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Military News App by Military.com
Download the new Military.com News App for Android on Google Play or for Apple devices on iTunes!
Just thinking about preparing your taxes can give you a headache. It's not only the concern over how much of your hard-earned money goes to taxes, but the stress over the actual filing process that gets to most of us. However, if you are prepared going into tax season, you'll make it easier on yourself and get your tax refund sooner.
Here are eight basic tips to help every tax filer, along with some specific tips for military servicemembers and their families.
1. Don't procrastinate. Resist the temptation to put off dealing with your taxes until the very last minute. If you wait to file until nearer the deadline, you may be so rushed that you miss a potential deduction or source of tax savings, and you increase your risk of making an error. Plus, if you file early, you'll receive your refund sooner.
If you owe the IRS any money, the worst thing you can do is to file a late return. By filing late, you're subject to late filing penalties that can run up to 25% of your taxes owed. If you're not ready to file by the April 15th deadline, simply file IRS Form 4868 for an extension. That gives you six months to file your return. Keep in mind that you still have to pay anything you owe by April 15th, to avoid late-pay penalties.
3. File for Free. Everyone has the option to prepare their tax return and e-file it for free. If you made $62,000 or less, you can use free tax software offered by the IRS. If you made more than $62,000 and are able to prepare your own return, you can use Free File Fillable Forms, the electronic versions of IRS paper forms. Visit www.irs.gov/freefile for options.
4. Don't panic if you can't pay what you owe. You can easily set up a payment plan on taxes you owe, as long as your returns are filed up-to-date. For most tax debts, a payment plan, called an IRS Installment Agreement, can be set up online. With an installment agreement, you can spread your payments out over a number of years.
5. Deal with Back Taxes. It is easy to let a tax problem snowball. However, ignoring the problem and hoping that it will go away only increases the amount you owe and the chances that you'll be subject to aggressive IRS collections. In addition to Installment Agreements, the IRS has a tax forgiveness program called Offer in Compromise. If you can meet the IRS standard for financial hardship based on your income, living expenses, and the assets you own, then you can potentially eliminate a significant portion of your tax debt.
6. Claim Your Deductions!You owe it to yourself to claim every tax deduction to which you're entitled. There are many deductions and beneficial tax rules that are available exclusively to military servicemembers, including:
7. Know Your Exclusions. Some military pay and allowances can be excluded from your gross income. These exclusions generally include: living allowances, moving allowances, travel allowances, combat zone pay, and death allowances. Excluded items are not subject to tax, but may have to be shown on your tax return.
Find more examples in Publication 596 under Nontaxable Combat Pay.
8. Seek Assistance. Many military installations offer free tax filing and preparation assistance, especially during tax filing season (begins January 30th this year). Contact your local base information officer to see if your post has an IRS Voluntary Income Tax Assistance (VITA) office. If you have a complicated return or are unable to file your own, it can be a worthwhile investment to hire a professional tax preparer that specializes in military returns to ensure that you get credit for every eligible deduction and exclusion.
Related Topics
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Ethan Ewing is a veteran consumer financial services and online marketing executive. He manages all aspects of Bills.com, a leading consumer finance website that provides practical financial advice and free financial tools and resources. Ethan is a driving force behind Bills.com's growth. He has held leadership positions at two Experian companies and built a lead generation business for Ameriquest Mortgage. He holds a BA from Denison University.


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How can I sort posts by popularity or page views in my template file? I guess I need to count page views first, is there any good plugin to integrate with to sort posts by views or what is the best practice of doing it.
The WP Postviews plugin is one of the most used to record post views.
Then you can sort by amount by;
Or pass in the variables to the URL:
Or even run a custom query that sorts by the post_meta value.

subset: commoncrawl


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7 Classic Movies You Didn't Know Were Rip-Offs
Hey, Hollywood, we get that it's hard to come up with new ideas. Especially when you've gotten really good at improving on the original. But it's one thing to purposefully remake a dud into a classic -- it's another to pretend you're the one who came up with the idea in the first place. How would you like it if we said we invented anorexia and scientifically impossible explosions, huh Hollywood?
These movies are like that.
There's nothing wrong with an honest, loving rip-off. Like Cracked's Star Wars Adventures in Jedi School mini-series.
#7. Pirates of the Caribbean Is Suspiciously Similar to the Game The Secret of Monkey Island
This seems like a really obvious one: Everyone knows the Pirates of the Caribbean movies are a combination of the Disney ride and Johnny Depp channeling the ghost of a pre-dead Keith Richards.
Which fled from his body sometime in the mid '70s, leaving it an empty husk of decaying meat.
Except the Disney attraction has as much of a story line as a bad night at a gay bar -- basically you're going around in a boat while drunk robot pirates dance and sing around you. It's more of an acid trip than a narrative. So where did they get the rest of the story?
What It's Suspiciously Like:
The video game The Secret of Monkey Island came out in 1990 and follows the adventures of Guybrush Threepwood, a bumbling swashbuckler who must gather a crew of pirates to rescue the woman he loves while dealing with a mysterious supernatural curse. Sound familiar? That's also the plot of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, except Threepwood is called William Turner there. Both characters even dress alike.
To be fair, vests were very popular in pirate times.
Well ... but all pirate stories probably have some things in common, right? Don't worry, we're just getting started.
In Pirates, the love interest is Elizabeth Swann, the governor's daughter. In Monkey Island, her name is Elaine Marley, and she isn't really related to the governor -- she is the governor.
Disney will only accept a woman in a position of power if she's an evil witch queen.
In Pirates, Elizabeth is captured by an undead pirate and his skeleton crew. In Monkey Island, it's ... the exact same thing, except the bad guy goes by the objectively more awesome name of Ghost Pirate LeChuck.
If he didn't tell us we'd never guess he was a ghost and a pirate.
Both stories involve zombies, cannibals, pet monkeys and the oddly specific character of a black voodoo priestess who lives in a shack in the middle of a swamp. The main difference here is that she's younger and hotter in the Disney version, but that seems like the sort of thing Hollywood would change even in an official adaptation.
And the visual similarities don't stop there -- notice Guybrush using a coffin as a boat in that picture? At one point in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Jack Sparrow does the same thing (the linked image is from the film's game adaptation, which frankly seems redundant). Then there's the pirate town made out of wrecked ship parts from the same movie and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (1991).
So is this a huge coincidence, an homage, or just thievery? Well, Monkey Island's creator Ron Gilbert has admitted that he was inspired by the original Disney ride, and also the 1987 novel On Stranger Tides (which was loosely adapted into the fourth Pirates film), but that doesn't even begin to explain all the similarities -- there's no clumsy protagonist, kidnapped governor-related love interest or coffin-boat in the book or the attraction. The only important common element that could be attributed to the novel is the voodoo/zombie aspect -- however, Pirates producer Jerry Bruckheimer says the screenwriters only "found the book" while filming the second and third movies.
Here's another explanation: There was actually a canceled Monkey Island film project around 2000, and Wikipedia credits Ted Elliot for the screenplay. Guess what major Johnny Depp movie Ted Elliot went on to write a few years later, possibly reusing parts of the script and some concept art?
Hint: It wasn't Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
#6. The Matrix Was a Comic Book
In 1999, The Matrix came out and blew everyone away with its insane action sequences, revolutionary cinematic techniques and, most of all, a mind-fucking plot that left the head of every viewer filled with intense philosophical questions.
Like if there's no spoon, what is this called?
What It's Suspiciously Like:
The Invisibles, a cult comic book series created by Grant Morrison, is basically about a group of individuals who fight the establishment because the establishment is secretly keeping people dumb and hiding the fact that reality is an illusion. Turns out that the "real world" is ruled by horrifying insect-like demons. One more thing: The Invisibles debuted in 1994.
The Invisibles #13, Counting to Ten
Like in The Matrix, these "terrorists" are actually one cell of a much larger group, and some of them can even "warp themselves out of reality" by using the real world as a shortcut. The story starts when the Invisibles recruit a young guy who takes on the alias of Jack Frost. Like Keanu in The Matrix, at first he wants nothing to do with the group, but eventually he comes to accept the fact that he's the messiah (yeah, they're a lot less subtle about it here). From that point on, he uses his reality-bending powers to help bring down the beings that secretly rule the world. Also, part of his training involves jumping off a tall building.
Want more? Their leader is a bald guy with circular shades who likes wearing leather. And knows kung fu. And shoots people a lot.
Other than that, they're completely different.
At one point, the bald, shades-wearing kung fu leader is captured by the bad guys and tortured by a non-human conscience ... who has taken the shape of a government agent. When he refuses to give them any information, they try to enter his brain, until eventually the rest of the team comes to his rescue. Here are a few panels from that sequence:
The Invisibles, Volume 1 Issue #18, "Entropy in the U.K."
And, oh, hey, remember this scene from the movie?
The Wachowskis have never acknowledged The Invisibles as an influence, even though they had invited the comic's creator Grant Morrison to contribute a story for their website. Morrison -- who actually liked The Matrix -- says he "was told by people on the set that Invisibles books were passed around for visual reference." His reaction to the second and third movies? "They should have kept on stealing from me."
#5. Black Swan Was a Japanese Cartoon
The ballet thriller Black Swan had all the ingredients of a great indie film: a psychologically tense plot, plenty of weird/artsy visuals, a French person and Hollywood starlets desperate to break away from their "good girl" image.
Nailed it!
Altogether the movie was voted "Most Likely to Get a Thumbs Up from Both Partners on Date Night."
What It's Suspiciously Like:
A Japanese cartoon, of all things. Perfect Blue is about a pop singer instead of a ballet dancer, but other than that, Black Swan could pass for its American remake. In both movies, the young, innocent protagonist has just moved on to a more demanding job (dramatic actress/lead dancer), and the pressure turns her apeshit. She gets chased by a "double" who may or may not be the product of her imagination, and at one point becomes convinced that she killed someone.
Check out the scene at the end of both movies where (if you don't like spoilers and you're still reading there's something wrong with you) she has a physical fight with her double, glass shatters, and the other woman ends up being stabbed in the stomach and dies (it starts at 4:07 in this video):
Although the plots are really similar, it's the little moments that give it away here. Like the short scene where she stares at herself on the window of a subway door:
Or the part where images of herself/her mother become animated and taunt her from a wall:
So how do we know that Black Swan's director, Darren Aronofsky, is familiar with Perfect Blue? Mainly because it's not the first time he borrows from it: Check out this scene from an earlier film of his, Requiem for a Dream.
It's the exact same scene.
Aronofsky allegedly bought the remake rights for Perfect Blue in 2000 in order to use that one scene. When asked if Perfect Blue influenced Black Swan at all, he said: "Not really, there are similarities between the films, but it wasn't influenced by it."
Those of you surprised that Aronofsky is completely detached from reality haven't seen Pi.
#4. J.J. Abrams' Star Trek Is Really Star Wars
On the one hand, you've got to give Abrams props for doing a reboot the right way: The story was engaging, the casting was spot on and the lens flares were superb.
Proof that J.J. Abrams really gets Adobe Premiere.
On the other hand, when you're watching Star Trek, there are moments when this rushing river of deja vu comes coursing through your body. You know you've seen these characters before, but where?
What It's Suspiciously Like:
Star Wars. All the way. And we're not even the first, second or last to point it out.
George Lucas would have sued, but he, like us, is terrified of J.J. Abrams.
Now, let's be clear: Lots of movies follow the hero's journey model to tell their story. Obscure nobody is called into a great and dangerous adventure, he follows the call until he hits a low point where it seems that everything is lost, but it's not. The nobody is transformed into a somebody, succeeds at his quest and celebrates with everyone he loves. It works whether his name is Harry Potter or Frodo or Neo.
But once you get past the fact that both young Kirk and young Luke were orphaned farm boys whose fathers were once great pilots and who want nothing more than to get off their boring planets and join the nearest academy, the similarities start to get downright eerie. For example ...
They both have an older mentor.
Lucasfilm LTD / Paramount via IGN
And they both have a second, pointy-eared older mentor. Just in case the first older mentor doesn't work out.
Both use a height-challenged non-human and an accented know-it-all for comic relief.
Both movies up the stakes with a peaceful planet getting destroyed.
But Star Trek's most incriminating indictment isn't even those very, very similar plot points. It's like they weren't even trying ...


