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An appeal to reason
A little over an hour ago, I was giving the final read on what was originally this blog item, under a different title and with a metric ton or two of humor, cutting criticism and the high quality of commentary that you'd expect from this blog. It was in derisive and cutting response to what Mark Shuttleworth considers "innovation" as outlined in this morning's ZDNet blog item by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols.
Having the ability to use the English language to slice and dice the ridiculous with the accuracy of a Benihana chef with a complete set of Ginsu knives — whether it's an idea or a person or both — is both a blessing and a curse. The Mark served up some pretty meaty fastballs right in my wheelhouse — a baseball metaphor now that we're in spring training — and if he puts them where I can hit them, they're gone. And I tattooed them, right into the next time zone.
But reading the blog item over again before deleting it, I felt like Bill O'Reilly. That alone forced me to take a shower and rewrite this blog item.
In any case, rather than put you through an eye-rolling, arm-waving rant on this screen about how The Mark's vision of reality differs from — well — reality (to say nothing of his uncanny knack for hyperbole and a penchant for exaggeration, followed by responses to criticism that redefine ad hominem), I'm just going to appeal to reason and let the reader decide.
Quoting Shuttleworth from the ZDNet blog: "Yes, we are moving beyond the desktop, but we are also innovating to make the desktop itself, better."
No, you're not, Mark. Here's why.
Unity: This is a one-size-fits-all solution to a situation that requires a wide range of flexibility, unless of course you don't consider the user interface for a tablet any different than that of a 17-inch monitor, and everything between. How this can even be remotely considered innovation when, for all intents and purposes, it's a round peg trying to go into different shaped holes?
Wait for the improvement? No, thanks. I tried Unity for an entire day, and I wanted to like it. I spent a couple of hours tweaking it, reading wikis (thanks, Google) and getting it to where it would best work for me. But it got to a point where its functionality failed on so many levels, in large part to a UI that was not suited to my hardware. I wanted very badly to say something nice about it — "Um . . . it's a nice color" — but I even couldn't do that. Unity is a digital cowpie, and no matter how many improvements you make to a cowpie, it's still a cowpie.
As a result, I'm glad to use Xubuntu on one of the lab's machines, which is the one distro in the 'buntu universe that shines.
HUD: Head-Up Display — no, I'm not going to ask "head-up" what? Nope, I'm not going there. Having tried this (HUD, that is, not . . . um, never mind), I can't see how this is an improvement: I have to type the name of a program I want in order to get the program I want. Couldn't I do this — oh, I don't know — from the command line? And if so, doesn't this make HUD a GUI for the command line?
A more important question: This is innovation? The only way this is innovation is that Canonical had this ill-advised, counterproductive concept of doing things this way before anyone else did. Being the first to do something counterproductive is not innovation; arguably, it's regression.
If you like Unity and it works for you, use it. Like HUD? Same thing. I have no problem with people using what they want — that's a key to using Free/Open Source Software — and you should be glad that FOSS provides a wide range of choices on many levels, including the user interface.
But innovation? No, that's not a good word for what Canonical is doing with Unity and HUD. Or at least it's not a word that describes it.
(Larry Cafiero is one of the founders of the Lindependence Project and develops business software at Redwood Digital Research, a consultancy that provides FOSS solutions in the small business and home office environment.)
March 7, 2012 at 12:09 pm
Take a step back and define what innovation means to you. Definitions for abstract concepts can be personally and culturally nuanced. Definitions for concepts are a bit more fluid in that way and make the prone to miscommunication when we discuss them. Even without suggesting that some sort of word twisting spin is being used to pervert the language, personal differences in conceptual definitions cause all sorts of heat generating miscommunications. When emotions seem to be running too hot, I always cycle back and try to assess how much divergence there is in conceptial definitions in what is being discussed.
And reading this, I'm under the impression that your definition for what innovation means is very different than what perhaps Mr. Shuttleworth I think it means, and what I think it means, or even what the strictest textbook definition of the word state as its meaning.
It appears that you feel that innonvation only happens when a new concept is found to be popular and widely adopted. I'm not sure that's the currently commonly understood meaning of the word, nor the historic meaning. But definitions evolve. Just make sure you define for your readership what you mean when you say innovation so we can make a judgement as to impendence mismatch. And make sure you have a good grasp on what the other people you are reacting to think it means. I lot of your emotion here is probably directly related to very different definitions for the concept of innovation being talked about.
March 7, 2012 at 1:12 pm
"…..it's still a cowpie." Yes. The problem with that is most people do not
know it is a cowpie until they step in it.
"………If you like Unity and it works for you, use it. Like HUD? Same thing. I have no
problem with people using what they want — that's a key to using Free/Open Source Software………" Yes, Free and Open Source Software is big, real big on choice.
Canonical does not say it is FOSS on the package. Canonical Does not use the
word Linux. My question is: "Is Ubuntu Free and Open Source? Is it Linux?
If it is, why hide it? If it does not want to be part of the Linux/FOSS world why not
just say so? You Canonical guys with us or not?
March 8, 2012 at 12:32 pm
… oh noes this again……
well you gotta hand it to the guy, he's flamboyant. i can picture him wearing a feather boa. and he also makes for great fodder for online bashing. but – if you don't like ubuntu, don't use it, that's what i (don't) do. stop promoting canonical into relevancy. who cares what they do, think, or believe. it truly is just another struggling company out there, and ubuntu is just another distro. best of luck to them and i hope to read less and less about them as people ask themselves this question: do i actually care?
March 8, 2012 at 2:46 pm
So, how do your Ginsu knives do against a 90mph fastball?
March 9, 2012 at 1:05 pm
Can it be a large model, as opposed to the classic small ones?
If you were holding it right and had batting gloves on you could probably put a decent nick in the ball and get away with some slight abrasion on your non-dominant hand.
They use good steel and have a full tang, so…
March 9, 2012 at 12:48 pm
hud is just the microsoft windows 7 start-button monstrosity applied to application windows.
the only reason it could possibly make sense is for voice control, and probably on mobile devices.
and even that sounds unwieldy. 'ubuntu open file'?
March 9, 2012 at 2:20 pm
My problem with Unity goes beyond the 'one size fits all' mentality which I abhor.
Asking me to like your Linux desktop only is like taking me to Baskin Robbins and telling me, 'Here, have some vanilla.' No, YOU might like vanilla but I dont.
But having one solution for desktop, laptop-netbook and touch devices just doenst make sense.
KDE has done a great job having the desktop and netbook version available with one switch of the button, Throw in that KDE Plasma touch version Ive seen run on the Spark demo which looks really nice and you have the same desktop project offer a variation of their KDE/Plasma/Qt offerings. THATS how its should be done. Shuttleworth has it backwards and wants to use a 7inch touch tablet like he would an 11inch netbook-laptop or my 27in screened desktop. No. No. No.
And I dont get the point of HUD. I mean I get what it does (boosted version of Krunner) but I dont see how it fits in a touch centric world which the geek magazines keep saying is among us (go to soccer tournaments, martial arts festival and other places where parents gather for hours during the winter and its still netbook-laptops at 80%+, about 4-5% tablets and the rest phone playing. maybe geek gatherings its different.). HUD brings you back to the keyboard which seems opposite to where things are going.
March 10, 2012 at 12:11 am
Canonical's Chase Douglas is one of the major contributors to the new multitouch extension to X11. That's real innovaion, no? Read Douglas' article in LWN recently and judge for yourself.
March 9, 2012 at 1:13 am


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Last week on this site, I wrote about the three different paths in front of Morneau for next season. In the first part of the "Morneau Chronicles," the focus of the piece was the Twins hoping for the ideal results. Another option for the Twins could be to switch him to being a full-time designated hitter. The final installment of the three part series looked at the possibility of Morneau being pushed towards retirement. In the end, I hoped the Twins would be able to have him split time between first base and designated hitter for the 2012 season with other players taking some time at first base.
In this latest interview with Ryan, the Twins seem to have an interesting strategy for the Morneau situation. Here are a couple of quotes from the FSN article and some thoughts about the Twins plan as they approach spring training.
In the end, it is good that the team and their GM have confidence in the ability of the organization's first baseman to conquer his post-concussion symptoms. There are plenty of fans of the Twins who will be approaching Morneau's situation with a reserved skepticism. Morneau is going to have to prove himself on the field before fans are going to regain confidence in the power-hitting lefty. The start of spring training is a month away and it will be interesting to watch how fast the team's confidence in Morneau might have to switch once the team arrives in Fort Myers.
The 2012 SethSpeaks.net Twins Prospect Handbook is NOW AVAILABLE. This is a great book for every fan of the Twins. There are profiles on over 160 minor league players, top prospect lists from multiple writers, and a variety of featured stories. The Twins had to dig deep into their minor league system last year and it is a great resource to have on hand for reference to these players.

subset: commoncrawl


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Now, in BT2 i'm primarily using usb bluetooth adapter to connect to bluetooth GPS thingy (for Kismet GPS feature).I'm living in an 8 stories apartment building on the first floor, and, if used inside, expected number of GPS satellites in view would of course be none.So i had to put GPS gadget out of the window (professionaly taped to a drum stick ).This of course raised the first two issues-signal range and data rate, which are obviously interpolated(hope this is the right word...).
The window is approx. 9 meters away from my laptop.The best signal and data rates contest winner was D-Link DBT-122 (price:20 euro).It works well with all of the bluetooth software in BT2.In addition, DBT-122 is small, have 128-bit data encryption, and, if anyone cares, works within VMWare 6 as well.
So finally, my suggestion would be: don't buy anything yet, google, try as much adapters as you can-borrow them from friends or whatever-, find the one that best suits your needs.Then decide.


