text:
Today, I'm joining with Democracy for America, Health Care for America Now and Open Left in supporting the Stand With Dr. Dean Campaign. The idea is to put pressure on our members of Congress to find out where they stand on health care reform and whether or not they support Dr. Howard Dean's call for a reform that includes a public option. See Dean's statement here:
Chris Bowers has suggested that we use crowdsourcing techniques to find out where everyone in Congress stands, which also helps pressure them to take the right stand. So here's the plan:
1. Contact your member of Congress via e-mail and ask them the following questions:
1--Do you support a public healthcare option as part of healthcare reform?
2--If so, do you support a public healthcare option that is available on day one?
3--Do you support a public healthcare option that is national, available everywhere, and accountable to Congress?
4--Do you support a public healthcare option that can bargain for rates from providers and big drug companies?
Don't call, do this via e-mail because we want a written response. If they are vague in answering these questions, contact them again and ask for clarification. If they don't answer you, keep contacting them (and have your friends and family contact them) until they do give you the answers.
2. Forward the responses to me at firstname.lastname@example.com. We're going to publish an official response from as many of our members as possible so we know where everyone is. And we'll keep a track of who isn't responding so we know who to put pressure on. Similarly, once we find out who is on board and who isn't, we know who to put further pressure on down the road.
3. If you have your own blog, post the responses there, too. The more public pressure we can put on Congress, the easier we make it for them to do the right thing.
Here is the public contact info for each of our Florida members of Congress:
Rep Gus Bilirakis R FL-9 http://bilirakis.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=212&Itemid=44
Rep Allen Boyd D FL-2 http://www.house.gov/boyd/zip_authen.html
Rep Corrine Brown D FL-3 http://www.house.gov/corrinebrown/IMA/issue.shtml
Rep Virginia Brown-Waite R FL-5 https://forms.house.gov/brown-waite/IMA/issue_subscribe.htm
Rep Vern Buchanan R FL-13 http://buchanan.house.gov/contact.shtml
Rep Kathy Castor D FL-11 https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml
Rep Ander Crenshaw R FL-4 https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml
Rep Lincoln Diaz-Balart R FL-21 http://diaz-balart.house.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Offices.Contact
Rep Mario Diaz-Balart R FL-25 http://www.house.gov/formmariodiaz-balart/ic_zip_auth.htm
Rep Alan Grayson D FL-8 https://forms.house.gov/grayson/contact-form.shtml
Rep Alcee Hastings D FL-23 http://www.alceehastings.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=104&Itemid=
Rep Ron Klein D FL-22 firstname.lastname@example.com
Rep Suzanne Kosmas D FL-24 https://forms.house.gov/kosmas/contact-form.shtml
Rep Connie Mack R FL-14 http://mack.house.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactConnie.ContactForm
Sen Melquiades Martinez R FL http://martinez.senate.gov/public/?p=EmailSenatorMartinez
Rep Kendrick Meek D FL-17 http://kendrickmeek.house.gov/contact1.shtml
Rep John Mica R FL-7 http://www.house.gov/mica/messageform.shtml
Rep Jeff Miller R FL-1 http://jeffmiller.house.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Home
Sen Bill Nelson D FL http://billnelson.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm
Rep Bill Posey R FL-15 http://posey.house.gov/Contact/
Rep Adam Putnam R FL-12 http://adamputnam.house.gov/contact.shtml
Rep Tom Rooney R FL-16 https://forms.house.gov/rooney/contact-form.shtml
Rep Ileana Ros-Lehtinen R FL-18 http://www.house.gov/writerep
Rep Clifford Stearns R FL-6 http://www.house.gov/writerep
Rep Debbie Wasserman Schultz D FL-20 email@example.com
Rep Robert Wexler D FL-19 http://wexler.house.gov/email.shtml
Rep C. W. Bill Young R FL-10 firstname.lastname@example.com
We'll also post the results of these at the WatchBlogs dedicated to each Republican member and at the Florida Democratic News blog.
You can also sign the petition on health care here.
I'm Kenneth Quinnell and I approve this message.
Read more on Florida politics at the Florida Progressive Coalition blog (http://flaprogressives.org) and the Florida Progressive Coalition Wiki (http://quinnell.us/sspb/wiki/).

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Motornet System
Industrial PC
Digital Servodrives
Electric Motors
Digital I/O Modules
Analog I/O Modules
Temperature Measurement Modules
Functional Modules
Power Supply & Segmentation Modules
Couplers Modules
IP65 I/O Modules
Ethercap Side Plugged
Ethercap Custom
Helcon - Heating Lamp Controller
10/100BASE-T Ethernet rotary coupler for industrial applications, housed in an IP54 tiny aluminum case. Capacitive coupling technology allows high-speed contactless communications between revolving parts on machinery and robots. Tested on high-speed real-time SERCOSIII™ protocol, it is ideal for Ethernet-based fieldbuses
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text:
Among the Unbelievers
By DANIEL J. MAHONEY
It has long been assumed that Western society in the modern age—with the rise of science and the broad intellectual legacy of the Enlightenment—must become increasingly secular. What is modernity if not the movement from the authority of tradition to the authority of reason? In this view, made famous by the German sociologist Max Weber, the "disenchantment" of the world is the price one pays for leaving the charms and consolations of religion behind. The non-believing Weber was himself nostalgic for an age when faith imbued life with meaning and purpose. But he never ceased to identify secular thinking with a decisive advance in human self- understanding.
In "Holy Ignorance," the French social theorist Olivier Roy sets out to modify this secularization theory and to overturn its triumphalist message. He begins by noting that religion, though still obviously an important part of modern society, has been relegated to the private sphere, becoming mostly an "interior" search for spiritual well-being. In such a world, "faith communities" of every stripe increasingly withdraw from the broader culture, defending their doctrinal purity against the onslaught of coarse secular trends, what Mr. Roy calls "neo-paganism." This withdrawal, though understandable, is a danger in itself. "Faith without culture," Mr. Roy says, "is an expression of fanaticism."
By fanaticism, Mr. Roy does not mean merely extreme fundamentalist belief. He argues that all faith, in its isolated, separatist form, gives rise to a disdain for "profane culture"—everything that is not derived from religion—and to a preference for "pure religion," a form of religious belief that is unmediated, unstructured and unconnected to the larger society. Pure religion, in Mr. Roy's view, not only tends to fanaticism but lacks any grounding in a common world. Such religion loses touch, he says, with "religious knowledge itself." It fails to acknowledge its dependence on a dynamic cultural tradition. He sees the spread of Pentecostalism, the world's fastest growing religion, as evidence of the rise of "holy ignorance." Its adherents "speak in tongues," in a language that is understood only by those who have been touched by the Holy Spirit.
Holy Ignorance
By Olivier Roy
(Columbia, 259 pages, $27.50)
Mr. Roy's category of "holy ignorance," though illuminating, can be too broad and indiscriminate. He never explains why one form of holy ignorance, such as Pentecostalism, avoids political extremism while other forms do not: Many adherents of Salafist Islam, for instance, endorse violence in the name of fidelity to the Prophet. Mr. Roy's holy-ignorance category includes even Pope Benedict's call for the enhanced use of Latin in the Catholic liturgy, part of the church's effort to restore a sense of the sacred to the Mass. Yet for Mr. Roy even a partial return to a Latin liturgy is the "use of a new mantra" aimed at "magical" effects; it is, for him, an instrument for isolating religion instead of bringing it into contact with contemporary culture. But surely Latin is not so esoteric that it cannot speak to at least some believers today. And a pope who repeatedly argues for the "acculturation" of faith in the civilization of the West—who argues for joining faith to reason, without which religion becomes mere superstition—makes a poor proponent of holy ignorance.
Mr. Roy is acutely aware of the forces—or "new paradigms"—in secular society that encourage the holy ignorance he deplores. They include absolute sexual freedom, unlimited individual autonomy and the imperatives of the "inner self," however wayward these may be. Without saying so outright, though, he seems to feel that religion is obliged to make peace with such forces because it must reconnect itself with "culture"—even when culture is at odds with orthodoxy and what he rather clumsily calls "orthopraxy" (traditional morality). He doesn't seem to recognize that churches cannot uncritically accommodate neo-paganism and new paradigms without transforming themselves beyond recognition.
Part of the problem is that, for Mr. Roy, culture is not the deep inheritance of a civilization guided by higher values. It is the "production of symbolic systems," as he puts it—that is, a kind of neutral matrix of habits and beliefs and impulses. He cannot tell us what is most valuable about culture because culture rests, for him, on the shifting sands of symbol creation itself. Whether he intends to do so or not, he provides plenty of evidence that secular "ignorance" and dogmatism rival "holy ignorance" as a cultural force in the modern world.
Above all else, Mr. Roy is able to show us vividly how much has changed with the secularization that Weber predicted—how formerly Christian societies have lost a sense of their own religious foundation. As religion has floated free of culture, he notes, it has not only turned inward; it has also made desperate attempts to go to market, turning to everything from the Internet to popular music to sell itself to generations that have lost even an elementary religious literacy. By transforming itself into another instrument of "therapeutic" satisfaction, Mr. Roy observes, religion risks losing its soul.
"Holy Ignorance" ends with a profound set of questions: How can religion be passed along to children when it is no longer a reliable part of the culture they will inherit? What hold can religion have on the souls of human beings when it increasingly becomes a "consumer" choice—or, as Mr. Roy emphasizes, an intensely personal, inward experience—and when people dispose of the faith of their fathers as they might dispose of clothes that are no longer fashionable? The tendency of modern society to trivialize the most important decision a human being can make is arguably a far greater threat to the integrity of faith than secularization ever was.
Mr. Mahoney is professor of political science at Assumption College and the author of "The Conservative Foundations of the Liberal Order" (ISI).