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HDR images need more bits per pixel to accommodate a wider dynamic range, so 16 or 32bit files are commonly used. These cannot be directly used for viewing or printing and so a process of tone mapping is employed to generate an LDR (low dynamic range) image in 8-bit format. This can often produce results that are somewhat synthetic looking. Bracketing is simply a mechanical technique for taking a series of shots at different exposures. HDR software can take such sets of images and generate a 32bit HDR file in which the smallest tonal differences recorded in the input images are preserved throughout the full brightness range.
An alternative to HDR is to take the bracketed shots and simply merge the images using masks. A typical technique would be to shoot an interior using an exposure to suit the indoor lighting (and also white balance setting). A second exposure would be taken to suit the much brighter daylight scene seen through the windows. The two sets would be merged by overlaying the overexposed windows in the interior shots with corresponding parts of the outdoor shots. No extended dynamic range file is generated at any point; LDR images are used throughout.
No masking facilities are provided in PTGui. Blending with Fusion is provided as an alternative to HDR and that can produce more natural looking results. Other possibilities are blending with similar programs: Enfuse, EnfuseGui, Tufuse, Tufusion. You can automate the blending of sets of images before stitching with some batch files produced by Erik Krause: http://www.erik-krause.de/enfuse_droplets.zip.
hi everyone
thanx for all the information
i will try using all the suggestions
Am I the only one here who enjoys a little bit of poker? Although I wonder if I'll become addicted and lose my shirt. Well probably not it isn't strip poker after all.


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Please contact your Volvo dealer for more information about Filters and how to maximize the performance of your Volvo construction equipment.
Sign up for a Customer Support Agreement today!
With Volvo Reman Exchange Services – DPF you get diesel particulate filters of the highest quality – at a much lower price compared to new filters.
Contact your local dealer using our Dealer Locator


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I am a recent graduate so I understand a lot of the theory, object-oriented languages, and various data structures. I am competent in languages such as C++, Java, PHP, just to name the ones I'm strong at. Since graduation I bite the bullet and accepted a job outside of my field for now. So obviously I don't want to lose my edge and want to stay current.
Most of my programming has been for academic reasons and a 3-month web programming (back-end) internship. I really want to program something to use my skills I've learned. I always hear program a game is great practice. However one problem with the Internet is it's robust volume of information and find myself reading one site then jumping to another & on & on. Where would you suggest is a good foothold to begin? It's always harder to start from scratch and that is where I am. I figure start with some 2D game and go from there, but then comes the question of which SDK to use, if any. I'm currently using Linux but I wouldn't mind developing in Windows either. I'm always thinking maybe I should try to develop a simple app for an Android phone as well. As you can tell I'm all over and just need a little direction.
Any advice/website is greatly appreciated!


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Last Modified: March 20, 2008
Conference Dates: October 31-November 2, 2008
Conference Location: Westin Horton Plaza- San Diego, CA
Sponsoring Group: International Society for Biological Therapy of Cancer
Conference Web Page URL: http://www.isbtc.org/meetings/am08/
Topics Covered:
Conference Objectives: The iSBTc Annual Meeting facilitates exchange of the most cutting edge preclinical and clinical data on the use biological therapies in cancer between basic scientists and clinicians from academic, regulatory and industrial venues. This meeting will allow various investigators to share and build on their data, ultimately leading to better patient outcomes in cancer.
Who Should Attend: The target audience for the Annual Meeting includes both basic and clinical investigators involved in cancer research comprising members of academic, pharmaceutical and regulatory agencies. Attendees will include basic scientists, clinicians, graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, as well as other allied health professionals.
Continuing Education: Yes


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Petroperu was looking at taking a minority stake in the Repsol assets, although business groups fiercely opposed any deal, saying the government would be taking too great a role in the economy.
By ROBERT KOZAK
LIMA, Peru -- Peru's government plans to focus on
modernizing its Talara refinery and other projects, after closing the door to
a possible purchase of assets owned by Spanish oil company
Withering criticisms from the business sector led the
government on Thursday to announce that state-owned Petroleos
del Peru, or Petroperu, won't buy Repsol's La Pampilla refinery and a chain of service
stations in Peru.
Petroperu was looking at taking a minority stake in the
Repsol assets, although business groups fiercely opposed any
deal, saying the government would be taking too great a role in
the economy.
"The decision was taken to not advance in this area as it
wasn't an area that would generate economic possibility for the
nation," Prime Minister Juan Jimenez told reporters.
Energy and Mines Minister Jorge Merino said the government
will focus instead on projects currently under way, such
as the upgrade at its Talara refinery aimed at boosting
production to 95,000 bpd from about 60,000 bpd now.
Analysts said that investors will now keep a closer eye on
President Ollanta Humala's policies.
"We think investors' scrutiny over President Humala's policy decisions will be on the
rise," Credit Suisse said Friday in a research note.
Before being elected in 2011, Mr. Humala espoused socialist
policies, but his administration has for the most part followed
market-friendly policies.
Eurasia Group said that the decision was "a positive signal
that President Ollanta Humala is sensitive to swings in
investor confidence and remains committed to the current
investor-friendly economic policy framework."
"The episode probably shows that Mr. Humala still believes
in the merit of greater state presence in the hydrocarbons
sector, but the risk of more aggressive policies will be
contained by Mr. Humala's attempt to do so through market
mechanisms and his concern over negative investor sentiment,"
it added.
Petroperu owns refineries, a pipeline and leases its name
for a chain of service stations.
Dow Jones Newswires
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A searchable database of project activity in the global hydrocarbon processing industry
Engineers and designers are highly skilled individuals. Forcing them to enter design changes using tables, forms and spreadsheets is unproductive and uneconomical, and it increases the likelihood of human error—this is the way that most instrumentation software systems currently work. For too long, software vendors have denied engineers and designers the simple practicality of a graphical visual engineering interface with "drag and drop" capability and inbuilt intelligence, ensuring changes are automatically replicated into all the associated data and databases.
Is 2016 the peak for US gasoline demand?
Too soon to tell
July 2016