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Mark Zuckerberg and His Girlfriend Got the World's Sweetest Puppy
He owns your data, and a dog named Beast.By Nitasha Tiku
He owns your data, and a dog named Beast.By Nitasha Tiku
The Producers of HBO's Confederate Respond to the Backlash and Explain Why They Wanted to Tell This Story
Dunkirk Is a Great War Movie Marred by Christopher Nolan's Usual Tricks
Trump Is Mobilizing for War Against the Rule of Law
The Triumph of Obama's Long Game
All 10 Christopher Nolan Movies, Ranked
A Conversation About Naomi Watts's Instagram, the Summer's Best Feed
When Will The Planet Be Too Hot For Humans? Much, Much Sooner Than You Imagine.
You Can Tell If Someone's Rich or Poor by Looking at Their Face
Revenge of the Twink: How Slimmer Movie Stars Are Seizing the Spotlight
Sean Spicer Resigns as White House Press Secretary


text: High5 Zero Tabs - 8 Pack - TropicalThe UKs leading electrolyte sports drink tab produces a clean-tasting and highly refreshing drink with ZERO calories. Choose this 8-pack Tropical flavour bundle for a great saving over single tubes. ZERO contains Vitamin C, 5 electrolytes, and no artificial colours or preservatives Vitamin C in ZERO supports a healthy immune system, protects the cells from oxidative stress and contributes to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue. Magnesium in ZERO contributes to electrolyte balance, reduces tiredness and fatigue, whilst supporting muscle protein synthesis Simply drop a tab into your re-usable sports bottle and watch it rapidly dissolve. The 20-tab tube makes up to 15 litres of drink, so its great value for money. With minimal packaging, ZERO is environmentally friendly and easy to keep with you. The easy-break tabs mean that you can choose your ideal drink strength ZERO is suitable for a wide range of sporting activities such as: football, rugby, biking, martial arts, motor racing, running, triathlon, swimming, hiking, aerobics and racquet sports. With a light non-sweet taste, ZERO can be consumed when working in hot environments such the mining and oil industry, fire fighting and the military Features: Light & refreshing sports drink with a hint of fruit Including Vitamin C and electrolytes, including sodium, magnesium and potassium Zero calories Suitable for a wide range of sporting activities With natural flavours. No artificial colours or preservatives Suitable for vegetarians and vegansBuyHigh5 Nutritionfrom Chain Reaction Cycles, the Worlds Largest Online Bike Store.Check stock and price


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Hi all
I have done a search on the topic already but couldn't find any comprehensive answers ..
Has anyone trained at urban kings gym? If so how big are the classes, whats the general consensus and how are they are they comparable to say a similar gym in the area such as Gymbox?
Mainly interested as the topic suggests in standup but if anyone has insight whats the grappling like at both also ....
Will be based basically at bank station but work and life commitments mean i can not travel too far on a regular basis so london shoot is out of the equation hence why i'm looking at Urban Kings and Gymbox...
Any input is much appreciated


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Recognize your emergency nursing team for their extraordinary efforts with a selection of distinctive appreciation gifts that praise their commitment to patient care. Choose from our exclusive motivational themes like Emergency Nurses: Making Every Second Count, and show thanks to these dedicated everyday heroes. Don't forget to thank all Surgical Team /Operating Room members.
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posted by willd58 on sherdog
posted by willd58 on sherdog
'Go read a fucking book, you piece of shit.'
Originally Posted by james Thompson on facebook.............Originally Posted by james Thompson on facebook
'Go read a fucking book, you piece of shit.'
One of the few British Fighters to ever fight in pride absolute legend.
Last edited by Babycakes; 06-04-2014 at 10:22 PM.
Retired 2k and out.
Now that's a crowd!!!
Taking this shit, one day at a time.
he's lost the weight, just like he said. pic from traitor former poster, deevlash
'Go read a fucking book, you piece of shit.'
Thompson's just signed to Bellator apparently. Fighting Eric Prindle.
^ Yeah that's been confirmed, good fight for Thompson. Prindle is 3-4 in Bellator and I imagine if Thompson wins they'll push him towards the top of the decision fairly quickly.
Taking this shit, one day at a time.
let's learn more about JT's opponent in this thread. executive summary: he's a fucking meathead, check him out:
oh christ he's the guy who got done for blantantly ax kicking a downed opponent in the nutsack.
five of his eight wins come by smash. he got stopped in the last round and decisioned in his last two fights. also he's 37. hope this all points to him having shit cardio.
his last win was a 12 sec KO over 42 year old, sub 500. fighter Vince Lucero (a god who has been fighhting since 2000)
'Go read a fucking book, you piece of shit.'
This will be a fairly matched contast. Prindle has as many nut shots in fights as JT has bull rush starts in Pride.
Solid supporter of: Tomasz Adamek. Maurício Rua. Daniel Ghiţă


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Former University of Akron pitcher Chris Bassitt is scheduled to make his Major League Baseball debut on Saturday for the Chicago White Sox.
Bassitt, who pitched at UA from 2009-2011 and recorded a career ERA of 2.29 in 70 2/3 innings pitched, will start the second game of a doubleheader for the host White Sox against the Detroit Tigers. First pitch is set for 7:10 p.m.
"I'm extremely happy for Chris," UA coach Rick Rembielak said in a prepared statement. "He's done very well at each level he's pitched and it's great to see him reach a milestone in his baseball career."
Bassitt, 25, was drafted by the White Sox in the 2011 MLB Draft in the 16th round. He appeared in 23 games across three levels of the minor leagues and posted a 1.82 ERA over 34 2/3 innings pitched as a rookie.To read more or comment...
A few thoughts about the Akron Zips 41-0 win over Howard:
About that swarming defense – yeah, the one that looked like something found in the SEC before they found offense and fell all in love with 41-40 games. That looked good on an Akron Zips team. They made great use of their speed to hold the Howard Bison to 216 total yards, all while harassing Bison quarterback Greg Maghee all night.
About this middle linebacker C.J. Mizell: After the game he looked as if he was ready to go another four quarters and I have little doubt that he could have done so at the level that netted him 10 tackles and a fumble recovery. Mizell, who sat out last year after transferring, played like a beast on Red Bull.
About that Kyle Pohl mobility: It's real, very real. You never want to have your quarterback lead the team in rushing in any game as Pohl did tonight. However, it's nice to know that he has the capability to run out of jams and run on designed plays. "Not all of those were needed scrambles," he said. "It was just a thing that I wasn't seeing what I needed to see or wanted to see." Ultimately, he said he needs to learn to stay in the pocket to make the big throws.To read more or comment...
The University of Akron football team left an impression at InfoCision Stadium Thursday night after beating Howard University 41-0 as quarterback Kyle Pohl flashed some potential and the Zips defense showed how dominating that it can be.
Yes, it was Howard, but when was the last time UA was 1-0 to start a season? Try 2007.
It took a four touchdown passing performance from junior quarterback Kyle Pohl, who connected with sophomore wide receiver Mykel Traylor-Bennett on two of them. On an unseasonably cool August night, the Zips' defense provided all the heat needed stifling the Bison.To read more or comment...
The Akron Zips begin their third season under coach Terry Bowden tonight at 7 at InfoCision Stadium against Howard University.
In that short time, Bowden and his staff have gotten the team moving in the right direction attitudinally, what remains to be seen is whether it shows on the field.
"We're definitely not there yet," Bowden said in his weekly press conference. "Potential is what we still have. We haven't done it yet. I think to some point changing the culture to me is when players go on the field and deep down inside - subconscious or otherwise - they feel like they're going to win and not lose, good things are going to happen and not bad."
In other words, Bowden expects his team to embrace the expectations this year. Questions remain, however and the answers will begin to come against Howard. Here are five things to look for tonight against the Bison:To read more or comment...
The Akron Zips defense – especially the front seven – is expected to be the strength of the team at the beginning of the football season.
The team finds itself in an enviable situation. Although they returned two speed defensive ends, they added more speed in the person of Se'Von Pittman. Local folks might remember his as the guy who used to terrorize quarterbacks at Canton McKinley a few years back.To read more or comment...
2014 Zips football schedule
Thu, Aug 28 vs Howard 7 p.m.ESPN 3
Sat, Sept 6 at Penn State Noon ABC/ESPN 3
Sat, Sept 20 vs Marshall TBD
Sat, Sept 27 @ Pittsburgh TBD
Sat, Oct 4 vs E Michigan 2 p.m.
Sat, Oct 11 vs Miami (OH) TBD
Sat, Oct 18 @ Ohio TBD
Sat, Oct 25 @ Ball State TBD
Tue, Nov 4 vs Bowling Green 8 p.m. ESPN2 ESPNU
Tue, Nov 11 @ Buffalo 8 p.m. ESPN2 ESPNU
Tue, Nov 18 vs Massachusetts 8 p.m. ESPNU
Tue, Nov 25 @ Kent State 7 p.m. ESPN2
Zips coach Terry Bowden held his weekly news conference Monday. UA plays its home opener at InfoCision Stadium on Thursday night against Howard.
Here is the video of his news conference.
To read more or comment...
The Mid-American Conference football coaches released their pre-season poll Monday and selected the Akron Zips to finish second in the league's East Division behind Bowling Green.
They selected the Northern Illinois Huskies to take first in the West Division. The Huskies won nine first place votes from the MAC's coaches while Bowling Green picked up 11 first place nods.
Earlier this summer the media predicted Bowling Green (East) and Toledo (West) would win their respective divisions. The Zips' season opens Thursday with them taking on Howard. Below find the coaches' results:
MAC East DivisionTo read more or comment...
University of Akron football coach Terry Bowden's father, Bobby Bowden, appeared at the team's kickoff luncheon Friday and offered more than a few opinions on the state of college football. Most can be read in tomorrow's edition of the Akron Beacon Journal.
But there was one choice nugget that worries him in the era of autonomy: agents.
"I am definitely not a fan of agents," Bowden said.
That has been a conundrum for the NCAA for years as agents find ways to ingratiate themselves with athletes even with the stringent rules that college sports' governing body now has.To read more or comment...
The spots are filled in the Akron Zips two-deep depth chart. Analysis will come later today. Then again, there are only a couple of surprises.
QB: Kyle Pohl, Tommy Woodson
RB: Jawon Chisholm, Conor HundleyTo read more or comment...
Akron Zips football coach Terry Bowden released the following statement clarifying the status of two players involved in an off-the-field incident earlier this summer:
"Johnny Robinson and Donte Williams returned to practice this week. They are still in violation of team rules and have been taken off scholarship. In order to play football this fall as seniors, they must each pay their own way. Johnny will not start in the opener against Howard."To read more or comment...