text:
Opinion: Israel's New Center
Columnist Bret Stephens on the meaning of Israel's election results. Photos: Associated Press
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... I ... welcome back to Opinion Journal why Mary Kissel ... the news out of Israel said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ... will remain in office it looks like by ... the US not such a big majority global view columnist Bret Stephens ... is here to analyze what happened and give us as always is informed opinion ... on Brett ... did this election had ... anything to do it all with what gets most media attention the West Bank and Gaza on ... Iran ... were they they have been ... building up well ... with Israeli elections and so was a little complicated ... the selection was really fought ... over domestic Israeli issues ... the cost of living ... the question of whether particularly Orthodox old ultra Orthodox Jews but also Israeli Arabs ... should ... served in the military ... those are certainly the question of the issues that propelled this party that came out of nowhere called year's team ... headed by a former TV and TV personality ... to gain nineteen seats in the Knesset is that is now the second-largest ... block in the Knesset ... after Prime Minister of Netanyahu's Likud party which has thirty one seats but lost about and see whether you're a secondary or is it ladies and I think a blockade in Isaiah credit ... so he's under this part of the place and I understand you knew his father to give us any insight into the palm of that ... his father Tommy Lippi it was a Holocaust survivor and a longtime journalist in Israel who founded or was a founder of um so the commission only party which is actually a lot like his son's party ... essentially represented the middle-class secular interest in Israel ... and during the Sharon government what I was living in Israel ten years ago ... he had done very well one of these but one of these elections and was made Minister of ... justice now it's a phenomenon in Israel ... you have these parties and seemed to come out of nowhere to represent a move that ... and then they will take some large overseas because and then they vanished for instance could email which was a party ... founded less than a decade ago and which have a prime minister told Olmert was was from Katrina ... was in fact the largest single party in the last Knesset ... has now been reduced to any over to into with zero seats of not quite sure whether they actually ... made the threshold so it's likely that of game apiece party will also be a kind of one Parliament type of party with relatively little stinker we know very little about his political chops is party was founded in April what we now know a lot about Mr Netanyahu and one and a strategic politician that is what how is he likely to react to this turn of events when you use ... IUCN ... navigating these new political waters well you know one interpretation and it's it's not an unfair one ... is that he sort of ... he squeaked by in alleys can have a very troubled ... tenure for what what's left of him as Prime Minister ... his mistake was this that ... everyone thought he was going to coast to re-election right ... and so he decided to call elections earlier basically telling Israelis ... bought for me cuz you no longer know when anyway ... and so was really sad ... when anyway there's this other guy who seems sort of interesting in this other woman and so on Samantha had ... one store that are not can hear another day news about the selection is that the left in his field did pretty portly ... pretty porn why is that Brock because his release this is now were approaching the twentieth anniversary of the Oslo agreement ... Israelis are sick of equal Palestinian partner who is a bit and who isn't really a partner who doesn't operate in good faith ... they're looking at Hamas in Gaza that would give the Muslim Brotherhood ... in ... Egypt are looking at the end the nuclear rent ... and ... Israel is just half that age except the neighborhood there is a solid anti peace ok but they have to take account of realities that to them are very close attention was pretty desk ... global view calmness Bret Stephens the left is dead in Israel but alive in the United States thanks Fran ...