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I have seen plenty of landscape shots online and in books that have enthralling foreground and awesome background. At many places, I have read to get close to the foreground. I understand that, however I am still confused on how one positions the camera in such scenarios. Should I point my camera down (towards the foreground) or just keep it in line with the horizon?
Generally speaking, if you want to bring the viewer in to a landscape scene via the foreground, vertical format works particularly well. It is still possible to capture close foreground in a horizontal format, but the effect is somewhat lessened. Ultra-wide focal lengths, such as 10-12mm for APS-C format cameras or 16-18mm for full frame cameras, are particularly useful when bringing in the foreground of a shot.
To really get the viewer right up close, its best to keep the camera low to the ground, and very close to the initial foreground object you want to capture. Some examples might be a decrepit old log, the stones lining the shore of a lake, or even the edge of a lake itself. And by close, I mean as close as you can get and still maintain clear focus (which might be only inches from the closest element of your foreground.) You will usually want a fairly narrow aperture to encompass as much depth as you can. If you have a higher resolution APS-C camera, you can get away with around f/8 without losing detail, and f/11 with some softening. A full-frame camera will usually be pretty sharp up through f/11, and f/22 with some softening. If you have a DOF preview button and live view, that is usually the quickest way to set your aperture to the most ideal setting. If you don't have such a feature, you can try a hyperfocal calculation to determine which aperture you should use to maximize your depth of field. (Keep in mind, however, that you might encounter diffraction softening earlier with higher density sensors.)
If you want to maximize the potential of capturing wide-angle shots, you might try using a full-frame camera and a 17mm or 24mm tilt-shift lens (Canon offers all of these items.) With a tilt-shift lens, you have more freedom regarding aperture, as the tilt feature will make it a cinch to get your entire scene from foreground to background in clear focus.
As a final note, many ultra-wide angle landscape shots, particularly those that include a lot of foreground, often have a very high dynamic range. The band of sky at the top of such a scene will often blow out when exposing. A very useful tool to add to your kit is a filter system like the Lee Filter System, and some solid and graduated ND filters. Solid ND filters will allow you to expose for a lengthier time and achieve those types of scenes with glassy-smooth water and motion-blurred clouds. Graduated ND filters will help you balance your scene contrast, and capture all of the detail present in those bright skies (or, for that matter, when used upside down, capture the brightness of desert sand against the darkness of background mountains). You should have a variety of filter densities as well as gradations (hard vs. soft) to accommodate the widest variety of scenes. A tripod is essential if you intend to capture longer-exposure wide-angle landscape scenes.
Use a tripod and get the camera fairly low to the ground (not always necessary depending on what you're photographing). Work out what focal length (20mm etc) you will be using and calculate the hyperfocal distance (this involves various figures in the calculation, alternatively there are Android and iPhone apps available which will do this for you when you input your settings and lens)
The hyperfocal distance will let you set your focus range to the correct distance setting (you switch to manual focus for this technique) with an aperture which will give you the maximum front to back sharpness (typically landscape photographers tend to go to about f/16 - much further past this and you start degrading the sharpness with the effects of diffraction). It will also tell you how far away from the sensor the closest object has to be to achieve sharpness.
Typically using a wide angle lens you will need to point the camera down somewhat to get the foreground framing you're after but ultimately you need to change the framing depending on the composition you wish to achieve.
This is kind of a hard question to answer with the details you have given, but I will give it a shot.
It sounds to me like you are trying to keep the foreground in focus and blur the background slightly to give emphasis to the immediate objects near the camera. To do this you can set your camera to Aperture priority mode(Av) and open up the aperture to its largest value, for example f/3.5 or smaller. Then focus on the foreground objects, and recompose to include the landscape as you wish.
It might also in this case help to have a longer focal length lens to enhance the effects of compression. That would require you not to use a ultra-wide angle lens, but possibly a mid range zoom or mid range length.
Another thing that will help you is to get down low! Either lay on your stomach or use the cameras live view function to hold the camera as low as it can go! You can also use a tripod type object such as a bag of rice or shoot sac.
You can use a telephoto lens to bring the foreground into your frame. This post might be of some help Digital Photography School
Like dpollitt said, your question is kind of vague without more details.
You should get close to the foreground with a wide-angle lens because they tend to magnify objects closer to the lens. For the exact same reason you want to use a tele lens from far away when shooting portraits: Otherwise you would get a large nose and chin with some hair in the background...
I have little experience with wide-angle lenses, but I never came across a rule that says you should keep in line with the horizon.


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Main Content
Oh snap! Who is that hottie walking down the boardwalk? Oh right, that's you in this adorable Daunting tee from Metal Mulisha. With "Metal Mulisha" lettering and logo screen printed plus glitter accents, this darling tee will leave all those players speechless. Then you'll be left with the daunting task of breaking their hearts as you turn them all down for your man.
- 100% Cotton fabric
- Imported
- Model shown is wearing size XS
- Screen print graphics with glitter accents
- Slim fit
- V-neck
- Short sleeve
- Imported
- Brand: Metal Mulisha
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Special event items are produced by manufacturers only after the outcome of a game or event. These are advanced sale items and will ship immediately after they are received in our warehouse.
Manufacturer direct items are shipped directly from the manufacturer. These items are not available for international or expedited shipping.
Customized items can be personalized with options such as your name, your favorite number, and/or designs. Some options may be limited by league rules.


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Reviewer: Ryan Smith, MD
The Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania
Last Modified: July 28, 2002
Authors: A Depierre, B Millerson, D Moro-Sibilot, et al.
Source: Journal of Clinical Oncology 2002; 20 (1): 247-53
Early stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is usually treated with surgical resection. Although early stage (NSCLC) is obviously more curable than more advanced stages, mortality continues to be quoted as approaching 50% or greater. A substantial number of patients will fail with distant metastatic disease. For these reasons, preoperative chemotherapy is investigated in this study to determine if it has an impact on increasing survival in patients with Stage I, II, and IIIa NSCLC.
This study reports on a randomized trial investigating the use of preoperative therapy in patients with earlier stage NSCLC. Although there was no significant survival advantage seen in the entire group, on subset analysis it was shown that patients with N0 or N1 disease did benefit from preoperative chemotherapy. Patients with N2 disease had no advantage to receiving preoperative chemotherapy. This conflicts with previously published papers that demonstrate the efficacy of preoperative chemotherapy in Stage IIIa (N2) patients. The reasoning given in this paper was that perhaps chemotherapy is not effective in bulkier N2 disease, though this was obviously not the case in the aforementioned papers. More likely is that this study staged patients preoperatively, which was demonstrated to be inaccurate, as only 56% of the patients judged to have N2 disease actually had N2 disease on pathologic examination. In addition, less than half of the patients underwent a full mediastinal dissection, further clouding the accuracy of their conclusions. Also, this study was not stratified or statistically powered to evaluate subset analyses. Therefore, the conclusions regarding patients in the N2 group as well as the positive finding in the N0 and N1 group is statistically flawed.
This report speaks to the feasibility of preoperative chemotherapy in early stage NSCLC and presents the conclusion that preoperative chemotherapy may indeed be beneficial in these patients. However, because of the reasons listed above, a definitive conclusion cannot be reached from this study alone.


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IRESSA: Will it Revolutionize Lung Cancer?
Please use for reference only.
Julia Draznin Maltzman, MD
Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania
Last Modified: December 21, 2003
Lung Cancer
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death of both men and women in the US. More people die of lung cancer in the US than from breast, colon, and prostate combined. Most who are diagnosed with lung cancer will die from their disease. Those who survive are plagued with symptoms that may interfere with their quality of life. Some of these symptoms include shortness of breath that limits activities of daily living, cough, coughing up blood, weight loss, blood loss leading to anemia, fatigue, and debilitation. Unfortunately, the presenting signs of this disease often occur at a late stage when cure is no longer an option. Front line chemotherapy has shown to improve survival by a few months; however, there are limited options are available for recurrent or refractory disease.
What is lung cancer?
Cancer occurs when normal lung tissues loose the ability to control their cellular growth and differentiation. There are two major types of lung cancer ? Non Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) and Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC). The difference is primarily based on histology (what they look like under the microscope). These two types of lung cancers differ from one another by the velocity and mechanism of growth and spread. It is very important to distinguish between the two types, as prognosis and treatments vary. NSCLC is by far more common and, in general, grows more slowly than SCLC. NSCLC is further subdivided by different cell types, but the treatment is dictated by stage of disease and not cellular subtype.
What are the options for lung cancer?
Very early stage NSCLC is curable with surgery and chemotherapy. Conventional therapies for advanced NSCLC include chemotherapy and radiation. Despite low cure rates, these have been shown to improve the quality of life, reduce cancer-associated symptoms, and prolong overall survival. However, even with these currently available modalities, most cases of metastatic NSCLC are terminal and treatment goals are palliative. Most conventional chemotherapies achieve an objective response rate of about 20%-40%. Unfortunately, responses are not often durable, and median survival is in the order of months. In addition, these currently available treatments are toxic. Research and exploration for new and novel therapies has been driven largely by the inadequacy of our current regimens and a desire for more successful and less toxic options.
Consequently, a new class of medications has emerged called ?targeted therapies?. At their core, these drugs attempt to exploit the differences between normal and cancer cells. The concept of targeted therapies is that they focus on specific pathways that are aberrant in cancer and therefore do not affect the normal healthy tissues. In general, the side effect profile of targeted agents is thought to be less toxic than conventional cytotoxic therapies. Another advantage of targeted therapy is that, in general, there are fewer drug-drug interactions with these agents as opposed to chemotherapeutics. One such targeted therapy that has shown much promise in lung cancer is the inhibitor of a specific enzyme called a tyrosine kinase.
What is a tyrosine kinase?
The Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a receptor found on the cell surface of many different cancers. It is activated when a blood soluble protein binds to it. Only one specific protein (or few very specific proteins), can bind to any given receptor. The EGFR receptor is a glycoprotein (a protein with a sugar groups attached) that has tyrosine kinase (TK) activity. TK's have the ability to add a phosphate group on to a tyrosine amino acid within a given protein or even onto itself. The addition of a phosphate group is called phosphorylation. Protein phosphorylation that always accompanies activation of, EGFR, leads to the activation of multiple cellular pathways involved in tumor growth, differentiation, transformation, proliferation, metastasis, and inhibition of apoptosis. The TK proteins comprise the largest family of dominant oncogenes that are altered in lung cancer. EGFR is overexpressed in a variety of solid tumors including NSCLC. Some studies suggest that EGFR overexpression leads to worse outcome, however this has not been definitively proven.
Several drugs that block the activation of EGFR or its downstream signals have been under investigation as potential treatments in lung cancer. One of the more successful ones is gefitinib, (Iressa also called ZD 1839, Astra Zeneca). In fact, this drug has been so successful that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved it for patients who failed conventional first line therapy.
What is gefitinib?
Gefitinib, is a new type of cancer treatment that belongs to a group called small molecule inhibitors. It is a man-made chemical compound that specifically targets the EGFR TK portion. A phase I study of gefitinib as single therapy in patients with advanced solid tumor cancers, found that the NSCLC had the highest efficacy rate among all the other cancers.
Phase II data from two studies of gefitinib as single therapy in advanced NSCLC were reported. These are called the Iressa Dose Evaluation in Advanced Lung (IDEAL) 1 and 2 trials. IDEAL 1 was a multi-center, international, randomized, controlled study that looked at patients with locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC who failed standard platinum based therapy. Patients were randomized to receive either 250 or 500mg of oral daily gefitinib. Disease related symptoms and quality of life were assessed every week and every month respectively. End points included objective response rates (ORR), progression free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS). The ORR were 18.4% and 19%, PFS were reported as 2.7 months and 2.8 months, and overall median survival was 7.6 and 8.0 months respectively. None of these were statistically significant. However, the gefitinib arm was associated with an improvement in disease related symptoms and quality of life. PFS was noted to be twice as long in patients who experienced an improvement in their disease related symptoms compared to those who did not.
The IDEAL 2 trial confirmed data from IDEAL 1. Based on this phase II trial, gefitinib gained the FDA approval. The drug was studied in 216 patients with NSCLC who previously failed platinum based and docetaxel chemotherapy. The response rate, defined as at least a 50% tumor shrinkage lasting at least one month, was calculated to be 10%. The higher gefitinib dose did not seem to provide a better response but 500mg seemed to be associated with more drug related toxicities.
The response rates appeared to be variable in certain subgroups of patients. For example, the highest response rates were seen in women (17%) and patients with adenocarcinoma. The lowest responses, in contrast, were seen in men (5%) and smokers. A significant improvement in survival was noted in both trials, in those patients who had treatment related symptom improvement compared to those who did not (8.1 months versus 3.7).
Gefitinib combined with chemotherapy
Preclinical data showed enhancement of cytotoxicity for a variety of chemotherapeutic agents when combined with gefitinib. Two large randomized controlled studies of the drug as first line treatment in combination with conventional platinum based chemotherapy – combination of carboplatin /paclitaxel /gefitinib or gemcitabine (Gemzar®) /cisplatin / gefitinib – compared to the cytotoxic chemotherapy alone did not show a benefit. These were disappointing results and not anticipated.
Final approval
In May 2003, gefitinib was reviewed and approved under the United States Food and Drug Administration accelerated approval regulations program. The approval clearly states that 250mg of oral gefitinib is accepted as monotherapy for patients with locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC after failure of both platinum and docetaxel chemotherapies. A tyrosine kinase inhibitor that acts on the EGFR such as gefitinib is the first drug of its kind to receive approval in lung cancer.
What are the side effects of gefitinib?
The most concerning side effect of gefitinib emerged just after the FDA recommended it to be approved for its new indication. Several reports from Japan described the occurrence of a sometimes-fatal interstitial pneumonitis. Due to this troubling experience, the FDA investigated the matter further and concluded that the incidence of this complication is about 1% in the Japanese population and 0.3% in the US. Furthermore, only one third of these rare cases are fatal. Although serious, the FDA believes that the benefits of this drug outweigh even these risks. Other more common side effects include diarrhea (48), rash (43%), acne (25%), dry skin (13%) and nausea (13%). These side effects generally occur in the first month of treatment and are usually mild.
The Future
The company who made gefitinib will sponsor three more post marketing studies assessing gefitinib's clinical benefit. One trial will look to see if survival is prolonged, when compared to placebo, in patients whose tumors are resistant to two prior chemotherapies. A second trial will compare gefitinib to the standard of care second line chemotherapy for NSCLC in patients previously treated with only one regimen. Finally, the third trial will evaluate gefitinib's ability to reduce cancer related symptoms in patients whose cancer is resistant to all available chemotherapy. We eagerly await these results.