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Hilo Farmers Market, Hawaii Island
Hilo Farmers Market
- Name: Hilo Farmers Market
- What: One of the best open markets in Hawaii
- Where: Downtown Hilo
- More Info: Open Wednesdays and Saturdays
Located in Downtown Hilo, the festive Hilo's Farmers Market is known as one of the best open markets in Hawaii. You can never tell what you'll find at this colorful market, but it's safe to say you'll probably spot things you've never seen before.
The Hilo Farmers Market lures both locals and visitors with Hilo's freshest finds at affordable prices. You'll find a colorful selection of locally grown exotic fruit, vegetables, herbs, island jams and jellies, macadamia nuts and delectable baked goods. Also note that 95 percent of Hawaiian papayas are grown on the east side of Hawaii Island, so look for these fresh fruits when they're in season. Strawberry papayas, a local delicacy, look like regular papayas, but their beautiful pinkish-orange flesh is sweeter and juicier.
Food is only part of the fun at the Hilo Farmers Market. Big buckets of orchids and anthuriums line the stalls. Wind chimes, etched glass and koa wood treasures fill the craft section. You can even find local t-shirts, tropical fashions and handmade jewelry. And don't forget to buy a lei for that someone special. Get there early to shop for the best choices from the market's more than 200 vendors. The full-fledged market is open year round every Wednesday and Saturday, but some vendors are there almost every day.


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fivebells wrote:I didn't know you needed money to become a monk, unless you have debts to pay off first.
David N. Snyder wrote:That is good that you are planning on doing it the correct way with permission. In actual practice I have heard that sometimes monks do ordain without the permission. I think there have been some threads here on that subject and at many places they don't ask for proof that you have permission and some others that don't even ask.
I think it depends upon the monastery; some charge for the ordination procedure and some don't. And some get sponsors to pay for the ordination from the community for those that can't afford it.
I guess it depends on how long you can wait. If you really want to ordain it might be better not to wait. As the saying goes, "life happens." You might get married, have kids, and then it would be very difficult to ordain, if not even impossible.
TheNoBSBuddhist wrote:Contact this monastery. it's wonderful. Ask them about the requirements.
Return to "Ordination and Monastic Life"
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Of the 25 ranked teams this week, No. 22 Colorado State might be the most unexpected.
The Fort Collins-based program has quietly churned along this season, and suddenly is in contention to win the Mountain West. It seems fair to say the Rams have come out of nowhere: Its AP ranking this year is its first since 1954.
Success for Colorado State seems to come on the glass. The Rams have outrebounded every opponent this year, and they boast a NCAA-best 13.8 rebounding margin.
Cleaning the boards has helped bump off San Diego State, Boise State and Wyoming in the last stretch of Mountain West games. No one has yet figured out former Utah State coach Larry Eustachy's secrets to getting rebounds. Pierce Hornung averages nearly 10 boards per game, and he's only 6-foot-5.
Match-ups with UNLV and New Mexico will test Colorado State's resolve, but the Rams seem to have plenty of momentum going into the home stretch of conference play.
La.Tech trying to stay unbeaten in WAC
As of Tuesday, the Bulldogs were one of only six teams to be undefeated in their conference. That streak is helping drive Louisiana Tech closer to a possible AP top 25 ranking: The program was one of the last out this week.
But walking that walk could be tough. CBS Sports rated the Bulldogs' chances of finishing with a clean Western Athletic Conference record as 7.9 percent. That slate is made tough by upcoming games with Utah State, New Mexico State and Denver all the teams chasing it in pursuit of WAC contention.
Louisiana Tech has been skirting the edge in recent weeks, winning closely contested games over Utah State, Idaho and Seattle. With both Aggies and the Pioneers coming up, the chances seem likely that the Bulldogs could have a slip-up or two.
Gaels trying to get resume-boosting wins
Saint Mary's is still working on its at-large resume for the NCAA tournament, its best win so far coming on a miracle shot at BYU.
The Gaels have never played in NCAA tournaments back-to-back, but are hoping that can change with a strong finish to the regular season. That seems possible with Creighton, BYU and Santa Clara at home for three of the last four games. The only road game remaining is against lowly Pepperdine.
Saint Mary's beat the Cougars and the Broncos in the first go-round the WCC, and Creighton has slipped of late. Assuming the Gaels can sweep the remaining games, it could put them on solid footing for an at-large slot they'll certainly need with Gonzaga favored to win the conference.
Twitter: @kylegoon


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— DON - Fans of Prince William and Duchess Kate will now be able to pose for as many photos as they want with the royal couple, since the Madame Tussauds wax museum unveiled its first figures of them on Wednesday. There are three versions of them on display in London, Amsterdam and New York City.
In London, Kate is wearing a replica of the blue Issa dress she wore to announce her engagement in November 2010, while William has on a replica of the Gieves and Hawkes navy two-piece single-breasted suit and Omega Seamaster watch.
No detail has been left out, from Kate's dimples, diamond and sapphire engagement ring and perfectly coifed brown locks, to William's thinning hair. The couple were set in front of a gold-trimmed red throne.
"The duchess has been the most requested figure since their engagement so there is a huge appetite to see her," Liz Edwards, public relations manager at Madame Tussauds London, told TODAY.com. "The guests that have been in today have been so excited to see the royal couple, and with it being the Jubilee year we expect visitors from all over the world to come and see them."
The couple were kept up to date on every stage of the creation process, according to the museum.
"It's a longstanding and welcome tradition for Madame Tussauds to make figures of members of the royal family and the duke and duchess are looking forward to seeing the coverage from the launch," a royal spokesman told TODAY.com.
In New York, the couple is featured in the clothing they wore to the formal BAFTA Brits to Watch event in Los Angeles this past July, with Kate in a lilac, floor-length Alexander McQueen gown, accessorized with a chunky diamond bracelet and nude clutch. William is wearing a tux.
In Amsterdam, the wax Kate wears a replica of the black lace Alice Temperley dress she donned for the premiere of "War Horse" in London this past January.
A team of artists worked for four months to create the figures, collaborating with the original clothing designers to get every detail just right. Even their heights are exact. But perfection doesn't come cheap: Each figure costs around $300,000 to make.
A fourth set will be unveiled later in April at Madame Tussauds Blackpool in northwestern England, with Kate in a pastel and metallic Jenny Packham dress from her appearance at the ARK charity dinner.
"We know our guests are going to relish the opportunity to get up close to them and join them in celebrating their first wedding anniversary later this month," Edwards said.
As in life, the rest of the royals aren't too far. At the London museum, Kate and William are surrounded by the queen and Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Harry, Princess Diana and Prince Charles and Camilla.
Over the years, the museum has created more than 20 models of the queen, who has sat for the museum's team of designers six times.
The figures of William and Kate were unveiled only weeks before heir first wedding anniversary. In the past year, they have seen their popularity both at home in Britain and abroad soar.
They are expected to play a large role in the queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations, and plan to visit other Commonwealth countries later in the year on her behalf.


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As we settled around her table, Esther Landa advised me that she had been a tomboy. So I told her I'd been one, too.
"Good," she said. "An honorable profession."
Forgive me for feeling just a bit proud. But that's how Landa has been for the past 80 years, encouraging and mentoring women on how to be motivated and successful in a nation that still hasn't quite managed to see us as full-fledged, competent citizens.
On Christmas Day, Landa will be 100 years old. She's not impressed.
"A lot of people grow to be 100," she said. "Why the fuss?"
Still, she remains the North Star to the women in Utah and across the U.S. she brought into the heart of 20th century politics. One was Karen Shepherd, who in the 1970s was editor of the feminist newspaper Network and went on to become a Utah state senator and a Democratic congresswoman.
One day, Shepherd said, Landa came to her Network office to talk about Title IX, the federal anti-sex discrimination initiative best known for putting girls on par with boys in school sports. At the time, Landa was living in New York City as president of the National Council of Jewish Women
"I fell in love with her immediately," Shepherd says. "Ever since then, I've done everything I could to know more about her, to stay in touch, to keep up with her. I pick her brain at every opportunity."
It stands to reason. Landa's résumé spills off the page: a graduate of the progressive Mills College, a co-founder of Utah's Head Start program and, to this day, an influential Democrat and indefatigable warrior for equal rights and women's rights.
"My parents," she said, "were very good. They didn't try to channel me in one direction. They kind of let you be what you wanted to be."
Landa, nee Rosenblatt, was born on Dec. 25, 1912, in her parents' home on 300 East between 300 South and 400 South in Salt Lake City. "And I'm mad because none of my children has put a plaque up."
Mills in Oakland, Calif., was a natural choice, she said, because it "gave you role models of what women could do, and what women could be."
During the Depression, though, she had to come home and attend the University of Utah before her father gathered enough money to send her back to Mills. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in English literature and headed for New York City.
"At that time, if you thought to make your fame and fortune, you had to go to New York," she said.
She actually got a job at Bennington School of the Dance in Vermont, where she met luminaries such as Martha Graham and "learned how to drink martinis."
When she returned to New York, she went to work doing public relations for the Constance Hope Agency; one assignment was the opera singer Ezio Pinza. Hope made her Jewish employees change their names Landa chose "Norma Ross" because Hope didn't want her business labeled a Jewish agency.
After the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, Landa headed for Washington, D.C., and worked first at the Department of War and later in the Office of War Information.
It was there she met an airman, Jerry Landa, whom she married in 1943. Their daughter Carol was born in 1944, Howard in 1948 and daughter Terry came along in 1951.
Her husband died of Parkinson's disease in 1971. When I asked if she'd remarried, Landa said, "One was enough."
Landa was a member of the League of Women Voters of Utah, and in 1962, a University of Utah professor asked her and others to organize a women's conference, which Landa believes was the first of its kind here.
"The speaker was a Lady Reading of England," Land said. "I don't know what she was famous for. She must have been famous for something."
In time, Landa would serve on the Salt Lake Board of Education and return to New York City as president of the National Council of Jewish Women.
State Rep. Patrice Arent, a lifelong friend, said that for a woman in a state with a small Jewish community, that position was a "very big deal."
Then, of course, there was the 1977 International Women's Year, a United Nations initiative to consider discrimination, social and equity problems faced by women. Utah's convention was at the Salt Palace, where 300 women were expected.
But the proposed Equal Rights Amendment was much in the news. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints opposed it, and some 13,000 women and children, most of them Mormon, swarmed the convention.
"I don't know if it was the LDS Church officially or certain members that didn't want it to happen," Landa said. "So they had people, including men, walking up and down the aisles telling the women how to vote."
In fact, every motion in support of equal rights was voted down. In the end, Landa said, "the only thing that passed was we were against pornography."
Arent said Landa always "talked a lot about children and education, she talked about day care, reproductive rights. She's been a role model for so many of us. You're often told you can't do it. She could always do it."
In 1993, Arent was planning to be in Washington, D.C. She'd heard about a White House event and desperately wanted to go. She called Shepherd, then Landa, and suddenly there she was, talking with Coretta Scott King and Bruce Babbitt, then Secretary of the Interior.
"I would not have been there but for Esther," Arent said.
Pat Shea, a Salt Lake City lawyer and former Utah Democratic Party chairman, grew up with Landa's son, Howard.
Shea calls Landa the "steady rudder in the wild seas of Utah politics." And when he was party chairman and something came up, he was inevitably told, "Well, have you talked to Esther?"
He has another reason for revering her. When Shea's father died from suicide the summer before he was to go to law school, Landa and her sister "did the things that allowed me to go, as always behind the scenes."
Before I left Landa's home that evening, I asked her if she felt if women's status has improved.
"I think it's improved in a certain way. One thing is, young women today don't realize how lucky they are, and they don't realize how it was back then. They're just taking their status for granted, as if it's their due."
And here in Utah, she added, "the ideal in this society is to marry young and have kids. But you have to get as much education as you can, because you'll never know when you'll need it.
"You never know, when you step off the curb, if a bus will hit you," Landa said. "The main thing is, I've had some good role models, and that's important for girls."
A girl with role models became one herself.
Boiled down, it's simple: Got a problem? Talk to Esther. Problem solved.
Peg McEntee is a news columnist. Reach her at email@example.com