text:
|Episode Description
|Saturday, Jan 5, 2013 - 9:30 AM
"5-Ingredients Or Less"
Host Laura Theodore prepares quick recipes that require only 5-ingredients or less! "Easy Black Bean Casserole" is served with a crunchy and sweet "Carrot and Maple-Walnut Salad." For starters, tantalizing "Tortilla Oven 'Fried' Mushrooms" take the stage. Need a quick dessert or snack? "No-Cook Peanut Butter Cookies" fill the bill for a sweet and crunchy bite!. D
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text:
"In the great bildungsroman that is life, we are defined by adversity and the ways in which we overcome it. People often see themselves as an amalgamation of their achievements, whether it be in work, sport or other such social or political ingenuity. It seems gaming has been playing catch up in this domain over the past console generation, with the Xbox 360 and PS3 being well served by the achievements and trophies systems respectively."
Disagree with the first 8 on that list, they're skill based trophies that show you've pretty much mastered the games.
9 - Pain, most of those are achievable with insane grinding. Shame the game is horrible and only worth playing 10 mins at a time.
10 - Totally agree
Any online trophies that say win XX games, XX kills, play XX hours or reach level XX are the most stupidly annoying trophies, they rarely require skill and are just there to force you to play the sub par MP that has been tacked on.
That's why I gave up on trying to get the platinum trophy for Resistance 2!! FUUU multiplayer!
I love R2 online so the 10k kills was fun for me. I didnt platinum the game because i couldn't beat it on hard or super human.
@mikemadden| Yeah, it is fun. I just sucked at it so I pretty much stuck with co-op and the campaign.
For those having trouble with Radec, he has one weakness; well, two, but you kinda have to plan ahead for the second one... :D
There's this ridiculous bronze trophy in Twisted Metal where you have to be at a certain rank online or something... plus one for winning a battle every single day for 30 days straight, you can tell they wanted to encourage crazy people to play the game constantly, which is pretty innovative in keeping your online presence booming, but for the rest of us it's just nuts. We have jobs, girlfriends, and a life to get back to... well some of us anyway lol
I loved the Hardcore trophy for Dead Space 2. It was like playing a totally different game on that setting. Frustrating, yes, but oh so satisfying why I wrapped it up. Wish more horror-type games would do this.
Yeah the Resistance 2 MP trophies were stupid ridiculous.
All it takes is one little bronze to screw up a platinum. Thats why i prefer gamer points 1000 is like having a platinum, if im sitting at 970 points in a game and theres 3 difficult 10 point achievements haunting me i just pop in call of duty or bf3 and say f*ck it. I got 14 platinums and added up all the time i spent on these annoying bronze trophies that are hard and pointless i gave up.
Iwill platinum infamous 3, crysis 3, and uncharted 4, and killzone 4 if it is easy like part 3.
Yeah, this could almost have been a list of the best trophies to have in your collection. For starters, I'm pretty sure Play is a gold trophy. Though they say it's silver. Also one of my proudest trophies :3
And if I could choose one trophy I'd take Beat Zico. The really cool thing about it, is that you need to use even tilting perfectly to get it right... or you could just look up different techniques on YouTube. And Late Boomer I also have! And it's awesome! And nerve-wrecking.
Battle-Cars is pretty much my favourite PSN game, so for pros like me that one is pretty easy (⌐■_■)
The other ones I don't know about. But come on. With "get 10.000 kills" in Resistance 2 there must be some better choices.
2- I didn't finish NGS2 only because it was horrible, too easy and forgettable, NGS was way more challenging.
I thought the original was much better also.
Demon's Souls trophies are not primarily skill based. Especially not the one mentioned.
They're tedious, time consuming, and definitely a complete waste of time (unless you choose to trade of course).
This is easily one of the worst lists I've ever read, which makes me wonder if this person is even a trophy hunter or for that matter knows anything about trophies.
For starters, the first 7 items on the list are merely a matter of skill (as you state) and some like Zico CAN be done fairly quickly. Not saying I have the skills to beat Zico in 1 try, but the trophy can in theory be done in 10 minutes if you have the skill.
As far as Demon Souls goes, there are too many shortcuts to consider the platinum as impossible as some people make it out to be. Every boss can be conquered with online assistance and every item trophy (including this one) can be obtain by simply picking the item up. Sure you might not agree with this method, but as long as it exists... it will lessen the games difficulty.
Now Fight NIght is probably one of the most over rated trophies on the WHOLE PSN, since a lot of people seem to misunderstand it. Yes you need to be #1 in the world, but the trophy is a simple matter of matching up against and ultimately beating whomever holds the belt. Additionally the system is always in flux, which basically means it's always possible to obtain it regardless of conditions.
Anyway... the list really should include the truly annoying platinums / trophies like every title in Lost Planet 2, Anything online related in Time Crisis Razing Storm, Max level online in Quantum Theory (seriously... it's amazingly tedious), Warhawk and other titles in this league.
if they require mastering the game and are heavily skill based aren't they diffcult then?
Yes they're difficult, but the author is saying that they are not worth the effort, which I disagree with and say they are worth the effort :)
GT5 is the hardest! Don't tell me those X1 challenge are easy to gold.
Not like any of that matters. There are WAY to many people using CFW ( custom firmware ) to hack trophies anyway. This list means nothing to them as they all have them.... Trophies are overrated once hackers could cheat to get them.
I agree, on a global scale they don't really mean anything, but to me personally they do :) I like earning and collecting them :)
I simply disagree that the list doesn't have any mention of Warhawk trophies.
Warhawk trophies.....one of the WORST! They clearly don't know difficult pointless trophies if they didn't take a look at some of the trophies on THAT game.
Here's one trophy that I found out that it wasn't worth it.
I was just about to Plat Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 with one trophy to go, it was about getting all 200 (or more) titles. It felt like a whole new set of trophies that are less fun to do so I gave up...
I remember that game and getting the trophies, I think since I made a new PSN name I just dropped doing it. it was becoming more time consuming than anything else.
NUNS2's platinum wasn't really that hard, and getting the titles wasn't really hard either. Just keep playing online and Versus mode. Have you ever tried to platinum NUNSG? That game was EASY! The last trophy I had left before the platinum was to reach 30 hours. In NUNS2, I reached the 30 hour mark just playing the story, and I didn't get the platinum until about the 43 hour mark.
On the article itself, I think my hardest and proudest platinum to date was one of my earliest plats: LittleBigPlanet. Getting that 500 likes or loves or whatnot took forever, and there were a few levels that were almost impossible to ace. And trying to collect all items also took quite a while.
I do not fully agree with you. NUNSG is Easier because you only need to get some of the titles not ALL of the titles. Also NUNS2 isn't that hard except for that title trophy.
Why do I have 3 disagrees? Do people not agree with me thinking NUNSG is easier than NUNS2 or something? Or about the things needed to get my LBP2 play? O_o
You don't agree with me? I said nothing to counter your point, just that if you were to try to plat NUNSG (if you haven't already), that it would be easier to do so than NUNS2.
I actually gave you an "agree vote"
You didn't say easier on the first comment, you said "Easy" that's why I didn't fully agreed but your second comment cleared that up. NUNSG is easier but not Easy. :P
Another site that can't keep the story to 1-2 pages, they HAVE to use 10+ screens? Not worth reading.
I was ready to look at their list til i realized it was set up the way it was. I dont bother.
I was going to say how stupid that sounds, but it is so true :p
Dont worry, the rating is one and a half a star. A bit more votes and this site should be banned. Unlike another certain site that rhymes with otaku which strangely still has 3 full stars.
Beat zico isnt that hard, half the guys on my friends list have it.
And the description of Anulpha Pass as a difficult course are a joke, its the easiest course in the game.
I have beat zico. If u ask me the trophy that requires u to get to like lvl 70 on zones is harder
Zico isn't hard at all it's easily made in slow speed level... the Zeus 75 zone was the toughest thing.. you lose focus tou are dead and you restart from 0!!!!
Zone Zeus is pretty difficult, but Arcade Perfect is on another level.
learning the tracks in reverse and then having to race them on Phantom class + Elite difficulty, it's like a completely new game.
That last trophy #10 Fight Night Round 4 - XXL
is completely ridiclous. now that is a waste of time
i have the "Play" trophy from LBP and the Elite difficulty from Killzone 2. whats not on the list that was a real challenge was "I am Bad Company" from BFBC:1. i have achieved, aside from self satisfaction the time and effort wasnt worth a bronze
these are some of the best PS3 games so why not fight to complete each one of them 100%?
Killzone 2 was my biggest platinum saisfaction since it's my very first FPS and the greatest online experience i've ever had. Man that 1% ranking was a great thing to have!
LBP "Play" was an absolute blast for me to get. I mastered The Bunker and it's my favourite level to play through.
Killzone 2 "Heroic Survivor" not that bad actually, there are a few chokepoints though that are REALLY tough, but they're few and far between.
Demon's Souls "Soldier"... seriously? If any DeS trophy should be on there it's "Master Slashers Trophy"
Got my WH plat just a while ago. How is that not on this list haha
*stares in awe*
You must have #&$$ed-up fingers.
cos its not hard perhaps ?
umm its arguably in the top three hardest plats.. Its has a long hard learning curve with extremely long hours to put in it. For example i checked my profile and i have 1150 hours put into the game. And i wasn't even close to getting to platnium. serious grinding i needed to do. but i was really lucky.Its over looked cause its not as popular as these titles mentioned in the article.
there are 1.42 million warhawk accounts and only around 200 have plat. 8)
Cos most ppl gave up on the game in about a month i suspect.
its hard and requires a lot of time. Im sure lots have
That Late Boomer trophy is truly nails. I've tried maybe hundreds of times to get it, with no joy.
Ok so...
NGS2 - Complete every mission. Is bullshit IMO. Because some REQUIRE you to play with other players and frankly that's really gay.
KZ2 - I think being in the top 1% for 1 week trophy was harder. Hell it's the only one I don't have. I got sick of the game before less people started playing.
Demon Souls - Soldier. Frankly I found this trophy and the whole game to be pretty easy to plat. It honestly just wasn't THAT hard. Everything had a pattern, more or less.
The rest I can't comment on since I don't play 'em.
That aside, honestly. I think any trophy that requires online play to be total bullshit. Trying the online mode a bit is fine. But basically dedicating yourself to online play (get over x hours online, do x thing x amount of times in an online match, etc.) Those trophies shouldn't exist. Way too much of a time commitment. We got lives.
Sorry but NO trophy is worth the trouble.
It's absolutely worthless and does not do anything.
Now maybe if it unlocked certain dlc instead of having to pay for it or giving you a $5 psn voucher code, ya that would rule. But in their current state, I can't see why they exist at all.
just for fun, but some people are perfectionists and can't stand to see something unfinished.
It bothers me, but not as much as not having a girlfriend or making more money; so if getting that trophy is too much of a bother, I forget it.
It's not "trouble" if you just enjoy playing the game or maybe you want an extra challenge, doing something you may not necessarily have done otherwise. That much should be obvious by now. And they exist because people asked for achievements on PS3.
I remember trying to beat Killzone 2 on Elite. I made it all the way to Radec, which is basically the boss of the game. I got frustrated but I was getting further each time I attempted it.
I got bored after a while though, so I shut it off and never played it again. Too bad since then I've gotten a Slim and had to delete everything, it didn't help that it was copy protected. I don't think I'll try it again anytime soon.
More on point though, most of these games on the list are not that hard. LBP is really fun, and once you master LBP 1 you'll be able to gain a platinum for every single installment of the series since there is no level harder than the Bunker (in my opinion) in any LBP game after the first. I aced LBP 2's boss the first time I tried it.
I agree with Shadow Of The Colossus, it wasnt worth the stress, you have to "cheat" or an exploit (the swordjump) in order to be Gaius on hard time attack, I tried countless times to beat that mofo, got there in the end, earned myself the platinum, it wasnt fun
I beat Zone Zico aswell, with help from a Youtube guide
Killzone is not bad. The only difficult part of elite that isn't passable is the final spawn point before the boss that you have to survive wave after wave of soldiers, the hardest part right before the end where several rocket soldiers come out.
I've done it, it's definitely beatable, but you have to be awesome at the game.
I agree that was the toughest part of the game. Felt good to get past it.
No collectibles trophies from the Claptrap DLC on Borderlands?
They were a pain, but at least you know you are getting somewhere by farming INAC, plus with the 'exploit' of shooting inside INAC whenever he stops to let claptraps out made it a lot easier.
Crawmax was my most annoying trophy at the time, purely because i was only level 40 odd at the time. Even with the corner exploit it took me quite a while just to whittle down his health :p good times tho really fun game
Vanquish challenge room 6.. still never done it to this day. Completed 1 - 5. 6 after a few days of just constant trying i gave up and asked myself why am i even doing this instead of having fun playing a different game :p
Killzone 2 and Demon 's Souls platinum trophies were definitely worth the "effort" for me.
SOCOM: Confrontation has one of the hardest plats I've ever seen. Considering it is all multiplayer, and one match can be anywhere from 15-30 minutes, it makes the checklist extremely difficult. That is of course if you earn it legitimately.
Another difficult plat is Fight Night Round 4. Several trophies require you to climb into the top 5 in online rankings for each weight division. Unless you earned them the first couple of weeks the game came out, good luck getting all of them now.
Each could require 100s of hours just to get 75% of the punchlist, and probably offer a slim chance to none on completing. Both have hardcore communities, especially SOCOM.
vanquish last trophy is a pain in the a$$
the challenges are not worth it
Gran Turismo 5 plat has become my worst nightmare only because of the endurance races 24 hour races, 4 hour races, and so forth. The save feature is BS
GT5 definitely ranks up there as most difficult, but if you can get Platinum on GT5 I don't care what anyone says, it would be worth it. Seriously anyone with a Platinum on GT5 is a racing GOD. Getting gold on some of the License tests is hard enough much less getting gold on ALL the tests, events, and a mix of all A-Spec/B-Spec (they overlap). Seriously NASCAR is PURE F-ING LUCK in A or B spec. Also, getting Gold on ANY event challenge using the Red Bull is INSANE.
What I was surprised to never see ANYONE mention was anything for Metal Gear Solid 2 HD; holy #^*& you damn Euros just had to get Konami and Kojima to make this game hard as hell. Beating MGS2 with all the dog tags on the PS2 was hard enough; all the additional Substance stuff just makes getting some trophies and Platinum nigh impossible -- also the Fat Man boss fight on Hard and up will make you snap your controller in half (I went through hell on the PS2, f-it if I'm going to put myself through that hell all over again).
yeah MGS2 is a pain in the A$$. Fighting vamp in extreme, and those VR missions, with that control mapping... FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!!
I eventually managed to platinum it, but it was freaking hard!
"Beating Zico" in Wipeout HD is clearly a trophy that was implemented in the early stages of Sony's "trophy" system. There were a few back then that were either too easy for a silver or plat or too hard. They are for the most part ironed out to be evenly matced for difficulty, but early on it was clear Sony and other dev's that were making Sony exclusives didnt have a tight grasp on how to implement Trophys. I dont have the Wipeout trophy but am very proud of my Killzone 2 and 3 platinum trophy
I thought star ocean ultimate battler trophy is an insane trophy 2 get....nt only r dey time consuming bt some r truly hard. Tryin 2 kill Ether queen & doin certain characters battle trophies same time is annoying since it's a long trip jus 2 gt 2 her & thr's no save point on ur way 2 her so if u die b4 saving battle trophies earned dnt save which i thought was stupid
Final Fantasy "XIII" : Treasure Hunter
One of the Hardest and silliest Trophies to date .. mine is still glitched and won't even earn on my trophy list sadly after two months of fatigue and suffering in 2010 -_- .
"Sounds of the Battlefield" trophy in MGS4, in which one of tracks require you to get ALL emblems in the game. Just going for the Big Boss emblem alone is insane.
It is, but if you platinumed MGS2, then this is quite easy in comparison.
this list has trophies that can be fun or require skill
trophies that can be fun or require skill can be orth any gamer time.
However , getting the co-op trophy on GTA4 is a real problem because even if you're having fun ,and do things properly , you still won't have it.
hahaha isn't presenting a challenge the whole point of trophies/achievements (story-related trophies/achievements excluded)?
the only one on that list that i agree with being stupid is the XXL fight night 4 trophy, but that's mostly because i hate online trophies as i believe you shouldn't have to rely on the skill (or lack thereof) of other people to get any trophy/achievement.
and i'm glad that a lot of devs have cut back on the ridiculousness of their MP trophies/achievements - at least if assassin's creed MP is any indication, they've certainly eased up on the outlandish tasks you have to achieve since brotherhood's MP. the most annoying MP trophy i have ever had to deal with is red dead's kingpin trophy from the undead nightmare DLC.
bad enough that it required 8 people who actually had the DLC to be able to participate, but getting 8 unique people to come after you in that particular instance was impossible because: a) they just didn't care enough to break away from what they were doing with their buddies or b) there weren't even 8 people in your game session.
/rant :(
Lmao its funny how I got the plat for LBP my lil sister made a world on my name and like 1000+ people like and shared it! I didnt ask her too nor did I even know she did it! But hey what can ya do?


