counter guys at those stores just as clueless as the NAPA guy.
Your NAPA guy is seriously clueless, what ever you do, don't listen to him.
If you learn what you need and walk in there to buy it, you can get some good products. And it may be the place to get them, depending on what else you have available to you. If you have to drive fifty miles to the nearest DuPont jobber, that NAPA store could be the better choice.
If you learn what you need and walk in there to buy it, you can get some good products. And it may be the place to get them, depending on what else you have available to you. If you have to drive fifty miles to the nearest DuPont jobber, that NAPA store could be the better choice. [/B][/QUOTE]
"Personally speaking"
I would drive a 100 miles before I bought ANY automotive paint from an auto parts store!
Not only because they probably don't know what they're talking about but chances are inventory is old and not turned good so now we have a whole bunch of other problems!
I've been dealing with these counter guys for years and here's what I conclude. Speaking with these guys about painting is like walking into a McDonald's and asking to talk to the guy frying the burgers. When he walks up the the counter, you tell him you own a couple head of beef and one is now ready to butcher. You then proceed by telling him you've never done this before and you would like some advice. You actually think he's gonna be able to help? I mean, afterall, he is a professional beef handler, correct? So why wouldn't he know how to properly butcher a cow? Give me a break!!!
I deal with a PPG Platinum Distributer, who sells nothing but automotive paints and auto body supplies. Even there I have to ask for a specific individual when I call to get a halfway intellegent answer on anything. Some people just have no interest in what they do, so why should they further their education? I believe that's how they think!
When I take an interest in something, I become consumed by it. Passionate about it, if you will, so this way of thinking just eludes me. Either you love it, or get out of it, is my opinion!
As for the guys working the counter at most stores involving automotive paint, in my experience, are there only to receive a check at the end of the week and have no idea which end's up.
This really got me thinking, what you said. You hit it right on!
I deal with a couple hundred jobbers and maybe three dozen
are really good techs that can isolate a problem.
The majority can get through the day if all goes well.
As I think about it the jobbers that carry multi brands of paint seem to be the sharpest? If you think about it a platinum jobber is more brain washed to the platinum story. One thing I have herd the most is I'm not letting someone else tell me how to run my business so goodbye platinum and hello new line.
If I really think about it some of the very best I deal with are the wagon jobbers, its hard work but they do it for the love and not having to deal with help issues and they tend to not like setting in the store.
You want brutal honesty? Most painters don't know much better than the counter guys. It's the blind leading the blind.
Most guys just don't want to learn, they think they know everything because they do it every day. They don't know that they are doing WRONG every day. I know this because I was one of them. I dealt with hundreds over the years and it was a struggle. I had the counter people you guys are talking about selling the wrong product to painters that didn't know any better!
I had the counter guys do things like sell a guy waterborne INDUSTRIAL primer to a body shop that couldn't figure out how to spray it to save thier lives. It was the wrong product, but they couldn't even get close. Then I had the counter guy that told a shop owner/painter that the epoxy hardener would work in his acrylic enamel and he used it!!!
That was the biggest headache as a rep, dealing with that stuff. The shops and stores that took it seriously by going to tech school and LISTENING to me were a joy. I loved doing business with them, in fact "chat" with a few of them on line nearly everyday three years later. The painters who told me "You don't know crap because you are a rep", they were a PAIN and caused me nothing but trouble.
There is a LOT to be learned in this business, most people just don't want to give it the attention needed to actually help them.
Help them sell it, or help them use it.
This is why I like helping the newbes on forums such as this, they actually listen. I sware, I have taught a lot of classes or clinics on using these products. The people who new the least are the ones that cared the most. I found women to be the most enthusiastic to learn. Nothing is worse than telling someone what they are doing wrong only to have them say "what do do you know, you aren't working in the real world"? All the while you stand there and watch them mix retarder with speed additive and mix it 4:1 instead of 3:1 because Sherwin Williams is wrong.
No, give me newbes anyday.
Last edited by MARTINSR; 07-19-2004 at 07:09 PM.
You opened up your own can!! The absolute best paint rep I ever met (I never ask for their help, by the way, as I want to learn to fix my own problems) was a former painter. He was only a rep with PPG for about 3 years and told me he had to get out of it, because the reps he was surrounded with were nothing more than salesmen, plain and simple. The last rep we had was a former boat salesman and had absolutely no prior experience with automotive paints. After inquiring about a job as a paint rep myself, (thinking it would be cool to go into shop and help guys work through their problems) I was told by several reps that they seldom ever step into a booth with the painter. Normally a short visit or a phone call was all that they could do. Their answer to me was that the painter is supposed to be the guy knowing what is going on, and that their job was to get shops switched from their present product to PPG. This is isn't just a PPG deal, either as I've spoken with DuPont reps who back this story up on their side too. In fact, I spoke with one Martin-Senour rep who told me the same thing. I worked with him for a solid week while he tried to convince me that M-S was better than PPG. Is it really common for you guys to bring a trailer and set up shop for a week, giving the product away to make a sale??? This guy did. What a waste of a week for that poor sap. This is not intended as a slam on you, but I hate M-S paint. I tried it off and on through the years and have had nothing but bad experiences with it.
Anywho, not sayin' all paint reps are bad, or don't know much about what they should, but I have run into more glorified counter boys than well educated tech reps.
From what little I've seen thus far of your postings, you are more knowledgeable than the majority of them.
A couple things I failed to add.
You're right, most painters are hard headed suckers that think they have this crap all figured out. I've known some that shouldn't be allowed near and paint gun. Some just don't care anymore and a large number of them are only working to but their next case of beer.
Now the deal about the ladies. They pay more attention to detail and they don't have our male ego!! I once heard an old WWII vet, who was a P-47 mechanic talk about how smooth those girls used to land those planes when they were delivered. That was his reasoning for them being smoother pilots than the men.
Last edited by Randy Ferguson; 07-19-2004 at 09:23 PM.
I totally agree with you on most everything you say, the reps job is selling, that is why I got out. I have to tell you, if you asked if I was a good rep, you would get two different answers, depending on who you asked. If you asked my regional manager he would say "he was ok" because I didn't change over enough shops and didn't raise the numbers as much as they want. If you asked one of my old customers, they would say I was great because I helped them. I have to tell you, "Just salesmen" is a bad attitude to have. First off, YOU are a salesman. We all are, if you weren't we would still be a virgin We wouldn't have a job because we couldn't sell ourselves during an intervue, we are ALL salesmen. Second, like I said the typical painter, mechanic, carpender, and yes even doctor wouldn't know crap after serving his first few years of education if not for the salesman walking in with the latest products! Honestly, you and I would still be shooting Lacquer primers and paints! I don't know how old you are but when I started it was Lacquer and 600 was the finest paper for rubbing. Well, if it weren't for that PPG paint rep (his name was Joe) who came in to "sell" use things back at the Early Ford V8 shop in 1978 I would would never have known there was "Ultra fine" sand paper to cut and buff with. I would have never tried Deltron (I still remember the smell) and if it weren't for that DuPont rep I would have never seen 500S (as I remember is the number) the first urethane clear for bc/cc DuPont had to apply over your lacquer base. I also would never have seen a robotic measuring system like I use at work, how would I have see it? You would have to go to trade shows to see them, oh wait, there would be those bastard salesmen there too!!
No kidding, salesmen most times don't have hands on experiance you do in the "field" but you would be amazed at what you learn by observing. I can tell you would LOVE doing what I did as a rep. I am convinced, I learned more in those five years as a rep then I would have 20 years painting everyday. In fact, I (I am talking personally, I have no idea how someone else would react) I learned MANY things that I could never have learned in the shop. I regularly visited hundreds of painters, seen THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS of projects in the works or finished and aged. I have seen people do the damnest things you could ever imagine with these products and expect them to work, and expect me to find out what went wrong (which I always did, that was my joy). There is NO way, NO way I could have seen all that in a shop. I am not the best painter, I saw some of those guys, I saw guys that we should bow at thier feet. That is another thing I learned, I was humbled by some of the painters I met.
I also learned that ANY brand will perform well. That rep that came in to show you with the "Tech/TRAILER" that M-S was "better" than PPG, if that is really what he was doing he was a "sap". It is not better, on the same note, I don't think I can honestly say PPG is "better" than S-W (which is what M-S is). If you were to ask me what is the best brand between DuPont, S-W, and PPG I would have to lean towards PPG. But as I said, I saw them ALL perform well. I saw painters who would NEVER switch from any one of them because they had had troubles with all the rest.
No, I didn't try to show anyone M-S was "better". I showed them that the store I was representing in that town could service them better, or I showed them a product that was better than what they were using. Yes, DuPont or PPG or whom ever they were using had a product similar to what I was selling, but their rep wasnt' there helping them were they? I was, so I switched them over from priming a loging trailer with lacquer primer, sanding it and painting with IMRON to using an etch primer then epoxy then a urehtane top coat with no sanding in between, saving them many many hours of labor and ending up with a better product. THAT is selling, HELPING the shop with a better way to do something. The DuPont rep could have done the same thing if he where there to do it.
Doing stuff like that and trouble shooting was the reason I kept it up for five years. I just ran into my regional manager where I work (we use S-W here) and I told him how glad I was to have had the opertunity to be a paint rep. I learned more than I would have ever in the path I was going.
As I said, I am not saying you couldn't learn as much in the shop, I am saying that is how I feel that I have learned best.
high solids clears
Hey check the date in the left hand corner. This was posted in 2004!
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Turning calculations
Differential Steering
For a differential drive system, the "center point" where all the turning calculations are based from is based on the location of all the various driving wheels. To keep the process simple, we recommend that you try to keep the wheels evenly spaced so the center is just half way between all the wheels. If the system has a caster, then you can just ignore it for simplicity.
So say you had 6 drive wheels equally spaced, then the "center" would be half way between the two center wheels. However if the wheels are not evenly spaced then you need to do some math. Say the 6 wheels were placed so that the front wheels are 7 in from the center wheels and the back wheels are only 4 in from the center. In this instance you would find the average. you could say that the front wheels are +7, the center are 0, and the back wheels are -4. If you take the average you find that the "center" is at +1 from the center wheels.
For the calculations we will say that the distance between the wheels from one side to the other is W. We will also say that the desired swing radius from the center is R, and the desired speed is V. The speed of the left side will be defined as VL and the speed of the right side as VR.
Akerman Steering
Akerman steering is the steering system used in just about every automobile. Normally the center point is located between a pair of fixed wheels. However this system can have the "center point" located anywhere you want. We will define the distance from the center point to the wheel length-wise as H. We will also define the turning radius as R. We will define the angle of the left and right wheels as ΘL and ΘR respectively. We will also define W as the distance between the wheels on each side.


