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Sanders Associates - военная электронная компания, так же, имевшая подразделение и гражданское подражделение, занимающееся бытовой электроникой.
Sanders Associates "Once Uppon A Time The Video Game..."
Note: The historical data contained in this section were extracted by permission from Ralph Baer's book about his long experience of father of the video game.
Before video games, there were computer games. They used a cathode ray tube screen as display, but did not remotely resemble a home system generating video signals to display a game on a standard home TV set. Before 1966, computer games could only be played on exceedingly expensive mainframes. For example, Space War was played on PDP-1 machines. In 1966, Ralph Baer had the ingenious idea of playing interactive games on a home TV set, using a system that would generate video signals like those transmitted by a TV station so that they could be seen on n ordinary TV set. He called the concept "TV Games" at first, and later on, video games. He prusued his novel concept and the resultant game systems started an industry.
Technically speaking, computer games could also not qualify as video games since they do not generate video signals, nor were their games displayed on a TV set. video games are built around computer technology. However, that was not possible in 1966, and Ralph Baer invented the system that did –the job using low-cost electronic components available in the mid-sixties. More information about Ralph Baer's involvement with video games can be found here.
It started in 1951...
Ralph Baer is often called "Thomas Edison of the video game". In 1951, he worked at Loral, then a small electronics development and production company located in the Bronx. Sam Lackoff, his Chief Engineer, asked him to build the best television set in the world. Somewhere along the line, Ralph suggested that some novel feature might be included in the television receiver to distinguish it from the competition: adding some sort of "interactive game". That got the predictable negative reaction: "Forget it. Just build the damn TV set; it's behind the schedule as it is". Nothing remotely similar to home video games happened for the next 15 years.
During the summer of 1966, Ralph (who now ran a division at Sanders Associates in New Hampshire) found himself waiting for another Sanders engineer at a bus terminal. He took advantage of the free time and jotted down some notes on the subject of using ordinary home TV sets for the purpose of playing games. It was "Eureka" time, but of course he didn't know that yet.
On the first of September 1966, he transcribed his notes into a 4-page Disclosure Document (pictured above). The document listed various types of games that he thought to be economically and technically feasible: action games, board games, sports games, chase games and others. The games would appear on either TV channel 3 or 4, which he called Channel LP for... Let's Play.
On September 6th, he drew an elementary schematic of a two-player game that he called a Chase Game. The game consisted of two squares (spots) that could be moved on the screen in both directions by two payers. The schematic also showed how to add color to the playing field.
A few days later, he assigned a technician, Bob Tremblay, to the job of building up a vacuum tube circuit to prove that spots (player symbols) or bars could be easily displayed on a TV screen. To save time, Ralph bought a Heathkit IG-62 television receiver alignment generator, because it contained some of the circuits he needed for his experiment: sync generators, an RF oscillator that could be tuned to TV channels and an RF modulator, needed to place the game video signal on a Channel 3 or 4 RF carrier. This saved some time and cost. The reason why Ralph asked the technician to execute a vaccuum tube design was simple: he was familiar with vacuum tubes. Transistors were still relatively novel and he was not yet comfortable with designing them into television circuitry.
Bob Tremblay finished the work in February 1967; it was now possible to move a single spot around the screen of the Black&White TV set used for the work so far. It was also possible to change the spot's shape from square to rectangular or stretch it into lines of various lengths.
Earlier, in December of 1966, Ralph decided that he should demonstrate his video game concept to Herbert Campman, the company's Corporate Director and most likely source of funding. Now, the work involved in this project had nothing whatever to do with Sanders' normal activities because the company was exclusively engaged in the development of defense electronics. "I would like you to look at a demo of something new, Herb," he said. In the small room he had commandeered for the demo, Ralph showed the first playable video game: the Chase Game, consisting of two squares chasing each other. "This looks like it has potential", Herb Campman said, "but it better do more interesting things than this." Ralph sent him a memo on December 12th requesting some money to cary on the work. The first official R&D funding arrived: $2000 for direct labor and $500 for direct materials. Not exactly a princely sum, but enough to make the activity "honest" and keep the project going.
During January 1967, Bob Solomon, an engineer in Ralph Baer's division, Bob Tremblay and Ralph himself got together a number of times to come up with ideas for simple games, such as Chase games, "Bucket-Filling" and "Fireman" Games, Skill games and others, all of which were technically feasible with little more than the simple hardware they had assembled so far. They purchased an RCA color TV set for use during their ongoing experiments. Ralph designed some new circuitry for color display, with which the others were not familiar.
In early February, Ralph figured it was time to get serious and sketched out some preliminary designs of a transistorised version of a basic TV game unit. On 12th, he brought Bill Harrison, another technician on-board the TV game project. Having worked with Bill Harrison on another project, a military crash program, Ralph really liked Harrison's talents, so he commandeered him, and put him to working that small 10x20ft room of the 5th floor, where the first vacuum tube prototype had been designed.
Bill started out by reviewing Bob Tremblay's work, and Ralph trained him in television circuit fundamentals. Ralph also asked him to buy a cheap plastic toy pistol to design a light-gun for quiz games, a smart idea that still exists in modern video games ! When Bill got back with a small Japanese-made pistol, Ralph showed him how to design an optical "receiver" which he could point to the TV screen to pick up the presence or absence of bright spots on the screen. The immediate goal was to play multiple-choice games. Using the "gun" for shooting at targets came later.
On May 2nd, Harrison, working on transistor circuits for TV games, designed a vertical scoring bar circuit as well as a chroma circuit for adding color, all of which were still tied to the RF modulator of the IG-62. The team could now split the screen and present two different colors below and above a variable horizontal line. That allowed playing the "famed" Pumping Game, which used a cut-out window and the firehose in an otherwise opaque overlay showing a fireman and a house. Game play consisted of having one participant try to raise the bottom, blue portion of the screen and the other to enlarge the upper, red portion of the screen. If the blue "water" was not pumped fast enough, the screen would turn red, showing the house "on fire" through the open cut-out and the game was over. Another game labelled "Bucket Filling" could also be played by two participants using two push-buttons: one would "pump" up water visible in a cutout of a bucket while the other would pump the waterdown.
The first "pumping" contest between Baer and Harrison took place on May, 15th 1967. Harrison won handily.
The next step was to get rid of the umbilical IG-62 and replace it with transistorized sync generators and an RF modulator and Channel 4 oscillator. Ralph, a TV engineer by degree, showed Bill how to do that. When all those circuits were working well, Bill mounted them into an aluminium chassis. This unit would see many additions and changes over the next several months. It became TV Game Unit #2, also referred to as the "Pump Unit".
Among the changes and additions made to Unit 2, were a second spot generator and a coincidence detector circuit (operational on May 25th), which would hide one of the two spots when the other spot "touched" it. That brought a desirable bit of realism to the Chase game. Adding a random-noise generator designed by engineer John Mason and built by Bill Harrison on a separate board, could very rapidly change the location of a player spot. This resulted in multiple player spots on the screen and allowed playing a "Fox & Hounds" game: a red spot controlled by one player was the fox, and a number of white "hounds", controlled by the other player, chased that fox all over the screen. The players used both Horizontal and Vertical control knobs to move the fox and the hounds. The object of the game was to see how long the fox could evade the hounds before it came into contact with one of them and was wiped out.
About that time, another light gun had been built by Bill Harrison. This time, the object of the game was shooting at a target spot on the screen and wipe it out. Reasonable good aim was required to accomplish when "shooting" a few feet distant from the screen.
By mid June, operation of Unit 2 was sufficiently improved and problems cleaned up to the point that the team thought they were ready for a show-and-tell to senior management. They asked Herb Campman to come up to their small lab for a preliminary demonstration. Herb brought along Louis Etlinger, the Corporate Patent Counsel. That visit took place on the 14th of June. Herb played all the games, fired the gun from the shoulder and from the hip, all of which must have impressed him since more money was made availble to continue the project. Both Herb and Lou signed a statement to the effect that they played these games that day... building a legal track record !
Herb and Lou agreed that the team now had games with enough variety to venture a major demonstration to Sanders senior management. Word had gotten around in the upper reaches of the company that Baer was "screwing around" with some sort of TV gadgetry, so there was no choice but to demonstrate Unit 2 to the "big boss". Seven games were planned for the demo: A Chess game, a Steeple Chase game, a Fox-and-Hounds game, a Chase game, a Bucket Filling game and a Target Shooting game using the light gun.
"We can't afford to blow this one, Bill," Ralph said. "Let's make absolutely sure that we will not screw up this demo."
Herb Campman told the team to expect Royden Sanders, the company's president and Harold Pope, the executive VP of the company. The team also heard that another VP, Dan Chisholm, might be there, as well as Henry Argento and several other members of the Board of Directors who happened to be at the plant for a board-of-directors meeting on the day for which the demo was planned.
To make sure that all of the individual game demos would flow smoothly, Ralph recorded an audio tape on which verbally introduced each game before it was played. He also designed a simple TV sound modulation circuit which Bill built into the game unit so that the tape player's sound would be played through through the speaker of the TV set. Another neat and novel touch: Video Games with voice-over game instructions !
Royden Sanders, Harold Pope as well as the entire Board of Directors showed up in June 15 for the demonstration. Unit 2 worked like a charm and everyone seemed impressed although there was more than one expression of doubt that Baer could make this project into a business. Henry Agento was probably the most enthusiastic of the board members. He really liked what he saw, and remained a faithful booster for years afterwards. Royden Sanders, the compnay's president and Harold Pope, the Executive VP and Baer's boss, conferred briefly and decided to let the team continue to develop additional games. Management's edict now became: "Build something we can sell or license, and soon !"
As a response to that, Ralph decided to concentrate on the development of a simple but interesting game unit that could be sold for twenty-five dollars at retail. This prompted the development of Unit 3.
Unit 3 was a simplified version of Unit 2, which contained too many circuits, hence a too high cost. Bill Harrison also improved circuit designs. By September, he had built a smaller, 5x5x6 inch prototype box which played simple Chase and Light Gun games. The color circuits were abandoned to reduce the cost without affecting the play value of the game, though background color was added later. Also abandoned were the timer circuits and various other do-dads in Unit 2, such as a spinning color guessing wheel. Unit 3 was also a modular design to simplify test and assembly in production: the two spot generators were assembled on two separate boards, an idea that was dropped in later prototypes, but revived by Magnavox in their Odyssey system. Once finished, Unit 3 was estimated to cost sixteen dollars, bad news for the prospects of selling a TV game at a reasonable retail price. Part of the cost problem was due to the fact that Baer and Harrison had no access to large quantity suppliers of electronic components. As it stood, there was no hope to have this game retailed at twenty-five dollars. Since there seemed to be no way to materially reduce the cost of what they had designed so far, the team clearly had to improve their prototype and design better games to make it an attractive product at something like fifty dollars. New ideas were needed and thewy could not require a significant increase in the Bill-of-Materials.