text:
Fludeoxyglucose F 18 PET Scan, CT Scan, and Ferumoxtran-10 MRI Scan Before Chemotherapy and Radiation Therapy in Finding Lymph Node Metastasis in Patients With Locally Advanced Cervical Cancer or High-Risk Endometrial Cancer
|The safety and scientific validity of this study is the responsibility of the study sponsor and investigators. Listing a study does not mean it has been evaluated by the U.S. Federal Government. Read our disclaimer for details.
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00416455
Recruitment Status : Unknown
Verified November 2016 by National Cancer Institute (NCI).
Recruitment status was: Active, not recruiting
First Posted : December 28, 2006
Results First Posted : December 14, 2015
Last Update Posted : January 2, 2017
- Study Details
- Tabular View
- Study Results
- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
|Condition or disease
|Cervical Adenocarcinoma Cervical Adenosquamous Cell Carcinoma Cervical Small Cell Carcinoma Cervical Squamous Cell Carcinoma Endometrial Clear Cell Carcinoma Endometrial Papillary Serous Carcinoma Stage I Endometrial Carcinoma Stage IB Cervical Cancer Stage II Endometrial Carcinoma Stage IIA Cervical Cancer Stage IIB Cervical Cancer Stage III Cervical Cancer Stage III Endometrial Carcinoma Stage IVA Cervical Cancer
|Radiation: fludeoxyglucose F 18 Procedure: positron emission tomography Procedure: computed tomography Drug: ferumoxtran-10 Procedure: magnetic resonance imaging Procedure: diagnostic lymphadenectomy Procedure: lymph node biopsy
|Phase 1 Phase 2
Show Detailed Description
|Study Type :
|Interventional (Clinical Trial)
|Actual Enrollment :
|384 participants
|Intervention Model:
|Single Group Assignment
|None (Open Label)
|Primary Purpose:
|Official Title:
|Utility of Preoperative FDG-PET/CT Scanning Prior to Primary Chemoradiation Therapy to Detect Retroperitoneal Lymph Node Metastasis in Patients With Locoregionally Advanced Carcinoma of the Cervix (IB2, IIA ≥ 4 CM, IIB-IVA) or Endometrium (Grade 3 Endometrioid Endometrial Carcinoma; Serous Papillary Carcinoma, Clear Cell Carcinoma, or Carcinosarcoma (Any Grade); and Grade 1 OR 2 Endometrioid Endometrial Carcinoma With Cervical Stromal Involvement Overt in Clinical Examination or Confirmed by Endocervical Curettage
|Study Start Date :
|September 2007
|Actual Primary Completion Date :
|September 2014
Experimental: Treatment (diagnostic scans, surgery, chemotherapy, radiation)
Patients receive fludeoxyglucose F 18 (FDG) IV followed 60 minutes later by positron emission tomography (PET)/CT scanning on day 1. Patients also receive ferumoxtran-10 IV over 30-45 minutes on day 1 (or 24-36 hours before MRI) and undergo MRI on day 2. Patients undergo extraperitoneal, laparoscopic, or trans-peritoneal lymphadenectomy with pelvic and abdominal lymph node biopsy within 2 weeks after PET/CT scan. Patients diagnosed with metastatic disease prior to lymph node biopsy proceed directly to primary treatment. Patients with cervical cancer undergo chemoradiotherapy within 4 weeks of PET/CT scan.
Radiation: fludeoxyglucose F 18
Undergo FDG PET/CT
Other Names:
Procedure: positron emission tomography
Undergo FDG PET/CT
Other Names:
Procedure: computed tomography
Undergo FDG PET/CT
Other Name: tomography, computed
Drug: ferumoxtran-10
Undergo femoxtran-10 MRI
Other Names:
Procedure: magnetic resonance imaging
Undergo femoxtran-10 MRI
Other Names:
Procedure: diagnostic lymphadenectomy
Undergo extraperitoneal, laparoscopic, or trans-peritoneal lymphadenectomy
Procedure: lymph node biopsy
Undergo pelvic and abdominal lymph node biopsy
Other Name: Biopsy of Lymph Node
- Percent of Patients That FDG-PET-CT Will Indicate Positive Among Those With Lymph Node Metastasis in Abdomen [ Time Frame: Before surgery (FDG-PET-CT) and after surgery (pathology) ]
- Percent of Patients That DCT Will Indicate Positive Among Those With Lymph Node Metastasis in Abdomen [ Time Frame: Before surgery (DCT) and after surgery (pathology) ]
- Percent of Patients That FDG-PET-CT Will Indicate Positive Among Those With Lymph Node Metastasis in Pelvis [ Time Frame: Before surgery (FDG-PET-CT) and after surgery (pathology) ]
- Percent of Patients That DCT Will Indicate Positive Among Those With Lymph Node Metastasis in Pelvis [ Time Frame: Before surgery (DCT) and after surgery (pathology) ]
- Comparison of the Diagnostic Sensitivity and Specificity of PET/CT Scan vs PET Scanning Alone in Identifying Metastases to Pelvic, Abdominal, and Combined (All Regions) Lymph Nodes [ Time Frame: Up to 5 years ]
- Comparison of the Diagnostic Sensitivity and Specificity of Ferumoxtran-10 MRI vs MRI Alone, in Terms of Size Criteria in the Abdomen and Pelvis [ Time Frame: Up to 5 years ]
- Percentage of Patients With Locoregionally Advanced Cervical Cancer or High-risk Endometrial Cancer Who Have Biopsy-proven Disease Outside the Abdominal or Pelvic Lymph Nodes Detected by PET/CT Scanning [ Time Frame: Up to 5 years ]
- Accuracy of MRI in Determining the Depth of Myometrial Invasion and Involvement of Cervix in Patients With High-risk Endometrial Cancer [ Time Frame: Up to 5 years ]
- Complications Associated With Extraperitoneal or Laparoscopic Abdominal and Pelvic Lymphadenectomy in Patients With Locoregionally Advanced Cervical Cancer [ Time Frame: Up to 5 years ]
- Cause(s) of Delay in the Initiation of Radiotherapy or Interruption in Radiotherapy in Patients With Locoregionally Advanced Cervical Cancer [ Time Frame: Up to 5 years ]
- Frequency and Severity of Adverse Events Assessed by Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events Version 3.0 [ Time Frame: Up to 5 years ]
Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study. To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contacts provided below. For general information, Learn About Clinical Studies.
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|18 Years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
Inclusion Criteria:
Histologically or cytologically confirmed diagnosis of 1 of the following:
Invasive carcinoma of the cervix meeting all of the following criteria:
- Previously untreated, primary disease
- Locoregionally advanced (stage IB2, IIA [>= 4 cm], or IIB-IVA) disease
- Any cell type allowed
High-risk endometrial carcinoma meeting 1 of the following criteria:
- Grade 3 endometrioid or non-endometrioid endometrial carcinoma (clear cell or serous papillary) or carcinosarcoma diagnosed from an endometrial biopsy or dilation and curettage or
- Grade 1 or 2 endometrioid endometrial carcinoma with cervical stromal involvement overt on clinical examination or confirmed by endocervical curettage
- Under consideration for chemoradiotherapy (patients with cervical cancer)
- Undergone appropriate surgery for cervical or endometrial carcinoma with appropriate tissue available for histologic evaluation to confirm diagnosis and stage
Appropriate surgical candidate to undergo extraperitoneal or laparoscopic lymph node sampling OR hysterectomy and lymph node sampling
- No surgery for patients with advanced lymphadenopathy
- No recurrent invasive carcinoma of the uterus or uterine cervix regardless of previous treatment
- No known metastases to the lungs or scalene lymph nodes
No metastases to other organs outside of the pelvis or abdominal lymph nodes at the time of the original clinical diagnosis
- Patients with endometrial cancer with known intraperitoneal disease are eligible provided they undergo pelvic and para-aortic lymphadenectomy per protocol
- Participants must be enrolled at an American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN)-affiliated institution that is accredited by Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG)
- GOG performance status 0-2
- Creatinine within normal institutional limits OR, in participants with creatinine levels above institutional normal, glomerular filtration rate (GFR) must be > 60 mL/min; there is no lower limit of normal for serum creatinine for this protocol
Ferritin levels =< 600 ng/mL OR saturation of transferrin level =< 50%
- Patients with high levels of ferritin or transferrin are eligible if documented hematology rules out iron overload
- Not pregnant or nursing
- Negative pregnancy test
- No patients weighing greater than that allowable by the PET/CT scanner
- No renal abnormalities, such as a pelvic kidney, horseshoe kidney, or renal transplantation, that would require modification of the lymphadenectomy
- No history of anaphylactic or life-threatening allergic reactions to any contrast media
- No other invasive malignancies within the past 5 years with the exception of nonmelanoma skin cancer
- No contraindication to MRI (e.g., severe claustrophobia, pacemaker, aneurysm clips, defibrillators, or other institutional contraindication to MRI)
- No history of allergic reactions attributed to compounds of similar chemical or biological composition to ferumoxtran-10 (e.g., iron preparations, parenteral iron, parenteral dextran, parenteral iron-dextran, or parenteral iron-polysaccharide preparations)
- No immunodeficiencies that would predispose patient to specific or nonspecific mediator release
- No history of cirrhosis
- No poorly controlled, insulin-dependent diabetes (i.e., fasting blood glucose level > 200 mg/dL)
- No prior pelvic or abdominal lymphadenectomy
- No prior pelvic radiotherapy
- No prior anticancer therapy that would contraindicate study participation
- No ferumoxides within the past 2 weeks
- No investigational agents within the past 30 days
- No other concurrent investigational agents
To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (NCT number): NCT00416455
Hide Study Locations
|United States, California
|Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center
|Los Angeles, California, United States, 90095
|University of California at Los Angeles Health System
|Los Angeles, California, United States, 90095
|Olive View-University of California Los Angeles Medical Center
|Sylmar, California, United States, 91342
|United States, Connecticut
|The Hospital of Central Connecticut
|New Britain, Connecticut, United States, 06050
|United States, Florida
|Sarasota Memorial Hospital
|Sarasota, Florida, United States, 34239
|United States, Georgia
|Georgia Regents University Medical Center
|Augusta, Georgia, United States, 30912
|United States, Massachusetts
|Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center
|Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02114
|United States, Michigan
|Wayne State University/Karmanos Cancer Institute
|Detroit, Michigan, United States, 48201
|United States, Minnesota
|Mayo Clinic
|Rochester, Minnesota, United States, 55905
|United States, New Jersey
|UMDNJ - New Jersey Medical School
|Newark, New Jersey, United States, 07103
|United States, New York
|Island Gynecologic Oncology
|Brightwaters, New York, United States, 11718
|Montefiore Medical Center-Einstein Campus
|Bronx, New York, United States, 10461
|Mount Sinai Medical Center
|New York, New York, United States, 10029
|Weill Medical College of Cornell University
|New York, New York, United States, 10065
|United States, North Carolina
|Carolinas Medical Center
|Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, 28203
|United States, Ohio
|University of Cincinnati
|Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, 45267
|Case Western Reserve University
|Cleveland, Ohio, United States, 44106
|United States, Oklahoma
|University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
|Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, 73104
|United States, Oregon
|Providence Cancer Center -The Plaza
|Portland, Oregon, United States, 97213
|Providence Portland Medical Center
|Portland, Oregon, United States, 97213
|United States, Pennsylvania
|Fox Chase Cancer Center
|Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19111
|United States, Rhode Island
|Women and Infants Hospital
|Providence, Rhode Island, United States, 02905
|United States, Tennessee
|Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center
|Nashville, Tennessee, United States, 37232
|United States, Texas
|Brooke Army Medical Center
|Fort Sam Houston, Texas, United States, 78234
|Canada, Quebec
|CHUQ - Pavilion Hotel-Dieu de Quebec
|Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, G1R 2J6
|Hokkaido University Hospital
|Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, 060-8648
|Kagoshima City Hospital
|Kagoshima City, Kagoshima, Japan, 892-8580
|Saitama Medical University International Medical Center
|Saitama, Japan, 350-1298
|Korea, Republic of
|Keimyung University-Dongsan Medical Center
|Jung-Ku, Daegu, Korea, Republic of, 700-712
|Seoul National University Hospital
|Seoul, Korea, Republic of, 110-744
|Gangnam Severance Hospital
|Seoul, Korea, Republic of, 135-720
|Asan Medical Center
|Seoul, Korea, Republic of, 138-736
|Korea Cancer Center Hospital
|Seoul, Korea, Republic of, 139-706
|Principal Investigator:
|Mostafa Atri
|NRG Oncology
|Responsible Party:
|National Cancer Institute (NCI)
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|NCT00416455 History of Changes
|Other Study ID Numbers:
NCI-2009-00600 ( Registry Identifier: CTRP (Clinical Trial Reporting Program) )
GOG-0233-ACRIN 6671 ( Other Identifier: NRG Oncology )
GOG-0233 ( Other Identifier: CTEP )
U10CA180868 ( U.S. NIH Grant/Contract )
U10CA027469 ( U.S. NIH Grant/Contract )
|First Posted:
|December 28, 2006 Key Record Dates
|Results First Posted:
|December 14, 2015
|Last Update Posted:
|January 2, 2017
|Last Verified:
|November 2016
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
Carcinoma, Squamous Cell
Uterine Cervical Neoplasms
Endometrial Neoplasms
Cystadenocarcinoma, Serous
Adenocarcinoma, Clear Cell
Carcinoma, Adenosquamous
Carcinoma, Small Cell
Small Cell Lung Carcinoma
Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial
Neoplasms by Histologic Type
Neoplasms, Squamous Cell
Uterine Neoplasms
Genital Neoplasms, Female
Urogenital Neoplasms
Neoplasms by Site
Uterine Cervical Diseases
Uterine Diseases
Genital Diseases, Female
Neoplasms, Cystic, Mucinous, and Serous
Neoplasms, Complex and Mixed
Carcinoma, Bronchogenic
Bronchial Neoplasms
Lung Neoplasms
Respiratory Tract Neoplasms
Thoracic Neoplasms