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Michelle Obama to star in hip-hop video
US First Lady Michelle Obama is making a cameo appearance in a video for a hip-hop song recorded to encourage kids from minority groups to take care of their bodies.
The song, Everybody, is one of 19 on an album called Songs for a Healthier America, set for release next month.
The album is being produced by Hip Hop Public Health and the Partnership for a Healthier America, both of which support the first lady's Let's Move anti-childhood obesity campaign.
Statistics show higher rates of overweight and obesity among black and Latino children.
In the video, Obama talks briefly about launching Let's Move and people's doubts about whether it will make a difference.
The song itself is sung by rapper Doug E Fresh, along with Jordin Sparks, Dr Oz and others.
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The sole issue in this case was at what point in the life of a chicken does the chicken lose its tax-exempt status as poultry?
When this lawsuit was filed in 2011, Pilgrim's Pride was the second-largest chicken producer in the world. A vertically-integrated company, Pilgrim's Pride controlled every phase of the production of its poultry – from egg, to hatchling, to chicken, to drumstick, to chicken salad. As such, Pilgrim's Pride owned and operated feed mills, hatcheries, processing plants and distribution centers in 14 U.S. states, Puerto Rico and Mexico.
Following the denial of a tax protest regarding the valuation of the contents of a cold storage warehouse located in Tarrant County, Texas, Pilgrim's Pride filed suit in the 352nd District Court seeking a de novo review[1]. Housed inside the warehouse in question was boxed, frozen chicken meat (also described as "chicken flesh," "dead chicken, without giblets" and "breaded, baked, par-fried chicken") on which the Tarrant Appraisal District had levied an ad valorem tax.
Texas Tax Code Section 11.16, the enabling legislation for Article VIII, Section 16 of the Texas Constitution, exempts from ad valorem taxation "farm products, livestock and poultry" held by "producers" while the producer is "financially providing for the physical requirements of such livestock and poultry." Pilgrim's Pride relied on these provisions to claim tax exempt status for the contents of the warehouse.
In summary judgment motions presented to Judge Bonnie Sudderth in which both sides agreed that there was no material fact in dispute, the parties – Pilgrim's Pride and the Tarrant County Appraisal District – submitted the case for a legal determination by Judge Sudderth. Pilgrim's Pride argued that the contents of its cold storage facility warehouse constituted tax-exempt "poultry" the physical requirements of which Pilgrim's Pride, the producer, was financially providing for. As the owner and producer of the poultry, Pilgrim's Pride contended that it was financially responsible for all of their poultry's physical requirements from egg to chicken part storage, and all points in between, until the chicken was sold to a third party. For that reason, Pilgrim's Pride sought a summary judgment ruling that its warehoused chicken would retain its tax-exempt status until it was sold in the market.
Tarrant Appraisal District filed a summary judgment motion as well, taking the position that once the chickens were no longer alive, Pilgrim's Pride became a "processor" rather than a "producer" within the meaning of the Constitution and Statute. The District also argued that frozen chickens would no longer have "physical requirements" requiring financial support, which the statute requires in order to support a tax exemption. The Tarrant Appraisal District sought a summary judgment ruling by Judge Bonnie Sudderth that the chicken stored in Pilgrim's Pride warehouse were properly subject to ad valorem taxation under state law.
Judge Bonnie Sudderth ruled that just as livestock, once slaughtered, would no longer enjoy tax exempt status as "livestock" under the constitutional and statutory provisions, poultry, once slaughtered, would not longer enjoy tax exempt status as "poultry" under these same provisions.
In explaining her ruling, Judge Sudderth pointed to the idiosyncrasy of the English language that changes the name of some farm animals once they are slaughtered. In polite company, one would not purchase steaks or pork chops by asking the butcher for a pound of "livestock" or "pig," whereas, "poultry" and "chicken" are permissible nouns to to describe chicken, whether located in the coop or behind the meat counter. The statute clearly identifies "livestock" as tax exempt, but not "beef" or "pork," so there is no confusion in the law with regard to bovines or swine. Once the cow and the pig are slaughtered, their tax exempt status ends. Judge Sudderth reasoned that even though the English language calls for no name change upon the death of a chicken, it would make no sense for there to be a distinction between dead cows, pigs or poultry when it comes to ad valorem taxation.
Furthermore, Judge Sudderth reasoned, the purpose of the tax-exemption laws would not extend to cold-storage warehousing of meat products. These laws were designed to provide tax exemptions to farmers and ranchers who were tending to the daily needs (such as food, water and veterinary care) of their flocks and herds, not for warehousemen who simply store the frozen meats.
Finally Judge Sudderth agreed with the Tarrant Appraisal District in her opinion that neither the livestock nor the chickens, once slaughtered, would have "physical requirements" necessitating financial support, as required under the tax exemption statute.
In denying Pilgrim's Pride's summary judgment motion, Judge Bonnie Sudderth held that Pilgrim's Pride, who bore the legal burden of clearly establishing that its operations fell within the tax exemption, failed to meet its burden. In granting Tarrant Appraisal District's motion for summary judgment, Judge Sudderth upheld the Tarrant Appraisal District's interpretation of the constitutional and statutory provisions as reasonable and not in conflict with the plain meaning of the statute.
Judge Bonnie Sudderth's ruling was not appealed, leaving undisturbed those two certainties in life – even in the life of a chicken – Death and Taxes.
[1] For a discussion and explanation of the concept of de novo review, go to: http://bonniesudderth.wordpress.com/2011/08/28/when-can-i-get-a-trial-de-novo/