Herb Campman came to the rescue: "I can make Bill Rush available for a few weeks, if you want him. You know how creative he is. I don't have anything to do for him just now", Herb said. Bill Rush joined the project on July 18th, 1967. Within a few weeks, he came up with a novel idea that would dominate the video game industry for more than a decade: a third, machine-controlled spot, or screen symbol. This third spot could be used, for example, as a ball to play ball games. The first game mentioned in his notes on adding a machine-controlled spot was Ping-Pong. The team batted around ideas of how other games could be implemented. However, by September 1967, the TV Game project had started to put a dent into Herb Campman's R&D budget. But now, games like Ping-Pong, Hockey, Soccer and Handball were born in a rapid succession, at least on paper. Herb Campman's support continued. Then the project was stalled because Bill Harrison was called back for urgent duties on another, higher-priority program, and Bill Rusch went back to other tasks, too. But the team kept in touch in order to kick around new ideas.
When Bill Harrison returned to work on the game project, he put Bill Rush's third spot generator circuits to work, which Rush called Slicer Circuits. By early November, a fourth Unit was finished, and played Ping-Pong. Herb Campman visited the lab again and played the Ping-Pong game. "Seems to me, we're finally getting there!", he said. "This looks like it's for real". Thus, the project received another infusion of money, $8000 or so, which allowed the team to spend several months to improve Unit 4. It now played Ping-Pong, Hockey (the same game but without the central line), gun games and chase games.
Rush's spot generators were of a unique design. They used the nonlinear characteristic of silicon diodes to produce spots that could be nearly round, or have other amazing shapes like stars, ovals, etc. Although this was attractive, the design was unstable, meaning that the spots randomly drifted around, while slowly changing their shape. This was caused by thermal effects of the currents going through the diodes, and there was no simple solution to that problem. The older, rectangular spot generators had to be used instead.That made Bill Rush very unhappy which he eager enough to show. For Ralph, that subject was closed.
A new objective now was to make the ball bounce off a player's spot (say, a hockey stick) in the direction towards which it was propelled by the stick and with a speed corresponding to the velocity of the impact. Rusch came up with some paper designs and Bill Harrison started to build a fifth unit housing this circuitry. Talk about going after realism this early in the game! Since the analog circuitry required to accomplish such tricks requires signals that are the differential of another signal, the team dubbed these circuits "de/dt" (the differential of a voltage e with respect to time t, from basic calculus). It was all Rusch at his best. However, completion of the de/dt prototype chassis was postponed by Ralph Baer for time constraint reasons. Finding a licensee for the basic ball and paddle games was the major objective now. Building ever better games had to move to the backburner.
Ralph's main concern was how Sanders would get a return on their investment. Sanders being a high-tech, defense-electronics firm, the idea of Sanders manufacturing and distributing TV Games was unrealistic to begin with. An outside lincensee was clearly needed. The problem of what to do business-wise had remained unresolved for months, during which the management kept asking the engineers repeatedly where they thought they were heading. In response, Ralph's first approach was that TV Games might be of interest to the nascent Cable TV industry. The CATV industry was not doing well at the time. Ralph thought his TV Games might just help it attract new subscribers and turn business around.
Technically speaking, the concept was simple: The cable company would provide colorful backgrounds for the games and the TV Game Unit would create the action. Any cable station could easily transmit the bird's-eye view of a tennis court complete with spectator stands, all in living color; all they needed to do was point a color camera at a poster that displayed the desired graphics. The white player-spots and the ball-spot could then be superimposed electronically on this colorful, complex background by the TV game unit and the result would be a rich-looking screen presentation.
Towards the end of 1967, several new circuits were added to Unit #4, which would allow it to work synchronously with a cable signal. For demonstration purposes, the cable signal was emulated by pointing a small video camera at a set of flipcharts sitting on an easel.
By November of 1967, everything was working like a charm. Ralph decided to call the TelePrompter Corporation in New York, then the largest cable company in the U.S. Eventually, he got through to Hubert Schlafly, a senior VP at TelePrompter. He got interested enough in the possibilities of cable games to set a date for a visit to Sanders, the 18th of January, 1968. During that demonstration the team played every game against suitable faux-cable backgrounds provided by the camera, emulating the signals coming down the cable.
Mr. Schlafly was sufficiently impressed to persuade Irving Kahn, TelePrompter's President (and "Mr. Cable" to the industry at the time) to come up to New Hampshire and get a similar demonstration, which he did on the 13th of February. Mr. Kahn also liked what he saw. The scene appeared to be set to move into cable games in cooperation with the largest cable outfit anywhere... progress on the business front!
Thereafter, Ralph Baer made several trips to New York City to the TelePrompter headquarters to participate in developing a plan of action for the two companies; Sanders Corporate Director of Patents, Lou Etlinger, and Irving Kahn began to negotiate an agreement based on Ralph's detailed, multi-page presentation of who would do what and when. In mid April, Ralph went to New York to work on the agreement with his counterparts at T.P. This time he took Unit 4 with him to give a demo to various TP and Manhattan Cable personnel. Everyone seemed impressed.
Ralph's team had hoped that cable games would prove to be a suitable medium for TV gaming; unfortunately, all of the U.S. cable TV companies (including TelePrompter) were in the midst of cash-flow problems; their difficulties paralleled those of the general business conditions of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Recession had hit Sanders also where employment went from some 11,000 employees down to barely 4,000 during that period. Unfortunately, the cable business got worse and worse, along with everything else. What was to have been a concerted, cooperative effort between Sanders and TelePrompter fizzled for lack of funding on their part, thus aborting the first attempt in the history of civilization to play interactive games over cable.
Ralph and his team were back to square one, and desperately needed to find a new marketing solution for the TV game project.
Some funding was still available. During December of 1967 and January of 1968, Bill Harrison used it to spend time on improving various games; he developed better-performing hardware and added new sports games. These included handball and volleyball—variations on the theme of Ping-Pong. Bill Harrison did most of the work. Ralph was busy managing the Equipment Design Division; he had barely enough time to stop by the small TV Game lab once or twice a day for a few minutes to confer with Bill and keep the effort on track. At the same time, Rush was busy working on a voluminous disclosure document describing his de/dt circuitry.
Early in January of 1968, Herb Campman issued a Stop Order—shutting off all funding for TV game development—and all lab activity on games ceased for several months. Harrison went to work somewhere else in my division; Rusch returned to Campman's R&D domain, although the three men remained in touch.
In September of 1968, after an eight-month hiatus, Herb made some new money available and Ralph was able to get Bill Harrison back on board. At first, Bill worked some more on "cleaning up" various sub-circuits, such as the summer, coincidence detector and some of the de/dt circuitry. Then he began to concentrate on building still another "production" unit: TV Game Unit No.6. This one used a 3-position rotary switch to select the built-in games: Ping-Pong, Handball, Chase games, golf and gun games.
In November, Bill also worked briefly on a paper design of a version of TV games that could be built into a television set where it could clearly share many components and thus reduce the Bill of Materials of the game circuitry
The team was still unhappy with the design of bare-bones ball and paddle TV Game Unit#6. They recognized that additional, valid games could be played without adding many parts and cost. To accomplish this required mostly the improvement of the game selection scheme. Bill immediately started on a new design, which used slide switches to select the specific circuit interconnections needed for a particular game. That method allowed playing ten legitimate games.
Harrison got an early version of this slide-switch-programmable TV Game working by the middle of January (1968); This was Unit 7 in the series of eight TV game units the team had built over a two-year period. Bill had covered the aluminum chassis with brown, self-adhesive, wood-grain paper, to make it look less chintzy. He had previously used the same paper on the hand controllers atttached to Unit 6. The new unit was promptly dubbed the "Brown Box". Bill also improved the operation of the good-looking, target-shooting gun used with Unit 6. The Brown Box was "programmed" by inserting cards between its two rows of switches. Dots on the cards indicated which switch to move for a given game. Later, Bill built another unit (Unit 8) which could be plugged to the Brown Box in order to add the dynamic motion (de/dt) effects to the games.
All the hardware was working well now. Still, no marketting solution had been found. Eventually Ralph came to realize that a Home TV Game product might be the natural province of television set manufacturers. He repeatedly conferred with Lou Etlinger, who started the ball rolling by calling and inviting representatives of various U.S. television set manufacturers to come for demonstrations.
RCA engineers and marketing people were the first to visit Sanders. They came in the middle of January of 1969 and were followed over the next few months by Zenith, Sylvania, GE, Motorola, and Magnavox, all of them substantial U.S. TV set manufacturers at that time.
Warwick—Sears Roebuck's TV set suppliers—expressed interest but told the team to contact a particular individual at Sears who expressed little interest in anything else than his exploits…a wasted trip to Chicago.
GE suggested a visit to their small-color-set assembly operation in Virginia and demonstrate the Brown Box there; Lou and Ralph did just that in May, but again, nothing else came of that trip.
The reaction to the various demos of the Brown Box and its accessories was uniformly positive: Everyone agreed that playing games on a home TV set was an interesting concept that had "legs." But only RCA proceeded to negotiate a licensing agreement with Lou Etlinger. That began in the spring of 1969. After months of working on the details of the agreement these negotiations also fell apart.
The next section covers the story of how Magnavox Odyssey system came into being after the collapse of the RCA license agreement. Click here for more information.
Original patent filed by Ralph Baer:
"The present invention pertains to an apparatus [and method], in conjunction with monochrome and color television receivers, for the generation, display, manipulation, and use of symbols or geometric figures upon the screen of the television receivers for the purpose of [training simulation, for] playing games [and for engaging in other activities] by one or more participants. The invention comprises in one embodiment a control unit, an apparatus connecting the control unit to the television receiver and in some applications a television screen overlay mask utilized in conjunction with a standard television receiver. The control unit includes the control, circuitry, switches and other electronic circuitry for the generation, manipulation and control of video signals which are to be displayed on the television screen. The connecting apparatus selectively couples the video signals to the receiver antenna terminals thereby using existing electronic circuits within the receiver to process and display the signals generated by the control unit in a first state of the coupling apparatus and to receive broadcast television signals in a second state of the coupling apparatus. An overlay mask which may be removably attached to the television screen may determine the nature of the game to be played or the training simulated. Control units may be provided for each of the participants. Alternatively, games [training simulations and other activities] may be carried out in conjunction with background and other pictorial information originated in the television receiver by commercial TV, closed-circuit TV or a CATV station."