text:
Community service key in Skidmore Pre-college Program
Republished with permission from The Saratogian
Originally published Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Story and Photos by Marcella Jewell
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Fifteen high school students enrolled in Skidmore's Pre-College Program got up early Saturday morning to get their hands a bit messy to help the Saratoga County Economic Opportunity Council prepare dough for a fried dough fundraiser.
The group gathered at the Presbyterian New England Congregational Church, where EOC runs its soup kitchen, to stretch dough for the EOC's fried dough stand at the Saratoga Race Course open house that took place Sunday.
The proceeds from the fried dough sales help fund the many programs run by the EOC, including the soup kitchen and the Latino Community Advocacy program.
This year, Skidmore College's summer Pre-College Program includes 65 students living in the dorms and 12 commuter students. The intensive five-week program offers high school students the opportunity to engage in college-level study in the liberal and studio arts with Skidmore faculty. It also includes a community service project.
"We started the community service project last year since we felt it was important
to give the students an opportunity to feel a part of the Saratoga community, in addition
to the Skidmore community," said Michelle Paquette, who is directing the Pre-College
Program for a third year.
The students lined three long tables and stretched globes of dough into small circles as they chatted with each other. Despite their diverse backgrounds and experiences, the students share a common interest in exploring the academic and social aspects of college life — on and off campus.
"We knew there were so many organizations that could benefit from the students' positive energy," Paquette said.
The Pre-College Program sponsors optional Saturday events for the students, such as trips to Great Escape and Lake George. But the students seem to respond most enthusiastically about the opportunity to volunteer.
"Knowing that the EOC usually spends hours stretching the dough, and the fact that
we could shorten the time for them made it worth it," said Martiza Ortega, a high
school senior from Manhattan. "It was a fun bonding experience."
Choudhury Islam, 17, from Queens signed up to improve his culinary skills and to try something new.
"All these years and I've never touched dough," Islam said.
"It was their choice to get up early this Saturday and participate," Paquette said, adding that she was thrilled with the positive spirit the students brought to the morning's chore.


text:
Tuesday, 12 March 2013 04:00 PM
George Prescott Bush filed the official paperwork Tuesday to run for Texas land commissioner next year, hoping to use a little-known but powerful post to continue his family's political dynasty in one of the country's most-conservative states.
Bush spokesman Trey Newton told The Associated Press that Bush spoke with current Land Commissioner Jerry Paterson before formally declaring his candidacy Tuesday. Paterson has already announced he's leaving the post to run for lieutenant governor.
An attorney and consultant from Fort Worth and Spanish-speaker, Bush is considered a rising star among conservative Hispanics. In November, Bush filed with the Texas Ethics Commission ensuring he would seek statewide office in 2014 but did not say which one, touching off rumors he might run for attorney general or even governor.
The land commissioner administers state-owned lands and mineral resources, and is a post that can be a stepping stone to higher office in Texas. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst was land commissioner before winning his current job.
A Democrat has not won statewide office in Texas since 1994, but Hispanics accounted for two-thirds of Texas' population growth over the last decade and now make up 35 percent of its population. They tend to vote overwhelmingly Democratic.
Bush is the son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and his wife, Columba, who was born in Mexico. His uncle is George W. Bush and his grandfather is George H.W. Bush.
George P. Bush has been active in politics for years. Last summer, he was promoted to deputy finance chairman of the Texas Republican Party.
Bush grew up in Florida but met his wife Amanda while attending law school at the University of Texas. He later became a partner in a real estate investment company and has since started Fort Worth-based St. Augustine Partners, a business consulting firm.
© Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Newsmax, Moneynews, Newsmax Health, and Independent. American. are registered trademarks of Newsmax Media, Inc. Newsmax TV, and Newsmax World are trademarks of Newsmax Media, Inc.


text:
Remembering Jeffrey John Booth
In his lifetime, Jeffrey loved and respected pets and through his legacy to Blue Cross he has ensured that we can continue to help pets.
Over half our income comes from money left in our supporters' Wills. Gifts in Wills from people like Jeffrey provide vital funds to help Blue Cross care for sick, injured and homeless pets.
This page is to offer our heartfelt thanks for Jeffrey's generosity and care for animals.


text:
The Sale Price includes a generous discount, and also reflects the publicly available factory rebate, military rebate, college students/grads rebate and any Ford Credit bonus cash where available. Sale prices reflect current rebates and cash back offers available from Ford Motor Company to US residents who reside in the Pacific Northwest for that specific vehicle. You may qualify for additional rebates not shown, that could lower your price even more i.e., police, AQHA members, etc... Sale prices shown do not include sales tax, licensing, title fee, or Document Fee. If you choose discounted Financing Rates offered by Ford Motor Credit rebates and cash back offers may not apply. Please call for detailed information.
Find a great sale price on this 2018 Ford Edge Titanium at Scarff Ford in Auburn Washington. This 2018 Ford Edge is located at our Ford dealership in Auburn. We also serve the cities of Federal Way and Seattle. So if you're looking for a great price on this 2018 Ford Edge Titanium AWD or just looking to get an auto loan for the vehicle you want... you've come to the right place! Scarff Ford Auburn.


text:
Albumen print. Photograph by Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879) whose photographic portraits are considered among the finest in the early history of photography. She set up a private studio at her Isle of Wight home at the age of 48, after her daughter gave her a camera, and she became expert at using the collodion wet-plate process. She used friends, servants and neighbours as subjects, including the scientists Charles Darwin and John Herschel, and the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson. Much of her work reflects the Pre-Raphaelite painting style which was popular at the time. In 1875 she and her husband moved to Ceylon, (now Sri Lanka), where she died in 1879.
Image Details
Image Ref.
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London


text:
Denver Museum of Nature & Science Offers Halloween
Family Fun
Live Bats, Hallow-Teen, and discounts for costumed
DENVER-October 12, 2012- The Denver Museum
of Nature & Science invites the community to celebrate
Halloween at the Museum. With the program Live Bats, a Halloween
bash just for teens, and a discount to A Day in Pompeii for wearing
a costume, the Museum is offering something festive for the entire
Wear a Costume for a Discount
Wear your Halloween costume to the Museum October 22 through
October 31 and receive $6 off your full-price nonmember ticket to A
Day in Pompeii!
Live Bats!
Saturday, October 20, noon and 2 p.m.,$12 member, $15
nonmember, $8 child
Live Bats returns to Denver! Rob Mies, director of the
Organization for Bat Conservation, introduces you to an
international delegation of some of the rarest bats in the world,
including a gigantic flying fox bat from Malaysia with a nearly
six-foot wingspan. This is a family program where you can join the
kids in unbridled enthusiasm. Costumes welcomed!
For more information and tickets, click
Hallow-teen Night at the Museum
Friday, October 26, 6-9:30 p.m., $5
Teens assemble! This spooky and fun night is brand new and just
for you! Meet mad scientists, tremble through frightful scavenger
hunts and Museum tours, eat some creepy snacks, and dress in your
Halloween best. Bring a friend! For ages 13-18. Reservations
Media Contact
Charlotte Hurley, [email protected] /
About the Denver Museum of Nature &
The Denver Museum of Nature & Science is the Rocky Mountain
Region's leading resource for informal science education. A variety
of engaging exhibits, discussions and activities help Museum
visitors celebrate and understand the natural wonders of Colorado,
Earth and the universe. The Museum is located at 2001 Colorado
Blvd., Denver, CO, 80205. To learn more about the Museum,
check www.dmns.org,
or call 303-370-6000.
# # #
Many of the Museum's educational programs and exhibits are made
possible in part by the citizens of the seven-county metro area
through the Scientific & Cultural Facilities District.