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Lazio Track and Field club is the largest of its kind in the world and S.S. Lazio is the football club from it. We, at TheHardTackle take a walk down memory lane and reminisce about their colorful past and how they won their second Scudetto. This is the journey of the Eagles, a journey of their struggles.
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The "British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office" (EAO) has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOA) on the Substitution of Environmental Assessments with the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.
Under the memorandum, the EAO will conduct the environmental assessment for specific projects, including the procedural aspects of Aboriginal consultation. Federal departments will contribute their expertise. At the conclusion of the substituted environmental assessment, the respective federal and provincial ministers will reach separate decisions on the significance of the project's environmental effects and the adequacy of Aboriginal consultation, based on the environmental assessment report prepared by the EAO.
The EAO has submitted requests to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, CEAA to conduct substituted environmental assessments on behalf of the federal government for two proposed coal projects. The provincial environmental assessments will meet all federal and provincial requirements.
The MOU sets out an administrative framework for the use of the substitution provisions in the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012 (CEAA 2012).
The MOU outlines how information exchange will occur, describes the roles and responsibilities of the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office EAO establishes the conduct of a substituted process leading to the respective environmental assessment decisions of federal and provincial ministers.
The CEAA commits to timelines in considering substitution requests from British Columbia.
A copy of the MOU can be found at here.


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2015年1月20日 星期二
|2015 春聯開箱囉~
This post was written by:
Adii Rockstar - who has written 18 posts on Gazette Edition.
In this space you can include a little "About the Author" section to inform your readers about the author's background and specific niches. It doesn't have to be long, but it doesn't need to be short either. Nice little feature to Gazette this, isn't it?


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Yes he taught you to remove that nice piece of red meat from the George Foremen grill to the barbecue.Potatoe1 wrote:
Since Topper taught me how to properly cook a steak I have been incredibly disappointed with anything from a restaurant.
the Kegs has always been crap, but I wouldn't wipe my ass with their food now.
the Foreman grill could turn the best steak into a fucking catchers mitt. Steaks are pretty easy to not screw up as long as you don't keep flipping them every 90 seconds. I swear I want to rip the flipper out of buddy's hands when I'm at a friends for dinner.
As an asside I have a couple hundred in gift certificates to the Keg. While it isn't a great place to eat something tells me i should be able to get a decent meal for the wife and I ......either that or I load up on overpriced booze.
I have had shitty steaks at the keg but I have also had good ones as well. I mean how hard is it to fuck up a nice NY steak or a rib eye ?


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The Eagle's Nest is the location from which Stephen Colbert broadcasts his news show, The Colbert Report. Some 'locationistas' will say that it is filmed in The Daily Show's old studios, but from the window in the "Axe Body Spray Interview Zone", it is clearly visible that The Eagle's Nest is located on the top of the Statue of Liberty.
It is stylized to pay tribute to the 'heroes', those that watch the show, by honoring Colbert himself. After all, what better way to thank the heroes, than thank the person the heroes find heroic, Stephen Colbert?
The Eagle's Nest was not the name of Hitler's mountaintop retreat. That is a misconception spread by the terrorists. Hitler's mountaintop retreat was actually named the Bear's Den. Stephen Colbert named his studio the Eagle's Nest specifically to dispel this rumor.
Stephen keeps a framed picture of one of our American heroes, Gregory House, on his wall.
- The Eagle's Nest is the second hottest spot north of Havana.
- it is made of cornEpisode #557


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New: Berkeley to Host Global Event on Obama's "Pacific Pivot" – A Threat to Environment, Democracy and Culture
Location: Martin Luther King Auditorium, Berkeley. Saturday 10-10PM, Sunday 10-6PM. Saturday $15; Sunday $10; both days $20. Advanced discount tickets available at moanabui.brownpapertickets.com. Full program available online at www.ifg.org.
In Washington's eyes, the Pacific Ocean is anything but pacific. For more than 100 years, the US has made a habit of sending soldiers across the sea to wage bloody wars in The Philippines, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and even inside China. In the process, the US has established temporary and permanent military bases in scores of Pacific Rim nations. Now that situation threatens to become decidedly worse.
In 2011, President Obama announced a new military adventure dubbed the "Pacific Pivot" that called for redirecting 60% of the US military's money and might toward Asia and the Pacific. The Pentagon has already made numerous enemies in the region -- for offenses ranging from servicemen beating and raping local women on Okinawa to the seizure of local Islands (like Pagan in the Marianas) so they can be turned into military bombing ranges.
Meanwhile, the people of the vast Asia-Pacific region have a view of a different future -- one without military bases and foreign domination. They even have a different name for this vast stretch of the planet. They call it Moana Nui ("Great Ocean").
For the residents of Moana Nui, it's clear that Washington's 'Pacific Pivot' represents "a threat to land, water, cultures, sovereignties and peace among Pacific nations and Indigenous Peoples."
With the future of the Pacific Basin at stake, 50 scholars and activists from 20 nations are preparing to convene in Berkeley on June 1 for a two-day "teach-in" on the impacts of US plans to further militarize the region and subject it to neoliberal economic remodeling.
The event, dubbed Moana Nui 2013, is sponsored by San Francisco's International Forum on Globalization (IFG) in collaboration with Pua Mohala i ka Po and the Oceanic Coalition of Northern California. Obama's "Pacific Pivot" is only one of many issues that will be discussed during the two-day Asia-Pacific teach-in.
"Global corporations are raiding the last resources of Pacific nations," the organizers warn. "From Borneo to Siberia, from Melanesia and Micronesia to the Philippines and Australia, they're grabbing land, forests, palm oil, rare earth minerals and other resources. The giant economies – the US and China – race to dominate the supply chain and trade routes, suppressing resistance and, in doing so, threatening world peace." The US hopes to further its economic influence in the region by imposing a Trans-Pacific Partnership, a "free-trade" agreement that reaches from Japan to Chile – bat manages to exclude China.
"The peoples of the Pacific need help," the organizers explain. "It is no longer sufficient to speak merely of working to 'protect local cultures' and 'traditional economic practices.' Local peoples are being rapidly overrun by the larger hegemonic battles of the United States vs. China. As the saying goes, 'when elephants battle, the ants are crushed.'"
IFG organizer Koohan Paik notes "one major celebrity will be the Mayor of Gangjeong village on Jeju Island, who is leading the battle against the construction of a navy base there." For the past seven years, Jeju's traditional fishing community has been nonviolently blockading attempts to destroy precious coastal reefs and beaches to build a massive, joint U.S.-South Korean Aegis missile base. Other participants include: Rosa Koian, from Papua New Guinea; Julian Aguon from Guam; Walden Bello, from the Philippines; Hideki Yoshikawa from Okinawa; Akihiko Kimijima from Japan; and local rights activist Anuradha Mittal, from the Oakland Institute.
The Berkeley event will be a continuation of the first Moana Nui gathering which was held in November 2011, at the University of Hawaii. It was at this Honolulu meeting that IFG forged a unique partnership with 500 front-line activists from 17 countries and dozens of Pacific Island activist groups. The unprecedented convocation brought together people who live thousands of miles apart, across the sea and had rarely join forces before. For three days, they engaged in spirited public meetings, collaborative organizing, protest marches, and strategic campaign planning. The events received enormous attention and praise across the Pacific region and it was clear that other Moana Nui meetings would follow.
Moana Nui is committed to responding to some of the greatest threats ever to face Pacific peoples. Recent shifts in US economic and military strategies are could have broad negative effects on the peoples, resources, economies and geo-politics of the Asia-Pacific region. Washington has already jangled regional nerves by deploying 2,500 US marines to a new base in Australia. And, 20 years after a nonviolent "People's Revolution" toppled the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, the new leaders of The Philippines have invited the Pentagon to return to the US Navy's abandoned base at Subic Bay.
These policy shifts, mostly under the Obama Administration's "Pacific Pivot," threaten to erode the viability and sovereignty of indigenous peoples and small nations of the Pacific. At the same time, the Pivot, could greatly accelerate dangerous power struggles underway between the US and China, and potentially Russia. At stake are geopolitical issues involving trade, maritime and island resources, and economic and military domination of an 8,000-square-mile region.
The "Great Game" that has been playing out across the vast chessboard that stretches from the Middle East to China, is now shifting to the nations that ring the Pacific Basin. This is not just a Democratic whim that Obama is pursuing. The vision of American power extending even deeper into the region is also embraced by the Republicans. During the Presidential campaign, both Obama and Romney endorsed the idea that the US needed to expand its "presence" in the region. The differences were only a matter of degree: Obama called for building a US fleet of 300 naval vessels to patrol the region: Romney called for 350.
Moana Nui was created in direct response to a dire situation. There are two primary goals, the organizers explain: 1) to stimulate collaborations among Pacific Island peoples and nations, toward common purposes in behalf of their resources, cultures and sovereignty, and 2) to alert U.S. mainland policy-makers, activists and media to the changes now underway in the Pacific -- and other destabilizing changes still on the drawing boards.
The struggle against Privatization and Pivotization will require strengthening contacts and support for the indigenous and small nation peoples to enable them to resist domination, defend their traditional cultures, protect their environments, and retain control over their lives. It's an effort well worth undertaking.
The Moana Nui Proclamation
In November 2011, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation group -- comprised of economic leaders from across the Asia-Pacific region -- met in Hawaii to discuss revising trade agreements to bolster the sagging global economy. At the same time, indigenous activists convened a parallel conference – one dedicated to finding solutions based on food, not finances. At the end of the conference, they issued the following statement.
"We, the peoples of moana nui, connected by the currents of our ocean home, declare that we will not cooperate with the commodification of life and land as represented by APEC's predatory capitalistic practices, distorted information and secret trade negotiations and agreements.
We invoke our rights to free, prior and informed consent. We choose cooperative trans-Pacific dialogue, action, advocacy, and solidarity between and amongst the peoples of the Pacific, rooted in traditional cultural practices and wisdom.
E mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono. A mama. Ua noa."
We ask you to join us in shifting away from neoliberal, profit-driven relations and sign-on to this statement.