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Brave Heart Bowl Fund-raiser Success
"The third annual Brave Heart Bowl Fund-raiser was the greatest success yet"
The Brave Heart Bowl is a joint effort of the Brave Heart Volunteers (a care giving, respite and educational group) and the UAS Sitka campus Pottery Club. This year 216 bowls were created by the pottery club and local potters. On the evening of the event, participants buy one of the pottery bowls, fill it with their choice of many delicious soups and bread, and enjoy a great dinner. They keep their chosen bowl. Other bowls are sold in a silent auction. The event raised a gross total of $7,691, 15% going to the Pottery Club and 85% going to Brave Heart Volunteers who use the funding to keep their program services free of charge and available to all Sitkans (visiting shut-ins, end-of-life support, and training volunteers).


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Wolfram SystemModeler Used for Europa Clipper Pre-project
The Europa Clipper is a concept under study by NASA that would conduct detailed reconnaissance of Jupiter's moon Europa and would investigate whether the icy moon could harbor conditions suitable for life.
The Flight Software and Data Systems team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, is using Wolfram's SystemModeler as one of the Model-Based Systems Engineering applications to support engineering analysis on the pre-project. The team is examining integrating the model with an object-oriented database to facilitate tracking component configurations.
Europa Clipper would send a highly capable, radiation-tolerant spacecraft into a long, looping orbit around Jupiter to perform repeated close flybys of Europa. Currently under consideration, the pre-project is being studied for a possible launch date in 2022.
Building the Pod Propulsion Mermaid™ System
As a world leader in ship propulsion development, it is crucial to have an in depth understanding of system dynamics. Therefore we collaborate with [Wolfram] MathCore whenever we need to develop and analyze dynamic models of our systems.
—Stig Lönngren, Responsible for development of pod propulsion Mermaid™,
Rolls-Royce AB
Developing Engine Test Benches
When we were about to develop a new engine test bench, we contacted [Wolfram] MathCore and asked them to help us with the vibration analysis. By making a dynamic model in [SystemModeler] MathModelica they could study the system dynamics and give us design recommendations that proved to be essential for the success of the test bench.
—Tommy Andersson, Head of Engine Dynamics and Acoustics, Scania
Maximizing Gas Turbine Performance
By using [Wolfram] MathCore as an external partner, we can be sure that we really obtain a finished model with correct results, within the given constraints. We can therefore give MathCore our best recommendations.
—Lennart Näs, Manager, Gas Turbine Performance and Thermal Processes,
Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery AB
Universitat de BarcelonaSystems Biology
Understanding Metabolic Pathways
[SystemModeler] MathModelica provides state-of-the-art tools for kinetic analysis, which accelerates progress in the experimental area of systems biology. Read the whole story »
—Dr. Vitaly Selivanov, Universitat de Barcelona
Linköpings universitetPharmaceutical
Individualizing Drug Dosage
The combination of [SystemModeler] MathModelica's user-friendly modeling environment and the possibility of analyzing the results with Mathematica's rich functionality proved to be a powerful tool. Read the whole story »
—Martin Fransson, PhD student, Linköpings universitet
Ben-Gurion University of the NegevElectrical Engineering
Teaching Radio Communication
"I decided to do everything with Mathematica and Wolfram SystemModeler: slides, homework—including theoretical assignments, simulations, and system exploration." Read the whole story »
—Dr. Yehuda Ben-Shimol, Senior Lecturer, Ben-Gurion University
Wolfram SystemModeler was known as MathModelica prior to the acquisition of MathCore by Wolfram Research, Inc. in March 2011.


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Right fuckers. I challenge everyone of you's to a cock drawing competition.
Draw a tadger and post it on here.
I must warn you i have a higher in Art and have had a lot of practice, inspired by the superbad film.
Competiton close's Friday. Iain Dean can pick the winner and will hook you up with some form of prize.


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ERC St. Patrick's Day race director, Jim Lang, offered this preview of the race shirt. Rejoice — no gold this year! (Thank you, Jim). 😉
Check it:
Note that this proof is short-sleeved, but the race shirts are actually long-sleeved.
The race is this Saturday at Presque Isle State Park's Rotary Pavilion. There's a 5K at 9 a.m. and a 10K at 10 a.m. Run one or run both and earn that "distance festival" on the race shirt.
Day-of-Race entry is $20 and you'll have to buy the shirt separately (if available). Remember to bring cash or check because the ERC doesn't take credit/debit. (Please, please, please, ERC…..invest in a little cell-phone credit card swiper or something, nobody carries cash these days!)
Race details & application here.


text:
Jonathan Gransee, Psy.D.
Licensed Psychologist
313 W. Liberty Street, Suite 226, Lancaster, Pennsylvania 17603
Children act out on how they feel; if they are having behavioral issues, it is usually because there is something off-kilter with them, or with their situation. If you are able to identify the cause, many times the behavior will significantly subside. Thus, it pays to explore, with the child, what they are experiencing and what might be causing them to feel stressed.
Retreat at Palm Beach
Outpatient Substance Abuse & Co-Occurring Counseling
1170 South State Street, Ephrata, Pennsylvania 17522
Youth Connection is an intensive program for those individuals who suffer from addiction, but are also faced with the challenges of young adulthood. Teenagers and young adults, 18 – 25 years of age, who suffer from drug or alcohol addiction often find themselves dealing with additional pressures. They may have trouble with their workload at school, associate with delinquent peers, suffer from a lack parental supervision, or just generally exhibit feelings of inadequacy, poor self-image, or even depression. They have not learned the necessary skills that would otherwise enable them to cope with everyday life situations.


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I'm experiencing frequent urination, so I want to know when will this frequent urination stop? And is it normal to all pregnant?
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I'm experiencing frequent urination, so I want to know when will this frequent urination stop? And is it normal to all pregnant?
Frequent urination happens because of hormonal changes in the body. It is very normal during pregnancy. You may experience it throughout your entire pregnancy, when hormone levels change after birth and come back into normal ranges.
If you don't want to have to get up in the middle of the night to urinate, then just stop drinking at least 2-4 hours before you go to bed. However it's super important that you drink plenty of water during your pregnancy because you're going to be producing more blood for you and baby, so don't back-off during the day. Water is your friend :)
Warm Regards,
Frequent urination is indeed very common during pregnancy. During the early months, it is related to hormonal changes. In the latter part of pregnancy, it is not only related to changing hormones, but also a physical response to the growing baby's pressure on the bladder.
I have to second Kate's suggestion. Cutting back on water before going to bed can help, but you still need to stay well hydrated during pregnancy. Personally, I was thirsty when I was pregnant, almost all the time. SO the skipping liquids before bed never worked for me. However, those middle of the night pee sessions do serve one purpose, they help you to adjust to the years of broken, erratic asleep ahead ;).
I'm experiencing frequent urination at night. I do not drink liquids before bed but it doesn't help. Hope I'll adjust to it :)
Hi Amelia,
Try to stop drinking by 6PM, empty your bladder right before bed, and see if that helps you. On the other hand, frequent urination during pregnancy just helps you prepare for those nights when you'll be waking up every 2 hours to feed your baby :)
Just also be sure to mention this to your midwife who will want to check for sugar levels in your urine and for any bugs. Otherwise its all very normal as you have someone on the inside taking great delight in thumping your baldder and putting extra presure on it!


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Your article "Elements of Style" in the August 2004 issue had some good information on clothing styles. Dover Publications (31 E. Second St., Mineola, NY 11501, <store.doverpublications.com>) has three other books of possible use for 20th-century photos: Everyday Fashions of the Forties as Pictured in Sears Catalogs by JoAnne Olian, Everyday Fashions of the Thirties as Pictured in Sears Catalogs by Stella Blum and Everyday Fashions of the Twenties as Pictured in Sears and Other Catalogs edited by Stella Blum. At times, the publisher has reprints of old Sears, Montgomery Ward and other store catalogs that might be of use. Hope this helps. I enjoy your magazine.
This is an addition to an article that appeared in the August 2004 Family Tree Magazine about the Arizona birth and death records Web site <genealogy.az.gov>. As absolutely wonderful as this site is, for some reason 10 to 15 percent of the birth and death records don't show up in the online index, and therefore aren't accessible online. Any researchers who don't find their relatives there can e-mail the Arizona State Archives at firstname.lastname@example.com, and we will search our microfilmed birth and death records for them. We do not charge for the first two requests per four-month period (two names per request).