text:
Treasury Bonds: Tax Considerations
What Is Taxable Income?
Treasury bonds pay interest every six months. This interest is exempt from state and local income taxes.
Keeping Track of Your Taxable Income
If you hold a Treasury bond in TreasuryDirect, you can view your Form 1099-INT online and print it. The form is posted at the beginning of the year. Also, a record of all taxable transactions is available at any time. To see it, click the "Manage Direct" tab, and then under "Manage My Taxes" choose the appropriate year.
Legacy Treasury Direct*
If you hold a Treasury bond in Legacy Treasury Direct, we mail you your Form 1099-INT at the beginning of the year.
If you need duplicate 1099-INT forms for the current tax year, call 844-284-2676 (toll free) and speak with a customer service representative. Representatives are available from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday, except holidays. (From outside the United States, call 304-480-6464.)
To request 1099-INT forms for years prior to the current tax year, write to:
Treasury Retail Securities Site
P.O. Box 9150
Minneapolis, MN 55480-9150
Note: If you no longer have securities in Legacy Treasury Direct, please keep your address current with us until you receive your final tax statement.
Bank, Broker, or Dealer
Consult your bank, broker, or dealer.
December 31 Interest
When interest income on a bond is scheduled to be paid on December 31 and that date isn't a business day, we report the income as being earned on the first federal banking day of the following year.
Tax Withholding
If you hold a Treasury bond with us, we can ease your tax burden by withholding up to 50 percent of your interest earnings.
- TreasuryDirect allows you to specify online the percentage you want us to withhold.
- With Legacy Treasury Direct, you call 844-284-2676 (toll free) or write to Treasury Retail Securities Site, P.O. Box 9150, Minneapolis, MN 55480-9150. Give your account number and state the percentage of your earnings that you want to withhold. Representatives are available from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday, except holidays.
With either system, we transfer your withholdings to the Internal Revenue Service and report the withheld amount on your Form 1099-INT.
*Legacy Treasury Direct is being phased out.


text:
This technical paper demonstrates how customers can achieve business advantages with improved availability for business-critical applications by deploying database backup and restore operations on SSDs (16 pages)
In today's world, business is global, with business processes that run on a 24 x 7 basis, and user demands that peak and ebb throughout the 24-hour cycle. Because of this reality, the availability of business-critical database applications is of primary importance. Any lapse, or failure, could cost the business millions of dollars in revenue, following an hour or more of downtime. That's why businesses need to have a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) in place—and to maintain it, so that it can be activated quickly when downtime occurs.
Two metrics that define the BCP for database applications are the Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and the Recovery Time Objective (RTO). The RPO allows business to recover to the point-in-time when the outage, or downtime, occurred. The RTO shows the amount of time it takes to reach that IT state—the way things were prior to the downtime.
In many data centers, database backup and any maintenance operations on such mission-critical database applications will have to be managed more efficiently than they are today. Database backup is an I/O-intensive operation. The presence of faster processors and faster systems, along with Oracle® Database 12c enhancements, provide many performance improvements, but, where storage is concerned, data still must be read and written to disk. The use of the traditional hard drives as the primary form of storage for such business-critical applications increases the time it takes to complete the backup and restoration processes. When this happens, the use of HDDs leads to inefficient utilization of business applications, and the revenue impact that brings.
There is another approach to deploying storage in the enterprise data center. The adoption of solid state drives (SSDs) is becoming pervasive in data centers that need faster processing—and faster timeto- results—than in traditional datacenters running primarily on hard-drive-based servers and storage. Data centers that are using flash storage for faster database performance are already seeing those benefits extended to database backup for business-critical applications.
This technical paper highlights the advantages of using SanDisk® SSDs to provide better RPO and RTO targets, thereby enabling the organization to meet demanding Service Level Agreements (SLAs) that are assigned to business-critical workloads.
SanDisk is a global leader in flash storage solutions, developing and selling a full portfolio of SSDs based on NAND technology. SanDisk offers purpose-built SSDs for a wide range of enterprise and cloud solutions, including those related to the megatrends of big data/analytics, cloud, mobility and social media.
With their performance and reliability, SanDisk Optimus™ SAS SSDs address enterprise storage and server applications. SanDisk Optimus drives provide best-in-class performance with a consistent quality of service (QoS). They provide IT flexibility, because IT managers can select storage ranging from 200GB to 3.84TB.
The Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) for the Optimus SSDs is 2.5 million hours, with a guaranteed warranty period of five years. It should also be noted that the SanDisk Optimus drives are protected by SanDisk's Guardian™ technology platform, increasing durability, recoverability, prevention of data loss and corruption.
This version of Oracle, which was introduced in June 2013, has introduced many new features, including expanded support for cloud-based workloads, including:
This paper is mainly focused on the performance for RMAN and Data Pump operations associated with Oracle Database 12c running in SSD and HDD deployments.
The RPO (Recovery Point Objective) and RTO (Recovery Time Objective) targets are the two important metrics that define a customer's business continuity plan (BCP). The RPO defines the point-in-time at which the outage occurred—and the objective for the business, which is to recover to that point-intime, and the "state" of the database at that time. The RTO defines the amount of time that it takes to reach that IT state—the way things were prior to the downtime. Knowing the RTO and RPO values will guide customers when selecting the appropriate recovery technologies for their database deployments.
Figure 1: Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO)
For many database administrators, it has been a common practice to perform database backups with hard drives—and to transfer those backup images to tape, so that they can be restored in the event of database failure. This approach works well for normal business applications. However, for businesscritical applications, this approach has two limitations:
First, database backup to hard drives takes a considerable amount of time to get consistent backup for the RPO, affecting business usage and quality of service (QoS). Second, restoring the backup during failures impacts the RTO. It takes additional time to rebuild the database back to the same state it had prior to the downtime. In contrast, when flash storage (SSDs) are deployed as a backup media for business-critical applications, the rebuild performance is greatly improved. This approach, which expedites the backup and recovery processes through the use of SSDs, helps to alleviate IT concerns about RPO and RTO associated with system downtime.
|RPO AND RTO Target
|Recovery Point Objective (RPO)
|Zero data loss
|Recovery Time Objective (RTO)
|< 60 Seconds
|Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF)
(i.e. reliable and fault-tolerant stack)
|5 years, hardware
Table 1: Sample RPO and RTO Targets
The primary objective of this testing is to identify the advantages associated with deploying SSDs in Oracle database backup operations. Database administrators use Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) for full database backup—and they use Data Pump for table or schema-level backup to guarantee against data failures. This test, which was performed both for HDDs and SSDs, measured the performance of backup for the following categories:
RMAN and Data Pump operation elapsed time, database performance and system performance metrics were collected for analysis and reporting.
Testing hardware and software component details are provided in Table 2. For testing purposes, the Super Micro server internal storage drives were utilized for installation and configuring the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 operating system and the Oracle Database 12c software.
As shown in Figure 3, Automatic Storage Management (ASM) drive groups DATA(1/2), FRA, and REDO were created on both SSD and HDD drives and the Oracle 12c database was created on SSDs. As shown in Figure 2, the database was migrated between SSD storage and HDD storage to ensure that testing parameters and database configurations remained consistent for both types of storage environments. The testing results were captured for analysis and reporting.
|Server and Client
|SSD Configuration
HDD Configuration
|4 Optimus Eco™ SAS SSDs from SanDisk, each with 400GB
16 SAS 15K RPM HDD, each with 300GB
|Operating System
|Red Hat® Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6.5
|Oracle® Database 12c (126.96.36.199)
Table 2: Hardware and Software Configuration
Figure 2: Data Pump and RMAN SSD and HDD Testing
Figure 3: Storage Layout with SanDisk SSD and HDD
The following sections provide details about the optimization that was carried out on the entire test environment stack, including the server, storage, operating system and database layers.
Server Optimization
Following configuration settings enabled on the server
Storage Optimization
Following settings are enabled to take advantage of SanDisk SSDs:
Operating System Configuration
This section provides best practices and configuration settings implemented for Oracle Database 12c on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6.5 operating system.
Kernel Configuration
### Virtual Memory Settings ### vm.swappiness = 0 vm.dirty_background_ratio = 3 vm.dirty_ratio = 80 vm.dirty_expire_centisecs = 500 vm.dirty_writeback_centisecs = 100 ### Shared memory Settings #### kernel.shmmax = 4398046511104 kernel.shmall = 1073741824 kernel.shmmni = 4096 ### Network Port Range ### net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 9000 65500 ### Optimum Network settings ## net.core.rmem_default = 262144 net.core.rmem_max = 4194304 net.core.wmem_default = 262144 net.core.wmem_max = 1048576 ## Asynchronous I/O Request Settings fs.aio-max-nr = 1048576 ## File Handle Max limit fs.file-max = 6815744
SELinux was turned off
Shell Limits Settings
oracle soft nproc 16384 oracle hard nproc 16384 oracle soft nofile 1024 oracle hard nofile 65536 oracle soft stack 10240 oracle hard stack 32768 grid soft nproc 16384 grid hard nproc 16384 grid soft nofile 1024 grid hard nofile 65536 grid soft stack 10240 grid hard stack 32768
Red Hat 6.5 provides a "tuned" package for optimizing database storage using Oracle ASM
Oracle Automatic Storage Management (ASM) Configuration
Database Configuration
The following section highlights the benefits of using SanDisk Optimus SSDs, in terms of performance, when compared with HDDs:
Figure 4: SSD VS HDD Data Pump Elapsed Time
Data Pump Export and Import Operations
As shown in Figure 4, SSD database operations provide, on average, a 56% benefit, compared with HDDs. Data Pump operations running on servers with solid-state drives (SSDs) complete in less than half the time, compared to same jobs running on hard drive drives (HDDs).
Now, we'll examine some technical aspects associated with achieving these results. These include the Oracle Database 12c Data Pump enhancements of:
Oracle's ASM, because it is optimized to management storage for Oracle databases, provides superior performance for Oracle database workloads. It accomplishes this through the efficient distribution of I/O, across all of the available storage drives supplied to ASM. The same ASM benefits can be leveraged for Oracle Data Pump operations, as well, by creating a directory location on the ASM drive group and by initiating the Data Pump process to write and read from the ASM drive group.
As shown in the command section, below, a storage location directory named "DUMP100G" was created on the FRA ASM drive group. The "expdp" command initiated the Data Pump export process, which offloads or dumps the database contents by writing to the DUMP100G storage directory on the FRA drive group. The "impdp" command initiates the Data Pump import operation, which loads the DUMP100G storage contents back to the database. The syntax associated with the "expdp" and "impdp" commands is provided below. The same approach was adopted for carrying out testing of a 500GB Oracle database. The results of the Data Pump operations were recorded in the log file for SSDs and HDDs, as represented in Figures 5 and 6.
Data Pump Export and Import Command
SQL> Create or Replace directory DUMP100G as '+FRA/DUMP100G '; # expdp system/XXXX SCHEMAS=TPCH100G CONTENT=ALL DIRECTORY=DUMP100G DUMPFILE=DUMP100G:tpch100%U.dmp LOGFILE=DUMP100GLOG:SSD_100G_exprt.log PARALLEL=32 LOGTIME=ALL & # impdp system/XXXX FULL=Y directory=DUMP100G DUMPFILE=DUMP100G:tpch100%U.dmp LOGFILE=DUMP100GLOG:100g_ssd_import.log PARALLEL=32 LOGTIME=ALL transform=disable_ archive_logging:Y &
Figures 5 and 6 show the Linux command "iostat" output graphs for the SSD-enabled and HDDenabled database images, respectively. The SSD benchmark generated 400 MB/s read and write throughput, and the total 800 MB/s throughput was generated during export operations with 100% SSD drive utilization. For the same test, HDD drives generated 200 MB/s read and write throughput, and a total throughput of 400 MB/s throughput with 100% HDD drive utilization. This shows that the Data Pump operations were completed more quickly with SSDs, and that the SSD drives were taking good advantage of running on faster and multi-threaded processors.
Figure 5: SSD IOSTAT Data Pump Performance
Figure 6: HDD IOSTAT Data Pump Performance
RMAN Backup and Restore Operations
Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) provides database backup, restore and recovery capabilities and it is tightly integrated with Automatic Storage Management (ASM). RMAN provides a common interface via a command line interface (CLI) and Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM). This test involves a comparison between the performance of the database when using SSDs and when using HDDs, while leveraging RMAN best practices and incorporating Oracle Database 12c RMAN enhancements.
As shown in Figure 7, the RMAN backup and restore operation involves three distinct phases: Read, Copy and Write.
It is important to note that the RMAN script used for this testing backs up the database from data drive group (DATA) to backup drive group (FRA) by isolating the Read and Write workloads in two separate drive groups. RMAN parallel channels employed for increasing I/O throughput and large pool area sizing configuration settings adjusted to complement these RMAN parallel threads.
Figure 7: RMAN Data Flow
Starting with Oracle Database 12c, RMAN supports multi section for image copy and incremental Backupset. This feature helps in reducing the backup operation time by enabling RMAN channels to backup a single large file in parallel.
Figure 8 below shows the RMAN performance comparison, when using SSD or HDD to support databases ranging in size from 150GB to 500GB. This figure shows that SSDs deliver significantly improved backup and recovery time, helping databases to define lower RTO and RPO targets.
Figure 8: SSD VS HDD RMAN Performance
Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM) performance graphs in Figures 9 and 10 show that the SSD-enabled server platform provides 1400 MB/sec throughput for RMAN operations, while the HDD-enabled platform drives 400MB/sec throughput. 3.5X performance throughput advantage with SanDisk Optimus SSD enables RMAN backup operation to complete in 71% shorter time.
Figure 9: HDD IO Performance Throughput for RMAN Operations
Figure 10: SanDisk Optimus SSD Performance Throughput for RMAN Operations
The business benefits of SSD-based backup solutions and how they support efficient utilization of database applications and reduce the "outage window" during application failures has already been discussed in this paper.
This section of the paper focuses on a cost-benefit analysis of SSD and HDD deployments supporting database backup solutions. As seen in Figure 11 below, backup and restore for a 150GB database under test consumed 57% of operational time in HDD environments, leaving only 43% of operational time for end users' application transactions. In contrast, the backup and restore operations in SSD environments in our test were significantly faster—providing 87% of operational time for business use. This can have significant impact on revenue-generating business operations.
Figure 11: HDD versus SSD Database Utilization
The testing hardware, software components and configuration settings were identical for both the HDD and SSD deployments that were tested. That's why this section explores the costs of acquiring enough drives, whether HDDs or SSDs, to support the full solution for database backup.
Four SanDisk Optimus Eco SSDs deliver 3X the performance throughput as a group of 16 HDDs. That's why it would require 48 or more HDDs to match the performance of just 16 Optimus Eco SSDs.
The potential savings in terms of space, power and cooling costs demonstrate that the SanDisk Optimus SSD solution is a compelling alternative for database backup. This savings in operational costs (Opex) becomes evident when comparing the total number of solid state drives (SSDs) it takes to support a given solution—and the higher number of hard disk drives (HDDs) it takes to support the very same solution.
SanDisk Optimus Eco solid state drives deliver higher performance to expedite database operations for backup and recovery operations using Oracle's Data Pump, and Oracle's Recovery Manager (RMAN). By strategically using high-performance SSDs to back up data for business critical applications, IT professionals will be able to define lower RPO and RTO targets than before, thereby providing a more effective business continuity plan for their organizations.
The performance studies and analysis that were highlighted in this white paper demonstrated that just four SanDisk Optimus SSDs provide a performance advantage of more than 50%, compared to the performance provided by 16 HDDs. This test shows that, by deploying database backup and restore operations on SSDs, customers can achieve business advantages with improved availability for business-critical applications.