text: Gas prices are rising. It's impossible to escape traffic. And suddenly your car feels like a prison cell instead of the liberating vehicle it was when you first sat in a driver's seat. Yes, driving can be a pain when you have to deal with all the challenges and injustices of car ownership and commuting. But with the help of some mobile apps, it doesn't have to be all that bad. Here are nine useful apps* that will help you find cheap gas, beat traffic congestion, keep your car in top shape, and maintain your behind-the-wheel sanity. We start with the Waze traffic app pictured above. Just remember not to fidget with these apps while actually driving. Safety first is a Gadget Lab credo. *Unfortunately, there are no apps to banish rude drivers from the road. Waze Imagine working with other local drivers to make your commute shorter and easier. You might even be able to stave off the road rage you feel every time you're behind the wheel. With Waze, you're immediately connected to a network of local drivers who contribute to traffic information and road reports on obstacles such as construction zones, police traps, accidents, and more. You can also join Waze groups and connect with friends via Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare. The more people who use Waze, the more information it provides to its network of drivers. And, luckily, Waze already has a strong and growing community, making it a truly useful app. You can also use Waze to receive turn-by-turn driving directions on a live map. In fact, the app automatically checks for the latest traffic information and will re-route directions based on traffic conditions to provide the quickest commute. And while you're moving along your route, you'll see nearby Waze drivers and road reports on your custom map. The magic in Waze is that it collects users' GPS locations while they are driving, and adds that data to its traffic logs. In order for Waze to collect the data, however, the app needs to be active in the foreground of a device. Waze also adds an element of fun -- driving doesn't need to be a drag -- with its scoreboard and cute mood icons. You earn points for how many miles you drive, and you can choose your own mood icon -- from "speedy" to "LOL" -- for other drivers to see. Free; available on the App Store and Google PlayInrix Traffic Inrix Traffic provides a map of live traffic similar to what you'll find in Google Maps or the iOS Maps app. Inrix, however, goes several steps further with options like comparative traffic, predicted traffic, and an incidents report. Inrix gathers all of its traffic information from its Smart Driver Network, which aggregates data from more than 100 million GPS-enabled cars and mobile devices (with the Inrix app installed). This network also taps into traditional road sensors, partnerships with regional traffic providers, and hundreds of other sources. Comparative traffic gives you a look at current conditions compared to normal conditions, and predicted traffic provides snapshots of how traffic should be flowing at various times in the future (all based on previously collected traffic data; see screenshot above). An Incidents tab reveals a list of reported traffic snags -- Inrix Traffic users can contribute to this list using the app's One Touch Reporting button. The app's most useful features require upgrading to Inrix Traffic Premium, for $25. Once you upgrade, you'll be able to save your commuting routes, and receive personalized directions and travel time recommendations. Inrix also offers premium users access to traffic cameras along certain roads, so you can check live video before heading out. One warning: The app keeps location tracking on in the background at all times, so it will suck a ton of your phone's battery life if you don't turn off GPS when the app isn't in use. Free; available on the App Store and Google PlayCar Minder Plus There are plenty of devices and apps to track your health, sleep, and fitness -- so why not be as obsessive about the vehicle you rely on to get from point A to point B? Car Minder Plus makes logging all of the minute details of your car's needs and health easy. The app's interface is colorful and intuitive. You can manage multiple cars, as well as multiple services for each car. You can also keep gas and repair logs, and more. Car Minder Plus offers cool little perks, such as being able to edit a car's icon to be a photo of that car, and the ability to email your records to others. To help you better understand your driving habits and needs, Car Minder Plus offers charts showing fuel economy and mileage, and will remind you when your car's due for servicing. Indeed: You'll never forget to change your oil with this app in your pocket. $2.99; available on theApp StoreMotionX GPS Drive With MotionX GPS Drive, you don't need to spend a wad of cash on a dedicated GPS device. In addition to providing driving and walking directions on 3D maps, MotionX GPS Drive also grants access to Inrix traffic data, Wikipedia, a magnetic compass, your iPod music, and more. You can even look through your Contacts and place a call from within the app. Once you download the app, you get a free 30-day trial of the turn-by-turn navigation and voice guidance features. Once the free period is over, you'll have to pay either $2.99 per month or $9.99 per year for the advanced services -- but for what you get, it is worth the price. Because MotionX GPS Drive is so jam-packed with features, most of which are really useful, it does take some time to understand how to navigate the app itself. Free; available on the App StoreGasBuddy Gas prices are soaring like crazy, and for those who have to commute, there are few options other than to just suck it up and pay. But you don't always have to concede defeat to the very first gas station in sight. GasBuddy can show you nearby gas prices, helping ensure you pay the very lowest prices for each fill-up. The app lets you search for gas prices in direct proximity to your current location, or by city. You can view gas stations on a map or list format. In list format, you can go through tabs for Regular, Midgrade, Premium, and Diesel prices. When I did a search for stations near the Wired office, I found that the Shell a block south had regular gas at $4.59, but the Shell a block east has regular gas for $4.43. I could also see, however, that the latter station's prices hadn't been updated for 11 hours (and so might have been outdated), while the former station's prices had been updated just one hour ago. The app updates its prices through user reports. To give people an incentive to update gas prices, GasBuddy gives away a $250 gas gift card each week to those who have reported prices. This perk seems to work, as most of the downtown and SOMA-district San Francisco stations had update times within the last half day. Free; available on the App Store and Google PlayAAA TripTik AAA's TripTik app is made for road trip travels, but it's also useful for day-to-day driving, especially for AAA members. The app offers a hodgepodge of features from nearby hotel information to driving directions. The app is a bit scattered, but if you're a AAA member, or you just care about AAA approval, you'll be able to locate office locations and AAA-approved attractions such as restaurants, hotels, and campsites. You can also contact AAA's roadside assistance from within the app, in case you find yourself stranded on the highway. AAA TripTik's gas station prices are not always live, but with this feature, you'll at least be able to locate the nearest station. And though you won't get turn-by-turn directions, pressing a Co-Pilot button does activate a voice guidance feature that will read your next move aloud. Free; available on the App Store and Google PlayScout by Telenav Telenav's Scout offers similar features -- driving directions, estimated driving time, and nearby business searching -- as other navigation apps in this roundup. What makes Scout stand out is its good-looking and organized interface. When you launch the app you'll see a dashboard with your current location, the weather, a Places bar, and a Drive bar. Scout uses two-dimensional maps for overviews, and 3D maps for when turn-by-turn directions. You can also access your iPod music from the in-app Music button. While Scout isn't the strongest navigation app available, Telenav also offers an online companion site called Scout.me. With Scout.me you can find things to do, places to eat, events, and accommodations by city, then sync all of it to your Scout app -- a good option for long-distance or vacation driving. The team at Telenav have also made an HTML 5, browser-based navigation system, dubbed Scout for Apps. The feature lets developers incorporate Scout's turn-by-turn navigation into their apps or mobile websites. Free; available on the App StoreGas Cubby Taking care of cars is time-consuming and expensive. You have to check your engine oil, inspect tire pressure, replace fuel filters, worry about timing belts, and so much more. Paying for gas alone is already a hefty financial commitment, so you don't want to suffer a huge repair charge that could have easily been a small maintenance charge. Gas Cubby helps you keep track of all your car-related expenses in one streamlined app. You can manage multiple vehicles and easily enter in service dates, costs, locations, and more. To track your gas usage, just enter in the date, odometer reading, and gas cost and amount in the New Fill Up form. You can even include the location where you filled up, gas brand, type of gas -- 87, 89, 90+, or diesel -- and more, depending on how much information you want to track. You can view all of your purchases in a list format, or in a chart that shows your expenses and stats over time. Gas Cubby offers charts for miles per gallon, gas price, gas stats, gas expenses, and service expenses. Gas Cubby is a powerful app to track everything about your car -- as long as you remember that it's only useful if you're diligent about data entry. Because, no, the logs won't enter themselves. Free; available on the App StoreDynolicious If you're not trying to conserve gas and aren't afraid of speeding tickets, then Dynolicious is for you. The app uses the iPhone's built-in accelerometer to measure your car's 0-60 acceleration, your quarter-mile times, horsepower, and more. This obviously isn't for the frugal or practical driver. But it's an excellent app for tracking your car's key performance metrics. The app collects data as much as one hundred times per second, and once you're done driving a testing run, Dynolicious presents your averages and trends on glowing charts. You can track more than one car with the app, and enter extra information such as your car's weight and any performance-oriented modifications you've made to the vehicle (hint: aftermarket exhausts rarely yield extra horsepower, but ECU and cold air-intake tweaks can improve performance). According to BunsenTech, the app developer, Dynolicious has been track-tested and proven accurate compared to regulation timing equipment. $12.99; available on the App Store