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Before I get into my question, I want to make it clear that this is not specifically about Area 51, and it should not be closed/moved as such. It is about the whole network of sites, and just uses Area 51 as an example.
I was browsing through Area 51 and saw this proposal. I noticed that it probably isn't a good idea for a proposal--15 out of 16 questions are closed. Then, I saw that they were all closed by the same 10ish people. This may be an extreme case (the proposal actually is bad), but are there any systems in place in case 5-10 people decide that they don't like a proposal and just close all of the questions? Say, for example, a group of one religion/race closed the questions for a proposal about another religion/race. I know there are systems to catch serial voting, but what about closing?


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By Sharon Haywood, Co-Editor For transgender individuals, not disclosing their transgender status, also known as "living stealth," has been the norm. Too many transgender folks have lived in fear of ridicule, discrimination, and rejection leading many to live a lie. But today, change is upon us; history is being made. October is … [Read more...]
You are here: Home / Archives for National Center for Trasngender Equality
Transgender History Makers
October 4, 2011 By Sharon


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I had installed Ubuntu in Win OS under different partition (E:) and then formatted my windows (C:), now I am not able to see the partition that had the wubi virtual disk on it (E:) and I do not get the option of booting Ubuntu OS when the PC starts up.
Kindly assist me to recover my partition (E:) and give me the steps as in what is to be done before installing the ubuntu so that it can be recovered easily next time.
Thanks, Amit


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Serre's GAGA result roughly states the following. Let $X$ be a complex projective algebraic variety. Then the natural functor from the category of coherent sheaves over the algebraic structure sheaf of $X$ to the category of coherent sheaves over the analytic structure sheaf of $X$ is an equivalence of categories.
This theorem always seemed to have the air of magic to me. Things that are analytic must come from algebra. I want to dust away some of this magic, and get a clearer picture. With this goal in mind, I have skimmed the proof of GAGA.
The proof of GAGA is rather involved. It uses Cartan's theorem A for both the algebraic and analytic cases, the isomorphism of the completions of the stalks of the structure sheaf in the algebraic case and the analytic case, and a variety of technical results. After having done that for a few days, I still remain with a sense of amazement and a basic lack of understanding about what makes this work. This brings me to the precise phrasing of my question: (which will hopefully help me find the precise step where the magic happens)
Does the proof of Serre's GAGA theorem use the axiom of choice? If so, at what step does this happen?


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Barren County Schools receive two bomb threats Tuesday-- the first happening at the middle school, and the second bomb threat in the high school.
Around 11 in the morning a student at Barren County Middle School reported a bomb threat on a girls' bathroom stall.
"There was actually a time of 12:20 for the bomb to detonate," says Superintendent Bo Matthews.
The Barren County Sheriff's Department, Glasgow Police, and Emergency Management all started a thorough search of the school.
"At 12:20, certainly the building was evacuated by all responders and we re-entered and concluded the search at 12:45. The building was deemed all clear," Matthews says.
Students re-entered the building soon after, and minutes later another bomb threat, also on a bathroom wall, this time at the high school.
Students were evacuated to the football field and emergency crews arrived back on campus.
Traffic was backed up for parents to get their children, but one mom was thankful her daughter was safe.
"You're kind of scared a little unnervey because you are not quite sure as to what's going on, but they seem to be safe. They've all been evacuated everything seems to be running pretty smoothly. Now, we're preparing to pick them up so we should be good to go," says Margaret Crump.
Matthews says he did notify all parents about the threats, but he says social media caused several parents to worry.
"We have staff and students that have devices on their person that they are able to communicate and link to Facebook sometimes before an official position can be let out."
The high school was found clear of explosives just before four.
Matthews says attendance was not hurt by today's bomb threats.
Follow the link to the Barren County Schools Facebook page and an official statement from Superintendent Matthews:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Barren-County Schools/180881591954589


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So for those who believe that Christians should own guns, would Christians be justified using a gun to protect themselves or their family under certain circumstances such as a robbery?And would killing someone in extreme cases be justifiable?
I am very pleased that in the uk owning a gum is not allowed unless you have a special licence for maybe a farmer or whatever. The more guns that are around and available the more people get shot. Thankfully most police officers here still dont carry guns either except special forces who are called out if there is an incident involving a firearm, which is still rare.Of course there are some illegal guns but the general population just dont have them or want them., and long may it stay this way.I have never understood the American things for guns, why do you need or want them, they only result in more violence and more deaths and injuries? I also hate hunting so dont see the need for guns for this so called 'sport' either.I will now duck before the flack comes my way !
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This question already has an answer here:
should I pick Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS or 12.10 for my home machine?
I know that Ubuntu 12.04 is LTS but 12.10 is newer.
But what should I pick now?
Can I use Gnome 3 Shell (apt-get install gnome-shell) without any problems in Ubuntu or is it recommend to use Unity?
Greetings, Majestro


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Average retail gasoline prices in Nebraska have fallen 3.0 cents per gallon in the past week, averaging $3.50/g yesterday, according to GasBuddy's daily survey of 1,150 gas outlets in Nebraska. This compares with the national average that has increased 2.5 cents per gallon in the last week to $3.65/g, according to gasoline price website GasBuddy.com.
Including the change in gas prices in Nebraska during the past week, prices yesterday were 12.3 cents per gallon higher than the same day one year ago and are 1.2 cents per gallon higher than a month ago. The national average has increased 12.9 cents per gallon during the last month and stands 16.5 cents per gallon higher than this day one year ago.
"While the national average has risen for the 12th straight week, it is likely nearing a peak," said GasBuddy.com Senior Petroleum Analyst Patrick DeHaan. "Gas price increases have continued since early February but are likely nearing an end as oil refineries conclude seasonal maintenance, and the switchover to summer gasoline is nearing completion. Meanwhile, oil inventories are at their highest ever level as reported by the Energy Information Administration, which cited crude oil stocks at a record high of 397.7 million barrels, which should help propel oil prices lower in coming weeks as some storage facilities near capacity. For motorists, the peak to retail gasoline prices is likely very near, with some relief to follow in coming weeks as pressure eases on factors that drive gasoline prices, " DeHaan said.
Location, ST | website.com


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Lifeskills will be the new occupant of a lot on State Street and 6th Avenue. But the Downtown Redevelopment Authority claims the claims the decision to approve occupation of this site was done behind closed doors without their consent. This has upset the DRA and Mayoral candidate, Elaine Walker.
Elaine Walker says, "There are excuses, there are reasons, but if in fact, a plan is in part and can stand up to public scrutiny then it should be brought before the people."
However, Mayor Sandy Jones says there was no wrong-doing on the city's part. And she believes the argument is politically motivated.
Mayor Sandy Jones says, "I am sitting as the mayor and we have business to do and a city to run. But we also have a campaign. It's very obvious my challenger is trying to get her name out there and make waves. And she doesn't understand the full complexity of how a city runs."
The issue was such a hot topic for members of the DRA a special meeting of the board was called today.