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How to enjoy traveling alone
Many travelers have entertained the thought of traveling alone, or taking a "Me-cation." Unfortunately, the unfamiliar often comes with self-doubts and fear – how do I do it? Will I get bored? Will it be safe? But what you should really be asking yourself is – will I love it?
I think a surprising number of us would. Don't fear the "Me-cation." A solo trip is not only a fantastic way to discover a new destination (or see one you've already visited in a whole new light), but traveling alone also promotes self-discovery. When you remove the need to please others, you're able to recharge your batteries and open yourself up to new experiences. Moreover, giving yourself the gift of a dream vacation can create a sense of fulfillment while building self-confidence.
To help you plan an exciting, fun and safe solo trip, here are five tips on traveling alone.
Know before you go.
Research and map out your travel plans well before you leave. It's best to have your transportation and hotel accommodations arranged in advance so you are not left stranded or wandering around. This also eliminates any un-needed stress, which could cause you to question the decision to travel solo. Also be sure to make friends with your hotel's concierge or the front desk person before venturing out, they can provide a wealth of local knowledge.
Pack lightly.
Adopt the mindset of "start big, end small." Remove any items you're not 100 percent sure about. The fewer pieces of luggage you have to haul around the better, and the less you have to worry about. Additionally, if you need a few pieces for a special occasion on your travel, buy it at your destination and bring home a new style.
Stay connected.
Even though you're traveling alone, keep in touch. Leave breadcrumbs on your trail with posts, tweets, and check-ins. Text, email or call your friends and family to keep them abreast of your plans and to share your experiences.
Make new friends.
Join a tour group for activities such as hiking, bus tours or monument visits. Mingle with other tourists who have the vacation mindset. Also, talk to locals in friendly settings; you'd be surprised how open some folks can be to sharing their knowledge and pride for their hometown.
Indulge in guilty pleasures.
One of the perks of traveling alone is that you can do whatever you want, when you want. Take afternoon naps, treat yourself to an afternoon cocktail, and eat whatever you desire. Sleep in late, stay up late. In short, live a little.
L. Jasmine Kim is the General Manager at Travel-Ticker, an online inspirational travel website that negotiates deals with multiple hotels, airlines, cruises, and other travel partners. Viewers can sign up for their weekly newsletter that says it offers the best deals according to individual interests.