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哥斯達黎加的環保義工項目: 每月更新
Conservation in Costa Rica - Monthly Update June/July 2010
I'd like to start this update by making a quick apology for not letting you know what we did during June. It has honestly been the busiest time ever here (we have never had so many volunteers). So we have all been super busy!
June was a great month though, we have been doing some amazing work with the volunteers and have really pushed the program up another level thanks to the help of the volunteers, the staff and of course the park itself. We began with something that has been missing for some time in the park which was an organic waste site. We have several nursery gardens (native trees, fruiting trees and we are working on an organic vegetable garden too) where we always try and be 100% organic and something that is surprisingly expensive and hard to get is organic fertilizer.
With the amount of people eating in the park (normally 15 a day, sometimes up to 40-50) we obviously get a lot of waste food, rice, beans, salad and other bits and pieces from all the meals each day) and we used to just throw this food around certain parts of the camp so that the animals could have a little extra food. The solution was quite simple, we cut a small trail from the kitchen, about 50m away into the forest and began digging a large hole in the ground where we could start dumping the waste, we did have to cover the hole to stop animals from falling in and not being able to get back out and of course to stop the hole filling with water but a couple of days of hard work and it was quickly finished.
After a month of filling the organic waste site we already know we will need a new one soon enough, but we have also seen that the flies and worms have found a great new home and have started chewing through all the food and turning it into some of the best organic fertilizer I have ever seen so when we come to our planting season again we will have a great place to go to. Yet another simple idea introduced to the park that saves us money and uses everything that we were just throwing away and it's something that any of you can also use at home!
June was actually a very active month in respect to human waste, we were invited by the government agency MINAE (Ministry of Environment and Energy) to Nicoya's first official recycling day, a full day activity with all the volunteers in the main park helping to collect, classify and store rubbish from all over the town. Unfortunately we had some awful weather that day, it literally poured with rain all morning and then into most of the afternoon so it stopped a lot of the local people in Nicoya coming out to help. Costa Ricans very rarely go outside in the rain unless they can really help it. But thanks to our 15 volunteers walking around the town, going into shops, schools, colleges, outside on the street and anywhere else we could, we managed to collect enough rubbish to fill a 20-ton truck, we calculated that around 90% was recyclable with only a few bags being filled with things that are not currently recyclable in Costa Rica. All in all another successful day for conservation and although we didn't make the desired impact on the locals we still had a great day out and met a few great people on the way.
As I've said many times over the last few months it has been raining A LOT this year, although we don't have any official records from previous years everyone I've spoken to has said that this year has been very very wet, the rains started earlier, they have carried on for longer periods and so far they show no signs of stopping. This means that the parks' water systems fill up with a lot of water so we have a lot of creeks, rivers, waterfalls and pools of water filling the area. A few months ago we stumbled across an amazing point which is very close to the camp, a huge waterfall (about 10m high) which comes down into a natural pool and then bubbles over and down on to another set of waterfalls. We noticed this and immediately had the idea of working a little on this area to provide a new tourist attraction and of course a point where the volunteers could enjoy during the afternoon.
We started out work with really making the trail down to it comfortable and safe; we made it wider, flatter and then placed a layer of small stones on top to keep it drier and less muddy. We then moved down to the waterfall itself, we moved a few rocks around to slow the water escaping from the pool and then began removing a huge accumulation of mud and sand from the pool which made the depth about 1.5m, plenty to sit and relax in! Afterwards we decided the make the trail and the pool even nicer by planting some native plants (Heliconias, ferns and a few species of Orchids) just to give the area even more beauty.
As I'm sure you will all agree the work was completed with perfection and the area has attracted a lot of attention, volunteers visit almost every day and many tourists go down to relax under the water as well.
Costa Rica, like most Latin American countries is famous for Salsa, Bachata, Cha Cha, Merengue and many other types of Latin music and dance which are part of the culture of the area and in many cases tell an important story from the country's past. Many countries and even different zones within a country have variations in the dance moves, names and even the music itself.
Something that many volunteers have asked in the past has finally been realised thanks to the help of Leslie, a local girl who has been teaching dance to under privileged children for about 5 years and who is now teaching our volunteers (and staff) how to move like Latinos! Leslie is now coming to the park and teaching our volunteers different styles of dance for 2 hours a week which is just about enough for them to get the hang of the basic moves and as time goes on and they receive more classes then they of course they improve their moves.
We have all been very impressed with the way the volunteers have progressed and learnt the moves in such short amounts of time and we have some amazing videos from the end of the classes when we have 10 couples moving in perfect time to the music (ok, so this usually only lasted a few moments but at least we got that far!). We have actually hired Leslie to come and visit us every week from now on so that she can provide this service to every volunteer who wants to learn something new and different from the area and this money is helping her to continue her lessons to other children who aren't as lucky as the rest of us.
July has been the busiest month ever for us here at Barra Honda and in fact Costa Rica in general. We have been growing quickly as a project and have reached a new record both here in the park and in Liberia!
Every year during July and August we have a special summer program called a 2-Week Special, where volunteers have the choice of spending one week with us here in the park and then one week doing care in Liberia or spending two weeks with us at conservation. This year we mainly had volunteers splitting their time over the two projects which gives us a slightly different program than usual, with such a large park and so many important and amazing sites to see. We go and visit the caves, we visit the waterfalls and we visit the Tempisque river. We do also get these volunteers into some hardcore work too, putting up the cameras and butterfly traps, doing the bat project, clearing trails, reforestation work and some community work in the local villages.
We had some amazing people with us over the two groups this year, we had some great times with them and they have really made an impact on the park and on us as people so we would of course like to say thank you to all of the 30 or so 2 week volunteers that have been with us over the last few weeks and like always to every other volunteer that has come to visit us, we can't do the things we do without you!
Back to a small sense of normality from now on, so I will be sending out my next update in a few weeks time!
See you all then,
Richard Munday
Conservation Coordinator
Barra Honda National Park
June/July 2010