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3 Comments add a comment
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Vinyl Wrap - Looking Your BestWritten by on October 2, 2013 Contributors: Phil Kunz In today's competitive sponsorship market it's important to give your backERs maximum exposure by putting your best foot forward
If you had two identical race cars, one a Plain Jane and the other a stunning super model, but they were identically prepared, there wouldn't be any theoretical difference between them in on-track performance. But there would be a considerable difference in a very important way.
Dayton, Ohio's Larry Miller, who owns Ham Signs explains, "Having a dazzling car gets everybody's attention, including potential sponsors who just might visualize how their company's name would look on your sheetmetal."
Miller specializes in creating that dazzling look. He has worked with numerous racers in and around the Midwest including some major superstars such as Jeff Gordon, Dale Blaney, Kasey Kahne, Kenny Irwin, Jack Hewitt, Joey Saldana, and Ryan Newman just to name a few.
Miller learned the art of hand painting from Indy 500 painter Jake Dixon when he was only 14. He started his business in 1991 after dabbling a few years in Sprint Car racing. "I got tired of running last or crashing," he lamented. "But I loved racing, so Ham Signs gives me the opportunity to stay connected to the sport.
During his early years, Larry did a lot of that old-school hand painting of cars. He says that it took a long time to do, but he will still break out the brushes and do a little of it for customers who like that vintage look. But today, it's the vinyl look that everybody likes and Miller is heavy into it.
He explained that the modern vinyl covering is very durable and can last three to five years outdoors
Ham Signs is a small operation which includes his brother, Jamie. Coordination is a key to this team operation between the brothers as much of this tedious work requires two sets of hands. Many stock car bodies carry one-piece vinyl strips which can be up to 10 feet in length.
Miller explained that the start of the project is the most difficult, that being getting the actual artwork approved by the client. Most of the time, there is little direction from those customers. "You never know what to expect when somebody walks through the door. Some will tell me their colors and number, and to do something that 'looks good.' Most of the time, I nail it pretty good, but sometimes I don't. Then other times, customers have everything down to great detail and I'm not allowed to deviate from it at all," Larry explained. "The customer is always right, no matter how dumb his layout idea. In that case, I often try to convince him to use my idea, and 95 percent of the time I will change his mind."
Most of Larry's business is with the Sprint Car community, but he'll design and create wraps for any division such as Street Stocks, Modifieds, race haulers, trailers, pit equipment, and more. Interestingly, there are also many police cars in the Dayton area that have been given the Ham treatment.
When we caught up with Larry he was in the process of completely wrapping an E-Mod for a local racer. He uses a modern solvent printer with a lamination capability. The results, as you'll see, are truly amazing. The printers are costly—real costly—but their capabilities provide a huge time reduction and deliver a greater quality end product. He explained that the modern vinyl covering is very durable and can last three to five years outdoors.
Further adding to the benefits of a solvent inkjet printer is the type of designs that can be created. The finished vinyl wrap can be layered two-deep, as illustrated here, with the gold/red fluorescents on the primary sponsor's name. The added gold-leaf look delivers an irredescence to the car when hit by sunlight or by the track lights when racing at night.
The machine's versatility allows Miller to do a lot with a design based on the customer's wishes. "Some car owners want to recognize every sponsor, no matter how small. This particular Modified has 29 sponsors and every one of them is there. I think it makes the car a little busy, like a NASCAR machine, and I wish that they only had about four," Miller said. "But remember, the customer is always right!"
More Photos From This Article View Slideshow
1 Larry Miller (R) is owner of Ham Signs with his brother, Jamie (L), an Ohio-based decal shop. Miller got his start hand painting race cars years ago but admits that is becoming a lost art as vinyl has taken over.2 This machine is the Solvent Ink Jet Printer which is shown printing a side panel for an E-Mod. One of the major advantages of a wrap is that if a car should ruin part of one of these pieces in a wreck, just that area could be reproduced. When looking for a wrap company for your racing program be sure to ask what kind of printer it uses. You want to ensure that the wrap is of the highest quality.3 Miller removes the red highlight panel carefully. It will form the second part of a four-part process to get the primary sponsors logo to really stand out. Note the xacto knife in his hand to clip off any pesky parts not cut through by the die cutter.4 Creating complicated wraps is a two-person job as the Miller brothers cover the gold prismatic vinyl with clear transfer tape.5 The Miller brothers carefully apply the prismatic goldleaf decal over the sponsor's logo outline. This is a tedious job, because you want to get the top layer evenly spaced over the bottom layer.8 Jamie positions the nose decal. Since this car has a homebuilt hood it was necessary to take careful measurements when designing the wrap.
10 Applying the side wrap is a two-person job and it helps to know what you're doing. Here, the pair remove the release liner to install the side panel.11 Applying the fluorescent red driver's name is made easier by the fact that the decal has release paper over it. If your vinyl guy doesn't do this, then you need a new vinyl guy.12 Not every part of applying a wrap is a two-person job, even the large top number can be applied by one person.14 Miller has a vested interest in this Modified as you can tell by the fact that he is applying the "Ham Signs" logo to the rear deck.


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June 03, 2009
Gordon's Bay night road – Flickr pic of the day
This eight-minute exposure capturing the road as we rarely see it was taken by our Cape Town. Live it. Love it. group member Steve Crane.
Steve says, "I love Cape Town for its diversity; city, sea, beaches, mountains, forests and vineyards, all within an easy drive.
"For a photographer this is a paradise and the biggest dilemma is what to go and shoot on a given day.
"Another marvellous aspect of Cape Town and its surroundings is the wealth of recreational areas and activities that cost nothing at all. Many of us have little money to spare and it is such a pleasure to be able to spend a relaxing day outdoors for nothing more than the cost of a picnic."
To get your dose of the outdoors, why not visit one of Cape Town's nature reserves?
Do you have images of Cape Town you'd like to share with us? We'd love you to join the Cape Town. Live it. Love it. Flickr group!
Image © Steve Crane 2009


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I'm learning French and I'm not sure who the accurate French dictionary publishers are... In English there are dictionaries that always have too many errors such as Collins. So, what publisher should I move toward to ensure updated, always accurate definitions? I need this on my Android phone. Any tips? On the other hand, if no such thing is available is there a Windows French dictionary with native pronunciation?
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The two reference French dictionnaries provide mobile apps:
As for pronunciation, and only for that, you could rely on text-to-speech apps. I found out that Ivona is surprisingly quite accurate in French.
There is an android app called "Dictionnaire hors-ligne" or "offline dictionary". It allows you to download many dictionaries which are free (this includes case where the copyright no longer applies), some of which are excellent (though, in the case of those dating back to late 19th century, they might not reflect the usage made on the streets today).
The main perk being that you do not need to be online to consult these dictionaries (once you've downloaded them, preferably from some wifi access).
This app apparently bridges to some other vocal synthesis apps (I have no idea how this happens to be on my phone), and the pronunciation seems tolerable (though I didn't tried it seriously).


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On electric circuits, with $120$ or $230$ AC mains, there are the wires Live and Neutral. The wiring isn't symmetrical : following the circuit, you cannot switch $L$ and $N$.
However, in Italy, sockets and plugs don't have a specific orientation : it is a matter of how the user push the plug in the socket. You cannot watch the socket or the plug and guess the N and L, there aren't signs. Also internal building to sockets wiring isn't specific.
So, here it is an Italian socket - you are sure only about the middle one :
|*| ?
|*| Earth Gnd
|*| ?
If the appliance design expects a specific N and L wiring, it is a random 50 % correct / not correct run.
If I recollect well, most of radio appliance show sign N and L wires on their power supply electrical schema.
I spoke with some electrical engineers, they cannot explain me how to match the circuit requirements (and hazard regulations) with the real common practices.
Is the electric schema sufficient to pass the local regulations / certification, even if going in production the appliance is build with a non polarized plug ?