subset: commoncrawl


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Join USCDKA
On behalf of all the members, Black Belts and Instructors of this American martial arts institution, please allow me the opportunity to welcome you to our website and give you a brief explanation of what our national Taekwondo association can do for you.
Sr. Grandmaster Edward B. Sell personally created the United States Chung Do Kwan Association, Inc. in 1967. That was the year that he returned home from an eight year tour with the U.S. Air Force. He spent more than six years in Korea. That is where he discovered this outstanding teaching method of self-defense, self-improvement and leadership training, called Taekwondo Chung Do Kwan (Korean Karate). He trained very hard during that time, earning the world title as the highest ranked Black Belt in the world (outside a native Korean). Our textbook, titled Forces of Taekwondo, gives more details about his past training and this association. Our textbook should be one of the first training aides that you invest in after you put on your new uniform. (More information on Sr. Grandmaster Edward B. Sell can be found at tkd.GrandmasterEdwardSell.com)
The U.S. Chung Do Kwan Association, Inc. can be referred to as a "martial arts college". My job and office as the Kwan'Jang simply means that I am the "Head Dean" or teacher of Masters. There are many martial arts organizations in this country, but ours is the oldest and most refined, and by far, "The Best of The Best!" We offer National credentials (credibility & recognition) in the form of membership (ID) cards, belt promotion certificates, Black Belt degree certificates and nine levels of Instructor Degrees, a well structured curriculum that has a proven track record of success for over 40 years, training resources (downloads, books, e-books, DVD's, and YouTube. Visit our online Pro-shop for Training Resources to help you on your path. For almost five decades, theU.S. Chung Do Kwan Association, Inc. has set the pace in America and around the world for high standards in teaching and leadership training in martial arts.
Today, our staff continues working together to meet the physical, mental and spiritual needs of all U.S. Chung Do Kwan Association, Inc. members from white belt beginner to the highly respected Black Belt rank of Grandmaster.
It is with great pleasure that I offer you this opportunity to join our team and become a proud member of America's elite martial arts association. I ask that you simply fill out the application and send it in with your annual membership fee. Get involved, get to know people who share your passion and interests in Taekwondo. The more involved you become, the bigger your support base. Your membership card is a highly prestigious document that can ONLY be obtained by students of a registered U.S. Chung Do Kwan Association, Inc. Chartered School. I look forward to having you part of our team, U.S. Chung Do Kwan Association, Inc. – The BEST of the BEST!
I also look forward to you becoming a member of our outstanding Black Belt Instructing staff.
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Want a wood barn with extra loft storage but have a limited depth site? The wood side lofted barn is the solution to your problem. You get the storage you need but enter along the length of the building. This version comes in 8ft, 10ft, 12ft and 14ft widths. The 8ft wide version has a single wood door and no windows, but the larger ones have two 2x3ft windows and a double wood door. The fir wood siding is sealed at no extra charge and stained with Honey Gold Olympic® stain.
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The Beetles on the poster by Paper Collective have unique shapes, which are recognized all over the world despite of - or because of - their iconic character.
The poster Beetle 03 is unique because of the special printing technique, where several layers are printed on top of each other in an Offset-procedure. This is how expressive colours and colour combinations emerge which emphasize the character of the picture. Beetles represent natural elements that enrich our lives according to the design team of Note Design Studio. The name of the manufacturer and of the designer is written under the graphic print with decent letters.
The Beetle poster is made of heavy 200 g/qm Munken Lynx paper. This kind of paper has archive quality and it is naturally FSC-certified. Paper Collective produces the art print with the Nordic seal of environmentally friendliness, similar to the Blue Angel of Germany.
The Paper Collective "Beetle" poster is limited to 300 pieces all over the world. Moreover one part of the gain of it is donated to a charitable organization, chosen by the designer – in the case of the Beetle 01 poster from Note Design Studio, the donation goes to Greenpeace.


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December 14, 2010
| Encyclopedia
A seasonal fruit about the size of an orange with numerous juicy seed kernels located inside of the pomegranate's inedible husk.
December 1, 2010
| Demo
Nail Tek's Hydration Therapy Anti-Aging Spa Natural Nail Manicure is an effective treatment to keep your clients' hands young-looking. Nail Tek's Foaming Skin
November 22, 2010
| Photo Gallery
Westerners are cultivating an appreciation for the ancient Eastern philosophies and practices. Here are some Eastern twists on a few salon services.
November 16, 2010
| Article
Not all nails are perfect. Some are thin, some are ridged, and some have cracks and tears. But luckily techs have a number of natural nail products to strengthen and treat a variety of nails. Here's a quick guide from Nail Tek's Mary Jo Zwirowski.
October 18, 2010
| News
Redbook magazine suggests the use of a daily hand scrub to counteract dark spots on hands in 43 Ways to Look Younger.
October 1, 2010
| Article
It's not so surprising that a spa offering acupuncture, Ayurvedic counseling, and herbal consultations should shun traditional nail polish and artificial nails. Until recently The Dragontree Holistic Day Spa at the Portland International Airport turned away customers looking for nail care. In May the spa modified its menu to include manis and pedis with two options — a simple buff or Minx nail coatings.
September 23, 2010
| Product
La Fresh Nail Polish Remover Pads are biodegradable and natural. One pad cleans and conditions all 10 nails with a fresh Tuscan blood orange scent. Formulated with a nourishing blend of vitamin E, aloe, glycerin, rosemary, and horsetail extracts, the pads are free of acetone, acetate, parabens, petrochemicals, glycols, dyes, artificial fragrances, and animal byproducts.
September 7, 2010
| News
Celebrity manicurist Tom Bachik gives Glamour three helpful tips to keep nails looking their best.
September 1, 2010
| Product
The LCN Spa Series provides hand, nail, and foot care treatments made from all-natural ingredients found a world away. The spa line captures the holistic spirit of the Indonesian islands, incorporating elements derived from the highest-quality plants, herbs, and flora.
August 17, 2010
| Product
Piggy Paint products are made with hypoallergenic, odorless, and non-acetone ingredients to make them ideal for the sensitive skin of children.
August 1, 2010
| Article
Women used to eat green papaya as a contraceptive.
July 21, 2010
| Product
Bio Sculpture Gel's Spa Line is a new collection of spa products to promote and maintain healthy skin and beauty.
July 1, 2010
| Demo
essie ejuvenate is a revolutionary system for younger looking hands.
March 1, 2010
| Article
It's sometimes instructive to take a look at the nail salon industry from the other side of the chair: the client's side. That's why it can be especially insightful to chat with a select breed of nail salon owner: the client-turned-salon entrepreneur.
February 24, 2010
| Product
Entity's Nanovive Skin Revival System Kit contains four products in the Nanovive System.
Nailympia Orlando 201938 photos
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Reasons for setting up the new arm of Fluent Money, thoughts on the status of the second charge sector – and a talent that perhaps should remain a secret
Fluent for Advisers launched earlier this year. What was the motivation for introducing the new arm of Fluent Money and how is it going?
The move was designed to split the company's business channels and provide adviser firms and networks with a clearly defined resource. This can comprise either a full referral and advice service or a selection of potential products from which brokers can make recommendations.
The new focus has paid dividends in bringing our proposition to the intermediary market, which has responded very positively to Fluent for Advisers. We are delighted with the results.
How has the second charge market looked, business-wise, for the year to date?
We were always optimistic that, even with the MCD, new business would not be affected. In fact, as we had hoped, it has been positive for the second charge market, with more brokers considering the sector for alternatives to remortgaging, which is what the regulator wanted in encouraging greater choice for borrowers. Figures from the Finance & Leasing Association show a 17 per cent increase in new business for the year to August 2016.
What are Fluent's main focuses at the moment?
We are working hard to build our relationships with networks and increase our profile among individual intermediaries as a logical choice to partner them and provide the knowledge, support and process to ensure their customers make the right choices.
How long have you been in your current role and where were you previously?
I have headed Fluent's intermediary business since it started. Before the credit crunch I was at Loanmakers, a second charge master broker.
I started my career at Reekie Group – which sells agricultural equipment – and stayed there for 12 years before moving to Seddon Plant and Engineers, at the time the largest construction conglomerate in the UK, where I was Scottish area manager for 14 years.
At the age of 40 I wanted a new career and was familiar with parts of the finance industry through our leasing programmes. Also, I was impressed watching a friend set up his own second charge brokerage, which soon became one of the largest of its kind in the UK.
I have been with Kevin Hindley, chief executive at Fluent Money, ever since.
What appeals to you about the industry?
I love the dynamism reflected by lenders, distributors and intermediaries in the sector. We are lucky in the second charge channel to be involved in a market that is taking its place as a fully fledged and integral part of every adviser's options for clients wishing to raise capital.
If you had not chosen this career path, what else would you have liked to do?
I'd have been an artist. If it wasn't for my lack of real talent, I'd be selling my paintings rather than giving them away to family and friends.
Who is your all-time hero, and why?
Neil Armstrong. Like many of my generation, growing up and reading about super-hero Dan Dare in the Eagle comic, and then watching on TV the real-life Dan Dare, Neil Armstrong, going into space and stepping onto the surface of the Moon, has always stayed with me.
Do you have any secret talents?
I can tell the sex of sheep just by looking at them!
What do you do in your spare time?
I paint (watercolours), play guitar and watch football, although not at the same time. I spend a lot of spare time on my motorbike and find cooking for the family relaxing. I also love watching One Man and his Dog.
What is the best advice you have received?
Never trust a car driver when riding a motorbike.
If you were chancellor for a day, what would be your priorities?
Impose an immediate transparent tax system on multinationals, for all sales made within the UK.
I would also reintroduce full grants for students in traditional subjects, with a weighted system to encourage those from poorer backgrounds.
Company background
Year established: 2008, as Fluent Money
Headcount: 110
Address: 102 Rivington House, Chorley New Road
Horwich, Bolton
Lancashire BL6 5UE
Tel: 01204 477600
Fluent Money is the largest second charge master broker in the UK. Fluent for Advisers was launched in mid-2016 with a focus solely on the intermediary market.