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Possible Duplicate:
Is it better to prevent a forbidden action or display an error/explanation message?
I have had some discussions with my boss about this below issue, please give me some ammo for further discussions. Here we go:
In my webapp I have a table of candidates applying for a position. Each row represents a candidate and I can perform actions on them like edit, create report and delete. Some actions are not allowed (cannot create a report before the respondent has entered a questionnaire for example and cannot delete a respondent which has been shared to me by another user).
Here is the table im talking about. See the disabled (grey) Report links. If clicked the "Questionnaire not completed" message pops up.
Is this best practice, ie make the links which coorosponds to actions not allowed inactive. If clicked then have a message appear explaining why the action is not allowed. Or would it be better to hide the inactive links?


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Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT)
Virtualization is already a part of your plans, but there is plenty of opportunity to do more.
Virtualization is already a part of your plans, but there is plenty of opportunity to do more.
Virtualization abstracts hardware that allows multiple workloads to share a common set of resources. On shared virtualized hardware, a variety of workloads can co-locate while maintaining full isolation from each other, freely migrate across infrastructures, and scale as needed.
Businesses tend to gain significant capital and operational efficiencies through virtualization because it leads to improved server utilization and consolidation, dynamic resource allocation and management, workload isolation, security, and automation. Virtualization makes on-demand self-provisioning of services and software-defined orchestration of resources possible, scaling anywhere in a hybrid cloud on-premise or off-premise per specific business needs.
Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT) represents a growing portfolio of technologies and features that make virtualization practical by eliminating performance overheads and improving security. Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT) provides hardware assist to the virtualization software, reducing its size, cost, and complexity. Special attention is also given to reduce the virtualization overheads occurring in
(Intel® VT), which is now serving a broad range of customers in the consumer, enterprise, cloud, communication, technical computing, and many more sectors.
Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT) portfolio currently includes (but not limited to):
CPU virtualization features enable faithful abstraction of the full prowess of Intel® CPU to a virtual machine (VM). All software in the VM can run without any performance or compatibility hit, as if it was running natively on a dedicated CPU. Live migration from one Intel® CPU generation to another, as well as nested virtualization, is possible.
Memory virtualization features allow abstraction isolation and monitoring of memory on a per virtual machine (VM) basis. These features may also make live migration of VMs possible, add to fault tolerance, and enhance security. Example features include direct memory access (DMA) remapping and extended page tables (EPT), including their extensions: accessed and dirty bits, and fast switching of EPT contexts.
I/O virtualization features facilitate offloading of multi-core packet processing to network adapters as well as direct assignment of virtual machines to virtual functions, including disk I/O. Examples include Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d), Virtual Machine Device Queues (VMDQ), Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV, a PCI-SIG standard), and Intel® Data Direct I/O Technology (Intel® DDIO) enhancements.
Intel® Graphics Virtualization Technology (Intel® GVT) allows VMs to have full and/or shared assignment of the graphics processing units (GPU) as well as the video transcode accelerator engines integrated in Intel system-on-chip products. It enables usages such as workstation remoting, desktop-as-a-service, media streaming, and online gaming.
Virtualization of Security and Network functions enables transformation of traditional network and security workloads into compute. Virtual functions can be deployed on standard high volume servers anywhere in the data center, network nodes, or cloud, and smartly co-located with business workloads. Examples of technologies making it happen include Intel® QuickAssist Technology (Intel® QAT) and the Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK).
Intel® EDC provides resources, tools, and support for intelligent systems developers.