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Nothing, nada, not a single brass razzoo, just a small crappy pile of dust.
I think it's time to hit the AH and buy a whole bunch of worthless junk in the hope that the RNG smiles on me twice per boss, once on the drop and once on the roll.
But before I get into that, let me bring you up to speed on by week.
As you know I had been contemplating chucking it in, but I got news through the week that a couple of mates might be rejoining us. Admittedly one won't be clear of his other obligations for a couple of months, but there is light at the end of his tunnel.
So that spurred me on to starting the Sons of Hodir rep grind.
Hang on what's this, a chain quest before I can open up the dailies? What, not one chain, but 3? 20-30 quests?
Jeepers, oh well head down, fireballs up.
One of the things I am enjoying about being a bit slow (in the content progression sense folks), is that bloggers will mention something, then enough time will go by that I am pleasantly surprised when I reach that same point.
So, Tunas introduced me to this disguise…
And the crazy mount scaling that occurs when doing these questlines, but I was cackling quietly away while I was riding about. I also love it when I am riding and I hear the dismount sound.
I haven't really dismounted, but I have changed back to my Gnomish self and back again. Coolio!
There are some great quests in there, even for those of us that don't really like using vehicles in WoW, including Bear back riding…
Not to mentioning jumping mounts miles above the ground to do duels on drake back!
Grabbing prisoners by the scruff of their neck while on a drakes back… bring it on!
At one point I had to see a man about a quest…
Popped in on Hodir.
No, not to slay him, rather for tea and cakes.
He was even happy enough when he discovered I was a Gnome!
Still, if I remember right it's something like 40 days of dailies to hit exalted, and the shoulder enchants, which is the only reason I am even bothering with Sons of Hodir, which is the majority if a year for me… Unless I cheat… I'll get back to you on that one.
Speaking of painful grinds, I have pretty much given up on the Argent Crusade. I am only doing the kill 10 chickens quest (or whatever it is), cause I can't be bothered dealing with the lag-jousts, an I don't want to trouble my mates to baby sit me on the job.
Lootless Friday.
Anyway, let's get to Footless Friday, lootless – yes, achievement less – no.
Dual Spec. Yep I did it, decided I would take it for a spin. Starting with Arcane. I was/am petty disappointed with it so far, but then I didn't know I had any new spells, haven't worked out a rotation, whether I have better gear for the spec, or even tried to kill something that can handle more than 3 hits.
But it's crap so far. My evidence is as follows
- I have to count their nose hairs before I can cast.
- I get hit… They aren't lying in a smoldering pile 10 yards from me.
- It takes mana to cast? WTF?
- There are all these new spells and skills lurking in my spell book.. wish I knew how to find them!
- There's no fire!?!
Still, I will do some reading, and maybe find a couple of quick boss encounters to get myself sorted out.
Changing it up a bit
I have been asking if we can switch it up a bit, and the boys agreed this week, so it was off to see more raids.
Vault of illusionary loot.
Had my first go at Vault of Archavon.
Archavon: 0/ raid 1. Easy McPeasy
Closest I came to a piece of loot was from Archavon… stupid Priest gear!
Emalon: 7/ Raid 1. Yeah it took us a few goes, but he bit the dust
Obsidian Suckdom 0D
We did OS0D, because a few of us hadn't done the fight before.
Two down, forgot to screenshot the 3rd.
I enjoyed the fight, but not the loot table, I was even standing at the end.
Black Dragonflight bested… One shot in fact…
Maybe next time we will take 1 dragon into the fight with us.
What now? Naxx here we come.
Well, just outside Naxx for the moment… remember a while back I had issues with dead Horde releasing before I could /hug them?
I just read about someone that hesitated to take an flagged opposition player down the other day, well until his raid mate solved that dilemma.
Well we had something weird happening all Friday night… we were PvP flagged all night, so I guess was everyone else on the server… including that poor cow sitting outside Naxx…
I hesitated, my (PvP hating) mates didn't…
I didn't hesitate to /hug though…
Back to Naxx
Arachnoquickier was the objective. Maexxna down in 20 minutes. Of course none of us started a timer, but we think we got close.
Would have been closer, or even success if we didn't try to mix the trash pulls up.
- Some without DPS,
- Some without Heals,
- Too many with Rezs
It really was shame, cause the bosses went down without issue.
OK, one issue, when Gnome is on web wrap duty, that includes getting the pally out of wrap after the fights over… He will still die…
Dom, Dom, Dom goes the soldiers drum
Military quarter was a piece of piss too.
Dom, Dom, Dom.
The sound of 3 bosses dropping. They could at least put up a fight!
I got to tank in the 4 horseman again.
Apart from TreeHuggerDave being shocked and amazed by my 3 mirror image gnome mates, it went pretty well.
One /fail practice attempt, then watch the melee dance from boss to boss.
Loot wise, it was raining loot…
Mail, plate, mail, plate, mail, plate (do you get the picture).
The only roll I won was for the solitary piece of cloth that dropped. Priest cloth! Cant vendor it, can't DE it, gotta delete it.
There were a few shards, didn't win them either.
No my solitary loot drop for the week was a green…
At least I could DE that, so the sum total of 3 raids worth of loot was 2 dusts!
Our raid's Mr Offpec (I have a post in the works about Mr Offspec) pointed out that I wasn't the only one not to get loot, but then he is still dreaming of that 1dps increase for his offspec, considering both of his specs are better geared than my main spec I say… Whatever…
That's it for this weeks adventures in Gnomerlife, more next week!
Blogday Gifts start rolling in!
Thanks to Jong for sending me the 1st of my blog day gifts… A multiple choice question that will end up with an essay as an answer…
GnoLootForgeddon and Out!
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.


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Here's what the WADP Students have to say:
The first group of students were surveyed to learn why the Working Adults Degree Program works for them. Explore the pictures to see their observations.
Barbara Crenshaw
"I'm a mother of two and a grandmother of two. When I decided to go back to school, I picked Southeast because it's compact, personal and has easy access -- I'm disabled with arthritis. The program is set up around my everyday needs...classes are set up for me and the teachers are picked to meet my needs. I can also get a teacher if I need one."
Vincent Jones
"Being one of the first students in the program, I feel a certain prestige in being a participant. The WADP has allowed me to work during the day and go to school at night, which is not an easy task and I have been able to finish more classes on an accelerated basis. With the help of the program, I will be able to reach my goal of graduating with an AA Degree in Computer Science."
Francie Southern
"For some time I have wanted to return to school to obtain my Liberal Arts Degree. The Working Adults Degree Program has been carefully designed to make use of every course to its maximum to meet the requirements. Now I'll have my degree within two and a half years and still be able to work full time without spending too much time away from home."
Sergio Valdez
"I like my job as a Production Coordinator. Someday I want to teach in the Graphic Arts Department, but before I do, I have to get a formal education. WADP is the answer. I can continue to work, and at the same time prepare for my future occupation: teacher."


text: Close Tweet0 Share0 Comment0 Share0 Share0 Stumble It0 Print0 More Beyond the Baseline Daily Bagel: Isner parts with coach by Courtney Nguyen Twitter Email Posted: Fri Nov. 30, 2012 The Daily Bagel is your dose of the interesting reporting, writing and quipping from around the Internet.• Video: Roger Federer is now an ambassador for Moet & Chandon. But remember, Roger, champions drink responsibly.• Late-morning news from The New York Times: John Isner is parting with coach Craig Boynton.• Tennis is solidly represented in SI's celebrity picks for Sportsperson of the Year. Unabashed Federer fan Lindsey Vonn goes with, well, Federer, and Kendrick Lamar selects Serena Williams.• Sports on Earth looks at four athletes who reshaped sports and includes one name tennis fans know well: Billie Jean King.If the progress of history entails clearing aside nonsense, King has shoved unusual mountains of it. Something within her allowed her to drive her combine right on over the things that halt so many people, the fears of criticism and ostracism and hate mail. Something within her also enabled her to endure as an unquestioned protagonist, as if it somehow came through to just enough people that she wanted better things for both genders.• Newly retired Juan Carlos Ferrero will still be in the game. He's going to serve as a part-time coach to Nicolas Almagro next year.• WTA Backspin's year in review is, as always, thorough and highly entertaining.• Steve Tignor, in a lovely read, recounts his five favorite memories from 2012.• The ATP rolls out its list of the Comebacks of the Year.• A collection of tennis players who have made it onto stamps in their own countries, including Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray.• A statue of Guillermo Vilas has been unveiled in Argentina.•Want to know what Adidas has in store for its stable in 2013? Here's a preview.• Non-tennis: You Chose Wrong, a Tumblr compiling the most tragic endings from the Choose Your Own Adventure books. See or read something that you enjoyed and want to share? Feel free to email or tweet us links to pieces from around the Internet that may have slipped past our radar. More Beyond the Baseline


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I'm having some trouble understanding the following example in Armstrong's Groups and Symmetry:
''An element of $\mathbb{H}$ of the form $bi + cj + dk$ is called a ''pure quaternion'. Identify the set of all pure quaternions with $\mathbb{R}^3$ via the correspondence $bi + cj + dk \rightarrow (b,c,d).$ If $q$ is a non-zero quaternion, conjugation by $q$ sends the pure quaternions to themselves and induces a rotation of $\mathbb{R}^3$. This construction provides a homomorphism from $\mathbb{H} \smallsetminus\{0\}$ to $SO_3$. Its image is all of $SO_3$, its kernel is $\mathbb{R} \smallsetminus\{0\}$ and therefore $\bigl(\mathbb{H} \smallsetminus\{0\}\bigr) /\bigl(\mathbb{R} \smallsetminus\{0\}\bigr)$ is isomorphic to $SO_3$''.
So suppose that $v$ is a pure quaternion. How exactly does $qvq^{-1}$ induce a rotation of $\mathbb{R}^3$?