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MICREL, represented by Braemac , has rolled out four new high-performance, low-dropout (LDO) regulators in the industry's smallest plastic packaging, the 2x2 MLF.
The MIC5219/47/52/55 series is part of Micrel's family of popular micropower LDOs aimed at a wide range of portable electronics applications.
The MIC5247/52/55 series offers 150mA output current capability, and low dropout of less than 150mV typical at full load. The MIC5219 offers 500mA continuous output current with only 300mV typical dropout.
The devices are the latest addition to Micrel's line of extremely small 2x2 MLF package regulators, many featuring uCap capability; a feature that allows for a choice of either ceramic or tantalum output capacitors.
Micrel, is a leading manufacturer of advanced, high performance communications, clock management, Ethernet switch and physical layer transceiver, mixed signal, analog and power ICs.
These products include devices for fibre-optic telecommunications and networking, cellular telephones, servers, portable computer systems, computer peripherals, process control systems, consumer electronics, and power supplies.


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Zoe Sugg, known as Zoella on Youtube, is releasing a book. I'm sure you know about it, because who doesn't watch Zoella? Even if you're not there for the beauty tips (I wasn't originally... no amount of tutorials are going to fix my face!) you stay for the fantastic vlogs. She has her own beauty and pamper range, and if she wasn't successful enough with over 6 million subscribers, she's going to become an author as well. I can't get enough of this girl, and I certainly can't wait to buy the book.
The book in question is going to be called Girl Online, and is a fiction book about a girl who is popular online but struggles with anxiety. When she goes to New York, she meets a boy, and things take a surprising turn. It will be a teen/YA romance novel, and although not an autobiography, it is loosely based on her own life, since she too struggles with anxiety.
"I had no idea GirlOnline would take off the way it has - I can't believe I now have 5432 followers, thanks so much! - and the thought of opening up to you all about this is terrifying, but here goes . . .
Penny has a secret.
Under the alias GirlOnline, she blogs about school dramas, boys, her mad, whirlwind family - and the panic attacks she's suffered from lately. When things go from bad to worse, her family whisks her away to New York, where she meets the gorgeous, guitar-strumming Noah. Suddenly Penny is falling in love - and capturing every moment of it on her blog.
But Noah has a secret too. One that threatens to ruin Penny's cover - and her closest friendship - forever."
This is the cover without the winner's photo from the competition Zoe held for a fan to get a polaroid picture of their own on the cover, and it will go just at the bottom right where the balloons are.
It comes out on the 25th November and you can pre-order it on Amazon, which I highly suggest you do since it is going to sell like hot cakes when it arrives in shops.
I am so looking forward to reading it, and I am curious to see how she writes the anxiety in, as I know that feeling all too well, and I've never read a book that covers the subject before. I love watching Zoe's videos and I'm currently saving money to buy pretty much everything in her beauty range, and now the book is going to be the icing on the cake to what has been a really exciting year for her and her viewers.
Overall, me and about 6 million other people are buzzing for this release, so come along for the ride and experience Girl Online.


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Except this year, Lee didn't just attend. She was asked to speak during special presentations for the conference, along with 4 other representatives from Decatur High and 4 representatives from Austin High.
Dr. Johnny Berry, Brad Boy, Mark Christopher, Kiersten Jones, and Lee Lott formed the team from Decatur High School, and Joy Dixon, Tina Lawrence, Joanna Schley, and Heather Tucker came from Austin High School.
Lee and her colleagues spoke about how they use pioneering methods of incorporating a Renaissance mindset in our high schools.
The Renaissance mindset is clear. "Every day should have one purpose and that purpose should be to make every student feel welcome and loved and part of our school family," Lee says.
Jostens representative Randy Brock helps to pay for both Decatur and Austin representatives to attend the conference with the intention of using the conference as a catalyst for building positive school cultures.
"I wish people could feel it," Lee says of the inspiration she feels after the conference.
But people can feel it when they're around Lee and around other Renaissance-minded people.
Lee treats her students with respect. "I model my interactions with them the way I want them to interact with other people."
And it stems from her heart. "Every kid needs hugs," Lee says.
At Decatur City Schools, we want our students to feel supported and successful. We want them to belong. We want this Renaissance to be an era of making conscious decisions to change a place through relationships. "This isn't just an event," Lee says. "It's a way of life."
So what does that way of life look like for Decatur City Schools?
It means pep rallies with inspiring themes that celebrate people who never thought they'd be celebrated.
It means students mentoring new teachers to explain traditions, activities, and special schedules.
It means a 9th Grade Day in which incoming 9th graders come to school before school starts just to walk their schedules, learn the ropes, and receive a welcoming gift.
It means Honor Roll parties every 9 weeks for all A/B students. These parties include VISA gift card, YETI cups, restaurant cards, movie passes, and iPad giveaways, and non-cafeteria food!
It means creating bulletin boards that celebrate students "caught" doing acts of kindness.
It means randomly raining candy into classrooms with perfect attendance.
It means an ACT wall to honor those who excel academically.
It also means reaching out to the graduating class with a senior breakfast, intramural basketball game, and handwritten notes from their classmates.
Basically, Renaissance means winning. Lots of winning.
So is it working?
You bet it is. In just one year of Renaissance-minded progress, class-learning benchmarks improved by over 21%, composite scores increased by almost 2% across the board, and Advanced Placement (AP) class enrollment nearly tripled.
"Renaissance is a life-changing conference," Lee says. "It changes you from the inside out."


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As you consider whether to pursue facial plastic surgery or hair replacement treatments, a crucial step is finding the right doctor. The Rousso Facial Plastic Surgery Clinic and Alabama Hair Institute is located at the Mountain Brook Center in Birmingham, Alabama and provides a private and comfortable atmosphere to assist you in achieving your goals. Dr. Rousso has been performing facial plastic surgery, hair restoration treatments, and hair replacement surgeries for over 25 years, and he has been providing the most comprehensive care in this area. We invite you to visit our photo gallery to see our patients' before and after photos.
Schedule Your Consultation
- Call Us: (205) 930-9595
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This is the horrifying moment a shopkeeper's wife was slashed repeatedly with a knife during a brutal armed raid in a newsagents.
CCTV footage shows the two masked thugs enter the shop with large knives.
They grab hold of the shopkeeper and hold the weapons to his throat and demand cash.
The shopkeeper's wife, who was in bed upstairs, heard shouting and went into the shop to investigate.
But as she ran into the shop and saw the two thugs, she slipped and broke her ankle, the Manchester Evening News reported.
She then reached for the alarm, but one of the robbers ran behind the counter and threw her to the floor. She tried to grab an ornamental sword but the robber punched her repeatedly in the head - with a fist that was also holding an 8-inch long knife.
They then forced the man to open the till . The woman managed to activate the alarm and the men ran out of the shop. The woman suffered cuts to her face, back and arms.
The men got away with just £35 after two minutes of terror at the shop in Denton, Tameside.
Detectives investigating the raid have now released CCTV footage of the raid at Stockport Road Newsagents and Off-licence at around 5am on May 30.
Det Sgt Steve Hall, based at Hyde, said: "Anyone viewing this footage will be horrified at the levels of extreme violence unleashed on this unsuspecting couple. The couple have put up a spirited and, at times desperate, defence of their business and for that they should be applauded.
While we would never encourage anyone to take the law into their hands, it is clear that they were not going to give into these thugs without a fight. The woman suffered a number of injuries when she came to her husband's defence but, given the ferocity of the attack, it could have been a considerably worse.
"I now want people to view this footage and tell us what they know. I have no doubt that even the criminal community would be outraged by this."
Anyone with information should call police at Hyde on 0161 856 9484 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.