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Not much happens in Geraldine, a small farming community in the interior of the South Island of New Zealand, about 85 miles from Christchurch. So when Hayden MacKenzie, a fourth-generation farmer there, picked up the phone last Tuesday and got a request to participate in a secret project—one that he wouldn't even learn about until he signed a vow of silence—he and his wife Anna figured that they'd take a shot. That evening, two men showed up at his cozy farmhouse. They bore a peculiar red device, a sphere slightly bigger than a volleyball perched on a short collar, and attached it to his roof. Then they left.
Only when the men returned the next day did they reveal what they were up to. Inside the red ball was an antenna that would give the MacKenzies Internet access. It was custom-designed to communicate with a similar antenna that would be floating by in the stratosphere, over 60,000 feet above sea level. On a solar-powered balloon.
Oh, and the men work for Google.
"It sounded crazy," says MacKenzie, who bears a slight resemblance to the actor Colm Meaney. "But at the end of the day, you hope things will work out."
The idea does sound crazy, even for Google—so much so that the company has dubbed it Project Loon. But if all works according to the company's grand vision, hundreds, even thousands, of high-pressure balloons circling the earth could provide Internet to a significant chunk of the world's 5 billion unconnected souls, enriching their lives with vital news, precious educational materials, lifesaving health information, and images of grumpy cats.
It is an audacious proposal, and today in Christchurch, Google is holding a press conference with New Zealand's prime minister to formally unveil it. Google will also stage Project Loon's biggest trial yet: 50 testers in Christchurch within the 12-mile range of the balloons will see if they can get connected from the sky.
But on the morning of June 13, 2013, the MacKenzies were waiting to be among the first to sample it.
Project Loon began a little under two years ago, incubating in Google's high-risk research arm, Google X. Rich DeVaul, an expert in wearable technology (his MIT dissertation was on "Memory Glasses"), had recently arrived from a secretive post at Apple to become a "rapid evaluator." His job assignment was to consider crazy ideas that just might work, and find reasons why they definitely would not work. "Our goal at Google X is to kill a project as fast as we can," says Astro Teller, who runs the lab with Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
At first, providing reliable Internet access using balloons seemed a natural candidate for a quick rejection. There were a number of obvious problems, many of them involving the limits of ballooning, a centuries-old craft that still retained deep mysteries. No one had managed to maintain control and power for the long-duration flights that Google would need.
DeVaul, though, had an idea for "variable buoyancy"—steering the balloons by tweaking altitude to find wind currents whooshing in the right direction. Google, which is pretty good at computation, could use the voluminous government data available to accurately simulate wind currents in the stratosphere. After weeks of spreadsheeting, unsuccessfully trying to find a flaw in the scheme, DeVaul felt confident enough to pitch the project.
"My colleagues had to believe I wasn't completely on crack, which took a little bit of convincing," he says.
In August 2011, DeVaul began a series of trial runs in California's Central Valley. He and some colleagues would launch a hand-made balloon with a Linux computer and some antennas on board, then hop into his Subaru Forester. They'd race on rural roads to capture the signal before the rig went down—or floated towards distant points east. Most flights were failures of some sort. None of the balloon terminations, however, gave DeVaul a reason to kill the project, no matter how hard he tried. "It was really impressive how long he carried that goal of killing the idea," says Astro Teller.
By early 2012, the experiment had gained status of a genuine Google X project. It also had a new leader. DeVaul, preferring to work on tech rather than management, helped hire a project leader, Mike Cassidy, a top search engineer who had started multiple companies before joining Google. Cassidy built up the team with network engineers, mapping specialists, energy experts, and ex-military operatives who were stunningly good at recovering downed payloads in wilderness terrain. (When balloons would go down, the payload would separate and glide earthward by parachute. Civilians stumbling on the scary-looking package would see a non-branded message reading HARMLESS SCIENCE EXPERIMENT, and a promise of a reward for those who called a number to return it.) When it became clear that Google needed many more balloons that its small team was able to hand-craft, Cassidy began a fruitful collaboration with Raven Aerostar, the company that makes weather balloons for NASA and created the monster bubble that took Felix Baumgartner into near space for his record leap earthward.
Soon, Project Loon was ready to attain the rare status of an initiative officially acknowledged as part of Google X (along with self-driving cars and Google Glass). This announcement would come at a big press conference following a trial where the company attempted to give Internet access to real people, not just Google testers.
And, in part to avoid flyovers invading potentially hostile nations, Google decided to do this in a distant land with huge swaths of rural inhabitants who yearned for broadband: New Zealand.
Lake Tekapo is smack in Lord of the Rings territory, ringed by majestic mountains. On June 13, it shimmers from a rare cloudless sky on the cusp of winter. This remote terrain is 35 miles away from Geraldine, where the MacKenzies are still marveling at the odd thing attached to their roof. Next to a bare asphalt airstrip, Rich DeVaul is giving me and some other rubberneckers a quick tour of Google's balloon launch pad.
Hours earlier, Google transported the equipment from a huge unmarked warehouse in Christchurch, its windows covered by wood slats like many other earthquake-damaged structures in a city devastated by a 2011 temblor. All this odd equipment imbues the Tekapo site with the feel of the staging ground in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Googlers in fleece and down vests scurry around a huge tarp, ministering to five "envelopes"—the term for the high-tensity, polyethylene balloons—resting on red plastic covers. The envelopes seem no more glamorous than long garbage bags and, indeed, at three-thousands of an inch thick, not even a premium brand. But the high-tech polyethylene can in fact stave off tremendous pressure.
Attached to the bottom of each envelope is the 22-pound "payload." It's topped by a sheet of solar paneling the size of a basketball backboard. Beneath the solar sheet is a construct resembling a large camera tripod, whose legs are antennas that allow the balloons to transmit to their peers in a mesh network. And on the bottom of the structure is a metal-sided container resembling a deep fuse box, which contains the computers, electronics, GPS devices, and batteries to store the energy gathered by the solar panels (each about 10 times the size of a laptop battery). It also controls valves that go inside the balloon's internal chambers, allowing the balloon to find the desired altitude to maintain its flight path. Dangling from the box is a cable ending in a piece of foam that looks like a slice of a kid's swimming noodle; inside is a transponder that beams location to air-traffic controllers and other trackers.
It's time to launch. As team members take positions to stabilize and hold down the balloon, a machine that seems an artifact from the industrial age begins pumping helium into an envelope with a sound like a thousand hot showers channeled through Jimi Hendrix's amps. And the clear plastic starts to rise. A blob-ish lump awakens inside the balloon skin, quickly growing from waist level to three times human height. As more gas enters, a classic balloon, like Dorothy's vehicle to Oz, takes shape, at first looking like a giant pumpkin, then resembling a swimming jellyfish, straining for the ocean surface.
The flight engineer organizing the launch begins a classic NASA-esque backwards countdown, and chatter subsides as the numbers decline. At zero, a Googler holding a yellow sheet of matting called "the peanut"—it's wrapped around the neck of the balloon to keep the payload from dangling during inflation—lets go. The mass jumps skyward, tugging the payload off the ground. It rises nimbly and steadily, and soon it's hard to tell the difference between this giant translucent mass (a Loon balloon will grow to the size of a small aircraft) and a child's toy floating above rooftop level.
A few of us rush to nearby helicopters, and strap in. I'm sitting behind DeVaul as he tracks the trajectory on his Nexus tablet, using a bespoke program called Mission Control. The display resembles a peace-loving variation of Missile Command, as it maps the motion and predicted path of balloons in flight. But it's actually a complicated simulation system, capable of analyzing the weather data in the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) system and directing the balloons, via satellite communications, to the ideal altitudes for their flight path.
Mission Control also lets Loon engineers terminate flights. Two days earlier, Google had conducted its first New Zealand test, launching five balloons. After successful passes over the South Island, the balloons had continued east. Two wound up in the waters off New Zealand's coast, the payloads recovered by a waiting Googler at sea. DeVaul's tablet now shows that others are making quick progress across the Pacific. Google would eventually terminate the flights, because the company hadn't gotten around to informing the authorities in Chile about the possibility of high-altitude Internet balloons invading its airspace, and decided not to risk an international incident.
As DeVaul monitors Mission Control, the pilot dizzyingly pivots around the snow-capped mountains, trying to provide his passengers a glimpse of the just-launched balloon. But even at the optimum viewing angle—from glass panels on the helicopter roof—the balloon is barely visible, well above the copter's 10,000-foot ceiling. It's on its way to 60,000 feet, twice the altitude of commercial airlines, where it will soar over the weather.
Nonetheless, our helicopter outraces the balloon to Geraldine, clearing the mountains and passing over miles and miles of verdant farmland. We set down in the Mackenzie's property, in front of a barn and within sight of a small herd of grazing sheep.
The farmhouse is close by, with the telltale red antenna ball attached to the roof. Greeting us are Loon team members who have been onsite for hours, led by network engineering lead Cyrus Behroozi. Up above, the sky is a jewel-like blue. And if you squint, you can see a tiny white speck high above. Behroozi tells us the connection should be working now.
Anna MacKenzie leads us into her house, past her sleeping infant son, and flicks on her vintage HP laptop. The browser window opens and fills. She's on! She checks a site known as the eBay of New Zealand, where her husband has been eying tractors for his contracting business. Pictures of farm machinery scroll at a zippy pace.
Welcome to Balloon Internet.
The MacKenzies are actually the second successful Loon pilot testers in New Zealand. On Google's earlier launch two days ago, an entrepreneur named Charles Nimmo, of Leeston, a tiny town 40 clicks southwest of Christchurch, attained the distinction of being the first civilian connected. The first page he accessed was Google search. "It seemed only fair," he later explained.
But DeVaul hadn't yet arrived in New Zealand when Nimmo found the Internet; the MacKenzies are the first outsiders connected by his hard-won scheme. He seems a little stunned at the accomplishment. "Two years ago, this idea was just scribbles on a whiteboard," he says. "The next part is seeing how the world reacts to this."
There are plenty of hurdles ahead for Project Loon. But, for now, Rich DeVaul is out of reasons to kill his project.
All photos: Courtesy of GoogleGo Back to Top. Skip To: Start of Article.