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As soon as it was announced that David O. Russell had been lured back to write the screenplay and film Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, thus legitimizing the project and giving hope for a movie adapted from a video game that might actually be good, it kicked off a flurry of speculation on who would be taking on the lead role of Nathan Drake. Many names have been bandied about, including that of Nathan Fillion, who is actively campaigning for the role via his Twitter page.
"If ever there was a Twitter campaign, let this be it. Rise, ye Browncoats. Rise, ye Castillions. RISE!" Fillion posted in a tweet, which also included a link to the original Hollywood Reporter story.
"Castillions" refers to fans of Fillion's current ABC show, Castle. As for the "Browncoats", if you have not seen the show Firefly, please stop reading immediately and rush out to rent or buy it, then feel free to return and comment after watching the 14-episodes that led in to the movie Serenity. Fillion's career also includes a foray into video games including a vocal role in Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach.
Another name that has been making the rounds (especially in the comment sections of our website and several others), is Joe Flanigan, who is best known for his role as Lt. Col. John Shepard in the TV show Stargate Atlantis. Fillion definitely has the geek cred, while Flanigan seems to have a large grassroots following.
Unfortunately both actors are still just the desires of fans at the moment, and have not been mentioned or contacted by the studio. But what else is the Internet for, if not baseless claims! So who do you think: Fillion, Flanigan, or someone else altogether?


text:
This version adds support for SQL Server 2012 RC0 and fixes a few bugs with SQL History. Because of the support for regions in SSMS 2012 the regions and debug sections feature has been removed from SSMS Tools Pack for SQL Server 2012. The feature is still available for previous SSMS versions. In other news SSMS Tools Pack has won the SQL Magazine bronze award for best free tool of 2011. You can view all the details at the SQL Server Magazine Award page. Thanx to all the people who...
posted @ Thursday, December 01, 2011 8:34 PM | Feedback (0) |
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People may have heard the name Twonky before, but apart from those au fait with home networking and streaming media, most will probably not realise what the technology does.
That's essentially because Twonky isn't a games console, smartphone, TV, NAS box or amplifier, even though it has connections (quite literally) with all of those. It's a technology that helps many of those types of kit talk to each other and stream content between them. It's a handshake client that takes the fuss out of media streaming. Oh, and now it's in an app or two, too.
Twonky Beam
- Format
- iPad (version tested), iPhone, iPod touch, Android
- Price
- Free
- Where
- iTunes, Google Play
Although there's some technological wizardry that goes on behind the user interface the Twonky Beam browser, from PacketVideo, is a stunningly simple application to explain. It basically allows you to send online web video from your iPad (or iPhone/iPod touch) to a Smart TV, AV amplifier, Apple TV, Xbox 360 or other video-playing connected device.
It uses a browser infrastructure to allow you to find video content and, at the tap of an on-screen button, have it play on your home display rather than the iOS device's touchscreen. Easy as Pie (rather than Pi - you try memorising an infinite amount of numbers).
You do need compatible kit, of course, such as the Samsung 55C8000 we tested it on, but there's plenty out there that will work with the app. Twonky has helpfully put together a list of equipment tested so far, and also hints at those it should work with theoretically, and it includes a whole swathe of TVs by Samsung, Denon AV receivers, Sony Bravia tellies and more.
Cunningly, many of them don't even require you to choose an option in their menu settings, or switch channels. As soon as you try to "beam" video content to them, they'll play it. Well, after a bit of a pause, that is. But we get ahead of ourselves. First, let's talk about the process itself.
The Twonky Beam browser lists a variety of video sources which it recommends as working including YouTube, Vimeo, CNN, IMDB and The New York Times. The company also says it should work on others you fancy visiting, but not all will be supported. It lists that it works with the BBC but, because of iOS restrictions combined with the broadcaster's reliance on Flash video, it didn't allow us to stream its content in our test.
However, sending YouTube clips long and short is a doddle. Go to the video you want to watch and its online screen with show a massive Beam button overlayed. Tap this and instead of playing on your iPad screen, it'll start to play on your TV instead. You can even choose to play HQ (High Quality) clips if your home network isn't overstretched.
It doesn't matter in what video format (bar Flash) it was originally recorded because the application performs real-time encoding - hence the start up delay. The final video it sends is in a format it knows your compatible equipment can read.
There are few other options. You can create a playlist of clips from different sites, rather than just wait until each is finished before streaming another. And you can switch between devices instantly, as it sees all compatible kit that is currently on the network.
As a last bonus, while it is designed to stream video, you can also use it to send music or photos too - the former can even be played through a Sonos system.
Sure, if you have a connected TV set, you are likely to have YouTube already available on it, but have you tried to use a conventional remote control to find the specific clip you want to watch? Using an iPad and Twonky Beam is a much more intuitive solution, and it has rapidly found a permanent place on Pocket-lint's multiple devices. Neat.