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Mitchell Johnson will use the final two one-dayers to bully his way back into Australia's Ashes team.
The tearaway quickie has used his thunderbolts in the most aggressive way during the two matches he has bowled in so far.
And it has brought him rewards both in terms of batsmen roughed up and hit on the head – Jonathan Trott – as well as those he has got out, Trott, Kevin Pietersen and Michael Carberry.
More of the same today in Cardiff and he will be near Australia's team-sheet in Brisbane come November.
"Whoever I'm up against I'm confident I can get them out and intimidate them," said Johnson. "That's how I bowl and hopefully they are wary of me. I just have to keep being aggressive.
"When you can get those guys out with the short ball it can be very intimidating, and the short ball is part of my armoury.
"I want to play Test cricket, that's my No.1 form. Hopefully I get the chance to play against England and win an Ashes series." Johnson has been wild and wooly in his previous Ashes encounters, but the sight of him bowling straight and with consistent pace above 90 miles per hour has given England's batsmen something to think about at 1-0 down with two to play.
And in the home dressing room, James Tredwell's hopes of edging out Monty Panesar for a second spinner's role in the Ashes will be boosted if he can come back from the mauling he took in the Old Trafford 88-run hammering.
"It seemed to be as soon as I came on they were gunning for me," said Tredwell.
"Sometimes it's horrible, depending on who's at the other end. But if someone is taking a chance, then it's giving you one. You just try to do your best to put your name in the hat and hopefully it gets picked out."
How today's teams should look
England: Carberry, Pietersen, Trott, Root, Morgan (c), Bopara, Buttler (wk), Stokes, Tredwell, Finn, Rankin
Australia: Finch, Marsh, Watson, Clarke (c), Bailey, Voges, Wade (wk), Faulkner, Johnson, McKay, Ahmed


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(a) Premarking
No later than one week before a case is set for trial or hearing, counsel shall furnish to the clerk:
(1) an original of a typed descriptive list of all exhibits to be offered. Each listing shall indicate whether the exhibit shall be admitted into evidence by agreement of parties or marked for identification;
(2) the original exhibits, marked, that will be used in the proceeding; and
(3) no hazardous exhibit as defined in LR 7.3 shall be presented for premarking, premarked, introduced into evidence or maintained in the custody of the court without prior leave of court.
At the commencement of the proceeding, all exhibits agreed to will be offered and received into evidence. Those marked for identification will remain so until ruled upon during the proceeding or in the court's opinion or otherwise.


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Last week I went to Atlanta, Georgia to attend the Association of Pet Dog Trainer's Conference. The conference itself was wonderful -- I learned about some fantastic studies on canine cognition, got some wonderful tips on dog training, and met up with old friends and met new friends.
While dogs are my first love, I'm am fascinated by animals of all kind. I was lucky enough to be able to get to the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta the day before the start of the conference. The Georgia Aquarium is the largest in the world with exhibits that contain 8 million gallons of water!
It was a wonderful opportunity to see beluga whales, whale sharks, hammerhead sharks, manta rays, jelly fish and octopus.
Some of the smaller exhibits allowed me to get up close and see things like the lion fish and sea dragon (see the video!)
My favorite exhibits were the petting tanks where visitors have an opportunity to touch some of the sea animals. The highlight of my visit was petting bonnethead sharks and cownose rays.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Creatures of the Sea
Labels: APDT, Fish, Georgia Aquarium, Khris Erickson, rays, sea animals, Shark
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When Metrosexual Marxists Rule
Metrosexuals and Marxists have one fundamental characteristic in common with each other: They both think they are smarter than everyone else. And since they know everything, they see themselves as the rightful rulers of the common people, and arbiters of right and wrong, good and evil, and anything else you can think of.
Since we have a Metrosexual Marxist squatting in the White House – many Americans see Him as a usurper – a Metrosexual Marxist who is also an erstwhile Muslim, we are thrice cursed…er…um…blessed. Barack Hussein Obama and His gang of fanatics…er…um…change agents, aka The Administration, believe that foreign policy is simple: Let the Smartest Man and Only Adult in the Room pontificate and the world, awed by His charisma and His brilliance and stunned by his ever-so-subtle nuances, will fall into line and do exactly as He wants them to.
As we can see, this strategy has worked like a fine watch made in a Chinese factory.
North Korea – Moving ahead with their nuclear missile program, and should soon be able to launch a EMP attack on America, should their sadistic Dear Looney find the need to distract his starving subjects from wanting to slowly skin him alive.
Sub-Saharan Africa – Obama's fellow Africans…no, wait…B. Hussein was born in Hawai'i, right?…are still slaughtering and enslaving each other as if the 21st century, or the 20th for that matter, had never arrived.
Asia – China is producing enough pollution to create global warming and cooling, all by themselves, and they are inches away from starting an East Asian War with Japan and the Philippines. They also are spending increased billions on upgrading their army, airforce, and navy, and have nukes and missiles capable of reaching all the Democrat-ruled cities on the West Coast.
The Middle East – Thanks to the ever-so-tough agreement that The Obama Administration so cleverly worked out with them, Iran will have its long-sought after nuclear weapons in a few weeks and got its bank accounts back, and thus, is able to buy whatever tech goodies it still lacks to launch the nukes at Israel, the US, and Europe. In Afghanistan, Americans are still being killed almost as fast as they are in Chicago, and in Iraq, the defeated and thing-of-the-past al-Qaeda has taken over the major city of Fallujah. And just to underline how utterly al-Qaeda has failed and been neutered by the brilliant strategy of The Commander-in-Charge…er, no…Change…um, no…well, you know, they have also taken over the dominant role in the Syrian insurgency and thus qualified for free arms and ammunition from America.
Russia and Eastern Europe – Just to show that they are not ungrateful for being allowed to take over Georgia, Russia has invaded Crimea in the Ukraine, so Obama, who is more flexible now, after His election, can act shocked and surprised, but magnanimously allow that, too. But to show that just because he's a Metrosexual Marxist, it doesn't mean that every Alpha Male that comes along can push Him around, B. Hussein has told our long-time friend and ally, Israel, that they just damn well better watch their step and do as they are told. Unfortunately, they snarkily responded, asking The Anointed One if He understood the meaning of "fat chance?"
So there's Obozo, out in the cold of a global warming winter, having sand kicked in His faces by every bully on the beach, bewildered and wondering what the hell went wrong?
The truly frightening part of this geo-political tragi-comedy is that China and Russia are extremely aware of the implications of Obama's actions and inaction. Both of them are on the move militarily, since they rightly understand that the Community Organizer, with his knee-jerk Marxist philosophy and his crippling narcissistic ego, will do nothing of consequence to stop them. It is far from being beyond the realm of possibility that before Obozo leaves office, they will feel strong enough to invade us. A two-front war, from the East Coast and the West, with a military that is a limp-wristed shadow of its former self, would be, as they say in Washington, problematic. Especially if The Usurper and His party get their heart's desire, gun control. Without the "rifle behind every blade of grass," our destruction as a nation would be inevitable. But then, is this not what the Democrats and their Greatest President of All Time want?
All this has transpired in a short five years, and the supposed conservatives in government – closet Metrosexuals? – have done almost nothing to even slow it down, much less stop it. If the 2014 election doesn't return our government to We, the People, I fear we are going to be in for a long, very rough and probably painful ride.


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On 19.11.2012, at 18.55, ext Marcos Caceres wrote: > On Monday, November 19, 2012 at 4:42 PM, Tran, Dzung D wrote: > >> Yes, it is a bit of chicken/egg problem. However, we need some way to tell if there are multiple proximity sensors. As for a Parking Sensor API, I don't think we want a API for any type of thing that comes about. As for Proximity API means the one for face-closeness detection on a mobile phone, I don't agree it just for mobile phone and face-closeness, we are seeing proximity sensors that are coming to the PC and tablet which has better range than just close to the face. > > Right, but we should target the 80-90% use cases now, and others when they become more commonly available. However, if you have evidence that a significant portion of the market actually has these multi sensor devices, then it forms a strong case for standardization (why do I feel we've had this discussion already?). I'm really interested to see if there are any camera based solutions in the wild. > > Note that I am not saying that this is a bad idea - just that we should not add things because they might enable something tomorrow. We discussed this issue already in May (see: http://www.w3.org/2009/dap/wiki/FutureWork) and concluded the functionality is out of scope for v1. It seems the situation has not changed since (no devices shipping with multiple proximity sensors, no new use cases). Given this, I propose we'll defer this functionality to v2 as agreed already in May. All - let me know if you have concerns with this. -AnssiReceived on Tuesday, 20 November 2012 08:48:06 UTC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.1 : Monday, 23 October 2017 14:53:56 UTC


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Disclosure: This is a sponsored post on behalf of the Role Mommy Writers Network and Kmart. All opinions are 100% my own.
When I was a kid, I started making my Christmas List before Thanksgiving with all of the latest and coolest toys. I always wanted a Chia Pet and didn't get one until I was out of high school. That was the best Christmas ever!
Now that I am a Mom, my kids make their lists right around Thanksgiving as well. They too add the hottest toys out to the top of their lists. I always want to top last years Christmas by making sure I have at least one of the hottest toys out for the year. By shopping Kmart and the Fab 15 I can do just that!
A hot toy that is on Amelia's list includes the Disney Frozen Sing Along Elsa and Play All Day Elmo!
My older girls are begging for the VTech Kiddizom Action Camera so they can record the "stunts" the do on their scooters!
I am looking forward to seeing their faces when they open their presents this year and see that the top toys are under the tree.
This year, Kmart's Fab 15 Toys include Disney's Frozen, Star Wars, LEGO®, Barbie™ and NERF,® which have been tested by Kmart's first-ever Kid Toy Advisory Board – a select group of kids of Kmart employees who are serving as toy experts and holiday toy consultants.
The Kmart Fab 15 Toys Include:
Ages 1-2
Ages 3-5
To stay on top of the hottest toys make sure you get the 2015 Toy Book and check out the Fab 15!
You can also enter to Shop Your Way Sweepstakes