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So all my site urls have this hash identifier at the end of them AKA mysite.com#.Tozlxid5. It's not always there. I don't know what it is? Is it a hacker? A third party script? Anybody seen this? Here is my site http://tinyurl.com/6gnvjq3 I guess I'll ask my host too.
In Safari, at least, there's a button to bring up the Ghostery report for the page in an overlay. Clicking "Edit Blocking Options" lists the blocked items, each having a checkbox to choose whether to block it.
O dear, doesn't look good. I get different extensions. E.g.
Looks very dodgy. Good luck!
I couldn't see it but perhaps that is because I don't have scripting enabled?
Not showing here either (IE8). Are they there in the source code, or just when you're viewing the page?
If I click on any of the links down the left, there is a bunch of weird code appended to the end of the URL in the address bar of the landing page.
A quick toggling session with Ghostery suggests that it's caused by your AddThis bookmarking.
That's interesting! (What's a toggling session?)
I'd agree with that. I can only produce the odd URLs by allowing AddThis both in Ghostery and NoScript.
Ghostery allows selective blocking of the various services tied into the site that may be tracking your activity e.g. Google Analytics, Facebook, Quantcast etc. I toggled the services on and off until the offending hash appeared.
I'll have to check out Ghostery. Thanks guys! Fiddling with it this morning I came to the same conclusion. Should've checked here first. It was the "address bar track back feature" that addthis just rolled out. In my settings/code I can add or remove that feature. I removed it and now the ugly hash stuff is gone. Thanks for helping to light my way
No its just needs flash. There is no accompanying js with it. Its got html backup too.
OK, thanks. I just can't work out how to do that toggling (after installing it in Chrome).
Quite some years ago I decided AddThis should be called RemoveThis ... which is what I did.
I usually use it on FF, but I've just tried it on Chromium and it works as Victorinox describes. The button is a wee blue ghost on the right-hand side of the tool bar.
Ah, OK, thanks. It seems to be different in Chrome. Can't find that toggling option.
Yep, I see that, but is doesn't seem to have on/off options.
On my home page, I just get "not scanned", but visit another page (eg this one) and you should see a wee number next to the ghost, indicating the number of trackers. Click that button and you get the dialogue.
Yep, but when I do that, it's just a list of title and links to websites. No toggle options.
OK. Below that list, there should be a line saying "edit blocking options". If you click there, the list changes to give you check boxes next to each of the items, so you can toggle them. (I have to say, this seems to be easier to use than the FF version, but FF lets you block cookies too.)
Hm, I don't get that on the Mac. The closest thing is an Options tab, which leads to an online page that has a lot of options. One of those is Enable bug blocking, which might do the trick, I guess, but it's not very clear or intuitive. O well, this is not really the topic of the thread!
That sounds more like the FF version of ghostery. You can set the options to block all trackers, and then you need to scroll through the entire list to toggle an individual one. (No big deal for me, because I very seldom want to.) I can't find any way to take screen-shots with the dropdown menus in place to show the differences in the two versions, which are quite dissimilar. Odd that Chrome and Chromium don't behave the same way.