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[No authors listed]. Rare chromosomal deletions and duplications increase risk of schizophrenia. Nature. 2008 Sep 11 ; 455(7210):237-41. Pubmed Abstract
[No authors listed]. Rare chromosomal deletions and duplications increase risk of schizophrenia. Nature. 2008 Sep 11 ; 455(7210):237-41. Pubmed Abstract
The two recent papers in Nature, from the Icelandic group (Stefansson et al., 2008), and the International Schizophrenia Consortium (2008) led by Pamela Sklar, represent a landmark in psychiatric genetics. For the first time two large studies have yielded highly significant consistent results using multiple population samples. Furthermore, they arrived at these results using quite different methods. The Icelandic group used transmission screening and focused on de novo events, using the Illumina platform in both a discovery population and a replication population. By contrast, the ISC study was a large population-based case-control study using the Affymetrix platform, which did not specifically search for de novo events.
Both identified the same two regions on chromosome 1 and chromosome 15, as well as replicating the previously well studied VCFS region on chromosome 22. Thus, we now have three copy number variants which are replicated and consistent across studies. This provides data on rare highly penetrant variants complementary to the family based study of DISC1 (Porteous et al., 2006), in which the chromosomal translocation clearly segregates with disease, but in only one family. In addition, they are in general congruent with three other studies (Walsh et al., 2008; Kirov et al., 2008; Xu et al., 2008) which also demonstrate a role for copy number variation in schizophrenia. These studies together should put to rest many of the arguments about the value of genetics in psychiatry, so that future studies can now begin from a firmer base.
However, these studies also raise at least as many questions as they answer. One is the role of copy number variation in schizophrenia in the general population. The number of cases accounted for by the deletions on chromosome 1 and 15 in the ISC and Icelandic studies is extremely small--on the order of 1% or less. The extent to which copy number variation, including very rare or even private de novo variants, will account for the genetic risk for schizophrenia in the general population is still unknown. The ISC study indicated that there is a higher overall load of copy number variations in schizophrenia, broadly consistent with Walsh et al and Xu et al but backed up by a much larger sample size, allowing the results to achieve high statistical significance. The implications of these findings are still undeveloped,
Another issue is the relationship to the phenotype of schizophrenia in the general population. Many more genotype-phenotype studies will need to be done. It will be important to determine whether there is a higher rate of mental retardation in the schizophrenia in these studies than in other populations.
Another question is the relationship between these copy number variations (and other rare events) and the more common variants accounting for smaller increases in risk, as in the recent ODonovan et al. (2008) association study in Nature Genetics. It is far too early to know, but there may well be some combination of rare mutations plus risk alleles that account for cases in the general population. This would then be highly reminiscent of Alzheimers disease, Parkinsons disease, and other diseases which have been studied for a longer period of time.
For instance, in Alzheimers disease there are rare mutations in APP and presenilin, as well as copy number variation in APP, with duplications causing the accelerated Alzheimers disease seen in Down syndrome. These appear to interact with the risk allele in APOE, and possibly other risk alleles, and are part of a pathogenic pathway (Tanzi and Bertram, 2005). Similarly in Parkinsons disease, rare mutations in α-synuclein, LRRK2 and other genes can be causative of PD, though notably the G2019S mutation in LRRK2 has incomplete penetrance. In addition, duplications or triplications of α-synuclein can cause familial PD, and altered expression due to promoter variants may contribute to risk. By contrast, deletions in Parkin cause an early onset Parkinsonian syndrome (Hardy et al., 2006). Finally, much of PD may be due to genetic risk factors or environmental causes that have not yet been identified. Further studies will likely lead to the elucidation of pathogenic pathways. These diseases can provide a paradigm for the study of schizophrenia and other psychiatric diseases. One difference is that the copy number variations in the neurodegenerative diseases are often increases in copies (as in APP and α-synuclein), consistent with gain of function mechanisms, while the schizophrenia associations were predominantly with deletions, suggesting loss of function mechanisms. The hope is that as genes are identified, they can be linked together in pathways, leading to understanding of the neurobiology of schizophrenia (Ross et al., 2006).
The key unanswered questions, of course, are what genes or other functional domains are deleted at the chromosome 1, 15, and 22 loci, whether the deletions at these loci are sufficient in themselves to cause schizophrenia, and, if sufficient, the extent to which the deletions are penetrant. Both of the current studies identified deletions large enough to include several genes. The hope is that at least a subset of copy number variations (unlike SNP associations identified in schizophrenia to date) may be causative, making the identification of the relevant genes or other functional domains—at least in principle—more feasible.
Another tantalizing observation is that the copy number variations associated with schizophrenia were defined by flanking repeat regions. This raises the question of the extent to which undetected smaller insertions, deletions or other copy number variations related to other repetitive motifs, such as long tandem repeats, may also be associated with schizophrenia. Identification and testing of these loci may prove a fruitful approach to finding additional genetic risk factors for schizophrenia.
Hardy J, Cai H, Cookson MR, Gwinn-Hardy K, Singleton A. Genetics of Parkinson's disease and parkinsonism. Ann Neurol. 2006 Oct;60(4):389-98. Abstract
Kirov G, Gumus D, Chen W, Norton N, Georgieva L, Sari M, O'Donovan MC, Erdogan F, Owen MJ, Ropers HH, Ullmann R. Comparative genome hybridization suggests a role for NRXN1 and APBA2 in schizophrenia. Hum Mol Genet . 2008 Feb 1 ; 17(3):458-65. Abstract
Porteous DJ, Thomson P, Brandon NJ, Millar JK. The genetics and biology of DISC1an emerging role in psychosis and cognition. Biol Psychiatry. 2006 Jul 15;60(2):123-31. Abstract
Ross CA, Margolis RL, Reading SA, Pletnikov M, Coyle JT. Neurobiology of schizophrenia. Neuron. 2006 Oct 5;52(1):139-53. Abstract
Singleton A, Myers A, Hardy J. The law of mass action applied to neurodegenerative disease: a hypothesis concerning the etiology and pathogenesis of complex diseases. Hum Mol Genet. 2004 Apr 1;13 Spec No 1:R123-6. Abstract
Tanzi RE, Bertram L. Twenty years of the Alzheimer's disease amyloid hypothesis: a genetic perspective. Cell. 2005 Feb 25;120(4):545-55. Abstract
Walsh T, McClellan JM, McCarthy SE, Addington AM, Pierce SB, Cooper GM, Nord AS, Kusenda M, Malhotra D, Bhandari A, Stray SM, Rippey CF, Roccanova P, Makarov V, Lakshmi B, Findling RL, Sikich L, Stromberg T, Merriman B, Gogtay N, Butler P, Eckstrand K, Noory L, Gochman P, Long R, Chen Z, Davis S, Baker C, Eichler EE, Meltzer PS, Nelson SF, Singleton AB, Lee MK, Rapoport JL, King MC, Sebat J. Rare structural variants disrupt multiple genes in neurodevelopmental pathways in schizophrenia. Science. 2008 Apr 25;320(5875):539-43. Abstract
Xu B, Roos JL, Levy S, van Rensburg EJ, Gogos JA, Karayiorgou M. Strong association of de novo copy number mutations with sporadic schizophrenia. Nat Genet. 2008 Jul;40(7):880-5. Abstract
View all comments by Christopher Ross
View all comments by Russell L. MargolisComment by: Daniel Weinberger, SRF Advisor
Submitted 3 August 2008
Posted 3 August 2008
Several recent reports have suggested that rare CNVs may be highly penetrant genetic factors in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia, perhaps even singular etiologic events in those cases of schizophrenia who have them. This is potentially of enormous importance, as the definitive identification of such a causative factor may be a major step in unraveling the biologic mystery of the condition. I would stress several issues that need to be considered in putting these recent findings into a broader perspective.
It is very difficult to attribute illness to a private CNV, i.e., one found only in a single individual. This point has been potently illustrated by a study of clinically discordant MZ twins who share CNVs (Bruder et al., AJHG, 2008). Inherited CNVs, such as those that made up almost all of the CNVs described in the childhood onset cases of the study by Walsh et al. (Science, 2008), are by definition not highly penetrant (since they are inherited from unaffected parents). The finding by Xu et al. (Nat Gen, 2008) that de novo (i.e., non-inherited) CNVs are much more likely to be associated with cases lacking a family history is provocative but difficult to interpret as no data are given about the size of the families having a family history and those not having such a history. Unless these family samples are of comparable size and obtained by a comparable ascertainment strategy, it is hard to know how conclusive the finding is. Indeed, in the study of Walsh et al., rare CNVs were just as likely to be found in patients with a positive family history. Finally, in contrast to private CNVs, recurrent (but still rare) CNVs, such as those identified on 1q and 15q in the studies of the International Schizophrenia Consortium (Nature, 2008) and Stefansson et al. (Nature, 2008), are strongly implicated as being associated with the diagnosis of schizophrenia and therefore likely involved in the causation of the illnesses in the cases having these CNVs. In all, these new CNV regions, combined with the VCFS region on 22q, suggest that approximately five to 10 patients out of 1,000 who carry the diagnosis of schizophrenia may have a well-defined genetic lesion (i.e., a substantial deletion or duplication).
The overarching question now is how relevant these findings are to the other 99 percent of individuals with this diagnosis who do not have these recurrent CNVs. Before we had the capability to perform high-density DNA hybridization and SNP array analyses, chromosomal anomalies associated with the diagnosis of schizophrenia were identified using cytogenetic techniques. Indeed, VCFS, XXX, XXY (Kleinfelters syndrome), and XO (Turner syndrome) have been found with similarly increased frequency in cases with this diagnosis in a number of studies. Now that we have greater resolution to identify smaller structural anomalies, the list of congenital syndromes that increase the possibility that people will manifest symptoms that earn them this diagnosis appears to be growing rapidly. Are we finding causes for the form of schizophrenia that most psychiatrists see in their offices, or are we instead carving out a new set of rare congenital syndromes that share some clinical characteristics, as syphilis was carved out from the diagnosis of schizophrenia at the turn of the twentieth century? Is schizophrenia a primary expression of these anomalies or a secondary manifestation? VCFS is associated with schizophrenia-like phenomena but even more often with mild mental retardation, autism spectrum, and other psychiatric manifestations. The same is true of the aneuploidies that increase the probability of manifesting schizophrenia symptoms. The two new papers in Nature allude to the possibility that epilepsy and intellectual limitations may also be associated with these CNVs. The diagnostic potential of any of these new findings cannot be determined until the full spectrum of their clinical manifestations is clarified.
One of the important insights that might emerge from identification of these new CNV syndromes is the identification of candidate genes that may show association with schizophrenia based on SNPs in these regions. VCFS has been an important source of promising candidate genes with broader clinical relevance (e.g., PRODH, COMT). Stefansson et al. report, however, that none of the 319 SNPs in the CNV regions showed significant association with schizophrenia in quite a large sample of individuals not having deletions in these regions. The Consortium report also presumably has the results of SNP association testing in these regions in their large sample but did not report them. It is very important to explore in greater genetic detail these regions of the genome showing association with the diagnosis of schizophrenia in samples lacking these lesions and to fully characterize the clinical picture of individuals who have them. It is hoped that insights into the pathogenesis of symptoms related to this diagnosis will emerge from these additional studies.
Anyone who has worked in a public state hospital or chronic schizophrenia care facility (where I spent over 20 years) is not surprised to find an occasional patient with a rare congenital or acquired syndrome who expresses symptoms similar to those individuals also diagnosed with schizophrenia who do not have such rare syndromes. Our diagnostic procedures are not precise, and the symptoms that earn someone this diagnosis are not specific. Schizophrenia is not something someone has; it is a diagnosis someone is given. In an earlier comment for SRF on structural variations in the genome related to autism, I suggested that, From a genetic point of view, autism is a syndrome that can be reached from many directions, along many paths. It is not likely that autism is any more of a discrete disease entity than say, blindness or mental retardation. These new CNV syndromes manifesting schizophrenia phenomena are probably a reminder that the same is true of what we call schizophrenia.
View all comments by Daniel Weinberger