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The Dr. Pat Show: Talk Radio to Thrive By!: From The Barrio to the Board Room
04/02/2009 10:30 am PDT
From Crime Alley to Easy Street. Successful Executive Inspires Youth With His Story of Escaping Street Life to Succeed in Business
Dr. Pat Baccili
Dr. Pat Baccili helps individuals and organizations break through their limiting Crust so they can reach their unlimited potential. Her specialty is assisting people face t...Find out more »
Robert Renteria
Robert J. Renteria, Jr., a successful businessman turned author, is challenging individuals and organizations to help him put copies of his empowering memoir, From the Barri...Find out more »


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A MunichNOW Interview:
MUNICH — (MunichNOW Arts & Culture) — As part of the ongoing Underground Filmfest, MunichNOW interviewed Bavarian actress/director/screenwriter Kathrin Anna Stahl about her film, "Twelfth Night", which will be playing Saturday afternoon, February 18, at the Werkstattkino in Munich as part of the Fest.
Kathrin Anna Stahl trained as an opera singer but then quickly turned towards theatre and film. She has served as assistant director on over a dozen short and feature films and currently works as an actress in Munich, Germany. In her own work, she pays tribute to the rural area of her homeland to shoot "Twelfth Night", her second short film, set in Northern Bavaria close to Czech border.
Both her short films have been funded by the Film and Television Fund of the Bavarian State (FFF Bayern) and her first feature film screenplay just went into production.
In the film, A poor day laborer, having worked his whole life trying to raise the social status of his family almost succeeds only to be thwarted at the last minute by the innocent choices but devastating playfulness of his child.
MunichNOW: What was the inspiration for this film? Why did you want to make it?
Kathrin Anna Stahl: "The inspiration to make this film was the moment I read the old novel "The Cow" by Friedrich Hebbel. I read it and at once the movie started in my head. It´s an old story, but I think it´s still of topical interest and could happen this way in lots of countries round the world, like Africa or India. For me it´s a parable. It shows how strong the humans ambition for luck is. And how fast the luck can go away, the moment one thinks he made it."
MN: What advice would you give to someone who wanted to have a life career creating film?
KAS: "Start with a lot of traineeships in film productions and on TV and film sets to learn everything about filmmaking. Then you will also realize if you are made for a life career creating film and in which position…. or not."
MN: When do you know that a script is ready to shoot, and what is your process of getting it there?
KAS: "My script is ready to shoot, that moment, when I am really happy with every single word and scene and when I´m able to defend it against all objections."
MN: Is the film business fair? Why or why not? How do you make the apparatus work for you?
KAS: "It´s definitely not fair. I think it is what it is. It´s not objective or impartial. And if you cannot stand to deal with it…. then I think it is really hard to take part in film business…. "
MN: If there is one or more thing you think would make the film industry better, what would it be?
KAS: "Courage! Courage! Courage!!"
Kathrin's film will be playing at The Underground Filmfest, a festival founded in Munich that has quickly spread to other cities with year-round popup events in Cameroon Africa, Birmingham (Alabama), and Beeston, UK.
With deep roots in promoting and encouraging diversity, the Fest has had over 17 events in four countries to over 2000 people total in last two years. Werkstattkino will be showing their selection of short films – comedies, animation and dramatic fiction – from Spain, Belgium, USA, UK, Slovenia, and Germany, each one dealing with choices and the consequences of decisions.
Fraunhoferstr. 9, 80469 Munich, Germany
15:00 to 17:00


text:
January 19, 2009 - Loudoun Cardiovascular Specialists in Lansdowne, VA has selected Digisonics' DigiNet Pro System for cardiovascular image management and reporting.
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For more information: www.digison.net