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A smart and superior door bell with aged finish. This traditional style bell push is mounted on a round oak backplate with a ceramic 'Press' button, and would make a beautiful and striking addition to any period style property.
Standard UK delivery £4.95. (aim 3-5 working days)
Priority (48 hour) UK delivery £7.95.
Click here for more info and prices for UK off shore islands
Ordering from Overseas? No problem, click here.
Fear not, we have a flexible 28 day returns policy, click here.
As described, prompt delivery
Lovely product. Arrived promptly and service was good. Hopefully will be fitted today and grace our lovely cottage. Many thanks Willow and Stone
Was looking fior a door press for ages before I found this one. Absolutely love it. Just perfect for our barn conversion. Would recommend it to anyone looking for an antique door press.
Really lovely well made and finished product.
Fabulous press bell, looks great and very substantial! Good value for money!


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Corsair Carbide Series 200R Case Review
When thinking of companies that produce great computer cases, Corsair is certainly at the top of the list that comes to mind. Corsair has established a reputation for designing cases that not only look great but are generally an absolute dream to work with as well. That quality does have a cost though, as Corsair cases tend to cost just a few more gold doubloons than ones from many other manufacturers. In the past Corsair has made attempts to produce less-costly cases for the Carbide series with the 300R and even the 400R, but both of them are much closer to the $100 price marker than the $50 line. Today, Corsair is looking to change that.
The Corsair Carbide Series 200R is the newest chassis to be introduced to the venerable Carbide Series lineup. Jumping into the mix at the unheard-of (for Corsair) price of $59, this case stands to fill in the bottom end of the price range without sacrificing the features and quality that Corsair is known for. Granted, at nearly $30 cheaper than the nearest case in the Carbide Series lineup, some features will have to be sacrificed to reduce costs – the real question is whether or not those sacrifices have also gutted the usability and quality from the chassis. Keep reading to see if Corsair has managed to cram all of the goodness from its higher-end cases into the new Carbide Series 200R!
Closer Look:
What's this on my doorstep? At a glance it is immediately obvious that a Corsair case has shown up. Corsair stuck with its tried-and-true packaging design here using plain cardboard with black ink. The bottom of the box for the Carbide 200R is blacked out with the series and model printed in very large white text along the bottom. A simple front isometric view gives you a pretty good idea of how the case is formed if not any idea of what color it is along with a quick list of features in various languages. I've said before how much I like simple packaging designs as it usually indicates that my money is going towards the actual product and not just a fancy box that my cat will want to play in.
Moving on to the side of the box reveals a table that lists the contents of the box in many languages (not surprisingly this box contains a Corsair Carbide Series 200R mid-tower case) as well as a side and front profile of the case with some dimensions listed to help give you an idea of the size. The back side of the box details the inner workings of the chassis via an exploded-panel view along with a long list of other languages (I can't even identify half of them) detailing the same feature list seen on the front of the box. The last side of the box again has a side and front profile with dimensions as well as a large table detailing the complete exterior dimensions of the case. Overall the packaging is minimalist and effective.
Anyway, enough about the box the case comes in, let's move on to the fun part! Extracting the 200R from its cardboard tomb is a simple procedure and won't leave you frustrated in any way. Unlike some manufacturers who seemingly cram the products in boxes with a shoehorn, Corsair has taken the time to ensure that the box as well as the case itself will survive the process of extrication. The case comes wrapped in a clear plastic bag to keep out moisture from the rainy day that always seems to accompany packages being delivered. Each end is protected by a sturdy foam cap to ensure a lack of dents and dings. If you get one of these in the mail it'll definitely arrive unharmed. Will the Corsair Carbide 200R live up to the Corsair legacy of quality even at this low price point? Keep on reading to find out!


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Halle Berry & Olivier Martinez: Lawyer Visit!
Halle Berry and Olivier Martinez try to avoid photographers as they make their way out of a lawyers office on Tuesday (November 27) in Beverly Hills, Calif.
The 46-year-old actor got in a fight with his fiancee Halle's ex, Gabriel Aubry, on Thanksgiving.
PHOTOS: Check out the latest pics of Olivier Martinez
It was recently reported that the fight was "mutual combat" and it's "highly unlikely" charges will be filed against Olivier, according to TMZ.
On the same day, Olivier was spotted wearing a hand brace to protect his broken right hand while stepping out for lunch at Cecconi's.
FYI: Olivier is wearing Levi's jeans.


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How To Dye Wool with Acorns
On my way to the hardware store the other day, I got a bit distracted by this pile of acorns that had fallen. I decided to skip out on the hardware store and grabbed about 50 acorns and headed home in anticipation of starting a dye pot! The results were so rewarding!
In order to start natural dyeing, there are a few key concepts to be aware of. The first thing to be aware of is safety. Even if you're dyeing with natural, non-toxic materials, it's always best to dye in a pot that is only used for dyeing. Do NOT cook food in a pot that has contained dye of any sort.
A second key concept is mordanting. The main purpose of a mordant is to ensure that the dye fixes to the garment. Depending on the type of material you are working with, you can use different types of mordants. To avoid using any harmful chemicals, I opted for vinegar, but mordants range from tannic acid, alum, chrome, sodium chloride, chromium, copper, iron, the list goes on. Another option that will change the colour a bit, is to make rust by putting some steel wool in vinegar and letting it sit over night. Scroll to the bottom of this page for a list of mordants.
What You Need
50 Acorns
2-3 cups of water
Undyed wool (if using another material, see below)
A bowl or bucket (not used for eating)
A Dye pot
1. Gather about 50 acorns
2. Bring them home and give them a good rinse. You can soak them if you have the time as well. This makes them softer when grinding.
3. & 4. Grind acorns with mortar & pestle. Alternatively, you can use a coffee grinder just as well.
5. Boil about 2-3 cups of water or more (depending on how much dye you would like to make). Add chopped acorns to the mix!
6. Your dye bath will take atleast 2 hours. The longer the better. If you need to add water, do so. While the dye bath is simmering, prepare your mordant. When dyeing with wool you can either pre-mordant or put the mordant in with the dye bath. I chose to pre-mordant and let the vinegar solution with with the dye while the dye bath was simmering.
7. Once the dye bath is starting to have a nice rich colour, add your wool.
8. If you are dyeing wool, try not to stir too much, as it will felt. Don't let the dye pot boil too vigorously. Just a simmer will do fine.
9. If you need to prod your wool at all, be sure to use a separate wooden spoon, it will dye everything! (watch your clothes!)
10. After about an hour or so of being in the dye pot, rinse off your wool. I usually dump my mixture outside, and rinse my wool with a garden hose. Once the water running off of your wool is no longer coloured, it's all done! Hang to dry.
If you choose to dye something other than wool, here are some general guidelines:Cotton: Best to pre-mordant. Cotton doesn't absorb dye the same way that wool does. It's important to first treat cotton with oil or tannic acid.
Wool: Unlike cotton, wool is highly receptive toward mordants. Due to its amphoteric nature wool can absorb acids and bases equally effectively.
Like wool, silk is can absorb both acids as well as bases.
Google will help with the rest!
Want more smart tutorials for getting things done around the home?
See more How To posts
We're looking for great examples of your own household intelligence too!
Submit your own tutorials or ideas here!
(Images: Emily Smith)


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Hoot and Annie are a pair of Eastern screech owls who have been raising families in a suburban backyard in Austin, Texas since 2008. Stay updated on Hoot 'n Annie's Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hoot-n-Annie/122644014485104
If you're having trouble with live stream, here are some different things to try: 1. Close all other windows. 2. Try a different browser - Firefox works best for me. 3. Clean out cache. 4. Right click the video, click Settings, go to Display, and disable hardware acceleration. 5. Reboot.
To watch H&A's 2012 season, see the 5-minute video on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SACFYNnwhJw&feature=youtu.be
Here's a 2009 video of the family (including the traumatic first flight): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe1vTZau8g4
[Note: The camera is infrared in order to capture the images in the dark box, which is why the video is not in color.]


text:
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Tie dye craze n˚2
Added May 1, 2013
by asperge11
Carcassonne, France
I wanted a wine colour for something else I was dying, but the shop only had "cherry tomato red". I wonder how cherry tomato differs from tomato… Anyway, i got the red and some black too. As usual, i couldn't bare to see a whole basin of dye get used just for one item, so some white jersey went in too. First into the red, and then the black. It made this really cool shading effects with the two colours. The top pattern is one that I made myself last summer. The straps are plated pieces of material.
I also made the jacket (I don't think I ever posted it on here) and the earrings too.
PS I'm so happy it's sunny again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- For
- Women
- Garment Type
- Tanks/T's
- Material
- Knits/Jersey
3 Comments Sign in to add a post
May 27, 2013, 07.19 PMby Jodi Wade
Really nice top. You made a great pattern.
May 2, 2013, 12.42 PMby Kovu
this all looks so perfect for summer!
1 Reply
May 2, 2013, 04.13 PMby asperge11
Yes! That is what it's for. I miss summer so bad but it's nearly here again :)
May 1, 2013, 03.15 PMby Mary Athey
the whole outfits lovely, the earrings are gorgeous as well x
1 Reply
May 2, 2013, 08.11 AMby asperge11
Thank you!
Add to Favorites 1 person added it