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Drug deaths on rise in Wisconsin
Madison - A new report shows drug-related deaths are steadily increasing in Wisconsin.
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater epidemiologist David Nordstrom took a look at nearly 5,000 deaths that were certified as drug-related between 1999 and 2008. Most were accidental overdoses or suicides and the majority involved male victims with an average age of about 43.
Nordstrom found a shift of legal prescription drug-related deaths surpassing those involving illegal narcotics. He says deaths from the synthetic drug methadone, which is used to treat heroin addiction skyrocketed from 10 in 1999 to 118 in 2008.
Nordstrom tells Wisconsin Public Radio News that a prescription drug monitoring program, which keeps people from getting pain pills from multiple pharmacies, could help stem the rise in opioid abuse. (17)
Golden Eagles win physical battle over Badgers
As an instructional tool, video evidence of the Marquette-Wisconsin game just might be relegated to the holiday discount table.
But Marquette-Wisconsin rarely goes to the prettiest.
It almost always goes to the toughest. »Read Full Article(67)
Milwaukee Ballet brings 'Nutcracker' to life
Uihlein Hall was peppered with sparkly shoes and fluffy frocks for Saturday afternoon's opening of the Milwaukee Ballet's production of "The Nutcracker" - and that was just the little girls in the audience.
The production of "Nutcracker," directed and choreographed by Milwaukee Ballet artistic director Michael Pink, is a lavish, stage-filling spectacle that tells a classic story through a deft balance of child-pleasing action and elegant dance.
Opening on a Victorian Christmas party, the ballet is based on E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King." A nutcracker doll that comes to life and a journey to the Land of Toys and Sweets make up the core of this magical story, which ends, happily, back at the Christmas tree. »Read Full Article(2)
Girl dies after Kenosha County crash
A 16-year-old Kenosha County girl died Saturday after being involved in a two-car crash Friday that injured two other teen girls, the Kenosha County Sheriff's Department reported.
According to the department:
Casey Petricek of the Town of Brighton was driving a 1999 Volkswagen Passat eastbound on Highway 142 in Brighton at 3:11 p.m. Friday when she apparently failed to negotiate a curve in the road. »Read Full Article
DNR targets 76-acre Town of Fredonia property for acquisition
Town of Fredonia - An unnamed stream flows out of publicly owned land at the southwest corner of Jay Road and Highway E, and wraps around a tamarack and white cedar swamp on the west end of a 76-acre property targeted for acquisition by the state Department of Natural Resources.
More than 35 acres of the parcel is wetland, with the conifer trees in the swamp bumping against red osier dogwood in an adjacent shrub-carr. Next to it, the telltale humps of hummock sedge in a wet meadow.
The east end of the property rises to meet Highway E, and offers a panoramic view of lowlands in a broad floodplain valley of the North Branch Milwaukee River, said Dale Katsma, the department's area wildlife supervisor in Plymouth. »Read Full Article(7)
Snowless streak likely to break record Sunday
Sunday's forecast calls for rain and a record-breaking snowless streak in Milwaukee - as well as a glimpse of future winters.
If the forecast holds true and Milwaukee gets through Sunday with no measurable snow at Mitchell International Airport, a record of 280 consecutive days without snow will be set.
There has been no measurable snowfall in Milwaukee since March 4, according to the National Weather Service. »Read Full Article(26)
Packers Podcast: McGinn and Dunne discuss Ryan Grant, Detroit Lions, NFL fines
In this week's podcast, Bob McGinn and Tyler Dunne discuss the Ryan Grant's return, the Packers' home winning streak against the Detroit Lions, and the NFL fines against Packers defensive players.
Listen here, or download the mp3 file here. You can also find the podcast in the iTunes store.
Father says daughter kills self after bullying
A crowd protested outside of Cudahy High School Saturday after a student took her own life, allegedly after being bullied, WTMJ-TV (Channel 4) reported.
South side apartment residents dislocated by fire
Around two dozen south side residents won't be able to return to their apartments for at least a couple of days following an early morning fire Saturday in the three-story building at 3124 W. National Ave., Battalion Chief Dan Holton said.
A small fire started around 12:30 a.m. in a bathroom in one of the building's 14 apartments.
Two of the units were vacant at the time of the fire and all residents were evacuated safely, Holton said. There were no injuries to residents or firefighters. »Read Full Article
UW pay raises needed, system president says
Madison - The University of Wisconsin System is only as good as its people, but it would be premature - and possibly counterproductive - to speculate about when raises could be approved for employees whose paychecks have taken a hit in recent years, UW System President Kevin Reilly said Friday.
Faculty salaries at UW campuses have fallen more than 18% below the national average, Reilly told the UW System Board of Regents. The last faculty-wide raise - 1% in 2008 - was followed by unpaid furloughs and a state mandate that most state employees contribute more of their pay toward benefits.
"We need to restore morale and confidence among faculty and staff that when they work hard on behalf of their students, and the people of Wisconsin and the world, their work will be recognized and rewarded," Reilly said. »Read Full Article(71)
Woman in Janesville home a homicide victim, police say
Janesville - Janesville police say a woman found dead in a home was the victim of an apparent homicide.
A Janesville Gazette report says no one has been arrested, but a man who was in the house was taken to a hospital with unspecified medical issues.
Deputy Chief Danny Davis says officers were called to the home Saturday about 3 a.m. to check on a female who was reportedly late getting home. Police forced open a door and found the woman dead inside. »Read Full Article
Demolition begins on Chrysler engine plant in Kenosha
Kenosha - Demolition efforts have begun at the Chrysler engine plant in Kenosha that closed down two years ago.
A Kenosha News report says crews began tearing down some of the larger buildings this week. Kenosha Mayor Keith Bosman says the demolition will continue for five or six months until the property is completely flat.
Once the demolition is complete, the city has the option of taking control of the property. If it did it would be responsible for future development and cleanup of the site. Kenosha has received about $16 million in federal and state funding to assist with those efforts. »Read Full Article(10)
Fire in Oshkosh kills person, dog
Oshkosh - Authorities in Oshkosh say a person and a dog have been found dead following an early-morning apartment fire.
A WLUK-TV report says the fire was reported to Oshkosh police Saturday about 4:20 a.m. Fire officials say the person and dog were dead when they arrived on the scene.
The Oshkosh police and fire departments are investigating the cause of the fire.
Messiaen piano piece is stunning at St. Paul's
Technical mastery, musical expression and a piece one rarely has an opportunity to hear came together on Friday evening in a stunning performance by pianist Christopher Taylor.
Presented by the locally based PianoArts North American Piano Competition at Saint Paul's Episcopal Church, Taylor presented Olivier Messiaen's "Vingt Regards Sur L'Enfant Jesus (Twenty Contemplations on the Infant Jesus)" for solo piano.
The piece is a technical, musical and sonic tour de force for piano. It reaches to dynamic extremes, demands liquid running passages alongside thunderous chords and requires an enormous palette of sonic colors to be effective. »Read Full Article
Accused Montee Ball attacker reaches plea deal
Madison - One of three men accused of attacking Wisconsin running back Montee Ball in August has reached a deal with prosecutors.
Twenty-one-year-old Wendell Venerable of Madison is scheduled for a plea hearing Dec. 17. His lawyer, Brian Hough, told the Wisconsin State Journal he could not comment on the agreement, but confirmed Friday that one had been reached.
Venerable is charged with substantial battery for the alleged Aug. 1 attack. Two other men charged in the case - 22-year-old Robert A. Wilks and 21-year-old Deonte J. Wilson, both of Madison - are scheduled for trial on Dec. 17.
The three are charged with attacking Ball as he walked behind two friends, leaving Ball unconscious and with a concussion. Ball has said he does not remember the attack. (4)
$478,700 sought for governor's mansion kitchen renovations
Madison - The Wisconsin Department of Administration is asking the State Building Commission for $478,700 in general fund-supported borrowing for kitchen renovations at the governor's mansion.
WKOW-TV reports the request for the revamp of both the first-floor kitchen and the second-floor private quarters kitchenette originally came from first lady Tonette Walker.
The first lady and members of the nonprofit Wisconsin Executive Residence Foundation, or WERF, first pitched the idea of kitchen renovations to the State Capital and Executive Residence Board in September 2011. »Read Full Article(194)
State to issue emergency concealed-carry rules
Madison - The state Justice Department is preparing to enact a second round of emergency rules enabling the agency to issue concealed carry permits.
The agency put emergency rules in place last year for issuing and revoking permits. The regulations are set to expire Dec. 15.
The agency has drafted permanent regulations. The package needs Assembly and Senate approval, though, and neither house has acted on it. Legislative leaders say they'll address the rules after the new session begins in January. »Read Full Article(25)