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The BMW 5-Series (E39 chassis) was introduced in the United States as a 1997 model year car and lasted until the 2004 when the E60 chassis was released. The United States saw several variations including the 525i, 528i, 530i and 540i. -- View the E39 Wiki
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Rear Suspension/Wheel Bearing Install...
Well, after doing a complete front suspension install I decided to go ahead and do the rear as well. I figured this would be a good idea since I will be upgrading to 18" wheels in the next couple of weeks and would like to have the suspension as tight as possible before the extra meat goes on. With everything being tight up front, I could actually feel the rear shifting while partaking in some spirited driving.
Pictures: Rear Suspension Install Pictures
My car has close to 85K on the clock and figured since I am keeping it, the suspension should be totally redone front and rear. I replaced the shocks about a year and a half ago and have been running Koni Sports and OEM sport springs for a majority of the time. I recently upgraded the springs with H&R's which was a wise move as far as the handling and comfort department are concerned. Also, I am running Eibach sway bars front and rear which makes the car flat as hell in the turns. So, it was time to go ahead and upgrade the control arms, integral link, ball joints, and wheel bearings. I already replaced the ball joints about 8 months ago (can't remember exactly) and they were in good condition when removed. I replaced them anyway since I am more of a preventative maint. freak when it comes to suspensions.
In order to do this job the right way, you will be spending close to $1,000 for all the correct parts and those would be Lemfoerder and F.A.G. (Wheel Bearings). Here is the parts list:
LEMFOERDER Integral Link Rear Suspension (Trailing Arm Support) Left/Right (2 Needed Per Car) $42.69
LEMFOERDER Control Arm Left Rear Upper Subframe to Wheel Carrier $106.78
LEMFOERDER Control Arm Right Rear Upper Subframe to Wheel Carrier $107.48
LEMFOERDER Guide Link for Rear Wheel Carrier Left or Right $161.54
F.A.G. Wheel Bearing Rear (45X80X37) (2 Needed Per Car) $69.54
2 LEMFOERDER Ball Joint
LEMFOERDER Ball Joint (2 Needed Per Car) $48.13
I replaced the hardware associated with all of the parts and were bought from the dealer. This job can easily be done with some hand tools and a couple of specialized tools to make the job much easier. So, for those of you who think you need an air compressor and fancy stuff, need not worry. You will need a torque wrench that can torque up to 221 pounds, a three jaw puller (I used a hydraulic 3 jaw puller), and a bearing puller. All of these tools can be purchased from Harbor Freight if you do not already have them. Trust me, this is all you will need other the regular sockets, drivers, extensions, 3lb. hammer, etc. you may already have.
I am not going to write a step-by-step of what I did since I just don't have time, but I did take many pictures during the procedure. The pics (Rear Suspension Install Pics) should give you a good idea of what is involved with this process outside of all of the French words used to get the driver's side wheel bearing off.
Remove Roundel caps from both rear wheels using a flat micro screwdriver without marring up your wheels. You should now see the axle nut on the axle shaft staked down. You need to use the same micro screwdriver and slowly tap it in the staked portion. This will work a little more room in there so you can insert a larger flat blade screwdriver later in the process. Once you have tapped enough room to fit a decent sized flat blade, you can start pounding away with your 3 lb. hammer in a controlled manner. Once you have enough clearance to turn the axle nut, grab a breaker bar and 36mm socket and loosen the nut to wear it just breaks free. Then, leave it alone. Do this for both sides and then loosen the lug bolts for both wheels. You are now ready to jack up the rear of the car from the differential. Once you have it high enough, put the car firmly on jack stands using the jack pads. Double-check and make sure the car is firmly planted before you go any further.
Now you can remove the passenger side wheel and set it off to the side. Remove the headlight leveling sensor using a 10mm and 7mm wrench and move it upwards out of the way. Disconnect the sway bar link form the carrier using two 16mm wrenches and lay it down and out of the way. Remove AABS pulse sensor using a 5mm hex bit and move it out of the after unclipping it from the plastic piece attached to the wishbone. You can then unclip the two latches that secure the plastic piece on the wishbone and move it out of the way. Now you may remove the brake caliper using a 7mm hex socket/wrench and hang it off of the sway bar using a bungie cord or wire (pop off retaining clip on front). Remove the caliper carrier from the hub carrier using a 16mm socket/wrench and set all of these parts off to the side. Use a 5mm hex socket/wrench and remove the brake rotor retaining screw and brake rotor, setting those off to the side as well. If the rotor is hard to get off, then you might want to make sure your E-brake is not engaged. Grab your 36mm socket and proceed to remove the axle nut from the hub.
The passenger side bearing/hub assembly was taken off using a 3-jaw puller and did not come off separately from the bearing as some of the write-ups I have read. While using the puller, the half shaft was actually moving inwards instead of the hub sliding off of the half shaft. Once the half shaft would not go in any further, it gave me enough room to fit the head of my E14 internal star socket to remove the 4 bolts that hold the wheel bearing on the knuckle. Otherwise there is not enough clearance to get a good grasp on the bolt without fear of stripping it on the hub carrier. Once the wheel bearing was disconnected from the knuckle, it came off with the hub as an assembly. Then, the hub was pulled off of the bearing using a 2-jaw puller. I had to use a socket (1-1/4" ½") which was about the same size as the diameter of the splined hub shaft in order to press it off of the bearing. As you can see in the pics, I attached the hub/bearing assembly in a spare rear brake rotor and then on the wheel to keep everything stable for removal. The passenger side was pretty easy to separate and once this is done, the inner race of the wheel bearing will remain on the hub in almost every case. So, this is when the bearing removal tool ($40) from Harbor Freight (picture of red case) comes in if you want to do it in an effortless, civil manner. The alternative is to beat it off, heat it up, use a punch, etc. if you want to do it the barbaric way and risk damaging the hub in the process. The bearing puller tool will remove it easily and within a few minutes after it is setup. I highly recommend this method and is worth the cost of the tool. After the inner race is removed from the hub, you are ready to install the new bearing on the knuckle. You will need to use four new E14 star bolts for new installation and the old ones are not to be reused again, do not re-use them. Once the passenger side bearing was removed, I could rock the bearing back and forth 1-2mm. Bottom line ....it was shot to hell and back.
Make sure you clean the mating surface between the knuckle and the new bearing before you install it with the four new star bolts (PB Blaster let all parts soak and clean, scrub with toothbrush, wipe clean, and then lubricate). The half shaft is able to move around freely within the knuckle allowing you to easily fit the E14 Internal Star Socket from behind with ample clearance and install the new wheel bearing. Once the wheel bearing bolts are torqued down (22 ft lb), you are now ready to install the splined hub onto the splined half shaft dangling inside of the newly installed wheel bearing. Put grease on the outside and inside of the hub in order to make installation much easier (I used Valvoline Synpower Synthetic lubricant). You must slowly line the hub with the half shaft in order to mate the splines correctly and do it tight enough to where it will hang on by itself. This will insure that it is lined up and ready to be installed all the way. At this point I used a 4x4 piece of wood about a foot in length and placed it against the outside face of the hub. Grab the 3lb. hammer and proceed to smack the 4x4 while it is firmly butted up against the hub in order to eliminate any damage to the hub. Slowly, but surely, the hub will start moving inside of the wheel bearing. It won't hurt to put a little grease/lubricant on the exposed part of the hub every few hits to insure there is plenty of lubrication to help the process. Once you see enough threads on the spindle, you are now ready to spin on the new axle nut you purchased and push the hub on the remainder of the way. Use a 36mm socket to tighten the nut as much as you can by hand/ratchet and leave it alone.
The Upper Rear Control Arm (Wishbone) is easily replaced using two 18mm wrenches for the end connected to the carrier. The ball joint end connected to the knuckle requires the use of a 21mm socket/wrench and 10mm wrench to hold the ball joint in place while turning. Installation is the reverse of removal.
The upper front control arm (traction strut) actually controls the "toe" adjustment for the rear wheels and uses an eccentric bolt connected to the carrier. For this procedure it really helps to remove the plastic piece (COVER F RIGHT REAR AXLE CARRIER 33321092482 #12 in diagram) underneath the car attached to the sub-frame bushing closest to the rear wheel you are working on. Also remove the 10mm nut holding the wheel well liner as well as the three 8mm nuts holding the panel toward the rear of the liner (two of them actually hold the mud flap looking panel next to the jack pad and the other is screwed into the plastic piece removed from the bottom of the sub-frame mount). All of this helps you gain access to the eccentric washer and nut that holds it in. Now you are ready to make a mark on the head of the eccentric bolt and on the carrier itself in order to get the bolt close enough when the new arm is installed (Again, you should be using new hardware on everything). Once you have made the mark, you can proceed to remove the carrier end of the control arm using two 16mm wrenches. The ball joint side of the guide link can be removed using a 16mm wrench and a 7mm wrench to hold the ball joint in place while turning the nut. Once you have the old eccentric bolt out of the carrier side of the arm, make a mark on the new eccentric bolt in the same location and begin re-installation. Installation is the reverse of removal.
The Integral Link only requires the use of a 24mm socket/wrench and 18mm wrench and will come out pretty easy. You should remove the bolt holding in the shock in order to relieve tension before this process is done. To be on the safe side, I always place a jack underneath the assembly to avoid any surprises. After I pop the shock out, I then lower it and adjust accordingly. Once the integral link has been removed you can now replace the ball joint. I do not have pictures of the ball joint removal/installation in this set of pics since I did this procedure a few months ago. However, I do have a link to more pics that shows what to do (Click here for pictures for Rear Ball Joint Install). Also, there are quite a few write-ups done for this procedure on the forum.
Now you are ready to torque all of the nuts and bolts:
Torque Specs:
Component Ft.-Lbs. Nm
Integral Link to wheel bearing carrier (18mm) 77 104
Swing Arm to Wheel Bearing Carrier (24mm) 189 256
ABS Pulse Sensor (5mm) 6 8
Shock Absorber to Lower control arm (21mm) 94 127
Stabilizer Link to Swing Arm (16mm) 48 65
Stabilizer Link to Sway Bar (16mm) 32 42
Traction Strut (Upper Front Control Arm) to sub-frame (16mm) 44 60
Traction Strut (Upper Control Arm) to wheel carrier (16mm) 48 65
Wishbone (Upper Rear Control Arm) to wheel carrier (21mm) 105 142
Wishbone (Upper Rear Control Arm) to sub-frame (18mm) 81 110
Brake Rotor to Hub (5mm) 12 16
Rear Brake Pad Carrier to Wheel bearing Carrier (16mm) 48 65
Brake Caliper to Brake Pad Carrier (7mm Hex) 26 35
Rear axle shaft nut to hub (36mm) 221 300
Wheel Bearing to Wheel Carrier (E14 Internal Star Socket 22 30
Wheel to Hub 90 120
Once you have replaced all of the parts for the suspension, go ahead and put all of the panels, brakes, sensors, etc. back together. I ended up jacking up the rear carrier up to the point where the car started lifting to mimic the preloaded weight. I then torqued everything except the axle nut in this position you can loosen everything later and then re-torque when the car is in the normal preloaded position. If you have access to a lift, then this process can be done with the car in the normal/preloaded driving position (recommended). You can torque the lug bolts back to 90ft. lbs. and then lower the car. Now you will need to get your 36mm socket out again and set your torque wrench to 221 ft. lbs. and torque the axle nut down. Once you have done this on both sides, you can then raise one side of the rear and remove the wheel. Now you are ready to stake the axle nuts in order to lock them into place. You can just use a punch/dull flathead screwdriver and a 3lb. hammer to accomplish this. Lower the car and repeat this process on the other side.
The passenger side wheel bearing removal was about what I expected it to be. However, this was not the case for the Driver's side. I bent my forged Craftsman 2 jaw puller trying to get the hub off. Then I bought a three jaw puller and one of the braces broke off of that tool. By this time I was getting pissed . So, I get a ride to the local AutoZone and rented one of their slide hammers as this seems to be the method some have had success in removing the hub from the assembly. Well, after about 60-80 slides with all of my force, the damn hub did not even budge one bit. Back to harbor Freight I went. This time I saw a sweet 5 ton hydraulic 3 jaw puller for $60 and thought this would do the trick. Sitting next to it was a 12 ton 3 jaw hydraulic puller on clearance for $80 that looked more enticing and might come in handy for other jobs down the road. So, I bought the 12 ton unit and got back to the scene of the crime. I have to say that the 12 ton unit is one nice piece of machinery and would highly recommend it if you have the cash. The nice thing about it is that the you do not have to torque the puller while it is attached to the assembly the hydraulics do the work for you allowing everything to remain stationary. After I got the 12 ton 3 jaw hydraulic puller on the hub and started to turn the shaft it sounded like a sonic boom and scared the ever living $hit out of me. Believe me, there is no way any of my other tools would have gotten that thing off. Once the assembly was off and went through the same process as above, the driver's side bearing was in much better shape than the passenger's side.
After upgrading my front and rear sway bars with Eibachs, the rear brackets have deformed to the point where the bar makes them clank under stress. They were deformed to the point where the bars probably were not doing half of their job. So, I ordered some TC Design brackets (red) to take care of this problem. They are a very tight fit and are very well made they better be for $127 shipped! I will also replace the fronts with a set of OEM I picked up from the dealer because I know they have taken a beating.
My thoughts ....
The second I pulled out of my driveway I could tell the difference in the rear end. It was smooth and very controlled. As I got on the interstate it was more evident how tight the rear was as I picked up speed. There was no shifting in the rear in lane change maneuvers and was razor sharp. I was real giddy as a result. I cannot really describe the feeling in words, but this is something that should be done on every E39 with over 60K miles, and maybe less in some cases. My expectations were far exceeded after the install and the very reason I ended up writing this install. It is not hard if you have the right tools and is a crime if you pay someone to do it due to the high labor costs involved. Similar to the vanos repair, I think many people are intimidated by the rear wheel bearings and suspension and often neglect it in that it is not as important as the front. Well, the E39 I6 has a 50-50 balance and it will only achieve this good balance if the rear half of the suspension is up to speed.
I also believe the rear suspension is neglected as a result of our sensory perception. We concentrate on the front because our senses from the hands on the steering wheel override any sensory data we may receive from our but in the seat. My front end is so tight that I could feel the rear end sway when driving under certain conditions. This is what prompted me to go ahead and tackle the rear, as well as an upgrade to 18's in the next couple of weeks. It is literally like driving a new E39 again and yes, I have driven a brand new E39 I6 & V8. This procedure should be on everyone's to-do list if not done already.
I bought all of my parts from AboveallMotorwerks as they have excellent service and the lowest prices I have found (excluding hardware from the dealer). Many of you have your select vendors you like to order from - just make sure to get Lemfoerder and F.A.G. for all of your parts regardless of where you purchase them.
Next up ....subframe bushings!
Last edited by mmm635; 05-04-2009 at 06:53 AM.
Nice write up. Something I would like to do with my Touring.
1999 528it Sport 5Sp
Awesome stuff! I look forward to doing my rear suspension at 100K miles, wish I could've done it sooner.
Seized as in the metals literally welded together from high friction and force?
Or seized as in rusted together?
540, Dirrezas (4) @ 275/35-18 ea, Eibach springs & bars, Bilstein Sports, Dinan Stage 2, slotted ATEs, Hi-Temp HTP pads, SS Lines, UUC-SS, White/Tan, Bling-free & Stealthy
You can really see it if you zoom in on the pics I have of the half shaft dangling inside the carrier with the wheel bearing removed. All three surfaces were lubricated well before re-installation: Inside of splined hub, half shaft splines, and outside of hub (smooth).
The inner race more so from the high friction and force.
Thanks for posting this DIY, it's going in to my bookmarks for future reference.
As for the rear ball joint tool in your other set of pics, where did you get that ball joint tool in the red box, and approximate cost?
It's not from Harbor Freight is it?
Post-bearing issues
Great thread! You definitely did your homework. Maybe when I have some more $$ I'll work on the suspension.
I recently did a rear-bearing overhaul on my 01 525i, manual trans. Actually, after a 12 hour day of hammering and cussing, I only got to one on the driver's side. It was definitely shot, lots of pitting on the inner and outer braces, bearings where falling out and broken.
Now, my car tends to 'bounce/lunge' in 1st and 2nd gear when decelerating (no braking) like there's a rubber band tied to the rear of the car. The car used to do this just a little bit but only when I was careless with the clutch. It's a similar feeling. Have you experienced anything like this? Maybe it's a spline alignment issue? I can't see why the spline alignment with the bearing would make a difference since the wheel is free to spin. Bad u-joint maybe?
I also get an ABS pulse in the brakes when slowing down after about 25 mph, but it's not constant. About 2 or 3 per second. I cleaned the pulse sensor and the hole it goes in and there's no visible damage. I'll check the resistance to the sensor today, but I'm betting my symptoms are related. It could have been the 20 mins with a slide hammer on the hub that did it in... should have unhooked it (it's all in the details).
Just wondering if you have any thoughts on my problems or experienced them yourself...
I have 102K on my 1998 528i 5sp, not a single noise from the rear. From speaking with bmw mechanics and volvo rwd (they don't make rwd any more), the REAR wheel bearing, if driven conservatively (no huge potholes etc.) last about 200K or more.
Personally I think 60K is way premature to replace the Rear bearing.
Of course, if one is itchy with his hands, then replace the REAR bearings.
Lesson learned: If you do this job, invest in some good carb cleaner and treat that sensor and CV shaft rim like a fine lady; don't be too rough with her. It could cost you some $$ and a$$ pain to redo these suckers. Definitely clean the shaft up thoroughly and rub some fine sandpaper around the rim to knock down any nicks/scratches. It'll save you some do-over time in the long run.
Next up, the passenger side bearing! I'll get off your post now...
I find it hard to believe that you find it premature without even seeing my car in person. You are basing your opinion on a mechanics's theory, whereas I am speaking from present reality and experience over the years with a number of BMW's. You would definitely change your mind if you had my rear wheel bearings in your hands, experiencing the play for yourself. Many BMW mechanics will tell you the same thing about the Vanos, auto trannys, etc. There are many BMW mechanics I would never allow to touch my car.
The non-disputing fact that that mmm635's bearings were bad in his hand should be enough IMO.
Just because a mechanic says something, doesn't mean it is law IMO.
It is better to find out, and fix the thing before it gets crazy bad.
IMO, I am betting that the majority of the wheel bearings on E39's are toast around 60-75k miles, but it is too hard to tell if they are bad until you remove the bearings and inspect them.
Last edited by Jason5driver; 05-04-2009 at 10:59 AM.
cool info.... thanks...
Great write up and timely for me as I just noticed the grinding noise in the left rear today.
125,000 Miles
However, I found another thread that made me question if the issue could be the swing arm ball joints. (see this thread http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...=wheel+bearing ). While this thread makes me second guess wheel bearing because the symptoms sound the same, I still tend to believe wheel bearing is my issue.
Does this sound like wheel bearing to you:
metal grinding noise (left rear corner) only when moving
Sound is steady when moving strait, stronger with left turns and non-existant with right turns
I jacked up the lft rear corner and spin the wheel by hand and can clearly hear the grinding and wheel turns with some difficulty.
no squeek/sound when getting in and out.
Agree that this is wheel bearing? I just want to make sure before I throw parts at it.
Last edited by SoonerE39; 05-03-2009 at 03:01 PM.
I'm over 221K miles on my 540/6 and have no wheel bearing problems. At least that I know of. I understand bearings so I would be surprised if I had a bad one.
540, Dirrezas (4) @ 275/35-18 ea, Eibach springs & bars, Bilstein Sports, Dinan Stage 2, slotted ATEs, Hi-Temp HTP pads, SS Lines, UUC-SS, White/Tan, Bling-free & Stealthy
[QUOTE=SoonerE39;4147927]While this thread makes me second guess wheel bearing because the symptoms sound the same, I still tend to believe wheel bearing is my issue.
Does this sound like wheel bearing to you:QUOTE]
Yes it sounds like a bearing but it could be just the bolts holding the wheel to the hub are loose.
540, Dirrezas (4) @ 275/35-18 ea, Eibach springs & bars, Bilstein Sports, Dinan Stage 2, slotted ATEs, Hi-Temp HTP pads, SS Lines, UUC-SS, White/Tan, Bling-free & Stealthy
FAQ worthy material here...
It takes a lot of work to be lazy.
Great write up Thanks
How did you gain access to the 4 bolts that hold the wheel bearing on the knuckle? Did you take off bearing/hub assembly first or just pull off half way, then you unscrew the 4 bolts?
There is no way for me get access to the 4 bolds before I am trying to pull off the bearing/hub.
Thanks for the brilliant DIY.
I just want to ask you if the following Tool from Harbor Freight is good enough for the REAR Wheel Bearing Job:
BTW, the 12 ton hydraulic puller I purchased for $85 (on sale at the time) is only around $60 at HB.
Thanks Michel,
So this tool set you mentioned 14-Piece Gear Puller Set is the only tool set we need?
Can you use this tool set to pull the hub-bearing assembly out, then using the same set to remove the INNER race from the Hub?
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Hello, first off I'd just like to say I'm glad to have joined the forums, I've been reading for a couple years now but never bothered to actually join until now...
Anyways, running BT3 off of an SD card on an Asus EEE 900HA, I am unable to connect to any AP after spoofing my MAC address, whether I am connecting from Konsole or the Wireless Assistant. I have tried several different variations of doing it, such as
I have also triedCode:wlanconfig ath0 destroy ifconfig wifi0 down macchanger --mac 00:11:22:33:44:55 wifi0 (i have tried ath0 as well) wlanconfig ath0 create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode managed ifconfig ath0 up ifconfig wifi0 up
and a few other variations, all to no avail. Some attempts even leave me with a "connection failed" message from the Wireless Assistant immediately after trying to connect. However, I did notice that as soon as I have logged in to BT3, I am already connected to my neighbor's open AP. Could this be somehow contributing to my problem?Code:ifconfig ath0 down hw ether 00:11:22:33:44:55 ifconfig ath0 up
Any help is greatly appreciated. I'm no stranger to linux, but MAC spoofing is completely new to me.
Thanks in advance!