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Henderson Auto Glass – What Should I know?
Simply put, this is glass that you would find in an automobile. Not too many know that in Henderson there are two major forms of auto glass. Each one is used on certain windows in the automobile. Both types of auto glass are more impact resistant and stronger than regular glass.
What Are the Different Kinds Of Windshield Replacement Henderson Services that are Available?
Laminated safety glass-this glass is generally used on a car's windshield. It is comprised of a couple of pieces of glass that has a slim layer of vinyl. The glass is then heated and pressed together in an autoclave, which is a type of oven. When this glass receives a tough impact it will shatter also but usually the shattered pieces will stick to the vinyl and not fall on the ground.
If the windshield just has a tiny vein or nick, the auto glass professional may be able to repair the tiny vein or nick to keep it from spreading further. The repair will generally take fewer than thirty minutes in Henderson. The vein or nick is cleaned thoroughly and dried. Resin is injected and a material like Mylar is used to hold it in place. The professional cures the resin by using an ultraviolet light.
Windshield Replacement: What Everyone Needs To Know
Automotive window replacement can be done by the novice if he or she takes their time and has some instruction. It doesn't require any special knowledge or expensive tools to replace car glass, but it does take patience! Here we will talk about replacing a fixed car glass that is bonded to the car body instead of being set into a removable frame.
If you are going to replace car glass that is not set in a frame, then you will basically have to "cut" the old glass out of the car. This procedure requires a few inexpensive tools that are often not in a common tool collection. You need a piece of piano wire to use as a saw, and a couple of inexpensive suction cup handles to lift out the old glass (if it is still in one piece) and to place the new glass into position without touching the edges of the glass.
The first step is to remove any molding that goes around the window. Molding can be attached in several different ways. It may be attached with some sort of clips, glued on, or may be just pushed onto a lip on the car body. This is one place where factory service information comes in handy! Some glass is flush-mounted with the exterior surface of the body and does not have any molding to remove. You also may need to remove one or more trim panels inside the car. Before starting to cut out the broken car window, apply tape to the car body all the way around the window to protect the paint. Next, use an awl to create a hole through the adhesive between the glass and the body. Then push a piece of piano wire through the hole, grab a helper to work the other end of the wire, and use a sawing motion to cut the adhesive all the way around the window. Once you have completely sawn all the way around the broken car window, use the suction cup handles to pull the glass out of the car body.
After the new adhesive has been applied and any recommended curing times have been observed, use the suction cup handles to install the new glass into position. Evenly press the glass into the adhesive until it is fully seated all the way around. Do not disturb the vehicle for several hours according to the adhesive instructions, and then be careful not to slam the doors and or drive on any excessively rough roads for several days until the adhesive has had time to fully bond with both surfaces.
That covers the general procedure for auto glass installation. Automotive window replacement can certainly be done by a driver that doesn't have any experience or training in this area, but some jobs are definitely easier than others! If this procedure doesn't sound like something you want to tackle yourself, there certainly isn't any shame in taking your car to an auto glass shop for a replacement, and most shops will even come to your home or workplace to do it for you.
Windshield Replacement: What Everyone Needs To Know
There is a general consensus that windshield replacement can actually be performed by almost anyone. The glass pieces that replace it in your car are specifically shaped, and sized, to fit the make, and model of car that you drive. Almost anyone can remove the old piece and install a new one. It would be nice if auto glass replacement was that easy to do, but the truth is that you need a professional to replace any broken panels in your vehicle.
If the glass that is replaced in your car is not replaced correctly, using the proper glass pieces designed for your car, then you are in danger of them breaking at any time. When the weather heats the panels and cools the panels if they are not properly installed they can break, or fall out of the vehicle. If this happens while you are driving the car, you, or your passengers could be injured.
When you are looking for someone to do this glass replacement, or windshield replacement, you need to ask the following questions.
• How much experience do they have?
• Do they accept my insurance?
• What types of glass can they replace?
• Where is their shop located?
• Will they come to my location to replace my glass?
• How soon can they do the work?


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A Californian grandmother was taken down in a sting operation by government agents when she tried to sell a tiny piece of moon rock dust she claims to have owned for nearly four decades.
Moon rocks tend to be worth quite a lot, due to their scarcity and the difficulty in getting more of them, and estimates suggest this dust could be worth more than $1m.
Joann Davis, who is 74 years old, hoped to sell the tiny speck of moon rock encased in a paperweight that she said her space engineer husband gave to her, according to a CBS News report.
She contacted NASA to help her to find a buyer, but the agency suspected her of dealing in stolen government property. When she went to her local Denny's in May to seal the deal, federal agents were waiting.
Davis insists that the moon debris is not stolen.
"I know it and they know it too," she said. "But how else are they going to credit themselves with how they took it? How do they justify it?"
She was detained and questioned for two hours, but has yet to be charged with anything.
Her attorney Peter Schlueter said there was "no such law that moon rocks belong to the federal government" and the feds hadn't shown that Davis' dust was stolen.
Davis said she now just wants NASA to return the moon rock to her and that she and Schlueter were considering legal action to try to get it back. ®


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Sliced apples distributed to fast-food and grocery chains across the country are among packaged products being recalled due to possible listeria contamination.
No illnesses have been reported, but listeria was found on equipment used to produce apple products by Missa Bay LLC, owned by Ready Pac Foods Inc. of Swedesboro, N.J.
Packaged apple slices distributed to McDonald's and Burger King in some states are included in the recall, as are some packaged fruit, veggies, salads and sandwiches containing apples distributed to Wawa convenience store and Wegman's grocery chains, as well as various apple and fruit snacks with "Ready Pac" labels and apple salad kits with a "Safeway Farms" label.
The recalled snacks have use-by dates of July 8 through Aug. 20, the company said. People should check their refrigerators for products with those use-by dates, the company said, and it asked retailers to check store shelves and inventories to make sure none of the packages are there.
Missa Bay announced the voluntary recall on Friday, saying a total of 293,488 cases and 296,224 individual units went to 36 states and the District of Columbia. People who may have purchased the recalled products are asked to record use-by dates and UPC codes and contact Ready Pac at 800-800-7822.
More information on the more than two dozen products recalled and the states involved is available on the company's website at www.readypac.com.
Listeria is a bacteria that causes food poisoning and is especially dangerous to pregnant women. While a pregnant woman may experience mild, flu-like symptoms, the illness caused by listeria can lead to miscarriage, premature delivery or life-threatening infection in newborns.
Symptoms in people besides pregnant women can include fever and muscle aches, headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and convulsions.
An outbreak of listeria in cantaloupes last year was linked to 30 deaths and one report of a pregnant woman who had a miscarriage while she was sick.
McDonald's Issues Statement
"McDonald's food safety and quality control standards are among the highest in the restaurant industry. We have a long history of leadership in this area and work with suppliers who share our commitment to provide customers with safe, quality menu items.
In an abundance of caution, we stopped serving all existing apple products from Ready Pac's Missa Bay facility and removed them entirely from our restaurants and distribution centers. This is a precautionary voluntary measure, only. It's important to note that McDonald's has not received any reports of illness with Ready Pac's recall.
Information about McDonald's apple menu items potentially impacted by this voluntary recall can be found at www.mcdonalds.com or by calling 1-800-244-6227. Apple menu items currently in our restaurants are not affected by this recall.
Like all food businesses, we are closely monitoring the situation and will continue to look to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to provide further guidance as more is known."


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Reed just got called to serve in our ward Young Men's program. The boys are going to absolutely love having him in there. Here's what we've been up to while he's at Tuesday night mutual.
Week 1: Finger Painting with Chocolate Pudding (which quickly turned into body painting!)
Evan slathering pudding on like sunscreen...
Having a great time!
Messy baby
Week 2: Rainbow Colored Pasta (wouldn't have been too messy, but I added a little too much oil to keep it from getting sticky)
Maybe we'll pick something a little cleaner next week...
And since I was called to teach in Primary, Audrey had her first day in nursery a little early. But she did great and didn't seem to care we weren't there!