text:
- Research
- Open Access
Rapid DNA barcoding analysis of large datasets using the composition vector method
© Chu et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2009
- Published: 10 November 2009
Sequence alignment is the rate-limiting step in constructing profile trees for DNA barcoding purposes. We recently demonstrated the feasibility of using unaligned rRNA sequences as barcodes based on a composition vector (CV) approach without sequence alignment (Bioinformatics 22:1690). Here, we further explored the grouping effectiveness of the CV method in large DNA barcode datasets (COI, 18S and 16S rRNA) from a variety of organisms, including birds, fishes, nematodes and crustaceans.
Our results indicate that the grouping of taxa at the genus/species levels based on the CV/NJ approach is invariably consistent with the trees generated by traditional approaches, although in some cases the clustering among higher groups might differ. Furthermore, the CV method is always much faster than the K2P method routinely used in constructing profile trees for DNA barcoding. For instance, the alignment of 754 COI sequences (average length 649 bp) from fishes took more than ten hours to complete, while the whole tree construction process using the CV/NJ method required no more than five minutes on the same computer.
The CV method performs well in grouping effectiveness of DNA barcode sequences, as compared to K2P analysis of aligned sequences. It was also able to reduce the time required for analysis by over 15-fold, making it a far superior method for analyzing large datasets. We conclude that the CV method is a fast and reliable method for analyzing large datasets for DNA barcoding purposes.
- Decapod Crustacean
- Trichuris
- Oenanthe
- Composition Vector
- Molecular Operational Taxonomic Unit
In 2003, Hebert et al [1] proposed to use a 648-bp region from the 5'-end of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) gene as a DNA barcode for identifying all metazoan species. The final goal of DNA barcoding is to identify all eukaryotic species [2, 3]. Recently, DNA barcoding has been tested on several groups of organisms including birds [4], fishes [5] and amphibians [6] with promising results. Ratnasingham and Hebert [7] estimated that the barcode of life data system (BOLD) would eventually generate 100 million records (for COI-barcoding only) twice the current size of the GenBank database, and that enterprise-scale software would be needed to handle such a large dataset. The goal of BOLD is to generate a "taxon ID tree" based on a neighbour-joining (NJ) algorithm for every query sequence for easy identification. As in other traditional methods of tree construction, sequence alignment has to be performed before construction of the K2P/NJ-tree (i.e., a NJ tree based on the Kimura-2-parameter, K2P, distance). In BOLD, alignment is executed based on the hidden Markov models [7]. Due to the high computational burden involved, BOLD has unfortunately been unable to incorporate all data records in constructing the K2P/NJ tree. The short-term solution is to divide the large barcode dataset into several "sub-projects" with a size limit of 5,000 specimens each for analysis [7]. However, as an estimated 200,000 additional barcode records will be entered in the database each year [8], the limit of 5,000 specimens for each sub-project will be quickly saturated because closely related taxa (sequences) should not be divided into subsets but preferably analyzed together. The long-term solution is therefore to develop more efficient analytical methods as alternatives or supplements for handling such a large dataset.
COI has several claims to be a suitable DNA barcode marker, including ease in amplification across a wide variety of organisms and provision of enough information to enable organisms to be identified to the species level. But it also has its drawbacks, including inherent risks due to maternal inheritance (noticeably failure in detecting hybridization), the presence of pseudogenes (numts), and its inconsistent evolutionary rate among lineages [2, 9, 10]. These disadvantages continue to disappoint biologists hoping to rely on single gene as the sole marker for taxonomic identification [6, 11, 12]. The feasibility of using alternative and additional genes as DNA barcodes has been explored [9, 13, 14]. Ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes and their internal transcribed spacer (ITS) [6, 15] show promise as DNA barcode markers for distinguishing different organisms and, as COI is highly conserved in plants, barcode markers such as the trnH-psbA spacer and rbcL gene [9, 11, 16] have also been proposed. Yet because of the high frequency of insertions/deletions in the rRNA and the other non-protein-coding markers, sequence alignment is a critical step in the analysis. This, in turn, requires a large amount of additional computational power during the alignment step, further pushing the analytical power of BOLD system toward its limit. The process of sequence alignment is not only very costly in computational power, but has also yet to be standardised. A lack of standard protocols and inconsistencies between the aligned datasets of different laboratories represent a drawback [13, 17–21] to the incorporation of any non-protein-barcoding markers in BOLD. Including markers such as rRNA in BOLD would mean that alignment will be executed automatically and any problems in alignment cannot be adjusted manually. The problems associated with the alignment procedure effectively limit the use of DNA barcoding [13].
Our previous study [13] demonstrated that the composition vector (CV) method [22] was an effective and efficient tree construction method for analyzing rRNA datasets, thereby facilitating the use of these genes as DNA barcodes. We believe that the CV approach can also sidestep the problems associated with sequence alignment in analyzing large datasets of both COI and non-protein-coding barcode markers, the latter of which usually involve sequence length variation even among closely related taxa. In the present study, we analyzed large DNA barcode datasets, each with more than 300 sequences (including non-COI datasets with variable sequence lengths) with the CV method. Sequences from three published DNA barcode datasets available from GenBank, namely birds [23], fishes [5] and nematodes [14], were analyzed. A 16S rRNA dataset of decapod crustaceans containing 466 GenBank sequences and 268 sequences generated in our laboratory was also analyzed. These datasets were chosen because they included the most common genetic markers that have been proposed as DNA barcodes, including COI, 16S rRNA and nuclear SSU rRNA genes, and contained the largest number of DNA sequences, ranging from 349 to 754, so far assembled. The aim of our study was to evaluate how well and how fast the CV method could handle these large barcode datasets without sequence alignment.
Bird dataset
Details of datasets and K values used in CV analysis
Avg. sequence length (bp)
No. of classes
No. of orders
No. of families
No. of genera
No. of species
No. of sequences
12 clades
Grouping and processing time using the K2P (with CLUSTAL W alignment) and CV methods
Processing time
>5 h
>10 h
> 10 h
> 10 h
<3 min
< 5 min
< 5 min
< 5 min
Fish dataset
Nematode dataset
Decapod dataset
Processing time
All the data analyses in this study were preformed on a 1.4 GHz notebook computer. With the K2P/NJ method, the alignment step using CLUSTAL W [24] alone took more than five hours to complete for the bird dataset, and required more than 10 hours to complete for the other three datasets (Table 2). When the other two faster algorithms MAFFT [25] and MUSCLE [26] were used, the processing time was reduced by 3.2 and 7.7 folds respectively, so that between one and two hours were needed for aligning the bird dataset. By contrast, with the CV method it took less than three minutes to analyze this bird dataset, and the analysis of the other three datasets was completed in five minutes (Table 2). Thus, while the CV/NJ method matched the resolving power of the K2P/NJ method in generating a highly similar tree, it took less than 6% of the time needed in sequence alignment on the same computer.
Qi et al [22] first introduced the CV method to analyze the phylogeny of prokaryotes based on the complete genomes, and this approach has subsequently been applied to analyze the chloroplast genomes [13, 27]. All these studies were based on protein sequences, and a procedure to subtract the random background from the frequencies of oligopeptide strings was used before computation of the CVs in order to diminish the influence of random neutral mutations at the molecular level and to highlight the shaping role of selective evolution. However, in adopting the CV method in analyzing short rDNA sequences for barcoding, Chu et al [13] have shown that a subtraction procedure for random background does not further enhance the reliability of the groupings. In the present study, we focus on how well the CV method could handle large DNA datasets, by comparing this method with the K2P/NJ method in analyzing four datasets including both rRNA and protein-coding genes. Although in each of the four datasets tested the topologies between the CV/NJ and K2P/NJ trees were not identical, this does not mean that one method obtained better results than the other. The rationale for generating the K2P/NJ trees in DNA barcoding studies or in BOLD is that the K2P/NJ tree construction is relatively simple [1], so that a query sequence can be rapidly identified to the species level. However, the K2P/NJ tree was not intended to reflect the phylogenetic relationships among the taxa analyzed [5]. Thus any detailed comparison in tree topologies between the CV and the K2P methods is meaningless. In fact, both the CV and K2P methods performed equally well in identifying and discriminating taxa at the genus/species level in the datasets tested (Table 2).
The dataset of nematodes [14] was used to resolve the phylogenetic relationships among the species, and three different approaches (BI, MP and NJ) were applied. However, the classification of nematodes based on the molecular approach is never an easy task. The phylogenetic position of the family Choanolaimidae, for example, could not be determined based on any of the three approaches. Two species, Trichinella spiralis and Trichuris muris, could only be assigned into clade 2 based on the BI tree but not on the MP and NJ trees [14]. The problem might be due to the inadequacy of the SSU rDNA sequences in resolving the phylogeny of this group. The evolutionary rates of this gene may also differ among different nematode clades [14]. On the other hand, Floyd et al [15] proposed to use the number of SSU rDNA sequence differences to define "molecular operational taxonomic units" rather than adopting the classical species concepts in nematode biodiversity studies. It is not surprising to find inconsistent tree topologies based on different analytical methods, including the CV method, from this nematode dataset. In fact, the CV method could generate a tree topology similar to those generated by the three phylogenetic reconstruction methods, by clustering all of the taxa into 12 main clades (Table 2).
Besides its impressive resolving power, the main advantage of the CV/NJ method over the K2P/NJ algorithm is its speed. In every dataset analyzed in this study, the CV/NJ method could generate trees in less than five minutes on a 1.4 GHz notebook computer. The time needed is at least 15-fold more using the K2P/NJ method, which requires sequence alignment. Given its high analytical speed, the CV method could profitably serve as a quick barcoding identification tool capable of matching a query sequence against a pre-installed reference dataset from BOLD on a notebook computer for field workers who may not have internet access. The CV method not only saves time by omitting the alignment step, but also avoids the introduction of any human errors during the alignment process. Where no universal alignment parameters can be defined, every gap representing insertion/deletion that is assigned to a DNA sequence should be checked by eye carefully, and even this step might be subjective [19]. Manual checking becomes a very tedious and laborious procedure when dealing with a large dataset generated by multiple alignments, but is a necessary step for verifying the reliability of the dataset and its suitability for further analysis. The CV method does away with this rate-limiting, tedious step in the tree construction procedure for DNA barcoding.
The CV method was first demonstrated to facilitate the use of rDNA datasets for barcoding purposes since no sequence alignment was necessary [13]. In the present study, we further demonstrated the power of the CV method in analyzing large DNA barcode datasets, regardless of the type of gene markers used. In all cases tested, the CV/NJ method achieved tree topologies similar to those based on the traditional methods which involve sequence alignment, with compatible grouping effectiveness. Furthermore, when the CV method was used, the computational time was at least 15-fold shorter than that based on the K2P method. Besides its effective resolving power and very fast speed of analysis, the CV/NJ method can routinely generate reliable and reproducible trees by eliminating human errors in the multiple alignment process. To conclude, we propose that the CV/NJ method can be used as an effective and efficient tree construction algorithm in analyzing DNA barcode datasets.
Sequences from three published datasets, including birds [23], fishes [5] and nematodes [14] were downloaded from GenBank for analysis. We also assembled a 16S rRNA dataset of decapod crustaceans by including 466 sequences from GenBank and 268 sequences generated in our laboratory. This dataset is available from the first author upon request.
The principle and details of the composition vector (CV) method have been fully described previously [13, 22, 28, 29], and the program is publicly available at http://tlife.fudan.edu.cn/cvtree. In short, for a sequence of gene of length L, the frequency of the appearance of oligonucleotide strings of a fixed length K was determined. The K value used for each dataset was calculated by [30] and it ranged from 9 to 10 among the four datasets (Table 2). The total number of N possible types of the K strings was 4 K . The frequency of each of the N kinds in a given DNA sequence was determined. We then placed the frequencies of all possible K-strings in a fixed order to obtain a CV of dimension 4 K for each sequence. The correlation C(A, B) between two sequences A and B was determined by taking the projection of one vector on another, and the distance between the two was defined as D = (1 - C)/2. In this way, the sequences difference could be quantitatively evaluated. After constructing a distance matrix for all sequences in a dataset, the neighbour-joining (NJ) [31] analysis implemented in Phylip 3.63 [32] was used to construct a profile tree for each dataset. The CV/NJ trees were then compared with the corresponding K2P/NJ trees constructed as follows. The DNA sequences in each dataset were first aligned using the multiple alignment program CLUSTAL W 1.5c [24], and the NJ trees were constructed using Mega 3 [33] based on the Kimura-2-parameter distance model [34]. We also attempted to align the sequences using two other algorithms, MAFFT [25] and MUSCLE [26]. All the computation was performed using a 1.4 GHz notebook computer with 512 MB of RAM.
The work described in this paper was fully supported by a grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project no. CUHK4419/04M).
This article has been published as part of BMC Bioinformatics Volume 10 Supplement 14, 2009: Biodiversity Informatics. The full contents of the supplement are available online at http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/10?issue=S14.
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