text:
The Saguaros didn't qualify for this year's Arizona Fall League Championship Game after finishing second place in the AFL's West Valley Division.
The following Rangers prospects saw action for Surprise this fall––RHP Ben Henry, LHP Jimmy Reyes, RHP Ryan Rodebaugh, RHP Ben Rowen, RHP Joe Van Meter, C Kellin Deglan, C/1B Brett Nicholas, INF Hanser Alberto, 1B Chris McGuiness, and INF Luis Sardinas.
Luis Martinez's Colombia team was knocked out of qualification for the 2013 World Baseball Classic after going 1-2 over the weekend. Martinez appeared in two of the three games and went 1-for-6 with three walks and three strikeouts.
Although Licey entered the bottom of the ninth inning with a 5-1 lead, the Toros scored five runs in the frame to claim the walkoff victory.
In the losing effort, Tigres right fielder Mike Olt went 1-for-3 with a solo home run, his second of the Dominican Winter League campaign. He also struck out twice.
Jurickson Profar and Engel Beltre both appeared as late-inning substitutions. Profar came on as a pinch runner and scored a run while Beltre replaced Pablo Ozuna in left field. Beltre struck out and walked in his two trips.
No Rangers appeared in LVBP on Monday.
Although a full schedule of Liga Paralela games were scheduled for Monday, the box scores have not been posted on the circuit's website.
There were no games in Mexico on Monday.
The Liga de Beisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente was off on Monday.
As usual, the Australian Baseball League is quiet during the midweek before returning to action this weekend.
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AUDIO: Terry Francona thinks Giambi is team MVP
(Cleveland)- Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona met the media Monday afternoon.
Francona expects Progressive Field to be 'electric' Wednesday night when the Indians host the Rays or Rangers.
Rookie Danny Salazar will get the ball Wednesday and Francona says they would not start the 23-year old flame-thrower if they didn't believe he could win.
Francona also addressed the importance of 42-year old Jason Giambi. He says Giambi is the MVP of this team. Francona says, "It is safe to say, if we would not have signed Giambi, we would not be here today. I believe that."
As far as the team goes, Francona says they are a special group. He says this team grew on him very quickly and he's very fond of them all.
Get breaking news sent to your mobile phone. Text "news" to 21095.
(Copyright © 2013 by Clear Channel, all rights reserved. Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images Sports.)


text:
Docket Management
Docket: 02N-0273 - Substances Prohibited From Use in Animal Food or Feed; Animal Proteins Prohibited in Ruminant Feed
Comment Number: EC -5
Accepted - Volume 1
Comment Record
Mr. Herbert Schick
2002-11-26 19:18:30
Pennsylvania Pork Producers Council
Comments for FDA General
1. General Comments
PA PORK PRODUCERS COUNCIL 1631 Grim Rd Kutztown PA 19530 610-285-6519 Fax: 610-285-4074 November 25, 2002 Dockets Management Branch (HFA-305) Food and Drug Administration 5630 Fishers Lane, Room 1061 Rockville, MD 20852 Re: Docket No. 98D-1146 Draft Guidance for Industry: Evaluating the Safety of Antimicrobial New Animal Drugs with Regard to Their Microbiological Effects on Bacteria of Human Health Concern (Guidance #152). Dear Sir or Madam: The Pa Pork Producers Council (PPPC) appreciates the opportunity to provide the following comments on Guidance #152. PPPC is a membership organization of individuals and companies that produce swine within the state of Pennsylvania. Food safety and animal health are priorities of the state's pork producers and shares the concern for the impacts that antimicrobial use on the farm has on these issues. The National Pork Board has adopted and the PPPC supports the following position statement on the use of antimicrobials in pork production: "It is essential to public health and food safety, animal health and well-being, and the environment to maintain the effectiveness and availability of antimicrobials. All decisions affecting the availability of antimicrobials for animal use need to be transparent and based on sound science. The National Pork Board supports the use of antimicrobials only when they provide demonstrable benefits and urges producers to: • take appropriate steps to decrease the need for their application; • adhere to judicious use guidelines; • assess the benefits and costs of all uses of antimicrobials; and • complete the Pork Quality Assurance Program and fully implement into their daily operations the management practices described for responsible use of animal health products." In 1998, in their "American Veterinary Medical Association Judicious Use of Therapeutic Antimicrobials" document, the AVMA adopted the definition of therapeutic uses of antimicrobials as including the "treatment, control, and prevention of bacterial disease." Subsequently the American Association of Swine Veterinarians provided its members clarification of the AVMA Judicious Use Principles in its "American Association of Swine Veterinarians Basic Guidelines of Judicious Therapeutic Use of Antimicrobials In Pork Production." These guidelines include consideration of the herd health history for the therapeutic use of antimicrobials in the control and prevention of disease and the AASV instructs its members that when these factors are appropriately considered, preventative therapy is a judicious use of antimicrobials. Then, FDA-CVM published in August of 2001the booklet, "Judicious Use of Antimicrobials for Pork Producers." In it FDA-CVM defines therapeutic use as "treatment, control and prevention of bacterial disease" and instructs pork producers that judicious use includes to "limit therapeutic antimicrobial treatment to ill or at-risk animals, treating the fewest animals indicated." As explanation, FDA-CVM continues, "Decisions to administer individual or herd therapy should be based on experience, farm history and the prevalence or risk of disease in the group. Judicious use of therapeutic antimicrobials includes using these drugs only when necessary to treat, prevent or control disease. There may be times when using antimicrobials to prevent disease will mean ultimately less antimicrobials will need to be used." (underlining added for emphasis) Our state's pork producers agree with our veterinarians and the Agency and as the National Pork Board position statement reads, they strive to adhere to judicious use guidelines on their farms. It is essential that we have a variety of cost-effective antimicrobials available in a timely manner for these therapeutic purposes. Pa Pork Producers Council would like to thank the Agency for its work in trying to provide an orderly way to evaluate public health risk from agricultural uses of antimicrobials. However, we have serious concerns about the implementation of Guidance #152. The bar of acceptance for an antimicrobial to be used in herds of food producing animals is being set so high that it will be unattainable and we will no longer have timely, cost-effective availability of antimicrobials for animals. This is important to us because it could cause unintended consequences that compromise the health and welfare of our animals, the safety of our food supply, and the quality of our environment. Following are comments organized according to the applicable section of the Guidance document: III. Risk Analysis Methodology; C. Data sources/data quality: There is a lack of a decision-making process that is based on a peer-reviewed body of scientific evidence and transparency. The Guidance asks for sponsoring companies to use either published literature or prospective studies to supply data supporting their submitted risk analysis of their product. However, 33% of the Guidance relies on the ranking of antimicrobials according to their importance in human medicine, which does not include any data to support the ranking. In the first instance, CVM is saying that a risk analysis should be based on data and in the second instance it does not provide the data that it, itself, has used to set the importance of the individual antimicrobials to human health. Is this data available for review? V. Qualitative Antimicrobial Resistance Risk Assessment; A. Release Assessment: In pork production, it is unrealistic to expect that therapy for a disease – treatment, prevention or control – can always be accomplished by individual dosing. The Guidance penalizes an antimicrobial for use in a herd without giving specific information about an "acceptable" size of the population. Applying this criterion of the extent of use of the proposed product (individual vs. small groups vs. flocks/herds) necessitates defining each of these terms and then justifying how, based on scientific evidence, the size of the group is a determining factor in the emergence of antimicrobial resistance. How big is a small group? Over 5 animals? 10? 100? 1000? This criterion appears in both the Release Assessment and in the Risk Management Consideration, which gives it added weight in the decision-making process. Defining a herd or population of pigs is dependent on the type of operation. Although there is a very wide range of types of production and herd sizes, market pigs are typically housed in pens of 25 to 30 pigs in barns containing around 1,000 animals. The number of barns on a site is dependent on the production system. Four barns per site is not unusual. The number of barns or the number of animals in the barn may be smaller for producers with smaller herds. Therefore, one barn may represent up to 100% of the operation's pigs. Because pigs in a group typically have common age, immune status, housing environment, etc., when a disease is introduced into the population or is endemic all the animals are either affected or at risk from the disease. Responding to the disease with therapeutic medication for disease treatment, prevention, or control is usually necessary for the whole herd (where all the animals are in one group or barn) or a percentage of the herd (where the barn is one entity containing a defined number of the pigs on the site). In either case, it is possible to define the pigs in the barn as a discrete population of pigs to which the delivery of medication by the feed or by the water is possible and controllable. The needs of the animals would be met if the definition of the term "select groups" (Table 4) included discrete populations such as those housed in a barn. It is not always feasible to isolate and individually treat all ill pigs. They must be treated in the pen in which they reside because the cohorts in each pen have formed a social hierarchy. Removing a pig, even for a limited period of time, may upset that hierarchy sufficiently that reintroducing the pig could result in fighting and aggression, even to the point of the group killing the reintroduced pig. Depending on the disease and the conditions of the pigs, individual treatment in pens may be attempted. But, when the incidence of the disease in the barn exceeds usually around 10% of the animals, the water and/or feed is necessary to deliver the required medication. With large groups of animals, it is not realistic to inject all the animals on the multiple days that medication may need to be delivered. Multiple individual injections may compromise animal welfare, meat quality and human safety. It is more appropriate to use water or feed medication delivery methods in order to prevent further illness and animal suffering and to use antimicrobials efficiently and judiciously. This criterion attempts to set some limiting size parameters around the group of animals to be treated. In practice on the farm, the ability to rapidly provide medication to all the animals that are either ill or at risk is the primary consideration. The focus should be on the group of animals to which medication delivery can be controlled and not simply the number of animals in the group. In some operations, the appropriate group might be the pigs in a pen. In others, the pigs in the entire barn are the group that is appropriate to medicate and to which medication delivery is controllable. In some disease outbreak situations, it is necessary to deliver medication for a period of time longer than just that necessary to treat the initial outbreak. Disease treatment in populations may not eliminate the pathogenic agent. For example, in outbreaks of diseases like Swine Dysentery or enteric Salmonellosis, it may be necessary to continue medication delivery to the population at a defined dose for a prescribed period of time in order to continue to control the disease outbreak. Otherwise the disease will continue to reoccur, resulting ultimately in more medication being used, increased pain, suffering and mortality within the group, and possibly an increased risk of bacterial resistance through the periodic exposure to the antimicrobial. V. Qualitative Antimicrobial Resistance Risk Assessment; B. Exposure Assessment: The Guidance overestimates the risk to people from eating pork because it doesn't speciate zoonotic bacteria and thus doesn't account for commodity differences in the prevalence of species. It also uses out-of-date FSIS HACCP baseline data to estimate bacterial prevalence in food. Campylobacter jejuni causes over 90% of the human cases of campylobacteriosis, but C. jejuni is rarely found in pigs in the United States. Campylobacter coli is the predominant serotype found in pigs and yet is isolated in only 3-4% of human cases of campylobacteriosis. In recent CDC FoodNet case-control studies, consuming pork was not identified as a significant risk factor for infection. In addition, 50% of the C. coli isolated from studied human cases of diarrhea is resistant to fluoroquinolone, indicating that it was derived from a non-pork source. (Personal Communication, Dr. Fred Angulo, Centers for Disease Prevention and Control, Atlanta, GA, November 14, 2002) Assigning an exposure assessment based only on the prevalence of the Campylobacter genus unfairly penalizes the availability of antimicrobials to pork producers. The data collected in 1995 to 1996 that is used in the Guidance to estimate bacterial prevalence in food is out-of-date. The prevalence of Salmonella contamination on pork carcasses has decreased by approximately 50% since this baseline study and it is reasonable to assume that the same interventions that have caused the decline in Salmonella have also been effective in reducing Campylobacter contamination. Without current survey data, including speciation, it would seem inappropriate to consider pork as a high risk for human campylobacteriosis. The Guidance doesn't acknowledge that the majority of consumed pork is further processed in ways that can decrease the likelihood of bacterial contamination. An estimated 65% of consumed pork products are further processed from raw meat in ways that may decrease the prevalence or inhibit the growth of bacteria. The way the Guidance is now written, even irradiation to the level that the meat would be rendered sterile would not result in a low risk category for many antimicrobials. Setting the qualitative risk level as suggested biases the results to the highest levels of risk and would result in limitations on the availability of antimicrobials to pork producers. V. Qualitative Antimicrobial Resistance Risk Assessment; C. Consequence Assessment: Because the body of scientific evidence used to rank antimicrobials according to their importance in human medicine is not presented, that ranking can be viewed as arbitrary and subjective. Use of antimicrobials in food producing animals is being implicated in resistance of bacteria that cause tuberculosis, Legionnaires Disease, and venereal infections. There is no data provided to support the contention that foodborne bacteria can contribute to resistance in these diseases. Since 33% of the final categorization of risk is dependent on this ranking, essentially all antimicrobials important to swine medicine are a priori assigned to Category 1 or 2 and thus their availability is severely limited. Without supporting data, this section of the Guidance document is akin to the European Precautionary Principle and more emotional than scientific. There is no scientifically based quantification of the actual risk of the in vivo transfer of resistance determinants among commensals and zoonotic pathogenic bacteria. Although in vitro transfer of some of these elements has been demonstrated, specific laboratory conditions have been necessary. Describing resistance determinant transfer in the animal as a credible, quantifiable risk to public health requires many steps that must fall into a specific sequence and at a level sufficient to cause public health consequences. Applying to the regulation of animal health products the theory that all the factors can successfully come to pass in the animal is using the Precautionary Principle to prevent the availability of antimicrobials to agriculture. VI. Antimicrobial Resistance Risk Management Consideration: It is imperative to animal health, food safety, animal welfare and the environment that food animal producers maintain the cost-effective and timely availability of antimicrobials to respond to their animals' needs. Proposed risk management steps will severely limit this availability. The examples of risk management steps include prescription or Veterinary Feed Directive for Categories 1 and 2, categories in which the great majority of antimicrobials will fall. In some areas of the country, this will affect the timely availability of antimicrobials and the ability to quickly respond to animal disease because there aren't enough veterinarians with swine expertise to meet the needs of producers. In addition, this will put an extraordinary financial and record-keeping burden on producers without any evidence that there will be any effect on antimicrobial resistance or any benefit to public health. The Guidance also provides for FDA-CVM to prohibit the extra-label use of antimicrobials (use as directed by a veterinarian in a dosage, route of administration, indication, or species other than what is written on the label). While this could be an important tool to protect public health in specific instances, it is possible that the Guidance could be used for broad, sweeping extra-label use prohibitions. If that happens, it could have serious consequences on animal health, welfare and production. We do not now have an adequate arsenal of antimicrobials to address the health needs of our animals with labeled products. It is often through extra-label use directed by the veterinarian using his or her professional judgement and knowledge that we are able to maintain our animals' health and the safety of the food supply. To prohibit critically needed extra-label use without significant supportive scientific evidence would not seem appropriate. In conclusion, the state's pork producers would like to offer their assistance in providing technical advice about the realities of today's modern pork production practices as the Agency considers revisions to the Guidance document. Sincerely, PA PORK PRODUCERS COUNCIL Herbert Schick, Secretary Treasurer